418 QUESTIONS" CONCERNING JESUS. Father to Christ ,' I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son'; which does notsignify eternal generation. But of this verse I have spokenmore largelyin other places ; and shewn that Bishop Pearson, Dr. Owen, and other zealous Trinitarians do not construe this text to mean the eternal generation of Christ. Text III. Mat. xxviii. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Why is the Son joined with the Father and the Holy Ghost, who are confessedly divine, if the name Son doesnot include the godheadof Christ. Answer. If Christ, considered as the Son of God, be personally united to the divine nature, or the eternal Word, he has godhead belonging to his complex person ; and therefore the name Son, which signifies his personal character and office, may be well joined with the Father in this initiating ordinance, the whole complex person of Christ, who is the Son of God including true godhead. Text. IV. Rom. i. 3, 4. His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, anddeclared to be the Soot of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now some say, here is .a plain antithesis between the human nature and divine nature of Christ : the human nature, which is called the flesh, and the divine nature, which is called the spirit of ho- liness, and according to this divine nature he is declared to be the Son of God. Answer I. There are several critics who believe the eternal generation of Christ, who yet do not suppose there is such an exact antithesis here ; but they construe the spirit of holiness, to signify the Holy Ghost who raised Christ from the dead, and who manifested, testified and declared him to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection. II. There are others who chuce to support the antithesis, and make the spirit of holiness to signify the glorious human spi- rit of Christreplenished with all holiness ; and suppose that the name spirit of holiness is here given to this human soul of Christ, not only to aggrandize its character above all other holy crea- tures, but also to intimate that this spirit governed the animal nature, and kept it pure, as well as to distinguish it from the Holy Spirit, which is the third of the sacred Three. But I am not so well satisfied in this exposition, and therefore I dare not venture to maintain it. But there is a third answer, which I prefer to both these : III. This text may be thus paraphrased : f0 Jesus Christ our Lord, who was derived from the seed of David, according to his fleshly original, or, the influenceof the flesh into his birth, but was declared powerfully, by his resurrection from the dead, to be the Son of God, according to his supernatural and holy
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=