count that the greatest force must be used with the words of the apostle Paul, rather than such a sense be admitted, which yet is obvious. It will be proper to enquire, both what is meant by flesh, and what by being made flesh.

1. What is meant by flesh, in the phrases and passages ieferred to. And by it is meant, not a part of the human body, as that may be distinguished from other parts, as the bones, &c. nor the whole human body, as that may be distinguished from the soul or spirit of a man; as in Matt. xxvi. 41. 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. with many other passages; for such acts as being justified and glorying, can never be said of the flesh or body, abstractly considered; but of the whole man, or of individuals of human nature, consisting of soul and body; and in this sense are we to understand it, when it is used of the incarnation of the Son of God, who took upon him the whole nature of man, assumed a true body and a reasonable soul, being in all things made like unto his brethren; so his flesh signifies his human nature, as distinct from the Spirit, his divine nature, Rom. i. 3, 4. 1 Pet. iii. 18.

1. He took a true body, not a mere phantom, spectre, or apparition, the appearance of a body, and not a real one; as some fancied, and that very early, even in the times of the apostle John, and afterward; and who imagined, that what Christ was, and did, and suffered, were only seeming, and in appearance, and not in reality; and hence they were called Doccte: and this they argued from his being sent in the likeness of sinful flesh; and being found in fashion as a man; and from the appearances of Christ before his coming; of which same kind they supposed his appearance was when he came. As for the text in Rom. viii. 3. likeness there, is not to be connected with the word flesh, but with the word sinful; he was sent in real flesh, but that flesh looked as if it was sinful: it might seem so to some, because he took flesh of a sinful woman, was attended with griefs and sorrows, the effects of sin; had the sins of his people imputed to him, and which he bore in his own body on the tree; all which made his flesh appear as if it was sinful, though it was not; and hindred not its being real flesh, As to Phil. ii. 7, 8. the as there is not a note of similitude, but of certainty; as in Matt. xiv. 5. and signifies, that Christ was really a man, as John was accounted a real prophet, and not merely like one; and which is evident by his being obedient unto death, as follows: and as for the appearances of Christ in an human form, before his coming in the flesh, the scriptures speak of; admitting they were only appearances, and not real, it does not follow, that therefore his coming in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was of the same kind; but rather the contrary follows; and since these were preludes of his incarnation, that must be real; though some of these previous appearances, were not merely appearances, but realities: real bodies were formed and animated, and made use for a time, and then laid aside; as seems to be the case of the three men that appeared to Abraham, two of which were angels, and the other the

Lord, Jehovah, the Son of God; who were clothed with bodies, capable of walking and travelling, of talking and conversing, of eating and drinking in; so the man that wrestled with Jacob, who was no other than the Angel of the covenant, the promised Messiah; the body he appeared in was not a mere phantom, spectre, and apparition, but palpable flesh, that was felt and handled, and grasped, and held fast, by Jacob; and which he would not let go till he had received the blessing. However, it is certain that Christ partook of the same flesh and blood as his children and people do; and therefore, if theirs is real, his must be so. Likewise, 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 that he assumed; he was born and brought into the world as other men are; and when born, his body grew and increased in stature, as other human bodies do; the Son of man came eating and drinking; he travelled through Judea and Galilee; he slept in the ship with his disciples; he was seen, and heard, and handled by them; he was buffeted, scourged, bruised, wounded, and crucified by men; his body, when dead, was asked of the governor by Joseph, was taken down from the cross by him, and laid in his tomb; and the same identical body, with the prints of the nails and spear in it, was raised from the dead, and seen and handled by his disciples; to whom it was demonstrated, that he had flesh and bones, a spirit has not: yea, the very infirmities that attended him, though sinless, were proofs of his body being a true and real one; such as his fatigue and weariness in travelling, his tears at the grave of Lazarus, and over Jerusalem; and his sweat in the garden. In short, it was through weakness of the flesh that he was crucified; which was not in appearance, but in reality, The body he assumed was mortal, as it was proper it should be, since the end of his assumption of it, was to suffer death in it; but being raised from the dead, it is become immortal, and will never die more, but will remain, as the pledge and pattern of the resurrection of the bodies of the saints, which will be fashioned like to his glorious body; and which will be the object of the coporal vision of the saints after their resurrection, with joy and pleasure, to all eternity.

2. Christ assumed a reasonable soul, with his true body, which make up the nature he took upon him, and are included in the flesh he was made, as has been seen; and is the flesh and blood he partook of; which is sometimes understood of an individual of human nature, as flesh is, see Matt, xvi. 17. Gal. i. 16. The Arians deny that Christ has an human soul; they say, that the Logos, or the divine nature in him, such a one as it is, supplied the place of an human soul. This nature, they say, is not the same, but like to the nature of God; that it was created by him; which they ground on Prov. viii. 22. and read, He created me; and they make this the first and principal creature God made, and by which he created others; that it is a super-angelic spirit, and is in the room of an human soul to Christ. But Christ asserts, that he had a soul; and which, he says,

was exceeding sorrowful; and which was an immaterial and immortal Spirit" and which, when his body died, and was separated from it, he commended into the hands of his divine Father, Luke xxlii. 46. Had he not an human soul, he would not be a perfect man; and could not be called, as he is, the mau Christ Jesus the integral parts of man, and which constitue one, are soul and body, and without which he cannot be called man; these distinguish him from other creatures: on the one hand he is distinguished from angels, immaterial and immortal spirits, with which his soul has a cognation, by having a be dy, or by being an imbodied spirit; whereas they are incorporeal: so, on the other hand, he is distinguished from mere animals, who have bodies as well as he, by his having a rational and immortal soul: and if Christ was without one, he could not be in all things like unto us; being deficient in that which is the most excellent and most noble part of man. But that he is possessed of an human soul, is evident from his having an human understanding, will, and affeotions; he had an human understanding, knowledge, aad wisdom, in which he is said to grow, and which in some things were deficient and imperfect, Luke ii. 52. Mark xiii. 32. He had an human will, distinct from the divine will, though not opposite, but in subjection to it, John vi. 38. Luke xxii. 42. And he had human affections, as love, Mark x. 21. John xiii. 23. And joy, Luke x. 21. Yea even those infirmities, though sinless passions, prove the truth of his hu man soul; as sorrow, grief, anger, amazement, and consternation, Matt. xxvi. 38. Mark iii. 5. Besides, if he had not had an human soul, he could not have been tempted in all points like as we are, Heb. iv. 15. since the temptations of Satan chiefly respect the soul, the mind, and the thoughts of it, and affect and distress that: nor could he have born the wrath of God, nor have had a sensation of that; which it is certain he had, when the weight of the sins of his people lay on him, and pressed him sore; Matt. xxvi. 38. Nor could he have been a perfect sacrifice for their sins; which required his soul as well as his body, Isai. liii. 10. Heb. x. 10. nor have been the Saviour of their souls; as he is both of body and soul, giving life for life, body for body, soul for soul.

11. In what sense Word, or Son of God, was made flesh, and so became incarnate; the Word could not be made at all, that is, created, since he is the Maker and Creator of all things; and therefore he himself could not be made or created: nor was he, nor could be, made, converted, and changed into flesh; the divine nature of Christ could not be changed into human nature; for he is the Lord, that changes not; he is the same in the yesterday of eternity, in the day of time, and for ever to all eternity. By the incarnation nothing is added to, nor altered in the divine nature and personality of Christ ture adds nothing to either of them; they remain the same they ever were; Christ was as much 'a divine Person before his incarnation as he is since; the union of the human nature to the divine nature, is to it as subsisting in the Person of the Son of God; so it is always to be understood, whenever we speak of the union of the human nature to the divine nature; for it is not united to the

The human na

divine nature, simply considered; or as that is common to the three Persons: for then each would be incarnate; but, as it has a peculiar subsistence in the Person of the Son of God; and so the human nature has its subsistence in his Person, and has a glory and excellency given it; but that gives nothing at all to the nature and person of the divine Word and Son of God. But, as other scriptures explain it, God the Word or Son, was made and became manifest in the flesh; the Son that was in the bosom of the Father, the Word of life, that was with him from all eternity, was manifested in the flesh in time, to the sons of men; and that in order to take away sin, and destroy the works of the devil, 1 John i. 1, 2-iii. 5, 8. And the incarnation of the Word or Son of God, is expressed and explained by his partaking of flesh and blood; and by a taking on him the nature of man; or by an assumption of the human nature into union with his divine Person; so that both natures, divine and human, are united in one Person; and there is but one Lord, and one Mediator between God and man. 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; in. terpreting the phrase, The Word was made flesh, of the divine nature being changed into the human nature; and the human nature into the divine nature; and so blended together as to make a third; 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; the one nature being confounded with, and swallowed up in the other. But this union of natures is such, that though they are closely united, and not divided, yet they retain their distinct properties and operations; as the divine nature to be uncreated, infinite, omnipresent, impassible, &c. the human nature to be created, finite, in some certain place, passible, &c. at least the latter, before the resurrection of Christ. But of this union, and the nature of it, more hereafter.

III. The causes of the incarnation, 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 prepared a body for the Son in his purpose, and proposed it to him in council and covenant to assume it; and he sent him forth in the fulness of time, made of a woman, in the likeness of sinful flesh, Heb. x. 5. The son having agreed to it, being sent, came in the flesh, by the assumption of it; he took upon him the nature of children, and partook of the same flesh and blood with them; he took upon him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man, Heb. ii. 14, 16. The Holy Ghost had a very great concern in this affail; for that which was conceived in the virgin was of the Holy Ghost, not of his substance, nature and essence; for then he would have been the Father of it, which he is never said to be; Christ, as man, was without Father, and so a proper antitype of Melchizedek, Hcb. vii. 3. Besides, the body of Christ would have been not human,

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but spiriutal: but it was of him as the efficient cause of it; it was through his overshadowing power and influence, that it was conceived and formed, Luke i 35. Now, though all the three Persons in the Deity had an hand in the wonderous incarnation, yet only one of them became incarnate; only the Son assumed the human nature, and took into union with his divine Person; it is the Word only that was made flesh. Some have illustrated this, by three virgins concerned in working a garment; when only one of them puts it on and wears it. -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 onlybegotten Son to become man, obey, suffer, and die for sinners; herein is love, and this love manifested, that God sent his Son in human nature to be the propitiation for the sins of his people, and save them from death, John iii. 16. And such was the love and condescending grace of the Son, that though he was in the form of God, of the same nature with him, and equal to him; yet he took upon him the form and nature of man in a servile condition, humbled himself, and died in it. 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. 2. Cor. viii. 9.-3. The final cause, or for whose sake, and for what the Son of God became incarnate. It was for the sake of the elect of God; To us, or for us, for our sakes, a Child is horn; a Son is given: it was unto all people; or rather, unto all the people; for the sake of the whole people of God among Jews and Gentiles, that Christ was born a Saviour, or to be a Saviour of them; for which reason, as soon as he was born, his name was called Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins; for which end he was born and came into the world. But of this more hereafter. IV. The parts of the incarnation are next to be considered, conception and nativity.

II. 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; it was a virgin that conceived the human body of Christ, as was foretold it should; which was very wonderful, and therefore introduced with a note of admiration; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son! This was a new thing; unheard of and astonishing; which God created in the earth, in the lower parts of the earth, in the virgin's womb; A woman compassed, or conceived a man, without the knowledge of man. This was not natural, but supernatural; though Mela, the geographer, speaks of some women in a certain Island who conceived without copulation with men; but which is all romance; Plutarch asserts, such a thing was never known. This conception was made in the virgin, and not without her; for so says the text; That which is conceived in het, &c. this I observe to meet with, and confute the heretical illapse, as it is sometimes called; it was a notion of some of the ancient heretics, the ValentiConjugal Præcept. p. 145. e frenæus Adv. Hæres. 1. 1. c. 1. p. 29.

VOL. II.

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