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elect in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles: he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.-Listen, O Isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from far-Jehovah hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name and said unto me, Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified. Then said I, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, yet surely my judg ment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And, now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.-Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of Jehovah that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary he wakeneth, morning by morning, he waken eth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face as a flint, and I know that I shall not be confounded.-Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee: (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men,) so shall he sprinkle many nations.

"He shall grow up before the Lord as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form or comeliness: and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our trans. gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,

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yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison, and from judgment-was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken; and he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth.-Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hands. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.-I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

"The Spirit of 'Jehovah' Elohim is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

Thus saith the Lord God,-1 will set up one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even thy servant David: he shall be their Shepherd. I Jehovah will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them. I Jehovah have spoken it. He shall give them up until the time that she that travaileth hath brought forth-and he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of his God."

11. Our Lord and his Apostles, in a great variety of passages in the New Testament, illustrate and confirm these declarations of Moses and the prophets, concerning the real and proper humanity of the Messiah. A few of these I shall quote:

"The child grew, and waxed strong in Spirit, and the grace of God was upon him.— Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.-Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.-Ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God.-Labour for the meat which endureth unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for him hath God the Father sealed.-I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which sent me.-The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself that hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.—I honour my Father, and ye do dis

honour me. I seek not mine own glory. I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, gave me a commadment what I should say, and what I should speak: and I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I say I go to my Father, for my Father is greater than I. My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all: and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands.-Who soever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me be fore men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but my Father only. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. -As my Father hath sent me, so send I you. "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him: -whom they slew and hanged on a tree whom God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; and who is or dained of God to be the Judge of Quick and Dead.-Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and won ders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you; him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and, with wicked hands, have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.-God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, of which he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.-He was verily fore ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." 12. Now, as in these, and such like passages, which occur in great abundance throughout the Scripture, the term Jehovah, God, or Father, includes the whole Godhead, (not the Father as distinguished from his Word and Spirit only, as in I John v. 7, and Matt. xxviii. 19, but the Word and Spirit also :) so, in them, the purely human nature of Christ is chiefly spoken of, and held up to

our view as a complete and proper person, as truly dependant upon the deity for knowledge and power, holiness and happiness, as the human nature of any man.-And doubtless, this is a just representation of things: for this human nature of our Lord, this body and soul of the holy Jesus, was properly a creature, derived from, and dependant upon God, as all other creatures are. Whatever knowledge he had, therefore, as man ;-whatever power, whatever purity, whatever comfort was communicated. And, it is probable, these communications were made, especially while he was yet a child, in a gradual manner, viz. as his faculties opened, and he was susceptible of them: which accounts for his increasing in wisdom, as in stature, and in favour with God and man, and waxing strong in spirit. Nay, and it is manifest, that throughout his life, his manhood could be no further conscious to the ideas of the Divinity than they were imparted, it being absolutely impossible that any creature should be conscious to the ideas of the deity by immediate intuition, as a man is conscious to the thoughts of his own heart.

With the same propriety, therefore, wherewith Christ could speak of himself things that referred to his body or animal nature only, and say, I am weary with my journey, I am hungry, I thirst,—he might also affirm things which belonged only to his soul or rational nature, as, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, I rejoice in spirit, I increase in wisdom, I know not the day of judgment, I can do nothing of myself. For these things were as precisely and perfectly true as the other, and it was the Manhood alone, without any reference to the Godhead, that spoke in them; even as it was the Godhead alone, without any refer ence to the Manhood (though by its lips) which said, Before Abraham was, I am ;—I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

13. Such proofs as these, of his true and proper humanity, we might expect to meet with; and meeting with them accordingly, why should we be staggered or surprised? The Godhead, as we have seen, was not converted into flesh, but only dwelt in it, and manifested himself to mankind by it as far as he saw fit; and the Manhood, while on earth at least, was not so taken up into God, as to be quite absorbed and lost therein. Nay, this is not the case, now he is in heaven, but the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, is still of a nature distinct from pure and proper Deity, and knows not the secrets of the divine counsels any further than they are communicated to him. Hence he is represented as receiving the Book, containing these counsels, from the right hand of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and hence we meet with that expression,-The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him.

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14. And yet, to signify that these two natures, though preserved complete and dis. tinct, were nevertheless most closely united in the person of the Redeemer, we frequently, in the Scriptures, meet with what is termed a communication of properties: viz.-the one nature speaks things, or has things spoken of it, which are only proper to the other nature, As for instance, Acts xx. 28, we read, "The church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood:" and 1 John iii. 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us;" which is speaking of the divine nature things proper only to the human. And, John iii. 13. "No man hath ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven;"-which is af firming of the human nature, the Son of Man, things that could only be true of the divine. For as God cannot die, and has no blood to shed,-the Son of Man, the human nature, had not then been in heaven, and much more could not be there while on earth. Nay, and our Lord, at one and the same time, and with one breath, often said things proper to both his natures; as in the passage above quoted, "I am the root and offspring of David," the root as God, and the offspring as man. Again, "I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again :" I lay down my life as man, I have power to take it again as God.

15. Bishop Burnet speaks well on this subject: "What a person is that results from a close conjunction of two natures, we can only judge by considering man, in whom there is a material and a spiritual nature joined to gether. They are two natures as different as any we can apprehend among all created beings yet these make but one man. The matter of which the body is composed, does not subsist by itself-is not under all those laws of motion to which it should be subject, if it were mere inanimated matter; but by the indwelling and actuation of the soul, it has another spring within it, and another course of operations. According to this, then, to subsist by another, is when a being is acting according to its natural properties, but yet in a constant dependance upon another being; so our bodies subsist by the subsistence of our souls.

16. "This may help us to apprehend how that as the body is still a body, and operates as a body, though it subsist by the indwelling and actuation of the soul; so in the person of Jesus Christ, the human nature was entire, and still acted according to its own character; yet there was such an union and inhabitation of the Eternal Word in it, that there did arise out of that a communication of names and characters, as we find in the Scriptures. A man is called tall, fair, and

healthy, from the state of his body-and learn. ed, and wise, and good, from the qualities of his mind: so Christ is called holy, harmless, and undefiled,—is said to have died, risen, and ascended up into heaven, with relation to his human nature: he is also said to be in the Form of God, to have created all things, to be the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, with relation to his divine nature. The ideas that we have of what is' material, and what is spiritual, lead us to distinguish in a man, those des criptions that belong to his body, from those that belong to his mind; so the different apprehensions that we have of what is created and uncreated, must be our thread to guide us into the resolution of those various expressions which occur in the Scriptures concerning Christ.

17. "The design of the definition that was made by the Church, concerning Christ's having one person, was chiefly to distinguish the nature of the indwelling of the Godhead in him from all prophetical inspirations. The Mosaic degree of prophecy was, in many respects, superior to that of the subsequent Prophets; yet the difference is stated between Christ and Moses, in terms that import things of quite another nature; the one being mentioned as the Servant, the other as the Son that built the house. It is not said that God appeared to Christ, or that he spoke to him; but God was ever with him, and in him; and while the WORD was made flesh, yet still his glory was as the glory of the only begotten Son of God. The glory that Isaiah saw, was his glory; and, on the other hand, God is said to have purchased the church with his own blood. If Nestorius, in opposing this, meant only (as some think it appears by many citations out of him) that the blessed Virgin was not to be called simply the Mother of God,-hut the Mother of him that was God and if that of making two persons in Christ was only fastened on him as a consequence, we are not at all concerned in the matter of fact, whether Nestorius was misunderstood and hardly used or not; but the doctrine here asserted is plain in the Scriptures,-That though the human nature of Christ acted still according to its proper character, and had a peculiar will, yet there was such a constant presence, indwelling, and actuation on it from the Eternal WORD, as did constitute both human and divine nature in one person. As these are thus so entirely united, so they are never to be separated. Christ is now exalted to the highest degrees of glory and honour and the characters of blessing, honour, and glory, are represented in St. John's Visions, as offered unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”— -Burnet on the Ar ticles.

CHAP. XIII.'

Some OBJECTIONS answered.

1. WHAT has been advanced in the last Chapter upon the humanity of Christ, will, I presume, if thoroughly considered, be found to contain a sufficient answer to most of the arguments brought to disprove his Divinity. For they seem, in general, to be built on a supposition, that those who believe him to be God, either deny him to be Man, or imagine his Manhood to have been absorbed by, or converted into his Godhead, so as no longer to retain its proper nature and possess an understanding and will, distinct from those of the Deity. Nay, some speak as if they thought we believed the man, strictly speak ing, to be God,-the creature to be the Creator. But none of these is, in the least, supposed or intended. We only believe and wish to establish such an union between this Humanity of our Saviour and the Divine Essence, through the indwelling of the Eternal Word of the Father, as will justify the conduct of the Apostles in applying to Christ so many passages of the Old Testament manifestly intended of the true God, will account for his bearing divine Names, and Titles, and having divine Perfections and Works ascribed to him, and will lay a proper foundation for that dependance upon him as a Mediator and Redeemer, (without which there is no salvation,) and for that honour and Worship, which according to the Scriptures, are his due.

2. But it will be objected by those who admit the pre-existence of Christ, and yet deny his Godhead, that "what has been said concerning his Humanity does not come up to the point: that he uses a variety of expressions concerning himself, even before his in carnation, which seem incompatible with true and proper Deity; such as “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me:-I pro ceeded forth, and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me:-J came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father."

3. In answer to this, I observe, first, We find expressions, similar to these, used even of the Holy Ghost, whom the Unitarians themselves allow, though not to be a proper person, yet to be truly divine. Of him Jesus uses the following language,-"The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things," John xiv. 26.-Again, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me," John xv. 26.-And again, "I tell you the truth: It is expedi

ent for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will send him unto you; and when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.—When the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak; and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you: All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you," John xvi. 7, 13, 15. Now if these, and such like expressions, when used of the Holy Spirit, do not imply that he is a Created Being, separate from, and of a nature inferior to the Father, and even to the Son,-neither do similar expressions,, when used of the Word, necessarily imply that he is a Created Being separate from, and of a nature inferior to the Father. They may, indeed, imply that the Father is the Principle both of the Word and Spirit, the Fountain (so to speak) from whence they flow-their Source and Original; And this is undoubtedly implied in the very names, Futher, Son, Word, Spirit,-and is what the primitive Church uniformly believed and taught. But as to any thing further, it seems we cannot fairly infer it from such like expressions, which are manifestly accommodated to our weakness, and must be understood in such a sense as not to militate against other passages which speak so clearly of their Divinity.

4. I observe, secondly, If expressions of this kind might be used of the Holy Ghost, they may much more be used of the Logos, who, according to the Scriptures, though the living Word of the Father, and a Son, took upon him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. Hence being JɛavIρwños, God-man, he both has, and may have things predicated of him which, properly speaking, belong only to the human nature; nay, only to the inferior part thereof, viz. the body. And probably the passages objected above, and others of a similar nature, are to be understood either wholly of the human nature, or if of the divine, of it only because of its union with the human, in the same sense as when God is said to lay down his life, or to purchase the Church with his own blood. Add to this, that this Word and Son of the Father, having condescended to become a Servant, and having accordingly taken the form of one, we need not wonder to find him acting in character, and not doing his own will, nor seeking his own glory,—but doing his will, and seeking his glory, whose Servant he undertook to be,-in the Work of Man's Redemption.

5. I observe, thirdly, Though it seems to me that the most proper name of our Lord

before his incarnation, (I mean the name the most descriptive of his nature) is that given him by St. John in the beginning of his Gospel, viz. o λoyog, THE WORD, or, as it is expressed, Rev. xix. 13. THE WORD OF GOD; yet it appears from what has been - advanced in the former part of this work, that he is also properly called the Son of God. Accordingly we read, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son: When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made (man) of a woman: -God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world :-The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," -It seems plainly implied in these, and such like passages, that he who was given, sent forth, sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, sent into the world," &c. was previously God's Son. This is still more manifest from Heb. i. 2. “God hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by his Son-by whom he made the world." He was God's Son, therefore, in his pre-existent state, when God made the worlds by him. And there are divers other texts, many of which have been quoted above which speak a similar language. He is in deed called the Son, even in the Old Testament, and that, it seems, without any reference to his future incarnation, as by Agur"What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?" A question this which our Lord answers, when he says, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him :" Which words our Lord surely did not speak of his human nature, as if this were such an unsearchable mystery that no one could know it, but of his divine. Add to this, that it appears, by the passages quoted above from Philo, that the Jews were wont to call the Logos, or Word, the first-born and only be gotten Son.

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6. Now if this language of our Lord him self, and his inspired Apostles and Prophets, to whom he revealed himself by his Spirit, he allowed to be proper, then, as Bishop Pearson argues, We may safely observe, in that, the very name of Father, there is something above that of Son: and some kind of priority we must ascribe unto him whom we call the first, in respect of him whom we term the second person: and as we cannot but ascribe it, so we must endeavour to preserve it.

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7. Now that privilege, or priority, consisteth not in this, that the Essence or Attributes of one are greater than the Essence or Attributes of the other (for they are the same in both) but only in this, that the Father hath that Essence of himself, the Son by communication from the Father. * From whence he acknowledgeth that he is from

him, that he liveth by him,† and that the Father gave him to have life in himself,-and generally referreth all things to him as re ceived from him. Wherefore, in this sense, some of the ancients have not stuck to interpret these words, The Father is greater than I, of Christ as the Son of God, as the second person in the Trinity; but still with refer. ence not unto his Essence, but his generation, by which he is understood to have his being from the Father, who only hath it of himself, and is the Original of all Power and Essence in the Son. I can of mine own self do nothing, saith our Saviour, because he is not of himself; and whosoever receives his being, must receive his power from another, especially where the Essence and the power are undeniably the same, as in God they are. The Son, then, can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do, because he hath no power of himself but what the Father gave; and seeing he gave him all the power as communicating his entire and undivided Essence, therefore what things soever he doth; these doth the Son likewise by the same power by which the Father worketh, because he hath received the same Godhead in which the Father subsisteth."

8. "We must not, therefore, so far endeavour to involve ourselves in the darkness of this mystery, as to deny that glory which is clearly due unto the Father; whose preeminence undeniably consisteth in this,that he is God, not of any other, but of him. self, and that there is no other person who is God, but is God of him. It is no diminu tion to the Son to say he is from another, for his very namie imports as much but it were a diminution to the Father, to speak so of him and there must be some pre-eminence where there is place for derogation. What the Father is, he is from none; what the Son is, he is from him: What the first is, he giveth: what the second is, he receiveth. The First is a Father indeed by reason of his Son, but he is not God by reason of him; whereas the Son is not a Son only in regard of the Father, but also God by reason of the same."

9. In the following paragraph the Bishop fully accounts for the expressions objected above, respecting Christ being sent.-" Upon this pre-eminence (as I conceive) may safely be grounded the congruity of the Divine Mission. We often read that Christ was sent, from whence he bears the name of an Apostle himself, as well as those whom he therefore named so, because as the Father

I am much in doubt, whether some of the passages of Scripture, here quoted by the Bishop, are not rather to be understood of our Lord's human nature, or at least of him as God-Man. We must take care that we do not conceive of his divine nature as being divided from the Father, as though it were a distinct and separate Intelligence. This would be to suppose him another God.

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