6.

Inspiration

ver. 4. you make the fame Word to be a Creature, and to have had no Life, till the Birth of Jefus. Nay you make it no more than the Doctrin of Chrift, which here (fays your Author) is call'd Light, as before it was call'd Life. So that here was no Life, but in a Metaphorical Senfe, as contributing to give Life to others, which a Dead thing may do, as the Book of the Scriptures when Read. But how do's the Word or Wifdom of God INSPIRE, if it have no Life in it? Or do's it borrow Life from muft come the Perfon whom it Infpires? As your Author feems to from a perfon. fay, That the Word had no Life, till it was made Flefb. For then he fuppofes, and confequently not till then, that Text verify'd, In Him was Life. But if Life was in Him before, then he was a Perfon before, and confequently from all Eternity, He being the Eternal Wisdom of God, as your Author has Afferted. And He having Life in Himfelf, might give Life, to Another, or lefpire Another. For a Quality do's not Infpire, but is that which is InSpired. But your Author fays, that He the Word was made. Flefb. This is fomething more than Infpiring.

7.

What the

Socinians

mean by In

SOC. We can use the Term of being made Flesh, and of In-carnation too, and yet mean no more by it than bare Infpiration. Thus our Hiftorian, p. 86. fays, The WORD became In-carnat, that is, Abode on the Perfon of cunation. Jefus Chrift. For God communicated to him an Effufion of his Power and Wisdom. And p. 87. in Answer to ver. 14. The Word was made Flesh, that is, fays my Author, did abide on and inhabit an Human Perfon, the Perfon of Fefus Chrift, and fo was, in Appearance, made Flesh or Man.

CHR. The Text fays, was made Flesh. That was only in Appearance, fay you. This is a pretty Latitude in Interpreting of Texts! And looks like a downright Denyal of the Text. For if it was only in Appearance, then it was not made Flesh. This is Adding to the Text, not Interpreting. And let me have the like Privilege of Adding only these two Words, in Appearance, to what

Text

Text I think fit, I wou'd fain know if you cou'd Prove any one thing upon me out of the whole Bible!

But where was the Appearance? If God Endows a Man with Extraordinary Gifts and Graces, and Power of Working Miracles, is this any Appearance of God's being Made Flef? Then ther was an Appearance of it in Mofes, and many of the Prophets, and Apostles. Chrift faid to them Joh. 14. 12. Verily, Verily I Jay unto you, He that believeth in Me, the works that I do, ball he do alfo, and Greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father. Was God therefor In-Carnat, or will He be In-Carnat in any who have, or may hereafter do thefe Greater Works? Or will ther be any Appearance of His being Made Flesh, in any of thefe His Saints? Where then was the Appearance of God's being made Flefb in Christ, because of the Mighty Works which He did? For that was all which cou'd Appear to our View. SOC. We have dwelt a long time upon this first of The other St. John. As if it were the Onely Text in all the BiTexts in H. ble you had to Depend upon. Scripture in

XIV.

quir'd inte.

CHR. You fhall fee the whole Current of the Holy Scriptures Run all in the fame Strain. But ther being feveral things Needful to be Known, in Order to the Explaining of feveral Texts. I have Chofe to fet them down in this Place, to Avoid Repitition. Therefor it will Shorten our Work in what Remains, And now I am Ready to Look over with you the Answers which your Hiftorian gives to the Texts of Scripture in the Order he has Rang'd them.

SOC. He begins upon this in his Second Letter, p. 42. And the firft Text he Names is Gen. 1. 26. Let us Make Man in our Image. Whence you draw Arguments from the Manner of the Phrafe of God being fpoken of

in the Plural Number.

(1) CHR. He fhou'd have begun at the first Vers. In the beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth.

Where

"Where the word Elohim, which we Tranflate God, is in the Plural Number, and Bara did Create is in the Singular Number, which Litterally Render'd is thus, Dii Creavit, that is, He, the Gods, did Create. And ther are three Perfons here vifibly spoke of, First he that fpoke, Let ther be Light, Let there be a Firmament. &c. Second, The Word fpoken by Him. Of which we have Difcours'd largely before. Third, The Spirit of God, which (Ver. 2.) is faid to have Moved upon the face of the Waters. And thefe Gods, are here faid to be the God that did Create. And we know how Exact the Hebrew is as to Every Letter of a Word, and the Import they draw from thence. As in that little Alteration which God Made in the Names of Abram and Sarai, into Abraham and Sarah. Gen. 17. 5. 15. Upon which God there laid Great Stress, and gave it as a Token of His Covenant then Made with them. I will not trouble you with the Niceties and Improvements which the Cabalifts, or Myftical Writers of the Jews, make upon Every Word and Letter, and Manner of Expreffion in the Sacred Text. Tho' it fhews their Meaning, and how they Understood things. But fince your Author has Slipt this Text, let us go on with him to that which you have Nam'd.

(2.) To that Text Gen. 1. 26. Let us make Man in our Image, he fays, p. 42. That the Us there fpoke of was God and Angels. That God spoke this to the Angels. That Man was Made in the Image of God and Angels. But that God Spoke to the Angels, not as Adjutants, but as Spectators of his work. He fays, fome Rabbies do thus Underftand it. He fays he has spoke to this Text in his first Letter.

CHR. I can find nothing of it there. So this was a Put off. But here he takes Part with the Jew's against Us. The Jews fince Christ, have Obfcur'd what they can the Doctrin of the Trinity, because it F

Leads

πρὸς ὃν καὶ επεν ἐν τη

Leads fo Directly to the Divinity of Chrift. But they
have not been Able to do it fo, as not to leave full
Proof of it out of their Writings, as I have fhew'd you.
And much more might be Produc'd to the fame Purpose.

However in Anfwer to the Socinians, and thefe fome Rabbies (your Author do's not Name nor Quote,) I fay, That this Answer is wholly Precarious. And they Produce No Authority whatever for it. Befides, it is not Certain that the Angels were then Created. St. Barnabas thinks that this Text was spoke before the Foundation of the World. Which I will fhew you Prefently. Befides that the Expreffion Let Us make, is not Applicable to bare Spectators, but to Fellow-workers. Come see me Work, wou'd be an Invitation to spectators. As Jehu faid to Jehonadab, 2. Kin. 10. 16. Come with me, and SEE my Zeal for the Lord.

SOC. My Author Quotes Job. 38. 4, 7. to Prove that the Angels were then Created. The 4th verfe is, where wast thou when I laid the Foundation of the Earth? Declare if thou hast Understanding. But I fee no Proof in this. Therefore it must be ver. 7. which is, The Morning Stars fang together, and all the Sons of God fhouted for Joy. By thefe Sons of God, I fuppofe he means the Angels. And because they Shouted.

CHR. That is a ftrange Proof, out of the fame Verfe where Stars are faid to Sing! This is fuch an Expreffion as Pfal. 98. 8. Let the Floods clap their hands, let the Hills be Joyful, &c. And Pfal. 65. 13. The Vallies are cover'd with Corn, they Shout for Joy, they alfo Sing. And by the like Figure, all the Host of Heaven might be call'd the Sons of God.

But to leave thefe Forc'd and Foreign Proofs. I will now, Mieq e na according to my Promife, give you fome of the Ante-Nicene TOO Fathers Interpretation of this Text.

τα βολής αιών

να, ποιήσου

μετέραν, καὶ

μεν άνθρωπον St Barnabas in his Catholick Epiftle, c. 5. p. 21. fpeakTEIXÓva ing of the Lord Chrift, fays, To whom God Jpoke in the nad suoiwory. Day before the Foundation of the World, Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness.

And

And again, c. 6. p. 31. For the Scripture faith of us, as He (the Father) said to the Son, Let us make Man after our Image.

aége gàs i r, ws γει τῷ υἱῷ ποιήσωμεν κατ' οικόνα, κα καθ' ὁμοιώσιν error”AVθρωπινο

Juftin Martyr in his Dial. with Trypho. p. 265. calls it a Herefy to fay that this was spoken to the Angels, or that the Body of Man was the workmanship of Angels. But he fays the Father here fpeaks to His Son, who came p from the Father before all Creatures. He confutes those Rabbis who, depraving the Scripture, fays he, pretend that God spoke to Himfelf when He faid Let us make Man, or to the Elements, or the Earth, or any the like. He fays that expreffion fhews ther was a number at least, tno that were together, and those he makes to be the Father, and the Son: And that without all doubt, fays be, the Father there fpeaks to one numerically Different from Himself, and to an Intelligent Perfon.

Homo fecundum fimilitudinem Dei formatus eft, et per manus ejus plasmatus eft, hoc eft, per Filium, et Spiritum, Quibus et dixit, Faciamus hominem. Iren. adverf. Hæref. Præfat. in lib. 4.

Ireneus fays, God spoke these words to the Son and the Holy Ghoft, and he calls them Metaphorically, the Hands of God by 'which he made Man. And he fays that the Son, who from the beginning made Adam, and with whom the Father spoke faying, Let us make Man, did Manifeft Himself to Men in the latter days.

Idem iple qui ab initio plafinavit Adam, cum quo et loquebatur Pater, Faciamus hominem fecundum Imaginem et fimilitudinem noftram, in noviffimis temporibus fe ipfum manifeftans hominibus.-15. 1. 5. c. 15.

Your Hiftorian fays, that our Image in the Text, is the Image of God and Angels. But Ireneus fays, the Angels did not make us, and that they cou'd not make the Image of God, nor any other but the Word of God (1. 4. c. 37) Tertullian (adverf. Praxeam. §. 11 12.) fays, that God, in this Text, did not speak to the Angels as the Jews interpret, who do not acknowledge the Son, but that he

His itaque paucis tamen manifefte diftin&io Trinitatis exponitur, Eft enim ipfe qui pronunciat, Spiritus, et Pater ad quem pronunciat, et Filius de quo pronunciat. Sic et cætera.quæ nunc ad Patrem de Filio, F 2

fpoke