But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other con- troversies than what lies directly before us, and seeing the adversaries of the truth we contend for do, in words at least, grant that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, or the only true God, I shall not farther show the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession, but take it for granted that to us " there is one God, the Father," 1 Cor. viii. 6 ; see John xvii. 3. So that he who is not the Father, who was not so from eternity, whose paternity is not equally co-existent unto his Deity, is not God unto us.
III. Thirdly, It is asserted and believed by the church that Jesus CJirist is God, the eternal Son of God; — that is, he is proposed, de- clared, and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God, that is to be served, worshipped, believed in, obeyed as God, upon the account of his own divine excellencies. And whereas we believe and know that
OMf^aged in teaching his heretical views at Rome in a.d. 139. He held two original smd seminal principles, — the invisible and nanick-ss one, " the Good ;" and the visible God, " the Creator." Epiiihanius ascribes to him a third, — " tlie Devil." The second, accoi-ding to Iiis system, was the God of tiio Old Testament, the au- thor of evil; and Christ was the Sou of the first, sent by him to overtiirow the do- minion of God the Creator. He held tliat tliero was an irreconcilable opposition between God the Creator revealed in tlic OKI Testament Sci'iptnres, and the Cliris- tianGod i-evealed in the New. One ground on wliicli he mainfainod tliis prepos- terous notion is mentioned and explained above by l)r Owen. 'I'ertullian devotes five books to the refutation of the errors of Marcion. — Ed.
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he was man, that he was born, lived, and died as a man, it is declared that he is God also ; and that, as God, he did pre-exist in the form of God before his incarnation, which was effected by voluntary actings of his own, — which could not be without a pre-existence in anothei- nature. This is proposed unto us to be believed upon divine testi- mony and by divine revelation. And the sole inquiry in this matter is, whether this be proposed, in the Scripture as an object of faith, and that which is indispensably necessary for us to believe? Let us, then, nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter, and that in the order of the books of it, in some particular instances which at present occur to mind ; as these that follow : — -
Ps. xlv. 6, " Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever." Applied unto Christ, Heb. i. 8, " But unto the Son he saith. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever."
Ps. Ixviii. 17, 18, " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels : the LoRD is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive : thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." Applied unto the Son, Eph. iv. 8-10, " Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth ? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things."
Ps. ex. 1, " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand." Applied unto Christ by himself. Matt. xxii. 44.
Ps. cii. 25—27, " Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." Declaimed by the apostle to be meant of the Son, Heb. i. ] 0-1 2.
Prov. viii. 22-31, " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up froin everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth : while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there : when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters sliould not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth : then I was ]>y him, as one brought up
384 THE DOCTRINE OF THE
with liim: and I was daily his dehght, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable i)art of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men."