ARTICLE II.

Of the Word or Son of God, which was made
very Man.

The Son which is the Word of the Father, begotten from Everlaffing of the Father; the very and Eternal God, of one Substance with the Father, took Man's Nature in the Womb of the Blessed Wirgin of her Substance; so that two whole and perfea Natures, that is, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Perfon; never to be divided: whereof is one Chrißk, verp God and very Man: who truly fuffered, was dead and buried, to recontile his Father to us, and to be a Sacrifice not only for Driginal Guilt, but also for anual Sins of Pen.

HERE are in this Article five heads to be ex

Τ
T plained:

I. That the Son or Word is of the fame substance with the Father, begotten of him from all eternity.

II. That he took man's nature upon him in the womb of the bleffed Virgin, and of her substance.

III. That the two natures of the Godhead and Manhood, both still perfect, were in him joined in one person never to be divided.

IV. That Chrift truly fuffered, was crucified, dead, and buried.

V. That he was our facrifice to reconcile the Father to us, and that not only for original guilt, but for actual fins.

The first of these leads me to prosecute what was begun in the former Article: and to prove, that the Son, or Word, was from all eternity begotten of the fame fubftance with the Father. It is here to be noted, that Chrift is in two refpects the Son, and the only begotten Son of God. The one is, as he was man; the miraculous overfhadowing of the blessed Virgin by the Holy Ghoft, having, without the ordinary course of nature, formed the first beginnings of Chrift's human body in the womb of the Virgin. Thus that miracle being instead of a natural begetting, he may in that refpe& be called

ART.

II.

II.

ART. the begotten, and the only begotten Son of God. The other fenfe is, that the Word, or the divine Perfon, was in and of the fubftance of the Father, and fo was truly God. It is alfo to be confidered, that by the word one Subftance, is to be understood that this fecond Perfon is not a creature of a pure and excellent nature, like God, holy and perfect, as we are called to be; but is truly God as the Father is. Begetting is a term that naturally fignifies the relation between the Father and the Son; but what it ftrictly fignifies here is not poffible for us to understand till we comprehend this whole matter: nor can we be able to affign a reason why the emanation of the Son, and not that of the Holy Ghoft likewise, is called begetting. In this we use the Scripture terms, but muft confefs we cannot frame a diftinct apprehenfion of that which is fo far above us. This begetting was from all Eternity: if it had been in time, the Son and Holy Ghoft must have been creatures; but if they are truly God, they must be eternal, and not produced by having a being given them, but educed of a fubftance that was eternal, and from which they did eternally fpring. All these are the natural confequences of the main Article that is now to be proved; and when it is once proved clearly from Scripture, thefe do follow by a natural and neceflary deduction.

John i. 1, 2, 3.

The firft and great proof of this is taken from the words with which St. John begins his Gofpel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the fame was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Here it is to be obferved, that these words are fet down here, before St. John comes to speak of Chrift's being made in our nature: this paffage belongs to another precedent being that he had. The beginning alfo here is fet to import, that it was before creation or time: now a duration before time is eternal. So this beginning can be no other than that duration which was before all things that were made. It is alfo plainly faid over and over again, that all things were made by this Word. A power to create must be infinite; for it is certain, that a power which can give being is without bounds. And although the word make may feem capable of a larger fenfe, yet, as in other places of the New Teftament, the stricter word create is used and applied to Chrift, as the Maker of all things in heaven and earth, vifible and invifible; fo the word make is used through the whole Old Teftament for create; so that God's making the heaven and the earth is the character frequently given of him to diftinguifh him from idols and false Gods. And of this Word it is likewife faid, that he was with God, and was God. These words feem very plain, and the

place

AR T.

place where they are put by St. John, in the front of his Gospel, as it were an infcription upon it, or an introduction to it, makes it very evident, that he, who of all the writers of the New Teftament has the greatest plainnefs and fimplicity of ftyle, would not have put words here, fuch as were not to be understood in a plain and literal fignification, without any key to lead us to any other fenfe of them. This had been to lay a ftone of ftumbling in the very threshold; particularly to the Jews, who were apt to cavil at Christianity; and were particularly jealous of every thing that favoured of idolatry, or of the plurality of Gods. And upon this occafion I defire one thing to be obferved, with relation to all those fubtile expofitions which those who oppofe this doctrine put upon many of thofe places by which we prove it: that they represent the Apoftles as magnifying Chrift, in words that at first found seem to import his being the true God; and yet they hold that in all these they had another sense, and a reserve of fome other interpretation, of which their words were capable. But can this be thought fair dealing? Does it look like honeft men to write thus; not to fay, men inspired in what they preached and writ? and not rather like impoftors, to use so many fublime and lofty expreffions concerning Chrift as God, if all these must be taken down to fo low a fenfe, as to fignify only that he was miraculously formed, and endued with an extraordinary power of miracles, and an authority to deliver a new religion to the world; and that he was, in confideration of his exemplary death which he underwent fo patiently, raised up from the grave, and had divine honours conferred upon him. In fuch an hypothefis as this, the world going in fo naturally to the exceffive magnifying, and even the deifying of wonderful men, it had been neceflary to have prevented any fuch mistakes, and to have guarded against the belief of them; rather than to have used a continued ftrain of expreffions, that seem to carry men violently into them, and that can hardly, nay very hardly, be foftened by all the fkill of critics, to bear any other fenfe. It is to be confidered further, that when St. John writ his Gospel, there were three forts of men particularly to be confidered. The Jews, who could bear nothing that favoured of idolatry; fo no ftumbling-block was to be laid in their way, to give them deeper prejudices against Christianity. Next to thefe were the Gentiles; who having worshipped a variety of Gods, were not to be indulged in any thing that might feem to favour their polytheifm. In fact, we find particular caution ufed in the New Teftament, against the worshipping angels or faints. How can it therefore be imagined, that words would have been used, that in the plain fignification that did arife out of

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the

II.

II.

AR T. the first hearing of them, imported that a man was God, if this had not been strictly true? The Apoftles ought, and muft have used a particular care to have avoided all fuch expreffions, if they had not been literally true. The third fort of men in St. John's time were thofe of whom intimation is frequently given through all the Epiftles, who were then endeavouring to corrupt the purity of the Chriftian doctrine, and to accommodate it fo, both to the Jew, and to the Gentile, as to avoid the cross and perfecution upon the account of it. Churchhiftory, and the earlieft writers after St. John, affure us, that Ebion and Cerinthus denied the divinity of Christ, and afferted that he was a mere man. Controverfy naturally carries men to speak exactly; and among human writers those who let things fall more carelessly from their pens, when they apprehend no danger or difficulty, are more correct both in their thoughts and in their expreffions, when things are difputed; therefore if we should have no other regard to St. John, but as an ordinary, cautious and careful man, we must believe that he weighed all his words in that point, which was then the matter in question; and to clear which, we have good ground to believe, both from the teftimony of ancient writers, and from the method that he pursues quite through it all, that he writ his Gospel; and that therefore every part of it, but this beginning of it more fignally, was writ, and is to be understood in the fenfe which the words naturally import: that the Word which took flesh, and affumed the human nature, had a being before the worlds were made, and that this Word was God, and made the world.

Phil. ii. 6,

II.

Another eminent proof of this is in St. Paul's Epiftle to the 7, 8, 9, 10. Philippians; in which, when he is exhorting Chriftians to humility, he gives an argument for it from our Saviour's example. He begins with the dignity of his perfon, expreffed thus; that he was in the form of God, and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God: then his humiliation comes, that he made himself of no reputation, but took on him the form of a fervant (the fame word with that used in the former verfe): after which follows his exaltation, and a name or authority above every name or authority is faid to be given him; fo that all in heaven, earth, and under the earth (which feems to import angels, men, and devils) should bow at his name, and confefs that he is the Lord. Now in this progress that is made in these words, it is plain, that the dignity of Christ's perfon is reprefented as antecedent both to his humiliation and to his exaltation. It was that which put the value on his humiliation, as his humiliation was rewarded by his exaltation. This dignity is expreffed first, that he was in the form of God, before he humbled himself; he was certainly in the

II.

form of a fervant, that is, really a fervant, as other fervants AR T. are: he was obedient to his parents, he was under the authority both of the Romans, of Herod, and of the Sanhedrim: therefore fince his being really a fervant is expreffed by his being in the form of a fervant, his being in the form of God, muft alfo import, that he was truly God. But the following words, that he thought it not robbery to be equal, or be held equal (for fo the word may be rendered) with God, carry fuch a natural fignification of his being neither a made nor fubordinate God, and that his divinity is neither precarious, nor by conceffion, that fuller words cannot be devised for expreffing an entire equality. Thofe who deny this are aware of it, and therefore they have put another fenfe on the words, in the form of God. They think, that they fignify his appearing in the world, as one fent in the name of God, representing him, working miracles, and delivering a law in his name: and the words rendered, he thought it no robbery, they render, he did not catch at, or vehemently defire to be held in equal honour with God. And fome authorities are found in eloquent Greek authors, who use the words rendered, he thought it not robbery, in a figurative sense, for the earneftness of defire, or the pursuing after a thing greedily, as robbers do for their prey. This rendering reprefents St. Paul, as treating fo facred a point in the figures of a high and feldom used rhetoric, which one would think ought to have been expreffed more exactly. But if even this fenfe is allowed, it will make a ftrange period, and a very odd fort of an argument, to enforce humility upon us, becaufe Chrift, though working miracles, did not defire, or fnatch at divine adorations, in an equality with God. The fin of Lucifer, and the cause of his fall, is commonly believed to be his defire to be equal to God; and yet this feems to be fuch an extravagant piece of pride, that it is fcarce poffible to think, that even the fublimeft of created beings fhould be capable of it. To be next to God, feems to be the utmost height, to which even the diabolical pride could afpire: fo that here by the fenfe which the Socinians put on those words, they will import, that we are perfuaded to be humble from the example of Chrift, who did not affect an equality with God: the bare repeating of this seems so fully to expofe and overthrow it, that I think it is not neceffary to fay more upon this place.

All Acts xx.28. are, Joh. v. 20. 1 Joh.iii. 16. his t. i. 13.

The next head of proof is made up of more particulars. the names, the operations, and even the attributes of God, in full and plain words given to Chrift. He is called God; blood is faid to be the blood of God; God is faid to have laid Jam. ii. 1. down his life for us; Chrift is called the true God, the great Rev. xix. 16 God, the Lord of glory, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords;

and

Rev. i. 8.