THE COMBINED VIEW OF THE INFINITE GREATNESS AND THE INFINITE HUMBLENESS OF CHRIST. "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare PREFACE. THE subject that we are now about to meditate is one of the most sublime in "the great mystery of godliness." It comprehends within its bosom what the apostle Peter, when taught by God the Holy Ghost, was directed to tell the church the Scriptures of the prophets did signify, from the Spirit of Christ then in them; the two great branches of all prophecy; namely, of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1 Pet. i. 10, 11.) It will be our mercy, if while we are communing on these things, in the outward ministry of the word, the Lord do by us, as by his disciples, when conversing about Christ in their way to Emmaus. "Jesus himself drew near and went with them." And by the inward illumination of his Spirit to expound to us," in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself;" that, like them, 66 our hearts may burn within us; and as we prosecute the wonderful history of his great humiliation, we may by faith hear him say—" Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke xxiv. 13—32.) Let us seek grace to pray. Infinitely great and glorious Lord God Almighty! who in the unity of thine essence, and trinity of persons, "dwellest in the light, which no man can approach unto;" we draw nigh in that " new and living way, which thou hast consecrated for us through the veil of Christ's flesh." Here alone we seek access; and here, through thy grace, we find it. Be very gracious to us at this time, if it be thine holy will, and while, under the divine teaching of thy word, and the divine influences of thy Spirit, we commune concerning the glorious person, and the glorious salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, cause" our meditation of Him to be sweet!" Give us spiritually to see, and spiritually apprehend, the infinite greatness of his person, and the infinite completeness of his salvation; and our own personal interest in both. For through thy holy Scriptures, and thy divine unction upon them in our hearts, we are persuaded that nothing short of these precious truths received into our minds, and lived upon, can give ease to our consciences, and cause us "to triumph always in Christ." Under these impressions, and grounded by sovereign grace in the hope of the gospel, we desire, gracious Lord, to enter on the sublime subject proposed to our meditation now before us; that, through thy teaching "our hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!" (Coloss. ii. 2, 3.) Amen. SERMON V. THE COMBINED VIEW OF THE INFINITE GREATNESS ACTS VIII. 33. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? THE whole sum and substance of the Bible is comprised in one word, and that word is Christ. For in the spiritual apprehension and knowledge of Him the redeemed and regenerated church of God have, in connexion with it, the spiritual knowledge of, and communion with "the Holy Three which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three are One." (1 John v. 7.) Our Lord's own statement, to this divine mystery, of the oneness of the sacred persons of the GODHEAD is most plain and decisive. He saith-"I and my Father are One." (John x. 30.) And afterwards to Thomas, the Lord said: "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." And in like manner to Philip, Jesus said: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, shew us the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" (John xiv. 7-11.) Hence, therefore, it undeniably follows that the revelation of the holy trinity is only in the person of Christ; and he, and he alone, is the visible Jehovah. For while we are expressly assured that the essence of the GODHEAD is invisible, inaccessible, and "dwelleth in the light which no man can ap proach unto; and whom no man hath seen or can see" it is said that the "appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ shall shew him." (1 Tim. vi. 14-16.) And hence by another apostle it is said: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John i. 18.) Our conclusions, therefore, are truly scriptural; and in those Scriptures we derive authority to say, that our most glorious Christ, being the only visible Jehovah, he is the sole Executor, Administrator, and efficient Source of all the ways and works of God, as revealed to the church in all the departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory. And as his person is the only visible Jehovah : so his obedience and sacrifice is the only possible means of recovery from the Adam-fall transgression. "Neither (as Peter stated it,) is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) And as I have repeatedly remarked in the course of my preaching, and now for a long series of years have gone in and out before the church, producing proof upon proof from holy Scripture on those momentous points of doctrine, in which the very life of the church in Christ is founded; so 1. would, once again, call your attention in the present moment to the contemplation of the same. And there are two or three leading principles, which, from their vast importance, may well be called fundamental principles, on which the whole superstructure rests. First, All the persons in the GODHEAD alike concur and cooperate in this mighty salvation. For it is expressly said," to be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved : while in the fulness of the times, all are to be gathered together in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are |