remember is evil likewise transient. If fortunes are ruined, and health fails, and death spares not the loveliest, nor the strongest, nor those most dear, nor those most needful for our happiness—if families are broken up, and hearths are made desolate, there are other things too as fleeting. Earthly grandeur-the oppression of the proud the licentiousness of wealth-the tears of the friendlessthe pining of the destitute-the scorn poured upon the sacred name of Jesus Christ-the odious rebellion of worms against their Maker cannot last, shall not last for ever; they shall cease one day under the immutable power of GOD; and even as the loathsome reptiles and the savage beasts were caught by the Deluge in their deepest caverns, or pursued to their loftiest hills, they shall sink too for ever, leaving the church of Christ to pursue its glorious and solitary way through eternity, when every earthly wreck shall have disappeared for ever. Yes, the immutability of Jesus Christ secures to his people an immortality of blessing. To say it secures their immortality is to rob the precious truth of half its glory. What is the good which this truth does not secure? What then is it, I ask finally, to die. It is a triumph over the body, but it cannot touch the soul; and that poor triumph is but for a moment only, for the body even shall awaken more glorious at the appointed hour. "It was sown in corruption; it shall be raised in incorruption-it was sown in weakness; it shall be raised in power-it was sown in dishonour; it shall be raised in glory-it was sown a natural body; it shall be raised a spiritual body." 'O death, where is thy sting? Death is swallowed up in victory." And with such prospects, dearly beloved brethren," be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain." Amen. 66 AT JOHN-STREET CHAPEL, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, 1832. [Price 3d. Hebrews xii. 24.---“ Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.” on his obedience. He needed no WHAT glorious discoveries of Divine | made to turn on his disobedience, or Wisdom are made in every part of God's word! The more we look into it, the more do we discern its beauties; the more we read it with a spiritual eye, the more do we remark its glory, and the more do we see objects still further beyond in the distance, that our eyes have only glanced at, and scarcely beheld at all. We seem like a traveller ascending some stupendous mountain, valleys, and plains, and rivers, seem all at his feet; and yet, as he mounteth higher still, he seeth other valleys, other hills, other plains, other forests, still beyond, in the distant horizon. Thus is unfolded the varied wisdom of GOD. If we look into the Covenant of Works, we see in that covenant manifest tokens of God's wisdom. There was an infinite propriety that man should be made pure and spotless that he should stand forth as the head of creation, and that in that state he should be left alone, dependent only on Him that created him; and that having, as it were, the whole perfection of human nature in him, the happiness of the whole world should be VOL. V. | surety, for he was quite adequate to all that was placed upon him-he needed no mediator, because there was no separation between him and GOD; and therefore, when he fell, there was a wisdom in it that the whole world should fall in him; and as there was no adequate object, on account of which he sinned, so there was a wisdom in his being left in himself, without remedy; and that, if there were any remedy provided, it should emanate forth from the mere free grace, and undeserved and unmerited bounty, of the GoD of heaven. If we look into the Legal Covenant, it was also a display of the varied wisdom of GOD. Man, now fallen, in misery, wretchedness, and sin-apart from GOD, and far from GOD-wanted some mediator to bring him nigh; and Moses was, typically, that mediator to him. But he wanted more than this; he wanted a sacrifice to atone for his sin; he wanted a purification from the pollution of sin; and all this was gloriously unfolded in that legal covenant-by that variety H In discoursing on these words, I would First of all, endeavour to point out, THE NECESSITY OF MEDIATION, OR WHENCE IT WAS NEEDFUL THERP Secondly, I would endeavour to DEAR LORD TO FULFIL OR TO SUSTAIN And, Thirdly, I would endeavour to show, THE BLESSINGS THAT RESULT TO THE CHURCH IN CONSEQUENCE OF MANUEl. of sacrifices and purifications which typified, in a way suited to the infant state of the church, by pictures and shadows, and representations, that Gospel which was to be brought to light when our Lord came into the world. But although there was a mediator in that covenant, there was no surety in it; though there was the channel of communication, yet there was no one to undertake to do all for, and all in, the Lord's covenant people. This was left to be the glory of the New Covenant-the Covenant of Grace -the Gospel Covenant; and in that covenant Jesus is not only the Mediator, but the Surety—the Surety | Mediator. He stands between the two parties, and undertakes the whole on behalf of his church and people; WAS NECESSARY THAT THERE SHOULD he is that middle man that puts his hands upon both, and in whose hands all blessings are deposited. Hence, the mediation of Christ is the very glory of the Gospel; for every covenant blessing comes through this channel: it stands as the foundation of the whole building. If we touch it, and deface it, and defile it, the Gospel is touched, the Gospel is defaced, the Gospel is defiled; but if the mediation of Christ be undermined, then the whole of the Gospel is one ruin. It is in that point of view that I have chosen my text this morning; and I do humbly pray that God will keep me, and preserve me from uttering aught that may display my own spirit-my own weakness and folly; that he may guide me to use words of sober discretion, weight, and power, and give them due access to your consciences; that he may lay it on your hearts that you may be enabled to see its vast importance, and to lose sight for a time, of the consolation arising from the subject, and regard it, in its vast consequences, as so indissolubly connected with the whole fabric of the Gospel of Christ. Now, on the First point, THE NE CESSITY OF THE MEDIATION, OR WHY IT BE A MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND POOR SINNERS. And this springeth out from that state of separation between GOD and the sinner; for if there were no separation between GOD and the sinner, there could be no need of mediation; the very idea of mediation implying previous separation. The cause of separation, we are told clearly in God's word, is sin. If you turn to the prophet Isaiah, you find the Holy Ghost declaring this, in the fifty-ninth chapter and the second verse—“Your iniquities have separated between you and your GOD, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." And if you refer to the prophet Zechariah, in the thirteenth chapter and the first verse, you read-"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin, and for uncleanness;" in the margin, it is "for separation, for uncleanness." For as uncleanness, in the legal dispensation, produced separation from the worship of God from the rest of the people, it was typical of that real separation which is the effect of sin between the soul and GOD. This separation is of a two-fold character; it exists on the part of Gop towards man, and on the part of man towards GOD. There is in sin that which separates GOD from man, because sin is an act of rebellion | against GOD; and if God loves his own law, he must hate that which hateth his own law. Sin is rebellion, I say, against God; it is not that trifle which the world considers it, but it is an act of real rebellion against the majesty of GOD. If he loveth his own law, then, he must hate that which is rebellion against his own law. Sin is an act of enmity against GOD himself, and if GOD loveth himself, and the Divine Being cannot but love himself, for this is Jesus' glory that he should love himself for his own sake; then he cannot but hate that which is enmity, and displayeth enmity against himself; for “the carnal mind is real enmity against God." Nay, more than this, sin aims at the very being of GOD; and if GOD be GOD, he must hate that which aims at his own existence. For what is the sinner's true language? Not only that he hates the strictness of the law, but that he hateth that GOD who enacts it; and that he would, if he could, destroy the very being of that GOD whose law it is. If this be true, GOD must hate sin by the very perfection of his being; and although mercy would pardon, there is a barrier between mercy and the sinner; and that mercy cannot show itself towards the sinner, according to its own acting, as long as this barrier exists. But there is also a separation on the part of the sinner towards GOD. This is on account of sin; his mind is alienated from the life of GOD, through the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of his heart; his mind is enmity against GOD; he does not know God; he has no perception of God; he lives afar off from GOD; he does not know the way to GOD, he does not know that language that GOD loveth-the language of a broken and of a contrite spirit, which is as sweet music to the ear of GOD, being the fruit of his blessed Spirit in the souls of men. Neither does the natural man know how to walk and please GoD; in fact then, he is in a state of awful separation from the eternal majesty of heaven. Here, then, we see, that if there were no mediator to break through this barrier, the barrier is insuperable. The perfections of GOD form this separation on the one hand, and human imperfections, human depravity form the separation on the other hand. I am aware the question is oftentimes asked-how comes it to pass that God does not forgive freely, absolutely, without any satisfaction? -the answer is, because he is God. For, where would be his holinesswhere would be his justice-where would be his faithfulness-where would be his unchangeableness,—did GOD trample on the purity of his own law, to make way for his own mercy? Is this consistent with God's greatness, that he should trample on all his other perfections, and pass sentence of condemnation on his own law to make way for the display of his mercy? Consider this, if there does exist this feeling in the mind of any. Turn to the Epistle of Paul to Timothy, and there read in the second epistle, the second chapter, and the thirteenth verse,-not only that GoD will not deny himself, but that he cannot deny himself. Man can act below his nature below himself; he can live as a beast that perisheth, and die as a beast, he can deny himself; but GOD cannot deny himself, he must always act as GOD. And see how the connexion in this verse points us to this truth, that when God is approval to it in many ways. There were the angels sent to greet our Lord's birth-there was the descent of the Holy Ghost at the time of our Lord's baptism-there was his resurrection from the dead-there was the cost; and every conversion that taketh place in this world, is a new declaration, on the part of God, "I am satisfied with the mediation of Christ," am well pleased." It forms a new proof-a new demonstration, that the Father is infinitely satisfied with the mediation of his Son. The approval taketh place, on the part of the sinner, when the Holy Ghost worketh faith said not to deny himself, he cannot deny his own faithfulness. His own faithfulness, then, is himself; for what is God's own self but GOD's own perfections? And is not justice a perfection of GOD?-is not holiness a perfection of GOD?-is not un-out-pouring of the Spirit at Pentechangeableness a perfection of GOD? See then, ye thoughtless men and women, that live at ease-that live in your sins-that live with the secret thought, "Well, perhaps, after all I" This is my beloved Son, in whom I may enter the mansions of eternal blessedness, for GOD may in my case | mercifully pardon my sin,-he may in my case mercifully forgive my iniquity, he may mercifully pass over my transgressions and remember them no more,”—and yet thou walk-in him, when he welcometh Christ as est not in God's own appointed way, by which alone he can be the just GOD and the Saviour. Remember then, if mercy would absolutely pardon, justice must strictly punish, and till these two are perfectly reconciled, till justice is as much magnified as mercy is satisfied, there cannot be one sinner saved. Now, without a mediator this is impossible. Hence, we see the importance of that truththe mediation of Christ-and how it bears on the whole subject, matter of a sinner's salvation. But observe, Secondly, WHAT FORM THE REQUISITES of a perfect MEDIA TOR. On the first of these I shall be very brief. The first requisite is, that he should be accepted by both parties; for if he be not accepted by both, how can he mediate between both? If I reject mediation, that mediation can profit me nothing. Mediation implies, in the very nature of things, the consent of both parties to that mediation. On this point I shall not detain you long, because it is not my immediate object to prove it, there being no one, I suppose, here present, who denies it. The Father has given his direct the mediator between God and man, when he is brought from his many mediators, his many refuges of lies— from those coverts that the snow must destroy, and the hail must lay prostrate with the dust-when he is brought as a poor sinner, not only to see that Christ is the mediator, but to welcome that mediation to his soul. Here is the sinner's consent, here is the sinner's approbation,-here is the sinner's welcome of Christ to be the mediator between God and himself. But the second requisite of a perfect mediator I would lay more stress upon, and that is, that the mediator must partake of the nature of both those parties between whom he mediates. If you turn to the book of Job, the ninth chapter, and the thirtysecond verse, you will see what a day's-man must do,--" Neither is there any day's-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both." The office, then, of a mediator between two parties, is that of laying his hands upon both, to bring both nigh to each other. He must be one, then, who can do it; and, in order to do it, if these two parties be God and man, |