it, or even to make it a Medium of paying their religious Homage and Worship to himfelf. The fecond Command is moft exprefs in this Matter; and this is in general esteemed by all Proteftant Writers to be the plain Sense of that Commandment: And one chief reafon of the Command is becaufe Mankind is fo prone by Nature to worship Images which they have made themfelves.

Prop. VI. God hinifelf has never fhewn or given us any exprefs Image of himself but one, and that is his own well-beloved Son Jefus Chrift. Heb. 1. 2. He is the Brightnefs of his Father's Glory, and the exprefs Image of his Perfon. He is the Image of God, 2 Cor. 4. 4. And in Col. 1. 15. He is the Image of the invisible God. Now this Expreflion feems to have a prime reference. to his Human Nature; or (as the Learned and Pious Dr. Goodwin afferts and proves) it must at least include his human Nature in it, because every thing that relates directly to the Divine Nature of Chrift is as invifible as God the Father, and therefore his Divine Nature confidered alone would never have been fo particularly defcribed as the Image of the Invifible God.

Prop. VII. The great God himself has required us to make this his Image the Medium of our Worship paid to him. Eph. 2. 18. By him we have access unto the Father. Col. 3. 17. Give thanks to God even the Father

by him. And he alfo requires Men and Angels to worship this his Image. John 5. 23. That all Men fhould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. Heb. 1. 6. Let all the Angels of God worship him. Thus far has the bleffed God indulged or incouraged that natural Inclination in Man to reverence the Image of that divine Being which he worships.

Prop. VIII. To this End it has pleased the great God in a special manner to affume into the nearest Union with himself this his own Son, and thereby to render him a more compleat Image of himself: Thus the Son, who is the express Image of the Father and the Brightness or Splendor of his Glory, is allo one with the Father, as Chrift expreffes it, John 14. 10. He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father: And the reafon he gives is this, I am in the Father, and the Father in me. John 10. 30. I and my Father are one, i. c. by this Union, as 'tis explain'd v. 38. And this is done not only to render him capable of his glorious Offices, but of divine Honours too; that Jefus Chrift might be worshipt, and yet that according to God's original Command, that which is not God might not be made the Object of our Worship.

Since there cannot be more Gods than one, and fince proper Deity could not be communicated to the Man Jefus, who is the Image of the Invifible God, to render him à partaker of our Worship any other way, therefore

proper

proper Deity is united to him, that he might be one with God. And thus as the Word who was God was made Flesh, John. 1. 1, 14. by his perfonal Union to Flesh, fo the Man Jefus may be faid to become God or to be God, by his perfonal Union to God.

Thus the human Nature of Chrift being a Creature moft like to God, and being inhabited alfo by Godhead, is the brighteft Image of the invifible God, and is one with God himself, and that as our Divines express it by a Perfonal Union: And thus he is taken into as much Participation of that Worship which Men pay to God, as a Creature is capable of receiving, and as the original Law of worship. ping none but God can admit. See Differtation III. from pag. 92. to the end.

Prop. IX. When the ancient Heathens worshipped the Images of their Gods, the beft way they could ever take to vindicate it was under this Notion, that they fuppofed their Gods to inhabit their own Images, and thus they worshipped the Image together with their God dwelling in the Image: But with far better Authority and with infinitely more Juftice and Truth may Chriftians worship the Son of God who is the only appointed Image of the only true God, fubfifting in a perfonal Union with the indwelling Godhead.

Prop. X. This may be illuftrated by a very lively Similitude. A vaft hollow Globe of Crystal, as large as the Sun, is in itself a fair

Image

Image or Resemblance of the Sun: But if we might fuppofe the Sun itself included in this Crystal Globe, it would thereby become a much brighter and nobler Image of the Sun, and it would be in a Senfe one with the Sun itself, or one complex Being. And thus the fame honourable Afcriptions which are given to the Sun because of his Light and Heat, might be given alfo to this Crystal Globe confidered as inhabited by the Sun itself, which could not be done without this Inhabitation.

Then whatsoever Honours were paid to this Globe of Crystal would redound to the Honour of the Sun, even as the Divine Honour and Adoration paid to our Bleffed Saviour arises from the perfonal Union of the human Nature with the divine, and finally redounds to the Glory of God. Phil. 2. 11.

Let it be observed here, that tho' I borrow an Emblem or a Refemblance of this Divine Doctrine from the World of Nature or from the Heathen Nations, yet the Doctrine it self is entirely derived from Scripture, and might eafily be confirmed by many more Citations out of the Sacred Writers.

AN

AN

ESSAY

On the

True IMPORTANCE of any HUMAN SCHEMES

To Explain the Sacred

Doctrine of the Trinity.

SHEWING,

I. THAT no fuch Scheme of EXPLICATION is neceffary to Salvation.

II. THAT it may yet be of great Use to the Chriftian Church.

III. BUT all fuch EXPLICATIONS ought to be proposed with Modefty to the World, and never impofed on the Conscience.