ON THE GLORY OF CHRIST. at this day, who through the Mahometans succeed un- to the Jews in an opposition unto the divine nature of Christ. But all this difficulty is solved by the glory of Christ in this condescension; for although in himself; or his own divine person, he wasover all, God blessed fr ever, yet he humbled himself for the salvation of the church, unto the eternal glory of God, to take our nature upon him, and to be made man, and those who cannot see a divine glory in his so doing, do neither know him, nor love, nor believe in him, nor do any way belong unto him. So is it with the men of these abominations. Because they cannot behold the glory hereof; they deny the foundationof our religion, namely, the divine person of Christ. Seeing he would be made man, he shall be es- teemed by them no more than a man. So do they re- ject that glory of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, wherein he is more concerned than in the whole creation. And they dig up the root of all evan- gelical truths, which are nothing but branches from it. It is true and must be confessed, that herein it is that our Lord Jesus Christ is a stumbling stone and a rock of offence unto the world. If we should confess him only as a prophet, a man sent by God, there would not be much contest about him, nor opposition untohim. The IVIahometans do all acknowledge it, and the Jews would not long deny it;. for their hatred against himwas, and is solely because heprofessed himself to be God, and as such was believed on in the world. And at this day, partly through the insinuation of the Socinians, and partly from the efficacyof their own blindness and un- belief; multitudes are willing to grant him to be a pro- phet sent of God, who donot, who will not, who can- not believe the mystery of this condescension in the stts- ception of our nature, nor see the glory of it. But take this away, and all our religion is taken away with it. Farewell christianity as unto the mystery, the glory, the truth, the efficacy of it; let a refined heathenism be es- tablished in its room.. But this is the rock on which the church is built, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. 4. This condescension of Christ was not by a phan- tasm or an appearance only. One of the first heresies that pestered the church immediately after the days of the apostles, was this, that all that was done or suffered .r. 27 by Christ as a man, were not the acts, doings, or suf- ferings of one that was, truly and really s man, but an outward representation of things, like the appearance 'of angels in the shape of men, eating, and drinking un- der the Old Testament; and suitably hereunto some in our days have spoken; namely, that there was only an appearance of Christ in the man Jesus at Jerusalem, in whom he suffered no more than its other believers. But the ancient christians told those men the truth; name- ly, that as they had feigned unto themselves an imagi- nary Christ so they should have an imaginary salvation only. But the true nature of this divinecondescension doth . consist in these three things. I. That the eternal person of the Son of God, or the divine nature in the person of the Son of God, -did by an ineffable act of his divine power and love, assume our nature into an individual subsistence, in or with himself:- that is, to be his own, even as the divine na- ture is his. This is the infallible foundation of faith, even to them who can comprehend very little of these divine mysteries. They can and do believe that the Son of God did take our nature to be his own, so as that whatever was clone therein, was clone by him, as it is with every other man. Every man bath human nature appropriatedunto himself by an individual sub- sistence; whereby he becomes to be that man which he is, and not another; or that nature which is common unto all, becomes in him to be peculiarly his own, as if there were none partaker of it but himself. Adam in his first creation, when all human nature was in him alone, was no more that individual man which he was, than every man is now the man that he is, by his indivi- dual subsistence. So the Lord Christ takingThat na- ture which is common unto all, into a peculiar subsis- tence in his own person, it becometh his, and he the man Christ.Jesus. This was the mind .1/sat n'as in him. 2. By reason of this assumption of our nature, with his doing and suffering therein, whereby hewas found in fashion as a man, the glory of his divine person was veiled, and he made himself of no reputation. This also belongs unto his condescension, as the first general effect and fruit of it. But we have spoken of it before. 8. It is also to be observed, that in the assumption of our nature to be his own, he did not change it into
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