566 THE HUMILIATION AND CONDESCENSION OF CHRIST.
mixed and compounded into one nature, so that it was neither that divine nature that was originally and eternally, nor human nature, but another, a third nature, made in time. This frenzy troubled the church for above one hundred years. Though Christ was made to be what he was not, yet he never ceased to be distinctly what he was. The divine nature had neither change nor shadow of turning. Con sider this condescension of Christ, and observe all its essential proper ties. It acts suitably unto itself ; it acts nothing but what becomes it and is proper unto the divine nature. Jesus Christ did many things in the human nature wherein his divine nature had no con currence but in the sustentation of the human nature in his one person. The divine nature did not act in hungering, and thirsting, and weariness, and bleeding, and dying; it cannot do so. All the acts of the divine nature on the human were acts of sustentation, whereby he acted these things.
But you will say, 'What did Christ do with reference to his divine nature, when he took our nature upon him ? ' That the apostle ex presses in this mysterious word, sMsvuffe. He veiled himself, he shadowed himself, he hid his divine nature, he eclipsed the glory of it. Not absolutely ; all things under heaven cannot veil, eclipse, or hide, the glory of the divine nature. But he eclipsed, shadowed, hid, and laid it aside, as to himself and his interest in it : for upon his taking our nature upon him, men were so far from looking on him as God, that they did not look on him as a good man ; and the reason was, because they saw and knew him to be a man, and he professed himself to be a man, and was no less a man than any of themselves were. And yet he professes himself to be God. They were so far from believing him so to be, that they took him not to be so much as a good man. Therefore, upon the mentioning of his pre-existence to his incarnation, — "Before Abraham was, I am/' John viii. 58, — they fell into a great rage and madness, and took up stones to cast at him, as we read in the next verse ; and they give this reason, John x. 33, " We stone thee because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." This they could not understand. ' This we will not believe/ say they. And this overthrew the persuasion of many, that if Christ will be man, he shall be only a man.
All this is part of the condescension of Christ, if we will believe what the apostle here saith, He was "in the form of God/' and " equal with God/' — partaking of his essence, and equal in dignity, authority, and power. What then ? " He took upon him the form of a ser vant •" that is, our nature, that therein he might be " obedient unto death." How did he take it upon him so to be his own that he should be a man, and in that nature be " obedient unto death" ?
Having showed you that it was not by the relinquishment of his
THE HUMILIATION AND CONDESCENSION OF CHRIST. 567
divine nature, that, being God from eternity, he then ceased to be God when he was made man; that it was not by a conversion of the divine nature into the human, — the \V"ord was not made flesh as the water was made wine ; that it was not by a composition of two na tures into one, for still they remained distinct in their essence ; I shall now show you wherein it did consist: —
(1.) The condescension of Christ consisted in veiling the glory of the Deity, — not in taking a man to himself, but in taking the nature of man upon himself. Flesh and blood can reveal that unto no man. I shall show you how it was; and then give you a word of use: — What, then, did Christ do in his condescension ? Pray remember it, for it is the principal object of your faith, and the life of your souls. This was that which he did : The person of the Son of God, or the divine nature in the second person, continuing God in his essence and God in his state and dignity, did take "upon" him (I use that word rather than take "unto" him) the nature of man, into an indi vidual subsistence in his own person, whereby he became that man ; and what was done and acted in it by that man was done and acted by the person of the Son of God. This is that condescension of Christ that is here spoken of. Every man hath his own individual subsistence, whereby the human nature is divided in particular. We have all of us the same nature in general ; — that is, the same speci fic human nature belongs unto us equally and unto all men in the world; yet every man and woman hath this nature entire and ab solutely unto himself, as if there were no other man or woman in the world. And Adam was not more a single person when there was none in the world but himself, than every one of us is a single per son now the world is full of men, as if there were but one man. And every one comes into the world in his own individual subsistence unto himself, whereby he becomes a man as much as any of us. Here is the great act of self-denial in Christ.