A Treatise of Christian Religion, Chapter 28
CHAP. 28.
Of Chriſts perſon.
In Chriſt is to be conſidered his
Perſon
Conſiſting of two natures,
Diuine.
Humane.
Conioyned in one perſon.
Office. Chap. 29.
IOHN, chap. 1. verſ. 14. And the Word was made fleſh, and dwelt among vsus, (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the onelyonly begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
Q. THus much of the parts and ſorts of the Couenant of Grace: what is the ground and foundation thereof?
A. Chriſt Ieſus aforeſaid, Ioh. 3. 14. Act. 10. 43.
Q. Who is Chriſt Ieſus?
A. The aLuk. 2. 11. 1. Tim. 2. 5.eternall Sonne of God, the ſecond perſon in the Trinitie; that bJoh. 1. 45. & 8. 56.Meſſias, whom the Fathers (vnderunder the Law) expected, and the Prophets foretold of.
Q. What are we more particularly to conſider in him?
A. Firſt, his Perſon: ſecondly, his Office.
Q. What is to be conſidered in the Perſon of Christ?
A. The diuerſitie of natures, and vnion of them.
Q. What are the natures of Christ?
A. Two: his Diuine, and Humane.
Q. What hauehave you learned concerning the Diuine nature of Chriſt?
A. That he is the onelyonly begotten, and naturall Son Iohn 3. 16. 18. & 1. 1. Heb. 1. 3. Coloſſ. 1. 15.of God, his Word, Character, and Image; God co-eſſentiall, and Coequall with the Father, and the holy Ghoſt. Ioh. 10. 30. Rom. 9. 5. 1. Ioh. 5. 20.
Q. What is the Humane nature of Chriſt?
A. That nature, by which he is alſo true man.
Q. Is Chriſt Ieſus true man alſo?
A. aGen. 3. 15. 1. Tim. 2. 5.Yea, in all things, b1. Ioh. 2. 1. Matth. 1. 18. 20.ſinne onelyonly excepted.
Q. How did he become man?
A. Hee was conceiued by the holy Ghoſt, in the wombe of the Virgin Mary; and was afterward borne and brought forth into the world, after the manner of other men.
Q. Did he not paſſe through the Virgin Mary, without taking any thing of her ſubſtance?
A. No: for hee is called the ſeed of the woman, Gen. 3. 15. He is ſaid to be made of the ſeed of Dauid, according to the fleſh. Rom. 1. 3. To bee made of a woman. Galath. 4. 4. To be a plant that ſprang out of the root of Ieſſe. Eſa. 11. 1. 10.
Q. How is he ſaid to be conceiued by the holy Ghost.
A. Becauſe the holy Ghoſt (by his incomprehenſible Mat. 1. 18. 20.power) wrought his conception ſupernaturally.
Q. Is he then the Sonne of God in reſpect of his Humane nature?
A. No: for firſt the Apoſtle ſaith, Hee is without Father, and without mother: that is, without father, as hee Heb. 7. 3.is man; without mother as God. Secondly, then there ſhould be in the perſon of Chriſt two ſonnes; one of the Father, another of the holy Ghoſt.
Q. But is he not therefore called the Sonne of the higheſt, Luk. 1. 32. becauſe he was conceiued by the holy Ghoſt?
A. No: but onelyonly becauſe hee that was ſo conceiued, was the naturall ſonne of God.
Q. Doth the humane nature of Chriſt conſiſt of a reaſonable ſoule, as well as a body: or was the God-head in ſtead of the ſoule vntounto him.
A. It conſiſteth alſo of a reaſonable ſoule, as appeareth by that which he ſaid, My ſoule is heauie to the very Mat. 26. 38.death. And our ſoules ſhould hauehave periſhed euerlaſtingly, except our Sauiour Chriſt had had a ſoule, and had ſuffered in ſoule.
Q. Thus much of the two natures of our Sauiour Chriſt: what is to be ſaid concerning the vnion of theſe two natures?
A. The manhood of our Sauiour Chriſt, is inſeparablie vnited to the perſon of the God-head, and therin it ſubſiſteth, making but one perſon; which neare vnion with the nature of man, is ſo much the more wonderfull, in that the very Angels, (which are much greater in glory then men) are aEſa. 6. 2.not able to abide the preſence of God. And indeed it is ſuch b1. Tim. 3. 16.a myſterie, as neither Angels, or men, are able to comprehend.
Q. Then Chriſt, though he conſiſt of two natures, is but one perſon?
A. It is truth, he is true God, and true man, in one and the ſame perſon of the Deitie. Luk. 1. 35. Ioh. 1. 14. Mat. 3. 17. Epheſ. 4. 10. Galath. 4. 4.
Q. Did not the inſeparable vnion of the Humane nature to the perſon of the Deitie, change the perſon thereof?
A. No verily; but hee is the very ſame perſon that he was, from all eternitie.
Q. Is it not ſaid in the text, that the WORD, (.i. the ſecond perſon in Trinity) was made fleſh? may it not ſeeme then that the God-head was turned into the Humane nature?
A. Nothing leſſe; no more then it can be ſaid, hee was turned into ſinne, or into a curſe, becauſe it is ſaid, 2. Cor. 5. 11. Galath. 3.he was made ſinne, or made a curſe.
Q. Can you proue directly by the Scriptures, that Christ, after the vnion of the man-hood with the God-head, is true God?
A. Yea verily: for firſt, the Scripture, (as hee is Chriſt the Meſſias) abſolutely calleth him God, and giueth vntounto him the name of Iehouah. 1. Tim. 3. 16. Ioh. 20. 28. Act. 20. 28. Rom. 9. 5. 1. Ioh. 5. 20. Eſa. 9. 6. Ierem. 23. 2. Secondly, the proper workes of God are attributed vntounto him; as the creation and gouernment of the world. Ioh. 1. 3. & 5. 17. Coloſſ. 1. 16. Hebr. 1. 2. 3. The ſearching of harts. Mat. 9. 4. Mark. 2. 8. &c. Thirdly, the Eſſentiall Attributes of the Diuine nature are giuen to him, he is ſaid to be eternall. Ioh. 1. 1. & 17. 5. Micah. 5. 2. Almighty, in all places, the King of Kings, &c. Ioh. 3. 31. Math. 18. 20. Apocal. 19. 16. Fourthly, the Scriptures aſſigne Diuine honour vntounto him. Pſalm. 72. 11. Rom. 15. 12. Eſa. 11. 10. Ioh. 14. 1. Act. 7. 59.
Q. But is not the God-head, and man-hood at leaſt mingled and confounded.
A. No, by no meanes. For then he ſhould bee neither God, nor man; for things mingled doe not retaine the name of their ſimples; as honey, and oyle mixed together, can neither be called honey nor oyle. Further, the properties of the two natures are ſuch, as cannot be mingled and confounded. For neither can the Humane nature, (remaining a true humane nature) partake, or communicate of the properties and perfections of the Deitie, or the Deitie of the defects of the Humanitie. So that as the God-head cannot hunger, thirſt, or be ſhut vp and circumſcribed within the bounds of a place: no more can the Humanity be infinite, or in more places then one. So that though the humane nature be no perſon of it ſelfe, and hath no ſubſiſtance, but in the perſon of the Deitie, yet it continueth ſtill diſtinct in ſubſtance, properties, and actions, from the Deitie; and both natures ſo vnited, make but one Chriſt.
Q. Why was it neceſſary that Chriſt ſhould bee both God and man in one perſon?
A. It was neceſſarie he ſhould be man, becauſe he could not ſuffer as hee was God; aHeb. 2. 14. & 2. 16. 7. & 4. 15.and it makes moſt for the glory of Gods Iuſtice, to exact ſatisfaction from that nature that had ſinned. Secondly, it was neceſſarie he ſhould be God alſo, that he might bee able to beare and ouercome all that was to be inflicted vponupon him for our ſinnes. Thirdly, it was neceſſarie alſo that the humane nature ſhould (in manner aforeſaid) be vnited to the perſon of the Deitie, that the obedience which hee performed, might bee of infinite merit, as being the obedience of God.Act. 20. 28.
Q. What further fruit hauehave we by this coniunction?
A. That whereas God hath no ſhape comprehenſible, either to the eye of the body, or of the ſoule; and the mind of man cannot reſt but in a repreſentation of ſome thing, that his mind and vnderſtanding can in ſome ſort reach vntounto. If it conſider God in the ſecond perſon in the Trinitie, as he hath taken our nature, and whereby God is (after a ſort) reuealed in the fleſh, he hath whereupon (in ſome ſort) to ſtay his mind.
Q. How did then the Iewes before his comming, which could not doe ſo?
A. They might propoſe to themſelues the ſecond Gen. 18. 1. 2. & 19. 1. 2.perſon, that ſhould take our nature, and the ſame alſo that had appeared ſundry times in the ſhape of a man: albeit herein our priuiledge is greater then theirs; wee beholding him as he is, whereas they did behold him as he ſhould be.
Q. HaueHave men onelyonly benefit by this vnion of the two natures, or doth it reach alſo to the Angels?
A. It ſeemeth to reach no further then to man; for God neuer meant to ſaue thoſe angels that fell, ſeeing they fell maliciouſly into rebellion againſt God, without tentation, contrary to the cleare light of nature reuealed in their Creation. And if he had purpoſed either to ſaue them, or to hauehave benefited the elect Heb. 2. 12. 16.Angels, any otherwiſe then by confirming them, hee would hauehave taken their nature vponupon him.
Q. But why then is it ſaid, that God (by Christ) doth reconcile all things vntounto himſelfe, whether in earth, or heauen? Coloſſ. 1. 20.
A. By things in heauen, is there to be vnderſtood, not the Angels, but the Saints then in heauen. For although God did elect the Angels to eternal glory; yet Chriſt did not redeeme them, but onelyonly the ſeed of Heb. 2. 16.Abraham.
Q. Hitherto of the perſon and natures of our Sauiour Christ: is there any ſuch great neceſsity that Chriſtians ſhould be grounded in the truth of this doctrine?
A. Yea, elſe Satan would neuer hauehave laboured (as he hath done), to corrupt and depraue the ſame by raiſing vp ſo many damnable hereſies about the ſame.
Q. Why? what hereſies hath hee raiſed vp about this point?
A. The hereſie, firſt of Macedonius, and the Valentinians, who maintained that Chriſt brought with him out of heauen, a heauenly body.
Secondly, of Apelles, that held hee had an aëriall bodie, and that hee paſſed through the Virgin, onelyonly as water through a pipe. Thirdly, of the Manichies, who made him to hauehave onelyonly an imaginarie body. Fourthly, of Apollinaris, who denied that Chriſt had a reaſonable ſoule; and who held, that his Diuinitie was in ſtead of a ſoule. Fifthly, of Eunomions, who affirmed that Chriſt was a meere man, and the Sonne of God onelyonly by adoption. Sixthly, of Ebion, who held that Chriſt was borne of the ſeed of man. Seuenthly, of Neſtorius, who taught, that as there was two natures in Chriſt, ſo alſo there was two perſons. Eighthly, of Eutiches, that held, that the humane nature, after the vnion with the Diuine, did partake of the properties of the Diuine. Neare vntounto which is the errour of the Vbiquitaries, which attribute to the humanitie of Chriſt, certaine eſſentiall properties of the Diuinitie, viz. preſence in all places, &c.