miliation and exaltation, lovely in all his relations; his beauty is transforming, it will make the bride comely also; it is communicative, the bride is made comely through his comeliness. When we speak of the comeliness of Christ, we should let angels and saints above, that have the more immediate intuition of the radiant splendor of this blessed object, go forth to declare his glory. Every thing in him is lovely, and nothing is lovely without him, nothing is lovely but what proceeds from him, and goes to him; he is so lovely, that he cannot possibly be otherwise: he is the primary, original, and necessary loveliness.

2. Consider, as he is lovely, so he is loving; his love is infinite, eternal, free, distinguishing, effectual; never man loved like him. O how many foldings are in this love, as can never be unfolded?

3. Consider, if we close with Christ we will give him a glad heart; his heart is glad in that day, when he takes a poor sinner by the hand; the day of his espousals is the day of the gladness of his heart. How many times have we grieved him by our hypocrisy, and formality, and backwardness? And would we now give him a glad heart, for all the grieved hearts we have given him? then let us embrace him as offered in the gospel, and then he will be glad. Why? then he will see the fruit of election, the fruit of redemption, the fruit of his death, the fruit of his resurrection, the fruit of his ascension, the fruit of his intercession: then he gets back the temple of the Holy Ghost; the lost sheep is found again: then he gets back the member of his own body.

I might give something by way of direction. You may say, What shall I do then, that I may be married unto Christ?

In one word, if you would have Christ for your husband, O then entertain his suit, and hearken to his wooing and courting motions! Is he darting light into your hearts, and letting you see the evil of some sin that formerly ye delighted in? O do not resist his suit, by continuing in sin after this! Is he strengthening that light so as to set conscience on fire with the sense of sin,. and apprehension of wrath? O quench not this fire till you

get water out of the wells of salvation! otherwise ye reject his suit.-Is he carrying his suit farther, and stirr ing up your affections to desire after Christ! O quench not this motion! but cry to him to fasten the nail sure, and carry on the work, till the marriage be completed. Now, I might give a word of exhortation also to them that are married and espoused to Christ.

All I shall say is this; O let Christ's bride live on him, and take all from him! as a poor woman married to a rich man, she lives upon his riches. Many are ready to say, that if Christ would call us his bride, we would live on ourselves; we would pray, repent, believe, &c.; but the bride of Christ must get all these things in him, and take all from him, and live wholly on him, and freely on him. When Joseph's brethren did not know him, they were buying and selling with him, they would have nothing from him without money; but when they knew that he was a brother, for all the offences that they had done him, they were content to come down every man of them, and take all from him for nothing; this is the way you must do with Christ, when matched to him; we must not, with the legalist, have repentance and duties of our own, we must take all from him, who is the repository of all divine fulness, whereof the believer's part is, out of that fulness to receive grace for grace.

SERMON IV, V*.

CHRIST the People's Covenant.

ISAIAH xlii. 6.--I will give thee for a covenant of the people.

My dear friends, if your ears be open, there are three things that you may hear this day.

This was an Action-Sermon, preached immediately before the celebration of the Lord's Supper, at Dunfermline, August 19, 1722. To which is annexed the substance of some discourses, after the sacrament, upon the same subject. The after enlargements on this subject, were mostly placed under their respective general heads of method.

1. You may hear what ministers will say; but that is a matter of small moment; and it is but a poor errand, if you be only come to hear what a poor mortal, sinful fellow-creature will say to you. Little matter what we say, if God himself do not speak into your hearts. Therefore,

2. You may hear what God says to you: this is matter of great moment; for God's speaking can make us both hear and live, though we were as dead as stocks, or stones. He spake the old creation out of nothing, and he can speak a new creation out of us, who are worse than nothing. Indeed it will be a wonder, if he do not speak terrible things in righteousness unto us, because of our sins; and really if he speak to us out of Christ, it will be dreadful. Therefore,

3. You may come to hear what God says to Christ, and this is of the greatest moment of all. To hear what ministers say to the congregation, is a little thing; to hear what God says to you, is a great thing; but to hear what God says to Christ, is one of the greatest things that can be heard. God in his word speaks to the sons of men, and perhaps you have noticed that. But he speaks also to the Son of God, to his eternal Son; and perhaps that is what you have little noticed to this day. Why, what says he to Christ? Is it any thing that we the people are concerned with? Yes, what he says to Christ is of the greatest concern to us, and it is this, "I will give thee for a covenant of the people." O, might the great and eternal Father say to his great and eternal Son, who is one God with him and the eternal Spirit, Behold there is a company of people meeting in Dunfermline about a communion-table, with a view to the sealing of the covenant; but their work will be to little purpose, if they view not THEE, my beloved Son, to be the spring, the spirit, the life, the all of the covenant : their covenant will be but a poor bargain without THÉE ; and therefore," Behold, I will give THEE for a covenant of the people!" O a sweet saying as ever was said in the world! and no wonder for it is a part of a sermon whereof God himself is the preacher, and Christ is the text, and the Spirit is the voice that conveys it. If we had much

of this Spirit with us, we might see how sweetly this glorious preacher handles this wonderful text, from the beginning of the chapter: O how sweetly does he speak of him in the first four verses! and how sweetly does he speak to him from the fifth verse and downward!

1. How sweetly does he speak of him? "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth," &c. That Christ is the subject here treated of, you need not question, if you compare this first verse with Matth. xii. 18. where Christ expressly applies it to himself; and now, when the Father here speaks of Christ, every word is a word of commendation; he commends him for a good servant in his mediatory work, "Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth :" He commends him for a well-qualified Saviour; "I have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles:" He commends him for a meek Saviour: "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street,” ver. 2.: He commends him for a tender-hearted Saviour; "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth," ver. 3.: He commends him for an able Saviour, that will go through with his work, maugre all impediments; "He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, ver. 4. and the isles shall wait for his law;" the isle of Britain not excepted, and not forgetting Scotland in the north end of it.

2. How sweetly does he speak to him, from ver. 5. 6.! And here notice both the divine preface to this part of the sermon, and then the divine discourse.

(1.) The preface, shewing the glorious dignity of the preacher, ver. 5. "Thus saith the Lord." Here the glorious JEHOVAH is commending himself, as it well becomes him, and none but him to do. Who is it that is speaking? It is the Lord the great Lord of heaven, earth, and mankind: it is the Lord of all the heavens, that is speaking; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it: it is the Lord of all mankind that is speaking; he that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that dwell therein.-

Why then he is the God that hath authority to make the following covenant with the Messiah, and give a commission to him. Therefore,

(2.) Notice the divine discourse itself, and what he says to Christ, ver. 6. "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people," &c. He had spoken sweetly of him, and here he speaks as sweetly to him: and in this speech is opened up to us the great mystery of the covenant of redemption betwixt the Father and the Son from eternity; and the opening thereof in time makes it a covenant of grace to us. And here we may see several parts of the indenture he binds and obliges himself unto.

The first piece of the indenture is, "I have called thee in righteousness." Here is the vocation; he takes not this office of being Mediator upon him, without being called thereto; and God called him thereto in righteousness; he was rightly called; for the right of redemption fell into his hand; he was rightly called for he was able for the work, and fit for it; he was rightly called; for he was willing to the work, and voluntarily offered himself, "Lo, 1 come;-I delight to do thy will, O my God:" He was rightly called; for as God did him no wrong, so he did himself right, and provided for the glory of all his perfections in this way.

way;

The second piece of the indenture is, "I will hold thine hand;" that is another thing he says to him: Go, says he, and I will hold thee by the hand all the 1 will bear the expences of that hard service: Christ goes this warfare on God's charges; he bears equal burden in the work of our redemption. We misplace our love, if we love not the Father as well as the Son: the three glorious persons of the adorable Trinity had all one will to it, and they go hand in hand about it; " 1 will hold thine hand."

The third piece of the indenture, or the other thing he says to Christ, is, "I will keep thee;" I, says the great JEHOVAH to the God-man Mediator, I will keep thee, when the sins of an elect world shall all meet upon thee; when the curses of the law, the terror of justice,