ture. He is frequently called a man, and the son of man. The number of instances in which he has this latter appellation, is no less than seventy-one; in sixty-seven of these instances, he applies this name to himself, once it is given to him by Daniel, once by St. Stephen, and twice by St. John in the Revelation.

When Christ is called a man, he is described with those faculties which belong to man. He is represented as growing in wisdom and stature, as hungry, and thirsty, and weary; as sustained and refreshed by food, drink, and sleep; as the subject of natural affection, as weeping with tenderness and sorrow, and as having all the innocent characteristics which belong to our nature. When we say then that the Word was made flesh, we declare that Christ became really and truly man. For the mediator between God and man is the man Christ Jesus, "since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." Christ is, therefore, frequently called the son of man; and in that character he was always promised.-First to Eve, as her seed, and

consequently her son; then to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" next to David, as his son, to sit upon his throne, and consequently of the same nature with David, and with Abraham; and as he was their son, so are we his brethren; as descending from the same father, Adam. For he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, and so became not an angel, but a man.

But though a man, he was not a man only. If Jesus had been a mere man, no reason can be assigned why his birth should not have been after the ordinary course of nature. A prophet, or moral teacher, according to our ideas of propriety, might have descended from human parents alone, but in this case, every circumstance is extraordinary and superhuman.

In consequence of his miraculous conception, Christ, it is recorded, "shall be called Immanuel," not that this should be his name, but that he should actually be all that the name Immanuel imports, which signifies God with us. Matt. i. 23. Again, the angel

sent from God thus addressed Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the son of God.” Luke i. 35. That our Saviour was indeed the Son of the living God, the new Testament every where teaches us, calling him not only generally the Son of God, but His only begotton Son-His beloved SonHis first-born Son-His proper and peculiar Son. And as Jesus Christ is called the Son, so God is called his Father, and in such an emphatic manner, as to intimate a proper and peculiar degree of paternal relationship. This I infer from the first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, where the apostle introduces the title of Son, in order to shew the superiority of Christ over the angels; "unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

Again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son," this clearly proves his divine origin, for as St. Paul argues in a following verse-" Being made so much better than the angels, he hath, by inheritance,

(or hereditary right) obtained a more excellent name than they." Now our Saviour can possess, by inheritance, his name of Son, in no other way, than by descent from the Father. Other beings may be sons of God by creation or adoption, but they do not inherit that name, because they are not from the Father, by generation.

In the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, we meet with a remarkable passage, which illustrates the doctrine under consideration still further-" 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." Here there is a plain distinction made, between the son of David, and the Son of God, to which I add a parallel text of the same apostle, which will enable us to ascertain distinctly St. Paul's meaning; it is that where he says, "of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Rom. ix. 5. In the two texts, the antithesis between the words, "according to the flesh," and "according to the spirit," is

very important; with respect to the flesh, Christ is the son of David, with respect to the spirit, he is the Son of God. With this light we can clearly discover the meaning of our blessed Lord's expression, when he says, "My Father is greater than I," greater as to that peculiarity of generation which he had from the Father, and greater as to that state of glory, of which the Son divested himself, "when being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, and was found in fashion as a man.' This condescension or humiliation of the Son of God, from a state of glory, (which he enjoyed with the Father before the world was,) to the low, passive, and indigent condition of a servant, is that stupendous display of loving kindness which prophets were inspired to foretell, and apostles commissioned to publish, that sublime mystery of godliness which even angels desire to look into, and which we cannot better define, than when we say, in the words of the Athanasian creed :-"That Christ was equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, but inferior to the Father as touching his manhood, who although he be God and man, yet