head, and shall sit with him on his high throne, and reign with him forever. This honor have all the saints.

6. We may hence see the warrant we have to worship and pray to Jesus Christ, and call upon his name. We have seen that he is worshipped by all the inhabitants of heaven; that the apostles and primitive Christians prayed to him, and called on his name. And there is the same reason why his people should do so in all ages, and at all times. He is God manifest in the flesh, Immanuel, God in our nature. He has all power in heaven and on earth, and is head over all things to the church. He can do all things for us that we want; why should we not ask him for what we want, and constantly pray to him, acknowledging our absolute dependence on him, and his sufficiency and ability to do all for us? And is not a neglect to do this putting a slight upon him?

It will be asked, perhaps, whether this be not expressly forbidden by Christ when he says, " In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." (John xvi. 23.)

ANSWER. When he says, "In that day ye shall ask me nothing," the word in the original is commonly used for asking questions, and not to make a petition. The disciples had been asking him a number of questions for their information about things which they did not understand. Christ tells them, in these words, that after his ascension they should have no opportunity or occasion to ask him any questions, for they should then have sufficient knowledge by the Holy Spirit teaching them all things they should have need to know. When he says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father," he uses another word for asking, which always signifies, to make a petition.

But from these last words there arises another question. Here Christ directs to ask the Father in his name. Is not this an implicit prohibition to ask any thing of him directly?

ANSWER. This cannot be understood as a prohibition to pray to Jesus Christ, and call on his name, because the apostles and primitive Christians did this, as has been shown. And, perhaps, if the matter be properly considered, it will appear that praying directly to Jesus Christ, and asking him, is asking in his name, and asking the Father as really, though not expressly, as when we ask the Father directly, in the name of Christ. Jesus Christ says, "I and my Father are one. What things soever the Father doth, these, also, doth the Son likewise." (John v. 19; x. 30.) He hath, and exerciseth, all the power that is in heaven and earth. It hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in him. And the Father says to

wretched man, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." Whatever you want, go to him for relief and a supply; as Pharaoh said to the starving people, "Go to Joseph." He, then, who goes to Christ and asks the things which he wants of him, does really and in truth go to the Father and asks of him, as he is the appointed governor and steward, and has all things in his hands. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath delivered all things into his hand. All things that the Father hath, are mine." (John iii. 35; xvi. 19.) As the people, by applying to Joseph, with whom all the authority and supplies were lodged, did really apply to Pharaoh, so they who apply to Christ and ask him, do really apply to the Father through him, and ask of the Father as really as if they expressly applied to him. For he and the Father are one; and what he does the Father doth; and what the Father doth, the same doth the Son likewise. Therefore, what our Savior says in one passage the Father will do, in another he says he himself will do the same. In the text under consideration, he says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." At another time he said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." (John xiv. 13, 14.) And we ask the Father in the name of Jesus Christ when we go to Christ and ask him; for in this way we approach to the Father through him. We ask in the name of Christ when we go immediately to Jesus Christ, and through him, as a medium, to the Father, as really and as much as if we apply expressly to the Father, and ask expressly in the name of Christ. For, to ask in the name of Christ, is to rely on the atonement he has made, and on his merit and righteousness for the favor we ask. And this may be done when we apply immediately to Christ, as really and as much as if we apply expressly to the Father in his name.

7. This subject is suited to excite in our minds a conviction, and impress a sense of the amazing, infinite crime and folly of slighting and rejecting the Redeemer of men. The crime of this is great in proportion to the greatness, worthiness, and excellence of this person, and his amazing condescension and goodness exercised and manifested in what he has done and suffered for man.

And the folly of it is great in proportion to the greatness of the evil from which he offers to deliver us, and of the good and happiness which he has obtained for man and invites him to accept, both of which are infinite. How unspeakably great, then, must be this wickedness and folly! They are to us as incomprehensible in their magnitude as are the person and

works of the Redeemer: they are truly boundless and infinite: they are attended with innumerable other aggravations which far exceed our thought. How much more guilty are they who reject and cast contempt upon Christ than they could have been had there been no such person no such Redeemer! And their endless punishment, who persist in slighting him and neglecting this salvation, and die impenitent, will be inconceivably greater. They slight, they reject and despise, God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and declare themselves to be irreconcilable enemies to him, while he is offering to be reconciled to them, -to pardon their multiplied and infinitely aggravated offences, and bestow on them eternal life, in consequence of the Redeemer's undertaking in behalf of man, and obeying and suffering unto death for them. This serves to discover the universality, the exceeding greatness, and the malignity, of the moral depravity of man. Jews and Gentiles acted this out in the horrid action, never to be forgotten, in condemning and crucifying the Son of God, the Redeemer, when he was in their reach and power. And every man and woman who have lived since, and had opportunity to know the person and character of the Redeemer, have been guilty of the same crime in a greater or less degree, have all slighted and abused him more or less, and so have, in this way, in some measure at least, joined with them who put him to death.

as we

CHAPTER XI.

THE DESIGN AND WORK OF THE REDEEMER.

THIS is a subject upon which professing Christians are far from being agreed. They differ in opinion respecting it, according to their different views of the moral state and character of man;- - from what he is to be redeemed, and of what is necessary to be done or suffered in order to his redemption. And this lays the foundation of their difference of opinion respecting the person and character of the Redeemer. For he must be answerable to the state of man, and to that which must be done or suffered in order to his being delivered from sin and misery, and made completely happy forever, consistent with the divine law and the wisdom and honor of the moral Governor of man.

There are not a few in the Christian world who entertain

such ideas of God,- his law and moral government, of the character of man and the nature and crime of sin, — that they see no need of a Mediator and Redeemer in order to the pardon and salvation of men, and, therefore, consider Jesus Christ as an impostor, and all who believe in him as deluded, and wholly discard divine revelation, and plunge into the darkness of deism.

The Jews are so ignorant of the nature of the moral law, and their own state, that they think they stand in need of no Redeemer, but one who shall deliver them from the power and oppression of man, and bestow on them temporal, worldly dominion, prosperity, and happiness. They, therefore, reject Jesus Christ, and hope for the deliverance they desire by their expected Messiah.

There are many professing Christians who have much the same sentiments, respecting God, law, sin, and the moral state of man, with Jews and deists; and, consequently, though they profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of men, they see no need of a Savior that is more than a man or a mere creature, and, therefore, do not believe in his divinity.

Others have such views of God, his law and moral gov ernment, of the character and state of man in his apostasy, and of what is necessary to be done and suffered in order to their redemption, that they feel the need of a divine Redeemer whose person and character has been described in the foregoing chapter, and which they are prepared to see plainly exhibited in the Bible.

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From this view it appears, that, in order to understand the work of the Redeemer, the design of his undertaking, and what he does effect, we must have right views of the law of God which man has transgressed, and of the state into which he is fallen by this rebellion.

The law of God points out the duty of man, and requires of him what is perfectly right, and no more or less. It cannot, therefore, be altered in the least degree, so as to require more or less, without rendering it less perfect and good. It is, therefore, an eternal, unalterable rule of righteousness, which cannot be abrogated or altered in the least iota by an infinitely perfect, unchangeable Legislator and Governor, consistent with his character, his perfect rectitude and righteousness. This law necessarily implies, as essential to it, a sanction, or penalty, consisting in evil, or a punishment which is in exact proportion to the magnitude of the crime of transgressing it, or the desert of the transgressor, which is threatened to be executed on the offender. This penalty which is threatened must be no more, nor less, than the sinner deserves, or the demerit of the

crime.

The least deviation from this would render the law so far imperfect and wrong. Every creature under this law is under infinite obligations to obey it, without any deviation from it in the least possible instance, through the whole of his existence; and every instance of rebellion tends to infinite evil, to break up the divine government, and bring ruin and misery on all the moral world. Therefore, every transgression of this law, or neglect to obey it, deserves infinite evil as the proper punishment of it. Consequently this evil-this punishment must be the threatened penalty of the law; which has been shown in a former chapter.

Man, by transgression, has incurred the penalty of this law, and fallen under the curse of it. "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them." (Gal. iii. 10.) This curse cannot be taken off, and man released, until it has its effect, and all the evil implied in it be suffered,-which man can never do so as to be delivered from it, or from suffering, because a finite creature is not capable of suffering the evil contained in the curse in any limited duration, and, therefore, his sufferings must be without end, or everlasting. And no future obedience - should man repent and live perfectly obedient after he had transgressed-would atone for his sin, or remove the curse in the least degree, according to law; for his obedience, though ever so perfect, and continued ever so long, would be no more than what he constantly owed, and, therefore, no more than his duty had he never transgressed. Thus man by sin fell into an irrecoverably lost state, and brought the curse of the law of God upon him, from which it is impossible he should deliver himself, or be delivered, consistent with this law, either by all possible sufferings or obedience of his own.

This is the law of God, and is the voice of God to man, and is an unalterable expression of his heart, or moral character and perfection. It, therefore, cannot be altered or abated in the requirements of it, or in the threatening. It is as unchangeable as the divine character itself, being founded on the eternal, unchangeable reason and nature of things. And it is not consistent with the truth of God not to execute the threatening of his law; for this would not only be giving up and making void his law, but acting contrary to his own declaration. Divine threatenings are predictions declaring what shall be, and what God will do in case of transgression of his law. And it is as inconsistent with truth not to execute his threatening, in the true meaning of it, as it is not to accomplish and bring to pass what he has declared and promised shall a