such that He should in no degree partake of the natural pollution of the fallen race, for whose guilt He came to atone ; nor be included in the general condemnation of Adam's progeny. In order to reverse the universal sentence passed upon mankind, and to purge their universal corruption, a Redeemer was to be found, pure of every stain of inbred and contracted guilt. And since every person produced in the ordinary course of generation could not but be of this contaminated race, the purity requisite to the efficacy of the Redeemer's atonement made it necessary that the manner of his conception should be supernatural. Thus the miraculous conception has a natural connexion with the other articles of our faith. Without it it could not have been true, as St. John asserts, that "the Word was made flesh,' and the atonement of the Redeemer would have been inadequate and ineffectual'.

As St. John's purpose was to teach that our Lord made the world, and as his title of Jesus was given Him at his circumcision, and that of Christ belonged to his office, therefore the Apostle produced a new name of his as yet unknown to the world, or not much noticed, though in frequent use amongst the Jews, which belonged to Him before He was made man 2. Although St. John is the only writer of the

Bishop Horsley.

2

Bishop Pearson.

New Testament who mentions "the Word" as the title of our Lord, yet it abundantly appears by the Chaldaic paraphrases written before our Saviour's birth, that in many places of the Old Testament which mention the Word of God, the Jews did thereby understand a Divine Person, and that Person by whom the promised redemption was to be wrought 3. The Divine Person who has accomplished the salvation of mankind is called "the Word," and " the Word of God," not only because God at first created and still governs all things by Him; but because, as men discover their sentiments and designs to one another by the intervention of words, speech, or discourse, so God by his Son discovers his gracious designs to men in the fullest and clearest manner: all the various manifestations which He makes of Himself, whether in the works of creation, providence, or redemption. All the revelations He has been pleased to give of his will are conveyed to us through Jesus Christ, therefore He is by way of eminence styled "the Word of God." The Evangelist says the Word was God," lest, by naming naming "the Word" and "God" as two persons, the distinction should breed the supposal of a difference, and the mention of two persons the surmisal of two Gods. "The Word" is said to be "made flesh" Dr. Lightfoot.

3 Dr. Clagett.

4

Bishop Tomline.

66

rather than man, to make the difference and distinction of the two natures in Christ the more conspicuous, in order that He might set out the truth and mystery of the incarnation to the life, and that these two natures might not be thought to constitute two bodies, for He saith He was "made flesh," not that He assumed it-for we know that angels have assumed bodies and laid them by again, and were parted from them; but "the Word being made flesh," the union is personal, and not to be dissolved. Christ was made flesh by taking upon Him the likeness, the fashion, the form, and nature of man. He became man as well as God, having now the Divine nature as well as the human, not blending or confounding the two, but so uniting them in Himself as to form one person'. Flesh, which is a part of one nature, stands here for the whole. Our High Priest was incarnate, that He might have something to offer more valuable than the blood of bulls and of calves. The nature that sinned was, according to the rules of justice, to suffer for sin, and "the Word was made flesh," for the same reason, that when so made He was baptized by John, namely, "to fulfil all righteousness He was made flesh that we might be raised above the flesh and become partakers of the Divine nature. He became the Son of

8 59

• Dr. Lightfoot.

7

Bishop Beveridge.

8

Bishop Horne.

man that we might become the sons of God. But to what end or purpose if we still remain carnal, earthly, sensual? If an unsanctified, unrenewed nature could be admitted into the presence of God, what need was there that the Word should be made flesh and dwell among us'?

SECT. IV.-The Genealogy of Jesus Christ.-Matt. i. 1—17; Luke iii. 23--38.

BEFORE relating the history of the Lord Jesus, it is proper to show that his birth agreed with the "promises given to our forefathers, to Abraham, and his seed for ever." For to Abraham was the promise made, that in "his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed." And of David it had been declared, "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." So that the Jews, anticipating the Messiah, always expected Him to be "of the house and lineage of David." When the Lord inquired of the Pharisees saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him at once, The son of David'." In this regard it was necessary, that St. Matthew a Hebrew, writing his Gospel for the Hebrews, should, at the very first entrance of it, give them satisfaction in these two par

9

Archbishop Sumner.

1 Ibid.

ticulars. Public registers of the tribe of Judah, and of the other tribes that adhered to it, were reserved even in the captivity, and since, as may be collected from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah2. St. Matthew being the first Evangelist proceeds as a regular historian; and being solicitous to convince the Jews, for whose instruction he took up his pen, he begins with the genealogy of our Saviour, and proves from their own registers that He was, according to the promises, the legal descendant of David and Abraham 3. David is first named because the promise to him was fresher in memory, plainer, and more explicit than that to Abraham, and because the descent of the Messiah from the throne of David their great king and conqueror was the main thing the Jews looked after in him '. It was customary with the Jews, for the convenience of memory, to reduce numbers in genealogies to the same quantities. Accordingly St. Matthew has brought the pedigree of our Lord into three regular classes by omissions of little consequence. These classes have a marked distinction, the first fourteen under the prophets and judges from Abraham to David; the second under the kings from their state of splendour, and the building of the temple to its destruction; the third under the Asmonean princes from the misery of the

2 Dr. Lightfoot.

3

Dr. H. Owen.

Dr. Lightfoot.