blessed saviour call'd an High-Priest in one Epistle And in his kind of Priest-Hood he was as much a Priest as ever Aaron was in his and he offered himself as really as ever any expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice were offer'd under the Law therefore his pretious Blood which was shed upon the Cross till Death intervened is so often mention'd in Scripture chap. 9.12 ver 14. By his own Blood he entered in once c. and the Blood of Christ which through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God even to Death Again Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ver 16. ver 26. Ephes 5.25 Acts. 20.28 thereby to save and sanctifie his Church for he loved it and gave himself for it and so hath purchased it with his own Blood which could not be done without a Sacrifice and a Priest there 's no true proper and real Effect without a true proper and real Cause As the Article of Christ's Satisfaction is one of if not the most Fundamental of our Salvation so the Holy Ghost hath in Scripture taken special care to confirm it in both Testaments Isaiah 53.10 read the whole chap. His Soul was made an Offering for sin saith Isaiah and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all thereby the Prophet alluding to the Ceremony of the scape Goat Asasel Levit. 16.21 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet 2.24 which was loaded with the Sins of the People so in several places of the Psalms c. in the New Testament he is said to be the Propitiation for our sins and who his own self bare our sins in his Body on the Tree with several others to the same Effect full and plain enough 2 Cor. 4.4 except to those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds Yet Smalcius as if once had not been enough * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 57.66 said elsewhere That Christ is Metaphorically and improperly called a Priest and that he never offered a true but only a metaphorical sacrifice Again 't is false that Christ upon Earth purged our sins therefore they utterly deny the Merit of our Saviour's Death and thus impiously would overthrow the Foundation of our Salvation whilest St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Hebrews doth plainly demonstrate the Necessity Excellency and Efficacy of our Saviour's Sacrifice of himself for our Deliverance from God's Wrath the Curse of the Law and from Sin and Death Here I may shew an instance how far in an Impious way Men can go when God hath left them unto themselves These are the Words Et si nunc Vulgo c. * Racov. Cat. p. 177. And though now it be the Common Opinion of Christians that Christ by his Death hath deserved Salvation for us and fully satisfied for our sins yet that Opinion is Deceitful Erroneous and very Pernicious Where is that Fear of God Modesty Soundness and Humility which that worst sort of Men would in their Opinions and Expressions seem to pretend to But to omit so many other Evidences of their Blasphemous Writings I shall only add some Words of the same Smalcius †Exam. Err. 47.72 Christum nobis c. Christ hath not reconciled God to us nor when offended appeased him towards us God of himself and of his own Will is become favourable to Men without any ones Reconciliation Christ hath not obtain'd the Forgiveness of our sins by the shedding of his Blood for us So then with Paul we may say the Preaching of the Gospel is vain 1 Cor. 15.14.15.17 our Faith is also vain we are yet in our sins and the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God at one blow they with denying Christ's Satisfaction for us to Divine Justice would blast our whole Joy Comfort and Assurance in this Life and hope of Happiness in that which is to come 'T is certain that in the Work of Redemption to give and receive are Relatives for as a Man cannot properly be said to receive a thing except it be given him by another so no Man can properly be said to give except there be another to receive Thus in the Work of Redemption the price which Christ gives the Father receives it as Scripture saith Rev. 5.9 Ephes 5.2 Heb. 10.5.7.10 1 Pet. 1.18.19 Thou hast Redeemed us unto God through thy Blood and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor Again Ye know that ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot The Blood of Christ and his Death by the Sacrifice of himself is the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Salvation This Gospel-Doctrine should not be scoffed at by Men who would pass for Christians yet thereby make Heathens of themselves in joyning with Heathens to mock God's Institutions of the Ceremonial Law which represented Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross let an Heathen who knew no better say †Cat. Distich de Morib l. 4. Stultitia est morte alterius Sperare Salutem 'T is a Folly to look for Salvation by another Man's Death but no Christian should say so I am apt to believe that Roman was not a meer stranger to the Custom of the Jews but as well as Ovid he might have read Moses's Books whereof the Translation by the Septuagint was then Extant and long before for by what that other in his Metamorphoses saith of the Flood of the Tower of Babel represented by the Gyants attempting to scale up to Heaven and some such other things we have ground to believe that he had read the Book of Genesis so might also Cato who though accounted a Wise Man by the World if he by the Verse of his already Quoted intended any thing against the Ceremonies of the Law about Sacrifices which represented that of the Messiah's Death whereby Salvation to Mankind was to be purchased according to the Prophecies of David Isaiah Daniel c. then we may reckon him to have been one of those whom Paul speaks of who professing themselves to be Wise became Fools Rom. 1.22 1 Cor. 1.23 24. so we may all others of his Opinion because as the Doctrine of the Messiah or Christ was to the Jews a stumbling Block so to the Greeks or Gentiles it was Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God but we find Socinians to take part with those who barely are Jews and Greeks but not with them which are called so are more unexcusable than Cato and other Heathens who never had the Gospel-Light shining upon them as they have As they deny Christ's Satisfaction so wholly to deprive him of his Priestly Office they also would take away his
to mind what the Prophets or what God saith by the Prophets this is a bold stroak of a pen against the Old Testament he that is so sawcy with the Old can soon be so with the New and so against all Revealed Religion but because 't is fit for me to shew upon what occasion he saith it I must pass to another point and say few Words to it the more because this hits our Socinians who call themselves Vnitarians in that place the question is between the strict Socinians and the sect of Davidians whether or not Christ should be Worship'd and Pray'd to which Socinus was for though indeed to little purpose only as a Medium as †Tom. 2. p. 772. he saith and in Relation to God but Francis David against now Socinus and his Adherents were very strict and positive for their Opinion such as it is * Epist 3. ad Radecium Tom. 1. p. 391. he himself is large upon it and there saith de re omnium maxima c. 't is the greatest point of all in our Religion and somewhat lower he adds noli igitur rogo obsecro c. do not I beseech you oppose a most clear Truth but own the most excellent Mystery and foundation of Christian Religion here by the by take Notice how contrary to some of the Gang he calls Mystery something in our Religion and †Epist ad Synod Waegrov elsewhere to an Assembly of Antitrinitarians he saith they ought in their Churches to maintain the Adoration and Invocation of Christ for saith he if it be despised Judaism nor Epicurism or Atheism cannot be kept out and their * Catec Racov p. 115. eos prorsus non esse Christianos Catechism saith of those Men who pray not to Christ and hold he must not be adored they are no Christians at all seeing they really have not Christ whom they deny in deed though dare not do 't in Words This hits home the Vnitarians let them Answear it as they can But to say all tho' Socinus had as you read so strongly pressed that point yet †Epist ad Enjedin Tom. 1. p. 485. elsewhere he reckons it among indifferent things such as God in his Word hath neither commanded nor forbidden and so not altogether necessary It is very strange how one can be for the Adoration of Christ yet Blasphemously to call him * Smalc exam err 100. a made God or a deisied man a God of the second order a God subordinate to the supreme One but after what he saith in the same Book we must wonder at nothing from him †Err. 8. non est certum c. 't is not certain that God is precisely to be adored for his Divine Nature and elsewhere * Err. 15. non est certum c. to Worship one Onely God who is supreme God by Nature and independent is somewhat to Judaize and deny the Christian Religion nay he goes further and saith †Err. 17. Angelis qui sunt dij c. No man may deny that Divine Worship may be and hath under the Old Testament really been rendered to Angels which are heavenly Gods After this distinction there are also hellish Gods Further God may Command that every Angel be Worshiped for a God but I am sure God never will for he never contradicts himself is not this perfect Idolatry which we charge Socinianism with but I must get out of this stinking Blasphemous and Idolatrous dunghill the Devil John 8.44 saith the Lord is a lyar and his Children are liars and this Man is such one with a Witness for he gives God the lie But before I leave off this point to come closer upon some of our Socinians here I must with a stroak of my Pen hit their great Master Francis David who to shew his want of sincerity and his perverseness of Heart doth so wretchedly wrest the Protomartyr's Prayer to the Lord Jesus when being stoned to death he said Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit which with his ignorant and unsound Interpretation the Heretick would thus depravate O God the Father who art the Lord of Jesus receive my Soul Did any wretch ever screw up his hellish brains to force such a sense upon Words so plain without the least shaddow or appearance of ground for it only because he would have him by no means called upon was ever any Text worse mangled than this by the Additions of that Wicked Man This is the Spirit of those who call themselves Vnitarians and I Socinian-Davidians but to the thing There is a phrase which answers this Chap. 9.14 viz. All that call on thy Name which can admit of no such sense as the Heretick would force upon the other for there Ananias speaks to the Lord Jesus of those who pray'd to and believed in him there is besides a prayer of St. John to our Blessed Lord which leaves not in the least place to quibble or cavil at Amen even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.20 which as to the Object fully and plainly answers that of Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit when Paul besought the Lord thrice he certainly thereby pray'd to him who answered and said my grace is sufficient unto thee and that this was the Grace of Christ who thus answered his prayer in plain Words he declared it 2. Cor. 12.9 I will Glory in my Insirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me so that the Divinity and Invocation of our Blessed Saviour is clear enough out of Scripture so 't is out of the Faith and Practice of the Christian Church at all times That by the Primitive Christians he was believed to be true Consubstantial God and adored as such it appears not only out of the Writings of the Doctors of the Church both before and after the Nicene Council who Condemn'd as Hereticks all that did speak or writ against it but also by the Testimony of their Heathen Enemies as Pliny in what he did write to the Emperour Trajan about the Christians who gave of them this Character that they owned Christ to be God and as such Sung hymns in his Praise Now we must go on and speak of other things concerning Adam they hold many bad and dangerous Errours as Scripture saith Gen. 1.27 he was Created in God's own Image which consisted not in one but in many things in Soul and Body and in the Union of both in his Person the Soul is in the Image of God First As to her Nature which is Spiritual and Immortal Secondly As to the Faculties namely the Understanding and Will Thirdly As to the habits of those Faculties that is in Wisdom and Righteousness for as God is Spiritual and Immortal so is the Soul as to Understand and to Will are Proprieties of God so he endued Man's Soul with an Understanding and a Will as to the Body though there be less of God's Image in it than
Son and Holy Ghost be Jehovah yet the Jehovah or Lord who spoke to him was the Son who is the Word of the Father by whom the Father speaks As we read the People of Lystra Act. 14.12 could in their Heathenish way make a difference between Paul and Barnabas calling this last Jupiter and the first Mercury which with them were Father and Son because Paul was the chief Speaker I shall here omit what elsewhere I asserted how the Name the Word is the Son of God's proper Name to say that the Lord God the Son doth testifie of himself that 't is he who spoke in the first beginning of all Isa 52.6 Therefore my People shall know my Name therefore they shall know in that Day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. And he further having said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 17.5 Heb. 1.6 addeth Hear ye him And Paul When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World which can be no better understood than of the sending of the Son upon Earth to preach Grace to our first Parents Gen. 3.8 John 14.9 Isa 63.9 and the Presence or Face of the Lord from which Adam and his Wife hid themselves is none but God's Son in whom the Father is seen So that 't is more than probable that here according to the Jerusalem Interpreter the Son of God the Lord commanded Adam to appear to be try'd as indeed presently after passed a Sentence upon him his Wife and the Serpent and hereunto agree some of the Rabbies for by the words the Lord walking in the Garden * Nachmanides one understands the appearing of Schechina in that place and R. Abba explains it of the withdrawing of the Schechina out of the Garden because of Adam's Sin the Son of God who at the beginning of the World in the Garden pronounced Judgment and therein acted the part of a Judge did so afterwards upon Cain for his Brother's Death of whom 't is said Gen. 4.16 that he went out from the Presence of the Lord and Bechai saith it must be from no other than from Schechina Also Enoch the seventh Man from Adam Prophesied saying Jude 14.15 Behold the Lord cometh with ten Thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all which was effected when by the Flood the whole Posterity of Cain and that of Seth only eight Persons excepted Noah with his Family in the Ark were destroyed So afterwards against the Egyptians Cananeans and other wicked People and so it shall continue to the latter end of the World till the last and Universal Judgment be over After the Flood there was wickedness and cause of Judgment found in Noah's Family as appears by the Curse thundered against Canaan Ham's Son As to this Curse before I proceed farther I must take notice how it seems strange that Ham should commit the Sin yet the Curse be pronounced not against him but against his Son which to clear some think and 't is very probable that the young Man first saw his Grandfather's Nakedness and went and told his Father of it for we must believe upon that occasion Noah to have been moved by the Spirit of God for being Drunken and Asleep when he was uncovered he could not of himself know what had happened before he awoke A Curse was pronounced against Canaan and a Blessing upon Japhet and Ham where Noah said The Lord God shall dwell in the Tents of Shem. Gen. 9.26 27. This Lord God is the same who in the Garden judged our first Parents Now these words of Noah * Onkelos Jarchius Nachman Bechai several Rabbies do unanimously interpret of Schechina's dwelling in the Family and Posterity of Shem And Bechai saith something more for he adds That the Schechina dwelt not in the second Temple built by Cyrus of the Posterity of Japhet but only in the first built by Solomon who descended from Shem. Upon God's Words to Abraham Thou shalt be a Blessing Gen. 12.2 chap. 15.1 v. 5. Rakenatensis saith they relate to Schechina and after the Victory over the four Kings this same Son of God promised him his Protection and to be his exceeding great Reward a numerous Posterity the Possession of the Land of Canaan with Old Age to end in a quiet Death v. 7. And the Covenant then made with him v. 15. was a Declaration of his eternal good Pleasure that contained Promises of his future coming into the World to be a Blessing to all Nations namely Christ the Messiah which in due time were performed Luke 1.72 73. Gal. 3.16 17. v. 29. as by Zacharias 't was taken notice of so by Paul to the Heirs according to the Promise which shews that God's Covenant with Abraham contained Spiritual as well as Earthly Eternal as well as Temporal Promises and that the Law neither derogated from the Eternal Will and Testament nor disannull'd of the Promise the other Apparitions of the Schechina unto Abraham Isaac and Jacoh which make a part of what I now am upon I elsewhere sufficiently enlarged Israel upon his Death-Bed mentions him under the Name of Shiloh in that Solemn Prophecy Gen. 49.10 chap. 28.12 13. that he should be of the Tribe of Judah The Vision of Jacob's Ladder reaching both Heaven and Earth and the Angels of God ascending and descending on it is by * Rakenat in h. l. one of the famous Jewish Doctors explained of God Holy and Blessed and of his Schechina whereby indeed Heaven and Earth God and Man were joined together and as I love not to follow nice only solid Notions I shall not take notice of the Opinion of those who say there were six Steps in the Ladder whereof the three lowest signified the three degrees of his Humiliation and the three uppermost those of his Exaltation In the other Vision of Jacob Gen. 31.11 12 13. when he saw the speckled Rams 't is not said he saw rather heard for the Angel spake unto him I am the God of Bethel which †Commen in Thorah p. 41. col 1 2. Bechai doth truly interpret El the Mighty God and also Bethel the House of God that is the Son in whom the Father dwells or Schechina as * Rakenat f. 63. col 3. another hath it Scripture speaks of three Houses of God first of Solomon's Temple secondly Christ's Humane Nature thirdly the Church The same Rabbi saith That the Word Righteousness which is in the Name of Melchisedec doth relate to the Schechina whose Type we know him to have been 1 Kings 8.10.13 Zachar. 6.14 Isa 8.14 1 Tim. 3.15 p. 45. col 2 for I cannot be of the Opinion of two Eminent Modern Divines Cunaeus and Altingius who affirm Melchisedec to be the Son of God himself who at that time after the Victory appeared to Abraham in Man's Shape and blessed him For seeing by David and Paul the Office and
call'd will help to strike the Nail farther into the Head of those proud and unchristian Sisera's Unbelievers I may also call them seeing they refuse to believe the true God of Israel when he speaks of his Son who under the Name of this Angel he promised should go before them Ex. 32.34 Mine Angel shall go before thee And in the next Chapter God calls him his Presence ch 33.14 or his Face God hath many Angels but in a most special manner that he calls his but God hath not many Faces 2 Cor. 4.6 only one and that is the Face of Jesus Christ in whom only is the knowledge of the glory of God for God giveth the knowledge of his glory only in him Because he is the express Image of his Heb. 1.3 the Father's Person Those two Texts in the Old Testament compared with and explained by these two in the New shew that the Lord Jesus the proper Son of God went before and guided his People in the Wilderness so pre-existed the time of his Birth of the Virgin and that it may not be said of any Creature that the glory of God is in his Face or that he is the express Image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of his glory as the Beam is the brightness of the glory of the Sun In my way towards a Conclusion I shall by the grace of God briefly bring in some few Texts which do explain and confirm the great Truths now in question some I elsewhere have taken notice of however I now shall add something to what I then said but others I shall mention which I did not before but this I shall premise In the Apostle John's Days who lived to a very Old Age sprang up some Heresiarks as Simon the first of all Cerinthus Ebion and Menander who deny'd the Divinity of Christ as now Socinians do This moved the Apostle to assert and vindicate it as in his Gospel Epistles and Revelation he hath done so fully that if there were no other Books left of the New Testament there is in them abundantly enough to certifie and confirm that Heavenly Truth as out of several places in his Writings I sufficiently demonstrated in my Book against the Blasphemies of Socinianism which he doth so plainly and so often that we must take notice how the Holy Ghost by his Pen intended chiefly and strongly to suggest to and convince Men of the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion namely that the Lord Jesus is the proper Son of God 1 Joh. 5.5.9 10 11 12 13 20. and to the end that great Truth may make a deep impression upon the Souls of Men in one Chapter in no less than seven Verses he emphatically calls him the Son of God and v. 10 he is twice so called so twice in the 13th and that in such a manner so sensibly and with such Circumstances as denote a true proper and natural kind of Son-ship and he is so earnest upon 't may be all that time having in his Eye the Blasphemy of those Hereticks as to charge those who deny Christ to be the Son of God and believe not in him to make God a Lyar who is the God of Truth the highest Blasphemy that the Devil can infuse into Men For saith he he that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar He saith wherein Because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And what is that Record Besides his Commission in sending him into the World and the Works attended with so many Miracles and Wonders which the Father gave him to finish and to the evidence of which our Saviour did appeal we have it in his Baptism in a most eminent and special manner for the Father bare record of him when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Certainly God spoke absolutely truly and properly and not Metaphorically improperly and by a Figure not my Son according to the Flesh spiritually or only in some respect but simply my Son that is begotten of my substance and of the same Nature with me as a Son ought to be and is of the same Nature with the Father Volkel l. 5. c. 12. whose only begotten he is which is the proper signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a Socinian would corrupt and render by that of Most beloved to enervate the strength of it The Priests Philosophers and Poets among the Heathen either out of Noah's or Abraham's Schools or by some other way had a kind of dark knowledge of this Truth which for want of Revelation they understood not therefore did hide it under Fables and Lies as may be that of Mercury Jupiter's Son and Messenger of Pallas born out of his Head but for Socinians who have God's Word so positively affirming this Truth 't is for them the unpardonable sin of Unbelief which sinks them into Atheism for whosoever knoweth not and worshipeth not the true God he is without God and all who deny Father Son and Holy Ghost to be the true God know not the true God poor Wretches who presume with the Line of their shallow Brain and weak Reason to fathom the deep things of God which prompts them to put several impertinent rash and blasphemous Questions how short do they fall of the Modesty Sobriety and Wisdom of an Heathen Sextus the Pythagorean who said Concerning God inquire of nothing but what thou mayst lawfully say nothing of God but what thou hast learned of God 't is better for one to lose his Life than to speak an idle word of God it is better to say nothing of God than rashly to speak of him Such Men shall at the last Day rise in Judgment against Socinians Among the Greeks Pythagoras himself made all perfection to consist in the number of three or in Trinity and Plato constituted three Principles of all things Good Understanding and the Soul or Life whereby we Christians may understand Father Son and Holy Ghost who created the World But I must go on The Centurion's Words are remarkable when he said to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed just as Scripture speaks in the matter of Creation Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood Such a Word of Command we read of in Jonah And the Lord spake unto the Fish Jonah 2.10 and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry Land which last words imply a special Providence and ordering of things for the Fish might have vomited him in the middle or the bottom of the Sea but because God would save him 't was upon dry Land But to return to the Centurion whose great Faith the Lord commended he believed and was not mistaken that our Saviour might as absolutely command Distempers and Health Death and Life as he
commanded his own Soldiers and Servants for we read in several places how the Lord Jesus with speaking the Word to Diseases Winds and to Devils he rebuked them so that they could do no otherwise but to obey which proves his Divine Power and so his Divine Nature for none but God hath a Divine Power Upon this ground after the miraculous Work of curing the Impotent Man who had been sick 38 Years there our Lord compares his miraculous Works to his Father's when he said John 5. My Father works hitherto and I work The word my in the place is very emphatical to shew that his Works and the Father 's were wrought by the same Divine and Infinite power which meaning they understood well enough whence upon good grounds they concluded he had said God was his Father in a strict and proper sense and made himself equal with God In another place we read of some of the ten Men that were Lepers whom the Lord Jesus had cured Luk. 17.15 who when he saw that he was healed returned back and with a loud voice glorified God he turned back to Christ the great Physician to give him Thanks and Praises v. 16. and worship him upon his Knees for we must look upon him in that posture since our Saviour told him Arise go thy way v. 19. And by that Act he paid him a Divine Honour and by comparing v. 18. with v. 15. we shall find Christ to be the God whom the Man glorified for the Evangelist's and the Lord's Words are the same tend to the same purpose and the Object of the Glory given is the same There are not found said the Lord that returned to give glory to God that is to me who healed them save this stranger Farther to go on upon the matter let us observe how the Apostle speaking of Christ by his Name Jesus saith We have a great High-priest that is past into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 Jesus the Son of God The last words are put in to give us a proper and distinguishing Character of the Person whom he speaks of as indeed in the place this is added to make a difference between Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and the Jesus he had nam'd before v. 8. whereby he meaned Joshua for in Greek 't is the same as Joshua in Hebrew and here we see plainly how the Name Son of God proper to Christ doth distinguish him not only from Joshua Son oâ— Nun but from every other Man in the World as being his proper Name tho' never so good or great in God's Favour We must know that Joshua in bringing into Canaan the Children of Israel was the Type of Christ's bringing God's People into the Heavenly Land of Promise therefore in relation to that Office his Name was changed by Moses Numb 13.16 for his Name before was Oshea We must also take notice how those two great Servants of God had two several shares and acted two different parts which both parts thereby Typified were perform'd by the Lord Jesus their Antitype for Moses brought the People out of Egypt but introduced them not into the Land of Promise which Joshua did yet brought them not out of Egypt but our Blessed Saviour is the Author and will be the finisher of both our Deliverances from the bondage of Sin the Curse of the Law and from the power of Hell and also he will lead us into Heaven and Glory for he who hath began in and for us that good Work will perfect it to him upon a surer ground we may apply what Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3.18 He will not be in rest until he have finish'd the thing Now when we are upon the Name Joshua Jesus or Saviour I am put in mind of that excellent place generally granted to be spoken of the Messiah whom none but Jews will deny to be Jesus Christ Isa 63.1 I am mighty to save 't is absolutely said mighty of himself not through the help of any one else v. 3. For in the place he saith I alone have trodden the Wine-press and of the people there was none with me No meer Man ever spoke after this rate for there as God he by the Mouth of the Prophet speaks of himself with this compare Zephaniah 3.7 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save One Saviour and that in both a mighty one Now mark how in a very different stile the great Apostle Paul speaks of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me such a manner of speaking the Lord Jesus never used but it seems Paul doth point at the quoted place of the Prophet when he saith that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Here is a might to save not only in part or only some but fully and to the uttermost therefore the Name Jesus was given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their Sins His People that is the Israel of God for they are not all Israel Gal. 6.16 Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel Now the Lord Jesus is not only said to be a Saviour which in his capacity of Mediator may be called his proper Name so that every one may know whom we mean thereby This is the Character of God Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour For in that absolute way in Scripture none but God is so call'd but also in the Abstract Christ is said to be Salvation for he is the spring of it Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 which yet Socinians would lodge in every Man who can be saved if he will but in the Word God and Saviour go often together and as to the thing are never asunder and as Christ is Saviour so he is God St. John who better than all Socinians knew who God is and who Christ is in his Writings doth often joyn God and Christ when he commended God's Love to us he meaned certainly the true God by Nature of him he saith 1 John 3.16 Thereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us None but the Patripassian Hereticks will say That God the Father laid down his Life for us but God the Son hath as in the next Chapter he thus explains it In this was manifested the Love of God towards us chap. 4.9 because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him so the God who laid down his Life for us is the only begotten Son of God Who as is said in the next Verse Was sent to be the propitiation for our sins v. 10. this was the end of his coming and thus the laying down of his Life was a propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for our sins St. Paul saith Now