found him in figure as man Joh. 1.46 Philip tells Nathanael We have sound him whom Moses wrote of in the law and the prophets 5. He humbled himself in the humane figure or sumitted himself being made obedient to death the death of the cross 1. He submitted himself to death Joh. 10.18 No man taketh my soul from me but I lay it down of my self I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again This command I received from my Father 2. He was obedient the Father commanding him to do it did it though he could avoid it 3. He humbled himself in it because he had not sinned and death is the wages of sin onely so that he that hath no sin ought not to die 4. He was obedient to the death of the cross because that death of all other was an accursed death Gal. 3.13 Now from these that I may stop the mouth of the adversary and the gainsayer 1. He in that he was equal with God and as God to be a servant of the Divine nature it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he emptied himself Therefore 2. He as man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself to death 1. This he as God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the form of God 2. As man he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in figure man as man 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is found in form as man 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is existing or being in the form of God 1. As God he took on him the form of a servant having emptied himself to do it that he might become so 2. As man he became obedient to the death the death of the cross Conclusion What is said of the Divine nature cannot be applied to men or angels 2. What is said of the Humane cannot be applied to the Divine 3. Hence it is said Therefore God Jehovah not the Father alone hath exalted him the man that humbled himself to death the death of the cross and he hath the name that is the Soveraignty as Lord in the Church 4. In this exaltation of the man Jesus the Son of God had no hand because he emptied himself that is in this work he ceased to act as Elohim though in Jehovah because united to himself it being the work of the Father and Spirit herein to glorifie the Son and not the Son to glorifie himself John 17.1 Joh. 8.54 If I glorifie my self my glory is nothing it is the Father that glorifieth me whom ye say is your God Sayes Mr. Biddle Was his divine nature idle that time Resp No it was then emptying it self a work hard for man to do What then think you Is this to be looked on as done in God a work the world will say is not to be done of him is God and be God John 5.17 The Father works and I work the Son in the work of Redemption works a distinct work from the Fathers when in the Creation they wrought together 6. This example was manifest as Mr. Biddle would have it before he was commanded sent and did the works he did in the name of him that sent him and not in his own name But to clear this point more fully John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God Here the Father is the Elohim God Jehovah whence they believed that the Son came from 2. Ver. 28. I came forth from the Father and came into the world Note He is said to come forth from Jehovah and from the Father as two things intended by the holy Spirit 1. In which was indeed his emptying himself 2. Had he abode with Jehovah as the Father did he could not have been emptyed 3. Had he abode with the Father as he was with the Father he could not have been a servant it being that state that is opposed to the state of Sons and condition of Sonship John 17.5 4. He came forth therefore Jehovah and the Father were not prejudiced by his so coming forth and by his serving no he glorified him 5. His coming forth from God proves he was in God and God as Jehovah is God again he came forth from the Father who was so in God and with God as the Father was John 1.1 2. 6. Hence the coming forth from God is the signifying of his emanation to be from an uncreated estate and being and that this very uncreated estate and being came into the world as into a state or being contrary to that he came from being a created estate which comprehends Angels and all creatures contained in Heaven as well as the Earth being part of the World 7. This word world in special respects the manhood of Christ which indeed is the Microcosme or the Worlds Representative having in it self in its Spirit an off-spring of God and in the body a being of earth joyned in one 8. In this coming forth from God and from the Father he made himself less then the Father who came not forth from God 9. No creature ever is said to come forth from God Jehovah nor none but the Elohim the Father Son and Spirit are ever said to be in him So now the Elohims are said so to be in him as to be him and he to be them the Creatures are said to be God as contentum in continenti but not in his being so as that himself cannot be without them nor are the most glorious Creatures ever said in their very being to come forth from God 10. In that he came into the World or Man he yet made himself more inferior to the Father John 18.37 he is spoke of as man born and as God by his coming into the World to witness to the truth Conclusion he in man is the same he that came forth from God and the Father into the World 2. He is spoken of distinctly from God and the Father in his coming forth from him as from man in his coming into the world Isaiah 9.6 In the child born is the humanity in the Son given the divinity set forth of the Son John 3.16 The third Testimony by which as by three witnesses this truth is fully confirmed Heb. 2.6 He took not on him ought of Angels but he took the seed of Abraham In which is signified 1. That he that took the seed of Abraham was able to have took the nature of Angels on him had it been his will and pleasure 2. Had he took the nature of Angels to him it had been inferior to him that took it as the nature of man he took was to him The Faker and that he took to himself was not the same nature he that took was greater than that was taken by him 4. This is the ground why the Scripture useth that expression in many places Of whom Christ according to the flesh came Rom. 9.1 signifying Christ had another way of coming then that according to
the flesh which was his coming forth from God according to the flesh man according to his coming forth from God he was God And here I cannot pass by Mr. Biddles paradoxical exposition made on Rom. 1.3 4. compare Heb. 9.14 Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God which he compares with the spirit of holiness and indeed are one but not as he makes them who by the eternal Spirit understands not the Spirit God but the body of Christ made a spirit 1. The whole Scriptures say not that the Body of Christ risen or any other is made a spirit but a spiritual body concretive not a spirit 1 Cor. 15.44 which is done in that mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption 2. He offered himself to God which sure if Mr. Biddle dreams not himself was his Body Soul and Spirit all according to the flesh by an eternal spirit which was not by himself but by the Spirit as distinct from himself man which was offered up 3. By this spirit of holiness or divine being he was declared to be the Son of God to Thomas who seeing him was dead risen again saw that he was thereby declared to be the Son of God in power John 20.28 death not being able to hold him because stronger then it 4. This spirit was the divine nature or being in Christ and therefore not called the holy Spirit of which he saith John 2.19 Destroy this Temple and in three dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will raise it it is not said the holy Spirit or the Father or God will raise it but I will raise it And that these words made Thomas call him Lord and God appears from ver 22. therefore when he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he said this unto them and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken who looked on him as raising himself And thus the high Priests and Pharisees Mat. 27.63 This deceiver said whilst he was yet living After three dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will raise it again and then ver 64. and his disciples steal him away and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is risen from the dead and John 10.18 he saith I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again Now in that he saith No man taketh my soul from me shews the reason why the humanity cryes out to the divinity My God my God why hast thou forsaken me in that he left it to death which whilst it supported it it could not die nor be overcome of death This is notably illustrated in the healing the woman diseased with the bloody Issue who being secretly healed Christ said That he sound vertue went forth from him which proves that Christ was very sensible of the going forth of vertue and the desisting of vertue in it self Luke 8.46 how sensible must it then be when life must be laid down and given up by it self to death Mat. 27.46 Hence in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eli not Jehovah nor Elohim without an Article signfying a diminitive and proper to God as came out from God properly owned of the humanity as its God who by its withdrawing vertue from him felt himself weakned and given up thereby to death compare Acts 2.24 and 4.10 and it proves Jesus to be God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quest How came this divine nature into the humane Resp In the holy Spirits making him according to the flesh the Son is foretold Psalm 72.6 prophetically to come down like rain into a fleece of wool which was done in his being in the womb of the Virgin I come now to speak of that Mr. Biddle calls the third person of the holy Trinity viz. the holy Spirit which he sometimes takes to be that spirit in Scripture which is onely called the spirit and not the holy Spirit which distinguisheth them clearly thereby it being no other then the humane spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ But that the Spirit the holy or the holy Spirit is of the Elohims and in Jehovah and so indeed of the Trinity being one of one and the same nature having one and the same name with the Father and Son appears 1. Elohim is of the plural number not dual and so more then two are meant thereby 2. And no more then three because the old and new Testaments onely speak of three as one in Jehovah of the Father abiding in the excellent glory and the Son and the holy Spirit coming forth from thence and no more 1 John 5.7 3. So that to preach from the Gospel a Trinity consisting of a divine and infinite being and of a Man-God and an Angelical created spirit is a thing forbidden of God Exod. â—0 2 Thou shalt have no other Elohims before me that is no other but those that are in the one Jehovah which these are not being indeed feigned things and false not in Jehovah nor Jehovah he himself says the contrary of them And in this Scripture that Elohims in Jehovah are more then two is clear and that to render Elohims by God as now taken is not according to God And as for that supposed distinction of the Spirit of God and so he is thereby distinguished from God it is no more truth then if a man should say that the Scripture speaking of the spirit of man hath thereby distinguished it from man when man is not nor can be man without his spirit so nor is the true God God to any without his spirit 1 Cor. 2.11 As for the Spirit 's not staying within God as mans within him it is to shew the infinite being of the Spirit whose abode and being in God is not as mans spirit in his minde as confined to a place in God The Son in coming out from God the uncreated and incommunicable state of the Elohims in Jehovah came into the world uniting himself to the man Christ Jesus or to the created being of man in which he came into the world but as for the Spirit he came forth from the Father in the uncreated and incommunicable state of Elohims Joh. 16.27 28. and as the Son is distinctly said to come forth from the Father Joh. 15.26 But he is not said to come forth from God as the Son is nor to come into the world that is that he is become one with any created substance Hence it was the form of a dove not a dove he was said to descend in it being given for a signe to reveal Christ by that the Spirit must visibly descend on one man amongst many so that it may from all other set him out to John to know him by And then it must come from heaven lest men should take the likeness of the dove to be an ordinary dove indeed who is no more confined to heaven then Jehovah is where Jehovah is his Spirit is as he is The end being this as Joh. 1.32 33.
The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah Luke 4.18 Isai 61.1 That these three are intended vers 8. is set down in Holy holy holy as alluding to Father Son and Spirit as appears plainly in saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Jehovah Elohim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word doth specifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be alluded to Elohim because Gen. 1.1 In the beginning the Elohims create the heaven and the earth Again it is clearly exprest that glory honour and praise is given to him that is the Elohims the Father Son and Spirit equally 1. And the Son sits with the Father in his throne Rev. 3.21 which he doth not if not set out in the Sardine appearance the Lamb is dead 2. Several appearances are not properly applied to the blessed being of God who is without shadow of change but as they serve to set out the Elohims in God 3. As for the Lamb Rev. 5.6 he is as slain in the throne that is he is as dead to and not capable of the glory proper to the Divine being of Jehovah Elohim And as for the Holy Spirit it is called God Acts 5.3 4. as I have cleared in my exposition on that place Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that worship the Spirit God It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Rom. 1.9 And those taught of the Spirit are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God And because the variety of Gods speech by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God may more clearly appear I conceive it necessary to instance the same more largely 1. 1 Pet. 1.1 2. is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father which is that which is called the first person in the Trinity 2 Cor. 1.2 2. Jam. 1.27 Pure religion and undefiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and distinguisheth between Jehovah God in which Son and Spirit gone forth and the Father abiding in Jehovah Col. 3.17 proves the distinction more clearly Whatever ye do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Father by him If by God be one thing meant and the same with that of the Father or by Father the same with God 1. Why are they both exprest Frustra fit plura quod fieri potest per pauciora 2. Or why are they not always both exprest Col. 1.12 Giving thanks to the Father who hath made us meet c. 3. Or why are they thus dis-joyned by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and not elsewhere in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Why is there an article to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Father and God are distinguisht and not an article when God the Father as of the same thing is spoken of as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to Jehovah ha El Haggibbor to the Son distinct El Gibbor 5. To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is an article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for emphasis as signifying Jehovah but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is for diminution the Father being but one of the Elohims and having but his portion with the Son and Spirit in the essence of God And so speaking of God the Father he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between as a diminutive 6. Indeed he sets the article before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 3.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father because vers 15. all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named from him Matth. 23.9 One is your Father which is in heaven As Father he is most excellent 7. Clearly in this speech of God the mystery of God is revealed Col. 2.2 That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the God and Father and the Christ So that as the Father and Christ are distinguished by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so God and the Father 1. And saith that the mystery is in God and the Father as well as in God and in Christ 2. In the word God is comprehended the Spirit and Son and the Father exprest as one in God because without an article added to the distinction as Christ hath 3. To understand by God the Father onely and by the Father God onely is to deny the Son and to unthrone the Spirit and to take their being God from them which thus understanding the Scriptures alone preserves to them And as for the Trinity that Mr. Biddle grounds from Ephes 4.4 5 6. One Spirit one Lord one God and Father of all c. 1. That Spirit is not said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but spirit onely and indeed alludes to Christs humane spirit of which it is said If any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So 2 Cor. 13.5 2. For as that one body is Christs or Christ mystical so the Spirit of that body mystical is Christs by which they are of one faith one minde c. and the spirit by which men received Baptism which was not the holy Spirit as appears 1 Cor. 12.13 compared with Acts 8.12 15 16. 3. As the spirit and body respect the Church and are one made one by that one spirit as the Father and Son are one in that one essence of God 4. As there is one body and spirit in the Church so there is one Lord over it which Lord is not the Son of God but that made Lord that died and suffered death Acts 2.36 in whom men are to believe as that he is the Messiah of God and into whose name Jesus men are to be baptized and to have sins remitted therein There is one God that is Jehovah vers 6. in which the Trinity is comprehended of Father Son and Spirit as God is the Father of all and not as the Father of the Son Jesus Christ for here he is so the Father as he is the Father of all and not in a peculiar manner as Father of Jesus Christ by generation but by creation and generation In creation Father Son and Spirit are Father of all indefinitely Gen. 1.1 6. The Trinity must be three of one nature essence and being or they are not fit to be joyned together A God a Man an Angel nay a man meer man above an Angel is a very strange Trinity and no less then robbery to make equality in them 7. Indeed Matth. 3.16 hath the Father speaking as a Father to the Son as his Son not Jesus Christ as man and the Spirit of God which indeed is the Trinity or Elohims in Jehovah This one thing I desire may be considered that the holy Spirit is said to be Spirit of God as Jehovah and the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son Now as it is the Spirit