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not only called the mighty God, but the everlasting Father, or the Father of eternity; and Micah v. 2. "His goings forth were from of old, from everlasting." But I need not stand upon this, feeing the very words of the text are so clear as to this matter. I was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." If he were not the everlafting God, he could never have been fet up from everlasting. So much for the first thing.

II. The fecond thing propofed was, to inquire, what is imported in his being set up from everlasting.

And there are thefe few things that I take to be imported in this expreffion.

ift, It fuppofes the council of peace, or an eternal tranfaction between the Father and the Son, concerning the redemption of loft finners; for this is the refult of the council here declared by the Son, I was fet up from everlasting. Zech. vi. 13. "The council of peace fhall be between them both."

2dly, It implies the infinite complacency that the Father and Son had in each other from all eternity. This is more clearly expreffed in the verfe immediately preceding the text, "The Lord poffeffed me in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old ;" and yet more clearly, ver. 29. 30. "When he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." So If. xlii. 1. Matth. iii. at the clofe; chap. xvii. 5.

3dly, It implies a divine ordination and decree, whereby he was from eternity elected unto the great fervice of man's redemption. Hence he is called his Father's Elect, If. xlii. 1. "Behold my Servant whom I behold, mine Elect, in whom my foul delighteth." So Pfal. lxxxix. 19. fays God the Father, "I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chofen out of the people ;" and, with an eye to this decree of the election of Chrift is that forecited of the apostle, 1 Pet. i. 20. "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world," &c. Though he be God coequal with the Father, yet he voluntarily came under a decree of election, that fo he might be the head of the election among mankind finners, in whom they are elected unto everlafting life, Eph. i. 4. "He hath chofen us in him, before the foundation of the world."

4thly, I was fet up from everlafling, it implies, that, in confequence of the decree, he was called of God to undertake the work of redemption, If. xlii. 6. "I the Lord have called

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thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles," Heb. v. 4. 5. "No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he who is called of God, as was Aaron: So alfo Chrift glorified not himself to be made an high prieft, but he that faid unto him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

5thly, It implies his own voluntary confent to, and compliance with his Father's call: This is of fo great moment, that it is regiftrated in the volume of the book of God, Pfal. xl. 7. 8. "Then faid I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart." Upon which words the apostle Paul comments, Heb. x. 5—10. applying them to the purpofe in hand.

And, upon this voluntary confent of the Son of God followed a multitude of great promifes that the Father made to him. The Father promifed to fit him with a human nature, to be perfonally united to his divine nature: "A body haft thou prepared me; a promife of all needful furniture and affiftance in the undertaking, that an immeafurable fulness of the Spirit, and all his gifts, graces, and qualifications, should reft upon him, If. xi. 2. 3. chap. xlii. liii. 10-12. “The pleasure of the Lord fhall profper in his hand. I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the fpoil with the ftrong :" That he should see his feed; a feed should serve him, that fhould be accounted to him for a generation, Pfal. xxii. at the clofe: That he would make his enemies his footstool, and greatly plague all that hated him: And that, when he had drunk of the brook that ran in the way, he fhould again lift up the head, and be repoffeffed, even in the human nature, of all that glory which he had with the Father before the world was. Thus you fee what is implied

in his being fet up from everlasting.

But now, before I go on to the third general head, I would here fhow, how (in confequence of all this, which was done before the foundation of the world was laid) he was actually fet up in time, in the view of loft finners of Adam's family, whom he came to fave and redeem. And,

1. His first appearance was in the promise made to our firft parents, of his future incarnation, already mentioned, Gen. ii. 15. which was the only foundation of faith the church had, until the days of Abraham, to whom that promife was renewed, "In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed," Gen. xxii. 18.

2. He was fet up typically, in the view of the church, under the old Teftament. What was the meaning of the tabernacle and temple, of all the facrifices and ceremonies of that economy? They were all intended as shadowy reprefentations of good things to come, upon the actual appearance of the Son of God in our nature.

3. He was fet up prophetically, in the prophecies of the prophets Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and the reft; for all the prophets prophefied of him: To him they did all bear witness, and every one of them fucceffively fpoke more clearly then another, till John the Baptift came in the spirit and power of Elias, pointing him out with the finger, faying, " Behold the Lamb of God."

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4. He was fet up perfonally and actually, in his incarnation, obedience, and death. His birth was celebrated and intimate by a company of angels, faying, "Unto you is born, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," and that heavenly anthem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men." His inauguration unto his mediatorial work, at his baptifm, was celebrate by the opening of the heavens, the defcent of the Spirit upon him in the likeness of a dove, and a voice coming from his Father, from heaven, faying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed;" which voice was again repeated at his transfiguration and his paffion. His death was celebrated by the rending of the vail of the temple from top to bottom, a quaking of the earth, a rending of the rocks, and a darkening of the fun in the firmament; all importing, that now the finishing stroke was given to the head of the old ferpent, and that principalities and powers were spoiled, and the prince of this world caft out of his ufurped authority and government.

5. He was fet up in a glorious and triumphant way and manner, in his refurrection and afcenfion; for then he was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holinefs, by his refurrection from the dead." And when he afcended up "on high, he led captivity captive, and fat down at the right hand of the Majefty on high;" and things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, being ordered to bow at the name of Jefus, and every tongue to confefs, that he is the Lord, to the praife and glory of his Father.

6. He was and is fet up declaratively, in the preaching of the everlafting gofpel; which is like the pole upon which the brafen ferpent was lifted up in the wilderness, by

looking

poking unto which the Ifraelites were cured of the sting of the fiery ferpents. John iii. 14. 15. fays Chrift there, "And as Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whofoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

7. He is fet up facramentally, in the facraments of baptifm and of the fupper, particularly in the laft of thefe, which we are about this day to celebrate. In these fymbols and facramental acts of his own inftitution, he is evidently fet forth crucified before you; and therein we may, as in a glass, difcern the Lord's body, which was broken for us, and his blood of the New Teftament, which was fhed for us. There he is prefent, though not in a corporal and carnal manner, yet in a fymbolical and spiritual manner, faying to his people, "Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."

8. He is fet up in an efficacious way and manner, in a day of converfion, and in the renewed manifeftations of himfelf to the fouls of his people, by the power of his word and Spirit. When he draws by the vail, and makes the light of the knowledge of his glory to fhine into the heart, then, O then, Chrift is fet up in the heart of the finner; he gets the throne of the heart, and every thought is brought into captivity unto his obedience. What a pleasant upsetting of Chrift and his kingdom would it be, to fee him going forth, with his bow and fword, in the gofpel, travelling in the greatnefs of his strength, making all the inhabitants of the land to fall under him, every one crying, The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our King, the Lord is our Lawgiver! O then covenanting work would go on apace, and every one would fay to another," Come, and let us join ourselves unto the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that fhall not be forgotten," Jer. 1. 5.

9. Chrift will be fet up in a glorious and remarkable way and manner, at his fecond coming, without fin, unto the falvation of his people; for then he will defcend from heaven, with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, when he fhall come with clouds, and every eye shall fee him. Then shall he be glorified in his faints, and admired in all them that believe, while all the wicked unbelieving world, and kindreds of the earth, fhall wail because of him, crying to the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and hide them from the face of him that fits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; and the heavens paffing away with a mighty noife, the elements melting with fervent heat.

So

So much for the fecond thing proposed; for all these were in view, when Chrift was fet up from everlasting.

III. The third thing propofed in the method was, to fhew for what ends and purposes Chrift was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 1 anfwer in thele particulars.

1ft, He was fet up from everlafting, as a Sun to give light unto this lower world, which (through the fin of man) was become like a dungeon of darknefs. No fooner had man finned, but his mind (which before was like a lamp of light, as to the knowledge of God, and of his mind and will), became dark, yea, darkness itself. "Once were ye darknefs," fays the apostle, speaking of man in his natural state. There is the face of a covering caft over all people, and the vail that is fpread over all nations; and, upon this account, this world is called a dark place; and again, thefe parts of the earth, where Chrift is not known, are called the dark places of the earth. But now Chrift is and was fet up, as a glorious Sun, to enlighten the world in the knowledge of God, and of the way of falvation, hence called the Sun of righteousness, the Light of the world, because he spreads the light of the knowledge of the glory of God among loft finners of Adam's family, by his Word and Spirit. Hence, when the gofpel of Chrift, which is the lamp of God's anointed, comes unto a people, they "that fat in darkness fee great light, and to them that fat in the region and fhadow of death light doth fpring up."

2dly, He is fet up as a second Adam, the Head of a new covenant of grace and promife. All mankind were loft and ruined in the firft Adam, and by the breach of the covenant of works that was made with him as their federal head and reprefentative; fo that the curfe of that covenant was the only legacy he could bequeath unto his pofterity, and under this curfe we had lien through all eternity, if God had not raifed up for us "a Horn of falvation, in the houfe of his fervant David." Sirs, God had a purpose of love and grace, from all eternity, toward a felect company of Adam's family, he pitches upon his own beloved Son, as a new covenant Head, and enters into a covenant of grace with him, to deliver them out of a ftate of fin and mifery, and bring them unto a state of falvation through him, P. xxxix. 3. "I have made a covenant with my chofen, I have fworn unto David my fervant," &c. Accordingly Chrift, as the fecond Adam, fteps in the room of the firft Adam, and fulfils the covenant of works, both as to its precept and penalty; whereby the promife of eternal life. made

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