DISCOURSE II. 545 SECT. 1I.Scriptural Proofs of the _Exaltation of the human Nature of Christ, and the extensive Capacities and Powers of his Soul in his glorified State. That the great and blessed God condescended to assume any human soul and body into a personal union with himself, was a matterof free and sovereign favour ; and that he should chose this one human spirit, and this body which was born of the vir- gin Mary, to be the subjects of this privilege, was the effect of the same goodness and the same sovereignty ; God spate in vi- sion to his holy one, and said, I have exalted one chosen out of the people; Ps. lxxxix. 19. It is a favour at first altogether unmerited, and which the man Jesus could not claim. It pleas- ed the Father that in him all the fulness of the godhead should dwell bodily.; Col. i. 19. and ii. 9. It was a matter of divine good pleasure that God should dwell in that particular spirit, and be manifest in that particular flesh and blood which was born at Bethlehem. Thence it will follow, that the influences and privi- leges derived from this union are limited by the will and pleasure of God ; and the honours and powers which accrue to the hu- man nature on this account are suspended or bestowed, increas- ed and diminished, according to the wise counsels and determi- nations of the divine will. It seems to be one of the sacred laws of this ineffable union, that the man Jesus should have ideas and influences, knowledge and power, communicated to him by the indwelling godhead, in such measures and at such successive seasons as he stood in need of them, for his several offices and operations in the divine eco- nomy. The human soul of Christ cannot receive and retain all possible ideas constantly and simultaneously: This would be to suppose the man really endowed with the properties of godhead. But as fast as the indwelling godhead sees it proper to furnish him with new and larger ideas and powers, so fast is he made capable of receiving andexerting them, both in his state of hu- miliation and exaltation. This will appear if we consider that Christ was God-man in the days of his humiliation : He was Emmanuel or God with us ; Mat. i. 23. Ile was God manifest in the flesh ; 1 Tim. iii. 18. He was that Word who was God, made flesh ; John i. 1, 14. And our divines very justly affirm, it was the same god- head which is in the Father that dwelt in Christ : Iam in the Father, says our Lord, and the Father in me; John xiv. 10. 1 and the Father are one ; John x. 30. Yet while he lived upon earth, this divine union did not exert its influences to the utmost, neither as to knowledge or power or authority ; for the child Jesus grew in wisdom as well as stature; Luke ii. 52. and the day of judgment which was known to the Father was unknown to..theSon at that time ; Mark xiii. 32. Qf that day and that Vox.. VI. M 3I
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