Thread: The Best Puritan Treatment of The Two Natures of Christ?

What is considered to be the seminal Puritan work/treatment on the subject?

Owen address this issue in both Christologia and Meditations on the Glory of Christ, both in volume one of his Works. I can't say for sure it's the best, but I think it's very good and thorough. I'm not as well read on loads of different guys, so I can't say how it compares, but it's more technical than Flavel's treatment of the issue (which isn't as deep) in his sermons on the glory of Christ in volume one of his works.

Owen's work isn't really a dogmatic or technical statement of the constitution of the person of Christ; this is not to say, however, that it is not quite useful for what it is. You will definitely benefit greatly from this book.

I cannot think at the moment of any specifically Puritan works dedicated to this topic dogmatically; there are many Puritan works which hit upon various aspects of it, however. Sticking with Owen (as he is readily accessible to most), you might consult the relevant chapters from his Vindiciae Evangelicae; I believe he also gave an extended treatment of the relationship of the two natures in his Commentary on Hebrews.

Your best bet is probably the treatments given in the high orthodox systematic theologies, whose teachings the puritans shared. Also, I just referenced this work in another thread recently: Vermigli's Dialogue on the Two Natures of Christ has recently been published in English -- it is a masterful work on the topic from the time of the great literary battle on this topic between the Reformed and Lutherans during the second half of the 16th Century.

I think Shedd does a good job dealing with this in his section on Christology from "Dogmatic Theology."

He writes of the uni-personality of Christ, but the dual modes of consciousness that the two hypostatically joined natures operated within the one person.

His discussion on two wills within the one person of Christ is also interesting...

The doctrine of the two natures implies the doctrine of two wills in Christ. Either nature would be incomplete and defective without the voluntary quality of property in it. Each nature, in order to be whole and entire, must have all of its essential elements. A human nature without voluntariness would be as defective as it would be without rationality.

Thomas Goodwin on Ephesians has some interesting material.

Originally Posted by Prufrock

Vermigli's Dialogue on the Two Natures of Christ has recently been published in English -- it is a masterful work on the topic from the time of the great literary battle on this topic between the Reformed and Lutherans during the second half of the 16th Century.

Where can I find it? A Google search yielded nothing useful.

Originally Posted by py3ak

Thomas Goodwin on Ephesians has some interesting material.

Got it! Can you point me to the appropriate sermon?

Here (Dialogue on the two natures in Christ - Google Book Search) is a link to its limited preview on GoogleBooks; you can find the requisite information there. I'm sure you can obtain it through whatever free library sharing service there is in your state.

Thomas Goodwin's "Christ the Mediator" deals specifically with the subject, in Works, volume 5.

Originally Posted by KMK

Originally Posted by Prufrock

Vermigli's Dialogue on the Two Natures of Christ has recently been published in English -- it is a masterful work on the topic from the time of the great literary battle on this topic between the Reformed and Lutherans during the second half of the 16th Century.

Where can I find it? A Google search yielded nothing useful.

Amazon.com: A Dialogue on the Two Natures in Christ (The Peter Martyr Vermigli Library, Vol 2): John P. Donnelly: Books

Try this link: The works of Thomas Goodwin, D.D ... - Google Book Search

It may be meaningless, but I want to second both Ruben and Rev. Winzer's suggestions; in fact, they are two of my favorite works on any topic by anyone.