If any Arians or Socinians are drawn by curiosity to hear what the babler has to say, let them be ashamed of denying the divinity of that LORD, who has bought poor sinners with his precious blood. For the person mentioned in the text, under the character of the LORD, is JESUS CHRIST. Verse 5. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto _David_ a righteous branch, a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days (verse 6.) _Judah_ shall be saved, and _Israel_ shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.” By the _righteous branch_, all agree, that we are to understand JESUS CHRIST. He it is that is called the LORD in our text. If so, if there were no other text in the Bible to prove the divinity of CHRIST, this is sufficient: for if the word _Lord_ may properly belong to JESUS CHRIST, he must be GOD. And, as you have it in the margin of your Bibles, the word _Lord_ is in the original _Jehovah_, which is the essential title of GOD himself. Come then, ye Arians, kiss the Son of GOD, bow down before him, and honour him, even as ye honour the Father. Learn of the angels, those morning-stars, and worship him as truly GOD: for otherwise you are as much idolators, as those that worship the Virgin _Mary_. And as for you Socinians, who say CHRIST was a mere man, and yet profess that he was your Saviour, according to your own principles you are accursed: for, if CHRIST be a mere man, then he is only an arm of flesh: and it is written, “Cursed is he that trusteth on an arm of flesh.” But I would hope, there are no such monsters here; at least, that, after these considerations, they would be ashamed of broaching such monstrous absurdities any more. For it is plain, that, by the word _Lord_, we are to understand the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who here takes to himself the title of _Jehovah_, and therefore must be very GOD of very GOD; or, as the Apostle devoutly expresses it, “GOD blessed for evermore.”
II. How the LORD is to be man’s righteousness, comes next to be considered.
And that is, in one word, by _imputation_. for it pleased GOD, after he had made all things by the word of his power to create man after his own image. And so infinite was the condescension of the high and lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity, that, although he might have insisted on the everlasting obedience of him and his posterity; yet he was pleased to oblige himself, by a covenant or agreement made with his own creatures, upon condition of an unsinning obedience, to give them immortality and eternal life. For when it is said, “The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die;” we may fairly infer, so long as he continued obedient, and did not eat thereof, he should surely live. The 3d of _Genesis_ gives us a full, but mournful account, how our first parents broke this covenant, and thereby stood in need of a better righteousness than their own, in order to procure their future acceptance with GOD. For what must they do? They were as much under a covenant of works as ever. And though, after their disobedience, they were without strength; yet they were obliged not only to do, but continue to do all things, and that too in the most perfect manner, which the LORD had required of them: and not only so, but to make satisfaction to GOD’s infinitely offended justice, for the breach they had already been guilty of. Here then opens the amazing scene of _divine philanthropy_, I mean, GOD’s love to man: For behold, what man could not do, JESUS CHRIST, the son of his Father’s love, undertakes to do for him. And that GOD might be just in justifying the ungodly, though “he was in the form of GOD, and therefore thought it no robbery to be equal with GOD; yet he took upon him the form of a servant,” even human nature. In that nature he obeyed, and thereby fulfilled the whole moral law in our stead; and also died a painful death upon the cross, and thereby became a curse for, or instead of, those whom the Father had given to him. As GOD, he satisfied, at the same time that he obeyed and suffered as man; and, being GOD and man in one ♦person, he wrought out a full, perfect, and sufficient righteousness for all to whom it was to be imputed.
♦ “persan” replaced with “person”