5. Fifthly, Is Jesus Christ God-man ? is he very God and very man ? Oh, then, honour him above all. Oh, let him have the pre- eminence, exalt him as high as God the Father hath exalted him. It is the absolute will of the Father that ' all should honour his Son, even as they honour himself:' 2 for he having the same nature and essence with the Father, the Father will have him have the same honour which he himself hath ; which whosoever denies to him reflects dishonour upon the Father, who will not bear anything derogatory to the glory of his Son. Certainly there is due to Christ, as he is God- man, the highest respect, reverence, and veneration, which angels and men can possibly give unto him. Oh, look upon the Lord Jesus as God ; and according to that honour that is due to him as God, so must you honour him. The apostle speaks of some who, ' when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God,' Kom. i. 21 ; so several pretend to give some glory to Christ, but they do not glorify him as God. 0 sirs, this is that which you must come up to, viz., to honour Christ in such a manner as may be suitable to his natures, and as he is the infinite, blessed, and eternal God ; and ah ! what honour can be high enough for such a person ? Christ's honour was very dear to liim, who said, Lord, use me for thy shield to keep off those wounds of dishonour, which else would fall on thee, [Bernard.] Luther, in an epistle to Spalatinus, saith, ' They call me a devil, but be it so, so long as Christ is magnified, I am well a-payed.' The inanimate creatures are so compliant with his pleasure, that they will thwart their own
^ Lambert, as before. — G.
*_CoI. i. 18 ; Phil. ii. 6-10 ; John v. 23. This text looks sourly on Je^rs, Turks, Papists, Socinians, and others.
THE DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 189
nature to serve his honour ; fire will descend, as on Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen. xix. ; and water, though a fluid body, stand up like a solid wall, as in the Ked Sea, Exod. xiv. 22 ; if he do but speak the word. Oh, let not the inanimate creatures one day rise in judgment against us for not giving Christ his due honour. If we honour Christ we shall have honour, that is a bargain of Christ's own making ; but if we dishonour him, he will put dishonour upon us, as Scripture and history in all ages do sufficiently evidence, 1 Sam. ii. 30. In his- tory we read of an impostor that gave it out that he was that star which Balaam prophesied of, which was a prophecy of Christ, Num. xxiv. 17 ; this fellow called himself Ben-chomar, the son of a star. This man professed himself to be Christ, but he was slain with thunder and lightning from heaven, and then the Jews called him Ben-cosmar, which signifieth the son of a lie.i Learned Buxtorf tells us that the Jews call Christ Bar-chozabh, the son of a lie, a bastard ; and his gospel Aven-gelaion, the volume of lies, or the volume of iniquity ; and hath not God been a-revenging this upon them for above this sixteen hundred years ? Kabbi Samuel, who long since writ a tract in form of an epistle to Kabbi Isaac, master of the synagogue of the Jews ; wherein he doth excellently discuss the cause of their long captivity and extreme raisery, and after that he had proved it was inflicted for some grievous sin, he sheweth that sin to be the same which Amos speaks of ' For three trangressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes,' Amos ii. 6. The selling of Joseph he makes the first sin, the worshipping the calf in Horeb the second sin, the abusing and killing God's prophets the third sin, and the selling of Jesus Christ the fourth sin. For the first they served four hundred years in Egypt, for the second they wandered forty years in the wilderness, for the third they were captives seventy years in Babylon, and for the fourth they are held in pitiful captivity, even to this very day. Oh, how severely has God i-evenged the wrongs and indignities done to Christ the Lord, by this miserable people, to this very hour ! and yet, oh, the several ways, wherein this poor people do every day express their malice and hatred against the Lord Jesus ! Oh, pray, pray hard, that the veil may be taken away that has been so lopg before their eyes. Herod imprisons Peter, and killeth James with the sword, Acts xii. 1-4 ; this God puts up, but when he comes to usurp the honour due to Christ, he must die for it, ver. 23. Herod might more safely take away the liberty of one, and the life of another than the glory due to Christ. Long before his death, being in chains he met with a strange omen ; for, as he stood bound before the palace, leaning dejectedly upon a tree, among many others that were prisoners with him, an owl came and sat down in that tree to which he leaned • which a German seeing, being one of those that stood there bound, he asked who he was that was in the purple, and leaned there ; and understanding who he was, he told him of his enlargement, promotion to honoiu-, and prosperity ;_ and that when he should see that bird again he should die within five days after.2 Now when Herod
^ Synag. Jndaica, cap. 5 and 36.
* Joscphus of the Autiquitiea of the Jews, lib. iviii. pp. 475, 4/6, and 510, 511. [More
190 ELEVEN INFERENCES DRAWN FROM