Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.6

PROPOSITION XI. 158 And wheresoever any such expression is found in scripture, at- tributing the only true godhead to one of these, it is not to be supposed that it .excludes the other two from communion in the only true godhead ; but rather to shew that there is no other true godhead, but what belongs to these. In this sense we must understand the following texts, where the oneGod is men- tioned, if we would interpret them in a consistency with those numerous scriptures before cited, where the one true godhead is attributed to the Son and holy Spirit. Mat. xix. 17. "Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that is, God." Mark xii. 32. " There is one God, and there is none other but ite ;" and many other places. There are some texts wherein the Father is represented as the only true God. John xvii. 3. " That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Rom. xvi. 7. C° To God only wise, or, to the only wise God be glory, through Jesus Christ for ever." 1 Cor. viii. 8. " To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him." Eph. iv. 4, 5, 8. " There is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all, who is above all." There are also some texts, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ may seem to be represented as theonly true God. Is. xlv. 21, 22. "There is noGod else besides me, a just God, and a Saviour, there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth : for I amGod, and there is none else." Jude ver,25. " To theonly wiseGod our Saviour beglory and majesty." And some learned writers suppose, that whole title in the fourth verse of his epistle .belongs to Christ, where men are said to deny the only LordGod, and our Lord Jesus Christ ; and they translate it thus agreeably enough to thegreek, " and ourMaster, GodLord andJesus Christ." Toe toyer LirohroTvr, ©ton ses xvpmv nixes 'Incnù Roger's.. Especially when St. Peter's second epistle, ofwhich St. Jude's epistle is but a sort of epitome, applies the same word ercarorns toChrist ; 2 Pet. ii. 1. Now in any of these scriptures, we are not to imagine that either the Father or theSon are ex- cluded, or shut out from true godhead ; but that in some of them the only truegodhead is represented in theperson ofthe Father ; in the others, the same godhead is represented in the personof the Son, for this only true goodhead subsists and acts in three different persons ; as we shall see in the following propositions.$ * Hers it may not be amiss to mention that which some divines have laid a great stress upon, to prove the doctrine of the Trinity, viz. That God the Father, when he was about to create man, speaks thus ; Gen. i. 26. " Let us make man Su our image, after our likeness ; consulting, as it were, with the Son and Spirit. This seems very probable : And perhaps it may be upon this account, that the hebrew word is used in the plural number in the following texts : Ec. xii. 1. " Remember thy Creators in the days of thy youth." Ps. cxlix. 2. ' Let Israel rejoice in his Makers." Job xxxv. 10. " None saith, where is God my Makers ?" Is. Iív. 5. " Thy Makers is thy husbands." Though other critics conceive

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