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21, He that doth the will of my Father,' &c. Chap. xii. 50, He that doth the will of my Father, &c. he is my brother,' &c. See the same, Mark iii. 35.

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John iv. 34, My meat, says Christ, is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.'

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vi. 38, Jesus says, 'I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that

sent me.'

........ X, 37, If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.'

Heb. x. 7, 9, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.' John v. 8, He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.'.

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Rev. xxii. 14, Blessed are they that do his commandments.'

Rom. v. 19, St. Paul speaking of Christ says, By the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous.'

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Phil. ii. 8, Christ became obedient unto death.'

CHAP. XLVIII.

The words of St. John v. 23,-That all should honour the Son, even as the Father-examined.

THE words, and KA☺NE, us and even as, signify some sort or degree of likeness; but very seldom signify a strict equality in subjects compared.

In the Greek classics ws is often used to compare subjects, but does not imply an absolute likeness, in all respects.

Mat. vi. 10, In the Lord's prayer, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.' Luke xi. 2.

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Mat. xix. 19, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' No writer ever understood this command in a strict and absolute sense.

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Gal. iv. 14, But ye [Galations] received me [Paul] as an angel of God-as Christ Jesus.' The same

word is frequently used in the book of Revelations, in the same manner and sense.

Katus is also used in the same manner; as appears from the texts below. Luke vi. 36, 'Be ye merciful, as your Father is merciful:' parallel to Mat. v. 48, Be ye perfect, as, TTEP, your heavenly Father is perfect.'

John v. 23,That all should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, who sent him,' is most absurdly urged by the tritheists. As if a Son; a prophet; a person sent from God; a worshipper of God; obedient to the laws of God; who preached those laws; submitted his will to the will of God; owned his Father to be his, and our only true God; died for his religion, and the cause of God; was raised from the dead by God; sits on God's right-hand; intercedes with God; could possibly be conceived to expect his disciples should honour him with the very same divine honours as they offered, by his command and example, to his God, and their God.

If the very same numerical acts of honour and worship are offered to Father and Son as two persons, that is gross, flat ditheism: if as one God, one infinite being, that is direct Sabellianism. But here it may be truly observed, and with astonishment too, that though many of the ancient and modern apostate Christians urge this text in defence of the equality of the two first persons, yet none of them, in any, of their public liturgies, have in practice conformed to their own profession; but mostly and chiefly worshipped the Father!

John xvii. 11, 22, Christ prays to the Father, that his disciples may be one [in mind, &c.] as he and the Father were one: the text is so understood by all judicious commentators, and must be so understood.

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1 John ii. 6, He who saith, he abideth in him [Christ] ought to walk, even as he [Christ] walked; -purify himself, as he [Christ] is pure.'

iii. 3, 7, My little children, let no man de

ceive you he who doth righteousness is righteous, even as he [Christ] is righteous.'

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In these three last texts, there is an undoubted and very great inequality intended. in the word, as, even our adversaries themselves being judges; and so there is in the same word, John v. 23, as the whole content manifestly shews. For when the ensnaring Jews, like our modern apostate Christians, falsely inferred, that Christ, by saying God was his Father, made himself equal or like unto God, ver. 18, Jesus answers them with a double asseveration, Verily, verily'—that is, I assure you of this, it is a very great and most certain truth, that the Son can do nothing of himself: the Father shews the Son, what he himself is doing,' ver. 19, 20. See many other passages following in the same chapter, to the same purpose. Yet such is the blindness of the present age, that Christ himself is not believed, when he rejects the modern false notions of him in the strongest and plainest words that can be spoken.

- In short, if there was in the whole New Testament but that one place, John v. 23, where the word Kate's was used, yet the context alone would determine every candid reader to understand it as a comparison not of two strictly equal, but in a lower degree, and in an inferior sense and meaning, by the vastly different predications of the two beings compared, viz. God and Christ: and the intolerable consequences that must attend the trinitarian scheme, if the sense of its patrons were allowed to be true. For if it be admitted, that in this text, that all persons should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father,' the words [even as] were intended to mean strictly, that the same kind and degree of honour, even the highest, was to be given to the Son, as was given to the Father: then it must follow, that Christians must necessarily have two supreme objects of worship and adoration; which is an intolerable consequence.

Besides, to honour these two objects equally in all

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respects would be impossible. For the Son who re-r ceived, could not be honoured as the Father, who gave or committed all power to the Son,' and 'sent him,' &c. The Son could not be honoured as Father, or a first person in their trinity; nor as undered, nor independent, nor unbegotten; when we are› directed by Jesus Christ himself to pray to the Father,' and to worship the Father,' Mat. iv. 10, John iv. 23 and it is no where required, that his disciples should pray to, or offer praise and thanksgiving to Christ; and when Christ himself actually paid all those duties to the Father, chap. xvii. how can we possibly be persuaded, from his example or direction, that we are to honour him as (that is, equally as, or as much as) we honour the Father? It is a most remarkable truth, in fact, that although some divines, some creeds have affirmed, and expressly declared, that equal honour and glory ought to be given to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; yet this has never been ordered or practised, in any of the ancient or modern churches or liturgies; but most of the prayers have, either only or chiefly, been directed to God the Father, and few to the Son and Holy Ghost. So that in this the universal practice of all Christians hath never yet conformed to that false Athanasian principle, of equal honour and glory, &c.

CHAP. XLIX.

The writers of the New Testament are very careful, when they style Christ Lord, to distinguish him from the Lord his God.

KYPIOE, i. e. Lord or Master, must be distinguished by the objects or persons to whom it is applied; and not always understood in the highest sense; as may be seen by many texts in the Old and New Testament.

N. B. The LXX use Kúpos for master in our tongue above twenty times, Gen. xxiv. and in other

places not a few. The 12th verse, Abraham's servant gives the title of Kupios to the God of Abraham ; O Lord God of my master Abraham.?-1 Sam. xxv. 30, applied in the same sentence to God and David. The same word applied to kings, &c. and to God the King of kings very often.

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1 Cor. viii. 5, 6, As there are gods' so called'gods many,' and lords many;---but to us (Christians) there is one God the Father---and one Lord (a teacher or master) Jesus Christ.'---N. B. In this passage or context teacher seems to be meant by St. Paul; for Christ was the only teacher; but God the only Lord, or Lord of lords.'

1. If there are many gods so called,' they must be distinguished: and if there are many lords,' they mnst also be distinguished.

2. St. Paul actually and expressly makes the distinction, saying, but to us (Christians) there is but one God, the Father---and one Lord' (or chief master) that is instructor, Jesus Christ.'

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3. In very many texts, our present English translators render Kupios, Lord; whereas it would be more fitly and properly rendered, as Aidάonaños, master, teacher, or instructor, or sir; as the translators have done sometimes; three times in St. Matthew, seven times in St. John, and seven times in. the Acts, 4. Jesus was made Lord and Christ,' Acts ii. 36, by him who is Lord of lords.' Acts ii. 33, compared with 1 Tim. vi, 14, 15, 16.

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5. The Lord. God,' and the Lord Christ,' are usual, but they are very distinct characters of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ. Mat. iv. 7, Christ himself mentions the first character, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' Again iv. 10, xxii. 37, shalt love the Lord thy God.'-Note, Christ himself, Mark xii. 29, 30, out of Deut. vi. 4, saith, The Lord our God is one Lord.' Luke i. 32, God is most evidently distinguished from Christ. Luke ii. 26, The Lord's Christ;' i. e. Christ who was the Son, or apostle, or messenger of the Lord God, by anoint

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