is suitable, and a very great congrnity, that God, having made all things by his Son, should now repair all things by liis Son ; that he that was the middle person in the Trinity should become the mediator between God and man ; that he that was ' the express image of the Father's person' should restore the image of God, defaced in man by his sins. Ah, Christians, how well does it become you to lose yourselves in the admiration of the wisdom of God in the con- trivance of the work of our redemption ! For the Son of God to take on him the nature of man, with all the essential properties thereof, and all the sinless infirmities and frailties thereof, is a wonder that may well take up our thoughts to all eternity. And Christ took the infirmities of our nature as well as the nature itself. To shew the truth of his humanity he had a nature that could hunger and thirst even as ours do, and to sanctify them to us ; and that so he might sympathise with us as ' a merciful and faithful high priest,' Heb. ii. 16-18, and iv. 15, 16 ; and that we might confide the more in him, and have access to him with boldness. By reason of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, he is a fit mediator betwixt God and man. His sufferings are of infinite value, being the sufferings of one who is God, Acts XX. 28, and who is mighty to carry on the work of redemption, and to apply his own purchase, and repair all our losses, Isa. Ixiii. 1 ; Heb. vii. 25. Oh, what an honour has Jesus Christ put upon fallen man by taking the nature of man on him ! What is so near and dear to us as our own nature ? and lo, our nature is highly preferred, by Jesus Christ to a union in the Godhead. Christ now sits in heaven with our nature, and the same flesh that we have upon us, only glori- fied. Acts i. 9-11. It is that which all the world cannot give a sufiicient reason, why the same word in the Hebrew, Baslier, should signify both ' flesh ' and ' good tidings.' Divinity will give you a reason, though grammar cannot. Christ's taking of flesh upon him was good tidings to all the whole world, therefore no wonder if one word signify both. Abundance of comfort may be taken from hence to poor souls, when they think God hath forgotten them, to consider, is it likely that Christ, who is man, should forget man, now he is at the right hand of the Father, clothed in that nature that we have ? When we are troubled to think it is impossible God and man should ever be reconciled, let us consider that God and man did meet in Christ, therefore it is possible we may meet. What hath been may be again. The two natures met in Christ, therefore God may be recon- ciled to man ; yea, they therefore met, that God might be reconciled to man. He was made Emmanuel, ' God with us,' that he might bring God and us together. When a man is troubled to think of the corruptions of his nature, that is so full of defilements, that it cannot be sanctified perfectly, let him withal think that his nature is capable of sanctification to the full. Christ received human nature which was not polluted, his nature is the same, therefore that nature is capable of sanctification to the uttermost. 0 sirs ! if Christ, the second person in the Trinity, did put on man, how careful should men be to put on Christ ! ' Put you on the Lord Jesus,' saith the apostle, Eom. xiii. 14. If Christ assumed our human nature, how should we wrestle with God to be made partakers of the divine nature : 2 Pet. i. 4, ' Whereby are
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given unto us exceeding great and precious promises ; that by these we may be made partakers of the divine nature/ If Christ became thus one flesh with us, how zealous should we be to become one spirit with Christ, 1 Cor. vi. 17. Even as man and wife is one flesh, so ' he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' Was the Word made flesh ? did Christ take our nature ? yea, did he take our nature at the worst, after the fall ? What high cause have we to bless his name for ever for this condescension of his ! Should all the princes of the world have come from their thrones, and have gone a-begging from door to door, it would not amount to so much as for Christ to become man for our sakes. Christ took our nature, not in the integrity of it, as in Adam before his fall, but in the infirmities of it, which came to it by the fall. What amazing love was this ! For Christ to have taken our nature as it was in Adam, while he stood clothed in his integrity, and stood right in the sight of God, had not been so much as when Adam was fallen and proclaimed traitor ; as Bernard saith, Quo pro me vilior, ed mihi carior, Domine, Lord, thou shalt be so much the more dear to me, by how much the more thou hast been vile for me. Here is condescension indeed, that Christ should stoop so low to take flesh, and flesh with infirmities. But,
[2.] Secondly, Jesus Christ promiseth to God the Fiither that he ivill freely, readily, and cheerfully accept, undertake, and faithfully discharge his mediatory office, to which he was designed by him, in order to the redemption and salvation of all his chosen ones. Consult the scriptures in the margin,i they having been formerly opened, and in them you will find that Christ did not take the office of mediatorship upon himself, but first the Father calls him to it, and then the Son accepts it : ' Christ glorified not himself, to be made a high-priest ; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,' Heb. x. 12, 14, he called him, and then the Son answered him, * Lo, I come.' God the Father promiseth that upon the payment of such a price by his Son, such and such souls should be ransomed and set free from the curse, from wrath, from hell, &c. Jesus Christ readily consents to the price, and pays it down upon the nail at once, and so makes good his mediatory office. It pleased the glorious Son of God, in obedience to the Father, to humble himself and obscure the glory of his godhead, that he might be like his brethren, and a fit mediator for sympathy and sufiering, and that he might engage his life and glory for the redeeming of the elect, and lay by his robes of majesty, and not be reassumed till he gave a good account of that work, till he was able to say, ' I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do.' Christ very freely and cheerfully undertakes to do and suffer wliatever was the will of his Father that he should do or suffer, for the bringing about the redemption of mankind. Christ willingly undertakes to be his Father's servant in this great work, and accordingly he looks upon his Father as his Lord, ' Thou art my Lord,' Isa. 1. 5-7 ; Ps. xvi. 2 — ^that is, thou art he to whom I have engaged myself that I will satisfy all thy demands, I will fulfil thy royal law, I will bear the curse, I will satisfy thy justice, I will
^ Compare Ps. il. 6-11 with Heb. x. 5-11, and Isa. Ixi. 1-3 ; Luke iv. 18-20 ; Acts xiii. 23, and vii. 22.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 391