Sermon 3: Concerning the Incarnation of Christ

*JOHN 1:14.* The Word was made flesh.

The last year about this time, and upon the same occasion of the annual commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of our B. Lord and Savior, I began to discourse to you upon these words: in which I told you were contained three great points concerning our Savior the Author and Founder of our religion.

First, his Incarnation, the Word was made, or became flesh.

Secondly, his life and conversation here among us; and dwelt among us, [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], he pitched his tabernacle among us, he lived here below in this world, and for some time made his residence and abode with us.

Thirdly, that in this state of his humiliation he gave great and clear evidence of his Divinity: while he appeared as a man and lived among us, there were great and glorious testimonies given of him that he was the Son of God; and that in so peculiar a manner as no creature can be said to be: and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

I began with the first of these, namely his Incarnation, the Word was made flesh: for the full and clear explication of which words I proposed to consider these two things.

1. The Person here spoken of and who it is that is here said to be incarnate, or made flesh, namely the Word. And this I have handled at large in my two former discourses upon this text. I shall now proceed in the

2. Second place to give some account of the nature and manner of this Incarnation, so far as the Scripture has thought fit to reveal and declare this mystery to us. The Word was made flesh, that is, he who is personally called the Word, and whom the Evangelist has so fully and clearly described in the beginning of his Gospel, he became flesh, that is, assumed our nature and became man; for so the word flesh is frequently used in Scripture, for man or human nature.

So that by the Word's becoming flesh, that is, man, the Evangelist did not only intend to express to us that he assumed a human body without a soul, but that he became a perfect man, consisting of soul and body united. It is very probable indeed that the Evangelist did purposely choose the word flesh, which signifies the frail and mortal part of humanity, to denote to us the great condescension of the Son of God in assuming our nature with all its infirmities, and becoming subject to frailty and mortality for our sake.

Having thus explained the meaning of this proposition, the Word was made flesh, I shall in a further prosecution of this argument take into consideration these three things.

First, I shall consider more distinctly what may reasonably be supposed to be implied in this expression of the Word's being made flesh.

Secondly, I shall consider the objections which are commonly brought against this Incarnation of the Son of God from the seeming impossibility, or incongruity of the thing.

Thirdly, and because, after all that can be said in answer to those objections, it may still appear to us very strange that God who could without all this circumstance, and condescension even almost beneath the majesty of the great God, at least as we are apt to think, have given laws to mankind, and have offered forgiveness of sins and eternal life upon their repentance for sins past, and sincere though imperfect obedience for the future; I say, it may seem strange, that notwithstanding this God should yet make choice of this way and method of our salvation: I shall therefore in the last place endeavour to give some probable account of this strange and wonderful dispensation, and show that it was done in great condescension to the weakness and common prejudices of mankind; and that when it is throughly considered it will appear to be much more for our comfort and advantage than any other way which the wisdom of this world would have been apt to devise and pitch upon. And in all this I shall, all along take either the plain declarations of Scripture, or the pregnant intimations of it for my ground and guide.

1. I shall consider more distinctly what may reasonably be supposed to be implied in this expression of the Word's being made flesh, namely, these five things.

First, the truth and reality of the thing: that the Son of God did not only appear in the form of human flesh, but did really assume it: the Word was made flesh, as the Evangelist expressly declares: for if this had been only a phantasm and apparition, as some heretics of old did fancy, it would in all probability have been like the appearance of angels mentioned in the Old Testament, sudden and of short continuance, and would after a little while have vanished and disappeared. But he dwelt among us and conversed familiarly with us a long time, and for many years together; and the Scripture uses all the expressions which are proper to signify a real man, and a real human body, and there were all the signs and evidences of reality that could be: for the Word is said to be made flesh, and Christ is said to be of the seed of David according to the flesh, and to be made of a woman; and all this to show that he was a real man, and had a real and substantial body: for he was born, and by degrees grew up to be a man, and did perform all such actions as are natural and proper to men: he continued a great while in the world, and at last suffered and died, and was laid in the grave; he did not vanish and disappear like a phantasm or spirit, but he died like other men: and his body was raised again out of the grave; and after he was risen, he conversed forty days upon earth, and permitted his body to be handled, and last of all was visibly taken up into Heaven.

So that either we must grant him to have had a real body, or we have cause to doubt whether all mankind be not mere phantasms and apparitions. For greater evidence no man can give that he is really clothed with and carries about him a true and substantial body, than the Son of God did in the days of his flesh. It is to me very wonderful upon what ground, or indeed to what end, the heretics of old, Marcion and others, did deny the reality of Christ's flesh. Surely they had a great mind to be heretics who took up so senseless an opinion for no reason, and to no purpose.

Secondly, Another thing implyed in the Word's being made flesh, is, that this was done peculiarly for the benefit and advantage of men: the Word was made flesh, that is, became Man; for so I have shewn the word flesh to be often used in Scripture. And this the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes very special notice of as a great grace and favor of God to mankind, that his Son appear'd in our nature, and consequently for our salvation; as it is said in the Nicene Creed, who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate, &c. For verily, says the Apostle, He took not on him the nature of Angels, but of the seed of Abraham, [in non-Latin alphabet], he did not assume the Angelical nature, so our Translators understood the phrase; but the word also signifies to take hold of a thing which is falling, as well as to assume or take on him: he did not take hold of the Angels when they were falling, but suffered them to lapse irrecoverably into misery and ruin. But he took hold of human nature when it was falling, and particularly of the seed of Abraham, and by the seed of Abraham, that is, by himself, in whom all the nations of the earth were blessed, he brought salvation first to the Jews, and then to the rest of mankind. The Apostle chooses to derive this blessing from Abraham, that so he might bring it nearer to the Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle, and might thereby more effectually recommend the Gospel to them, and the glad tidings of that great salvation in which they had so peculiar an interest.

And it is some confirmation of the interpretation I have given of that expression he took not on him, &c. that the Evangelist uses the very same word for taking hold of one that was ready to sink: for so it is said of Saint Peter when he was ready to sink, that Christ put forth his hand [in non-Latin alphabet] and caught hold of him, and saved him from drowning. And thus the Son of God caught hold of mankind which was ready to sink into eternal perdition: he laid hold of our nature, or as it is express'd in the same Chapter, he took part of flesh and blood, that in our nature he might be capable of effecting our redemption and deliverance.

But it is no where said in Scripture, not the least intimation given there, that the Son of God ever show'd such grace and favor to the Angels: but the Word became flesh, that is, became Man: he did not assume the Angelical nature, but was contented to be clothed with the rags of humanity, and to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, of sinful man.

Thirdly, This expression of the Word's being made flesh may further imply his assuming the infirmities, and submitting to the miseries of human nature. This I collect from the word flesh, by which the Scripture often uses to express our frail and mortal nature. The Son of God did not only condescend to be made Man, but also to become mortal and miserable for our sakes: he submitted to all those things which are accounted most grievous and calamitous to human nature: to hunger and want, to shame and contempt, to bitter pains and agonies, and to a most cruel and disgraceful death. So that in this sense also he became flesh, not only by being clothed with human nature, but by becoming liable to all the frailties and sufferings of it; of which he had a greater share than any of the sons of men ever had: for never was sorrow like to his sorrow, nor suffering like to his sufferings, the weight and bitterness whereof was such as to wring from him, the meekest and most patient endurer of sufferings that ever was, that doleful complaint, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Fourthly, In this expression, the Word was made flesh, is likewise implyed the union of the Divinity with human nature in one Person. And this the Text expresseth in such words as seem to signify a most perfect, and intimate, and vital union of the Divine and human natures of Christ in one Person: the Word was made, or became, flesh: which what else can it signify but one of these two things? Either that the eternal Word and only begotten Son of God was changed into a Man, which is not only impossible to be, but impious to imagine: or else, that the Son of God did assume our nature and became Man by his Divinity being united to human nature as the Soul is vitally united to the Body; without either being changed into it, or confounded with it, or swallowed up by it, as the Eutychian heretics fancied the human nature of Christ to be swallowed up of his Divinity: which had it been so, Saint John had expressed himself very untowardly when he says, The Word became flesh; for it had been quite contrary, and flesh had become the Word, being changed into it, and swallowed up by it, and lost in it.

The only thing then that we can reasonably imagine to be the meaning of this expression is this, that the Son of God assumed our nature, and united himself with it, as our souls are united with our bodies: and as the soul and body united make one Person, and yet retain their distinct natures and properties; so may we conceive the Divine and human natures in Christ to be united into one Person: and this without any change or confusion of the two natures.

I say, the Divinity united itself with human nature: for though flesh be only mentioned in the Text, yet he did not only assume a human body, which was the heresy of Apollinaris and his followers, upon a mistake of this and some other Texts of Scripture: but he assumed the whole human nature, that is, a human soul united to a real and natural body: for so I have shewn the word flesh to be frequently used in Scripture, not only for the body but for the whole man, by an usual figure of speech: as on the other hand, soul is frequently used for the whole man or person: so many souls are said to have gone down with Jacob into Egypt, that is, so many persons.

But this I need not insist longer upon, our Savior being so frequently in Scripture, and so expresly said to be a Man; which could with no propriety of speech have been said, had he only assumed a human body: Nor could he have been said to have been made in all things like to us, sin only excepted, had he only had a human body but not a soul: For then the meaning must have been, that he had been made in all things like to us, that is, like to a Man, that only excepted which chiefly makes the Man, that is, the soul: And the addition of those words, Sin only excepted, had been no less strange; because a human body, without a soul, is neither capable of being said to have sin, or to be without it.

And this may suffice to have been spoken in general concerning that great mystery of the Hypostatical, as they that love hard words love to call it, or personal union of the divine and human natures in the person of our blessed Savior: In the more particular explication whereof it is not safe for our shallow understandings to wade further than the Scripture goes before us, for fear we go out of our depth and lose our selves in the profound inquiry into the deep things of God, which he has not thought fit in this present state of darkness and imperfection to reveal more plainly and fully to us. It ought to be thought sufficient, that the Scripture speaking of the same Person, Jesus Christ our blessed Savior, does frequently and expresly call him both God and Man: Which how it can be so easily conceived upon any other supposition than that of the union of the divine and human natures in one Person, I must confess that I am not able to comprehend.

Fifthly and lastly, All this which I have shewn to be implyed in this Proposition, the Word was made flesh, does signifie to us the wonderful and amazing condescension and love of God to mankind in sending his Son into the world, and submitting him to this way and method for our salvation and recovery. The Word was made flesh: What a step is here made in order to the reconciling of men to God? From Heaven to Earth; from the top of glory and majesty to the lowest gulf of meanness and misery: The Evangelist seems here to use the word flesh, which signifies the meanest and vilest part of humanity, to express to us how low the Son of God was contented to stoop for the redemption of man. The Word was made flesh: Two terms, at the greatest distance from one another, are here brought together: The Son of God is here expressed to us by one of his highest and most glorious titles, the Word, which imports both power and wisdom; Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God, as the Apostle calls him: And human nature is here described by its vilest part, flesh; which imports frailty and infirmity: The Word became flesh, that is, submitted to that from which it was at the greatest distance: He who was the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God, submitted not only to be called, but really to become a frail and miserable Man; not only to assume our nature, but to put on all the infirmities, and which is the greatest of all, the mortality of it.

And this is the great mystery of godliness, that is, of the Christian religion, that God should be manifested in the flesh, and become man, with a most gracious and merciful design to bring man back again to God: That he should become a miserable, and a mortal man to save us from eternal death, and to make us partakers of everlasting life: That the Son of God should condescend to inhabit our vile nature, to wear rags and to become a beggar for our sakes; and all this not only to repair those dismal ruins which sin had made in it, and to restore us to our former estate; but to better and advance our condition, and by degrees to bring us to a state of much greater perfection and happiness than that from which we fell.

And that he should become man on purpose that he might dwell among us, and converse with us, and thoroughly instruct us in our duty, and shew us the way to eternal life by his heavenly doctrine, and as it were take us by the hand and lead us in that way by the perfect and familiar example of a most blameless and holy life; shewing us how God himself thought fit to live in this world, when he was pleased to become man.

That by conversing with us in the likeness and nature of man, he might become a human, and in some sort an equal and familiar, an imitable and encouraging example of innocency and goodness, of meekness and humility, of patience and submission to the will of God under the forest afflictions and sufferings, and in a word a most perfect pattern of a divine and heavenly conversation upon earth.

And that by this means we might for our greater encouragement in holiness and virtue, see all that which the law of God requires of us exemplified in our nature, and really performed and practised by a Man like our selves.

And that likewise in our nature he might conquer and triumph over the two great enemies of our salvation, the world and the Devil: And by first suffering death, and then overcoming it, and by rescuing our nature from the power of it by his resurrection from the dead, he might deliver us from the fear of death, and give us the glorious hopes of a blessed immortality: For by assuming our frail and mortal nature he became capable of suffering and of shedding his precious blood for us, and by that means of purchasing forgiveness of sins and eternal redemption for us.

And further yet, that by being subject to the miseries and infirmities of humanity, he might from his own experience, the surest and most sensible sort of knowledge and instruction, learn to have a more compassionate sense of our infirmities, and be more apt to commiserate us in all our sufferings and temptations, and more ready to succour us labouring under them.

And finally, that as a reward of his obedience and sufferings in our nature, he might in the same nature be exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high, there to continue for ever to make intercession for us.

2. I shall in the next place consider the objections against the incarnation of the Son of God, from the supposed impossibility and incongruity of the thing. I shall mention three, and endeavour in as few words as I can to give a clear and satisfactory answer to them.

First, it is objected, that the Incarnation of the Son of God as I have explained it, necessarily supposing a union of the Divinity with human nature is, if not altogether impossible, yet a very unintelligible thing.

Now that there is no impossibility in the thing seems to be very evident from the instance whereby I have endeavoured to illustrate it, of the union between the soul and the body of man, which we must acknowledge to be a thing possible, because we are sure that it is; and yet no man can explain, either to himself or to any one else, the manner how it is, or can be conceived to be; but for all that we are certain, as we can be of any thing, that it is so.

And is it not every whit as possible for God, if he so please, to unite himself to human nature, as it is for the soul to be united to the body? And that we are not able to conceive the manner how this is or can be done, ought not in reason to be any prejudice against the truth and certainty of the thing: this indeed may make it seem strange to us, but by no means incredible: because we do most firmly believe a great many things to be, the manner of whose being we do not at all comprehend. And therefore I take it for an undoubted principle which no man can gainsay, that to assure us that a thing really is, it is not necessary for us to know the manner how it is, or can be: it is sufficient for us to know, that the thing is not impossible; and of that we have the very best demonstration that can be, if we be sure that it is.

Secondly, supposing this thing to be possible, and capable in any measure to be understood, which yet I have shown not to be necessary to our firm belief of it: it is further objected, that it seems to be a thing very incongruous, and much beneath the dignity of the Son of God, to be united to human nature, and to submit to so near an alliance with that which is so very mean and despicable: yes, to be infinitely more below him, than for the greatest prince in this world to match with the poorest and most contemptible beggar.

But herein surely we measure God too much by ourselves, and because we who are evil have seldom so much goodness as to stoop beneath ourselves for the benefit and good of others, we are apt to think that God has not so much goodness neither. And because our ill nature, and pride, and folly, as indeed all pride is folly, will not suffer us to do it, we presently conclude that it does not become God. But what Pliny said to the Emperor Trajan concerning earthly kings and potentates, is much more true of the Lord of Glory, the great King of Heaven and Earth; Cui nihil ad augendum fastigium supereft, hoc uno modo crescere potest, si se ipse submittat, securus magnitudinis suae, He that is at the top, and can rise no higher, has yet this one way left to become greater, by stooping beneath himself; which he may very safely do, being secure of his own greatness. The lower any being, be he never so high, condescends to do good, the glory of his goodness shines so much the brighter. Men are many times too proud and stiff to bend, too perverse and ill natured to stoop beneath their own little greatness for the good of others: but God, whose ways are not as our ways, and whose thoughts are as much above our low and narrow thoughts as the heavens are high above the earth, did not disdain nor think it below him to become man for the good of mankind; and as much as the Divinity is capable of being so, to become miserable to make us happy. We may be afraid that if we humble ourselves we shall be despised, that if we stoop others will get above us and trample upon us: but God, though he condescend never so low, is still secure of his own greatness, and that none can take it from him.

So that in truth, and according to right reason, it was no real diminution or disparagement to the Son of God to become man for the salvation of mankind: but on the contrary, it was a most glorious humility, and the greatest instance of the truest goodness that ever was. And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews, when he says that Christ glorified not himself to be made a High-Priest, but was appointed of God to this office, as was Aaron, does hereby seem to intimate that it was a glory to the Son of God to be made a High-Priest for the sons of men: for though it was a strange condescension, yet was it likewise a most wonderful argument of his goodness, which is the highest glory of the Divine Nature.

In short, if God for our sakes did submit himself to a condition which we may think did less become him, here is great cause of thankfulness, but none surely of cavil and exception. We have infinite reason to acknowledge and admire his goodness, but none at all to upbraid him with his kindness, and to quarrel with him for having descended so much beneath himself to testify his love to us and his tender concernment for our happiness. Besides, that when we have said all we can about this matter, I hope we will allow God himself to be the best and most competent judge what is fit for God to do; and that he needs not to take counsel of any of his creatures, what will best become him in this or any other case: Behold in this you are not just; I will answer you, that God is greater than man: Why do you dispute against him? for he gives not account of any of his matters.

Thirdly, if our reason could get over this difficulty, and admit that God might become man; yet it seems very unsuitable to the Son of God and to his great design of instructing and reforming mankind, to appear in so low and suffering a condition. This, to the heathen philosophers, who as the Apostle tells us by wisdom knew not God, did not only seem unreasonable but even ridiculous. So Saint Paul tells us, We, says he, preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness: to think that so poor and mean a man was fit to give laws to mankind, and to awe the minds of men by the authority of his doctrine: that one who was put to death himself should be believed by others when he promised to them life and immortality in another world, could not but appear very strange and unreasonable.

For answer to this; besides other excellent reasons and ends which the Scripture expressly assigns of our blessed Savior's humiliation, in his assuming our nature with the frailties and miseries of it: as that he might be a teacher, and an example to us: that by his bitter passion he might make expiation for sin, and set us a pattern of the greatest meekness and patience under the greatest provocations and sufferings: that having suffered so grievously himself, he might know how to commiserate and pity us in all our temptations and sufferings: that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage: I say, besides all this, it was of great use that the great teacher and reformer of mankind should live in so mean and afflicted a condition, to confront the pride and vanity of the world by this consideration that the Son of God, and the very best man that ever was, was a beggar, and had not where to lay his head: and likewise to convince men of these two great truths, that God may grievously afflict those whom he dearly loves; and, that it is possible for men to be innocent and contented in the midst of poverty, and reproach, and sufferings.

Had our blessed Savior appeared in the person and pomp of a great temporal prince, the influence of his authority and example would probably have made more hypocrites and servile converts, but not have persuaded men one jot more to be inwardly holy and good. The great arguments that must do that, must not be fetched from the pomp and prosperity of this world, but from the great and eternal recompenses of the other.

And it is very well worth our observation that nothing puzzled Cesar Vaninus, who was perhaps the first, and the only martyr for atheism that ever was; I say, nothing puzzled him more, than that he could not from the history of our Savior's life and actions, written by the Evangelists with so native a simplicity, fasten upon him any probable imputation of a secular interest and design in any thing that he said or did. No doubt but Vaninus, before he made this acknowledgment, had searched very narrowly into this matter; and could he have found any color for such an imputation, he would have thought it sufficient to have blasted both him and his religion.

You may be pleased to consider further, that it was the opinion of the wisest Jews, that the best men, the children of God who called God their Father, were many times exposed to the greatest sufferings and reproaches for the trial of their faith, and meekness, and patience, as we may see at large in the Wisdom of Solomon, where speaking of the malice and enmity of the wicked to one that was eminently righteous, he brings them in saying after this manner, Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn; he is clean contrary to our doings: He upbraideth us with our offending the Law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressions of our youth: He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord: He is grievous to us even to behold; for his life is not like other mens, his ways are of another fashion: We are esteemed of him as counterfeits, he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: He pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his Father: Let us see if his words be true, and what shall happen in the end of him: For if the just man be the Son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hands of his Enemies: Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness and prove his patience: Let us condemn him to a shameful Death, &c.

This is so exact a character of our blessed Savior, both in respect of the holiness and innocency of his life, and of the reproaches and sufferings which he met with from the wicked and malicious Jews, who persecuted him all his life, and at last conspired his death, that whoever reads this passage can hardly forbear to think it a prophetical description of the innocency and sufferings of the blessed Jesus: for he certainly in the most eminent manner was the Son of God, being called by the Evangelist, the only begotten of the Father.

Or if this was not a prediction concerning our blessed Savior, yet thus much at least may be concluded from it, that in the judgment of the wisest among the Jews, it was not unworthy of the goodness and wisdom of the divine Providence to permit the best man to be so ill treated by wicked men: and further, that in their judgment the innocency and virtues of an eminently righteous man are then set off to the best advantage, and do shine forth with the greatest lustre, when he is under the hardest circumstances of suffering and persecution from an evil world.

Add to this likewise, that the best and wisest of the heathen philosophers do frequently inculcate such doctrines as these: that worldly greatness and power are not to be admired, but rather to be despised by a wise man: that men may be very good, and dear to the Gods, and yet liable to the greatest miseries and sufferings in this world. That whoever suffers unjustly, and bears it patiently, gives the greatest testimony to goodness, and does most effectually recommend piety and virtue, as things of greater value than the ease and pleasure of this present life: nay further, that a good man cast into the hardest circumstances of poverty and misery, of reproach and suffering, is the fittest person of all other to be the minister, and apostle and preacher of God to mankind; which are the very words of Arian a heathen philosopher, in his discourses of Epictetus. Now surely they who say such things have no reason to object to our blessed Savior his low and suffering condition, as misbecoming one that was to be the great teacher and reformer of the world.

And as to that part of the objection, that He who so freely promised immortality to others could not, or however did not save himself from death: This vanisheth into nothing when we consider, that he rescued himself from the power of the grave. And it is so far from being ridiculous to rely upon his promise of raising us up from the dead, that the objection itself is really so. For can any thing be more reasonable than to rely upon Him for our hopes of immortality, who by rising from the grave himself, and by conquering the powers of death and darkness, and triumphing openly over them by his visible ascension into Heaven, has given so plain and sensible a demonstration to all mankind that he is able to make good to the uttermost all the glorious promises which he has made to us of a blessed resurrection to eternal life and happiness in another world? To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.