As Priest, had he not been man, he could have shed no blood ; and if not God, it had been no adequate value for us, * Heb. iL 17. Acts iii. 28.
As King, had he not been man, he had been an heterogeneous, and so no fit head for us. And if not God, he could neither rule nor defend his body the Church.
These then were the designs and ends of that assumption.
Use 1. Let all Christians rightly inform their minds in this truth of so great concerment in religion, and hold it Just against all subtle adversaries, that would wrest it from them. The learned Hooker observes, that the dividing of Christ's person, which is but one, and the confounding of his natures, which are two, hath been the occasion of those errors, which have so greatly disturbed the peace of the church. The Arians denied his deity, levelling him with
* He made satisfaction in his human nature ; but then the worth, the excellency, efficacy and application of that satisfaction flow from the divine nature. Ames, Bell. Mnerv. lib. 5.
SERM. V. TkE FOUNTAIN OP LIF£. &i
other mere men. The Apollinarians maimed his humanity. The Sabellians affirmed, that the Father and Holy Ghost were incar- nated as well as the Son ; and were forced, upon that absurdity, by another error, viz. denying the three distinct persons in the God- head, and affirming they were but three names. The Eutychians confounded both natures in Christ, denying any distinction of them. The Seleusians affirmed, that he unclothed himself of his huma- nity when he ascended, and hath no human body in heaven. The Nestorians so rent the two names of Christ asunder, as to make two distinct persons of them.
But ye (beloved) have not so learned Christ. Ye know he is, (1.) True and very God; (2.) True and very man; that, (3.) these two natures make but one person, being united inseparably ; (4.) that they are not confounded or swallowed up one in another, but remain still distinct in the person of Christ. Hold ye the sound words which cannot be condemned. Great things hang upon all these truths* O suffer not a stone to be loosed out of the foun- dation.
Use 2. Adore the love of the Father ; and the Son, who bid so high for your souls, and at this rate were contented you shoidd be recovered.
1. The love of the Father is herein admirably conspicuous, who so vehemently willed our salvation, that he was content to degrade the darling of his soul to so vile and contemptible a state, which was, upon the matter, an undoing to him, in point of reputation; as the apostle intimates, Phil. ii. 7. If two persons be at a variance, and the superior, who also is the wronged person, begin to stoop first, and say, you have deeply wronged me, yea, your blood is not able to repair the wrongs you have done me : however, such is my love to you, and willingness to be at peace with you, that I will part with what is most dear to me in all the World, for peace-sake ; yea, though I stoop below myself, and seem, as it were, to forget my own relation and endearments to my own son, I will not suffer such a breach betwixt me and you. John iii. 16. " God so loved " the world, that he gave his only begotten Son."
2. And how astonishing is the love of Christ, that would make such a stoop as this to exalt us ! * Oh, it is ravishing to think, he should pass by a more excellent and noble species of creatures, re- fusing the angelic nature, Heb. ii. 16. to take flesh ; and not to solace and disport himself in it neither, nor experience sensitive pleasures in the body ; for, as he needed them not, being at the fountain-head of the highest joys, so it was not at all in his design,
* No body raises another lying low, without first stooping down, and bowing him- self to the ground. Nierom,
82 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. V*.
but the very contrary, even to make himself a subject capable of sorrows, wounds, and tears. * It was, as the apostle elegantly ex- pressed! it, in Heb. h. 9- o<rw; u*^ rsavrog yzv<rr,Ta,i Qavccrz ; that he might sensibly taste what relish death hath, and what bitterness is in those pangs and agonies. Now, 01 1 that you would get your hearts suitably impressed and affected with these high impressures of the love both of the Father and the Son ! How is the courage of some noble Romans celebrated in history, for the brave adven- tures they made for the commonwealth ; but they could never stoop as Christ did, being so infinitely below him in personal dig- nity.
Use 3. And here infinite wisdom has also left a famous and everlasting mark of itself; which invites, yea, even chains the eyes of angels and men to itself, -f* Had there been a general council of angels, to advise upon a way of recovering poor sinners* they would all have been at an everlasting demur and loss about it. It could not have entered their thoughts, (though they are intelli- gencers, and more sagacious creatures) that ever mercy, pardon, and grace, should find such a way as this to issue forth from the heart of God to the hearts of sinners. Oh, how wisely is the me- thod of our recovery laid ! so that Christ may be well called, " the " power and wisdom of God," 1 Cor. i. 24 ; forasmuch as in him the divine wisdom is more glorified than in all the other works of God, upon which he hath impressed it. Hence it is, that some of the schoolmen affirm, (though I confess myself unsatisfied with it) that the incarnation of Christ was in itself so glorious a demon- stration of God's wisdom and power, and thereupon so desirable in itself, that though man had not sinned, yet Christ would have been made man.
Use 4. Hence also we infer the incomparable sweetness of the Chris- tian religion , that shews poor sinners such a fair t foundation to rest their trembling consciences upon. While poor distressed souls look to themselves, they are perpetually puzzled. That is the cry of a distressed natural conscience, Micah vi. 6. " Wherewith shall I u come before the Lord ?" the Hebrew is mrv enpx how shall I prevent or anticipate the Lord ? J and so Montanus renders
* The Son of God therefore took flesh, that he might be capable of suffering in human nature, which he could not have done in the Divine, which is incapable of suffering. Theod.
•f- It must surpass human, or even angelical understandings, to conceive, or, if con- ceived, to hope for such a deliverer : wherefore, if a sinner, sensible of the divine male- diction due to his sins, were left to himself, by searching to find out such relief, the more he laboured in the search, the more would he throw himself headlong into a boundless abyss of horror and desperation. Bradshaw on Justification, p. 74.
| [Ju-dom] Antivertit, anticipavit, obvenit. Buxlorf.
HERM. V. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 83