word used to express the command, confirms this view. For it often occurs in fcriptare, as denoting the whole of that homage we owe to God, with respect to the revelation : he hath given us : Obferve and bear all these words which I command thee, Deut. xii. 28. And the people faid unto Jo fout, The Lord our God will we ferve, and his voice will we obey, literally, bear, Joshi xxiv. 24. If ye will not bear,-ta give glory to my Name, I will even fend a curfe upon you, Mal,

2. He that is of God, beareth God's words, John viij. 47

How this language was understood by holy Angels, appears from the addrefs of Gabriel to the Virgin. The Holy Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the power of the Higbeft Shall over fhadow thee: therefore alfo that Holy Thing which fhall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, Luke

35. Socinians have generally explained these words as fignifying, that Jefus is the Son of God, because of his miraculous conception. But it is not faid, that therefore he fhall be, but only that he fhall be called, the Son of God. Nor is he fo called, as if he derived his fonship from his miraculous conception, but becaufe this was a glorious manifeftation of it. That this is the fenfe, is evident from the connexion. As thefe words are an answer to Mary's que tion, How shall this be, feeing I know not a man? the Angel undoubtedly alludes to the prophecy of Isaiah; Bebold, a Virgin fball conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call bis Name Immanuel, chap. vii. 14. He informs Mary, that this fign fhould be fulfilled in her. "Therefore," he fays,

by this extraordinary circumstance, it fhall be clearly "manifefted that he, who fhall be born of thee, is indeed "the Son of God, who has been fo long promifed to his "Church in the character of a Divine Saviour *."

Per

fons

• Vid. Hoornbeek Sécin. Consutat. Vol. ii. p. 37, 38. Bisterfield cont. Crell. p. 303.

fons and things are, in fcripture, frequently faid to be called by any particular designation, when it is fimply meant, that it fhall undoubtedly appear that they really are what the defignation imports. Thus it is faid, He that is left in Zionfhall be called boly; that is, he fhall evidently appear to be boly. For this is to be accomplished, When the Lord fball bave washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion, Isa. iv. 3, 4. But we need go no farther than the prophecy to which the Angel refers. There it is faid, Thou shalt call bis Name Immanuel. Now, the meaning plainly is, that he, thus miraculously conceived, fhall appear to be God with us. For Mary did not give him this name, nor did he ordinarily receive it from others. His miraculous conception was the primary evidence of his being God MANIFEST in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. It may be further obferved, that that the particle dio, rendered therefore, does not neceffarily point out the cause of Chrift's filiation. For according to its frequent fignification, it fimply denotes the confequence of his miraculous conception.

It is remarkable, that the angel fpeaks of that which fhould be born of the Virgin, as a Holy Thing. This is not the language ordinarily used to denote a perfon. It evidently expreffes his conviction that Mary fhould be the mother of Jefus, only according to the flesh or human nature, which had no fubfiftence by itself. Language of the fame kind is employed by the angel who appeared to Jofeph: That which is conceived of her is of the Holy Ghoft, Matt. i. 20. When Gabriel fays that even, or also that Holy Thing fhould be called the Son of God; he declares that, in confequence of its perfonal union to the divine nature, it should be evident that this name belonged to the whole Person of the Mediator. But the language at the fame time clearly imports, that this name fhould by no means be wholly engroffed by the human nature.

The

The angel undoubtedly knew that, in this inftance, that which was to be born of a woman fhould be clean, because of the effential purity of the Perfon to which it was to be united. We may be affured, indeed, that he who was in all things made like unto his brethren, fin excepted, would have been affimilated to them in refpect of his conception, had not his infinite holiness precluded the poffibility of his becoming literally the Son of man. For thus he must have born the image of the earthy.

According to the judgment of many interpreters, both ancient and modern, by the power of the Highest oversbadowing the virgin, we are to understand the fecond Perfon of the adorable Trinity as, by his own agency, taking part of our nature t. If this be the cafe, the angel gives the most fatisfying reason why even this nature should not be excluded from the honour of the name under confideration, although properly belonging only to the Divine. For in confequence of this ineffable affumption, they are indiffolubly united in one perfon. It deferves our attention, that, although the influences of the Spirit are fometimes denominated power, this term is not used any where else as a perfonal defignation of the Spirit himself. But as the second Perfon feems, in the Old Teftament, to be defigned the arm of the Lord, Ifa. li. 9. liii. 1. which is a fynonymous phrase; in the New, he is exprefsly faid to be the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24.

CHA P. II.

Of the Teftimony of Devils, and of the Enemies of Chrift.

IT may not be improper to inquire, in what fenfe this

defignation was understood by fallen angels. Satan · ..feems

*Job xv. 14. xxv. 4.

Vid. Wolfi Cur. in loc. Luke xxiv. 49.

Leems to have founded his temptation on that ftriking teftimony given by the Father. And he lost no time in trying the claim that Jefus had to this character. For then was Fefus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil, Matt. iv. 1. Scarcely had that voice been uttered, This is my beloved Son, ere Jesus heard another, faying; If thou be the Son of God, command that these ftones be made bread, ver. 3. The tempter evidently interpreted this defignation as implying creating power, not merely in its effects, in the change of the very fubftance of things, but in the manner of operation, by a mere word of command. Whatever Socinians do, Satan feems to have understood this character, as denoting that the Perfon to whom it bedonged was that Word of JEHOVAH, who spake, and it was done, who commanded, and it stood faft, Pfal. xxxiii. 6. 9.

All the judicial power afcribed to Chrift is confidered by Socinians as the fruit of his obedience, and as conferred -after his work was finished. But the devils themselves knew that, even in the days of his humiliation, he had power to torment them. The idea of this power they connect with his Sonship. Therefore Legion faid; What have we to do with thee, Jefus, thou Son of God ? Ant they come bither to torment us before the time? Matt. viÏ- 29. This multitude of unclean fpirits acknowledged his abfolute authority over them and all creatures. They befought bim, that he would not command them to go out into the deep. They befought him, that he would fuffer them to enter into the fwine, Luke viii. 31, 32. In this gospel they are made to address him as Son of God moft High; and they evidently confidered him as heir of all his Majefty and Power. It was because he was Lord of the whole earth, that he had a right to deprive the Gadarenes of their property, in granting the request of the hellish legion.

The devils were at times fo overwhelmed with a sense

of

of his majefty, as practically to fhew that they reckoned him a Son entitled to the fame homage with his Father. For unclean fpirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, faying, Thou art the Son of God, Mark iii. 11. We are informed, in the fame Gofpel, that Legion, when he faw Jefus afar off, ran and worshipped him, chap. v. 6. They acknowledged him to be a Son of the fame nature with his Father. Therefore, they addreffed him as the Holy One of God, Mark i. 24. Luke iv. 34. When they call him the Holy One, they acknowledge him to be fupremely and effentially holy, as opposed to all creatures : For thus the effential holiness of the Divine Nature is often expreffed in the Old Teftament. When they call him the Holy One of God, they use an expreffion of the fame import with the the Son of God; denoting our Saviour's relation to the firft Perfon as his Father, a relation of fo peculiar a kind, that it not only excludes every other from any claim to partnership, but implies the poffeffion of all that holiness which is effential to the Father.i

These proofs may be of ufe to others. But they must be lost on those who are confirmed in our author's fentiments. For he denies that our Saviour was really tempted by the Devil; and agrees with fome modern infidels, in afferting that the Demoniacs were merely lunatics.. All this is *meant to perfuade the world, that there is neither angel nor Spirit.

- The Enemies of Jefus understood his claim of Sonship in fuch a fenfe, as on this ground to accufe him of blasphemy. It was by no means their idea, that by fimply calling God bis Father, or himself the Son of God, he was guilty of this crime. For the Jews arrogated this honour to themselves upon very flight grounds: We be not born of fornication;

Inftitutes, vol. ii. p. 436.