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ipsius verbum. Quis enim alius cognovit sensum Domini? aut quis alius ejus consiliarius factus est? Neque rursus nos aliter discere poteramus, nisi Magistrum nostrum videntes, et per auditum nostrum vocem ejus percipientes, uti imitatores quidem operum, factores autem sermonum ejus facti, communionem habeamus cum ipso.' 'We could not otherwise have learned the things of God, unless our Master being and continuing the' (eternal) 'Word, had been made man. For no other could declare unto us the things of God, but his own. proper Word. For who else hath known the mind of the Lord? or who else hath been his counsellor? Neither on the other side could we otherwise have learned, unless we had seen our Master, and heard his voice' (in his incarnation and ministry), 'whereby following his works, and yielding obedience unto his doctrine, we may have communion with himself."

I do perceive that if I should proceed with the same kind of attestations unto the doctrine of all the chapters in the ensuing discourse, this preface would be drawn forth unto a greater length than was ever designed unto it, or is convenient for it. I shall therefore choose out one or two instances more, to give a specimen of the concurrence of the ancient church in the doctrine declared in them, and so put a close unto it.

Chap. ix. In the ninth chapter, and those following, we treat of the divine honour that is due unto the person of Christ, expressed in adoration, invocation, and obedience proceeding from faith and love. And the foundation of the whole, is laid in the discovery of the true nature and causes of that honour: and three things are designed unto confirmation herein. 1. That the divine nature, which is individually the same in each person of the holy Trinity, is the proper formal object of all divine worship, in adoration and invocation;

wherefore, no one person is or can be worshipped, but in the same individual act of worship, each person is equally worshipped and adored. 2. That it is lawful to direct divine honour, worship, and invocation unto any person, in the use of his peculiar name, the Father, Son, or Spirit; or unto them altogether: but to make any request unto one person, and immediately the same unto another, is not exemplified in the Scripture, nor among the ancient writers of the church. 3. That the person of Christ as God-man, is the proper object of all divine honour and worship, on the account of his divine nature; and all that he did in his human nature, are motives thereunto.

The first of these is the constant doctrine of the whole ancient church, namely, that whether (for instance) in our solemn prayers and invocations, we call expressly on the name of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit; whether we do it absolutely or relatively, that is, with respect unto the relation of one person to the other; as calling on God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; on Christ as the Son of his love; on the Holy Spirit as proceeding from them both; we do formally invocate and call on the divine nature, and consequently the whole Trinity, and each person therein. This truth they principally confirmed with the form of our initiation into Christ at baptism; '1 baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' For as there is contained therein the sum of all divine honour, so it is directed unto the same name, not the names of the Father, Son, and Spirit, which is the same Deity or divine nature alone.

So speak the fathers of the second general council in their letters unto the bishops of the west; as they are expressed in Theodoret, lib. 5. cap. 9. This form of baptism teacheth us, Πιστεύειν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς, καὶ

τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, δηλαδή, θεότητός τε καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ οὐσίας μιᾶς τοῦ πατρὸς, καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος πεπιστευομένης, ὁμοτίμου τῆς ἀξίας, καὶ συνηιδίου τῆς βασιλείας, ἐν τρισὶ τελείαις ὑπόστασεσι. ' To believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; seeing that the Deity, substance, and power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one and the same; their dignity equal, their kingdom co-eternal, in three perfect persons. 'In nomine dixit, non no

minibus, ergo non aliud nomen Patris est,' &c. quia unus Deus, Ambros. De Spirit. Sanct. lib. 1. cap. 14. Ὄνομα δὲ καινὸν τῶν τριῶν ἕν, ἡ θεότης. • The one name common to three is the Deity.' Gregor. Nazianzen. Orat. 40. Hence Austin gives it as a rule in speaking of the Holy Trinity; Quando unus trium in aliquo opere nominatur, universa operari trinitas intelligitur.' Enchirid. cap. 38. When one person of the three is named in any work, the whole Trinity is to be understood to effect it.' There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, according to the Scriptures. Wherefore, as there is one faith in Christ, and one baptism of truth, although we are baptized, and believe in the Father, Son, and Spirit, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν, οἶμαι, τρόπον καὶ λόγον, μία προσκύνησει, ή πατρὸς, καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντος υΐου, καὶ ἁγίου TVEVμATOS. "So plainly in my judgment there is one and the same adoration of the Father, the Son incarnate, and the Holy Spirit.' Cyril. Alex. de Recta Fide, cap. 32.

And this they professed themselves to hold and believe in that ancient doxology which was first invented to decry the Arian heresy: 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.' The same glory in every individual act of its assignation or ascription, is directed unto each person jointly and distinctly, on the account of the same divine nature in each of them. I need not produce any testimonies in the

farther confirmation hereof: for in all their writings against the Arians they expressly and constantly contend that the holy Trinity, that is, the divine nature in three persons, is the individual object of all divine adoration, invocation, and all religious worship; and that by whatever personal name, as the Father, Son, or Spirit, we call on God, it is God absolutely who is adored, and each person participant of the same nature. See August. Lib. con. Serm. Arian. cap. 35. and Epist. 66. ad Maximum.

For the second thing, or the invocation of God by any personal name, or by the conjunction of the distinct names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together, nothing occurs more frequently among them. Yea, it is common to find in their writings, prayers begun unto one person, and ended in the name of another; yea, begun unto Christ, and closed in the name of his only-begotten Son: it being one and the same divine nature that is called on. Yea, the schoolmen do generally deny that the persons of the holy Trinity, under the consideration of the formal reason which is constitutive of their personality, are the formal object and term of divine worship; but in the worship of one, they are all worshipped as one God over all blessed for ever. See Aquin. 22. q. 81. a. 3. ad prima, and q. 84. a. 1. ad tertium. Alexand. Alens. p. 3. q. 30. m. 1. a. 3.

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But yet, although we may call on God in and by the name of any divine person, or enumerate at once each person, (ὦ τριὰς ἁγία ἀριθμουμένη, τριὰς ἐν ἑνὶ ὀνόματι άolμovμévn, Epiphan. Ancorat. 8. 22.) it doth not follow that we may make a request in our prayers unto one person, and then immediately repeat it unto another : for it would thence follow, that the person unto whom we make that request in the second place, was not invocated, not called on, not equally adored with him,

who was so called on in the first place, although the divine nature is the object of all religious invocation, which is the same in each person. Wherefore, in our divine invocation, we may name and fix our thoughts distinctly on any person according as our souls are affected with the distinct operations of each person in grace towards us.

For what concerns, in the third place, the ascription of divine honour in adoration and invocation unto the person of Christ; it is that which they principally contended for, and argued from, in all their writings against the Arians.

Evidences of infinite wisdom in the constitution of the person of Christ, and rational discoveries of the condecencies therein unto the exaltation of all the other glorious properties of the divine nature, are also treated of. Herein we consider the incarnation of the Son of God with respect unto the recovery and salvation of the church alone. Some have contended that he should have been incarnate, had man never fallen or sinned. Of them are Rupertus, lib. 3. De gloria et honore filii hominis. Albertus Magnus, in 3. distinct. 10. A. 4. Petrus Galatinus, lib. 3. cap. 4. as are Scotus, Halensis, and others, whom Osiander followed. The same is affirmed by Socinus concerning the birth of that man, which alone he fancied him to be, as I have elsewhere declared. But I have disproved this figment at large. Many of the ancients have laboured in this argument, of the necessity of the incarnation of the eternal Word, and the condecencies unto divine wisdom therein. See Irenæus, lib. 3. cap. 20, 21. Eusebius, Demonst. Evangel. lib. 4. cap. 1-4, &c. Cyril. Alexand. lib. 5. cap. 7. lib. 1. De fide ad Regin. Chrysostom, Homil. 10. in Johan. et in cap. 8. ad Rom. Serm. 18. Augustin, De Trinit. lib. 13. cap. 13-20. Leo, Epist. 13. 18. Sermo. de Nativit. 1. 4. 10. Basil.

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