SERMON UPON HEBREWS II. 11. 431
2. The inference, or efifect thence resulting : ' For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.' Which words represent — (1.) The condescension of Christ, ' He is not ashamed ; ' (2.) The nature and value of the privilege, ' To call them brethren.'
[1.] The condescension of Christ, ' He is not ashamed.' We are said to be ashamed in two cases — (1.) When we do anything that is filthy. As long as we have the heart of a man, we cannot do anything that hath filthiness in it without shame. Or, (2.) When we do any- thing beneath that dignity and rank which we sustain in the world. The former consideration is of no place here. The latter then must be considered. Those that bear any rank and port in the world are ashamed to be too familiar towards their inferiors ; but yet, such is the love of Jesus Christ towards his people, that though he be infinitely greater and more worthy than us, yet he is not ashamed to call us brethren. It is said, Prov. xix. 7, ' All the brethren of the poor do hate him.' If a man fall behindhand in the world, his friends look askew upon him ; but Jesus Christ, though he be the Son of God, by whom he made the world, the splendour of his Father's glory, and the brightness of his person, the Kings of kings, and Lord of lords, and we be poor, vile, and unworthy creatures, yet he disdaineth not to call us brethren. If a great prince should call a poor tradesman brother, it would be accounted singular courtesy ; and yet, what is the greatest prince of the world to Christ ?
[2.] The nature and value of the privilege.
(1.) The nature of it. Christ calleth us ' brethren.' Not children, servants, friends, but 'brethren;' a title of great dearness and in- timacy.
(2.) The value of it.
(Isf.) It is not an idle, foolish compliment ; for there is cause and reason for it, 81 rjv alriav. There is a reason of the use of this title, because all mankind, coming of one father and being made of one blood, are brethren ; and Christ reckoneth himself among us, con- sidereth the bond he hath to us, and assumeth all relations proper to his nature ; and also because the sanctified are the children of God by the grace of adoption.
('id) It is not an empty title, but a great and real privilege ; he is aflfectioned to us as brethren. His call is doing ; for his call is not a mere nominal, titular, or complimental word : Eom. ix. 25, ' I will call them my people ;' that is, openly and before all the world declare they are my people. Called ' an apostle,' 1 Cor. xv. 9 ; ' Not worthy to be called thy son,' Luke xv. 21.
Many points may be hence deduced.
1. That Jesus Christ ought to be of the same nature and stock, yet he with those whom he redeemed or sanctified to God.
2. That Christ, having taken our nature upon him, counts it no disgrace to acknowledge and accept us as brethren.
3. The kindred is only reckoned to the sanctified. Though all mankind have the same nature and come of the same stock, ' he that sanctifioth and they that are sanctified are all of one;' therefore he is ' not ashamed to call them brethren.'
4. This sanctificution which is required of us must proceed origi- nally from Christ.
432 SERMON UPON HEBREWS II. II.
1. That Jesus Christ ought to be of the same nature and stock with those whom he redeemed or sanctified to God, e'^ ewe, of one stock, of one blood. What necessity was there ?
[1.] That by the law of propinquity of blood he might have right to redeem us. Goel, the next of kin, had an obligation upon him to redeem his brother's land if mortgaged: Lev. xxv. 25, 26, 'If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then • shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and him- self be able to redeem it,' &c. Or person if sold : ver. 47, 48, ' After that he is sold he may be redeemed again : one of his brethren may redeem him.' So Christ is called Goel : Job xix. 25, ' For I know that my Eedeemer liveth ; ' Isa. lix. 20, ' The Eedeemer shall come to Zion,' Christ is our kinsman ; not only true man, but the Son of man. True man he might have been if God had created him out of nothing, or he had brought his substance from heaven ; but he is the Son of man, one descended from the loins of Adam, as we are ; and so doth redeem us not only jure proprietatis, by virtue of his interest in us as our creator ; but Jure propinquitatis, by virtue of kindred, as one of our stock and lineage, as the Son of Adam as well as the Son of God ; for Jesus Christ, of all the kindred, was the only one that was free and able to pay a ransom for us.