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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XVIII.

THE

ESSENTIAL WORD

INCARNATE; OR GOD

MANIFEST IN THE FLESH: OR IMMANUEL
GOD WITH US.

JOHN i. 14.

"And the Word 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."

THE personality and essential deity of the Son of God, his incarnation, whereby he became Immanuel, God manifested in the flesh, are most sublime and important truths revealed in, and testified of, by the inspired volume; in which, next to the nature of the incomprehensible essence, and the personalities in the infinite and incommunicable Godhead, there is not a greater mystery recorded in it, than the incarnation of the essential Word, the only begotten Son of God.

knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne," &c.

David's throne and kingdom was a typical re presentation of Christ, the antitypical and true son of David, of whom the prophet hath been speaking.

In the testament times, and to old testament saints, Jerusalem was a type of the church, as surrounded by the Lord's protection, and blessed with the Lord's presence and peace.

David was a type of Christ, as being the auointed of Jehovah, crowned with victory, and placed triumphantly on the sacred hill of Zion, as expressed in the second psalm; which, as expressed there, shews the whole was divinely prophetical of the exaltation and enthronization of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the application of it to him in the new testament, Acts iv. 25.

Christ's throne and kingdom indeed is not of this world, it is a spiritual one, it is by his Father's appointment and delegation, according to the counsel and covenant, which obtained between the Three in Jehovah, before the world was in consequence of which, Christ, Godman, is king mediator.

His throne is a throne of grace. To set up a church, is to set up Christ a throne.

God, our Saviour, of his office, of his incarnation, and of his being rejected by some, and received and believed on by others.

The distinctive personality of the essential Word, his co-existence in the Godhead by essential union with it, his co-eternity and coequality in the unity of the infinite and incomprehensible essence, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, God over all blessed for ever, amen, are truths of the utmost importance, and most closely connected with our present subject. Our evangelist viewed it in this light, and therefore in the verses going before our text, he, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, positively asserts these truths as fundamental ones. Herein he shews his apostolic wisdom; for the person of Christ in his divine nature, should be treated of before his actions in his human nature. He says, ver. 1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The second person in the essential and eternal Trinity, is here called the Word. He is called so in the old testament, in divers places, too many to mention: to give some instances, he is called the Word of the Lord, and that in relation to the creation of all things; By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them, by the breath of his mouth," Psalm xxxiii. 6. We read that the Word of the Lord came unto Abram in

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a vision, Gen. xv. 1. Most certainly by it we are here to understand the essential Word. We read in 1 Kings xix. 9. concerning the prophet Elijah at Horeb, "The word of the Lord came unto him, and said unto him, What doest thou here Elijah?" Now as personal properties are here ascribed to the word of Jehovah, who came and spoke to the prophet, it fully proves he must be the essential Word. Thus also, when God's covenant and promise is mentioned, and the Three in Jehovah expressly mentioned by the prophet Haggai, the second person in the Trinity bears this title, and is called the Word; "I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you, when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth amongst you," Haggai ii. 4, 5. Dr. Allix says, that the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, the Chaldee, hath rendered this text of Haggai, “ I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts, with the word which covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my spirit which abideth in the midst of you." See Dr. Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church, page 358.

"In this glorious promise, (says the truly excellent Mr. Serle, in his essays on the names and titles of the Holy Spirit,) are mentioned the three covenanting persons, Jehovah, the Word, and the Spirit; and it doth not seem improbable that the apostle had his eye upon

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"And the Word 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."

THE personality and essential deity of the Son of God, his incarnation, whereby he became Immanuel, God manifested in the flesh, are most sublime and important truths revealed in, and testified of, by the inspired volume; in which, next to the nature of the incomprehensible essence, and the personalities in the infinite and incommunicable Godhead, there is not a greater mystery recorded in it, than the incarnation of the essential Word, the only begotten Son of God.

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