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A23823
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A Defence of the Brief history of the Unitarians, against Dr. Sherlock's answer in his Vindication of the Holy Trinity
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Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing A1219; ESTC R211860
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74,853
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56
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to govern Ireland so this they do in compliance with the King's Will and to shew thereby that they are his loyal and faithful Subjects and he who bows to the Vice-Roy may be said to bow to the King because the Vice-Roy represents the King and acts in his Name So that it would be non-sense to say the Vice-Roy is King because they pay him that Honour Let us apply this to Christ we must bow to him and confess him to be the Lord and by so doing God's Oath is accomplished Vnto me every Knee shall bow c. Does it follow from thence that Christ is that God who swore in the Prophet Isaiah Not at all because when we pay this Honour to Christ it is to obey God's Commands and to acknowledg his Power and Authority over us He who honours the Ambassador honours him that sent him he who honours Christ God 's Anointed honours God who anointed him In a word He who bows to Christ tho a Man bows to God also The next place is Rom. 9. 33. As it is written Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-Stone and Rock of ossence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Part of these Words are taken from Isa 28. 16. and because they are spoken of God in the Prophet and applied to Christ by St. Paul and St. Peter as several other Texts of the Old Testament are They conclude Christ must be that God spoken of in the Prophet But the Historian answers that Neither Peter nor Paul cite the Words of the Prophet as spoken of Christ but only as in some sense applicable to him namely because Christ also was to many a Stone of stumbling To this our Author replies like a Man very little acquainted with Scripture that This is nothing else but to charge the Apostles with abusing Scripture and producing Proofs which are no Proofs This I have answered before But he tells us that Paul alledges this Prophecy to prove that the Infidelity of the Jews and the Offence they should take at Christ was foretold in Scripture Here I must tell him he is mistaken For the Words are no such Prophecy but are spoken of the Times of Sennacherib who was to make War against the Inhabitants of Jerusalem whom God promises to protect and defend if they will but keep within the Walls of the City and stick close to his Law The Author adds a considerable Reflection And thus these Men rather than they will allow the Scripture proofs that Christ is God destroy all the Old Testament proofs of the Truth of Christianity and yet if such Texts as these must pass only for Accommodations and Allusions I know not where they will find any proofs Alas I perceive the Author would be a very unfit Man to convert Jews When I read first this Passage of his Book I could not but wonder how it came from a Christian He knows not where we may find any proofs of Christianity besides those of the Old Testament Are then the Miracles of Christ and of his Apostles nothing Is Christ's Resurrection no Proof or but a weak one of his being sent by God and the truth of his Message Must we account as nothing the Purity of the Gospel and its swift Propagation thrô the whole World I always thought with other Christians that these were invincible Arguments for the Truth of our Religion So they are indeed and by them we ought to convince the Jews and then we are able to give them a reasonable Account of all the Texts of the Old Testament that are quoted in the New The first place in the New Testament quoted by our Author is Mat. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost This the Author of the Brief History explains after this manner To be Baptized in the Name of a Person or Persons is a Rite by which one delivers himself to the Institution Instruction and Obedience of such Person or Persons So that to be Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is to prosess to be led and guided by them or as Grotius expresses this matter 't is to declare we will admit of no other thing as a part of our Religion but what proceeds from these that is Nothing but what is commanded by God or the Father and has been delivered by his Son the Lord Christ and consirmed externally by the Miracles and internally by the Witness and Testimony of the Spirit that is of the Power and Inspiration of God Now all this our Author grants only he says that Baptism being a Religious Rite it is a Religious Profession of this a Religious Devoting our selves to them and therefore we give up our selves to their Institution and Guidance not as Creatures but as to God who is both the Author and Object of our Faith and Worship But what is the meaning of all this We do not deny that Baptism is a Religious Rite and a Religious Profession of our Faith we only deny that because we are Baptized in the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as in the Name of the Father that therefore the Son and Holy Ghost are Two Divine Persons and God as well as the Father We religiously profess in Baptism to believe no other Doctrine but what is derived from the Father taught by his Son and confirmed by the Holy Ghost and the being Baptized in the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost is so far from proving that they are God that supposing they are not yet we must of necessity be Baptized in their Name When the Apostles made Proselytes had they Baptized them only in the Name of the Father such a Eaptism had been no distinction of Christians from Jews for the Jews believed in the true God as well as the Christians So that supposing Christ and the Holy Ghost are not God yet since the Gospel was first preached by the One and confirmed by the Other it was necessary that he who imbraced the Gospel should be Baptized in the Name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost to profess thereby that he was neither a Jew nor a Pagan but a Christian and that he admitted no other Doctrine but that delivered by the Son and confirmed by the Holy Ghost This was so essential to the Baptism of a Christian that we never read in the Acts of the Apostles that Proselytes were baptized in the Name of the Father but only in the Name of the Son of which we can give a reasonable Account for all that believed in God did not believe in Christ but whoever believed in Christ believed in God too One might believe and trust in God without being a Christian but whoever believed in Christ and was Baptized in his Name was both a Worshipper of the true God and a Christian He who was Baptized in the Name of the Son did publickly profess
that we should explain one obscure place by a thousand that are plain and easy 3. I come now to assign the true Sense of this famous Context Vers 1 2. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God PARAPHRASE When Jesus who is called the Word because he was the Messenger and Preacher of God's Will and Word and as it were the Mouth by which God pronounced his Oracles began to preach the Gospel he was intimate to the most secret Counsels of God like one who is in the very Bosom of his Father and he was in the form of God and like God by reason of the Glory and Majesty that did shine in him 1. That the Man Jesus may be called the Word or the Word of God no Body will deny who reads Rev. 19. 13. where Jesus is thus described He was clothed with a Vesture dipt in Blood and his Name is called The Word of God He who is here called the Word of God who is clothed with a Vesture dipt in Blood must be the Man Jesus Our Lord calls himself the Way because he teaches us the way to Salvation and the Light in this very Chapter because he is the bringer of it therefore why not also the Word of God because he was the Revealer Bringer and first Preacher of it 2. It appears by the second Verse that the Evangelist did not design to make a real Distinction between to be in the beginning and to be with God for what was distinctly spoken in the first Verse is put together in the second thus The same was in the beginning with God In effect the meaning of the Apostle is not that Christ was when he began to enter upon his Prophetick Office this would be no great wonder but that when he began to preach the Doctrine of the Gospel he was admitted into the most intimate Counsels of God or made partaker of his most secret Will This I think to be the reason of the Repetition contained in the second Verse besides that we may observe that Repetitions are very frequent throughout the whole Gospel of St. John and more used in that Book than in any other of the New Testament Thus when the same Apostle says 1 John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard c. he does not pretend really to distinguish those two things and to say that the Gospel was in the beginning of the Gospel but that what he had seen and heard of the Gospel from the beginning of it that he declared unto Men. 3. I have proved before that In the beginning cannot signify the beginning of the World but that it is here used for the beginning of the Gospel the place last quoted and several others do sufficiently prove 4. To be with God and to be in the Bosom of the Father at ver 18. are equivalent Terms If therefore we know the true Sense of the latter Expression we shall have a right understanding of the former The Words at ver 18. run thus No Man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father he has declared him Now to see God in St. John's Stile is to know the Decrees and Will of God concerning the Dispensation of the Gospel Those words therefore ought to be thus paraphrased No Man knew at any time the Will and Decrees of God concerning the Dispensation of the Gospel the beloved Son of God who was admitted into his most secret Counsels has fully discovered them to us The Word Only-begotten is put here for Beloved by way of Excellence and so it is used very often both in Profane and Sacred Authors And to be in the Bosom of the Father is not here an Interpretation of Only-begotten that is Best-Beloved but it is brought in as the reason of the full knowledg that Christ had of God's Will and of the discovery he made of it Christ saith our Evangelist here has fully declared the Will and Counsels of God to us How so Because he was intimate and admitted to the most secret and hidden Counsels of God which he expresses by the Son 's being in the Bosom of the Father This is then the true Sense of this Phrase The Word was with God viz. God discovered to him the whole extent of his Will he kept nothing secret from him he filled him up with the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg 5. We may easily understand the true meaning of the Word was God if we compare them with Phil. 2. 6. where Christ is said to be in the form of God and equal with God or rather like God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred Christ was in the form of God and like God by reason of the Power and Authority bestowed upon him whereby he wrought all sorts of Miracles raising the Dead curing the Lame restoring sight to the Blind stilling the Winds and the Sea c. This we may apply to the words of St. John Jesus was not only in the Bosom of God Partaker of his most secret Counsels but he was besides invested with such Authority and Power as made him like God So that Christ is by St. John called God or rather a God by reason of that Power and Authortiy whereby he became in some manner like unto the true and most High God But this Appellation does no more prove him to be the true and most High God than Solomon or the Judges in the Psalms will be the True God because this Name God is given to them Psal 82. 6. and 45. 6. Ver. 3. All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made PARAPHRASE All things necessary to the Propagation of the Gospel were performed by him the Author and first Preacher of it And without his Direction there was not any thing performed that was performed That this relates not to the Creation of the World but to the Dispensation of the Gospel is very plain from the following words In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men c. In these words the Evangelist teaches us how all things were made by Christ because in him was the Life and Light of Men which all Men may discern to be spoken of the Gospel by him taught which is the Light of Men and their Life as it leads them to Eternal Life Ver. 10 11. He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not PARAPHRASE He was conversing among Men to teach them the way to Salvation some of them were reclaimed by him but the greater part rejected him He was sent to his own Brethren but most of them would not receive him It does sufficiently appear by these words and the World knew him not that the Apostle speaks only of