Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.3

SEEM. II.1 GOt'S ELECTION Or MEN IN JESUS CHRIST. a woman ;" Gal. iv. 4. and to be " made in the likeness of sinful flesh;" Rom. viii. 3. and in the fashion of a man, that he might be bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and-become a proper head for such members as we are ; Eph. v. 30: and that he might be our brother, and kinsman, who should have a right to redeem our lost in- heritance. " He who was in the form of God, consented- to take upon him the form of a servant;" Phil. ii. 7. and passed through a.' life of various labour, reproach, and suffering, as well as performed the duties of the moral and ceremonial law, not only that he might become apat- tern to us, of patience and universal holiness, but that he might do all the will of God, and fulfil the righteous- ness of that law which mankind had broken. Ps. xl. 7, 8. He undertook also to become a preacher of righ- teousness and of grace, and to explain the law of God, and proclaim the gospel of salvation among men ; Ps. xl. 9. Is. lxi. 1. And besides all this, he consented to take upon him the sins of men, that is; by wayof imputation, as a sacrifice, . to bear our sins in his body, on the cursed tree, to be made a sin-offering for us; and to expose himself to pain- ful sufferings, and a bloody death on that account, that he might make a proper atonement for sin ; 2 Gor. v. 21. 1 Pet. ii. 24. IIeb. x. 5-7-12. Rom. iii. 25. " The good Shepherd came to lay dóvn his life for his sheep ;" John. x. 15. And in John xiv. 16. -when he was about to leave this world, he promised to intercede or pray for them. And when the Father should exalt him to the kingdom; and put all power into his hand, heengaged to call them byhis word, to bestow on them repentance, and forgive- ness, to send down the sanctifying Spirit upon them, and in general to rescue them from everyevil ; to bear them through all the difficulties and dangers of life, and to convey them safe to the possession of the appointed in- heritance. It would not be possible, in this short dis- course, to cite at large all the scriptures that reveal and support these truths. Whatsoever our blessed Saviour performed in the execution of his mediatorial offide, we Mayjustly suppose it was an article and agreement in that original covenant made betwixt him and his Father : And in many of the instances which I have mentioned the

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