them, are seen joining in the righteous decision. Equity represents the perfect consistency of suffering man to die, in the natural consequences of voluntary sin: holiness suggests the impossibility of permitting pollution to enter God's presence: justice pleads the danger of suffering a broken law to remain unvindicated; and love, and pity, and benevolence, prevented by the awful difficulties of deliverance, open no plea in its fa

vour.

If, however, a plan could be devised, for consistent deliverance-if a person could be found competent to carry it into effect, man might yet be saved. All these holy attributes would heartily rejoice in such a plan, and the Deity be glorified by its develop

ment.

This part of the glorious transaction was reserved for the SoN. He was competent to it; for he possessed the characteristics of both the parties, and could therefore be an interpreter and one of a thousand between them. He had a right to dispose of his services, being under no law, as a creature. He was willing as he was able to save; and he cried, "Lo I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God."

As this is supposed, at present, to relate rather to the interposition of a mediator, at the fall, than to the covenant of eternity, the speech of the Son may be thus paraphrazed: "Behold me, Father; here I stand, the advocate of that fallen world: Is it not remembered, that in the visions of eternity, when we looked down on man, as lying in this condition, I undertook to be his surety? Is it not written in the volume of the heavenly records, that I should appear to do this service? Gladly I now obey the decree! I stand for yonder wretched world: I bear their load I engage for their duty : I will satisfy for their guilt they are mine, and shall be, by every sacrifice it may cost me! I am ready, even now, if need be, to assume their nature. I will begin their deliverance: I will enlighten them, govern them, die for them, and sanctify them, that all thy attributes may be sacred, and heaven not polluted by their admission. Remember the covenant, gracious Father; this fallen world is mine, and must be spared for mercy.--And now, that it is consistent to do so, behold their wretchedness, Father, and let it move thee to pity. Look at this poor diseased sinner: "his flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; his bones stick out, yea, his soul draw

eth near to death, and his life to the destroyers:" lover and friend he has none; his companions are helpless as himself, and none from above is permitted to pity him. Is there then no balm in Gilead? is there no physician? Father, shall not I undertake this kindly office? shall I not bind up man's wounds, and rebuke his sore diseases? Friend of the friendless-helper of the helpless and despairing-where shall man go for mercy, but to Thee? Wilt thou not pity the creature whom thou hast made? wilt thou not, for my sake, permit his release from death ?"

The Father can resist it no longer : he has presided as Judge and Governor in this scene, until the means of deliverance have been made manifest, and his part of declaring the decision is fully prepared; and he now cries, with all the mercies of the melting father beaming in his countenance, Yes: I will spare them-I can, I do-I delight to spare them: "Deliver them from going down to the pit I have found a ransom. Be it proclaimed in the high armies of heaven, that this is in virtue of an eternal contract with my Son. Be it remembered, that I here take him "for a covenant to the people," in all things necessary for their redemption" he shall magnify the law and make it hon

ourable :" "he shall pour out his soul an offering for sin :"" he shall see his seed:" "they shall be willing in the day of his power"— " in the beauty of holiness," and as numerous as the dew from the womb of the morning. This day, therefore, I proclaim him my beloved Son, and set him upon my holy hill of Zion. "And he shall reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet :" "He shall judge the world :" "he shall gather his elect from the four corners of heaven, with a great sound of a trumpet:" He shall confirm them in glory," an innumerable multitude, which no man can number;" and "then cometh the end ;"" the Son himself shall deliver up this kingdom, and God be all in all."

We have thus alluded to the parties in this covenant, and, in conformity with the allegorical description of our text, to the transaction itself, so far as relates to the first visible dispensation of it in the rescue of fallen man. We may soberly assure ourselves, moreover, that there is reality in all this representation. There was an interposition for fallen man very near the time of his rebellion. In allusion to this, the interposing person is called a mediator, a day's man, and an advocate with the Father; and in virtue of

this, the first evangelical promise was given, and sacrifices instituted for a still more instructive memento. The declarative part of this covenant, in the latter clause of our text, we have contemplated.

III. Let us now look AT SOME OF ITS CONSE QUENCES.

And we have, first, this benefit, that the curse which had been pronounced upon fallen man, was, in consequence of this interposition, suspended from execution.

If we have any due conception of the offensive nature of sin; if we consider, for a moment, how it must have appeared to God in this beginning of its dreadful career—or if we look only at the solemn pledge which had been given, that in the day of his rebellion, man should surely die, we shall be convinced that the world could have been spared, after the fall, only in virtue of some meritorious interposition. It lay at that dreadful moment fully obnoxious to the curse, and nothing else could have saved it. Every token of favour and indulgence must have been instantly withdrawn, and all vestiges of former goodliness in the works of God's hands must have vanished. The world is then left an unmitigated scene of all that is vile, and hateful, and wretched, and man instantly begins his ever