OF THE NATUEE OF GOD. 87
his truly eternal divine nature, still affirm him to be " Homo Deifi- catus" and " Deus Factus,"^ and plead " pro vera deitate Jesu Christi," denying yet, with him, that by nature he is God, of the same essence with the Father ; so, indeed, grossly and palpably fall- ing into and closing with that abomination which they pretend above all men to avoid, in their opposition to the thrice holy and blessed Trinity. Of those monstrous figments in Christian religion which on this occasion they have introduced, of making a man to be an eternal God, of worshipping a mere creature with the worship due only to the infinitely blessed God, we shall speak afterward.
We confess that to us there is one God, but one God, and let all others be accursed. " The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth," let them be destroyed, according to the word of the Lord, " from under these heavens," Jer. x. 1 1. Yet we say, moreover, that "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one," 1 John v. 7. And in that very place whence Mr B. cuts off his first answer, as it is asserted that there is " one God," so " one Lord" and " one Spirit," the fountain of all spiritual distributions, are mentioned; which whether they are not also that one God, we shall have farther occasion to consider.
To the next query concerning this one God, who he is, the words are, " The Father, from whom are all things ;" in themselves most true. The Father is the one God whom we worship in spirit and in truth ; and yet the Son also is " our Lord and our God," John xx. 28, even " God over all, blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5. The Spirit also is the God "which worketh all in all," 1 Cor. xii. 6, 11. And in the name of that one God, who is the "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," are we baptized, whom we serve, who to us is the one God over all. Matt, xxviii. 19. Neither is that assertion of the Father's being the one and only true God any more prejudicial to the Son's being so also, than that testimony given to the everlasting deity of the Son is to that of the Father, notwithstanding that to us there is but one God. The intendment of our author in these questions is to answer what he found in the great exemplar of his Catechism, the Racovian, two of whose questions are comprehensive of all that is here delivered and intended by Mr B.^ But of these things more afterward.
> Smalc. de Divinit. Jes. Christ, edit. Eacov. anno 1608, per Jacob. Sienienskia ; Volkel. de Vera Eelig. lib. v. cap. x. pp. 425, 468, et antea, p. 206 ; Cat. Eac. cap. i., de Cognit. Christ, qutest. 3 ; Confession de Foi, des Chrestiens, qui croycnt en un seul Dieu Ic Fere, etc., pp. 18, 19 ; Jonas Schlichtingius, ad Meisner. artic. de Filio Dei, p. 387 ; Socin. Eesp. ad Weik. p. 8 ; et passim reliqui.
2 " Exposuisti quoe cognitu ad salutem de essentia Dei sunt prorsus nccessaria, expone qute ad earn rem vehcmenter utilia esse censeas. M. Id quidera est ut cognos- camus in essentia Dei unam tantum personam esse. Demonstra hoc ipsum. R. Hoc sane vcl bine patere potest, quod essentia Dei sit una numero ; quapropter plurcs numero personce, in ea esse nullo pacto possunt. Quajnam est htec una persona divina ? R. Est illc Deusunus, Domini nostri Jesu Clmsti Pater, 1 Cor.viii. 6."— Cat. Eac. cap. i., de Cognit. Dei, de Dei Essentia.
88 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
His next inquiry is after the nature of this one God, which he answers with that of our Saviour in John iv. 24, " God is a spirit/' In this he is somewhat more modest, though not so wary as his great master, Faustus Socinus, and his disciple (as to his notions about the nature of God) Vorstius. His acknowledgment of God to be a spirit frees him from sharing in impudence in this particular with his master, who will not allow any such thing to be asserted in these words of our Saviour. His words are (Fragment. Disput. de Adorat. Christi cum Christiano Franken, p. 60), " Non est fortasse eorum verborum ea sententia, quam plerique omnes arbitrantur : Deum scilicet esse spiritura, neque enim subaudiendum esse dicit aliquis verbum iffrt, quasi vox miZi^a, recto casu accipienda sit, sed a.'Trh xoii/ov repetendum verbum ^Jjrg/j quod paulo ante prsecessit, et -ffviu/j^a quarto casu accipiendum, ita ut sententia sit, Deum quasrere et postu- lare spiritum." Vorstius also follows him, Not. ad Disput. 3, p. 200- Because the verb substantive " is" is not in the original expressed (than the omission whereof nothing being more frequent, though I have heard of one who, from the like omission, 2 Cor. v. 17, thought to have proved Christ to be the "new creature" there intended), con- trary to the context and coherence of the words, design of the argu- ment in hand insisted on by our Saviour (as he was a bold man), and emphaticalness of significancy in the expression as it lies, he will needs thrust in the word " seeketh," and render the intention of Christ to 1)6, that God seeks a spirit, that is, the spirit of men, to worship him. Herein, I say, is Mr B. more modest than his master (as, it seems, following Crellius,^ who in the exposition of that place of Scripture is of another mind), though in craft and foresight he be outgone by him; for if God be a spirit indeed, one of a pure spiri- tual essence and substance, the image, shape, and similitude, which he afterwards ascribes to him, his corporeal posture, which he asserts (ques. 4), will scarcely be found suitable unto him. It is incumbent on some kind of men to be very wary in what they say, and mindful of what they have said ; falsehood hath no consistency in itself, no more than with the truth. Smalcius in the Bacovian Catechism is utterly silent as to this question and answer. But the consideration of this also will in its due place succeed.