Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Another proof this that there is in the Godhead, an eternal paternity infeparably connected with an eternal fonfhip.

St. John's last book is full of the fame doctrine. The Father (if not the Son) fpeaks thus, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, faith the Lord, who is, who was, and is to come, the Almighty: Rev. i. 8, And the Son, not thinking it a robbery to fpeak of himself, in the fame glorious terms, fays, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the First and the Laft. Rev. 1. 17. and xxii. 13. Thus the laft as well as the first Chapter of the Revelation, fhew that he hath higher titles than that of a man approved of God.

As the Father and the Son are honoured with the fame titles, fo they are reprefented as filling the fame everlasting throne: And although the Father calls himself a jealous God, yet is he fo little difpleafed, with the divine honours paid to the Son, that placing him at his right hand, he gives him the feat of honour in the midft of the throne, that all men and angels may (without fcruple) honour the Son as they honour the Father. Rev. v. 6. Pf. cx. 1. and Acts vii. 55, Therefore every rational creature in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth is reprefented by St. John, as paying the fame worship to the Father and the Son; and as addreffing to both a doxolo БУ fimilar to that which concludes the Lord's Prayer; faying in the midst of the deepest prof trations, Bleffing and honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that fitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever! Rev. iv. 8, &c. and v. 12, &c. And both, in the unity of the Spirit, are adored as the fame Jehovah, the fame Holy, Holy, Holy One, that liveth for ever and ever, who hath created all things, and for whofe pleafure they are

and

and were created, and before whofe throne the Elders of the triumphant church caft their Crowns. Rev. iv. 10, 11. and v. 14,

Thus St. John, whom you think favourable to your error, not only afferts (after our Lord) that all men are to honour the Son, as they honour the Father, but teftifies that all the heavenly hosts actually worthip the Son, as they do the Father, fo grosfly mistaken are you, when you affert that our worshipping of Jefus Chrift is an abominable idolatry, on account of which every true Chriftian is to forfake the Church of England. I wifh, Sir, that by advancing fuch unfcriptural and antichriftian paradoxes, you may not finally unfit yourfelf for the company of thofe who wohip God and the Lamb, and for the blifs of ahole who fing with St. John, To him that loved us, and washed us from our fins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen! Rev. i 5. Praying that this Letter may be a means of removing or thaking the prejudices you entertain againft Him, who (in the unity of the Father and of the Holy Ghoft) is the true God and eternal life, (1 John v. and 20.)

I remain, &c.

LETTER

LETTER IX.

Doctor Prieftly is confronted with St. Paul: and our Lord's divine glory is feen in that Apoftle's Writings.

ST

REV. SIR,

T. Paul who, as a rigid Jew, detefted the very name of idols; and who, as a zealous Christian, went through the World to make armies of idols fall before the living God, St. Paul' I fay, will peculiarly take care not to countenance idolatry. He wrote 13 or 14 Epiftles, and, if you are not mistaken, we fhall find, at least, in one. of them that our Lord was a mere man.

But how foon does this Apoftle rife againft your error? In the very first Chapter of his first Epiftle, he calls his Gofpel indifferently the Gofpel of GoD and the Gospel of CHRIST: Rom. i. 1, 16; and to let us at once into the mystery of our Lord's divine nature, he confirms St. John's doctrine of the Logos made flesh, and calls our Lord the Son of God, made of the feed of David according to the flesh, and declared with power the Son of God, according to the fpirit of holiness, [the holy and quickening Spirit effential to his divine nature, 1 Cor. xv. 45.] by the refurrellion from the dead: And therefore the Apostle immediately points him out as being, in the unity of the Father, the divine fpring of grace and peace, faying, Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jefus Chrift. Rom. i. 3, 4, 7. Far from feeing in this defcription a mere man, I already perceive idov vo the proper Son of God, the very Prince of life, condescending to clothe himself with our flesh, our mortal nature, that K

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

he

he might make way for His gofpel, which is the gofpel of GOD.

When the Apostle hath thus led us tohonour the Son as we honour the Father, he deplores the iolatry of the heathen, who ho noured and worshipped the creature: Rom. i. 25. A ftrong proof this, that St. Paul had no idea of your doctrine, which fees in Christ a mere creature. On the contrary, he holds him out as the great object of our faith and confidence; faying, that God [the Father] hath fet him forth to be a propi tiation through faith in his blood, that he might be juft, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jefus, [that is who relieth on Jefus for falvation.] Rom. iii. 25, 26. Now Sir, this faith, this religious reliance for pardon and eternal life, is the highest of all acts of worship, and therefore none is to be the object of it but God our Saviour: So fure then as St. Paul never called us to believe in Mofes, in himself, or in any mere man, but only in Jefus; our Lord, the object of our faith, is God over all, and not a mere man as you unfcripturally teach.

On our Lord's divinity refts the force of St.-. Paul's great incentive to divine love; God, faithhe, commendeth his love towards us, in that when we were yet finners Chrift died for us: Rom. v. 8; For, if Chrift be a mere man, God commended his love as much towards us by the death of Socrates, or of St. Paul, as by the death of our Lord Jefus Christ. Ón the fame 'evangelical ground refts alfo this ravishing conclufion of the Apostle, As by one man's offence death reigned by one, MUCH MORE they who receive abundance of grace fhall reign in life, by one Fefus Chrift: Rom. v. 17. For if our Lord be a mere man' as Adam was, why is he MUCH MORE able to save than the first man was able to deftroy? But upon St. Paul's evangelical principles of found reafoning, Chrift is by fo much more able to fave, than Adam was

to

to deftroy, by how much the only begotten and proper Son of God is greater than a Son by mere creation. For the firft Adam was [only] made a living foul, but the laft Adam [is] a quicken

ing Spirit. 1 Cor. xv. 45.

Take another inftance of St. Paul's apoftolic concern for our Lord's divine glory, which you fo zealously oppose. Chrift had faid to the woman of Samaria, Salvation is of the Jews, becaufe he the Saviour was of Jacob's pofterity. In like St. Paul fpeak ng of the Ifraelites, adds

manner

who

of whom, as concerning the flesh, Chrift came, is over all, God blessed for ever. o wy ÊTɩ naνTwY Θεος ευλογητός εις της αιωνας αμην. Rom. ix. 45: It was impoffible to any but an inspired writer to crowd, in fo few words, fuch a full description of our Lord's Divinity, contradiftinguished from his humanity. (1) He is ov he exifts effentially Before Abraham was, fays he, I AM, and therefore the name of Jehovah, the felf exiftent God, belongs to fim, as he is one "with the Father and the Spirit. (2) He is not only with God, but he is God; Yea, (3) God OVER ALL, "God of all men and angels, God fupreme over earth and heaven: (4) God BLESSED, praised and worshipped as God; edoya, BLESSING, being the firft act of adoration, which St. John faw performed in heaven to Him that fitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. Rev. v. 13. Nor is this adoration (5) to end like the extraordinary honours paid to a king at his coronation; it is to Taft FOR EVER: And fo far is St. Paul from repenting to have afferted our Lord's Divinity in fo ftrong a manner, that he fets (6) the broad feal of his approbation to the whole defcription by an AMEN, which expreffes both the fulness of his perfuafion, and the warmth of the devotion, with which he blessed and adored our Lord. . *

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »