* Reason (saith one) can never shew itself more reasonable, than in ceasing to reason about things which are above reason. Whatsoever is concealed from us, that we are not to pry into. But we are not to overlook what is plain and mani- fest. Prosper,
76 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, SERM. V,
union ; but though believers are said to be in Christ, and Christ in them, yet they are not one person with him. They are not christed into Christ, or godded into God, as blasphemous Fa- milists speak.
Secondly, Positively. But this assumption of which I speak, is that whereby the second Person in the Godhead did take the human nature into a personal union with himself, by virtue whereof the manhood subsists in the second person, yet without confusion, both making but one person, Qewfywros, or Itnmanuel, God with us.
So that though we truly ascribe a two-fold nature to Christ, yet not a double person ; * for the human nature of Christ never sub- sisted separately and distinctly, by any personal subsistence of its own, as it doth in all other men, but from the first moment of con- ception, subsisted in union with the second person.
To explicate this mystery more particularly, let it be considered ;
First, The human nature was united to the second person mira- culously and extraordinarily, being supernaturally framed in the womb of the Virgin, by the over-shadowing power of the Highest, Luke i. 34, 35. By reason whereof it may truly and properly be said to be the fruit of the womb, not of the loins of men, nor by man. And this was necessary to exempt the assumed nature from the stain and pollution of Adam's sin, which it wholly escaped; inasmuch as he received it not, as ail others do, in the way of or- dinary generation, wherein original sin is propagated : but this being extraordinarily produced,, was a most pure and holy thing, Luke i. 35. And indeed this perfect shining holiness, in which it was produced, was absolutely necessary, both in order to its union with the divine Person, and the design of that union ; which was both to satisfy for, and to sanctify us. The two natures could not be conjoined in the person of Chirst, had there been the least taint of sin upon the human nature. For God can have no fellowship with sin, much less be united to it. Or, supposing such a conjunc- tion with our sinful nature, yet he being a sinner himself, could never satisfy for the sins of others ; nor could any unholy thing ever make us holy. " Such an High-priest therefore became us " as is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," Heb. vii. 26. And such an one he must needs be, whom the Holy Ghost produces in such a peculiar way, to aytov, that holy thing.
Secondly, As it was produced miraculously, so it was assumed in- tegrally ; that is to say, Christ took a complete and perfect human
• The human nature is not, ioio6\j6tcc1gs subsisting of itself, nor did the human nature exist before it was assumed ; but so soon as the flesh existed, it was the flesh of the Word of God. And so the person of Christ is one, in which there are two distinct tilings, but not two distinct persons, Greg. Naz. in Theodoret, Dialogue 2.
*ERM. V. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, W
soul and body, with all and every faculty and member pertaining to it. And this was necessary (as both * Austin and -f- Fulgentius have well observed) that thereby he might heal the whole nature of that leprosy of sin, which hath seized and infected every mem- ber and faculty. Tlavra, avsXufSsv iva ifavra ayia^. " He assumed " all, to sanctify all ;" as Damascen expresseth it. He designed a perfect recovery, by sanctifying us wholly in soul, body, and spirit ; and therefore assumed the whole in order to it.
Thirdly, He assumed our nature, as with all its integral parts, so with all its sinless infirmities. And therefore it is said of him, Heb. ii. 17. " That it behoved him," xara <rr<xvra ofj,otu$Y}vcu, accord- ing to all things (that is, all things natural, not formally sinful, J as it is limited by the same apostle, Heb. iv. 15.) to be made like unto his brethren. But here our divines so carefully distinguish infirmities into personal and natural Personal infirmities are such as befal particular persons, from particular causes, such as dumb- ness, blindness, lameness, leprosies, monstrosities, and other de- formities. These it was no way necessary that Christ should, nor did he at all assume ; but the natural ones, such as hunger, thirst, weariness, sweating, bleeding, mortality, fyc. which though they are not in themselves formally and intrinsically sinful ; yet are they the effects and consequents of sin. They are so many marks, that sin hath left of itself upon our natures. And on that account Christ is said to be sent " in the likeness of sinful flesh," Rom. viii. 3. Wherein the gracious condescension of Christ for us is mar- vellously signalized, that he would not assume our innocent na- ture, as it was in Adam before the fall, while it stood in all its primitive glory and perfection ; but after sin had quite defaced, ruined, and spoiled it.
Fourthly, The human nature is so united with the divine, as that each nature still retains its own essential properties distinct. § And this distinction is not, nor can be lost by that union. So that
* Aug. de Civit, Dei. lib. 10. cap. 27. p. 586.
f Fulgent, ad Tra 1. 1. p. 251. Damasc. lib. 3. cap. 20.
j The natural pollution and original defilement of sin, which cleaves to human nature in general, could not infect the human nature of Christ, because the Holy Spirit, according to his own manner of working, had made it absolutely undefiled and impeccable, or, incapable of committing sin i and such a perfect and sinless na- ture it behoved to be, in which our sins, with their defilement and guilt, were to be done away. Trel. Instit. p. 58.
§ By this union of the human with the divine nature, the human nature is not raised to the same perfection with the divine, nor changed into it, nor confounded with it ; as if what is any way peculiar to the divine, were communicated to the human nature : but that the one always did, and doth, remain totally distinct from the other; the human, to wit, consisting of a finite body, and of a soul, the same, as to substance and essential powers, with other men's. JBradshaw on Justificatim, p. 79.
78 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. ▼,
the two understandings, wills, powers, tyc. viz. The divine and human, are not confounded; but a line of distinction runs be- twixt them still in this wonderful person. It was the heresy of the Eutychians, condemned by the council of Chalcedon, to af- firm, that there was no distinction betwixt the two natures in Christ. Against whom that council determined, that they were united aguvo^vruc, without any immutation or confusion.
Fifthly, The union of the two natures in Christ, as an insepara* hie union ; so that from the first moment thereof, there never was, nor to eternity shall be, any separation of them.