ry to Satan, in which they naturally are, and implant lafting principles of holiness and love to him, by which their hearts are purified, and unite themselves to him, with the most perfect bond and union of love and friendfhip. This is another pledge of his great, everlasting and unchangeable love to them. And the faints in this world, fo far as they have the evidence that they are the fubjects of fuch a work of grace, may well rejoice, and with unspeakably fweet delight give praife "unto him that has loved them, and washed them from their fins in his own blood," What wonderful, fovereign love and grace is this, which overtakes and falls. upon the guilty, finful wretch, while in his full career to hell, running on in the moft daring, mad oppofition to Chrift, and contempt of him, without the leaft difpofition to hearken to the voice of wifdom, and turn at his reproof! Every true Chriftian afcribes all this to Chrift, and is fo affected with his preventing, fovereign love and grace, herein exercifed and manifefted, as to tafte an unfpeakable sweetness in it. With what fweet delight does he often fay, "If I have the leaft degree of love to Chrift, and a heart to know, fubmit to and truft in him, this is the effect of his eternal preventing, fovereign love and grace, which alone has made the difference between me and those who run on in their mad courfe to hell! Not unto me, not unto me, but to thy wonderful, diftinguishing love and grace, be all the glo

ry!"

It may be alfo obferved here, that Chrift has given them his Spirit, by which they are fealed to the day of redemption, and as the pledge and earneft of their eternal inheritance, fo a pledge and token of his unchangeable, everlafting love to them. He has indeed given himself, and all things, to them; he has made them heirs of the whole univerfe. He has made and is doing. all things for their fakes. He fays to his church of redeemed ones, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Ifrael, thy Saviour; I gave Egypt for thy ranfom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou waft pre

cious in my fight, thou haft been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." (Ifa. xliii. 3, 4.) Surely Chrift fhews the greatest love imaginable to his people, fince he gives them all he has to give, and withholds no good thing from them. Now the more love he has to his people, and the higher and more clear evidence he gives of it, fo much the more excellent and valuable friend he is to them; and their happiness in him as a friend will be in proportion to this. How infinitely distinguished, in this refpect, is Chrift from all other friends! Well may the Chriftian fay, "This is my beloved, and this is MY FRIEND.

Sermon IV.

The fame Subject continued.

Cant. v. 16. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.

5. JEST

ESUS CHRIST, the Chriftian's friend, is a person of infinite dignity, worth and excellence. He has all this to the highest poffible perfection and extent, fo that no imagination can poffibly exceed it. This his true dignity, worth and excellence, in himself confidered, infinitely heightens his character and worth as a friend, and lays a foundation for the most sweet, exalted and grow. ing happiness in his love and friendship to all eternity. He who has no true worth and excellence cannot be justly valued and delighted in at all, as a friend, and there is no foundation for a happy friendship with fuch an one. Worth and excellence therefore comes into the effence of the character of a friend: and the more any one has of this, the more is he to be prized as a friend, and the greater happiness is to be enjoyed in his love

and

and friendship. A friend gives himself to his beloved; so that the more dignity, worth and excellence he has, the more he gives to the perfon he admits into union and friendship with him. Therefore the more worth and excellence any perfon has, the more we naturally, and juftly, prize his love and friendship, and the more fweetness and pleasure we have in it. We prize and delight in the love of another in proportion to our esteem of him, and the fenfe we have of his true excellence, dignity and worthinefs. How much better is it to us to be the objects of the love of fome dignified perfonage, who appears to us to have all the excellence and attracting charms of human nature, and to have him our friend, than to have the love and friendship of one who is in our eyes abfolutely worthlefs and contemptible! I need not therefore, yea, I cannot, fay of how much advantage the dignity and excellence of Christ is in this friendship, in this view. The higher the Chriftian rifes in his esteem of Chrift, the more he fees of his dignity and excellence, the more pleafed and delighted he will neceffarily be in being the object of his embraces and love. Surely then he had rather in this view be beloved by Chrift than by all the world befides; and nothing can fill his breaft with fuch overflowing delight as to be able to fay, This is my beloved, and this is my friend. And this lays a foundation for efteem and complacency, without which there can be no happy friendship; and the higher this rifes, the more happiness and enjoyment there is in a friend. Christ in this refpect is diftinguished from all other perfons in the universe, as the best friend, in union and love to whom there may be the highest happiness. We are in our

felves fo mean and low, and of fuch little worth, that we cannot enjoy friendship to the best advantage with thofe who are our equals. The more dignified and excellent our friend is, and the more diftinguifhed he is from us, and the more above us, in this refpect, the more happy fhall we neceffarily be in his love and friendship. In Chrift therefore believers have all that

can

can be defired in a friend, in this refpect. In him they have an inexhauftible fund for high and growing enjoyment; and, in a sense of his dignity and excellence, their ravifhed hearts will fwell with extatic delight, while they feel and say, “This is my beloved, and this is

MY FRIEND."

6. Jefus Chrift is the moft condefcending, familiar friend.

Where there is a great imparity in two friends, the one very high, honourable and worthy, and the other inean and low, it is inconfiftent with the moft fweet and happy friendship, unlefs he who is dignified and exalted, and is every way fo much fuperior to the other, knows how, and is difpofed, to exercife condefcenfion equal to his true dignity and worth, fo as to practife as great familiarity and intimacy with his friend who is fo much beneath him, as if he were his equal. But where this is the cafe, the great fuperiority of one to the other gives a great advantage to the friendfhip, and renders it more fweet and happy to the inferior; fo that the more worthy and exalted his friend is, the higher enjoyment he has in the friendship. This imparity in ftation and dignity is commonly in the way of the enjoyment of true friendship among men in this world; because the great and exalted know not how to condefcend and ftoop to the mean and low, in a manner and degree that is in fuch a cafe neceffary, but are difpofed to keep themselves at a distance.

But Chrift is in this respect the most excellent friend; for his condefcenfion and humility are equal to his high exaltation and dignity; and he admits his friends, however, mean, unworthy and defpicable they are in themfelves, to as great familiarity and intimacy, as if he were but their equal; fo that his fuperiority and digni ty give great advantage to the friendfhip, in this refpect.

And here it is of importance to obferve, that his incarnation, or union to the human nature, by which he is a real man, even Immanuel, God with us, is of infinite

advantage

advantage with refpect to this. God is infinitely the best friend; but it is impoffible he should communicate himfeif to creatures, and become their condefcending, familiar friend, in any other way, fo well, and to fo great advantage, as by uniting himself to their nature, fo as to become one of them. In this view, as well as on many other accounts, the incarnation of the Son of God is a moft wife and gracious contrivance, as it is adapted in the highest poffible degree to promote the happiness of creatures, especially of the redeemed, in the love and enjoyment of God. God hereby comes down to creatures in a way and manner fuited to their nature and capacity, and difcovers and communicates himself to them to the greateft poffible advantage; and there is a foundation laid for that condefcenfion to men, and intimate love and friendly familiarity between Christ and his people, which could not have been in any other way. The Most High God is become a man, a moft meek, humble, condescending man, able and difpofed to take his people into the most intimate union and familiarity; while this man has all the dignity and honour of divinity. Thus the man Chrift Jefus will eternally be the medium of a kind and degree of communication of the Deity to creatures, which could be in no other way, and which is every way adapted to raise them up and make them happy: and the redeemed have a moft condefcending, intimate friend in the person of Chrift, who is both God and man; who cannot be equalled by any other perfon in the univerfe; and in union and friendfhip with whom, they have the highest enjoyment and happiness.

The condefcenfion of Christ, as a moft tender, intimate and familiar friend, is truly wonderful, and has not, nor ever will have, any parallel in the universe. This he practifed in a manner and degree truly astonishing, towards his friends and difciples, when he was on earth. He condefcended to their weakness, and adapted himself in his inftructions to their low, childish way of conceiving of things, and meekly bore with their ftupidity

K