A Godly and Learned Treatise of Prayer, Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII. That we must conceive of God in prayer as he hath revealed himself in his word.
SEeing then the Lord alone is to be called upon religiously, it remaineth that we consider how we are to conceive of God when we do call upon him; viz. not according to the fansies of our own brain, but as he hath revealed himself in his word; both in respect of the Divine nature and also the Divine persons. In respect of his nature, that he is a spirit invisible and incomprehensible, omnipotent and infinite, most holy, wise, just and mercifull, &c. And in regard of the Divine persons, that being a God in essence & substance one and indivisible, he is notwithstanding distinguished into three persons, the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, who as they be not in nature disjoyned, so are they not to be severed in their worship, but the Unitie in Trinitie and Trinitie in Unitie is to be worshipped and adored.
Whosoever therefore in respect of Gods natureRom. 1. 23. Psal. 106. 20. do circumscribe God, worshipping him under any form, whether outwardly expressed or inwardly conceived, as namely in the form of an old man, &c. in stead of the true God they do worship an idole. Such was the erroneous conceit of the Anthropomorphites, and such is the superstitious worship of the Papists at this day. Likewise in respect of the persons, whosoever shall call upon God as not distinguished into three persons, howsoever they may professe that they invocate one onelyonly true God maker of heaven and earth, yet they do not worship the true God but an idole: for the true God is the Father, the Sonne, and holy Ghost. Forasmuch therefore as the Jews and Turks do not worship the Trinity, they are not worshippers of the true God; but as our Saviour said of the Samaritanes, They worship they know not what, John 4. not acknowledging the true God, nor Jesus Christ whom he hath sent: John 5. 23. He that honoureth not the Sonne honoureth not the Father, and, Whosoever denieth the Sonne hath not the Father, 1. John 2. 23.
Here therefore it may be demanded, That seeing we are to worship the holy Trinitie, whether it beWhether it be lawfull to direct our prayers unto any one person in the Trinitie. lawfull to direct our prayers to some one person, as to the Father, to the Sonne, or to the holy Ghost.
He that acknowledgeth the Trinitie, when in his prayers he nameth one onelyonly person, he doth not exclude the other persons but rather includeth thē. For in every person or supposite that is named the Divine nature is presupposed: so that when the Father is nominated, Christ and so the holy Ghost is the same God which is invocated; and therefore as there is one essence of all the persons so one worship.
Furthermore, concerning our Saviour Christ it may also be demanded, That seeing God is the onelyonlyWhether Christ as Mediatour is to be invocated. object of religious invocation, whether he being the mediatour between God and man is to be invocated: and if he be, how and in what respect we are to call upon him.
That he is to be called upon as our Lord and Saviour, in whose name we are baptized, in whom we believe and trust, there is no doubt: All men must honour him as they honour the Father, John 5. 23. and, All the angels must adore him, Heb. 1. 6. and, to his name must every knee bow, Phil. 2. 10. Examples: Stephen, Acts 7. 59. Thomas, John 20. 28. the Apostles, Luke 24. 52.
But all the question is, Whether we are to callThat we must worship Christ in his whole person, and not in his manhood alone. upon Christ as God alone, or as man alone, or as both God and man. Since our Saviour Christ was incarnate and did personally and inseparably unite unto himself the humane nature, his whole person as he is foreign or Immanuel, God manifested in the flesh, is to be worshipped by one and the same act of invocation and worship, without separation or division. The Papists have found out a peculiar worship for the humanitie of Christ, and for the blessed Virgin, which they call foreign. But the humanitie of Christ, as it doth not subsist of it self, so are we not severally to worship it with Nestorius, but the whole person both God and man: But yet so as that our prayer be not directed to the humanity, which is a creature, but to the Sonne of God having assumed and united unto himself the humane nature. So saith Cyrill, Non igitur tanquam hominem Ad Theodos. De rect. fide.adoramus Emmanuelem: Absit. Deliramentum enim hoc esset, & deceptio ac error. In hoc enim nihil differremus ab his qui creaturam colunt ultra Conditorem & Factorem: that is, We do not therefore worship our Emmanuél as man alone: God forbid. For this were a dotage, a false conceit and errour: neither should we in this differ from those which worship the creature more then their Creatour and Maker.
To conclude this second point. Whereas the whole world almost is overflown with idolatry, as with an universall deluge, the Paganes invocating a multitude of false gods; the Jews and Turks worshipping one God, but not in the Trinitie of persons, nor acknowledging Jesus Christ; the Papists (which call themselves the Catholick Church) invocating besides the true God a multitude of angels and Saints, images, the crosse and Eucharist, and in their prayers representing the invisible and incomprehensible God in a visible form: notwithstanding God in his great mercy hath taken us who professe the reformed religion into the ark of his Church, teaching us by his word and spirit to call upon him the true God in the name of Christ his Sonne, himself also being near unto us, as he was to the Church of Israel, in all that we call upon him for, Deut. 4. 7.