it self but uniting personally with the Man Jesus it appropriated to it self all the Infirmities of this Second Nature and it is true to say That God emptied himself that he was made man that he shed his Blood It would be matter of trouble to us should you believe that the Divinity of Jesus Christ passed through all these Degrees of Abasement No this is impossible it is of the Essence of God always to continue God Jesus Christ is in this respect the same yesterday and to day and for ever He has therefore only emptied himself by entring into Union with an Infirm and Mortal Man in such a manner as that the two Natures constitute only one Person much after the same manner as the Soul and Body united by the Bonds of Life make only one Person This Explication which we have thought necessary doth not hinder but that there remain still many Wonders in the Mystery of the Incarnation It is always true that the Word hath emptied it self It is always true that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ hath found the Secret to be made Man and to humble himself for us We have in this Mystery two great Motives to Gratitude the Birth and Death of Jesus Christ The Child is born to us the Son is given to us we celebrate in one and the same Day two great Festivals Christmas and Easter It is our duty to solemnize them by a redoubling of our Zeal one only of these Mysteries claims all our Thankfulness What shall we do for a God who was willing for our sakes to live after the manner of men The Eternal Word which had no need of us hath emptied himself for to make us happy O Adorable Word Thou hadst not the same concern for the Angels that have left their Station Thou hast not clothed thy self with their Nature though more excellent than ours but hast honoured our Earth in taking it upon thee Our merciful Redeemer was willing to pass through the Womb of a Virgin there to take upon him Flesh like ours What shall we render to God for so great a Favour Let us take the Cup of Blessing and glorifie God in the Language of Angels Glory be to God on high Let us glorifie him as much as is possible for us Could we speak to the Angels as they spake to the Shepherds we would repeat to those Blessed Spirits the Words which they themselves have taught us This day a Child is born to us Glory be to God in the highest We cannot sufficiently glorifie him here on Earth do ye therefore help us to glorifie him If we be not able to render unto our Saviour all the Glory that is due unto him for his Birth what shall we say with respect to his Death which we have this Morning celebrated It was much in him to be born for us but it is much more to die for us What! have our hearts nothing to say on occasion of this Death Sure had they been dumb or insensible as to the Mystery of the Incarnation shall not the Death of Christ put life into them What can have any power over you if this Death can make no Impression upon you Pray what will be able to move you What will be able to engage you to serve God if this do not But I don't consider that I am speaking to those who for the most part have been entertain'd at the Lord's Table If all that Funeral Furniture wherewith he appears in the Eucharist if these Sacred Symbols which convey as it were the Death of Jesus Christ into your very Bowels have not been able to move your Hearts no Sermon will be of force enough to stir them In this case your heart must be altogether insensible so that Words can have no effect upon it We may suppose therefore that before your entring into this place you have fill'd your Souls with that double Solemnity to which this Day invites you and that after having seriously meditated the Birth and Death of our Saviour you have put your selves into a State of Repentance you have put on your Wedding Garments to go to meet your Bridegroom We must also suppose that you have renewed your Repentance in approaching to this Holy Table It is a hard thing so nearly to behold what our Blessed Lord hath done for us without being pierc'd and penetrated thereby At this happy meeting of your Heart with the Mercy of God you have bewailed your Sins and have promised a more holy Conversation for time to come We cannot believe that since that happy Moment you have chang'd your thoughts you are still the same and your Piety still preserves all its heat for otherwise what would be comparable to your Inconstancy what in two hours time to change your most solemn Vows and Promises into Perjuries this is scarce possible We suppose therefore that you are still in that good state even in that state of Repentance wherein you were when you communicated The only thing that still remains for us to do is to exhort you to persevere in these holy Motions We do not expect that you will always feel the same Unction or that you will be always in the same Recollection such a state is not consistent with our Frame nor with those different kinds of life to which Providence hath tied us But nothing can hinder you from performing your Promises you may live and live like Christians Were you engaged in ways of living that were inconsistent with the Spirit of our Holy Religion I would conjure you presently to quit those Professions wherein you could not be saved We must live 't is true but 't is more necessary we should be saved What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world if at the same time he loseth his own soul I can't think that amongst those that hear me there is any person whose Profession is directly contrary to Salvation but yet it is but too too visible that most Professions have their Rocks and their Dangers Snares rain down upon all the Children of Men as the Holy Spirit speaks All of you as many as are here apprehend well enough what I would say to morrow or the next day for I dare not say this day will meet with these dangers the occasions in which you have been formerly worsted will present themselves again Then be sure to call to mind your Promises to God this Day Represent this Holy Table to your Spirit recall the Solemnity of this Day be faithful to the Lord and pay your Vows to the most High We will not here run over the several Vertues to which his Service engageth you but we can do no less than specifie those to which St. Paul exhorts the Philippians upon occasion of our Lord's Example who when he was God did notwithstanding so abase himself as to be made Man yea to that degree as to die the Death of the Cross The two Vertues that are most dazling in
possessing one and the same Nature the one is suppos'd to have done what the other did Proceed we to the seventh Chapter where we meet with an Emphatical Proof of the Eternity of Christ The Apostle there teacheth us that Melchisedec is the true Portraiture of our Lord in this Type I find a King of righteousness and of Peace and so far the Resemblance is exact for we know that Righteousness and Peace kiss and embrace each other in the Original But consider we those other Lineaments that compose the Type He was without Father without Mother without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life This according to the Letter cannot be said of any Man if Melchisedec was a Man he had Father Mother Descent beginning of Days and end of Life but nothing of all this is found in the Scripture where not the least mention is made of the Family nor of the Birth nor of the Death of Melchisedec which is very strange forasmuch as the Holy Ghost hath given us the Genealogy of many Persons much less considerable how comes it to pass that it hath neglected to give us these particulars concerning the great Melchisedec Why the reason is plain his Design was to represent to us a Portraiture that might resemble our Lord Being made like the Son of God saith our Author The Holy Ghost on purpose suppresseth the Birth and Death of Melchisedec to the end that this Illustrious Unknown might the better represent the Eternity of the Son of God who is without beginning of days as he is without end of life In the 9th Chapter we find a new Proof of the Eternity of our Saviour Heb. 9.14 It is said that Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself to God What is this Eternal Spirit here mention'd It is not the Soul of our Lord that is now here called the Eternal Spirit Besides the Soul of our Lord was a part of the Sacrifice it self whereas the words speak of the Nature that offers and not of that which is offer'd Neither is it the Holy Ghost the Third Person in the Sacred Trinity he did not offer up our Saviour but he offer'd up himself it must therefore have been an other Nature which our Saviour here calls the Eternal Spirit The Godhead of Christ perform'd the Priest's Office here upon the Manhood predestinated to be the Victim for Mankind I refer also to this That Argument which the same Author draws from the Eternity of Jesus Christ to engage the Christians to persevere in his Doctrine Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever The Apostle by these words renews the Notion he had given them in the beginning of this Epistle where we have seen that he asserts the Eternity of Jesus Christ from a Text of the Old Testamnnt Indeed we find the Author had this Eternity in his eye throughout to the very end of the Epistle and 't is with reference to this that we must explain this Elogy of our Saviour which comprehends all distinction of Time past present and to come He is the same yesterday to day and for ever which answers to the Explication St. John gives us of the Eternity of the Father Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was Rev. 1.4 and which is to come And the very same Expression is attributed to Christ by St. John or rather our Saviour attributes it to himself in St. John's Revelation Rev. 1.8 I am Alpha avd Omega the Beginning and the End saith the Lord which is which was and which is to come the Almighty Who is it that speaks thus He of whom it is said in the verse foregoing Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him is the same who in the following Verse saith I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last For St. John having turned himself to see who it was whose Voice he heard saw Jesus Christ Our Lord therefore is Eternal Immensity is the Second Attribute by which our Saviour is present in all places at the same time If it were not so how could he make good the Promise made to his Disciples For where two or three are gathered together in my name Matt. 18.20 there am I in the midst of them It is very observable that this is the Language of God under the Old Law where we see that in several passages he promises to dwell amidst his People Think we that any one but the Son drust have spoke like the Father Besides I will take the boldness to say that as Grace displays it self in the Gospel the Son by promising his presence in all places saith yet more than the Father The Father assures his People that he will dwell amongst them and sometimes does even restrain this his Habitation to the compass of the Tabernacle They shall make me a Sanctuary saith he in Exodus and I will dwell in the midst of them But our Saviour extends his Promise to a much greater compass even to a wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them As if he had said That place wheresoever it be shall be to me a Jerusalem a Tabernacle a Sanctuary What can this import less than Immensity at a time when Grace overflows the whole Universe without any distinction of People In all parts of the World our Lord is present in the midst of the least Assemblies where his Name is called upon He is in all places at the same time he sees what is done there he hears all that is said there he blesseth those whom he will bless In a word he is in all places where he is call'd upon as God was in the Sanctuary of old It is well enough known that when our Saviour promiseth his presence he means a presence of his Virtue and Influences Immensity is not the proper subject of a Promise That which of its own Nature is present in all places is there whether he promise it or not but because our Lord doth promise a presence of Virtue in all places we have good reason to conclude that he is in all places This Conclusion is evident our Saviour could not act in all places if he were not in all places Now-a-days 't is maintain'd that we cannot conceive the Existence of God in any place but by some Divine Operations God is every where say they because he operates every where Say we the same of our Saviour he is every where because he acts every where For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them We need no more than common sense to convince us that if our Blessed Lord had no other Amplitude but that of his Human Nature he could never fulfil this great Promise But still to open a further Light to his Immensity we need only call to mind his Discourse with Nicodemus in the third of
of any service against the Divinity of Christ It is clear that these Words contain an opposition the opposite to true is false If the Father be called the only true God in opposition to the Son we easily see what follows It is true that there is an opposition in this place not between the Father and the Son but between the Father and whatsoever is falsly called God in the World And in this sense as it is said of the Father That he is the only true God we may also say of the Son that he is the only true God and so of the Holy Ghost because the Divine Nature which is indivisibly possess'd by these three Persons is indeed the only true God What remains now that can give us the least trouble what can be reasonably alledged against the Divinity of our Lord shall we object that he himself sometimes speaks of it with great reservedness It is very true that our Saviour with a great deal of caution and reservedness declared those Truths that were capable of setting the Jews against him The calling of the Gentiles may be one Instance for all Sometimes he wraps this Doctrine under the Vail of Parables sometimes he makes an Allusion to Histories wherein it seems that Grace was not shut up in the compass of one only People Truth can have no entrance into Souls full of darkness which as the Light of the Day comes after the Night is gone What would this Truth of the Calling of the Gentiles have produc'd if our Lord had preach'd it without any caution It would not have been believed and our Lord would have been put to death before his work had been done I speak as a Man We may say the same thing of our Saviour's Godhead which being such that the Jews could not bear the glory of it he discovers it by little and little to them he tries their hearts after that he had found by the manner of their reception of these Words I and my Father are one that it was not seasonable yet to declare this Doctrine he stops there and leads out the Thoughts of his Auditors to the Magistrates whom the Scripture calls Gods If we mind it our Lord doth not fully justifie thereby what he had said in these words I and my Father are one For never did any of the Magistrates speak at this rate what is more they never made themselves Gods nor equal with God The Scripture indeed calls them Gods but they never said they were equal with God Christ made himself God and for the justification of himself is contented to alledge the Example of the Magistrates The Case is plain our Saviour intends not to retract what he had said his Design only is to moderate the fury of the Jews Neither indeed were they fully satisfied with it they endeavour to lay hold on him but he escaped out of their hands Do we find him in this place saying That he is not God Not in the least he never said any thing that came near it Whereas indeed he ought to have said it positively and often to make his Doctrine of more efficacy to the Jews He very well knew that nothing was so offensive to them as Blasphemy and that he quite lost himself in their esteem by making himself God And yet for all this he always returns to it and frequently offers them the same occasion of offence Pray what may be the meaning of this has he no desire that his Doctrine should be received no body dare say so Why is it then that he so often toucheth the same Mystery It is plain as the Meridian Sun that nothing but the force of Truth engageth him to make himself equal with his heavenly Father He is not willing always to speak openly by a too free and open declaration of himself for in this case he would either have convinced all his Auditors or not If we suppose the first they would never have put him to death which would have been equally contrary to the Prophecies of old and to the Happiness of Mankind which stood in need of his Death If the latter they would have put him to death too soon he did need three or four years time wherein to accomplish his Work These Considerations oblige him to speak sparingly of and in part to conceal the glory of his Divinity On some occasions we find that he wholly restrains himself as in the 10th Chapter of St. John in others again he utters himself with great liberty as in the 5th Chapter of the same Gospel When there is nothing more for him to do but to die he frankly declares himself to be the Son of God I think we may say that he was the first Martyr for his own Divinity for it is upon this Declaration of his that the Jews unanimously cried out He is guilty of Death According to their Judgment he had uttered a horrid Blasphemy and by the Law deserved that Sentence should be pronounced against him How does he justifie himself of this Charge Doth he alledge that of the Magistrates or the Angels on this occasion doth he say That hel 's the Son of God because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost or because he had received the power of doing Miracles and of declaring the Truth Thus understood there was no Blasphemy in the Case and he ought if he had not been God to have set the Jews right by justifying himself in this manner But on the contrary he maintains to the last moments of his Life himself to be the Son of God in a sense which the Jews judged Blasphemy that is to say The Eternal Son of God for otherwise taken it could not be Blasphemy I shall only propound the two other Reflections tho indeed they be no less important than the former My Third Reflection is That the Doctrine I have here asserted and proved is the Doctrine of the Primitive Church This is so incontestably true that Socinus himself owns That from the first beginning of the Church Socin Epist 3. ad Radec Ab ipso ferme nascentis Ecclesiae initio tot Viros non minus Pietate quam Doctrinâ clarissimâ—â— tot Christi Sanctissimos Martyres ad eout nullus sit numerus eum alioqui grovissimum errorem secutoâ— fursse quod Christus sit unus ille Deus qui omnia creavit aut certe exillius substantia propria genitus there have been a great number of Learned Men Saints and Martyrs who believed that Jesus Christ was that God who created all things or that he was begotten of his own Substance This express Acknowledgment from an Adversary whose great interest it was to rid himself of the weight Antiquity would bear against him may very well pass for a strong Argument on an occasion where it doth not seem so proper to enter upon the Historical proof of it It hath already been shewed that the Primitive Church did believe the Eternal Divinity of our Saviour at
with sufficient Evidence of the Glory of Jesus Christ The fifth Chapter of the Gospel of St. John is that which we have pitched upon for this purpose Where at first it is manifest that the day of this Glory was a Solemn Feast amongst the Jews whom Devotion had brought together our Saviour takes this occasion to have the more Witnesses of his Glory In the following Verses mention is made of an Angel who troubling the Waters of the Pool of Bethesda made it a Soveraign Bath for the Curing of the first Sick Person that was cast into it A poor Wretch that had been Thirty eight Years troubled with the Palsie had this superadded to his Affliction that he could not partake of the Blessing of this Miracle because when the Water was troubled he having no Body to put him in another still stept in before him He whom the Angels worship presents himself to this poor Paralytick for his Comfort and saith to him Rise take up thy bed and walk And immediately the Man was made whole and took up his Bed and walked See here the voice of God and not of Man Our Saviour speaks with Authority as being the Lord and Master of Nature Rise go out hold thy Peace be thou healed c. He commanded the Winds and the Sea Devils Diseases c. The Ministers who receiv'd the Gift of Miracles from him did not express themselves with the same Authority it doth not belong to any one but him who is equal with God to speak as God The Evangelist observes that our Saviour afterwards met with this Person he had healed in the Temple and said to him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee This Man had obtained the health of his Soul the Remission of his Sins as well as the Health of his Body our Saviour commonly granting them both together This gives us occasion to take notice with what Authority he forgave Sins On a certain time having seen another Man sick of the Palsie he said unto him Man thy sins are forgiven thee Whereupon immediately the Scribes and Pharisees begin to reason with themselves saying Who is this that speaks Blasphemy Who is it that can forgive Sins but God alone The Principle they went upon was good and sound none but God alone to speak properly can forgive Sin for when Men absolve they do no more but simply declare that such Sins are pardon'd he must be equal to God that pardons Sins Authoritatively and Principally Our Lord according to his Omniscience having discover'd these Thoughts of the Scribes and Pharisees saith unto them Why do you reason in your hearts for which is easier to say Thy sins are forgiven thee or rise up and walk but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath authority upon earth to forgive sin I say unto thee Rise take up thy bed and walk The Question was not Whether our Saviour had the power of declaring as the Ministers of the Gospel do that such and such Sins are pardoned No he is accus'd here of having Blasphemed and of having usurpt the Rights of God himself that is to say that he had pronounced Absolution Magisterially and Independently Do we find Jesus Christ putting by this as a Calumny Not in the least he leaves the Jews in the Opinion wherein they were of his having spoke like God and adds that he had right so to do But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sin he saith to the Man sick of the Palsie what not thy Sins are pardoned but rise take up thy bed and go to thy house to the end these Zealots may know by this Miracle who I am It was thus that the Sins of the Man sick of the Palsie had been forgiven in the fifth Chapter of St. John This Man goes and publisheth the Cure that was wrought upon him amongst the Jews who were offended at it because it had been done on the Sabbath Day What doth our Lord to take off this Scandal He answers by making himself equal with God My Father worketh hitherto and I work also that is as much as to say There is no more Sabbath to me than to my Father the Law of Times and Feasts doth not reach us The Jews enrag'd to hear this answer from our Saviour sought to kill him not only saith the Evangelist because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God If it had not been so our Lord would not have fail'd to detest the Blasphemy But instead of this he proves that he had reason to make himself equal with God and carries this equality to the very highest pitch of Glory For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them saith he even so the Son quickneth whom he will that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 'T is impossible for any one to equal himself more positively with God than our Saviour here doth in these words They do not in the least stand in need of a Commentary to allow us to say with St. Paul That our Blessed Saviour thought it no Robbery to be equal with God his Father This Literal Sense we have hitherto explained may be further illustrated by several Oppositions Can we make any question but that St. Paul in proposing this great Truth to the Philippians had an Eye to the false Apotheosis of Paganism Amongst those gods that the World worshipp'd there were some that never had been others that were no more and a third sort that were yet in being but were nothing less than gods The gods that never had been owed their Original to Poesie and Fable The gods that had been Mâ—n but were dead had been honour'd this way either out of Thankfulness or out of Policy the gods that were yet in being but that were nothing less than gods were Men yet alive to whom base Flattery erected Altars All was full of Robbery nothing was seen but Sacriledge and Usurpations of the Divinity St. Paul in opposition to all these False gods saith that our Lord and Saviour was in the Form of God before ever he was known by Men they were not Men therefore that put him in the Form of God Their Divinities were made such by the Adoration that was paid them by Men which made Tertullian say That to speak properly it was indeed Man that was propitious to God because he could not become God till after it had pleas'd Man to declare him such But the difference is glorious on our Saviour's side he was God before that ever Men knew him or worshipp'd him yea even
St. John's Gospel No man hath ascended up to heaven but hothat came down from heaven Joh. 3.13 even the Son of Man which is in heaven He is discoursing with Nicodemus here on Earth and at the same time tells him he is in Heaven This can admit of no tolerable explication but by means of that Immensity whereby he fills heaven and earth These are the two Divine Attributes that are absolutely incommunicable to Creatures Let us next run over the other Attributes that are by some way of Analogy communicable to them but are possest by God in the highest degree of Absoluteness and Perfection I shall not say that our Saviour is Holy that he is Intelligent that he is Powerful and Merciful which are the four Attributes that remain to be examined Should we say no more than so all this may be attributed to Creatures We find amongst them Holiness Knowledge Power and Mercy No body can doubt but that if we make it evident that our Lord possesseth all these four Perfections as God doth you will be furnish'd with as many Demonstrations to evince the Divinity of our Saviour Our Saviour then is Holy but so as God is which we prove from a plain Text of Scripture The Prophet Isaiah tells us in his sixth Chapter that he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne amidst the Acclamations of the Seraphims who cried one to another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts Would you know who this Lord or rather Jehovah is to whom they give the threefold Compellation of Holy St. John the Evangelist will resolve you who tells us in the twelfth Chapter of his Gospel that Isaiah spake of our Saviour Joh. 12 41. These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him Some have been of Opinion that Isaiah was condemn'd to Death because he had presum'd to say That he had seen him who was invisible This seem'd to be a meer piece of Blasphemy but what can be imagin'd more abominable than that which St. John tells us here if our Blessed Lord be not indeed the King the Lord of Hosts the Holy One of Israel Let us make no scruple to believe the Beloved Disciple who repos'd himself on the Breast of the Son of God Trust we the piercing sight of this Eagle who took so near a view of this glorious Son Rely we upon the Testimony of an Evangelist whose end in writing his Gospel was to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God It is he assures us that he whom the Seraphims with so much Humility adore crying to one another and saying Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts was no other than our Blessed Lord. We say further That he hath Knowledge also but as God He knows all that God knows Remember always that we speak of the Son of God We know that the Son of Man had a Knowledge which encreas'd by degrees and what is more that he did not know all things No man knows that hour saith he no not the Son of Man This is true of the Son of Man or of the Human Nature of our Saviour but the Son of God the Divine Nature in our Saviour knew that which the Son of Man knew not The Son of God knows all that God knows that is all things St. Peter tells us as much Lord saith he thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee This Knowledge is Universal and to take a view of it that way where with one cast of the Eye you may discover it to be the Knowledge of God we need only to observe that the Eyes of our Lord pierce to the very bottom of Man's Heart Thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee St. Peter's Heart was not the only Heart that was known to Christ All things were naked and open before him Lord thou knowest all things The Proposition is general The Scribes and Pharisees those Hypocritical Professors could not hide their most secret Thoughts from him this Truth appears from many passages of the Gospel To Cite only one place which by reason of its generality comprehends all the rest we need only take notice of what St. John saith towards the end of the Second Chapter of his Gospel But Jesus did not commit himself unto them saith he Joh. 2.24 25. because he knew all men and needed not that any should testifie of man for he knew what was in man The Case here mentioned is not that of a Prophet to whom God discovers the Heart of some particular Man The Knowledge which the Gospel ascribes to our Saviour is Universal no Heart escapes him He knew what was in man A Knowledge that God in a most peculiar manner appropriates to himself in several places of the Old Testament I know my God 1 Chron. 29.17 Jerem. 17.10 that thou triest the heart said David towards the latter end of his Life I the Lord search the heart I try the reins saith he himself by the Mouth of the Prophet Jeremy Let us read to the end of the Verse Even continues he to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings 'T is God that speaks here and he speaks as God he speaks like himself Never did any Prophet speak thus And yet this is the very passage our Lord ascribes to himself in the Revelation speaking to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Words that make it evident that our Saviour declares expresly that it was himself that spake in Jeremy and that the Knowledge of the Heart of Man belongs to him in chief The Fifth Attribute whereby we learn to know the Divine Nature of Christ is his Power He is powerful but so as to be powerful as God he is the Almighty In Virtue of this power the Son doth all that the Father doth Joh. 5.19 What things soever the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise Doth the Father raise the Dead So doth the Son also he quickneth whom he will Doth the Father create the World The Son doth so likewise Which two instances shew us the extent of the Father's Power Indeed we cannot conceive any greater than that of restoring Life to the Dead and that of creating such a World as this is and yet both these belong to our Saviour In the first place he hath raised the Dead but have not others done the same Miracle Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament and the Disciples of our Lord in the New have not they also raised some that were Dead who for all that never pretended to be equal with God True it is that Elijah and Elisha each of them raised a Child to Life but with what pains do they work these Miracles God makes them sweat for it
of St. Matthew Matt. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father he adds to shew that he had received this Power because he was the Eternal Son of God And no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son We shall have occasion once more to speak of this matter But we proceed now to a more particular enquiry wherein the Worship we owe to Jesus Christ our Lord doth consist There is no question but that Genuflexion and bowing of the Body are comprehended in the sense of these words but they extend yet further they signifie all the Worship we owe to the Godhead This is the Signification they have in the Prophets whence they are taken I have sworn by my self that unto me every knee shall bow Isa 45.23 saith God by the Prophet Isaiah All the kinds of Adoration are express'd in this manner of speaking Prostration of the Body humiliation of Soul and even the total Annihilation of Man All this is due to our Lord. I will not insist upon the Bowing or Prostration of the Body because that is the least part of Worship and to speak properly is no more than a sign and a variable one too of the true Adoration for we may adore without kneeling The Church of old prayed standing for some time So that we shall add no more concerning the Adoration of the Body save only this that we owe our Body to Jesus Christ as to that God who hath created it As for the Soul which is the true Principle of Worship let us conceive all the ways whereby it is capable of adoring God all these she owes to our Saviour Jesus Christ This is that we must prove by Scripture that we may not assert any thing with relation to this Mystery without the information of this Infallible Guide Sacrifice and Trust or Confidence honour God as Sovereign In Sacrifice we offer all to God in Trust and Confidence we expect all from him Under the Old Law God reserv'd this double Honour to himself there was no Sacrificing but to him no trusting or confiding but in him All this is transferr'd to our Saviour As to Sacrifice we cannot now look for any other than that of Prayer since the time of Bloody Sacrifices is ceased The Sacrifice of Prayer is much more worthy of God than the Blood of the Ancient Sacrifices This new Sacrifice we owe to our Lord. St. Stephen dies after having offer'd up this Sacrifice to our Saviour Lord Jesus receive my Spirit cry'd that first Martyr It was with this Sacrifice that St. Paul began his Christian Race For Ananias in declaring to him what he was to do in order to obey him who had stopt him on his way to Damascus saith Acts 11.16 Why tarriest thou arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins by calling on the name of the Lord. The entrance of the Proselites into the Jewish Church was by Circumcision by Baptism and by Sacrifice Circumcision was now ceased so that there remained nothing necessary for St. Paul's admittance but Baptism and Sacrifice and accordingly he is baptized and for his Sacrifice he calls upon the Name of the Lord. This piece of Worship is so essential to Christianity that the Christians are described in several places by those that call upon the Name of the Lord. The time is come that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved Acts 2.21 Joel 2.31 1 Cor. 1.2 Words quoted from the Prophet Joel and apply'd to our Saviour In Joel they plainly belong to God And what did St. Peter and St. Paul think of when they apply'd them to our Lord if he be not God St. Peter upon occasion of the Pentecostal Miracle saith that that was a fulfilling of the words of Joel And St. Paul to shew the necessity of the preaching of the Gospel grounds his Discourse upon these words Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13 14. How then saith he shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher This therefore shews at the same time that we are to call upon Jesus Christ and to call upon him as God Confidence or Trust is the Second Branch of Divine Worship God and God alone was the Hope of Israel the Hope of David the Hope of all the Saints under the Old Law Not because God at that time did not make use of any means to deliver his People for it is plain there were Temporal Deliverers there were Moses's Gideon's David's but forasmuch as these were only Instruments in the hand of God they lifted up their eyes to the first Cause of their Deliverances and therefore said to God Thou alone art my Trust and my Rock If our Lord Jesus had only been a second Cause in the Work of our Redemption had he been no more than a Creature sent to save us we need not make any difficulty to say There would have been no more ado about him than about those Deliverers of old neither would the Name of our Saviour appear every where with that Divine Magnificence as it doth in the Gospel Why how is it that the Gospel Honours Christ neither more nor less than God was honour'd under the Old Law Christ is the Hope of the New Israel See what the Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Romans Rom. 15.12 There shall be a root of Jesse c. and in him shall the Gentiles trust He is therefore the Hope and Confidence of the Gentiles he is the Hope of all Christians If in this life only we have hope in Christ 1 Cor. 15.19 1 Tim. 1.1 saith St. Paul we are of all men most miserable Christ is called our Hope Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and of the Lord Jesus Christ our Hope So St. Paul begins his Epistle to Timothy Elsewhere Christ is called the hope of Glory or the glorious Hope Let us add to this Col. 1.27 all those passages which enjoyn us to place our Faith in Jesus Christ and all those that forbid us to put our confidence in the Creature and we shall have a demonstration capable to convince us That our Lord and Saviour is God Blessed for ever Why is all this honour put upon him Why because he is God we have no other reason there can be no other reason for it We Sacrifice to him because he is God we put our confidence in him because he is God This reason is contained in the words of St. Paul Wherefore God hath given him a name above every name That is as much as to say Phil. 2.9 because Jesus Christ is God and because he hath emptied himself for this complicated Cause a name above every name hath been given unto him We must