mystery of godliness ; God was manifest in the flesh1." What shall I say more ? It is clear, that it was " God, who pur- chased the Church with his own blood k :" and that He who wrought out for us a righteousness wherein we are to be accepted before God, is Jehovah himself1. Know ye then, assuredly, that the glorious Person spoken of in my text was no other than our incarnate God, even " God over all, blessed for evermore"1."]
The peculiar caution given by the Apostle, in rela- tion to this doctrine, leads me to shew you,
II. The importance of it to the welfare of our souls —
'" Beware/' says the Apostle, " lest any man spoil or rob you, through philosophy and vain deceit." So will I say to you : " Beware, lest any deceiver rob you of your hope founded on the divinity of your Lord and Saviour :" for,
1. On that depends the efficacy of his atonement —
[Supposing the Lord Jesus Christ to have been a crea- ture, how could he make atonement for sin, or work out a righteousness that should be imputable to us ? He could do no more than what, by the law of his creation, he was bound to do ; and, after having done it, he would have been only " an unprofitable servant." Supposing him to be capable of meriting any thing, he could have merited only for himself. If it be said, that the Divine appointment was sufficient to make his sufferings available for us also, I answer, that, according to that argument, the same value might as easily have been stamped on the sacrifices of the Mosaic law, if God had seen fit to do so. But the Apostle has said, that " it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins." And why not possible ? If a Divine appointment were to stamp on one sacrifice a value which it possessed not, it might as well do so on another. But, if the impossibility arise from the inefficacy of a creature s blood, then it must attach to one creature as well as to another. For how remote soever two creatures may be asunder, their distance is but finite : whereas, to take away sin, the value of a sacrifice must be infinite : it must satisfy the demands of infinite justice, and entail upon the sinner all the blessings of infinite love and unbounded mercy. The divinity of our blessed Lord renders all this practicable to him. And it is this consideration which
1 1 Tim. in. 16. k Acts xx. 28.
1 Jer. xxiii. 6. m Rom. ix. 5.