digestion and assimilation; and such as are mixed, {. e., both mental and corporeal, as all voluntary acts, as speaking, writing, etc. Yet all are equally the acts of the man. It is the man who thinks, who digests his food, and who speaks. So of the acts of Christ. Some are purely divine, as creation and preservation ; some are purely human, as eating, drinking, and sleeping ; some are thean- thropic, i. e., those in which both natures concur, as in the work of redemption. Yet all these acts are the acts of Christ, of one and the same person. It was Christ who created the world. It was Christ who ate and drank. And it is Christ who redeems us from the power of darkness.
Here also, as in the case of the attributes of Christ, his person may be denominated from one nature when the act ascribed to Hira belongs to the other nature. He is called God, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, when his delivering Himself unto death is spoken of And He is called man, or the Son of man, when the acts ascribed to Him involve the exercise of divine power or author- ity. It is the Son of man who forgives sins ; who is Lord of the Sabbath ; who raises the dead ; and who is to send forth his angels to gather his elect.
Such being the Scriptural doctrine concerning the person of Christ, it follows that although the divine nature is immutable and impassible, and therefore neither the obedience nor tlie suffering of Christ was the obedience or suffering of the divine nature, yet they were none the less the obedience and suffering of a divine person. The soul of man cannot be wounded or burnt, but when the body is injured it is the man who suffers. In like manner the obedience of Christ was the righteousness of God, and the blood of Christ was the blood of God. It is to this flict that the infinite merit and efficiency of his work are due. This is distinctly asserted in the Scriptures. It is impossible, says the Apostle, that tiie blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin. It was because Christ was possessed of an eternal Spirit that He by the one offering of Himself hath perfected forever them who are sanctified. This is the main idea insisted upon in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This is the reason given why the sacrifice of Christ need never be repeated, and why it is infinitely more efficacious than those of the old dispensation. This truth has been graven on the hearts of believers in all ages. Every such believer says from his heart, *' Jesus, my God, thy blood alone has power sufficient to atone."
396 PART m. Ch, m. — the person of CHRIST. "]
The Man Christ Jesus the object of Worship. Another obvious inference from this doctrine is that the man Christ Jesus is the object of rehgious worship. To worship, in the religious sense of the word, is to ascribe divine perfections to its object. The possession of those perfections, is, therefore, the only proper ground for such worship. Tiie linmanity of Christ, conse- quently, is not the ground of worship, but it enters into the consti- tution of that person who, being God over all and blessed forever, is the object of adoration to saints and angels. We accordingly find that it was He whom they saw, felt, and handled, that the Apostles worshipped as their Lord and God ; whom they loved supremely, and to whom they consecrated themselves as a living sacrifice.
Christ can sympathize with his People.
A third inference which the Apostles drew fi-oui this doctrine is, that Cin'ist is a merciful and faithful high-priest. He is just the Saviour we need. God as God, the eternal Logos, could neither be nor do what our necessities demand. Much less could any mere man, however wise, holy, or benevolent, meet the wants of our souls. It is only a Saviour who is both God and man in two dis- tinct natures and one person forever, who is all we need and all we can desire. As God He is ever present, almighty and infinite in all his resources to, save and bless ; and as man, or being also a man, He can be touched with a sense of our infirmities, was tempted as we are, was subject to the law which we violated, and endured the penalty which we had incuri'ed. Li Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead, in a bodily form, in fashion as a man, so as to be accessible to us, and so that from his fulness we can all partake. We are therefore complete in Him, wanting nothing.
The Incarnate Logos the Source of Life.
.The Scriptures teach that the Logos is everlasting life, having life in Himself, and the source of life, physical, intellectual, and spiritual. They further teach that his incarnation was the neces- sary condition of the communication of spiritual life to the children of men. He, therefore, is the only Saviour, the only source of life to us. We become partakers of this life, by union with Him. This union is partly federal established in the councils of eternity ; partly vital by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; and partly volun- tary and conscious by faith. It is to those who believe, to those who receive Him as God manifest in the flesh, that He becomea