And as man he loves him, for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world, he was conceived, fashioned, and fi.-amed in his mother's womb by the Holy Ghost. It is said, Heb. x. 5, God gave him a body. God the Father by the Holy Ghost fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body, therefore God must needs love his o^vn workmanship.
Again, there was nothing in him displeasing to God, there was no sin found in his life any way, therefore as man he was well pleasing to God. He took the manhood and ingi-afted it into the second person, and enriched it there ; therefore he must needs love the manhood of Chiist, being taken into so near a union with the Godhead.
As God and man mediator especially, he loves and delights in him. In regard of his ofiice, he must needs dehght in his own ordinance and de- cree. Now he decreed and sealed him to that ofiice, therefore he loves and delights in him as a mediator of his own appointing and ordaining, to be our king, and priest, and prophet.
Again, he loved and dehghted in him, in regard of the execution of his ofiice both in doing and suffering. In doing, the evangelist saith, ' He did all things well,' Mark vii. 37. "\Vhen he healed the sick, and raised the dead, and cured all diseases, whatsoever he did was well done. And for his suffering, God dehghted m him for that, as it is in John x. 17, ' My Father loves me, because I lay down my life ;' and so in Isa. liii. 12, ' He shall divide him a portion with the great, because he poured out his soul unto death;' and in Phil. ii. 9, ' Because he abased himself to the death of the cross, ' God gave him a name above all names :' therefore God loves and delights in him for his suflering and abasement.
12 A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST.
It is said of Noali, Gen. viii. 21, that he offered a sacrifice after the flood, and 'the Lord smelled a sweet savour of his sacrifice,' and thereupon he saith, ' I will not curse the earth again.' So God loves and delights in Christ as he oflered himself a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour wherein God rests ; he felt such a sweet savour in the sacrifice of Christ, he is so delighted in it, that he will never destroy mankind, he will never destroy any that be- lieve in Christ. The sacrifice of Noah v/as a type of Christ's sacrifice.
Now, that Christ's sacrifice was so acceptable to God, there is a direct place for it in Eph. v. 2, ' Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smell.' And in- deed how many sweet savours were there in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross ! Was there not the sweet savour of obedience ? he was ' obedient to the death of the cross,' Phil. ii. 8. There was the sweet savour of patience, and of love to mankind. Therefore God delighted in him, as God, as man, as mediator God-man, in his doings, in his sufferings, every way.
Doth God delight thus in Christ, in his person, or considered mystically? I answer ; both. God loves and delights in Christ mystical, that is, in Christ and his members, in whole Christ. ' This is my beloved Son, in v/hom I am well pleased,' not only with whom alone by himself, but ' in whom,' in him as God, in him in body and soul, in him as head of the church, in him mystically, in all that are under him any kind of way. God delights in him, and all his.
Is it possible that he should delight in the head, and refuse the mem- bers ? that he should love the husband, and mislike the spouse ? 0 no ; with the same love that God loves Christ, he loves all his. He delights in Christ and all his, with the same delight. There is some difl"erence in the degree, ' that Christ in all things may have the pre-eminence,' Col. i. 18, but it is the same love ; therefore our Saviour sets it down excellently in his own prayer, he desires * that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his,' John xvii. 20, that they may feel the love wherewith his Father loves him, for he loved him and his members, him and his spouse, with all one love.
This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved ; and when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of Christ. They and Christ make one mystical Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sin. We are so and so indeed, but Christ is the chosen servant of God, ' in whom he delighteth,' and delights in us in him. It is no matter what we are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him. God loves us with that inseparable love wherewith he loves his o^vn Son. Therefore St Paul triumphs, Rom. viii. 35, ' What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?' This love, it is founded in Christ, 'therefore neither things present, nor things to come (as he goes on there gloriously), shall be able to separate us.' You see what a wondrous confidence and comfort we have hence, if we labour to be in Christ, that then God loves and delights in us, because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus.