will of God, in the way whereby he was to do it. Wherefore, God prepared another nature for him, which is expressed synecdochically by the ears for the whole body; and that significantly, because as it is impossible that any one should have ears of any use, but by virtue of his having a body; so the ears are that part of the body, by which alone, instruction unto obedience, the thing aimed at, is received. This is that which is directly expressed of him, Isa. l. 4, 5, He wakeneth, morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious;' or, I was obedient. And so it is all one in what sense you take the word

, whether in the more common and usual, to dig or bore, or in that whereunto it is sometimes applied to fit and perfect. For I do not judge there is any allusion in the expression, unto the law of boring the ear of the servant that refused to make use of his liberty at the year of release. Nor is the word used in that case, , but yy, Exod. xxi. 6. But it respects the framing of the organ of hearing, which is, as it were, bored; and the internal sense, in readiness unto obedience, is expressed by the framing of the outward instrument of hearing, that we may learn to obey thereby.

Wherefore, this is, and no other can be, the sense of the words of the Psalmist; namely, that God the Father did order things towards Jesus Christ, that he should have a nature wherein he might be free, and able to yield obedience unto the will of God, with an intimation of the quality of it, in having ears to hear, which belong only unto a body. This sense the apostle expresseth in more plain terms now after the accomplishment of what before was only declared in prophecy, and thereby the veil which was upon divine revelations under the old testament, is taken away.

There is, therefore, nothing remaining but that we give an exposition of these words of the apostle, as they contain the sense of the Holy Ghost in the Psalm. And two things we must inquire into. 1. What is meant by this body. 2. How God prepared it.

1. Zoua, 'a body,' here a synecdochical expression of the human nature of Christ. So is the flesh taken, where he is said to be made. flesh, and the flesh and blood whereof he was partaker. For the general end of his having this body, was, that he might therein and thereby yield obedience, or do the will of God. And the special end of it was, that he might have what to offer in sacrifice unto God. But neither of these can be confined unto his body alone. For it is the soul, the other essential part of human nature, that is the principle of obedience. Nor was the body of Christ alone offered in sacrifice unto God. He made his soul an offering for sin,' Isa. liii. 10, which was typified by, the life that was in the blood of the sacrifice. Wherefore it is said, that he offered himself unto God, ch. ix. 14; Eph. v. 2, that is, his whole entire human nature, soul and body, in their substance, in all their faculties and powers; but the apostle, both here and ver. 10, mentions only the body itself, for the reasons ensuing. 1. To manifest that this offering of Christ was to be by death, as was that of the sacrifices of old; and this the body alone was subject unto. 2. Because, as the covenant was to be confirmed by this offering, it was to be by blood,

which is contained in the body alone, and the separation of it from the body carries the life along with it. 3. To testify that his sacrifice was visible and substantial, not an outward appearance of things, as some have fancied; but such as truly answered the real bloody sacrifices of the law. 4. To show the alliance and cognation between him that sanctifieth by his offering, and them that are sanctified thereby; or that because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same, that he might taste of death for them. For these, and the like reasons, doth the apostle mention the human nature of Christ under the name of a body only, as also to comply with the figurative expression of it in the Psalm. And they do what lies in them to overthrow the principal foundation of the faith of the church, who would wrest these words unto a new ethereal body given him after his ascension, as do the Socinians.

2. Concerning this body, it is affirmed that God prepared it for him. Karnpriow μot, thou hast prepared for me;' that is, God hath done it, even God the Father; for unto him are those words spoken, ' I come to do thy will, O God, a body hast thou prepared me.' The coming of Christ the Son of God into the world, his coming in the flesh by the assuming of our nature, was the effect of the mutual counsel of the Father and the Son. The Father proposeth to him what was his will, what was his design, what he would have done. This proposal is here repeated, as unto what was negative in it, which includes the opposite positive: Sacrifice and burnt-offerings, thou wouldst not have,' but that which he would was the obedience of the Son unto his will.' This proposal the Son closeth withal: Lo,' saith he, 'I come,' But all things being originally in the hand of the Father, the provision of things necessary unto the fulfilling of the will of God, is left unto him. Among those the principal was, that the Son should have a body prepared for him, that so he might have somewhat of his own to offer. Wherefore the preparation of it is in a peculiar manner assigned unto the Father, 'A body hast thou prepared me.' And we may observe, that,

Obs. VII. The supreme contrivance of the salvation of the church, is in a peculiar manner ascribed unto the person of the Father.-His will,his grace, his wisdom, his good pleasure, the purpose that he purposed in himself, his love, his sending of his Son, are every-where proposed as the eternal springs of all acts of power, grace, and goodness, tending unto the salvation of the church. And therefore doth the Lord Christ on all occasions declare that he came to do his will, to seek his glory, to make known his name, that the praise of his grace might be exalted. And we through Christ do believe in God, even the Father, when we assign unto him the glory of all the holy properties of his nature, as acting originally in the contrivance, and for the effecting of our salva

tion.

Obs. VIII. The furniture of the Lord Christ, (though he were the Son, and in his divine person the Lord of all,) for the discharge of his work of mediation, was the peculiar act of the Father.-He prepared him a body, he anointed him with the Spirit, it pleased him that all

fulness should dwell in him. From him he received all grace, power, consolation. Although the human nature was the nature of the Son of God, not of the Father, (a body prepared for Him, not for the Father,) yet was it the Father who prepared that nature, who filled it with grace, who strengthened, acted, and supported it in its whole course of obedience.

Obs. IX. Whatever God designs, appoints, and calls any unto, he will provide for them all that is needful unto the duties of obedience, whereunto they are so appointed and called.-As he prepared a body for Christ; so he will provide gifts, abilities, and faculties suitable unto their work, for those whom he calleth unto it. Others must provide as well as they can for themselves.

But we must yet inquire more particularly into the nature of this preparation of the body of Christ, here ascribed unto the Father. And it may be considered two ways.

First. In the designation and contrivance of it. So preparation is sometimes used for predestination, or the resolution for the effecting any thing that is future in its proper season, Isa. xxx. 33; Matt. xx. 23; Rom. ix. 23; 1 Cor. ii. 9. In this sense of the word, God had prepared a body for Christ; he had, in the eternal counsel of his will, determined that he should have it in the appointed time. So he was 'fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for us,' 1 Pet. i. 20.

Secondly. In the actual effecting, ordering, and creating of it, that it might be fitted and suited unto the work that it was ordained unto. In the former sense, the body itself is alone the object of this preparation A body hast thou prepared me,' that is, designed for me. This latter sense compriseth the use of the body also, it is fitted for its work. This latter sense it is that is proper unto this place. Only it is spoken of by the Psalmist in a prophetical style, wherein things certainly future are expressed as already performed. For the word signifies such a preparation, as whereby it is made actually fit and meet for the end it is designed unto. And therefore it is variously rendered, to fit, to adapt, to perfect, to adorn, to make meet, with respect unto some especial end. Thou hast adapted a body unto my work, fitted and suited a human nature unto what I have to perform in it and by it. A body it must be, yet not every body; nay, not any body, brought forth by carnal generation according to the course of nature, could effect, or was fit for the work designed unto it. But God prepared, provided such a body for Christ, as was fitted and adapted unto all that he had to do in it. And this especial manner of its preparation was an act of infinite wisdom and grace. Some instances thereof may be mentioned. As,

1. He prepared him such a body, such a human nature, as might be of the same nature with ours, for whom he was to accomplish his work therein. For it was necessary that it should be cognate and allied unto ours, that he might be meet to act on our behalf, and to suffer in our stead. He did not form him a body out of the dust of the earth, as he did that of Adam, whereby he could not have been of the same race of mankind with us, nor merely out of nothing, as he created the angels

whom he was not to save; see ch. ii. 14-16, and the exposition thereon. He took our flesh and blood, proceeding from the loins of Abraham.

2. He so prepared it, as that it should be no way subject unto that depravation and pollution that came on our whole nature by sin. This could not have been done had his body been prepared by carnal generation, the way and means of conveying the taint of original sin, which befel our nature, unto all individual persons. For this would have rendered him every way unmeet for his whole work of mediation. See Luke i. 35; Heb. vii. 26.

3. He prepared him a body consisting of flesh and blood, which might be offered as a real substantial sacrifice, and wherein he might suffer for sin, in his offering to make atonement for it. Nor could the sacrifices of old, which were real, bloody, and substantial, prefigure that which should be only metaphorical and in appearance. The whole evidence of the wisdom of God in the institution of the sacrifices of the law, depends on this, that Christ was to have a body, consisting of flesh and blood, wherein he might answer all that was prefigured by

them.

4. It was such a body as was animated with a living rational soul. Had it been only a body, it might have suffered as did the beasts under the law, from which no act of obedience was required, only they were to suffer what was done unto them. But in the sacrifice of the body of Christ, that which was principally respected, and whereon the whole efficacy of it did depend, was his obedience unto God. For he was not to be offered by others, but he was to offer himself in obedience unto the will of God, ch. ix. 14; Eph. v. 2. And the principles of all obedience lie alone in the powers and faculties of the rational soul.

5. This body and soul were obnoxious unto all the sorrows and sufferings which our nature is liable unto, and we had deserved as they were penal, tending unto death. Hence was he meet to suffer in our stead, the same things which we should have suffered. Had they been exempted by special privilege from what our nature is liable unto, the whole work of our redemption by his blood had been frustrated.

6. This body or human nature, thus prepared for Christ, was exposed unto all sorts of temptations from outward causes. But yet it was so sanctified by the perfection of grace, and fortified by the fulness of the Spirit dwelling therein, that it was not possible it should be touched with the least taint or guilt or sin. And this also was absolutely necessary unto the work whereunto it was designed, 1 Pet. ii. 22; Heb. vii. 26.

7. This body, was liable unto death, which being the sentence and sanction of the law, with respect unto the first and all following sins, (all and every one of them,) was to be undergone actually by him, who was to be our deliverer, Heb. ii. 14, 15. Had this body not died, death would have borne rule over all unto eternity. But in the death thereof, it was swallowed up in victory, 1 Cor. xv. 55-57.

8. As it was subject unto death, and died actually, so it was meet to be raised again from death. And herein consisted the great pledge and evidence that our dead bodies may be and shall be raised again unto a

blessed immortality. So it became the foundation of all our faith, as unto things eternal, 1 Cor. xv. 17-23.

9. This body and soul being capable of a real separation, and being actually separated by death, though not for any long continuance, yet no less truly and really than in them who have been dead a thousand years, a demonstration was given therein of an active subsistence of the soul, in a state of separation from the body. As it was with the soul of Christ when he was dead, so is it with our souls in the same state. He was alive with God, and unto God, when his body was in the grave, and so shall our souls be.

10. This body was visibly taken up into heaven, and there resides; which, considering the ends thereof, is the great encouragement of faith, and the life of our hope.

These are but some of the many instances that may be given of the divine wisdom in so preparing a body for Christ, as that it might be fitted and adapted unto the work which he had to do therein. And we may observe, that,

Obs. X. Not only the love and grace of God in sending his Son are continually to be admired and glorified, but the acting of this infinite wisdom, in fitting and preparing his human nature, so as to render it every way meet unto the work which it was designed for, ought to be the especial object of our holy contemplation.-But having treated hereof distinctly, in a peculiar discourse unto that purpose, I shall not here again insist upon it.

The last thing observable in this verse is, that this preparation of the body of Christ is ascribed unto God, even the Father, unto whom he speaks these words, 'A body hast thou prepared me.' As unto the operation in the production of the substance of it, and the forming of its structure, it was the peculiar and immediate work of the Holy Ghost, Luke i. 35. This work I have at large elsewhere declared. Wherefore it is an article of faith, that the formation of the human nature of Christ in the womb of the virgin, was the peculiar act of the Holy Ghost. The holy taking of this nature unto himself, the assumption of it to be his own nature by a subsistence in his person, the divine nature assuming the human in the person of the Son, was his own act alone. Yet was the preparation of this body the work of the Father in a peculiar manner; it was so in the infinitely wise, authoritative contrivance and ordering of it, his counsel and will therein being acted by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost. The Father prepared it in the authoritative disposition of all things, the Holy Ghost actually wrought it, and he himself assumed it. There was no distinction of time in these distinct actings of the holy Persons of the Trinity in this matter, but only a disposition of order in their operation. For in the same instant of time this body was prepared by the Father, wrought by the Holy Ghost, and assumed by himself to be his own. And the actings of the distinct persons being all the actings of the same divine nature, understanding, love, and power, they differ not fundamentally and radically, but only terminatively, with respect unto the work wrought and effected. And we may observe, that,

Obs. XI. The ineffable, but yet distinct operation of the Father, Son,