is neceffary for you upon earth, do not fit ftill upon the earth, but away again to your windows, and foar upward toward Chrift. "Set your affections upon things above, where Chrift is at the right-hand of God," &c. 6. Invite others to your windows where you have been entertained, and do what you can to recommend Chrift and his way and word and ordinances to them, "O taste and fee that the Lord is good," fays David, &c. 7. When the Lord has taken you from among the pots, and made you like the wings of a dove covered with the filver and yellow gold of his own Spirit and righteousness. O do not defile your feathers, do not tarnish and blacken your profeffion with the filth of fin. Do not lie down in the puddle with the men of this world: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let your light fo fhine before men, that they may fee your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 8. Let God's doves drink the pure and running water of the fanctuary, I mean, keep by the pure word, worship, and ordinances of his appointment, the river of divine truth, gofpel doctrine and worship, difpenfed in gofpel ordinances. Alas! the ftreams of thefe rivers do not make glad the city of God, at this day, through many corners of the land. Why, the waters are fouled with the feet of a fet of hirelings, intruders, and corrupt and lax minifters, that are forced in upon them; men that are unfkilful in the law, men that want the dove-like fpirit of Christ, and therefore are incapable of feeding God's doves. Let God's doves be aware of them that foul the waters of the fanctuary, that corrupt the doctrine, difcipline, worship, and government, which we in these lands are fworn to maintain and preferve in their purity, Philip. i. I. "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concifion," &c. ACTION ACTION SERMON. CHRIST SET UP FROM EVERLASTING. PROV. viii. 23.-I was fet up from everlasting, from the begin ning, or ever the earth was. TH HERE are fuch evident rays of the eternal and fupreme Deity of Chrift, as alfo of his perfonality and eflential oneness with the Father, in this paffage, as looks the Arians and Socinians, thefe blafphemers of the Son of God, quite out of countenance, and obliges them, though with great abfurdity, to alledge, that what is fpoken of and by Chrift in this chapter, and particularly froin ver. 22. to ver. 31. is to be understood of wildom as one of the attributes of the divine nature. But it is beyond controverfy, among all orthodox interpreters, that it is Chrift the fecond perfon of the glorious Trinity, under the notion of wifdom, that here fpeaks, as might be cleared from many perfonal properties, perfonal acts, and perfonal words, that are afcribed to him in this paffage of fcripture, which, for brevity's fake, I cannot infift up on at this time. The penman of this book was Solomon," But behold a greater than Solomon is here," even Chrift, "the wisdom of God, and the power of God, in whom all the treasures of wifdom and knowledge are hid." As Solomon had all his wifdom out of this treafure; fo being under the conduct of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, is led, as a type, to speak in the perfon of his glorious anti-type, as his father David doth frequently in the book of the Pfalms, particularly in Pfal. xvi. and Pfal. xl. 1-22. Chrift recommends his dictates in the word unto the children of men, and fhews what advantage will accrue to them by the ftudy of the fcriptures; agreeable unto what he fays, John v. 39. "Search the fcriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." From the 22d verse unto the 31st, in order to engage our faith and trust in him, he eigantly deferibes the glory of his perfon, that fo we beholding as in a glafs, his glory, may be changed into his image. More par ticularly, ticularly, (1.) He fhews how, from all eternity, he lodged in his Father's arms and bofom, as his beloved Son, in whom he was, and is well pleafed, ver. 22. "The Lord poffeffed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." (2.) He (peaks of his eternal defignation unto the great work and fervice of our redemption," in the words of my text, I was fet up from everlafting, &c. Where we may notice, 1. The divine perfon, who is the fpeaker, in the pronoun, (1) I the eternal Son of God, the glorious Immanuel, the faithful and true Witnefs. I who am God co-equal with the Father; and who fat as a conftituent member of the council of peace, anent the great affair of man's redemption, and therefore cannot but be well acquainted with what was transacted there. 2. The refult of that eternal tranfaction declared with relation to himself, I was fet up, i. e. I was, by an act of the divine will, common to all the three perfons of the glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, elected, fet a-part, or fore-ordained to the great fervice of man's redemption. A word parallel unto this, and which cafts a light upon the text, you have, Pfal. ii. 7. "Where Chrift, fpeaking of himself, fays, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath faid unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." This is called the Father's will, Pfal. xl. 7. 8. " Lo! I come, in the volume of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do thy will." 3. In the words we have the date of the divine council and decree, with relation to our Redeemer, or when he was fet up for that fervice. It bears date from the ancient years of eternity, I was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere ever the earth was. Here are words that fwallow up all finite thought and confideration, it leads us back to an eternity past, and who could ever have told us what was acted in the divine mind and council from all eternity, but he only who is the Alpha, and the Omega, from everlafting to everlafting, God. He was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere ever the So much for explaining the words. earth was. DocT. "That as Chrift is the everlasting God; fo, from all eternity, he was fore-ordained and fet up for the great fervice of man's redemption. I was fet up from everlafting, &c. To this purpofe is that of the apoftle, 1 Pet. i. 20. "He was verily fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifeft in thefe laft times." The The method, through divine affiftance, I fhall observe, is as follows. I. To prove that Chrift is the everlasting God, and that he was from the beginning, ere ever the earth was. II. Shew what is imported in his being fet up from everlast ing. III. For what ends and purposes was he fet up. IV. Why he, and none else, was fet up for this end. I. The first thing is to prove, That Chrift is the everlasting God, and that he was from the beginning, ere ever the earth was. The Socinians affirm, That he had no being before his actual incarnation. And the Arians, Though they allow that he had a being before his incarnation; yet they deny his eternal existence, and confequently make him but a nominal deity, and reduce him among the rank of created beings. Now, in oppofition to both these damnable herefies, I shall endeavour to trace a little, the fcriptural account of the eternal existence of the Son of God, our glorious Redeemer. And firft, that he exifted before his incarnation, or his be ing born of the virgin, is evident from the appearance he made to our first parents in paradife, after the fall, Gen. iii. 15 It viz. the feed of the woman, fhall bruife thy head, viz. the ferpent's, explained by the apostle, Heb. ii. 14. That this was God in the perfon of the Son, intimating his future incarnation, and the defign thereof is evident, for God abfolutely confidered, is not a promifing but an avenging God, a confuming fire unto the workers of iniquity. And all the pronifes in him are yea and amen. It is only the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and none elfe, that opened the book of the divine council anent our redemption. And therefore it was he, and none elfe, that broke up this feal, and disclosed this fecret unto our first parents in paradife. In like manner, it was he that preached the gofpel to Abraham, faying, "In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed," as is clear from Gal. iii. 8. We find him executing his threefold mediatorial offices, before ever he came in the flesh: We find him, as a prophet, preaching righteoufnefs unto the great congregation, Pfal. xl. 9. "I have preached righteoufnefs in the great congregation: Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowell!" And by his fpirit in Noah he preached to the old world, who, becaufe of their difobedience, were fhut up in the prifon of hell; as we fee in 1 Pet. iii. 18-20. We find him ading as the the great Prieft of his church, octore his actual appearance in the flesh, Pfal. cx 4. "The Lord hath fworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchifedeck," and his royal and kingly office is afferted by God the Father, before ever he appeared in the flesh, Pfal. ii. "Yet have I fet my King upon my holy hill of Zion :" I have done it; it is not a thing to do, but it is done already; I have set him King, &c. And he speaks to him as a perfon actually exifting: "Afk of me, and I fhall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy poffeflion." Thus you fee him executing all his offices before he was incarnate, But I need not stand upon this point, in oppofition to the Socinians, feeing we have it froin Chrift's own mouth, who is the faithful witness, John viii. 58. fays he there to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am," alluding probably unto that fame name he took to himself, when he appeared unto Mofes in the bush, and fent him to bring Ifrael out of Egypt: Go (fays he), and tell them, "I AM hath fent me unto you," Exod. iii. 14.; a name equivalent, unto the name JEHOVAH, which fignifies past, prefent, and to come, and distinguishes him from all the dunghill deities of the nations. But then, fecondly, let us go back further, even to the creation of the world, and we thall find his existence and agency, in the production of all created beings, John i. 2. 3. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The fame was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." He must needs be the everlasting God, who is the Creator of all the ends of the earth. Gen. i. 1. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth;" hence, Pfal. cii. 25. "Of old haft thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands," &c. Which words are applied unto Christ, Heb. i. 10-12. “Thou, Lord, in the beginning, haft laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They fhall perish, but thou remaineft: and they all fhall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they ihall be changed: But thou art the fame, and thy years fhall not fail." Again, thirdly, Let us run up to the endless ages before the creation of the world, and we find him existing or ever the earth was, John xvii. 5. He prayeth that he might be glorified with his Father, with the fame glory that he had with him before the foundation of the world. Hence he is Vot. III. 3 D |