" He is the image of the invisible God:" Col, i. 15. This title or property of " invisible," the apostle here gives unto God, to show what need there was of an image or representation of him unto us, as well as of one in whom he would declare the counsels of his will. For he intends not only the absolute invisibility of his essence, but his being unknown unto us in himself Wherefore, (as was before observed,) mankind was generally prone to make visible representa- tions of this invisible God, that, in them, they might contemplate on him and have him present with them, as they foolishly imagined. Unto the craft of Satan abusmg this inclination of mankind, idolatry owes its original and progress in the world: howbeit, necessary it was that this mvisible God should be so represented unto us by some image of him, as that we might know him, and that therein he might be worshipped according unto his own mind and will. But this must be of his own contrivance — an eff"ect of his own infinite wisdom. Hence, as he absolutely rejecteth all images and represen-
PERSON OF CHRIST THE ESSENTIAL IMAGE OF THE FATHER. 71
tations of him of men's devisings, (for the reasons before mentioned,) and declares that the honour that any should think would thereby redound unto him was not given unto him, but unto the devil; so that which he hath provided himself, unto his own holy ends and jDurposes, is every way approved of him. For he will have " all men honour the Son, even as they honour the Father;" and so as that " he who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father:" John V. 23.
This image, therefore, is the person of Christ ; " he is the image of the invisible God." This, in the first place, respects the divine person absolutely, as he is the essential image of the Father: which must briefly be declared.
1. The Son is sometimes said to be sv liar pi, " in the Father," and the Father in the Son : " Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" John xiv. 10. This is from the unity or sameness of their nature — for he and the Father are one: John X. 30. Thence all things that the Father hath are his, (chap, xvi. 15,) because their nature is one and the same. With respect unto the divine essence absolutely considered, wherein the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, the one cannot be said to be the image of the other. For he and the Father are one ; and one and the same thing cannot be the imao^e of itself, in that wherein it is one.
2. The Son is said not only to be b Uarpi, " in the Father," in the unity of the same essence; but also 'Trphg rhv Uarspa or Qiov, "with the Father," or "with God," in the distinction of his person: "The Word was with God, and the Word was God:" John i. 1. "The Word was God," in the unity of the divine essence — and " the Word was with God," in its distinct personal subsistence. " The Word" — that is, the person of the Son, as distinct from the Father — " was with God," or the Father. And in this respect he is the essential image of the Father, as he is called in this place, and Heb. i. 3 ; and that because he partakes of all the same divine properties with the Father.
But although the Father, on the other side, be partaker of all the essential divine properties of the Son, yet is not he said to be the image of the Son. For this property of an image respects not the things themselves, but the manner of the participation of them. Now the Son receives all from the Father, and the Father nothing from the Son. Whatever belongs unto the person of the Son, as the person of the Son, he receives it all from the Father by eternal generation : " For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given unto the Son to have life in himself:" John v. 26. He is therefore the essential image of the Father, because all the properties of the
72 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
divine nature are communicated unto him together with personality — from the Father.
3. In his incarnation, the Son was made the representative image of God unto us — as he was, in his person, the essential image of the Father, by eternal generation. The invisible God — whose nature and divine excellencies our understandings can make no approach unto — doth in him represent, exhibit, or make present unto our faith and spiritual sense, both himself and all the glorious excellencies of his nature.
Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may be con- sidered three ways.
1. Merely with respect unto his divine nature. This is one and the same with that of the Father. In this respect the one is not the imasre of the other, for both are the same.
2. With respect unto his divine person as the Son of the Father, the only-begotten, the eternal Son of God. Thus he receives, as his personality, so all divine excellencies, from the Father; so he is the essential image of the Father's person.