the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith. And this is the name whereby be fhall be called, the Lord our Righteoufnefs.

As Head over all things to the church, what comfort could flow to it from the confideration of Christ's being a mere man? She is exposed to thoufands of inveterate adversaries, ghostly and bodily and continually floating upon the waves and billows of trouble and diftrefs, and deemed as the filth and offscouring of all things, and treated accordingly : while Chrift, the Head, is afcended far above all heavens, and of course at an infinite distance from his well-beloved, if he be no more than man. No comfort can flow to her but from his immenfity and omniprefence-Behold, I am with you always to the world's end; which, as man, abstractedly confidered, he cannot be.

As a Phyfician, who is God's way upon earth, and his faving bealth among all nations. Pfal. Ixvii. 2. Who bore our fins and took our infirmities, and who binds up the broken-hearted and restores health to us; which cannot be done but by purging us from all our guilt and filth, idols and dead works, falfe notions of God and a dead form of godliness: the comfort of all which fprings from his being God. If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in bis fight, and wilt give ear to his commandments and keep all bis ftatutes; I will put none of thefe difeafes upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians:

for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Exodus xv.

26.

As the Covenant Head-Thou fpeakest in vision to thy boly one, and faidft, I have laid belp upon one thas is mighty; I have exalted one chofen out of the people. Alfo, I will make him my firft-born bigher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant fhall stand faft with him. His feed, alfo, will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Pfalm lxxxix. Which covenant is a covenant of royalty; the Lord is king, and the elect are fubjects. A covenant of wedlock, in which the Lord of hosts is the husband, and the elect the wife; and he betroths them unto him for ever-Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Hofea ii, It is a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, in which the Son of God is high-prieft, and God the Holy Ghost is his anointing and confecration; and he is ordained by God the Father to this office for his elect, to make an atonement for them, to perfect them, and to intercede for them, till they are all brought, in a ftate of holiness and happinefs, into the holy of bolies, eternal in the heavens, where our high-prieft is for us entered. The comfort of all which fprings from his being, not as Mofes, who was a faithful fervant; but from Chrift being a fon over his own house, whofe house are we ;

19, 20.

and

and the fon over this his own houfe is God. For every boufe is builded by feme man; but he that built all things is God. Heb. iii. iv.

As an object of truft and confidence-no confolation can arise to us from his being no more than a creature; fo far from it, that it is dangerous to the laft degree to truft in him as fuch. For thus faith the Lord, Curfed be the man that trufieth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whofe heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the defert, and fhall not fee when good cometh; but fhall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in à falt land not inhabited. Jer. xvii. 5, 6. This is the woful cafe and state of all thofe who deny the godhead of Chrift, and yet truft in him as no more than man. But there is no curfe upon them that trust in the only-begotten Son of God. I have fet my king upon my holy bill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord bath faid unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Be wife now, therefore, O ye kings: be inftructed, ye judges of the earth. Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Serve the

Kifs the

Son left he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when bis wrath is kindled but a little. Bleffed are all they that put their trust in him. Pfal. ii. Here is no curfe to them that truft in the Son of God and King of Zion, but an eternal bleffing; and no bleffing can be upon thofe that truft in Chrift if he be not God; but he is truly and properly God, and therefore those that truft in him are doubly bleffed.

Blessed

Bleed is the man that trufteth in the Lord, and whofe hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that Spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not fee when heat cometh; but her leaf fhall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jer. xvii. 7, 8.

As the object of the faints love.-He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, more than me, is not worthy of me. And adds, If any man come unto me, and bateth not his father and mother, and even bis own life alfo, he cannot be my difciple. Surely, if Christ be not God, he hath zealously affected us, but not well; for we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our foul, mind, and strength. And, as Chrift demands this love of all the faints, he must be God; and fo he is; and therefore we can never love him enough. And those who dearly love the Son of God, God the Father is well pleased with-He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifeft myself to him. John xiv. 21. And he adds, The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John xvi. 27.

As an object of prayer. Almost every recipient of a bodily cure and of special grace, in the days of his flesh, prayed to him before they obtained either; and prayer is a branch of divine worship: yea, they worshipped him with divine adoration, as the

tenta leper that was healed, who returned to give glory to God, the woman with her bloody iffue alfo, and the Syrophenician woman; yea, and all the apofties, alfo, on the mount of Olivet, when he was taken from them up into heaven, worshipped him as he went up. And all the heavenly hoft wor fhipped the First-born when he was brought into the world; and Stephen, that evangelical deacon, breathed out the following petition to him with his expiring breath. And they Stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and faying, Lord Jefus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this fin to their charge. And when he bad faid this he fell asleep. Acts vii. 59, 60. But we need not wonder at Stephen putting up his laft prayer to Chrift; Stephen knew him, and had the Spirit of fupplication in him; and the Spirit always teftifies of Chrift, and glorifies him alfo-He fhall glorify me. And, befides, Stephen had a view of the Saviour; he faw the heavens

open, and Jesus

Standing at the right hand of God. And we know that, if Chrift be not God, he could not be admitted to the right hand of the Majefty on high. Heb. i. 3. Hence it is plain that all who debafe the Saviour to the level of a mere creature are ignorant of him; they have never known him nor feen him. But all believers do fee him, though not in that miraculous manner Stephen did. Yet a little while and the world feeth me no more; but ye fee me: and because I live ye ball live alfe. John xiv. 19.

As