Q. 34. Why is the union of the two natures called an hypostatical or personal union? A. Because the human nature is united unto, and subsists in the person of the Son of God, Luke i. 35. Q. 35. What is the difference between the hypostatical union, and the union that takes place among the persons of the adorable Trinity? A. The union that takes place among the persons of the adorable Trinity, is an union of three persons in one and the same numerical nature and essence; but the hypostatical, is an union of two natures in one person. Q. 36. What is the difference between the hypostatical union, and the union that takes place betwixt the soul and body? A. Death dissolves the union that is betwixt the soul and the body; but though the soul was separated from the body of Christ, when it was in the grave, yet both soul and body were, even then, united to the person of the Son as much as ever. Q. 37. What is the difference betwixt the hypostatical union, and the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and believers? A. Both natures in the hypostatical union are still but one person; whereas, though believers be said to be in Christ, and Christ in them, yet they are not one person with him. * Larger Cat. Q.39. I 2 Q. 38. Why was it requisite that our Redeemer should be [man]? A. That being our kinsman blood relation, the right of redemption might devolve upon him; and that he might be capable of obeying and suffering in our nature, Heb ii. 14.* Q. 39. Why was it requisite that our Mediator should be [God]? A. That his obedience and sufferings in our nature and room, might be of infinite value for our redemption, Acts xI. 28; and that the human nature might be supported under the infinite load of divine wrath, which he had to bear for our sins, Rom. i. 4.† Q. 40. "Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person?” A. "That the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us, as the works of the whole person, Heb. ix. 14. 1 Pet. ii. 6," Q. 41. What may we learn from the indissolvable union of the two natures in the person of Christ? A. That this union shall be an everlasting security for the perpetuity of the union betwixt Christ and believers: that the one shall never be dissolved more than the other; for he hath said, "Because I live, ye shall live also," John xiv. 19. QUEST. 22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? ANSW. Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin. Q. 1. Did Christ assume the more noble and excellent than person of a man? to subsist by itself. A. No: he assumed the human nature, but not a human person, Heb. ii. 16. Q. 6. Wherein lies the matchless and peculiar dignity of the human nature of Christ? A. That it subsists in the second per-person of the Godhead, by a personal and indissolvable union. Q. 2. Had ever the human nature of Christ a distinct sonality of its own? A. No: it never subsisted one moment by itself, Luke i. 35. Q. 3. What is the reason that the human nature of Christ never subsisted by itself? A. Because it was formed and assumed at once; for the same moment wherein the soul was united to the body, both soul and body subsist in the person of the Son of God. Q. 4. How came the human nature to subsist in the person of the Son? Q. 7. What is the difference between the human nature and a human person? A. A human person subsists by itself; but the human nature subsists in a person. Q. 8. When Christ became man, did he become another person than he was before? A. No: there was no change in his person; for he assumed our nature unto his former personality, which he had from eternity. A. Because the human nature was assumed by Christ without a human personality. A. The whole Trinity adapt- Q. 9. What is the reason that ed and fitted the human nature the assumption of the human to him; but the assumption nature made no change in the thereof, into a personal subsist-divine person of the Son? ence with himself, was the peculiar act of the Son, Heb. ii. 14. 16. Q. 5. Since the human nature of Christ has no personality of its own, is it not more imperfect than in other men, when all other men are human persons? Q. 10. Whether is it more proper to say, that the human nature subsists in the divine nature, or in the divine person of Christ? A. The human nature of Christ is so far from being im- A. It is more proper to say, perfect, by the want of a per- that it subsists in the divine sonality of its own, that it is un-person of Christ, because the speakably more perfect and ex-natures are DISTINCT, but the cellent than in all other men, be- person is ONE; and it was the cause to subsist in God, or in a divine nature only, as it termidivine person, is incomparably nates in the second person, which assumed the human nature into personal union. Q. 11. Can we not say, in a consistency with truth, that the man Christ Jesus is God? A. To be sure we may; because in this case, we speak of the person which includes the human nature. Q. 12. But, can we say, in a consistency with truth, that Christ Jesus, as man, is God? A. No: because in this case, we speak only of the human nature, which does not include his divine person. Q. 13. What is the human nature, or wherein does it consist? A. It consists in [a true body and a reasonable soul], of which the first Adam, and every man and woman descending from him, are possessed. Q. 14. Had our Redeemer always a true body and a reasonable soul, subsisting in his divine person? A. No: until he came in the fulness of time, and then took unto himself a true body and a reasonable soul. Q. 15. How do you prove that he took this human nature to himself? A. From Heb. ii. 14. 16. "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." Q. 16. Why is Christ said to take to himself a [true body]? A. To show that he had real flesh and bones as we have, Luke xxiv. 39: and that it was not only the mere shape and appearance of a human body, some ancient heretics al as A. He is called Man, and the Son of man, Psalm 1xxx. 27; he was conceived and born, Matth. i. 20. 25; he was subject to hunger, thirst, and weariness, like other men; he was crucified, dead, buried, and rose again: none of which could be affirmed of him, if he had not had a true body. Q. 18. Had not he [a reasonable soul], as well as a true body? A. Yes: otherwise he had wanted the principal constituent part of the human nature; accordingly we read, that his "soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death," Matth. xxvi. 38. Q. 19. Why was not the human body created immediately out of nothing, or out of the dust of the earth, as Adam's body was? A. Because, in that case, though he would have had a true body, yet it would not have been akin to us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Q. 20. Did Christ bring his human nature from heaven with him? A. No: for he was the "seed of the woman," Gen. iii. 15. Q. 21. How then is it said, 1 Cor. xv. 47. "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man, is the Lord from heaven?" A. The plain meaning is, the first man had his first original from the earth; but the second man, as to his divine nature, is the eternal, independent, and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, equally with the Father; and as to his human nature, there was a more glorious concurrence of the adorable Trini. ty, in the formation of it, than in making of the first Adam. Q. 22. What was the peculiar agency of each person of the adorable Trinity in this wonder ful work? A. The Father prepares a body, or human nature for him, Heb. x. 5; the Holy Ghost forms it, by his overshadowing power, out of the substance of the virgin, Luke i. 35; and the Son assumes the entire human nature to himself, Heb. ii. 14. 16. Q. 23. Why was Christ born of a [virgin]? A. That the human nature might be found again in its primitive purity; and presented to God as spotless as it was in its first creation, free from the contagion of original sin, which is conveyed to all Adam's posterity by natural generation. Q. 24. Was it necessary that Christ should be [conceived and born without sin]? A. It was absolutely necessary; both because the human nature was to subsist in union with the person of the Son of God; and likewise because it was to be a sacrifice for sin, and therefore behoved to be without blemish, Heb. vii. 26. from Adam by ordinary generation; Christ rebuked her for going beyond her sphere, John ii. 4; and she needed a Saviour as much as others; and believed in him for salvation from sin, Luke i. 47. Q. 27. What necessarily follows upon the union of the two natures? A. A communication of the properties of each nature to the whole person. Q. 28. How doth the scripture apply this communication of properties to his person? A. By ascribing that to his person, which properly belongs to one of his natures. Q. 29. How is this illustrated in scripture? A. It is illustrated thus: though it was only the human nature that suffered, yet God is said to purchase his church with his own blood, Acts xx. 28; and though it was only the human nature that ascended to heaven, yet, by reason of the personal union, God is said to go up with a shout, Psal. xlvii. 5. Q. 30. Can an imaginary idea of Christ, as man, be any way helpful to the faith of his being God-man? A. It is so far from being any Q. 25. What benefit or ad-way helpful, that it is every vantage accrues to us by the way hurtful: because it is a dispotless holiness of the human verting the mind from the ob nature of Christ? ject of faith, to an object of A. The spotless holiness of sense; by the means whereof we his human nature is imputed to cannot believe any truth whatus as a part of his righteousness, soever, divine or human: all 1 Cor. i. 30; and it is a sure ear-faith being founded solely and nest of our perfect sanctification entirely upon a testimony. at last, Col. ii. 9, 10. Q. 26. Was not the [virgin Mary], the mother of our Lord, a sinner as well as others? A. Yes: for she descended Q. 31. How then is the person of Christ, God-man, to be conceived of? A. It can be conceived of no other way, than by faith and spiritual understanding: or, by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, Eph. i. 17. Q. 32. What improvement ought we to make of Christ's incarnation? A. To claim him as our own, in virtue of his wearing our nature, saying, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given," Isa. ix. 6; or, which is the same thing, to follow the practice fof Ruth, in lying down at the feet of our blessed Boaz, saying, Spread thy skirt over me; that is, take me, a poor bankrupt sinner, into a marriage relation with thee, "for thou art my near kinsman," Ruth iii. 9. QUEST. 23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer? ANSW. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. Q. 1. What is the general office of Christ, which respects the whole of his undertaking, and runs through the whole of the covenant made with him? A. It is his being the only Mediator between God and man, 1 Tim. ii. 5. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Q. 2. What doth the office of a Mediator between God and man suppose? A. It supposes a breach between them, occasioned by sin on man's part, Isa. lix. 2. Q. 3. Could a mere verbal intercession make up this breach? A. By no means; nothing less than a full rèparation for all the damages which sin had done to the honour of God, and his law, could do it away, Isa. liii. 10. Q. 4. Was none but Christ fit for being Mediator in this respect? A. None else: because there was no other who stood related to the two families of heaven and earth, which were at variance, in such a manner as he did. Q. 5. How stood he related to these two families? A. By being, from eternity, God equal with the Father, he stood naturally and essentially related to heaven, John x. 30; and by consenting to become man, he stood voluntarily and freely related to earth, Phil. ii. 6, 7. Q. 6. What are the branches of Christ's mediatory office; or the particular offices included therein? A. They are three; namely, his office of a [Prophet], Deut. xviii. 15; of a [Priest], Psal. cx. 4; and of a [King], Psal. ii. 6. Q. 7. Have each of these offices the same relation to the covenant whereof he is Mediator? A. His priestly office, as to |