"but have everlasting life." He came to demonftrate the love of God to finners of mankind: that by rendering the Father amiable to the convinced, enlightened foul, he might overpower its natural enmity; and upon the ruins thereof, erect a throne for gratitude and love. Chrift is indeed faid to be "the end of the law:" And the law, by fhowing us our guilt and depravity, and the neceffity of a better righteousness than our own, to be pleaded as the ground of our acceptance with God, is very properly styled "our fchoolmaster to bring us to "Chrift." But when we are brought thus far by the discipline of the law, doth Christ then command us to ftop short at himself, and to proceed no farther? No: He who is "the end of the law," is ftyled the way to the Father: for thus he defcribes his own character and office, John xiv. 6. "I am the 66 way, and the truth, and the life; no man "cometh unto the Father bat by me." It is God in Chrift reconciling the world unto himself by the miniftry of the Spirit, that is the complete and adequate object of faith: and we do not understand "the word of

"reconciliation," till we fee the undivided gödhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, united in counfel, as they are one in effence; and each performing, in the character he sustains, a peculiar work of grace for the eternal falvation of an elect world.

It is the agency of the Father, in this wonderful plan which "angels defire to "look into," that the paffage I have beenreading leads us at prefent to contemplate. And it will readily occur to you, that four feveral acts of grace are here attributed to him.

Firft, He ordained his Son to the office of Redecmer.

Secondly, He manifefted him to the world at the appointed teafon.

Thirdly, He raifed him up from the dead. And,

Fourthly, He gave him glory.

Each of thefe particulars I fhall endeavour to illuftrate; and then fhow their joint tendency to establish our faith and hope in God.

First, It was the Father who ordained Christ

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to the office of Redeemer. You need only read from the 17th verfe, to be fatisfied, that this was the doctrine the Apoftle meant to deliver: "If. ye call on call on the Father, who "without refpect of perfons judgeth accorແ ding to every man's work, pafs the time of your fojourning here in fear: Forasmuch 66 as ye know that ye were not redeemed "with corruptible things, as filver and แ gold; but with the precious blood of

Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and "without fpot," who verily was foreordained, namely, by the Father, fuftaining the character of the Supreme Lord and Judge before the foundation of the world.

"Known unto God are all his works "from the beginning." The scheme of redemption, and the feveral steps preparatory to its final execution, were fixed and, adjusted before time commenced. This in part appears from the manner of its first publication in paradise, as Mofes hath recorded it in the facred history. The cool majestic folemnity with which the whole procedure was conducted on that important occafion, and efpecially the putting, the gracious promife

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mife of a deliverer to our guilty parents, into the form of a judicial fentence against the grand apoftate who had feduced them, plainly fhowed, that the conftitution which then commenced was not an after-thought, or newly-devifed expedient, but that all was the refult of previous counfel and defign; that the rebellion had been foreseen before it was acted, and redemption decreed before the forfeiture was incurred.

Many paffages might be quoted from the Old-Teftament writings, where the Father's choice and ordination of the Saviour are declared in the strongest and most explicit terms. In one place he is introduced, proclaiming his fovereign pleasure in these words: "Behold my fervant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my foul de

lighteth I have put my Spirit upon him, "he fhall bring forth judgement to the "Gentiles." In another place, where Meffiah himself is the fpeaker, the Father's commiffion is thus acknowledged by him: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, "because the Lord hath anointed me to

"hath fent me to bind up the broken"hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap"tiyes, and the opening of the prison to "them that are bound." And this laft quotation is more remarkable, because the Evangelift Luke informs us, that our Lord, after reading it publicly in the fynagogue at Nazareth, directly applied it to himself, by adding these words, "This day is this "Scripture fulfilled in your ears," Luke iv. 21.

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But there are other declarations of our bleffed Redeemer, which, without any circuit, express the fame truth, in terms fo plain, that it is impoffible for any body to mistake their meaning. "I proceeded forth," faid he, and came from God; neither "came I of myfelf, but he fent me."-" I "do nothing of myself, but as the Father "hath taught me I fpeak these things, and " he that fent me is with me."-" I came " from heaven to do the will of him that "fent me."" I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which fent me, he gave "me a commandment what I fhould fay, and what I fhould fpeak." Such explicit

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