sophistry to persuade him that they do not assert the Divinity of Christ. If, therefore, the word of God be true, Christ is God. And St. Paul, who so clearly maintains that doctrine in other places, could not speak of his "being in the form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God,” without meaning what the words most obviously imply, viz. that he was God. But now comes the most wonderful part of the "great mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." The Almighty Word, very and eternal God, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and thus became perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. He who was God could not cease to be God; and therefore, by a union which it would be vain for any one to attempt to comprehend, the divine and human natures were united in his one person; and so united, that each nature was in itself complete and entire, without, in the slightest degree, impairing the completeness or perfection of the other, with which it was personally identified. The passages of Scripture already quoted will serve, in connexion with the words of our Text, to 2 1 Tim. iii. 16. prove the truth of this doctrine also; which be longs, you will observe, to the second head of our division." The Word was God." "The Word was made Flesh." "God was manifested in the Flesh." And it is worthy of remark, that the tangible proof of his perfect manhood was the very thing which drew from St. Thomas the unqualified acknowledgment of his perfect Godhead. Without, therefore, pretending to comprehend the manner how, we cannot believe the Scriptures, without believing that " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."3 And not only was God united in the person of Jesus Christ, to the mortal body; but also, which seems still more mysterious, to the rational soul of man. To render him a true representative of the whole human race, it was necessary (B) that his manhood should be precisely the same as ours, naturally exempted from none of its natural feelings or natural infirmities. He therefore took our entire nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and came into the world with all the mental as well as bodily imbecility of a human infant. "Jesus increased in wisdom," as well as "stature;"4 and therefore 3 Col. ii. 9. Luke, ii. 52. See also Pearson on the Creed, Art. iii. vol. I. p. 256. must have had (distinct from the Divine, whose wisdom is infinite, and yet united in the same person,) a human soul, the seat of a finite understanding. The same was also the seat of his directed Will, distinct from the Will of his Father.-" Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; nevertheless, not my Will, but thine be done."5 In this impassioned prayer, we discover the human Soul of Jesus, not only in a Will distinct from the Divine, but also in the prevalence of human feelings and affections; which he often experienced, but on no occasion so forcibly as on that, when his "Soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."6 This exceeding sorrowfulness unquestionably bespeaks a human soul. And this it was which, when he actually arrived at the point of death, he recommended to the Father, saying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and having thus said, he gave up the ghost." The Man Jesus Christ had therefore a soul and a body, naturally differing in nothing from the soul and body of other men, and thus was perfect Man, "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." We have already twice shewn, that the same 5 Luke, xxii. 42. 6 Matt. xvi. 38. 7 Luke, xxiii. 46. Jesus Christ was perfect God; and, therefore, immutably possessed of all those adorable perfections which are essential to the very being of God. Many are the proofs of his absolute Divinity, which he vouchsafed to exhibit during his manifestation in the flesh; and the essential immutability of the Divine nature compels us to confess, that there never can have been a moment in which he did not possess all the attributes of the Deity. Yes, even when the infant Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger,-when the Man of sorrows was buffeted, and spit upon, and nailed to the cross,— he was in complete possession of the same Almighty Power, with which he created the universe. It is difficult here, not to anticipate our proposed arrangement, and dwell with admiring wonder on the extent of that humility and patience, which could condescend so low, and endure so much, and abstain from the exercise of his Almighty Power, under circumstances of such unequalled provocation. But I forbear from pursuing that topic for the present, as well as from noticing the objections which cross our carnal minds on the statement of these mysterious truths; and, in order to give a connected view of the personal nature of our Lord, as it is set forth in Scripture, shall now pass on to the consideration of the third state in which he is presented to us in the Text, viz. his state of Exaltation and Reward. In examining the state of humility which began at the Incarnation, and was completed by the Crucifixion of our Lord, we shewed, that he then was perfect God, and perfect Man. We now advance a step farther, and say, that in his state of exaltation, he still is, and ever will be, perfect God, and perfect Man-Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. It is unnecessary to add anything to what has been already said, to shew that he still is perfect God. We have shewn, that he was God from the beginning, and that he was God during every stage of his humiliation; much more, then, must he still continue to be God in his exaltation. In a word, God is, from everlasting to everlasting, the same; so that he who was God, can never for an instant cease to be God, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, impassible, immortal, immutable. As God, therefore, the Messiah was equally incapable of humiliation and exaltation, of suffering and reward. But as Man, he made himself capable of both. As Man he was despised, and rejected, and acquainted with grief. As Man he was bruised, |