The Socinians do but vainly raise a cavil against the deity of Christ from this place. They say, ‘If he were God, why did another glorify him in any kind, why did he not glorify himself? And the Jews on all occasions make the same exception. There were, indeed, some force in the objection against us, if we believed or professed that the Lord Christ were God only; but our doctrine concerning his person is that which is declared by our apostle, Phil. ii. 6, 7, “ Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but
486 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. V.
he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Wherefore there is no more weight in this cavil than there would be in another, namely, if one, untothose testimonies, that “all things were made by him,” and that he “in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,” should ask, ‘How could this be, seeing he was a man, born in the fulness of time?’ But this objection, for the substance of it, was raised by the Jews of old, and fully answered by himself. For whereas they ob- jected unto him that he, being not fifty years old, could not have seen Abraham, as he pretended, who was dead near two thousand years before, he replied, “Before Abraham was, I am,’ John viii. 58. If he had no other nature than that wherein they thought he was not fifty years old (being indeed little more than thirty), he could not have known Abraham, nor Abraham him. As, therefore, if he had been man only, he could not have been before Abraham, so had he been God only, another could not have glorified him to be a priest. But he was man also; and these words are spoken not with respect unto his divine nature, but his human,
Again; as it was impossible he should, so it is plain that he did not glorify himself to be a high priest, or take this dignity and honour to himself by his own will and authority. And this may be evidenced by a brief rehearsal of the divine acts necessary to the mak- ing of him a high priest; all which I have handled at large in the previous Exercitations. And they were of two sorts:—l. Authori- tative, and wholly without him; 2. Perfective, whereunto his own concurrence was required. Of the first sort were,—(1.) His eternal designation unto this office. (2.) His mission unto the discharge of it. (3.) His wnction with the Spirit for its due discharge. (4.) The constitution of the law of his priesthood, which consisted of two parts; the first prescribing what he should do, what he should undergo, what he should offer, or what should be the duties of his office; the other declaring, appointing, promising what should be attained, effected, and accomplished thereby. (5.) The committing and giy- ing a people unto him, for whose sake and on whose account he was to bear, execute, and discharge this holy office. And all these, whereby he was authoritatively vested with his office, were sovereion acts of the will and wisdom of the Father, as I have elsewhere proved. By these was he called and glorified to be a high priest. Again, there were some acts perfective of his call, or such as gave it its complement; and these were wrought in him and by him, neither could they be otherwise: but yet by them did he not make himself a high priest, but only complied with the will and authority of the Father. Thus, when Aaron was called of God to his office, the law for its constitution being made and given, the person designed and called out by name, his pontifical garments put on, and the anoiut-
VER. 5.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 487
ing holy oil poured on hin, a sacrifice was to be offered, to complete and perfect his consecration. But because of his imperfection, whence it was necessary that he should come to his office by degrees and the actings of others about him, he could not himself offer the sacrifice for himself. He only laid his hand on the head of it, to manifest his concernment therein, but it was Moses that offered it unto God, Exod. xxix. 10-12. Thus it could not be with respect unto Jesus Christ, nor did he need any other sacrifice than his own for his con- secration, seeing it was necessary unto the legal high priests on the account of their personal sins and infirmities. But although he was perfectly and completely constituted a high priest, by those acts of God the Father before mentioned, yet his solemn consecration and dedication, not to his office, but to the actual discharge of it, were effected by acts of his own, in his preparation for and actual offering up of himself a sacrifice, once for all. And so he was perfected and consecrated in and by his own blood. Wherefore he did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but that was an act and effect of the will and authority of God.
It remains only, as unto this first clause, that we inquire how it is said that “ Christ glorified not himself,’ as unto the end mentioned. Was there an addition of glory or honour made unto him thereby ? Especially may this be reasonably inquired, if we consider what befell him, what he did, and what he suffered, in the discharge of this office; nay, doth not the Scripture everywhere declare this as an act of the highest condescension in him, as Phil. ii. 6-9, Heb. 1. 9? How, therefore, can he be said not to glorify himself herein? Let those answer this inquiry who deny his divine nature and being. They will find themselves in the same condition as the Pharisees were when our Saviour posed them with a question to the same purpose; namely, how David came to call Christ his Lord, who was to be his son so long after. Unto us these things are clear and evident, For although, if we consider the divine nature and person of Christ, it was an infinite condescension in him to take our nature, and therein to execute the office of a priest for us; yet with respect unto the nature assumed, the office itself was an honour and dignity unto him, on the ‘accounts to be afterwards insisted on.