DIVINE HONOUR DUE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST. lOo
But we now consider tlie Lord Christ in his whole entire person, the Son of God incarnate, " God manifest in the flesh." His infinite condescension, in the assumption of our nature, did no way divest him of his divine essential excellencies. For a time, they were shadowed and veiled thereby from the eyes of men ; when " he made himself of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant." But he eternally and unchangeably continued " in the form of God," and " thought it not robbery to be equal with God," Phil. ii. 6, 7. He can no more really and essentially, by any act of condescension or humiliation, cease to be God, than God can cease to be. Wherefore, his being clothed with our nature derogates nothing from the true reason of divine worship due unto him, but adds an effectual motive unto it. He is, therefore, the immediate object of all duties of religion, internal and external ; and in the dispensation of God towards us, none of them can be performed in a due manner without a respect unto him.
This, then, in the first place, is to be confirmed; namely, that all divine honour is due unto the Son of God incarnate — that is, the person of Christ.
John V. 23 : It is the will of the Father, " That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honour- eth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." Some considerations on this divine testimony will confirm our posi- tion. It is of the Son incarnate that the words are spoken — as all judgment was committed unto him by the Father, as he was " sent" by him, verse 22 — that is, of the whole person of Christ in the exer- cise of his mediatory ofiice. And with respect hereunto it is that the mind of God is peculiarly revealed. The way whereby God manifesteth his will, that all men should thus honour the Son, as they honour the Father, is by committing all power, authority, and judgment unto him, verses 20-22, " For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth : and he will show him gTeater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, bvit hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Not that these things are the /ormaZ reason and cause of the divine honour which is to be given him ; but they are reasons of it, and motives unto it, in that they are evidences of his being the Son of God.
But it may be said. What need is there that the Father should so interpose an act of his will and sovereign pleasure as to this honour- ing of the Son, seeing the sole cause and reason of this divine honour is the divine nature, which the Son is no less partaker of than the Father? I answer —
106 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
(1.) He dotli not in this command intend the honour and worship of Clirist ahsohitely as God, but distinctly as the So7i; which pecu- liar worship was not known under the Old Testament, but was now declared necessary in the committing all power, authority, and judg- ment unto him. This is the honour whereof we speak.
(2.) He doth it, lest any should conceive that "as he was now sent of the Father," and that in the " fonn of a serv^ant," this honour should not be due unto him. And the world was then far from thinking that it was so ; and many, I fear, are yet of the same mind.
He is, therefore, to be honoured by us, according to the will of God, xadijg, " in like manner," as we honour the Father.
[1.] With the same honour; that is, divine, sacred, religious, and supreme. To honour the Father with other honour, is to dishonour him. When men design to give glory and honour to God which is not truly divine, it is idolatry ; for this honour, in truth, is nothing but the ascription of all infinite, divine excellencies unto him. Whereon, when men ascribe unto him that which is not so, they fall into idolatry, by the worship of their o^vn imaginations. So was it with the Israelites, when they thought to have given glory to God by making a golden calf, whereon they proclaimed a feast unto Jeho- vah, Exod. xxxii. 5. And so was it wdth the heathen in all their images of God, and the glory which they designed to give him thereby, as the apostle declares, Rom. i. 23-25. This is one kind of idolatry — as the other is — the ascribing unto creatures anj'thing that is projjer and peculiar unto God, any divine excellency. And we do not honour God the Father with one kind of honour, and the Son Avith another. That were not to honour the Son xadijg, " as " we honour the Father, but in a way infinitely different from it.
[2.] In the same manner, with the same faith, love, reverence, and obedience, always, in all things, in all acts and duties of religion whatever.