for his first-born. All his people throughout the world shall believe in him: some with an assured, some with a faltering faith; but they shall all believe just as, when the Israelites were wounded by the flying serpents in the wilderness, some looked, to the brazen image, stedfastly; others feebly; some had a full, near, and distinct view of the elevated remedy, others had a distant, imperfect, confused sight of it; and many, perhaps, could but just raise their eyes toward the object, and hardly caught a glimpse of it: yet they all looked, after some rate or other; and all who did, were healed. So all the people of Christ reach forward towards his righteousness; some with a strong, some with a trembling hand, but they shall all grasp at it, and all utter this prayer (a prayer, which was never, nor ever can be breathed from a graceless heart), O let me be found in thee, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith! They, who thus believe, are careful to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour, in all things. The holy Spirit gives faith; from faith, springs holiness; and the end of both is everlasting life. The entire mystic body of Christ, the whole election of grace, shall, like their triumphant Lord, when their warfare is accomplished, be received up into glory. But what I chiefly intend at present, is to consider that particular clause of this verse, which asserts, that Jesus was seen of angels. By the angels here mentioned, we are chiefly to understand the elect* angels; who, being ordained to glory, were immutably confirmed in holiness, nor revolted from the dignity and blessedness in which they were created. These saw the Son of God, long before his incarnation. They beheld VOL. III. * 1 Tim. v. 21. F him in the fulness of his infinite and essential glory, which he had with the Father and the Holy Ghost, before all worlds. It is probable, from scripture, that angels were the first fruits of God's creating power, and called into existence, before any thing else was made: and it is certain, from scripture, that the second person of the Trinity, afterwards manifested in the flesh, was the Creator of all the angelic hosts. Hence it follows, that he was seen of them immediately upon their creation: they were no sooner summoned into being than they saw him, and adored. As angels were his first workmanship, their bliss began with the sight of him, and their first employ was praise. Thus they saw him, thus they loved, and thus they worshipped; until the fulness of time was come, when the Ancient of Days became an Infant of Days, and God the Son was found in fashion as a man. When that blessed person entered on his state of actual humiliation, angels viewed, and wondered: wondered to see the object of their adoration made, for a time, lower than themselves *. They beheld him, at Bethlehem, a babe, wrapt in swathes, "When his birth-place was a stable, Though surrounding cattle were the chief attendants on the Infant Messiah and his virginmother; though, in all outward appearance, the new-born Saviour was, from the very moment of his nativity, forsaken, despised, and rejected of men; he was still seen and revered of angels. The church of the redeemed bowed the knee, and unfallen spirits sung, in that ignominious place, where horses fed, and oxen lowed. The presence of God *Heb. ii. 7. Bgazu T, either for a very short while, or in a very small degree.It is properly spoken of men, indefinitely; but held strictly true, even as accommodated to Christ himself. + Dr. Watts. Incarnate consecrated the stable into a temple of glory; and ennobled the manger, where he slumbered, into a throne of grace.-Such did that humble residence appear, in the eyes of those exalted beings, who, like him that made them, see not as man seeth. If we trace the adorable Mediator, from infancy, to a state of youth, we shall find him busied in following the occupation of Joseph, his reputed father. It is recorded in the gospel *, that the Jews said, concerning him, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? Thus, he who laid the foundations of the earth, and by his excellent wisdom, made the heavens; he who shakes the system he hath made, and the pillars thereof tremble; who speaketh to the sun, and it shineth not, and sealeth up the stars, even he disdained not to fix a mark of honour upon honest industry, by earning his own livelihood, at Nazareth, as soon as his age would permit. There and then was he seen of angels. They saw him laboriously employed, and literally experiencing the truth of the penal edict, denounced soon after the fall, that in the sweat of his brow man should eat bread. We do not, indeed, find that Christ wrought with his hands after he commenced a preacher. Which observable change of conduct was designed, perhaps, to teach us, that they who preach the gospel, should live of the gospel; and detaching themselves from every unnecessary avocation, devote their time and abilities, as far as possible, to the duties of their high calling. Though the blessed Jesus was conceived and born without original sin; though he, moreover, lived perfectly exempt from the remotest shadow of actual transgression; still he vouchsafed to stamp the highest authority on the laver of typical regene * Mark vi. 3. ration, by his own personal submission to the ordinance of baptism. He would not enter on the exercise of his holy ministry, until he had been, solemnly and openly, devoted to the visible service of God.-Might he not, likewise, have another and still superior view, in his condescending susception of this sacred right? Washing seems, necessarily, to carry with it the idea of previous defilement. Whoever is brought to the baptismal font, is brought thither as a sinner. And the whole ceremony is a solemn recognition of human guilt, as well as strikingly emblematical of the way and manner in which pardon and sanctification are attained; even by the effusion of the Messiah's blood, and the hallowing agency of his blessed Spirit. Now, if baptism be confessedly an acknowledgment of human sinfulness, how came he to divide the waves of Jordan, who was infinitely holy as God, and immaculately righteous, as man? Probably, because he was made sin for us*. In a way of imputation, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of all his people t. And Jesus was not ashamed, publicly to avow the merciful office he had assumed. Hence, though absolutely sinless, he was baptized as a sinner. And this practical declaration of his atoning character, was a part of that exterior righteousness, which, as the victim and substitute of his saints, it became him to fulfil .-On this great occasion, we read, that the heavens were opened. We are not, indeed, expressly told, that he was seen of angels; though no doubt he was. The reason, perhaps, why the mention of that circumstance was omitted by the evangelists, might be, because personages of dignity infinitely superior to that of angels, constituted and crowned the grandeur of the scene. everlasting Father and the uncreated Spirit gave sensible manifestations of their immediate presence; * 2 Cor. v. 21. † Isaiah liii. 6. Matth. iii. 15. The while the co-equal Son, under the likeness of sinful flesh, parted the mystic stream.-Angels, who just before, admired to see the blameless Immanuel baptized; suddenly, exchanged their admiration for adoring awe, and wrapt their prostrate faces in their wings, when the Father Almighty deigned, audibly, to testify his complacency in the person and priesthood of his incarnate Son; and the co-eternal Spirit bowed the heavens and came down, not in the form, but (wei Tegisega) after the manner of a dove: with a gentle, gradual, hovering descent. hovering descent. Well might angels be thrown, as it were, into shades, by the silence of the sacred historians. For, what are angels, when compared with God! evanid stars, eclipsed and lost, amidst the boundless, overwhelming blaze of day. Shortly after, he was seen of angels, when assailed in the wilderness, by the enemy of God and man. They stood by, not to give the Messiah their assistance, for he needed none; but simply, as spectators of his conflict, and witnesses of his conquest. As they had formerly seen Paradise lost, by the yielding frailty of Adam; so they now beheld Paradise regained, by the unrelaxing firmness of Jesus Christ the righteous. After he had fought the good fight, and had actually foiled the tempter, we read that angels ministered unto him: but not before. 66 Temptation," says an useful writer*, "is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart. The corrupt heart resembles an ant's nest, on which, while the stone lieth, none of them appear; but, take off that, and stir them only with the point of a straw, what a swarm is there, and how lively they are! Just such a sight, O man, would thy heart afford thee, did the Lord but withdraw the restraint he has laid upon it, and suffer satan to stir it up by temptation." Such is the heart of man: but not *Mr. Boston, in his Fourfold State of Human Nature. |