" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ; and his name shall be called The mighty God," Isa. ix. 6. The child and the mighty God are the same person, or he that is " born a child" cannot be rightly called " The mighty God." And the truth of many other expressions in the Scripture hath its sole foundation in this hypo- statical union. So the Son of God took on him " the seed of Abraham," was " made of a woman," did " partake of flesh and blood," was " mani- fest in the flesh." That he who was born of the blessed Virgin was " before Abraham," — that he was made of the " seed of David accord- ing to the flesh," — whereby God " purchased the church with his own blood," — are all spoken of one and the same person, and are not true but on the account of the union of the two natures therein. And all those who plead for the accidental metaphorical union, consisting in the instances before mentioned, do know well enough that the true Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is opposed by them.
III. Concurrent with, and in part consequent unto, this union, is the communion of the distinct natures of Christ hypostatically united. And herein we may consider, — 1. What is peculiar unto the Divine nature ; 2. What is common unto both.
1. There is a threefold communication of the divine nature unto the human in this hypostatical union. (1.) Immediate in the person of the Son. This is subsistence. In itself it is awTroararog, — that which hath not a subsistence of its own, which should give it individuation and distinction from the same nature in any other person. But it hath its subsistence in the person of the Son, which thereby is its own. The divine nature, as in that person, is its suppositum. (2.) By the Holy Spirit he filled that nature with an all fulness of habitual grace ; which I have at large explained elsewhere. (3.) In all the acts of his oflice, by the divine nature, he communicated worth and dig- nity unto what was acted in and by the human nature.
For that which some have for a long season troubled the church withal, about such a real communication of the properties of the divine nature unto the human, which should neither be a transfu- sion of them into it, so as to render it the subject of them, nor yet
234 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
consist in a reciprocal denomination fro'in their mutual in-being in the same subject, — it is that which neither themselves do, nor can any other well understand.
2. Wherefore, concerning the communion of the natures in this personal union, three things are to be observed, which the Scripture, reason, and the ancient church, do all concur in.
(1.) Each nature doth preserve its own natural, essential properties, entirely unto and in itself ; without mixture, without composition or confusion, without such a real communication of the one unto the other, as that the one should become the subject of the properties of the other. The Deity, in the abstract, is not made the humanity, nor on the contraiy. The divine nature is not made temporary, finite, limited, subject to passion or alteration by this union ; nor is the hu- man nature rendered immense, infinite, omnipotent. Unless this be granted, there will not be two natures in Christ, a divine and a hu- man; nor indeed either of them, but somewhat else, composed of both.
(2.) Each nature operates in him according unto its essential pro- j)erties. The divine nature knows all things, upholds all things, rules all things, acts by its presence everywhere ; the human nature was born, yielded obedience, died, and rose again. But it is the same person, the same Christ, that acts all these things,-^the one nature being his no less than the other. Wherefore, —
(8.) The perfect, complete ivorh of Christ, in every act of his medi- atory office, — in all that he did as the King, Priest, and Prophet of the church, — in all that he did and suffered, — in all that he continueth to do for vis, in or by virtue of whether nature soever it be done or wrought, — is not to be considered as the act of this or that nature in him alone, but it is the act and work of the whole person, — of him that is both God and man in one person. And this gives occasion, —
IV. Unto that variety of enunciations which is used in the Scrip- ture concerning him ; which I shall name only, and conclude.
1. Some things are spoken of the person of Christ, wherein the enunciation is verified with respect xinto one nature only; as — "The Word was with God, and the Word was God," John i. 1 ; — " Before Abraham was, I am," John viii. 58; — " Upholding all things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 3. These things are all spoken of the person of Christ, but belong unto it on account of his divine nature. So is it said of him, " Unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given," Isa. ix. 6 ; — " A man of sorrows, and acquainted with giief," Isa. liii. 3. They are spoken of the person of Christ, but are verified in human nature only, and the person on the account thereof.