A53708:359
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 9: The Glory of Christ in his intimate Conjunction with the Church.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. THIS Conjunction between him and the Church, did not arise from a necessity of Nature, but from a voluntary act of his Will. The Conjunction that is between all others is necessary. Every Man is every Mans Brother whether he will or no, by being a Man. Natural Generation communicating to every one his subsistence in the same Nature, prevents all acts of their own Will and Choice. With the Lord Christ it was otherwise as the Text affirms: For such Reasons as are there expressed, he did by an act of his own Will partake of Flesh and Blood, or came into this Conjunction with us. He did it of his own choice, because the Children did partake of the same. He would be what the Children where. Wherefore the Conjunction of Christ in humane Nature with the Church, is ineffably distinct from that common Conjunction which ⟨p. 110⟩is amongst all others in the same Nature. And therefore although it should not be meet amongst mere Men, that one should act and suffer in the stead of others, because they are all thus related to one another as it were whether they will or no; yet this could not reach the Lord Christ, who in a strange and wonderful manner came into this Conjunction by a meet act of his own.
1. THIS Conjunction between him and the Church, did not arise from a necessity of Nature, but from a voluntary act of his Will. The Conjunction that is between all others is necessary. Every Man is every Mans Brother whether he will or no, by being a Man. Natural Generation communicating to every one his subsistence in the same Nature, prevents all acts of their own Will and Choice. With the Lord Christ it was otherwise as the Text affirms: For such Reasons as are there expressed, he did by an act of his own Will partake of Flesh and Blood, or came into this Conjunction with us. He did it of his own choice, because the Children did partake of the same. He would be what the Children where. Wherefore the Conjunction of Christ in humane Nature with the Church, is ineffably distinct from that common Conjunction which ⟨p. 110⟩is amongst all others in the same Nature. And therefore altho it should not be meet amongst meer Men, that one should act and suffer in the stead of others, because they are all thus related to one another as it were whether they will or no; yet this could not reach the Lord Christ, who in a strange and wonderful manner came into this Conjunction by a meet act of his own.