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cept the Father draw him. When he came to Adam he received her as God's gift; fo the elect are given to Chrift. Adam and Eve are faid to be one; fo alfo are they that are joined to the Lord one fpirit. Adam faid-Man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; so Chrift came forth from the Father, leaping upon the mountains. And, when fome of the Saviour's followers faid-Behold, thy mother and thy brethren Stand without, defiring to speak with thee; be answered, Who is my mother and my brethren? And he ftretched out his hand towards his difciples, and faid, Behold my mother and my brethren. Matt. xii. 47, 48. Thus Chrift left his father and mother, and clave to his wife. Adam had one wife brought to him and no more; fo Chrift fays-There are threefcore queens, and fourfcore concubines, and virgins without. number; my undefiled is but one. Song vi. 8, 9. When Eve fell Adam was in the tranfgreffion, though he was not deceived; fo when the elected spouse fell Chrift was not deceived, yet he was made fin, and was numbered with the tranfgreffors. İfa. liii. 12. When Adam and Eve fell their marriage was not made void; fo the fall of the elect did not break the bond of God's everlasting covenant, but rather paved the way to display eternal love towards the miferable. It appears that both Adam and Eve were chofen veffels; and, when they fell by eating the apples, they fell into foul travail, and were fhortly after born again. Eternal B 4

love

love raised them up under the fame tree where they fell; as it is written-I raised thee up under the apple tree there thy mother brought thee forth, there fbe brought thee forth that bare thee. Song viii. 5. This mother according to Paul (Gal. 1v. 24.) is the heavenly Jerufalem; and the heavenly Jerufalem is the covenant of grace and God's elect in it; both typified by Sarah and her fon Ifaac. To Adam and Eve was the first promise of the Covenant of grace revealed; and by the application of the promise were they brought forth from black defpair to hope in God's mercy through Chrift.

I fhall conclude this head with the apoftle's mystery-For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flefb, and of his bones. For this caufe fhall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto bis wife; and they two fhall be one flesh. This is a great myfiery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Eph. v. 29-32. This therefore is another bleffed effect of God's everlasting love. But

As a furety Christ was fet up from everlasting; as it is written-But Chrift was made with an oath; by him that faid unto him, The Lord fware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchifedec. By fo much was Jefus made a furety, of a better teftament. Heb. vii. 21, 22. First, Chrift, as a furety, was to pay the debt of perfect obedience to the preceptive part of the law for his elect; as it is written-He will magnify the law,

and

and make it bonourable (Ifa. xlii. 21.); fo by the obedience of one (Jefus Chrift) shall many be made righteous. Rom. v. 19. As a furety, he was to pay the penal fum of fuffering for his elect, by dying in their room and ftead; as it is written-I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. Hofea xiii. 24. And thus it behoved Chrift to fuffer these things, because he had undertaken our cause. And by his precious blood he blotted out our tranfgreffions as a thick cloud from the book of God's remembrance, agreeable to the following text-I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Zech.iii. 9. Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Rom. viii. 33. This is another bleffed effect of everlasting love. But

Chrift was fet up from everlasting to be a mediator between God and the elect; as it is writtenBut ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general affembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the fpirits of just men made perfect, and to Jefus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of Sprinkling that Speaketh better things than that of Abel. Heb. xii.

22-24.

Christ as our mediator, appeafed the wrath of God, removed the curfe of the law from us by his death, made reconciliation for iniquity, and

brought

brought in an everlasting righteousness. He appears both our peace-maker and our peace; as it is written-He is our peace, who bath made peace for us by the blood of his crofs. Col. i. 12. Thus we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son. This is another bleffed effect of God's everlasting love.

Christ was alfo fet up from everlasting to be a fecond Adam, or an everlasting Father; as it is written-And his name fhall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Ifa. ix. 6. And, as a Father of the elect family, he received the promise of eternal life, together with the promise of the Spirit of God, for all those who are called his feed agreeable to the following fcripture-As for me, this is my covenant with them, faith the Lord; my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, Jhall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy feed, nor out of the mouth of thy feed's feed, faith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Ifa. lix. 21. Thus God fhewed his eternal love to the chofen feed in Chrift before the world was. But in this covenant he made a parental reserve for himself; as you read-But if his children forfake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my ftatutes, and keep not my commandments; iben will I vifit their tranfgreffions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving KINDNESS I will not utterly take from HIM, nor Suffer

Juffer my faithfulness to fail: my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Pfal. lxxxix. 30-34. Behold then, faith the Saviour, I, and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for figns from the Lord of Hofts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. Ifa. viii. 18.

And now the prophet puts forth a riddle to the world, when he says that Chrift was taken from prifon and from judgment; and who shall declare bis generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living. Ifa. liii. 8. Yet he shall fee his feed, v. 10. And bleffed be his name, he has got a glorious offspring out of the spoils of death, as faith the Pfalmift-Unto God the Lord belong the iffues from death. Pfal. lxviii. 20. And this is the feed that fhall ferve Chrift, and be counted to him for a generation. Pfal. xxii. 30. And that feed fhall all one day appear in the bleffed image of the fecond Adam; as it is written-And as we have born the image of the earthy Adam, we shall also bear the image of the beavenly: for, as is the earthy Adam, fo are his feed also that are earthy; and, as is the beavenly Adam, fuch are they also that are heavenly. I Cor. xv. 48, 49. And this is another bleffed effect or refult of God's eternal love.

Chrift too in this eternal covenant is called the firftborn-I will make bim, my first born, higher than the kings of the earth; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. And God promised to be to Christ, in human nature, his Father, his God, and the rock of his

Salvation.

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