Tubfiftence as the divine Word effentially unites him with God; his glorious foul ftands related to the whole spiritual creation of angels and men ; yet, formed for union with his divine perfon on the one hand, and his human body on the other, it both rises above angels, and yet condefcends by its union with a human body to clafs with men, and fo gives Chrift in a special manner the nature of man.

But as all these excellent natures are united in Chrift, fo they are all united in him in their highest perfection. As God, he is the Moft High God, equal with the other divine fubfiftences in the Godhead; for there are no degrees, and no differences in an infinite being. As a created fpirit, his foul in nature is allied to all created fpirits; yet in excellence and perfection is fuperior to them all. As man, he poffeffes the fame specific nature with all his brethren; but that human nature is raised to the highest excellence and glory, of which it is fufceptible, and from its co-existence with the divinity, to a dignity which the highest of creation can never enjoy. Uniting these natures, he unites their perfections; and uniting thefe natures in their highest pitch of perfection, he unites all their perfections in the highest degree. Every divine and infinite perfection, of eternal existence, infinite effence, all-fufficient fulness, omnipotent power, omnifcient knowledge, infallible wifdom, invariable rectitude, and boundlefs goodness, effential to the Deity, and poffeffed by the other co-effential fubfiftences in that Deity, are in the fame fupreme degree poffeffed by the Son. All thofe finite, yet glorious excellences, conferred by the Father of being and perfection on his created children, and resembling thofe in their all-perfect Father, are in their

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highest degree bestowed upon him, who, in preeminence above the whole creation, is his begotten, his only begotten Son. As he is the conjunction of univerfal being, fo he is also the affemblage of all perfection. No wonder then that the first character given of him by the prophet, fhould be Wonderful, Ifai. ix. 6. or that the first article ftated by the apoftle in the mystery of godlinefs, fhould be this, "God manifefted "in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16. for every species of nature, infinite and finite, felf-exiftent and created, every fpecies of excellent effence and perfection, divine, angelic and human, by the most mysterious conjunction are united in the perfon of the Son of God.

Thus uniting all being in the conftitution of his perfon, this glorious Immanuel becomes the grand connecting bond between God and creation, and of the different parts of creation with each other. God is connected with the univerfe as its Creator, Preferver, and Lord; and by this their common Maker and Lord, and the beautiful dependence and gradation he hath establifhed through the great fyftem, are all the parts of it closely connected. By all these tyes does Chrift, as God, connect the various parts of creation; for by him were all

things created, and by him do they all confift," Col. i. 16, 17. But the grand connecting bond between God and creation, and between the different parts of creation with one another, is the Son of God. What the Stoics of old, and Spinozifts of late, falfely held as to the union. between God and the universe, holds in a high degree in God's Son our Saviour; here God is embodied with a created nature; here he is connected with the spiritual system in the union of

the

the divine Word with Chrift's human foul, Spirit finite with infinite, human with divine; and through its connection with his human body, he is connected, though lefs closely, with the material fyftem. But as he connects God with creation, and creation with God, fo he connects the great parts of creation one with another. His human nature, though specifically the loweft, yet in that fuper-eminent excellence in which he hath affumed it, ranks too with every fuperior order of created intelligences, and furpaffes far the highest of them; yet from the highest to the loweft connects the whole, gives them a nearer relation to God and to each other, and lays a firmer ground of friendship with both, than otherwife had been enjoyed. In fhort, this glorious perfon fills up the infinite chaẩm, and forms the connecting link in the chain of univerfal being, between God and his creation. Or like the head in the human fyftem, that unites the fpirit with its inferior animal body, poffeffes the nature of both, and all the qualities of both, and all these qualities in their highest perfection, and is the established bond of union and intercourse between the whole, fo is the second perfon in the Godhead united with our nature. He connects God with creation, and creation with God; the intellectual with the material, and the various orders of created intelligences with each other, in bands that shall never be diffolved. Jefus is the Son at once of God and of man, and the cement of everlafting union betwixt them. This begotten Son connects the divine Father of the universe in clofer and more endearing conjunction with his created children; and by the conftitution of his mediatorial perfon, as well as by the exercise of his mediatorial offices, is form

ed to unite God and his creation, in love and friendship that fhall endure for ever. This our Saviour himself intimates, when he thus prays to his Father in behalf of his church, "that they "all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and "I in thee, that they alfo may be one in us. "I in them and thou in me, that they may be "made perfect in one, and that the world may "know that thou hast sent me, and haft loved "them, as thou haft loved me," John xvii. 21, 23. This the apostle declares at large, when he affures us, it was the purpose of God, that in "the difpenfation of the fulness of times, he "might gather together in one, or reunite under

one head," as the word avanepaλawo ao dai fignifies, "all things in Chrift, both which are in "heaven, and which are on earth, even in him," Eph. i. 10. "For in him it pleased the Father,

that all fulness fhould dwell, and having made "peace through the blood of his crofs, by him. "to reconcile all things to himself, even by him, "whether they be things on earth, or things in "heaven," Col. i. 19, 20. But this naturally brings us forward from the perfon to the offices of the Son of God, which is to be the fubject of the next chapter.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Of the great and important Offices the Son of God was to execute.

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HEN an extraordinary perfon is, by divine appointment, fent forth into the world, fome adequate end muft needs be designed by it; for the allwife Creator and ruler of the univerfe can do nothing in vain. The most extraordinary perfon that ever appeared in the world, was the Son of God. In him deity and humanity, the creator and an abridgment of his creation, are united, and co-exift in the fame perfon; and this, perfon, though infinitely the higheft and holieft that ever partook a created nature, was fubjected, as we fhall fee, to the deepest abasement and fufferings that ever were endured. This moft wonderful phænomenon, in the moral world, hath employed the fcrutiny, not only of human but angelic minds, from its first exhibition, and muft excite the mingled wonder, fatisfaction, and joy of God's rational creation to endlefs ages. But, though no finite intelligence fhall ever be able fully to comprehend the conftitution of this glorious perfon, and all the great defigns effected by his agency; yet, every candid and difcerning mind, that attends to the various offices divine and human he was to perform, and to the honour thence refulting to God and the happiness to his creatures, must be convinced, that a perfon only who was God and Man could perform thele offices, and that this whole scheme is not only

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