Appellation there given to Chrift, and afterwards fpecially adapted, to him in the Gospel.

THE Vision runs thus." I beheld "'till the Thrones were caft down, and the "ANCIENT OF DAYS did fit, whofe Gar

ment was white as Snow, and the Hair "of his Head like the pure Wool: His "Throne was like the fiery Flame, and his "Wheels, as burning Fire. A fiery "Stream iffued and came forth from him:" [obferve that through this whole Divifion of Scripture, the Father is always reprefented as Fire, or in fome fiery Likeness, whenever he appeared] I faw in the Night→→ "Vifions, and behold one like the SON OF "MAN, came with the Clouds of Heaven "and came to the ANCIENT OF DAYS, and

they brought him near before him. And "there was given him Dominion, and Glo"ry, and a Kingdom, that all People, "Nations, and Languages, fhould ferve "him: His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, which fhall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which fhall not "be destroyed.".

I know not how Words can distinguish Perfons plainer,-The Ancient of Days was fat, and the Son of Man is at the fame time reprefented as coming with the Clouds to the Ancient of Days, and being brought near before him, he gave him Dominion, &c. Is not this a filent Defcription, a lively Picture of the Covenant of Redemption, between the divine Perfon of the Father and S

In the 7th Chapter of Acts; St. Stephen gives as clear a Refutation of this Error as perhaps any in the Scriptures; and is in great Measure an Explanation of Daniel.

Behold, I fee the Heavens opened, and "the SON OF MAN ftanding on the right "Hand of GOD." The Father throughout the Scriptures is fpecially diftinguished as God. The Reafon is clear. Because he is felf-exiftent, unproceeding, unproduced. The firft Caufe; the firft Principle. In Deut. 18, 15. Mofes diftinguishes the Father under the constant and fignificant Titules of LORD and GOD, (altho they fay that Chrift is the only Lord and God) and the Son under that of a PROPHET. "The "LORD thy GOD, will raise up unto thee, "a PROPHET from the midft of thee, of "thy Brethren, like unto me; unto him "ye fhall hearken." And then he fhews in the 16th Verse that this divine Person whom he diftinguishes from the great Prophet Jefus, by the Titule of Lord and God, was the fame that appeared to him in the Mount, and the fame that told him that his Name was I AM.t" According to all thou

defiredft of the LORD thy God in Horeb, "in the Day of the Affembly, faying, let "me not hear again the Voice of the "LORD my GOD; neither let me fee this

great Fire any more, that I die not.

And

+See Exod. Chap. iii, 1, 6, and 1 4, ver. Math. 22, 32, and the subole 7th Chap. of As, especially the 32 ver.

"And the Lord faid unto me, they have "well spoken that which they have spoken. "I will raife them up a Prophet from a<< mong their Brethren, like unto thee,

and will put my Words in his Mouth, "and He fhall fpeak unto them ALL that "I fhall command HIM. And it fhall "come to pafs, that whofoever will not "hearken unto my Words, which He fhall

66

speak in my Name, I will require it of "him." Is it poffible to make a Diftinction of Perfons more exactly than the Father (the Lord God) does here between himfelf and the PROPHET Jefus, Chrift Emanuel (or the God Man) he then promised to fend. Yet Moravians in Oppofition to all thefe, and many more Scriptures, expressly fay; that this I AM became the LAMB; that this GOD was hanged on high; that it is their MARK and special Characteristic to difown every God but Christ Emanuel; that they would blafpheme every God in Heaven but Jefus Chrift; and that

"None but Jefus will they fing, "None elfe, will they adore.

Collec. Hym. P. 44.

Now if Jefus, be GOD of GOD, a very God of very GoD, and that they will adore none elfe, and would blafpheme every God in Heaven but him; muft not the GOD he is of, (of whom he is Son truly begotten not made) be neglected, be defpifed, be blaf phemed?

Ꮓ

phemed? And must not this their Tenet be abfolutely falfe, highly dangerous, and abominably wicked?

Ir is certain and reafonable, that if Jefus be the Son of God, begotten in a Manner unknown to, and inconceivable by, Man he must be also a God as really and truly in· his Nature, as the Father that fo begat him. What King is there in Europe, that is not in Nature a very Man, of very Man, be caufe his Father that begot him was fo? But fure they are different Perfons, though of the fame Nature.

CHRIST himfelf makes this Diftinction as clear as Words can, in perhaps a thoufand Places. And especially in the Garden, and on the Cross. In the xii. 49, 50. of St. John he does it, and fhews himself to be the Prophet, promifed by the Lord God the Father. And fays as the Father foretold of him, that it was the Commands and Words of the Father he spoke. "For I have not σε fpoken of myself, but the Father which "fent me, he gave me a Commandment "what I should fay, and what I should

fpeak." And in the xiv. 23. of St. John he makes the Distinction abfolute :"If a Man loves me, he will keep my Com"mandments: [Obferve the Unity of Con"fent in the Godhead; for in Chap. xii. "the Commandments are the Father's] "And my Father will love him, and we "will come unto him and make our

"Abode

"Abode with him." Obferve alfo in the latter Part of the Verfe, the Multiplicity and Diftinction of Perfons in that Godhead. So that in the fame Verfe he gives an Unity and Multiplicity: Which is directly the Scripture-doctrine of the Trinity. An Unity with Refpect to Confent and Nature; a Diverfity with Regard to Perfon and Peculiarity of Office.

HERE Chrift makes the Father and himfelf, two diftinct Perfons in as plain Words as the Moravians make them one.

For the

latter fays the Father of Eternities was the very individual Chrift that fuffered. So that the Conclufion is clearly this. Either we must deny the common Use of our Understanding, and the common Senfe and Acceptation of Words; or we must believe -that Chrift, or the Moravian is falfe. For the one plainly contradicts the other; and that in a Sameness of Terms and Expreffi

on.

GOD is alfo, in a peculiar Manner, called the Father, because he has given all Things, animate and inanimate, Being. That Creed which the Church from its Infancy held, and yet holds, to be the Apoftles; diftinguishes the Trine of the Godhead in a clear Manner, afcribing to each of the divine Perfons the Peculiarities proper to every of them. Thus I believe in God, the "Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and "Earth; and in Jefus Chrift, his only Z 2

" Son,