. He adds another difference :—“ (1.) Deinde cum Christum regem appellamus, eo ipso nisi quid addamus aliud, nec (2.) exprimimus eum hanc potestatem aliunde accepisse, et, quicquid beneficii ab ipso ut rege nostro proficiscitur, (3) id totum Deo qui hane ei potes- tatem largitus fuerit, ascribendum esse. (4) Regium enim munus et nomen per se nil tale indicat cum Deus etiam rex sit et dicatur, Matt. v. 85, 1 Tim. vi. 15. At cum Christum sacerdotem vocamus, ei, (5.) oblationem et interpellationem tribuimus, eo ipso indicamus pecca- torum nostrorum remissionem non ab ipso ut prima causa sed a Deo proficisci, et eum potestatem peccata nostra remittendi a seipso non habere, (6.) nec esse supremum omnium rerum rectorem. Quo- modo enim offerret et interpellaret apud alium et sacerdotis munere fungeretur ad remissionem nobis parandam? Quare dum sacerdotis nomine insignitur a Deo altissimo, (7.) cui alias potestate eequalis est, aperte distinguitur, et Dei pree ipso prerogativa atque eminentia indicatur, quz facile ob tantam Christi praestantiam ac gloriam qua ipsum Deus auxit, obscurari posset, et sic Deo gloria illa quam in Christo exaltando queesivit eripi.
SECT. 11.] EXPLAINED AND VINDICATED. 185
Ans. (1.) There is neither difference nor pretence of any difference between these offices of Christ assigned in these words, nor doth this . discourse seem to be introduced for any other end but only to make way for that sophistical objection against the deity of Christ where- with it is closed. For whatever notion the first sound of these words, “king” and “ priest,’ may present unto the minds of any preju- diced persons, in reality Christ doth no less depend on God with respect unto his kingly office than with respect unto his priestly ; which Orellius also doth acknowledge. (2.) When we call Christ Lord and King, we consider both who and what he is, and thereby do conceive and express his being- appointed unto that office by God the Father.. And of all men the Socinians have least cause to fear that on the naming of Christ as king they should conceive him to be independent of God; for believing him to be a man, and no more, there cannot possibly an imagination thereof befall their minds. (3.) It is not what we express when we call Christ a king, but what the Scripture declareth concerning that office of his, which we are to consider; and therein it is constantly affirmed and expressed that God made him “both Lord and Christ,” that all his power was given him of God, that he sets him his king on the holy hill of Zion, and gives him to be head over all unto the church. Wherefore, to call and name Christ our king, and not at the same time to appre- hend him as appointed of God so to be, is, to renounce that only notion of his being so which is revealed unto us, and is a folly which never any Christian fell into. Wherefore, when we call Christ king, we do acknowledge that he is made so of God, who conse- quently is the author and principal cause of all the good and blessed effects which we are made partakers of through the administra- tion of the kingly office and power of Christ; nor did ever any sober person fall into an imagination to the contrary, seeing none ean do so without an express renunciation of the Scripture. (4.) When God, absolutely considered, is said to be king, the subject of the proposition limits and determines the sense; for the nature of him which is presented unto us under that name, “God,” will not allow that he should be so any otherwise but on the account of his infinite, essentially divine power; which the notion of Christ as mediator doth not present unto us. (5.) The reasons taken from what is ascribed unto the Lord Christ as a priest to prove that, in our notion and conception of that office, we look on him as delegated by God, and acting power for us on that account, are, although true in themselves, yet frivolous as unto his purpose; because all the acts, duties, and powers of his kingly office, do affirm and prove the same. Christ hath all his power, both as king and priest, equally from God the Father, and was equally called of God to act in both these offices;
186 TRUE NATURE OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST [EXERC. XXXII.
—in his name, majesty, and authority towards us, in one of them; and with or before him on our behalf, in the other. (6.) Whereas he adds, and enlargeth thereon, that by the oblation and intercession of Christ, which are ascribed unto him as a priest, it is evident that he hath not power of or from himself to pardon our sins, as also that he is not the supreme rector, but is distinguished from the most high God, to whom otherwise he is equal in authority, I ask,—{1.] Whether Christ as a king hath power, of himself and from himself, to take away sin, as the supreme rector of all, and that power not delegated unto him of God? I know he will not say so, nor any of his party, and therefore the difference between these two offices on that account is merely pretended. [2.] To make the Lord Christ, whom they will have to be a man only, to be equal in power on any account with God, is a bold assertion. How shall any creature be equal, in any respect, unto God? To whom shall we equal him? How can he who receiveth power from another for a certain end be equal in power unto that other from whom he doth receive it? How shall he who acts in the name of another be equal unto him? But these great expressions are used concerning things which are false, only to cover the sacrilege of taking that from him wherein he was truly equal to God, and counted it no robbery so to be. [38.] It is confessed that the Lord Christ, as the high priest of the church, was inferior to God, that his Father was greater than he, that he offered himself unto God, and intercedeth with him; but that he is not equal with God, of the same nature with him, under another consi- deration, this proveth not. And, (7.) on the other side, there is not the least danger that the prerogative of God, absolutely considered, with ,respect unto Christ as mediator, should be obscured by the glory of the kingly office of Christ, among them who acknowledge that all the glory and power of it are freely given unto him of God.