A Body of Divinity, Vol. 2 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger CatechismRidgley, Thomas
Religion
A Body of Divinity, Vol. 2 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism
(2.) When Christ is said to be both God and Man, it does not imply that
there are two Persons in the Mediator; and accordingly it is said, in
the answer we are explaining, that though these natures are distinct,
yet the Person who has them, is but one. This is to be maintained
against those who entertain favourable thoughts of that ancient heresy,
first broached by Nestorius,[120] whose method of reasoning cannot be
reconciled with the sense of those scriptures, which plainly speak of
the same Person, as both God and Man, and attribute the same actions to
him in different respects, which is inconsistent with asserting, that
the Mediator is both a divine and a human Person; and it cannot be
denied but that it is a contradiction in terms, to say, that two Persons
can be so united, as to become one. However, it must be acknowledged,
that this is one of the incomprehensible mysteries of our religion; and
when divines have attempted to explain some things relating to it, they
have only given farther conviction, that there are some doctrines
contained in scripture, which we are bound to believe, but are at a loss
to determine how they are what they are asserted to be.
If it be objected, that we cannot conceive of an human nature, such an
one as our Saviour’s is that has not its own Personality, since there is
no parallel instance hereof, in any other men, which I take to be the
principal thing that gave occasion to the asserting, that he had a human
Person, as well as a divine;
The answer that I would give to this objection, is, that though, it is
true, every man has a distinct subsistence of his own, without being
united to any other person, yet we have no ground to conclude, that the
human nature of Christ, even in its first formation, had any subsistence
separate from the divine nature. Had it been first formed, and then
united to the divine nature, it would have had a proper subsistence of
its own; but, since it was not, its Personality, considered as united to
the second Person in the Godhead, is contained therein, though its
properties are infinitely distinct from it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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