IMMANUEL

Contents.

A Note on the Text.

The Text: Immanuel

1. The Wonder of the Incarnation.

2. The Hypostatic Union.

3. The Priestly Office of Christ the Mediator.

4. The Obedience of Christ.

5. The Sufferings and Death of Christ for our Redemption.

6. The Kinsman-Redeemer: Generation and Spiritual Regeneration.

7. The Union of the Church with Christ Her Head.

8. The Prophetic Office of Christ.

9. The Kingly Office of Christ.

10. Resurrection and Glorification.

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A Note On The Text.

With what astonishment then may we behold our dust and ashes assumed into the undivided unity of God’s own person and admitted to dwell there [II (17)].

This is but one of many such lines in this treatise by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, on the subject of Christ’s incarnation, first published in 1643. As should perhaps come as no surprise, the great goal of the treatise is doxological: at almost every turn, Ussher expresses “wonder” and awe at the work of God whereby the eternal Word took flesh, conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This doxological end is combined, by continual recourse to Scripture, with a rigorous exposition of the character and purpose of the incarnation, and its expression of the righteous will of the Triune God to save sinful human beings. In this respect, as in many others, Ussher displays a great debt to patristic reflection and is steeped in the language and understanding of the early ecumenical councils. In particular, readers may notice the way in which Ussher’s treatment of the GodMan sits squarely in the tradition of Sts Athanasius and Anselm, expositing the marriage of God’s mercy and justice at the Cross, and our salvation by union with Christ. Building on this patristic and medieval inheritance, Ussher’s work also bears the marks of John Calvin’s sustained reflection on the threefold office of Christ as priest, prophet, and king. As he concludes the treatise, Ussher directs the reader to ponder final glorification: “The same God that giveth grace is he also that giveth glory (Ps. 84v11); yet so, that the streams of both of them must run to us through the golden pipe of our Saviour’s humanity” [X (61)]. In view of all that the incarnation means and accomplishes, Ussher joins his voice to St Paul’s: “I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord” (Phil. 3v8).

For this edition, we have mainly followed the 1643 original, updating and standardising the spelling as required. Yet we have chosen to retain as far as possible the distinct voice of Ussher’s seventeenth-century English. As a result, we stand in continuity with the 1810 and 1844 editions which, for example, standardised “farre” to “far”, yet retained “poseth” rather than modernise to “poses”. The 1643 edition included several key terms in Greek in marginal notes — a detail not always retained in the 1810 and 1844 versions. We have followed the 1643 and included all of these, and we have also followed the 1643’s Scripture references (some of which are missing in the later editions). Where we have supplied any words to the text for clarity, these are supplied in square brackets. Finally, the original text and all subsequent editions feature no section headings or paragraph numbering. This makes easily citing and locating sections of Ussher’s treatise far from straightforward. We have therefore undertaken to number each paragraph (following the paragraphing of 1643), as well as to provide subject headings as and when we felt appropriate to Ussher’s argument. The reader should therefore bear in mind that these headings are the work of the editor, not the author, and are not intended to cause any division in what for Ussher was clearly conceived of as one garment, “without seam, woven from the top throughout” (John 19v23).

The preface to the 1844 edition of this treatise noted that it was being republished because of the clarity with which the author expounded “this fundamental doctrine of Christian faith.” It is with that same conviction that we present afresh James Ussher’s Immanuel: Or the Mystery of the Incarnation.

─ David J. Elliot, 2021.

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Immanuel, or, The Mystery Of The Incarnation Of The Son Of God.

The Word was made flesh. — John 1v14

1. The Wonder of the Incarnation.

(1) The holy prophet, in the Book of the Proverbs, poseth all such as have not “learned wisdom, nor known the knowledge of the holy” with this question: “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” (Prov. 30v3–4). To help us herein, the Son himself did tell us, when he was here upon earth, that: “None hath ascended up to heaven, but he that descended from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3v13). And that we might not be ignorant of his name, the prophet Isaiah did long before foretell that: “Unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given; whose name should be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9v6).

(2) Where if it be demanded how these things can stand together — that the Son of man speaking upon earth should yet at the same instant be in heaven; that the Father of Eternity should be born in time; and that the Mighty God should become a child (which is the weakest state of man himself) — we must call to mind that the first letter of this great name is “Wonderful.” When he appeared of old to Manoah, his name was “Wonderful,” and he did wondrously (Judg. 13v18–19). But that and all the wonders that ever were we must give place to the great mystery of his incarnation, and in respect thereof [they] cease to be wonderful. For of this work, that may be verified which is spoken of those wonderful judgements that God brought upon Egypt, when he would show his power (Exod. 9v16) and have his name declared throughout all the earth: “Before them were no such; neither after them shall be the like” (Exod. 10v14 & 11v6).

(3) Neither the creation of all things out of nothing (which was the beginning of the works of God, those six working days putting as it were an end to that long Sabbath that never had beginning, wherein the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost did infinitely [John 17v5] glorify themselves and rejoice in the fruition one of another [Prov. 8v30], without communicating the notice thereof unto any creature); nor the resurrection from the dead and the restoration of all things (the last works that shall go before that everlasting Sabbath which shall have a beginning, but never shall have end): neither that first, I say, nor these last, though most admirable pieces of work, may be compared with this, wherein the Lord was pleased to show the highest pitch (if anything may be said to be highest in that which is infinite and exempt from all measure and dimensions) of his wisdom, goodness, power, and glory.

(4) The heathen Chaldeans, to a question propounded by the King of Babel, made answer that it was “a rare thing” which he required and that none other could show it “except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Dan. 2v11). But the rarity of this lies in the contrary to that which they imagined to be so plain: that he, “who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom. 9v5), should take our flesh and dwell, or pitch his tabernacle with us (John 1v14) [1]; that as the glory of God filled the Tabernacle (Exod. 40v34–35) (which was a figure of the human nature of the Lord [Heb. 9v9–11]) with such a kind of fullness that Moses himself was not able to approach unto it (therein coming short, as in all things [Heb. 3v3–6], of the Lord of the house) and filled the Temple of Solomon (a type likewise of the body of our Prince of Peace [John 2v19–21]) in such sort that the priests could not enter therein (2 Chron. 7v1–2); so “in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily” (Col. 2v9).

(5) And therefore if of that temple, built with hands, Solomon could say with admiration, “But will God in very indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house, which I have built?” (2 Chron. 6v18); of the true temple, that is not of this building, we may with greater wonderment say with the Apostle, “Without controversy, great is the mystery of religion: God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3v16). Yea, was made of a woman, and born of a virgin — a thing so wonderful, that it was given for a sign unto unbelievers 740 years before it was accomplished; even a sign of God’s own choosing, among all the wonders in the depth, or in the height above: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7v14).

(6) A notable wonder indeed, and great beyond all comparison: that the Son of God should be “made of a woman” (Gal. 4v4), even made of that woman which was made by himself (John 1v3); that her womb then and the heavens now (Acts 3v11) should contain him whom “the heaven of heavens cannot contain” (1 Kings 8v27); that he who had both father and mother, whose pedigree is upon record even up unto Adam, who in the fullness of time was brought forth in Bethlehem, and when he had finished his course was cut off out of the land of the living at Jerusalem, should yet notwithstanding be in truth that which his shadow Melchizedek was only in the conceit of the men of his time, “without father, without mother, without pedigree, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life” (Heb. 7v3; Isaiah 53v8; Micah 5v2); that his Father should be “greater” than he (John 14v28), and yet he his Father’s “equal” (John 5v18; Phil. 1v6); that he “is”, before Abraham “was” (John 8v58) — and yet Abraham’s birth preceded his well nigh the space of two thousand years; and finally that he who was David’s son should yet be David’s Lord (Matt. 22v42–43 etc.) — a case which plunged the greatest Rabbis among the Pharisees, who had not yet “learned this wisdom, nor known this knowledge of the holy.”

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2. The Hypostatic Union.

(7) The untying of this knot dependeth upon the right understanding of the wonderful conjunction of the divine and human nature in the unity of the person of our Redeemer. For by reason of the strictness of this personal union, whatsoever may be verified of either of those natures, the same may be truly spoken of the whole person, from whithersoever of the natures it be denominated. For the clearer conceiving whereof, we may call to mind that which the Apostle hath taught us touching our Saviour: “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2v9) — that is to say, by such a personal and real union as doth inseparably and everlastingly conjoin that infinite Godhead with his finite manhood in the unity of the self-same individual person.

(8) He in whom that fullness dwelleth is the person: that fullness which so doth dwell in him is the nature. Now there dwelleth in him not only the fullness of the Godhead, but the fullness of the manhood also: for we believe him to be both perfect God, begotten of the substance of his Father before all worlds; and perfect man, made of the substance of his mother in the fullness of time. And therefore we must hold that there are two distinct natures in him, and two so distinct that they do not make one compounded nature, but still remain uncompounded and unconfounded together. But he in whom the fullness of the manhood dwelleth is not one, and he in whom the fullness of the Godhead [dwelleth] another: but he in whom the fullness of both those natures dwelleth is one and the same Immanuel, and consequently it must be believed as firmly that he is but one person.

(9) And here we must consider that the divine nature did not assume a human person, but the divine person did assume a human nature: and that of the three divine persons, it was neither the first nor the third that did assume this nature, but it was the middle person, who was to be the middle one that must undertake this mediation between God and us; which was otherwise also most requisite as well for the better preservation of the integrity of the blessed Trinity in the Godhead as for the higher advancement of mankind by means of that relation which the second person, the Mediator, did bear unto his Father. For if the fullness of the Godhead should have thus dwelt in any human person, there should then a fourth person necessarily have been added unto the Godhead. And if any of the three persons, beside the second, had been born of a woman, there should have been two Sons in the Trinity: whereas now the Son of God and the Son of the Blessed Virgin, being but one person, is consequently but one Son, and so no alteration at all made in the relations of the persons of the Trinity.

(10) Again, in respect of us, the Apostle showeth, that for this very end “God sent his own Son, made of a woman; that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4v4–5); and thereupon maketh this inference: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 5v7) — intimating thereby, that what relation Christ hath unto God by nature, we being found in him have the same by grace. By nature he is “the only begotten Son of the Father” (John 1v14 & 3v16). But this is the high grace he hath purchased for us, that “as many as received him, to them he gave power” — or privilege — “to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1v12). For although he reserve to himself the preeminence, which is due unto him in a peculiar manner, of being “the first born among many brethren” (Rom. 8v29); yet in him, and for him, the rest likewise by the grace of adoption are all of them accounted as “firstborns.”

(11) So God biddeth Moses to say unto Pharaoh: “Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn” (Exod. 4v22–23; see Jer. 31v9). And the whole Israel of God, consisting of Jew and Gentile, is in the same sort described by the Apostle to be “the general assembly and Church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven” (Heb. 12v23). For the same reason that maketh them to be sons (to wit, their incorporation into Christ), the selfsame also maketh them to be firstborns: so as (however it fall out by the grounds of our common law), by the rule of the Gospel, this consequence will still hold true: “If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8v17; Gal. 4v7). And so much for the Son, the person assuming.

(12) The nature assumed is “the seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2v16), “the seed of David” (Rom. 1v3), “the seed of the woman” (Gen. 3v15); “the Word,” the second person of the Trinity (1 John 5v7), being made flesh (John 1v14) — that is to say, “God’s own Son” being “made of a woman” (Gal. 4v4) and so becoming truly and really “the fruit of her womb” (Luke 1v42). Neither did he take the substance of our nature only, but all the properties also and the qualities thereof, so as it might be said of him — as it was of Elijah (Jas. 5v17) [2] and the Apostles (Acts 14v15) [3] — that he was “a man subject to like passions as we are.” Yea, he subjected himself “in the days of his flesh” (Heb. 5v7) to the same “weakness” (2 Cor. 13v4; Heb. 2v17–18 & 4v15) which we find in our own frail nature, and was compassed with like infirmities; and in a word, “in all things was made like unto his brethren,” sin only excepted. Wherein yet we must consider that as he took upon him not a human person but a human nature, so it was not requisite he should take upon him any personal infirmities, such as are: madness, blindness, lameness, and particular kinds of diseases which are incident to some only and not to all men in general; but those alone which do accompany the whole nature of mankind, such as are: hungering, thirsting, weariness, grief, pain, and mortality.

(13) We are further here also to observe in this our Melchizedek (Heb. 7v3), that as he had no mother, in one of his natures, so he was to have no father in regard of the other; but must be born of a pure and immaculate virgin, without the help of any man. And this also was most requisite, as for other respects, so for the exemption of the assumed nature from the imputation and pollution of Adam’s sin. For sin having by that one man entered into the world (Rom. 5v12), every father becometh an Adam unto his child and conveyeth the corruption of his nature unto all those whom he doth beget. Therefore our Saviour assuming the substance of our nature, but not by the ordinary way of natural generation, is thereby freed from all the touch and taint of the corruption of our flesh, which by that means only is propagated from the first man unto his posterity. Whereupon, he, being made of man but not by man, and so becoming the immediate fruit of the womb and not of the loins, must of necessity be acknowledged to be that Holy Thing (Luke 1v35), which so was born of so blessed a mother; who, although she were but the passive and material principle of which that precious flesh was made, and the Holy Ghost the agent and efficient, yet cannot the man Christ Jesus thereby be made the son of his own Spirit (Gal. 4v6; Rom. 8v9). Because fathers do beget their their children out of their own substance, the Holy Ghost did not so, but framed the flesh of him, from whom [he] himself proceeded, out of the creature of them both — “the handmaid of the Lord,” whom from thence “all generations shall call blessed” (Luke 1v38–48).

(14) That blessed womb of hers was the bride-chamber, wherein the Holy Ghost did knit that indissoluble knot betwixt our human nature and his deity, the Son of God assuming into the unity of his person that which before he was not, and yet without change (for so must God still be) remaining that which he was. Whereby it came to pass that this “holy thing which was born of her” was indeed and in truth to be “called the Son of God” (Luke 1v35). Which wonderful connection of two so infinitely differing natures in the unity of one person, how it was there effected, is an inquisition fitter for an angelic intelligence than for our shallow capacity to look after. To which purpose also we may observe, that in the fabric of the Ark of the Covenant, the posture of the faces of the Cherubim toward the Mercy Seat (the type of our Saviour) was such (Exod. 37v9), as would point unto us, that these are the things which “the angels desire [4] to stoop and look into” (1 Pet. 1v12).

(15) And therefore let that satisfaction which the angel gave unto the Mother Virgin (whom it did more specially concern to move the question, “How may this be?” [Luke 1v34]) content us: “The power of the highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1v35). For as the former part of that speech may inform us, that “with God nothing is impossible” (Luke 1v37); so the latter may put us in mind that, the same God having overshadowed this mystery with his own veil, we should not presume with the men of Beth Shemesh to look into this Ark of his (1 Sam. 6v19), lest for our curiosity we be smitten as they were. Only this we may safely say and must firmly hold: that as the distinction of the persons in the Holy Trinity hindereth not the unity of the nature of the Godhead, although every person entirely holdeth his own incommunicable property; so neither doth the distinction of the two natures in our Mediator any way cross the unity of his person, although each nature remaineth entire in itself, and retaineth the properties agreeing thereunto, without any conversion, composition, commixion, or confusion [5].

(16) When Moses beheld the bush burning with fire and yet no whit consumed, he wondered at the sight and said: “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” But when God thereupon called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, “Draw not nigh hither,” and told him who he was, Moses trembled, hid his face, and durst not behold God (Exod. 3v2–6). Yet, although being thus warned we dare not draw so nigh, what doth hinder but we may stand aloof off and wonder at this great sight? “Our God is a consuming fire”, saith the Apostle (Heb. 12v19); and a question we find propounded in the prophet, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who amongst us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?” (Isa. 33v14). Moses was not like other prophets, but God spake unto him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend (Num. 12v6–8; Exod. 33v12): and yet for all that, when he besought the Lord that he would shew him his glory, he received this answer: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exod. 33v18–20). Abraham before him, though a special “friend of God” (Isa. 41v8; 2 Chron. 20v7; Jas. 2v23), and the father of the faithful, the children of God (Rom. 4v15–16; Gal. 3v7); yet held it a great matter that he should take upon him so much as to speak unto God, being “but dust and ashes” (Gen. 18v27). Yea the very angels themselves (“which are greater in power and might” [2 Pet. 2v11]) are fain to cover their faces, when they stand before him (Isaiah 6v2); as not being able to behold the brightness of his glory.

(17) With what astonishment then may we behold our dust and ashes assumed into the undivided unity of God’s own person and admitted to dwell there, as an inmate [i.e. lodger] under the same roof; and yet in the midst of those everlasting burnings, the bush to remain unconsumed and to continue fresh and green for evermore! Yea, how should not we with Abraham rejoice to see this day, wherein not only our nature in the person of our Lord Jesus is found to dwell for ever in those everlasting burnings; but, in and by him, our own persons also are brought so nigh thereunto that God doth set his Sanctuary and Tabernacle among us (Lev. 26v11; Ezek. 37v26–27; Rev. 21v3), and dwell with us, and (which is much more) maketh us ourselves to be the “house” (Heb. 3v6) and the “habitation” (Eph. 2v22) wherein he is pleased to dwell by his Spirit — according to that of the Apostle, “Ye are the Temple of the living God, as God hath said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Cor. 6v16). And that most admirable prayer which our Saviour himself made unto his Father on our behalf: “I pray not for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me” (John 17v20– 23).

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3. The Priestly Office of Christ the Mediator.

(18) To compass this conjunction betwixt God and us, he that was to be our Jesus or Saviour (Matt. 1v21–23) must of necessity also be Immanuel, which being interpreted is “God with us,” that is, God dwelling with our flesh — because he was by his office to be Immanuel, that is, he who must make God to be at one with us [6]. For this being his proper office, to be “Mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2v5) he must partake with both: and being before all eternity consubstantial with his Father, he must at the appointed time become likewise consubstantial with his children. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise partook of the same,” saith the Apostle (Heb. 2v14). We read in the Roman History [7], that the Sabines and the Romans joining battle together — upon such an occasion as is mentioned in the last chapter of the Book of Judges of the children of Benjamin, catching every man a wife of the daughters of Shilo — the women, being daughters to the one side and wives to the other, interposed themselves and took up the quarrel, so that by the mediation of these, who had a peculiar interest in either side, and by whose means this new alliance was contracted betwixt the two adverse parties; they who before stood upon highest terms of hostility did not only entertain peace, but also joined themselves together into one body and one state.

(19) God and we were “enemies”, before we were “reconciled to him by his Son” (Rom. 5v10). He that is to be “our peace, and to reconcile us unto God” and to “slay this enmity” (Eph. 2v14–16) must have an interest in both the parties that are at variance, and have such a reference unto either of them that he may be able to send this comfortable message unto the sons of men: “Go to my brethren, and say unto them: I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20v17). For as long as “he is not ashamed to call us brethren” (Heb. 2v11), “God is not ashamed to be called our God” (Heb. 11v16). And his entering of our appearance, in his own name and ours, after this manner, “Behold, I, and the children which God hath given me” (Heb. 2v13), is a motive strong enough to appease his Father, and to turn his favourable countenance towards us. As on the other side, when we become unruly, and prove rebellious children, no reproof can be more forcible, nor inducement so prevalent (if there remain any spark of grace in us) to make us cast down our weapons and yield, than this: “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee?” (Deut. 32v6) — and bought thee “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood” of his own Son (1 Pet. 1v17–19).

(20) How dangerous a matter it is to be at odds with God old Eli showeth by this main argument: “If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall plead or intreat for him?” (1 Sam. 2v25). And Job before him: “He is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgement; neither is there any daysman [i.e. mediator], or umpire, betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9v32–33). If this general [rule?] should admit no manner of exception then were we in a woeful case and had cause to weep much more than St John did in the Revelation, when none was found “in heaven nor in earth, nor under the earth, that was able to open the book” which he saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, “neither to look thereon” (Rev. 5v3–4). But as St John was wished there to refrain his weeping because “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, had prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof ” (Rev. 5v5); so he himself elsewhere giveth the like comfort unto all of us in this particular: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous: and he is a propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2v1–2).

(21) For as there is one God, so is there “one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2v5–6); and in discharge of this his office of mediation, as the only fit umpire to take up this controversy, was to lay his hand as well upon God, the party so highly offended, as upon man, the party so basely offending. In things concerning God, the priesthood of our Mediator is exercised. “For every high priest is taken from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God” (Heb. 5v1 & 2v17). The parts of his priestly function are two: satisfaction and intercession; the former whereof giveth contentment to God’s justice, the latter soliciteth his mercy for the application of this benefit to the children of God in particular. Whereby it cometh to pass, that God in showing mercy upon whom he will show mercy (Rom. 9v15–16), is yet for his justice no looser, being both “just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3v26).

(22) By virtue of his intercession, our Mediator appeareth in the presence of God for us (Heb. 9v24), and maketh request for us (Rom. 8v34; Heb. 7v25)). To this purpose, the Apostle noteth in the fourth [chapter] to the Hebrews: firstly that, “We have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God (verse 14); secondly that, “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things tempted as we are, yet without sin” (verse 15). Betwixt the having of such and the not having of such an Intercessor, betwixt the height of him in regard of the one [nature], and the lowliness in regard of his other nature, standeth the comfort of the poor sinner. He must be such a suitor as taketh our cause to heart and therefore “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2v17). In which respect as it was needful he should partake with our flesh and blood that he might be tenderly affected unto his brethren; so likewise for the obtaining of so great a suit, it behoved he should be most dear to God the Father, and have so great an interest in him, as he might always be sure to be heard in his requests (John 11v42); who therefore could be no other, but he of whom the Father testified from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3v17). It was fit our Intercessor should be man, like unto ourselves, that we might boldly come to him, “and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4v16). It was fit that he should be God, that he might boldly go to the Father, without any way disparaging him, as being his “fellow” (Zech. 13v7) and “equal” (Phil. 2v6).

(23) But such was God’s love to justice, and hatred to sin, that he would not have his justice swallowed up with mercy, nor sin pardoned without the making of fit reparation. And therefore our Mediator must not look to procure for us a simple pardon without more ado, but must be a propitiation (Rom. 3v25) [8] for our sins, and redeem us by fine [9] and ransom (Matt. 20v28) [10]; and so not only be the master of our requests (1 Tim. 2v6) [11], to intreat the Lord for us; but also take upon him the part of an Advocate (1 John 2v1), to plead full satisfaction made by himself, as our surety (Heb. 7v12), unto all the debt wherewith we any way stood chargeable. Now the satisfaction which our surety bound himself to perform in our behalf was of a double debt: the principal and the accessory. The principal debt is obedience to God’s most holy Law, which man was bound to pay as a perpetual tribute to his Creator, although he had never sinned; but, being now by his own default become bankrupt, is not able to discharge in the least measure. His surety therefore being to satisfy in his stead, none will be found fit to undertake such a payment but he who is both God and man.

4. The Obedience Of Christ.

(24) Man it is fit he should be because man was the party that by the articles of the first covenant was tied to this obedience. And it was requisite that: “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man likewise many should be made righteous” (Rom. 5v19). Again, if our Mediator were only God, he could have performed no obedience (the Godhead being free from all manner of subjection). And if he were a bare man, although he had been as perfect as Adam in his integrity, or the angels themselves, yet being left unto himself amidst all the temptations of Satan and this wicked world he should be subject to fall, as they were. Or if he should hold out, as the elect angels did (1 Tim. 5v21), that must have been ascribed to the grace and favour of another, whereas the giving of strict satisfaction to God’s justice was the thing required in this behalf. But now, being God as well as man, he by his own eternal Spirit (Heb. 9v14) preserved himself without spot, presenting a far more satisfactory obedience unto God than could have possibly been by Adam in his integrity.

(25) For beside the infinite difference that was betwixt both their persons (which maketh the actions of the one beyond all comparison to exceed the worth and value of the other) we know that Adam was not able to make himself holy. But what holiness he had, he received from him who created him according to his own image, so that whatsoever obedience Adam had performed, God should have (1 Cor. 9v7) eaten but of the fruit of the vineyard which himself had planted, and “of his own” (1 Chron. 29v14–16) [12] would all that have been which could be given unto him. But Christ did himself sanctify that human nature which he assumed, according to his own saying: “For their sakes I sanctify myself ” (John 17v19). And so out of his own peculiar store did he bring forth those precious treasures of holy obedience, which for the satisfaction of our debt he was pleased to tender unto his Father. Again, if Adam had done all things which were commanded him, he must for all that have said: “I am an unprofitable servant. I have done that which was my duty to do” (Luke 17v10). Whereas in the voluntary obedience, which Christ subjected himself unto, the case stood far otherwise.

(26) True it is that if we respect him in his human nature, his Father is “greater” than he (John 14v28), and he is his Father’s “servant” (Isaiah 53v11; Mark 12v18). Yet in that he said, and most truly said, that God was his Father, the Jews did rightly infer from thence that he thereby made himself equal with God (John 5v18); and the Lord of hosts himself hath proclaimed him to be the man that is his fellow (Zech. 13v7). Being such a man therefore, and so highly born, by the privilege of his birthright he might have claimed an exemption from the ordinary service whereunto all other men are tied, and by being the King’s Son have freed himself from the payment of that tribute which was to be exacted at the hands of strangers (Matt. 17v25–26). When the Father brought this his first-begotten into the world, he said: “Let all the angels of God worship him” (Heb. 1v6); and at the very instant wherein the Son advanced our nature into the highest pitch of dignity, by admitting it into the unity of his sacred person, that nature so assumed was worthy to be crowned with all glory and honour; and he in that nature might then have set himself down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12v2), tied to no other subjection than now he is, or hereafter shall be, when after the end of this world he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father. For then also, in regard of his assumed nature, he shall be subject unto him that put all other things under him (1 Cor. 15v17).

(27) Thus the Son of God, if he had minded only his own things, might at the very first have attained unto the joy that was set before him; but “looking on the things of others”, he chose rather to come by a tedious way and wearisome journey unto it, not challenging the privilege of a Son, but taking upon him the form of a mean servant (Phil. 2v4–8). Whereupon in the days of his flesh, he did not serve as an honourable commander in the Lord’s host, but as an ordinary soldier. He “made himself of no reputation”, for the time as it were emptying himself [13] of his high state and dignity. “He humbled himself and became obedient” until his death, being content all his life long to be “made under the Law”; yea so far, that as he was sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh” so he disdained not to subject himself unto that Law, which properly did concern “sinful flesh” (Gal. 4v4). And therefore howsoever circumcision was by right applicable only unto such as were “dead in their sins, and the uncircumcision of their flesh”, yet he, in whom there was “no body of the sins of the flesh” to be put off, submitted himself notwithstanding thereunto; not only to testify his communion with the Fathers of the old Testament, but also by this means to tender unto his Father a bond, signed with his own blood, whereby he made himself in our behalf a debtor unto the whole Law. “For I testify”, saith the Apostle, “to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole Law” (Gal. 5v3).

(28) In like manner, Baptism appertained properly unto such as were defiled and had need to have their sins washed away (Acts 22v16). And therefore when all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem went out unto John, they “were all baptised of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matt. 3v6; Mark 1v5). Among the rest came our Saviour also, but the Baptist, considering that he had need to be baptised by Christ, and Christ no need to be baptised by him, refused to give way unto that action as altogether unbefitting the state of that immaculate Lamb of God, who was to take away the sin of the world. Yet did our Mediator submit himself to that ordinance of God also, not only to testify his communion with the Christians of the new testament [i.e. new covenant] but especially (which is the reason yielded by himself) because “it became him thus to fulfil all righteousness” (Matt. 3v15). And so having fulfilled all righteousness, whereunto the meanest man was tied, in the days of his pilgrimage (which was more than he needed to have undergone, if he had respected only himself) the works which he performed were truly works of supererogation which might be put upon the account of them whose debt he undertook to discharge; and being performed by the person of the Son of God, must in that respect not only be equivalent, but infinitely overvalue the obedience of Adam and all his posterity, although they had remained in their integrity and continued until this hour instantly serving God day and night. And thus for our main and principal debt of obedience hath our Mediator given satisfaction unto the justice of his Father, with “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6v38).

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5. The Sufferings and Death of Christ for our Redemption.

(29) But beside this, we were liable unto another debt which we have incurred by our default and drawn upon ourselves by way of forfeiture and nomine poenae. For as obedience is a due debt and God’s servants in regard thereof are truly debtors (Luke 17v10; Rom. 8v12; Gal. 5v3), so likewise is sin a debt (Matt. 6v12; Luke 11v4) and sinners debtors (Luke 14v4; Matt. 13v16) [14], in regard of the penalty due for the default. And as the payment of the debt which cometh nomine poenae dischargeth not the tenant afterwards from paying his yearly rent, which of itself would have been due although no default had been committed, so the due payment of the yearly rent after the default hath been made is not sufficient satisfaction for the penalty already incurred. Therefore our surety, who standeth chargeable with all our debts as he maketh payment for the one by his active so must he make amends for the other by his passive obedience. He must first suffer (Luke 24v26) and then enter into his glory. “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect” — that is, a perfect accomplisher of the work which he had undertaken — “through sufferings” (Heb. 2v10).

(30) The Godhead is of that infinite perfection that it cannot possibly be subject to any passion. He therefore that had no other nature but the Godhead could not pay such a debt as this, the discharge whereof consisted in suffering and dying. It was also fit that God’s justice should have been satisfied in that nature which had transgressed and that the same nature should suffer the punishment that had committed the offence. “Forasmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same: that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2v14–15). Such and so great was the love of God the Father towards us that “he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom. 8v12). And so transcendent was the love of the Son of God towards the sons of men that he desired not to be spared but, rather than they should lie under the power of death, was of himself most willing to suffer death for them; which seeing in his infinite nature (which by eternal generation he received from his Father) he could not do, he resolved in the appointed time to take unto himself a mother, and out of her substance to have a body framed unto himself, wherein he might “become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2v8) for our redemption. And therefore when he cometh into the world he saith unto his Father: “A body hast thou fitted me. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10v5–7). By the which will (saith the Apostle) “we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10v9– 10).

(31) Thus we see it was necessary for the satisfaction of this debt that our Mediator should be man; but he that had no more in him than a man could never be able to go through with so great a work. For if there should be found a man as righteous as Adam was at his first creation who would be content to suffer for the offence of others, his suffering possibly might serve for the redemption of one soul. It could be no sufficient ransom for those innumerable multitudes (Rev. 7v9) that were to be “redeemed to God out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev. 5v9). Neither could any man or angel be able to hold out if a punishment equivalent to the endless sufferings of all the sins in the world should at once be laid upon him. Yea, the very powers of Christ himself, upon whom “the Spirit of might did rest” (Isaiah 11v2), were so shaken in this sharp encounter that he, who was the most accomplished pattern of all fortitude, stood “sore amazed” (Mark 14v33; Luke 22v44) and “with strong crying and tears” prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him (Heb. 5v7; Mark 14v35–36).

(32) This man therefore being to offer one sacrifice for sins forever (Heb. 10v12), to the burning of that sacrifice he must not only bring the coals of his love as strong as death and as ardent fire which hath a most vehement flame (Songs 8v6), but he must add thereunto those everlasting burnings also, even the flames of his most glorious deity. And therefore “through the eternal Spirit” must he “offer himself without spot unto God” (Heb. 9v14), that hereby he might obtain for us an eternal redemption (Heb. 9v12). The blood whereby the Church is purchased must be “God’s own blood” (Acts 20v28), and to that end must “the Lord of glory be crucified” (1 Cor. 2v8), the Prince and Author of life be killed (Acts 3v15) he whose eternal generation no man can declare be cut off out of the land of the living (Isa. 53v8), and the man that is God’s own fellow be thus smitten, according to that which God himself foretold by his prophet: “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered” (Zech. 13v7; Matt. 26v31). The people of Israel, we read, did so value the life of David their king that they counted him to be worth ten thousand of themselves (2 Sam. 18v3). How shall we then value the life of David’s Lord (Matt. 22v43–44), who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6v15; Rev. 19v16)? It was indeed our nature that suffered but he that suffered in that nature “is over all, God blessed forever” (Rom. 9v5); and for such a person to have suffered but one hour was more than if all other persons had suffered ten thousand millions of years.

(33) But put the case also, that the life of any other singular man might be equivalent to all the lives of whole mankind; yet the laying down of that life would not be sufficient to do the deed, unless he that had power to lay it down again had power likewise to take it up again. For to be detained always in that prison, “from whence there is no coming out, before the payment of the uttermost farthing” (Matt. 5v26), is to lie always under execution and so to disannul quite the plea of that full payment of the debt wherein our surety stood engaged for us. And therefore the Apostle upon that ground doth rightly conclude that “if Christ be not raised our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins” (1 Cor. 13v17); and consequently that as he must be delivered to death for our offences, so he must be “raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4v25).

(34) Yea our Saviour himself, knowing full well what he was to undergo for our sakes, told us beforehand that the Comforter whom he would send unto us should “convince the world” — that is fully satisfy the consciences of the sons of men concerning that everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9v24) which was to be brought in by him, upon this very ground: “Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more” (John 16v10). For if he had broken prison and made an escape, the payment of the debt, which as our surety he took upon himself, being not yet satisfied, he should have been seen here again. Heaven would not have held him, more than Paradise did Adam after he had fallen into God’s debt and danger. But our Saviour, raising himself from the dead, presenting himself in heaven before him unto whom the debt was owing, hath hereby given good proof that he is now a free man, and hath fully discharged that debt of ours for which he stood committed. And this is the evidence we have to show of that righteousness, whereby we stand justified in God’s sight, according to that of the Apostle: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8v35–36).

(35) Now although an ordinary man may easily part with his life, yet doth it not lie in his power to resume it again at his own will and pleasure. But he that must do the turn for us must be able to say as our Jesus did: “I lay down my life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again” (John 10v17–18). And in another place: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” saith he unto the Jews, speaking of the temple of his body (John 2v19–21). A human nature then he must have had, which might be subject to dissolution; but being once dissolved he could not by his own strength (which was the thing here necessarily required) raise it up again unless he had “declared” himself “to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1v4). The manhood could suffer, but not overcome the sharpness of death; the Godhead could suffer nothing, but overcome anything. He therefore that was both to suffer and to overcome death for us must be partaker of both natures that, “being put to death in the flesh”, he might be able also to quicken himself by his own Spirit (1 Pet. 3v18).

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6. The Kinsman-Redeemer: Generation and Spiritual Regeneration.

(36) And now are we come to that part of Christ’s mediation which concerneth the convenience of the redemption of this purchased possession unto the sons of men (Eph. 1v14). A dear purchase indeed which was to be redeemed with no less price than the blood of the Son of God. But what should the purchase of a stranger have been to us? Or what should we have been the better for all this, if we could not derive our descent from the purchaser or raise some good title whereby we might estate [i.e. establish] ourselves in his purchase? Now this was the manner in former time in Israel, concerning redemptions, that unto him who was the next of kin belonged the right of being Goël, or the Redeemer (Ruth 3v12 and 4v1–7). And Job had before that left this glorious profession of his faith unto the perpetual memory of all posterity: “I know that my Goël” — or Redeemer — “liveth, and at the last shall arise upon the dust [or stand upon the earth]. And after this my skin is spent, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another for me” (Job 19v25–27). Whereby we may easily understand that his and our Redeemer was to be the invisible God, and yet in his assumed flesh made visible even to the bodily eyes of those whom he redeemed. For if he had not thus assumed our flesh, how should we have been of his blood, or claimed any kindred to him? And unless the Godhead had by a personal union been inseparably conjoined unto that flesh, how could he therein have been accounted our next of kin?

(37) For the better clearing of which last reason, we may call to mind that sentence of the Apostle: “The first man is of the earth earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15v47). Where, notwithstanding there were many millions of men in the world betwixt these two, yet we see our Redeemer reckoned “the second man”. And why but because these two were the only men who could be accounted the prime fountains, from whence all the rest of mankind did derive their existence and being. For as all men in the world by mean descent do draw their first origin [15] “from the first man”, so in respect of a more immediate influence of efficiency and operation do they owe their being unto “the second man”, as he is “the Lord from heaven.” This is God’s own language unto Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee” (Jer. 1v5). And this is David’s acknowledgement, for his part: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me” (Ps. 119v73); “thou has covered me in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139v13); “thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels” (Ps. 71v6). And Job’s, for his also: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; thou has clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews” (Job 10v8–11). And the Apostle’s, for us all: “In him we live, and move, and have our being;” who inferreth also thereupon, both that “we are the offspring” — or generation — “of God” and that “he is not far from everyone of us” (Acts 17v27–29). This is to be admitted for a most certain truth (notwithstanding the opposition of all gainsayers), that God doth more immediately concur to the generation and all other motions of the creature than any natural agent doth or can do [16]. And therefore, “if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5v17), considering that this second man is not only as universal a principal of all our beings as was that first, and so may sustain the common person of us all as well as he, but is a far more immediate agent in the production thereof — not, as the first, so many generations removed from us, but more near unto us than our very next progenitors, and in that kind justly to be accounted our next of kin, even before them also.

(38) Yet is not this sufficient neither, but there is another kind of generation required, for which we must be beholding unto “the second man, the Lord from heaven,” before we can have interest in this purchased redemption. For as the guilt of the first man’s transgression is derived unto us by the means of carnal generation, so must the benefit of the second man’s obedience be conveyed unto us by spiritual regeneration. And this must be laid down as a most undoubted verity: that, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3v3). And that every such must be “born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1v13). Now, as our Mediator in respect of the adoption of sons, which he hath procured for us, is not ashamed to call us “brethren;” so in respect of this new birth, whereby he begetteth to us a spiritual and everlasting life, he disdaineth not to own us as his children: “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,” saith the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 53v10). “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation,” saith his father David likewise of him (Ps. 22v30). And he himself, of himself: “Behold I, and the children which God hath given me (Heb. 2v13). Whence the Apostle deduceth this conclusion: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same” (Heb. 2v14). He himself — that is, he who was equal to the Father, for who else was able to make this “new creature” (2 Cor. 5v17; Eph. 2v10; Gal. 6v15) but the same God that is the Creator of all things (John 1v13; James 1v18; 1 Pet. 1v3; 1 John 5v1) (no less power being requisite to the effecting of this than was at the first to the producing of all things out of nothing)? And these new babes [17] (1 Pet. 2v2; 1v23) being [i.e. needing] to be “born of the Spirit” (John 3v5–8), who could have the power to send the Spirit thus to beget them, but the Father and the Son from whom he proceeded? The same blessed Spirit, who framed the natural body of our Lord in the womb of the Virgin, being to new mould and fashion every member of his mystical body unto his similitude and likeness.

(39) For the further opening of which mystery (which went beyond the apprehension of Nicodemus, though a “master of Israel” [John 3v4–10]) we are to consider that in every perfect generation, the creature produced receiveth two things from him that doth beget: life and likeness. A curious limner [painter/artist] draweth [18] his own son’s portraiture to the life (as we say) yet because there is no true life in it, but a likeness only, he cannot be said to be the begetter of his picture as he is of his son. And some creatures there be that are bred out of mud or other putrid matter, which, although they have life, yet because they have no correspondence in likeness unto the principle from whence they were derived are therefore accounted to have but an improper and equivocal generation. Whereas in the right and proper course of generation (others being esteemed but monstrous births that swerve from that rule) every creature begetteth his like:

Nec imbellem feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbam [19].

(40) Now touching our spiritual death and life, these sayings of the Apostle would be thought upon: “We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5v14–15). “God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ” (Eph. 2v4–5). “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2v13). “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2v20). From all which we may easily gather that if by the obedience and sufferings of a bare man, though never so perfect, the most sovereign medicine that could be thought upon should have been prepared for the curing of our wounds, yet all would be to no purpose, we being found dead, when the medicine came to be applied.

(41) Our Physician therefore must not only be able to restore us unto health, but unto life itself; which none can do but the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forever. To which purpose, these passages of our Saviour also are to be considered: “As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself ” (John 5v26); “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6v57); “I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6v51). The substance whereof is briefly comprehended in this saying of the Apostle: “The last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor. 15v45). An Adam therefore and perfect man must he have been, that his flesh, given for us upon the Cross, might be made the conduit to convey life unto the world. And a quickening spirit he could not have been unless he were God, able to make that flesh an effectual instrument of life by the operation of his blessed Spirit. For, as [he] himself hath declared: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” Without it, “the flesh would profit nothing” (John 6v63).

42) As for the point of similitude and likeness, we read of Adam, after his fall, that he “begat” a son “in his own likeness, after his image.” And generally, as well touching the carnal as the spiritual generation, our Saviour hath taught us this lesson: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3v6). Whereupon the Apostle maketh this comparison betwixt those who are born of that first man, who is of the earth earthy, and of the second man, who is the Lord from heaven: “As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15v48– 49). We shall indeed hereafter bear it in full perfection, when “the Lord Jesus Christ shall change our base body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself ” (Phil. 3v11). Yet in the meantime also such a conformity is required in us unto that heavenly man, that “our conversation must be in heaven, whence we look for this Saviour” (Phil. 3v20); and that we must “put off, concerning the former conversation that old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4v22–24). For as in one particular point of domestic authority the man is said to be “the image and glory of God” and the woman “the glory of the man” (1 Cor. 11v7), so in a more universal manner is Christ said to be “the image of God,” even “the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person” (Heb. 1v3); and we to be conformed to his image, that he might be the first born among those many brethren (Rom. 8v29), who in that respect are accounted “the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 8v23) [20].

(43) We read in the holy story that God “took of the Spirit which was upon Moses and gave it unto the seventy elders” that they might bear the burden of the people with him, and that he might not bear it, as before he had done, himself alone (Num. 9v17–25). It may be his burden being thus lightened, the abilities that were left him for government were not altogether so great as the necessity of his former employment required them to have been; and in that regard what was given to his assistants might perhaps be said to be taken from him. But we are sure the case was otherwise in him of whom now we speak, unto whom God did not thus “give the Spirit by measure” (John 3v34). And therefore although so many millions of believers do continually receive this “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1v19), yet neither is that fountain anyway exhausted, nor the plenitude of that wellspring of grace any whit [i.e. way] impaired or diminished, it being God’s pleasure that “in him should all fullness dwell” (Col. 1v19), and that “of his fullness all we should receive grace for grace” (John 1v16); that as in the natural generation there is such a correspondence in all parts betwixt the begetter and the infant begotten that there is no member to be seen in the father but [i.e. except] there is the like answerably to be found in the child, although in far less proportion; so it falleth out in this spiritual [generation] that for every grace which in a most eminent manner is found in Christ, a like grace will appear in God’s child, although in a far inferior degree, similitudes and likenesses being defined by the logicians to be comparisons made in quality, not in quantity.

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7. The Union of the Church with Christ Her Head.

(44) We are yet further to take it into our consideration that by thus enlivening and fashioning us according to his own image, Christ’s purpose was not to raise a seed unto himself dispersedly and distractedly, but to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11v52). Yea and to “bring all unto one head by himself, both them which are in heaven and them which are on the earth” (Eph. 1v10), that as in the Tabernacle “the veil divided between the holy place and the most holy” (Exod. 26v33) but the curtains which covered them both were so coupled together with the taches [i.e. clasps] that it might still “be one tabernacle” (Exod. 26v6 & 11), so the Church Militant and Triumphant, typified thereby, though distant as far the one from the other as heaven is from earth, yet is made but one Tabernacle in Jesus Christ, “in whom all the building, fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, [and] in whom all of us are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2v21–22).

45) The bond of this mystical union betwixt Christ and us (as elsewhere hath more fully been declared [21]) is on his part that quickening Spirit (John 6v63; 1 Cor. 6v17 & 16v45; Phil. 2v1; Rom. 8v9; 1 John 3v24 and 4v13), which being in him as the Head, is from thence diffused to the spiritual animation of all his members; and on our part faith, which is the prime act of life wrought in those who are capable of understanding by the same Spirit (Gal. 2v20; Gal. 5v5; Gal. 3v11; Eph. 3v17). Both whereof must be acknowledged to be of so high a nature that none could possibly by such ligatures knit up so admirable a body but he that was God Almighty. And therefore although we did suppose such a man might be found who should perform the Law for us, suffer the death was due to our offence and overcome it, yea and whose obedience and sufferings should be of such value that it were sufficient for the redemption of the whole world; yet could it not be efficient to make us live by faith unless that man had been able to send God’s Spirit to apply the same unto us.

(46) Which as no bare man or any other creature whatsoever can do, so for faith we are taught by St Paul that it is “the operation of God” and a “work of his power”, even of that same power wherewith Christ himself was raised from the dead (Col. 2v12; 2 Thess. 1v11). Which is the ground of that prayer of his, that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened we might know “what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might, and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that to come; and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1v18–23).

(47) Yet was it fit also that the Head should be of the same nature with the body which is knit unto it, and therefore that he should so be God, as that he might partake of our flesh likewise. “For we are members of his body,” saith the same Apostle, “of his flesh and of his bones” (Eph. 5v30). And “except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man,” saith our Saviour himself, “and drink his blood, yet have no life in you” (John 6v35). “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him” (John 6v56), declaring thereby: first, that by this mystical and supernatural union we are as truly conjoined with him as the meat and drink we take is with us, when by the ordinary work of nature it is converted into our own substance; secondly, that this conjunction is immediately made with his human nature; thirdly, that the “Lamb slain” (Rev. 5v12 & 13v18) — that is, “Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1v23 & 2v2) — hath by that death of his made his flesh broken and his blood poured out for us upon the cross to be fit food for the spiritual nourishment of our souls, and the very wellspring from whence, by the power of his Godhead, all life and grace is derived unto us.

(48) Upon this ground it is that the Apostle telleth us that we “have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Heb. 10v19–20). That as in the tabernacle there was no passing from the Holy to the Most Holy Place but by the veil, so now there is no passage to be looked for from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant but by the flesh of him who hath said of himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14v6). Jacob in his dream beheld “a ladder set upon the earth, the top whereof reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it,” the Lord himself “standing above it” (Gen. 28v12–13). Of which vision none can give a better interpretation than he who was prefigured therein gave unto Nathanael: “Hereafter you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1v51). Whence we may well collect that the only means whereby God standing above and his Israel lying here below are conjoined together, and the only ladder whereby heaven may be scaled by us, is the Son of Man. The type of whose flesh, “the veil,” was therefore commanded to be made with Cherubim (Exod. 26v31 & 36v35), to show that we come to “an innumerable company of angels” when we come to “Jesus the Mediator of the new Testament” (Heb. 12v22–24); who as the Head of the Church hath power to “send forth all those ministering spirits, to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1v14).

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8. The Prophetic Office of Christ.

(49) Lastly, we are to take into our consideration that as in things concerning God, the main execution of our Saviour’s priesthood doth consist; so in things concerning man he exerciseth both his prophetic office, whereby he openeth the will of his Father unto us, and his kingly [office], whereby he ruleth and protecteth us. It was indeed a part of the priest’s office in the old testament to instruct the people in the Law of God (Deut. 33v10; Hag. 2v11; Mal. 2v7); and yet were they distinguished from the prophets (Isa. 28v7; Jer. 6v13, 8v10, 14v18, 23v11 & 33–34; Lam. 2v20) like as in the new testament also, prophets as well as apostles are made a different degree (Eph. 4v11) from the ordinary pastors and teachers who received not their doctrine by immediate inspiration from heaven as those other “holy men of God” did, “who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1v21). Whence St Paul putteth the Hebrews in mind that “God who in sundry parts and in sundry manners [22] spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, Christ Jesus” (Heb. 1v1); whom therefore he styleth “the Apostle” as well as the “high priest of our profession, who was faithful to him that appointed him, even as Moses was in all his house” (Heb. 3v1).

(50) Now Moses, we know, had a singular preeminence above all the rest of the prophets, according to that ample testimony which God himself giveth of him: “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold” (Num. 12v6–8). And therefore we find that our Mediator in the execution of his prophetic office is in a more peculiar manner likened unto Moses, which he himself also did thus foretell: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me: unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken, that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words into his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18v15–19; Acts 3v22–23).

(51) Our Prophet therefore must be a man raised from among his brethren, the Israelites (“of whom, as concerning the flesh,” he came [Rom. 9v5]), who was to perform unto us that which the fathers requested of Moses: “Speak thou unto us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die” (Exod. 20v19; Deut. 5v25–27). And yet (that in this also we may see how our Mediator had the preeminence) when Aaron and all the children of Israel were to receive from the mouth of Moses all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai, “they were afraid to come nigh him”, by reason of the glory of his shining countenance, so that he was fain to put a veil over his face while he spake unto them that which he was commanded (Exod. 34v30–33). But that which for a time was thus “made glorious had no glory in respect of the glory that excelleth” (2 Cor. 3v7–13) and both the glory thereof and the veil which covered it are now abolished in Christ, the veil of whose flesh doth so overshadow “the brightness of his glory” (Heb. 1v3) that yet under it we may “behold his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1v14). Yea and “we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3v18).

(52) And this is daily effected by the power of the ministry of the Gospel, instituted by the authority, and seconded by the power, of this our great Prophet, whose transcendent excellence beyond Moses (unto whom, in the execution of that function, he was otherwise likened) is thus set forth by the Apostle: “He is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by someone, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as the Son over his own house” (Heb. 3v3–6). This house of God is no other than “the Church of the living God” (1 Tim. 3v15), whereof as he is the only Lord, so is he properly the only Builder. Christ therefore, being both the Lord and the Builder of his Church (Matt. 16v18), must be God as well as man, which is the cause [why] we find all the several mansions of this “great house” (2 Tim. 2v20) to carry the title indifferently of “the Churches of God” (1 Cor. 11v16) and “the Churches of Christ” (Rom. 16v16).

(53) True it is that there are other ministerial builders whom Christ employed in that service, this being not the least of those gifts which he bestowed upon men at his triumphant ascension into heaven, that he gave not only ordinary pastors and teachers but apostles likewise, and prophets and evangelists, for the “perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4v11–12). Which what great power it required he himself doth fully express in passing the grant of this high commission unto his apostles: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 18v18–20).

(54) St Paul professeth of himself that he laboured “more abundantly” than all the rest of the apostles: “yet not I,” saith he, “but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15v10). And therefore, although “according to that grace of God which given unto him” he denieth not but that “as a wise master-builder he hath laid the foundation;” yet he acknowledgeth that they upon whom he had wrought were “God’s building” as well as “God’s husbandry” (1 Cor. 3v9–10). For “who”, saith he, “is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3v5–7).

(55) Two things therefore we find in our great Prophet, which do far exceed the ability of any bare man, and so do difference him from all the “holy prophets which have been since the world began” (Luke 1v70). For first we are taught that “no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matt. 11v27); and that “no man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1v18). Being in his bosom, he is become conscious of his secrets, and so out of his own immediate knowledge enabled to discover the whole will of his Father unto us; whereas all other prophets and apostles receive their revelations at the second hand and according to the grace given unto them by the Spirit of Christ. Witness that place of St Peter for the prophets: “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow” (1 Pet. 1v10–11). And for the apostles, those heavenly words which our Saviour himself uttered unto them whilst he was among them: “When the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you” (John 16v13–15).

(56) Secondly, all other prophets and apostles can do no more (as hath been said) but plant and water: only God can give the increase. They may teach indeed and baptise, but unless Christ were with them by the powerful presence of his Spirit, they would not be able to save one soul by that ministry of theirs. We “as lively stones are built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2v5); but “except the Lord do build this house, they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. 127v1). For who is able to breathe the Spirit of life into those dead stones but he of whom it is written: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear it shall live” (John 5v25)? And again: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5v14). Who can awake us out of this dead sleep, and give light unto these blind eyes of ours, but the Lord our God, unto whom we pray that he would “lighten our eyes, lest we sleep the sleep of death” (Ps. 13v3)?

(57) And as a blind man is not able to conceive the distinction of colours, although the most skilful man alive should use all the art he had to teach him, because he wanteth the sense whereby that object is discernible, so “the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God (for they are foolishness unto him), neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2v14). Whereupon the Apostle concludeth concerning himself and all his fellow labourers that “God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts”, to give “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Cor. 4v6–7). Our Mediator therefore (who must “be able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” [Heb. 7v25]) may not want the “excellence of the power”, whereby he may make us capable of this high knowledge of the things of God, propounded unto us by the ministry of his servants; and consequently, in this respect also, must be God, as well as man.

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9. The Kingly Office of Christ.

(58) There remains the Kingdom of our Redeemer, described thus by the prophet Isaiah: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice, from henceforth forever” (Isa. 9v7). And by Daniel: “Behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall never pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7v13–14). And by the Angel Gabriel, in his embassage to the Blessed Virgin: “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1v31–33).

(59) This is that new David (Jer. 30v9; Hos. 3v5; Ezek. 34v23 & 37v24), our King, whom God hath raised up unto his own Israel (Gal. 6v16); who was in truth that which he was called, the Son of Man, and the Son of the Highest, that in the one respect we may say unto him (Eph. 5v30), as the Israelites of old did unto their David: “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh” (2 Sam. 5v1); and in the other, sing of him, as David himself did: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Ps. 110v1; Matt. 22v43–44; Acts 2v34–35). So the the promise made unto our first parents, that “the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head” (Gen. 3v15) may well stand with that other saying of St Paul, that “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under our feet” (Rom. 16v20), seeing for this very “purpose the Son of God was manifested” in the flesh (1 John 3v8), “that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Tim. 3v16). And still the foundation of God will remain unshaken: “I, even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour” (Isaiah 43v11). “Thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no Saviour beside me” (Hos. 13v4).

(60) Two special branches there be of this Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour: the one of grace, whereby that part of there Church is governed which is militant upon earth; the other of glory, belonging to that part which is triumphant in heaven. Here upon earth, as by his prophetic office he worketh upon our mind and understanding, so by his kingly [office] he ruleth our will and affections, “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (1 Cor. 10v5). Where, as we must needs acknowledge, that “it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do” (Phil. 2v13), and that it is he which “sanctifieth us wholly” (2 Thess. 5v23); so are we taught likewise to believe that “both he who sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one,” namely of one and the selfsame nature, that the sanctifier might “not be ashamed” to call those who are sanctified by him his “brethren” (Heb. 2v11); that as their nature was corrupted and their blood tainted in the first Adam, so it might be restored again in the second Adam; and that as from the one a corrupt, so from the other a pure and undefiled nature might be transmitted unto the heirs of salvation.

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10. Resurrection and Glorification.

(61) The same God that giveth grace is he also that giveth glory (Ps. 84v11); yet so, that the streams of both of them must run to us through the golden pipe of our Saviour’s humanity. “For since by man came death,” it was fit that by man also should come the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15v21); even by that man, who hath said: “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6v54). Who then “shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be made marvellous in all them that believe” (2 Thess. 1v10); and shall “change this base body of ours, that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself ” (Phil. 3v21). Unto him therefore that hath thus “loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1v5–6).

(62) “I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord” (Phil. 3v8).

Finis.

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Attribution

Transcribed and edited by David J. Elliott for New Whitchurch Press.

Works consulted

First published in 1643 by Leonard Lichfield, printer to the University of Oxford.

Reprinted in 1810 by J. Voss (Market-Place, Swansea) and in 1844 by W. E. Painter (342 Strand, London).