Thould gain any exaltation by receiving, after his refurrection and afcenfion, a bright refplendent human body, and being made the King and Lord of all good men in this world, and the judge of mankind, and, if you please to add likewise, being made higher than the angels, to whom, according to the same hypothesis, he was vastly superior before. ·

But to speak my mind freely, I now entirely dif like that scheme, and think it all amazing through out, and irreconcileable to reafon.

However, that we may not take up any prejudices from apprehenfions, which our own reafon might

existed, from the beginning, a fecond Divine Person, which is his Word or Son."

Page 297. § xxvi. By the operation of the Son, the Father both made and governs the world."

Page 298. xxvii. Concerning the Son, there are other things fpoken in Scripture, and the highest titles are afcribed to him, even fuch as include all divine powers, excepting abfolute independency and fupremacy."

A part of Mr. Peirce's Paraphrafe upon Col. i. 15. 16. is in these words: "and fince he was the firft Being that was derived from the Father. And that he must be the firft derived from Him, is hence evident, that all other beings were derived from God, the primary and fupreme caufe of all, through his Son, by whom, as their immediate Author, all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, &c."

might afford, I fhall fufpend all inquiries of that fort, and will immediately enter upon the confideration of what the Scriptures fay of the perfon of our Saviour.

He is called a man in many places of the Gospels. And every body took him for a man, during his abode on this earth, when he converfed with all forts of people, in the most free and open manner. He frequently ftiles himself the Son of man. He is also faid to be the fon of David, and the son of Abraham. He is called a man, even after his afcenfion. Acts xvii. 31. He has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs, by that man whom he has ordained. 1 Tim. ii. 5. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus. And St. Peter to the Jews at Jerufalem. Acts ii. 22. Ye men of Ifrael, hear these words, Jefus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and figns, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.

Now if Jefus Christ be a man, he confifts of a human foul and body. For what else is a man?

This title and appellation of man being so often and fo plainly given to our Saviour, muft needs lead us to think, that he was properly man, unless there are fome expreffions of another kind, that are decifive to the contrary. But we find, that he is not only called a man, but is we are, or like to us.

also faid to be a man as Hebr. ii. 17. Therefore in

in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his

brethren.

brethren. iv. 15. We have not an High-Prieft, which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without fin. And fee the fecond chapter of that epiftle throughout.

Befide thefe plain expreffions, defcribing our Lord to be a man, and like to us; this point may be argued from a great number and variety of particulars related in the New Teftament. For two Evangelifts have recorded our Lord's Nativity. St. Paul fays: God fent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Gal. iv. 4. If it was expedient, that our Saviour fhould be born into the world, as we are, and live in infancy, and grow up to manhood, as we do, and be liable to all the bodily wants, weakneffes, and disasters, to which we are exposed; muft it not have been as needful, or more needful, and as conformable to the divine wifdom, that he fhould be alfo like unto us, in the other part, of which we are composed, a human foul, or spirit [2]. Moreover,

[2] "And when we fay, that perfon was conceived and born: we declare, he was made really and truly man, of the fame human nature, which is in all other men. For the Mediator between God and men is the

man Chrift Jefus. 1 Tim. ii. 5.

That fince by man

came death, by man also should come the resurrection of the dead. 1 Cor. xv. 21. As fure, then, as the first

B

Adam,

Moreover, this fuppofition does beft, if not only, account for our bleffed Saviour's temptation, and every part of it. For how was it poffible, that he fhould be under any temptation, to try the love of God to him, by turning stones into bread, or by cafting himself down from a pinnacle of the temple? How could all the glories of this world, and the kingdoms

Adam, and we who are redeemed, are men; so certainly is the fecond Adam, and our Mediator, man. He is therefore frequently called the Son of man, and in that nature he was always promised: first to Eve, as her feed, and confequently, her fon: then to Abraham. And that feed is Chrift. Gal. iii. 16. and fo the fon of Abraham: next to David, and confequently, of the fame nature with David, and Abraham.

as he was their son, so are we his

fcendants from the fame father Adam.

And

brethren, as de

And therefore it

behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. For he laid not hold on the angels, but on the feed of Abraham. Hebr. ii. 16. 17. And fo became not an angel, but a

man.

"As then man confifteth of two different parts, body and foul, fo does Christ. . . . And certainly, if the Son of God would vouchfafe to take the frailty of our flesh, he would not omit the nobler part, our foul, without which he could not be man. For Jefus encreafed in wisdom, and ftature: one in respect of his body, the other of his foul. Luke ii. 52." Pearson upon the Greed. Art. iii. p. 159. 160. the fourth edition. 1676.

kingdoms of it, be any temptation to him, who had made all things under the Supreme Being? Had he forgot the glory and power, which he once had? If that could be fuppofed, and that this want of memory of past things ftill remained; it might be as well supposed, that he had no remembrance of the orders which he had received from God, and of the commiffion with which God the Father had fent him into the world.

The fuppofition, of Chrift being a man, does alfo best account for his agony in the garden [3], and B 2

the

[3] Luke xxii. 44. And being in an agonie. . . . Kar gevoμevos ev afurra.] I would put the question, whether it might not be thus tranflated? And being under great concern. I will transcribe here a paffage of an ancient writer, representing the anxiety, or folicitude, of Julius Cefar, and others, when Octavius Cefar, then a young man, had a dangerous fickness. Kaλews de diaxeipers, πανίες μεν εν φόβῳ ησαν, αγωνιωνίες ει τι πεισεται τοιαύτη φύσις, μαλιςα δε πανίων ο Καισαρ. Διο πασαν ημεραν η αύλος παρών αύλω ευθυμίαν παρείχεν, η φιλος πεμπων, ιαίρες τε αποσαλειν 8x εων. Και ποτε δειπνων ηγειλε τις, ως εκλύος είη, και χαλεπως εχει. Ο δε εκπηδήσας ανυποδηλος ηκεν ενθα ενοσηλευείο, και των ιατρων εδείτο εμπαθέςαία μέσος ων αγωνίας, και αυτος waрexatno. x. 2. Nic. Damafcen. De Inftitutione Cafaris Augufti Ap. Vales. Excerpta. p. 841.

I have observed, that fome learned men feem ftudiously to have avoided the word agonie in their translations. In the Latin Vulgate is: Et factus in agonia.

But