the church, he was set up from everlastinghe was the Father's elect, in whom his soul delighted. The elect are said to be given to him before the foundation of the world: to be chosen in him-to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: and to have grace given them in him before the world began.' Christ and his church were considered

as one mystical person.

For this church he gave himself; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, and present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' He became 'the repairer of breaches;' or, in other words, he undertook to do all that the elect ought to have done in their own persons, and to suffer all that they might have eternally suffered as the just demerit of their sins. To speak in the astonishingly emphatical language of scripture

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us

all-He came to give his life a ransom for many to suffer the just for the unjust-to bear our sins in his own body on the tree→ to be made sin and a curse for us to pour out his soul unto death-that he might finish transgression; make an end of sin, and bring in an everlasting righteousness.' Well, therefore, might the divine Jesus say, when instituting the ordinance in which his followers were to commemorate this wonderful transaction till his second coming-This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins: this do in remembrance of me.'-To which an apostle adds, from the same authority, For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.

Now, what the Lord Jesus Christ did and suffered, was not on his own account, but on account of his body the church, of which he was constituted the representative. For if the Saviour of mankind be viewed simply as an individual; if we detach from his character, as mediator, the ideas of substitution and im

putation-the imputation of our sin to him, and of his righteousness to us; the unparalleled sufferings he underwent, had they been ten thousand times greater than they actually were, can avail us nothing-they can have no reference to us : nor is it possible, without including these important facts, to account for the astonishing language of the divine Father when he said concerning him-Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the Man that is my Fellow: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. Admit but the engagements of Christ as a surety, and there is no obscurity. He became answerable for our debt: the debt was exacted, without the least abatement. In this respect God spared not his own Son.' It is the federal relation which Christ sustains, that made the first Adam a striking figure of him that was to come; and is indeed the true reason why he is expressly denominated the second Adam. It is by the offence of one, that judgment came upon all men to condemnation; and it is by the obedience of one, that many are made righteous. Take away the circumstance of

substitution, and there is no more ground for reliance on the obedience of Christ, than for reliance on the obedience of Gabriel. We are made the righteousness of God, because we are in him, as our proxy and our head. Because he wrought the justifying righteousness, not only in our nature, but in our name, not only as our benefactor, but as our representa

tive.'

That the Redeemer of mankind acted, and was treated throughout the whole of his humiliation, as the surety of sinners, will appear abundantly manifest, if it be remembered that in him, personally considered, there was no

sin, neither was guile found in his mouthHe was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners-yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he was smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chas, tisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed-for the transgression of my people was he stricken.' His immaculate life and expiatory death magnified

the law and made it honourable.' The divine statute received at his hands, as the surety of the church in our nature, ample reparation: and this obedience and this death, are the only ground of an awakened sinner's hope of mercy and of pardon.

Now, when a sinner believes the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son:' when he looks to Calvary, and views the suffering Saviour as wounded for his transgressions-as bruised for his iniquities the law which, as a covenant of works, held the soul in bondage, ceases to harass and distress. He sees all its claims on him as a debtor, completely cancelled by the payment of his adorable substitute: nothing left for him either to suffer or to do, in order to acquire either exemption from punishment, or a right to life.' An acquittal from guilt and condemnation is announced to the conscience; and he perceives with astonishment and gratitude, that the great Lawgiver of the universe, in whose sight the heavens are not pure, is nevertheless a just God and a Saviour!