3. It showeth us the love of God ; he would not intrust an angel nor archangel with our salvation, but sent his Son : 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' There is nothing too near nor too dear for us. It will take the more with us, if we consider the infinite complacency and contentment God had in Christ, yet he sent his Son. Man's love is defensive ; he loves his children out of design of immortality, because he lives in them. God had no reason to do so ; he had many reasons to the contrary, yet he sent his Son to die for us, when we were enemies. And his Son is sent ; what to do ? Not only to treat with us, not only to borrow a tongue to speak to us, but to take a body to die for us, to be substituted in our room and stead.
4. It informs us of the great condescension of Christ, that he sub- mitted to be sent : Ps. xl. 7, 8, ' Then said I, Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God ; yea, thy law is within my heart.' He was ready, when God would send him, like a servant ready to be despatched upon his errand. That Christ would be sent, that he would take our nature, not while it was innocent, but when it was guilty, liable to the wrath of God, when all mankind were proclaimed traitors and outlaws, and whoever partaked of our nature was to partake of our sorrow ; yet then was Christ sent: he came ' in the similitude of sinful flesh,' Rom. viii. 3. Christ did not partake of the infection of our nature ; he was not a sinner, by being born of our stock ; the infection was stopped by the Holy Ghost ; but he took our nature, when it was sinful, tainted with sin, and in this message and errand he laid aside his majesty, and by an unspeakable dispensation he abstains from the full use and exercise of the godhead, not from the godhead itself. Therefore, he prays, John xvii. 5, ' And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' He begs for his glory again, which he had laid aside for a while. It can- not be meant of the divine nature, for to that nothing can be given ;
470 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXI.
it cannot be meant of human natm-e, because that is not capable of the glory which Christ had before the world was. The meaning is, he desires to be restored to the full use of the godhead, from which he had abstained by an unspeakable dispensation a long time, and by the interposition of his human nature, the glory of the godhead was, as it were, eclipsed, as a candle in a dark lantern ; and therefore he desires that the veil might be taken away, and he might return again to the full use of the godhead, having done his work. It is irksome to us to go back a few degrees in pomp and pleasure, even upon just and convenient reasons ; but how did Christ condescend and stoop, when he was thus sent into the world by God for our sakes !
5. Here is some ground of comfort to them that believe ; you may offer to God a mediator of his own choosing, one that was authorised by himself. When you plead with God, you may say, ' Lord, thou hast sent thy Son.' Or when you plead with your own hearts, you may urge them with this, ' God sent him to be helpful to my soul' These things may be observed from the first thing, the mission of Christ.
SERMON XXXI.
As tliou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. — John XVII. 18.
Secondly, I come to the mission of the apostles, ' So have I sent them into the world, as thou hast sent me.' The words intimate a compari- son between God's sending of Christ into the world, and Christ's send- ing the apostles into the world.
But how doth the comparison hold good ? Christ was sent to re- deem, they to preach ; the apostles were no redeemers. Christ was sent, not only as a prophet, but as a priest, as we have seen before. And again, for the manner, Christ was sent by being incarnate, God- man in one person, he must be man, if sent ; but they were men, and therefore there is a difference. Christ was sent as the supreme officer of the church, as God with original authority, they as ministers and servants. Christ could teach immediately, outwardly by his word, inwardly by his Spirit ; they only outwardly. How then could it be said, ' As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world ' ?
I answer — There is an 6fioi6Tr}<;, not an tVoTT/?, some likeness, but not an equality. As the union of the apostles is compared with the unity of the Trinity, so the mission of the apostles with the mission of Christ. The similitude holdeth in several things. They were autho- rised ministers and officers of the church, as Christ was. Christ was authorised by God, and the apostles by Christ ; they were his deputies and representatives, as he was God's ; that is the notion of apostle, or one sent, in the New Testament; not as bare messengers, but as proxies (see Hammond) ; and we read of ' messengers of the churches,' diroaToXoi, the church's deputies and representatives. Yea, they had