SECTION XXXVI.

ON THE TWOFOLD NATURE OF CHRIST.

We must be careful how we indulge an idle curiosity in religion, and how far we permit our carnal reasoning to interfere with our believing; enlightened reason never concludes that to be false which is above its reach, nor deems that incredible which it cannot comprehend; it admires the superior light of revelation, when it transcends its weak faculties; it believes that to be possible with God, which is inconceivable and incomprehensible by man, it holds the necessity of mysteries in religion, and indeed, a religion without a mystery, is a religion without a God! Heathen worship has nothing mysterious in it, and from this cause it is all abject idolatry; try, therefore, to have your reason always under the influence of revelation, and pray that it may become its best hand-maid; yield it up cheerfully, and with entire subserviency to the doctrines of free grace in Christ. You do well to seek correct views of the person of Christ, they are essential to your comfort; unworthy thoughts of him form one fruitful cause of our perpetual wanderings from him, but when in all things Christ has the pre-eminence, and is seen by the eye of faith, in all his beauty and excellency, our souls are much drawn out to him in love, and we are gra

ciously disposed to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. It was a glorious view of the true character of Jehovah that formed an influential principle in the mind of Abraham; the reason assigned by the Holy Spirit for his forsaking his country, his kindred, and his father's house, is that the "God of glory appeared unto him;" and nothing in a higher degree influences the conduct, or leads to greater acts of self-denial, than exalted views of the person and glory of the great Emanuel.

In whatever respect we contemplate the twofold nature of Christ, its practical bearing will be found of the last importance; indeed, it is a cardinal point in the christian system; our salvation, no less than our present comfort, depends upon its full admission. If our Lord had never assumed our nature, it is evident he had remained what he was before the world began, namely, the second person in Jehovah; in that case, he had always been our enemy, for in the Trinity of persons, there is unity of design and purpose; what the Father feels or determines, so does the Son, and the Holy Ghost likewise ; hence Christ, instead of being our elder brother and our friend, had continued from everlasting to everlasting, without reconciliation, through the obstinacy of our will, the depravity of our nature, and corruption of our hearts; on the other hand, if the Lord Jesus were no more than mere man, in that case, like ourselves, he had been the party offending, he had been under the covenant of works, and in the self-same condemnation with ourselves; and far from meriting eter

nal life, he had only deserved eternal death; and instead of being the alone all-sufficient and selfsufficient Saviour of the world, he would only be the greatest impostor in the world, and, therefore, the circumstance of his possessing a twofold nature, "perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul, and flesh subsisting," was necessary, in order to constitute him a mediator, to go between two parties, the offending and the of fended-and by this means to unite heaven and earth, and so make peace; for, as God, he could treat with the God of heaven, and as man, he could undertake our redemption, being capable of suffering, and making full satisfaction to an offended law for our sin.

This union also, which he has with the Father and with us conjointly, enables him to bring the mind of God down to us, and to convey our minds, circumstances, and case to God; according to the fulness that now dwells in him for distribution, and so far as the capacity of the reasonable soul of Christ can go, he can enter into our finite capacities and wants, and, partaking of both natures, he can be a constant channel of communication between both; in his humanity, he knows what is in man, and in his divinity, he knows what is in God, and this gives him the high prerogative which he claims, viz. of showing, and making all that he has heard of the Father known to us; and assuredly, as the God-man, he must have heard both great and glorious things of the Father, inasmuch as he is the wisdom of the Father, and the living epistle of his love; he had a secret being with

him, before he had an open and visible being with us; he was with him from all eternity, and he shall be with him to all eternity; he is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last of all God's words and thoughts, all have their beginning and ending in him,—who, therefore, would not wish to know such a Saviour, and, by that means, know the mind of God?

It is difficult to say from which of the above relations, we, as Christians, derive most instruction, or reap most of comfort; our happiness lies in neither of his natures, separately considered, but only in the union of both, for if Christ had been presented to us in Scripture only, as the great self-existent God, we should all in that case have stood as if we were anatomized before him, our every vein and sinew of thought had been exposed to his view; he who made our hearts, had known what was in them; but what encouragement could we have derived from this consideration? the thought might have raised our ideas, as it respects his greatness; it might have filled us with an overpowering sense of his majesty, or have struck us with reverence and awe! but where had been the well-head of spiritual consolation? where our encouragements? and where could we have gone for the unfailing tides of heavenly bliss to overflow the soul? But in the assumption of our nature, we can rest on him, not only as the sure foundation of all hope, but he by this means becomes a part and parcel of ourselves; he is clothed with our flesh, he is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh;" he is now, not only, if I may so speak, in the inside

of us as God, but he feels for us as man feels! In his divine nature, we cannot move without him, being the great supporting cause of our being; and in his human nature, we cannot suffer without a correspondent feeling being excited in his soul, and on this union our happiness, no less than present comfort, depends.

We may not be able to understand this mystical union, but shall we on that account dare to disbelive it? Do not we all, in subordinate matters, believe things to be true, daily, far more than we know to be true; and are we not quite right in so believing? And does not this circumstance show that perfect knowledge is unnecessary, and not an integral part of belief? Are not things of greatest magnitude taken upon credit? Is not this universe itself a great object? and is it not by faith, which is the perfection of reason, that we understand that the world that now is, was not made of things that do appear? (2 Peter iii. 5.) but if we are to believe nothing but what we can fully understand, and bring down to the level of our capacity, our alphabet must henceforth be shortened, and our vocabulary of words very contracted indeed.

Moreover, it must ever be remembered, that what are insuperable difficulties with us, are none whatever with God; every thing above, beneath, and around, is surprising, and many things we come in contact with, are almost incredible; but though they may seem incredible, are they therefore impossible?

While, therefore, on the one hand, we are apt to conceive of difficulties which do not exist, we,