Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

SERM. Seafon, to explain the Nature and Office of VI. the Meffiab, or to fhew who and what he

was to be.

In order to this I have now made Choice of the Words of Andrew, who (having been with Jefus the Day before, and learned by that Means who he was) haftens next Day to his Brother Simon (commonly called Peter) and with Eagerness discovers to him the joyful News. We have found (faith he) the Mefias, that Meffias whom we have fo long wifhed for, and defired to come. And then to explain what the Word Meffias fignifies, the Evangelift adds (for I take these latter Words to be his) that being interpreted, it is the Chrift; which, being interpreted once more into our English Tongue, is the Anointed: For though CHRIST be a Name which is now adopted into ours and other Languages, as the Name of our Lord; yet that Name is originally Greek, and fignifies the fame in the Greek Tongue, as Meffias does in the Syriack, and both in English fignifies the Anointed. So that Jefus Chrift put together, fignifies the Saviour, the Anointed One. For Jefus alfo is not an English, but an Hebrew Name, and fignifies a Saviour. Jefus therefore being declared in the Text to be the Meffias or

Chrift,

VI.

[ocr errors]

Christ, or to speak plainly in English, he be- SER M. ing declared to be the Anointed One; in order to explain both the Text itself, and the Character of our Lord, it will be proper to fhew,

I. FIRST, How and in what Senfe our Saviour was anointed. And then

II. SECONDLY, What was the Design and the Effect of his Unction.

I. FIRST then I am to fhew, how and in what Senfe our Saviour was anointed. Now how they were anointed under the Law, who were the Types of the Meffias, is plain enough to any one who knows any Thing of the Bible: For there we read, that God appointed a special and peculiar Oil to be made, which he appropriated to this Ufe, Exod. Xxx. 22-33. And the pouring this Oil upon the Body of any Perfon, was the anointing of him to that Office for which he was defigned, Levit. viii. 12, 30. But now fince the Oil which was appropriated to that Use, had been loft many Hundred Years before the coming of our Saviour *; and confequently fince the Custom of anointing in this Manner had ceafed a long Time before our Saviour *Pearfon on the Creed, p. 97.

H 2

was

SERM.

VI.

was born; and fince we no where read that Jesus was ever anointed with Oil; it may be pertinently asked, how he was anointed, so as to be called the Anointed One; by Way of Eminence and Dignity, beyond any that had ever been anointed before him?

In answer to this Question it may not be improper to note in the first Place, that even the Jews have fuch a strong Persuasion and Affurance that the Meffias fhall be anointed when he comes to deliver them; that notwithstanding the Sacred Oil of Unction be loft at present, and has been loft ever fince the Days of Jofiah*, they yet conceive that it fhall be found again when the Meffias appears, and that he and all the Kings and High Priests that shall be in his Days, fhall be anointed with it. But we, who know and believe in a Meffias already come, know also that he stood in no Need of fuch a material Unction as theirs was, for his Confecration: But that there was as much Difference between the Oil, with which those others had been anointed, and that Oil which was poured upon our Saviour, as there was between the Perfons that were confecrated by the material Oil, and our Saviour himself.

Pearfon on the Creed, p. 97.

The

VI.

The Unction made Ufe of among the Jews SER M. was only typical of a more Divine and Heavenly Unction that was to defcend upon the proper and true Meffias. The Unction of Chrift, was the Unction of the Holy Spirit himself. For ye know (faith St. Peter) how God anointed Jefus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghoft, and with Power, Acts x. 38. This was the Unction of the Bleffed Jefus, and this was shed most plentifully upon him, even vifibly and openly, in the Sight of the World, when after his Baptifm in the River of Fordan* (it being usual among the Ancients always to wash before they were anointed, and for Kings alfo to be anointed near to Fountains and Springs: After his folemn Baptifm, I fay,) the Heavens open, the Holy Ghoft, the Spirit of God, vifibly defcends and hovers over him in the Manner of a Dove, and then lighting and refting upon him, a Voice from Heaven proclaims aloud, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Matt. iii. 16, 17.

This was the Unction of the Holy Jefus ; nor can any one doubt whether this was a proper or fufficient Unction, who confiders how amply this Effufion of the Spirit con

[blocks in formation]

VI.

SER M. tained whatsoever was fignified or performed by the material or legal Unctions of the Jews. For firft-did those legal and material Unctions fignify a Divine Election of a Perfon, and a folemn Appointment of him to the Office he was called to?-How much more folemn and fatisfactory was the Call and Appointment of Jefus, when inftead of being anointed by the Hands of a Prophet, the Holy Ghost (under whom all the Prophets acted, and by whom they were infpired) did visibly defcend in his own Perfon, and anointed him himself; the Father in the mean while ratifying and confirming the Unction of the Spirit, by loudly proclaiming him his Son from Heaven? Again fecondly, were thofe that were anointed among the Jews, anointed in order to make them more fit to receive the Influence of the Holy Spirit? Then how much more excellent and fuperior was this anointing of our Saviour; when instead of only making him fit to receive this Influence, the Unction was the very Influence itself, the Divine Influx of the Holy Ghoft defcending on, and dwelling bodily in, him?

[ocr errors]

Thus you fee that in Respect of the Action, all the Ends and Purpofes defigned by the Unctions of the Law, were abundantly an

fwered

« ZurückWeiter »