DISSERTATION III. 269 being inferior to the true God. ; and by supposing the first com- mandment to be so far repealed under the NewTestament, as to admit of another object of worship, that is, another god besides the supreme God, the God of Israel. But this seems to be cut- ting the knot instead of untying it, and breaking through the great doctrines of the deity of Christ, and the perpetuity of the first command. Oti the other hand, the man Jesus is excluded from all share whatsoever in religious, honour or worship by some fewTrinitarian writers and they determine those texts, wherein Christ is represented as exalted by the Father to this honour, to belong only to his divine nature considered as clothed with Yes' and blood, and they explain them these two ways : I. By supposing the divine nature in the person of Christ to he economically, though not reallyinferior to the divine nature in the person of the Father, for he sustained the character of God's servant, angel, messenger, &c. and that God the Father has given the divine nature of Christ an economical exaltation, or right to religious worship, both as dwelling in flesh, and as now publicly vested with regal authority, though it had really this pght to divine worship before. II. Since the deity of the Messiah was not distinctlyknown to former ages, they suppose that after the sufferings and death Qf Christ, the Father has more clearly published his deity to the world, and has declared him to be one God with himself, and the proper object of worship. Thus God the Father's publica- tion of the deity of Christ, as adorable, and of its peculiar ad- ditional claim to our worship, since the sufferings of his human nature, is called, the exaltation of him to this worship on the account of those sufferings ; as there are other things also said to be done in scripture language when they are only manifested. These are the justest and fairest representations which I know of the common solution of this difficulty; andso far as the exaltation of Christ in those texts can relate to his divine na- ture, I concur with these sentiments. And indeed I should have acquiesced herein entirely, and sought no farther, if I had not found some expressions of scripture which seem to carry with them in their plain literal sense, an exaltation of the man Jesus to some peculiar religious honours. This inclined me to attempt a solution of this difficulty in a little different manner. Nor am I alone herein, for there are several great divines in this same sentiment, viz. That the human nature of Christ is a proper part of the person of the Mediator, and as such is joined with the divine nature in the religious worship and honours ,which are paid to Christ as god-man ; So Dr. Owen, Turrettine, &c. as I have cited them under. Proposition VIII. But if it be found plainly inconsistent either with the deity of Christ, or with the first commandment, II still think it better to relinquish this at-
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