Concerning the Holy Spirit, Book 2 · Chapter 3
Work of the Holy Spirit with respect unto the Head of the New Creation, the Humane Nature of Christ. CHAP. III.
(1.) The especial Works of the Holy Spirit in the New Creation. (2.) His Work on the Humane Nature of Christ. (3.) How this Work could be considering the Union of the Humane Nature unto and in the Person of the Son of God. (4.) Assumption of the Humane Nature into Union the only Act of the Person of the Son towards it. (5.) Personal Union the only necessary Consequent of this Assumption. (6.) All other Actings of the Person of the Son in and on the Humane Nature voluntary. (7.) The Holy Spirit the immediate efficient cause of all Divine Operations. (8.) He is the Spirit of the Son or of the Father. (9.) How all the Works of the Trinity are individed. (10.) The Body of Christ formed in the Womb by the Holy Ghost; but of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin; why this was necessary. (11.) Christ not hence the Son of the Holy Ghost according to the Humane Nature. (12.) Difference between the Assumption of the Humane Nature by the Son, and the Creation of it by the Holy Ghost. (13.) The Conception of Christ how ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and how to the Blessed Virgin. Reasons of the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin to Joseph before the Conception of Christ. (14.) The actual Purity and Holiness of the Soul and Body of Christ from his Miraculous Conception.
Sect. 1 THe Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost in this New Creation; respect, first the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ in his Humane Nature, as it was to be and was united unto the Person of the Son of God. Secondly, It concerns the Members of that Mystical Body in all that belongs unto them as such. And under these two Heads we shall consider them.
Sect. 2 First; Therefore we are to enquire what are the Operations of the Holy Ghost in reference unto Jesus Christ the Head of the Church. And these were of two sorts. (1.) Such as whereof the Person of Christ in his Humane Nature was the immediate Object. (2.) Such as he performs towards others on his behalf; that is, with direct respect unto his Person and Office.
Sect. 3 But yet before we enter upon the first sort of his Works which we shall begin withal, an Objection of seeming weight and Difficulty must be removed out of our way; which I shall the rather do, because our answer unto it will make the whole matter treated of the more plain and familiar unto us. It may therefore be, and it is Objected, That whereas the Humane Nature of Christ is assigned as the immediate Object of these Operations of the Holy Ghost, and that Nature was immediately, inseparably, and undividedly united unto the Person of the Son of God, there doth not seem to be any need, nor indeed room for any such Operations of the Spirit. For could not the Son of God himself in his own Person, perform all things requisite both for the forming, supporting, sanctifying and preserving of his own Nature, without the especial Assistance of the Holy Ghost? Nor is it easy to be understood how an immediate Work of the Holy Ghost should be interposed in the same Person, between the one Nature and the other. And this seeming Difficulty is vehemently pressed by the Socinians, who think to intangle our whole Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, and Incarnation of the Son of God thereby. But express Testimonies of Scripture, with the clear and evident Analogie of Faith, will carry us easily and safely through this seeming Difficulty. To which End we may Observe; That,
Sect. 4 1. The only singular immediate Act of the Person of the Son on the Humane Nature, was the Assumption of it into Subsistence with Himself. Herein the Father and the Spirit had no Interest nor concurrence, foreign, but by Approbation and Consent, as Damascen speaks. For the Father did not assume the Humane Nature; he was not Incarnate; neither did the Holy Spirit do so. But this was the Peculiar Act, and Work of the Son. See Joh. 1. 14. Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 6, 7. Heb. 2. 14. 17; which Places with many others to the same Purpose, I have elsewhere expounded, and vindicated from the Exceptions of the Socinians.
Sect. 5 2. That the only Necessary Consequent of this Assumption of the Humane Nature, or the Incarnation of the Son of God, is the Personal Union of Christ, or the inseparable Subsistence of the assumed Nature in the Person of the Son. This was necessary, and indissoluble, so that it was not impeached, nor shaken in the least, by the temporary dissolution of that Nature by the separation of the Soul and Body. For the Union of the Soul and Body in Christ did not constitute him a Person, that the Dissolution of them should destroy his Personality. But he was a Person by the Uniting of both unto the Son of God.
Sect. 6 3. That all other Actings of God in the Person of the Son towards the Humane Nature were Voluntary, and did not necessarily ensue on the Union mentioned. For there was no Transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other, nor real Physical Communication of Divine Essential Excellencies unto the Humanity. Those who seem to contend for any such thing, resolve all at last into a true Assignation by way of Predication as necessary on the Union mentioned, but contend not for a real transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other. But these Communications were Voluntary. Hence were those temporary Dissations, when under his great trial the Humane Nature complained of its desertion and Dereliction by the Divine, Matth. 27. 46. For this forsaking was not as to Personal Union, or necessary Subsistence and supportment, but as to Voluntary Communications of Light and Consolation. Hence himself declares that the Humane Nature was not the Residential Subject of Omnisciency. For so he speaks, Mark. 13. 32. But of that Day and that hour knoweth no Man, no nor the Angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. For the Exposition given by some of the Antients, that the Lord Christ speaks not this absolutely, but only, that he knew it not to declare it unto them, is unworthy of him. For no more did the Father so know it, seeing he hath not declared it. But this was the Opinion only of some of them, the more advised were otherwise minded. He*foreign. Athanas. Orat. 4. Ad. Arian. foreign. Chrysostom. Tom. 7. Serm. 117. foreign. Leontius Byzantinus, de Sectis. speaks of himself with respect unto his Humane Nature only. And thereunto all Communications were Voluntary. So after his Ascention God gave him that Revelation that he made to the Apostle: Revel. 1. 1. The Humane Nature therefore, however inconceivably advanced, is not the Subject of Infinite Essentially Divine Properties. And the Actings of the Son of God towards it, consequential unto its Assumption, and that indissoluble subsistence in its Union which ensued thereon, are Voluntary.
Sect. 7 4. The Holy Ghost as we have proved before, is the immediate Peculiar Efficient Cause of all External Divine Operations; for God Worketh by his Spirit; or in him immediately applies the Power and Efficacy of the Divine Excellencies unto their Operation; Whence the same Work is equally the Work of each Person.
Sect. 8 5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, no less than the Spirit of the Father. He proceedeth from the Son, as from the Father. He is the Spirit of the Son, Gal. 4. 6. And hence is He the immediate Operator of all Divine Acts of the Son himself, even on his own Humane Nature. Whatever the Son of God, wrought in, by, or upon the Humane Nature, he did it by the Holy Ghost, who is his Spirit as he is the Spirit of the Father.
Sect. 9 6. To clear the whole matter it must be yet further observed, that the immediate actings of the Holy Ghost are not spoken of him absolutely, nor ascribed unto him exclusively, as unto the other Persons and their Concurrence in them. It is a saying generally admitted, that Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. There is no such Division in the external Operations of God, that any one of them should be the Act of one Person without the Concurrence of the others. And the Reason of it is, because the Nature of God which is the Principle of all Divine Operations, is one and the same individed in them all. Whereas therefore they are the Effects of Divine Power, and that Power is essentially the same in each Person, the Works themselves belong equally unto them. As if it were possible that Three Men might see by the same Eye, the Act of seeing would be but One, and it would be equally the Act of all Three. But the Things we insist on are ascribed eminently unto the Holy Ghost on the account of the Order of his Subsistence in the Holy Trinity, as he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son; whence in every Divine Act, the Authority of the Father, the Love and Wisdom of the Son, with the immediate Efficacy and Power of the Holy Ghost are to be considered. Yea, and there is such a distinction in their Operations, that one Divine Act may produce a peculiar Respect and Relation unto one Person and not unto another; as the Assumption of the Humane Nature did to the Son, for he only was incarnate. And such are the especial Actings of the Holy Ghost towards the Head of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ in this Work of the New Creation, as we shall demonstrate in sundry Instances.
Sect. 10 First; The framing forming and miraculous Conception of the Body of Christ in the *Maximum in tota creatura Testimonium de Divinitate Spiritus Sancti Corpus Domini est; quod ex Spiritu Sancto esse creditur secundum Evangelistam, Mat. 1. sicut Angelus ad Josephum dicit, quod in ea natum est de Spiritu Sancto est. Athanasius de fid. Vn. & Trin. Creatrix virtus altissimi, superveniente Spiritu Sancto in virginem Mariam, Christi corpus fabricavit; quo ille usus Templo sine viri natus est semine. Didym. de Sp. Sanct. lib. 2.Womb of the Blessed Virgin, was the peculiar and especial Work of the Holy Ghost. This Work I acknowledg in respect of Designation and the Authoritative Disposal of things is ascribed unto the Father. For so the Lord Christ speaketh unto him; A Body hast thou prepared me, Heb. 10. 6. But this Preparation doth not signifie the actual forming and making ready of that Body, but the Eternal Designation of it; It was prepared in the Counsel and Love of the Father. As to voluntary Assumption it is ascribed to the Son himself; Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch as the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood, he also himself pertook of the same; he took unto him a Body and Soul, entire Humane Nature, as the Children or all Believers have the same, Synecdochically expressed by Flesh and Blood; v. 16. He took on him the Seed of Abraham. But the immediate Divine Efficiency in this Matter was the Peculiar Work of the Holy Ghost. Matth. 1. 18. When his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with Child of the Holy Ghost; v. 20. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost: Luk. 1. 35. The Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon Thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God. (1.) The Person working is the Holy Ghost. He is the wonderful Operator in this Glorious Work; and therein the Power of the most High was exerted. For the Power of the most High is neither explicatory of the former expression, the Holy Ghost, as though he were only the Power of the most High; nor is it the adjoyning of a Distinct Agent or Cause unto him, as though the Holy Ghost and the Power of the most High were different Agents in this Matter. Only the manner of his effecting this wonderful Matter concerning which the Blessed Virgin had made that enquiry, v. 34. How can this be seeing I know not a Man? is expressed. The Holy Ghost, saith the Angel, acting the Power of the most High, or in the Infinite Power of God shall accomplish it. (2.) For his access unto his Work; it is expressed by his coming upon her. The importance of this Expression and what is signified thereby, hath been declared before. And it is often used to declare his Actings with reference unto the Production of Miraculous Works. Acts 1. 8. Ye shall receive Power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. He will so come upon you as to put forth the Power of the most High in you and by you, in Gifts and Operations miraculous. For he is said to come with respect unto his beginning of any marvelous Operation, where before he did not work to the like purpose. (3.) The Act of the Holy Ghost in this Matter was a Creating Act; not indeed like the first Creating Act which produced the Matter and Substance of all things out of nothing, causing that to be, which was not before, neither in Matter nor Form, nor passive Disposition; but like those subsequent Acts of Creation, whereby out of Matter before made and prepared, things were made that which before they were not, and which of themselves they had no active Disposition unto nor concurrence in. So Man was created or formed of the Dust of the Earth, and Woman of a Rib taken from Man. There was a previous Matter unto their Creation, but such as gave no assistance, nor had any active Disposition to the Production of that particular kind of Creature whereinto they were formed by the Creating Power of God. Such was this Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. For although it was effected by an Act of Infinite Creating Power, yet it was formed or made of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin. That it should be so was absolutely necessary (1.) For the accomplishment of the Promises made unto Abraham and David, that the Messiah should be of their Seed and proceed from their Loyns. (2.) So was it also on the account of the first Original Promise, That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head. For the Word was to be made Flesh, John 1. 14. to be made of a Woman, Gal. 4. 4. or made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh, Rom. 1. 4. and take upon him the Seed of Abraham, Heb. 2. 16. (3.) To confirm the Truth hereof is his Genealogie according to the Flesh given us by two of the Evangelists, which were neither to the purpose nor true, if he were not made of the Substance or Flesh of the Blessed Virgin. (4.) Besides all our Cognation and Alliance unto him, whence he was meet to be our Saviour suffering in the same Nature wherein we have sinned, do depend hereon, Heb. 2. 14. For if he had not been made like us in all things sin only excepted, if he had not been Partaker of our Nature, there had been no Foundation for the imputing that unto us which he did suffered and wrought, Rom. 8. 3. And hence these things are accounted unto us, and cannot be so unto Angels whose Nature he did not take upon him, Heb. 2. 16. This therefore was the Work of the Holy Ghost in reference unto the Humane Nature of Christ in the Womb of his Mother. By his Omnipotent Power he formed it of the Substance of the Body of the Holy Virgin, that is as unto his Body. And hence sundry things do ensue.
Sect. 11 1. That the Lord Christ could not on this account, no not with respect unto his Humane Nature only, be said to be the Son of the Holy Ghost, although he supplyed the Place and Vertue of a Natural Father in Generation. For the Relation of Filiation dependeth only on and ariseth from a Perfect Generation, and not on every Effect of an Efficient cause. When one Fire is kindled by another, we do not say that it is the Son of that other, unless it be very improperly. Much less when a Man builds an House, do we say that it is his Son. There was therefore no other Relation between the Person of the Holy Ghost and the Humane Nature of Christ, but that of a Creator and a Creature. And the Lord Christ is, and is called the Son of God, with respect only unto the Father and his eternal ineffable Generation, communicating Being and Subsistence unto Him, as the Fountain and Original of the Trinity. Filiation therefore is a Personal Adjunct, and belongs unto Christ as he was a Divine Person, and not with respect unto his Humane Nature. But that Nature being assumed, whole Christ was the Son of God.
Sect. 12(2.) That this Act of the Holy Ghost in forming of the Body of Christ, differs from the Act of the Son in assuming the Humane Nature into Personal Union with Himself. For this Act of the Son was not a Creating Act producing a Being out of Nothing, or making any thing by the same Power to be what in its own Nature it was not. But it was an ineffable Act of Love and Wisdom, taking the Nature so formed by the Holy Ghost, so prepared for him, to be his own in the instant of its Formation, and thereby preventing the singular and individual Subsistence of that Nature in and by it self. So then as the creating Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Womb, doth not denominate him to be his Father, no not according to the Humane Nature, but he is the Son of God upon the account of his Eternal Generation only; So it doth not denote an Assumption of that Nature into Union with himself, nor was he incarnate. He made the Humane Nature of Christ Body and Soul, with, in, and unto a Subsistence in the Second Person of the Trinity, not his own.
Sect. 13 3. It hence also followes that the Conception of Christ in the Womb, being the Effect of a Creating Act, was not accomplished successively and in process of time but was perfected in an Instant. For although the*foreign. Concil. Constantinop. ad Origenistas. Creating Acts of Infinite Power, where the Works effected have distinct Parts, may have a Process or Duration of Time allotted unto them, as the World was Created in six Dayes; yet every part of it that was the Object of an especial Creating Act was instantaneously produced. So was the forming of the Body of Christ, with the infusion of a Rational Soul to quicken it, though it increased afterwards in the Womb unto the Birth. And as it is probable that this Conception was immediate upon the Angelical Salutation, so it was necessary that nothing of the Humane Nature of Christ should exist of it self, antecedently unto its Union with the Son of God. For in the very instant of its Formation, and therein, was the Word made Flesh, John 1. 14. And the Son of God was made of a Woman, Gal. 4. 4. So that the whole Essence of his Nature was created in the same Instant. Thus far the Scriptures go before, and herein it is necessary to assert the forming of the Body and Soul of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The curious enquiries of some of the Schoolmen and others, are to be left unto themselves, or rather to be condemned in them. For what was farther in this Miraculous Operation of the Holy Ghost, it seems purposely to be hid from us in that Expression, foreign, The Power of the most High shall overshadow thee. Under the Secret Glorious Covert hereof, we may learn to adore that Holy Work here, which we hope to rejoyce in and bless God for unto Eternity. And I suppose also that there is in the Word, an allusion unto the Expression of the Original Acting of the Holy Spirit, towards the newly produced Mass of the Old Creation, whereof we spake before. Then it is said of Him that He was foreign, as it were hovering and moving over it for the Formation and Production of all things living. For both the Words include in them an allusion unto a Covering like that of a Fowl over its Eggs, communicating by its cognate warmth and heat, a principle of Life unto their Seminal Virtue.
Sect. 14 It remaineth only that we consider how the same Work of the Conception of Christ, is assigned unto the Holy Ghost, and to the Blessed Virgin. For of Her it is said expresly in Prophesie. foreign, Isa. 7. 14. A Virgin shall Conceive; the same Word that is used to express the Conception of any other Woman, Gen. 4. 1. Hence She is termed by the Ancients foreign, and Dei genetrix, which last at least I wish had been forborn. Compare it with the Scripture and there will appear an unwarrantable foreign in it. So Luk. 1. 31. The words of the Angel to Her are, foreign, Thou shalt Conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son; where Her Conception of Him is distinguished from her bringing of him forth. And yet in the Ancient Creed commonly called the Apostles, and generally received by all Christians as a Summary of Religion, it is said he was Conceived by the Holy Spirit, and only Born of the Virgin Mary. An. The same Work is assigned to both as Causes of a different kind, unto the Holy Spirit as the active efficient Cause, who by his Almighty Power produced the Effect. And the Disputes managed by some of the Ancients about de Spiritu Sancto, and ex Spiritu Sancto, were altogether needless. For it is his Creating Efficiency that is intended. And his Conceiving is ascribed unto the Holy Virgin as the passive material Cause; for his Body was formed of her Substance as was before declared. And this Conception of Christ was after her Solemn Espousals unto Joseph, and that for sundry Reasons. For (1.) under the Covering of her Marriage to him she was to receive a Protection of her Spotless Innocency. And besides (2.) God provided one that should take care of her and her Child in his infancy. And hereby (3.) also was our Blessed Saviour freed from the imputation of an illegitimate Birth; until by his own Miraculous Operations he should give Testimony unto his Miraculous Conception, concerning which before his Mother could not have been believed. (4.) That he might have one on whose account his Genealogie might be recorded, to manifest the accomplishment of the Promise unto Abraham & David. For the Line of a Genealogie was not legally continued by the Mother only. Hence Matthew gives us his Genealogie by Joseph, to whom his Mother was legally espoused; And although Luke give us the true Natural Line of his Descent by the Progenitors of the Blessed Virgin, yet he nameth her not, only mentioning her Espousals, he begins with Heli who was her Father, Chap. 3. 23. And this is the first thing ascribed peculiarly to the Holy Spirit with respect unto the Head of the Church Christ Jesus.
Sect. 14 From this Miraculous Creation of the Body of Christ by the immediate Power of the Holy Ghost, did it became a meet Habitation for his Holy Soul, every way ready and complying with all actings of Grace and Vertue. We have not only the Depravation of our Natures in General, but the obliquity of our particular Constitutions to conflict withal. Hence it is that one is disposed to Passion Wrath and Anger, another to Vanity and Lightness, a third of Sensuality and fleshly Pleasures, and so others to Sloth and Idleness. And although this Disposition so far as it is the Result of our especial Constitutions and Complexion is not sin in it self, yet it dwells at the next Door unto it, and as it is excited by the Moral Pravity of our Natures, a continual occasion of it. But the Body of Christ being formed pure and exact by the Holy Ghost, there was no Disposition or Tendency in his Constitution to the least Deviation from perfect Holiness in any kind. The exquisite Harmony of his natural temperature, made Love Meekness Gentleness Patience Benignity and Goodness, Natural and Cognate unto him, as having an incapacity of such Motions as should be subservient unto or complaint with any thing different from them. Hence, 2dly, also; although he took on him those Infirmities which belong unto our Humane Nature as such, and are inseparable from it until it be glorified, yet he took none of our particular Infirmities which cleave unto our Persons, occasioned either by the Vice of our Constitutions or irregularity in the use of our Bodies. Those natural Passions of our Minds which are capable of being the means of affliction and trouble, as Grief Sorrow and the like, he took upon him; as also those Infirmities of Nature which are troublesome to the Body, as Hunger Thirst Weariness and Pain. Yea, the purity of his Holy Constitution made him more highly sensible of these things than any of the Children of Men. But as to our Bodily Diseases, and Distempers which personally adhere unto us upon the Disorder and Vice of our Constitutions, he was absolutely free from.