CHAPTER III

OF THE SECOND ARTICLE

“AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD”

QUESTION I

Of the Second Article, and the Usefulness of the Profession thereof

That the advantage which flows to the human race from the belief and profession of this article is most wonderful and abundant, is shown by the testimony of St. John: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God; and also by the address of Christ our Lord, proclaiming the Prince of the Apostles blessed, for the confession of this truth: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. For this is the most firm basis of our salvation and redemption.

QUESTION II

How we may best learn to estimate the value of the blessing propounded in this Article

But, whereas the fruit of this admirable advantage is best understood, by considering the ruin brought on man, in his fall from that most happy state in which God had placed our first parents, let the pastor take particular care that the faithful be made acquainted with the cause of these common miseries and calamities. When Adam had departed from the obedience due to God, and had violated that prohibition: Of every tree of Paradise eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death; he fell into the extreme calamity of losing the sanctity and righteousness in which he had been placed, and of becoming subject to all those other evils, which are detailed more at large by the holy Council of Trent. [The pastors], therefore, will remind [their flocks], that sin and the punishment of sin were not confined to Adam, but have justly descended from him, as from their seed and cause, to all his posterity.

QUESTION III

No one but Christ was able to restore the Human Race

The human race having thus fallen from their most lofty grade of dignity, the power of men or angels could not by any means uplift them from their fallen condition, and replace them in their primitive state. Wherefore, there was left that one remedy for the evil, and reparation for the loss, that the infinite power of the Son of God, having assumed the weakness of our flesh, should remove the infinite weight of sin, and reconcile us to God in his blood.

QUESTION IV

Without the belief of our Redemption, no one could ever be saved; and therefore Christ has been frequently foretold from the beginning of the world

Now the belief and confession of this our redemption, which God held out in the beginning, are now, and always were, necessary to the obtaining of salvation. For in the sentence of condemnation, pronounced against the human race immediately after the sin [of Adam], the hope of redemption was also held out in these words, by which [God] denounced to the devil the loss which he was to sustain by the redemption of man: I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: she shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. The same promise he thenceforth often confirmed, and more distinctly signified his counsels to those men especially whom he desired to make objects of his particular blessings, and amongst others to the patriarch Abraham, to whom he often signified this mystery, but then more openly, when he was willing, in obedience to God’s command, to sacrifice his only son Isaac: Because, says he, thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore. Thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. From which words it was easy to infer that he who was to bring salvation to all mankind from the most dreadful tyranny of Satan, was to be of the progeny of Abraham; and that the Son of God was of necessity to be born of the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh. Not very long after, to preserve the memory of this promise, the Lord renewed the same covenant with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham; for when, as the Scripture testifies, Jacob saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels also of God ascending and descending by it, he also heard the Lord, leaning upon the ladder, saying to him, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth: thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and thy seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed. Nor did God cease afterwards, by renewing the recollection of the same promise, to excite in the race of Abraham, and in many other men, the expectation of a Saviour; for, after the establishment of the Jewish republic and religion, it became better known to his people. Types signified, and men foretold, what manner of blessings, and how great ones, that Saviour and Redeemer of ours, Christ Jesus, was to bring to mankind. And, indeed, the prophets, whose minds were illumined with heavenly light, foretold the birth of the Son of God, the wondrous works which he wrought, being born a man, his doctrine, manners, intercourse, death, resurrection, and the other mysteries regarding him; and all these as graphically, as if they were then passing before their eyes. In fact, if the diversity of time future and time past be removed, we can perceive no difference between the predictions of the prophets and the preaching of the apostles, between the faith of the ancient patriarchs and our own. But we must now speak of the several parts of this article.

QUESTION V

Of the name “Jesus,” and that it properly belongs to Christ

Jesus is the proper name of him who is God and man, and signifies Saviour; a name given to him not accidentally, nor by the judgment or will of man, but by the counsel and command of God. For the angel announced thus to Mary his mother: Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; and afterwards not only commanded Joseph, who was espoused to the Virgin, that he should call the child by that name, but also declared the reason why he should be so called: Joseph, says he, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

QUESTION VI

This name is applied to other men, but not for the same reason

In the Holy Scriptures many were called by this name; for instance, Jesu the son of Nave, who succeeded Moses, and conducted into the land of promise the people whom Moses had delivered from Egypt, [a privilege] which had been denied to him. By the same name also were called the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, who received wisdom from his heart, and the son of Josedech the priest. But how much more truly shall we deem this name given to him who gave light, liberty, and salvation, not to one people only, but to all men, of all ages, men not oppressed indeed by famine, or by Egyptian or Babylonish bondage, but sitting in the shadow of death, and fettered by the most galling chains of sin and of the devil; to him who purchased for them a right to the inheritance of heaven, who reconciled them to God the Father. In those men we recognize so many figurative representations of Christ our Lord, by whom these blessings, which we have enumerated, were accumulated on the human race. To this one name Jesus are moreover to be referred all other names, which were predicted to be given by divine appointment to the Son of God; for whilst they partially hinted at the salvation which he was to bring unto us, this fully embraced the force and character of the universal salvation of mankind.

QUESTION VII

Of the name “Christ,” and for what reasons it is suited to Jesus

To the name Jesus is also added that of Christ, which signifies the anointed; and is a name expressive both of honour and of office, and not peculiar to one thing, but common to many; for our fathers of old called priests and kings, whom God, on account of the dignity of their office, commanded to be anointed, Christs. For priests are they who commend the people to God by assiduous prayers, offer sacrifice to God, and deprecate his wrath on behalf of the people; while to kings is intrusted the government of the people, and to them principally belongs the protection of the authority of the law, and of the lives of the innocent, and the punishment of those who offend. As then both of these functions seem to represent the majesty of God on earth, those who were appointed to the royal or sacerdotal office, were, therefore, anointed with oil. Prophets also were usually anointed, who, as the interpreters and ambassadors of the immortal God, unfolded to us the secrets of heaven, and by salutary precepts, and the prediction of future events, exhorted us to amendment of life. But when Jesus Christ our Saviour came into the world, he took upon himself these three characters of Prophet, Priest, and King, and is therefore called Christ, having been anointed for the discharge of these functions, not by the act of any mortal, but by the power of his heavenly Father; not with earthly ointment, but with a spiritual oil; for into his most holy soul were poured the fulness and grace of the Holy Ghost, and a more abundant effusion of all gifts than any other created being could receive. This the prophet clearly shows, when he addresses the Redeemer himself in these words: Thou hast loved righteousness and hatest iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed, thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. The same is also much more explicitly set forth by the prophet Isaiah in these words: The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me; he hath sent me to preach unto the meek. Jesus Christ, therefore, was the great prophet and teacher, who hath taught us the will of God, and by whose instruction the world has received the knowledge of the Heavenly Father; and to him pre-eminently and surpassingly belongs the name [of Prophet], for all others who were dignified with that name were his disciples, sent principally in order that they might announce that prophet who was to come to save all men. Christ was also a Priest, not indeed of the tribe of Levi, as were the priests under the old law, but of that of which the royal prophet sang: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech. Of this subject the apostle accurately pursues the argument in his epistle to the Hebrews. Christ, not only as he is God, but also as he is man, and partakes of our nature, we likewise acknowledge to be King; of him the angel testified: He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. This kingdom of Christ is spiritual and eternal, is begun on earth, but perfected in heaven; and the duties of king he indeed discharges with admirable providence towards his Church, seeing that he governeth her and guardeth her from the open attacks and covert designs of her enemies, prescribes to her laws, and imparts to her not only holiness and righteousness, but also power and strength to persevere. But, although within the limits of this kingdom are contained the good as well as the bad, and thus to it all men by right belong; yet those who, in conformity with his precepts, lead an unsullied and innocent life, experience, beyond all others, the sovereign goodness and beneficence of our king. Although descended from the most illustrious race of kings, he nevertheless obtained not this his kingdom by hereditary or human right, but he was a king, because God bestowed on the man [Jesus] all the power, dignity, and majesty of which human nature is capable. To him, therefore, God delivered the government of the whole world; and to him, as has already commenced, all things shall be made fully and entirely subject on the day of judgment.

QUESTION VIII AND IX

How it becomes us to believe and confess Jesus Christ “the only Son” of God

In these words, more exalted mysteries with regard to Jesus are proposed to the faithful, as objects of belief and contemplation; namely, that he is the Son of God, and true God, as is the Father who begat him from eternity. We further confess that he is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, equal in all things to the other two; for, in the divine persons nothing unequal or unlike should exist, or be imagined to exist, whereas we acknowledge the essence, will, and power of all to be one; a truth clearly revealed in many of the oracles of Sacred Scripture, and most sublimely set forth, in that testimony of St. John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

But, when we hear that Jesus is the Son of God, we are not to understand anything earthly or mortal of his birth; but are firmly to believe, and with the deepest piety of heart to adore, that origin by which, from all eternity, the Father begat the Son; a mystery which, by force of reason, we can by no means fully conceive or comprehend, and at the contemplation of which, overwhelmed, as it were, with admiration, we should say with the prophet, Who shall declare his generation? On this point, then, we are to believe, that the Son is of the same nature, of the same power and wisdom with the Father; as we more explicitly confess in these words of the Nicene Creed: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all worlds; God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Amongst the different comparisons which are brought forward to elucidate the mode and manner of this eternal generation, that which is borrowed from the thoughts of the mind, seems to come nearest to the subject; and hence St. John calls the Son the Word. For as the human mind, in some sort understanding itself, forms an image of itself, which theologians have expressed by the term word, so God, as far, however, as we may compare human things with divine, understanding himself, begets the Eternal Word. It is better, however, to contemplate what faith proposes, and, with a sincere heart, believe and confess that Jesus Christ is very God and very man; as God, begotten of the Father before all ages; as man, born in time of Mary, his virgin mother. Whilst, however, we thus acknowledge his twofold nativity, we believe him to be one son, because he is one person, in whom the divine and human natures agree.

QUESTION X

How Christ is to be considered as having, or as not having, Brethren

QUESTION XI

“Our Lord.” Christ is called our Lord according to both natures

Many things are recorded in Scripture of our Saviour, some of which, it is evident, apply to him as God, and some as man, because from his different natures he received the different properties that belong to each. Hence we say with truth, that Christ is Almighty, Eternal, Infinite, [attributes] which he has from his divine nature; and again, we say of him that he suffered, died, and rose again, which attributes are manifestly suited only to his human nature. Besides these, there are some others which agree with both natures; as when, in this article of the Creed, we say, our Lord. If, therefore, this name is applicable to both natures, he is with reason to be set forth as our Lord. For as he, as well as the Father, is eternal, so is he, equally with the Father, Lord of all things; and, as he and the Father are not, the one, one God, and the other, another God, but one and the same God; so likewise he and the Father are not, the one, one Lord, and the other, another Lord. As man, he is also, for many reasons, rightly called our Lord; and first, because he was our Redeemer, and delivered us from sin. This is the doctrine of the apostle: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death; even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, in earth, and in hell, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father; and of himself, he says, after his resurrection: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. He is also called Lord, because in one person are united both natures, the human and divine; and even had he not died for us, he had yet deserved, by this admirable union, to be constituted common Lord of all created things, but more particularly of the faithful who obey, and, in all the fervour of their souls, serve him.

QUESTION XII

Christians ought to give themselves wholly up to Jesus Christ, treading the Prince of Darkness under foot

It remains, therefore, that the pastor exhort the faithful people, that we, who derive our name from him, and are called Christians, and who cannot be ignorant of the extent of his favours, particularly in that, by his gift, we are enabled to understand all these things by faith, may know the very strict obligation we, above all other men, are under, of devoting and consecrating ourselves for ever, even as bond-servants, to our Redeemer and our Lord. This we promised when we were being initiated by baptism, and before our introduction into the Church; for we then declared that we renounced the devil and the world, and gave ourselves wholly up to Jesus Christ. But if, to the end that we might be enrolled as soldiers of Christ, we then consecrated ourselves by a holy and solemn profession to our Lord, what punishment should we not deserve if, after having entered into the Church, and after having known the will and laws of God, and received the grace of the sacraments, we were to form our lives upon the laws and maxims of the world and the devil; as if, when cleansed in the waters of baptism, we had pledged our fidelity to the world and the devil, and not to Christ our Lord and Saviour? And what heart is so cold, as not to be inflamed with love by the prompt benevolence and beneficence of so great a Lord towards us, who, though holding us in his power and dominion, as slaves ransomed by his blood, yet embraces us with such love as to call us not servants, but friends and brethren? This, assuredly, is a most just and, perhaps, the strongest claim to induce us always to acknowledge, venerate, and adore him as our Lord.