Chapter 8 (continued, part 8)
[4.] The coming wrath is everlasting wrath. Rev. 14:11, "And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever!" "Would to God," says Chrysostom, "that men would everywhere think and talk more of hell,
and of that eternity of punishment—which they shall never be able to avoid, or to abide." See the scriptures in the margin. [2 Thes. 1:8; Jude 6, 7; Mat. 25:46; Isaiah 33:14, etc.] "The damned," says Gregory, "shall suffer an end without end, a death without death, a decay without decay; for their death ever lives, their end ever begins, their decay never ceases, they are ever healed to be newly wounded, and always repaired to be newly devoured; they are ever dying and never dead, eternally broiling and never burnt up, ever roaring in the pangs of death, and never rid of those pangs; for they shall have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without support, crying without comfort, mischief without measure, and torment without ease—where the worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched." The torments of the damned shall continue as many eternities as there are stars in the skies, as there are grains of sand on the sea-shore, and as there are drops of water found in the sea! When the present worlds are ended, the pains and torments of hell shall not cease—but begin afresh, and thus this wheel shall turn round and round, without end.
Oh the folly and vanity, the madness and baseness of poor wretched sinners who expose themselves to everlasting torments, for a few fleshly momentary pleasures! O sirs! "Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence!" Nahum 1:6. Now how should these things work poor sinners to flee from wrath to come by fleeing to Christ, "who alone is able to save them from wrath to come," 1 Thes. 1:10.
Themistocles, understanding that King Admetus was highly displeased with him, he took up the king's young son in his arms, and so talked with the father, holding his darling in his bosom; and by that means pacified his wrath. Ah sinners, sinners! the King of kings is highly offended with you, and there is no way to appease his wrath—but by taking up Christ in your arms, and so present your suits to him. But,
3. Thirdly, If there is a hell, then don't let fly so fiercely against those faithful ministers who seriously and conscientiously do all they can to prevent your dropping into hell. 2 Cor. 5:20, 12:15. Don't call them legal preachers, who tell you that there is a hell, and that there are no torments compared to hellish torments, if either you
consider their extremity or eternity. Be not so hot nor so angry with those ambassadors of Christ who are willing to spend and be spent that they may keep you from running headlong to hell. "To think of hell," says one, "preserves a man from falling into it!" Says the same author, "I could wish men would discourse much and oft of hell." It was a saying of Gregory Nyssen, "He who does but hear of hell is, without any further labor or study, taken off from sinful pleasures." But what minister can say so now? Surely men's hearts are grown worse since, for how do most men run headlong to hell, and take a pleasure to dance hoodwinked into everlasting burnings! [Millions of years multiplied by millions, make not up one minute to this eternity—but who considers it, who believes it? etc.] Oh, had but the sinners of this day who swear and curse, drink and party, and drown themselves in fleshly pleasures—but one sight of this hell, how would it shut their mouths, appall their spirits, and strike fear and astonishment into their hearts!
I cannot think that the high transgressors of this day dared be so highly wicked as they are, did they but either see or foresee what they shall one day certainly feel—except there be sound and serious repentance on their sides, and pardoning grace on God's. Bellarmine was of opinion that one glimpse of hell were enough to make a man, not only turn Christian and sober. And yet, he tells us of a certain advocate of the court of Rome, who being, at the point of death, stirred up by those who were about him to repent and call upon God for mercy, he, with a constant countenance, and without sign of any fear, turned his speech to God, and said, "Lord, I have longed much to speak to you, not for myself—but for my wife and children; for I am hastening to hell, I am now a-going to dwell with devils, neither is there anything that I would have you to do for me." And this he spoke with as placate, serene and tranquil a mind, as if he had been speaking of going to the next town or village. Ah, who can read or write such a story without horror and terror! But,
4. Fourthly, If there is a hell, then do not fret, do not envy the prosperity and flourishing estate and condition of wicked and ungodly men; for God has given it under his hand, that they shall be turned into hell: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God," Psalm 37:1-2, 73:21; Proverbs 3:31; Psalm 9:17. It was a
wise saying of Marius to those who envy great men their honor, "Let them envy them their burdens!" I have read a story of a Roman, who was by a court-martial condemned to die for breaking his rank to steal a bunch of grapes; and as he was going to execution, some of the soldiers envied him —that he had grapes, and they had none. Says he, "Do you envy me my grapes, I must pay dearly for them!" Ah sirs! do not envy wicked men's grapes, do not envy their riches, their honors, their greatness, their offices, their dignities; for they shall one day pay dearly for their things.
High seats to many are uneasy, and the downfall terrible: "How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" Isaiah 14:12. It is spoken of the Chaldean monarch, who, though high—yet had a sudden change befell him. It is not a matter of so great joy to have been high and honorable, as it is of grief, anguish, and vexation to be afterwards despicable and contemptible: "Come down, and sit in the dust," Isaiah 47:1. Babylon was the lady of kingdoms—but, says God, "sit in the dust; take the mill-stones, and grind," verse 2; "The Lord Almighty has purposed to stain (Hebrew, to pollute) the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth," Isaiah 23:9; "He shall bring down their pride together," Isaiah 25:11; "Woe to the crown of pride: the crown of pride shall be trodden under feet," Isaiah 28:1, 3. God will bring down the crown of pride to the dust, to ashes, yes, to hell; and, therefore, do not envy the crown of pride.
Croesus was so puffed up with his crown of pride, with his great riches and worldly glory, that he boasted himself to be the happiest man who lived—but Solon told him, that no man was to be accounted happy before death. Croesus little regarded what Solon had said unto him, until he came, by miserable experience, to find the uncertainty of his riches, and all worldly glory, which before he would not believe. For when he was taken captive by King Cyrus, and condemned to be burned, and saw the fire preparing for him, then he cried out, "O Solon, Solon!" Cyrus asking him the cause of the outcry, he answered, that now he remembered what Solon had told him in his prosperity—that no man was to be accounted happy before death. Who can sum up those crowns of pride that in Scripture and history God has brought down to the dust, yes, to the ashheap! Have not some wished, when they have been breathing out their
last, that they had never been kings, nor queens, nor lords, nor ladies? etc. Where is there one of ten thousand who is advanced, and thereby anything bettered?
Few men believe what vexations lie under the pillows of princes. "You look upon my crown and my purple robes," says Artaxerxes—"but did you know how they were lined with thorns, you would not stoop to take them up." Damocles highly extolled Dionysius. Dionysius, to convince him of his mistake, provides a royal feast, invites him to it, commands his servants to attend him. No dainties, no mirth, no music are lacking—but over the table, a sharp sword was hung by a horse hair, which made Damocles tremble, and to forbear both food and mirth. "Such, even such," says Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant, "is my life, which you deem so pleasant and happy." O sirs! there is a sword of wrath which hangs over every sinner's head, even when he is surrounded with all the mirthful and gallant things of this world!
Outward prosperity is commonly given in God's wrath, as you may see by comparing these scriptures. [Hos. 13:11; Psalm 73 and 78:30-31; Proverbs 1:32; Luke 12:16-22; Eccles. 5:12-13.] Prosperity kills and damns more than adversity. It had been infinitely better for the great men of this world that they had never been so great, for their horrid abuse of God's mercy and bounty will but increase their misery and damnation at last. Augustine hit it on the head when he said, "Because they have tasted so liberally of God's kindness, and have employed it only against God's glory, their felicity shall be short—but their misery shall be endless; and therefore to see the wicked prosper and flourish in this world is matter rather of pity than envy. It is all the heaven they must have." ["The whole Turkish empire is nothing else but a crust cast by our Father to his dogs, and it is all they are likely to have, let them make them merry with it," said Luther.]
These are as terrible texts as any in the whole Book of God: Mat. 6:2, "Truly I say unto you, they have their reward." Luke 6:24, "Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation." James 5:1-3, "Go now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be a witness
against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire!" Gregory, being advanced to places of great preferment, professed that there was no scripture that went so near his heart, and that struck such a trembling into his spirit, as that speech of Abraham to Dives, Luke 16:25, "Son, remember you in your lifetime received your good things." Those who have their heaven here—are in danger to miss it hereafter. "It is not God's usual way," says Jerome, to move from delights to delights—to bestow two heavens, one here and another hereafter!" Doubtless hence it was, that David made it his solemn prayer, "Deliver me from the wicked, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly you fill with your hid treasure," Psalm 17:14. It is a very difficult thing to have earth and heaven too. God did not turn man out of one paradise, that he should here provide himself of another. Many men with the prodigal cry out, "Give me the portion that belongs to me," Luke 15:12. "Give me riches, and give me honor, and give me preferment, etc." And God gives them their desires—but it is with a vengeance; as the Israelites had quail to choke them, and afterwards a king to vex them, and a table to be a snare unto them, Psalm 78:24-32. When the Israelites had eaten of their dainty dishes, justice sent in a sad reckoning which spoiled all.
Ah friends, there is no reason why we should envy the prosperity of wicked men. "Suppose," says Chrysostom, "that a man one night should have a pleasant dream that for the time might much delight him; yet for the pleasure of such a dream should be tormented a thousand years together with extreme torments; would any man desire to have such a dream upon such conditions? All the contentments of this life are not so much, compared to eternity—as a dream is to a thousand years! And, oh, how little is that man's condition to be envied, who for these short pleasures of sin must endure an eternity of torments!
O sirs! do wicked men purchase their present pleasures at so dear a rate as eternal torments? And do we envy their enjoyment of them so short a time? Would any envy a man going to execution, because he saw him in prison nobly feasted and nobly attended and bravely courted? or because he saw him go up the ladder with a gold chain about his neck and a scarlet gown upon his back? or because he saw him walk to execution through pleasant fields or delightsome gardens? or because there went
before him drums beating, colors flying, and trumpets sounding, etc.? Surely not! Oh, no more should we envy the grandeur of the men of the day, for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution! The sinner is cursed, and all his blessings are cursed! Who in their wits would envy a man under a curse? Oh, how much more worthy of our pity than envy, is that man's condition who has all his happiness confined to the narrow compass of this life—but his misery extended to the uttermost bounds of an everlasting duration! Mal. 2:2. But,
5. Fifthly, If there is a hell, then, Christians, spend your days in admiring and in being greatly affected with the transcendent love of Christ—in undergoing hellish punishments in your stead! Oh pray, pray hard that you "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that love of Christ, which passes knowledge," Eph. 3:18-19—of that love of Christ, which put him upon these bodily and spiritual sufferings which were so exceeding great, acute, extreme, universal and continual—and all to save us from wrath to come! 1 Thes. 1:10. Christ's outward and inward miseries, sorrows, and sufferings are not to be paralleled, and therefore Christians have the more cause to lose themselves in the contemplation of his matchless love. Oh, bless Christ! oh, kiss Christ! oh, embrace Christ! oh, welcome Christ! oh, cleave to Christ! oh, follow Christ! oh, walk with Christ! oh, long for Christ! who for your sakes has undergone insupportable wrath and most hellish torments, as I have evidenced at large before, and therefore a touch here may suffice. [Psalm 103:1-2, and 2:12; Cant. 3:4; Rev. 14:4-5; Isaiah 63:8; Gen. 6:9; Cant. 8:14.]
Oh, look up to dear Jesus, and say, "O blessed Jesus, you were accursed that I might be blessed, Gal. 3:13; you were condemned that I might be justified, Isaiah 53; you did for a time undergo the very torments of hell, that I might forever enjoy the pleasures of heaven, Romans 8:30, 34; Psalm 16:11; and therefore I cannot but dearly love you, and highly esteem you, and greatly honor you, and earnestly long after you!"
But, for a close, you will say, "Where is hell? where is this place of torment? where is that very place that is so frequently called hell in the Scripture? That there is a hell, you have sufficiently proved—but, please, where is it? where is it?" Now, to this I answer,
[1.] First, That it becomes all sober, serious Christians to rest satisfied and contented with those scriptural arguments that do undeniably prove that there is a hell, a place appointed where the wicked, the damned, shall be tormented forever and ever—though they do not know, nor for the present cannot understand, where this hell is. But,
[2.] Secondly, I answer, Curiosity is one of the most dangerous engines, which the devil uses to undo souls with. When Satan observes that men do in good earnest set themselves to the obtaining of knowledge, then he strives to turn them to vain inquiries and curious speculations; so that, if they will are knowing, he may keep them busied about unprofitable curiosities. [Curious inquirers have always lain under the lash of Christ, as you may see by comparing these scriptures together: Job 21:22; Acts 1:6, 7; Luke 13:22, 24.] The way to make us mere fools, is to attempt to know more than God would have us to know. Adam's tree of knowledge made him and his posterity fools, Gen. 3:5-6. Curiosity was the bait whereby the devil caught our first parents—and undid us all! Curiosity is the spiritual adultery of the soul. Curiosity is spiritual drunkenness. Look, as the drunkard, be the cup ever so deep, he is not satisfied unless he sees the bottom of it; so the curious searcher into the depths of God, he is unsatisfied until he comes to the bottom of them, and by this means they come to be 'mere fools', as the apostle says, Romans 1:22. Adam had a mind to know as much of God as God himself; and by this means he came to know nothing. Curiosity is that green-sickness of the soul, whereby it longs for novelties, and loathes sound and wholesome truths; it is the epidemic distemper of this age.
Ah! how many are there who spend their precious time in inscrutable and curious questions! [Basil says that multitudes of questions may be made about 'a fly'—which no philosopher is ever able to answer; how much rather about heaven, hell, or the work of grace!] Ah, what did Christ dispute of, among the doctors? Where did Paradise stand? In what part of the world is local hell? What fruit was it that Adam ate, and ruined us all? What became of Moses his body? How many orders and degrees of elect angels are there? etc. Oh, that we could learn to be contentedly ignorant, where God would not have us knowing; and let us not account it any disparagement to acknowledge some depths in God's counsels,
purposes, decrees, and judgments, which our shallow reason cannot fathom, Romans 11:33.
It is sad when men will be wise above what is written, and love to pry into God's secrets, and scan the mysteries of religion by carnal reason, Romans 12:3, and 1 Cor. 4:6. God often plagues such pride and curiosity by leaving that sort of men to strange and fearful falls. When a curious inquisitor asked Austin what God did before he created the world, Austin told him that "God was making hell for such busy questionists, for such curious inquirers into God's secrets!" Such sharp replies are the best answers to men of curious minds. But,
[3.] Thirdly, I answer, It concerns us but little to know whether hell is in the air, or in the concave of the earth, or of what longitude, latitude, or profundity it is. ["Let us not be inquisitive where hell is—but rather let our care be to escape it!" says Chrysostom.] Let hell be where it has pleased God in his secret counsel to place it—to men unknown, whether it is in the north or in the south, under the frozen zone, or under the burning zone, or in a pit or a gulf. Our great care should be to avoid it, to escape it, and not to be curiously inquisitive about where it s—which the Lord in his infinite wisdom has not thought fit clearly to reveal or make known to the sons of men.
In hell there's nothing heard but yells and cries; In hell the fire never slacks, nor worm ever dies. But where is this hell placed? My muse, stop there: Lord, show me what it is—but never where!
Look, as there are many who please themselves with discourses of the degrees of glory—while others make sure their saving interest in glory; just so, many please themselves with discourses of the degrees of the torments of hell—while others make sure their escaping those torments! Look, as many take pleasure to be discoursing about the place where hell is—so some take pleasure to make sure their escaping of that place; and certainly they are the best and wisest of men who spend most thoughts, and time, and pains how to keep out of hell—than to exercise themselves with disputes about it. ["As in heaven one is more glorious than another, so in hell one shall be more miserable than another." Augustine.] But,
[4.] Fourthly, I answer, That it has been the common opinion of the fathers, that hell is in the heart of the earth; yes, Christ and the blessed Scriptures, which are the highest authority, do strongly seem to favor this opinion, by speaking of a descent unto hell, in opposition unto heaven; and, therefore, we may as well doubt whether heaven be above us, as doubt of hell being beneath us. Among other scriptures ponder upon these: Psalm 140:10, "Let them be cast into the deep pits, that they rise not up again. Bring them down into the pit of destruction." Proverbs 9:18, "Her guests are in the depths of hell." Proverbs 15:24, "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." Sheol is sometimes taken for a pit, sometimes for the grave, and sometimes, and that significantly too, for hell—all downwards. One says that Sheol generally signifies all places under the earth; whence some conclude that hell is in the heart of the earth, or under the earth. Without doubt it is below, because it is everywhere opposed to heaven, which is above. It is therefore called Abyssus, a deep pit, a vast gulf; such a pit as, by reason of the depth thereof, may be said to have no bottom. The devils entreated Christ that he would not send them to this place, Luke 8:31, in Abyssum, which is, says one, "a gulf of immeasurable depth," etc.
The apostle, 2 Pet. 2:4, speaking of the angels that sinned, says, "God cast them down into hell." So Beza, in his Annotations, tells us the Greeks called that place which was ordained for the prison and torment of the damned. And reason itself does teach us that it must needs be opposite and contrary to that place in which the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12:23, do reside, which, on all hands, is granted to be above. Some have been of opinion that the pit spoken of, into which Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went down alive, when the earth opened up and swallowed them up, was the pit of hell, into which both their souls and bodies were immediately conveyed, Num. 16:33.
As we know little in respect of the height of heaven, so we know as little in respect of the lowness of hell. Some of the upper part of the earth is to us yet an unknown land—but all of the lowest parts of hell is to us an unknown land. Many thousands have traveled there—but none have returned thence, to make reports or write books of their travels. That piece of geography is totally unknown to us. Heaven and hell are the
greatest opposites, or remotest extremes: "And you people of Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to hell!" Mat. 11:23. Heaven and hell are at farthest natural distance, and are therefore the everlasting receptacles of those who are at the farthest moral distance —believers and unbelievers, saints and impenitents. And it is observable, that as the height of heaven, so the depth of hell, is ascribed to wisdom, to show the unsearchableness of it. "Oh the depth," as well as "Oh the height," "of the wisdom of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Romans 11:33. Certainly God's depths, and Satan's depths, and hell's depths, lie far out of our view, and are hard to be found out, 1 Cor. 10, and Rev. 2:24.
Though I ought piously to reverence the wonderful wisdom of God, and to wonder at his unsearchable judgments—yet I ought not curiously and profanely to search beyond the compass of that which God has revealed to us in his word.
The Romans had a certain lake, the depth whereof they knew not. Doubtless hell is such a lake, the depth whereof no man knows; it is such a bottomless pit that no mortal can sound. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, I answer, Some of the learned are of opinion, that hell is outside this visible world, which will pass away at the last day, 2 Pet. 3:10-13, and removed at the greatest distance from the place where the righteous shall forever inhabit: Mat. 8:12, "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." Mat. 22:30, "Then said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness." Mat. 25:30, "And cast you the unprofitable servant into outer darkness." Into a darkness beyond a darkness, into a dungeon beyond and beneath the prison. The darkness of hell is compared to the darkness of those prisons, which were oftentimes outside of the city.
A prison was outside the gate, near mount Calvary, and it was the loathsomest and vilest prison of all, for in it the thieves who were carried to Calvary to be executed were kept; and Christ alludes to this prison in Mat. 8:12, and Mat. 22:13, and that Mat. 25:30, "Cast him into utter darkness;" which allusion could not be understood, unless there had been
a dark prison without the city, where was utter darkness. 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; Acts 12:10. By outer darkness, the Holy Spirit would signify to us that the wicked should be in a state most remote from all heavenly happiness and blessedness; and that they should be expelled out of the blessed presence of God, who is highest good. By outer darkness we are to understand the greatest darkness that is, as in a place most remote from all light. They shall be cast into outer darkness, that is, they shall be cast into the palpable darkness of the infernal prison. Immediately after death, sinners' souls shall be cast into the infernal prison, and in the day of judgment both their souls and their bodies shall be cast into outer darkness. Darkness is no other thing than a privation of light. Now light is twofold, namely,
1. Spiritual light—as wisdom, grace, truth. Now the privation of this light is internal darkness, and ignorance in the spirit and inward man.
2. There is a sensible and physical light, whose privation is outer darkness; and this is the darkness spoken of in the three scriptures last cited. For although there is fire in hell—yet it is a dark and smoky fire, and not clear, except only so as the damned may see one another, for the greater increase of their misery, as some write. Now I shall leave the ingenuous reader to conclude as he pleases concerning the place where hell is—desiring and hoping that he will make it the greatest business of his life to escape hell, and to get to heaven, etc.
The Divinity and Humanity of Christ
6. Sixthly, If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of hell, though not after a hellish manner, then let me infer that certainly the papists are greatly mistaken, and do greatly err—who boldly and confidently assert that Christ's soul in substance, went really and locally into hell. Bellarmine takes a great deal of pains to make good this assertion—but this great champion of the Romish church may easily be confuted. First, Because that limbus patrum, and Christ's fetching the fathers from the skirts of hell, about which he makes so great a noise, is a mere fable, and not founded upon
any solid grounds of Scripture. Secondly, Because upon Christ's dying, and satisfying for our sins, his soul went that very day into paradise—as Adam sinning was that very day cast out of paradise—and his soul could not be in two places at once. Thirdly, Because this descent of Christ's soul into hell was altogether needless, and to no purpose. What need was there of it, or to what end did he descend? Not to suffer in hell, for that was finished on the cross; not to redeem or rescue the fathers out of hell, for the elect were never there, and redemption from hell was wrought by Christ's death, as the Scriptures do clearly evidence; not to triumph there over the devils, etc., [Luke 23:43; Gen. 3:23-24; John 18:30; Heb. 9:12; 1 Thes. 1:10; Eph. 4:8; Heb. 2:14-15; Col. 2:14-15.] for Christ triumphed over them when he was on the cross.
Christ, in the day of his solemn inauguration into his heavenly kingdom, triumphed over sin, death, devils, and hell. When Christ was on the cross, he made the devils a public spectacle of scorn and derision; as Tamerlane did Bajazet the great Turk, whom he shut up in an iron cage made like a grate, in such sort as that he might on every side be seen, and so carried him up and down all Asia, to be scorned and derided by his own people. By these few hints you may see the vanity and folly of the papists, who tell you that Christ's soul and substance went really and locally into hell. I might make other inferences—but let these suffice at this time.
7. Seventhly, As Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of hell, though not after a hellish manner, so Jesus Christ was really, certainly made a curse for us. Jesus Christ did in his soul and body bear that curse of the law, which by reason of transgression was due to us. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," Gal. 3:13. He does not say that Christ was cursed— but made a curse, which is more: it shows that the curse of all did lie upon him. The death on the tree was accursed above all kinds of deaths, as the serpent was accursed above all the beasts of the field, Gen. 3:14. This scripture refers to Deut. 21:33, "Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse." [Not that all who are hanged should be damned, for the contrary appears in that Luke 23:43. Neither is hanging in itself, or by the law of nature, or by civil law, more execrable than any other death.]
The holy and wise God appointed this kind of punishment, as being the most cruel and reproachful, for a type of the punishment which his Son must suffer to deliver us from the curse. Hanging on a tree was accounted the most shameful, the most dishonorable, the most odious and infamous, and accursed, of all kinds of death, both by the Israelites and other nations, because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus executed were such execrable, base, vile, and accursed wretches, that they did defile the earth with treading on it, and would pollute the earth if they should die upon it, and therefore were hanged up in the air, as people not fit to converse among men, or touch the surface of the ground any more.
But what should be the reason why the ceremonial law affixed the curse to this death rather than any other death?
I answer, first, because this was reckoned the most shameful and dishonorable of all deaths, and was usually therefore the punishment of those who had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his wrath upon the whole land, and so were hanged up to appease his wrath; as you may see in the hanging of those princes that were guilty of committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab, Num. 25:4; and in the hanging of Saul's seven sons in the days of David, when there was a famine in the land because of Saul's perfidious oppressing of the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. 21:6-9; and in Joshua's hanging of the five kings of the Amorites, Josh. 16:26.
But, secondly and mainly, it was with respect to the death Christ was to die. God would have his Son, the Lord Jesus, to suffer this kind of death, that hence it might be the more evident that in his death he bore the curse due to our sins, according to that of the apostle, Gal. 3:13. Christ was certainly made that curse which he redeemed us from, otherwise the apostle does not reason either soundly or fairly, when he tells us we are redeemed from the curse because Christ was made a curse for us; he remits that curse to us which he received in himself. He hit the mark on the head, who says, Christ has taken our punishment without guilt, to loose the guilt and end the punishment. We were subject to the curse, because we had transgressed the law; Christ was not subject, because he had fulfilled it. He therefore took that curse, to the which he was not
subject, when he hanged upon the tree, to loose the curse which was against us. Such a curse or execration was Christ made for us, as was that from which he redeemed us; and that curse from which he redeemed us was no other than the curse of the law, and that the curse of the law included all the punishment which sinners were to bear or suffer for transgression of the law, of which his hanging on the cross was a sign and symbol; and this curse was Christ made for us, that is—he did bear and suffer it to redeem us from it. Christ was truly made a curse for us, and did bear both in his body and soul that curse, which by reason of the transgression of the law was due to us; and therefore I may well conclude this head with that saying of Jerome, "The Lord's injury is our glory."
The more we ascribe to Christ's suffering, the less remains of ours; the more painfully that he suffered, the more fully are we redeemed; the greater his sorrow was, the greater our solace; his dissolution is our consolation, his cross our comfort; his annoy our endless joy; his distress in soul our release, his calamity our comfort; his misery our mercy, his adversity our felicity, his hell our heaven. Christ is not only accursed—but a curse; and this expression is used both for more significancy and usefulness, to note out the truth and realness of the thing, and also to show the order and way he took for bringing us back unto that blessedness which we had lost. The law was our righteousness in our innocent condition, and so it was our blessedness. But the first Adam, falling away from God by his first transgression, plunged himself into all unrighteousness, and so inwrapped himself in the curse, James 1:24. Now Christ the second Adam, that he may restore the lost man into an estate of blessedness, he becomes that for them which the law is unto them, namely, a curse; beginning where the law ends, and so going backward to satisfy the demands of the law to the uttermost, he becomes first a curse for them, and then their righteousness, and so their blessedness, Romans 10:24.
Christ's becoming a curse for us, stands in this, that whereas we are all accursed by the sentence of the law because of sin, he now comes in our place, and stands under the stroke of that curse which of right belongs to us; so that it no longer lies on the backs of poor sinners—but on him for them and in their stead; therefore he is called a surety, Heb. 7:22. The
surety stands in the room of a debtor, malefactor, or him who is any way liable to the law. Such is Adam and all his posterity. We are by the doom of the law, evil-doers, and transgressors, and upon that score we stand indebted to the justice of God, and lie under the stroke of his wrath. Now the Lord Jesus, seeing us in this condition, he steps in and stands between us and the blow; yes, he takes this wrath and curse off from us— unto himself. Christ Jesus does not expect that we should pay the debt ourselves—but he takes it wholly to himself. As a surety for a murderer or traitor, or some other notorious malefactor, that has escaped prison and has run away—he undergoes whatever the malefactor is chargeable with for satisfying the law; even so, the Lord Jesus Christ stands surety for us renegade malefactors, making himself liable to all that curse which belongs to us, that he might both answer the law fully and bring us back again to God.
As the first Adam stood in the place of all mankind fallen; so Christ the second Adam stands in the room of all mankind which is to be restored; he sustains the person of all those which do spiritually descend from him, and unto whom he bears the relation of a head, Eph. 1:22-23. Christ did actually undergo and suffer the wrath of God, and the fearful effects thereof, in the punishments threatened in the law. As he became a debtor, and was so accounted, even so he became payment thereof; he was made a sacrifice for sin, and bore to the full, all that ever divine justice did or could require, even the uttermost extent of the curse of the law of God. He must thus undergo the curse, because he had taken upon him our sin. The justice of the most high God, revealed in the law, looks upon the Lord Jesus as a sinner, because he has undertaken for us, and seizes upon him accordingly, pouring down on his head the whole curse, and all those dreadful punishments which are threatened in it against sin; for the curse follows sin as the shadow the body, whether it be sin inherent or sin imputed; even as the blessing follows righteousness, whether it be righteousness inherent or righteousness imputed. But,
8. Eighthly, He who did feel and suffer the very torments of hell —though not after a hellish manner—was God man. Christ participates of both natures, being God and man, God-man. Such a mediator, sinners needed. No mediator but such a one who has interest in
both parties, could serve their turns or save their souls, and such a one is the Lord Jesus; he has an interest in both parties, and he has an interest in both natures—the Godhead and the manhood. The blessed Scriptures are so express and clear in these points, that they must shut their eyes with a witness against the light, that cannot see Christ to be God-man, to be God and man.
I shall first speak something of the DIVINITY of Christ. Now here are fathomless depths and bottomless bottoms, if I may so speak; here are stupendous and amazing mysteries, astonishing and confounding excellencies, such as the holy angels themselves desire to pry into. God is dwelling in inaccessible light: 1 Tim. 6:16. Here are such beauties and perfections that had I, as the poet speaks, a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, and a voice of steel—yet I could not sufficiently describe them! Nevertheless give me permission to say something concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, who is one eternal God with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit. I might produce a cloud of witnesses in the case—but it is enough that we have the authority of the sacred Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, confirming of it; and therefore I shall lay down some proofs or demonstrations of the eternal godhead of Christ, which I shall draw out of the blessed Scripture. This is a point of great concern, that Christ is God; so great, as whoever builds not upon this, builds upon the sands. This is the rock of our salvation, "The Word was God," John 1:1. Concerning this important point, consider—
1. First, That the godhead of Christ is clearly asserted, and manifested both in the Old and New Testament. Take a taste of some of those many scriptures which may be cited: Isaiah 43:10-12, "That you may know and believe, and understand that I am he, I, even I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Savior." Isaiah 41:21-25, "There is no God else besides me: a just God and Savior, there is none besides me. Look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. To me every knee shall bow. . . . . In Jehovah have I righteousness. . . . In Jehovah shall the seed of Israel be justified." [Compare these scriptures of the Old Testament with these in the New Testament. Heb. 1:2, 8; 1 John 1:7; Acts 4:12; Eph. 4:8; Romans 9:30;
and also Jer. 33:23; Psalm 6, 68:18-20.] Compare this with Romans 14:10-11. We ought to conclude from these scriptures, that Jesus Christ is not a different God from the Father—but is one and the same God with him. Just so, he is called "The mighty God, the everlasting Father," Isaiah 9:6.
Take a few clear places out of the New Testament, as that in Romans 9:5, "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for evermore." Christ is here himself called God blessed forever. Just so, Titus 2:13, "Looking for that hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ." Who is it that shall appear at the last day in the clouds—but Christ? who is called the great God and our Savior? "God blessed forever," says Paul to the Romans. "The great God," says Paul to Titus. 1 John 5:20, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." Phil. 2:6, "He was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God." Col. 2:9, "In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." John 20:28, "My Lord, and my God." 1 Tim. 3:16, "God manifested in the flesh." To which of the saints or angels did God say at any time, "You are my Son?" Heb. 1:1. "The heir of all things, the illustrious brightness of my glory, and lively character of my person." "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and all the angels of God shall worship you."
Certainly he who is God's own proper, natural, consubstantial, coessential, only-begotten Son, he is God; wherever this sonship is, there is the deity or the divine essence. Now Christ is thus God's Son, therefore he is God. What the Father is as to his nature, that the Son must also be. Now the first person, the Father of Christ, is God; whereupon he too who is the Son must be God also. A son always participates of his father's essence, there is between them evermore an identity and oneness of nature. If therefore Christ is God's Son, as is most evident throughout the Scripture he is, then he must needs have that very nature and essence which God the Father has, insomuch that if the second person be not really a God, the first person is but equivocally a Father. These scriptures are so evident and pregnant to prove the godhead of Christ, that they
need no illustration; yes, they speak so fully for the divinity of Christ, that all the Arians and Socinians in the world do but in vain go about to elude them. But,
2. Secondly, Let us ponder seriously upon these scriptures: John 3:13, "And no man has ascended up to heaven—but he who came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven;" verse 31, "He who comes from above is above all: he who comes from heaven is above all." John 8:23, "You are from beneath, I am from above." John 16:28, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; and again I leave the world, and go to the Father." Now from these blessed scriptures we may thus argue: he who was in heaven before he was on the earth, and who was also in heaven while he was on the earth, is certainly the eternal God—but all this does Jesus Christ strongly assert concerning himself, as is evident in the scriptures last cited; therefore he is the eternal God, blessed forever. But,
3. Thirdly, Christ's eternal deity, co-equality, and consubstantiality with the Father, may be demonstrated from his divine names and titles. As,
(1.) First, Jehovah is one of the incommunicable names of God, which signifies his eternal essence.
The Jews observe that in God's name Jehovah, the Trinity is implied. Je signifies the present tense, ho the preterperfect tense, vah the future. The Jews also observe that in his name Jehovah, denotes rest, implying that in God and from God is all our rest. Every gracious soul is like Noah's dove, he can find neither rest nor satisfaction but in God. God alone is the godly man's ark of rest and safety. Jehovah is the incommunicable name of God, and is never attributed to any but God: Psalm 83:19, "You whose name alone is Jehovah." Jehovah is a name so full of divine mysteries, that the Jews hold it unlawful to pronounce it. [Exod. 15:3; Gen. 2:4. The Jews called it nomen Dei inefabile. But this name Jehovah is not unspeakable in regard of the name—but in regard of the essence of God, set forth by it, as Zanchius notes. This name was always thrice repeated when the priest blessed the people, Num. 6:24-26.] Jehovah signifies three things—
[1.] That God is an eternal, independent being of himself.
[2.] That he gives being to all creatures, Acts 17:28.
[3.] That he does, and will give, being to his promises.
God tells Moses, Exod. 6:3, that he "appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of El Shaddai, God Almighty—but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them." The name Jehovah was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—but not the mystery of the name. [Gen. 20:14, "Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will see, or provide." Besides, the fathers of old are said not to have known God by his name Jehovah—in comparison of that which their posterity knew afterwards; for to them God made himself more clearly and fully known.] This was revealed to Moses from God, and from Moses to the people. It is meant of the performances of his great promises made to Abraham. God did promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham's seed for an inheritance, which promise was not performed to him—but to his seed after him; so that this is the meaning, God appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, El Shaddai, God Almighty, in protecting, delivering, and rewarding of them—but by his name Jehovah, he was not known to them. God did not perform his promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—but unto their seed and posterity after them.
This name Jehovah is the proper and peculiar name of the one, only true God, a name as far significant of his nature and being, as possibly we are enabled to understand; so that this is taken for granted on all hands—that he whose name is Jehovah is the only true God. Whenever that name is used properly, without an image or figure—it is used of God only.
Now this glorious name Jehovah, that is so full of mysteries, is frequently ascribed to Christ: Isaiah 6:1, he is called Jehovah, for there Isaiah is said to see "Jehovah sitting upon a throne," etc. And, John 12:41, this is expressly by the holy evangelist applied to Christ, of whom he says, that "Isaiah saw his glory, and spoke of him." Exod. 17:1, the people are said to "tempt Jehovah;" and the apostle says, 1 Cor. 10:9, "Let us not tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." It
is said of Jehovah, "Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands; they shall perish—but you shall endure," etc., Psalm 102:25-26; and the apostle clearly testifies, Heb. 1:10, that these words are spoken of Christ. Just so, Jehovah rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah out of heaven, Gen. 19:24; that is, Jehovah, the Son of God, who stayed with Abraham, Gen. 18, rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah the Father; and Christ is called JehovahTsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness; and in that Zech. 13:7, Christ is called the Father's fellow. The Lord Christ is that Jehovah, to whom every knee must bow, as appears by comparing Isaiah 45:21-25, compared with Romans 14:9-12 and Phil. 2:6, 9-11.
I might further insist upon this argument, and show that the title of 'Lord', so often given to Christ in the New Testament, does answer to the title of Jehovah in the Old Testament. And, as some learned men conceive, the apostles did purposely use the title of Lord, that they might not offend the Jews with frequent pronouncing of the word Jehovah: "You shall fear Jehovah your God." Deut. 6:13 and 10:20 is rendered by the apostle, "You shall worship the Lord your God;" and so Deut. 6:5, "You shall love Jehovah your God," is rendered, Mat. 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God." Thus you see that in several precious scriptures Jesus Christ is called Jehovah; and therefore we may very safely and confidently conclude that Jesus Christ is very God, God blessed forever. But,
(2.) The second name or title which denotes the essence of God is Ehieh, "I am that I am," or, I will be what I will be, Exod. 3:14. [The Hebrew Ehieh properly signifies, "I will be that I will be." The Septuagint renders it, I am he who is; and in that Rev. 16:5, God is called, He who is, and that was, and that will be.] It has the same root with Jehovah, and signifies that God is an eternal, unchangeable being. Some make this name to be God's extraordinary name. Damascene says this name contains all things in it, like a vast and infinite ocean without bounds. This glorious name of God, I AM THAT I AM, implies these six things.
[1.] God's incomprehensibleness: as we say of anything we would not have others pry into, it is what it is, so God says here to Moses, I AM WHAT I AM.
[2.] It implies God's immensity, that his being is without any limits. Angels and men have their beings—but then they are bounded and limited within such a compass—but God is an immense being that cannot be included within any bounds.
[3.] It implies that God is of himself, and has not a being dependent upon any other. "I am," that is, by and from and of myself.
[4.] It implies God's eternal and unchangeable being in himself. It implies God's everlastingness. "I am before anything was, and shall forever be." There never was nor shall be time wherein God could not say of himself, "I am."
[5.] It implies that there is no succession of time with God. And,
[6.] It implies that he is a God who gives being to all things. [Every creature is temporary and mutable. No creature can say, I will be that I will be.] In short, the reason why God names himself, "I AM THAT I AM," or will be that I will be, is because he is the Being of beings, subsisting by himself; as if he should say, "I am my being, I am my essence; my existence differs not from my essence, because I am that I am, and as I am, so will I be to all eternity," "the same yesterday, today, and forever." "There is no shadow of change, no variableness at all in me."
Now this glorious name is given to Jesus Christ: Rev. 1:8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." [In this verse you have a clear and pregnant proof of Christ's deity.] This kind of speaking is taken from the Greek alphabet, in which language John wrote this book. Alpha, being their first letter, and Omega, the last. The sense is, I was before all creatures, and shall abide forever, though all creatures should perish; or I am he from whom all creatures had their beginning, and to whom they are referred, as their uttermost end. Christ, in calling of himself Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; and that absolutely, does therein assume unto himself absolute perfection, power, dominion, eternity, and divinity, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Christ assumes all those epithets here to himself by which John, verse 4, described God;
and what wonder is it if Christ, who is God, does take to himself whatever is due to God?
The Almighty: this is another epithet proper to God, which Christ also takes to himself, showing that he is the true, eternal, and omnipotent God, in all things equal and co-essential with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the first and the last, who is, was, and is to come, and the Almighty, and therefore he is, without any question—God eternal; for so Jehovah says of himself, "I the Lord, the first and the last, I am he; I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God; I am God Almighty." [Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, and Gen. 17:1.] But Christ does take to himself, all these divine attributes; therefore he is Jehovah—that one, eternal, and omnipotent God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Oh, the stateliness and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ! What an excellent and stately person is he, there being not a property attributed to God, but is agreeable to Christ! Every word in this Rev. 1:8, is a proper attribute of God. He is infinite in power, sovereign in dominion, and not bounded as creatures are. And that this is clearly spoken of Christ is most evident, not only from the scope, John being to set out Christ, from whom he had this revelation—but also from the 11th and 17th verses following, where he gives him the same titles over again, or rather, if you please, Christ, speaking of himself, takes and repeats the same titles. [See Rev. 21:6, and 22:13.]
Heb. 13:8, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever." "Yesterday," that is, the time past, before his coming in the flesh; "today," while in the flesh; and "forever," that is, after time. The same—before time, in time, and after time. "Jesus Christ the same," that is, unchangeable in his essence, promises, and doctrine. Jesus Christ was always the same, and is still the same, and will abide forever the same, as being one selfsame God, and one selfsame Mediator, as well in the Old as in the New Testament.
John 8:58, "Jesus said unto them, Truly, truly, I say unto you, before Abraham was—I am." According to my divine nature, which is from everlasting, before Abraham was—I am. I who, according to my humanity, am not above fifty years old, according to my divine nature am
eternal, and so before Abraham and all the creatures, Micah 5:1-2. I have a being from all eternity, and so before Abraham was born; and therefore, as young as you take me to be in respect of my age here, I may well have seen and known Abraham, though he died over two thousand years since. But,
(3.) The third name or title which denotes the essence of God is Elohim, which signifies the persons in the essence. It is a name of the plural number, expressing the trinity of persons in the unity of essence; and, therefore, it is observed by the learned, that the Holy Spirit begins the story of the creation with this plural name of God, joined with a verb of the singular number, as the mighty Gods, or all the three persons in the godhead, created, Gen. 1:1-2. Just so, Gen. 3:22, "And Jehovah Elohim said, Behold, the man has become as one of us." It is a holy derision of man's vain affectation of the deity. God upbraids our first parents for their vain attempt of being like unto him in that ironical expression, "Behold, the man has become as one of us—knowing good and evil;" meaning, that by his sin he was become most unlike him.
This name Elohim, by which God expresses his nature, denotes the power and strength of God; to show us that God is strong and powerful, and that he can do great things for his people, and bring great desolations and destructions upon his and his people's enemies. O sirs, God is too strong for his strongest enemies, and too powerful for all the powers of hell! Though Jacob, a worm in his own eyes, and in his enemies' eyes—yet Jacob need never fear; for Elohim, the strong and powerful God, will stand by him, and help him, Isaiah 41:10, 13-14.
Now this name is also attributed unto Christ: Psalm 45:6, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of your kingdom is a righteous scepter." "Your throne, O God," Hebrew, gods—"Your throne, O Gods," Elohim. It signifies the trinity of persons in the unity of essence, as I have before noted. The prophet directs his speech, not to Solomon but to Christ, as is most evident by the clear and unquestionable testimony of the Holy Spirit: Heb. 1:8, "But unto the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom." Christ is called God, not by an excellency only as the angels are, nor by office and title only as magistrates are called gods, nor
ironically as the heathen gods are called, nor a diminutive God, inferior to the Father, as Arius held—but God by nature every way, co-essential, coeternal, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. [Psalm 8:5, compared with Heb. 2:6-8, and Psalm 82:16.] Hold fast all truth—but, above all, hold fast this glorious truth—that Jesus Christ is God blessed forever!
(4.) The fourth name or title which denotes the essence of God is El Gibbor, the strong and mighty God. God is not only strong in his own essence—but he is also strong in the defense of his people, and it is he who gives all strength and power to all other creatures, 2 Chron. 16:9. There are no men, no powers, which are a match for the strong God.
Now this title is also attributed to Christ: Isaiah 9:6, "El Gibbor, the strong God, the mighty God." The word signifying God, does also signify strong. He is so strong that he is almighty, he is one to whom nothing is impossible. Christ's name is God, for he is the same essence with God the Father. This title, "the mighty God," fits well to Christ, who has all the names of the deity given to him in Scripture; and who, by the strength and power of his godhead, did satisfy the justice of God, and pacify the wrath of God, and make peace, and purchase pardon and eternal life for all his elect.
(5.) The fifth name or title which denotes the essence of God is El Shaddai, God omnipotent or all-sufficient, Gen. 17:1. He lacks nothing—but is infinitely blessed with the infinite perfection of his glorious being. By this name, God makes himself known to be selfsufficient, all-sufficient, absolutely perfect. Certainly that man can lack nothing who has an all-sufficient God for his God. He who loses his all for God, shall find all in an all-sufficient God, Mat. 19:29. Esau had much— but Jacob had all, because he had the God of all, Gen. 33:9-11. "What are riches, honors, pleasures, profits, lands, friends, yes, millions of worlds, compared to one Shaddai, God Almighty, God All-sufficient?" (Augustine.) [This name Shaddai belongs only to the godhead, and to no creature; no, not to the humanity of Christ.] This glorious name Shaddai, was a noble foundation for Abraham to act his faith upon, though in things above nature or against it, etc. He who is El Shaddai is perfectly able to defend his servants from all evil, and to bless them with all
spiritual and temporal blessings, and to perform all his promises which concern both this life and that which is to come.
Now this name, this title Shaddai, is attributed to Christ, as you may clearly see by comparing Gen. 35:6, 9-11, and 32:24-30, with Hosea 12:35. That angel who appeared to Jacob was Christ—the angel of the covenant. Mark, you shall never find either God the Father or the Holy Spirit called an angel in Scripture; nor was this a created angel, for then Jacob would never have made supplication to him—but he was an uncreated angel, even the Lord Almighty, the Almighty God, who spoke with Jacob in Bethel. He who in this divine story is said to be a man, was the Son of God in human shape, as is most evident by the whole narration. The angel in the text is the same angel who conducted the Israelites in the wilderness, and fought their battles for them, Exod. 3:2; Acts 7:30; 1 Cor. 10:4, 5, 9, even Jesus Christ, who is styled once and again the Almighty, Rev. 1:8, and 4:8. In this last scripture is acknowledged Christ's holiness, power, and godhead. Ah Christians! When will you once learn to set one Almighty Christ against all the mighty ones of the world, that you may bear up bravely and stoutly against their rage and wrath, and go on cheerfully and resolutely in the way of your duty.
(6.) The sixth name or title is Adonai—my Lord. Though this name Adonai is given sometimes analogically to creatures—yet properly it belongs to God alone. This name is often used in the Old Testament; and, in Mal. 1:6, it is used in the plural number to note the mystery of the holy Trinity, "If I be Adonim, Lords, where is my fear?" Some derive the word Adonai from a word in the Hebrew that signifies judicare, to judge, because God is the Judge of the world; others derive it from a word which signifies basis, a foundation, intimating that God is the upholder of all things, as the foundation of a house is the support of the whole building.
Now this name is given to Christ: Dan. 9:17, "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary." Daniel pleads here no merits of their own—but the merits and mediation of the Messiah, whom God has made both Lord and Christ. Just so, Psalm 106:1, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." [Acts 2;
Luke 1:43, and 2:11-12; Heb. 1:13.] Christ applies these words to himself, as you may see in that Mat. 22:24, "Jehovah said," that is, God the Father said, La-adoni, "unto my Lord," that is, to Christ; "sit at my right hand," sit with me in my throne. It notes the advancement of Christ, as he was both God and man in one person, to the supremest place of power and authority, of honor and heavenly glory, Mat. 28:18; John 3:35. God's right hand notes a place of equal power and authority with God, even that he should be advanced far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, Eph. 1:21; Heb. 1:3; Luke 22:69.
Christ's reign over the whole world is sometimes called "the right hand of the majesty," and sometimes the "right hand of the power of God." "Until I make your enemies your footstool." This implies,
[1.] That Jesus Christ has ever had, and will have enemies, even to the end of the world.
[2.] Victory, a perfect conquest over them. Conquerors used to make their enemies their footstool. Those proud enemies of Christ, who now set up their crests, look up to heaven, and strut it out against him; even those shall be brought under his feet.
[3.] It implies ignominy, the lowest subjection. Sapores, King of Persia, overcoming the Emperor Valerian in battle, used his back for a stirrup when he got upon his horse. Just so, Tamerlane served Bajazet.
[4.] The footstool is a piece of state, and both raises and easeth him who sits on the throne; so Christ will both raise himself and ease himself by that vengeance that he will take on his enemies, etc.
Now from these divine names and titles which are given to Jesus Christ, we may thus argue—He to whom the incommunicable titles of the most high God are attributed, he is the most high God. These incommunicable titles of the most high God are attributed unto Christ, consequently, he is the most high God. But,
4. Fourthly, Christ's eternal deity, co-equality, and consubstantiality with the Father may be demonstrated from his
divine properties and attributes. I shall show you for the opening of this—that the glorious attributes of God are ascribed to the Lord Jesus. I shall begin,
(1.) First, with the ETERNITY of God. God is an eternal God. "From everlasting to everlasting you are God," Psalm 90:2. "The eternal God is your refuge," Deut. 33:27. "He inhabits eternity," Isaiah 57:15. He is called "the ancient of days," Dan. 7:9; and he is said to be "everlasting," and to be "king of old," Psalm 74:12. This shows he had no beginning. In respect of his future eternity, he is called "the everlasting God," Romans 16:26. "The everlasting king," 1 Tim. 1:17. That there is no change with God—he is from everlasting to everlasting the same, we may see Psalm 102:26-27, "The heavens shall perish—but you shall endure; yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment, and as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed. But you are the same, and your years shall have no end." There is no succession or variation in God—but he is eternally the same. Eternity is an interminable existence and duration before any time, and beyond all time; it is a fixed duration, without beginning or ending. [Eternity is taken three ways. [1.] Properly, so it notes to be without beginning and end, so God only is eternal. [2.] Improperly, so it notes to have a beginning but no ending; so angels, so the souls of men are eternal. [3.] Abusive, so some things are said to be eternal which have had a beginning, and shall also have an end. They are called eternal in respect of their long continuance and duration; so circumcision and other Mosaic ceremonies were called eternal or everlasting.]
The eternity of God is beyond all possible conception of measure or time. God ever was, ever is, and ever shall be. Though the manifestations of himself unto the creatures are in time—yet his essence or being never did, nor ever shall be bound up by time. Look backward or forward, God from eternity to eternity, is a most self-sufficient, infinite, perfect, blessed being—the first cause of our being, and without any cause of his own being—an eternal infinite fullness, and possession to himself and of himself. What God is, he was from eternity; and what God is, he will be so to eternity. Oh, this glorious attribute drops myrrh and mercy, oil and honey!
Now this attribute of eternity is ascribed to Jesus Christ: John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word;" "was" notes some former duration, and therefore we conclude that he was before the beginning, before any creation or creatures, for it is said he was God in the beginning, and his divine nature whereby he works is eternal, Heb. 9:14. "He is the first and last," Rev. 1:17. Hence it is that he is called "the firstborn of every creature," because he who created all, and upholds all, has power to command and dispose of all, as the firstborn had power to command the family or kingdom, Col. 1:15-17; compare Isaiah 66:6, with Rev. 22:13.
John 17:5, "Father glorify you me with your own self, with the glory I had with you before the world was." Such glory had the Lord Christ with his Father, namely, in the heavens, and that before the world was. This glory he had, in regard of actual possession. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way," says Christ the Son of God, Proverbs 8:22. And as his Father possessed him, so he was possessed of the selfsame glory with his Father before the world was, from eternity. "His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," from the days of eternity, says the prophet Micah, speaking of the Messiah, Micah 5:2. See the eternity of Christ further confirmed by these scriptures. [John 8:58, and 17:24; Rev. 1:8, 17; Heb. 1:10-12, and 7:3; Isaiah 9:6, etc. Christ is without beginning of days—or end of time.] But,
(2.) Secondly, As the attribute of eternity is ascribed to Christ, so the attribute of OMNISCIENCE is ascribed to Christ; and this speaks out the godhead of Christ. He knows all things: John 21:17, "Lord, you know all things!" "All things present and future; what I now am, and what I shall be," says Chrysostom on the words: John 2:25, "He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." Shall craftsmen know the nature and properties of their crafts, and shall not Christ know the hearts of men, which are the craft of his own hands? Rev. 2:23, "And all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the thoughts and hearts." Now of all a man's inwards—the heart and the thoughts are the most inward. Christ is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. The Greek word that is here rendered searches, signifies to search with the greatest seriousness, exactness, and diligence that can be; the word is metaphorically taken from such as use to search in mines for silver and
gold. Christ is also frequently said to know the thoughts of men, and that before they betrayed themselves by any outward expressions. [Mat. 9:24, and 12:26; Luke 5:22, 6:18, 11:17, and 24:38, etc.]
Now this is confessedly God's peculiar, "God—who knows the hearts." He is the wisdom of the Father, 1 Cor. 1:24. He knows the Father, and does, according to his will, reveal the secrets of his Father's bosom. The bosom is the seat of love and secrecy, John 1:18. Men admit those into their bosoms, with whom they impart all their secrets. The bosom is the place of counsels; that is, Christ reveals the secret and mysterious counsels, and the tender and compassionate affections of the Father to the world. Being in the bosom implieth communication of secrets: the bosom is a place for them. It is a speech of Tully to a friend that had betrusted him with a secret, crede mihi, etc., Believe me, says he, what you have committed to me, it is in my bosom still, I am not ungirt to let it slip out. But Scripture adds this hint too, where it speaks of the bosom as the place of secrets: Proverbs 17:23, "A wicked man takes a gift out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of judgment," speaking of a bribe: Proverbs 21:14, "A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a reward in the bosom expiateth wrath." Here is "secret" and "bosom" all one, as gift and reward are one. Just so, Christ lies in the Father's bosom; this intimates his being conscious to all the Father's secrets. But,