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much lefs can it be called the fellow of the Lord of Hofts. and furely it must be robbery with a witness, for fuch a thing as this to make itself equal with God, as Christ did, even when he made himself of no reputation, but took on him the form of a fervant. Philip. ii. 6. Some talk of Chrift's being a delegated power, and a fubordinate God, and a God by office; but this is making more gods than one: for, if one be fupreme and the other fubordinate, there must be two; different in effence, glory, power, and majesty. And to worship with divine adoration any thing below infinite divinity, is rank idolatry. However, this vain-imagined diftinction between the Father and Son hath no place in the Bible. The Lord of Hofts calls Chrift his fellow. Zech. xiii. 7. And Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God the Father. Phil. ii. 6. Christ says, I and my Father are one. And all men must bonour the Son, even as they bonour the Father. And, if he is truly and properly God, equal to the Father, and one with him, and always in him, then there can be no idolatry in wor→ fhipping him; for all the angels of God are commanded to worship the firft-born, even in his state of incarnation; as they all did at his birth. Heb. i. 6. And Zion is commanded to do the fame; and the true reafon given for this command is, because he is God: He is thy Jehovah, and worship thou bim. Pfalm xlv. 1. And we know that the Lord our God is one Lord. Deut. vi. 4. And we must have no other gods but him: Thou shalt worship the Lord

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thy God, and him only shalt thou ferve. Matt. iv. 10. And he that obeys this first and great commandment muft banish far from his mind all the fpurious deities of the Arians and Socinians, for these are no better than the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had fet up.

Many fuch strange notions as thefe does Satan beget in the vain imaginations of men; and fuch are inventors of evil things, and fet up the ftumbling block of their iniquity in their heart; and God takes them in their own craftinefs, by fuffering them to pay adoration to that which is not God; which is idolatry, and an image of jealoufy: which the pure gofpel, if ever it had been attended with power to their hearts, would have pulled down. For the weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong bolds; cafting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. And fure I am that those who deny the eternity of Chrift, and talk of a human foul pre-existing, talk nonsense. No human foul can be God's fellow, nor God's equal, nor one with him, nor one in him; much lefs can fuch a creature, which is inferior to an angel, be the only-begotten Son of God, or the Son of the Father in truth and love. But, as for Chrift, all things were made by him, and he is before all things. Col. i. 16, 17. And, if he is before all things, then he must be before this human foul was made; and, if all things

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were made by him, then he muft make this foul alfo, and of course make himself. But this phantom is not the Chrift of God; this is not God's mystery among the Gentiles, which he is pleased to reveal in us, the hope of glory. We are not to hope in a creature, but to fet our hope in God. Chrift is the faithful and true witnefs, and the record that he bears of himself is true; and this is the record that he bears of himself: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, faith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come; the ALMIGHTY. Rev. i. 8.

The enemies to the glorious mystery of the Trinity hold a trinity as well as we; they allow that there are three in God; fo that if we err in this matter, fo do they; only they allow of three names, and but one perfon; nor are they agreed which is the perfon: fome Sabellians hold Chrift to be the perfon, and the Father and the Spirit to be only names; fome, that are called Arians and Socinians, fay the Father is the perfon, and the Son and Spirit are only names: thus one denies the Father, and the other denies the Son; and between these two they have no God.

This, however, must be true, that whatsoever the Father is, the Son muft be the fame; and fo the Jews understood the Saviour's confeffion of his own fonship, and laid this thing to his charge, namely, that he made himself equal with God. Therefore the Jews fought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the fabbath, but faid also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God: which the Saviour

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Saviour never denied, but confirmed. The Son can do nothing of himself, (and how can he, when the Father and he are one?) but what be feeth the Father do: for what things foever he doeth, thefe alfo deeth the Son likewife. John v. 19. Hence it is plain, that the Son is equal with the Father; and, if so, then he must be of the fame nature with him. So that, if the Son be a fon only in name, the Father muft be the fame; if Christ be only a fon in office, or in a figurative fenfe, the Father muft be fo too; and, if Chriit be no more than a human foul, which is but a mere creature, the Father must be such alfo. For Chrift is declared to be the only-begotten Son of God. John . 16. Begotten, and not created. Nor is he a fon by office, as magiftrates are; nor by creation, as angels and men are: but the Son of the Father in truth and love. 2 John 3. Therefore, whatever the Son is, fuch is the Father; for Chrift is the Son of the Father in truth and love: and, as the Father is God, fuch is Chrift; the brightness of his glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. Heb. i. 3. The true God, and eternal life. 1 John iii. 20. And, without controverfy, great is the mystery of godlinefs: God was manifeft in the flefb, juftified in the Spirit, feen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. 1 Tim. iii. 16. And, were all the Arians and Socinians in the world to combine together, they never could apply the above, nor the following afcriptions, to a human foul, or to any mere creature, however exalted or dignified. Keep

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this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jefus Chrift: which in his times be fball fhew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only bath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man bath seen, nor can fee; to whom be bonour and power everlasting. Amen. 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15, 16. Let all the enemies of the Son of God prove that an empty name, or a pre-existing human foul, or a demi-god, or a god by office, or a creating inftrument, or a fubordinate god; let them, I say, choose out of this lift of imaginary deities which they please, and let them prove that the apostle's afcriptions are applicable to their feigned gods, namely, that their pre-existing human foul is the blessed and only Potentate; that this creature is the King of kings, and Lord of lords; that this human soul hath only immortality; that it dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man bath feen nor can fee; and that honour and power everlasting, Amen, is to be afcribed to that. He feedeth on afbes: a deceived heart hath turned him afide, that be cannot deliver his foul, nor fay, Is there not a lie in my right band? Ifaiah xliv. 20.

Nor did the incarnation of Chrift bring a fourth perfon into the Trinity. The human nature of Chrift is not a perfon, it is called a new thing, Jer. xxxi. 22, and a boly thing, Luke i. 35, but not a person; for the human nature of Chrift never had perfonal fubfiftence, or it never did perfonally exist alone or

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