ago, assume a body that was prepared for it by the Father through the peculiar operation of the Holy Spirit. Upon this account sometimes Christ, or the Son of God, is said to come in the flesh; at other times God himself is represented as manifest in the flesh; some expressions referring chiefly to the godhead, others to god-man, or the soul of Christ in ancient union with his divine nature.

SECT. IV. Now, if by such methods of reasoning a disbeliever of the proper divinity of Christ shall be induced to believe his true godhead, by virtue of such a personal union between the man Christ Jesus and the divine nature, I cannot but think there is a just foundation laid for a ready belief of all the glori→ ous consequent doctrines of the priesthood and kingdom of Christ; and of the proper and perfect satisfaction of Christ offered to the infinite Majesty of heaven for all the infinite offences of sinful men. Our blessed Saviour, by this doctrine, is furnished with all those divine powers and perfections that are requisite for his exaltation to the government over all things, since in his person there is the true and eternal godhead united to the man Jesus: And he becomes hereby the proper object of divine worship, considered in his person as God-man. And whosoever shall believe and confess this doctrine, has, in my opinion, a sufficient degree of orthodoxy in this point to be received into any christian church, although he may have some scruples or difficulties remaining upon his mind, about some opinions relating to other parts of the doctrine of the Trinity.

The most natural and pressing objection which here would arise in the mind is this, "If the divine nature or true God be but one single conscious mind or spirit, and this spirit be united to human nature, or the man Jesus, then does not God the Father seem to be incarnate? Is there not too great an approach made to that doctrine which was called the heresy of the Sabellians, or the Patripassians, viz. That God the Father took flesh, suffered, died, and rose again, and ascended to heaven?" To this I answer,

I. If the sonship of Christ be not referred to his divine nature, but rather to the extraordinary production of his human nature, or to its personal union with the godhead, or to his office as Messiah, then the name of Father will not import any interpal real distinction in the divine nature or essence*, but rather it

*That the notions of paternity and sonship are not necessary internal distinction of the divine essence, but rather economical, external and relative, seems to be the sense of some learned trinitarians. "Though these three are in the holy scriptures spoken of under the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and as begetting, begotten and proceeding; yet still we leave it to those who are wiser, or at least more bold and daring than we, to say, that this does, and to shew afterwards how it does relate to the divine essence: For we have no notion of agreater or lesser in the godhead." Sve " Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity by some London Ministers," page 21.

imports a honourable title or character which the great God as sumes, upon the account of his being the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as man, or his constituting him God-man and Mediator. The Father is also a proper name which belongs to God, considered as sustaining the character of prime agent in all the works of creation, providence, government, and salva❤ tion. But when this godhead is considered in its union to man, and as part of the complex person, then it does not assume to itself these supreme characters, nor the title of Father in the Trinity; and being joined to the man Christ Jesus, it may receive those characters of office and inferiority which belong to a Mediator, as well as it renders the person of Christ God-man fit to sustain these offices.

In this view, although Christ Jesus the Son be united to the same godhead, which is the very essence and nature of the Father, yet it cannot be said properly, that he is personally united to the Father because this union to human nature, though it does not diminish any thing of the divine perfections, yet it alters the relative titles and characters that belong to God, as he appears the Father of all things, the sovereign majesty, the prime alınighty Creator, and Governor of heaven and earth.

The similitude which I have used in the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, Proposition XVIII., would set this in a fair light, if I may repeat part of it again, viz. Suppose a king should send an ambassador extraordinary to a foreign country; and sup pose the soul of the king himself, or one of his intellectual powers, could be so united also to the body, or person, of the ambassador, as to animate, actuate and move him, and become, as it were, one person with him; then the soul of the king himself might be said to sustain both his own character as king, and the inferior character of the ambassador, and fulfil both those offices under a distinct sort of personality, or in two distinct persons.

Thus we may apprehend, how God the Father, the King of heaven, sent down his Son, a distinct person, in whom the same godhead dwells, as an ambassador extraordinary, to earth. And thus this eternal godhead being the same in the Father and Son, sustains the superior character of a sovereign King, in the person of the Father, and may he said also to sustain the inferior cha racter of an ambassador, and to fulfil that office in the person of the Son. We must not expect human similies should be entire and perfect images of things divine: If they give us some illustration of sacred mysteries it is sufficient. The holy scripture seems to favour this representation when it describes the godhead, or sometimes even the Father, as subsisting in the man

Christ, and executing all his three offices of a Prophet, Priest, and King, in and by the human nature.

1. A Prophet; John xiv. 10. The words I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doth the works; that is, it is the same God, who is sometimes called Father, that speaks in me, and confirms the words by miraculous works.-2. A Priest; 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; that is, God in the person of Christ was the reconciler of the world to himself in the person of the Father.-3. A King, or Lawgiver; 1 Thess. v. 18.In every thing give thanks, for this is the will, or command of God in Christ concerning you. God in Christ is our com

mander.

Thus it is the same God, who at other times sustains the person of the Father, dwelling personally in the man Jesus his Son, who assists him in all the works of mediation, so far that it may be said God performs them; and thus God laid down his life for us; 1 John iii. 16. and God redeemed the church with his own blood; Acts xx. 28. It is that God who was manifest in the flesh; 1 Tim. iii. 16.

Thus you see, how far we may go toward the solution of this difficulty, before we come to distinguish three persons in the very essence of God. And I cannot avoid remarking, that all these thoughts put together do naturally lead one rather to incline to this opinion, that the godhead of the Father and of the Son, are numerically one and the same godhead, however intertally and externally distinguished by personal subsistences and relative properties. And this is the constant idea that our protestant divines abroad and at home have given us of the deity of Christ, viz. as the same numerical godhead which is in the Father.

II. But, perhaps, this will not be thought sufficient entirely to answer and remove the difficulty: I add therefore, that if we suppose there may be some such, or greater distinctions in the divine nature itself, or in God the infinite Spirit, as are between the understanding and will in the soul of man, which is a finite spirit, I have shewn very particularly in another discourse, how one of these divine powers, or differences in the divine natore, may be united to man in such a sense as the other cannot so properly be said to be united to him; and for this I must desire the reader's patience, till I see whether the world will encourage further publications on this subject.

CONCLUSION.

Lest I should be exposed to the censure of my zealous friends, for not speaking so largely, fully and particularly, in this dissertation, concerning the three sacred persons in the

Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, as I have done elsewhere, I entreat them to consider the design of this discourse, which is not to explain this article at large, but merely to lead an Arian by soft and easy steps, into a belief of the divinity of Christ: And therefore it was necessary that I should not break in upon his understanding all at once, and attempt to assault and catter down all his old sentiments; but that I should explain the doctrine in as near a correspondency to his former sentiments as truth would permit, and represent the deity of Christ, and the union of the two natures in one person in such a manner as might give the least disgust and offence to one of Arian principles*, provided always, that I assert nothing but what is agreeable to scripture, though I do not at once publish the whole of that doctrine in all its varieties. It would be a good beginning to proceed thus far, time and study of the scripture, with divine instructions, may lead him on to farther knowledge, and a more complete agreement with our best writers, so far as they agree with the word of God.

Our blessed Saviour bore with the prejudices of his own disciples for a season; he had many other things to say to them, even at the end of his life, but they could not bear them yet; John xvi. 12. And the blessed apostles bore with the prejudices of the Jews many years, and did not all at once beat down their whole scheme of Mosaiac principles. When St. Paul taught the Corinthians, he fed them with milk and not with meat, for they were not able to bear it; 1 Cor. iii. 2. And when he found the Hebrews backward to hear, he reserved till afterwards, the many things which he had to say, and which were hard to be uttered; Heb. v. 11, 12. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; 2 Tim. ii. 24. as well knowing, that it is by short and gentle steps, and by slow degrees, that human nature is capable of dropping its former prejudices, parting with any of its old opinions, and receiving further lightI am well persuaded, that disputes regulated by christian love, and under the conduct of sacred charity, are in their own nature most proper to rectify the unwilling mistakes of men; and if ever the Spirit of God condescend to bless any controversial writings for the conviction of those that are in error it is the soft and gentle method of argument that stands fairest to receive such divine influences.

* That great defender of the Divinity of Christ, Dr. Waterland, will bear me out in this manner of writing, for he freely declares, "He does not find fault with the fathers for adapting their style sometimes to pagans, but commends them rather for doing it in some cases, as doing what was proper." See his Farther Vindication of Christ's Divinity, &c, page 17. And St. Paul practises the same thing, and becomes all things to all men, even to Jews and heathens, that by all means he may save some; 1 Cor. ix. 22.

DISSERTATION II.

God and Man united in the Person of Christ.

AS it is evident throughout all the scripture, so it is agreed on all hands, that our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ is a proper person, and is so described in the word of God. He has all the peculiar characters of personality belonging to him; he is a distinct intelligent agent; and the personal pronouns, I, thou, and he, are applied to him with great frequency in the holy writings. It is also as clear in itself, and agreed upon without controversy on all sides, that he has the true and proper characters, attributes, actions and passions of man attributed to him: The history of his life and death bear witness to this in all the evangelists. It is also very evident to me, and has appeared so to almost all the christian church, in the several ages of it, that the names, titles, peculiar properties, and incommunicable prerogatives of God, are given to this glorious person in the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament. It is very hard, if not impossible, for us to give any tolerable account, how and why the peculiar and appropriate characters both of God and of man, in so many places, and in such variety of expressions, should be given to the same person, Jesus Christ, unless we suppose the two distinct natures of God and of man, united to make up one complex, or compound principle of action and passion, that is to make up one person.

The holy scripture lays an evident foundation for this. Christ is plainly described in several of the sacred writings as God and man, united to make up one person, one complex principle of action and passion. He is often called God, and he is often called a man, both in the Old and New Testament; and sometimes both these natures are represented together; Col. ii. 9. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily; Rom. ix. 5. Christ of the seed of David after the flesh, and yet he is over all, God blessed for ever; 1 Tim. iii. 16. God manifest in the flesh, who was seen of angels, received up into glory; Rev. xxii. 13, 16. The beginning and the end, the first and the last, the root and the offspring of David ; John i. 1, 14. The word who was with God, and who was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us. It is upon the account of this union that both human and divine properties and characters are attributed to him in the bible.

In opposition to this it has been objected, "That in the passages of scripture mentioned in my book of the "Christian Doctrine of the Trinity," there is not the least hint of two intelligent agents united in one person. "Sober Appeal."

Answer. I would let the reader judge, whether in the passages which are there mentioned, as well as in the texts I have now cited, there is not much more than a mere hint of two such