Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

He could not have been a sufficient Mediator, had he ceased to be God; and he had ceased to be God, had he lost any one Perfection proper to the Divine Nature; and losing none, he lost not this of unchangeableness, which is none of the meanest belonging to the Deity: Why by his Union with the Human Nature should he lose this, any more than he lost his Omniscience, which he discovered by his knowledge of the thoughts of Men; or his Mercy, which he manifested to the height in the time of his suffering? That is truly a change, when a thing ceaseth to be what it was before; This was not in Christ, He assumed our Nature without laying aside his own.^* When the Soul is united to the Body, doth it lose any of those perfections that are proper to its Nature? Is there any change either in the substance or qualities of it?^* No, but it makes a change in the Body, and of a dull Lump it makes it a living Mass, conveys vigour and strength to it; and by its power, quickens it to sense and motion; So did the Divine Nature and Human remain entire; there was no change of the one into the other, as Christ by a Miracle changed Water into Wine, or Men by Art change Sand or Ashes into Glass: And when he prays for the Glory he had with God before the World was^*, he prays that a Glory he had in his Deity, might shine forth in his Person as Mediator, and be evidenced in that height and splendour suitable to his Dignity which had been so lately darkened by his abasement; that as he had appeared to be the Son of Man in the infirmity of the Flesh, he might appear to be the Son of God in the glory of his Person, that he might appear to be the Son of God and the Son of Man in one Person.

He could not have been a sufficient Mediator, had he ceased to be God; and he had ceased to be God, had he lost any one Perfection proper to the Divine Nature; and losing none, he lost not this of unchangeableness, which is none of the meanest belonging to the Deity: Why by his Union with the Human Nature should he lose this, any more than he lost his Omniscience, which he discovered by his knowledge of the thoughts of Men; or his Mercy, which he manifested to the height in the time of his suffering? That is truly a change, when a thing ceaseth to be what it was before; This was not in Christ, He assumed our Nature without laying aside his own.