VI. That the Son of God should take part in human nature with the children is the greatest and most admirable effect of divine love, wisdom, and grace.
So our apostle proposeth it, 1 Tim. iii. 16,—a mystery which the angels with all diligence desire to look into, 1 Pet. i. 11,12. See John i, 14; Isa. ix. 6; Rom. ix. 5., Atheists scoff at it, deluded Christians deny it; but the angels adore it, the church professeth it, believers find the comfort and benefit of it. “The heavens,” indeed,
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“declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy- work,” Ps. xix. 1; and “the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power ‘and Godhead,” Rom, i. 20. In particular, man himself is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” These works of God’s power and providence do greatly manifest the glory of his wisdom, omnipotency, and goodness, and are like the light, which was created on the first day, at the beginning of all shings as we have showed. But in this instance, of assuming human nature into personal subsistence with himself, that scattered light is gathered into one sun, giving out most glorious beams, unto the manifesta- tion of his infinite excellencies far above all other things. And this surely was not done but for the greatest end that can be conceived ; and such is the salvation of sinners.
But we must proceed with our apostle; and he gives the reason and end of this wonderful dispensation. The end is, the delivery of the children from the condition before described. And, first, the means whereby he wrought and brought about this end is proposed unto us: “ By death,’—he was to do it by death.
“That by death he might deliver them ;” that is, by his own death. This, as it is placed as one principal end of his bemg made partaker of flesh and blood, so it is also the means of the further end aimed at, namely, the delivery of the children out of the condition ex- pressed. Some translations add, “By his own death,”’—which is evi- dently understood, though it be not literally in the text,—the death which he underwent in the nature of man, whereof he was partaker. His death was the means of delivering them from death. Some distinguish between death in the first place which Christ under- went, and that death in the close of the verse which the children are said to be in fear of; for this latter, they say, is more extensive than the former, as comprising death eternal also. But there doth not any thing in the text appear to intimate that the captain of sal- vation by death of one kind should deliver the children from that of another; neither will the apostle’s discourse well bear such a sup- position. For if he might have freed the children by any way or means as well as by undergoing that which was due unto them for sin, whence could arise that indispensable necessity which he pleads for by so many considerations of his being made like unto them, seeing without thé participation of their nature which he urgeth he might have done any other thing for their good and benefit, but only suffer what was due to them? And if it be said that with- out this participation of their nature he could not die, which it was necessary that he should do, I desire to know, if the death which he was to undergo was not that death which they were ob- noxious unto for whom he died, how could it be any way more bene-
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ficial unto them than any thing else which he might have done for them, although he had not died? There is no ground, then, to pre- tend such an amphibology in the words as that which some contend for. Now, as we observed before, the death of Christ is here placed in the midst, as the end of one thing, and the means or cause of another,—the end of his own incarnation, and the means of the children’s deliverance. From the first we may see,—
VIL. That the first and principal end of the Lord Christ’s assum- ing human nature, was not to reign in it, but to suffer and die in it.
He was, indeed, from of old designed unto a kingdom; but he was to “suffer,” and so to enter into his glory, Luke xxiv. 26. And he so speaks of his coming into the world to suffer, to die, to bear witness unto the truth, as if that had been the only work that he was incar- nate for. Glory was to follow, a kingdom to ensue, but suffering and dying were the principal work he came about. Glory he had with his Father “before the world was,’ John xvi. 5; and therein a joint rule with him over all the works of his hands. He need not have been made partaker of flesh and blood to have been a king; for he was the King eternal, immortal, visible, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only Potentate, from everlasting. But he could not have died if he had not been made partaker of our nature. And therefore, “when the people would have taken him by force, and made him a king,” he hid himself from them, John vi. 15; but he hid not himself when they came to take him by force and put him to death, but affirmed that for that hour, or business, he came into the world, John xvii. 4, 5, 11. And this further sets forth his love and condescension. He saw the work that was proposed unto him,—how he was to be exposed unto miseries, afflictions, and persecutions, and at length to “make his soul an offering for sin,’—yet, because it was all for the salvation of the children, he was contented with it and delighted in it. And how, then, ought we to be contented with the diffieulties, sorrows, afflictions, and persecutions, which for his sake we are or may be exposed unto, when he on pwrpose took our na- ture, that for owr sakes he might be exposed and subject unto much more than we are called unto!