Why are they taken from the " evil to come"?
First, That God may bring the evil: 'I will leave some when
THE HUMILIATION AND CONDESCENSION OP CHRIST. Olii
the evil comes to be exercised ; may be an old man, may be a young man. It waits but till I have gathered some to myself. I cannot bring evil till those lights be gone out and the good figs be carried away. I cannot/ saith God, * bring evil upon Jerusalem till then/ And they are taken away that evil may come. And, —
Secondly, Which is the most general acceptation, they are taken away that they should not see the evil ; as Josiah was taken away by the sword that he might not see the evil. Death by the sword hath no evil in it, in comparison of the evil God will bring upon a people or nation when he comes in a way of judgment. ' Josiah shall not see the burning of the city and temple, shall not see women eat ing their own children/ etc. What is perishing by the sword in comparison of all those temptations wherewith these evils are accom panied? The Lord will take them away, that they shall not see that which hath evil, wrath, distress, in it They are " taken away from the evil to come."
SERMON XL
THE HUMILIATION AND CONDESCENSION OF CHRIST.
PREACHED NOVEMBER 9, 1681.
* Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God : but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." — PHIL. ii. 5-8.
THE apostle tells us, 1 Tim. ii. 5, that " there is one God, and one mediator between God and men." The difference, by reason of sin, between God and men was such as could not be made up without a mediator. God himself could not be this mediator; so the same apostle tells us, Gal. iii. 20, " A mediator is not of one, but God is one/' A mediator must be a middle person, and God in his divine nature is one : " A mediator is not of one/' Suppose this mediator be taken from among men, for one man's sinning against another, " the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall entreat for him?" 1 Sam. ii. 25. "There is no umpire betwixt us," saith Job, chap. ix. 33, " that might lay his hand upon us both." Who, then, is this mediator? Why, " There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus/' How comes he so to be? This office was not imposed upon him against his mind and will; it did not befall him by chance; we did not choose him; it was not a matter of any advantage unto him;
VOL. XVIL 36
562 THE HUMILIATION AND CONDESCENSION OF CHRIST.
neither did it befall him by necessity of nature or condition. How, then, did he come unto this office? how came it that this mediator was "the man Christ Jesus" ? Why, it was his mind ; it was from his own mind. Not to insist upon the designation of the Father, the apostle places it there : " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus/' What was the mind that was in Christ Jesus? This was the mind, that when he was "in the form of God/' and " thought it not robbery to be equal with God," he " made himself of no reputation : " which was the original of Christ's mediation.
There are three things in the words: —
First, The substance of them, — a description of the self-humilia tion and condescension of Jesus Christ, in becoming the mediator between God and men by the taking up of this office. And there are two parts of it: — 1. 'ExxJvwo'/g, — his emptying of himself; 2. Tavsivuffis, — the humbling of himself. He " being in the form of God, took upon him the form of a servant/' 'Exxzvuffs, saith the apostle. We say, " He made himself of no reputation ;" he emptied himself. Having taken this form of a servant, what did he do ? Why, "he humbled himself/' He emptied himself to take the form of a servant ; and he humbled himself in that form, to engage in obedience, to undergo death. There is an infinite distance be tween the exx'evuMG, the self-emptying of Christ, when, "being in the form of God, he took upon himself the form of a servant/' and the ra-TTs/vwo1/?, the taking on him the form of a servant to obey and die. The one infinitely excels the other.
Secondly, There is in the words the principle from whence these distinct acts arise, — self-emptying, by taking our nature; self-humi liation, engaging in our nature to do and suffer. Whence doth it proceed ? It proceeds solely from his own mind : " Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not : then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God."