yet a Creature, as the Arians, tho' with more feeming Honour to our Saviour's Perfon, yet with equal Repugnancy to his Word and Doctrine, affirm.

2dly, We have here likewife as clear a Proof of Chrift's Real Humanity. This being also a Material Part of our Faith, and as Neceffary to be believ'd as his Effential Divinity. And what can more plainly be taught? how can a Doctrine in more express Words be laid down than this is here, where we are told, that he took upon Him the Seed of Abraham, and was in all things made like unto his Brethren?

II. Again, fecondly, The fame Wonderfull Mystery is here fet forth most Advantageously, and that,

ft, As to the exceeding Grace and Goodnefs of it to Mankind; in that, after the Fall both of Angels and Men, He left the One Unpity'd, Unregarded in the Wretched State; which by their Apoftacy and Rebellion they had juftly brought themselves into, referv'd in Everlafting Chains under darknefs unto the Judgment of the great day, Jude 6. and yet out of infinite Compaffion to the other, laid hold of them as foon as ever they fell, and immediately after the Act of their Rebellion, for which they as juftly ought to have had their Portion for ever with

the

the Devil and his Angels, gave a Promise of that, which in the fulness of time he perform'd, when by making himself One of Them, he advanc'd them to a more glorious State than that from which they fell, made them Heirs of Everlasting Light and Endless Felicity.

2dly, As to the Wonderfull Wisdom in contriving this means of Salvation; in order to which it bebov'd Him to be made like to his Brethren. This Method, which God has been pleas'd to make use of to bring about the Redemption of Mankind, was of all Others the moft Wife and the most Fitting for fo Divine a Purpose. God fent his Son to be made Man, that he might be a Ransom for Man, a Price indeed infinitely above the value of the Purchase; and a means immeafurably beyond the End, yet not unfitly, nor ungloriously: not ungloriously, because the Salvation of Man, and the whole Oeconomy and Ordering of it, tends laftly to the Glory of God; nor unfitly, because of the fingular Use and infinite Benefits of this Method, above all Others, to the Sons of Men; for both which Reasons, In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren.

These

These four Particulars then, we see, are manifeftly contain'd in, or naturally deduc'd from, the words of the Text.

I.The Divinity of our Saviour pre-existent to his Humanity.

II. His Affuming, in time,the HumanNature, into that Divine Nature which he had with the Father from all Eternity.

III. The Infinite Grace and Love to Mankind, exprefs'd in preferring Them; in Affuming Their Nature rather than that of the lapfed Angels, who equally stood in need of a Redeemer.

IV. The Admirable Wisdom and fitness of this Method of Our Redemption, by Chrift's becoming theSon of Man,to advance us to the high Privilege of being the Sons of God.

Of which in their order, and as briefly as may be; that I may in the laft place proceed to make fome Practical Inferences from the whole.

I. And First of the firft; namely, The Divinity of Our Saviour, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, and HisEverlafting Existence, before His appearing in the Flesh, C plainly

plainly here taught us, In That He took not on Him the Nature of Angels, but took on him the Seed of Abraham. For tho' the Original fays only, as in the Margin of Our Bible it is Own'd, He taketh not hold of Angels, yet how could it be worth the Remark of a Divinely inspir'd Apostle, that Christ should not, in any Sense, that in Scripture usage the word maaucáre is capable of, lay hold of Angels, Creatures of fo Different. and Superior a Nature to his Own, if He was meerly Man, either to save them from falling (as the word is us'd in St. Matthem's Gospel to exprefs our Saviour's catching Peter as he was finking) or to help them up, and restore them when they were fallen? Is it to be thought, if, according to Arius,He was one of the Supremeft Order of Angels, that He would not lay hold of Them if he could? Or if, according to Socinus, he was a Man only,can it be conceiv'd, How He could, if He would? But let the Translation, which Our Church has, upon very good grounds, fo long Authoriz'd, fo juft, fo confonant to the whole tenor of the Apostle's defign, and so agreeable to the Analogy of Faith,be allow'd (as no reafon appears why it fhould not) and from thence we may rightly inferr, as was before hinted, That He must have been neither Angel nor Man, while it was in deliberation whether of those

two

two Natures he would take upon him; and therefore must have needs been God, there being no third Nature, befides the Divine, that can poffibly be afcrib'd to Him. He must also actually have had a Being, before he could make that choice; rejecting theOne Nature, and affuming the Other, out of his Own good pleasure. Accordingly He, who, the Apostle here fays, took upon him the Seed of Abraham, tells us of Himself, Before Abraham was, I am. I AM! declaring hereby, not only his Exiftence, but His Effence, His Divine Nature; not only That He was, but What He was; that is,no other than the Lord Jehovah, He, whofe incommunicable Name is, I AM,as Himself spake to Mofes,Exod. 3.

14. Thou shalt fay unto them, I AM bath fent me. But is it needful in a Chriftian Auditory, to undertake the Defence of the Divinity of Chrift? Is it needfull to go about, to industriously prove to you, that in the whole Solemnity and Worship of This day, we have not all been committing the most grofs Idolatry? For, if Chrift be not God, our whole Religion is no better! Is it needful to cite to you all thofe plain Texts of Scripture, so many and fo obvious, in which this Fundamental Truth is contain'd? That the Word was God, and that That Word was made Flefb, that Chrift himself tells us, That He and the Father are One, that He came C 2

forth