'EiaTTitrfn Vi koi ivr,(rTivfft>, ohx atiri; aToffv-^iui r, vrifriiui •^^I4u» tX"^*) ^ Ka^d^O'tut, 0 Tri ifvffii Kaiapii xai oiyioi, — Clcni.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 157
that it should be so ; though the effecting of it were by the free ope- rations of the Spirit, Luke ii. 52. He had an all-fulness of gi'ace on all accounts. This the apostle describes, Heb. vii. 26, " Such an high priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin- ners." Every way separate and distant from sin and sinners he was to be; whence he is called "Tlie Lamb of God, without spot or blemish," 1 Pet. i. 19. This habitual holiness of Christ was incon- ceivably above that of the angels. He who "^chargeth his angels with folly," Joli iv. 18; " who putteth no trust in his saints ; and in whose sight the heavens" (or their inhabitants) " are not clean," chap. XV. 15 ; always embraceth him in his bosom, and is always well pleased with him. Matt. iii. 1 7. And the reason of this is, because every other creature, tliough never so holy, hath the Spirit of God by measure; but he was not given to Clii'ist " by measure," John iii. 34; and that because it pleased him that in him " should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 19. This habitual grace of Christ, though not absolutely infinite, yet, in respect of any other creature, it is as the water of the sea to the water of a pond or pool. All other creatures are depressed from perfection by this, — that they subsist in a created, dependent being; and so have the fountain of what is communicated to them without them. But the human nature of Christ subsists in the person of the Son of God ; and so hath the bottom and fountain of its holiness in the strictest unity with itself
2dly. The actual obedience of Christ, as was said, was his willing, cheerful, obediential performance of every thing, duty, or command, that God, by virtue of any law whereto we were subject and ob- noxious, did require; and [his obedience], moreover, to the peculiar law of the mediator. Hereof, then, are two j)arts : —
(\st) That whatever was required of us by virtue of any law, — that he did and fidfilled. Whatever was required of us by the law of nature, in our state of innocency ; whatever kind of duty was added by morally positive or ceremonial institutions; whatever is required of us in way of obedience to righteous judicial laws, — he did it all. Hence he is said to be " made under the law," Gal. iv. 4 ; subject or ob- noxious to it, to all the precepts or commands of it. So, Matt, iii 1 5, he said it became him to ^" fulfil all righteousness," — iraeav dixaio- duvrjv, — all manner of righteousness whatever ; that is, everything that God requked, as is evident fi-om the application of that general axiom to the baptism of John. I shall not need, for thi.s, to go to
' " Sensus est de angelis, qui si cum Deo conferantiir, aut si eos secum Deus conferat, iion liabens rationeni eonim quro in illis posuit, et dotium ac donoium qua? in illos contulit, et quibus eos exornavit et illustravit, inveuiat eos stolidos. Sane qiiicquid habent angeli, a Ueo habent." — Mercer, in loc.
2 " Fuit logis servituti subjectus, ut earn implendo nos ab ea rcdimeret, et ab ejus servitute." — Bez.
158 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
particular instances, in the duties of the law of nature, — to God and his parents; of morally positive [duties], in the Sahbath, and other acts of worship; of the ceremonial law, in circumcision, and observation of all the rites of the Judaical church; of the judicial, in paying tribute to governors; — it will suffice, I presume, that on the one hand he " did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth ;" and on the other, that he " fulfilled all righteousness : " and thereupon the Father was always well pleased with him. This was that which he owned of himself, — that he came to do the will of God ; and he did it.
(2cU]/.) There was a peculiar law of the niediato7', Avhich respected himself merely, and contained all those acts and duties of his Avhich are not for our imitation. So that obedience which he showed in dying was 2'>eculiarly to this ^law, John x. 18, "I have power to lay down my life: this commandment have I received of my Father." As mediator, he received this peculiar command of his Father, that he should' lay down his life, and take it again ; and he was obedient thereunto. Hence we say, he who is mediator did some things merely as a man, subject to the law of God in general ; so he prayed for his persecutors, — those that put him to death, Luke xxiii. 34 ; — some things as mediator; so he prayed for his elect only, John xvii. 9. There were not worse in the world, really and evidently, than many of them that crucified him ; yet, as a man, subject to the law, he for- gave them, and prayed for them. When he prayed as mediator, his Father always heard him and answered him, John xi. 41 ; and in the other prayers he was accepted as one exactly performing his duty.