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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	body_n	chapter_n	verse_n	2,626	5	9.9264	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49188	The scripture-terms of church-union, with respect to the doctrin of the trinity confirmed by the unitarian explications of the beginning of St. John's Gospel; together with the Answers of the Unitarians; to the chief objections made against them: whereby it appears, that men may be unitarians, and sincere and inquisitive, and that they ought not to be excluded out of the church-communion. With a post-script, wherein the divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, according to the generality of the terms of scripture, is shewn, not to be inconsistent with the unitarian systems. Most earnestly and humbly offered to the consideration of those, on whom 'tis most particularly incumbent to examin these matters. By A.L. Author of the Irenicum Magnum, &c.	Lortie, André, d. 1706.	1700 (1700)	Wing L3078A; ESTC R221776	144,344	120

tho' you know not exactly how great are the Communications of the several Parts betwixt themselves which constitute this one Person yet you must own that those Communications must needs go so far as to make of it but one Person Even all that pass for Orthodox among the Trinitarians acknowledge that Christ is but one Person and but one Son Now the business is to consider Whether any thing can be in general terms denied of one Son or of one Person which yet is true of some Part of that Person And the Vnitarians maintain that upon the considering of it this ought not to be found a mere Difficulty against the Trinitarian System but an irrefragable Argument of the truth of the System of the Vnitarians The two following Considerations are the utmost that the Dr. offers in order as he says to give a light to this Matter in so much that if both of them are invalid to solve the Difficulty it will appear that the Vnitarian Argument is demonstrative and irresistible 1. The first Reflection is this That notwithstanding the Union the Divine and Human Natures are two distinct Natures in Christ and therefore he may be ignorant of that as Man which he knows as God Now supposing that Possible with the Dr. yet this makes nothing at all to the purpose of the Trinitarians except our Saviour had thus expressed himself The Son as Man does not know that thing which you desire him to inform you of and therefore as Man he cannot inform you of it and as God he will not tell it you tho' as God he knows it very well But every one who can read our Saviour's words in the Evangelists may soon see whether they bear any such distinction 2. The 2d Reflection more to the purpose is That the God incarnate that is to say Christ being but one Person whatever belongs to either Nature may truely be afformed of his Person with respect to that Nature to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Nature and thus therefore infers the Dr. if Christ as Man was ignorant of any thing which he knew as God he might truely be said not to know what he did not know as Man this says the Dr. is universally owned Now Dr. this is a gross Mistake and most notoriously your inserence is absolutely wrong and is so far from being universally owned that it is indeed owned by no body in the World that considers but the contrary is held by all Men. It is true that what belongs to any Part of a Person may be affirmed of that Person with respect to that Part to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Parts For instance If a Man be Wounded in the Arm it may truly be said of that Man that he is Wounded tho' he be not Wounded in the Head nor Legg In like manner If Christ be both the Supreme God and a Man Personally-United he may be said in general to know that which he knows as God tho' as Man he know not that thing But because what belongs to any one certain Part of a Person may be affirmed of that Person with respect to that Part to which it belongs tho' it be not true of him with respect to his other Parts it doth not follow that what doth not belong to one certain Part of his may in general terms be denied of his Person when yet it truly belongs to some other Part of him That is so far from being to be inferred from the former way of speaking that every one knows it to be false that what truly belongs to one Part of a Person may in general terms be denied of that Person upon the account that it belongs not to some other Part of his Tho' a Man be not Wounded in the Head or Legg it will not in general terms be said that he is not Wounded when actually he is Wounded in the Arm. Such a denial upon this mental reservation that the Man is not Wounded in the Legg would be looked upon as a shameful Equivocation an express Lye And would the Dr. ascribe to his Saviour such a way of reasoning when he makes him dery his knowing what yet according to the Trinitarian System one of his Natures knew If this be not a Demonstration the Vnitarians think there are no Evidences in the World and it is impossible to discern what are manifest Arguments what not And therefore the Dr. they think should not barely have said as he doth that there is somthing which seems very hard in his common Answer but he should have dared expresly to affirm that it is altogether very invalid and impertinent Let the Reader himself judge of it by considering the manner how our Saviour expresses himself in both the Evangelists Of that Day and Hour knows no Man or no Body or no Person for it is in the Original None knows of that Day and of that Hour no not the Angels that are in Heaven nor the Son but the Father Mark 13.32 And at the 36th Verse of the 24th of St. Math. but my Father only If the Reader please to see any more than what has here been said upon these Texts he may be refer'd to the 24th Chapter of the Apologia pro Irenico Magno and to the 9th Chap. of the 2d Section of Crell's 1st Book Touching one God the Father in both which Places the Argument taken from those Passages of Scripture is more at large treated of and most fully illustrated Here is then what Dr. Sherlock desired Pag. 55th of his aforequoted Book Namely a Text that proves Christ to be properly but a Creature such as the Vnitarians hold him to be After this Argument the Vnitarians do not think any other to be very necessary I shall therefore in a manner but mention the following without much enlarging upon them It need only be added concerning the present Argument that Crellius takes notice of the other Answers to it and that they most visibly appear to be such that they who insist upon them do most evidently shew that they are obstinately resolv'd to defend an old Prejudice and that they will by no reasonable Means be persuaded to acknowledge the Truth which disposition cannot but be criminal To say for instance that Christ considered as God as well as Man said that he knew not the Day of Judgment in the same sense that St. Paul said of himself 1 Cor. 2.2 that he determined not to know any thing among the Corinthians save Christ Crucisied is it not to declare that those Men will take hold of any Evasion rather than yield For doth not that expression of St. Paul that he determined not to know shew manifestly the difference betwixt his Assertion and our Saviour's who says expresly that he knew not the Day of Judgment and that none but the Father knew it The Expression of St. Paul which we have

the other wherefore we must explaine one Place of Scripture by another And we are to consider that St. John is writing the History of the Gospel of Christ We may therefore be sure that by the beginning here spoken of is meant the beginning of the New Dispensation that succeeded the Mosaical Oeconomy and that that New Dispensation began by the Preaching of the immediate Forerunner of the Saviour of the World For we see St. Mark calls that the beginning of the Gospel And thus 't is evident St. John begins his History by our Saviour's Instalment or his Entering into his Office which was at that time when John the Baptist was Baptizing and when our Saviour being Thirty Years Old was Baptized of him The Word The same term often denotes several things By the Spirit for instance several things are signified In like manner by the Word several things may be implied What here may be particularly meant thereby we are carefully to consi●er If every thing be duly weigh'd it will appear that our Evangelist to go on with his Allusion calls the Author of the New Creation by the Name of the Instrumental Cause to which the Old is attributed Heaven and Earth being represented in the First Chapter of Genesis as created by the Word of God And he had warrant enough to extend the Allusion so far and to bestow that Title to our Saviour seeing it was not unusual to give it to the Chief Officers of Princes See Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis Lib. 2. Cap. 8. § 5. and seeing the Heavenly Messengers of God sent to execute his Commandments upon Earth were known to the Jews under the Name of his Word Ps 107.20 Wisd 18.15 16. Which last is the Angel by whom God smote the First-born of Egypt and who is call'd the Destroyer Exod. 12.23 which Name appears to be the Designation of the Office of an Angel 1 Chron. 21.12 The Author of the Wisdom of Solomon calls him the Almighty Word of God according to his most eloquent and figurative Stile not only to denote the Eminency of that Angel who was one of them that stand before the Divine Throne but also to declare his Swiftness and Ability in the executing his Commission and to illustrate the Fierceness of his Errand Philo calls the Angels Logous the Words of God as Dr. Allix himself observes There is nothing more common in Scripture than to put the Abstract for the Concrete as we see our Lord Jesus Christ constantly calls himself the Way the Truth the Life meaning that He shews the Way to Salvation that He teaches the Truth that He procures Eternal Life to all them that will obey Him By the same Figure He is call'd the Word that being as much as to say that He is He who brings the Word of God concerning the Eternal Gospel and who is commissionated to do and to declare the Will of God with respect to the Reconciliation of Fallen Mankind Thus Origen in Joh. 1. interprets it Seeing Christ is call'd the Light by reason of his Enlightning the World it is plain He is call'd the Word upon the Account of his Office c. See the Accounts why Christ is called the Word judiciously given by Pasor in his Manuale upon the word Logos and by Beza in his Annotations on this First Verse of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel where he observes that Nazianzen and dustin give the same Reason with Origen why Christ is called the Word or God's Word-Bearer by excellency or the most Eminent Minister and Executor of God's Commands Was. The Word was in the beginning of the New Oeconomy That is to say While John the Baptist was Preaching to the Jews Christ was then in the World and was then the Person whom God intended and took for his Chief Word-Bearer And the Word was with God This design'd Embassador of God and Interpreter of the whole Will of God in whom the Divine Wisdom and Authority did most Eminently reside and most Conspicuously shine who was all his Life-time most Extraordinarily Inspir'd and Assisted of the Holy-Ghost and of whom it was foretold before his Nativity that He should be a Prince and a Saviour that He should Save his People from their Sins and that of his Kingdom there should be no End the World having been created for him that thereby God might be glorified● this most Illustrious Person was upon the Entering on his Office caught up to the Highest Heaven that He might behold the Glory to which he was called that He might converse with God in the eminentest Place and with the brightest Circumstances of Glory that He might there be most Solemnly endued with the Divine Wisdom and Power and that He might there have the Honour to receive immediately from God his Commission and to be most particularly taught by God Himself what he was to do and suffer and how much reason there was for him constantly to undergo and perform all this See John 12.49 50. John 8.38 John 6.51 c. Thus In the beginning the Word was with God whether both in his Body and Soul or with his Soul only it matters not for the Mind properly is the Man The Spirit of the Holy Jesus was then taken up into the Highest Heaven For he sais himself expresly John 3.13 that no Man before Ascended up to that Heaven but He who came down from thence even the Son of Man by excellency who was in Heaven or had been caught up into Heaven For every one that understands the Original knows that the Participle which here our Version hath Translated is may as well be Translated was And accordingly it is thus Translated by Beza Erasmus Camerarius and others on the Place John 3.13 And the Word was God And this Holy and Immaculate Person that was to be the Great Messenger of the Gospel and the Author and Procurer of Salvation was then Installed in his Office He was then Ordained and Sanctified and Sent into the World He was Solemnly constituted the Messiah He was appointed the Chief of the Chief of the Arch-angels as well as of the rest of the Angels He was made partaker as much as possible of the Divine Nature and particularly of the Divine Wisdom and Divine Power on certain conditions only his fuller communicating to others the Divine Spirit was reserv'd to his actual Reigning in Heaven after his Resurrection and most Glorious Ascension In a word He was declared to be upon the performing of his Undertaking the Heir and Lord of every Creature He was then on these Terms Proclaim'd God's First Minister He was thus even then made a Prince a Lord a Sovereign acting for God and by God's Commission And that is what the term God often signifies in Scripture That most Noble and Glorious Name is there given to Persons commissionated by God in most eminent Stations not only because they are God's Chief Ministers but because acting for and as it were

and the special People of God may well be called his own And his own received him not These Men to whom were given the Divine Oracles and among whom Christ was born and lived and did mighty Works and was baptized and proclaim'd the Messiah by John the Baptist and by the Ho●y Ghost these blind and sensual Men liked him not they thought his Doctrin too pure to be a Religion fit for them and his Person too mean and despicable to be their Deliverer Thus the World knew him not and received him not notwithstanding all the Attestations of Heaven that this was their Maker their Saviour and the Mighty Prince that God design'd them Verse 14. And the Word WAS Flesh So we must render it and not was made It is the same Expression that is used at the beginning of the 6th Verse where it is said There WAS a Man sent from God If the Trinitarian Sentiment was not impossible concerning three eternal and supremely Divine Persons as it expresly seems to be yet it could not truly be said that God was made Flesh But the Trinitarian Sentiment appears to imply many express Contradictions It seems therefore every way against Reason to render this Text as the Trinitarians do It must then be Translated as we have done For as was observed the term doth bear that Sense The Word was Flesh Flesh that is to say a mortal Man encompassed with all the infirmities or appearing in the low form and meanest circumstances of Human Nature not implying Sin See Hebr. 2.14 Mark 13.20 Gen. 6.12 Deut. 5.26 Jerem. 12.12 1. Cor. 15.50 That is then it seems of somewhat a greater force and significancy than if the Evangelist had barely said that the Messiah was a Man the saying that He was Flesh being as much as to say that as to his Nature and Being he was but a Man an ordinary Man like other Men a very Man or true Man made up of Soul and Body subject to Want and Temptation to Hunger and Thirst and to all the like Frailties and Accidents of Human Nature By the last quoted Texts it appears that this is imported by the term Flesh which in the Oriental Languages is a proper expression to that purpose tho' in our Tongue like many other Scripture Phrases it seems odd but we ought to remember that the Bible was not originally written in English we must therefore carefully attend to the stile of the Scripture and explain one Place by another that we may understand it right But tho' it be certain the Messiah the Prime Minister and Chief Messenger of God was a poor mortal Man subject to the Pains and Sufferings incident to Humanity from which miserable state and wretched circumstances being perfectly innocent he might have been exempt but to which for the sake of Men and for the Redemption of Mankind he freely subjected himself yet as the Evangelist at the same time doth here observe he was not without some conspicuous and most illustrious Rays of Glory the Glory of being own'd by God for the Messiah the Glory of bringing and procuring the most excellent Revelation and the Glory of working as great and as many Miracles as he pleas'd and when he pleas'd such a Glory as declared that the Father dwelt constantly in him and as bespoke him to be the great Messenger or divine Word and the only-begotten or most beloved Son of God Such a Glory was seen in him as the Glory of the Son of God or as a Glory worthy of the Son of God by excellency Nevertheless to all other outward appearances and circumstances he was content to be as the meanest and most contemptible Men. And the Word was Flesh Now it was very pertinent to the Design of the Evangelist to use that expression For it seems to be his chief Aim to shew that Christ the Word was but a Man It is commonly thought that he wrote his Gospel purposely to oppose the Heresies of Cerinthus We are told Iren. L. 1. C. 25. and Euseb L. 3. C. 25. Cerinthus maintained that Jesus born of Mary was not the Word or Christ but that the Christ or the Logos that is to say the Word the Divine Messenger or Wisdom or Proclaimer of the Wisdom of God was an Hypostasis or real Person subsisting of it self an Eternal and Divine Substance different from Jesus but dwelling in him while he was on Earth and working wondrous Works by him Now in opposition to this St. John asserts that the Word was Flesh was truly a Man and but a Man a frail mortal Man like other Men tho' indeed the most dignified of all Creatures as he declares at the First Verse where he calls him a God which is the Highest Name that Cerinthus gave to the Word Well says St. John the Word was a God but then this God was but a Man tho' he was the Son of God the Prince of all Creatures and the designed Lord of Men and Angels The Word was a God and the Word was Flesh That is then as if the Evangelist had said The Gnosticks call the Word a God so do I too but at the same time I declare that the Word is such a God as is but a Creature and is no other but the Man Jesus who was God's only begotten Son being born of a Virgin by the Power of God and who was anointed with and constantly assisted by the Holy Spirit This is the Christ and the God Word Those then are mere Fables which the Gnosticks and Cerinthians hold of the Christ his being an I know not what uncreated Logos and Divine Hypostasis proceeding out of the Bythos or Abyss and ordered by the Father to dwell in the Man Jesus After all it is not absolutely certain whether St. John wrote against Cerinthus We have not so much as the Assertion of any one of the Ancients for it before St. Je●om And as for Cerinthus his Opinions tho' it may be that some of 'em were extraordinary bad yet we know nothing of them but by the report of his Adversaries And t is no new thing for such to give but an indifferent and imperfect account of the Sentiments of those that differ from 'em and to raise Stories disadvantageous to them which good Men such as was Ireneus took afterwards upon trust Howbeit we see that St. John decares the Word to be the Man Jesus Christ and in many Places of his Gospel shews him to be a Creature And if Ireneus was well informed himself and has informed us right Cerinthus held this erroneous Opinion that the Word is a real eternal Divine Person and consequently that there are more Divine Persons than one Those of Ireneus his Party most probably found fault with Cerinthus because besides his Superstition for the Law he had not the same Notion of the Word that they had Cerinthus it seems believed the Word to be a real Divine Person equal to the Father as the real Trinitarians do And