his life or soule actively to the word. The resurrection of Christ is an essentiall part of our Redemption: but Christ roseIun. ibid. cap. 6. not. 1.
Rom. 8.34.
and 4.25.
Rom 1.4. not by the propriety of his flesh, but by the power of his Deity. Christ as Mediatour performed many divine acts: but the humanity alone cannot be the beginning of a divine act: as[errata 1] Christ as Mediatour hath authority to forgive sins,Mar. 2.10. to send the holy SpiritJoh. 15.26. and 16.7. not meritoriously alone, as Bellarmine distinguisheth, but efficiently, to conjoyne us unto God, and bring us to salvation. Christ as Mediatour is the King and Head of his Church, which dignity and office cannot agree to him that is meere man.Meritum Mediationis est, & Mediatio personae. For the Head is to give influence of sence and motion unto the body, and Christ gives supernaturall sence and motion unto his mysticall body, and that both by way of efficiency, and by way of disposition, fitting us that an impression of grace may be made upon us.A tota quidem Trinitate datur Spiritus: sed ad personam Mediatoris haec actio terminatur quoad ὀικονομίαν He prepareth and fitteth men to the receipt of grace by the acts of his humanity, in which he suffered death, and dying satisfied Gods wrath, removed all matter of dislike, procured the favour and acceptation of God, and so made men fit to receive the grace of God, and to enjoy his favour. He imparteth and conferreth grace, by the operation and working of his divine nature, it being the proper worke of God to enlighten the understandings of men, and to soften their hearts.
If it be alleadged, that there is nothing that one person of the Trinity doth towards the creatures, but they all doe it, and consequently, that those things which Christ did in his divine nature, pertained not to the office of a Mediatour, being common to all the Persons.
The answer is, though the action be the same, and the worke done by them, yet they differ in the manner of doing it. For the Father doth all things authoritativè, and the Son subauthoritativè, as the Schoole-men speake; that is, the Father, as he from whom, and of whom are all things; the Son as he by whom are all things, not as by an instrument, but a principall efficient. And in this sort to quicken, give life, and to impart the Spirit of Sanctification to whom he pleaseth, especially with a kind of concurring of the humane nature meriting, desiring, and instrumentally assisting, is proper to the Son of God, manifested in our flesh, and not common to the whole Trinity. As the second person in Trinity did assume our nature, and not the Father or the holy Ghost:and
- ↑ Correction: as should be amended to
