Page images
PDF
EPUB

chase our falvation, and could apply effectually this purchased falvation to its proper objects; none but God-man could be effectual mediator between God and man, and between men and angels, fo as to remove the unhappy differences fin had occafioned, and reftore reconciliation and peace in the creation of God. None but Godman could ranfom our guilty world from the devil and hell; baffle the policy, and break the power of fatan; deftroy his kingdom of impiety and wickedness, and having humbled his pride in judging him at the bar of the Son of Man yet as Son too of God fhould banish him and all his followers from the great empire of God and righteoufnefs, and confign them for ever to the prison of deftruction. None but he who unites all natures, divine and created, could dignify creation, unite his creatures to their Creator, and to each other in fuch clofe and everlafting-friendfhip; give them by his perfon fuch fecurity for their eternal exiftence, and continuance in the divine favour and heaven, and by his adminiftration attended with all the majefty of God, yet adapted to a more immediate and engaging intercourfe with his creation, can fo confirm and improve their goodness, to the honour of his divine Father, and the everlasting advantage and happiness of his rational fubjects. "For neither

66

is there falvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among "men, whereby we must be faved," Acts iv. 12. But what no other could effect, the Son of God could do and hath done. His complex perfon. qualified him for his complicated office. His humiliation paved the way to his exaltation.

H 4

And

And by the whole hath he accomplished every great purpose for which he was appointed " For it "pleafed the father, that in him fhould all ful"nefs dwell, and having made peace through "the blood of his crofs, by him to reconcile all "things unto himfelf, even by him, whether "they be things in earth or things in heaven," Col. i. 19, 20.

[graphic][merged small]

CHAP. VII.

Of the high Honours and Rewards to which the Son of God is exalted, with his just Claim to them.

T

O the perfonal dignity of the Son of God. fucceed the honours he is poffeffed of; and to his important offices, the proper rewards which he receives for performing them. Every being is intitled to honour, in proportion to its excellence and dignity; and every beneficent being to rewards, correfpondent to the offices it performs for the glory of God and the good of his creation. No being, having a created nature, ever poffeffed fuch perfonal dignity and excellence as did the Son of God; none ever ftood in fuch near and endearing relations to God and his creation, and none ever merited fuch high degrees of their efteem and their affection. No being ever performed fo many offices for the honour of God, and the happiness of his creation, as did the bleffed Jefus, and none ever merited fuch illuftrious rewards. The first state of his exiftence was a state of unexampled humiliation, labour and fuffering; but the fecond and eternal one was a state of exaltation, triumph and glory. The glories and felicities poffeffed by the Son of God, may be confidered as proper honours, with regard to his perfonal; and as rewards, with regard to his official character. But as thefe glories are effentially the fame, and the Son of God and Saviour of the world who poffeffes them is the fame perfon, it is proper to confider

H 5

confider them conjunctly. For in both characters is Meffiah entitled to, and in both does he pofsess these honours beftowed on him. We have confidered his perfonal dignity and the chief offices he executes; let us now proceed to unfold the honours and rewards which in consequence of both he poffeffes, and the juft title he has to them.

1. He is the fupreme object of his Father's love and bleffed with all its expreffions, fuitably to the characters which he had to act. Every Son is naturally beloved of his Father, and from his Father's love flow all the bleffings his Son receives from him. In like manner the only begotten Son of God is the object of his Father's fupreme affection, and poffeffes this as his primary bleffednefs, and the fource of every honour and reward his Father beftows on him. As the co-effential Word of God, he was the eternal object of his fupreme love: he exifted with him in the fame effence, and he poffeffed with him all the fame amiable and glorious perfections. Wherefore God the Father loved him as he loved himself, and from their joint perfection and mutual love, with that of their co-effential Spirit, did their fupreme and eternal happiness result. Thus Chrift declares, that " he had glory with "the Father before the world was, and that the "Father loved him before the foundation of the "world," John xvii. 5, 24. But when this Word was made flesh, and appeared as the only begotten Son of God, he continued the object of God's love, as fecond perfon in the Godhead, and farther became the object of his paternal affection in character of his Son. God's infinite benevolence that terminated formerly in his di

vine,

vine, now extends itself to his whole complex perfon. He could love nothing more dearly than his co-effential Word, but he loves that divine Word now in the additional endearing character and relation of his Son; a Son who was the brightness of his Father's glory and the exprefs image of his perfon, and who affumed this character to do his Father the highest honour and pleasure in the recovery and establishment of that empire of reasonable beings his omnipotence had created. Accordingly we find that when Chrift is mentioned by God as his Son, he is commonly mentioned at the fame time as the fpecial object of his love. Thus if God predicts him as his first born, he declares, that his love he will "ever keep for him, and his covenant fhall stand. "faft with him," Pfal. Ixxxix. 28. Does he folomnly declare him his Son at his baptifm, and inftall him in the public office of Mediator, for which he had fent him into the world; he fays, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well "pleased," Matth. iii. 17. and bestows on hima his Spirit without measure, as the best expreffion of his love. When Chrift had proceeded far in his labours for his Father's honour and the falvation of his brethren, God repeats the fame declara tion of his love to his deareft Son, and as a pledge and proof of it, gives him even while on earth, an anticipation of that glory he was for ever to be adorned with in heaven. Being engaged in prayer upon the holy mount, he was transfigured before his difciples, when his face did fhine as the fun, and his garment was white as the light, while God appeared in a bright cloud, and again declared, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him," Matth. xvii.

2, 5:

H.6

Amidft

« PreviousContinue »