[The Whole Body of Christian Religion, by Hieron Zanchius; Translated out of Latin by D. Ralph Winterton]
Girolamo Zanchi (Hieronymus Zanchius), that eminent Italian divine and confessor of the Reformed faith, was born in Alzano Lombardo in 1516, of noble descent, but soon orphaned and raised in the Augustinian order. Early trained in Aristotle and the sacred tongues, he was drawn to the Reformation under the ministry of Peter Martyr Vermigli, whose lectures on Romans especially wrought upon his soul. Zanchi diligently studied the writings of Calvin, Melanchthon, Bucer, and Luther, yet chiefly revered Calvin as the prince of exegetes. When persecution scattered the Italian Reformers, Zanchi fled to Strasbourg, where he became professor of Old Testament, noted for his rigorous, legal method and profound learning. His Calvinistic doctrine of predestination and irenic spirit in the Eucharistic controversies soon drew him into conflict with the Lutheran establishment, resulting in the Strasbourg Consensus. Yet, finding the compromise unsatisfactory and conscience bound, he departed, serving as pastor to Italian exiles in Chiavenna. In 1568, Zanchi was called to Heidelberg to succeed Ursinus as professor of theology. There he produced numerous scholastic works—most notably his Confession of the Christian Religion and De Natura Legis—defending Reformed doctrine with uncommon acumen. When the Palatinate turned Lutheran, he, with other faithful brethren, repaired to Neustadt, continuing his labors till his death in 1590. Zanchi’s scholarship, piety, and steadfastness rendered him a chief ornament of the Reformed churches—a “burning and shining light,” whose legacy endures in his writings and the testimony of those who heard and read him.
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Therefore, when the fulness of the time was come, in which the promise of redemption made unto the first man was to be fulfilled by the second: God sent forth, the eternal Father, his Son, only begotten and eternal, and therefore true God of the same nature with the Father, made of a woman, alone without the seed of man, and therefore true man; but without sin, and therefore true Christ; made under the law, and therefore also circumcised, that he might with most perfect obedience fulfill the law for us all, becoming obedient unto his Father even unto death, to wit, for us (for being without sin himself, he deserved not to die): to redeem them that were under the law, them that were, &c.—therefore all the elect: to redeem them, to wit, by his obedience, death, and blood shed, that is, a sacrifice of infinite virtue, and a price of redemption of the greatest efficacy (for it was the blood of God): to redeem them, I say, from their sins unto the former image of God, and so unto perfect righteousness; and from death likewise unto eternal life; and from the kingdom of Satan unto the kingdom of God: that we might receive the adoption of sons, and so at length be received unto the full and perfect possession of an heavenly inheritance, as sons and lawful heirs; and to conclude, that he might gather together in one head all things both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, and that he might make them cleave fast unto him, to the praise of his glory.
We believe therefore that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and therefore his Son by nature, coessential with the Father, and coeternal, true God and Lord Jehovah: and we believe that the same Jesus Christ is also true man of the seed of Abraham and David, conceived of the Holy Ghost without the help of man, in the womb of the Virgin without sin: born of her, having a true human soul and mind, being made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. So that he is true God of the substance of his Father begotten before all worlds, and man of the substance of his mother born in the world.
But so do we believe that the Son of God is both true God and Man together, and therefore true Christ, that we confess him only to be so, and none besides: for we read not that the Father or the Holy Ghost, but the Word only was made flesh: and the Apostle saith that the Son was made of a woman, and so he only suffered: although to the creation of the nature assumed by the Son, not only the Son, but the Father also and the Holy Ghost, concurred.
But we believe that the Son of God was made Man, not by any conversion of himself into flesh, not by any mutation in the flesh, not by any confusion of the divine and human nature, but by the assuming only of the human nature into the unity of his Person. And, as Athanasius speaketh, Not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God: so that he in no wise lost what he was, but assumed what he was not, according to what the Apostle saith, He took on him the seed of Abraham: whereby he teacheth us, that, as the Son assuming was not changed into the thing assumed (for God is altogether unchangeable) but remained what he was, being truly distinguished from the thing assumed: so the seed assumed was in no wise converted into the thing assuming, but was united only with the divine nature into the unity of the same Person, according to what the Evangelist saith, The Word was made flesh. Therefore the flesh remained flesh, and was not changed into the Word.
From whence we understand that the divine nature which is common to all the three Persons, yea one and the same in them all, assumed not unto itself the human nature, nor one Person another, but nature only. For the Son of God took not upon him any son of Abraham, but the seed of Abraham, that is, the human nature propagated from Abraham: and therefore we acknowledge not two Persons in Christ, but that one only, by which all things were made, and which was so perfect before the assuming of the seed of Abraham, that by the assuming thereof it became not another from what it was, neither yet a more perfect Person, nor any way else imperfect.
For, although in Christ we acknowledge two natures, the divine and the human: yet we do in no wise grant that the human nature was therefore assumed, that either of this and that as of the parts there should be constituted any new Person unto Christ, or that the eternal Person which was before should be made more perfect than before, by the access of a new nature; but this only, that the human nature being assumed into the unity of that Person, which was existent from all eternity, and also most perfect, the Son of God remaining what he was, might become what he was not, and might have what to offer to his Father for us. And therefore we do not absolutely and simply like it, if any man do say, that, as of the soul and body there is constituted the person of every man, so also of the divine and human nature was constituted the Person of Christ. But we like the phrase which is used in the Church, that Christ clothed himself or was clothed with our flesh. Whereupon saith St. Augustine, That Christ descended from heaven, like a naked man from the mount; and that he ascended up again, clothed with our flesh as with a garment. For this phrase, although it do not perfectly express the Hypostatical union, yet it maketh a manifest difference between the Person of the Son of God assuming, and our nature assumed. For the same reason also we like the manner of speaking which is used by the Fathers, That the human nature is borne by the Son of God, and again, That it doth subsist in the Person of the Son of God, and such like, discerning the Person of the Son of God assuming from the nature assumed, and teaching moreover that the Person of the Son of God was not made another from what it was, nor more perfect than before it was, by the access of the human nature.