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electing them into this as its caufe: For thou loved me before the foundation of the world. So that here it may juftly be obferved by us, that God's grace towards us is beyond all our thoughts and conceptions, as it is manifefted in this wondrous act, in choosing our perfons in Chrift, and loving us with the fame love he does him. And this is the uttermoft of Chrift's will, and difcovers his boundless love unto us, that we, the elect, fhould be where he is to behold his glory: Father, I will, that those whom thou haft given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou haft given me: for thou lovedft me before the foundation of the world. Let us view and admire the unfearchable grace of Chrift. How is his grace towards us difcovered here! He loved us from before all time. His delights were with the fons of men from everlasting. When about to become incarnate, he uttered himself thus: Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, O God. When he had affumed our nature, he, as though all his delight was in fuffering for his people, fays, I lay down my life for the Sheep. And here it is, Father, I will, that they alfo whom thon haft given me be with me where I Christ is in heaven at his Father's right hand, and has the crown of pure gold upon his head. He is made most bleffed for ever, as Mediator; and where he is, his people are to be alfo, that they may behold his glory. His presence, a fight of him, and the enjoyment of him, conftitute the heaven of heavens in eternal glory. And here I end. May God the Holy Amen.

am.

Ghost bless the reading of it.

[91]

SERMON V.

MESSIAH'S FINISHED WORK.

DANIEL, Chap. ix. Ver. 24.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy boly city, to finish the tranfgreffion, and to make an end of fins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to feal up the vifion and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

IN

N this chapter, we have an account of the prophet Daniel, how he, being fenfibly affected with the defolation brought upon Jerufalem, and the temple, and upon the people of the Jews, on account of their fins and tranfgreffions, was thereby led to feck unto the Lord, by prayer and fupplications, with falling and fackcloth and afbes. He had, by reading and searching the prophecy of Jeremiah, and by feeking the face of God in prayer, been led by the Holy Ghoft to understand the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish feventy years in the defolations of Ferufalem. The propet Daniel, having been led to the understanding of this, humbles himself before the Lord, and ac

teoufnefs. Jefus Chrift was the great and grand fubject and end of all prophecy. To him gave all the prophets witnefs. They bore teftimony concerning him, as the Son of God-as one of the coeternal perfons in the Godhead, who had covenanted with his Father to be the furety of his people, and who was to become incarnate, and to be cut off by the fword of divine juftice for the fins of his people. They gave witness unto his fufferings and death, and spoke of the glory that fhould follow, as the confequence thereof; how, that the Meffiah being wounded for the tranfgreffions of his people, and having made his foul an offering for fin, he fhould be raised from the grave, and be exalted as Mediator at God's right hand; from whence he fhould fhed abroad abundantly the Holy Ghoft upon his apoftles, and render his gospel, and the preaching of it, effectual to the pulling down the ftrong holds of fin and Satan, and bringing his own people to the knowledge and acknowledgment of him. The prophets with one voice bear their teftimony, that through his most precious blood-fhedding, the pardon of fin would be obtained and bestowed, as the fruit of it; and, that through his name, whofoever believeth in him, fhould receive, as the gift of God's free grace, remiffion of fins. Indeed, the words of our text contain the fum and fubftance of the glad-tidings of the everlasting gofpel. And here we have firft, the time marked out for the Meffiah's coming. The Lord had been pleafed to promise to fend his people a Saviour, a great one, who fhould deliver them. He had made known by his fervant

Ifaiah, that Chrift should be born of a virgin, and that he should come from Jeffe's withered ftock; by the prophet Micah, that Bethlehem fhould be the place of his birth; and by the prophet Daniel, he is pleafed to declare the exact time of his coming. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city. By thefe feventy weeks, we are not to understand weeks of days, but weeks of years, and these feventy weeks make 490 years; during this space of time, the Jews, through the liberty given them by Cyrus, were to return unto their own land. They were now in Babylon, and God had foretold by the prophet Isaiah, that he would raise up Cyrus, whom he calls his fhepherd, Ifa. xliv. 28. who was to build the city of Jerufalem; that is, cause it to be builded, and be, fays JEHOVAH, fball let go my captives, (that is, the Jews, who were at that time captives in Babylon, and this was to be done freely) not for price, nor reward, faith the Lord of Hofis. And this prophecy concerning Cyrus, was given out, and he was prophefied of by name more than 200 years before his birth. The Jews were to return unto their own land, build the city and temple at Jerufalem; and from the going forth of the decree granted by Cyrus to do this, to the Meffiah's coming, was to be about the fpace of 490 years: : at which time Chrift was to affume man's nature, appear in the fecond temple as was prophefied of by Haggai, perform the great work of man's falvation, and fulfil all the types and prophecies concerning himself. We will next confider the great work which the Meffiah was to do, and this our text tells us was

to finish the tranfgreffion, to make an end of fins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteoufness. In the council of the Eternal Trinity, it was decreed and appointed that Meffiah fhould be cut off, but not for himfelf. And Jefus, who is JEHOVAH, and, in the Godhead, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, was graciously pleased to engage on the behalf of his people for their falvation. He who is the brightnefs of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth fubftantially, was pleased, in the fulness of time, to take hold of the nature of his people, and, by the affumption of it, to come into the world in order to fave his people from their fins. The Eternal Father prepared a body for him; the Holy Ghost formed it in the virgin's womb; Chrift, the Eternal Son of God, affumed it into personal union with his own perfon; and in our nature, which Chrift affumed, he was pleased to fulfil and perform all that was written concerning him. Behold this wonder of wonders! The great God, glorious in holiness: born of a finful virgin, born in the likeness of finful flefh, made under the law, and taking upon him to fulfil and perform the whole, and the utmost demands of it! Jefus Chrift, as to his human nature, was perfectly holy; and as our great high prieft, he was holiness unto the Lord. There was nothing in his heart but was perfectly agreeable to the law of God. And this divine Saviour and furety, who was God and man, in the person of one Chrift, was pleased to perform the following work-to finish the tranfgreffion. Now here

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