BOOK II.

OF THE GRACE OF CHRIST, AS EXPRESSED IN HIS STATES OF HUMI

LIATION AND EXALTATION, AND

IN THE

OFFICES

HIM IN THEM.

EXERCISED BY

OF THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST.

THE Incarnation of the Son of God is the mistery of God. liness, and, without controversy, great, 1 Tim. iii. 16. It is the basis of the christian religion; a fundamental article of it; and without the belief of it no man can be a christian; Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God, 1 John iv. 2, 3. The heathens had some faint notions of it. Confucius said, that the Word would be made flesh; several of the deities and heroes, of the heathens, Greeks and Romans, are represented as having no father. Now whatever notion the heathens had of an incarnate God, was the broken remains of a revelation their ances tors were acquainted with. I shall consider,

I. The subject of the incarnation, or the divine Person that became incarnate. The evangelist John says it was the Word, the essential Word of God; The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, John i. 14. The divine Person who came in the flesh, or became incarnate, is always distinguished from

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the Father, as being sent by him, God sending his Son, &c. Rom. viii. 3. And again, God sent forth his Scn made of a woman, Gal. iv. 4. The Logos, the Word and Son of God, who is made flesh, or become incarnate, is not to be understood of the human soul of Christ; for this Word was in the beginning with God, that is, was with him from all eternity; whereas the human soul of Christ is one of the souls that God has made, à creature, a creature of time. I proceed,

II. To observe, in what sense the Word, or Son of God, was made flesh. It will be proper to enquire, both what is meant by flesh, and what by being made flesh. I. By flesh is meant, not a part of the human body; but a whole individual of human nature, consisting of soul and body; as when it is said, There shall no flesh be justified in his sight; and again, That no flesh should glory in his presence, Rom. iii. 20. Such acts as being justified and glorying, can never be said of the flesh or body, abstractly considered; but of the whole man.i. He took a true body, not a mere phantom, spectre, or apparition, as some fancied. His body is called, the body of his flesh, his fleshly body, Col. i. 22. to distinguish it from the token of his body in the supper; and from his mystical body, the church: all his actions, and what is said of him from his birth to his death, and in and after it, shew it was a true body he assumed. 2. Christ assumed a reasonable soul, with his true body, which make up the nature he took upon him. The Arians deny that Christ has an human soul; they say, that the Logus, or the divine nature in him, such a one as it is, supplied the place of an human soul. But Christ asserts, that he had a soul; and which, he says, was exceeding sorrowful. Had he not an human soul, he would not be a perfect man ; he could not be in all things like us; being deficient in that which is the most excellent and most noble part of man. He had an human understanding, Luke ii. 52. and human will, John vi. 38. and human affections, as love, Mark x. 21. and joy, Luke x. 21. 11. In what sense the word, or Son of God, was made flesh, and so became incarnate. By the incarnation

nothing is added to, nor altered in the divine nature and personality of Christ. God the Word or Son, became manifest in the flesh, so that both natures, divine and human, are united in one Person.

The Nestorians so divided and separated these natures, as to make them distinct and separate Persons, which they are not, but one. And the Eutychians, running into the other extreme, mixed and confounded the natures together; just as two sorts of liquors, mixed together, make a third different from both. But this is to make Christ neither

truly God, nor truly man. though they are closely united, and not divided, yet they retain their distinct proper ties and operations; as the di. vine nature to be uncreated, infinite, omnipresent, impassi.. ble, &c.

This union of natures is such, that

III. The causes of the incarnation, are efficient and moving, or to whom and what it is to be ascribed; and the final cause, for the sake of whom, and what. 1. The efficient cause of it, God, Father, Son, and Spirit; all the three Persons have a concern in it, it being a work ad extra. The Father, Heb. x. 5. The Son, Heb. ii. 14, 16. The Holy Ghost, Luke i. 35. 2. The moving cause of the incarnation of Christ, is the love of the Father, and of the Son, to mankind. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, John iii. 16. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is well known; who, though rich in his divine Person, became poor in human nature, to make his people rich, Phil. ii. 6-8. 3. The final cause was for the sake of the elect of God. But of this more hereafter, IV. The parts of the incarnation are to be next considered, conception and nativity. 1. Conception: this is a most wonderful, abstruse, and mysterious affair; and which to speak of is very difficult. 1. This conception was by a virgin: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son! 2. This conception was through the power and influence of the Holy Ghost overshadowing the virgin. 3. It was a nature, and not a person that Christ assumed; it is called the holy Thing, and not a person; The seed of Abraham, or the nature of the

seed of Abraham. I shall farther observe some things concerning the union of the two natures, which took place at the conception; and of the effects of it. 1. Of the union itself; concerning which let it be observed, 1. That though Christ, by assuming the human nature, united it to his divine Person; yet there is a difference between assumption and union; assumption is only of one nature; union is of both. 2. This union is hypostatical, or personal, not an union of persons; but of two natures in one person. 3. This is an union of natures; but not a communication of one nature to another. The properties of each nature remain distinct. 4. This union lies in making the personality of the Word, common to the human nature; or giving it a subsistence in the Person of the Word or Son of God. Hence it is called, The Son of God, Luke i. 35. 5. This union is indissoluble, John ii. 19. II. The effects of this union, both with respect to the human nature, and to the Person of Christ. With respect to the human nature: 1. Pre-eminence to all other individuals of human nature. 2. Perfect holiness and impeccability. 3. A communication of habitual grace to it in the greatest degree. 4. A very high and glorious exaltation of it, after his death and resurrection from the dead.

With respect to the Person of Christ, the effects of this union are, 1. A communication of idioms, or properties, as the ancients express it. Hence we read of God purchasing the church with his blood; and on the other hand, the Son of man is described by a property which belongs to the divine nature, which is to be omnipresent, John iii. 13. 2. A communion of office, and of power and authority to exercise it in both natures: thus by virtue of this union Christ bears the office of Mediator, and exercises it in both natures; there is one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii. 5. 5. A communion of operations in both natures, to the perfecting of the same work; which, therefore, may be called theandric, or the work of the God-man; there being a concurrence of both natures in the performance of it; which,

when done, is ascribed to his Person. 4. The adoration of the Person of Christ, having both natures united in him, is ano ther effect of this union. The human nature of Christ is not the formal object of worship; it is a creature. But then the divine Person of Christ having that nature in union with him, is worshipped, Heb. i. 6. 11. The birth, or nativity of Christ, the other part of the incarnation, is next to be considered. 1. Of whom born; of a virgin, of the house of David, and of the tribe of Judah. 1. Of a virgin: this was hinted at in the first promise of the seed of the woman; and is fully expressed by Isaiah: A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son. 2. Christ was born of a virgin of the house of David; as in Luke i. 27. and is therefore called the Son of David, and of the tribe of Judah. It is manifest, as the apostle says, that our Lord sprung from the house of Judah, Heb. vii. 14. 2. The birth of Christ, or his coming into the world, was after the manner of men; he was the common time in his mother's womb; for it is said, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 3. The place of his birth was Bethlehem, according to the prophecy in Mic. v. 2. Matt. ii. 4-6. Bethlehem signifies the house of bread; a fit place for the Messiah to be born in, who is the bread that came down from heaven, and gives life unto the world. 4. The time of his birth was as it was fixed in prophecy; before the sceptre, or civil government, departed from Judah. It was at the time pointed at in Daniel's weeks, Dan. ix. 24. &c. The exact year is not agreed on by chronologers; but it was about, or a little time before or after the four thousandth year of the world; nor can the season of the year, the month and day in which he was born, be ascertained. The vulgar account seems not probable; the circumstance of the shepherds watching their flocks by night, agrees not with the winter season. However, it was in the fulness of time; in time, and not before time.

V. The ends of Christ's incarnation are many; there is a cluster of them in the song of the angels at his birth; Glory