which being heard might inftruct and admonish us, might SERM. raise in us a sense of God's infinite mercy and bounty to- XVII. ward us; might breed love in our hearts, and imprefs veneration on our minds toward him, who fhould bear that aufpicious and comfortable name; that name, which as the spouse of the mystical Solomon in her mystical song, did fing, is as an ointment poured forth, full of moft Cant. i. 3. wholesome and most pleasant fragrancy.

XXXV. 4.

5. lii. 7, 10.

Now fince of all the Meffias's performances none was If. xxv. 9. to be more fignal, than that of faving; to publish, to pur- xlix. 8, 26. chase, to effect falvation, were to be (according to what lxiii. 1. lv. the Prophets exprefsly and frequently fay) his peculiar ixi. 10. lix. works; to be the Saviour of the world was (as we before 16. touched, according to the common opinion of the Jews) a Zech. ix. 9. proper attribute of his.

Hof. i. 7.

John iv. 42.

Wherefore the name Jefus (which we are told in the Gospel was by direction from God imparted by particular revelation, brought by an archangel from heaven, imposed on our Lord) did very well fuit the Meffias. No other Matt. i. 21. name could be more fweet or acceptable; no other name could better become him, who was to redeem men from all their enemies, their flaveries, their errors, their fins, their miferies.

Luke i. 32.

ii. 21.

&c.

It was indeed a name not in its immediate application altogether new, for many others had borne it: Jefus, the Col. iv. 11. fon of Juftus, we have mentioned in St. Paul; Jefus the fon of Sirach, that excellent writer, we know; and divers others fo named occur in Jofephus: yet was it queftionlefs by God's providence, or by Moses, by divine instinct, firft Bafil. Iren. produced with relation to the Meffias; Mofes called Ofhea Num. xiii. the fon of Nun Jehoshua, faith the text: being in a myfte- 16. rious exchange from a former name affigned to the famous Jefus (as not only Benfirach, but the Apoftle to the He- Ecclus.xlvi. brews write him) the fon of Nun, who of all the ancient; types did most exactly (in office and performance) reprefent and prefignify the Meffias; being, as Benfirach fpeaks, great for the faving of God's elect; whofe actions are wonderfully congruous to those which we attribute to our Jefus. For, by the way, to fhew the resemblance,

Heb. iv. 8.

7.

XVII.

Heb. xi.

SERM. (omitting lefs, and more nice congruities,) as Joshua did bring the good report, and evangelized concerning the Num. xiv. promifed land, (when other false or faint inquirers defamed it, and discouraged the people from entering;) as he was educated under Mofes, and ferved him faithfully; as he fucceeded in the administration and government of God's people, perfecting what Mofes had begun of deliverance and fettlement to them; as he brought the Ifraelites (not that old disbelieving, mutinous, and repining generation, but a new progeny of better difpofed people) finally out of the wilderness into Canaan, by God's miraculous affiftance, fubduing their enemies, and establishing them in Josh. v. 2. a quiet poffeffion of the promised land, allotting unto each tribe its inheritance; and as he did re-circumcife the children of Ifrael: fo did our heavenly Jefus first make a true and faithful discovery concerning the myftical land of promise (that better country) flowing with fpiritual milk and honey, (abundant with all spiritual comforts and pleasures, for the food, fuftenance, and refreshment of our fouls.) He was born under the Law, and submitted to its injunctions, fulfilling all righteoufnefs. He furvived it, ,- (the part of it which was purely Mofaical and arbitrary) pías, wists. and did complete it. He doth conduct God's regenerate people (fuch as believe, and willingly follow him) out of the defert state of error, guilt, and fin, into the fuperior state of happy reft and joy, with miraculous power and efficacy; vanquishing all the spiritual Amorites, (the devil, world, and flesh) which infeft, obftruct, and oppose them; fettling them in a perpetual, undisturbed, and immoveable enjoyment of that blissful region; having alfo by a spiritual circumcifion prepared and confecrated them to God. Our Saviour therefore, not only when he at last in fulness of truth did come into the world, but anciently in type and fhadow, may be supposed to have received this name Jefus, conferred upon him in the perfon of Joshua, his most illustrious reprefentative. It certainly was most appofite to the Meffias.

Gal. iv. 4.

Matt. iii.

15. v. 17. Αρχηγός

That Jefus (that Perfon, whofe birth, life, death, refurrection, and afcenfion hence, are related in the evangeli

pure

SERM.
XVII.

cal hiftories) is the Chrift, is the principal article of faith; the most peculiar doctrine of our religion as fuch, and as distinct from all other religions: it indeed virtually comprehends all other doctrines of moment therein, regarding either faith or practice. For that our being perfuaded that Jefus is the Chrift, implies, that we apprehend ourfelves obliged to embrace for truth whatever was taught by him and his Apoftles, to obey all his laws, to rely upon him for attainment of all the mercies, and bleffings, and rewards, which he promised to difpenfe, in that order and upon those terms, which the Gospel declareth. Whence to the hearty belief of this point fuch great commendations are given, so high rewards are offered, so excellent privileges are annexed in the Scriptures. Whence alfo the declaring, proving, and perfuading this doctrine was the chief matter of the Apoftles' preaching, as both their profeffion and practice do fhew. The Jews, faith St. Paul to the Corinthians, require a fign, and the Greeks. feek after wifdom; but we preach Chrift, that was crucified. And, I determined, faith he again of himself, not to know! Cor. i. 23. any thing among you, (that is, not to difcover any other knowledge, not to infift on any other fubject,) fave Jefus Chrift, even him that was crucified. This, St. John tells us, xai Tre ἐταυρωμένον. was the drift of his writing the Gospel, (which is a more extenfive and durable way of preaching.) These things, faith he, were written, that ye may believe that Jefus is the Chrift. And their practice, fuitable to fuch profeffions, is apparent in divers paffages of this Book, wherein their acts and their difcourfes are reported. This text particularly represents the scope to which St. Paul mainly directed his preaching, which was the maintenance and perfuafion of this point, that Jefus is the Chrift.

It is therefore very requifite, that we should well underftand the meaning thereof, and that we fhould firmly be perfuaded of its truth. To which purpose I fhall endeayour, by God's affiftance, to imitate St. Paul's practice here, who did σvu6i6ágav, (that is the Greek word here, fignifying primarily to put or bring things together, and thence in a way of collection or argumentation to teach,)

ii. 2.

John xx.

31.

SERM. who, I fay, did inftruct his auditors, collecting it from XVII. teftimonies of ancient Scripture, and confirming it by arguments grounded thereon. In performing which I fhall obferve this method:

iv. 25.

15.

1. I fhall explain the notion and reafon of this name, or title, Chrifi.

2. I fhall fhew (that which is here tacitly fuppofed) that there was by God's appointment to be, or to come into the world from God, one Perfon, fignally that, which this name or title imports, & Xgsòs, the very Chrift. 3. I fhall argue that Jefus was that Person.

4. I fhall explain in what manner, in what respects, to what purposes, Jefus, in the New Testament, is reprefented as Chrift.

5. I fhall make fome practical application of the point. John i. 21. I. For the first particular. Christ is a name, or title, importing office and dignity; being the fame with Meffias, that in Greek, this in Hebrew, fignifying, the Anointed; the which appellation we find attributed to several perfons upon the following ground: Of ancient times, in the eastern countries, (abounding as with good oil, fo with many delicate odoriferous fpices,) it seems generally 1 Kings xix. to have been the manner, (as from Hazael the Syrian his being anointed may probably be collected,) it was however fuch among the Jews, to feparate or confecrate perfons, and things alfo I might add, defigned to any great or extraordinary employment, by anointing them with ointments compofed of those ingredients; they symbolizing, or denoting thereby, as it seems, both a plentiful effufion upon them of gifts and faculties qualifying them for fuch fervices; and alfo a comfortable and pleasant diffufion of good and grateful effects expected from them; (from the use of things, the performances of perfons thus Cant. i. 2. fanctified.) Thy name, faith the fpoufe in the Canticles, is as an ointment poured forth; that is, thy name is very Pf. cxxxiii. delightful, very acceptable. And, Behold, faith David, commending brotherly love and concord, how good and pleafant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity; it is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran

1, 2.

down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: fo good and SERM. pleasant were those employments hoped to be, to which XVII. men were by fuch unction inaugurated. We find especially three forts of perfons, to whom this confecration did, by divine appointment, belong; Kings, Priests, and Prophets; perfons by whofe, miniftry God of old did manage his intercourfe with men, in governing them and communicating his bleffings to them, both in an ordinary way (fo he used kings and priests) and in an extraordinary manner, therein he employed prophets; which forts of perfons are therefore ftyled God's anointed; kings and priests more frequently, but fometimes alfo prophets; as in that of the Pfalm; Touch not mine anointed, and do my Pf. cv. 15. prophets no harm; where prophets and the anointed of Chron. God do feem to denote the fame thing, and one to expound the other: however they belong to the fame perfons; for Abraham, whom together with the other patriarchs those words concern, is exprefsly called a prophet. (Now therefore, faith the text, restore the man his wife; for Gen. xx. 7. he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.) And that Ifaac was a prophet, the Apostle to the Hebrews intimates, faying; By faith Ifaac bleffed Jacob Heb. xi. 20. and Efau concerning things to come. The fame is plain of Jacob, who before his death uttered many great and remarkable predictions. The patriarchs therefore probably as prophets were styled God's anointed. But to remark fomewhat of these great offices, and their anointing fingly:

xvi. 22.

For priests, although at first all the fons of Aaron were thus confecrated, according to that law in Exodus, Thou Exod. xxx. fhalt anoint Aaron, and his fons, that they may minifter 30. xl. 15. Χριστοὶ ἱερεῖς. - unto me in the priest's office; yet the Jewish mafters tell Mac. ii. 1, us, that afterward in all the course of times only the high- de Succ. ii. prieft was fo confecrated. Whence by the anointed, or 9. the priest that is anointed, is, say they, meant the high- 5, 16. vi. prieft, in diftinction from other inferior priests.

10. Selden.

Levit. iv. 3,

22.

For kings, the Jewish doctors also (as Master Selden reports) do tell us, that fuch of them, who in a legal, ¿; g múrsùs orderly, and unquestioned course of right did fucceed into the kingdom, were not themselves in perfon anointed, possi κονικάς τινας Χριτὲς ἀπειργάζοντο. Εufeb. Hif. i. 3.

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