prove the procession of the Holy Ghost, in the sense before explained.
Thus he is said, in John xv. 26. to be _sent by the Son from the
Father_; and _to proceed from the Father_; where they suppose that this
proceeding from the Father signifies the communication of the divine
essence, or, at least, his personality; and his being sent by the Son,
implies, that this communication is from him, as well as the Father. So
in Gal. iv. 6. it is said, _God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son_;
and, in John xvi. 7. our Saviour says, _I will send him unto you_, and
ver. 14. _He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you_; these
scriptures, if not brought directly to prove this doctrine, are,
notwithstanding, supposed sufficient to evince the truth thereof,
inasmuch as the Son could not send him, if he had not proceeded from
him; nor could he have received that which he shews to his people, if he
had not, from all eternity, received his divine essence, or personality,
from him.
There is another scripture, brought by some very valuable divines, to
prove the Spiration of the Holy Ghost, which is so termed, either as
supposed to be expressive of the manner of his having his personality as
a Spirit, or else it is taken from those words of scripture, brought to
prove this Spiration, John xx. 22. in which our Saviour is said to have
breathed on his disciples, saying, _Receive ye the Holy Ghost_; which
external sign, or symbol, used in the act of conferring him on them in
time, proves his procession from him from eternity; as a temporal
procession supposes an eternal one.
These are the scriptures which are generally brought to prove this
doctrine. But we shall take occasion to enquire, whether there may not
be another sense given thereof, which is less liable to exception, as
well as more intelligible. It is to be owned, that they contain some of
the deep things of God; and therefore it is no wonder, if they are
reckoned among those scriptures that are hard to be understood: but so
far as I have any light, either from the context of the respective
scriptures, or the analogy of faith, I cannot but conclude that these,
and all others of the like nature, that are brought to prove the eternal
generation, or Sonship of Christ, respect him as God-man, Mediator;[98]
and those other scriptures, that speak of the procession of the Holy
Ghost, respect the subserviency of his acting as a divine Person to the
Mediator’s glory, in applying the work of redemption.
And here we shall consider these scriptures in particular; and then
answer some objections that may be brought against this sense thereof,
whereby, I hope, it will appear, that we assert nothing but what tends
to the glory of the Son and Spirit, establisheth the doctrine of the
ever-blessed Trinity, and agrees with the commonly received faith, so
far as it is founded on scripture, without being tenacious of those
modes of speaking, which have the sanction of venerable antiquity, and
are supported by the reputation of those who have used them; though it
may be, those scriptures will be otherwise understood by them, who
regard explications that are merely human, no farther than they are
defensible.
The first scripture before mentioned, which was brought to prove the
eternal generation of the Son, was Psal. ii. 7. _Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee._ This cannot, I humbly conceive, respect the
communication of the divine nature, or personality to the Son, as
appears from the words immediately foregoing, in which it is said, _I
will declare the decree_, or what I had before decreed, or determined.
Far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature, or personality, of
the Son was the result of an act of the divine will: and, indeed, the
whole Psalm plainly speaks of Christ as Mediator; as such he is said,
ver. 6. _To be set as God’s king, on his holy hill of Sion_, and, as
such, he is said to intercede with, or ask of God; and, as the result
hereof, the Father is said, ver. 8. to give him _the heathen for his
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession_;
and all this is spoken of him, as a farther explication of those words,
_Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee_. And the apostle, in
Heb. i. 5. refers to this scripture, when speaking of him as Mediator,
and as _having, by inheritance, obtained a more excellent name than the
angels_; which he has done, as he is constituted heir of all things: and
he subjoins that promise, _I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to
me a Son_, that is, he shall perform that obedience that is due from him
as a Son; and I will give unto him those rewards, which are due from a
Father, who has committed this work to him, with a promise of the
conferring those revenues of Mediatorial glory on him, that should ensue
on his fulfilling it. Moreover, this scripture is referred to, by the
apostle, in Acts xiii. 32, 33. when he says, _That the promise, which
was made to the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto their
children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is written in the
second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee_. So that
it is plain the Psalmist speaks of him as having finished his work of
redemption, at which time he was raised from the dead; and then, in the
fullest sense, he had the _heathen for his inheritance_. And, upon this
account, he is also called, in Rev. i. 5. _The first begotten of the
dead_; and, in Col. i. 18. _The first-born from the dead._
The next scripture brought to prove the eternal generation of the Son,
in Prov. viii. 22, 23, 25. refers to Christ, as Mediator; when God is
said to _possess him in the beginning of his way_, the meaning is, that
in his eternal design oi grace relating to the redemption of man, the
Father possessed, or laid claim to him as his Son, or servant, appointed
in the human nature, to bring about that great work; and accordingly it
follows, _I was set up from everlasting_, that is, fore-ordained of God,
to be the Mediator and head of his elect: and this agrees very well with
what follows, ver. 30, 31. _I was daily his delight_, that is, God the
Father was well pleased with him, when foreseeing from all eternity what
he would do in time, to secure the glory of his perfections in the
redemption of man, as God publicly testified his well-pleasedness in
him, when he was actually engaged in this work. And it is farther added,
_That he was always rejoicing before him; rejoicing in the habitable
part of his earth, and his delights were with the sons of men_; which
signifies the great pleasure Christ had, in his eternal fore-sight of
what he would do for the sons of men, whom he is elsewhere said to _have
loved with an everlasting love_.
The next scripture is in Micah v. 2. where speaking of the Son, it is
said, _Whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting_. For the
understanding of which scripture, let us consider, that God’s goings are
sometimes taken in scripture for what he does, whereby he renders
himself the object of his people’s astonishment and praise; these are
his visible goings. Thus, Psal. lxvi. 24. _They have seen thy goings, O
God, even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary_; that is,
they shall see the great things which thou wilt do for man, in the work
of redemption: so in this scripture, the sense whereof we are
considering, we read of Christ’s goings forth, his invisible goings, as
we may call them, or his secret purposes, or designs of grace, relating
to the redemption of his people: _His goings forth were from
everlasting_; that is, he did, from eternity, design to save them; the
outgoings of his heart were towards them, and, as the result hereof, he
came into the world according to this prediction, and was born in
Bethlehem, as in the foregoing words.
The next scripture is in Heb. i. 3. where he is said to be _the
brightness of his_, that is, his Father’s _glory, and the express image
of his person_. By the former expression, I humbly conceive, is meant,
that the glory of the divine perfections shines forth most illustriously
in Christ, our great Mediator, as the apostle expresses it elsewhere, 2
Cor. iv. 6. _God hath shined in our hearts, to give the knowledge of his
glory, in the face of Jesus Christ._ By the latter expression, in which
Christ is called _the express image of his Person_, I humbly conceive,
is meant, that though his divine nature be the same with the Father’s,
yet his Personality is distinct; and therefore it is not said to be the
same, but the _image of his Father’s_; and it also proves his proper
divine Personality, as being, in all respects, like that of the Father,
though not the same.
The next scripture is in John v. 26. _As the Father hath life in
himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself._ We cannot
think that the Father’s having _given to the Son to have life in
himself_ implies his giving him the divine perfections, for the
propriety of that mode of speaking cannot be defended consistently with
his proper underived Deity. But I humbly conceive that the meaning of it
is this; that _as the Father hath life in himself_, that is, as he has
eternal life, or that fulness of grace and glory, which his people are
to be made partakers of, at his own disposal, and has designed to give
it, in his eternal purpose; so hath he given to the Son, as Mediator, to
have life in himself, that is, that, as such, he should be the treasury
of all this grace, and that he should have life in himself to dispense
to them. This is very agreeable to his character and office, as
Mediator, and with what follows, ver. 24. where it is said; _Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life_; and ver. 27. it is
farther added, that He, to wit, the Father, _hath given him authority to
execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man_; which plainly
denotes, that this life, which he has received from the Father, is that
eternal life, which he is impowered or commissioned to bestow on his
people, as Mediator; this he has in himself, and accordingly he is said,
John i. 14. to be _full of grace and truth_; and Col. i. 19. _It pleased
the Father that in him should all fulness dwell._
The next thing to be considered, is the sense of those many scriptures,
in which our Saviour is described as the _Son of God_, or the _Son of
the living God_, or _his only begotten Son_, or _his own_ or _proper
Son_, as distinguished from all others, which, I humbly conceive, sets
forth his glory, as Mediator, which we shall endeavour to prove. But, to
prepare our way for the prosecution of this argument, as well as to
prevent any misconstruction that might give prejudice thereunto, we
shall take leave to premise,
1. That when we read of the Son of God, as dependent on the Father,
inferior and obedient to him; and yet, as being equal with him, and
having the same divine nature, we cannot conceive of any character which
answers to all these ideas of sonship, unless that of a Mediator. If we
consider the properties of sonship among men, every one who stands in
this relation to a Father is dependent on him. In this respect, the
father is the cause of his son, and it is not like other productions,
for no effect can, properly speaking, be called a son, but that which
hath the same kind of nature with his father; and the relation of
sonship always connotes inferiority, and an obligation to yield
obedience. I do not apply this, in every respect, to the Sonship of
Christ, which no similitude, taken from mere creatures, can sufficiently
illustrate; but his character, as Mediator, seems to answer to it, more
than any thing else that can be said of him, since he has, as such, the
same individual nature with the Father, and also is inferior to, and
dependent on him. As a son, among men, is inferior to, and dependent on,
his father, and, as the prophet speaks, Mal. i. 6. _Honoureth his
father_; so whatever Christ is, as Mediator, he receives it from the
Father, and, in all that he does, he _honoureth his Father_, as he says,
John viii. 49. As the whole work of redemption is referred to the
Father’s glory, and the commission, by which he acts as Mediator, is
received from the Father, so, as a Son, he refers all the glory thereof
to him.
2. This account of Christ’s Sonship does not take away any argument, by
which we prove his Deity; for when we consider him as Mediator, we
always suppose him to be both God and man, which is what we intend when
we speak of the Person of Christ in this respect; so that, as God, he is
equal with the Father, and has an equal right to divine adoration. This
belongs to him as much, when considered as Mediator, as it can be
supposed to do, if we consider his Sonship in any other respect.
3. It does not take away any argument to prove his distinct Personality
from the Father and Holy Ghost, or, at least, if it sets aside that
which is taken from the dependence of his Personality on the Father, as
received from him by communication, it substitutes another in the room
of it, inasmuch as to be a Mediator is, without doubt, a personal
character; and because neither the Father, nor the Holy Ghost, can be
said to be Mediators, it implies, that his Personality is distinct from
theirs; likewise his acting as Mediator from the Father; and the Holy
Spirit’s securing the glory which arises to him from hence, and applying
the redemption purchased by him, is a farther proof of this distinction
of the Persons in the Godhead.
4. Since we consider the Mediator as both God and man, in one Person, we
do not suppose that this character respects either of his two natures,
considered separately.
(1.) Not his divine nature. It is true, that his having the same nature
with the Father might be reckoned, by some, a character of Sonship, as
it contains one ingredient in the common idea that we have among men.
They, as sons, are said to have the same kind of nature with their
fathers; so our Saviour’s having the same individual nature with the
Father might give occasion to some to denominate him, for that reason,
his Son; but though this may be the foundation of his being called God’s
_proper Son_, ιδιος υιος, yet this is not his distinguishing character
as a Son: for it would follow from hence, that the Holy Ghost, who has
the same nature with the Father, would, for that reason, be called his
Son, which is contrary to the scripture-account given of him, as
proceeding from the Father and the Son.
(2.) This character of Christ, as God-man, Mediator, does not respect
his human nature, considered separately from his divine, nor any of
those peculiar honours conferred upon it, beyond what any mere creatures
are made partakers of.
This leads us to consider the difference between this notion of his
Sonship, and that which was generally assigned, as the reason of his
being so called, by the Socinians; these generally speak of Christ, as
being denominated the Son of God, because of the extraordinary and
miraculous conception, or formation, of his human nature in the womb of
the Virgin; and for this they refer to that scripture in Luke i.
35.[101] _The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing, which
shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God_. The sense, in
which they understand this text, is, that Christ is called the Son of
God, because of this extraordinary event: But we cannot think that a
miraculous production is a sufficient foundation to support this
character, and therefore must conclude, that the glory of Christ’s
Sonship is infinitely greater than what arises from thence: therefore, I
humbly conceive that this scripture is to be understood, with a small
variation of the translation, in this sense, _The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee_, &c. _because that Holy Thing, which shall be born of thee,
shall be called_, as he really is, _the Son of God_; that is, he is as
Mediator, an extraordinary Person appointed to execute a glorious
office, the Godhead and the manhood being to be united together, upon
which account he is called the Son of God: and therefore it is expedient
that the formation of his human nature should be in an extraordinary
way, to wit, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Again, there is a very wide difference between our account of Christ’s
Sonship, as Mediator, and theirs, as taken from this scripture, in that
they suppose that his being called the Son of God, refers only to some
dignities conferred upon him, whom they suppose to be no more than a
man. This is infinitely below the glory, which we ascribe to him, as
Mediator, since their idea of him, as such, how extraordinary soever his
conception was, argues him to be no more than a creature; but ours, as
has been before observed, proves him a divine Person, since we never
speak of him, as Mediator, without including both natures.
Having premised these things, to explain our sense of Christ’s being
called the Son of God, as Mediator, we proceed to prove this from
scripture. And here we are not under a necessity of straining the sense
of a few scriptures, to make them speak agreeably to this notion of
Christ’s Sonship; but, I think, we have the whole scripture, whenever it
speaks of Christ, as the Son of God, as giving countenance to this plain
sense thereof; so that I cannot find one place, in the whole New
Testament, in which Christ is called the Son of God, but it is, with
sufficient evidence, proved, from the context, that it is applied to
him, as Mediator. Here we shall refer to several scriptures, in which he
is so considered: thus that scripture before-mentioned, in Matth. xvi.
16. where Peter confesses, _Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God_;
in which, speaking of him as Christ, or the Mediator, that is, the
Person who was invested in the office, and came to perform the work of a
Mediator, he is, in this respect, _the Son of the living God_; so when
the high priest asked our Saviour, Matth. xxvi. 63. _Art thou the
Christ, the Son of God?_ that is, art thou the Messiah, as thou art
supposed to be by thy followers? Our Saviour, in ver. 64. replied to
him, _Thou hast said_, that is, it is as thou hast said; and then he
describes himself in another character, by which he is often
represented, as Mediator, and speaks of the highest degree of his
Mediatorial glory to which he shall be advanced at his second coming,
ver. 64. _Nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son
of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven._ And, doubtless, the centurion, and they who were with him, when
they confessed that _he was the Son of God_, in Matth. xxvii. 54.
understood by it, that he was the Messiah, or the Christ, which is a
character by which he was most known, and which had been supported by so
many miracles, and was now confirmed by this miracle of the earthquake,
which gave him this conviction; also in Luke iv. 41. when the devils are
represented as crying out, _Thou art Christ, the Son of God_, it
follows, _that they knew that he was Christ_; so that the commonly
received notion of our Saviour’s Sonship was, that he was the Christ.
And in John xi. 3. when Jesus says concerning Lazarus, _that his
sickness was not unto death_, that is, not such as that he should
continue in the state of the dead, _but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby_, the meaning is, that he might
give a proof of his being the Christ, by raising him from the dead;
therefore, when he speaks to Martha, with a design to try whether she
believed he could raise her brother from the dead, and represents
himself to her as the object of faith, she replies, ver. 27. _I believe
that thou art the Christ the Son of God, which should come into the
world._ Again, it is said, in Acts ix. 20. that Saul, when converted,
_preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God_, that is,
he proved him to be the Messiah; and accordingly, ver. 22. when he was
establishing the same doctrine, it is said, that _he proved that he was
the very Christ_.
Moreover, our Saviour is farther described, in scripture, as executing
some of his mediatorial offices, or as having received a commission to
execute them from the Father, or as having some branches of mediatorial
glory conferred upon him, at the same time that he is called the Son of
God, which gives us ground to conclude, that this is the import of his
Sonship. Thus we read, Heb. iv. 14. that _we have a great High Priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God_; and in John i.
29. John the Baptist gives a public testimony to him, as sustaining such
a character, which belongs to him, as Mediator, when he says, _Behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world_; and
afterwards, referring to the same character, he says, ver. 34. _I saw,
and bare record, that this is the Son of God_; and at another time he
gives a noble testimony to him, as God-man, Mediator, John iii. 29, &c.
when he calls him, _The Bridegroom which hath the bride_, that is, who
is related to, and has a propriety, in his church, and that _he
testifies what he has seen and heard_, and that it is _he whom God hath
sent, who speaks the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by
measure unto him_; and then, as a farther explication hereof, he says,
ver. 35. _The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his
hand._ This is, in effect, the same, as when he is called elsewhere,
_his beloved Son_; and, in Heb. iii. 6. Christ is said to be _a Son over
his own house, whose house are we_; which denotes not only his propriety
in his church, but his being the Head thereof, as Mediator; and the
apostle, 1 Thess. i. 10. speaks of him, as _the Son of God, whom we are
to wait for from heaven; whom he has raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come_; and, Gal. ii. 20. he speaks
of the Son of God, as one who _loved him, and gave himself for him_; and
Col. i. 13. he is spoken of as _God’s dear Son_, and, at the same time,
as having a kingdom, into which his people are translated; and in the
following verse, as the person _in whom we have redemption, through his
blood, who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every
creature_; which seems to be taken in the same sense as when he said,
Heb. i. 2. to have been _appointed Heir of all things_, and so referring
to him as God-man, Mediator.
Moreover, when he is considered as a Son related to his Father; this
appears, from the context, to be a description of him as Mediator. Thus,
John xx. 17. he says, _I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my
God, and your God_; that is, my Father by whom I am constituted
Mediator, and your Father, namely, the God who loves you for my sake: he
is first my God, as he has honoured, loved and glorified me; and then
your God, as he is reconciled to you for my sake; so the apostle says, 2
Cor. i. 3. _Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort._
_Object._ 1. In these scriptures, and others of the like nature, there
are two ideas contained; namely, one of our Saviour, as the Son of God,
by eternal generation; the other of him, as Mediator; whereas we suppose
that one contains only an explication of the other.
_Answ._ If Christ’s Sonship, in the sense in which it is generally
explained, were sufficiently proved from other scriptures, which take no
notice of his mediatorial character, or works, or could be accounted
for, without being liable to the difficulties before-mentioned, and if
his character, as Mediator, did not contain in it an idea of
Personality, the objection would have more weight than otherwise it
seems to have.
_Object._ 2. It is said, Gal. iv. 4. _God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law_; therefore he was the Son of God before he
was sent into the world, when made of a woman, and under the law, that
is, his Son by eternal generation.
_Answ._ The answer I would give to this objection is,
1. It is not necessary to suppose that Christ had the character of a Son
before he was sent, though he had that of a divine Person; since the
words may, without any strain, or force, upon the sense thereof, be
understood thus; when the fulness of time was come, in which the Messiah
was expected, God sent him forth, or sent him into the world, with the
character of a Son, at which time he was made of a woman, made under the
law; the end whereof was, that he might redeem them that were under the
law.