Where the formal cause of divine worship is not, there divine wor- ship ought not to be exhibited; but in no creature there is, nor can be, the formal cause of divine worship: therefore no creature, who is only such, can be worshipped without idolatrj'-. Tlie formal reason of any thing is but one; the reason of all worship is excellency or pre-eminence. The reason of divine or religious worship is divine pre-eminence and excellency. Now, divine excellency and pre-emi- nence is peculiar unto the divine nature. Wherein is it that God is so infinitely excellent above all creatures? Is it not from his infi- nitely good and incomprehensible nature? Now, look what difference there is between the essence of the Creator and the creature, the same is between their excellency. Let a creature be exalted to ever so great a height of dignity and excellency, yet his dignity is not at all nigher to the dignity and excellency of God, because there is no proportion between that which is infinite and that which is finite and limited. If, then, excellency and pre-eminence be the cause of wor- ship, and the distance between the excellency of God and that of the most excellent and most highly-advanced creature be infinite, it is impossible that the respect and worship due to them should be of the same kind. Now, it is religious or divine adoration that is due to God, whereof the excellency of his nature is the formal cause: this, then, cannot be ascribed to any other; — and to whomsoever it is ascribed, thereby do we acknowledge to be in him all divine perfec- tions ; which, if he be not God by nature, is gross idolatry. In sum, adorahility, if I may so say, is an absolute, incommunicable pro- perty of God ; adoration thence arising, a respect that relates to him only.
I shall, for a close of this chapter, proceed to manifest that Christ himself is not by us worshipped under any other formal reason but as he is God ; which will add some light to what hath already been spoken.
' " Nos paiilo ante ostendimus divinum cultum, qui Christo debetur, et directe ipsiim Christum respicit, non esse ilium qui uni illi soli Deo conveiiit." — Socin. ad Weik. Re- spon. ad cap. x. Class. 6, Arg. 6, pp. 422, 423.
VOL. XIL 25
S86 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC.^.
And here, lest there should be any mistake among the meanest in a matter of so great consequence, I shall deliver my thoughts to the whole of the worship of Christ in the ensuing observations : —
1. Jesus Christ, the mediator, being Qsdv6poj':rog, God and man, the Son of God having assumed rh ysvvu,aevov ajiov, hnke i. 35, " that holy thing" that was born of the Virgin, avv'7r6(rraTov, having no subsistence of its own, into personal subsistence with himself, is to be worshipped with divine, religious worship, even as the Father. By " worshipped with divine worship," I mean believed in, hoped in, trusted in, invo- cated as God, as an independent fountain of all good, and a sovereign dis230ser of all our present and everlasting concernments: by doing whereof we acknowledge in him, and ascribe to him, all divine per- fections,— omnipotency, omniscience, infinite goodness, omnipresence, and the like.
This proposition was sufficiently confirmed before. In the Reve- lation you have the most solemn representation of the divine, sj)i- ritual worship of the church, both that militant in the earth and that triumphant in the heavens ; and by both is the worship mentioned given to the Mediator: "Unto him" (to Jesus Christ) "that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory and do- minion for ever and ever. Amen," chap. i. 5, 6. So again, the same church, represented by four living creatures and twenty-four elders, falls down before the Lamb, chap. v. 8, 1 2, " "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing;" and, verse 13, joint worship is given to him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb by the whole creation, "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever," etc. And this also is particularly done by the church triumphant, chap. vii. 9, 10. Now, the Lamb is neither Christ in respect of the divine nature nor Christ in respect of the human nature, but it is Christ the mediator. That Christ was mediator in respect of both natures shall in due time be demon- strated. It is, then, the person of the mediator, God and man, who is the " Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," to whom all this honour and worship is ascribed. This the apostle perfectly confirms, Rom. xiv. 8-11, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and liviug. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or wh}'- dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written. As I live, saith the Lord,