John viii. 28. When you have lift up the Son of Man, ye shall know that I am.

was, I am.

58. (In express assertory Terms) Before Abraham

This is the peculiar Name by which God declar'd himself to Mofes, Exod. iii. 14. and is repeated by God, Deut. xxxii. 39. And these Expreffions of our Saviour are the very fame that Almighty God uses, Ifa. xliii. 10. that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am : Before me there was no God form'd, neither shall there be after me.

Τὴν ψυχὴν John Χ. 24. When the Jews complaining, faid, How long doeft nichi cử thou make us to doubt, (or, as in the Margin of our Bibles, hold us in Suspence?) if Thou be Chrift, tell us plainly; and he does, Lift up our v. 3. I and my Father are one, v; not one Person, but one in Soul, raise Effence. And so the Jews understood him; imputing therefore to him Blasphemy, and taking up Stones to stone him for it.

SEIS.

our ExpeHations

Nevertheless I may, perhaps, be told Two Things, That that thou this is interpreted One in Power; and that when the Jews unart really derstood by it, v. 33. that he made himself God; our Saviour, the Meffi- v. 34, &c. makes, as it were, an Excufe for that Expreffion, ah we look faying, Is it not written, I have said ye are Gods, &c. for.

Now, if it be to be understood One in Power, (tho' the Jews took it otherwise,) it will necessarily follow, that he is One in Effence too. For what are the Works, which are there mention'd, and which he did in his Father's Name, and which testify'd of him, v. 25? no less than v. 28. I give unto them Eternal Life; which surely God only can do; for though our Saviour is appointed to judge the World, yet, as a Judge, he can't be faid to give: Eternal Life is the Gift of God, Rom. vi. 23. Befides, if he be One in Power, he must be Omnipotent, which of all the divine essential Attributes, does most denote God; and there can't be Two Omnipotents distinct in Effence, any more than Two Gods.

And as to the Excuse, it may be faid to be an Answer ad hominem, with a just Reproof of them; but he did not reft there, and leave them to think he meant no more, for v. 37, 38. he adds, If I do not the Works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, tho ye believe not me, believe the Works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him: And that the Jews did certainly then understand that he made himself God, the following Verse shews, for they again fought to take him, as at first they attempted, to stone him.

And c. xxii. 45. He that seeth me, feeth him that sent me; and c. xiv. 7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye have known and seen him: And repeats it again to Philip, reproaching him for asking him to shew them the Father, saying, Have I been so long with you, and yet haft thou not known me? He that hath jeen me hath jeen the Father, and how sayest thon then, Shew us the Father?

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Surely,

Surely therefore, I may say, as our Saviour concludes the Account he sends of himself to John Baptist, Matt. xi. 6. Bleffed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me; for as the Apoftle says 2 Cor. iv. v. 3, 4. If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to (or in,

)them that are loft; which Expreffion, in, seems to intimate that it must be wilful Ignorance; so glorious (as he adds) is the Light of it.

I might add what he did in his own Name, as a further Evidence of his Divinity, viz.

Forgiving of Sins; giving the Holy Ghost; working such Miracles as never were wrought before, viz. in his own Name, and giving to others Power to do the like and greater in his Name, rifing or raising himself from the Dead; receiving divine Worship, such as is due to God alone: All which are afferted of and by him, as is evident by plain Texts of Scripture, which I do not quote, because I believe they are known to you, and cannot be deny'd.

So that for the Divinity of our Saviour, we have had the Testimony of God the Father, who will not give his Glory to ano ther, and is the God of Truth, and cannot lie; and of Jesus Chrift himself the Son of God, a Teacher of Righteousness, who would not be even a good Man, if he taught a falfe and blasphemous Doctrine. I shall now proceed to give you the Testimony of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, by visible Actions, and by Speaking in the Apostles, who have left us this Doctrine upon Record in their Writings: And then I may conclude, as St. John says, I John v. 10. He that believeth not God, hath made him a Lyar, because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son.

John i. 32, &c. John Baptist saw the Spirit of God descending upon him like a Dove, and, He, who sent him to baptize, said, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he, which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost; and he bare Record that This is the Son of God.

And as no Man can say that Jesus Chrift is the Lord but by the I Cor. xii. Holy Ghost, and that all the Apostles were filled with the Holy 3. Ghost, and had the Advantage of attending him from the acts ii. 4. beginning of his Ministry, and of being Eye-witnesses of his Ma- Acts i. 21. jesty, and to have seen and heard many things, which are not 2 Pet.i.16. recorded in the Gospels, and to have had the Scriptures John xx. expounded to them by Chrift himself after his Resurrection; and 21.xxi.25. that it was given to them to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Luk.xxiv. Heaven; and that St. Paul, in particular, was in a miraculous 27. Manner taught by Chrift from Heaven, and was an Apostle not Luk.iv.Io. of Men, neither by Man, but by Jesus Chrift, and God the Acts ix.Father. Surely the Testimony of such Witnesses is much more I Tim.i... valuable than those which you have produced; tho' you had Gal. i. 1, never so faithfully and fairly represented what your Authors 12. say. For those are the Testimonies of the Holy Ghost, which spake

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spake in them; and what they writ, St. John c. xx. 31. says, was for this Purpose, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Chrift, the Son of God.

Col. i. 19. It pleas'd the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell (or all Fulness was pleas'd to dwell in him) even all the Fulness of the Godhead, Col. ii. 9. as our Saviour had faid, John xiv. 10. The Father that dwelleth in me; not by a Commucation of the Holy Spirit, as God may be said to have dwelt in the Prophets and Apostles, and indeed in every good Man, whose Bodies are the Temples of God; for God gave not the Spirit by Measure to him; nor much less in Clouds and Ceremonies, as the Glory of God between the Cherubims, term'd Shechina, the Habiration or Dwelling of God, but essentially. But having mention'd and faid something of this Text before, when I confifider'd your Quotation of the 15th Verse of this Chapter, this may fuffice.

John i. 14. We beheld the Glory, as of the only-begotten of the Father: which Phrafe is often repeated in Scripture, and muft fignify more than that Christ was, as truly others are the Sons of God, as being created by him; tho' you make created and begotten equivalent Expreffions; and if they were, he could not be call'd, the only-begotten: Which Word Only fufficiently diftinguishes and denotes him emphatically the Son, as is faid by St. Paul, Heb. i. 2. God hath spoken to us, ἐν ὑιῶ, By the Son; The Son by eternal Generation, and equal to the Father; as I have shewn already by the Scriptures, and by several Quotations out of the Authors you rely upon.

2 Pet. iii. 12. Looking for the Coming of the Day of God. That this was spoken of the Day of Judgment; and that the Day of Judgment is in Scripture call'd the Day of the Lord Jesus, is manifeft both by the other Parts of this Chapter, and several other Places: And here St. Peter expressly stiles him God; and so does St. Paul, I Tim. iii. 16. God manifest in the Flesh; and Tit. ii. 10. God our Saviour ; and v. 13. the great God and our Saviour: I John v. 10. We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an Understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jejus Christ. This (r, this Person) is the true God.

Μορφή.

Μορφὴν

I have in a former Part of this Letter mention'd Hebr. i. 3. There is another Text, Phil. ii. 6. of the like Import; but more plain and express, as I have before also observ'd: Christ Jesus, wbo being in the Form of God, thought it not Robbery (a taking to himself what did not belong to him, or he had no right to) to be equal with God; i. e. God: Now being in the Form of God cannot, as I faid before of the Image of his Person, be understood as if he were only a Representation of God, and that he was not really and truly God, as is plain by the following Words; ὀμοιώμαζι He took upon him the Form of a Servant, and was made in the Likeness of Man, and being found in Fashion as a Man. - - For

is

it may as well be argued from these latter Words (as some Hereticks have deny'd his Humanity) that he was only in Appearance, and not really a Man, as that from the Image or Form of God, he was not truly God, and equal with God.

Rom. i. 20. St. Paul makes the Creation of the World to be a full Evidence and Proof of the Eternal Power and Godhead; and that the World was made by the Son of God, not minifterially, but as God, I have before observ'd, and will be very plain by comparing together, I Cor. viii. 6. Rom. xi. 36. Col. i. 16. John i. 3.

And here I must take notice of your unfair Dealing, p. 6. where Col. ii. 9. is cited, The Fulness of the Godhead, you add, as if it were another Reading or Meaning of that Expreffion (or Divine Power ;) and you refer to this Text, Rom. i. 20. as if this justify'd you for so doing: Tho' in this Text the Word Godhead is us'd as well as Power; to which the Epithet Eternal is added, which you changed to Divine; as imagining, tho' in vain, that it would better suit your Purpose.

Rom. ix. 5. Whose are the Fathers, of whom concerning the Flesh Chrift came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Thus it is rendred in our Bibles, and so by (i) Novatian, c. 13, & 33. but you translate it (in your Letter to the Bishop of London, p. 5.) The God over all be blessed for ever. Amen. But I ask, Why did you so render it; for neither the Context, nor the A postle's Argument, nor the Greek (k) will warrant your fo doing? For,

St. Paul in the 2d and 3d Verses having express'd his great Concern, even to a Degree of wishing himself accursed or separated from Christ, for his Brethren, his Kinsmen, according to the Flesh, left, as he says, c. iv. 14. thro their Infidelity the Promise to Abraham should be made of none Effect: He proceeds in a very Rhetorical Climax to set forth the great Privileges and Advantages they had, as so many Arguments to them above others, to embrace the Faith of Christ; saying, 'Who are Ifraelites, to whom pertaineth the Adoption, and the Glory, and ' the Covenant, and the giving of the Law, and the Service (or true Worship, λαβεία) of God, and the Promises; whose are the Fathers, and of whom, as concerning the Flesh, Christ came, • who is over all, God blessed for ever: That is, tho' it was great Honour to them, that he deriv'd his human Nature from them; for he took on him the Seed of Abraham; yet as the Completion and Perfection of their Happiness and Dignity, He was over all, and no less than God blessed for ever. And this was the strongest

(i) Quorum Patres & ex quibus Christus secundum carnem,

qui est super omnia, Deus benedictus in fæcula.

(*) ὧν οι πατέρες κὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χρισός χει σάρκα ὁ ὧν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸς ἀυλογητὸς εἰς του αἰῶνας, ἀμὴν.

and

and a necessary Argument to induce them to a Belief in him, because they expected their Messiah should be fomething more than of the Stock of Abraham, or of the Lineage of David. And had the Apostle stopp'd at, of whom concerning the Flesh Chrift came, the Argument had been no better than Abimelech's to Judg.ix.2. perfuade the Men of Sichem to make him King; I am your Bone, and your Flesh. But when Christ came (as they faid John vii. 27.) no Man knoweth whence he is; and therefore the Apoftle tells them, Tho' according to the Flesh he came of your Flesh, and is Man, yet he is also truly Eternal God; for without this Character of him, which they expected their Messiah to have, they might have been apt to have faid, as they did before they crucify'd him, Is not this the Carpenter's Son? And then the

Mark vi. Conclufion would have been, as our Saviour faid, that the Prophet would not have been without Honour, but among his own Kin, and in his own House.

45.

Contra
Prax.c. 13.

Dr.Hamm.

175.

This I take to be the plain and natural Conftruction of the Apostle's Difcourse; but you, to force your Interpretation, first tranfpose the Words, and then conftrue them so, as good Grammar will not bear ; ὁ ὧν ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸς ἐυλογητὸς εἰς τοῦ αἰῶνας; this, in the Letter and Order of the Words is, being over all God blessed for ever : Being must necessarily refer to, and agree with what went before; viz. Chrift; and so Tertullian applies it; and therefore you leave out ὁ ὢν Being, and suppose ἔw to be understood.

To sum up this Matter; 'tis very observable, that the Apoftle speaks of our Saviour in the same Terms, as the Jews use when they name God; for they generally add Blessed for ever, and the Bleffed (alone, without the Addition of God) denotes Almighty God; as is evident by Mark xiv. 61.

Comment, I John 15. God is Light; and this is faid also of Chrift, John i. 9. by the fame Apostle; and our Saviour says it of himself, John viii. 12. I am the Light of the World.

1 Tim. vi. 15. God is stild King of Kings, and so is Chrift, Rev. xvii. 14. & xix. 20. Acts xx. 28. Take heed to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchas'd with his own Blood.

Hebr. xiii. 8. Jesus Christ the fame Yesterday, to Day, and for ever; which surely denotes his Eternity; for this is equivalent to what is faid Rev. i. 4. of the great God, which is, and which was, and which is to come.

But Mr. Seaton having cited many Places of Scripture, in which the Things spoken of God, and which cannot be applied but to the mighty God, are also predicated in the highest Sense of our Saviour; I shall say no more upon this Head, but only that our Saviour must therefore be God, or else we must charge even the Scriptures with Blafphemy.

I prefume you will not deny, and therefore I need not quote Texts, that Faith in our Lord Jesus is made necessary to the Remif

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