M2 WORK OF THE HOLY man of a rib taken from man. There was a,previous 'matter unto their creation, but such as gave no assist- ance, nor had any active disposition to the production of that particular kind of creature whereinto they were formed by the creating power of God. Such was this act of the Holy Ghost in forming the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. For although it was effected by an act of infinite creating power, yet it was formed or made of the substance of the blessed Virgin. That it should. Le so, was absolutely necessary: (1.) For the accomplish- ment of the promises made. unto Abraham and David, that the Messiah should be of their seed and proceed from their loins. (2.) So was it also on the account of the first original promise, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head. For the Word was to be made flesh, John i. t 4. to he made of a woman, Gal. iv. 4. or made of the seed of David according to the flesh, Ruin. i. 4. and take upon him the seed of Abra- ham, Heb. ii. 16. (3.) To confirm the truth hereof, is his genealogy according to the flesh given us by two of the evangelists, which were neither to the purpose nor true, if he were not madeof the substance or flesh of the blessed Virgin. (4.) Besides all our cognation and alliance unto him, whence he was meet to be our Saviour, suffering in the same nature wherein wehave sinned, do depend hereon, Heb. ii. 14. For if he had not been made like us in all things, sin only excepted, if he had not been partaker of our nature, there had been no foundation for the imputing that urto us which he did, suffered, and wrought, Rotn. viii. S. And hence these things are accounted unto us, and cannot be so unto angels, whose nature he did not take upon him, Heb. ii. 16. This therefore was the work of the Holy Ghost in reference unto the human nature of Christ in the womb of his mother. By his omnipotent power he formed it of the substance of the body of the holy Virgin, that is, as unto his body. And hence sundry things do ensue. Sects. 11. -1. That the Lord Christ could not, on this account, no not with respect unto his human nature only, be,saidto be the Son of the Holy Ghost, although he supplied the place and virtue of a natural father in generation. For the relation of filiation dependeth on- ly on and ariseth from a perfect generation, and not on every effect of an efficient cause. When one fire is -kindled by another, we do not say that it is the son of SPIRIT WITH ItESPECCT that other, unless it be very-:inrpropeiiyI much less when a man builds an house, do we say that it is his son. There was therefore no other relation between the person of the Holy Ghost: and the human nature of Christ, but that of a creator and a creature. And the Lord Christ is, and is called the Son of God, with re- spect only unto the Father and his eternal ineffable; generation, communicating being and subsistence unto him, as the fountain and original of the Trinity. Filia- tion therefore is a personal adjunct, and belongs unto Christ, as he was a divine person, and not with respect unto his human nature. But that nature being assumed, whole Christ was the Son of God. Sect.12.-2. 'That this act of the Holy Ghost in forming of the body of Christ, differs from the act of the Son in assuming the human nature into personal union with himself. For the act of the Sou was not a creating act producing a being out of nothing, or mak- ing any thing by the same power to be what, in its own nature it was nut. But it was an.ineffable. act of love end wisdom, taking the nature so formed by theHoly Ghost, so prepared for him, to be his own in the ins stunt of its formation, ,and thereby 'preventing the sin- gular and individual subsistence of thatnature in and by itself. So then, as the creating act of the Holy Ghost, in forming the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the womb, doth not denominate him to be his Father, no not according to the human nature, but he is the Son of God upon the account of-his eternal generation only; so it loth not denote an assumption of that nature into union with himself, nor was he incarnate. I-Ie made the human nature of Christ body and soul, with, in, and unto a subsistence in the second person of the Trinity, not his own. Sect. 13. -3. It hence also follows, that the con- ception of Christ in the womb, being the effect of a creating act, was not accomplished successively, and in process of time, but was perfected in an instant. a For although the creating acts of infinite power, where the works effected have distinct parts, may have a process or duration of time allotted unto them, as the world was created in six days; yet every part of it that was *'Er ems riyse norm asu.4r9ar Ti Toque ra suers i,Kar aiea Xeres 8v Tn piega Tis â2ra; vrag$mw, sag ,fora Tairara&n,e, e'úrrr Osov aoyor, sar re, 4iynr '.rwgiixagtarar, áraizaz ire.Con cil. Constantinop. ad Origenistas.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=