Chapter V
That the second person of the Trinity assumed human nature into personal union with himself, and so is God-man in one person for ever.
I come to the great mystery of our religion, which so loud a voice proclaims to be such, by the apostle, 1 Tim. iii, 16, And, without controversy, great is
: God was manifest in the flesh. God had mani
the mystery of godliness
fested himself in the Old Testament in his works ; as in Rom. i. 19, That which may be known of God is manifest in them ; and, ver. 20, For the invi
sible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under stood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. But God manifest in the flesh is an higher kind of manifestation, for there he is present. We may say of it, Here God is a visible God in his person. In the Old Testament this was prophesied of, among other famous oracles
foregoing, Isa. vii. 14, A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and^ shall
call his name Immanuel ; that is, God with us. And again, chap. ix. 6 , For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, which notes his being God the Son; who had been begotten long before by God the Father, and now given ; unto us a child is born, and born of
* a virgin, there
is his human nature ; and his name shall be called WONDERFUL, for his
person is a wonderful person, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, compounded of God and man in one person, which
set all the world aghast at the knowledge of it. He did wondrously ; *
that is, he shewed himself to be God, for he ascended into heaven in a
flame, and therein shewed himself more than a man or angel. As his per son was wonderful, so his actions : wonderful in his person, as God united
to man ; and wonderful as man, in his making immediately by the Holy Ghost ; such a man as never was. Says David, of his own body, Ps.
< Thou tellest all my members ; I am fearfully and wonderfully made, . . . curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. The phrases do speak some curious piece of workmanship to be undertaken in hand by some special artist ; and to hide his workmanship from the vulgar (which argues the nobleness of it) he goes into a dark place, and there he works it unbeheld of any, and then he brings it forth to open view. It was an
cxxxix. 14,
instance Dr Preston used to give, that in the generation of a child, between
father and mother, the father knows not what is doing, nor the mother knows not what is doing ; but God stands by, like a secret limner, and
actuates the formation of every member according to the idea thereof writ ten in his book. But in the formation of Christ s body and soul, the
Holy Ghost discovered his workmanship in the dark place of the virgin s womb, called the lower parts of the earth. And to stop the flowings of
sin and corruption, which by the parents is done, himself performed the
part of the formative virtue which is in the seed of men ; whence it was
that the divine nature, when he came into the world, said, A body hast * The reference is to Judges xiii. 19. ED.
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 439
thou prepared me ; the word in the original is Katartizein* that is, arti
culated, made and set in their due place and order.
I shall only add one place further, to set forth the wonders of the mys-
* The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth ; a woman shall compass a man. It is a prophecy of the conception of Christ
stery ; Jer. xxxi. 22,
at Nazareth, f one of the cities of Galilee, the place where the angel brought news first to the virgin, and where she conceived him. Of which, if I have
time, more afterwards. This was a new thing indeed, a new thing created
in the world, the like unto which, as also the crucifying of his Son, he never did afore, nor never will do again. And the blessed virgin hath a touch upon it, The Lord hath done great things for me, and holy is his name. The word in the original is /^gyaXg/a, and is the same word the
* The wonderful works of God.
apostles used in Acts ii. 11,
Aud thus heaven and earth met and kissed one another, namely, God and man. And this union is the middle union (as I call it), as in respect to the two other, the union of the three persons in one Godhead, and our union with God ; so in respect to the thing itself. For his person being a middle person between the two persons, the Father and the Holy Ghost :
he, the Son, as a middle person, by his union with the essence of God, takes hold of God on the one part ; and further, by his union with the nature of man, takes hold of man on the other part, and so takes hold of both at once ; all which was suitable to his office, as being mediator, which the apostle says is of two that are at enmity, Gal. iii. 20 ; and this you have, 1 Tim. ii. 5,
* For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
* God manifested in the flesh, so the signs and wonders that accompanied and followed his person, after
And as the person was thus wonderful,
his being gone to heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, as Paul, an
eye-witness, testifies, Heb. ii. 4, God also bearing witness, both with
signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
according to his own will. As also the apostle Peter, 1 Pet. i. 11, The
Spirit of Christ testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. The times the apostles lived in were a glorious season. The apostle Paul hath in brief summed up the characters of them, and annexed them to his God manifested in the flesh, as the wonderful effects
thereof; as they follow in 1 Tim. iii. 16, where it follows, justified in the
Spirit, by reason of the frailty and meanness of his flesh wherein he
* He was set at nought by Herod and his men of war, Luke
appeared ;
zxiii. 11 ; mocked and scourged by Pilate and the Jews, and for his pre tension to be the Son of God, cast out of the world under the public infamy of being the greatest impostor, the most detestable villain and deceiver that ever was in the world, the rulers not sparing him when he hung miserably upon the cross. He was esteemed J of God, Isa. liii., when he was cru
cified, overwhelmed with all these prejudices. But presently, as he comes
to heaven, his Father owned him, set him at his right hand, and made his enemies his footstool ; and he was justified from that great reproach cast upon him, for making himself God. In respect unto these things it is
said, He was justified in the Spirit, that is, in his Godhead, being owned as God. Was not this a wonder, a mighty wonder ! Seen of angels. And by their seeing him to be the Son (which none of them were), as soon as
* That is,
* xaraorifytv. ED. t As Dr Jackson hath k .irnedly proved in his Sermon called Bethlehem and Nazareth. f Qu. Smitten ? ED.
440 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK II.
he comes to heaven, they all fall down and worship him : When he bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God
worship him, when he came first to heaven. And the bad angels, they believed and trembled, though men did not ; and they besought him not
to torment them before the time, the day of judgment. It follows, preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world. The Gentiles that had continued idolaters two thousand years, worshipping devils, by whom they were led ; and the apostles, but by preaching the gospel (which was but
whispered, and yet runs through all the world, it ran like wildfire upon dried
trees) ; they turned the world upside down, Acts xvii. 6. Taken up into glory, and owned there in the highest manner by God. Whereas, John xvi. 10, the contrary speech there used insinuates that he died, as cast out by God for the most unrighteous person that ever lived in the world. Christ foretells, that by the Spirit s coming with the word, he should convince the world that he was a righteous man, and had satisfied
* Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. And what is the reason of all this ? But because this man being taken up into glory, there is no eye of men or angels that shall see him in
for sin ;
this glory, but must fall down and acknowledge, That man there is God, the Son of God ; and so John tells us himself. And the other apostles that saw a glimpse of his glory, do confess, We saw his glory, as of the
only begotten Son of God, John i. 14. And if the clothes he wore, which were but the outward appendixes of his person, did yet shine so bright as no fuller on earth could white them, how much more his human nature
itself, in which the fulness of the gospel* personally dwells, shall transcend-
ently shine much more, as being a part of himself, as he is able to make us to do, Phil. iii. 21, Who shall change our vile body, .that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body ; much more shall he change soul and body into the image of himself.
But I shall comprise all that I intend to discourse of this subject, in this one assertion.
That this person, the eternal Son of God, who was and is God, took unto
himself, into an unity of person with himself, the man Jesus, or that the
person of Christ is God and man, joined into one person.
To demonstrate the assertion ; the punctum of which lies in this, that in our Christ, God and man are become one person.
1. What is said of his conception or incarnation, in that forecited place, Luke i. 39, That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God; which is explained by that in Gal. iv. 4, God sent forth his Son (his Son that was sent, and God, existed afore) ; and it was he, the
Son, that so existed, that is, the person, and he now said to be made of a woman, the virgin. Observe, it is spoken of and attributed to this Son, that he was now made of a woman,
* made man, who was begotten of God afore, and now sent into, yea, made flesh ; and that this Son and
that man made of a woman are yet but one Son still, not two sons, and
therefore also one person ; for if they had been two persons, they had been two sons the Son of God the one, and that holy thing born of the woman another ; whereas being now joined unto one person, there is but one Son
to God, as he is there denominated.
2d Evidence. Go we from his conception to the constant course and
tenor of his speech about himself. That this man (when grown up) should
continually talk of himself, and attribute such things to himself that were
* Qu. Godhead ? ED.
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 441
proper, and belonged only to that person, the Word, the only begotten Son
of God, as we have proved and described him, existed before the world, that was the Son of God in heaven, and very God ; that this man, this
sorry man to see to, should talk at that rate as he doth, and still say I, not
we, whilst he so speaks of himself, all the wits in the world cannot solve
this riddle (if the several speeches be collected, and narrowly observed, in
the gospel of John, and elsewhere), but by this which I use to solve all, he was taken into one person with him that was the Son of God.
* My Father hitherto
1 For instance, besides many others, John v. 17,
worketh, and I work ; which the Jews understood that he made himself
equal with God, ver. 18. But how a man should be God, this they under stood not. And he goes on to justify it, and assume it ; extending that
* My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ) unto all things past, as well as present or to come, even unto all that ever God did ; ver. 19,
speech of his (namely, that
* What things soever the Father doth, these also doth
the Son likewise. If he created the world, so did I ; if he hath governed all the affairs of it, so have I ; my hands have wielded the sceptre with him ; and God did never anything without my advice and counsel ; shew
ing me whatever he dcth, ver. 20. Thus for time past. And so for time
< As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so
to come ;
the Son quickeneth whom he will, ver. 21 ; God s will and intention being that all men shall one day
* honour the Son, as they honour the Father, ver. 23. And yet he that talked all this was a man, that came into the world (as a man) but thirty years afore, yea, and he professeth of him
self, chap. viii. ver. 57, 58, that he was before Abraham ; Before Abraham
was, I am, that is, iny person. And yet they judged him not above fifty. All which I allege not, as formerly, to prove that Christ was God, or Son of God ; but now that the man Jesus (who it is that uttered all this), that
he. was one person with that Son of God, who is God. For when he speaks
it, he still maketh but one I of the Son of God and himself, and speaks the same things that are proper and peculiar to that Son of God who had
afore existed. The man (I say) speaks them of himself, utters them in his own name, without any limitation or caution for being mistaken. He, this man, doth thereby distinguish himself from all his fellow-creatures. These
things were so stupendously strange, that they made the carnal Jew wild, and mad, and in a rage, and to cry out upon him that he blasphemed, and ever and anon to take up stones to stone him withal ; and although they had believed that he was the Messiah whom they expected, yet such
things as these they never could have imagined should have agreed to the
person of Christ, whom they expected. They judged he took upon him
infinitely beyond the elevation and proportion of the Messiah himself. And therefore, John x. 24, they having only at first asked him somewhat
seriously, Tell us plainly if thou be the Christ ; and he as plainly tells them so that he was ; yet frames his answer up in such description of him
self, as the Christ, that he was one with God, as that thereupon the next word he hears from them is, Thou blasphemcst, ver. 33.
\ Yea, and in the 6th chapter, those that were his disciples, that is, such as were a-coming on to believe on him, were for such strange riddles as
these, utterly put off, as John vi. Gl ; and yet there, or unto them, such was his zeal to assert this his personal union between the Son of God, and that man Jesus, whose mouth was the utterer of it, that he speaks yet more strangely, Doth +his offend you ? What if you see the Son of man ascend where he was before ? And there is no other foundation or
442 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BoOZ II.
ground for such a speech as that ; no other respect could bear it, but this his personal union, as the reason of it. Why, we know his mother and
brethren, say they. And where then could this man be before ? Nay, to increase the wonder yet more, he had said to Nicodemus, John iii. 13, And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from
heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven ; that is, who is now in heaven at this present ; whenas yet they saw him as a man, circumscribed with local bounds on earth, even as any other man is, within the verge of a
poor seamless coat. And these things he so speaks of himself, in distinc
tion from the whole creation of God, as proper and peculiar to him, laying them therein in a rank infinitely below himself ; yea, also as one equal to God his Father, and as such, distinct from him ; and yet it is a Son of man that utters it, although, consider him as mere man, it could not be he should have so spoken ; the things said will not bear such words. And
it is among other demonstrations of this truth, and also one of the main ends of God s ordaining this personal union, to declare, to the end that men might hear with their ears, and see with their eyes (as John), the
original distinction of the Father and his Son. as distinct persons in the
deity ; which was that which was, and had been, among the persons from
eternity, afore Christ took our nature, in that it was confidently held forth by a man, who being become one person with the Son, could and durst say, and appeal to his works to justify it, which were so stupendously miraculous, that his Father (afore whom and to his face he speaks it all) must be
acknowledged to have concurred with him, and so thereby testified that he
spake truth in this ; whilst yet this man utters it in the name of a person that was not mere man, but also God, Son of God. For this man doth, before and after, upon this doctrine of his, work his miracles, such as no mere man ever did ; and God suffered him so to talk, did bear it, and let him go on, and assist him therein, or else he could not have done them. As John x. 37, 38,
< If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not ; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works ; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. And when he had done all these things, to ascend up to heaven, and sit down at God s
right hand, this, I say, is at once a confirmation of these two, the greatest truths :
1. The distinction of the persons of the Father, and the Son, though one God. As also,
2. That this sorry man that speaks it was one in person with the Son of God.
And if there had been no other end of this incarnation of personal union than to declare and manifest the first of these, it had been worth it; which by so great an evidence could never have been manifested.
And then, if this man were not one in person with the Son of God, who was God, let us all call him in question, and arraign him at the latter day, instead of his arraigning us, for laying low to himself all the saints, and the whole creation of God, whenas himself as man was but a part of it ; yea, for usurping upon the prerogatives of God himself ; and let his own words
judge him. I say, let us cry out upon him as a deceiver, if this man had not that divine person, God s Son, in him, and therewith a divine nature, besides that of a bare man, which divinity lay hid and concealed in him, as a prince under a disguise ; and that person and divinity so united to him
as to make one person with him, this man that spake thus.
3. Thirdly, We find these two natures of God and man spoken of in
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 443
him, as making up one / or one he ; when himself speaks of himself, or his
apostles of him.
I begin with Mat. xvi., where he catechiseth his disciples in this funda mental of religion ; for, ver. 17, 18, he professeth to found his church upon the profession of it. (1.) The question asked is evidently what his person was, and of what made up ? This, his second question, ver. 15, Whom do ye say that I am ? doth directly point to, for their punctual answer : what or who is my person ? And, (2.) concerning that you may observe
that he bounds it not, he terminates it not, upon his being a man. The main question is not, whether he was a man or no ? or the Christ, the Son
of man ? as if that were all. But my question reacheth farther, Whom do ye say that I, who am the son of man, am ? over and beyond my being a son of man, I am something besides. And yet Son of man imported the Messiah ; as Cameron upon John v. 27, And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Out of Dan.
vii. 13, I beheld one like the Son of man ; which is the periphrasis of
the Christ.
(3.) Peter, in his answer for them all, affirms not barely that he, the Son of man, was the Christ ; which was but a name of office (as if you should say of a man, he is the king, or he is the chancellor ; noting out an
official person, or to denominate his office only) ; but he further adds, Thou
art the Son of the living God.
(4.) Observe, that he in his answer joins these two together, to make up the /, the person of this Christ, the Son of man, and the Son of the living God ; and as substantially the Son of the living God as he was substan
tially the Son of man. Yea, and manifestly shewing that the main of his
person (for the subsistence or personality of it), to consist in this, his being the Son of the living God, more than in his being the Son of man. The
* What think
like you have joined in Christ s question to the Pharisees,
you of Christ? David s son, say they; David s Lord, says he: and both making up one Messiah, or the Christ. So then, the person of Christ was Son of man, and Son of God, Mat. xvi. And Son of David, and Son
of one greater than David ; for which he calls him Lord, and both in one
person, Mat. xxii. Let us now bring other scriptures to these. 1. You have the same prophesied of him at his conception, by the angel, Luke i., The Son of David his father, ver. 32 ;
< The Son of God, ver. 35 ; arid both the same he. Let us still pursue this notion through the Scriptures, and from hence go unto Kom. i. 1-4,
* Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (which he had
promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures), concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. In which words you have,
1. As in the former, the person of Christ ; that is, who and what he was
in his person, made the eminent and primary subject of the gospel
: The
gospel (says he) concerning his Son Jesus Christ. And that set forth as the prophets in the holy Scriptures, or writings of the Old Testament had
set him forth to us ; so as we shall have occasion from hence to call in the
testimony of some prophets unto the confirmation of this also. I say, the
person of Christ is the primary subject of it ; for the next following words
insist on the descriptior thereof. And so, whereas Paul was to set forth in
his ensuing discourse, how that Christ s righteousness is that righteousness
444 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK II.
which God hath ordained for sinners, ver. 16, 17, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for therein is revealed the righteousness of God from
faith to faith : as it is written, The just shall live by faith ; it was suitable
for him in this so methodical and systematical an epistle, in the first place to set out who and what the person of Christ is. Which, 2. He performs in the next words, and that under the same terms, or
equivalent, as in the two former Christ himself had done. (1.) To be the Son of David, made of the seed of David, ver. 3 ; and, (2.)|To be the Son of God, ver. 3, his Son in the same verse ; and so, in ver. 4, both making up this one person, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yea, and 3. He further and more clearly proceeds to shew how there were two distinct natures met in that one person
: the nature of a man,
according unto which he was the Son of David ; the nature of God, or the Godhead, according unto which, or in respect of which, he was the Son of God : Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, ver. 3,
1 and declared to be (also) the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. And as the opposition proves this, so it is very observable how exactly the apostle speaks in so great a mystery.* 1. The opposition clears it ; for -/.ara ffdgza,
* According to the flesh, is opposed to xara
irievfta, According to the Spirit of holiness. Now when he says he was
of the seed of David according to the flesh, he (as all acknowledge) means
that according to, or in respect of his human nature, termed the flesh, or as man, so here, was made of the seed of David ; oppositely, according to
his Godhead, termed the spirit of holiness ; as he was in respect thereof the natural Son of God : so he was manifested with power so to be by the
resurrection from the dead. Now that Spirit, as in Christ, is taken for the Godhead or divine nature dwelling in him, is evident by multitude of scrip tures : The flesh profits nothing, the Spirit quickeneth ; and By the
eternal Spirit he offered up himself, Heb. vii. And this Godhead in him
is called the Spirit of holiness ; by way of the ordinary title given the
third person, who is called the Holy Spirit
: this here, the Spirit of holi ness itself, which sanctified that human nature, as the altar and temple did
the sacrifice.
: as Son of David he is
Again, observe the apostle s exactness of speech
said to have been made, for begotten of man he was not, yet made of a woman, David s daughter, of the same matter that all men are formed of. But as Son of God he says not of him that he was made ; but he here supposeth him already, before he was made man, to have been the Son of God,
ver. 3 ; and therefore says only he was declared, namely, to us, or mani
festly evidenced to have been the Son of God, according to a divine nature
in him, in which he existed before. And for proof of it he holds forth the
greatest evidence, the power shewn by him in his resurrection from the dead ; in that Christ did aforehand profess and declare that he would raise
himself up by his own power, John x. 18.
4. The fourth thing I observe is, that these two natures remain in them
selves distinct in him, and yet both make up one person. (1.) Two natures
distinct. The apostle doth professedly distinguish, as any schoolman useth
to do ; According to the flesh, says he, and according to the Spirit. Yea, he denies concerning him that he is Son of God according to the flesh ;
according to which nature he is considered only as the Son of David : but Son of God only in respect of his divine nature. And, (2.) he speaks of him as one person, that hath both these, and consisted of both ; or else * See Beza.
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHEIST. 445
this distinction needed not have been used if he had been either nothing but a man, or if the same person had not been both God and man. As when you distinguish of a man, that quoad anim-am, according to his soul, he is the offspring of God, Acts xvii. ; for God is the Father of spirits, Heb. xii. : but quoad coi~pus, according to his body, he is begotten by man, who are the fathers of our bodies. To say a man is mortal quoad corpus, but immortal quoad animam : such a distinction were needless, if a man had not both a body and a soul ; or if that body and soul made not up one manner of person ; or if the soul were one person, as an angel is, and the
body another.
Now the person of Christ is still everywhere spoken of but as one : one
Lord, 1 Cor. vi. And yet of this the apostle Paul is found to distinguish, that he is Son of God, according to the Spirit ; Son of David, according to the flesh. And you have it again used by Peter, Acts ii. 30, David know
ing that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, God would raise up Christ. That addition, according to the flesh, needed not, if Christ had not consisted of another nature besides. Which being distinct, the oneness, the unity of this Christ, to whom both are alike attributed, must be found
in the personality, that he that hath both these is one person.
Now from hence, go unto Rom. ix. 5, where you have the same distinc
tion again used, as in manifest opposition to his divine nature ; Whose
are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came ; who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. According to the flesh, he was of
David, and the rest of the fathers ; but besides, he had another nature, which made him
* Lord over all, God blessed for ever. Which clearly
interprets Rom. i. 3, Son cf God, according to the Spirit of holiness : that
as he was God s Son, so he was God. Or as Rom. i., Son of God, according to his Godhead ; even as Son of David according to the flesh ; yet both
making but one Atho,* or person, one Christ.
Now, 4. Because Paul, in that Rom. i. 2, averred the prophets for this
composition of his person, Son of David, according to the flesh ; Son of God, according to, or in respect of his Godhead : let us see if we find like and similar places to these in the prophets ; not to name all that prove him
to be God and man, but such as are punctually correspondent to these.
Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. 1. Son of David, ver. 5, Behold the days come that I will
raise unto David a righteous branch ; that is, out of his loins, a branch out
of that stock or root. Who, 2, Shall be God, and Son of God (as Rom.
ix. 5, Rom. i. 3) ; ver. 6, And this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our righteousness. Jehovah, from the name of his essence, for
it is the incommunicable name of God ; and our righteousness, as being mediator, and noting forth his office. And yet Jehovah our righteousness, rather than the
* Man our righteousness ; for his being our righteousness, depends more upon his being Jehovah, than his being a branch of David ; although upon both, as they are conjoined in one person.
From thence let us go to Micah v. 2, where we shall find that as Christ hath two natures met in him, Son of David, Son of God, so two nativities
spoken of, and yet the person but one. 1. The ruler shall come forth of Bethlehem. He was born there as man ; and you know it was the city of
David, whither Mary, as being of the seed of David, came to be taxed. So
then, still Son of David, according to the flesh, and born as such in the four thousandth year of the world ; but then, as Son of God, His goings forth have been from of old, the days of eternity. * That is, I suppose, the Hebrew J"flN. ED -
446 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK II.
Unto this head I allege as the concluding proof to them foregone, that
strange riddle in Heb. vii. 3, applying unto Christ, set forth from his type Melchisedec, Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life ; but, made like unto the Son of
God, abideth a priest continually. Which being spoken of one and the same person, Christ, can no otherwise be unfolded than by a differing
respect had to the two natures God and man, and accordingly of two nati
vities. That he was God, and in that respect had a Father, the evangelist John doth in a special manner inculcate ; that he had a mother, the story of his birth, by the other three, doth inform us ; that he was born of a
virgin, without a father, those three evangelists do tell us. And yet that Paul here should tell us, he was without a mother, doth necessarily import another kind of generation of his, wherein there was no mother concurred, and so another divine nature met in this one person ; in respect of which he was as substantially begotten of him without a mother, as that as man he had been conceived of jthe substance of his mother, even Son of the
living God.
There are other sorts of proofs of this great truth. As first, the communication and attribution of the same rights, privileges,
attributes, actions, passions, infirmities.
1. All the rights of the Son of God by inheritance, given to the man
Jesus, as that called Son of God ; not as the angels, Heb. i. Luke i. 32,
1 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, to rule the
nations ; raise whom he will ; have possession of all power in heaven and
earth ; to forgive sins as man, Mat. ix. 6.
2. The attributes proper to God are given to this man : as to have been
in heaven before the world was ; John iii. 13, and John xvii., Glorify me
with that glory I had with thee afore the world was. Before Abraham
was, I am. Whereby what is not true of that nature alone in itself con
sidered, is yet attributed to that nature of a man now. The natural pro
perties of man s nature in him were never altered, for finite could never become infinite ; therefore it must necessarily be spoken in a personal
respect, as being made one person with him that is God ; qui, not qua, that
is, spoken of him who is man, not of him as man. As when what is proper
only to the soul is attributed to the whole man ; as if when Paul s soul was
rapt up into the third, heaven, and his body remaining on earth, that of
his body it should have been said, it is now in heaven, because the soul it was united to was there. Like to which is, that Christ should call his body in the grave, God s Holy One ; his Holy One saw no corruption ; which
is spoken of the whole person, though it was his body only was capable of
corruption. Or that of John, We saw and handled the Word of life, 1 John i. 1, and the Word which was from the beginning ; and yet speaks there of their handling his very body, Feel, if a spirit have flesh and
bones, and putting their fingers into it, so to verify his having been come
in the flesh. On the other hand, e contra, that all the infirmities of the human nature should be attributed to God, that God should be said to be
pierced and crucified ; 2 Cor. xii. 10, Therefore I take pleasure in infir
mities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for
Christ s sake : for when I am weak, then am I strong ; compared with ver.
8, I besought the Lord ; which is applied to Christ, John xix. 37, And
again, another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they have
pierced. And God to lay down his life, 1 John iii. 16, Hereby perceive
CHAP. V.J AND HIS SON JESUS CHEIST. 447
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us ; and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. These contradictions all the wits
in the world cannot reconcile, but by acknowledging two natures in one
person.
3. That the obedience, yea, bloodshed of the man should be called the blood of God, the life of God ; 1 John iii. 16, there it is called the life of God ; and Acts xx. 26, the blood of God, yea, God s own blood ; and
his active obedience the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Peter i. 1. And these things were spoken, not because God was the
efficient of these in him ; for so the Spirit is of our prayers, Rom. viii ;
yet, they are never termed the Spirit s prayers, or requests, though made
by him in us, and for us, but our prayers. But all that obedience of
Christ is called God s ; which difference can never be solved, but that the man Jesus was one person with God. Not so we. Yea, if that man had ginned (if you could suppose it, as to bring an argument from it to illustrate
this), you may, by the same law, or reason, that his righteousness is now
called the obedience of God, or, the life of God, infer that it must have been termed the sin of God. For what the man did in weakness, is attri buted to God. But we are not in this personal manner united to the Spirit, that our weaknesses should be attributed to him. We sin, yet it were blas phemy to say that our sins are his ; and all because he is not one person with us, though his person is united to our persons.
Neither when that bloodshed is called the blood of God, yea, his own blood ; this is not spoken in respect to his being possessor and owner of it, as God is of all the creatures. Ps. 1., The beasts on a thousand hills are mine. John i.,
* He came, sig ra Idia, to his own. And so the blood
of bulls and goats were God s, when sacrificed. But this is not only said
to be his blood, but his own blood, and his own life. These are phrases never spoken of possession, or of an owner by dominion or external right. We call indeed other things, as goods, a man s own, but never call it a man s own blood, unless it be naturally or personally his own. We say not of a slave s body, this is the body of his master, his own body, because
the phrase, a man s own body, in propriety of speech, is used another way for the body of a man s self, as of a person. Or if he give a slave s life or
body for a ransom, we never say, nor can say in propriety of speech, that the master gave his own body, his own blood, as a ransom. The
phrase so properly notes out personal propriety, that is, of a person, unto what is a part of one s person, and that the blood is that person s whose own it is called. Yea, though a father give a child to death, who yet is
his flesh and blood, yet we hardly say he gave his own blood ; and yet if
that might be said, because the same blood is naturally the father s, yet of God the Father it could not be said, because Christ s blood, as a man, did not flow out of his Father s blood ; for God begets not him as a man, nor hath he flesh and blood to communicate. So that it necessarily notes out that one that was God, a person, taking up that man into one person with
himself, that man s blood is therefore called God s own blood, because the man s, who is one person with him.
Neither, 3, it is said to be God s own blood, because shed by God s own
will and appointment ; for so the blood of every man that is killed by God s
will should be so called, and so the blood of bulls was God s own blood in that respect.
Use. We must labour to have our minds and faith well established in the true knowledge of the person of Christ, since it is a truth of so great mo-
448 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK II.
ment unto us, and the mischiefs of erring about it will be destructive to our souls.
And the weight or importance that our faith be set and kept right in this
point appears in that errors and mistakes herein, as they have been frequent, so fatal in all ages, and to all sorts of men that have had the knowledge or
hearsay of our Christ.
1. To the Jews Christ was a stumblingblock, 1 Cor. i. 23, both in what his person should be, as appears John x. 33 and other places, as also that his righteousness alone, through faith, should be the righteousness of a sinner, is in like manner said to be a stumblingblock, Rom. ix. 33. Their heads were mightily then taken up and busied who that man Jesus should be ; and how many various opinions did the devils buzz into their minds
to divert them from that which was the truth, and alone was to save them ! Some said he was John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. And thus it is now at this day. The Jews, according to the principles and fancies of that age, had those forementioned several
opinions of him, and perhaps many more. And in this age, according to other principles which Satan possesseth men s brains withal, several opinions are raised up, what this Christ shouldjbe, whilst all are zealous to profess him.
Then, again, Christ [himself foretold it, as a forerunning sign of the de
struction of Jerusalem, that the Jews having rejected him, the true Christ, they should be given up to many false Christs, pano/xsva. Now, those
days, and the occurrences thereof, afore Jerusalem s destruction, are made
types of the like to fall out (even in this particular point) in the days pre ceding the end of the world (whereof Jerusalem s destruction was itself a
type in Christ s intention in that chapter). And accordingly these days now. Although Jesus at Jerusalem is more generally acknowledged by almost all that profess Christianity, yet in assigning what and wherein his
being Christ consists, herein men have and shall run into as many several
sorts of Christs as the Jews had done ; one saying, Here is Christ, another, There is Christ ; one that this is Christ, another this. And such buddings and sproutings forth of such errors began in those
first times, whilst Paul and other apostles were on earth, amongst those
that pretended to Christian profession, witness those more than hints in
several epistles, which Paul plainly styleth the preaching of another
Christ than what himself and the other apostles had preached. What
else meaneth that passage, For I am jealous over you with a godly
: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the
jealousy
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be cor
rupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive an
other Spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have
not accepted, ye might well bear with him, 2 Cor. xi. 2-4. That in these
passages he glanceth at some false teachers that had come in among them, as those words, if he that cometh to you preach, &c., ver. 4, evidently
imply, that at least such were then abroad in the world, and have been in
other churches, and were ready to come to theirs, which Paul was afraid
of. But more plain and directly, For such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no
marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore
it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 449
righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works, ver. 13-15. And these expressions do import that the doctrines which these had vented
concerning Christ were framed and raised up to so high an appearance of
spiritualness, as were not only apt to take with believers, and deceive them, as ver. 3, which made Paul so jealous over them, ver. 2 ; but further, they seemed so angelical and seraphic, that in these, if ever in any (his depths, as they are called), Satan had shewed his depths, and had played the coun
terfeit of an angel of light, and transformed himself thereunto in his inven
tions of them ; and when yet, as Paul plainly tells them, that it was but a counterfeit Christ, another Jesus than he had preached,
* another
Spirit, and another gospel. So as the Christ which these false apostles had dressed up, had so high an appearance of Christ s spirit and gospel, as
seemed to vie with that true Jesus, &c., which the apostles taught, foi
glory and spiritual excellencies. And this also, that new form of an oath which the apostle useth upon that coherence, ver. 10, a new one framed to
this occasion, As the truth of Christ is in me, &c., says he, which he
speaks to import that in those other teachers there was a false Christ, and not the true.
And to affect the Corinthians the more, and arm them with wariness
against, and shew them the danger of entertaining any new doctrines about
Christ s person, he presenteth and enforceth the moment hereof, under the
similitude of marriage, I am jealous over you with godly jealousy (the
subject which jealousy is increased about, is fear of what may rise to the breach of the marriage -knot), lest you should entertain the embraces of an
other ; and so it follows, for I have espoused you to one husband, and I would present you a chaste virgin to him, that is, to Christ, to whom as
yet you are but espoused. And it is as if he had said, There is but one
spiritual husband, and there can be but one, your only husband, Christ.
It is not as in the case of other marriages, if you have not such a man you may have another as good, yea, perhaps a better. But if you mistake here
in obtaining this one, only one for your husband, you are undone. There can be no greater errors committed in marriage than error persona, a mis
take of the person you are to marry ; and when thinking you marry such a man, you marry another. Yea, and if after marriage to one husband
you should be deceived, as many women (as stories and experience shew) have been, when their husbands have been long absent and out of sight, others, that have had some resemblance of the true husband, or some privy mark of him, have put themselves upon their wives, and they entertained
* But I fear, says he, lest
their embraces. How fatal a thing is this !
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, ver. 3. The devil hath a special malice at the person of Christ, of all other truths
concerning him ; and to put this high abuse upon him, specially goes about
to deceive his spouse in his person, to misrepresent him and deform him ;
yea, and if possibly he can effect it, put this trick upon him, and great im
posture on her, that she should take another Jesus for him, the devil s Jesus instead of God s. And to effect this, of all other, he will use his utmost subtilty. And having been himself an angel of light, he will trans form himself in pretended manifestations, and incomes, and ravishments of
spirit, that shall accompany the entertainment and embraces of his Christ. He will use all means ( if by any means, says Paul) to second, credit, and
help forward this new mtoh.
And one great occasion of their aptness to be deceived is the simplicity VOL. rv. F f
450 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BoOK II.
that is in the person of our Christ, not only in his human nature, a car
penter s son, a crucified man, a Christ in flesh, but that when besides for his divine nature, they think they have heard and known already well
enough what God s nature is, by what is said of him in the Old Testament, and so in the Father, and to know but the same over again in Christ ; this
is no great addition to their knowledge. And that no other thing can be affirmed of him but that he is God, and that to think that he should have but the same simple uncompounded nature that God hath, and not be
distinct from God therein. They think they are but as wise as they were
in this, and so are apt to listen after such representations of a Christ, as shew him to be some divine Spirit that comes out of God, differing from God, which they fancy will afford matter of some new and manifold wisdom, besides that knowledge they have of God by other means. And thus the
simplicity of his person (as they esteem this) is apt to cause them to listen
after some other story of him. Whereas the glories and wisdom which
ariseth from that union of God and man in one person is such, as tran scends all other imaginations, though never so raised, which either angels, men, or devils have or could for ever invent concerning him.
And the deceits and trains that Satan lays herein, he compares to those wherewith the serpent deceived Eve, Lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve, &c. He put it into their heads that there was a higher knowledge they might attain than in that keeping to God s law, they had already, or could
: and further, that themselves should be gods ; so seducing them from God. And thus here there is not only a promise of a higher and more spiritual knowledge than that simple story of Christ God-man
attain thereby
affords ; but that themselves should be Christs. And they frame such a
story of Christ as should serve to persuade this, and their capacity of this advance. For a Christ in flesh, which this man Jesus is, say they, you shall have a Christ in spirit. For a Christ without you, that is, God sub
stantially, you shall have, every one of you, a Christ within you ; yea, and
if need be, they will not stick to affirm, yourselves shall be God substan
tially ; and not be united only to God and Christ, but so united, as to
exist in the form of God, and to be one and the same with God. Such or
the like workings of this mystery of iniquity, deforming and perverting of the true Christ into another, you find in Paul s time amongst the
Corinthians, or of which from false teachers then gone abroad, they were
in danger of.
Something answerable, or like to this, the Church at Colossus also were
in danger of. Those philosophical teachers which, chap. ii. 8, he gives them warning of, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ. Their doctrines perverted not only the purity of the
worship of the gospel, but were intended to the misrepresenting the person
of Christ, as appears by many characters ; both, 1. In that in the very next
words, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He gives them a perfect definition or description of the person of Christ, as in him
* And ye are complete in
self considered, and in his fulness to us, ver. 10,
him, which is the head of all principality and power. And this in a direct
opposition (as the coherence shews) unto their philosophical Christ, which
they for wisdom and excellency would needs compare with the apostle s
Christ. And, 2. In opposition to their counterfeit Christ, it is, that he
also sets out his Christ in all the personal excellencies and fulness, the like nowhere in all his epistles, chap. i. ver. 15-18. And then also of his gos-
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 451
pel, which is the revelation of him, ver. 23, 26, 27 to the end ; and as it
is the mystery of God the Father, and of Christ, chap. ii. 2, In whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Exhorting, that as they had
received Christ, so they would walk in him, ver. 6, as in matter of order, so for faith ; for unto both those that exhortation is directed, as appears by the coherence with ver. 5, but especially in their faith about the person of
Christ, with which he therefore begins, ver. 7, Stablished in the faith, as
ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving, being thankful
to God he had revealed such a Christ, his Christ to them ; for they could not have a better or another. And then follow those words, Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy, after the tradition of men, rudi ments of the world, and not after Christ. Some of the teachers of those
times, finding in philosophers (then in credit) in Plato, Orpheus, Hesiod,
Pythagoras, and in the Jewish traditions, many divine things about X6yo$, the Word, and of emanations, and genealogies, and descents from God, as
Irenasus shews, of him from God, and of the creatures from him, they dressed
up a Christ and a divinity with those philosophical clothes, and colours, and paint, which, the apostle says, was not
* after Christ, as you say a false
picture of a man is not after the man, being not taken from him, nor
resembling his person, but another clean. They were descriptions of him, not taken from the life or truth that was in him. Whom, therefore, Paul
* In him dwells all the fulness of the God head bodily, or (you shall give me leave to translate it) personally. And
sets out in the substance of him,
so it was another Christ. And therefore, chap, iii. ver. 19, these are said not to hold the head, that is, him, ver. 10, he had styled the head of all prin
cipalities and powers; and, chap. i. 18, the head of the body of his
church, they having clean perverted him to another Christ. And as it was
then, so it is now. Men have gone about to bring Paul s, the Scripture-
Christ, to Plato s ; and as such would obtrude him on the saints. Thus it was in Paul s time ; but John lived longer, after all the apostles, and saw these seeds and buddings then sown come to a greater ripeness, and open and more gross discovery, from blade to ear ; and writing that
first epistle to the Christian Jews in a more special manner, he seeing what
Christ had foretold should fall out about the time of Jerusalem s destruc
tion, both afore and after it, to be fulfilled, doth therefore, chap. ii.
* My brethren, it is the last hour (because the
ver. 18, give this warning
last period of time afore that fatal overthrow of that nation), for even now
there are many antichrists (as our Lord had foretold), whereby we know
that it is the last hour, we seeing it thus fulfilled. And, ver. 22, Who
is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is, o
Xg/<rroc, the Christ, the sole and only Christ ? And he is an antichrist^that denies the Father and the
Son, the distinction of these two, and the personalities. And whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. And, 1 John iv. 1,
{ Many false prophets are gone out into the world. And what was the
great false point of odds which they endeavoured to sow and diffuse ? ver. 8,
They confessed not that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh, and that Christ was God ; and therefore the catholic faith of all true believers, in
opposition to those errors about his person, he gives us ; chap v, 20, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, even
in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. They had other doctrines about their Christs whom they held forth, which were a full denial of all this. You have the like in his second epistle, ver. 7, 9.
452 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK II.
And to obviate those errors about the person of Christ was it that he wrote those epistles, and his gospel of John, after all the other evangelists and
epistles written, exhorting them to hold fast to that Christ whom they had heard and known from the beginning, as himself and the holy apostles had set him forth, chap. i. ver. 1-3,
* That which was from the begin
ning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life ; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. And
ver. 24 of chap, ii., Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall also continue in the Son, and in the Father. The
like Epistle ii. ver. 9, declaring those that fell into such errors, and con tinued in them, to be such apostates as never had truth of grace
: chap. ii.
* They went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us : but they went
ver. 19,
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us ; and
hints how some of them so sinned therein, as that withal they sinned the
sin unto death, never to be recovered, chap v. ver. 16, 17 (though not all ; those words ver. 16 do imply),
* If any man see his brother sin a sin which
is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death. There is a sin unto death : I do not say that he shall
pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin : and there is a sin not unto death. And of all he judgeth them such, as, without repentance, the saints should have no communion with, Epist. ii. ver. 9, 10, 11, Whosoever trans-
gresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed
: for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. Of this consequence is true faith
in this doctrine.
Now, as it was then, so it is now ; those times, and the occurrences which then fell out (foretold by Christ) among Jews and Christians afore Jerusalem s destruction, being types of what should now fall out in the last
days afore the end of the world ; and we have yet but the buddings of what perhaps will grow up to greater ripeness and spreadings, as then they
also did.
Multitudes of those that are orthodox in their opinions, or speculative judgments about the person of Christ, yet perish, because they know not,
apprehend not, this true Christ, as he is in himself really and spiritually. They know not the truth as it is in Jesus, as Eph. iv. 20, 21, the apostle
speaks. And this hath and doth fall out amongst all that live in the church. But others begin to err about the very notion of his person, coining other
Christs, by diminishing from or adding unto the person of him, as they would represent him to us. And this is as easy as it is dangerous, even aa
it was an easy thing to make another gospel, and to entertain it, as in the
Galatians example appears, Gal. i. 6, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel. And in that forementioned 2 Cor. xi. 15, the apostle speaks the like of
preaching another Christ, considering men s aptness to err herein ; it is no
great thing (says he), though great in respect of the moment of it, yet easy and soon done. And that is the apostle s scope in that speech. And again,
CHAP. V.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHKIST. 453
as some churches then embraced another gospel (as the Galatians), so upon other churches the devil endeavoured to obtrude another Christ.
And he is soon (in the doctrine about him) made another Christ, either
by taking away from him, or adding to him.
1. By taking away from him, as if you take away his Godhead, this
alters the person quite, as taking away the reasonable soul from the body of a man, takes instantly away the man, and leaves a brute beast in his room. It turns him into the carcass of a Christ ; let him be set forth in words never so gorgeously or gloriously, the substance of his person is stolen
away. Or else,
2. By adding to him ; for if the joining works to Christ s righteousness, in matter of justification, made another gospel, as the epistle to the Gala
tians shews, then surely adding the persons of all the saints to the indi
vidual one Lord, one husband, Christ, and that they all should be Christ as
well as he, equal with him, their union with God the same that he is, this
is to unChrist him.
454 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.