-18 Chapter 18. Of the Person of Christ, the Mediator

1-18 Chapter 18. Of the Person of Christ, the Mediator After the Fall of Man, it follows that
we see his restoring.

1. The restoring of man is lifting him up from an estate of sin and death, to an estate of grace and life.
2. The cause of this restoring was the merciful purpose of God. Ephesians 1:9, According to his free good will which he had purposed in himself. For there was nothing in man which could confer any force to procure this restoring; but rather, there was much made to the contrary, such as sin, in which there was an enmity against God, which in that respect commends this love of God towards us. Romans 5:8, But God commends his love towards us in that, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
3. There are two parts of this restoring: Redemption, and the Application of it. REDEMPTION is as it were, the first act of this restoring; its APPLICATION is the second act; Redemption is the matter of our salvation; Application is the form of it; Redemption is the Sufficiency of it; Application is the very Efficiency of it.
4. These parts are altogether of one and the same latitude; or the end of redemption is the application of it. And the prime reason, rule, and measure of application is that same gracious Will of God which was the cause of Redemption itself. Ephesians 1:9-10, He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his free good will, which he foreordained in himself, that in the full dispensation of those times ordained before, he might summarily gather together all things in Christ.
5. Therefore Redemption is appointed to all and every one for whom God intended it to be obtained, according to that saying of Christ, John 6:37, Whomever the Father gives me, shall come to me.
6. Redemption is bringing man into freedom from the bondage of sin and the devil, by the payment of an equal price. 1 Peter 1:18-19, You know that you were not redeemed by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with precious blood. 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23, You were bought with a price.
7. For this freedom was not primarily effected by power, nor by prayers (although these also had their force in perfecting this business), but by the payment of a just price.
8. Seeing this price could not be paid by man, the help of a Mediator was necessary, who would come between God and man, making a perfect reconciliation between them, 1 Timothy 2:5;283 Acts 20:28, The Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood; 1 Timothy 2:6, The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a price284 of our redemption.
9. Now such a Mediator is not given for one age only, but yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and is the same forever. Revelation 13:8, The Lamb slain from the foundation of the World — although he was only manifest in the fulness of time, Galatians 4:4; Titus 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:20.285 For this Mediation was equally necessary in all ages; also, it was sufficient and effectual from the beginning, by virtue of God’s decree, promise, and acceptance.286
10. This Mediator is Jesus Christ alone. Acts 4:12, Nor is there salvation in any other, for among men there is given no other name under Heaven by which we must be saved.
11. In Christ, two things are to be considered. 1. The fitness which he had to perform the works of redemption. 2. The parts of the redemption itself.
12. His FITNESS consists of two parts. The First is his person; the second is the office imposed on his person.
13. In the PERSON of Christ the Mediator, two things are to be observed: the distinction of the two natures, and the personal union of them.
14. The DISTINCT NATURES are the Divine nature, as it is the second person of the Deity; and the human nature, in all things like to our nature (except sin, and the manner of subsisting). Matthew 1:23, Emanuel, God with us. John 1:14, That word was made flesh, etc. The distinction itself between these two natures remains, because they remain absolutely the same which they were before, touching their essence as well as all their properties. Hence, neither the Deity in Christ with the humanity, nor the humanity with the deity, is either changed, or mingled, or in any way confused.
15. The PERSONAL UNION is that by which the second person of the deity took the human nature, that it might inseparably subsist in the same person, John 1:14.287
16. For the second person of the deity, even though it has but one subsistence, yet it has a twofold way of subsisting: one in the Divine nature for eternity, another in the human nature after the incarnation. Romans 9:5, Of whom is Christ, as touching the flesh, who is above all, God blessed forever, Amen. This latter way of subsisting agrees with the Son of God in respect to the union which he has with the human nature.
17. This union with the divine person and nature adds nothing but a certain relation [between the two]; but in the human nature, it makes a change while by this means it is elevated to highest perfection. For it is made, as it were, a proper adjunct of the Divine person by which it is assumed; it is made, as it were, a member of the same whole God-man, Qeanqrwpos, of which the divine nature is another part. As touching the subsistence, it is made an effect singularly upheld by the Divine nature; and also it is made a subject in which the Divine nature especially dwells, Colossians 2:9.288
18. We endeavour to describe this union by many logical ways, because it cannot be sufficiently explained by any one.
19. We use all those terms in which the fountains of consent and unity are contained, so that we may show this union is most near.
20. Yet we temper these terms with that limitation, because this union is mystical and secret, so as it may not be plainly expressed, but only shadowed by human words and notions.
21. From this union there follows a personal communication of properties, which is not a real transfusion. For then the Divine nature would take the properties of the human, and the human would take the properties of the Divine, and so the human would be the Divine, and the Divine the human, or as well the Divine, as the human would cease to be. Nor is it a real donation from which would follow that the human nature might use the Divine properties as its own instruments. But it is a Communion, or concurring unto the same operations; so that they are performed together by each nature, but according to their own distinct properties.
22. Hence it comes to pass that all the doings and sufferings of Christ are referred properly to his person as the proper Terminum, bound of them; although some are properly to be referred to the one, some to the other nature, as to their beginning and proper respects.
23. And hence follows the COMMUNICATION of these properties as touching predication,289 or attribution, whereby the properties of the one nature are attributed either to the whole person, as when Christ is said to be dead (which is proper to the human nature), and to have been in the beginning (which is proper to the Divine nature); or they are attributed to the other nature because of the person, as when God is said to be taken up into glory, 1Tim 2.16. To be crucified, 1 Corinthians 2:8. These do not properly agree to the Divine nature, but to the human nature. And those things which are proper to the whole person, are properly attributed to either nature, as when the man Christ is said to be the Mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5.; which does not agree to Christ as he is man, but as he is God and man.
24. But as that Communion properly respects the person of Christ, not the natures considered in themselves, so that communication which consists in predication respects God; or it respects man in the concrete, and not the Deity, or humanity in the abstract.
25. Therefore the communication of properties is not merely verbal; nor is it so real that the property of one nature passes in the other as touching the intrinsic possession and usurpation.
26. Those examples which tend to be brought by those who think the contrary of that communication which is between the matter and the form, between the soul and the body, and between Iron and the fire, neither agree to this mystery, nor prove the position itself.
27. In Christ there were two understandings: one Divine, whereby he knew all things, John 21:17; and the other human, whereby he did not know some things as yet, Mark 13:32. Also there were two wills, one divine, Luke 5:13; and the other human, together with a natural appetite also, Matthew 26:39.290 So there is a double presence of Christ; yet the human presence can neither be everywhere, nor in many places at once.
28. Because God in Christ, God-man, has restored life to us, our Faith is therefore carried towards Christ, and by Christ toward God.