LETTER VII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS, at the New Vicarage, near the Deanery, Lewes, Sussex.

COMPANION IN TRAVAIL,

By the contents of your last I perceive that your fits of incredulity are returned upon you. I was in hopes that you had been in a great measure recovered from this disease; but epidemical disorders are not easily eradicated. In the ministry you are lifeless, in bodily sickness just ready for the grave, and in circumstances almost a bankrupt. You must think me one of Solomon's simple ones, indeed, if I can believe all this, when you do not believe one word of it yourself. I shall go on with my former subject, and not suffer the devil to employ all my time in disproving what he himself knows to be lies of his own inventing.

The damnable heresy of denying the divinity of our Lord and Saviour seems to me to render him of no use in any one of his office characters; it renders, also, his great undertaking and his finished work neither meritorious nor efficacious; for no mere creature can merit for himself, much less for

ascribed to that; "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah xliv. 20.

Nor did the incarnation of Christ bring a fourth person into the Trinity. The human nature of Christ is not a person; it is called a new thing, Jer. xxxi. 22, and a holy thing, Luke i. 35, but not a person; for the human nature of Christ never had personal subsistence, or it never did personally exist alone or of itself, but it subsisted in union with the divine person of the Son of God; and this union took place before the human nature was prepared or formed; "The Word was made flesh."

Some tell us that Christ took on him a human form from everlasting; but how he could assume a human form, when there were no human beings, is what I cannot conceive; there can be no form of a thing that never existed, any more than the sun could have a shadow from everlasting when the sun had no being. I read that Christ was found in the form of God, and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God. And this form does not mean any outward shape; for, "Who hath heard God's voice, or seen his shape?" But it means that he possessed, in the highest degree, all divine perfections which are peculiar to the divine being; "Being the brightness of his [the Father's] glory, and the express image of his person."

What has led some poor, blind, presump

tuous souls into this mistake is, the Saviour's being seen by Abraham and by Joshua in a human appearance: and by the same rule they might prove that he assumed the nature and form of angels from everlasting; for he appeared to Moses, to Jacob, and to Manoah, as an angel of God. But the truth is, Christ is neither an angel nor a man; not an angel, because he is the creator of angels: " He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire;" nor a man, for as such he never had personal subsistence or existence.

But they tell us that the human soul of Christ, and the form of a human body which Christ took from everlasting, and which they call the glory man,' and in which he appeared to the ancient patriarchs, was part of our nature; so that, when he became incarnate, he took only a human body not a reasonable soul; which they prove from these words; "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels." Human souls,' they say,' are an gelic; but he took not on him the nature of angels.' But, if this can be any proof, we shall not know what the scriptures mean by things; there is a distinction between an innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. Nor are the souls of men ever called angels, though ministers of the gospel are; but even this respects their office, not their nature; for both angels and preachers are ministers to the heirs of salvation; but preachers are only angels by office, not by nature. Nor can it be proved from the words of Christ,

another. His divine nature stamps infinite dignity on all his office characters, and so it does on all his mighty works.

His kingly office stands on this; "But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Which kingdom stands in power, and is always called the kingdom of God. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace; of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this," Isa. ix. 6, 7. Hence he is called King of Zion, and King of glory.

The merit and dignity of his priestly office proceeds on the same footing. How could any mere man's dying atone for all the transgressions that were committed under the first testament, and all the sins of God's elect under the second? Insomuch as those that are called do receive the promise of eternal inheritance, Heb. ix. 15. Hence it is asserted that by his one offering he hath perfected for ever all them that are sanctified. The dignity of his office and the merits of his oblation spring from his divine sonship. "For the law maketh men high-priests which have infirmities; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh

the Son who is consecrated for evermore," Heb.. vii. 28.

His prophetic office, and the perfection of it, proceeds on the foundation of his proper deity. "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people: all his saints are in thy hand, and they shall sit down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words," Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3. At this divine prophet's feet did Mary sit, and receive of his word, when Martha was cumbered with much serving. And in allusion to this text is Mary commended, and is said to choose the good part, which shall not be taken from her. She was a disciple that was brought up at the Lord's feet; and, as all God's children are taught of the Lord, Mary was one of his family, who could never be deprived either of the word of life which she received, nor yet of her adoption into God's family; she was an heir of promise, and a child of God. And who but the only-begotten Son could reveal and make knownGod's counsel and covenant, his good-will of purpose and of promise; his tender mercy, lovingkindness, pity, and compassion, which were but dimly known under the former dispensation? And that God is love, 1 John iv. 8, was not known, at least not recorded, under the first testament. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the