SERM. LXXI. 5. The supposition thereof is the ground of duty, and an aggravation of sin. Thus doth the holy scripture in terms very direct and express declare this truth, indeed so clearly and fully, that scarce any other point of Christian doctrine can allege more ample or plain testimony of scripture for it; whence it is wonderful, that any pretending reverence to scripture should dare (upon consequences of their own devising) to question it; and many reasons confirming the same may be deduced thence. 1. The impulsive cause, which moved God to design the sending our Lord for to undertake what he did, is expressed to be philanthropy, or love to manTit. iii. 4. kind: But, saith St. Paul, when the kindness and "Hiada love of God our Saviour unto man appeared-acΗ φιλανθρω πία τοῦ σω Θεοῦ. gos cording to his mercy he saved us. God so loved John iii. 16. the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Ephes. ii. 4. God hereby commends his love unto us, that we as Rom. v. 8. yet being sinners, Christ died for us. It was not a particular fondness of affection, (such whereof no particular ground can be assigned or imagined,) but an universal (infinitely rich and abundant) goodness, mercy, and pity toward this eminent part of his creation, sunk into distress and lamentable wretchedness, which induced God to send his Son for the redemption of mankind. 2. God declares himself impartial (most particularly) in this case; that as all men in regard to him stand alike related, and are in the same condition, so he proceeds with indifferent affection, and upon the same terms with all. He is equally the Lord Greg. Naz. saith of Julian, διὰ τοῦτο μισήσας Χριστὸν, ὅτι δι' AUTOũ σÉσWσTO. Athan. Orat. 32. and Maker of all men; and all men are equally in- SERM. volved in guilt, and exposed to ruin; upon which LXXI. grounds St. Paul inferreth, that as to God's regard of man's salvation, there is no difference between Jews and Greeks; and by parity of reason there can be none between any other sorts of persons, antecedently to God's merciful intentions. There is, saith Rom. ii. 11. he, no respect of persons with God, (as to preparing the capacities and means, to propounding the terms and conditions of salvation, for about these he discourses;) for, Is he, saith the apostle, assigning Rom. iii.29. the reason of that assertion, the God of the Jews only, and not of the Gentiles? No: There is no Rom. x. 12. difference, saith he, of Jew and Greek, for there is the same Lord of all, being rich (rich in mercy and bounty) unto all that call upon him; that is by consequence simply unto all; for St. Paul implies, that God therefore provided that all men should have the means of calling upon him imparted to them; for that, how should they call upon him without faith? and how should they believe without preachers? and how should there be preachers, if they were not sent? Whence he infers (against the sense of those Jews with whom he disputes) that it was necessary that the apostles should have a commission to preach unto all. And, The righteous- Rom. iii. ness of God by the faith of Christ is manifested unto all, and over all that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: the relation of God is the same to all men, (He is the God and Lord of all;) the state and need of all men are the same; there is therefore no difference, excepting that consequent one, which compliance or noncompliance with the 22, 23. SERM. conditions offered unto all doth induce. It is true LXXI. in this respect, what the Wise Man saith, ó πávτwv Wisd. vi. 7. δεσπότης ὁμοίως προνοεῖ περὶ πάντων He, that is Lord of all, careth (or provideth) for all alike; and what Clemens Alexandrinus says, as to this particular, All things lie equally for all from God; so that no man can complain of him; as partial to some, and deficient to others. 3. We may observe, that the undertakings and performances of our Lord are for nature and extent compared with those of Adam, (who was TUTTOS TOU Rom. v. 14. μédλovtos, a type of him that was to come;) as Adam, being a representative of mankind, did by his transgression involve all men in guilt, and subject them to condemnation; provoked God's wrath, and drew the effects thereof upon us; brought all men under the slavery of sin, and necessity of death; so was our Lord the proxy of mankind, and by his performances in our behalf did undo for our advantage what the former did to our prejudice; by his entire obedience expiating the common guilt, suspending the fatal sentence, pacifying God's wrath, reducing righteousness, and restoring life to all that would embrace them; so doth St. Paul at large (in the 5th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans) propound and prosecute the comparison; closing his discourse thus: Rom. v. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one man judgment came upon all men to condemnation; so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. As guilt, wrath, and death forementioned, were the fruits of what Adam did, falling upon all; so pardon, grace, and life, were « Πᾶσι πάντα ἴσα κεῖται παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἐστὶν αὐτὸς ἀμεμφής. Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. p. 301. LXXI. 23, 24. (in design) the effects of what our Saviour per- SERM. formed relating unto all. Yea, the same comparison St. Paul seems to intimate in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, where he saith, that if one died for 2 Cor. v. 14. all, then are all men dead; that is, Christ's dying for all men, implies all men in a state of condemnation and subjection to death; and that inference supposes the performances of the first and second Adam to be in their nature and primary effects coextended and commensurate. The same St. Paul seemeth in express terms to say, All men have Rom. iii. sinned, and are fallen short (or are destitute) of13, the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace (or favour) by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (All men are justified, that is, according to God's favourable intention and design.) Yea, the very reason why God permitted sin and death to prevail so universally is intimated to be his design of extending a capacity of righteousness and life unto all; so St. Paul tells us: God hath shut up Rom. xi. all men under sin, that he might have mercy upon all. And particularly, that by virtue of Christ's performances death is abolished, and immortality is conferred upon all men, St. Paul most expressly teacheth us; For, saith he, as in Adam all die, so 1 Cor. xv. in Christ shall all be made alive. 32. 22. 2 Tim. i. I observe that Prosper (an eager disputant about Rom. vi. points allied to this) several times confesseth, that 23. Christ may be most rightly affirmed to have been crucified for the redemption of the whole world, e Cum itaque rectissime dicatur Salvator pro totius mundi redemptione crucifixus, propter veram naturæ humanæ susceptionem, et propter communem in primo homine omnium perditionem, &c. Prosp. ad Gal. c. 9. SERM. especially upon two accounts, for his true susception LXXI. of human nature, and for the common perdition of all men in the first man: we have touched the latter; let us add, that 4. Our Saviour assuming our nature, and partakPhil. ii. 7. ing of our flesh, being made in the likeness of men, 17.2 and found in fashion as a man; yea, endued with Gal. iv. 4. the passions and infirmities of man's nature, exposed ii. v. 11, 12, 16. 26. to the tribulations and inconveniences of man's life, did thereby ally himself, and put on a fraternal reHeb. ii. 14, lation unto all men. Forasmuch, saith the apostle to the Hebrews, as children (the children he means of the same father, or brethren; as the tenor of his discourse makes evident) are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that is, graciously designing to become a brother to the children of men, he assumed all that Acts xvii. was proper to man's nature. God, saith St. Paul, made πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων, the whole nation or race of men, dwelling upon the face of the earth, of one blood; and of that one blood our Saviour was pleased to take part, entitling us thereby to a consanguinity with himf; and it was a title of his, Heb. ii. 11. which he seemed to affect and delight in, the Son of man. He being such did sanctify our nature, by the closest conjunction thereof to the divine nature, Heb. ii. 7, and rendering it more than a temple of the Divinity; he dignified it, and (as that apostle intimateth) advanced it above the angelical nature by an alliance 1 Tim.ii. 5. to God himself; he thereby not only became qualified to mediate between God and man, and capable 16. † ‘Ἡ πρόσληψις τῆς σαρκὸς οὐκ ἐδούλου τὸν λόγον φύσει Κύριον ὄντα, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐλευθέρωσις ἦν ἡ γινομένη παρὰ τοῦ λόγου πάσης ἀνθρωπότητος, &c. Athan. c. Arr. Orat. iii. p. 385. |