1 " In CO ne similitudinem quldem incarnationis (ut vocant) apparere, cum is scriptor non dicat, Christum assumpsisse (ut quidam reddunt, et vulgo eo sensu accipiunt) sed assumere. Nee dicit, naturam humanam, sed seme7i Abrahce, quod in Uteris sacris notat eos qui in Christum crcdiderunt, ut Gal. iii. 29, videre est.
" Quid vero sensus hujus erit loci ? — Id sibi vult is scriptor, Christum non esse Ser- vatorem angelorum, sed hominum credentium, qui quoniam et afflictionibus et morti subjecti sunt (quam rem superius expressit per participationem caniis ct sanguinis), propterea Christus ultro illis se submisit, ut fidelcs suos a mortis metu liberaret, et in omni afflictione iisdem opem aflferret."
OF THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST, 301
flesh." So Rom. xi. 1. "Are they the seed of Abraham ? so am I/' 2 Cor. xi. 22.
[As] for the sense assigned, — 1. It is evident that in these words the apostle treats not of the help given, but of the way whereby Christ came to help his church, and the means thereof ; his actual helping and relieving of them is mentioned in the next verse. 2. Here is no mention in this verse of believers being obnoxious to afflictions and death ; so that these words of theirs may serve for an exposition of some other place of Scripture (as they say of Gregory's comment on Job), but not of this. 3. By " partaking of flesh and blood" is not meant, primarily, being obnoxious to afflictions and death, nor doth that expression in any place signify any such thing, though such a nature as is so obnoxious be intended.
The argument, then, from hence stands still in its force, that Christ, subsisting in his divine nature, did assume a human nature of the seed of Abraham into p)erso7ial union with himself
Grotius is still at a perfect agreement with our catechists. Saith he, " ' E'TTiXa/ji^Qdvsffdai apud Platonem et alios est solenniter vindicare; hie autem ex superioribus intelligendum est, vindicare, seu asserere in libertatem onanu injectd;" — "This word in Plato and others is to vindicate into liberty ; here, as is to be understood from what went before, it is to assert into liberty by laying hold with the hand." Of the first, because he gives no instances, we shall need take no farther notice. The second is denied. Both the help afforded and the means of it by Christ are mentioned before. The help is liberty; the means, partaking of flesh and blood, to die. These words are not expressive of nor do answer the latter, or the help afforded, but the means of the obtaining of it, as hath been declared. Bathe adds, " The word signifies to lay hold of with the hand, as Mark viii. 23," etc. Be it granted that it doth so. " To lay hold with the hand, and to take to one's self," this is not to assert into liberty, but by the help of a metaphor ; and when the word is used metaphorically, it is to be in- terpreted "pro subjecta materia," according to the subject-matter, which here is Christ's taking a nature upon him that was of Abra- ham, that was not angelical. The other expression he is singular in the interpretation of.
" He took the seed of Abraham." " Id est. Id agit ut vos Hebrceos liberet a peccatis et metu mortis. Eventus enim nomen saspe datur operse in id impensa3;" — " That is, ' He doth that that he may deliver you Hebrews from sin and fear of death.' The name of the event is often given to the work employed to that purpose." But, — 1. Here, I confess, he takes another way from our catechists. The " seed of Abraham" is with them believers; Avith him only Jeu's. But the tails of their discourse are tied together with a firebrand between them, to devour the harvest of the church. 2. This taking the seed
302 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
of Abraham is opposed to his not taking the seed of angels. Now the Jews are not universally opposed to angels in this thing, but human kind. 3. He " took the seed of Abraham" is, it seems, he endeavoured to help the Jezvs. The whole discourse of the help afforded, both before and after this verse, is extended to the whole church; how comes it here to be restrained to the Jews only? 4. The discourse of the apostle is about the undertaking of Christ by death, and his being fitted thereunto by partaking of flesh and blood; which is so far from being in any place restrained or accommo- dated only to the Jews, as that the contrary is everywhere asserted, as is known to all.
[The next place is] 1 John iv. 2, " Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is coiiie in the flesh is of God." He who comes into the world, or comes into flesh or in the flesh, had a subsistence before he so came. It is very probable that the intendment of the apostle was to discover the abomination of them who denied Christ to be a true man, but assigned him a fantastical body; which yet he so doth as to express his coming in the flesh in such a manner as evidences him to have another nature (as was said) besides that which is here syn- ecdochically called " flesh." Our catechists to this say, —