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THE most full and grand idea of the object of worship that ever was or will be prefented to the thoughts of angels or men, is that af A GLORIFIED

MAN EXERCISING AND DISPLAYING

EVERY

DIVINE PERFECTION: and all who in worshiping God have not their minds fixed on this object, may very warrantably be faid to worship they know not what*.

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REMARK S.

S I do not find, that the author of the letters, &c. has any where in his performance taken upon him expressly to contradict the Scripture-doctrine of the Trinity, to impugn the true and fupreme Deity of Jefus Chrift, or deny the hypoftatical union between the divine and human nature in his perfon, I am not a little furprised, that he fhould have chofen to exprefs himself in this manSner, which smells rank of the Socinian error c cerning the perfon of Chrift. If by the man Chrift is understood the person of Chrift, God-man Emmanuel, it is no doubt true, that he is the image of the invifible God, the brightnefs of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon, in which all his infinite perfections are fully difplayed and manifefted; and fo a perfect image lofing nothing of the original in the reprefentation; and in this re

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fpect

fpect he is the object of divine worship equally with the Father and the Holy Ghoft. But if by a glorified man exercising and displaying every divine perfection, is meant the human nature of Chrift confidered abstractly, or as feparated from the divine; this cannot be faid to be a true and perfect image of the Deity, nor to be the object of worship at all, and far lefs the highest object of worship.

As the human nature of Chrift is ftill a created nature, to affirm, that it is capable of exercifing and difplaying every divine perfection, and is the object of worship, the higheft object of, worship, would be blafphemy, and lay a foundation for grofs idolatry; for giving that worship to a glorious creature which belongs only to the infinitely bleffed and glorious God. The human nature, which the Son of God has affumed into a perfonal union with the divine, is indeed the medium by which the infinite perfections and glory of God are illuftriously displayed, and manifefted to the fons of men; but it would be a ftrange method of reafoning, to argue from thence, that an idea of it, however dignified and glorified, is the fulleft and moft grand idea that any can have of the object of worship. If by an idea of the object of worship the letter-writer had meant only a display or manifeftation thereof; and by affirming, "that the moft

full and grand idea of the object of worship that "ever was or will be prefented to the thoughts of angels or men, is that of a glorified man exercifing and difplaying every divine perfection," intended no more than to affert, that the most near and full display of the divine perfections and glory that ever was or will be made to man, is made in the face and perfon of Chrift; it might be allowed that the fentiment is juft; though, at the fame time, it must be owned that the terms in

which

which he has thought fit to exprefs it, are very improper and abftrufe, and fuch as may be underffood in a very unfound sense.

But after all, as it would be a ftrange abufe of language to put the idea of the object of worship only for the manifestation of it, and the most full and grand idea of the object of worship for the clearest and most full manifeftation of it; and by the idea of a glorified man to understand no more than fuch a display of the infinite perfections and glory of God, or to fpeak in our author's dialect, of the true character of the Deity, as is most adapted to the capacities of finite and weak creatures; his words can hardly admit of a found interpretation. The heavens are faid to declare the glory of God, and the firmament to fhew his handy-work; and his infinite perfections are, in fome degree, manifested in all the creatures; which are therefore like fo many glaffes, or mediums, through which we may behold the glory of the invisible God: but it would be very abfurd, on this account, to call an idea of the heavens and the earth, or of any other creature, an idea of the Creator. Thus though it fhould be granted, that the nearest and most full discovery of the divine perfections and glory that creatures, men or angels are capable of, is made to them in and by the human nature of Chrift as now glorified, and advanced to the highest dignity and perfection that a finite and created nature is capable of; it would be very improper and abfurd to affirm, that the idea of that nature thus dignified and glorified, is the most full and grand idea *

*

of

Though the word idea may denote any conception of the mind, even that which is purely intellectual, and bears no affinity to fenfe or imagination;

yet

of the object of worship that ever was or will be prefented to the thoughts of angels or men.

I cannot conceive what could induce Palamon to bestow fuch an encomium upon the idea of Chrift as a glorified man, while he takes no notice of the divinity of his perfon, if it was not his fuppofing that the nearest and most immediate difplay of his divine glory, and the glory of his Father, is made to finite understandings in and by his human nature. But though this fhould be admitted, from what has been already obferved it appears, that it will by no means warrant his affertion; that "the most full and grand idea of the "object of worship that ever was or will be pre"fented to the thoughts of angels or men, is that "of a glorified man, &c." for, whatever discovery of the perfections and glory of God is made in and by the human nature of Chrift, our views muft never terminate in the medium by which they are manifested, but rife as high as to fix upon the divine perfon of the Son of God, or upon JEHOVAH, the Three-one God, whofe glory is thus manifefted. And it is evident, that a view by faith of the infinitely glorious God, who is the fole object of religious worship, muft carry us

yet, as it moft ufually fignifies fome kind of image, form, or fimilitude of the object which is thereby reprefented to the understanding; when we fpeak of God the object of worship, and of divine things, I think i would be safer to lay afide the use of it altogether. It is none of the words which the Holy Ghoft teacheth; and when we fpeak of ideas of God, of Christ, of the object of worship, &c. it is apt to occafion airy. and vain fpeculations concerning thofe things which we can have no fuitable views, or conceptions of, but by faith, in the light of the word and Spirit of

God.

higher,

higher, infinitely higher, than the idea of anglo rified man.

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When the Scripture teaches us to conceive of the Son of God, our bleffed Redeemer, as a di vine perfon, as God manifeft in the fiefh, the great God our Saviour, God over all blessed for ever, J HOVAH, the independent, felf-exiftent and eternal God; it certainly inftructs us to form higher and more noble conceptions of him, than can be supposed to be included in the idea of a glorified man; who, confidered fimply as fuch, is not the object of divine worship at all, much less the highest object of worship. For though the man Chrift is the object of worship, yet he is fo, not as man, but as a divine a divine perfon denominated from his human nature, which never had any feparate fubfiftence, nor can warrantably be conceived of, but as perfonally united to the Son of God: our author, indeed, in the defcription he is pleased to give us of what he calls the moft full and grand idea of the object of worship, be fides the idea of a glorified man, includes that of one exercifing and displaying every divine perfection. But when he fpeaks of a glorified man exercifing and difplaying every divine perfection, the reader must be at a lofs to know, whether he means any more than fuch a deified man, as the Socinians acknowledge Jefus Chrift to be, fince he rose from the dead and afcended to heaven. For though they deny the true and fupreme Deity of the Son of God, and that he had any existence before his incarnation; they allow that after his

**

1 Tim. iii. 16. Tit. ii. 13. Rom. ix. 5. Ifa. xlv. 24. Jerem. xxiii. 6.

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