had imprisoned Peter, and slain James with the sword, he went down to Caesarea, and there he made sports and shows in honour of Csesar ; and, on the second day, being most gorgeously apparelled, and the sun shining very bright upon his robe of silver, his flatterers saluted him for a god, and cried out to him, ' Be merciful unto us ! hitherto have we feared thee as a man, but, henceforward, we will acknowledge thee to be of a nature more excellent than mortal frailty can attain to/ The wretched king reproved not this abominable flattery, but was well pleased with it ; and, not long after, he espied the owl which the Grerman had foretold to be the omen of his death. And suddenly he was seized with miserable gripings in his belly, which came upon him with vehement extremity ; whereupon, turning himself towards his friends, saith, Lo, he whom you esteem for a god is doomed to die, and destiny shall evidently confute you, in those flattering and false speeches which you lately used concerning me ; for I, who have been adored by you as one immortal, am now under the hands of death ; and his griefs and torments increasing, his death drew on apace ; whereupon he was removed into the palace, and all the people put on sackcloth, and lay on the ground, praying for him ; which he, behold- ing, could not refrain from tears ; and so after five days he gave up the ghost.i Thus you see how dearly they have paid for it that have not given Christ his due glory; and let these instances of his wrath alarm all your hearts so, that we may make more con- science than ever, of setting the crown of honour only upon Christ's head, ' for he only is worthy of all honour, glory, and praise,' Kev. xiv. 10, 11. But,
6. Sixthly, Is Jesus Christ God-man? is he very God and very man ? Then from hence as in a glass you may see the true reasons why the death and sufferings of Christ, though short, very short, yet have a sufficient poioer and virtue in them to satisfy God' s justice, to pacify his lorath, to procure our pardon, and to save our immortal souls — viz., because of the dignity of his person that died and suffered for us, the Son of God, yea, God himself There was an infinite virtue and value in all his sufferings ; hence his blood is called ' precious blood,' yea, ' the blood of God.' ^ Did man transgress the royal law of God ? behold God himself is become a man to make up that breach, and to satisfy divine justice to the uttermost farthing, Rom. viii. 2-4. For the man Christ Jesus to stand before the bar of the law, and to make full and complete reparation to it, was the highest honour that ever was done to the law of God. This is infinitely more pleasing and de- lightful to divine justice than if all the curses of the law had been poured out upon fallen man, and than if the law had built up its honour upon the destruction of the whole creation. To see one sun clouded is much more than to see the moon and all the stars in heaven overcast. Christ considered as God-man was great, very great ; and the greater his person was, the greater were his sorrows, his sufferings, his humiliation, his compassion, his satisfaction to divine justice. Had
accurately xix. 8, 2 : cf . 2 Mac. ix. 9, and Jortin, Eccles. Hist. ii. 320, with a note of Gibbon, c. xiv. : TertuUian ad Soap. c. iii., §. 20. Michselis i. 65. — G.J
^ All as quaintly told by Clarke in his ' Life' of Herod.— G.
» Heb. ix. 14; 1 Pet. i. 19; Acts xx. 28; Gal. iv. 4-6.
THE DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 191
not Christ been God-man, he could never have been an able surety, Heb. vii. 25 — he could never have paid our debts, he could never have satisfied divine justice, he could never have brought in an everlasting righteousness, Dan. ix. 24, he could never have ' spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them on the cross,' Col. ii. 15 — a plain allusion to the Koman triumphs, where the victor ascending up to the capitol in a chariot of state, all the prisoners following him on foot with their hands bound behind them, and the victor commonly threw certain pieces of coin abroad to be picked up by the common people. So Christ, in the day of his solemn inauguration into his heavenly kingdom, triumphed over sin, death, devils, and hell, * and gave gifts to men.' And had he not been God-man, he could never have merited for us a glorious reward. If we consider Christ himself as a mere man, setting aside his godhead, Eph. iv. 8, he could not merit by his sufferings ; for, 1. Christ as he was man only, was a creature. Now a mere creature can merit nothing from the Creator. 2. Christ's sufferings, as he was man only, were finite, and therefore could not merit infinite glory. Indeed, as he was God, his sufferings were meritorious ; but, consider him purely as man, they were not. This is wisely to be observed against the papists, who make so great a noise of men's merits ; for if Christ's sufferings, as he was mere man, could not merit the Igast favour from God, then what mortal man is able to merit, at the hand of God, the least of mercies by his greatest sufferings ? But,
7. Seventhly, Is Jesus Christ God-man ? is he very God and very man ? Then from hence ive may see the greatest pattern of humility and self-denial that ever loas or will he in this world. That he who was the Lord of glory, that he who was equal with God, that he should leave the bosom of his Father, Phil. ii. 6 ; John i. 18, which was a bosom of the sweetest loves and the most ineffable delights, that he should put off all that glory that he had with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid, John xvii. 5, that he should so far abase himself as to become man, by taking on him our base, \dle nature, so that in this our nature he might die, suffer, satisfy, and bring many sons to glory, Heb. ii. 10, — oh, here is the greatest humility and abasement that ever was ! And oh that all sincere Chris- tians would endeavour to imitate this matchless example of humility and self-denial ! Oh the admirable condescensions of dear Jesus, that he should take our nature, and make us partakers of his divine nature ! 2 Pet. i. 4, that he should put on our rags, and put upon us his royal robes ! Rev. xix. 7, 8, that he should make himself poor that we might be rich ! 2 Cor. viii. 9, low that we might be high ! accursed that we might be blessed! Gal. iii. 10, 13. Oh wonderful love ! oh grace un- searchable ! Ah, Christians, did Christ stoop low, and will you be stout, proud, and high ? Was he content to be accounted a worm, a wine-bibber, an enemy to Caesar, a friend of publicans and sinners, a devil, and must you be all in a flame when vain men make little account of you? Was he willing to be a curse, a reproach for you, and wdll you shrug, and shrink, and faint, and fret when you are reproached for his name ? Did Jesus Christ stoop so low as to wash his disciples' feet, John xiii. 14, and are you so stout
192 ELEVEN INFERENCES DRAWN FROM