D. We must daily go to him for grace and ftrength to OPPOSE our enemies, fin, Satan, and the world: beseeching him to deftroy, more and more, the dominion of fin, the tyranny of Satan, and the love of the world, which have so much swayed our hearts; and in the room of these, to set up his own kingdom and authority; faying, in the pious and experimental language of the poet,

Now, Lord, I would be thine alone,
Come take poffeffion of thine own,
For thou haft fet me free:

Releas'd from Satan's hard command,
See, all my powers waiting stand,
To be employ'd by thee.

My will conform'd to thine would move;
On thee, my hope, defire and love,

In fix'd attention join;

My hands, my eyes, my ears, my tongue,
Have Satan's fervants been too long,
But now they shall be thine.

NEWTON.

FOURTHLY. We muft alfo make use of Chrift, with respect to his different ftates of humiliation and exaltation.

1. With respect to his ftate of HUMILIATION: When we contemplate the fufferings of the Mediator; when we follow him to Gethsemane; behold him wrestling with God; experiencing the bitterness of anguish; or when we ascend with him the mount of Golgotha, where he died a most painful, shameful, and accurfed death, we obtain a moft clear, lively, and affecting view of our misery, redemption, and the

gratitude we owe to God, for that deliverance; the three things which are neceffary to be known for falvation. We may get fome discovery of the nature of fin, by the accufations of confcience: but in all its malignity, together with the wrath of God denounced against it, we cannot have it fully exhibited, but by viewing the Son of God nailed to the accurfed tree, to atone for it. Never did God manifest his justice and holiness more illuftriously than when Jefus died: for, had it pleased him to have spurned from his prefence the whole race of mankind, and absolutely refufed ever to have looked upon them in mercy, as he has done with devils, upon their rebelling against him, we could then only have faid, "God has acted the " part of a righteous judge;" but now, when we behold him furrendering his beloved Son to fuch excruciating torments and fufferings, he exhibits an holy hatred of fin: he evidences that he cannot admit the finner into fellowship with him, without a fatisfaction be made; and thus declares, that Chrift, as furety, must undergo the punishment which was threatened to be inflicted upon the workers of iniquity. If now we make a right use of the fufferings of Chrift, it will serve,

A. To make lively impreffions on our minds, of the ABOMINABLE AND SHAMEFUL NATURE OF SIN. Is it an evil for which there is no remiffion, but by the blood of the Son of God? this fhould excite us to a holy watchfulness against every appearance of it, left we be overtaken by it.

B. To make us reflect upon the GREATNESS and inexpreffible nature of the love of God. Where is love more clearly unfolded to us? where is it feen fhining with brighter luftre than in the death of Chrift? The great apofle fays, Rom. v. 8, But God commenda

eth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet fin ners Chrift died for us: and Christ himself observes, John xv. 13, Greater love hath no man than this-that a man lay down his life for his friend: for, if God had fo confirmed the angels, and Adam and Eve in their ftate of original beatitude, that they could never have fallen we could indeed have faid, this manifefted his goodnefs; but we never could have exclaimed, with wonder and astonishment, God hath fo loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. John iii. 16.

This muft excite both admiration and adoration in the foul; being loft in this abyfs of love, it must exclaim, how excellent is thy loving kindnefs, O God. Pf. xxxvi. 7. Yes, the heart cannot but be inflamed with love, when it reflects, and thus reasons with itself:-" Was it for my fake that Jefus was fo deeply humbled? was it for me that he suffered, that he was bound, fcourged, and crucified? O let nothing be thought too precious to furrender to him in return.-I refign to thee, Lamb of God, my foul, my body, and all I am and have, to be employed in thy fervice."

c. Such a view of Chrift ferves alfo to awaken and excite the foul to go, and to lie at the feet of Jesus, with all its fins, with all its needs, and with all its corruptions; and to entreat him, fince he is willing to redeem it from everlafting deftruction, he would allo be pleased, by his blood and spirit, to remove all that from it which renders it unfit to engage in his fervice, especially that the old man of fin might be crucified, flain, and buried with Chrift, fo that it may alfo walk in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4, 6.

2. We must contemplate Chrift, with respect to his ftate of exaltation,

A. As one who HATH ARISEN from the dead. The refurrection of Chrift is the foundation of our

juftification, fanctification, and glorification; for, in confequence of Chrift having arifen, the Father declares that full fatisfaction hath been made to his injured juftice, and that he can now juftify the finner who believes on him.-Yes, the refurrection of Chrift teaches us, that we muft rife with him, and live no more for ourselves, or in fin; but for that Redeemer who died for us and arofe again. 2 Cor. v. 15. We muft, therefore, conftantly plead, that we may know him and the power of his refurrection. Phil. iii. 10.— And thus the refurrection of Chrift will ferve as a foundation, to hope for a bleffed refurrection at the laft day; and thus adminifter comfort to us whilft paffing through this wilderness: for the believer may now exclaim, "Because the Head enjoys life and immortality, the members fhall alfo live with him."

B. Do we view him as one who hath ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, to prepare a place for his redeemed, and from thence to fend forth his fpirit? this ftep of his exaltation must serve to excite our hearts no longer to feek things below, but to mount in fearch of those which are in reverfion for the followers of Christ in heaven. Faith's view of an afcended Jefus will lead our thoughts upwards, to things heavenly and divine, where the Mediator is, and be a mean to induce us to go to him who fits on the throne of for an abundant out-pouring of his holy spirit.

grace,

c. Does Jefus SIT AT THE RIGHT HAND of God, exalted above all principalities and powers? Is he there as the great head of the church, to preserve and defend it from all its enemies, and at last to take it up to himself in glory? certainly this muft serve to encourage and fupport believers, in all difficulties: hence Calvin once faid; "6 Whilft Fefus fits Q

Vol. II.

"at God's right hand, the church has nothing to fear.”
He will never fuffer the enemies of their falvation to
overcome them: not one member of his myftical bo-
dy; not even the most contemptible in their own, or
in the view of the world, fhall ever perish; for his
eye is ever upon them for good. "O encouraging,
"comfortable reflection," may the believer now say,
Jefus, my king, is at God's right hand, to manage all
my concerns; to him I may commit the keeping
"of
of my foul, for I know that all his providences, and
"the ways he is holding with me, will combine to
bring me to himself in glory."

66

Let us now, in the fifth place, fee how we must use Chrift as an example whofe fteps we are to follow: to this believers are often exhorted in the word of God. They must walk even as he WALKED. I John ii. 6. As ye have received Chrift Jefus, the Lord, fo walk ye in him. Col. ii. 6.-They are predeftinated to be conformed to his image; Rom. viii. 29.—This conformity to Chrift, with respect to its beginning, they obtain when Chrift in regeneration impreffes his image upon the foul: but in fanctification it is, that it advances more and more towards perfection.

But in what manner fhall a believer make use of Chrift, in this point of view?

1. He must conftantly KEEP FULL in his view that pattern of virtue which Chrift exhibited when on earth, to the end that he may become enamoured with it.

2. The believer muft alfo daily compare himself with it, and carefully examine wherein he resembles it; or in what points there is a want of conformity to it. The believer muft, in this refpect, act the part of a painter, and keep continually in his view the original or pattern,-He must confider himself as the