sinners, the raising of the dead, &c. but the proofs of the divinity of Christ are sufficient and abundant witliout these helps.

Thus I have finished the eighth proposition, and shewn that these very names, titles, attributes, works and worship, which are peculiar to God, and incommunicable to another, are ascribed to three by God himself, in his word, which three are distinguished by the names of Father, Son and Spirit.

After all, suppose a man should object thus, You have pretended to prove the deity of the Son and Spirit, by the ascription of such properties, works and worship to them, as belong only to the true God: But how do you know that all these can never belong to any creature? As for instance, cannot God communicate to any inferior being a sort of omnipotency, and vest him with almighty power? Or omniscience, and give him universal knowledge? Or immutability, and make him unchangeable? Is it an impossible thing that any being inferior to the great God, should be capable of forming several parts of the creation: Of changing the hearts of men? Of raising the dead? And is there no so sort of religious worship, thanksgiving and praise, which can be given to any creature, upon the account of some extraordinary and spiritual benefits, received, or to be received from him? And if so, then the ascription of these things to the Son and Spirit, are not sufficient and certain proofs, that true and proper godhead is ascribed to them. I answer:

It is not within our present reach, nor does it necessarily concern us, to know how far the powers of a creature can go, how glorious, and powerful, and perfect a creature God can make, or how sublime worship or honours, he might have fitted a creature to receive: It is not for us to say, that in the nature of things, it is utterly impossible for any being beneath a God, to have any one of these powers or characters communicated to him: Yet we dare affirm this, that since God has assumed these properties, these works, this worship, and peculiarised them to himself in his word, and since he describes himself by these characters, to distinguish himself from all inferior beings, he would never suffer any mere creature to stand upon record in his word, with these powers, properties, and characters belonging to him; for this would be to give away his own distinguishing titles and properties. This would be to run counter to that holy jealousy, which he professes for his own name, and to bring perpetual confusion into all parts of religion, as I have shewn in the foregoing propositions,

PROP. IX.-There are also some other circumstantial but convincing Evidences, that the Son and the Spirit have the 1. true and proper Godhead ascribed to them, as well as the Father.

There are many things spoken concerning God, the true and the living God, in some parts of his word, which in other parts of it are ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ, or to the blessed Spirit.

First, To our Lord Jesus Christ.-1. The final judgment of the world is ascribed to God. Ps. 1. 6. For God is Judge himself." Rom. iiì. 6. " Then how shall God judge the world?" And it is ascribed also to our Lord Jesus Christ. "Rom. xiv. 10. "We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." 2 Tim. iv. 1. "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing." And indeed how can we suppose a being, who has not divine perfections, capable of such a work? It seems to require an omniscient mind, and an almighty arm, to manifest the secrets of all hearts, and to discover and punish the infinite variety of secret wickednesses in the hearts of men, as well as proclaim and reward the secret workings of piety, in those that have loved God.

2. There is a glorious description of the triumph of God; Ps. lxviii. 4, 8, 17, 18. " He rides upon the heavens by his name, Jah: The earth shook, the heavens dropped, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men," which is applied to the ascension of Christ into heaven. Eph. iv. 8, 10. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. He that descended, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." Christ is therefore this Lord, this God, this Jehovah or Jah, whose triumph is there described.

3. The children of Israel, as it is related in. Ps. lxxviii. '56. "tempted and provoked the most high God:" which is asserted concerning Christ; 1 Cor. x. 9. "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed," &c. Therefore the tempting of Christ is a tempting of the most high God.

4. The kingdom of God is an everlasting kingdom; Ps. exlv. 13. and his dominion endures through all generations." which honour is ascribed to Christ in a citation of the xlv. Psalm, by St. Paul, Heb. i. 8. "But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." And in many other places.

5. Isaiah propheṣics chapter vii. 14. “A virgin shall bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Which is cited by Mat.

i. 23. and his name is interpreted God with us: And this is abundantly confirmed; Johni. 11, 14. "The Word, who was God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us.", 2 Tim. iii. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh."

6. John the baptist was foretold to prepare the way for Christ, who is called God, and Jehovah, by the prophet. Is. xl. 3. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, [Jehovah] make strait in the desart a high-way for our God." Which is cited and applied to John as the fore-runner of Christ, by St. Mat. iii. 3. This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths strait." And here it may be observed, that the title "Lord God," which answers to Jehovah Elohim, an incommunicable name of God, is given to Christ, when John the baptist is described as his fore-runner; Luke i. 16, 17. "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before him in the Spirit and power of Elias." The word him, that is, Christ, is immediately connected with the Lord their God in the foregoing verse; so that Christ is the Lord our God. See more under the 13th and 17th particulars.

7. God's universal propriety in all things, and his dominion over all things, are asserted in many scriptures; Ps. cii. 19. "His kingdom ruleth over all." And yet Christ says to the Father, even before his death and resurrection; John xvii. 10. "All things that are mine, are thine, and all things that are thine, are mine. John xvi. 15. "All things that the Father hath are mine." And as Christ is called Lord over all;" Rom. x. 12. so we find in Acts x. 36. Christ is Lord of all.

8. The prerogative to forgive sins is assumed by God himself, as a divine character; Is. xliii, 25. "I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins." Yet Mark ii. 5. Christ speaks to the sick of the palsy, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee;" Acts vii. 60. Stephen prays to Christ, "Lord lay not this sin to their charge." And the apostle Paul exhorts the christians; Col. iii. 13. Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."

9. The reverence and subjection, which the great God demands for himself, by the prophet Isaiah, is attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ, by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans. Compare Is. xlv. 23. with Rom. xiv. 10, 11. The words of the prophet are, "I have sworn by myself, that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." And the apostle says, "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

10. The blessed God excludes every thing from comparison or competition with himself," Is. xlvi. 4. "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" Yet our Lord Jesus Christ says concerning himself; John xiv. 9." He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;" and the apostle Paul adds; Heb. i. 3. He is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person;" and Phil. ii. 6."He thought it no robbery to be equal with God;" though it must be confessed, that the criticisms which attend this last named text, take off something from its force and evidence, and render the sense of it a little dubious.

11. Christ is that glorious person, " in whom dwells the fulness of the godhead bodily;" Col. ii. 9. which is too exalted an expression to be given to a mere creature, if the godhead or divine nature were not so united to the man Christ Jesus, as to render him one complex person, God and man. It is true that the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that they "may be filled with all the fulness of God;" Eph. iii. 19. But this can mean no more than a fulness of those gifts, graces, and manifestations of God, which the primitive christians enjoyed and hoped for. But the word godhead is never used to signify gifts and graces, but only the divine nature, which in its perfection and fulness, dwelt in this peculiar and transcendent manner in Christ alone, and not in his saints. And the addition of the word, bodily, seems to shew a peculiar union of the godhead to the human nature or body, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

12. Our faith and trust in Christ, is the same with faith and trust in God, as appears; Jer. xvii. 5, 7. "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man; blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Compared with Ps. ii. 12."Blessed are all they that put their trust in him," that is, Christ.

13. Christ is the Lord our God, by whom we are saved; Hos. i. 7. "The Lord said, "I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord, [Jehovah ;] their God," compared with Luke ii. 11. " Unto you is born in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord." God the Father who is Jehovah, saves his church by his Son, who is also Jehoyah and their God.

14. That glorious person who is called "the Spirit of God,' Rom. viii. 9. and in many other places of scripture, is also called "the Spirit of Christ," in that very same verse, as well as ! Pet. i. 11. and the Spirit of his Son;" Gal. iv. 6. and as he is promised to be poured" out on all flesh," by the Lord our God; Joel ii. 27, 28. this was accomplished; Acts ii. 16. wheu Christ" shed forth this Spirit; verse 33. and baptized the disciples "with the Holy Ghost, and with fire," as Mat. iii. 11.

Thence it appears, that Christ is that God to whom the Spirit belongs, and he sends it.

15. Christ's own resurrection is attributed to God the Father; Rom. vi. 4. and to the holy Spirit; 1 Pet. iii. 18. and yet Christ ascribed it to himself; Jolin ii. 19, 21. " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, which he spake of the temple of his body;" this shews that the same divine power and godhead of the Father, which raised up Christ, dwelt also in the Son and Spirit.

16. That it was our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, is abundantly manifest from all the New Testament; and yet Acts xx. 28. it is said, "Feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." And 1 John iii. 16. "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." So that he who shed his blood, and laid down his life for sinners, was the true God: He came into the world, and was born of a virgin, and took upon him the name of Emmanuel, or God with us, God in our nature, that he might have flesh and blood, which he gave for the redemption of his people. See more under the last particular.

17. After the resurrection of Christ, the apostle Thomas, in a rapture of faith, calls him, "my Lord, and my God;" John xx. 28. And our Saviour is so far from reproving him, that he commends him, and pronounces those blessed, who should believe the same doctrine, which he professed, without having the same sensible advantages. Now where the words Lord God are thus joined, it looks so like the incommunicable title of God, by which he is often described in the Old Testament, that Christ would never have suffered these words of Thomas to pass without a reproof, if he himself had not a real oneness with the great God, and a right to this incommunicable title. By a comparison of this with what has been said before concerning the visible appearances of God of old, we may grow bold and say, Sutely this was the Lord God, whose voice Adam heard in the garden;" Gen. iii. 8. This was the "Lord God of Abraham; Gen. xxviii. 13. "The Lord God of your fathers in the burning bush ;” Ex. iii. 15, &c.

18. Whereas it is said, Rev. xxii. 6. "The Lord God of the holy prophets, sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." It is added, verse 16. "I Jesus have sent my angel, to testify to you these things in the churches." Whence we may reasonably suppose, that our Lord Jesus, and the Lord God of the prophets, have such an intimate relation to, and union with one another, that these two namės may be used without danger, the one for the other. For Christ is the Lord God of the prophets, as well as the Lord God of Abraham.