'DISCOURSE ID. 593 not the divine nature of Christ, but the human ; therefore it must be the human nature of Christ that emptied itself in this text; because it appears very incongruous for the apostle to say, tluit the divine nature emptied and abased itself, and that the human nature was exalted as a recoinpence of this abasement. I grant it *as great condescension in the divine nature of Christ to unite itself to a creature, such as the human soul of Christ'was, how glorious so ever that creaturemight be; and it is yet greater condescension in the godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus united to the human soul to take human flesh upon it, orflesh in union with that soul, and for God himself tobe thus manifested in the flesh : And in my judgment the infinite merit of his sufferings arises from the union of hisdivine nature to the soul, and thereby to the body of the man Jesus : But this does not seem to be the precise meaning of the apostle in this place ; for he rather sets before us an example of the humility of the mall Jesus Christ, who existed as a . spirit personally united to God, or one with God in all former ages, and was dressed in glories suitable to this union yet he laid aside those glories, and waved the resplendence of his character, and per- son, when he joined himself to flesh and blood ; he laid aside the god-like forms and appearances, which perhapshe hadworn boll, iu heaven and on earth in times past, and emptied himself when lie came now into the world to be incarnate, that is, when he came into the complete likeness and fashion of a man ; for lie appeared in a mean form, like a servant, and humbled himself even to the cursed death of the cross. Lest any of my readers should be offended with my expo- sition of this text, 1 will here add Dr. Thomas Goodwin's inter- pretation of it, volume Ill. book iii. chapter vii. page 106. °C. That nature or creature which the Son of God shall assume, be it man or angel, must by inheritance exist in the formof God ; Phil. ii. 6, 7. which form of God I here take not to be put for the essence of God, neither is the form of a servant taken for the na- ture of a man. The form of God here is that god-like glory, and that manifestation of the godheadwhich was and must needs be clue, to appear in the nature assumed ; for form is put for out- ward appearance and manifestation in respect of which, Christ as God-man is called the brightness ofhis Father's glory; Heb. i. 2. Brightness, you know, is not the substance of the light, but the appearance of it--And in this respect Christ, God- man, may be said in a safe sense to be equal with God, as here in the text not in essence, but in a communication of privileges, that as God bath life in himself, alone, which isa royalty incom- municable to any mere creature, so this Son of man when once united unto the godhead, is also said to have life in himself; John v. 26. this equality, or icoiss, not being to be understood of VOL vt. P r
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