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the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took on himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'

It was the mind that was in Jesus Christ, which is proposed unto our consideration and imitation. What he was inclined and disposed unto from himself and his own mind And that in general which is ascribed unto him is Kévwoç, exinanition or self-emptying; he emptied himself. This the ancient church called his συγκατάβασις, as we do his condescension, an act of which kind in God is called the ' humbling of himself;' Psal. cxiii. 6.

Wherefore, the susception of our nature for the discharge of the office of mediation therein, was an infinite condescension in the Son of God, wherein he is exceedingly glorious in the eyes of believers.

And I shall do these three things: 1. Shew in general the greatness of his condescension. 2. Declare the especial nature of it. And, 3. Take what view we are able of the glory of Christ therein.

1. Such is the transcendent excellency of the divine nature, that it is said of God, that he dwelleth on high, and humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth;' Psal. cxiii. 5, 6. He condescends from the prerogative of his excellency to behold, to look upon, to take notice of, the most glorious things in heaven above, and the greatest things in the earth below. All his respect unto the creatures, the most glorious of them, is an act of infinite condescension. And it is so on two accounts.

1. Because of the infinite distance that is between his essence, nature, or being, and that of the creatures. Hence 'all nations before him, are as the drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; yea, that they are as nothing, that they are accounted unto him less than nothing and vanity. All being is essentially in him, and in comparison thereunto, all other things are as nothing. And there are no measures, there is no proportion between infinite being and nothing; nothing that should induce a regard from the one unto the other. Wherefore the infinite, essen

tial greatness of the nature of God, with his infinite distance from the nature of all creatures thereby, causeth all his dealings with them to be in the way of condescension or humbling himself. So it is expressed, Isa. lvii. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, I dwell in 'the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' He is so the high and lofty one, and so inhabiteth eternity, or existeth in his own eternal being, that it is an act of mere grace in him, to take notice of things below; and therefore, he doth it in an especial manner of those whom the world doth most despise.

2. It ariseth from his infinite self-sufficiency unto all the acts and ends of his own eternal blessedness. What we have a regard unto, what we respect and desire, it is that it may add unto our satisfaction. So it is, so it must be, with every creature; no creature is self-sufficient unto its own blessedness. The human nature of Christ himself in heaven is not so; it lives in God, and God in it, in a full dependance on God, and in receiving blessed and glorious communications from him. No rational creature, angel or man, can do, think, act any thing, but it is all to add to their perfection and satisfaction, they are not self-sufficient. God alone wants nothing, stands in need of nothing, nothing can be added unto him, seeing he giveth unto all life, and breath, and all things; Acts xvii. 25. The whole creation in all its excellency cannot contribute one mite unto the satisfaction or blessedness of God. He hath it all in infinite perfection from himself and in his own nature; our goodness extends not unto him; A man cannot profit God, as he may profit his neighbour. If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him? and if thy transgressions are multiplied, what dost thou unto him?' (God loseth nothing of his own self-sufficiency and blessedness therein, by all this) and if thou be righteous, what givest thou unto him, or what receiveth he at thy hand?' Job xxxv. 6-8. And from hence also it follows that all God's concernment in the creation, is by an act of condescension.

How glorious, then, is the condescension of the Son of God in his susception of the office of mediation! For if such be the perfection of the divine nature, and its dis

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tance so absolutely infinite from the whole creation, and if such be his self-sufficiency unto his own eternal blessedness, as that nothing can be taken from him, nothing added unto him, so that every regard in him unto any of the creatures, is an act of self-humiliation and condescension from the prerogative of his being and state; what heart can conceive, what tongue can express the glory of that condescension in the Son of God, whereby he took our nature upon him, took it to be his own, in order unto a discharge of the office of mediation on our behalf?

But that we may the better behold the glory of Christ herein, we may briefly consider the especial nature of this condescension, and wherein it doth consist.

But whereas not only the denial, but misapprehensions hereof, have pestered the church of God in all ages, we must in the first place reject them, and then declare the truth.

1. This condescension of the Son of God did not consist in a laying aside or parting with, or separation from, the divine nature, so as that he should cease to be God, by being man. The foundation of it lay in this, that he was in the form of God, and counted it not robbery to be equal with God; Phil. ii. 6. That is, being really and essentially God in his divine nature, he professed himself therein to be equal with God or the person of the Father. He was in the form of God, that is, he was God, participant of the divine nature, for God hath no form but that of his essence and being; and hence he was equal with God, in authority, dignity, and power. Because he was in the form of God, he must be equal with God; for there is order in the divine persons, but no inequality in the divine Being. So the Jews understood him, that when he said, 'God was his Father, he made himself equal with God.' For in his so saying, he ascribed unto himself equal power with the Father, as unto all divine operations; 'My father,' saith he, worketh hitherto, and I work;' John v. 17, 18. And they by whom his divine nature is denied, do cast this condescension of Christ quite out of our religion, as that which hath no reality or substance in it. But we shall speak of them afterward.

Being in this state, it is said that he took on him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man ;' ver. 7. This is his condescension. It is not said, that he ceased to

be in the form of God; but continuing so to be, he took on him the form of a servant' in our nature: he became what he was not, but he ceased not to be what he was. So he testifieth of himself, John iii. 13. No man hath ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven.' Although he was then on earth as the Son of man, yet he ceased not to be God thereby; in his divine nature he was then also in heaven.

He who is God, can no more be not God, than he who is not God can be God; and our difference with the Socinians herein is, we believe that Christ being God, was made man for our sakes; they say, that being only a man, he was made a God for his own sake.

This, then, is the foundation of the glory of Christ in this condescension, the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mysteries; namely, that the Son of God becoming in time to be what he was not, the Son of man, ceased not thereby to be what he was, even the eternal Son of God. fore,

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2. Much less did this condescension consist in the conversion of the divine nature into the human, which was the imagination of some of the Arians of old; and we have yet (to my own knowledge) some that follow them in the same dotage. They say that the Word which was in the beginning,' by which all things were made, being in itself an effect of the divine will and power, was in the fulness of time turned into flesh; that is, the substance of it was so, as the water in the miracle wrought by our Saviour, was turned into wine; for by an act of the divine power of Christ it ceased to be water substantially, and was wine only; not water mixed with wine. So these men suppose a substantial change of the one nature into the other, of the divine nature into the human; like what the Papists imagine in their transubstantiation. So they say God was made man, his essence being turned into that of a man.

But this no way belongs unto the condescension of Christ. We may call it Ichabod, it hath no glory in it. It destroys both his natures, and leaves him a person in whom we are not concerned. For according unto this imagination, that divine nature wherein he was in the form of God, did in its own form cease to be, yea, was utterly destroyed, as

being substantially changed into the nature of man; as the water did cease to be, when it was turned into wine; and that human nature which was made thereof, hath no alliance or kindred unto us, or our nature, seeing it was not ' made of a woman,' but of the substance of the Word.

3. There was not in this condescension, the least change or alteration in the divine nature. Eutiches and those that followed him of old, conceived that the two natures of Christ, the divine and human, were mixed and compounded as it were into one. And this could not be without an alteration in the divine nature, for it would be made to be essentially what it was not; for one nature hath but one and the same

essence.

But, as we said before, although the Lord Christ himself in his person was made to be what he was not before, in that our nature hereby was made to be his, yet his divine nature was not so. There is in it neither variableness nor shadow of turning.' It abode the same in him in all its essential properties, actings, and blessedness, as it was from eternity. It neither did, acted, nor suffered any thing, but what is proper unto the Divine Being. The Lord Christ did and suffered many things in life and death, in his own person, by his human person, wherein the divine neither did, nor suffered any thing at all; although in the doing of them, his person be denominated from that nature; so God purchased his church with his own blood;' Acts xx. 28.

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4. It may then be said, What did the Lord Christ in this condescension with respect unto his divine nature? The apostle tells us, that he humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation;' Phil. ii. 7, 8. He veiled the glory of his divine nature in ours, and what he did therein, so as that there was no outward appearance or manifestation of it. The world hereon was so far from looking on him as the true God, that it believed him not to be a good man. Hence they could never bear the least intimation of his divine nature, supposing themselves secured from any such thing, because they looked on him with their eyes to be a man, as he was indeed, no less truly and really than any one of themselves. Wherefore, on that testimony given of himself, 'Before Abraham was, I am,' which asserts a pre-existence from eternity in another nature than what they saw, they

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