those who cut his work short, and exhibit it as some holiday enjoyment, or incomprehensible action, instead of a comprehensible self-inflicted degradation, for the end of meeting sin in its own strong-hold, and redeeming both soul and body from its dominion.

In these overwhelming feelings of my soul for the honour of the Lord my Saviour, and for the only one faith of the church, I forget, and am not willing for a moment to speak of, the indignities which I have suffered from some of my brethren in the church, who should both have known the truth better, and believed better of me their brother. As to the blame of those who are sectaries and schismatics; who have forsaken the orthodox churches wherein they were baptized, and fight against them (I mean, the Coles and the Haldanes); I count their opposition an honour to me: forasmuch as they have been found opposed to the truth, and to the church, the pillar and ground of the truth. They are to me as heathen men and publicans; and that they should oppose the orthodox faith is no wonder, although it be a grief to me that they should be found in the condition of excommunicated persons, whom I do desire to reclaim and recover, and would fain lend my help thereto. But, leaving all these, as private and personal matters, not to be brought forward in great questions of universal concernment, I proceed to do my part, according to my gift, for the common weal of the body of Christ.

Weighing with myself what I hear, and diligently perusing what is written, against this great head of orthodox doctrine, and being most desirous to convince the wavering, it seems to me that the best method of viewing the subject at present is, First, to begin with some explanation or exposition of the true doctrine; Secondly, to open the subject of the miraculous conception, in the mystery of which many worthy people seem to lose themselves; Thirdly, to shew its bearing upon the subject of the atonement, which many pious people seem to think is overthrown by it altogether; and to conclude with some endeavour to restore those who have been brought into a wavering state, by the violent and indiscriminate attacks which the truth hath been assailed with in these most ignorant days. And now, may the Lord, whose perilous work in flesh I am defending; and that God, the glory of whose grace I am maintaining, help me with all gravity and love to unfold this matter to the church!

1. To know and to understand how the Son of God took sinful flesh and yet was sinless, this is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the ending, of orthodox theology. There is not a hint in all Scripture of any change that passed upon Christ's flesh in its conception, or at any other time anterior to the resurrection, so as that it should not be flesh of our flesh-flesh of the same

kind with that of the brethren-and, therefore, there is not the shadow of a reason in all Scripture for such a supposition. It is worse than idle to quote to this effect Rom. viii. 3, where it is said, "In the likeness of sinful flesh;" when in Phil. ii. 7 it is said, "He was made in the likeness of men;" and in Heb. iii. 17 it is said, "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren ;" and in Gen. v. 3 it is said, "Adam begat a son in his own likeness;" and I may say, every where in Scripture the same word is used in the same sense. I say then it is worse than idle, it is dishonest, to make Rom. viii. 3 speak the very opposite of what the words of the Apostle bear. His words are, That the Law, which in itself is holy and just and good, could not work in us holiness, because of the weakness of the flesh, which weakness is its essential nature as under the Law; therefore God sent his own son in the likeness of it (As Cain was in Adam's likeness, and as Adam was originally in God's likeness, so the Son of God came in likeness of sinful flesh)-and for sin-(about sin; sin was the object he came about-namely, to put it away out of flesh altogether; and having met it, and encountered it in flesh, he did extirpate it and exclude it thence)-he condemned the sin in the flesh. And having done this in his life, he entered into glory in flesh free from sin, and consequently free from death and free from corruption; and, being endued with the Spirit of the life, he sheds life abroad into his people, and constitutes in them a law of the Spirit, which makes them free from the law of the flesh, which is the law of sin and death. This passage being taken out of injurious hands, I ask in all Scripture for a hint, or the shadow of a reason, to induce us to believe that Christ's flesh was different from ours. And, on the other hand, I say, that every passage of Scripture which declares Christ to have come in the flesh, which declareth the Word to be made flesh, which declareth God to be manifested in the flesh, is a proof total and complete that he came in sinful flesh. For what is the meaning of flesh in Scripture? Is it not the sinful, mortal, corruptible, fleeting thing, of which it is said, "all flesh is grass;" of which it is said, "the flesh warreth against the spirit;" of which it is said " in it (in the flesh) dwelleth no good thing?" If, then, it be said that Christ came in flesh, who shall dare to interpret that word, "flesh," otherwise than all Scripture doth interpret it? who shall interpret it otherwise than sinful flesh? What would they say if I were to allege, that because it is merely said Christ came into the world, and not into the sinful world, it was not a sinful world into which he came? Now, with what constancy the world and the earth are represented as full of sin, with that constancy is flesh also so represented. And if it be said, that "every spirit that con

fesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God," and “this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now is already in the world," what shall we say of those hordes of sectaries who have risen up around us, and proclaim, in their several slanderous publications, that it is a heresy that Jesus Christ came in sinful flesh? I say of them, what St. John saith in his Second Epistle, ver. 7: "Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a deceiver, and an antichrist." And the rule which, by the blessing of God, I will observe towards all such men, is contained in the 10th and 11th verses of the same chapter: If there come any unto you,

and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." This injunction I consider as laid upon all Christians, towards all preachers who will not confess that Jesus Christ is come in flesh.

I cannot find even the shadow of a reason for this fearful delusion. Certain it is he was "made of a woman (Gal. iv. 7): his substance, then, was woman's flesh, and that is sinful. Certainly he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. i. 3), and the seed of David is sinful. Certainly he apprehended not the angels, but the seed of Abraham he apprehended (Heb. ii. 16); and the seed of Abraham is sinful. Certainly he was "made under the law" (Gal. iv. 4); and the law is not for a righteous thing, but for a sinful thing: "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Certainly he was in the state of knowing both good and evil; and that is the state under the Fall, and not above it. Certainly he was mortal; for to this end took he flesh and blood with the brethren, " that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death ;" and mortality doth not belong to a sinless, but a sinful substance. Certainly " he was made sin for us, who knew no sin." Certainly he bare our sins, and carried our diseases; which belong not to the human nature above the Fall, but under the Fall. Certainly "he was tempted in all points like as we are," which Adam verily was not. Certainly there was a will in him which he contradistinguisheth from the will of the Father; and which, I say, was the will of the flesh; which in itself is contrary to the will of the Father, but which he ever overruled to the obedience of the Father's will. Certainly he suffered; certainly he was agonized; certainly he was made perfect by suffering; certainly he lifted up supplications, with strong cryings and tears, to be delivered from death. Certainly he hath shewn us an ensample, that we should follow his steps. Certainly the crucifixion of his flesh was the crucifixion of our flesh : 66 we are crucified with him." Certainly the resurrection of his flesh was

the resurrection of our flesh: "we are quickened together with him." And in the face of all these certainties, if a man will say, that his flesh was not sinful flesh as ours is, with the same dispositions and propensities and wants and afflictions, then I say, God hath sent that man strong delusion, that he should believe a lie.

I have some pity, yea, I have much pity, for the ignorant multitude, whom these blind guides are deceiving unto their destruction; and for their sakes I would endeavour to explain this matter, how Christ, taking sinful flesh, was yet sinless. We shall see, in the second part of this essay, how the miraculous conception doth avoid from him the imputation of personal guilt, and the constitution of being born in dependence upon a Redeemer. Well, then, from his conception every acting of his mind was holy, and every acting also of his flesh; but this not in its proper nature, but through the constraining and enforcing power of his mind, or soul, united to the Godhead, and inhabited by the Holy Ghost. I suppose every man doth allow that the will is necessary to an act of sin. The flesh by tyrannical force may be used to tempt the will, through the infliction of suffering; through the presentation of objects which it naturally desireth, as food when it is hungry; but if the will consent not, though the flesh be inclined, there is no sin. Christ's will endured these temptations exactly as mine doth; "he was tempted in all points, like as I am;" but he yielded not to the temptations, and was therefore without sin. Hunger in the flesh, was that by which the devil tempted him to make the stones of the wilderness into bread desire of the eye, and pride of life, and love of power and dominion in the flesh and in the mind, was that with which the devil tempted him when he shewed him the kingdoms of the world, and proffered him them all if he would but fall down and worship him familiarity with God, and idle challenge of his help, and unwarrantable use of his word, and spiritual delusion, was what the devil applied himself to, when he tempted him from the pinnacle of the temple. But in all these instances his will, never consenting, abode in its integrity and righteousness. Now, if there had not been in Christ's nature, appetites, and ambitions, and spiritual darkenings, how, I ask, could the devil have addressed these temptations to his will? The devil did not surely both tempt him and make him temptable: the devil knew already wherein he was temptable, and, addressing himself thereto, was utterly foiled. Now, will any one say, that if these liabilities to temptation were in Christ at one time, they were not in him at all times? And were the objects not before him at all times? were not his appetites of the body craving their natural food? was not the world spread before him in all its attractiveness? did not the flesh hide from him, as it doth hide from us, the

sight of God, and bring him into the condition of living by faith, even as we do? Will any one say that Adam's appetite of hunger caused him pain, or that his lips were parched with thirst, or that his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth, or that his heart was melted like wax within him? Will any one say that Adam, lord of all, could be tempted with kingdoms and dominions, which were his own? or that any doubt, darkness, or difficulty could hide from him the sight and knowledge of God? Then is the distinction between unfallen and fallen creature wholly done away with; and God is made the Creator of a weak, impotent, unhappy creature. But, while Christ's flesh, being liable to temptation-not as Adam's was, but as Abraham's and David's and Mary's was-was tortured by the devil, and the world, and wicked men, in all possible ways in which his mind could be swayed from its perfect unity with the Divine mind, he never consented unto the evil, but always preferred the good; and by the power of his will constrained tongue, hand, foot, eye, ear, and every member, to do the very will of God.

Moreover, there is far more in the flesh, and the power of the flesh, and the law of the flesh, than men do generally in these days suppose. It is thought to include only the grosser crimes of sense, which are enumerated Gal. v. 19namely, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness; but in the same place are also enumerated idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings;-to all these sins a man is tempted through the flesh; otherwise they would not be called "fruits of the flesh :" and the will of the flesh is to do all these things; and when we consent to that will of the flesh, we commit sin. But if we consent not, we commit not sin. If any one say, that by being merely tempted and temptable through the flesh we commit sin, then doth he destroy all distinction between a saint, who overcomes the flesh, and a sinner, who is overcome of the flesh: for I suppose no one will allege that the flesh of a saint differeth in any thing from the flesh of a sinner; -at least, I know Paul doth not allege so, who saith, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Well, then, if sin consisteth not in having temptable flesh, but in yielding to the temptation, our Lord sinned not, though ever tempted through the flesh, because he yielded not to the temptation; and being so, that in the constitution of his person original sin was avoided, and that in the whole of his life actual sin was avoided; he was in all things sinless, though laden with sinful flesh. "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin."

Finally, for the exposition of this great matter, be it diligently considered, that though the flesh of Christ was in all points liable to temptation, as our flesh is, and did carry up to the mind