Body of Divinity, Book 5 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II. Of CHRIST. I. His Person.
IN Christ we must consider two things:
1. His aJohn 1. 14. & 3. 33.Person.
2. His bIsa. 61. 1, 2. Luk. 4. 18. There is not so full a description of Christ in so few words in any place of the Bible, as in Isa. 9. 6, 7. 1. His Person is described in which are two Natures, 1. Humane, A childe is born. 2. Divine, A Son is given. 2. His Offices: 1. Kingly, The Government shall be upon his shoulders. 2. Prophetical, The Counsellor. 3. Priestly, The Prince of peace.Offices.
In his Person also we must consider two things:
His Natures and the Union of them.
His Natures are two:
The God-head, and the Manhood.
The Union of them is such as is called Personal, which is a concurrence of two Natures to make one Person, that is, an individual subsistence, as the soul and body in one man.
I shall therefore treat of these three things:
The God-head of Christ.
The Manhood of Christ.
The uniting of these two in one Person.
Concerning the God-head, having shewed that Christ is God, even the second Person in Trinity, I now will shew how he is God, and why he was to be God.He is called the only begotten Sonne, Iohn 3. 10. & 1 Iohn 4. 9. & Iohn 1. 14. Gods own Sonne, Rom. 8. 32. Gods only Sonne two wayes: 1. In time, no Son was ever before him. 2. In Dignity no Sonne was ever like him. Angels and Adam were Gods Sons by Creation, Iob 1. Luk. 3. 38. we by adoption, Rom. 8. 14. Christ by eternall generation of the substance of his Father. There was no priority inequality or division in this begetting, the Father was not before the Sonne, better then the Sonne, or another besides the Sonne. Vide Scultet. Delit. Evang. c. 22.
He is God the Son, the Sonne of God, he calleth himself the Son, and is so called of his Church. Not the Father nor the holy Ghost, but the Son took our nature upon him, for we are admitted into the Church with this faith, being baptized Into the Name of the Father▪ Sonne and holy Ghost. He became our Saviour, that he might make us sons unto his Father. But consider how he is God, not by Office, nor by Favour, nor by Similitude, nor in a Figure, as sometimes Angels and Magistrates are gods, but by Nature, he is Equal and Co-essential with his Father, there is one God-head common to all the three Persons, the Father, the Sonne and the Spirit, and therefore it is said, That he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, Phil. 2. 6. Loe an equality to God the Father is ascribed to him, he is not God in any secondary or inferiour manner, but is in the very form of God equal to him, the God-head of all the three Persons being one and the same.
In the next place I shall shew why he must be God.
There are four Reasons of it:
1. That he might be able to suffer.
2. To merit.
3. To do those things which must be done after suffering and meriting. And
4. For the further manifestation of Gods love to man.
First, I say, that he might be of power to suffer what was to be suffered by our Redeemer, that is, the punishment due to our sins. For our Redeemer must no otherwise redeem us then by being our Surety, standing in our very stead, supplying our room, and sustaining in his own person that punishment which all our sins had deserved at the hands of Gods Justice. He must be a propitiatory Sacrifice for sinne, he must be made sinne for us, our iniquity must be laid upon him, and he must bear our sins in his body upon the Tree. Christ must suffer for sin. Now the punishment due to our sins was the horrible wrath of God, a burden so heavy as no shoulder of any meer creature could bear it, for there is no proportion betwixt the weaknesse of man, and the anger of God. Wherefore he was to be God, that the omnipotent power of the God-head might uphold the frailty of the manhood, to the end that it might not be oppressed with the weight, and sink down in despair, discouragement, impatiency, dejectednesse, or the like inconveniences, which had he been driven unto he had sinned, and so should have lost himself in stead of redeeming us. This seems to be meant by the brazen Altar upon which the Sacrifice must be burnt, and which was made with wood but covered with brasse; so Christ was man, but the weaknesse of the humane nature was covered with the power of the Deity, that it might not be consumed. Wood would have been burnt with fire, brasse would not, man would have been swallowed up with those sufferings, had not the Divine Power upheld the same.
Secondly, He must be God, that the God-head might give worth, value, meritoriousnesse unto the sufferings and obedience, both which the humane nature performed: To the end that one man might stand in the stead of all men, and that God might account himself as much satisfied in his Justice by his sole and short sufferings, as if all men had suffered everlastingly, and as much honoured by his obedience, as if all men had obeyed, it was requisite that that one man should be made more excellent then all men put together, and so he was made by being God and man. For the humane nature of Christ in that it is personally united unto God, and hath the God-head dwelling in it bodily, so that the body is the body of God, and more worth then all the race of men besides, and so God is satisfied by his sufferings and obedience, so that he may be and is in justice ready to forgive the sins of men for his sake. Hence we are said to be the righteousnesse of God, not of man or Angels, because it is such a righteousnesse as God accepts of as equivalent to that dishonour offered him by sin. This may seem to have been signified by the fabrique of the Ark, Table, Incense, Altar, all which signified Christ, for they were all made of Wood, even Shittim-wood, a Wood not subject to corruption, but this Wood was overlaid with gold, to expresse that the meannesse of the humanity was hidden out of Gods sight, and the excellency of the Deity causeth the Church to be so acceptable to the Father, and to come so near unto him. Therefore the Apostle saith, That God redeemed us with his own bloud, had it not been Gods bloud, we should not have been washed from our sins by it. So the Scape-goat carried away all the sinnes into the wildernesse, the Goat that was slain did it not. This Scape-goat signified the God-head, which though it self did not suffer, yet made the sufferings of the humanity available to wash away our sins, as one man of great quality and place is sit to be set in balance with ten thousand common souldiers, and his life alone fit to be a ransome for them all, so it is in this case, else we could never have been redeemed.
Thirdly, Christ must do some things after his Redemption, which cannot be done but by God, he must pour forth the gift of his Spirit upon us, baptizing us with the holy Ghost, as Iohn Baptist taught, and none can send the Spirit of God into the hearts of whom he will, but he that is God. Again, He must overcome sinne in us, and Satan for us, and guide and govern his Church to eternal life through all the multitude of those enemies which lie in wait to hinder their salvation, which no lesse power and wisdom could do then the power and wisdom of God, even infinite wisdom and infinite power. He must vanquish principalities and powers that must save us, so could none but God himself.
Lastly, It made most for the commendation and honour of Gods infinite grace,This is Ultimus conatus divini amoris, He could do no more then lay aside the glory of the Deity for our sakes. that he would imploy so eminent a person in the businesse of our Redemption, being a work of so iufinite abasement and difficulty. Suppose that some Angel had been able to do this work, and to do it perfectly, yet it more exalts the excellency of Gods love to mankinde, which he intended to shew in this work, that he might convince Satan of lying when he chargeth him with not loving men, that he would seek no meaner person but his own and onelyonly Sonne. Herein is the love of God made manifest, that he sent his Sonne into the world; and herein is love, that he loved us and gave his Sonne to be a propitiation for our sins. As a King mightChristi servatoris mors refertur ad ineffabilem ipsius erga nos charitatem, Joh. 14. 13. Gal. 2. 24. Ephes. 5. 2. & 25. Nam quae fuit illa charitas, si (quod Socinus eavillatur) non mori non potuit Christus quia homo fuit? Annon potius quàm dilectionem suam demonstraverit Christus infirmitatem, si non ben…volentiae affectus, sed naturae fuit conditio quod moriebatur. Rivet. Disput. 12. de satisfactione Christi. Quoad substantiam poenae nihil plus perpessus est Christus, quàm quod per legem debebatur: neque enim vel amor Patris, vel etiam justitia permittere potuit, plura Filio▪ ut impo…erentur quàm quae illi necessariò, tanquam sponsori, ferenda erant. Quoad circumstantias autem, patientis personam, patiendi causau…, passionis efficaciam; plusquam sufficiens satisfactio Christi & à nobis dicitur. Neque enim requirebat lex ut De…s moreretur, neque ut sine peccato proprio quis moreretur, neque requirebat denique mortem talem, tantae efficaciae quae esset, ut non mortem aboleret solùm, sed etiam vitam introduceret, eamque illâ, quam Adamus terr…strem p…rdiderat, multis gradibus praecellentiorem. Sanford. de Descensu Christi ad inseros, l. 3. p. 67. equally dispatch a businesse for the ransoming of his servant by a meaner Person if he would, but to grace him the more, and to shew greater respect to him, he effecteth that treaty by the most honourable personage of the Court.
We give the best gift we have to them we love most, though another might serve the turn, so God gave the best thing he had or could give to redeem us, his onelyonly Sonne. So much of this that Christ is God, and how and why he must be God.