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WILBERFORCE ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION.

The Doctrine of the Incarnation of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, in its relation to Mankind and the Church. By ROBERT ISAAC WILBERFORCE, M.A., Archdeacon of the East Riding. London: Murray, pp. 548.

IN narrating the controversies in the early Church respecting the fact of our LORD's Incarnation, Gibbon thus comments upon the definitions of Faith agreed upon in the fourth Ecumenical Council. "The synod of Chalcedon still triumphs in the Protestant Churches, but the fervour of controversy has subsided and the most pious Christians of the present day are ignorant or careless of their own belief concerning the mystery of the Incarnation."* Bitter as is the sarcasm of the infidel historian, it must be admitted to be not altogether undeserved. Though no pious Christian, on account of the testimony borne to this cardinal verity in the Athanasian symbol, can be ignorant that it is necessary to everlasting salvation, to believe rightly the Incarnation of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, or ignorant what the right Faith is; still it is too true that many are sadly careless of the awful truth. Nay, not a few of those who are considered pious Christians undervalue this article of the Faith under the impression, false of course, that it borders closely upon the GoD-denying heresy of the Socinian, the dogma of transubstantiation, and what is sometimes not very reverently nicknamed Mariolatry. Hence they consider themselves to be justified in being indifferent to the doctrine itself. Anyhow it is a striking fact that popular theologians very seldom dwell upon this truth either in their teaching or writings; and we should never conclude from the cursory allusions to it there met with, that an inspired Apostle had declared: "Every spirit that confesseth not that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh, is not of GOD: and this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come."

Indeed the minuteness with which this doctrine has been revealed in Scripture, and the anxiety with which it has ever been maintained by the Church, lead us to predicate the most important doctrinal and practical obligations to rest upon it. It is not too much to say that the economy of human redemption is founded upon it. Of all importance therefore must the doctrine of our LORD's Incarnation be to the Church and the world, and no greater benefit can be conferred upon Christians than to confirm their faith

* Gibbon, Vol. VII. p. 313.

in a fact which in these latitudinarian days many are practically ignorant of, and all perhaps more or less indifferent to. This is the great value of the volume before us, and in proceeding to lay before our readers the foundation on which this doctrine rests, and the consequences which flow from it, we are only treading in the path marked out for us by Archdeacon Wilberforce. But before entering upon it we would, in the writer's own words, fain express that deepening awe with which every step in this sacred inquiry has impressed our own mind. For, when leaving that higher nature of the Ever Blessed TRINITY, and those separate parts of our LORD's character which are first considered, we approach the application of these great realities to the salvation of mankind, the subjeet in reality to be contemplated is that wonderful chain by which GOD's goodness has united heaven and earth-that condescension which could stoop from the height of heaven to the manger and the Cross-and that marvellous interdependency which can bind together the eternal nature of self-existent Godhead, and the daily actions of man's common life, and make the one of these assist and be essential to the other. Who can meditate on this stupenduous example of power and mercy, and not exclaim with the patriarch, to whom in a vision it was once presented," Surely the LORD is in this place and I knew it not ?"

We need scarcely observe that this stupendous truth is founded upon the fact of the Second Person in the Blessed TRINITY-the Everlasting Son of the FATHER-having taken man's nature upon Him in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and thus becoming the Pattern Man, the Second Adam, He was made the Mediator between GoD and man, and so restored that intercourse between man and his CREATOR, which the sin of the first Adam had suspended. In the manhood thus taken into GOD, CHRIST lived, died, ascended, and now ever liveth to make intercession for us in heaven. This truth, as reference to the acts of the Council of Chalcedon shows, strikes at the root of the Arian, Apollinarian, Sabellian, Nestorian, and the cognate heresies, and also at a heresy which, though much disguised and more subtle, is equally dangerous and very common-the heresy of Rationalism-which may be said to be the sin of this our age.

Now the characteristic difference between the system of Rationalism and that of the Church, is that the latter makes the individual the starting point for all improvement, whereas the Church's starting point is CHRIST. Rationalism is for dealing with nature as it finds it it takes man such as he is, with the powers and the faculties which he possesses, and supposes that their cultivation enable him to shake off the evils and impurities which all deplore. The man himself, therefore, is the commencement of all renewal; he may use God's grace indeed he may invoke the name of CHRIST-but in himself is the ultimate principle of regeneration.

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Such is the deadly system which ignores the mediation of CHRIST, and exalts man to be his own mediator.

If it be asked in what our LORD's mediation, which is a consequence of His Incarnation, consists, and how we may become partakers of it, the volume before us will give us the teaching of the Church upon this vital subject. We find that our LORD's mediation has two aspects, one in reference to His acts before His Ascension, the other to those acts of mediation which He now carries on in behalf of His Church, in Heaven. These last are His Intercession and His spiritual presence with His people on earth. And it is in respect of His Incarnation that either of those acts of mediation are performed. This will not be disputed as regards our LORD's Intercession in Heaven, and equally true is it, when He promised to be with those who are gathered together in His Name on earth, that the special presence is vouchsafed in respect of His human nature; otherwise, there is nothing peculiar in that pres ence, for as GOD He is omnipresent. This presence however is by spiritual power, and not by material contact, a truth which some consider to be a contradiction of terms, but which may thus be proved and illustrated. The word spirit is derived from "spiro," to breathe or blow, in consequence of the analogy pointed out by our LORD Himself between the more subtle part of the material world, and that world which is immaterial. But because the word "spirit" is a metaphorical term, derived in the Latin and Greek languages from the action of the breath, we are not to infer that there is no such principle in man as an immaterial soul. . . . When we speak therefore of our LORD's spiritual Presence, we employ a figurative term certainly, because it is borrowed from the world of matter; but it is not less a reality that some peculiar influence or power of the mediator, the GoD-Man, is exerted through the intervention of His DEITY, in those places, times, and manners, to which His presence is pledged in the kingdom of Grace. (p. 286.)

The question which next suggests itself is, how may each child of fallen Adam be admitted into the Presence of the Second Adam, the Head of the renewed race of man? by what means may each individual man obtain an interest in that work of mediation which was wrought in expiation on the Cross; which is still discharged by Intercession in heaven, and whose sphere of operation is as extensive as that Presence upon earth, which the GOD-Man vouchsafes through spiritual power. (p. 315.)

To partake of this Presence of our LORD, is to be united to His manhood, and this union, as Holy Scripture teaches, is effected by our union with the Church which is His Body Mystical. The union between CHRIST and His Church is so intimate that the Church is declared to be the Body of CHRIST, a fact that is surely most significant. For why should the Church be called a body,

and especially why should it be called the body of CHRIST, did not some relation bind it to that body of CHRIST which came into existence at His Incarnation. A real and not a metaphorical conjunction must be designed, when we read, "Ye are the body of CHRIST, and members in particular." The Church also is one because it is the Body of CHRIST, and because it is quickened by His spiritual presence. Hence results the importance of the ordinances of the Church, its hallowed things, places, and persons, its worship and Sacraments, which are the media through which the Son of Man communicates Himself to His brethren. To think to approach GOD without these media is nothing less than to reject His appointment, and to interpose things of our own invention between GOD and man. Our own faith, reason, feelings, emotions, are parts of ourselves, subjective; our only Mediator, the Man CHRIST JESUS, is objective. We must come unto the FATHER by Him, and while inward seriousness, and a due preparation of the heart is absolutely necessary, still to speak of this as superseding outward media of approach, what is it but to deny CHRIST and depose Him from His office of mediator, and thus to deny practically our LORD's Incarnation?

The most obvious of these media is the common worship of Christians, which is the voice of CHRIST's mystical body, testifying to His living Presence. And we accordingly find that in all ages of the Gospel, this medium of access has been used as indispensable to our union with CHRIST. Even in times of the bitterest persecution, common worship might not be dispensed, and when no longer able to assemble openly, the faithful gathered themselves as such in caves and catacombs, as we learn from the well-known letter of Pliny to Trajan, the truth of which is still evidenced by the present condition of the Roman catacombs.

In the old dispensation, which, as the Fathers say, was the new foretold, we find that that was the peculiar blessing of the Jew over the nations of the ancient world. What nation is there, asks Moses, who hath GOD So nigh unto them as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? And as the Jew could not approach GoD except through the intervention of the MESSIAH that was to come, so cannot a Christian except through the MESSIAH which is come. It was that which made the private prayer of the Jew acceptable to GOD, just as the prayer of the Christian is available, not for its own earnestness only, but on account of that Intercession which is offered by CHRIST for the whole Christian body. The profession therefore to worship CHRIST singly through the mere exercise of private faith, which is the system of the quakers and some other sectaries, is a disparagement of our LORD's mediation, and that because, as our author tells us, His mediation does not depend merely upon our calling ourselves by His name or on our entertaining certain feelings towards Him; but results from

that actual relation which He condescended to assume towards us when He took our nature into abiding union with His own. His mediation is a reality external to ourselves, and not a mere matter of our own imagination. It is not enough to say that we gain certain blessings by resorting to that Divine being, Who happened once to be upon earth, as though He accidentally undertook the office of speaking in our favour; but His mediation is the consequence of that permanent character which He was pleased to adopt by assuming manhood. He thus became the head of the renewed family, Who offered Himself a sacrifice on behalf of the whole, and through Whom all graces devolve upon the rest, and therefore by a singular fitness was He marked out to be representative of His brethren. So that towards the completeness of His work it was essential that those for whom He spoke should be as truly bound to His manhood as by descent they were to their original parent. For this work was expressly declared to be undertaken on behalf of His mystical body. It is for those who believe in Him through His Apostles' words, and who are one as we are one," that He intercedes with the FATHER. Would we have part then in His intercession as mediator, we must be members of that "family in heaven and earth which is called after His name, and therefore the notion of a mere individual relation to our LORD, independently of that social tie which binds us to Him as a part of His mystic body, would lead, when followed into its results to the virtual denial of that office which He discharges as man: CHRIST would be received according to the Sabellian theory as a mere name or relation under which in this present dispensation the FATHER of all has pleased to reveal Himself; and His actual intervention as a person, other than the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST, and as co-operating through that nature which He took of the virgin in the great work of bringing many sons unto salvation, would be practically forgotten." (p. 370.)

From hence we see why common worship and not mere private devotion is the medium of our participation of the mediation of CHRIST, which is the consequence of His Incarnation. A system of worship upon earth is the necessary correlative to a work of Intercession in heaven. And as the Holy Communion is the chief part of that system, while all other acts of worship were considered sacrificial, that was ever esteemed the great Christian sacrifice. And this because what is pleaded above as the ground of our acceptance is that true manhood which was taken for the purpose of mediation by the Son of GOD. Through the bread and wine commanded by our LORD Himself to be received, that which is offered as a true sacrifice in heaven is present as a real though immaterial agent in earth in the Church's ministrations. And although the real presence in the Eucharist does not necessarily imply a corporal presence, what is done by CHRIST'S Ministers below, is a constituent part