Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

Of the 1\.,no'P?ledy, of Cjod the Father, ~ them, Ye are Gods; as <pJal. 82. 6. Your Mejfiah mufi be God of another fort BooK I!. and rank than they were of: and not only mcerly by Commt!lion, or,as to whom ~ the Word of God came, to make him God : but he mufl be truly; and by Na. ture and Eifence fuch. Were he to be God no othcrwife than they were, the Scripture had not been fulfilled. And this Argument is fo !ttong, as nothing can be fuppofed fironger to us Cbrif\ians : who know that all Types of Chnft, were mdecd but Shadows in all their Excellencies, attributed to them, of Chrift as the Stibftance: What is laid of Ceremonies, is true of Perfons that were Types of him; Col. 2. 18. which are a Shadow of things to come; but the Body, or Subf\ance fignified by that Shadow, is Chri!l:. Now then, if they were termed Gods, and Sons of the mo!l High, it mull: be under!tood that therein they were but Sha. dows and he rnufi have in his Perfon that which holds true of the Sub· flanc;, the Elfence, cir real Being thereof. And fo, according to Chrifi's way of Arguing, if they are Gods by Office, and Union ; he muR be God by [flence, and Nature: as that difiinl.iion of the Apofile, Gal. 4· 8. holds forth. And orherwife, he had himfelf been but a dark Shadow, an Of. ficiary God, as they:' no otherwife Son of the mofi High, than as they alfo wen·, Hcb. 10. I. The Apofile fpeaks thus of all Types, and Shadows, un– der the Old Teflament: The Law had but a Shadow of good Things to come, and not fa much as the Image of the Things themfelves. From all which I gather, that as in Nature, fo here, the Shadow is lower tl.an an Image, and both altcrius generis, from the Subfiance or Reality ; as in the cafe of .:.Melchifedcc is apparent; who in a meer Shadow is faid to have had no beginning, nor end of days; not that really he had not, but becaufe in a Shadowy Intent it is not mentioned in the Book of Scripture, he being as a Shadow conformed to the Son of God. Now in comparifon of Chrift, all other Eminencics in any Perfon, . though more real, are yet cf\eemecl.to be but Shaci.ows,in as true a manner as he ( Meldifedec) was. And fo, this greatefi Excellency of all Creatures, to be fliled Gods, mufi in compa– rifon of him, be content with a Shadowy Title; whereofhe bore the Subftance. He in the conclufion ofthis Argument, inf\ead offaying he was God, which yet his Argnment, and their Accufation did drive to, concludes, he was the Son of Cod, ver( ;6. Say ;e ofhim, tl'Oit blafjhemeji, beca~efe I faid 1 ant the Son ofGod? The B!afphemy in their Senfe was, verf 33· that he made himfelfGod, as an Infe– rence out ofthat Saying, I and my Father are one. He defends it, and takes it on him by this, that he had faid indeed, that he was the Son ofGod : (ofwhom ail thofc Cods, and Sons of the moll: High, the Tfolmifl fpeaks of, were but Sha· dows) and therefore truly God, as they intended it: 'Tis not comparatio jimi· /mm, 1!1 vohmt adverfam ; that ts, that I am God m the fame, and like manner that they are: but 'tis Comparatio minoris, & majoris, if they that are but Sha· dows are called Gods ; then, if that Scripture be not broken, I mufl be God fub· fhmially. So then, by Chrifi's manner ofconcluding, it was all oge for him to Gy he was God, and the Son ofGod; both in his Senfe, in theirs, and in the 'l'fab>:ijl's forefignifying of him. He again paraphrafeth, and explains all thefe by thts Phrafe, The Father is in me, and I in hi11t. So then, the Conclufion the Sum I draw out ofall, is; That for Ch6fi to be the Son of God, it is all on~ (as for bun) to be God fubflannally: and m that refpeCJ: one with God. And that being thus God, and one with God the Fat.her, is (in its difference from God) bell: thus cxpreffed ; that hts Father IS m htm, and he m hts Father: Neirhe 1• could Chrifl: himfe!f that experimented it, exprefs his being God, and Son of God, more.dearly unto us; than to fay, I am in my Father, who is God, and he as God, ·~m me, and fo both arc One; that ts, one 'God fubfiantialJy, or bJ N•ture, m dJfl:ml.i•on fi·om Gods by Office; though we are two in Perfon that fubfift in this Nature. Nor did ]olm knO\y bett~r how to exprefs it, in Chap. r. ~"f 1. both hts Onenefs with God, and Ins DJ1rml.i1on from God, than in fay· mg, that he was God, and was With God. God, not as thofe in tne Pfa111tijl, ro whom the Word of the Lord came, and were God's mecrly by Gods faying fo of them

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