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SERM. God (i)----is ftiled Lord God (k)----the true I. God (1) --and over all, God blessed for

ever (m)----I am the first and the last, fays he, (n)-..-Where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst of them (o). and lo! I am with you always, even unto the End of the World (p)----Ye believe in God, believe alfo in me (q)The Father judgeth no Man, but bath committed all Judgement to the Son: that all Men fhould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father (r)---- All things whatsoever the Father doth, thofe alfo doth the Son (s)---- All things were created by bim and for him, and he is before all things, and by bim all things confift (t)----Upholding all things by the Word of his Power (u).

WELL therefore might our Blessed Lord think it no Robbery to be equal with God (x). and affert, that all things that the Father bath. are mine (y). and I and my Father are one (z). and if God juftified him in thefe Claims, and declared him to be

(i) St. John i. 1.
(1) 1 Ep. St. John v. 20.

(k) St. Luke i. 16.
(m) Rom. ix. 5.

(n) Rev. i. 17. (0) St. Matth. xviii. 20.

(p) St. Matth. xxviii. 20.
(r) St. John v. 22, 23.
(t) Col. i. 16, 17.

bis

(9) St. John xiv. 1. (s) St. John v. 19.

(u)

Heb. i. 3.

(y) St. John xvi. 15.

(x) x. 30.

(x) Phil. ii. 6.

his Son with Power, according to the Spirit SERM. of Holiness, by the Refurrection from the I. Dead (a), fhall any of his Creatures dare to queftion them ?----For us to fall short of this Scripture-account in our Profeffions or our Sentiments of Chrift our Saviour, is not to own but to deny him ;----it is to degrade his perfonal. Dignity,to villify his facred Character, and----to blafpheme his Divinity.

NEXT to acknowledging Chrift Jefus in his Godhead, we must endeavour to know him rightly in his Manhood; that, as he was in the Beginning and exifted from all Eternity with the Father, fo he was alfo in the fullness of Time generated and born into the World.

VARIOUS of old were the idle Conceits concerning the Humanity of Chrift; but now it seems univerfally allowed, that he had a Production agreeable to our Nature and Species, becoming thereby truly and properly a Man,----nay, fo far is this mentioned by fome, that through the Vanity of their Minds they will admit him to be nothing more, nor grant, that he was begotten after any other than the common Manner.

;

though

(a) Rom. i. 4.

SERM. though the Hiftory of his Birth very pofiI. tively afferts, that he was conceived and

made Man by the Holy Ghost coming upon and the Power of the Highest overshadowing the Virgin Mary his Mother (b). To whom the Words of the Prophet may be most properly addreffed: Thy Maker is thy Husband, the Lord of Hoft is his Name (c).

THIS Wonderful Mystery of the Union of the Manhood with the Godhead in Jefus Christ is fignified, and though the Manner of it be inexplicable, yet the Fact itself is manifeftly declared to us by various Paffages of Holy Scripture; as, more obfcurely, The Day Spring from an High, bath vifited us (d). and We bear Witness and fhew unto you, that eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifefted unto us (e)----and more exprefsly, God was manifefted in the Flesh (f)--and the Word was made Flesh (g)---and He took not on him the Nature of Angels, but he took on him the Seed of Abraham (b)----and was made of the Seed of David (i)---Of whom, as concerning the Flesh Chrift came (k).

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FROM all which Teftimonies of facred Writ the Conclufion evidently is, That the fame Divine Perfon, who before from all Eternity had fubfifted in the Nature of God, did by a temporal Generation truly become Man, the Divine and Human Natures being united in him without any Confufion or Converfion, and thus vefting himself with full Powers for his Mediatorial Office.

Now this Immanuel, or God with us, as both the Prophet and the Apostle stile him, (7)----after his Incarnation and Birth grew in Wisdom and Stature, as is ufual for Men to do, and led a private and retir'd Life, until the Time came for his fhewing himself openly unto Ifrael, when he manifefted forth his Glory by working fuch Miracles and doing fo much Good, as required far more than a human Power and a bounded Generofity to perform.

To gain a right Conception of thefe Things is a neceffary Part of every Chrif tian's Duty, nor is it lefs our Interest to make ourselves fenfible of, as well what our Lord has done for us, as what he is

(4) Ifai. vii. 14.' St. Matth. i. 23.

in

SERM.
I.

SERM. in himself. But a full View of so engaging I. a Profpect can be had only from the Scrip

tures; and no more must be in this Place looked for, than fome general imperfect Hints, leading to a more extenfive Enquiry, how stupendously great and good he fhone in all the publick Actions of his Life.

THE Account we find of this extraordinary Perfon, recorded by the four Evangelifts, gives us to understand, that he made at Pleasure all Creatures, befide their Natures and against their Wills, to obey his Commands, and fubmit to the Voice of his Word. In a moft furious Tempest, he mildly awaking out of Sleep, arofe and rebuked the Wind and the Sea, and there was a great Calm, which induced his Difciples very justly to marvel, faying, what manner of Man is this? For even the Winds and the Sea obey bim (m).----He cured Difeafes, to human Skill incurable: He healed inveterate Palfies, Fluxes, and Leprofies: He gave at once the perfect Use of Senfes wanting from the Birth, and to innumerable Perfons blind, deaf, dumb, lame, the Exercife of their Facul ties and Members refpectively, without the Application of Medicines, or any natural Means

(m) St. Matth. viii. 26, 27.

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