Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

2. When he was forty days old, he was brought to Jerusalem, and presented to the Lord; as it is written in the Law of the Lord, every Male that openeth the womb shall be called Holy to the Lord. O wonder! there was no impurity in the Son of God, and yet he is first circumcised, and then he is brought and offered to the Lord;¹ he that came to be sin for us, would in our Persons be legally unclean, that by satisfying the Law, he might take away our uncleanness; he that was above the Law, would come under the Law, that he might free us from the Law; we are all born sinners; but O the unspeakable Mercy of our Jesus, that provides a remedy as early as our sin: first, he is conceived, and then he is born, to sanctify our Conceptions and our Births; and after his Birth, he is first Circumcised, and then he is presented to the Lord; that by two holy acts, that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God: Christ hath not left our very Infancy without redress, but by himself, thus offered, he cleanseth us presently from our filthiness.—Now is Christ brought in his Mothers Arms to his own House, the Temple; and as Man, he is presented to himself, as God. O how Glorious did that Temple seem, now the Owner was within the walls of it! Now was the Hour, and Guest come, in regard whereof the second Temple should surpass the first; this was the House built for him, and dedicated to him; there had he dwelt long in his Typical presence, nothing was done there whereby he was not resembled; and now the body of these shadows is come, and presents himself, where he had ever been represented. You will say, what is this to me, or to my Soul? O yes! Jerusalem is now every where; there is no Church-Assembly, no Christian heart which is not a Temple of the Living God; and there is no Temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to his Father: Thus we have the benefit of Christ's fulfilling the Law of Righteousness; God sent his Son, made of a Woman, made under the Law, that he might redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons. ²It is, as if the Father should have said to Christ, Come my dear Son, here are certain Malefactors under the Law, to suffer and to be executed; what say you to them? Why, I will become under the Law (saith Christ) I will take upon me their Execution, and suffer for them; and to this purpose he is first circumcised;