DISCOURSE Ill. 629 Son of God, who was vested with such dignity before the crea- tion of the World, united personally to the divine nature, and thus adored by angels, appearing often to the patriarchs in the form of God, with rays of divine majesty, and governing the nation of Israel, or churchof God during all the former ages: Behold this holy and happy spirit descending from heaven, to take upon him, not flesh only, but the likeness of sinful flesh ; and according to the ancient covenant between him and his Fa- ther, now uniting himself to animal nature in very mean and despicable circumstances, and actually, really and sensibly feel- ing the hardships of poverty and a, low estate : See that illus- trious beingwho had beea surrounded with ministering angels for many ages, coming into our world with all the marks of poverty and meatiness : Behold one higher than angels, supreme above principalities and powers, thrones and heavenly dignities, made a little lower than angels, by being confined to flesh and blood, or made for a little while, 6°pmxu n * lower than the angels, and even below the common rank of men, brought forth in a stable, beside the ox and the ass ; this very being him- self was united to the flesh and limbs of a helpless infant, wrapped in swaddling bands, and laid to sleep in a manger: See this glorious Spirit who was replenished with all the trea- sures of wisdom and knowledge necessary for his illustrious pre-existent state, cramped and confined in its operations by the feeble engine of the body of a babe, and willingly submitting to have a veil of darkness cast over its most sublime intellectual qualifications, and recover his ideas by human degrees : for the child Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge, as he grew in stature, Luke ii. 52. Contemplate this most excellent Being enduring all the feeble and innocent frailties of an infant state, wearing out the years of childhood among the poor and necessi- tous children in the lower ranks of life, himself the reputed Son of a carpenter, and subject to his earthly parents ; he that was with God when he built the heavens, and said, Let there be light, the first among those sons of God who shouted for joywhen he laid the foundations of the earth. Behold him now sweating perhaps and toilingwith the saw and the hammer, as tradition tells us, to make plows, harrows and yokes for oxen : Consi- der this blessed soul, the ancient ornament of heaven, and the brightest created spirit there, now spending thirty years together in utmost obscurity, who had lived for four thousand years in the midst of divine splendors : Trace him wandering through the villages from town to town, hungry, thirsty, and weary: Follow titis illustrious man travelling on foot to preach the gos- pel, attended with a few poor fishermen, instead of the chariots of God and the legions of angels, legions and chariots that It is either for a short season, or in a smell degree. ar3
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