come to God but thorough him that is the way Hence it appears John 14.6 how none but a True and not a made God could be a Mediator between God and us If one Man sin against another 1 Sam. 2.25 saith Eli the Judge shall judge him But if a Man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him No meer Man can only he that is Lord God himself * Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh is a place worthy to take up our Serious Thoughts This sheweth first the Law could not justifie us by reason of Weakness thorough the Flesh or Humane Nature which to remedy 't was necessary God should send his own Son to relieve this Weakness and Impossibility for that wherein our Nature thorough Frailty was wanting must be helped by Divine Nature Secondly This sheweth how this help came by means of God's own Son whom God sent into the World and by a Sacrifice for Sin effected that which was impossible for any Man whatsoever to do Now if they can let them find stronger and more proper Expressions to signifie Christ Jesus to be the True Proper Natural Son of God than these in Scripture God's own Son the only begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father in whom the Father is well pleased Can this be said of one that is a meer Man No nor of any Angel which is a nobler Creature For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 6 8. this day have I begotten thee And again when he bringeth the first Begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He cannot be called the First Begotten in relation to a Temporal Generation for many other Sons of Adoption God had begotten long before Christ's appearing in the World but upon account of an Eternal take notice of what is added But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne 1 Tim. 1.1 Tit. 1.3 O God is for ever and ever not only here and in other places I already quoted he is called God but also St. Paul in two places gives him the name of God our Saviour he is God as certainly as he is our Saviour for in both places both are joyned together Now as when the Spirit of God doth in Scripture call him Man we ought to believe him to be a Man indeed so when he calls him God we must believe him to be God indeed for with St. Paul * Rom. 2.2 We are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And immediately after his Conversion he began to preach the Gospel with this Fundamental Truth thereof namely That he is the Son of God Acts 9.20 And whosoever owns him not to be truly God gives God the Lye disowns him to be our Saviour and our Mediator for as the Mediator doth act the part of Man with God so with Men he is to perform the part of God he stands between two Extreams and reaches them both with filling the space though never so distant between them he immediately approacheth unto God whom he pacifieth towards Men and from him upon the account of his own Merit obtaineth for them all Gifts and Graces necessary to their Salvation All this none but a God can do for us But here I must stop for insensibly I am driven farther than I intended only few words I shall speak in relation to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity which they deny Divine Nature is most simply and singularly one yet in that one Essence are Three Persons distinguished in Number Order Manner of Acting and with Personal Names and Attributes And though the words Trinity and Persons be not in so many Letters set down in Scripture no more than the word Sacrament Symbole or Creed Lord's-Prayer c. Yet as we agree that these are contained in and deduced out of the Word of God so we may say of those now in question For Brevity sake I shall mention none of the several Proofs taken out of the Old Testament and pitch upon few of those out of the New The Baptism of the Lord Jesus doth afford a clear and strong Proof God the Father speaks * Matt. 3.16 17. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ the Son of God is Baptised The Spirit or Holy Ghost descended from Heaven like a Dove and lighted upon him Then the Apostles are commanded to * Chap. 28.19 Baptise in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost furely by any one that can reckon it will be found there are Three Hypostases or Persons for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in relation to God the Father for the Son is said to be * Heb. 1.3 the express Image of his the Father's Person In the following Text we also find there ‖ John 14.16 17. I will Pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter the Father I and the Comforter there called the Spirit of Truth and in the next Chapter 't is said * Chap. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father again here they be Three St. Paul also mentioneth them * 2 Cor. 13.14 The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God that is the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost This I shall conclude with that of another Apostle * 1 John 5.7 For there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. I think from the word Three that of Trinity may well be derived Here is proved the Trinity of Persons and the Unity or Oneness of Essence or Nature The Trinity of Persons doth not multiply the Nature without any Contradiction a Subject may in one respect be one and manifold in another This is clear out of several Instances in Nature Man hath a Soul this Soul hath three several distinct Faculties the Mind Will and Memory the Mind is not the Will nor the Will the Memory these are three different Faculties yet but one Soul In the Sun are three things the Body the Light and the Heat of the Sun yet not many Suns yet only one A Father hath a Son the Father and the Son are two different Persons yet they have the same Nature and both are Men. There are many more such Instances which I now forbear to mention to shew how in created Substances Trinity or Multiplicity doth not destroy Unity so we may reasonably infer that in the Godhead the Trinity of Persons is no Prejudice to the Unity of Essence or Nature But for all this they will deny the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the first I proved and I think 't
Serious Advice TO A PRESERVATIVE Against the Blasphemous Heresie OF SOCINIANISM Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them mine Enemies Psal 139.21 22. By J. G. G. LONDON Printed for Geo. Grafton and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1695. Serious Advice to a Preservative against the Blasphemous Heresie of Socinianism NOW more than ever there is cause to say the last Days and Times foretold by the Apostles * 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. St. Paul and ‖ 1 John 2.18 St. John are come upon us For not only Iniquity in Practise doth abound every where and the Man and Manner of Sin is daily more and more discovered But also Perverseness in Judgment in no less than Heresie and Blasphemy walks bare-faced with those who are so far delivered up to Satan as to deny the Lord of Glory For abominable Socinianism which is a Sink of the Cerinthians Ebionites Sabellians Samosatenians Photinians Arrians Semi-Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Pelagians and of several other Hereticks doth now proudly appear and in Effect defie Christian Religion and attempts to overthrow the Foundation of the Gospel not in one but several parts thereof It is for me a Matter of Wonderful Grief to see the Boldness and Impudence of that Abominable Heresie as it were Triumphantly to come in of one side and the Silence and Sluggishness of those that should oppose it on the other * Jer. 9.1 O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Guilt which is thereby contracted upon the Nation My Purpose is for the present by the Grace of God only to give in my Evidence in the Case and that as briefly and plainly as I can to condescend to the meanest Capacity But if by Providence I be further engaged in the Matter I shall grudge neither Time nor Pains upon so Just so Necessary and so Glorious an Account as to bear Record for the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion Laelius Socinus the Uncle and Faustus Socinus his Nephew both of Siena in Italy soon after the Death of Detestable Servetus did the first conceive and the second bring forth their Damnable Opinions which amongst the rest are these They deny the most Holy and Adorable Trinity Christ's Divinity his being Coeternal in Time if we may use that word with the Father Coessential in Nature and Coequal in Power they will not own he hath given the Father Satisfaction for our Sins but only obtained for us by our Faith and Obedience to satisfie for our selves They say he died for our Good but not in our Place he died for himself not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmity of our Nature which he had assumed he became not our High Priest till after his Ascension into Heaven How Man before his Fall was Naturally Mortal and had no Original Righteousness that in us there is no Original Sin as it imports a Deformity of Nature The Holy Ghost they admit not to be God no more than Christ whose Incarnation they affirm to be against Reason and without Proofs of Scripture With Pelagians they are against Providence and Matters of Grace All these and others abominable Errors which destroy the whole Foundation and Work of our Salvation are to be found in the Books of Socinus Crellius Ostorodius c. How far will Men go when once they are fallen into and engaged in an evil way When God hath left them in the Blindness and Darkness of their Understanding and given them up to the Imaginations and Counsels of their evil Hearts to the Temptations of Satan and to their own Natural Corruption We see it in the case of that Wicked Arrius who within a short time from the Year 323 till 336 drew a great part of the World after him and in the other of that great Impostor Mahomet who agreed with Arrius against the Deity of the Lord Jesus wherein he is followed by Socinians That Man thorough a Judgment of God * 2 Thess 2.11 sending a strong Delusion that Men should believe a Lye by the means of a Foolish Book of a Nonsensical Alcoran of pretended Trances and Raptures when he was in his Fit of the Falling-sickness and of the Cheat of a Pidgeon picking as it had been taught some Grains out of his Ear as if the Angel Gabriel under that shape had then been Suggesting his Religion and Doctrine to him with some Allowance to the Pleasures of the Flesh in this World and Promises of the like in the next by these means and the Trick of his Tomb at Mecca hath drawn a great part of the World after him In order to settle their Impious Principles Socinians go about two things First To overthrow the Ground of our Faith and Religion with their attempting to undermine Holy Scriptures which are the Foundation and Rule of it To bring it about They affirm the Old Testament to be needless for Christians as for the Books of the New they allow not the Authors thereof to have been Inspired by the Spirit of God positively against what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 and therein they would have some places to contradict others grant this and you take away the Infallibility and Truth of Scripture and if it be yielded of one Text why not of many more If so What will become of Christian Religion grounded upon the Gospel For if we must believe St. Paul who * Gal. 1.11 12. Certifies it is not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was he taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ The second thing Socinians do to promote their Blasphemies is To make Natural Reason the Principle of Religion for they give all to Reason as if it was Infallible and could not be imposed upon and nothing to the Authority and Consent of the Church nor of Scripture it self according to this Rule of theirs That no Interpretation of Holy Scripture is to be admitted except it doth agree with Natural Reason and to the Evident Experience of outward Senses Instead of the Traditions which Papists bring in they would have their own Reason without the Influences of the Spirit of God to be the genuine and proper Interpreter of God's Holy Word So take away the Rule and you bring in Disorder and Confusion We know and own how Faith doth not destroy Reason rather it doth Refine and Purifie it so God forbid we should exclude Reason from Religion for 't is Subservient to it Reason indeed hath something of Religion for by the Light of Nature in things of the World and Course of Providence one may be convinced how there is a Being of Beings a first Cause of all and a God whose Power and Wisdom appeareth in the Works and Order of Nature which as * Psal
19. David saith and ‖ Rom. 10.18 Paul after him takes notice of day unto day uttereth Speech and night unto night sheweth Knowledge But our Religion and Faith in Christ is not a Doctrine of Nature or else Salvation thorough his Name had been known to every Man but Experience convinces us of the contrary And St. Paul doth positively and plainly declare upon the Matter in the case of those who wanted no Natural Reason when by the Rules thereof they would measure true Religion * Rom. 1.21 22 Became vain in their Imagination and their foolish Heart was darkened Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools All and the best Natural Reason in the World nay the greatest Gifts of Nature in Knowledge Wisdom Parts whither innate or acquired by the Philosopher Orator c. come very short of Faith which in us is the Soul of our Religion for * 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are Spiritually discerned So that with St. Paul we may upon this account ask * 1 Cor. 1.20 Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Where is the Rational Man Hath not God made Foolish the Wisdom of this World The Reason that is meerly Natural he hath infatuated and to shew that Reason alone cannot bring us to true Religion that is to the Gospel it is called a Mystery * Eph. 3.4 the Mystery of Christ and ‖ 1 Tim. 3.9 the Mystery of the Faith and a great one too * 1 Tim. 3.16 for without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh then Christ is God for none but he was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up in Glory all these are appliable to Christ and to none but him to God made Flesh The Knowledge of this is so far above Reason that to make it known 't was necessary it should be revealed * Eph. 3.3 How that by Revelation he God made known to me the Mystery yea such a Mystery as Natural Reason could not attain unto for 't is * Col. 1.26 the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations Surely during these Ages and Generations there were those Men who wanted not good Natural Reason but now is made manifest to his Saints not to every Man for * Matt. 13.11 unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Then it comes not by Natural Reason but 't is a Gift of God Now the Gospel and the Preaching of Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of Christian Religion and this * Rom. 16.25 According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began If we want another Apostle's Evidence we have it in St. Peter in the case of the Prophets under the Old Testament who * 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. enquired and searched diligently of the Grace that should come unto you all which had been in vain but they got it by Revelation unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you no need of Revelation where Natural Reason can attain unto yet without Revelation the Prophets which wanted no Natural Reason could not I go further and say Angels who are clear sighted far above Men * 2 Pet. 2.11 greater in Power and Might and have a greater depth of Reason What of them Which things says the same Apostle in the same place that is the Mysteries of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into not to dive but to look into to see and adore that Incomprehensible Mystery they cannot look into or else they would not desire it for none desires to have that which he hath Angelical Nature cannot fathom those Depths and do we think the shallow Brain of the most Rational Man can Hereupon I think I may follow our Blessed Saviour's way of arguing in the case of the Day of Judgment only he doth from the lesser to the greater and I from the greater to the lesser * Mark 13.32 Of that Day and that Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels which are in Heaven Thus the Mystery of the Salvation of Mankind knoweth no Angel much less any Man be he never so Rational only as much as God hath been pleased to reveal in the Gospel that Knowledge comes not by Reason or any thing else of Nature but by Grace I think this sufficiently sheweth how deficient Natural Reason is to lead us to True Christian Religion without Revelation which God effected by means of Angels Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and this not with a bare outward Declaration but an inward effectual Working and Revelation of his Holy Spirit But I must not exceed the narrow Bounds I prescribed my self So then in Opposition to Socinians as we believe the Perfection and Infallibility of Holy Scripture we also must own there are in our Holy Religion several things above Reason Indeed Matters of Fact do fall under our Senses but those of Faith go far beyond them Material things such as our Senses hold no Proportion with Spiritual such is Faith highly elevated also beyond Reason Certainly this Generation of Men come under the Curse pronounced by St. Paul * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 'T is to Hate and not to Love him as to go about to derogate from his Right and as much as in them lies to deprive him of his Due and dishonour him as he told the Jews * John 8.49 Verse 12 18 24 28 29 40 42. I honour my Father and ye dishonour me Wherein It is set down in several places of the same Chapter as namely they would not believe him to be the Light of the World nor the Witness which he and the Father did bare of him and that he was he that is the Messiah the Christ the Son of God who had told them the Truth he had heard of God whom he there calls often his Father for I proceeded forth and came from God Yet 't is as true as strange that notwithstanding so many clear Proofs of his Divinity in Scripture Socinians deny him to be God without which he had not been qualified to be Mediator between God and us for a Mediator must have the Nature of both Parties nor gotten the Victory over all the Enemies of our Salvation Though to avoid Prolixity I must not insist upon the Proofs of our Lord's Divinity which is the Life of our Faith Hope and Comfort yet something I must now say to it If we had no other
Witness but St. John it were more than sufficient to condemn the Blasphemy In the days of the Emperor Domitian one Ebion a Samaritan and his Sectators denying Christ's Divinity the Apostle did write his Gospel to prove it which in so many places thereof is done as positively fully and clearly as Heart can desire Only some few I shall take notice of to begin with the first Verse of Chap. 1. * John 1.1 14. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God compared with V. 14. and the Word was made Flesh Afford us this Argument the Word was God the Word was made Flesh therefore God was made Flesh And as the name Word is proper to Christ who was made Flesh it followeth that Christ is God And in another place he is in a most specifical manner called * Chap. 3.16 God's only begotten Son whereby he is affirmed to be of the same Nature and Substance and equal with him * Chap. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father saith he The Reason he gives elsewhere * Chap. 10.30 I and my Father are one and to Philip he saith ‖ Ch. 14.10 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me which for greater Confirmation he had said just in the Verse before this Demonstrates a stricter Union than meerly one of Favour and Grace this shews the Unity of Nature in the Distinction of Persons which though distinguished amongst themselves so that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father yet both are Gods and Divine Nature is common to both nothing can be more like the Person of the Father than the Person of the Son wherefore he is called * Colos 1.15 the Image of the invisible God God the Father is Invisible no Man hath ever seen him but he hath made himself visible in the Person of his Son who is partaker of his Nature To this purpose the Lord Jesus is said to be * Heb. 11.3 the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person This is no Flattery to him nor Favour for it is his Right herein he is no Usurper nor Intruder for if he was God would not suffer it being as he is so Jealous of his Honour and Glory 't is therefore upon a just Title that * Phil. 2.5 6. Christ thought it no Robbery to be equal with God None but God can truly and really be equal with God I would know what meer Creature may lawfully be compared to and be equal with God The Lord Jesus himself declares at several times how he came from the Father that is from above * John 3.31 from Heaven how the Father had sent him which is to be understood when he became Man and was born of a Woman Now he could not be sent and come before he had a Being and as he was come from the Father so he returned to the Father as he declared it to his Disciples But I desire a special notice to be taken of what is said * John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was Whence we infer how the Lord Jesus was before the World that is from Eternity for time began only at the Creation how not only he was but also had Glory equal with the Father This cannot be understood of his Humanity because he was Born in Time and he was not Glorified till after his Resurrection nor he could not have a Glory except he had a Being which Being had no relation to his Humanity but to his Divinity And because thorough his Humiliation that Glory had been eclipsed he was to return and again to appear in it after the Work he came about was over There would be no end if I would enlarge and bring in so many places as the Old and New Testaments do afford to prove this Point the strength of which the bitter Enemies of this Truth being sensible of it makes them do what they can to elude it and undervalue the Authority of the Scripture which must be the Judge in the Cause reserving the Interpretation thereof to their own Fancy or Reason as they would call it Wherefore to be short I shall according to the usual way in Schools of Divinity resolve the whole into an Argument which is this He to whom in God's Word are appropriated the Names Attributes Works and Divine Honour he is true Eternal God but to the Lord Jesus all these are attributed in Scripture therefore the Lord Jesus is true Eternal God We must descend to Particulars First as to the Names we begin with the Old Testament few out of many He is called * Isa 7.14 Immanuel which being interpreted is ‖ Matt. 1.23 God with us And by the same Prophet amongst other Glorious Names he is called the * Isa 9.6 Mighty God And in another place ‖ Ch. 35.4 5 6. Behold your God will come with Vengeance even God with a Recompense c. which our Saviour * Matt. 11.5 applieth unto himself So the Name of God and of Jehovah which Jews own to be an incommunicable Name of God never to be pronounced but once a Year by the High Priest in the Holiest of all are given him as in * Ch. 16.13 18.1 this to be compared with Hos 12.6 Genesis and in ‖ Exod. 3.15 Exodus in †Mal. 3.1 Malachy he is called the Lord the Messenger of the Covenant who often appeared to the Fathers as a forerunning of his Incarnation amongst others to * Josh 5.14 15. Joshua under the name of Captain of the Host of the Lord to whom Joshua by his Command rendered the same Honour as ‖ Exod. 3.5 Moses had done before Put off thy Shoes from off thy Feet for the place where thou standest is Holy Ground in which place he is called the Angel of the Lord v. 2. v. 4. the Lord and God This is the Angel of God promised to be sent before his People * Exod. 23.20 21 22. for my Name is in him he is called by the same Name as I am and he is the same as I am even God Of the word Jehovah which is Englished the Lord being attributed to our Saviour we have besides others two considerable Instances one is ‖ Isa 40.3 The Voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the Desert a High-way for our God The Voice is * John 1.23 applied to John the Baptist as our Saviour whose Forerunner he was is the Lord and God The other Instance is this ‖ Hos 1.7 I will have Mercy upon the House of Judah and I will Save them by the Lord their God Now there is no other Saviour but Jesus Christ the Messiah which he plainly declared to the Woman
to be called is really to be so as of John Baptist Thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest Luke 1.76 shall really be so or else if he had not really been it had been a Lie Man was to have no hand in the Birth of that Child for the Virgin knew no Man it was to be a Production only of the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin and of the Power of the Highest overshadowing her Here we must draw a Curtain and a Door before this high Mystery yet we may say that to bring into the World one that should be meerly a Man there had been no need of this transcendent unspeakable and incomprehensible way If it was intended he should have been no more than a Man there had been no need of altering the usual Course of Generation as it was not in * Take notice of the difference Moses as a Servant Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 3.5 6. Moses Elijah upon whom afterwards God poured his Spirit So if the Lord Jesus had been but a Man he might have been begotten of a Man and afterwards God might have bestowed his Spirit upon him in a higher measure than ever it had been upon any Man that went before but the overshadowing of the Highest was not in vain because God doth nothing in vain The Holy Ghost alone might have preserved him from Sin in his Conception but there had been no need of the overshadowing of the Highest Take notice how Christ is also called the Highest and the Great God Luke 1.76 Tit. 2.13 Let us compare the Cases between the Birth of John the Baptist of whom our Saviour saith thus * Luke 7.28 Amongst those that were born of Women there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist and that of the Lord Jesus In the first two things are remarkable the first That an Angel was sent to Announce his Birth The second That he should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers Womb all the rest was Natural and Common Chap. 1. Thy Wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a Son Here according to the usual Course of Nature a Child was to be born of a Husband and his Wife though Old yet the thing happened before to others but in the Person of Christ is a Child born of a Woman without Man The Angel said to Zachariah nothing of the Holy Ghost coming upon Elizabeth nothing of the highest overshadowing her as to the Virgin Mary And we know how never one Man or one Prophet spoke of another as John Baptist did of our Lord and Saviour he knew his distance the difference between them and his nothing in comparison with him * John 1.27 30 He that comes after me and whose Shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose the same was before me yet born six Months after him and before Abraham too though there were 42 Generations between them O that Pre-existence hath no Humane Foundation and can be attributed to nothing but to an Eternal Being he owneth he was not the Christ but he was sent before him to cry in the Wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord Jehovah Verse 34 and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God Wherefore upon occasion our Saviour saith of John Baptist He bare record of me unto the Truth Chap. 5.33 34. though I need no such thing for I receive not Testimony from Man however he bare Witness unto the Truth that I am the Son of God And indeed if to prove it there was but one or few such Texts and Particulars in Scripture about Christ some might happen to think there is room for Cavils and Exceptions but so many things and in so many several places being said to that purpose and all tending to confirm that Truth how he is True God and Only True Son of God there is no reasonable ground left to doubt of it ‖ 1 John 5.20 We know saith St. John that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life Nothing plainer than that Jesus Christ is the True God Relatives ought to be applied to the next Scripture mentioneth four kinds of Generation the first by Father and Mother that is the Common The second without Father or Mother which is properly Creation so Adam was begotten and on this account called Son of God The third of a Father without Mother thus Eve was formed out of Adam's Rib But the fourth and more Miraculous is of a Mother without a Father thus our Blessed Saviour was born of a Woman without the help of Man But all these do relate only to a Temporal Generation but that of Jesus Christ Son of God in a strict Sence by the Father is Eternal Now the Office of Mediator required a Person that should be both God and Man to perform those things that were to be done in relation to both As for instance To Suffer and Die was the part of Humane Nature which the Divine is not capable of but to overcome Death and our Spiritual Enemies could not be effected but by a Divine Power And it also became the Majesty of God that the Mediator should be God which Majesty is so great that none but he that is intimate and equal with the Father could interpose between God and Man Angels themselves could and dared not undertake it for they stand in need of Christ Mediator and * Job 15.15 they are not Pure in God's sight which makes them hide their ‖ Isa 6.2 Face in his Presence now much less any Man only such Besides who but a God could destroy Sin appease God's Wrath overcome the Power of Satan and Death Natural and Eternal Who could make Expiation for Offences committed against an Infinite God but he that is Infinite himself By whose Intercession could God's Anger be pacified but thorough his that is his Beloved Son By whose Power could Satan and the whole Power of Darkness be overcome but by him that is stronger than all the Devils and Hell And who could conquer Death but he that hath destroyed him that hath the Power of Death Heb. 2.14 And as none but a God could deliver us from all these Evils under whose Power we were so none but a God could restore us to the Goods we had lost As first Who could have restored us to a perfect Righteousness but he that is Righteousness it self Who to God's Image Chap. 1.3 but he that is the express Image of his Person and the Brightness of his Glory Who could make us Children of God but he that is his Natural and only begotten and beloved Son Who could bestow upon us the Holy Ghost but he from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth And who could give us Eternal Life but he that is Life it self And by whom could we