Imatges de pàgina
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Chap. 1.

quired therein. Humane Laws are Sinaia xıréuera, movable orders, fuch as turn about with time; but the Moral Law is by its intrinfecal rectitude fo immorta lized, that, as long as God is God, and man man, it cannot be altered.

After all these Manifeftations, God revealed himfelf to the World in and by Jefus Chrift; this is the last and greatest appearance of all. In the inferiour creatures there is a footstep of God, but not his Image; in man there is his Image, but a finite, a created one: but Jefus Chrift is the infinite increated Image of God. The nearer any creature doth in its perfections approach to God, the more it reveals him; life fhews forth more of him than meer being, fenfe than life, Reason than all the reft: but oh! what a spectacle hath Faith, when an humane nature fhall be taken into the Person of God, when the fulnefs of the Godhead fhall dwell in a creature Hypostatically! Here the Eternal Word which framed the World was made flesh; the infinite Wisdom which lighted up Reafon in man, affumed an Humanity; never was God so in man, never was man fo united to God, as in this wonderful Difpenfation: more glory breaks forth from hence than from all the Creation. We have here the Center of the Promises, the fubftance of the types and fhadows, the Complement of the Moral Law, and Holiness and Righteoufnefs, not in letters and fyllables, but living, breathing, walking, practically exemplified in the Humane nature of Jefus Christ.

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CHAP. II.

Chrift confidered as a Prophet and á fpeculum. The Divine Attributes fhine in him, particularly Wisdom. The obftacles of Redemption to be removed. The Son of God fit for the work: many admirable conjunctions of God and Man, of Justice and Mercy, of Punishment and Obedience in Chrifts fufferings; of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law; of Satisfaction and Merit; of Merit and Example; all tending to our Salvation. The rare conquest of Sin, Satan, the World, Death; Humility of mind necessary. The defperate iffue of the pride of humane Reason; need of Humility from the threefold ftate of Reason, in Integrity, after the Fall, after Faith.

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ESUS CHRIST, as he is the eternal Son of God, is the brightness of his glory,and the express Image of his perfon, Heb. 1.3. But because our weakness could not bear fo excellent a Glory without being fwallowed up by it, he veiled himself in our flesh, that he, who was light of light in the eternal Generation, might become the light of the World in an admirable Incarnation; and fuch he was under a double notion. He may be confidered either as revealing the Gospel, and thus he is the great Prophet, who from his Fathers bofom brought down fo many pretious truths and mysteries to the World; or else as fet forth in the Gospel in his conception, birth, life, death, refurrection and exaltation at Gods right hand; and thus he is fpeculum Theologia, a pure glafs of Divinity. Hence the Apostle tells us, that the light

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Chap. 2. of the knowledg of the glory of God is in the face of Jefus Chrift, 2 Cor. 4. 6. This latter Notion is that which this difcourfe aims at, to contemplate those many Truths which are either lively expreffed in the Incarnate Word, or may be reasonably drawn from that incomparable Difpenfation.

God, that he might help our weakness, and attract our faith to himself, hath been pleased to come, as it were, out of his unapproachable light, and manifeft himself in Attributes, fuch as Wisdom, Holiness, Juftice, Grace, Mercy, Power, with the like. These Rays of the divine Perfection are let down on pur-pofe, that we might fanctifie him in our hearts, that our fouls might be in a pofture of holy humility, faith, fear, love, joy, and obedience, fuitable to those Excellencies in him. My firft work therefore must be, to fhew how these Attributes are difplayed in Jefus Chrift: We all with open face behold as in a glafs the glory of the Lord, faith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 3. 18. Jefus Chrift is that pure Glafs wherein the glory of God, that is, the divine Attributes, fo eminently fhine forth to us, that we may contemplate them with open face.

To begin firft with the Attribute of Wisdom ; this is the great Difpofer, which in all things places the Center and draws the lines, fixes the end and har monizes the means thereunto. There is a fair impress of it in the work of Creation, much more in that of Redemption: a Nobler end there cannot be than Gods glory in the Salvation of loft man, nor a more admirable means than God manifeft in the flesh. This is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery, 1 Cor. 2.7; a thing more fublime than all the fecrets in the Creation. Humane reafon may by its own innate light go into the

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outward Temple of Nature, but into the Sanctuary Chap. 2. of Evangelical myfteries it cannot, unless fupernaturally illuminated, ever enter; and when it is there, it is capable but of a little portion thereof: nay, the very Angels, who ftoop down to pry into it, are not able to fearch it to the bottom, nor to tell over the treasures of Wisdom which are in it. This is TouToíninos copía, the manifold wisdom of God, Ephef. 3. 10. Never was fuch a conftellation of Attributes as there is here: that Power, Wisdom, and Goodnefs which appeared in Creation, are here in greater luftre; and over and above Holiness, Juftice and Mercy fhine forth in their orient Excellencies: never did the glory of God fo break forth, as it doth in this wonderful Difpenfation.

That we may the better view it, it will be requifite to confider, firft, the obftacles in the way, and then how admirably the divine Wisdom did pass through them and accomplish the great Work.

The Obstacles were fuch as thefe :

1. Man turning apoftate from his God and primitive Integrity, justly funk himself into an horrible gulf of fin and mifery. Sin lay upon him, and wrath for fin; the broken Law pronounced Death, an eternal curse against him; divine Juftice appeared through the threatning like devouring fire, ready to catch hold on him as fit fuel for eternal flames; unless Satiffaction were made, he must have gone into Hell, the proper place for irremediable finners: in this forlorn eftate, what may he, can he, do? Shall he melt himself into repentant tears, or confecrate himself unto perpetual Holiness? Alas! depraved Nature cannot elevate it felf unto thefe, nor will Grace difpenfe them to an unatoned finner: nay, could they be had, they would be as finite nothings in comparison of

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Chap. 2.

that infinite Satisfaction which Juftice calls for. Sin is an infinite evil, objectively infinite, a kind of deicidium, a striking at the Majefty, Holiness, Justice, nay, the very Life and Being of God,and without another deicidium, a crucifying the Lord of glory, which is a Sacrifice of infinite value, not to be expiated. Which confideration alfo tells us, that all the Angels in Heaven, though creatures without fpot, could not have been able to haye fatisfied for the fin of man; all that they have is but finite, the burden of Gods wrath was much too heavy for them: one fin funk their fellow-Angels into chains of darkness, and how could they stand under a world of iniquity? The titles of Saviour and Redeemer, which equal, if not exceed that of Creator, were too high for them: and how could they who knew their own station, and were. confirmed therein, attempt or fo much as caft an af piring glance after them? Upon the whole matter, we fee this firft Obstacle is fuch, as no creature in Heaven and Earth was able to remove out of the way.

2. Ex parte creature, the impoffibility is apparent: may we look up to Heaven? There feems to be a division above, a kind of variance among the divine Attributes: On the one hand Mercy, that tender indulgent Attribute, seems to melt and cry out over fallen man; What! fhall man, made after the divine Image,. a poor feduced creature, fhall he, nay, his whole. race Eternally perifh fhall I have never a Monument among the fons of men, nay, nor in the whole Creation? fhall nothing of the humane nature ferve God or enjoy him? On the other, Justice pleaded, That every one must have his due,the wages of fin is death, the Majesty of Heaven must not be offended, nor his facred

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