The Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated and Socinianism Examined, Commentary on text · Chapter 19

The Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated and Socinianism Examined · Commentary on text · Chapter 19

p. 397CHAP. XIX.

Of the Kingly Office of Jesus Christ, and of the Worship that is ascribed, and due to him.

OF the Nature of the Kingly Office of Jesus Christ, his Investiture §. 1.with it, his Administration of it, with the efficacy of that Power which therein he puts forth, both towards his Elect, and others, M. B. doth not administer any occasion to discourse. It is acknowledged by him, that he was, (or at least is) a King, by the designation and Appointment of the Father, to whom, as he was Mediator, he was subject: that he abides in his Rule and Dominion as such, and shall do so to the end of the World, and I shall not make any farther enquiry, as to these things, unlesse farther occasion be administred▪ Upon the account of this Authority, they say, he is God. Now whereas it is certain, that this Authority of his shall cease at the end of the World, 1 Cor. 15. 28. it seems, that he shall then also cease to be God: such a God as they now allow him to be.

By some passages in his Second and Third Questions, he seems§. 2. p. 398to intimate, that Christ was not invested in his Kingdome before his Ascension into Heaven. So Quest. the Second. Is §. 2.Christ already invested in his Kingdome, and did he after his ascension, and sitting at the right hand of God, exercise Dominion, and Soveraignty …ver men and Angells? And Quest. third. For what cause, and to what end was Jesus Christ exalted to his Kingdome? To which he Answers from Phil▪ 2. 8, 9, 10. In both places intimating, that Christ was not invested with his Kingly power, untill after his Exaltation. (As for the en…s of his Exaltation, these being some mentioned, though not all, no… the chiefe, I shall not farther insist on them.) But that this, a… it is contrary to the Testimony, that himselfe gave of his being a King, in a Kingdome, which was not of this World, it being a great part of that Office, whereunto he was of his Father a…oynted; so it is altogether inconsistent with M. B's principles, who maintaines, that he was worshiped with Religious worship and Honour, whilest he was upon the Earth; which Honour and Worship (saies he) is due to him, and to be performed meerly upon the account of that Power and Authority, which is given him of God, as also say all his companions: and certainly his Power and Authority belong to him as King. The making of him a King, and the making of him a God, is with them all one. But that he was a God, whilest he was upon the Earth, they acknowledge from the words of Thomas to him, my Lord and my God.

And the Title of the twelfth chapter of Smalcius his Book, De §. 3.ve…a Jesu Christi Divinitate, is, De nomine Dei, quod Jesus Christus in terris m…rtalis degens habuit aaDivinitas autem Iesu Christi qualis sit, discimus ex sacris literis, nempe talis, quae propter munus ipsius divinum tota ei tribuitur. Smal▪ de Divin. les. Ch. Cap. 12.. Which in the Chapter it selfe he seeks to make good by sundry instances: and in the issue labours to prove, that the sole cause of the Attribution of that name to him, is from his Office; but what Office indeed he expreseth not. The name of God they say is a name of Office and Authority: The Authority of Christ on which account he is to be worshipped, is, that which he hath as King. And yet the same Author bbNec enim prius D. Iesus Rec re…ps… fa…tas est, qu… cum consedit ad dextram Dei Patris, & regnare reipsa in cael…, & in terra caepit. idem cap: 13. Sec. 3. c Dominus & Deus proculdu…io … Th…ma appella…ur, quia sit talis Dominus, qui divino modo in homines imperium habeat, & divino etiam illud modo exercere possit, & exerceat. idem cap. 24. de fid. in Christum. &c.afterward contends, that Christ was not a King untill after his Resurrection and Ascension. For my part I am not solicitous p. 399about reconciling him to himselfe; let them that are so, take paines if they please therein. Some paines I conceive it may cost them; considering, that ihe afterwards affirmes expresly, that he was called Lord and God of Thomas, because of his Divine Rule, or Kingdome; which, as I remember, was before his Ascension.

As for his Exaltation at his Ascension, it was not by any§. 4. investiture in any new Office, but by an Admission to the Execution of that part of his work of Mediatorship which did remaine, in a full and glorious manner; the whole concernment of his humiliation being past; In the mean time doubtlesse he1 Cor. 2. 8.1 Cor 2:8 was a King, when the Lord of Glory was crucifyed.

But that which remaines of this Chap. is more fully to be§. 5. considered.

Question 4. is. How ought men to Honour the Sonne of God?

From hence to the end of the Chap. M. B. insists on the Religious Worship, and invocation of Jesus Christ: which with all his Companions, he places as the consequent of his Kingly Office, and that Authority, wherewith for the execution and discharge thereof from God he is invested. I shall very briefly consider what is tendered by M. B. to the purpose in hand, and then take liberty a little more largely to handle the whole businesse of the Worship of Jesus Christ, with the Grounds, Reasons, and Motives thereof.

His Fifth Question to this matter is, How ought men to Honour §. 6.the Sonne of God, Christ Jesus.

And it is Answered Joh. 5. 23. Even as they honour the Father.

This then is consented unto on both sides; that Jesus Christ is to be Worshipped, and Honoured with the same Worship, and Honour foreign. Epithan. in Anchorat.wherewith the Father is Worshipped and Honoured; that is, with that Worship and Honour, which is Divine and Religious, with that subjection of Soule, and in the performance of those duties, which are due to God alone. How Socinus himselfe doubled in this businesse, and was intangled, shall be afterwards discovered. What use will be made of this, in the issue of this discourse, the Reader may easily conjecture.

His next Question discovering the danger of the non performance §. 7.of this duty, of yeilding Divine Honour and Worship to Christ, strengthens the former Assertion, and therefore I have p. 400nothing to except, or adde thereunto.

In Question the Sixth M. B. labours to defend▪ the throat of his§. 8. Cause, against the edge of that Weapon, which is sharpned against it by this concession, That Jesus Christ is to be Worshiped with Divine Worship, as the Father is, by a diversion of it; with a consideration of the grounds of the Assignation of this Worship to Christ. His words are; Ought men to Honour the Son, as they Honour the Father, because he hath the same Essence with the Father, or because he hath the same judiciary power, what is the decision of the Son himselfe concerning this point?

Ans. Joh. 5. 22, 23▪

The summe is: The same Worship is to be given to the Father and the Son, but upon severall grounds; To the Father, because He is God by Nature, because of his Divine Essence: to the Son, because of a Delegated judiciary Power committed to him by the Father. For the discovery of the vanity of this Assertion, in the close of our Consideration of this matter, I shall manifest.

1. That there neither is, nor can be, any more then one formall §. 9.cause of the Attribution of the same Divine Worship to any; so that to whomsoever it is ascribed, it is upon one and the same individuall account, as to the formall, and fundamentall cause thereof.

2. That no delegated Power of Judgement is, or can be a sufficient§. 10. ground, or cause of yielding that Worship and Honour to him, to whom it is delegated, which is proper to God. For the present, to the Text pleaded, (the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, as they honour the Father.) I say in brief, that foreign, is not expressive of the formall cause of the honouring, and Adoration of Christ, but of an effectuall motive to men to honour him, to whom upon the account of his divine Nature that honour is due. As in the First Commandement, I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage, thou shalt have no other Gods but me. That Expression, That brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, is a motive to the Worship of God, but not the formall cause of it: that being due to him, as he is by Nature God, blessed for ever, though he had never brought that People out of Egypt: but of this more afterwrd.

p. 401Quest. 7. A farther diversion from the matter in hand is attempted§. 11. by this inquiry. Did the Father give judiciary power to the Son, because he had in him the Divine Nature, personally united to the Humane, or because he was the Son of Man: what is the decision of the Son himselfe concerning this point also?

A. He hath given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man, Ioh. 5. 27.

1. A point in difference is stated, and its decision enquired after, wherein there is no such difference at all. Nor do we say, that God gave Christ the judiciary Power, wherewith as Mediatour he is invested, because he had in him the Divine Nature personally united to his Humane. The Power that Christ hath upon the account of his Divine Nature, is not delegated, but essentiall to him: nor can M. B. name any, that have so stated the difference as he here proposes it.

2. We say not that Christ had in him the Divine Nature personally united to the Humane; but that the Humane Nature was Personally united to the Divine. His Personality belonging to him upon the account of his Divine nature, not his Humane.

3. We grant, that the judiciary power, that was delegated to Christ, as Mediator, he being appointed of God to judge the World; was given him because he is the Son of Man, or was made Man to be our Mediator; and to accomplish the great work of the Salvation of Man-kind. But that Divine Worship, proper to God the Father, is due, and to be yielded, and ascribed to him on this ground and Reason, because he is the Son of Man, M. B. cannot prove, nor doth attempt it.

The 8, 9, 10. Quest▪ belong not to us: we grant it was, and§. 12. is, the Will and Command of God, that lesus Christ the Mediator should be worshiped of Angells and Men; and that he was so Worshiped even in this World; for when he brought his first begotten into the World, he said, let all the Angels of God worship him; and that he is also to be worshipped now, having finished hisHeb. 1. 6.Heb 1:6 work, being exalted on the Right hand of God; but that the bottome, foundation, and sole formall cause of the Worship, which God so commands to be yeilded to him, is any thing but his being God blessed for evermore, or his being the only begotten Son of God, there is not in the places mentioned the least intimation.

p. 402The 11, 12. look againe the same way with the former, but§. 13. with the same successe. Saith he, When men ascribe Glory and Dominion to Jesus Christ in the Scripture, and withall intimate the ground thereof, is it because they conceive him to be very God, and to have been eternally begotten out of the Divine Essence, or because he gave himselfe to death: let me heare how they explaine themselves?

Ans. Rev. 5. 6.

Q. 12. Are the Angels of the same Opinion with the Saints▪ when they also ascribe Glory and Dominion to him, let me heare how they also explain themselves?

Ans: Rev. 5. 11, 12: Of both these places afterward.

At present 1. Christ as a Lamb, is Christ as Mediator, both God and Man, to whom all Honour and Glory is due.

2. Neither Saints, nor Angels, do give, or intend to give the Reason why Christ is to be worshiped, or what is the formall Reason why Divine worship is ascribed to him, but only what is in their thoughts and considerations a powerfull, and effectuall motive to Love, Feare, Worship, & to ascribe all glory to him. As David often cries, praise the Lord O my Soule (or assignes glory and Honour to him) because he hath done such or such things; intimating a motive to his Worship, and not the prime foundation and cause, why he is to be Worshiped.

Having spoken thus to the Adoration of Christ, his last Question §. 14.is about his Invocation, which he proves from sundry places of Scripture, not inquiring into the Reasons of it; so that adding that to the former Concession of the Worship and Honour due to him, I shall close these considerations with this one Syllogisme. He who is to be Worshiped by Angels and Men with that Divine worship, which is due to God the Father, & to be prayed unto, called on, believed in, is God by nature, blessed for ever: but according to the confession of M^r B. Jesus Christ is to be worshipped by Angells and Men with that Divine worship, which is due even to God the Father, and to be prayed unto: Therefore is he God by Nature over all, blessed for ever. The inference of the major Proposition I shall farther confirme in the ensuing Considerations of the Worship, that is ascribed to Jesus Christ in the Scripture.

In the endeavour of Faustus Socinus to set up a new Religion,§. 15. there was not any thing wherein he was more opposed, or wherewith he was more exercised, by the men of the same designe p. 403with himselfe, then in this, about the Worship and Invocation of Iesus Christ. He and his Unkle Laelius, urging (amongst others) this Proposition, that Christ was not God, Franciscus David, Budnaeus, Christianus Franken, Paleologus, with others, made the conclusion, that he was not to be worshiped as God, nor called upon. With some of these he had sundry Disputes and conferences, and was miserably intricated by them, being unable to defend his opinion, upon his Hypothesis of the Person of Christ. That Christ is to be worshiped, and Invocated, indeed he proves well and Learnedly, as in many places, so especially in his third Epistle to Mathias Radecius: But coming to knit his Arguments to his other opinion concerning Christ, he was perpetually gravelled, as more especially it befell him in his dispute with Christianus Franken An. 1584. as is evident in what is extant of that Dispute, written by Socinus himselfe. Of the chiefe argument insisted on by Franken, I shall speak afterwards: see Disput, cum Franken, p. 24, 25, 28, 35, &c. Against Franciscus David, he wrote a peculiar Tract; & to him an Epistle, to prove that the words of Thomas, my Lord and my God, were spoken of Christ, and therefore he was to be Worshiped; (Epist. pag. 186.) wherein ddPrimū …gitur quod attinet ad priorem rationem dico, diversam illam lectionem non extare, ut arbitror, ne{que} in ullo probate codice, ne{que} apud ullum probatum Scrip…orem, quod vel ex eo constare potest, quod Erasmus in suis Annotationibus, quaemvis de hoc ipso loco agat, ejus rei nullam prorsus mentionem facit: Qui Erasmus, cum hoc in genere nus…uam non diligentissime versatur; tum in omnibus locis, in quibus Christus Deus appellari videtur, adco diligenter omnia verba expendit, at{que} examinat, ut non immerito & Trinitartis. Arianismi suspectus fuerit, & ab Antitrinitariis inter eos relatus, quae subobscure Trinitati reclamaverint. Faust. Socin. Epist. ad Fran. David. p. 186, 187.he positively affirmes, that there was no other reading of the words (as David vainly pretended) but what is in common use, because Erasmus made mention of no such thing, who would not have omitted it, could he have made any discovery thereof, being justly supposed to be no good friend to the Trinity. That men may know what to judge of some of his Annotations, as well as those of Grotius, who walkes in the same paths, is this remarked. Wherefore He and his Associates rejected this Franciscus David, afterward as a detestable Heretick, and utterly deserted him when he was cast into Prison by the Prince of Transilvania, where he dyed miserably raving and crying out, that the Divels expected, and waited for his company in his journey, which he had to go. (Florim: Raem. l. 4. c. 12.) the account whereof Smalcius also gives us, in his relation p. 404of **Exemplum deni{que} affert nostrorum Thes. 108. Quomodo se gesseriat in Transilvania in negotio Francisci Davidis, quomodo semetipsos in actu illo inter se reos agant vafriciae, perfidiae, crudelitatis, sanguinariae proditionis, &c. sed his primùm regero: non exemplis, sed legibus judicandum esse: si nostri ita se gesserunt ut scribit Frantzius, &c. Deinde dico fals… ista objecta fuisse ab autoribus scripti, quod citat Frantzius nostris: nec enim fraternè tractarunt Franciscum Davidem, us{que} ad ipsum agonem, quanquam cum ut fratrem tractare non tenebantur, qui in Jesu Christi veram divinitatem tam impie involabat, ut dicere non dubitaret, tantum peccatum esse eum invocare, quantum est, si virgo Maria invo…etur, &c. Smal. Refut. Thes. Franz. disp. 9. p. 298.Franzius, Theses de Hypocrit. disput. 9. p. 298.

After these stirs, and disputations, it grew the common§. 16. tenent of Socinus, and his followers (see his Epistle to Enjedinus) that those who denyed that Christ was to be worshiped, and invocated, were not to be accounted Christians: (which how well it agrees with other of his assertions shall instantly be seen.) So Socinus himselfe leads the way: Respon ad eeRecte igitur existimasti, mihi quo{que} verisimile videri, eum, qui Dominum Jesum Christum invocare non vult, aut non audet, vix Christiani nomine dignum esse: nisi quod non modo vix, sed ne vix quidem, & non modo verisimile id mihi videtur, sed persuasissimum mihi est.Nemojevium Ep. 1. who is followed by Volkelius. ffEum invocare si non audeamus, Christiano nomine haud satis digni merito existimari possemus. Volkel. de Ve…a …elig. lib. 4. cap. 11. de Christi invocatione p. 221.Ʋnlesse (saith he) we dare to call on the name of Christ we should not be worthy of the name of Christians. And he is attended by the Racovian Catechisme, de Praecept, Christi cap. 1. whose Author affirmes plainely, that he esteemed them not Christians who worshiped him not; and ggQuid vero sentis de iis hominib…s qui Christum non invo…ant, nec invocandum censent? Prorsus non esse Christianos sentio: cum reipsa Christum non habeant, & licet ve…bis id negare non audeant, reipsa tamen negent. Catec. Rac. de praecep. Christi, cap. 1. p. 126.accounted that indeed they had not Christ, however in word they durst not deny him.

And of the rest, the same is the Judgement: but yet with what consistency with what they also affirme concerning this Invocation of Christ, we shall now briefely consider.

hhEruditione, virtute, pietato praestantissimo viro D. Mathaeo Radecio, amico, & Domino mihi plurimum observando, &c. Praestantissime vir, amice, frater, ac domine plurimum observande.Socinus in his third Epistle to Mathias Radecius, whom he every where speakes honourably of, and calls him excellent man, Friend, Brother, and much to be observed Lord (because he was a great man) who yet denyed, and opposed this invocation of p. 405Christ, lays this down in the entrance of his Discourse, Thati Video enim nihil hodie edi posse in totae Christiana Relig…one majoris momenti quam hoc sit, demonstratio, videlicet, quod Christo licet creaturae tamen invocatio & adoratio seu cultus divinus conveniat. Socin. Epist. ad Rad. 3. pag. 143. there is nothing of greater moment in Christian Religion, then the demonstration of this, that invocation, and Adoration, or divine worship, do agree to Christ, although he be a created thing. And in the following words he gives you the Reason of the importance of the proof of this Assertion: namely, because the kkSi enim hoc demonstratum fuerit, concident omnes Trinitariorum enunitiones, quae revera uno hoc fundamento nituntur adhuc, quod Christo▪ Adoratio & Invocatio conveniunt, quae solius Dei illius altissimi omni ratione videtur esse propria. id. ibid.Trinitarians maine strength and Argument lyes in this; that Adoration and Invocation are due to Christ, which are proper only to the high God. Which makes me bold on the other side to affirme, that there is nothing in Christian Religion, more cleare, nor more needfull to be confirmed, then this, that divine worship neither is, can, nor ought by the will of God, to be ascribed to any who by nature is not God, to any that is a meere creature, of what dignity, power, and authority soever. But yet now when this zealous▪ Champion for the invocation of Christ comes to prove his Assertion, being utterly destitute of the use of that which is the sure bottome and foundation thereof, he dares goe no farther but only says that we MAY call upon Christ if we will, but for any precept making it necessary so to do, that he sayes there is none.

And therefore he distinguisheth between the llHic primum adoratione cum invocatione confundis, quod tamen fieri non debet, cum utrius{que} sit diversa quaedam ratio, adeo ut ego, quamvis nihil prorsus dubitem, praeceptum extare de adorando Christo, & etiamsi non extaret, tamen eum a nobis adorari omnino debere, non idem tamen existimem de codem invocando, cum videlicet invocatio pro ipsae opis imploratione, & directione precum nostrarum accipitur. Hic enim statuo id quidem merito a nobis fieri posse, id est, posse nos jure ad ipsum Christum preces nostras dirigere, nihil tamen esse quod nos id facere cogat. Socin. Epist. ad Radec. 3. pag. 151.Adoration of Christ, and his Invocation. For the first, he affirmes, that it is commanded, or at least that things are so ordered, that we ought to adore him, but of the latter, sayes he, there is no precept, only we may doe so if we will. The same he had before affirmed in his answer to mmChristum Dominum invocare possumus, sed non debemus, sive non tenemur.Franciscus David. Yea in the same discourse he affirmes, that if nnQuod si quis tan…a est fide praeditus, ut ad Deum ipsum perpetuo recte accedere audeat; huic non opus est, ut Christum invocet. Disput. cum Fran. pag. 4.we have so much faith, as that we can go with confidence to God without him, we need not invocate Christ. We may (saith he) invocate Christ, but we are not bound so to do. Whence p. 406ooLegi quo{que} diligenter responsionem tuam ad argumenta Francisci D…vidis; ubi Christi domini invocationem honorem{que} nomini ejus sacr…sancto convenientem asseris, ac contra calumnias Francisci Davidis defendis. Attame… videris mihi, paucis verbis, optimam sententiam non tantum obscurasse, sed quasi in dubium revocasse, adversarios{que} in errore confirmasse. Quaeris quid sit, quod tantum malum secum importare possit? Breviter respondeo, verba illa quae saepius addis; Christum Dominum invocare possumus, sed non debemus, sive non tenemur, &c. ruinam negotio, causae{que} tuae minantur: Non possum percipere, quomo…o haec conciliari possint: non debemus, sed possumus. quasi in negotio salutis nostrae liberum sit facere vel omittere, prout nobis aliquid magis necessarium, vel…e contra visum fuerit: Niemojevius Epist. 1. ad Faust. Socin. An. 1587.Niemojevius falls upon him, & tells him, that he had utterly spoil'd their cause by that concession. To deliver himself frō which charge, how pittifully he intricates himselfe, may be seen in his answer to that Epistle. Now whether this man hath sufficient cause to exclude any from being Christians, for the non-performance of that, which himselfe dares not affirme that they ought to do, and with what consistency of principles these things are affirmed, is easy to Judge.

Of the same judgement with him is Volk. de vera Rel. l. 4. c. 11.§. 18. de Christi invocatione. Schlincting. ad: Meisner. pag. 206, 207. and generally the rest of them. Which againe how consistent it is, with what they affirme in the ppQuid praeterea huic praecepto primo dominus Jesus addidit, id, quod etiam dominum Jesum pro Deo agnoscere tenemur: id est, pro eo qui in nos potestatem habet divinam & cui nos divinum exhibere honorem ob…tricti sumus. Catec. Racov. de praecep. Christi cap. 1.Racovian Catechisme, namely, that this is an addition which Jesus Christ hath made to the first Commandement, that he himselfe is to be acknowledged a God, to whom we are bound to yeild divine Honour, I see not. For if this be added to the first Commandement, that we should worship him as God, it is scarce doubtlesse at our liberty to call upon him or no. Of the same minde is Smalcius de Divinitate Jesu Christi: A qqCum ita{que} nuper, libellus de Christi divini…ate conscriptus, esset mihi a Pastore meo, viro cum primis pio & literat…, oblatus, in qu…—disseruit. Epist dedic. ad SigismundBook that he offered to Sigismund the third King of Poland, by the meanes of Jacobus Sienienska Palatine of Podolia in the yeare 1608. who in his Epistle to the King calls him his Pastor. And yet the same rrVidetur autem hoc inprimis modo diabolus insidi…s struere domin… Iesu, dum scilicet tales excitat, qui non dubitant affirmare Dominum Iesum nunc plane esse otiosu…n in caelis, & res humanas vel salutem hominum non aliter curare, quam Moses curat salutem Iudaeorum. Qui quidem homines, professione videri volunt Christiani, interne vero Christum abnegarunt, & spiritu judaico, qui semper Christo fuit inimicissimus, inflati sunt; & si quis jure cum eis age…e velit▪ indigni plane sunt, qui inter Christianos numerentur, quantumvis ore tenus Ch…i…tum profiteantur, & multa de eo garriant; adeo ut multo tolerabilior sit error illorum qui Christum pro illo uno Deo habent & colunt, quam istorum: & praestet ex duobus malis minus quod a…unt, eligendo, Trinitarium quam hujusmodi blasphemum esse. Smal. de ver. Christi divin. cap. 15. de Regn. Christi Moderno.Person doth in another place of the the same p. 407Treatise, most bitterly inveigh against them▪ who will not worship, nor invocate Christ, affirming, that they are worse then the Trinitarians themselves, then which it seemes he could invent nothing more vile to compare them with. ssEst enim invocatio Iesu Christi, ex numero earum rerum, quas praecipere nullo modo opus est. idem. cap. 24. de fide in Christum. & de Adorat: & Invocat. Christi.And yet againe that there is no precept, that he should be invocated. Cat. Rac. (That is the same p…rson with the former) c. 5. de praecep: Christi quae legem prefecerunt. So also Ostorodus, Compendiolum Doctrinae Ecclesiae Christianae nunc in Polonia potissimum florentis. Cap. 1. Sect. 2.

It is then on all hands concluded, that Jesus Christ is to be§. 19. worshiped with Divine and Religious worship, due to God only.

Fixing this as a common and indisputable principle, I shall subjoyne and prove these two Assertions.

1. In generall, divine worship is not to be ascribed to any, that is not God by nature, who is not partaker of the divine Essence and Being.

2. In particular, Jesus Christ is not to be ^t worshiped on the account of the Power and Authority, which he hath received from God, as Mediatour, but solely on the account of his being God blessed for ever: And this is all that is required in answer to this Tenth Chapter of M. B. what followes on the Heads mentioned, is for the further satisfaction of the Reader in these things upon the occasion administred, and for his Assistance to the obviating of some other Socinian Sophismes, that he may meet withall. I shall be briefe in them both.

^t foreign foreign.

foreign

foreign. Gregor. Theol.

For the first: Divine Worship is not to be ascribed to them§. 20. whom God will certainely destroy. He will not have us to Worship them, whom himselfe hateth. But now, all Gods that have not made the Heavens and the earth, he will destroy from under these Heavens. Ier. 10. 10, 11. Thus shall ye say unto p. 408them, the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the Earth, & from under these Heavens. It is a thing that God would have the Nations take notice of; and therefore is it written in the Caldee Dialect in the Originall, that they who were principally concerned in those dayes, might take the more notice of it. And it is an instruction that God put into the mouths of the meanest of his people, that they should say it to them; say ye to them. And the Assertion is universall, to all whatever, that have not made the Heavens and Earth, and so is applicable to the Socinians Christ; A God they say he is, as Elijah said of Baal, 1 Kings 18. 27. He is made so; but that he made the Heavens and Earth, they deny; and therefore he is so farre from having any right to be worshiped, that God hath threatned he shall be destroyed.

Againe, the Apostle reckons it among the sinnes of the Gentiles, §. 21.that they worshiped them who by nature were not Gods, Gal. 4. 8.foreign. from which we are delivered by the knowledge of God in the Gospell. And the weight of the Apostles Assertion of the sinne of Gentiles, lyes in this, that by nature they were not God, who were worshiped. So that this is a thing indispensable, that divine Worship should not be given to any who is not God by nature; And surely we are not called in the Gospell to the practice of that, which is the greatest sinne of the Heathens, that knew not God. And to manifest that this is a thing which the Law of nature gives direction in, not depending on i…stitution; Rom. 1. it is reckoned among those sinnes, which are against the Light of nature; they worshiped the Creature (besides or) more then (or with) the Creatour, v. 25. who is God blessed for ever more. Toforeign. worship a Creature, him who is not the Creator, God blessed for ever, is that Idolatry, which is condemned in the Gentiles, as a sinne against the Light of nature, which to commit, God cannot, (be it spoken with reverence) dispense with the Sons ofVid. Diatrib. de Just. div. men (for he cannot deny himselfe) much lesse institute and appoint them so to doe. It being then on all hands confessed, that Christ is to be worshiped with divine or Religious worship, it will be easy to make the conclusion, that he is God by nature, blessed for ever more.

That also is generall and indispensable which you have§. 22. Jerem. 17. 5, 6. Cursed be the man, that trusteth in man, and p. 409maketh flesh his arme, and whose heart departeth from the Lord; for he shall be like the Heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh. That which we worship with divine worship, we trust in, and make it our arme and strength; And those words, and whose heart departeth from the Lord, are not so much an addition to what is before cursed, as a declaration of it. All Trust in man, that is no more but so, with that kinde of Trust, wherewith we trust in Jehovah (as by the antithesis v. 7. is evident that it is intended,) is here cursed. If Christ be only a man by nature, however exalted and invested with Authority, yet to trust in him, as we trust in Jehovah, which we doe if we worship him with divine worship, would by this Rule be denounced a Cursed thing.

Revel. 19. 20. and Chap. 22. 9. do adde the command of§. 23. God to the generall Reason insisted on in the places before mentioned; I fell at his feet to worship him; and he said, see thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant, and thy bretheren, that have the Testimony of Jesus, worship God, so againe, Chap. 22. 9. There are evidently two Reasons assigned by the Angell, why John ought not to worship him. 1. Because he was a servant, He that is a servant of God, and is no more, is not to be worshiped; Now he that is not God, at his best estate, however exalted, is but a servant Revel. 4. 11.Rev 4:11in respect of God, and a fellow servant of his Saints and no more. All his Creatures serve him, and for his will they were made. Such and no other is the Socinians Christ, and is clearely deprived of all worship by this prohibition, and Reason of it. 2. From the Command, and the naturall, and Eternall Obligation of it, in those repeated words **foreign. Iustin. Mar. Apol.foreign. It is the word of the Law, that our Saviour himselfe insists on, Mat. 4. 10. that is here repeated; and the force of the Angells Reason, for the strengthning his prohibition, is from hence, that no other but he who is God, that God intended by the Law, and by our Saviour, Math. 4. is to be worshipped. For if the intendment of the words were only Positive, that God is to be worshipped, and did not also at the same time exclude every one whatever from all divine worship, who is not that God, they would be of no force for the reproofe of John, in his attempt to worship the Angels, nor have any influence into his prohibition. And thus that Angel, who Chap. 8. 9, 11. shewes John all Creatures in p. 410Heaven and Earth, yeilding divine worship, and Adoration to the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ; in the close of all appropriates all that worship to God himselfe alone, and for ever shuts out the most glorious Creature from our thoughts and intentions in the performance of any divine worship, or religious Adoration.

And it may hence appeare, how vaine is that plea of the§. 24. Adversaries to avoid the force of this reproofe, which is mannaged by Schlictingius against Meisnerus. To those placesRespondeo particulis istis exclusivis, qualis & solus, & similis, cum de deo us…rpantur, nun…uā eos simpliciter e…cludi, qui a deo▪ in ea re de qua agitur, dependent: sic dicitur solus deus sapiens, solus potens, solus immortalos, ne{que} tamen simpliciter a sapientia, a potentia, immortalitate excludi debent & alii, qui istarum rerum participes sunt effecti: Quare jam cum solus deus adorandus au… invocandus esse dicitur, excludi simpliciter non debet is, qui hac in parte a deo pendet, propter divi…um ab ipso in cancta acceptum imp…rium, sed potius tacite simul includendus est. Schlicting. ad Meis. Artic. de deo. p. 206, 207. (saith he) where mention is made of God alone to be worshiped; I answer that by those exclusive particles alone, and the like, when they are used of God, they are not simply excluded, who depend on God in that thing which is treated of; so is he said to be only wise, only powerfull, only immortall, and yet these who are made partakers of them from God, ought not simply to be excluded from Wisdome, Power, and Immortality: wherefore when it is said, that God alone is to be worshiped and adored, he ought not to be simply excluded, who herein dependeth on God, because of that divine rule over all, which he hath of him received, yea he is rather included. So the most Learned of that Tribe.

But

1. By this Rule nothing is appropriated unto God, nor any thing §. 25.excluded from a participation with him by that particle mentioned; and wherever any thing is said of God only, we are to understand it of God and others, for of him, in all things, doe all other things depend.

2. When it is said, …hat God only is wise &c. though it doe not§. 26. absolutely deny that any other may be wise with that Wisdome which is proper to them, yet it absolutely denyes that any one partakes with God in his Wisdome; is wise as God is wise, with that kind of Wisdome wherewith God is wise. And so where it is said, that God only is to be worshiped, and honoured; though it do not exclude all others from any kind of Worship p. 411and Honour, but that they may have that which is due to them by Gods appointment, from their Excellency and preheminence, yet it doth Absolutely exclude any from being worshiped with divine worship, that is due and proper to God.

3. We shall shew afterward, that whatever Dignity, Rule,§. 27. and Dominion, they say is given to Christ, and whatever excellency in him doth thence arise, yet it is quite of another kinde and stands upon another foote of account, then that …ssentiall Excellency that is in God; and so cannot, nor doth require the same kind of worship as is due to God.

4. Angels and men are depending on God in Authority and§. 28. Power, and therefore if this Rule be true, they are not excluded from Divine and Religious Worship, in the Command of worshiping God only; and so they may be worshiped with divine and religious Adoration and Invocation, as well as Jesus Christ. Neither is it any thing but a meere begging of the thing in question, to say, that it is divine power that is delegated to Christ, which that is not, that is delegated to Angels and men. That power which is properly divine, and the formall cause of divine worship is incommunicable; nor can be delegated, nor is in any who is not essentially God: So that the power of Christ and Angels being of the same kind, though his be more and greater then theirs, as to degrees, they are to be worshiped with the same kind of worship, though he may be worshiped more then they▪

5. This is the substance of Schlictingius his Rule;§. 29. when any thing is affirmed of God exclusively to others, indeed others are not excluded, but included.

6. We argue not only from the exclusive particle, but from the§. 30. nature of the thing it selfe. So that this pretended Rule and Exception, notwithstanding, all, and every thing whatever that is not God, is by God himselfe everlastingly excluded from the least share in divine or Religious Worship, with expresse condemnation of them, who assigne it to them.

The same evasion with that insisted on by Schlictingius, §. 31.Socinus himselfe had before used: and professes that this is the bottome & foundation of all his Arguments in his disputation with Franciscus David, about the invocation of Christ, that others as well as God may be worshiped and invocated: in his 3. Epist. to Volkelius, where he labours to answer the objection p. 412of Johns praying for Grace from the seven spirits that are before the throne of Christ, Revel. 1. But why I pray is it absurd to… Sed cur quaes… absurdum est affirmare septem illos spiritus a Johanne fuisse invocatos? An quia solus Deus est invocandus? Atqui hanc rationem nihili esse tota illa disputatione demonstratur. Non mod… quia nunquam deserte interdictum est, quemquam alium praeter deum ipsum invocare, sed etiam, & multo magis, quia ejusmodi interdictiones (ut sic loquar) nunquam eos excludunt, qui ipsi deo sunt subordinati. Socin. Epist. ad Volk. 3. affirme, that those seven spirits (supposing them meere creatures) were invocated of John?▪ Is it because God alone is to be invocated? But that this Reason is of no value, that whole disputation doth demonstrate, not only because it is no where forbidden that we should invocate none but God, (os durum) but also, and much rather, because those interdictions never exclude those who are subordinate to God himselfe. That is, as was observed before, they exclude none at all; for all Creatures whatever are subordinate to God. To say that they are subordinate as to this end, that under him they may be worshiped is purely to begge the Question. We deny that any is, or may be in such a subordination to God. And the Reasons the man adds of this his Assertion, containe the grand plea of all Idolators, Heathenish, and Antichristian. xxQ…icquid enim ab eo qui subordinationem istam recte novit & mente sua illam probat, in istos conferur, in deum ipsum confertur.whatever is given to them (saith he) who are in that subordination is given to God. So said the Pagans of old; so the Papists at this day, all redounds to the glory of God, when they woship stocks and stones, because he appoints them so to do. And so said the Israelites when they worshiped the Golden Calfe: it is a feast to Jehovah. But if John might worship, and invocate (which is the highest Act of Worship) the seven Spirits, Rev. 1. because of their subordination to God, supposing them to be so many Created Spirits, why might he not as well worship the Spirit, or Angel in the end of the Booke, Chap. 20. 22. who was no lesse subordinate to God? was the matter so altered during his Visions, that whom he might invocate in the entrance, he might not so much as worship in the close?

The Racovian Catechisme takes another course, and tells you,§. 32. that the foundation of the Worship and Adoration of Christ, is, because **Quid praeterea dominus Iesus huic praecept… primo addidit? Res. Id quod etiamnum dominum Iesum pro deo cognoscere ten…mur, id est pro eo qui in nos potestatem habet divinam, & cui nos divinum exhibere honorem obstricti sumus. Catech. Racov▪ de praecep. Christi.Christ had added to the first Commandement, that we should p. 413acknowledge him for God. That is; he who hath divine Authority ov…r us, to whom we are bound to yeeld Divine Honour. But

1. That Iesus Christ, who is not God by Nature, did adde to the§. 33. command of God, that he himselfe should be acknowledged for God, is intolerable Blasphemy; asserted without the least colour or pretence from the Scripture, and opens a doore to downeright Atheisme.

2. The Exposition of his being God, that is, one who hath Divine §. 34.Authority over us, is false: God is a Name of Nature, not of Office and power, Gal: 4. 8. 3. Christ was worshiped and commanded to be worshiped, before his coming in the flesh, Ps. 2. 12. Gen. 48. 16. Exod. 23. 21.

But if this be added to the First Commandement, that Christ§. 35. be Worshiped as God: Then is he to be worshiped with the worship required in the first Commandement: Now this Worship is that which is proper to the only true God, as the very words of it import: Thou shalt have no other Gods▪ but me: how then will Smalcius reconcile himselfe with his Master, who plainly affirmes, that Iesus Christ is not to be worshiped with that …ivine worship, which is due to God alone; and strives to answer that place of Iohn 5. 23. to the contrary, aaNos Paul… ante ostendimus divinum cultum, qui Christo debetur, & directe ipsum Christū respicit, non esse illum qui uni illi soli deo convenit. Socin. ad Wieck. re…pon. ad cap. 10. Class. 5. Arg. 6. pag. 422, 423.that all men should honour the Son, as they honour the Father. That Christ should be commanded to be worshiped in the First Commandement, (or by an addition made thereto) which commands us to have only one God, and not be worshiped with the worship which is due to that one God, is one of the mysteries of these mens Religion: but to proceed.

Where the formall cause of Divine Worship is not, there Divine§. 36. Worship ought not to be exhibited. But in no Creature there is, or can be the formal cause▪ of Divine Worship; therefore no creature, who is only such, can be worshiped without Idolatry. The formal Reason of any thing is but one; the reason of all worship is Excellency or Preheminence; The reason of Divine or Religious worship is divine preheminence and excellency. Now divine Excellency and preheminence is peculiar unto …he Divine Nature. Wherein is it that God is so infinitely excellent above all creatures? Is it not from his infinitely good, and incomprehensible p. 414nature? Now look what difference there is between the Essence of the Creator and the Creature, the same is between their Excellency. Let a Creature be exalted to never so great an height of Dignity and Excellency, yet his dignity is not at all nigher to the dignity and excellency of God; because there is no proportion between that which is infinite, and that which is finite, and limited. If then Excellency and preheminence be the cause of worship, and the distance between the excellency of God, and that of the most excellent, and most highly advanced creature, be infinite, it is impossible that the respect and worship due to them, should be of the same kind. Now it is Religious, or Divine Adoration that is due to God, whereof the Excellency of his nature is the formall cause; this then cannot be ascribed to any other. And to whomsoever it is ascribed, thereby do we acknowledge to be in him all divine perfections; which if he be not God by Nature, is grosse Idolatry. In summe▪ Adorability (if I may so say) is an absolute incommunicable property of God. Adoration thence arising, a respect that relates to him only.

I shall for a close of this Chapter proceed to manifest, that§. 37. Christ himselfe is not by us worshiped, under any other formall Reason, but as he is God; which will adde some light to what hath already been spoken. And here least there should be any mistake among the meanest, in a matter of so great consequence, I shall deliver my thoughts to the whole of the worship of Christ in the ensuing observations.

1. Iesus Christ, the Mediatour, foreign, God and Man,§. 38. the Son of God, having assumed foreign, (Luk. 1. 35.) that holy thing, that was borne of the Virgin, foreign, having no subsistence of its own, into personall subsistence with himselfe, is to be Worshipped with divine Religious worship, even as the Father. By worshipped with Divine Worship, I meane believed in, hoped in, trusted in, invocated as God, as an independent fountaine of all good, and a soveraigne disposer of all our present, and everlasting concernments; by doing whereof, we acknowledge in him, and ascribe to him all divine perfections; Omni potency, Omniscience, …nfinite goodnesse, Omnipresence, and the like.

This proposition was sufficiently confirmed before. In the p. 415Revelation you have the most solemne representation of the divine spirituall worship of the Church, both that militant in the Earth, and that triumphant in the Heavens, and by both is the Worship mentioned given to the Mediator; to him (to Iesus Christ) that washed us in his blood, be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen. Cap. 1. 6. so againe the same Church represented by f…wer living Creatures, and 24 Elders, falls down before the Lamb. cap. 5. 8. and 12. worthy is the Lamb that was slaine to receive power, and riches, and glory, and blessing: and v. 13, 14. joynt worship is given to him upon the Throne, and to the Lamb▪ by the whole Creation. And every Creature, which is in Heaven and in Earth, and under the Earth, and such as are in the Sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, Honour, Glory, and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever, &c. And this also is particularly done by the Church triumphant, cap. 7. 9, 10. Now the Lamb is neither Christ in respect of the Divine Nature, nor Christ in respect of the Humane Nature, but it is Christ the Mediator. That Christ was Mediator in respect of both Natures shall in due time be demonstrated. It is then the Person of the Mediator God and Man, who is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sinnes of the World, to whom all this Honour and Worship is ascribed. This the Apostle perfectly confirmes, Rom. 14. 8, 9, 10, 11. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we dye, we dye unto the Lord, whether we live therefore, or dye, we are the Lords: for to this End Christ both dyed, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living: but why doest thou judge thy Brother, or why doest thou set at naught thy Brother: we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ; For it is written, as I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confesse to God. To Christ exalted in his dominion and Soveraignty, we live, and dye: to him do we bow the knee, and confesse, that is, performe all Worship, and stand before him, as at his disposall; we sweare by him, as▪ in the place from whence these words are taken.

2. That our **Ʋnum Deum, & unum ejus fil…um, & verbum, imagine…q,, quantum possumus supplicationibus, & honoribus veneremur, offerentes Deo univers… rum domino preces per suum unigenitum: cui pr…us eas adhib…us rogantes ut ipse, qui est propitiator pro peccatis nostris, dignetur tanquam pontif…x preces nostras, & s…crificia & intercession…s, offerre Deo. Origen. ad Celsum lib. 8.Religious, Divine, and Spirituall worship, hath a p. 416double, or twofold respect unto Jesus Christ.

1. As he is the ultimate formall object of our worship, being God to be blessed for evermore, as was before declared. 2. As the way, meanes, & cause of all the good we receive from God in our religious approach to him. In the first sence, we call upon the name of Christ, 1 Cor. 1. 2. In the other, we aske the Father in his name, according to his command, Ioh: 16. 23. In the first, we respect him as one with the Father, as one who thinks it no robbery to be equall with him, Phil. 2. 8. the fellow of the Lord of Hosts. In the other, as one that doth intercede yet with the Father, Heb. 7. 25. praying him yet to send the Comforter to us, being yet in that regard lesse then the Father; and in which respect, as he is our head, so God is his head, as the Apostle tells us, 1 Cor: 11. 3. the Head of every man (that is every believer) is Christ, and the head Joh. 14. 6.John 14:6of Christ is God; In this sence, is he the way whereby we go to the Father. And through him we have an accesse to the Father, Eph. 2▪ 18. foreign. In our Worship with our Faith, Love, Hope, Trust, and prayers, we have an accesse to God. Thus in our approach to the Throne of Grace, wee look upon Christ as the High Priest over the House of God, Heb. 4. 14, 15, 16. by whom we have admission; who offers up our Prayers and supplications for us, Revel. 8. 3. In this state as he is the head of Angells, and his whole Church, so is he in subordination to the Father, and therefore he is said at the same time to receive Revelations from the Father, and to send an Angell as his servant, on his work and employment; Rev. 1. 1. And thus is he our Advocate with the Father, 1 Iohn 2. 1. In this respect then, seeing that in our accesse to God, even the Father, as the Father of Him, and His, with our Worship, Homage, Service, ourJohn 20. 17.John 20:17 Faith, Love, Hope, Confidence, and Supplications, eying Christ, as our Mediatour, Advocate, Intercessor, upon whose Account we are accepted, for whose sake we are pardoned, through whom we have Admission to God, and by whom we have Help and Assistance in all that we have to do with God▪ It is evident (I say) that in this respect he is not eyed, nor addressed to in our Worship, as the ultimate, adaequate, formall object of it: But as the meritorious cause of our Approach and acceptance, and so of great consideration therein. And therefore whereas Rom. 3. 25. it is said, that God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through Faith p. 417in his blood: it is not intended, that Faith fixes on his blood, or blood-shedding, or on him as shedding his blood, as the prime object of it, but as the meritorious cause of our forgivenesse of sinne, through the Righteousnesse of God.§. 41.

And these two distinct respects have we to Jesus Christ ourforeign. Synod. Ephes. An…th. 8. Cyrill. Mediator, who is foreign, God and Man, in our Religious Worship, and all Acts of Communion with him: * As one with the Father we Honour him, Believe in him, Worship him, as we do the Father: As Mediatour depending on the Father, in subordination to him, so our Faith regards him, we Love him, and Hope in him, as the Way, Meanes, and Meritorious cause of our Acceptance with the Father. And in both these respects we have distinct communion with him.

3. That Jesus Christ our Mediatour, foreign, God and§. 42. Man, who is to be worshiped with Divine or Religious worship, is to be so worshped, because he is our Mediatour. That is, his mediation is the ratio quia, an unconquerable Reason, and Argument, why we ought to love him, feare him, believe in him, call upon him, and worship him in generall. This is the Reason still urged by the Holy Ghost, why we ought to worship him, Revel. 1. 5, 6. To him that loved us, and washed us from our sinnes in his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God, and his Father, to him be Glory, and Dominion for ever and ever. Who would not love him, who would not ascribe Honour to him, who hath so loved us, and washed us in his own blood? So Revel. 5. 12. there is an Acknowledgement of the power, riches, goodnesse, wisdome, strength, glory, and blessing, that belongs to him, because, as the Lamb, as Mediatour, he hath done so great things for us. And I dare say, there is none of his redeemed ones, who finds not the power of this motive upon his heart. The Love of Christ in his Mediation, the work he has gone through in it, and that which he continueth in, the benefits we receive thereby, andforeign. 2 Cor. 5. 14.2 Cor 5:14 our everlasting misery without it, are all chains upon our souls, to bind us to the Lord Christ in Faith, Love, and Obedience. But yet this Mediation of Christ is not the formall and fundamentall cause of our worship, (as shall be shewed) but only a motive thereunto. It is not the ratio formalis, & fundamentalis cultus; but only the ratio quia, or an Argument thereunto; Thus God dealing with his people, and exhorting them of old p. 418to worship and obedience, he says, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of Bondage, thou shall have no other Gods but mee. He makes his benefit of bringingExod. 20. 2, 3Exod 20:2Exod 20:3 them out of the land of Egypt, the reason of that eternally indispensab…e morall Worship, which he requires in the First Commandement; Not that that was the formall cause of that worship, for God is to be worshiped▪ as the first▪ Soveraigne Independant Good, as the absolute Lord of all, and fountain of all Good, whether he gives any such▪ benefits or no: But yet all his Mercies, all his Benefits, every thing he doth for us, in his Providence, in his Grace, as to the things of this life, or of another, are all Arguments and M…tives to presse us to the performance of all that Worship and Service, which we owe untoPsal. 103. 1, 2.Ps 103:1Ps 103:2 him, as our God and Creator. Praise the Lord O my soule, for all his Benefits, saith David: So is it in the case of our Mediator. For the work of his Mediation we are eternally obliged to render all Glory, Honour, and Thanksgiving to him. But yet his Mediation is not the formall cause thereof, but only an invincible motive thereunto. Let this therefore be our fourth and last Observation.

4. Though Jesus Christ, who is our Mediator, God and§. 43. Man, be to be worshiped with Divine worship, as we honour the Father, yet this is not as he is Mediator, but as he is God blessed for evermore. He is not to be worshiped under this red…plication, as Mediator, though he who is Mediator is to be worshiped; and he is to be worshiped because he is Mediator. That is, his Mediatory Office is not the formall cause and Reason of yeelding divine worship to him, nor under that consideration is that worship ultimatly terminated in him. The formall Reason of any thing strictly taken, is but one: and it is that, from the concession whereof, that thing or effect whereof it is the cause or Reason, without any other help doth arise, or result from it. Now the formall cause or Reason of all Divine Worship is the Deity, or Divine Nature: That being granted, Divine worship necessarily followes to be due: That being denyed, that worship also is, and is to be for ever denied. We may not worship them, who by nature are not God. If it could be supposed, that we might have had a Mediator, that should not have been God▪ (which was impossible) Religious worship would not have been p. 419yeelded to him. And if the Son of God had never been our Mediator, yet he was to be worshiped.

It is the **foreign. Athan. Epist. ad Adelph. Episc.Deity of Christ then, which is the fundamentall, formall cause and Reason, and the proper object of our worship; for that being granted, though we had no other Reason, or argument for it, yet we ought to worship him; and that being denyed, all other Reasons and Motives whatever would not be a sufficient cause, or warrant for any such proceeding.

It is true, Christ hath a power given him of his Father, above§. 44. all Angels, principalities, and powers: called all power in HeavenMath. 28. 18. Phil. 2. 7.Matt 28:18Phil 2:7 and Earth: a name above every name, giving him an excellency, an foreign, as he is foreign; as he is the King and head of his Church, which is to be acknowledged, owned, ascribed to him; and the consideration whereof, with his ability and willingnesse therein to succour, relieve, and save us to the uttermost, in a way of Mediation, is a powerfull, effectuall motive▪ (as was said before) to his worship. But yet this is an Excellency which is distinct from that, which is purely, and properly divine; and so cannot be the formall reason of religious worship. Excellency is the cause of honour: every distinct Excellency & eminence is the cause of honour: every distinct Excellen…y & eminence, is the cause of distinct honour and worship. Now what excellency or dignity soever is communicated by a way of delegation, is distinct, and of another kind▪ from that which is originall, infinite, and communicating: and therefore cannot be the formall cause of the same honour and worship.

I shall briefely give the reasons of the Assertion insisted on▪§. 45. and so passe on to what remaines.

The first is taken from the nature of divine, or religious worship. It is that whereby we ascribe the Honour, and Glory of all infinite perfections, to him, whom we so worship; To be the first Cause, the fountaine of all good, independent, infinitely wise, powerfull, alsufficient, almighty, alseeing, omnipotent, eternall, the only rewarder, as such we submit our selves to him religiously, in Faith, Love, Obedience, Adoration, and Invocation. But now we cannot ascribe these divine Excellencys, & perfections unto Christ, as Mediatour: for then his Mediation should be the reason why he is all this; which it is not: but it is from p. 420his divine nature alone, that so he is; and therefore thence alone is it that he is so worshiped.

2. Christ under this formall conception (as they speake,) as §. 46.Mediatour, is not God; but under this, as partaker of the nature of God. Christ as mediatour is an expression, as they speake, in the concreté, whose form… is its abstract. Now that is his mediation or Mediatory Office; and therefore if Christ under this formall conception of a Mediator be God, his Mediatory office, and God, must be the same: which is false and absurd. Therefore as such, or on that fundamentall account, he is not worshiped with divine worship.

3. Christ in respect of his mediation dependeth on God,§. 47. and hath all his power committed to him from God, Math. 11. 27. All things (saith he) are given me of my Father. And Math. 28. 18. All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth. Joh. 17. 2. Thou hast given unto him power over all flesh; and in innumerable other places is the same testifyed. God gives him as Mediatour his Name, that is, his Authority. Now God is worshiped because he is independent, he is, and there is none besides him. He is foreign and foreign, the first and the last; And if the reason why we worship God with divine worship be, because he is foreign, and independent: certainely that wherein Christ is dependent, and in subordination to him, as receiving it from him, cannot be the formall cause of attributing divine worship to him.

4. Christ in respect of his divine nature is equall with God,§. 48. that is, the Father: 2 Phil. 9, 10. but in respect of his Mediation, he is not equall to him, he is lesse then he: my Father (saith he) is greater then I. John 14. 28. now whatever is lesse then God, is not equall to him, is infinitely so; for between God, and that which is not God, there is no proportion neither in Being, nor Excellency. That Christ in respect of his Office is not equall to God is commonly received in that axiome, whereby the arguments thence taken against his Deity are answered; inaequalitas Officii non tollit aequalitatem naturae. Now certainely, that which is infinitely unequall to God, cannot be the formall cause of that worship which we yeild to him, as God.

5. That which shall cease, and is not absolutely Eternall, §. 49.cannot be the formall cause of our worship: for the formall reason of worship can no more cease, then God can cease to be p. 421God: for when that ceaseth, we cease to worship him; which whiles he is the Creator, and soveraigne Lord of his Creatures, cannot be. Now that the Mediatory Office of Christ shall cease the Holy Ghost affirmeth, 1 Cor. 15. 24. he then gives up his Kingdome to God; and there is the same Reason of the other parts of his Mediatory office. It is true indeed, the Efficacy of his Office abideth to Eternity, whilest the Redeemed ones live with God, and praise him; but as to the administration of his Office, that ceaseth, when at the last day the whole worke of it shall be perfectly consummated, & he hath saved to the uttermost all that come to God by him.

The sum of all is, Jesus Christ, God & man, our Mediatour,§. 50. who is to be worshiped in all things, & invocated as the Father, & whom we ought night and day to honour▪ praise, love, and adore, because of his mediation, and the office of it, which for our sakes he hath undertaken, is so to be honoured and worshiped▪ Not as Mediatour, exalted of God, and intrusted with all power and dignity from him, but as being equall with him, God to be bessed for ever; his divine nature being the fundamentall formall reason of that worship, and proper ultimate object of it. And to close up this digression, there is not any thing that more sharply and severely cuts the throat of the whole sophisticall plea of the Socinians, against the Deity of Christ, then this one observation. Themselves acknowedge, that Christ is to be worshiped with religious worship, and his name to be invocated, denying to account them Christians, whatever they are, who are otherwise minded, as Franciscus David, and those before mentioned were. Now if there be no possible reason to be assigned for the …ormall cause of this worship, but his Deity, they must either acknowledge him to be God, or deny themselves to be Christians.

Some directions (by the way) may be given from that which§. 51. hath been spoken, as to Guidance of our Soules in the worship of God: Or in our addresses to the Throne of Grace by Jesus Christ. What God hath discovered of himselfe unto us, he would have us act faith upon, in all that we have to deale with him in. By this we are assured we worship the true God, and not an Idol, when we worship him, who has revealed himselfe in his word, and as he has revealed himselfe. Now God hath declared p. 422himselfe to be three in one, for, there are three that beare witnesse in Heaven, & these three are one, 1 Joh. 5. So then is he to be worshiped; And not only so, but the Order of the three Persons in that Deity, the eternall internall order among themselves is revealed to us. The Father is of none; is foreign. The Sonne begotten of the Father: having the glory of the only begotten Sonne of God, and so is foreign, in respect of his Nature, Essence, and Being, not in respect of his Personality, which he hath of the Father. The Spirit is of the Father & the Son. He is often so called, the Spirit of God, & the spirit of the Son. For the Terme of proceeding, or going forth, I professe my selfe ignorant, whether it concerne chiefely his eternall personality, or his dispensation in the worke of the Gospell. The latter I rather like, of which this is no time to give my reasons. But be those expressions of what import soever, He is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Sonne: and is of them both, and from them both. God then, by us is to be worshiped, as he hath revealed the subsistence of the three Persons in this order, and so are we to deale with him in our approaches to him. Not that weare to frame any conception in our minds of distinct substances, which are not; but by Faith closing with this reve…ation of them, we give up our soules in contemplation and admiration of that we cannot comprehend.

2. There in an externall oeconomy and dispensation of the§. 52. persons, in reference to the work of our Salvation, & what we draw nigh to them for: so the Father is considered as the foundation of all Mercy, Grace, Glory, every thing that is dispensed in the Covenant, or revealed in the Gospell. The Son receiving all from him: and the Spirit sent by the Son, to effect and compleat the whole good pleasure of God in us, & toward us; & in, & under the consideration of this oeconomy, is God of us to be worshiped.

All things (saith Christ) are given me of the Father Math. 11. 27.§. 53. that is, to me, as Mediatour; therefore come to me: And in his prayer Joh. 17. 8. I have given to them the words thou gavest unto me, and they know that I came out from thee, and believe that thou hast sent me. So most fully Joh. 3. 34, 35. He is sent of God, and from the love of the Father to him as Mediatour are all things given him, it pleased the Father that in him all fullnes should dwell Joh. 1. 16. Col. 23. Joh. 5. 26. He hath given him to have life: that is, as he is Mediator, appointed him to be the fountaine of Spirituall life to his elect p. 423and Revel▪ 1. 1. the Revelation of the will of God is given unto Christ by the Father, as to this end of discovering it to the Church.

Hence ariseth the second way of faiths acting it selfe toward§. 54. God in our worship of him. It eyes the Father as the fountaine of this dispensation; and the Sonne as the Mediatour, as the storehouse, & the Spirit as immediate communicator thereof. Here also it considers the Sonne under those two distinct notions. 1. As the Ordinance and servant of the Father, in the great worke of Mediation: so it loves him, delights in him, and rejoyceth in the Wisedome of God, in finding out, and giving such a meanes of Life, Salvation, and union with himselfe; and so by Christ believes in God, even the Father. It considers him 2ly as the way of going to the Father, and there it rests, a… the ultimate object of all the Religious actings of the soule. So we are very often said, through, and by Christ, to believe in God, by him to have an accesse to God, and an entrance to the throne of grace. In this sence, I say, when we draw nigh to God, in any religious worship yea in all the first actings, and movings of our soules towards him in faith, and love, the Lord Christ is considered as Mediator, as clothed with his offices, as doing the will of the Father, as serving the designe of his Love: and so the soule is immediatly fixed on God, through Christ, being strengthned, supported, and sustained by the consideration of Christ, as the only procuring cause of all the good things we seeke from God, and of our interest in those excellencyes, which are in him, which make him excellent to us.

And this is the generall consideration that faith hath of§. 55. Christ, in all our dealings with God; we aske in his name, for his sake, goe to God on his account, through him, and the like; are strengthned and imboldned upon the interest of him as our High Priest, and intercessor, God the Father being yet alwayes …mediately in our eye, as the primary object of our worship. But yet now againe, this Christ, as Mediatour, so sent & intrusted by the Father, as above, is also one with the Father, God to be blessed for evermore. Faith also takes in this consideration, & so he who before was the meanes of fixing our faith on God, is thereupon become the proper object of our faith himselfe: we believe in Him, invocate, call upon him, worship him, put our trust in him, and p. 424live unto him. Over & above then the distinction that the Eternall Persons have in the manner of in-being in the same Essence, which also is the object of our Faith: that distinction which they have in the Externall oeconomy, is to be considered in our Religious worship of God: and herein is Christ partly eyed as the Fathers servant, the meanes, and cause of all our communion with God, and so is the medium of our worship, not the object; partly as God and man vested with that office, and so he is the object primary, and ultimate of it also: And this may give us (I say) some assistance to order our thoughts aright towards God, and some light into that variety of expressions, which we have in Scripture, about worshiping of God in Christ: and worshiping of Christ also. So is it in respect of the Spirit.

Having cleared the whole matter under consideration, it may§. 56. be worth the while, a little to consider the condition of our Adversaries, in reference to this businesse, wherein of all other things (as I said before) they are most intangled. Of the contests and disputes of Socinus with Franciscus David, about this businesse, I have given the Reader an account formerly, and the little successe he had therein. The man would faine have stood, when he had kicked away the ground from under his feet, but was not able. And never was he more shamefully gravel'd in any dispute, then in that which he had with Christianus Franken, about this businesse, whereof I shall give the Reader a brief account.

This Franken seems to have been a subtile fellow, who, denying§. 57. with Socinus that Christ was God, saw evidently, that it was impossible to find out a foundation of yeelding Religious worship or Adoration unto him. With him, about this matter, Socinus had a solemne dispute in the house of one aaDisputatio inter Faustum Socinum & Christianum Franken de honore Christi, id est, utrum Christus cum ipse perfectissima ratione deus non sit, religiosa tamen adoratione colendus sit, Habita, 14. Martii. An. 1584. in aula Christophori Paulicovii.Paulicovius. An. 1584. March 14. Franken in this Disputation was the opponent, and his first Argument is this. bbQuanta d…stantia inter Creatorem est & creaturam, tanta …sse debet differentia inter hononorem qui creatori exhibetur, & qui creaturae tribuitur: atqui inter creatorem & creaturam maxima est distantia; sive essentiam & naturam spectes, sive dignitatem & excellentiam: Ergo & maxima esse debet differentia inter honor…m Dei & Creaturae: at honor qui prae…ipue debetur Deo est religiosa adoratio, ergo haec non est tribuenda creaturae; ergo ne{que} Christo, quem tu puram esse creaturam fateris: de adorat. Christi disput. cum Christoph. Fran p. 4.Look how great distance there is between the Creator and the Creature, so p. 425great ought the difference to be between the Honour that is exhibited to the one, and the other: But between the Creator and the Creature there is the greatest difference, whether you respect nature and Essence, or dignity & excellency, and therefore there ought to be the greatest difference between the honour of the Creator and the Creature. But the honour that chiefely is due to God, is religious worship, therefore this is not to be given to a Creature, therefore not to Christ, whom you confesse to be a meer Creature. This I say was his first Argument. To which Socinus ccEtsi summ… est inter Deū & creaturam distantia, non tamen necesse est, tantam esse differentiam inter honore… Dei et creaturae, nam potest deus cui vult communicare honorem suum, Christo praesertim, qui dignus est tali▪ honore, qui{que} non sine grávissimis causis ad…ari jubetur in sacris literis. disputat. de adorat. Christi. pag. 6.Answers: Although the difference between God and the Creature be the greatest, yet it doth not follow, that the difference▪ between their honour must be so; for God can communicate his honour to whom he will, especially to Christ, who is worthy of such honour, and who is not commanded to be worshiped without weighty causes for it.

But by the favour of this Disputant, God cannot give that§. 58. honour that is due unto him upon the account of his Excellency and eminency, as he is the first cause of all things, and the last end, which is the ground of divine worship, to any one, who hath not his nature; The honour due to God, cannot be given to him who is not God. His honour, the honour of him as God, is that which is due to him as God; now that he should give that honour, that is due to him as God, to him which is not God, is utterly impossible and contradictory to its selfe. 2. We confesse that there be most weighty causes, why Christ should be worshiped, yet but one formall Reason of that worship we can acknowledg. And therefore when Franken had taken off this absurd answer, by sundry instances, & Reasons, Socinus is driven to miserable evasions: first he cryes out, ddAd illa omnia tes…imoni… ego possum respondere p. 7.I can answer all these testimonyes: to which when the other replyed, And I can give a probable answer to all the texts you produce, arguing the adoration of Christ: being driven to hard shifts he adds, ffDe veritate meae sententiae tam sum certus, quam certo scio me istum pileum manibus tenere. pag. 9.I am as certaine of the truth of my p. 426e Et ego ad omnes tuos locos, Christi adorationem …gen…es, probabilem p…ero responsionem …fferre. pag. 8.opinion, as I am, that I hold this hat in my hand; Which is a way of arguing that is commonly used by men that have nothing else to say. Wherefore Franken laughs at him, and tells him, ggTua ista certitudo non potest & mihi & aliis esse veritatis regula, nam reperietur alius quispiam, qui dicat, sententi…m tu… contrariam ex sacris libris▪ sibi esse persuasissimā.▪ Your certainty cannot be a rule of truth to me, and others, seeing another man may be found that will say, he is most certaine of the contrary opinion; so that prevailing nothing by this meanes, he is forced to turne the Tables, & instead of an answer, which he could not give to Frankens Argument, to become opponent, and urge an Argument against him: saith he, My certainty of this thing is as true, as it is true, that the Apostle saith of Christ, let all the Angels of God worship him But by the favour of this disputant, this is not his businesse. He was to answer Frankens Argument, whereby he proved, that he was not to be worshiped; and not to haveh Tam vera est hac de re mea▪ certitud…, quam verum est Apostolum de Christo dixisse, adorent eum omnes Angeli. pag. 10. brought a contrary Testimony, which is certainly to be interpreted according to the issue of the Reason insisted on; and this was the end of that first Argument between them.

The next Argument of Franken, whereby he brought his Adversarie§. 59. to another absurdity, had its rise frō a distinction given by Socinus, about a twofold religious worship: one kind whereof without any medium was directed to God; the other is yeilded him by Christ, as a meanes. The first he sayes is proper to God; the other belongs to iiDuplex est adoratio, altera quidem quae sine ullo medio dirigitur in Deum: altera vero per medium Christum defertur ad Deum; illa adoratio est soli Deo propria, haec vero convenit Christo tantum▪ pag. 11.Christ only: Now he is blind that doth not see, that for what he doth here to save himselfe, that he doth not begge the thing in question; who granted him that there wa a twofold Religious worship? One of this sort, and another of that? Is it a sufficient answer for a man to repeat his own Hypothesis, to answer an Argument lying directly against it. 2. He grants indeed upon the matter all that Franken desired; namely, that Christ was not to be worshiped with that worship, wherewith God is worshiped, and consequently not with Divine. But Franken asks him, whether this twofold worship was of the kkEstne utra{que} adoratio ista ejusde… speciei. pag. 11.same kind or no? To which he answered, that it was, because it llEst, quia adoratio Christi est ipsius Dei, quippe quae in Christo non conquiescat, sed per eum trans… in Deum. pag. 12. Hoc sequetur, quod ipsius etiam Christi imago sit adoranda, qui… una & ead…m adoratio respicit in imaginem, tanquam medium, in Christum tanquam finem, quemadmodum Thomas Aquinas docet, a quo tuum tu commentum es mutuatus. p. 13.abode not in Christ, but through him passed to God. Upon which after the interposition of another intangling Question, the man thus replys upō him. ^m This then will follow, that even the p. 427image of Christ is to be worshiped, because one & the sam… worship respects the image as the meanes, Christ as the end, as Th. Aquinas tels us, frō whom you borrowed your figment: Yet this very fancy Socinus seemes afterward to illustrate by taking a book in his hand, sliding it along upon a Table, shewing how it passed by some hands, where truely it was, but stayed not untill it came to the end: For which grosse Allusion he was sufficiently derided by his Adversary. I shall not insist on the other Arguments, wherewith on his own Hypothesis he was miserably gravel'd by this Franken: and after all his pretence of reason, forced to cry out, these are Philosophicall Arguments; and contrary to the Gospell. The Disputation is extant, with the notes of Socinus upon it, for his own vindication, which do not indeed one whit mend the matter. And of this matter thus farre.