N00830:100
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus…
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by Timothy Green for Nicholas Boone, 1701
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Blessed HOPE, And Glorious Appearing of JESUS CHRIST. › Sermon 3 › Application 2: USE II.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
USE II.
We see the Reason of several Glorious things which are to be Affirmed concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. As now, we see here the reason why Christ did not faint, and sink under that Burden of his Office, as Mediator ▪ It was because He is the great God. Had any mere Creature had that burden on him, were it an Angel, he could not have subsisted under it. He is able to perform His Office of a Mediator in all respects· Christ is able to discharge his Prophetical Office, to Instruct all the Elect of God, in all Ages. There are Hundreds of Thousands, yea, Millions of Souls, that he has instructed as a Prophet: This is because he is the great God; otherwise if he had been no more then a man, then a creature, he could not have done it. Whence is it he did not sink under the weight of his Sufferings? Christ suffered such things, as no man in the world ever did the like. It is said, His visage was marred more than any of the Sons of men. Yet he did bear up under those sufferings. He suffered, not only in his Body, but also in Soul, when he made His Soul an Offering for Sin. How should he have been able to bear up under the Wrath of the Father, that lay upon him when he was Surety for the Elect of God, ⟨p. 66⟩but that he is God? And so his Divine Nature did support his Humane Nature, and made him capable of enduring such things, as never man did or could do. Likewise, we see the reason why the Sufferings of Christ were infinitely Meritorious, viz. because he was God. That the Elect of God might be redeemed from Death, it was necessary that a Life should be given for them, yea, and a Life that was more worthy, then the Life of all Men and Angels was given for them; that is the Life of him who is God: 1 Joh. 3.16 God laid down his Life. That cannot but be a Life that is infinitely precious Some mens lives one of them is more precious then a hundred thousand of other men. Well, but the Life of Christ is of more value, then the lives of all the men in the world, because he is the great God. Therefore his Blood has infinite Merit in it.