An ACCURATE EXAMINATION OF THE Principal Texts Usually alledged for The Divinity of our Saviour AND For the Satisfaction by him made to the Justice of God for the Sins of Men Occasioned by a BOOK of Mr. L. Milbourn CALLED Mysteries in Religion vindicated London Printed in the Year 1692. THE PREFACE TO Mr. L. MILBOVRN SIR I Began to read your Book with very close attention and regard but when I had gone over some part of it I perceived you were not so qualified that you might reasonably undertake to intermeddle in these Questions or deserve to be heard concerning them If in defect of other necessary Endowments of a Writer you please your self however in the bulkiness of your Book you may be advised for the time to come that on the contrary every Trifle is so much the better by how much the shorter it is and that a verbose Trifler is nauseous even to Friends In your Dedication you say the Bishops ought to use a just Severity against and to frown effectually upon such whom the late Act of Toleration excludes from all Benefit thereby that is they ought to fall to persecuting the Socinians for the supposed Errors of their Conscience Truly Sir we are beholden to you But what if the Socinians against whom you publickly excite the Bishops should write the Farce of your Life They know very well the several Scenes of it and the Part you have acted at Pembr Hall at London and afterwards at Yarmouth from whence 't is said you ran away Are you not aware that it were easy for them to make you a Town-talk as you have made your self a Country-talk and at best withdrew your self Your Preface has two Parts The First is an Apology for your Book the other is taken up in conplementing T. F. I will speak briefly to both I. That you have said but a little in a great deal that the Parts of your Book are ill put together that you have been impertinent in diverting to Matters that were beside your Text and Vndertaking all these you confess but you excuse the Meanness of your Performance by your Poverty and your Poverty you lay to the Charge of the People of Yarmouth who could not you say be made sensible of your Learning and Worth that is the meaning of what you have said at Pag. 1. of your Preface But such as know Yarmouth how populous and wealthy it is will not be perswaded out of it but that a Person of no more Learning or Parts than L. M. were he withal but Modest Peaceable and Exemplary might live at Yarmouth in quality of their Minister very handsomly and comfortably and besides be esteem'd and belov'd They tell us that seeing your Sermons against us have been so little liked at their Majesty's good Town of Yarmouth we ought to make trial how that discerning People will entertain our Pamphlets they have already refused the Evil there is therefore reasonable hope that they will chuse the Good and will rejoice in it The second Part of your Preface is all Complement on T. F. Thus you begin calling him pert Smatterer in Ignorance so says the Reverend Mr. L. M. and this was the best he could say when he undertook to give a Character of T. F. But I find that the most Reverend are in a very different Story concerning this Gentleman The Metropolitan of all England thought fit to say of him That Worthy and Useful Citizen Mr. T. F. Fun. Sermon on Mr. Gouge p. 63. What may be the Reason that T. F. is drawn in such different Colours I think 't is not hard to find the Reason Some because they heartily love God and reverence Vertue and Well-doing can think and speak respectfully even of those from whom they differ very widely in their Sentiments about the controverted Points of Christianity for God's sake they can cordially smile upon a good Man though they think him in an Error and they are of Opinion because the Holy Scriptures have said it that fervent Charity is greater than Faith But others measuring all Persons and Things by only the narrow Interests of themselves and their Party and wholly excluding God and the relation to him rail against their Adversaries giving all Men to the Devil that are of a Belief contrary to theirs Which brings to mind what Mr. Calvin has observed Vt quisque eorum pro ventre est maximè sollicitus ita pro fide suâ deprehenditur Bellator acerrimus i. e. As any of them are more concerned and afraid for their Bellies so he is found to bawl and rail loudest on behalf of his own particular Faith and Party Calv. Praef. ad Institut p. 7. Well but what might be the very meaning of this Witticism on T. F. pert Smatterer in Ignorance I suppose the meaning is T. F. has had his Education at London not at Cambridg or Oxford he knows nothing of Predicables Predicaments and Syllogisms nor has ever learned there to drink the third or fourth Bottle for his own share What an unhappy Education was this that his Friends took no care to make him a Fool and a Debauch that the Gifts and Impressions of God and Nature have not been effaced by a sort of Institution which sometimes to make a Scholar defaces both the Man and the Christian T. F. has only Reason and good Sense how unlucky was it that he should not destroy them by Logick and Metaphysicks However I am of Opinion T. F. will make his natural Talents go as far and do him as much Service and Credit as Logick and Metaphysicks and skill of the Bottle will do for L. M. or for his Cause The next Charge upon him is in these words The Socinians Hawker to disperse their new-fangled Divinity Hawker of all Men living L. M. should have forbore this word Hawker unless he has forgot because 't is a good while since how unluckily the hawking off Books succeeded with himself in a certain place which at present I forbear to name See Sir we can be affronted and abused without making haste to revenge our selves But why is our Divinity new-fangled It hath two such Marks of Antiquity by confession of our very Opposers that could they show either of them for their Divinity we would make little difficulty of coming over to their Party For first 't is acknowledged by the most Learned of our Opposers that the Patriarchal Ages and the Church of the Old Testament never knew the Doctrine of the Trinity We are confess'd by our Adversaries to believe concerning God as the Patriarchs and Prophets believed namely that there is but one who is God or that God is but one Person Secondly The Apostles Creed the only Monument of true Antiquity besides the Bible which the Christian Church has is owned too to be wholly Vnitarian for it gives the Appellation God to only the Almighty Father Maker of Heaven and Earth and speaks of our Saviour under no other Characters but those
of a Man describing his Conception or Generation by the Holy Ghost or Power of God in the Womb of Holy Mary declaring that he died was buried rose again and was exalted to the right Hand of God that is to be next unto God all which is a denying him to be God It says no more of the Holy Ghost than it says of the Holy Catholick Church I believe in the Holy Ghost I believe in the Holy Catholick Church so all know this Creed is read in the Original Greek Your last fling at T. F. is to this purpose tho after a scurrilous fashion that the Socinians have made choice of him to disperse their Pamphlets That a Person so much concerned and imployed in the disposal of Charity might keep the Ballance even between Heaven and Hell and while he supports Mens Bodies might pervert and poison their Souls 'T is well Sir but what will your Wisdomship advise in the case Shall we turn this dangerous Man out of the gainful Imployment of neglecting his own Business and losing his Time to be an Instrument of Good to the Poor and Necessitous And let me ask you this Question Do you really think that this Gentleman ever endeavoured to proselyte to his particular Perswasion any of the Objects of Charity with whom he is concerned Does he think you seek to gather a Church out of the Hospitals the Prisons the Corners of Streets or of such Persons as are ready to perish for want of Bread or Clothes If you your self do not so think as you are challenged to give but one single Instance of what you would insinuate to your Head you are an ill Man to make that the subject of your Scurrility which should have been of your Praises and Commendations Doth the Age Sir so abound with Men who make it any part of their business to minister to the Wants of others that it should be advisable to discourage such Persons by false and scandalous Innuendo's But I am with-held by a particular Charge as I am told from him from doing him that Right against your Reproaches which I thought to be due to his Exemplary Industry and particular Dexterity in solliciting and managing the Cause and Interests of the Poor He saith if what he doth in that matter will not defend it self he is content to be without a Defence You conclude with submitting ALL that you have written to the Censure and Correction of Holy Mother-Church I acknowledg the Language of Babylon but was it convenient that a Presbyter of the Church of England as you write your self should thus publish to the whole World that he has neither Faith nor Religion I mean of his own but only what Mother Church shall prescribe to him as the terms of Preferment He propounds here in a Book of 800 Pages the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Satisfaction as Essential Articles of the Christian Religion and such as must be believed or if you 'll believe him you shall without doubt perish everlastingly He pretends he has proved these Doctrines by Demonstrations of Reason and by Testimonies of Holy Scripture and of all Antiquity Well does he himself believe what he has written Not a Tittle of it he says unless Mother Church approves of it he submits ALL Faith and Proofs to the Censure and Correction of his Holy Mother let her hang or save he submits This is the Man with whom we have to deal without Faith and without Conscience unless as the Church directs nay and he dares profess too to be otherwise without either Neither is L. M. alone but there are many others that believe their Paradoxes no more than we do but they subdue first their Consciences and afterwards their Minds to the Sophistries usually alledged to prove them so long as Holy Mother Church which can dispose of their Fortunes in the World recommends this Belief as the condition of holding a Parsonage or Vicarage or of getting a Deanary or Prebend On the same Conditions Mother Shipton should be as sacred and infallible with them as Mother Church and they would believe the Kingdom of Oberon and the Territories of Fairy-Land and had they been born Papists Transubstantiation should have been reckoned among the holy Mysteries which Faith must imbrace tho Reason craz'd they say since the Fall of Adam disclaims and renounces them But who is Holy Mother-Church to whom they pay such Profound Submissions I meet with her in Story some hundreds of Years past she seems to be such a one as the Scots imagin'd Queen Elizabeth to be I mean as uncertain and vivacious The Scots thought their King should never succeed to the Crown of England for Queen Elizabeth say they is not a particular Woman But the Lords of the Council in England call an old Woman Queen Elizabeth and so long as there is an old Woman in England they will never want a Queen Elizabeth But the worst thing to my Fancy in Holy Mother-Church is this that she is such an Individuum Vagum in one place she is this thing in another she is the just contrary she is not the same in England for instance that she is at Rome or at Geneva or in Germany and the two Northern Kingdoms or in the Provinces of the Levant in all these places she is so different a Person that she mortally hates and furiously persecutes her own self I find just such another Fantasm haunting the chosen Nation as is now meant by Mother Church and it was in as much regard with two sorts of People the Designing and the Weak as Mother Church is now with the like sorts of Men and Women Jer. 7.4 Trust not in vain words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these By which they intended what some now do when they say Mother-Church Mother-Church Mother-Church but the Prophet ventures to call them vain words i. e. a lying and unprofitable Pretence But after all that Reverence which any pretend to have for this Holy Mother 't is certain there is nothing really meant by our Holy Mother the Church but only the strongest side or the prevailing Party And all the mighty Complements Men use to this blessed Mother are nothing else but their Wit or their Fears They find themselves the Slaves of an usurping Faction in the Church which is able to constrain them to profess any thing tho never so contradictory and absurd therefore the Witty presently list themselves of the Party call themselves her Sons and Children and subscribe and swear to all she propounds In others their Dread and Awe turns into real Reverence or rather Superstition and they act and believe as they are commanded without desiring or caring to reflect upon the Causes which first biassed their Minds to this Obedience but those Causes were originally nothing else but the Power and Wealth of the Holy Mother that is as was said of the strongest side But there is another
all the Jewish Interpreters Nay the Name Jehovah is given to such Places and Things as well as Persons as God has honoured with his Presence 〈◊〉 with his particular Favour and Protection See the Br. History of the Vnitarians on Jerem. 23.5 6. and on Zech. 3.2 But He observes that the Angel here is called the Judg of the whole Eâ—â—th therefore He could be no other than God But first he might have noted too that there is an Ambiguity in the Original Words for they might have been rendred the Judg of a whole Land So that the Sense will be Shall not He who is sent by God to be the Judg of a whole Land Sodom and its Territory be careful to do right seeing otherways such great numbers of People will receive extream Damage and Injury Secondly Allowing the ordinary Translation there is no Necessity to understand these words concerning the Angel but of God himself so as to make this sense Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked that be far from thee Shall not the Judg of the whole Earth on whose Errand thou comest and whose Delegat thou art do right And finally if the words are meant of the Angel himself He is called the Judg of the whole Earth in the same regard that He is called Jehovah even because he Represented Jehovah the Judg of the whole Earth The Author to the Hebrews refers to Abraham's entertaining these Angels in that Exhortation Heb. 13.2 Forget not to entertain Strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels How much more powerfully might this Holy Writer have recommended Hospitality to us if He had been of Opinion with our Author and his Party that one of these Angels was God or a Person of God If he had so believed would He have falled to say Forget not to entertain Strangers for some thereby have entertained God himself So much on this Text. Next He cites the History of the Angel that met Jacob at Peniel Gen. 32.24 An Angel met Jacob wrestled with him and was worsted by him and when he would have left him Jacob would not suffer him to be gone till he had Blessed him Our Author saith this Angel was God for He would not tell his Name which Angels he saith do not use to refuse and Jacob prayed him to Bless him and finally Jacob called the place of their Congress Peniel or the Face of God because I have seen El God face to face Gen. 32.4 I never before I confess saw this place alledged in this Cause and our Author has left us to Divine what he would infer from it But I suppose his meaning is as on the former Text that it follows from hence that our Lord Christ had a Being before he was born of his Mother and that the Titles and Acknowledgments belonging to God are given to the Lord Christ Therefore I answer too as before that He has again forget the main thing even to prove that this Angel was in process of Time incarnate and called Jesus Christ of which he says not a word as if we ought to take that for granted which is the chief thing in question I say also farther that our Author's Allegations are very far from proving that this Angel was God He is indeed here called El but El is a word used in Holy Scripture indifferently of God of Angels and of Men as the English word LORD is Yet we are willing that El should be here rendred God for some of the most learned Interpreters and Critics of the Trinitarian Perswasion have ingenuously owned that the Angel is here called God because He represented God So Menochius and Tirinus in Mr. Pool's Collection But should I grant to our Author that this Angel was true God He would gain nothing by that Concession For this Concertation between Jacob and the Angel as that between the Angel and Balaam recorded Numb 22.22 c. was only Spiritual or in Vision not Corporal and in Reality as besides the Jewish Interpreters is owned by St. Jerom the Interlineary Gloss by St. Thomas and Rupertus Jacob had this Vision to comfort and animate him and to assure him of God's Presence with him when He should meet with his Brother Esau but that He might know the Vision was really from God he was made to Halt on that Leg which in the Vision had been touched by the Angel This Interpretation is Rational because a Man could not really have prevailed as the History says Jacob did against an Angel much less as our Author so oddly that I say no worse supposes against God His Third place out of the Old Testament is Psal 45.6 7. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. He noteth that these remarkable Words are applied to our Saviour by the Author of the Hebrews Heb. 1.8 9. To the Son He saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. The Author of the Brief History of the Vnitarians answers in short that the words both in the Hebrew and the Greek both in the Psalm and in the Epistle might have been rendred and interpreted after this manner God is thy Throne i. e. thy Seat resting Place or thy Establishment for ever and ever And so it is that the Illustrious Grotius Translates and understands both these Texts But let us allow the Translation in our English Bibles Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever For understanding this Passage and indeed the whole Psalm some Learned Interpreters have well noted that this Psalm is an Epithalamium or Marriage-Song to Solomon and Sulamitis Daughter of Pharaoh It was sung by the Bride-Maids saith Grotius In honorens novi mariti Solomonis novae Nuptiae Filiae Regis Aepypti In Gratulation to the Bridegroom and Bride Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh Dr. Patrick says that most Interpreters conclude this Psalm was composed on occasion of the Marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh's Daughter Any one that reads the Psalm without Prejudice will plainly see that the Interpreters of whom Dr. Patrick speaks and whom he confesses to be the most have rightly conjectured concerning this Psalm namely that 't is a Marriage-Song to Solomon and his Egyptian Bride It begins I will speak of or I will rehearse the things which I have made concerning the King Then the Poet proceeds to describe and wish well to the King Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured on thy Lips thy Garments smell of Myrrh Alloes and Cassia out of the Ivory Palaces or Boxes He adds Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever i. e. Thou fittest on the Throne of David which is to endure for ever for some descended from him so God has promised shall sit thereon till it comes to the Messias or Christ whose Kingdom shall be not only universal as to place but shall last for ever and ever After these things said to Solomon the Poem addresses to the Queen Hear O Daughter forget thy own People and
thy Father's House so shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty Instead of thy Fathers shall be thy Children whom thou mayst make Princes in all the Earth or rather in all this Land q. d. Thou mayst make them Governours of Tribes in all the Land of Canaan Our Opposers catch at the word God thy Torone O God is for ever and ever as if because of that word it were necessary to suppose that both the Psalmist and the Author to the Hebrews do speak of such a Person as is really and truly God But why have they not noted what our Saviour tells them that those also are called Gods in Scripture To whom the Word of God comes Joh. 10.35 that is to say Judges Magistrates and especially Princes are called Gods because they hold the Place of God and act by his general Commission granted to them in his Word For Proof of which Observation he alledges the words of Psal 82.6 concerning the Magistracy and Princes of Israel I have said Ye are Gods In a word Solomon is in this Psalm saluted by the Name of God according to the known Language of those Times and Countries to Magistrates and Princes and what had been said to Solomon is by St. Paul to the Hebrews applied or accommodated to the Great Spiritual King the Messias or Christ because it might even more properly be said of him than of Solomon even this saying Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Nay we may allow that he more than applies the words we may say he interprets them of Christ because the Psalm being composed by a Prophetical Poet at the same time that he courted and praised Solomon he might prophesy of the Lord Christ This account of these words Thy Throne O God is for ever being so generally approved by the more learned Criticks of the Trinitarians I cannot but wonder that this Text should be urged by any at this time of the day as a Proof that the Lord Christ is true God equal to the Eternal and Almighty Father of all the dread Creator of Heaven and Earth If it prooves the Lord Christ to be such it proves the same of Solomon even in the Opinion of the most judicious of our Opposers A fourth Proof of our Author is Heb. 1.6 When he God bringeth his First-begotten into the World he saith or he commandeth Let all the Angels of God worship him His Argument from hence is this the Charge so often repeated in Scripture of worshipping God only obliges Angels as well as Men seeing therefore they are required to worship our Lord Christ it follows that he is true God But our Author is greatly mistaken when he saith that the words Let all the Angels of God worship him are taken from Psal 97.7 they are taken from the LXX Translation of Deut. 32.43 where the LXX whose Translation is followed generally by the Writers of the New Testament and more especially by the Author of this Epistle throughout read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all the Angels of God worship him the very words of the Author to the Hebrews But at Psal 97.7 from whence Mr. Milbourn would fetch this Quotation 't is only said Worship him all ye Gods and the words are by Interpreters commonly understood of the Gods or Demons worshipp'd by the Heathen Nations Furthermore it has been observed by some Trinitarian Criticks that Justin Martyr Theodoret Epiphanius and St. Austin all very ancient quote these words Let all the Angels of God worship him as taken from the LXX Translation of Deut. 32.43 tho the words are wanting in the present Hebrew Copies of the Bible and therefore also in our English Bibles as are divers other Passages of the Old Testament cited by the Writers of the New The words in that Text of Deuteronomy are spoken of the Nation of Israel the Nations are there bid to rejoice with and the Angels to worship Israel that is to guard serve and watch over him But these words intended originally of Israel are by the Author to the Hebrews accommodated and applied likewise to the Lord Christ because the Angels had in charge to succour and minister to him also Yet not to him only but to all his Brethren Heb. 1.14 They are all Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister to such as shall be Heirs of Salvation We have just such another Accommodation or Application of a Text to our Saviour which was originally meant of the Nation of Israel at Matth. 2.15 there the Evangelish saith that Jesus was brought by Joseph his Foster-Father out of Egypt into Judea and so saith he was fulfilled the Word of God by the Prophet Out of Egypt I have called my Son But any one that looks into the Context of the Prophet will plainly see that those words were originally meant and designed of the People of Israel whom God there vouchsafes to call his Son The words of the Prophet are these Hosea 11.1 When Israel was a Child i. e. in the first Ages of that People then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt Therefore when such Texts are either interpreted of Christ or accommodated and applied to him we are to understand it after this manner that those Texts were again fulfilled or had a second Completion in the Person of our Lord Christ But our Author urges that the Precept of worshipping only God obliges Angels and Men therefore how could the Angels be required to worship Christ if he were not true God It seems then he has not observed what is said at 1 Chron. 29.20 The Congregation blessed the Lord God of their Fathers and bowing the Head they worshipped the Lord and the King Nor has he noted how often divers Persons worshipp'd our Saviour while he was upon Earth The meaning is not that they worshipp'd either David or our Saviour with Divine Worship but with a Civil and Religious Worship such as is due to Kings and to Prophets on the account of him that sent them The Lord Christ has an Office that of King and Head of the Church higher than any Angel nay so high that he may make use of the Ministry of Angels in the Execution of his Office therefore they are bid to worship him not with Divine Worship no more than they were to worship Israel with such Worship but with the Worship or Respect that is due to him in regard of his Office as the Congregation worshipp'd David in the Text last quoted in regard of his Kingdom or Royal Dignity But as I observed before the Worship principally meant in the words Let all the Angels of God worship him is to be understood of succouring and ministring to him while he was upon Earth as they were to worship Israel CHAP. III. Continuation of the Examination of the Texts objected from the Old Testament OUR Author's fifth Objection is from Heb. 1.10 11 12. words taken from Psal 102.25 26 27. And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation
of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands They shall perish but thou remainest they shall wax old as does a Garment And as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy Years fail not Let us add the next words at ver 13. But to which of the Angels said he at any time Sit at my Right-hand until I make thine enemies the Foot-stool He saith these words here cited to v. 13. are intended of the Son our Lord Christ and that by ascribing to him the Creation of the Heavens and Earth they assure us both of the Pre-eternity and the Divinity of the said our Lord Christ We have seen before that the Writers of the New Testament do accommodate divers Passages and Expressions of the Old Testament to our Saviour tho originally and in their primary Intention they were meant of other Persons because such Passages and Expressions had another and a second Completion in the Person of the Lord Christ Thus what was said of Solomon Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever is applied to our Saviour because he also has an everlasting Throne and what was said of Israel Out of Egypt I have called my Son is too accommodated to Christ because he likewise was called out of Egypt after the Death of Herod In like sort in this Context to the Hebrews what had been said by the Psalmist of God and of the old or first Creation Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands c. is accommodated to the Lord Christ and to the new Creation which he hath made even the new Heavens and the new Earth in which as St. Peter says of them dwelleth Righteousness The Gospel-state and Times or the Church in opposition to the Synagogue and Jewish Oeconomy is described very often in Scripture under the Names of the New Heavens and New Earth Isa 65.17 Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall be remembred no more Isa 66.22 As the new Heavens and the new Earth which I will make shall remain before me so shall your Seed and your Name remain St. Peter after he had described the fearful Dissolution of the Jewish Oeconomy and State in terms much like those used by our Saviour on the same occasion and Subject at Mat. 24. adds 2 Pet. 3.13 Nevertheless according to his Promise we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness That is a new Oeconomy and State in which not so much a Ceremonial as a Moral and true Righteousness shall be taught and practised Rev. 21.1 I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away i. e. He saw the Church or Christian Oeconomy begin the Jewish or old Oeconomy or Law was abolished All the Trinitarian Interpreters do thus understand these Texts namely that by the New Heavens and New Earth is meant the Gospel-state of things in opposition to the Jewish which is antiquated and done away This is the Earth and these the Heavens of which the Lord Christ is the Maker under God partly by Himself partly by his Apostles and other true Ministers of the Gospel and these the Author to the Hebrews meaneth when he says here of our Lord Christ Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands they shall be changed from their state of Probation and Trial to a state of Perfection and Enjoyment but thou remainest for ever the same The most Learned Grotius whose Interpretation this is rightly observes that the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was written did commonly speak of the Times of the Messias or Christ in these very terms here used namely that He should make another World New Heavens and Earth meaning thereby a Total change of the face of things in the Church and Religion And those Forms of speaking they borrowed from the Prophet Isaiah whose words I have before quoted Therefore in writing to them it was no surprize to them that this Epistle should accommodate the words of the Prophetical Psalmist used by him concerning God and the first Creation to the Messias and the New Creation because in him they had Another and Second Completion Others of our Party give other Accounts of this Text this for one that the words Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth c. are not at all in any sense intended of our Saviour but are a devout Apostrophe Conversion or Address to God that is to the Father so as to make this sense And truly thou Lord who hast thus anointed and exalted thy Son art the God who hast laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of thy Hands But to which of his Angels hath this Glorious and Vnchangeable Creator at any time said as He doth by the Inspired and Prophetical Psalmist to the Son our Lord Christ Sit on my right Hand till I make thy Enemies thy Foot-stool Here we ought to note that the words Sit at my right Hand till I make thy Enemies thy Footstool are originally and primarily intended of David as is owned by the Trinitarian Interpreters but they are applied to Christ in this Context to the Hebrews because they are also a Prophecy of him and of what God would do for him In a word their meaning with respect to the Lord Christ is this God hath in his Decree said concerning the Messias or Christ who shall in due time be manifested Sit on my right hand till I make thy Enemies thy Footstool This is the Sense of the words as they stand in the Psalm See the Learned Dr. Patrick's Paraphrase and Notes on Psal 110.1 I do not wonder Sir that our Opposer took no notice of these two Interpretations of these words Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth c. they were too Rational and Probable to be set in the same Light and View with the Wild Construction that He and his Party make of this Context For they make this Author to the Hebrews to say that the Lord Christ is the Creator of the Visible Earth and Heavens and yet that 't is Another Person that must subdue to him the Enemies of his Kingdom and make them his Foot-stool I had almost forgot Sir to tell you that as Grotius is the Author of the first Interpretation which I have given of this Context so 't is Thomas Aquinas sirnamed the Angelical Doctor thus has observed and suggested the other He alledgeth next thô not out of the Old Testament according to his proposed Method Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times spake to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last times spoken to us by his Son by whom also He made the Worlds Our Author is not pleased
designedly misreport it and besides his Epistles are supposed to be forged by most learned Men because they make mention of Rites and Persons that were not in Being in Innocent's time Lastly Whereas the Unitarians at Alba said that this Text has been added to St. Matthew since the first Nicene Council tho Cardinal Bellarmine has only denied this he might most easily have proved the contrary For Tertullian who flourish'd above 120 Years before the Nicene Council often quotes this Text. In his Book concerning Baptism Chap. 13. he saith The Law of baptizing is imposed and the Form prescribed Go saith he teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit And again in his Book against Praxeas Chap. 26. After his Resurrection he commanded that they should baptize to the Father Son and Holy Ghost not to one of them only It is true none of the Ante-Nicene Fathers do ever alledg this Form of Baptism to prove the Divinity of the Son or Holy Spirit but the reason of that was because tho they allowed that the Son might be called God on account of his perfect Conjunction by Love Unity of Will and Subjection with the Father who only is true God yet they thought otherwise of the Holy Ghost some of them understanding him to be only the Energy or Power of God others that he was a Creature of the Son and only the chief of the ministring Spirits or Angels But to return to our Opposer He saith We are baptized alike and equally to the Father Son and Spirit therefore the two latter are equal in all respects to the former or are God no less than he they are mentioned together in this Text without any Note of Dignity or Superiority in one more than in another which were of dangerous Consequence and apt to lead Men into Error if only one of these is true God But 1. 'T is not true that here is no Note of Distinction or Superiority for the words at length are these All Power is given to me in Heaven and Earth go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit I would know of our Opposer what greater Distinction could be made than our Saviour here makes between God and himself doth he not here expresly profess and own that his Power is given to him that he hath received it from the Liberality of another and not from himself Can any one be said to give Power to himself And the Apostle hath told us how we are to understand it that all Power is given to the Lord Christ in these words to the Ephesians God gave to him to be Head over all things to the Church Ephes 1.22 As who should say He is over all things and hath all Power with respect to the Church 't is He and He only that must prescribe her standing Laws and Rites and appoint by what Persons and what Means the Church shall be first gathered and then preserved 2. But supposing now there had been no Note of Superiority here made or Distinction of Dignity and Power I see not what could be truly inferred from thence to the advantage of our Author's Cause For when God is joined in the same form of Speech with any others sure that needs not to be expressed which all Men know and acknowledg even God's Superiority above all others 1 Chron. 29.20 The Congregation bowed their Heads and worshipped the Lord and the King 1 Tim. 5.21 I charge thee before God the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say Come Will our Author say upon these Texts and upon that other parallel Text 1 Sam. 12.18 All the People greatly feared the Lord and Samuel Will he say that Samuel and David the Angels and the Bride i. e. the Church are equal with God or with the Spirit because they are mentioned together without any Note of Distinction or of Dignity and Superiority in one more than in the other The Acts of Religion mentioned in those Texts are no less solemn or important than Baptism is fearing the Lord worshipping the Lord adjuring by the Lord are the very highest Acts of Devotion and Religion yet even in them God is joined with Creatures without any Mark of Distinction or Superiority because as I said when God is joined with any others there is no need of such Note or Mark. Therefore the more learned of our Opposers especially the Ancients of the first 400 Years do not insist on this Text of St. Matthew to prove the Divinity or Personality of the Son or Spirit by these words In the Name of the Father Son and Spirit they understand only to the Profession and to the Obedience of the Father Son and Spirit According to these Criticks the Sense of the objected Text is only this Baptize the Nations into the Profession and Obedience of the Father or God and of Jesus Christ whom the Father hath commanded us to hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto us and of the other Teacher even the Spirit or Inspiration of God by which he advises and comforts the Faithful in all extraordinary Exigences Our Author may please to consult Mr. Pool's Collections on this Text where he will see divers such Interpretations as this all of them by the Criticks of his own Party and all of them consistent with the Vnity of God as 't is held by the Socinians Therefore all those Interpreters and Criticks must be understood as giving up to us this Text. CHAP. V. On the first Verses of St. John's Gospel OUR Author's next Effort is from that well-known Context even the first Verses of St. John's Gospel The Clauses by him urged are these In the Beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God All things were made by Him namely by the WORD and without Him was not any thing made that was made He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not Others have added to these And the WORD was made Flesh and dwelt among us Also that Testimony of the Baptist He that cometh after me is preferred before me for He was before me Our Author endeavours to Ridicule the common Socinian Interpretation of these Verses by Misrepresenting it and by concealing the remarkable and probable Proofs which the Socinians add to every Clause of their Interpretation He recites also the Explication of this Context by Dr. Hammond which he saith is a full Explication and the Sense of the Catholic Church Indeed Dr. Hammond has given us the Belief of the Catholic Church so called and has set it down as the Sense of this Context of St. John but that 's the very thing in question whether that Belief be the Sense of these Verses Our present Opposer has performed so Meanly in the long Discourse he has made on this Proem of St. John's Gospel
Made and Measured by the Motion of the Sun and other Heavenly Bodies and that Duration is by them called Eternity which preceded those Bodies and the Motions which make Time Therefore when they call the Son Coeternal which I think is not found in all their Writings above once or twice they do not mean that He was Really and Actually Coexistent with the Father from all Eternity But 't is their Intention to say He was made by the Father in that Duration which Philosophy calls Eternity some space before the World was made that he might be the Father's Instrument and Minister in creating all things Hereby they acknowledg that the Son was in some sense a Creator and God but it was only as He was the Father's Minister Instrument and Servant those are the Terms they use in making all things He was a Creator and God with respect to all other Creatures but with respect say they to the true and most high God He is only a Servant and a Creature In a word the Ante-Nicen Fathers i. e. those of the first 325 Years whose Works have been suffered to be extant neither held as the Unitarians do that the Lord Christ began to have a Being when He was born of the Virgin nor as the Church now does that He was true God and always actually Coexistent with God but they held with the Arrians that He was Created Begotten or Made for these are with them equivalent Terms in that Tract or Duration which is called not Time but Eternity and that He was the Father's Servant and Instrument in making first the Holy Ghost then the rest of the Creation This is that which is granted by Petavius Huetius Mornay Erasmus Grotius and other Criticks on the Fathers not as our Author supposes that those Fathers held the Doctrine concerning God and our Lord Christ that is now called Socinianism But though this be so yet we doubt not that we are able to prove that the general Body of Christians and an incompâ—â—able majority of their Learned Men believed as the Unitarians now do till about the Times of Victor and Zephiâ—in Bishops of Rome that is till toward the Year of our Lord 180. It has not availed our Opposers that they have suppress'd the works of those most Ancient Fathers who are known and confess'd to have been Unitarians such as Aquila Symmachus and Theadotion who so excellently translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek and Lucianus who restored the Greek Copiet to their first Integrity Artemas and Theodorus Men noted by their Adversaries to have been incomparably Learned and ancienter than any of the Orthodox Fathers as we now call them Paul also Patriarch of Antioch Photinus Archbishop of Sirmium Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra I say it has not advantaged our Opposers that they have destroyed the Writings of these Fathers for the Fathers that are still extant give us an account of the Opinion of those other Fathers thô concealing their Arguments Moreover they confess that those first Unitarians claimed to be the true Successors and Descendents of the Apostles and that they derived their Doctrine from them Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 28. Besides this the only Creed of all the Churches till the Council of Nice and which is called the Aposties Creed because it contains the true Apostolick Tradition is confest on all hands to be wholly Vnitarian That Creed acknowledges but one God the Father Almighty and but one only Son of God even him saith this Creed who was conceived generated or begotten by the Holy Ghost on the Virgin Mary not as our Opposers feign an Eternal Son begotten of the Essence of God his Father But I will not Sir now dilate on these things it shall be done in a Treatise by it self if it please God to give me Leisure and Opportunity in the mean time I appeal to those Learned Criticks Petavius and others before mentioned that the ordinary pretence of such Scriblers and Sciolists as our Author is utterly false and ungrounded even this that the Ante-nicen Fathers held the Doctrine of the Trinity as the Church now does As for the Scoffs of Lucian on the God who is Three and One One and Three not having the Book by me I cannot tell whether he meant to jeer the Trinity of the Platonick Philosophers or of the Christians I conjecture he means the former Neither was he so ancient as some give out the best Criticks make him to have flourish'd about the Year of our Lord 176 when the new Doctrines were grown very rise and common The Account that Pliny gives of the Christians to the Emperor Trajan is ancient but in the particular objected to us very uncertain The Copies of Pliny in Tertullian's Time exprest the matter thus Ad canendum Christo Deo They sang Psalms of Praise to Christ and to God not ut Deo to Christ as God The very words of Tertullian are these Pliny in his Letter to Trajan objects nothing else to them but that they were obstinate in refusing to sactifice and that they held caetus ante lucanos ad canendam Christo Dio Meetings before day to sing to Christ and to God Tertul. Apol. adv Gentes c. 3. I make use of an Edition of Tertullian with the Notes of all the Criticks published by Rigaltius at Paris yet none of them dislikes the Reading by Tertullian or prefers to it the Modern Reading But admitting now that we were to read ut Deo as to a God Pliny in these words might speak only his own Opinion not the Opinion of the Christians He might conjecture that because the Christians sang certain Compositions in Praise of the Lord Christ in their Meetings therefore they held him to be a God Or ut Deo may be translated as if he were a God so as to make this sense They sing Psalms and Hymns to Christ as if he were a God whom themselves confess to have been a Man for Hymns are not usually sung but only to the Gods However it be this Citation makes not much to the purpose at most it only proves that even in Pliny's time some began to corrupt the Evangelical Doctrine concerning the Unity of God CHPA X. On divers Passages out of the Evangelists and Epistles FRom the Fathers our Author returns again to the Scriptures and advances an Argument to prove our Saviour's Divinity from those Texts which seem to intimate that the Lord Christ is to be prayed unto and also from others in which 't is said that even while he was upon Earth he was worshipped by some and did not refuse the worship paid to him He saith no Person can be the proper Object of Divine Worship such as Prayer is but He who is Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent and that if the Socinians ascribe these Properties to our Saviour they make him to be true God That Jesus Christ was worshipped and that he ought to be worshipped he proves from these Texts Phil. 2.9 10