"eth the hearts and reins;" that he creat- DISC. ed the world by his power, redeemed it VII. by his mercy, governs it by his providence, and fhall judge it in righteousness; let any impartial man, I fay, confider these things with the attention they deferve, and determine for himfelf, concerning the nature and dignity of him, who was incarnate for our falvation.

Should it be asked, why this perfon is styled the WORD? the proper answer feems to be, that as a thought, or conception of the understanding, is brought forth and communicated in speech, or difcourfe, fo is the divine will made known by the WORD, who is the offspring and emanation of the eternal mind; an emanation pure and undivided, like that of light,

"be given to the eighth verfe. The argument drawn in "the preceding note upon it, would have been strong, "wherever such a paffage as this had been found; but it's "immediate connection with this, greatly ftrengthens it. "And I cannot forbear recording it, that this text has "done more than any other in the Bible, towards pre"venting me from giving into that fcheme, which would "make our Lord Jefus Chrift no more than a deified "creature.”

DISC. which is the proper iffue of the fun, and VII. yet coeval with its parent orb; fince the

fun cannot be supposed, by the most exact and philofophical imagination, to exist a moment, without emitting light; and were the one eternal, the other, though strictly and properly produced by it, would be as ftrictly and properly coeternal with it. So true is the affertion of the Nicene fathers; fo apt the instance subjoined for it's illustration; "God of God, light of light:" in apoftolical language, "The brightness "of his Father's glory, and the exprefs

image of his perfon "." And whether we confider our Lord under the idea of the WORD, or that of LIGHT, it will lead us to the fame conclufion, refpecting his office. For as no man can discover the mind of another, but by the word which proceedeth from him; as no man can see the fun, but by the light which itself emitteth; even fo, "No man knoweth the "Father, fave the Son, and him to whom"foever the Son will reveal him '.'

h

Απαύγασμα της δόξης, και χαρακτηρ της υποςάσεως. i Matth. xi. 27.

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VII.

This glorious WORD, this uncreated DISC. LIGHT, was united to our nature in the perfon of Chrift; "The Word was made flejh." Flefb, which is a part of our nature, ftands here for the whole; and being the bafer part of the compofition, seems purposely mentioned, to intimate, that the care and love of Heaven extend even to that; that our bodies, no less than our fpirits, are included in the fcheme of redemption; fo that while the foul repofeth, in humble confidence, on the mercies of Jefus, the flesh alfo may "reft in hope." In flesh, and by the inftigation of flesh, the offence was committed. By taking flesh upon him, therefore, the great Physician, the fovereign healer of all our maladies, corrected the bad qualities of the fountain, that the ftreams might flow pure and falutary. In flesh the offence was committed, and therefore in flesh fatisfaction must be made for it. Our High-Prieft was incarnate, that he might have fomething to offer, more valuable and efficacious than the flesh of bulls and calves. "Sacrifice and offering

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DISC. " offering thou wouldeft not, but a body

VII.

"haft thou prepared me. In burnt offer

ings and facrifices for fin thou haft had "no pleasure; then faid I, Lo, I come (in "the volume of the book it is written of "me) to do thy will, O God." The nature that finned, according to the rules of juftice, was to fuffer for fin; and the Word was made flesh for the fame reason, that, when so made, he was baptized by John, "To fulfil all righteoufnefs." "And as "Chrift took manhood, that by it he

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might be capable of death, whereunto "he humbled himself; fo, because man"hood is the proper fubject of compaffion "and feeling pity, which maketh the

fceptre of Chrift's regency, even in the "kingdom of heaven, to be amiable; he "who without our nature could not on "earth fuffer for the fins of the world, "doth now alfo, by means thereof, both "make interceffion to God for finners, and "exercise dominion over all men, with a

* Pf. xl. 6. Heb. x. 5.

"true,

"true, a natural, and a fenfible touch of DISC.

As the Divinity is an object by no means within the grafp of the human understanding, it were abfurd to expect an adequate idea of the mode of it's union with flesh, expreffed in the text by the word "made"," "The Word was made flesh." It fufficeth, in this cafe, to maintain the general truth of the propofition against those, who, in different ways, by fubtilty and fophiftry, have laboured to oppugn and destroy it. We must not, with Arius, deny the Saviour to be truly God, because he became man; nor affert, with Apollinaris, that he was not really man, because he was alfo God. We must not, with Neftorius, rend Chrift afunder, and divide him into two perfons; nor, after the example of Eutyches, confound in his person those natures which should be distinguished. These were the four capital errors, which, in the ear

1 HOOKER, Ecclefiaft. Polity, v. 51.

Η Εγένετο,

VII.