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| Chapter X. The objection taken on the ground of the Son's obedience is disproved, and the unity of power, Godhead, and operation in the Trinity set forth, Christ's obedience to His mother, to whom He certainly cannot be called inferior, is noticed.
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Chapter X.
The objection taken on the ground of the Son’s
obedience is disproved, and the unity of power, Godhead, and operation
in the Trinity set forth, Christ’s obedience to His mother, to
whom He certainly cannot be called inferior, is noticed.
84. In like manner
our adversaries commonly make a difficulty of the Son’s
obedience, forasmuch as it is written: “And
being found in appearance as
a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient even unto
death.”2027
The writer
has not only told us that the Son was obedient even unto death, but
also first shown that He was man, in order that we might understand
that obedience unto death was the part not of His Godhead but of His
Incarnation, whereby He took upon Himself both the functions and the
names belonging to our nature.
85. Thus we have learnt that the power of the
Trinity is one, as we are taught both in and after the Passion
itself: for the Son suffers through His body, which is the
earnest of it; the Holy Spirit is poured upon the apostles: into
the Father’s hands the spirit is commended; furthermore, God is
with a mighty voice proclaimed the Father. We have learnt that
there is one form, one likeness, one sanctification, of the Father and
of the Son, one activity, one glory, finally, one Godhead.
86. There is, therefore, but one only God,
for it is written: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.”2028
One God, not in the sense that the
Father and the Son are the same Person, as the ungodly Sabellius
affirms—but forasmuch as there is one Godhead of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. But where there is one Godhead,
there is one will, one purpose.
87. Again, that thou mayest know that the
Father is, and the Son is, and that the work of the Father and of the
Son is one, follow the saying of the Apostle: “Now may God
Himself, and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto
you.”2029
Both Father
and Son are named, but there is unity of direction,2030
| 2030 The act of direction
is one and, correspondingly, the verb “direct” is, in the
Latin and the Greek, put in the singular number. | because unity of power. So also in
another place we read: “Now may our Lord Himself, Jesus
Christ, and God and our Father, Who hath loved us, and given us eternal
consolation, and good hope in grace, console and strengthen your
hearts.”2031
How perfect
a unity it is that the Apostle presents to us, insomuch that the fount
of consolation is not many, but one. Let doubt be dumb, then, or,
if it will not be overcome by reason, let the thought of our
Lord’s gracious kindliness bend it.
88. Let us call to mind how kindly our Lord
hath dealt with us, in that He taught us not only faith but manners
also. For, having taken His place in the form of man, He was
subject to Joseph and Mary.2032
Was He
less than all mankind, then, because He was subject? The part of
dutifulness is one, that of sovereignty is another, but dutifulness
doth not exclude sovereignty. Wherein, then, was He subject to
the Father’s law? In His body, surely, wherein He was
subject to His mother.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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