Life void of all Sence and Perception for though its Efficacy should be so great that it is sufficient to move the mass of matter Locally yet for want of contrivance it can only make an impetuous jostle a confused jumble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or promiscuous medly of Matter but not a World It is therefore the Agency of a conscious Life that can take cognizance of its own doings in it self and move Matter with design to produce a regular structure of stupendious Mechanism as is that of this visible World in a due proportion order and subserviency of all its parts Cap 2.7 now such a conscious Life is a Mind 12. Yet neither is this the Agency of a Mind that is indeed sagacious enough if it happens to advert to frame such a stately Edifice but yet in its self is wholy indifferent and unconcerned whether there be any beauty or usefulness in the whole or any part of it for though such a Mind may chance to make some very few or very small parts with some proportionableness yet it is absolutely incredible that many or the considerable parts should have any comely order or good serviceableness at all but that the whole material System should be Erected by such utterly heedless Agency into such a goodly Fabrick as is this which we behold with our Eyes is altogether impossible and is perfectly contradictious to the very Nature and Reason of Fortuitousness It is therefore the Agency of such a Mind as hath resentments is Pleased or Displeased Approves or Disapproves its own doings But a Mind indued with such resentments is a Spirit Cap 2.9 That being then to whose Agency the whole material World does owe its present frame is nothing else but a Spirit which worketh all in all by the counsel of his own Will If therefore the Supream Being is the maker of ths World he is not of a material or any other nature but Spiritual 13. This is the Conclusion that we were directly to deduce That no other Being but a Spirit is the Maker of the World But I did not prove but suppose that the World had a Maker yet that follows likewise as a Corollary Thus The force which we feel causes all Local motion is not natural to matter but contingent whencesoever this force happened to matter it is the cause of the World's frame It is certain no force whencesoever it is that moves not by counsel could cause such motions as are in the Worlds frame but all force that moves by counsel is the efficacy of a vital mental spiritual agency therefore the World that was framed by such force Chap. 2.9 was made by the Agency of a Spirit These two documents of Nature are both confirmed by Scripture which teaches expresly that God is a Spirit and in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth 14. Now since God the Maker of the World is a Spirit and the supream Being the Perfections that are included in his being the Most High do speak no other than a Spiritual nature in God for be they never so high as they are Most High they argue him to be no other Most High Being but the Most High Spirit hence then we can infer from the nature of the thing that God is therefore the Most High Life the Most High Understanding the Most High Will but not the Most High Being of any other sort and whatsoever is not the Most High Spirit is not by Nature God The Scripture teaches God is Life God is Light God is Love to confirm us in this 15. Mr. Rich. Baxter following St. Austin hath spoke a great deal of those three and has observed that a Trinity in Unity is imprinted upon the whole frame of Nature but then confesses whether we call those three Life Light and Love or Life Intellect and Will They are not the Trinity of Persons and that they are not is manifest from these Principles for since these three express the Essential Nature of a Spirit they cannot be the Three Persons in the Divinity because if we should take every one of these three by it self for one of the Three Persons we shall then divide the one Nature into three instead of giving the same intire Nature in three Personal Subsistences 16. If there be no other Supream Spirit Subsisting at all but only this one single Supream Spirit it is manifest then in the Reason of the thing there is no more three Gods though this One Supream Spirit subsists intirely in Three distinct personal Subsistences then there is if it subsists onely in One personal Subsistence This I note in the first place to secure our Conception of God as One whether there be One Person of the God-head or Three and it is not amiss to observe that because the most high Being is the Supream Spirit all other Natures such matter is are in their condition obnoxious to the Spiritual Nature 17. But it can hardly be worth while to note that though Nature Form Frame Fashion and such like Words do in their derivation seem to connote the first rise of things yet Use hath frequently applyed them to signifie only the things as they are in their several kinds without our thinking how they came to be what they are and so it must needs do when we speak of the Divine Nature which is Eternal In like manner Existence seems to insinuate the first coming of things into Being but in use it hath obtained most commonly to import no more than that a thing is in being and Subsistence signifies the same with Existence only connotes some permanency of Existence CHAP. IV. Of the Spiritual Agency and Subsistence 1. VVE are now more distinctly to remark the sufficiency of the Spiritual Nature and the rather because our business in this World of Bodies is such as may deceive us Our Work as parts of this corporeal System is only moving the parts of matter from place to place staying or altering such Local motion and this we do not without straining and contention hereupon we are apt to over-value this Power which is but an appendage and that accidental to the most eminent Functions of a conscious Life as being no more than a consequent of the Minds superiority over that baser Nature Now seeing the most radicalagency of the Spiritual Life and that which discriminates it from other Natures is as we see Chap. 2 3. 4. that whereby it discerns betwixt Existence and Non-Existence or betwixt something and nothing This would tempt us to suspect that a Minds Essential Agency is to give or annul this being of things which it conceives in it self and that in proportion to its sufficiency but should this be true yet it would be too great an ascent to make at one step and would but amuse shoud it be so abruptly expressed the easier way though somewhat farther about I like best which will be by considering first Lifes Agency as Intellectual and then as
it can neither roundly be affirmed nor denied Explicate the meaning of the ambiguous Phrase and the Matter hath no difficulty The Scripture sometime says that this Person that is God and Man is the Son of Abraham of David c. and sometimes with restriction Mat. 1.1 Rom. 1.3 9 5. explains the expression that it is appertaining to the Flesh 11. Seeing God the Son is one with Man of Humane Race put case that this Man had had a Personal Subsistence in the World before this Union then until this Union they were two several Persons and then if the one of these two was Christ the other was not And unless this Union alters their Condition they still continue two several Persons and so if the one of these two be Christ the other is not But we have before proved that the properties personal and natural of God the Son are unvaried by this Union therefore unless the Man be altered in some respect Christ is not God and Man C. 10 7. which is contrary to the supposition whereon the inquiry proceeds How God and Man is one in Christ Should then the Humane Nature of this Person by its Union with the Divine Nature be Annihilated or Changed from its Man-hood Then the Son of God is not by this Union one with Man but with some other thing which is likewise contrary to the supposal And yet if the distinct Personal Subsistence of the Manhood as well as the Nature should continue after this Union then they will remain as much two as they were before but this is contrary to the supposal that they were become one It remains therefore that there is some Change in the distinct Personal Subsistence of the Man by becoming one with the Son of God but because Personal Capacities are indivisible no Change of them is partial but all total Now a total Change of a Person by Union with another Person extinguisheth the Changed Personality so that though it was a voluntary Nature yet by the Union the voluntary Nature becomes a Natural Property of the Person to which it is United If therefore the Manhood of our Saviour had had a Personal Subsistence in the World before its Union with the Godhead the consequence of such Union had been that they which before were Naturally two voluntary Agents by this Personal Union became one Natural Voluntary Agent and so two Natures both Voluntary become one Person And because neither the Divine Nature or Personality of the Son of God is changed this one Person is a Divine Person no less than he was before the Union Now though there was no Manhood in Being before its Union for when God sent forth his Son he was made of a Woman Gal. 4.4 yet by this case put Hypothetically we may the better conceive the Nature of the Union betwixt the two Natures in Christ 12. For as this Nature did in the fore-described formation arrive at the form of a Humane Nature by the Efficiency of the Natural and Supernatural Powers it had its Personal Subsistence in the Word for since as has been shewed a Humane Nature that had a Personal Subsistence in the World being United with the Divine Word may thereupon become one Person with the Word and its own Personality be extinguished Much more shall a Nature that never had Humanity or Personality before as fast as it attains a Humane form so have its Personal Subsistence by its Union with the Divine Word that God and Man are one Voluntary Agent thereby and all the Rights Disposals and Acts of the two Natures are Really and in Truth the Rights Disposals and Acts of this one Person that is God and Man 13. According to which measures it may be truly said that God redeems his Church with his own blood though the Godhead hath no blood of its own Acts. 20.28 John 6.62 John 3.13 And the Son of Man ascends into Heaven where he was before though that was never before the place of the Humane Nature and whilst he was speaking of that future ascent the Son of Man was even then in Heaven though his Humane Nature was at that time only on Earth 14. God that made two Stones in the condition of two several moveables so that one may move upwards whilst the other moves downward or one rest whilst the other moves could have made the Substance of these two stones to have adhered together inseparably and become only one movement And though Volitions are not motions yet Volitions are the Acts of Wills as Motions if they be Actions are the Actions of Bodies We cannot make Natural Wills and consequently we cannot make Natural Persons and therefore it is that we cannot make many Natural Persons to become one Natural Person But when God hath made men that are Natural Persons we can of them Create Political Persons because we can Create a Political Will and therefore we can also of many Political Persons make one Political Person We can make one man a King because we can give one a Soveraign Will in this Country and another a King in another Country and a third in another and we can joyn all these three into one Political Person by making the Will of the major part the will of the whole Governing all these Kingdoms in the Person of a Trium virate For the Power of making many Persons of any kind into one Person of the same kind is but commensurate to the power of making several Persons of the same Condition Wherefore since God can make several natural Persons he can by the same Omnipotence make two Natural Persons to become one Natural Person for this must needs be as feasible to the Divine Power as the other is to ours Now though the Divine Nature and Person of God the Son be Eternal yet the Humane Nature being Temporal it is obnoctious to the Divine Arbitriment notwithstanding its voluntariness whether it shall have a Personal Subsistence of its Self or be the Natural Property of the Person of the Son of â—od and so God and Man be so United that they become one Voluntary Agent and one Divine Person Now since we are ascertained that God wills the Word to become Flesh Rom. 5.17 1 Cor. 8.6 Eph. 4.5 we are thereby assured that God wills God and Man to be one Christ one Lord and one Person CHAP. XII Of the Mystery of Gods Kingdom 1. NOW if the Son of God be one Person with Man he is one Person with a Humane Body Vitally United with a Reasonable Soul let us reflect then upon our own make and frame that we may the better understand this Mystery of the Universe Now a Humane Body is a Body exalted by a regular Efficiency of Mans Prolifick Powers to that Curious Stupendious and Unparallel'd Mechamisme by Organization and to that refined Temperature by more than Myriads of exquisite Percolations as is not to be found in any other parts of this Visible World
which being for Contrivance and Counsel as it were the Master-piece of Divine Skill in Matter God statedly beholds this singular Work of his own Hands when arrived at due Maturity with such a favourable Aspiration as is no less or but a little less than that which he vouchsafeth to the Inhabitants of the Intellectual World And as we see much what the same measure of strength as suppots a weight will serve to raise it so same the favourable Aspiration that upholds an Intellectual Creature in Being is of force sufficient to raise it into Being Therefore such Aspiration will give Being to a Conscious Life as preserves the Mental Natures of the Invisible World 2. But then this Aspiration being included in the Divine favourable intuition on what his hand hath curiously wrought in these lower parts of the Earth Psa 139.15 though it hath a Conscious Life for its effect yet it is not a separate Conscious Life but a Conscious Life enlivening that accurate frame of Matter now a conscious Life vitally United to a Humane Body is a rational Soul 3. And because this Soul doth result from the Divine Aspiration on a being framed by the course of Natural Causes in the material System of this World therefore it is not Properly Created nor yet Miraculous but Natural 4. Yet this Soul cannot be said to be therefore educed out of the powers of Matter because the Divine Aspiration is not of that kind which concurs with Corporeal Motions but such as is afforded to the Intellectual Natures though upon the approbation of this singular piece of Divine Workmanship in this World of Bodies 5. He that said of the Humane Soul Creatur infundendo or infunditur Creando spoke something this way but whether expresly enough needs not be inquired since the Scripture assures us that the Lord who Created the whole frame of this Visible World besides that does form the Spirit of Man within him That the Spirit in Man being by the Inspiration of the All-mighty Zech. 12.1 Job 32.8.27.3 Gen. 2.7 is Intellectual and the breath in our Nostrils our Spirit and Life is the Spirit of God which he Breathed into Mans Nostrils by which he became a living Soul So that if Brutes have Souls and they be educed out of the Powers of Matter yet the Soul of Man according to a course settled by God in Nature being a Conscious Life is by a Divine Aspiration correspondent to those of the Superiour World By which it appears Mans Nature participates both of this and the other World in its Constitution 6. Therefore the Son of God who is God being one Person with Man hath thereby a new alliance both to the Material and Intellectual World and a new Cognation both with the Coelestial and Terrestial Inhabitants and because the Union of God and Man in Christ is Mystical Cap. 10.8 therefore the whole Kingdom of God is put into a Mystical state and frame upon this new Cognation with all things in Heaven and Earth 7. And if according to the Opinion of some of the most celebrated Philosophers in this Age the motion of every part of Matter does really so diffuse it self that the whole System of Matter is affected thereby and if withal the parts that make up the Intellectual World have a correspondent Communion amongst themselves then by this Union of God and Man there is as it were a new Leaven which may be sufficient in Gods due time to Leaven the Mass of the whole Creation And Christs Resurrection is a Specimen of its efficacy and a ground of our expectation But should this prove only to be their Conjecture and not the Natural way of efficiency yet we are however sufficiently assured that the effect shall be produced and that in Christ all things in Heaven and Earth shall be recollected into one Eph. 1.10 Col. 1.17 18 19 20. 2 Thes 2.1 Acts. 3.21 and that there shall be a restitution of all things whereby they shall be restored into one blessed frame 8. The Mystical constitution of the Divine Kingdom being therefore for the restoration of the Natural Kingdom in a renewed integrity it is a form of Government which in its Nature and design is manifestly subordinate to the Original Government of the Divine Kingdom in its Primitive institution 9. If then the Supream Governour be the same yet as King of this Mystical Kingdom he is less than the King of the Natural Kingdom not in himself or Naturally but in the state of a Governour or Politically the Antients call it Oeconomically But in plain terms the sense stands thus God that humbleth himself when he inspects the things that are done in Heaven and in Earth however he undertakes the Government and Management of them does yet more humble himself when for the good of the Creation Psal 113.6 he governs the Universe in the Mystical constitution for the redintegrating of the Natural Kingdom into one blessed frame 10. Whereas then God in the first Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Father is first in the Address as Lord of the Natural Kingdom so God even the same God in the second Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Son is first in the Address as Lord of the Mystical Kingdom considered as Mystical and Subordinate because God manifest in the Flesh is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness 11. Before the Mystery was made known therefore the stile Lord did more directly and more usually indigitate God the Father as we find in the old Testament but since the Mystery is to be acknowledged by all the Subjects of Gods Kingdom the Title of Lord doth more directly denote God the Son and is therefore in the new Testament most commonly attributed to Jesus Christ though they be both one Lord as well as one God 12. The Son therefore being Lord of the Divine Kingdom in its Mystical and Subordinate State in treating with his Subjects will have occasion to speak of himself as less than his Father in many of the affairs of the Mystical Kingdom and Government especially in and about the change of the Natural into the Mystical Frame though he be the same God Lord with the Father For God doth humble himself more in condescending to Govern the World in this State than in the first Natural Constitution of his Kingdom The Son therefore is less than the Father not only as Man but also as God Governing the Divine Kingdom in the Mystical State John 3.35 Mat. 11.27 Acts 2.32 Joh. 10.20 1 Cor. 11.3 John 6.38 1 Cor. 3.23 1 Cor. 15.27 Phil. 2.7 Zech. 3.8 Joh 17.5 Accordingly we read the Sons Power is given is received of the Father he receives command from the Father the head of Christ is God even the Father for he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Christ is Gods who put all things
confirmed in the Scripture where we read of a Wisdom Subsisting with God which was brought forth conceiv'd or begotten from Everlasting brought forth before the Depths the Hills or ever the Earth was and such the Second Person of the Deity in Reason is for ever for in him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom 5. This Second Person being Divinus Conceptus Chap. 10.15 is not the Image of the Divine Nature for he is the very Divine Nature Subsisting really in this Personal Subsistence and in him the first Subsistence does really Subsist but in the Reverse or Antitype as it were this Nature dictates Chap. 4.7 Chap. 6.8 Therefore though the Son be not the express Image of the Divine Nature yet he is according to the Reason of the thing and of the Holy Language as we find Heb. 1.3 the express Image of God the Father which being so critically expressed by that Divine and Accurate Author do's manifestly point out to us the very Account which from Nature I have offered of the Subsistence of the Second Person For indeed all these Scriptural Characters are so agreeable to the reason of the thing that they leave us no rational doubt in this matter 7. The third Subsistence of the Deity is by volition and volition is the agency of the Spirit of the Divine Mind this was proved by Reason ch 5.20 ch 6.11 and this is attested by the Scriptures as often as they style the Third Person the Spirit of God or emphatically the Spirit which is so frequently that I need not hint the places This Person proceeds and is not begotten as appears by the reason of the Divine Nature cap. 5.21 accordingly the Scripture no where says the Spirit is begotten but that it proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of the Son and sent by the Son The Nature of the Deity taught there is one and but one substantial subsistence of the Godhead by procession ch 5.22 the Divine Oracles confirm this for there is one Body and one Spirit even one and the self same Spirit This Spirit creates according to the condition of its subsistence in Nature cap. 5.23 which we also learn Psal 33 6. where all the Host of Heaven and Earth are Created by this Divine Breath This Person is a real distinct subsistence by it self of the Divine Nature cap. 5.24 and the Scripture teaches he is not the Father being sent by the Father nor the Son being sent by the Son And whilst this Spirit like a Dove did alight upon Jesus at his Baptism the Father at the same time by an audible voice from Heaven did own him for his well-beloved Son and the Son declares that the Spirit is another from himself and as Nature ch 5.25 so the Scripture teaches he is the third in order by the Ordinance of Baptism in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We learn from Nature that the Spirit is God ch 5.27 which is averr'd by the Scripture teaching us that lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God and ascribing such perfections to this same Spirit as are incommunicable to any other Nature But let us proceed to the other Scriptural properties of this Spirit which we may observe to have a singular Congruousness with the natural Condition of this third Divine Person For since the third Person subsists by the Almighty Volition of the Divine Spirit c. 5.20 According to the Reason of the thing and of the Sacred Language it will exegetically be called the Power of the Most High and the Finger of God as it is Luke 1.35 c. 11.20 and because it subsists in the Divine Benevolence ch 5.19 with some peculiar attribution will this be styled the Good Spirit as Nehemiah 9.20 Thou gavest them thy Good Spirit Psal 143.10 Thy Spirit is Good and this Spirit of the Lord accordingly is directly opposed to the Evil Spirit and the prime Communication of this Spirit will be Love to all the World of Spirits because Moral Truth consists in the constancy of the Will c. 5.21 therefore this is the Spirit of Truth in the Moral sense as the Scripture often teaches which is an eminent vertue in a Witness or a Friend But above all we are to mark that according to the Nature and Reason of the thing this Person subsists in the Eternal Unchanged Holiness of the Divine good-will ch 6.5 because the Most Famous Character which the Scripture gives of this Person is that of the Holy Ghost So punctually doth the Testimony of the Scripture agree with the Doctrine of Nature 8. From the Natural Condition of the Three Persons the Consequents were that they are Coeternal Three in Number Coequal each intirely God inseparable self-subsistent and mutually inexistent and one Principle only In confirmation of all this the Scripture teaches the Father is God from Everlasting to Everlasting that the Son is set up from Everlasting whose goings forth are from Everlasting that he indures and his years have no end that the Spirit is the Eternal Spirit It likewise teaches us there are three but no more and in the same order as Nature doth the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And again the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost one of these Three accounts it no Robbery to be equal with another asserting all to be his which the other hath that he was with the other and in the beginning with the other that he is not alone but the other is with him yea one mutually inexistent in the other I in thee and thou in me and as the one hath life in himself so the other hath life in himself 9. Nature Scripture then we have seen do both teach each of these three Persons is God and yet notwithstanding Nature assures us that there is not therefore three but only one God as is taught ch 5.26 and the Scripture every where confirms this Natural Dictate assuring us that there is but one God Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I am and there is no God besides me There is but one Uncreated Self-sufficient Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible One Supream in Glorious Majesty according to the Evidence given by Reason ch 6.9 Now though the Scripture as has been shew'd does attribute the perfections of the Divine Nature to every one of these Persons as well as reason did yet no where doth it speak of more Eternals more Almighties more All-sufficients then one only And there being in Nature but one energy upon the Creatures abroad ch 6.10 the Scripture concurs herewith teaching there is but one Creatour one Saviour one Sanctifier one King one Law-giver one Judge one Lord one Adorable Being or Object of Religious Worship and one Majesty According to the voice of Nature Truth and Moral goodness have a substantial subsistence in God ch 6.11 12. this is asserted by the Scripture as often as it says God is Light or God is Love That the Spirit of God is free
import their constitution in the Sacerdotal State of the Universe But I must here lay no stress upon this lest I beg a Principle of those that will not grant it I note it however for the sake of them which know the Truth that they may discern the whole of what I include in the compleat notion of a Christian Mystery 2. Nature instructs us in the knowledge of Gods Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.32 and of his Providence and Righteous Judgment and likewise teaches that his Subsistence is such as belongs Naturally to the Supream Self-Originate Spirit what that is I have shewed above But that God is Incarnate that he now Governs the World in Humane Nature and will Judge the World in the man Christ Jesus is not to be learned from Natural John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Acts 17 31. but only from Supernatural Revelation Nothing then that depends upon these as all Religious Mysteries now do can be proved otherwise than from the Scriptures 3. From the Natural Reason of the thing we have therefore no evidence to assert that Christ is God Mark 1.1 Joh. 20.13 but there is nothing that the Gospel makes more certain then that Christ is the Son the only Son the only begotten Son of God this being the grand assertion of the New Testament And this being made certain to us by the Gospel the former discourse whereby we naturally learn there is one only Son of God does assure us that whoever or whatever Christ is Cap. 5. though he be even a man he is himself really and truly God and yet not God the Father nor the Holy Ghost This is all that our present undertaking obliges us to say in demonstration of our Saviours Divinity 4. But that I may not wholly baulk the expectation of the Reader I shall annex the sum of a large Scriptural evidence made ready to our hands as I find it recapitulated by the excellent Dr. III. Serm. of the Trinity P. 86 Wallis after a particular inforcement of it He therefore who is as Christ has been shewed from the Scriptures to be God the true God the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Eternal God the First and the Last before whom nothing was and after whom nothing shall be That Was and Is and Shall be the same Yesterday and to Day and for Ever the Almighty by whom the World was Made by whom all things were Made and without whom nothing was Made that was Made who Laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of his hands who when the Heavens and the Earth shall fail His Years endure for Ever who searcheth the Hearts and the Reins to give to every one according to his Works who is Jehovah the Lord God of Israel the Supream Being who is over all God blessed for Ever who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen That God says he of whom all these things are said is certainly not a meer Titular God who is called God but is not a Creature God or only a Dignified Man for if these be not Characters of the True God by what Characters shall the True God be described 5. We are now to observe how the Natural Doctrine of the former Discourse does correspond with all these viz. That Christ is Man and is the Son of God is God but not the Father nor the Holy Ghost First then Of the Humanity of Christ about which more anon we must remember that there is no Created Nature Cap. 5.5 Cap. 5.10 but has its Being wholly by being Conceived in the Divine Mind therefore Christs Humanity is a Nature Subsisting by being Conceived by God 2. The Divine Nature in its second Subsistence is the only begotten Son of God as being God Conceived therefore Jesus Christ being the Son of God is God conceived and being but one and yet Man he is God conceived one with Man or he is God conceived and Man conceived in Unity by the Divine Conception and therefore by vertue of the Divine Essential Truth God conceived one with Man is thereby really one with Man Thus Christ abideth ever God and Man in one Cap. 5.5 6. But because it is God conceived that is thus one with Man therefore it is neither God the Father or the Holy Ghost that is one with Man For God Conceived or Begotten is the Deity in its second subsistence Christ therefore is the Son of God even of the Father and from him and the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost 7. Since Unity hath several significations it will be impossible in some sense for God in any subsistence to be one with Man therefore we must observe that God the Son being Eternally God conceived is Eternally God and Eternally conceived he therefore is not changed in his nature nor subsistence which being still the same he ceases not to be God nor the Son of God by becoming Man And we may say more generally he ceases not to be what he ever had been but begins to be what before he was not There is therefore neither a Conversion of the Godhead changing it from a Divine into a Humane Nature nor yet a confusion whereby upon the union of the two Natures there results a third which is neither of the two as when a blew thread is dipt into a yellow Vat there comes out a third colour which is neither blew nor yellow but green so that the Properties Natural and Personal of the Son of God remain the same unvaried by this Union 8. Jesus Christ being one who is God conceived and Man conceived in the unity of the Divine Conception he is the Son of God both in his Divine and Humane Nature This subsistence therefore of the Son of God in Union with Man is Mystical in the full and adequate notion of Mysticalness for the Divine Nature might have been and have governed the whole Creation Cap. 10.1 though in no one of its Personal subsistences it had been one with Man Jesus Christ therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity hath in him a Mystical subsistence of God and Man become one and therefore is a Mystical Divine Person 9. And because this Mystical Union was effected by the unity of the Divine Conception therefore God conceiving the Divine and Humane Nature is one Rom. 15. in as such the God and Father of Jesus Christ and therefore is as such the Divine Nature in its first subsistence become Mystical 10. And the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son in this their Mystical subsistence being as such the Spirit of the Father of Jesus 1 Cor. 2.12 and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus is the Divine Nature as such in its third subsistence hereby become Mystical Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.6 Phil. 1.19 Cap. 10.1 So that
under his feet yea in all he is the Fathers Servant but this is only until the Mystery be finished and then the Son shall be glorified with the Father with the same glory which he had with him before the World was 13. I need but note the Constitution of the Divine Kingdom being thus far changed in the Mystical State that the Laws and Priviledges the Rights and State of its Subjects its Provisions and Defences its Power and Administration are all altered so as shall comport therewith for these are plain enough in the Scripture to observant Readers and for our own particular it is sufficient to remark That Repentance toward God Acts 20.21 and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which had no place in the Primitive Institution of God's Kingdom are now the sum of the Articles in the Fundamental Contract of this Mystical Kingdom CHAP. XIII Of the Covenant of Gods Kingdom MOSES designing to teach the Church in the Wilderness that it was Jehovah that is the only God and their God which Created the World as we read Geâ— 2.4 â—e so introduces that Conclusion Chap. 1. That it appears their God by the saying of his Word and the operation of his Spirit did make all things which with the Psalmists exposition does sufficiently insinuate that God his Word and his Spirit was the maker of the World Psal 33.6 When therefore St. John informs us there are Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.7 and these three are one he therein teaches no other than the Doctrine of Paradise It cannot be doubted but mens apprehensions of this as well as other things were very much darkned by the fall but God not sealing up Mankind irrevocâ—bly for Hell did continue to his People in the succeeding Ages some sufficient knowledge of this as well as of other saving Truths For in the Old Testament there are such attributions to the Word of God as could not belong to a verbal significancy of what God means nor yet to the Works of God as indications to men of what was in Gods mind Those Holy Men therefore that attributed such things to Gods Word did conceive in it a more Vital Substantial Subsistence as hath been asserted by many Doctors not only in the Christian Church but also amongst the Jews 2. But though Gods People of old had believed the Doctrine of the Trinity most distinctly yet the Reasons of State in the Divine Government did not then call for their express acknowledgment of it in that stipulation whereby they held their Rights in Gods Kingdom For 1. The most proper form of Covenant against the defection by Anarchy is the acknowledgment of the Divine Government And 2. Against the defection by Polytheism the acknowledgment of the Divine Monarchy And 3. Against the defection by Sophistry depraving the Divine Nature the acknowledgment of the Trinity as being Sacraments most accommodate to List men on Gods side in direct opposition to these respective Apostacies as they did arise in the World 3. For first Before the Flood were the Violent the Ungodly that thought not on Heaven would do what they Listed Gen. 6.11 2 Pet. 2.5 Mat. 24.37 Gen. 6.5 12. and were Ungovernable and these acknowledged therefore no Superiour Power Governing the World And therefore Josephus as I remember somewhere calls them the Anarchical The acknowledgment of Subjection to the Divine Government as was then the most apposite form of Covenant which Men were to enter into and they that took it were called the Sons of God in the sense that Subjects in opposition to Strangers or Aliens are called the Children of the King Gen. 6.2 Mat. 17.25 Mat. 8.12 Gen. 4.26 and the Children of the Kingdom In the days of Enos Men began to be called the Lords as making such a Publick Profession for so many interpret that Expression Gen. 4.26 Somewhat like that of Jacobs Gen. 48.16 But more parallel to that of St. Paul Of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is called Eph. 3.15 Jude 14. 2 Pet. 2.5 Enoch's denouncing vengeance asserts the Divine Rights of Government and Noah's Preaching Righteousness Proclaims the Divine Judicature But Wickedness and Irreligion prevailing against the methods of Governing Grace and Wisdom God destroys them bringing in the Flood upon the Ungodly but saving Noah and his House Yet soon after the same Anarchical Impiety sprung up again for at Babel God complains of the Children of Men Gen. 11.6 the style of their Predecessors in the Old World that they were all one and would do what they listed and would not be restrained or governed And the Divine Vengeance which destroyed the Error leaving the Men alive on Earth was peculiarly adapted to their Case for the Dividing of their Tongues being a stroak immediately upon their own Mental Nature by confounding their Conceptions either of Things or Words did so throughly convince them that there was a Superiour Being which exercised a Power over their minds that we meet not with one Atheist for many Hundred years after nor with any Nation of Atheists ever since this very Day So far then did the acknowledgment of the Divine Government obtain 4. But shortly after there grew up another Error alike pernicious for we find in Abraham's days Polytheism did spread very far Against this God calls forth Abraham Jâ—s 24.2 3 â—â— 15 and afterwards Isaac and Jacob and charges them with the care of his Truth appearing to them by the Name of God Almighty Exod. 6.3 which is that style that infallibly asserts the Unity of the Deity for as much as two or more Almighties is a plain contradiction So that now the fundamental Covenant in opposition to Polytheism required an explicite acknowledgment of one God only and of the Divine Monarchy To this Josephus refers in many places For however it was before not only the Anarchical but the Antimonarchical were now all Aliens and Traytors to God But when this one God Almighty upon his delivering Israel out of Egypt did assume to himself the style of the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob as his Everlasting Memorial This was an introduction to the Covenant of peculiarity which he made expresly with his Church as separate from all other Nations Exod. 3.15 When God therefore as Jehovah the God of Israel indents with them that they should have no other God beside himself thereupon he takes that Nation to be to him a Nation of Priests Exod. 20. whereby as Philo Judaeus rightly asserts the Nation of Israel became the Priest of all Mankind Exod. 19.5 6. and consequently of all this lower World But alas this National Priesthood was so far from bringing the blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles contained either in the Monarchical Covenant of the one true God or in the Covenant of peculiarity to Proselites of the gates or of Righteousness that they themselves did
he is nevertheless God for his being Man For it is plain such a one cannot deny the Divine Being of the Son but he must deny the Being of God the Father or deny any perfection to be in the Son but he must deny the same of the Father Therefore according to the reason of the Mystical Divine Kingdom and the Testimony of our Saviour This equal honouring of God the Father and the Son is the Moral and Religious form of all Christian Worship and Service Which proves that though the Doctrine of the Christian Trinity be speculative in the disquisition of it as even Justice and Temperance are yet it is such a speculation that without the attainment of that Faith in our Minds we can perform no Religious Duty truly Christian a Christian Life it self being nothing else but the Praxis upon the belief of the Kingdom of God as governed in the hand of Christ by the Mystical Trinity We are then to receive the institutions of Christ not as the Ordinances of a Moses a Mediatory Angel or a Vicegerent but as the Orders of a Lord in his own House Heb. 3.2 3 4. which is the whole Family of Heaven and Earth 5. Having pointed out the practical use of this Doctrine in general I need not descend to the particulars It s other uses are first the Political for the re-establishing the state of the Divine Kingdom by reconciling all things in Heaven and Earth so that the part that had made a revolt might upon satisfaction given be re-instated with the peace of God into the Blessed Society and all things in Heaven and Earth become one And 2dly the Spiritual for redintegration by physical or if you please supernatural efficiency quickning all things with such Divine Life as is requisite to the happiness of the Subjects of Gods Kingdom that are in his favour But I desire to be excused from medling with these because the Antitrinitarians generally now denying the Sacrifice of Christs death whereon the political force does depend and scarcely confessing the Resurrection of the Body which is the most conspicuous effect of the reâ—integrating vertue of the Divine Life in Christ I intend not to enter into any Dispute upâ—â— these Points yet if I might not displease them I would as a Frienâ— remind them that as I hope it does now competently appear 〈◊〉 their opposition against the Trinity is grounded upon a Metaphysâ—â— presumption of theirs wherein they take it for â—â—anted that thâ—â—â—pream Spirit must needs subsist only in one real Subsistence fo◠〈◊〉 Reason because it is impossible for Matter or any Created Spiriâ—â— have any more which now is found to be no reason at all 〈◊〉 doubt not but upon due examination they will find that their deâ—â— of Christ's Satisfaction is built upâ—â— a false System in Morality 〈◊〉 Politicks and their scruple about 〈◊〉 Resurrection upon an arbiâ—â—â—â—â— and insufficient Hypothesis in Physicks 6. But whatever they do since we have found that the Reason 〈◊〉 Nature of the Thing and the Testimony of the Scripture the Myâ—â—â—ry in the Incarnation of the Son of God God manifest in the Flâ—â—â— and the Obligation of our Vow in Baptism do all concur to conâ—â—â— us in the belief of the Blessed Trinity let us who have attaineâ— the acknowledgment of the Truth as it is in Jesus be sure to hold 〈◊〉 Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience and then we shall both â—â—ceive the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God and Communion of the Holy Ghost and likewise give Glory to God Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons God Holy Blessed and Eternal For his is the Kingdom Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever Amen FINIS
AN ACCOUNT OF THE Blessed Trinity Argued from the Nature and Perfection of the Supream Spirit Coincident with the Scripture Doctrine in all the Articles of the Catholick Creeds Together with its 1 Mystical Uses 2 Foederal Uses 3 Practical Uses In the Christian RELIGION By William Burrough Rector of Chynes in Bucks LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane near the Oxford-Arms-Inn 1694. THE PREFACE IT passes at this day without any hesitancy amongst the Socinians that the Trinity is contrary to reason and it is likely it did so at the very first and so past them too hastily and before they had sufficiently examined the differences of things For upâ—n a more distinct observance of the Scale of Beings I suppose it may appear that though a Trinity of Real Hypostasies either in a single corporeal substance or even in any nature not absolutely perfect be contradictory to the reason of the thing yet it is evident by all our natural notices from internal sense that a Spirit besides its first subsistence hath also two other answerable to the utmost ability of its own Ingeny and therefore in reason we must grant that in the Spirit whose ability is All-sufficiency these its two other subsistencies are really equal in perfection with its first and consequently according to our humane conceptions of a Spirit and its perfections the denial of the Trinity includes in it the denial of the Spirituality or of the absolute perfection of the Deity both of which appear to be contradictory as well to Reason as the Scripture The Three therefore in Scripture and the Trinity in the Catholick Church is of the same significancy with a Spirit of absolute perfection in the Schools of Philosophy but in a stile of more adorable Majesty presenting to us the absoluteness of the perfection to be in a substantial subsistence To this purpose it is observable that our Saviour who came to require from all Men the service of the Supream Being under the express notion of a Spirit without respect to place the peculiar property of Bodies does not only represent him under the Title of the Father in spirit and in truth which in the reason of the thing are our prime notices of the One in Three but likewise appoints to all Nations a solemn recognition of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which in Nature are the proper formal Characters of the Three Persons in that Holy One and without this recognition first made no one is to be admitted into the service of that Soveraign Lord. If these things may appear as I here suppose it will also appear that we are to confess a Trinity in Vnity both as Men and as Christians and consequently they are extreamly injurious who reproach the Being of the God which the Christian Church does Worship as contradictions and absurd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if that most Blessed of all Beings was not to be endured either in Mens Hearts or in the World and that for no other reason but because the Church conform to our Lords institution confesses God to be what he could not be unless he be the most absolutely Blessed 1. The Natural Evidence of the Trinity as well as of the Creation being grounded upon Gods being a Spirit I have shewed that God is known to be so by the same Evidence by which we have the Natural Knowledge of his Existence I confess this would have deserved a larger account than I have bestowed upon it but all Christians confessing God to be a Spirit and my Circumstances not allowing a large account of the Spiritual Nature I hope by this contracted one the intelligent Reader will pâ—rceive from a joynt Evidence in Nature and Scripture that the Supream Spirit is one God Infinitely One and Three Persons Infinitely Three no whit the less one God for being Three Persons no whit the less Three Persons for being only one God Now in this Doctrine not only the Faith of the Church is exactly delivered and the pretensions of the most rigorous Trinitarians satisfied but even what the several opposite parties are concerned for is as fully secured to them as in their own divided ways The Scripture plainly teaches there is one God and yet as expresly attributes Titles and Prerogatives Divine to more Persons than one Hereupon some to preserve the unity of the Deity intire and others to assert the Persons really distinct by mis-apprehension of the one have been necessitated to deny or evacuate the other Now these denyals and elusions were not their choice â—ut of affection to them but unwelcome consequents which they would have avoided had they seen how without rejecting that truth on the other side which they were concerned for for can any one think that the Sabellians had any kindness for the synonimousness of three Names which the Scripture speaks of as so distinct farther than they thought it needful to the compleat unity of the Deity Can we believe the Tritheists if any such there ever were would please themselves with the notion of three numerical and one only specifical God Or the Arians have pleaded there were Gods of several sorts one of a Nature of Supream Divinity and another or two of a Nature of inferiour Divinity Or the Socinians have imagined there was one God only in Nature and two in the Christian Religion but that they found a necessity from the Scripture to acknowledge more persons Divine than one and so they invented these divers conceits to salve the Doctrine of the Divine Vnity For I understand not that any Christian Professor can be delighted in the Worship of more Gods than one whether they be of the same or of a different Nature From which hard Sayings the present Doctrine delivers them and yet intirely secures the Truth for which they contend in their several Hypothesies Shewing how the one God is no less one God for being three Persons and the three Persons no less three Persons for being but one God It may seem indeed the Arians did first resolve upon the different natural excellencies of the Father and the Son and thereby were forced to deny the Being of one God in three Persons but that they asserted both these to be of a Divine Nature was by a manifest force upon them Which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Socinianism is more uncertain whether they denied our Saviours Divine Nature that they might deny the Trinity or denyed the Trinity for the maintaining their denial of our Saviours Divinity That is to say whether they first thought that God had no Son by Nature and thence concluded he made another the Heir of his House or else that he had made another the Heir of his Family therefore surely he had no Son of his own by Nature For it would not agree with the Scripture or the reason they pretend to to think he set aside his own Son and gave the Honour to another to be Lord of Heaven
and Earth But whether they hold these Doctrines with an equal or different concern yet it seems plain enough they hold both the one and the other in Subordination to their Grand Principle That the reason of things is the Rule of interpreting Scripture So that all the concern they express for either being their supposed consonancy with reason if it may appear as I hope it will by the reason of the thing that the Deity is the Supream Spirit Aliusque idem nascitur Hor. Carm. 2 and that the reason of the Supream Spirit speaks it to be of such absolute perfections that it Conceives or Begets it self in a second Personal Subsistence as real as the first Then have they in this Doctrine as well as the other parties what they sought for in vain in their own way and find the reason for their Faith which there they missed Wherefore all the Theoretical interests of the several Contenders being thus fully and entirely secured remove the Spirit of opposition which all disclaim and we have an unity in these points without any use of a Syncritism which is but a Politick Engine to tye mens Tongues together when their Hearts are removed as far as before from one another Whose use is to work like death which so far as it takes away the power of doing evil mortifies likewise the power of doing good I would I loved moderation and gentleness better than I do but I would still retain my present sentiments so far as rather to be angred than killed Concord in these things is most desirable but if that cannot be had men ought to contend so much as is needful to preserve the Faith but no more and not stifle their Religion for fear there should be quarrels about it 2. But though all the Conscientious interests for which any are concerned as seekers of Truth be here provided for yet possibly some Pious Persons may fear that such an attempt as this suits not with some other things for which we ought to have a Religious regard Such are the incomprehensibleness of God the Modest and Humble Opinion of our own Vnderstandings the Mysticalness of the Christian Religion and the Practice of the Antient Fathers which all by inquiring into this Mystery by the Light of Nature seem to be treated with too much neglect Though much might be said to satisfie these indefinite fears yet my leisure permits me to say but little which yet I hope may be enough 3. For the Infinity or Incomprehensibleness of the Deity that signifies not that we can know nothing of him by the Light of Nature for then we were not to say he Subsists in an Incomprehensible Being but that if he be he is in utter darkness But it signifies that whatever Men or Angels can know of him though they knew it in fallibly yet no one knows all or the all of any Divine Perfection or hath an adequate Conception of any thing that is in the Divine Nature But we may for all this know many things of him and that certainly Though we can say he is a Good and not a Bad Being and he is Wise and not Foolish and so far determine of the condition of the Divine Being yet this argues not that God is ever the more comprehensible by us in that sense wherein incomprehensibleness is a Divine Perfection and to be revered by us We can discover that God has an Eternal Subsistence if the Subsistence of the Deity be one Personal Subsistence this one Personal Subsistence is as Incomprehensible as three Personal Subsistences are unless we comprehend not the difference betwixt an Vnite and the Number three which we are sure we do And if we can discover from the Divine Perfections that the Deity Subsists in three Persons not in one only we may be said to know something more of God but nothing with a comprehensive knowledge And therefore the more we know of the Divine Nature the more distinctly we perceive that God is incomprehensible Let us then use the same measures here that we are certain be right in like cases When we say that God knows and withal that knowledge in God is not the same that knowledge is in created minds yet we do not therefore say that Gods knowledge is no knowledge or less really knowledge but infinitely more really knowledge or has infinitely more the true nature of knowledge in it than we can conceive by the knowledge in the Creatures Thus we think of his Goodness Existence Power and the rest of the Divine attributes Proportionably we are to affirm of the Incomprehensibleness of the Trinity When we say the Deity is one in all and every one of the three Persons Incomprehensibly We mean not thereby that it is not one or less one but infinitely more one than we can conceive by any Vnity in a Creature And when we say the Subsistences of the Divine Nature are incomprehensibly three we mean not that they are not really three or less distinctly three but infinitely more than we can conceive by any diversity in the Creatures Tho' as the Unity of the Deity is not a Vnity of the same kind so neither is the diversity of the Persons a diversity of the same kind with that of the Creatures nor from the same reason nor manifest by the same evidence Thus the Infinity of God makes not our knowledge of God no knowledge nor deceives us in what we know of him but convinces us that we know but in part The Incomprehensibleness of God then hinders not our knowledge of the Trinity no more than it hinders the knowledge of his Wisdom Power Goodness which are all incomprehensible as well as the Trinity and yet are known by the things that are made 4. Modesty and Humility teach us not to think our Intellectual Capacities less than they are 't is enough in all reason to think them so very little as they are Scepticisme is neither Modesty therefore nor Humility but an affected Wildness that violates all the measures of these and all other vertues which require not a a man to deny his own perceptions and doubt everlastingly but only that he vouch not such perceptions more clear and certain than really they are If then by a wary process of thoughts we may perceive that the most absolute perfection of a Spirit argues three distinct Subsistences of whatsoever is in the Nature of that Spirit we may then without breach of modesty believe that the most rational conception of the Supream Spirit is the Being of one God and three Persons And if we have any suspicion remaining about the due conduct of our thoughts yet we must still confess that the best reason we have persuades and prompts to this conception For since we evidently perceive that the Deity cannot Subsist in three distinct real Subsistences unless it be of most absolute perfections and on the contrary we cannot conceive how such a most absolutely perfect Being can