BOOK 9. THE INTERCESSION.
CHAPTER 1.
9.1.3. To whom Christ's Intercession is directed.
To whom Christ's Intercession is directed.
To whom is Christ's intercession directed? I answer, immediately to God the Father, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," 1 John ii. 1. In the work of intercession are three persons, a party offended, a party offending, and the intercessor distinct from them both: the party offended is God the Father, the party offending is sinful man, and the intercessor distinct from them both, is Jesus Christ, the middle person (as it were) betwixt God the Father, and us men; the Father is God, and not man; and we that believe in Christ are men and not God; and Christ himself is both man and God; and therefore, he intercedes and mediates betwixt God and man; if any object, that not only the Father is offended, but also the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and therefore there must be a Mediator to them also, the solution is easy: Christ's intercession is immediately directed to the Father, but because the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, have all one indivisible essence, and by consequence one will: it therefore follows. That the Father being appeased by Christ's intercession, the Son and the Holy Ghost are also appeased with him, and in him. I deny not but Christ's intercession, is made to the whole Trinity, but yet immediately, and directly to the first person, and in him to the rest. "But if so then in some sense, (say our adversaries) Christ makes intercession to himself, which cannot be; because in every intercession there must of necessity be three parties;" this point hath sore puzzled the church of Rome, that for the solving of it, they knew no other way but to avouch Christ to be our intercessor only as man, and not as God, which is most untrue, for as both natures did concur in the work of satisfaction, so likewise they do both concur in the work of intercession, and it is an ancient and approved rule, "That names of office which are given to Christ, such as Mediator, Intercessor, etc. agree unto him according to both natures;" (Appellationes officli competunt Christo secundum utramque naturum.) and can the act of Christ's intercession, be the act of Christ's manhood alone? What, to hear and offer up prayers? To receive and present the prayers and praises, and other spiritual sacrifices of all believers in the world? To negotiate for them all at one and the same time, according to the variety and multiplicity of their several occasions? Surely this is, and must be the work of an infinite, and not of a finite agent; this cannot be effected without the concurrence of the divine mature with the human: but what needs any farther answer to this objection? Suppose Christ intercede to himself as God: that is, not immediately and directly to the same person God the Son, though to the same God essentially; indeed Christ, (Theanthropos,) God-man, in respect of his natures, agreeth with both, being not only God, nor only man, but God-man, Man-God blessed forever; but in respect of his person, being the second person in the Trinity, he is distinct 'from both.
1. From the personality of man, for he hath only the personality of God, and not of man.
2. From the first person of the Godhead, who is God the Father, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one," 1 John v. 7, i.e. Three persons, and but one God.