124 THE NATURE OF THE PERSON OP CHRIST, AND THE he shall be called themighty God," Isa. ix. 6. The tures in this personal union, three things are to be ob- Child and the mighty God are the same person, or he that is born a child cannot be rightly called the mighty God. And the truth of many other expressions in the Scripture bath its sole foundation in this hypostatical union. So the Son of God tookon him the seed of A- braham, was made of a woman, did partake offlesh and blood, was manifest in the flesh, that he who was born of the blessed virgin, was before Abraham, that he was made of the seed of David according to theflesh, whereby God purchased the church with his own blood, are all spoken of one and the same person, and are not true, but on the account of the union of the two natures therein. And all those who plead for the accidental metaphorical union, consisting in the instances before mentioned, do know well enough, that the true Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is opposed by them. 3. Concurrent with, and inpart consequent unto this served, which the scripture, reason, and the ancient church do all concur in. (I.) Each nature doth preserve its own natural, es- sential properties entirely unto, and in itself; without mixture, without composition or confusion, without such a real communication ofthe one unto the other, so as that the one should become the subject of the pro- perties of the other. The deity in the abstract is not made the humanity, nor on the contrary. The divine nature is not made temporary, finite, limited, subject to passion or alteration by this union; nor is the human. nature renderedimmense, infinite, omnipotent. Unless this be granted, there will not be twonatures in Christ, a divine and an human: nor indeed either of them, but somewhat else, ,composed of both. (2.) Each nature operates in him according unto its essential properties. The divine natureknows all things, union, is thecommunion ofthe distinct natures of Christ upholds all things, riles all things, acts by its presence hypostatically united. And herein we may consider, every where; the human nature was born, yieldedobe- (1.) What is peculiar unto the divine nature. (2.) (hence, died and rose again. But it is the same person, What is common unto both. the same Christ that acts all these things, the one na- 1. There is p threefold communication of the divine Lure being his, no less than the other. Wherefore, nature unto the human in this hypostatical union. (3.) The perfectcomplete work of Christ in every act (1.) Immediate in the person of the Son. This is of his mediatory office, in all that he did as the King, subsistence. In itself it is u,s,rósse,Ç, that which bath Priest, and Prophet of the chunk, in all that he did or not a subsistence ofits own, which should give it indi- viduation and distinction from the samenature'in any other person. But it hath its subsistence in the person of the Son, which thereby is its own. The divine na- ture, as in that person, is its suppositum. (2.) By the Holy Spirit he filled that nature with an all- fullness of habitual grace, which 1 have at large ex- plained elsewhere. (3.) In all the acts of his office, by the divinenature hecommunicated worth and dignity unto what was act- ed in and by the human nature. For that which some have for a long season troubled the church withal, about such a real communication of the properties of the divine nature unto the human, which should neither be a transfusion of them into it, pó as to render it the subject of them; nor yet consist in a reciprocal denomination from their mutual inbeing in suffered, in all that he continueth to do for us, in or by virtue of which nature soever it be done or wrought, is not to be considered as the act of this or that nature in him alone, but it is the act and work of the whole person, of him that is both God and man in one person. And this gives occasion, 4. Unto that varietyof' enunciation which is used in the scripture concerning him, which 1 shall name only and conclude. (t.) Some things are spoken ofthe person of Christ, wherein the enunciation is verified with respect unto one nature only. As, the as Word was with God, and the Word was God," John i. 1. Ç, Before Abraham was, I am," John viii. 58. " Upholding all things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 3. These things are all spoken of the person of Christ; but belong unto it on account ofhis divine nature. So it is said of him, a To the same subject, it is that which neither themselves do, us a Child is born, to us a Son is given," lsa. ix. 6. nor can any other well understand. " Aman of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," Isa. (2.) Wherefore concerning the communion of the na- lui. 3. They are spoken of the person of Christ, but
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