made a living soul, as doubtless Adam took his life of him; and likeness too, then he was something besides the Godhead before the Virgin conceived.

Obj. But it may be said, it was his Godhead; I answer, He was made a quickening spirit, is not appropriable to the Godhead, for that cannot be said to be made; but it may be said, Why then is he called the second Adam, that is in appear ances or manifestation? Yet, 1 Cor. xv. 47, The

second.

in the twofold points of view, the scriptures represent him as God and man, constituting one Saviour; as God he ever was and will eternally remain infinitely pure or holy. As man he is perfectly holy, therefore an increase of holiness, as it applies to him, is inadmissible. To sup pose that God can at any time be more holy than he always was, is blasphemous; to say that that Being who is perfectly holy, though not infinitely so, can be more than perfectly holy, is as irrational as it is unscriptural. In this constituted view Paul represents him as holy, harmless, and unde filed, seperate from sinners, chosen from among the people; there was therefore no act of obedi→ ence, no scene of suffering that could possibly produce a change in him, who remains the same to-day what he was yesterday, and abides the same for ever. God gave him life as man, and

he

second man is the Lord from Heaven. It is endless to consider all things, but however I say this, that to say Christ took him a nature in the Virgin's womb, is but to make that glorious person, the Son of God, from all eternity to the time of Mary, but an imaginary person or phantasm, so all that was attributed to the manhood to be but by imputation, not personal.

Fifthly. If he was a substantial person before time, then he took not his humanity from Mary;

he partook of the same that he might be qualified to suffer.

In this therefore was the love of God manifested, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him, 1 John iv. 9. The act of the Father in sending his only begotten Son into the world, independent of the end he proposed, and the circumstances under which the Son came, as the only means of accomplishing that end, would have been no proof of the greatness of that love: what swells his love "immeasurably high," is the consideration of his being constituted a sin-offering, " for he that knew (or approved) of no sin was made sin for us." This is the unshaken base upon which the propriety of that gracious act of God is grounded, not imputing their trespasses unto them."

When

so I say, if he was not a substantial person before time, the covenant was not substantial before time, so neither covenant nor person was real.

Sixthly. If Jesus Christ was the same yesterday that he is to-day, then he was a substantial person yesterday; but the former is true. Heb. xiii. 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. Besides, Christ has been often seen in human shapes, often from Adam to Mary. Now, he must either have transformed himself

into

When God, by a sovereign act of preterition passed by the iniquities of his people, when by a gracious act of oblivion, that promise was substantiated. "And their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." "Divine Justice accumulated all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of God's people, as an infinite heap, as an immense sum, in all their complicated nature, vileness, and demerit, not so much to make them known as to inflict punishment upon the Son of God for them; as it was in the riches of stupendeous grace, the pleasure of the Lord Jesus, to stand as the sinner's surety and Saviour, to pay all their debts for them; so it was the pleasure. of law and justice, to charge all the bills that were filed in the court of Heaven against them, upon the Son of God; and indeed upon the footing of his suretyship engagement for them, they.

had

into a human shape, or he must have assumed some human body, but I can believe neither; I believe he appeared in his own humanity. Gen. xviii. John viii. 56, 57. Before Abraham was I am, I am what I am, and that I am. You will say then, what think you after all this? What do you think he was before his incarnation or conception? I answer, He was that which he' was, when the thief and He were in Paradise; Luke xxiii. 43, To-day thou shalt be with me

in

had a right to present all their bills as one vast sum before him; they looked upon the Saviour as responsible, therefore law and justice drew upon him for debts of many thousands standing, and for thousand years to come. As Christ had not only engaged to make an atonement for sin past, but likewise for sins present, and sins to come, therefore he had the whole charge presented to him at once, the whole file (if I may so express it) thrown into his lap, he being the bank of Heaven, and having all the essential riches and treasures of the Deity in his nature, he was able to make full compensation to every demand, which brought upon him the sum total of all the transgression of his people. And here we are to consider, that it was not only the inany debts or trans-` gressions of a single soul that Christ engaged to bear, but the innumerable transgressions of thou

sands

in Paradise. I retort; What was that me that was in Paradise? His body was in the grave the three days; Was his humanity in the grave or in the Heavens? Was his person in the grave or in the Heavens? For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption: here is his sensual soul or life in Hell; the holy one entering corruption, yet this me is in Paradise.

Now, for our better understanding, let us con

sider

sands and thousands of million of millions, of a number that no man can number, Rev. vii. 9. All their transgressions in all their sins, were transferred unto him, and charged upon him," "when He was made sin for us, who knew no sin.”

Thus Aaron's confessing the iniquities, trans gressions, and sins of the children of Israel, overthe live goat, might be typical of the innumerable crimes that Christ bore for his people. 1.Peter ii. 24, Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And whereas it is said, that Aaron shall put the iniquities, transgressions, and sins upon the head of the goat; the which, I apprehend, is a radiant prefiguration of the transferring of our sins to Christ, of their being imputed to him and charged upon him for Christ did not only take our nature, but he likewise took

our