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wife, in fome measure, unfolded the fecrets of his eternal counfel, and in particular, given us fuch encouraging views of that mighty One upon whom he hath laid our help, as render his command to believe on him at once the strongest and most endearing expreffion, both of his wifdom and of his love fo that they who refuse to comply with this command, counteract the foundeft principles of reafon, refift the clearest and most fatisfying evidence, and shall be found, in the final iffue of things, to have been equally chargeable with cruelty to themselves; with ingratitude, the vileft ingratitude, to their benefactor; and the most obftinate rebellion against their Sovereign Lord.

A few remarks upon the verses I have been reading, will ferve to illuftrate what I have just now faid. And I have chofen this paffage for the fubject of my prefent difcourfe, in hope that God may blefs it for the conviction of fome who have hitherto rejected his gracious counfel; but chiefly with a view to confirm the faith, and to heighten the joy, of believers in Christ, by VOL. II. fhowing

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fhowing them, that he in whom they truft, is in all refpects worthy to be depended upon, and will affuredly carry forward the work he hath begun, till it fhall be perfected at length in their complete falvation.

The information that is here given us concerning our Redeemer, may be comprehended under the following heads.

First, What he is in himfelf;-or, his original dignity.

Secondly, What he is to us ;-or, the ftation he holds in his church. And,

Thirdly, His qualifications for the difcharge of what belongs to that station.

What the Apostle faith upon the first of thefe particulars, amounts to something more than a fimple affertion of our Lord's divinity. It is fuch an enlarged and accurate defcription of proper and effential Godhead, as cannot poffibly be applied to any inferior being. The only expreffion that hath an appearance of difficulty is in the clofe of verfe 15. where Chrift is styled the firft-born of every creature. But the difficulty evanishes, when we attend to the ex

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planation of that title which the Apostle fubjoins, or rather indeed to the reafons he affigns for giving him that defignation. No fooner has he called him the first-born of every creature, than he immediately adds, For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. And that no room might be left for the remotest fufpicion that he himself might have been created, eternity, in the most abfolute fenfe of that word, is directly afcribed to him in the 17th verfe: And he is before all things, and by him all things confift. For furely he who exifted before all things, muft himself be without beginning, or from everlasting. Hence it appears, that this defignation, the firfi-born of every creature, is of the fame import with that other form of expreffion which the Apostle ufeth, Heb. i. 2. where, having styled him the Son of God, he adds, "whom he hath "appointed heir of all things." And both ferve to denote that univerfal dominion which our Lord hath by inheritance, as the

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only-begotten of the Father, of the fame effence with himself, "the brightness of his glory, and the exprefs image of his per"fon:" An image fo express, that when Philip faid to our Lord, "Shew us the Father, "and it fufficeth us,"

he gave no answer but this, "Have I been fo long with you, and

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yet haft thou not known me, Philip? “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Fa"ther: Believeft thou not that I am in the "Father, and the Father in me?" Which is farther explained by what he said on

other occafion, "I and the Father are

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It would be highly improper, when we have fuch agreeable work before us *, to enter into the thorny field of controversy : nevertheless, as fo much of our comfort depends upon the perfuafion we have, that he who came to fave us is truly God, I cannot close this head, without requesting you to compare what is written in the first verse of the Bible," in the beginning God cre"ated the heaven and the earth," with the introduction to John's gofpel, "In the be

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ginning was the Word, and the Word σε was with God, and the Word was God. "All things were made by him; and with

"out him was not any thing made that was "made.” And if to these you add that obvious conclufion of enlightened reason, Heb. iii. 4. "Every houfe is builded by fome man, but he that built all things is God,"

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you will difcover at once the true dignity of him in whom we are commanded to trust, and fee with what strict propriety of language he is styled "the Son of the living God," "the great God and our Saviour," and, "God over all, bleffed for ever."

Having thus briefly illuftrated his effential dignity, or what he is in himself,-let us now confider,

Secondly, What he is to us. This we learn from the 18th verfe, where the Apostle calls him the head of the body, the church.Which leads us to view him as "the feed "of the woman;"" the Word made flesh;" the Son of God, by whom all things were created, uniting himself to human nature in the perfon of Jefus Chrift; that as our G 3 kinfman

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