618 THE GLORY OF CHRIST as GOD-MAN. It is often rendered neighbour in scripture. It denotes the man that was with God, or near to God, by the intimate unionof the human soul to the godhead, and was the shepherd of the flock of God, or the keeper of Israel in all former ages. So the vulgar Latin renders it, cohnrentem milli, cleaving to me; and because of the union between the divine and human nature it may be very properly expressed, my neighbour." I might take occasion here to remark also how appositely God himself is sometimes called the " Shepherd of Israel ;" Psal. xxiii. 1. Psal. lxxx. i, He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shallgather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom ; Isa. xl. 11. which is a prophecy of Christ, though he is called the Lord God in the foregoing verse. This language has great propriety in it when we consider the human soul of Christ united to godhead, acting the part of a shepherd towards the Jewish nation, " leading them through the wilderness like a Sock," andwitching over them as a shepherd in the land of Ca. Haan. How beautiful is this idea when we observe that both in prophecy and in history, in the Old Testament and in the New, this office is appropriated to Christ ; E2. xxxiv. 23. I will set sap one Shepherd' over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David. John x. 14. Jesus calls himself " the good Shepherd ;" and St. Peter echoes to the voice of Christ, and calls him the chief Shepherd, and the :Bishop of souls ; 1' Pet. E. 25. and v. 4. This seems to carry somethingof evidence with it, that the human soul of Christ had an existence before ; and therefore the scripture was careful to use human language, to express his offices as well as hisperson and actions. This will further appear by what follows : 5. This doctrine of the pre-existence of the human soul of Christ affords us a plain reason, why he is called Christ or the Messiah, in those many places of scripture which represent transactions before his incarnation, to shew that this very perk-in was anointed to his offices of old. So in 1 Cor. x. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them, that is, Israelites tempted him, and were destroyed. Eph. iii. 9. " God created all things by Jesus Christ." 2 'ism. i. 9. c° Grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 1 Pet. i. 11. " Searching what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ." 1 Pet. iii. 19. " By which also he, that is Christ, went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which were disobedient in the days of Noah." Heb. xi. 26. " Moses esteemed the re- proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt."-- The word Christ, which is the same with Messiah or anointed, implies a complexion of the divine and human nature; at least
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