[1.] The designation of the person. This was an act of divine and voluntary dispensation, according to which the second person in the Trinity, the Son of God, not the Father, nor the Holy Ghost, was sent to take our nature, and the office of a redeemer upon himself. In this choosing of Christ was the original and first rise of elective love. Augustine hath observed, in choosing Christ, what was the reason Christ was the person designed : Col. i. 19, ' It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.' What is the reason we are elected and chosen above others ? that God reveals himself to babes ? and the things of his grace are hidden from the wise and prudent ? ' Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight,' Mat. xi. 26. The same reason is given for the election and choice of Jesus Christ to be the redeemer, that is given for our election ; ' It pleased the Father ;' that is all. That Christ might be the first pattern of free grace the Father chose the Son, that he might be the redeemer. It was congruous and very fit that the Son and heir of all things should give us the adop- tion of sons : Gal. iv. 4, 5, ' God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' He sent his Son that we might have the same relation to God by grace which Christ had by nature. By nature, he is the only-begotten Son of the Father ; and this is that which is purchased for us, that we should become the sons of God ; and the middle person of the Trinity is the fittest to be the mediator between us and God.
[2.] This sending implies his fitness and qualification to do the work for which he was sent. (1.) He had fit natures ; (2.) He had fit endowments.
(1.) Fit natures. He was God-man : God, else how could he send ? man, else how could he be sent into the world ? Thi» sending implies he was a person truly existing before he came into the world, as a man must be before he is sent, and therefore he is said to be ' sent forth from God ;' Gal. iv. 4, 'God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.' ' Sent forth,' that shows his being before he took flesh ; Christ was somewhere from whence he was sent forth. And then, ' made of a woman,' that implies his incarnation. This sending doth suppose his divine nature, and imply his incarnation, or God's bestowing upon him a human nature. God he was, in the bosom of the Father, from whence he was sent forth into the world. Such an errand as Christ
404 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXX.
came about required a God, no inferior mediator would serve the turn. Nothing but an infinite good can remedy an infinite evil. Sin had bound us over to an eternal judgment, and nothing can counterpoise eternity but the infiniteness and the excellency of Christ's person. His divine nature was requisite in many regards. Partly to give efficacy and virtue and value to his sufterings ; and therefore it is said that we ai'e ' purchased by the blood of God,' Acts xx. 28 ; the mean- ing is, the blood of that person to whom the divine properties belonged. God is a spirit, and hatli not flesh, blood, and bones, as we have ; how then are we said to be redeemed with the ' blood of God ' ? that is, the blood of him who was God ; which makes it to be of infinite value, and enough to counterpoise that eternity of torment which we should have endured. Again, the dignity of his person conduced to the acceptance of one for all : 2 Cor. v. 15, 'And that he died for all,' &c., in the room and stead of all the elect ; and therefore that there might be such a value in his sufferings, his person must be thus worthy ; as they said to David, ' Thou art worth ten thousand of us,' 2 Sam. xviii. 3. A general or commander given in ransom will redeem thousands of private soldiers ; so the worth of Christ's person made him equivalent in dignity to the persons of all those whom he sustained ; yea, much more, God was more satisfied from Christ, than if all the world had suffered, and all angels and men had been made a sacrifice. Again, God lie must be, because of the exuberancy of his merit. Christ's suffering was not only a ransom from death, but the merit of eternal life. By his death he satisfied the old covenant, and ratified the new. The scri])tures do not only set forth the death of Christ as a ransom for souls, but as a price given to purchase everlasting glory. A surety to an ordinary creditor, if he pay the debt, he only frees the creditor from bonds, but doth not bring him into grace and favour. But now Christ hath merited happiness for us, and not only freed us from wrath to come, and delivered us from bondage ; there was a price paid to divine justice. Again, the dignity of his person was necessary by way of compensation for those circumstances of punishment which did not beseem Christ. The civility oi nations remits to princes and nobles some disgi-aceful circumstances ; though the punishment is inflicted, yet the kind of death is changed, because of the dignity of their birth, and place in the commonwealth. So here ; the sentence which passed upon men was eternal death ; the sentence itself is not reversed, that would lessen the authority of the law, and the glory of God's justice. The truth is, there are some circumstances abated which stood not with the worthiness of Christ's person ; as for instance, the eternity of the punishment is abated. Christ suftered but a few hours, because of the greatness of his sufferings, and the dignity of his person. A payment in gold is as full and valid as a payment in silver, though it may take up less room, because of the excellency of the metal ; so here, the suffering and death of Christ was of full value, though it was despatched in a lesser time ; the eternity, that is abated, because of the dignity and worth of his person. Once more, the godhead of Christ was necessary, that he may be able to discharge the office of a priest, as that he might satisfy on the cross, and know all those whom he did personate and represent before the tribunal of God. As the high