 Section 22 of Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2 by John Calvin, translated by Henry Beverage. Chapter 11. The Difference Between the Two Testaments This chapter consists principally of three parts. 1. Five points of difference between the Old and New Testament, sections 1 through 11. 2. The last of these points being that the Old Testament belonged to the Jews only, whereas the New Testament belongs to all. The calling of the Gentiles is shortly considered section 12. 3. A reply to two objections usually taken to what is here taught concerning the difference between the Old and New Testaments, sections 13 and 14. Sections. 1. Five points of difference between the Old and New Testaments. These belong to the mode of administration rather than the substance. First difference. In the Old Testament, the heavenly inheritance is exhibited under temporal blessings. In the New, aids of this description are not employed. 2. Proof of this first difference from the simile of an heir in pupillarity, as in Galatians 4.1. 3. This the reason why the patriarchs under the law set a higher value on this life and the blessings of it and dreaded the punishments, these being even more striking, why severe and sudden punishments existed under the law. 4. A second difference. The Old Testament typified Christ under ceremonies. The New exhibits the immediate truth and the whole body. The scope of the epistle to the Hebrews in explaining this difference. Definition of the Old Testament. 5. Hence the law our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. 6. Notwithstanding among those under the law, some of the strongest examples of faith are exhibited, there equals being scarcely to be found in the Christian Church. The ordinary method of the divine dispensation to be here attended to. These excellent individuals placed under the law and aided by ceremonies that they might behold and hail Christ afar. 7. Third difference. The Old Testament is literal, the New spiritual. This difference considered first generally. 8. Next treated specially on a careful examination of the apostles text. A threefold antithesis. The Old Testament is literal, deadly, temporary. The New is spiritual, quickening, eternal. Difference between the letter and the spirit. 9. Fourth difference. The Old Testament belongs to bondage, the New to liberty. This confirmed by three passages of Scripture. Two objections answered. 10. Distinction between the three last differences and the first. Confirmation of the above from Augustine. Condition of the patriarchs under the Old Testament. 11. Fifth difference. The Old Testament belongs to one people only, the New to all. 12. The second part of the chapter depending on the preceding section of the calling of the Gentiles. Why the calling of the Gentiles scented to the apostles so strange and new. 13. The last part of the chapter. Two objections considered. One, God being immutable cannot consistently disapprove what he once ordered. Answer confirmed by a passage of Scripture. 14. Objections. Two, God could at first have transacted with the Jews as he now does with Christians. Answer showing the absurdity of the subjection. Another answer founded on a just consideration of the divine will and the dispensation of grace. 1. What then, you will say, is there no difference between the Old and New Testaments? What is to become of the many passages of Scripture in which they are contrasted as things differing most widely from each other? I readily admit the differences which are pointed out in Scripture, but still hold that they derogate in no respect from their established unity as will be seen after we have considered them in their order. These differences, so far as I have been able to observe them and can remember, seem to be chiefly for, or if you choose to add a fifth, I have no objections. I hold and think I will be able to show that they all belong to the mode of administration rather than to the substance. In this way, there is nothing in them to prevent the promises of the Old and New Testament from remaining the same, Christ being the foundation of both. The first difference, then, is that though in old time the Lord was pleased to direct the thoughts of His people and raise their minds to the heavenly inheritance, yet that their hope of it might be the better maintained, He held it forth and, in a manner, gave a foretaste of it under earthly blessings, whereas the gift of future life, now more clearly and lucidly revealed by the Gospel, leads our minds directly to meditate upon it, the inferior mode of exercise formerly employed in regard to the Jews being now laid aside. Those who attend not to the divine purpose in this respect, suppose that God's ancient people ascended no higher than the blessings which were promised to the body. They hear the land of Kenan so often named as the special, and as it were the only reward of the divine law to its worshippers. They hear that the severest punishment which the Lord denounces against the transgressors of the law is expulsion from the possession of that land and dispersion into other countries. They see that this forms almost the sum of the blessings and curses declared by Moses, and from these things they confidently conclude that the Jews were separated from other nations, not on their own account, but for another reason, that is, that the Christian church might have an emblem in whose outward shape might be seen in evidence of spiritual things. But since the scripture sometimes demonstrates that the earthly blessings thus bestowed were intended by God himself to guide them to a heavenly hope, it shows great unskillfulness, not to say dullness, not to attend to this mode of dispensation. The ground of controversy is this. Our opponents hold that the land of Kenan was considered by the Israelites as supreme and final happiness, and now, since Christ was manifested, typifies to us the heavenly inheritance, whereas we maintain that, in the earthly possession which the Israelites enjoyed, they beheld, as in a mirror, the future inheritance which they believed to be reserved for them in heaven. 2. This will better appear from the similitude which Paul uses in Galatians, Galatians 4.1. He compares the Jewish nation to an heir in pupillarity, who, as yet unfit to govern himself, follows the direction of a tutor or guide to whose charge he has been committed. Though this simile refers especially to ceremonies, there is nothing to prevent us from applying it most appropriately here also. The same inheritance was destined to them as to us, but from non-age they were incapable of entering into it and managing it. They had the same church, though it was still in plurality. The Lord therefore kept them under this tutelage, giving them spiritual promises, not clear and simple, but typified by earthly objects. Hence, when he chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their posterity to the hope of immortality, he promised them the land of Kenan for an inheritance. Not that it might be the limit of their hopes, but that the view of it might train and confirm them in the hope of that true inheritance, which as yet appeared not. And to guard against delusion, they received a better promise which attested that this earth was not the highest measure of the divine kindness. Thus Abraham is not allowed to keep down his thoughts to the promised land. By a greater promise his views are carried upward to the Lord. He is thus addressed, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Genesis 15.1 Here we see that the Lord is the final reward promised to Abraham that he might not seek a fleeting and evanescent reward in the elements of this world, but look to one which is incorruptible. A promise of the land is afterwards added, for no other reason, than that it might be a symbol of the divine benevolence and a type of the heavenly inheritance as the saints declare their understanding to have been. Thus David rises from the temporal blessings to the last and highest of all, my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God. Psalm 73.26 and 84.2 Again, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, thou maintainest my lot. Psalm 16.5 Again, I cried unto thee, O Lord, I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Psalm 142.5 Those who conventured to speak thus assuredly declare that their hope rises beyond the world and worldly blessings. This future blessedness, however, the prophets often describe under a type which the Lord had taught them. In this way are to be understood the many passages in Job, Job 1817 and Isaiah to the effect that the righteous shall inherit the earth, that the wicked shall be driven out of it, that Jerusalem will abound in all kinds of riches, and Zion overflow with every species at abundance. In strict propriety, all these things obviously apply not to the land of our pilgrimage, nor to the earthly Jerusalem, but to the true country, the heavenly city of believers, in which the Lord has commanded blessing in life ever more. Psalm 133.3 Hence the reason why the saints under the Old Testament set a higher value on this moral life and its blessings than would now be need. For, though they well knew that in their race they were not to halt at it as the goal, yet, proceeding that the Lord, in accommodation to their feebleness, had there imprinted the linements of his favor, it gave them greater delight than it would have done if considered only in itself. For, as the Lord, in testifying his good will towards believers by means of present blessings, then exhibited spiritual felicity under types and emblems, so, on the other hand, by temporal punishments, he gave proofs of his judgment against the reprobate. Hence, by earthly objects, the favor of the Lord was displayed, as well as his punishment inflicted. The unskillful, not considering this analogy in correspondence, if I may so speak, between rewards and punishments, wonder that there is so much variance in God that those who, in old time, were suddenly visited for their faults with severe and dreadful punishments. He now punishes much more rarely and less severely, as if he had laid aside his former anger. And, for this reason, they can scarcely help imagining, like the Manichees, that the God of the Old Testament was different from that of the New. But we shall easily disencomber ourselves of such doubts if we attend to that mode of divine administration to which I have adverted, that God was pleased to indicate and typify both the gift of future and eternal felicity by terrestrial blessings, as well as the dreadful nature of spiritual death by bodily punishments, at that time when he delivered his covenant to the Israelites as under a kind of veil. Four. Another distinction between the Old and New Testaments is in the types, the former exhibiting only the image of truth, while the reality was absent, the shadow instead of the substance, the latter exhibiting both the full truth and the entire body. Mention is usually made of this whenever the New Testament is contrasted with the Old, but it is nowhere so fully treated as in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapters 7 through 10. The apostle is there arguing against those who thought that the observances of the Mosaic law could not be abolished without producing the total ruin of religion. In order to refute this error, he adverts to what the Psalmist had foretold concerning the priesthood of Christ, Psalm 110 verse 4. Seeing that an eternal priesthood is assigned to him, it is clear that the priesthood in which there was a daily succession of priests is abolished, and he proves that the institution of this new priest must prevail because confirmed by an oath. In other words adds that a change of the priest necessarily led to a change of the covenant, and the necessity of this he confirms by the reason that the weakness of the law was such that it could make nothing perfect. He then goes on to show in what this weakness consists, namely that it had external carnal observances which could not render the worshippers perfect in respect of conscience because its sacrifices of beasts could neither take away sins nor procure true holiness. He therefore concludes that it was a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things and accordingly had no other office than to be an introduction to the better hope which is exhibited in the Gospel. Here we may see in what respect the legal is compared with the evangelical covenant, the ministry of Christ, with that of Moses. If the comparison referred to the substance of the promises, there would be a great repugnance between the two covenants. But since the nature of the case leads to a different view, we must follow it in order to discover the truth. Let us therefore bring forward the covenant which God once ratified as eternal and unending. Its completion, whereby it is fixed and ratified, is Christ. Till such completion takes place, the Lord by Moses prescribes ceremonies which are, as it were, formal symbols of confirmation. The point brought under discussion was whether or not the ceremonies ordained in the law behaved to give way to Christ. Although these were merely accidents of the covenant, or at least additions and appendages, and, as they are commonly called, accessories, yet because they were the means of administering it, the name of covenant is applied to them just as is done in the case of other sacraments. Hence, in general, the Old Testament is the name given to the solemn method of confirming the covenant comprehended under ceremonies and sacrifices. Since there is nothing substantial in it until we look beyond it, the apostle contends that it behaved to be annulled and become antiquated, Hebrews 7.22, to make room for Christ, the surety and mediator of a better covenant by whom the eternal sanctification of the elect was once purchased, and the transgressions which remained under the law wiped away. But if you prefer it, take it thus, the covenant of the Lord was old because veiled by the shadowy and ineffectual observance of ceremonies, and it was therefore temporary, being as it were in suspense, until it received a firm and substantial confirmation. Then only did it become new and eternal when it was consecrated and established in the blood of Christ. Hence the Saviour, in giving the cup to his disciples in the Last Supper, calls it the cup of the New Testament in his blood, intimating that the covenant of God was truly realized, made new, and eternal, when it was sealed with his blood. 5. It is now clear in what sense the apostle said, Galatians 3.24 and 4.1, that by the tutelage of the law the Jews were conducted to Christ before he was exhibited in the flesh. He confesses that they were sons and heirs of God, though on account of non-age they were placed under the guardianship of a tutor. It was fit, the Son of Righteousness not yet having risen, that there should neither be so much light of revelation nor such clear understanding. The Lord dispensed the light of his word so that they could be hold it at a distance and obscurely. Accordingly, this slender measure of intelligence is designated by Paul by the term childhood, which the Lord was pleased to train by the elements of this world and external observances until Christ should appear. Through him the knowledge of believers was to be matured. This distinction was noted by our Saviour himself when he said that the law and the prophets were until John, that from that time the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached, Matthew 11.13. What did the law and the prophets deliver to the men of their time? They gave a foretaste of that wisdom which was one day to be clearly manifested and showed it afar off. But where Christ can be pointed to with the finger, there the Kingdom of God is manifested. In him are contained all the treasures of wisdom and understanding, and by these we penetrate almost to the very shrine of Heaven. 6. There is nothing contrary to this in the fact that in the Christian Church scarcely one is to be found who, in excellence of faith, can be compared to Abraham and that the prophets were so distinguished by the power of the Spirit that even in the present day they give light to the whole world. For the question here is not what grace the Lord conferred upon a few, but what was the ordinary method which he followed in teaching the people and which even was employed in the case of those very prophets who were in due with special knowledge above others. For their preaching was both obscure as relating to distant objects and was included in types. Moreover, however wonderful the knowledge displayed in them, as they were under the necessity of submitting to the tutelage common to all the people, they must also be ranked among children. Lastly, none of them ever had such a degree of discernment as not to savor somewhat of the obscurity of the age. Once the words of our Saviour, many kings and prophets have desired to see the things which you see and have not seen them and to hear the things which ye hear and have not heard them, blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Matthew 13.17. And it was right that the presence of Christ should have this distinguishing feature that by means of it the revelation of heavenly mysteries should be made more transparent. To the same effect is the passage which we formerly quoted from the first epistle of Peter that to them it was revealed that their labor should be useful, not so much to themselves as to our age. 7. I proceed to the third distinction which is thus expressed by Jeremiah. 8. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was in husband unto them, saith the Lord. 9. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. 10. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them." 11. From these words the apostle took occasion to institute a comparison between the law and the gospel, calling the one a doctrine of the letter, the other a doctrine of the spirit, describing the one as formed on tables of stone, the other on tables of the heart, the one the preaching of death, the other of life, the one of condemnation, the other of justification, the one made void, the other permanent, 2 Corinthians 3 verses 5 and 6. 12. The object of the apostle being to explain the meaning of the prophet, the worlds of the one furnish us with the means of ascertaining what was understood by both, and yet there is some difference between them, for the apostle speaks of the law more disparagingly than the prophet. 13. This he does not simply in respect of the law itself, but because there were some false zealots of the law who, by a perverse zeal for ceremonies, obscured the clearness of the gospel, he treats of the nature of the law with reference to their error and foolish affection. 14. It will therefore be proper to attend to this peculiarity in Paul. 15. Both, however, as they are contrasting the Old and New Testament, consider nothing in the law but what is peculiar to it. For example, the law everywhere contains promises of mercy, but as these are adventitious to it, they do not enter into the account of the law as considered only in its own nature. All which is attributed to it is that it commands what is right, prohibits crimes, holds forth rewards to the cultivators of righteousness, and threatens transgressors with punishment, while at the same time it neither changes nor amends that depravity of heart which is naturally inherent in all. 8. Let us now explain the apostles' contrast step by step. The Old Testament is literal because promulgated without the efficacy of the Spirit, the New Spiritual, because the Lord has engraven it on the heart. The second antithesis is a kind of exposition of the first, the Old is deadly because it can do nothing but involve the whole human race in a curse. The New is the instrument of life because those who are freed from the curse it restores to favor with God. The former is the ministry of condemnation because it charges the whole sons of Adam with transgression. The latter the ministry of righteousness because it unfolds the mercy of God by which we are justified. The last antithesis must be referred to the ceremonial law. Being a shadow of things to come, it behaved in time to perish and vanish away, whereas the gospel, in as much as it exhibits the very body, is firmly established forever. Jeremiah indeed calls the moral law also a weak and fragile covenant, but for another reason, namely because it was immediately broken by the sudden defection of an ungrateful people. But as the blame of such violation is in the people themselves, it is not properly alleged against the covenant. The ceremonies again, in as much as through their very weakness they were dissolved by the advent of Christ, had the cause of weakness from within. Moreover, the difference between the spirit and the letter must not be understood as if the Lord had delivered his law to the Jews without any good result, i.e. as if none had been converted to him. It is used comparatively to commend the riches of the grace with which the same lawgivers, assuming as it were a new character, honored the preaching of the gospel. When we consider the multitude of those whom, by the preaching of the gospel, he has regenerated by his spirit and gathered out of all the nations into the communion of his church, we may say that those of ancient Israel who, with sincere and heartfelt affections embraced the covenant of the Lord, were few or none, though the number is great when they are considered in themselves without comparison. 9. Out of the third distinction a fourth arises. In scripture the term bondage is applied to the Old Testament because it begets fear and the term freedom to the new because productive of confidence and security. Thus Paul says to the Romans, ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father, Romans 8.15. To the same effect is the passage in the Hebrews, quote, for ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touched the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and, quote, etc. Hebrews 12 verses 18 to 22. What Paul briefly touches on in the passage which we have quoted from the Romans, he explains more fully in the epistle to the Galatians, where he makes an allegory of the two sons of Abraham in this way, quote, Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children, but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of Asal, and, quote, Galatians 4, 25 and 26. As the offspring of Agar was born in slavery and could never attain to the inheritance while that of Sarah was free and entitled to the inheritance, so by the law we are subjected to slavery and by the gospel alone regenerated into liberty. The sum of the matter comes to this. The Old Testament filled the conscience with fear and trembling. The new inspires it with gladness. By the former the conscience is held in bondage. By the latter it is manumitted and made free. If it be objected that the holy fathers among the Israelites, as they were endued with the same spirit of faith, must also have been partakers of the same liberty and joy, we answer that neither was derived from the law, but feeling that by the law they were oppressed like slaves and vexed with a disquieted conscience, they fled for refuge to the gospel. And accordingly the peculiar advantage of the gospel was that, contrary to the common rule of the Old Testament, it exempted those who were under it from these evils. Then again we deny that they did possess the spirit of liberty and security in such a degree as not to experience some measure of fear and bondage. For however they might enjoy the privilege which they had obtained through the grace of the gospel, they were under the same bonds and burdens of observances as the rest of their nation. Therefore, seeing they were obliged to the anxious observance of ceremonies, which were the symbols of a tutelage bordering on slavery, and handwritings by which they acknowledged their guilt, but did not escape from it, they are justly said to have been, comparatively, under a covenant of fear and bondage in respect of that common dispensation under which the Jewish people were then placed. 10. The three last contrasts to which we have averted are between the law and the gospel, and hence in these the law is designated by the name of the Old and the gospel by that of the New Testament. The first is of wider extent, comprehending under it the promises which were given even before the law. When Augustine maintained that these were not to be included under the name of the Old Testament, he took a most correct view and meant nothing different from what we have now taught, for he had in view those passages of Jeremiah and Paul in which the Old Testament is distinguished from the word of grace and mercy. In the same passage, Augustine with great shrewdness remarks that from the beginning of the world the sons of promise, the divinely regenerated, who through faith working by love obeyed the commandments, belonged to the New Testament, entertaining the hope not of carnal, earthly, temporal, but spiritual, heavenly, and eternal blessings, believing especially in a mediator by whom they doubted not both that the spirit was administered to them, enabling them to do good, and pardon imparted as often as they sinned. The thing which he thus intended to assert was that all the saints mentioned in Scripture from the beginning of the world, as having been specially selected by God, were equally with us partakers of the blessing of eternal salvation. The only difference between our division and that of Augustine is that ours, in accordance with the words of our Saviour, the prophets and the law prophesied until John, Matthew 11-13, distinguishes between the gospel light and that more obscure dispensation of the word which preceded it, while the other division simply distinguishes between the weakness of the law and the strength of the gospel. And here also, with regard to the Holy Fathers, it is to be observed that though they lived under the Old Testament, they did not stop there, but always aspired to the new, entered into sure fellowship with it. Those who, contented with existing shadows, did not carry their thoughts to Christ, the apostle charges with blindness and malediction. To say nothing of other matters, what greater blindness can be imagined than to hope for the expiation of sin from the sacrifice of a beast, or to seek mental purification in external washing with water, or to attempt to appease God with cold ceremonies as if he were greatly delighted with them. Such are the absurdities into which those fall who cling to legal observances without respect to Christ. 11. The fifth distinction which we have to add consists in this, that until the advent of Christ the Lord set apart one nation to which he confined the covenant of his grace. Moses says, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance, Deuteronomy 32 verses 8 and 9. In another passage he thus addresses the people, Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day, Deuteronomy 10 verses 14 and 15. That people therefore, as if they had been the only part of mankind belonging to him, he favored exclusively with the knowledge of his name, depositing his covenant as it were in their bosom, manifesting to them the presence of his divinity and honoring them with all privileges. But to say nothing of other favors the only one here considered is his binding them to him by the communion of his word so that he was called and regarded as their God. Meanwhile other nations, as if they had had no kind of intercourse with him, he allowed to wander in vanity, not even supplying them with the only means of preventing their destructions, that is, the preaching of his word. Israel was thus the Lord's favorite child, the others were aliens. Israel was known and admitted to trust and guardianship, the others left in darkness. Israel was made holy, the others were profane. Israel was honored with the presence of God, the others kept far aloof from him. But on the fullness of the time destined to renew all things, when the mediator between God and man was manifested, the middle wall of partition, which had long kept the divine mercy within the confines of Israel, was broken down. Peace was preached to them who were afar off, as well as to those who were nigh. That being together reconciled to God, they might unite as one people. Wherefore there is now no respect of Jew or Greek, of circumcision or uncircumcision, but Christ is all and in all. To him that he then have been given for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Psalm 2 verse 8, that he may rule without distinction from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth, Psalm 72 verse 8. 12. The calling of the Gentiles, therefore, is a distinguishing feature illustrative of the superiority of the new over the Old Testament. This, it is true, has been previously declared by the prophets in passages both numerous and clear, but still the fulfillment of it was deferred to the reign of the Messiah. Even Christ did not acknowledge it at the very outset of his ministry, but delayed it until having completed the whole work of redemption in all its parts and finished the period of his humiliation, he received from the Father a name which is above every name that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, Philippians 2 verses 9 and 10. Hence the period being not yet completed, he declared to the woman of Canaan, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24. Nor in his first commission to the apostles, thus he permit them to pass the same limits. Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, gathered to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 10 verses 5 and 6. However plainly the thing may have been declared in numerous passages, when it was announced to the apostles, it seemed to them so new and extraordinary that they were horrified at it as being something monstrous. At length, when they did act upon it, it was timorously and not without reluctance. Nor is this strange, for it seemed by no means in accordance with the reason that the Lord, who for so many ages had selected Israel from the rest of the nations, should suddenly as it were change his purpose and abandon his choice. Prophecy indeed had foretold it, but they could not be so attentive to prophecies as not to be somewhat startled by the novel spectacle thus presented to their eye. It was not enough that God had in old times given specimens of the future calling of the Gentiles, those whom he had so called were very few in number, and moreover he in a manner adopted them into the family of Abraham before allowing them to approach his people. But by this public call the Gentiles were not only made equal to the Jews, but seemed to be substituted into their place as if the Jews had been dead. We may add that any strangers whom God had formerly admitted into the body of the Church had never been put in the same footing with the Jews. Wherefore it is not without cause that Paul describes it as the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to the saints. Colossians 1, verse 26. 13. The whole difference between the Old and New Testaments has, I think, been fully and faithfully explained under these four or five heads in so far as requisite for ordinary instruction. But since this variety in governing the Church, this diversity in the mode of teaching, this great change in rites and ceremonies is regarded by some as an absurdity, we must reply to them before passing on to other matters. And this can be done briefly, because the objections are not so strong as to require a very careful reputation. It is unreasonable, they say, to suppose that God who is always consistent with himself permitted such a change as afterwards to disapprove what he had once ordered and commended. I answer that God ought not to be deemed mutable because he adapts different forms to different ages, as he knows to be expedient for each. If the husband-band prescribes one set of duties to his household in winter and another in summer, we do not therefore charge him with fickleness or think he deviates from the rules of good husbandry, which depends on the regular course of nature. In like manner, if a father of a family in educating, governing, and managing his children pursues one course in boyhood, another in adolescence, and another in manhood, we do not therefore say that he is fickle or abandons his opinions. Why, then, do we charge God with inconsistency when he makes fit and congruous arrangements for diversities of times? The latter similitude ought to be completely satisfactory. Paul likens the Jews to children and Christians to grown men, Galatians 4-1. What irregularity is there in the divine arrangement which confined them to the rudiments which were suitable to their age and trains us by a firmer and more manly discipline? The constancy of God is conspicuous in this that he delivered the same doctrine to all ages and persists in requiring that worship of his name which he commanded at the beginning. His changing the external form in manner does not show that he is liable to change insofar as he has only accommodated himself to the mutable and diversified capacities of men. 14. But it is said, once this diversity saved the God chose to make it, would it not have been as easy for him from the first as after the advent of Christ to reveal eternal life in clear terms without any figures to instruct his people by a few clear sacraments to bestow his Holy Spirit and diffuse his grace over the whole globe? This is very much the same as to bring a charge against God because he created the world at so late a period when he could have done it at the first or because he appointed the alternate charges of summer and winter, of day and night with the feeling common to every pious mind let us not doubt that everything which God has done has been done wisely and justly although we may be ignorant of the cause which required that it should be so done. We should irrigate too much to ourselves were we not to concede to God that he may have reasons for his counsel which we are unable to discern. It is strange, they say, that he now repudiates and abominates the sacrifices of beasts and the whole apparatus of that Levitical priesthood in which he formerly delighted as if those external and transient matters could delight God or affect him in any way. It has already been observed that he appointed none of these things on his own account but instituted them all for the salvation of men. If a physician adopting the first method affects a cure upon a youth afterwards when the same individual has grown old and is again subject to the same disease employs a different method of cure can it be said that he repudiates the method which he formerly approved? Nay, continuing to approve of it he only adapts himself to the different periods of life. In like manner it was necessary in representing Christ in his absence and predicting his future advent to employ a different set of signs than those which are employed now that his actual manifestation is exhibited. It is true that since the advent of Christ the calling of God is more widely addressed to all nations and the graces of the spirit more liberally bestowed than they had previously been. But who, I ask, can deny the right of God to have the free and uncontrolled disposal of his gifts to select the nations which he may be pleased to illuminate the places which he may be pleased to illustrate by the preaching of his word and the mode and measure of progress and success which he may be pleased to give to his doctrine to punish the world for its ingratitude by withdrawing the knowledge of his name for certain ages and again when he so pleases to restore it in mercy. We see then that in the Calumnes which the ungodly employ in this matter to perplex the minds of the simple there is nothing that ought to throw doubt either on the justice of God or the veracity of Scripture. End of Section 22 Section 23 of Institutes of the Christian Religion Book II. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Institutes of the Christian Religion Book II by John Calvin translated by Henry Beverage Chapter 12 1. Christ, to perform the office of mediator, behoved to become man. The two divisions of this chapter are the reasons why our mediator behoved to be very God and to become man. Sections 1 through 3 2. Disposal of various objections by some fanatics and especially by Oseander to the Orthodox doctrine concerning the mediator. Sections 4 through 7 Sections 1. Necessary Not absolutely, but by divine decree that the mediator should be God and become man. Neither man nor angel, though pure, could have sufficed. The Son of God behoved to come down. Man in innocence could not penetrate to God without a mediator, much less could he after the fall. Sections 2. A second reason why the mediator behoved to be God and man, that is, that he had to convert those who were heirs of hell into children of God. Sections 3. Third reason that in our flesh he might yield a perfect obedience, satisfy the divine justice and pay the penalty of sin. Sections 4. Fourth reason regarding the consolation and confirmation of the whole church. Sections 4. First objection against the Orthodox doctrine. Sections 5. Answer to it confirmation from the sacrifices of the law, the testimony of the prophets, apostles, evangelists, and even Christ himself. Sections 6. Second objection answer. Answer confirmed. Sections 7. Third objection answer. Sections 8. Fourth objection by Oseander. Answer. Sections 9. Sixth objection forming the basis of Oseander's errors on this subject. Sections 10. Answer. Nature of the divine image in Adam, Christ, the head of angels and men. Sections 11. Seventh objection answer. Sections 12. The Sum of the Doctrine 1. It deeply concerned us that he who was to be our mediator necessity be inquired into, it was not what is commonly termed simple or absolute, but flowed from the divine decree on which the salvation of man depended. What was best for us, our most merciful father determined. Our iniquities, like a cloud intervening between him and us, having utterly alienated us from the kingdom of heaven, none but a person reaching to him could be the medium of restoring peace. But who could thus reach to him? Could any of the sons of Adam, all of them with their parents shuttered at the sight of God? Could any of the angels? They had need of a head, by connection with which they might adhere to their God entirely and inseparably. What then? The case was certainly desperate, if the Godhead itself did not descend to us, it being impossible for us to ascend. Thus the Son of God behoved to become our Emmanuel, the God with us, and in such a way that by mutual union his divinity and our nature might be combined. Otherwise, neither was the proximity near enough, nor the affinity strong enough to give us hope that God would dwell with us. So great was the repugnance between our pollution and the spotless purity of God. Had man remained free from all taint, he was of too humble a condition to penetrate to God without a mediator. What then must it have been, when by fatal ruin he was plunged to death and hell, defiled by so many stains, made loathsome by corruption, and fine, overwhelmed with every curse? It is not without cause, therefore, that Paul, when he would set forth Christ as the mediator, distinctly declares him to be man. There is, says he, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2.5. He might have called him God, or at least, omitting to call him God, he might also have omitted to call him man. But because the Spirit, speaking by his mouth, knew our infirmity, he opportunally provides for it by the most appropriate remedy, setting the Son of God familiarly before us as one of ourselves. But no one, therefore, may feel perplexed, where to seek the mediator, or by what means to reach him, the Spirit, by calling him man, reminds us that he is near, nay, contiguous to us, and as much as he is our flesh. And indeed, he intimates the same thing in another place, where he explains at greater length that he is not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4, 15. 2. This will become still clearer if we reflect that the work to be performed by the mediator was of no common description, being to restore us to the divine favor, so as to make us, instead of sons of men, sons of God, instead of heirs of hell, heirs of a heavenly kingdom. Who could do this, unless the Son of God should also become the Son of Man, and so receive what is ours as to transfer to us what is his, making that which is his by nature to become ours by grace? Relying on this earnest, we trust that we are the sons of God, because the natural Son of God assumed to himself a body of our body, flesh of our flesh, bones of our bones, that he might be one with us. He declined not to take what was peculiar to us, that he might in his turn extend to us what was peculiarly his own, and thus might be in common with us both Son of God and Son of Man. Hence, that holy brotherhood which he commends with his own lips, when he says, I ascend to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God, John 20, 17. In this way, we have a sure inheritance in the heavenly kingdom, because the only Son of God, to whom it entirely belonged, has adopted us as his brethren, and if brethren then partners with him in the inheritance. Romans 8, 17 Moreover it was especially necessary for this cause also that he who was to be our Redeemer should be truly God and Man. It was his to swallow up death. Who but life could do so? It was his to conquer sin. Who could do so save righteousness itself? It was his to put to flight the powers of the air and the world. Who could do so but the mighty power superior to both? But who possesses life and righteousness, and the dominion and government of heaven, but God alone? Therefore, God, in his infinite mercy, having determined to redeem us, became himself our Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son. 3. Another principal part of our reconciliation with God was that man who had lost himself by his disobedience, should, by way of remedy, opposed to it obedience, satisfy the justice of God, and pay the penalty of sin. Therefore our Lord came forth very man, adopted the person of Adam, and assumed his name, that he might in his stead obey the Father, that he might present our flesh as the price of satisfaction to the just judgment of God, and in the same flesh pay the penalty which we had incurred. Finally, since as God only he could not suffer, and as man only could not overcome death, he united the human nature with the divine, that he might subject the weakness of the one to death as an expiation of sin, and by the power of the other, maintaining a struggle with death, might gain us the victory. Those therefore, who rob Christ of divinity or humanity, either detract from his majesty and glory, or obscure his goodness. On the other hand, they are no less injurious to men, undermining and subverting their faith, which, unless it rests on this foundation, cannot stand. Moreover, the expected Redeemer was that son of Abraham and David, whom God had promised in the Law and in the Prophets. Here, believers have another advantage. Tracing up his origin in regular series to David and Abraham, they more distinctly recognize him as the Messiah celebrated by so many oracles. But special attention must be paid to what I lately explained, namely, that a common nature is the pledge of our union with the Son of God, that, clothed with our flesh, he warred to death with sin, that he might be our triumphant conqueror, that the flesh which he received of us he offered in sacrifice, in order that by making expiation he might wipe away our guilt, and appease the just anger of his father. Four. He who considers these things with due attention will easily disregard vague speculations, which attract giddy minds and lovers of novelty. One speculation of this class is, that Christ, even though there had been no need of his interposition to redeem the human race, would still have become man. I admit that in the first ordering of creation, while the state of nature was entire, he was appointed the head of angels and men, for which reason Paul designates him the firstborn of every creature, Colossians 1, 15. The since the whole scripture proclaims that he was clothed with flesh in order to become a redeemer, it is presumptuous to imagine any other cause or end. We know well why Christ was at first promised, that is, that he might renew a fallen world and succor a lost man. Hence under the law he was typified by sacrifices, to inspire believers with the hope that God would be propitious to them after he was reconciled by the expiation of their sins. Since from the earliest age, even before the law was promulgated, there was never any promise of a mediator without blood. We just may infer that he was destined in the eternal counsel of God to purge the pollution of man, the shedding of blood being the symbol of expiation. Thus too the prophets in discoursing of him foretold that he would be the mediator between God and man. It is sufficient to refer to the very remarkable prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 53, 4, and 5, in which he foretells that he was smitten for our iniquities, that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, that as a priest he was made an offering for sin, that by his stripes we are healed, that as all, like lost sheep, have gone astray. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief, that he might bear our iniquities, after hearing that Christ was divinely appointed to bring relief to miserable sinners, whose overlaps these limits give too much indulgence to a foolish curiosity. Then when he actually appeared, he declared the cause of his advent to be that by appeasing God he might bring us from death unto life. To the same effect was the testimony of the apostles concerning him, John 1 9, 10, 14. Thus John, before teaching that the word was made flesh, narrates the fall of man. But above all let us listen to our Savior himself when discoursing of his office. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Again the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. Again they that be whole need not a physician. I should never have done were I to quote all the passages. Indeed the apostles with one consent lead us back to this fountain and assuredly if he had not come to reconcile God, the honor of his priesthood would fall seeing it was his office as priest to stand between God and men and offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, Hebrews 5 1, nor could he be our righteousness as having been made a propitiation for us in order that God might not impute to us our sins, 2 Corinthians 5 19. In short he would be stripped of all the titles with which scripture invests him, nor could Paul's doctrine stand what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Romans 8 3 nor what he states in another passage the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men Titus 2 11. In fine the only end which the scripture uniformly assigns for the Son of God voluntarily assuming our nature and even receiving it as a command from the Father is that he might propitiate the Father to us by becoming a victim. Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name therefore it does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up. Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify thy name. Here he distinctly assigns as the reason for assuming our nature that he might become a propitiary victim to take away sin. For the same reason Zacharias declares Luke 1.79 that he came to perform the mercy promised to our fathers to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Let us remember that all these things are affirmed of the Son of God in whom as Paul elsewhere declares were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and save whom it was his determination not to know anything Colossians 2.3.1 Corinthians 2.2. 5. Should anyone object that in this there is nothing to prevent the same Christ who redeemed us when condemned from also testifying his love to us when saved by assuming our nature We have the brief answer that when the Spirit declares that by the eternal decree of God the two things were connected together that is that Christ should be our redeemer and at the same time a partaker of our nature it is unlawful to inquire further. He who is tickled with the desire of knowing something more not contented with the immutable ordination of God shows also that he is not even contented with that Christ who has been given us as the price of redemption and indeed Paul not only declares for what and he was sent but rising to the sublime mystery of predestination seasonably represses all the wantonness and prurience of the human mind he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood Ephesians one four through seven here certainly the fall of Adam is not presupposed as anterior in point of time but our attention is directed to what God predetermined before all ages when he was pleased to provide a cure for the misery of the human race if again it is objected that this council of God depended on the fall of man which he foresaw to me it is sufficient and more to reply that those who propose to inquire were desired to know more of Christ than God predestined by his secret decree are presuming with impious audacity to invent a new Christ Paul when discoursing of the proper office of Christ justly praise for the Ephesians that God would strengthen them by his spirit in the inner man that they might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which paths of knowledge Ephesians three sixteen and eighteen as if he intended to set purpose to set barriers around our minds and prevent them from declining one Iota from the gift of reconciliation whenever mention is made of Christ where for seeing as it is as Paul declares it to be a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners first Timothy one fifteen in it I willingly acquiesce and since the same apostle elsewhere declares that the grace which is now manifested by the gospel was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began second Timothy one nine I am resolved to adhere to it firmly even to the end this moderation is unjustly vituperated by Ozeander who has unhappily in the present day again agitated this question which a few had formally raised he brings a charge of overweening confidence against those who deny that the son of God would have appeared in the flesh if Adam had not fallen because this notion is not repudiated by any passage of scripture as if Paul did not lay a curb on perverse curiosity when after speaking of the redemption obtained by Christ he bids us avoid foolish questions Titus three nine to such insanity have some proceeded in the preposterous eagerness to seem acute that they have made it a question whether the son of God might not have assumed the nature of an ass this blasphemy at which all pious minds justly shudder with detestation Ozeander excuses by the pretext that it is nowhere distinctly refuted in scripture as if Paul when he counted nothing valuable or worth knowing saved Jesus Christ and him crucified first Corinthians two two were admitting that the author of salvation is an ass he who elsewhere declares that Christ was by the eternal council of the father appointed head over all things to the church would never have acknowledged another to whom no office of redemption had been assigned six the principal on which Ozeander founds is altogether frivolous he will have it that man was created in the image of God in as much as he was formed on the model of the future Messiah in order to resemble him whom the father had already determined to clothe with flesh hence he infers that though Adam had never fallen from his first and pure original Christ would still have been man how silly and distorted this view is all men of sound judgment at once discern still he thinks he was the first to see what the image of God was namely that not only did the divine glory shine forth in the excellent endowments with which he was adorned but God dwelt in him essentially but while I grant that Adam bore the image of God in as much as he was united to God this being the true and highest perfection of dignity yet I maintain that in the likeness of God is to be sought for only in those marks of superiority with which God has distinguished Adam above the other animals and likewise with one consent acknowledged that Christ was even then the image of God and accordingly whatever excellence was engraven on Adam had its origin in this that by means of the only begotten son he approximated to the glory of his maker man therefore was created in the image of God Genesis 1 27 and in him the creator was pleased to behold as in a mirror his own glory to this degree of honor he was exalted by the kindness of the only begotten son but I add that as the son was the common head both of men and angels so the dignity which was conferred on man belonged to the angels also for when we hear them called the sons of God Psalms 82 6 it would be incongruous to deny that they were in dude with some quality on which they resembled the father but if he was pleased that his glory should be represented in men and angels and made manifest in both natures it is ignorant trifling in Ozeander to say that angels were postponed to men because they did not bear the image of Christ they could not constantly enjoy the immediate presence of God if they were not like to him nor does Paul teach Colossians 3 10 that men are renewed in the image of God in any other way than by being associated with angels that they may be united together under one head in fine if we believe Christ our felicity will be perfected when we shall have been received into the heavens and made like the angels but if Ozeander is entitled to infer that the primary type of the image of God was in the man Christ on the same ground may any one maintain the Christ behoved to partake of the angelic nature seeing that angels also possess the image of God 7 Ozeander has no reason to fear that God would be found a liar if the decree to incarnate the son was not previously immutably fixed in his mind even had Adam not lost his integrity he would with the angels have been like to God and yet it would not therefore have been necessary that the son of God should become either a man or an angel in vain does he entertain the absurd fear that unless it had been determined by the immutable counsel of God before man was created that Christ should be born not as the redeemer but as the first man he might lose his precedence since he would not have been born except for an accidental circumstance namely that he might restore the lost race of man and in this way would have been created in the image of Adam for why should he be alarmed at what the scripture plainly teaches that he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Hebrews 4 15 hence Luke also hesitates not to reckon him in his genealogy as a son of Adam Luke 3 38 I should like to know why Christ is termed by Paul the second Adam first Corinthians 15 47 unless it be that a human condition was decreed him for the purpose of raising up the ruined posterity of Adam for if in point of order that condition was antecedent to creation he ought to have been called the first Adam Ozeander confidently affirms that because Christ was in the purpose of God for known as man men were formed after him as their model but Paul calling him the second Adam gives that revolt which made it necessary to restore nature to its primitive condition an intermediate place between its original formation and the restitution which we obtain by Christ hence it follows that it was this restitution which made the son of God be born and thereby become man moreover Ozeander argues ill and absurdly that as long as Adam maintained his integrity he would have been the image of himself and not of Christ I maintain on the contrary that although the son of God had never become incarnate nevertheless the image of God was conspicuous in Adam both in his body and his soul in the race of this image it always appeared that Christ was truly head and had in all things the preeminence in this way we dispose of the feudal selfism put forth by Ozeander that the angels would have been without this head had not God purpose to clothe his son with flesh even independent of the sin of Adam he inconsiderately assumes what no rational person will grant that Christ could have had no supremacy over the angels so that they might enjoy him as their prince unless in so far as he was man but it is easy to infer from the words of Paul Colossians 115 that in as much as he is the eternal word of God he is the firstborn of every creature not because he is created or is to be reckoned among the creatures but because the entire structure of the world such as it was from the beginning when adorned with exquisite beauty had no other beginning then in as much as he was made man he is the firstborn from the dead for in one short passage Colossians 1 16 through 18 the Apostle calls our attention to both views that by the son all things were created so that he has dominion over angels and that he became man in order that he might begin to be a redeemer owing to the same ignorance Ozeander says that men would not have had Christ for their king unless he had been a man as if the kingdom of God could not have been established by his eternal son though not clothed with human flesh holding the supremacy while angels and men were gathered together to participate in his celestial life and glory but he is always deluded or imposes upon himself this false principle that the church would have been a Kefalon without a head had not Christ appeared in the flesh in the same way as angels enjoyed him for their head could he not by his divine energy preside over men and by the secret virtue of his spirit quicken and cherish them as his body until they were gathered into heaven to enjoy the same life with the angels the absurdities which I have been refuting Ozeander regards as infallible oracles taking an intoxicating delight in his own speculations his want is to extract ridiculous plans out of nothing he afterwards says that he has a much stronger passage to produce namely the prophecy of Adam who when the woman was brought to him said this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Genesis to 23 but how does he prove it to be a prophecy because in Matthew Christ attributes the same expression to God as if the very thing which God has spoken by man contained a prophecy on the same principle as the law proceeded from God let Ozeander and each precept find a prophecy add that our savior's exposition would have been harsh and groveling had he confined himself to the literal meaning he was not referring to the mystical union with which he has honored the church but only to conjugal fidelity and states that the reason why God declared man and wife to be one flesh was to prevent anyone from violating the indissoluble tide by divorce if this simple meaning is too low for Ozeander let him censure Christ for not leading his disciples to the hidden sense by interpreting his father's words with more subtlety Paul gives no countenance to Ozeander's dream when after saying that we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones he immediately adds this is a great mystery Ephesians 5 30 to 32 for he meant not to refer to the sense in which Adam used the words but sets forth under the figure and similitude of marriage the sacred union which makes us one with Christ his words have this meaning for reminding us that he is speaking of Christ and the church he by way of correction distinguishes between the marriage tie and the spiritual union of Christ with his church where for this subtlety vanishes at once I deem it unnecessary to discuss similar absurdities for from this very brief refutation the vanity of them all will be discovered abundantly sufficient for the solid nurture of the children of God is this sober truth that when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them who were under the law Galatians 4 4 and 5 end of section 23 section 24 of Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dana Allen Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 2 by John Calvin translated by Henry Beverage chapter 13 Christ clothed with the true substance of human nature the heads of this chapter are one the orthodoxy doctrine as to the true humanity of our savior proved from many passages of scripture section one to refutation of the impious objections of the Martianites Manichees and similar heretics sections two through four sections one proof of the true humanity of Christ against the Manichees and Martianites to impious objections of heretics further discussed six objections answered three other eight objections answered four other three objections answered section one of the divinity of Christ which has elsewhere been established by clear and solid proofs I presume it were superfluous again to treat it remains therefore to when clothed with our flesh he fulfilled the office of mediator in ancient times the reality of his human nature was impugned by the Manichees and Martianites the latter figuring to themselves a phantom instead of the body of Christ and the former dreaming of his having been invested with celestial flesh the passages of scripture contradictory to both are numerous and strong the blessing is not promised in a heavenly seed or the mask of a man but the seed of Abraham and Jacob nor is the everlasting throne promised to an aerial man but to the son of David and the fruit of his loins hence when manifested in the flesh he is called the son of David and Abraham not because he was born of a virgin and yet created in the air but because as Paul explains he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Romans chapter one verse three as the same apostle elsewhere says that he came of the Jews Romans chapter nine verse five wherefore our Lord himself not contented with the name of man frequently calls himself the son of man wishing to express more clearly that he was a man by true human descent the Holy Spirit having so often by so many organs with so much care and plainness declared a matter which in itself is not obstruce who could have thought that mortals would have had the effrontery to darken it with their glasses many other passages are at hand where it wished to produce more for instance that one of Paul that God sent forth his son made of a woman Galatians chapter four verse four and innumerable others would show that he was subject to hunger thirst cold and the other infirmities of our nature but from the many we must chiefly select those which may conduce to build up our minds in true faith as when it is said verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death Hebrews chapter two verses sixteen and fourteen again both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren where for in all things it be hoped him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest Hebrews chapter two verses eleven and seventeen again we have not in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Hebrews chapter four verse fifteen and the like to the same effect is the passage to which we lately referred in which Paul distinctly declares that the sins of the world be hoped to be expiated in our flesh Romans chapter eight verse three and certainly everything which the father conferred on Christ pertains to us for this reason that he is the head that from him the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply of Ephesians chapter four verse sixteen nay in no other way could it hold true as is said that the spirit was given to him without measure John chapter one verse sixteen and that out of his fullness have all we received since nothing could be more absurd than that God in his own essence should be enriched by an adventitious gift for this reason also Christ himself elsewhere says for their sakes I sanctify myself John chapter seventeen verse nineteen section two the passages which they produce in confirmation of their error are absurdly rested nor do they gain anything by their frivolous subtleties when they attempt to do away with what I have now adduced in opposition to them Martian imagines that Christ instead of a body assumed a phantom because it is elsewhere said that he was made in the likeness of man and found in fashion as a man thus he altogether overlooks what Paul is then discussing Philippians chapter two verse seven his object is not to show what kind of body Christ assumed but that when he might have justly asserted his divinity he was pleased to exhibit nothing but the attributes of a mean and despised man for in order to exhort us to submission by his example he shows that when as God he might have displayed to the world the brightness of his glory he gave up his right and voluntarily emptied himself that he assumed the form of a servant and contented with that humble condition suffered his divinity to be concealed under a veil of flesh here unquestionably he explains not what Christ was but in what way he acted nay from the whole context it is easily gathered that it was in the true nature of man that Christ humbled himself for what is meant by the words he was found in fashion as a man but that for a time instead of being resplendent with divine glory the human form only appeared in a mean and abject condition nor with the words of Peter that he was put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirits one Peter chapter three verse eighteen hold true unless the son of God had become weak in the nature of man this is explained more clearly by paul when he declares that he was crucified through weakness to Corinthian's chapter thirteen verse four and hence his exultation for it is distinctly said that Christ acquired new glory after he humbled himself this could fitly apply only to a man endued with a body and a soul mainstreams of an aerial body because Christ is called the second Adam the Lord from heaven but the apostle does not there speak of the essence of his body as heavenly but of the spiritual life which derived from Christ quickens us one Corinthian's chapter fifteen verse forty this life paul and peter as we have seen separate from his flesh nay that passage admirably confirms the doctrine of the orthodox as to the human nature of Christ if his body were not of the same nature with ours there would be no soundness in the argument which paul pursues with so much earnestness if Christ is risen we shall rise also if we rise not neither has Christ risen whatever be the cavals by which the ancient manekies or their modern disciples endeavor to evade this they cannot succeed it is a frivolous and despicable evasion to say that Christ is called the son of man because he was promised to men it being obvious that in the Hebrew idiom the son of man means a true man and Christ doubtless retained the idiom of his own tongue moreover there cannot be a doubt as to what is to be understood by the sons of Adam not to go farther a passage in the eighth psalm which the apostles apply to Christ will abundantly suffice what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him psalms chapter eight verse four under this figure is expressed the true humanity of Christ for although he was not immediately descended of an earthly father yet he originally sprang from Adam nor could it otherwise be said in terms of the passage which we have already quoted for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same these words plainly proving that he was an associate and partner in the same nature with ourselves in this sense also it is said that both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one the context proves that this refers to a community of nature for it is immediately added for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11 had he said at first that believers are of God where could there have been any ground for being ashamed of persons possessing such dignity but when Christ of his boundless grace associates himself with the mean and ignoble we see why it was said that he is not ashamed it is vain to object that in this way the wicked will be the brethren of Christ for we know that the children of God are not born of flesh and blood but of the spirit through faith therefore flesh alone does not constitute the union of brotherhood but although the apostle assigns to believers only the honor of being one with Christ it does not however follow that unbelievers have not the same origin according to the flesh just as when we say that Christ became man that he might make us sons of God the expression does not extend to all classes of persons the intervention of faith being necessary to our being spiritually engrafted into the body of Christ a dispute is also ignorantly raised as to the term first born it is alleged that Christ ought to have been the first son of Adam in order that he might be the first born among the brethren Romans chapter 8 verse 29 but primogeniture refers not to age but to degree of honor and preeminence of virtue there is just as little color for the frivolous assertion that Christ assumes the nature of man and not that of angels Hebrews chapter 2 verse 16 because it was the human race that he restored to favor the apostle to magnify the honor which Christ has conferred upon us contrasts us with the angels to whom we are in this respect preferred and if do weight is given to the testimony of moses genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when he says that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent the dispute is at an end for the words there used refer not to Christ alone but to the whole human race since the victory was to be obtained for us by Christ God declares generally that the posterity of the woman would overcome the devil from this it follows that Christ is a descendant of the human race the purpose of God in thus addressing Eve being to raise her hopes and prevent her from giving way to despair section 3 the passages in which Christ is called the seed of Abraham and the fruit of the loins of David those persons with no less folly than wickedness wrap up in allegory had the term seed been used allegorically Paul surely would not have omitted to notice it when he affirms clearly and without figure that the promise was not given to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Galatians chapter 3 verse 16 with similar absurdity they pretend that he was called the son of David for no other reason but because he had been promised and was at length in due time manifested for Paul after he had called him the son of David by immediately subjoining according to the flesh certainly designates his nature so also Romans chapter 9 verse 5 while declaring him to be God blessed forever he mentioned separately that as concerning the flesh he was descended from the Jews again if he had not been truly begotten of the seed of David what is the meaning of the expression that he is the fruit of his loins or what the meaning of the promise of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne Psalms chapter 132 verse 11 moreover their motive dealing with the genealogy of Christ as given by Matthew is mere sophistry for though he reckons up the progenitors not of Mary but of Joseph yet as he was speaking of a matter then generally understood he deems it enough to show that Joseph was descended from the seed of David since it is certain that Mary was of the same family Luke goes still farther showing that the salvation brought by Christ is common to the whole human race in as much as Christ the author of salvation is descended from Adam the common father of us all I confess indeed that the genealogy proves Christ to be the son of David only as being descended of the virgin but the new martianites for the purpose of giving a gloss to their heresy namely to prove that the body which Christ assumed was unsubstantial too confidently maintain that the expression as to seed is applicable only to males thus subverting the elementary principles of nature but as this discussion belongs not to theology and the arguments which they adduce are too futile to require any labored refutation I will not touch on matters pertaining to philosophy and the medical art it will be sufficient to dispose of the objection drawn from the statement of scripture that Aaron and Jehoida married wives out of the tribe of Judah and that thus the distinction of tribes was confounded if proper descent could come through the female it is well known that in regard to civil order descent is reckoned through the male and yet the superiority on his part does not prevent the female from having her proper share in the descent this solution applies to all the genealogies when scripture gives a list of individuals it often mentions males only must we therefore say that females go for nothing nay the very children know that they are classified with men for this reason wives are said to give children to their husbands the name of the family always remaining with the males then as the male sex has this privilege that sons are deemed of noble or ignoble birth according to the condition of their fathers so on the other hand in slavery the condition of the child is determined by that of the mother as lawyers say part is sequitur ventrum once we may infer that offspring is partly procreated by the seed of the mother according to the common custom of nations mothers are deemed progenitors and with this the divine law agrees which could have had no ground to forbid the marriage of the uncle with the niece if there was no consanguinity between them it would also be lawful for a brother and sister uterine to intermarry when their fathers are different but while i admit that the power assigned to the woman is passive i hold that the same thing is affirmed indiscriminately of her and of the male christ is not said to have been made by a woman but of a woman galatians chapter 4 verse 4 but some of this herd laying aside all shame publicly ask whether we mean to maintain that christ was procreated of the proper seed of a virgin i in my turn ask whether they are not forced to admit that he was nourished to maturity in the virgin's womb justly therefore we infer from the words of matthew that christ in as much as he was begotten of mary was procreated of her seed as a similar generation is denoted when boas is said to have been begotten of rahab matthew chapter one verses five and sixteen matthew does not here describe the virgin as the channel through which christ flowed but distinguishes his miraculous from an ordinary birth in that christ was begotten by her of the seed of david for the same reason for which isaac is said to be begotten of abraham joseph of jacob solemn of david is christ said to have been begotten of his mother the evangelist has arranged his discourse in this way wishing to prove that christ derives his descent from david he deems it enough to state that he was begotten of mary hence it follows that he assumed it as an acknowledged fact that mary was of the same lineage as joseph section four the absurdities which they wish to fasten upon us are mere purile calamities they reckon it base and dishonoring to christ to have derived his descent from men because in that case he could not be exempted from the common law which includes the whole offspring of adam without exception under sin but this difficulty is easily solved by paul's antithesis as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life romans chapter five verses 12 and 18 corresponding to this is another passage the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the lord from heaven one corinthians chapter 15 verse 47 accordingly the same apostle in another passage teaching that christ was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us distinctly separates him from the common lot as being true man and yet without fault and corruption romans chapter eight verse three it is childish trifling to maintain that if christ is free from all taint and was begotten of the seed of mary by the secret operation of the spirit it is not therefore the seed of the woman that is impure but only that of the man we do not hold christ to be free from all taint merely because he was born of a woman unconnected with a man but because he was sanctified by the spirit so that the generation was pure and spotless such as it would have been before adam's fall let us always bear in mind that wherever scripture adverts to the purity of christ it refers to his true human nature since it were superfluous to say that god is pure moreover the sanctification of which john speaks in his seventeenth chapter is in applicable to the divine nature this does not suggest the idea of a twofold seed in adam although no contamination extended to christ the generation of man not being in itself vicious or impure but in accidental circumstance of the fall hence it is not strange that christ by whom our integrity was to be restored was exempted from the common corruption another absurdity which they obtrude upon us viz that if the word of god became incarnate it must have been enclosed in the narrow tenement of an earthly body is sure petulance for although the boundless essence of the word was united with human nature into one person we have no idea of any enclosing the son of god descended miraculously from heaven yet without abandoning heaven was pleased to be conceived miraculously in the virgin's womb to live on the earth and hang upon the cross and yet always filled the world as from the beginning end of section 24