CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

And first For Christ, Consider his two states, the state of his humiliation,¹ and his exaltation, for this Sun of Righteousness had his setting as well as his rising, and if God be said to humble himself to look on the Children of men, ²Psa. 113.6. how much more then to become a child of man; This humiliation of Christ the Apostle expresseth by an emphatical word, Phil. 2.7. [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew], Though he was equal with God, yet he laid aside all the glorious manifestation and appearance of this, and was of no reputation; This humiliation expressed it self two ways, in his active obedience and passive, in both which he still referred all to Gods glory; Though he be called Heb. 1▪3. [Greek or Hebrew], The brightness of Gods glory, yet by his humiliation, he is said to have no comeliness on him, a worm and no man: For his active obedience subjecting himself to the Law of God, teaching and declaring Gods will to all men, and revealing the truth of God from the bosom of his Father, He in all this professeth, Joh. 8.50. He sought not his own glory but the glory of his Father; If you ask him why he was born, why he was baptized, why he did fulfil all righteousness, he would say, for the glory of his Father; Oh but in all our religious duties how much vain-glory doth infect and rotten them! That is the Pirate which doth intercept the golden Fleet of our prayers, that they return not again fraughted with good things for us, yea, that is remarkable, Heb. 5.5. Christ is there said not to glorify himself, he did not undertake that office of a spiritual Priest till he was called by God, he glorified not himself; And as for his passive obedience, all those sufferings and ignominious reproaches which he did undergo, it was only thereby to glorify the wisdom and goodness and infinite love of God to man, which made the Apostle call Christ crucified, the power and wisdom of God,