What the Scripture represents of the wisdom of God in this great work may be reduced unto these four heads : — I. The assumption of our nature into personal subsistence with the Son of God. II. The union of the two natures in that single person which is consequential thereon. III. The mutual communication of those distinct natures, the divine and human, by virtue of that union. IV. The enuncia- tions or predications concerning the person of Christ, Avhich follow on that union and communion.
I. The first thing in the divine constitution of the person of Christ as God and man, is assumption. That ineffable divine act I intend whereby the person of the Son of God assumed our nature, or took it into a personal subsistence with himself This the Scripture ex- presseth sometimes actively, with respect unto the divine nature act- ing in the person of the Son, the nature assuming ; sometimes p)^s- sively, with respect unto the human nature, the nature assumed. The first it doth, Heb. ii. 14, 16, "Forasmuch as the children are par- takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham;" Phil. ii. 6, 7, " Being in the form of God, he took upon him the form of a servant ;" and in sundry other places. The assumption, the taking of our human nature to be his
' Peter Lombard. Born near Novara in Lombardy — died in 1164, bishop of Paris — called " Magister Sententiarum," from one of his works, which is a com- pilation of sentences from the Fathers, arranged so as to form a system of Divinity, and held in high repute during mediaeval times. It appeared in 1172. — Ed,
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own, by an ineffable act of his power and grace, is clearly expressed. And to take it to be liis own, his own nature, can be no otherwise but by giving it a subsistence in his own person ; otherwise his own nature it is not, nor can be. Hence God is said to " purchase his church mtli his own blood/' Acts xx. 28. That relation and deno- mination of " his own," is from the single person of him whose it is. The latter is declared, John i. 14, "The Word was made flesh;" Rom. viii. 3, God sent "his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh;" Gal. iv. 4, "Made of a woman, made under the law;" Rom. i. 3, " Made of the seed of David according to the flesh." The eternal Word, the Son of God, was not made flesh, not made of a woman, nor of the seed of David, by the conversion of his substance or nature into flesh ; which implies a contradiction, — and, besides, is absolutely destructive of the divine nature. He could no otherwise, therefore, be made flesh, or made of a woman, but in that our nature was made his, by his assuming of it to be his own. The same person — who before was not flesh, was not man — was made flesh as man, in that he took our human nature to be his own.
This ineffable act is the foundation of the divine relation between the Son of God and the man Christ Jesus. We can only adore the mysterious nature of it, — " great is this mystery of godliness." Yet may we observe sundry things to direct us in that duty.
1. As unto original efficiency, it was the act of the divine nature, and so, consequently, of the Father, Son, and Spirit. For so are all outward acts of God — the divine nature being the immediate prin- ciple of all such operations. The wisdom, power, grace, and goodness exerted therein, are essential properties of the divine nature. Where- fore the acting of them originally belongs equally unto each person, equally participant of that nature. (1.) As unto authoritative de- signation, it was the act of the Father. Hence is he said to send " his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh," Rom. viii. 3 ; Gal. iv. 4. (2.) As unto the formation of the human nature, it was the peculiar act of the Spirit, Luke i. 35. (3.) As unto the term of the assump- tion, or the taking of our nature unto himself, it was the peculiar act of the person of the Son. Herein, as Damascen observes, the other persons had no concurrence, but only xara ^ovXri<riv xai ivdoxiav — " by counsel and approbation."
2. This assumption was the only inmnediate act of the divine nature on the human in the person of the Son. All those that fol- low, in subsistence, sustentation, with all others that are communica- tive, do ensue thereon.
3. This assumption and the hypostatical union are distinct and different in the formal reason of them. (1.) Assumption is the im- mediate act of the divine nature in the person of the Son on the
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226 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
human ; union is mediate, by virtue of that assumption. (2.) Assump- tion is unto personahty ; it is that act whereby the Son of God and our nature became one person. Union is an act or relation of the natures subsisting in that one person. (3.) Assumption respects the acting of the divine and the passion of the human nature ; the one assiimeth, the other is assumed. Union respects the mutual relation of the natures unto each other. Hence the divine nature may be said to be united unto the human, as well as the human unto the divine; but the divine nature cannot be said to be assumed as the human is. Wherefore assumjjtion denotes the acting of the one nature and the passion of the other; union, the mutual relation that is between them both.