suppose that the Son of God had taken a human body altogether as glorious as now it is from the very first moment of its assumption into the unity of his divine glorious person, could the assumption of such a body, how glorious soever, or how perpetual soever its glory had been, have added any least degree of exaltation unto the Son of God? It could not. There had been indeed an exaltation of the body so assumed, but none of the nature or person assuming it. How then is the Son of God said now to be exalted, by his bodily ascension into heaven, or by his sitting at the right hand of the Father in our nature, wherein he was formerly humbled ? Take the resolution plainly thus: God the Father had remained as glorious as now he is, although he had never created the world. For the creation gave much, even all they had, to things created; it gave nothing unto God, who was in being infinite; yet if God had created nothing, the attribute of Creator could have had no real ground, it had been no real attribute. In like manner, suppose the Son of God had never condescended to take our nature upon him, he had remained as glorious in his nature and 317 person as now he is; yet not glorified for or by this title or attribute of incarnation. Or suppose he had not humbled himself unto death, by taking the form of a servant upon him, he had remained as glorious in his nature and person, and in the attribute of incarnation, as now he is; but without these glorious attributes of being our Lord and Redeemer, and of being the Fountain of grace and salvation unto us. All these are real attributes, and suppose a real ground or foundation; and that was, his humbling himself unto death, even unto the death of the cross. Nor are these attributes only real, but more glorious, both in respect of God the Father, who was pleased to give his only

Son for us, and in respect of God the Son, who was pleased to pay our ransom by his humiliation, than the attribute of creation is. The Son of God then, not the Son of David only, hath been exalted since his death to be our Lord, by a new and real title, by the title of redemption and salvation. This is the sum of our apostle's inference concerning our Saviour's exaltation, Phil. ii. 11: That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. To shut up this point; though Christ Jesus be both our High Priest and Lord, not only as he is the Son of David, but as he is the only-begotten Son of God, and so begotten from all eternity; yet was he neither begotten a Priest nor Lord from all eternity, but made a Priest and made a Lord in time: The word of the oath, saith the apostle, Heb. vii. 28, which was since the law, maketh the Son a priest, who was consecrated for evermore. And in the very same chapter wherein this word of the oath, or uncontrollable fiat for making the eternal Word an everlasting Priest, is contained, this peculiar title of Lord is first inferred for so psalm cx. begins, Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Not that Adonai importeth less honour or majesty than Jehovah doth, as the Jews and Arians ignorantly and impiously collect; but with purpose to notify, that this title of Lord, or Adonai, was to become as peculiar to Jehovah the Son of God, as the title of cohen or priest. But this title of Lord, as peculiar to Christ, will require, and doth well deserve, a peculiar discourse; and the place allotted it is in the beginning of the second section.

5. Now for use or application these ensuing meditations and considerations offer themselves. What branch of sorrow, of bodily affliction, or anguish of

soul or spirit, can we imagine incident to any degree, condition, or sort of men, to any son of man at any time, unto which the waters of comfort may not plentifully be derived from this inexhaustible fountain of comfort, comprised in this article of Christ's sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty? No man can be of so low, dejected, or forlorn estate, for means or friends, re or spe, either by birth or by misfortune, but may raise his heart with this consideration, that it is no servitude or beggary, but freedom or riches, to be truly entitled a servant to the Lord of lords and King of kings; to whom angels and principalities, as St. Peter speaks, (even those angels and principalities, to whom not kings and monarchs, but even kingdoms and monarchies are pupils,) are subject, and his fellowservants. Or in case any poor dejected soul should be surprised with distrust or jealousy, lest his Lord, in such infinite height of exaltation and distance, should not from heaven take notice of him thrown down to earth, let him to his comfort consider, that the Son of God and Lord of glory (to the end he might assure us, that he was not a Lord more great in himself than gracious and loving unto us) was pleased for a long time to become a servant before he would be made a Lord; and a servant subject to mul-318 titudes of public despites, disgraces, and contempts, from which ordinary servants or men of forlorn hopes are freed. If he willingly became such a servant for thee, to whom he owed nothing, wilt not thou resolve to make a virtue of necessity, by patient bearing thy meanness or misfortunes for his sake, to whom even kings owe themselves, their sceptres, and all their worldly glory? But though it be a contemplation full of comfort to have him for our supreme Lord and Protector, who sometimes was a servant cruelly

oppressed by the greatest powers on earth, without any power of man to defend or protect him; yet the sweet streams of joy and comfort flow more plentifully to all sorts and conditions of men from the attribute of his royal priesthood. To be a priest, implies as much as to be a mediator or intercessor for averting God's wrath, or an advocate for procuring his favours and blessings. And what could Comfort herself wish more for her children, (suppose she had been our mother,) than to have him for our perpetual advocate and intercessor at the right hand of God, who is equal to God in glory, in power, and immortality, and yet was sometimes more than equal unto us in all manner of anguish, of grievances and afflictions, that either our nature, state, or casual condition of life can be charged with! Albeits he knew no sin, yet never was the heart of any the most grievous sinner-no, not whilst it melted with penitent tears and sorrow for misdoings past-so deeply touched with the fellow-feeling of his brother's miseries, of such miseries as were the proper effects or fruits of sin, as the heart of this our High Priest was touched with every man's misery and affliction, that presented himself with prayers unto him; his heart was as fit a receptacle for others' sorrows of all sorts, as the eye is of colours. Who was weak, and he was not weak? who was grieved, and he burned not? who was afflicted, and he not tormented?

6. There be two more special and remarkable maxims of our apostle's for our comfort; the one, Heb. ii. 10, that Christ was consecrated to his priesthood through afflictions, and consecrated through afflictions more than ordinary, through the sufferings of death and

See book 8. chap. 15. [vol. vii. P. 511.

g See book 8. chap. II. [vol. vii. p. 457.]

torments more than natural, to the end that being thus consecrated he might become a merciful and faithful high priest; a priest not only able to sanctify our afflictions to us, but to consecrate and anoint us through patient suffering of afflictions, to be more than conquerors, even kings and priests to our God. So he saith, Rev. iii. 21: To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. The other remarkable speech of our apostle is, Heb. v. 8, Albeit he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Being infinite in knowledge as he was God, and of most perfect knowledge as he was man, he could learn nothing by conversing here on earth with men, but only experience of godly grief and sorrows for our follies and impieties. Such sorrows were the proper fruits of our sins: we brought them forth, and he did taste the bitterness of them. This then is our comfort, that whatsoever he could learn on earth, he cannot possibly forget in heaven; we have, and ever shall have him, whilst he is in heaven and we on earth, an High Priest which will be touched with compassion of our miseries. The end of his coming down from heaven, and his investiture in the form of a servant, was, that he might be consecrated through afflictions here on earth to be a merciful and faithful high priest, and mediator between God and man. And this consecration, which was the end of his coming down, being accomplished, the end of his ascension into heaven, and of his sitting at the right hand of God, in our nature, was, that he might make intercession for us, out of the fresh and never 319 failing memory and experience of his own former grief and sorrows for our sins. And what good thing b See book 8. chap. 14. [vol. vii. p. 502.]