CHAPTER VII: That God constituted from eternity Jesus Christ God-man
CHAPTER VII
That God constituted from eternity Jesus Christ God-man, to be one universal Lord under himself, over all the creatures he intended to make.
And one Lord Jesus Christ.—1 COR. 8:6.
I desire this to be noticed aforehand, as touching this part of the text I am now entering upon; that though all things are said to be of God, both his creation, &c., of them, and our union with him to have been first designed by God, that yet our apostle doth evidently withal here declare, that all things, both the creation and government of the world, as also our union, yea, even all that ever God did, was ordained by him to depend upon Jesus Christ as Lord, as well as upon God the Father as God.
Hence, at this our beginning to treat of what belongs to Christ's part, we must again climb up to the supremest top or pinnacle of eternity, and place our thoughts in the first instant thereof; and as yet suppose that our God being but about to purpose and decree all things, or any thing which his will should pitch upon, that none of these things concerning us and the creatures had their determination without a supposition of our Christ his having been first constituted the Lord, and a dependence of all things upon him as Lord, to have been first ordained also. Or thus, That God in his decrees and purposes, for the effecting of all these, did presuppose and take in his Christ to be the Lord of us and of all things; of whom all did and should depend, as well as upon himself, though under himself.
So as for an entrance to this discourse about Christ's interest in all these, we will make a stand, or rather go backward again aad make a recognition, and set our thoughts down in this supposition, that we
consider all these concernments of us, and of the whole creation, in the first instant of eternity, but as yet lying in the mind of God in a simple or pure idea of them, or in a bare contemplation and chart or model, in God's mare and simple knowledge and intelligence; they lay as a mass of gold or silver in the ore, without their having a decree of his will as yet passed upon them that they should be minted. They had not the conclusive decree or fiat of his will, what they should be, although he stood ready and propitious to set that his seal or imprimatur for their coming forth and publishing into actual existence. But having them and all in view or model ready afore him, he was pleased in one and the same instant or moment of eternity, wherein he brought forth these, or any other purposes of his to a determination conclusive; he was pleased (I say) to set up as the first-born of his purpose chiefly, or afore all, and to lay for a foundation and corner-stone, a midst or middle person between his creatures and himself; but especially between him and those firstfruits or choice of his creatures he would draw up into a high union with himself, to set up his Christ—a person who in the language of the text should be a one Lord, who should be a joint compeer with him, or rather God's commissioner and plenipotentiary in all his works of wonder; and that is, one Christ, not considered barely and singly as he is second person, one God with the Father, blessed for ever, but as God-man, having the office of Lord and Christ put upon him by the Father, as one that should be a one Lord under this one
God considered as he is God, and in that relation and respect lower than God himself; and yet constituted in that supreme sovereignty of lordship over them his creatures, that both all his creatures which he should with him decree to make, they all, and their very creation and government after their creation, should depend on that one Lord. As also, that all of us, whom he should decree to be taken up into that special union and communion, should owe all thereof to, and have the same dependence on this one Lord, as upon God the Father himself. Than which nothing could be found more to honour and greaten this one God as God, before the whole creation; thereby being shewed and manifested the infinite distance of God from the whole creation, in having so supreme a Lord over them, as this same
Lord of his designing should be, who yet should be under God himself, and so between him and them.
And there is this general corollary from this founded on the text, that if all things and our union with God depended upon this person as he is Lord and Christ, and that these titles import his office, and not simply his being second person as Son of God (though that be the substratum and foundation of all), that then he must have been first set up and constituted God-man, and in God's decrees invested with these offices, and constituted and made both Lord and Christ, as by whom all things should be, and we by him, as well as by the Father.
Which is one great notion I drive at, and I carry with me in mine eye all along to make forth: and do therefore upon any just occasion, everywhere draw it out unto notice and observation, as a great gospel truth.
My present task is, to begin with this his title. He is (as hath been said) first decreed unto his title of LORD.
The following explanation of which will make way for the clearing of that great truth last noticed; as also of many other things concerning
Christ previous to what are to follow. Now as to that, 1. It is an ancient title of his, and one of his first titles given him in the Old Testament, and continued to him by them in the New, and of a larger extent than that of Saviour. And though distinct from that of one God, yet necessarily denoting and supposing (as the foundation of it) that withal he is God.
In the Old Testament, Ps. 110:1, 'The Lord said unto my Lord;' and though our translation observes no distinction, yet it is in the original, 'Jehovah said to my Lord,' Jehovah unto Adonai; that is,
God the Father unto Christ or the Messiah, as Christ himself interprets it, Mat. 22:42, 43. To whom that name Adon or Adonai is made specially peculiar, and had been traditionally let down to the Jews. For Enoch had prophesied of him under that title afore the
flood; which as a tradition the apostle Jude quotes, ver. 14, 'The Lord' namely, the Christ, 'cometh with ten thousand of his saints.' To name but one more out of the Old; Dan. 9:17, 'Hear, O God Jehovah, for the Lord's sake;' where Christ, in distinction from God the Father, is called Adonai, 'the Lord.'
Which title of the Messiah, because thereby he was more eminently known by them than by any other, the angels when they bring the news of his birth to the Jews, Luke 2:11, do proclaim him by and under the style of it: 'To you is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' They describe his person under the notion which he had been more vulgarly known by under the Old Testament, than that of Saviour; 'Christ the Lord.' And afterwards the same began to be, by the unanimous vote of all the apostles, given him, Acts 2:14, publishing it in the ears of all Israel, and applying it with an appropriation to our Jesus, as that title which answered to the general expectation of the Jews concerning their long looked-for Messiah; Acts 2:36, 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.' And is as if he had said, Lo, he is that very person whom you expect, who hath been generally and indeterminately known to you under those names given him by your fathers all along in the Old Testament; whom God hath now made, and set up, and declared so to be, by exalting him in heaven, and putting all into his hands. And know (saith he) assuredly, that that man Jesus is he. It is strange that the Jews should so conspire to forbear, everywhere throughout the world, to read or pronounce the name Jehovah, the name of God's essence; and that instead thereof they should substitute, and still use the word Adonai or Lord, which, as you have heard, is sometimes in the Old Testament appropriated to the Son. Yea, and that their own Cabalists should confess the mystery of it to be, that that name Adonai, or title of Lord (and so the person of him, the Son, that more particularly bears it), is to be the key to Jehovah, which latter is the name of his essence, which is hidden to us (as they speak), to be as a treasury in which God
Jehovah hath hid all the riches he means to communicate to us. And
further, this Adonai, or Lord, to be the great ruler and governor under God Jehovah, nourishing and sustaining all things. And that without Adonai, or this Lord, there is no way or means for my man to come to this God Jehovah. Thus Masini hath out of their own records observed;* which is a clear, if not a full explication of the office of our
Christ, as he is Adonai, or Lord.
The New Testament speaketh the very same in terminis, God not being known to any but to whom Christ reveals him; 'in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom;' he ruling and 'supporting all by the word of his power;' as to whom God hath communicated the execution of all judgment, himself visibly judging none. 'Neither is there any name under heaven' but this, 'whereby men can be saved,' and approach to God; there being one God, and one Lord,' as here, 1
Cor. 8:6.
And this title of Lord, in distinction from Jehovah, or God, as thus understood and used by the Jews, conduceth somewhat towards an answer to that objection of the Socinians, that Christ being usually thus styled the Lord, but the Father God, that therefore Christ is not God. For not only according to the Jews' sense Adonai, or Lord, is all one with Jehovah in this respect, that it is one of the names of him that is God, for they ordinarily, in naming God, put it instead of God, or Jehovah; yea, and it is attributed to none other but him that is
God, as they acknowledge. But yet so as withal it is evident also, that in their sense it likewise signifies an office of Lord and mediator for us put upon him, and in that respect distinguished from Jehovah, yet so as still withal Christ himself is also the true Jehovah. And therefore the Old Testament in a very usual way joins both together,
'the Lord God;' and when it speaks in that manner, doth usually mean Christ, who was then the great dispenser of all things under the Old Testament, as well as now under the New. It was he that appeared to the fathers, who is and was to them both 'Lord and God' also, as well as 'Lord and Christ' to us.
And thus the apostle Thomas, John 20, when once convinced of his being the Messiah, cries out, ver. 28, 'My Lord and my God!' He spake it of Christ. For whereas other disciples had called him 'the Lord' (as in that chapter again and again, and frequently elsewhere, as his usual title), and had said to Thomas, ver. 25, 'We have seen the Lord,' that is, him whom we have and do own for the Messiah; and then the Old Testament having still put both titles together of 'Lord and God,' as you heard; hereupon Thomas, his faith being on the sudden struck, and enlightened with a fresh and new conviction, he cries out, 'My Lord and my God,' thereby acknowledging Christ to be both. And he doth it with application to himself, 'My Lord and my
God.' And whereas in Eph. 4:5, 6, when it is said, 'There is one Lord, and one God, the Father of all;' and in this text, 1 Cor. 8:6, 'To us there is but one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ;' it is not to be understood, nor doth it follow, that his Father's being said to be one God, in distinction from Christ, should exclude Christ from being that one God, no more than Christ's being termed that one
Lord, in the same places, would import that therefore God the Father is not Lord. Yea, of Christ, as well as of the Father, it is said, that he is the only Lord; and that with his being God also is inserted, to second it and put this matter out of all doubt. Thus Jude 4, the last words of the verse, 'Denying the only Lord God,' καὶ τὸν μόνον δεσπότην Θεὸν καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, 'and Lord of us,
Jesus Christ;' affixing but one article at the first unto all these three titles that follow, 'Lord God,' 'the only Lord God,' and 'our Lord;'* as meaning but one and the same person known by all these titles, not two persons, as of God the Father, and of Christ both, but one person only, namely, our Christ who is the subject of all these titles; whom he there names our Lord Jesus Christ, all three spoken of one and the same Christ; which that of Peter added to it also clears (and all know Jude's epistle to be a counterpart of that second of Peter; and he writing as Jude also, against the very same heretics in those times), he there says of them, 'denying the Lord that bought them;' and it is our Christ is the person he speaks of too, as the proper character he signifies him by, 'the Lord that bought them,' and paid the price of buying them as a Lord. And as he names no other person