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shut up in himself, and confined to himself. But he having an individual nature of man as we all have, without a propriety of subsistence, all his obedience may be common for all others, and as many as he shall please to communicate it unto may have a share in it. It may be a common salvation, as it is called Jude 3, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.' For our nature in him, as it is human, is not circumscribed or enclosed with a proper subsistence of its own, but lies like a field unenclosed, not hedged in with personality, as all our natures are. And to this purpose observe the phrases whereby the Scripture expresseth this nature assumed by the Son of God, which are such as do imply, that that which was assumed was only a human nature, and not a person. As when it is said, 'He took the seed of Abraham,' Heb. ii. 16, not a person, but the seed,' our nature. Semen est intimum substantia, the quintessence of nature, but notes not out a person. So the Word is said to be made flesh; that word flesh noteth out but one nature assumed, not a person; and therefore the apostle speaking of Christ, he makes him the person, and his flesh or human nature but as an appendix: Rom. ix. 5, Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' And so in Luke i. 35, ' And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' The angel there speaks of Christ's human nature, which was to be born of Mary, not as of a person but as of a thing, in the neuter gender: That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' And besides, he, the man Christ, could not have been called the Son of God if he had been a person apart of himself, for one person is not predicated of another; the husband cannot be called the wife, though most nearly united, for they are two persons. And therefore likewise Christ himself, when he was to take our nature, speaking of that which was to be assumed, saith, Heb. x. 5, A body hast thou fitted me;' me notes out the person, the other is but a body assumed; so he calls it, because himself as God was the person; this was not a person but the nature of man, therefore he calls it a body, and so Col. i. 22, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight:' it is iv ry σώματι τῆς σάρκος, in that body of his flesh.

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But though he subsisted not as an entire person, yet it was fit and necessary that he should be a whole and perfect man entire, so as though he took not a person on him, yet he took our whole nature for substance, every way as perfect as ours, in all the parts of it, both of soul and body: 'He was made like us in all things,' says the apostle, Heb. ii. 17. There was nothing wanting essential to either, or for the perfection of either part of our nature, for he will be like us in all things, in all members of our bodies, and faculties of our souls. It is called flesh indeed, and a body, but yet lest only a body should seem to be meant, he elsewhere is called 'a man,' 'the man Christ Jesus,' as having all belonging to a man; and he is called 'that man' in Acts xvii. 31: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.' He had a perfect body as ours, and a soul, and both united, and so was a whole man.

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1. For the body, Col. i. 22, it is called the body of his flesh.' thought he had been a spirit, but in opposition to their conceit, It is I,' says he, Mat. xiv. 27; ' and feel,' says he; hath a spirit flesh, and blood, and bones?' Luke xxiv. 39. And this was fit, that the similitude of our union might be the nearer, and that we might be truly called members of his body, as being of his flesh and of his bones :' as Eph. v. 30, ' For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.' Also because he was to reconcile us in the body of his flesh through death,' Col. i. 22, by bearing our sins upon his body on the tree: 1 Peter ii. 24, Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.' If he had not had the body of a man, he could not have been fastened to the tree, nor endured our sorrows, the pains of death. And again, as all our members are weapons of unrighteousness, therefore he was to take them all, to sanctify all to God, and make them weapons of righteousness.

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And that body did not want a soul, for his soul was heavy unto death,' Mat. xxvi. 38. And it was meet it should be so, for first the chief suit and threatening for sin was against the soul: The soul that sins shall die,' Ezek. xviii. 20; therefore he must pour out his soul to death,' Isa. liii. 12, and it is the redemption of the soul that is precious: Ps. xlix. 8, For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever;' that is the chief thing to be redeemed, and that is so precious, as nothing but a soul could be a fit price. He was made like us therefore, that he might succour us in all respects: Heb. iv. 15, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;' Heb. ii. 17, 18, Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.' And now our greatest temptations are in our souls, and therefore he had a soul to be tempted in all things, sin only excepted; and so he knows how to pity our souls, and the distress of them, and he joys to be a shepherd of our souls' 1 Peter ii. 25, For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.'

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And then, 2, both body and soul must be united, else the body could not die; for bodily death is the separation of soul and body, and that was threatened against us, and therefore to be executed on our mediator; and therefore when he died, it is said, 'He gave up the ghost,' Mat. xxvii. 50.

And he must be a whole, perfect man, for this reason too, because he was to be a priest and a sacrifice both, and the priests in the law were to be perfect men in all parts of their bodies. If they had any blemish, they were not to be priests. And so the sacrifices were to be whole burntofferings, therefore a whole man was to be offered up by the Son of God. And he being to redeem the whole man, it was fit he should take the whole human nature. All that was lost was to be saved by him: Luke xix. 10, He came to seek and to save that which was lost.' There was not that thing in man that was lost (as all was), but he saved it, and therefore took the whole of man into union with himself.

CHAPTER VII.

That it was not only fit that Christ should be man, but such a man as to be like us in the matter and substance of his body—And to be like us in his production and birth, to be born of a woman, as we are. What are the reasons of this-What is the reason why Christ, though born of a woman, is yet without sin.—Why he is man, and of the Jewish nation.

Now seeing he was thus to be a man, let us consider what manner or kind of man every way qualified was fittest in this business, and we shall find that such a man did God every way make him; for he must have a human nature fitted for him on purpose: Heb. x. 5, Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.' A body hast thou fitted me,' so some read it, adaptasti, fitted him with a body for the purpose. And indeed if for all other works God chooseth out fit instruments, then surely for this great work of all works else; and accordingly divines call his human nature instrumentum Deitatis, the instrument of the Godhead. It is not every kind of body will fit him for this purpose of reconciling. Some schoolmen have thought that not any other human nature but that which was assumed could have been assumed; sure I am a greater fitness could not have been in any, and all to make up this his personal fitness for a mediator full, that in him all fulness might be found to dwell.

Now concerning what qualifications are to be in him for this work, we have this general rule given us here in Heb. ii. 17, That it became him in all things to be made like to us who were his brethren; so as the liker he should be to us, the fitter mediator he should be for us, and that for the very reasons before mentioned, that because justice admitted of a commutation, it would yet come every way as nigh to have a full and proportionable satisfaction as could be. As satisfaction must be made in a nature of the same kind, by man, not an angel, so in such a nature a man as should be as near akin to us, and like us, as the matter would possibly permit, so as the business of reconciliation be not hindered nor evacuated by it; for then he should have lost his end.

First, Whereas he might have been a man of the same nature with us, consisting both of body and soul, and yet have been created immediately, as Adam was, out of nothing, yea, or out of matter in heaven (as some do dream), as his body itself is now heavenly and spiritual, and therefore called the heavenly man,' 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49: yet that he may be like to us, he will take human nature of the same lump with ours, and out of which ours is taken. So here in Heb. ii. 14, He took part of the same;' the same flesh and blood that we have; and again, ver. 11, Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one:' he says, not only that both are one for nature and kind, but all are of one,' that is, one lump and mass, that so he might be a little the more akin to us, our countryman, being made of the same earth we are of. If he had been made of heavenly matter he had been countryman to the angels rather, for heaven is their country; yea, he had been utterly a stranger to us, though of the same nature; as a man dropped from heaven would be, as some conceive Melchisedec his type to have been. And the reason there given is proper and pertinent, for he was to sanctify us; and he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified it is meet they should be of one.' The ground of this

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reason is taken from that of the Levitical law, by which the first-fruits sanctified the whole lump or mass which those fruits were taken out of; and they by this sanctified the rest, because they were of the same lump or mass, as it is expressed, Rom. xi. 16, For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.' They were not only of the same species of creature that the rest were of, but growing out of the same earth that the rest of the fruits did. Now Christ, as he is called 'the fruit of the womb,' Luke i. 42, so the first-fruits,': 1 Cor. xv. 20, 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept;' which, though spoken of the resurrection only, yet holds in all, even to his very nature. He is in all things wherein he is like us the first-fruits, and therefore is to be made like us in all, that he might be the first-fruits. And he was to sanctify others of mankind; and this he had not so fitly and correspondently, according to the law of nature, done, had not both they and he been all of one. And besides God meant not to create anew any of mankind, and therefore he made woman of man rather than of nothing, intending to make out of Adam all which he meant to make, even Christ and all. But then,

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Secondly, He might have been made of the same lump, if made of some man, in that manner as Eve was out of Adam, made of a rib, or some such part of mankind. But he resolves to come nearer yet, and to be made as like in all things as may be, and therefore he will be made of the same kind of matter that we all are made of, even of seed, which is the quintessence, the elixir of man's nature, intimum substantia; and therefore the first title and appellation he was known by unto the sons of men was the seed of the woman:' Gen. iii. 15, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' So Acts xvii. 26. God hath made mankind all of one blood, that so they might love one another; and he will have this man that is to be our redeemer to be of the same blood, that is, of seed, which is the blood of man concocted to an height, and therefore he is not only called a man, but the Son of man,' Mat. xvii. 12. Eve, though made out of man, was not filia hominis, a daughter of man; nor Adam, though a man, yet not a son of man; no. In the genealogy, Luke iii. 38, Adam is called the son of God; but Christ is to be the Son of man as well as man, and that by being made of seed, which all men are made of; and so in Heb. ii. 16, He took not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.' And the reason is given in the next verse here, that he might call us brethren, and not be ashamed of us. A brother is more than of the same nature, it notes one made out of the same blood. And God would have the same blood run in his veins that runs in ours. And this fitted him the more to be a redeemer, and to have right to do it by the Levitical law also, for it was proper to a brother to redeem, and a stranger could not: Levit. xxv. 25, 'If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.' So that the church comes to have her wish: Cant. viii. 1, 'Oh that thou wert as my brother,' &c. For so Christ is. Yea,

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Thirdly, He will come yet nearer, even in the manner of his production, or being made a man, as like as may be to that of ours, as near as possibly might be, so as not to take infection. He will be made of seed, even by a conception, and lie in the womb, and grow up there, from a tear, a drop, by degrees, as man doth, and be born, and be a suckling as we, as Ps.

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viii. 2 speaks of him, and therefore he is called the fruits of the womb : Luke i. 42, And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.' And more expressly, Luke i. 31, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son,' speaking to Mary. You see Christ is like to us in being produced both by the same way, and to lie in the same place, that secret and dark chamber that all mankind lies in. Conception is the groundseil (as I may call it) of our nature, which sin had infected, and it was rotten and corrupted, and from it the leprosy was spread over all the walls of this building: In sin my mother conceived me,' says David, Ps. li. 5, and Christ coming to repair and restore us from the very foundation, sanctifies that very way of production, conception, and consecrates the curious room and privy chamber that all mankind lies in. Man is said by the psalmist to be curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth,' Ps. cxxxix. 15; and Christ descends even thither, that so he may ascend the higher. He takes his flight thus low, in that he ascended, he descended first into these lower parts of the earth, which surely is part of the apostle's meaning, in comparing it with that psalm: Eph. iv. 9, 10, Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?' ver. 10, 'He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.' And that we may be where he is, as he prays, John xvii. 24, he will condescend for a while to be where we were, enclosed in the womb. And that we may come to his place, his mansionhouse in heaven, his Father's house, he will first come down to our place, our mother's house, for such is the womb. And therefore he is still called 'the seed of the woman,' and 'made of a woman;' Gal. iv. 4, 5, 'But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law;' ver. 5, 'To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons;' to the end that he might be fitted to redeem us. This reason is expressly added there, that he might redeem us that were under the law.' And this woman was yet a virgin, as you shall see by and by, A virgin shall conceive:' Isa. vii. 14, 'Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.' One reason of it, besides that which I shall anon give, might be, that God would take a new course in the rearing up this human nature, differing from what was taken afore. If he had made him out of man, or the rib of a man, so he had made the woman before; if out of nothing, so he had made the first man before. But to make him of a woman, and the seed of the woman, by conception, without man, this was a new thing in the earth, as the prophet speaks, Isa. xliii. 19. And God herein kept some further correspondency also with man's sinning, that (as was observed before) as by a man came death, so by man should come the resurrection; God observed a proportion in it. So here, a woman afore destroyed us, and was first in the transgression;' nevertheless, both she and we shall be saved by her childbearing, or that child-bearing (as some interpret that place, 1 Tim. ii. 15). And Adam laid all the blame on the woman (reflecting withal on God): Gen. iii. 12, ' And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' And therefore God presently, to meet with him, says, 'The seed of the woman,' not the man, shall break the serpent's head; as if he had said, Thou hast laid the fault on me for giving thee a woman, because she hath been the occasion of thy fall; but I will be even with thee (but it is in mercy, as God's revenges on his chil