A Body of Practical Divinity

Resp. Because as a Word is the Interpreter of the Mind, and reveals what is in a Man's breast, so Jesus Christ reveals his Father's Mind to us, concerning the great Matters of our Salvation, John 1.18. Were it not for CHRIST's Manhood, the sight of the Godhead would be formidable to us: but through Christ's Flesh we may look upon God without Terror. And Christ took our Flesh that he might know how to pity us; he knows what it is to be faint, sorrowful, tempted, Psal. 103.14. He knows our frame. And he took our Flesh that he might (as Austin saith,) Ennoble our Humane Nature with Honour. Christ having married our Flesh, hath exalted it above the Angelical Nature.

Resp. Because as a Word is the Interpreter of the Mind, and reveals what is in a Man's breast, so Jesus Christ reveals his Father's Mind to us, concerning the great Matters of our Salvation, Iohn 1.18. Were it not for CHRIST's Manhood, the sight of the Godhead would be formidable to us: but through Christ's Flesh we may look upon God without Terrour. And Christ took our Flesh that he might know how to pity us; he knows what it is to be faint, sorrowful, tempted, Psal. 103.14. He knows our frame. And he took our Flesh that he might (as Austin saith,) Ennoble our Humane Nature with Honour. Christ having married our Flesh, hath exalted it above the Angelical Nature.

2. Look upon Christ's Divine Nature: Christ may fitly be compared to Jacob's Ladder, Gen. 28.12. which reached from Earth to Heaven; Christ's Humane Nature was the foot of the Ladder which stood upon Earth, his Divine Nature the top of the Ladder, which reached to Heaven. This being a grand Article of our Faith, I shall amplify: I know the Arians, Socinians, Ebionites would rob Christ of the best Jewel of his Crown, his Godhead; but the Apostolical, Nicene, Athanasian Creed, affirm Christ's Deity, to this the Churches of Helvetia, Bohemia, Wittenberg, Transylvania, &c. give their full Consent; and the Scripture is clear for it. He is called the Mighty God,