from all eternity with God, had also taken our human nature upon Him, only without sin (for sin was not an original part of man's nature).

The passages of the holy Scriptures which prove the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ are in no way contradictory to those which teach us His Deity. Nay rather, both go together to show that He was perfect man as well as perfect God. This renders it possible for us to believe in His atonement: for, if He had been merely man, His death would have been no propitiation, nor would it have shown forth God's love ¹ to man. Holy Scripture shows that His Deity manifested the divine attributes, and His humanity the human attributes, nor were these two separate natures in any degree confounded (مركب) or mixed (مخلوط) with one another, though they were united in the one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Word of God. Inasmuch as He became Man He was inferior to God, and inasmuch as He was from all eternity one with His Father He was equal to God. All this is clearly stated in the scriptural passages which we have quoted above. The incarnation produced no change in the divine nature, for the divine nature is devoid of all change or alteration. The (المطلق) absolute did not become relative ¹ the necessary and self-existent (واجب اْلوجود)

did not become contingent; the Ancient of Days (القديم) did not become recent (حادث); the eternal (الباقي) did not become temporary (فاني); the infinite did not become finite. Those who argue against the doctrine of the incarnation, on the ground that it is contrary to the great truth of God's unchangeableness,¹ should consider that in the same way they might argue the impossibility of the human spirit (روح) ever becoming an inmate of the human body. The human spirit does not become compounded (مركب) with the body, nor does it lose its own attributes although for a time it resides in the body. The divine nature of the Word of God does not become lost or compounded with the human nature which He assumed at His incarnation, ²