the 2d chapter, 10th verfe, the angels tell the shepherds, "We bring you good tidings of great joy; for unto you is born, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord."

5thly, He goes yet higher, and gives you the teftimony of the "three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit." The Father attefts it by preparing a body for. him. The Son attefts it by putting it on; he took on him the feed of Abraham; he wore it on earth for about 33 years, and from hence has carried it away to heaven with him, and from heaven declares the truth of his incarnation and death, faying, "I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death," Rev. i. 18. The Holy Ghoft attefts it, by his forming the human nature in the womb of the virgin, by his, overshadowing power. But I do not infift. The titles that are every where given him from his human nature, make this evi dent: he is called a Man, and the Son of man, a title in which he himself delights, and repeats every now and then; he is called frequently the feed of the woman, the feed of Abraham, the feed of David, a branch that sprung out of the root of Jeffe. From all which we may conclude, with the apostle, in the words of my text, that verily he took on him the feed of Abraham.

III. The third thing was, what may be imported in the expreffion of the text, of his taking on bim the feed of Abrabam!

I cannot enlarge upon fuch a fubject; only it imports,

1ft, That the human nature was upon the point of perishing with the fallen angels, till Chrift took hold of it.

2dly, It implies his pre-existence, as God, unto his actual incarnation, whereby the Socinian error falls, who affert, that he had no being till he was born of the virgin; for if so, how could he take to him the human nature? Sirs, let Arians and Socinians be for ever confounded: for our Immanuel was God, co-equal with his Father, from eternity; and, in the fulness of time, feventeen hundred and forty-two years ago, was "made of a woman: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

3dly, It implies the verity and reality of his incarnation, of which I fpoke already. His human nature was no phantom, or appearance, but the real human nature, and the whole nature of man, confifting of a true body and reasonable foul; for, fays the apostle, he verily took on him the feed of Abraham.

4thly, The expreffion implies, that it was a voluntary deed; he took on him; as a man puts on his clothes with his own hands, fo the Son of God voluntarily put on the human nature; voluntarily agreed to it in the council of peace, Pfal. xl. 8. and, from eternity, rejoiced "in the habitable parts of the earth," and he was a volunteer when it came to the execution.

5thly, It implies, that the affumption of the human nature terminates in the perfon of the Son of God. Although the other perfons, Father and Spirit, had their own peculiar agency, in forming and preparing the human nature; yet it is the Son, the fecond perfon of the glorious Trinity, that wears it: so that it cannot be faid of the Father or Holy Ghost, but only of the Son, that he " took unto him the feed of Abraham:" fo that is not an effential, but a perfonal union, between the divine and human nature.

6thly, It implies, that though the union be perfonal, yet it is without any confufion of the two natures: they ftill remain effentially distinct, although indeed, through the intimacy of the union, the properties of each nature are frequently ascribed to the whole perfon.

7thly, It implies, that it was an act of amazing love, grace, and condefcenfion, that he took our nature upon him. Hence the apoftle cries out with wonder, 1 Tim. iii. ult. "Without controverfy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh." This is fuch a depth, that the angels defire to look into it. Hence the cherubims were made with their faces pointing towards the mercy-feat.

8thly, It implies, that the human nature did not conftitute the perfon of Chrift: for here we fee that he, as a person, took the human nature to himself, or took it into his own person. If the human nature were a perfon, then he would have two perfons, as well as two natures: but this is an error long fince condemned; and the expreflion in the text bears, that it was only the nature, therefore called the feed of Abraham; agreeable to this is that, Luke i. 35. "That holy thing which fhall be born of thee:" it is not that holy perfon, but that holy thing, viz. the innocent nature of man, confitting in a true body and reafonable foul. So much for what is imported in the expreffion.

IV. The fourth in the method was, To touch a little at the importance of this matter pointed at in the word of afleveration VERILY, Verily he took not on him the nature of angels but the feed of Abraham.

It is obferved in the hiftory of the evangelifts, when our bleffed Lord is to declare any doctrine that is of great confe

quence

quence and moment, to arreft the attention of his audience, he ushers it in with a VERILY; and fometimes he doubles it with a “VERILY, VERILY, I fay unto you;" as in his discourse unto Nicodemus, concerning the neceflity of regeneration, John iii. 3. "Verily, verily, I fay unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God," fo here the apoftle, after his example, when he is afferting the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son, ushers it in with a VERILY, that we may advert to it as a thing of the last moment. The importance of it will appear, if we confider that this point of the incarnation, or union of the two natures, was the main leading matter that was upon the carpet, in the council of peace, between the Father and the Son: it was the hardest thing to be determined and effected; and that without it, nothing could be done, for the redemption and falvation of loft finners of Adam's family. There were three things that juftice demanded, in order to the falvation of loft man: 1ft, That the human nature be prefented to God, in its original purity, without fpot or blemish. 2dly, That the holy law be perfectly obeyed, and the honour of it maintained. 3dly, That feeing the law is broken, the penalty of it, or its curfe, be endured by one in man's nature, whofe blood must be of infinite value for the fatisfaction of juftice. Well, in this cafe, the eternal Son of God looked, and "there was none to help or uphold, and therefore his own arm brought falvation." Come (fays he unto his Father), fince there is no facrifice nor offering that will pleafe, Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will; a body haft thou prepared for me, in the feed of Abraham; I will put it on, and fatisfy all thefe hard demands of juftice: I, as a fecond Adam, a public head and reprefentative of the feed thou haft given me, will present the human nature entire in my own perfon; and will, through my fanctifying Spirit in them, prefent them alfo unto thee, at the end of time, without fpot or blemith, or any fuch thing. I alfo, as their Covenant-head and Surety, will, in their nature, fulfil the whole law as a covenant, and bring in an everlasting righteoufnefs for their juftification, and write it as a rule upon their hearts, and, by my Spirit put within them, will cause them to walk in my ftatutes. And becaufe juftice demands. that the fame nature that finned fhould alfo fuffer, therefore I will give my human nature a facrifice for their fin; I will be wounded for their iniquities, bruifed for their tranfgreffions: of my hand shalt thou require the debt that they owe to juftice.' In a word (for I cannot infift), the incarnation of the Son of God is fuch a material and important matter, that without it the whole bufinefs of man's falvation and redemption ceases for ever; all the other fupernatural myfteries of our holy religion

turn

turn upon it, as a hinge : take this away, and immediately the doctrine of his obedience to the law, and death upon the crofs; his refurrection, afcenfion, and interceffion; all fall to the ground together: but the apoftle here, to certify us of it, tells us, Verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the feed of Abraham.

V. The fifth thing was to make fome improvement of this doctrine. It would admit of a large application; but I must needs cut fhort, because of the work that we have before us.

Ufe firft fhall be of information, in the few particulars following. Is it fo, that when God paffed by the nature of angels, be took on him the feed of Abraham? Then,

If, See hence the wondrous love of God unto mankind finners, that he preferred our nature unto the nature of angels; he paffed them by, and pitched upon the human nature, and joined it to himself, in the perfon of his eternal Son. There is fuch an amazing and aftonishing love here, as would fill, our hearts with wonder, and our tongues with hallelujahs of praife, if we but faw it in the light of the Lord, and had it "thed abroad upon our hearts; furely God is love; for he fo loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him fhould not perish, but have everlafting life."

2dly, See hence how unjust and unreasonable the enmity of the heart of man against God is, Shall we hate that God who paffed by the nature of angels, and took on him the feed of Abraham ? It cannot be fuppofed that the fallen angels would have treated him fo, if he had paffed by our nature, and pitched upon their nature, and become a God-angel, instead of a God-man; yet this folly is in the heart of every finner by nature; "the carnal mind is enmity against God."

3dly, See hence the monflrous ingratitude of Arians, Socinians, and others, who take occafion from his affumption of the human nature, and becoming his Father's fervant in the great bufinefs of man's redemption, to difparage him, as if he were but an inferior deity, not one and the fame God, in effence and fubftance with the Father. Oh! "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the ftreets of Afkelon," that such blafphemies have been vented against the great God our Saviour, and fo little refentment difcovered against the blafphemer, i the fupreme ecclefiaftical court of this national church, constitute in his name and authority. But whatever others do, let us this day acknowledge, that Jefus Chrift is the Lord Jehovah, to the praise and glory of his eternal Father, who fent him,

not

not to take on him the nature of angels, but the human nature, in the feed of Abraham.

4thly, See hence to what a pitch of honour the human nature is raised, by its ftanding in a perfonal union with the infinite Jehovah, in the perfon of the Son of God. When we take a view of our nature as it stood in the first Adam, even in innocency, why, the spirit of God declares by the pfalmift, that even in its best estate it was altogether vanity, being but a fallible creature: but view the nature of man in his fallen ftate, we fee him lying in a "horrible pit, and miry clay," an object of abhorrence to God and all his holy angels; he is wholly "corrupt and filthy," fit for nothing but to become fuel for the fire of divine wrath: and yet for an infinitely holy and righteous God to take that nature out of the dunghill, and join it into a perfonal union with his eternal and only begotten Son, why, this is a brighter crown of glory by far fet upon the human nature, than ever Adam wore in innocency; yea, a greater honour than ever was conferred upon the nature of angels. Oh! how may this make every one of us to cry, "What hath God wrought? O what is man, that thou art fo mindful of him? and what the fon of man, that thou art fo kind unto him."

5thly, See hence the excellency of the perfon of our glorious Redeemer, whofe death we are this day called to commemorate. I remember the daughters of Jerufalem put a question unto the fpoufe, Cant. v. "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" Why, Sirs, there is fomething in the perfon of Christ, that is not to be feen in any perfon in heaven or in earth. What is that? fay you: Why, in his perfon is to be feen God and man linked in a perfonal union; "God manifested in the flesh, is the great mystery" of the Chriftian religion. Look to God in the perfon of the Father, look to God in the perfon of the Holy Ghost, and you see indeed the great God, who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wifdom, power, holiness, &c. But then, look to God in the perfon of the Son, who is the fame God with both, and you fee the human nature; there you fee "Immanuel, God-man, God with us, God reconciling the world unto himfelf, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them, but pardoning iniquity, tranfgreflion, and fin." O Sirs, a God in Chrift will be the admiration of faints and angels through eternity; and it is a view of this perfon that fills the mouths of all the faints with praife, faying, "Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips; he is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand," &c.

6thly, See hence the criminal nature of the fin of unbelief,