LIBRA-BY .OF THE Theological Seminary, 1' \ •« "■•- PRINCETON, N. J. .. *■ • . BX 6559 .17 1866 v. 5 ^ Irving, Edward, 1792-183A. The collected writings of Edward Irving EDWARD IRVING'S WRITINGS VOL. V, THE COLLECTED WRITINGS / OF EDWARD IRVING Edited by his Nephew, the Rev. G. CARLYLE, M.A. IN FIVE VOLUMES— VOL. V. ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER L O N D () N AND N E W YORK 1866 CONTENTS. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION OPENED. PAGK PREFACE, ........ 3 EPISTLE DEDICATORY, ...... 7 I. THAT THE BEGINNING OR ORIGIN OF THE MYSTERY, THAT THE ETERNAL WORD SHOULD TAKE UNTO HIMSELF A BODY, IS THE HOLY WILL AND GOOD PLEASURE OF GOD, II. THE END OF THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION IS THE GLORY OF GOD, ........ 59 Part I. By Manifestation. Part II. By Action. III. THE METHOD IS BY TAKING UP THE FALLEN HUMANITY, . 1 14 Part I. The Composition of Christ's Person. Part II. The Universal Reconciliation wrought by His Death, and the Particular Election ministered by His Life in Glory. Part III. The Removal of the Law, and the bringing in of Grace. Part IV. Conclusions. VOL. V. b vi CONTENTS. IV. THE CHURCH. PAGE THE PREPARATION FOR, AND THE VERY ACT OF, THE INCARNA- TION OF CHRIST, ..... 258 Part I. The Humiliation in Flesh unto Death. Part II. The Descent into Hell. V. THE FRUITS OF THE INCARNATION, . . . ,312 Part I. Grace and Peace. Part II. The Promulgation or Preaching of the same. Part III. The Personal Application of the same. VI. CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING THE SUBSISTENCE OF GOD, AND THE SUBSISTENCE OF THE CREATURE, DERIVED FROM REFLECT- ING UPON THE INCARNATION, ..... 398 THE CHURCH, WITH HER ENDOWMENT OF HOLINESS AND POWER, .... ... 449 ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST. ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST COMMONLY CALLED SUPER- NATURAL, ....... 509 APPENDIX. APPENDIX TO THE TREATISE ON THE INCARNATION, . . 563 THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION OPENED IN SIX SERMONS. VOL. V. PREFACE, '"T'HESE Sermons on the Incarnation were intended to open that mystery after a dogmatical, and not a controversial, method ; as being designed for the instruction of the church committed to my ministerial and pastoral care, of whom I knew not that any one entertained a doubt upon that great head of Christian faith. To open the subject in all its bearings, and to connect it with the other great heads of Divine doctrine, especially with the doctrine of the Trinity, and to shew the several offices of the Divine persons, in the great work of making the Word flesh ; this truly was the good pur- pose with which I undertook and completed the four sermons upon the Origin, the End, the Act, and the Fruit of the Incarnation, When I had completed this office of my ministry, and, by the re- quest of my flock, had consented to the publication of these discourses j and when the printing of them had all but, or altogether, concluded ; there arose, I say not by what influence of Satan, a great outcry against the doctrine which, with all orthodox churches, I hold and maintain concerning the person of Christ: the doctrine, I mean, of His human nature, that it was manhood fallen, which He took up into His Divine person, in order to prove the grace and the might of Godhead in redeeming it ; or, to use the words of our Scottish Confession, that His flesh was, in its proper nature, mortal and corruptible, but received immortality and incorruption from the Holy Ghost. The stir which was made in divers quarters, both of this and my native land, about this matter, as if it were neither the orthodox doctrine of the Church, nor a doctrine according to godliness, shewed me, who am convinced of both, that it was necessary to take controversial weapons in my hand, and contend earnestly for the faith as it was once delivered to the saints. I perceived now, that the dogmatical method which I had adopted for the behoof of my own believing flock, would not be suffi- cient ^^'hcn publishing to a wavering, gainsaying, or unbelieving people; 4 PREFA CE, and therefore it seemed to me most profitable to delay the publication until I should have composed something fitted to re-establish men's minds upon this great fundamental doctrine of the Church ; which having done, I resolved to insert the same as two other sermons — the one upon the method of the incarnation, and the other upon the relations of the Creator and the creature, as these are shewn out in the light of the incarnation. And for this timeous interruption by evil tongues, I desire to give thanks to God, inasmuch as I have been enabled thereby not only to expound, but to defend the faith, that the Son of God came in the flesh. I would not add another word upon this subject, were it not that I know how ready the ear of this generation is to take up an evil report, and how much it doth prejudice a man to be even suspected of a great vital error in his faith. Therefore, to set myself straight with honest- hearted men, who may have been poisoned by malicious ^slanders, I will state, in a few words, what is the exact matter in dispute between us and these gainsayers of the truth. The point at issue is simply this : "Whether Christ's flesh had the grace of sinlessness and incorruption from its proper nature, or from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. I say the latter. I assert, that in its proper nature it was as the flesh of His mother, but, by virtue of the Holy Ghost's quickening and inhabiting of it, it was preserved sin- less and incorruptible. This work of the Holy Ghost, I further assert, was done in consequence of the Son's humbling Himself to be made flesh. The Son said, " I come : " the Father said, " I prepare Thee a body to come in : " and the Holy Ghost prepared that body out of the Virgin's substance. And so, by the threefold acting of the Trinity, was the Christ constituted a Divine and a human nature, joined in personal union for ever. This I hold to have been the orthodox faith of the Christian Church in all ages : it is the doctrine of the Scottish Church, expressed in these words of the twenty-first article : " As the eternal Godhead hath given to the flesh of Christ Jesus, which of its own nature was mortal and corruptible, life and immortality," Sec. And, moreover, I assert, that the opposite of this doctrine, which affirmeth Christ's flesh to have been in itself immortal and incorrup- tible, or in any way diverse from this flesh of mine, without respect had to the Holy Ghost, is a pestilent heresy, which coming in will root out atonement, redemption, regeneration, the work of the Spirit, and the human nature of Christ altogether. Now, I glory that God hath accounted me worthy to appear in the field of this ancient con- troversy, which I hold to be the foundation-stone of the edifice of PREFACE. 5 orthodox truth. With all this I hold the human will of Christ to have been perfectly holy, and to have acted, spoken, or wished nothing but in perfect harmony with the will of the Godhead 5 which, to dis- tinguish it from the creature will. He calleth the will of the Father : for that there were two wills in Christ, the one the absolute will of the Godhead, the other the limited will of the manhood, the Church hath ever maintained as resolutely as that there were two natures. These two wills, I maintain, were always concentric or harmonious with each other, and the work achieved by the Godhead through the incarnation of Christ was neither less nor more than this, to bring the will of the creature, which had erred from the Divine will, back again to be harmonious with the Divine will, and there to fix it for ever. This is the redemption, this is the at-one-ment, which was wrought in Christ, to redeem the will of a creature from the oppression of sin, and bring it to be at one with the will of the Creator. All divinity, all Divine operation, all God's purpose, from the beginning to the end- ing of time, and throughout eternal ages, resteth upon this one truth, that every acting of the human nature of Christ was responsive to, and harmonious with, the actings of the Divine will of the Godhead. What a calamity it is then, what a hideous lie, to represent us as mak- ing Christ unholy and sinful, because we maintain that He took His humanity completely and wholly from the substance, from the sinful substance, of the fallen creatures which He came to redeem ! He was passive to every sinful suggestion which the world through the flesh can hand up unto the will j He was liable to every sinful suggestion which Satan through the mind can hand up to the will j and with all such suggestions and temptations, I believe Him beyond all others to have been assailed, but further went they not. He gave them no inlet. He went not to seek them. He gave them no quarter, but with power Divine rejected and repulsed them all ; and so, from His con- ception unto His resurrection. His whole life was a series of active triumphings over sin in the flesh, Satan in the world, and spiritual wickednesses in high places. If now, after this honest and true state- ment of the issue, any one will advance to the perusal of this treatise on the incarnation with a prejudice against the orthodox truth, or against me its expounder, be the guilt of the breach of charity on his own head ; and may God deal with him better than he deserves ! I commend my book unto Thy patronage, O Thou Enlightener of every man who cometh into the world ! I submit my work unto the review and censure of that righteous judgment which shall yet be holden upon all the works of all men j and meanwhile unto Thee, O 6 PREFACE. Holy Spirit, whose minister I am, I offer these various thoughts and counsels, that Thou mayest use them for the sake of the faithful in Christ Jesus, whom I love in my heart, and for whom I desire patiently to bear all pains and travails of this mortal estate. And, O Father of my spirit, I fervently pray unto Thee, that Thou wouldest in Thy great mercy forgive whatever, in these and all my writings, may be inharmonious with Thy only holy mind, or derogatory from the honour and glory of Thine only-begotten Son, or vexatious and hindersome to the work of the Holy Spirit, remembering not the sins of Thy servant, neither suffering them to make the least of Thy little ones to offend. Amen and amen. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. TO MY FLOCK AND CONGREGATION. Dearly Beloved in the Lord, n^HESE Sermons on the Incarnation, and the most orthodox and wholesome doctrine therein set forth, you received with all accepta- tion: and the Elders u'hom God hath set over you made choice of them to stand first in these volumes, which I now publish for the edification of the body of Christ. To you, therefore, over ivhom the Lord hath made us overseers, I do offer these fruits of my meditation and ministry on your behalf; and I entreat you, in the name of Jesus Christ, whose act of surpassing love they are intended to unfold, that you would receive them with favour and qff'ection from the hand of your Pastor and Teacher, who loveth you much. I cannot refrain, dearly beloved, from expressing to you all the growing attachment which I feel towards you, because of your patient hearing of the ivhole testimony of God, and your observance of His holy ordinances, and reverence for the persons of us who administer the same; ofid I entreat you, in the several stations appointed to you of God, to be faithful witnesses for Christ until His coming ; standing fast together in faith and love and a good conscience, with your loins girt and your lamps burning, as those who wait for His appearing. 8 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. May the great Bishop and Shepherd of your souls feed you with the bread of life all the days of your earthly pilgrimage, and receive you at length unto His kingdom and glory. Your affectionate and dutiful Pastor, EDWARD IRVING. Nov. lo, 1828. PEIITGETOXNf ^' THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION OPENED. I. THAT THE BEGINNING OR ORIGIN OF THE MYSTERY, THAT THE ETERNAL WORD SHOULD TAKE UNTO HIMSELF A BODY, IS THE HOLY WILL AND GOOD PLEASURE OF GOD. Psalm xl. 6-8. Sacrifice and offering thoic didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: bw-nt- offering and sin-offering hast thoic not required. Then said I, Lo, I come : in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God : yea, thy law is within my heart. "r\EARLY beloved brethren, on this day which we have set apart for shewing forth the Lord's death by the sacrament of the supper, I consider it to be due unto His hon- our, and a right acknowledgment of our faith, that we should begin to meditate, and to set forth in order, the great work of His incarnation, and the benefits which flow thence into our souls ; to the end that, when God beholdeth us to be of one mind and spirit to honour and glorify His Son, He may be well pleased in us, and make Himself known to us in the breaking of bread. And may the Holy Spirit, who receiveth of the things of Christ to shew them unto us, at this time so anoint us all with His holy unction of truth, that we may be able to search into the deep things of God, and to present them for the edification of the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. lo THE INCARNA TION : The immediate cause of the incarnation, was the fall of man and the consequent invasion of sin, and subjection of all earthly- things to the prince of darkness. I say that this was the im- mediate cause, or, as we may say, the occasion of it : for, if man had not fallen, there would never have been upon this earth any such event as the incarnation, whereof the first fruit is to recover that which Adam lost, and, at the least, to re- instate mankind and their habitation in that condition wherein they were created. This fall of man was also the formal cause of the incarnation ; that is to say, what gave to the purpose of God its outward form and character, requiring His Son to take upon Him the nature of man, and not of angels, to be under the law, and to bear the curse of death, as it is written, (Heb. ii. 14, 15,) "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bond- age." But, if we would ascend to the first cause of this great act of the Godhead, we must seek it in God himself, who worketh all things after the pleasure of His own will, and to the praise of His own glory. The fall of man was not an acci- dent which fell out against the disposition and to the hindrance of God's universal and all-including schemeof creation, and pro- vidence, and grace : but though the will of man was free — that is, under his own single control, and not in bondage of a stronger as now it is, — yet was the act of his disobedience both known and foreseen, and permitted of God, though not in such a way as to overrule, or constrain, or in any way to bias his mind to evil, but all the contrary. And as it was foreseen, so was it pro- vided for ; and as it was permitted, so was it overruled for the greater glory and honour of the most holy and righteous God, and for the total and eternal extinction and abolition of the active power of sin. Therefore is it most necessary to reach to a higher and more remote source than the fall, or even the crea- tion of our first parents, in order to attain unto the great and first cause of the mystery of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And the rule is general, that we must wholly disentangle every spiritual subject from the con- ITS ORIGIN IN THE WILL OF GOD. 1 1 ditions of space and time, which are only the forms of its manifestation, ere we can arrive at its proper bearings, or handle it in a way profitable to the spiritual life. Accordingly, it is written concerning this mystery of the incarnation, in various parts of Scripture, that it came not within the coasts of time, but had its origin before the foun- dation of the world. In the beginning of his Gospel, the tes- timony of John is given to this effect, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world :" concerning which Lamb he testifies, in the 13th chapter of the Revela- tion, verse 8, that He was " slain from the foundation of the world ;" "whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." But lest any one should say that this doth carry the offering of Christ only to, and not beyond the foundation of the world, I have Christ's testimony concerning Himself in the 17th chap- ter of John : " Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." And lest this should be inter- preted of the Father's love to Him anterior to, and indepen- dent of His mediatorial office, (although it is, to my mind, nothing less than an absurdity and contradiction to imagine that the Father can contemplate His Son otherwise than in the fulness of all His offices, there being no application of time to the Godhead,) I have to shew you a passage in the 1st Epistle of Peter, which places the sacrifice of the Lamb, yea, and the foreordination and appointment of it, before the foundation of the world : " Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ; who verily was fore- ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." In which idea that the apostles were rooted and grounded, you cannot read one of their epistles without perceiving ; where you shall find that it is not in the fall of man they date the origin of our redemption, but in the 1 2 THE INCARNA TION : eternal counsel of God, which He purposed in Himself before the world began, as it is written, (2 Tim. i. 9,) " Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began ; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." In which passage, that which is seen and temporal with respect to the Messiah, is regarded merely as the manifestation of that purpose which the Godhead had purposed in Himself before the world was, before any world was ; all good purposes being ever present with Him, and the execution of them all ever seen in the fulness of THE WORD, contemplated in Him as their great architect, and fabricator, and upholder. But the full develop- ment of this doctrine is to be found written in the Epistle to the Ephesians ; of which Paul himself doth witness the great depth, saying, that when we read it, we may understand his knowledge in the mystery of Christ. If you read with me, at the third verse of the first chapter, you will find that the apostle carries us out of place ; at verse 4, out of time ; at verse 5, out of the present age ; and at verse 6, out of all ex- ternal cause ; at verse 7, he rehearseth the act of its revela- tion in time ; and in verses 8-10, consummates the act ; in verse 11, he takes in the personal interest in, and in verse 12 he shews the end of, the purpose. The doctrine, therefore, concerning the incarnation, upon which the primitive Church was founded by the apostles, and to which the Reformers brought us back, and from which we are fast swerving again, is this — That it is a great purpose of the Divine will which God was minded from all eternity to miake known unto His creatures, for their greater information, delight, and blessedness ; to make known, I say, to all His in- telligent creatures, the grace and mercy, the forgiveness and love which He beareth towards those who love the honour of His Son, and believe in the word of His testimony. In order that thereby His children, comprehending more fully the beauty and loveliness of the Divine Majesty, might desire Him the more, and cleave unto Him with an entire fidelity. ITS ORIGIN IN THE WILL OF GOD. 13 Which aspect, if I may so speak, of the Divine character, could never be beheld by a creature unfallen ; forasmuch as grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, do necessarily presuppose and require guilt, and offence, and hatefulness, for the objects upon which to put themselves forth, as necessarily as the power, and wisdom, and order, and harmony of creation re- quire a chaos, and confusion, and darkness which they may adorn, and order, and bless. And as God did not at once command the created world to come forth as we now behold it, but first permitted a chaos which was without form and void, in order that by successive acts of wisdom and good- ness, He might order it into beauty and light; so also did He permit that in the moral part of His works there should be a rebellion, and darkness, and disobedience, in order that by successive acts of compelling grace, He might lead out the harmony and unity of all His chosen, " against the dispensation of the fulness of the times when He shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in the heavens and which are on the earth." And in thus proceeding. He doth manifest the grace or favour which He beareth even to sinners who honour His Son, giving His Son thereby a very great exaltation before the heavenly host, when they perceive that for His sake the Father of all can forgive sin. This, then, you will bear in mind, that the incarnation of His Son is the way by which God revealeth that more tender aspect of His being called grace — that part of the Divine substance which could not otherwise have been made known. And therefore the gospel is called a mystery, because it was long hid to all, and is yet in a great measure hid unto all, being still only in the act and progress of unfolding itself Abraham had a distant prospect of it, and Moses had a material model of it, the psalmist a royal foretaste of it, and the prophets a national manifestation of it, which yet themselves understood not, though they believed ; and our Lord verified Abraham's dis- tant view, substantiated Moses's shadow, answered part of the predictions of the psalms and the prophets, prepared the way of the Spirit to open the mystery more perfectly to the apos- tles, and promised that He would come again to manifest, clear up, and accomplish what still lay shrouded in the mys- 14 THE INCARNATION: tery : and this we look for Him to accomplish against the dispensation of the fulness of the times. And to this agree the words of the apostle, when speaking of the insight which had been given unto him, as you find in Eph. iii. 4-6 — " Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." And further, in verses 8-1 1 — " Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ : to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Upon which word " now," I remark, that we, that the principalities and powers in heavenly places, that all created beings, shall have no other revelation than we now possess in the Church con- cerning the manifold wisdom of God ; though, as it opens more and more, and is by the Lion of the tribe of Judah un- sealed more and more, it shall be more and more discovered what treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Jesus Christ, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell, according as we find it written in the 7th verse of the 2d chapter of the same epistle — " That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." Take this, therefore, my beloved brethren, for the true prin- ciple of the work of the incarnation, that it was a purpose which God purposed in Himself, to make known by Jesus Christ, and by all who shall honour and cleave to Him, the riches of His grace and mercy to the chief of sinners. And taking this for the true account of the matter, be comforted and strengthened and edified, in knowing that there is nothing accidental nor circumstantial in the work of your redemption. ITS ORIGIN IN THE WILL OF GOD. 1 5 but that it is complete in Him in whom ye beheve and trust ; — that as the men are carried safe who cleave unto the life- boat, while the men that rashly commit themselves to the billows are dashed to pieces, or, to keep to the sacred emblem, as the souls who believed Noah and took refuge in the ark were saved, while all the rest perished, so you have nothing to fear if ye cleave to Christ, and resign yourselves to the shelter of His brooding wings. Oh, our fathers knew the com- fort of this doctrine of the unconditional, uncircumstantial, un- accidental, the substantial, eternal, and unchangeable election in Christ Jesus ; and, receiving it, they grew into His simili- tude, and were strengthened to do works worthy of His holi- ness. But we have confounded the security of the Divine purpose which includeth the Church, and embraceth every spirit which believeth in Jesus, and which is the argument for believing in Him, that we may be so kept in safety for ever ; this have we confounded by looking continually at the varie- ties of the moods and frames of the natural man, and chang- ing conditions of the visible Church, which have no more to do with the constancy of that purpose in which we are wrapped up with Jesus, than this changing atmosphere and cloudy canopy over our heads hath to do with the fixed stars of heaven, and the constant light and heat of the glorious sun. So much have I to say in the general way which one topic of a discourse can contain, concerning the first and great cause of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and now I pray you to observe these two things, which naturally flow from what hath been said : — First, In order that God might not be the cause of sin, and so all ideas of good and evil become confounded, it was pro- per, as from His own essential goodness it was necessary, that every creature which His finger framed should be made per- fect in its kind, fit to shadow forth some portion of the Crea- tor's worthiness, and to execute some part of His all-consistent and all-gracious will. Wherefore every creature being framed obedient to a good law and blessed in the obedience of the same, it must follow that if any creature fall from its primi- tive condition and frame of righteousness, it must do so by 1 6 THE INCARNATION: positive transgression of that ordinance under which it was placed by its Creator, and therein held by strong obligations and inducements, yet by no means so strong as to preclude a fall, which were infallibility itself and unchangeableness, — a state of being which pertaineth, as I conceive, at present to God only, but unto which all the redeemed are working their way, with all those heavenly and earthly things which, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, are in Christ Jesus to be gathered together into one. I mean to say, that we have no tidings, nor records, nor, as I think, ideas of any unchange- able but the One unchangeable, the I AM, and therefore we ought not to wonder that angels and mankind should fall, or impute their fall unto God the Creator, because He had fore- seen the occurrence thereof, and taken measures that there should thence redound glory to Himself in the highest, peace on earth, and good-will to the children of men, new faithful- ness and delight to the morning stars and the angels of God. The fall of the creatures therefore involveth guilt, and that of the deepest dye, if indeed there be deeper and deeper dyes of guilt ; which, though it be a true idea to a creature already in a fallen state, is not so, as I take it, to a creature who hath not fallen, in whom any insurrection of the will, or disobedience of the act, doth constitute the very essence and substance of sin, which may afterwards be varied by particular accidents, but cannot, as I take it, be changed in its essence. Now, brethren, when guilt had been incurred, as it appeareth that it must occur in the fall of any creature, how is that creature to be delivered from under the state of guilt ? How is the Almighty in shewing forth His love and mercy to the unfallen, and revealing that other aspect of Himself, to approach this guilty creature who hath flown off to wander in the evil and errone- ous maze of an independent will. This is the question which ignorance and presumption and wickedness findeth no ques- tion, but resolveth into God's indiscriminate mercy; but which wisdom, and righteousness, and modesty, findeth the mystery of mysteries, the perplexity of perplexities ; — insomuch, that the very wisest of the heathen did say, he believed God would, in the time He judged best, send forth some one from Himself to teach mankind that mystery of mysteries, how a holy God ITS ORIGIN IN THE WILL OF GOD. 1 7 could pardon sin. If it can be done, it can be declared ; but the difficulty lieth all in the accomplishment of it. For it would ill answer either the end of the Creator or the wellbeing of His creatures, that He should make known that new and tenderer aspect of His character, which is grace, at the ex- pense and obliteration of that other, which is righteousness. This would make the Father of lights to be a changing and revolving light ; whereas He is the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Besides, it is in virtue of His holiness that sin is sin ; for if you take away the holiness of God, all distinction is for ever confounded; and seeing the sinning creature is the evidence and token of His holiness, if that sinning creature were to be pardoned by a single act of love, love would have strangled holiness ; or there would be a reign now of holiness, then of love, and no one could say when there might be another shift from love to holiness : and therefore, such an arbitrary redemption, even if possible, would be no redemption to be depended on. Wherefore, in the love, the holiness must shine forth, as the light of the sun shineth forth in company with his heat. The new manifestation of Jehovah's being must illustrate the old, not cast it into the shade. The new knowledge must be the old waxed more clear and manifest ; no extinction nor oblite- ration thereof And therefore I observe — Secondly, That seeing, not to drive all order within the universe into confusion, and all integrity into distraction, and put all righteousness to shame, there must be with the Divine Power a faculty of preserving holiness, and of forgiv- ing sin, I am at my wit's-end to know how : here I stand non- plussed, my faculty of reason serving me not a jot. If I could conceive of sin as an accidental thing, which an acci- dental punishment could remove out of the way, I were in no strait nor dilemma ; for in that case, after we have suffered a while God may remain satisfied. But what ^ base notion of God this is ; as if there were any propor- tion between the guilt of sin, and so much pain and punish- ment, in the mind of the Most Holy! That notion of the Universalists would dethrone my God at once from all my reverence, and set Him lower than myself; foras- VOL. V. B 1 8 THE INC A RNA TION : much as I would despise myself for wreaking out so much punishment upon him who had offended me, and, without more ado, taking him by the hand as if he were cleansed. Not but that pain and penalty will and must ever attend on sin, but that an age and an age of ages of pain and punishment will never, never wipe away sin. Sin is an alienation of the will ; it is a spiritual act against a Spirit, against the good and gracious Father of spirits ; and the root of its punishment is in the will ; the strength of its bond- age, the yoke of its thraldom, is upon the will ; and it is only the recovery and restoration of the will, in its own act, which can put us again even on good terms with ourselves, much more with the gracious God whom we had offended. But what is to bring back the will of a spirit which of its own accord hath swerved away, which did not choose to stand when all was in its favour .-' what, I say, is to bring it back again when its whole bent is gone the other way, with all the malicious powers of darkness overloading and overbearing it ^ Tell me how this is to come to pass, and you shall be my prophet and priest and king. For verily to do this pertaineth only to Him who is my Prophet, and Priest, and King. Conceiving thus of sin as an eternal and unchangeable, an original condition of the will, which no punishment can alter, which all the accidents within the coasts of time cannot alter, I stand at that pass over which nothing can carry me but Almighty power ; and I may say, with reverence, that not even power Almighty of itself can deliver me. Almighty power cannot reconcile this contradiction, that holiness should be preserved, and the creatures who have offended holiness be, by a bare act of will, reinstated. We stand here upon the brink of a chasm, over which, with reverence be it spoken, even Almighty power cannot convey us without some further revelation than that of His omnipotence. The unity of the Godhead availeth us not here, where our reason refuseth to move forward without the revelation of more persons than one in the Godhead ; from which the revelation of the mys- tery Cometh. Therefore the divine evangelist beginneth by declaring the eternal Divinity of the Word, saying, " In the beginning was ITS ORIGIN IN THE WILL OF GOD. 19 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ;" and, after dilating upon His uncreated essence, upon His divine works in the times of old, when the heavens and the earth were created by Him, and hfe and light were bestowed by Him and of Him, he addeth, " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." John comprehended the mystery at which I declared, a little ago, that human reason must stand for ever nonplussed, and which no knowledge of God's unity can ever resolve. Therefore, after declaring the eternal God- head of the Word, and at the same time intimating the mys- tery of His personal distinctness, by saying, not merely that He was God, but also that He was with God, he proceeds to declare His incarnation, — "He became flesh;" and the end of it, — for the purpose of revealing to us that grace of God to the sinful, and truth to those with whom He had entered into covenant, which could never have been known if we had not fallen, and would never have been known had the Son not been willing and free to take upon Himself the remedy of our condition. Oh, what volumes are contained in these words, " Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ !" Grace ; that is, the knowledge of the love and mercy which is in God, of the whole mystery of good-will and peace which is in the gospel ; the condescension of the holiest to the most unholy. His holi- ness unsullied by the condescension, yea, made infinitely more bright ; the condescension of the Almighty to the weakest ; all that is included in the word Father, Redeemer, Saviour ; a mystery into which the angels desire to look, and which the apostle who had profited the largest therein, could only ad- mire with silent admiration, saying, " Oh, the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus; it passeth knowledge." Truth; that is, the ful- filment of all promise, the keeping of all covenant, the answer of all expectation, which had been given since the world began, and the assurance of all faith, which might be rested thereon 20 THE INCARNATION: until the world should end. This grace and truth came, not by the w THE INCARNA TION : creation, it appeareth, that before the human race was brought into being, sin had been permitted to enter, that through it the glory of the grace of God might more abundantly appear; for there are " angels which kept not their first estate ;" and there are " elect angels " mentioned in the Scripture ; whereby the glory of God's creation was in a manner marred, His majesty insulted, and the bounds of His dominions sorely troubled and infested. And hitherto there was no mention of a remedy; and, I take it, there was no possibility of a remedy according to the angelic constitution of being, which being once fallen is for ever fallen. This is a mystery which I pretend not to fathom ; but the fact is not the less certain that there is no redemption for the apostate angels. I am not called at present to enter into this, but would just observe in passing, that man was created a living soul, but the angels were created spirits ; " who maketh his angels spirits ;" and hence it may arise, that they are not capable of any re- demption ; for it is continually said, that the sin against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven. Now it would seem to me, that a pure spirit in sinning, must sin against the law of its being, which, in the case of the angels, being the law of the Holy Spirit, is unpardonable. But however this may be, it is most certainly revealed that sin had been manifested, and no deliverance from it had yet been manifested ; no grace, no mercy, no holiness, no glory, arising from the victory over and subjection of sin. It had broken in like a mighty tem- pest, and swept away a whole host of the subjects of our King : nay more, it had power to awaken insurrection in their own breasts, and in obedience to their own will to carry them away. The region of pure and mighty spirits, therefore, had become darkened ; God's glory in that work of creation ob- scured ; and the enemy had obtained an active head, and a permitted power. And I may say that this former manifesta- tion of God's being had become ambiguous and equivocal in the sight of the creatures : for what may hinder another re- bellion, and another .'' Those indeed who fell are restrained in chains of darkness, and may deter by their example ; but there is no security as yet against the breeding of the same spiritual pestilence : so that, I may say, the higher creatures ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 79 lay continually open and exposed, unless some hope, promise, or assurance were given them of a time when, and of a means whereby, the activity of sin was to be destroyed, and their own security secured : which assurance, though it be not expressly revealed, yet have I no doubt, from the whole bearing of revelation, the Lord had given them ; and that before man was created it was known in heaven, that through this creature man, the great mystery of the Divine nature, and the great destruction of sin, were to be made manifest : yea, that it was not only known for the comfort and consolation of the elect angels, but also known among the apostasy for their terror ; seeing it is written, they " believe and tremble." Nay more, I have ofttimes conjectured, yea, and almost believed, that the apostasy and rebellion of the angels in heaven arose against the knowledge and revelation made unto them of God's eter- nal purpose to manifest His fulness in another type of being than their own : for it is continually written, that by Christ and for Christ all things were created ; that is, for His posses- sion as the Christ, — not as the Word, but as the Christ, or the God-man, which He was from all eternity, being "slain from the foundation of the world." The promulgation of this de- cree in heaven, I conjecture, yea I believe, was the cause of the first apostasy. It was an apostasy against the Christ, against the truth, that the Divine fulness should become visible in another form of being than their own : otherwise why, as the Christ, should He judge the angels, if against Him as the Christ they had not, in some way or other, rebelled ; or why should they have the same portion with the apostasy amongst men in the lake that burneth, if they had not sinned as men have sinned : they, against the spiritual revelation of the Christ proper to them ; we against the verbal and fleshly and ecclesiastical manifestation of Him .-* And to the same effect, I believe, that the elect angels stood and do still stand in the Christ, by having received the de- cree when it was promulgated in heaven before the day of our creation, and having stood fast in their allegiance ; so that we may say that the most ancient form of being was the Man-God, the Eternal Son, generated from all eter- nity, though not the first manifested in being, but that for 8o THE INCARNA TION : which all prior manifestations did but prepare the way ; and that in Him all good things consist, or stand fast together, and that from Him all evil things apostatise, and against Him rebel : wherefore in the end all the elect shall be gathered together in Him, and all the apostasy shall be cast into that passive and ineffectual condition of misery, called the second death, in the hell which He hath founded for them. Now, brethren, think not that this is a speculation ; it is the orthodox doctrine of our fathers, who, in treating of the Church, or in writing out their faith concerning the Church, made it to consist of elect angels and elect men, chosen to- gether in Christ ; and it is the doctrine taught in our Church- standards and by St Paul in his epistles. With the more confidence, therefore, let us proceed. The apostasy of the angels was permitted by God, or, to speak more correctly, the law of the angelic being was so constituted by God as that it could apostatise, only in pre- paration for the bringing in of the Christ, that perfect and all-comprehending form of being. And for this end the creature man was constituted, under a new law and condition of being, such that, if he should fall by the inroad of sin, he might rise again by the manifestation of Christ, which was, as I said above, by his being created a living soul. For though man was created in the image of God, he was not so in the same sense in which Christ is called " the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person." For the two Adams are drawn into contrast by the apostle in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians, in this manner: "It is sown a natural body, (or a body proper to a soul,) it is raised a spiritual body, (or a body proper to a spirit :) there is a natural (soulish) body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written. The first man Adam was made a living soul, the second Adam a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is of the soul: and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy : and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, so we shall also bear ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 8i the image of the heavenly." In this passage we are taught that Adam was not a spiritual creature in the sense in which we are spiritual, who are born again of the Spirit by the quickening power of the Lord Jesus Christ: nor was he a creature in the dignity into which we are adopted by faith, and unto which we shall be admitted in the day of the Lord's manifestation. Whatever distinction there is between a soul and a spirit, — and such a distinction is continually preserved in Scripture, — that same distinction there is between the genera- tion of Adam and the regeneration of Christ: and this dis- tinction is declared in the passage to be equal to that which there is between the body which is sown in the grave, and the body which is raised at the resurrection. For the further illustration of this point is to be diligently observed what Paul declareth in the 2d chapter of the same epistle, that the natural man, or the man of the soul, which Adam in his first creation was constituted, " receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." From this we learn that there is in that form of being called the soul, after which Adam was created, a natural incapacity for receiving or knowing the things which the Spirit teacheth, which are the same things which Christ revealeth ; and that this is a form of being preparatory for a higher and more perfect one, which God might perhaps have given to our first parents if they had stood faithful unto Him who created them. They were perfect in that kind in which they were created ; according as it is written, " This only have I found, that God made man upright;" but that kind was not of the perfectest, which yet awaited them, and to which they per- haps would have been translated if they had not fallen. And this doth exactly agree with what is written by the apostle Paul in another place, where, in sketching the same parallel between the first and the second Adam, he calleth the former a type of the latter : "which is the type of Him that was to come," (Rom. v. 14.) And certainly Adam, in his creation, was the fullest type of Christ, being without sin, and invested with the sovereignty of the creatures ; being planted in a paradise, and having a wife taken out of his bleeding side, VOL. V. F 82 THE INCARNATION: who might be to him for a help, and the mother of many- children, having also to contend with the serpent. But he was no more than the type, — the prophet, priest, and king of the garden of Eden, typifying the Prophet, Priest, and King of the whole creation of God : and while he stood in this con- dition he was not capable of receiving that knowledge of God unto which we have been brought by the manifestation of Jesus Christ. He was the perfection, and as it were the fountain-head of all that knowledge which, without revela- tion, the soul of man is capable of: as the knowledge of nature and of natural life, the knowledge of his own being, and the knowledge of all the beings over whom he was con- stituted king ; all natural sciences, when perfected, being but the fragments of Adam's intuition ; but into the knowledge of God he could only go so far as to acknowledge Him for his Creator, and the Creator of the things which were around him. Of God's spiritual being I am in great doubt whether he could have any distinct apprehension or knowledge ; because Paul expressly saith, that the natural man, or the man of the soul, of which Adam was the perfect form, knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God: he could not know the Father, who is known only by the Son, who was not yet come forth from the bosom of the Father ; and not knowing the Son he could not know the Spirit, whose pro- cession succeedeth that of the Son. More than the know- ledge of a Creator he could not have. His being was only, if I may so speak, preparatory to a spiritual being : where- fore the Lord God presented Himself to him in some reve- lation proper to that state ; walking, as it is said, in the garden in the cool of the day; with some attributes kin- dred to Adam's nature, which delighted in the garden, and loved the cool time of the day. In like manner, Satan the tempter presented himself with like accommodation, not as a bright and powerful spirit, whirling him away whi- ther he would, and making the round world reveal before him all its attractions, but as a serpent, one of the subject creatures ; and he beguiled him with the prospect of being preferred to become as gods, knowing good and evil ; whereby we perceive that Adam, in this former state of his being, was ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 83 inferior to the angels, whom I understand here by the word "gods:" whereas the heirs of salvation enjoy the same as their ministers and servants. From all which I conclude, that even his knowledge of God as a Creator was very in- ferior to that which we now have by the revelation of Christ Jesus. But into this subject I only open a door of thought, without entering, lest I should be diverted from my great subject of God glorified in the Son of man, having said enough for our present purpose of shewing that man in his original creation was not the glory of God, but only the type of " the Son of man," who was prepared in the counsels of eternity to manifest that glory ; and that his creation was but a step towards the introduction of the God-man into the visible universe. In which inferior form of manhood I believe him to have been created, that when he should fall he might not utterly fall, but in falling rise through deep distress, and, by omnipotent grace, into that most excellent form of being whereof paradise saw but the goodly bud. Nevertheless, to this new creature, the expectation of the elect, and the envy of the apostate angels, was directed ; the former resting assured that in it the great desire of the heavens, and the latter being assured, or at least dreading, that in it the great terror of hell, was to be revealed. And Satan, the prince of darkness, and the ruler of the powers of darkness, having set himself to destroy this creature, did so far forth succeed in destroying him as was necessary for his own de- struction : he accomplished the breach which he sought to accomplish ; but he little imagined that through that breach the Eternal Light against which he warred was to stream into the visible world, and revive the hearts of the elect, against whom he wageth perpetual war. He thought that if this creature should fall, as he himself had fallen, the fall would be irretrievable, and the Word of God, against which he warred, falsified for ever ; — insufficient knowledge ever outwitting it- self, inefficient light of falsehood always extinguished by the omnipotent light of truth. This fall of man being accom- plished, the expectation of heaven, though not defeated, was again projected forward : and the song of joy which they sung over the creation was turned into sorrow and sadness, 84 THE INCARNA TION : when they saw the earth also possessed by Satan, and man- kind bereaved of the image of God. But their hope and faith was not utterly defeated, any more than was that of man. For a new revelation of the promise was given, and that, I doubt not, more distinct than any hint or intimation of it which had been given before. Yet were they all again sus- pended upon hope ; and the Word of God seemed, to the eyes of the beholders, again contraverted, and His purpose again contravened : and sin to have gained another advantage over holiness ; another veil to be drawn over the sanctuary, and thicker clouds to envelope the dwelling-place of God. And now, thenceforward, all heaven and earth looked for- ward for the Man, by eminency called The Son OF Man ; that is, the child for whom manhood was created, and through whom the great secret was to be revealed, and the Divine nature for ever manifested in an outward form; — which was, as it were, the great deliverance for which the womb of all creation had longed, and made an empty and abortive effort to produce it at the birth of Adam, when things were not yet ripe for the great discovery. To see God, and to be able to name His name, had been the two great desires of heaven and earth, and, I may say, must ever be the great desire of every creature. Adam did but hear His voice as He walked in the garden; and whenever any apparition or manifestation of Him was given to the patriarchs or to the prophets, they expected that they should instantly die, because, as they thought, they had seen God, whom no man can see and live. The cherubim are represented as veiling their faces from the greatness of His glory ; and the light in which He dwelleth is said to be un- approachable, and clouds and darkness to be around Him. Hence also the exclusive honour of Moses above all men, was to speak face to face with God ; which could yet be no more than the beholding of the manifestation of the glorified humanity of the Lord Jesus, symbolised in the Shechinah above the mercy seat ; and this, we think, was granted unto the man Moses, in order that, by this solitary exception, while the mysteriousness of the thing was nowise weakened, the desire of attaining unto it might be rendered more in- tense, and the expectation of one day possessing it might be ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 85 encouraged. No doubt, also, herein consisteth the Lord's abomination of all idolatry, that by presenting a feigned likeness of Himself, decked out with the lustrous glory of gold and precious stones, it doth attempt to open the great secret, and so far forth to destroy that one great glory of the human race, which is its distinction above all races of being, and the palladium of its safety, that in it, and through it, the great mystery of all creation, and desire of all creatures, is to have its accomplishment, by the manifestation of God-man in all His fulness and glory. And whereas the name or power of God is equivalent to His nature or being, while this lay hid the former also lay hid, and was considered to be an in- scrutable secret ; and a most daring profanation to this day is it held by the Jews to name the great name of God. And with us Christians also, who possess the name. The Lord Jesus Christ, there is yet a mystery drawn over this wonder- ful name, which will not be declared till the day of the second advent ; of which mystery the opening ought to be a greater object of desire than it now is, for the Lord expressly pro- miseth it to the faithful as a special reward : " I will give him my new name." But how can anything connected with the second advent be desired, when the very advent itself hath ceased to be desired in this all-but-apostate Church } But though that body of men, now misnamed " church," and better named of themselves, " religious world," hath ceased to look forward either to the manifestation of the Godhead in a visible form, or to the revelation of His full name, it hath ever, as I said, been the desire of elect angels and elect men, and the horror of reprobate angels and reprobate men : but these " Laodiceans are neither cold nor hot; I would they were either cold or hot." And why hath it ever been the desire of the innumerable company of angels and the general assembly of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven? Because it was the purpose and decree of God, promulgated from the foundation of the world, and gradually growing into manifestation by slow degrees and manifold pangs of crea- tion, according to the importance, the infinite and all-compre- hending importance, of the issues which rested on it. For, brethren, it was, as I have said, the nucleus of the whole 86 THE INCARNATION: scheme, the great end and first beginning of all : and that which went before was but the germination of the seed before it appears above the earth, or the preparing of the soil for the casting of the seed into the earth. And so God, and angels, and men, and devils, and whatever else existeth, all looked forward to the Man in whose outward form the God- head was to become eternally manifest. For that in man it was to be manifest, God himself had purposed from all eter- nity; and the angels, no doubt, had heard the rumour of it ; wherefore the morning stars sang together, and the angels of God shouted over His birth : and Satan, with his apostasy, had also heard a rumour of it, wherefore he solicited Him with his wiles to forsake His allegiance : and the knowledge was kept alive, amongst the sons of men, by every revelation made to the patriarchs and the prophets ; until at length in Bethlehem, in the stable of Bethlehem, — fit emblem of the world into which He was born, — the child of infinite hopes and longings was brought into being: whereupon, instantly the heavenly host waked all their choral symphonies, and sang, " Glory to God in the highest ; peace on earth, and good will to the children of men." I consider, therefore, brethren, that the glory which then brake through the clouds that surround the dwelling-place of God, is no less a glory than the manifestation of His whole being and attributes, which had been rather revealed in hints that it was about to be revealed than in any positive revela- tion. The creation lived in hope, and, I may say, is yet living in hope, till the hidden majesty of Christ shall be led forth most gloriously, from the temple of the tabernacle in heaven. But when Christ was born in Bethlehem, the hope of the elect angels in heaven and the saints on earth had its visible object: the end of the great scheme became manifest, the subject of the great decree was revealed. They could look upon and behold what they had long desired to look upon and behold : they knew that in this second Adam the great question was again to be brought to issue ; and if He stand, that the great strife will be at an end, the great ques- tion resolved, and the great mystery opened. And the second Adam was put upon His probation as a man, having, ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 87 as St Paul saith, emptied Himself of His divinity ; in whom the divinity had of its own accord suspended itself, and by its own power kept itself continually suspended. He was man and God in one person ; and during His humility the God- head was employed in humbling or restraining itself, — which, I may say, is the highest act of a self-existent being to sus- pend His own activity, as it is also the highest act of grace. And thus as being man He went through the trial, out of which if He shall come unconquered then is the mystery accomplished, and the Godhead shall be for ever manifested in an outward visible condition. Therefore the Lord said upon the eve of His last trial, in the beginning of His last discourse, " Now is my Father glorified." And thus, brethren, you can perceive, agreeably to the idea witJ\ which we opened this head of discourse, that this glory, wb'ch the Son of man brought unto His Father, con- sisteth in no less than the manifestation of the fulness of the Godhead todily, which great manifestation to distinguish into parts i: difficult, but yet for the greater clearness I do it thus : — First, The nanifestation of the Divine substance in three persons, or disinct subsistencies. As to the unity of God, there never hah been any doubt in the Church, and out of the Church then never hath been any agreement ; for though the Unitarians aid Deists pretend to worship one God, it is not the one' God vhoni we worship, but a certain idea of per- fect being and infnite power which they have from their own brain, an abstracticn of certain properties of man, a generalisa- tion of certain prin iples of matter, " a great first cause least understood," an all-irevailing power, and everything or any- thing but the true, elf-existing, personal God. Alas ! alas ! for their miserable d^kness and prostitution of holy truth, to call these conception, our living and true God ! But in the Church, I say, whethe of the angels or of men, there never was a doubt concernim the unity of God ; while there was no clear knowledge of a rinity of persons in the Divine sub- stance. It was not unti the Son came into manifestation as a man, until the Word Aas made flesh and dwelt among us, became our Saviour, the ong-expected Messiah on earth, the 88 THE INCARNATION: long-looked-for Christ and Lord in heaven, for whom all things were created, that the truth of the glorious Trinity- became a grand and manifest truth for ever. Because so soon as the Son became manifest He made known the Father, to whom He always referred back as the eternal Father of the Son, and in Him the great originator of all things, and principal party to the eternal purpose which the Son came forth to reveal. " No man hath seen the Father at any time ; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him." By the same act also did the Spirit become manifest ; for, as was said at the beginning of this discourse, Christ's becoming outward and visible was the act of the Spirit, He was conceived by the power of the Holy- Ghost, He grew in wisdom by the power of the Holy Ghost, and walked by the same inspiration of the Holy ^host, in the favour of God and man, a man under the laWj^y'et com- plete before the law, and blameless ; and when )Ie passed through baptism, to become the first-begotten o*^ the adop- tion, and the foundation-stone of the spiritual Church, He was endowed by the Holy Ghost with baptisnal gifts and graces, as He had been endowed before with' circumcision gifts and graces ; and by the power of the Holy Ghost He went about doing all manner of miracles, andA^y the mighty working of the Holy Ghost was raised from/the dead to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high,Avhen, becoming Lord and Christ, He shed down the Holy Ghost upon the Church, which is His temple unto this /ay. So that in Christ all the glories of the Trinity wee first manifested, with all their various offices, of which I^annot now speak particularly. Secondly, The holiness of God was i/stified, and, I may say, for the first time manifested, in he/ven and in earth by the Son of man. I say, for the first ti^e ; because into both parts of creation, celestial and terrestriji, sin had entered, and out of neither seemeth it to have beei/ cleansed ; for even in heaven, among the sons of God, Sain had a certain right and prerogative, which more than o/ce we find him exercis- ing. And certainly on the earth Ae holiness of God had never been manifested or known : pr though a church had ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 89 been separated by special promises and privileges, and out- ward rites and sacraments, yet ever and aye did Satan steal in and seduce, and at length bring into open apostasy, by far the more numerous and ostensible part thereof ; and holiness there was not anywhere, or at anytime since the fall, separate or unmixed holiness, until the Son of God did come. And forasmuch as the holiness of the Creator must stand in sus- pense until there be some form or type of His handiwork which exhibiteth the same, and neither angels nor men were that form or type of being, (for both had fallen,) I do say that the holiness of God, which was both known and believed, was never yet demonstrated until that new type or form of being, the second Adam, the God-man, was revealed : in whose triumphant life over sin, and whose triumphant resurrection from death and the graye, in whose triumphant defeat of Satan and all his host, the glory of God's holiness was manifestly shewn unto angels and the sons of men, and an assurance given that the time was at hand when it should be established tri- umphant over all who had ever gainsaid it. Now, brethren, this holiness of God is His true glory, as the white light is the true glory of the sun. The holiness of God is the unbroken beam of His glory, whereof mercy and justice, and sovereignty and goodness, are but, as it were, the refracted or broken parts ; and as the green and the violet, and the orange and the red, and the other colours into which the rays of the sun are re- fracted in the rainbow, when mixed in their just proportions, do reproduce the colourless white : so reckon I that the glory of His goodness and mercy, and justice and sovereignty, con- cerning which, in the first instance, it is necessary to discourse unto fallen sinners, do as the soul clears from the mist and clouds, pass into one pure unbroken radiance of His holiness : so that when I say the holiness of God was first manifested in the Christ, it is all the same as to say, that the glory of His mercy, and of His justice, and of His goodness, and all His attributes, were then first displayed. For if there were no unbroken light of holiness, how could there be any varieties of that light > Thirdly, The glory of God's almighty power was first mani- fested in Christ. For till He was manifest in the flesh, God's go THE INCARNATION: power stood in suspense, yea, and will never be fully cleared until hell shall receive its possessors, or, I should rather say, its sufferers. For truly the tide of sin was never turned, until the Lord did come and stem and roll it back. There was no knowing whether the darkness or the light should prevail, until the true Light appeared, which the darkness compre- hended not. Then indeed the true nature of sin was disco- vered to be only a condition to holiness, not a thing in itself, but the state of a thing in its progress to perfection. We were sinners only that we might be sinners saved ; we had fallen only that we might rise higher from our fall ; and this is true of all men when as yet they were in their first head, that is, Adam. Adam's fall was permitted and ordained, only that Adam might be exalted from the con- dition of a living soul into the condition of a quickened spirit And so of each one of us who fell in him, Ave have been brought into an outward condition out of Adam, and stand in our present peril only that we may be brought back again and recapitulated into Christ. By which great evolution of all things from the idea in the Son, back again into the outward reality in the Son, the glorious and mighty power of God had been displayed, and the evanescent, tran- sient power of sin and its weakness have been manifested, yea, its subserviency and profitableness, and I may say even necessity, to the manifestation of the Almighty power of God, in redeeming all things from the lowest, basest condition, into the most elevated, and dignified, and mighty. For the Christ is raised above every dignity, power, and authority which is named in the universe of God : and so shall every member of Christ be for ever raised. Whence is made the most stu- pendous manifestation and monument of the eternal power of the Godhead. And in these three things the manifestation of the constitution of the Godhead, of the holiness of the Godhead in the government of the creation, and of the power of the Godhead in overcoming sin, I conceive the glory brought unto the Father by the Son of man doth chiefly consist. This was the glory in the Highest, which the angels sung over His birth. This was the glory of God which moved the Father to yield Him up, which moved the Son to offer Himself, which moved ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 91 the Holy Spirit to realise and substantiate His outward and visible existence. And here we conclude our first head of discourse, concerning the glory which accrues from the simple act, or rather from the design and purpose and nature of the incarnation. And now we come to consider more closely the work itself, and the glory with which He glorified God by His work upon the earth. " I have glorified thy name upon the earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." What was this work which was given Him to do } what was the glory which He brought by His life unto His holy Father ? This belongeth to the second part of our discourse. PART II. The work which the Son of man had to do npon the earth, for the glory of God, which is the second head of method, was no less than to realise the eternal purpose of God, to bring Himself into manifestation. Now, in considering wherein consisteth the glory brought unto God hereby, it hath pre- sented itself to my mind under these three particulars : — First, He brought into existence the complete and perfect form of being which is the God-man, and for which all other beings, whether in heaven or in earth, were but the prepara- tion, and in which they must stand as the head through all eternity ; and therein He shewed forth the glory of God, in putting the headstone upon that fabric of creation, of which, heretofore. He had created the several parts. If His creation of the creatures was glorious, how much more glori- ous His own creation as the Man (" made of a woman,") the God-man, the Sovereign of them all! As the crea- tion of man, on the sixth day, was more glorious than the creation of all the inferior animals, whose being is all a mys- tery, opening into, and resolved in, the being of man ; so the creation of the Christ, that is, the incarnation of the eternal Word, was more glorious than the creation of angels, and of men, and of all other creatures, whose being was all a mys- tery and a confusion until a Head was brought in to be over them all. This is the first particular in which the Son of 92 THE INCARNATION: man brought glory to God. The second is, by His opening the decree of election, and explaining how the elect angels of God had stood, when the rest fell, and how the election according to grace, amongst men, had been retrieved : and publishing to sinful men the gospel of the grace of God, which Cometh out of, and floweth from, the fountain of the decree of electing love. This is the aspect of His mission, so continually spoken of in the Psalms : " I will declare the decree ; I will preach righteousness in the great congregation. When I shall receive the congregation I will judge right- eously;" that is. He would publish and declare the true standing of every creature who doth stand in the favour of God. And thus did He open the glory of God, which had lain hidden in the eternal and inscrutable decree ; and made it the basis of all preaching unto this day. Thirdly, He wrestled with the enemies of God, and overthrew them ; and shewed the glory of His power and holiness in their weak- ness and discomfiture ; and so set on foot the redemption of the bodies of the saints from the grave, and of their souls from the place of separate spirits; and of the creatures of God from darkness and sin ; which redemption He .shall accomplish in the fulness of time ; but, in as far as the right and title is concerned. He completed it at His resurrection from the dead. These three particulars I shall now give all diligence to open ; and I pray you to give all patient heed to the word which, for your sakes, the Lord may put into my mouth. And be not weary, I pray you, of the message of God, but take heed how ye hear. I. Though there was a creation of angels, and likewise of men, before the bringing in of the Christ, or the revealing of the Man-God, it is constantly set forth in Holy Scripture that, to manifest Him, and in Him to manifest Himself, was the first beginning and great end of all the creation of God, for which all that went before was but the necessary preparation. For as the great idea of a master-builder discovereth not itself in the first stone which is laid, nor in the first scafibld- ing which is reared up, but in the progress, and often towards the completion of the work : so the system of the universal Architect, in creating being, though, from the beginning, it ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 93 was beautiful, hath a unity, and design, and end, towards which it all proceeded, and without which it was altogether incomplete ; to wit, the personal manifestation of Himself in visible power and majesty. And as the physiologists, who study the various tribes of living things upon the earth, do tell you that the whole series of the creatures, upwards to man, are but, as it were, efforts of nature to produce the parts of which man's body is composed ; studies and mould- ings of the several fragments, which in him are all sweetly and harmoniously recomposed ; so do I say that the creation of pure spirits in heaven, and upon earth of creatures made up of body and spirit, was but designing and making of the parts, and the preparations for the constituting of that divine form of being which in Christ Jesus appeared, and in Christ Jesus shall to eternity abide the most glorious Head for all creatures to conform and submit themselves unto, in the wor- ship and service of the invisible God and Father of all. In angels we have pure and unmixed spirits to give a manifesta- tion of spirit, and of the functions of pure spirits ; such as understanding, righteousness, love, &c. ; but in man we have the functions of spirit made visible by being breathed into tabernacles of clay, in order therewith to make a manifesta- tion of body also with its several properties of comprehending space, and possessing the material creation ; — the first being, as it were, a part of the second ; and the second but, as it were, the type of that Divine form of being which Christ was to be. For, as hath been set forth in the former head of dis- course, "Adam was but the type of Him that was to come," that is, Adam was not the perfect work, but the type or fore- shewing of it ; even as the tabernacle was but the type of the Church which now is. And therefore the Creator said, " Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness ;" by which word of God I understand, not a likeness in respect to the moral righteousness of His Spirit merely, for this is pos- sessed by the elect angels also ; but in respect likewise to the composite and mixed character of his person, made up of body and spirit ; to signify that he was the type, image, or likeness of that form of being in which God was hereafter to be re- vealed, and for ever manifested : and, accordingly, the Creator 94 THE INC A RNA TION : proceeded, after having spoken this word, to fashion him a body of the dust of the ground, and afterward to breathe into his nostrils the spirit of life, and he became a living soul. So when the fulness of time was come, the Christ, or Second Adam, had at first a body prepared for Him from the woman's substance, and a reasonable soul given unto Him by the Crea- tor, according as it is in our Catechism, " He took unto Him- self a human body and a reasonable soul." To which the Son of God, the eternal Word, having joined Himself in con- substantial union, He became the Son of man and the Son of God, in " two distinct natures and one person for ever." The Divine creature (creature as man) Avas composed, the end of creation accomplished, and God, the eternal and invisible God, made manifest in a person, to all creation, for ever and for ever. This is the first idea which I would impress upon your minds, as indispensable to the right conception of the glory which was brought to God by the Son of man upon the earth ; and indispensable to the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, in which the same is often taught, as I now proceed to shew you. In the 3d chapter of the Apocalypse, at the 14th verse, it is thus written : " These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God." Here in a message given by Christ from His own mouth to John, to be delivered by him to the Laodicean church. He calleth Himself "the Amen ;" that is, the Be it so, which I conceive to mean that He is the end of the purposes of God. For a prayer containeth the wish or purpose of the soul, and the Amen doth as it were collect it all into one, so that in saying the Amen we do concentrate the whole in one word : wherefore Christ by calling Himself the Amen, doth signify that the Divine will and purpose of the great decree of God, and of all the creatures, was consummated and concentrated in one person, Himself He nameth himself, also, "the faithful and true Witness;" that is, the opener of the mystery, and the revealer of the invisible God, in whom is truth, and out of whom is no truth : the only true one, as it is written, " Let God," that is, the Word of God, (for of God himself hath no one heard the voice at any time,) " be true, and every man a liar." ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 95 He further nameth Himself, " The Beginning of the Creation of God;" not the beginner only, but the beginning of the creation of God. That He was the Creator, in His Divinity of the Word, is sufficiently testified in the opening of John's Gospel ; but there is a greater mystery in His being the be- ginning of His own work. Yet, true it is, however paradoxical it may seem, that to make Himself, that is, to make His mani- fest and visible form, was the first beginning, the mainspring and only end of the purpose of God, and of the Word in creating; for which the creation of a spiritual world, as hath been said, was one preparative step, and the creation of a ma- terial world another ; and the combination of both in Adam was, as it were, the type, image, or resemblance. Therefore doth Christ call Himself the Beginning of the Creation of God; not that from Him it had its beginning, (though that be most true,) but that in Him it had its beginning ; being the first- born in the purpose and idea, and for the birth of whom, all which went before in time was but, as it were, the cradle in which to lay Him, the bands with which to swathe Him, the nurse to rear Him, the family which was to be honoured in His birth, and the servants who should attend upon Him, and the multitudes who should be blessed in Him. So much, and much more, is couched in the name, " The Beginning of the Creation of God." The next passage to v/hich I would direct your attention, as confirmatory of this great idea, is in the first chapter of the Colossians, at the 13th verse, where, speaking of the Son in His character of Jesus the Saviour, and of Christ the Lord of the kingdom, it is thus written : " The Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." This shews us that it is of the Son as man, as the sacrifice and mediation, and Lord, the apostle speaketh, manifested in flesh, to redeem us by His blood ; of whom it is immediately added, " Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every crea- ture." Now I am not ignorant how the Socinians wrest this passage to make out of it their damnable heresy, that Christ is no more than a creature; and how the orthodox, in order 96 THE INCARNATION: to deliver it out of their hand, allege, that it is only a forcible way of saying "born before every creature;" as Milton says, "The fairest of her daughters, Eve;" the haste of the mind running the contrast into a comparison. But this, though an honest enough shift, is not needed by one who understandeth to discourse of the humanity as well as of the divinity of Christ, who, as the Son of man, was a creature, as the Son of God, was the Creator of all things ; and as the Christ, eter- nally comprehending the two natures in one, may be spoken of, and is spoken of, both as the Creator and as a creature ; but when spoken of as a creature, always presented as the object and end of all creation, in order to be the Head and Lord of all His own works. And that this is the true idea of the passage is manifest from the following verse, which is added to explain this powerful, yet enigmatical expression, "First-born of every creature," and to guard against the Arianism which might be grafted thereon : " For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him ; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." To guard against the confounding of His eternal being, as the Word, with His created being as the Son of man, it is first declared that He created all things in heaven and on earth, of every rank and order and name, both spiritual and material, which is the great attribute claimed by Jehovah throughout the Old Tes- tament ; for a creature can create nothing, otherwise all dis- tinction between Creator and creature is abolished. Then, to expound the other part of the mystery, that they were not only created by His divine power, but for Him as their great Possessor and Lord in His visible humanity, it is added, ''All were created by Him and for Him;" or rather "unto Him," who should in the end, when the work was complete, be brought in to inherit them all in His character of Christ and Lord, of Son and Heir. Wherefore, it is immediately added, " And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church ; who is the beginning, the first-begotten from the dead," &c. But here ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 97 he entereth upon another idea, which it is not now the time to bring forward. These two passages explain and confirm the doctrine which we have laid down above, that creation was without a head, and, to appearance, without a plan, until Jesus Christ was brought into being that night the angels sang their choral symphony over His birth. The glory of God in the crea- tures was not manifested ; the whole creation seemed abor- tive ; a mighty maze without a plan ; scattered members without a head ; incomplete, and incompetent to its own defence ; at the mercy of an antagonist and estranging power, which was ever invading it, and with success ; it seemed wavering and uncertain, both in the spiritual and in the material parts of it ; it was rebellious and disobedient ; — all which bespoke not disappointment nor defeat, but pre- sent incompleteness and confusion, and instability, which might be brought into fair proportion, finished beauty, and immoveable steadfastness, but certainly was not as yet ar- rived at that glorious consummation and crowning point of perfectness. The physiologist knoweth what the animal crea- tion would be without man ; how unintelligible, how inglo- rious ! And an architect knoweth what an arch were without its head key-stone ; a sinking ruin, needing to be propped up and sustained on every side. And the moralist knoweth what man is without a righteous law and steadfast will. Such the Christian knoweth, or ought to know, the fabric of the universe would be without Christ, who is "the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, which was, and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty." I think I need not insist upon this idea any further ; and therefore do proceed to open another of a still loftier strain, — which is, how the Son of man manifested God's glory in the opening of the decree of election, and thereon founding all preaching for ever. 2. While creation stood thus without its Head, and the parts of it were in the state of being brought together, beings had come forth from the infinite womb of the creating Word, wherein all the purposes of the Father are in eternal reality : VOL. V. G 98 THE INCARNATION: being come forth, they were without their Lord and Guar- dian, and I may say it was in a manner necessary that they should come by loss and suffer change. For, if they had been in as much safety and security without a Head as with one, or in as much perfection and beauty, then where were the glory, where were the use of any Head ? If, while God was invisible, the condition of the visible or invisible creation had been as profitable to His glory, or to its own blessedness, as when He should become visible, then for what end be- cometh He visible ? Or if the creation had been perfect and sufficient while yet the Christ was unconstituted, then why should there be a Christ at all ? There cannot be two per- fections, there cannot be two unchangeables, otherwise there were two gods. The infirmity of every creature must be shewn in order that the stability of Christ may be established; the inconstancy of every spiritual, and of every material crea- ture must be proved, in order that the only constancy and unchangeableness of the Word of God, and that holy thing born of the Virgin Mary, might be made to appear. Yea, and if the spiritual creation had not thus been difterenced from the creation of spirits, and if the material creation had not in like manner been differenced from the body of Christ, they would have become objects of idolatry to themselves, self-sufficient creatures, not knowing that they needed, nor desiring to have a Head, a Guardian, a Governor and Protec- tor and Saviour over them. If the end of creation was the Christ, then all creation must see and feel itself incomplete without Him ; and so long for Him, and pray for His coming, and rejoice at His coming; feeling that till He comes there is for them nothing but ineffectual labours, and abortive attempts to bring forth. And this is the great end and pur- pose of sin in the creation of God, which, if you consider it well, is as essential to the fulness of the scheme, as is creation itself Sin is the demonstration of a creature's instability in itself, when it hath come forth from the Word in the bosom of the Father, and standeth outward, while as yet the Word, its former stability, is not outwardly revealed. It proveth that, unless the Creator also become manifest, the creature will die and decay away, and hath the continuance of its ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 99 being only for the sake of, and in the hope of, and in the desire of that manifestation. Sin is not a thing created of God, but it is a condition of the creatures, demonstrative of their inferiority to the Creator, and their inabihty to subsist without Him. Every creature is made liable to sin, yea, and will continue so until they be gathered again into their Head which is Christ. This is a great mystery, brethren, but most needful to be discoursed of and searched into, if we would understand any of the inferior mysteries which depend from it. Therefore, I will go further, and assert that all the creatures must have fallen into sin, both angels and men, had not God, by a special purpose, yea, and decree of election, chosen some, and given them a more than creature standing, the higher standing of His own will and absolute decree, for the purposes of His own glory, and the glory of His Christ — who are said to be chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and to be predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the pleasure of His will; and it is called the purpose of God according to election, " not of works, but of Him that calleth." But for the rein- closure of them in Christ, by an absolute decree, I say again that all angels and all men, by reason of the necessary and essential infirmity of the creature, while outward with respect to the sustaining Word, must have perished by falling into sin. For though created without sin, as coming forth from the pure and spotless Word, it is not possible they should so continue, unless upheld by an express act of the Creator's will, that, for the glory of Christ and as a part of the great plan, it should be so ordered and brought to pass. Nor let any one object to this, for it is the written truth of God, which our objecting availeth not to set aside : and while any one objecteth, he doth so far forth as he objecteth declare himself to be a rebel against His will, and in a reprobate state. For what and though all the angels had fallen, as certainly they would if there had not been a decree of elec- tion ; what and though all men had fallen irrecoverably, as they would if there had not been a decree of election, who could have complained .-' Shall the thing formed say to Him lOO THE INCARNATION: who formed it, Why hast thou formed me thus ? Shall not the Creator have the power of demonstrating the instability of all things out of Himself in order that they may know their stability in Himself? It is such arrogancy, it is such monstrous arrogancy to answer against God and say, Nay, but if Thou wilt create, the creature which Thou Greatest has a right to Thine own immutability ; Thou must make him infallible as Thyself, or Thou must not make him at all. And besides the arrogancy, consider also the folly of it, for how should the Creator be otherwise differenced from the creature, than by shewing that the creature is unstable, and permitting it to fall ; for otherwise the creature might leap up and say, yea, must necessarily both feel and say, that he is inde- pendent on and upon a level with the Creator, if so be he hath obtained the gift of infallibility and unchangeableness in his creation. Nay, but God is Aviser than to set such rivalry afloat by constituting such independent creatures. But to ascend a little higher still, His will, His absolute will, His will not to be predetermined by anything without itself, were also unseen, and, being unseen, were unacknow- ledged, if there was no creature sustained thereby against the disposition of its own being, and the condition of the other creatures whereof it is a part: and if the will of God were not to be manifested by a continuity of such instances, brethren, we should all rush headlong into Atheism. To me it is a necessary thing, a thing it is most necessary to my loyal obedience of God's will, to see in the Church a holy genera- tion maintained by the Divine will against the law of corrup- tion, which the world underlieth ; and in respect to the sinful world, which is working on in its wickedness, it is necessary for me to believe most surely that in the good time of God that wicked order of things shall, by an act of the Divine will, be destroyed ; and in respect to • the heavens and the earth, whose regular and unchanged motions have made them to be worshipped in all ages, from the Chaldeans of old down to the scientific men of the nineteenth century, it is neces- sary for me to believe that there is a time coming when they shall, of mere will, be changed and removed like a scroll ; for new heavens, and a new earth, and a new condition ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. lOi of men and things, which shall come into being when our glorious Head is revealed from' the place of the right hand of God, where He is at present hidden. Otherwise, for want of a manifested will, we should all become Atheists. For all astronomers, who, have looked upon the steady and unchang- ing motions of the heavens, from the time of the Chaldeans to that of the French Institute, have in the end become idolaters and Avorshippers of them. Why .'' Because they seem unchangeably fixed under the law of cause and effect, and the spirit of man acknowledgcth unchangeableness to be an attribute of God only ; and to guard against this, it is re- vealed not only that they were created, but that they are to be changed in the time of the bringing in of the Great Head of creation. So have the chemists done in these latter times, and, I may say, the physiologists, and all manner of natu- ralists, who have no other god than that piece of matter, the constancy of whose law of cause and effect they are observ- ing ; and thus hath science become to them a religion. And why ? Because, being under the law of cause and effect, it exhibits no unaccountable changes or vicissitudes ; no acts of simple will ; it makes no discoveries of a will without a cause ; an absolute unconditional will the cause of itself And there- in a religion is distinguished from a science, that it proceed- eth out of a Will, and addresses itself to a Will. And this wretched Arminianism, by putting out of sight the absolute unconditional acts of the Divine Will in the decree of elec- tion, doth hasten to make the Christian religion into a moral science; and to bring the Almighty Will under the moral law, instead of making all law to flow from His will. Politi- cal economy is also fast becoming a religion by the same pro- cess. For men are beginning to discover in that department also the uniformity of the laws of God's providence over nations ; perceiving the law of cause and effect in this also, they transfer to it an attribute of the Creator, for which they worship the ends of that science, and make its study their re- ligion, and its law their God. How much more, if there had been no evil in the working of human society, nor discord or violence in the processes of creation, should we have been ready to cast the remembrance of God and the fear of Him I02 THE INCARNATION : away, for the worship of the creature, or of ourselves, or of some portion of nature which we saw and felt ? And truly the fall did thus proceed both in angels and in men. Feeling their own power, the law and order of their own being, they thought themselves to be a law unto themselves, and by de- grees fell out of the reverence and remembrance of God ; and God, in mercy, for this cause gave to Adam an outward re- membrance of duty in the forbidden tree. Therefore I say the chain must be broken, the lesson of all creation's instabi- lity must be taught, and God's only stable will revealed ; otherwise every creature's independency would be established, and the scheme of God to manifest Himself as the only stabi- lity and sustenance of the outward world would be defeated. Forasmuch then as the very purpose of bringing in the Christ Head of all things, doth involve in it not only the pos- sibility but the necessity of a fall in every other form of crea- ture, in order to place a difference, and to prove that this is not the Christ, nor this, nor this, and that some more stable form of being is yet to be waited for ; most necessary it is, if any created beings stand, that they should stand in a stability not pertaining to them as creatures, but in the free, sovereign, and absolute will of the Creator, that, for certain ends of His glory, they shall be made an exception to the general and universal law. Those, I say, who stand through these evil days of the infancy and imperfection of the work, (infantine and imperfect only, because it is in a train and progress towards perfection,) must stand inclusively in Christ, not exclusively out of Christ, in the exceptive decree of election, not in their own creature prerogative and power. And, brethren, it is a great proof and token of the goodness of God that when there was a possibility of the creature's faUing, by coming into being, there was a possibility also of his standing by being included in the decree of election, which God had made for the ends of His own glory in the glory of Christ. For I never doubt, as I observed in the former part of my discourse, that to the angels was given the knowledge not only of their infirmity in themselves, but also of their stability in the decree of election, which was made in Christ, the first-born of every creature. For if the angels, as we have set forth, were a preparation for the bringing in of ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 103 Christ, made like all other things for Him, that is, with a view to Him ; then it is most reasonable to believe, or rather can- not otherwise be believed, but that they should have been made aware thereof, and so taught how to stand in the hope of Him that was about to come: otherwise they would not have possessed the knowledge of the law of their own being, of their weakness in themselves and their strength in the de- cree of election : which if they did not know, we cannot con- ceive how they could incur guilt : but guilt we know they did incur, and from thence we infer that they both knew their frailty in themselves and their sufficiency in the decree. In- deed, had there not been such a decree of election, in the strength of which every creature that was created might have stood, that creature would not have been created for Christ, but for falling into the power of sin. But, while I assert the necessity of sin as a part of the great scheme, I wholly dis- allow that any creature was made for sin, but every creature for Christ ; and that if it had been contented to rest its sta- bility upon the decree of election, and wait, patiently hoping for the coming of Christ to give to it its eternal stability, then all the creatures might have stood which now are fallen. This, no doubt, the angels had made known unto them from the first ; and in forgetting this, or in rebelling against it, con- sisteth their unpardonable transgression. And this is all con- firmed by the history of the creation of man, who was made in his creature-perfection before the fall, and evinced his creature-weakness in that state. As yet the decree of election was not revealed to him ; and the divines do rightly call this another covenant, namely, that of works. But from the time he fell, the promise of the Christ was revealed ; and from this time forth the stability of mankind was declared to be, " not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." And little as these Ar- minians think of it who raise their loud and incoherent voice against the decree of election, it is thence, and thence only, that grace and mercy and forgiveness can proceed ; so that they are drinking of the streams, and speaking against the well-spring and fountain from which they all flow. For true is the apostle's reasoning, that " if it be of works. I04 THE INCARNATION: then is it not of grace, otherwise work is no more work." There are only two ways in which a creature can exist : it must either exist in its own creature-strength, which I have shewn must be frangible, yea, and fractured also ; or it must stand in the decree of election, — that is, in the will of God, for the ends of that glory which creation is working out, the glory of manifesting Himself in an outward being. From these ideas concerning the entering in of sin, we de- rive the true doctrine concerning Christ the Redeemer of God's elect, angels and men ; for these are both included in the account of the Christian Church given in the Hebrews : " Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the first born, whose names are written in heaven." And they are included together in the doctrine of our Church concerning this point which saith, " By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto ever- lasting life." And again, " These angels and men thus pre- destinated and foreordained are particularly and unchange- ably designed." These, all these, have stood, are standing, and shall stand only in Christ, but for whom the former would have been involved ; and the latter, being involved, would have continued in irretrievable ruin : their redemption thence being for Christ's sake, and by virtue of their faith in Christ. Therefore also, in the picture of His coming power and ma- jesty, which is represented to us in the Apocalypse, the angels, join the ransorned from among men in the song of praise unto the Lamb, saying, " Worthy is the Lamb to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing !" And finally, as to the work which He accom- plished upon earth, and by which He brought glory to God in becoming their Redeemer ; I may say their redemption was but a veiled mystery, and the glory of it a clouded glory, until Christ finished the work of His humiliation, when the veil was lifted up, and the clouds passed away from the face of the glory. Till then, the decree by which they stood was undeclared, or but dimly presented in its faint outline, but now the grace and mercy and love of it was fully declared. - ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 105 The name of God was manifested ; the words which He had given unto Christ, Christ had made for ever known, and here they arc unfolded in the gospel of the New Testament. How much of love there is in that decree, beyond the goodness of creation, is manifested in God's giving up His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to the death for us all ! How much of mercy is manifested in the free forgiveness of the sins of the elect who believe ! How much of grace, in the fulness of the Holy Spirit coming to renew them in the image of God and righteousness and true holiness ! How much of justice, in the exact obedience and extreme sufferings of the God-man ! How much of holiness, in all these combined together ! All which, and whatever else is manifested in the work of Christ, was seen like an object from afar, small and indistinct, yet believed and rejoiced in by all the elect of God: it remained for Christ to bring it near, and display it in all the magnificence of its Divine proportions. This opening of the promise, this fulfilling of every previous word of God, this declaring of the decree of election, and bodying forth of the goodness thereof, was the great and mighty work which Christ the Prophet performed ; and in this state He left it for His Church to hold up by the Holy Spirit, until He shall come again to open another volume of the book, by gathering together the scattered wit- nesses, and presenting them a glorious company, under their glorious Head, in the presence of His eternal Father; into which subj ect Ave enter not. 3, The manner of this work was as marvellous as the end of it was glorious. By being created a living soul, which, Paul saith, " understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God," there was another condition of being still left for man to come into, the region of the spiritual ; for the first Adam was but the type of the Second Adam ; the first man being a living soul, the second a quickening Spirit. The type was broken, whose fragments we now behold in this our natural form of being ; having a taste of all knowledge, save the knowledge of spiritual things ; and a love of all excellency, save that of God ; and making progress in all sciences, save that of theology, which we corrupt, which from time to time God doth purify, but can by no means obtain for it a seat in io6 THE INCARNATION: the world, as we behold at this day. But this breaking of the goodly type of Christ, which Adam was, did only prepare the way for the advancement of Adam, and of all who pre- ferred to stand in the decree of election, to the higher rank of the combined material and spiritual creature, which is the form of creation's Lord. And, in order to this preferment, Christ took of the virgin the humanity of Adam ; not sinful, indeed, for He came not by ordinary generation, but by the power of the Holy Ghost ; yet, though not sinful, liable to all the temptations of sin to which human nature ever had been or ever could be liable : " Being in the form of God, he was made in the likeness of man ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death." In that He truly died, it proveth that He truly was ob- noxious to every human infirmity ; in that He rose from the dead, it equally proveth that He had done no sin, for which He might see the corruption of the grave. Now, it was not an arbitrary thing that the Christ should thus be brought into the world ; nor was it merely to redeem man ; but to become the Lord of all, by establishing the weakness of all, and working out the stability of all. Had He been destined to be Lord of spirit only. He would have partaken of the angelic nature : but having to be the Lord of matter also. He partook of the nature of man, which is composed of both. And of this He partook, not in its unfallen state, but in its fallen state, and in the fallen state of all the materialism of the world ; in order that He might enter into the weakness of everything, and add to it regenerating strength, become the uplifter of its state and being, and its support through- out all eternity. Therefore it is written, " But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffer- ing of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for all." And again, " Forasmuch as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." And again it is written, " He who was in ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 107 the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." From which pas- sage we rightly conclude, that there redounded unto God a great glory from the humiliation of the Son of man unto the death, beyond that which redounded from the completion of creation's work, and the opening of the decree of election. Which glory consisteth in the extinguishing of the power of those rebellious spirits which had, by forsaking the standing of election, fallen into sin, and continued therein, fighting against God and the hope of Christ : who are exceedingly hate- ful in the sight of God, because they continually seek to de- stroy the glory of His Son, and to force themselves into a different standing from that of election, exalting their own will against the will of God. It is a vain thing to say that God loveth sinners and ungodly creatures : He extendeth mercy and grace unto them, and loveth the election for His Son's sake ; but He must cease to love His Son — that is, to love Himself — when He loveth those who are rebellious against Himself He is " angry with the wicked every day :" He can- not look upon the workers of iniquity but with detestation and abhorrence. It is one of the sayings of that wretched Arminianism with which this land is overflowed, " Hate the sin, but love the sinner." What mean they } that sin is some- thing by itself, and the sinner something by himself, so distinct from one another, that the one may well be hated, and the other may well be loved } They know nothing at all, and they will know nothing at all. But if they would open their ears to instruction, then might they be taught that sin is the condition of an apostate creature, the form of a rebellious will, the very being of an enemy of God and of godliness. To make the evil of which to cease, to destroy its eternal activity against God, was the cause of our Lord's humiliation in the body and descent into hell. By which powerful and perilous io8 THE INCARNATION: ministry He did overcome and vanquish the enemy, and hath him and his dominions in His power, whenever it shall please the Father to allow Him to enter in to possess them. Death and destruction have no indefeasible right in God's creatures, but only a derived and dependent one ; derived from and de- pendent upon sin ; which Christ having resisted and overcome and cast out, did win back the waste and the wilderness of this world from the occupancy and vexation of Satan and his angels and reprobate men, who ever since have stood judged and condemned, not knowing of a day's life, but expecting every day to be the last of their possession. And herein con- sisteth the third part of the glory which Christ brought unto the Father by the work which He wrought upon the earth ; not only declaring His wrath against all the workers of iniquity, but manifesting that their power was broken, and their right destroyed, in His resurrection from the dead ; Avhereby the glory of God was wondrously manifested in the discomfiture of all His enemies, and His holiness in their destruction abundantly manifested : as we shall shew at length in our fourth discourse. These ideas, brethren, concerning the entering in of sin may seem to you difficult of apprehension ; but I could not stir a foot in shewing the glory of the decree of election until I should have first explained them : for otherwise it is but building upon the sand. Your time does not permit me to follow out this part of my subject further at present. The more is your loss, the more also is mine, and, what is more, the loss of Christ's Church, that our customs should always step in just when we have passed the porch of the sanctuary of truth, and debar us of the feast for feasts of another kind. Let the matter then stand in its imperfection. The time may come when the saints shall again call upon their minis- ters to lay out the foundations of their faith before them, in- stead of requiring them to play a tune upon their feelings, and let them begone. And thus again, dear brethren, have I sought to lay before you some of the deep things of God, which, if you be like the rest of this evil generation, you will reject with indignation. ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 109 or receive with disrelish, as not being profitable to simple and plain people ; that is, to serfs and bondsmen of the law, idiots and babes in the gospel. But if you be men, free men, like your fathers, and are to be honoured of God, like your fathers, to upbear His falling ark ; or if you be like the primitive churches, to whom Paul and the apostles wrote their epistles, wherein they speak continually of these things ; or, finally, if you have any fellowship with the Lord, who offered that intercessory prayer of which our text is a part, you will wel- come with great gladness these hints of higher and deeper discourse, and pray for me diligently, that I may be able to clear the foundations of the house from that rank growth of Arminianism and Socinianism which have obscured their massive strength and brilliant beauty. For we do live, or rather creep about, amongst the ruins of a great and majestic city, where one cradleth himself in some cave amongst the ruins, and another hath a cottage stuck up against some massy column, and others take refuge beneath the branches which grow out of a ruinous wall. That city is the majestic system of divine theology, which our fathers built up, and defended with great and goodly bulwarks against the roam- ing and marauding tribes of early heretics, the light-minded and thoughtless banditti of Arius, and the massive legions of apostate Rome : of which system, brethren, I read the out- line in our Reformers' Confession of Faith last Wednesday night, in the hearing of you all. Permit me — nay, whether permitted or not, I will preach the whole compass of that doctrine, to which I solemnly set my hand and subscribed my name that it was my faith, and should be the substance of my preaching. And I do entreat you, my brethren and my people, to con- sider that word which was spoken by the Lord : " This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Know God then, and know Jesus Christ. Think not that holiness, think not that life eternal, is otherwise to be obtained than in the attainment of such knowledge. For what end hath God revealed Him- self, but to be known, to be reverently inquired into, and faith- fully accepted of all His holy ones ? And know this day your no THE INCARNATION: standing, that it is either in the decree of God, as chosen in Jesus Christ ; or it is in nature, fallen and unable to rise again. If you are thinking to stand in your creature strength, or otherwise than by the strength of God's decree, you shall fall and fall, and err and err, unto the end. But if you will believe this day, and behold your weakness and sinfulness — the weak- ness and sinfulness of every creature, save as it standeth in the decree and purpose of God — then blessed are ye ; for ye will seek unto the Lord by faith, and humble yourselves before Him by many prayers, and seek to know and do His will, and to hang upon it continually ; and by the grace manifested in Jesus Christ you will surely be brought out of nature's stand- ing, into the standing of the eternal decree, whose love and mercy and grace the Lord Jesus did open unto all who truly repent and unfeignedly believe the gospel. But reject the decree, and you reject your salvation, which can only come by receiving the decree. Therefore, the Lord grant as many as doubt to doubt no longer, and as many as believe to grow in faith and righteousness, to the praise of His glory. This our darkness and stumbling cometh out of ignorance of the Scriptures, which in the Protestant Church was never so great, I believe, as it is at this moment : and hence that impatience of every inquiry into the deep things of the mys- teries of God. The Methodistical and Evangelical spirit, which is now in the world and in the Church, disfavours ex- ceedingly all research into Divine truth, all controversy for orthodox doctrine, and all abjuration of heresy and schism ; being content with a certain loose persuasion, immature know- ledge, and latitudinarian indifference, which they misname Charity (but its true name is Liberality.) Now, brethren, I am convinced in my mind, that till we return to the spirit of the Reformation, and become patient of thought, and patient of hearing thought expressed, and patient of discerning be- tween the evil and the good, we never shall escape out of the region of frames and feelings and perpetual fluctuations of spirit, into the region of rooted and grounded faith, assured hope, and fervent charity. I would rather the pulpit were dumb, than that it should minister excitement to mere natural ITS END THE GLOR V OF GOD. 1 1 1 feelings, to the same parts of our nature to which the play- house and the opera do administer : but this is the state to which it is fast coming, in a good measure through the ignor- ance of the people to whom we speak. And, brethren, if you will not during the week meditate and reflect upon those things which during the Sabbath I minister, the ministry will fail to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. Where- fore, I earnestly entreat you to meditate the word of God, with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, who leadeth into all truth ; and so let us exercise ourselves together to search into the great ends of God's glory which were accom- plished by the incarnation of His Son ; than which no other exercise of soul can be more profitable to prepare us for entering within the veil of the mysteries of the Fall, and witnessing the glory of God which is manifested therein. Sure I am, beloved in the Lord, that according to our patient travail in meditation and prayer, in faith and knowledge, will be our progress in grace, in wisdom, in righteousness, and truth, in humility and steadfastness, in consolation and assur- ance ; which are blessed conditions of the soul, not otherwise to be attained, nor otherwise to be preserved, save in the wor- ship and the service of God with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength. Be ye therefore exhorted, dearly-beloved brethren, to increase in all knowledge and wisdom and spiritual understanding : and may the Spirit open the eyes of your mind, and enlighten your understanding, that you may be able to know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints ! For we are called, every one of us, to do the same offices for the glory of God which Christ did. Yea, all this which I have set forth to you concerning the Son of man, I might now turn and apply to every one of you, who have been engrafted into Him by baptism to be par- takers of His justice, and through faith have received the gift of the Holy Ghost ; that in you, yea, in every one of you, God is to be glorified, as He was glorified in the Son of man. In you, the honour and glory of the eternal Trinity is to be 1 1 2 THE INC A RNA TION : shewn forth : the Father, in your doing His will, and not the will of the flesh or the will of man ; the Son, by your growing up into closer and closer union with Him, and shewing forth the express image of His person ; the Holy Ghost, by the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, in which you work the work of God and hold forth the image of Christ. For to this end Christ emptied Himself of, or humbled the Divinity into manhood, that He might become the very type or pattern of every Christian who should come after, and of us, dear brethren, though born in a far distant age, and amongst a cold, indifferent generation. In us, by our triumph- ing over sin, is the glory of the holiness of God also to be shewn forth : yea, and I may say in a somewhat more re- markable manner, forasmuch as sin hath already the posses- sion of our mortal members, which have heretofore been the servants of sin, but are now become the servants of righteous- ness. Wherein also is magnified the almighty power of God, who by the Holy Spirit can work righteousness in these taber- nacles of corruption, and bring a clean thing out of an unclean; beget the child of Christ in the dead womb of nature, and raise up children of Abraham's faith from the very stones. Whatever, therefore, the Son of man did in the days of His flesh to honour and glorify God, He expecteth us to continue and carry forward until He come again. Yea, not only ex- pecteth it, but hath provided us with the power to fulfil it ; which is our baptismal gift, when we become partakers of all the benefits of the new covenant, and enter into engagements to be wholly the Lord's. Wherefore, as the apostle Paul did exhort Timothy to stir up the gift of the Holy Ghost which was in him by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, so do I call upon every one of you, by faith, fervent prayer, and willing obedience, to stir up the gift that is in you by baptism. For which reason we should arise to the work of doing the will of Him who hath sent us, even as Christ did when He was baptized by John; fearing nothing, dearly beloved, doubting nothing, but surely believ- ing that He who hath called us will also justify us, will also sanctify us, will also glorify us. And if He glorify us, then will He first glorify Himself in us, by making us serviceable ITS END THE GLORY OF GOD. 113 to the manifestation of His glory in the midst of a wicked generation. Wherefore I entreat you again to stir up the gift that is in you by baptism ; to stir it up by faith, fervent prayer, and willing obedience. Amen. VOL. V, H III. THE METHOD IS BY TAKING UP THE FALLEN HUMANITY. Luke i. 35. And the angel attswered and said tmto her, 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 Soft of God. ILTAVING opened, in the two foregoing discourses, the origin of the incarnation, in the will of God, and the end of it, for the glory of God, we do now proceed to treat of the scheme or method of it, in the purpose of God, — concern- ing which, though we have frequently spoken already, we have not yet given it that large and sufficient demonstration which is needful in a matter of such vast importance to the glory of God and the good of men. This seemeth to me the logical way of handling any act of the Godhead : first, to shew wherein it originates ; then, whereto it tendeth ; then, by what method it proceedeth ; then, in what way it is transacted ; and, finally, with what fruits or effects it is followed. The third of these steps, in the exposition of our great subject, we do now proceed to take, trusting in the help of God. And to the end of open- ing with due order the method which God hath taken to bring about the incarnation of His Son, we shall first treat of the composition of His Divine person, from His conception even unto His resurrection, observing the most notable changes which He underwent during that period : for with the resur- rection I regard my present subject to conclude. It is only Christ in the flesh concerning which I have undertaken to dis- course : the discourse of Christ from the resurrection onward belongeth properly to another subject, which is the Church, whereof by His ascension into glory He became the Head. BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 115 After taking this view of the composition, and the successive changes which passed upon Christ's person until the resur- rection, I shall proceed to open, in the second part of this sermon, how God, by uniting the person of His Son to fallen flesh, doth thereby reconcile the whole lump of fallen huma- nity unto Himself, and is enabled, through Christ, to save as many as it pleaseth Him, without any detriment unto, but rather with all illustration of, His righteousness and holiness. This will lead us to speak of the universality of the reconcilia- tion and the individuality of the election ; and to shew how harmonious and mutually co-operating are these two great truths. From this we shall pass, in the third part, to shew how, by this same method of sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, God doth remove the law, which is the form of the enmity, and bring in unto all the world this dispensation of grace under which we now stand. After which we shall conclude this discourse upon the method of the incarnation with practical conclusions and improvements of the whole. PART I. With all due reverence, therefore, and trust in Divine assist- ance, we do now proceed to open the scheme which God had purposed in Himself for bringing about this most important event in creation's history, that the Son of God, by and for whom all things were created and do consist, should join Him- self unto the fallen creation, and take up into His own eternal personality the human nature, after it had fallen, and become obnoxious to all the powers of sin and infirmity and rebellion ; in order that God might be shewn to be greater and mightier far than the creatures combined in the confederacy of sin against the Creator ; and that the state of fallen sinful crea- tion, which God had permitted to come to pass, might yield forth from its impure and unholy womb the most perfect, the most holy, the most wonderful Son of God, to be the head and support, the life, the mover, and the guide of all creation, redeemed in the redemption of that creature substance which He assumed unto Himself That Christ took our fallen nature 1 1 6 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : is most manifest, because there was no other in existence to take. The fine gold of Adam's being was changed, and the divine goodness of his will was oppressed by the mastery of sin : so that, unless God had created the Virgin in Adam's first estate, (which is a figment of Romish superstition,) it was impossible to find in existence any human nature but human nature fallen, whereof Christ might partake with the brethren. I believe, therefore, in opposition to all fantastics, schisma- tics, and sectarians who say the contrary, that Christ took unto Himself a true body and a reasonable soul ; and that the flesh of Christ, like my flesh, was in its proper nature mortal and corruptible ; that He was of the seed of David ; that He was of the seed of Abraham, as well as of the seed of the woman ; yea, that He was of the seed of the woman after she fell, and not before she fell. Even the time for making known the truth that Christ in human nature was to come, did not arrive till after the fall, because it was determined in the counsel of God that He who was to come should come in the fallen state of the creature, and therein be cut off — yet not for Himself — to the end it might be proved that the crea- ture substance which He took, and for ever united to the Godhead, was not of the Godhead a part, though by the Godhead sustained. If He had come in the unfallen man- hood, as these dreamers say, and had not truly been subject unto death, but, for some lesser end and minor object, and as it were by-intent, had laid aside the mantle of the flesh for a season, who would have been able to say that the manhood of Christ had not become deified — that is, become a part of the Godhead .-* And if so, then not only He, but all His members likewise, who are to be brought into the very self- same estate with Himself, must also be deified, or pass into the Godhead ; the creature become an object of worship ; the Creator be mingled with the creature ; the doctrine of God the soul of the world brought in, and all the other most wicked tenets of the Eastern superstitions of the earth intro- duced, in the room of the most fruitful, most holy mystery of a personal God, separate from the creature, yet supporting the creature by eternal union with, though in perfect distinct- ness from. Himself, in the person of the Son, and through B V TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 1 1 7 the indwelling of the Divine nature in the person of the Holy- Ghost ; to the end of worshipping the invisible Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, remaining hidden, and for ever to remain hidden, in the person of the Father. I say, and fearlessly assert, and undertake to prove, that this great result and consummation of the Divine scheme could not otherwise be attained than by the fall of the creature, in order to reveal its non-divinity, or prove its creatureship ; so that, when the Son of God should come to take it unto Himself, it might, by the very act of dying, shew itself, though of Him, not to be the very God ; and when, taken up into that surpassing glory with which it is now crowned, it might be for ever known to be not human nature deified, but human nature uplifted and upheld by God. The fall of all creation, spiritual and material, was but a step unto the death of the body of Christ ; even as the creation of all things visible and invisible was only a step to the creation of that body. It was because the Lamb slain, as well as the God manifested, was a part of the Divine purpose, that death came into the world. Death knew not Avhat death meant, until Christ died ; then the mystery of death was unfolded unto itself. If the meaning of a fall is ever to be understood, it must be studied in the cross and tomb of Christ. For if Christ had stepped at once out of the infinite and invisible into resurrection power and glory, and without dying drawn up the creatures into union with the same, the creature would have worshipped itself, so clothed with might, adorned with beauty, and with stability invested ; instead of worshipping the invisible God of heaven, out of the creature, yet supporting the creature and inhabiting the creature ; therefore the object of the crea- ture's dependence, and the subject of the creature's blessed- ness : but yet essentially separate from and advanced above the creature's noblest state, and therefore properly the object of the creature's continual worship. And this is the first point in the mystery of Christ's constitution. His taking the substance of the fallen Virgin Mary. And now, with respect to the human soul of Christ I have next to speak. That Christ had a reasonable soul, as well as a true body, is a doctrine most necessary to be believed ; 1 1 8 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : because, otherwise, He were not a man, but only the appari- tion of a man ; a superior being, who for a certain end and purpose had clothed himself with human form — as was often done before in manifestations to the Patriarchs and the Pro- phets— which is the fountain of Arianism with all its poisoned streams. Besides, if Christ had not a reasonable soul, His human feelings and affections were but an assumed fiction to carry the end which His mission had in view ; and His suffer- ings and His death were a phantasmagoria played off before the eyes of men, but by no means entering into the vitals of human sympathy, nor proceeding from the communion and love of human kind, nor answering any end of comforting human suffering, and interceding for human weakness, and bringing up again the fallen creature to stand before the throne of the grace of God : it is all but a phantasm and apparition, like that which appeared unto Manoah and his wife, and transacted wonderful things in their presence. This was the source of the Gnostic errors in the first ages of the church. Moreover, and most of all, if Christ had not pos- sessed a reasonable soul, as well as a mortal and corruptible body, (which yet saw not corruption, by the Father's special grace,) the Divine nature of Christ must have been separated and divorced from His human nature during the time it hung dead upon the cross and lay buried in the tomb. If there had been but two principles, a body, and the eternal person of the Son, united in Jesus of Nazareth, then, when the body of Christ lay in the tomb, the Divinity must have been sepa- rated from the humanity ; and this, though only for an in- stant suffered, would upset the whole constitution of God in Christ. For if once the Creator and the creature part of Christ, if once the Divine and human natures, have been parted, they may be parted again ; and where then were the assurance of creation's stability in the Christ constitution for ever and ever } Essential it is to the purpose of God, that when the nature of the Godhead in the person of the Son had joined itself to the creature in the substance of man- hood, that hypostatical union of two distinct natures in one person should be established for ever and ever. Clearly, therefore, doth it remain, that there must be a part of BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 119 human nature capable of subsisting separate from the body, which, when the body fell into the curse of death, might maintain the continuity of co-existence with the Godhead of the Son, until the time came for the Father to send the Holy Spirit. into His mortal and corruptible body, and unite it in a glorified state unto the Godhead of the Son ; which hath the while preserved its creature -condition in connexion with the separate soul. And as I said above, that the fall is to be understood by meditating that for which it came to pass — to wit, the dead body of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ; even so say I now, that the twofold nature of man, soul and body, invisible and visible, is both to be best understood, and most surely be- lieved, by meditating upon the same great key of creation — to wit, the divinity of the Son subsisting in hypostatical union with the invisible soul of the man, while the visible body of the man was lying uninformed with any conservative or vital principle, truly dead, truly corruptible, but not to corrupt, until it pleased the Father to raise it, in reward of Christ's faith and strong cryings, with supplications and tears, that He might be delivered from death ; wherein, because of His piety, He was heard. Yea, more : this is to me the great assurance of a spiritual world of separate souls in life, though invisible at this time, and in all times since death began his work; and it is to me the defeat of all those fantastics who dote and dream concerning the sleep of the soul from death unto the resurrection ; and, moreover, of that more common, but at the bottom not less pernicious, opinion, that the soul receiveth upon its being disembodied some aerial vehicle, some house of habitation, some tabernacle of very subtile matter, wherein to act and to discourse over God's creation : which I hold to be no better than refined and disguised materialism : making void a spiritual world, and also the doctrine of Christ's coming with glory, in visible, sensible humanity, to reign with His saints, in the like humanity, over a purified kingdom of flesh and blood. Moreover, I can see how, for these great ends of putting to silence such manifold fanciful and heretical notions, it should have been so distinctly declared, and so prominently brought forward in the Apostles' Creed, that the action of 1 20 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : His incarnation did not terminate at His death; but that He descended into the place of separate spirits, and did a work therein — concerning which I do not now enter, but only recognise it as a great head of doctrine, by means of which those doters concerning the sleep of the soul, and the new clothing of the soul during its separate estate, are to be bafflqd and befooled. Now, concerning the time and manner of our Lord's re- ceiving this reasonable soul, I believe it to have been at the same time, and after the same manner, in which the rest of the children receive it ; in opposition to those who hold the pre-existence of Christ's human soul, or that it was made before the creatures, for the Son of God to possess and unite Himself to, and with it and by it to create all things visible and invisible, and afterwards to come in it and join Himself to the substance of the Virgin Mary. I hold, with the ortho- dox Church, that this is a pestilent error, which hath its origin in the confounding of a divine purpose with a divine act, and endeth in various evil consequences, which I shall in a few words expose. With respect to its origin : That the Creator had Himself, and His own appearing in crea- ture form, fully and mainly in His eye from the first be- ginning, and through the several actings of creation, there is, and can be no question, among those who meditate such matters, or read the Holy Scriptures — for example, the first chapter of Colossians, the first chapter of He- bre\ys, and the eighth chapter of the Proverbs. Everything that hath been done by God out of Himself, was done in the contemplation and to the end of Himself becoming unto creatures manifest in creature form ; and that creature form was the form of risen God-manhood. But to suppose that to the effecting of this purpose it was necessary that the Creator should first create a human soul, in which and by which to create all things, is a gratuitous hypothesis to represent a purpose by an act, and to destroy altogether the beauty, harmony, and order of the Divine idea, developing itself by slow and sure progression, and at length manifesting itself in the birth of Immanuel the Virgin's Son. Moreover, if the human soul of Christ was thus before creation hypostatically B V TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 1 2 1 united with the Divinity of the Son, we have an in-spiritual before we have an in-carnate God ; we have God in union with spiritual creation subsisting, and therefore unto spiritual creatures manifest, before we have God in union with flesh subsisting : now this is to destroy the whole tenor of the Scriptures and scheme of God, which represent the angels and all creation hanging upon the lips of promise, and look- ing with faith unto the symbols of the Man about to be, and travailing with hope until the great end of all things should appear. Besides, it wholly destroys the continuity of things, and casts them back again upon themselves, to say that a soul which had known and effected the creation should pass into infantine ignorance and childhood simplicity, and ascend through all the stages of a human life. Moreover, then cre- ation hath not fallen wholly, for this pre-existent soul hath never found a fall ; and, being united with the body of Christ, is still the creature in the unfallen state ; and so the better half of the man Christ is unfallen, and the other half of Him is fallen. Strange conjunction ! and heterogeneous mixture ! Believing, therefore, and holding it to be a point of great im- portance to believe, that the human soul of Christ came unto Him just as the human soul of another man, we proceed a little further to open the nature of the person thus constituted. God at first, when He had created man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Such a living soul is, therefore, the definition of man : " The first Adam was made a living soul." Again, it is said, " The body returneth unto the dust, and the soul to him that gave it." Man, therefore, is a body of dust and a soul given by God, in a state of living union. Man is not a body of flesh, nor is man a disembodied soul ; but these two in living union con- stitute a man. From the time that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin was He both body and soul of man. He was not soul of man before He was body of man ; but He was soul and body of man from the same moment of His conception. From which moment also the Holy Ghost abode in Him and sanctified Him ; so that He was in very deed a holy thing from the beginning of His creature being : which distinctly to understand it is necessary 122 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : to have clear views of the Divine purpose, as it is contained in these words, " 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." In these words we have all the direct infor- mation which Scripture afifordeth concerning this great act of God, which was the end of all the promises of God from the fall onwards ; and we are told that it was an act done by the Highest in the person of the Holy Ghost. Now every act of the Holy Ghost is an act of the Father and the Son, from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth. The Holy Ghost worketh nothing of Himself, but worketh the common pleasure of the Father and the Son. In the creation, therefore, of this body of Christ of the woman's substance, there is an act of the Father's will and a word of the Son assenting thereto. The word of the Son is given unto us by St Paul in the tenth of the Hebrews: " A body hast thou prepared for me. . . . Then said I, Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is writ- ten of me, to do thy will, O God." In which words are con- tained both the will of the Father, that it should be so done ; and the word of Christ consenting so to do. And what is the thing thus willed of the Father and assented to of the Son .'' It is, that He should take the body which the Father would prepare for Him. This was the covenant between the Father and the Son : this was the purpose in the Christ : the Father willing it out of very goodness, that He might manifest Him- self unto creatures which were to be made, and support the creation in blessedness for ever ; the Son consenting to it out of very dutifulness unto His Father, together with the same goodness unto the creature ; and thus the covenant between the Father and the Son being willed and worded, the Holy Ghost, of very delight in the communion of the Father and the Son, to execute what their pleasure is, and likewise of very goodness to the creature, consented to prepare that body, so willed and so worded by the Godhead. And with this view, of preparing a body for the Son of God and acting forth the eternal covenant, the Holy Ghost created all things out of nothing, and began as it were the collecting of materials, and the putting together of scaffoldings, for the construction BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 123 of that body in which, as in a holy temple, Godhead should abide, and shew itself for ever ; and by which, as the great head of intelligence, heart of love, and right hand of power, the Godhead should for ever perform the pleasure of its will, and bring forth the harmony of its purpose. And now, when a spiritual world had been created, and by its fall demonstra- ted that it was not an end in itself ; and when a visible world had been superadded thereunto, and by its fall shewn that neither was this the end of the purpose ; the fulness of the time being come, forth proceedeth the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation-stone of that temple of the Divinity, to bring into being that right-hand Man of God, to form that body (bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh) which had been the great end of God in coming forth at all by creation to give existence beside Himself And the instant that act of the Holy Ghost began, in the very beginning of it, in the instant of life quick- ened before the sight of God, did the Son, in His independent personality, once and for ever join Himself to the holy thing, which by that conjunction became properly named the Son of God. And such I conceive to be the mystery of this con- ception of the Child whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. And as His conception was, such also was His life ; His constitution never changing ; being in the embryo what it was in the man of stature ; being in the humiliation what it was in the exaltation, what it is now, and what it shall be for ever and for ever. The constitution of His being is unchangeable : the development of its power and glory being the only cause of apparent change. And what is this wonderful constitution of the Christ of God .'' It is the substance of the Godhead in the person of the Son, and the substance of the creature in the state of fallen manhood, united, yet not mixed, but most distinct for ever. And is this all ? No : this is not all. With humility be it spoken, but yet with truth and verity, that the fallen humanity could not have been sanctified and redeemed by the union of the Son alone ; which directly leadeth unto an inmixing and confusing of the Divine with the human na- ture, that pestilent heresy of Eutyches. The human nature is thoroughly fallen ; and without a thorough communication, 124 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: inhabitation, and empowering of a Divine substance, it cannot again be brought up pure and holy. The mere apprehension of it by the Son doth not make it holy. Such a union leads directly to the apotheosis or deification of the creature, and this again does away with the mystery of a Trinity in the Godhead. Yet do I not hesitate to assert, that this is the idea of the person of Christ generally set forth : and the effect has been to withdraw from the eye of the Church the work of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation, which is as truly the great de- monstration of the Spirit's power and manner of working, as the incarnation itself is of the Father's goodness, and the Son's surpassing love. This comes from the omission of the third part in the composition of Christ, which is, the substance of the Godhead in the person of the Holy Ghost : to whose Divine presence and power it is that the creation of the body in the womb of the virgin is given, the mighty works which Christ did ascribed, and the spotlessness of His sacrifice attri- buted, in the Holy Scripture. The Holy Ghost sanctifying and empoweringthe manhood of Christ even from His mother's womb, is the manifestation both of the Father and of the Son in His manhood, because the Holy Ghost testifieth of the Father and of the Son, and of them only : so that in the man- hood of Christ was exhibited all of the Godhead that shall ever be exhibited. Father, Son, and Spirit ; according as it is written, " In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," or in a body. The time was not come for manifesting it gloriously, because the heat of battle was then going forward, when the warrior is all soiled with sweat, and dust, and blood. He was wrestling with sin, in sin's own obscure dwelling-place; against the powers of darkness, in their dark abode : He was overcoming sin in the flesh. And therefore was it that He appeared not in the glorious raiment of a conqueror, or in the full majesty of a possessor, as He shall appear when He cometh the second time. Nevertheless, He was the person of the Eternal Son, manifesting forth the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Ghost, as well as the word of the Son, in manhood, yea, in fallen manhood. He took up the creature in its lowest estate, in order to justify God therein, by proving how good even that estate was ; verily to prove that it was BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NIT Y. 1 2 5 holy ; a part of the scheme of Him whose name and style is Holy, Holy, Holy ; yea, moreover, that it was a state of the creature necessary for the knowledge of God, as the God of grace, mercy, and peace. Christ in fallen manhood redeemed, Christ as the Lamb slain, is, let me tell these silly dreamers, a necessary exhibition of the Godhead, to the end that its love, its grace, its pity, its compassion, might be known, as well as its goodness and might and majesty and power. For my own satisfaction, and for the satisfaction of all un- sophisticated orthodox members of Christ's Church, I should conceive the foregoing opening of the subject to be quite suf- -ficient ; but, what with the malice of Satan, the ignorance of men, and the multitude of those who malign the truth which I preach, holding me for a speculator or a fool, or even a madman, I deem it good to argue this matter a little, in order to put to silence the gainsaying of foolish men, and to estab- lish the Church in so fundamental a point of doctrine. And therefore, at the risk of being thought tedious by the en- lightened and the believing, I shall enter a little more parti- cularly into this question, and endeavour to set the matter in a still fuller and clearer light, by opening those successive anointings with the Holy Ghost which our Saviour received, those apparent changes through which His humanity passed, before He became High Priest in full degree, and did receive that glorious body which was prepared for Him by the Father. There was this peculiarity in Aaron's consecration to the office of the high priest, that he was anointed with the holy oil of consecration upon the head, which flowed down his beard, and unto the skirts of his garment. The rest of the priests were not thus anointed, but sprinkled with a mixture of blood and oil, as was Aaron also. But this anointing over his whole person, like his birthright and his garments, was proper to Aaron as high priest ; and, being so, is a point of much importance towards understanding Christ's peculiar anointing with the Holy Ghost ; for that most holy oil of consecration is everywhere used as the emblem of the Holy Ghost, with which Christ was anointed above measure. " I 1 26 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : have found David my servant : with my holy oil have I anointed him," (Psalm Ixxxix.) " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me." Now, of this anointing there is a threefold act to be noticed in Christ's life ; the first being from the time of the existence of His body, — indeed, it was this anointing with the Holy Ghost which gave His body existence : " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; and the holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." It was not with Christ, in this respect, as it was with Jeremiah and the Baptist, who were filled with the Holy Ghost from the mother's womb : He was not merely filled with the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost was the author of His bodily life, the quickener of that substance which He took from fallen humanity : or, to speak more correctly, the Holy Ghost uniting Himself for ever to the human soul of Jesus, in virtue and in conse- quence of the Second Person of the Trinity having united Himself thereto, this threefold spiritual substance, the only- begotten Son, the human soul, and the Holy Spirit — (or rather twofold, one of the parts being twofold in itself; for we may not mingle the divine nature with the human nature, nor may we mingle the personality of the Holy Ghost with the personality of the Son) — the Eternal Son, therefore, humbling Himself to the human soul, and the human soul taken possession of by the Holy Ghost, this spiritual sub- stance (of two natures only, though of three parts) did ani- mate and give life to the flesh of the Lord Jesus ; which was flesh in the fallen state, and liable to all the temptations to which flesh is liable : but the soul of Christ, thus anointed with the Holy Ghost, did ever resist and reject the sugges- tions of evil. I wish it to be clearly understood — and this is the proper place for declaring it — that I believe it to be necessary unto salvation that a man should believe that Christ's soul was so held in possession by the Holy Ghost, and so supported by the Divine nature, as that it never assented unto an evil suggestion, and never originated an evil suggestion : while, upon the other hand, His flesh was of that mortal and corruptible kind Avhich is liable to all forms BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NIT Y. 127 of evil suggestion and temptation, through its participation in a fallen nature and a fallen world : and that thus, though at all points assailable through His flesh. He was in all respects holy ; seeing wickedness consisteth not in being tempted, but in yielding to the temptation. This, I say, I consider to be an article of faith necessary for salvation : and the opposite of it, which holdeth that His flesh was unfallen, and not liable to all temptation by sin, nor conscious to it, I hold to be a virtual denial of His humanity ; a removal of us from the fellowship of His mediation ; a removal of Him from the sympathy of our sufferings and temptations ; and a bringing in of many ancient heresies which the Church condemned ; and, if I err not, it is the reappearance of that spirit of Anti- christ, mentioned by St John in these words, " Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God." I foresee, moreover, that if some one will not stand boldly forth to bear the odium of this point of ortho- dox faith, and to redargue the gainsayers of it, to such a pitch of sickly sentimentalism are we come, that a confirmed system of heterodox doctrine and pharisaical life will be the fatal issue. For, is it not a thing clear as noonday, that if you are ashamed to think the holy soul of Jesus should in- habit mortal and corruptible flesh, which must first be a little purified before the Divine glory will consent to tabernacle in it, then you will be also ashamed, after you have been sancti- fied of the Holy Ghost, to confess the sinfulness of your own flesh, but will think and believe, with the Arminians, that it hath received a purification .'' and, thus purified, you will loathe to mingle again with publicans and sinners, lest you should be tainted anew; and you will say, "Stand off: I am holier than thou," While Christ carried about with Him this mortal and corruptible body, which lay open and assailable to the assaults of the devil, the world, and the flesh, He was able to meet the demands of the law, Thou shalt not do this, Thou shalt not do that ; because He was tempted to do it, and )^et did it not. But unless He had been liable and obnoxious to do the evil, there would have been no merit in refraining from it, and keeping the commandment. He did ever, there- fore, prefer the Creator unto the creature, the glory of His 1 2 8 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : Father to the glory of things seen and temporal, the law of the Spirit to the law of the flesh, His Father's will unto His own will ; and so was fitted to be the sacrifice, holy and blameless, without fault in the sight of God and in the sight of man. " He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth ; ... he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners ; " and yet carrying about with Him a tabernacle of flesh, into which our mortal enemies had poured all their poisoned arrows. This fallen creature substance, thus preyed upon, thus wrestled for, by him that had the power of death and of corruption, our Lord and Redeemer must redeem out of the hands of the enemy, and carry into the acceptable and honourable place of the right hand of the Majesty on high : which being accomplished, it was proved that a created sub- stance, in which sin and Satan had power, might yet be wrested out of their hands, and presented blameless and faultless in the presence of God ; which I take to be the one great thing to be demonstrated. But if Christ's flesh was never obnoxious to Satan's power as mine is, but in some lesser degree, or not at all, what proof have I received by His resurrection that I also am capable of resurrection .'' The saints who rose with Him might, indeed, afford some hope to me, but His rising could afford none. I say, then, that Christ's flesh was as mine is, liable to all temptation, that through it He might be tempted like as we are ; but that His soul, though brought into consciousness and feeling of these temptations through its union to His body, as my soul is to my body united, was yet, through its having been taken pos- session of by the Holy Ghost, and that in consequence of its having been taken up into union with the Second Person, prevented from ever yielding to any of those temptations to which it was brought conscious, and did reject them every one — yea, did mourn and grieve, and pray to God con- tinually, that it might be delivered from the mortality, cor- ruption, temptation,, which it felt in its fleshy tabernacle ; and was heard in that it feared. Now, no one was ever thus anointed with the Holy Ghost. For though Jeremiah and the Baptist are declared to have been filled with the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb, yet their souls came not BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 129 possessed with the Holy Ghost, for they were born by ordi- nary generation ; and therefore they must have been capable of regeneration ; which implies that they were in their crea- tion-state sinful, seeing they needed the washing of regenera- tion and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. It is not the time during which we are unregenerate, nor is it the number of sins which we have committed in our unregenerate state, but it is the fact that we need regeneration, which constitutes our original sinfulness in the sight of a holy God. 2. Now, though I have thus fully discoursed of the birth- holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, I do not think that this anointing of the Holy Ghost is that which constitutes Him High Priest ; which office, as both Peter (Acts ii.) and Paul (Heb. V.) declare, He took not upon Him until after, or rather by virtue of. His resurrection, when He proved Himself to be the first-begotten. And what, then, is this first anoint- ing of the Holy Ghost answerable to under the law .-* It correspondeth to the seven holy things of the sanctuary, which were anointed with holy oil, before there was a high priest to minister thereat. By virtue of this anointing, His body became the holy altar, the holy laver, the holy shew-bread, the holy lamp, the holy golden table, and the holy ark of the cove- nant ; but He was not the High Priest as yet, who is to minister thereat. Neither did He become the High Priest in virtue of His anointing with the Holy Spirit upon the occasion of His baptism ; which, if I err not, was His anoint- ing to the prophetical office, answering to the anointing of Elisha by the hand of Elijah. For John the Baptist, which is Elias, expressly declareth, that the reason of His coming to baptize with water was, that the Lamb of God should be made manifest to Israel : as it is written (John i. 33,) " And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- ing and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." Yet that Christ did not baptize with the Holy Ghost until after His resurrection, is expressly de- clared by the evangelist John, in these words, " For the Holy Ghost was not yet given," — or, as it is in the original, " was not yet," — that is, was not manifested as the Spirit of Christ VOL. V. I 1 30 THE INCARNA TTON—ITS ME THOD : — "because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Meanwhile, therefore, John the Baptist, by the baptism of Avater, did make Jesus manifest as the Prophet of Israel, about to become the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost : as Elias anointed Elisha to be prophet in his room, so the Baptist anointed Christ. And yet it was not the Baptist's sprinkling or anointing with water, but the Holy Ghost descending in the form of a dove, which manifested Jesus as the Son of God, in whom He was well pleased. But this is a nice point, upon which it may be ne- cessary to discourse a little before going forward. The first question is. What connexion the baptism by John had with the manifestation of Jesus unto Israel .-" I answer, It was not the very manifestation, but a necessary step to it. The Holy Ghost, being minded to connect Himself with the ordinance of washing with water, would not manifest Himself unto the people as the property of Christ ever after to be holden and dispensed by Him, until that same ordinance of baptism had been done on Him also. By this Divine arrange- ment two things are, moreover, taught, — that baptizing with water is not in itself the substance of the ordinance, but needeth to have joined therewith the baptism of the Holy Ghost. For not only were these two things separated in the baptism of Christ, but in the Acts of the Apostles we read of some who had been baptized into the baptism of John and had not received the Holy Ghost, nor even known that there was a Holy Ghost. So that John's baptism was a baptism unto expectation ; but Christ's baptism is a baptism •unto possession. And, methinks, in these times they believe themselves to be baptized only into the expectation of receiving, and not into the actual receiving, of the Holy Ghost ; into John's baptism, and not into Christ's baptism ; which will be followed with the forgetting that there is a Holy Ghost. Another question, arising out of this special anointing of the Holy Ghost, is. Whereto did it profit .'' and for what end was it given } I answer. That it did profit unto the information of Christ's mind with all prophetic wis- dom and with all prophetic power of signs and wonders ; and it was unto the end of fitting Him for the ofiice of preaching the gospel unto the poor, of binding up the broken-hearted, BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 131 of proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, of proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. But it may be asked, Was not Christ fur- nished with this power even from His mother's womb ? I answer. No : He " grew in stature and in wisdom, and in favour with God and man." He truly passed through the various stages, from childhood up to manhood, not merely as to His body, but as to His mind ; and in order to enable Him to speak as never man spake He must have a special power of the Holy Ghost, as well as to enable Him to heal all that were oppressed with the devil. But on this point let the apostle Peter speak, who said unto Cornelius and his com- pany, " The word Avhich God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (he is Lord of all;) that word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached ; how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power ; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him." It may be asked further. And what signification could there be in washing Christ with water, who had done no sin ? I answer. Just the same reason as there was for the purification of His mother, and for His own circumcision ; because He possessed the same flesh with other men, and therefore needed, like other men, as He said unto John, to " fulfil all righteousness." For when John said, " I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me } Jesus, answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." These are great visible demonstrations of the truth which we have argued above, that Christ took flesh and blood with the brethren : as it is written, " Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He himself also took part of the same." It was signified, by His baptism in Jordan, that He was clean from the sins and defilements of flesh, through the Holy Ghost dwelling in His soul. His baptism with water signi- fied that He was the washed, cleansed, and holy One ; and the baptism of the others signified that through One, whom John testified of, they also should be washed and purified, 1 3 2 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : when He should come who would baptize with the Holy Ghost. John's baptism was for the manifestation of Jesus as the baptizer with the Holy Ghost ; and when the Holy Ghost had manifested Jesus from amongst the baptized with water, John's baptism did point to this One as its end ; did, as it were, hand the people over to Him, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and baptizeth whom the Father pleaseth with the Holy Ghost. They had, there- fore, to believe upon Jesus, as the Lamb of God about to be sacrificed, and as the quickening Spirit, the second Adam> about to beget sons unto God. John's baptism did point the respects of men unto Jesus the Prophet, and unto Jesus the Lamb slain, and unto Jesus the risen Christ and Lord, who received power at His resurrection, and on the day of Pente- cost put it forth in baptizing with the Holy Ghost. There is yet another and a higher mystery, in that baptism with the Holy Ghost which Christ received at His baptism with water, besides that which we have opened above : It did not only constitute Him the Prophet and possess Him with all prophetic gifts, and shew Him as the Prophet the seal of all the prophets — from whom they had derived their light, as the morning star deriveth its light from the sun, whose rising it doth herald unto the earth — but, moreover, this baptism with the Holy Ghost was to Him truly and literally that same baptism of power and holiness with which He was afterwards to baptize His Church, when He should have ascended up on high. The baptism which He received in His conception enabled Him to keep the law, and to fulfil all the righteousness of the law : but it did no more : and to this completion of the legal work He alludeth, when He said unto the hesitating Baptist, " for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." But after His baptism with the Holy Ghost He began to live the life above law which His Church, that should be afterwards baptized, was to live until His second coming. God testified that Jesus of Nazareth was the Person whom He had by the Baptist foreshewn, as about to baptize with the Holy Ghost, by baptizing Him then and there upon the spot. Thus giving Him the precedency of all the baptized spiritual Church, as in His resurrection He hath BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NIT Y. 133 the precedency of all the resurrection Church. In His life, anterior to John's baptism, He fulfilled the law, and made it honourable, and gathered up its authority and its righteous- ness into His own person, to do with it as He might see good ; but from John's baptism He began to set it aside, as we Christians are required to do, and to live a life in the power of the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, as we also are re- quired to do. From that time forth, accordingly, began His conflict with the spirits of darkness, such as we unto this day have to maintain : from that time forth also began His power of casting out spirits, of preaching the gospel, of forgiving sin, of healing infirmities, of liberty and of power ; in which spiritual course also all that have been baptized with the Spirit are required to walk. Thus He shewed us an example that we should follow His steps ; and hereby He became the great prototype of a Christian, as He had been the great antitype of all the holy men under the law. And this con- tinued, as I judge, until He fell into the agony and the pangs of death ; when the power of the Spirit, through which He had enjoyed the light of His Father's countenance, was for a season removed away, that He might know the hour and the power of darkness ; and so become the great example unto His Church of patience, resignation, faith, and every grace of suffering, under those desertions of the Divine presence, and oppressions of the powers of darkness, to which His Church was again and again, and very often, to be subjected, by the sovereign will and disposal of God. In thus pointing out the successive changesof conditionwhich Christ underwent in the days of His flesh, I am opening the wis- dom of God in bringing our Great High Priest unto perfection. I am unfolding no change in the eternal and essential Divinity of the Son, which is unchangeable, being very God of very God ; but I am unfolding certain changes which passed upon the humanity, and by virtue of which the humanity was brought from the likeness of fallen sinful flesh, through vari- ous changes, unto that immortality and incorruption and sove- reign Lordship whereunto it hath now attained, and wherein it shall for ever abide. For to me it is most manifest, that the eternal Godhead of the Son did not despise the Virgin's 1 34 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : womb, but was in deed and in truth united personally with the embryo of a man — was born into the world a babe, and laid in a manger. So that what the Vir'gin bore is to be called very God ; what was laid in a manger is to be called very God. What was circumcised ; what sought knowledge of the scribes and doctors in the temple ; what grew in wisdom and in sta- ture, and in favour with God and man ; what was in subjec- tion to His parents ; what was baptized in Jordan ; what was tempted of the devil ; what went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed with the devil ; what was crucified ; what died — all these actings and sufferings are proper unto God in that human nature, which is as much of Him as the Divine nature is of Him.^ There is a double operation, a two- fold will — as we shall hereafter explain — one with the God- head ever consubstantial, and out of the absolute unto the manhood condescending, in order to suffer and to act : the Godhead ever emptying itself into the manhood : the man- hood not containing the Godhead, but consenting with har- mony to the mind of the Godhead. And not until these two operations have taken place is any act of Christ's complete. The person, the / who speaketh, acteth, sufifereth in Christ, is not the Divine nature, nor yet is it the human nature, alone ; but it is the Divine nature having passed into the human na- ture, and therein effecting its will and purpose of acting or of suffering. I totally reject — for reasons which will appear in the sequel of this discourse — the language of those divines who say, " Now the Divine nature acteth, now the human nature acteth ;" language which I hold to be essentially Nes- torian, making two persons in Christ. I say, on the other hand, that in every act of Christ the Divine nature acteth and the human nature acteth ; the former, by self-contractian unto the measure of the latter ; the latter, by coming into harmony with the former through the mighty power of the Holy Ghost. In therefore pointing out the successive changes which passed upon the humanity of Christ, and shewing Him, first as a man under the Law ; then as a man under the Spirit, enjoying the joy of God's chosen ones ; then under the hour and power of darkness, suffering the agonies of God's chosen ones, when it pleaseth the Father for their sins to chastise and rebuke them ; BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NITY. 1 3 5 I am doing no more than shewing the gradual progress unto perfection through which the body, the humanity, of Christ came, that it might be, during the days of His flesh, the per- fect thing, the all-exemplifying thing, the beginning and the ending, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last ; both the Jew and the Gentile, the circumcised and the baptized, the living and the dead, and the living for evermore. And it doth but remain that we proceed a little onwards to speak of the dead body of Christ while it lay in. the tomb, yet saw not corruption. 3. The true doctrine, therefore, of Christ's body, as to its mortality or immortality, seemeth to be rightly expressed thus: The flesh He took of the Virgin was mortal and corruptible, in the same manner, to the same degree, and for the same reason, that the rest of her flesh which was not taken, that all flesh whatsoever of Adam and Eve descended, is mortal and corruptible. Which attributes of mortality and corruption flesh deriveth not from the manner of its propagation, nor from its propagation at all, but anterior to all propagation, from that very word of God which saith, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." When the fruit of the forbidden tree had been eaten, from that time forth flesh — that is, the body of man, the bodies of all men, in our first parents contained, as all trees and plants were contained in the trees and plants which God created and made — the body of flesh, I say, became mortal and corruptible from thence ; and shall so continue, until all flesh shall have passed into death, anterior to the universal resurrection and common judg- ment. And I may observe, by the way, that the universality, the stability, the unchangeableness of this, the law of all body of Adam descended, doth raise into a very high and vast im- portance those exceptions of Enoch and Elias, the only ones which have ever been permitted — and undoubtedly not with- out the gravest causes and greatest ends permitted ; which I think are, to shadow forth the great mystery which Paul teacheth in i Cor. xv., that " we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." This change of the living God was not to shew in the person of His own Son, who before the foundation of the world was destined to be slain : therefore it 1 36 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : was necessary to shew it forth in some one or other of the types and forerunners of His Son. And yet, to the end that in this also He might have the pre-eminence, the transfigura- tion upon the Mount was given, and EHas made to attend upon the changed Lord; in order to signify and shew, tliat not only did the resurrection stand in Christ, but likewise tiie changing of the living, the rapture of the saints, which v/as foreshadowed in the rapture of Elias. But whether there be any speciality in the translation of Enoch, besides and above that which was in the changing of Elias, and what that spe- ciality is, I confess myself at present unable to say. Seeing then that the law of flesh, undeviated from save in those two exceptions, is to be mortal and corruptible, I hold, that wher- ever flesh is mentioned in Scripture, mortality and corruption are the attributes of it ; and that when it is said Christ came in the flesh, it is distinctly averred that He came in a mortal and corruptible substance : and, though I would judge no one, yet would I warn the Church to take care how they undervalue or contradict the mortality and corruptibleness of Christ's body, which I hold to be no less an error than to deny that the Son of God is come in the flesh. Well then, Christ, having taken to Himself mortal and cor- ruptible flesh, the work of the Holy Ghost consisteth in making that flesh immortal and incorruptible ; but first it must be proved to be mortal, before it can be proved to be immortal. Immortal, Christ is to become, by overcom- ing death, and him that had the power of death; not by escaping and never seeing death, but by seeing it, tasting of it, and overcoming it. He died, therefore, because He had taken flesh and blood with the brethren ; because He had taken true flesh. And the man who says that Christ did not die by the common property of flesh to die, because it was accursed in the loins of our first parents, that man doth deny that Christ was under the curse ; he doth deny that Christ was made a curse at all ; he doth deny that Christ was made sin at all ; yea, he doth deny that the Word was made flesh at all. Christ came to death, in order to prove Himself to be of the seed of Adam, of the seed of Abraham, of the seed of David, and of the substance of the Virgin ; bone of our bone, BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NITY. 1 3 7 and flesh of our flesh. For, if flesh, in the Holy Scriptures everywhere else meaneth that substance from Adam generated under the law of sin and death ; then, where it is said that the Word was made flesh, it must be meant that He was made this very same substance ; or else the Holy Spirit doth speak an enigmatical, yea, and a deceptions language. But, besides this, the establishment of Christ's very and true manhood in the fallen state thereof, which could only be unequivocally and indubitably demonstrated by death, it was necessary, moreover, to demonstrate that He differed from all men in this respect, that He never sinned ; for, if He sinned, atonement and reconciliation are made void for ever. It must be shewn, that the death which He died He died not for His own sins, but for the sins of the world ; that it was vicarious, and not in His own deserving ; that it was for the Father's glory, and not for His own punishment ; that it was with free-will acting of the Second Person unto the fulfilment of an eternal purpose of Godhead, and not a necessity induced by any cause or for any sake. Yea, I will go a little higher, and say, it was necessary to prove that death itself, and sin itself, were only servants unto the glory of the Divine purpose in Christ ; and that a fallen world was only the stage between a created world and a redeemed world ; and a stage as neces- sary to be gone through, for the manifestation of the Divine purpose, as creation itself And how is the subserviency of sin, and the subserviency of death, unto the great purpose of God and the glory of Christ, to be demonstrated } I answer, By His dying, and yet not seeing corruption. To corrupt, is for flesh to change its form, and dissolve again into its pri- meval dust. Corruption is the great proof of a creation fallen. Creation out of the dust composeth flesh : corruption, the antagonist of creation, into dust resolveth flesh again. If Christ, therefore, Avas in very flesh ; nay, if Christ was not an angel, or an archangel — that is, if He wore visible and material form ; that is, if He had a body — then He must be liable to corruption, as well as to death. And why, then, seeing He saw death, saw He not corruption .'' This question let the Holy Ghost himself answer, as it is writ- ten in the i6th Psalm, at the 8th verse : " I have set the o 8 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD , Lord always before me : because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved : therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope." Why, I ask, shall His flesh rest in hope ? For the same reason for which His heart is glad, and His glory rejoiceth, — because He hath set the Lord always before Him, be- cause the Lord is at His right hand. Therefore His flesh resteth in hope ; therefore also, he continueth, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." This deliverance from see- ing corruption He received, because He was God's Holy One; because He had set the Lord always before Him; because He had hstened to the counsel of the Lord ; because He had made the Lord the portion of His inheritance and of His cup ; because He had not offered the drink-offerings of bloody idolaters, nor taken up their names into His lips; because His delights had been with the excellent in the earth, and the saints ; because Jehovah He had declared to be His Lord ; because in God He did put His trust : or, in one word, to sum up the various descriptions of His life by the Holy Ghost in this psalm, because He had lived a life of faith, and of prayer, and of holiness undefiled. This is the reason why He saw not corruption. This is the reason why He could not be held by the pains of death, (Acts ii.) This also is the reason why He was saved from death, (Heb. v. 7 ;) because " He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears," in the days of His flesh. \\\ order, therefore, to put a difference between this man, who had lived and died like other men, and all others who had in like wise lived and died ; in order to prove that His life was blameless and sinless, though at all times and in all respects under the conditions of fallible, yea, and of fallen men ; His body was not suffered to see corruption. The not suffering of it to see corruption was the beginning of the Father's work in honour- ing and glorifying His Son, I may say that it was the resurrection begun : not indeed the activity of God's pervad- ing Spirit to transmute the matter of His body into a glorious and unchangeable substance, but the activity of His Spirit to resist the decomposition, the corruption, and inherent ten- BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 139 dencies to decay and change, which have been proper unto all matter since the fall of Adam, who was created matter's lord. That Jesus's body saw not corruption, when the life was gone forth of Him and it was an inanimate lump, is demonstration and consolation unto the inanimate world, that the Holy Ghost is able, when it pleaseth Him, to stay that corruption which is in it, and to take it out of the power of that word of God which was spoken in Eden, and hath been since fulfilled in all material substances, save only the inani- mate body of Christ. If sin had been in that flesh of the Lord Jesus — that is to say, if it had ever been an instrument unto sin ; if sin had not been efficiently resisted and mightily expelled out of that flesh of Jesus — then, rest ye assured, it would have seen corruption. For what else is corruption but the consequence of sin.-* In Adam, in the paradise of Eden, in the world unfallen, there was perpetual health, and no vestige of decay ; no autumn with its yellow leaf, no winter with its naked desolation, but one continued fulness of life, without any indications of change : and because corruption was not able to touch with its destroying finger the body of Christ, all dead and lifeless in the tomb, and separate both from animating soul and sustaining Godhead, it was proved that the substance which He took of a sinful woman He had been enabled to preserve pure and spotless, and from it to expel the powers of corruption which were in it by nature, which were now proved to be in it no longer. Mighty act of Almighty power! comfort of all material creation ! foundation-stone of an incor- rupt and incorruptible world ! Ay, true it is, and of verity, that had the Lord's body remained years and ages in the tomb, it had never seen corruption ; because He had lived without sin, and so had redeemed the corruptible into incor- ruption. But that it was a corruptible which He redeemed, is manifest from all the infirmities unto which He was liable ; from His weakness. His weariness. His faintings, His wounds, His death. But with death the demonstration of the corrup- tible endeth. Thus far was He one with me ; thus far took He part with the children, and no further : for while His soul, descending into the abode of invisible spirits, wrestled there, through the might of the Holy Spirit and the personal union 1 40 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : of the only-begotten Son, against all spiritual wickednesses, all invisible enemies of God, His body was laid up, in order to be proved impervious to the infirmities of the dead inani- mate matter. Oh, there it lay, the trophy of the great con- quest which in flesh had been achieved for flesh, and for flesh's monarchy, the visible world. There it lay, to prove that all which had been created for Adam in the beginning — sun, and moon, and stars, and earth, the palace of Adam the monarch of all ; and which had all fallen ; being shorn of its glory, driven from the presence of its God, reflecting not His perfect image, ministering not His holy purposes, but overwhelmed with sin and possessed with corruption — that all this material fabric, from the body of man downward to the worm which crawleth upon the earth ; and from the earth upward to the utmost bound of the starry sphere, wherever matter subsisteth, and in whatever form ; beyond the utmost reign of telescopic vision, and within the inmost penetration of microscopic vision ; that all life, and all life's tenement and habitation was now redeemed, was now rescued, was now delivered from corruption, and for ever wrested out of the power of death. "He was made a little lower than the angels, for the suflering of death, that by the grace of God he might taste death for every man ;" " that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death, which is the devil." So much, and no less, do we derive from the great work of God, that Christ's body saw not corruption. He gave Him up to death — or rather, I should say, the Father separated between His soul and body — that He might shew forth that there was a power in Christ's body greater than corruption. In His life, God shewed that there was a power greater than sin ; in His death. He shewed that there was a power greater than corruption. His body in life was all-liable to sin, as the body of every fallen man ; but the fulness of the Godhead in that body preserved it from sin : the same body in the tomb was liable to corruption, like the body of another man ; but the power and favour of the Godhead unto that which had not sinned, preserved it from corruption. This did God even when His Son was separated from it, and the living one BY TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 141 was no longer in it, in order to shew that the Eternal hath as great a love and care over that matter which the Holy- Spirit hath sanctified, as He hath a hatred against that which sin hath defiled and the Spirit hath not sanctified. So that, as Christ's sinless life in sinful flesh, as Christ's tri- umphant conquering life in flesh, oppressed and tempted by- all the powers of darkness, is the assurance unto every believer of his own personal triumph over the sinfulness which is in him ; is the assurance unto the Church militant of her triumph, sinful though she be, and obnoxious to the devil, the world, and the flesh ; so is the incorruption of Christ's body in a corruptible grave, the assurance unto the Church, both in glory and in tribulation of the power of God, greater than that power of corruption which is now revelling in the bodies of the saints. If Christ had sinned through the infirmity of His flesh, there would have been no assurance unto the Church of attaining unto holiness in the flesh through faith in Jesus Christ. If, again, Christ's body had tasted of corruption after death through its corruptibility, then there would have been no proof unto the separated souls of believers, nor unto us daily expecting the same, of a power greater than the corrup- tion which our bodies shall underlay- ; but, as it hath been set forth above, and ever been believed by the orthodox Church, we, who are in sinful flesh, have knowledge of a power able to produce holiness by prevailing against sinful flesh ; and they in the Jerusalem above, whose bodies are mouldered in the grave, have in the body of Christ, which prevailed against corruption, an assurance of a power in the Godhead more powerful than that corruption which they underlay. Now if Christ's living flesh had not been liable to all sin, if Christ's dead flesh had not been liable to all corruption, this demon- stration of a power able to sanctify actually sinful living flesh, and to prevail against corrupt flesh, would not have been given ; and more than this I consider it unnecessary to say, except that those who will not receive these things, can never have a full and legitimate ground of hope, either for holiness, or for incorruption. All which is briefly, but divinely, stated in the 8th chapter of the Romans, the nth verse: " But if 142 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Thus have we opened the composition of the person of Christ, in tracing out the successive steps through which His flesh passed until the very instant of its being raised into glory and immortality by the resurrection. And here, as hath been already said, we consider that our present subject doth cease and determine, and a new subject begin ; which is not the incarnation, but the Church: for then Christ became Head of the Church : concerning which, His risen glory, though I be not at present called upon to discourse, reserving it for some future occasion, if God should give me permission and opportunity, yet will I add one word in this place, for the sake of completeness. The body which the Father had des- tined His Son to subsist in, and of which He gave such glorious notices in the Old Testament, is not the body of His humility, suffering and dying, but the body of His glory, reigning and rejoicing in unchangeable power and majesty. All concern- ing which I discourse, that took place between the conception and the resurrection, is but a state of transition or passage unto the state of fixed permanency. The embodied Christ whom the Prophets commonly spoke of, is the mighty and un- changeable One, now on the right hand of the Majesty on high. I say not that they forgot or omitted the mention of His sorrowful travail to His joyful crown ; but I do say, and will never cease to insist, that the Father in His purpose, and the Prophets in the unfolding of that purpose, do most chiefly, and most principally, contemplate that which is the end, the consummation, and the eternal persistence of the embodied God. Therefore, the incarnation, whose import- ance I am thus setting forth at length, is — all-important as I make it — but the porch to that temple of glory which God shall for ever inhabit ; is, I may say, but the foundation of the temple, — is, I may say, but the conception, the bringing unto the birth, of the God-man. We must proceed fonvard beyond the incarnation, in order to come at the knowledge of the full anointing, and perfect preparation of the body of BY TA KING FALLEN HUM A NITY. 143 Christ ; which was done at His resurrection : for until the resurrection Christ's flesh continued unchanged : the Holy Ghost did not till then expel Satan out of that region : who had room to come and go, and with all enlargement to play his evil part, until the hour of Christ's death, yea, until the hour of His resurrection. His death proved well of what kind was His flesh up to that time — namely, that it was mortal. Its being laid in the grave and buried, proved that it was of the corruptible. Now, that which is mortal and corruptible is not yet taken possession of by the Holy Ghost ; and therefore I hold, that up to this time the holy ointment had not anointed Him from the crown of the head to the skirts of His garments. But when the Holy Ghost, inhabiting His separate soul, which was united unto the God- head, did come unto His dead body that was kept from seeing corruption, and quicken it with eternal and immortal life, instantly all mortality and corruption were thenceforward expelled from it for ever ; and the Seed of woman, of mortal, sinful woman, the Seed of David, the Seed of Abraham, was manifested in immortal and incorruptible life and glory ; the true Adam was born ; the Beginning of the creation of God was made known ; the Foundation-stone of the building was laid ; the body prepared for Him in the purpose of the Father was possessed ; the fore-birth of creation's child was ended ; and the Son of God was manifested in His glory and in His beauty : and from this time forth creation in the form of regeneration began to be unfolded ; the Holy Ghost was given, because Jesus was now glorified : and now the High Priest's anointing was completed — one thing only excepted, which is His garments (the anointing went to the skirts of the high priest's garments); "when the disciples went unto the sepulchre, he whom Jesus loved stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in : then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lying, and the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes, but ^\Tapped together in a place by itself" These wrappings of His dead body the Holy Spirit altered not; but His body itself was wholly absorbed in the change ; as the 144 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : logicians say, it was numerically the same body : nothing was left but the raiment which surrounded it : no film, no slough, no particle dropped away from it. It was regenerated with a new life ; it was changed into a glorious body. It was no longer under the ordinary laws of matter: it rose into the heavens at its pleasure ; it passed into the invisible at its pleasure, and at its pleasure became visible again ; it passed through barred doors ; it partook of meat when it pleased, and when it pleased it partook of none. But its former life it laid down for us : the blood, which is the symbol of life ; the blood, which is the life of the natura.1 body, fell upon the earth, and was not resumed again, — that is. He gave a life for us, though He liveth still : He died, who had done no sin ; He died for our sins ; His blood was shed for us. That life lost is life gained to the world. And to demonstrate beyond a doubt that the life lay in the blood, and to shew us that when Christ's blood was shed His life was truly taken, was the meaning of the consecration of blood in Noah's time, and its continuing consecrated until that great end had been accomplished. And after all this pains which God hath taken to shew us that Christ was truly mortal, I wonder that any one should enter- tain a doubt upon such a matter. The subject we have opened fully ; and here we do but observe, that His bloodless body was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and, instead of its blood-life, received a spiritual and eternal life ; and now, in very truth, was both Christ's soul and body, His human na- ture, completely, thoroughly, and fully anointed with the Holy Ghost. And for the garments with which He shall come arrayed, they shall be forthcoming when the elements of na- ture, the earth and the heavens, have been purified to furnish them. The garments of His glory are to be fitted out and furnished forth from nature's various chambers ; and when the creatures, when the whole creation, shall have finished with their long protracted travail, and brought forth the incorrup- tible forms of matter, they shall be the vestures and the glo- rious drapery of His person who is Priestjand Lord : Priest, to sanctify and purify all things ; and Lord, to command all things to serve and obey Him. And be it further observed, that that blood of a blameless life which fell from His cross BV TAKING FALLEN HUMANITY. 145 upon the ground, and which the earth greedily drank up, is to her the assurance of hope, and speaketh out from the ground better things than the blood of Abel, crying, not for venge- ance, but for redemption. It is her baptism of blood ; one of the witnesses which witnesseth of glory yet to come. For what the Holy Spirit is to man, the blood of a holy man is unto the ground : because man is the life of the earth, as the Holy Spirit is the life of man. So that that blood of Christ, being His mortal life, is truly the redemption of the mortal creature, the seal of the new testament of blessings. And thus was our High Priest anointed with the Holy Ghost, as Aaron was anointed with the holy anointing oil ; thus, by the operation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Qhost, was the High Priest and Lord of all creation anointed. This is truly the work of God, which was wrought in and upon the human nature of Jesus Christ, to bring a clean thing out of an unclean, and to begin the work of regenera- tion in the fallen world. And from this time forth be- ginneth the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, through the man-soul of Jesus Christ. So that now we receive the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Ghost doth now come through One in human form, and with human sympathies invested, in order to work in the chosen ones of the Father that same mind which is in Jesus Christ ; and we, who receive the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, are from that time forth of the same royal priesthood, kings and priests unto our God : we are filled with the spirit of a holy Priest and King, even Christ : we become possessed with the desires and inclinations of the holy God-man ; we become the members of the holy God-man ; and are re- newed, after the image of God, in righteousness ^nd true holiness. Meanwhile our fleshly nature becometh restrained, but not changed ; it longeth still after wickedness, it suggest- eth wicked thoughts, it is assailable to every evil seducer, and tried with every seduction : and thus it ought to be ; God thus bringeth us into trial. Arrayed on one side are all the powers of nature, unto which He leaveth us obnoxious through the flesh : while, on the other hand, the spirit, appre- VOL. V. K 1 46 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : bending our glory and excellency in Christ ; seeing there also the love of God manifested, and His grace shewn forth ; apprehending likewise the hope of a sanctified body in the resurrection, which is Christ, contendeth against the flesh, with the world, which is visible : and, between these two con- trary and opposite influences placed, the saint doth glorify God, by preferring Him in Christ, to the wicked world, lusted after by the flesh and by the eye. So that verily we do receive a present sanctification in the soul, which holdeth in check and prevaileth over the degradation and corruption of the flesh ; until at death the body descendeth with a good hope into the grave, being conscious to the Spirit of God which had dwelt in it ; and well knowing that, " if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in us." PART II. Besides these good effects, necessarily resulting from Christ's taking our fallen humanity, and of which not one would have resulted had He taken humanity in an unfallen state, there is another, to which divines of this age will be more alive ; which is, that there could otherwise have been neither reconciliation nor atonement between God and man. Those, indeed, who consider atonement as a bargain, of so much merit on Christ's side against so much demerit on ours ; so much suffering in His person, instead of so much suffering in ours ; will see little or nothing in the line of argu- ment which I am now about to pursue. But those who con- sider, as I do, that this is a most insufficient, and, when taken for the whole, a most prejudicial view of the mystery; and who understand atonement in its only scriptural sense, of at-one-ment, or reconciliation between the holy Creator and the unholy creature ; that which I am about to argue will appear of the greatest moment, and unanswerable. With respect to that bargain-and-barter hypothesis, I observe, that in order to make out of Christ's sufferings an infinite quantity BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 147 to cover the infinite delinquency of His elect, they reason thus : It was an infinite person that suffered, and therefore His sufferings must be of infinite value. Now, with all sound theologians, and with all the doctors, I deny the possibility of the Divine nature suffering. The Godhead cannot be tempted, and how should the Godhead suffer .? The human nature of Christ alone suffered ; and that is not infinite, but finite. Therefore there is no infinite amount of suffering to balance against the sufferings of the elect through eternity ; and so the account will not balance, and the base theory falls to the ground. Besides being illogical, how degrading is it to repre- sent the great mystery as shut up in this, that the Father would have so much punishment, get it where He could, and so He took it out of His own Son ! That the Father did hide His face from His Son ; that He did say, " Awake, O sword, against Him that is my Fellow;" that it pleased Him to bruise Him, and to put Him to grief, there can be no doubt — and any view of the mystery which will not give fair interpretation to these vindictive expressions of God's holi- ness, cannot be received ; — but that orthodox and enlarged view which I have given of the Father's act, as bringing Christ into the conditions of the fallen humanity, doth well and truly appropriate every utterance which the Father hath uttered, and every act which the Father hath done against sinners, to be spoken and done against Christ also : not by substitution merely, but by reality ; not by imputation merely, but in very truth. This, indeed, is what they cannot un- derstand who consider imputation as containing the whole mystery of God ; whereof it is only a part, though a very im- portant part : and it will prove utterly unintelligible, confu- sion worse confounded, to all those who consent to the suffi- ciency of the debtor-and-creditor theology ; or have been sucked by Satan into the heresy that Christ had a humanity in some way diverse from ours. This most unsound view of the matter, as the other is most insufficient, doth in effect make altogether void the Father's activity in the sufferings and death of Christ, which we are at such pains to preserve. If, as these adversaries of the truth allege, Christ in His in- carnation did apprehend an immortal and incorruptible sub- 1 48 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : stance, and not the very same mortal and corruptible which you and I inherit under the curse ; and if, by a mere act of power or will, He brought it into death, and laid it in the grave, and, as it were, rid Himself of it for a season, then why may He not, by the same act of will and of power, rid Himself of it again for another season, and another, and an- other ? and why not rid Himself of it for aye, and use it as a mantle, according to occasion ? and where is the security of the redeemed creature, that it may not again altogether fall out of union with the Godhead ? But if Christ took upon Himself our fallen and corruptible nature, and brought it up through death into eternal glory, then is the act of the will of Christ not to lay down, but to assume or take up hu- manity into Himself; and the continuance of His act is to keep it in union with Himself, and not for any sake to dis- miss it from Himself. He takes it, He loves it, He strengthens it. He sanctifies it, He immortalises it, He glorifies it. For His part He doth nothing but embrace it, and hold it fast unto Him- self It is the act not of the Son but of the Father, which makes the flesh drop off from His immortal being into death and the grave. This, I say, is the Father's act ; and it is the Father's act again to bring up that body in its changed and glorified state : not, indeed, without Christ's consent, but that consent given, when He consented to join Himself to the mor- tal and corruptible seed of the woman. He consented to be brought into the possession of an enduring body through the transition state of a mortal life, through the passage of death and the grave ; to which consenting, He consented therein to the act of the holy Father, which required the corruptible and mortal creature-substance to fall off from His immortal soul and divinity into death and the grave. And this is the mean- ing of that remarkable saying in John x. 17, 18 : "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." In these words Christ assert eth three things : first, that no one whatsoever, man or angel, had power to take His life from Him ; the second, that it was by Himself laid BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 149 down ; and the third, that this was done by the command- ment of the Father. These three things concur in His act of dying : a commandment of the Father, His own free will to obey that commandment, and His total independence of any third power or influence. Every act of His life was of the same kind ; done of free will, without constraint, in obedience to the absolute will of the Father. I say, therefore, Christ died because the Father had said, " Awake, O sword, against the Man that is my Fellow." No one could take His life from Him. He had but to look, and they became as stones ; He had but to speak, and they staggered and fell ; He had but to pray the Father, and twelve legions of angels would have suc- coured Him ; but " how, then, would the scriptures have been fulfilled .''" His Father's commandment alone could take that life from Him ; His Father's commandment alone could make Him suffer and die. It was His Father's commandment, and His fiilial obedience thereto, which brought Him into the con- dition of suffering and dying. It pleased His Father to bruise Him, and to put Him to shame, and to make His soul an offering for sin ; and why so ? not surely because the Father had ceased to love Him, for of love there is no suspension be- tween the Persons of the Godhead. What is it, then, for which the Father chastiseth Christ 1 and for what offereth He His Son upon the cross 1 The Son surrendereth Himself unto the Father ; giveth Himself up wholly unto the Father ; and is in the Father's hands, to be disposed of according to the Father's mind. In one act of willingness, when He said, " Lo, I come," all acts of willingness are included ; His Father may do with Him thenceforth after His good plea- sure. The act from thenceforth of His incarnation, suffer- ing, agony, death, resurrection, glorification, is the Father's forthshewing of His own mind upon His w'illing Son, unto the instruction and edification of all by whom it is wit- nessed, and to whom the tidings of it, the fruits of it, shall reach, far and wide, for ever. Blessed, ever blessed Son ! who thus made Himself of no reputation, emptied Himself of His own inexhaustible fulness, and yielded Himself to His Father, like clay in the hand of the potter. Mar- vellous lesson unto every creature to do likewise! and for this 1 50 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : very end designed, that we might yield up that rebel inde- pendence which we falsely feel, and pass into the conditions of the Father's will ; and by faith deliver ourselves over to be crucified, sacrificed, brought down to dust ; yet never doubting, but aye believing, that out of the dust we shall be exalted unto glory. Christ, from the day of His self-sur- render, is no longer His own master; a servant evermore, in subjection evermore, suspending Himself from the Father's will evermore ; and so exemplifying faith and obedience for ever unto all the creatures ; and acknowledging His honour. His glory, and His power to proceed from the invisible Father, and teaching all creation to do the same. Great Head of subjection ! great High Priest of worship ! great Heir of God ! great Conveyancer of the inheritance of God unto all the chil- dren ! O my soul, honour Him, as thou honourest the Father. Now, then, having Christ in the Father's hands, that the Father might demonstrate through Him His own being and His own perfection, and through Him communicate to the creatures whatever can be communicated, what doth the Father make of Him, make with Him .'' He maketh use of Him, first, to shew what is the enmity between Himself and the fallen creatures ; what is the nature of sin, and what the nature of holiness. Therefore joineth he Him unto the sinful thing ; and, lo, what follows .'' exhaustion of Divinity ! for its blessedness, suffering ; for its infinity, narrow limitation ; for its power, weakness ; for its glory, shame ; for its life, death ! And there endeth this first act of the mystery of the Father's will, which amounteth unto this awful truth : That God, even the mighty God, being personally joined to the fallen crea- ture, cannot hinder, cannot help, that it should not suffer and die ; be dark, and need faith ; be oppressed, and need com- fort ; be borne down, and need the Holy Ghost's sustenance continually. Was ever the weakness of flesh so proved as by this, that the personality of the Son joined to it could not strengthen it, without the continual energising of the Holy Ghost .'' Was ever the sinfulness and mortality of the flesh so proved as by this, that the Holy One could not keep it from sin and from corruption but by operation of the Holy Ghost } Was ever God's alienation from the sinful BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 151 creature so proved, as that the union of Godhead with it could not hold it to Himself, or hinder it that it should not drop away into death and pass into corruption, had not the Holy Ghost changed its form, purged out its sinfulness ? after which it can abide, and doth abide, in union with the Godhead for ever ; but until which it was, as it were, but an abortive attempt at a thing which could not be. Doth not this prove, that, let the creature believe in Christ to the uttermost, and let Christ incline to the creature in the utter- most, they cannot come together, stay together, and be one, otherwise than through the power of the Holy Ghost chang- ing the creature's form, drawing it through death, and out of corruption regenerating it ? So that the act of the Son to redeem all mankind doth not suffice to deliver any from death and corruption, or to unite any with Himself in in- fallible and inseparable union ; like withering leaves, we shall drop off from Him ; like fruitless branches, be pruned away ; like His owai body of sin, drop into death and the grave ; unless we shall have partaken of that regenerating power of the Holy Ghost which He partook in the tomb ; which saved Him from corruption, which shall deliver the regenerate out of corruption ; which united His body, that was mortal and corruptible, unto His immortal part, consist- ing of soul and Second Person of the Godhead, and fixed it there in immortal union for ever and ever. So, likewise, doth the Father hereby make it manifest, that of all living and dead flesh, of all flesh together, which cometh into death, no more shall be united for ever unto the glorious person of Christ, save so much only as shall have partaken the regeneration of the Holy Ghost ; — that, though all flesh be now under Him as Lord ; though He be, as it were, united unto all flesh, by virtue of what He did in flesh ; yet only so much of it as the Father by the Holy Ghost regenerated shall be brought up in the fashion of His glory, and all the rest shall be brought up in the fashion of the mere and unmixed sinful creature, to inherit for ever the estate of the second death. Behold how, in the sufferings and death of Christ, the Father openeth His mind and purpose ! Thus, having shewed the Father's activity in the sufferings 1 5 2 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : of the blessed Lord, and that these sufferings come not by imputation merely, but by actual participation of the sinful and cursed thing, I proceed further to express my views of imputation, before entering into the full exposition of the re- conciliation which is wrought in flesh by the method detailed above, of uniting the Godhead to fallen humanity. The view of His humiliation and death in common use is, that the sins of all the elect were imputed to Him, and all the suffering which through eternity they should have borne laid upon Him, and that His death had no relation whatever to any but God's elect. Let us take this scheme in its best form, and give heed to these questions : First, How then hath Christ purchased to Himself a right over the reprobate as well as the elect, for His action toucheth them in nowise .'' and how is His finished work to be preached to the reprobate as well as to the elect, for it hath no application to them } To this it is no answer to say. That we know not the one from the other. If we preach to all, we preach to all ; if we preach to a part, we preach only to a part. Christ must have brought some benefit to all, that the gospel should be preached unto all ; — not the benefit of salvation, as the Universalists damnably believe, but the removal of the law, and the introduction of grace, and the condemnation of sin in the flesh, and the spoiling of Satan, and the lordship of the fallen creation ; to lead them unto the Father, that through Him they may transact with the Father, and the Father transact with them, according to the new rela- tions of grace. This much we preach to all, as having been really wrought out for all ; and there leaving the general and universal question, we are ready to enter upon the additional and special question of the election and the regeneration. We have Christ in His earthly work doing a common good for the fallen creatures, but in His risen work doing a particular good 'for the election of the Father ; and we say again, that upon the scheme of mere substitution for the elect in His sufferings, and for them alone, this great end of preaching a gospel unto all, of preaching Him the Saviour of all men, especially them that believe, cannot be attained. These two things, Christ con- cerning Himself for the elect only, and the good of Christ preached unto all, are contrary to one another, and will never BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 153 fail the one to destroy the other : but Christ's doing in the flesh a work for flesh in general, and in the spirit a work for the spiritual or elect in particular, are two truths which be consistent with a freely preached gospel, and likewise . with an elected Church ; consistent also with the present lordship of Christ over all, and the future resurrection of all in Christ, and with their separate eternal destinies of heaven and hell, likewise in Christ. This way of viewing Christ's death as a compensation in kind for the election only, is not peculiar to those who hold the heterodox view of Christ's humanity : but, being commonly found in company with it, and indeed being the only view possible on such a scheme ; and moreover, being, as I conceive, partly the occasion of its revival in these times ; I have thought it good to remark upon it here, though regarding it with far more respect than I do the doctrine of Christ's immortal and incorruptible body, which I utterly detest and abominate. Indeed, this view of Christ's death, so far as it goes, expresseth the truth ; for Christ is indeed the substitute for His people, and it is the election only who realise the benefit of His death ; but it falleth short, in not pointing out the relation which Christ's work hath unto the reprobate ; and for this defect, rather than for any heinous error, we have at this time alluded to it, and do now proceed to explain the true doctrine of imputation. As it seems to me, the meaning of imputation of our sins unto Christ consisteth in these two things : — First, That no- thing constrained Him, as the Son of God, but He did of His own free will take unto Himself the body which the Holy Ghost quickened of the Virgin's substance, and in this body did commit no sin, but in all things did the Father's will, and was holy and blameless. Whence it follows, that, whatever He suffered, and, which is far more, whatever He forewent of infinite glory and blessedness in order to suffer, is all to be placed to the account of mankind, and not to His own account. By imputation I understand, that His humiliation and suffer- ing were not for anything which He had done, but for what mankind in Adam had done. And to the end He might suffer for the kind, and not for individuals of the kind. He came not by ordinary generation ; but the Holy Spirit did 154 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: take up a portion from all the fallen substance before Him, out of which to make His body, as He had taken up a por- tion of the earth to make Adam's body in the beginning. He did not now take up a portion of the earth to make of it an unfallen creature, because the work which was now to proceed was not the work of creation, but the work of redeeming creation. Not, therefore, inorganic dust, but dust changed by creation's word into flesh and blood He took, and formed of it the body of Christ. The substance of created manhood in an unquickened state He took, as I may say, at random, and formed of it the body of Christ. So that, as the whole earth stood in Adam's body represented, with the fate of Adam's body implicated, in it to stand and fall and be redeemed ; so likewise the whole substance of organised flesh and blood, living, and dead, and to live, stood represented in the body of Christ which the Holy Spirit had formed from the Virgin's substance, to stand or to fall according as this Man newly constituted, this new thing created of God, should stand or fall. As unfallen creation stood represented in un- fallen Adam, so fallen creation stood represented in Christ ; and as in Adam's fall all together fell, so in Christ's resurrec- tion shall all be made alive again. This is the first part of imputation : that He freely came under, without any obliga- tion of whatever kind, the load and burden of a fallen world's infirmity and sin — or, if you please to speak in the language of the covenant, the Father laid it upon Him ; charged Him with it ; imputed it to Him ; treated Him as the guilty one ; and, as Luther said, the only sinner : so that by His suffering and death justice should be appeased, and sin for ever done away with. There may be other depths here that I cannot fathom — such as the proportion between the suffering of Christ by which the sin was atoned for, and the eternal suffering from which His atonement delivereth His people. I cannot tell how this is, and I do neither say nor gainsay it, being minded only to speak what the Lord hath made me clearly to know. I do indeed perceive this much, that no creature could pay the price of sin but by eternal separation from God, because I see it to have been so in the fallen angels ; and if so, then the recovery of man must be accomplished by BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 155 an act of power of an infinite measure ; which act Christ's was, by that twofold will or operation which was in Him — one conversant with the Godhead, and enlarged to its infinite bounds ; another conversant with the manhood, and restricted to its humble and suffering- conditions — these two wills, or operations, as the orthodox fathers termed it, being necessary to compose any act of the Person Jesus Christ. The / in Him, embraced the infinite and the finite also ; which gave to every action and feeling of His a character of infinity. When He suffered, though the Divine nature suffered not, yet came He out of that delectation, and down from that elevation, into the human nature, which did suffer. And this, not of suffering onlv, but of feeling and of acting ; which He did always as a man ; and in order to do as a man, must first condescend from the infinitude of the Godhead in order to do it. In this twofold operation, in this twofold will, con- sisteth the one personality of the two natures of Christ ; His God-manhood, the hypostatical union. His identity of sub- stance with the Godhead, His identity of substance with the fallen manhood. And in this I perceive everything which I want, — the infinite goodness of God, the infinite merit of Christ, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the glory of God shewn forth in our deliverance from it. And I see that there is an infinite ocean of merit here, to counteract an infinite ocean of demerit in the creature, if in that way the question is to be viewed ; which, however, I freely confess, my mind approveth not, to the degree in which I find it current amongst some orthodox and pious men. Now, besides this view of imputation, there is a second part, which seems necessary to complete the whole ; and this is, the applying of Christ's righteousness to us, as the sins of others were applied unto Him. For He " is made unto us righteousness ;" we are " the righteousness of God in Him." This, also, I know they are wont to bring out of what I may call the theology of infinities ; but, for my part, I am inclined to look upon it as an original part of the purpose of God ; or, if you please, an original condition of the covenant between the Father and the Son ; of which nothing more can be said, than that it was according to the good pleasure of their will. 1 5 6 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : But with respect to the thing itself, it consisteth of two parts: the first universal, the second elective, in its application. The universal being that w'hich Christ in the flesh did for flesh — to wit, 'redeeming it from sin, and from the law which defined its sinfulness, and from death, and from corruption ; and in- stating it in God's favour, forgiveness, and love ; bestowing upon flesh immortality and resurrection. These things to- gether constitute the gospel, and are a free bequest unto men, which we ministers are appointed to tell them of The other part, which is elective, Christ did not in the flesh, but received from His Father in gift and reward for that which in the flesh He had done : it is the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which to bring many sons unto glory. This latter, being the gift of the Father unto Christ, must be regarded as the Father's ful- filling His part of the covenant ; and being given for the sake of as many as the Father pleaseth, and no more, doth consti- tute a peculiar people, a holy nation, an inheritance of Christ in the saints, an election in the midst of the redemption. Here, then, imputation of Christ's work is twofold : one, grace and peace unto all ; a thing revealed and that may be pro- claimed, yea, that ought to be proclaimed, unto all. The other, regeneration of the Holy Ghost, union unto Christ's risen body, communication of His glory, and fellowship of His kingdom: a thing not to be preached unto all ; a secret thing belonging to the Father ; which men must be told they have not re- ceived, but have yet to receive, if the Father pleaseth ; which men are to be told God the Father hath placed no interdict against their receiving, while He hath continually revealed that it is a special gift and favour ; which, moreover, men cannot receive but in the faith and use of that common gift which they have all received in Jesus Christ. Now, as the extent of this higher imputation resteth with the Father, and is, indeed, that very right of His which maintaineth Him Sovereign in the redemption, first Originator there as He is in creation, yea, as He is in the Godhead itself; so were I will- ing, and do incline to believe, that nothing more ought to be said upon this subject, save that it is the pleasure of the Father to extend it unto whomsoever it pleaseth Him to ex- tend it : and I do rather think it to be of evil consequence BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 157 for men, by similitudes derived from the market-place, to say- that there is just so much merit as will cover the demerit of so many persons. But into this matter I enter no further ; and having fairly, however lamely, explained my view of im- putation, the way is now clear for opening my views fully and fairly upon the subject of the reconciliation, or atonement. Of the doctrine taught in the first part of this discourse this is the sum: — That there was united in Jesus Christ, the Godhead, in the person of the Son, and the manhood, in its fallen state; and that they subsisted together in one person, in suchwise as that He was wholly without sin, holy and blameless in the sight of God. Now, by the grace of God, I will shew you how, in this incarnation of the Son of God, thus incarnate, in the fallen, and not the unfallen creature, is shewn forth and demonstrated the truth of that text — " God was in Christ re- conciling the world unto hirnself; not imputing unto them their trespasses." And to make this demonstration the more complete, I pray you to look back unto the beginning. See the substance of mankind, now innumerably divided into living and dead persons, all shut up and contained in Adam, in a state of goodness with which the Godhead was well pleased. See it again, by the fall of our first parents ; all brought into a state of sinfulness, most abhorrent unto the mind of a holy and righteous God ; offending all His com- mandments, refusing Him worship, and giving it unto stocks and stones, and four-footed creatures, and in all possible ways shewing forth a most hideous and irreconcilable enmity in the creature unto God. The question then is, How is this enmity of fallen man to be taken away .-* How is the world to be re- conciled unto God } How is this sinful and sin-possessed creature to be delivered, sanctified, and brought into favour with God .'' As in an individual, even Adam, the enmity came, so in an individual, even Christ, the reconciliation came. And as from the first individual the enmity was propagated to many, yea, to all, so from the latter individual is the reconci- liation propagated unto many. As is the fall, so is the re- medy. And how, then, was the reconciliation accomplished in the man Jesus Christ ? and afterwards is it propagated from Him unto other men } In the man Jesus Christ, there was 1 5 8 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : the Godhead of the Son, which is the same in substance with the Godhead of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. There was also the manhood ; the same in substance with the man- hood of other men, otherwise it is not manhood. " Verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." " Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." Consider now attentively this the person of Christ. If the human substance which He hath taken be of a piece with mine and with yours, as we are all of a piece with Adam, and can, through the union with the Godhead, be preserved pure, and blameless, and carried through death incorrupt, and brought into the presence of God perfectly holy, then it is made manifest that a fallen creature can be reconciled unto God, for it hath been done, it was done in the person of Christ ; and the only question which will remain is, How is it to be done in other persons } How is it to be propagated abroad unto many, as Adam's declension was propagated } But if, on the other hand, Christ took not our substance in its fallen, but in its unfallen state, and brought this unto glory, then nothing whatever hath been proved with respect to fallen creatures, such as we are. The work of Christ toucheth not us who are fallen ; there is no reconciliation of the fallen crea- ture unto God ; God is not in Christ reconciling a sinful world, but He is in Christ reconciling an unfallen world ; for it is the unfallen creature and the Godhead which have met in Christ. And what were the use of reconciling the unfallen world, which hath no sin, which is never fallen out with God } If God is in Christ reconciling something to Himself, that some- thing must be, in Christ, reconciled with God. And what is there in Christ, but God and man } These two, that met in Him therefore, and were reconciled, must be the same two between whom enmity had come. Do I say, then, that Christ was sinful, or did any sin, or that His temptations led Him into any sin .'' If there was sin, how could there be reconci- liation .'' No ; He was holy. But was He liable to sin } Yes ; He was tempted in all points like as we are. How could He be tempted like me, unless He were like me } His Godhead could not be tempted ; as it is written, " God cannot be BV UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 159 tempted with evil." Only, then, His manhood could be tempted. And how can any one be tempted or tried, unless he be liable to sin } Even Adam, before he fell, was liable to sin. If any one, therefore, say that Christ Avas not liable to sin, he doth say He was not a man ; he doth say He is not come in the flesh ; " for all flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the grass ;" and if any man say that Christ is not come in the flesh, he is not of God. " This is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world." Be it so then admitted, that Christ is come in the flesh, and was tried with all our in- firmities, and tempted in all points, like as we are — which is a doctrine the most necessary to salvation, albeit now set light by, nay, and even reproved — you have at once redemption and reconciliation made sure. You have original sin taken away in Him by the manner of His conception. He is not, as it were, an individual of the sinful individuals ; He is not a human person ; He never had personal subsistence as a mere man ; He sees the whole mass and lump of fallen, sinful flesh; He submits Himself unto His Father to be made flesh ; His Father sendeth the Holy Spirit to prepare Him a body. This is done through means of a rational soul, which the Holy Spirit possessing doth therewith take up, from anywhere in the lump of existing flesh, a part ; and when so forming a body the eternal Son of God humbleth Himself to apprehend it, for ever to unite it to His own Divine person ; and thus, by creative act of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, not by ordinary generation, Christ is constituted a Divine and human nature in one person. He hath taken part with the children, with the fallen children ; but He came by that part, not through connexion with Adam, but by His own free will, and His Father's free will, and the free will of the Holy Ghost ; and thus original sin is avoided, though yet the body He took is in the fallen state, and liable to all temptations. Now, then, consider ye how the reconciliation between these two most contrary and irreconcileable things is accomplished. Most people never think at all about the matter, and would fain not be troubled to think about it ; but woe be to the minister, and woe be to the people together, who are content to lie sunk in 1 60 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : sUch sloth, in such indifference to God's most principal and most glorious work: Hear me, then, patiently, and give diligent heed, while I explain to you this matter distinctly. The Divine nature of Christ hath continual communion and identity with the Godhead, is of the Godhead, is the Godhead ; dwelling with the Father, and in the Father, not the less because it acteth towards the creatures, through this body, and through it shall for ever act. By His Divine nature, I say, with the Godhead He transacteth, and by His human nature He rendereth the will and purpose and action of the Godhead intelligible, visible, and perceptible to the creature. But before two instruments will render the same harmonious sound they must first be brought into tune with one another; and the question is, How shall human nature, in the fallen state, be brought to be in harmony with the acting of the holy Godhead .-* ' Ever since the fall, God and man have been at variance. The thing was not, that ever the human will had acted in harmony with the will Divine ; and how then is it now to be } How is a human nature to respond, truly and justly, in all things to a Divine nature .-* This is the reconciliation of which so much is made mention in Scripture. This is the atonement of which they make so much discourse, without knowing what they say or whereof they affirm. Atonement is not reparation, is not the cost or damage, but the being at one. It should be pro- nounced at-one-ment. What are the two things to be brought at one .-* Are they not God and sinful fallen man .-' And where are they to be brought at one, but in the person of Christ, where we have them now brought together without any original sin ? If human nature be in itself so contrarious, so sinful, so very sinful, how shall it be brought in Christ to tell truly, for ever and ever, the mind, and will, and purpose of God unto the creatures ? This is the difficulty : solve me this, and redemp- tion and reconciliation are resolved. It is the work of God the Father, and of God the Holy Ghost, so to operate in and upon the fallen humanity of Christ, as that it shall be ever harmonious with the Godhead of Christ. This is what is meant by these words, " Thou hast prepared a body for me." The Son is willing to act through a body : the Father by BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. i6i the Holy Ghost expresseth His satisfaction with His Son's condescension, by preparing that body, and making it fit for Him to act through, so as to open unto the creatures the mystery of God ; and through the body thus attuned unto Divine harmony, the Son doth humble Himself to act all His Father's mind, all the Godhead's mind. The preparing of the body is, I say, the great work of the Godhead working in the person of the Holy Ghost : the acting through it, what- ever pleaseth God, is the great work of the Godhead, in the person of the Son ; and the effect is, God reconciled in Christ unto a fallen world. It now remaineth to examine how the Holy Ghost bringeth the body into this harmony with God. This difficulty must be met again, and not avoided. A sinful world, sinners such as those around me, want to know how they are to be recon- ciled, how their reconciliation hath been accomplished in Christ. "We are in earnest, and we are not to be shuffled out of our salvation by any subterfuges : therefore tell us plainly, how this great work was accomplished." By the grace of God, I will tell you. The Holy Ghost took up His residence in the soul of Christ: God had given the world unto the devil, and the devil had his residence in the fallen world around. The flesh of Christ was the middle space on which the powers of the world contended with the Holy Spirit dwelling in His soul. His flesh is the fit medium between the powers of darkness and the powers of light. And why fit .? Because it is linked unto all material things, devil-possessed, while it is joined in closest, nearest union unto the soul, which in Christ was God-pos- sessed, in the Person of the Holy Ghost. His flesh is the fit field of contention, because it is the same on which Satan had triumphed ever since the fall. Here, then, in the flesh of Christ, is the great controversy waged. Through this, Satan presented his temptations of appetite, of sight, of pride, trying Him with the lust (desire) of the flesh, with the desire of the eye, with the pride of life. This did he at the very outset of His ministry, not that he had not done it before, or was not to do it after, or did not do it ever, but that it was then done in a manifest and notorious manner, that it might be capable of record and of tradition ; and that such dreams ' VOL. V. L 1 6 2 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : might be prevented as I am now reproving, and that it might be for ever manifest and indubitable, that the Son had no favour, and that Satan had no let or hindrance in this great and terrible conflict. And when, at the end of His ministry, He said, " The prince of this world cometh, and findeth nothing in me," He solemnly declareth, that during the whole of the fiery conflict which He had endured, and unto which He alone was conscious, Satan had never been able to make a lodgment, or gain a hold in His flesh ; that though free to come in all his might, he had ever been repelled, as he was repelled in the wilderness ; that His flesh thus oppressed, thus hideously oppressed, had never been able to sway His will, upholden in its steadfastness by the Holy Ghost ; that the might of the Holy Ghost in His soul had been able to re- concile unto God the inveterate obstinacy and stubborn re- bellion of flesh and blood ; that for once the law of the flesh had not been able to drag down a soul unto perdition ; that for once a soul had been able to draw up the flesh into re- conciliation with the will of God ; that all His life long the will of the flesh had been successfully withstood by the will of the Spirit, yea, that the will of the Spirit had enforced the flesh to do it unwilling service. All this is signified by the expression which He used immediately before His agony, " Satan cometh, but findeth nothing in me." And it is signi- fied, moreover, that Satan was then coming with an assault of a more dreadful and terrible kind, which is emphatically called "the hour and power of darkness ;" and which, begin- ning from His agony, continued till His resurrection, partly without and partly within the vail, partly in the body and partly in the separate soul, partly upon earth and partly, as the Creed saith, in hell, understanding thereby the place of separate spirits. Which conflict being over, it was pro- nounced, not merely by word of man, " Satan hath nothing in me," but it was pronounced by the word of God, and that not by the word of God syllableing airy sounds in the vault of heaven, but by the word of God working through the Spirit that change of state which His body underwent in the hollow tomb. Then indeed, when the Spirit had taken hold of the body also, when the Divine glory and holiness struck its BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 163 beams through the body also ; then when matter stood puri- fied by the Spirit : then when sinfulness, and corruption, and defectibility forsook flesh and blood, and incorruption and immortality, and infallibility, and holiness untemptible, and strength almighty inhering and inhabiting, shone forth in that which heretofore had been human, fallible, temptible flesh, it was demonstrated by the finger of God, that reconciliation was accomplished between the Creator and the creature. And now was the body prepared, and not till now was the pre- paration of the body accomplished : and through that body, with harmony ever perfect, with variety of harmony infinite, with indubitable certainty shall the Godhead, in the person of the Son, express through the redeemed, risen, glorified man- hood, all its purposes, and accomplish all its effects. So that the reconciliation begun in the Virgin's womb, between God and creation, is perfected in the womb of the earth, is acknow- ledged in the height of heaven, is honoured of the Father, as His chiefest work, with the chief place of the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. And thus do you behold in the resurrection the reconciliation or at-one-ment accomplish- ed between God and man, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the union of the Godhead to fallen humanity. Let us pause here, and see what we have attained unto. Of the whole fallen substance of manhood considered as one thing in Adam summed up, and in Adam assuming its pre- sent form, law, or condition, we have the Godhead, in the person of the Son, taking up a part, an integral part, with the same properties as all the rest. And this part is so empowered by the Holy Spirit, as to be in concert with the Godhead always, and at length is crowned of the Father, and seated on the throne of His majesty. If this had been any favoured part of the fallen material, then might the law of its redemption not have applied to the less favoured parts. If it had been a part that had never fallen, the law of its redemption would not have applied at all to the fallen substance of manhood. But seeing that it was the same of which all the brethren are partakers, it follows that what is accomplished in one portion, is virtually accomplished in the whole; that reconciliation being made between God and one part of the fallen thing, 1 64 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : reconciliation is made between God and the whole fallen sub- stance. And therefore we may go about and preach recon- ciliation unto all the world, as it is in that text, already quoted, " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." We preach the resur- rection unto all who have partaken of the death which came by Adam. We have a right to say, that as in Adam all have died, so in Christ all have been recovered from death, or made alive. And doubt can there be none, that Christ hath pur- chased unto Himself right and lordship over all the fallen creatures ; and in virtue of His resurrection shall raise them all from their graves, — some unto the resurrection of life, and others unto the resurrection of judgment. His resurrection makes him Lord of heaven, and Lord of hell. He hath pur- chased back the possession, and in doing it, He hath asserted likewise His lordship over the usurpers of the possession. Here then is redemption and reconciliation purchased for fallen mankind, by the incarnation of Christ, as truly and completely, and as extensively as in the fall by one man, even Adam, death and alienation were procured. To make this a little more manifest and forcible, it will be necessary that I speak here a little concerning the two wills or operations in Christ, — a subject which for several centuries agitated the Church. The orthodox doctrine, and a doctrine it is of the most vital importance, holdeth that there were in Christ two wills or operations, which the Monothelites, (who hold only one will in Christ,) a class of heretics that grew out of the Eutychean stem, denied, asserting that there was only one operation, Theandric or Godmanly. Sergius proved, or attempted to prove, that it was proper to speak neither of one nor of two wills or operations ; and Honorius, bishop of Rome, approved this course : but Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, stoutly maintained that one ought to profess his faith to be, that there were two wills in Jesus Christ ; which dogma was confirmed by the Sixth General Council of Con- stantinople, and the opinion of the Monothelites was con- demned by the Catholic Church ; — as it hath likewise been condemned by the Church of England, in the acts of her convocation ; and by the Church of Scotland, in her general BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 165 condemnation of the doctrine of Eutyches, which these single-will heretics always favoured, as they abominated the Council of Chalcedon, in which Eutyches was condemned. Now, I am well aware that the unbelieving spirit of this age, like the Emperor Heraclius, will be for imposing silence upon such questions as unimportant ; and I confess they are alto- gether unimportant to those who see in Christ's work only the barter of so much suffering against so much suffering, of so much merit against so much demerit. But to those, who consider the atonement as the deeper mystery of the recon- ciliation of the holiness of God to the unholiness of the fallen creature, and the taking out of the way the law of command- ments, which is the expression of the enmity between God's holiness and the fallen creature, it is a question of the utmost importance, and most necessary to the complete exposition of the reconciliation or at-one-ment. Those who say that there is but one will in Christ, either make Him only God, or only man. There is the absolute will of the Godhead, and there is the limited will of the creature. These two may be consentaneous with one another, which is holiness ; or they may be dissentient from one another, which is unholiness in the creature; but the one cannot be the other without confounding two most opposite things, the Creator and the creature, and introducing the doctrine of Spinosa, the doctrine of Eastern sophists and Western savans; that God is the soul of the world ; that He is diffused through the creatures, and that the creature is of Him a part. If, again, you say with Sergius, that the operation in Christ is neither Divine nor human, but a mixture of both, as he called it, Theandric or Godmanly, you do confuse the two natures of Christ, and make one between them, which is neither God's nature nor man's nature, but an unknown something lying between them both, with which man hath no sympathy, or rather no consubstantiality ; with which God hath no consub- stantiality, and, therefore, which cannot be Mediator between God and man. This also leads directly to the confusing of the Creator with the creature, in the person of Christ, and therefore to everything evil besides ; and again bringeth out God to be the soul of the world, and the world a part of God. 1 66 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : It is therefore, however little apprehended by our debtor- and-creditor divines, no less than to confuse and confound all things, thus to permit such points of doctrine as this to remain in error, or even under silence. Now the orthodox doctrine is, that there were two wills in Christ ; the one the absolute will of the Godhead, which went on working in its infinite circles, the other a man's will, which was bounded by the limited knowledge, the limited desires, the limited affections, and the limited actions of manhood ; a Divine nature, and a human nature, God and man. The orthodox doctrine holdeth, moreover, that from the incarna- tion onwards, and for ever, the Son of God never thought, felt, or acted, but by condescending out of the infinitude of the Divine will, into the finiteness of the human will ; in which condescension, the self-sacrifice, and humiliation, and grace, and goodness of the Godhead are revealed : without which condescension these attributes of the Godhead could never have been known unto the creatures. This condescension it is which giveth an infinite value to every act of Christ, — in the Father's sight, inasmuch as it makes Him known, and obtains His great purpose of self-manifestation ; — in the creature's sight, inasmuch as it shews unto the creature the great free- will condescension of the Son, by which the Father is made known, and the Holy Spirit communicated. Moreover, the attributes of thought, feeling, and action, under which the Godhead is represented to us in the Old Testament, before the incarnation, appertain not to the absolute will of the God- head, which hath no limitation of space or time, no creature mind, nor creature will, but appertain to the Godhead, con- templating itself as about to be united to the manhood by incarnation of the Son ; so that all revelation is truly an anti- cipation by word, like as all creation is an anticipation by act of the great thing which was accomplished by the union of two wills or operations in Christ ; or, to express this truth in Scripture language, the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It is not to tell out the truth fully, to say that such expressions as God changeth, God repenteth, are accommo- dations to man's way of speaking : they are anticipations of God's way of shewing Himself, by taking the nature of man BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 167 into the personality of the Son, and through that nature act- ing the purposes of the Godhead by the creatures. And human language itself is a great, and, next to creation, the greatest, work of God unto the same great end ; and Christ the Creator is only worthy to be expressed by Christ the Word. Be it so, then, that unto every thought, word, and act of Christ, there concurreth two operations ; an operation in the infinite Godhead, and an operation in the finite manhood ; and that these two operations are not the operations of two persons, but of one person only ; and what result and infer- ence have you, but this most sublime, most perfect one, that the actings of the Godhead, all the volition, purposes, and actings of the Godhead, are consentaneous with, are one with, all the volitions, all the actings, of the manhood of Christ ? For the Godhead never acteth but by the Son ; and the Son never acteth unto the creatures, but by the manhood, which, with His Godhead, formeth one person. Wherefore, this sublime, this perfect truth is for ever incorporated in the person of Christ: that Godhead and manhood are not in amity merely, not in sympathy merely, not in harmony and consociation merely, but in union, unity, and unition, hypos- tatical or consubstantial. I would not give the truth ex- pressed in these words of the Catechism, " Two distinct natures, and one person for ever," for all the truths that by human language have ever been expressed. I would rather have been the humblest defender of this truth in the four oecumenical councils of the Church than have been the great- est reformer of the Church, the father of the Covenant, or the procurer of the English constitution. But we must bridle our spirit, and yoke our strength again unto the argument. At-one-ment, or reconciliation, is a mere notion, figure of speech, or similitude, until it be seen effected in the constitu- tion of the person of Christ, under these two wills or opera- tions. I object not to the similitude taken from paying debts, nor to the similitude taken from redeeming captives, nor to the similitude taken from one man's dying in the room of another, nor to any of the infinite simihtudes which St Paul useth most eloquently and most fitly for illustrating and enforcing this most precious truth of the at-one-ment, or 1 68 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : reconciliation ; but the similitudes are, to my mind, only poor helps for expressing the largeness, fulness, and com- pleteness of the thing which is done by the Word's being made flesh, and which is exhibited as done, by the placing of the God-man on the right hand of the Majesty on high, visible Head, effective Ruler of the created worlds, and of the intelligent creatures which possess them. This head actor of all things enacted, this being comprehensive of all beings created, great fountain of life, full ocean of animation, is in every thought, in every act, God and man, God's will and man's will, in one person united. Everything, therefore, thence flowing, circling wide as creation's utmost bound ; every occurrence, every accident, every attribute, every act, every relation, every change, every position which together constitute the variety of life in the creation redeemed and ruled by Christ, is in very truth a demonstration of manhood at one with Godhead, because it is all thought, spoken, and done by the Person, the One Person, who in all His thoughts, words, and doings, is God and man. What reconciliation like this reconciliation, what at-one-ment like this at-one- ment ? From this great head of orthodox doctrine, that there were two wills or operations — the one the absolute Divine, the other the limited creature will, between which perfect unity in one person was preserved, and so reconciliation between God and the creatures established, not upon the conditions of a covenant merely, or by the commutation of suffering merely, but by the very being of Christ, and in His being, and in every one of His actions, and in all His eternal govern- ment, of all creation ; — from this only fit and only sufficient demonstration of that atonement and reconciliation which the creature languisheth, dieth to know and be assured of, even from this truth of truths, the two distinct natures of God and man in one person, Satan, as his custom is, hath de- duced one of the foulest and most culpable heresies which he hath ever at hand, to hinder fearful and ignorant people from listening to the subject, and so to remove them away from the knowledge of the hidden mystery, and most blessed consolation of the truth in Christ. The heresy to which I BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 169 allude is part of the Borigninian heresy against which our Church beareth continual testimony in the questions which she putteth to every preacher before giving him license, and again before ordaining him over a flock. The heresy is, that the human will of Christ was unholy, or contradictive of the Divine will, which is an abomination so much to be abhorred, as the truth of their harmony and unity set forth above is to be prized. For the at-one-ment or reconciliation, effected by the two harmonious consenting wills, Divine and human, in the one person of Christ, would be distinctly and flatly denied, avoided, and destroyed, if it could ever be said that the human will abode not in, and assented not to, and set not forth, the will Divine. The atonement, the redemption, the reconciliation, standeth or falleth with the personal unity of the two distinct natures of Christ. Now this error cometh from the Nestorian stem which maintained two persons to be joined together in the Christ, harmonising with each other by friendship, con- sociation, and sympathy, and not by personality: but by what manner of malice, by what blindness of malice, dare they to affix such a tenet upon the orthodox, who maintain the very contrary, and rest all Christian doctrine upon the contradiction of it } It is, for I know it well, because we say and will main- tain unto death, that Christ's flesh was as rebellious as ours, as fallen as ours. But what then } is Christ's flesh the whole of His creature-being } No : it is His humanity inhabited by the Holy Ghost, which maketh up His creature-being. And, through the power of the Holy Ghost, acting powerfully and with effect to the resisting, to the staying, to the overcoming of the evil propensity of the fallen man, it is, that the fallen manhood of Christ is made mighty, and holy, and good, and every way fit to express the will of the Divinity. Be it known unto these gainsayers, that in Christ, and in the soul redeemed by Christ, and in the world redeemed by Christ, we can do as ill without the Divinity of the Holy Spirit as we can without the Divinity of the Son. We have a fallen world to redeem, we have the Son of God to redeem it : but these two must not intermingle or be confused with each other ; and there- fore, in order to make that fallen creature harmonious with the Godhead of the Son, and so to obtain one person, we I 70 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : must also have in it the hfe of the Holy Ghost, overcoming the death of sin. Ye may be able to state out the redemp- tion, without a Trinity of persons in the Godhead : I lay claim to no such ability. Your Trinity is an idle letter in your creed ; but it is the soul, the life of mine. Your Christ is a suffering God ; I know it well : my Christ is a gracious, con- descending God, but a suffering man. In your Christ, you see but one person in a body : in my Christ I see the fulness of the Godhead in a body. My Christ is the Trinity mani- fested ; not merely the Trinity told of, but the Trinity mani- fested. I have the Father manifested in everything which He doth ; for He did not His own will, but the will of His Father. I have the Son manifested, in uniting His Divinity to a humanity prepared for Him by the Father; and in mak- ing the two most contrary things to meet and kiss each other, in all the actings of His widest, most comprehensive being. I have the Holy Ghost manifested in subduing, restraining, conquering, the evil propensities of the fallen manhood, and making it an apt organ for expressing the will of the Father; a fit and holy substance to enter into personal union with the untempted and untemptible Godhead. And who is he that dares stand up and impugn these eternal truths } Be he whom he may, the devil himself, with all his legions, I will uphold them against him for ever ; and I will say moreover, that in upholding these, I am upholding the atonement, the redemption, the reconciliation, the regeneration, the kingdom, and the glory of God. Doth any one doubt that there was in the flesh of Christ a repugnancy to suffer, a liability to be tempted in all things as we are tempted, and which was only prevented from fall- ing before temptation by the faith of His Father's promises, and by the upholding of the Holy Spirit t Then I ask that man. What is Christ.^ a man } No — for even unfallen manhood was disposed to fall into sin. A fallen man } No — for fallen manhood doth nothing but sin. A creature .-' No — for de- fectibility is the very thing which distinguisheth creature from Creator. What nature, then, hath He besides the nature of God .'' None whatever, save, as these heretics hold, some pre- existent heavenly humanity, which passed through the virgin BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 171 unto the earth, as by a canal, without partaking of her sub- stance. And then, to what amounteth the history of His hfe? whereto serveth it? for imitation, for consolation, for assurance ? What model have we of the Holy Ghost's manner of working ? What proof that the Holy Ghost is able to pre- vail against the fallen creature's evil functions ; what at-one- ment or reconciliation is there between God and fallen creature ? An at-one-ment indeed there is between God and this subli- mated and super-celestial humanity of yours ; but what is that to me, who am earthly, sensual, and devilish ? And what is Christ's intercession to me, and what His mediation, and what my love and obligation to Him ? for to me it was not that He condescended, but to some other creature, of some other kind. The whole life of Christ is a demonstration of this one thing, that the Second Person and the Third Person of the Godhead, conjoined, after their proper modes, with the crea- ture, are able through the creature to make manifest unto the fallen creatures, and in the fallen creature, the manifold wisdom of God. His hunger. His thirst, His weariness, His tempta- tion of Satan, His shrinking from the cup which His Father gave Him to drink, His saying in so many words, " Not my will, but thine be done," His grief of spirit. His zeal. His sym- pathy, His tears. His love. His pity. His every affection and action shew that His flesh had the same, the self-same dis- positions and inclinations as the flesh of other men, which yet in Him were restrained, were withstood, were overcome, at- tained not unto a volition, attained not unto an action ; and if they attained unto a word, it was not a word of purpose or of wish, but only a word for our information, to tell us that He was of our very substance, and had the fellow-feeling of all our pains. And He lived by faith as we do, upon God's written and recorded Word ; as Paul solemnly declareth, in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, quoting from the Old Testament, what occurreth not in one place, but in a hundred places, yea, I may say, wherever Christ is spoken of, " I will put my trust in Him." But is faith dishonourable.? Ye fools, it is most honourable and holy. Doubt is that which is dishonourable and sinful. Now, like as Christ teacheth us, 1 7 2 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : by His agony, how His flesh shrunk back in the prospect of that which it was to endure ; not infinite measures as they say of human suffering, but simple, single, human suffering ; even so doth He teach us by that word which He spake at the grave of Lazarus, how truly He lived by faith, and how desirous He was that this great head of doctrine should be acknowledged and believed. " Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said. Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me ; and I know that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." I cannot here refrain from relieving and adorning this argument by a quotation from the letter of a dear friend, whose thoughts upon this subject I wish he would embody in. some more lasting and enduring form. " To the history of the Lord himself let us look for a solution and an example. When He was tempted, was it not by a thought of evil pre- sented to His mind .'' Was it not in very deed consciously there .'' Otherwise the power of temptation could never have been felt, nor His spirit of holiness subjected to a trial. It was consciously there, but it had no results : — nerveless and destitute of all creativeness, it stood fixed in eternal loneliness and desolation ; — and each that His enemy dared to suggest to His innocent and righteous soul shared the same immut- able doom. Such thoughts were, however, by His supreme dominion over them, productive of thoughts of a different order and nature : they were the occasion of holy thoughts, which but for them would not have been present to the Saviour's soul : still, however, they perished not, — their per- petuated existence is monumental of the Saviour's triumph. And although isolated, neither creatively, nor by transfusion, existing in His mind, they did, as the occasion for the mani- festation of His holy power in the hour of temptation, con- tinue to modify the Saviour's condition ; inasmuch as He thus, by the things He suffered, and the things that tempted Him, was taught obedience, and made perfect. Now, from this we may most certainly learn the grand secret of mental discipline. What was it that enabled Christ, instantaneously and for ever, to interpose an insuperable barrier between BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION, 173 those evil thoughts suggested to Him by His enemy, in the recorded temptation, and His own approved and responsible meditations ? What but the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him in full and perfect measure, or rather without measure infinitely? There were they fixed, without the possibility of transfusion, or commixture with kindred thoughts ; for in His mind there were no similar elements, or amalgamating sympathies, — and there they are in eternal contrast to His lovely and holy re- solutions,— truly existing, that all spirits may behold wherein He triumphed ; and, while beholding, may kindle into an un- dying admiration and love of His glorious virtue. Now in this, why should we not imitate Him ? We cannot annihilate the indestructible thought ; nor, like Him, so perfectly se- parate between the evil and the good ; but it is in proportion to the measure of faith, the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which we are partakers of a similar virtue, that we essay to accom- plish in part, what in perfection He so divinely effected. What He did with all, we may do with some ; — and in what consist the ambition, the travail, the triumph of a believer's soul, since an evil thought cannot possibly be prevented, but to check its creativeness of evil } In this field Christ earned His glory ; and in the same field His followers must struggle for their crown. When so tempted, may the watch-word in the decisive crisis ever be, ' Remember Christ : as He overcame, so must /;' and, according as the Holy Ghost is given us, we must proceed to sever it from all that follows, by calling from the depths of the soul the corresponding holy thought, that compunctious sorrow nurtured by love for Christ's virtue, and anguish for want of Christ's perfection. Oh never may a thought be suffered to pass without the scrutiny of our jealous souls — ' What — whence — whither art thou } Child of the Spirit, or offspring of the devil .''' Nor any to remain, vital and crea- tive, but such as can reply, — ' From God's own bosom I come, to God's own bosom I return ; element of undefiled and un- decaying blessedness.' But in all this let us give God the glory. In Him, and from Him, is the beginning and the end of all perfection ; — in ourselves, and by ourselves, evil will go on producing evil in continued succession, — accumulating all variety of pollutions in the soul ; — again I say then, Remem- 1 74 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : ber Christ: think how He overcame: all that He had, He received of the Father. Never let us cease, therefore, with our heart and flesh to cry, that by His Holy Spirit He would take of the things which He gave to that blessed Conqueror ; shewing us how He toiled and triumphed, that we, so toiling and so triumphing, may be sharers of His unspeakable glory." We may say, therefore, that in the flesh of Christ, all flesh stood represented ; — that, in the flesh of Christ all the infirmi- ties, sin, and guilt, of all flesh was gathered into one ; and in the great triumph which the Godhead attained over the con- federate powers of darkness and of wickedness in the holy, blameless life of Christ, that sin was vanquished and con- demned in the flesh, and Jesus became Lord of living flesh by right of redemption; and that He hath conveyed by His vic- torious life unto all men a redemption from the slavery and bondage of sin, which Satan had obtained for himself, and over which he held the power. And to this agrees the word of the apostle, Rom. viii. 3 : " For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh; and for sin condemned sin in the flesh :" that is to say, the law could not get the better of sin ; and to accomplish this, the incarnation of the Son of God was necessary, " not in the likeness of angels, not in the likeness of sinless flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh," or as it is in the original, " in likeness of flesh, of sin, and about sin," that is, " with a view to sin, condemned the sin in the flesh." This having accomplished, the law was made bootless. The law had revealed the weakness of the flesh, and proved that when a Being should come in flesh, and keep the law, that Being was more than man. The law did serve to estab- lish Christ God, by differencing Him from every other being in flesh and blood subsisting. He took the weakness, He took the sinfulness ; in one word. He took the fallenness of flesh ; or, to use the Scripture language, " God made Him sin for us." And being thus constituted by might of holiness Divine, He strangled the serpent in His very cradle, and triumphed over him until His death ; so that flesh is not any more heir to sin ; sin is not any more imputed unto men. Our infirmities and our diseases are borne. Sin may skulk about BY UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION. 175 us like a condemned thing, or abide in us like an imprisoned thing; but it hath no law nor liberty. We are heirs to righte- ousness, to justification, to power, as it is written, " Him that knew not sin he hath made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him." God's righteousness, therefore, are we become in Christ ; and if so, then Christ was made the offering for sin, and in Him sin is swallowed up, and out of Him floweth an everlasting righteousness, which is called God's righteousness, because it is the only righteousness God accounteth such. We fondly think that there is a righteous- ness in us. We fondly think that if Adam had stood, there would have been nothing but righteousness, never believing that Adam's fall was as necessary to the bringing in of Christ as Adam's creation ; — necessary for this very end, of shewing that there was, and could be, no righteousness of God, but that which flowed from His own Son in the creature-form ; and therefore, until He came, creation went on plunging deeper and deeper into sin. Christ therefore is the fountain of righteousness, as He is the fountain of everything else, and thus He standeth unto the creatures ; bright Sun of light, life, purity, and goodness. Moreover, Christ was made sin for us, and weakness for us, and a curse for us, that He might be able to taste of death for every man, and to overcome him who had the power of death. Death proved the creature not to have life in itself; in order that He who had life in Himself, might be proved more than the creature, that He might be proved The Life. Satan had this power over death given to him, that by taking it from him Christ might be proved the more powerful, the living One. And all men had been brought under Satan's dominion of the grave, in order that by the resurrection of all from the grave, Christ might be demonstrated Lord of all. Lord of life, the Resurrection and the Life. By His death, moreover, the infirmity of all flesh died; and in His resurrection the life of all flesh arose; and in His ascension to the right hand of God flesh ascended above angels, and principalities, and powers. And in the descent of the Spirit, God-manhood bestowed God's righte- ousness, God's life unto manhood in the flesh ; and thus in Christ is God's glory unto the creature manifested, is God's 1 76 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : glory in the creature vested, is God's glory by the creature communicated, is God's work through the creature accom- plished. And all that was done at creation by God, under the assumed limitation of creature-form, is done over again, or rather is perfected in its doing by Christ, in whom that assumed form was realised. And what is the preaching of Christ } Is it not even the forth-setting of Him unto all men ; as having wrought for all men this unspeakable redemption ; as having delivered flesh from the power of sin, and from the power of death ; as having purchased for us the good-will and favour of God, which we had lost and forfeited ; as having attained unto the undisputed lordship over us ; as having the keys of hell and of death. This is the glad tidings, this is the good news, this is the gospel of the grace of God, this is the ministry of reconciliation through the faith of Christ. And when thus freely, fully, intelligently, and unequivocally preached, it is that the gospel proveth to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And when this message is believed, I will now shew you the standing into which it brings the creature unto God. This unspeakable and inestimable work of Christ in the flesh for every man, as it is written, " That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man ;" and again, " Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe ;" and again, " That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage;" — this ineffable benefit wrought for mankind ; this redemption and resurrection of its estate, all done, all accomplished, and all freely presented unto the world through Christ, and in Christ, is God's argument against the argument of Satan, is faith and hope's good against the good of sense, is Christ's plea against nature's, made, and by preaching proclaimed, unto the four quarters of the world. And wherever this is pro- claimed rightly, men are brought under the penalty of having rejected, or under the benefit of having received God's Christ, — of having rejected or of having received God himself And now it is, when the gospel hath been preached unto him, that BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 177 man discovereth what is the true dignity and use of his rea- son,— namely, for the sake of weighing and deciding between these two claimants ; the world as it is seen out of God, lying in the evil one, and the world as it is believed by faith to lie in Christ, the Holy One. Reason is able to apprehend the good, as well as the evil. The fallen man is not one who knows only evil, but one who knows good and evil : as it is written, (Gen. iii. 22,) — " And the Lord said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." In Christ risen, having wrought His work, and achieved His conquest, the good to be perused, to be known, to be believed, is held up to fallen man. Blessed object of hope ! blessed object of holiness ! blessed object of all goodness ! This is our office as preachers and ministers of the reconciliation, to hold it up before you, to lay it open unto your various faculties of de- sire, of hope, of faith, to instate you in the possession of it by sacramentary seals, to enfeoff you in its holiness with sacra- mental washing of water, to enfeoff you in its bodily sub- stance, with bread and wine, and in every possible way which human wisdom can devise to secure man in the assurance that Christ's reconciliation and redemption is as truly the common inheritance of the race, and will as truly be proved so by the resurrection of all, as sin is proved to be the com- mon inheritance of the race, by the death of all. Thus, then, men are brought into a strait between two. On the one hand, the devil's world of sight, dressing out to them its blessedness, its dignity, its heaven : on the other hand, Christ's " world to come, the habitable world to come, whereof we speak," (Heb. ii. 5,) dressing out to them, by the minister's voice, its true blessedness, its true dignity, its true heaven, to be enjoyed and possessed after the re- surrection. Both these worlds, Satan's and Christ's, are cap- able of being known and apprehended by every man ; but the knowledge and apprehension of a thing is not the posses- sion of it. Reason, God's creature, unto which Christ is ad- dressed by the preacher, even as Christ in flesh was addressed unto sense, likewise God's creature ; reason, being thus dealt withal, straightway discovereth the bondage of the will. She would put forth her hand and take also of the tree of life, and VOL. V. M I *]^ THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : eat and live for ever. But she findeth that she cannot ; and if we preach no more than this reconcihation, we would agonise men, and not bless them. We see it, we would possess it, but the devil is too mighty for us. Then he saith, Cast yourselves upon God, for that help which you truly need. He sent not His Son to tantalise, nor yet to agonise, but to bless and save you. You have apprehended those good things that are in Christ, even life and immortality ; that is God's argument for you to trust in Him. He hath sent out His Son, in reason's form arrayed, with man's perfectibility and with man's perfec- tion, as His boon to man, in order that thou, O creature man, might know how merciful a Creator thou hast, how good, how gracious ; and that thou mightest bless Him for the reason thou possessest to apprehend these things — for the capacities thou possessest to inherit them — for the inheritance itself, for the life itself, which now is brought out unto thee, from the purpose of the eternal, in the person of Christ. Thou sayest truly, that there is a mighty work yet to do. That work is with the Father ; and if thou wilt not trust the Father to do it — Him who is thy rightful Creator, and who now hath mani- fested Himself thy reconciled Father, if thou wilt not trust — then assuredly thou art proved twice dead, twice rebellious. To thee Christ hath indeed died in vain. Thou preferrest present death and future resurrection unto judgment and eternal death ; thy perdition thou preferrest to the Creator's authority and a Father's love. Thou tramplest upon Christ, whom He hath sent, and in whom He hath vested all power, visible and invisible. Thou shalt be brought up to judgment out of thy grave, by the voice of Him whom now thou wilt not hear ; and by virtue of His death thou shalt receive power of resurrection, and shalt bear up in thyself through eternity the righteousness and justice of His lordship, as the blessed shall bear up the grace and mercy of the same. Thus it is^ holy brethren, that the universal reconciliation which Christ's death hath wrought, and the universal restoration unto life which His resurrection hath wrought, instead of being the support of universal salvation, is the support of universal right and lordship over all the creatures, which for the present doth constitute the world in Him to stand, and for Him obligated B Y PARTICULAR ELECTION. 1 79 unto the Father ; and hereafter shall constitute the world in two estates, of eternal and infallible blessedness, or eternal and unchangeable misery — the one in virtue of His lordship honoured, the other in virtue of His lordship dishonoured ; the one vessels unto honour, the other vessels unto dishonour. Seeing, then, dearly-beloved brethren, that there is felt within the mind of every man an inability to lay hold upon and lift himself into the ark which Christ hath certainly builded for the Avorld's life ; seeing, likewise, that this in- ability is constantly foretold and anticipated, in the sepa- rate states of heaven and hell ; I ask by what name is this power to be called which God hath reserved with Himself, of empowering the rational man, thus instructed by Christ to believe, delight in, and follow these instructions, and so honour the Lord of all, rather than to obey the great enemy of souls, debase his reason, disallow Christ, and renounce the eternal God, from whom He came ? By what name, I say, is this hidden and secret thing to be called, but the will of the Father, the unrevealed, unknown, unconditional will of the Father? And this is what election hath to do with. Election is the acting of this will unto an individual; and election essentially implies the acting of this will upon an individual. Redemption is the acting of God's will unto all ; but election is the choosing of some one, or some ones from the all. When we preach redemption, therefore, we preach unto the common race the undoing of the fall, the reducing of the creature under Christ, the manifestation of His work in purchasing the crea- ture. It is virtually the shewing forth of Christ, as the basis, the support, the bulwark, the security, of creature-being. In one word, it is preaching the manifest God. But when we preach election, we stand upon the vantage ground of this manifested grace, love, right, and power of the Godhead, and speak to persons, not to communities ; and we say, Now thou, brother, who knowest and acknowledgest this work of Christ, but feelest that still thou lackest power to submit thyself unto Him, seek this which thou lackest from the Father. Go thou in, and use Christ as thy Mediator. Acknowledge the Father's will, make known to Him thine own sense of poverty and weakness. Shew to Him how thou wouldest fain glorify 1 80 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : Christ, by a life of acknowledgment to Him, if thou couldest ; but thou canst not, except the Father draw thee. Take unto thyself the confidence of a behever in Christ, to ask in the name of Christ what thou needest. Thus, with all the desire and confidence which the gospel hath inspired thee with, sus- pend thyself upon the Father, and in so doing thou dost acknowledge His right of election. Oh, how important is this matter whereof I am now discoursing ! The Lord give me goodly words. There is not such a madness as for a man to resist election. It is Satan's own expedient, to blast redemp- tion, and to destroy the dignity, the nobility of a person, of a single soul. To talk of conditional election, is the most egregious folly, the most entire rejection of Christ ; the most wilful insurrec- tion against the Father. First, to ask a condition over and above what is contained in Christ's work, is to disannul that work, and to say to the " Father, Thy grace is not yet enough ; I cannot trust Thee yet." What a speech, what a thought for a creature ! But what an awful speech, what a hideous thought for a creature who believeth in redemption, who seeth the grace of God in Christ, and will not trust Him! Secondly, What a defeat of Christ, what a renunciation of His work, which was nothing else but that He might obtain trust for His Father ! Talk to me of receiving Christ, and not believing in unconditional election! You know not what you say. Talk to me of living in doubt of this, and yet living by faith I The thing is impossible. If you be living in the honour of Christ, you must be living in the honour of Him that sent Him ; and surely you will not be making conditions with your Creator, if you are honouring Him. Moreover you are making shipwreck of your own dignity ; I may say, de- stroying your own personality, and sinking yourself in the community of the reconciled, if you thus make light of election, — for the reconciliation is common unto many, but the election is peculiar unto one. No one can think of elec- tion without thinking of himself; no one can believe in elec- tion without contemplating God as transacting with himself This is the true ground of a personal interest in Christ ; and where this is not in estimation, there may be social and eccle- BY PAR TICULAR ELECTION. 1 8 1 siastical religion, but personal there will be none. All digni- ties put together are nothing to this dignity of being regarded and beloved by God. What will deliver you from priestcraft from ecclesiastical domination, from the fashion of the reli- gious world, from public opinion, is to come into communica- tion with God, not upon the common ground of redemption merely, but upon the private, peculiar, and personal ground of election also. This is what will remove you from being an atom in a mass composed of many atoms, and make you to become an individual capable of assimilating individuals to yourself, and having in yourself an integral individual life. This is what makes every stone of the temple a living stone ; this is what makes every member of Christ alive ; this is what constitutes the vitality of the Church, and differenceth be- tween a papal mass, a religious-world mass, and a living body of living members. In one word, wherever this doctrine of election hath been duly prized by any church, as by the Church of Scotland, and by the Church of England until the days of Laud, it hath stirred up the might of men as individuals, and delivered them from the lethargic corruption of aggregate masses. And to this it is, far more than to all causes put together, that the children of the Scottish Church have so much individual prowess, and individual success, in all parts of the world ; because the personal hath been culti- vated in them, by the constant recognition of this doctrine of election, while the principle of community hath been pre- served by the doctrine of the redemption, — into which, how- ever, they have not generally so much insight, nor so much liberty of declaring it, as they have into the former. In one word. Is the invisible Godhead to have a place in our creed, or is it not } If, as all Scripture teacheth, the invisible, in- comprehensible Godhead hath the chiefest place in our faith, being the great object of our worship, then must election have the principal place in our creed, as representing the intercourse between the soul and the invisible, incomprehen- sible God. Is the unseen operation of the Holy Ghost, where- by the invisible God communicates His invisible actings to the invisible soul, to have a place in our creed .? that is to say, are we to hope for special manifestations and revelations of 1 8 2 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : the Spirit ? Are we to know God as our God, to be taken into His pavilion, and to be filled with His love ? are we to enjoy raptures, and seizures, and solitary sequestered enjoy- ments of the Divine presence, with which no other inter- meddleth ? then must election stand, for election doth name that particular operation of God's Spirit which one only can partake of, by himself, and in himself, though he may be able to communicate, and tell somewhat of the same, for the en- couragement of his brother. These two great doctrines, — the commonness of the redemption, the personality of the elec- tion, do stand, and prop each other up : they can only stand together, and where they are not maintained with equal foot, evil betideth both. The former without the latter degene- rates into universal salvation ; the latter without the former degenerates into blind and absolute fate, partiality, or favour- itism. But where the two are held fast, they become the two poles upon which the goodness, and beauty, and solidity of the Divine purpose revolve. The harmony and mutual support of these two great prin- ciples is, however, so little understood, and in this day there is so great a tendency to creeds of one article only, that I deem it good to open this point a little further. The redemp- tion, which is the work of the Godhead in Christ, done for the glory of Christ, and for the bringing of all things under Him ; this work securing to mankind unspeakable benefits, done for us by the Godhead, in the person of Christ, doth draw the soul unto the Father, whose love and goodness have thus been expressed by His Son. I say not that the redemp- tion, as it in itself afiecteth a human soul, can work any such sense of the Divine goodness as will overcome the natural alienation of the fallen man ; but that there is enough in that which is in Christ revealed, and by the fallen man may be apprehended, to place every one beyond all excuse, in not drawing near unto God with confidence, and with assurance of hope to receive strength from His own Almighty hand. When the soul, thus taught concerning the Father by Christ, doth commit her case unto the Father, she is acting faith upon the invisible and unrevealed purpose of election ; she BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 183 hath cast herself upon the absolute will of God ; she hath taken His encouragement ; she hath accepted His grace, and cast herself wholly upon His care ; — in all which, she proceeds by the way of the revelation of Christ ; and to the end of being enabled to acknowledge and to glorify Christ, making Him the way unto the Father, the Mediator between God and man. Now, this acknowledgment of God's sovereignty ex- presseth itself, first, in a firm faith of that deliverance which He hath given us in Christ ; deliverance from the curse of the law ; deliverance from a burdened conscience ; deliverance from the fear of God's wrath : and, secondly, it proceeds in a good hope that the same most gracious God will communi- cate unto us the benefits of Christ's resurrection, which are, regeneration of the Holy Ghost, and the powers, desires, and affections of the renewed man. This good hope we entertain, not as the reward or price of our faith, but as the continuance of that honour and glory which the Father hath vested in His own Son ; that power of an endless life, that unchangeable priesthood which He hath received for the sake of all the Father's elected ones, — in one word, that power which He hath received from the Father since He ascended up on high. To those, indeed, who have been baptized, this hope of a thing to be possessed is changed into the assurance of a thing possessed. The baptized should believe that he hath re- ceived the Holy Ghost, and go about the works of the Church as one who hath received power from on high ; and the Church expecteth him, like a good soldier, who hath received his outfit and his armour, and his charges, to resist the devil, the world, and the flesh. A baptized person ought never to doubt of his election, but go on to make his calling and election sure ; the very intention of a church being to re- present the election. So that a member of the Church of Christ is beholden to believe in the election of the Father, no less than in the redemption of the Son : and his labour ought to be to stir up the spirit that is in him, which was given him in the holy sacrament of baptism ; as the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, was named over him, so is he a witness for the offices of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Morever, a believer in the Father's sovereignty, 1 84 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: one who is willing to take his standing under the purpose of election, doth acknowledge the same, by a continual resigna- tion unto the Father's will, both in providence and in grace. In providence, which becometh grace the moment it is re- cognised as proceeding from a Father, — and therefore I rather make use of than sanction the distinction, — he seeth the ab- solute and inscrutable will of God, opening and disclosing itself unto him personally ; and being a worshipper of that absolute will, and a believer in election, he murmureth not, complaineth not, but yieldeth unto God, and so honoureth the great name of God. This is the renewed will of the believer worshipping the absolute will of God. This is the true imitation of Christ, who ever said, " Not my will, but Thine be done." This is the practical acknowledgment of God's sovereignty over, and His propriety in us, to do with us what seemeth to Him good. Besides this, the believer in God the Father's absolute decree of election doth further resign himself unto the will of God in grace, — that is, in experiences purely spiritual, — as well as in providence, being content with that measure of the Holy Spirit which the Father may please to apportion unto him being content with that office in the body of Christ which the Father may assign to him, being content with that post in the field of combat with Satan where the Father may station him. If under hidings of the Father's countenance, still patient, and waiting for the light thereof, as they that watch for the morning ; if under famine of the bread of life, or under the ministry of error, and far removed from the fellowship of true saints, and fallen amongst false brethren, still, not the less resigned unto the disposal of God, honouring the great Head of the Church, and standing fast in the communion of the saints; the entire work of the Spirit is the fruit of resigna- tion unto, and dependence upon, the invisible God, upon the absolute decree and unrevealed will of the Father. No man can receive the Spirit, merely by believing upon the redemp- tion of Christ ; for the Spirit proceedeth not from the Son only, but from the Father and the Son. By the redemption of Christ, we must be carried upward and inward unto the Father, from whose bosom Christ came forth ; and in the act of worshipping Him, and resigning ourselves unto Him, BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 185 whose grace hath appeared in Jesus Christ, we do receive the seal of the Spirit, because we have known and acknowledged both the Father and the Son, from whom the Spirit pro- ceedcth forth. Therefore I say, that to the behef of Christ manifest in the flesh must be added the belief of the Father's inscrutable de- cree of election before the Spirit can be received. Now it is no objection to this to say, that many who have not been able to enter into the absolute decrees of God do yet seem to possess the Spirit. There is a great difference between a man's faith and his own interpretation of his faith. Many who profess to abhor the absolute decrees of God, are not the less believers therein, and actors thereon, though they wot it not, for they believe in free grace, — that is, God's undeserved favour unto miserable helpless sinners. But how can it be free, otherwise than as it dependeth upon God's will } If it depend upon something in us, conditional thereto, then where is its free- dom .'' Moreover, they believe that God apprehendeth us, and not we Him. And if the origination of the work is with God, what can originate it but an act of His own will, absolute and inscrutable .'' They believe, moreover, that without the work of the Spirit, the work of Christ cannot save any one ; and unto whom doth the giving of the Spirit appertain ? Is it ours to draw Him down } or is it the Father's to bestow Him .>* Not ours to draw Him down, but the Father's to bestow Him; and is not this again another acknowledgment of the Father's sovereign and arbitrary will .-' Moreover, what is prayer unto the invisible God, through the manifest God, but a continual rising through the visible Christ, into the invisible Father, and a constant acknowledgment of His primary place and originat- ing power in every particular personal gift which proceedeth through Christ .-' So that you perceive how all believing, praying Christians are in the daily, hourly practice of both acknowledging and occupying this greatest sphere of Divine truth, which, in contradistinction to the manifested redemp- tion, we name election, free choice, sovereign will, the uncon- ditional decree of God. And we therefore come back to our declaration, that the work of the Spirit proceedeth exactly in proportion as we know what in Christ is all revealed unto 1 86 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : knowledge, and submit unto the Father all beyond which con- cerneth His glory, the glory of His Son, our being, and the being of other men. Therefore, whosoever would have the Spirit in a great and plentiful measure, must be covetous of knowledge and unwearied in prayer ; — knowledge being the worship of Christ, and ignorance the denial of Him ; prayer being the worship of the hidden Father, and the neglect of prayer being the denial of Him. But wherever all that is re- vealed in Christ is diligently searched into ; not shrunk from, but known, possessed, and delighted in. Wherever the un- known of things and of being is reverently and humbly com- mitted unto the Father by faithful prayer, it cometh to pass without fail, that the Spirit proceedeth upon such a one, to assure his soul with respect to things uncertain, to comfort him with respect to things afflictive, to enlighten him with respect to things that may be known, and to increase his faith with respect to things which cannot be known ; to enliven hope with respect to things promised, to quicken desire to- wards things good, and to strengthen abhorrence of things evil ; to increase patience of this estate of trial, and in general to remedy the defects of sight, and to comfort under the priva- tions and oppressions of sense. So that the Spirit is the seal of the Father's election; the baptism proceeding from the risen Son. As Christ, having wrought out the redemption, did, upon His ascension into glory, receive from the Father the promise of the Spirit, which now He dispenseth, not to all, but only to the elect of God ; so we, believing in the work of Christ unto the resurrection, do receive that common redemption by which He purchased the world back from sin and Satan ; but by passing with Him into the invisible, and believing on Him as the exalted One of God, receiving the secret purposes of the Father, through fellowship of the Godhead, that He may communicate them unto the Father's elect ones, through fellowship of their manhood. Thus believing, I say, in the invisible power and privilege of Christ, we do in fact believe in the Father whose powers He hath received to execute : and so believing, we are baptized with the Holy Ghost. And thus, dear brethren, you have a more full and com- plete view of the several parts which the Persons in the God- BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 187 head do together bear in the method of our salvation ; — the Father sending forth the Son, to reveal whatever the creature can know concerning God ; — the Son revealing the same, with the single object of glorifying the invisible Father, from whom He proceedeth forth, and calling upon all men, by the common gift so generously bestowed, to trust in and rely upon the Father for something further which remaineth to be wrought in each one of us by the Spirit whom He will send ; — the Spirit coming unto as many as have known the Son, and arc trusting in the Father to perfect that work of our salvation which the Persons of the Godhead have under- taken, and to seal the heirs of glory until the day of redemp- tion, who, as they receive that precious Spirit, do grow in the knowledge of the Father and the Son ; yea, have the Father and the Son abiding in them, in the person of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore I exhort you all to give yourselves up unto the knowledge of Christ, and unto the worship of the invisible Father, that ye may receive the inward assurance and blessedness of the Holy Ghost. In these times I do discern such a narrowness of spirit, and what I would call systematic ignorance prevailing in the Church, and especially such an unwillingness to admit the one or the other of these two great sustaining principles, the universality of the reconciliation and the particularity of the election, that I cannot yet take leave of the subject without shewing how thoroughly they are interwoven in the doctrine of a Trinity, in the work of incarnation, in the very being of a Church. This is the distinction between the principle of re- conciliation and the principle of election : that all which the Lord Jesus did, up to the resurrection. He did for mankind in general ; but that all that He hath done since the resurrection. He doth in order to make a difference, not to establish a common right, but to make the difference between the election and the reprobation ; the election baptizing with the Holy Ghost, the reprobation suffering to remain under the penalty, not indeed of a broken law which He hath removed from all alike, but under the penalty of a rejected gospel. That, therefore, upon which election standeth, is the office which Christ fulfilleth 1 88 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : since His resurrection; that upon which reconciliation standeth, the common gifts which He hath purchased by His death, and the title which He hath thereby made up for Himself, unto the possession and lordship of all the creatures. As Reconciler, He took off the curse of the Law, which, though not openly imposed from the beginning, had been laid on in all its iron terrors by the covenant of Sinai, which I take to be the true covenant of works, according to that saying of the apostle Paul, " The law speaketh on this wise, He that doeth these things shall live in them." This law having kept, He had no right to die, but His right was to live in them. He became, so to speak, the proprietor of the law, the only competent judge, as being the only innocent man. He hath, as it were, taken up the forfeited estate of life, by paying a condition of perfect holiness ; and, therefore. His submitting unto death is a second and a higher mystery thanJHis remov- ing the curse of the law. By the free-will submission of Himself to death, which He was capable of, as being in the fallen state, though not obliged to it, as being perfectly holy, He did, as it were, do for the dead what He had already done for the living. By keeping the law. He absolved all that came after Him from that law ; but by death, He did this, moreover, that He delivered all that went before Him from him that had the power of death. This retrospective action of His death is distinctly referred to in these two passages of holy writ: — Rom. iii. 25, "Whom God hath set forth to be a pro- pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- ness for the remission of sins that are past through the for- bearance of God;" and Heb. ix. 15, "And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they having been called might re- ceive the promise of the eternal inheritance." After taking away the bondage of the law from the living, He died to take away the bondage of death from the dead. And thus hath He established unto Himself the right to be both the judge of the living by the administration of His law, and the judge of the dead by the resurrection of the dead. And thus is He established Lord, thus hath He purchased to Himself BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 189 the title of Lord of quick and dead, by that which He hath done for human kind. We preach no law in Christ ; we preach no imputation of sin in Christ ; we preach no condem- nation in Christ ; we preach resurrection from the dead in Christ ; we preach life and immortality in Christ. These, as hath been said, are Christ's own purchase, which Christ hath freely bequeathed and appointed unto us, to minister unto all. By all this, is the world the better for Christ. These are His benefits. This is the gospel of the grace of God. And yet after all this has been enumerated, I may say the nobile officiuni, the noble office of Christ hath not been entered on. John, His forerunner and herald, did characterise His office thus : " He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire." He did, indeed, likewise describe His common and universal function, when he said, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ;" but he lifted Him into a higher sphere, when he said, " I indeed baptize you with water, but One mightier than I cometh, whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." In this work of separation and distinction, in this work of sal- vation and of judgment, in this baptism of some with the Holy Ghost, and of the rest with fire, standeth the true divinity of the work of Jesus Christ. Unto this He passed when He passed into the heavens ; and this hath He been executing ever since. And it is in this making of a difference between the election and reprobation of God, that salvation truly consisteth. Christ having by the work which He did in the flesh, established unto Himself the Lordship of all creation, and the right and title to bring it up again from death, by the resurrection ; so much of the Father's purpose was ac- complished for the honour and glory of His Son. But it still remained to unfold the end for which this great purchase of creation hath been made. And, now, the second part of the Father's idea began to be realised in the regeneration, or second birth of His creatures. Heretofore the creation stood without the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost ; created, doubt- 1 90 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : less, by the efficacy of the Holy Ghost, but not by Him in- habited. The first creature to whom He joined Himself was the human nature of Christ, His dealings with and by the prophets, were only, as it were, predictive of this inhabitation. It is not at all to underrate the inspiration of the holy pro- phets, in whom the Spirit of Christ was, when I say that they were not baptized with the Holy Ghost, and that they were under His power after another and a lower kind than that in which He was given at Pentecost ; but it is to honour this great prerogative of Christ, the risen God-man, which is to baptize with the Holy Ghost, and to justify that text of John, " For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified," (John vii. 39 ;) and that other text of the Acts, where the brethren and disciples of John's baptizing, whom Paul met with at Ephesus, said unto him, " We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." As Christ was present in the persons, in the types, and in the symbols of every dispensation of God, though His incarna- tion was not until He was conceived by the Virgin ; so judge I, that the Holy Ghost was present in the persons of all in- spired prophets, and of all the Old Testament saints, though He was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified. In Christ first, then in the resurrection of Christ, and His ascension into glory, " in that mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all prin- cipalities and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come ;" — in this great act of Almighty power, taking from death's hold, and corruption's mouth, heaven's highest, brightest, noblest Prince, did the Father put forth the begin- ning of the second creation, or regeneration, which constitutes Christ first-begotten from the dead, and therefore the High Priest and Head of the regeneration, destroying for ever that great source of error which ariseth out of the time of His in- carnation ; as if, by being late in His manifestation. He was not first in the purpose, the beginning of the creation of God. Now, indeed, by the resurrection of Christ's body, the glory of the Divine idea and purpose in creation began to BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 191 manifest itself, and Christ the first-born from the dead, (now the first-begotten amongst many to be begotten, as in His eternal generation He is the only-begotten,) was in the very fact of His resurrection constituted head of the regenerated creatures, head over all things to the Church, as by His life and death of holiness He had been constituted the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. From this time forth, He becomcth the Father's hand. His right hand, the Man of His right hand, to regenerate by the communication of the Holy Ghost whatsoever of the creatures purchased by His death it might please the Father to regenerate. Regeneration, therefore, or the baptism with the Holy Ghost, which Christ, by gift of the Father, doth bestow upon the creatures who, by His redemption, have their way open to the Father, and the Father's way open unto them, is as determinately and essen- tially a specific, personal, elective work as redemption by the life and death of Christ is a common work. And as the com- monness of the latter will clearly appear, when all the dead shall rise in Christ, and by Christ be judged, and by Christ be constituted and sustained in their several estates of heaven and hell, fixed, eternal, and unchangeable ; so shall the spe- cialty of the work of regeneration, and its application only to a part, have been made to appear before this in the resurrec- tion of the regenerate unto life, and not unto judgment, and in their kingdom during the millennial age. As Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, (Roni. i. 4,) so shall these be manifested to be the sons of God by their resurrection. And this is the day of the manifestation of the sons of God, for which all creation groaneth, and travaileth in bondage until now. Seeing, then, that the regeneration of the Holy Ghost is nothing more than the fulfilling, or accomplishing, or bringing into being of the Father's purpose of election, and seeing that Christ, and He alone, hath the office of baptizing with the Holy Ghost, it doth necessarily follow that Christ's ofiice in the heavens, since the resurrection, hath been no other than to accomplish the decree of election, as His work, from His incarnation unto His resurrection, was to accomplish the work of redemption unto the fallen world. His head- 192 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: ship of the Church, or the election, is therefore another and a higher mystery than His lordship over all ; where- fore it is written in the passage of Ephesians quoted above, " And hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." That subjection of all things to Him doth only, as it were, fit Him for being head of the Church, which is the regenerated portion that is to be brought out of all things. And this is the reason why our fathers, while they were first and foremost to enhance the dig- nity of an earthly king or magistrate as the viceroy of Christ, the Lord of all, would never suffer the king to be called Head of the Church ; because they knew that this mystery, which I am now explaining, of the difference between Lord of all and Head of the Church, would have been thereby marred and misrepresented. As Lord of all. King of kings and Lord of lords, they claimed for Him supremacy over all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named in this world ; and they required men of every name to observe and obey, and do homage unto their common liege lord ; and kings and magistrates they required to rule in His name, and for His behoof, because all should yet stand at His judgment-seat, and acknowledge through eternity His rightful. His only sovereignty over them. This dignity we preachers crave for Christ, in virtue of His death, which purchased the world back from the power of sin and of the grave. But in virtue of a higher claim, even of His ascension and honour and glory, in virtue of that accumula- tion of power almighty into His right hand, in virtue of His being made by the Father possessor and distributor of the Holy Ghost, it cometh to pass that He is Head of the Church ; of which power no shadow, emblem, nor symbol having been given to the civil magistrate, he can in no way or manner claim to rule under this, Christ's supreme title, and therefore may not bear its name. Into whose hands, then, is the shadow, type, emblem, or symbol of Christ's official acting as Head of the Church committed? His official acting as Head of the Church is, as hath been said, to baptize with the Holy Ghost ; and of this, baptism with water is the shadow, type, and BY PAR TICULAR ELECTION. 193 symbol. We baptize believers with water, only because Christ baptizeth believers with the Holy Ghost. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is that mystery in the invisible which baptism in the visible symboliseth ; and therefore so much to be abhorred is the opinion of those who would baptize indis- criminately, and so much to be approved is the discipline of the Church, which permitteth the children of believing parents only to be baptized. For baptism with the Holy Ghost is essentially a discriminate, and not an indiscriminate, work done unto and -upon the election of the Father, unto and upon them alone. Now the election of the Father are previously led unto the Father by Christ, who is the only way to the Father, and came out from the Father, to bring us unto the Father ; and being led unto the Father by Christ, the Father doth honour the disciple of His Son, by granting unto him, through that same Son, the gift of the Holy Ghost. Faith, therefore, upon the incarnate crucified Christ, standeth in the great idea, before the baptism of the Holy Ghost, by the risen Christ : and therefore in the symbol, faith solemnly avouched in Christ, and the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Him bodily, must necessarily be put before baptism with w^ater, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and it is wholly to mar and misrepresent the mystery, and to make the symbol declare a continual falsehood, to baptize without precognition of the faith of the baptized person taken in him- self, or in that person with whom he is considered as one. The inconscious irresponsible babe, being by God regarded as of substance one with its parent, until the growth of will and of reason give it personality distinct (which is more than I can say of a sponsor), it thence cometh to be necessary, that the faith of the parent be solemnly declared, before the sacrament is administered to his child. Now the Church, being oft all hands the guardian of discipline, it follows that the Church is her own head upon earth ; or rather, to speak more cor- rectly, the Church hath no head upon earth, but is a body without a head ; and you might as well give unto the king or civil magistrate the keeping and administering of the sacra- ments as give unto him the title of Head of the Church. It is a misnomer, to say the best of it, in our sister Church ; or, VOL. V. N 1 94 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : if it be not a misnomer, then it is something infinitely worse. But to return. Seeing, then, that Christ's baptism with the Holy Ghost is really and truly, and to the fullest extent, the effecting of the Father's purpose of election, the bringing of His elect ones out of the unregenerate world, the implanting in them of a Divine person, who abideth for ever there where He hath once come, and shall not, cannot, be dislodged again for ever, it is most manifest that to believe in the Father's election, and to believe in Christ's active Headship of the Church, and to be- lieve in the work of the Holy Ghost, is truly to believe in one and the same thing. The election of the Father, the office of Christ to baptize with the Holy Ghost, and the actual sancti- fication of the Holy Ghost, are the three functions of the persons in the Godhead towards the accomplishing of the one work of our regeneration. Election, therefore, Christ's head- ship of the Church, and regeneration of the Holy Ghost, must stand or fall together. Where election is not believed in, there Christ's high resurrection office to baptize with the Holy Ghost will be forgotten; and men will get no higher than His cross, burial, and forthcoming from the tomb, never attaining unto the discourse of His post-resurrection work, but losing Him in the white cloud, and fancying Him a dis- solved wide-spread substance, instead of a personal presence, and an almighty power. They will dwell by the Jordan in their discourse, and in the towns of Galilee, and in the temple of Jerusalem, and at the foot of the cross on Calvary, and so forth, deciphering the justice, the charity, the nobility of all His works, but no higher ascending ; preaching the imitation of His obedience, and using the Holy Spirit to help us to keep the law, which is to bring us back unto the law, from which Christ hath for ever delivered us. Where election is not be- lieved, the humanity of Christ alone will be apprehended ; not the mystery of His humanity, but the example of His hu- manity. Yea, they may attain unto the bodily measure of the Godhead, that was within such narrow conditions and under such dark veils concealed ; but into that dignity, and majesty, and might Divine, which He hath since acquired, and doth now occupy in the heavens, bringing to pass every BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 195 secret purpose of the invisible Father, making the Godhead's full purpose to be accomplished, and the hidden things to be made known; — into the mystery of the invisible Godhead, which He invisibly exerciseth in all chambers of creation, gathering out from thence the Father's hidden ones, and pre- serving them separate in the midst of all powers and preven- tions of darkness, and of sin ; — into these noble offices of Christ, which pertain to Him as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, they cannot enter who believe not in the election of the Father. For if they believe not that there is such a thing as an election of the Father, which Christ by baptism of the Holy Ghost is separating, and by Headship of the Church is governing, how can they believe or understand the doing or fulfilling of the same ? They shear Him of the beams of His glory; they take away from Him the locks of His strength ; they understand not His present Nazarite func- tion, who said before His death, " I sanctify myself, (or I make a Nazarite of myself,) for their sakes, that they also might be sanctified by the truth ;" who said also, " Henceforth, I will not drink of the juice of the vine, until I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." I say, the seven locks in which lie the mighty Nazarite's power, which are the seven Spirits of God, they shear Him of, and bring Him down to the dimensions of a common man, keeping Him under the law, bringing His Church under the law, and innumerable other grievances inflicting. Moreover, from the same unity of action which there is in the election of the Father, the baptizing by Christ with the Holy Ghost, and the actual work of the Spirit, it follows that one who denies the election of the Father, not only loseth all knowledge and apprehension of Christ's supercelestial glory and office, and advent and kingdom, yea, and present govern- ment over magistrates and kings, and the creatures also, but they likewise lose all distinct apprehension of the Spirit's work, which, being dissevered from the Father's election, and from Christ's headship of the Church, doth fall away into the mere heathen notion of the Divine blessing, or, at best, some gracious communication of an undefined and undefinable power, blowing, like the wind, whither it listeth. But to enter 1 96 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : into the Spirit's personality, to believe in Him, not as the in- comprehensible infinite, but as the Spirit of Christ, the same mind which was in Jesus Christ, the child of Christ, in form and feature, not of the Christ in flesh, made of a woman, made under the law, but of the Christ in glory, and triumphant over all His enemies ; to know the Spirit as the expression of the Father's electing love, and the manifestation of God in the soul, and the indwelling of Father and of Son, and the in- structive witness unto the offices of both, and the continual worker in us of the good works foreordained by the Father ; to feel Him as the comforter in Christ's absence, and the continual prompter unto the desire of Christ's presence, as the absolute irresistible regenerator of the rebellious and dead creature, who, once given, cannot be withdrawn for ever ; which, once possessed, cannot for ever be lost ; parent of per- severance, parent of assurance, parent of a peace and joy with which the world intermeddleth not ; — these and many others, the personal offices of the Spirit, must needs depart from the knowledge of those who will not know the election of the Father, and from the experience of those who will deny the election of the Father. For the Spirit is a regenerator only unto the election of the Father, which, being disbelieved or disesteemed, will come to be looked upon as a kind of com- mon blessing, proceeding somehow from Christ upon the world in general, and to which all alike are privileged ; or if the glaring falsehood of this notion stare them in the face, they will then correct it, perhaps, by the Arminian hypothesis of ordinary and extraordinary influences of the Spirit ; or they will adopt that most abominable notion of the Wesleyan Me- thodists, that we may possess the Spirit one day, and lose Him the next, and be as free as ever to receive Him the next, and so on, through a life of fluctuation, unto a death of like fluctuation, and haply an eternity of the same. Oh, my soul is grieved at the state in which the doctrine of the Spirit is found amongst us ! Words, unsanctified words, impersonal words, which I could apply to the sun, and moon, and stars, as fitly as to a person ; this, verily, is the language applied unto the Spirit. But of His office to seal the Father's election, to reveal the Father's love unto BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 197 His own, to kill the old man, and with him the law which had to do with him ; to reveal in us the power of Christ's resurrection, to beget in us sons unto glory ; to inform us with the fellowship of His victories and triumphs ; to be in us a new substance, which had nothing to do with the fallen Adam ; to be in us a new life, which is super-legal, and hath nothing to do with legalities whatever, nor with prohibitions, nor with fears, nor with servilities, but keepeth all these things down under His feet, in a state of death, or, next to death, impotent grovelling desperation ; these high offices of the Spirit, His true and only function, they skill not to dis- course of, desire not to hear discoursed of, cannot hear, but abhor ; even all those who abhor the doctrine of election ; because the Spirit's work is nothing but the accomplishing of the election, of which, if a man refuse the absoluteness unto the Father, he must refuse the authority and government unto the Son, and the effecting and accomplishment unto the Spirit. Moreover, they who deny the election can understand nothing of the mystery of the Church, which is the great symbol of the election. The election of the Father are, truly speaking, the only Church ; — the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven, the members of the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Ghost. But, forasmuch as this holy community of the regenerate is hidden from human sight, and known only to the Father, neither shall be mani- fested until the day of the Lord's advent, it is necessary to constitute a symbol thereof, which may take the sight of men, and occupy their understanding and their feelings, in such wise as to help them to the knowledge of that which is in- visible. Such a symbol is the visible Church, which doth re- present the election in all its parts. Every member thereof must be baptized with water, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to signify and seal his en- grafting into Christ, his being made a partaker of all the blessings of the new covenant, and his dedication to be the Lord's. This symboliseth the regeneration by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, with which Christ baptizeth every one of the Father's election. And hence the reason that there is 1 98 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : no second baptism, in passing from one communion of the Christian Church to another ; because the Holy Ghost, being once received, cannot be lost again. To be baptized the second time is to mar and misrepresent the great mystery for which this ordinance is placed in the Church. If then, bap- tism symboliseth the regeneration of the Spirit, a baptized person is the visible symbol of a regenerated person, and the community of the baptized, or the visible Church, is the symbol of the regenerated ones of the Spirit, or the elected ones of the Father. Now this symbol being intended to carry the import of the thing symbolised, being unto faith indeed that very thing, the Holy Spirit, who ever speaketh unto faith, doth name the symbol always by the attributes of the thing symbolised, and not by the attributes of the symbol itself. He doth not say. This washing represents the washing away of thy sins ; but, Be baptized, and wash away thy sins. He doth not say. Baptism representeth our sal- vation by the Spirit ; but, Baptism saveth us. He doth not say, This bread represents the body of Christ; but, This is my body ; and again. This is my blood. And speaking of the baptized, or the visible Church, the Holy Spirit calleth them " saints," " elect of the Father," " sprinkled with the blood of Christ," " washed with the regeneration of the Holy Ghost." He calleth them " the holy nation, the royal priesthood, the chosen generation, the peculiar people " of the Lord. Yet are they not so in very deed, but a company of elect and reprobate mingled together ; and yet though this we know, we may not speak of the Church in any other language than the language of the Holy Ghost, because we speak to the hearing of faith, and not to the hear- ing of sense ; and our language will not deceive the hearing of faith, but only the hearing of sense, which it is as much our business to deceive, as it is our business to instruct the other ; our language being unto sense or worldly wisdom foolish- ness ; our language being unto faith the power of God, and the wisdom of God. We who use it may use it hypocritically, convinced that for our parts we have no right, so to speak, being unworthy ministers, and unfaithful stewards. You also may feel that you have no right to be so spoken to, being un- BY PARTICULAR ELECTION. 199 worthy and fruitless members of Christ, but not the less ought the holy language of faith, and that only, to circulate in the Church, from ministers to people, and from people to one another ; feeding those who have faith, and making hypocrites of those who have it not. And I may here observe, that to the keeping up of this language in all the papal instruments, it is due perhaps more than to anything else, that in the absence of the Holy Scriptures, and in the presence of such awful superstition, there should yet be found in that spiritual Sodom faithful ones of God. And to this same holy language, presented in the Liturgy of the Church of England, it is due, that under the legal and Arminian preaching of the last century, the true faith was not wholly rooted out of that com- munion. And I will say further, that if baptized men, if churchmen would speak to one another the language of the Holy Ghost, the effect would be, to separate by a distinct line between worldly wisdom and the wisdom from above, between Divine ideas and human ideas of all things. And the elect of God would be nourished by every opening of the mouth, and the reprobate would as often be warned, rebuked, and condemned. But, which is far more important, the Church would do its office of representing the election of God> assuming unto itself all the attributes, and speaking all the language thereof; the everlasting ordinance would not be changed ; the mind of God would not be represented merely in a written book, but organised and expressed by living men. By reason of forgetting and undervaluing the great principle of the election, and making the universal reconciliation to be all in all, men have come into, and must remain under, ignor- ance and perplexity with respect to the symbol thereof, which is the Church. And everything connected therewith will come to lose its substance, and by degrees to change its very form : — Baptism first of all to be but a sign of something which every one will seek to define as the least and the lowest thing possible ; a memorial haply of our sinfulness, instead of being, what it truly is, the abolition of all memorials thereof And the Lord's Supper will come to be a mere memorial of Christ's death ; ordination of office-bearers a mere sanction of the voice of the people, or title to the dignities and immunities 200 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : of the office ; discipline, a mere religious and spiritual police ; holy living, a mere keeping of the law; and preaching, an ex- position of the law, with motives and means to the perform- ance of the same ; all which views of the Church I solemnly denounce, as most false, most pernicious, most destructive of souls. But from what time you come to see the Church in its true light, as the great symbol of the election, and to use it as the key to open that great mystery, then at once, and I may say instantaneously, do the symbol and the thing sym- bolised explain one another ; as the key is the best inter- pretation to the lock, and the lock the best interpretation to the key, so is a symbol the best interpretation to the mystery, and the mystery the best interpretation to the sym- bol. As we have said, baptism, the admission to the Church, symboliseth Christ baptizing Avith the Holy Ghost, which is admission amongst the election of the Father, or the regene- rated ones of the Spirit. And from that time forth we are beholden unto Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for power given, and obligation come under, to shew forth, in our thought, speech, and behaviour, the life of a regenerate man. To feed and nourish this goodly company, we have put into our hands the symbols of the body and blood of Christ ; that is to say, these regenerated ones, these elected ones have no support, sustenance, nor fellowship of substance with this visible world, but are of one substance with the body of Christ, upon which they live by faith, receiving from it the vigour and the sub- stance of a new life, as the body receiveth the vigour and energy of life from bread. The Church, observe you, is not merely the living ones in this world, but the living ones in the Jerusalem above, and likewise the elect ones of the Father, who are yet to live ; — of all which company, those above and those beneath, there is but one nourishment and one substance, which is the holy humanity of Christ ; and this humanity, in its earthly form of redeemed flesh and blood, which is the support, the basis, the nourishment, the substance of the Church, as Adam is of the world, — Christ, the Father of the regeneration, Adam the father of the gene- ration. Moreover, this company of elect ones, which the Church s}'mboliseth, must be under government, and pre- BY PAR TICULAR ELECTION. 201 served as one community, having in it no schisms nor divi- sions ; for the body is one, as the Head is one, though the members of the body be many. To the end, therefore, of preserving this unity, it is neces- sary that there should be governments in the Church, who may be for the healing of divisions, and for the remedying of evils. This is the ground of all discipline and government in the Church, to endeavour to preserve that unity of faith and spirit which is so essential to the election of God ; and it would have been impossible to justify the Reformation in constituting a separate Church, had it not been expressly written, that the Gentile Church was to become apostate, and God's people were to come out of her. If Rome be not Babylon, then Protestantism is a schism, or a sect. If Rome be a true church, then are the Protestant commu- nions schismatical and sectarian ; for there cannot be two churches, either we excommunicate Rome, or Rome hath a right to excommunicate us. To make the election con- sist of two separate parts, in opposition to each other, were totally to mar and misrepresent the truth. This remark beareth hard upon the divisions in the bosom of the Protestant Church, and shews how necessary it is for a good Christian to maintain brotherly love to those of every church who hold the true faith of Christ, and have not fallen into any heresies. Out of this same idea of the Church, as representing the election, cometh the true meaning of ex- communication. Excommunication is the separating from the communion of the brethren of some one who is depraved in his mind by heresy, or in his conscience by the wickedness that is in him ; to the end that, when he is thus set apart, he may feel the more acutely, and perceive the more distinctly, what an awful thing it will be, if, in the end, he should be cast out from amongst the chosen ones of God. Excommuni- cation is not reprobation ; but it is the act of the Church declaring a man to be in rebellion against the Spirit, and against the Church, the dispenser, under Christ, of the Spirit's gifts. For if it were the symbol of reprobation, then there would be no occasion presented of repentance unto such an one. All these, and many other ordinances of the Church, 202 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: become plain to the simplest capacity of those who believe in the election of the Father, and see the Church as the symbol thereof; but unto one ■who stumbleth at that stone, the Church, with all its beautiful ordinances, with all its perfect organisation, is either a system of foolishness or a system of hypocrisy. Thus have I shewn at length how any faltering upon the great doctrine of election, bringeth with it necessary con- fusion into all other departments of Christian doctrine and Christian life ; which may all be summed up in this one word : He that doubteth of the election, believing the re- demption only, must remain ignorant of Christ's active ministry, in baptizing with the Holy Ghost, and of the Holy Ghost's active ser\ace in delivering the soul from the law of the flesh, and from the curse of the moral law. TART III. Having thus explained how, out of the union of the God- head and fallen manhood, in the person of Christ, there cometh perfect and complete reconciliation and atonement between God and the fallen creatures, I have now to shew how this is accompanied with the removal of the law; not any particular law, or part of the law, but law in general, as proceeding from the mouth of God unto His fallen creatures. The grace of God, the goodness of God is, I may say, hin- dered from being known and communicated where the law is present, which is the expression of God's holy indignation against sin. The law is the form of the enmity between God and the fallen creatures, which came not into existence from the beginning ; for the promise was before the law, in order that it might be seen that grace, and not severity, was the end of the Fall. Therefore, God pronounced upon Eve and Adam, and the earth, certain judgments, under the hope of a redemption from them ; which judgments still continued to afflict the condition of men. But as yet He gave not the law ; and long before He brought in that excessive bondage, He had given the covenant unto Noah, and the promise unto Abraham. And then, for greater manifestation, and BY REMOVAL OF THE LA IV. 203 for further punishment of sin, He imposed the law, which came by Moses, and was removed by Christ. The law, therefore, is the great sign and standing monument of God's unreconciled mind towards men. Most necessary therefore it is, that I should set forth, under this head of the atonement and reconciliation, how we are delivered from law, and placed under grace. In the course of which demonstration, it will appear how futile, how idle and profitless, are the notions of those who will not receive the method of the Incarnation, by the personal union of the Divine nature and fallen human nature ; and new strength will be brought to the orthodox doctrine which we maintain. To open this subject fairly, it will be necessary to go back a little in the history of creation and redemption, of which I have demonstrated, in the former discourse, the great end to be the glory of God. And into that general subject I mean not to inquire further, but am willing to discourse somewhat particularly concerning the scheme, as it hath relation unto the law. The very end of the Fall was to put the proper difference between the Creator and the creature ; and to shew the creature that the source and the continuance of its being was from God, and not in any way from itself If any one ask me. And could not this, without a fall, have been accom- plished ? I am ready to answer, As to that I cannot tell ; but I believe that this was the best way of accomplishing it. The creature being put to silence, and its pretensions to power and being, in itself, entirely negatived by sin and death, God proceeded by demonstrations of His grace to make known, even from the beginning, His own Son incarnate in the crea- ture, as the only object of its hope for deliverance, and the only source of its strength for endurance ; or, in one word, as the life. Of this grace the promise, and the possession also, was first given unto Abraham ; wherefore he is emphatically called by the apostle, " He that had received the promises." Anterior to Abraham, the world was not without witnesses ; yet Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful, and from him the dispensation of righteousness imputed unto faith, is always in the Holy Scriptures made to begin. Abraham is the head of the Church, or election, and answereth in his cir- 204 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: cumcised person unto the baptized persons now in the world ; but before Abraham, the world, the whole race, had been brought under covenant in the person of Noah, whose pre- servation in the ark, with all his house, and with all the crea- tures of the earth, is significant of that common preservation of mankind, and deliverance from the power and thraldom of sin and Satan, which Christ purchased by His death, whereby He is said to be the Saviour of all men, and the propitiation, not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. And that sanctification of blood, which was part of the cove- nant with Noah, giving unto sacrifice its peculiar sanctity, doth point unto the blood of Christ, as the propitiation and purchase of man's life, and the life of the world he dwelleth on, from the just and righteous indignation of God ; so that, as in Abraham you have the election according to grace standing represented, in Noah you have the redeemed race likewise standing re- presented ; and therefore the present constitution of the world and the Church, which hath obtained since the coming of Christ, had its existence in promise and expectation, even from the deluge ; — sacrifice being unto all men the proclamation of the One Sacrifice, which taketh away the sin of the world ; and circumcision, or the putting away the filth of the flesh, being the proclamation unto the Church, of the work of the Spirit to crucify the flesh, with its corruptions and lusts. Here, then, from the deluge, we have the world under a dis- pensation of universal redemption, with a church in it under the dispensation of particular election ; and the only difference between our condition and theirs is this, that theirs was pro- spective, or prophetic — ours partly retrospective, and partly prophetic ; they looking forward unto Him that was to come ; we looking backward unto Him that is come, and for- Avard unto the same One that is to come again. Thus, then, the world stood, under general and particular promise of grace, until the time that the Law was given. Now, be it observed, that the Law was not given unto all the world, but only unto the Church, the circumcised Church. It went not to the bounds of the covenant of Noah, but was confined within the limits of the covenant of Abraham. And why this limitation .-' For many reasons, but chiefly for this, that the Jew might BY REMOVAL OF THE LA IV. 205 have no reason to boast himself over the Gentile, that they who had the covenants of promise might also have the con- demnation of the law ; that, their sins being made to abound through the law, they might be preserved as much as pos- sible from self-righteousness, and taught to prize the special and peculiar grace which they had in the covenant of circumcision. And the world which was without law was left to the law written on their hearts, to the excusing or the accusing of their own thoughts ; they that are without law being judged without law. Hence it is, that the apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, being minded to prove all men under sin, and the whole world guilty before God, doth make his case out against the world, in the first chapter, by shewing their sins against conscience and against nature ; but against the Jews he maketh out his case by shewing their sins against the Law. The Law is the voice of God, telling us of the evil. When man fell, he came to know both good and evil, whereas for- merly he had known only good ; this goodness, being all de- parted out of the physical world, had its visible object only in hope of seeing Christ, and being goodness unto the undeserv- ing, it hath the name of grace. Unto the knowledge and desire of good in man, Christ therefore was addressed, and God in Christ. Unto the evil that is in man, the world which is seen was addressed ; and thus religion came into contro- versy with worldliness, and the future into controversy with the present — the object of good being in the future, the object of evil being in the present visible world. Now, with which of these doth the Law rank .'' Holdeth it of the conscience of good, or of the conscience of evil ? I say it holdeth of the conscience of evil. If the gospel be the voice of God ad- dressed unto the conscience of good, then, I say, the law is the voice of God addressed unto the conscience of evil. And out of this opposition, between the law and the gospel arose that heretical notion ih the primitive Church, that the law was created by the evil principle, and the gospel created by the good. The law is by the apostle absolutely called sin, even as Christ, when under the law, is likewise called sin. And that the law hath sin, and not righteousness, for its object, is well declared in that passage, Rom. v. 13, " Until the law, sin 206 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : was in the world ; but sin is not imputed where there is no law." And that it hath not righteousness for its object is de- clared in that passage, " If righteousness could come by the law, then is Christ dead in vain." The law, therefore, was added, that the offence might abound, and that sin might be shewn to be exceeding sinful. But before entering at large upon this subject, I would have it confirmed under sanction of the written word ; and to this end, I ask you to turn with me to the 7th chapter of the Romans, from the beginning. " Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth (or, it liveth) ? For a woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth ; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law ; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." In these verses, the Church is set forth as a wife who hath been twice married : in the first instance, to the law ; in the second instance, to Him that is raised from the dead ; of whom the former husband must be dead before she can be wedded unto the second. But seeing that we are wedded unto the risen Christ, the apostle affirmeth that either the law is dead or the Church an adulteress. Now, how doth the law become dead to us, and we dead to the law .-' Himself answereth the question, — By the body of Christ, which nailed the law along with Himself unto the cross, took it into the grave, and left it there, along with His body of sin and death, when He took His body of life and righteousness. And so, bridegroom-like, in beautiful garments He went forth from His chamber, like a strong man rejoicing to run His race of glory and of might. Unto Him, then, not in humanity under the law, but unto Him in glory above all law. Lord of all, the Church is now married, to the end that we should bring forth fruit unto BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 207 God. Wedded unto this Husband, branches of this Vine, the Church bringeth forth much fruit unto God, whereby the Father is glorified. But being wedded unto the law, what is the fruit that she bringeth forth } A fruit unto death, in direct contrast to the former. For is it not written in the next verse, " When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin (or as it is in the margin, the passions of sin), which are by the law, did work with energy in our members, unto the end of fruitbearing for death ? " What a word is this to those who will live under the law ! It is here expressly declared, that the law is the seed of sin, which doth quicken the substance of sin, already in our flesh, and make it bring forth fruit unto death; not unto God, but unto death. Now, this is the reason for which I am setting my face steadfastly against the law; because it is the masculine parent of sin, and doth awaken and fructify the passion for sin which is in the flesh. It is the life of the flesh, the joy of the flesh ; and where works are preached, the natural man is glad. Now what saith the apostle further in this most wonderful and curious discourse, concerning the law } Verse 6 : " Now, however, are we delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Can anything be more explicit to declare our deliver- ance from the law, and the law's deadness to us, and our deadness unto it .■* Can anything be more joyful unto the uncarnal and spiritual man, than such a deliverance from that which engendereth in the flesh only sin and death } " We are delivered from the law, that being dead," or, as it is in the margin, " being dead to that wherein we were held." And what is the fruit of this deliverance } Is it licence .'' No ; but it is liberty. Is it adultery } No ; but it is honourable and fruitful marriage. Subjection unto the spiritual Parent of good in our spirit, and deliverance from the parent of sin in our flesh. Yes; there is a service still : but it is service not known until the Spirit was given, or but dimly known by those who being under the law, yet forgat not that they were under the promise, — service in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. The willing obedience of the law of liberty, " written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living 2o8 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD: God ; not in tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart." Hear the divine apostle, still farther, upon his favou- rite theme ; hear the great law-breaker, the great law-de- stroyer, and magnifier of the grace of God, who boasteth that he had destroyed the law, and looketh upon himself as a most heinous transgressor, if he should lay a stone to rear it up again, saying, " For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor," (verse 7.) " What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? Be it not spoken, but sin I had not known except by means of the law ; for cove- tousness had I not seen, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet. Sin, however, taking occasion by the command- ment, wrought in me all covetousness ; for without the law, sin were dead." This is marvellous exceedingly. The apostle acquits the law of the sin, which he had asserted was bred between the law and the flesh : he will not allow the law to be sin in itself, though the occasion of sin in him, as it were awakening it from its dormancy ; yea, he saith, quickening it from its death; for without the law sin was dead, even as unto a wicked lustful person the most virtuous object is the occa- sion of sin, without any .sin in itself, but contrariwise haply the greatest aversion to it. So the apostle doth set forth the • pure and holy law, the beautiful and perfect law, the chaste virtuous and severe law, as the occasion of all sin in the weak and sinful flesh of man. And as an instance of it, he quoteth the Christian commandment, which forbiddeth covetousness of everything that is our neighbour's ; and he declares not merely, that he would not have hwwn the sin of covetousness, but that he would not have see7i it, had it not been for that commandment which said, " Thou shalt not covet:" but so soon as he knew that same commandment, sin in him stirred up all manner of covetousness and concupiscence, spiting as it were the commandment of God, shewing herself to be mistress of the flesh, and more powerful than the commandment. As an usurper, Pharaoh, for example, rageth more against his slaves, when the idea or hope of liberty stirreth amongst them ; so sin, potent empress of the flesh, kindleth into fury, and violently rageth, and worketh all manner of contradiction and contra- vention of that holy law, which the flesh knoweth to be good. BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 209 but skilleth not to keep, because it is overruled by another, and by a greater than itself. Great idea ! blessed God, and likewise favoured man, from whom, and through whom, this great idea came ! Let my soul learn to embrace it, and to possess it. Let me forget the law that I may remember my risen Lord, for I cannot be married unto them both. Let me cease from the commandment, that I may cease from sin. Let me die unto the law, that I may live unto Christ ; for, as saith the blessed apostle, " I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live unto God!" Now, brethren, tell me whether you think the language of such divines as Luther, the language of such preachers as myself be, or be not, con- sentaneous with the language of the blessed apostle. Taking this text for our warrant, we would now set our- selves to discourse concerning the law and its removal from the Church ; for the law is the form of the enmity which came by Moses, between the holiness of God and the wickedness of the fallen creature. There is in the law such a purity and fitness for producing human well-being ; there is so much good sense in the Ten Commandments, so much right feeling, so much beauty of virtue and righteous judgment, that every good and wise man seeketh earnestly and desireth fervently to put himself under such a goodly system of morality, which is at once the per- fection of moral philosophy, the code of justice, the guide of affection, the sum of religion, the bulwark of society, and the stay of life ; insomuch that I know not what preternatural power is required to separate a man from this form of wis- dom, which is all redolent with humanity, and with humanity's noblest forms. The only thing capable of divorcing between the moral law and human nature is the inexorable holiness of God, which will not be satisfied with anything short of its complete obedience. If the law would relax a little to the infirmities of the flesh ; if it would be gentle, and tender, and gracious, and look not so much to our shortcomings as to our attainments ; or if it would tarry a while and wait the gradual progress of virtue ; or if it would forget the past transgres- sions in our present endeavour to do our best ; or if, more- over, it would quietly stand like a Grecian temple, or a VOL. V. O 2 1 o THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : Grecian statue, as the ideal, the beau ideal, of moral beauty and perfection, and suffer us poor sculptors to carry on the work of moulding ourselves the best we can after the model of its beauty, then indeed it might stand and receive the homage of all virtuous and well-disposed men. But it hath such a tongue of iron, and doth ring out again such thun- ders of revenge against every transgression, and every short- coming it doth gauge with such exact rule, and such a mighty omniscient eye doth watch sleepless over its virgin purity, that while, on the one hand, it doth solicit and attract with its perfect form, on the other it doth repel with its chill and icy coldness. God's inexorable holi- ness, I say, is that which maketh the very beauty of the law, and its perfection, to be most horrible and most revolt- ing unto the heart of a believer. But if we could but per- suade ourselves that God's holiness would relent, and that He would soften and accommodate the law to our infirmities, all might yet be well ; and this truly is the hope and belief of all those who are making shift with the law for a rule of life. They do, in very deed, believe that God is not so holy, but that He is able to forgive a transgression of the law, and to overlook our shortcomings from its obedience. And this notion is so firmly rooted in men's minds, that nothing but a great demonstration to the contrary could overcome it. Men have no right estimate of the evil of sin, of the holiness of God, of the inexorableness of the law ; and before you can wean human nature from the contemplation of its own per- fection, and perfectibility in the law, you must have to offer unto them some indubitable demonstration and stupendous monument of the unalterable holiness of God, the irreducible demands of the law, and the hideous nature of sin. If such a demonstration and monument of a lasting kind can be given, and established in some grand and conspicuous way, it may be possible ; but otherwise it never will be possible to divorce human nature from the high-minded affections which it beareth to the good, and just, and honourable law, and the easy hope with which it flattereth its good nature, that God will never require of His poor creatures more than they are able in this state of sin and infirmity to perform, espe- B Y REMO VAL OF THE LAW. 211 cially when He beholdeth in them a devout aspiration after the perfect and blameless righteousness of the law, together with a continual sorrow and repentance because of our many- shortcomings and positive offences. But if, I say, it can be made to appear, beyond doubt and question, that he that offendeth in one point of the law is guilty of all ; that heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled ; and that God cannot forgive a transgression, the slightest as the heaviest, without a recompense of an infinite price ; and that as one transgres- sion brought the world and all its inhabitants into this misery and death, out of life and blessedness, so any one transgres- sion will condemn the soul into the lowest hell for ever; and that this is God's unalterable, unchangeable being and attribute ; — if this, I say, can be made clearly apparent, and undoubtedly true and unchangeable for ever, then men may be brought to see the law in another light, and to abhor it as a living man abhorreth the dagger of the assassin, or the axe of the executioner, or the grim face of death, or the cor- ruption of the grave, or the pit of hell. Now, I asic, where, by what, hath God made this eternal demonstration of sin's horrid guilt, and His own inexpressible abhorrence of the sinner .-' I answer. By sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh ; by making the Word flesh ; by making Him consubstantial with the sinner, and shewing how under this form God hid His face from His own Son, and bruised Him, and put Him to grief, and called for His sword to slay Him, and covered Him with the pall of death, and brought Him into the humiliation of the grave ; — all this, though He was without sin, and saw not corruption, merely because He had become consubstantial with the sinful creatures. Thus, and no otherwise, was that great demonstration made. And I stand in my place, as a preacher of truth, and say, that there is no demonstration of all this, if Christ did not become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; if He were in any other state than the fallen humanity ; if He were in the likeness of sinless flesh, and not in the likeness of sinful flesh. Let us for a moment suppose that Christ came in an im- 2 1 2 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : mortal and incorruptible body ; that is to say, in the nature of man before he fell ; I have then to ask, in addition to all that hath been said above, what demonstration would be given of God's holy indignation against a fallen sinful crea- ture, if so be that Christ was in the immortal and incorruptible state of manhood ? A demonstration indeed is given of God's wrath against an unfallen creature, bearing a fallen creature's sin ; but we want the demonstration of God's wrath upon a fallen creature himself We are not unfallen creatures, bearing another's sin ; but we are fallen creatures, bearing our own. And the thing to be demonstrated unto us is, that God will take vengeance upon our iniquities, without making any, the least abatement for our fallen state. This is the very shelter which human nature constructs for herself; and out of this shelter she must be driven, before she will forsake self-righteousness and self-confidence. For hear what the natural man saith, "Will God require of me, born in sin and infirmity, and dwelling in this sinful world, perfection .'' and say you that He will visit my slightest transgression with eternal death V The thing which we want is to be able to say to the natural man, " Yea, verily, thine every sin eternally separates between thee and God, and eternally doometh thee unto wrath." Now this answer cannot be given, if Christ had not a fallen humanity ; verily our humanity ; verily the natural man ; for an unfallen humanity, or a redeemed humanity, is not the thing in question. "True," the natural man saith, " an unfallen man may be, ought to be perfect ; but there is the widest difference between an unfallen and a fallen man. And by loading an unfallen man with ever so much sin of another, you do not make him a fallen man ; and that he should bear it, and that he should keep the law without offence, is no proof to me that I shall be called to keep the same law, with the same strictness, or that I shall be visited so fearfully for every transgression of the same. Besides, we want no demonstration of what God requires of unfallen man- hood, or what visitation its sins are to be visited withal, for we have it already in Adam. We are the monuments there- of ; the world is the monument thereof ; but is there to be no allowance for the wide difference between our state and BY REMOVAL OF THE LA IV. 213 Adam's ? Are you to expect from a* miserable sinner the same straitness and completeness of holiness as from a being whom God created good, and constituted lord of the lower earth?" These are the questions to be resolved, as I have said above, before you can drive men from trusting in the law, and in their own keeping of the law ; and these are questions which can be resolved only by a demonstration made in our fallen manhood. They understand nothing at all of the problem to be resolved, who say that it could be resolved in the unfallen manhood, or in the angelic or in the archangelic form of being. Furthermore, I confess myself unable to perceive how it is possible for suffering to reach an unfallen creature without subverting the fundamental principles of the Divine purpose and administration. I do not mean the principle how the enternal Son should consent and condescend to the suffering and humiliation ; for this, indeed. He doth in the plenitude of His own Divine freedom ; but the difficulty, and impossibility as I think, is, how the suffering should reach Him otherwise than by a fallen body. This is the very end of the Fall, that Christ might come at suffering. The Godhead cannot suffer, because it cannot change. Those sufferings which Christ underwent reached Him through His creature-part. Now, if that creature-part of Christ was in the unfallen state, how should it suffer ? If the unfallen creature can suffer, then is there no difference between the unfallen and the fallen ; for suffering and death are the signs and the wages of the fall. The answer which they make to this question is. He suffered for the sins of others. That I say also, because He had no sin of His own wherefor to suffer. On this we are agreed ; but my question is. How can suffering for another reach an unfallen creature ? I know of no way by which suffering can reach an unfallen creature, but by the way in which it reached Adam — namely, by his committing sin ; and if it be said, that without committing sin, suffering can reach an unfallen crea- ture, then the only difference between the unfallen and fallen is taken away, and the very nature of sin, as an act of the will, is abrogated. But that suffering can come to a fallen crea- ture, without any sinful act of his own, is manifest in every 2 1 4 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : child that is born ; and that death can come to a fallen crea- ture, without any sinful act of its own, is manifest in every child that dies. And, therefore, there is no difficulty what- ever in believing that, without any sinful act of the will, Christ in a fallen nature should both suffer and die, because this very thing is the universal experience of every fallen creature. But there is not such a thing in the records of being, as that an unfallen creature should suffer. The will must fall first by sinning, before suffering can be felt. But that, in the fallen state, the just should suffer for the unjust, and the innocent for the guilty, is the great truth experienced of all ; seeing God visits the sin of the fathers, and the sin of Adam especially, upon those who have as yet no power of will whereby to com- mit a sin ; so that I may truly say the whole history and constitution of man's estate, under the fall, is to the very end of schooling us into the method of the incarnation, of teach- ing us how, without evil actings of the will, suffering and death may be experienced by a creature in the fallen state. If Christ therefore took our fallen nature ; if the eternal Godhead, being purposed to extirpate sin and death from flesh for ever, and to bear up through His almighty and divine strength, the lapsed creation : it is easy to perceive how, by taking part of flesh and blood with the fallen children. He might do so : but if, by taking an unfallen na- ture, He could do so, then have I no demonstration whatever that I myself am fallen. For what proveth me to be fallen } suffering and death. If it be added, Positive transgression of my will } I answer. No ; that should not enter into the defi- nition of a fallen creature ; because it applieth not to all fallen creatures, nor indeed to any fallen creature in all its being. Children, and all men while children, are incapable of acting good or evil by the will, and yet they arc fallen. And how know we them to be fallen } because they suffer and die. But if an unfallen creature can likewise suffer and die, then the only definition, and the only proof, of a fallen creature is taken away ; and if this be taken away, then re- demption is likewise taken away. Now, it only makes this conclusion stronger, if they say that the difference between an unfallen creature suffering and a fallen creature suffering BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 215 is, that the one suffereth by imputation and the other suffereth not by imputation but for his own sin. Then I say, that by this definition children are unfallen ; for they suffer not for any sin of their own, but by imputation of the sin of their fathers, and most especially the sin of Adam. Here, then, is another great foundation subverted — to wit, the difference between the unfallen and fallen creatures ; and Socinianism marches straight in at the breach, which says that we are just in as good and perfect a state as Adam, and as able to keep the law as he was ; and then where is the redemption, when there is no fall '^. It is completely avoided, and made of no effect. Oh, it relieveth my heart, in the midst of these painful studies and deep meditations, to find that I am fighting the battle which the apostle John began, and which the holy fathers of the Church, for seven centuries, ceased not to wage. This heresy of the immortal incorruptible body of Christ, of His supernatural humanity, was broached by Cerdon, the disciple of that Simon Magus who is mentioned in the Acts : from him it passed to Marcion, and Valentine, and Manes, all great heresiarchs : in Eutyches it took a more generic form, which was condemned in the fourth general council at Chalcedon. It revived in the Emperor Justinian, who held that Jesus Christ had not a corruptible body, but was resisted by the patriarch of Constantinople, and the patriarch of Antioch, and all the orthodox Church, who said, " It cannot be called incorruptible in any other sense than as it was always unpolluted with any defilement, and was not corrupted in the grave." It revived again under the new name of the Monothelites, concerning whom it is written in a former head of this discourse; and after surviving for nearly a century, it was condemned again, in a general council, the third at Constantinople, held in the year 680. And now, again, behold it is upon the field ; and here I am, a poor despised minister, contending, day by day, for the faith for which holy martyrs and apostles contended ; of whom it is reported that one, even Polycarp the disciple of John, when he met one of these heresiarchs — I think Marcion — on the streets of Rome, and being asked of him, " Knowest thou 2 1 6 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : me?" the martyr answered, "Yes; I know thee to be the eldest born of the devil." Now, abandon these heresies, and look at the demon- stration as it is in truth, and you will see how grand it is. The eternal Divinity of the Son, who inhabited the ful- ness and the dearness of the Father's bosom, to the end of shewing how holy, and good, and gracious His Father is, and knowing well the Divine hatred against sin, as being Him- self Divine, and the eternal contradiction between God and the sinful creature, as being Himself God, doth nevertheless take up into His person human nature in its fallen state, and is as truly a fallen man, as He is truly God ; and thus the eternal and absolute One enforceth the recreant and rebel nature of man to keep the holy law of God : and the Father, though loving Him beyond love's utterance, in the infinite degree, as being of one substance, doth not the less exact from Him the utmost measure of a sufferer's sufferings unto death itself; a death of disgrace, of agony, and of torture. He had no exemption because He was God, but suffered be- cause He had taken part with the brethren of the suffering and doomed thing. If God would ever have relaxed, for any sake, the extreme rigour of the law, and the imperious curse of death, would He not have relaxed now, when the sufferer was His own Son, holding, by His Divine nature, indissoluble communion with Himself.'' That Person, who suffered in His human nature, did by His Divine nature maintain all the while perfect unity with the Father. There was between them perfect oneness of substance ; and yet the person of the Son suffered as a man suffereth, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief He who made the law. He whose absolute will is the parent of all laws, did come under the law, in all respects, and did keep it in all points. After this, can any one doubt that God will exact, to the uttermost jot of that law, from every fallen creature ? Why should He spare another who spared not His own Son, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son .-' Beyond this, methinks, demonstra- tion of holiness cannot go. Oh, what an awful spectacle unto creation for ever, to see such love as the Father had unto His Son postponed unto holiness, set aside for the manifestation B V RE MO VAL OF THE- LA W. 2 1 7 of justice, suspended for the honour of a broken law! What a word, then, is law ! the pillar of ages, the stability of worlds, the very word of God ! and who, understanding this, will dream of the frangibility, or the changeableness of law ? It may not be any longer thought or spoken, that the adaman- tine law will divide into parts : it dicth by the loss of the least jot; it cannot die while God who spake it endureth. Inflexible law, inexorable law, thou art honoured indeed ; very venerable art thou become. Woe, woe to him that toucheth the hem of thy skirt, or meditateth the infringe- ment of thy integrity. I cannot express, and never shall be able to express, the sanction which Christ hath given to the law. Truly He hath made it honourable. Behold also what demonstration there is of the sinfulness of sin. That sin should poison life's fountain, in a creature created so noble as Adam ; that sin should poison the streams of life in all their branches ; that one sin should engender from its venomous drop enough of suffering to steep a world in misery, is indeed an awful truth ; — but that sin should be able to struggle with Godhead itself, that a fragment of the perilous stuff, being assumed into the personality of the Son, should weigh down the Almighty One, from His delectation in the bosom of the Father, and make Him say, " Why hast Thou forsaken me } " — that a fragment of the perilous stuff being taken into the person of the Living One, Life of life, should agonise Him with hunger and with thirst, and oppress Him with weariness, and tempt Him with the round world's idle state ; should make the Divine person groan, and weep, and sweat great drops of blood, and be passive to all suffering which flesh is heir to ; this is the mightiest demonstration of sin's iron gripe and deadly hold, proving it to be all but the mightiest power in being. This, according to the view I have given of it, is not, as it were, the accumulation of the sins of all the elect ; but the simple, single, common power of sin diffused throughout, and present in, the substance of flesh of fallen human nature. Such power hath sin in my flesh, in the flesh of every one who heareth me. They greatly err who make this humiliation of the Son's person to arise from many thousand measures of 2 1 8 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : sin, as it were, poured into the cup of one man. No, verily ; that which a fallen human nature in Christ prevailed to do against a Divine nature, it prevaileth to do in me, and in every single man ; and no power wdiatsoever, but the Divine power which prevailed over it in Christ, can prevail over it in me. This scheme of supposing Christ to have been laden, as it were, with a body that had the sins of many bodies imputed to it, doth take Him out of our sphere again, and destroy the application unto us, of those things shewed forth in Him ; for the sinner might turn upon us, and say, That example of the sinfulness of sin, which you educed from Christ, is not appli- cable to me, who have but my own sin to bear. Do I speak herein against imputation of our sins t God forbid. I believe that He bare our sins in His own body on the tree ; and this is a point which I have sufficiently handled in my first dis- course. It was all our sin, and none of it His : — it was the sin of flesh in general, in common, which He freely undertook to extirpate. But what is sin ? Reflect what sin is. It is not a thing, nor a creature, but it is the state of a creature, — the second state of a creature, in which it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Sin, therefore, is com- mon to us all : it is the creature man working against the Creator God. And the Creator God, to shew that He neither had been nor would be baffled by His own creature, took it up into Himself, and, having sanctified it, brought it through the passage of death without seeing corruption, to see immor- tality and unchangeableness. And the measure of the potency of sin, and of its evil in one man, in any man, in all men, in the region of humanity, is the degree unto which it humbled and reduced one of the Persons of the eternal Godhead. I wonder what men mean who will not look at this, and be astonied : it passeth comprehension, it passeth utterance. Holy men are lost in the adoration of it ; angels desire to look into it ; sinners are saved by it ; and none but infidels and heretics withstand it. It is very painful indeed to me, but nothing new, as you can testify, to witness the obstinacy and perverseness with which men contend against this truth, that Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, to condemn sin in the flesh. What BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 219 mean they by their ignorant gainsaying ? Is it not the thing which is to be done in you and me, sooner or later, by God, that we should be sanctified and redeemed, this very flesh of ours, by the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Ghost ? If there be something so shocking in the Holy Ghost's abiding in sinful flesh, let those that think it so shocking do without it, if they can, and go down into the pit for ever. Whether is it more honourable unto God, that He should recover His creature, or lose His creature ? And if sinful flesh is the thing to be sanctified and possessed of the Godhead, shall not Christ in this also have the pre-eminence ? or shall it be done in us, without being first done in Him ? But whence this abhorrence ? Is it dishonourable to vanquish sin ? Doth the man become a serpent who graspeth the serpent in his gripe, and crusheth him ? Do I become a devil, by wrestling with the devil and overcoming him ? And doth Christ become sinful, by coming into flesh like this of mine, extirpating its sin, arresting its corruption, aad attaining for it honour and glory for ever ? Idle talk ! They know not whether they drive. They are making void the humanity of Christ, and destroying His mediation as virtually as if they denied His Divinity. A mediator is not of one : how truly he is consubstantial with God, so truly is he consubstantial with me, or he cannot be mediator between me and God. The Daysman must be able to lay His hand on us both. These demonstrations of the unalterable holiness of God, of the inflexible rigour of the law, and the exceeding sinful- ness of sin, which are no demonstrations at all unto us avail- ing, unless Christ be come in our just and exact nature, are, so far as they bear upon us, profitable in the highest degree by destroying all hope of salvation through the relentings of God, through the yielding of the law, through our obedience of the law, or any other method which buildeth upon God's facility of disposition, or our own self-righteousness. For if God would not relent in behalf of God, but obliged His own Son, when made flesh, to bear the rigours of the law, then how should He relent towards another ? And if it required the informing Godhead of the Son, and the sustaining God- 2 20 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : head of the Spirit, to enable the man Jesus Christ perfectly to keep the law, how should any mere man expect to keep it ? And if no one may expect to keep it, how should any one expect to be saved by it? Whosoever, therefore, rightly apprehendeth the incarnation of the Word, doth dread the law, with revoltings of soul, and cry out, Oh, thou inex- orable law ! how shall I escape thy most certain sentence ? Oh, thou most holy God ! how shall I find acquittal from thine offended law ? If thou art strict to mark iniquity, as it appeareth by thy Son's experience in the flesh, then how shall I answer for one of ten thousand of my transgressions ? I am a lost man — a man lost and undone, unless that awful law be taken out of the way for ever. If it stand, I fall ; for I am sold under sin. Oh, wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death } Such is the agony of a man who is enlightened by Christ, in God's char- acter as a sovereign Lord. He is at his wit's end : yea, it would drive a man out of his wits, as at times it threat- ened to do for poor Luther, whose ideas of God the Lawgiver became at times so insufferable to himself, that he would run howling from the hideous thought, and seek to hide himself from the fear of God. Paul, in like manner, in the seventh chapter of the Romans, seemeth to have been all but undone, by his reflections upon the holiness of God the Lawgiver. And I would that every one who heareth me, and I myself, were in likewise amazed and astonished. There would then be no need of argument to drive men from the law ; they would avoid it as they do consuming fire. There would be no need of argu- ments to persuade men to take refuge in grace : they would snatch at it, and fasten such hold upon it as the drowning man doth upon the lifeboat which hath arrived just in time to save him from the yawning waves. Then would the world know what that word meaneth, " The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." What, then, is to become of that inexorable law .-* and what is to become of us, whom it damneth to the lowest hell .-* Christ, for His part, hath kept the law, and made it honour- able ; but we in weak flesh, what can we do to keep it } Nothing whatsoever. We do but mangle it ; we do but dis- B V REMO VAL OF THE LA W. 221 honour it ; we do but enrage it, and deceive ourselves. Will it not call out against us then ? Yea, and it doth. And Avhat, then, is to be done ? We must die, and see corruption. Our natural man must die, and the law will be satisfied ; for the law hath claims upon the natural man alone. If my concupiscence die, if my covetousness die, if my destructive- ness die, what more would the law ? In one word, if my flesh be crucified, what more would the law ? Now this is what taketh place in every one that believeth in Christ, according to the principle of imputation laid down above ; that, as by Adam came the weakness of the flesh, so by Christ came deliverance from its weakness : or rather, in Christ's death all flesh died, and the law was satisfied. The law bore its spite against sin in flesh : Christ condemned sin in flesh : the law could not do it, Christ did it for the law ; or rather He did it for the Lawgiver, even His Father, of whose holiness the law is the bearing and the pressure upon sinful flesh. As the sin of Adam did not need to be done over again in every person of Adam's kind, but by the principle of imputation death passed upon all men, and the law appeared in due time to shew the abundance of the transgression ; so neither doth the work of righteousness, under the law, need to be done over again : but, being once done in Christ, is for ever done ; and the law being satisfied with Christ, giveth itself up to Christ, and saith. Thou, O man, art worthy to have, to hold, to exer- cise me, thou great Lord of law ! And Christ having become sole proprietor of the law, doth say, in His own right. Stand aside, thou grace-eclipsing law : thou hast had thy time ; and a better time awaiteth thee yet, when my throne of righteous- ness shall be established ; but for the present, be thou con- tent to take thyself out of the way, that the grace of my Father, through me, may shine forth unto the ends of the earth. And now, ye swift messengers, ye gentle ministers of grace, go forth and preach the good tidings of great joy unto all men ; preach the gospel of salvation unto every creature under heaven. This message hath been proclaimed unto the earth since the resurrection ; that men are no longer under the law, that God is gracious, that their sins are forgiven, and that God is love. This is the grace, this 2 22 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : is the peace, which unto men, unto all men, is proclaimed ; and the world is under the law no longer, but under grace. And thus, by one man the law hath been satisfied, and by one man the grace of God hath been revealed from behind the eclipse which the law had brought upon it. For it was but an eclipse, because the promise was before the law, and the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, could not make the promise of none effect. The promise was of grace, and not of merit ; of faith, and not of works. Abraham believed, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham lived under a dispensation under which sin was not imputed. " For," saith the apostle; " sin is not imputed, where there is no law ;" and he quoteth, as applicable to that period, these words of the psalmist, — " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered : blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." If, then, Abraham and his seed until the law came were free from the imputation of sin, by virtue of the promise of Christ, surely much more are we free who live under the gospel of Christ. I say, much more, not in respect of the degree of freedom, but in respect of the clearness with which it is revealed. For, in respect to the substance of the thing, that we have the same with Abraham, he the same with us, is clear, not only from the general reasonings of Paul, in the Romans and in the Galatians, but by two ex- press declarations of the New Testament to that effect. The first in the prophecy of Zacharias, at the circumcision of his son the Baptist, wherein, speaking of Jesus, (Luke i. ^2^ he states, as the end of his mission, " to perform the mercy pro- mised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He sware to our father Abraham." Now that which is remembered hath had a previous existence ; and that which is performed under a covevant hath been pre- viously promised, in the giving of the covenant of promise. The other passage is still more explicit, (Gal. i. 13,) — " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might BY REMOVAL OF THE LA IV. 223 receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." And thus we conclude, that from Abraham until now, the dispensa- tion of grace and imputed righteousness, the dispensation which hath no law, and imputeth no sin, hath been in the world ; that when given unto Abraham, it was given unto him for all nations ; according as it is written in the same Epistle to the Galatians, (chap. iii. 7,) — " The Scripture, fore- seeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying. In thee shall all nations be blessed." The law did not annul that dispensation of grace, but was a safeguard unto it ; to pre- serve the hope, and to define the object of it, and to drive men from self-righteousness into the arms of merciful grace : unto which end the law serveth still, as we have shewn above, or else it will drive men into destruction, and leave them under despair. In this sense, indeed, Christ hath the whips and scourges of the law, and shall use them too, against the day of judgment, which is the law's triumphal and eternal glory. But as to Moses, he is defunct ; and let him rest in his grave. The Son of man is Lord also of the law, which is with Him in better keeping than ever it was with Moses ; for He shall make it tri- umphant in the age to come, when Moses on the one hand, and Elias on the other, shall bear up the glory of the trans- figured world. But, meanwhile, the law being lifted up from present time, and transported unto another age, we have now the gospel of the grace of God proclaimed by the Church unto the wide world. The world is under grace, and is no longer under law. For, as old Luther hath bravely spoken it, " Wherefore if sin afflict thee, and death terrify thee, think that it is, as indeed it is, but an imagination, and a false illusion of the devil ; for in very deed, there is now no sin, no curse, no death, no devil to hurt us any more, for Christ van- quished and abolished all these things." I said above, that the law is fraught with so much wisdom and righteousness as to become an object of adoration to the good feeling of the natural man. But when it thus bristleth with threatenings and terrors against infirm humanity, and will not intermarry with grace or mercy, it doth alienate the 224 THE INCARNA TION—ITS METHOD : affections of the natural man, and become to him the occa- sion of fear and dread. Being taken out of the way therefore as an offence, a deadly offence, to humanity's infirm condi- tion, the question ariseth, And what how is there left for man to pay his reverence and worship unto ? Taking away this fine ideal of everything righteous, good, and perfect, what have you to put in its stead ? Man cannot be without a model according to which to shape himself, and in which to behold that excellence to which he would attain, and do homage. Brethren, this is a question into the resolution of which I shall enter a little ; and, at one and the same time, spite those adorers of Moses, and confound those idle and wicked dreamers about Christ's immortal body, while I in- struct you more perfectly in the method of this great salva- tion. The object, then, which now standeth unto our admiration and homage, instead of the law, is the person of Christ ; who, while He is holy as the law, is tender and pitiful as a brother, and endued with the almightiness of God ; who is so far from irritating the weakness and overwhelming the remorse and compunction of sinful flesh, so far from threatening its every backsliding and transgression with death, that He hath Himself become touched with the fellow-feeling of our infir- mities, being in all points tempted like as we are, hath carried our diseases, and borne our sicknesses, and is the grace of that God of whom the law is the holiness. The person of Christ Jesus, therefore, by right taketh, as by nature He attracteth, the admiration, affection, and homage of sinful flesh. He taketh us by right of being the living law, holy as it is, perfect as it is, admirable as it is. He attracteth us by being a person, a living, moving, breathing person ; bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. He hath purchased us, moreover, by redeeming us from the curse of the law, and pouring into the wounded conscience the oil of joy; and, finally. He demandeth us as very God, as the very grace of God, who in Himself concentrateth all grace, and unto whom God giveth the singular and sole glory of His grace. Com- pared with this person, thus accomplished, with God's grace and man's infirmity, thus recommended by the achievement BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 225 of holiness, in union with most perfect grace and compas- sion, object of fearless love, object of doubtless trust; who that hath a heart to feel, or a mind to understand, will ever speak again in praise, will ever revert again in confidence, to that awful iron-hearted law, which neither knows pity for the fallen, nor shews compassion for the penitent ? Yet true it is, and of verity, that, like the Galatians of old, .we who have received the Spirit, by the hearing of faith, would go back to be perfected by the law. We would believe in Christ, we would possess the Spirit, and, so qualified, pay our homage to the law, which maketh void the work of Christ, and proveth that we have never known the Spirit. Perverseness this, de- basement this, which the Church would not have come to, had she, unto her faith of the Lord's atonement, added the lively faith of His true sympathising humanity, of His merci- ful and faithful high priesthood in the heavens : and from which base pandering to the law, and preferring of Moses above Christ, nothing will ever deliver the Church, but the revival and frequent reiteration of that great truth, which Satan is attempting to bring into question, — that Christ was in very deed consubstantial with the fallen creature, and hath taken up with Him into the heavens the ever-present con- sciousness and sympathy of the conditions and trials of His members upon the earth. The Church hath been so spoiled in its tenderer and nobler parts, by the continual and exclu- sive doctrine of debt and payment, of barter and exchange ; of suffering for suffering, of clearing the account and setting things straight with God ; that she hath lost the relish for dis- course of the brotherly covenant, of the spousal relation, of the consubstantial union betwixt her and the Lord Jesus. She hath lost relish for high discourse concerning the mystery of His person, as God-man ; the beauty, the grace, the excel- lency of that constitution of being which He possessed. Strong as the strongest, even of almighty strength ; weak as the weakest, — of all infirmities conscious ; holy as the holiest, the only holy thing, yet consubstantial with the sinful creatures, sinful in His substance as they, tempted as they, liable to fall as they. The Church likewise, by this profit-and-loss theo- logy, by this divinity of the exchange, hath come to lose the VOL. V. P 2 26 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : relish of that most noble discourse, which treateth of the grandeur and the glory of the risen Christ wielding the sceptre of the heavens, yet, from His peerless height of place, consent- ing to cast His eye perpetually upon the poorest, the meanest, the most deeply tried and overwhelmed of all His people. And now that the Lord has stirred up my mind, and the minds of some others of His servants, to awaken and arouse the Church to thoughts, to loves, to hopes of a higher mood, the servants of the wicked one would come in, and fix her for ever at the level of these low waters, by daring to assert that Jesus our Lord had no such sympathies with the fallen crea- tures, and that the Church may not aspire to such close, spousal, sisterly thoughts of Him. For if, as they dream, and dare to put forth, Christ was other than a fallen man, and never knew the fellowship of our temptations, from the flesh, from the world, from Satan, how can human nature, in its fallen state, go out with confidence and affection, and without fear, to repose herself upon His intercession and mediation ? You say. He hath borne her sin, and therefore made her unspeakably His debtor : you say, our sins were imputed to Him, and He bore them ; He pitied us so much as to bear them ; and therefore we ought to have confidence in Him. Nay, but, thou half reasoner, art thou so ignorant of human nature as not to know that the debt of obligation is not favourable to the growth of love .-* It is love which begetteth love, and love annihilates all distance by condescension, and love rais- eth through all distance the poor one who hath thus been condescended to in love. Knowest thou not, O man, that a king, who keeps his state and distance as a king, yet by his almoner sendeth gifts to the most distressed and needy of his people, doth not expect that they should thereupon cast themselves into his bosom, or take liberties with his royal state .'' They are beholden to him, and they shew it in the reverent distance and lowly humility which they bear before him. And if, as thou sayest, the Son of God, in doing us this bounty, did yet keep the distance and the dignity of an unfallen creature, avoiding by an inestimable distance our devil-haunted and sin-defiled region, flitting amongst us like a shadow, but not inhabiting our tenement at all ; amongst BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 227 us, but not one of us ; then I say, that His bounty conferred, the very magnitude, the very value of it, will only put another impediment and obstruction in the way of that brotherhood, of those espousals, of that fellow-feeling, trust, and confidence, which the soul ought to have towards Him for whom she is called to give up her own high and noble thoughts concern- ing this fair proportioned and authoritative law of God. The soul, instead of coming into melting tenderness towards such a one, will be appalled far away from His inscrutable holiness, and will feel it to be her duty to worship Him at a distance, and to acknowledge Him with fear and trembling. Ah, no : ye half rcasoners, ye are not yet so wise as God, whose method of wooing a fallen creature is far more ex- quisite and far more effectual than yours. You come roughly on, loading her whose affections you would gain with gifts, but all the while keeping in her presence a state whereat she trembleth ; more after the manner of an eastern prince pur- chasing a fair slave, than the manner by which the human soul is won. But God sent His Son to make acquaintance with human kind, upon the lowly level of their condition ; as if that eastern prince should lay aside his crown and sceptre, and dress himself in humble guise, and be a servant to gain the humble maiden whose hand he desireth. So God wisely purposed ; and so Christ wisely, graciously, nobly, divinely performed; speaking of no benefit, though He had given us all ; keeping no state, though He was the Lord of creation. In the lowly level of fallen humanity. He wooed His bride, and thus He won her'love. By the very act, and in the very act of His humiliation unto her estate, He took away the fear of distance and the sense of obligation. But still the load would be too great for love to grow under, exalted as He is now, Potentate of potentates, were it not for the same faculty and power of condescension which abideth in Him still. He is removed away from us, but not by being above the care of us. Only to lift His handmaiden unto the same dignity hath He gone to claim His birthright crown, that He may raise her to the fellowship of the same ; and meanwhile the Spirit is His Messenger, the Spirit is the comforter of His spouse, who cometh not, in the form of infinite God- 2 28 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : head, to overwhelm and consume the faculties of the crea- ture whom He would possess ; nor yet, in the form of perfect and unfallen manhood, to rebuke the fallen creature's weak and sinful condition, but in the form of risen, redeemed man- hood— manhood that once was fallen, but now is risen and redeemed. It is the Spirit of Christ, of the risen Christ, which we receive. Not until He ascended up on high, did Christ receive the Spirit to bestow it upon His Church. It is, therefore, the Spirit of the risen Christ, the triumphant Christ, Christ the vanquisher of sin and death, which we receive ; — a distinct person of the blessed Trinity, condescending from the abso- luteness of His Divinity, to carry on the communication be- tween Christ and His people ; a communication not made by words merely, but by regeneration and the quickening of a new life, in all things consentaneous unto, and defined by, and identical with, the life of Christ. As my natural life is instinct with all Adam's fallen propensities, so is my renewed life instinct with all Christ's risen glories. With the commu- nication of life, therefore, kindred life, unto His own warm, congenial life ; with the inspiration of all divine, pure, and holy affection, with a new heart, with a right mind ; with power from on high, power which sweetly and gently conde- scendeth to all our weaknesses and infirmities, in order to strengthen them, and make us more than conquerors over all our enemies ; with gentle love, which whispereth peace unto our troubled souls, and biddeth its waves to be still ; with wisdom from above, which counselleth our ignorance and our folly, and represseth all our wayward violence ; with good government and righteous lordship, which doth reprove, re- buke, restrain, chastise, and restore us to the paths of right- eousness ; — with these, the forms of redeemed manhood ; with these, the tender respects unto our frailty, and healing treat- ment of our diseases, and restoration of our health, and re- newal of our being after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, doth the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Christ, come forth from the bosom of the risen God-man, to cherish, to revive, to comfort, and to establish the peace, joy, and blessedness of His spouse upon the earth, and to carry /; V RE MO VA L OF THE LAW. 229 on that excellent work of gaining her love, that He may teach her to be obedient and dutiful unto the will of His Father. We say that Christ — first in fallen yet sinless man- hood, and next, in fallen manhood redeemed and risen — doth indeed accomplish a perfect work of winning the heart, taking the admiration, possessing the confidence, and occupying all the soul, of those whom the Father hath given to Him for an inheritance; those whom He purchased unto Himself for an inheritance, those whom the Spirit cleanseth and clotheth, to be unto Him for a chaste and holy spouse. Sublime mystery of love ! O love most excellent, love most glorious ! Blessed indeed are the people who are thus beloved. My soul, rejoice in God thy Saviour. All that is within me bless His holy name, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowncth thee with loving kind- ness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. Now, brethren, this is the object, even this man Jesus Christ, which I have to set before you, over and against that law which our natural man reverenceth so much. — Is the law holy } Christ is also holy, who hath kept the law and made it honourable. Is the law venerable in its antiquity } more venerable is He who was in the beginning with God, who was God. Is the law good, discerning between the good and the evil, and judging righteously, defending the oppressed, upholding the weak } so good is Christ, who shall bring every hidden work of darkness unto light ; who shall judge between the evil and the good, and discern between the just and the unjust, in that day, in that age, in which He will set judgment upon the earth, and establish righteousness among the nations. What is there in the law holy, and just, and good, which is not in Jesus, the Holy, the Just, and the Good } And for the curse of the law, you have the blessing of the promise in Christ ; and for the certain condemnation of the law, you have the certain justification and salvation of Christ. In the law there is righteousness, but there is no mercy : in Christ mercy and truth are met together, right- eousness and peace have kissed each other. In the law there 2 30 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : is no help : but in Christ there is the help of the Holy Ghost. In the law there is no life, but chill cold death : in Christ there is life, more abundant life, everlasting life. In the law, God's holiness in terrible thunderings, and lightnings, and darkness, and a fearful voice is set forth ; and who can abide it .'' which, when the children of Israel heard, they prayed that it might not be spoken unto them any more : but in Christ you have righteousness presented in grace ; the grace of God shining forth in the person of the Holy One and the Just. In the law you have manhood racked, tortured, and slain : in Christ you have the same fallen manhood sancti- fied, beautified, glorified, blessed for ever. And what more shall I say, than that the law is the direful expression of that everlasting contradiction which there is between God and a fallen creature, the impassable gulf which had never been passed, and seemed impassable until Christ came forth, made of a woman, made under the law, who is the expression of God's grace, God's pity, and God's compassion towards the fallen creature, of God's purpose to redeem it, and to set His glory and His strength in it, for ever and for ever. Who, then, that understandeth these things, will prefer the iron-hearted law to the human-hearted Christ ; will set up justification by works, in the stead of justification by faith ; will prefer to live under the law, rather than to live under grace ? But I say unto you, brethren, that if ye, having believed in Christ, and received the Spirit, will yet make the law your measure and your master, ye do dishonour unto these Divine Persons ; ye do bring Christ back from the right hand of the glory, to travail in flesh again. And, instead of prospering in holiness by such an unworthy preposterous course, you will fall away into legality and formality, and live in fear and trembling. If Christ had intended His people to be under the law, as He was Himself, then would He have bestowed upon them the Holy Spirit before He ascended up on high ; the Holy Spirit would have proceeded from the body of His humiliation, and not from the body of His glory. But it is expressly said, that the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Besides, if we had to keep the law over again, there would be no vicari- BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 231 ousncss in the work of Christ. Imputation and atonement would be empty words, if so were that the law had a de- mand upon us still, and that we were, either now to be under its authority, or hereafter judged by its statutes. Christ hath died in vain, if we be still under the law ; or, as Paul saitli, " If we be under the law, we are fallen from grace." Surely, if the first Adam begetteth in his likeness, the Second Adam begetteth in His likeness also : and what is that likeness } The likeness not now of sinful flesh, but of glorious flesh ; the image of God, the image of the invisible God, which Christ was not in His veiled flesh, but which He is in His transcendent glory : and this is distinctly and unequivocally declared, in that passage of Scripture where it is written, that " we are renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness." When, therefore, any legalist will prove to me, that Christ the Father of the regeneration is under the law, I will be- lieve that the children of the regeneration are under the law; but not till then : and I think it will puzzle them to prove that the Lord of all is not Lord of the Ten Commandments also. And yet I know that there are men so ignorant and foolish as to maintain this also, who go about to say, and to affirm, that the law of the Ten Commandments is the epitome, so to speak, of the Divine will, and that God himself is under the obligations of law ; or, as they are pleased to say, that a thing is not right because it is the will of God, but it is the will of God because it is right. Base theologians, and poor philo- sophers ! would you dethrone God also from His sovereignty, and bring Him under the fate, Xhefatiun, of the ancients } Is the Word before God ; or doth the Word proceed from God .'' Doth not the Father generate the Word } Is not the Father alone self-originated '^ I cannot enough wonder that men should so exaggerate as to put the Moral Law into any connexion with God otherwise than as the Giver of it. The object of it is not God ; the object of it is not even unfallen man ; nor hath it anything to do with the regenerated man. The only object of it is the fallen man ; and I say again, what I have often said, it is the perfection of the fallen manhood, and it is no more. And if, as I believe in the age to come. 2 32 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD : men, flesh-and-blood men, shall be constituted under this law, and by the ejection of Satan out of flesh, and out of the world holding of flesh, and through the righteous government of Christ instead thereof, shall be enabled to keep the law ; — if the law, as I believe, shall then become the statute law of the world, still it will only be a form of fallen humanity ; the best form which it can attain unto, but yet not the redeemed, or rather the regenerated form. For still, men will be fallible, and this estate of humanity will end in an apostasy ; so that, from the beginning unto the ending of it, the law of the two stone tables hath nothing to do with the work of the Spirit, hath no authority over the renewed man, who is wholly devoted unto Christ, and acknowledgeth none but He ; and is renewed in the likeness of the risen Christ, or after the image of the risen God, in righteousness and true holiness. Now, it may seem to many a very idle, and to others it may seem a very dangerous thing, thus to assert the believer's independence of any law ; — the former saying, Why take away any safeguard from morality } the latter saying. You teach licentiousness ; — to whom I answer. It is want of faith in you both. The subject which I handle is the most momentous, and lies at the root of all holiness. Doth it serve, O ye objectors, the interests of holiness, or doth it disserve them, to break the law, and to dishonour the law .'' And do ye not daily break it, in thought, word, and deed } And if ye be under it, is it not violated and dishonoured by you ? and where, then, is the holiness of God .■' Can a man, who is familiar with the everyday breaking of the law, have either it or the Lawgiver long in reverence ? And if Christ and the Holy Spirit are to come in and patch up the matter, what a system have we here, but grace fighting with debt, and mercy fighting with justice ; or rather grace and mercy becoming the great indulgence of unholiness .'' I speak not of the dishonour of Christ and of the Holy Ghost in such a scheme, — I speak of the dishonour of the law itself. O ye gainsayers of the truth, ye dishonour the law, and the Law- giver; but we honour the law, we magnify the law and make it honourable. We say it standeth the awful and un- BY REMOVAL OF THE LA IV. 233 stained monument of God's holiness, condemning us, and condemning all. We live not by it ; we die before it : we live only by grace ; we live only by pardon, and from the time forth of receiving our pardon. We do not go and commit the same ofifences over again, which we must needs do, if we were under that law of subjection ; but we receive the Spirit of adoption from the Father, and from the rank of His sub- jects we are admitted unto the honour of His family: from the rank of rebels we pass into the freedom of sons ; and as sons we receive the Spirit of our Father, and through the Spirit do live unto the praise and the glory of Him who hath redeemed, and recovered, and regenerated us. Now be ye judges, whether one possessed of the Spirit, and under the power of love, is more in a condition to sanctify the living God, than one who is under the law, and without the Spirit. But, moreover, if it be true that a man who will live under the law cannot have the Spirit, what a predicament it places you legalists in ! And this now is what Paul expressly de- clareth in the Epistle to the Galatians, (chap. iii. 2-5) : " This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith .-' Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain ? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith }" The only escape which it is possible to make from the cogency of this argument, which we have held upon the removal of the law, is by this question : But if the law be removed, what model or ensample have we by which to walk ? I answer. The model and example of Christ. But they reply, Was not Christ under the law ; and how can He be a model to those that arc not under the law .'' To this question I will reply by explaining a little further the work of the Spirit in the Man Christ Jesus. And this will have the advantage of still further exposing the vile heresy of the immortal and incorruptible body of Christ. For if Christ's human nature were not in like wise constituted, as ours is, then, in addition to all the results above mentioned, 2 34 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD : there must come this also, that the work of the Holy Ghost should not be understood, and should become of secondary, instead of being of primary importance, in the belief of every Christian. And I must confess, that the narrow apprehen- sion of the atonement which prevaileth, and the reducing of the mystery to mere imputation, and I would say, moreover, the mean and meagre views of imputation itself, have brought to pass a very insufficient doctrine on the subject of the Holy Spirit. The work to be accomplished must always be the measure of the power necessary to accomplish it ; and from believing that the work to be accomplished by Christ is merely the bearing of so much inflicted wrath, vengeance, and punishment, it cometh naturally to pass that the need of the Holy Ghost towards the accomplishment of His work is not perceived. The union of the Divine and human nature in itself sufficeth ; — the human nature to suffer the mighty load, the Divine nature to sustain the Sufferer. And besides these, what need of a third principle, and that a person, and a Divine person also .-' Accordingly, the Holy Spirit in the work of Christ is almost or altogether avoided ; which, how- ever, is in several parts of the Acts, and in the 9th chapter of the Hebrews, expressly declared to have been the power in which He performed His mighty works, and offered His blameless sacrifice. This, now, is made much worse by those who suppose He had not such a human nature in all respects as we fallen men have. For to the difficulty, just mentioned, is added this other : how suffering could in any wise reach Him. If so be He was not fallen, or in any middle condition between the fallen and the unfallen, what meaning, or pur- pose, or use there could be for the Holy Ghost unto the per- son composed of the eternal Son and a faultless creature, I cannot for a moment imagine. And the fact is positive and undeniable, that the work of the Spirit in the person of Christ, though formerly a commonplace in divinity, and standing topic of discourse, is no longer either the one or the other ; and being so, I will prophesy that the work of the Holy Ghost must in such a case become a very confused and idle theory ; for whatever is not seen realised in the person of Christ, ceaseth from being a theological reality, and hasten- BY REMOVAL OF THE LA W. 235 eth to become a confused hypothesis. And I have sonie h-ope that this argument which I have been long waging may haply be profitable to enlighten the mind of the Church upon the work of the Spirit also. But to come to the question of our model and example : The work of the Holy Ghost in the human nature of Christ, Irom His conception unto His baptism, was to fulfil all the righteousness of the law; and I think that word which He spake at His baptism, " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all right- eousness," is the amen with which He concluded that great accomplishment. The baptism of John was the isthmus which connected the fulfilment of the law upon the one hand, with the opening of the spiritual and evangelical holiness upon the other : to which our Lord alludes, in these words : " The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence from the baptism of John until now, and the violent take it by force ;" giving them to understand that the baptism of John had initiated into the kingdom, as the baptism of Moses in the cloud, and in the sea, initiated into the law. From the anointing with the Dove, I believe that our Lord entered upon a higher and holier walk than mere law-fulfilling, giving to us the ensample of that spiritual holiness which knoweth no law but the law of liberty ; that is, the will inclined unto the will of God. Therefore it was that our Lord broke the Sabbath without offence ; and touched lepers, and otherwise offended the law ; and therefore, also. He went up to the feasts, or went not up, according to His mind. And many things besides He did, which are all expressed in these two similitudes, of which, when challenged for this neglect, He made use : " No man putteth new wine into old bottles ; no man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment;" signifying that the spirit of His discipleship, of which He was then performing the novitiate, would not piece on to, much less be contained within, the old worn-out commandments of Moses. Besides, the works which He did by the Spirit were the self-same works which the Spirit in the apostles did : and it is continually written, He set us an example that we should follow His steps. Now, it is my conviction, from these and many other grounds which I cannot now enter upon, that our Lord enjoyed, during His 236 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD. public ministry, that measure of the Spirit which His Church was to be endowed with after the resurrection, to the end that His hfe might be the model of every Christian's life who is regenerated with the Holy Ghost. He walked in liberty, He rejoiced in power, He triumphed in victory from the time He received the Spirit after His baptism, until the time He fell, as it were, plumb down from that elevation into the agony of the garden and the abandonment of the cross. Be- fore entering upon which. He was strengthened with that voice out of the heavens, " I have both glorified my name, and I will glorify it again." Then came on that hour and power of darkness of which He said Himself, " Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say .'' Father, save me from this hour } but for this cause came I to this hour : Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." This, I think, brought on the great crisis, and put Him upon His probation to the very uttermost. And now openeth that scene of agony, that ocean of sorrow, concerning which it is not our present purpose to discourse, save to mark it as a grand epoch in the Redeemer's life. It is my conviction that our Lord's life between these two points of time, the de- scending of the Dove, and the bringing of the Greeks unto Him, when that fearful hour began, is truly the great realisation and prototype of the Spirit's work in every regenerate man, in order that his life might not only fulfil the law of Moses, but give the prototype and the example of all spiritual right- eousness. The Father, when His Son had accomplished and fulfilled the law, did bestow upon Him a measure of that resur- rection-life in the Spirit which He himself should afterwards be honoured and privileged to bestow upon the Church. The Father baptized Him with the Holy Ghost, who was after- wards to baptize all the elect children ; and so He became an example unto us, and must have tasted a great enjoyment of His Father's countenance, far above and beyond what He enjoyed before, and in the removal of which I deem the misery of that agony and death to have chiefly consisted. He had the Spirit lifting Him into a high communion with His Father^ to the end of shewing Him the regenerate Church, and what S/N OF THE WORLD. 237 should be the measure of their enjoyment ; and this being accomplished, I say again, He was let plumb down into the former measure of the Spirit, to swim in the tempestuous ocean, which all the elements of moral disorder could raise around Him. Fearful chaos ! awful valley of the shadow of death ! season of the hour and power of darkness ! — Thus have we two measures of the Spirit : the first for law-keeping, to be in lieu of the obedience of those elect ones before, who had beheved on Him under the law, or, as it is written, "for the transgressions that were under the first covenant ;" the second measure of the Spirit being for an ensample unto us of that baptism of the Dove with which we should be baptized. And there is a third measure of the Spirit, which quickened Him in the tomb, with which also our bodies shall be anointed when we shall be quickened in the tomb. — And thus have we the whole mystery of the Holy Ghost realised in the life of Christ. First, the mystery of law-keeping, done for the sake of those that were under the law, but not for us ; secondly, the mystery of the Holy Ghost, which the Church now en- joyeth; and thirdly, the mystery of the Holy Ghost, which shall constitute the New Jerusalem of the risen saints in the millennial kingdom. And thus the work of the Holy Ghost is substantiated and realised in the person of Christ ; is a fact, is a thing upon which faith may be rested by every poor creature of whose substance Christ hath taken a part. And thus is answered the only question which remained against the removal of the law: What model remaineth to us in its stead .'' Christ's life from His baptism to His agony is our model of the liberty and power of the Holy Ghost. And let this sufiice for the subject of the removal of the law. CONCLUSIONS. It may be asked, after this discourse concerning the method of the Incarnation, And what serveth it that Christ should thus have reconciled all flesh unto God, and taken away the middle wall of partition which was between Jew and Gentile, and preached peace unto them which were near, and to them 238 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. which were afar off, seeing that it is only to a chosen and elect portion of the fallen creatures that salvation and blessed- ness, and glory, do eventually come ? Is there not in this method something which is inconsistent with itself, which either makes Christ over-generous to cast away His bounty, or the Father over-stinted to restrain His Spirit ? Hath not some part of the work of Christ been wrought to no effect ? or hath not a promise and hope been held out unto men, larger than the Father purposed to fulfil ? — Not so, by any means. The purpose of the Father is the purpose of the Godhead : the work of Christ is the will of the Father, shewing forth that purpose of the Godhead ; and so also is the work of the Spirit. Though wrought in different persons, it is by the same one absolute will, by the same one substance of God wrought. To eJcplain this matter, I shall now address myself in a few words. I. The purpose of God in creating man, was the manifest- ation and communication of His own glory unto the crea- tures which He had made, or which He was about to make ; and to bring the creature wholly to depend upon Him, and to worship Him. As He was to make it out of nothing. He would have it remember its nothingness in itself, and to ac- knowledge the will, the absolute will, from which it derived its form and blessedness ; to this single end of bringing the creature to apprehend the nothingness of its substance, and the absoluteness of its dependence upon the Divine will, which is the very truth. This, I say, is the great object which God hath in view, and the great consummation unto which He will attain, by His dealings with the creatures. To this end, a fall was ordained, that the creatures might know their own insufficiency, their own emptiness. Then came the law, which as a schoolmaster did instruct the creature in its sinfulness, did bring into vision, and openly shew how far it came short of its own perfection. The law added no iniquity to the creature ; but it brought all its ini- quity clearly to view. As there be certain chemical solutions, with which, if you anoint the skins of ancient parchments whereon no letter now appeareth, straightway the letters, and words, and sentences come up again from the erasure of time, S/N OF THE WORLD. 239 and the oblivion of ages ; even so the law, operating upon the fleshly being of man, did bring to view volumes of sins which were not known to be there, and did load the con- science with a weight of dead works, and shew in the heart an ever-open fountain of wickedness from which men needed to be purged by the blood of Christ, ere ever they could be in fit trim to serve the living God. By the law, therefore, human nature was shewn to be exceeding sinful. The hate- fulness of the creature in the sight of a holy God was estab- lished : the obstinacy of sin, its remediless poison in the flesh, the creature's total helplessness in itself, the creature's total alienation from God, were excellently displayed ; but the law was only an unfulfilled prophecy, a despised statute, an abortive thing, producing no life, but death, until Christ came. It was a definition of what man in the fallen state should be, and would be, yet which none of the myriads that had been was, until Christ came and perfectly fulfilled it. Christ therefore is the rebuke of men ; Christ is the measure of human delinquency ; Christ the Holy One and the Just, sheweth the unholiness and unrighteousness of all besides Himself. — Now behold extremes meet. In Him, in whom mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, the Godhead, taking experience of the fallen manhood by junction and personal union therewith, doth, after seeing, feeling, having its infirmi- ties, freely, fully, for ever discharge them, cancel its sins, and bear away its transgressions. The law, therefore, ends in the removal of law. The imputation of sins ends in the forgiveness of sins ; and unto the creature grace is preached, peace is preached, glad tidings of great joy are proclaimed, which I do now again proclaim unto every one who hears me, saying. Your sins are remitted, your peace is made : be- lieve, be ye saved. Go home, and tell it to your children ; gather your kinsfolk, and tell it unto them : tell it in your villages and towns ; pass the seas, and tell it unto the nations. Let the wide world know it, and the races of men believe it, that their sins are forgiven, their peace made, God gracious, abundant in mercy and truth. This is the gospel which hath now for eighteen hundred 240 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. years, yea, from the beginning, been proclaimed unto the earth. The creature hath known the grace of God to it, whose power and severity it knew heretofore in the law. And yet, behold, how fruitless and unefficacious it hath been ! Who hath believed the report ? Their sound hath gone into all the earth, and their words unto the world's end ; but unto whom have they been welcome, and by whom have they been prized .-' All the Lord required of those that believe in the glad tidings was, that they should be baptized ; and this not for the end of binding them over to be His serfs, or bondsmen, but to bring them to be His sons. All he be- sought was, that they might receive His Son, laden with unspeakable gifts ; and by their baptism signify the same, to the end they might receive power from the Holy Ghost to become the sons of God. No bloody circumcision, no pains and penalties of the law, no burden of ceremonies, no national peculiarities, no local restrictions ; liberty, love, peace, joy, hope, holiness, and whatever else most excellent the soul desireth, whatever else most noble the soul aspireth to, this were they entreated, sued to receive by baptism. This single act, acknowledging God for the good gift of Christ, and hop- ing for the higher gift of the life of Christ by the Holy Ghost, men being entreated unto by the ministers of the gospel, by the labours of the Church, have obstinately rejected for these eighteen hundred years. They have slain the bearers of the good tidings ; they have persecuted the believers in the good tidings ; they have rejected the grace of God ; they have crucified the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame ; they have trampled under foot the blood of the covenant with which they should have been sanctified, and counted it an unholy thing. Tell me now, brethren, if hereby the sinfulness of the fallen creature hath not been awfully illustrated, beyond measure augmented, magnified, until it is become almost unpardon- able. What a thing, what an unheard-of thing, that the great God should thus condescend unto His creatures in love immense, and His creatures reject His unspeakable gift ! The world is drenched in guilt ; the red waters of its guilt flow up unto the very lip, and in a few, few instants shall SIN OF THE WORLD. 241 ovenvhelm its life. In blood, in a deluge of blood, its height of hope shall be drowned, its star of hope quenched : the day is far spent, the night is at hand. The night cometh, and likewise the morning. If the law did bring out the letters of guilt which had sunk beneath the surface, and escaped the knowledge of mankind, then the gospel hath made these letters to burn like fire, which shall consume to the lowest hell ; to flame like the bale-light which, flaming from afar, betokens woe and misery to the land. Oh the guilt, oh the misery of the nations which have rejected the gospel ! Truly, very truly, is it written, " This is the con- demnation, that light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, their deeds being evil." Ay, ay, this indeed is the condemnation, that we sin against the Father and the Son ; the gracious Father, the crucified and risen Son. This is the world's doom, that she hath refused, rejected, and sinned against the Holy Ghost, testifying in Jesus, and in the Church. It is not a vain thing, therefore, that Christ hath tasted death for every man ; it is a part of God's great scheme, consistent therewith, yea, the crowning thereof, to shew forth the sinfulness of the creature in all possible advantages in which it could be placed, — to prove that when it was created good, it would not obey the slightest command ; that when it fell, it would not receive the com- pletest redemption, the largest grace. Inveterate purpose of sinning ! Not a habit, but a law ; not an accident, but an essence ; the very being, the very essence, the unalterable law of the creature, proving that as it came out of nothing, it hath nothing, it can do nothing, it is void and empty ; and therefore if it should ever be brought to something, it must be brought thither and maintained there by the eternal and all-sufficient power of God. And thus is the great truth in the way of being proved, that the creature came out of abso- lute nothingness ; is absolutely nothing in itself, and hath its being, hath its something, whatever it be, only from the all- sustaining and absolute will of God. But this is not all : there is yet a deeper view of the question which we now go to inquire into. 2. Besides this object, which the Creator had in His mind, VOL. V. Q 242 THE INCARNA TION—ITS ME THOD. of making the insufficiency and inability of the creature to appear, there is another, which is, to make His own power to appear; His own power and goodness in delivering the creature from its own nothingness and sinfulness, into the estate of regeneration, power, and glory, where it may know, feel, and possess some portion of His own blessedness. And to this part of the purpose the former is but subservient. Historically, monumentally, and eternally to establish the nothingness and vileness of the creature, by its successive plunges out of light into darkness, until it reach the very base of being in the second death, is only to the end of shewing, by the negative, more effectually this affirmative. That the power, and efficiency, and glory, and blessedness unto which He should bring the creature, are not due unto itself, but due only unto Him the Creator. Therefore parallel and alongside with, yea, and in the very midst of this great historical demonstration of the creature's sinfulness and weakness, we have continually proceeding a demonstra- tion of the Creator's power, to transcend all these base propensities, and to surmount all these difficulties, insuper- able save to Himself, and to make, out of such emptiness, ful- ness to come forth ; out of such wickedness, holiness ; out of such enmity, love ; out of such frailty, infallible strength. This is the demonstration of electing love, and constitutes election as indispensable a part of the great mystery of God as is the sinfulness of the creature. These elect persons, in whom God prevaileth against the natural man's obstinate aversions, constitute the Church ; and their souls are now gathering unto Christ, in the New Jerusalem, which is above. These being upon the earth, are a distinct and separate people from the rest ; having in them, and upon them, a pur- pose of God, which the others have neither in them nor upon them. They are written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. They were the Father's wit- nesses unto a coming Christ, until He came : and now they are the Father's witnesses of a living Christ, of a risen Christ, of a reigning Christ, of a Christ yet about to come. Demon- strations are they of the Trinity, of the Father's will above the creature's will, of the Son's revival and resurrection of the S/N OF THE CHURCH. 243 creature by personal union thereunto ; of the Holy Ghost's ability to do this work of revival and regeneration in other creatures besides Christ. Thus are they not mere word-of- mouth witnesses, but witnesses in life, living witnesses, wit- nesses by their being, of that great truth that God is three per- sons in one substance. Now, that this election might be known unto men, as a great original principle of the purpose of God, it is not merely written in a book, as our word-idolaters teach ; but it is embodied in a living, moving, continued chain of persons, who, beginning from the Fall, shall preserve onward the continuity of the election, until they stand in immutable and infallible glory, to be used by the Creator in the effecting of His still unaccomplished purpose, whatever it may be. This co-fraternity of elected ones, this communion of saints, took an outward symbol, received an outward symbol and definition, in the person of Abraham, the friend of God ; from which time until this present, they have continued defined and separated by an outward symbol, first of circumcision, and then of baptism, unto this day. Unto this end therefore, I say, the Church is embodied, even unto the end of enjoying all the blessedness of God's electing love, and testifying, in the midst of the world, unto that goodness and power of God which riseth strong and sublime above all let and hindrance, and accomplisheth God-like purposes and God-like acts, by means of the empty nothingness of creature-substance, by means of the violent aversions, and ungodly propensities, and Antichristian determinations of creature-substance. Now, as God's purpose is essentially one and indivisible, like Himself, though for the convenience of discourse we must handle it under several parts, this power of election is given, not here and there, but everywhere, in the midst and in the duration of the creature's being : and, in like manner, the down-draw- ing powers of the creature are proved not here and there, but everywhere in the midst and in the duration of the creature. Therefore it is necessary to the unity of the Divine purpose, and to the demonstration of its pervading omnipresence, that the election should be gathered out of all kindreds, and nations, and tongues, and peoples ; and moreover, it is in like manner necessary, that in the election 244 'THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. itself there should be an invisibility, an impenetrable secrecy, a hiddenness, beyond the research, and utterly defying the discovery, of man, to the end it may not be possible to de- scribe a bound or limit, whether physical or metaphysical, within which the election is contained. For if that bound could be described, then most clear and manifest it is, that the rest would be excluded ; and so God's upholding and sustaining power would only be proved over a part of His handiwork, and not over the whole. But, by means of the invisibility, that which is only a part hath yet given to it the faculty of proving, for the whole, the mighty power of God to sustain and uphold the creature, so that no creature, defined by any conditions whatever, should be able to say, " God can- not uphold me : I am beyond the province of electing power. My wickedness, my infirmity, is greater than God can over- come/' To prevent such a fell conclusion, it is that the election or true Church is essentially invisible, and must continue so until the time be arrived for some great manifestation and demonstration of the Divine power, after another kind and manner than that of election. Now, if the election must be invisible, God, when He gives to it a symbol, such as circum- cision and baptism, must necessarily admit within the pale thereof, reprobate as well as elect ones ; for if only elect ones were admitted within the pale, then they would at once be- come visible, have a definite place, a definite number, a defi- nite form ; and so exclude all beyond that place, number, and form, from the action of God's power and love. It is to this intermingling of the election and reprobation in the Church, I Avould call your attention, as being the second great method by which God unfolds the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and which makes the sin of the Church of a deeper dye than the sin of the outward world ; for I do believe that to this end the Church was made visible, and all the evils of a visible Church permitted, in order that men might be proved capable of sinning against the Holy Ghost, as well as of sinning against the Son. The Church, by which I mean the glorified Head and the members, invisible as well as visible, — the Church is the fulness of the Holy Ghost : the Church is a greater mys- S/iV OF THE CHURCH. 245 tery of God's power than the incarnation. The incarnation shewed the power of God in flesh, when personally united unto the Son. The Church sheweth the power of God in flesh, not personally united unto His Son, but only mystically united with Him. The flesh in Christ never sinned, though ever passive and pervious unto temptation of all kinds ; but our flesh ever sinneth, and is burdened with an incredible amount of sinfulness, of actual sinfulness ; habits innumer- able, hardness impenetrable, enmity insurmountable is there in every man, at the time at which electing love begins to ex- hibit an irresistible almighty power against all these enor- mities and excesses of the sinful creature. Wherefore, I say again, the work of the Spirit in the Church is a mightier work than in the incarnation of Christ. The former is the forthshewing of God's good pleasure in His Son ; the latter was the forthshewing of His anger against His Son. The former is the putting forth of the power of the Son in His immortal body; the latter was the putting forth of His power in a mortal body. The former is that mighty working of the Spirit which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead ; the latter was the working of the same Spirit, when He created a holy thing out of an unholy, and supported a holy thing against unholy conditions. In one word, the Church is the demonstration of the Father's electing love, of Christ's mighty power to do God's will, God's work, God's pleasure by the vile impotent creature. The incarnation is only God's power to destroy the enmity between Himself and the creature, and put the creature upon the footing of grace, favour, forgiveness of sin ; to cast Satan out of it ; to withhold sin from mastering it : and to reveal Christ the Lord of it, the Redeemer of it, the Defender gf it : and to place it through Christ, in the equipoise of its own inclination ; and so to shew forth the native abhorrence and disinclination which it hath to God, even when He is mani- fested as a Father, as a forgiving, gracious Father. But the Church riseth much higher than this equipoise, and hath the counterpoise of God's almighty power and efiicacy to do in it, and for it, the mighty works of His good pleasure. Being so, therefore, that the Church is this fuller vessel of God's power, 246 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. even the fulness of Him that filleth all in all ; the fruit of the Father's love, the power of the Son's endless life, the work of the Holy Ghost : whoso sinneth against the Church doth sin a greater sin than doth he that sinneth against the preached gospel only. This is a point which many of my dear brethren cannot understand ; but which, by the blessing of God, I hope this discourse may convince them of I mean those beloved brethren who see the freeness of the gospel, and the guilt incurred by rejecting it : but who see not the fulness of the Church, and the guilt of sinning against its holy ordinances. Such brethren are fit for missionaries ; but they have to learn the higher profession of a minister of the Church, of the established ministers of a Christian state, and a baptized people. They preach not up to the measure of the people's privileges as an election ; they preach not down to the depths of the people's sinfulness, as sinning against the peculiar life, love, and holiness of the election. They see the sin against the Son of man, but the sin against the Holy Ghost they see not, they weigh not, they reprove not : yet is it this, and nothing else, which the apostle alludeth to in the 6th and the lOth chapters of the Hebrews, and which Peter alludeth to in the 2d chapter of his Second Epistle. But why refer to passages in Scripture, when all Scripture and all providence beareth out the greater guilt and heavier judg- ments of a people in covenant .'' This is what makes the sin of Babylon so much more awful than the sin of the world ; so that the beast and the false prophet feel the anguish of the burning lake, one thousand years before the rest of the world, — yea, one thousand years before the devil him- self. The Jews sinned not this sin against the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost was not yet given, and therefore by stripes can their sin be remitted. The un- baptized world, that rejected Christ, shall in a deluge of blood be drenched, and come out from her fearful bap- tism more beautiful than ever; but the Church, the adul- terous Popery, and the gainsaying infidel Protestantism, all who have rebelled against the baptized Church, and refused the Spirit-filled ordinances, go down quick into the pit, and welter in the lake of fire which shall never be quenched, ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 247 during the season that Satan abideth in the bottomless pit, during the season that the nations which are saved walk in the light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into the gates of the resurrection city. But, woe is me ! who perceiveth this the greater wickedness of the Church ? who warneth her of this her heavier doom ? Are we ministers then ? No, the servant of a house understand- eth the laws of that house, and in his service observeth them and setteth them forth ; but the ministers of the Church know not the difference between the world and the Church ; and how then can they set it forth ? This is what I mean, when I preach so much of baptism ; when I preach so much of the apostasy ; and I give God thanks that you, at least, have attained unto the understanding thereof; and I pray you to be diligent in the meditation of this our greater responsibility, and to entreat the Church, and by all means set ourselves, to contend against the ignorance of this our heavier account, which pertaineth to us as a Church. Now, by permitting this reprobation in the midst of the election, sin is shewn to be of a deeper dye than by any other means it could have been proved to be. The sin against the Holy Ghost is established, the sin, not only against the incarnate, but against the risen Christ ; the sin against the Father's love, and the Father's strength ; that sin passing forgiveness, that sin passing remission ; whose deep- est, blackest, vilest spot the blood of Christ cannot cleanse ; whose weight and misery of eternal woe the goodness of God will not through eternity remove. What an awful thought ! so awful is the sin, the hideous, enormous sin, under which Christendom now groans ; with the wrath of which the heaven is now frowning, for the beginning of the judgment of which the dark portentous clouds are gathering, whose presence I feel in the obstinacy and infidelity of the times ; and oh, let me speak the truth, — whose influences I feel every day in my own wicked heart ! God deliver me, God deliver my people, whom He hath instructed me to warn. God bring out an election from the midst of us, and in us shew the pillars and foundation, which nothing can shake, and which nothing can remove. With this prayer, with this 248 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. earnest prayer for you all, I dismiss this second head of con- clusions— namely, the greater sinfulness which is shewn forth by a constituted Church, over and above that which is shewn forth by an evangelised but unbaptized world. 3. But I cannot conclude such a weighty discourse with- out a word of opening into every soul, touching the freeness of their door of entrance into the election. That the gift is to be communicated to a part only of the human race is evi- dent, as well from the fact as from the language of Scripture, and the continual doctrine of the Church ; Universalism hav- ing always been regarded as a most damnable heresy. Now, this limitation doth not stand in the thing itself which Christ did : Christ's work is as capable of being applied to the whole as to a part : and in fact, so far as title of Lord- ship is concerned, it doth apply unto the whole. In Christ all shall be made alive ; by Christ all shall be judged, and this because He is the Son of man ; but in Christ all shall not be saved, but only a chosen portion. Now, the thing which men search into is. What is the cause, and what gives the limitation unto the saved portion } And the answer is in Christ's own words frequently repeated : " All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out," (John vi. 37.) And again, verse 39 : " This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." And again, verse 44 : " No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." And again, verse 45 : " Every man therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." It is a thing, there- fore, at no rate to be doubted, but unto the death to be main- tained, that the Father hath reserved in His own personal propriety, the measure and extent unto which He will make that redemption to go, which Christ hath wrought out equally and alike for the whole created substance ; whereby Christ's work is put under subjection to the Father's will, which may extend the benefits of it to whom He pleaseth, to all, if so He had pleased. The election of the Father, therefore, taketh place in Jesus Christ ; that is to say, not one could have been ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 249 elected, but in virtue of the redemption of Christ for sin, both appointed, and, as we say, contracted for by covenant. Yet at the same time, while the Father doth thus preserve and glorify His own holiness, and shew forth all righteousness as in His Son contained, and from His Son proceeding, and so constitutes Him the Head of the Church, and the Lord of all ; He doth reserve unto His own unrevealed will the ex- tension of that righteousness which in Christ is stored up, unto as many as He pleaseth, unto no one if He pleaseth. The glory of His creative and redemptive power would have been shewn forth in the act of redeeming that portion of the created substance which Christ had assumed into His own personality ; but the glory of His grace would not thus have been manifested, if, without applying the benefit unto another creature. He had merely lifted up Christ, and in Him reigned and ruled over all. To shew forth His grace, therefore, in great magnificence, He, according to the good pleasure of His will, according to the riches of His grace, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, (Eph. i.,) did graciously resolve to apply the benefits of Christ's death unto a chosen portion of the human race. But reserv- ing, in the mystery of His own unrevealed and incomprehen- sible essence, the number and the individual persons of the elect. He instituted the ministry of reconciliation which we fill, and commanded it to be preached unto every creature : "That God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." But while we preach reconciliation accomplished be- tween God and a wicked world, and shew forth the wonders of God's love and mercy in the humiliation of His Son ; we preach this, not as the complete message of God, which is able to perfect the salvation of a sinner, because we declare, at the same time, that no one can come unto Christ, except the Father which hath sent Christ draw him. We preach the reconciliation in Christ, as mankind's free passage and safe conduct unto the Father. We preach Christ's reconcilia- tion as the removal of all lets and hindrances which stood 2 50 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD. between God and man, in consequence of sin. And so we bring the guilty conscience to be disburdened of its guilt, and the countenance of God to be cleared from its clouds and wrathful frowns. To the sinner Christ bringeth peace ; God He presenteth as full of grace ; and so, my brethren, the re- conciliation being preached, as done for the behoof of man- kind in general, mankind in general are visited with the glad tidings, and left without excuse, if they draw not near to a reconciled God. This, our ministry being accomplished, and you believing the same, it remaineth then for you, through Christ's mediation, to transact with God ; and, when your spirit invisible doth with the invisible God transact, through the mediation of Christ, we are ta,ught to declare unto you, that God will manifest Himself in your souls in a way which no tongue can tell of Then beginneth the true work of effectual calling, regeneration, sanctification, and the new life, when the soul, believing to have found redemption in Christ, doth cast itself upon God, and doth receive unto itself the manifestations of His love. But this is an invisible being, a spiritual work. It is a life hid with Christ in God : it is foolishness unto the world, enthusiasm, empiricism, fanati- cism, whereof some of the outward manifestations are to be seen in the subjection of the flesh, and the cessation of its works ; but whereof the glorious fulness is known only to the soul, which is conscious thereof This is that which flows from the Father's fountain-will, directly into the soul of a believer in Christ the Redeemer, and a believing observer of the ordinances of Christ, the great Head and High Priest of the Church. Unto the edge of this surpassing blessedness and immortal glory Christ bringeth you all ; and saith unto you by our mouth, Pass over, pass over into the enjoyment of God, the Invisible and Incomprehensible. Commit your- self to Him — commit yourself to Him in faith, and fearlessly. See what He hath done for you by Me: let that be your warrant to trust Him for the rest. Pass onward, pass forward into the absolute and unrevealed will of God. And thus all the virtue of Christ's work, and all the virtue of the preach- ing of it, amounteth unto this, of shewing the intelligent creation what grace there is in God, and counteracting all ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 25 i murmurlngs which might have come from the inheritance of a fallen nature ; yea, not only counteracting, but through the Fall presenting the universal grace of God in His Son, and there leaving us suspended upon that gracious will, that absolute will of God in Christ, revealed to be gra- cious. The end of the revealed Godhead is to draw us to worship, and to have intercourse with, the unrevealed Godhead. The revealed Godhead standing in the person of the Son, being, verily, no more than God's appeal unto the comprehension of His creatures, unto that part of His crea- ture man which holdeth of the visible, in order that the spiritual part, which holdeth not of the visible, may have to do with the unrevealed Godhead standing hidden in the per- son of the Father. And redemption endcth where election beginneth. Redemption is no more than the porch which introduceth unto the temple of election. It appertaineth, therefore, unto the Father, and to Him alone, to seal a soul which Christ hath redeemed. Having made known unto you these two great truths, how Christ's reconciliation between your sinful substance and the Godhead hath been produced ; and that this the Father hath done in order to bring you unto the acknowledgment of His right and sovereignty in you ; I leave you there to transact for yourselves with the Father. It is vain to ask how the election of the Father proceedeth. If I could tell how, if it depended on any conditions Avhich man can apprehend, then the very end of it would be destroyed : it would come under the visible, the comprehensible, the revealed ; under which, if all were brought that concerneth us, then I ask, what would remain to bind us to the invisible .-' The redemption is com- prehensible and visible, and applicable in common, to the very end that the election may be invisible, incomprehen- sible, and revealed only to the person of the individual. With the same diligence with which we preach the redemp- tion to be the common privilege of mankind, we preach the election to be the special communication of the Father unto individual souls : and this is religion, this is godliness, even such communication and intercourse between the spirit and the Father of spirits. Revelation is not religion, but revela- 2 52 THE INC A RNA TION—ITS ME THOD. tion is unto religion. The Church is not salvation, but the Church is unto salvation. To the end, therefore, of hanging and suspending the whole creation from His will, through the mediation of Christ, the Father hath limited the salvation unto a portion of mankind, while He hath made the recon- ciliation common to them all. If He had made the salvation likewise universal, then there would have been nothing left with Himself: the creature would have ascribed its salvation unto the revealed Godhead alone, and would never have known nor acknowledged an unrevealed Godhead, which is the beginning and the end of all worship. But, as it now is, we know God in Christ, and knowing what is revealed in Him, we commit ourselves to Him in faith ; and through faith we receive from the trusted Father the seal of the Holy Ghost. Redemption, therefore, by Christ, — I say it again, redemption by Christ is only the stepping-stone unto faith in the electing Father ; and through that faith in one unknown, at least in that part of His will which is unknown, through such honour of the invisible Godhead we receive the seal of the Holy Ghost, or the impartation and communication of the gift which the Father hath kept in His own power. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the communication to the individual of the electing love of God, unto his soul in parti- cular, as the work of Christ in flesh is the gift of reconcilia- tion unto the world in general. The work of the Spirit is not the mere reconciliation ; but it is that which God thereto addeth of His special and electing grace ; the fruit of pure faith in the unrevealed will of God. The work of Christ holdeth as much of knowledge as it doth of faith : I mean the work which He wrought in the flesh, and which is re- corded in the word of God. This must be known before it can be revealed. It is faith resting upon knowledge. But the faith which is followed by the gift of the Holy Ghost is a faith wholly upon the invisible. It is the faith of a promise, and, to all human appearance, an impossibility that God can create in us a new nature, diverse from and opposite to the old. This is the work which gives individuality and per- sonality to a man. This is the work which exalts and digni- fies a man — a work unto which no other man can help him — ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 253 and I may say, not the whole Church, nor the written word, nor Christ the crucified, but the Father only. And in this way, all Christ's work in the flesh doth but honour the in- visible Father the more, bringing all the benefits of His passion and death to weigh and poise the world back into its places of dependency from the visible throne. Christ in the flesh is the great example of faith upon the invisible Father, as He is likewise the great example of faith rewarded with the fulness of the Holy Ghost. He lived by faith, even as we do live by faith. Now, because Christ did thus glorify the Father, and, wherever His gospel is proclaimed, doth glorify the Father : therefore the Father glorifieth Christ, the risen Christ, the ruling Christ, by giving unto Him power to communicate of His victory over the devil, the world, and the flesh, unto as many as the Father pleaseth, unto all those who, receiving the reconciliation at the hands of the Peace- maker, having the faith of the promise, cast themselves upon the gracious Father. " To them that received him, gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; which are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The invisible Father, I say, doth glorify His risen Son, doth glorify the manhood of His risen Son, by appointing and ordaining that the regeneration, sanctification, and salvation of His elect ones should proceed through the risen man Jesus Christ, unto and upon all who believe in the reconciliation wrought in Jesus Christ while tabernacling in flesh, and wrestling with its infirmities. Therefore is Christ the Head of the Church by power communicated to Him at His resurrection, as He is Head of the creation by virtue of His holy life, meritori- ous death, and incorrupt resurrection. All that the Father hath given unto Him He feedeth with a rod of love, and bringeth with a rod of power out of the prison-house of the grave. And how, then, doth Christ communicate of this power which He hath received .-' Doth He do over again in our flesh what He did in His own } No verily. His own flesh He sanctified, ours He doth never sanctify until the resurrec- tion. Sin never dwelt in His flesh so as to prevail over the holiness which was in Him. But this cannot be said of men ; 254 T^HE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. no, not of the greatest saints ; in whom there is an original and an actual sin, for which they shall see corruption. What is it, then, which Christ bestoweth ? As Adam did not communicate unto Cain his unfallen, but his fallen like- ness, so doth Christ not communicate unto His children the likeness of His humility, but the likeness of His power. He regenerateth not by power antecedent, but posterior, to His resurrection. The new man, therefore, is after the likeness of the risen Christ, inheritor of His joy, of His power, and of His glory. And thus the regenerate have a double image : in the flesh, bearing the image of the earthly ; in the spirit, bearing the Spirit of the heavenly Adam ; — as to the former, holding of the curse ; as to the latter, holding of the blessing ; — as to the former, holding of the cross ; as to the latter, holding of the resurrection. But because Christ is greater than all, and because He is ruling in the Church for the Father, we know that the child of Christ, which is born by regeneration of the Holy Ghost in us, is stronger and mightier, and able to subdue and subject the child of Adam, which we have by generation, though upholden by the devil, the world, and the flesh. — Christ's life in the flesh was a life of law-keep- ing ; and because He kept the law. He arose into a life which knoweth no law, but is of all things the living law ; and of this life it is that He doth communicate unto us. The Holy Spirit, taking possession of us, and making His habitation in us, doth reveal unto us power from on high ; whereby we are able to put to death the rebel flesh, and so be done Avith the condemning law : for when the flesh is dead, the law hath no more to say. The executioner is satisfied, when the traitor is lying dead at his feet. And thus the Spirit of Christ doth satisfy the law, and make it honourable, by quelling and kill- ing the guilty body of sin and death. This is the way that Christ makes the law honourable in us now, by putting down and suppressing that rebel flesh which ever riseth in mutiny against the law : and there the law standeth in its iron-crested pride, satisfied the meanwhile to have made clean work with the rebels, but awaiting still the higher satisfaction of serving God as the rule of flesh and blood, the guide, the blessing thereof; no longer its oppressor, its imprisoner, and its mur- ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 255 derer. This was not the condition of Christ's flesh, which the Spirit enabled to keep the law, and to fulfil all righteousness : so that, though obnoxious to sin, it never sinned ; and though obnoxious to death, like other flesh, it did not sec corruption, which is the work of death. As sin tried Him always, but could prevail over Him never, the Spirit ever enabling His soul to reject it ; so death took Him, but could not prevail over Him that He should sec corruption, the Spirit inter- posing and raising Him to see glory. But we both sin with our flesh, and our flesh, so long as it liveth, cannot cease from sin ; and when we die, our flesh shall see corruption, be- cause it hath sinned. The only possibility of righteousness, therefore, in this fallen, sinful creature, is by a premature death, so to speak ; and this is what the Spirit accomplish- eth, enabling us, as it were, with our own hand to slay, not our child, but our very self; and in slaying ourself to slay our children also, so that they shall be born holy, and baptized as it were in our baptism. Mystery most profound, mystery most fruitful, which hath been to me the consolation of many unknown and unutterable wringings of the heart ! This power which Christ hath to change the very being of the living man, and as it were to strike a mighty power to the extremities of the living flesh, is shewn unto us by the tri- umphant debate which He made with the powers camped in His flesh, and waging war therein; paralysing them, defeating them, destroying them ; and, being so, what remaineth that He cannot do } Is He not able, is He not much more able, being glorified, to beat back, and astonish, and freeze into death, those powers of the devil, the world, and the flesh, that are camped in you and me ? Verily, verily, as He hath suf- fered in the flesh Himself, He can arm us with the same mind, that we, suffering in the flesh, may cease from sin. So can He bring us into death, as He brought Himself into death ; and so are we crucified with Him. And we are buried with Him ; and so our bodies, which could not be united with Him in this life, are united with Him by death, and rest in this grave until the resurrection. But this mortification of the old man, this putting oft" of his corruptions and lusts, is not the whole of the Spirit's work, proceeding from the risen Christ. 256 THE INCARNATION— ITS METHOD. Yea, I may say, it is only the preparation for His work, only the death and burial unto a resurrection ; for we rise with Christ to newness of life, we are planted in the likeness of His death, only that we may be in the likeness of His resurrec- tion. The body, every member of the body, is not only separated from being the members of the harlot flesh, but is betrothed and wedded unto the risen body of Christ. There- fore the Spirit killeth only to make alive. If He sendeth the chill touch of death throughout the bounds of flesh and blood, it is but that He may send the touch of life through the bounds of flesh and blood. He begetteth a life from the dead, in every regenerate man ; and where His work is, there is not only the agonies of dying flesh, and the shudder of death, but there is the thrill of life, of immortal life, and the power of an irresistible holiness, and the security of an invio- lable peace, and the brightness of an indestructible joy. This change in the spirit of our mind, this prevalency of the risen powers of creation in Christ's hand, wielded over the powers of the fallen creation, resting still in Satan's withered hand, is the manifestation of the Father's electing love, in the heart of every chosen one. And can the man, who this possesseth, be ignorant that he possesseth it .'' and must he go and try its measure by the Ten Commandments .-• Out upon such an idle tale ! The man who hath received this baptism of the Holy Ghost, is a man invested with the holiness of a priest, and with the power of a king, and with the knowledge of a prophet. Light is the habitation of his soul; he dwelleth in light; he is in the light. He is holy, as saith the apostle, and cannot sin be- cause he is born of God. The flesh, by reason of unbelief and traffic with the law, may awake and sin, yea, and attain unto such a prurient lustfulness, as that it may be necessary for the Church to give such a one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord : and such a one may be brought into deep waters ; and great straits, and doubts, and perplexities may beset him round ; but whence are these doubts t from the devil. And why hath the devil power against him } Because he believeth not that Christ hath bruised his head. How shall such a one be delivered .■' By doing for him what I have ELECTION NO HINDRANCE. 257 now been attempting; even by shewing him the common reconcihation, and so leading him onwards into the know- ledge, or rather the mystery, of God's election, and of the Spirit's procession through Christ to work in him the death unto sin, and the resurrection unto holiness. VOL. V. IV. THE PREPARATION FOR, AND THE VERY ACT OF, THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. John i. 14. And the Word ivas made flesh. "PXEARLY beloved brethren, from what I have taught you "^'^ of late, that the humiliation of Christ in the flesh is only a part of the revelation of the WORD OF GOD ; and, as it were, one scene in the great act of the Son, who devoted Himself from everlasting to the work of manifesting the grace of God, by taking upon Him the nature of fallen sin- ners ; I would not have you to infer that I do thereby under- value the veiled and suffering humanity of the Lord, as a most necessary part in that whole, to the comprehension of which I would endeavour to enlarge your mind. The mani- festation of the Son of God in flesh fulfilled all that went before in the promises and revelations of God, and prepared the way for all that followed after ; but it was not that which went before, nor was it that which followed after. The cove- nant with Abraham is something, and the Mosaic economy is something, and the present dispensation of the Spirit is some- thing, and the glorious age that is to come is something ; each bearing relations most important to, and mainly depend- ing upon, the humiliation and fleshly tabernacle of Christ; incomplete without it, and to be diligently studied in con- nexion therewith, but not to be set aside nor superseded by the single contemplation of that mystery which is only a stage in the great progression of the world's redemption. Christ in flesh embodied in Himself, and personified, every rite and ordinance, type and symbol, of the former dispensation, which ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 259 stood in carnal observances. His human soul was the living law, His body was the living temple, His flesh was the living sacrifice, which when He offered upon the cross the law was fulfilled, the sacredness of the temple was profaned, the sin- offering was made to cease, and the former dispensation had attained its end of righteousness, and was finished, as having completed the purpose of God in its construction. The Jeru- salem on earth had served her purpose when she had brought forth Christ. She was His mother, according to the flesh ; and having rejected the holy child Jesus, in whom she held all the promises, and out of whom she had no title to any, the least, privilege, she was cast out, and hath continued vagabond since, without king, or priest, or sceptre, or land, or settled habitation. And this is one great end of the incar- nation, to complete the fleshly temple, which was then begin- ning and building up of Christ, and of which Christ was the chief corner-stone, as He is also to b^ brought out, with strength, as the chief corner-stone of the spiritual temple, which at present is building up. The ceremonial part of the former dispensation, was, as it were, the rudiments of the body of Christ, which is the reality of it all, even as His glorious presence in the future dispen- sation will be the reality of all that we now believe and hope for in the Spirit. — The temple, in all its parts, was but the symbol of His holy human nature ; and the word of Jehovah who dwelt in the temple, and gave His oracles there, was but the presentiment of the fulness of the Godhead which was to dwell in Him bodily. — The common court of Israel, where the nation might assemble, and in whose precincts the daily sacrifice was offered, with its morning and evening prayer, was the emblem of that communion and converse which He carried on in the presence of all the Jewish people (for He was " a minister of the circumcision ") who came to Him, in the days of His flesh, offering their prayers for every want, affliction, and distress, which He remedied ; and in whose sight, also. He offered the paschal lamb, the great atonement- sacrifice, which for ever perfected all that are sanctified. — The holy place, in which was the candlestick and the shewbread, the two great symbols of light and life, was the emblem of 2 6o THE INCARNATION: that more close and internal converse to which He admitted His faithful disciples and elected ones, " the royal priesthood and people, for a possession," with whom almost every dis- course He held, as it is recorded in John, doth proceed upon His office as the light "and life of man. — And for the holiest of all, which was the abode of the Godhead ; into this mys- terious part of His being, His Divinity, few of His disciples were able to enter, until His flesh had been rent, which so far from being the revelation, was the veil before the most holy, which needed to be rent in twain upon the cross, that by the Spirit we might enter into the Divinity of Christ, which is the abode of the Father, and our abode through faith ; through which veil the apostles had occasional glimpses, yet could they not wholly penetrate the mystery, until the Spirit was given ; for which reason it was needful that He should go away. And, dear brethren, it seemeth good to me to warn you, that at this time the clear insight into His Divinity appears to be departing from the Church, whereof they hold not the high discourse, nor shew the deep and full conviction, which gave such glory to the days of other times. — And, finally, to complete this emblem of, and preparation for, the incarnation ; as there was a court for the Gentiles, where they might behold, though at a distance, and witness the going in and out, and hear as it were the rumour of the holy things, so our Lord might not, while incarnate, nor His ministers, profane the children's bread, by giving it unto the dogs, though He refused not to feed them with the crumbs, and to encourage them with the hope of a speedy admission into the holiest place. So that our Lord's flesh was the true temple, the pure and holy temple : as He said, the first time He was revealed unto the people, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again ; speak- ing of the temple of his body." And in this, I think, consists a great use of the incarnation, — to interpret the former wor- ship, and realise all its shadows ; to fill with meaning all its words, and all its ordinances with power. In this sense the incarnation was the perfection and accomplishment of religion to the Jew; but to the Christian, in this sense, it is of a very secondary use; because upon the cross that fleshly tabernacle ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 261 was rent, and with it that whole dispensation passed away whereof it was the living reality which had taken life for the very end of being crucified and slain, and carrying flesh to the grave, and with it all fleshly ordinances : now, when the reality ceased, surely much more did this shadow cease? This leadeth us to observe a second, and yet more ancient, intimation and introduction of the incarnation, contained in the institution of sacrifices ; and a second use of the incarna- tion, that thereby He might become the true, the only real, sacrifice. His living body was the temple. His dead body was the sacrifice. From the first creation of man, the word of God unto His creature was, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." And that the creature died not in the day that he ate thereof, is the greatest mystery upon record. Let any man unfold to me why man died not when he dis- obeyed the commandment, which said, Thou shalt die when thou dost transgress. In the very staying of that word of God, we, who have been enlightened in the nature of sin, can dis- cover the mystery of the Godhead. It is nothing to say, that from thenceforth, in the word of God, it hath been a con- stant manner of His to threaten and not perform. That doth only magnify and multiply the difficulty. Why ahvays threatening, and akvays withholding .-' What meaneth this recession and shrinking in the Divine mind ; in the True One ; in the Almighty ; in the Unchangeable ; in the Creator of the steadfast world .-" He who hath put all things under such invariable laws and ordinances, doth Himselfonly change and fluctuate ! This, the character of the first threatening and every succeeding one, hath explanation only by the separation of the personality of THE WORD. The holy will of God de- clareth its holy purpose of justice and righteousness; THE Word refuseth not to declare it, but addeth thereto words of grace and mercy. Whence come these .'* From His own inde- pendent being and self-existence; from His own unconstrained love; from His everlasting dedication of Himself to redeem us : which though the Father was well pleased withal, yet did He continually declare His holiness, and execute it also ; which tlic Word failed not to declare, adding thereto the de- claration of mercy and hope descending through the channel 262 THE INCARNATION: of His mediation, by virtue of His own free-will offering of Himself But that man might know, that the curse of death still depended over him — and that a death by violence, by slaying — sacrifice was instituted, and became universal upon the earth ; and that the sacrifice by blood, not the offering of first-fruits merely. The offering of first-fruits was a confes- sion that he held the earth of God's mercy : but this was not enough ; he must offer blood, in order to shew that he held life also of God's mercy ; that life was yet to be required, and the curse yet to be accomplished ; the full curse — as it is written, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die:" that is. That human nature, wrapt up in thee, shall die : human nature in its perfection and completeness shall die : thou, sinful Adam, art not now worthy to be the sacrifice : another Adam, sinless and spotless, of whom thou, O man, art the type, and thou, O woman, the mother, shall die, to purchase life for Himself and for all who are chosen, in Him, to suffer with Him and to live with Him. And to the end of symbolising this great truth, and preserving it in an ordi- nance for ever, sacrifice was appointed. For, brethren, I hold with the old school of divines, in believing that sacrifice was in the world from the Fall, because it is the first act which is recorded after the Fall ; and that it contained in itself a threefold use — first, the declaration of sin ; secondly, the sig- nification that by blood the guilt of sin was to be cleansed away ; and thirdly, that by fire the purification of all which sin had defiled was to be accomplished. The substance of which symbol Cain did deny, and so despised and desecrated the ordinance of God ; wherefore God forsook him, and he became a murderer and a vagabond upon the earth, the proto-apostate from the Church, as Abel was the proto- martyr. For it is the way of the Lord to come swiftly in judgment upon the first breach of any ordinance ; as we see in Corah's rebellion, in Achan's transgression, and in Ananias's lying unto the Holy Spirit: by which swift ven- geance I am the more convinced that sacrifice was an ordi- nance of God from the beginning : in the observance of which Noah took possession of the earth by sacrifice ; and Abraham took possession of the promise by a more clear and signifi- ITS PR EPA RA TION AND ACT. 26 o cant sacrifice of his own son, which was done in spirit, though not in the very act ; and the children of Israel took posses- sion of the land, and kept possession of it, in the daily offer- ing up, evening and morning, of a sacrifice, and annually on the day of atonement ; and, as Paul well concludes, " almost everything under the law was purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission." Whereby it was al- ways signified that every national, and personal, and natural blessing, the people of God, yea, the whole world (for Adam and Noah were the fathers of all) did hold only in the antici- pation of that great sacrifice of His body which the Son of God had provided from all eternity, when He said, " Sacrifice and burnt-ofifering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou pro- vided me:" or, in other words, that from the Fall man was possessed of nothing in his own right, no, not of his own life, but held everything in the light of that woman's Seed which was promised to our first parents, and of that atonement, or satisfaction, or purchase, or redemption, which He was to offer up ; in the expectation of which the very world had its being preserved, and was peopled with animation, with spi- ritual promises enriched, and with a dispensation of grace and of glory over-canopied. But if there were no spiritual guilt, why be at such endless pains to translate it into sen- sual signification .'* What mean those bloody conditions of every blessing, this dark foreboding of some future pledge and title, if so be that man stood free before his Maker, clothed with rights in himself, and invested in his own right- ful possession } Adam and Abel and Enoch, Noah and Mel- chizedec, Abraham and the patriarchs, Moses and the pro- phets, and every one in whom any light abode, knew their true standing before the Lord, and regarded themselves but as pilgrims and sojourners, permitted to live and breathe, privileged to believe and hope, until He should come who, in His own title of perfect and sufficient Man, should purchase back the right and title of man to the earth, which had been lost by the Fall ; should roll back the tide of sin and death which had burst in by that gate, opened of Satan ; and gather up again unto Himself, as the Head, those disjointed fragments of being, which would never have been disjointed 264 THE INCARNATION: and dispersed had not the first Adam fallen from his high estate. For this end, therefore, He became manifest, — not only to complete the typical temple, by giving it a fleshly, living reality ; but to accomplish that redemption and recon- ciliation of the Creator to the creature, which the service of that temple had signified ; which His life and death did ac- complish. And for this end it was necessary that He should be the self-existent Jehovah, as well as the Son of man, in order that, by the humiliation of the former to the mortal conditions of the latter, He might take up the latter into the Divine conditions of the former ; the Divine nature being as the golden altar upon which He offered the sacrifice of His human nature. The third great intimation and introduction of the incar- nation was in the prophetic dispensation completed and ful- filled in Christ. By which I do not mean that His incarna- tion fulfilled all the prophecies which went before upon Him — a monstrous figment, which neither Jew nor Christian can believe, otherwise than by blinding their understanding, or spiritualising away the letter and substance of all the pro- phecies, whereof by far the greater part, I might say almost nine out of ten, remain to be completely accomplished in His second coming ; — but I mean what Daniel expresseth, " to seal up the vision and the prophecy ;" which He did by becoming the Prophet and Teacher of His Church. In con- nexion with the primitive dispensation of sacrifice, and the pri- mitive worship, which were embodied into a national form by the Mosaical economy, there was also a dispensation of word or prophecy ; which is revelation, properly so called ; being, as it were, the voice of the universal reason speaking to the reason of man from the body of those visible ordinances which stood before His sense. For there never was an ordinance or institution without a word of prophecy which portended that the great Prophet would come when the substance of these shadows should come. Therefore Noah was a prophet, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and every one who had any hand in the building up of God's worship and the preservation of His laws ; and when the race of priests was reserved for the family of Levi, a race of prophets was raised up of all ITS PRE PAR A riON AND ACT. 265 tribes, as it pleased the word of God to visit them : who were the interpreters of Providence, the denouncers of wickedness, the guardians of the moral law, and, in short, the preachers of spiritual righteousness. As the priests waited upon the temple, and were, so to speak, the body-servants of Christ ; so the prophets waited upon the word of Christ, and were the forerunners and messengers of His counsels, — not those who sat in council with Him; for who hath been His counsellor ? the Child that was to be born, His name was to be called THE Counsellor, — but the messengers of His counsels. His forerunners, who warned the nations what and what manner of person He was to be whose goings forth had been from everlasting. When the Word became incarnate, this dispen- sation also came to an end ; as the planets disappear at the rising of the sun, or as the ambassadors fall into the train of servants upon the appearance of their king and lord. When it is said, that "the Word became flesh," it is not meant merely that He became body, but that He became also a reasonable human soul, shewing to our body its perfect holi- ness, and to our mind its perfect holiness. He was the clear and bright intelligence, the consummate wisdom, the pure reason, the perfect righteousness of man, as well as the out- ward and undefiled, the holy and harmless body of man. Now, this is what is meant when we say He was our Prophet: that there is nothing, within the compass of human reason and power, which He possessed not, and which He declared not. With respect to the sciences and arts which concern the visible world, and enter by the sense, our Lord possessed them, as Adam did, by instinct; wherefore all elements obeyed Him : but He revealed them not to His people, because they help not, neither are congenial to, that spiritual dispensation devoid of outward power which His incarnation ushered in ; but they are outstanding to the hope of His people, when He shall come, clothed with power, to bring them into the pos- session of the earth with sacerdotal and royal state; as hereto- fore Adam had possession of the garden of Eden — happy type of this purified world! But of the spiritual and invisible He revealed the perfect consummation ; and nothing hath been, nor can be, added thereto. And, observe you, when He 266 THE INCARNATION: afterwards appeared unto John in Patmos, to make known the glory of His coming kingdom, He appeared in person, and did not by His Spirit inspire, but came and gave that which God had given unto Him ; wherefore it is entitled, " the Re- velation of Jesus Christ which God gave him." And be it further observed concerning this revelation, that it was given in His character of our risen High Priest, not of incarnate Prophet ; for the reason, that His priesthood was not entered into till after His death, when He ascended up on high ; nor the power given into His hand over heaven and earth. And not before the beginning of that book styleth He himself the Prince of the kings of the earth. Which book of the Revelation is the successive acts of His Father, in putting all enemies under His feet, before bringing Him in glory into the earth. Since His resurrection, Christ hath become not only the Head of His Church on earth, but the Ruler of the nations ; and that book of the Apocalypse is nothing else than the Acts of Christ, the eternal King, im- mortal and invisible, the only living and true God. With respect to the writings of the apostles which are preserved, and their infinite discourses which are not preserved, they were the seeds which the incarnate Word had sown in their hearts, ripened by the Spirit, who was promised to bring all things to their remembrance. And this is manifest from the continual appeal of the apostles to the prophets when dis- coursing with the Jews, and, doubtless, to the very words of the Lord when discoursing to the believers. Nay, but what else are the Gospels than the record of Jesus, which these apostles were wont to give in all their ministrations .'' W^hence it came to pass, that when Paul was called to the apostolic office, he received instructions directly from the Lord himself, and resteth his authority as an apostle upon that foundation. The Spirit ripened the spiritual seed which the Son of man had sown ; gave at Pentecost the first-fruits ; and is yet to give the latter rain upon the earth : after which cometh the harvest. And believe what I am now to say, brethren : that there are in this book of God's holy word more seed still un- quickened than hath yet quickened in all the commentaries of the Church, or been accomplished in the providence of ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 267 God ; and which shall quicken in the fulness of the times. It is in this office of the Prophet that He becomes the object of all faith, is the wisdom of His Church, is both the sower and the seed which is sown, the householder and the treasure from which the stewards and the household are supplied with their food ; " For it is of his fulness that we all receive, and grace for grace." And of Him, in this office, the prophets were the continual admonitors and heralds of His coming : as it is written, " The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." From these three intimations and indications of Messiah, contained in the Sacrifices, in the Levitical Priesthood, and the Prophetic Vocation, it is manifest that there will be found many mysteries in the person of the man Christ Jesus ; though in respect to these His various offices, as Sacrifice, High Priest, and Prophet, there be no more doubt than that the sun shineth in the heavens, and giveth light unto the earth. Into the mystery, for example, of the union between the Divine and human nature, it is hard to enter ; and those who have dared it too far have most frequently lost them- selves in error. It is revealed that His body was created by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that He might be the woman's Seed, according to the promise. He grew in wisdom as He grew in years, like any other child ; though He was from the womb the very Word of God, which had created the heavens and the earth, and spoken by the mouth of all the prophets : who was conscious of the eternity of His being, and of the blessedness thereof, before the world was. And He was obedient to the Law, in its letter and in its spirit ; and He made the word of God His meditation, as we do ; and He lived by faith upon it, as do all His people. He prayed, and was strengthened by prayer, as we are : He was afflicted with all our afflictions, and tried with all our trials, and was sustained by the power of the Holy Ghost, even as we. For we arc not to suppose, with the early heretics, that His body was only an appear- ance, or illusion, but a real manifestation of the Second Per- son of the blessed Trinity as man. He was not the Only- 268 THE INCARNATION: begotten in the bosom of the Father at the same time that He was the Messiah on earth ; but He was the Only-begotten come out of the bosom of the Father, in order to become the Messiah upon earth. The Word had been revealed in the universal creation once, but now He is to be revealed in the individual man. In the former work the individual was seen in the universal ; in the latter the universal is to be revealed in the individual, and gathered into Him. It was a high honour put upon human nature ; but it was for a very high object; which we know only in part, and which will doubt- less illustrate the being and glory of the Godhead more than the creation of the heavens and the earth. No wonder that the Word of God, foreseeing this great act of His incarnation, should speak of it by the mouth of all His prophets : for it is a singular act, whose extraordinary wonderfulness shall reach through all eternity. No wonder that the rumour of it came before, nor that sacrifice should be instituted to signify it, and the tabernacle to witness it, and the temple to confirm it, and the whole Jewish state to be, as it were, the womb of this great conception ; in the foresight of which the prophet bursteth forth so sublimely : " For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- sellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." He was anointed to His holy office by the Spirit in the form of a dove ; and declared to be the Son of God, whom the people were to hear. And it was by the Spirit that He was led into temptation ; and it was by the Spirit that the man Jesus Christ prevailed. Whatever power He might possess otherwise, it is certain He prevailed against Satan by that word and Spirit by which we are to prevail. He was travelling in the valley of humility; and it was no pretence of doing so, but it was so. He was emptied: He did not seem to be emptied, but He was so. And He preached by the Holy Spirit, which was upon Him, and with which He had been anointed. And in the power of the Holy Spirit He went about doing good, and healing them that were possessed " with the devil." And the Chief Shep- herd of the sheep offered Himself by the eternal Spirit. ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 269 And He was justified in the Spirit, by the resurrection from the dead. So that in very deed, and in very truth. He was the man Christ Jesus, the Son of man, the second Adam ; who hath now joined the human nature to the Divine, and is become a quickening Spirit ; baptizing with the Holy Spirit all who believe in His name and receive Him as the Prophet of God ; bestowing the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, the fellowship of His priesthood, and the inheritance of His glori- ous kingdom. Without, therefore, adventuring into that subtle speculation in which so many of the early heretics lost them- selves, I would rather proceed humbly, with the Holy Scriptures in my hand, to set forth in order the work of the humiliation and ministry of Christ Jesus in the flesh : which I conceive to be of the last importance in this argument of the in- carnation ; being, in truth, both the meritorious and prevail- ing cause of our justification before God, and the great ex- ample to every child of the Holy Spirit — that is, to every member of His Church. From the day of His baptism until the day of His death, I conceive that He sustained the very trials, and achieved the very victories, into the fellowship of which we are called from the day of our baptism to the day of our death, and into the actual fellowship of which we enter from the day of our regeneration by the Holy Spirit, until we are delivered from this body of sin and death, under which we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, do groan. And yet I approach this subject with a certain awe, which nothing can overcome, save the necessity, to the establish- ment of the Church, that you should be well acquainted with your great Prototype, the Author and Finisher of your faith : for the mystery of it is very great. I confess that it has been a relief to me to look at it under the veil of the Levitical dis- pensation ; and I tremble 'to approach the confines of the naked sufferings of the Lord. For He condescended to dwell in concert and communion with flesh ; to look up through fleshly eyes ; by fleshly senses to converse with the great wickedness of the earth ; and, through the faculties of the human soul, to commune with every impious, ungodly, and blasphemous chamber of the fallen intellect and feeling of men. Whereof, brethren, the condescension overcometh me : 2 70 THE INCARNATION: I cannot attain unto the understanding of it. For the Divine and Almighty Creator to empty Himself of Himself, to take the limitation of a creature, and bind Himself under the ap- pointed law of the action and suffering thereof, is very wonderful ; but for the Holy Creator, the thrice-holy One, by dwelling therein, to bring Himself into actual communication with, real sense of, and sympathy in, all the wickedness of this world, passeth all humiliation which can be conceived. That His Divine nature should suffer such contradiction of sinners as He endured, and bear such limitations of power ; should endure such a pressure of iniquity as His human na- ture. His sin-bearing body, brought Him into the sense, feel- ing, bondage, and suffering of ; is the depth of the mystery of godliness. And herein consisteth the greatness of His love in enduring, the greatness of His Father's love in giving Him up to endure, our nature. It is not in the kind of life or kind of death ; it is in the life and the death of the Man-God that we are to find the great merit of the love. The Jiiiiniliatioji was the sacrifice ; the becoming man, the being made flesh. For the rest, it is only, as it were, the wise adaptation of the act to something past and to something future : the act itself is that in which the marvel lies. The Gospels of His human life are of great value, as containing the ratification and ful- filment of the former covenant, as laying out the platform and scheme of the new covenant or spiritual dispensation, and presenting us with the pattern of the perfect man before the Lord ; but it is the fourth Gospel, that of St John, as com- mented upon and broadly illustrated in St Paul's Epistles, which makes us familiar with the fulness of the Godhead mani- fested in Him bodily. And here I must declare, that I love not the carnal estimate of Christ's visible sufferings as a man, and of His death as a man, save only as they give heart to His disciples passing through the same scenes of trial, and shew us the reality of His passive manhood. But as the measure of what all His elect would have had to suffer through all eternity, and a set-off against this, in the way of barter or exchange, I must confess it appears to me to be a poor, petty, dishonour- able, insufficient view of the matter, which the thinnest-witted Socinian will blow to atoms by a breath. The whole act of ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 271 the incarnation is a mystery to the fleshly man, and ought not to be debased down to his fleshly sympathies. It is the basest part of Popery to have done so, with their crosses and relics, and their true blood, true tears, and true sweat. The spiritual have nothing to do with such matters. Let it abide a mystery of love for the heart and mind, as they are en- lightened and purified of the Holy Spirit, to enter into, further, and further, and still further, until they be separated from this spirit-clouding flesh and carnal mind : for it is only to be apprehended according as we have Christ formed within us by the Holy Spirit ; when, not by the natural mind, nor the natural heart, but by the spiritual mind and heart, we do enter into the great mystery of the sufferings of the Son of God while incarnate in a fleshly body ; — as we now proceed to shew in this discourse, praying the Holy Spirit to be our guide through the deep valley, while we descend into those lowly abasements of being into which the Son of God de- scended for our sakes. Now, in considering this great subject, it falleth asunder before my thoughts into these two great divisions : — First, All that He passed through till death, in the face of men. Secondly, All that He went through, between death and the resurrection, in the disembodied soul, by His descent into hell. I. Of these, the former falls again apart into these three subdivisions : First, His struggle with, and victory over, Satan and the evil angels ; sec'ondly, over sin in human nature ; and, thirdly, over that confederacy of wickedness into which these two great co-operating causes of evil have wrought the world of wicked men. For these three, Satan with his host, sin in flesh, and sinful men confederate in the world, did chiefly mar the glory of God, and eclipse it over all this world, and over all to which this world, in the purpose of God, may be intended to administer. Besides, who knows the evil influence and efl"ects which may have been, or might be, brought over the unfallen hosts of heaven, by perceiving a world framed for holiness and excellence and beauty, usurped and gotten possession of, as it were against God's 2 72 THE INC A RNA TION : will, (though in truth by His permission, for far greater ends,) by the prince of evil, and apostate son of the morning ? It was, therefore, no small work to take off the eclipse which the Almighty had thus permitted to come upon the face of His glory, and to re-establish that almightiness of power which seemed to hang in doubt, and plant the stabihty of all things upon a new basis, by redeeming and recovering the lost world, and making it more glorious than ever ; while the evil powers which had dared to peep and to mutter against Him, and to stir up strife anew, should be utterly undone, and left in everlasting pasSiveness of suffering and miserable abjectness. And as the end to be accomplished was truly very great, yea, the greatest possible, (creation being nothing so great a work as the redemption of creation against all power and might,) so the labour and travail which had to be undergone for its accomplishment was proportionably great, yea, I may say, stupendously, inconceivably great. Into the mystery of which travail of the Son of man to ac- complish the same, I would inquire, that we may be a little able to measure the greatness of the achievement, by the greatness of the endurance in compassing it. Now, because the object was threefold, — to retrieve God's glorious and almighty power out of the controversy and debate of Satan and his power ; to retrieve God's goodly work of man from the oppression of sin and death, and renew man in His image, in righteousness and true holiness ; and to recover this world from that wicked confederacy of evil beings who have grieved and afflicted its peace, who have wrecked and ruined its prospects since the Fall ; — therefore have I said that the travail of the Son of man, in this great undertaking, was also threefold : First, in engaging with Satan and his host, in judg- ing him, and destroying his works ; secondly, in engaging with sin in flesh, and overcoming it, and condemning it ; thirdly, in wrestling with the confederacy of the wicked world, and finally overcoming it. Into these three things let us now inquire in order. I. The subtle devices of Satan and his angels, with their innumerable snares ; the fierce and fiery assaults of spiritual might, brought forward with that array of angelic light and ITS PRE PA RA TION A ND ACT. 273 glorious appearance which Lucifer the son of the morning can trick himself withal ; all the mystery of deceivablencss with which every member of Christ, and the whole body of Christ, hath been assaulted and overcome : were, there can be no doubt, combined and concentrated against our great Covenant-Head and Surety during the days of His flesh. Into which field of spiritual warfare the spiritual only can enter, and they but very imperfectly ; forasmuch as we are not now exposed defenceless, but have obtained, through Christ, a shelter and a shield against his fiery darts, and have to deal, as it were, with a beaten and conquered foe, who is enraged, but is not empowered, against us ; whereas the Son of man had the unhumbled conqueror to conquer, and the proud captor to lead captive, the possessor to disinherit, the strong and mighty usurper to cast out. A most unbridled and unrestrained commission that was which Satan had given to him against Job, whose humiliation was yet but the type of that which was to come in Christ ; and Job was sore dis- tressed for a while, but not given over to death : for, after he had suffered a while, God did recover him, restore him, and enlarge him exceedingly : but Satan had power against the Son of man to bereave Him of all comfort, and to eclipse His Divinity of all glory, and to spread the heavens with sack- cloth, and to seal up every star, to bring Him into a fearful pit of darkness and tribulation, and even unto the dust of death. He who came to destroy the works of the devil must be prepared against the devil's utmost might : and doubt there can be none, that not a power in the air or in the earth, in the grave or in hell, but was moved, and to the uttermost, stirred up, to tempt, and overcome, and utterly overwhelm the Son of God. Into which I feel myself wholly unable to enter, being content to know that the power which hereto- fore prevailed to raise rebellion in heaven, and to intro- duce death into the world, and which is nearest to the power of God — so near to it, yea, and, in the appearance of this fallen earth, so much above it, that the ancient heretics of the early Church were always equalising them ; and certain apostate churches to this day do worship the devil rather than God ; — this power, I say, of strength, and seduction, and VOL. V. S 2 74 THE INC A RNA TION : cruel trial, which I can neither understand nor describe, I am content to know, and do most certainly believe, was wrestled with by the Son of man during all the days of His flesh, and overcome, and condemned ; and though for a while left still at large, in order to prove the election, and shew forth the power of Christ in them, is soon to be restrained and impri- soned for a thousand years ; and, after being brought up for trial, to be condemned, and stripped, and made passive and miserable for ever and ever. Which bereaving of spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places, as I believe it to be the chief end and greatest achievement of the incarnation, so I believe it to have cost the most fearful pains and agonies ; whereof the deep-seated source and extreme suffering is hid from all but the most spiritual, and to these but very imperfectly re- vealed. If the apostle Paul, when summoning the Christian soldier into the field, and clothing him in all his armour, doth, in order to put him on his guard, and call forth all his strength, tell him that he had to wage a battle not with flesh and blood only, but with principalities and with powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wicked- nesses in high places ; then may I well say that the Captain of our salvation, in whose footsteps we tread, and in whose all-victorious name we charge the enemy, did certainly wrestle not against the infirmities and temptations of hu- man nature only, but against all the host of the high ones which are on high, Satan and his angels, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickednesses in high places. Wherefore it is written in the Colossians, " Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in himself." That this was one great, and indeed the great end of His incarnation and death, we are expressly assured by the apostle to the He- brews : " Forasmuch, then, as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same, that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death, which is the devil," 2. The second great head of our Lord's humiliation was His contest with sin in the flesh ; which brings us properly into the regions of humanity : and to understand which, it is necessary ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 275 to have a sufficient and worthy idea of the Divine law ; for "the strength of sin is the law." Which holy and just and vener- able law is become very terrible to a fallen creature, meetino- him on every side, and engirdling him with a thousand deaths. Every commandment saith, Do this or die ; and nature re- plies. But I cannot do it. Die, then, saith the inexorable law. — Dost thou love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength and mind ? No. Then die thou must. — Dost thou love thy neighbour as thyself.^ No. Then thou must die. — ^\Vhat } for one sin death } Yea, death for the least transgression. And, moreover, if thou keep the whole law, and offend but in one point, thou art guilty of all. — " The law revived, and I died." Oh, fearful con- dition, into which the Fall hath brought mankind ! an estate truly of sin and misery ! Now, brethren, this law, this in- exorable law, stood around the Son of man with its fiery points of death, as it standeth around every one of us. For He had come into humanity's accursed region; and His flesh, His human nature, was as assailable on every side as is ours : otherwise it had not been human nature. " Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same." ..." In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren." ..." In that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." ..." For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are." Wherefore I believe that the Son of man was assailable on the side of His flesh, or human nature, with every temptation, with every infirmity, to which I or any one now hearing me is obnoxious. Did not Satan address the sense by its strongest, sternest craving, when he tempted the hungered Son of man to turn the stones of the wilderness into bread .'' Did he not tempt the lust of the eye, when he shewed Him all the king- doms of the earth, for the guerdon of which to worship him .'* And with what craftiness and mystery of arch-angelic deceit wrought he upon the faith of the Son of man, when he quoted Scripture, and dared him to put it to the proof! Did I but say that I believed the Son of man was proved and tried with 276 THE INCARNATION: all the proofs and trials which my human nature, and the human nature of every one hearing me, is or hath been tried withal ? I should have said, that He was tried with every trial with which it x?, possible for human nature to be tried by the putting forth of all the subtlety and power of Satan. For how were He able to succour all them that have been, that are, or that shall be tempted, if He had not undergone the sum and substance of all possible temptation ? Therefore is it most true that He bore our sicknesses and carried our sins; that " He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Behold, then, the Son of man compressing within the short period of His prophetic office the sum-total of all mankind's liability to be tempted unto sin : conceive every variety of human passion, every variety of human affection, every variety of human error, every variety of human wickedness, which hath ever been realised, or is possible to be realised, inherent in the humanity and combined against the holiness of Him who was not only a man, but the Son of man, the heir of all the infirmities which man entaileth upon his children, which He took freely and fully upon Him, all to bear ; and, bearing all, to annihilate all ; and to bring in a righteousness, universal as the Fall and the temptation was universal : and then shall you have an idea of the Son of man's oppression and load ; against whom, thus on every side beset behind and before, stood up the law, as widely comprehensive as the temptation, and said to Him, Thou art man, very man, though Thou be very God : as very man receive Thou these continual assaults ; and yield to one of them, and Thou also shalt die. — The Son of God die .'* The Life die .'' Brethren, I know it could not be, I know it hath not been ; but I am shewing you the proof to which the Son of God was put, the hideous and enormous proof to which He was put : for otherwise you shall neither have an adequate idea of the truth — the comfortable, the all- comforting truth — of His manhood ; nor an adequate idea of the almighty power and infinite love of His Godhead. Sin had its fullest range against the Son of God by virtue of His being the Son of man. The law laid its full curse upon Him. His Divinity screened Him not a jot. It bore Him through it, but it saved Him not a jot. We had not known the power ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 277 of the Divinity to contend with sin, otherwise than by the incarnation. Sin would have seemed omnipotent, and death inevitable, and Satan invincible; having an indefeasible right, an unanswerable claim, and a power never to be gainsaid nor to be cast out, where once they had got a footing. It is thus that God is glorified by the Godhead contending against sin in flesh, overcoming it, and proving it to be weaker than God in its own region ; not capable of resisting God, not capable of holding those whom He would redeem. Oh, but consider the humiliation of this act of the Son of God, " who was in the form of God, and thought it not rob- bery to be equal with God;" that He should "become sin for us who knew no sin ;" that He should endure the vile contact and evil neighbourhood of every wickedness ; that He should bear the suggestion of every heinous wickedness, as Satan suggested those three temptations of the wilderness ; as wicked men suggested, yea, suspected Him of every evil. Lot's inhabitation of Sodom was a poor emblem of this ; because Lot had not known the immaculate purity of God, nor did sustain in himself the glory of the holiness of God. And yet, if we will come at the idea of the great condescen- sion and painfulness of the thrice-holy Son of God's enduring in flesh the neighbourhood and assaults of all sin, it must be by means of such emblems as that of Lot abiding in Sodom ; or David, the royal exile, changing his behaviour, and forced to feign madness, while he abode at the court of the king of Gath ; or of Elijah, weary of life under the persecutions of Ahab and Jezebel, and the wickedness of the land ; or of Moses coming down from the holy mount of God to the con- gregation of idolaters, at the sight of which the meekest of men was so transported with wrath and indignation that he dashed to the ground the tables of the law, which God's own finger had written. All which emblems, with whatever others the Scriptures contain, are utterly worthless, though the best that can be found, for expressing the continual griefs and in- conceivable troubles which the holy and righteous Jehovah must have undergone by taking up into Himself human na- ture, and becoming, on the one hand, conversant with, tempted and continually assaulted by, every form of wickedness; while, 278 THE INCARNATION: on the other hand, He had in Him the Divine hatred of sin, that strongest antipathy, that eternal opposition which there is in God to all unrighteousness. I say, it was such a recon- ciliation of opposite and contradictory things, such a har- mony and intermarriage of extremes was this union of the Divine and human natures, as never, never entered into any finite conception to conceive, as no finite understanding shall ever be able to understand. And what patience to bear it without a murmur! with just so much expression of anguish as to mark the abhorrence of it, but never a complaint, never a resistance, never a rebellious emotion ! Moses was trans- ported with wrath when he came out of the holy pres- ence into the polluted camp ; Elijah prayed hard to die, and be done with the trouble and weariness of his life ; and Job cursed the day of his birth, and prayed hard for the day of his death ; and David, to save his life, played a false part, and soon wearied of the unnatural form which he had taken upon him ; and Jeremiah fainted and yielded, and went hard to upbraid God ; but the Son of man carried Himself most meekly : " When he was reviled, he reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not." " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." He bore. He perse- vered to bear and to endure, the passive flesh open to tempta- tion by every pore, and assailed with temptation by every avenue through which the angels of darkness are wont to per- secute and assail all living men. 3. This leadeth me to observe, in the third place, the con- tradiction of sinners which He endured against Himself, as another, though an inferior, region of that continual and in- cessant grief which the Son of man bore during the days of His flesh, and from which He desired gladly to escape, when the work which His Father had given Him to do was com- pleted ; to escape away from the humility, unto the glory with which God would straightway glorify Him, who had with so much patient humiliation glorified God. These per- secutions of men I reckon to be an inferior region of trial and suffering to that which is occupied by the spiritual wickednesses in high places : because the power of men to ITS PRE PARA TION AND ACT. 279 hurt is so narrow and limited, compared with that of the wicked spirits, who have usurped possession of the air and of the earth, Avhose various elements they can bring to bear upon the naked head of every one whom God permitteth them to work against. And never had they such law and luxury of mischief against any as against the Son of man, whom they made houseless and homeless upon the land ; and whom upon the water they sought to overwhelm with fearful storms ; whom they suffered not to be alone in the wilderness, but vexed and harassed continually, to the utmost bounds of their cunning and malignity. This, the region of persecutions of men, I reckon to be likewise an inferior region of trouble and temptation to the region of sin in the flesh ; because from men we can escape, but from ourselves we can never escape. The law of the flesh, by which human nature is commanded on all sides, is ever present, ever felt, ever hateful, and ever oppressive to the spiritual life : for the two are contrary the one to the other, and can never be recon- ciled. The natural man is never converted ; he is restrained, but never willingly yieldeth. Sin is his natural element, and death his natural consummation. Satan is his lord, and he is Satan's servant. And though the human nature of Christ never sinned, there can be no doubt it lay as open to the assaults of the enemy as the human nature of any man, foras- much as it was the field of controversy between the powers of darkness and the power of the Son of God. And it was an open field, in which they might muster all their powers against the Divine nature, in the almightiness of which He baffled and beat them at every point. Whereby they were driven out of the region of flesh or humanity, and are rightful lords of it no longer : but Christ became from thenceforward its Lord, to bestow repentance and remission of sins, regene- ration and eternal life, upon every one who believeth. This openness to every temptation arising out of His manhood, I have placed as the second region of the sore experience of the Son of man. And now for the third, which consisteth in the contradic- tions of sinful men. Though it be inferior to either of the two preceding, it is by no means of small account. Which is 2 So THE INCARNATION: not to be measured by the conspiracies and combinations that were framed against Him ; nor by the contempt and contumely with which they treated Him ; nor by the gins and snares which they laid for Him on every side : nor by the cruel mockings and scourgings, the contempt of all forms of justice, the smiting, the spitting upon Him, the crown of thorns, the living tortures of the cross, the article of death, and whatever else of outward cruelty the Man of Sorrows underwent. But in order to measure the painfulness of His being despised and rejected of men, you must enter into His love, the intense and immeasurable love, which He bore to men. " He came unto his own, but his own received him not." " His delight had been of old with the children of men, even from everlasting." For them He had been sacrificed from the foundation of the world ; and for them He had now laid aside the mantle of His uncreated and incommunicable glory, and taken on the veils of flesh ; clothed Himself in the likeness of man ; entered the charmed region, which the curse of God did over-canopy, and which Satan had filled with his damned influences — all for love of man, all to re- deem the sons of men, and introduce them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Know ye the bitterness of a wound from those you love, from those whom you have much loved and painfully served .'' When the most generous and brave of those heathens who have been surnamed Great, was defending himself from the many daggers of those who had conspired against him, his friend, his most beloved friend, also stepped forward to deal him a wound amongst the rest : whereupon the conqueror of the Romans had no more courage left in him : the sorrow of wounded love being sorer far than many daggers' points ; but faintly said, " And thou too, Brutus!" and dropped his arm, and gathered up his mantle, and resigned himself to his enemies. But the Son of man, who is also the Holy One of Israel ; He who spake to Moses out of the bush, and by His outstretched arm delivered the people out of the house of bondage, and preserved them in a thousand perils ; who had espoused them to Him as a wife of youth, and loved them with an everlasting love ; as it is written, " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 281 young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, bcarcth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields ; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and milk of sheep with fat of lambs ; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats ; with the fat of kidneys of wheat : and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." To be rejected by that people, over whom He had watched since the days of Abra- ham ; warning them, rising up early and warning them by His prophets ; dwelling in the midst of them, and being unto them a God ; bearing with them in all their back- slidings ; restoring them in all their captivities and oppres- sions ; and now at length passing all bounds and dimensions of love, in coming to them Himself, to see whether, by His own prophetic voice. He might not be able to ward off the fierce wrath of God ; and whether, by His own sacrifice for the nation. He might not be able to deliver the nation out of the wretched captivity of sin and of the world under which it groaned — oh ! when coming on such an errand of love, to those whom He had so long, whom He had so ten- derly loved ; to be rejected, to be set at nought ; to be denied as a stranger, and reputed of as an impostor ; to be less es- teemed than a thief and a murderer, whom they desired to be given to them, when they vehemently cried out against the Son of God, "Crucify him, crucify him!" what an affliction, what an ocean of sorrow, is there here ! I speak not of His being their Creator and Preserver, which He is to all men : I speak of His being their Father; I speak of His having given them that land of milk and honey, and builded them that proud city, and holy temple which His glory filled : they were indeed His own. His own by a thousand claims : and thus to be rejected of them ! what a wound, what a sorrow ! Surely no sorrow was like unto this sorrow. Our master poet hath well portrayed an old father's sorrow on being rejected by his daughters, amongst whom he had shared his kingdom. Such a delineation as he hath given may somewhat help us to this conception, but to attain unto the conception nothing 2 82 THE INC A RNA TION : availeth. Perhaps the best way is to hear it in His own words. As He drew nigh Jerusalem, He sat down on a hill, and looked upon it and wept. When He was pronouncing the doom of the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Scribes, who had made the people to wander, His words were like a two-edged sword ; but when He cometh to speak of Jerusalem and her children, His words are like the words of a mother, melting over her wayward child, whom she would die to reclaim : "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." And again, as He pro- ceedeth to Calvary to be offered up, groaning under the load of His cross, and was lamented of the women who followed after Him, He said with tenderness, " Weep not for me, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; but weep for yourselves and for your children : for, behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." But the greatest insight into the humiliation and sufferings of the Son of man, is to be got from the Book of Psalms. In the 22d Psalm He sets Himself into contrast with all God's former messengers, and thus bewaileth His case, most cala- mitous of all: — "Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered ; they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man : a reproach of men, and de- spised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying. He trusted in the Lord, that he would deliver him : let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. . . . There is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me : strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. . . . Dogs have compassed me about : the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." These passages shew how, like one that is good and ten- der-hearted. He keenly felt the reproaches of His brethren : ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 28 J having none of that stoical indifference to human approbation which Cometh of pride ; nor of that malicious spirit which retorteth abusive treatment with sovereign contempt. Ah ! these stoical and vengeful tones of the mind hold not of affec- tion and love, but of spite and hatred. Jesus loved men too much not to be grieved with the indifference or hatred of the meanest man. Now, to shew how much it afflicted Him, let me further quote from the 38th Psalm : " My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore ; and my kinsmen stand afar ofT. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me : and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man heard not ; and I was as a dumb man, that opcneth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs." Again, " Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour : mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness : and I looked for some to take pity, and for com- forters, but found none." What a craving after love and fellowship! what a longing after consolation ! what a yearning after kindness ! Oh, my brethren, our iniquity, our hard- hearted iniquity, our pride, our selfishness, hinder us from entering into the fellow-feeling of our Lord's trials and afflic- tions from false brethren. This tenderness of affection He beautifully expresseth in the 35th Psalm: "False witnesses did rise up : they laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick my clothing was sack- cloth : I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer re- turned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother." It is with great struggles and strainings of spirit that I can get down into the depth of the Lord's suffering and humili- ation, and I feel how utterly inadequate is anything which I have said to express the thousandth part of it. And I must again refer you to the Psalms, of which a great number, I might almost say a fifth part, respect this subject. There is, however, another method by which I have sought to come at 284 THE INC A RNA TION : the conception of this matter, which I must just glance at before closing this head of my discourse. It is, by studying the history of the Jewish people after He had condescended to be present with them in a manifest manner. From this we shall obtain an idea how He abhorreth the neighbourhood of sin, and punisheth its presence in the midst of those with whom He is dwelling. When He entered into covenant with the people at the rock of Sinai, they had to sanctify them- selves for three days, and wash their outmost garments, in order to appear before the Lord in all outward as well as inward purity. When they had defiled themselves with the abomination of the golden calf, the Lord entreated Moses to be permitted to consume them at one blow ; and was not appeased until the sons of Levi had appeased His wrath by girding every man his sword upon his thigh, and execut- ing the vengeance of the Lord, sparing neither companion, nor brother, nor father, nor mother, until there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. Again, when the people murmured and rebelled against the Lord, because He fed them only with manna, angels' food, and desired flesh to eat, such as they had eaten in the house of their bondage ; the Lord gave them their heart's desire : but while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great slaughter. And when Miriam stood up against the authority of Moses, she became a leper white as snow, and was banished from the camp for seven days. Now Moses was but a servant over Christ's house, who Himself is Son and Heir. And when Core, Dathan, and Abiram, with their company, stood up against that same servant of the Son of man, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them quick ; and the two hundred and fifty men, who did offer incense in defiance of the Lord's ordinance, were consumed with fire that came out from the Lord : and so enraged was the Lord with this spirit of insubordination, that there died that day, in the plague, fourteen thousand seven hundred men : and the Lord was scarcely restrained from consuming them wholly. And why need I speak of the fiery flying serpents, or of the abomination of the daughters ITS PRE PA RA TION A ND ACT. 285 of Moab, or of the sin of Achan, and of the thousands and the tens of thousands which the Lord cut off in each of these acts of disobedience ? Or why need I speak of the evil report of the spies, and the rebelHon against the Lord which ensued on that day of provocation, and for which a whole generation was eaten up by forty years' slow and wearisome consump- tion ? All these things are written in order to teach us what a fearful and fiery indignation the Lord hath against sin ; what holiness He requireth of those in the midst of whom He dwelleth ; with what carelessness of human life He as- serteth His own holiness ; and how, when He is angry, thou- sands and tens of thousands are not sufficient for a peace- offering. Yet behold this very Son of God, who dwelt be- tween the cherubim, and from whose fiery presence these executive ministers of flaming destruction proceeded forth ; behold Him, who was so jealous of His holiness that He spared no life, nor withheld Himself from any judgment, so that He might preserve His holiness unoffended ; Him, I say, behold as the Son of man, dwelling among the sinfullest people, the most hypocritical people, a generation of vipers, an adulterous race, whose very priests, for conscious guilt, could not take up a stone to cast at the adulterous woman — in the midst, I say, of such a generation, behold the same Holy One of Sinai and of the cherubim dwelling in flesh, and sub- mitting to the presence, and knowledge, and temptation of all possible iniquity ! Him, the same who could never, who did never, no, nor never can, look upon sin but with detesta- tion and abhorrence, behold numbered with transgressors, and dwelling with publicans and sinners, living with hypo- critical Pharisees, and bearing the taunts of infidel Saddu- cees. Set these two things into contrast, — the holiness of His indignation against sin while He abode only in a visible glory, and the patience of sin while He was the Son of man ; the destruction of sinners from the midst of His Church be- fore He became incarnate, and the pains-taking patience with sinners while He was incarnate, — and you may have some idea both of the greatness of His love, and of the restraining of His Divine wrath, and of the painfulness of the contradic- tion which He continued to bear while He tabernacled in 286 THE INC A RNA TION : the flesh. For once mercy and truth did meet together, for once righteousness and peace did kiss each other. PART II. But there is yet another scene of humiliation, beyond the portals of life, and therefore beyond the sight of mortals, and somewhat beyond their conception ; yet not beyond the re- velation and delineation of Holy Writ, and therefore not be- yond the faith and feeling of the believer — I mean, that of the intermediate state, into which the Son of man passed with these memorable words on His lips, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! " — This is the second head of method. Besides, and beyond, those three views of the Son of man's humiliation which I have already opened, there is another and a more mysterious one, beginning with the hidings of His Father's countenance, and consummated within the veil of death, into which I would now reverently inquire, in order that you may see the depth, the profound depth of that abasement into which He descended for the great ends of His Father's glory ; and so perceive the full meaning of the ejaculation with which His wonderful discourse to His dis- ciples commenceth : " Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him : if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." The awful and woful words which He uttered with a loud and piercing voice immediately before He yielded up the ghost, after He had hung upon the cross for three hours, while there was darkness over the whole land, emblematical of the inward darkness, the hour and power of spiritual dark- ness, which overspread the Redeemer of the world — these words, " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani .'' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me .'' " recorded both by Matthew and Mark, are at once the evidence of the fact that He was forsaken of His Father, and furnish us with a clue for prose- cuting our inquiry into the cause of so very mysterious a dis- ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 287 pensation. That these words contain an exact delineation of His spirit's exhaustion of all comfort, and desertion of all Divine strength and countenance ; and were not merely, as I have heard it alleged, an appropriation to Himself of the 226. Psalm, whereof they are the commencement, in order to re- move dismay and doubt, or disbelief, from the minds of His disciples who might then be present, by shewing them that this fearful accumulation of ills had been all foreseen and foretold of Messiah by the Holy Spirit ; is manifest from every consideration ; first, for that it is said He uttered them, or cried them out, with a loud voice, as if extorted from Him by the greatness of this agony beyond all endurance, and the mystery of this abandonment beyond all anticipation. How great His desolation was, and in what utter desertion and entire helplessness He was left, is to my sympathy even more clearly shewn by the words which, after a short interval. He added, and which He cried also with a loud voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:" which, coming from the mouth of the only- begotten Son ofGod, who united the Divine nature to the human, do shew me not only the Divinity eclipsed of all its power and glory, but brought, if I might so speak, to the last ebb of human weakness ; when faith is barely able to bear up, yet doth bear up ; when the soul, swept away by the main stream from all its rests and anchors, and beholding the yawning gulf beyond, is able to contend no longer, but hath yet the passive courage of faith to say, " Into thy hands, O Father, I commit my spirit." If the Lord, as they suppose, had spoken these words merely for the ear of His disciples who were then present, and not out of the anguish of His desolate soul. He needed not to have uttered them with a loud voice ; for we are told that His mother and the beloved disciple, to whom He spake some words of consolation, stood, along with cer- tain other disciples, beside the cross. Neither is it said, in that, or in the other dialogue which He held with the thief, or in the request which He made for something to allay His thirst, that He spake with a loud voice : only in these two last recorded acts of His incarnate life — " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.''" "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," — is it said that He cried aloud, as it were. 288 THE INC A RNA TION : not for the hearing of men, but for the distant, the far distant, the far withdrawn ear of God. Besides, granting that these words were spoken for the ear of His disciples, and towards their consolation, it doth not the less, but as seemeth to me somewhat the more, establish the truth, that this was the true case and condition of His soul. For it gave them, and it giveth us, to understand that the whole of the twenty-second Psalm is to be interpreted as descriptive of the scene of misery and horror upon which they were looking : now that Psalm, when it is examined, doth delineate such an utter desolation of soul, such a horror of great darkness, as is nowhere written in the Holy Scriptures; being the best commentary upon these words, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me .''" with which it openeth its burden ; and having been used as such by all who have sought to search into the sufferings of the Lord. In deed and in truth I believe that our Lord spoke the first words of that psalm, because He had just finished with enduring all the anguish and sorrows of hell, which are there and elsewhere written by the Holy Spirit concerning Him. They had parted His garments among them, and cast lots upon His vesture : they had pierced His hands and His feet : in His thirst they had given Him vinegar to drink. It was finished : all the things which had been written of His sufferings were accomplished. And, that it might be manifest unto all men from whence proceeded their power to do so, and of what spiritual wickednesses in high places they were but the tools ; that it might be known unto the Church and unto the world, that these were but the outward signs of an- other and more terrible distress, which in spirit He was undergoing, while He bore the outward without any murmur or complaint, He crieth out with inward anguish, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me .■"' And that it might be known that it was a spiritual desertion He complained of, He addeth, in the same extreme agony of utterance, as speak- ing unto one that had removed himself afar off, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." A few hours before, even after the agony of the Garden, He had said, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 2 89 legions of angels?" but now He is utterly forsaken of Ills Father : He hath passed into a deeper agony and abysm of grief than that of the Garden. No angel to strengthen Him appeareth ; no word to comfort Him. The light of heaven hidden from His eyes; the sympathy of men denied unto His soul ; and the countenance of His Father withdrawn from His spirit. All this done in the green tree; in One who had never sinned nor offended ; who had been glorified with the Father before the world was, and was about to be glorified again with that same glory — thus deserted in His extremity ; thus laden, almost beyond Divine endurance — what shall we say of this, but that it is passing wonderful ! the mystery of mysteries ! most devoutly and most reverently to be inquired into, as the deepest and most comprehensive of all God's works and doings upon the earth ! From every other trial and temptation of the powers of darkness the Lord came off triumphant ; and from this also He arose triumphant ; but after how different a conflict ! In the Wilderness the tempter had power to put Him under the three extremest trials of humanit}^ — to exhaust the foun- tain of His natural life with extenuating hunger; to fill His eye with the universal glory of this world's kingdom, and press it in upon His soul with all cunning craftiness and diabolical seduction ; and to spread before His eyes the delu- sion and sophistry of an angel of light ; — but out of all these He came unblemished and unhurt. Again, in His public ministry Satan tracked His steps like the bloodhound, and waylaid Him on every side, and armed against Him the hands of murderous men ; but was ever baffled and over- thrown, because God was with Him : the divinity still shone in Him, like the sun in the firmament, repelling and scatter- ing the darkness as it arose. Also, before the scene of the Supper, Avhen His soul was sorely oppressed with the neigh- bourhood of this hour, the Father upheld Him with a voice from heaven. And in the Garden, when He endured a huge affliction and mighty overwhelming of soul, an angel came and comforted Him : and though the greatness of that agony did enforce the stream of life out of its course, and press it through the pores of His skin upon the earth thirsting for VOL. V. T 290 THE INCARNA TION: that baptism of redeeming blood ; yet out of all these trials He came unharmed and victorious. But now Satan hath combined such a power against Him on the cross, that he prevaileth to the extinction of life ; to the separation of body and spirit ; to the burial of His body in the earth, and its retention for three days in the prison of the tomb ; to the drawing down of His soul into hell, or the abode of separate spirits, and its retention there for the same mysterious season — in which, no doubt, the Scripture was fulfilled, and death and hell defeated, and he that had the power of them de- stroyed ; yet, nevertheless, in which was manifested the sur- passing horror of this last conflict over every other in which the Prince of Life and prince of darkness were engaged. For, brethren, there was no more necessity that the body of the Son of God should descend into the grave, and His soul into hell, than that He should condescend to take a body and tabernacle in clay : the one was as much a wilful and willing act as the other : He owed death as little as He owed the flesh ; He owed the grave as little as He owed the world : both were acts voluntary, yet needful to be undergone, in order to de- stroy the activity and power of evil, and the prince of dark- ness : and both of them are measures of that power which the evil prince was able to bring against the Son of God when He had become the surety for fallen man : and as such I offer them to your ear : not as if we could thereby form an actual estimate of the greatness of the spiritual condescen- sion, but a comparative estimate of the various parts thereof. And I say, that by how much more terrible were the conse- quences of the controversy upon the cross than the conse- quences of the controversy in the wilderness, or in the Gar- den, and in all the weary life between ; by so much more mighty was the power of opposition which then was brought against Him, and the strength of trial with which He was tried, the desolateness in which He was left, and the horror of great darkness which came over Him. My Lord's body in the tomb — my Lord's spirit in hell — are to me at once the explanation of the meaning, and the assurance of the truth of these words, "My God, my God, Avhy hast thou forsaken me!" ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 291 Brethren, did you ever meditate that expression of Peter's, which he spake by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost ; " Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains (the travail-pangs) of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it?" To me they open a great deep, in the coasting of which I find little help or guidance from our clear-headed Protestant divines, but not a little from many of the fathers of the primitive and some of the mystics of the Roman Catholic Church. When I turn to the 11 6th Psalm, from which the expression, " the travail-pangs of death," is taken, I find it thus written, " the sorrows " — (in the Septua- gint, which the Lord and the apostles for the most part used, it is " the travail-pangs of death," the same form of words which Peter useth) — " the travail-pangs of death compassed me, the pangs of hell gat hold upon me : I found trouble and sorrow : then called I upon the name of the Lord ; O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my soul;" and so on, throughout the whole of that psalm, which casts much light upon the state of the Lord's soul between death and the resurrection. And yet methinks it helpeth me a little more to apprehend the deep mystery of these travail-pangs of death and straits of hell, from which He was loosed by the resurrection, to witness the joy expressed in the i6th Psalm, that He should not be left under their dominion : " I have set the Lord always before me : because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved : therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope ; for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." The prospect of the resurrection maketh His heart glad, and every hope of glory to awake and rejoice within Him ; first of all, because the low, and loathsome, and narrow straits of death and hell He should speedily be deli- vered from, on account of His piety and blamelessness : then follows His restoration to life — that is, the resurrection, and ascension unto glory — as the second ground which He had of gladness: "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy : at thy right hand there are plea- sures for evermore." From this psalm I certainly conclude that there Avas a far greater humiliation and horror in the 292 THE INC A RNA TION : condition by which the Lord passed by death than in the con- dition into which He came by birth ; that the travail-pangs of His mother prognosticated nothing Hke so painful a being to the holy child Jesus as the travail-pangs of the cross did to the man Christ Jesus, who by that passage descended into death and hell. In addition to the light which is cast upon this great mys- tery from these two psalms, and others of the like strain, I find a great door of meditation opened by these words of Paul in the 5th chapter of the Hebrews ; indeed, so strong and so steady a light as wholly to clear it from all ambiguity and doubt: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong cryings and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared ; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salva- tion unto all them that obey him." Here the holy apostle declareth that the great anxiety and burden of Christ's soul, during the days of His flesh, was His death ; and that the great burden of His prayers and His supplications was to be delivered from it ; and that He was heard because He feared, or, as it is in the psalm quoted above, because He set the Lord continually before His face. To this do well agree various passages of His life. When Moses and Elias appeared with Him on Mount Tabor, the subject on which they discoursed was the "death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." Oft He broke the subject to His disciples, as that which lay nearest to His heart ; but their dulness of hearing, their hardness of faith, and utter re- jection of the thought, barred their souls to all such com- munications : at which our Lord was so grievously offended upon one occasion, that with unusual warmth He said unto Peter, " Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest the things of the earth, and not the things which be of God." But as the time drew nigh, nothing could hinder the bigness of His grief from heaving and swelling forth certain ejacula- tions ; as upon the occasion recorded in the preceding chap- ter, when He said, " Now is my soul troubled ; and what ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 293 shall I say? Father, save me from this hour;" and at the Supper, when " He was troubled in spirit, and said, One of you shall betray me ;" and in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He three times prayed that the cup might pass from Him ; and upon the occasion of His dialogue with the mother of Zebedee's children, when He said, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." Being, however, debarred by the unbelief of men from any human sympathy in this the great burden of His soul. He did retire into secret places, and into the wilderness, to pass whole nights in prayer : and I have no doubt that, if the solitudes of Galilee and of Mount Olivet could lift up a voice, they would bear witness to those prayers, and supplications, and tears, and strong cryings, with which Christ so earnestly besought to be deli- vered from death. And so much doth the apostle Paul see the humiliation of Christ to be concentrated in this one act of dying, that in a certain place he giveth no other end of the incarnation but this one only, saying, " Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." Of these tears and supplications we have, indeed, little record in the evangelists, but the psalms are full of them : for example, " I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried, mine eyes fail, while I wait for my God." Again, " I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping : by reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin." Again, " My tears have been my meat day and night." Again, " When I wept and chastened my soul, that also was to my reproach." And so forth, throughout every psalm where the Holy Ghost doth manifest beforehand the sufferings of Christ. Of all these prayers, supplications, tears, and strong cryings, Paul declareth to us the burden was, that He might not be given up to death. And so we find it to be declared in the same pathetic psalms, as in the I02d : " He weakened my strength in the way ; he shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days." And again, in the 6th Psalm : " Return, O Lord, de- liver my soul ; O save me, for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee ; in the grave who shall give 294 THE INCARNATION: thee thanks ? I am weary with my groaning ; all the night do I make my bed to swim ; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies." Again : " Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction : Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead .-' shall the dead arise and praise thee .''" These expressions of grief, the strongest which language ever expressed, are almost always found in connexion with deli- verance from death ; and before the end of the psalm the deliverance is commonly vouchsafed, and the universal tri- umph of it gloriously set forth. Not that I suppose Paul's testimony needeth confirmation, but that I would shew how common is the consent of all Scripture, that the great agony of the Lord's soul was, how He might be delivered from the hand of death and hell : in which there could be no meaning, unless the scene into which death did pass Him on, were a scene of far greater trial than the scene from which it carried Him away. No doubt this, which Paul declareth, was the common doctrine of the apostles ; and therefore it is they lay such a prodigious stress upon His resurrection, that pillar of their system, that mere incumbrance of ours, who neither will nor can be persuaded to look farther than the cross. But the apostle Paul saw deeper into this mystery, when, in the passage from which I quoted, he adds, that " Christ, though a Son, learned obedience by the things which he suffered ;" and thereby was made perfect for the office of the priesthood ; to which, he had argued, it was indispensable that every one called thereto should have a fellow-feeling with those for whom he offered, and compassion upon them which are out of the way, as being himself compassed about with infirmity. This Christ not having in Himself, being a Son, and no alien, or enemy, had, as it were, to learn by passing through the afflictions of life, and the sorrows of death, and the pains of hell or the separate state ; until, having proved the uttermost trials of those whom He would redeem, and being risen from them all, perfected for the Priesthood, He did become " the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God a high priest, after the order of Melchizedec." ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 295 Of these words, therefore, the last which He uttered on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ;" I think the true key to be this, — That when the swimmings and swoonings of real death were ready to come upon Him ; and He felt that His body, upon the resurrection of which depended the resur- rection of all saints and the restoration of the material world» was ibout to descend into the strongholds of death and cor- ruption ; and that His spirit was about to descend naked into :he place of separate spirits, and to wrestle with the spiritaal powers thereof, which were ready with all their migh: to oppose the going forth thence of His soul, and the souls of all saints ; He was moved, yea, and overwhelmed with the power which death and the grave were mustering ag^ainst Him ; with the gathering gloom of the hour and power of darkness, which thickened more and more. And alithe strong cryings, and tears, and prayers, and supplica- tiois, which He had made during His life to be delivered fro.i death, were gathered and concentrated into one biggest utterance of desolation and abandonment ; which was ex- presed in these words, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsicen me !" while, on the other hand, all the faith which at variois times He had exercised under His many trials, and whia had so triumphantly carried Him through them all, beini summoned up to His help, was so distressed and put abou by the multitude of His present enemies, that it had but pwer to breathe out a prayer, such as the most outcast sinnei and public criminal will adopt, and doth commonly adopt" Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." To nderstand the cause of this extremity, and of the con- dition ito which the Lord passed after death, it is necessary to go Uck, and reflect a little upon that original curse, from the po^r of which He had come forth to redeem men : " In the da^thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The sen- tence v.s death, and death is the execution of the sentence. What, len, is life ? Life we hold of the purchase of Christ's sacrific(made from the foundation of the world. Whether you regrd the life of any individual, or the life of the race of men, orhe life of animals, or the vegetable life of the world, 296 THE INCARNATION: it is all a fruit, a common fruit of redemption, a benefit of the death of Christ, from all eternity purposed, and so far as God is concerned accomplished also. Nevertheless, like all the benefits of Christ's death which are common to all, it is not of the nature of a covenant, but of a grant at will ; not of a cer- tainty, but of a possibility ; and, therefore, cannot be calcu- lated upon for a day or for an hour. And though there be light diffused around, and every necessary of life, and the materials of much enjoyment ; still it is all in uncertainty ; a chaos, out of which something fixed and stable seeneth to be forming itself, but not the very thing ; a life in cfcath, and a death in life ; a hope, a promise, a possibility] but no more : the enemy being held at bay, but growling ii the distance, and ever snatching his prey upon the right land and the left, yet restrained : as it were, a respite, but not a reprieve ; an arena for certain trials and preparations pre- vious to the sealing of the fixed and ultimate mandae. Such is life. But death is not such : it is no promise Or threatening, but the very reality ; not a hopeful possibilcy, but a stern necessity : within the verge of which lies nore- pentance nor remission, nor change for better or for woise ; but fate, irrevocable fate. Death is indeed like the fulfilrjent of a word of God, it is so steadfast and immovable, jb is not like sickness, which is fluctuating ; nor like disease, wich is curable ; nor like sorrow, which is mitigable : nor is \ the conflict of good and ill, .of hope and fear; but the corfum- mation and perpetuity either of the one or of the jither. Death is the execution of the mandate ; it is the prse eflected ; the expulsion from the very hope and drern of Eden. Such is the difference between life and dean ; so great and comprehensive, that they are in human laifuage used as the most direct of all opposites, and the most?olent of all contraries. And yet even death hath receive from Christ's sacrifice a certain benefit, which retardeth te evil day of the curse's consummation, which taketh noj effect until after the judgment in the second death. Mehwhile there is to the body a rest in the grave ; and to the jparate soul there is a looking for and a waiting for of judment : which conditions of rest and fearful expectation, evel in the ITS PREPARA TION AND ACT. 297 wickedest, are nothing to be compared to the awful reality of woe and misery which cometh on in the second death ; and which would doubtless have been the instantaneous effect of the curse, had it not been beaten off and postponed by the powerful mediation and intercession of Christ, slain for us from the foundation of the world. I say, that, but for Christ and His righteousness, this earth had instantly, on the fall of man, passed into the condition of the lake that burneth, and man into the condition of the second death ; or, like the angels which kept not their first estate, he had been impri- soned in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. Such is the common, such is the universal remedy of that offering, that it is by virtue of the redemption of Christ the sun shineth upon the evil and the good ; by the redemp- tion of Christ the rain descendeth upon the just and the un- just ; by reason of the redemption of Christ the body resteth in the grave ; and by reason of the redemption of Christ the separate spirits are in prison, and not in the lake that burneth, which is the second death. So that the curse doth not com- pletely take effect until the day of judgment ; at which it will be found that this earth hath been redeemed gloriously, and the bodies of innumerable saints have arisen gloriously from the dead, and the souls of innumerable saints have come forth gloriously from the paradise of the separate spirits to enjoy the heaven which Christ hath sanctified and blessed, and for the inhabitation of which He hath sanctified and blessed them. Now, brethren, after meditating these common, and I may say universal, blessings of redemption, which flow from our Lord's humiliation, let us consider more particularly what He hath accomplished within this space and condition, which He had won from instant perdition, for the sake of those who have made with Him a covenant by sacrifice. This present season of life, and that future delay of the second death, I regard but as so much room made for displaying certain gracious objects, and bringing to pass certain glorious pur- poses, by which the glory of God may be advanced over and above the glory of Satan, the triumphs of faith and love over falsehood and malice : and this room, which the virtue of His 298 THE INCARNATION: sacrifice had gained out of the grasp of the curse, Christ hath occupied upon the earth with a Church, and in the realms beneath with a paradise. For as there is upon the earth a Church and an outward world ; so is there beneath, or, as the Scriptures say, under the earth, a paradise and a prison, a place of comparative blessedness and comparative misery ; though not to be likened, as I judge, to that blessed- ness and misery which shall be realised after the judgment. Which Church upon the earth, being compared with the world, is, as it were, a paradise ; wherein are found the grace of God and His forgiveness, and peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and truth and righteousness, and the com- munion of saints, and the hope of salvation, and whatever other blessings pertain to God's own inheritance. Whereas the world is under sin and condemnation ; and Satan is its prince, and destruction its certain doom : it is deceived, and is in bondage, and discord, and discontent ; in one word, it is but the court of the prison into which they pass at death ; and that prison of darkness is but the safe and doleful lodg- ing in which they are kept until the day of judgment, upon which ensueth the eternity of the second death. Now as this Church hath been in the living world, on this side of death, since the fall ; so also from the beginning hath that paradise been in the spiritual world, on the other side of death. And as of that church Abraham is commonly represented as the father, being called the father of the faithful ; so that para- dise is called the bosom of Abraham, where the righteous, who have been followers of his faith, are quiet sharers in the blessed and beatific repose of his spirit. These two blessed certainties, therefore — the certainty of the Church on earth, and the certainty of the paradise of blessedness into which they are gathered — are the two great and glorious works which Christ hath wrought within the coasts of time, and beyond the bourne of the grave. And besides these, it is well said in our Catechism, that " the bodies of the saints, being united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resur- rection." Now, though these two most blessed estates, the Church and the paradise, on this side of death and on the other side ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 299 of death, have been in being since the fall, purchased by the infinite value of Christ's eternal sacrifice, and produced by the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost, who bringeth into substantial being that which the Word hath obtained and verified ; yet, notwithstanding, when Christ was manifested, He had in the body to pay the ransom and undergo the humiliation ; to come under the curse, and overcome the enemies of His Church. He suffered for Abraham and for Moses, and the former Church, as well as for Peter and Paul, and the latter Church. In His life He fought the battle for the life of His Church, and prevailed ; and by that victory, which He gained over sin in the flesh, we are assured of victory over sin in the flesh ; and by that defeat which He gave to our spiritual enemies, we are as- sured of defeating them ; and by His victory over the world, we triumph over it : and so on, through all the temptations and vicissitudes on this side the grave. Our High Priest having been tried with the same, and having prevailed, we are sure of prevailing when we are tried. — But, brethren, what say you of the state beyond death .? Of the body, we say that it will rise, because Christ's also rose : His resurrec- tion is the comfort of my body in death : " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and therefore in my flesh I shall see him." True ; a most blessed truth, dearly to be cherished by this frail and painful body. But of thy separate spirit, my brother, what assurance hast thou } what becometh of it } Why, my Lord's spirit descended into the place of separate spirits ; and, in spite of all the powers thereof. He returned back again to the realms of light, even to the earth, and re- claimed His body from the tomb : and therefore I am assured that my spirit also shall come forth thence, when the fulness of time is come ; shall come forth unto the earth, and reclaim my body from the tomb. But if Christ descended not thither, what assurance hast thou .'' for I have none. The secrets of that place if my Redeemer hath not penetrated into, if He hath not rifled them, then indeed it is a gloomy mansion, whose strength I know not, or rather whose weakness I know not. Besides, if Christ descended not thither, how was that paradise won from the waste .-^ We see how by His life, by 300 THE INCARNA TION : the humiliation and victory of His life, the Church was won from the waste world ; but how in life could that which is not within the realms of life be won ? The Lord certainly, therefore, in descending into hell (not the place of torment, but the place of separate spirits), went thither to build the gates of paradise upon the rock of His Divinity, as He had builded in His life the gates of His Church thereon ; to drive back the powerful demons ; to found the impassable gulf, and make it sure ; and to establish the spirits of His saints in blessedness. In order to accomplish the former. He went through the humiliation and suffering of life ; and in order to accomplish the latter, He went through the humiliation and suffering beyond life : in entering into which. He cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" yet by faith prevailed to add, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." It is into this, the last and lowest act of the Lord's humiliation, that we are inquiring, by the light and guidance of the Holy Scriptures. And now for the further illustration of this, the fourth act in the Lord's humiliation — which I have opened with the more latitude, because it not only is not regarded in our present shallowness of doctrine and enlightened abhorrence of all mystery; but is wholly rejected, under the influence of a loose, popular, confused notion, that our Lord's soul did instantly upon His death pass into the glorious presence of God ; which I have no hesitation in denouncing as a fun- damental error in doctrine, and one of a very evil con- sequence— I say, in further illustration of the sore pains of death, and restrictions of the separate state . (or, as the Creed hath it, of "hell") into which the Lord descended, I have these two types or emblems, contained in the Old Testament, to offer unto you, — the entombing of Jonah in the belly of the whale, and the lengthening out of Heze- kiah's life : the former upon our Lord's own authority ; the latter upon good grounds, which, if time permit, I shall ex- plain. In the 1 2th chapter of Matthew, at the 39th verse, our Lord, in answer to the Pharisees who sought of Him a sign, thus delivered Himself: "An evil and adulterous generation / TS PRE PA RA riON AND ACT. 301 seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas : for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." In various parts of the Old Testament, especially of the prophet Isaiah, as in chapters xi., xviii., and xxxi., Messiah is said to set up an ensign for His people, unto which the Gen- tiles should seek in fear and terror. And the Jews, little acquainted, and caring not to acquaint themselves, with the prophecies of Messiah's humiliation and suffering, wanted that ensign, or sign, (for these words are one in the Septuagint and the Gospels,) to which the prophets did attach such glorious effects, and which they expected in tenfold more power and glory than that which accompanied Moses and the congrega- tion in the pillar of the cloud. The fulfilment of this promise, Christ admonisheth that generation not to expect, because it was an evil and adulterous generation, not worthy to enter into glory, but into deep humiliation and suffering: and there- fore the sign which they should receive from the Son of man would be that of the prophet Jonah ; who, for his rebellion against God, was cast into the deep, and swallowed up of the whale, in whose dark and loathsome belly he abode three days and three nights. This sign, He further declareth, should be given in the person of the Son of man, who in like manner should be three days and three nights — that is, (ac- cording to the Eastern custom of speaking unto this day,) for a period which should be portioned out of three days and three nights — in the heart of the earth. Now, brethren, a sign must answer, and be conformable to, the thing signified, otherwise it is no sign of that thing, but the sign of some- thing else. Thus, baptism is a sign of regeneration, because, if you^ take it by sprinkling, it signifieth our being purged from an evil conscience by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, which the Holy Ghost taketh and applieth unto our souls ; or, if you take it by dipping, which the Church hinder- eth not, though she judgeth it not indispensable, then it sig- nifieth the being buried with Christ as to our old man, and risen with Him as to our new man, to live unto God. Like- wise the Lord's Supper is a sign of the new man's feeding 302 THE INCARNA TION: upon the body and blood of Christ. The doctrine that the two sacraments are no more than bare and naked signs, we utterly abhor and detest ; but that they are most apt and beautiful signs of that consummated life, whereof they are also the actual and sealed commencement and continuance in them who believe, and in those who believe not the seals of their apostasy, there can be no doubt. And in somewhat the same manner we should expect the abiding of the Son of man in the heart of the earth to be a sign unto that evil and adul- terous generation. But, if the season of three days and three nights, during which He there abode, was a season of rest, or a season of joy and glory, how, I ask, could it be a sign unto that evil and adulterous generation, which was about to be cast into the furnace of the wrath of God, into the desolation, and dissolution, and death, in which they have abidden unto this day .'' Or how could it be paralleled with the state of Jonah in the whale's belly, the saddest, gloomiest, most desperate, and most loathsome into which man was ever brought .'' of which we may say, that as God's almighty power could alone have effected it, so His omniscient mind could alone have imagined it : but how fit an emblem of that low and miserable estate into which the Jews have been brought ; whose overwhelming degradation and abysmal suffering hath as much surpassed the judgments of all other nations, as Jonah's degradation and captivity surpassed the conception and the experience of every other man's captivity ! For the Jews have been swallowed up alive, and alive preserved, in the great behemoth of power which rageth in the sea of this unredeemed world. What, then, must the Son of man's con- dition during three days and nights' abode in the heart of the earth have been .'' How abject, how dishonourable, how sor- rowful ! in order to stand between Jonah's misery and the misery of the Jewish people, the antitype of the former, and the prototype of the latter. It must, indeed, have been such as passeth all comprehension and belief: into the gulf where- of when He was passing downward, like Jonah into the open throat of that loathsome living sepulchre which widely opened its armed jaws upon the prophet, He cried aloud, " My God, ITS PREPARATION AND ACT. 303 my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" How absurd, how exceedingly absurd, then, to set forth the experience of the Lord's soul between death and the re- surrection, as an experience of rest and joyfulness, merely because He said unto the thief upon the cross, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise !" But, dear brethren, God for- bid that I should for a moment doubt the blessed estate of that thief, and all the saints who sleep in Jesus, while I maintain that Christ endured a most fearful conflict during His abode in the'separate state. I no more doubt the blessedness of the saints there, than I doubt their blessedness here. But by what means, in this life, do the saints come by the peace that passeth all understanding, and the joy of the Holy Ghost ? Was it not procured to us by the sufferings of Christ in the flesh ? Because we have joy in the days of our flesh, had He therefore joy also ? Yes, He had joy ; but did He not work it out by strong contentions and bloody sweat ? In like manner, while I doubt not the blessedness of the sepa- rate state, but most surely believe that the bodies of His people do rest united unto Christ, ready to come with Him at His coming, I as surely believe that they enjoy this estate of rest and blessedness only in virtue of that conquest over death and over hell which He achieved by descending into death and hell. And by how much the empire of Satan in death is stronger than the empire of Satan in life ; by how much the corruption of the body by the worm is a more complete work of sin, than any sickness or sorrow in life ; by how much Satan's power over a disembodied spirit, shut out from the hope- ful and somewhat cheerful world, is more mighty by far than his power over an embodied soul, with all the comforts of the earth and possibilities of the regeneration around it ; by how much hopelessness is more miserable than hope, and neces- sity more obdurate than possibility ; by how much, in short, the powers of death and hell, and the outer darkness of their dominion, is more terrible than any abode of settled and con- fined misery upon the earth : even by so much more fearful was the struggle, by so much more hideous was the front of 304 THE INCARNATION: battle, by so much more terrible the labours of the conflict, by so much more glorious the achievement of the victory, which the Son of man fought, endured, and achieved over death and hell, than was that which He fought, and en- dured, and achieved, over the powers of the world and the flesh. For Satan was the cause of both conflicts ; Satan and his host were the rulers of the fleshly and of the spiritual conflict which our Lord endured. Who, when He had over- come Satan in the world, and condemned sin in the flesh, did lay aside His fleshly mantle, and in spiritual nakedness descend into a spiritual battle with spiritual wickednesses, with the thrones and dominions and powers of darkness. And when He had overpowered them in their own strongest region, He returned, and took His body out of the hands of the hungry grave, from the ravenous powers of corruption; and, being once more clothed. He tarried with His Church until the day of His ascension into glory. And in token of His victory, He brought from the state of separate spirits as many of the saints as it seemed to Him good ; who also took their bodies from the grave, and went with Him into glory. But the best trophy which He left behind Him in that sepa- rate state, is the blessedness in which the souls of His people abide, and the hopefulness in which their bodies rest ; being assured of, and earnestly looking forward to, the day of their manifestation ; when from their present secret and unseen abodes they shall come forth, arrayed in the glory with which the Son of man shall then be adorned — if, after their resur- rection, they be not appointed for a season to set the Church in order, and establish it triumphant over all the earth ; and thereafter to be brought by the Lord into the glorious pre- sence of the Father. So much light upon this mystery do I derive from the sign of Jonas, which was given to that evil and adulterous genera- tion in the burial of the body of the Son of man, and the abode of His soul for part of three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. There is much more to be derived from that sign, both as respecteth the time and the place of His abode ; which I reserve until I shall come, in the course of our regular lectures, to take up that passage of the gospel. ITS PRE PA RA TION AND ACT. 305 With respect to the instance of the prolongation of Heze- kiah's hfe, time doth not permit me at present to enter into it. But I pray you to observe carefully, and at your leisure to meditate diligently, the two prayers, or prophetic songs, which Jonas and Hezekiah uttered on those two most memor- able occasions ; and you will see how the Holy Spirit carrieth them beyond their experience, and indeed all human experi- ence, and doth indite a canticle which may serve to bear the faith of the Church onward to some deeper humiliation, and greater prolongation of life, than those instances which to them had occurred. And you may lay it down as a rule universal, that in all the acts of the Lord's providence which arc typical — as the swallowing up of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the gift of Samuel unto his mother Hannah, the swallowing up of Jonas, and the prolongation of Hezekiah's life, and, above all, the numerous incidents of David's life, which were almost all prophetical — in all such prophetical events, I say, yoii will find an accompanying song, psalm, or canticle, which the Holy Spirit did add, as the interpretation of the same : and of that song, psalm, or canticle, you will always find the lan- guage too large for the event, the terms too magnificent, the consequences too vast and enduring ; in short, you will find it to include and enclose the particulars of that special event in a glorious canopy of large and eternal blessings — as the heavens do surround and encompass the earth ; whereof the blue vault doth take its spherical appearance from the form of the earth, and in all its motions doth represent the earth, with its restful poles and circular revolutions ; but is high above the earth, and vast beyond the earth ; as the ways of God and the thoughts of God are high and vast beyond the ways and thoughts of man. After perusing these two pro- phetic prayers of Jonas and Hezekiah, I pray you to study the 88th Psalm and the I42d ; also the 40th, the 139th, and parts of many more ; and you will perceive how very large a portion of God's anticipative providence, and anticipative word, hath distinct and separate reference to this second scene of humiliation, concerning which we have been dis- coursing. VOL. V. U 3o6 THE INCARNATION: And now, dearly-beloved brethren, these two great divi- sions of our Lord's humiliation, which He endured at the hands of wickedness in this world, and of the spirits of dark- ness in their proper abode of darkness, should bear a twofold aspect upon us, who are the servants and followers of Christ : first, as respecteth this world, with the wicked men of which this subject calleth us to contend earnestly, in the assurance of victory ; and, secondly, as respecteth the mansions of death, and the separate estate ; into which it enableth us to descend without any fear or dread, to work the work which may there be assigned us. First, as respecteth the wicked men of this world : you are to separate yourselves from their wickedness, while, as the Lord did, you are to mingle with their com- panies and engage in their conversations ; testifying every- where for truth and righteousness, and patiently bearing the reproach of them that reproach God and Christ. "What profit is it, if, when ye are reproached for your faults, you bear it patiently ? but if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you : and if, when ye do well, ye suffer for it patiently, this is acceptable unto God ; for even hereunto were ye called : for Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps." Shun not this conflict with the men of the world, neither flee away from their evil and reproach- ful treatment of you ; but wait the time of the Lord's deliver- ance, and meanwhile commit yourself unto Him that judgeth righteously. And remember, brethren, that it is not the base and unbaptized world, but the Church which hath apostatised to the world, with which you have to contend : and this bringeth you more closely to the fellowship of the Lord's sufferings. Every one of those who are of the world have gone out from us, and preferred the present evil world : they have rejected Christ, and they must reject every one who beareth the image of Christ. They choose the darkness, though the light shineth around them : they elect the path of evil, though they were, at their baptism, introduced, and have ever since been entreated back, into the path of up- rightness. What, therefore, can you look for at the hands of such but the enduring vindictiveness of apostates, the ITS PRE PARA TION AND ACT. 307 persecuting rage and violence of apostates ? Who are of two classes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees: the former adhering to their forms of ritual service, and their outward works of piety and charity ; the latter adhering to their intel- lectual self-sufficiency and enlightened scepticism. And I tell you, brethren, that the Pharisaical sect of apostates will vex and trouble you, because you do not exalt and uphold the visible beauty of the doctrine or the discipline — that is, the beautiful stones of their temple, or the Divine and inde- feasible right of their Mount Gerizim. And if, over and above their social and sectarian devices for bringing about the Lord's glory and the earth's blessedness, you will exalt Christ's second coming as the great desire of the Church and expectation of the ends of the earth ; though you should not neglect their tithe of mint and cummin, if you will insist for the mightier matters of the gospel-hope, as the destruction of Antichrist, and the judgment of an apostate faithless Church, and the glorious coming of the Lord, and the bringing in of the Jewish Church with demonstration of mighty power, and the quick judgment and utter downfall of the apostate Gentiles ; you must expect contempt, persecution, and, perhaps, in the end, excommunication and death. While from the enlightened and philosophical (falsely so called) Sadducees — that is, our liberal and benevolent disbelievers in all the mysteries of our holy religion — you must expect the uttermost scorn and derision, as men of disordered minds and dangerous opinions. And what then .-• " Be patient unto the coming of the Lord." Con- sider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself; whose enemies were those of His own household; whose lovers and friends were put far away from Him ; who looked for comforters, but found none ; " who was despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Behold, the Judge is at the door. Hold up your heads, because your redemption draweth nigh. Then shall we be glorified when God hath been glorified in us. But we must first drink of His cup, and be baptized with His bap- tism, in order to enter into His kingdom. Secondly, my dear friends, and beloved brethren in the Lord, look forward to the grave and the abode of the sepa- 308 THE INC A RNA TION : rate spirits (if the Lord should delay His coming, and not change us in the flesh) ; look forward to the unseen chambers of the grave, and the paradise of God, as to a resting with Christ, and a rejoicing in Christ, against the day of our es- pousals with Him whom our soul loveth. For Christ carried these powers also captive at His chariot wheels: according to that word of St Paul, " Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth ?" This day's discourse is the assurance to the believer of the continuance there of the same triumph over the prince of darkness, which he hath had in the present life. Yea, and of a place of rest in Abraham's bosom ; — but not of unanti- cipating satisfaction ; nay, but of longing, of earnest longing, and of active praying, until the day of the reunion of the soul with the body, and her marriage with the Lamb. Ay, and more : I believe a state of activity, of active driving back and discomfiting of Satan's evil power in those regions ; of wounding, and bruising, and vexing, and plaguing him, and conquering and triumphing over him, and perpetuating the work which in those mansions the Lord did set on foot. Into which things I enter not at large ; but am content to ensure you that the same presence of Christ which sustained you here, and made you more than conquerors in flesh over sin, and over Satan in the world enthroned, will sustain you there, and make you more than conquerors over Satan in his spiritual power ; there being no more doubt, no more uncer- tainty, but glory, joy, and assurance, expectation, desire, and earnest longing for the day of our manifestation as the sons of God, for the day of our adoption by the redemption of the body. O brethren, what a scene of deep meditation I have car- ried you over ! opening to you the humiliation of the Son of man for the end of God's glory and our salvation ; — His con- tention with all the spirits of evil in earthly places, and in the deep places of their unhindered strength ; — His temptations in flesh with every form of sin, and His extreme and utter desertion in death ; — a threefold region, deeper and deeper still of trial and of suffering ; the first, commencing from the temptation in the wilderness, and extending over His life ; ITS PREPARATION AND ACT 309 the second, commencing from the Garden of Gethsemanc, and extending to His death ; the last, commencing from those excruciating words, " My God, my God, why hast thou for- saken me!" and extending over the period of His disem- bodied being. All this travail of the Son of man, my brethren, was undergone for the glory of God in the re- demption of our souls! What think you, then, of the un- measurable love with which God hath loved you in His Son ? What think you of the inexpressible value of your souls, which were bought with such a price ? What think you of the inconceivable glory for which such deep humiliation pre- pared the way ? Will you then contemn this love ; will you set at nought this sacrifice ; will you barter away this birth- right of glory, because you have to be followers of this humi- lity ? Count ye it not rather honourable to walk where the Son of God walked, and to suffer wherein He suffered ? For its own sake, would you not rather suffer with the Son of God, than enjoy the pleasures of sin, or rejoice with the ser- vants of sin ? Or would you shuffle off the form of His humiliation, strike a truce with the world, and give way to the devil, and indulge the flesh ; and perish utterly ? Perish utterly from the way, all who are ashamed of Christ's cross ! Perish utterly from the way, all who go about to please them- selves, and not Him whose disciples and servants we are ! O Lord, grant us grace never to be ashamed of Thy Son ! O God, grant us grace never to be ashamed of the Son of man ! Endow us with strength to follow Him through good and through bad report ; and to give our life for Him who gave His life a ransom for us ; yea, and to give our life for the brethren for whom He died. For the encouragement of such devoted fcllow-suffcring, for the ashaming of such shrinking and apostate fears, take this discourse as my offering unto you, dear brethren ; wherein I have, according to my gift, laid out in order the fourfold act of humiliation and suffering which the Son of man under- went in order to bring glory unto God, to be to us both for instruction and for assurance : for instruction, to guide us in the way ; and for assurance, to encourage us in the way. If we would bring glory to God, and be glorified with the glory 3 1 o THE INCARNA TION : of the Son of man, we must walk in His footsteps, and con- tend with the devil, the world, and the flesh, as He did ; and, having fought the good fight, and finished our course, enter, as He did, into the joy of our Lord. And to success in this, nothing will avail but earnestly and constantly to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith ; who endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He died only to bear fruit in us ; by death to destroy him that had the power of death, and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage : He died to bruise Satan under our feet : He died to condemn sin in the flesh, and to deliver us from the curse of the law into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. We are the fruit which have grown from that seed that fell into the ground and died. We have the first-fruits of that glory into which He entered, even the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our glory : and it is in no single strength, it is in no human or private strength, that we go out to this warfare against the devil, the world, and the flesh ; but it is in the strength of Him who conquered : for we are but a continuation of His strength ; His very body, possessed with His very Spirit : in us God worketh mightily to will and to do of His good pleasure : " We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Therefore, beloved brethren, this discourse, descriptive of Christ's suffer- ings, is a discourse exhortative and instructive to you to un- dertake the fellowship of the same : this discourse, descriptive of Christ's triumph over all His and your enemies, is a dis- course full of assurance to every one who believeth in Christ. It is by spreading our souls in wide contemplation of the mighty work of God in the humiliation and exaltation of the Son of man ; it is by collecting our souls in intenser medita- tion upon the personal experiences of the Son of man ; that we shall grow into His image ; and be led of the Holy Spirit into these the deep things of God, into which I have sought a little to introduce you this day. Therefore I do entreat ITS PRE PARA TION AND A CT. 3 1 1 you to "consider Him who endured such contradiction of sin- ners against Himself, lest you also be weary and faint in your minds." He hath set us an example, that we should follow His steps. " Now, the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will ; working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever! Amen." V. THE FRUITS OF THE INCARNATION. EpH. I. 2. Grace be to yon, and peace. "VVT'E have, in the preceding discourses, considered the incarnation as a great purpose of the Divine coun- sels, designed for the ends of God's own glory, and accom- plished by the manifestation of God's fulness in the person of the Son, who for that end became man : and it remains that \ve should now shew what fruits, unto the children of men and unto the world, it hath left behind it. To endea- vour to estimate how much mankind are the better for this wonderful act of God, is the subject of our present dis- course. And here we do, of design, limit ourselves to that which we actually possess, without entering into the infinite field of what we shall inherit hereafter. Not that I can separate the gospel into parts, and discourse of it piece- meal ; but that I can shew how the fulness of it bears upon this present condition in which the world since the incarnation of Christ hath been passing its days. For I would be considerate of the Church's present sickly and infirm condition ; and would not sicken her weakened appe- tite by presenting such objects of faith as a second advent, and a glorious kingdom of the saints upon the earth ; but would humbly endeavour, by serving out some such food as she hath a relish for, to bring her into a state of lustier and stronger health. Because, God knows, I pity from my heart our leanness, and I know too well the communion of the saints to think that I, or any other, can escape from it other wise than by endeavouring to deliver all the election of grace. There is a law of organisation in the body of Christ, which THE INCARNATION: ITS FRUITS. 6'6 forbiddeth one to flee from, and stand independent of, the rest. As soon might one member of the body expect to thrive by labouring for itself only. Now, in considering the subject of the fruits which we have from the incarnation, I perceive them to be twofold — the one respecting our knowledge of the grace of God ; the other re- specting our enjoyment of peace within ourselves. Of the substance of this grace and peace, as derived from the incar- nation, I would first speak. Then I would speak of the free publication of them to men. And, thirdly, of the application of them to every individual. PART I. I am first, therefore, to speak of the substance of that grace and peace with which we are blessed by the incarna- tion of Jesus Christ. I. And first, of grace. — The grace of God is an essential and substantial part of the Divine being and existency, like wisdom, or justice, or goodness, or truth : not an accidental, but an eternal and necessary, attribute of His substance ; which He may reveal and manifest to His creatures, or with- hold to His own enjoyment, as it may seem good to His own infinite wisdom and unrestrained will. But if it is to be mani- fested to the creatures, those who are the subjects of it must have come under His mortal displeasure ; because grace is more than goodness — it is forgiveness and favour to those who have deserved our displeasure. And how creatures are to become objects of the disfavour of God, who is invari- able in His goodness, otherwise than by despising His good- ness in their creation, and setting His holy will at nought, and trampling on the expressed and ordained laws of their being, is not to be conceived. Sin, therefore, is a pre-re- quisite to grace ; and only a sinner can be the subject of grace : others may know goodness, but sinners alone can know grace. And herein is beheld the mystery of the fall of man, and of the entering in of sin, in order to make way for the manifestation of that grace of God which could not other- 314 THE INCARNA TION : wise be divulged. But while this is truly so, and doth com- fort us with the power and purpose of God in bringing good out of evil, we are not therefore the less to stand amazed with horror at sin, or the less to admire the boundless love and grace of God in redeeming us from sin. It doth, indeed, but reflect the greater honour and glory upon this attribute of the Divine character concerning which we discourse, that it should come in to restore and rebuild, to heal and remedy, the disagreement and disorder of that most excellent work which was produced from the labour of all the other attri- butes of God. In all our discourse, therefore, of the manifes- tation and operation of grace, we should never fail to remem- ber that its fountain is in God, and that all its abundance proceedeth from Him. But though this grace be an essential part of the Divine substance which doth require a sinful creature to exercise itself upon, it is an act of Divine will and sovereignty whether it shall be exercised at all, and also upon whom it shall be exercised : whereof the great and standing proof is given to us in His having passed by the angels which kept not their first estate, whose sin gives them no claim to that which we of sovereign grace received. There can be no doubt that the Lord might have left us all to perish in that estate of sin and misery into which we had fallen : otherwise, if there lay any incumbency upon Him, it were no more grace, but obliga- tion. If He were not free to pass us by, then was He obliged to take us up ; and room for grace there were none. Grace is not goodness, nor is it harmony, nor is it wisdom, nor any other attribute of God which is exhibited in creation ; but it is that power and liberty which remaineth in God after all these have done their work, and seen that work frustrated by sin, to come in the second time, and out of the ruins build a more glorious temple than the first, so framed and fashioned as to reveal hidden treasures of the Godhead which the first could never bring to light. The question why there should be a ruin at all we touch not here : we do but say, that a ruin there must be, a fallen and miserable estate of sin, before grace hath any occasion to discover or room to display itself It is in recovering men from ruin, and saving them from per- dition, that the grace of God exerts itself; as His power did ITS FRUITS. 315 exert itself in creating them at first. And grace shews itself in wisdom and in righteousness and in harmony and in holi- ness and in goodness and in truth, even as creation did : so that I feel obliged to take a somewhat higher ground, and say, that grace is not an attribute of God, like wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth: but a form of the will of God, whereof all those arc but the attributes or character- istics. As the will to create was waited on and carried into effect by all those attendant attributes, so also was the will to save. The act of grace is, therefore, like the act of creation, and hath its similitude in nothing else. It is another mood, if I may so express it, in the Divine mind ; another act in the great mystery of manifesting Himself. Grace, therefore, is not mercy, but mercy is to be seen in grace ; it is not holiness, but holiness is to be seen in grace ; and so of every other attribute of the Godhead. It is a new act of the Divine will, in which all the features of the Divinity will manifest themselves. And, still a little higher to ascend into the nature of grace, I would observe, that it is not, as it were, the second term of a decreasing, but of an increasing series ; not of a descending, but of an ascending ratio : it is not the repairing of a breach, or the reforming of a mistake, or the remedying of a disease ; but it is the further opening of the mystery of the Divine Being, and the exalting of the Divine handiwork into a higher region : not to place man where Adam was, but far above what Adam had the idea of; to exalt the nature of man into consubstantial and eternal union with the nature of God, and in humanity to make God for ever manifest, and to lift the sons of men into the nearest link of the chain which hangeth from the throne of God. There is a great over- estimate and exaggeration of the work of creation, by trans- ferring to it the spiritual ideas which we have obtained from the regeneration, and decking out the primitive estate of the first Adam with honours derived from the essential properties of the second Adam : but to me it is clear and manifest, that the second Adam, which is the child of the regenerating Spirit, is as much superior to the first Adam, which is the child of the creating Spirit, as a quickening spirit is to a living soul, as the spiritual body of the resurrection is to the natural body which we have at present ; as the prime place 3 1 6 THE INCARNA TION: and prerogative of heaven is to the possession of a garden, and the sovereignty of the angels of heaven is to the sovereignty of the creatures of the earth. And by how much I believe the issues of the regeneration to be unspeakably more noble than the issues of creation were, by so much do I believe this second act of the will of the Godhead, which is revealed in grace, to be more excellent than the former act of creation was. It is a great step forward in the great work of self- manifestation ; it is a high advancement in the progress of the stability and blessedness of all things. — So much, in general, may be said concerning the nature and dignity of grace. And now I proceed to speak in particular of grace as manifested in the redemption of sinful men by Jesus Christ. " The law was given by Moses ; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." For though it be oft written in the Old Testament, that God is gracious, and full of compassion, and plenteous in mercy, as was proper to a dawning dispensation, preparatory to the full manifestation of the same, there was no open revelation of the manner how, or the means where- by, a sinner could be justified, until Christ came. They were concluded under sin by the law, and shut up there, until the Redeemer should come to bear the iniquity of Jacob. Nor could it otherwise be, until the Father was plainly revealed ; which, again, could not be, until the Son came forth from His bosom. This revelation of the Father, which no one but the Son was competent to make, is the revelation of the grace which is in the will of God. The name, Father, by which we are permitted to name the First Person of the blessed Tri- nity, is the proper name of all grace, mercy, and love, com- bined with all authority and power and will. By which name no one may approach the Godhead, but he who believeth in Christ, and hath been taught of the Holy Spirit. And, in truth, the revelation of God under a Trinity of Persons is the manifestation of His grace ; and till grace was to be mani- fested, this name of God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — could not be named, might not be imagined, must be shrouded in a mystery inaccessible to the view of prophet or to the eye of seer : and I reckon it to be little less than a dishonour- ing of our Prophet's prerogative to go about to search for the ITS FRUITS. 317 open revelation of it in the Old Testament, or in the work of creation. I believe that in the work of creation it cannot by- searching be found out ; and in the Old Testament can be discovered only by the interpretations and fulfilments of the New. And whosoever can frame to utter this name with his spirit, is born of God. The Father's grace is manifested in His being willing to become a Father to those who had already subverted them- selves from His favour, and brought themselves under His wrath and curse : it was further manifested by His willingness to suffer His Son to go forth of His bosom, and take sinful flesh, and come under cursed conditions ; which was a thing never to have been imagined, nor ever to have been believed, had it not been performed ; and never to have been performed, had not the grace of God been able to surpass all limits, both of imagination and belief. For in every act of that humiliation of His Son, as in the first idea of it, the Father must be hidden in the righteous Judge ; and this, too, that He may be known as a Father. In order, I say, to be known as a Father to the rebellious. He must hide His fatherhood from the only- begotten and well-beloved Son : which, I say again, were a thing incredibly paradoxical if it had not really been. And it never would have been, save to make known the infinite excellencies and profound mysteries of Divine grace ; how justice, and holiness, and most precious sacrifice and the sus- pension of tenderest love, how anguish, and tears, and groans, and the strongest torments, and the deepest abasement, must all be swallowed up in the amplitude of the signification and power of grace. I may call creation a pastime, if I call grace a work ; or if you will call creation a work, then I must call grace His strange work, His peerless and surpassing work. The one is but as the formless chaos, upon whose heaving disorder and restless strife the glorious attributes of grace are to be engraven for ever, in the order and beauty and blessed- ness of an eternal and unchangeable world. Of this most gracious act of the Father, to suspend His love of His only-begotten Son, the image of Himself, the fulness of His own perfections ; and to suffer Him to come into the sorest tribulation and most perilous risk; yea, to 3i8 THE INCARNATION : arm His right hand with the sword of His wrath against Him, as one accursed ; — of this act of the Godhead, I say, the boundless range and immense wealth of grace could never have been known, nor believed, but by the reducing of it into act, and shewing it out in the very fact of the incarnation of the Eternal Word ; wherein the mystery of grace becometh manifest, and the contemplation of it possible, though the comprehension of it be utterly beyond our reach. " Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not" — no created thing, nor aught that by creation could be produced, was of any avail : grace came not under that type at all, and hath no relation thereto whatever, " Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ?" No, nor with all the creatures that came forth out of nothing by the power of the creating Word. " Shall I give my first-born for my transgression ? the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" It were of no avail. What then } " He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good : and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God .?" He requireth a man, a perfect man, a just, holy, and humble man. This is what will please Him : give it, if thou canst : but nothing less ; not by a jot or tittle ; for heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than He will relin- quish one jot or tittle of the law. There is no sacrifice for a wilful sin : a sin of the spirit cannot be made up for by any bodily gift or visible offering ; no, not by the round globe and infinite universe. A man, a perfectly obedient man, a man at all points commensurate with the law of God's most holy will: that will do. But this was impossible ; " for all had sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Yea, and there never could be such a thing as that a crea- ture, come forth out of the all-comprehensive womb of the Word into outward being, should stand there otherwise than under the decree of election ; which arresteth the decay of certain ones, in expectation of, and I may say under condition of, Him that was to come and stand outwardly as a man. The Word himself must take a body ; the Second Person of the Divinity must go out, and outward stand or fall. This is grace, for the essential Godhead to take a body. The will- ITS FRUITS. 319 ingness to do so, saveth us and all who believe. " By the which Will we are sanctified, by the offering of the body of Christ." That act of obedience, written in these words of the 40th Psalm, " Then said I, Lo, I come : in the volume of thy book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God ; yea, thy law is within my heart," is the redemption of the fallen, is the ransom of the elect, is the satisfaction of the law, is the manifestation of grace, is the fulness of love, is the stability and blessedness of all things : for which God sus- pended His wrath at the fall of Adam, and hath borne with the wickedness of man until this day ; because His Son had said that word, " Lo, I come ;" because the Godhead is gra- cious, and was pleased to reveal its grace, which could not be otherwise revealed. And as the first act of offering or dedi- cation was, so was every act of the fulfilment and accomplish- ment thereof Every act of Christ's incarnation was an act of self-emptying and man-fulfilling ; wherein the Godhead was quiescent, if I may so speak, that the humanity might be wholly active ; the Divinity suspending itself, that the huma- nity, supported by the Holy Spirit, might endure the weight of the offended holiness and justice of God. There were pre- sent, in every act, both the Divine and human natures ; the Divine nature restraining its power, and might, and glory, that the man, that the servant, that He who " was made sin for us who knew no sin," that He who was " made a curse for us," might in everything act, and suffer, and endure. So that, as the divines say, His Divinity was the passive golden altar whereon His humanity was sacrificed for sin. And herein lies the twofold character of every act of Christ, — its meri- toriousness, in that His Divinity was divested in order that His humanity might perform it ; its imitableness, in that His humanity did perform it through the sustenance of the Holy Ghost. So that, what grace there was in the first declaration, " Lo, I come : a body hast thou prepared for me," there was in every several act ; for every several act was the embodying, the impersonifying of the Divine nature in that particular act of manhood, yea, in that particular penalty of fallen manhood : for I believe literally, as the apostle literally writeth, " that He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that 320 THE INCARNATION: we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Now this is grace, even the incarnation of the Eternal Word : and the eternal union of the two natures is the monument of grace. Of which, let me say again and again, and for ever say it, that the measure thereof is impossible, and the estimate incom- prehensible, and shall remain so for ever. But we, who are drawn up into its blessed fellowship by the Spirit, shall drink of the exhaustless rivers of His grace, and so shall all the election and faithful in Christ Jesus. And, touching the grace of the Holy Spirit, it is mani- fested in the sustaining of the humanity of Christ ; in bring- ing Him into the condition of humanity ; in the construction of that body unto which He did wed Himself for ever ; and in the empowering of it to endure the extremity of the Father's wrath, and the load of every sin whereto flesh and blood are obnoxious. For I believe, and will ever affirm, ac- cording to the language of all the psalms, that the body of Christ, which was without spot and blemish, had yet inherent in it, and resting upon it, every form of infirmity, and was liable to every description of sin ; was led into all temptation ; yet was not prevailed against, but could always say, " It is no more I, but sin present in me and around me and on every side of me, but never able to oversway my holy will, or, rather, not mine, but my Father's:" for He said upon one occasion, "Not my will, but thine, be done:" which word teaches us that there was a will of the flesh always soliciting Him, and, as I judge, far more violently than any other man; which the almighty will of the Spirit, the perfect obedience of the Son of man. His undismayed faith. His unwearied prayer. His strong cryings and tears, did enable Him to restrain during the appointed period of His incarnation. All sins, infirmities, and diseases had free access to Him by the way of His humanity : they nestled in it, but could not pollute it ; they begirt it on every side, but could not dis- may it ; they straitened, tortured, and slew it, but could not bring it under the dominion of sin for one instant ; and did but slay themselves, in slaying that body into which they had entered to make war upon the spirit which dwelt therein so that, according as it is written, " He condemned sin in the ITS FRUITS. 321 flesh," "He bore our sins in his own body upon the tree:" and, taking away the substance of all fleshly sin, He took away the carnal ceremonies and ordinances of the law which made continual remembrance of them, nailing them to His cross, AH this He did by the power of the Holy Ghost ; because God was with Him ; because the Father was in Him by the Holy Spirit ; because the humanity, sustained of the Spirit, as by the Spirit it was formed, was able to receive and unite itself to the Divinity, through all the perilous voyage, from the nativity to the resurrection, or rather to the ascen- sion and installation in glory : when the Holy Spirit, having accomplished this most momentous and perilous act of in- carnate grace, did descend to the earth on the day of Pente- cost, in order to do for the rest of the elect that which He had done for the first-born of the family, the first-begotten from the dead. Such, dear brethren, I conceive to be the true account of that fulness of grace which was exhibited to outward obser- vation in the person and work of Christ Jesus, our ever- blessed Lord. And as to Him is the origin of the gift due, so to Him also, and to Him alone, pertaineth the honour of having manifested it. The Father declareth nothing of Him- self, as Father, but by the Son : and the Son doeth nothing of Himself, but by the Father. Nevertheless, it were greatly to misrepresent the truth to say that, though there was no open revelation before the advent of Christ, there were no indica- tions and promises and unequivocal significations of this grace, which was about to come : for even from the beginning, when man fell, Christ began to be preached, and the effects of this preaching began to be felt. Nay, I will go further, and say, that fallen man, and all the creation which fell with him, are a dim manifestation of, and do make a continual endeavour to reveal the Christ ; that, all burdened and op- pressed with sin as the creation hath become, and all unworthy to declare its Creator's being and attributes, it hath yet in itself the promise, and putteth forth the desire, of a higher and holier condition yet to be. Wherein consisteth its burden, that it cannot be what it would be: it is struggling after something better. It would deposit its load, but it cannot. VOL. V. X 32 2 THE INCARNA TION : It all waited, and waiteth still, for the coming of Christ ; for whom it is a silent witness, and of whom it is a patient ex- pectant. Which the troubled condition of the abject creature to comfort, and to re-establish the peace of all things, is the second fruit and benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God : that peace which grace worketh in the sinful creature. But rightly to understand this peace, which the earth hath derived from Christ, it will be necessary to look back to the beginning of the trouble and distress. 2. The origin of all trouble and disorder within, as of all trouble and disorder without, is to be found in the sinful con- dition into which man and his habitation have been brought by the fall. For it is of the nature of God to create all things perfect and blessed in their kind ; and we certainly know that man was so created, and the dominion over which he ruled. There was no breach of peace amongst all the creatures over whom he held the mastery, nor between his wife and him, nor between God and his living soul, nor among the elements of creation, nor anywhere within all the bounds of his habitation. Of which complete and perfect blessedness that we may have some idea, hear how the prophet Ezekiel is rapt into visions of glory upon a mere allusion which he makes to Eden, for the sake of illustrating the glory of one whom he calleth the King of Tyrus : " Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God ; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold : the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou Avast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." From the entering of sin into the mind of man, whence it quickly circulated through his body, and unto the creatures his body-servants, and over the earth his habitation, there would have ensued upon him all the wretchedness and ITS FRUITS. 323 hopelessness of the second death, upon his habitation all the barrenness and misery of the lake that burncth, had it not been for that Sacrifice which was slain from the foundation of the world for the atonement of sin ; that purpose, which God purposed in Himself to bring in, through the lowly gate of fallen man, the Eternal Ruler and Governor, the Lord and Christ of the universe. But for this there would have remained to us no ambition of better things, no desire of things unattain- able, nor hope of things possible, nor enjoyment of things blessed upon the earth : all would have been flat, remediless ruin, and iron inflexibility of fate : and more speedy than the lightning, and more wasteful than the thunderbolt, would have come the execution of the curse, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now, seeing that it came not so to pass, and that the being of man and of the earth hath been sustained in some measure of health and wealth, in con- sideration of the ofl'cring which was to be rendered for that first sin and for all its issues, we ought to be at pains to con- sider the condition into which we came, and the point of fall at which we were arrested in our passage down to the gulf of the second death ; and to regard it not only as derived from, but somehow illustrative of, the work which Christ was to accomplish upon the earth. For I believe that in what way the promise, " The Seed of the woman shall bruise the ser- pent's head," did prefigure the work of Christ in the incarna- tion ; so the condition into which man came, being by virtue of that promise detained from falling farther, doth shadow forth in the same degree that condition into which the incar- nation of Christ was to bring His Church ; and in which we now do actually stand, waiting the restoration of the earth to some better and more blessed estate than that from which it fell. For it is a vain thing to go about to describe the state of Adam and his fallen race as a state of pure devilishness and hellish misery ; or to describe the state of the Church as a state of angelic rest and heavenly blessedness : which neither of them is ; but only the state of transition to the one and to the other of these extreme conditions : yea, and I will add, both of them goodly in their kinds, derived from the sacrifice of Christ, which hath not only virtue to sanctify and 324 THE INCARNATION: bless the holy place of the spiritual Church, but in a lower degree also the outward court of the visible Church ; and, in a lower degree still, the very court of the Gentiles, or the whole world. So that' all are His debtors; "His own," though they know it not ; His own by salvation, though they esteem it not. And without taking into consideration the nature of this misery, which Christ removeth from the soul of man, you shall never be able to render any right account, or to make any exact dis- course concerning the peace which He induceth in its room. As Adam in his unfallen state was a type, and the only perfect type of Christ, our perfect righteousness ; so Adam in his fallen state, and all fallen men, are types of the believer while he is yet warring his warfare in the militant Church : and the world itself, with its laws and ordinances of govern- ment, its judges and courts of justice, and royal seat of sove- reignty and mercy, is a type ordained of God to shadow forth the conditions of the Church, and the nature of the govern- ment through which God is conducting her to eternal and stable blessedness. When, in virtue of Christ's sacrifice, man was arrested, and the world arrested, from instant perdition, it immediately came under His administration ; and hath been tempered and restrained in its continual tendency to destruction by His mighty power, for the one end of testifying His grace and of educing peace from the disorder which sin had introduced. The curse which went forth upon man and upon woman, and upon the ground for their sakes, not being the curse of death that was threatened, must be held as a constitution of grace and mercy in an inferior degree, proportionate to the inferior light: which should hold together, and be made the basis of future opera- tions of the Regenerator, until the complete resurrection and life should be educed, and established for ever. Adam, when he had fallen out of his creation state, was immediately placed under the constitution of the gospel by the promise — he, and all his children who should exercise faith and hope upon Him that was to come. As his posterity sinned in him, and fell with him ; so were they in him caught in their fall, and strengthened against their sin, by the promise of Christ ; and from henceforth they sinned against that Christ whom they ITS FRUITS. J-D did not choose to keep in their remembrance, or to hand down unto their children. All men sin in the way of infi- delity and apostasy, and shall be judged by the Christ whose redeeming promise they did not heed, and whose preserva- tion from the curse of death they did not acknowledge ; whose gifts, under the canopy of His eternal love, they turned against Himself, to His dishonour and dispraise. And this, which was left in man, this door of hope, this light of reason, and consciousness in the will of its own bondage, is what St Paul meaneth when he saith of the heathen, in the 1st chapter of the Romans, " Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for God hath shewed it unto them:" and again: "When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves ; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts ; their con- science also bearing them witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another." If they call this the light of nature, let it be understood that it is the licfht which is manifested in the reason and will of man in spite of the darkness of nature ; and know that all the trouble and despair from which Christ educeth peace, cometh of this very controversy which there is between the freedom of a spirit and the powers of nature which lie with heavy oppres- sion upon its breast. There is a light in the darkness, a light shining in the darkness, which the darkness never comprehendeth ; which light is the free gift of Christ : according to that word of the Gospel of John, " He is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world ;" and this is the light of reason, which all men should have kept as the lamp of God, trimming it with the oil of His revealed will, and waiting for the arising of the day-star and the dawning of the day upon their heart. And because the virgins have been more foolish than to trim their lamps, and expect the Bridegroom, they will be judged at His coming, every one of them, and re- jected from the heavenly and eternal state of His blessed- ness. And, further, because the light of Christ in man would have been unprofitable without an outward object in which it 326 THE INCARNATION : might exercise itself, I said that the creation, all fallen as it is, is pregnant with a birth, and gives signs to the en- lightened of a travailing sorrow. It was arrested on its course to death, and stayed in that condition in which we behold it, and there constituted in a state, not of paradise, and not of death, but between the two ; which seemed to Him the fittest to be made the basis of that re- demption which He is to bring out of it by the washing of water and the purification of fire. And to this agree the words of Paul, in the same place : " For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead : so that they are without excuse ; be- cause that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagina- tions, and their foolish hearts were darkened. , . . And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. . . . Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." This language were not proper to be spoken of the heathen, if they had not been in a state of apostasy from a religion which belonged unto all men, and had its constant ground in the fallen constitution of man, and its constant object in the fallen constitution of things. It is just the language which we could take up at present, and use of the Papal apostasy ; and which Paul, looking at it prophetically, doth use of it, saying, "That it shall come in the power of Satan, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." I am borne out, therefore, and sustained by Scripture, when I say that the condition at which God arrested the fall of man's soul, and of the creatures, and to which He made known a revelation of redemption to come, ritually represented in sacrifices of blood and offerings of all manner of increase, was ITS FRUITS. 327 a germinating- Christianity, a church constitution, a ray of light in the spirit, and a Divine subject of knowledge in the visible creation. In order to perfect this testimony to the coming Christ, which all creation, even in its fall, was constituted to bear, it was necessary to separate the good from the evil by a dis- tinct ordinance of God : — hence the origin of a revealed law. And this must not be confined to the conscience of man, as if that alone were fallen, but must extend itself over all the creatures : — whence the origin of a law of clean and unclean : not that anything was clean ; but when all was unclean, this was the only way of testifying the uncleanness of any. It was necessary to shew the defilement of nature in all her courses, whether dependent or independent upon the will of man : — hence the Levitical purifyings and offerings for un- cleanness. And in order that this testimony might be both constant and conspicuous to all the earth, it was necessary to separate a particular nation for the very end of maintaining it : — hence the distinction between Jew and Gentile. All this was done in preparation for, and in expectation of. Him that was to come : who, being come, must proceed to remove the burden and bondage thus declared, and to work out the deli- verance and pacification of the world from this thraldom into which it had come. And thus we are brought to the second part of our subject, which is the peace that we have from the incarnation of Christ. Now, the incarnation of the Son of God, being the eternal and consubstantial union of the two natures, human and Divine, in one person ; as it is the embodying of the grace of the Godhead, and the presentation of it to the acceptance of man, so is it also the exemplification and the assurance of that reconciliation and peace which we have, and can have only, through the faith of this very doctrine, that the Son of God is come in the flesh. For in that act of incarnation we behold the nature of sinful, fallen, suffering man entering into sweet and harmonious union with the sinless nature of God ; the eternal and unchangeable discordancy which there is be- tween the sin of the creature and the holiness of the Creator for ever harmonised ; the most violent of all contradictions v) 2 8 THE INC A RNA TION reconciled ; and a door of hope, yea, and of assurance, opened, which no power shall ever shut. That the body of our Lord is the true ground of all peace, is manifest from what St Paul saith in this epistle, at the 13th verse of the second chapter: "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye, who sqmetime were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition which was between us : having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments which stood in ordinances ; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace ; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity there- by ; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them which were nigh : for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." There are three ideas contained in this passage, all of which must enter into the integrity of the peace which came by Jesus Christ. The first. That in His flesh, by the offering of His body upon the cross, He did break down the wall of separation which was between Jew and Gentile, and make them one : which is thus ex- pressed in the Epistle to the Colossians, (chap. ii. 14) : " Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." The second idea is, That both being thus recon- ciled to one another, and represented as united in His one body, He did reconcile unto God, by the offering of His body upon the cross. This idea also is expressed in a correspond- ing passage of the Colossians, (chap. i. 20) : "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself: by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven : And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." The third idea is. That out of the reconciliation effected by the offering of His body upon the cross cometh the preaching of peace to them which were afar off, and to them which are nigh. And as the peace-speaking act of the incarnation and sacrififce of Christ is the beginning of all peace. ITS FRUITS. 329 whether between Jew and Gentile, or between God and man ; so must faith upon the former precede the possession of the latter : as it is immediately added, in that passage of the Co- lossians, " If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not carried away from the. hope of the gospel which ye have heard ;" and so it is also written in the 5th chapter of the Romans: "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." That the peace which we partake through faith in the incarnation and offering of Christ, is purely derived from Christ as a Foun- tain ; and was in Him first realised and manifested in that wonderful harmony and reunion of the two most violent con- traries, the nature of fallen man and the nature of God ; is further manifest from His bequeathing it so solemnly : " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." And in the passage quoted above He is called "our peace:" and in another epistle it is called, " The peace of God which passeth all understanding :" and in another passage, Christ's ministry upon earth is called "preaching peace;" and the preaching of the gospel is called " the ministry of reconciliation," and is summed up in these words : " That God was in Christ recon- ciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses." These ideas, concerning that peace with which Christ hath blessed the troubled estate of man, I would now endeavour, by the grace of God, and in the strength of the Holy Spirit, to open in order. I. And first, concerning the reconciliation or peace which He made between Jew and Gentile, or concerning the taking away of that natural burden of all things, and those carnal ordinances which stood in meats and drinks and diverse washings, and were ordained until the time of reformation ; I have to observe, that these were but the rudiments of the body of Christ, or the elements of the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are called "weak and beggarly elements;" and amongst them are included, not only the ceremonies and ordinances of the Jewish worship, but also " philosophy and vain conceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments or elements of this world ;" unto all which he saith, in an- other place, that " we are dead with Christ." In this con- 330 THE INCARNATION: junction of the traditions of the fathers on the one hand, with the institutions of the Jews on the other, and their removal out of the way by the Cross, there is a greater mystery in- volved than is generally supposed, — even the mystery, touched upon above, that all which had come before unto the patri- archs and the prophets, of ritual and formal observances, was but a preparation for, and as it were the materials of, Christ's fleshly body, which was offered up on the cross, and by the resurrection transformed into the body of glory which now sitteth at the right hand of God. The whole painful and burdensome ceremonial of religion, that heavy yoke " which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear," was the preg- nancy and pangs of the mother, until the child should be born : which child being born, the body of the child being completed, and brought to the light of day, all was accom- plished ; and the elements in which its ante-natal being had been preserved, having fulfilled their purpose, were of no further use, were good for nothing, whether they existed in the Jewish ceremonial or in the heathen traditions. When the Word had been made flesh, when the Son of God had taken to Himself a body, the whole significance of these ordinances stood in that body, and the burden of them was by that body sustained. For be it carefully observed, that the whole Levitical economy was a remembrance of obligation and of sin ; recalling ever to mind the uncleanness of the flesh, the daily transgression, and the need of annual atonement ; and shewing the obliga- tion of every possession, that it was not ours in full right, but another's, holden by us upon the payment of a certain pro- portion and the fulfilment of a certain service. This was the end of the Levitical institution, and indeed of the Fall-consti- tution also ; and when Christ's body was manifested, it lay upon that body to sustain the whole of that burden which the laborious Levites and ceremonious Jews, and of that also which the whole creation had been burdened withal. And not any more in the figure, but in the reality, in very deed and in very truth had the Lord Jesus to sustain in His body of the flesh all sins for which, under the law, sin-offerings were wont to be made ; and to serve all services for which the earth was holden in possession ; and to fulfil all obliga- ITS FRUITS. 331 tions under which the righteous and holy nation had been put until the substance of their righteousness and holiness should come. These were all the memorials of an account unsettled between God and man ; of a ransom unpaid, of a captivity unredeemed, of a lordship and scigniority which He held over us and all that we inherit. But now unto Christ's body this vassalage was all transferred : it was the captive, it was the slave ; in sign of which it is said, in the 40th Psalm, " Mine ear hast thou bored :" it was the beasts of atonement which were slain without the camp for the sin of the whole nation, and for the purification of them and the most holy place. Such was the body of Christ, burdened, not with this man or that man's sin, but with the sins of the flesh and of the visible world in the abstract : for the knowledge and con- tinual remembrance of which the Jewish nation had been put under Levitical priesthood. Therefore it is well regarded as bearing our sins, and being the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for those of the whole world. All which, divided between the holy and the unholy people, between Jew and Gentile, was now upon Him ; yea, in Him, " in the body of His flesh:" He bore the mighty load. This is the apostle's idea of the flesh of Christ in all his epistles : which having laid hold of, let us now see how he maketh it serve to establish peace between Jew and Gentile, between the holy and the unholy, between God and man. He thus proceedeth : This body of His flesh, which was in- stinct with every form of sin, (yet Himself sinless,) which was weakened with every infirmity, (yet Himself mightier than the mightiest,) which was oppressed with every obligation, (yet Himself under no obligation, but having obligation over all things ;) this body, thus conditioned, saith the apostle, He took, and offered on the cross a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour : and there He offered along with it all the ordinances and beggarly elements and rudiments of the world, which were nailed to the cross with those very nails that nailed Him to that accursed tree ; and death passed upon them, and they were carried to the grave along with Him, and did they rise with Him .'' Oh no ! God forbid that they should rise again ! He rose, but He rose free of that sinful 332 THE INCARNATION: wrapping : He left that vile cere-cloth in the tomb. " Behold the place where He lay :" they "saw the linen clothesl aid by themselves." He arose with the body of His glory. There is a likeness of His death and there is a likeness of His resur- rection ; but these are not the same likeness : for in the former we are now planted, and in the latter we are hereafter to be raised. Now our Christ and our Lord, whom we worship, is not the dead, but the risen Christ ; and the body which we are of, is not the body that was crucified, but the body that is risen. The baptism which we are baptized with, in order to enter His Church, is a baptism unto death, and a burial with Him, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life. And so far forth as we are of His Church — that is, so far forth as we are in the Spirit — we are the fruits of His death, and wrought upon by the might of His resurrection. It is no longer a fleshly Church, but it is a resurrection Church ; whose first beginning is laid in baptism, signifying our burial with Him ; " not only the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but also the answer of a good conscience towards God;" "not only the washing of the body with pure water, but the purg- ing of the conscience from dead works, that we should serve the living God." And if so be then that the Pentecostal Church — that is, the Church of the first-fruits of the harvest which sprang from that grain of corn which fell into the earth — be not a Church holding of the fleshly body of Christ, which bare away all those ceremonial distinctions of clean and unclean, of holy and unholy, of Jew and Gentile ; but holding of the risen body of Christ, and begotten by the power of the resurrection — which body was clear from all those defilements, and free from all those incumbrances, when, *' according to the Spirit of holiness," He was gloriously and powerfully declared to be the Son of God and Lord of all ; — then see ye not that we know, and can know, no distinction of Jew or Gentile, Scythian, bond or free, male or female, circumcised or uncircumcised, but are one and alike in Christ Jesus, who hath abolished all distinctions, and taken all divi- sions of men from men clean away. " He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall ITS FRUITS. 333 of partition which was between us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments that stood in ordinances ; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace." — This I take to be the true account of the first part of the mystery of Christ's peace-making. That this was the true apostolical doctrine of the harmony and peace of Christ's Church, is manifest from the very errors into which it fell. The error of Hymeneus and Philetus, and the believers in the primitive times, was, " that the resurrec- tion is past already ;" that is, the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the just — which no believer in the primitive age conceived to be at the same time with the universal resur- rection ; for how then could they have said it was past already, when they saw that the graves were still possessed of their dead, and death continually taking the living '^ The very form of the heresies of those days shew what was the form of their sound doctrine. Now these men, misusing the doc- trine laid down above, that the spiritual Church is the first- fruits of Christ's resurrection, and essentially holdeth of the life of the resurrection ; misapprehending and misapplying this truth, they said, "Oh, then, that peculiar resurrection which we have in Christ Jesus is already passed upon us, who have been baptized into His Church, and have received the Holy Ghost: we are therefore in the New-Jerusalem state, and may take our fill of all enjoyment, and enter into the Millennium, in which is promised an hundredfold of all those objects of sensual gratification which we have forsaken." Ex- actly parallel to this is the notion which now prevails among many of the faithful, that our regeneration, or baptism of the Spirit, is our peculiar resurrection, the resurrection promised by our Lord in these words, " The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live ;" and prophesied of in the Apo- calypse under the name of the " first resurrection." From which notion I perceive the same mischief to be fast proceed- ing as was produced in the primitive times. For if the Mil- lennium were no more than the life of the regenerate, then the life of the regenerate ought to be the life of the Millen- nium, when "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, 334 THE INCARNATION: but are as the angels of God." And though such fruits as were revealed in the first ages have not yet come out of this fallacy, I perceive daily the gradual growth of them. That rest and quietism which mark the inward experience of these, so that they have no wrestlings of spirit, nor great searchings of heart ; that thirst of society, which hath constituted them into a world by themselves ; that ambition of high and noble names and distinctions ; that thirst for large and vast enter- prises ; and much more which savoureth of a state of fruition, rather than a state of denial ; a state of victory and triumph, rather than a state of militancy, shew me the growth of the same effects which heretofore in the primitive times flowed from this dangerous error, that, because we hold of the power of the resurrection of Christ, therefore we have been partakers of the resurrection already. The true answer to which is, the resurrection is the resurrection, and the new birth is the new birth : the resurrection appertaineth to the body, and the new birth appertaineth to the Spirit, and is the work of the Spirit. Resurrection must take place after the body is dead, the second birth must take place after the first birth ; the one hath reference to a death before it, the other only to a birth before it. It is just such another abuse of words which makes these same mystics talk of Christ's kingdom to come being a spiritual kingdom. And the answer is still the same : — Keep words to their proper use : if you mean by spiritual kingdom, power in the Spirit, I have it now, and so hath every one that is born of God; and the apostles had it as much as I have it ; and nobody shall ever have more of it than was given at Pente- cost. But I find something promised under the name of power, and kingdom, and government upon the earth. Now I know well what power and kingdom and government is, and that I have no inheritance in it at present, but am made subject unto it for conscience' sake, am under its yoke and oppres- sion ; and Christ is not in it, but the devil and Antichrist. And this I am promised to possess in addition to that which I now possess : wherefore, believing words to mean in Scrip- ture what they mean elsewhere, I will expect it, let you spi- ritualists and mystics say what you please. Even so this first resurrection, which ye have made no epoch, nor event, ITS FRUITS. 335 nor visible thing at all, but resolved into the work of the Spirit to beget sons unto God, I do and will expect, and assure myself of, as a mystery quite different from the new birth, and a hope in reserve for those who have received the former. I am baptized into my Lord's death and burial, and thence have the gift of the Spirit sealed upon me ; and the life which I live thereupon is by the power of His resurrec- tion ; and He liveth in me, and in all His Church, by the Holy Spirit. Still we bear about with us the body of sin and death, which is under the law of the flesh ; but we have, in virtue of the new birth, a law of the Spirit, which warreth against the law of the flesh and overcometh it ; and in which, if we were perfected, we should be without sin, completely restraining and overcoming the law of the flesh ; and we might say, with Paul, to those motions of wickedness in the flesh to which we were conscious, yet not consenting, " It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Now this is, to my apprehension, the exact condition of our Lord's being from His baptism, when He was filled with the Holy Ghost. His flesh was liable to all temptations, to all sinful assaults and invasions ; He knew. He felt the whole power and might of Satan and sin ; in this field they came and went most freel}', and by all stripes, strokes, and cruel inflic- tions of every kind, and cunning devices, and subtle addresses, sought access to His will, to His mind ; but His will con- sented not, never consented, never shifted its steady position towards God, and its steadfast obedience to all His decrees ; and so was He sinless and spotless in Himself; a worthy, a most worthy sacrifice in the humanity, though He bare our sins in His own body on the tree, though He was made sin for us who knew no sin. And thus being in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, the Son of God, by His holy life con- demned sin in the flesh, and by His death triumphed over it, and all the principalities and dominions which it had usurped. Even as Paul saith, in the Epistle to the Colossians (chap. ii. 15,) "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Now, exactly so are we conditioned from our baptism to our resurrection, as He from His baptism to His resurrection ^ x6 THE INCARNA TION : 30 was conditioned. We bear about with us the body of sin and death, judged of Christ, and brought into captivity to the Spirit ; which dwelling in us, restraineth it, and holding it captive, and triumpheth over it, to the glory of God and of His Christ. Which act of the new life proceedeth from His resurrection, and also precedeth our resurrection ; even as Christ's life of the like kind preceded His resurrection : for with Him we must be humbled, if with Him we would reign : we must go about with Him doing good, and un- doing Satan's evil deeds, if with Him we would rise again, and reign, and be presented faultless in the presence of the Father. I am aware that the Famulists and Friends, not under- standing the carnal nature of those ordinances which Christ took out of the way, have dared, upon the strength of such passages as those quoted above, to exaggerate this idea, and to maintain that the observation of the Sabbath, and the ordinances of public worship, and the preaching of the Word, yea, and the stated reading of it, and the very sacraments also, are done away with by the crucifixion of the body of Christ- And I would say the same, if they could shew me that these were Levitical ordinances, or that they are fleshly ordinances ; but as every one of them is essentially Christian and spiritual, having a reference to the presence of the Holy Spirit and the future advent of the Lord, the notion cannot for a moment be maintained. Baptism, the initiatory rite of the Church, signifies the putting off" the carnal observances altogether, and the forsaking of the flesh itself; and declareth that everything which is observed within the house, of which it is the entrance door, is not carnal, but spiritual. Prayer and praise are surely not carnal, but spiritual : and the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit : and the foolishness of preaching is that by which God is pleased to save them that believe: and the sacrament of the Supper, which is celebrated in remembrance of Christ until He shall come again, is the standing symbol of our union with Christ by the Spirit, and pledge of our right and title to that new covenant, whose seal shall be broken when He comes again. And for the Sabbath, it was insti- tuted in man's estate of blessedness, and is neither patriarchal JTS FRUITS. 337 nor Levitical, but, like marriage, primeval ; and therefore not surely to be put off and on at pleasure by us, to whom it hath been made, not only primeval, but Christian, by the Lord of the Sabbath-day, who hath appointed it to be the memorial of His own resurrection, when He arose the first-fruits of the regeneration and restoration of the world. These institutions Christ hath appointed to signify the continual presence and abiding of His invisible Spirit with His Church, and to fore- shew His own personal presence in the ages to come ; the signs of the separate and elect people, the helps of their com- munion, and the tokens whereby the world may know the blessings with which He blesseth them : to make His Church an outward object for prophecy and the fulfilment of prophecy, until He should come again. These ordinances of the Church are therefore not carnal, but spiritual ; holding not of the fleshly, but of the risen body of Christ ; looking back, not to the body of His humility, but to the body of His power and glory. And they are as necessary to a Church expectant of a second advent, as the Levitical ordinances were necessary to a Church expectant of a first advent. And it is neither safe nor dutiful, no, nor is it permitted, to abolish any one of them, nor to add to any one of them ; but patiently, yea, and gladly, as the means of grace to use them, until by His glori- ous advent, and the resurrection of His Church, He shall set forth in order that millennial kingdom for which we look. Having guarded against these errors, we return to explain further the peace which is brought unto us in the incarnation of Christ Jesus. 2. The same offering of the body of Christ delivers us from all which stood in the way of God's favour and blessedness ; brings us nigh, who were afar off; reconciles us, who were enemies ; and introduceth us into the covenant, who were strangers and aliens from its hope. For those Levitical and carnal observances, as hath been said, were in themselves nothing, but were appointed of God to shew the holiness which He required in those with whom He entered into covenant, and the eternal war which His holiness wageth with the sins of men. The Levitical institution condemned not the Jews only, but men in general ; for no man could VOL. V. Y 33S THE INCARNATION: enter into covenant with God otherwise than by conforming himself thereto. It was therefore a token to the whole world of their inherent wickedness and depravity in the sight of God : and by extending and particularly applying itself to those things in which man hath no will, but which come by the ordinary course of nature, it proved that nature itself, that the animal functions of the creature — the conception, and the birth, and the whole life of the body of man — is under the bondage of an inevitable and necessary sinfulness : and, by punishing these involuntary acts with deprivations and disgraces manifold, it taught the true nature of sin and of punishment, — that they are essential and inseparable from one another, and that guilt is determined by the will of God, and not by the will of man. And by punishing man in his nature, as it were, rather than in his will, it shewed that the will was under the stern bondage of intractable nature ; under the obstinate, perverse law of the flesh ; and could not be re- covered otherwise than by the smiting, judging, and destroy- ing of that flesh, or natural man, which sin had made its stronghold ; that there could be no peace between the Crea- tor and the creature until there was a redemption from the power of that natural law, which had overpowered the spi- ritual will and divine purpose under which the creature was formed at the first. And this is further shewn out to my mind by God's taking the lives of the unconscious brutes ; and taking as offerings the first-fruits of the earth in her seasons ; as if He would smite nature in her four corners, to demonstrate her universal and consummate wickedness ; — yea, and the first-born of man had to be redeemed with an offering ; and the Lord's right unto every child's death was marked by the bloody rite of circumcision : — all which de- monstrated an unextinguishable variance and hatred between the creature and the Creator, between nature and Spirit, be- tween the law of the visible creation and the will of the in- visible Creator. And he who believes that nature is any way amended by the course of time, talks like a fool or an infidel : for, as the mother towards her delivery is more burdened and oppressed, and in her delivery is torn asunder with awful an- guish : so nature grows only more oppressive upon the creation ITS FRUITS. 339 as she draweth nearer to the birth and the manifestation of the sons of God ; in the act and article of which she shall be rent and torn up to her very centre. To talk of peace to any man, therefore, upon any grounds whatever, other than the incarnation of the Son of God, is the greatest of all false- hoods, being, in truth and verity, the denial of all which God hath said or done since the fall of man. For what saith the apostle .'' " The whole creation groaneth and travaileth to- gether until now : and not only they, but ourselves also, which have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we our- selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." Now, it is to be under- stood from all the Scripture, and indeed isof the very essence of the incarnation, that Christ took upon Himself the burden of this fallen nature, and bore it during His life, and carried it to His death; that it was a part of Him which died with Him, but rose not with Him again. Sin, that slayeth all things, He slew ; by dying, He did destroy him that hath the power of death. He carried the disabilities both of Jew and Gentile with Him to the cross, and by the cross He slew the enmity. There died, not a man, but there died the Son of man. As in Adam was created, not a man, but man ; so in Christ died, not a man, but human nature in the general un- derwent, in His^ death, the penalty of the curse ; Adam being made the representative of all mankind in his probation, Christ was made their representative in the redemption : ac- cording as it is written, "As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the right- eousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justi- fication of life :" and again, " As by man came death, so by man came also the resurrection of the dead." If it squareth with the goodness and justice of God, and the nature of sin, that for the offence of Adam sin and misery should descend, as at this day we behold it ; then, in like manner, we should expect that righteousness and peace should likewise be de- rivable from one man, to all who are united to Him by living faith. And, dear brethren, no better account can be given of this matter, than that God saith it is so : " Christ reconciled us both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the 340 THE INCARNATION: enmity thereby : and came and preached peace to them which were afar off, and to'them which were nigh : for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father," Whosoever receiveth Christ therefore by the Spirit, doth enter into peace. Whosoever believeth to be justified by His righteousness, hath peace with God. Whosoever believeth that the Son of God is come in the flesh, and hath condemned sin in the flesh, is himself delivered from the power of the law of the flesh, and enabled to walk after the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And to all such there remaineth no condemnation : for '* the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death :" and " if Christ be in us, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness." And this is the beginning and the foundation of all peace, even reconciliation to God by the cross of His Son. And it is the beginning of all spiritual life, of all good works, and of all blessedness : concerning .which I speak not at large, having still another part of this peace to open to you. 3. Which is, the peace that we have after we have been quickened by faith in the resurrection of Christ, while we are following out the life of faith and godliness. And here I would not place before my brethren any false estimates or descriptions, as if the life of the saints were all smooth and plain, full of ease and enjoyment. I believe it to be a warfare unto the end, with what intermissions and recessions the Lord may grant ; which are only granted in order to refresh us for the renewal of the contest with the powers of dark- ness. And yet I hold, that in the contest, in the heat and strife of it, he that believeth in Jesus, and is reconciled unto God by His death, hath peace ; may and ought always to have perfect peace: because the Son of man, in the midst of that conflict which He had to maintain between the law of the flesh, or the fallen humanity, wrought upon by all the art and power of Satan, and the law of the Spirit, with which He was anointed without measure, did always possess a perfect peace and serenity : of which there can be no doubt, from His having nothing higher to bequeath than His own peace : " My peace I leave with you." Yea, that He was in every moment of His life the very image of the Father, and mirror ITS FRUITS. 341 of the Father's clear and harmonious will, is never to be doubted. He was for ever holy, and therefore He was blessed for ever. Which indeed is very marvellous : that all the powers of disorder, all the winds of heaven, should be loosed against Him, and invade His passive flesh, and yet not dis- turb the tranquillity of His spirit. For I reckon that in that agony of the garden, when His body was so violently wrought on as never before was flesh and blood. His mind was undis- turbed, unswerved from its calm and peaceful contentment with His Fathers will : "Yet not my will, but thine, be done." Whatever the desire of the man might be, and no doubt He felt the fulness and sensibility of human feeling, the will of His Father ever prevailed and governed all : and being so kept. He was kept in perfect peace. Otherwise, if all had not been at undisturbed rest within His soul. His word would have had no power to lay the stqrmy sea, or quell the mutin- ous legion of devils. But such might hath the unfallen will of man, that when it was again presented to us in the Son of man, it bare the sway to the utmost bounds of man's habita- tion, yea, and to the fallen angels, which had usurped some of its most wretched tenements. Of this perfect peace of Christ Jesus the Mediator having no doubt, notwithstanding the mighty and furious contest of which His humanity was the theatre, I have likewise none with respect to the peace in which the members of His mystical body will be upholden by the operation of the same Almighty Spirit. For, if the Spirit was given to Him without measure, then Satan was loosed against Him without measure ; and if we have not, nor may expect, the like anointing, then the Lord will not permit against us the same fiery onset of the powers of hell. How- ever it may be apportioned of Him who " measureth to every man according to His pleasure," I doubt no more that we are heirs of Christ's peace in the conflict with the powers of dark- ness, than that we are heirs of the conflict, and of the victory over it. The peace which we have in Christ Jesus is a derived peace, and yet an inwrought peace : it is derived from the fountain of Christ's peace, and it is wrought into us by the same Spirit which maintained it in Him. And it consisteth not in the absence of conflict and controversy, or in the 342 THE INCARNA TION : cessation of the militancy, or in quiescence from suffering ; but in the firm act of faith, that as Christ the captain was upheld in perfect peace, so shall we also, " though the hills should be removed, and the mountains be cast into the depths of the sea." I mean not faith in Him as the atonement where- by our fears of the Divine wrath are removed, but faith in Him as the living Son of man, after whose image it is the will of God that every saint should be conformed. Which will of God believing, and believing likewise the irresistible- ness of the Almighty Spirit, I go into the valley of humility with my Lord, and address myself to follow His thorny and bloody footsteps, well assured that I shall have a peace within me, which no thorn or weapon of blood can wound to the quick, or at all for a moment ruffle, I believe that, though the law of my flesh be the most directly and the most sternly opposed to the law of the Spirit, and that reconcilia- tion is utterly impracticable and impossible, yet in the midst of the controversy I shall have an assurance of peace, a pre- sence of peace, which nothing can remove. I shall have it, not by a compromise or truce stricken between the two ene- mies, nor by the death of the opponent, but by the presence of that Holy Spirit, whose presence is peace and joy. I saw it in Christ : His was the extremest case that ever can be, and contained all within itself: and I believe it will be so also in myself, notwithstanding this body of sin and death with which I am surrounded. And this peace, if it be de- pendent upon anything but faith, is dependent upon keeping up the fiery contest, in which if we relax, then is it sure to be eclipsed in a measure. This is all very wonderful, and must sound strangely paradoxical to the natural man ; but it is, and ever hath been, the experience of God's saints, that just in proportion to the spirit and activity with which they were setting the battle in array against spiritual wickednesses in high places, and in proportion to the sufferings and privations which they were thereby enduring, hath been the sure and steadfast peace which they have felt : strongest on the rack, or in the dungeon, or under the gallows-tree, or in the midst of scoffs and scorns and derisions of the multitude. How are ITS FRUITS. 343 they blessed, whose peace the world, as it cannot give, so it cannot take away ! If then, dearly beloved brethren, Christ by His death hath removed the whole of the Levitical institution, which God set up to distinguish between the people that were in covenant and the people that were not in covenant with Him, and hath made the Jew and Gentile one, reconciling them all to God ; how ought we who have believed to find our natural peculiarities and distinctions taken out of the way of our cordial fellowship and love one with another ! If the whole of that natural obstruction which separateth between us and God, hath been taken away, and from the utmost distance of our alienation we have been brought nigh by the blood of Chribt ; how should we feel at peace with one another, and how u^terly neglectful of those varieties of wicked nature, whereoithe very substance hath been taken away ! And if our natural nan be crucified with Him, and we have a spiritu^ man bon of His resurrection, whose origin, whose strength, and whos' nourishment is from the one Holy Spirit, and whose formand type is one, even the man Christ Jesus, formed within us al ; how united in love and peace ought we to be one with amther; how close and intimate our communion and fellowshp ? Truly, brethren, Christ is our peace ; and the law of th« Spirit of Christ tendeth to love ; and he that dwelleth in G(d, dwelleth in love. This life of Christ which is in us, is likethe life which was in Him, — struggling with a load of flesh ; o which sin hath free access, and in which it rageth with mi^ty power : but as the Spirit, which was in Him, did restran the tendency of the flesh to malice, and wrath, and discod, and all hypocrisy, so that He persevered in love to all, anc in patience with the enormous ingratitude and blind stupidiv of all, and never once, no, never once yielded unto the sre and grievous trial ; so, brethren, by the mighty working ofthe same Spirit shall we prevail against the law of the flesh to maintain love and peace and blessed harmony and comi union with one another. And as He dragged on the bodjwhich He had taken to the cross, where He sacrificed it by le willingness of the Spirit ; so do we 344 THE INCARNATION: drag on the body of our sin and death, to lay it down in the grave, a wilHng sacrifice unto God. And as He groaned in spirit, and was agonised with the strongest anguish, while He underwent the strongest contest and warfare which any being ever endured, yet withal offended not the will of His Fathef, nor broke the law of peace with any creature ; so ought we, all-patient of the contest, and all-conscious of the rancorous, restless, murderous law of nature by which Satan is goading us on to all uncharitableness and discord, to maintain the communion of the saints in which we believe, and to love one another with pure hearts fervently. And can we do it ? Yef, we can do it, if Christ, who was in all points tempted like as we are, did it. Can we have peace and brotherhood amongst so many strangers and foreigners as the Church of Chn'st is composed of .'' I say we can, by Christ, who is our peace ; by the love of Christ constraining and restraining us ; by the mighty working of the Holy Spirit within us, which prevailed to raise Him from the dead, and to set Him in thqheavenly places, and to give Him all power for the sake of t|:e Church, of which He is the head, and which is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Dear brethren, these thin/s are little borne in mind in those infidel, scornful, scoffing times ; but verily they are the old, and the only righteous wys in which we ought to walk ; and in which, as we mak^ progress, we shall obtain the blessing of God upon our h&ds and upon the heads of our children, and be a crown offejoicing unto the Church of Christ, valuable witnesses in tre midst of the fast consummating apostasy, and patient e^ectants of the coming of the Lord in power and great gloif, to be avenged upon all those who know not God and obe' not the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. PART II. Such, we conceive, is the true doctrip of the holy word concerning the grace of God which brigeth peace ; and we come now to speak of the manner of itsaeclaration unto lost and ruined sinners. Concerning whicnl have this to say in ITS FRUITS. 345 general, that I would take no lower example than that of the great High Priest and Apostle of our profession, the. Lord Jesus Christ; who, as He purchased and procured, so was He the first to minister the gift. No one, surely, can refuse to be guided by so good an example, or to submit to such high authority. And what was His method of making known the grace of God unto sinful men ^ Of this we have the ex- ample in His discourse with Nicodemus, to whom His first lesson is, " Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." And how this new birth is accomplished He declareth, in the same place, to be by no outward ordi- nances or means. .Albeit He gives to baptism its due place, yet, saith He, that every one who is born of the Spirit is so born, not by calculation of means, or mere arrangement of plans, but by an invisible power from on high, as much, and far more, above the calculations and arrangements and powers of men, as is the motion of the viewless winds ; whose rush- ing sound you hear, but whose substance you see not, and whose motions, hither and thither, are under the control and with the knowledge of no earthly power. By which word the Lord doth signify no uncertainty nor lawlessness, no hap- hazard nor instability of purpose, nor undefinedness of end in the Holy Spirit's work ; but, simply, that it is not reducible to any rule of man's foresight, nor attainable by any means of man's invention, nor resident in any ordinance so as to be necessarily connected therewith or unerringly wrought there- by ; — that the children which He begetteth are not born " of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." HoAvever, with respect to the procession of the Spirit the Lord speaketh not in this discourse with Nicode- mus ; reserving that point to be opened at large to His dis- ciples in His last discourse. But thus far this passage serveth us, to shew that the beginning of sanctification — and if the beginning, then also the continuation and perfecting of it — is separated from all human help and all visible means, into the immediate power of God. Not that human help is not blessed ; for God hath appointed helps in His Church, of which the principal is the ministry of the word : not that visible ordi- nances are not mightily blessed ; for they are of Christ's ap- 346 THE INCARNA TION : pointment, and therefore He will take care to honour them : but that the help of the ministry and the ordinances are no- thing in themselves, yea, worse than nothing — a stumbling- block, a refuge of lies — unless they be looked to simply as ordinances of the will of God, and vehicles of the Spirit ; ves- sels indeed to hold the water, but stony vessels, leaden cis- terns ; which, if you would bruise them, would only bruise into dry dust ; if you would melt them, would only melt into deadly scorching liquid ; but would not yield you one drop, no, not a drop, of the living water, with which, to the lip of faith, they are filled by the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, in this very discourse with Nicodemus the Lord doth not fail to exhibit Himself to the whole world, with what conspicuousness the brazen serpent was exhibited to the whole camp upon the top of the pole ; to present His wounded, bleeding body upon the cross to all the world, with the same assurance of health with which the serpent- bitten people were surely healed. And as the language used is of the very largest character, — "whosoever believeth in Him" — " He cometh not to judge, but to save the world;" and as the condemnation is rested upon the rejection of the light, — " this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, but that men loved darkness rather than light ; " and, above all, because the emblem chosen is of so remarkable a kind for its conspicuousness ; and the cure dependent upon nothing but a look, and that look free to all ; and all so prompted by stinging pains to give it at every stage of the disease, from the first moment of the serpent-bite to the last moment of departing life : — for all these reasons I have no more doubt that it is as essential to make a free, full, and universal offer of Christ's salvation, as it is essential to declare that never was a man the better for it unless the Holy Spirit applied it unto his soul ; yea, that it will prove, to all who wait not for and obtain not the Holy Spirit, nothing but judg- ment and reprobation and the unpardonable sin. These two things, then, I find united in this discourse of the Lord Jesus, — His own lifting up for the salvation of the world ; and the impossibility of our ever inheriting, or even seeing, His king- dom, but by the new birth of the Holy Ghost ; and I con- ITS FRUITS. 347 elude assuredly, that they are equally essential parts of every declaration and every publication of the gospel. But there is one element more, to make up the fulness of the gospel message of salvation, which is likewise contained, though not explicitly propounded, in this discourse of the Lord : I mean, the will of the Father, as preceding, both in the purpose and in the operation, the manifestation of the Son and the work of the Holy Ghost. This grand funda- mental principle, this first and parent element of all word and of all operation, is implicitly contained in these words, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son." For if the gift be His, then all the value of the gift must be acknowledged to come from Him, and all the efficacy of the gift likewise : and if the gift proceeded from His love, then His love is to be preferred before the gift, because it was be- fore it : and we are not greedily to devour the gift, and say, ," Ah ! I have gotten it," as do a scrambling, avaricious mob ; but we are earnestly to contemplate the mystery of love out of which it proceedeth, and to behold the magnitude of the love which it contains. We should do this first, acknowledge the Father's awful, self-originated act of love : then peruse with faith and desire the gift of His Son, which He hath given us : and, finding that the coming of the Comforter is necessary to our being made partakers thereof; and that of ourselves we cannot take hold of it, but that this Comforter is freely given in the gift, and honoureth us by fetching it into our souls, and possessing us with its rich fountain ; we should wait for, desire, and stretch out our arms to receive, reverently entreat, and delight to entertain, and willingly submit our- selves to, that last Divine visitor — last in order of procession, but first in operation — who worketh in us faith upon the Son of God ; who leadeth us unto the Father, and enableth us to do all the good pleasure of His will. But that so important, the most important, the first principle of the gospel message, may come before you in its true light, I turn to another dis- course of the Lord ; and it mattereth not, dear brethren, to which, they are all so constant to the declaration and so full of the spirit of it : for well might Christ say. He spoke no- thing of Himself, that He did nothing of Himself, that He 348 THE INCARNA TION : bare not witness of Himself, but of the Father which sent Him. As it were at random, therefore, I open the Gospel of St John — that record of the truth — and I find it thus written, in the discourse which He made concerning the communion of His body and His blood (chap. vi. 37 :) "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me ; and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." Not only, then, is He the gift of the Father to the world, but every believer is the gift of the Father unto Him : these come to Him : these He keep- eth, losing not one : these He bringeth unto the Father, for He is the way unto the Father, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. But first the Father must give them unto Him : " Thine they were, and thou gavest them unto me." All included in this gift come to Jesus ; who doth in no wise cast them out, but keepeth them, by the power of His Spirit, unto salvation ; redeemeth them from the power of the flesh, and of the world, of death and of the grave ; in- vesteth them with royal vicegerency in His millennial king- dom ; and afterwards presenteth them unto the Father, along with that kingdom which they have been joined with Him in subduing and purifying, and which is to be presented unto Him without spot or blemish or any such thing ; and, when purified, to stand the monument and trophy of redeeming grace ; the peculiar seat and chosen abode of the God-man, and of His court of redeemed ones ; from whence, and by whom, with swift ministry. He shall rule and reign over the universe of God. For observe what follows this precious declaration : " All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out : For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me : and this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Whereby we perceive that the work of redemption is not yet completed, though the price of it be fully paid ; that the elec- tion have to be drawn out, the kingdom established, and the day of the resurrection and judgment accomplished, before the will of God be done, and the work of the Son of God be ITS FRUITS. 349 finished. But in all the progression, as in the first beginning and origination of it, He acknowledgeth the will of the Father to have the priority in relation to His own work : and I con- clude that every minister of Christ should do the same: should shew forth the will and purpose of the Father ; should postpone everything to it : should shew everything as pro- ceeding from it : should trace up everything unto it, — all that the Son hath revealed in the written Word, all that the Spirit hath wrought in the Church : and he who shunneth to do so, shunneth to declare the counsel of God, dishonoureth Christ's prophetic office, setteth up himself as some great one ; and if he flincheth from doing so, he feareth man rather than God, he hateth the true Church of Christ, and is fast apostatising to some fatal heresy. Some of you may haply murmur at this. So did those Jews of Capernaum : and what Christ said to them I say unto you who murmur, " Murmur not among yourselves: no man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him ; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." That is to say, — ' You who mur- mur, do only growl aloud your own rejection and reprobation of my Father, and attest the truth of what I said, " that no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Murmur you will, and murmur will every man who heareth of Me, till the end of time. The reluctant, the enslaved will of man, and Satan its oppressor and master, will ever hate the will of the Father revealed in Me. There is in Me no form, nor comeliness, nor beauty, that I should be desired. I am the embodied Will of God, in whose image ye were created ; but now ye are under the will of the flesh, which is so contrary to God as to be cursed of Him to death. That resistance, that repulsion, that most violent contradic- tion in the universe of God, must be overcome by My Father, whose almightiness alone is able to draw against the power that draweth you away from Him. Doth not the Scripture suppose this state of things under the new covenant, when it saith, "And they shall be all taught of God .''" Now every 350 THE INCARNATION: man that hath received this teaching ; every man that hath heard the testimony of Me, which is the spirit of prophecy ; every one that hath heard what God spake at sundry times and in divers manners, by His servants the prophets, unto the fathers, will come now unto Me, and hear what the Father speaketh by His own Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.' I have nothing more to say concerning the example of Christ as a preacher of His own gospel, than solemnly to de- clare, in the hearing of His Church, that in all His discourses, and in all the discourses and letters of His apostles, I do find these three elements concurring, — the powerful will of the Father, the free presentation of the Son unto the world, with the gift of the election in Him, and the working of the Spirit upon the heart of every believer. And it must be so, or else there is no doctrine of the Trinity. If these parts are not to enter into every discourse of the work of salvation, then the Trinity is a mere chimera, is an invention of the subtle brain, is a falsehood. But if the doctrine of the Trinity be the foundation of all orthodox doctrine, as I believe it to be ; if the Trinity be the only eternally existing substance, from the operation of whom all things that are have been created out of nothing that is seen, but out of the invisible will, word, and Spirit of the Godhead ; if all things that are, and every- thing that is, be but the shewing forth of the Divine Essence of the Triune God, in the bringing of which into existence each Person hath had His proper office and activity ; but, above all, if the gospel of Jesus Christ be the manifestation of the Trinity, that great work of God by which the Divine being of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost became known, and the work from which the Godhead began to be named by that name : if these things be sq — which every one not a Socinian believeth — then I do say, that every act of the preacher of the gospel is incomplete, yea, is not an act of preaching Christ, which doth not contain the three offices of the Divine Persons, and display them. For the Son of man, the Christ, was not the manifestation of the Son only, but He was the manifestation of the Father also : " For whoso hath seen me hath seen the Father." And He was the manifesta- ITS FRUITS. 351 tion of the fulness of the Spirit also, who dwelt in Him in His immeasurable and infinite abundance of power and wisdom. Yea, Jesus Christ was the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and the gospel of Jesus Christ was the declaration, the reve- lation, of the work of the Father and the Son, and the Holy- Ghost in the redemption of the Avorld : and he is no minister of it who cannot draw it from this fountain ; he is no minister of it who cannot trace all the stores of doctrine, of principle, and of act, to this fountain. I say it the third time, and will stand to it while I have a being, that he is no minister of the gospel who doth not shew forth the co-operation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the gospel of Christ, in the salvation of every soul, in the production of the Church, in the mani- festation of the kingdom, in the eternal glory of the finished and completed work. To make this point still more clear, and at the same time to exhibit the danger of overlooking it, let me now shortly point out the consequences which flow from neglecting any of these essential parts of every declaration and of every work of Divine grace. Among those who hold the doctrine of the Trinity — for in respect to those who deny the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I can no more regard them as Christians, than the Jews would have regarded as Jews those who denied and abjured the sacred name of Jehovah — among those, I say, who hold the Trinity of Persons in the Divine substance, the great majority of errors, I had almost said all errors, are to be attributed to the undue neglect or the undue preference of some one or other of these three great heads of doctrine ; or, to speak theologically, these sects arise from dividing the substance or dissolving the unity of the substance of the Godhead, through the vulgar understanding and deceitfulness of the word " three," and of the word " persons." I shall enumerate and shew you the derivation of certain of the most conspicuous and notable divisions into which the Church falleth through this cause. Of those who err in respect to the office of the Father, there are chiefly two parties : first, the Antinomians, who make His office the whole, instead of the first and chief one 352 THE INC A RNA TION : in our redemption ; and the Arminians, who make nothing of it at all. These two are opposites to one another, and bear each other up, from standing at the opposite points of the circle of truth. The Antinomians are ever insisting upon the decree of election, and will not dwell upon the Son, by whom that decree was opened, and by whom the power and the form of the regenerate man was brought unto us. They talk of His seed being in Him from all eternity : of their being elected, and justified, and sanctified in Him from all eternity : and they might add, risen, and blessed, and glorified also ; for so far doth Paul go in the Ephesians, and so far will I go along with them, and so far must every one go who under- standeth anything concerning the relation of the Father to the Son, in whom He beholdeth all things from all eternity that have been or are to be in time. But when they stand still at this point, and will proceed no further, then are they wilful and foolish : for, if Christ the Head had to become manifest by the Spirit, and to keep the law, and be obedient unto the death, then have all the members of Christ by the same Spirit to become manifest, and to be brought through the same probation, and to achieve the same victory over the devil, the world, and the flesh, over sin, and death, and hell. And it is as necessary to the work of salvation that the Holy Spirit should make us manifest as the sons of God, formed in the image of Christ, as it is that we should have been included in the purpose of the Father. Wherefore I will ever take my liberty in presenting the person of Christ as the type of His people, into which they are to grow up from the new birth, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; and so ought every Chris- tian minister. But as to the law of Moses, they may go and yoke themselves into its harness who please : for my part, I prefer Jesus Christ as my law and my lawgiver, and I expect, by the Holy Spirit within me, to be conformed thereto. I am not of Moses, but of Christ ; and sure 1 am, Moses and his economy, law moral, ceremonial, and political, had no end or object at all but Christ ; who, being come, I will peruse and delight in, because I love the daylight better than I do the signal-lamp of the night, or the twilight of the morning. The second class are the Arminians, who reject the will of ITS FRUITS. 353 the Father altogether ; or, if not altogether, subject it to con- ditions which make it dependent upon the will of the crea- ture, and that, too, a depraved fallen creature : than which nothing can be more dishonourable to God, or more decep- tions unto ourselves. In consequence of which disorder in the main spring and moving power, their whole system is out of joint. They offer the gospel unto all, but keep back the truth that no one can lay hold of it except his will be renewed after the will of God : and so, in the very offer of the gospel, they inculcate a fatal error, that the will of man hath a liberty in itself towards good as towards evil ; whereas, everybody knows, and they themselves will confess when hard pressed, that it is underlying a grievous yoke of bondage. Now, this mistake in the beginning is fatal in the issues ; for a religion of will-worship is engendered — that is, a religion of outward forms and inward reforms, of frames and of feelings, of sensa- tions and emotions, of abstinences and severities, of such a kind, in short, as we see among the Papists, and are beginning to see amongst ourselves. For if the will confess not its bondage, nor seek redemption at the will of God, nor acknow- ledge the Father's as the only absolute will, what is there left, but that the will of the creature should do its best to set up the framework of a system according to the strength which resideth in it .-' And forasmuch as a fallen will must seek for some guide to itself which it deferreth to ; when it doth not acknowledge this in the will of God, the supreme and absolute, believing that it hath in itself a certain power and faculty of well-doing ; by what shall it be guided, but by expediency, or the greatest quantity of visible good and attainable usefulness.^ And, accordingly, you shall ever find Arminianism a religion of accommodations, and amalgamation of contraries ; trying to wash the Ethiopian white, and to say barefacedly that he is white : striking a truce between the world and the Church ; and foregoing God's presence, in order to do the world good. And as to believing an apostasy and reproba- tion in the Church, they would not speak of such a thing, it is to pious ears so shocking; but they call the abominable mother of harlots, " our erring sister : " and that is well said ; twin-sisters they are ; and twin-sisters in error they are : for VOL. V. Z 354 THE INC A RNA TION : from no worse a stock did the Papacy spring, than this same loving intermarriage of the natural and the spiritual man, who till death are the most violent enemies ; this same tender- hearted mediation between the Church and the world ; this benevolent disposition of doing all the good in our power by any means, and in the very shortest way. Between these two extremes of Antinomianism and Armi- nianism, the Calvinists take the middle and the true ground — I use that name for want of another, which might stand in proper contrast with the two former ; but I would rather say, the doctrine of the Churches established in these lands, as they are set forth in our Reformation-standards, and were expounded in preaching till after the Synod of Dort ; when, in England, Arminianism got the upper hand, which it hath kept till this day ; and was only driven out of Scotland by the sword and by the bow of our forefathers. For, setting out with the purpose of God to bring out of the fall a great manifestation of grace, we say it was absolutely necessary thereto that He should suspend, by His own electing love, His sovereign electing love, of which no man nor angel can give any explanation, nor will He Himself, except it be in that name, "Jehovah, I am that I am :" by this it pleased Him, in foresight of nothing, but on purpose to make His Son manifest by incarnation, to suspend the ruin of certain, whom, by the ministry of the word and Spirit, He would in His own time draw out and manifest, to the glory of His sovereign grace, by which He maketh them acceptable in the Beloved. And thus believing we proceed to minister the gospel in the open face of the world — that is, to hold up Christ in the sight of the camp, calling all to look upon Him : and, withal, we tell them, that no man can come unto Him except the Father draw him ; and that no man can enter into His kingdom unless the Holy Spirit renew him from the very birth. And having held up Christ, the fulness of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we leave the matter then in the hands of the blessed Spirit, to bring out the election of the Father, and join them in eternal union to the body of Jesus Christ. And who will tell me that this is not preaching the gospel freely } It is that which reformed these nations, which this ITS FRUITS. 355 Arminian style of it is threatening to methodise, or, as they phrase it, to evangelise : but I refuse the term, it ought to stand " methodise ; " for as the doctrine is a low, and in a good measure a false, mctliod of doctrine ; so is the religion it produceth a low, and in a good measure a false, vietJiod of religion. Now, the second set of errors in the Trinitarian Church ariseth from isolating the substance of the Son, or overrating His office, as if it were all in all. This is particularly the shortcoming of those who call themselves evangelical, and of all who arc wont to pride themselves in being Biblc-CJiristians: and I am sorry it hath seized too many of the intellectual men of the Church of Scotland, who should know better; and given orisfin to a notion of faith which could not have lived in the region of the north fifty years ago, but would have been preached out of the king's dominions from the one corner of the kirk unto the other. And it is doing the work of Ar- minianism, where the name of Arminianism dare not be ut- tered. But of this in its place. — In Christ's incarnate Divinit}^ as hath been said, not only the eternal Word, but the will of the Father, and the work of the Spirit, were all embodied in their fulness ; that we might know the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as the Son ; but when the incarnate fulness of the Godhead was exalted into glory, that object of His mis- sion was served, and the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, in their separate personalities and offices, stood re- vealed. Wherefore His apostles were commanded to baptize in the name of Jesus no longer, but in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is not, therefore, right for any disciple of Christ to rest in the perusal of His person only ; but through that most blessed way to ascend unto the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; to know them, and to honour them, in their several personalities, and so to preach them unto the Church — for into that name the Church is bap- tized, and for the testimony of that name the Church is main- tained, until the Lord shall come again, and reveal in the glorified condition that same fulness of the Godhead which he formerly revealed in the condition of humility. Therefore they do not well, but do exceedingly straiten themselves, and 356 THE INC A RNA TION : depress the standing of their people, who will only dwell upon Christ and Him crucified, and will not go on to divide the personalities of the Divinity, while they divide not the substance ; for they keep them under the shadow of the fleshly, which, even to those who saw and felt it, was inferior to the spiritual dispensation that came at Pentecost, so that it was expedient for Him to go away ; — how much more in- ferior is the mere report and description of that veiled glory and flesh-encumbered activity of the God-man ! If they will recompose the personalities, and see them manifest together once more, let them carry the expectations of the Church for- ward to His coming, "whom, having not seen, we love;" whom we would not see in the flesh, because we have a more excellent sight of Him in the Spirit, and wait for a more ex- cellent still in the manifestation of His glory. At the best, I say, it is but a shadow or description of the fleshly body of Jesus which is at this day presented to the people called evangelical ; and they do consequently dwell in a darkness that may be felt, groping their way, like men in a mist, whose imaginations are full of precipices and pitfalls ; and whose ears are terrified with every voice, lest it should be a lion roaring on their path, or a hungry wolf tracking their foot- steps. And, from this looking upon Christ manifested in the flesh, the fulness of the Godhead veiled, they are continually poring upon the book which reporteth it, instead of waiting for the Spirit, which worketh in us the same mind that was in Jesus ; the Spirit, that overflowing fountain of living waters which springs out of the belly of the truly spiritual believer. But so it is, that, forgetting, or almost forgetting, the Spirit ; using Him merely as an oculist, once and away, to couch their eye ; they go on reading and reading, like schoolboys : and they will have their little text in the morning, to be their talisman through the day ; and their little morning comment on it ; and they are full of expositions. — Oh, this is a drudg- ery, a weary drudgery, to one who knoweth the power and presence of the Spirit to originate truth in the fountain, and give answers from the oracle. And as to any idea of Christ dwelling in us, they have lost not only the substance, but the reverence of it, and explain it away into a figure and a meta- ITS FRUITS. 357 phor : and what have they left but the paper and print of the book ? which, with shame I declare it, they talk about more after the style of a Mohammedan talking about the Koran, or a Jew about the Talmud, than of a spiritual Christian united to Christ speaking of the word of Christ. For if I have Christ, I have more than His word, I have Himself; He dwelleth in me, and I in Him. Hence cometh that bastard notion of faith, which I cannot away with, — that it is merely the link which joineth the mind of man with the record of the book. And they are grown so conceited of their discovery, that these barren children Avill go about the country, and laugh to scorn their fruitful fathers, as having been fruitful only in mysticism and absurdity. I do devoutly abhor this nostrum (for I can give it no better name) for making all mysteries plain ; and if God spare me, I shall yet live to expose it. They go about — and men they are, many of them, most dear unto my soul — to speculate concerning Christianity, as they call it ; how intellectual, how moral, how political it is, be3^ond all systems ; how it is ac- commodated to the faculties of the understanding, to the feelings of the heart, to the well-being of the community ; how it will purify the brackish fountains of knowledge ; how it will heal the distemperature of the moral atmosphere of .society, and do a thousand fine things ; for the sake of which they would pray men to be so gracious as to give ear unto their God. And thus they seek by smooth and flattering words, and well-turned sentences, and well-built arguments, to produce that natural faith ; which is no faith, but sight, intellectual or moral or prudential discernment. But I say unto you, ye cozeners of human nature, that faith is by pre-eminence the gift of God ; and, wherever given, will fight against nature in all its courses ; it will beat down the works of the natural man, and your beautiful nature it will confla- grate ; your knowledge it will blow away into thin air, and sublime towards the limbo of vanity beyond the moon ; your sentimentalists, your men of feeling, your songsters sweet, your novelists, your moral scaflblders, (for build a wall or lay a stone in its true place they never did, nor will do,) the whole tribe of your naturalists, rationalists, and neologians, 358 THE INC A RNA TION : with which the sunbeam swarms, and the very ghttering ele- ment itself in which they flutter, this gospel, whose suitable- ness to improve them all you fondly prate and preach about, will first utterly destroy, as so many gewgaws, which Lucifer, the son of the morning, hath made to mislead and destroy benighted men, groping their way darkly on to death and de- struction. O Scotland ! O my country ! that thou shouldest have nursed, and that thy best and dearest children do pa- tronise, these low thoughts concerning faith and the work of religion ! May the Lord God, whom my fathers have served in faithfulness for many generations, enable me, or some more worthy servant of His, to expose the utter futility of all such idle conceits, which have come of forgetting that it is an in- visible God we worship by the Spirit, and not an incarnate God whom we worship in the flesh, or by the report written of Him in the book. There is a second error, — to make nothing of the word at all, but to consider it as utterly superseded by the indwelling Spirit : which is the very opposite of the former, and so sup- porteth it, and is by it supported : like Antinomianism and Arminianism, helps-meet for each other's weakness, and un- able to stand alone. I wonder there should have been any need of an incarnation at all, or of any prophet, or of any apostle, if, as these fondly conceit, the Spirit could do this work alone. Or do they mean that the Spirit cometh of Him- self, and proceedeth not from the Father and the Son .? and if He proceed from the Father and the Son, will He not con- firm the testimony which they have given of themselves } But, hold : how came they by the knowledge of that Spirit ; yea, that there is any Holy Spirit; yea, that there is a Christ; yea, that there is a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost one God .<* Did they suck it in with the milk of their mother ; or did angels whisper it in their ear in the silent night ; or did they hear it at the market-cross, where merchandise and moneys are talked of .'' Or have they it from the spheres above .'' Or whence ? I will answer the question : they have it from the Bible, or from the traditions of the Church, or from the writ- ings of Fox and Barclay and others who were instructed by the Bible. And when they or their instructors discovered ITS FRUITS. 359 these things in the Bible, did they find it written there, that after they had discovered them they should cast the Bible away ? The Holy Scriptures are God's word, to lead us unto God : they are the record of His acts, foreshewing His providence to the end of time : they are the light of the Church's hopes, and the directory of her prayers, and the treasury of the wisdom which the Spirit hath given to the churches : and as such they are to be devoutly used, and constantly believed, and acted upon in all our hopes and de- sires, that we may come into the communion of the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ. Nor are they then to be set aside, but to be continually used, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness ; unto which we ought to bring all our thoughts, and words, and acts, that we may dis- cover those which are done in the Spirit from those which are done in the flesh. They are a light unto our feet, and a lamp unto our path ; but they are not the strength which enables us to walk in the ways of God : yea, and Christ himself is the true light which lighted them, and of whom they have also the oil ; so that I may say, they are but the lamps into which He poureth the oil of the Spirit. They are the food, for man liveth by every word of God ; but they are not the life which desireth and digesteth the food : yea, and I may say that the flesh and blood of Christ is the only food, and they are but the descriptions of its many excellent virtues and effects to nourish the soul. The Holy Scriptures have the same relation to the Eternal Word of God, which the letter of a true-hearted husband, written fairly and fully to his wife, hath to that husband himself ; whose presence, and whose person, and whose very self, she greatly preferreth to his written letter, however tender and sweet. So have we Christ by the Spirit, and do greatly prefer that union with Him to His written epistles ; which yet were most necessary to bring us acquainted with His love, and are so still to preserve us in our duty to our Lord and Master. — But time doth not permit me to unfold the half of these errors. Only I remark, that they all come from one source, which is, the dividing of the substance of the Godhead, and the supposing that any work whatever, whether in creating or in redeeming, is perfected 36o THE INCARNA TION : without the conjoined and combined operation of the three Persons. I now proceed to open one or two of the errors of the Hke kind arising from the separation of the substance of the Holy Ghost from the substance of the Father and the Son : the natural effect of which is to introduce mysticism in every form, from the highest Pietism of the Church of Rome, down to the lowest Methodism of the Protestant Revivalists. For if you cease to regard the Spirit as proceeding from the Father and the Son, to work the will of the one and to per- form the word of the other ; if you receive Him as an inde- pendent Divinity, whose work is to be seen within yourself, and whose being is to be thence demonstrated ; you find yourself at once lost in the multitude and variety of your inward feelings and emotions, without a rule to refer them to, or a model after which to conform them. If we do not look upon the Son of man as the Spirit's perfect work, and under- stand the Spirit's procession to be for the end of begetting children in His likeness : in what likeness then .-' How shall we know the wanderings of fancy, the embodyings of imagi- nation, the workings of diseased nerves, the peculiarities of bodily or mental constitution, from the sacred and constant work of God .'' This notion may begin in the Spirit, but it will end in the flesh. It may begin in the most lofty refine- ments of spiritual-mindedness, but it will end in the lowest and most brutal excesses of the natural man. So necessary is it to have one man, even the man Christ Jesus, to look to, as the great prototype of spiritual men, that I have no hesita- tion in setting this view of the work of the Son of God on a level with, if not above, the view of Him as an atonement. And therefore it is that in this whole discourse on the incar- nation I have sought to bring out the humanity of Christ in its true colours : while I never lost sight of His Divinity. For, once say that in any part of His life He is not imitable, He is not approachable, and you do open the widest door for mysticism and superstition to enter in. In everything He behoved to become like unto the children, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest over the house of God : and in everything He was very man ; and being very man ITS FRUITS. 361 begotten of the Spirit, He is to be imitated, yea, and to be followed, in the full faith of our being in everything made like unto Him. Those who shrink from this aspect of their Lord, do so because they are grown nervously sensitive upon the subject of His atonement and vicarious suffering ; but the man who apprehendeth this matter aright is nothing moved, but greatly confirmed thereby : for in this very thing, that every action was a true man's action, consists the merit of it ; — the merit that He should have humbled His Divinity, or emptied it out, or suspended it, (express it as you will,) in order to be found in fashion as a man, and do a man's action. But if it be no more a mere man's action, but an action proper to God, and not to man, then there is no descent, nor humiliation, nor merit in it whatever. This is what man can never do ; he cannot descend from the Divine infinitude of being, because he is a creature, and cannot pass his bounden duty as a creature. Nay, but being an abject, miserable sinner, he must be elevated from the lowest depths of impotency and vileness, in order to do the act of a righteous man. Christ hath descended from the height of uncreated being; but man hath to be raised from the depth of hell, and the deadness of the grave : and this is the wide difference. The one, an infinite condescension, infinitely meritorious ; the other, an infinite elevation, infinitely gracious ; to which, nevertheless, the in- finite condescension of Christ hath received an infinite power to raise any sinner ; to raise him in this present life to the same walk in the Spirit whereof He shewed us the pattern. But this doctrine of the imitableness of Christ's life by every spiritual man hath been so abased to the mere copying of His outward acts by the natural man ; and it hath been so abused to bear down the meritoriousness of His obedience, and the doctrine of atonement thereon founded ; that our divines and preachers have of late shunned it so much as to have suffered the notion to insinuate itself of a superhuman character in the Lord's life, which has opened the flood-gates of mysticism ; for wherever you are without a model, there have you mysticism : and the only way not to have it, is to preach the person of Christ as the person of every Christian, J 62 THE INCARNATION: and the life of Christ as the Hfe of every Christian, and the being of Christ as the being of every Christian. And this evil hath been much helped on by the substitution of a book for a person; the perusal of a book for the perusal of a person ; the worship of a book for the worship of a person. One word more before I leave this subject. As all idolatry among the nations consisteth in the worship of the creature, or the creation, instead of the Creator ; so all idolatry in the Church consisteth in worshipping the work of the Divine persons, instead of worshipping the Divine persons themselves in the work. The secret decree or purpose of the Father, rather than the Father in the Son, is the object of worship to our Necessitarians and Fatalists. The written word, which is one work of the Son, is the object of worship to the intel- lectual Protestants ; and the visible Church, which is another of His works, is so to the Papists ; instead of the Son Him- self, as heard in the word, and seen in the ordinances of the visible Church. The work of the Spirit within the soul, or, as it is called, the rise and progress of religion in the soul, is the object of worship to the Mystics, and the Friends, and the great body of the Evangelicals and Methodists ; instead of the Spirit, who is seen in that work ; and who is seen best in the perfection of the work, that is, in the Son of man. Now, the true object of worship is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, as seen united and together in all the works of creation groaning into a new birth, and in all the written word, and in all the responsive providences, and in the visible Church, and in the work of sanctification in the soul, in all places and in all times ; forasmuch as He hath filled all things with the manifestations and suggestions of Himself, and is in all things therefore devoutly to be sought, and found, and worshipped, and adored : though He be neither Himself the space, nor the thing filling the space ; but the all-originating Will, the all-inclusive Word, the all-manifesting Spirit. And thus much have I to say concerning the proper way of setting forth the gifts of grace and peace which we have through the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ITS FRUITS. T,6 0^0 And now the question which ariseth next in order is this, To whom, to what class or classes of men, are this grace and peace consigned by God, and to be freely preached by the ministers of the gospel ? It is, and I dare say will ever re- main, a question in the Church, for what class of persons these gifts are intended : for while, on the one hand, those to whom they are addressed are characterised by such exceeding high and holy designations, t/ie saints of God, the faithful in Christ Jesus, the elect of God, chosen in Christ before the foundation oj the xvorld, as would lead us to infer that no one can be in- tended but the invisible members of Christ, of whom not one shall perish ; they are, upon the other hand, so carefully ad- monished against every form of sin, and rebuked even for the most heinous transgressions, yea, and positively accused of renouncing Christ and His salvation, and, in short, they are so dealt with according to their conditions of frail and fallible and erring mortals, that we are tempted to believe the people spoken of, and spoken to, consisted of all who had made a profession of Christ, and were found in the communion and fellowship of the churches to whom He wrote. This I consider a very important issue, and worthy of the closest and most exact examination ; forasmuch as we know not, until this point be settled, how much of those writings of the Holy Ghost, or whether any part of them at all, be ap- plicable to ourselves. For if it be to the elect only that they were written, then are all but the elect cut off from the profit, and even from the use, of them ; and the reprobate, being wholly disconnected from them, have neither mercy, nor grace, nor witness, nor condemnation, nor any other concern, good or evil, designed for them, nor by them to be derived from these holy oracles of God. And, again, if it be to the whole visible Church that they are addressed, to all outward and nominal Christians, it is exceeding difficult, without a known and felt violation of truth, to apply unto them such expressions as are scattered everywhere throughout them : such as, " He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus;" " He hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children;" "He hath sealed us with the Spirit of promise;" and many others, which I may quote without going beyond 364 THE INCARNATION: this very chapter from which our text is taken. Now, to the complete resolution and right settlement of this question, I request your diligent attention to the following observations, in which I shall endeavour to shew the liberty and privilege which all the baptized have in Christ, and point out several erroneous views which prevail upon these subjects, ^ With respect to the Church of Christ, there can be no doubt that of the purpose of God it is as essential a part as the manifestation of Christ himself ; as independent upon condi- tions and accidents, and as sure to come through the stormy perils of this present life, as was the Son of God himself; being foreordained of God, being sustained by her victorious Head, and preserved by the almighty and irresistible Spirit. There can be no doubt, moreover, that the word of God, and the preaching of it, is the chief human instrument for calling out this Church of the first-born from the world, of maintain- ing their separateness and sanctification, and carrying them forward to the highest possible pitch and attainment of per- fection. For which end it would be utterly disqualified, did it not contain words and expressions for every possible pitch of elevation of the soul towards God, and for every possible degree of the love of God for the renewed soul. And while it contains the forms of those extreme perfections of spiritual communion with the Father and with the Son, it is most ne- cessary, at the same time, that it should also contain words and expressions proper to the first beginnings and lower de- grees of the spiritual life ; that is, milk for the babes, as well as strong meat for the men of stature ; because it is uni- versally allowed that our coming unto' God is a progress, though the cause of it be a fixed and immutable purpose, and therefore the end and attainment of it a most perfect certainty. Nay, more, seeing the election are dead in tres- passes and sins, the children of wrath even as others, it is further necessary that the word of God should condescend to an office lower still, — the office of addressing men in their natural condition ; and presenting forms of words, expressions of affection, and terms of accommodation, which shall be pro- per to the condition of a blind and impenitent sinner, seeing that is the condition in which all the election are found at ITS FRUITS. 365 the beginning, and out of which they are to be brought by- means of the written and the preached word. You must therefore see at once, that, in order to this first object of calHng out and sanctifying those whom God hath chosen in Christ Jesus from the beginning of the world, it is most ne- cessary that His word should be exceeding broad, containing forms of thought and feeling, definitions of being, and advance- ments to higher being, through all the stages of man, from the most wretched sinner up to the most exalted and holy saint. Let us now advance a step further. The word of God is not only for shewing God's glory in calling out the election from the midst of the fallen and ruined race of Adam, but likewise for shewing the glory of His holiness in condemning the reprobate to eternal wrath and indignation ; to be a sweet savour of Christ, not only in them that be saved, but also a sweet savour of Christ in them that perish ; in whose perdi- dition — I say it, because I am not ashamed of what the Holy Spirit hath written — God smelleth a sweet savour of His Son, as well as in the salvation of the others. To the clear- ing of which nauseated doctrine, you will understand that all things were made for Christ, and to shew forth some part of the fulness of the Godhead that dwelt in Him from eternity ; and that nothing existeth out of Christ, or in itself, or in an- other, nor can exist ; and, therefore, in the existence and by the existence of the reprobate, whether on the earth or in hell, in time or through eternity, Christ must be in some way revealed and His glory set forth, yea, and the sweetness of His grace exhaled. Wherefore it came to pass that Adam was made the type of Christ, and, being fallen, was promised Christ ; from the faith of which the Church having swerved away, was over^vhelmed by Christ in the deluge. And again, to the new world, in Noah, He was preached ; and when the world was all apostate again, the Lord, having promised never again to bring a deluge of water, chose Abraham, and constituted a nation of witnesses to the apostate nations. Which elected nation did itself become apostate ; and Christ, being mani- fested, became the foundation of the Gentile Church : which is also wellnigh apostate, and will soon be reaped with the 366 THE INCARNATION: sickle of v'engeance and trodden in the wine-press of wrath. All this iteration and reiteration of the promise ending in the incarnation of Christ ; all this work of the Spirit in calling out the election of the Church, which shall end in the coming of Christ to judge ; is for no other end than to implicate all men with Christ and Christ with all men, in such a manner as that they become apostate from Christ, are reprobate by their re- jection of Christ, become monuments on earth of His long- suffering, and through eternity of His holy severity and righteous judgment. Which second great head of the Divine purpose, as essential to it as the former, rightly to serve, it is necessary that the Divine word should contain within itself all forms of threatening and commination and curse : that it should shew the wickedness and the misery which attend upon the rejection of Christ, and flow from the denial of the gospel of Christ : as well as the blessedness and holiness which pro- ceed from the faith and honour of Him as our Lord and our God : tracing out and deriving down the present natural con- ditions of the world, and the future misery of hell, from the same source of Christ's universal being and power and mercy, no less than the present comfortable and assured conditions of the Church, with the blessedness of heaven, in the fulness of which they are fulfilled. Taking these two principles along with us, which no one acquainted with the will and purpose of God can doubt, we shall be at no loss to account for the mixed and most various character of the word of God, but, on the other hand, shall perceive that it could not be otherwise, without wholly failing of the end which God hath in view by the revelation of His will. For, if it had been so constructed as to speak only to the election of grace, though still it would have maintained that variety of character which is necessary to their various conditions, it w^ould not have served the purpose of conclud- ing the reprobate, and shutting them up, in sin, for their denial and rejection of Christ, if so be that the revelation of Christ had no reference nor application to them at all. And the consequence would be, that the preacher of that word would only be a savour of life unto life in them that are saved, but no savour of death unto death in them that perish. And ITS FRUITS. 367 there would have been no room for Christ as the Judge of the wicked, but only as the Saviour of the righteous, if so be that the word beareth no witness against the wicked. And, more- over, as the elect are in the first place among the wicked, and not to be distinguished from them until they are effectually called, the word would not speak even unto them, unless it spake to the conditions of the wicked with which they are begirt : so that the notion can in no way be maintained that the word of God is for the election only. It worketh the fruits of righteousness only in them, while in the reprobate it revealeth the hideousness of sin ; equally in both cases to the glory of God. So much in general with respect to this question ; but it may make our reasoning more distinct if we take a particular case, as this epistle, which is addressed " To the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" — that is, to those in the city of Ephesus who had been separated from the world by the belief of the gospel, and set apart by the sacrament of baptism to a holy life, and the maintaining of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore are they called " faithful in Christ Jesus," or such as had believed in Christ Jesus. And thus we find it in almost all his epistles. Now, who are designated by these terms .-" I answer, every one who had by baptism been admitted to the Church, and were found not excommunicated from the bosom of the Church — reprobate, as well as elect ; those who shall stand fast, as well as those who shall fall away. " If they fall away and become reprobate, how could they ever be called saints, and faithful in Christ Jesus .'' were they at any time of those who are chosen from the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love .-'" Certainly not. " Why then apply to them an epistle which is addressed to those amongst whom they cannot be reckoned .■'" To this question I answer: That the election is essentially invisible ; they are God's hid- den ones, who shall not be made manifest till the day of re- demption. Neither Paul nor any apostle could know who were to be raised in honour in that day. And no one, per- haps, was more frequently deceived than the apostle Paul. But he knew that while the world lasted there would be a o 68 THE INCARNATION. church and election ; whose number being completed, the world would be judged and changed. He knew, also, that this flock of Christ, which was in the world, was His peculiar charge, whom He is commanded to feed. He knew, more- over, that every one who had been introduced into the Church of Christ, been enlightened, and made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, was outwardly, and to the eye of man, amongst the election, and ought, as such, to be spoken to by the tongue of man. For if you speak not to them as to the election, to whom shall ye speak as such .-' not surely to those who are denying Christ, and standing afar off from His Church. Nor by speaking to them as such, do you make them such, but rather you make them re'probate : you shew them what they ought to be ; you make known to them what belongs to their holy profession ; you shew them their privi- leges in Christ ; you stir them up to higher attainments in holiness ; you rebuke them ; you condemn them ; you do the office of a good father unto his children, who lays before them the walk and conversation of honest and honourable men ; you do the office of a good master over his household, who lays out to them what is the duty of their several voca- tions, and what is their reward in fulfilling His will. The word is not therefore defiled because you have addressed it to a wicked deceiver ; neither doth it miss of its aim because in the spirit of sincerity you have spoken it to a hypocritical dissembler ; for it condemns the one, and maketh the other manifest in the sight of God, and perhaps of his own con- science. It is a merciful warning unto both ; and if un- heeded, it shall prove a count of accusation and a ground of sentence unto both. Observe, now, what terrible consequences you would fall into if you were to take up the opposite position, and allege that these epistles are meant, not for the whole, but for a part. The question is. For what part .-* who shall read them, and who shall not dare to read them .'' Into whose hands shall this power be given, of separating the chaff from the wheat ? To whom shall it be permitted to pull up the tares which grow amongst the wheat } The barn floor must not be purged till He whose fan is in His hand shall appear : the JTS FRUITS. 369 tares and wheat must grow together until the harvest. It is one of the monstrous assumptions of the Papacy, to burn the tares, and to say that all which is left behind is wheat ; or, in other words, that there is no salvation save in their own damnable apostasy, and all therein shall be saved. But we, who have not drunk the strong wine of their delusion that we should believe a lie, hold that in every Church, which maintaineth the faith of the blessed Trinity, not excepting the apostasy itself, there may be and there are saints, there may be and there are reprobates. And we likewise hold that it is beyond the power of man to say who is a saint or who is a reprobate. And we further hold, that every one who is a reprobate is so because he hath resisted the same great and glorious working in the Church which the election have not resisted; and that he shall be judged as one who hath trampled under foot that wherewith he should have been sanctified. For in this consisteth his very reprobacy, that he hath turned a deaf ear, and cast behind his back those most gracious words and those most glorious privileges which Christ Jesus, by the Spirit, had brought near, and proffered to him ; of which he had professed the acceptance, and was admitted to the enjoyment. It is the perfect equality of gifts, and advantages, and prerogatives, which the one re- jecteth and the other receiveth, that constitutes the difference between the reprobate and the elect, and shews forth Christ's glory in the one as well as in the other. If this word be not written to all of the visible Church, therefore, it is written unto none ; if it is written to any, it is written unto all. It serveth equal ends of God's glory in Christ to those who reject as to those who receive ; and therefore is not cast away upon any, but is profitable unto all, though not profitable in all. And this I hold to be the true designation of this or any other apostolical epistle, and the true standing of the Church of Christ towards those gifts of grace and peace, which are the fruits of the incarnation of the Second Person in the God- head. There is one point in which these Apostolical Epistles essen- tially differ from the Gospels and the other scriptures ; from not observing which they have run into many errors in these VOL. V, 2 A 3 70 THE INC A RNA TION : times. Being addressed unto churches of the Gentiles, which had just been formed, or were just forming, there are few of those appeals to a former condition of the church, which are so frequent in the Prophets and the Gospels, addressed to a church far gone in backsliding and apostasy, and ready to be rejected : being addressed unto churches just gathered from amongst the Jews and the Gentiles at every risk of property and life, and who abode, as it were, continually upon the perilous edge of persecution and death, they speak the lan- guage of consolation and edification, of confidence and trust, as to those who had been tried and proved for the testimony of Christ. And yet I must take exceptions for the churches of the Corinthians and the Galatians, who had slidden back from the ground where the apostle planted them. But though the churches in general did then deserve, and the apostles did address unto them, more of gracious language than would be proper to this or to any after age of the Church, they still perceive, and warn them of, an apostasy which was about to arise, of perilous times which were ready to come. And how soon they came is well manifested by our Lord's epistles to the seven churches of Asia, which present two or three of them in a very deplorable state, and speak to them more of the language of warning and threatening than we find in any of the Apostolical Epistles, save, perhaps, that to the Hebrews. Which example of our Lord, both in the Gospels, where He speaketh to the Jews grown hoary in backsliding, and in the Apocalypse, where He speaketh to the seven churches of Asia, just entering upon the long career through which the Gentile church hath since passed, doth teach us that it is our duty not to be always speaking the language and adopting the gracious manner which the apostles use to the simple and comparatively uncontaminated primitive church ; whose con- dition is no longer represented in any church under heaven : but we ought to assume more justice and severity and threatening, and appeal unto the broken covenant, and the despised ordi- nances, and the whole tottering framework of the Church. Which is what our evangelical brethren, and a great multi- tude of our sectarians, will not do : they will speak the soft language of these epistles, and none more stern or severe. ITS FRUITS. 371 unto the present church, which is all but apostate ; which hath hardly a feature left of the primitive church ; and were it not for our sound and orthodox standards, would hardly be known for a church of Christ at all. They will not assume the prophetical character of discourse, which they hold as utterly foreign to the Christian Church, although our Lord resumeth it in the seven epistles to the Gentile churches : and I can never find when it was laid down ; but perceive a coitinual entreaty of the apostles, to all the churches, that they would search the Scriptures, and mind the things which ha/e been spoken to them by the holy prophets. And, observe what is the consequence of this perversity of using only a portion of Scripture for the model and text-book of their discoursings. Finding that the church or congregation of the baptized is not capable of being spoken to in such language of consolation and edification, of en- couragement and commendation, as was proper to the primi- tive churches: and not willing to go to find their models ii the prophets, who spoke to a church in the state in which w^ are at present found ; they are compelled to represent the Church in the same condition in which the apostles represent theunbelievers, and the heathen, and the persecuting Jews — thatis, to unchurch the Church ; to deliver her from all re- sponsbilities ; to absolve her from all covenants ; to rid her of all \ereditary burdens ; to undo the Divine arguments of a written word, of a visible church, of a religious education, of the hly sacraments, of a Christian government ; all past history d God's dealings with us and our fathers to oblite- rate ; all I'esent experience of His chastening, or long-suf- fering, or s-acious providence, to hide ; and to commence anew, as if -e were in the very condition of the Greek and Roman heat^ns — which is the grossest and most glaring falsehood, thcrnost dishonourable and prejudicial misrepre- sentation, that ras ever heard of ; dishonourable to God, and dishonourable t the Church. But this is not all the evil which springeth om the fantastical course of these unfledged divines and ill-i'tructed stewards: for, not content with treating the visibltrhurch as the world— and so quitting all scores, and, in trutl making her, not reprobate and apostate 372 THE INCARNATION : in the sight of God, but in no worse a state than were the heathen at first, when He sent His gospel forth unto them — they are forced, in the next place, to imagine unto themselves some body of persons, who may stand to their wretohed theory and most false hypothesis in the condition of the primitive apostolical converts. When they have unchurched the Church, and treated it as the world, they must go to and make a Church for themselves, which they may address as the called and chosen of the Lord. But how are they to know them, and how are they to mark them out .'' They cannot baptize them over again ; they cannot admit them by themselves to the sacrament of the Supper ; they cannot pen them together in the fold of the Church : every ordinance and sacrame.it which defineth the outward Church is already appropriated ; and what shall they do to make out this church within a church ; where to all, or almost all, their apostolical style of discours- ing is to be addressed ; and for the sake of which they have/ neglected their duty to those over whom they were ordainecj not carrying God's commissions unto them, but calling the^ the world, instead of the backsliding but still beloved Churdi, the adulterous but still gently-entreated Church ? What an they do, but define their pseudo-church, their invisible visile Church, by an artificial mark of their ov/n invention ; a jArti- cular manner of speaking one to another ; particular bo'ks to be read amongst each other ; places of assembling in /Private one with another ; choosing of certain ministers for /^eir fa- vourites ; avoiding certain outward customs which tip church tolerates ; and so diligently bringing about an excysive and separative spirit ; constituting a church within a flurch, and endeavouring to make the invisible Church visible /-the many evils of which I shall not now insist upon. Now, this would be perfectly right and pr/^cr, and the only course which could be followed, in an at^state church, which in its very constitutional articles and d'v service had departed from the truth as it is in Jesus : foi^^^ample, in the Papacy, and the Lutheran churches on th^ontinent which have adopted Socinianism ; where nothing 'left for the faith- ful and chosen but to separate, and constiti^ the Church with ordinances amongst themselves, as the ^formers did. But ITS FRUITS. o/ J when the Church is truly founded, as I hold the Established Churches of these lands to be, and rightly arrayed in the forms and offices of a true and holy faith, it is schismatic and sectarian, and pregnant with all evil consequence, to follow the same course : forasmuch as the Lord hath not deserted, and cannot desert, a house so founded and erected ; though He have brought upon it barrenness of children, evil days of adversity, and sore chastisement of the powers of this world, and great poverty of His Spirit. To which His judgments it behoveth us, watchmen of the city, set to warn the people, to give heed, and call every man to vigilance and to humility, to grief and to lamentation, to sackcloth and to ashes, instead of deserting this prophetical post ; calling the city forsaken, and abandoned, and lifting up the cry of " save himself who can." That is the cry proper to Babylon, foredoomed, and ready to be destroyed : but for us the cry is, " Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders, and all the inha- bitants of the land, into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say. Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heri- tage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them : wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God.?" Moreover, there is nothing so dangerous as the idea that we are come unto a company of those who are all Christians indeed, or that we belong to a church which containeth only the election of grace. For it leads directly to idolatry, and we do at once begin to worship it : we sacrifice to it our own judgment, and lose sight of our own responsibility : its oracles become our oracles ; its opinions our laws, its view of the gospel our gospel ; its estimate of a holy life our rule to walk by ; its sanction of us our assurance of salvation ; and so forth, throughout all the various forms of idolatry. I say it is essential to our idea of the Church, that it should contain good and evil, and shall contain them unto the end : it is essential to know that there are reprobates in it, as well as elect; that Satan's synagogue is there, as well as Christ's body ; that we have a continual wardenship to fulfil on the 3 74 THE INCARNA TION : walls of Zion ; that there is an enemy in every house in Jerusalem ; that Satan is lurking in the corner of every street, and hath a partaker in every family. This, I say, is necessary to the very idea of the Church on earth, as it is the only true account of the Church on earth in all ages and generations ; and herein consisteth our desire and longing to be removed from it into the temple of the New Jerusalem which is above. Taking along with us these views of the great purpose and intention of God's word, and of the peculiar application of the epistles written in the infancy and comparative purity of the Christian Church, we shall be at no loss to understand in what light to consider, and in what sense to use, those holy Scriptures, the fruits of the incarnation, which the Holy Spirit, who gave them unto the prophets and evangelists and apostles, doth address to the Church of Christ in all ages and in all countries to whose knowledge it may come : according to that caution of Peter's, *' No prophecy is of any private in- terpretation ; for the prophecy came not of old times by the will of God, but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." From what hath been said, it is manifestly my duty, as an expositor of any portion of the word, to set forth everything which is therein declared in its full and proper sense ; not lowering it to the present state of the Church, nor accommodating it in any way to my notion of the condition of my hearers ; but declaring the truth as it lies before me, without palliation or without prejudice, according to the in- sight given me thereinto by the Holy Ghost ; and commend- ing it to every man's conscience, according to the ability which God may grant : when the holy word concerneth the Divine purpose, opening the goodness and excellence and wisdom of the Divine purpose ; when it concerneth the manifestation of the Divine purpose, discovering the beauty and fitness and application thereof unto the wants of men ; when it concerneth the constitution of the Church, opening the policy and the discipline, the comfort and the blessedness thereof ; and Avhen it concerneth the practice of each member of the Church in the relationships of the present life, enforcing and pressing the same with all urgency and request : and in every case leaving the truth which hath been declared to the application of the ITS FRUITS. 375 Holy Spirit ; — our business, as preachers, or teachers, or ex- positors, being simply to declare the truth, with all suitable affections of earnestness and love ; to shew forth Christ, whether in the purpose, or in the manifestation, or in the com- munity of the Church, or in the holy life of each member of the Church ; Christ the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, the All in all of the work of God : and having done so, to leave the truth which hath been declared wholly in the hands of the Holy Spirit, that He may take it and apply it unto your souls ; which is His high prerogative, not to be intermeddled with by any man, because it is His office in the work of the blessed and eternal Trinity. This is the part of all preachers. God grant them grace, for the exoner- ation of their own souls and for the growth of the Church in grace, to fulfil His will ! And yours, dear brethren, who believe in Jesus Christ, and have taken upon you the profession of godliness, it is, to listen with all reverence to the word which may be spoken unto you by my lips ; and to pray, that, like Lydia's, your heart may be opened to receive it. Say not, "This is too high for me;" but rather say, "Ah me, that I should not be able to receive the comfort of this gracious word, which the Holy Spirit hath indited for His Church ! " Still less seek ye to abase the glorious word, and to explain it away to suit your conditions ; to purge out of it the mystery of the Divine will and sovereignty, the Divine foreknowledge and predestination, till ye have made it into smooth, sinful Arminianism. You might as well purge out of it the mystery of Christ's Divinity ; nay, I think, if you do the one, you ought to do the other; for I can see no sufficient ground of Christ's Divinity, save by perceiving that He is the beginning and the ending of the Divine purpose from all eternity : which caring not to recognise, you can only recognise the manifestation in time, and so have a tem- porary Saviour, which is flat Socinianism. You might as well purge out of the word the mystery of the Holy Spirit's working in all redemption and regeneration ; and so bring yourself into man-worship and self-adoration. O brethren ! God forbid that you should deal so treacherously, so deceit- 376 THE INCARNATION: fully, by the word of God ; in which there will occur much whose splendour you cannot bear, much whose mystery neither I nor you can unfold — for we do but see through a glass, dimly ; and speak like children. But shall we be grieved hereat ? Nay, we will rather rejoice ; saying, " This sealstill remaineth to be broken, and this precious part of the roll still remains to be revealed : it is so much excellent counsel which I have yet to receive ; it is so much precious- truth upon which I have yet to feed ; it is a region of the Divine glory into which I have yet to ascend ; it is a field of the Divine wisdom which I have yet to explore. Let me re- joice and be glad that there is so much before me still to be attained, so much to profit in, so much to apprehend, so much to digest, so much to prove me, so much to sanctify me. Indeed, I do rejoice, and will rejoice, in these mysteries, though for the present I apprehend them not, though in this life I should never apprehend them ; because I know there be some mem- bers of the body of Christ which are nourished by them, though I be not : for what am I } .a poor unworthy member of Christ. I am not the eye, I am not the ear, I am not the tongue. God be praised that I have any place whatever in the body. I will rejoice, yea, and I do rejoice, that there are so many wiser, more profitable, and better instructed members than I am : and by their example, who feed with ravishment on these divine mysteries of election and predes- tination and assurance, I Avill stir myself up to desire and to pray for the same light and blessedness : and I am sure that the time is coming, either now or hereafter, when I shall know even as I am known ; when I shall put away those childish things, and become a man of full stature in Christ Jesus. But I will beware lest I reject any of the good counsel of God,or suffer myself to be blinded by this man or that man's conceit against it, because then I am so far forth a reprobate : for if I reject God's word, reject I not God's Spirit, and rebel I not against the will of the Father, and reprehend I not the honour and fulness of Christ V Yes, truly : if, listening to any legal or evangelical, to any worldly or Methodistical, to any Arminian or Socinian glosses ; if permitting yourselves to drink into the spirit of these or any other schools, you do slur over in the reading, or ITS FRUITS. 377 trammel in the hearing, or neglect in the meditating, any of the mysteries of this word of God, though most high and dif- ficult to be searched into, then I testify that you are saying unto the Lord, " Hitherto shalt Thou come and no further ; " you are preferring the darkness to the light ; you are grieving the Holy Spirit, putting your souls in the most imminent peril, and doing your part to land yourselves among the re- probate. But if the wickedest, the most lukewarm, and the most timorous Christian who now heareth me, will, in a humble and teachable spirit, say unto the Lord, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth ;" though he were a babe like Samuel, and like Samuel had never before heard the voice of the Lord speak- ing unto his soul — if he will say, " Oh that the entering in of Thy word might give understanding to the simple!" — then let that poor and contrite soul know assuredly that he is on the way which leadeth into the secret pavilion of the temple of the Lord, and is growing out of the blindness and dead- ness of nature into the life and light of the chosen of God. And if the strongest, most wise, and enlarged spirit in this church will do the same, he shall become mightier still : ac- cording to the saying of the prophet, " Every man shall become as David, and David shall become as God." Oh, then, my beloved, deal fairly by the word : give it law, give it liberty. Blame and censure me ; cut me to pieces with your criticisms, and blow me to atoms with the breath of your scorn ; but, oh, meddle not with the word and wisdom of God ! Yet while I say so, I also say, take heed how you hear, because I believe God will speak the truth by me for your sakes, if you desire to hear and to learn the truth. Thus have I given you liberty, O children of Christ, to feed upon the word of Christ ; every one according to his present appetite and digestion ; no one envying his brother's portion, or desiring to measure his brother's wealth by his own poverty. I have put you all between the conditions .of election and reprobacy : all, all who are baptized into Christ Jesus, and wait upon these ordinances. The word will either prove your quickening into life eternal, or your condemnation unto death eternal. All of us stand alike tempted, alike invited : there is an election, and there is a reprobation amongst us: 378 THE INCARNATION: and the reception of this holy word will separate the one from the other in time and in eternity. PART III. Having thus discoursed of grace and peace, the substantial fruits of the incarnation ; and justified the full and free preach- ing thereof unto the Church ; I would say a word, before concluding, upon the saving application of them to the heart of every believer. In which office, as in every other, I would rather walk under the guidance of God's word, than commit myself to my own judgment ; especially as I have found in the Epistle to Titus a passage in which the apostle Paul sets himself to delineate, and in his own most comprehensive manner doth include in a few words, the whole of this subject, (chap. ii. 1 1-14,) " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodli- ness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pecu- liar people, zealous of good works." Let us endeavour to gather up the parts of this apostolical delineation of grace. The first characteristic of it is, that " it bringeth salva- tion ;" according as it is elsewhere written, " By grace are ye saved, through faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast." Grace, we have shewn above, is the affection of the Divine mind, or attribute of His being, from which our salva- tion proceedeth; which moveth His will thereto, determineth the method, informeth all the parts of the plan, is mani- fested through all the progress of the work, is crowned in its ultimate accomplishment, is now nobly confessed by all the saved, and standeth gloriously revealed in the mighty fruits and issues of the work through eternity. And while the stupendous fabric of all our salv^ation hath its foundation laid, and its walls upbuilded, and its corner-stone brought ITS FRUITS. 379 out, in the grace of God, whereby we are freely justified ; it Cometh to us, it apprehendeth and layeth hold on us, in the way of faith ; and by the progress and increase of our faith, from faith to faith, in each man who is polished after the similitude of the Chief Head-stone, in order to be builded into the temple which is building to the honour and the glory of the grace of God, I say, the almighty all-working Spirit, in making any of us who are dead in trespasses and sins a subject of Divine grace, doth proceed by working in us faith in God, who quickeneth the dead ; and in Christ Jesus, who died for our sins, and was raised for our justification, and who hath received " all power in heaven and on earth, to grant repentance and remission of sins," and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. By the way of faith in an outward work of salvation done, and scheme of salvation revealed. He proceedeth ; not by the way of good works, obedience of the law, good char- acter, moral worth, honourable reputation, or some other thing within us, in which all men do by nature boast and build themselves up. As to ourselves. His first lesson is, that we are dead in trespasses and sins, objects of the Divine wrath and indignation : and even this lesson He can only teach us by reflection from the law, as it was exemplified and fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord ; so that even the truth of our natural perdition floweth from an act of faith in the grace of God manifested in Christ Jesus. When we see our natural deadness, the work of our salvation is a good way ad- vanced ; the old man is stripped and crowned with thorns, and crucified ; and this argues the new man to be born, yea, lively, and come to no mean stature in our souls. But how came that new man to be quickened in death, and reared in the corruption of a tomb .'' Can any one say that he had any hand in it, or with all his might could have helped it on a jot; or that any power or might, less than the Almighty Spirit of free grace, sent to the undeserving and the rebel- lious, and working in us against the main drift and tendency of our nature and the very principle of our being, hath brought it to pass, through a continual exercise of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ ; upon His life for righteousness, His death for atonement, His resurrection for quickening the dead, and o 80 THE INCARNA TION : His glory for the present hope and future fruition of all the people whom His life redeemed from the curse of a broken law, whom His death justified, whom the power of His resur- rection regenerated, and whom the hope of His glory saved ? This is what is meant in the first operation of the grace of God, " that it bringeth salvation," — that it saveth us through faith. It is next written, in this same large description of the work of grace, that it " hath appeared unto all men ;" or, that it is universal in its epiphany or manifestation ; — that this feature of the Divine mind, or attribute of His substan- tial being, called grace, is an essential part of Himself, which first came to our knowledge, or the knowledge of any crea- ture, in the person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and hath been held up to the obser\'ation and pre- sented to the acceptance of all men by the Holy Spirit, in the Church, which is His living temple. For all that went before the coming of Christ, in the dispensation of God unto the fallen world by means of angels, was but the clearing of the ground and preparing of the way for the dispensation of grace that was to come impersonified and incarnate in the Word. The law, which came by Moses, gave the forms of righteous- ness which should condemn every other man to death, but which should not be able to lay a hand upon the skirt of Christ's garment : the word of prophecy was but the testi- mony of promise and ground of hope for the world to expect Him and believe upon Him : and the grace in Jesus Christ, thus announced from the beginning of the world, and fore- shadowed and defined by every word and act of God, hath, since His resurrection, over-canopied the world, and is free to every man's use, free as the vital air of heaven. He came not to judge the world, but to save the world ; that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. All that holdeth of the former advent is grace, is free grace, is universal and unconditional grace, unto all men to whom the knowledge of it may come : and it hath not been hid in a corner, that it should not come unto all, but hath for these eighteen hundred years been " as a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid." We, who hold the doctrine of an election and ITS FRUITS. 381 a reprobation amongst the children of men, hold of necessity the universality of the presentation of the free grace of God ; because it is by the acceptance of that grace the elect are made manifest, and by the rejection of it that the reprobate are made manifest ; which revelation of both classes could not come to pass without the presentation of it to all mankind. This mystery of election and reprobation is entirely depen- dent upon the universality of the free gift and offer of grace, and preaching of the gospel unto all ; and cometh out of it, dawning and clearing itself upon those who will be at the pains to read the Holy Scriptures, or who will have the patience to reflect upon what they already believe. You be- lieve, do you, that the manifestation of the grace is freely made unto all .-* " Yes." And what cometh of those who reject it.? " They are reprobates." And what cometh of those who receive it .'' " They are elect." Well now, did God con- template this issue of it, or another ; did He reveal this issue of it, or another } Surely He must both contemplate and reveal the truth. Therefore His word speaketh of an elec- tion and a reprobation as about to be manifested by the free preaching of His grace unto all men in Jesus Christ. And a very gracious, holy, and most necessary part of the revelation it is, teaching that salvation is not made easy by the gospel — which is the root of all errors ; I may say, the practical error of all, save the election — but that men are by the gospel placed under more awful sanctions, equipoised, as it were, between the top of heaven and the depth of hell ; the field on which the powers of heaven and hell are to con- tend for the victory ; the substance out of which a monu- ment is to be built to the inexhaustible grace or inexhaus- tible severity of God. And those who, hiding the principles and the issues of election and reprobation, and at the same time preaching the gospel freely unto all, do their utmost to keep the world in the delusion that salvation is made easy and attainable at any time, do bring the Church into a state of ease and inactivity, of sleep and death, such as we now behold it to be in. And it is to preach only one-half of the glory of God impersonated in Christ ; whereof the world hath had but the part of grace revealed at the former advent, and 382 THE INCARNATION: waiteth for the other part, of judgment and severity, against the advent yet to come. His birth in Bethlehem ushered in the day of grace ; His coming in the clouds shall usher in the day of judgment : and these two make up the manifesta- tion of God in Christ Jesus, the fulness of the Godhead in the body of the Son of man. If they will sum up the whole, and preach the result unto the Church, let them station them- selves under the whole, let them imderstand the whole ; and from the consummation look back and tell what hath passed ; and see if they can include it all under these words, " Grace unto all," They must add, " The grace of election unto some, the severity of reprobation unto many ;" " God in Christ a God of mercy, and a God of justice ;" "a Father, and a con- suming fire;" "the Saviour of the Church, and the destroyer of the world ;" " the builder up of heaven, and the builder up of hell" — all to His glory; all to the glory of His holiness and truth ; and equally of the essence and substance of His being. Now, as I take it, beloved brethren, that the evening shadows of the day of grace are darkening around us ; and the temple gate, though loth, is ready to be shut, after which no one shall be able to enter ; and the night is thickening ; and the sword of the angel of judgment is in his hand ; and the snare of the tempter is spreading ; and the pit of the destroyer is widening its mouth ; and the time of the end is at hand ; we hold out, as it were, a last momentary invitation, and blow a final blast, mingled of entreating pity and warning, around the world, saying, " Now or never ; the day is far spent, and the night is at hand : haste ! haste for your lives ! enterf enter into the ark ! for the heavens are thick, and the hail is coming down upon the forest, and the city is low in a low place." Furthermore, with respect to the application of this grace to the souls of men, it is thus written in the same large and beautiful description : " Teaching us, that denying ungodli- ness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." These words contain the power of Divine grace upon the heart of the believer by the operation of the Holy Ghost ; which is very often mistaken for the beginning, and sometimes for the whole of Divine ITS FRUITS. 383 grace ; but which is, in truth, not a beginning at all, and only a very small part of the whole ; the only fountain, and origin, and principle, being, as hath been said, in the Divine substance, of which we do now know grace to be as essential a part as His power or sovereignty or justice. The only principle or beginning of it is in the will of God, in the good pleasure of His will. It is proper for God so to be, and it is pleasant for Him so to reveal Himself; for the which His will is ever devoutly to be worshipped, and adored, and yielded to, as the greatest goodness and most perfect wisdom. As little is the work of grace in our souls by the Holy Ghost the beginning or the fulness of its majiifestatioit ; for it was first and fully manifested in Christ, and is derived unto us from that inexhaustible fulness of which we have received, and grace for grace. The portion of the Holy Spirit which any one receiveth, which all of us receive, which all the Church since Pentecost hath received, is only a part of that might and power, and overflowing fulness of grace, which is in Christ Jesus, and shall flow out of Him upon and into all the elect creatures of the universe of God. If you want, therefore, to know the size, or to measure the dimensions, of that grace of God which hath appeared unto all men, bringing salvation, I pray you not to be prying and poring about the narrow bounds of your own imperfect sanctification, but to consider the man Christ Jesus ; who, though in the form of God, and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, became a very man, of low, and mean, and suflering conditions ; and being found in the dejected and desolate estate of a condemned criminal, crucified on an accursed tree, was thence exalted at once unto the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, to rule and to govern, to forgive and to save, and eternally to manifest the attributes and perfections, to declare and to exe- cute the will, of the Almighty and Eternal God. Look on that, I say, and consider its dimensions, if you would have an outward estimate of that attribute of grace, which is in the essential substance of God, and whose effluence is from the will of God, by His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all who believe. Having guarded this topic of our discourse, to prevent our 384 THE INCARNA TION : selfishness from making it the whole because it is the part which concerneth self, I now proceed to open the application of grace to the sinner : which is here given as a process of teaching, or discipline, working two effects ; which are, first, the " denying of ungodly and worldly lusts, and the living soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world;" secondly, the " looking for that blessed hope, and the glori- ous appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The same twofold division of the work of grace I find in an- other part of Scripture, (i Thess. i. 9, 10) : " How ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God ; and to wait for his Son from heaven." Now, with respect to the power by which either, or both, of these Divine effects is wrought in us, there can be no doubt that it is the power of God, and the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost. For, first, that we have no power to produce the whole, or any part, of this grace in ourselves, is manifest from our Lord's own de- claration, " Without me ye can do nothing :" and that we cannot fetch ourselves to Him, or link our dead affections to His living power, is manifest from that other saying of His, " No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." And that it is the work of God to do this, which in and of ourselves we cannot do, is manifest from the passage of this epistle already quoted : " Ye are saved by grace, through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast : for we are his workmanship, created unto good works (or fashioned upon good works,) which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." And again, in an- other epistle : " It is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure." Now that it is the proper office of the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the Divine Substance, to produce all faith, to teach all truth, and to work all goodness in the souls of dead men, is manifest from our Lord's defini- tion of His office in various parts of His last discourse : as, for example, (John xiv. 26): " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remem- brance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Again, (John ITS FRUITS. 3S5 xvi. 13) : " Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of him- self ; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." And, again, the apostle John, in his first epistle (i John ii. 20, 27) traceth all saving knowledge and good fruits, and permanency therein, to the same Almighty Teacher, in these words : " But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you : and ye need not that any man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." And the whole doctrine of the work of the Spirit in enlightening and informing the natural darkness of the soul is stated, yea, and the measure and the dimensions of the putting forth thereof in the regeneration of the sinner, is given, in this very chapter, to be no less than that which was put forth in the resurrection of Jesus Christ : " And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," (verses 19, 20.) How incongruous were it, to use such language as this, if the conversion of a sinner unto God, and his building up in holiness and righteousness, were a work to which he himself could lend a hand ; in which he might go hand in hand with God ; or, as our unchristened divines, the disgrace of our churches, say, take the lead of God ! I utterly repudiate all such damnable doctrine : and anathematise all the preachers of it, as the defacers and de- famers of God's grace, and the enemies of the cross of Christ. For herein grace is grace, that it is free and undeserved, yea, that it is something beyond and above our deserving. This is the essence of grace even in a man ; but in God the essence of it is, that it passeth infinitely beyond, and riseth infinitely above, our deservings, which are the depth of hell, whence this grace of His doth exalt us to the height of heaven. How infinitely, then, do they disparage that boundless ocean of the Divine mercy and forgiveness, and grace and goodness, VOL. V. 2 B 386 THE INCARNATION: who entreat of it as something which we earn and deserve, and which is never bestowed upon any who have not laboured for it by the self-denials, penances, devotions, beliefs, and hopes of their life ! Thou blind leader of the blind, hast thou not eyes to read the holy page, where it is written, that the grace of God schooleth us like children to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to which we are as much inclined and devot- ed as children are to neglect their lesson and to run wild after folly and idleness ? Or knowest thou not that word of thy Saviour, " This is the work of God, that ye should believe in him whom he hath sent ;" or that other word, " Ye must be born again, of water and the Spirit, before ye can see the kingdom of God ? " And knowest thou not that word, " You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins ? " Now, take to thy logic, and resolve me, if He that creates the seed is not the same who is the creator of the tree that grows out of it ; if He that quickens the life of the child is not the creator of the man into whom the child waxeth ; if He that raiseth the dead is not the resurrection and the life of Him whom He hath raised ? Or is my child to disallow me as his father, because he chews and digests the meat which I pro- vide for him, and wears the clothes which I furnish him ? And is the child of the resurrection of the Holy Ghost, to cast off the obligation to God, and insist for a share of the work, because He is made to grow up into full stature by the continuance of that Almighty Power which produced Him out of nothing ? Oh thou Atheist ! then, after Adam, the seed of man ; and after the first formed animal, the seed of all future creatures ; and after the first created plants, the seed of all vegetables, had been formed in six days : going on ever since until this hour procreating and producing and in- creasing and multiplying, according to the law and provision which God had appointed to them, they become sharers, co- operators, fellow-creators with God ; having a part in their own origination, and beholden unto themselves as well as unto Him — yea, to Him for six days' work only ; to them- selves for six thousand years' work, and whatever ages are yet to run ? Oh, but thou art an equal distributor and ap- portioner between God and the creatures ! a rare logician ITS FRUITS. 3S7 to boot ! and a most famous Atheist ! But, to return to the subject of the apphcation and appropriation of grace. Its first operation is in faith ; and that not the faith of so many written books, but faith in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, in whom, as the great object, all grace is mani- fested. You may as well expect to have knowledge without a thing to know, as faith without an object to believe upon. The object of all faith is " Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." As to the written book, it is but the description of His person, and the unfolding of His work, to lead us to a knowledge of Him ; but there is no faith until we know Him and receive Him as the only Son of God, and Saviour of sinners — the manifestation of the grace of the Father, and the fountain from which the power of the Holy Ghost floweth into our souls. And this faith is not to be produced in us by any reading or conning of the pages of a book, or hearing the subjects of it preached upon, or any outward ordinance or mean ; which are at best but the fountains that contain the water, shewing us where the water of life is to be found : but the water of life itself is not in us, nor anywhere in the world, that it should be found out; not in the hands of any priesthood, that it should be purchased; nor of any men, that it should be dispensed ; but vHth God is the pure fountain of His grace, and from Christ only can it be received, by an act of faith upon Him, through the channels by which He ordinarily communicates it, and, when He pleaseth, directly flowing into the soul without any such means. Now this faith upon Christ Jesus is the gift of the Father, communicated by the operation of the Holy Ghost : Christ is the gift of the fulness of grace ; the Holy Ghost is the dispenser of its measures to His people : and if we look for it from any other quarter, be it book, ordi- nance, effort of our own will, help of others, or power of nature, we do feed on the east-wind of emptiness and barren- ness. Nor is it enough that God hath presented the object of all faith in His own Son ; He must also give the eye to behold, the ear to hear, the hands to handle, the heart to re- ceive. Which He doth by the Holy Spirit, whom you must 388 THE INC A RNA TION : expect from the same principle of grace in the Divine sub- stance from which the Son proceeded. Because God is gra- cious, the Son of God came forth to seek and save a lost world : because God is gracious, the Holy Spirit came forth to enable that low and lost world to lay hold on Christ Jesus for salvation. He that denies faith to be the only operation of the Holy Ghost, denies the office of the Holy Ghost ; as he that denies Christ to be the only object of faith, denies the office of Christ : and no one who acknowledgeth not both of these, doth or can acknowledge the grace of God : he either disparages it by the apprehension of a part only, or he denies it altogether ; for its wholeness is not manifested in the in- carnation and atonement of the Son only, but requireth the dispensation of the Holy Ghost unto the Church to be added thereto : nor then is the dimension of grace measured, but there wanteth to be superadded to these two, the glory which is hereafter to be revealed. It is God's will to be gracious, it is the bejie placitiun, the " good pleasure " of His will to be gracious, that moveth the Father to spare the presence and permit the sacrifice of His Son : it is the Son's delight to obey His Father's will, tliat maketh Himself become outwardly manifest in humiliation and death : it is the deHght of the Holy Spirit to proceed to accomplish and substantiate in out- ward acts that which the Father hath willed a.id the Son hath revealed : this is what makes up the full complement of the Divine grace ; and those who become children thereof are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the ilesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. According as faith upon Christ Jesus is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost we grow in grace, deriving from the great ocean of His fulness that portion of light and life which the Spirit may be pleased to apportion unto every man. And being enlightened in the knowledge which is in Him, and quickened with the life which is in Him, thence ensueth first a humiliation and a dying and a crucifixion of the old man ; a lowly descent from the heavenly places of Satanic usurpa- tion, in which every natural man is born ; an apprehension of the monstrous self-deification which we have been prosecut- ing, by making our own will our law, and exalting our reason ITS FRUITS. 389 to the right hand of God's throne, yea, to the very seat of His Majesty. This great descent from the heavenly heights of spiritual wickedness, groweth out of the faith and know- , ledge and meditation of Christ's descent from the bosom of His Father to the dust of death. The Spirit taketh Christ's eternal oneness with and being in the bosom of the Father, and His willing procession thence to be cruci- fied on the accursed tree, by wicked men, for the redemption and salvation of wicked men, by the destruction of their wickedness — this great act of love He taketh, and sheweth it to our souls with such mighty and efficacious power, that we are constrained by the faith thereof to be ashamed and grieved and horrified at our usurpation upon God's self-exist- ing prerogative ; are enabled to forsake and abandon all high imaginations of that evil kind ; to come into the condi- tions of a creature, and to see ourselves as the most rebellious and ruined creatures ; to humble ourselves, become obedient, and to enter into the fellowship of our Lord's sufferings ; to crucify ourselves, as He also gave Himself to be crucified ; and to die daily unto sin more and more, by the grace of the Holy Spirit enabling us to apprehend the kindred, and I may call it mother, grace in the work of Christ. Now, this is not an act, brethren, but it is a work, which, like every other work, hath a beginning — call it regeneration, or conversion, or awakening, or what you please — but, like every other work, it hath a working power, the same which set it on at first ; and therefore the multitude do idly talk and vainly preach, when they refer you to a day of conversion on which they were born of the Spirit, and to a succession of self- denying acts and holy works, a life of holiness, which grew up and proceeded from that one act of the Spirit. No, it is the Spirit working in every act, and at every time ; restraining nature, mortifying nature, quickening more faith, and withal bringing more grace from the ever-full fountain ; maintaining the life, doing the works ; feeding his own child ;. strengthen- ing him against the burden of sin and death ; enabling him to bear the oppression of the world patiently, and to re- sist the devil successfully, and to triumph over sin, and to fulfil all righteousness : even as in our Lord it was by the 390 THE INCARNATION: fulness of the Spirit, which descended on Him at His bap- tism, and remained with Him during all the days of His flesh, and wrought by Him those mighty works, and in whose strength He offered Himself on the cross, that He was able to present that pure offering of obedience whereby we are sanctified. How much more need we that ever-present, ever- active Spirit, to enable us to bring forth every fruit of holy obedience unto God, of self-sacrifice and self-destruction — ^we who are as proud as Lucifer, as sinful as hell, and as dead and corrupt as the grave ; who might " say unto corruption, Thou art my mother, and unto the worm. Thou art my brother and sister ! " All this our present life in the Spirit is a sacrifice, a sacrifice of the will, a willing sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God — that is, the sacrifice of a holy life. I say, that the whole labour of the life of a Christian, the whole actual operation of the grace of the Spirit in this our fleshly sinful tabernacle, is after the manner of a sacrifice, yet a will- ing sacrifice : and as such is represented in the mystery of baptism, which is the " putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, in order to rise with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead :" it is a purification from uncleanness ; it is a warfare against the powers of darkness : in short, it is the Holy Spirit doing over again in all the election, that which He did in the Chosen One, from the day of His baptism until the day of His crucifixion. This is most important to be borne in mind, in order to plume the wing of your higher flight, and disen- tangle you of remaining weights for a more strenuous race, and to guard you from that delusive and slothful ease into which our converts come when they have passed the novitiate of their conversion and spiritual regeneration, as they are pleased to term it. Now, besides this, there is another distinct operation of Divine grace upon the soul of the believer, which is after the nature of hope, as the former is after the nature of experi- ence ; the one being the prospect of an assured joy, the other the presence of an experienced suffering ; and mutually sus- taining one another — the joy to come enabling us to endure the cross, and the cross that is present brightening the desire ITS FRUITS. 391 and hope of the joy. This, which proceedeth side by side with the other, and is the light by which the shadow of the other is made apparent ; this, which groweth and dawneth as the darkness of the other disperseth ; this, which Hveth as the other dieth — yea, and which hath power to kill the other, as light coming from a distance hath power to destroy the dark- ness which is around us — this prospect of joy, this substance of good things to come, is wrought in us by the application to our souls of that other portion of the Saviour's work which beginneth from His resurrection, hath since been proceeding, and wWX be perfected in the glory that is to come. The sa- crifice of the old man continueth in the believer until death, and then we lose sight of it ; and the sacrifice of the Church continueth through the present age, until the glorious appear- ing of the great God and our Saviour, and concludeth also in a death — that is, the death of her body, or the visible Church, which shall then have contracted upon itself all the sins of outward worldliness, and whose death shall be the death and destruction of all worldly and wicked power, and leave the millennial Church free from its thraldom and tyranny. As the body of Christ, which was accounted sin for us, being slain, did carry with it to the death the power of the flesh over the Spirit, and all ordinances of the Church which had a reference thereto, " nailing them to His cross," and delivering us into the ability of triumphing over the law of the flesh, whose potency He had vanquished by the Spirit : so from the time that the body of the true Church — that is, the visible part of the true Church — shall have been sacrificed and offered up, a hecatomb of the Spirit, as Christ offered up the holocaust of the flesh, it shall come to pass, that the Church shall step out from under the yoke of worldly power, which is ordained over us of God, exactly as the Levitical dispensation of priesthood, the commandments which stood in ordinances, was ordained over the former Church, a most needful bondage, until the redemption from the power of the flesh should come : so is this subjection to the powers of the present age a most needful bondage, until the redemption from the power of the world shall come, that is, until Satan shall be cast out, and the purchased possession redeemed. Now, the work which 392 THE INCARNATION : Christ hath been carrying on from the day of His resurrec- tion, until He shall come again in glory and majesty, is the nourishment of hope; whose joyful and victorious career is made by the Spirit to kindle in us a fellowship of His resurrection, and of His present spiritual victories, and of his future personal victories ; which raiseth and exalteth us above all trials, and enableth us to undervalue all worldly joys, pleasures, and preferments : just as the work which He accomplished, from the day of eternity when He purposed, or from the day of the fall when He promised, until the day of His death when He accomplished. His suffering and humiliation for our sakes, being applied to us by the Holy Spirit, doth carry us to a depth of self-denial and suffering and humiliation and mortification, far beneath all the pe- nances and stripes and pilgrimages and monastic severities and eremite sufferings, which Satan ever invented to deck the strumpet mother of all abominations. And as the sacrifice of our will can only proceed from perceiving, believing, and meditating the utmost rigour of the law accomplished in the first part of our Lord's work, so, I say, that the strengthening of the Divine will and power in us can only proceed from perceiving, believing, and meditating the utmost rewards of innocency and obedience to the man Christ Jesus, accom- plished in the latter part of His work. And the application of these two by the Holy Spirit, doth constitute the comple- tion of grace in the individual believer. In this manner the Spirit worketh, by applying to us the grace which was re- vealed in Christ Jesus ; and otherwise than by directing our souls to Jesus, and enabling our every spiritual sense to feed on Jesus, He teacheth not. By looking steadfastly upon the face of His flesh — the humble faith, perfect obedience, and patient suffering which was in Christ Jesus — we are changed into the same image of steadfast faith, quick willingness, and quiet resignation. By looking steadfastly upon the face of His glory — His triumphant resurrection. His most glorious ascension. His super-eminent seat of power. His future mani- festation in powerful majesty, and His joyful righteous king- dom— we are transformed into the same image of power, joy, ITS FRUITS. 393 strength, and victory ; from humility to humility, and from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of God. Now, as to the manner how the knowledge and faith, the contemplation and deep meditation of these two several parts of Christ's work, are made by the Holy Ghost effectual to produce in the believer these twofold fruits — His humiliation to produce humility, and His exaltation to produce exaltation — we have not time to speak particularly : let it suffice to shew that it is a great distinction of Holy Scripture, which ought to be preserved in all the offices of the Church, and especially in this of preaching, which I now fulfil. In the 5th of the Romans Paul saith, " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life :" where His death is made the cause of our reconciliation, His life of our salvation. And what this salvation is, is manifest from the preceding verses, where the same truth is thus stated : " But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us : much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." This salvation is, therefore, salvation from the wrath to come ; which the apostle deriveth not from the death, but from the life of Christ : according to that word, " Because I live ye shall live also." But the apostle, not content with ensuring the believer of his salvation from the wrath which is to be revealed in the day of the Lord against all unrighteousness of men, advanceth unto a higher strain, and saith, " And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atone- ment." In like manner, in the 8th of the Romans, it is said, of those who have the first fruits of the Spirit, "We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemp- tion of the body. For we are saved by hope : but hope that is seen, is not hope : for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for.-* But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." Whence we conclude that the work of the Spirit, in applying the redemption purchased by Christ, is twofold; — one, to crucify us with Him; to enable 394 THE INCARNATION: us to groan within ourselves under the burden of sin, and yet to prevail against it by the participation of the Divine nature of the Holy Ghost which we enjoy. This is the service of God, the very good service, in which He delighteth, against all His and our enemies. And the other is, to fix and fasten the eye of our presently crucified body full upon the glory of our Lord into which He hath entered ; and fill us with hope, yea, and gladness, at the mighty power of His resurrection, which is begun to work in us, and shall not finish until it hath brought us through the waters, into the blessedness and honour which He hath received to share with us in that blessed day of His and our manifestation, for which all creatures travail and are in bondage even until now. Thus Paul saith of him- self, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made mani- fest in our body." And again, he saith of those who are quickened from their death in trespasses and sins, that *' they were raised up together, and made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places." And again he saith, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth, at the right hand of God, Set your afiections on things above, and not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Now, I ask in what sense we can be said to be risen with Christ, otherwise than in that life of hope, desire, and longing expectation, which we have fixed upon His present exaltation as the assurance of our future ex- altation, and of His glorious manifestation on the day of our entrance into glory } — in all which consisteth the power of His resurrection working in us those fruits of the Spirit which carry the soul forward and above the present stern strife and weary warfare, and enhearten her for the patience and perseverance of the contest. And I say that this is as essential a part of the Spirit's operation as that which sets us on edge for the battle, and arms us for the con- flict. Nay, I will say that our hands will soon hang down, and our knees weary, unless we have our eyes continually to- wards the banner of the risen glory, which waveth in the van- ITS FRUITS. 395 guard of the battle. The battle is from the cross, but the victory is from the resurrection. I confess, while so many- are preaching Jesus and the cross, I am strongly disposed to take up for my burden Christ and the resurrection, the Lord and His glorious advent. But I may not imitate their ex- ample, in separating and dividing the work of Christ, which, as I observed, is all necessary to the manifestation of grace ; nor the work of the Spirit, which is also complete in the application to our souls of the completed work of Christ, both of His humiliation and His exaltation. But this I make free to declare, that there is no preaching of the resurrection of Christ ; and from thence I perceive it cometh that there is no vicfour in the soldiers of Christ, who are like soldiers in the hospital, rather than soldiers in the field ; men at ease, not men at arms. Such, dearly beloved brethren, is a poor, a very poor, yet according to my gift a faithful, representation of the infinitely pregnant mystery which has been disclosing since the fall of man, and shall to eternity disclose, the most glorious of all the attributes and works of God. As concerneth the Father, the righteous, just, and holy Father, how great grace doth it bespeak in His bosom, to pity rebels, to forgive the resistance of His own creatures, to give His Son, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, for the sake of the guilty ! Of which most gracious act to comprehend the greatness passeth all finite minds, and to feel the kindred emotion of it is reserved for the pure and more perfect condition of the life to come, when we shall know as we are known, and be perfected in love. But, with our present blemished and blotted minds, we have no lively sense of the holiness which had been wounded, of the justice which called for satisfaction, of the entire and all-per- vading horror wherewith the Divine nature abhorreth sin. What grace in the Father, to meditate, to originate, and to perfect the scheme of salvation by His Son ! Then what grace in the almighty and all-creating Son, the co-eternal, co- essential Word, to take the form of accursed, miserable, mortal man, and for ever to wed human nature to the fellow- ship of the Divine; to empty Himself of His divinity, and in every act to be very man, very sinful man, though He had 396 THE INCARNATION: done no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth ; that He might make reconciliation for those wretched, abject crea- tures, who knew not of His infinite love, deserved it not, cared not for it, trampled it under foot, and crucified the Lord of glory ! What grace in the Holy Spirit, to bring this perfect life, this all-meritorious death of the Saviour, into contact with our lustful, ungodly, devilish nature ; to quicken life in the stony heart, and nurse it in the corrupt flesh of man ; to apply, point by point, the power of grace to the power of nature ; to bring the strength and beauty of Christ into contact with the strength and deformity of Satan ; thus to withstand, thus to struggle with, and thus to vanquish, thus to deliver, thus to beautify, and thus to glorify every sinner for whom Christ died, and whom the Father had given unto Christ ! What grace ! oh, what riches of grace ! dear brethren, are not exhibited to us in this work of redemp- tion, in the word of this gospel which is preached unto you ! This is what the apostle blessed the Ephesian Church withal; this is what I bless you withal every Sabbath day. This is what you have in the Church of Christ. This is your second nature : I should say, this is your redemption from nature. This is your second gift from God : the endowment and the principle of a better being than Adam ever possessed ; the beginning and the accomplishment of a better nature than that of angels or archangels ; the endowment of a more glorious condition than that possessed by any other creature of God. I hardly know in what language to speak of the exaltation to which this gift lifteth the sons of men aloft, above principalities and powers, and the various orders of the heavenly host ; for we are fellow-heirs with Christ, partakers of His throne, and co-heirs of His kingdom. I cannot ex- press myself; I lose myself in the sublimity and infinitude of the revelations of God. Yet this, which the heart cannot con- ceive, and the tongue of man cannot utter, nor the compre- hension of man measure in any one of. its chambers, is that which I this day offer unto you, the Church of Christ, the saints of God, which are of this congregation, the faithful in Christ Jesus. I offer it without price : otherwise grace were not free. I offer it without work : otherwise grace were no ITS FRUITS. 397 more grace. I present it as God's gift unto His elect chil- dren, which they will lay up in their hearts. I present it unto all ; and woe be to him who heapeth infinite wrath upon himself by rejecting this infinite gift of God by Christ Jesus our Lord ! I exhort you, therefore, dear brethren, in order that you may be partakers of the fulness of this grace and power, to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith, and to receive Him as He is freely offered unto you of your heavenly Father. Doubt not that God, who hath given you Christ Jesus, will with Him freely give you all things. All things necessary to life and godliness are included in this gift of Christ. That work of the Divine grace which was mani- fested in the incarnation of Christ, reacheth onward to the redemption of all the elect, and shall be consummated in their glory and honour, and the redemption of the purchased possession, with all the other mysteries of power which shall be manifested in the day of the coming of the Lord. There- fore ye, who are the saints of God and faithful in Christ Jesus, should assure your hearts before Him, and not be afraid with any amazement. We should rest in our love, and rejoice in our hope ; we should behold the magnitude, and be filled with the treasures of His grace. It is His own work in us, and He will perfect it until the day of redemption. His grace will be sufficient for us, and His strength will be perfected in our weakness. Ye see, dear brethren, what plenty, what all-sufficiency, you have in Christ ; and out of Him what poverty and misery. Betake yourselves to Him with all confidence; flee unto Him as the ark of salvation; and put your trust under the shadow of His wings until the evil days be over-past. Thus do, and you shall find rest for yourselves : thus do not, and you shall be like a wave of the sea, driven of the winds and tossed. Hear ye the word of the Lord Jesus : " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." VI. CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING THE SUBSISTENCE OF GOD, AND THE SUBSISTENCE OF THE CREATURE, DERIVED FROM REFLECTING UPON THE INCARNATION. John i. i8. No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. '\X7'HILE meditating the above sermons on the incarna- tion, various thoughts connected with this great subject have stirred my mind, touching its relations unto other great subjects ; and I have been led to perceive distinctly, how the incarnation of the Son of God is the ground and basis of all real 'knowledge with respect to the Godhead, is the ground and basis of all worship of the Godhead by the creature, and of the creature's own eternal being and blessedness. I per- ceive, moreover, through the light cast upon these subjects by the incarnation, how a creation out of God, and yet wor- shipping God, is not possible without the knowledge of God in three persons subsisting, which, if it can be speculatively attained by the reason, is a truth realised only by the incar- nation. Now, it is my desire to point out some of these high relations of the subject, which God hath enabled me to perceive ; in doing which, the great difficulty is to observe order and method, — for the thoughts are high, and the range of them is very far. Yet, by the grace of God, I shall endea- vour to comprehend them under these three heads : — First, The coming of the Godhead into action to create, and to manifest itself unto the creatures whom it hath made, and to receive their worship and homage. This will open insight into the manner of the Divine existence in three per- sonalities. GOD AND THE CREATURE. 399 Secondly, Wc would endeavour to shew how the creature shall subsist in an infallible and indestructible state, distinct from the Godhead, with, and by means of Christ a form of existence between the two, which is of both, and, being of both, distinct from each. This will open insight into the three great distinctions, between the incomprehensible God- head, the Christhead, and the infallible creature, inhabited by the Holy Ghost ; which three things may never be mingled together, so as to be confused with one another. Thirdly, We shall endeavour to open the connexions and communions, not the less subsisting amongst these three existences, the incomprehensible Godhead, the Godmanhood, and the Spirit-inhabited creature, in such wise as secureth worship unto the first, lordship unto the second, and infalli- bility unto the third. And if we shall be able to open these three great heads of doctrine, we shall have comprehended and resolved the great problem of creation, and seen clean through unto the ultimate end of God, which is to manifest and communicate Himself unto the creatures ; for I consider creation to be no more than the indelible, indestructible expression of that truth, God of one substance in three persons subsisting. I. First, then, in the work of the creation we have maintained these heads of doctrine concerning the Trinity : — i. That the infinite God, who is also invisible and incomprehensible, cannot communicate Himself, or the knowledge of Himself, unto His creatures, without assuming to Himself a finite form. In order to be visible and comprehensible ; nay, we may go a step higher, and say, that in order to fashion finite crea- tures, in order to do a finite action, it is necessary that the actor should assume a finite form. But, without doing more than to mention this great principle of Divine operations, we observe, that if the end of God in creation be, to manifest Himself unto the creatures, which is indeed the only end that He hath declared ; and if His method of doing this be by bringing in His own Son, and setting Him up for ever, in the form of the Lamb slain and risen from the dead, or in the form of risen God-man, and in that form to shew Himself for 400 THE INCARNA TION : ever and ever unto the creatures which He proposed to create ; then is it never to be doubted, that He who worketh all things to the praise of His own glory, and who leaveth no loose or open parts in His purpose, but maketh it to be alto- gether harmonious, and consenting unto the great end, would from the beginning of creation bring Himself into action under that form, which He was afterwards to assume : that is to say, everything would have an eye and aim to the risen God-man, everything would tell and foretell of Him, everything would have its origin in that idea or purpose, and have the definition of its being thereby determined. And this is what I under- stand, by all things being made for Christ, as well as by Christ, The Christ form of being, God and man in one per- son, was only an idea and a purpose until the incarnation, when it became a fact. The person of the eternal Son, I mean, did not become the Christ in very deed, until He took human substance of the virgin. Therefore, the only meaning that can be assigned to such expressions as that all things were made by Him and for Him is, that the person of the Son — not in His absolute infinity, which I have said I even believe to be impossible, but in the finite creature form which He was in the fulness of time to assume and to retain for ever and ever — did create all things visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or dominions, or powers ; wherefore, also, He is called first-begotten from the dead, first-born of every creature. This, then, is the only ground of revelation anterior to Christ, that God might tes- tify unto Him that is to come ; and creation till He come, is but that same testimony, from the strongest archangel down to the worm that crawleth on the ground. I believe there is no sportiveness, playfulness, idleness, extravagance, or waste of creation power, but one concatenated systematic testimony unto the Christ ; into whom, as all the disjected members are to be gathered up again into the head, so believe I, that in their present disjected state, the only end and purpose of their being is, to testify to Him of whom man is the only image, and Adam before his fall the only perfect type. Now, the counterpart of revelation is faith ; and if the end of creation is to reveal Christ, then the object of all faith must be Christ. And all GOD AND THE CREATURE. \o\ knowledge in the creature subsisting, whether of itself, or of other creatures, or of God, is no true knowledge, until it hath turned to a testimony, is cither incomplete or is false, until it hath revealed something concerning Christ, who is the end of all created things ; and therefore faith comes in where know- ledge endeth ; or, I should say, knowledge is but as the needle that pointeth unto Christ, in whom I must believe : and the rivers of knowledge pour themselves into the ocean of faith ; for the end of knowledge is not itself, but something which is to be. And the word, being the communication of know- ledge, doth, therefore, no more than set out Christ that I may believe upon Him ; and the preaching of the Word is the tes- timony of Jesus. But we have not yet arrived at the root of the matter, which is deeper still. The end of all things created ,by the Godhead being, as hath been said, the bringing in of the Christ, and that not at the beginning, but onward a good way in the procession of the purpose, the preceding period must necessarily be the season of faith, during which the creatures can live only by faith. For the thing visible is not the real thing that is to be for ever ; but is to be changed into its eternal form, whenever the Christ in His eternal form shall be revealed. Seeing, then, that faith is the condition of all the creatures until Christ come, they must be constituted fit subjects for faith : they must be constituted, also, fit subjects of hope, and alto- gether imperfect without hope : and these two principles of faith and hope must be wrought into the very vitals of their constitution. Now this is truly the condition of man ; who is born to believe, having no knowledge until he receive it from another ; and is born to hope, having nothing in possession to begin with, but nakedness, helplessness, hunger, and want of every kind. To a creature thus constituted, faith and hope become the elements of his being ; and therefore, in his very nature, man proveth himself a witness for something that is to come. And such a creature is proper to become the sub- ject of a divine revelation; and through such creatures that divine revelation must be communicated to other creatures, who are not in like manner constituted ; even as the apostle expressly declareth, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, That it VOL. V. 2 C 402 THE INCARNATION: is by the Church the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto the heavenly hosts: and through the intelligence and power which man possesseth over the lower creatures, God expecteth of His piety, and of His diligence, that He would make them speak the praises of God their Creator, which is Christ, and make them prophesy concerning Him which is to come : so that, as God destined man to be the form which He should assume. He hath made man also to be the great witness unto His coming in that form. If all things then were created by the Son, in the assumed form of the Christ, or the risen God-man, then all things spoken by God unto man must be spoken by the Son in that same character. But it may be asked here, What need to speak at all ? I answer. Because when the creature had fallen into sin and death, it necessarily became overspread with dark- ness, and ignorance, and error. And this was one reason of the fall, even to negative that light of revelation which the creature possessed in itself; to shew that the creature was not the true light, but only a witness of the true light ; and that the witness might not be mistaken for the person witnessed of, it came to pass that darkness was permitted to cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. Yet, under this the cloud of darkness, the mystery lay shrouded ; but so shrouded as that the creature, in himself, should not be able to discover it. And thus, during the fall-season of the crea- ture, it is connected with the Creator by its very imperfect- ness ; having in itself the ground of the truth of the promise of God, but yet, not being able of itself to read the lesson thereof ; having a will, but in bondage ; having an under- standing, but in darkness ; having a body, but under the law of sin and death ; having a world for a possession, but a world ever rising in arms against its Master ; having a being craving for faith, but ever falling into superstition ; having a being formed for hope, but ever falling into delusion. A miserable estate indeed, had it been cut off and separated from Divine teaching ! but, being connected with Divine teaching, the only state of being in which it was good for the creature to be during the preparatory and preliminary season before the coming of Christ. For, by these very defects, by GOD AND THE CREATURE. 403 these very unsatisfied cravings, it was taught its need of a higher Teacher ; which lesson, without such imperfections, the creature could never have learned. And thus the fall becomes the ground of a revelation, such as we now possess ; that is, a revelation of words superinduced upon the marred revelation of creation. The fall made the knot which no fallen being could loose ; which every one, by his own nature, should be craving to have loosed ; but could not otherwise have loosed, than from some one higher than himself. The fall made the riddle, which no fallen intellect could resolve, and which might create a craving for superhuman intelli- gence ; and thus it is, that the fallen world, without a revela- tion, were indeed a solecism in the idea : but a fallen world with a revelation is a better state of the creation than its first or unfallen estate, because in this there existed nothing to dis- tinguish it from God, and to teach it that it was not God in itself; no incompleteness, no mystery, no suffering, no evil, no apparent contradiction to be reconciled. But in the other state, the creature by its very want, from clothes of skin to clothing of righteousness, from succession of seasons to give him bread unto the preparation of the times and seasons for giving him bread from heaven, all from new-born babyhood unto the birth of the resurrection morn, is man in the fallen state of his being dependent upon the word of the revelation of God, Oh, what a mystery of goodness, as well as of wisdom, there is to be seen in the fall of man, which made way for the revelation of word and of ordinance, and enabled a Church to be preserved upon the earth, exclusive of none which should maintain the testimony, until He that is to come should come ! Thus was the creature linked to the Creator, by the very act of its falling away from Him, and hung in total depend- ence upon His gracious word, by the very act of disobeying His word : just as the infant, which with anguish is rent from its parent, becomes, in that very act of its birth, the object of its parent's tenderest care. It was no longer a creation out of God, but a creation that had been out of Him, brought into Him, and standing in Him by His gracious and faithful word. And not only did the fall of the creature thus make 404 THE INCARNATION: way for the revelation of the grace of God, but it did also, in a manner, render that revelation absolutely necessary, in order to maintain the completeness and accomplish the ends of the Divine purpose. Because now the creation being made subject unto vanity, and possessed with the spirit of a lie, wanting its high Prophet to interpret its ever misinter- preted mystery ; man himself having become subject to the deceiver, and being no more able to understand or prophesy the truth ; either the creation must fail from its high design of being and speaking and acting for Christ, or God himself must interfere with a Divine commentary and interpretation thereof. And forasmuch as we cannot believe that God is ever to be thwarted, or the testimony of Christ ever defeated, it doth necessarily remain, that a revelation shall be superin- duced upon a fall ; and that God shall first appear a Prophet, to gainsay the gainsayers, and to deliver truth from the jaws of the lion, before He becometh a High Priest to purify and sanctify the whole lump, and a King of kings to rule over it in righteousness. In which character of the Prophet He shall separate the truth from the lie, and preserve the testi- mony of the truth against the many witnesses of the lie. 2. And, secondly, we have maintained that this word of re- velation is to 'be made consistently with the acting of God in a Trinity of Persons. All things being made for the Christ, and by the Christ, all things must be spoken for Him and by Him. Wherefore also He hath His name of the Word, which was with God in the beginning, and which was God ; to sig- nify that His character of Revealer by word is as indefeasible a prerogative of His Person in the blessed Trinity, as is His character of Creator of all things, or His character of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, or His char- acter of only-begotten and first-begotten from the dead. It proves, moreover, that a revelation by word is older than the fountain-head of time, even old as the purpose of the Ancient of days. And it moreover proveth, that the covenant be- tween the Father and the Son, before the world was, is a true idea ; and that all word external, and uttered, is but the extension of that deed which was done and sealed with the blood of the Lamb before the world was. Wherefore, also, GOD AND THE CREA TURE. 405 the Holy Scriptures are called the two Testaments or Cove- nants. If Christ, then, be the Word of God, the Light that lighteth every man who by God is sent into the world, the true and faithful Witness, who, having dwelt in the bosom of the Father, is the only one able to reveal Him,^ because He only hath seen Him, He only hath known Him ; then through Him must this work proceed, and He must speak it in that form of the creature in which He is for ever to reveal the Godhead, that is, in the form of risen God-man. So that when He says, " Let us make man in our own image," it is not the image of the in- finite Godhead, but the image of that risen God-manhood in which the Godhead is to manifest itself. The word is not uttered by the invisible Father, who speaketh nothing but by the Son ; nor is it spoken by the Holy Ghost, who speaketh nothing which He hath not first heard of the Son ; but it is spoken by the Son, who speakethnothing of Himself, but what He heareth from the Father. Neither by the Son is it spoken in His infinite Godhead, but in His predestinated creature form ; or, as we would say, in character, and in keeping with that manifestation of God which is to be for ever, are all mani-, festations of God which have been from the beginning, to the end that Christ's working in the whole, and the working of the whole for Christ, may be made manifest. This matter will bear yet a little more consideration, for it is a deep and a most important matter. Christ did not assume the form of risen God-manhood, without the Holy Ghost ; who created His body, who informed it against the fallen tendencies of the creature, who raised it from the grave, and doth now inform all its members, proceeding from the Head, and by the presence of the Holy Ghost, in the actings of Christ, is the presence of the Father manifested. The Son, in His proper divinity, is infinite, as the Father is infinite, and as the Holy Ghost is infinite ; and yet these are not three infinites, but one infinite. Now, before the infinite Godhead in the Son could act in the finite form, whether before taking that form or after. He must act not of Himself only, but with the consent and concurrence of the other persons of the Trinity. And this is not a small matter, but is in fact that which determineth all the rest. This is the fountain head of 4o6 THE INCARNA TION : Divine goodness, that the Godhead should once act in a finite form, to the accomplishment of a finite end : and this involveth in it all which follows of creation, of the fall, of revelation, of redemption, of resurrection, and eternal glory : it is all shut up in that one word, that it is the good pleasure of the infinite Godhead to do finite things. The choice of the form in which it was to be done, whether of angel, or of archangel, or of man, are inferior questions to this, that it should be done at all. Now, how is this assent and con- currence of the three persons of the blessed Trinity secured, to this great undertaking of Godhead .'* Here comes in the doctrine of the orthodox fathers concerning the Holy Ghost, as the vinailnm Trinitatis, the circle of communication be- tween the Father and the Son, through whom the will of the Father expresseth itself to the Son, and the obedience of the Son expresseth itself back again to the Father. The action to be done is, that, in the person of the Son, Deity should go forth in finite works of creation. The will of the Father is communicated to the Son, and the obedience of the Son returned, through the Holy Ghost : and thus, as it is in the origination, so it is in the details of the accomplishment. In everything done in creation, in everything spoken in revela- tion, in everything acted in the incarnation, in everything suffered in the Church, and in everything to be executed in the kingdom ; Christ is the doer, the Father is the wilier, and the Holy Ghost the suggester of the will. And thus the Divinity follows out still its eternal and necessary law of being in the secret recesses of its own harmonious purpose, with which no creature intermeddleth, and of which no creature is competent to discourse, further than to say, Thus it is, because it is revealed that there is a trinity of persons in the Godhead. And thus the Son, in coming into action in the finite form, doth already possess the consenting goodness, the harmonious mind of the three infinite personalities of the Godhead. And thus He is not a manifestation of the Son, in action upon finite things, but He is a manifestation of the Godhead, acting by the Son, in finite things ; and this He is, from the first begin- ning to create, until eternal and eternal ages, during which He shall in finite form reveal the Godhead unto every crea- GOD AND THE CREATURE. 407 ture. And observe further, that thus He can refer back to the Godhead, as greater than He, because He can only be known by limitations : and yet He can say, that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. And forasmuch as the Son thus taketh in hand the manifestation to rule over it, the Father must keep in hand the unmanifested of the unmanifestable Godhead, to represent it, and to call it by His name. Likewise, the Holy Spirit, who thus bringeth unto Christ's ear the voice of the Father, doth receive from Christ the signification of the voice of His obedience, and doth carry into effect the limited form of acting which the Son hath condescended unto : and according to the w^ord of the voice of the Father, which the Son hath heard, and bowed Himself submissively to, the Holy Ghost goeth forth to do the thing : and from the creature thus informed by the word of the Son, and inspired with the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost doth carry up unto the Father the glory of the creature's obedience, and the gladness of the creature's joy, and the gratitude of the creature's blessedness. But yet not unto the Father direct, but through the Head, which is Christ, who hath received the dignity of Mediator, and Inter- cessor, and Priest, and King, wholly to intercept and to con- vey the communication of the Godhead with the creatures, God informed ; because it was through His voluntary obe- dience and humiliation that the creatures were created, were spoken to when they had fallen, were redeemed from their fallen state. This is the superadded prerogative of the Son, and likewise the constitution of the creature, after the Divine purpose, that the Father should give unto the Son the honour of being its Sovereign and conservative Head, together with the honour of conveying upwards unto the Father all its homage and service : so that creation, the fall, and redemp- tion amount simply to this, that it is a purpose of the Father to give outward glory unto the Son, because of that humilia- tion of Himself which He underwent, in order to manifest forth the glory of the Father. In both which acts, reciprocal from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father, the Holy Ghost is the great agent and operator. 3. Thirdly, We have maintained and made good that 408 THE INCARNATION: through Christ, and Christ only, who is the Godhead in a body, could the Godhead out of a body, the infinite and in- visible Godhead, ever have been known. The attributes of infinitude are not cognoscible by a finite creature, and I hold that all those a priori speculations concerning the attributes of God, are nothing more than descriptions of the pure intellect of man ; — they are the categories of the pure reason of man, and no knowledge of God whatever. God is known by His acts : the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and glory. Creation is for the knowledge of God ; and the end of creation is to be seen summed up in the creature-part of Christ. The being of man reflects the being of Christ ; the being of Christ reflecteth the being of God. It is not the tale which Christ telleth concerning the invisible world, as your Socinians talk ; it is not as a tale hearer at all, but it is as He is seen, as He is, (not excluding what He spake certainly, but including that also,) that He sheweth God. A prophet told of God ; but Christ is God, the brightness of His glory, and the ex- press image of His person, made visible to the creatures, that the creatures might see and know Him. Seeing and know- ing are used synonymously in Scripture ; as, for example, " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." And again, " This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." An act, not a thought, nor a word, is the work of God. The Father's it is to will ; the Son's to word what the Father hath willed ; and the Spirit's it is to bring it into existence, as a thing separate and outward from the Creator. In the first form, it is a purpose ; in the second, it is a cove- nant ; in the third, it is a work of God accomplished. Here, then, is Christ : look upon Him, and know God ; look away from Him, and be lost in darkness : hear Him, and believe that what He saith is in the purpose, and shall be in the manifestation. And what saith He .-* He saith that the Father is another Person from Himself, whom He worship- peth, whom He serveth ; and yet that the invisible Father is GOD AND THE CREATURE. 409 only to be known, by knowing the visible Son, No man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and He to whom the Son shall reveal Him : therefore, believe that the Father is an- other Person from the Son, seeing He speaketh of them as twain : " I and my Father will come unto you, and we will take up our abode with you :" and though twain, in respect of personality, yet one in substance ; for the Son doeth nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do : " The words which I speak, I speak not of myself, and the Father which dwelleth in me, he doeth the works : I and my Father are one. He that hath seen me, Philip, hath seen the Father ; and how then sayest thou, Shew us the Father ?" Thus come we by the knowledge of the invisible Godhead of the Father, through the visible Godhead of the Son ; and in like manner come we by the knowledge of the personality and Godhead of the Holy Ghost ; for Christ speaketh of Him as one that is to be sent to supply His room when Pie is gone away. He is called another Comforter. He is the Spirit of Truth, which abideth always ; not the Son of God who must depart for a season : and as Christ heareth the Father, so this other Divine Person heareth Christ : " What he shall hear, that he shall speak, and he will shew you things to come." There is between them a distinctity which admits of the personal pronouns, his and mine : " He shall take of the things of mine, and shall shew them unto you." Yet not the less is He one with Christ : in act He is what Christ is in word. Christ breathes on them, and they receive the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost must beget them before they can see the kingdom. This is the power which Christ giveth to them that believe ; to become the sons of God as He was the Son of God, through the inhabitation of His human nature ; by that Holy Spirit, — and every act of Christ is an act done by the Holy Spirit ; — His life, the Holy Spirit's life ; His holiness, the holiness of the Holy Spirit ; His power, the power of the Holy Ghost ; and thus, from the visible Christ, Cometh the knowledge of the three subsistencies in the God- head, and of their common substance, what its purpose is what its word is, and what its act is ; and knowledge is ob- tained of the invisible and unchangeable God, by the mani- 4 1 0 THE INCARNA TION : festation of Christ. And this I regard as a great end which was served by the bringing of the Christ into the world. 4. Still further, as concerneth worship, or continual acknow- ledgment and service of the Creator, as the great first cause, and deep abysmal will, which is separate from the creature, yet the life of the creature, and the basis of its being ; this is a mystery which cannot be otherwise understood, than by perusing the Christ, who, though God, did not worship Him- self, but did evermore worship the invisible Father, and yet He was God. But being God, united to the creature, and seen only through the actings of the creature, it is most needful that nothing terminate in Him, but pass through Him into the region of the invisible : therefore, whenever the people were disposed to rest in Him, He did always refer them back unto the Father, saying, " Ye cannot come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw you." Now, I know well, that the ignorance of this time, upon the subject of the Trinity, passeth all ignorance of any former time ; and there- fore I do deem it of the more importance to draw your atten- tion particularly to this part of the subject which concerneth worship, Christ's human nature, inhabited by the Holy Ghost, and from which the Holy Ghost never was and never shall be separated, was not an object of worship, and never shall be an object of worship; and if Christ received worship upon earth, from those who were ignorant of His Divinity, He did receive it, not as man, but as God. This I hold to be a most important point of doctrine, and most necessary to preserve men from creature-worship, and, above all, from saint-worship ; for I believe that Christ's human nature is not distinct from, but most closely united to, and indeed the very support, yea, and substance, of the renewed nature of every believer. Whosoever by faith eats His body and drinks His blood, is one with Him, as He is one with the Father; and that is one substance in diverse personalities. As by nature I am of the substance of Adam, and coequal with him in all pains and penalties of this fallen being, so by faith I am coequal in honour, and to be coequal in glory, with the human nature of Christ ; one with Him, I say again, as He is one with the Father. Such unity it is as all visible unity GOD AND THE CREATURE. 411 only resembleth, but doth never equal. Such unity giveth faith, as that it can be said, we are of His flesh and of His bones ; and is of the essence and substance of faith, and He who hath not this hath no life abiding in him. His human nature is inhabited by the Holy Ghost ; and our human nature is by the Holy Ghost likewise inhabited. If, there- fore, inhabitation by the Holy Ghost maketh any creature- substance as the body of Christ to be worshipped, then must it also make His members, which are of the same sub- stance, and by the same Spirit inhabited, to be in like man- ner worshipped ; and so have you saint-worship introduced at once ; as, indeed, it was introduced into the Papal Church, and must ever be introduced, where the body of Christ is worshipped ; and it doth destroy the whole end of redemp- tion, which is to get the creature separated from the Creator, and delivered from the worship of itself But as the creature, in its redeemed state, is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, this would constitute it an object to be worshipped, if Christ's body, which is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, might be wor- shipped. Wherein then consisteth that pre-eminent dignity of Christ above all redeemed creatures, which placeth Him at distance infinite above them, though in substance most closely united with them } It consisteth in His Divine nature, with which His human nature mingleth not, though to it in one person united. This constituteth him Head over all, though Brother of all the redeemed ; Brother by the community of the human substance, and the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost; Head by the solitary pre-eminence, by the Divine dignity of being the eternal and only-begotten Son of God. Neverthe- less, though in His Divine personality He be a proper object of worship, like as is the Holy Ghost in His Divine person- ality ; yet, as the Holy Ghost inhabiting the creature doth cease from worship contemplated therein, so the Son, taking the redeemed creature into union with His own person, and shewing the Godhead in the manhood, doth cease from being the object of worship, being therein the great Leader of the chorus, the great Head of the worshippers. And who, then, is the proper object of worship .-' I answer, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God ; — not as inhabiting the 4 r 2 THE INCARNA TION: creature, for then the creature would worship a Deity within itself; — not as sustaining the redeemed creature, for then the creature would worship its visible Head, and still the object of its worship would be in and of itself : but the object of its worship is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, their in- visible, incommunicable, indivisible being, represented in the person of the Father. Let no one start at this, as if it denied worship to the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Son and the Holy Ghost are one with the Father, who are worshipped when He is worshipped. The Divine person of the Son is not contained in His manhood : the ocean, the round immense of space, were better said to be contained within a household dish, than that the Divine nature of the Son should be con- tained in manhood. And to guard against this error, is the very reason why divines rest so much upon the distinctness of the Godhead from the manhood. But, save through the manhood of Christ, God shall never be known to any crea- ture, nor communicated to any creature ; and for this reason, that the fulness of the Godhead cannot thus, or in any way, be to the creatures communicated, most necessary it is, in order to the existence of true worship, that the Godhead, not in its manifested likeness and limited proportions, nor in its felt influences and operative powers, but in its invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible fulness and essential separate- ness, from the creature, that is, in the person of the Father, representing the substance of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, should be worshipped. And this, verily, is the end of the whole mystery. That God should inhabit the creature in the person of the Holy Ghost, and yet not be worshipped there : that God should sustain the creature, in the person of the Son, united unto man, and yet not be worshipped there, but be worshipped in the absolute invisible person of the Father : so that God supporteth all, inhabiteth all the re- deemed creatures, and, for the security and blessedness there- of, receiveth their homage out of and beside them all. Such is the true account of Divine worship, and such is the way in which it is attained. While, however, I argue, that the Godhead, in the person of the invisible Father, approached unto by the manifest Christ, GOD AND THE CREATURE. 413 through the indwelling Spirit, is the only ultimate object of worship from whom all petitions are to be sought, and all favours understood to proceed, I do not the less preserve unto the Godhead, manifest in the person of the Son, a superlative dignity above every visible creature ; — the King of all power ; the Priest of all holiness ; the Heir of all possession ; the Revealer of the Godhead ; the Light coming forth from the mystery of light, in which the Father dwelleth inaccessible ; the life, also, felt in all redeemed creatures, and the visible object of all their homage, reverence, and obedience ; and so bound to, and submitted to, and in that sense worshipped by, all the angels of God : as it is written, " When he bringeth his Son the second time into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him :" and not the angels only, but every creature ; as it is written, " That at the name of Jesus every knee might bow." But still, while this supremacy and lordship of God-manifest may never be doubted, I argue not the less that Christ will suffer no worship to terminate in Him- self, as an ultimate object, but will lead it up into the invisible and infinite Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; where again no worship is received, nor petition answered, which doth not come through the manifest Godhead as its way, and from the indwelling Spirit as its source : so that the end of the whole matter is, that the creature is taken into the circle of the intercommunion of the blessed Trinity, and therein consisteth its blessedness and its stability. Now I may say, that any difficulties which may appear on this subject vanish at once, to any one who will but look on Christ, who, though He was very God and very man, did not the less direct His worship unto the Father, and pray unto Him continually. And when He gave that form of prayer, commonly called the Lord's Prayer, it was addressed unto the Father. This was not for example's sake, nor did it arise out of His humiliation, but is the example of what He shall ever be, as the Head of redeemed creation ; evermore direct- ing His homage unto the invisible God. Let no one think that this is to derogate from the Divinity of the Son, or of the Holy Ghost ; any more than it is to derogate from the Divinity of the Father, to say that He dwelleth in us, by the indwelling of the 4 1 4 THE INCARNA TION : Holy Ghost, and shall never otherwise be felt ; any more than it derogates from the Divinity of the Father, to say that He is manifest in the Son. It is not the Holy Ghost inhabiting mere- ly, but it is the substance of the Godhead, in the person of the Holy Ghost ; and it is not the Son merely, sustaining and redeeming all things, but it is the Godhead in the Person of the Son ; and it is not the Father merely that is worshipped, but it is the Godhead in the Person of the Father, and the Son is worshipped equally with the Father ; and so, also, the Holy Ghost : and the Father is manifested equally with the Son ; and so, also, is the Holy Ghost : and the Father inha- biteth equally with the Holy Ghost ; and so, also, doth the Son. The same substance is present in the threefold per- sonalities ; the personalities most distinct, the substance most entirely one. And herein is the mystery of the Trinity most excellent and most glorious ; and herein are all Sabellian schemes of the Trinity, which do not hold the distinctness of the personalities, devoutly to be abhorred ; for, if you keep not the personalities distinct, observe what follows. Con- found the personality of the Son with the personality of the Holy Ghost, or deny the latter, which is virtually, yea, and avowedly too, a most wide-spread heresy ; and it imme- diately follows, that every member of Christ, inhabited by the Holy Ghost, is upon an equal footing with Christ ; — that every one of us is an Immanuel, or God with us, as certain blasphemously affirm ; — and straightway there follows upon this a total loss of Christ's great act of love and of atonement. Again, confound the personality of the Father with the per- sonality of the Son, which is to all intents and purposes done by worshipping the Son as the ultimate object of worship, in- stead of regarding Him as High Priest and Intercessor, and you mingle at once God and the creature ; and will come to worship Him, not as a personal God, separate from the crea- ture, but as a widely-diffused power and omnipresent influ- ence. So that, without the doctrine of the Trinity of persons in a unity of substance, the whole scheme of redemption and revelation, of a creation, of a fall, and of a regeneration, is an ineffectual and vain display of power and suffering, which ac- complisheth nothing. GOD AND THE CREATURE. 415 II. So much have I to say with respect to the light which this discourse of the incarnation casteth upon the actings of the one Godhead in a Trinity of Persons to the ends of crea- tion, revelation, and worship : and I now proceed to see what light it sheddeth upon the reconstituted creation under Christ the Head thereof In creation there are three things to be kept distinct by an impassable gulf The first is, the re- deemed creature ; the second is, the Head of the redeemed creature ; the third, the invisible God. If the creature jostle or mingle with its Head, then the procuring cause of its re- demption, and the abiding cause of its stability, atonement, intercession, manifestation of God, and everything else, which since the fall hath been transacted, and till the giving up of the kingdom remaineth to be transacted, becometh a dead and unmeaning thing. Therefore, I say, the Head of the re- deemed creation and the redeemed creation must be distinct and separate by a gulf impassable. This is the first distinct- ness ; and these two existences so distinct must yet be united more closely than any visible union : for every visible union is disunited, as the body from the soul, and the members of the body from each other ; but by an indissoluble union must the redeemed creature be united with its Head, in order that it may know and feel that it standeth only in Christ, and through Christ only can worship the Father. Now this union, beyond all unions close, yet in distinctness and separa- tion impassable, is compassed by the union of the two natures in the Person of Christ. Christ the Head, being God and re- deemed manhood in one Person, which redeemed manhood maketh the redeemed creature of one substance with Him ; so that in that manhood every elect creature standeth, and yet no elect creature tasteth of His Godhead ; and thus is the Christ personal separated from, yet united to, the Christ mystical, with all that dependeth thence. To constitute the union, the Holy Ghost laboureth ; to preserve the distinct- ness, the distinct personality of the Son from that of the Holy Ghost prevaileth : and finally, to prevent the creature thus redeemed by the Holy Ghost, and headed up in Christ, from aspiring to, or mixing with, the invisible Godhead ; to throw in another impassable gulf between the creature re- 4 1 6 THE INCARNA TION : deemed by the Son, inhabited by the Spirit, and the invisible, infinite, incommunicable, incomprehensible Godhead, the dis- tinct personality of the Father prevaileth. So that to accom- plish this threefold distinctness, (and unless this be accom- plished, all, all is vain,) nothing prevaileth, but the distinct separate personalities of the Godhead, never to be con- founded, in one substance never to be disunited. The doc- trine of the Trinity is the only view of God which will give Him separateness from the creature, and yet communicate to the creature of His indefectibility and blessedness : and the great end served by the coming of the Son of God in the flesh is the making known of the great truth of the Godhead as one substance in three persons subsisting, whose distinct- ness from one another is the ground and basis of all distinc- tion between the redeemed creature inhabited and possessed by the Holy Ghost, and its Head, which is the Lord Jesus Christ; and between these two, considered as the whole visible existence, and the invisible Godhead, This necessity of perfect distinctness between these three subsistences — to wit, the redeemed creature, the Head of the redeemed crea- ture, and the invisible Godhead, — is the reason, and ground, and fruit of the doctrine of the three persons in the Godhead. Now, this is a subject of such great importance in itself, and in its consequences so unbounded, and withal a subject so little understood, or treated as a speculation, — whereas, it is the only defence against Spinozism, and Sabellianism, and that philosophy of the West and religion of the East, which makes God the soul of the creatures, or the creatures an emanation from God, — that I deem it good to open it at some length, and to shew how it is the essence and the sub- stance of all sound doctrine whatsoever concerning the crea- tures, and concerning God the object of the creature's worship. I. The end of God, in giving existence beside Himself, is to communicate life in such a way as shall consist with His own being and glory. Accordingly, the creation was completed in a living soul ; but Adam, thus formed, was not the perfect or complete creature, but only the likeness or type of Him that is to be. And therefore Adam could not have eternal or immortal life to give ; which required that the life should GOD AND THE CREATURE. 417 be manifested, which was done in the Person of Christ, who brought life and immortaHty to light. In Him was life, and to Him only it belongeth to convey life, who could say, " I am the life. I am the resurrection and the life : he that be- lieveth in me shall never die : he that believeth in me hath ever- lasting life." Adam was not the life, nor was he able to com- municate eternal life ; as it is written, " The first man Adam was a living soul, the Second Adam a life-giving Spirit." Adam therefore, the head of creation's unfallen state, was only to prepare the way for Christ. The Son of God was to come in flesh, or in human nature ; and, therefore, there must be flesh, or human nature in which He might come. If Adam had possessed life in himself, then no one should have been able to take it from him, and God's gifts are without repent- ance. Seeing, then, that death did lay hold upon him, it is proof sufficient that God had not invested him with eternal life, over which death hath not any power. Creation, there- fore, in its unfallen state, was only to make way for creation in the fallen state ; and this, though last in accomplishment, was, as consisteth with the very idea of a purpose, first in the design. So far, therefore, is it from being derogatory unto God for one to say, that creation was only the imperfect rudi- ments of His work, that it is the only way of preserving the honour and glory of God. For if herein He put forth all His strength, and gave Adam immortal life, then is the fall a failure, and redemption is an after-thought, an expedient to remedy and repair a failure, and God hath no purpose nor foresight of things at all ; and there is a chance and possibility that the redemption also may be, by some unforeseen hap and hazard, likewise subverted and overthrown; and there is neither ground for faith, nor yet for hope, nor for promise, nor for fulfilment, nor for covenant, nor for faithfulness of an Almighty God at all. We may, therefore, without offence unto, but in high justi- fication of, God, inquire a little into the necessity of a fall, for the accomplishment of God's purpose. The creature unfallen was very good, but it knew not evil as yet ; and, not knowing evil, it could not know its own inferiority to, and distinctness from, God : for God is also very good, and the creature is very VOL. V. 2D 4 1 8 THE INC A RNA TION : good ; how shall the creature distinguish between itself and God ? Moreover, God is invisible, and the creature is visible, and by so much the creature is in advantage over God. In that state, therefore, the creature could not fulfil the great end of God, that it should pay its homage, and place its de- pendence upon God ; which if any one deny, then I appeal unto the fact, that the first time the creature was tried with a temptation, though the weakest imaginable, he, or rather she, preferred the inanimate creature unto God ; and he preferred the love of woman unto the obedience of God ; — proof posi- tive, experiment decisive, and so arranged of God, for the ending of all strife upon this subject, and for proving beyond a question, that the creation state was not the state in which a creature could stand and worship God. If any one cut me short here with an interruption, and ask, Why then put the creature forth in the creation state at all } why not bring in the Second Adam at the beginning, and present Him in the glorious humanity at once, as He was being risen from the dead .■' This indeed, I answer, would have pre- vented the necessity of a fall ; but it would have been as far as ever from accomplishing the end of God, which is not merely eternal life in the creature, but along with this consciousness of a being separate from God, as the indispensable preliminary unto the worship of God only, and not of itself also. For if Christ had come in the unfallen state, God and man, putting forth the power of the Godhead and the wisdom of Godhead in the creature form, it would have made things worse, instead of better, with the creature, unto which He propagated, or communicated, the same glorious and eternal life ; for there would have been no act demonstrative of the creature's sepa- rateness from the Godhead of the Son. From the first of its existence, upon this hypothesis, it standeth supported by the power, and shewing forth the glory of God ; and so it is to con- tinue without a change of its condition, with no knowledge of its infirmity, with every experience of its power and suffi- ciency ; and how such a creature should know of a Godhead beyond and beside itself, how it should know itself not to be the all-sufficient God, is what I cannot for a moment imagine. For, as I said in the former head of discourse, these are things GOD AND THE CREATURE. 419 not to be told by words, but to be embodied in the being of things. A word must have a correspondency, in the being of him who is spoken to, or it amounteth to nothing ; and espe- cially such a word as this, that there is a God beside the creature, whom to know, to worship, and to enjoy, is the very end of the creature, must not be left to an airy carriage, but must be infixed in the heart of being itself ; for which, upon this idea, that Christ in the form of risen God-man is brought into the world first of all, there is no provision in the being of the creatures propagated by Him, but, on the other hand, everything to confuse, to bewilder, and to contradict the knowledge of an invisible God, above and beside themselves, who is to be worshipped. In order, therefore, to preserve distinctness between the in- visible and absolute God and the visible limited creature, it was necessary that the creature should fall ; and, by falling, should know the end and inferiority that is in itself; and that the goodness which it had originally, is a goodness derived from another source than itself, seeing there hath not been, in itself, the power of retaining it. And to the end the creature might know evil by feeling evil, it is necessary that it should also know ^ood by feeling good. There must exist in the crea- ture, after it hath fallen, something to be unto it for a con- tinual memorial of its state above the fall ; that is, there must be a conscience of good struggling against the oppres- sion of evil. If the creature were all evil, without a con- science of good, then there would be no memorial, no remem- brance of its unfallen state ; which would stand only as a page of the book, instead of being written on the heart of man. Mistake ne not, as if I held the Pelagian, and what is now called Arminian, though it is baser still than Arminian heresy, that man can do any good thing in himself ; for it is one thing not to be at all, and another thing to be in bondage ; it is one thing to be a devil, and another thing to be under the oppression of the devii. I believe with St Paul, that God leaveth not the wickedest heathen without a witness; that there is a law written in the heart, and that there are thoughts which accuse or else excuse one another. The state above the fall was a state of goodness ; the state below the fall is a state of the know- 420 THE INCARNATION: ledge of good and evil ; — not the knowledge of evil only, but the knowledge of good also ; and yet in this consisteth the wickedness of it, that there should be the knowledge of evil at all, and the obedience of it at all. It is this warfare in itself, it is this incompleteness in itself, (which is, I may say, the great fact of human existence, denied by none except a few Stoics, who form the small exception that confirms the rule ;) — it is this incompleteness, whether you look to the body or to the mind ; pain and death, in the former ; error, prejudice, ignorance, and dark uncertainty beyond the grave, in the latter ; — this knowledge of good and evil, and prevalence of the evil over the good, which is felt by sage and by savage* by prince and by peasant alike ; for all suffer, and all die, and all by nature are in trouble, and dark uncertainty ; — this is the very condition of conscious existence unto which the creature must be brought, in order that the creature may know itself not to be God. For set the greatest atheist before me, and I will pose him with a single question : Whence hadst thou thy manifold thoughts, purposes, sufferings, and enjoyments .'' Is it not from life .-' Yea, from life, he must answer ; for the dead have them not. Shew whence hast thou life ? Not from thyself, else thou couldst keep it ; but keep it thou canst not. Not from other men, for they are in the like plight. Then thou hast it from One unseen, who can only be known by this, that He hath life in Himself ; that He can lay it down, and take it up again, and give it even eternally unto whom it pleaseth Him ; and thus death is the great demonstration unto the creature of a God, besides and over the creature : and resurrection from death, and power to overcome death, and to communicate a life which is eternal, is the great demonstration that He who doth it is not a crea- ture, but is God. The creatures, therefore, were brought into the condition of death, that they might be negatived, might know themselves not to be God ; might know that He, who should be above and over this condition of death, is the very God. So that I may take a step here in advance, and say, that in no other way than by coming under the power of death, and overcoming death, when under its power, could the eternal Son of God, when He came, have been known to be GOD AND THE CREATURE. 421 the very God. And this I believe to be the reason why- Christ and the resurrection were preached together : Christ, to shew that He was the Messiah, or the Seed of the woman, so long promised ; the resurrection, to shew that He was God. Wherefore also Paul maketh express declaration, (Rom. i. 4,) " That he was determined to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Wherefore also Peter declareth, that God by the resurrection hath proved Him to be "both Lord and Christ." 2. The end, therefore, of the fall of creation under death, being no other than to separate and distinguish the creature from the Creator, and to put a negative upon every creature's pretension to be God, that the solitary creature who should overcome death might be known to be God, we may well conceive how important an end in the great scheme and pur- pose of God it is to keep the distinction for ever clear. And let us now follow onward to the redemption, and see how it is provided for in this third stage of the creature. This brings us to consider the Son of God, the great Head of redemption, who appeared as a man in all respects; a man indeed anoint- ed with the Holy Ghost above measure, but still a very man, and a fallen man also in all the attributes of a fallen man, except that He never sinned ; who also was cut off by death, thereby proving Himself to have taken the form of the fallen creature ; but before going into death, continually declaring, that He would rise again, and overcome death, and never see corruption ; which accordingly having accomplished, He proveth himself to be not a creature, but the Creator of the creatures, who, though in human form, was not subject unto humanity's laws : and at the same time He proveth, that the creature substance which He had taken is not of the Godhead apart, but with the Godhead united, and thence deriving ever- lasting life. Be it moreover observed, that in the like manner He dealeth with all the redeemed, propagating in them their eternal life, before they die, according to His own word, " He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Every believer hath now, and doth not wait for, everlasting life. But to the end that he may know that this eternal life is not inherent in 42 2 THE INCARNATION: the creature itself, or in any powers which it possesseth, it is so ordered, that it should exist in the creature, while in a dying state, and not prevent the creature from dying, but permit the dissolution of body and soul, which is death ; to the end, that every creature who is redeemed might know of a surety, that not from itself, but from a Power without itself, it hath this present regeneration unto eternal life, and is to have the future resurrection to the same. Now, at this point of the subject it is, that a new distinction is revealed to us, which is the distinction between the Father of this new life, or the Second Adam, and the children. To shew out this dis- tinctness between Christ, the Head of the redemption, and the redeemed ones, is a first and primary object of the re- demption which now cometh into view, and which is procured by that very thing, that while we are dead in trespasses and sins, Christ reneweth us unto God, and sustaineth us in this renewed estate, not only without the help, but in despite of all the powers of sin and death weighing down the creature. If this second distinction be lost, an evil is sustained of hardly less amount than by the loss of the distinctness between the creature and the Creator, For the whole power, and strength, and love, and grace of God in Christ is lost, and Christ's own Divine nature is lost, and the Divine nature of the Holy Ghost also, if we do not preserve Christ as a head of power and fountain of holiness. And of truth, the merit of Christ de- parts, the value of His life and death, as an atonement, is lost, everything escapes the vision and hold of the mind, if the man Jesus Christ, as a Father of redeemed ones, be not in some conspicuous way distinguished from the redeemed ones whom He begetteth. Which great distinction is secured, by His do- ing the thing for every one of us while we underlie the curse of sin and death. His life and death brought Him to our level, His resurrection, and His regenerating of us while under the curse of sin and death, proveth Him to be the procuring cause, the instrumental cause, the final cause; and, in "one word, the all in all of our redemption. And this is likewise the demonstration of His Divinity. Every act of communicating life unto a creature fallen, and held to death by God's appoint- ment, is an act as demonstrative of Godhead as is the resur- GOD AND THE CREATURE. 423 rection itself. And hence, I may observe in passing, it cometh to pass, that even under the kingdom, men will be subject unto death, because otherwise they could not know and ex- perience the headship of Christ. And, therefore, the last enemy that is to be destroyed is death ; and so it cometh to pass, that death is God's great means of giving dignity and demonstration of Divinity unto the Prince of Life. The redemption, therefore, doth introduce us to a new dis- tinction, the distinction between the fallen creature redeemed, and its Divine redemption-head ; which distinction forms the basis of all our obligations unto Christ, and constitutes the inferiority and dependence of the redeemed creation upon Christ its Head. So that, while He is a creature. He is yet above the creatures ; while He is Head unto the Church, He is yet above the Church ; linking the whole creation unto Himself in firmest bond by His human nature, and by His Divine connecting it with the Godhead, — truly Mediator be- tween the invisible Godhead and the visible creature, the way unto the Father, and the Father's way unto us ! Now, to give this distinctness is another great end of the fall of the creatures. For being by their fall taught their wickedness and their weakness, they were thereby prepared to receive and acknowledge righteousness and strength in Him who should recover and restore them. But for the fall, the eter- nal Son of God could not have been known by the creatures, in any of His offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King ; in any of His names, as Jesus, Christ, and Lord. So that the fall is as essential for giving the God-man His dignity over and above the creatures, as it is for teaching the creature its distinctness from the invisible and incomprehensible Godhead. 3. Thus then have we established two great distinctions, and three great distinct substances. First, The invisible, infinite, absolute Godhead ; secondly, The manifest God- head in the Son of man ; and, thirdly, The redeemed crea- tures. And now I have to add a fourth, which is. The unredeemed creation, or the reprobate part of the creatures. The whole creation hath fallen, excepting only a part of the angelic form of being who are elect in Christ, and intended, in the Divine purpose, to shew the mighty power of the Christ- 424 THE INCARNATION: head of creation, which should stretch its arms of salvation both ways, and sustain the infirmity of the creature in all its forms. The elect angels, no doubt, looked for^vard to Him that was to come, and stood in that hope ; they were His witnesses in the spiritual region of creation ; they are His trophy, won from that domain wherein sin was first conceived, because that domain was first in being. Besides these, the rest of creation hath all fallen ; and out of that fall, God hath from the beginning been signifying His purpose to take, by redemption, a part, and only a part. Therefore He separated the clean and the unclean of animals, and required the clean to be presented in sacrifice, in order to signify that the elected part should be made a sacrifice of, as was first shewn in Christ, and now is shewing in the Church. Then, from amongst the families of the earth, He chose one to bless above the rest, with His covenant ; and now, from all the Gentiles, He is taking whom it pleaseth Him to take. The end of this mys- tery of electing only a part, is to shew forth God's sovereignty, and God's right over the creatures ; to establish the immut- able distinction between God and the creature still more effectually, and above all to mark out, for ever, the nature of guilt, the nature of sin. If the scheme of God had ended in the redemption of all the creatures, then it would have seemed but a great scheme for manifesting His own power and being, as the Three-one God ; for distinguishing Himself from the creature, and securing to Himself the worship of the creature, and unto the creature its own blessedness : but God being a holy God, the nature of holiness itself, the nature of sin, and the nature of atonement and satisfaction, the nature of priest- hood, which is an essential part of Christ, as the Head of the creatures, would have been for ever lost ; for if sin, after any curve of aberration, or cycle of change, is able to arrive at the same point with holiness, then, at that point, the difference between sin and holiness ceaseth for ever. It turns out that there is no essential and eternal difference between the obe- dience and the disobedience of God, but only a temporary and expedient one ; and it further follows, that the creatures have only been in the hand of God like the men upon a chess- board, to perform a certain great exploit of purpose and fore- GOD AND THE CREATURE. 425 cast. I have no hesitation in saying, moreover, that this scheme of saving all at the last, doth destroy the very exist- ence of a will altogether ; and a will is the substance of a spirit, of an intelligent being : reason, without a will, is like a visible world without a sensible creature to possess it. The will is before reason, as the sense is before the sensible world. Now, if the fallen will should not manifest for ever its un- changeableness in itself, the demonstration would be wanting of what a will is, which would seem to be nothing else than a material substance which changed and changed again for ever. All this, and much more, I can see would flow from the universal redemption of all the fallen creatures. Repro- bation, eternal reprobation of a part, is the very ground upon which the nature of sin resteth, without which sin is but a change, ordained of God, whereof the creature must be pa- tient ; a circumstance of creation, which we must be content for a while to stand under, but which will soon betake itself away. The very possibility of understanding the true differ- ence between obedience and disobedience, throughout eter- nity, would be destroyed ; government under Christ would be, what government under Christ's lieutenants on the earth hath at length become, on principles of expediency alone ad- ministered ; a frightful materialism would invert all things ; and God would be the world, and the world would be God. Besides this, it were to lose the whole end of God's scheme in bringing His purpose to pass, by a creation, and a fall, and a redemption, instead of bringing it to pass by one single act, were a part of the creature not left for ever in an unredeemed state. For, as hath been so often said, the great end of the scheme is to separate between the creature and the Creator, and, in bringing it up again from its fall, so to bring it up as that, while it stood infallibly, by standing in Christ, the Head, it should yet know itself not to be God, by knowing itself not to be its head, and by knowing even its Head not to be the infinite and invisible God, but only such a manifestation of Him as the creatures are competent to apprehend. If now, as the Universalists falsely assert, there should be no repro- bation of the creatures, there would be no evidence of what creation is when standing out of God. Redemption would 426 THE INCARNATION: have no glory above creation, because creation hath no appa- rent inferiority beneath redemption. And as I beheve that redemption and its glories, above creation and its infirmities, is the very principle with which God will go forth to people the spheres innumerable with which we are surrounded, I do hold it to be a most essential point, that the glories of re- demption should be seen reflected from the dark background of a reprobate creation, existing under the conditions of the second death. For, if there be one principle which, from the beginning of the world until now, hath been declared at sundry times, and in divers manners, this is the principle, that the chosen and elected part is chosen of free grace, chiefly for the end of shewing forth the wickedness of the part not elected. In one word, without reprobation of the fallen creatures, helpless and irremediable, free grace is no better than an empty name. Grace is favour where no right remained, where no far-distant possibility of reparation ex- isted, where no law nor scheme of God comprehended restora- tion, and where restoration could not otherwise than by grace come to pass. 4. Seeing, therefore, it is essential for every good and holy purpose of the Creator, that a part of the creation should be left in its fallen state, or rather brought up again by a resur- rection, and be constituted in the estate of the second death which is not annihilation, and which is not life, but the second death, in which the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, the question next occurs, by what means, and by what mighty workmanship, is the redemption of the part to be redeemed accomplished ? This is taught us in the re- demption of the body of Christ, concerning which we have already discoursed. The fallen woman's substance was, by the Holy Ghost, sanctified, and preserved holy, against all the powers of hell and death. The human will of Christ was, by the power of the Holy Ghost, preserved perfectly con- centric with the divine and absolute will of the Godhead, so that the latter found the former always a vehicle for express- ing itself intelligibly to the creatures : yet did the human will of Christ know temptation of the flesh, as we see by His temptation, when He said, " Not my will, but thine be done;" GOD AND THE CREATURE. 427 that is to say, the flesh which beareth our will to a side, away from its centre, and maketh it sinful, which is a will in bond- age, was not able to carry Christ's will away, though nature shook, and shrunk, and quivered again, under the mighty power which held it unswerving from its rectitude. Ah that word, " My will," toucheth me to the heart, shewing me that Christ called human nature by the name I ! — and that His human nature would have swerved Him from His centre, but for the Holy Ghost, which abode in Him. Now, one who will receive this, — and they are not many, for the time is come when they shall not receive sound doctrine ; — one who will receive this, I say, can understand how the distinction is made, whereof I now discourse, between the redeemed and the unredeemed creature. The ground of that distinction is not in the creature, but in the Creator : it is the will of God to save whom it pleaseth Him to save. This act of the Divine will being absolute, and not revealed, is properly re- served with the Father, who representeth and retaineth the absolute attributes of the Godhead ; and thus without the doctrine of election, you have, I may say, no absolute God, but only a revealed and manifested God, and you can, there- fore, have no worship of the invisible Godhead. I mention this, however, only by the way, because it doth not properly belong to the head of distinctions, but to the head of unions, which will come hereafter to be discoursed of. The ground, therefore, of the distinction between the redeemed and un- redeemed of creation is in the absolute will of God ; and the origin of it in the manifestation, is the eternal Son taking unto Himself a body, — which body is the beginning and the ending, the first and the last of the redeemed creation. Therefore, all redemption, which in the purpose dependeth from the goodness of the Father, doth in the manifestation depend from the humiliation of Christ. It was an act of His own self-existent personality to contract that infinite circle of His being, in the bosom of His Father, and to make all its acting pass through that concentric and limited circle of the human being which He assumed. And for this act never to be unacted; for what God doth, He doeth for ever; the Father bestowed upon His human nature the power of the 42 8 THE INCARNA TION : Holy Ghost, or, I should say, the Holy Ghost, in His inde- pendent personality, did condescend to inform that human nature, and never to act towards the creatures save in it and through it ; so that the great operative cause in the redemp- tion of the creature is the Holy Spirit taking the possession of it, and sanctifying or separating it from the wicked mass. Now, with respect to the manner in which this is effected, it is by taking it out from the waste, digging it out from the miry clay, drawing it up from the fearful pit of this our fallen nature ; and by might of Divine influence, resisting the force of corrupt nature upon the will or spirit of man, which hath made it move contrary to the will of God, unto which will the Holy Spirit constraineth it to return back and be agree- able. It is not that there are two wills, or spirits, in the re- newed man ; but that his will is, upon the one hand, acted on by the powers of a fallen creation, and on the other by a power of the Holy Spirit acting under the risen God-man. And the effect of the Holy Spirit is, to unite the fallen creature unto, and make it one with, the body of Christ: so that the end of redemption is the gathering out for sal- vation of the fixed quantity of the creation's substance, and joining it to Christ's body ; and when this is completed, the dispensation of election is completed, and the Son of God, who heretofore appeared one substance in one per- son, shall hereafter shew His glorious human substance in many persons ; that is, in all the elect Church, which shall come with Him in the power and glory of His king- dom. But for Himself, He alone partaking of the Divine na- ture, shall stand alone and eminent above them all, the mani- fest Godhead for ever. From which era, of the accomplish- ment of the elect, and the bringing in of the kingdom, shall begin the work of government, wherein the manhood shall manifest itself victorious over that with which it warred against ; that is, flesh and blood, and sin, and Satan, and death ; — not now in the Christ personal and individual merely, but in the Christ plural; that is, in the whole redeemed Church. But further into this we may not enter at present. And for the creatures which are left unredeemed ; all these, being raised up at the end of the kingdom in that form which GOD AND THE CREA TURE. 429 is proper to endure the second death, and with them the fallen angels, shall — in punishment of that resistance which they made unto the truth, and of that preference which they gave to sin over righteousness ; and for their denial of the law of God, written in their hearts by Christ their Creator ; and for the distinguishing of holiness from goodness, and of sin from weakness ; and in general for the eternal distinctions of obedience and disobedience, of truth and falsehood, of right and wrong, and in order to lay the basis of government for ever — be cast into the lake that burneth, which is the second death. And thus we have these four distinct things in existence : First, the invisible Godhead, which is never changed ; secondly, the manifest Godhead, in the creature form of the God-man ; thirdly, the redeemed creatures, stand- ing in the human nature of Christ, and parts of that one sub- stance ; fourthly, the unredeemed forms of the wicked creation in the state called the lake that burneth, or the second death. 5. Now, the distinctness of these four existences must be kept for ever and for ever. The invisible essence of the God- head must be kept distinct, that the Creator may not be confounded with the visible creature, but receive its homage, and worship, and service for ever. Secondly, the great Head of creation, which is the Christ, must be kept distinct from the redeemed creatures, in order that He may be the representa- tive, the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the invisible God, and, in this dignity, maintain for ever the order and subordination of the redeemed creatures, ever look- ing up to Him as the face of God, and ever listening to Him as the Word of God, and ever honouring Him and revering Him as the way for the creature to approach unto God, and the way for God to come unto the creature. Thirdly, The redeemed creation, or body of Christ inhabited by the Spirit, must ever be kept distinct from the reprobate creatures lying in the penalty of the second death, in order that the eternal distinction between holiness and unholiness, between blessed- ness and misery, between God and sin, may be for ever established in the sight and knowledge of all creatures, which are yet to be created of God during the ages of eternity. Now, eternal distinctions, which enter into the 4 30 THE INC A RNA TION : purpose of God, must have an eternal basis to rest upon. These three eternal and unchangeable distinctions must have an eternal ground in the being of God himself; and this ground is, the personalities of the Godhead. If God is one personality, then there never can be a creation out of God. God and the creature will be for ever confounded and worshipped, and service of the Godhead is for ever lost. This is Unitarianism. Again, if there be but two person- alities in the Godhead, then creation might, indeed, be sepa- rated from God under the Son ; but it would be as a proces- sion or emanation from God, and having in it of the essential being of God, which is the philosophy and religion of the Persian sophists, the Brahmins, and others of the East. But by three personalities in the essence existing, we can, as hath been set forth above, bring out the grand problem of a creation standing under God, worshipping God, and serving God, sepa- rate and distinct from itself ; which I take to be the great end of the purpose of God, and the great problem which was to be resolved ; and this is the reason why the doctrine of the Trinity ought ever to be held as the great fountainhead of all doctrine whatever, which flows from it like the crystalline streams from the secret recesses of the pure mountain snow. And however much men, and orthodox men, may cavil with us, who would thus seek the stream of life in its fountain- head, — which I confess is a perilous and dangerous undertak- ing, not by every head to be attempted, yet when Satan hath found his way thither, and poisoned the streams of all the valleys, — it is most needful, and cannot be dispensed with, that some of those who dwell in the fertilised, but now poisoned, valleys, should straightway, for the sake of all the families, their flocks and their herds, venture forth, though it were alone, in order to clear out the poisoned fountainheads. Or, to make my figure more exact, if a company of wicked, diabolical people should take post there, for the very end of diffusing poison by the necessary aliment of life, it is most necessary that the dales-men and the inhabitants of the plain should keep a host of valiant men, strong of body and true of heart, ever encamped in the cold and rocky upland, to dis- lodge these murderers and destroyers from their evil haunts GOD AND THE CREATURE. 431 and wicked purposes. For, to drop all figure, I do maintain that all doctrine whatsoever, concerning intercession, atone- ment, and mediation ; concerning the creation, the fall, and regeneration ; is truly, and verily, an indefensible doctrine, save by the presupposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, which, in all systems of sound faith, is advanced into the first and highest place. Now, the doctrine of the Trinity hath its practical form, only in the maintenance of these three great dis- tinctions, whereof I have discoursed above : — (i.) The essence existing in the Godhead standing under the Father ; (2.) the Head Christ, being the Godhead manifested in the person of the Son ; (3.) the redeemed creatures, being the subsistence of the Holy Ghost proceeding through the humanity of the Son ; and these three subsistencies are preserved distinct, no otherwise than by the distinctness of the personalities of the Godhead, while, by the unity of the substance of the Godhead, they are united in relations manifold, which I shall open in the next head : and the whole redeemed creature, thus reca- pitulated into Christ, and standing in everlasting blessedness, being only a part, and not the whole of the creature created, doth stand distinguished from mere creature, which remaineth in the condition of the second death, concerning which condi- tion I can say no more ; and I think no more is revealed than this, that it is also eternal and unchangeable. And here I conclude these heads and hints of deep dis- course ; to the all-important doctrine of which I have nothing to add, except to open, in another head, the unions in three distinctions ; and I pray you to look upon the incarnation as chiefly valuable, or I should rather say invaluable, not for the sake of atonement, which is a mere part of its infinite fruitful- ness, but for the sake of manifesting the existence of the God- head, as outward from the creature, and never to be mingled with it, and the subsistence of the Godhead in three persons, under whose separate personality the great distinctions neces- sary to worship, to redemption, and to subjection, together with the union in those distinctions, might be clearly and for ever fixed. I have opened to you a great mystery : see ye receive it, and enter into it, and be no more children tossed about by every wind of doctrine, and cunning slight of men. 432 THE INCARNATION: which lie in wait to deceive, but, being rooted in truth and in love, may grow up into Him which is the Head, God over all, blessed for ever. Amen. HI. We have shewn out under the two preceding heads, the three personalities in the Godhead, and the three great distinctions preserved thereby, for ever and ever in creation ; namely, first, the distinction between the invisible Creator and the visible creature ; secondly, between the redeemed and the unredeemed parts of the creatures ; and thirdly, between the redeemed creature and Christ its Head. We have shewn, also, that these distinctions come to pass and are maintained through the three separate personalities in the Godhead ; the invisible and infinite Godhead, standing under the personality of the Father ; the visible and manifest Godhead standing under the person of the Son : the redeemed creatures consist- ing in, and standing under, the person of the Holy Ghost, which three ever distinct and never to be confounded per- sonalities, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, keeping distinct- ness between these three existencies, does leave a fourth, or the creature in its fallen state, or rather in the state of the second death, remaining as the great monument of what the creature is, when separated from the Godhead, and not stand- ing under the personalities thereof And we come now to open another head of conclusions, without which the mystery is not explained ; namely, the essential unions which coexist with these distinctions : for the end of creation is not attained, merely by separating the creature from the Creator, but by the securing of its worship and service, in that estate of sepa- rateness ; and we are now to shew how this constitution in Christ doth attain this the ultimate end of creation, by secur- ing the most certain and complete obedience and worship from the creature towards the Creator ; together with the con- tinual descent of blessing and goodness from the Creator unto the creature. And here we shall begin at the fountainhead of being, which is the invisible Godhead, and descend down- wards unto the manifested Godhead, and down again to the Godhead inhabiting the redeemed creature, till we arrive at the waste ocean of the unredeemed creatures. GOD AND THE CREATURE. 433 I. Concerning the Godhead in its unrevealed and incom- prehensible being, we can only speak from the knowledge which we have from the Godhead manifested in Christ. Christ always referreth back to the invisible Father, and presents the great end and object of His coming to the world, as being to manifest the Father, Avhom no one at any time hath seen, or can see. Whenever the people were disposed to rest in Christ as the ultimate end of power and Divinity, He always referred them to a higher source than Himself, saying, " Ye cannot come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw you. My Father is greater than I." And what He did by words, when needs was, — which, alas ! occurred too seldom, because they were little disposed to rest in His manifest God- head,— He did also continually by His acts, praying unto the Father for His help ; and even when, as in the case of Lazarus, He was sure of that help, doing so that the people might observe it. Christ's whole life is an act of obedience and of worship, offered unto the invisible Godhead, and yet was Christ the fulness of the Godhead in a bodily form. To the same end of carrying up the creatures beyond Himself, into the invisible and incomprehensible Godhead, Christ continually declared, that He did not His own will, but the will of the Father which sent Him ; that He spoke not of Himself the words which He spake, and that His Father did the works which He did. Was it then, that the incomprehensible God- head of the Father was dwelling in the body of Jesus Christ, who said. He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father .'' No : the Holy Ghost dwelt in the body of Jesus Christ ; and, inso- much as the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father, and is one substance with the Father, and speaketh and acteth only as He heareththe Father speak and seeth Him act, insomuch doth the Father dwell in the man Christ Jesus. But this is not the mystery of the Father's Godhead, to which Christ maketh such continual reference. The mystery of the Father's Godhead, which Christ came forth to manifest, is this. That in the Father, who is the fountain of the Godhead, generating the Son, and through and with Him the Holy Ghost, is hid and contained that incommunicable and inexhaustible fulness which no creature can receive or apprehend ; but which every VOL. V, 2 E 434 THE INCARNATION: creature must worship and adore. The Father, of whom Christ speaketh so constantly, is not any manifestation of God, but God unmanifested ; and therefore He is so often styled God. The Godhead, purposing to communicate unto the creatures so much of the goodness and glory of His being as the crea- tures could receive, did accomplish this gracious end by the incarnation of the Son, and the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost, whose necessary limitation of being, for this end, made it necessary that the infinite Godhead should stand presented under the unrevealed person of the Father. It could not stand under the person of the Son, who, in becoming manifest, be- comes limited and comprehensible, and therefore not fit to represent the unlimited and incomprehensible. Neither could the infinite Godhead stand under the person of the Holy Ghost, for the same reason ; and, consequently, to the end there might be an Infinite and Incomprehensible to be wor- shipped through the finite and comprehensible, it standeth under the person of the Father, in whom the infinite Godhead of the Son and the infinite Godhead of the Holy Ghost is worshipped, as well as the infinite Godhead of the Father ; but all standing under the person of the Father, because of the offices in the visible, which the Son and the Holy Ghost had undertaken, for bringing into effect the Christ constitu- tion, or eternal purpose of God. Now, the question is, how the communication of the visible creature, with the invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible Crea- tor, shall be carried on : how the interchange of grace and goodness, yea, of life and being, on the one hand ; and on the other, thanksgiving, and praise, and service, and worship, shall surely take place ? This is accomplished by the proces- sion of the Son from the bosom of the Father, to take a crea- ture form, through which to speak and act the purposes of God. To do which the Son is the proper Person, not only as being of one substance with the Father, which the Holy Ghost also is ; but likewise, as being the inhabiter of the Father's bosom, from all eternity, His only-begotten Son, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person. The ground of His propriety to be Head of the creatures is, that He is nearest unto the Father, in the GOD AND THE CREATURE. 435 necessary order of the Divine nature, being by necessary generation, from all eternity, the expression of the Father's fulness ; and therefore it is said of the Son, what is not said of the Holy Ghost, " No one knoweth the Father but the Sor^ and he to whom the Son shall reveal him." But of the Holy Ghost it is said, "He shall take of the things of mine, and will shew them unto you." The things of the Holy Ghost are first things of the Son. The Father, therefore, who in the necessary act of generation hath poured His fulness into tht Son, doth, by a natural consequence, when the time Cometh ':o create all things, perform this act of the Godhead by the Son, into whom all fulness of the Godhead is poured ; and whtn the time comes, to manifest unto the creatures whateverof the Godhead the creatures shall or can behold, the same :ongruity, or I may say necessity, requireth it to be done thxugh the Person of the Son ; and thus creation, in the perfected form of redemption, cometh to be a simple opening )f the mystery of the Father and of the Son, so far as the creatures are able to receive it. And by what assur- ance, nec'ssary and inviolable, the Son is observant of, affec- tionate to one with the Father, by that same assurance doth the redeei ed creatures, standing in the Son, become loving, reverent, aid obedient, unto the invisible Godhead ; so that I may say, 'lat most perfect relation, most loving, most indis- soluble, wlch from eternity, and through eternity, subsisteth between tb Father and the Son, is propagated unto the creatures trough their standing in the Son. They become not a part c the Godhead ; but yet they are one with Christ, and with on another, as Christ is one with the Father ; and there can nver fail of worship, there can never fail of love, there can neer fail of obedience, there can never fail of bless- ing in the reeemed creature towards God, unless these were to fail in the5on towards the Father. And in this way it is that the creaire, under Christ, is ever preserved in its fealty, allegiance, ad subserviency unto the invisible Godhead, through its b-ng headed up in, and bound unto Christ. And so much havil to say with respect to the connexion in dis- tinction substing between the creature and the Creator, through the institution in Christ ; Avhich will appear still 436 THE INCARNATION: more distinctly when we come to consider, in the next place, the way in which the connexion between the Son and the re- deemed creatures is maintained. 2. This ariseth out of the union of the two natures in Chnst, which is not the union of two persons, as husband and wife, which by God are regarded as one ; nor as parent and Ciiild, which by God, in baptism, are likewise regarded as one; but it is the union of two natures in one person, and thst the person, the self-existing person, of the eternal and only- begotten Son of God. The personality of the Second Person of the Godhead is an eternal and necessary, not an apparent and temporary truth. The Son is a person because God is; and the same also say I of the personality of the Hoy Ghost. This personality of Christ acted in creation, as will as in redemption ; but in creation it was not united untothe crea- ture as it became united in redemption : and yei, even in creation, the Son, though invisible, and acting outsicfe of the creature, did nevertheless act under the conditions of tie finite, and not under the absoluteness of the infinite ; that is to say, He presupposed unto Himself a form, though not yi created, but only purposed, in the Creator's counsel ; and his form, under which the world was created, was the form ofthe risen God-man, of the Lamb slain and living still, of tl^ first be- gotten from the dead. Under the condition of th^ creature form, though not yet in the reality of it, did the irifnite God- head, in the person of the Son, contract and bouiH itself for the purposes of creation. He created, as Christ all things visible and invisible, as is set forth in the first ch|pter of the Colossians. But withal His own body was not ^t created ; created indeed in substance it was in the first acti)f creation, but in living form not yet quickened till the ,loly Ghost came upon the virgin, and the power of the ,ftighest did overshadow her. But when the fulness of the ime for this great act of the Father, by the Holy Ghost, -v^s come, the time was come for the Son, or the Godhead in pe person of the Son, to appear in that form which from eterity had been resolved upon, and from creation had been assfned, but till now was not effected, though shadowed forthfrom the be- ginning in the person of Adam, who is on thikccount, and GOD AND THE CREATURE. 437 on no other, said to have been created in the image of God. Now, by assuming into Himself the human nature, and be- coming the Christ of God, the personality of the Son is still the same : it is the eternal, only-begotten Son of God, who speaketh, who heareth, who acteth, who suffereth, and yet the Divine nature is ever distinct, and never to be confounded with the human nature. So that it shall not be possible to say that the Divine nature suffereth any change, which is a great mystery, no doubt, but yet a great truth, both necessary to be known and to be believed. Nor do I think that it is safe to remain in ignorance of such a truth, and therefore I represent it unto you thus : That the words, and acts, and sufferings of Christ, are not to be called of the Divine nature only, nor of the human nature only, but of the person Christ, God-man ; one person, though two natures. And here I must, though reluctantly, disagree with the method in which many of the orthodox fathers, and reformers, and doc- tors, and ministers, are wont to speak, as if some actions of Christ were actions done in the Godhead only, and some others were actions done in the manhood only. And right glad am I that this, though current in the schools, and in sermons, hath not found its way into any of the standards of the Church ; for if this way of speaking were correct, it would lead neces- sarily to the making of two persons in Christ, or else of two ascendancies'which in succession overrule His person, like the ascendancies of the flesh and the spirit in the person of a man, — which cannot be predicated of a Divine person, who overruleth, and hath the ascendant, and is not overruled or acted upon by an ascendancy. It is, moreover, a false idea concerning the Divine nature, to speak as if it could do a finite action, let that be ever so stupendous, even as creation itself, without assuming a finite form. It is, moreover, to subvert the whole purpose of the Creator, and confidence of the crea- ture, to say that the personality of the Son may ever go into action separate from, or by suspension of, the human nature. If the human nature of Christ were thus ever, though only once, put sub silentio, it might be again and again, and for ever, and so the whole mystery of a manifest Godhead is defeated. I know from what this mode of speaking hath 43S THE INCARNATION. 1 arisen, even from a desire to find in Christ's life that evident manifestation of Godhead which Christ himself declareth that it contained not, when He said unto Peter, " Flesh and blood 'hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." It is also a well-meant attempt to preserve the God- head of Christ impassive, by giving to it the acts of power, and to the manhood the acts of suffering. But really, though well-meant in this respect, it doth but save the flimsiest ap- pearance : for in deed, and in truth, it is to the Godhead as disproportionate and unfit to suffer the pity and compassion of the mind which moveth to the healing of the sick, or the casting out of devils, as it is to suffer and abide the scourg- ings and buffetings of men ; both being proper only to man- hood, and not predicable of Godhead, except under a figure. This mode of speaking, concerning the life of Christ, as being part all Godhead and part all manhood, is not only attended with these evil effects, but hath this moreover to answer for, that, first of all, it doth defeat the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in His manhood, which I affirm hath been almost forgotten to be a work of the Holy Ghost at all ; and from this is chiefly derived that aimlessness, fancifulness, idle- ness, and unprofitableness with which men speak of the Holy Ghost altogether. And besides this, it hath destroyed Christ's life from being the great type, both as respecteth suffering, and as respecteth power, of what every Christian's life, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, ought to be : for I believe, that we cast not devils out, and heal not the sick, and do not the other parts of Christ's life, simply and truly because we have not faith, and are responsible unto Christ's challenge and rebuke, with which He chid His disciples when they fell short of their privilege to cast devils out, saying unto them, " O ye faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you .-'" All these evils, I say, come of this false way of representing the activity of the two natures of Christ ; and therefore it is not, as it were, a matter of ingenious speculation, but grave reformation of error, when I undertake a little to lay open the distinctness of the nature of Christ in the unity of person, and that in every word, action, and suffering of the same. As I said, the person acting and suffering is the eternal and GOD AND THE CREATURE. 439 unchangeable Second Person of the Godhead. He is the / who was in the bosom of the Father from all eternity ; and in every action He is conscious God. When He saith, " I will," it is the Godhead that willeth. From the infinite God- head, therefore, is the origin of every volition and action of Christ. The fountain is there, in the infinite. And how pro- ceedeth it into the finite .-' It proceedeth into the finite by an act of self-humiliation and self-restriction, which is the pecu- liar, proper, and boundless condescension of the Son in His own self-existent personality. But no eye beholdeth it, no finite mind comprehendeth it, no word can utter it ; the great- ness of this grace of self-humiliation on the part of the Son is known unto the Father only, whose bosom alone contained that fulness which is contracted into manhood's narrow limits. This Divine act of self-contraction is the Godhead part of every act of Christ. It is the continuance, it is the abiding and the eternal perpetuity of that one resolve which is written in the book, " Lo ! I come ; a body hast thou prepared for me." This is the nature of God ; what He doth, to do for ever ; He doth not exist in time. Time measureth Him nob as space comprehendeth Him not. That purpose of the Son, to humble Himself into manhood, did not cast His Godhead away. He did not become, in person, a mere man. He con- tinued to be in person the same Son of God, after as before He made this dedication of Himself unto His Father's glory, and unto the creature's good. He is God still, but God thus self-determined to act and suffer the man. He cannot cease to be Son of God, nor can He cease from His own willingness to become Son of man ; and thus He is always to be by these words defined. Son of God willing to become Son of man. The Divine nature, therefore, ever acts, and it ever finishes with acting, when the Son of man begins to act. It is the Son of man, whose action is seen, felt, reported, discoursed of, imitated, and delighted in by the creatures. The Son of man only suffers, and the Son of man only acts with power. His actions, and His words, are like His countenance, such as man's are ; such as every man's, who is full of the Holy Ghost, ought to be ; and such, I believe, as mankind's will be, in the days of the kingdom. But, while thus I speak, I put no man 440 THE INCARNATION: into the level of Christ ; for that action of His self-contracting power, which belongeth to Him as a Divine and self-existent person, which is the action, and the only action, of the God- head, and yet is present in all His actings, and yet not mingled with the human parts and appurtenances of them, is that to which no man may aspire. Because the sage hath, by his self-contracting power, brought himself to speak and act with the children of the nursery, the sage is not therefore to be equalled with the child, nor is the child to presume himself a sage. Yet is the sage, though apparently but a child, a sage still ; and by far the noblest part of his action is hidden in that previous self-contraction of his powers whereof the chil- dren have no consciousness at all. When thus explained in the way in which alone I believe it is capable of being explained, how small a matter doth that seem upon which so much stress is laid by the ignorant, who will allow Christ readily enough to descend to the unfallen, but not to the fallen state of the creature ; for the merit and the greatness of the act consisteth not so much in the nature of that finite form which He assumed, but in the assumption of a finite form ; whether that finite form should be of the angel, or of the archangel, or of the man, hath little to do, or rather nothing to do, with the stupendous magnitude of the love, and condescension, and humiliation. It is not the bounds of the finite being, but it is the becoming finite in which the merit consisteth ; and it betrayeth a degree of ignorance unpardonable in the Christian, to make a hesita- tion, after consenting to His becoming man, that He should become man in the fallen state. If, indeed, it brought Him into sin, then the whole face of the question were altered. But if it bring Him only into the controversy with sin, that He may overcome sin ; and with the devil, that He may bruise the devil's head ; with fallen man, that He may redeem him ; then, while it is everything to us that it should be so, indeed it is an exceedingly small addition, I may say nothing at all, to Him that, after taking the infinite descent of being a creature. He should step a hair's-breadth further, and take up the creature in its fallen state. I make this "remark, not to go back upon a thing which I have proved, nor yet to GOD AND THE CREATURE. 441 doubt the validity of the proof, but only to shew how little those who stumble here apprehend of the infinite grace which there is in the eternal Son of God taking up into the same personality with Himself the nature of the creature, and consenting, through the finite powers of the same, to shew forth unto the creatures what the creatures can com- prehend, on all sides, of the infinite being and perfections of the invisible Godhead. 3. Another of the eternal distinctions which we laid down in our former head of discourse, is the distinction between the redeemed creatures inhabited by the Holy Ghost, and their head standing in the person of the Son. And I now proceed to shew how the union is maintained in this distinc- tion ; for union in distinctness is the key of the whole mys- tery. The redeemed creatures are only members of the body of Christ. They live, not by holding of Adam, by which tenure they inherit death ; but they live by holding of Christ, in whom the life was manifested, and from whom the life proceedeth. The Holy Ghost is the eternal indwelling life of the creature ; and no creature hath eternal life but through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Now, it is Christ's to bap- tize with the Holy Ghost : " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:" and to shew us that it is from the body of Christ, even His human nature, that this bap- tism with eternal life proceedeth, we have His body pre- sented unto us as our only nourishment, in the Holy Supper ; — just as, in natural life, the child sucketh milk from the breast of her that bare him, and liveth upon her body. Seeing, then, that all life, eternal and immor- tal, proceedeth from, and feedeth on, the body of Christ, we speak nothing but the truth when we say that all the redeemed creatures are but parts of His human sub- stance, consubstantial with Him as pertaineth to His man- hood, as He is consubstantial with the Father as pertaineth to His Godhead. Now, no union is so close as this between the manhood of Christ and the redeemed creature. Husband and wife, who heretofore were one, are now become twain, separated ofttimes by every interest, and every passion, though by the Church, and by the law, and before the Lord, 442 THE INCARNATION : as one regarded. The members of the body also are not so placed in union with each other, but that it is in the power of every disease and of every accident to part them asunder. Nor is the soul so fast confederate with the body, but that death can separate them more widely than imagination can conceive. But this union, which Christ to the believer holdeth, hath in it that strength and faithfulness, which neither time, nor eter- nity, nor sin, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, can part asunder. And though I speak of this as union with His human nature only, it is not less union to the Person of the eternal Son, which now includeth and embraceth the human nature, with the same assurance and possession with which it embraceth the nature Divine. But, while thus I speak, I would not be understood to mean that Christ's person, because it embraceth the human nature, doth also embrace His people. This were to make the union to swal- low up and destroy the distinction : and it were, moreover, to confuse the personality of the Holy Ghost with the personal- ity of the Son. Christ, in His Person, as much transcendeth the person of any of His members, as God transcendeth man ; and each of His members, by how much they feel the close- ness of their union unto Christ, by His humanity, with the inseparable security derived thence, do by so much also honour that condescension of His, that love of His, that un- dertaking of His, whereby He did purchase them, and re- deem them from their bondage and misery, from their state of being sold under sin, into the glorious and blessed stand- ing of grace which they now enjoy. All their delight, all their power, goes to His account, from whom it flowed of free grace unto them, and thus, between the redeemed creatures, and Christ their Head, there is established a relation of union, which by its union produceth all love, joy, and blessedness ; while there is preserved a relation of distinctness, which bringeth unto Him all royal and priestly dignity, all Divine majesty and monarchical power, all right of possession, all right of command, and worketh in us all deference, respect, dependence, security, protection, and every other feeling which is proper in a creature towards its Creator, who, for GOD AND THE CREATURE. 443 love of it, hath condescended to live and move, and have His being in a creature form. While I thus draw out the union in distinction, which is established between the redeemed creatures and their Divine Head, it is necessary to divide this from the worship of the invisible Godhead, which it is the very end of Christ's manifestation to promote. Christ, or the Son manifest- ing the Godhead in creature form, hath all that love, hath all that reverence and homage, whereof I have discoursed ; while at the same time the invisible Godhead, standing in the Person of the Father, as the visible doth in the Person of the Son, hath from the creatures that which is truly and really called worship. I do not mean that the Father only is worshipped ; but that the Godhead in the in- visible and unrevealed essence of it, and not the Godhead in the visible and creature form, is the proper object of what is truly called worship. . 4. The third union in distinction is the union of the mem- bers of Christ with the human nature of Christ, and with one another through the Holy Ghost; whereof the perfectness cannot be expressed by any similitude. That employed in Scripture is, being one with Christ, and with one another, as Christ is one with the Father ; — a union this which nothing can part ; " neither life nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature." All other unions can be separated. The union between the vine and its branches can be separated by the knife of the husbandman. The union between the members and the body can be separated by diseases and accidents manifold, and by death is utterly dis- solved : the union between husband and wife, wickedness doth dissolve; and death dissolveth the union between the soul and the body; but the union which we have with Christ, through the Holy Ghost, is eternal life which nothing can ever dissolve, " Because He lives, we live also :" because He hath overcome all the powers of dissolution, we shall over- come them also. And not only doth Christ's life in glory, and his Divine gift of quickening immortal life, secure to us 444 THE INCARNA TION : this continual and uninterrupted fellowship with Himself ; but it bringeth into one those who had been parted upon the earth by time and place, gathering them into one church, into one body, into one spouse, into one city, out of all kindreds and nations and tongues, against the day of His appearing, recall- ing the body from its dust-dissolved state, and joining it in immortal glory unto the soul, in a union never again to be divided, joining also the saints unto the inheritance and pos- session from which they had been separated by the interposi- tion of Satan ; — all broken families of the faithful reuniting, all interrupted loves and friendships of the faithful harmoni- ously reconciling, and bringing to pass such fellowship and unity of love as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived. And how is all this procured ? It is pro- cured by the Holy Spirit, which is one, and which, proceeding from the body of Christ, doth gather into one all the election of God ; who, thenceforth, grow into the same image with Christ, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of God. But how should the Holy Spirit be able to quicken in us, who are dead in trespasses and sins, that same life of godliness and image of perfection which was in Jesus Christ .-' Because, I answer, this is the very end of His proceeding from Christ, unto whom all power is given, in order to beget sons unto God ; and not only to beget sons unto God, but likewise sons of God, according as it is written, " Behold ! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; . . , and when He who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory." The Holy Ghost cometh not with some indescribable influence to work some formless effect ; but He doth come unto us for that same end for which He came unto the virgin, in order to beget sons of God within and out of our fallen substance. And in the resurrection we shall be manifested sons of God, with what glory Christ also was manifested, and we shall reign with what glory He reigneth. Like peers of a royal court, we shall ever have liberty of access unto our King. The Holy Spirit cometh to quicken, in the living soul of every elect one, a spirit whose power of conformation is to reveal in us Christ the hope of glory ; to constrain and to GOD AND THE CREATURE. 445 overcome the old man, with his corruptions and lusts ; to renew us after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness ; and to give us, as we have shewed above, a new subsistence, which is not the subsistence of Adamhood, but the subsistence of Christhood : for I say, that the renewed man is another and a higher form of creature than the created man, inasmuch as he possesseth in him, not the type, but the very child of Christ. For more truly therefore, brethren, than we are one in Adam, are we one in Christ : for the unity in Adam, stamped as it is on every feature of the body and of the mind, is ever contended against by the murderous power of Satan; but the union unto Christ, and the oneness of His people, is ever contended for by the Almighty Spirit of God. And according as Christ liveth in us, according as, by faith, we do incorporate the body of Christ with ourselves, accord- ing as we assimilate the Divine food of the Lord's Supper unto that life which we have in baptism, we do verily increase in the stature, in the wisdom, in the power of Christ ; and we do increase in love, union, and fellowship with one another, through the Holy Ghost. That food which we receive from heaven, that immortal food which we have in the Supper of the Lord, though it be flesh and blood, is not flesh and blood subsisting through the power of the living soul ; natural life cannot quicken it ; natural life cannot assimilate it. It is the flesh and blood of the spiritual life which the Holy Spirit did sustain in Christ, pure and spotless, and which the Holy Ghost in us doth assimilate for the nourishment of His life. For the Holy Spirit, though He hath life in Himself, hath laid aside the manifestation thereof; and hath consented to be manifested, as having life derived from Christ : even as Christ saith that the Father had given unto Him to have life in Himself. Therefore, brethren, words cannot express, nor similitudes shadow forth, the true union which there is be- tween a believer and Christ his Head ; between believers and one another. We live not up to our privileges, else would we know this. If we possessed that faith which feedeth on Christ, we would never be weak, we would never be weary, we would never be overcome, we would never be hidden from His presence. He would dwell in us, and His Father would 446 THE INCARNATION, ETC. dwell in us, and they together would make their abode with us. And whatever we should ask the Father in His name, believing, we should receive; and He would prove Himself a faithful High Priest, who could be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And if we realised that faith which maketh one with Christ, we would be blessed with the communion of saints, whereby our burdens would be borne, our sorrows shared, our strength imparted to the weak, and our weakness supplied from the strong ; our poverty made up out of their plenty, and a Divine circulation of the living spirit of life would be felt unseen ; in a degree it would also be seen, but far beyond the range of sight it would be felt amongst the members of Christ : to express whose love, neighbourhood availeth not, nor family availeth ; for we must hate father and mother, and brother and sister, to be His disciple. No form of communion or fellowship in this world, lying in the wicked one, availeth to represent the communion of the saints and the unity of the holy catholic Church. The loaf which was presented at the table this morning, one lump, and not without form, to be broken into parts, representeth the oneness of the substance of Christ's body, whereof all the re- deemed are parts : the identity of these fragments of the loaf which we took into our hands, and eat with our mouths, the perfect identity of every crumb with the whole loaf, is our identity and oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with one another. Into which, as ye grow by the bonds of holy charity, ye shall rejoice and increase, and live more abun- dantly to His praise, who is over all God blessed for ever. Amen. THE CHURCH, WITH HER ENDOWMENT OF HOLINESS AND POWER. THE CHURCH, WITH HER ENDOWMENT OF HOLINESS AND POWER. "JVyTY idea of the Church is derived from its name, "The body of Christ ; " and of its endowment from the words following, " The fulness of Him that filleth all in all," (Eph. i. 23.) It is one as much as the Spirit is one : " There is one body, and one Spirit," (Eph. iv. 4 ;) and as the body without the spirit is not the complete work of God, so neither is the spirit without the body. When Christ went unto the Father, He entered into the promise of the Holy Ghost, and being seated on the Father's throne, began to act the Father's part, of governing the world. Since that time He hath been known as the Spirit, and not as the visible Christ. But a spirit is not that which God appointed this world to be governed by. He made man to be His image and His King, and man is an embodied spirit. And when man be- came enslaved to Satan, God, keeping in His own hand the sovereignty, which had reverted to Himself through the dis- obedience of His vicegerent, did hold it, not in His character of a pure spirit, but did assume to Himself, in the Word, the parts, affections, properties, and attributes of a man, because as a man He was to redeem all, and to govern all. And now that as a man He hath redeemed all, and is governing all, it were inconsistent with the great idea of the man-governor, and not the spirit-governor, that Christ should now rule from His invisible throne in the spirit without a body. This body is the Church, of which He, Christ, is not only the Spirit, but like- VOL. V. 2 F 450 THE CHURCH: wise the Head. And the Church is united to Him, not only by having Him inspiring her, but likewise by being united with Him Avho is on the throne of God, being His instru- ments, His members, for demonstrating before the world as much of that power and authority which He hath attained to, as is proper for this present state and condition of the world. This body, the Church, the Father giveth to Him. It is the Father's gift of an inheritance in the saints unto His Son, Christ. It is the Father's bringing a spiritual seed out of Flim. It is the Father's forming a wife out of Him. It is the Father's producing from Him a race of sons of God, in room of those who heretofore mixed themselves with the daughters of men, and forfeited their high estate. It is the Father's deriving from Christ the royal family of kings and priests by whom He is to govern the worlds. And the Church, thus constituted to be the body of Christ for ever, through whom unto eternity He may put forth the fulness of Godhead which is in Him, hath at present upon the earth the very same function to discharge ; being unto Christ for a body wherein to abide, and whereby to act out before the world that office of a gracious Lord and holy Christ to which He hath been exalted by His resurrection from the dead. I say, the self-same office doth the Church now, and upon this earth, discharge, which she shall for ever and over all creation discharge ; being the members of one Christ, united by one spirit, and constituting one household, and following one invariable rule and principle of government, though con- sisting of many persons, divers memberships ; and perhaps also to occupy, as they now do, various places in the one creation of God. Just as, to compare great things with small, our king, by his members, the ambassadors, governors, judges, lord-lieutenants, &c., doth exercise one government, with one law and principle, with one will and one mind, over the vast extent of his dominion ; so our invisible King, the Lord Jesus Christ, doth at present put forth, by means of His Church, that power and authority upon this earth which is proper now to be put forth. This is our idea of the Church ; and we give it without hesitation as the true one set forth in the Scriptures. HER ENDOWMENT. 451 The next question which ariseth is, Into what power hath Christ entered ; and how much of that power is it His good pleasure to put forth upon this earth during this dispensation of His absence ? With respect to the first part of the ques- tion, I answer in His own word : " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Seated in God the Father's throne, He holdcth God the Father's sceptre, and exerciseth God the Father's dominion. He is now creation's God, as He was heretofore creation's Surety and Bondsman : He is now creation's sceptre-bearer, as He was heretofore creation's burden-bearer. Formerly He shewed Himself the suffering, mortal man ; now He shews Himself the ruling, life-quicken- ing God. It is this accession of honour and of power to which as Christ He passed, upon His leaving this world and going to the Father, that forms the ground of His consolation to His Church, under the present dispensation of His absence. Therefore, said He, it was expedient for them that He should go away, for otherwise the Comforter could not come : there- fore, said He, they should do greater works than He had done, because He went unto the Father. And, in short, the key to the whole of that consolatory discourse contained in the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of John is this, that by being absent from the Church in the world, and present with the Father, He should enter into the glory and the power which must ever abide with, and ever proceed from, the secret of the Father's dwelling-place ; which to possess and to occupy, He must enter there, where creature never before did enter, and never shall enter again, and where He entered, because He was Creator as well as creature. And this high reward of His faithfulness, and demonstration of His Divinity, and repossession of the glory which He had with the Father be- fore the world was, having received unto Himself, He would, to the extent this present world can bear, make manifest by means of those whom the Father had given Him out of the world to be one with Him, as He is one with the Father. With this comfort He comforteth His Church over His absence, and assureth them that He would send unto them the promise of the Father, even power from the Holy Ghost, when the Holy Ghost should have come upon them, (Luke 452 THE CHURCH: xxiv. 49 ; Acts i. 4, 8.) That the Church was to be made sharers in some way of that accession of power and glory into which He is exalted, is the consolation with which He comforteth them, and for the which He desireth them to wait in Jerusalem until they shall receive power from on high. And as to the other part of this inquiry, to wit, How much of this new dignity and power it is proper for Him to render, through the Church, visible unto the world, we are willing to be guided by the fact that it was communicated on the day of Pentecost, and by the testimonies as to what this was con- tained in the Holy Scriptures. That gift of the Holy Ghost, which was then given, is the same unto which we are all bap- tized, (Acts ii. 38, 39,) and with the hope of which He com- forteth His Church over His absence ; which, therefore, is our comfort, and ought to be our possession. The question is, then. What was the gift of the Holy Ghost at that time com- municated to the Church ? for this is what we are commanded to hold fast till He come. Was it the gift of perfect holiness in flesh } I answer, No. This we have in consequence of His life, and death, and re- surrection, or rather His life and death ; for as to this His resurrection did but seal what His life and death had pur- chased. That which was by His life and death accomplished is, the putting away of sin and death from mortal and corrup- tible flesh. " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." " He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" So far, therefore, as perfect holiness is concerned, we have it in virtue of a work completed at the resurrection, not in virtue of the " promise of the Father," which He re- ceived after His resurrection. In order to become members of His body, we must believe upon His work of putting away sin from all flesh by His life and death ; by which faith we enter into a holy subsistence in the holy flesh of Christ offered for us on the cross, and are no more in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and live no more after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This regeneration, this renewal after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, this dismissal (or, as our ver- sion lamely translates it, remission) of sins we are baptized into, and every baptized person is answerable for the same. HER ENDOWMENT. 453 But this is distinct from the gift of the Holy Ghost, into the promise of which we are also baptized ; and not to be con- fused therewith, without confusing the work which Christ by the Spirit did in flesh with that promise of the Holy Ghost into which He entered when He went out of the world unto the Father. There is a work which Christ did in the world ; and there is, distinct from this, a glory and a power and a work which it was put upon Him to enjoy and to execute when He went out of the world. We obtain the former by eating His flesh and blood, through faith, and thereby become mem- bers of His holy flesh, to do in flesh the work of holiness which He also did. The other we are thereby qualified to become sharers in, by being made members of His body ; and in it we share by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, shed down upon the Church on the day of Pentecost, to enable the Church to put forth of that fulness which is in her Head, so far forth as it is convenient and proper that the same should be put forth in this mortal state before this sinful world. Perfect holiness is the inward law and condition of the Church, by which her union with her perfectly holy Head is preserved. Power in the Holy Ghost is her outward action, as the body of Christ, in the sight of the world ; unto the manifestation of Christ's name by the Church, as He had manifested the Father's name ; unto the proclamation of Christ's power, grace, and goodness unto the world, as He had proclaimed the Father's. Christ, by His union with the Father, did, in the days of His flesh, proclaim the Father's glorious name and superabound- ing grace ; with which the Father being satisfied, doth, for the time thence following, identify the name of Christ with His own, and constitute a Church in the world, which, by her union with Christ, shall be able to testify to the name and glory of Christ, who testifieth to the name and glory of the Father. Christ having been, and being, the Father's true and faithful witness, doth become the person witnessed of, and the Church are His witnesses ; whom to witness is to witness unto Him who witnesseth unto the Father. But in our witness we are able to go further than Christ went, for this reason, that in the days of His flesh, the mortality of flesh, and sin in flesh, and the principalities and powers of darkness, therein holding their 454 THE CHURCH: throne and revelry, were not yet conquered, condemned, and openly made a show of ; the prison-house of the grave was not yet opened, nor its captivity was not yet led captive. The Captain of our Salvation entered into a field wherein the legion of our enemies lay encamped in battle order ; we enter into a field all strewn with the wrecks and spoils of their de- feat. We are baptized into flesh redeemed, into a world dis- empowered, whose prince is judged and cast out. We come not to fight a battle which is already fought, but to ride over the necks of a prostrate foe. They idly speak who say that He had not so many enemies as we — that He had not flesh to contend with. Oh, what an error ! It is there we have the advantage of Him, and enter into the fruits of His victory. He wrestled Avith sin in the flesh, and condemned it utterly, dispossessed it, and cast it out ; we enter into the fruits of His warfare, of His toil and sweat and blood. O ye thoughtless and ignorant men, (for ignorance is your only apology,) why will you go about to take away from Christ the glory and the greatness of His work ! I am ashamed of you. I grieve that such things should be spoken in the bosom of my mother's family. They cannot long be spoken without calling down judgment upon the house. Either the truth must be con- fessed, and the house saved, or it must be cast out, and the house destroyed. But to return. What portion of the power now possessed by Christ is pro- per to be put forth upon the earth during this season of Satan's presence therein, is still in question before us ; though I hope, from what hath been said, it is no longer in question how that measure and portion of it shall be put forth. The body is the organ by which the spirit within a man doth manifest itself to the world ; and the body of Christ, which is the Church, is the organ by which He, acting from the invisible seat of the Father by the invisible Spirit, must manifest Himself unto the world. There is no other medium of communication between Christ abiding with the Father and the world but the Church in the flesh ; and herein the Church in the body hath a mani- fest importance, and, I would say, pre-eminence of usefulness, over the Church disembodied, in that she is the organ of com- munication between the invisible Christ and the visible world. HER ENDOWMENT. 455 This being fixed and settled, we now come to the nice in- quiry, How much of that power, which Christ hath received, is it befitting to Him and the Father to put forth by the Church in this the day of His absence ? And, first, it may be asked, Why not the whole ? The answer is. That if the whole were put forth, the devil would be cast out, and all wicked men with him, and sin, and death, and all obstruction, and contradiction, and darkness, and dishonour, into the lake that burnetii, there to consume for ever and ever ; and there would be nothing to be done at his coming again. There is an eco- nomy in the putting forth of that power which resideth in the Father's throne ; an economy which answereth to the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. Therefore it is that in the writings of the apostles the gift of the Holy Ghost is spoken of only as a first-fruits of that which is yet to be received ; and the full harvest is made to consist in the redemption of the body, as it is written, (Rom. viii. 23,) "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, wait- ing for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." This passage instructeth me, that the gift of the Spirit by the Church, now possessed, is the first-fruits of that complete power of the Spirit which she shall possess when the body shall be redeemed from the corruption of the grave ; and the context further in- structeth me, that the whole creation is groaning, and travail- ing, and crying unto God, for a redemption which she shall receive at the same time from the bondage of corruption : " The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now ; and not only they," &c. " The earnest expec- tation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." The apostle Paul evidently saw the redemp- tion of the bodies of the saints, and their manifestation as the sons of God, and wuth them the redemption of the whole crea- tion from its present bondage, to be that complete harvest of the Spirit whereof the Church doth now possess only the first- fruits, that is, the first ripe grains which could be formed into a sheaf, and presented in the temple as a wave-offering unto the Lord. Most strikingly confirmatory of this is what he declarcth concerning the same gift of the Spirit, in his Epistle 456 THE CHURCH: to the Ephesians, (chap. i. 13, 14:) " In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." And likewise in the 4th chapter of the same Epistle he saith, " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." And the self-same language holdeth he twice over in his 2d Epistle to the Corinthians, (i. 22,) — " Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 3" (v. 5,) — " Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." In all these passages the gift of the Spirit which the Church had received, and was pos- sessed of, is set forth as an earnest or pledge of what she is to receive and possess against that day called the day of redemption, and the redemption of the inheritance. The inheritance is the earth and the inferior creation ; not yet redeemed from the bondage of corruption, but to be re- deemed, according to St Paul, in the day of the manifestation of the sons of God ; in the day of the redemption of the body; in the day of the resurrection of the saints ; in the day of the casting out of the devil and his works ; in the day of the de- struction of death, and the victory over the grave. The "earnest" (by which it is also named) is, like the first-fruits, only a part of that which is yet to be earned ; and also, like them, of the same kind, but not in the same measure ; a par- tial, not a complete thing, — yea, but a small part of the whole, and yet sufficient surety that the whole shall, in the fulness of the times, be likewise ours. Wherefore, also, it is called the seal, being that mark which God affixeth upon His people, and by which He determineth that they are His. Now, if any one has been accustomed to interpret these passages of the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost, he must, with all speed, disabuse himself of that error, which compromises a great point of personal holiness. For if the thing spoken of in these passages be regeneration and sanctification, then is that work of the Spirit only a partial and incomplete work, and we cannot look for anything be- yond a first-fruits of holiness, an earnest of holiness ; which HER ENDOWMENT. 457 is to sanctify the imperfections and shortcomings of a be- liever, and to fix him in very partial holiness, and to take away from him both the hope and the desire of being holy as God is holy, and perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. No : we are baptized into perfect holiness, into the positive and absolute dismissal of all sin, into the burial of the flesh with its corruptions and lusts, the quickening of the Spirit into all holiness. " The law of the Spirit of life doth make us free from the law of death ;" and every short- coming from this perfect righteousness is a stain upon our white raiment, which must be instantly confessed and grieved over, and washed white in the blood of the Lamb ; it cannot be tolerated, it cannot be indulged, it cannot be sanctioned from Scripture ; it ought not to exist within the Church ; it is an offence to God, a disgrace to the body of Christ, and cannot be justified by any means. Those passages of Scrip- ture, therefore, which speak of a gift of the Spirit which is only first-fruits of something greater and better, cannot, must not be referred to regeneration and sanctification, but to that power of government and authority entered into by Christ when He passed out of the world unto the Father ; whereof it is expedient and economical that a part only should be possessed and exhibited by the Church during this our mortal estate. It is, moreover, manifest that these passages have nothing to do with the cleansing of the conscience from dead works, which proceeds from the blood of Christ, (Heb. xiii. ;) and the answer of a good conscience, which proceeds from baptism, (i Peter) : not only because these are complete works, and not first-fruits and earnests, but also because the work spoken of is connected with the redemption of the in- heritance, with the deliverance of the creation, with which the work in the conscience hath nothing to do. The work of soul-cleansing, which regeneration is, is wholly spiritual, and not part or parcel of the work of redeeming the body and the inheritance, which is wholly natural or physical. The crea- tion, natural or physical, was finished when the body of man was created out of the dust of the earth ; the creation spiritual began when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. In the redemption, or regenera- 458 THE CHURCH: tion, the thing is reversed. First the soul within is cleansed, whereby Christ proveth Himself to have been the Creator of the invisible Spirit, — Him who breathed it into man ; and the spirit of man, thus redeemed and regenerated by its Creator, is left alone in the midst of an unredeemed and unregenerated world, to shew its separateness therefrom, and superiority thereto, by triumphing over all creation's evil propensities, and enforcing all creation, with the body which commands it, to do homage unto Christ, its King and Lord. And to make it the more manifest that this period between the regenera- tion and the redemption of the body is the period for testify- ing the supremacy of spirit over nature, of soul over body and bodily dependencies, not only is the body, and the world its servant, left under the law of corruption and death, and yet made obedient unto the law of holiness and life, but also the person of Christ, by whose power alone this supremacy of the regenerate soul is maintained, is taken out of the world, and the communication between Him and our souls is carried on, not through sense, but through faith, — not by vision, but by the invisible Spirit. So that, ever since the departure of Christ out of the world unto the Father, it hath been a season and a time for making apparent, and putting beyond doubt, the truth, that Christ was the Father of the living soul ; that He is the Re- deemer of it ; and that, through faith and union with Him, living souls can and will govern the corporeal world. In one word, during the absence of Christ there have been regenerate souls and an unregenerate world, and these regenerate souls have performed the will of God in despite of unregenerate bodies and an unregenerate world. This, now, is the mystery of the regeneration of the soul, which, as we have said, is not part and parcel of the body and world to be regenerate, but is the opposite thereof ; and therefore I conclude, with a cer- tainty which they only who understand doctrine can feel, that those passages, in which the gift of the Holy Ghost is set forth as an earnest of the redemption of the world, cannot have any reference whatever to the regeneration of the soul, or cleansing of the conscience, or renewal of the spirit, which we are baptized into. These thoughts may be judged more deep than pertinent HER ENDOWMENT. 459 to the subject in hand. They are indeed very deep, and I devoutly praise God for having been able to express what I have long brooded in my mind : but they are likewise very pertinent, and yield a complete solution of the question in hand. For, seeing that the thing which is now proceeding, according to the economy of the Divine purpose, is the mani- festation of a renewed spirit's power to do God's will, despite of a rebel flesh and world ; and to testify the power which Christ, by means of the reasonable soul, shall yet exercise over the world, to quicken the dust of corrupted bodies, to renew the decayed face of the earth, and to cast forth of the world's verge the recreant spirits of darkness, with their retinue of wicked men ; and seeing that, while we have the completeness of the former, we have only the first fruits of the latter ; we ought now to find in the renewed spirits of men a power and faculty to exhibit in the body and upon the body, in the world and upon the world, such actings of Christ as shall not only foreshew, but really be, a first fruits and earnest of that perfect and complete acting in which He is to go forth when He comes to redeem the body and to re- deem the inheritance. If, now, you ask me to come to closer quarters, and tell you distinctly what these actings be, I accept the challenge most willingly, and proceed to shew you them, first, in promise from the mouth of the Lord, and, secondly, in existence in the Church. I. This power is contained in promise in many parts of Scripture: as in Isa. viii. 18, where Christ declareth of Him- self, and His children by regeneration, that they are for signs and for wonders; and in the prophecy of Joel, which hath reference to that fulness of which we have received, and do enjoy, only the first fruits ; and twice by the Lord in these words, " If your faith were as a grain of mustard-seed, ye would say unto this mountain. Remove, and be cast into the depths of the sea, and it would be done unto you:" and again in that strong asseveration, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father," (John xiv. 12.) But it is most fully 46o THE CHURCH: developed in the last verses of the Gospel by Mark, from which I prefer to set forth the endowment in promise. The last six verses of that chapter contain the substance of the Church's commission, given to her in the persons of the eleven apostles, commanding them to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to every creature under heaven, with the assurance that " whosoever believed it, and was baptized, should be saved ; whosoever believed it not, should be damned." Then addeth He these words, " And these signs shall follow them that believe : In my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," (Mark xvi. 17, 18.) These words being spoken, it is said that " He was received up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God ; and that they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord confirming the word with signs follow- ing." Now, then, it is to these signs that I would direct your attention, as containing the particulars of that gift of power which was superadded to the work of complete regeneration sealed up to the believer in baptism. They consist of five particulars : — First, the casting out of devils. This is a first fruits of that casting out of Satan and his angels into the bottomless pit, to be reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day, which shall be accomplished at the redemption of the body and the inheritance. And be- cause Satan is the author and continuer of the bondage from which Christ came to redeem, whose works Christ was mani- fested to destroy, the Church, in order to possess and shew forth unto the world what Christ will yet do by that devil whose thrall the world is, hath given to her power in the Spirit to cast out devils from the bodies of men ; and thus doth she rebuke the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged ; and she shews that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto men, when their children are able to cast the devils out. Christ's supremacy in the spiritual world, the completeness of His redemption, is continually declared by this power in the Church to cast out devils ; and a testimony is continually kept up for the truth, against the HER ENDOWMENT. 461 continual He of Satan and the world, that he is its prince, and that all its kingdoms are his. No, says the Church ; Christ is the King, and in His name I cast Satan and his tribes out of the bodies of men. The second of those particulars embodied in the gift of the Holy Ghost is, that they should " speak with new tongues ;" which had been prophesied of by Isaiah, (chap, xxviii. 11,) and was given on the day of Pentecost. Now, this is the de- monstration that Christ is the Lord of human spirits, as the former is the demonstration of His being Lord over evil spirits. For to use my tongue is the prerogative of my soul ; no other human person but myself can use it : if, therefore, it be used in such a manner as I cannot — for example, to speak a tongue which I do not understand, and in that tongue to utter reasonable speech — then is it true that another holdeth the mastery over me. Who that other is, must be deter- mined by the thing which is spoken ; for devils, we know, did use the tongues of men to utter things which they them- selves knew not, and could not know : confessing Jesus to be the Christ, and the Holy One of God. And, therefore, in order to determine and try the spirit which spoke, certain tests were given, of which these two are the chief — to wit, whether their words bore testimony of the true flesh and to the real lordship of Christ. This being ascertained, then the spirit which possessed the man, and used his tongue, is known to be the Spirit of God ; which is distributed through the body by Christ, the Head of the body ; who therefore is proved to be Lord of human reason, inhabiter of the souls of men, not by a figure, but in very truth, when forth from the souls of men He speak eth the glorious things of God in words which they understand not, and of which they must receive the interpretation at another time, or from another person, certainly by another act of the Spirit of Christ. The presence of Christ in the souls of His people ; His power to actuate their will, and to use their tongue, and by it to ex- press the forms of reasonable truth, while they themselves are all passive in His hands, as the trumpet in the hand of the priest, doth clearly demonstrate Him to be the Lord of the souls of men, and able to use their tongues, as hereafter 462 THE CHURCH: He will do, in giving forth His word unto all the regions of creation. It is a first fruits of that power which shall be hereafter, inasmuch as, though it be uttered to all the nations of the earth, it is not by them obeyed ; whereas in the time to come, in the eternal age, through them, even through the members of His Church, He shall speak to all regions of the world, and it shall be done. The former proveth Him to be the Lord of evil spirits, to cast them out of men ; this proveth Him to be the Lord of human spirits, to fill them with the wisdom and the power of God ; and these two together do leave mankind without excuse ; for what doth man want but a Redeemer who is able to cast the devil out and to bring God into him again. There are many other things connected with the gift of tongues, into which we cannot enter in this place ; but that which we have stated is, we believe, the substance of it considered as a sign. Now the third particular brings us at once out of the spiri- tual into the material world : " They shall take up serpents." It was said of the serpent, " I will put enmity between thee and the woman ;" and between serpents and mankind there is a deadly enmity, insomuch that the poison of serpents will not only almost instantaneously destroy life, but reduce the body to corruption : and therefore in this place it is put forth as the representative of that enmity which is come between man and the lower creatures, which were made to reverence, to serve, and not to destroy him. Now to this curse of rebel- liousness the creatures were made subject not willingly: it is not their nature by creation, but it is the cruel sign of their stern bondage to the enemy of man. By receiving power from the Holy Ghost, therefore, to take up serpents, it is sig- nified that Christ hath redeemed the lower creatures also from their bondage ; and restored man to that supremacy over the animals, and the animals to that innocent obedience of man, with, and for which, man and they were created. The Church, therefore, by possessing this power to take up serpents, gives a manifest sign unto the world that a time is surely to come when " the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them : HER ENDOWMENT. 463 and the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox : and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den," (Isa. xi. 6-8.) The Church, by possessing this power, hath in her hand the earnest and first-fruits of that power " over the sheep and oxen and beasts, over the fowl of the air, and fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea," which Christ hath purchased for Himself, and possesseth in full right as Lord of all ; which, however, it suitcth not the economy of the Father's times that He should take upon Him at present, but of which He giveth to the Church an earnest, and by her giveth to the world a sign, that He will in the fulness of time take unto Himself. But beside the animal creation, which was originally sub- ject unto man, and is now subject unto him again in the person of Christ Jesus, there is the inanimate or elemental creation also, which hath escaped from its subserviency, and become enslaved unto evil. The poisons which the earth produceth, the noxious vapours exhaled from the waters, and the deadly infections which the air scattereth abroad, the storms and tempests which devastate the face of the world, — these, and all other violences, are the signs of that bondage into which sin hath brought all things, and out of which Christ by His righteousness hath redeemed all things. And when the fulness of the time is come for Him to appear again. He shall come as the Liberator of all nature from her thraldom. If, now, Christ have in hand power to redeem all nature out of the bonds of evil, and the Church have in the Holy Ghost a first-fruits thereof, she must possess the power of miracles, to arrest the evil course of things, and to turn them into that righteous course which they shall observe for ever ; power she ought to possess over the laws of the world, such as was pos- sessed by our Lord when He stilled the raging winds and calmed the tempestuous deep. And forasmuch as poisons are the most pregnant evidences of the evil condition of nature, Christ, by giving to him that believeth power over the same to suspend their evil effects, doth thereby give unto His Church the best first-fruits of that power which He now 464 THE CHURCH: possesseth, and she shall hereafter possess, — the power to press out from every plant, and from every element of nature, the various principles of death and destructiveness. For which reason it is, that in the Scriptures all nature is repre- sented as rejoicing in the prospect of the Lord's coming ; as for example : " Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof ; let the field be joyful, and all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord : for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth," (Ps. xcvi.) By the last two particulars are established the supremacy of man's body over all nature, and the ministry of all nature to its health and well-being, as parts of the redemption which Christ hath wrought out for those that believe ; and by the two former, the supremacy of man's soul over the devils, and its subjection to God through the Holy Spirit, are likewise shewn to be of that redemption purchased by Christ ; but there still remaineth one part of creation — to wit, man's body — over which, by these signs, the redemption of Christ should be shewn to extend ; and this we have as the last particular : " They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Sickness is sin apparent in the body, the presentiment of death, the forerunner of corruption. Disease of every kind is mortality begun. Now, as Christ came to destroy death, and will yet redeem the body from the bondage of corruption, if the Church is to have a first-fruits or earnest of this power, it must be by receiving power over diseases, which are the first- fruits and earnest of death ; and this being given to her, com- pletes the circle of her power. For in creation there is no more than these five parts : the pure spirit, the embodied soul of man, the body of man, the animal creation, and the inanimate world : of all which sin hath taken possession, and over all which Christ hath obtained superiority, to reconsti- tute them in that way which shall for ever demonstrate the being and attributes of God. This superiority, this owner- ship, He now inheriteth in sole right and possession ; but, evermore willing to shew forth His dutifulness to His Father, not less on heaven's throne than in the garden of Gethsemane HER ENDOWMENT. 465 and on the cross, He doth wait upon the Father's will to determine the time when the day of complete redemption shall at length arrive ; and the Father, in order to gratify the Son, and make known His surpassing goodness and the riches of His glory, doth beget unto Him, out of sinful flesh, a body, the Church, unto whom He may communicate His fulness, an(5 by whom He may express it unto all creation ; ruling and governing, by these His kings and priests, those innumer- able worlds which He hath purchased with His blood, (for the heavenly things, as well as the earthly things, were purified by His blood :) and meanwhile, until the day of the refresh- ing, until the restitution of all things cometh. He doth, by means of this Church, which the Father hath given to Him for a body, and which He hath informed with His own Spirit, communicate a first-fruits and earnest of that power which He is hereafter by their means to express in its fulness, and to hold for ever. And this He doth to the end that devils, and devil-possessed men, may know the certainty of that doom which abideth them, and that the latter may cast in their lot with the righteous and be saved ; while to the bodies of men, and to all inferior creation. He doth make sure that redemption from the grave and from the curse which they shall surely obtain. This first-fruits of power, to cast the devils into hell, to raise the bodies of the dead, and to hold the superiority of all inferior creation, being possessed by the believing Church, doth continually demonstrate and signify unto the world who, and of what kind, their Redeemer is ; who, and of what kind, is that man, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God hath constituted both Christ and Lord. This first-fruits and earnest of the inheritance of power and prerogative, which under Him we are yet to hold, is likewise the Church's argu- ment to men of their certain destruction, if they come not forth from the world ; of their superlative dignity and honour, if they do come forth from it into the bosom of the Church. It is a sign of that which we preach Christ to be, — Lord of all. It is a sign of that which we preach Him as about to do, — to cast out devils, to raise the dead, and to liberate the creature. It is a sign of what we, the Church, are, in real uninterrupted union with Him, holding a real power under VOL. V. 2 G 466 THE CHURCH: Him, — the arm of His strength, the temple of His presence, the tongue of His Spirit, the manifoldness of His wisdom, the kings and the priests of Christ for God. This, now, is an exhibition of the length and breadth of that gift of the Holy Ghost which the Church hath, in earnest of that fulness of Him that filleth all in all ; which is her pre- rogative ; for which in the fulness of time she waits ; holding it now in faith, then to have it in possession. Our evidence- writers have never comprehended the depths of this subject : their books are mere rag-rolls, fragments, and tatters of the substantial doctrine: no Christian^ writings, but metaphysical or antiquarian researches. These miracles they make to stand merely in their power : and so, say they, they demonstrate God to be with the worker of them : and if so, then are they signs that He is sent by God, and ought with prostration of mind to be listened to. Now, be this granted, and what to do hath it with Christ ? It were an argument for an heathen as good as for a Christian. It is merely an argument that the God of nature is with this man ; there is no recognition of Christ as the doer of the work ; there is no recognition of the work itself being part and parcel of Christ's redemption. In- deed, the substance or nature of the work is never once con- sidered by these evidence-writers. But, besides the leanness and emptiness of their speculation, I deny both the premises and the conclusion. First, the premises, that a mere miracle demonstrates God to be the worker. Miracles have been done by the power of Satan and Beelzebub ; and more are promised to be done ; and no man can tell what power beyond man's science the spirits of darkness possess. It is not the power- fulness, but the moral character of the miracle, that proves it to be Divine. Is it in the way of evil or of good .'' in the way of redemption or of bondage } is it in furtherance or hindrance of Satan's kingdom } The miracle appeals to the moral part of man ; to the conscience, and not to his power. Next, I deny their conclusion. Men may do miracles in the name of Christ, and yet be wicked men : as our Lord himself declares, that many shall say in that day. Have we not in Thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful works .'' of whom He shall profess that He never knew them. A man may possess HER ENDOWMENT. 4^7 the powers of the world to come, and yet fall away into evil courses, (Heb. vi.) Wherefore I say, that the circumstance of a man's doing miracles, or having done miracles, doth not seal up every word he speaketh as truth, even though these miracles be done in the name of Christ, and by the power of God. The word he speaks appealeth to the conscience of man ; and God did never intend that man in hearing his word should be less than man, a being responsible, and conscious of moral truth. But my present occupation is not to reprove the modern evi- dence-writers ; whom I would not have noticed in this place, had it not been to shew the true origin of that most erroneous opinion of these latter times, and of this Protestant section of the Church, that these gifts of the Holy Ghost were intended only for a season, until the canon of Scripture was completed, and the Book had found a place and an authority amongst men. The whole of this idea is a tissue of error and contradiction, which it is not my present business to expose. Yet from this account, meagre and false as it is, of the " signs and wonders, and diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost," hath sprung the diabolical hatred with which the Christian sqavans — for I cannot call them divines — are filled upon the very men- tion of the existence of these gifts in the Church. They are like men demented, given over, and toppling to their down- fall. The way in which the idea has been scouted and hooted at, by what arc called divines, (but if they would retain the name much longer, they must make it good by other means than scandalous abuse and mocking raillery,) is to me the fear- fullest sign of the Protestant Church, and especially of the Evangelical sect in the bosom of it. But, to return from this digression. H. Having set out the largeness and the particularity of the gift or power which the Church hath given to her, in earnest of her full inheritance, and that she may serve for a witness of that which she preacheth concerning the present lordship and future action of Christ ; we now come to take a view of the same thing, not as it lies in promise, but as it is in real exist- ence and was in active exertion in the Church. And to the intent that we may here, as always, have under our feet the firm continent of the word of God, and not sail widely in the 468 THE CHURCH: waste of fanciful speculations or scholastic inventions, we be- take ourselves to the 12th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, to see there the form and function of the Chris- tian Church, in that state in which Jesus did constitute it, and in which He requireth us to hold it fast till He come. The apostle, speaking of the state of the church at Corinth, and taking in hand to order it aright, and so to leave upon the record of Scripture the scheme of a rightly constituted church ; and having already discoursed of the true foundation of Christ and Him crucified, and of holy discipline, and of separateness from idolatry and fornication, and of the right administration of the Lord's Supper ; doth in this chapter take up the sub- ject of spiritual gifts, or gifts of the Spirit, in contradistinction from charity, which is the more excellent way, and the bond of perfectness, that spirit of complete holiness into which we are baptized. And concerning these he first asserteth three things in general, to point out the several parts which the several persons in the Godhead had therein. And, first, he asserteth that the diversities of gifts which were dispersed throughout the members of the Church, like the diversity of members in the body, did not prove that there were many spirits, but that there was one Spirit, the one life of the whole, and dividing unto every one according as He will ; that no one member possessed the whole power of the Spirit, but only a part thereof, and craved as much the help and ministry of every other part as they in their turn did crave of it ; Christ alone having the seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. And therefore it is observed by the apostle, secondly, that there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord ; that is to say, in other words, various persons into whose hands the administration of these gifts was committed, and who were responsible for the use of them in behalf of the whole body and of the world without ; according as it is written in the 1 2th chapter of the Romans : " Having then gifts differ- ing according to the grace that is given to us, whether pro- phecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation : he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity ; he that ruleth, with dili- HER ENDOWMENT. 469 gence ; he that sheweth mere}', with cheerfulness." The third observation in general is, that as the substance of all the gifts is the one Spirit, and the administrator of them all the one Lord ; so the in-worker of the gifts in all the persons is the one and the same God, whose Godhead the Son is filled with in His human nature to serve out to men, while the Holy- Ghost carrieth on and supplieth the service. So that verily these gifts, ministries, and operations arc God working by means of men what His good pleasure is ; even as the apostle declareth in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, (chap. xiv. 24, 25 :) " But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all : and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." These three observations the apostle makes, to prevent the diversity of the gifts and the ministries and the operations from leading to schism, instead of preserving unity, as their intention is ; his object being the same as is expressed more fully in the 4th chapter of the Ephesians, from the 3d to the 17th verse, where the unity standeth in these particulars, " one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one hope, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all," — a sevenfold and perfect unity. These three observations are of great price, as teaching us that the Church, under Christ its head, and with the Spirit for its inspiration, is the one great instrument of God in which and by which to carry on all His operations ; a temple for the Eternal God to dwell in; a sufficient body for expressing all His mind, and doing all His will. This is a very great, and almost an inexpressible idea ; but it is the only adequate idea of the Church, considered, not in relation to Christ, but considered in relation to the incomprehensible God. In relation to Christ, it is as the body to the Head ; but in relation to God, it is as the whole body under its Head to the Will. And herein lies the necessity that the Head of this body should Himself be adequate to the comprehension of God, filling His bosom ; otherwise there were no understanding how a finite thing could keep up communication and sympathy, proportion and 470 THE CHURCH: measure, with what is infinite. The whole mystery of redemp- tion is God's obtaining for Himself such a complete organ of expression and of action, in the finiteness of which the attri- butes of His own infinite being might be truly and fully ex- pressed. To procure for Godhead such a fit organ, the Son and the Holy Ghost do, without departing or separating from the Godhead, which is impossible, take connexion with the creature, and from a portion thereof do constitute that most seemly and adequate Shechinah of the Eternal God. This portion of the creation is the election ; and the Shechinah, or glorious habitation thus constructed, is the Church ; and the Head of it, or holder of it up, is Christ ; and the Life of it, or the holder of it together, is the Holy Ghost. And the mate- rials thus headed up and holden together for a d\Velling-place, and, so to speak, embodiment of God, are all of the fallen creation ; of the creation after it hath proved that in itself is neither strength nor aptitude ; of the creation dissolved and dead ; to prove that it needed both a Super-creation Head and Life, Holder-up and Holder-together. Ah me ! what a contemplation it is ! But we must again betake ourselves to the details. This being the true idea of the Church, Godward con- sidered, it must needs be that from the beginning of its being it should put forth the germ of its own perfection ; like all the inferior works of God, that this. His chief work, should reveal its constant law, and begin to be in growth. Now, the Church began to be from the time that Christ was glorified and became the quickening Spirit. As the human race began to be from the time Adam was endowed with the power of generation and received command to multiply ; so the Church began to be from the time that the Second Adam was perfected, and, by receiving from the Father the Holy Ghost, had power by re- generation to beget sons of God — that is, from the day of Pentecost — and therefore from this time it should begin to shew forth the information and inworking of God within it. How it did so, let us now shew out, by pursuing this I2th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians ; and so dis- cover what that is which we are commanded to hold fast till He come. HER ENDOWMENT. 471 The gifts which the apostle now proceeds to enumerate as possessed by the Church, are in general called " the manifes- tation of the Spirit," — that is, the way which the Spirit takes to manifest or shew Himself; to make Himself evident to others, to any one who may chance to enter the assembly, and hear and see the things which are said and done. This answers to our first idea, that the Church is to Christ, while He acteth in the Spirit, what the body is to the soul — an in- strument by which it reveals both its presence and its manifold dispositions and energies : " That by the Church may be made known to the powers in the heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God." And these manifestations of the Spirit, saith he, " are given to every one to profit withal," or for pro- fitable use ; not to be hid in a napkin, or buried in the earth, but to be turned to account and used for the common behoof: as it is written by Peter concerning the same subject — "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth : that God in all things maybe glorified, through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen," (i Pet. iv. 10, 11.) Now to execute and fulfil this purpose the constant presence of charity is necessary ; other- wise the precious talent rusts and corrodes its own possessor. In order that these gifts may be graces, the work of regenera- tion is absolutely necessary — holiness and charity — to bring us into the same devotedness to God and man in which Christ was, and to keep us ever so. For want of this it is that many possessing these gifts fall into schism, and some into total apostasy. They are not the best thing, but they are some- thing, and that no mean thing, if to exhibit God and Christ and the Spirit to the world, and to edify the Church, be no mean thing. Then comes the enumeration of these gifts, waited upon by divers ministers ; whereof the first two stand in word ; the one the " word of wisdom," the other the " word of knowledge ; " whereof the former refers to mysteries of doctrine which needed exposition ; the latter to events, whether past, present, 472 THE CHURCH: or to come. I gather from the 2d verse of the 13th chapter, " Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge," that the word of wisdom hath regard to mysteries ; and from the 8th verse, that the word of knowledge hath respect to events of this imperfect state and temporary dispensation, which shall be done away. The two occur in combination in Rom. xi. 33, where the apostle, carry- ing his thoughts to the consummation of God's purpose, bursts out into ecstasy over the wisdom of the method and the knowledge of the end — " Oh the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !" The word of knowledge is, when applied to the past, learjiing; when applied to the present, knowledge ; when applied to the future, foreknowledge : and it lays out the particulars of which wisdom discovers the divine unity, the wonderful arrangement, the relations of part to part, and their application to the well-being of the soul, and to the moral duties of life. The one tells the tale, the other adds the moral. The Church of Scotland hath made both these standing ordinances to this day ; she hath held these fast ; requiring that in every flock there be one at least with the word of wisdom, endowed of the Spirit, whose name is the bishop, or pastor, or minister, and his office to apply the truth wisely to the conscience of the people and the exigen- cies of life ; another with the word of knowledge, whose name is the doctor, or teacher, and his business to lay out the history and grounds of truth and error, and to handle them doctrinally, but not to apply them. Of these the latter is considered as the lower degree. I think this distinction is substantially correct, and that the division of office and of gift is a fine relic of the primitive churches : would that the rest had been as carefully preserved ! I have often admired the steadiness with which the Scottish people have ever in- sisted that these gifts of the preacher and the teacher should stand in " word," as they are given in the passage before us, and not in written and studied compositions ; insisting that it is of the essence of the minister's office that he should receive both the matter and the word from the Holy Ghost. There- fore the apostle says, that he taught wisdom not " in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy HER ENDOWMENT. 473 Ghost teacheth." For, according to the text, there is in the Church a gift "to speak wisdom," and another gift "to speak knowledge ;" and of the nine gifts, only these two have the character of " word : " and we may therefore well believe that this is of their essence ; that " the word " is a part of the gift, and that those who hold for a verbal inspiration of the matter of Scripture are correct. These two gifts are, however, not the only ones which stood in utterance by the mouth, which belongeth also to "prophecy." But there is this difference, as I judge ; that the prophet had not the word given to him, but only the matter, with the high gift of embodying it in the form known by the name prophecy, which we shall here- after consider ; whereas the other two had the matter brought to them in the form of word, and were only the mouth to give it utterance. By these Christ shewed forth His wisdom to unlock all mysteries, and His knowledge of all events ; and His capacity of embodying them by the word of others, from whom He was separated personally by being altogether out of the world : shewing to us the power of the Spirit to bring THE WORD from the Father, and utter it in the world by means of men ; and teaching how, in the age to come. He will use men for the conveyancers of His word — or, rather, the Spirit for the conveyancer, and men for the utterers of it, in whatever region of the world their appointed station may be. No doubt it was this gift which furnished and fitted the evangelists and the apostles for their work of inditing the Scriptures ; the former having the word of know- ledge, to recall and narrate events ; the latter the word of wisdom, to decide questions which had arisen in the Church, and give full counsels for all cases that should arise. Next to these is faith : " To another faith, by the same Spirit." This is not saving faith, or the " one faith," without which a man cannot be saved ; which is not a particular gift conferred upon one and not upon another member of the body, but the common possession of them all ; and is of that complete, and not partial, gift into which we are baptized, and by which we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord in the Eucharist. Of what kind this faith is we have described to us in the 1 3th chapter, by direct contrast with 474 THE CHURCH: that charity which is not partial, but common ; which is not accidental, but essential to a Christian. When I say acci- dental, I would not have it to be understood as if I regarded the possession of these spiritual gifts as matter of indifference to the Church whether she have them or not ; for I believe them to be her talents to trade upon, her setting-up and outfit in the present world, for probation of her faithfulness and adjudication of her future reward. The parable of the talents has these gifts, as T judge, in view. It is not natural gifts, but spiritual gifts of the kingdom, which are there treated of When therefore it so happens, as at this time amongst us Protestants, that the Church not only doth not desire to possess, but doth utterly abjure their being respon- sible for these gifts, she doth worse than the man with the one talent, and shall receive her reward, if she repent not, and give not heed to the witness which is now raised in her ears concerning her endowments. The faith here spoken of, and which I call accidental and peculiar, not spiritual and catholic, because one Christian may have it and another may not have it, is the same spoken of in chap. xiii. 2 — " And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains." And this again carries us, as by a direct quotation, to our Lord's declaration to His disciples, twice repeated — once upon the occasion of His healing the devil-possessed child, (Matt. xvii. 20,) the other of His cursing the barren fig-tree, (Matt. xxi. 21) — "If ye have faith like a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." This is what divines call the faith of miracles, as distinguished from saving faith. And yet it is not the gift of miracles, which may be divided from it, and is divided from it in the text, and given to another. What then is it .'' I think it is that which hath the same relation to the actions of the Spirit that word hath to His thoughts ; it is the strong confidence in Christ's power, in the presence of which power it is done, and without which it cannot be done. But, while this gift of faith is the substratum upon which the various actings of power that follow do rest, it hath doubtless some- thing in itself distinctive enough to form a gift, without any HER ENDOWMENT. 475 addition of healing, or miracles, or tongues ; which appears to be, the power of relying upon the word which hath been spoken out of the gift of wisdom and of knowledge. To utter a word is not to believe : when a man hath been the tongue of the Spirit, he hath done his part ; it is the part of another to fasten hold upon it, and to keep it laid up in his faith, and to be established upon it, and to be the stay of the Church in adversities. As the man with the word of wisdom rises up in perplexities, and gives forth the resolution of God ; so the man with faith rises up in adversities, and recalls the memory and reawakens the faith of things uttered by God. These men of faith are the forlorn hope of the army, who never lose heart, but believe all things possible to God. Such men I know, who cannot utter a syllable without a stammer- ing lip, but have tenfold the faith of others, who can speak like the oracles of God. This gift of faith I look upon as being in the Church what indomitable resolution and never- failing confidence is in the natural character of some men ; it sticks at nothing which God hath said, but believes its very jots and tittles : it fears nothing which God in His providence sends, but ever says to the children of Israel, Go fonvard. By having such an organ of the Spirit in the body, Christ shews that His Church hath capacity of believing all that He can say, and therefore is a fit instrument for executing all that He can desire. The order of God's providence is, first, word ; then, faith in Him who hears it : then, execution by the means of them who have believed. And while it stands lin- gering in the stage of faith, the Lord bringeth the most faith- trying occurrences, so that it should seem to some utterly im- possible to accomplish the thing ; and He ever saith, " Except ye believe, ye cannot be established : " faith bears the fiery proof, and in due time receives the reward of accomplish- ment. To this intrepidity of faith, God calleth some with a special calling. The next is " the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit." Of this we have already spoken, when viewing this subject under the aspect of promise. It is the fifth of the signs of the Re- deemer and the complete redemption : " Ye shall lay your hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And certain per- 47^ THE CHURCH: sons in the Church were intrusted with the dispensation thereof unto the whole body, and unto those that were with- out : for these gifts were not to be hoarded up within the Church, but to be traded with ; they were for the confirma- tion of that word to every creature under heaven, to whom the word was preached, not by an appeal to a miracle — which is, in respect of truth, no more discernment than the appeal to arms is in respect of justice — but by a demonstration in the act of that thing which they preached in word. The word preached is, that Christ hath redeemed men from the power of death ; and in sign thereof we do in His name heal all manner of diseases, and upon occasion raise the dead, (as is recorded both of Peter and Paul :) and the conclusion is, that the name of Christ is indeed able to effect those things preached. The sign is part and parcel of the thing preached, and by being so confirms it. It is not an appeal to blind power, but it is an appeal to Jesus to confirm the truth preached, by giving a sign of His possessing this power which we assign to Him, and a first-fruits of that action which we preach Him about to perform. It is not by the transmission of this through eighteen centuries of tradition, that the unlearned world are to be convinced — a process by which, I will venture to say, that none but a few antiquaries were ever convinced ; but it is by the abiding of them in, and the putting of them forth by, the Church, wherever and so long as she is established, until Christ come, that the world is to be taught that Jesus of Nazareth is the world's gracious Healer, and wise Teacher, and merciful Redeemer, and righteous Governor. It is not by putting a book into every man's hand, of the genuineness and authenticity of which it takes no mean store of learning to be convinced, but it is by a continuous Church holding forth the word of the gospel of life to the nations, and attest- ing the truth of what they declare concerning Jesus, by calling His name over all distressed nature, and giving it redemption and joy. This is what the Church was intended to be, God's witnesses of Christ to every nation and every generation, until He should send Him to accomplish all which had been preached for a witness. But now, lo ! the Bible Society is our church, and the Bible is our God ! These gifts of healing HER ENDOWMENT. All bespeak Christ's mercy unto, and His power over, all flesh. How oft is it said in the Gospels, "And he healed them all !" And Peter and Paul had a still more indiscriminate ministry ; for to them were brought handkerchiefs from the sick, that they might touch them ; and the infirm were laid by the way, that the shadow of the apostle might overshadow some of them. That dispensation of a redeeming providence which Judea had for three years and a half in the person of the Lord, the whole world was intended to have in the Churqh, and would have had, but for our unfaithfulness to our Master, our self-sufficiency in ourselves, and our unmercifulness to the world. Forgetting for what end we were elected, even to shew forth the power of Him who hath called us, we grew vain of our election, and rioted in the pride of it, and became hard- hearted ; and did such things and held such opinions, under the covert of that name election, as many are now doing who deny the universal love of God, and the real work of Christ to condemn sin in the flesh. We are acting over again the shameful history of the children of Israel, and are preparing for a more terrible tragedy than theirs. Next comes " the working of miracles." The passage in Hebrews, (chap. ii. 4,) which gives a brief enumeration of these works, divides them thus : " Signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts (distributions) of the Holy Ghost." Of these four, the third is that now under consideration. The first, " signs," we have treated of in the foregoing exposition of the last verses of Mark, " These signs shall follow them that believe." A sign is properly a token in which the thing sig- nified can be recognised ; and in those four particulars, we shewed, is to be recognised the whole salvation of soul, body, and inheritance, which we preach. The " wonders" are almost constantly coupled with the signs, and in one place distin- guished from them : Acts ii. 19, " And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath." And some- times " miracles," or powers, are added to both ; as in re- counting the proof of Christ's mission in the same chapter, and Paul's justifying his own mission, (2 Cor. xii. 12.) It is hard to distinguish these things, and I know not whether it can be done. Our translators have not done it, and perhaps 47S THE CHURCH : they are right If, however, I were to venture a distinction, it would be, that the wonder is something extraordinary ex- hibited to the sight — as the turning of the sun into darkness, and the moon into blood ; the rending of the veil of the temple, and of the rocks, and the bringing on of darkness ; — and the miracle, or power, is the doing of something mighty beyond all comparison ; as the calming of the storm, or the laying of the deep, or the multiplying of loaves, or the chang- ing of water into wine : although both of these are called signs in the original, as is also the healing of the lame man by Peter and John ; but throughout all that discourse in the i ith chapter of Matthew, for reproof of the cities where His mighty works had been chiefly done, the word used is " powers, or miracles." Wonders I take to be remarkable occurrences which yet contradict no law of nature, as Elisha's bringing fire from heaven ; but miracles are a strong resistance, suspension, and turning back of nature's fixed powers. Yet all of these, both the wonders and miracles, being interpreted aright, are signs of that kingdom of heaven which we preach as about to be revealed under the government of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Besides these three, there is a fourth classifi- cation in this passage of the Hebrews, which is entitled "gifts (or distributions) of the Holy Ghost." And the like addition do we find the apostle Paul making, when enumerating the works of God in and by him. The passage is in Rom. xv. 19, and somewhat obscured in our translation : literally it is, " In power of signs and wonders, in power of the Spirit of God ;" another form of power. Accordingly we find that those same apostles who were required to wait for the day of Pentecost, in order to receive " power from on high," had at that time, and during their ministry, possessed power to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and to trample upon all the power of the enemy : " Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." This they possessed, and yet did they not possess that power or gift of the Holy Ghost which they received on Pentecost. They then did such works as He did, but they were after Pentecost to do greater works than these, through the gift of the Holy Ghost, which He was to receive by going to the Father, and to shed down upon them. To HER ENDOWMENT. 479 this new power, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the apostle's fourth distribution in the 2d of the Hebrews, and second in the 15th of the Romans, hath reference. Our inquiry at present, however, is into the gift of miracles, which was a manifesta- tion of the Spirit given to a certain order in the Church. This order was instituted in the body on purpose to set forth Christ's mighty power to withstand, to turn again, and to direct for the ends of grace and goodness, those potent springs of nature, those powers of the heavens and the earth, which Satan hath succeeded in distorting from their true and right intention to an evil use : where famine is, to make plenty ; where blindness is, to give sight ; and lameness strength, and death life : that men might know that cause and effect is only an appointment or permission of God while it pleases Him ; and that the laws of the material world are not necessary, but under the control and in the hands of our merciful Redeemer. If the Church had been still possessed of this memorial and foreshewing of that great re- volution in nature which is to be effected at the coming of the Lord, there would not have been this universal feeling and outcry, " All things have continued as they were since the beginning:" this bondage of the will of man to the fatality of cause and effect, and all those speculations, which have so strengthened scepticism, concerning the possibility or impossi- bility of attesting a miracle, would have been prevented ; and the present entire unbelief of a miracle being ever again, would, as ashamed, hide its face, instead of exposing itself in all public places. This power of miracles must either be speedily revived in the Church, or there will be a universal dominion of the mechanical philosophy; and faith will be fairly expelled, to give place to the law of cause and effect acting and ruling in the world of mind, as it doth in the world of sense. What now is preaching become, but the skill of a man to apply causes which may produce a certain known effect upon a congregation ">. — so much of argument, so much of eloquence, so much of pathos, so much of doctrine, so much of morality ; and all to bring the audience into a certain frame of mind, and so dismiss them well wrought upon by the preacher and well pleased with themselves. The effectual 48o THE CHURCH: check to all this would be, to dispute with the enemy in his fortress, to try conclusions with the law of cause and effect in astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, or any branch of natural science, where it holds itself supreme : to stop the sun, like Joshua ; to make him travel back, like Isaiah ; to walk upon the water, like our Lord ; or to handle the viper, like the apostle Paul. The very existence of a will the cause of itself, is begun not only to be doubted, but to be denied. It also is looked upon as a substance, under the common bond- age of cause and effect ; and God himself is looked upon merely as a Great First Cause. I know nothing able to de- throne this monster from the throne of God, which it hath usurped, but the reawakening of the Church to her long-for- gotten privilege of working miracles. The miracle-workers in the Church are Christ's hand, to shew the strength that is in Him : the healers of diseases are His almoners, to shew what pity and compassion are in Him : the faith-administrators are His lion-heart, to shew how mighty and fearless He is : and the utterers of wisdom and knowledge are His mind, to shew how rich and capacious it is. They do all contain, and exhibit and minister to the world, some portion of that fulness which is in Him, and which He alone is capable of holding in one subsistence ; which, when it enters into others, must prove the occupation and the honour and the ornament of many persons. We now pass into another region, distinguished both from the more excellent way of charity and from spiritual gifts, in these words of the 14th chapter, " Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy." And throughout the whole of that chapter he dwells upon this gift of prophecy, which is now before us, with a special delight, as the edification of the Church : " But he that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and com- fort," (ver. 3 ;) and nothing seems he to have had so much at heart as that all should prophesy : " I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied ; " and again, " But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and HER ENDOWMENT. 481 so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth," (ver. 24, 25.) What is this gift, of which the apostle maketh such high account ? It is evidently- very different from what is commonly understood by prophesy- ing, as the mere foretelling of future events, because it is " unto men for edification and exhortation and comfort." But if that vulgar idea of prognostication be meant to represent the true character of a prophet of the Old Testament, nothing is so insufficient. Is the office of Moses or Elias, of Isaiah or Jeremiah, described by saying that they foretold future events .'' I trow not. Their office standeth in this, that they were God's mouth to men, fitted and furnished for uttering His own mind in adequate expressions, and for standing in the breach be- tween the Church and the world, between the world and its destruction. Ah me : what a mischief hath been done by these wild schismatics, who, in their sectarian zeal to repress the free inquiries of the Church into the prophets, have dared to propagate it among their weak adherents, that these books of the prophets are only for the curious speculators into the future ! Night unto you, O ye misleaders of the people ! If ye return not at the watchman's voice, the night and thick darkness abide you : any little twilight you now grope in, will soon pass into the deepest, darkest midnight. O my mis- guided brethren ! I tell you, the prophets are the utterers of the word of God for the weal of man. None of their writings is of any private interpretation, to single men, or generations of men, or particular ages ; but to the Church catholic and universal ; for they spake not after the will of men, but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They are very profit- able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruc- tion in righteousness. They are most profitable for holiness, both personal, ecclesiastical, and national. They reveal God in all His fulness and variety of being. They speak in human ears the strains of heaven. Oh ! how very sublime, how very pathetic, how very moral, how very divine they are ! It is the richest tissue of discourse that was ever woven. The poet, the orator, the merchant, the statesman, the divine, every form of spiritual workman, will find the instruments, and the measures, and the rules, and the chief performances of his art, VOL. V. 2 H 482 THE CHURCH: therein. How many-sided are the prophets ! How they stretch athwart the middle space between heaven and earth, lying all abroad in the most varied beauty ! I am grieved, sore pained at my heart, that the affections of men should have departed away from such a feast of fat things. I can- not understand it. It did not use to be so. In my boyish days, when the firesides of the Scottish peasantry were my favourite haunts, and converse with the gray-headed elders of the Church my delight, their prayers were almost ex- clusively drawn from the psalms and the prophets. Have I not heard them use those blessed passages with a savour and unction which indicated both intelligence and full feel- ing ! Is the mind of man departed into the sear and yel- low leaf ? Is there to be no second spring } Are we ever to feed on the garbage of the magazines and the religious newspapers .'' God forbid ! That rich and copious vein of rendering God's messages in forms of thought and language worthy of Him, and powerful over the hearts and souls of men, which prophecy is in the hands of the Old Testament prophets, the apostle wisheth all the Church to study to pos- sess ; and being attained, he counts it of an unspeakable price in the ecclesiastical economy ; insomuch, he saith, that if they were all thus to speak as from the heart of God to the heart of man, and there come into the assembly one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he says he cannot fail to be convinced and judged of them all. What a heart-searching, truth-tell- ing thing must this prophecy, then, have been } Such a thing must prophesying have been — clear, true, warm, and tender ; fresh from the heart ; redolent with the affections of God to sinful men ; piercing and penetrating, yet not appalling, but cleansing and comforting, to the conscience. And this is what our preaching is intended to stand for } Wretched sub- stitute ! It seems to me that this gift of prophesying, which the Church are by the apostle called upon to covet above all other gifts of the Spirit, is the same gift which was ministered by the Old Testament prophets, — the faculty of shewing to all men their true estate in the sight of God, and their near- ness to His judgments, and the way of escape ; the faculty of doing for persons what they did for kingdoms and cities ; HER ENDOWMENT. 483 foretelling being a part, but only a part of it ; yet that to give warning of which the spirit of the prophet is stirred up to put forth all the powers and energies of the persuasive Spirit of God, that the evil may be avoided and the good attained. Such prophecies had gone before upon Timothy, and by them he is exhorted by the apostle to war a good warfare ; and the gift is said to be given unto him by prophecy, as well as by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, (i Tim. i. 18, iv. 14.) Joining this with the declaration quoted above, that prophecy was fitted to convince and judge any stranger who by acci- dent might come in, and to lay open the secrets of his heart, so that he should be forced to fall down and worship, as per- ceiving that God's eye was in them, and that things were known to them which no one but God and his own conscience could know^ what can I say of this gift of the Spirit less than that it was God telling, by His chosen servant, His own know- ledge of the secrets of a man's heart, that he might confess his sin and find forgiveness of it } One trembles to think that such a power should be given to men of looking into men : but if this power be with God, and He have given it to Christ, who possesseth those seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth ; and if the Church be Christ's functionary, through which to express a manifestation of every attribute which He possesseth ; then is it to be expected that here should also be found in the Church an order of men to ise Christ's eyes with Christ's heart, and speak forth to the dscovered and detected sinner such strains as these : " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and sbnest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth he- chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! " (Matt. xxii. 37 ;) "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fouitain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slaii of the daughter of my people !" (Jer. ix. i) ; "As I live, saitl the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn and live : Turn ye, turn ye ; why will ye die, O house of Israel!" This, I think, is the true ilea of the gift of prophecy, — that it was Christ speaking forth 4is love and His earnestness and His knowledge, to 484 THE CHURCH: deliver each man from the roots of bitterness that are within him, and to warn him of the certain consequences which will ensue upon the evil course he is now following. The word of wisdom hath reference to truth, and the word of knowledge to faith, but prophecy hath reference to persons. It is for building up and comforting the Church, for converting sinners from the error of their ways, and warning the world of the evil to come. And that such a power is in the Spirit is as sure as that it is in Christ ; and that He hath promised it to His Church is not only proved from its place in this enume- ration, but it is also clear from the express promise that the Spirit will shew us things to come ; from the example of the prophecies which went before on Timothy, and of the prophet who bound himself with Paul's girdle, and prophesied that the like would they do at Jerusalem to him who owned it. Our Lord shewed many examples of the like personal pro- phesyings, over Peter, and Judas, and the two sons of Zebe- dee ; and I have no doubt the primitive Church was all-rife with this gift of foreshewing to persons the future destinies which hung over them, and grounding thereon the same variety of all-inclusive discourse which the old prophets used towards cities and nations. " To another, discerning of spirits." What this gift, or talent, committed to the keeping of the Church, is, we learn from the First Epistle of John, where he directeth the Churc how to put it to use : " Beloved, believe not every spirit, buf try the spirits whether they are of God : because many falst prophets are gone out into the world," (i John iv. i.) Fron this we learn that the spirits which were to be tried or proved spake by the mouths of false prophets, and prompted then to utter things untrue and unholy. An example of this ki^d we have in the 22nd chapter of the First Book of Kin^s, where, all the prophets of Ahab having prophesied that he should go up to Ramoth-gilead, Micaiah, the prophet of the Lord, explaineth the manner in which they had been de- ceived and had deceived him, in a passage which opeleth much insight into the spiritual world; teaching how, God useth the ministry of evil spirits in order to pervert froit the way of truth those who have loved darkness rather/ than HER ENDOWMENT. 485 light; "sending them strong delusion, that they should be- lieve a lie ;" and how these spirits take possession of wicked prophets who have not served the Spirit of Truth faithfully, and possess them with a word of falsehood ; and how many of these prophets of lies may at once be under the influence of one of those unclean spirits. When the Lord, in the 7th and 24th chapters of Matthew, and Peter, in the 2d chapter of his Second Epistle, warn the Church of false prophets that should arise, they do not mean merely erroneous and deceiv- ing men, but men possessed with a lying spirit. Indeed, I believe that in all cases the word prophet, in the Scriptures, signifies a man speaking in the power of another spirit than his own. A true prophet speaketh in the power of the Holy Spirit, and a lying prophet speaketh in the power of an unclean spirit. That this is the true meaning of the name prophet in the New Testament, as in the Old, is further manifest from the language of the apostle : " The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," (i Cor. xiv. "i)!?) Now, in the passage of John's First Epistle, under consideration, the Church is required to try those spirits with which the prophets spake, whether they were of God 01; not ; and there must, therefore, have been a gift given to the Church for this end, and persons to whom it was given to exercise it. The prophets tried men, but these men tried the prophets. The word " discernment derives some illustration from the 14th chapter, where it is written, in the 29th verse, " Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others dis- cern : and if to another sitting by there be a revelation, let the first be silent : for ye can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all be comforted ; and the spirits of the prophets are in subjection to the prophets ; for not of tumult is he the God, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." This passage shews us that the discerning of spirits was a faculty widely diffused in the Church, and required to be in continual exercise ; and that the prophets, in the things which they uttered, were carefully and affectionately watched by the Church, and guarded from falling under the sugges- tions of the wicked spirits : and if, while one of them was speaking, there should have been any revelation to this effect, 486 THE CHURCH: he was commanded to stop till he heard it, lest by any means he might mislead the brethren into error. It is very beauti- ful to observe, how no gift had a completeness in itself, but wanted the neighbourhood and help of another. The prophet needed the guardianship of the discerner of spirits, and the discerner of spirits the instruction of the prophet : the one brought the precious metal from the heavenly treasury, the other assayed it, lest it should have contracted any defile- ment or intermixture in the transmission. The apostle John further giveth, in the same passage, as a test of spirits, whether they confessed that "Jesus Christ is come in flesh" or not ; and he repeats the same in his second epistle : Paul also, in the very chapter we are examining, gives us another test, whether they would say that "Jesus is the Lord." These two doctrines, of His flesh and of His lordship, are the two keys of prophecy, and the two tests of Divine truth, which no evil spirit will bear. It is very ominous, that these are the two very points for which we are now persecuted by many, who deny Christ to have had flesh with the law of flesh ; and deny that His lordship is of this earth — alleging that, when Satan shall have served himself of it, it is to be destroyed. I have no doubt whatever that these are doctrines of devils, and that they bespeak a revival of Antichrist in the bosom of the Church. This capacity of discerning the spirits which speak in the prophets seems to have been very widely, and in a degree universally, spread abroad in the Church. For the same John, when writing concerning these antichrists, speaketh thus to the whole Church : " But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you : but as the same anoint- ing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him," (i John ii. 20, 21, 26, 27.) And our Lord, speaking upon the same sub- ject of "false prophets," giveth their "fruits" as a test by which all men should be able to prove them, (Matt, vii.) But HER ENDOWMENT. 487 while all do, no doubt, possess such a measure of discernment as to reject the falsehood and feed upon the truth, those to whom this gift was specially granted had the higher faculty of being able to expose the sophistry, and the hypocrisy, and subtlety of the devil, with which it comes arrayed : and to these persons the Church would always be beholden in a time of trial ; and, having reliance upon them, they would minister that caution, consideration, and admonition against the evil, which would be efifcctual to the preservation of the Church from heresies and offences which must needs arise. More- over, I have little doubt that this gift of detecting false spirits in the speech of men was also accompanied with the power of casting them out, in all such cases as were consistent with the moral responsibility of the man possessed. The prophet, I believe, might be taken at unawares, and, himself deceived, become a deceiver of others : in this case, being undeceived by the faithful discerner of spirits, he would make entreaty to be delivered, and, having faith in the presence and power of Christ in that man, he would be delivered without further delay. But in such a case as that referred to by John — of which those of Simon Magus, and Hymeneus, and Philetus, and Hermogenes are examples — where the wickedness of their own minds, their unfaithfulness to the Spirit of God, their time-serving, worldly, and ambitious dispositions of mind, were the occasions of their being delivered up to such posses- sions, it is clear that, until they repented and confessed their sin, and sought the unity of the Church again, they could and would receive no such deliverance from the hand of the Discerner of spirits. This, surely, was a very precious gift to the Church ; and if, as all Scripture concurreth to predict, " the last times," which immediately precede the coming of the Lord, shall be full of " false Christs and false prophets, who shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect," we have need to stir up this gift which is in the Church. When we were weak and sickly, and gave him little trouble, Satan suffered us to go on declining, and took himself up with other matters ; having administered to us the soporific of a lifeless system of orthodox terms, he went his way about other busi- 488 THE CHURCH: ness : but, now that the Church is shaking herself from his bonds, and beginning to seek for her long-lost strength, and is putting it forth in word and deed, and lifting up the banner of truth, " Christ come in Flesh and to come in Lordship ;" behold, he will send his Philistines upon us — spirits from the deep ; and we will need the discernment of spirits to with- stand him, nor shall we be without it. The Church is still the Church ; her life is still in her, though sorely weakened ; now she is beginning to breathe a purer air, and her faculties are returning; her weakened mind is beginning to understand doctrine, her miserable heart is beginning to conceive hope, and her closed lips to be opened with strong and fervent de- sires after her ancient strength and glory. Let her enemies beware ; let the intruders into the fold make ready to depart ; let those who have lorded it over her prepare themselves for a day of recompense, because it is at hand, when she shall come forth " bright as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." Moreover, this discernment of spirits is an excellent gift and kind ministry of Christ unto His Church, whereby she is able to hold forth the truth be- fore the world, — that her Head hath judged Beelzebub, the prince of the devils ; hath judged the prince of this world, the spirit that now ruleth in the children of disobedience : and not only so, but that He hath given to men the dominion over spirits, who through our wickedness have obtained do- minion over us : and that His Church shall certainly trample Satan under foot, and judge angels, and triumph over all the powers of the enemy. But this brings us upon the vein which we have already opened when treating of the same endow- ment, as it was laid out in the promise of the Lord, whereof the first particular is, " Ye shall cast out devils." Referring back to what was there said concerning the importance and the bearing of this sign, we now proceed to the eighth of these forms of the manifested Spirit, which is " divers kinds of tongues." This also having handled formerly, in the sense of a sign, and shewn the thing which it signified, we shall add here what light is afforded us as to the manner of its use and occupation. It was first imparted on the day of Pentecost, HER ENDOWMENT. 489 "when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance," (Acts ii. 6.) Many, indeed almost all, have the notion that the apostles became all at once learned in, and masters of, foreign languages, so as to be able to express in the various tongues of men the knowledge which they pos- sessed already. This is altogether an erroneous notion, as will appear; and the true one is contained in the words just quoted. They spoke according as the Spirit gave them to utter, not according to their own previous knowledge ; and they spoke it in other tongues than that which was native to them. It was one acting of the Spirit to give them the matter and the word : it came to them clothed in word : not in the form of idea first, to be put by their volition and skill of lan- guage into the form of word ; but at once, without their know- ledge of the matter or of the word, it came to them ; the Spirit gave them to utter what they did utter : what it was, they themselves might be ignorant of, or not, as it happened. It was one person's gift to speak the language, it was an- other's to interpret what was spoken : " To another, divers kinds of tongues ; to another, the interpretation of tongues. , . . Do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret .-'... Where- fore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. ... If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. . . . Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my under- standing, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." These passages, extracted from the 12th and 14th chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, shew that there was no necessary con- nexion between speaking with a tongue and understanding what was spoken ; but, on the contrary, that the person so speaking in general understood not what he said ; and if he did, the interpretation was a matter of as special revelation as was the utterance itself; both speaker and interpreter being alike ignorant of the meaning of any word which had been spoken, so as to be able to translate it into their mother tongue, or to know it grammatically, or in any way whatever to make use of it, until the Spirit moved again — or, rather, 490 THE CHURCH: until the person possessed of the Spirit in this form put it forth into use. This idea, which is beyond a question the true one represented in these two chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, is, I think, implied in the words quoted above from the Acts, where the use of the gift is first de- scribed: "They spake with other tongues, just as the Spirit gave to them to emit the voice." The word translated " ut- terance" is remarkable, signifying simply to " emit a voice," to " sound forth ;" and by the ancients was used of prophets, whom they believed to speak by another power than their own. It is only three times used in the New Testament : once over again in this chapter, (ver. 14,) " But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and uttered," or sounded forth, "to them;" and the third time, (Acts xxvi. 26,) when Paul, being charged with being mad by Festus, probably from the violence of his voice or earnestness of his manner, replies, " I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth (give forth) words of truth and soberness." It was the Spirit which gave the disciples to send forth those sounds in which every nation there assembled heard their native tongue, and in it the wonderful works of God. It was Christ using His Church as His organ for declaring to all men in that assembly what God had done for Him, and for them whose substitute He was. And, no doubt, this is one reason of the diversity of tongues in the Church, because there is a diversity of tongues in the world to which the Church is called to preach the gospel. But this is only an accidental thing ; for the whole world was once of one tongue, and might be so again : still, however, even in that case the Spirit would in the same way bring the thought embodied in word, and force it forth in that embodied form. In such a case, however, it would be prophecy, as carrying its own interpretation ; and accordingly the apostle puts speaking with tongues, when coupled with interpretation, upon the same level with prophecy : " For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying." I believe the words were sometimes brought to the prophet's mind, as much as to the mind of him who spake with tongues ; and that both did yield themselves in HER ENDOWMENT. 491 faith to the action of the Spirit, and serve Him with their tongue. It is also manifest, with respect to him that spake with tongues, that, though he understood not what he said, it was not on that account without edification to him : he tasted the sweetness and had a first-fruits of the profitableness of that truth which the Spirit was passing through his tongue to the understanding of another man. This is very mysterious, but not the less true on that account. " He that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God ; for no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit he speak- eth mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophe- sieth edifieth the Church," (i Cor. xiv. 2-4.) This edification, which he derived from it to himself, joined to the wonderful- ness of it, led some who possessed it to use it rashly and in- discreetly in the midst of the Church, where it could not profit ; and to correct the selfishness from which this pro- ceeded, and the confusion to which it gave rise, the apostle addresseth himself with great zeal. It hath been a subject of great thought with me to understand these things, which are the occasion of so much scoffing and blasphemy to many of my poor misguided countrymen ; and I think God hath re- warded my study, of which I will now enumerate the results under their several heads. First, This gift of tongues in the Church doth shew that the work of Christ in the flesh is for all men, and that He wisheth it to be published to all men ; and, that His Church may not sleep over her vocation, nor be slack in the perform- ance of it, nor sink down into local residences, good quarters, and comfortable settlements, but preserve her missionary spirit, and be a witness to every generation of every speech of men, she is endowed with these diversities of tongues, and goaded on to go forth to the nations, to seek ears for those words which are ever coming with such sweetness over her heart. It is like an ambassador's commission ; it is the Spirit saying to the Church, Send me this man forth. Paul spoke more abundantly with tongues than they all did (i Cor. xiv. 18,) and Paul was the greatest missionary of them all. 492 THE CHURCH: And what an assurance to a man's heart, and confirmation to his faith, to have his mission thus ascertained to him, and sealed by the Holy Ghost ! Methinks it would be more effectual than a salary of a thousand pounds by the year from the most notable of our missionary societies. I feel assured that these societies have so shamefully and shock- ingly come short of the mark in their faith and feeling, and performance also, that, if the world is to receive warning be- fore the great and terrible day of the Lord, it must be by the Church seeking again for this long-lost endowment ; seeking for her trumpet with its many notes, through which to speak to the nations. Secondly, This gift of tongues doth put beyond all doubt the unity of Christ and His members, inasmuch as it shews Him in His people doing whatever their own soul within them can do. Speech is the means by which an embodied spirit doth manifest its existence ; distinguishing man, a living soul, from every other living thing upon the earth. Speech is the manifestation of reason ; and by our capacity of utter- ing, and understanding the words uttered, is proved the com- monness, the oneness of that reason, in which many persons have their being. Now when Christ doth occupy the place of my reasonable spirit, and with my tongue doth express whatever I am capable of expressing, He is proved to be in me as truly as I am in myself If my body is known to be the habitation of my soul by its obeying all the desires of the soul, and expressing them in form of word ; then, by the same method of conviction is Christ proved to be in me, when He doth through the organs of my body express His own mind to those whom I can by no means reach by any expression of my own. This same truth of an indwelling Christ is proved by any other of the gifts to the experience of him who hath them ; but by the gift of tongues it is proved to others besides ourselves, even to all who hear in their own language the testimony of God and of Christ. It is seen that God is in me of a truth, when that power within me doth testify to no other person but to Christ, in His work of humi- liation and exaltation, in His flesh and in His lordship. Now, if it be considered what a point of doctrine the union HER ENDOWMENT. 493 of Christ with believers is, the importance of the gift of tongues will the more appear. By the truth, that the spirit of a man out of the world dwells in many men in the world at one and the same time, and continues this inhabitation from age to age, what less is proved but that this person is also God ? For who but God can thus connect that which is not in the world with that which is in the world ; who but God can keep up the communication and the intercourse be- tween the Father's throne and the world ? But, then, Christ's soul being a limited substance, with which the Godhead con- tinually acts, another question ariseth, How can this limited substance, which is now out of the world, be yet in the world, in the souls of many men, in all ages of the world ? This can only be by means of another Being, proceeding from Christ to the bounds of all space and time, and able to unite them into oneness with Him. But in order that this may be, he must be of one substance with Christ ; and also he must be a person, in order to comprehend a person, and inform many persons with the same spirit. And thus is the Divi- nity and the Personality of the Comforter made to appear through this great truth of Christ the inhabiterof His people; which, again, is proved by His using their organs in a way in which they themselves are not able to do. Moreover, this power of Christ in the Spirit to speak all the diversities of speech, shews Him to be the fountain-head of speech, the Word, by whose endowment man is a word-speaking crea- ture : while by his power to enter into all the forms of reason, and deliver God in such a way as all diversities of reason shall apprehend, He is proved to be the one Reason, of whose fulness we have all received, who lighteth every man that cometh into the world. What doth this inhabitation of my reason by another than myself, at His will, and using it in a way which unequivocally proves that He is another than my- self; what doth this prove less than that I am but the tenant of that other's domain, who thus masterfully can occupy His own, and for the while suspend my vicegerency .'' Thirdly, But there is something deeper still than this one- ness of reason and lordship of reason resident in Christ, proved by these gifts of tongues — namely, That a person is 494 'I' HE CHURCH : something more than that community of reason which he doth occupy as the tenant of Him whose name is The Logos, or The Reason. For it clearly appeareth, from the 14th chapter of the First of Corinthians, that when the man's rea- son is wholly without fruit, when he understandeth nothing that is spoken, he doth yet receive great edification in his own spirit — " he edifieth himself " (ver. 4) — and holdeth, inde- pendent of reason, a communication with God — " he speak- eth unto God," (ver. 2.) Doth not this prove that all forms of the reason within, which speech expresseth outwardly, may be inactive — as if it were dead, " fruitless " and barren — and yet the spirit itself be receiving great edification from God, through means which are wholly independent of in- telligence .■* Indeed, to deny this, is to deny the possi- bility of direct communication between God and the soul otherwise than by speech or books which address us through the reason ; it is to set aside the subject of spiritual gifts altogether: and methinks it takes away that personality from a man, by means of which it is that he informs, awakens, and occupies the gift of reason. The gift of tongues brings all speculation upon this subject to an end, and presents us with the fact, the experiment which decides the matter, by shewing us the reason void, and the spirit yet filled with edification. Nay, so clearly were the apostle, and those to whom he wrote, conscious to this thing, that he takes a distinction between praying in the spirit and praying in the understanding, praising in the spirit and praising in the un- derstanding ; holding man to be capable of worshipping and serving God when his understanding is wholly without acti- vity. (See I Cor. xiv. 14-17.) Nor could there be any mys- ticism or self-deception in this ; for while my spirit was emptying itself of all its prayer and praise to God, my under- standing not comprehending a word, if any should think it were but a farce and profanation, another person, understand- ing the language, will contradict him, and let him know that it is sound sense and pure rdigion which I am expressing. And yet the words are not necessary for God's ear ; and the apostle recommends, yea, and strongly urges it, that, when no man able to understand the language was present, HER ENDOWMENT. 495 or no one who had the gift of interpretation, it were better to keep silence, and enjoy the communion with God through the Spirit only : " But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church ; and let him speak to himself and to God," (ver. 28.) What a deep subject of meditation were a man thus employed in secret converse with and enjoyment of God, although his reason be utterly dead ! He is not able to communicate thereof to another person : for the world he is as one dead : for all that he holds in common with men he is as one dead : he is in the state of a separate spirit, and he is enjoying the same inward delight with God which I sup- pose the separate spirits to enjoy. And I might ask, is not this the essence of all spiritual religion, — the enjoyment and communion of the spirit with God in that capacity which death nowise affecteth ? And is not the use of reason altogether for the impartation of this to others, for the edification of the Church? But conclusion rises upon conclusion. It is a great subject this of the gift of tongues. I wish some one would re- trieve it from the ignorance and folly and mockery of those revilers who have lately so insulted this mystery of our faith, and laughed to scorn this endowment of the Church, under- standing no more by it than a short-hand way of acquiring languages. Upon the ninth and last of these gifts, " the interpretation of tongues," little need be added, as it is so intimately con- nected with the former. It did not consist in their know- ledge of the strange words, or the structure of the foreign languages. It was nothing akin to translation ; the Spirit did not become a schoolmaster at all ; but brought to the man's soul with the certainty of truth, that this which He was giving him to utter was the interpretation of the thing which the other had just spoken. This conviction might be brought to the spirit of the speaker himself, and then he was his own interpreter ; but it was more frequent to bestow that gift upon another. This provision of an order who should interpret, as well as an order who should speak with tongues, shews that the gift of tongues had a higher origin than from the variety of languages amongst men. If it had been merely for preaching the truth to people of other languages, an order 496 THE CHURCH: of interpreters would never have been required at all. If it had only been given for conveying the truth to foreign nations, then why have so many in each church, like the church of Corinth ? If it be said, this was to stir them to go forth to those whose tongues they had received ; while I allow that this is so far forth good and true, it is by no means the whole truth ; for why, then, have an order of interpreters there also ? This shews that the gift was good for that Church in itself; that it was resident in the churches for home use, as well as for service abroad ; and that God saw such use in it, as to provide another ministry for the purpose of making it avail- able to the uses for which it was given. If the circumstance of the language being foreign would have prompted them to go forth to the heathen, the interpretation being at hand would prompt them to remain with the Church ; and both being standing orders in the Church, we conclude that this gift of speaking with another tongue, and the other gift of inter- preting what was spoken, are, being taken together, a constant accomplishment of the Church, necessary to her completeness wherever she is, and to be continued with her even though the whole world had been converted to the faith and the office of the missionary were done away with for ever. Let us con- sider this twofold ordinance as one, and see what it yieldeth. If there should be in our church an order of men, of whom the Spirit so manifestly took possession as to make them utter the mysteries of godliness in an unknown tongue, and another order of men to whom the Spirit divided the power of inter- preting the same, the first impression that would be made by it is, that verily God was in us of a truth, as truly as He was in the Shechinah of the holy place ; and the next, that He was speaking forth oracles for our obedience. The unknown tongue, as it began its strange sounds, would be equal to a voice from the glory, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts," or " This is my Son, hear ye him ;" and every ear would say, " Oh that I knew the voice ;" and when the man with the gift of interpretation gave it out in the vernacular tongue, we would be filled with an awe, that it was no other than God who had spoken it. Methinks it is altogether equal to the speaking with th'e trumpet from the thick darkness of the Mount, or HER ENDOWMENT. 497 with a voice as thunder from the open vault of heaven. The using of man's organs is, indeed, a mark of a new dispensation, foretold as to come to pass after Christ ascended up on high, when He would receive gifts and bestow them upon men, that the Lord God might dwell, might have an habitation, in them. Formerly the sounds were syllabled we know not how, because God had not yet prepared for Himself a tent of flesh ; which He accomplished to do first in Jesus of Nazareth, and is now perfecting in His Church, who are His temple, in whom He abideth as in the holy place, and from whom He speaketh forth His oracles in strange tongues. The strange tongue takes away all source of ambiguity, proving that the man himself hath nothing to do with it, and leaves the work and the authority of the word wholly in the hand of God. And therefore tongues are called a sign to the unbeliever, I Cor. xiv. 22 : " Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." Just as the voice given at Bethabara over the baptized Christ was spoken as a ground of faith to the unbelieving Jew, and the voice given before His passion was a confirmation to the faith of the inquiring Greek, and of all who heard it : so these voices, spoken forth from the breasts of men, by a power not human, but divine, are intended to convince the unbelievers that God really dwelleth in the Church ; hath chosen the Church for His habitation ; and that, if they would find Him, they must seek Him there, for nowhere else is He to be found. The prophet Isaiah, to whom it was given to fore- w^arn men of this particular gift of tongues, doth so speak of it as a fresh evidence which God would give to men for a ground of believing, and which, alas ! they would also reject. I take the quotation as the apostle hath sanctioned it, the Holy Spirit's version of His own words : " With men of other tongues, and other lips, will I speak unto this people : and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord," (i Cor. xiv. 21.) I cannot but look upon this gift of tongues as seal- ing up the sum of God's dealings with men for their obedience of faith. It is the very power of God, which to blaspheme is to blaspheme the Holy Ghost. And witness what power it had on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were added VOL. V. 21 498 TH.E CHURCH: to the Church. This is the " greater thing " which was to be done by him that believeth. No one could say that Jesus was the Christ, that God was in Him, but by the -Spirit leading him into the truth of what He spoke, or convincing him of the Divine nature of the works which He did. God did not manifest Himself in Christ in this unequivocal way; for Christ's life was not a witness to Himself, but to the Father. Christ came to do the Father's will in our condition, that we in the like case might be assured of power and ability through Him to do the same. He was the prototype of a perfect and holy man under the conditions of the Fall, that we, under those conditions, might know there was power and will in God that we should all be perfect and holy. This being accomplished, and Christ ascended up on high, God sets on foot another work, which is to testify that honour to which man had be- come advanced in the person of the Son of man, and in all other persons who by faith should be united to Him, As God had shewn how far man had fallen in Adam, by the state of the world under sin and suffering and death ; so, by the Church would He shew how far man had risen in Christ, that all men believing in Him might be brought to that ex- ceeding exaltation. Therefore in the Church He shews not man's identity with the fallen Adam, but man's identity with the risen Adam. In the incarnation, Christ's identity with the fallen man was shewn, yet without sin : in the Church, Christ's identity with God is shewn, the power and glory of God in Him are exhibited, that all men might believe in His name. This gift of tongues is the crowning act of all. None of the old prophets had it ; Christ had it not ; it belongs to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the risen Christ : it is the proclamation that man is enthroned in heaven, that man is the dwelling-place of God, that all creation, if they would know God, must give ear to man's tongue, and know the compass of reason. It is not we that speak, but Christ that speaketh. It is not in us as men that God speaks ; but in us as members of Christ, as the Church and body of Christ, that God speaks. The honour is not to us, but to Christ ; not to the Godhead of Christ, which is ever the same, but to the manhood of Christ, which hath been raised from the state of HER ENDOWMENT. 499 death to the state of beingr God's temple, God's most holy place, God's shechinah, God's oracle, for ever and ever. "And yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord." It is most true, O God : they will not hear even this, because total ignorance has benighted them : nor are they capable of apprehending truth ; the vanity of their minds hath carried them away : " they are drunken, but not with wine ; they stagger, but not with strong drink ; for thou hast poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep, and hast closed their ejes ; their prophets and the rulers the seers hath he covered." Tien, O Lord, if Thou hast given them up, and they may not bf convinced, let this strengthen Thy children, and against the re.^t let it turn for a testimony — a testimony to Thy truth, a testimony to their falsehood and hypocrisy. " O that my headwere waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I mightweep day and night for the children of the daughter of my p&ple ! " HavuT thus opened at large the endowment of the Church, the bod>of Christ, and shewn of what it is the first fruits and the earnet, it may be expected that I should enter into con- troversy Vth those who say they have been withdrawn, and are not to »e restored again ; that they were only intended to abide for aeason, until the evidence of the Christian religion should havC^een securely established, and the canon of Scrip- ture comple^d. But, before I can think this worth the while, I must first s- where they get the grounds of their hypothesis, that they we. intended only to continue for that brief sea- son ; in the eantime I pronounce it to be of their own invention, andiot at all of the Word of God. I have shewn the great pur^se and end of this endowment of spiritual gifts ; that pur^se and end is not temporary, but perpetual, till Christ's coing again; when that which is perfect shall come, and that \ich is in part shall be done away. If they ' ask for an expiation of the fact that these powers have ceased in the Chch, I answer, that they have decayed just as faith and holins have decayed ; but that they have ceased is not a matter scdear. Till the time of the Reformation, this opinion was ^ver mooted in the Church ; and to this 500 THE CHURCH : day the Roman Catholics, and every other portion of the Church but ourselves, maintain the very contrary. More- over, it is only of later days that any one hath dared to assert that the gifts of prophecy and healing are no longer to be looked for. Read the lives of the Reformers, of the Purita/is, of the Covenanters, written by sound and zealous Protestants; read the histories of the Church written more than fifty y^ars ago — our Petrie, for example — and shew me whether tljese writers hold it blasphemy to say that a man may be, and hath been, gifted with both these gifts, especially that of prophecf .'* Who has not heard of the prophecies of Huss, and of Wisha/t.^ Amongst the Protestants of the elder day, who had in them a good measure of faith, even beyond what their cred expressed, I find no such hard scepticism and'mocking s