574 THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS GOD-MAN. stractly in himself, but it is the man united to God, it is the per-. son of God-man : or you may say, the divine nature, or the godhead acting in and by the man Jesus, who performs all these wonders, and which makes the man Jesus the conscious and in- telligent medium of these performances; and thus he gives him the honour of being the agent. By this account of things, there is a fair answer given to the objection that might be started against the first part of this sec- tion, viz. " If the human soul of Christ, which is but a crea- ture, may have such a vast and astonishing extent of knowledge and power, does not this represent a creature approaching toa near to the idea of God ?" Does it not invest a creature with some of those prerogatives which are mentioned in scripture, as peculiar and appropriate to deity ? And does it not thus take away the distinction,which God has given between himself and creatures, as well as enervate several of our scripture proofs of the divinity of Christ ? I have indeed, in some measure antici- pated this objection, when I limited the knowledge and power of Jesus, man e only to the greater and more important concerns and actions of the material and intellectual worlds, on which the government of them chiefly depends: And even this must be a very amazing and comprehensive knowledge and power for a creature to possess : But every thought, and every motion, and every atom of the worlds of souls and bodies; in my opinion is known only to God, and belongs to infinite omniscience alone. But to remove this difficulty and danger yet farther, let us always remember, that the human nature of Christ, which is so exalted, has the fulness of the godhead dwelling in it, or is per- sonally united to deity. Thence it follows, that when these most extensive powers are attributed to theman Jesus, it is by virtue of the divine nature that dwells in him : And therefore the com- plex person of our blessed Saviour may justly have these divine prerogatives of knowledge and power ascribed to him. They being given us to distinguish God from a mere creature, cannot be applied by the word of a true and faithful God to any person who has not godhead in him ; and upon this account they conti- nue their assistance to prove the deity of Christ. If it were possiblé that a mere creature could he framed by divine power, capable in itself of some of theseoperations which God has assumed to himself, as his own prerogatives, such as governing and judging the world, searching and sanctifying the hearts of men, &c. yet since the great God, who is jealous of his own honour, has appropriated these characters and operations to himself alone, I thinkwe may be assured that he would never form such a creature with these characters and operations ; or at least, that he would never discover such a creature to us in our world, lest he should thereby take away the inviolable criteria or
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