A S E R M 0 N on, &c. to his Father for ever, and therefore continues God-Man for ever; fori~ refped thereof It ts, that hts Father ts greater than he, and fo that he continues r, h" a: to_his Father : There is then. no Obfia~le, that the fecond Perfo!l f'ubfifiing ~ ~he Dtvme Nature !hould be umted to us tmmedtatly, from thts hts perfonal linio with the Man. And_that there is a capacity, that he as fecond Perfon may do thin may further appear, 111 that both Father and S~irit are now, and fl1all one day b~ fo umted to us,(as hath beenn~wob!erved)tho mdeed at that clay, the Effell:ofthat rmmed1at~ Umon, o~ of Gods bemg All m AIL, wtll be an an(werable immediate._ Commumon and EnJO~ment of Father, Son, and Spirit, which is fufpended in this L1fe, but thcu conlummatcd. . But you may f.1y : Doth not this hinder ? That now fince the fecond Perfon ts umted to. the Human_Nature, that whatever he cloth, he cloth only through the Humamty, and by It, a_nd fo umtes h1mfelf to us only by it ? Likewife that he unites lumldfto us as he IS Mediator, and therefore as Goci-Man,and not limply as fecond Perfon; for that were but what IS common to the other two Perfons if his Divine Nature, as fuch, fhould thus (as I feem to affirm) unite himfelf u~to us? And therefore the Divine Nature unites Himfelfno otherwife to us, than by the Umon fir[\ of the Human Nature wtth m, and not tmmcdwtly his Divine Nature, or as fecond Perfon ? For Anfwer unto which I give thefe following Cautions and Explanations. 1 Caution: This foregoing AlTertion of mine is not to he· under!l:ood as if the fecond Pcrfon did perform this All: of Union of Himfelfwith us, fingly con• fidered, as fecond Perfon feparate from the Human, or without all confideration or relation had to the Human Nature, either of his actual Union with it, which hath been from his Incarnation, or of God's Ordination, he fhould be Man, and his own Undertaking fo to be, which was before his Incarnation. No: But firfi, I affirm, that unlefs the fecond Pcrfon had been all:ually united to the human Nature, as now he is; and withall, unlefs he had been ordered by God fo to be, he had not united himfelf unto any of us Men, neither before his Incarnation, nor fince. Hence, fecondly, When I f.1y, the fecond Perfon fitbfi!l:ing in the Divino Nature cloth immediatly unite himfclfto us, I mean not by that lmmediamefs, that the !econd Perfon, confidered as feparate from, or without all confideration of his Union with the Human Nature, cloth, or fhould have ever come to dwell in us; but by Immediatnefs I underfiand it, immediate putting forth of an All: of uniting his Divine Nature unto us: So that tho the Union of the Divine and Human Nature, be either ii1 actual Affumption, or God's Ordination, as before the A!fumption, the necelTary Prerequifite unto the Divi_ne Nature's afrual Uni– on.with us, and in the virtue of ""'ich, as necelf.1rily prefuppofed, it always comes to pafs, that the Divine Nature of the fecond Perfon is united unto any, either under the Old Te!l:ament or the New; yet that Human Nature is not, nor was not the MediloH, or Organ, much lefs the foie Way or Means by which lhe Divine Nature isunited unto us, but it is his own immediate exering that All:: Not to be under!l:ood as to this fence, that the Human Nature in Chri!l: were the only immediate Uniter, by which alone the Divine comes to be one with us, and fo it [tlf tO be but mediatly united; as the Soul in the Body takes hold of a thing by the hand only, immediatly, but it fdf cloth not fo much as touch it immediatly. It is one thing for one to do a tbing by reafon of another, and another to do it by the means and intervention of'<~nothers doing it, or as by the foie immediate Act of another.. As the Soul cloth many mional Acts im– mediatly it ftlf, whilrl it is in the Body, and by reafon ofits dwelling in the Body, or to the Things and Perfons in the World it hath to do with, by reafon of its peing in the BoJy, ancl 'not otherwife, (which if fingle and feparate it would not do) wherein yet it ufeth not the Body, as by which it cloth them. One may do a thing himlelf immediatly, and yet upon the virtual intuition. or confid<;ration offome other Thing or Perfon he is joined with,whichhavc.the mfluence ot a mo· ral Caufc_: But to do a thing by another,as the neceffary Organ,or phyfical Caure, . ~
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