10. Tenthly, Is Jesus Christ God-man ? is he very God and very man ? Then from hence you may see the excellency of Christ above man, above all other men, yea, above Adam in innocency. Christ, as man, was perfect in all graces: Isa. xi. 1, 2, 'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord.' God gave the Spirit of wisdom to him not oy measure ; and therefore, at twelve years of age, you find him in the Sanhedrim disputing with the doctors, and asking them questions, John iii. 34 ; Luke ii. 46, 47 ; John i. 16, ' And of his fulness have all we received grace for grace ;' Col. i. 19, ' For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell ;' ii. 3, ' In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' The state of inno- cency was an excellent estate, it was an estate of perfect holiness and righteousness, Gen. i. 27. By his holiness he was carried out to know the Lord, to love the Lord, to delight in the Lord, to fear the Lord, and to take him as his chief est good, Eph. iv. 22-24. A legal holi- ness consists in an exact, perfect, and complete conformity in heart and life to the whole revealed will of God ; and this was the holiness that Adam had in his innocency, and this holiness was immediately derived from God, and was perfect. Adam's holiness was as co- natural to him as unholiness is now to us. Adam's holiness was as natural, and as pleasing, and as delightful to him as any way of un- hoHness can be natural, pleasing, and delightful to us. The estate of innocency was an estate of perfect wisdom, knowledge, and under- standing. Witness the names that Adam gave to all the creatures, suitable and apposite to their natures, Gen. ii. 20. The estate of innocency was an estate of great honour and dignity. David brings in Adam in his innocent estate with a crown upon his head, and that crown was a crown of glory and honour : ' Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour,' his place was ' a little lower than the angels,' but far above all other creatures, Ps. viii. 5. The estate of innocency, it was an estate of great dominion and authority, man being made the sove- reign lord of the whole creation, Ps. viii. 6-8. We need not stand to enlarge upon one parcel of his demesnes, namely, that which they call paradise, sith the whole both of sea and land, and all the creatures in both, were his possession, his paradise. Certainly man's first estate was a state of perfect and complete happiness, there being nothing within him but what was desirable, nothing without liim but what was
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amiable, and nothing about him but what was serviceable and com- fortable ; and yet Jesus Christ, who is God-man, is infinitely more glorious and excellent than ever Adam was ; for Adam was set in a mutable condition, but Christ is the Rock of ages. He is steadfast and abiding for ever ; he is ' yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever/ Heb. xiii. 8. He is the same afore time, in time, and after time ; he is the same, that is unchangeable, in his essence, promises, and doc- trine. Christ is the same in respect of virtue, and the faith of believers ; even his manhood, before it was in being, was clothed with perfection of grace, and so continueth for ever. And again, Adam was a mere man, and alone by himself; but in Christ the human nature was hypostatically united unto the divine ; and hence it comes to pass that Christ, even as man, had a greater measure of knowledge and revela- tion of grace and heavenly gifts than ever Adam had. The apostle tells us that in ' Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead,' <j(ofia- TiKm, bodily, that is, essentially ; that is, not by a naked and bare communicating of virtue, as God is said to dwell in his saints, but by a substantial union of the two natures, divine and human, the eternal Word and the man, consisting of soul and body, whereby they become one, v(l>iardfievov, one person, one subsistence.. Now from this admirable and wonderful union of the two natures in Christ, there flows to the manhood of Christ a plenitude and fulness of all spiritual wisdom and grace, such as was never found in any mere man, no, not in Adam whilst he stood in his integrity and uprightness. But,
11. Eleventhly, Is Jesus Christ God-man? is he very God and very man? Then this truth looks very sourly and froiuningly upon all such as deny the godhead of Christ; as Arians, Turks, Jews. How many be there in this city, in this nation, who stiffly deny the divinity of Christ, and dispute against it, and write against it, and blaspheme that gi'eat truth, without which, I think, a man may safely say, there is no possibility of salvation. In ancient times, near unto the age of the apostles, this doctrine of Christ's godhead, and eternal genera- tion from the Father, was greatly opposed by sundry wicked and blasphemous heretics, as Ebion, Cerinthus, Arius, &c. , who stirred up great troubles, and bloody persecutions against the church, for main- taining this great truth of Christ's godhead. They asserted that Christ had no true flesh ; it was only the likeness of flesh which he appeared in, and that his body was only a fantastic imaginary body ; but had the body of Christ been only such a body, then his conception, nativity, death, resurrection, are all too but imaginary things ; and then his sufferings and crucifixion are but mere fancies too ; and if so, then what would become of us, what would become of our salva- tion ? then our faith would be in vain, and our hope would be in vain, and our hearing, preaching, praying, and recei%ang, would all be in vain ; yea, then all our religion would vanish into a mere fancy also. When a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery, and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul, and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied, and divine wrath to be pacified, and the curse to be borne, and the law to be fulfilled, and his nature to be renewed, his heart to be changed, and his sins to be pardoned, or
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