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SERM. which alone could appeafe God's wrath, and fatisfy his XX. juftice, and merit his favour toward us.

John xiv.

1 John ii. 1. He doth alfo (which is another facerdotal performance) 1 Tim. ii. 5. intercede for us; he intercedes as an advocate for the 13. xv. 16. pardon of our fins; (If any man fin, we have an advocate xvi. 23, 24- with (or to) the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous.) He Heb. v. 7. intercedes for the acceptance of our fervices, (whence we

Eph. v. 20.

1 Chron. xxiii. 13.

23.

Numb. vi.

23.

19, 20.

are enjoined to do all things, to pray, to give thanks in his name;) for the granting our requests; for grace and affifiEph. i. 3, 6. ance; for comfort and reward; for all spiritual bleffings and advantages to be conferred upon us; he thus pursuing the work of falvation by his propitiatory facrifice begun for us; whence, as the Apoftle to the Hebrews faith, Heb.vii. 25. he is able to fave to the uttermoft those that by him come to God, feeing he ever liveth to make interceffion for us. He doth alfo perform the prieftly function of bleffing. Lev. ix. 22, Bleffing the people in God's name, and bleffing God in the people's behalf; as did that illuftrious type of his, Melchizedek; (Blessed, said he, be Abraham of the most Gen. xiv. high God, poffeffor of heaven and earth; and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.) So hath Jefus effectually pronounced all joy and happiness to his faithful people; he pronounced Matt. v. 1, blessedness to them in his fermons ; he blessed his disciples Luke xxiv. at his parting; Lifting up his hands, he bleffed them, faith St. Luke; God in him, faith St. Paul, hath blessed us with Eph. i. 3. all spiritual bleffings in heavenly places, (or in heavenly Acts iii. 26. things ;) and, God, faith St. Peter, having raised up his fon Jefus, fent him to bless us in turning every one of us from his iniquity and at the laft day he will utter that comMatt. xxv. fortable benediction; Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So is Jefus a true and perfect Prieft. And,

&c.

50.

34.

So, finally, in all refpects, is Jefus God's anointed, and the Chrift of God; as the great Prophet and Doctor; as the Sovereign King and Prince; as the High Prieft and Advocate of his Church. And indeed that he is fo is the fundamental point of our religion; which the Apostles did peculiarly teftify, preach, and perfuade; the fincere

1

belief of which doth constitute and denominate us Chrif- SERM. tians.

IV. The confideration whereof ought to beget in us a practice answerable to the relations between him and us,

grounded thereupon.

XX.

Διὰ τῦτο δεῖ

If Jefus be fuch a Prophet, we muft, with careful atten- Heb. ii. 1, tion, and a docile mind, hearken to his admonitions and &c. instructions; we must yield a steady belief to all his doc-nuãs wgoritrine, and we must adhere constantly thereto, and we must readily obey and practise what he teaches.

χειν τοῖς ἀκεσθᾶσι, μήποτε παρ ραῤῥυῶμεν,

If he be a King, we must maintain our due allegiance to &c. him, pay him honour and reverence, fubmit to his laws and commandments, repofe truft and confidence in him, fly to his protection and affiftance in all our difficulties and needs.

If he be a Prieft, we muft with fincere faith and hope apply ourselves unto him for, and rely upon, his spiritual miniftries in our behalf; fue for and expect propitiation of our fins by virtue of his facrifice; the collation of all spiritual gifts from his interceffion; all comfort, joy, and felicity in consequence of his effectual benediction. Having Heb. x. 21, (fo the Apostle to the Hebrews admonisheth us) a great Prieft over the houfe of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full affurance of faith.

22.

In fhort, if Jefus be Chrift, let us be Chriftians; Christians, not only in name, in outward profeffion, in speculation and opinion, but in very deed and reality, in our heart and affection, in all our converfation and practice. Let every one that nameth the name of Chrift (that is, 2 Tim. ii, who confeffeth Jefus to be Christ, and himself to be his follower) depart from iniquity.

Now the God of peace, that brought from the dead our Lord Jefus Chrift, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Chrift; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

19.

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His only Son, &c.

SERMON XXI.

1 John iv. 9.

JOHN i. 14.

And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

SERM. THAT Jefus Christ our Lord is the μovoyens, the only XXI. Son of God, that is, the Son of God in a peculiar and John i. 18. high manner, otherwise far than any creature can be fo iii. 16, 18. termed, St. John doth here (and in feveral other places) suppose, or affert plainly; and it is a great point of the Christian doctrine, a special object of our faith. To fhew the truth of which, to explain how it is to be understood, and to apply the confideration thereof to our practice, fhall be the fubject and scope of our prefent difcourse.

Pf. ii. 7.

Acts xiii.

33.

I. That the Meffias, defigned by God to come into the world for the reftoring and reconciling mankind unto God, was in an especial manner to be the Son of God, even the ancient prophets did foretel and prefignify; Thou Heb. i. 5. art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, faith God of him in the fecond Pfalm. And of him, that which in the first lefs perfect fense was spoken to King Solomon, (who as the fon and heir of David, as the builder of God's house, as a prince of peace, reigning in great glory, wealth, and prosperity; as endued with incomparable wisdom, did moft fignally represent and prefigure him,) was chiefly intended for him, and did more exactly agree to him; He xxviii. 6. Shall be my fon, and I will be his father; and I will efta

1 Chron.

xxii. 10.

2 Sam. vii.

Heb. i. 5.

blish the throne of his kingdom over Ifrael for ever: and SERM. again; He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, XXI. and the rock of my falvation: Alfo I will make him my Pf. Ixxxix. firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. And accord- 26, 27. ingly it was, even before our Saviour's appearance, a perfuafion commonly paffing among the Jews, (both learned and unlearned,) that the Meffias fhould be the Son of God; as may be collected from feveral paffages in the New Teftament; in which being the Chrift and being the Son of God are conjoined as infeparable adjuncts, whereof one did imply the other, according to the fenfe then current, and previous to the embracing our Lord's doctrine. For Nathanael, we fee, was no fooner perfuaded that Jefus was the Chrift, but he (according to his anticipation, common to the people) confeffeth thus; Rabbi, thou art John i. 49. the Son of God; Rabbi, thou art the King of Ifrael. Martha in like manner being moved to declare her faith concerning Jefus, expreffeth it thus; Yea, Lord, I believe John xi. 27. that thou art the Chrift, the Son of God, which should come

into the world and likewife doth St. Peter, in the name

:

Matt. xvi.

of all his brethren, the Apostles; We have believed, and John vi. 69. have known, that thou art the Chrift, the Son of the living 16. God. St. John the Baptift alfo doth thus exprefs his belief and yield his teftimony concerning Jefus; And I John i. 34. faid, and bare record, that this is the Son of God. Yea even the high priest himself implied the fame, when examining our Lord he faid, Art thou the Chrift, the Son of Mark xiv. the Blefjed? I adjure thee by the living God, tell us, whe- Matt. xxvi. ther thou be the Chrift, the Son of God: fuppofing that to 63. be the Christ and to be the Son of God would concur in the fame perfon. Yea, the devils themfelves had learned Matt. viii. this, who cried out, What have we to do with thee, Jefus, Mark i. 24. thou Son of God?

61.

29.

Luke iv. 41,

34.

Thus did the ancient Scriptures intimate, and thus were God's people generally perfuaded about the Meffias; and that he is indeed the Son of God, the evangelical Scripture doth every where teach us, calling him not only at large the Son of God, but more emphatically the ayarros, (the darling Son of God;) the viòs Ts ȧyámns, Son Matt.iii.17.

1 i 2

xii. 18. xvii.

5.

Rom. viii.

32.

1 John v.20.

Heb. i. 6.

SERM. of God's love; the vids aλndivòs, God's true Son, (that is, fuch XXI. moft properly, in a moft excellent manner incomparably Eph. i. 6. representing and resembling God;) the dos viòs, (God's proCol. i. 13. per, or peculiar Son ;) the wpwrоróxos, God's firftborn; God's vids μovoyevǹs, his only begotten Son: all which epiJohn v. 18. thets import fomewhat of peculiar eminency in the kind Col. i. 15. and ground of this his relation unto God. The relation itself in a large fenfe, and equivocally, is attributed to Luke iii.ult. several: Adam is called the fon of God; and the angels Pf. lxxxii. are ufually entitled fuch; and princes are ftyled the chilActs xvii. dren of the Moft High; and all men are faid to be God's offspring, and good men are especially dignified with that appellation; God's people, as fuch, (the Ifraelites of old, and Chriftians now,) are the children of God; yea, God is the Father of all things, as the maker and preserver of them but all these, in comparison to Chrift, are such in a manner very inferior, and in a very improper sense; for Naz. Orat. he is the only Son of God: which denotes a relation in its kind fingular and incomparable; from which all other things are excluded.

6.

29.

Matt. v. 45.

κατά τινα

σχέσιν ύψη λοτέραν.

37.

Now that we may difcern the difference, let us confider the grounds and refpects upon which this relation of our Saviour to God is built, or the reasons why he is called the Son of God: there are feveral expreffed or implied in Scripture.

1. Chrift is called the Son of God in regard to his temporal generation, as being in a manner extraordinary conceived in the Blessed Virgin by the Holy Ghost; fo the Luke i. 35. angel exprefsly telleth us: The Holy Ghost shall come Toy upon thee, and the power of the Higheft fhall overshadow γεννώμε τον ἅγιον. thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee fhall be called the Son of God: so the Apostle also; Gal. iv. 4. When the fulness of time was come, God fent forth his Son Luke i. 32. made of a woman, (or born of a woman, yevóμevov éx yuHe shall be vaixòs--yevváμavov in some copies :) a generation so peculiar and wonderful, without intervention of any father but God himself, is one ground of this relation and title; he therein excelling the common fort of men.

great, and shall be

called the Higheft

Son of the

and God

shall give

2. Christ also may be termed the Son of God in regard him the throne of his father David. Dies ifte quem tanquam extremum reformidas, æterni natalis eft. Sen. Epift. 102.

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