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.
that is his humility but as God they could not empty themselves by becoming servants because not equal with God I shall divide the truth it dividing it self 1. Into what was said of and was done in the divine nature or being as Son of God 2. Into what was done in the humane nature as Son of man That was said of and done in the humane nature of the Son is laid down Eph. 2.6 7. Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But be emptied himself taking the form of a servant 1. The form of God is the essence of God God being uncapable of any other form because immaterial in which form the Son of God subsists even as the Father and Spirit subsist viz. the Elohims in Jehovah so that his equality is not in the form therein is a oneness the Elohims are one Jehovah Deut. 4.6 2. Nothing can be in the form of God and not be God as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a subsisting or real being in that form as the being of man is in his material and immaterial formes of body Soul and Spirit so that that which is the form and being of God is the form and being of the Son who is God as the Naturalists say forma dat esse subjecto so the form of God here is the being of God 3. To understand the being in the form of God to be his exercise of divine power in working miracles as if God himself had been on earth is a corrupting the text for the exercise of the divine power is not the form of God nor God much less a being in that form it 's a manifestation of God but not a form of God 4. Thus his being in that form made him equal to God by God here in especial manner the hypostasis of the Father being meant because that abode in the increated estate and form of God and came not forth into the world as the Son and Spirit did 1. Not being in that form so the Father God and Son are one 2. But his part in and of that form was equal with the Fathers 3. The glory given to him as Elohim in all service sacrifices worship from men is equal as in all the Levitical dispensations Jehovah hath the Elohims usually added by an indefinite term or common words shewing one had no more glory added to it then the other in all their services because done to them in Jehovah 4. This his being in the form of God kept him in all his equalizing himself to God free from robbery that is from any unjust violence offered to God in his glory or honor by taking divine glory and honor to himself equally with God from man or Angel being equal with God that is the Father in giving to and doing good for them and in giving being to them Note we have stated the true nature and excellency of his being in himself by the disjunctive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence he shews 1. How this admirable or wonderful being in the form of God prepared it self as God to save men 2 Which was done in emptying it self which was his work distinct from the Fathers John 5.17 he being now on the work of redemption in creation they wrought as one 1. Shewing though he were himself still that is in the form of God God he and the Father are one 2. Yet he emptied himself of his equality with God John 14.28 3. He emptied himself the Father emptied him not nor any other 4. This his emptying himself did not destroy himself it was but a laying aside as it were his robes for a time 5. This emptying himself did but prepare a way for him to take upon him the form of a servant which he could not have done had he not emptied himself first such was his form his being and equality with God that it could not stand with his state to be in any thing inferior to him in which his divinity was not idle as Mr. Biddle objects He that was in the form of God he took on him the form of a servant even as God 1. The form of a servant is the becomming of one man bound to serve another and to be at his disposing as to his Lord in which he is a servant and he that he is bound to is become a Lord or Master and is the state of bondage which was said of Christ Gal. 4.4 in that the Son made of a woman was made under the Law and so nothing differs from a servant though Lord of all 2. As a servant so he undertook in the humanity to do all he did he came as sent by a Master as appears Luke 14.17 22 23. 3. Hence he spake nothing but what he heard what he did he did as his Masters work he gave him to do and not as his own in which he was less then the Father John 14.28 4. He took it on him of himself the Father put it not on him so that it is not believed God could do what he did for poor man the Son making it his work to empty himself and serve the Father in mans stead a work below the nature of God and distinct from the Fathers Joh. 5.17 5. If this had been spoke of man Christ it had been no more but his duty nay it had been its honor to be a servant to God as it is to all Angels and other creatures But he that is in form of God he empties himself to take on him the form of a servant who owed no service to any which is not to be said of man Angel or other created being 6. All this was done in the divine nature before he assumed the humane nature all which comes in the following words to be distinctly spoken of 7. He the divine being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made that is a servant in the likeness of men that is so a servant to God in all things as other men are servants to their God yea to thir Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 8. And in habit being found as man he humbled himself and became obedient to death the death of the Cross In which is that was done in the humane nature 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the outside appearance of Jesus Christ he was as man subject to death hunger weariness scorn reproach and shame as other men being man of the virgin 2. In his outside from or fashion he is as a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here distinguisheth him from the common state of men born in sin and again because not begot by man but made by the holy Spirit 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a man somtimes may be used to prove the reality of his being man as man is or as other men are 4. He was found in scheme or figure a term proper to a body as man that is men saw God in man which they the Jews long looked for and now
of Jehovah it clearly shews its essence and being in Jehovah to be equal and the same with the Father or Son and one of the Elohims for in this it is true that Quicquid in Deo est Deus est 8. His Trinity is proved by 1 Cor. 12.3 4 5 6. 1. Vers 3 4. the holy Spirit is exprest and proved by its gifts to prove the Word and witness to the work of God by as come forth from God 2. Of vers 5. the Lord Jesus as man sending out ministers 3. Vers 6. God Jehovah as Father Son and Spirit is spoke of as in the essence or being of God Now these things are spoken of as relating to the Church God and Christ in the Church but the Trinity relates to God as in Jehovah the Elohims in which they are one and equal portioned in God without inequal ty at all As for the most High God Heb. 7.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Gen. 14.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It answers to Jehovah but hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to it to make it as above other Gods in essence or being This is not to distinguish the Elohims to make them one greater then other by I should speak of Prayer because Mr. Biddle hath reproved the gross practice now in use 1. Prayer being to be made to Christ as to our Priest and by him to be offered to God and not by us immediately to God as now in which the Priesthood of Christ is made void 2. And how it is to be made to the Father because Jehovah in the Father is come out to man in a discovery of love which is as a condescention to man 3. Because the Father is in Jehovah's excellency and for or by the Son and Spirit gone out from God to enrich man in the things of God He comes as by consent of Son and Spirit to give all things to any that ask in the Sons Name that is Ministery 4. The Father is not so to be called one as distinct from Jehovah but as in him and so the Son and Spirit have glory with him it being the use of Scripture to set out men calling on Jehovah the Elohims Gen. 4.26 Mal. 1.11 Jer. 10.25 Psal 14.4 and 145.18 before the going forth of Son and Spirit Applic. In this the Son and Spirit glorifie God and the Father emptying themselves 2. In this the Father glorifies the Son that nothing is given but through the Lord Jesus 3. He glorifies the Spirit in that he heeds onely the minde of the Spirit and that nothing is accepted that is not from the Spirit as no sacrifice that was not burnt or offered up by the celestial fire But of this in my book of Faith and Grace at large To conclude as God is thus distinguished and so variously spoke of by one word so by the word Son is Jesus Christ variously spoke of 1. As the Son of God by being made of God as Adam Luk. 3.38 compared with Luke 1.35 and yet man of the virgin 2. As Son of God by generation Heb. 1.5 To which of the angels said he Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee By which he is God in the throne of God as in vers 8. 3. As son of man and of the seed of David and so Mary was the mother of Jesus Joh. 2.1 4. Oft-times through communion of natures something is applied to one that is proper to another as the blood of God Acts 20.28 where blood is said to be the blood of the Divine nature proper to the Humane And Joh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven Here that is applied and spoke of the humane nature which is proper to the divine nature In like case many things are mentioned in the Word of Jesus Christ the Son of God 5. His name as the Son is one and the same with that of the Father and Spirit not given of God to him 〈…〉 then the Fathers 6. His name as Lord was given him to adorn his humanity with in which he is but little lower then the Elohims but yet lower then them as his name is lower then theirs but more excellent then that of Angels or other creatures Psal 8.4 which our late Translations falsly render then the Angels for the Elohims Thus Reader by this as by a key without further trouble to me or any thou mayst easily unloose the obscure perplexed and corrupt way Mr. Biddle hath taken to make the Scripture speak to his unheard of Faith to which the Lord enlarge and bless thee that thou mayst be preserved from making shipwrack of thy faith that thou mayst be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus which is the desire of him who is An unworthy Witness of the Truth of the great God and thy servant therein John Brayne This should have been inserted page 5. between the 31 and 32 lines Object Exod. 7.1 Behold I have given thee or made thee Elohim to Pharaoh Here God calls one man by the plural Elohim Ergo God though one may well set forth himself by that term or in the way of many Resp 1. God in Scripture of himself speaks not by a noun plural but by a verb having a pronoun plural added to it and so it speaks not of Moses If Moses though one may by Commission represent many that sent him yet himself but one then he may be made Elohim 2. Moses was sent by the Elohim Exod. 3.4 to the 16 verse that is by Father Son and holy Spirit as all were set forth in that work of redeeming Israel out of Egypt and had a hand in it 3. So that Moses as sent by the Father he represented the Father as sent by the Son he represented the Son that sent him as sent by the Spirit he represented the Spirit as Christ said He that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me and be that receiveth you receiveth me Which was confirmed in the works he did 1. The Father in requiring Pharaoh to let them go 2. The Son in the act of bringing them forth of Egypt 3. The Spirit in the works of wonder he wrought among the Egyptians Exod. 8.15 Matth. 12.28 Luke 11.20 4. In these distinct acts of the Elohims wrought by him he was made Elohims to Pharaoh Jehovah Elohim appearing to the obstinate king not immediately by himself but by their messenger Moses who was sent in another way then ever any man else in the world was 5. This Exod. 7.1 is opened by Exod. 6.16 He shall speak for thee to the people he shall be to thee for a mouth and thou shalt be to him for Elohims And so Exod. 7.1 Thou shalt be for Elohims that is is in their stead and place as their minister to Pharaoh who yet was not the Elohims nor spoke of by a plural demonstrative as the Elohims are and was done but in a figure thence proves not argumentive more then this That he was sent by many and that what he did was in their name and not in his own Zoar on Levit. Sect. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 16. R. Simeon the father is brought in speaking to R. Eleazer his son saying Jehovah in all places denotes Mercy but Elohim Judgement In which there is a mystery viz. that there are three degrees and each degree by it self distinct all which notwithstanding are one and gathered up into one neither is one separated from the other Hence says he when the wicked turn Mercy into Judgement we read Jehovah Elohim to this excellently agrees the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that men call persons in God a word too carnal to set forth the degrees or subsistencies in God by In which the Jew is clear and rare in the discovery of God so that to deny the Unity of Trinity is against the professed doctrine and faith of the Jews and a hinderance to their call and contrary to the word delivered to their fathers by Moses and the Prophets Eccles 12.1 Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy Creators in the days of thy youth 1. It is in the plural not dual number and so there must be some other besides Mr. Biddle's supposed Angel-spirit and the Father creating man which was the Son 2. The Father no more created man then the other Creators they are equally said to be Creators and for any man to say the Father created more then the Spirit or Son is to make him a thief and a robber stealing from and robbing the Son and Spirit of their power and glory 3. To minde one Creator and not the other two is a disobedience to Jehovah Elohim is no less displeasing to the Father then the Son it being no robbery to the Father in our equalizing the Son and Spirit herein with him nay he that glorifieth the Son herein glorifieth the Father and he that dishonoureth the Son dishonoureth the Father also FINIS
THE DIVINITY Of the TRINITY CLEARED By wiping off the false Glosses put upon several places of Scripture By Mr. John Biddle In his book intituled The Apostolical and true Opinion touching the holy Trinity c. Written by a very Learned man lately deceased Take heed how ye hear Luke 8.18 Take heed what ye hear Mark 4.24 Try all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 LONDON Printed by J.C. and are to be sold by Edw. Blackmore at the Angel in Paul's Church-yard 1654. To my noble and ever honored Friend Colonel William Sydenham a late member of Parliament Noble Sir COntentions have been great and high of old and still are so about the equality or inequality of the Son of God with the Father even to the Anathematizing one the other when both that is a truth that the Arrians and the Arminians hold viZ. That the Son is less then the Father and that which the Protestants hold is no less a truth viz. that the Sonne is equall with the Father which being understood and observed according to the mind of God is holy and good but men exceeding in diminishing the Sonne in his Essence and exalting him in his emanation the truth being hid is the cause of the controversie and men have thereby come to subvert the faith of many The greatest the grossest and yet the most subtil way thereto hath been laid of late by Mr. John Biddle in that book of his called The Apostolical and true Opinion concerning the holy Trinity revived which the sooner I have wrote against because from the year 1647. he gloryes no man of the many learned he hath contested with hath given an answer to one Argument satisfactorily yea and that he hath long waited on the learned for an answer and can receive none That he hopes some one will and that himself is in the case a doubting Spirit and so a man convinceable and not to be rejected from all which with the bond of the Gospel that tyeth me to contend for the faith I am induced to commend this insuing Treatise to the World and first to you to whom I acknowledge my self and mine to owe very much and to God for you who I believe will not fail to satisfie your laying out from the least Cup of water to the greatest good you do for his to whom I commend you to be kept for ever being as I am bound to be Yours in the service of the Gospel John Brayne September 20. 2653. I first viewed Mr. Biddles book about Sept. 3. 1653 SIR PRovidence directed to my hand that Novel piece of yours Intituled The Apostolical and True Opinion concerning the holy Trinity In which to the Reader you glory that you have contested with sundry learned men and that they all have not been able to produce a satisfactory answer to so much as one Argument And then in the preface to your faith you call the truth of God touching three Persons in one God by the term of Opinion and say that it is as the bottom corrupting all Religion which in a most blinde way of Nature you seek to demonstrate from the being of Creatures because Apostle an universal predicated of three makes three Apostles if a man will make use of reason in his Religion By which blinde rule being led you call it an ignorant refuge of distinguishing the Essence and Persons of God yea a wretched and an unheard-of distinction in Scripture But your comparing the way and being of God with that of man God a Spirit and infinite Man a Creature finite were good it had never been heard arguing thus in your second Article of Faith from Phil. 2.7 The Sonne cannot be equal to God then he must have the same essence in number or a different one not the same in number otherwise it 's not equality but identity as equality in stature must differ in number though the same in kinde You say in your fourth Article The Trinity cannot consist of three Persons in one God but God himself is one of the three Persons which is absurd and say it is not onely the source of almost all the errors among Christians c. But it will appear your declining the same doctrine is the source of multitudes of errors in your booke and the overthrow of the faith of many by your supposed Trinity of one God one Man one Angel But if men observed your reasoning about God how carnal it is they would avoid trusting you For the natural Man discerneth not the things of God nor can he Never man spake so of God from the Earth as you have done confining his being to ours proving and denying his by ours who have not seen him nor known him But in opposition to all your reasonings and Sophistry 1. Consider God Deut. 6.4 sayes Hear Israel preparing the People to attend to what he sayes of himself against whatever any deceiver of the World should say of him that men be not deceived by them 2. He sayes by Moses Johovah our Elohims is one Jehovah Whence note deny it if you can Jehovah and Elohims are the same as Jehovah Ehhad one and as Elohims more then one yea or two because in the plural not in the dual number 2. These many because three Elohims are one Jehovah a word derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be and implyes relation to his essence 3. To say Jehovah is one so one as to deny the Elohims is to deny Jehovah this place of all others discovering God most clear to the people of that State and proves the Father Son and Spirit one God to us even in our State 4. This very text wipes away all the gross and vile aspersions you have asperst the most pure truth of the blessed God with 2 Scrip. Gen. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the beginning Dii creavit the Gods hath created which according to your reasoning is non-sence which may make you rise and say How can three be one or one be three so how can this be sence but 1. In the Elohim a noun plural joyned to a verb singular is excellently declared the unity of these Elohims in essence 2. For that estate as equal not in essence onely but in name and nature they have one common name of Elohims after in the State of the Gospel set forth by names of the Father Sonne and holy Spirit 3. They are indefinitely said to create that common name and not the Father more then the Sonne or Sonne then the holy Spirit 4. So that God the Creator of Heaven and Earth Acts 17.24 is the Elohims and not God the Father onely which to say is Heresie as appears by these Scriptures compared nor is it proper to say Jehovah did it but the Elohim John 13. 5. It is not said Jehovah as one created but the Elohims because that the outgoings of God manifested themselves in the creation as Elohims as Father Sonne and Spirit in redemption Prov. 8.22
and worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Jehovah came to be given and distributed to the Father Soe and Spirit thus gone forth in God as to be called God be God and worshipped 4. This is cleared from the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.12 These last have wrought but one hour and thou hast made them equal with us that is not in proportion as Mr. Biddle dreams but in proportion one having as much as another viz. a penny so also Luke 6.34 Acts 11.17 5. So that the Father having the knowledge of the times which the Sonne hath not makes not the Father greater then the Sonne nor the Sonnes having all judgement makes not him greater then the Father they having that in themselves makes an equality among them as Elohims and one as Jehovah all are Jehovahs committed to the Elohims 6. In God is no form or proportion of parts therefore equality cannot be attributed to God in such a way as that the sence in that kinde would prove meerly carnal The portions of the Elohims in Jehovah to our understandings is exprest Prov 8.12 Wisdom Prudence and Knowledge which ver 22. Jehovah possest before his works There is one notable place to object from 1 Cor. 8.6 Resp 1 Cor. 8.4 He saith in opposition to Idols who are nothing that there is no God other then one in the World which is spoke of the World Estate signifying Jehovah Ver. 6. In the Church Estate to the Saints is but the one God to them is a Father Jehovah discovering himself in the Gospel in the Father the Elohim in the excellent Majesty which the World knows not in which the Church outstript the World in divine manifestations of God called a knowing God as revealed by the Son or in his Son as a Father it being revealed in the Gospel-state onely And the words to be read thus ver 6. But the one God to us is a Father disjoyning Gods being as Jehovah to the World onely but gone forth in himself a Father to the Church revealed in the Gospel by his Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now whereas the Translators place the Verb Substantive as understood before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying But to us is one God the Father it ought to be placed between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and the Father but to us the one God is a Father 1 Or they make the God in the world and the Church two 2 By this distinction God is distinguisht according to the distinctive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not in his Essence but Gospel-manifestation of himself to believers as a Father in the Son more pretious then as a Creator Joh. 10.34 35. Is it not written in your Law I have said ye are Gods If he have called them Gods to whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be dissolved c. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 's here answers to Elohim Psal 82.6 and proves the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods to be of the plural number 2 The Psal ver 1. proves it to concern Judges judging by Gods Word and not God to be worshipped but men honoured of God 3 Called Gods because intrusted with that act was proper to God as his vicegerents in judgeing justifying condemning and sentencing to death and yet such but nomine non re 4 These because instituted of God are called Gods when other Judges ruling by other Laws are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposed to Elohim Esa 26.13 because they sat not as the Elohim in the seat of God as Gods which is the highest of all honour As for 1 Cor. 4.5 the many Gods in Heaven as Sun Moon Stars and the Lords Saturn Mars Venus Mercury Many Gods in earth Rom. 1.23 worshipping forms of men of fowls of four-footed beasts and creeping things as appeares by what the Apostle hinted at ver 4. where he saith that an Idol is nothing in the world so that Idols are in this text clearly oppposed to the true God Quest If in portion the Son be equal with God Phil. 2.7 how comes he to be less then the Father the Father greater then he which must be said of his divine nature as he was the Son in relation to God his Father Joh. 14.28 when again he saith The Father and I are one Resp 1. In the beginning of the way of God viz. his going forth in himself viz. Jehovah in the Elohims Father Son and Spirit were one and equal as in the uncreated being of God 2. But in the goings forth of God came to be inequality between the Father that never came forth and the Son which came forth from God John 13.3 John 16.27 30. And the Spirit which cometh forth from the Father John 15.26 and 14.26 3. This going forth from God is a ceasing as it were the use of and injoyment in it self the injoyments of its portions as God for a time as it were setting themselves apart from it called an emptying himself Phil. 2.7 that he might become a servant 4. He came into the world Joh. 16.28 that is into the state of creatures in man to clear which glorious mystery of God no Scripture hath that fulness in it that Phil. 2.6 7 8. hath in it which is much abused and mis-understood of men I shall therefore the more fully speak thereunto And the rather because as the Son was sent the Spirit was sent as the Son came forth from the Father the Spirit did as the Son took on him the form of a servant so the Spirit in becoming the advocate of Gods elect whence this text clearing the equality in the estate of the Sons inequality with God proves the Spirits also and stops the mouth of adversaries and blasphemers proving that that was to be done in the Son of God and yet not destroy his divinity or equality in being which may also be done in the holy Spirit and not destroy his divinity or equality in being to God The first and main objection is from ver 5. where it is said Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus and 1 Tim. 2.5 makes appear what was spoken of Jesus Christ was spoken of man and not God Resp By Jesus Christ is meant sometimes not the humane nature or the Son of man but the Son of God also and indeed as Christ when he asked the Disciple Peter had this confession Mat. 16.16 Thou art Christ the Son of the living God The one is not a foundation to build the Church on to stand by without the other Whatever Mr. Biddle dreams of his doctrine will come to nothing for he that in Scipture is the Son of man is called the Son of God also Both are intentionally spoke of though the Son of God is not mentioned for the doctrine of the Apostle being to teach men from what in Christ was to be imitated
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