things which is the Explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begotten before the whole Creation and therefore no part of the Creation himself and by him all things consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things were not only made by him but have their Subsistence in him as the Apostle tells us in God we live and move and have our being that this does not relate to the new Creation as the Socinians would have it is very plain For 1. in this Sense Christ if he were meer Man was not the first-born of every new Creature for I hope there were a great many new Creatures that is truly good and pious men before Christ was born of his Virgin Mother 2. Nor in this sense were all things in Heaven and Earth visible and invisible Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers that is all the Orders of Angels created by him For the greatest part of visible things especially in the Apostles days when so little part of the World was converted to the Christian Faith were not new made by him and none of the invisible things were new made by him good Angels did not need it and he came not to convert fallen Angels but to destroy the visible Kingdom of the Devil in this World and to judge them in the next 3. Nor in this sense were all things made for him for he is a Mediator for God to reduce Mankind to their Obedience and Subjection to him and therefore when he has accomplished his Work of Mediation and destroyed all Enemies in the final Judgment of the World he shall deliver up his Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all of which more presently 4. And therefore the Apostle proceeds from his Creation of the Natural World to his Mediatory Kingdom which proves that he did not speak of that before And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence as the Maker of all things visible and invisible he is said to be before all things begotten of his Father before the Creation of the World as Head of the Church he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also the beginning the first who rose from the dead that he might be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first upon all Accounts before the Worlds and the first-born from the dead That he was God's Minister and Servant he proves by several Texts as that he was appointed or made which has the same sense by God the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession but here is a restriction to his being High-Priest and therefore no danger of Blasphemy though he be God for we may observe that though the Jewish High-Priest were but a man yet he was a Type of a High-Priest who is more than man even the Eternal Son and Word of God as some of the Learned Jews acknowledge for the Son of God is the only proper Mediator and Advocate with the Father as Philo Iudoeus often calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or High-Priest and shows that the Garments of the High-Priest were Figures of Heaven and Earth which seems to signifie that the Eternal Word which made the world is the true High-Priest And the Story Iosephus tells of Alexander looks this way that when Iaddus the High-Priest went out to meet him dressed in all his Pontifical Attire he approached him with great Reverence and Veneration and his Captains wondering at it he told them That that God who appeared to him and sent him upon that Expedition and promised him Victory and Success appeared to him in that very Habit. I am sure the Apostle distinguishes Christ from High-Priests taken from among men and makes his Sonship the Foundation of his Priesthood Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest which shows that it is no Servile Ministry but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec And what the Mystery of this Melchizedecian Priesthood was he explains 7 Hebrews that Melchizedec was first by Interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God which is a Priest continually As for his next Quotation that Christ is Gods I know not what he means by it for there is no doubt but Christ is God's Son God's Christ God's High-Priest serves the ends and designs of God's Glory and what then therefore he is not God By no means he may conclude that therefore he is not God the Father because he acts subordinately not that therefore he is not God the Son His next Proof is that God calls him his Servant by the Prophet Isaiah but it is his Servant in whom his Soul is well-pleased which is the peculiar Character of his Son and is that very testimony which God gave to Christ at his Baptism by a voice from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased His next Proof is that he humbled himself and became obedient which is all he cites but what does he prove from this that Obedience is part of his Humiliation And what then therefore he is not God because he voluntarily condescends below the Dignity of his Nature does he forfeit the Dignity of his Nature and yet this is the plain Case as the Apostle tells us in that place that He being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. And this is a wonderful Proof that he is not God because being in the form of God that is being God he voluntarily condescended to the meanest and most servile state of Human Nature for the Salvation of sinners But the sting of all is behind that for this submission and obedience he was rewarded and exalted by God and a God is not capable of a reward or exaltation being Supreme himself and yet as it follows for this God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every Name Now it seems very strange to me that Christ's advancement to the supreme Government of the World should be made an Argument against his being God or the Eternal Son of God for is it fitting and congruous for God to make a meer Creature the Universal Lord and Soveraign of the World to advance a meer man above the most glorious Angels to be the Head of all Principalities and Powers which would be an Indignity to the Angelical
believed otherwise Pope Leo III assented to the definition of the Council of Aquisgrane An. 809. concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son and yet would by no means allow that it should be added to the Creed nor would he deny Salvation to those who believed otherwise but when that Question was asked him returned this Answer That whosoever has subtilty enough to attain to the Knowledge of this or knowing it will not believe it cannot be saved but there are many and this among the rest deep Misteries of the Holy Faith which all cannot reach to some by reason of Age others for want of understanding and therefore as we said before he that can and won't cannot be saved And therefore at the same time he commanded the Constantinopolitan Creed to be hung up at Rome in a Silver Table without the addition of the Filioque nor can any man tell when this was added to the Creed however we never read the Greeks were Anathematized upon this account till Pope Vrban II. 1097. and in the Council of Florence under Eugenius IV. 1438 9. Ioseph the Patriarch of Constantinople thought this Controversie between the two Churches might be reconciled and the Filioque added in a sense very consistent with the belief of the Greek Church As for what he adds that the Greek Church condemned this addition as Heretical I desire to know what Greek Council did this Vossius a very diligent Observer gives no account of it the quarrel of the Greeks with the Latins was That they undertook without the Authority of a General Council to add to the Creed of a General Council when the Council of Ephesus and Chalcedon had Anathematized those who did so and therefore for this reason the Greeks Anathematized the Latin Church without declaring the Filioque to be Heretical and as that Learned Man observes this was the true cause of the Schism that the Greeks thought the Pope of Rome and a Western Synod took too much upon themselves to add to the Creed of a General Council by their own Authority without consulting the Eastern Church which was equally concerned in matters of Faith But the Comical part is still behind for he says The Greeks laugh at Athanasius 's menace and say he was drunk when he made the Creed and for this he refers us to Georgius Scholarius or Gennadius who was made Patriarch of Constantinople by Mahomet when he had taken that City I confess I have not read all that Gennadius has Writ and know not where to find this place and he has not thought fit to direct us but this I know that whether Gennadius says this himself or only reports it as the saying of some foolish Greeks for I cannot guess by our Author which it is whoever said it said more then is true for Athanasius neither made the Creed drunk nor sober for as most Learned Men agree he never made it at all though it bears his name but I wish I could see this place in Gennadius for I greatly suspect our Author Gennadius being a very unlikely Man to say any ill thing of Athanasius upon account of the Filioque who himself took the side of the Latin Church in this dispute and as Vossius relates gives Athanasius a very different and more honourable Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The great Athanasius the Preacher and Confessor of Truth But there is nothing smites me more than to hear this Arian or Socinian or whatever he is affirm That the Greeks have clearly and demonstratively proved that the Holy Spirit is from the Father only For that which is proved clearly and demonstratively I hope is true and then this alone is a confutation of his brief Notes for the Greeks taught and proved demonstratively as he says that the Holy Spirit so proceeds from the Father only as to be of the same Substance and One God with the Father And the Catholick Faith is this Catholick Faith is as much as to say in plain English the Faith of the whole Church now in what Age was this which here follows the Faith of the whole Church The Catholick Faith I grant is so called with relation to the Catholick Church whose Faith it is and the Catholick Church is the Universal Church or all the true Churches in the World which are all but one whole Church united in Christ their Head the Profession of the true Faith and Worship of Christ makes a true Church and all true Churches are the One Catholick Church whether they be spread over all the World or shut up in any one corner of it as at the first Preaching of the Gospel the Catholick Church was no where but in Iudaea Now as no Church is the Catholick Church of Christ how far soever it has spread it self over the World unless it profess the true Faith of Christ no more is any Faith the Catholick Faith how universally soever it be professed unless it be the true Faith of Christ nor does the true Christian Faith cease to be Catholick how few soever there be who sincerely profess it It is down-right Popery to judge of the Catholick Church by its multitudes or large extent or to judge of the Catholick Faith by the vast Numbers of its Professors were there but one true Church in the World that were the Catholick Church because it would be the whole Church of Christ on Earth and were the true Christian Faith professed but in one such Church it would be the Catholick Faith still for it is the Faith of the whole true Church of Christ the sincere belief and profession of which makes a Catholick Church Not in the Age of Athanasius himself who for this Faith and for Seditious Practices was banished from Alexandria in AEgypt where he was Bishop no less than four times whereof the first was by Constantine the Great What shall be done unto Thee thou lying Tongue What impudence is this to think to sham the World at this time a day with such stories as these when the Case of Athanasius is so well known or may be even to English Readers who will take the pains to read his Life written with great exactness and fidelity by the learned Dr. Cave But when he thinks a second time of it will he say that the Church of God in Athanasius's Age was not of the same Faith with him What thinks he of the Nicene Fathers who condemned Arius In which Council Athanasius himself was present and bore a considerable part and so provoked the Arian Faction by his Zeal for the Catholick Faith and his great skill and dexterity in managing that Cause as laid the Foundation of all his future Troubles Will he say that Constantine the Great who called the Council at Nice in the Cause of Arius and was so zealous an Asserter of the Nicene Faith banished Athanasius for this Faith No his greatest Enemies durst not make
his Faith any part of their Accusation though it was the only Reason of their Malice against him but they charged him with a great many other Crimes and that the Reader may the better understand by what Spirit these Men were acted which still appears in this Author I shall give a short Account of the Story The Arian Faction headed by Eusebius of Nicomedia perceiving how impossible it was to retrieve their lost Cause while Athanasius was in Credit and so great Authority in the Church having ripened their Designs against him in their private Cabals prevail with Constantine to call a Council at Caesarea in Palestine at which Athanasius did not appear suspecting probably the partiality of his Judges who were his declared Enemies This was represented at Court as a contempt of the Imperial Orders and another Council was appointed at Tyre which met Ann. 335. with a peremptory Command for his appearance where he first excepted against the competency of his Judges but that being over-ruled he was forced to plead And first he was charged with Oppression and Cruelty particularly towards Ischyras Callinicus and the Miletian Bishops but this fell of it self for want of proof In the next place he was accused for having ravished a Woman and one too who had vowed Virginity The Woman was brought into the Council and there owned the Fact but Timotheus one of Athanasius's Friends personates Athanasius and asks the Woman whether he had ever offered such Violence to her she supposing him to have been Athanasius roundly declared him to be the Man who had done the Fact and thus this cheat was discovered His next Accusation was That he had murdered Arsenius a Miletian Bishop whose hand he had cut off and kept by him for some Magical Uses and the Hand dried and salted was taken out of a Box and shewn to the Council and to make this more credible they had of a long time conveyed Arsenius away and kept him out of sight But he having made his escape about this time and being accidentally met by some Friends of Athanasius was on a sudden brought into the Council where he shewed both his Hands safe to the shame and confusion of the malicious Inventors of that Lye This failing they accuse him of Impiety and Profanation of Holy Things That his Ordination was tumultuary and irregular the contrary of which was evidently true That Macarius his Presbyter by his command had broke into Ischyras's Chancel while he was performing the Holy Offices and overturned the Communion-Table broke in pieces the Sacramental Chalice and burnt the Holy Books all which Ischyras was present to attest but the contrary in every branch of the Accusation was made apparent and the whole Plot discovered by a writing under Ischyras his own hand sufficiently attested After all these shameful baffles they would not give over but sent Commissioners from the Synod to inquire into the matter of fact upon the place and having raked together any thing which they could make look like Evidence though gained by the most barbarous Cruelties and other vile arts they return to the Council who without more ado condemn and depose Athanasius from his Bishoprick and command him to go no more to Alexandria upon this he withdrew himself and went to Court prays the Emperor for a more fair and impartial Tryal who thereupon sent to the Council then adjourned to Ierusalem to come to Constantinople and make good their charge Five Commissioners appeared who joyned with some others whom they could get together formed a small Synod but not daring to insist upon their former accusations start up a new Charge more like to take at Court viz. That he had threatned to stop the Emperors Fleet that yearly Transported Corn from Alexandria to Constantinople which was as true and as probable a story as any of the rest but they told this with such confidence and urged the ill consequences of it so home upon the Emperor that they prevailed with him to banish Athanasius to Triers in Germany If this short story does not make our Author blush he is possessed with the true Spirit of the Tyrian Fathers But to proceed He was also condemned in his own life time by Six Councils as an Heretick and Seditious person of these Councils that at Milan consisted of Three Hundred Bishops and that of Ariminum of Five Hundred and fifty the greatest Convention of Bishops that ever was This consent of the Churches of God against him and his Doctrine occasioned that famous Proverb Athanasius against all the World and all the World against Athanasius This is all Sham. I grant Athanasius was condemned by several Arian Conventicles which he prophanely calls the Churches of God in his own life time but I deny that he was condemned as a Heretick or that he was condemned for his Faith We have seen the account of his condemnation by the Council of Tyre already and for what pretended Crimes he was condemned without the least mention of his Heresie for if this Author understood any thing of the story of those times he must know that though the Arian cause was vigorously and furiously promoted yet it was done more covertly since that fatal blow which was given it by the Council of Nice whose Authority was too sacred to be easily born down and therefore they did not pretend to unsettle the Nicene Faith nay pretended to own it though they did not like the word Homo-ousios and therefore formed various Creeds as they pretended to the same sense without that litigious word which shews that it was not time of day for them to accuse Athanasius of Heresie but of such other Crimes as might condemn and depose him and remove him out of the way that he might not hinder their Designs Thus in the Council at Antioch in the Reign of Constantius 341 the old Calumnies are revived against Athanasius and he deposed again after he had been restored by Constantine the younger and George the Cappadocian a Man of mean Birth base Education and worse Temper for they could find no better Man that would accept it was advanced to the Patriarchal Chair but all this while he was charged with no Heresie in Faith But that his return to Alexandria had occasioned great Trouble and Sorrow there and the effusion of much Blood that being condemned by a Synod and not restored again by the Authority of a Synod he re-assumed his Chair again contrary to the Canons c. Upon this Athanasius fled to Rome where in a Synod of Western Bishops he was absolved and restored to Communion contrary to the earnest Solicitations of the Council of Antioch Anno 347 a Council of Eastern and Western Bishops was called at Sardica where the Eastern Bishops who were most of them Arians or Favourers of that Party refused to joyn with them of the West and acted in a seperate Assembly and had brought with them Count Musonianus and Hesychius an Officer of the
Nature is a meer Creature a fit Lieutenant or Representative of God in Personal or Prerogative Acts of Government and Power must not every Being be represented by one of his own Kind a Man by a Man an Angel by an Angel in such Acts as are proper to their Natures and must not God then be represented by One who is God Is any Creature capable of the Government of the world does not this require infinite Wisdom and infinite Power and can God communicate infinite Wisdom and infinite Power to a Creature or a finite Nature that is can a Creature be made a true and essential God if our Adorers of Reason can digest such Contradictions as these I hope they will never complain of Absurdities and Contradictions more A God without infinite Perfections is only a Titular and Nominal God and to say that Creatures may have all the Perfections of God is to say that God can make an infinite Creature which has a thousand times greater Contradictions than the most absurd Explication of the Trinity can be charged with for then a true and real God may be a Creature then the Divine Nature is not eternal but may be created then the Divine Nature is not numerically One but if the first God so pleased he could make a world of Gods as well as of Angels or Men. If then this Kingdom to which Christ is advanced cannot be administred without infinite Wisdom and Power then he is by Nature a God for otherwise all Power in Heaven and Earth could not have been committed to him because he was not capable of it could not administer it and would God choose a King who could not administer the Government of the World nor do any thing towards it And yet the Difficulty remains if he be by Nature the Son of God and the Natural Lord of the World how is he said to be exalted by God and to receive a Kingdom from him as the Reward of his Sufferings when he was already possessed of it ever since the Foundations of the World being the Natural Lord of all Creatures and therefore had no need to receive that which was his own or purchase what was his Natural Right by such mean and vile Condescensions as suffering Death upon the Cross. And therefore rightly to understand this we must consider the Nature of Christ's Kingdom that it is not meerly the Natural Government of the World but a Mediatory Kingdom God is the Supreme and Natural Lord of the World King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the only Ruler of Princes and while God governed the World only as its Natural Lord the Son had no distinct Kingdom of his own but in Conjunction with his Father For though there always were Three Divine Persons in the Godhead yet the Father being the Fountain of the Deity the Government of the World was administred in his Name But Mankind quickly Apostatized from God forfeited immortal Life corrupted their Manners and defaced the Image of God upon their Souls and the Government of God considered only as our Maker and Soveraign Lord could give no hope nor security to guilty sinners and this made a Mediatory Kingdom necessary to reconcile God and Men and to restore Man to the Integrity of his Nature and this Power and Dignity God bestowed upon his own Son who had the most right to it and was best qualified for it being the begotten Word and Wisdom of the Father but he must first become man and publish the Will of God to the World and make Expiation for Sin and then he should rise again from the dead and set down at the right hand of God And therefore we may observe that all this Power Christ is invested with is as Head of the Church God hath put all things under his feet and given him to be Head over all things to the Church which is his Body the fulness of him which filleth all in all That is he has made him the Governour of the whole World as Head of the Church For the Salvation of Mankind required the Government of the World to be put into his Hands that he might restrain the Power and Malice of wicked Spirits and destroy the Kingdom of Darkness and imploy good Angels in the Service and Ministeries of his Church as the Apostle tells us They are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation That the Government of this lower World might be administred by him with a peculiar regard and subserviency to the great ends of his Spiritual Kingdom For the Church of Rome is so far in the right that the Supreme Head of the Church must be Supreme in Temporals too in ordine ad spiritualia but their fault is they give this Power to a vicarious Head which is due only and can be administred only by Christ who is the true Supreme Head of all things to his Church The Government of Israel was a Type of this The Kingdom of Israel was originally a pure Theocracy God was their King and governed them almost as visibly by his Priest his Oracles his Judges whom he extraordinarily raised up as a Temporal King governs his Subjects But in time they grew weary of the Government of God and desired a King like other Nations upon which God tells Samuel They have not rejected thee but rejected me that I should not reign over them But yet he complies with their Desires in giving them a King and their King was peculiarly God's Anointed and God's King who ruled God's People and Inheritance by God's peculiar and delegated Authority for the Government of Israel did not cease to be a Theocracy when they had a King for they were God's People and Inheritance still but now the King was between God and the People whereas God governed them more immediately before And therefore as David was a Type of Christ so his Kingdom was typical of the Kingdom of Christ Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion which seems to have some aspect on David though it received its just Acomplishment in Christ and hence the Kingdom of the Messias is called the Throne of his Father David not that Temporal Kingdom which David governed for his Kingdom was not of this World but that of which David's Kingdom was a Type and Figure the Government of the Church who are God's People of whom the carnal Israel was a Type which he rules by a vicarious but a Soveraign Authority for God and in his name and stead This gives a plain account how God may give this Kingdom to his Son and that as the Reward of his Sufferings It may be a Gift because it is not a Natural Right for it is not a Natural Kingdom but erected by the Wisdom and Counsel of God for the Salvation of Sinners and it must be the Reward of his Sufferings because it is a Sacerdotal Kingdom which is founded in the
Orders from him as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us when God bringeth in the first begotten into the World that is when God raised him from the dead and received him into Heaven to sit at his right hand he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him obey his Commands and be his Ministers and Servants The Holy Spirit is given by him he sends the Spirit to dwell in his Church which is his Body and to animate all the true and sincere Members of it He governs this lower World disposes of Kingdoms and Empires in subserviency to the ends of his Spiritual Kingdom He has the Power of pardoning sins of judging the World of raising the dead whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Should the Father judge the World he must judge as the Maker and Soveraign Lord of the World by the strict Rules of Righteousness and Justice and then how could any sinner be saved but he has committed Judgment to the Son as a Mediatory King who judges by the Equity and Chancery of the Gospel The Power indeed whereby he administers his Kingdom is the Power of the whole Trinity of Father Son and Holy Ghost for they being essentially One God have but one Energy and Power and therefore can never act separately and therefore the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is ascribed to God the Father God raised him from the dead to Christ himself as he tells the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up And I lay down my life that I may take it again I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again And to the Holy Spirit If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Where God indeed is said to raise up Christ from the dead but it was by his Spirit and by the same Spirit he will raise us But yet this is the Kingdom of Christ because now the Administration and Exercise of this Power is committed to him and is as it were under his direction and influence The Natural Kingdom and Government of the World is peculiarly attributed to God the Father though the Son and Holy Ghost reign with him as one God because the Father is Original Mind and Wisdom and therefore the beginning of all Power and Energy As the Father begets the Son not the Son the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son not Father and Son from the Holy Ghost so the Son and Holy Ghost will and act with the Father not the Father with the Son and the Holy Ghost that is if we may so speak where there is but One individual Act and Energy the Father is the first Mover in the Sacred Trinity For reflex Wisdom that is the Son who is begotten Wisdom moves and acts at it is begotten by Original Mind and Wisdom who is the eternal Father as Christ himself tells us The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these also doth the Son likewise And my Father worketh hitherto and I work But the Father is the Principle and Beginning of Action and therefore the Government and Monarchy must receive its Denomination from him that it is the Kingdom of the Father But now in the Mediatory Kingdom the exercise of the Divine Power is committed into the hands of the Mediator and is administred by the measures and terms of his Mediation The Power is not taken out of God's hands for that is impossible Father Son and Holy Ghost govern the World still by One individual Act and Power but as in the Natural Government of the World the Exercise of this Power begins with the Father so in this Mediatory Kingdom it begins with the Son and is directed by his Mediation that is God governs the World now not meerly as a Natural Lord by the Rules of Natural Justice but with respect to the Mediatory Power and Authority of his Son and to serve the ends of his Mediatory Kingdom Now the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgment to the Son He hath power to save and to destroy whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns all Petitions are put up to God in his Name all Blessings both temporal and spiritual are obtained from God in his Name that is it is the Name and Authority of Christ by which God now governs the World This is the Name God has given him which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow both of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father That Angels in Heaven move at his Command and obey his Power that Men on Earth worship God and expect all from him in his Name that evil Spirits tremble at his Name and yield to his Power and that all the World confess the Supreme and Soveraign Authority of the Son to the Glory of the Father who hath thus highly exalted him There can be no other meaning but this in what Christ tells his Disciples after his Resurrection from the Dead All Power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth For unless it be some Power which he had not before as the Eternal Son of God how can it be said to be now given unto him and yet before in conjunction with and subordination to his Father he had all Power both in Heaven and Earth but then this Power was not in his own Name nor seated immediately in himself as his own Personal Authority but now the Son is immediately invested with this Power and Authority as a Mediatory King And this is the meaning of what he tells us As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself To have life in himself is to have the Power and Authority of bestowing Life as appears both from what goes before and from what follows As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they-that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation This Power the Son always had as begotten of his Father from all Eternity and One God with him but he here speaks of a
to God as our Historian will have it by a communication of power over Diseases Devils the Grave the Winds the Seas c. which dwindles the form of God into just nothing for according to them he had no inherent Power to do this but God did it at his word as he did for other Prophets and therefore this is no form no likeness of God at all for he did not work Miracles as God does by an inherent Power but God wrought Miracles for him yet suppose this how is it an Argument of his humility that he committed not robbery by equalling himself to God as he renders the words which our Translators render and which the ancient Fathers expound to the same sense he thought it not robbery to be equal to God that is says he did not rob God of his honour by arrogating to himself to be God or equal to God though if this were robbery both Christ and his Apostles were guilty of it for Christ declared I and my Father are One which the Jews understood and they did not mistake him in it was to make himself God and the Apostles do this frequently in express terms as I have already shown but to allow his Interpretation I only ask whether Christ if he would could have committed this Robbery whether upon their supposition of his being a meer Man if he had arrogated to himself to be God God would have permitted this and suffered him to have wrought Miracles to cheat the world into this belief if he could not it is ridiculous to talk of his humility in not doing it and I am sure it is ridiculous upon their Hypothesis to say that he could But he took upon him the form of a Servant i. e. became like a Servant possessing nothing of his own and suffering injuries and reproaches c. But how did he take this form upon him which must signifie his own free and voluntary choice when he did not take it but was made so This was the Condition which he did not choose but was made for and what humility was this for a meer Man to be a Minister and Servant of God and so great a Minister as to be in the form of God as he says to be glorious for Miracles and admired as the great power of God especially when he was to be exalted into Heaven for it and advanced above all Principalites and Powers This is such Humility as would have been Pride and Ambition in the most glorious Angel But he was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself c. that is says this Historian being made like other men in the common similitude of man and I pray how should a man be made but like a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death i. e. notwithstanding that he could have delivered himself from them yet was he obedient even to evil Magistrates and without resistance under-went that death which their wickedness and malice prepared for him or rather which God had decred for him which his hand and counsel determined before to be done and therefore which he could not which he ought not to avoid The plain Case is this All the Circumstances of our Saviour's Birth and Life and Death were so punctually foretold by the Prophets and so peremtorily decreed by God that after he was come into the world there was no place for his choice and election he could not shew either his love or his humility in choosing Poverty or Death and therefore if it were matter of his free choice and a demonstration of his great Humility and Love as the Apostles says it was he chose it before he came into the world He was in the form of God equal to God rich before and chose to become Man a Minister a Servant and to submit to a mean Life and an infamous Death for our sakes and this indeed was a mighty Love and stupendious Humility in the Son of God This we can all understand it is a venerable Mystery and a powerful Argument of our Religion but Socinianism makes Nonsense of it The Faith and Worship of Christ is the distinguishing Character of the Christian Religion and if Christ be no more than a Man as the Socinians teach it is a direct Contradiction both to Natural and to the Mosaical Religion which condemn the worship of any Creature and all Religious Trust and Affiance in them It is a Religion without a Priest and without a Sacrifice or which is much the same retains the Name of a Priest and a Sacrifice without any proper Atonement or Expiation which is a very unfit Religion for sinners But that which is most to my present purpose is that it makes a God of a meer Creature and makes a Mediator and King without any inherent Power to save Sinners to protect his Church to govern or to judge the World which is a meer Pageant and Shadow of a King To make a Mediator or Mediatory King who shall be a fit Object of Religious Hope and Trust and Worship as I have already explained it at large he must have a Personal Knowledge of all our particular Wants and an Inherent Power to help us and though his Humane Nature is confined to Heaven his Knowledge and Power must extend to all the world as he himself tells us after his Resurrection All Power is given unto me both in Heaven and in Earth particularly he must have Power to protect his Church on Earth from all her Enemies to restrain and govern the malice of Men and Devils to forgive sins to give the fresh Supplies of Grace to raise the Dead to judge the World to condemn bad men to Hell and to bestow Heaven upon his sincere Disciples Let us then consider what account our Socinian Historian gives of this matter and what a kind of Mediator and King he makes of Christ. Sometimes to abuse the World he tells us the Socinians generally not only grant but earnestly contend that Christ is to be worshipped and prayed to because God hath they say by his inhabiting Word or Power given to the Lord Christ a faculty of knowing all things and an ability to relieve all our wants Now if they mean honestly that Christ has an inherent Personal Knowledge and Power whereby he knows and can do all things this is to ascribe true Divine Perfections to him for such are infinite Knowledge and infinite Power and that is to make him a true and real God and I think there is not greater Nonsense in the World than a Made-God than a Creature-God as I showed before But it is plain our Historian is none of these Socinians for all his Expositions lean another way and in the same place he disputes earnestly against praying to Christ and says that those Gentlemen he must mean the Socinian Gentlemen who are for praying to Christ especially the Polonian Zealots say that Christ's Mediation