Chapter XIV.
Sundry other testimonies given to the deity of Christ vindicated.
In the next place they heap up a great many testimonies confusedly, containing scriptural attributions unto Christ of such things as manifest him to be God; which we shall consider in that order, or rather disorder, wherein they are placed of them.
Their first question here is:—
Ques. In what scriptures is Christ called God?
Ans. John i. 1, “The Word was God;” John xx. 28, “Thomas saith unto Christ, My Lord and my God;” Rom. ix. 5, the apostle saith that “Christ is God over all, blessed for ever.”
Q. What can be proved by these testimonies?
A. That a divine nature cannot be demonstrated from them, besides the things that are before produced, is hence manifest, that in the first testimony the Word is spoken of, and John saith that he was” with God;” in the second, Thomas calleth him “God” in whose feet and hands he found the print of the nails, and of the spear in his side; and Paul calleth him who according to the flesh was of the fathers, “God over all, blessed for ever;” — all which cannot be spoken of him who by nature is God, for thence it would follow that there are two Gods, of whom one was with the other; and these things, to have the prints of wounds and to be of the fathers, belong wholly to a man, which were absurd to ascribe to him who is God by nature. And if any one shall pretend that veil of the distinction of natures, we have above removed that, and have showed that this distinction cannot be maintained.1
That in all this answer our catechists do nothing but beg the thing in question, and flee to their own hypothesis, not against assertions but arguments, themselves so far know as to be forced to apologize for it in the close. 1. That Christ is not God because he is not the person of the Father, that he is not God because he is man, is the sum of their answer; and yet these men knew that we insisted on these testimonies to prove him God though he be man, and though he be not the same person with the Father. 2. They do all along impose upon us their own most false hypothesis, that Christ is God although he be not God by nature. Those who are not God by nature, and yet pretend to be gods, are idols, and shall be destroyed. And they only are the men who affirm there are two Gods, — one who is so by nature, and another made so; one indeed God, and no man; the other a man, and no God. The Lord our God is one God. 3. In particular, John i. 1, the Word is Christ, as hath been above abundantly demonstrated, — Christ, in respect of another nature than he had before he took flesh and dwelt with men, verse 14. Herein is he said to be with the Father, in respect of his distinct personal subsistence, who was one with the Father as to his nature and essence. And this is that which we prove from his testimony, which will not be warded with a bare denial: “The Word was with God, and the Word was God;” — God by nature, and with God in his personal distinction. 4. Thomas confesses him to be his Lord and God in whose hands and feet he saw the print of the nails, as God is said to redeem the church with his own blood. He was the Lord and God of Thomas, who in his human nature shed his blood, and had the print of the nails in his hands and feet. Of this confession of Thomas I have spoken before, and therefore I shall not now farther insist upon it. He whom Thomas, in the confession of his faith as a believer, owned for his Lord and God, he is the true God, God by nature. Of a made god, a god by office, to be confessed and believed in, the Scripture is utterly silent. 5. The same is affirmed of Rom. ix. 5. The apostle distinguishes of Christ as to his flesh and as to his deity: as to his flesh or human nature, he says he was of the fathers; but in the other regard he is “over all, God blessed for ever.” And as this is a signal expression of the trim God, “God over all, blessed for ever,” so there is no occasion of that expression, τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, “as to the flesh,” but to assert something in Christ, which he afterward affirms to be his everlasting deity, in regard whereof he is not of the fathers. He is, then, of the fathers, τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ὁ ὢ ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς ἀιῶνος ἀμήν The words are most emphatically expressive of the eternal deity of Christ, in contradistinction to what he received of the fathers. Ὁ ὤν, even then when he took flesh of the fathers, then was he, and now he is, and ever will be, “God over all,” that is, the Most High God, “blessed for ever.” It is evident that the apostle intends to ascribe to Christ here two most solemn attributes of God, — the Most High, and the Blessed One. Nor is this testimony to be parted with for their begging or with their importunity. 6. It is our adversaries who say there are two Gods, as hath been showed, not we; and the prints of wounds are proper to him who is God by nature, though not in that regard on the account whereof he is so. 7. What they have said to oppose the distinction of two natures in the one person of Christ hath already been considered, and manifested to be false and frivolous.