DISCOURSE V: QUESTION.—How we may make our application unto Christ; not in general, but under what n
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?
ANSWER. 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 in it. And,—
First. You must observe we are to have no conceptions, in our acting of any duty, towards Christ or about him, but with respect unto 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 unto him, must be as God and man in one person. So he is, and so he will be to all eternity. The union is inseparable and indissoluble; and for any man to make his application unto 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 unto him, we ought to consider him as he was "the seed of David," and as "God over all, blessed for ever," 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 unto 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 unto 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 them by whom his Deity is acknowledged.
Thirdly. The divine person of the Son of God lost nothing of his glory and honour that was due unto 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 spake of before;—and the whole church of God agree together in giving that worship unto 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 odours, 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 honour, 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 honour, 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, honour, 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 produceth 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," saith Peter in one of his epistles. And it implies a contradiction to have it otherwise: for the calling him
Mediator, showeth he is a means between God and us; and so it is contradictory to say our faith is terminated on his mediatory office.