CHA P. III.

Of the feveral fenfes of the word

EOE, GOD, used

by the writers of the New Teftament.

HE Old and the New Teftaments always, in

every place, suppose and acknowledge one fupreme Being, and most high GOD, and but one: the paffages are innumerable: and this truth is maintained by all christians, of all ages, and denominations; but very much obfcured and perplexed by the bold and unskilful notions, as well as fubtle expofitions and metaphysical distinctions of many eminent antient and modern writers.

Jefus Chrift himself believed in, worshipped, taught, and preached this one true GOD. Mat. vi. 9. xix. 17. xxvii. 46.-Mark x. 18. compared with Mat. xix. 17. Luke xviii. 19. Why calleft thou me good?" There is no one good, but the one GOD. Mark xii. 29 -34 John xvii. 3.--Thee, O Father, the only true God. xx. 17. I afcend, faith Christ, to my Father and to your Father, to my God, and to your God.

Hence it is plain, that the four Evangelifts reprefent Chrift himself ufing the word GoD in the highest fenfe, of his GoD and our GOD. Yet he knew the word GOD was also used in the Old Teftament in an inferior fenfe, of eminent perfons; and

John x. 34, 35. he cites Pfalm lxxxii. 6. I faid ye are Gods-Words spoken there of Judges, to whom the word of GOD was a rule. And he reafons thus: If they, the judges, to whom the word of GOD came, are called gods in your law, and fons of the most high; you charge me with blafphemy? who do not say I am GOD, as ye falfely accufe me; but I do say, that the Father hath fet me apart; that is, fanctified and fent me; and that I am the fon of GOD; and that is not blafphemy in my mouth nor in your law.

do

St. John the fourth evangelift hath thus fet forth Chrift's defence against the cavilling jews by the ufe of the term for perfons in authority. And thus the LXX likewife apply it in many places of the Old Teftament. Vid. Buxtorf. Lexican, voce n. And fo we find e applied in many other places of the New Teftament. The people of Tyre and Sidon, flattering Herod who harangued them, cried out, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man: Acts xii. 22. a character very unfuitable to a wicked prince. They knew well the word God was ufed of perfons eminent, &c. The people of Lycaonia, wondering at St. Paul's curing a lame perfon, Acts xiy. 11-15. forthwith ftile him Jupiter*;

and

Cicero ftiles Pompey his God, that is, his chief patron in pleading for his being recalled from his exile. And he ftiles Plato a God, in epift. to Atticus. And

Brutus

and Barnabas, Mercury: faying, The gods in human Shape were come down among them. Acts xix. 26. to the end. Diana was the goddess worshipped at Ephefus,

Brutus and Caffius, who affaulted Julius Cæfar in the Senate, he calls not only heroes, but Gods. Virgil. Eclog. i.

Namque erit ille mihi femper Deus→→→

In fhort, the ftiling perfons of eminence in fome extraordinary character, gods, was fo common and general over all the Grecian and Roman provinces; and occurs fo often in the claffic and pagan writers, before and after the time of St. John the Evangelift; that to cite authorities, in this cafe, would be needlefs and endless. St. Paul, Gal. iv. 8. tells the Galatians that when they knew not GOD, they ferved fuch, as by

nature were not Gods.

The Romans had in old Rome a Pantheon, or temple for all the Gods; which Pope Boniface III. dedicated to the Bleed Virgin and all the faints. This temple is a standing monument for ages, of the general and prevailing fignification of the words and Deus throughout all the Roman empire. And, as I have faid, all the claffics, Greek and Latin, as alfo the early ecclefiaftical writers fufficiently affure us, of the undoubted use and application of the word God (or no and Deus) to perfons of eminence in their characters, before, at, and after the time of Jefus Chrift. As we find St. Paul, 1, Cor. viii. 5, 6, molt expreffly faying, Though there be Gods many fo called; yet to us (chrif tians), there is but one GOD, the father.

Ephefus, as one of the twelve deities, who were of the highest rank among the heathen gods; for, it is well known, they held fome to be Dii majorum gen

tium,

Now if the fense of the Greek words, God, was fo well and fo univerfally known, and understood at the time, when the books of the New Teftament were written, then it can be no wonder if St. John in his Gofpel, written, and published in Greece, fhould apply that word to Jefus Chrift, a person of fo extraordinary a character.—But it must be well and always obferved,

1. That St. John alone (but not one of the three other Evangelists) ufeth the word eos, God, of Chrift (if he ufed it, of which some have doubted.) There is extant a very learned difcourfe, Initium Evang. S. Johannis reftitutum et illuftratum. A. D. 1726.

2. Chrift himself never affumed that name or title, but always acknowledged and worshipped the Father as his only true GoD, John xvii. 3. and in other places; and taught his disciples the fame. Matt. vi. John xvi. 23,-26.

3. Chrift himself fhunned and avoided all colour or pretence to the character of GOD, faying, He was able to do nothing of himself. John v. 19, 30. The Father fhewing the Son what he the Father himself doeth, ver. 20. He owns his Gospel, his power, all his power was given him by the Father. In fhort, by all his words, living and dying, he difclaimed the attributes and honours of GOD. See the chapters, Of GoD the Father; Of GOD's Titles; Miracles, &c.

tium, others to be Dii minorum gentium. The poo ple of Melita or Malta faid St. Paul was a god, feeing him unhurt by the viper.

CHAP.

4. We are told by St. Paul, Phil. ii. 6,--11. that though Chrift appeared in the form or refemblance of a God (by the miracles, of which he was only the feeming, but not the real efficient) yet did not he fnatch at divine honours, but hunned them, and humbled himSelf wherefore God, even his GOD, highly exalted him, and freely gave him the fuperior names, or honours of Lord and Chrift.-But, obferve, to the glory of GOD the Father. See the chapter, Of God the Father. To the fame purpose is Heb. i. 9. Acts ii. 36.

5. Admitting that St. John in his own original Gofpel*, and only St. John, and in this one place, eh. i. ver. 1. only, ftiles Chrift GOD; yet we muft carefully mind his manner, and how he guards that character. The word, who, he faid, was God, is allo faid twice, was at, or with God. Here are two GODS,

*It appears in this note, and in other places, that the begin ning of St. John's gospel was a difficulty with our author, how to account for Chrift being there called the word, which was generally, but erroneously supposed to be a peculiar name of Chrift in John's writings. But it would have given him much satisfaction to have found it proved, without any arbitrary alteration of the text, that by the term word, λoyos, the apostle intended not Christ, but an attribute of God, his divine energy or wisdom, which is himself, by which all things were firft made and are governed, and which word, or wisdom, at last dwelt in the man Christ Jesus, i, e. was most abundantly imparted to him. Ses Dr. Lardner's fupplement to his Credibility, &e. vol. i. p, 437, 438. EDITOR,