''Idly. For the pollution of our nature, it was prevented in him from the instant of conception, Luke i. 35, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." He was " made of a woman," Gal. iv. 4 ; but that portion whereof he was made was sanctified by the Holy Ghost, that what was born thereof should be a holy thing. Not only the con- junction and union of soul and body, whereby a man becomes par- taker of his whole nature, and therein of the pollution of sin, being a son of Adam, was prevented by the sanctification of the Holy Ghost, but it also accompanied the very separation of his bodily substance in the womb unto that sacred purpose whereunto it was set apart: so that upon all accounts he is " holy, harmless, undefiled." Add now hereunto, that he " did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," 1 Pet. ii. 22 ; that he "fulfilled all righteousness," Matt. iii. 15 ; his Father being always "well pleased" "with him, verse 17, on the
'2Cor. V. 21. 2 Gen. iii. 15.
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account of his perfect obedience; yea, even in that sense wherein he chargeth his angels with folly, and those inliabitants of heaven are not clean in his sight ; and his excellency and desirableness in this regard will lie before us. Such was he, such is he; and yet for our sakes was he contented not only to be esteemed by the vilest of men to be a transgressor, but to undergo from God the punishment due to the vilest sinners. Of which afterward.
(2.) The fulness of grace in Christ's human nature sets forth the amiableness and desu'ableness thereof. Should I make it my business to consider his perfections, as to this part of his excellency, — what he had from the womb, Luke i. 35, what received growth and improve- ment as to exercise in the days of his flesh, Luke ii. 52, with the com- plement of them all in glory, — the whole would tend to the purpose in hand. I am but taking a view of these things in transitu. These two things lie in open sight to all at the first consideration : — all grace was in him, for the kinds thereof; and all degrees of grace, for its perfections ; and both of them make up that fulness that was in him. It is created grace that I intend; and therefore I speak of the kinds of it : it is grace inherent in a created nature, not infinite ; and there- fore I speak of the degrees of. it.
For the fountain of grace, the Holy Ghost, he received not him " by measure," John iii. 34 ; and for the communications of the Spirit, " it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 19, — "that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." But these things are commonly spoken unto.
This is the Beloved of our souls, " holy, harmless, undefiled;" " full of grace and truth;" — ^full, to a sufificiency for every end of grace, — full, for practice, to be an example to men and angels as to obedience, — full, to a certainty of uninterrupted communion with God, — full, to a readiness of giving supply to others, — full, to suit him to all the occasions and necessities of the souls of men, — full, to a gloiy not unbecoming a subsistence in the person of the Son of God, — fidl, to a perfect victory, in trials, over all temptations, — full, to an exact cor- respondency to the whole law, every righteous and holy law of God, — full, to the utmost capacity of a limited, created, finite nature, — full, to the greatest beauty and glory of a living temple of God, — full, to the full pleasure and delight of the soul of his Father, — full to an everlasting monument of the glory of God, in giving such inconceiv- able excellencies to the Son of man.
And this is the second thing considerable for the endearing of our souls to our Beloved.
3. Consider that he is all this in one person. VCo have not been
' John i. 14, IG; 1 Cor. xi. 1; Kpli.v. 2; 1 IVt. ii 21; IMatt. iii. 17; Hob. ii 18, vii. 25.
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treating of two, a God and a man; but of ^ one who is God and man. That Word that was with God in the beginning, and was God, John i. 1, is also made fiesh, verse 14; — not by a conversion of itself into flesh ; not by appearing in the outward shape and likeness of flesh ; but by assuming that holy thing that was born of the virgin, Luke i. 35, into personal union with himself So " The mighty God," Isa. ix. 6, is a " child given " to us; that holy thing that was bom of the virgin is called " The Son of God," Luke i. 35. That which made the man Christ Jesus to be a man, was the union of soul and body ; that which made him that man, and without which he was not the man, was the subsistence of both united in the person of the Son of God. As to the proof hereof, I have spoken of it ^elsewhere at large ; I now propose it only in general, to show the amiableness of Christ on this account. Here lies, hence arises, the grace, peace, life, and security of the church, — of all believers ; as by some few considerations may be clearly evinced : —