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of God is full of; if you believe, that Jefus Christ was as really clothed with the fins of them that fhall be faved, or that they became as really his own, fo that it behoved him to own them, and die for them, wafhing them away in his blood, before he could be free of them, as that they who fhall be faved, are by his Spirit clothed with his righteoufnefs, which is made really theirs; fo that, upon account thereof, they are juftified, accepted, fanctified, and glorified of God. If this be your faith, and love, and joy, and you are not of those traitors who mean, like Judas, to difcard the Lord Chrift and his righteousness out of the world, by gloffing away the fpirit of his mediatorial work and character, it is to be hoped, you will ponder what follows; namely, that the objection from the title of the Pfalm has been already folved, and that this Pfalm, ver. 16. as being parallel to Pfalm xl. 6. has been already thewed as an exprefs quotation of the words of the Lord Jefus Chrift. If David was the fpeaker in the former part of the Pfalm, by what argument do you fhew that he ceases to speak in the 16th verfe? If you fay, it is not the Lord but David who speaks there, you are guilty of Ananias' and Sapphira's crime; nay worse, you do not merely lie to, but actually do give the lie to, the Holy Ghoft. Do you conceive the Holy Ghoft removes, in the xlth Pfalm, that which God hath no defire to, delight or pleasure in, (even as the creditor hath no defire to, delight or pleasure in, the debtor's bond, or renewal of his bond, but only in the payment thereof), and brings in that which he hath a defire to, delight or pleasure in, even the doing of the will of God by Chrift; by which will, done and fulfilled by Chrift, those who are Chrift's are fanctified, completed, and perfected for ever? do you conceive this, I fay, in Pfalm xl. and in Pfalm li. where the fame thing is removed, that the Holy Ghost doth bring in another thing which is not despised;

fpifed; that is, defired, delighted, and acquiefced in; even the contrite heart, and broken fpirit of David ? Can the Spirit of God indeed amufe us, amaze us, deceive us, by speaking the fame words in the fame connection, and yet meaning different things? Were not this to juggle us out of all certainty whatsoever? What could a fly Socinian fophifter do more? Compare Ifa. lvii. 15. and lxvi. 2. with Matth. iii. 17. which three paffages, with others parallel to, and explanative of, Pfalm li. 16, 17. if you do not fee fpoken of the Meffiah, you may read your character, 2 Cor. iv. 3. as blind and loft; yea verily, except you repent and believe the gofpel-What! did it not belong to him who washed away all fin, original and actual, (Rom. v. 9. to the end), in his own blood, to fay, that he was conceived in, or under that fin? Was not he made under the law, the broken' law, convincing of fin and wrath? If God defired truth in the inward part, could not he fhew it, and righteoufnefs pure as Jehovah is pure? Might not he, the true paffover, and facrifice of every kind, for fin, fay,

Purge me with hyfop,' the emblematic fign in fprinkling the blood of the atonement? Might not he fay fo, who was baptized with the baptifm of Jehovah's wrath in his own blood, that his people might have that peace-fpeaking blood fprinkled upon their confcience? Might not he fay, Deliver me from blood-guiltinefs,' or, as the margin reads, bloods,' who gave blood for blood, even his own blood, the blood of God for the guilt of Adam as it relates to them, and all the other guilt of those who are faved, who through guiltinefs had forfeited their bloods, even their lives, bodies, and fouls, to the pains of hell for ever? Might not he fay to his Father, Create in me a clean heart, and renew within me a right spirit?' He in whom all things were first restored; who gives the clean heart, and creates the right fpirit; might not he, who, because of the loft glory,

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endured the wrath, and restoreth all things, having obtained the Spirit and power, fay, Reftore to me the joy of thy falvation; and take not thy good Spirit from me; and caufe the bones which thou hatt broken to rejoice?' Might not he who received the Holy Ghoft, that he might give the gifts of God to men, fay, Then will I teach tranfgreffors thy way; and finners thall be converted to thee?" Might not he plead for Zion, who gave himself for the price of her redemption? Might not he plead God's good pleasure for Jerufalem, his church, the city of the living God, who offered for her ransom that which was better than bullock, or ox, or any thing that hath horns and hoofs, (Pfalm lxix. 31.), even the broken heart, the contrite fpirit, when through the eternal Spirit he offered himself a fweet-fmelling facrifice of peace to God? Was it unlike the Holy Ghoft, the advocate, who takes of the Father's and of the Son's, and fhews to the faints, leading them into all truth, helping their infirmities, making interceffion for them, according to the will of God, with groanings that cannot be uttered; was it unlike the Holy Ghost, I fay, upon fuch an occafron as is fpo ken of in the title of that Pfalm, to represent to David, whose fin was forgiven him, the Lord Jefus the true facrifice, propitiation, and high-prieft, making the atonement and interceffion in his own blood, for all his elect, and for all their fas? Is not this the way in which the Holy Ghoft gives his confolationsnow to every particular believer, through the blood of the Lamb, through faith in his blood? as it is written, If any man fin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jefus Chrift the Righteous, whofe blood cleanseth from all fin. And he is the Propitiation for our fins, and not for ours only, but alfo for the whole world,' namely, of them who believe on his name. Did the one Spirit use a different way in the days of David? Moreover, how

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could David's facrifices of a broken and contrite heart or fpirit make the facrifices of the people accepted? or his repentance for a private fin be the caufe why they fhould be fpared, built up, and bleffed? for the people never fuffered for the private fins of their kings, but only for thofe committed, in their public character as kings, in their government; fuch as the numbering of the people, the breaking of the princes Covenant with the Gibeonites by Saul. As for this private and perfonal fin of David, the bloody fword was entailed as a temporal punishment upon his own houfe only, and not upon the kingdom in general, which had nothing to fear from the fin, nor to hope from the repentance of it, fo as to be thrown down and rejected, or built up and accepted with their offerings, either for the one or the other. Now, judge for yourself, whether this Pfalm be a private prayer of David, which we deny, or the public interceffion of the Meffiah himself for his whole church, minitered by the Holy Ghoft in Old Teftament ftyle, and only written by David, and wherein David had only his own portion equally with Mary Magdalene and Noah the preacher of righteoufnefs; the Pfalm being a prayer of the fame nature, fpirit, and extent, with that other interceffory prayer of the Lord, John xvii. not for the confolation of one only, but for the whole election of God, for whom the Lord, having made the atonement by his blood, makes the prayer by his fpirit; which we affirh. Who is in the right, that day will fhew, when the fire will confume all but the true foundation, and that which is built thereupon by the Holy Ghoft.

As to the curfes, imprecations, and denunciations of wrath, wherewith the Pfalms abound, they can only be uttered by him who has also power and authority to blefs: fo that the bleffings and the curfings in the Pfalms are by no means the feeble withings and wouldings of a thing crushed before the moth,

Kike David, who is both dead and buried, and his fepulchre also with himself turned to duft in its place to this day; but they are the utterances of him who hath all judgment committed into his hand; of the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory to them who love him and his righteousness, being the called according to his purpose; and of the exceeding great and eternal weight of wrath to them who hate him and his righteoufnefs, being abominable, and difobedient, and to every good work reprobate. To ftrengthen this remark, it is obfervable, that 'thofe bleffings and curfes are always laid in the balance,. one over against the other, as the fanctions of Jehovah round the blood and righteoufnefs of the Lamb, in whom his foul acquiefceth: and they are all to be found where the fufferings and glory of Chrift are unquestionably meant, as in Pfalms xl. lxix. cix. &c. fhewing, that the whole love of God, or wrath of God, are centered upon every one, as their hearts are centered, or not centered, upon the alone object of his delight, the Lamb that was flain, but now in the midst of the throne, who is the only bond and centre of union between God and his creatures, whether in heaven or in earth; to whom be glory for ever. Amen. He, he alone bleffeth, and they are blessed; he curfeth, and they are curfed: if he fay it, who can disannul it? Behold, he hath spoken to the children of his love, and faid, Come to me, ye bleffed," &c. But to the children of his wrath he faith, De" part from me, ye curfed,' &c. As for those mine • enemies, who would not that I fhould reign over them, bring them hither, and flay them before my face;' as it is written, Luke xix. 27. A true commentary upon fuch paffages as thefe in the Pfalms; Let them be confounded and afhamed that fet themselves against me-Pour out thine anger upon them, and let thy wrathful indignation take hold upon them-Let them go down alive into hell-Let ⚫ fhame

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