I come to the great mystery of our religion, which so loud a voice proclaims to be such, by the apostle, 1 Timothy 3:16, 'And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.' God had manifested himself ' in the Old Testament in his works; as in Romans 1:19, 'That which may be known of God is manifest in them;' and, ver. 20, 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.'

But God manifest in the flesh is an higher kind of manifestation, for there he is present. We may say of it, Here God is a visible God in his person. In the Old Testament this was prophesied of, among other famous oracles foregoing, Isaiah 7:14, 'A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel; that is, God with us.' And again, chap. 9:6, 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,' which notes his being God the Son; who had been begotten long before by God the Father, and now given; 'unto us a child is born,' and born of 'a virgin,' there is his human nature; 'and his name shall be called WONDERFUL,' for his person is a wonderful person, 'the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,' compounded of God and man in one person, which set all the world aghast at the knowledge of it. 'He did wondrously;' [The reference is to Judges 13:19.-Ed.] that is, he shewed himself to be God, for he ascended into heaven in a flame, and therein shewed himself more than a man or angel. As his person was wonderful, so his actions: wonderful in his person, as God united to man; and wonderful as man, in his making immediately by the Holy Ghost; such a man as never was.

Says David, of his own body, Psalm 139:14, 'Thou tellest all my members; I am fearfully and wonderfully made, . . . curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.' The phrases do speak some curious piece of workmanship to be undertaken in hand by some special artist; and to hide his workmanship from the vulgar (which argues the nobleness of it) he goes into a dark place, and there he works it unbeheld of any, and then he brings it forth to open view. It was an instance Dr Preston used to give, that in the generation of a child, between father and mother, the father knows not what is doing, nor the moth knows not what is doing; but God stands by, like a secret limner [one who paints illuminated manuscripts], and actuates the formation of every member according to the idea written in his book. But in the formation of Christ's body and soul, the Holy Ghost discovered his workmanship in the dark place of the virgin's womb, called 'the lower parts of the earth.' And to stop the flowings of sin and corruption, which by the parents 'is done, himself performed the part of the formative virtue which is in the seed of men; whence it was that the divine nature, when he came into the world, said, 'A body hast thou prepared me; the word in the original is Katartizein, that is, articulated, made and set in their due place and order.

I shall only add one place further, to set forth the wonders of the mystery; Jeremiah 31:22, 'The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth; a woman shall compass a man.' It is a prophecy of the conception of Christ at Nazareth, [As Dr. Jackson hath learnedly proved in his Sermon called 'Bethlehem and Nazareth.'] one of the cities of Galilee, the place where the angel brought news first to the virgin, and where she conceived. him. Of which,. if I have time, more afterwards. This was a new thing indeed, a new thing created in the world, the like unto which, as also the crucifying of his Son, he never did afore, nor never will do, again. And the blessed. virgin hath a touch upon it, 'The Lord hath done great things for me, and holy is his name.' The word. in the original is [megaleios] and is the same word the apostles used in Acts 2:11, 'The wonderful works of God.'

And thus heaven and earth met and kissed one another, namely, God and man. And this union is the middle union (as I call it), as in respect to the two other, the union of the three persons m one Godhead, and our union with God; so in respect to the thing itself. For his person being a middle person between the two persons, the Father and the Holy Ghost: he, the Son, as a middle person, by his union with the essence of God, takes hold of God on the one part; and further, by his union with the nature of man, takes hold of man on the other part, and so takes hold of both at once; all which was suitable to his office, as being Mediator, which the. apostle says is 'of two that are at enmity,' Galatians 3:20; and this you have, 1 Timothy 2:5, 'For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.'

And as the person was thus wonderful, 'God manifested in the flesh,' so the Signs and wonders that accompanied and followed his person, after his being gone to heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, as Paul, an eye-witness, testifies, Hebrews 2:4, 'God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.' As also the apostle Peter, 1 Peter 1:11, 'The Spirit of Christ testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.' The times the apostles lived in were a glorious season. The apostle Paul hath in brief summed up the characters of them, and annexed them to his I God manifested in the flesh,' as the wonderful effects thereof ; as they follow in 1 Timothy 3:16, where it follows, 'justified in the Spirit,' by reason of the frailty and meanness of his flesh wherein he appeared; 'He was set at nought by Herod and his men of war,' Luke 23:11; mocked and scourged by Pilate and the Jews, and for his pretension to be the Son of God,.cast out of the world under the public infamy of being the greatest impostor, the most detestable villain and deceiver that ever was in the world, the rulers not sparing him when he hung miserably upon the cross. He was esteemed [smitten] of God, Isaiah 53, when he was crucified, overwhelmed with all these prejudices.

But presently, as he comes to heaven, his Father owned him, set him at his right hand, and made his enemies his footstool; and he was justified from that great reproach cast upon him, for making himself God. In respect unto these things it is said, 'He was justified in the Spirit,' that is, in his Godhead, being owned as God. Was not this a wonder, a mighty wonder! 'Seen of angels.' And by their seeing him to be the Son (which none of them were), as soon as he comes to heaven, they all fall down and worship, him: 'When he bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith, 'Let all the angels of God worship him,'' when he came first to heaven. And the bad angels, they believed and trembled, though men did not; and they besought him not to torment them before the time, the day of judgment. It follows, 'preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world.' The Gentiles that had continued idolaters two thousand years, worshipping devils, by whom they were led; and the apostles, but by preaching the gospel (which was but whispered, and yet runs through all the world, it ran like wildfire upon dried trees); they 'turned the world upside down,' Acts 17:6. 'Taken up into glory,' and owned there in the highest manner by God. Whereas John 16:10, the contrary speech there used insinuates that he died, as cast out by God for the most unrighteous person that ever lived in the world. Christ foretells, that by the Spirit's coming with the word, he should convince the world that he was a righteous man, and had satisfied for sin; 'Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.' And what is the reason of all this? But because this man being taken up into glory, there is no eye of men or angels that shall see him in this glory, but must fall down and acknowledge, That man there is God, the Son of God; and so John tells us himself. And the other apostles that saw a glimpse of his glory, do confess, 'We saw his glory, as of the only begotten Son of God,' John 1:14. And if the clothes he wore, which were but the outward appendices of his person, did yet shine so bright as no fuller [a person who works with cloth] on earth could white them, how much more his human nature itself, in which the fulness of the gospel [godhead?] personally dwells, shall transcendently shine much more, as being a part of himself, as he is able to make us to do, Philippians 3:21, 'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body;' much more shall he change soul and body into the image of himself.

But I shall comprise all that I intend to discourse of this subject, in this :one assertion.

That this person, the eternal Son of God, who was and is God, took unto himself, into an unity of person with himself, the man Jesus, or that the person of Christ is God and man, joined into one person.

To demonstrate the assertion; the punctum of which lies in this, that in our Christ, God and man are become one person.

1. What is said of his conception or incarnation, in that forecited place, Luke 1:39, 'That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' which is explained by that in Galatians 4:4, 'God sent forth his Son' (his Son that was sent, and God, existed afore); and it was he, the Son, that so existed, that is, the person, and he now, said to be 'made of a woman,' the virgin. Observe, it is spoken of and attributed to this Son, that he was now 'made of a woman,' 'made man,' who was begotten of God afore, and now sent into, yea, made flesh; and that this Son and that man made of a woman are yet but one Son still, not two sons, and therefore also one person; for if they had been two persons, they had been two sons—the Son of God the one, and that holy thing born of the woman another; whereas being now joined unto one person, there is but one Son to God, as he is there denominated.

2d Evidence. Go we from his conception to the constant course and tenor of his speech about himself. That this man (when grown up) should continually talk of himself, and attribute such things to himself that were proper, and belonged only to that person, the Word, the only begotten Son of God, as we have proved and described him, existed before the world, that was the Son of God in heaven, and very God; that this man, this sorry man to see to, should talk at that rate as he doth, and still say I, not we, whilst he so speaks of himself, all the wits in the world cannot solve this riddle (if the several speeches be collected, and narrowly observed, in the gospel of John, and elsewhere), but by this which I use to solve all, he was taken into one person with him that was the Son of God.

For instance, besides many others, John 5:17, 'My Father hitherto worketh and I work;' which the Jews understood that he made himself equal with God, ver. 18. But how a man should be God, this they understood not.. And he goes on to justify it, and assume it; extending that speech of his (namely, that 'My Father worketh hitherto and I work') unto all things past, as well as present or to come, even unto all that ever God did; ver. 19, 'What things soever the Father doth, these also doth the Son likewise.' If he created the world, so did I; if he hath governed all the affairs of it, so have I; my hands have wielded the sceptre with him; and God did never anything without my advice and counsel; shewing me whatever he doth, ver. 20. Thus for time past. And so for time to come; 'As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom he will,' ver. 21 ; God's will and intention being that all men shall one day I honour the Son, as they honour the Father,' ver. 23. And yet he that talked all this was a man, that came into the world (as a man) but thirtv years afore, yea, and he professeth of himself, chap. 8, ver. 57, 58, that he was before Abraham; 'Before Abraham was, I am,' that is, my person. And yet they judged him not above fifty. All which I allege not, as formerly, to prove that Christ was God, or Son of God; but now that the man Jesus (who it is that uttered all this), that he was one person with that Son of God who is God. For when he speaks it, he still maketh but one I of the Son of God and himself, and speaks the same things that are proper and peculiar to that Son of God who had before existed. The man (I say) speaks them of himself, utters them in his own name, without any limitation or caution for being mistaken. He, this man, doth thereby distinguish himself from all his fellow-creatures. These things were so stupendously strange, that they made the carnal Jew wild, and mad, and in a rage, and to cry out upon him that he blasphemed, and over and anon to take up stones to stone him withal; and although they had believed that he was the Messiah whom they expected, yet such things as these they never could have imagined should have agreed to the person of Christ, whom they expected. They judged he took upon him infinitely beyond the elevation and proportion of the Messiah himself. And therefore, John 10:24, they having only at first asked him somewhat seriously, 'Tell us plainly if thou be the Christ;' and he as plainly tells them so that he was; yet frames his answer up in such description of himself, as the Christ, that he was one with God, as that thereupon the next word he hears from them is, 'Thou blasphemest,' ver. 33.

Yea, and in the 6th chapter, those that were his disciples, that is, such as were a-coming on to believe on him, were for such strange riddles as these, utterly put off, as John 6:61; and yet there, or unto them, such was his zeal to assert this his personal union between the Son Of God, and that man Jesus, whose mouth was the utterer of it, that he speaks yet more strangely, 'Doth this offend you? What if you see the Son of man ascend where he was before?' And there is no other foundation or ground for such a speech as that; no other respect could bear it, but this his personal union, as the reason of it. Why, 'we know his mother and brethren,' say they. And where then could this man be before? Nay, to increase the wonder yet more, he had said to Nicodemus, John 3:13, 'And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven;' that is, who is now it heaven at this present; whenas yet they saw him as a man, circumscribed with local bounds on earth, even as any other man is, within the verge of a poor seamless coat. And these things he so speaks of himself, in distinction from the whole creation of God, as proper and peculiar to him, laying them therein in a rank infinitely below himself ; yea, also as one equal to God his Father, and as ouch, distinct from him; and yet it is a Son of man that utters it, although, consider him as more man, it could not be he should have so spoken; the things said will not bear such words. And it is among other demonstrations of this truth, and also one of the main ends of God's ordaining this personal union, to declare, to the end that men might 'hear with tleir ears, and see with their eyes' (As John), the original distinction of the Father and his Son, as distinct persons in the deity ; which was that which was, and had been, among the persons from eternity, afore Christ took our nature, in that it was confidently held forth by a man, who being become one person with the Son, could and durst say, and appeal to his works to justify it, which were so stupendously miraculous, that his Father (afore whom and to his face he speaks it all) must be acknowledged to have concurred with him, and so thereby testified that he spake truth in this; whilst yet this man utters it in the name of a person that was not mere man, but also God, Son of God. For this, man doth, before and after, upon this doctrine of his, work his miracles, such as no mere man ever did ; and God suffered him so to talk, did bear it, and let him go on, and assist him therein, or else he could not have done them. As John 10:37, 88, 'If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.' And when he had done all these things, to ascend up to heaven, and 'sit down at God's right hand, this, I say, is at once a confirmation of these two, the greatest truths: :

1. The distinction of the persons of the Father, and the Son, though one God. As also,
2. That this sorry, man that speaks it was one in person with the Son of God.

And if there had been no other end of this incarnation of personal union than to declare and manifest the first of these, it had been worth it; which by so great an evidence could never have been manifested.

And then, if this man were not one in person with the Son of God, who was God, let us all call him in question, and arraign him at the latter day, instead of his arraigning us, for laying low to himself all the saints, and the whole creation of God whenas himself as man was but a part of it; yea, for usurping upon the prerogatives of God himself; and let his own words judge him. I say, let us cry out upon him an a deceiver, if this man had not that divine person, God's Son, in him, and therewith a divine nature, besides that of a bare man, which divinity lay hid and concealed in him, as a prince under a disguise; and that person and divinity so united to him as to make one person with him, " man that spake thus.

3. Thirdly, We find these two natures of God and man spoken of in him as making up one I or one he; when himself speaks of himself, or his apostles of him.

I begin with Matthew 16, where he catechiseth his disciples in this fundamental of religion; for, ver. 17, 18, he professeth to found his church upon the profession of it.

(1.) The question asked is evidently what his person was, and of what made up? This, his second question, ver. 15, 'Whom do ye say that I am ?' doth directly point to, for their punctual answer: what or who is my person?

And, (2.) concerning that you may observe that he bounds it not, he terminates it not, upon his being a man. The main question is not, whether he was a man or no? or the Christ, the Son of man? as if that were all. But my question reacheth farther, 'Whom do ye say that I, who am the son of man, am ?' over and beyond, my being a son, of man, I am something besides. And yet 'Son of man' imported the Messiah; as Cameron upon John 5:27, 'And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.' Out of Daniel 7:!3, 'I beheld one like the Son of man;' which is the periphrasis of tho Christ.

(3.) Peter, in his answer for them all, affirms not barely that he, the Son of man, was the Christ; which was but a name of office (as if you should say of a man, he is the king, or he is the chancellor; noting out an official person, or to denominate his office only) but he further adds, 'Thou art the Son of the living God.' .

(4.) Observe, that he in his answer joins these two together, to make up the I, the person of this Christ, 'the Son of man, and the Son of the living God;' and as substantially the Son of the living God as he was substantially the Son of man. Yea, and manifestly shewing that the main of his person (for the subsistence or personality of it), to consist in this, his being the Son of the living God, more than in his being the Son of man. The like you have joined in Christ's question to the Pharisees, 'What think you of Christ?' 'David's son,' say they; 'David's Lord,' says he: and both making up one Messiah, or the Christ. So then, the person of Christ was Son of man, and Son of God, Matthew 16. And Son of David, and Son of one greater than David; for which he calls him Lord, and both in one person, Matthew 22. Let us now bring other scriptures to these. 1. You have the same prophesied of him at his conception, by the angel, Luke 1, 'The Son of David his father,' ver. 32; 'The Son of God,' ver. 35; and both the same he. Let us still pursue this notion through the Scriptures, and from hence go unto Rom. 1:1-4, 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures), concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. 'In which words you have,

1. As in the former, the person of Christ; that is, who and what he was in his person, made the eminent and primary subject of the gospel: 'The gospel' (says he) 'concerning his Son Jesus Christ.' And that set forth as the prophets in the holy Scriptures, or writings of the Old Testament had set him forth to us; so as we shall have occasion from hence to call in the testimony of some prophets unto the confirmation of this also. I say, the person of Christ is the primary subject of it; for the next following words insist on the description thereof. And so, whereas Paul was to set forth in his ensuing discourse, how that Christ's righteousness is that righteousness which God hath ordained for sinners, ver. 16, 17, 'I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for therein is revealed the righteousness of God from, faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith;' it was suitable for him in this so methodical and systematical an epistle, in the flat place to set out who and what the person of Christ is. Which,

2. He performs in the next words, and that under the same terms, or equivalent, as in the two former Christ himself had done. (1.) To be the Son of David, made of the seed of David, ver. 3; and, (2.)To be the Son. of God, ver. 3, 'his Son' in the same verse; and so, in ver. 4, both making up this one person, 'Jesus Christ our Lord.'

Yea, and 3. He further and more clearly proceeds to shew how there were two distinct natures met in that one person: the nature of a man, according unto which he was the Son of David; the nature of God, or the Godhead, according unto which, or in respect of which, he was the Son of God: 'Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,' ver. 3, 'and declared to be (also) the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness.' And as the opposition proves this, so it is very observable how exactly the apostle speaks in so great a mystery.[See Beza] 1. The opposition clears it; for [Greek term], 'According to the flesh,' opposed to [Greek term], 'According to the Spirit of holiness.' Now when he says he was 'of the seed of David according to the flesh,' he (as all acknowledge) means that according to, or in respect of his human nature, termed the flesh, or as man, so here, was made of the seed of David; oppositely, according to his Godhead, termed the spirit of holiness; as he was in respect thereof the natural Son of God: so he was manifested with power so to be by the resurrection from the dead. Now that Spirit, as in Christ, is taken for the Godhead or divine nature dwelling in him, is evident by multitude of scriptures: 'The flesh profits nothing, the Spirit quickeneth ;' and 'By the eternal Spirit he offered up himself,' Hebrews 7. And this Godhead in him is called the 'Spirit of holiness;' by way of the ordinary title given the third person, who is called the 'Holy Spirit:' this here, the Spirit of holiness itself, which sanctified that human nature, as the altar and temple did the sacrifice.

Again, observe the apostle's exactness of speech: as Son of David he is said to have been made, for begotten of man he was not, yet made of. a woman, David's daughter, of the same matter that all men are formed of. But as Son of God he says, not of him that he was made; but he here supposeth him already, before he was made man, to have been the Son of God, ver. 3; and therefore says only he was declared, namely, to us, or manifestly evidenced to have been the Son of God, according to a divine nature in him, in which he existed before. And for proof of it he holds forth the greatest evidence, the, power shown by him in his resurrection from the dead; in that Christ did aforehand profess and declare that he would raise, himself up by his own power, John 10:18.

4. The fourth thing I observe is, that these two natures remain in themselves distinct in him, and yet both make up one person. (1.) Two natures distinct. The apostle doth professedly distinguish, as any schoolman useth to do; 'According to the flesh,' says he, and 'according to the Spirit.' Yea, he denies concerning him that he is Son of God according to the flesh; according to which nature he is considered only as the Son of David: but Son of God only in respect of his divine nature. And, (2.) he speaks of him as one person, that hath both these, and consisted of both; or else this distinction needed not have been used—if he had been either nothing but a man, or if the same person had not been both God and man. As when you distinguish of a man, that quoad animam, according to his soul, he is 'the offspring of God,' Acts 17; for God is the Father of spirits, Hebrews 12: but quoad corpus, according to his body, he is begotten by man, who are the fathers of our bodies. To say a man is mortal quoad corpus, but immortal quoad animam: such a distinction were needless, if a man had not both a body and a soul or if that body and soul made not up one manner of person; or if the soul were one person, as an angel is, and the body another.

Now the person of Christ is still everywhere spoken of but as one: 'one. Lord,' 1 Corinthians . 6. And yet of this the apostle Paul is found to distinguish that he is Son of God, according to the Spirit; Son of David, according to the flesh. And you have it again used by Peter, Acts 2:30, 'David knowing that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, God would raise up Christ.' That addition, 'according to. the flesh,' needed not, if Christ had not consisted of another nature besides. Which being distinct, the oneness, the unity of this Christ, to whom both are alike attributed, must be found in the personality, that he that hath both these is one person.

Now from hence, go unto Romans 9:5, where you have the same distinction again used, as in manifest opposition to his divine nature; 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came; who is, over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' According to the flesh, he was of David, and the rest of the fathers; but besides, he had another nature, which made him 'Lord over all, God blessed for ever.' Which clearly interprets Romans 1:3, Son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness: that as he was God's Son, so he was God. Or as Romans 1, Son of God, according to his Godhead; even as Son of David according to the flesh; yet both making but one Atho, or person, one Christ.

Now, 4. Because Paul, in that Romans 1:2, averred the prophets for this composition of his person, Son of David, according to the flesh; Son of God, according to, or in respect of his Godhead: let us see if we find like and similar places to these in the prophets; not to name all that prove him to be God and man, but such as are punctually correspondent to these. Jeremiah 23:5, 6. 1. Son of David, ver. 5, 'Behold the days come that I will raise unto David a righteous branch;' that is out of his loins, branch out of that stock or root. Who, 2, Shall be God, and Son of God (as Romans 9:5, Romans 1:3) ; ver. 6, 'And this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our righteousness.' Jehovah, from the name of his essence, for it is the incommunicable name of God; and our righteousness, as being mediator, and noting forth his office. And yet 'Jehovah our righteousness,' rather than the 'Man our righteousness;' for his being our righteousness, depends more upon his being Jehovah, than his being a branch of David; although upon both, as they are conjoined in one person.

From thence lot us go to Micah 5:2, where we shall find that as Christ hath two natures met in him, Son of David, Son of God, so two nativities spoken of, and yet the person but one. 1. 'The ruler shall come forth of Bethlehem.' He was born there as man; and you know it was the city of David, whither Mary, as being of the seed of David, came to be taxed. So then, still Son of David, according to the flesh, and born as such in the four thousandth year of the world; but then, as Son of God, 'His goings forth have been from of old,' the days of eternity. 

Unto this head I allege as the concluding proof to them foregone, that strange riddle in Hebrews 7:3, applying unto Christ, set forth from his type Melchisedec, 'Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life; but, made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.' Which being spoken of one and the same person, Christ, can no otherwise be unfolded than by a differing respect had to the two natures God and man, and accordingly of two nativities, That he was God, and in that respect had a Father, the evangelist John doth in a special manner inculcate; that he had a mother, the story of his birth, by the other three, doth inform us; that he was born of a virgin, without a father, those three evangelists do tell us. And yet Paul here should tell us, he was without a mother, doth necessarily import another kind of generation of his, wherein there was no mother concurred, and so another divine nature met in this one person; in respect of which he was as substantially begotten of him without a mother, as that as man he had been conceived of the substance of his mother, even Son of the living God.

There are other sorts of proofs of -this great truth.

As first, the communication and attribution of the same rights, privileges, attributes, actions, passions, infirmities.

1. All the rights of the Son of God by inheritance, given to the man Jesus, as that 'called Son of God;' not as the angels, Hebrews 1. Luke 1:32, 'He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David,' to rule the nations; raise whom he will; have possession of all power in heaven and earth; to forgive sins as man, Matthew 9:6.

2. The attributes proper to God axe given to this man: as to have been in heaven before the world was; John 3:13, and John 17, 'Glorify me with that glory I had with thee afore the world was.' 'Before Abraham was, I am.' Whereby what is not true of that nature alone in itself considered, is yet attributed to that nature of a man now. The natural properties of man's nature in him were never altered, for finite could never become infinite; therefore it must necessarily be spoken in a personal respect, as being made one person with him that is God; qui, not qua, that is, spoken of him who is man, not of him as man. As when what is proper only to the soul is attributed to the whole man; as if when Paul's soul was rapt up into the third heaven, and his body remaining on earth, that of his body it should have been said, it is now in heaven, because the soul it was united to was there. Like to which is, that Christ should call his body in the grave, God's Holy One; 'his Holy One saw no corruption;' which is spoken of the whole person, though it was his body only was capable of corruption, Or that of John, 'We saw and handled the Word of life,' 1 John 1:1, 'and the Word which was from the beginning;' and yet speaks there of their handling his very body, 'Feel, if a spirit have flesh and. bones,' and putting their fingers into it, so to verify his having been come in the flesh. On the other hand, e contra, that all the infirmities of the human nature should be attributed to God, that God should be said to be, pierced and crucified; 2 Corinthians 12:10, 'Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong;' compared with ver. 8, 'I besought the Lord;' which is applied to Christ, John 19:37, 'And again,' another scripture saith, 'they shall look on him whom they have pierced.' And God to lay down his life, 1 John 3:16, 'Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.' These contradictions all the wits in the world cannot reconcile, but by acknowledging two natures in one person.

3.That the obedience, yea, bloodshed of the man should be called the blood of God, the life of God; 1 John 3:6, there it is called the life of God; and Acts 20:26, the 'blood of God,' yea, God's own blood; and his active obedience the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. And these things were spoken, not because God was the efficient of these in him; for so the Spirit is of our prayers, Romans 8; yet, they are never termed the Spirit's prayers, or requests, though made by him in us, and for us, but our prayers. But all that obedience of Christs is called God's; which difference can never be solved, but that the man Jesus was one person with God. Not so we. Yea, if that man had sinned (if you could suppose it, as to bring an argument from it to illustrate this) you may, by the same law, or reason, that his righteousness is now called the obedience of God, or, the life of God, infer that it must have been termed the sin of God. For what the man did in weakness, is attributed to God. But we are not in this personal manner united to the Spirit, that our weaknesses should be attributed to him. We sin, yet it were blasphemy to say that our sins are his; and all because he is not one person with us, though his person is united to our persons.

Neither when that bloodshed is called the blood of God, yea, his own blood; this is not spoken in respect to his being possessor and owner of it, as God is of all the creatures. Psalm 1., 'The beasts on a thousand hills are mine.' John 1., 'He came,' [Greek phrase], 'to his own.' And so the blood of bulls and goats were God's, when sacrificed, But this is not only said to be his blood, but his own blood, and his own life. These are phrases never spoken of possession, or of an owner by dominion or external right. We call indeed other things, as goods, a man's own, but never call it a man's own blood, unless it be naturally or personally his own. We say not of a slave's body, this is the body of his master, his own body, because the phrase, a man's own body, in propriety of speech, is used another way for the body of a man's self, as of a person. Or if he give a slave's life or body for a ransom, we never say, nor can say in propriety of speech, that the master gave his own body, his own blood, as a ransom, The phrase so properly notes out personal propriety, that is, of a person, unto that is a part of one's person, and that the blood is that person's whose own it is called. Yea, though a father give a child to death, who yet is flesh and blood, yet we hardly say he gave his own blood; and yet if that might be said, because the same blood is naturally the father's, yet of God the Father it could not be said, because Christ's blood, as a man, did not flow out of his Father's blood; for God begets not hip as a man, nor hath he flesh and blood to communicate. So that it necessarily notes out that one that was God, a person, taking up that man into one person with himself, that man's blood is therefore called God's own blood, because the man's, who is one person with him.

Neither, 3, it is said to be God's own blood, because shed by God's own will and appointment; for so the blood of every man that is killed by God's will should be so called, and so the blood of bulls was God's own blood in that respect.

UseWe must labour to have our minds and faith well established in the true, knowledge of the person of Christ, since it is a truth of so great moment unto us, and the mischiefs of erring about it will be destructive to our souls.

And the weight of importance that our faith be set and kept right in this point appears in that errors and mistakes herein, as they have been frequent, so fatal in all ages, and to all sorts of men that have had the knowledge or hearsay of our Christ.

1. To the Jews 'Christ was a stumblingblock,' 1 Corinthians 1:23, both in what his person should be, as appears John 10:33 and other places, as also that his righteousness alone through -faith, should be the righteousness of a sinner, is in like manlier said to be a stumblingblock, Romans 9:33. Their heads were mightily then taken up and busied who that man Jesus should be; and how many vapious opinions did the devils buzz into their minds to divert them from that which was the truth, and alone was to save them! Some said he was John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. And thus it is now at this day. The Jews, according to the principles and fancies of that age, had those forementioned several opinions of him, and perhaps many more. And in this age, according to other principles which Satan possesseth men's brains withal, several opinions of him, and perhaps may more. And in this age, according to other principles which Satan possesseth men's brains withal, several opinions are raised up, what this Christ should be, whilst all are zealous to profess him.

Then, again, Christ himself foretold it, as a forerunning sign of the destruction of Jerusalem; that the Jews having rejected him, the true Christ, they should be given up to many false Christs, [Greek word]. Now, those days, and the occurrences thereof, afore Jerusalem's destruction, are made types of the like to fall out (even in this particular point) in the days preceding the end of the world (whereof Jerusalem's destruction was itself a type in Christ's intention in that chapter). And accordingly these days now. Although Jesus at Jerusalem is more generally acknowledged by almost all that profess Christianity, yet in assigning what and wherein his being Christ consists, herein men have and shall run into as many several, sorts of Christs as the Jews had done; one saying, Here is Christ, another, There is Christ; one that this is Christ, another this.

And such buddings and sproutings forth of such errors began in those flat times, whilst Paul and other apostles were on earth, amongst those that pretended to Christian profession, witness those more than hints in several epistles, which Paul plainly styleth the 'preaching, of another Christ' than what himself and the other apostles had preached. What else meaneth that passage, 'For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present ye a chaste virgin unto Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh, preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another Spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him,' 2 Corinthians 11:2-4. That in these passages he glanceth at some false teachers that had come in among them, as those words, 'if he that cometh to, you preach,' &c., ver. 4, evidently, imply, that at least such were then abroad in the world, and have been in other churches, and were ready to come to theirs, which Paul was afraid ff. But more plain and directly, 'For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,' ver. 13-15. And these expressions do import that the doctrines which these had vented concerning Christ were framed and raised up to so high an appearance of spiritualness, as were not only apt to take with believers, and deceive them, as ver. 3, which made Paul so jealous over them, ver. 2; but further, they seemed so angelical and seraphic, that in these, if ever in any (his depths, as they are called), Satan had shewed his depths, and had played the counterfeit of an angel of light, and transformed himself thereunto in his inventions of them; and when yet, as Paul plainly tells them, that it was but a counterfeit Christ; 'another Jesus than he had preached,' 'another Spirit,' and 'another gospel.' So as the Christ which these false apostles had dressed up, had so high an appearance of Christ's spirit and gospel, as seemed. to vie with that true Jesus, &c., which the apostles taught, for glory, and spiritual excellencies. And this also, that new form of an oath, which the apostle useth upon that coherence, ver. 10, a new one framed to this occasion, 'As the truth of Christ is in me,' &c., says he, which he speaks to import that in these other teachers there was a false Christ, and not the true.

And to affect the Corinthians the more, and arm them with wariness against, and shew them the danger of entertaining any new doctrines about Christ's person, he presenteth and enforceth the moment hereof, under the similitude of marriage, 'I am jealous over you with godly jealousy' (the subject which jealousy is increased about, is fear of what may rise to the breach of the marriage-knot), lest you should entertain the embraces of another; and so it follows, 'for I have espoused you to one husband, and I would present you a chaste virgin to him,' that is, to Christ, to whom as yet you are but espoused. And. it is as if he had said, There is but one spiritual husband, and there can be but one, your only husband, Christ. It is not as in the case of other marriages, if you have not such a man you may have another as good, yea, perhaps a better. But if you mistake here in obtaining this one, only one for your husband, you are undone. There can be no greater errors committed in marriage than error personae, a mistake of the person you are to marry; and when thinking you marry such a man, you marry another. Yea, and if after marriage to one husband you should be deceived, as many women (as stories and experience shew) have been, when their husbands have been long absent and out of sight, others, that have had some resemblance of the true husband, or some privy mark of him, have put themselves upon their wives, and they entertained their embraces. How fatal a thing is this! 'But I fear,' says he, ' lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,' ver. 8. The devil hath a special malice at the person of Christ, of all other truths concerning him; and to put this high abuse upon him, specially goes about to deceive his spouse in his person, to misrepresent him and deform him; yea, and if possibly he can effect it, put this trick upon him, and great imposture on her, that she should take another Jesus for him, the devil's Jesus instead of God's. And to effect this, of all other, he will use his utmost subtilty. And having been himself an angel of light, he will transform himself in pretended manifestations, and incomes, and ravishments of spirit, that shall accompany the entertainment and embraces of his Christ. He will use all means ('if by any means,' says Paul) to second, credit, and help forward this new match.

And one great occasion of their aptness to be deceived. is the simplicity that is in the person of our Christ, not only in his human nature, a carpenter's son, a crucified man, a Christ in flesh, but that when besides for his divine nature, they think they have heard and known already well enough what God's nature is, by what is said of him in the Old Testament, and so in the Father, a to know but the same over again in Christ; this is no great addition to their knowledge. And that no other thing can be affirmed of. him but that he is God, and that to think that he should, have but the same simple uncompounded nature that God hath, and not be distinct from God therein. They think they are but as wise as they were in this, and so are apt to listen after such representations of a Christ, as shew him to be some divine Spirit that comes out of God, differing from. God, which they fancy will afford matter of some now and manifold wisdom, besides that knowledge they have of God by other means. And thus the simplicity of his person (as they esteem this) is apt to cause them to listen after some other story of him. Whereas the glories and wisdom which ariseth from that union of God and man in one person is such, as transcends all other imaginations, though never so raised, which either angels, men, or devils have or could for ever invent concerning him.

And the deceits and trains that Satan lays herein, he compares to those wherewith the serpent deceived Eve, 'Lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve,' &e. He put it into their heads that there was a higher knowledge the might attain than in that keeping to God's law, they had already, or could attain thereby: and further, that themselves should be gods; so seducing them from God. And thus here there is not only a promise of a higher and more spiritual knowledge than that simple story of Christ God-man affords; but that themselves should be Christs. And they frame such a story of Christ as should serve to persuade this, and their capacity of this advance. For a Christ in flesh, which this man Jesus is, say they, you shall have a Christ in spirit. For a Christ without you, that is, God substantially, you shall have, every one of you, a Christ within you; yea, and if need be, they will not stick to affirm, yourselves shall be God substantially; and not be united only to God and Christ, but so united, as to exist in the form of God, and to be one and the same with God. Such or the like workings of this mystery of iniquity, deforming and perverting of the true Christ into another, you find in Paul's time amongst the Corinthians, or of which, from false teachers then gone abroad, they were in danger of.

Something answerable, or like to this, the Church at Colossus also were in danger of. Those philosophical teachers which, chap. 2:8, he gives them warning of, 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' Their doctrines perverted not only the purity of the worship of the gospel, but were intended to the misrepresenting the person of Christ, as appears by many characters; both, 1. In that in the very next words, 'For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' He gives them a per&ct definition or description of the person of Christ, as in himself considered, and in his fulness to us, ver. 10, 'And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.' And this in a dired opposition (as the coherence shews) unto their philosophical Christ, which they for wisdom and excellency would needs compare with the apostle's Christ. And, 2. In opposition to their counterfeit Christ, it is, that he also sets out his Christ in all the personal excellencies and fulness, the like nowhere in all his epistles, chap. 1. ver. 15-18. And then also of his gospel, which is the revelation of him, ver. 23, 26, 27 to the end; and as it is the mystery of God the Father, and of Christ, chap. 2:22, 'In whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' Exhorting, that as they had received Christ, so they would walk in him, ver. 6, as in matter of order, so for faith; for unto both those that exhortation is directed, as appears by the coherence with ver. 6, but especially in their faith about the person of Christ, with which he therefore begins, ver. 7, 'Stablished in the faith, as have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving,' being thankful to God he had revealed such a Christ, his Christ to them; for they could not have a better or another. And then follow those words, 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, after the tradition of men, rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' Some of the teachers of those times, finding in philosophers (then in credit) in Plato, Orpheus, Hesiod, Pythagoras, and in the Jewish traditions, many divine things about [Greek word], the Word, and of emanations, and genealogies, and descents from God, as Irenaeus shews, of him from God, and of the creatures from him, they dressed up a Christ and a divinity with those philosophical clothes, and colours, and paint, which, the apostle says, was not 'after Christ,' as you say a false picture of a man is not after the man, being not taken from him, nor resembling his person, but another clean, They were descriptions of him, not taken from the life or truth that was in him. Whom therefore, Paul sets out in the substance of him, 'In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' or (you shall give me leave to translate it) 'personally.' And so it was another Christ. And therefore, chap, 3:19, these are said not to hold the head, that is, him, ver. 10, he had styled I the head of all principalities and powers; and, chap. 1:18, 'the head of the body of his church,' they having clean, perverted him to another Christ. And as it was then, so it is now. Men have gone about to bring Paul's, the Scripture-Christ, to Plato's; and as such would obtrude [to force upon] him on the saints.

Thus it was in Paul's time; but John lived longer, after all the apostles, and saw these seeds and buddings then sown come to o, greater ripeness, and open and more gross discovery, from blade to ear; and writing that first epistle to the Christian Jews in a more special manner, he seeing what Christ had foretold should fall out about the time of Jerusalem's destruction, both afore and after it, to be fulfilled, doth therefore, chap. 2:, ver. 18, give this warning: 'My brethren, it is the last hour' (because the last period of time afore that fatal overthrow of that nation), 'for even now there are many antichrists' (as our Lord had foretold), 'whereby we know that it is the last hour,' we seeing it thus fulfilled. And, ver. 22, 'Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is, [Greek phrase], ' the Christ, the sole only Christ? And he is an antichrist that denies the Father and the Son,.the distinction of these two, and the personalities. 'And whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.' And, 1 John 4:1, 'Many Was prophets are gone out into the world.' And what was the great false point of odds which they endeavoured to sow and diffuse? ver. 3, 'They confessed not that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh,' and that Christ was God, and therefore the catholic faith of all true believers, in opposition to those errors about his person, he gives us; chap 5:20), 'And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.' They had other doctrines about their Christs whom they held forth, which were a full denial of all this. You have the like in his second epistle, ver. 7, 9.

And to obviate those errors about the person of Christ was it that he wrote those epistles, and his gospel of John, after all the other evangelists and epistles written, exhorting them to hold fast to that Christ whom they had heard and known from the beginning, as himself and the holy apostles had set him forth, chap. 1, ver. 1-3, 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested,, and we have seen it,. and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.' And ver. 24 of chap. 2, 'Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall also continue in the Son, and in the Father.' The like Epistle 2. ver. 9, declaring those that fell into such errors, and continued in them, to be such apostates as never had truth of grace: chap. 2, ver. 19, 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us;' and hints how some of them so sinned therein, as that withal they sinned the sin unto death, never to be recovered, chap 5, ver.16, 17 (though not all; those words ver. 16 do imply), 'If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death.' And of all he judgeth them such, as, without repentance, the saints should have no commission with, Epist. 2. ver. 9, 10, 11, 'Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive not into your house, neither bid him God-speed: for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds.' Of this consequence is true faith in this doctrine.

Now, as it was then, so it is now; those times; and the occurrences which then fell out (foretold by Christ) among Jews and Christians afore Jerusalem's destruction, being types of what should now fall out in the last days afore the end of the world; and we have yet but the buddings of what perhaps will grow up to greater ripeness and spreadings, as then they also did.

Multitudes of those that are orthodox in their opinions, or speculative judgments about the person of Christ, yet, perish, because they know not, apprehend not, this true Christ, as he is in himself really and spiritually. They know not 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' as Ephesians 4:20, 21, the apostle speaks. And this hath and doth fall out amongst all that live in the church. But others begin to err about the very notion of. his person, coining other Christs, by diminishing from or adding unto the person of him, as they would represent him to us. And this is as easy as it is dangerous, even as it was an easy thing to make another gospel, and to entertain it, as in the Galatians' example appears, Galatians 1:6, 'I marvel that ye axe so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.' And in that forementioned 2 Corinthians 11:15, the apostle speaks the like of preaching another Christ, considering men's aptness to err herein; it is no great thing (says he), though great in respect of the moment of it, yet easy and soon done. And that is the apostle's scope in that speech. And as some churches then embraced another gospel (as the Galatians), so upon other churches the devil endeavoured to obtrude another Christ. . By taking away from him, as if you take away his Godhead, this alters the person quite, as taking away the reasonable soul from the body of a man, takes instantly away the man, and leaves a brute beast in his room. It turns him into the carcass of a Christ; let him be set forth in words never so gorgeously or gloriously, the substance of his person is stolen away. Or else,

2. By adding to him; for if the joining works to Christ's righteousness, in matter of justification, made another gospel, as the epistle to the Galatians shews, then surely adding the persons of all the saints to the individual husband, Christ, and that they all should be Christ as well as he, equal with him, their union with God the same that he is, this is to un-Christ him.