2. Secondly, If Jesus Christ be God-man, very God and very man, then lohat high cause have we to observe, admire, loonder, and even stand amazed at the transcendent love of Christ in becoming man ! Oh ! the firstness, the freeness, the unchangeableness, the greatness, the matchlessness of Christ's love to fallen man in becoming man I Men many times shew their love to one another, by hanging up one another's pictures in their families ; but, ah, what love did Christ shew when he took our nature upon him ! Heb. ii. 16, ' For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abra- ham;' 'ETTiXa/jb^dverat, he assumed, apprehended, caught, laid hold on the seed of Abraham, as the angel did on Lot, Gen. xix. 16, as Christ did on Peter, Mat. xiv. 31, or as men do upon a thing they are glad they have got and are loath to let go again. 0 sirs ! it is a main ground and pillar of our comfort and confidence, that Jesus Christ took our flesh ; for if he had not took our flesh upon him, we could never have been saved by him. Christ took not a part, but the whole nature of man, that is, a true human soul and body, together with all the essen- tial properties and faculties of both ; that in man's nature he might die, and suffer the wrath of God, and whole curse due to our sins, which otherwise, being God only, he could never have done ; and that he might satisfy divine justice for sin, in the same nature that had sinned, and indeed it was most meet and fit, that the mediator, who was to recon- cile God and man, should partake in the natures of both parties to be reconciled, Heb. ii. 14. Oh, what matchless love was this, that made our dear Lord Jesus to lay by for a time all that ' glory that he had with the Father before the world was,' John xvii. 5, and to assume our nature, and to be ' found in fashion as a man,' Phil. ii. 8. To see the great God in the form of a servant, or hanging upon the cross, how wonderful and astonishing was it to all that believed him to be God- man ! God ' manifested in our flesh ' is an amazing mystery, 1 Tim. iii. 16, a mystery fit for the speculation of angels, 1 Pet. i. 11, that the eternal God should become the man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii. 5 ; that a most glorious creator should become a poor creature ; that the ancient of days, Dan. vii. 9, 13, 22, should become an infant of days. Mat. ii. 11 ; that the most high should stoop so low as to dwell in a body of flesh — is a glorious mystery, that transcends all human understanding. It would have seemecl a high blasphemy for us to have thought of such a thing, or to have desired such a thing, or to have spoken of such a thing, if God, in his everlasting gospel, had not revealed such a thing to us. Among the Eomisli priests, friars, Jesuits, they count it a great demonstration of love, a high honour that is done to any of their orders, when any nobleman or great prince, who is weary of the world, and the world weary of him, comes among them, and takes any of their habits upon him, and lives and dies in their habits. Oh, what a demonstration of Christ's love is it ! and what a mighty honour Lath Jesus Christ put upon mankind, in that he took our nature \
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upon him, in that he lived in our nature and died in our nature, and rose in our nature, and ascended in our nature, and now sits at his Father's right hand in our nature ! Acts i. 10, 11. Though Jacob's love to Kachel, and Jonathan's love to David, and David's love to Absalom, and the primitive Chiistians' love to one another was strong, very strong ; yet Christ's love in taking our human nature upon him does infinitely transcend all their loves, I think, saith one speaking of Christji he * cannot despise me, who is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ; for if he neglect me as a brother, yet he wiU love me as a hus- band ; that is my comfort.' ' 0 my Saviour,' saith one, [Jerome,] ' didst thou die for love for me ? a love more dolorous than death, but to me a death more lovely than love itself ; I cannot live, love, and be longer from thee,' I read in Josephus,2 that when Herod Antipater was ac- cused to Julius (?) Csesar as no good friend of his, he made no other apology, but stripping himself stark naked, shewed Caesar his wounds and said, let me hold my tongue, these wounds will speak for me how I have loved Cassar. Ah, my friends, Christ's wounds in our nature speak out the admirable love of Jesus Christ to us ; and oh, how should this love of his draw out our love to Christ, and inflame our love to that Jesus who is God-man blessed for ever, Mr Welch, a Suifolkshire minister, weeping at table, being asked the reason, said, it was because he could love Christ no more,^ Ah, what reason have we to weep, and weep again and again, that we can love that Jesus no more, who hath shewed such imparalleled love to us in assuming of the human nature ! Et ipsam animam odio haberem, si non diligeret meum Jesum, I must hate my very soul, if it should not love my Jesus, saith Bernard. Ah, what cause have we even to hate ourselves, because we love that .dear Jesus no more, who is very God and very man. But,
3. Thirdly, Is Jesus Christ God-man ? is he very God and very man ? Then ive may very safely and roundly assert that the ivork of redemption was a very great iv.orkA The redemption of souls is a mighty work, a costly work. To redeem poor souls from sin, from wrath, from the power of Satan, from the curse, from hell, from the condemnation^ was a mighty work. Wherefore was Christ born, wherefore did he live, sweat, groan, bleed, die, rise, ascend ? Was it not to bring ' deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound' ? Was it not to ' make an end of sin, to finish transgression, and to bring in everlasting righteousness/ and ' to destroy the works of the devil,' and to ' abolish death/ and to * bring life and immortality to hght,' and to ' redeem us from all ini- quity, and to purify us to himself, and to make us a peculiar people, zealous of good works' ? Certainly the work of redemption was no ordinary or common thing; God-man must engage in it, or poor fallen man is undone for ever. The greater the person is that is engaged in any work, the greater is that work. The great monarchs of the world do not use to engage their sons in poor, low, mean, and
^ Bernard sup. Cant. ser. 20. * Jos. Bel. Jud. 1. 1, c. 8. * As before, ' Welsh.'— O, * Consult these scriptures, Isa. Ixi. 1; Dan. ix. 24; 1 John iii. 8; Luke i. 74, 75; Tit. ii. 14; 1 Pet. i. 4.
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