1. In that hereby he obliged himself to keep the whole law *, though he was the Law-maker ; Gal. v. 3. " For I testify again to " every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole " law." The apostle's meaning is, he is a debtor in regard of duty, because he that thinks himself bound to keep one part of the cere- monial law, doth thereby bind himself to keep it all ; for where all the parts are inseparably united, (as they are in the law of God) we pull all upon us, by engaging or meddling with any one. And he that is a debtor in duty to keep the whole law, quickly becomes a debtor in regard of penalty r, not being able to keep any part of it. Christ therefore coming as our surety, to pay both those debts, the debt of duty, and the debt of penalty to the law ; he, by his cir- cumcision, obliges himself to pay the whole debt of duty by fulfilling all righteousness : and though his obedience to it was so exact and perfect, that he contracted no debt of penalty for any transgression of his own ; yet he obliges himself to pay the debt of penalty which he had contracted, by suffering all the pains due to transgressors. This was that intolerable yoke that none were able to bear but Christ, Acts xv. 10. And it was no small measure of Christ to bind himself to the law, as a subject made under it : For he was the Law-giver, above all law : and herein that sovereignty of a God (one of the choice flowers in the crown of heaven) was obscured and veiled by his subjection.
2. Hereby he was represented to the world not only as a subject, but also as a sinner : for though he was pure and holy, yet this ordi- nance passing upon him, seemed to imply as if corruption had in- deed been in him, which must be cut off by mortification. For this was the mystery principally intended by circumcision f : it served to mind and admonish Abraham, and his seed, of the na- tural guiltiness, uncjeanness, and corruption of their hearts and nature. So Jer. iv. 4. «' Circumcise yourselves unto the Lord, " and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Judah ;" i. e. the sinfulness and corruption of them. Hence the rebellious and unmortified are called « stiff-necked and uncircumcised in " heart," as it is Acts vii. 51. And as it served to convince of natural uncleanness, so it signified and sealed " the putting off the
* Christ was circumcised and presented, (Luke {'u 22.) because he became subject, not only to the eternal and moral law, but also to the ceremonial and every other di- vine law. Ames. Meditat. 101 .
f Such ceremonial observations were so many acknowledgments of sin ; therefore Christ, who was made sin for us, conformed to them very suitably. Ames, Meditat. p. 101.
SKIM. XIX. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 237
u body of the sins of the flesh," as the apostle phraseth it, CoL ii. 11. Now, this being the end of God in the institution of this ordinance for Abraham and his ordinary seed, Christ, in his infancy, by submitting to it, did not only veil his sovereignty by subjection, but was also represented as a sinner to the world, though most holy and pure in himself.
Secondly, Christ was humbled by persecution, and that in the very morning of his life : he was banished almost as soon as born. Matth. ii. IS. " Flee into Egypt (saith the angel to Joseph) and " be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the " young child to destroy him."" Ungrateful Herod ! was this entertainment for a Saviour ? what, raise a country against him, as if a destroyer •, rather than a Saviour, had landed upon the coast ? what, deny him the protection of those laws, under which he was born, and that before he had broken the least punctilio of them ? The child of a beggar may claim the benefit and protection of law, as his birth-right ; and must the Son of God be denied it ! But herein Herod fulfilled the scriptures, whilst venting his own lusts ; for so it was foretold, Jer. xxxi. 15. And this early per- secution was not obscurely hinted in the title of the 22d Psalm, that psalm which looks rather like a history of the New, than a prophecy of the Old Testament ; for as it contains a most exact description of Christ's sufferings, so it is fitted with a most suitable title, To the chief musician upon Aijeleth Shdliar, which signifies the Hind of the morning, or that deer which the Hunter rouses betimes in the morning, and singles out to hunt down that day ; and so they did by him, as the 16th verse will tell you ; for, (saith he), " Dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have " enclosed me." Upon which Musculus sweetly and ingeniously descants : " * O what sweet venison," (saith he), " is the flesh of " Christ ! abundantly sweeter to the believing soul, than that " which the nobles of this world esteem most delicate : and lest it w should want the highest and richest savour to a delicate palate, " Christ, our hart, was not only killed, but hunted to the purpose " before he was killed ; even as great men use, by hunting and M chasing, before they cut the throat of the deer, to render its " flesh more sweet, tender, and delicate :" Thus was Christ hunted betimes out of the country he was born in. And, no doubt but where such dogs scent and wind the Spirit of Christ in
* 0 vcre cervinam Christi carnem, animce fideli longe sapidicrem ea, quam hnjus mnndi nobiles in deliciis habeiit. Ac ne quid saporic ac gustui delicato deesset, nan simpliciter ac- cisa est nostra cervn, scd antea bene agitata : quemad modem solent magnates, vtvando et agitando, antequam capiant et occidant, carnem cervinam suaviorem, molliorcm, ac dehca- tiorem reddere. Muse, in loc.
238 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XIX.
any, they would pursue them also to destruction, did not a gra- cious Providence rate them off. But to return, how great a hu- miliation is this to the Son of God, not only to become an infant, but in his infancy, to be hurried up and down, and driven out of his own land as a vagabond !