But this no way belongs unto the condescension of Christ. We may call it Ichabod, — it hath no glory in it. It destroys both his natures, and leaves him a person in whom we are not concerned. For. according unto this imagination, that divine nature, wherein he was in the form of God, did in its own form cease to be, yea, was utterly destroyed, as being substantially changed into the nature of man, as the water did cease to be when it was turned into wine ; and that human nature which was made thereof hath no alliance or kindred unto us or our nature, seeing it was not " made of a woman," but of the substance of the Word.
(3.) There was not in this condescension the least change or alter- ation in the divine nature. Eutyches and those that followed him of old conceived that the two natures of Christ, the divine and human, were mixed and compounded, as it were, into one. And this could not be without an alteration in the divine nature, for it would be made to be essentially what it was not ; — for one nature hath but one and the same essence.
But, as we said before, although the Lord Christ himself in his person was made to be what he was not before, in that our nature hereby was made to be his, yet his divine nature was not so. There is in it neither " variableness nor shadow of turning." It abode the same in him, in all its essential properties, actings, and blessedness, as it was from eternity. It neither did, acted, nor suffered any thing but what is proper unto the Divine Being. The Lord Christ did and suffered many things in life and death, in his own person, by his hu- man person, wherein the divine neither did nor suffered any thing at all,— although, in the doing of them, his person be denominated from that nature ; so, " God purchased his church with his own blood," Acts XX. 28.
(4.) It may, then, be said. What did the Lord Christ, in this conde- scension, with respect unto his divine nature ? The apostle tells us that he " humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation," Phil, ii. 7, 8. He veiled the glory of his divine nature in ours, and what he did therein, so as that there was no outward appearance or mani- festation of it. The world hereon was so far from looking on him as the true God, that it beheved him not to be a good man. Hence they could never bear the least intimation of his divine nature, sup- posing themselves secured from any such thing, because they looked on him with their eyes to be a man, — as he was, indeed, no less truly and really than any one of themselves. Wherefore, on that testimony given of himself, " Before Abraham was, I am," — which asserts a pre-
328 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
existence from eternity in another nature than what they saw, — they were filled with rage, and " took up stones to cast at him," John viii. 58, 59. And they gave a reason of their madness, John x. 33, — namely, that " he, being a man, should make himself to be God." This was such a thing, they thought, as could never enter into the heart of a wise and sober man, — namely, that being so, o^vning himself to be such, he should yet say of himself that he was God. This is that which no reason can comprehend, which nothing in nature can paral- lel or illustrate, that one and the same person should be both God and man. And this is the principal plea of the Socinians at this day, who, through the Mohammedans, succeed unto the Jews in an oppo- sition unto the divine nature of Christ.
But all this difficulty is solved by the glory of Christ in this con- descension ; for although in himself, or his own divine person, he was " over all, God blessed for ever," yet he humbled himself for the sal- vation of the church, unto the eternal glory of God, to take our nature upon him, and to be made man : and those who cannot see a divine glory in his so doing, do neither know him, nor love him, nor believe in him, nor do any way belong unto him.
So is it with the men of these abominations. Because they cannot behold the glory hereof, they deny the foundation of our religion, — namely, the divine person of Christ. Seeing he would be made man, he shall be esteemed by them no more than a man. So do they reject that glory of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, wherein he is more concerned than in the whole creation. And they dig up the root of all evangelical truths, which are nothing but branches from it.
It is true, and must be confessed, that herein it is that our Lord Jesus Christ is " a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence" u^nto the world. If we should confess him only as a prophet, a man sent by God, there would not be much contest about him, nor opposition unto him. The Mohammedans do all acknowledge it, and the Jews would not long deny it ; for their hatred against him was, and is, solely be- cause he professed himself to be God, and as such was believed on in the world. And at this day, partly through the insinuation of the Socinians, and partly from the efficacy of their own blindness and unbelief, multitudes are willing to grant him to be a prophet sent of God, who do not, who will not, who cannot, believe the mystery of this condescension in the susceptiou of our nature, nor see the glory of it. But take this away, and all our religion is taken away with it. Farewell Christianity, as to the mystery, the glory, the truth, the efficacy of it ; — let a refined heathenism be established in its room. But this is the rock on wliicli tlie church is built, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.