could not have affumed thofe very Titles by which God the Father was always known to the Church, and by which they worship'd him as the God and Father of all. If the Deity of Chrift were another diftinct Effence or Spirit, his affuming thofe Names whereby God the Father only was known to the Ifraelites, would lead them into Mistake and Confufion.

I know it may be objected here, that Chrift's affuming the Names and Titles of God the Father would lead them into as much Confufion and Mistake by leading them to believe that Chrift was God the Father; and it may be urged yet further, that these Titles thus affumed, would prove that Chrift was God, no more than that it does prove that Chrift was the Father.

Anfw. If Chrift has the fame Godhead as the Father, and if in these ancient Appearances Christ came in the Name of the Father, as his Reprefentative, there is no great Inconvenience nor Confufion if he were taken for God the Father, fpeaking and acting in and by the Angel of the Covenant, or Jefus Chrift in his preexiftent State: But there would be great Confufion and Inconvenience in Chrift's affuming thefe divine Names, if he had not Godhead belonging to him, for then we should take a Creature for God.

3. Several Scriptures of the Old Teftament, which are cited by the Writers of the New Teftament and apply'd to Chrift, do most evidently

evidently refer to the Great One God, the God of Ifrael, the Almighty, the Jehovah in the Old Teftament, whom all that read the Old Teftament before the Days of Christ must fuppofe to mean God the Father of all, fuch as Pfal. 68. 18. Thou haft afcended on high. Cited Ephef. 4. and Pfal. 97. Worship him all ye Gods. Cited Heb. 1. 16. and Pfal. 102. 24, 25. O my God, of old thou haft laid the Foundations of the Earth. Cited Heb. 1. 10. and Isa. 40. 3, 4, 5. Prepare ye the Way of the Lord. Cited Matth. 3. 3. and Joel. 2. 32. Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord fhall be delivered. Cited Heb. 12. 26. and Ifa. 8. 13, 14. Sanctify the Lord of Hofts, and he fhall be for a Stone of ftumbling. Cited 1 Pet. 2. 6, 8. and fe

veral other Places.

Now we cannot suppose, that all the holy Men before Chrift were utterly mistaken in their Application of thefe Texts to God the Father, fince there is a plain and proper Senfe wherein this Application is truc. And yet thefe Texts are properly applied to Chrift, if we fuppofe the Godhead of the Father and of Chrift to be the fame, and that the Man Chrift Jefus was the Shekinah or Habitation of the great God intimately and perfonally united to him, and fo made one Perfon with him, but ftill under the Character of Filiation or Mediation. And in this Senfe Chrift was Emmanuel, or God with us, Matth. 1. 23.

Befides, let it be further confidered, that the Design of the Apostles in the Citation of thefe Texts, and the Application of them to Chrift, was to prove the Glory, Dignity and divine Grandeur of the complex Perfon of Chrift: But this Citation of thefe Texts, and the Application of them to Chrift, will fcarce prove the Godhead of Chrift, unless he has the fame Godhead with that of the Father: nor indeed will they prove the Dignity or Glory of the Perfon of Christ any other way, but as they fhew that what was fpoken of old concerning the Godhead of the Father must neceffarily belong also to Chrift.

If Christ confidered as God were another diftinct Spirit from the Godhead of the Father, I think thefe Citations of the Apoftle out, of the Prophets would hardly prove his Godhead; nor do I fee how they could prove the Grandeur and Dignity of his Perfon, unless it were granted that the Godhead of the Father was his Godhead, that Chrift and the Father are one in this respect.

4. When Chrift exprefies his own Godhead in the New Teftament, 'tis by declaring his Oneness with the Father, that is, the Union of the Man Chrift Jefus with the same Godhead that is in the Father. I and the Fa

ther are one. He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in me. The Father in me doth the Works, And it must be obferved that there

there is not any Place in the New Testament where the miraculous Works of Christ are a-* fcribed to any diftinét Godhead of his own, different from the Godhead of the Father, or the Godhead of the Spirit of God that dwelt in him: And 'tis not reasonable to fuppofe that Chrift would have always used thefe Modes of speaking, and attributed his own Works to the Father and his Spirit, if he himself had another Godhead or Divine Nature different from that of the Father and the Spirit: For why fhould, his miraculous" Works be attributed to the Aids of another infinite Spirit which was not united to the Man Jefus, and never be afcribed at all to that distinct Spirit which is fuppofed to be united to him? I am fure this fort of Representations lead our Thoughts away from fuppofing Christ to have any Godhead at all, if it be not the fame as the Father's.

5. If the Godhead of Chrift be another diftinct fpiritual Being different from the Godhead of the Father, I do not fee any fair and reasonable manner, how the Trinitarians can folve the Difficulties which arife from thofe Scriptures, where God the Father is reprefented as the only true God, and under that Idea diftinguished from Jefus Chrift; as John 17.3. To know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou hast fent. 1 Cor. 8. 6. To us there is but one God, the Father, of. whom are all things; and one Lord Jefus Chrift,

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Chrift, by whom are all things. Ephef. 4. 5, 6. · There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptifm, one God and Father of all. Now we can fcarce fuppofe the highest Nature of Jefus Chrift to be another infinite Spirit diftinct from God the Father, without excluding it from Godhead by these express Scriptures: but they may cafily be explained to admit Chrift's Godhead, if we fuppofe Chrift to be fpoken of in thefe Places chiefly in his inferior Characters as Man and Mediator; and yet he may be united to, and inhabited by the one true and eternal God, who is at other times called the Father, as being vefted with different relative Properties, and first in the great Oeconomy, as I have fufficiently fhewn in other Papers.

I add also, thofe Texts in the Prophets, where it is faid, I am God, and there is none else, there is none befide me, I know not any, Ifai. 44. 6, 8. and 45. 21, 22. give a further Confirmation to this Sentiment. For,

Whether we fuppofe the Father or the Son to be the Speaker here, 'tis ftill with an Exclufion of any other Being, any other Spirit from the Claim of Godhead befides the one infinite Spirit, the one true and eternal God, the God of Ifrael; and if our Saviour Jefus Chrift be not that one true eternal God, that one and the fame infinite Spirit with the Father, thefe exclufive Sentences would hardly admit Chrift and the Father too, to be the one true eternal God.

It