Pfal. ii. 9.

Matt. xxv.

Luke xix.

25, 26.

ing established most righteous and wholesome laws, which his fubjects are obliged and enabled by him to obey; protecting them by legiflation, by defence and protection, &c. from the invafions and infurrections of their enemies, (inteftine enemies, their own lufts; outward enemies, the devil and the world;) fupporting them in their diftreffes and afflictions: also exercifing judgment over all; diftributing fit rewards and punishments with exquifite justice and equity; moft just though very severe punishments upon obftinate offenders; moft royal and liberal rewards to the faithful and obedient: laftly, restraining, defeating, and deftroying all the enemies to his royal dignity, and to the welfare of his good subjects, both visible and invifible, temporal and fpiritual. Out of his mouth there Rev.xix.15. goeth a sharp fword, that with it he should fmite the nations; and he fhall rule them with a rod of iron: Thefe 31, &c. mine enemies, (he fhall one day fay,) which would not that 27. I fhould reign over them, bring them hither, and flay them 1 Cor. xv. before me: He must reign till he hath put all enemies under vid. Col. ii. his feet. Thus is he a King, endued with fovereign power, and crowned with glorious majefty, enjoying all preeminencies and exercising all functions suitable to regal dignity. 3. He is also a Priest, and that no ordinary one: διαφορωτέρας τέτευχε λειτεργίας; he hath obtained a more ex- Heb. viii. 6. cellent function than any other priefst ever had. An oblation he once offered, in worth and efficacy furpaffing all the facrifices and oblations that ever were or could be made, (all the fatteft hecatombs that were ever sacrificed, 1 Pet. i. 18. all the gold and precious ftones that were ever offered, all the fpices and perfumes that ever were kindled upon the Heb. ix. 9. altar, were but vile and fordid, ineffectual and unacceptable, in comparison thereto;) a willing oblation of his own Heb. x. 5. moft glorious body, (the temple of the Divinity;) of his Eph. v. 2. moft precious blood; of his dear life; of himself; his moft Heb.vii.27, innocent, most pure, most spotless, and unblemished self, for the propitiation of our fins, and reconciling us to God; an oblation that only could appeafe God's wrath and merit his favour.

He doth alfo (which is another facerdotal performance)

15.

John x. 16.

26.

7.

1 John ii. 1. intercede for the pardon of our fins; If any man fin, we have an advocate with (or to) the Father, Jefus Chrift the righteous; for the acceptance of our fervices, for the grantVid. Heb.v.ing our requests, for grace and affiftance, comfort and reward, and all fpiritual advantages to be conferred upon us; thus pursuing the work of falvation by his propitiaHeb. vii.25. tory facrifice begun for us; Whence, as the Apostle faith, he is able to fave to the uttermoft thofe that by him come unto God, feeing he ever liveth to make interceffion for us. 1 Tim.ii. 5. It is the duty alfo of a priest to mediate between God and man by atonement and interceffion; fo is he.

Numb. vi.

23.

1 Chron. xxiii. 13.

22, 23.

19, 20.

50.

Acta iii. 26.

3.

Matt, xxv.

34.

He doth farther, as a Priest, perform the office of blessLevit. ix. ing; bleffing the people in God's name, bleffing God in the people's behalf; as did that illuftrious type of him, Gen. xiv. Melchizedek; (Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor 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 happinefs to his faithful people; he pronounced blessedness in Luke xxiv. his fermons; he bleffed his difciples at his parting; And God, as St. Peter tells us, having raifed up his Son Jefus, Vid. Eph. i. fent him to bless us, in turning away every one of us from his iniquity; and at the last day he will utter that comfortable benediction; Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; as the great Prophet and Doctor, as the fovereign King and Prince, as the High Priest and Advocate of his Church. So in all refpects is Jefus a true and perfect Priest; and fo, finally, in all refpects, is he God's anointed, the Chrift of God: and indeed that he is fo is the fundamental point of our religion; which the Apostles did teftify, and preach, and labour to persuade the world of; the fincere belief of which doth conftitute and denominate us Christians; the confideration of which may serve to beget in us a practice answerable to our relations grounded thereupon. If he be fuch a Prophet, we must with attention and a docile mind hearken to his admonitions and instructions; we must yield a steady belief to his doctrine; we must readily practise what he teaches us. If he be our

King, we must perform all due allegiance to him, pay him honour and reverence, fubmit to his laws and commandments, repose truft and confidence in him, fly to his protection and affiftance in all our difficulties and needs. If he be our Priest, we must apply ourselves to him for, and rely upon, his spiritual ministries in our behalf, fue for and expect propitiation of our fins by his facrifice, the collation of all spiritual gifts from his interceffion, all spiritual comfort, joy, and felicity in confequence upon his efficacious benediction; Having (it is the Apoftle to the He- Heb. x. 21, brews his admonition) a great Prieft over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full affurance of faith. In a word, if Jefus be Chrift, let us be Christians; Christians, not in name only, in outward profeffion, in our opinion; but in very deed and reality; in our heart, in our affection, in our practice. Let every one that nameth the 2 Tim.ii.19. name of Chrift (that confeffeth him to be fo) depart from iniquity,

His only Son,

22.

THAT the Meffias defigned by God to come for the reftoring of the Church and reformation of the world, was in especial manner to be the Son of God, feems to have been the common perfuafion of the ancient Jews before our Saviour's appearance; as may be collected from divers expreffions then used, wherein being the Christ, and being the Son of God, are conjoined as infeparable adjuncts of the fame Perfon: as in the confeffions of Nathanael; Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the John i. 49. King of Ifrael: of Martha; I believe that thou art the John xi. 27. Chrift, the Son of God, which should come into the world: of St. Peter; We have believed, and have known that John vi. 69. thou art the Chrift, the Son of the living God: and efpecially by that examination of the high-priest; I adjure Matt. xxvi, thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Chrift, the Son of God. And that our Saviour was in- 61. deed fo, the New Teftament doth every where teach us; calling him not only at large the Son of God, but his povoyens, (his only begotten Son;) his ayanŋtòs, (his darling

μου

63.

Vid. Gal. iv.

Son;) his #pwTÓToxos, (his firft-born;) his os vios, (his proper and peculiar Son :) thofe epithets all implying somewhat of peculiar eminency in the kind and ground Luke iii.ult. of this relation. Adam is called the fon of God; and the angels are so entitled; and princes are fomewhere ftyled Pf. lxxxii.6. the children of the Moft High; and all men, especially all good men, yea all things, have God, in fome fenfe, their Father: but all these in a manner (if we compare them with Chrift's relation) are improper and inferior; for he is the only Son (or the only begotten Son) of God. Now we find indeed feveral reasons and refpects for which he is called the Son of God: he is fo in regard of his temporal generation, by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary: fo Luke i. 35. the angel doth exprefsly tell us; The Holy Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overShadow thee: therefore alfo that holy thing which is begotten fhall be called the Son of God: a generation fo wonderful and peculiar, without intervention of any father but God, is one ground of this relation and title. He is alfo capable of this title by reason of that high office, the which by God's fpecial defignation and appointment he was inftated in. If ordinary princes and judges (as being deputed by God to represent himself in difpenfation of juftice, as resembling him in exercise of power and authoPf. lxxxii.6. rity) have been called Gods, and the children of the Moft High, in the holy Scripture itself; with how much greater reason and truth may he (whom God hath fanctified and fent into the world, hath confecrated and commiffionated to the most eminent and extraordinary office) be fo called? It is our Saviour's own argumentation. He is also in regard of his refurrection by the divine power (which is a kind of generation, or a regeneration to another immortal Luke xx. life) fo ftyled: if others are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection, how much more he, who Rev. i. 5. is the firstborn from the dead? And that of the Pfalmift concerning Chrift, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, according to St. Paul's expofition, was fulfilled by God's raifing Jefus (Acts xiii. 33.) again. Whereas it is faid, that God did appoint or make our Sa

John x. 34.

36.

Col. i. 18.

Acts xiii.

32, 33.

John xvii.

Mat. xxviii.

18.

Heb. i. 3.

21.

viour heir of all things; did put all things under his feet; Heb. i. a. did give him power over all flesh; did commit to him all Eph. i. 22. authority in heaven and upon the earth, having fet him at 1, 2. his right hand; hath exalted him to the next place of authority and dignity to himself, (the right hand of the Ma- As ii. 33. jefty in the higheft ;) and given him a name above every Phil. ii. 9. name; well may he in this refpect be entitled the Son of Eph. i. 20, God, as having obtained the rank and privilege proper to this relation; (If a fon, then an heir, St. Paul argues; and reciprocally, if constituted heir of all, then in that regard a fon, Rom. viii. 17.) In fuch refpects is our Saviour properly, or may be fitly, styled the Son of God. But his being fo expressly called God's only begotten Son doth imply a ground more peculiar and more excellent (than any of these) of this relation, (as do alfo those especial prerogatives of affection and favour from God appropriated to him, with all the glorious preferment consequent thence argue the fame.) For the firft Adam alfo derived his being immediately from God's power and divine infpiration; Ifaac, Samuel, and John the Baptift, had a generation extraordinary and miraculous, (as being born of aged fathers or barren mothers, by the interpofition of divine power;) and we cannot eafily conceive how the production of angels fhould be fo much inferior to our Saviour's temporal generation, (fuppofing he had no other.) And our Saviour, though he were the first and chief, yet was not the only fon of the refurrection; nor doth the arbitrary collation of power and dignity, how eminent foever, seem to fuffice: for we fee others, in regard to their defignment and deputation to offices of power and truft, (though fubordinate and inferior to him,) entitled the fons of God: (befide, that this is ground of a metaphorical rather than a natural and proper fonship:) and though our Saviour be the heir of all things, yet hath he coheirs; whom, as St. Rom. viii. Paul fpeaks, God hath together enlivened, and together Eph. ii. 5, raised, and together feated with him in thrones of glory 6. and blifs. In these refpects God hath many fons, (as the Héb. ii. 10. author to the Hebrews tells us,) and our Saviour many brethren, (as it is in Romans viii.) We fhould therefore Rom. viii,

17.

29.