6. Discourse V
DISCOURSE V
QUESTION. IT WAS QUERIED BY SOME,
HOW WE MAY MAKE OUR APPLICATION
UNTO CHRIST; NOT IN GENERAL, BUT
UNDER WHAT NOTION AND
APPREHENSION OF THE PERSON OF
CHRIST?
A NSWER. Because some seem to apprehend there might be danger in terminating our worship upon the nature of Christ as a creature, I shall give you my thoughts and directions on it. And,—
First, you must observe that we are to have no conceptions, in our acting of any duty, towards Christ or about him, but with respect to his person as he is God and man in one person. It is not lawful for us to have any apprehensions of Christ, to make any application to him, as man only; nor is it lawful for us to have any apprehensions of him as God only: but all our apprehensions of Christ, and all our addresses to him, must be as God and man in one person. So he is, and so he will be for all eternity. The union is
inseparable and indissoluble; and for any man to make his application to Christ either as God or as man is to set up a false Christ. Christ is God and man in one person, and no other. So, in all our actings of faith upon him, and applications to him, we ought to consider him as he was "the seed of David," and as "God over all, blessed forever," in one person. This makes the great idolatry among the Papists;—in the image of Christ, they represent the human nature of Christ separated from his Deity; for they can make no representation of one that is God and man in one person: hereby they become guilty of double idolatry, referring the mind to one that is a man, and no more,—and doing it by means of an image.
Secondly, the person of Christ is the immediate and proper object of all divine worship. The worship of Christ is commanded in the first commandment. By worship, I intend faith, love, trust, subjection of soul, invocation on the name of Christ,—every act of the soul and mind whereby we ascribe infinite divine excellencies to God; which is the worship of the mind. See John 5:23. It is the will of God "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." How do we honour the Father? By divine faith, trust, love, and worship; making him our end and our reward.
So the Son is to be honoured. And as to the divine person of the Son of God, being of the same nature, essence, and substance with the Father, there is no dispute of that among those by whom his Deity is acknowledged.
Thirdly. The divine person of the Son of God lost nothing of his glory and honor that was due to him by the assumption of our human nature. Though thereby he became the Son of Man as well as the Son of God—a Lamb for sacrifice; yet he is still, in his whole and entire person, the object of all that worship I spoke of before; and the whole church of God agrees together in giving that worship to him, Rev. 5:8, 9, 11–13, "And when he had taken the
book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Jesus Christ is here distinguished from the Father. There is "He that sitteth upon the throne," and "The Lamb;" and he is considered as incarnate—as a Lamb slain: and yet there is all the glory, honor, praise, and worship that is given to him that sitteth upon the throne, the Father, given to Jesus Christ, God and man, the Lamb slain, who hath redeemed us with his blood.
Fourthly. This person of Christ, God-man, must not be so much as severed by any conception of the mind. For distinction, as God and man, he may be considered two ways; either absolutely in himself or in the discharge of his mediatory office. And this double consideration produces a double kind of worship to the person of Christ.
1. Consider Christ absolutely in his own person, as the Son of God incarnate; and so he is the immediate and ultimate object of our faith, prayer, and invocation. So that a man may lawfully, under the guidance and
conduct of the Spirit of God, direct his prayer immediately to the person of Christ. You have the example of Stephen in his last prayer. "Lord Jesus," saith he, "receive my spirit." These were the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he died, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." And Stephen, when he died, committed his spirit into the hands of Jesus Christ: "Lord
Jesus," (for that is the name of the Son of God incarnate, "He shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,") "receive my spirit." So that a person may make an immediate address in his prayers and supplications unto the person of Christ, as God and man. I look upon it as the highest act of faith that a believer is called unto in this world—to resign a departing soul into his hands, letting go all present things and future hopes; to resign, I say, a departing soul quietly and peaceably into the hands of Christ. Now, this Stephen did with respect unto Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." There he left himself by faith. So we may apply ourselves unto him upon any other account, in the acting of faith, upon any other occasion.
2. Consider Christ in the discharge of his mediatory office. And under that formal consideration, as discharging his mediatory office, he is not the ultimate object of our faith and invocation; but we call upon God, even the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. "We through Christ have believed in God," says Peter in one of his epistles. And it implies a contradiction to have it otherwise: for calling him Mediator shows he is a means between God and us; and so it is contradictory to say our faith is terminated on his mediatory office. This he calls asking the Father in his name: "You shall ask the Father in my name;" that is, expressly plead the intervention of the mediation of Christ. And so the apostle tells us, in that grand rubric and directory of church worship, Eph. 2:18, "By whom we have access by one
Spirit unto the Father." The Father is proposed as the ultimate object of access in our worship; and the Spirit is the effecting cause, enabling us unto this worship; and the Son is the means whereby we approach unto God. All that I shall add hereunto is this:—Seeing there is in Scripture a double worship of Christ that is immediate (for his person is considered absolutely, and as mediator between God and man), which of these ought we principally to apply ourselves unto? I answer plainly,—
(1.) Our direction for solemn worship in the church generally respects Christ as mediator, in Scripture. The general worship that is to be performed unto God in the assemblies of the saints, does look upon Christ as executing his mediatory office; and so our address is unto the throne of grace by him.
By him we enter into the holy place,—through him and by him unto God. "I bow my knees unto (God) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Eph. 3:14.
God, considered as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the proper, ultimate object of the solemn worship of the church.
(2.) In treating and dealing about our own souls, under the conduct of the Spirit of God, it is lawful and expedient for us in our prayers and supplications to make addresses to the person of Christ; as Stephen did.