"We of one," of one father Adam, as well as of one Father God, and therefore of one common nature; "for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the church will I sing praises unto thee."* Now, by this event, our common nature is at once unspeakably honoured and advantaged. For hereby, 2dly, he was made acquainted by experience with our infirmities, learned to sympathize with us under them, and became as willing as able to "It behooved succour and support us in all our trials and troubles. him," says the apostle, " to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest:" and again, have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Thus, 3dly, He was qualified to appear among us, as one of ourselves, and to instruct us, in a free and familiar manner, so as neither to overawe and alarm our minds, nor astonish and overpower our faculties, which would have prevented all just discernment of, and rational information concerning the important truths he was sent to communicate. Thus, 4thly, His example became adapted to our weakness, and proper for our imitation, which the example of a spiritual and heavenly Being that had never dwelt in flesh, could not have been. And I need not say how much such an example was wanted, to direct mankind in their pursuit of spiritual and moral excellence. It is, however, of more importance that I should observe, 5thly, That being thus clothed with flesh, and made man in our nature, he was qualified to atone for sin, by suffering the penalty due to it, a penalty, which was necessary to be suffered by one that was very man, that sin might be condemned in the nature that had offended. "It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren in all things," says the apostle, "that, as a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, he, might make reconciliation for the sins of the people." And in what way he made this reconciliation, is not a subject of conjecture: It was by offering up on the cross his whole human nature, soul and body, as a sacrifice for sin. For he himself, in the whole human nature, the man Christ Jesus, gave himself a ransom for all,† and was offered to bear the sins of many." And, as he was thus qualified to expiate sin, and to procure for us redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of it; so thus it was, 6thly, that he overcame † 1 Tim. ii. 6. + Heb. ix. 28. * Heb. ii. 12. death and the grave. For in him we see our very human nature raised from the dead, and invested with immortality. Hence, we are said to be begotten again to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, he being raised from the dead, as "the first-fruits of them that sleep," and his resurrection being a pledge of ours. Now, if he had not been truly man, but a being of an entirely different nature, his resurrection could have been no earnest of ours, nor could it, in the nature of things, have afforded us any just ground for hoping that we should rise also. But when we see one of ourselves, one that was as truly man as we are, rising from the dead, we have good reason for believing that we shall rise also; especially considering that he rose as a public person and representative of all his people, and for this very purpose among others, to give us assurance of our resurrection and immortality. Thus the author of the Night Thoughts, in just and expressive language, "Whose nature then Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb! Then, then I rose; then first humanity Triumphant pass'd the crystal ports of light, Now, the resurrection of the Messiah, and our resurrection through him, are continually represented in Scripture as the consequence and evidence of his being the Son of God in a peculiar sense, "Declared to be the Son of God with power," that is, powerfully or evidently, says the apostle,* "by the resurrection from the dead:" "The promise made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled, in that he raised up Jesus again," as it is also written in the second Psalm, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," that is, revived or restored thee from the dead. As the Son of God, he was the Prince of life, and, therefore, as St. Peter observes,† could not be held under the power of death. Accordingly, the prophet here informs us, that the Child born, is the Son given. 5. This appellation of Son, it must be here observed, not only determines the sex of the Child, but refers, 1st. To his miraculous conception, foretold in the 7th chapter of this prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and call his name Imma nuel." In consequence of this, even as man, he is termed, and is the Son of God. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." How important, and indeed necessary it was, that the Messiah should be the Son of God in this sense; I mean, that he should be of miraculous conception, I need not say. You all know, I presume, that it was as necessary as that he should be without sin. Had he not been without sin himself, his sufferings and death could not have been an expiation of our sins, as he would have deserved to suffer and die for his own sins. And that he should have been without sin, would have been impossible, if he had been of ordinary generation, conceived and born as all the other children of fallen Adam are. Add here, that this his miraculous conception of itself, independent of all other circumstances, gave a dignity and worth to his person, which evidently rendered it of more estimation than the persons of all men. 66 6. It does not appear, however, that this is the chief reason why he is termed the Son here. It is evident, I think, from the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, that he is termed the Son of God, chiefly in another respect, that is, with regard to his pre-existent and divine nature. In this light several of the most judicious of the ancient Fathers, as Tertullian and Ambrose, and of the most learned and accurate commentators among the moderns, as Beza, Pool, Henry, and others, have considered Rom. i. 3, 4. concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," that is, evidently, the human nature; and " declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness," that is, they suppose, according to his pre-existent and divine nature, termed a "quickening Spirit," and the Lord from heaven," 1 Cor. xv. 45, and 47. and "the eternal Spirit," Heb. ix. 14. Thus the antithesis, which seems to have been intended by the apostle, between the two natures of Christ, viz. that whereby he was the offspring, and that whereby he was the root of David, is preserved, which it is not, and cannot be, on any other interpretation whatever. Be this as it will, when, Rom. viii. 3. God is said to have " sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh," and, Gal. iv. 4. to have " sent forth his Son," the manner of speaking seems evidently to imply, that he was God's Son before he was so sent. Add to this that "the Word," which is said, John i. 1. to have been " in the beginning with God," and afterward to have been "made flesh," is, verse 14. expressly termed, the only-begotten of the Father. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (eoxvwos, literally, tabernacled) among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." But the most clear and decisive proof which we have from Scripture, of his being the Son of God before his incarnation, is found Heb. i. 1. "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds :" which words certainly signify that he was the Son of God, when the worlds were made by him, and though perfectly and indissolubly united to, and one with his Father, yet to be distinguished from him, for he is immediately described to be "the brightness," aжavyarμa, the effulgence of his glory, and the express image of his person," as a son is the image of his father. 66 7. And that this divine person was the Son of God, in a pecuHar sense, a sense in which no other being, whether man or angel, is or can be his son, is evident from this consideration, that the apostle argues and proves his superiority to the highest creatures, on this one ground of his sonship. Being so much better than the angels," says he, " as he hath by inheritance," or birthright, "obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son: And again, when he bringeth his first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship kim." The apostle does not mean that no other beings have ever been termed in the sacred writings, the sons of God. We know that angels are so called in the book of Job,* and that the appellation of son of God is given to Adam, by the evangelist St. Luke: angels and Adam being, in a peculiar sense, God's offspring, created by his immediate power. Nay, and fallen men, when adopted into God's family, and regenerated by his grace, are, by virtue of that adoption and regeneration, termed sons of God. Magistrates also, who are God's deputies and representatives, and bear the image of his authority and power, are called "children of the Most High," as all the people of God shall be, in a more exalted sense, when they shall be raised from the dead, and invested with new and immortal bodies, conformed to Christ's glorious body.§ They shall be peculiarly "children of God, being children of the *Job xxxviii. 7. ↑ John i. 12. Gal. iv. 4-7. Psalms. resurrection." But none of them are, nor can be, termed sons or children of God, in that proper sense in which Christ has this appellation given him. 8. He, and only he, is the Word, the essential, living, and creating Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was God: which was with and in the Father from eternity, and issued forth, as the ancient fathers often speak, in a substantial form, to give birth to the universe," all things," as St. John assures us, “being made by him, and without him nothing being made that was made." Thus Athenagoras, "being always in him, (the Father,) but coming forth before all things, to be the idea, and active power of all material beings;" that is, to plan and execute, to contrive and produce the nature and form of every creature. "The Word, whom the Father begat," says Theophilus, "sending him forth before all things, who was always in God, and became Aoyos rgoPogixos (the Word brought forth,) when he would create the world." "Whom he made podav, to leap from him, says Justin Martyr and Tatian, he being in him before all things. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks in similar terms, when he calls him προελδου ο λόγος δημιερ 2105, "The Word, which is the cause of the creation, coming forth, by which all things were made." As also Tertullian, who describes him as "the Word brought forth by the Father, and by that prolation generated, and therefore the Son of God." Such are the terms in which the apostles, and those eminently learned and pious men, that were their immediate successors in the ministry of the Word, have thought proper to express their ideas of this Onlybegotten of the Father, before his incarnation, and, perhaps, we cannot do better than speak of him in similar language, only laying our account with this, that after all we can utter or conceive, his person and generation will remain an unsearchable mystery. For, as my text says, and as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter, his name is Wonderful. 9. Now, this Son of God is said, in our text, to be given unto us; and our Lord himself speaks in similar language, John iii. 16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son. Of him, also, is St. Paul to be understood, when he thanks God for his unspeakable gift. He is given to us, so that he becomes ours, with all that he is and has, if we are prevailed on to accept of him. The Word, the divine and eternal Word, which spake every thing into existence, being made flesh, is given to be our kind and condescending teacher, in matters of infinite and everlasting moment, to instruct, advise, command, reprove, exhort, and comfort all, who, |
