fame language is the nature of man usually expreffed.

and body of

The nobleft human foul;

But we have not only these evidences of his human nature in general; we are alfo certified particularly of his human foul which that nature is composed. part of his humanity was his formed for union with his divine Perfon on the one part, and with his human body on the other, and as it were the proper bond of union between them. That his divine Perfon therefore did not actuate his human body as the Apollinarians imagined, but that he had a real human foul or a created fpirit, fimilar though vaftly fuperior to ours; befides the evidence mentioned, we have the most exprefs declarations. Thus Ifaiah foretells that God fhould make the Saviour's foul an offering for fin;" that Chrift should" fee of "the travel of his foul and be fatisfied;" because he poured out his foul unto death, Isai. liii. 10, 11, 12. Thus we are told, on one occafion, "that Jefus rejoiced in spirit," Luke x. 21. and on another, that he was troubled in spirit," John xi. 23. At the profpect of his laft fufferings, he exclaims, "Now is my foul troubled," John xii. 27. Under his inutterable agony in the garden, before his bodily fufferings from men had begun, he cries out, My foul is exceed"ing forrowful even unto death," Matt. xxvi. 38. And at his expiration on the cross he commends his Spirit into his Father's hands, Luke xxiii. 46. which can apply neither to his divine nature, nor to his animal life, but to his human foul, which that day was to afcend into pa- · radife.

What farther confirms the truth of his having a human foul is, the various powers and affec

tions,

tions, inapplicable either to his divine perfon or to his human body, but perfectly characteristical of his human foul, which in Scripture are ascribed to him. Thus, befides his omnifcient mind which he has as God, a finite understanding is affirmed of him. "For he increafed in wifdom 66 as well as in ftature,” Luke ii. 52. And of the day of judgment he as man did not know during his ftate of humiliation upon earth, Mark xiii. 32. A human will is appropriated by him, when he fays to his Father, "Not my will but "thine be done," Luke xxii. 42. for his divine will and that of his Father, like their di vine nature, ever must be one and the fame. And his various affections of grief, forrow, joy, gladness, &c. of which a finite fpirit or foul only can be fufceptible, are frequently affirmed of him during his abode upon earth, Mark iii. 5Matt. xxvi. 38. Luke x. 21. John xi. 15.

But as we have the moft convincing proof of our Saviour's human foul, fo we have every evidence that he likewife had a real human body. This all the predictions given of his birth by the Old Tef tament Prophets clearly imply, and the declarations of their accomplishment by the writers of the New Teftament, confirm beyond all difpute. Thus St. John declares, "that the Word was "made flesh and dwelt among us," John i. 14. Chrift affirms to his disciples during his life that he had flesh and blood, John vi. 55. and after his refurrection he bid them handle him, "for a spirit, "fays he, hath not flesh and bones as ye fee me "have," Luke xxiv. 39. Accordingly, St. Paul calls him "God manifefted in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16. and affures us that "as the children were par"takers of flesh and blood, he also himself like" wife

"wife took part of the fame," Heb. ii. 14. This truth is evident from his being conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, from his being circumcifed, from his increafing in ftature as in wifdom, from his being baptized, from his being fubject to hunger, thirst, weariness and fleep; from his being apprehended, fcourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified; from his being buried, and rifing again from the dead; and in fhort from all his other actings and fufferings, that indifputably fhow him poffeffed of a human body.

Such then is the ample evidence the Scriptures afford us that our Bleffed Saviour had not only a divine, but a human nature, in a reasonable foul and a true body. So that the ancient heretics that denied this, though lefs impious than those who denied his divinity, were equally unreafonable; fince the evidence given us of both, is, to every candid and enquiring mind, beyond all contradiction.

III. One thing more we proposed here to afcertain with regard to this illuftrious perfonage, viz. that these two natures, divine and human, are united and exift in one complex perfon. This indeed is evident from what hath been faid; for if it is proved that Chrift has both a divine and a human nature, and that both these are affirmed of the fame general perfonage; then these natures must co-exist in one perfon, however diftinct and different they are. The divinity dwells not in the humanity merely as it once did in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple; without any other connexion but a visible refidence in fuch places. Nor does it dwell in it merely as the Divine Spirit dwells and operates in the hearts of good men, as in his temples, 1 Cor. vi. 19. but has no per

fonal

fonal union with them. Were this all, the Spirit might be faid to be incarnate as well as the Word; "for the Father giveth not the Spirit by measure "unto his Son," John iii. 34. But revelation affures us, that the Divine Word dwells in the human nature of Chrift; and is connected with it in union greatly more clofe and intimate than these. As in man a rational, fpiritual foul, and a material, animal body, natures effentially dif ferent, are conjoined in one human perfon; fo the Divine Word, and a compleat human nature, though effentially and infinitely diftinct, are united in one Immanuel in the complex perfon of our Bleffed Redeemer. Accordingly, while the most facred oracles clearly affirm the divine and human natures of Chrift, they as clearly, and by the very fame evidence affure us, that these distinct natures are united and co-exist in one perfon. Thus Ifaiah reprefents Chrift "the Child born, the Son given, and "the mighty God the everlasting Father," Ifaiah ix. 6. The Son, whom he foretells the Virgin was to bear, he affirms was to be Immanuel, God with us, or dwelling perfonally in our nature, for by that only could he dwell among us, and act for our intereft, so that the name muft be, rather a perfonal, than an official one, and in its primary fenfe implies the perfonal union of the Divine Word with our human nature, Ifaiah vii. 14. Jeremiah, or rather God by him, prophefies that Chrift should, in the fame perfon, be a branch unto David, and Jehovah our righteoufnefs, Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. The union of the divine and human natures in one perfon St. John declares in the cleareft manner, when he tells us, that the Word who in the beginning was with

as

God,

God, and was God, was at Christ's incarnation made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld, not their glories as two diftinct perfons; but his glory as the only begotten of the Father, in whofe complex perfon both these natures were now united, John i. 2, 14. St. Paul represents these two natures under one perfon, when he affirms that Chrift who was in the form of God, after affuming our nature, was found in the fashion of · a man, and who in these two natures thus con- ` joined, first humbled himself, and was then exalted, Phil. ii. 6-9. To intimate this perfonal union he calls him God manifeft in the flesh-preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory, 1 Tim. iii. 16. He affures us that of the Jews, as concerning "the flesh, Chrift came, who yet as to his divine "fubfiftence, comprehended in that general name "and perfon, is over all, God blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5. In like manner the fame Son of God, who is represented as the brightness of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon; who, as God, made and upholds the world, and as God-man purged our fins, and then fat on the right hand of the throne of God, is always represented under one perfonal character, notwithftanding the two diftinct natures that are plainly afcribed to him, Heb. i. 2, 3. And our Bleffed Saviour, who muft well have known the conftitution of his own person, includes under it both his natures, while he affirms of himself in the fame perfon," I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning

and the end, the firft and the laft," which are the known characters of Deity in Scripture: yet he adds, "I am the root and the offspring of "David," an evidence that with his Deity he

poffeffed