---- CHAPTER IX: That Christ's person, as Son of God, in one person with the man Jesus, is the prime
caused them to cleave to him and say, 'Whither shall we go?' &c. And it was from the Father teaching: Mat. 16:17, 'Blessed art thou, Simon: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' It was the Father had taught him so to believe on his own Son; 'and upon this rock,' saith Christ, ver. 18, 'I will build my church;' for all the saints of the New Testament did all 'come to the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son of God,' Eph. 4:13. And in their so believing he was the Son of God, they believed that he was such a Son of God as was God, or that Son of God who was God, which their confessing him the Son of the living God imported, as was observed. And therefore Christ, in his arguing with the Jews
(who quarrelled with him, that he being a man should make himself God), makes the conclusion of an argument, wherein he proves he was God, to run thus: John 10:33–36, 'The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God,' that is, such a Son as was true God; for the thing wherein they had said he blasphemed, verse 32, was, that he said he was God, yet he concludes that he was the Son of God; so that to believe he was the Son of God, was all one as to believe he was God.
And hence it also was that in other scriptures to believe on him as God, and on him as Saviour, are also joined in the apostles' confession by the same Peter: 2 Peter 1:1, 'Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ.' And they are also by Paul joined together: Titus 2:13, 'The great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.'
CHAPTER IX
That Christ's person, as Son of God, in one person with the man Jesus, is the prime object of faith, and taught by the Father, as the truth is in Jesus.
To evidence that Christ's person, as the Son of God in one person with the man Jesus, is the great object of our faith, two things are to be considered:
1. That the spirits of the first believers on Christ were generally taught by God, and carried out to him, to receive, obtain, close with him as such; that is, under the apprehension of his person, Son of God, and God-man (which properly is called his person), not God simply in his divine nature singly considered, but God manifest in flesh, or the Son of God made flesh. You heard before the Baptist's confession, who was the leader on unto this distinct faith on him in this particular, as also the confession of the apostles, even long before Christ's ascension.
Other particular instances may be given; as you find this to have been at the bottom of Martha's faith, when Christ himself ransacked and searched into it: John 11, Christ puts her faith to it by way of question, ver. 25, 26, 'Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.
Believest thou this?' But she answers not in terminis and directly: ver. 27, 'She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.' She brings forth the very bottom of her faith, and ground of all, the chief, the primary thing which she believed about him, which carried all the rest. She utters what lay most near her heart. Thus also unbelieving Thomas, when his faith had obtained a resurrection, upon occasion of Christ's being risen from the dead (whereby he was declared to be the Son of God, and God, Rom. 1:3, 4), whither runs
his faith thereupon? 'My Lord, and my God,' John 20:28. The eunuch heard Philip expound to him the 53d chapter of Isaiah, which treats of Christ's being a Saviour, and bearing our sins: Acts 8:32, 33,
'The place of Scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.' This text must needs lead Philip to preach Jesus to him as a Saviour for sinners; but he beginning (as it is there said) but with that scripture, proceeded to add many more: ver. 35, 'Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.' And whereas there was but one passage in that which he read that gave occasion to preach him to be the Son of God, viz., 'Who shall declare his generation?' or whose Son he was; yet that necessarily fell in, and deciphered who the person was that was to be the Saviour. Now observe how the eunuch's faith took hold of that above all other; for when Philip told him, ver. 37, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized, the eunuch's heart tells us what it was above all other which his whole soul closed in with; and that was, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'
And yet we may well suppose that Philip's discourse had run mainly upon his being a Saviour, and his bearing our sin, for it was the main argument of the text, which the eunuch gave him to expound, and sure he kept to it: 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before the shearer;' which the Baptist referred to in his
'Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,' John 1:29. But the Spirit of God did (we see) set that other character of his person, which the Baptist also gave him, 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God.'
But to give over the pursuit of any more single instances, let us see the universal effect of this doctrine, both in the Baptist's ministry, and of the apostles', upon the whole lump, body, and generality of believers. What the effect of John Baptist's ministry was, is prophesied of Isa. 40:3, 'The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the
desert a highway for our God;' which is undeniably applied by three evangelists to mean, that that Lord and God, to make way for whom in men's hearts that preparation was, is evidently our Lord Christ, as appears in the same evangelists. And what was the issue and consequent of it, that Christ coming and preaching after John? 'The glory of the Lord' (Christ) 'was revealed; and all flesh' (that is, believing flesh, whose eyes Satan had not blinded) 'saw it together;' that is, they all entertained him by faith, as their Lord and their God
(as Thomas professed him), when he began to manifest his glory, John 2:11.
Then again, what was the effect of the apostles' ministry, who, after Christ's ascension, were sent forth to preach him? It follows in the same prophecy, Isa. 40:9: 'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.' This gospel message was,
'Behold your God!' that is, your Christ, who is your God, Son of God in his person, the ruler, the rewarder, in whom is eternal life, and the shepherd of his people: ver. 10, 11, 'Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.' The voice of the crier, the Baptist, had cried him up, 'Behold the Lamb of God!' the Son of God; and the eminentest message which the apostles delivered, was, 'Behold your God!' that is, we preach a Saviour unto you, who is God. So they preached, and so they believed that heard them: 2 Cor. 4:5, 6, 'For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.' In the face, that is, in the person of Jesus Christ, who is God, and the image of God, ver. 4. And when the veil was taken off from all nations, and specially when it shall be taken off from the few* (which in the 3d chapter, ver. 15, 16, afore, he had
applied the prophecy of Isaiah unto), Oh, how will they stand astonished at the faith and revelation of this very thing, that the person of their Messiah, they so long waited for, proves to be their
God, Isa. 25:7. When the veil shall be taken off from all nations, &c., then, ver. 9, 'It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him.' Oh, wonderful (will they say), this Messiah we waited so for, is our God; he is so in his person, he will save us; he is our Saviour also, and his name is Jesus, that saves his people from their sins; this is the Lord, and he will save us. God and Saviour, you see again, Son of God and Saviour joined; and this is the faith of believers, this is he they believe upon, and this universally. What one saint is there distrusting it, or questioning it? For it found the most general acceptation in the hearts of believers, when he wrote to Timothy: 1 Tim. 3:16, 'And without controversy,' saith he, or with one consent, 'great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,' or made flesh; 'justified in the Spirit:' i. e, his Godhead manifested in the resurrection; 'preached to the Gentiles, and believed on in the world.' This last is that which proves that Christ is
God-man, Son of God in the flesh, and was, as such, the prime grand object of all the believers' faith that were in that age of the world; and he is the great mystery and foundation of all Christian religion; and therefore under that notion and apprehension of him, made lively and real to our souls, it is that we must come to him. I have not alleged these places singly to prove that Christ is God, though they serve for it, but that as such he is the primary foundation of a believer's faith.
2. The second thing is (which I carry with me still along), that to teach and reveal to souls, that Christ is the Son of God, is the work of the Father, which he doth in such a manner, as no human understanding doth arrive at, nor can attain unto, without his teaching: this is express and recognised by our Saviour, as his seal of approbation, set to that confession of Peter's, 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God,' Mat. 16:16. 'And Jesus answered,' ver. 17, 'and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' It