SER M. The Lord himself shall give you a Sign; II. behold, a Virgin fhall conceive and bear a

Son, and fhall call his Name Immanuel. This Birth of Chrift; as its being of a Virgin was a mark of Dignity more than human; that He, who by the Will of his Father was the Author of Nature, might be distinguished by being born not after the Course of Nature; fo the Birth itself, his being born at all, and coming into the World as a Child, was an evidence of the reality of his Incarnation. He was found (faith St Paul) in fashion as a Man, and was made in the likeness of Men: The meaning is; not in the likenefs of our nature, in the appearance only, as oppofed to the reality; but he was made after the likeness of other Men, by really partaking of our infirm Nature.

In order to redeem mankind after that Method which the Wisdom of God had from the beginning appointed, it was neceffary that Chrift fhould fuffer; and in order to That Suffering, it was neceffary that he should be born after the likeness of Men. Forafmuch as the children (faith the Apoftle) are partakers of Flesh and Blood,

II.

be alfo himself took part of the fame, that SER M. thro' Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death, that is, the Devil ;------Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren, (tempted in all points like as we are, only without fin; and capable of being touch- ch.iv. 15. ed with the feeling of our infirmities ;) that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Prieft in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the Sins of the people; For in that He himself has fuffered being tempted, he is able to fuccour them that are tempted, Heb. ii. 14. And from hence the fame Apostle in another place, tho' There indeed he speaks figuratively concerning Chrift's mystical Body the Church, yet from hence it is that the Ground of his manner of expreffing himfelf is taken; We are members (faith he) of his Body, of his Flesh and of his

Bones.

THE proper Use of this firft Observation in the Text, the humiliation of Christ in his Birth, is what St Paul infers from the fame obfervation, Phil. ii. 5. Let This mind, the fame humble mind, be in You,

II.

SER M. which was also in Chrift Jefus; who tho' he was in the form of God, invefted with Divine Authority and Dominion, yet was not greedy of appearing as God (fo the words are in the Original;) but----took upon him the form of a fervant, and was made in the Likeness of Men; and glorified not Himself to be made an High-Prieft, but was glorified by Him that begat him, Heb. v. 5; and honoured not Himself, but was honoured by Him that sent him, Job. viii. 54.

IT follows; Unto Us a Son is given. And these words alfo, like those fore-going, must be understood abfolutely and by way of Eminence: Unto us is given The Son; That Son of Man, who was fo, as no other ever was, the Son of Man; who was fo, as no other ever can be, the Son of God: That divine Perfon, who was the Subject of all the Prophecies, from the foundation of the World, and the expectation of all Nations. The original of the former character, his being the Son of Man, is that fublime defcription which the prophet Daniel gives of his Vifion, ch. vii. 13. I faw in the NightVifions,

1

11.

Vifions, and behold, one like the Son of SER M. Man, came with the clouds of Heaven, and came to the antient of days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom. From this prophetical defcription it is, that our Saviour in the Gospels is so constantly characterized by That Title of the Son of Man: Mat. xxiv. 30. Then fhall appear the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, (the Signal given you by the Prophet Daniel, the Signal of That Son of Man there described,) and they fhall fee him coming in the clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory. And Job. iii. 13. The Son of Man which is in Heaven. And in the book of the Revelation, ch. i. 13. the very words of Daniel are transcribed; one like unto the Son of Man; and ch. xiv. 14. Upon the cloud one fat, like unto the Son of Man. The other character of our Saviour, his being the Son of God, was given him first upon account of his being born miraculously of the Virgin by the immediate Power of Luci 32. God, Luc. i. 35; Then again, upon account of his being raised from the dead by

the

Mar. v. 7.

SER M. the like miraculous Power of the AlII. mighty, Rom. i. 4. Acts xiii. 33. And

lastly, upon account of his being revealed to be That divine Perfon, who, deriving his Being from the Father in a fingular and incomprehenfible manner; and having been with the Father, from the Beginning; and having had Glory with Him, before the World was; and having originally exercised the Father's Power, in the Creation of the World; and having fince in all ages appeared in the form of God, as the Word, the Meffenger, the Representative, the Image, of the Invifible God; at length, in the Fulness of Joh.i. 14. Time, was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

UNTO Us, fays the Prophet in the Text, is this Son of God given unto Us, as it was Then literally understood, the pofterity of Abraham, the Nation of the Jews; but, as it is Now diftinctly revealed in the Gospel, and as it was even Then obfcurely predicted, unto Us Gentiles alfo is he given; unto us that are far

off