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iniquity was laid upon him, and he was made fin for us, and fo was wounded for our fins, and bruifed for our. tranfgreffions; He gave his life a ranfom for many:' and God himself, having found this ransom for them, he says, as it were to juftice, "Deliver their fouls from going down to the pit; for I have found a ranfom."-Hence, alfo, he is the foundation in his merit and purchafe: he hath purchased heaven, and all the means of getting to it. He hath purchafed all bleffings, and all the graces of the Spirit, viz. faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, affurance; all the graces are his purchase: and what he hath purchafed, he is ready to give; yea, readier than you are to receive; he is ready, by his Father's allowance and appointment, who hath anointed him with the Spirit above meafure: he is full of grace and truth, that out of his fulness we might receive, and grace for grace.-But "then he is the foundation in his refurrection; for, as he was delivered for our offences, fo he was raised again for our juftification. His refurrection, or coming forth out of the prifon of the grave, being an evidence that the judge who had caft him into prifon, was pleafed; and that the debt was all paid; both, the debt of obedience to the law, and fatisfaction to juftice; and fo a way made for the juftification of finners; and a fure ground laid for his people's refurrection to glory.-Moreover, he is the f foundation in his afcenfion and exaltation; for," Having hafcended up on high, he led captivity captive, and re

ceived gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that God pra the Lord might dwell with them: and accordingly, now, him hath God exalted, with his right-hand, to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Ifrael, and he remiffion of fin." I do not cite all the fcriptures that I repeat for gaining of time.-He is alfo the foundation el in his interceffion; being " able to fave to the utter;th moft, all that come to God through him, because he ever liveth to make interceffion for them."-And fo finally, a he is the foundation in refpect of the application of his fa whole purchafed redemption; being a Saviour by power as well as by price, he powerfully applies, by his Spirit, what he hath dearly purchafed with his blood. to O! all you that would, by faith, look and lean to this

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foundation, hear his own word, "Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.

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4. Confider whereof he is the foundation to his church. Why, in general, he is the foundation of all the promifes, and the Bleffings therein contained; for, "In him are all the promifes, Yea and Amen." In him are given tó ús, exceeding great and precious promifes. Thefe that are ftrangers to Chrift, are ftrangers to the covenants of pr mife; for Chrift is the foundation of them all. Hath God promifed, "I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people?" Hath he faid, "I will take away the heart of fone, and I will give you a heart of flefh?" Hath he faid, "I will put my Spirit within you?" O take hold of Chrift, and you have all the promifes in him. You will fay, O what right have I to the promife, that know not if I be in Chrift? You would know there is a right of access, and a right of poffeffion. Now, I would fay of the promife, as I may fay of Chrift: What right have you to Chrift? fuch right have you to the promises. All you that are out of Chrift, and yet hear this gofpel; you have a right of accefs to him; being called, upon your peril, to come to him for fàlvation: "Whofoever will, let him come, and take the waters of life freely." And all you that come to Chrift, by faith, you have a right poffeffion of him, you may fay, My beloved is mine, and I am his." Well, thus it is with the promise; all that hear me have a right of accefs to the promife. I fay to you, as Peter faid, in his preaching to a company of the greatest finners that ever were, even to the mur derers of the Son of God, Acts ii. 39. "The promife is to you, and to your children; and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God fhall call." The call of the gofpel gives you a right of accefs, and warrant to plead the promise; and cry, that God would make out that to you, for the fake of Chrift, who is the foundation of them: and this is fuch a right, as that you cannot have a better right thereto, till you get faith. The promife is fo to you, as that it cannot be more to you, until you believe; and then you have a right of poffelfion of it; for, then you are, as Ifaac was, children of the

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promife, Gal. iv. 28.-If this be a new scheme, I own it, because it is the New-teftament fcheme. But I proceed. As Chrift is the foundation of all the promifes, fo he is the foundation of all the bleffings contained in the covenant of promife: more particularly, to give a fhort fum of thefe.-Chrift is the foundation of our pardon and remiffion; for," In him we have redemp tion thro' his blood, even the remiffion of fins," Eph. i. 7. He is the foundation of our deliverance from the curfe; for he hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curfe for us, Gal. iii. 13.—He is the foundation of our reconciliation with God; for, "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, thro' the death of his Son," Rom. v. 10.-He is the foundation of our juf tification; In him fhall all the feed of Ifrael be juftified, and fhall glory," Ifa. xlv. 25. and fo the foundation of our title to eternal life, Tit. iii. 7. That being juft:fied by his grace, we fhould be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."-He is the foundation of life itfelf; "This is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life," John v.11, 12. He is the foundation of our fanctification, and of our progrefs in it; for," He is made of Ged unto us wifdom, righteoufnefs, and fanctification:" and he that abideth in him, bringeth forth much fruit; for, "Out of his fulness we receive, and grace for grace." He is the foundation of our faith, as being not only the object thereof, but the Author and Finifher of faith.-He is the foundation of repentance, being exalted of God to give repentance, and all other graces that we need.-He is the foundation of our access to God; for," Thro' him, we have accefs, by one Spirit, unto the Father."-He is the foundation of our acceptance with God, in our perfons and duties; for, "We are accepted in the Beloved." Accepted in him, you will fay; that is, for his fake: there is more than that in it; he being our head, and believers the members of his body, and he having performed perfect bedience, and given complete fatisfaction, the Head having done it, the whole body is accepted as having done it; and fo we are accepted in him; his doing it is ours.

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He is the foundation of our bold approaches to the throne of grace, with holy confidence: "We have boldness to enter in to the holieft by the blood of Jefus, by a new and living way that is confecrated thro' the vail of his flesh." He is the foundation of our victory over all enemies, over all adverfaries, and adverfities; for, "We are more than conquerors, thro' him that loved us.” He is the foundation of our whole falvation, and of all our happiness and holiness; for," We are complete in him, in whom dwelleth all the fulnefs of the Godhead."-He is the foundation of our refurrection to glory; for, it is he that fhall change our vile b dies, and fashion them like to his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to fubdue all things to himfelf." He is the foundation of the eternal happiness of foul and body in the beatific vifion; for, "When he fhall appear, we fhall be like him; for we fhall fee him as he is: and fo fhall we ever be with the Lord."-In a word, he is the foundation of our union to himfelf, being the efficient caufe thereof; for, "I, if I be lifted up, fays Chrift, will draw all men after me." And thus he is the foundation of our ALL; for, fays the apoftle, "Chrift is all in all."

building a temple for God: "The Spirit, when he is come, he reproves the world of fin, of unbelief, and enmity against God." If ever then God hath begun the good work towards laying the foundation, he hath discovered to you the rubbish of a natural ftate, and awakened your confciences with a fight and sense of fin. Indeed the confcience is naturally feared as with a hot iron; like thefe that have a part of their fleth burnt with an iron, though at be touched yet they do not feel this hard fkin muft be pinched; and therefore God makes the knite of conviction go to the quick; makes the man fee that he is a rebel against God, a Babel-builder; and that therefore there is a ftanding quarrel between God and him, and that this must be removed before he can be a temple for God; because he finds that the old building, the old flate of nature that he is into, is but a Babel of confufion and enmity against God.

2. The Spirit of the Lord, in order to the laying the foundation of the fpiritual temple, wounds the heart in a work of compunction; he fills the foul with grief and forrow for fin, whereby he hath been pleafing the devil, difhonouring God, and building a temple for his idols, and lufts, faying, "Wo is me, that my heart hath been "a temple for Satan, a cage of unclean birds, a nest "of abominations." Indeed men may grieve at fin at firft, as it brings on afflictions here, or damnation herealter. But in this work afterwards, the Lord creates another kind of forrow; for, he difcovers to the man the finfulness of fin, that it is a tranfgreflion of the law of God: an oppofition to the nature of God; a fpitting in the face of God. O but this looks well in David, "Again thee, thee only have I finned." What! did he not fin againft others, when he committed murder and adultery? Yea, true indeed: Oh! fays David, I fee my fin, to be against thee, and against thee only. The affront lands upon God; he is difhonoured, and the heart that fhould be his temple is defiled.

3. The Spirit of the Lord, in order to laying the founidation of the fpiritual temple, abafes the foul in a work of humiliation. He humbles the foul of the finner under God's almighty hand, because he had been fo long B 4

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