PREtACE. RVtt all religious invocation, which is the same in each per- son. Wherefore in our divine invocation, we may name and fix our thoughts distinctly on any person, according as our souls are affected with the distinct operations of each person in grace towards us. For what concerns in the third place, the ascription ofdivine honour in adoration and invocation unto the person of Christ; it is that which they principallÿ con- tended for, and argued from in all their writings against the Arians. Evidences of infinite wisdom in theconstitution of the person of Christ, and rational discoveries of the conde- cencies therein unto the exaltation of all the other glo- rious properties of the divine nature, are also treated of. Herein we consider the incarnation of the Son of God with respect unto the recovery and salvation of the church alone. Some have contended that he should have been incarnate, had man never fallen or sinned. Of them are Rupertus, lib. 3. degloria et honoue Filii hominis. a Of the honour and glory of the Son of se Man." Albertus Magnus, in distinct. 10. A. 4. Pe- trus Galatinus, lib. 3. cap. 4. as are Scotus, Halensis, and others, whom Osiander followed. The same is affirmed by Socinus concerning the birth of that man which alone he fancied him to be, as I have elsewhere declared. But I have disproved this figment at large. Many of the ancients have laboured in this argument, of the necessity of the incarnation of the eternal Word, and the condecencies unto divine wisdom therein. See Irenmus, lib. 3. cap. 20, 21. Eusebius. Demonst. E- vangel. lib. 4. cap. 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. Cyril, Alexand. lib. 5. cap. 7. lib. 1. de fide ad Regin. Chrysostom, Hotnil. 10. in Johan. et in cap. 8. ad Rom. Serm. 18. Augustin, de Trinit. lib. 13. cap. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Leo, Epist. 13, 18. Sermo. de Nativit. 1, 4, 10. Basil. in Psal. 48. Albinus, lib. 1. in Johan. cap. 11. Damascen. lib. 3. de fide, cap. 15, 19. Anselm. quod Deus homo, lib. duo. Guil. Parisiensis, lib. cur Deus homo. Some especial testimonies we may pro- duce in confirmationof what we have discoursed in the places directed unto. There is one of them, one of the most ancient, the most learned, andmost holy of them, who hath so fully delivered his thoughts concerning this mystery, as that I shall principally make use ofhis tes- timony herein. It belonged unto the wisdom and righteousness of God, that Satan should be conquered and subdued in and by the same nature which he had prevailed against by his suggestion and temptation. To this purpose that holywriter speaks, lib. 3. cap. 20. which because his words are cited by Theodoret, Dial. 2. I shalt transcribe them from thence, as free from the injuries of his barbarous translator; "asmas, ííe xa9wç orgo4a5,e ray SSv3gwmov , ®sÿr, eí yág phi áv 9gwaoç 'leístmv z1s eorirceXov ré á,t ,íse, oús üv Srsafwç ivax4,9n i i- 3 ie, avíanre, El Nil i Oedeibve- Hoare rnv em-s1mav, sine Se ße(3=4; eyoaev aúr*v, sal si ie>} ouvnvát n I 13garoç.rw .94; a"us áv ¡Sni79n peraeXle rie 49agelccç. "Eder yieg rdv ryertírvo rá a-sis es sal kvbgáaeav, 5,4 ,j5 Ws; agbç ixa- rga; oiso,íenroe sis praíav sal laissav rm 4a- srigaç Guvnyayerv. Words plainly divine, an illustrious testimony of the faith of the ancient church, and expressive of the prin- cipaI mystery of the gospel. '5 Wherefore, as we said " before, he united man unto God. For if man had " not overcome the adversary of men, the enemy had s not been justly conquered. And on the other hand, ,e if God had not given and granted salvation, wecould ie never have a firm undefeasiblepossession of it. And if man had not been united unto God, lie could not ,o have been partaker of immortality. It behoved there- "fore the Mediator between God and man, byhis own " participation of the nature of each of them, to bring w them both into friendship and agreement with each as other." And to the same purpose speaking of the wisdomof God in our redemption by Christ, with res- pect unto the conquest of thedevil, lib. 5. cap. 1. Potens in omnibusDei Verbum, et nondeficiens in sua justitia, jade etiam adversus ipsam converses est apostasiaen, ea puce sent sea redimens, ab eo, noncum vi, guemadmodunr ifle initio dominabitur nostri, ea puce non Brant sua in- satiabiliter rapiensSno igitur sanguine- r-edimeate nos Domino, et dante animasawnpro anima nostra, etcar- seen swam pro carnibus nostris, &c. Again divinely; " The all-powerful Word of God, no way defective in " righteousness, set himself against the apostacyjustly ec also; redeeming from him (Satan the head of the "eapostacy) the things which were his own; not with u force, as he bare rule over us, insatiably making re- "pine of what was not his own; But he the Lord re- " deeming us with his own blood, giving his soul for aour souls, and his flesh for ours, wrought out our " deliverance." These things are at large insisted on in the ensuing discourse. d
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