224 ME ASIAN INVITEh 70 bttlfODOx PAITI!. Christ; and exeéuting all his three offices of a Prophet, Priest, and -King, in and by the human 'nature.. L A Prophet ; John xiv. 10. The words I speak to you I Speak not of myse f, but the Father that dre elleth in me, he cloth the work3 ; that is, it is the same God, who is sometimes called Father; that speaks in me, and confirms the words by miracu- lous works.--.2. A Priest 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Christ re- conciling the world to himself that is, God in the person of Christ was the reconciler of the world te, himself in 'the person of the Father.---3. AKing, or Lawgiver ; 1 Thess. v. 18.= In every thin give thanks, for this is the will, or command. of God in Christ concerning you. God in Christ is our com- mander. Thus it is the same God, Who at other times sustains the 'person of the Father, dwelling personally in the man Jesus his Sun, whoassists him in all the works of mediation, so far that it may be said God performs them ; and thus God laid down his 1 fi fbr us; I John iii. 16. and Gè4 redeemed the church with his own blood ; Acts xx. 28. -It is that. God who was manifest in- the ,flesh; 1 Tim. iii. 16. Thus you see, how far we may go toward-the solutionof this difficulty, before we come to distinguish three persons in thé '.very essence of God. And I cannot avoid remarking, that all .these thoughts put together do naturally lead one rather to in- dine to this opinion, that the godhead of the Father and of the -Son, are numerically one and thesame godhead, however inter- -tally and externally distinguished by personal subsistences and relative properties. And this is the constant idea that our protestant divines abroad and at home have given us of the deity of Christ, viz. as the saine numerical godhead which is in the Father. II. But, perhaps, this will not be thought,sufficient entirely to answer and remove the difficulty : I add therefore, that if we suppose there may be some such, or greater distinctions in-the divine nature itself, or in God the infiniteSpirit, as are between the understanding and will in the soul of man, which is a finite. spirit, I have shewn very particularly in another discourse, how one of these divine powers, or differences in the divine na- ture, may be united to man in such a sense as the other cannot -so properly be said to be united to him ; and for this I must de- sire the reader's patience, till I see whether the world will encou- rage further publications on thissubject. CONCLUSION. Lest I should be exposed to the censure of my zealous friends, for not speaking so largely, fully aud,particularly, in this dissertation, concerning the three sacred persons in the
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