40 SERMONS upon Here are three' things offered to our confideration : Firfi, That he is tent. Secondly, That he is Jefus, or a Saviour. Thirdly, That he is Chrif, or an anointed Saviour. Firfi, That he is feat. I in part opened this in the Explication, now I (hall open it 'more fully. It implieth ; I. Chrift's Divine Original ; he was aPerron truly exiting before he came into the World, as a Man muff be before he is fent, he came forth from God. Gal. 4.4. When the falnefi of Time was come, God feat forth his Son made of a Woman, made under the Lam. 'qtnrigaEv, the Word is a double Compound, Sent forth from God.. Jefus Chritt was in the Godhead, to note his intimacy and familiarity with God, he is faid to be ív Riker") 1nIees, John I. 18. The only begotten Son of God, which is in the Bofem of the Father, be bath declared him. He is not only legatus à latere, from the Side of God, but from the Bofom of God ; fo Equals and dear Friends are admitted into the Bofom. Therefore he is faid to come forth front God, John 16. 3o. Not only to note the Autho- rity of his Meffage, but the Quality of his Perlon, he came from out of the Godhead. No inferior Mediator could ferve the turn, fuch an Errand required a God himfelf: nothing but an infinite Good could remedy an Infinite Evil. Sin had bound us over to an Eternal Judgment, and nothing could counterpoife Eternity, but the Infinitenefs and Excellency of Chrif's Perron. He that came on fuch an Errand, mutt needs be God, both' to fatisfy God, and to fatisfy us. God could not be fatisfied, unlele his Sufferings had received a value from his Perlon ; to fatisfy God offended, there mutt be a God fatisfying for the Offence ; therefore his Blood is called the Blood of God ; Alts 20.28. Feed the Church of God, which he bath purchafid with his own Blood. The Satisfa &ion mutt carry proportion with the Merit of the Offence ; a Debt of a Thou- find Pounds, is not difcharged by two or three Brais Farthings. Creatures are Finite, their A&s are due ; and their Sufferings for one another, if they had been allowed, would have been of a limited Influence. Merit is above the Creature, no A& of ours can lay an Engagement upon God : r Sam. 2. 25. If a Man fin againfi another, the yudg (hall judg him ; but if he fin againfi God, who (hall intreat for him ? The Judg may accord a Difference between Man and Man, and One Man may make Satisfa&ion to another; but to take up Matters between us and God, a Perron mutt be fent out of the Godhead it fell. So to fatisfy us : he had need be able to grapple with Divine Wrath, that would undertake our CauCe ; he was not only to undergo it, but to overcome it. The Creature would never have been fatisfied, if he had peri(bed in the Work; if our Surety were kept in Peilon, and held under Wrath and Death, we thould have had no a(turance that the Debt was paid: Alts n7. 31. Whereof be bath given Affitrance to all Men, in that he bath railed him from the Dead. Chritl's Kefur re &ion is our Acquittance and Difcharge; John 16. to. Of Righteoufnef, becaufe I go to my Father, and ye fee me no more. Well then, we fee the Keafons, why a Perlon of the Godhead is imployed in this Work ; you need not doubt but that it is accomplilbed to the full, fence it is in the Hands of fuch an able Surety. Betides, it theweth the greatnefi of our Sin and Mifery, that a Perlon of the Godhead mutt be lent to ref- cue us. Sin fetched the Son of God from Heaven, and if we fubdue it not, it will fink us into Hell. 2. It implieth his di(tinet Subfiltence,that Chritt is a di[lin& Perron from the Father; for he that fendeth, and he that is fent, are dittinguithed. Mark, I Cay, it implieth Di- ßin &ion, but not Inferiority, againfi the Arriano. Perlons equal by mutual confent, may fend one another, as we fee among Men : and Chri(t was equal with God; Phil. 2. 6. Who being in the Form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God ; he might take that Honour upon him without ulurpation. Now this fending is afcribed to the Father; as John no. 36. Say ye of him, whom the Father bath fanaified and feet into the World, &c. and in other places. Partly, becaufe the Father in thole Places is not taken perfonal(y, but effentially; for the Decree of the Father, is the Decree of the. Son and Spirit ; they are one in Effence, and one in Will, their Altions are undivided : partly, becaufe this peculiar perlonal Operation, is efpecially afcribed to the firtt Per - jon; the Father is faid to fend, and the Holy Ghott to qualify and fit him. It is afcribed to Serm.4.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=