Gen. iii. 15. Gal. iii. 16. (a) It is neceffary to obferve, That altho' the Human was conjoined to the Divine Nature, which Nature is common to the Father with the Son, yet was that Union made only in the Perfon of the Son; against the ancient Herefy of the Patripaffians, (affirming the Father to have been born, and to have died,) begun in Praxeas and Hermogenes, and continued by Neotus, Sabellius, and Prifcillianus, who diffus'd it thro' their several Opinions. (b) Hence He is fo frequently ftyled the Son of Man. And in this Nature He was always promised. First to Eve, as her Seed*, and confequently her Son. Then to Abraham: In thy Seed fhall all the Nations of the Earth be † Gen. xxii. 18. blefed+: And that Seed, the Apostle affures us, is Chrift*. Next, to David, as his Son, to fit upon his Throne +: And fo He is made of the Seed of David, according to the Flesh*. The Son of David, the Son of Abraham t. The Mediator between GOD and Man, is the Man Christ Jefus *. It behoved Him to be made like unto his Brethren: That, as by Man came Death, by Man might come likewife the ReCor. xv. 21. furrection from the Dead +. † Pfal. cxxxii. 11. * I Tim. ii. 5. *Luke ii. 52. . which was no Seat of his Fi (c) Jefus increafed in Wisdom and Stature *; one in refpect of his Body, the other of his Soul. Wisdom belongeth not to the Flefh, nor can the Knowledge of GOD, which is Infinite, increase. He then whose Knowledge did improve and advance, together with his Years, must have a Subject proper for it; other than a Human Soul. This was the nite Understanding and directed Will. This was the Subject of thofe Affections and Paffions which appear'd in Him: Nor did He fpeak any other than a proper Language, when, He faid, My Soul is exceeding forrowful, even unto Death t. This was it which, on the Crofs, He recommended to the Father; teaching us in whofe Hands the Souls of the Departed are. For, when Jefus had cried with a loud Voice, He faid, Father, into thy hands I comLuke xxiii. 46. mend my Spirit. And having faid thus, he gave up the Ghost *. This Truth the Church has conftantly afferted, against thofe antient Hereticks of feveral Denominations, but chiefly the Arians and Apollinarians, who held, That Mat. xxvi. 38. Chrift, Chrift affumed only a Human Body, but that the Word, (or, his Divinity,) was to it in the place of a Soul. (d) When He came into the World, a Body was prepared for Him, of the fame Texture with thofe of other Infants: He grew up, by degrees; was observed by his Enemies to eat and drink; and when He did not fo, fuffer'd Hunger and Thirft. Thofe Ploughers never doubted of the true Nature of his Flesh, who ploughed upon his Back, and made long Furrows. The Thorns, the Nails, and the Spear, give fufficient teftimony to the Tenderness and Frailty of his Body. And left his fafting Forty Days, left his walking on the Sea, left his fudden appearance in the midft of his Disciples, when the Doors were shut, fhould raise a Sufpicion that his Body was not true and proper Flesh, He was pleas'd in an express manner to undeceive those who were ready to entertain this Doubt: Feel and fee, that a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones, as ye fee me to have +. As therefore we believe the Com- Luke xxiv. 39. ing of Chrift, fo must we acknowledge Him to have come in the Flesh. Every Spirit that confeffeth Jefus Chrift come in the Flesh, is of GOD: And every Spirit that confeffeth not Jefus Chrift come in the Flefb, is not of GOD. 1 John iv. 2, 3. This Spirit was early in the World: And Chrift, who is GOD and Man, was as foon denied to be Man as GOD. (Many Tribes of Hereticks, after their Leader Simon Magus, affirm'd that Chrift was not fuch as He appear'd to be; but came only putativè, or, in phantafmate; when they had the General Name of Aonry, and φαντασιας). (e) Could this Union have been made in the two Natures, it must have been either by Conversion of one into the other, or by Commixtion and Confusion of both in a third. This latter, as it fuppofes the Infinite and Independent Creator to be immers'd in the Creature, fo inEftead of making Chrift both GOD and Man, it would hinder Him from being either; as all mixt Bodies are diftinct from each Element which concurs in their Compofition. Nor is the Converfion of Subftances, or Natures, more poffible than the Confufion. For, First, to fay, with the Flandrian Anabaptifts, That the Divine Nature is turn'd into the Human, is to affirm a Contra F 4 diction. t * Rom. i. 4. Rom. ix. 5. * Luke i. 31. diction. The Nature of Man must be made; the Nature of GOD cannot be made; and confequently cannot become the Nature of Man. Nor can the Immaterial, Indivisible, and Immortal Godhead, be divided into a Spiritual, Incorruptible Soul, and a Carnal, Corruptible Body; of which two Humanity confifts. Secondly, There could be no Converfion of the Human Nature into the Divine, as the Eutychians of old fuppos'd. For, if this change happened at the very time of the Incarnation, then that which had no Being must have been turned into fomewhat else; and the Flesh had been made the Word, not the Word been made Flefh. And yet, if it did not happen at the Incarnation, 'tis utterly unconceivable, at what time, in what manner, or by what means, fuch an Union, or Tranfufion, could be afterwards introduced. The perfonal Union here afferted is not a mere Scholaftical Speculation, but a certain and neceffary Truth; without which we cannot join the Second Article of our Creed to the Third; without which we cannot interpret the Holy Scriptures, or understand the Hiftory of our Saviour. For certainly He who is before Abraham, was in the days of Herod born of a Woman; he who was the Seed of David according to the Flesh*, was declared the Son of GOD with Power, was GOD over all, Blessed for ever †. Since these Actions and Affections cannot proceed from the fame Nature, and yet must be ascribed to the fame Perfon, as we must acknowledge a Diversity of the Natures united, so muft we confefs an Identity of the Perfon which unites them. The denial of this Identity was the Herefy of Neftorius, condemned in the Council of Ephefus. (f) The Expreffions of Scripture are more general than that we can thence precisely distinguish the Operation of the Holy Spirit from the Concurrence of the Virgin. Much less can we exactly conclude it from the Words of this Article, as we have them; fince it is certain that the Virgin alfo conceived our Saviour, according to the Prophefy, Thou shalt conceive and bear a Son*. [Nor will St. Auftin and the Schoolmen, by the Prepofitions de and ex, illuftrate the difference of these Operations. For as the fame Prepofition, ix, is common to both both in the Greek, and de in the Vulgar Latin us'd indifferently for either: So are the Schoolmen guilty of a manifeft Abfurdity, in applying de, which they lay imports Confubftantiality, to the Holy Ghoft, from whofe Subftance Chrift received nothing, and ex, which they fay doth not fignity Confubftantiality, to the Virgin, from whom they confefs that He affumed the Subftance of his Body.] Wherefore the only way to fix and determine our Idea concerning the Action of the Spirit, is to attribute to Him what is needful in caufing the Virgin to perform the Action of a Mother. Yet is He not the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, as not imparting, or communicating to Him his Effence. And if at any time, the Term of generating, or begetting, is, by antient or modern Authors, attributed to the Holy Spirit, it cannot be meant of any such proper Act of Generation, as is the Foundation of Paternity. It is neceffary farther to observe, That as the Holy Ghost did not frame the Human Nature of Christ out of his own Substance, so neither did he form any part of Chrift's Body out of any other Subftance befides that of the Virgin. For certainly, Chrift was of the Fathers according to the Fleft, and † Rom. ix. 5. was in that refpect truly and totally the Son of David, and of Abraham. This in oppofition to the extravagant Invention of the Socinians; who have been obliged to affert two Parts in the Human Nature of Chrift, one Part received from the Virgin, another Part fram'd by the Spirit, and joined to it: By one of which He was the Son of Man, as he was by the other the Son of GOD. (g) He only whofe Name is Holiness, whofe Operation is to fanctify, could answer Job's Question, and bring a clean thing out of an unclean*, an undefiled Re- * Job xiv. 4deemer out of a defiled Nature. Our Jefus was like unto us in all things, (as born of a Woman) Sin only excepted, (as conceived by the Holy Ghoft.) This origi nal and total Sanctification of the Human Nature was, First, neceffary to fit and prepare it for the perfonal Union of the Word; who, as of his infinite Love He was made Flesh, fo of his infinite Purity, He could not be made finful Flesh. And it was no lefs neceffary in refpect of the End for which Chrift became Man, the Redemption of the World. GOD fending his orun Son in the Rom. viii. 3. the likeness of firful Fleb, condemned Sin in the Flesh +. The Father made him to be Sin for us, who knew no Sin, that we 2 Cor. v. 21. might be made the Righteaufness of GOD in Him*. ti Pet. ii. 22. No Sacrifice could have been accepted for us, but a Lamb without Blemish, and without Spot †: No High-Priest could make our Atonement, but He who was Holy, *Heb. vi. 26. harmless, undefiled, and feparate from Sinners*. We cannot know that He was manifefted to take away our Sins, unless we also know, that in Him is no Sin †. ti Joh. iii. 5. John i. 13. The Belief of this Truth is neceffary, not only to enfure the Original Purity of the Human Nature in our Saviour, but also to teach us, whence our own Purity and Holiness muft flow. We bring no fuch Privilege into the World. But as He was fanctified at his Conception, fo are we at our Regeneration. The fame over-fhadowing Power which formed his Human Nature, renews ours: The fame Holy Spirit afcertains us of the Remiffion of our Sins, which caufed in Him an exemption from all Sin. He was conceived not of Man, but by the Holy Ghoft: And we in our fecond Birth, are not of Blood, nor of the Will of the Fle, nor of the Will of Man, but of GOD. Which was conceived by the Holy Ghoft, bom of the Wirgin Bar I Affent unto this as a certain and infal lible Truth, that there was a certain Woman known by the Name of Mary (a), cipoufed unto Jofeph of Nazareth, which, before and after her Efpoufals, was a pure unspotted Virgin, and continuing in the fame Virginity (b), did, by the immediate Operation of the Holy Ghost, conceive within her Womb the Son of GOD, and, after the natural time of other Women, brought |