in his own, but God's Name. Hence concerning the falfe Prophets, God fpeaks thus, I have not fent them, yet they run ; I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophefic, Jer. xxiii. 21. And again, chap. xiv. 14. Then the Lord faid unto me, The Prophets prophefie lies in my Name: I fent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither Spake I unto them, they prophefie unto you a falfe Vifion.

Hence our bleffed Lord having faid, My Doctrine is not mine, but his that fent me: He also adds, Joh. vii. 17. If any Man will do his Will, he shall know of the Doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of my felf: That is, whether I be a true, or a falfe Prophet. This being the established Notion of a Prophet; and our Saviour being that Prophet, which Mofes told them should come after him, and which was promifed to the Jews, he muft perform that Office, as other Prophets did, by fpeaking not in his own Name, but in the Name of him that fent him.

Accordingly, during his Prophetick Office here on Earth, he fays, that he spake not of himfelf, but as the Father that had fent him had given him a Commandment, fo he spake. Joh. xii. 49. And chap. xiv. 24. The Word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which fent me, And V. 31. As the Father gave me a Commandment, even fo I do.

And

And lastly, The Prophetical Revelations made to St. John, in the Apocalyps, are stiled the Revelations of Jefus Chrift, which God gave to him to fhew unto his Servants things which must shortly come to pass.

Now hence it follows, that the Accufations of the Jews, muft be falfe, malicious, and fcandalous Accufations, feeing he who came into the World, as a Prophet fent from God, one speaking not in his own, but in his Father's Name, and declaring that his Doctrine was not his, but his that fent him, could never fay at the fame time, that he was the very God that fent him, that he fpake not in his own, but in the Name of God, and delivered not his own Doctrine, but that of him that fent him. It being certain that the fupreme God could not be the Perfon fending, and yet the Perfon fent. He could not fpeak in the Name of another, nor fay his Doctrine was not his.

Hence it is remarkable, that in all those Places, in which the Jews accused him of Blafphemy, and making himself God, or equal with God, or afcribing to himself what properly belonged to the great God alone, he never directly answers, that he was God, or equal to him, (although if he were fent to preach that Doctrine to the World, it is reafonable to expect upon thefe Occafions, he would have done it,) but he ever speaks as one who waved that Affertion.

For

For when the Scribes enquire, Why doth this Man Speak Blafphemy? Who can forgive Sins but one, that is, God, Mark ii. 7? He doth not answer, as others do for him, that this proved him to be God: but only faith, The Son of Man hath Power upon Earth to forgive, (the temporal Punishment of) Sin. Afcribing to himself that Power, not as he was the Son of God, much less, as being God of the fame Effence with the Father: But only as he was the Son of Man. Again, from these Words, Joh. v. 17. My Father worketh hitherto, Works of providential Care, Goodness, and Mercy; and these charitable Actions, I work alfo. From thefe Words, I fay, of his calling God his Father in fo peculiar a manner (as he did, and had juft caufe to do, had he been only miraculously conceived in the Virgins Womb, and upon that account the Son of God, Luke i. 25. The Son of the most High, v. 32) they invidiously infer, v. 18. that he called God, Пarga dior, that is, his FaΠατέρα ther, in fuch a proper Senfe, as made him equal to God, as a Son is to his Father.

Now to this, Chrift doth not answer, as it might have been expected from one who was fent into the World to confirm that Doctrine, to wit, that he had reason thus to call God his Father, as being of the fame individual Effence with him: But his Anfwer contains many things wholly inconfiftent with that Doctrine.

For

For his Reply is, That he could do nothing of himself, v. 19, 20. That the Father judgeth no Man; but hath given all Judgment to the Son, v. 22; and that because he was the Son of Man, v. 27. That he fought not his own Will, but the Will of the Father that fent him, v. 30. That the Father which fent him, he was the Perfon that bore Witness of him, v. 37. And that he came not in his own, but in his Father's Name, v. 43. And lastly, the Works which his Father had given him (Power) to do, bore Witness of him, that the Father had fent him, v. 36. All which Sayings are plainly inconfiftent with an Identity of Effence, Will, and Actions, in God the Father, and the Son. In the 10th Chap. they accufe him of Blafphemy, not for faying, v. 30, I and my Father are one, but as Chrift himself declares, v. 36, Because he faid, I am the Son of God. And yet, he being accused of Blafphemy, because he being a Man made himself God, had reafon to reply, had it been true, that being of the fame Effence with the Father, by representing himself as God, he only told them the Truth, whereas he proves himself to be only the Son of God, first, because the Father had fanctified, (a) and fent him into the World; and yet it is abfurd to

fay,

(a) Dum ergo accipit Sanétificationem a Patre, minor Patre eft; minor autem patre confequenter eft, fed Filius: Pater enim fi fuiffet, Sanctificationem dediffet, non accepiffet. Navatianus de Trinitate, c. 22.

fay, he either fanctified, or sent into the World his own numerical Effence. And Secondly, because he did the Works of his Father, v. 37. to wit, by Virtue of that Power which the Father had given him, Joh. v. 36, And by the Spirit of his Father dwelling in him: For he did them by the Spirit of God, Matth. xii. 28. By the Finger of God, Luke xi. 20. By the Father in him, as he was in the Apostles, Joh. xiv. 20.

And who were in the Father, and Son, as the Father was in the Son, and the Son in the Father, Joh. xvii. 22, 23.

Farther, it is remarkable that the Scriptures both of the Old and New Teflament, feem plainly to speak of one who is called God, and Lord, in Scripture, and yet is inferior to, and derives his Power from another.

For to omit Gen. xix. 24, which by the Ante-Nicene Fathers is generally interpreted of God the Father and the Son, this feems expreffly to be contained in these Words, Pfal. xlv. 7, 8. Thy Seat, O God, endureth for ever, the Sceptre of thy Kingdom is a right Sceptre: Thou haft loved Righteousness, and hated Iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness above thy Fellows. Now that these Words are apply'd to Chrift we learn from St. Paul, faying, But to the Son he faith, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A Sceptre of Righteousness is the Sceptre of thy Kingdom, Heb. 1. 8. And Secondly, This God hath another

God