choosing the Head and the whole mystical Body as one, and reckoning their debt as his, in His own purpose, that He might receive satisfaction, and they salvation, in their Head, Christ. The execution of that purpose and union, began in Christ's incarnation, it being for them, though the nature he assumed is theirs in common with other men. It is said, Heb. ii. 16, He took not on Him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham, the company of believers: He became man for their sakes, because they are men. That he is of the same nature with unbelieving men who perish, is but by accident, as it were; there is no good to them in that, but the great evil of deeper condemnation, if they hear of Him, and believe not; but He was made man to be like, yea, to be one with the Elect, and He is not ashamed to call them brethren, as the Apostle there says, Heb. ii. 11. 2dly, This union is also founded in the actual intention of the Son so made man; He presenting himself to the Father in all He did and suffered, as for them, having them, and them only, in His eye and thoughts, in all. For their sakes do I sanctify myself. John xvii. 1. 9. Again, 3dly, This union is applied and performed in them, when they are converted and ingrafted into Jesus Christ by faith; and this doth actually discharge them of their own sins, and entitle them to His righteousness, and so, justify them in the sight of God. 4thly, The consummation of this union, is in glory, which is the result and fruit of all the former. As it began in Heaven, it is completed there; but betwixt these two in Heaven, the intervention of those other two degrees of it on earth was necessary, being intended in the first, as tending to the attainment of the last. These four steps of it are all distinctly expressed in our Lord's own prayer, John xvii. 1st, God's purpose that the Son should give eternal life to those whom He hath given Him, ver. 2. 2dly, The Son's undertaking and accomplishing their redemption, in ver. 4, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. 3dly, The application of this union, and its performance in them, by their faith, their believing, and keeping

His word, ver. 6. 8, and in several of the subsequent verses. And then lastly, the consummation of this union, ver 24, I will that they whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am. There meet the first donation, and the last.

Now, to obtain this life for them, Christ died in their stead. He appeared as the High Priest, being perfectly and truly what the name was on their plate of gold, Holiness to the Lord, Exod. xxviii. 36, and so bearing their iniquity, as it is there added of Aaron, ver. 38. But because the High Priest was not the Redeemer, but only prefigured him, he did not himself suffer for the people's sin, but turned it over upon the beasts which he sacrificed, signifying that translation of sin, by laying his hand upon the head of the beast. But Jesus Christ is both the great high-priest and the great sacrifice in one; and this seems to be here implied in these words, Himself bare our sins in His own body, which the Priest under the Law did not. So, Isa. liii. 10, and Heb. ix. 12, He made His soul an offering for sin. He offered up himself, his whole self. In the history of the Gospel, it is said, that His soul was heavy, and chiefly suffered; but it is the bearing sin in His body, and offering it, that is oftenest mentioned as the visible part of the sacrifice, and as His way of offering it, not excluding the other. Thus, (Rom. xii. 1,) we are exhorted to give our bodies, in opposition to the bodies of beasts, and they are therefore called a living sacrifice, which they are not without the soul. So, Christ's bearing it in His body, imports the bearing of it in his soul too.

[3.] His bearing of our sins, hints that He was active and willing in his suffering for us; it was not a constrained offering. He laid down his life, as He himself tells us, John x. 18; and this expression here, He bare, implies, He took willingly off, lifted from us that burden, to bear it Himself. It was counted an ill sign amongst the heathens, when the beasts went unwil lingly to be sacrificed, and drew back, and a good omen when they went willingly. But never was sacrifice so willing as our Great Sacrifice; and we may be assured He hath appeased his Father's wrath, and wrought atonement for us. Isaac was in

this a type of Christ; we hear of no reluctance; he submitted quietly to be bound when he was to be offered up. There are two words used in Isaiah, ch. liii. v. 4, the one signifying bearing, the other, taking away. This bearing includes, also, that taking away of the sins of the world, spoken of by St. John, ch. i. v. 29, which answers to both; and so, He, the Great Antitype answers to both the goats, the sin-offering and the scape-goat, Levit. xvi. He did bear our sins on his cross, and from thence did bear them away to his grave, and there they are buried; and they whose sins He did so bear, and take away, and bury, shall hear no more of them as theirs to bear. Is he not, then, worthy to be beheld, in that notion under which John, in the fore-mentioned text, viewed Him, and designates Him?-Behold the Lamb of God, which beareth and taketh away the sins of the world!

You, then, who are gazing on vanity, be persuaded to turn your eyes this way, and behold this lasting wonder, this Lord of Life dying! But the most, alas! want a due eye for this Object. It is the eye of faith alone, that looks aright on Him, and is daily discovering new worlds of excellency and delight in this crucified Saviour; that can view Him daily, as hanging on the Cross, without the childish, gaudy help of a crucifix, and grow in the knowledge of that Love which passeth knowledge, and rejoice itself in frequent thinking and speaking of Him, instead of those idle and vain thoughts at the best, and empty discourses, wherein the most delight, and wear out the day. What is all knowledge but painted folly in comparison of this? Hadst thou Solomon's faculty to discourse of all plants, and hadst not the right knowledge of this root of Jesse; wert thou singular in the knowledge of the stars and of the course of the heavens, and couldst walk through the spheres with a Jacob's staff, but ignorant of this star of Jacob; if thou knewest the histories of all time, and the life and death of all the most famous princes, and could rehearse them all, but dost not spiritually know and apply to thyself the death of Jesus as thy life; thou art still a wretched fool, and all thy knowledge

with thee shall quickly perish. On the other side, if thy capacity or breeding hath denied thee the knowledge of all these things wherein men glory so much, yet, do but learn Christ crucified, and what wouldst thou have more? That shall make thee happy for ever. For this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hasi sent. John xvii. 3.

Here St. Paul takes up his rest, I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Cor. ii. 2. As if he had said, Whatsoever I knew besides, I resolved to be as if I knew nothing besides this, the only knowledge wherein I will rejoice myself, and which I will labour to impart to others. I have tried and compared the rest, and find them all unworthy of their room beside this, and my whole soul too little for this. I have passed this judgment and sentence on all. I have adjudged myself to deny all other knowledge, and confined myself within this circle, and I am not straitened. No, there is room enough in it; it is larger than heaven and earth, Christ and Him crucified; the most despised and ignominious part of knowledge, yet the sweetest and most comfortable part of all: the root whence all our hopes of life, and all our spiritual joys do spring.

But the greatest part of mankind hear this subject as a story. Some are a little moved with the present sound of it, but they draw it not home into their hearts, to make it theirs, and to find salvation in it, but still cleave to sin, and love sin better than Him who suffered for it.

But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply humbled under a sense of sin, come to this depth of consolation, and try it, that you may have experience of the sweetness and riches of it. Study this point thoroughly, and you will find it answer all, and quiet your consciences. Apply this bearing of sin by the Lord Jesus for you, for it is published and made known to you for this purpose. This is the genuine and true use of it, as of the brazen serpent, not that the people might emptily gaze on the fabric of it, but that those that looked on it might be cured.

When all that can be said, is said against you," It is true," may you say," but it is all satisfied for; He on whom I rest, made it His, and did bear it for me." The person of Christ is of more worth than all men, yea, than all the creatures, and therefore, his life was a full ransom for the greatest offender.

And as for outward troubles and sufferings, which were the occasion of this doctrine in this place, they are all made exceeding light by the removal of this great pressure. Let the Lord lay on me what He will, seeing He hath taken off my sin, and laid that on His own Son in my stead. I may suffer many things, but He hath borne that for me, which alone was able to make me miserable.

And you that have this persuasion, how will your hearts be taken up with his love, who has so loved you as to give himself for you; who interposed Himself to bear off from you the stroke of everlasting death, and encountered all the wrath due to us, and went through with that great work, by reason of his unspeakable love! Let Him never go forth from my heart, who for my sake refused to go down from the cross.

II. The End of these Sufferings.

That we being dead to

The Lord doth nothing

sin, should live unto righteousness.] in vain; He hath not made the least of his works to no purpose; in wisdom hath He made them all, says the Psalmist. And this is true, not only in regard of their excellent frame and order, but of their end, which is a chief point of wisdom. So then, in order to the right knowledge of this great work put into the hands of Jesus Christ, it is of special concern to understand what is its End.

Now this is the thing which Divine wisdom and love aimed at in that great undertaking, and therefore it will be our truest wisdom, and the truest evidence of our reflex love, to intend the same thing, that in this, the same mind may be in us, that was in Christ Jesus in his suffering for us; for this very end it is expressed, That we being dead to sin, should live to righ

teousness.

In this there are three things to be considered: 1st. What