sins of the world, and we of all men must be most miserable. The Godhead cannot suffer; but the Godhead being united to the manhood, added an infinite value to the sacrifice made upon the cross by the God-man Jesus Christ the righte ous, who is the propitiation, or atonement, for our sins. Christ suffered both in soul and body: his human soul underwent inconceivable anguish, as we learn from his mournful complaints in the garden of Gethsemane; and his body did the same when nailed to the accursed tree, as well as when he was buffetted, spit upon, and ornamented in derision with a crown of sharp-piercing thorns. But it was, as I have observed, the personal union of the divine with the human nature, that added an infinite value to his cruel and ignominious sufferings, In what manner the union of the two natures is effected, or the mode of their existence, is what we cannot by any means comprehend; it refuses to yield to the force of our finite and very limit,

1

ed capacities. If, indeed, it could, as to its mode, be understood, it would cease to be, what the Scriptures declare it to be, a mystery. But because the mode of the existence of the three Persons in one Godhead cannot be comprehended, many reject the doctrine, such as the Socinians and Arians: the former looking upon Christ only as an illustrious prophet and fellow-mortal; the latter, esteeming him indeed as the first of created essences, but not himself uncreate, and consequently not God. But if our understanding, my brethren, is to be the standard to which divine truths, or even natural truths, are to be referred, how many self-evident realities must we reject, because we cannot comprehend the mode of their existence? It is a selfevident truth, standing in need of no demonstration, that body and soul exist in the same human being; but is there any one among the wisest of men who can tell us how they exist, and how they act upon each other? All who give

credit to the word of God must allow, that the Holy Spirit acts upon the human spirit in conversion, and after conversion to produce in the heart and conduct all the virtues and graces of the Christian life but can any person tell how the Holy Spirit acts except from his effects? Of the mode none can form any just idea; as our Lord himself has informed us in the conversation with Nicodemus, who was confounded at the doctrine of regeneration, because he could not understand how these things could be:"

"The wind," says our Lord, “bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Can any one inform us of the mode, or tell us how the vegetation of a single grain of corn is carried on-first to produce the grass, and then the ear replete with a number of grains of corn, similar as to kind with that which was first sown in the ground? Our not under

standing the mode of the unity of the Godhead with the manhood, should therefore be no greater cause why we should reject the truth of it, than our not understanding the mode of those things just alluded to, or indeed of most truths in the natural world, should be for rejecting them as truths, though we know them to be such.

Scripture has in the plainest and most unequivocal manner declared Christ to be both God and man; and therefore it becomes the bounden duty of every person, who allows the divine inspiration of the word of God, to yield it implicit faith. God's word must be true; we may safely, therefore, give it full and unreserved credit in this most important and truly essential doctrine, and rest satisfied without doubt or cavil, that Christ Jesus is both God and man.

I. It is our immediate business, in considering the words of our text, to show that Christ partook of flesh and blood, or, in other words, was very man.

And here the only ground on, which we shall stand is Scripture ground. If the Scriptures declare Christ to be man, or to be partaker of flesh and blood, we must yield an unwavering assent: we believe it, for man is not wiser than God: "yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;” as indeed they will be found if they gainsay or resist his holy word. And here I shall endeavour to prove the Apostle's assertion, not by bringing such a multitude of texts as may serve unnecessarily to burden your memories, or weary your patience; but by adducing only a few, and those so express and so direct to the purpose, as to carry convic tion home to every one who esteems the word of God to be the infallible standard of every religious doctrine.

Turn to the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, ver. 14, where we find this strong testimony in our favour: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace