This is not a mere analogical truth, but it floweth naturally. Whoso- ever are to have the benefit of his birth and conception, Christ sendeth into their heart the same Spirit that sanctified the mass whereof he was made, and so frameth a disposition suitable to himself. He sets his own stamp upon the heart. As the union of his human nature to the divine was the cause of all other graces of his human nature, so the Spirit of God, uniting us to Christ, is the cause of all grace in us. If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his.
' And shall call his name Emmanuel.' Many things might be observed concerning the ordinary reading of the words. Some read, ' She shall call his name Emmanuel,' because he had no father ; others, ' His name shall be called Emmanuel ;' but they be doubtful, therefore I leave them [a).
But 'Jesus' was his name; therefore how can it be said, he shall be called 'Emmanuel' ?
The meaning is, he shall be ' Emmanuel,' and shall be accounted and believed to be so ; he shall be God with us indeed, and shall shew himself to be so ; for in the Hebrew phrase, the meaning of a thing imports the being of the thing. The like phrase is in Isa. ix. 6, ' To us a child is born, to us a son is given ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace ;' that is, ' He shall be believed to be so, and shall shew himself to be so, and shall be so indeed.' The like you have, because it is an answer to the cavil of the Jews, which object he was not called ' Emmanuel :' ' Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell safely ; and this is his name, whereby he shall be called. The Lord our righteousness,' Jer. ii. 3. For indeed he is Jehovah our righteousness, and we have no righteousness to stand before God with but his. Divers other places of Scripture there be of the same nature ; but these two are pregnant, and therefore I name them for all the rest.
Besides the conception and birth of Christ, you have here likewise the divine nature of Christ and the offices of Christ; for Emmanuel is a name both of nature and office.
It is a name of his nature, God and man ; and of his office, which is to • * Qu. ' naming ' ? — Ed.
112 MIRACLE OF MIRACLES.
reconcile God and man. We could not be * with God,' but God must first be ' man with us.' We were once with God in Adam, before he fell ; but there bein^^ a breach made, we cannot be recovered again till God be with us. He must take our natures, that he may reconcile our persons. _
Now, (Jhrist is ' Emmanuel ;' first, in regard of nature, * God with us,' or God in our nature. The pure nature of God, and the base nature of man, that were strangers ever since the fall, are knit together in Christ. What can be in a greater degree of strangeness, except the devil's, than men's unholiness and God's pure nature ? Yet the nature of man and of God being so severed before, are met together in one Christ ; so that in this one word 'Emmanuel' there is heaven and earth, God and man, infinite and finite; therefore we may well prefix ' behold.'
A true Saviour of the world must be ' God with man, whether we consider the greatness of the good we are to have by a Saviour, or the (n-eatness of the evil we are to be freed fi-om by a Saviour, both which do enforce that he must be Emmanuel, God with us.
I. (1.) First, The greatness of the good which we are to have, for he is to be God and man together, to satisfy the wrath of God, to undergo a punishment due to sin as our surety. He must give us title to heaven, and bring us thither, and who can do this but God ?
(2.) Besides, secondly, he must know our hearts, our wants, our griefs, our infirmities; he must be everywhere to relieve us; and who can do this but God ?
(3.) So, thirdly, in regard of evil, which we are to be freed from. He is to defend us in the midst of our enemies ; and who is above the devil, and sin, and the wrath of God, and all the oppositions that stand between us and heaven, but God ? So in regard of the good, in regard of the evil, and in regard of the preservation to an eternal good estate, and freedom from eternal evil, he must be ' Emmanuel, God with us.'
These grand principles are enough to satisfy in this point.
II. And, secondly, as he must be God, so there was a necessity of his being man. Man had sinned, and man must sufi'er for sin, and 'without blood there was no remission,' Heb. ix. 22 ; and then, that he might be 'a merciful and pitiful Saviour,' Heb. ii. 17, he must take that nature on him that he meaneth to save. There must be a suitableness and sympathy ; suitableness, that the head and the members, the sanctified and the sanc- tiner, may be both of one nature ; and a sj^mpathy, that he might be touched with human infirmities.