A69028:1557
The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as…
The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as it affordeth both milk for babes, and strong meat for such as are at full age / by ... Nicholas Bifield ; ... now published ... by his son, Adoniram Bifield.The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as it affordeth both milke for babes, and strong meat for such as are at full age / by ... Nicholas Bifield ; ... now published ... by his sonne, Adoniram Bifield.
London: printed by G.M. for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith, 1626
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.
2. The nature of man as it was in the womb of the Virgin, was in the very moment of the Conception joined to the Nature of God in personal union, so as soul and body in Christ did not make a person, as it doth in other men, but did and do subsist in the person of the Son of God, being carried and upheld by the divine nature of Christ, so as both his natures make but one person in him: and this may be gathered out of these places, Luke 1. 36. Isaiah 7. 14.
2. The nature of man as it was in the wombe of the Virgin, was in the very moment of the Conception ioyned to the Nature of God in personall vnion, so as soule and body in Christ did not make a person, as it doth in other men, but did and doe subsist in the person of the Sonne of God, being carried and vpheld by the diuine nature of Christ, so as both his natures make but one person in him: and this may bee gathered out of these places, Luke 1. 36. Esay 7. 14.
3. We may approach to a better understanding of this union, if we consider it by way of negation, how it differs from other unions: The word and the flesh are made one, not in Essence, as the Persons in Trinity are one, nor in nature as soul and body make a third nature, nor is this union carnal, as man and wife are one: nor spiritual or mystical as God and the faithful are one, or as Christ and the Church ⟨p. 252⟩are one, but personal, the two natures being one in person: Nor is the flesh in the Word, by simple inhabitation, as the sails are in the ship; nor by affection, as two friends are one; nor in respect of joint worship, as if only the humane nature had the honour to be worshipped with the divine; nor in respect of Harmony or consent, as if only the divine and humane will of Christ did agree; nor in respect of Title only, as if the flesh of Christ had no more but the honour to be called by the same Title his Divinity is, as the Son of God, or Christ, or the like; nor by mingling the humane nature with the divine, to make a certain third thing: but the humane nature is fastened to the divine nature in the unity of person, after an unconceivable manner, so as the divine nature is not changed, nor either nature altered, nor separated by distance one from another.