were but imperfect, and 'tis plain that his own Apostles hardly believed it. It is certain, that after the Resurrection of Chrift, and the Days of Pentecoft, the Apoftles by degrees had more divine Light let into their Souls by the Holy Spirit, whereby they arrived at a fuller Knowledge of the Glory of his Perfon and his Godhead; yet 'tis very probable that the Idea which I, have before defcribed, is the highest they attained in his Life-time; and that not only on the account of the Arguments I have used already, but because this Notion was fo fixed and rooted in their Minds, that they generally described our Lord Jefus Chrift in this manner, in all their firft Miniftrations of the Gospel, and they thought it proper to teach others in the fame Manner as they had learned. So St. Peter, Acts 2. 22. tells the Men of Ifrael, Jefus of Nazareth was a Man approved of God among you by Miracles, and Wonders, and Signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know, t. 24. whom God has raifed up, having loofed the Pains of Death. Again, Acts 3. 13. The God of our Fa thers hath glorify'd his Son Jefus, whom ye delivered up, &c. And he cites Mofes to fhew what he was, . 22. A Prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you of your Brethren, like unto me. So when he preach'd to Cornelius a Roman, Acts 10. 38. God hath anoint ed ed Jefus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghoft and with Power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were opprefs'd with the Devil, for God was with him, &c. And St. Paul himself preached Chrift under this inferior Character at first, tho' he came not a whit behind the chiefeft of the Apostles in Knowledge, 2 Cor. 12. 11. and Gal. 2. 6. In his Sermon at Athens, he fays, God hath appointed a Day in the which he will judge the World in Righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given Affurance unto all Men, in that he hath raised him from the Dead, Acts 17:31. Thus they begun with the human Nature and the Offices of Chrift, and the peculiar affifting Prefence of God with him, before they taught any thing of the Mystery of his own Godhead or perfonal Union with the Divine Nature. And indeed there is a good deal of Reason, why they should not at first reveal and display the glorious Doctrine of the Trinity and the Godhead of Jefus, though they had known it never fo well. It was not fit they should break in all at once upon the blind Jewish Nation, nor upon the blinder Gentiles, with the Blaze of Chrift's Divinity. For (to speak humanly) it would have fill'd the Minds of Strangers with furprizing Doubts and Scruples, and raifed in them an utter Prejudice against all further Attention to the Gospel, if they had been told told at first of Three Persons who were each of them the true God, and yet all Three but one God. This was not proper to be the very firft Leffon in Chriftianity. The great Work of the Converfion of the World was done by degrees, as human Nature could bear. Thus God hath treated Men in all Ages, and led them on from Faith to Faith, Rom. 1. 17. Thus our Lord Jefus Chrift treated his Difciples, John 16. 12. I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. And thus the Apoftles treated the Jews and Gentiles, to whom they preached, 1 Cor. 3. 2. and fed them with Milk and not with Meat, for they were *There is a remarkable Inftance to this purpofe in the Conferences of the Danish Miffionaries with the Heathens of Malabar. The Miffionary Speaking of the Son of God, the Malabarian reply'd, Who is his Son? and is he alfo God? Miff. He is God bleffed for ever. Malab. But pray Sir, recollect yourself, have not you been juft now inveighing against Plurality of Gods? And now I find, you have yourselves more than one; the Father is God, and the Son is God, then you have two Gods. Miff. We do not believe two Gods, but one only God; tho' at the fame time, we firmly believe, that there are three Persons in one Divine Effence; and yet these three Perfons are not three, but one God: And this we believe as a great Myftery, &c. And then he goes on to explain it by the Understanding and the Will proceeding from the Soul, which are yet really one and the fame thing with the Soul. Upon which the Malabarian makes this Reply; I find, faid he, that you, with your fubtil ways of arguing, can make a Trinity confiftent with Unity; and if your Explication is abfolutely neceffary to make others understand what you mean, pray, allow us the fame Advantage of explaining the Doctrine of our Religion, and putting it in the most favourable Light we can, for the excluding of the Abfurdities imputed to us? And this once granted us, 'twill follow, that our Plurality does not destroy the Unity of God, no more than your Trinity does. We worship the Gods upon no other account, than because they are the Vicegerents of the Almighty, whofe Admi nistration were not able to bear it. Thus by flow degrees they led them from the Knowledge of Jefus, the Son of Man, to the Knowledge of Jefus the Son of God; from the Discovery of Jefus the Prophet, to the Discovery of Jesus the Meffiah, the Prieft and the King; from the Revelation of Chrift the Saviour of Men to the Revelation of Chrift the eternal Life and the true God; from the Doctrine of the Prefence of God with him, to the Doctrine of the perfonal Union with Godhead, in whom dwells all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who is God over all bleffed for ever by virtue of this glorious and personal Union with the eternal God. niftration he imploys in governing the World, as he did employ them at the beginning, in creating and forming the fame. And our God appearing among Men at fundry times under different Shapes, had at every Apparition a different Name given him, which contributed very much to the multiplying of the Number of our Images; whereas in truth, they are but different Reprefentations of the fame God, under different Afpects and Appearances. See Conference Numb. 11. Now if the Apofiles bad dealt fo imprudently with the Heathens or with the Jews, by preaching the Doctrine of the Trinity at firft in the fullest Expreffions, they had embarass'd the Minds of their Hearers, and expofed themselves and their Doctrine of Salvation by Jefus the Meffiah to fuch Difficulties and wrangling Difputations. But you find no Controverfies of this kind raised in their firf Preaching. QUESTION III QUESTION III. Could the Son of God properly enter into a Covenant with his Father to do and fuffer what was necessary to our Redemption, without a human Soul? I SECT. I. T is granted that the Generality of our the Divine Nature or Godhead of Chrift had an Existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary, and became incarnate; yet whenfoever they would reprefent the exceeding great Love of the Father in fending his Son into our World, that he might fuffer and die for us, and when they would defcribe the tranfcendent Love of Chrift, in his coming into our World, and his fubmitting to Death for our fakes, they ufually reprefent it in fuch Language as can never agree to his Divine Nature in any Propriety of Speech, but only to the pre-exiftent human Soul of Christ, with its Defcent into Flesh and Blood, and the Suf ferings |