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

I. The Divinity of our Saviour preexiftent to his Humanity.

II. His Affuming in time the Human Ñature 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 Chrifts becoming the Son 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 Di-· vinity of Our Saviour, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father and His Everlasting Exiftence before His appearing in the Flesh,

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 Apoftle that Chrift fhould not, in any Senfe that in Scripture ufage the word anaμbáve 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 fave them from falling (as the word is us'd in St Matthews Gospel to exprefs our Saviours catching Peter as he was finking) or to help them up and reftore 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 Tranflation which Our Church has upon very good grounds fo long Authoris'd, fo juft, so confonant to the whole tenor of the Apostles defign, and fo 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

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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 muft alfo actually have had a Being, before he could make that choice, rejecting the One Nature and affuming the Other, out of his Own good pleasure. Accordingly He, who the Apoftle 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 Existence, 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 fpake to Mofes Exod. 3. 14. Thou shalt fay unto them I AM bath fent me. But is it needful in a Christian Auditory to undertake the Defence of the Divinity of Chrift? Is it needfull to go about to induftriously 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 those plain Texts of Scripture fo many and fo obvious, in which this Fundamental Truth is contain'd? That the Word was God, and that That Word was made Flesh, that Chrift himself tells us, That He and the Father are One, that He came C 2 forth

forth from the Father, and what if ye fhall fee the Son of Man afcend up where he was before? and that folemn addrefs of Chrift to the Father juft before his Paffion, and Now 0 Father Glorify me with thine Ownfelf with the Glory which I had with Thee before the World was. And again, No man has afcended into Heaven but He that came down from Heaven, the Son of Man who is in Heaven, which being fpoken by our Lord while he was yet on Earth implys that he fo came down from Heaven as ftill to be in Heaven, that is in respect of his Divinity, by which He is Every where prefent. But not to multiply Texts in a matter fo clear, as this is to every one that without prejudice or prepoffeffion has ever read the Gofpel; If Chrift were a meer Man only, as the Herefy that grows and thrives fo much dayly among us, if without Allowance or Encouragement, yet without Check or Controll, pretends, to what purpofe do's our Saviour and his Apostles lay fo great ftrefs upon God's Sending Him into the World to redeem it? Why do they fo frequently and fo Emphatically magnify and extoll this Action as the Highest and chiefeft Mark of Gods Love to Mankind? God So loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son! fays He himfelf; and St John, In This was manifefted the Love of God, because that God fent his only begotten Son into the World

that

that We might live through Him. If we look upon all this as no more but that God fhould caufe a Man to be born after another Manner than the reft of Men, and then deliver Him up, who by his Own Nature was Mortal, to dye for the Expiation of the Sins of the whole World, if the Death of a Man could in this Cafe avail any thing, what fuch mighty and wonderful Expreffion of his Love to Us can we discover in this way of Redemption more than would have appear'd if he had redeem'd us any Other way? It had been indeed a greater and more wonderful Love to Chrift if He had been Man only, for God to employ him in this Glorious work, and for his reward to advance him, if fuch a thing were poffible, to the partnership of his Own Divinity. For it is more to make One Man a God, than to make all Mankind Kings and Saints, and capable of Enjoying God and reigning with him to all Eternity. But it is not God's Love to Chrift in this Wonderful Difpenfation, for He gave Him for Us, He fpared not Him that He might fpare Us, but God's Love to the World, to the whole Race of loft Mankind that the Scripture every where fo juftly magnifys and extolls. Nor is it fo much the Redemption it felf as the furprizing Method and means of it, and the infinite dignity of the Redeemer that both Chrift

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