Sermons preached

It is taken sometimes more largely for any Deliverer out of Thraldom, or Avenger of wrong in general. And so is in the old Testament applied to God or Christ, to whom the term chiefly belongeth. To God, because of his powerful Providence and rescuing his People out of their Calamities. Psal. 25. 22. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his Troubles. To Christ, to whom it is most proper. Isa. 59. 20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; which the Apostle applieth to Christ, Rom. 11. 26. He then is the Redeemer, and it implieth, 1. That he is our Kinsman after the Flesh, or by Incarnation. 2. That he paid a price to God for us in his Passion. 3. That he pursueth the Law against Satan, and rescues us by his Power. All which are notable grounds of Comfort. For under the Law the Redemption of the Inheritance, or the Person of the poor Brother sold, was to be made by the next of Blood, and that by the Male side, not by the Mothers, but by the Fathers side; and he also was to be the Avenger of Blood.

1. There is much comfort in this, that Christ is our Kinsman, Bone of our Bone, and Flesh of our Flesh, and therefore certainly will not be strange to his own Flesh. He did ⟨p. 211⟩redeem us not only jure proprietatis, by virtue of his Interest in us as our Creator, but jure propinquitatis, by virtue of his Kindred, one of us, of our Stock and Lineage; the Son of Adam, as well as the Son of God. The Apostle tells us, Heb. 2. 11. For he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren. As the first Fruits offered to God were taken out of the same heap; so he was of the same Mass with us. Christ is not only Man, but the Son of Man: he might have been Man if God had created him out of nothing, or he had brought his substance from Heaven. But he is the Son of Man, one descended of the Loins of Adam, as we are; even thus, He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one. He is of the same Stock with all Mankind, but the Kindred is reckoned to the Sanctified, because there it holdeth of both sides. Christ is born of a Woman, and they are born of God, and so he is a Kinsman doubly, ratione incarnationis fuae, and regenerationis nostrae; In regard of his own Incarnation, and our Regeneration. He partaketh of the humane Nature, and we partake of the Divine Nature. And it followeth, therefore he is not ashamed to call us Brethren. We are said to be ashamed when we do any thing that is filthy, dishonest or base, or misbecoming our Dignity and Rank, which we sustain in the World. The former Consideration is of no place here. For the latter, those that bear any Port and Rank in the World, are ashamed to show too much familiarity towards their Inferiors: but such is the love of Jesus Christ towards his People, that though he be infinitely greater, and more worthy than these, yet he is not ashamed to call us Brethren. Well then, here is the first step of our Comfort and Hope, to see God in our Natures. The Eternal Son of God became our Kinsman, that he might have the Right of Redemption, and recover the Inheritance which we had forfeited. We could not have such familiar and confident recourse to an Angel, and one who was of another