---- CHAPTER VIII: That Christ represented as a quickening Spirit is a proper object of our faith.
spiritual Saviour. And for confirmation of this you may again observe, how that presently after he had uttered these words, ver. 63, from the doctrine thereof he infers, ver. 65, 'Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given to him of my Father.' Which speech and particle therefore plainly refers unto the words of ver. 63 we have been upon, and is as if he had said,
Because I am to be believed on as a Spirit, or God dwelling in this flesh, to be the quickener of all that believe, therefore, or for that reason it is, that no man can come to me for life unless taught by the Father spiritually; for to believe on me in a suitable manner, that is, spiritually, suitable unto what I am in my person, and also in my salvation and life, that I do give to others, and in both which I am a Spirit quickening; and correspondently, to believe on me, and on the Godhead dwelling in my flesh personally, this is above the reach of nature, or of flesh and blood, and therefore this must be given by my
Father, who seeks such professors and disciples of me as believe on me in spirit and truth.
From all which we may conclude, that to know Christ spiritually, both in himself: 1, as he is a spiritual Christ; and, 2, a Saviour in the true spiritualness of him; and, 3, in a spiritual manner to understand him in both, and come to him under the true representation thereof, is that teaching of the Father meant as the truth is in Jesus, and for want of which, or falling short of which, it is that men perish. This therefore must be accounted a point of greatest moment to us to know, and to be searched into.
CHAPTER VIII
That Christ represented as a quickening Spirit is a proper object of our faith.
My next work therefore shall be to shew that Christ, as represented a quickening Spirit, in that latitude of sense which the Scriptures in
that notion of him intended, and revealed by the Father as the truth thereof is in him, and taken in and understood by us accordingly, doth become and prove as proper and full an object for our faith to exercise itself upon, as any other notion whatsoever wherein he is represented.
I have in this large title comprehended the main materials that follow, and in laying open the spiritualness of our Christ (the object, which in Scripture is expressed by Spirit that quickens), the spiritualness of the faith and heart of a true believer, with difference from common faith in a carnal heart, will all along appear, and appear by this, that when the spiritualness that is in the object is spiritually discovered, if the actings of the soul be really and in verity conformable, and answerable thereto, then it is spiritual faith in us also. For it is a certain rule, that the spiritualness of the subject, viz., the soul, lieth in a suitableness unto, and closing with the spirituality of its objects as represented in their bare and naked true spiritualness, abstracting from other respects, for then they attinge and affect that object as it is in itself. So here in this case, when the true spiritualness of Christ is presented, and apprehended as the truth is in Jesus, the spiritualness or fleshliness of the heart will be discovered thereby, as the heart shall be found to fall in with or bear off from what is in that object purely spiritual. I shall not then need to discourse any more than to discover to you what a Christ you have, and how spiritual, and then do you lay your hearts to the naked apprehension thereof, and see how your hearts agree with him, and are affected accordingly towards him, and what it is in him causeth you to 'desire him,' as the prophet speaks, as such a Christ, comparing spiritual hearts with spiritual Christ, see how they agree and like each other.
Other ways and modes out of scriptures are and have been taken by others unto a great success in their discoveries of Christ, and the truth of saving faith thereby, and for substance they are the same with this of mine that follows. But I chose this as that which my
Saviour's sermon in this sixth chapter of John hath led me to, and
which hath fallen into my own heart, and hath animated my pursuances after Christ in a more special manner than any other apprehensions of him whatsoever. I limit myself unto what this notion, viz., 'a quickening Spirit,' will afford herein. For it is made a kind of definition of him (if I may so speak), or the most proper description, whether in his person or what he is made to us, in two words, 'a quickening Spirit,' 1 Cor. 15:45. Christ's speech, 'God is a Spirit,' John 4:24, is as proper a definition of God as can be given
(for he passeth our logic), it expressing the kind of his being, as his name Jehovah, that he is fulness of being. And this definition of Christ is like it; given first by Christ himself in this 6th of John, and then by the apostle: 'The Lord is that Spirit,' 2 Cor. 3:17; and again, 'a quickening Spirit,' 1 Cor. 15:45, and I call it a definition of him, or rather the exactest description of him, because it is used to illustrate both his person and his work as a Saviour: 1 Cor. 15:45 to 50, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.'
I think I may, without the hazard of being confuted, undertake to say, that this is a more perfect definition, or at least an exacter character of Adam the first man, given him by God himself, from and upon his very creation, than ever any philosopher gave of man, whilst they went about to make a definition of him; and I may answerably affirm the like of this definition of Christ, that he is a quickening Spirit. It denotes his person to be God, 'the Lord from heaven,' and withal a man in one person with God, 'the second man.'
That the word spirit in the New Testament is often set to express his Godhead as his humanity flesh, is so well known (Rom. 1:3, 1 Tim.
3:16, 1 Peter 3:18, 19, Heb. 9:14), as it needs not be insisted on. The parallel then between our Christ and the first Adam, by way of supereminent comparative on Christ's part, will run thus: Look, as Adam the first man was in his own person first and originally made a living soul, having that animal rational soul, 'the breath of lives' infused by God into a body organised for that soul to act and enliven, as our souls do our bodies, and so make up one person with it; so the
Godhead of the second person, united into one person, was thereby made a quickening Spirit unto that flesh of his assumed. Only we must here abate of the parallel (for it is but a type, and so holds not in all things), that the Godhead in Christ is not the soul of his body, for he hath a soul which makes up with his body an entire human nature; but his Godhead is that which makes up one person with that human nature, and infinitely enliveneth and spiriteth it above what our souls do, or can do our bodies. And he useth the word quickening to express that super-celestial life by; not that Christ's human nature was dead before, but that it was called up to and raised from* what it was not (and God's calling things that are not as if they were, the apostle parallels with a resurrection, Rom. 4), nor never would have been, if he had been but a mere man, though made by a new creation, bestowing never so excelling a soul and body, above the soul and body which the first man, Adam, consisted of. But here the Spirit or Godhead elevated that soul and body of Christ's human nature into a state of life, of an higher kind and rank, infinitely surpassing the life which any soul or body, if but mere creatures, could have been capable of, or than even God's power (without making a personal union thereof with the Godhead) could have raised such a mere creature unto. It is a divine and super-celestial life, above all that of angels in heaven, peculiar to him through that union by inheritance, as being now become by inheritance the Lord of heaven, and in taking flesh the Lord from heaven, which to have been was his right at the first instant that he was man. The apostle therefore, being to express that life which by the Godhead the second
Adam was raised unto, doth it by a term of super-excellency, in a way of comparison unto the first man's being but 'a living soul;' but calls this and gives it an higher term of 'quickening,' denoting this high and transcending elevation of it above what by mere creation could have been communicated. And he useth the word spirit in the way of super-eminency unto that of soul; that look, as the Godhead in Christ's person excels the soul or spirit in man, so proportionably doth that life, flowing from that spirit or Godhead in Christ, excel the life that was in Adam by creation, or that could have been in any mere creature. And because it is a raising it up unto a life (that was
not, nor never would have been, in any mere creature, but is wholly a super-creation life), he therefore deservedly calls it a quickening even of the human nature of Christ. And whereas it is said, he was
'made a quickening spirit,' the meaning is not, nor can be, that the Spirit or Godhead itself in him was made. No; far be it from me so to interpret it; but the meaning is, that by that union of the Godhead with the human nature, the Godhead was made a quickening Spirit thereunto. And so the parallel, as to Christ's person, runs no further than to this, that as Adam's soul breathed into his body, and becoming one person with it, did inspire and impregnate it, and he became a living soul, so the Godhead inspirited this his human nature with a divine life, suitable to the glory of that Godhead which dwelt in him. And the reason why this parallel, as in respect to Christ's own person, is intended to extend no further, is, because this of Adam's state is alleged but as a type and shadow, and therefore not in all things holding a likeness unto the substance typified out thereby. Thus it is true first of the person of Christ, that his person as God-man is constituted or made up of a quickening spirit; and certainly as the first man Adam is in his person intended first in this of being a living soul, so Christ's person in that of a quickening spirit.
But, 2, as Adam is said to be made a living soul also in respect of conveying a like life and image unto us men his sons, as the next verses do plainly express the scope to be, so the parallel of Christ's being made a quickening spirit, aims to signify also what he is made
(by virtue of that his personal union) to be unto us, of which there can be no doubt. From this notion of his being a quickening spirit (as it hath been explained), the spiritualness of this our great Christ, as he is made and set forth the spiritual object of our faith, and accordingly taught by the Father, as the truth is in Jesus, to all believers, hath these two branches in it, in the handling of which distinctly I shall accomplish this task I have undertaken.
1. You have the spiritualness that is in the person, as 'the Word was made flesh;' or what he is in himself, Son of God, and God dwelling in our nature personally, and quickening thereof.
2. The spiritualness of him as a Saviour, or in what he is and hath done for us as sinners, that were dead in sins and trespasses. And although the particular occasion of the apostle's introducing these words, was what he is to us in the resurrection of our bodies, yet it in general reacheth to all that he is to our souls, for our eternal salvation. I divide this argument into these two heads; for these two were the two eminent titles or descriptions given him, as he was the Christ, by those disciples that first believed on him from the beginning of his manifestation to Israel. John the Baptist (from whom Christ's other disciples learned him to be the Messias or Christ), in a sermon to his disciples, recorded by the evangelist John, chap. 1, first represents him to their faith as a Saviour for sinners:
'Behold,' says he, 'the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world!' So at the beginning of it, ver. 29; but in the close of it, ver. 34,
'And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God.' And the Son of God consisting of two natures: as a man, he was conceived after the Baptist himself (as by the story, Luke 1, appears); but he had another nature, in respect of which he says he was 'afore him,' that is, as God, and Son of God. Thus verse 30, 'This is he of whom I said,
After me cometh a man which is preferred before me; for he was before me.' So then Christ as God-man, the Son of God, and Saviour from sin, is set forth to a believer's faith, and this from the first, by John.
And sometimes some of those first disciples utter their faith on him as Son of God, sometimes others speak their faith on him as Saviour of the world. Some express their faith on him as Son of God. So Nathanael upon his very first seeing and hearing of him: John 1:49,
'Nathanael answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.' The faith of the Samaritan disciples, chap. 4, is thus expressed: John 4:42, 'Now we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' And Peter, in the name of the disciples, expresseth the same: Mat. 16:16, 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God;' just as here in John 6:69 you find. And the revelation of this, in that spiritual manner that you have heard, was that which