the divine prefence immediately in perfon: nay, it would feem, the Father waited for him, until he made fuch approaches to him; for as his eyes are upon the righteous, fe "his ears are open to "their cry," Pfal. xxxiv. 15. Not only was perpetual accefs miniftred to the Man Chrift; but, on his approach, the Father hearkened to his fuits and fupplications, however great and numerous, whether perfonal or relational. He gave him all encouragement to make his whole requests known, never failed of hearing him to the last; and, as if regardless of every thing elfe, he noticed the breathings of the Mediator's foul with peculiar attention and delight. What our Lord himself is reprefented as faying to the church, may, with all manner of fafety, be applied in the prefent cafe; as an expreffion how much the Father defired to hear the Redeemer's cry, while he attended unto it; Let me fee thy countenance, let me hear thy "voice," Song ii. 14. Nor was the cry of the Man Chrift only waited for, and attended unto, but entirely approved of, by Jehovah. The Father approved of his cry, as to the matter of it, petition, adoration, or thanksgiving; as to the manner of it, by words, fighs, tears, groans, roarings, or otherways; as to the fource of it, the heart of a Son, an only, and, at the fame time, a dutiful Son, and an obedient Son; as to the motives of it, confidence in his Father, and love to his people; as to the ends of it, his Father's glory, his own reward, and his people's falvation and the Father approved his cry, as to the arguments he used in it; the Divine Faithfulnefs, and the Merits of his own obedience. His cry was delighted in, as well as approved of by the Father. The Father delighted in Jefus Chrift himself, and thence, in all he faid, did and asked. "I was by 666 : "him "him (faid the Son of the Father) as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight," Prov. viii. 30. If fo, when only undertaking to do his will; how much more behoved he to be fo, when actually engaged in his work? In confequence of all, the Father complied with Chrift's voice, granted all his requests, anfwered all his demands, fulfilled all his defires, did all for him, in a perfonal or mystical view, he prayed for: nay, there is fuch an oneness between the Father's everlasting will of grace, and the Mediator's every cry, that in anfwering the latter, he only accomplisheth the for mer. SECT. III. Since Jefus Chrift, in perfon, waited for the Father, and cried to him; his members, the fpiritual feed of Ifrael, will, ought, and muft, do fo. The Redeemer's waiting and crying is an example for them to imitate, an original for them to copy after. At the fame time, his having done fo, is the only ground upon which they may expect to do fo with fuccefs and comfort. The Lord Jefus and believers, being myftically one; he the head, and they the members; he the vine, and they the branches; he the foundation, and they the fabric; their waiting and crying will be confidered by the Father, as if he in person was the fervant and fupplicant. He waited and cried in the quality of their head; they wait and cry in the quality of his members and therefore, if the Father inclined to Christ, and heard his cry; he will incline to them, and hear their cry. In noticing the head, he regards the members;-and in regarding the members, he notices the head :-nor will our Lord fail, : according according to this view, to confider what the Father does to his people as if done to himself. The falvation of believers having been wrought out in the Redeemer's humiliation; however faulty and defective your services, it is delightful to know that the fervice of Jefus Chrift in your ftead was perfect and immaculate. Though you are ill pleafed with yourselves; though your own hearts condemn you; and though you fee God the Father would be just in executing the fentence of condemnation against you: yet your encouragement lies in Chrift being accepted, and in your acceptance being fecured through him. Though your own cries and prayers deserve not access nor answer; your Lord's cry is full of merit; big with fuccefs; and, to you, pregnant with manifold bleffings. If, therefore, you fee the right Jehovah has to perfect, univerfal, perpetual obedience, from you as creatures; the impoffibility of your yielding fuch obedience as the law requires; that God would be just in pleading a controverfy with you as rebel finners, in cafting off your perfons, rejecting your fervices, and being angry against your prayers: if you fee your incapacity of atoning paft offences, or performing future obedience; of paying your debt of duty or fuffering; of procuring redemption in a negative, or purchasing falvation in a positive, view: if you fee a fitnefs and propriety in the perfon and mediation of Chrift, for reaching the ends of your recovery upon honourable terms: if you admire the grace, wifdom and love, of Jehovah Redeemer, in the contrivance and execution of that wonderful redemption: if you prize Jefus Chrift; approve of him, in way of defire; follow after him; and wish, above all things, to be faved through his waiting for the Father, and crying to him: if you would chearfully and joyfully be ren dered dered debtors to Divine Grace, Sovereign Merty; if you are driven from every other dependence for falvation; if you are enabled to hang about the Lord's hand, in the duties, means, and ordinances, of his appointment: then there is reafon to hope good things concerning you, and things that accompany falvation; to hope your intereft in these bleffings, and those privileges, arifing from the Father's attending to Chrift, and hearing his cry, is real, fcriptural and indubitable. Are you faying, My experience of a law-work has never been diftinct and obfervable; I know nothing of fuch awakenings and terrors as others, of whom I have read, with whom I have converfed; and thence, any encouragement I would take from the mediation of Jefus Chrift is at once marred; my hopes, arising from thence, are perpetually fhaken? The Lord is fovereign as to the degrees of fuch a law-work: in that respect, he keeps no beaten, common tract. The great matter is, to have fuch experience of your natural obligations to the law, as convinces you of the abfolute need of Chrift. If that is the cafe, the end of the law is fo far reached; and you do well to encourage yourselves in the Lord, as having waited for the Father, and cried unto him. Are you faying, My acquaintance with the comfortable parts of religion, the bright fide of the cloud is fo fmall, tranfient and inconfiderable, that I know not what to make, what judgment to form, of the cafe? You should remember that gladness is only fown for you; this is but your feed-time, and, it may be, a feed-time of tears and forrow: the harvest of your joy and confolation will not be fully ripe, how long your connection with mortality lafts. What intervals of joy others have, are only the first fruits; and though thefe be denied you, you, the full harvest will be fo much the more raifhing and delightful. If you are aiming at falling in with the Lord's device of faving finners, groaning under unbelief and unholinefs, and afpiring after more acquaintance with the Lord, and conformity to him; you are, doubtlefs, fowing in tears, and fhall therefore reap in joy. Are you faying, I fee fuch unlikenefs in me to Christ, in his waiting for the Father, and crying to him, that my fears are countlefs and unutterable. Not only do mifgivings of heart fly in my face, but particular blemishes in practice witness against me: my unwatchfulnefs, untendernefs, and unfruitfulnefs, are fuch, as blast my confidence, fuck up my comfort, fill me with dread, make me go mourning, and cause me apprehend I shall go to the grave forrowing? Your complaints, in themfelves, argue a tenderness of confcience, that is hopeful and promifing. Your cafe has nothing fingular in it. You are bound to blefs God for fuch views of your hearts and ways; which are hid from the eyes of others. Your encouragment lies in the perpetuity and perfection of the Meditator's obedience; and, if that is the only quarter from whence you hope, feek, and wish for relief; there is no fear of a final difappointment. But, are you ftill faying, May I, a poor prodigal, a chief finner, a notorious rebel, against the crown royal and prerogatives of Jefus Chrift; may I, who have lived long in the neglect of falvation, many years in the contempt of the gofpel; who have fpent my ftrength, bloom, and vigour, at leaft much of it, in the flavery of fin, and crying after things of nought may the like of me entertain any hope from the Redeemer's waiting for the Father, and crying to him; any.hope from the Father's inclining to the Mediator, and hearing his cry? Does : |