Chapter VI
Plow the two natures, the divine and human, which are so different,, are
united into one person, Christ God-man. That the Son of God did net assume a human person, but the nature. The reasons why a human person could not have been assumed. It was our whole nature which the Son. of God took, both soul and body. The reasons which made this necessary,
And BOW that we have the reasons that he was to be both,, you will; ask how can this be that he should be both ? The text resolves it,, and says,.
1 He took to himself, Heb. ii. 16. The meaning is, he did take man s
nature into one person with himself. He not only took on him,, but to
him, eyrfaap&iiv&rou, assumpsit ad. Assumpsit non honiinem personam, sed hominem in personam ; he took not the person of a man,, but man to be one
" to himself, that is, to subsist in himself, not of itself, and to have his subsistence communi cated to it ; this nature being as an appendix, as a part of him subsisting in
person with himself. He took the seed of Abraham,
him,, but communicating the subsistence of that divine person to the human nature that they are personally one, as truly as soul and body joined be come one man ; and therefore the phrase is, that this second person was made flesh: John i. 14,
* And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) ^
full of grace and truth. Though God dwells in the saints in heaven, .and.
fills them with his fulness as a cause efficient of all their glory and, their-
chiefest good, yet they are not. so united as that God can be said to be made the saints; but Christ may be said to be made man, and to be a.s essentially man as he is God ; made, not as the water was made wine, and ceasing to be water, but both natures remaining distinct, are ma.de one person, so as. both became one Lord and one Christ ; there is one Lord, 1 Cor. viii. 6,. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him : and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are. all things, and we by him ; God and man personally one. So 2 Cor. v. .14, For the love of
Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. One is said to have died for all, that is, .but one person, though there were two natures, God and man, yet but one person of both,, That as in the Trinity there are three persons in one nature and Godhead, so here are two natures, one in person and subsistence (the manner of which union hath no similitude in nature to express it by), so as in the concrete the man Christ may be called God, and the Son of God (so Luke
i. 35, That which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God ), though the manhood cannot be called the Godhead. And then this second
* The fulness of the God head is said to
person is said to dwell in that nature : Col. ii. 9,
* dwell in him bodily ; and so notes out a permanent union, not God to dwell in him only by his graces, but the Godhead is said to dwell in him, and the fulness of the Godhead to fill that human nature* as fire fills the iron that is in it* and not to dwell in him as in the saints by grace, and as being their portion, uniting himself to them as an object they love, as God is said to be all in all in the saints in heaven, and as the
Spirit dwells in us, sanctifying, &c., and as the same Spirit dwells in Christ,
substantially dwelling in him, ffw/jt,arix.u>$ that is, not only in, a body, noting out the subject in which, but the manner, personally, bodily.. Now the Grecians put ffupa, to express a person, ffw/xara ToXXa r$t%siv.. And so * Qu. that it is in ? ED.
52 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. BOOK II.
Thucydides, cupaai KoXtfAtfv. As the Hebrews put soul for person
: Exod.
i. 5, the souls came out of the loins of Jacob ; the Grecians use the word
body, so that bodily is personally.
God communicates his presence to all creatures, his grace to the saints ; but the Son of God communicates his personality, his subsistence, to the man Christ Jesus this is the highest communication, for his nature is communicable to none but the three persons so as our nature and Christ s
person is one ; not in office only, as two consuls or bailiffs in a town, that have a joint commission ; not as man and wife only, who are in a relation one flesh ; not spiritually only, as Christ and we his members are one spirit, as the head and members are one ; but they are personally one. So as when we see a man, we say, there is such a man, such a person ; so when
you shall see Christ at the latter day, you may say as John doth, 1 John
v. 20, This is the true God, and eternal life. God is the principium of subsistence to all, but in Christ he is the termi nus subsistendi, yet not so as if the personal property were communicated
that is incommunicable, as to be begotten of God, and to subsist of itself, but that the second person becomes a foundation of subsistence to the human nature of Christ, as an oak is to the ivy.
Now to shew the grounds why this was fit (which is the proper scope of
this discourse) why this union was requisite, and fitted him for the work of
mediation. Had he not been thus God and man, he could not have been mediator. For,
1. It being necessary he should be God and man, and remain perfectly God and perfectly man, and the Son of God, and the same person that he
was, therefore they could no way else be united to do us good ; for they could not the one be changed into the other, for God was immutable ; and
it was impossible that the nature of man should become the nature of God, since the essence of the Godhead is incommunicable. And if they had been
so united as that a third person out of both had been made, as when the elements are made one in a man s body, as the soul and body make one man, besides the impossibility of it, it had not served this turn. For he
that redeems us must be God and man, therefore there is no way but that
the personality of the second person be communicated to the human, both
natures remaining united in one person ; it cannot be more nor less. If the
personality of the Son of God had been communicated only by power and
grace, &c., then his actions had been of God as the author or efficient, but not actions of the person of the Son of God, as his personal actions, which should have received a worth from him.
And, 2. This will fit us well ; for now all that Christ as God doth, the man Christ shall be said to do for us, that so it may be ours ; and all that
Christ man doth, Christ God shall be said to do, that it may have an infi
nite merit in it. For as there is a communication of the personality of
Christ to the manhood, so of acceptance of all the human nature doth : 1
Pet. iii. 18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. And therefore the blood shed shall be called the blood of God, as well as the man is called the Son of God : so Acts xx. 28,
* Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. And so the Lord of glory is said to be crucified : 1 Cor. ii. 8,
* Which none of the princes of this world knew :
for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
CHAP. VI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 53
And as the person is one, so the redemption, and all that both did, became one work of mediation, and one is said to die for all, Christ as one, God and man ; so as, when he offered up the human nature as a sacrifice, he may be said to offer up himself, for it is himself, and he poured out his own
* How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your con
soul : Heb. ix. 14,
* Therefore
science from dead works, to serve the living God? Tsa. liii. 12,
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because he hath poured out his soul unto death : and he was numbered with the transgressors ; and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
Now then, if this manhood be assumed into one person with the Son of God, then it could not remain a person of itself; and so the text also inti
mates, calling him the seed, Heb. ii. 16, as not a person, but a human nature ; so as though he took our nature, and an individual particular nature, yet that nature was not a person. Therein indeed his human nature differs from ours ; but that difference is not in any part of the sub stance of our natures, but only in a complement of being, or rather a modification of being, a difference in the manner of subsisting
: it is no more.
(1.) The nature is the same for being and substance.
(2.) It is an individual nature. But (3.) it is not a person of itself apart for subsistence, for that is pro
perly called a person that subsists in itself ; though we all have our being in God, and exist by him as in a cause thereof, yet we do not subsist as one with him as a person ; that is, we are persons apart and alone of our
selves, and God and we are two persons, but our nature in Christ is one with God, and in God.
The reasons of this are two.
1. It was not indeed possible that a person (as the second person was) should assume another person, subsisting of itself, into personal union with him : it had been a contradiction, and therefore it is impossible. For that two persons, remaining two, should become one, is a contradiction ; even
as to say of an accident (the nature of which is to subsist in a substance) , that it subsists in itself, is a contradiction. Now to be a person of itself is
to subsist of itself alone ; this is the condition of its subsisting as it is a
person ; and therefore here in the 16th verse of this Heb. ii., when he speaks but by way of supposition of the second person s assuming the nature of
* an angel, but not of
angels, he doth not say, he took not on himself
angels, that is, the nature of angels ; for to have assumed the person of an
angel had been a contradiction, and so such a phrase of speech was not fit
to have been used so much as in a supposition.
2. As it was not possible that the second person of the Godhead should take the person of a man into union with himself, so it was not fit (the demonstration of which is that which I in this discourse did aim at) for the work of mediation. For although it was necessary for that work that he should be an individual particular man as we are, particularly existing for else he could not merit, nor act, nor suffer, for all merits and actions are of individuals yet if he had subsisted of himself, and been a person of himself as man, all that merit and actions of obedience would have been but for himself. If he had been a person of himself apart, so his merits would have been for himself apart ; and he subsisting in his own bottom, and in himself as a person, must have stood by his own obedience, and so
all his obedience would have been but enough for himself, and have been
54 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK II.
shut up in himself, and confined to himself. But he having an individual nature of man as we all have, without a propriety of subsistence, all his obedience maybe common for -all others, and as many as he shall please to communicate it unto may have a share in it. It may be a common salva
tion, as it is called Jude 3-, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For our nature in him, as it is human, is not circumscribed or -enclosed with a proper subsistence of its own, but lies
like a field unenclosed, not hedged in with personality, as all our natures are.
And to this purpose observe the phrases whereby the Scripture expresseth this nature assumed by the Son of God, which are such as do imply, that that which was assumed was only a human nature, and not a person. As when it is said, He took the seed of Abraham, Heb. ii. 16, not a person, but the seed, our nature. Semen estintimum substantial, the quintessence of nature, but notes not out a person* So the Word is said to be made
flesh ; that word flesh noteth out but one nature assumed, not a person ; and therefore the apostle speaking of Christ, he makes him the person, and
his flesh or human nature but as an appendix
: Kom. ix. 5, Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over
all, God blessed for ever. Amen. And so in Luke i. 35, And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The
angel there speaks of Christ s human nature, which was to be born of Mary, not as of a person but as of a thing, in the neuter gender ;
< That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And
besides, he, the man Christ, could not have been called the Son of God if he had been a person apart of himself, for one person is not predicated of another ; the husband cannot be called the wife, though most nearly united, for they are two persons. And therefore likewise Christ himself, when he was to take our nature, speaking of that which was to be assumed, saith, Heb. x. 5,
* A body hast thou fitted me ; me notes out the person, the other is but a body assumed ; so he calls it, because himself as God was the person ; this was not a person but the nature of man, therefore he calls
it a body, and so Col. i. 22, in the body of his flesh through death, to pre sent you holy and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight
: it is kv ry
tibj/Aan r^c, ffdgxoz, in that body of his flesh.
But though he subsisted not as an entire person, yet it was fit and neces
sary that he should be a whole and perfect man entire, so as though he took not a person on him, yet he took our whole nature for substance, every way as perfect as ours, in all the parts of it, both of soul and body
: He was made like us in all things, says the apostle, Heb. ii. 17. There was
nothing wanting essential to either, or for the perfection of either part of our nature, for he will be like us in all things, in all members of our bodies, and faculties of our souls. It is called flesh indeed, and a body, but yet lest only a body should seem to be meant, he elsewhere is called
* a man, the man Christ Jesus, as having all belonging to a man ; and he is called
* Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
* that man in Acts xvii. 31 :
raised him from the dead. He had a perfect body as ours, and a soul, and both united, and so was a whole man.
CHAP. VI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 55
1. For the body, Col. i. 22, it is called the body of his flesh. They
thought he had been a spirit, but in opposition to their conceit, It is I/
says he, Mat. xiv. 27 ; and feel, says he ; hath a spirit flesh, and blood, and bones ? Luke xxiv. 39. And this was fit, that the similitude of our union might be the nearer, and that we might be truly called members of
his body, as being of his flesh and of his bones : as Eph. v. 30, For we
are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Also because he was to reconcile us
* in the body of his flesh through death, Col. i. 22, by
bearing our sins upon his body on the tree : 1 Peter ii. 24, Who his own
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness
: by whose stripes ye were healed. If he had not had the body of a man, he could not have been fastened to the tree, nor endured our sorrows, the pains of death. Andagain, as all our mem
bers are weapons of unrighteousness, therefore he was to take them all, to
sanctify all to God, and make them weapons of righteousness.
And that body did not want a soul, for his soul was heavy unto death, Mat. xxvi. 38. And it was meet it should be so, for first the chief suit and
* The soul that sins shall die, Ezek.
threatening for sin was against the soul :
* pour out his soul to death, Isa. liii. 12, and
xviii. 20 ; therefore he must
: Ps. xlix. 8, For the
it is the redemption of the soul that is precious
redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever ; that is the
chief thing to be redeemed, and that is so precious, as nothing but a soul could be a fit price. He was made like us therefore, that he might succour us in all respects
: Heb. iv. 15, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin ; Heb. ii. 17, 18, Wherefore in
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suf
fered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. And now our greatest temptations are in our souls, and therefore he had a soul
to be tempted in all things, sin only excepted ; and so he knows how to
* shepherd of our souls : 1 Peter ii. 25, For ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
pity our souls, and the distress of them, and he joys to be a
And then, 2, both body and soul must be united, else the body could not
die ; for bodily death is the separation of soul and body, and that was threatened against us, and therefore to be executed on our mediator ; and
therefore when he died, it is said, He gave up the ghost, Mat. xxvii. 50. And he must be a whole, perfect man, for this reason too, because he was
to be a priest and a sacrifice both, and the priests in the law were to be
perfect men in all parts of their bodies. If they had any blemish, they were not to be priests. And so the sacrifices were to be whole burnt-
offerings, therefore a whole man was to be offered up by the Son of God.
And he being to redeem the whole man, it was fit he should take the whole human nature. All that was lost was to be saved by him : Luke xix.
10, He came to seek and to save that which was lost. There was not
that thing in man that was lost (as all was), but he saved it, and therefore took the whole of man into union with himself.
56 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK II.