464 QUESTIONS CONCERNING JESUS. predere'sors, because their opinioncomes so very near to, Or ra- ther is the same with what I have asserted, though they add some huniari phrases to it, of which 1 have not yet been able to attain any ideas. I1. Though the same numerical godhead belong to the Fa- ther and to the Son, yet it is not proper to say, the Father is in. earnate, because the idea of fatherhood superadded to the god head, includes the idea of the prime Agent, and supreme Ruler in thedivine economy ; whereas the idea of incarnation belongs properly to one that is sent in order to become a Mediator hetween God and man, and this belongs properly to the Son, as I shall show immediately. III. Though irr neral we may supposethe very godhead of the Father to be united to the man Christ Jesus, according to these espressious in the tenth and fourteenth of John;--and else- where, yet some have supposed there are other scriptures which represent Christ in his divine nature, as the word or wisdom of the Father, as a peculiar essential principle of self.manifcstation in the divine nature': And if scripture does represent the great God under the peculiar idea or character of his wisdom or word, as manifesting- itself iu flesh, it is not so proper to say,. God the Father was incarnate, but that the word er wisdom of God was made flesh, though the godhead .of the Word is the same with that of the Father ; for the wisdom of God is God. But I insist not on this answer, and therefore proceed. IV. The pre- existent soul of Christ, in whom the divine nature or godhead always dwelt, is properly the Son of God,' derived, front the Father before all worlds, as his only-begotten Son, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of' his person ; Heb. i. 3. And this glorious human seal who lived many ages in an angelic state, and was the angel of God's presence, does seem tobe the more immediate subject of incarna- tion. The Son of God properly took flesh upon him, and, shall I say, became as it Were a medium, in. and by which the divine nature of godhead was united to flesh and blood. Thus Christ is properly called God manifest in the flesh, because true godhead always dwelt in his human soul who is now incarnate : and be is properly called the Sou of God manifest in the flesh, or Christ opine in the flesh, because his human soul, who was properly the Son of God, was more immediately the subject of union to flesh and blood. And thus the expressions of St. l:'Ftol and St. John are reconciled ; 1 Tim. iii. lb. God was manifest in theflesh:. and I, John iii. 8.. The Son of God zoos maimTested ; and 1. Joint iv. 2 '.Jesus Christ is come in theflesh, This' sort of exposition of these texts wherein Jesus Christi and God . the Father are representedas;one, or as mutually in ?wing aíld indwelling in each outer, seems more exactly agree-
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