* All that a natural man hath on this side hell is free mercy.
^ The end of this is Jesus Christ, to all that fly for refuge to the hope set before tliem.
47B THE PEINCIPLES OF
Q. 6. Have they, then, no way of themselves to escape the curse and wrath of God ?
A. None at all; they can neither satisfy his justice, nor fulfil his law.
CHAP. IX. — Of the Incarnation of Christ.
Q. 1. Shall all mankind, then, everlastingly perish?
A. No ; God, of his free grace, hath prepared a way to redeem and save his elect. — John iii. 16; Isa. liii. 6.
Q. 2. What way was this?
A. By sending his own Son^ Jesus Christ in the likeness of sin- ful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh. — Rom. viii. 3.
Q. 3. Who is this you call his otun Son?
A. The second person of the Trinity, co-eternal and of the same Deity with his Father. — John i. 14; Rom. i. 3; Gal. iv. 4; 1 John i. 1.
Q. 4. How did God send him?
A. By causing him to be made flesh of a pure virgin, and to dwell among us, that he might be obedient unto death, the death of the cross. — Isa. 1. 6; John i. 14; Luke i. 85; Phil. ii. 8; 1 Tun. iii. 16.
CHAP. X. — Of the Person of Jesus Christ.
Q. 1. What doth the Scripture teach us of Jesus Christ? A. Chiefly two things; first, his^ person, or what he is in himself; secondly, his ofiices, or what he is unto us. Q. 2. What doth it teach of his person?
' Tliis is that great mystery of godliness that the angels themselves admire;— the most transcendent expression of God's infinite love, — the laying forth of all the treasnie of his wisdom and goodness.
' 1. Though our Saviour Christ be one God with his Father, he is not one person with him. 2. Jesus Clirist is God and man in one, — not a God and a man; God incarnate, — not a man deified. 3. The essential properties of eitlier nature remain in his person theirs still, not communicated unto the other; as of the Deity to be eternal, everywhere; of the humanity, to be born and die. 4. Whatever may be said of either nature may be said of his whole person; so God may be said to die, but not the Godhead; the man Christ to be everywhei-e, but not his humanity; for his one person is all this. 5. The monstrous figment of transubstantiation, or Christ's corporeal presence in the sacrament, fully overthrows our Saviour's human nature, and makes him a mere shadow. 6. All natural properties are double iu Christ, — as will, &c., still distinct; all personal, as subsistence, single.
THE DOCTRINE OF CHEIST. 479
A. That he is truly God, and perfect man, partaker of the natures of God and man in one person, between whom he is a Media- tor.—John i. 14; Heb. ii. 14, 15; Eph. iv. 5; 1 Tim ii. 5; 1 John i. 1.
Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God?
A. Divers ways; first, by places of Scripture, speaking of the great God Jehovah in the Old Testament, applied to our Saviour in the New; as. Numb. xxi. 5, 6, in 1 Cor. x. 9; Ps. cii. 25-27, in Heb. i. 10; Isa. vi. 2-4, in John xii. 40, 41; Isa. viii. 13, 14, in Luke ii. 84, Rom. ix. 33 ; Isa. xl. 3, 4, in John i. 23 ; Isa. xlv. 22, 23, in Rom. xiv. 11, Phil. ii. 10, 11; Mai. iii. 1, ha Matt. xi. 10.
Secondly, By the works of the Deity ascribed unto him ; as, first, of creation, John i. 3; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Heb. i. 2; secondly, of pre- servation in providence, Heb. i. 3 ; John v. 1 7 ; thirdly, miracles.
Thirdly, By the essential attributes of God being ascribed unto him; as, first, immensity. Matt, xxviii. 20; John xiv. 23; Eph. iii. 17; secondly, eternity, John i. 1; Rev. i. 11; Mic. v. 2; thirdly, immutability, Heb. i. 11, 12; fourthly, omniscience, John xxi. 17; Rev. ii. 23; fifthly, majesty and glory equal to his Father, John V. 23; Rev. v. 13; Phil. i. 2, ii. 6, 9, 10.
Fourthly, By the names given unto him ; as, first, of God expressly, John i. 1, XX. 28 ; Acts xx. 28 ; Rom. ix. 5 ; Phil. ii. 6 ; Heb. i. 8 ; 1 Tim. iii. 16; secondly, of the Son of God, John i. 18; Rom. viii. 3, &c.
Q. 4. Was it necessary that our Redeemer should he God? v
A. Yes ; that he might be able to save to the uttermost, and to satisfy the wrath of his Father, which no creature could perform. — Isa. xliii. 25, liii. 6; Dan. ix. 17, 19.
Q. 5. How prove you that he was a perfect man ?
A. First, By the prophecies that went before, that so he should be. — Gen. iii. 15, xviii. 18.
Secondly, By the relation of their accomplishment. — Matt. i. 1 ; Rom. i. 4; Gal. iv. 4.
Thirdly, By the Scriptures assigning to him those things which are required to a perfect man ; as, first, a body, Luke xxiv. 39 ; Heb. ii. 1 7, X. 5 ; 1 John i. 1 ; secondly, a soul. Matt. xxvi. 38 ; Mark xiv. 34; — and thereiu, first, a will. Matt. xxvi. 39; secondly, affections, Mark iii. 5; Luke x. 21 ; thirdly, endowments, Luke ii. 52.