Chapter II
The personal native glories and royalties ivhich belong to the Son of God, as
dwelling in our nature. How the divine attributes are inherent, and shine
forth in that man Jesus, so united to the Son of God. In what sense he is
the image of the invisible God. How he is the wisdom and the power of God. His human nature does not possess those perfections in that high
degree, as they are attributes in the divine nature, and so infinite , but he hath them in a nearer resemblance than any mere creature is capable of. In what respects he also has independency and sovereignty. It is upon the union of the human nature with the Son of God, that it is invested with
his high privilege.
The words of the text explained in the former chapter, which sets out the
personal native glories, and excellencies, and royalties appertaining to the Son of God, as dwelling in our nature, and which especially shew how the
divine attributes shine forth in the man Jesus Christ so united to the Son
of God, and which I shall in particular apply to that purpose, are in the
* Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. All things were created by him, and for him : and he is before all things. The first particular is founded on those words, the image of the invi
15th, 16th, 17th verses of Col. i.,
sible God ; which the apostle sets first, as the greatest excellency, and the
foundation, and the key of interpretation to all the rest that follow.
The resolution of which words is into this assertion, that in that man Jesus Christ, by virtue of his union with the Godhead, there is inherent a
fulness of all divine perfections, which make up an image of the attributes
of the Godhead, in so transcendent a way of excellency and eminency, as
is incompatible and incommunicable to any mere creature remaining such.
I. For the interpretation of the apostle s intent in those words, there is
a double image of God in Christ ; the one essential, as he is second person ; the other manifestative, as the glory of God shines in the face or person of Jesus Christ, as man ; thus Grotius on the words, and Pareus in his vindi
cation of Calvin, who reckons up many witnesses, as Ambrose, Martyr, Melancthon, Ursin, &c., for it (of which by and by). And the same dis
tinction, to the same purpose, is acknowledged to be comprehended in his
being called 6 Xoyog, the Word (as in the first chapter of John s gospel), connotating both the essential Word of God, or image to God himself, and
also the manifestative Word, as representing him to us, as made man.
If the question be, Which of these two is principally and more directly intended in these words ? I answer, the latter, and that for two reasons.
1. Because he is not simply termed the image of God, but with this
addition, of the invisible God ; which does necessarily imply, his being such an image, as relates unto us, that is, that he is such an image as makes
the Godhead, which is in itself invisible or incomprehensible, to be manifest and visible. For that is the end of an image, namely, to hold forth a thing, to make it apparent to the view, which otherwise is not seen.
Then, 2. The Godhead and person of Christ, considered simply as second
person, is in himself as invisible as the Godhead, or person of the Father. The meaning thereof is this, that in Christ, as man, united to the second
person, there is a resultance, an edition of the Godhead, in all the perfec tions of it ; which I may call so many divine attributes of Christ, as God-
man, (even as we usually call the other the divine attributes of God) which
CHAP. II.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 463
do make up an image of the Godhead ; which in Heb. i. 3, is called, not
only the image of God, but (with a difference from all creatures) the express image, or engraven image, that is, such as no creatures are. The image of God s attributes in angels and men, are but such as the light of tapers in
respect of the sun, of which that is but a dull and faint resemblance. But
Christ is the shine, the brightness of his Father s glory. Even as the beams of the sun are to the body of the sun, as lumen est imago lucis, so
is Christ God s image. And this similitude the apostle there useth, and
applies it to him as he was man, namely, as he was appointed heir of all. Which phrase, as he is merely second person, might not be used of him, for so he is hares natus, not constitutus, not appointed heir, but
* begot ten. Now as the rays or beams of the sun are but the emissions and
effects of the sun itself, and so far inferior to the substantial glorious body of it, so this image, or shine of the Godhead s glory in the manhood of
Christ, is but the reluctance,* the effect, and so inferior to that essential
glory, which as second person he partakes of in common with his Father. Thus Beza, Cameron, and others, have understood it.
II. For the thing itself, and to explain what this image of the divine
attributes in Christ as God-man is. It is not that bare communication of
properties, so as only that which is said of the Godhead is predicated of
the manhood ; or that the manhood instrumentally useth the attributes of the Godhead, and so is omniscient with the omnisciency of the divine nature,
and omnipotent with his onmipotency (as the Lutherans fondly do dream). But it is such a system, or fulness of perfections really inherent and apper
taining unto the manhood, by virtue of that its union with the divine
nature, as although infinitely coming short of the attributes that are essential
to the Godhead, yet is the completest image of them, and such as no mere
creature is capable of, and so is as truly incommunicable unto a creature,
(whether it be man or angel) as those attributes of the Godhead are to this
humanity of Christ itself, though so united. This in general may be made out of that parenthesis in John i. 14 ( And we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten Son of God ). By glory, the evangelist means espe
cially those glorious perfections, that dwell in his person, as holiness, wisdom, &c., for it follows, full of grace and truth ; though withal including those signs of his power, as sparkles of his divinity, that dwelt in that flesh, and also referring to that glory they saw in him at his transfiguration. The
essential glory of his Godhead it could not be, for they openly saw it
(as the word signifies), and therefore it is not meant of the glory of the Godhead itself, which is here said to be invisible ; and there it is also said
of it too, that that is such which no man hath seen, verse 18. Now the
glory of these his perfections shining in that human nature was such as was peculiar to him, and transcendently above what could be in any mere
creature, and such as carried its own evidence and testimonial with it, that
they were such perfections as were proper and peculiar to the only begotten
of God ; therefore it is added, the glory as of the only begotten of God, that is, such as could be in none but him that was God, and the natural Son of God. That as the shine of the sun carries its own evidence with it, and it is the glory as of the sun when it appears, so transcendently, that
the likeness of it cannot be made by all the fire and lights in the world, if
put together, such was this glory here spoken of.
* This word is apparently not the usual word reluctance, from reluctor to strive or
struggle against ; but rath^ one derived from reluceo, to shine again or be reflected. ED.
464 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III;
To give two or three instances of some of these perfections peculiarly and incommunicably dwelling in the human nature of Christ, as,
1. Wisdom. 2. Power. 3. Independency and Sovereignty. The reason why I instance in these, is, because I find them all put to
gether by Christ himself.
1. There is a wisdom in Christ s human nature, which is so high an imitation of the attribute of wisdom in God, as no creature, nor all creatures could reach to, or have attained ; and therefore they, though they be called
wise, yet not wisdom, as Christ, God-man, is called, 1 Cor. i. 24, But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And the reason why so transcendent a wisdom is in him as man, which is proper to him, and of which all creatures must fall short, is given Col. ii. 3, For in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; not objectively only, as in the knowledge of whom (if we could attain to it) we might find all treasures, but subjectively also, as whose knowledge in himself inherent contains in it all treasures of wisdom. For Christ could not be objectively all wisdom unto us, if he had not first all wisdom subjectively in himself. And therefore it is, verse 9, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Now the reason of all this fulness of wisdom in Christ is there given, that the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily (or personally) in him, which is alone proper to him ; and therefore also surely these treasures of wisdom are also meant of inherent knowledge residing in his human nature, as the God head doth.
Now the treasures of wisdom in Christ s human nature are not of that extent and richness that the wisdom that dwells in God himself is of, for
to make Christ omniscient as God is, were to make his human nature God. Nor is it, as the Lutherans express it, that his human nature is omniscient with the omnisciency of the divine nature ; but yet, in such a transcendent
fulness, as is omniscientia similitudinaria, a similitudinary omnisciency com
paratively to what is in the creatures (as Zanchy from the schoolmen calls
it), and so is an image (and that in a transcendent way) of God s omnisciency.
Not that his human nature knows all that God knows ; for God, per simplicem
intelligentiam, by the ideas of all he can make, knows all that his power can
do ; and so his knowledge extends itself, not only to all that is made or to be done, but to all that he can make or do, which is an infinity. But yet there is a similitudinary omnisciency in Christ s
1 human nature, in that it, now glorified, knows all that God hath done, or means to do ; and so it is of as large extent, for the objects of it, as that knowledge in God himself
is in that respect. Which knowledge in God, the schoolmen call scientia
* God s foreknowledge. All that God s will hath decreed to be done (even all his counsels) Christ s human nature
visionis ; and the Scripture,
knows, and had, by virtue of its union with the divine, a right to know, both things past, present, and to come. And so it is in a sense a kind of
omnisciency ; and is a glory as of the only begotten Son of God, incom municable unto any other.
2. The same holds in his power. The power of the human nature is not equal with God s, as that he can do all that God can do ; for God can make infinite many things which yet he never made, nor will ever make ;
yet there is a similitudinary omnipotency in Christ s human nature, both
in that he can do whatsoever he will (his will pitching on the same design with God s in every thing), and in that all that God will ever pitch upon to be done, he is an instrument of. All was done, either in the virtue of him
CHAP. II.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 465
before he took our nature, or hath been since his being glorified. His fiat, his I will (as himself speaks, John xvii. 24), must be set to everything ere
it be done. For all power is committed to him, both in heaven and
earth, Matt, xxviii. 18. All the business of the world runs through his hands and head. And therefore he is called the power of God (in the
forecited place, 1 Cor. i. 24), and the arm of the Lord, Isa. liii. 1. And
this is a kind of omnipotency, that all that God means to do he should be
the instrument of. Both these instances we find together in one scripture
delivered, and unto the very same sense and purpose I have driven con
cerning them, John v. 18. The Jews had quarrelled with Christ (he having
said, ver. 17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ), both for calling God his Father, in so peculiar a manner from other men, and also for that
in that speech he should join himself so in commission with God in all his works of providence, to say, Ego et Pater metis, I and my Father; so
making himself equal with God, whenas he was a man, that is, to have an
equal and joint hand in all together with God. Hereupon Christ justifies this speech of his, and shews how, although he were a man, yet such a man
as being one in person with the Son of God, this was true of him, without
any dishonour at all unto God. First, he acknowledgeth indeed that this
pre-eminence his Father hath, that he is the first mover in all : The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do ; yet so, as whatever the Father doth, the Son doth also. For the Father loves the
Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doth. Here we have,
(1.) That whatever God doth, or means to do, the Son hath a hand
in it.
(2,) That the Son knows all that is done by his Father. Therefore it is both said, What he sees the Father do, and that
* the Father sheweth him
all things that himself doth, John v. 19, 20. Here is both the omnisciency we speak of, and the omnipotency, in the terms we stated it, as respecting
all God s works, ad extra, even all that ever is to be done.
And this (3.) in an incommunicable way to any mere creature ; for so
the Jews that made the objection understood it ; that he (as they thought) being but a mere man, as others, should join himself with God in all his
works, and so make himself in a sort equal to God. And this also is in
* that he might be honoured, even as the Father is honoured, John v. 23. And
ferred from that which follows ; that all this is given the Son of man,
so with such an honour as no mere creature is capable of. And this (4.), in a similitudinary way, as the o/Aoiug, likewise, or in like manner (ver. 19), also imports.
And (5.) all this Christ speaks of himself as Son of man, though it be
true of him too (and that in a more transcendent sense) as he is God, a second person. And it is one of the greatest keys to John s gospel, that
multitudes of such speeches are spoken of him, both first and originally, as he is God, and second person, and then as God-man, or as he is Christ, that is, the Son of God dwelling in man ; for Christ speaks pertinently to
the thing that stumbled them. They thought much, that he being (in view) but a man, should arrogate this to himself, to have a hand in all God s
works. Now this he answers and justifies himself in. And further, that he speaks these things of himself as man, as well as
simply as second person, appears in the other instance which he gives to
confirm this, that the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son,
ver. 22. And if in judge ^nt he hath this joint or equal hand (as they call
it), thence he argues it, he might also have it in other works. Now this
VOL. IV. G g
466 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
being spoken in a way of difference from his Father, that his Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son ; this must needs be meant of him as God-man, for the meaning hereof is, that the Father judgeth not audibly, visibly, and in view, as judges used to do. He takes not on him the person of a judge, to act that part ; but thus, or so hath committed all unto his Son, and therefore as a man. And this also the very committing or resigning the judgment unto him implies, it is a
making of it over to him, and a giving him commission to do it, which must not be said of Christ as God. And, ver. 23, it is added, He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father that sent him. Now
Christ only as God-man was sent.
But to put all out of doubt, that he speaks of himself in this discourse, as he is Son of man united to God, he himself, in the closure of all, doth expressly so explain it, that so he might be understood to speak fully contradictory to their exception. Thus, ver. 27, The Father hath given the Son authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
First, he sets out this prerogative with an emphasis, as the particle also doth imply, as being the highest dignity and power of all other, to have
judgment solely committed to him, to execute it so visibly as God, and in God s stead, and in that respect more than what he had said in that speech they so excepted against, I and my Father work hitherto. I, namely,
virtually and hiddenly, do co-operate and work together with him. And
then, secondly, to explain how it is committed to him, he adds, because he is the Son of man (so it follows), the particle on, because, being, as some
interpreters carry it, put for xa^oV/, prout, as such, namely, as he is the Son
of man ; that even as such, all judgment was committed unto him, and all
these former things true of him. And so that word or/ not only renders the cause of it, but explains how, and under what nature, all judgment was to him committed. But however, if it imports the reason of it, it much more
includes that as he was the Son of man, this judgment was committed to him
(which to prove is the thing I aim at).
3. I shall now give another instance of a third attribute in Christ, which
is also such an image of what is God as is incommunicable unto any mere
creature ; and that is independency and sovereignty ; which I therefore add, because I find it mentioned by Christ with these in this place. This sove
reign independency is one of the chiefest flowers in that crown of his glory
(as in kings also it is, whereby they differ from subjects), that none have
potestatem vita et necis, power of life and death over them. The creatures have a life wholly dependent, as subsisting by the power of God ; Heb. i. 3, Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his per
son, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And that so as at pleasure God might annihilate them, and yet in so doing rob them of nothing which they can lay a just claim unto as their own. So
that the tenure of their being is ad^voluntatem Domini, at the will of the Lord of heaven and earth. But it is not thus with Christ s human nature, now it is assumed into union with the second person ; but, it being together with that union invested with the royal prerogatives of the person, with whom it is one, it hath independentiam. similitudinariam, an independency like unto God s, such as is communicable to no creature : therefore, says
Christ, ver. 26, As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son to have life in himself. I have learned, from divers interpreters of
the Gospel of John, and from much comparing the speeches of Christ to-
CHAP. II.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 467
gether, to interpret that, and multitudes of other the like, as well of him as God-man, as of him also as second person ; and this and other could not be true of him as God-man, unless first as he is second person. And that which evidenceth more particularly this speech to be understood of him as God-man, is, that it is said to be given him. For this we are sura of, that the manhood obtained this prerogative by a free act of grace and gift. God had a freedom to ordain, or never to ordain, that nature or any other unto so high a dignity. Therefore, 1 Pet. L 20, Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for
you. Christ is said to be fore-ordained, as well as the elect ; and the
grace shewn in his election was greater than in all ours, by how much the
privileges he was ordained unto were greater. But when once this nature
is united to the second person, and become the man God s fellow ; then he
is instantly invested with this indeposable prerogative, to have life in him
self, and not to hold it by gift, though so at first obtained. And so he hath an independency, similitudinary to that of his Father s, as these words in John v. 26, As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, do shew. He can now say that which no crea ture can say ; and that which were blasphemy in their mouths is now not so in his, for he holds not his life ad voluntatem Domini; but as the second
person hath a natural right to his subsistence, so now hath this man, being made one person with him ; and so by virtue of that union hath the
personal prerogatives of the Son of God made his, yet so as still this inde
pendency of the human nature riseth not to that absoluteness and infiniteness that is in God himself, as was in the like manner said of the former ; for this manhood subsists not by the power of itself, but by the power of the Godhead dwelling therein. But God subsists merely, simply, and ab
solutely of himself. Yet there is this similitude in it unto that which is in God, that this man can say, This power which I subsist by is my own, by virtue of his relation unto the second person. I being the Son of God, and one in person with him, what is his is mine, not originally or essentially, but by gift. Yet so as there I have now an independent right to be and to subsist in that second person for ever, and can never be deposed. In deed it was a free act of grace in God at first. But in doing of it God did a wonder in the world, of all the greatest. For he sets up an independent creature, a creature backed with such a right to his being, that now himself cannot pull him down, nor dissolve that union again. Aid what a glorious image of God s independency is this !
I might shew the like also in holiness ; that there is that transcendency of holiness also in him the man, that is not in all the creatures put together ; and so in that respect also he is the image of the invisible God. If it could be supposed that any mere creature could have as much habitual holiness as the human nature hath (which were too bold a supposition), yet notwithstanding, there is a holiness over and above that habitual grace in him, there is a relative holiness that casts the shine, the superlative glory on that habitual ; and the stamp thereof that is upon this holiness is better than all the coin. It is the holiness of a man united to God, and who is God, and this makes it acceptable. There is a relative holiness that follows from the hypostatical union, that gives all the worth to what he did, and to all the grace that is in himself; and this no creature is
capable of. And this was that that made him able to satisfy. And this is the holiness that God t^kes the great contentment in, and could never have been satisfied out of it ; and by reason of this, his righteousness
468 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
may be imputed to sinners, which the righteousness of a mere creature could not be ; it is the holiness of God, as his blood is said to be the blood of God.
I might shew the like in all other attributes ; and it is a noble subject to
spend pains upon, to set forth and cut out every limb of this vast image of all God s attributes that are in Christ, merely upon his personal union. 1 have limned out only these two or three parts of it, ut ex pede, that by the
liko proportion we might infer the vastness of all the rest.