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That which has had no small hand in bringing the doc trines of grace into contempt in the world, as tending to licentiousness, is partly because they have not been rightly understood, and partly through the wicked lives of graceless hypocrites, who have made a high profession. What remains now, therefore, but that the people of God, by holy and exemplary lives, should convince the world that these are doctrines according to godliness?

I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service; for you are not your own, but bought with a price; and that not of silver and gold, but of the precious blood of the Son of God; and therefore live no more to yourselves, but to him that died for you. And be ye followers of God as dear children. Blessed be God for the unspeakable gift of his Son. AMEN.

A TREATISE

ON

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

PHILIPPIANS ii. 6, 7.

Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

HOWEVER clearly any may imagine, the chief principles of natural Religion may be found out by the mere light of nature, yet all are agreed, that matters of pure revelation are to be learned only from the holy Scriptures: and our sentiments, as to such points, are to be formed entirely from these sacred writings. Nor is it doubted, but that we may safely believe what we find there plainly revealed, although the things are not fully understood. There are many things we know to be true, from experience and reason, in the natural and moral world, the manner of which we can by no means understand. The husbandman knows his grass and corn grow; the philosopher knows his soul and body are united; the divine knows that God has existed from eternity; but these things, and a thousand more, as to the manner of them, are beyond their comprehension: yet their certainty is not for this reason at all called in question. So if some things, plainly revealed in the Bible, are as to the manner of them beyond our reach, it can be no objection against their truth. If we connot conceive, for instance, what there is in the divine essence, which may lay a just foundation for one true God, (and we know there is but one,) to speak and act as though he existed in three distinct persons; yet if we find this to be in fact the case from consulting God's holy word, we may as firmly believe it, as though we could fully understand it. And if we

cannot conceive how the divine nature and the human should be united so as to constitute but one person; yet if we find, that, in fact, this is the case, there is an end to all doubt. For what God says may be as firmly believed, as what our eyes see. Nor is there any more reason to doubt his word, for want of a full understanding of the thing, than to doubt our eye-sight on the same account. Let us now, then, quite willing to form our sentiments from the holy scriptures, apply to these sacred writings, and inquire into the true character of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And perhaps, the words of our text may serve as a clue, to lead us into the true sense of what we find written, in the Old and New Testaments on this important subject.

"WHO being in the form of God." But when? plainly, before he took upon him the form of a servant : before he appeared in the likeness of man: i. e. before his incarnation. But where had St. Paul any accounts of Jesus Christ before his appearance in flesh? did he exist, did he indeed exist, antecedent to his incarnation? Yes, says our blessed Saviour, "before Abraham was I am." John viii. 58. In the writings of the Old Testament, no doubt, were the accounts referred to by the Apostle : for "they were they which testified of him," as our Saviour observed to the angry Jews in John v. who were enraged at his pretending to "be equal with God.” Ver. 18. "Search the Scriptures, " (said he,) to them I appeal to decide my true character, for "they are they which testify of me." Ver. 39. In those sacred writings it was that he appeared in "the form of God:" and spake and acted as thinking it no robbery to be equal with God." All which divine glory and splendour he laid aside, at the time of his incarnation; and instead of it, took on him "the form of a servant," and appeared in "the likeness of men." Wherefore let us take a veiw of our blessed Saviour, as appearing, speaking, and acting in this two-fold capacity. (1.) "In the form of God." (2.) "In the form of a servant, and in the likeness of men :" That from the whole we may learn his true character.

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I. Let us view our blessed Saviour, when he appeared in the "form of God," and spake and acted, as thinking it no robbery to be equal with God."

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And the first time he is brought into view, in the sacred writings, is in the first chapter of Genesis, as the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1. For we are assured by one divinely inspired, that this God was the God who was "manifest in the flesh," even the very same being who " was made flesh and dwelt among us." For thus it is written, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the WORD WAS GOD, the same was in the beginning with God: ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM, and without him was not any thing made that was made." John i. 1-3. For he created not only this earth, and this solar system; but by him were even "all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, ALL THINGS were created by him." Col. i. 16. So that here he stands forth as the " CREATOR OF THE WHOLE And" his ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD are clearly to be seen by the things which he has made." (Rom. i. 20.) He is the CREATOR; and an higher charac ter than this the MOST HIGH GOD never assumes to himself in the sacred writings. For this is the style of supreme DEITY. "Thus saith the Lord, that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it: I am the LORD, and there is none else."

UNIVERSE.

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worship the supreme God

Isai. xlv. 18.

Isai. xlv. 18. And in heaven they
under this character.
"Thou art

worthy, O Lord, to receive Glory, and Honour, and Power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created." Rev. iv. 11*.

* That Christ was not a mere instrument which God used in the work of creation, as the Arians pretend, is plain from this, that the Scriptures not only teach, that Christ was the very supreme God himself that created all things; (Psal. cii. 25. Heb. i. 10.) but also that no instrument was used in that work. İt was wrought immediately by God himself. As it is written, God himself formed the earth and made it." (Isai. xlv. 18. This, all grant, was the supreme God: And this God was Jesus Christ, as will soon appear.) "He alone spread out the heavens." (Job ix. 8.) Not by an instrument, but by himself alone, (Isai. xliv. 24.) with his own hands. (Isai. xlv. 12.) The scripture expressions the Arians urge to the contrary, shall be explained presently,

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And, as Jesus Christ appears " in the form of God" in the first chapter of Genesis, calling universal nature out of nothing into existence; so likewise does he appear, and act, and speak, as thinking it "no robbery to be equal with God," in all the grand dispensations of divine providence, from the calling of Abraham, and forward, through all the Jewish dispensation.

Turn to the third chapter of Exodus, at the beginning, and there you may see," the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush", and God called unto him out of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Now who was this God that thus spake to Moses? It was plainly the God who had appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and to whom they had built altars, and whom they had worshipped. To Jacob, in particular, as he was going to Padan-Aram, Gen. xxviii. 12, 13. "He dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and the angels of God [these were created angels] ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD [this was the supreme God] stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, "&c. And “Jacob called the name of that place Bethel," i. e. the House of God, ver. 19. "And he anointed a pillar, and vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, &c. then shall the Lord be my God," ver. 20-22. And when he was at Padan-Aram the same God appeared to him

* "Not a created angel, but the angel of the covenant Christ Jesus, who then, and ever was, God, and was to be Man, and to be sent into the world in our flesh, as a Messenger from God. And these temporary apparitions of his were presages or fore-runners of his more solemn mission and coming, and therefore he is fitly called an angel. That this angel was no creature, plainly appears by the whole context, and especially by his saying, I am the Lord, &c. The angele never speak that language in scripture: but, I am sent from God, and I am thy fellow-serwant, &c. And it is a vain pretence, to say, that the angel as God's ambassador speaks in God's name and person. For what ambassader of any king in the world did ever speak thus, I am the King, &c. Ministers are God's ambassadors; but if any of them should say, I am the Lord, they would be guilty of blasphemy; and so would any created angel too, for the same reason."-Pootin

Loc.

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