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ART. create; fo that God's making the heaven and the earth is the character frequently given of him to distinguish him from idols and falfe Gods. And of this Word it is likewife faid, that he was with God, and was God. Thefe words feem very plain, and the place where they are put by St. John, in the front of his Gofpel, as it were an infcription upon it, or an introduction to it, makes it very evident, that he, who of all the writers of the New Teftament has the greatest plainness and fimplicity of style, would not have put words here, fuch as were not to be understood in a plain and literal fignification, without any key to lead us to any other sense of them. This had been to lay a stone of ftumbling in the very threshold; particularly to the Jews, who were apt to cavil at Chriftianity; and were particularly jealous of every thing that favoured of idolatry, or of the plurality of Gods. And upon this occafion I defire one thing to be obferved, with relation to all those fubtile expofitions which those who oppose this doctrine put upon many of thofe places by which we prove it: that they reprefent the Apoftles as magnifying Chrift, in words that at first found feem to import his being the true God; and yet they hold that in all these they had another fenfe, and a referve of fome other interpretation, of which their words were capable. But can this be thought fair dealing? Does it look like honeft men to write thus; not to fay, men infpired in what they preached and writ? and not rather like impoftors, to use fo many fublime and lofty expreffions concerning Chrift as God, if all these must be taken down to fo low a sense, as to fignify only that he was miraculously formed, and endued with an extraordinary power of miracles, and an authority to deliver a new religion to the world; and that he was, in confideration of his exemplary death which he underwent fo patiently, raised up from the grave, and had divine honours conferred upon him. In fuch an hypothefis as this, the world going in fo naturally to the exceffive magnifying, and even the deifying of wonderful men, it had been neceffary to have prevented any mistakes, and to have guarded against the belief of them; rather than to have used a continued ftrain of expreffions, that seem to carry men violently into them, and that can hardly, nay very hardly, be foftened by all the fkill of critics, to bear any other fenfe. It is to be confidered further, that when St. John writ his Gospel, there were three forts of men particularly to be confidered. The Jews, who could bear nothing that favoured of idolatry; fo no ftumbling-block was to be laid in their way, to

fuch

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give them deeper prejudices against Christianity. Next to ART. thefe were the Gentiles; who, having worthipped a variety of Gods, were not to be indulged in any thing that might feem to favour their polytheifm. In fact, we find particular caution ufed in the New Teftament, against the worfhipping angels or faints. How can it therefore be imagined, that words would have been used, that in the plain fignification that did arife out of the first hearing of them, imported that a man was God, if this had not been ftrictly true? The Apoftles ought, and muft have used a particular care to have avoided all fuch expreffions, if they had not been literally true.. The third fort of men in St. John's time were those of whom intimation is frequently given through all the Epiftles, who were then endeavouring to corrupt the purity of the Chriftian doctrine, and to accommodate it fo, both to the Jew, and to the Gentile, as to avoid the cross and perfecution upon the account of it. Church-history, and the earliest writers after St. John, affure us, that Ebion and Cerinthus denied the divinity of Chrift, and afferted that he was a mere man. Controverfy naturally carries men to speak exactly; and among human writers those who let things fall more carelessly from their pens, when they apprehend no danger or difficulty, are more correct both in their thoughts and in their expreffions, when things are difputed; therefore, if we should have no other regard to St. John, but as an ordinary, cautious, and careful man, we muft believe that he weighed all his words in that point, which was then the matter in queftion; and to clear which, we have good ground to believe, both from the teftimony of ancient writers, and from the method that he purfues quite through it all, that he writ his Gofpel; and that therefore every part of it, but this beginning of it more fignally, was writ, and is to be understood in the sense which the words naturally import: that the Word which took flefb, and affumed the human nature, had a being before the worlds were made, and that this Word was God, and made the world.

II.

Another eminent proof of this is in St. Paul's Epiftle Phil. ii. 6, to the Philippians; in which, when he is exhorting 7, 8, 9, 10, Chriftians to humility, he gives an argument for it from our Saviour's example. He begins with the dignity of his perfon, expreffed thus; that he was in the form of God, and that be thought it no robbery to be equal with God: then his humiliation comes, that he made himself of no reputation, but took on him the form of a fervant (the fame word with that used in the former verfe): after which follows

II.

ART. his exaltation, and a name or authority above every name or authority is faid to be given him; fo that all in heaven, earth, and under the earth, (which feems to import angels, men, and devils,) fhould bow at his name, and confefs that be is the Lord. Now in this progrefs that is made in these words, it is plain, that the dignity of Chrift's perfon is reprefented as antecedent both to his humiliation and to his exaltation. It was that which put the value on his humiliation, as his humiliation was rewarded by his exaltation. This dignity is expreffed firft, that he was in the form of God, before he humbled himself: he was certainly in the form of a fervant, that is, really a fervant, as other fervants are: he was obedient to his parents, he was under the authority both of the Romans, of Herod, and of the Sanhedrim: therefore fince his being really a fervant is expreffed by his being in the form of a servant, his being in the form of God, muft alfo import that he was truly God. But the following words, that he thought it not robbery to be equal, or be beld equal, (for fo the word may be rendered,) with God, carry fuch a natural fignification of his being neither a made nor fubordinate God, and that his divinity is neither precarious, nor by conceffion, that fuller words cannot be devifed for expreffing an entire equality. Those who deny this are aware of it, and therefore they have put another fenfe on the words, in the form of God. They think, that they fignify his appearing in the world, as one fent in the name of God, reprefenting him, working miracles, and delivering a law in his name: and the words rendered, be thought it no robbery, they render, he did not catch at, or vehemently defire to be held in equal bonour with God. And fome authorities are found in eloquent Greek authors, who ufe the words rendered, he thought it not robbery, in a figurative fenfe, for the earneftnefs of defire, or the purfuing after a thing greedily, as robbers do for their prey. This rendering reprefents St. Paul, as treating fo facred a point in the figures of a high and feldom ufed rhetoric, which one would think ought to have been exprefled more exactly. But if even this fenfe is allowed, it will make a ftrange period, and a very odd fort of an argument, to enforce humility upon us, because Chrift, though working miracles, did not defire, or fnatch at divine adorations, in an equality with God. The fin of Lucifer, and the cause of his fall, is commonly believed to be his defire to be equal to God; and yet this feems to be fuch an extravagant piece of pride, that it is fcarce poffible to think, that even the fublimeft of created beings fhould be capable of it.

To

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To be next to God, feems to be the utmoft height, to ART. which even the diabolical pride could aspire: fo that here, by the fenfe which the Socinians put on thofe words, they will import, that we are perfuaded to be humble from the example of Chrift, who did not affect an equality with God the bare repeating of this feems fo fully to expose and overthrow it, that I think it is not neceffary to fay more upon this place.

1Joh. iii. 16.

Rev. xix.16.

The next head of proof is made up of more particulars. Acts xx. 28. All the names, the operations, and even the attributes of I Joh. v. 20. God, are in full and plain words given to Chrift. He is Tit. ii. 13. called God; his blood is said to be the blood of God; God Jam. ii. 1. is faid to bave laid down his life for us; Chrift is called the Rev. i. 8. true God, the great God, the Lord of glory, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords; and more particularly the name Jehovah is afcribed to him in the fame word in which the LXX Interpreters had tranflated it throughout the whole Old Teftament. So that this conftant uniformity of ftyle between the Greek of the New, and that tranflation of the Old Testament which was then received, and was of great authority among the Jews, and was yet of more authority among the firft Chriftians, is an argument that carries fuch a weight with it, that this alone may ferve to determine the matter. The creating, the preferving, and the governing of all things, is alfo afcribed to Chrift in a variety of places, but most remarkably, when it is faid, that by bim were all things created, that are in Col. i. 16, beaven, and that are in earth, vifible, and invisible: whe- 17: ther they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; Matt. xi. all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before 27. all things, and by bim all things confift. He is faid to have Matt. ix. 6. known what was in man, to bave known men's fecret thoughts, John xiv. and to bave known all things: that as the Father was 13. known of none but of the Son; fo none knew the Son but the Joh. v. 25, Father. He pardons fin, fends the Spirit, gives grace and Joh. vi. 39, eternal life, and be fhall raife the dead at the last day. When 40. all these things are laid together in that variety of expreffions, in which they lie fcattered in the New Teftament, it is not poffible to retain any reverence for those books, if we imagine that they are writ in a ftyle fo full of approaches to the deifying of a mere man, that without a very critical ftudying of languages and phrafes, it is not poffible to understand them otherwife. Idolatry, and a plurality of Gods, feem to be the main things that the Scriptures warn us againft; and yet here is a pursued thread of paffages and difcourfes, that do naturally lead a man to think that Chrift is the true God, who yet, accord

John ii. 25.

John xv. 26.

26.

ART. ing to these men, only acted in his name, and has now a high honour put on him by him.

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This carries me to another argument to prove that the Word that was made flesh was truly God. Nothing but the true God can be the proper object of adoration. This is one of those truths that seems almost fo evident, that it needs not to be proved. Adoration is the humble proftration of ourselves before God, in acts that own our dependance upon him, both for our being, and for all the bleffings that we do either enjoy or hope for, and alfo in earnest prayers to him for the continuance of thefe to us. This is teftified by fuch outward geftures and actions as are most proper to exprefs our humility and fubmiffion to God: all this has fo clear and fo infeparable a relation to the only true God, as its proper object, that it is fcarce poffible to apprehend how it fhould be feparated from him, and given to any other. And as this feems evident from the nature of things, fo it is not poffible to imagine how any thing could have been prohibited in more exprefs and pofitive, and in more frequently-repeated words, and longer reafonings, than the offering of divine worship, or any part of it, to creatures. The chief defign of the Mofaical religion was to banish all idolatry and polytheifm out of the minds of the Jews, and to poffefs them with the idea of one God, and of one object of worship. The reafons upon which thofe prohibitions are founded are univerfal; which are, the unity of God's effence, and his jealoufy in not giving his honour to another. It is not faid that they fhould not worship any as God, till they had a precept or declaration for it. There is no referve for any fuch time; but they are plainly forbid to worship any but the great God, becaufe he was one, and was jealous of his glory. The New Teftament is writ in the fame ftrain: Chrift, when tempted of the Devil, anfwered, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve. The Apoftles charged Acts xvii. all idolaters to forfake thofe idols, and to Jerve the living God. The Angel refufed St. John's worship, commanding him to worship God. The Chriftian faith does in every Rev. xix. particular raise the ideas of God and of religion to a much greater purity and fublimity, than the Mofaical difpenfation had done; fo it is not to be imagined, that in the chief defign of revealed religion, which was the bringing men from idolatry to the worship of one God, it should make fuch a breach, and extend it to a creature. All this feems fully to prove the first propofition of this argument, that God is the only proper object of adoration. The next is, that Chrift is propofed in the New Teftament as

Matt. iv.

10.

Acts xiv.

15.

29.

1 Theff. i.

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10.

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