I shall begin with the dignity, honour, and glory of Christ, solemnly declared from heaven. There are three things in it : —
1. The relation between him and the Father : he is a Son.
2. The dearness of that relation : his beloved Son.
3. The complacential satisfaction which he taketh in him, and the price of our redemption paid by him : in lohoni I am well pleased.
Doct. That it is the main and principal point of the gospel, and of great necessity to be known and believed to salvation, that Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of God, in whom he is well pleased.
1. I shall open this testimony given to Christ.
2. Speak of the importance and weight of it.
384 Christ's transfiguration. [Ser. V.
I. Of the testimony given to Christ.
1. Let me open the term that expresseth his fih'ation, that he is God's Son. Christ is the Son of God properly so called, a Son only- begotten : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world that he gave his only- begotten Son ;' eternally begotten, Prov, viii. 22, 23, 'I was set up from everlasting, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.' A Son co-equal with his Father, John v. 18. The Jews sought to kill him because he said God was his Father, making himself equal with God, irarepa ISiov eXe'ye rov @e6v, his own proper Father. So co-essential, of the same substance with his Father, John i. 1, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Now thus is he the Son of God.
Why is it mentioned there ? —
[1.] To show the special dignity of Christ above all others. He is the Son of God : Christians are the sons of God, but in a different manner — he by nature, we by adoption. Though God have many sons by creation and adoption, yet Christ is his Son in a peculiar and proper way, by eternal generation, and communication of the same essence, o vm dja7r7)To<?, that Son, that beloved Son; so a Son as none else is ; the Son of God, properly so called.
[2.] To distinguish him from Moses and the prophets. From Moses, Heb. iii. 5, 6, ' Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over his own house, whose house we are,' &c. ; so from the rest of the prophets: Heb. i. 1, 2, ' God at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, but hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.' This is the great doctor of the church ; now as to meekness above Moses, as to zeal above Elias, as to familiarity and communion he was with God and was God.
[3.] To show the old prophecies were fultilled, which foretold the union of the two natures in his person, the predictions concerning one whose name should be Immanuel, God with us, and who should save and redeem the church, Isa. vii. 14 ; and of a child that should be '' the mighty God, the everlasting Father,' Isa. ix. 6. This the prophets foretold, that he should be God, and the Son of God : Micah v. 2, ' His going forth is from everlasting,' though born at Bethlehem ; so the bud of the Lord and the fruit of the earth, Isa. iv. 2. The man God's fellow, Zech. xiii. 7 ; and in many other places the union of the two natures is asseited.
2. He is the beloved Son.
[1.] That God loved Christ. Christ is the object of his Father's love, both as the second person and as mediator. As the second person of the Trinity — two things are wont to attract love, nearness and likeness, they are both here. Nearness, he was in the bosom of the Father : John i. 18, ' The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' Likeness is another load- stone of affliction: 1 Heb. i. 3, He is ' the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.' Such as the Father is so is Christ.
* Qu., 'affection'?- Ed.
Mat. XVII. 5.] Christ's tkansfiguration. 385
[2.] As mediator, so God loveth him on the account of his ohedi- ence : John x. 17, * Therefore doth my Father love me, because I Uiy down my life for the sheep ; ' John iii. 35, the Father hath loved liiin and put all things into his hand. The Father approved Christ's undertaking for sinners, delighted in it as an excellent way of glo- rifying his name, and recovering poor creatures out of their lost condition ; and rested satisfied, and was pleased with his death, as a sufficient ransom for poor souls. Well, then, Grod loved him so as to trust the souls of all mankind in his hands, and to appoint him to be the great mediator, to end all differences between him and us ; and the more he doth in pursuance of his office, the more beloved he is and acceptable to God.