Now concerning the manhood of Christ, the prophet plainly speaks : Isa. ix. 6, ' Unto us a child is born, and unto us a son was given.' Parvulus, a child, that noteth his humanity ; Filius, a Son, that noteth his deity. Parvulus, a child, even man of the substance of his mother, born in the world. Mat. i. 25 ; Filius, a Son, even God of the substance of his Father, begotten before the world, Prov. viii. 22 to the end. Par- vulus, a child : behold his humility, ' she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger,' Luke ii. 7 ; Filius, sl Son: behold his dignity ; ' when he bringeth his first- begotten Son into the world, he saith. And let all the angels of God worship him,' Heb. i. 6 ; to prove that he was man, it is enough to say, that he was born, he lived, he died. God became man by a wonder- ful, unspeakable, and inconceivable union. Behold God is offended by man's affecting and coveting his wisdom and his glory — for that was the devil's temptation to our first parents, ' Ye shall be as gods,' Gen. iii. 5 ; and man is redeemed by God's assuming and taking his frailty and his infirmity. Man would be as God, and so offended him ; and therefore God becomes man, and so redeemeth him. Christ, as man, came of the race of kings ; as man he shall judge the world. Acts xvii. 31 ; as man, he was wonderfully born of a virgin. Mat. i. 23 ; Isa. vii. 14 ; called therefore by a peculiar name, Shiloh, which signifies a secundine or after-birth. Gen. xlix. 19, The word comes of r\biD, which signifies tranquillum esse, intimating that Christ is he who has ^ He alludes to Jacob's ladder, Gen. xxviii. 12.
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brought US peace and tranquillity ; and that he might be our peace- maker, it was necessary that he should be Shiloh, born of the sanctified seed of a woman without the seed of man. The apostle expounds the name where he saith of Christ that he was ' made of a woman/ not of a man and woman both, but of a woman alone without a man, Gal. iv.
4. Christ as man was foretold of by the prophets, and by sundry types. Christ as man was attended upon at his birth by holy angels, and a peculiar star was created for him, Luke ii. 13, 14; Mat. ii. 1, 2. Christ as man was our sacrifice and expiation ; he was our avTikurpov, a counterprice, such as we could never have paid, but must have remained, and even rotted in the prison of hell for ever. Christ as man was conceived of the Holy Ghost, Mat. i. 18. Christ as man is ascended into heaven. Acts i. 9, 10. Christmas man sits at the right hand of God, Col. iii. 1. Now what do all these things import, but that Jesus Christ is a very precious and most excellent person, and that even according to his manhood ? Christ had the true pro- perties, affections, and actions of man. He was conceived, born, cir- cumcised ; he did hunger, thirst ; he was clothed ; he did eat, drink, sleep, hear, see, touch, speak, sigh, groan, weep, and grow in wisdom and stature, &c., as all the four evangelists do abundantly testify. But because this is a point of grand importance, especially in these days, wherein there are risen up so many deceivers in the midst of us, it may not be amiss to consider of these following particulars, —
(1.) First, Of these special scriptures that speak out the certainty and verity of Christ's body : John i. 14, ' And the Word was made flesli ; ' 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh.' Christ is one and the same, begotten of the Father without time, the Son of God without mother ; and born of the Virgin in time, the Son of man without father ; the natural and consubstantial son of both ; and, oh ! Avhat a great mystery is this ! Heb. ii. 14, 16, ' Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the de\dl : for verily he took not on him the nature of angels : but he took on him the seed of Abraham : ' according to the Greek iirlXa/u,- ^dverat, He assumed, caught, laid hold on, as the angels did on Lot, Gen. xix. 16 ; or as Christ did on Peter, Mat. xiv. 31 ; or as men use to do upon a thing they are glad they have got, and are loath to let go again. 0 sirs ! this is a main pillar of our comfort, that Christ took our flesh, for if he had not taken our flesh, we could never have been saved by him : Kom. i. 3, ' Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh : ' Kom, ix.
5, ' Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' This is a greater honour to all mankind, than if the greatest king in the world should marry into some poor family of his subjects. Christ saith, ' My flesh is meat indeed,' and I say his flesh was flesh indeed ; as true, real, proper, very flesh as that which any of us carry about with us : Col. i. 22, ' In the body of his flesh through death;' Heb. x. 5, ' Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith. Sacrifice and offer- ing thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.' KarijpTiaco :
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