How glorious, then, is the condescension of the Son of God in his susception of the office of mediation ! For if such be the perfection of the divine nature, and its distance so absolutely infinite from the whole creation, — and if such be his self-sufficiency unto his own eternal blessedness, as that nothing can be taken from him, nothing added unto him, so that every regard in him unto any of the creatures is an act of self-humiliation and condescension from the prerogative of his Ijeing and state, — what heart can conceive, what tongue can express, the glory of that condescension in the Son of God, whereby he took our nature upon him, took it to be his own, in order unto a discharge of the office of mediation on our behalf?
2. But, that we may the better behold the glory of Christ herein, we may briefly- consider the especial nature of this condescension, and wherein it doth consist.
But whereas not only the denial, but misapprehensions hereof, have pestered the church of God in all ages, we must, in the first place, re- ject them, and then declare the truth.
(1.) This condescension of the Son of God did not consist in a lay- ing aside, or parting with, or separation from, the divine nature, so as that he should cease to be God by being man. The foundation of it lay in this, that he was " in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God," Phil. ii. 6 ; — that is, being really and essentially God in his divine nature, he professed himself therein to
326' THE GLORY OF CHRIST
be equal with God, or tlie person of the Father. He was m the form of God, — that is, he was God, participant of the divine nature, for God hath no form but that of his essence and being; and hence he was equal with God, in authority, dignity, and power. Because he v/as in the form of God, he must be equal with God ; for there is order in the Divine Persons, but no inequality in the Divine Being. So the Jews understood him, that when he said, " God was his Fa- ther, he made himself equal with God." For in his so saying, he ascribed unto himself equal power with the Father, as unto all divine operations. " My Father," saith he, " worketh hitherto, and I work," John V. 17, 18. And they by whom his divine nature is denied do cast this condescension of Christ quite out of our religion, as that which hath no reality or substance in it. But we shall speak of them afterward.
Beins: in this state, it is said that he took on him the form of a ser- vant, and was found in fashion as a man, Phil. ii. 7. This is his conde- scension. It is not said that he ceased to be in the form of God ; but continuing so to be, he " took upon him the form of a servant " in OTir nature : he became what he was not, but he ceased not to be what he was. So he testifieth of himself, John iii. 13, " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from hea,ven, the Son of man which is in heaven." Although he was then on earth as the Son of man, yet he ceased not to be God thereby; — in his divine nature he was then also in heaven.
He who is God, can no more be not God, than he who is not God can be God ; and our difference with the Socinians herein is, — we believe that Christ being God, was made man for our sakes; they say, that being only a man, he was made a god for his own sake.
This, then, is the foundation of the glory of Christ in this conde- scension, the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mysteries, — namely, that the Son of God becoming in time to be what he was not, the Son of man, ceased not thereby to be what he was, even the eternal Son of God. Wherefore, —
(2.) Much less did this condescension consist in the conversion of the divine nature into the human, — which was the imagination of some of the Arians of old ; and we have yet (to my oAvn knowledge) some that follow them in the same dotage. They say that the " Word which was in the beginning," by which all things were made, being in itself an effect of the divine "will and power, was in the fulness of time turned into flesh ; — that is, the substance of it was so, as the water in the miracle wi'ought by our Saviour was turned into wine; for, by an act of the divine power of Christ, it ceased to be water substantially, and was wine only, — not water mixed with wine. So these men suppose a substantial change of the one nature into the
IN HIS CONDESCENSION AS MEDIATOR. 327
other, — of the divine nature into the human, — hke what the Papists imagine in their transubstantiation. So they say God was made man, his essence being turned mto that of a man.