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be done to him, which ought to be done to God only. Arife, (faid he, I alfo am a man: giving us hereby two invincible proofs, that it is in no cafe lawful to worship any other than the Supreme God. The firft, that St. Peter condemns this action from a concern for the glory of God: whence it appears, that fubordinate worship, as well as all other, paid to any but God, is contrary to his glory. The fecond, inafmuch as it appears from hence, that whoever is by nature a mere man, has no right to any worship at all, fupreme, or fubaltern.

29. "In the fourth place, the Angels know nothing of this fubaltern worship. Otherwise, this Angel, who spake to St. John, would not fo earnestly have rejected that which the Apoftle was willing to pay him. St. John did not take him for God: for he had juft been faying, The Lord God of the holy Prophets hath fent his Angel to fhew his fervants the things which must be fhortly. St. John, therefore, would have worthipped him because he was an Angel of God, not because he thought he was God himfelf. But this Angel, who made none of these diftinctions, faid to him, Worship God,-fhewing, in the plaineft manner, that worship, of whatfoever fort, must be paid to God alone.". Abbadic abridged.

30. The Reader will pardon my fubjoining. another fhort extract here.- "It is fomething furprizing, that when this religion with this duty (worshipping Chrift) in it as a part of it, was firft publifhed in Judea, the Jews, though implacably fet against it, yet never accufed it of Idolatry: though that charge, of all others, had ferved their purpofe the best, who intended to blacken and blaft it. Nothing would have been fo well heard, and fo cafily apprehended as a just prejudice against it, as this. The argument would have appeared as ftrong as it was plain: And as the Jews could not be ignorant of the Acts of the Chriftian worship when fo many fell back to them from it, who were offended at other parts

of

of it,-fo they had the books, in which it was contained, in their hands. Notwithstanding all which, we have all poffible reafon to believe, that this objection against it was never made by any of them in the first ages of Christianity.

31. "The filence of the Apostles, in not mentioning nor anfwering any fuch objection, is a plain proof of the filence of the Jews on this head: For it would indeed difparage all their, writings, if we could think, that while they mentioned and anfwered the other prejudices of the Jews, which, in comparifon of this, are fmall. and inconfiderable matters, they paffed over this, which must have been the greateft and plaufibleft, of them all, if it was one at all. Therefore, as, the filence of the Apoftles is a clear proof of the filence of the Jews, and fince their filence could neither flow from their ignorance, nor their undervaluing of this religion, it feems to be certain that the first opening of the Chriftian doctrine did not carry any thing in it that could be called the worshipping of a creature. For it is not to be imagined, that they would have been filent on this head, if a creature, a mere man, had been thus propofed among the Chriftians as the object of Divine Worship.'

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32. "As it follows from hence, that the Jews muft have understood this part of our religion in fuch a manner as agreed with their former ideas, fo we mult examine these. Now they had this fettled among them,--That God dwelt in the cloud of glory, and that, by virtue of that inhabitation, Divine Worship was paid to God as dwelling in the cloud; that it was called God, God's Throne, his Holinefs, his Face, and the Light of his Countenance: They went up to the Temple to worship God, as dwelling there bodily, that is, fubftantially-fo bodily fometimes fignifies-or in corporeal appearance: This feems to have been a person that was truly God, and yet was diftinct. from the Father; for this feems to be the import of these words; Behold, I fend an Angel before.

thee

thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared: Beware of him, and obey his voice provoke him not, for he will not pardon your tranfgreffions; for my name is in him.

Thefe words do plainly import a perfon to whom they belong; and yet they are a pitch far above the Angelical dignity. So that Angel muft here be understood in a large fenfe, for one fent of God; and can admit of no fenfe fo proper, as that the Eternal Word, which dwelt afterwards in the man Chrift Jefus, dwelt in that cloud of glory. It was alfo one of the Prophecies received by the Jews, That the glory of the fecond Temple was to exceed the glory of the firft. The chief character of the glory of the firft, was that inhabitation of the Divine Prefence among them; from hence it follows, that fuch an inhabitation of God in a creature, by which that creature was not only called God, but that adoration was due to it upon that account, was a notion that could not have fcandalized the Jews, and was indeed the only notion that agreed with their former ideas, and that could have been received by them without difficulty or oppofition. This is a ftrong inducement to believe, that this great Article of our religion was, at that time; delivered and understood in that fenfe."-Burnet on the Articles.

CHA P. XII.

That JESUS CHRIST is alfo very Man, of a reafonable Soul, and Human Flefh fubfifting.

1. TNafmuch as it appears from the preceding Chapters, that the Holy Scriptures afford fuch clear and abundant proof of the Divinity of Chrift, it may justly appear strange, that any who fincerely defire to know the truth, and with a view thereto diligently fearch these facred records, fhould entertain any doubt concerning it. But

one

one reafon of this may be, the fame Divine Oracles which reprefent him as God, do alfo, in many other paffages, fpeak of him in a very dif ferent and inferior character-nay, and affirin things of him abfolutely incompatible with true and proper Deity. They tell us, that he was conceived and born, was an infant, a childthat he grew in wifilom and in ftature-nay, and in favour with God and man--that he was fubject to all the infirmities of human nature- -felt hunger, thirst, wearinefs-eat, drank, flept-that he was fenfible of mere human affections, fuch as forrow, Matth. xxvi. 28.-joy, Luke x. 21.-love, John xi. 5. That he was weak and ignorant: in fome things, not being able to do any thing of himfelf, and not knowing the day of judgmentthat he loved God, obeyed his commandments, and fought his glory-that he frequently prayed to him as to One that was able to fave him, and once in particular offered up ftrong cries and tears, and was heard in what he feared-that at that time his foul was exceeding forrowful, even unto death: and he entreated his Difciples to watch with him —that he then went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, faying, O my Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pafs from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt-that after returning to his Difciples, he went away again the fecond time, and prayed, faying, O my Father, if this cup may not pafs away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done that he went away a third time, and prayed, faying the fame words, and there appeared an Angel unto him frengthening him; and being in an agony, he prayed the more earnestly, and his fweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the groundthat when on the Crofs, he cried out, My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? Father, into thy hands I commend my fpirit, and gave up the ghoft.

2. Now, how fhall we account for all this?. Surely, by allowing what the true Catholic Church has allowed, and believed, in all ages,that he

who

who is God, is alfo Man-that he who is the Root, is alfo the Offspring of David, Rev. xxii. 16. As the Root of David, he is David's Creator, the Author of his exiftence, the Source of his being, and, therefore, his King and Lord, Pfalm cx. 1. and Matth. ii. 43. As David's offspring, he is his true Son, his real defcendant. Now, as in the former character he is very God, poffeffed of a nature truly divine, fo in this latter he is very man, poffeffed of a nature truly human. Bishop Pearfon :

Thus

"When we fay that he was conceived and born, we declare he was made really and truly Man, of the fame human nature which is in all other men, who, by the ordinary way of generation, åre conceived and born. For the Mediator between God and men, is the man Chrift Jefus: That fince by man came death, by man alfo fhould come the refurrection of the dead. As fure, then, as the first Adam, and we who are. redeemed, are men, fo, certainly, is the fecond Adam, and our Mediator, Man. He is therefore frequently called the Son of Man, and in that nature he was always promised: first, to Eve, as her feed, and confequently her fon; then to Abraham, In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed, and that feed is Chrift, and fo is the fon of Abraham. Next to David as his fon to fit upon his Throne, and fo he is made of the feed of David according to the flesh the fon of David, the fon of Abraham, and confequently of the fame nature with David and Abraham: and as he was their fon, fo are we his brethren, as defcending from the fame father, Adam: and therefore it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. For he laid not hold on Angels, but on the feed of Abraham, and fo became, not an Angel, but a Man.

3. As, then, Man confifteth of two parts, Body and Soul, fo doth Chrift: He affumed a body at his conception, of the Bleffed Virgin. Forafmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he alfo himfelf likewife took part of the fame. The verity of

his

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