All is done at the meeting that God propofed to be done, and all is done that concerns the glory of God and falvation of men; their meeting together is their working together, and that to perfection; For God the Lord is a rock, and his work is perfect. Their meeting together is their building together, Pfal. lxxxix. 2, 3. I have faid, mercy fhall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness fhalt thou eftablish in the very heavens. There is mercy and truth both building, and the foundation of the building is laid in Chrift; I have made a covenant with my chofen, &c. 9. It is an unexpected meeting, it is beyond the expectation of men and angels. If friends and intimates fhould meet, and falute one another, it would not be furprizing; but to fee oppofites, antipodes, and antagonists meet together, and embrace each other, this were furprising and unexpected: So, to fee light and darkness, love and enmity, life and death meeting, how unexpected were that? Thus it is here, mercy and truth, righteoufnefs and peace, these attributes of God, with refpect to us, were oppofites and antipodes. The language of truth and righteousness is, death and damnation to the finner; the language of mercy and peace is, life and falvation to the finner: And, when a finner finds himself pursued to death at the inftance of divine juftice, and the truth and veracity of a God engaged against him, according to the threatning of the law; O how unexpected a rencounter is it, when he finds mercy and peace meeting with juftice and truth, and ftopping the purfuit, according to the promife of the gofpel, to the credit of the oppofite parties, faying, Deliver his foul from going down 10 the pit; I have found a ranfom, and fo all odds are made made even, all oppofites reconciled, to the infinite furprize, and beyond the expectation of all created beings! No wonder then, upon this meeting dif covered, the poor foul cries, Is this the manner of man, O Lord? O, who is like unto thee! Nay, there is none like unto the God of Jefurun, that rides on the heaven for their help, and in his excellency on the fkies. 10. It is an everlasting, indiffolvable meeting. Other meetings will adjourn their meetings from time to time, and from place to place; yea, other meetings must part; and, when they part, they may never meet again; and we that are here met, must part, and never all meet again in time; even as fome others that met together with us the laft year, are away to eternity. But O, this meeting betwixt mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, is a meeting where there is no parting; the meeting is from everlasting to everlasting: Their meeting together, and kiffing each other, is an eternal and unchangeable meeting, and an eternal and unchangeable kifs; it is every way like God, without beginning, without ending, and without fucceffion. Whatever beginning, iffue or increase it hath with respect to its manifestation to us, yet in itself it is still the fame in Chrift Jefus, who is the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Heb, xiii. 8. without any variableness or fhadow of turning. The meeting never breaks up, it is a continued meeting never to be diffolved, and there they kifs one another to all eternity; for his mercy endureth for ever and his righteoufnefs to all generations; and becaufe truth, meeknefs and righteousness, in his majefly h fhall ride profperously; and of the increase of his government and peace there fhall be no end. I have faid, mercy fhall be built up for ever; and I have faid, T 2 Truth Truth fhall be established in the heavens. Why, what is the meaning of all thefe expreffions? The language is as if one glorious attribute of God fhould fay to another, O the fin of man fets us all as it were at variance, and the whole creation knows not how to reconcile God with himself, if he fhould fave one finner; but, behold, we having met together in Christ the righteousness, the ranfom, the atonement, the propitiation; having met together, we shall never part again; having embraced one another in behalf of thofe poor miferable finners, our arms fhall never separate, that are clafped together. Mercy and truth have met together, faying, you and I fhall never part; righteousness and peace bave killed each other, faying, you and I fhall never funder, nor fufpend the embracement; neither death nor life, nor hell, nor devils, nor fin itself, fhall ever feparate us. It is a bargain among us, a divine match; they have met together by an everlasting covenant, sealed the bargain with an everlasting kifs, and caft a knot in an everlasting righteousness, which is the band of the union, even Chrift; for the covenant does ftand faft with him, Pfal. lxxxix. 28. where you will also fee how this everlasting meeting is eftablished in Chrift, ver. 14. Juftice and judgment are the babitation of thy throne, or the establishment of thy throne, as it may be rendered; And mercy and truth fhall go before thy face. And ver. 21. With him my band fhall be established, and my faithfulness and my mercy fhall be with him. And, ver. 28. My mercy will I keep for him for ever. Thus it is an everlast ing meeting. The fourth thing propofed was, why, or for what reasons they have met together, and kiffed each other? Why have the perfections of the glorious God God confpired fo harmoniously, and met together in fuch a fweet folemnity? Surely fuch a meeting as this must have noble defigns in view; and I will tell you these four reasons of the meeting, or four things that were to be concerted at this great affembly. 1. They met together, to concert measures for advancing the glory of God to the higheft. This parliament of heaven met together upon ways and means, for bringing in the greatest revenue of praise and glory to the crown of heaven, to Father, Son, and holy Ghost, and all the glorious attributes of this great and eternal God. These attributes confpired harmoniously to fet forth and glorify themselves moft illustriously: They met together, and kiffed one another, that they might glorify each other. The glory of God was the first and last end of the meeting: What is the chief end of man, but to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever? And O, what is the chief end of God! It is even to glorify himself in all his perfections, and to enjoy himself for ever. And, how does God glorify himself moft brightly? It is even in Chrift the meeting-place of these perfections, with a view to our redemption, To the praife of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, Eph. i. 6. And how does he enjoy himself most sweetly? It is even in Chrift, Behold mine elect, in whom my foul delighteth. I was daily his delight, fays Chrift, while my delight was with the fons of men, Prov. viii. 30. They met together to put a crown of glory and honour upon each other. Adam's fin and rebellion, and your fin, my friends, and my fin (O that God-difhonouring evil, fin!) which had pulled off that crown of glory, as it were, from the head of the great King eternal T 3 eternal and immortal, and caft it into the mire, and ftained it with filth and dirt: But, behold, these attributes of God meet together to take up the crown, to rub off the duft and dung that fin had caft upon it, and to add some more sparkling jewels to it than ever, and fet it upon the head of their fovereign, to the highest praises of his mercy, juftice, truth, righteoufnefs and grace, and love, and holiness, and wisdom, and all his other excellencies; that men and angels might fing and fay, Glory to God in the bigbeft, &c. that all the faints might fing a concert in praise of the meeting betwixt mercy and truth, juftice and peace, faying, Pfal. lxxxix. 14. Juftice and judgment of thy throne Shall be the dwelling place: Shall go before thy face. And that every faint might fing the lviith Pfalm, and 9th and 10th verses; I'll praife thee 'mong the people, LORD, "Mong nations fing will I; For great to heav'n thy mercy Thy truth doth reach the sky. is, They met together, to put a crown of glory upon the head of Chrift, Heb. ii. 9. in whom they met. This affembly did convene for the coronation of the Son of God: For, he having humbled himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, Philip. ii. 10. That at the name of |