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I. The humiliation of Chrift, which consists of three principal parts; his incarnation, his life, and his death.

1. His incarnation, which is fet forth in fcripture by feveral expreffions; his being made flesh, and dwelling among us, John i. 14. His being made of the feed of David according to the flesh, Rom. i. 3. His being made of a woman, Gal. iv. 4. The manifeftation of God in the flesh, 1. Tim. iii. 16. His taking part of flesh and blood, Heb. ii. 14. His taking on him the feed of Abraham, and being made like unto his brethren, Heb. ii. 16, 17. His coming in the flesh, 1 John ii. 2. All which fignifies his taking upon him human nature, and being really a man as well as God. The eternal Son of God, in the fulness of time, took our nature; that is, affumed a real foul and body into union with the divine nature. Now this perfon, who was really both God and man, was admirably fitted for the work of our redemption.

In general, this made him a fit mediator, an equal and middle perfon to interpofe in this difference, and take up this quarrel between God and man. Being both God and man, he was concerned for both parties, and interested both in the honour of God, and the happiness of man, and engaged to be tender of both; and to procure the one, by fuch ways as might be confiftent with the other.

More particularly his incarnation did fit him for thofe two offices which he was to perform in his humiliation, of Prophet and Prieft.

1. The office of Prophet, to teach us both by his doctrine, and his life.

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By his doctrine. His being in the likeness of man; this made him more familiar to us. a Prophet raifed up from among his brethren, as Mofes fpake, and he makes this an argument why we fhould hear him. Should God, fpeak to us imme diately by himfelf, we could not hear him and live. God condefcends to us, and complies with the weakness of our nature, and raiseth up a Prophet from among our brethren; we should hear him. And then his being God, did add credit and authority to,

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what he fpake; he could confirm the doctrine which he taught by miracles. Of his teaching us by his life, I fhall have occafion to fpeak presently.

2. For the office of Prieft. He was fit to be our Priest, because he was taken from among men, as the Apostle speaks; fit to fuffer, as being man, having a body prepared, as it is, Heb. x. 5. and fit to fatisfy, by his fufferings for the fins of all men, as being God, which put an infinite dignity and value upon them; the fufferings of an infinite perfon, being equal to the offences done against an infinite God: And thus the mercy of God is exalted without the diminution of his justice.

And as his incarnation did qualify him for fuffering, fo for compaffion, and fellow-fuffering with us, Heb. ii. 17, 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High-prieft, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the fins of the people; for in that he himself hath fuffered, being tempted, he is able to fuccour them that are tempted.

2. His life was a means admirably fitted to bring men to holiness and goodness. I might go through all the parts of it; but becaufe I intend to be very fhort upon these heads, I fhall only take notice of that part of his life, which was fpent in his publick miniftry he went about doing good; the doctrine that he preached was calculated for the deftroying of fin, and the promoting of holiness; the great end and defign of it was to advance righteoufnefs, and goodness, and humility, and patience, and felf-denial; to make us mortify our fenfual defires, and brutish paffions, to contemn and renounce this prefent world; and this being the defign of it, it was a moft proper engine to demolish the works of the Devil. And to make way for the entertainment of his doctrine, the whole frame of his life, and all the circumftances of it, did contribute. His life was the practice of his doctrine, and a clear comment upon it. The meannefs of his condition in the world, that he had no fhare of the poffeffions of it, was a great

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advantage to his doctrine of felf-denial, and contempt of the world. The captain of our falvation, that he might draw off our affections from the world, and fhew us how little the things of it are to be valued, would himfelf have no fhare in it: Matth. viii. 20. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nefts, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. The mean circumftances of his condition were very eminently for the advantage of his defign; for had he not been ftripped of all worldly accommodations, he could not have been fo free from fufpicion of a worldly intereft and defign; nay, he could not have been fo confiderable ; he was really greater for his meanness. The very Heathen did account this true greatnefs, (as we find in Aristotle) not to admire the pleafures, and greatnefs, and pomp of the world. And that his meannefs might be no difadvantage to him, thofe evidences that he gave of his divinity in the wonderful things that he did, rendered him confiderable, and gained more reverence and authority to his doctrine, than his meannefs could bring contempt upon it.

Besides, the manner of his conversation was a very great advantage to him ; he was of a very sweet and converfable and obliging temper; and by this means he did gain upon the people, and was acceptable to them; and thus he did apply himself to them in the most human ways, to make way for the entertainment of his doctrine. The miracles that he wrought, did confirm his doctrine beyond all exception, as being a divine teftimony, and fetting a feal of God to the truth of it; yet because many were blinded with prejudice, and though they did fee, yet would not fee, Chrift, the wisdom of God, did fo order the bufinefs of his miracles, as to make them human ways of winning upon them, for they were generally fuch as were beneficial; he healed all manner of diseases and maladies by this miraculous power ; and fo his miracles did not only tend to confirm his doctrine, as they were miracles, but to make way for entertainment of it, as they were benefits; this was a fenfible demonstration to them, that he intend

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ed them good, becaufe he did them good; they would easily believe, that he, who healed their bodies, would not harm their fouls. This for his life.

III. His death, which was the lowest step of his humiliation, and the confummation of his fufferings. Now the death of Chrift did eminently contribute to this defign of our redemption. The death of Chrift did not only expiate the guilt of fin, and pacify confcience, by making plenary fatisfaction to the divine juftice; but did eminently contribute to the killing of fin in us: Rom. vi. 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of fin might be destroyed, that henceforth we might not ferve fin. Rom. viii. 3. God fending his own Son in the likeness of finful flesh, and for fin (that is, by being a facrifice for fin) condemned fin in the flesh. The death of Chrift convinceth fin to be a great evil; and doth condemn it, because the impartial justice of God did fo feverely punish it in his own Son, when he appeared in the perfon of a finner; and this is the most powerful argument to us to crucify fin, that it crucified our Saviour. That fo innocent and holy a perfon fhould fuffer fo cruel and ignominious a death for our fins, fhould fet us for ever against it, and make us hate it with a perfect hatred.

The circumftances of Christ's fufferings are with admirable wifdom fitted for the conquering of fin and fatan. Sin came by the woman: The feed of the woman fuffers for fin; and by fuffering, conquers it. Sin began in the garden; and there our Saviour began his fufferings for fin. Sin came by the tree ; and Chrift bears the curfe of it in hanging upon the tree, and crucifies it by his cross.

And as he conquered fin, fo he overcame fatan by his own arts. The Devil found Chrift in the likeness of a man, he judged him mortal, and his great defign was to procure his death, and get him into his grave. Chrift permits him to bring about his defign; he lets him enter into Judas; he lets the Jews crucify, and put him into his grave, and roll a great ftone upon it: But here his divine wifdom appears,

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in ruining the Devil by his own defign, and fnaring him in the works of his own hands, Heb. ii. 14. By death he destroys him that had the power of death; that is, the Devil.

I know the fufferings of Chrift were, by the wife of the world, made the great objection against the wifdom of this difpenfation; the cross of Chrift was to the Greeks foolishness; and yet the wifeft of them had determined otherwife in general, though not in this particular cafe. Plato (in the fecond book of his Commonwealth) faith, That if a man may be

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a perfect pattern of juftice and righteousness, and "be approved by God and men, he must be ftripped of all the things of this world; he must be poor and difgraced, and be accounted a wicked "and unjust man; he must be whipped, and tor"mented, and crucified as a malefactor;” which is, as it were, a prophetical defcription of our Saviour's fufferings. And Arrian, in his Epict. defcribing a man fit to reform the world, whom he calls the apoftle, the meffenger, the preacher, and minifter of God, faith," He must be without houfe and har"bour, and worldly accommodations; must be "armed with fuch patience for the greatest fuffer

ings, as if he were a ftone, and devoid of fenfe ; he must be a fpectacle of mifery, and contempt "to the world." So that, by the acknowledgment of these two wife heathens, there was nothing in the fufferings of Chrift that was unbecoming the wisdom of God, and improper to the end and defign of Chrift's coming into the world; befides, that they ferved a further end, which they did not dream of, the fatiffying of divine justice.

Secondly, His exaltation. The feveral parts of which, his refurrection, and afcenfion, and fitting at the right hand of God, were eminently fubfervient to the perfecting and carrying on of this defign.

The refurrection of Chrift is the great confirmation of the truth of all that he delivered, Rom. 1. 4. declared to be the Son of God with power, oprotivlos vix des év Jurápsi, by the refurrection from the dead. This great miracle of his refurrection from the dead,

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