quirements of the law, and sufficiently able to satisfy all the demands of infinite justice. The Son of God gave evidence of the immutability of his love in undertaking the cause of his people, though he had a perfect and intuitive knowledge of all their sinfulness and guilt in their low and fallen state. The Holy Ghost fully proved the continuance of his love to the elect, as foreviewed in their fallen and sinful circumstances, in his becoming a witness of the great covenant-transaction betwixt the Father and the Son, in engaging as the notary of it in the sacred word of inspiration, and, in exercising himself agreeably to the economy of the covenant, by performing his part and office in it, as the Lord and giver of spiritual life to the elect. He was to be to each and every one of them the breath of spiritual life. He was to breathe within them and upon them, and raise them from a death of sin unto a life of righteousness. Thus God, as the God of all grace, was pleased to act, and hereby prove the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Grace shone forth in its highest glory in election, triumphed most gloriously in the everlasting covenant, and nothing but mercy and compassion to the elect flowed from it. The Father said, "Whom shall I "send, and who will go for us?" When the Son with all the love of Godhead in his heart most freely replied, "Here am "I, send me." From this covenant of the Holy Trinity springs forth everlasting mercy. Hence the Psalmist says, "The mercy of the Lord is from "everlasting to everlasting." Thus "God was in Christ reconciling the "world unto himself, not imputing their 166 86 trespasses unto them"." O what an unfathomable fountain, spring, yea, OCEAN OF LOVE must there be in God towards his people! It is so immensely great, that the glorious Mediator breaks forth, saying, "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto "thee; if I would declare and speak of "them they are more than can be num"bered". Christ, the head of the elect body, having been admitted into all the secrets of the Father's love and purposes of mercy, thus speaks: and what he has here uttered by the mouth of the Psalmist perfectly agrees with what he himself exprefsed when incarnate on earth, as appears from the record of John the evangelist, "God so loved the "world, that he gave his only begotten s Isaiah vi. 8. t Psalm ciii. 17. v Psalm xl. 5. 66 "Son"." According to the stipulations of the Three in Jehovah, Jesus was, as the surety of his church and people, in the fulness of time, to substitute his person in their law-place, room, and stead, bear their sins in his own body, -become a sacrifice for them, and sustain the fire of divine wrath. In consequence of which, he was "To see his seed, the travail of his soul; and the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in "his hand." Which was so vast a discovery of everlasting love in the open manifestative exprefsions of it towards the elect in their fallen, guilty, and sinful circumstances, as might well induce the Almighty Surety to break forth saying, "How precious also are 66 66 thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should "count them, they are more in number "than the sand: when I awake, I am "still with thee;" i. e. I am where I was. I have made no further progrefs; so infinite is thy love! It is in its own nature and perfections incomprehensible, -sufficient to engage thine own eternal mind, and fill it with unutterable satisfaction, arising from thine own intuitive knowledge of it and the complacency which thou takest in the objects of thine w Chap. iii. 16. * Isaiah liii. 10. y Psalm cxxxix. 17, 18. eternal choice, to whom it is the free good pleasure of thy will to exprefs it, and communicate all the spiritual and everlasting blefsings of it. Thus the God-man, who was admitted to the full knowledge of the Father's love to him as the head, and to the elect, as members in him their head, in the contemplative view of the precious thoughts, counsel, and covenant of the divine persons in the Godhead, may be conceived of as exprefsing his admiration thereat. This title, The God of all grace, which we find consecrated for our use by the apostle, is vastly exprefsive of the grace of the eternal Three in their joint acts, purposes, and designs of mercy towards the elect in their sinful circumstances. The elect are styled vefsels of mercy, on whom and in whom were to be made known the riches of Jehovah's mercy. The covenant of the Trinity was contrived on purpose for shewing mercy to the lost and guilty. The Eternal Three in the economy of salvation act according to their distinct personality in the self existing efsence. The Father acts from himself. The Son acts from the Father. And the Holy Ghost acts from the Father and the Son. "Then answered Jesus and said "unto them, verily, verily, I say unto z 1 Pet. v. 10. a Rom. ix. 23. you, the Son can do nothing of him self, but what he seeth the Father do: "for what things soever he doeth, these "also doeth the Son likewise. For the "Father loveth the Son, and sheweth "him all things that himself doeth"." The Spirit works from the Father and the Son, as appears from our Lord's own words, "When the comforter is 66 come, whom I will send unto you from "the Father, even the spirit of truth, "which proceedeth from the Father, he "shall testify of me." This is fully revealed in the word of inspiration. The testimony of Jesus, or the Spirit of Jesus, is the testimony of prophecy d In the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the origin of reconciliation and salvation is attributed to the Father. In the former we read of the Father saying, "I will save them by the "Lord their God." In the latter we read, "God hath according to his pro"mise raised up unto Israel a Saviour, "Jesus." The most precious and adorable Mediator loved his people as his own members and children. The origin, spring, and cause of our Lord's love to them was this. The Father had given them unto him as a choice exprefsion of b John v. 19, 20. d Rev. xix. 10. ! Acts xiii. 23. c John xv. 26. e Hosea i. 7. |