fo it is now to a God whom he hath pleafed and pacified and whatever approach we make to God in him, it is to a God reconciled in him, Rom. v. 10.

--Thus you fee under what confiderations we are to view the God to whom Chrift did engage to approach, and, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? faith the Lord.”

4thly, In what station did he engage to approach unto God? Why,

1. He engaged to approach unto God in the ftation of a Surety; therefore he is called, "The Surety of a better teflament;" A Surety for God to us, that all that he hath promised in his word fhall be made good; for in him are all the promises Yea and Amen, and he is engaged to fee them accomplished: Alfo as a Surety for us to God, having given his hand to his Father, that all our debt fhould be paid: Chrift fays to his Father, in a manner, as Paul faid to Philemon concerning Onefimus, Phil. 18, 19. "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that to my account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it."-So fays Chrift, Since these poor finners have wronged thee, O Father, by their fin, and owe thee an infinité fum, a debt of obedience and fatisfaction, Put it to mine account, I JESUS have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: I give my bond for it, fubfcribed with my own hand: "Lo I come to do it; in the volume of thy book it is written of me." And indeed he is a Surety that gets all' the debt to pay, and all the duty to perform for the debtor and bankrupt.

2. He engaged to approach to God in the ftationi of a Mediator, therefore called, The Mediator of the new covenant. He is fent of God to negotiate a peace betwixt God and man; and accordingly he is our peace, and travels betwixt the parties in order to their reconciliation. He is a repairer of breaches, and a reftorer of that which he took not away, Pfalm xlix. 4. For, as: Mediator, he restores that glory to God which he took not away; that obedience to the law which he took not away; that holinefs to man which he took not away; that beauty and order to the world which he took VOL. II.

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not away; that agreement and concord betwixt heaven and earth, betwixt man and man, which he took not away.

3. He engaged himself to approach unto God in the ftation of an Ambaffador, to ferve him in that ftation; and hence he is fo frequently called the Sent of God. Chrift magnifies his office as being the Sent of God, John iv. 34. My meat is to do the will of him that fent me; and to finifh his work. John v. 40. I feek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath fent me." Chrift magnifies the faith that believes on him as the Sent of God; "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath fent." Yea, I have ob. ferved, that Chrift is fpoken of, as the Sent of God, betwixt forty and fifty times in that one gofpel according to John. He is fent as the Father's Ambaffador, with the Father's feal appended to his commiffion; "Him hath God the Father fealed."

4. He engaged to approach to God in the station of a mean Servant; for, "He made him felf of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a fervant;" yet, a faithful Servant, faithful in all his houfe; a Servant according to God's heart; and as righteous as God would have him to be; "By his knowledge fhall my righteous Servant juftify many." A Servant whom God glories in; "Behold my Servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, in whom my foul delighteth." I might here show you how he engaged to approach to God in the station of a Prophet, Prieft, and King; a Witnefs, Leader, and Commander, Ifaiah lv. 4. But what I have faid, is fufficient to give us fome view of the nature of the work he engaged himself to, in approaching to God. Therefore I come,

III. To the third general head propofed, which was, To speak of the fingularity of the fact, intimated in the expreffion, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me?" Now, that this was a fingular engagement, will appear, both from the matter and the manner.

Ift, Confider the matter of this engagement, and we will fee the fingularity of it, especially if we notice the

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myfteries that ly in the bofom of this engagement; particularly these fix.

1. The first mystery in this engagement is, that herein we may fee the glory of the eternal God vailed with flefh, and dwelling in a tabernacle of clay; "Without controverly great is the mystery of godlinefs, God manifelted in the flesh." To fee the fun in the firmament converted to a clod of duft, or the higheft feraph in heaven to a crawling worm, had been but a fmall matter, if compared with this; for here we have heaven and earth, time and eternity, finite and infinite together in one perfon. Here is the Ancient of days becoming a young child; "To us a Child is born."-Here is the everlasting Fountain of joy, becoming a man of forrows and acquainted with grief.-Here is the greatest beauty of heaven and earth, with his vifage marred more than any man, and his form than the fons of men.-Here is the Creator of the world, to whom the earth and its fulnefs belong, yet deftitute of houfe and hold; "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nefts, but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head.",

2. The fecond mystery wrapt up in this engagement, is, that here we may fee the glorious Law-giver, whose will is a law to men and angels, fubje&ting himself to his own law, and that in the room of rebels, that had violated his law, and contemned his authority; for, was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law."

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3. The third mystery here to be feen, is, that which might make us faint away with wonder and amazement, that the bleffed God, fhould, in a manner, become a curfed finner, that curfed finners might be bleffed in him: behold the ever-bleffed God becoming a curfe, Gal. iii. 15. And to be made a curfe, is a stronger word yet, than curfed. Behold the ever-holy God becoming fin, 2 Cor. v. 21.; and to be made fin, is a ftronger word yet, than to be a finner. He became a finner by imputation, even he who knew no fin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. He put his name in our bond, and wrote down himself the finner, that our

name, might be put in his bond, and we might be righteous thro' his righteoufnefs. But for the bleffed God to become a curfe, and the holy God to become fin, is more than if all the angels in heaven fhould become devils. Is there not fomewhat fingular here?

4. The fourth mystery wrapt up in this engagement, is, that here we lee the Creditor becoming Surety for the debtor, and paying the debt that was owing to him. felf. The eternal Son of God was as much injured by our fin as the Father was, and yet he engaged to come and fatisfy his own juftice.

5. The fifth mystery here involved, is, in this engigement we may fee the Judge of all the earth brought under condemnation; condemned by his own Father, whom he never offended; condemned by the law, which he never broke; condemned by finners, whom he came to fave from condemnation; condemned to death, though he be the Lord of life, and hath the keys of hell and death in his hand, and at his girdle.

6. The fixth myflery to be feen in this engagement, is, that here we may obferve juftice raging against the innocent, and abfolving the guilty, and yet without any iniquity or injuftice; a God of love, and a compaffionate Father forgetting, as it were, his bowels towards his only Son, and taking pleasure in his death; "For it pleafed the Lord to bruife him:" and yet receiving thefe into his arms and bofom, who had violated his law, and contemned his authority, and grieved his Spirit.—And by this means, here we see the righteousness of the law, fulfilled in thefe that had broken the law, and never obeyed one of its precepts. Here we may fee the poor guilty finner, that ftands condemned by the law, condemned by juftice, condemned by confcience, yet put in cafe to challenge the whole world to lay any thing to his charge, Rom. viii. 33.-By this mean alfo we fee the debt paid and yet pardoned, the guilt of the finner punished and yet forgiven.-In a word, there was this fingular in it, that he engaged to bring the greatest good out of the greateft evil. Sin is the greateft of all evils, and that whereby, of any thing in all the world, God is moft difhonoured; and yet there is nothing by

which God brings greater glory to himfelf, than by the fall of man upon thefe ruins mercy fhall be built up. for ever, fays God; and mercy magnified to the higheft, in a way wherein juftice is fatisfied to the uttermoft; fin being condemned by a facrifice; life bought by a death; and the gates of heaven opened by a crofs. The myf teries contained in this engagement fhew it to be fingular. And thus the matter of the engagement difcovers the fingularity of the fact.

2dly, Confider the manner of it, and here the fingularity thereof will further appear: how did he engage?

1. He engaged alone, He alone; there was none that would or could engage to do this, but himfelf; Ifa. Ixiii. 3. "I have trode the wine-prefs alone, and of the people there was none with me:" among all the creatures of God, there was none to take part with him in treading the wine-prefs of his Father's wrath: "He faw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no interceffor; therefore his own arm brought falvation, and his righteousness it fuftained him, Ifa. lix. 16.

2. He engaged fully to do all, to fuffer all, to purchafe all, to apply all, and to be All in all; he engaged not only to do, but to fuffer, 1 Pet. iii. 18. "Chrift hath once fuffered for fin, the juft for the unjuft, that he might bring us to God:" not only to fuffer, but to die, and to die for enemies, rebels, and traitors, fuch as were given him of the Father; and not only to die, but to continue for a time under the power of death; though he was life itfelf, and could, in the firft infiance of time, have risen up from the grave that he was laid into.

3. He engaged freely; his Father's caufing him to approach, did not hinder the freedom of his engagement; for, as God, "He and his Father are one," and have but one divine will; and, as man, his will is fweetly fubject to the divine will. He engaged fo freely, that there was nothing in us, that could move him but mifery; there was none of us could defire him to đo it; he engaged before we had a being: there was none in heaven or earth that could compel him to it;

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