viour of his Church; the Heir of all things; and Judge of the world:7 unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.' * Eph. v. 23. • Heb. i. 2 8 Acts xvii. 31. 8 John xvii. 6. Ps. xxii. 30 Isa. liii. 10. 91 Tim. ii. 6. Isa. lv. 4, 5. 1 Cor. i. 30. EXPOSITION. A mediator is one who interposes between two parties at variance, to procure a reconciliation. Before the fall, there was no need of a mediator between God and man; for, though there was an infinite distance in nature, yet, there was no variance between these parties. But upon the fall the case was altered; God was dishonoured, and highly offended; man was alienated from God, and subjected to his judicial displeasure; and as man was unable to satisfy the claims of the divine law which he had violated, if he was to be restored to the favour of his offended sovereign, the interposition of another person was requisite, to atone for his guilt, and lay the foundation of peace. This is the office and work assigned to Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man; and the present section relates to his divine appointment to this office, and the donation of a people to him as his seed. I. It pleased God, from all eternity, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son, to be the mediator between God and man. God being the party offended by the sin of man, to him belonged the right of admitting satisfaction by another in the room of the personal transgressors. But he not only admitted of a vicarious satisfaction; he also, in the exercise of boundless grace and unsolicited love, provided one equal to the arduous undertaking, in the appointment of his own Son to his mediatory office. Our Lord did not engage in the work of mediation without a special call and commission from his Father. From eternity he was chosen and appointed to execute the office of mediator between God and man; hence he is said to be "set up from everlasting," and "fore-ordained before the foundation of the world." Prov. viii. 23; 1 Pet. i. 20. When he was on earth he often declared, that what he did in accomplishing the work of our redemption, he did by a special commission from the Father, and in obedience to his will. John vi. 38. The divine appointment of Christ to his mediatory office affords a striking proof of the love of the Father, who "sent his only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins," and lays a firm foundation for our trust in Christ. Without the appointment of his Father, his work would not have, been valid in law for our redemption; but this appointment assures us, that the whole work of his mediation is most acceptable to God, and affords us the highest encouragement to rely upon his finished work for our eternal salvation. II. The Father, from all eternity, gave to Christ a people to be his seed, and to be by him brought to glory. That a definite number of mankind, who were chosen by God in the exercise of rich and sovereign grace, were given to Christ, is manifest from the distinction made betwixt them and the world. Christ designates them "the men that were given him out of the world," and declares that he prayed "not for the world, but for them whom the Father had given him." John xvii. 6, 9. In these passages the world is opposed to those that were given to Christ, and this must convince every unprejudiced mind that the persons given to Christ. are a definite number, selected by God from the world of mankind. They were given to Christ to be his seed. It was not left uncertain whether Christ, as the reward of his mediatory work, would have a people to serve him; it was stipulated that he should have a seed, in whom he would see the travail of his soul. Isa. liii. 10, 11. They were given to him that he might redeem them, and bring them to glory. He was not merely to procure for them a possibility of salvation, but to secure for them a full and final salvation; and none that were given to him shall be lost. "This is the Father's will which hath sent me," says Christ," that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." John vi. 39. SECTION II.-The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon him man's nature," with all the essential properties and common infirmi 10 John i. 1, 14. 1 John v. 20. Phil. ii. 6. Gal iv. 4. 10 ties thereof, yet without sin;11 being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance.12 So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.13 Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.14 11 Heb. ii. 14, 16, 17; iv. 15. 19 Luke i. 27, 31, 35. Gal. iv. 4. 13 Luke i. 35. Col. ii. 9. Rom. ix. 5. EXPOSITION. This section relates to the constitution of the person of the Mediator. In opposition to Socinians and Unitarians, who maintain that Christ was merely a mau, and had no existence before he was born of Mary; and in opposition to Arians, who, though they admit the pre-existence of Christ, maintain that he is a creature, and existed prior to his incarnation only as a super-angelic spirit, our Confession teaches, that Christ not only existed before his incarnation, but was from all eternity the Son of God, of one substance, and equal with the Father; and that, in the fulness of time, ⚫ he assumed a complete human nature into union with the divine, so that he is both very God and very man, having two distinct natures, yet but one person. I. Jesus Christ not only existed prior to his incarnation, but is the eternal Son of God, of one substance and equal with the Father. The pre-existence of Christ is confirmed by numerous testimonies of Scripture. That he existed before John the Baptist, is affirmed by John himself, who “bare witness of him," saying, "He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me." John i. 15. That he existed before Abraham is affirmed by Christ himself, who told the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am." John viii. 58. That he xisted before the flood is evident from the words of the apostle Peter, who affirms, that by the Spirit Christ "went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing." 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. That he existed before the foundation of the world is no less evident, for the Scripture teaches us that all things were created by him, and in his valedictory prayer he thus expressed himself: "Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." John xvii. 5. Christ also declares that he "came down from heaven," and speaks of his "ascending up where he was before,” (John iii. 15; vi. 62); which clearly imports that he had a residence in hea ven before he took our nature.* We are not left to conjecture what that nature was in which Christ subsisted prior to his incarnation. We are assured that "he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God;" that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Phil. ii. 6; John i. 1. But the supreme Deity of Christ has been established in a preceding chapter, and we shall not now resume that subject. It will be proper, however, in this place, to offer a few remarks concerning the Sonship of Christ. The title of sons of God is applied in Scripture to various orders of beings, but Christ is styled the Son of God in a sense altogether peculiar to himself; hence he is called God's own Son, his proper Son, the only begotten of the Father. His Sonship is not founded upon his mission, nor upon his miraculous conception, nor upon his resurrection, as is supposed by many; but he is the Son of God by an eternal, necessary, and ineffable generation. This truth is confirmed by many passages of Scripture, the application of which to the eternal generation of the Son of God has been vindicated by many learned divines.† We can only refer the reader to Psa. ii. 7; Prov. viii. 24, 25; Mic. v. 2; John i. 14. The denial of our Lord's eternal Sonship tends to subvert the doctrine of the Trinity; it also throws a veil over the glory of the work of redemption; for the grace of the second person in becoming incarnate, obeying and suffering, the love of the first in sending him, and delivering him up to sufferings and death for us, and the infinite value of his atonement, are all in Scripture made to turn upon his essential dignity as the Son of God. We cannot pretend to explain the manner of the eternal generation of the Son; but to deny * The pre-existence of Christ is ably treated in Archbishop Magee's celebrated work on Atonement, Illustrations, No. I; Hill's Lectures, vol. i. p. 289; Wilson on the Person of Christ, ch. ii. + See Witsius on the Creed, Diss. 12; Gib's Contemplations, pp. 207-227. it upon the ground that it is incomprehensible by us would be preposterous; for, upon the same ground, we might as well deny the subsistence of three distinct persons in one Godhead. Though the eternal generation of the Son be to us an inconceivable mystery, yet of one thing we are certain, that it necessarily implies the Son's equality with the Father. The Jews understood our Lord's claim to Sonship as a claim to equality with the Father, and consequently to proper Deity; and he sanctioned the interpretation which they put upon his words, by declaring, "I and my Father are one." John x. 30, 33. II. In the fulness of time, the Son of God assumed a complete human nature into union with his divine person. This article of our faith has been opposed by heretics of various descriptions, and the statements of our Confession are intend ed to meet the heresies which have been broached in different periods. 1. The Son of God took upon him man's nature, a real and perfect humanity. In the primitive times of the Christian Church this was denied by various sects, called Docetæ, who held that Christ had not a real, but a mere shadowy body; while others, in later times, affirmed that Christ had a body, but not a soul.* But the Scriptures declare that "the Word was made flesh;" that " God sent forth his Son, made of a woman," and that, "forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same." It would be impossible to find language that could more explicitly assert the reality of Christ's human His apostles, who were admitted to familiar converse with him, were certain that it was not a mere phantom which they beheld, and were as fully persuaded of the reality of his body as of their own. "We have looked upon, and our hands have handled the Word of life." 1 John i. 1. That Christ had a human soul is equally unquestionable. He "increased in wisdom and stature," the one in respect of his body, the other in respect of his soul. In his agony, nature. *The Arians and Eunomians held that Christ had no part of the human nature, except merely the flesh; but that the place of the soul was supplied by the indwelling of the Word. The Apollinarians distinguished man into three parts-the body, the sensible soul, and the rational soul; the latter they held Christ did not possess, but the Word was sustituted in its place. Newland's Analysis of the Thirty-Nine Articles, p. 57. |
