CHAPTER VIII.
An entrance into the examination of the Racovian Catechism in the business of the deity of Christ — Their arguments against it answered; and testimonies of the eternity of Christ vindicated.
III. Although the testimonies and arguments for the deity of Christ might be urged and handled to a better advantage, if liberty might be used to insist upon them in the method that seems most na- tural for the clearing and confirmation of this important truth, yet that I may do two works at once, I shall insist chiefly, if not only, on those texts of Scripture which are proposed to be handled and answered by the author or authors of the Bacovian Catechism; which work takes up near one-fourth part of their book, and, as it is well known, there is no part of it wherein so much diligence, pains, sophistry, and cun- ning are employed as in that chapter, "Of the person of Christ," which by God's assistance we are entering upon the consideration of.
Those who have considered their writings know that the very sub- stance of all they have to say for the evading of the force of our testimonies for the eternal deity of Christ is comjjrised in that chapter, there being not any thing material that any of them have elsewhere written there omitted. And those who are acquainted Avith the^n, their persons and abilities, do also know that their great strength and ability for disputation lies in giving plausible answers,
206 VINDICI^E EVANGELICiE.
and making exceptions against testimonies, cavilling at every word and letter ; being in proof and argument for the most part weak and contemptible. And therefore, in this long chapter, of near a hundred pages, all that themselves propose by way of argument against the deity of Christ is contained in two or three at the most, the residue being wholly taken up with exceptions to so many of the texts of Scripture wherein the deity of Christ is asserted as they have been pleased to take notice of, — a course which themselves are forced to apologize for as unbecoming catechists.-^
I shall, then, the Lord assisting, consider that whole chapter of theirs in both parts of it, — as to what they have to say for them- selves, or to plead against the deity of Christ, as also what they bring forth for their defence against the evidence of the light that shineth from the texts whose consideration they propose to them- selves, to which many of like sort may ])e added.
I shall only inform the reader that this is a business quite beyond my first intention in this treatise, to whose undertaking I have been prevailed on by the desires and entreaties of some who knew that I had this other work imposed on me.
Their first question and answer are : —
Ques. Declare now to me ivhat I ought to know concerning Jesus Christ?
Ans. Thou must know that of the things of which thou oughtest to know, some belong to the essence of Christ and some to his office.
Q. What are they which relate to his person?
A. That only that hy nature he is a true man, even as the Scriptures do often witness, amongst others, 1 Tim. ii. 5, 1 Cor. xv. 21 ; such a one as God of old promised by the prophets, and such as the creed, commonly called the Apostles', witnesseth him to be; which, with us, all Christians embrace.^
Ans. That Jesus Christ was a true man, in his nature like unto us, sin only excepted, we believe, and do abhor the abominations of Paracelsus, Wigelius, etc., and the Familists amongst ourselves, who destroy the verity of his human nature. But that the Soci- nians believe the same, that he is a man in heaven, whatever he was upon earth, I presume the reader will judge that it may be justly questioned, from what I have to offer (and shall do it in its place) on that account. But that this is all that we ought to know concerning the person of Christ is a thing of whose folly and vanity our catechists will be one day convinced. The present trial of it between us depends in part on the consideration of the scrij)tures
' Intcrpres Lect. Prefat. ad Cat. Eac.
^ '• Rogatum te vclim, ut milii ca de Jesu Christo exponas, qufe me scire oporteat ? — Sciendum tibi est, qusedam ad essentiam Jesu Cliristi, quaedam ad illius munus rc- ferri, cjuse te scire oportet.
"Quajnam ea suut quaa ad personam ipsius referuntur ? — Id solum, quod natura sit homo verus, quemadmodum ea de re crebro Scriptm-aj sacrre testantur, inter alias, 1 Tim. ii. 5, et 1 Cor. xv. 21 ; qualem dim Deus per prophetas promiserat, et qualem etiam esse testatur fidei symbolii.m, quod vulgo Apostoliciun vocant, quod nobiscum universi Cliristiaui amplectuntur."
DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 207
which shall afterward be produced to evince the contrary, our plea from whence shall not here be anticipated. The places of Scripture they mention prove him to be a true man, — that as man he died and rose ; but that he who was man was not also in one person God (the name of man there expressing the person, not the nature of man only) they prove not. The prophets foretold that Christ should be such a man as should also be the Son of God, begotten of him, Ps. ii. 7 ; "The mighty God," Isa. ix. 6, 7; "Jehovah," Jer. xxiii. 6; "The Lord of hosts," Zech. ii. 8, 9. And the Apostles' Creed also (as it is un- justly called) confesseth him to be the only Son of God, our Lord, and requires us to believe in him as we do in God the Father ; which if he were not God were an accursed thing, Jer. xvii. 5.