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ing mystery to all that follows, I have been somewhat the longer in un- folding these words, 'God manifest in the flesh.'
' Justified in the Spirit.'
These words are added, to answer an objection that may rise from the former. He was ' God manifest in the flesh.' He veiled himself. He could not have suffered else. When he took upon him to be the mediator, he must do it in abased flesh. If Christ, being God, had not abased him- self, he should never have been put to death. Satan and his instruments would never have meddled with him. Therefore God being veiled in the flesh, being clouded with our flesh and infirmities, thereupon the world had a misconceit of him. He was not generally ^thought to be what he was indeed. He appeared to be nothing but a poor man, a debased, dejected man ; a persecuted, slandered, disgraced man in the world. He was thought to be a trespasser.
It is no matter what he appeared, when he was veiled with our flesh ; lie was ^justified in the Siiirit,' to be the true Messiah; to be God as well as man.
' Justified.'
It implies two things in the phrase of Scripture : a freedom and clearing fi'om false conceits and imputations, and declared to be truly what he was ; to be otherwise than he was thought to be of the wicked world. When a man is cleared from that that is laid to his charge, he is 'justified.' When a man is declared to be that he is, then he is said to be justified in the sense of the Scriptures. ' Wisdom is justified of her children,' Mat. xi. 19, that is, cleared from the imputations that are laid upon religion, to be mopish and foolish. ' Wisdom is justified ;' that is, cleared and declared to be an excellent thing of all her children. So Christ was 'justified.' He was cleared, not to be as they took him ; and declared himself to be as he ' manifested' himself, a more excellent person, the Son of God, the true Messiah and Saviour of the world.
' In the Spirit.'
That is, in his Godhead : that did shew itself in his life and death, in his resurrection and ascension. The beams of his Godhead did sparkle out. Though he were ' God in the flesh,' yet he remained God still, and was 'justified' to be so ' in the Spirit,' that is, in his divine power, which is called the Spirit ; because the spirit of anything is the quintessence and strength of it. God hath the name of Spirit, from his purity and power and vigour. So God is a Spirit ; that is, God is pure, opposite to gross things, earth, and flesh ; and God is powerful and strong. ' The horses of the Egyptians are flesh, and not spirit,' Isa. xxxi. 3, that is, they are weak. A spirit is strong; so much spirit, so much strength. So, by the parity and strength of the divine nature, Christ discovered himself to be true God as well as true man.
The word Spint is taken in three senses especially in the gospel.
1. It is taken for the wlwle nature of God. ' God is a Spirit,' saith Christ to the woman of Samaria, John iv. 23. The very nature of God is a Spirit ; that is, active and subtile, opposite to meanness and weakness.
2. Then again. Spirit is taken more particularly for the divine nature of Christ, as it is Rom. i. 4 : 'Of the seed of David, according to the flesh,' but ' declared mightily to be the Son of God wdth power, according to the Spirit of sanctification,' or holiness, ' by the resurrection from the dead.' The opposition shews that Sjjirit is taken there for the divine nature of Christ. He had spoken in the verse before concerning his human nature.
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He was made ' of the seed of David, according to the flesh ; ' and it f(dlows, ' declared to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of hoUness, by tho resurrection from the dead.' And so Hkewiso in 1 Pet. iii. 18 : 'He was put to death in the llcsh, but quickened in the Spirit.' He was put to death in his human nature, but quickened and raised as he was God.
3. Tlie Spirit is taken hkewise for the third jn-rsoji hi the Triniti/, tho Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. And indeed, whatsoever God the Father or God the Son doth graciously to man, it is done by the Spirit. For, as the Holy Spirit is in the order of the persons, so he is in the order of working. The Father works from himself ; the Son works from the Father ; the Holy Spirit from them both. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, as a common principle. Therefore, sometimes the Father is said to raise Christ's body by his Spirit. Christ is said to do things by the Spirit. Here, in this place, it is especially to be understood of Christ's divine nature, not excluding the Holy Ghost. For as the Holy Ghost, in the incarnation, sanctified his ' flesh,' the second person took flesh, but the third person sanctified it. So in the resurrection of Christ, [it was] the second person that raised itself up, but yet it was by the Hoi}' Ghost too. So when there is mention here of Christ 'justified by the Spirit,' that is, by his Godhead and by the Holy Ghost, which he alway used, not as an instrument — for the Holy Ghost is a common principle with himself, one with himself, of equal dignit}', only diffexing in the order of persons ; whatsoever Christ did, he did with the Spirit. That must not be excluded. Christ was as well 'justified in the Spirit,' as God, as 'manifest' in our nature to be man.