[5.] Fifthly and lastly, TJiat Christ's sufferings and merits might he sufficient, it ivas absolutely necessary that he should be God. The sin of man was infinite, I mean infinitely punishable ; if not infinite in number, yet infinite in nature, every offence being infinite, it being committed against an infinite God. No creature could therefore satisfy for it, but the sufferer must be God, that so his infiniteness might be answerable to the infiniteness of men's offences. There was an abso- lute necessity of Christ's sufferings, partly because he was pleased to substitute himself in the sinner's stead, and partly because his suffer- ings only could be satisfactory. Now, unless he had been man, how could he suffer ? and unless he had been God, how could he satisfy offended justice ? Look, as he must be more than man, that he may be able to suffer, that his sufferings may be meritorious, so he must be man, that he may be in a capacity to suffer, die, and obey ; for these are no work for one who is only God. A God only cannot suffer, a man only cannot merit ; God cannot obey, man is bound to obey ; wherefore Christ, that he might obey and suffer, he was man ; and that he might merit by his obedience and suffering, he was God-man ; just such a person did the work of redemption call for. That Christ's merits might be sufficient, he must be God ; for sufficient merit for man- kind could not be in the person of any mere man, no, not in Christ him- self, considered only as man ; for so all the grace he had he did receive it, and all the good he did he was bound to do it ; for he ' was made of a woman, and made under the law,' Gal. iv. 4 — not only under the cere- monial law as he was a Jew, but under the moral as a man, for it is under that law under which we were, and from which we are redeemed, Gal. iii. 1 3 — therefore in fulfilling it he did no more than that which was his duty to do ; he could not merit by it, no, not for himself, much less for others, considered only as man ; therefore he must also be God, that the dignity of his person might add dignity, and virtue, and value to his works. In a word, Deus potuif, sed non debuit; homo debuit, sed non potuit — God could, but he should not ; man should, but he could not make satisfaction ; therefore he that would do it must be both God and man. Toi'ris erutus ab igne? as the prophet speaketh; ' Is not this a firebrand taken out of the fire ?' Zech. iii. 2. You know that in a firebrand taken out of the fire, there is fire and wood insepa- rably mixed, and in Christ there is God and man wonderfully united. He was God, else neither his sufferings nor his merits could have been sufficient ; and if his could not, much less any man's else ; for all other men are both conceived and born in original sin, and also much and often defiled with actual sin, and therefore we ought for ever to abhor all such Popish doctrines, prayers, and masses for the dead, which
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exalt man's merits, man's satisfaction : * For no man can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him ; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever,' Ps. xlix. 7, 8. And therefore all the money that hath been given for masses, dirges, trentals,! &c., hath been cast away; for Jesus Christ, who is God-man, is the only Redeemer, and in the other world money beareth no mastery. Let me make a few inferences from what has been said ; and therefore,
1. First, Is it so, that Christ is God-man, that he is God and man ? Then let this raise our faith, and strengthen our faith, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is built on God; 1 Pet. i. 21. Now, Jesus Christ is very God, and therefore the fittest foundation in the world for us to build our faith upon. ' God manifest in the flesh' is a firm basis for faith and comfort. ' He is able to save to the uttermost,' Heb. vii. 25. Christ is a thorough Saviour, he saves perfectly, and he saves perpe- tually ; he never carries on redemption work by halves. 2 Christ being God as well as man, is able, by the power of his godhead, to vanquish death, devils, hell, and all the enemies of our salvation ; and by the power of his godhead is able to merit pardon of sin, the favour of God, the heavenly inheritance, and all the glory of the other world ; for this dignity of his person addeth virtue and efficacy to his death and suff'er- ings, in that he that suffered and died was very God ; therefore God is said to have ' purchased the church with his own blood/ Acts xx, 28. Christ having suffered in our nature, which he took upon him, that is, in his human soul and body, the wrath of God, the curse, and all the punishments which were due to our sins, hath paid the price of our redemption, pacified divine wrath, and satisfied divine justice, in the very same nature in which we have sinned and provoked the Holy One of Israel, so that now all believers may triumphingly say, ' There is no condemnation to us that are in Christ Jesus,' Bom. viii. 1, Christ having, in our nature, suffered the whole curse and punishment due to our sins, God cannot in justice but accept of his sufferings as a full and complete satisfaction for all our sins, 1 John i. 7, 9 ; so that now there remaineth no more curse or punishment properly so called for us to suffer, either in our souls or bodies, either in this life or in the life to come, but we are certainly and fully delivered from all ; not only from the eternal curse, and all the punishments and torments of hell, but also from the curse and sting of bodily death, and from all afflic- tions as they are curses and punishments of sin, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56. That Jesus, who is God-man, hath changed the nature of them to us, so that of bitter curses and heavy punishments, they are become fatherly cliastisements, the fruits of divine love, and the promoters of the internal and eternal good of our souls, Heb. xii. 5-7, and Eev. iii. 19. Oh, how should these things strengthen our faith in dear Jesus, and work us to lean and stay our weary souls wholly and only upon him who is God-man, ' and who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Cor. i. 30. Among the evangehsts we find that Christ had a threefold entertainment among the sons of men : some received him into house, not into heart, as Simon the Pharisee, who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet,
^ * Thirty masses.' — G. * Ad lilenum, saith Erasmus; ad perfecium, say others.
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Luke vll. 44 ; some neither into heart nor house, as the graceless, swinish Gergesites, Mat. viii. 34, who had neither civility nor honesty ; some both into house and heart, as Lazarus, Mary, Martha, &c., John xi. 16. Certainly that Jesus who is God- man deserves the best room in all our souls, and the uppermost seat in all our hearts. But,