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
they were infected before their Conversion Gal. 4.8 he tells them they served those things which by nature were no gods It is then according to St. Paul's Judgment a great Sin to serve that which is not God by Nature If therefore I find that St. Paul obligeth me to worship any Being I may have good reason according to the Opinion we have of him to conclude That this Adorable Being is God and God too by his Nature For it is not lawful for us to worship any Being save God alone Let us learn this from the Revelations that Book wherewith the Holy Ghost hath been pleased as it were to seal up the New Testament He that preacheth this Doctrine is an Angel one of those Spirits that are well inform'd how things are carried in Heaven I say it is an Angel that teacheth us that God alone is to be worshipped Rev. 22.9 St. John falls down to worship before the feet of the Angel See thou do it not saith he And why not for adds he I am thy fellow servant Conclude we then That whatsoever is bound to worship God cannot be an Object of Adoration Who then is it that we are to adore Worship God saith the Angel God only deserves the honour of Adoration under the New Testament as well as under the Old There is no solid Reasoning in the world if after having established this Principle I may not conclude thence that our Blessed Saviour is God with respect to one of his Natures seeing the Gospel makes it our Duty to worship him Will it be necessary to prove that this Adoration is a Worship practis'd and prescrib'd by the Apostles Why we need but open the Books of the New Testament and we shall meet with the Proof of it You will see the Apostles themselves and many other Believers worshiping the Lord without the least check from him or saying to them See thou do it not Let none wrangle here about the Word Adoration They take Jesus Christ for the Son of God and they adore him under that Notion He hath never rejected or disowned this Worship but hath received it as a Tribute due unto him We meet with a Character in the Stile of Sacred Authors which puts the Divine Adoration we owe to our Saviour out of the reach of any manner of Contradiction They are wont to interrupt their Stile by Doxologies to the Honour of God And the same they do to our Saviour and in the same Terms and that in several places 1 Pet. 4.11 Rev. 1.5 6. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen They are the words of St. Peter Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God even his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen As St. John expresseth himself in the beginning of his Revelation What are we to conclude from hence that the Apostles make use of these kind of Doxologies to the honour of Jesus but this That he is truly equal with his Father and that they honour him after one and the same manner Pursue we this Point a little farther and examine more particularly wherein this Adoration doth consist that so we may be the better inform'd what the Eminency of his Divine Nature is In the Chapter that hath furnish'd us with our Text we see that our Lord hath a Name above every Name Phil. 2.9 10. that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Thus it is that the Scripture Language expresseth the whole Universe of things All things must bend the Knee to Jesus which yet is not to be understood of those five Letters as if that Name did merit a more singular veneration than the other Names of our Saviour The Custom which hath been introduc'd of bowing themselves at the pronunciation of the Name of Jesus is not founded upon these words of St. Paul but only because the Christians thought it necessary to make this Mark of Respect the Test of their Belief in his Divinity So that indeed it is to his person that we owe the honour of Genuflexion Every thing must bow before our Lord He hath received a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow We have an excellent Explication of those words in those Passages of Scripture where we see that in our Christian Religion all things must be done in the Name of Jesus Nothing can be imagin'd greater than this Honour Christians are baptized in this Name they believe in this Name they work Miracles in this Name they are justified in this Name they meet together in this Name they pronounce their Deliberations in this Name they preach in this Name they suffer for this Name they pray in this Name they return Thanks in this Name and in one word to make use of the words of St. Paul Whatsoever they do in word or deed they do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus I demand therefore Whether ever any Creature was thus glorified in Israel Is it not notorious that the Name of God only was named amongst that People no other Name was heard of amongst them in their Church but the Name of God only They did not swear but by the Name of God they did not bless but in the Name of God they heard of no Deliverances but in the Name of God they glorified no other Name but that of God only What therefore must we conclude him to be whose Name must be celebrated under the New Covenant that is throughout all the Earth as the Name of God was under the Old Covenant that is to say in a very small Corner of the World The Father allows the Son to be glorified more than he himself hath been as it were to make an amends to the Son for his Subordination under which he appears with regard to the Father Whatever it be the Name of the Son holds a Sovereigh Rank and not that of a Prophet or Ambassador These Deputies do all things in the Name of the Sovereign who hath deputed them not in their own Wherefore since the Name of Christ is made use of every where it is an uncontestable Mark that he is Master that he is King that he is Sovereign yea that he is God blessed for ever Let no body reply here That all this was done in time I am not afraid to assert God can constitute no Sovereign in his Church because in doing so he must renounce the unalienable Right of his Nature which admits no Peer neither in Heaven nor on Earth But the Name of Jesus Christ hath been thus elevated because according to one of his Natures he is the Son This is a Mystery he himself opens to us when after having said in the 11th Chapter
of a woman Here we have the Son of God and the Son of a Woman and in the Epistle to Timothy God was manifest in the Flesh But there is no Passage where this Opposition is more distinctly set forth than that which we have made choice of on a day set aside by the Church for a Memorial of our Saviour's Humiliation Who being in the Form of God saith St. Paul though it no Robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation or Emptied himself as the word in the Original signifies The design of these words was to oblige the Philippians to Humility and Charity There could be nothing of greater force to engage them to the practice of these two Vertues than the Example of Jesus Christ They knew what pass'd when our Saviour wash'd his Disciple's Feet Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one anothers feet For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you Verily verily I say unto you the servant is not greater than his Lord c. This Principle being incontestably admitted by the Philippians St. Paul could not alledge a more pressing Motive to establish amongst them a Spirit of Humility and Charity than was that of the Example of our dear Lord where both these Vertues appear with so much lustre Let therefore saith the Apostle this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he emptied himself and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men These words furnish us with two great Subjects for our Meditation the Glory of the Eternal Divinity of Jesus Christ and his Emptying of himself in his Incarnation In order to a thorough Explication of the words which concern the Divinity of our Saviour we must first consider the Literal Sense and then search as far as the weakness of our Understanding will permit into the Doctrine therein contain'd The Literal sense of these words presents us with three Propositions The First is That Jesus Christ was before that he was made man The Second That he was in the form of God before ever he was in the form of man The Third That he thought it no robbery to be equal to his heavenly Father These are the Three Propositions St. Paul expresseth here very clearly The First is That Jesus Christ was before that he became Man Who saith St. Paul being or as it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the form of God did empty himself or was made man That which is not cannot abase it self or become Man A Truth which is proved at the very Proposal of it It would be hard to guess wherein the Soundness of St. Paul's Reasoning did consist if Jesus Christ had not existed before he was born of the Virgin Mary This way of arguing can have no Foundation but this That Christ passed from one Condition to another from a State of Glory to a State of Abasement and in so doing hath set an Example wherein a mixture of Humility and Charity invite or rather force Christians to an Imitation A Doctrine truly worthy of St. Paul But what sense shall we make of it if it be not true that our Saviour before his Birth of the Blessed Virgin was not in a more Glorious State than was that which he entred upon by his Nativity Should we allow our selves to suppose that Jesus Christ began to exist by his Conception in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin could we in this case be able to say That he humble himself to that degree as to be willing to be born after the manner of Men Humility consists in stepping down lower Now that which is not cannot descend nor consequently humble it self He was therefore before that he emptied himself by his Temporal Nativity This is a Truth so clearly asserted in Scripture that the opposite Error cannot be entertained by any but those who either openly or secretly reject the Authority of that Divine Book I will not go about to quote all the Passages we find there to prove the Pre-existence of our Blessed Saviour the number of them is so great that it would take up too much of our time Nevertheless for confirmation of the Proposition we are about we shall put you in mind that Jesus Christ himself declares that he was come down from Heaven and that he was in Heaven before ever he ascended thither This Pre-existence will appear very evidently by a Set of gradual Proofs drawn from the Scriptures concerning it Our Blessed Saviour was before John the Baptist tho he as his Forerunner was born before him Hear we the Deposition of this Illustrious Witness John 1.30 This is he of whom I said After me cometh a man who is preferred before me for he was before me Nay what is more our Saviour was in Moses his time who was so many Ages before John the Baptist for is it not said That the Isralites contemporary with that great Law giver did tempt Christ Neither let us tempt Christ saith our Apostle as some of them also tempted 1 Cor. 10.9 10. and were destroyed of Serpents When Moses refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and forsook the Court of Aegypt to follow the Divine Call the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews informs us Heb. 11.26 that in so doing he preferr'd the reproach of Christ before the treasures of Egypt Let us go further still and we shall find that our Blessed Lord was before Abraham John 8.58 Verily verily I say unto you Before Abraham was I am This was a very emphatical Testimony to the Jews who look'd upon this Patriarch as the first Stock of their Nation Let us go back as far as Noah and we shall find that our Saviour was at that time also according to the Testimony of St. Peter who tells us That Jesus Christ preached to the spirits that were disobedient in the time of Noah ◠Pet. 3.19 So long since Jesus Christ took care of Sinners Neither must we stop here for if we look back to the beginning of the World John 1.1 Col. 1.17 we shall find our Saviour assisting there In the beginning was the word He is before all things Indeed how could it be otherwise but that he must have been at the beginning of the world since the world ows its Creation to him Without him was not any thing made that was made I was brought forth when yet there were no depths John 1.3 Prov. 8.24 25 nor fountains abounding with water Before the Mountains were setled before the hills was I brought forth As the Wise King introduceth our Saviour speaking in the 8th Chapter of the Proverbs Neither must we conclude from all these