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cate which hath as great a virtue to fignify that excellency as the article could have.

St. Paul, unfolding the myftery of Godliness, hath delivered fix propofitions together, and the subject 1 Tim. iii. of all and each of them is God. Without controverfy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifefted in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, feen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. And this God which is the fubject of all thefe propofitions must be understood of Chrift, becaufe of him each one is true, and all are fo of none but him; he was the Word which was God, and was made flesh, and confequently God manifefted in the flesh. Upon him the Spirit defcended at his Baptifm, and after his Afcenfion was poured upon his Apostles, ratifying his commiffion, and confirming the Doctrine which they received from him wherefore he was God juftified in the Spirit. His nativity the Angels celebrated, in the discharge of his office they miniftered unto him, at his Refurrection and Afcenfion they were present, always ready to confefs and adore him : he was therefore God feen of Angels. The Apostles preached unto Acts viii. 5, all Nations, and he whom they preached was Jefus 35. ix. 20. Chrift. The Father feparated St. Paul from his moxvii. 3, 18. ther's womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Rom. xvi. Son unto him, that he might preach him among the Heathen therefore he was God preached unto the Gentiles. John the Baptist spake unto the people, that they should Phil. i. 18. believe on him which should come after him, that is, on 16. Chrift Fefus. We have believed in Jefus Chrift, faith Acts xix. 4. St. Paul, who fo taught the gaoler trembling at his Acts xvi. feet, Believe in the Lord Jefus Chrift, and thou shalt be faved: he therefore was God believed on in the world. When he had been forty days on earth after his Refurrection, he was taken vifibly up into Heaven, and fat down at the right hand of the Father: wherefore he was God received up into glory. And thus all these fix propofitions, according to the plain

XI. 20.

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2 Cor. i. 19.

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and familiar language of the Scriptures, are infallibly true of Christ, and fo of God, as he is taken by St. John, when he speaks thofe words, the Word was God. But all these cannot be understood of any other, which either is, or is called, God. For though we grant the Divine Perfections and Attributes to be the fame with the Divine Effence, yet are they never in the Scriptures called God; nor can any of them with the leaft fhew of probability be pretended as the fubject of these propofitions, or afford any tolerable interpretation. When they tell us that God, that is the (n) Will of God, was manifefted in the flesh, that is, was revealed by frail and mortal men, and received up in glory, that is, (o) was received glorioufly on earth, they teach a language which the (p) Scriptures know not, and the Holy Ghost never used; and as no Attributes, fo no Perfon but the Son can be here understood under the name of God: not the Holy Ghoft, for he is dif tinguished from him, as being justified by the Spirit; not the Father, who was not manifefted in the flesh, nor received up in glory. It remaineth therefore that, whereas the Son is the only person to whom all these clearly and undoubtedly belong, which are here jointly attributed unto God, as fure as the name of God is expreffed univerfally in the (9) copies of the Original Language, fo thus abfolutely and fubjectively taken muft it be understood of Chrift.

Again St. Paul speaketh thus to the Elders of the Church of Ephefus; Take heed unto yourselves, and to A&sxx.23. all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overfeers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchafed with his own blood. In these words this doctrinal propofition is clearly contained, God hath purchafed the Church with his own blood. For there is no other word either in or near the text which can

by any grammatical conftruction be joined with the verb, except the Holy Ghost, to whom the prediVOL. I.

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cate

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cate is repugnant, both in refpect of the act, or our Redemption, and of the means, the Blood. If then the Holy Ghoft hath not purchased the Church; if he hath not blood to fhed for our Redemption, and without bloodshed there is no remiffion; if there be no other word to which, according to the literal conftruction, the act of purchafing can be applied; if the name of God, moft frequently joined to his (r) Church, be immediately and properly applicable by all rules of fyntax to the verb which followeth it: then is it of neceffity to be received as the subject of this propofition, then is this to be embraced as infallible Scripture truth, God hath purchased the Church with his own blood. But this God may and must be understood of Chrift; it may, because he hath; it muft, because no other perfon which is 1 Pet. i. 18, called God hath fo purchased the Church. We were not redeemed with corruptible things, as filver and gold, but with the precious blood of Chrift. With this price were we bought; and therefore it may well be faid, that Chrift our God hath purchased us with his own blood. But no other person which is, or is called, God, can be faid fo to have purchased us, because it is an act 1 Tim. ii. belonging properly to the Mediatorship; and there is but one Mediator between God and men: and the Heb. x. 10. Church is fanctified through the offering of the body of Fefus Chrift once for all. Nor can the expreffion of this act, peculiar to the Son, be attributed to the Father, because this blood fignifieth death: and though the Father be omnipotent, and can do all things, yet he cannot die. And though it might be said that he purchased us, because he gave his Son to be a ransom for us, yet it cannot be faid that he did it by his own blood; for then it would follow, that he gave not his Son, or that the Son and the Father were the fame Perfon. Befide, it is very obfervable, that this particular phrafe of his own blood, is in the Scripture put by way of oppofition to the blood of (s) another: and howfoever we may attribute the acts of the Son

5.

unto

unto the Father, because fent by him; yet we can not but acknowledge that the blood and death was

of another than the Father. Not by the blood of goats Heb. ix. 12. and calves, but by his own blood be entered in once into

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ἐν

the holy place; and whereas the High Prieft entered every Ver. 25,26. year with the blood of others, Chrift appeared once to put away fin by the facrifice of himself. He then which purchased us wrought it by his own blood, as an High Prieft opposed to the Aaronical, who made atonement by the blood of others. But the Father taketh no priestly office, neither could he be opposed to the legal Prieft, as not dying himself, but giving another. Wherefore wherefoever the Father and the Son are described together as working the Salvation of man, the blood by which it is wrought is attributed to the Son, not to the Father: as when St. Paul fpeaketh of the redemption that is in Jefus Rom. iii. Chrift, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 5, možło through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness; ¿ ©eòs ¡λæbis, that is, bis own righteoufnefs, hath reference to gor dia God the Father; but his, that is, his own blood, must TM Tisews be referred to Chrift the Son. When he glorifieth the TOUTE God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, attributἔνδειξιν τῆς ing unto him, that he hath bleffed, elected, predef- xaos tinated, adopted, accepted us, made known unto us airê. the mystery of his will, and gathered us together in one; in the midft of this acknowledgment he brings in the Beloved in whom we have redemption Eph. i. 6, 7. through his blood, as that which cannot be attributed to the Father. Chrift hath bleffed us; and the Apostle faith, the Father hath bleffed us; which is true, because he fent his Son to bless us. Chrift hath Acts iii. 26. made known unto us the will of his Father; and the Apostle faith, the Father hath made known unto Eph. i.9. us the mystery of his will; becaufe he fent his Son to reveal it. Chrift hath delivered us; and the Father is faid to deliver us from the power of darkness: not Col. i. 13. that we are twice delivered, but because the Father delivereth us by his Son. And thus thefe general

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acts

αἵματι, εἰς

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acts are familiarly attributed to them both; but still a difference must be obferved and acknowledged in the means and manner of the performance of these acts. For though it is true, that the Father and the Son revealed to us the will of God; yet it is not true that the Father revealed it by himself to us; but that the Son did fo, it is. They both deliver us from fin Gal. i. 4. and death: but the Son gave himself for our fins; that he might deliver us; the Father is not, cannot be faid to have given himself, but his Son: and therefore the Col. i. 13, Apoftle giveth thanks unto the Father, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath tranf Lated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Now this blood is not only the blood of the new Covenant, and confequently of the Mediator, but the nature of this Covenant is fuch, that it is also a Testament, and therefore the blood must be the blood of the Teftator; Heb. ix. 16. for where a Teftament is, there must also of neceffity be the death of the Teftator. But the Teftator which died is not, cannot be, the Father, but the Son; and confequently the blood is the blood of the Son, not of the Father. It remaineth therefore that God, who purchafed the Church with his own blood, is not the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, or any other which is called God, but only Jefus Chrift the Son of God, and God. And thus have I proved the first of the three affertions that the name of God, abfolutely taken and placed fubjectively, is fometimes to be understood of Christ.

The fecond, That the name of God invefted by way of excellency with an article, is attributed in the Scriptures unto Chrift, may be thus made good. He which is called Emmanuel is named God by way of Mab. i. 23. excellency: for that name, faith St. Matthew, being interpreted is, God with us, and in that interpretation the Greek article is prefixed. But Chrift is called Emmanuel; that it might be fulfilled which was fpoken of the Lord by the Prophet, faying, Behold a Virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall

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