According to the method I proceeded in, in consideration of the precedent questions, shall I deal with this, and first consider briefly the scriptures produced to make good this monstrous, horrid assertion. The places urged and insisted on of old by the Anthropomorphites' were such as partly ascribed a shape in general to God, partly such as mention the parts and members of God in that shape, his eyes, his arms, his hands, etc. ; from all which they looked on him as an old man sitting in heaven on a throne, — a conception that Mr B. is no stranger to. The places of the first sort are here only insisted on by Mr B., and the attribution of a " likeness, image, similitude, person, and shape" unto God, is his warrant to conclude that he hath a visible, corporeal image and shape like that of a man ; which is the plain intendment of his question. Now, if the image, likeness, or similitude, attributed to God as above, do no way, neither in the sum of the words themselves nor by the intendment of the places where they are used, in the least ascribe or intimate that there is any such corporeal, visible shape in God as he would insinuate, but are properly expressive of some other thing that properly belongs to him, I suppose it will not be questioned but that a little matter will prevail with a person desiring to emerge in the world by novelties, and on that account casting ofif that reverence of God which the first and most common notions of mankind would instruct him into, to
1 " Sine corpore ullo Deum vult esse, ut GvebcI dicunt uffafj.a.rov." — Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. 12, de Platone. " Mens soluta quoedam et libera, segregata ab omni con- crctione mortali." — Id., Tusc. Qusest. lib. i. 27.
2 " Ex his autem intelligitur, membra humani corporis, quaa Deo in sacris Uteris ascribuntur, uti et partes quajdam aliarum animantium, quales sunt aloe, non nisi im- proprie Deo ti-ibui ; siquidem a spiritus natura prorsus abhorrent. Tribuuntur autem Deo per metaphorara cum metouymia conjunctam. Nempequia facultates vel actiones Deo conveniunt, illarum similes, quie membris illis, aut insunt, aut per ea exercentur." — Crell. de Deo, sive de Vera Pielig. lib. i. cap. xv. p. 107.
' Epiph. tom. i. lib. iii. H?eres. Ixx. ; Theod., lib. iv. cap. x.
100 VlNDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
make bold with God and the Scripture for his own ends and pur- poses.
1. I say then, first, in general, if the Scripture may be allowed to expound itself, it gives us a fair and clear account of its own intend- ment in mentioning the image and shape of God, which man was created in, and owns it to be his righteousness and holiness ; in a state whereof, agreeable to the condition of such a creature, man be- ing created is said to be created in the image and likeness of God, — in a kind of reseiiiblance unto that holiness and righteousness which are in him, Eph. iv. 23, 24, etc. What can hence be concluded for a corjDoreal image or shape to be ascribed unto God is too easily dis- cernible. From a likeness in some virtue or property to conclude to a likeness in a bodily shape, may well befit a man that cares not what he says, so he may speak to the derogation of the glory of God.
2. For the particular places by Mr B. insisted on, and the words used in them, which he lays the stress of this proposition upon : the first two words are ^^f^'l and OPVj both of which are used in Gen. i. 26. The word ^^^'^ is used Gen. v. 1, and D^^, Gen. ix. 6; but neither of these words doth, in its genuine signification, imply any corporeity or figure. The most learned of all the rabbins, and most critically skilful in their language, hath observed and proved that the proper Hebrew word for that kind of outward form or similitude is I^J^; and if these be ever so used, it is in a metaphorical and borrowed sense, or at least there is an amphiboly in the words, the Scripture sometimes using them in such subjects where this gross, corporeal sense cannot pos- sibly be admitted: ^V^^''^^ ^''^1?^ — " Like the poison of a serpent," Ps. Iviii. 4. There is, indeed, some imaginable, or rather rational, resemblance in the properties there mentioned, but no corporeal similitude. Vide Ezek. i. 28, and xxiii. 14 (to which may be added many more places), where if ^^^"^ shall be interpreted of a bodily similitude, it will afford no tolerable sense. The same likewise may be said of 0?^*. It is used in the Hebrew for the essential form rather than the figure or shape; and being sijoken of men, signifies rather their souls than bodies. So it is used, Ps. Ixxiii. 20; which is better translated, " Thou shalt despise their soul," than their " image." So where it is said, Ps. xxxix. 6, " Every man walketh in a vain show" (the same word again), however it ought to be interpreted, it cannot be understood of a corporeal similitude. So that these testi- monies are not at all to his purpose. What, indeed, is the image of God, or that likeness to him wherein man was made, I have partly mentioned already, and shall farther manifest, chap. vi. ; and if this be not a bodily shape, it will be confessed that nothing can here be concluded for the attribution of a shape to God; and hereof an ac- count will be given in its proper place.