under inward and more mortal Distempers shew'd no forwardness to be cured by an Almighty hand When the Wise-man describes the Sluggard's Vineyard and shows us the Fences thereof broken down the Surface of it covered with Thorns and nettles and the Sluggard himself so far from regarding it that he stretches himself upon his Bed and crys Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep he characterizes the general disposition of Men under the Influences of Hell over-grown with all manner of Impieties unguarded against all manner of Temptations and yet dull and stupified under all their Miseries When we reflect upon this general Captivity of rational Creatures to Vice and Folly when we reflect upon that spiritless Weakness they groan'd under when we see them lazy in their own nearest concerns prejudiced against all the ways of their own Deliverance pursuing Bubbles with a ridiculous Earnestness and imagining it their greatest Interest to undo themselves we cannot well persuade our selves that any ordinary means could help the miserable or relieve the oppressed or let the Prisoners go free The chains and violences of Hell are not easily broken and the attempts of Weaklings in the Case would but encrease the sorrow of the Sufferers but when the blessed Jesus reveal'd himself in the fulness of time when he began by mighty works to exert his power when he commissioned his Disciples to go through the Cities of Israel and to preach Repentance and to work Miracles of all sorts when those Disciples returning again to give an account of their Ministry told their Master that even Evil Spirits themselves were subject unto them through his name our Saviour observes Luke 10.18 that he saw Satan like lightning fall from Heaven he had put an end to that height of power the Devil had pleas'd himself in before He had seem'd to himself to be like the most High invested in an absolute Dominion o'er the World but he was now fallen from his Height and should no more be able to deceive the Nations with that success he had formerly had for the Gospel then preach'd set before Men in plain terms the true and only good they were to aim at it laid out the means tending directly to that good it shew'd Men their frequent Failures indeed but an infallible Atonement for them in the Death of their Saviour and shew'd the Holy Spirit ready to assist all their pious Endeavours after Happiness by which the Works of the Devil were effectually destroyed Another Reason of our Saviour's coming into the World was That the World might be convinced that the Law given by Moses to the Jewish Nation was really the Law of God and that it could not therefore be repeal'd by any Power or Authority whatsoever but his who was God The last part of this Reason is a necessary consequence upon the first for in all Countries the sanction and repealing of Laws require one and the same Authority at least nay where it 's possible the annulling of a Law requires much the greater Power thus among the Romans the Edictum Praetoris or the Praetor's Edict had the force of a Law and Obedience was absolutely required to it only it might be rescinded by a Rescript of the Emperour whose Power was indisputable both over the Praetor and his Law but the Praetor could not repeal an Imperial Rescript nor his own Edict after an Imperial Confirmation thus God can vacate all Humane Laws when and where he pleases because he 's superiour to all Laws but those flowing from his own Nature but it 's a damning Sin for Man to go about to vacate God's Laws because Man in his highest state has no other Authority but what he derives from God who cannot be supposed to give any Man an Authority contradictory to his own or that should interfere with it but among Men as in the Roman Empire it required an Imperial Power to repeal an Imperial Sanction so among our selves an Act of Parliament can be repealed only by an Act of Parliament the King in Parliament being in all respects whatsoever the supreme Power of the Nation Thus we see the Parallelism between both the making and disannulling both Divine and Humane Laws so that it appears altogether rational that the Mosaic Law if originated from God should be repealed by God As for the Law of Moses that it was given by God and only by him he that reads the Scripture and owns that to be the Word of God must of necessity believe and the Jews to this day are so strongly possess'd with that Assurance that all the World knows the vacating that by One who appear'd but a mean Man is one great prejudice the Jews make use of at this day against Christianity they are certain God gave their Law and every part of it they are as certain that the same God only could change or take it away they conclude as our Socinians do That Jesus was a meer Man and no God therefore they look upon him as very wicked for pretending to put an end to that Law Now if we wanted the Scripture to confirm us in that Knowledge a bare Reflection upon the behaviour of the Jewish Nation at all times is enough to satisfie us that God was the Author of their Law For if we look upon them as esteem'd by their Neighbours they were never lookt upon as the veriest Fools and Ignorants in the Universe that Ptolomey who procur'd the Translation of the Old Testament into Greek thought the Books of their Law worth procuring at a vast expence so he and several adjacent Nations at all times were ready to enter into terms of Confederacy with them c. But were they never so wise or knowing in any thing they never found any reason to shake off the Yoke of the Law of Moses they own'd it upon all occasions and as at first when they fell under any extream Affliction they had immediately recourse to the Law and to the Testimony from whence they re-confirm'd their Apprehensions of the true God the God of their fathers and apply'd themselves to Him so afterwards they employ'd themselves earnestly in vindicating that Law from any Aspersions which their Enemies might lay upon it and in endeavouring to procure Proselytes to that Law from among the neighbouring Nations But now we must have a very mean opinion of the Jews if we can imagine a whole Nation should submit themselves to a body of Laws for a course of several ages that they should believe it their indispensible duty to obey all the particular Injunctions of a Law that was extreamly nice and difficult to be observ'd such a Law as in its Ceremonial part was very troublesome and heavy yet necessary enough considering the Temper of the People it was given to and the great end and aim of it that they should own the obliging force of this Law notwithstanding those many Rebellions against it which they were
knew every thing past present and to come clearly and fully in himself His humane nature lived not onely in a strict friendship but in a close and compleat union with the God-head and therefore felt no Convulsions or ecstasies no violent emotions of his rational faculties nor was he confin'd to time or place or common rules and methods but as the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him so he deliver'd Oracles to Mankind at all times as he himself pleas'd for God did not give the Spirit to him by measure Job 3.34 Thus inspir'd David publishes that Eternal Decree Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Ps â— 7 8. and the utmost part of the earth for thy possession which could never be true in respect of David who never acquir'd so vast an Empire as is there promised but it was really acquir'd by our Saviour who by his holy Gospel subdued the Vniverse and made all Mankind partakers of that redemption wrought for them by himself And so Saint Paul preaching Christ to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia tells them That the promise made to their Fathers God had fulfilled to them their Children having rais'd up Jesus again as it is written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13.32 33. and the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews proves his Superiority to Angels by that Argument For to which of the Angels said God at any time Hebr. 1.5 Thou art my Son c. And again to prove the mission and authority of Christ having said before That no man takes the Priestly honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron he pleads So Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest Heb. 5.4 5. but he that said unto him Thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee and so we are certain of the due application of the Prophecy which we shall dilate on farther in another place Such again was that of David in the Person of Jesus afterwards to appear in the World Psal 40.6 7 8. Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou open'd intimating by that the inefficacy of all those legal and typical Sacrifices which the Jews and in imitation of them others had been us'd to for if these Sacrifices could have avail'd for the taking away of Sin they had no longer been types and shadows but things of a real and substantial excellency which since they were not Burnt-offering and Sin-offering hast thou not requir'd Then said I Lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to do thy will Hebr. 10 5-10 O my God yea thy Law is within my heart And thus this Prophecy is apply'd by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews onely with that difference that whereas the Psalm has it Mine ear hast thou open'd according to the Hebrew the Apostle follows the translation of the Septuagint and renders it a Body hast thou prepared for me the sense amounting still to the same for as the Hebrews according to the Law made a Servant their own for ever by opening their ears or boring them Exod 21 6. so God made his Son Jesus obedient as a Servant by preparing him a body which was open'd too and fastened to the cross as the Servants ear in boring to the posts of the door Nor was that less plain or considerable The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy foot-stool The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Psal 110 1-4 Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The first part of this our Saviour who undoubtedly knew its true meaning assumes to himself and confounds the Pharisees by asking them that Question That whereas it was expected the Messias should be the Son of David yet David calls him Lord Matth. 22 41-45 How could he be his Lord and his Son too which was a mystery inexplicable to those who had meer carnal and mean notions of the Messias but a difficulty which when they got over it would not be so very hard to believe him humble and despicable as he appear'd to be the very Messias they look'd for For if he who was David's Lord and indeed God blessed for ever could condescend so low as to be David's Son it could not be strange that he who was David's Son should stoop lower yet and appear in the form of a servant The latter part of this prediction relating to a Priest is by the Writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews apply'd to Jesus Hebr. 7 17-21 as a proof of the legitimacy and eternity of his Priesthood Of the same authority is that 〈◊〉 18 〈◊〉 â—â— The Stone which the builders refus'd is become the head of the corner this is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes which not to mention the Jewish fable of such a stone being reall met withall in the building of the second Temple which had by several been thrown aside as useless yet afterwards by miracle was found fit for the joyning of the corners of the building our Saviour makes use of to convince the Jews of their folly and obstinacy in refusing to own him in his great Mediatorian office and to let them see that their contempt of Him could be no prejudice to his sacred dignity and Honour but that he who was now thought too inconsiderable to be of any use to the Jews one of the smallest of the Nations Matth. 21.42 43 44. should afterwards appear great enough to joyn Men of all Countries and Nations together in one Sacred bond and to crush all his Enemies in dreadful ruines for so he adds on repetition of those before quoted words Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder And this advancement and dilatation of Christ's power St. Peter justly takes notice of from the same Psalm in the case of the Cripple newly cured Acts 4 9 10 11 12. If we be this day examin'd of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole Be it known to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by Him does this Man stand before you whole This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the Corner Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved That of Isaiah is wholly extraordinary and as I hinted
another occasion push the question home Mar. 2.7 Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemy Who can forgive sins but God only The question was rational enough and implyed a weighty Truth that none has any inherent authority to forgive sins but God only others may declare or pronounce it by a derivative authority only God can do it by his own but the reason of these Questionists left them presently They saw Christ holding a strict Communion with their Church as setled by the Mosaic Law They could not convince him of any sin against that Communion they heard him of himself and in his own name forgive sins this was a plain publick claim to a Divine Authority and they understood it so They saw him with the very same breath work a prodigious cure a cure not likely to be wrought by the influence of a Malignant Spirit it was of too benign and advantagious a nature to the Patient it must then be wrought by a Divine Power but the Divine Power would not concur with a gross sinner a notorious blasphemer therefore Christ of necessity must be no sinner if no sinner then an extraordinary Person for his miraculous actions would admit of no middle state then he could be no Impostor no Deceiver therefore Forgiving sins and asserting his Power by an undeniable miracle upon their own Principle he must be God the True God emphatically for who can forgive sins but God but the True God only For they respected only the True God when they asked the Question It 's a peculiar Attribute of the Supreme God to know the hearts of Men he assumes that Power as his own due in which none can be partakers with him the heart is deceitful above all things says he and desperately wicked who can know it Jer. 17.9.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings The same title our Lord takes to himself Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one according to his works it 's true this was in his glorified state but if Christ were a meer man before his Resurrection he was no more afterwards the giving him Honour and Power and Glory could not alter his Nature or make him any more than a Metaphorical God but a bare Metaphor applyed to a Man will not make him immediately commence a God or appropriate the most eminent of the divine Attributes to him But not to insist on that this particular faculty of knowing mens hearts he really had and sufficiently evidenced before his Ascension into Heaven so in one of the before-mentioned instances when Christ had said to the Man sick of the Palsie Thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 8.24 the Scribes murmured or said in their hearts this Man blasphemes the Evangelist adds Jesus knowing their thoughts said Wherefore think you evil in your hearts Mat. 12.25 Again when Christ cast out the Devil out of one that was possest and the Pharisees hearing of it said he cast out devils by Beelzebub Prince of the devils We are told He knew their thoughts and presently gave them a reproof suitable to their folly The Disciples as they were following their Master fell into a dispute among themselves who should be greatest Their Master when in the house ask'd 'em of their dispute their inward guilt shut their mouths but he presently lets them know he was Mar. 9.33 34 35 36. without their information Master of their mighty secret and took an immediate occasion to teach them how to employ their time better than in such dangerous and impertinent disputes Our Lord was preaching in the Temple to a very captious Auditory they admire his boldness but never pitch upon his Office which he had then undertaken nay they argue among themselves the unlikelihood that he should be the Christ We know say they this Man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is Our Saviour as if he had been privy to all their discourse in the midst of his doctrine tells them aloud Ye both know me John 7.27 28. and ye know whence I am c. When the same blessed Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passeover on the Feast Day many believed in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did John 2.23 24 25. but the Evangelist tells us plainly Jesus did not commit himself to them because He knew all men and needed not that any should testifie of Man for he knew what was in man If he knew what was in Man it must be either perfectly or exactly or it must be imperfectly if imperfectly he might easily have been impos'd upon the Prophets of the antient Jewish Church were often so so Joshua and all Israel in the case of the Gibeonites So Samuel in his opinion of the fitness of David's brethren for the kingdom of Israel So the man of God by the old Prophet who dwelt at Bethel The Apostles afterwards tho' influenced frequently by the Spirit of God were lyable to Error Philip an Apostolical person in admitting Simon of Samaria to Christian Baptism S. Peter in making a difficulty of preaching the Gospel to one that was Uncircumcised in dissembling afterwards for fear of the Jews c. S. Paul in admitting false hearted Demas to the Pastoral Charge but this we find no instance of in our Saviour none were able to deceive him nay not so much as to fasten a temptation on him He chose indeed twelve Disciples and one of them a Devil Joh. 6.70 but he knew him to be such and declared him such tho' not by name long before he betrayed him So neither the treachery of his pretended friends nor of his professed enemies could take any place upon him If Christ's knowledge of those things was perfect it was as much as God's knowledge is No Being can do more than know the heart of man perfectly that heart which Man himself is so generally unacquainted with This is a Knowledge no way compatible with humane nature That since the fall being defective in a thousand particulars besides the necessity of Vbiquity attending a perfect universal knowledge of the thoughts of all which a Body can never be capable of If then the knowledge of Christ in reference to the Hearts of men was equal with God's if it were impossible for him to be deceived if it was no Sacrilege in him to ascribe to himself this peculiar Attribute of the most high God He then must be equal with God therefore he must be the True God If we reflect upon our Lord's behaviour after his Resurrection before his Ascent into Heaven if he be no more than a meer man it 's wholly unaccountable The Holy Ghost is by the Socinians denyed to be a Person or to be God yet it 's allowed by them to
be the power of God a virtue flowing out of or from the Supreme Deity under this Notion we may rationally assert that this Holy Spirit can be commanded no way but by the Supreme God himself none else can promise it none can give it for if the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets much more certainly must the Spirit of God be subject to him it subsisting wholly in him and being according to our Adversaries one of those qualifications necessarily in the Supreme God Granting all this if our Saviour was a meer man as they say he could not possibly command this Sacred Spirit this Spirit so much superiour to mankind tho' considered as no more than a meer Appendage to the Almighty Yet our Saviour seems to employ this Spirit as he will that 's no wonder if the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost tho' three persons be all one God That exact concurrence in their eternal wills taking away all difficulties Thus when the Lord met with his Disciples and shew'd them the necessity of things happening with relation to himself as they did then He opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures Luk. 24.45 this opening their understandings did not consist barely in explaining some particular Texts to them they were yet but very dull and slow of understanding in themselves and tho' they had heard a thousand Texts authentically explain'd they might have continued very inapprehensive still Nor is it an usual manner of speech to say when a man explains any Author to others that he opens their understandings he may open the meaning of such or such Books or Passages very well yet those who hear him may not improve in their intellectuals this opening their understandings therefore argued some force upon their minds some extraordinary Energy of the Spirit within them whereby their natural and inveterate Dulness went off and they had more of spriteliness and vigour in their Souls than formerly they seem'd as Slaves with their fetters knockt off nimble and active and therefore more capable of apprehending any thing offered to them than formerly This was the first beginning to fit them for that great work they were in a few days to engage in it was to make them capable of satisfying themselves gradually in the Truth and Reason of those things which they were afterwards to preach to the world abroad and which they were compleatly fitted for by the following extraordinary effusions of that Holy Spirit upon them The first operations of it upon them then were gentle and easie but it was the operation of that Sacred Spirit only and of that Spirit as ordered by the blessed Jesus by which their understandings were thus opened We may agree to this the more easily if we consider that Promise Christ makes to his Disciples after this Behold I send the promise of my father upon you Luk 24.49 but tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill you be endued with power from on high The Father promises it but I send it Now this uses not to be a task for a man to make good the Promises of God it 's out of his power especially if the Promise be to be made good in some particular wherein God has a more peculiar interest Is my Spirit my breath none then can give it to another tho' my Spirit be not originally my own but breathed into me by an Almighty Creator Is the Holy Ghost the Breath the Spirit the Influence of God none then can dispose of it from him and the rather because it is originated in him and must be one with him it was then a strange presumption in our Lord to take upon him the making good Gods Promises to others since if he were no more than a Man He promised what was not in his power and pretended to make up some defects in his veracity who was the God of Truth and Truth it self But our Saviour went farther yet for making a visit once to his Disciples after his Resurrection His Blessing being bestowed he gives them a Commission of an extraordinary nature As my Father hath sent me even so send I you i. e. Job 20.21 As my Father sent me to reform the World so I send you to caâ—ry on that same work and as my Father's mission of me gave me a sufficient authority to do those things necessary to so great an end so my sending you gives you as great and unquestionable authority in proportion to those things which are laid on you this intimates that Christ had power to send men to govern and manage his Church as his Father had and in the same degree for if our Saviour was only his Father's Ambassador to them and so inferiour to him that sent him this had been an extravagant vanity it was never heard that an Ambassador from a King or Emperor pretended to send another Envoy from himself with such kind of expressions as these As my master the King has sent me so send I you nor are Princes wont to entrust their Agents with any such Power and the Credentials of such sub-ambassadors would appear very ridiculous to all those to whom they should be sent But from this Commission our Lord proceeds And when he had said this He breathed on them and said unto them ver 22. Receive ye the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus est virtus seu efficacia à Deo in homines manans iisque communicata quâ eos ab aliis segregat suis usibus consecrat say the Socinians in the Racovian Catechism The Holy Spirit is a virtue or efficacy flowing from God upon men from the True the Supreme God they mean and communicated to them by which he separates such men from others and consecratâ— them to his own use If it be the efficacy or Power of the Supreme God how comes one whom they suppose to be a meer Man to confer it with his breath It was given afterwards by the laying on of the Apostles hands they gave it not by any virtue inherent in them but where they laid on their hands God sent it and that in different manners and proportions as he judged fit for the Receivers whose fitness the Apostles knew nothing of Our Saviour bestows it with his breath It must therefore be his own therefore he must be the Supreme God for in this action our Saviour did not mock his Disciples as Schlicktingius confesses CaetechismeÌ„ Rac. sect 6. c. 6. but he did certainly separate them by this action from the rest of the world and consecrated them peculiarly to his own service and this at the appointed time they engaged in according to his orders In the forementioned Catechism when they ask what the gift of the Holy Spirit is the answer is Est ejusmodi Dei afflatus quo animi nostri vel uberiore rerum divinarum notitiâ vel spe vitae eternae certiore atque adeo gaudio ac gustu quodam
thing of that glory belonging to the supreme God to himself Yet if he were a meer Man we find him strangely guilty in this point for as before his Passion he requires of his Disciples that they should believe in him as after his Passion he joyns himself with the Father and with the Holy Ghost in the institution of Baptism without any difference at all so after his Ascension into heaven he seems to take all care possible to confirm such an opinion in his Apostles and followers as according to which they must treat him as the Supreme God for when our Saviour bids his Disciples have Faith in God Mat. 11.22 doubtless he would not lay that injunction upon them if Faith so placed had not a sanctifying power for such Faith is sufficient to make men Holy and acceptable in the sight of that God with whom they have to do But when the same Jesus appears to S. Paul in his journey to Damascus he tells him He had appear'd to make him a Minister and Witness of what he had seen Acts 26.16 17 18. Delivering him from the people and from the Gentiles to whom he designed to send him that he might open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which were sanctified by Faith which was in Him Here then besides Christ's assuming to himself a sovereign and universal power of delivering his servants from all dangers of Commissioning them for the most weighty Work in the World of enabling them to open the Eyes of those that heard them and to turn them from darkness to light all which are the effects of a power truely Divine only He in plain terms asserts that that Faith which is in him sanctifies those that have it exclusively of all other Faith whatsoever for by his words it appears that forgiveness of sins and an everlasting inheritance are only attainable by that Faith and again the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews reckons Faith in God Heb. 6.1 among the fundamentals of our Religion these things laid together will oblige us to conclude either that there are two kinds of justifying Faith or such as may render men holy and acceptable in the sight of God or else which is true that Faith in the most high God and in Jesus Christ is one and the same thing fixt upon one and the same inseparable Object and so saving and sanctifying to all them that have it and S. Paul in the fore-cited Chapter of the Acts having shew'd what help Christ promised him in prosecution of his discourse declares he received his help from God whereby he was enabled to bear that witness Christ had assured him He would help him in therefore God and Christ were all One or the Son of God and his Father were one Supreme God That there was this Identity of nature between the Son of God and his Father will appear farther from that account S. Peter gives to the People of the Cure wrought upon the poor Criple at the beautiful gate of the Temple where reproving them and telling them they had killed the Prince of life a very strange title by the way to be given to a meer Man and such as can be parallel'd in no Author Sacred or Profane He adds And his Name Acts 3.15 16. through Faith in his Name has made this Man strong whom ye see and know yea the Faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all here again the Name of Christ and Faith in his Name are both set in the highest rank and whatsoever was before profest to be done in the Name of the True God was now done in the Name of Christ Moses and the Prophets appeal'd still in all things to the name of the most high God and I doubt if Gehazi when he laid his staff upon the Shunamite's child's face had commanded it in the name of his Master to arise or if his Master afterwards had done as much in his own name they would both have lost their labours the case was otherwise here S. Peter's word to the Criple was ver 6. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk the Cure was immediately effected the people wondered They assert the glory of the Miracle only to the Name of Christ Acts 4.9 â—â— and they repeat their assertion to the High Priest and the rest of the Members of the Jewish Council Had not the name of Christ been powerful enough to effect the greatest miracles it had been a foolish presumption in them to have appeal'd to it the Priests of Baal would not have appear'd more silly in their violent addresses to their paltry Idol nor the Sons of Sceva in calling over those possest with evil Spirits the name of Jesus whom Paul preached Had their invocation fail'd it would have exposed all that Religion they pretended to advance to the common scorn and contempt of all mankind but that Sacred Name prevail'd those Miracles which had formerly been perform'd in the name of the most high God were now perform'd in the name of the Son of God God did not and could not give his glory to another for he had before declared he would not therefore that Jesus the Son of God in whose name this astonishing Cure was wrought was really the most high God It may perhaps be objected that All power was given to Christ after his Resurrection by virtue of which he could give his own name that virtue and authority by which such mighty Miracles as these might be performed We answer to this it 's true our Lord did tell his Apostles that all Power was given to him in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 and He told them so after his Resurrection but it does not therefore follow that he was not possest of such an universal power before his body was rais'd from the grave he adds no word intimating that this power was now invested in him and not sooner for He might very well forbear to inform his Disciples of it till he came to his state of exaltation commencing from his being raised from the dead But allowing what such Objectors would have that there was no such Power given him or that He never had such Power till his Resurrection They and All know the Philosophical Axiome is of universal truth Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity of the receiver and Volkelius tells us in plain terms De verâ Relig. l. 3. c. 20. p 106. that after his Resurrection the body of Christ was of mortal nature and no otherwise partaker of immortality than by the will of his Father Now if this be true tho' God Almighty be able of and from himself to give an universal Power as having it inherent
so he must have Graces of his own and Strength of his own to employ for the use of his own Devotoes for so Saint Paul tells us that Christ referred him not to the Grace of God or to the strength of God for security from the violence of Satan but tells him My Grace and my Strength are sufficient for thee therefore there could be no need of applying himself to any other Now if Saint Paul were in this case guilty of Idolatry all those who follow the pattern of Saint Paul must incur the same guilt but he was not guilty therefore neither were his Imitators guilty of it The Socinians in proof of the lawfulness of Praying to Christ allege farther Saint Paul's joyning him with God the Father in his own Prayer with respect to the Thessalonians to whom he 's there writing â— Thess 3.11 Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto You where he takes for granted that the Father and the Son are both Co-partners in the same directing power and therefore he equally Petitions them both for guidance in his design of visiting the Thessalonians What the Apostle himself did in a Letter sent to Believers for their instruction in matters concerning their Salvation we need not doubt but they 'd be very apt to follow him in so that either this Praying to Christ was lawful and reasonable in it self or else the Apostle must be concluded to have it in his mind only to abuse those he wrote to and to draw them by his extraordinary influence upon them into Sin for a sin it must be to make any meer Creature the Vltimate Object of our Prayers and Devotions That the Apostle in this passage does so is indisputable if at least it's own'd that He makes God the Father such an Object for he joyns them together puts no mark of Inferiority or Subordinacy upon Jesus Christ but what he begs of the Father the same He begs of the Son in one continued expression And the Apostle frequently does the same thing in those Salutations he sends to the several Churches where He wishes them Grace Mercy and Peace equally from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace are all divine and spiritual Gifts as in possession of the Father so in possession of the Son else it would be very impertinent to Petition them equally for it and of very ill consequence for it would easily bring such a notion into Mens heads as that some created Being might have a power of giving Gifts of a Spiritual nature as well as the Supreme God and that it might be lawful in our most serious Devotions to joyn him who alone is God with one who is no more than a Creature to set them in a rank as equal as words would allow and to conclude a Prayer to the great Creator of all things insufficient to procure any good from him unless it were backt and strengthned by the joyned formality of an Address to a dependent Creature But we need not so much insist on this particular since the same Socinians as a vindication of Prayers addrest to our Saviour take notice of that piece of Religious Worship as being made the very Characteristick or distinguishing note of Christians So Ananias answers the Command of Going to visit and baptize the newly converted Saul Acts 9.14.21 He hath authority from the chief Priests to bind all that call on thy Name And when Saul first began to preach Christ at Damascus all Men ask'd with amazement if it was not He who had lately destroyed all that called upon the name of Christ that is all who believed in him So that it seems from hence that to believe in Christ and to call upon him were used as reciprocal terms every one who believed in Christ would call upon him or Pray to him every one who pray'd to him must believe on him for as the Apostle elsewhere argues How shall they call on him or pray to him in whom they have not believ'd So again St. Paul inscribes his first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. â— to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ i. e. to all Christians for whose general use and instruction he wrote that Epistle as well as for the Corinthians And the same Christians are described as such 2 Tim. 2.22 who call upon the name of the Lord with a pure Heart These are the evidences drawn by the Socinians themselves out of Scripture to prove the practice of Christians in the very infancy of the Church and they are sufficient for that purpose Now that Those who accompanied with our Lord himself during his converse upon Earth or that those Apostles who were guided by the extraordinary influences of the Holy Ghost or that those first Christians who took the â—oke of Christ upon them when the Gospel was certainly preached to them in its original simplicity that all these should be guilty of abominable Idolatries and that when the Apostles themselves were originally Jews who had an irreconcileable aâ—ersion to any thing that look'd in the least â—ike Idolatry and that our Saviour himâ—elf should have so little regard for his Disâ—iples as to let them commit a gross sin â—f a damning nature without any check or â—eproof that that Holy Spirit which was â—romised to believers on purpose that He might guide them into all truth that both these should so very early not only permit but encourage and perswade men to commit Idolatry and all this at a time when they pretended to promote the Salvation of Souls and when it was notoriously known to all Mankind that Idolatry was a Sin irrational in it self and detestable in the sight of God that the one part should commit and the other promote Idolatry under such circumstances is absolutely incredible They had the Pagan World at that time to reform The Apostles were all willing to spend and be spent to carry on that glorious and merciful work at the utmost hazard of their lives the great and crying sin of the Gentile world was their Idolatry that of which St. Paul particularly took notice with grief and anger among the Athenians but it had been a strange method of reforming an Idolatrous World by advancing the same practice without any other correction but only a variation of the Object as if Praying to a Man had not been as great an Error as Praying to a Genius or the Sun or some other bright Star or an Ox or any other Creature Such things would have rendred the Gospel foolishness with a witness among the Gentiles and none would have wondered that Christ should have culled out poor ignorant Fishermen and other illiterate persons to be the first Preachers since such a senceless Method of procedure was only fit for such dull and unthinking Creatures to prosecute But
Jesus answered them John 10.34 35 36. Is it not written in your Law I said ye are Gods if he called them Gods unto whom the Word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God This says our Adversary Thoughts on Sh. p. 2. agreeably to those he follows proves That our Saviour calls himself God or the Son of God upon the same grounds on which others are called Gods in Scripture to wit because the Father has sanctified him i. e. Christ is God or the Son of God in the same sence that Magistrates Good or Bad are called so which certainly is a very great Honour to our Saviour But if we examine these Words with that Care we ought we shall find that our Saviour by alleging that God had sanctified him and sent him into the world does two things First he distinguishes himself from those called Gods by that Sanctification and Mission which He had and They had not for he affirms no such thing of them unless our Author will infer it from that of the Word of God coming to them but all those to whom the Word of God comes are not sanctified presently by that nor are all those sanctified to whom God imparts any thing of his Power for the management of the World some sufficiently proving the contrary Nor will it be easie to prove Sanctification and Anointing to be one and the same thing upon that reason Nay if we admit of Heinsius's Criticism Heinsius in Aristarcho sac in locum the case will be yet worse for he would have those words to whom the Word of the Lord came be translated Against whom the Prophetick Burden or the threatning Word of God was denounced and indeed the Original will bear it well enough now we may fairly conclude that Divine Menaces against sinners do not sanctifie them so that the comparison between our Saviour and those Gods mentioned in the text does not lye in their being both sanctified But secondly our Saviour teaches us that He was First Sanctified and then Sent into the World now He could not be sanctified before he had a being but he was sanctified before he was sent into the World He was sent into the world as soon as he was Conceived in the Womb of his Mother so Every one is sent into the World as soon as he has a Being in the World but he has a Being in the World as soon as he 's Conceiv'd therefore our Saviour was Sanctified before his Conception and therefore he had a Being before his Conception in the Womb of the Virgin this is what the Socinians deny but the answer to this evidence is not so easie After this tho' our new Writer would have our Saviour to argue as indeed he does from the Less to the Greater that if They were Gods much more He yet he has not observ'd that our Saviour gives himself the Title only of the Son of God but to be the Son of God is less than to be God absolute or without restriction but our Saviour should have given himself yet some Superiour Name if he intended to prove himself Superiour indeed to those whom the Psalmist calls Gods in the cited place and so indeed he did as the Jews understood him they knew well enough that those Gods were only call'd so by a Figure and had our Saviour plainly told them that he meant only Figuratively when by calling God his Father he made himself the Son of God and by saying He and his Father were One He made not himself God their anger against him would have very much abated since in that sence very Ill Men might have pretended to the Title but they understood that our Saviour made himself really equal with that One Supreme God whom they worshipped and according to their thoughts his Sanctification and Mission into the World by God if He were his Father set him infinitely above those Figurative Gods to whom the Father might have communicated some Authority or Power but had neither Sanctified them nor sent them with any extraordinary pretences into the World and our Saviour was so far from going about to elude their anger by a shifting or ambiguous answer as Smalcius a Socinian says he did when he told the Jews before Abraham was I am that he exasperates them the more by alledging the works he did as an evidence that the Father was in Him and He in Him Joh. 10 3â— upon which they go about to seize him but in vain From the whole we conclude directly contrary to what our Socinian Writer asserts that since our Lord declared nothing concerning Himself and his own nature to the Jews but what was necessary for them to know and yet did declare to them such things as made it evident to them that he ascribed a Nature truely and literally divine to Himself Therefore it was necessary the Jews and with them all the rest of Mankind should know that Christ was really and truly God not Metaphorically as Magistrates nor by participation of God's Holiness as Good Men are made Partakers of the divine Nature but essentially and eternally as his Father And thus have we in some measure made good our second Proposition that the blessed Jesus appearing in our Nature was God equal with his Father or really and truely God as well as real Man We proceed to shew How it came to be necessary that to effect our Salvation God and particularly God the Son should assume our nature to himself That God the Son did really take our Nature upon him we have largely proved That God especially in such extraordinary cases does nothing but what 's necessary we may conclude for tho' God be a Free and uncontrouled Agent yet infinite Wisdom can act nothing that 's unnecessary or indifferent whether it be done or no Our business therefore will be to enquire into the Ends and Designs of our Saviour's appearing in the flesh from whence we shall be the better able to apprehend the necessity of such his appearance Sermon of the Nat. p. 247. Our Church in her Homily upon the Nativity of our Saviour teaches us That the end of our Saviour's coming in the flesh was to save and deliver his people to fulfil the Law for us to bear witness unto the truth to teach and preach the Word of his Father to give light unto the World to call sinners to repentance to refresh them that labour and be heavy laden to cast out the Prince of this World to reconcile us in the body of his flesh to dissolve the works of the Devil and last of all to become a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World What 's contain'd in these and what other Ends may be assigned for our Saviour's Incarnation I shall lay down