ARTICLE II. ARTICULUS II. De Verbo, sive Filio Dei, qui verus homo factus est. FILIUS, qui est Verbum Patris, ab æterno a Patre genitus, verus1 et æternus Deus, ac Patri consubstantialis, in utero beatæ Virginis, ex illius substantia naturam humanam assumpsit: ita ut duæ naturæ, divina et humana, integre atque perfecte in unitate personæ fuerint inseparabiliter conjunctæ, ex quibus est unus Christus, verus Deus et verus homo, qui vere passus est, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, ut Patrem nobis reconciliaret, essetque hostia, non tantum pro culpa originis, verum etiam pro omnibus actualibus hominum pec catis. ARTICLE II. Of the Word, or Son of GOD, which was made very man. THE SON, which is the Word of the FATHER, begotten from everlasting of the FATHER, the very and eternal GOD, of one substance with the FATHER, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the GODHEAD and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one CHRIST, very GOD, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His FATHER to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men. I. The Phraseology of this Article. 1. As compared with its correspondent of the Articles of 1552. 1 Verus: i.e. not metaphorically, as by adoption, but properly and really. Ten PROPOSITIONS. I. The SON is the Word of the FATHER. II. The SON is begotten from everlasting of the FATher. III. The SON is very and eternal GOD. IV. The SON is of one substance with the FATHER. V. The Son took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance. VI. When the SON took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance, two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the GODHEAD and Manhood, were joined together in one Person. VII. The two natures joined together in one Person are never to be divided. VIII. Of the two natures imseparably joined together is one CHRIST. IX. CHRIST is very GOD and very Man. X. CHRIST truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His FATHER to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men. PROP. I. The SON is the Word of the FATHER. A. Reason. As words or speech are the medium by which man makes known what is in his mind to man, so the Mediator, who reveals the will of His FATHER to man, is fitly called Logos. B. Divine Testimony. a. Old Testament. Ps. xxxiii. 6. "By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth." See Prov. viii. 1, especially 22. b. New Testament. John i. 1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD." On the use of the term Logos by the Gnostics, and its adoption by St. John, see Dr. Burton's Bampton Lectures, and Notes. The SON is the same Person with Him John i. 1. "The Word was GOD." nacled) among us." Ib. i. 15. "John bare witness of Him." Ib. i. 16. "He of whom John bare witness was Jesus." See also Col. i. 15, 18; Heb. i. 2, 6; 2 Pet. iii. 5; 1 John i. 1; Rev. xix. 13. C. Human Testimony. a. Jews. In the Chaldee Targums occur passages in which the word, T: or memra of JEHOVAH stands confessedly in a personal sense. Philo also as clearly applies the phrase in a personal sense to the Son of GOD. The same statement holds good with respect to the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. See Wisdom of Solomon x. 15-19; xi. 1-4; xviii. 15. (Comp. 1 Cor. x. 4, 9.) Eccles. i. 1; vii. 22-25; viii. 1; x. 1, 15; xxiv. 3. b. Christians. a. Fathers. Just. Mart. 2 Apol. c. vI. "The SON of GOD, Who alone in a proper sense is called SoN, the Logos who was with Him and begotten before His works, since by Him in the beginning He created and arranged all things, is called CHRIST.". See also Dial. with Trypho, cc. lxi. lxii. Irenæus against Heretics, lib. 1. c. i. § 20. "Know ye, who are void of understanding, that JESUS, Who suffered for 3 Bertholdt Christol. Jud. Wegscheider. 4 Dr. Pye Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, ii. vii. 4. us, and Who dwelt among us, even He Origen against Celsus, B. iii. p. 135. "Let our accusers know, that He whom we think and believe to be from the beginning GOD, and the SON of GOD, is the very Word, the very Wisdom, and the very Truth." Cyprian on the Vanity of Idols. "He is the Power of GOD, His Reason, His Wisdom, and His Glory."-See also Tertull. Adv. Prax. cc. v. vii. Apol. c. xxi. Hippol. De Antichrist. c. iii. Euseb. Evang. lib. 1. c. xvi. xix. B. Confessions. Augsburg, Art. III. Belgic, Art. vIII. X. PROP. II. The SON is begotten from everlasting of the FATHER. 1. Reason. Had the SoN been begotten in time, He would have been a creature. 2. Divine Testimony. A. Old Testament. Prov. viii. 22, 23. "The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." See also Ps. ii. 7; cx. 3. Prov. viii. 25; XXX. 4. Isa. ix. 9; liii. 8. Mic. v. 2. B. New Testament. John i. 14. "And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the FATHER." See also Matt. iii. 17; viii. 29; ix. 35; xiv. 33; xvi. 13-18. John i. 14, 33; iii. 16, 18; iv. 49; v. 17, 18, 26; vii. 29; xi. 27; x. 30; xx. 31. Acts viii 35. Rom. 1. 3, 4; vi. 32; viii. 3, 32. Col. i. 15. Gal. iv. 4. Heb. i. 3, 6; iii. 5, 6; iv. 14; v. 8; vii. 28. 1 John i. 7; ii. 23; iii. 8; iv. 9, 10; v. 20. |