Parochial and Plain Sermons

tIE chier mystery of our holy faith is the lmmiliation of the Son of God to temptation and suffering, as described in this passage of Scripture. In truth, it is a more overwhehning mystery even than that which is involved in the doctrine of the Trinity. I say, more overwhehning, not gTeater—for we cannot measm'e the more and the less in subjects utterly incomprehensible and divine; but with more in it to perplex and subdue our minds. When the myste W of the Trhfity is set belote us, we see indeed that it is quite beyond our reason; but, af the saine rime, if is no wonder that hmnan language shottld be retable fo convey, and hmnan intellect to receive, tmths relating to the incomnmnicable and infinite essence of Almighty God.:But the mystery of the Incarnation relates, in part, to sul.jects more level with our reason; it lies not only in the manner how God and man is one Christ, but in the very fact that soit is. We think we know of Goal so much as this, that He is altogether separate from imperfection and infirmity; yet we are told that the Eternal Sou has taken into IIimself a creatm'e's nature, which henceforth became as much one with Him, as much belonged to Him, as the divine attributes and lowers which Ite had ever httd. The mystery lies as much in wlmt we thhk  e know, as in lmt  e do hot kmw. Peflect, for intance, upon the langtage of the text. The Son of G od, xho "had glory with the Father" from everlasting, was found, af a certain rime, in human flesh, offering up prayers and supplications fo Hhu, cr3g out and weeping, and exercising obedience in suffering! Do hot supl»ose, from my thus sleaking, thtt I wodd put the doctrm before you as a hard saying, as a stumbling-block, and a yoke of bondage, fo which you must perforce submit, however tmwillingly.:Far be it ri'oto us to take such untlmkful accourir of a dislensation which has brought us salvation! Those who h the Cross of Christ see the Atonement for sin, cannot choose but glory in if; and its mysteriousness does but make them glory in if the more. They boast of if before men and Angels, before an unbelieving wofld, and before fal]en spirits; with no confusion of face, but with a reverent boldness they confess this miracle of grace, and cherish if in theh" creed, though if gains them but the contempt and derision of the l»roud and ungodly. And as the doctrine of out Lord's humiliation is most mysterious, sothe very surface of the narrative in which if is contained is mysterious also, as exciting wonder, and imprcssing upon us our real igaorance of the nature, manner, and ca.uses of if. Take, for instance, His temptation. Why wa.s if undergone af all, seeing out redemption is ascribed to His death, hot to if? Vqy was it so long? What took place during it? What was Satan's particular object in tempting Him? I[ow came Satau to bave such 1)ower over Him as fo be able to tmnspo l[im from place to place? and what was the precise result of the temptation? These and many othcr questions adroit of no satisfactory solution. There is something remarkable too ha the pefiod of if, being the saine as that of the long fiasts of Moses and Elijah, a.nd of I[is own abode on earth after His resurrection. A like raystery a.gain is cast aromd that last pcriod of His eartMy mission. Then He was engaged we know hot how, except that He appeared, from rime fo rime, to His Aposfles; of the forty days of IIis temptation we know still less, only that "He did eat noflfing," and "wa.s with the wild beasta'Y  Again, there is something of mystery in the connection of His temptation with the descent of the tIoly Ghost npon t[im on IIis baptisln. After the voice from heaven had proclaimed, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I ara well pleased," "imncdiatcly," as St. 3Iark says, "the Spirit driz'ct/t Him into the wflderness." As if there were some connection, beyond our understanding, between Itis baptism and temptation, the first act of the Holy Spirit is forthwith fo "drive Him" (whatever is neant by the word) hto the wflder-  LtoEe iv. 2; ]Irk i. 13.

ness. Observe, too, that if was almost from this solemn recognition, "This is My beloved Son," that the Devil took up the temptation, "If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be ruade bread; " yet what his thoughts and designs were we cannot even conjecture. AH we see is a renewal, apparently, of Adam's temptation, in the person of the "second Ma.n." In like nmnner, questions might be asked concerning I[is descent into hell,,«hich couM as little be solved, with our present limited knowledge of the nature and means of His gracious Economy. I bring together these various questions in order to impress upon you out depth of ignorance on the entire subject under review. The Dispensat.ion of mercy is revealed to us in its great and blessed result, our redemption, and in one or two other momentous points. Upon ail these we ought to dwell and enlarge, mindfully and thankfully, but with the constant recollection that after all, as regards the Dispensation itself, only one or two partial notices are revealed to us altogether of a ga'eat Divine Work. Enlarge upon them we ought, even because they are few and pmoE.ial, hot slighting what is given us, because it is hot ail (like the servant who buried his lord's talent), but giving it what increase we can. Aald as there is nulch danger of the narrow spirit of that slothful servant af the present day, in which is strangely combhmd a profession of knowing everything, with an assertion that there is nothing fo know concerning the Incarnation, I propose now, by x Matt. iv. 3.

God's blessing, to set before you the Scripture doctrine concerning if, as the Church Catht,lic bas ever received it; tradhg with the talcnt committed fo us, so that whcn out Lord cornes lle may receive His own with usury. ,caring in mind, then, that we know nothing truly about the manner or the ultilnate ends of tire humiliation of the Eternal Son, our Lord and Stviour, let us cosider what that humiliatiol itself was. The text says, "though tic were a Son." XN'ow, in these words, "the So of God," much more is implied than af tirst sight may appear. Mquy a man gathers up, here and there, some fi')gments of religious knowledge, tic hears one thilg said in Church, he secs another thing lu the t'rayer-book; and among religious pe_qle, or in the world, he gains something more. In this way he gets possession of sacred words and statements, knowing ve W little about them really. He interprets them, as if may hal)pen, according to the various and inconsistent opiniols which he bas «net with, or he lmts his own meaning upon them, that is, the meaning, as must needs be, of an untaught, hOt to say a carnal and irreverent mind. tlow cana man expect he shall discern and alTrehend the real meaning and language of Scripture, if he has never approached it as  learner, and waited on the Divine Author of it for the gift of wisdom? 13y continual meditation on the sacred text, by diligent use of the Church's instruction, he will corne fo understand what the Gospel doctrines are; but., most surely, if all the knowledge he has be gathered from a sentence caught u 1) here, and an argument heard there, even when he is most orthodox in word, he bas but a collection of phrases, on which he puts, hot the right meaning, but his own meaning. And lhe least refleetion lnUSt show you what a very poor and mworthy meaning, or rather how false a meaning "the natural man" will put npon "the things of the Spirit of God." I have been led fo say this ff'oto having used the words, "The Son of God," whieh, I nmch fear, eonvey, to a great many miuds, little or no idea, little or nothing of a higtb religions, solenm idea. We have, perlmps, a vague general liot.ion t.hat; they mean something extraordinary and supernatural; bnt we know that we ourselves are ealled, in one sense, sons of God in Scripture. Moreover we have heard, perhaps (and even though we do hot reeolleet if, yet may retain the impression of it), that the Angels are sons of God. In eonsequenee, we eolleet just thus mueh from the title as al@ied fo out Lord, t.lm.t Ite came from God, that He was the well-beloved of God, and tiret IIe is nmch more than a mere man. This is M1 that the words eonvey fo many men af the most; while many more refer them merely fo His htman nature. How different is the state of those who bave been duly initiated into the mysteries of the kingdom of hea.ven! tIow different was the mind of the primitive Christians, who so eagerly and vigorously apprehended the gn'aeious announeement; that in this tir.le, "The Son of God," they saw and enjoyed the flfil glories of the Gospel doctrine! When rimes grew eold and unbelieving, then indeed, as af this day, publie explanations were neeessary of those simple and saered words; but fle first Christians [III] L needed none. They felt that in saying that Christ was the Son of God, they were witnessing to a thousand nmrvellous and saluta W tnths, which they could no indeed understand, but by which they might gain life, and for which they could dre to die. Wlmt, then, is meant by the "Son of God?" Itis meant that our LoM is the very or tne Son of God, that is, IIis Son ly nature. We are but callcd the sons of God we are adopted fo be sons—but our Lord and Saviour is the Son of God, really and by birth, and alone is such. IIece Scripture calls IIim the Onlybegotten Son. "Such lnowledge is too excellent for" us; yet, however high it be, we learn as from IIis own mouth that God is hot solitry, if we my date so to speak, but that in His own inconprehensible essence, in the perfection of His one indivisible and eternal nature, His Deafly-beloved Son has ever existed with Itim, who is ca.lled the Word, and, being His Son, is partaker in all the fulness of His Godhead. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Thus when the eafly Christians used the tir.le, "The Son of God," they meant; after the manner of the Apostles when they use it in Scripture, all we mean in the Creed, when, by way of explMning ourselves, we confess Itim to be "God from God, Light from Light, Yery or True God from True God." For in that He is the Son of God, He mus be whatever Goal is, all-holy, all-wise, all-powerful, allgood, etenml, infinite; yet since there is ofly one God, He must be af the saine rime not separte from God, but ever one with and in tIim, one indivisibly; so tha if wou]d be as idle language fo speak of Him as separated in essence from His Father, as fo say that out reason, or intellect, or will, was separate from our minds —as rsh and profane language to deny fo the Father His Only-begotten Word, in whom He bas ever delighted, as fo deny His Wisdom or Gooduess, or Power, which also have been in and with Ïtim from everlasting. The text goes on to say: "Though 1 Ie were a Son, yet learned t[e obedience by the things which l[e suffered." Obediencç belongs to a servant, but accordance, concurrence, co-operation, are the characteristics of a Son. In His eternal union with God tlmre was no distinction of -«ill and work between Him and His Father; as the Father's lire was the Son's lire, and the Fathefs glory the Son's also, sothe Son was the very Vord and Wisdom of the Father, His Power and Co-e¢lual Minister in all things, tlm smne and not the saine as He Hhnself.:But in the days of His flesh, when He lmd humbled Himself to "the form of a servant," ta-king on tlimself a separate will and a seloarate work, and the tofl and sufferin incident to a creature, then what had been mere concurrence became obedience. This, then, is the force of the words, "' Though He was a Son, yet had He experience of obcdicnce.'" He took on t/fin a lower nature, and wrought in if towards a Will higher and more perfect than if. Further, "He learned obedience mnid suffering," and, therefore, amid temptation. His mysterious agony under if is described in the former part of the text; which declares that "in the days of I-Ils flesh," I-Ie "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Hiln that was able fo save ][im fmnl death, and was heard in that He feared." Or, in t.he words of the ïoregoing chapter, He "was in all 1))ints teml)Ied like as we are, yet without sin." I ara only concerned lere in sett.ing before you the saercd t.rut.l itself, hot how it was, or why, or with what results. Let us, then, reverent.ly consider shat is ilnl»licd in if. "Thc Word was ruade flesh;" by whieh is rotant, hot that I[c sclected some partieulm, existing man and dwelt in him (whicl in no sense wotfld answer fo the force of those words, and which IIe condescends fo do eontilmally in the case of ail IIis elect, through Ilis Spirit.), but tlntt IIc became what He was hot belote, that IIe took into Ilis own Infinite Essence man's nature itself in ail its completeness, creating a sonl and body, and, af the moment of ereation, making tlmm Ilis own, so that they never were other than His, never existed by themselves or exeept as in Him, being properties or attributes of I[im (to use defective words) as really as IIis divine goodness, or IIis eternal Sonship, or His perfect likeness to the Father. And, while thus adding a new nature to I[imself, He did not in any respect eea.se fo be what IIe was belote, tIow was t.hat possible? Ail the while He was on earth, when IIe was eonceived, when He was born, when He was tempted, on the cross, in the grave, and now at God's right hand all the rime through, IIe -as the Eternal and Unchangeable Word, the Son of God. The flesh which He had assumed was but the instrument throgh whiel IIe aeted for and towards us. As He aets in creation by tIis isdom and power, towards Angels by ttis love, towards devi]s ]y His -rath, so He has acted for our redemption through out own nature, "«hich in His great mercy He attached to His own Person, as if an attribute, simply, absolutely, indissolubly. Thus St. Paul speaks—as in other places, of the love of God, and the holiness of God—so in one place expressly of "the blood of God," if I nay venture to use such words out of the sacred context. "Feed the Chureh of God," he says fo the elders of Ephesus, "which Ho hath purchased with His ow blood. ''1 Accordingly, whatever our:Lord said or did upon earth was strictly and literally the word and deed of. God Himself. Just as we speak of seeing oto" friends, though we do hot see their souls but merely their bodies, so the Apostles, Disciples, Priests, and Pharisees, and the multitude, all who saw Christ in the flesh, saw, as the "«-hole earth will see tt the last day, the Very and Eterual Son of God. After this manner, then, must be nnderstood His suffering, temptation, tnd obedience, hot as if He ceased to be "«-hat He had ever been, but, having clothed Himself with a created essence, He ruade it the instrument of His humilittion; He tcted in it, He obeyed tmd suffered through it. Do hot we see tmong men, circumstances of t peculiar kind throw one of out own race out of himself, so that he, the saine man, acts as if his usual self were hot in being, and he had fresh feelings and faculties, for the occasion, higher or lower than before? Far be it from our thoughts to parallel the incarnation of the Eternal Word with such an tccidental change! but I mention it, not to explain a Myste W  Acts xx. 28.

(Mfich I relinquished the thought of flore the first), but to,.facilitate your conception of Him 'ho is the subjeeg of if, to help yot towards contemplating Him as Goal and man at once, as still the Son of God though He had assumed a nature short of tlis original perfection. Tha Eternal Mind, which, till then, had thought and acted as God, began to think and act as a mau, with ail man's faculties, aflictions, and imperfections, sin excepte& Belote l[e came on earth I[e was infinitely above joy and g3-ief, fear and auget, pain and heaviness; but afterwm'ds all these properties and many more were His as fully as they are ours. P, eforç I[e came on earth, IIe had but the perfeetions of God, but afterwards He had also the virtues of a creature, such as faith, meekness, self-denial. I)efore He came on earth He eould hot be tempted of evil; but afterwards He had a man's heart, a man's tears, and a man's wants and infirmities. His l)ivine Nature indeed pervaded tIis manhood, so that every deed and word of tIis in the flesh savoured of eternity and infinit.y; but., on the other hand, ïrom the rime He was born of the Virgin Maw, he had a natural fear of da.nger, a natural slMnking from pain, though ever subject to the rMing influence of that Holy and Eternal [Essence Mfieh was in Him. For instance, we read on one occasion of His praying t.hat the eup might pass from Him; and, at another, when Peter showed surprise at the prospect of His crucifixion, IIe rebuked him sharp13ç as if for tempting Him to murmur and disobey. Thus tic possessed at once a double assemblage of attributes, divine and human. Still he was ail-powerful, though in the form of a servant; still He was all-kuowing, though seemingly ignorant; still incapable of teml oration, though exl)osed to it; and if any one stumble at this, as not a nmre mystery, but in the very form of language a contradiction of terres, I would bave him reflect on those tecu]itrities of human nature itself, which I just now hinted at. Let him consider the condition of his own mind, and see how like a contradiction it is. Let him reflect upon the faculty of memory, and try to dctermine vhether he docs or does hot know a thing vhich he cammt recollect, or rathcr, vhether it may hot be said of him, that one self-saine 1)erson, tlmt in one sense he knows if., in another he does hot know if. This may serve to appease his imagin;ttion, if it startles at the mystery. Or let him consider the state of an infant, which seems, indeed, to be without a soul for many months, which seems to bave only the senses and ïunctions t,f aninal lire, yet hs, we know, a soul, vhich may even be regener«te& Vhat, indeed, can be more mysterious than the Ba.1)tism of an infant? ]tow strange is it, yet how transporting a sight, what a source of meditttion is otened on us, whfle we look upon vhat seems so helpless, so reasonless, and know that at that moment it has a sorti so fully formed, as on the one hand, indeed, to be a child of ]'ath; and, on the other (blessed be God), to be capable of a new bi%h through the Spirit! Vlio can say, if we had eyes to see, in what stte tht infant sou/ is? Y'ho can say it has hot ifs energies of reason and of will in some unknown sphere, quite consistently with the reality of its insensibility to the external world.

\rho tan say tlutt all of us, or af leas all who are living in the faith of Christ, have no some strange bu unconscious lit) in h»d's presenee aH the while we are here, seeing wha we do no know we see, impressed ye wilhouL l,owcr of rctlectint, and this, withou ha ing a doulle self in c,nscquence, and with an increase o us, hot, a dilninution, of the pract, ical realiy of out earthly SliOlll'll and probation? Are thcre nog men before llOW x ho, like Elisha, x hen his spiri tblluwed Gehazi, or S. l'cicr, when he mmomced the eoming of Sal,l,hil't's I,eurers, or 8k Paul, wheu his 1,1"esenee went belote hhn  " 1 t (Orllth, seem to range beyond flmmselves, even while in thc flesh? Who knows where he is x isious of the nigtt?" And this being so, how ean we lWOnounce if to be any contradiction that, whfie the Word of God was Ult,n earth, in our flesh, eompassed within and without with human virtues and feeHngs, with faith and patience, fear and joy, grief, misgivings, infirmities, tcmptations, st He was, aeeording to His livine Nature, as ri'oto the first., passing in thougtt tiwn one end of heaven even to the othegreading aH hearts, fi»rcseeing all event.s, and reeeiving aH worship as lit the bosom of the Father? This, indeed, is what lle suggests fo us llimself in those surprising words addressed fo Nieodemus, whieh might even be taken to ilnply that even IIis hunmn nature was at that very time in heaven while He spoke fo hiln. "No man Intth aseended up fo heaven, but He that came down Il'ont heaven, even the Son of man, whicl is in heavcn. '' To eonclude, if any one is tempted to eonsider sueh x 2 Kings v. 26; Acts v. 9; 1 Cor. iv. 19 sabjects as the fi»regoing, abstract, speculxtive, and unprofitable, I would observe, in answcr, that I hure takcn if on the very ground of its being, as I 1,elieve, e.specially 1,racticfl. Let it hot be thought a stmnge thing fo say, though I say if, tht there is mtch i the religious belicf, even of the lnore serious part of the conmmnity at present, to make observant me vcry anxious where it will eml. It would be no very ditcult nmtter, I suspect» to lCrllex the faith of a grcat many lcrsons who believe themselves fo be orthodox, aml, indeed, are so, according to their 1]bt. They have bcen accustomed to call Christ God, but that is all; they have not considered wlmt is meant by apl,lying that title to One who was really a man, and from the vagm way in which they use it, they would be in no snmll dangeb if assailcd by a subtle disputallt, of being robbed of the sacred truth in its substame, even if they kept it in naine. In truth, until we conteml,late our Lord and Sviour, God and man, as a really existing being, external to our minds, as complete and entire in Ifis personality as we appear fo be to each other, as one and the saine in all lits various and contrary attributes, "the saine yesterday, to-day, and for ever," we are using words which t)rofit hot. Till then we do hot realize that Object of faith, which is hot a mere naine on which titles and 1)roperties may be affixed without conTuity and lneaning; but has a personal existence.and an identity distinct from everything else. In wlmt true sense do we "kuow" Itim, if our idea of ttim be hot such as to take up and incorpomte into itself the manifold att.ribttes and offices which we ascribe to Itim? V'hut do we gain from

170 The Hztmiliation of the Eterna! Soz.

words, however correct and abundant, if they end with thelnselves, instead of lighting up thë image of the Incarmtte S,m in our hearts? Yet t]ris clmrge lnay too surely be brought against the theology of late centuries, which, undcr the pretence of guarding against presumption, dcnies us what is revealed; like Ahaz, refusing to ask for t sign, lest it should tempt the Lord. Iniluenced l,y if, we have well-nigh forgotten the sacrcd truth, ga'aciously disclosed for our suppo% that Uhrist is the Son of God in tIis Divine nature, as well as tlis human; we lmve well-nigh ceased to regard Him, after the pattern of the:Nicene Creed, as "God from God, md Light il'oto Light," ever one with ] [im, yet ever distinct from Him. We speak of Him in  vague way as God,  hich is true, but hot the whole truth; and, in consequence when we proceed to consider His humiliation, we are unable to carry on the notion of His personality from heveu to earth. He who was but now spoken of as God, without mention of the Father from whom He is, is next described as a creature; but how do these distinct notions of Him hold together in out minds? We are able to continue the idea of a Son into tiret of a servant, though the descent was infinite, and, to our reason, incomlrehensible; but when we merely speak first of God, then of man, we seem fo change the Nature without preserving the Person. In truth, His Divine Sonship is that portion of the scred doctrine on which the mind is l»rovidentially intended to rest throughout, and so to preserve for itself His identity unbroken. But when we abandon this acious hell» afforded to out faith, how can we hope to gain the one true and simple vision of Him? how shall we possibly look beyond our own words, or apprehend, in any sort, what we say? In consequence we a.re too often led, as a marrer of necessity, in discoursing of His words and works, to distinguish between the Christ who lived on earth and the Son of God Most High, sl)eaking of His humn nature and His Divine nature so separately as not to feel or understand that God is man and man is God. I ara sl»eaking of those of us who h;tve learned to reflect, reason, and dispute, to inquire and pursue their thoughts, not of the incurious or illiterate, who are hot exposed to the temptation in question; and of the former I fear I must sa.y (fo use the langmge of ancient theology), that they begin by being Sabellians, that they go on to be:Nestorians, and th;t they tend to be Ebionites and to deny Christ's Divinity altogeflter. Meanwhile, the religious world little thinks whither its opinions are leading; and will not discover tht it is adoring a mere abstract hume or a vague cretion of the mind for the Everliving Son, till the defection of its members from the faith startle it, and teach it that the so-called religion of the heart, without orthodoxy of doct«'ine, is but the warmth of a corpse, real for a rime, but sure to raff. How long will that complicated Error last under which out Church now labours? How long re human traditions of modern dure to obscure, in so many wys, the mjestic interpretations of Holy Writ which the Church Catholic has inherited from the age of the Apostles? When shall we be content to enjoy the wisdom and the pureness which Christ has bequeathed to His Church as a perpetual gift, instead of atteml)ting fo draw our Creed, each for himsclf, as he best may, from the deep wclls of truth? Surcly in vain have we cscapcd ff'ont the superstitions of the middle ages, if the corruptions of a rash and sclf-trusting philosophy spread over our ttith  May tod, even the Father, give us a heart and understanding t realize, as well as fo confess that doctrine into which we were baptized, that l[is Only-begotten Sm, our l,rd, was conceivcd ly the Iioly Ghost, was lorn of the Virgin Mtry, suflbld, and was buried, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, ri'oto whence IIe shall corne again, a the end of the worl& to judge the quick and the dead