VOL. V. L
162 AN EXPOSITION, "WITH NOTES, [VeR. 4.
God equal to the Father appeareth also by express texts of scripture : Phil, ii, 6, ' He was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God ;' and Col. ii. 9, ' In him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' The saints are ' made partakers of the divine nature/ 2 Peter i. 4, but in him the whole Godhead dwelt personally, and all this was no usurpation of another's right. The Jews would have stoned him ' because he said God was his father, making himself equal with God ; ' therefore he meant it not in an ordinary sense, and indeed if he be a God, he is a God by nature, for ' God will not give his glory to another.' Again, God he must needs be, if you consider the work he ought to do. The work of the mediator could be dis- patched by no inferior agent. As prophet, he was to be greater than all other prophets and apostles ; for the great doctor of the church ought to be authentic, a lawgiver from whose sentence there is no ap- peal : ' A lord in his own house,' Heb. iii. 6 ; one to whom Moses was but a servant, for to him he gave the law, Heb. xii. 26. One that is to be a fountain of wisdom to all the elect, 1 Cor. i. 30 ; one that must not only teach, but give eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a heart to learn. Consider him as a king ; a finite power cannot break the force of enemies, pour out the Spirit, raise the dead, bestow grace and glory, and become an original fountain of life to all the elect. All these things are proper to God, the glory which he will not give to another. Consider him as a priest ; and there are two acts, oblation and interces- sion, and still you will find that he must be God. For his oblation, he must be one that could offer up himself, Heb. ix. 14, and therefore must have ' power ' over his own life, John x. 28, ' to lay it down and take it up ;' which no creature hath. And he must offer himself ' one for all,' 2 Cor. v. 15 ; the person that suffered was to be infinite, as good and better than all theirs that should have suffered ; as they said to David, ' thou art better than a thousand of us ;' and this suffering was to be but once. Now, the wages of sin are eternal death ; some- thing there must be to compensate the eternity of the punishment, and nothing could counterpoise eternity but the infiniteness and excellency of Christ's person, as a payment in gold taketh up less room than a pay- ment in silver, but the value is as much. It was necessary that he should overcome the punishment, for if we were always suffering, we could have no assiu-ance that God were satisfied. And the end was to expiate sin ; nothing but an infinite good could remedy so great an evil. The person wronged is infinite, so is the person suffering. And then his death was not only to be a ransom, but a price ; not only clvt'CKv- rpov, but avToXXaryfia. A surety to an ordinary creditor payeth the debt, and freeth the debtor from bonds. Christ was to bring us into grace and favour with God, and to merit heaven for us. Now for the other act of his priesthood, his intercession : so he was to know our persons and our wants and necessities, as the high priest had the names of the twelve tribes on his breast and shoulders, Exod. xxviii. 12, 29. And then he is to negotiate with God in the behalf of all believers, and to dispatch blessings suitable to their state : and who can do this but God, who knoweth the heart and trieth the reins ? In short, to be a fit intercessor for all the elect, he is to know our needs, thoughts, sins, prayers, desires, purposes, and to wait on our business day and night,
VePw 4.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 163
that wratli may not break out upon us ; so that his work as mediator showeth hiui to be God.
Uses. Well, then, we learn hence : —
1. That Christ is a proper object for faith. Faith is built on God, 1 Peter i. 21, and Christ is God ; and therefore his merit was sufficient to redeem the church, which is therefore said to be * purchased by the blood of God,' Acts xx. 28. This maketh him able to sanctify us, and purge us, for his blood was ' offered through the eternal Spirit,' Heb. ix. 14. As God he knoweth our wants ; for as to his divine nature he knoweth all things ; and then he hatli a human nature that hath had experience of them. He is able, as God, to give in the supplies of the Spirit, to save to the uttermost, Heb. vii. 25. God manifested in our flesh is a firm basis for faith and comfort.
2. Since he was God by nature, let us observe the love of Christ in becoming man. Men show their love to one another when they hang their picture about their neck. What did Christ when he took our nature ? To see the great God in the form of a servant, or hanging upon the cross, how wonderful ! ' God manifested in our flesh ' is a mystery fit for the speculation of angels, 1 Tim. iii. 16, with 1 Peter, i. 11 ; it would have seemed a blasphemy for us to have thought it, to have desired it. Among the friars, they count it a mighty honour done to their order if a great prince, when he is weary of the world, Cometh among them, and taketh their habit, and dieth in their habit. Certainly it is a mighty honour to mankind that Christ took our nature, and died in our nature, and that he was ' made sin,' ' made man,' 'made a curse.' Let us desire to be made partakers of his nature, as he was of ours. This is our preferment, to ' be partakers of the divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4, as this was his abasement. The sun of righteousness went backward, there was the miracle ; and let us use ourselves more honourably for the time to come, that we may not de- file that nature which the Son of God assumed.