to wrest it the Question is about Christ's Age the Jews would measure it by what appears of him and as he is a Man in which respect he denieth not what in their Sense they say about his Age but he will lead them farther and make them look higher and consider him for what he was as he had said to them from the beginning namely the Son of God sent by the Father to save the World To that purpose upon this occasion he mentions that his appearing unto Abraham in the plain of Mamre for 't is said the Lord appeared Gen. 18.1 2. and Abraham knew him among the two Angels in the shape of Men by his addressing himself to him paying the respect of bowing himself towards the Ground and calling him my Lord this Visit under the Figure of a Man whereby he gave him earnest and assurance how he would dwell among Men when of his Seed he would be made Flesh this I say was a notable means whereby Abraham saw his Day and rejoyced the Day of that Visit he saw with the Eye of his Body and the Day of his Incarnation with the Eye of Faith which our Saviour in this present Text of John lays not upon the Promise of his coming but upon his pre-existence unto his Incarnation Now contrary to this scope of the place Socinians do forge this to be the meaning according to a transposition they make of the Words I before Abraham be made say to you that I am that is Christ not considering that Abraham was long before and dead as the Jews said but then they go farther with his being made they understand Father of many Nations I shall say but very few words as to the Grammatical Construction for indeed the Matter and true Meaning is plainly this I was existed and had a Being before Abraham was born but was renders the Sense when be or is doth alter it because it being spoken of Abraham doth relate to time past and not to come * Gen. 17. ◠Abram had his Name changed into that of Abraham signifying a Father of Nations a Thousand and several Hundreds of Years before Christ yet they would have him to be such only after the coming of our Saviour into the World as if he had not been so before when Paul calls him the Father of us all believers They rise a Difficulty also about the word I am instead of I was which is an usual Enallage in Scripture when the present time is used for the praeterit or past and here there is a Reason for it which is this that the present Tense is more proper than the praeterit to represent God's permanent Being besides that the Evangelist useth the present least Christ should seem to speak of a non-perpetual of a discontinued and interrupted Being and Existence by reason of the several Opinions about him as if he was John Baptist raised from the dead Elijah Jeremiah or some other Now the use of the present Tense was very proper to remove all Grounds of entertaining such Thoughts and to signify a constant permanent and unchangeable Being in Scripture we have Instances of this how when God is described the Verb I am in the present Tense answers together to the Verb of the praeterit as Psal 90.2 and Prov. 8.24 25. this doth most properly express an uninterrupted and immutable Being which passeth not away such is God's such also is Christ's fully and unquestionably described in all Tenses which is much to our present purpose †Heb. 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Abraham rejoyced at that Day when he invited and entertain'd in his House the Son of God under the shape of a Man for tho' there were three one of them he called my Lord and chiefly addressed himself to him Gen. 18. who promised of himself and in his own Name to give him a Son by Sarah shall I hide said the Lord from Abraham that thing which I do and afterwards communed with him surely Abraham was glad to see this day But when our Saviour saith before Abraham was I am he intended thereby to give himself some preference before Abraham the Name I am which on this occasion he makes use of is observable for it doth relate to that Name which God gave himself when he sent Moses into Egypt * Exod 3.14 Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I am hath sent me which Name is proper to God whereunto in the New Testament answers that of Alpha and Omega Rev. 18.11 and 12.13 which the Lord Jesus attributes unto himself and if he created the World that is made of nothing as by God's Grace we shall prove in its place Heb. 1.12 he must need have been before Abraham and as he made so he shall destroy or change it whether as to the Substance or only as to the Quality 't is not material to our purpose but whilst Heavens and Earth shall wax old and be chang'd 't is said of him but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail by these different Expressions one and the same thing namely his absolutely unchangable and eternal Existence is intended which being joyn'd with his other Attributes for our good may prevent all the Fears and answer all the Doubts of those that trust in him But let us take notice of the Injury which unworthily they attempt to put upon Christ as if he were only in Jest and to trick the Jews with not answering the thing in question which is about the time when Christ was whether or not before Abraham What he was Whether something more Excellent and more Antient than a Man The Jews Objection was very specious How could one whom they look'd upon a meer Man not fifty Years old have seen Abraham Well our Saviour answers directly to the Point that he was before Abraham but Socinians with their wicked Sophistry would unworthily make him shuffle the matter for instead of making him to answer how it could be that within such a vast distance of time he and Abraham could have seen one another they bring him only as mentioning the time when he was speaking to them to this purpose before Abram be Abraham that is the Father of many Nations I say unto you I am the Christ this quibbling Trick I would think they learned of Papists though I take Socinians capable to forge as bad as any Papists who in the case of the Malefactor upon the Cross with altering a Comma do quite alter the Sense our Saviour thus speaking to him verily I say unto thee * Luk. 23.43 to day thou shalt be with me in paradise but to settle their Purgatory instead of to day thou shalt be c. they would have it I say unto thee to day I would find to know what a cause Christ hath given them to pass such a Judgment upon him who ever used to answer to the purpose to the
within another this made our Saviour say * John 10.38 The father is in me and I in him and †Ch. 14.10 I am in the father and the father in me Yet this hinders not but that they are distinct among themselves for they are not so one in another as the Accident is in its Subject neither is one predicated and spoken of the other as Man is of John for the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost 't is enough they are personally distinguished and in their manner of subsisting the Father unbegotten begets the Son the Son begotten of the Father the Holy Ghost proceeding from both as this is ad intra inwardly and among themselves so outwardly though the outward Works be common to the Three yet it seemed good to divine Wisdom particularly to attribute unto the Father the Work of Creation to the Son that of Redemption to the Holy Ghost that of Sanctification Works of Power in Schools of Divinity are attributed to the Father of Wisdom to the Son of Mercy and Goodness to the Holy Ghost In these Works ad extra as Creation Salvation Sanctification essentially there is but One Cause and Principle for there is but One God but personally there are Three because Three Persons which not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do freely cooperate and as these Persons in subsisting are distinguished in order so also in their working one doth not operate without the other and this Operation follows the Subsistence the Father is and works from none the Son from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both yet this order of working doth take away the Equality of Persons no more than doth their Order of subsisting Now the Acts whereby the Father hath begotten the Son and both produced the Holy Ghost are in several senses voluntary and necessary the first because no Violence or Compulsion but very freely the second 't is not voluntary but necessary if we take Voluntary in opposition to Natural for Voluntary signifies Contingent that which can be or not be but 't is so necessary that the Father could not but beget the Son and both breath the Holy Ghost and this from all eternity otherwise some new thing had befaln divine Nature which is absurd And this Generation and Production are not as in human things where the Father is in time before the Son but here the Son is coeternal with the Father and the Holy Ghost with both not forcibly but necessarily as Light is from the Sun and Heat from the Fire so the Father is no more without the Son and the Holy Ghost than the Sun is without Light God is not without his Wisdom and his Virtue and this from all eternity I mean that called imparticipata or à parte ante and à parte post that is without beginning or ending incommunicable to the Creature and herein indeed doth differ this divine Production from that of the Light of the Sun and Heat of the Fire wherein is a succession and a difference the Light of the Sun to day is sometime different from that of yesterday but the Son is to day the same he was yesterday * Heb. 13 8. Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever There is also an order among the Three Persons the Father is first as †Matth 28.19 Baptize the nations in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost thus the Father is named first * 1 John 5.7 the Son next then the Holy Ghost In the Creed the Father is also named first the Son the second the Holy Ghost the third the Father of himself the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost as already said of both yet all Three may be called and are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self God as we shall by Gods Grace speak of more hereafter Neither doth the divine Nature though subsisting of it self as single and individual make any fourth Person in the Godhead distinct from the Three because it subsisteth in a certain manner and only in the Persons of Father Son and Holy Ghost these Three Persons are not of another or different Nature nor of the like or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which word the Arians would have shelter'd their Error nor of a common as Men who have a common Essence but not the same in Number but this divine Essence in Three Persons is the very same in number All this is a great Mystery revealed in the Word of God professed by the Church from Christ's time to this though Satan's Rage against the Son of God * 1 John 3.8 who came to destroy his works did from time to time raise up Instruments to blaspheme against it and we ought humbly and devoutly to adore and not presumptuously and profanely dive into it CHAP. IV. Of the most Holy Trinity ALthough the matter about the divine Nature and the Three Persons which we have already spoken of be but one and the same with that of the most adorable Trinity as indeed they in Discourse are Parts one of another and so twisted and connexed together that what we speak of one hath a Relation to and Dependency upon the other yet before we come to the Polemical or Controversial Part of these Points we by the Grace of God shall under the Head of the Blessed Trinity continue to speak of the Didactical or Doctrinal Part of our Discourse the more to inculcate into the Minds of the Readers less acquainted with these Disputes what Grounds they ought to go upon and to believe concerning these Fundamentals of our Faith and necessary Doctrines of our Salvation What we believe about it is above not against Reason for we believe not One God to be many Gods nor Three Persons to be but One Person If in Human Things I should say absolutely I James am Father and Son it were a Contradiction indeed but to speak it relatively there is none at all I cannot say I am Son and Father to my Father or Father and Son to my Son but I may very well say I James one Man am upon a different Account and in a different Relation Son and Father in regard to my Father I am a Son in relation to my Son I am a Father let the great Masters of or pretenders to Reason herein shew me a Contradiction no more can they when I say in the Godhead is one Essence or Nature subsisting in Three Persons and Three Persons existing in One Essence Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity This great Point is not only very hard and difficult by reason of the Mystery of the Eternal unspeakable and incomprehensible Generation of the Son of God by the Father but also of a most high Concernment First Upon the Account of God's Glory for to deny this Doctrine is to deny the True God because * 1 John 2.23 whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the-Father Secondly
All things were made by him how they came to that knowledg I shall not be so positive as to determine but in the Verses father'd upon Orpheus the Creator of the World is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word so 't is in some of the antient Books of the Caldeans but we must draw out of purer Springs than these for our blessed Saviour the Son of God is in the New Tewament called 〈◊〉 the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word because as Speech of Word is the Production of the Mind so is the Son of his Father and as a Man declareth the meaning of the Heart by the Words of his Mouth so God * John 1.18 Heb. 1.2 revealeth his Will and Mind by his Son and because it is he whom the Father promised to Adam Abraham and Patriarchs to make his Promises of Salvation sure unto them The second Person is the Word of the Father begotten from all eternity by Communication of a personal Being from whom as from the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost Here the Word is not a thing such as Speech may be but 't is a proper Name of a Person in a Discourse it ever takes place of the Subject never of the Predicate 't is the Name * John 1.14 4. 13.16 Matth. 2.17 Rom. 14.2 1 Cor. 1.19 of the Son of God our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ he is called the Word in relation both to his Person and Office as to the first because he is from God's Mind and is the Image of the Father wholly representing the Father as to the Office because by him all things were made and he declares the Father's Will to Angels and to Men he is known in three Capacities as God as Man and as both in which last relation he is the Head of the Church as God and as to his absolute Essence and Being he is of himself as to the manner he is from the Father always he was is and ever shall be begotten for absolute Eternity hath no term before or after and is always whole without succession he is called not barely the Word but Word of Life * 1 Joh. 1.1 because it contains Life in himself for in him was Life †Joh. 1.4 and is the Author of Life in others Now it becomes an Historian such as S. John is who in his Gospel writes the History of Christ if he will write things clearly and in order and not make a Romance to set down the true and proper Name of the Person whose History he doth pen specially when the Name is not well know nor much in use or else he will seem to have a design of imposing upon the Reader To apply this to the matter in hand if S. John when he was about giving the World an account of the Life Actions and Sufferings of our Saviour had called him by a Name that was not his own and proper Name but metaphorical as Socinians would have it far from being acted by a real desire to inform his Readers he might be thought to have intended to mock and deceive them for if the Name the Word which had been unknown under the Old Testament and was not used till by him was only a figurative improper and borrowed Name then not to say worse the Evangelist had not acted the part of a true and judicious Historian for in such things the first to be known is the true Name of the Person whose History is written and certainly if ever he intended to have informed the Reader and had his Gospel read he had thereby fallen into the readiest way to prevent it for as soon as it had been found out that without Reason and Necessity the Author had with obtruse and intricate Names drawn a curtain over the first Line then presently the Reader would have laid aside the Book thus far goes the Opinions of these unreasonable Men which how injurious it is to the Evangelist I leave any rational Man to judge how ever we must say that seeing of the Four Evangelists John alone before he made any mention of the Name of Jesus Christ in his first Line calls him the Word and goes on till past the 14 Verse we must own there was special cause for it no less than Divine Inspiration for we find in that part of the Vision he had in the Isle of Patmos that he who sat upon * Rev. 19.11 13. the White Horse called faithful and true representing our blessed Lord and Saviour 't is said there his name is called the Word of God but Socinians make this Opposition and rise all this Dust because to rob him of what they can they would have him called the Word only because he hath declared us the Will of God that he hath done it is true but not the whole Truth But this relating to the first Chapter of John we shall have a farther occasion to speak to it let this be observed how the Name Word signifies a Substance not a Sound in the Air and also only the Divine Nature in Christ The Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord belongs and is proper to Christ to shew his absolute Dominion Third the Lord. the Septuagint rendered the Word Jehovah by this and so in the New Testament Evangelists and Apostles make use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify Jehovah which both are translated Lord it is taken either primarily and absolutely or secondarily and relatively in the first it signifies the infinite and independent Dominion by reason of Right and Extent as of Duration About this Socinians do mistake for they would have God's Dominion to be meaned when 't is with the Article and without it that of the Creatures but it appears how the Word when spoken of the Father hath sometimes the Article as Matth. 22.44 the Lord said unto my Lord and sometimes not as Mark 12.29 and when of the Son whom they would have to be a Creature it hath no Article say they but it hath John 20.28 so there is no reason to consider the Article in the Word but rather the Subject This Word against Socinus's Opinion is a Proper Name not an Appellative because in a strict Sense it is attributed unto God alone as in Deut. 6. Mark 12.29 The Lord our God is one Lord and elsewhere * 1 Cor. 8.6 to us there is but one God and Father of all and one Lord Jesus Christ c. and †Ephes 4.5 one Lord one Faith one Baptism God alone is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ‖ 1 Tim. 6.15 When soever the Name Lord and God be absolutely taken they are reciprocal with one true Lord one true God the word Lord in the Subject when joyned with God doth signify the True God as when Christ says * Matth. 4.7 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God the like Examples we have Gen 15.2 Isa 51.22 Mark 12.29 Joh. 20.28 which for brevities
it would follow that the Persons should make several Gods different in Number and Nature Secondly We say where the Name of God is absolutely used it doth not always as the Hereticks would have it signify the Name of One of the Persons but sometimes the Person and sometimes the Nature and herein lays their Mistake that they suppose the Name of God ever to be taken Personally and the Comparison is the cause of the Mistake for the infinite Essence is not multiplied as the finite now when the Name of God is taken for the Person either something is added which gives a Notion of the Person as when God is said * Act. 20.28 to have purchased the Church with his own blood which is understood of the Son or else the Persons are compared among themselves and then the Name of God is taken for the Person of the Father for because the Father is the Spring of the Godhead in relation to the Order and Origin of the Persons so in the comparison of the Persons the Name of God is by Excellency attributed to the Father especially where mention is made of the Mediator for whensoever Christ speaks himself or is spoken of as and in the Person of the Mediator he retains a middle degree between God and Man and then by the Name of God is understood the Father Thirdly When the Name of God is put instead of One Person and it signifies One Father then is thereby understood the Godhead which is common to Son and Holy Ghost who are Author and Maker of all Creatures for though the Son doth exercise the Office of Mediator yet he hath not thereby lost the Glory of the Divinity with the Father neither is his Essence inferiour or secondary to the Father's or his Godhead Essentiated Fourthly When God's Name without any personal Attribute or Comparison of one Person with the other is simply indefinitely and absolutely used then it signifies the Divine Nature and Essence which is Father Son and Holy Ghost One God Besides in these Texts of Scripture where the Name of God is mentioned in opposition to false Gods or Creatures it is by no means to be restrained to the Person of the Father only but is indefinitely spoken of Father Son and Holy Ghost as for instance if when the Law commands to adore One God the Father alone and not the Son is to be understood it would follow that the Son who is to be adored is another God likewise when God calls himself the God of Israel he by this mark distinguisheth himself from all false Gods How then might it be said of one Personal one whether Father or Son * 2 Sam. 7.22 Who is great as thou art who is like unto thee for several of the Arians who denied the Consubstantiality or the Sameness of Nature yet owned a likeness between Father and Son and in the Prophets where God's Name is absolutely taken often it addeth an universal Negative or Exclusive but if the Name of God belongeth only to the Father and if Father Son and Holy Ghost be but One God and Saviour and One Nature it will follow that Son and Holy Ghost are excluded from Things attributed unto God for 't is said of the True God of Israel that he is the only God and Saviour and that there is no other God besides and without him Moreover seeing the Father alone is One God and they own also the Son to be God and the Holy Ghost to be God though not that One God then it follows there are Three Gods which is Blasphemy These Things being premised do afford Matter of answer to their Sophistical Cavils against this Truth and so shew how the Word God absolutely used in Scripture is to be understood not only of the Father but also of the Son and Holy Ghost whence also appeareth the Mystery of these Doctrines one with another and they are so twisted that they stand or fall together So no wonder if under one Head we say somethings belonging to and spoken of in another here they form thus an Argument against us The God of Israel whom the Israelites ever adored is that One God whom the Law and the Prophets speak of but the Father of Christ is that One God mentioned in the Law and the Prophets therefore he is that One God but the Argument concludes nothing against us we altogether grant it the Father is the One God of Israel for we do not say that there is another God another Nature in the Father than that same which Law and Prophets call the only God and God alone and we on our part do Argue thus The God of Israel is One God but Christ is the God of Israel who appeared to the Fathers and by whose Spirit the Prophets being inspired spoke therefore Christ is that only God For there is in Christ no other Godhead no other Divine Nature than what is in the Father as the Father is One so is the Son One God and both together are One God in Nature But if the meaning of their Argument be that of the Three Persons of the Trinity only the Father not the Son nor Holy Ghost is the God of Israel then we deny their minor Proposition for out of Scripture the Son is the God of Israel whom they adored for not only under the Name of God they adored the Messiah whom they believed to be God but even they made a distinct mention of him in their Prayers as we read when Jacob blessed Joseph's Children God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which fed me all my life time to this day 3 the Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless these Lads and this is spoken of the true antient Jews for as to those that believed not when our Saviour himself spoke to them who owned only the Father of Christ the Messiah for their God we may say they knew not the True God in a true manner seeing * Joh. 14.6 none comes to the Father but by the Son and †Mat. 11. none 〈◊〉 the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son 〈◊〉 veal him wherefore since they rejected the Son 〈◊〉 wanted the true Knowledge of the Father and 〈◊〉 stead of God the Father they adored the Idol 〈◊〉 their own heart wherefore when Jesus said to 〈◊〉 * Matt. 8.44 If I honour my self my glory is nothing 't is my Father that honoureth me whom you say to be your God he upbraids them with their Vain-glory who boasted to be the People of God but falsly by reason they owned him not to be God in the mean while against their aspersions he asserted his Glory because they look'd upon him as very much below Abraham and other Patriarchs he in his Capacity of Mediatour and as a Man owns a difference between him and God whom he declareth to be the Author of his Glory and he often mentioneth his Father to the end
David's Son for if only upon some borrowed account or accidental reason he were David's Lord as may be some Power and Dignity above him then Christ's Argument would quite loose its strength which wholly lies in this if he be his Lord how can he be his Son Upon some extraordinary account and relation it may happen that a Son may become a Lord over his Father but here Christ is certainly asserted to be Lord over David and in some sense 't is impossible for David to become Lord over Christ which can be upon no other account but of his divine Nature besides that he was David's Lord in David's time and before his Birth of the Virgin Mary His Son he was according to the Fâ—esh and his Humanity and his Lord according to the Spirit and his Divinity The Fourth Argument whereby Christ is proved to be God's natural Son is taken out of the Words whereby he declares himself to be such a Son as is one with the Father not any other way to be understood than by Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this the Jews took to be his meaning and for that same cause called him a Blasphemer and would have stoned him and thereupon our Saviour did not go about to shew they were mistaken though his Life was concerned on the contrary he used Arguments to make 'em believe he was so though to them it seemed incredible and blasphemous Chap. 5. And in another Text he affirmeth himself to be such a Son of God as is of an equal Power with and can do the same Works as the Father so that what things soever the Father doth this also doth the Son likewise the Son doth nothing without the Father nor the Father without the Son by reason of their Oneness of Nature and Equality of Poweâ— Though the Jews out of these words of his v. 7. My father works hitherto and I work concluded he made himself equal with God yet though they were offended at it and he thereupon did run the hazard of his Life though he never was so uncharitable as to give any one just ground of offence nor so rash as unnecessarily to venture his Life yet he would not deny his Equality with the Father but on the contrary with several Arguments he confirms it from v. 19. to 22. and this not to be understood of an Equality only in some respects for the Unity of natural Power and Operation argueth an absolute Equality and as in Power so in Nature * John 10.30 I and my Father are one and v. 38. you may by my works believe that the Father is in me and not only so but I in him as for greater confirmation * ch 14.10 repeated out of that place of John I and the Father are one Augustine's †Pereant vaniloqui mentis seductores c. words are to be taken notice of let vain and Seducers Arrius and Sabellius perish Christ said not I and the Father am one but I and the Father are one when I say one let the Arian take notice of it and what I say we are let the Sabellian mind it let not the Arian divide one nor the Sabellian take away are one we refer to Nature are to the diversity of Persons The Fifth Argument is taken out of the Lord Jesus his own words and we know him not only to be true but truth it self †John 14.6 though he beareth record * c. 8.14 of himself this is when in a legal way being asked by Caiaphas and ‖ Mat. 26.63 64. adjured by the living God to tell whether he be the Christ the son of God * Mar. 14.61 62. the Christ the son of the blessed he owned it and said Thou hast said I am For which Confession he was accused of Blasphemy and condemn'd to death for said they to Pilate †Joh. 19.7 We have a law and by our law he ought to dye because he made himself the son of God so he suffer'd for owning himself to be the Son of God which Confession of his S. Paul takes special notice of in the Charge he giveth his Disciple * 1 Tim. 6.13 the meaning is that he was the true natural Son of God or else it would not have been accounted a Blasphemy for any Jew to have called himself Son of God no more than God's People Abraham's Seed by virtue of the Promises and Privilege of the Covenant and Grace and God they call their Father John 8.41 yet thought not they were Blasphemers for that therefore Christ's Words they took in another that is in a strict and proper sense Indeed the High Priest's Question was a Snare laid for Christ for though they sought false Witnesses and many came yet their Witness did not agree together wherefore they sought to have something out of his mouth wherewith to accuse him The Question was amongst other things grounded upon what our Saviour had said of himself in the Fifth and Tenth Chapters of John whether he was of the same Nature with God and in Power equal with him which is the same as to be natural Son of God and of the same Essence which he having affirmatively answered unto and said he was thereupon having gained their Point they rent their Cloaths and said What need we any farther Witnesses and upon this very Confession he was accused condemned and executed Hence I ask Socinians Did Christ speak the truth when he said he was the Son of God one with him or of the same Nature and to him equal in Power I farther ask whether the High Priest and the rest did not well apprehend this to be the true meaning of his words If so as certainly both are true if Socinians had been in the place of the Jews they would have used him as they did and would do the like if ever it were in their power for some of them when they write and give a Character of our blessed Saviour's Person they seem to take a pleasure to say he was by the Senate or Council of Scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem condemned and executed for Blasphemy in that he had said he was the Son of God that he said so 't is most true out of John 10.36 but I ask again when the Lord said so did he speak the truth or not If the truth why do Men not believe him that is in the sense the Jews understood it true proper natural Son of God equal with God For this they took his meaning to be but if he was not what he owned himself to be then he must be supposed to have spoken a lye which is a Sin To such Blasphemers our blessed Lord speaks in defiance as once he did to the Jews * John 8.46 Which of you convinceth me of sin We know he suffer'd as a Blasphemer a Deceiver and a Transgressor but was he really so The Apostle saith †1 Pet. 3.18 He suffered the just
Manhood of Christ for John was born before him wherefore it must be upon a nobler Account he pre-existed before John so he had another Being which not being Human nor Angelical must need be Divine according to which he was in the beginning of the World which concludeth for Eternity this Priority they interpret of Dignity not of Time we do not deny that in Gifts and Office Christ was much beyond John and suppose we should understand the Words preferred before me of a Dignity what will they say to the following Words for he was before me according to their Sense the meaning will be this he is preferred before me for he was preferred before me which is to prove the same by the same when will they give over destroying the Analogy of Faith tearing Scripture in pieces and pulling it over head and Ears to serve their Turn and their Ends If we consider Christ only as a Man John as to that time had the priority of Gifts for as he was conceived before the Body of Christ was so †Luke 1.15 he was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb as to his Office he exercised it before Christ did his for he went not about it till after he had been baptized by John after which he was forty Days in the Wilderness tempted of the Devil and he began his Ministry ‖ Matt. 4.12 after he heard that John was cast into prison wherefore this before me must be taken in some other Sense than relating to Gifts and Office for this would not sufficiently commend God's great Love towards us if only he had endued his Son with excellent Qualities as doth perfectly his not sparing but delivering him up to be put to Death for us his own Son whom in four places the ‖ John 1.14 18. chap. 3.16 18. Evangelist calls God's only begotten Son it is to be taken notice of that John doth not say he is preferred before me because he is but because he was before me Why should he make use of the Preterimperfect-Tense but to denote the time when Christ was preferred before him so that he was before John when he was made so eminently Excellent his Office was put upon him when thirty Years old but he had long before been endued with those heavenly Qualities which he was invested with and there was never a part of Christ's Life wherein that Son of God was not more Excellent than John so his Office could not be the Cause of his being so highly preferred above John The next Verse makes the matter plainer of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace wherein John doth attribute unto Christ a priority of Cause as of Dignity for he thereby owneth that whatsoever Excellency is in him and others is derived from the Fulness of Christ as the Stream is from the Spring the Fulness was in Christ first and thence John and others received it wherefore he is said to be before John as the Head-Fountain is before that which flows out of it How then could that be that John and every one else he meaned when he said we all had received of Christ's Fulness and Grace for Grace before he had taught baptised with the Holy Ghost or done any Miracle This is explained in the next Verse for the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ the Lord being the sole Dispenser of Grace and of Truth no wonder if we all for the present and in time past received all we have out of his Fulness now this Fulness is not only in one but in all kinds * Colos 1.19 for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell not excepted the Fulness of the Godhead †chap. 2.9 for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily But how can this agree with their Opinions For if Grace and Truth hath not been bestowed by Christ till after he had preached and revealed it How could John Baptist and others before they heard Christ preach receive it if Christ was a meer Man he could not communicate Grace before he was born to those that were before him wherefore he must need have some other Way and Capacity to do 't namely according to his Divinity which Truth if unreasonable Men would but own and give God Glory and not wander against Scripture after their own Fancies and Imaginations this would set all things at Right here because like a drowning Man they are content to lay hold upon any thing that lays in their way out of the thirtieth Verse they object that John calls him a Man we never denied Christ to be a Man in which respect he was after John but we also own him to be the Word God according to which he was before him We read of Angels under Man's shape by Abraham and Lot received into their House they were both Angels and Men but under a different Notion not Angels as Men otherwise all Men would be Angels not Men as Angels for thus all Angels would be Men wherefore they were Angels in one respect and Men in another Somewhat after this manner John calls our blessed Saviour sometimes God and sometimes Man that is now after one Nature then after the other for the Person of the Lord Jesus is both God and Man To prove Christ's Eternity we make use of a third place in the same Gospel * John 8.58 Verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am the words are very plain upon the occasion of Christ's saying that Abraham rejoyced to see his day which the Jews interpreting of a real Vision they objected an apparent Contradiction thou art not fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham for they inferred that if Abraham had seen his days then he had seen Abraham who lived so long before and so they look'd upon 't as an impossible thing but he confirms what he had said with these words before Abraham was I am they fell into a Rage and took up Stones to cast at him for they had a right Notion of what he aimed at in his Discourse namely to raise himself above all the Men in the World amongst them they lookt upon Abraham whom they boasted to call their Father to be the Chief and they believed none under God was greater than he wherefore after he had said if a man keep my saying he shall never see death they grew mad against him and presently said Abraham is dead so are the Prophets and so asked him Whom makest thou thy self they concluded it could be no less than God whereby it appears how all along they had a true apprehension of his meaning though they were enraged at it and could not hear it It is a wonder to see how Socinians go about to corrupt and tear this Text all to pieces with their vain Sophistry indeed the place is so close upon them that they will leave nothing unattempted
unto the Son of Man this could not be the Father and if any doubt should remain 't is cleared ver 17 18. for St. John having known him fell at his Feet he said not as the Angel see thou do not but he said to him fear not I am he that liveth and was dead which cannot be spoken of the Father who never died and these words I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end are spoken * Rev. 21.6 again and all the general Words spoken asunder in this Book are together repeated I am Alpha and Omega Chap. 22.13 the beginning and the end the first and the last and here as they began so they will end for they will own Christ to be the first because say they he is the first that shewed Men the way of Salvation But did not the Prophets and John Baptist before Christ was manifested and preached the Gospel shew Men the way of Salvation Which way did Patriarchs Prophets and Miartyrs go to Heaven and could be saved if they had not known the way to Salvation before Christ began to preach the Gospel And were not after his Ascension many things conducing to the way of Salvation declared by his Apostles If he be the first only because he first taught Men the way to Glory and Immortality he being the last as well as the first must also be the last to enter into it which how false it is let the Enemies themselves be the Judges There is one thing more material to prove the Eternity of Christ which I must not omit for as what I have said proves him to have been before Abraham and other Patriarchs so what remains will shew him to have been before the World it self the words are plain * 1 John 17.5 And now O Father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world began Our blessed Saviour never spoke to Men any thing but the Truth much more to his Father but most of all upon this occasion when he was about leaving the World and going to him there is a Glory which Christ desired should be made known to all namely that of the Gospel which is called the glorious Gospel and this Glory of Christ was effected in the Preaching thereof all the World over Paul alone published it †Rom. 15.19 from Jerusalem into Illyricum the Gospel certainly tended to the Glory of God the Father's Mercy being highly revealed therein and of this he saith I have glorified thee on the earth and as he had glorified the Father making known his Name and Glory unto Men which before had never been done to that degree this work which the Father had given him to do being over he now speaks for himself and now O Father glorify thou me with thine own self To be glorified with God is to be glorified with the same Glory which he hath in Heaven with God in the Bosom and at the Right Hand of the â—ather with an equal Majesty and Honour with the Father served by innumerable Legions of Angels which is a Glory unknown to the World this is a Glory which the Son of God had before the World was This Stile of Scripture before the World was signifies Eternity for there was nothing created before the World seeing in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth and every thing therein contained but John saith not in the beginning the Word was made or began to be but was had his being consequently eternal for beyond the beginning of the World there is nothing but Eternity time began at the Creation I say if Christ had a Glory with the Father before the World was then Christ was before the World for a Glory he could not have except he had a Being but here Christ says he had a Glory with the Father before the World was and we believe he speaks Truth therefore Christ was before the World this cannot be understood of Human Nature which he took only in time long after the World was created therefore it must be spoken of a Divine Nature for before the Creation of the World there was nothing but God Notwithstanding this positive Truth they give our blessed Saviour the lye and say he had no real Glory before the World was but only by a Decree and Appointment he was ordained to have a Glory Good Lord When will this People let the Son of God have his own They go about to rob him wholly or in part of every thing he hath Christ says not the Glory which thou didst decree or ordain for me but which I had was in possession of and enjoyed To have a title to and be in possession of a thing are two very different things we defie them even to give any instance how to have absolutely taken signifies to be appointed to have if after this rate Men allow their Fancies such a latitude as to forge new and unusual Significations to the words of Christ we can be sure of nothing Whensoever any one is absolutely said to have a thing it implys him to be at the same time for he that is not can have nothing 't is true we are said * 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 10.34 to have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and to have in heaven a better and an induring substance Believers are indeed said to have such things but when are they said so certainly not before the World was nor before they were themselves but after they are What is said also * 2 Tim. 1.9 of the grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began makes nothing against us 't is one thing to have something given us and another actually to have it the first is the act of the Giver the second of the Receiver we have not now really that which is given us till after we received it one may have a Place in Reversion which may be he shall never have Lands may be given me by a Will which I cannot be laid to have till I am actually in possession thereof as it never was heard of that any one gave any thing before he was so none can receive any thing before he is besides in the Text now in question 't is not simply said that Grace was given us but given us in Christ Jesus now this Grace is so given us in Christ that he must have it before he can communicate it unto us so then we cannot be said to have a thing when we have it not though we be appointed to have it These two things are different Who may say that Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ had Faith in Christ Charity and brotherly Love when he was an Unbeliever Contra rationem nemo sobrius cont scripturam nemo Christianus cont Ecclesiam nemo pacificus a Blasphemer and Persecuter To Socinians we may apply this Saying No Man may be called sober
by St. Paul the name Saviour is often joyned with that of God Tit. 1.3 according to the commandment of God our Saviour both names belong to one and the same person as truly really and actually God as he is Saviour and in another place all these names God Saviour and Lord are given to Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 1.1 As he is Jesus Christ so as certainly he is God Lord and Saviour not only his Offices but also his divine Nature is therein contained and in the same Chapter he calls him the Blessed God ver 11 as in another place God Blessed for ever That Christ is thereby meant it appears by his saying the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God Now 't is in several places called the Gospel of Christ wherefore in almost every Epistle of his he calleth himself an Apostle of Jesus Christ Mark 1.1 Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 9.12 18. Gal. 1.7 Rom. 8.9 sent by him to preach the Gospel So elsewhere he saith if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his That which in the beginning of the verse Paul calls the spirit of God in the latter end he calls the Spirit of Christ whereby he makes God and Christ to be but one and the same person Under another Head our Blessed Saviour doth in many places afford us an argument for his divinity consisting in a certain divine manner of speaking with Authority not as subordinate or delegate but original in him as the Head and Spring not as by Favour and Courtesie derived upon him but out of his own natural Right which is above what any Man ever did or could pretend to as when in his Sermon upon the Mount he reformeth the abuses crept in against the Law wherein he asserteth his Legislative Power at several times Matth. 5.20 22 28 32 34 39 44. Chap. 7.29 but I say unto you And the people that heard him could take notice how he taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes And he said unto his Disciples when he sent them recive ye the holy ghost whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained and to Peter Feed my Sheep go and teach all Nations All these are words of Command Further let us observe how no Man's Will is absolutely the rule of another's one Man's Will is free and independent from that of another no Man is bound absolutely to follow the will of another because every Man's Will is fallible and so may led us into errour but the will of God alone is infallible and so alone to be followed wherefore in our Prayer simply we say thy will be done and when Man's Will is to be obeyed 't is relatively and only in conformity to that of God But Christ's Will is the Law without Dispute or Exception thus when he calls those that are heavy laden Matth. 11.27 28. he positively saith I will give you rest having in the foregoing verse affirmed how none knoweth the Father but he to whom the Son will reveal him Thus when he cured the Leper he said I will be thou clean so he saith The Son quickeneth whom he will and him that believeth on me I will raise up at the last day Joh. 6.40 44. Herein is his own Power set forth So 't is when speaking with the Samaritan Woman that the water he will give shall be in him that receives it a Well of water springing up into everlasting life and in that other place If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He doth not say I will pray the Father that he may have everlasting life or that out of his belly may flow rivers of living water but let him come to me and without going for this farther to any he shall certainly drink and be satisfied for that I will do for him this is to speak like Lord Master and God But it may be said Men he may speak to after that rate being so graciously exalted above them all well but I will go higher and say something more than hath been hitherto when the Lord Jesus speaks to the Father Joh. 17.24 he sometimes saith I will as in the Prayer which before his leaving the World in the capacity of Mediator he puts up to him for the Elect Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am to behold my glory thus according to his own will he disposeth of Glory Did any Man meerly such ever speak to God in that way Elijah and John Baptist were the two most fervent Men in spirit that we read of in Scripture but can we ever find any thing like this that ever they did or said No none but God the Son can be so familiar with God the Father and we must believe that he well knew both God the Father and himself when he spake thus except he had been sure he might he would not have done it but it had been as a most unsufferable Presumption nay Blasphemy in any Man to have said so we must conclude he was more than a Man and that he thus spoke upon another account even upon the same he had said before I and the Father are one and had made himself equal with God We read how our Saviour took on him Heb. 2.16 not the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham the reduplication took not and took denotes the voluntary Act of a person who made a choice which he had not been in a capacity to do except he had praeexisted before he took the Seed of Abraham so that before he was made of the Seed of Abraham he must need have had another Being and before he was made he must really have been God he could not have been an Angel because he took not upon him the nature of Angels Again our Saviour saith I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God why not to our Father as he said when he taught them to pray for themselves For if they had been brethren upon the same bottom of Grace though in different degrees he would have spoken of him as of their common Father but speaking disjunctively and in different numbers seeing he said and did nothing without good cause there must be a particular reason for it which is naturally and easily insinuated to be this That God was their Father and His not upon a common one and the same but upon a much different account their Father by Grace and his by Nature Furthermore Christ so often speaketh of his being sent by the Father as I seek not my own will John 5.3 6 38. Chap. 7.16 Mark 9.37 but the will of him that sent me I came down from Heaven not to do mine own
and wrestled with him when coming from Lanban he had passed over the Ford Jabbock that same I say was God the Angel and the Lord of Hosts This happened when Jacob and his Family were going into Canaan whereof the possession had been promised him and his Posterity upon the very borders he is met by his Adversary his Brother Esau who had a pretence to that Inheritance and therefore came against him with a power which of himself he was not able to resist which made him afraid as we read v. 11 wherefore upon such a tryal to strengthen his Faith and make him lay hold the faster on the Promise 2 Cor. 1.20 he in whom all the promises are yea and Amen the Son of God Jesus Christ appeared unto him in the shape of a man because in his Seed were the Promises made but this man in appearance was God in effect and nature therefore Jacob did solemnly pray to him for his Blessing in the time of the wrestling and would not rest till he had blessed him which he obtained v. 29 and in remembrance of this Jacob called the name of the place Peniel because he had seen God face to face This solemn meeting with much Comfort and Thankfulness Jacob remembred when he blessed Joseph and his two Sons in these most remarkable words God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which fed me all my life long unto this day the Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the Lads The God of his Fathers the God that sed him all his life-time and the Angel which redeemed him from all evil is but one and the same And the Name Redeemer is proper to Christ the second Person of the holy Trinity All these are irrefragable Truths which Socinians can effectually say nothing against tho' out of the Rabbis or Jewish Doctors Writings they have been screwing up whatsoever they thought might serve their turn thus they were not ashamed to borrow Weapons from Christs sworn Enemies But before I leave off this Point about Angels whether the Creator or created ones for the glory of the Son of God I must say how tho' these be called Sons of God mighty in Power and excellent in created Glory yet when compared with God Job 15.15 4.18 Isa 6.3 John 12.40 't is said they are not pure in his sight and he chargeth them with folly and they cover their faces at the brightness of his glory as not being able nor worthy to look upon t. And that place about Divine Glory as I already observed we know to belong to our Saviour who is called Lord and King of Glory because all Glory is in and from him as its true Spring and proper Center Psal 24 compared with 1 Cor. 2.8 Hence it is that at his coming into the World all Angels were commanded to worship him which was performed in their attendance on his Birth proclamation of his Nativity and celebrating the Glory of God on that account and afterwards declaring his Resurrection and confirming his Ascension even ministring unto him after the Temptation and when he was in his Agony And whilst Angels are called God's Ministers who ought to worship Christ the Son as their Maker Vnto the Son he saith Thy throne O God is for ever and ever to shew that there is as much and as great a difference between the Son and Angels as there is between God and Angels between the Creator and the Creature for indeed in that same place the Heavens are said to be the work of his hands so no comparison to be made between the Son and Angels the noblest of all Creatures The Name Elohim absolutely used is never in Scripture given to any singular Angel or Man which is the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Article by the Apostle given the Son so he is denoted by that Name as the true God by Nature And this same hath a Kingdom signified by the Royal Marks of a Scepter and a Throne whereunto Eternity is annexed for 't is for ever and ever whereby its duration or lasting is expressed so is his manner of administration with righteousness His scepter is a scepter of righteousness and to shew his preparation for that administration of his 't is said He loved righteousness and hated iniquity Now the Throne is not for the Servants but for the Son because the Kingdom thereby denoted is not theirs but his who indeed is graciously pleased to promise his Apostles that at the last day they shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel that is they shall participate only at the last day with him in his Kingly Power Mat. 19.28 and in some degree be made partakers of his Glory with an Interest in his Kingdom which he is pleased to give them in the mean time the Throne is not theirs but his Here I must take notice how for preventing many Errors rash and false Opinions 't is to be wished men would follow the Apostles Practise in this place who abounding in quotations gives us a Rule and an Example to do so for with comparing Scriptures one with another we come to be acquainted with God's Mind and Will in them for by what is spoken of Angels in one place and of the Son in another we are taught what to believe of him and of them They who follow not this Rule are apt to frame in their Heads hasty wrong and false notions about God's Mind especially in the matters we are now upon And what is it that gives the Throne of the Lord Jesus Unchangeableness and Eternity but his divine Nature The words of the Psalmist whence the Apostle draws his Argument do not belong to Solomon for the words O God do not relate to him nor these Thy throne is for ever and ever for he reigned but forty years nor to his Successors who went off the Stage at or about the time of the Babylonian Captivity We know how in some things Solomon was a Type of Christ but it doth not follow that every thing relating to the Antitype should belong unto the Type for 't is enough for the Type so to represent and shadow out the Lord Jesus that what the Prophet would teach concerning him should be spoken of the Type whereby he was represented for the Antitype is what the Spirit of God ever chiefly aimed at So tho the Type and Antitype agreed in some things in others there was a vast difference between them But that in this place the Apostle doth interpret those words of the Son of God Jesus Christ it appears out of v. 8 but unto the Son he saith Thy throne O God c. And 't is in that Party but vain and idle words to go about to perswade us that the Apostle did not say what he said and which is written for our instruction And with us they should take notice how it is said When he bringeth in his
in the Firmament But to shew the falshood of their Assertion that the Son is not the most high God let us consider the following things The Angel said to the Virgin He shall be great Luk. 1.32 upon every account and absolutely so according to the Character long before given of him by the Prophet and Son of the highest that is of the true God v. 35 compared with v. 76 Isa 9.6 and so according to that Divine Nature the highest himself it ought to be observed how the word of the Angel he shall be called the Son of the Highest is the same as used by the Prophet His name shall be called wonderful Counsellor the mighty God c. As in the Prophet by being called is understood â—e shall really be so it must be in the Evangelist he shall be manifested owned and really be Thus Zecharias said of John And thou child shalt be called really and truly be the Prophet of the highest and when he spoke thus he was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophecy'd v. 67 as Elizabeth was when she said of the blessed Virgin Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me v. 41 43. How could he according to the flesh be her Lord before he was born In the second place seeing I already proved Jesus Christ to be Jehovah it necessarily follows he is the most high God Psal 33.18 for he whose name alone is Jehovah is the most high over all the earth Also I proved him to be he whom the People provoked in the Wilderness and Scripture calls him the most high whom they provoked in the wilderness The proper Son of God is God the Son of the Highest is the Highest And the words of Psal 107.11 Psal 78.17 56. do belong to the People in the Wilderness who rebelled against the word of God and contemned the counsel of the most high They would make use against us of that place where when Melchisedes blessed Abraham God is called the most high God whereby they would confine that Title only to the Person of the Father which before I refute I must by the by take notice how the word most high is thrice mentioned in three Verses Gen. 14.18 19 20. to shew how the Blessing upon Abraham was the Work of the three Persons in the Godhead as all three meet in the Conception of Christ in the blessed Virgin 's Womb and in his Baptism The same high God in whose name Melchisedec blessed Abraham is the same who called Abraham received him into favour and at that time had given him Victory over four Kings as it appears out of the place Now that most high God who called Abraham is the same as made a Covenant with him who afterwards commanded him to sacrifice his Son to himself who is that same Angel as before we have taken notice of who is called the Lord himself and upon that occasion said to him Gen. 22. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed Now the Apostle teaches that not only the Father but also the Son is Author of that Covenant when he saith The Testament or Covenant Heb. 9.16 was confirmed by the death of the Testator And I would have them to tell me who besides Christ hath with his Death and Blood sealed and confirmed that Covenant certainly none but that God that was manifest in the flesh Act. 20 28. that same God who hath purchased his Church with his own blood So that Melchisedec by the name of most high meant the Son as well as the Father who cannot be separated for as Scriptures bear witness the Son is always in the Father therefore every where in the Word of God the name most high is spoken of Father Son and Holy Ghost which with that of God of Gods and Lord of Lords is essentially taken and excludes indeed Creatures but never Son and Holy Ghost whom it doth truly and properly belong to Now we are come to the Objections that are directly against the Divinity of the Person of Christ which must be answered and in order to it we must here premise something which before we gave a hint of how the word God is taken in two senses first properly then metaphorically and the name God doth properly signifie the true God Now he is the only true God who essentially and by nature is such for every thing is called true by its nature as true Man true Gold true Silver c. as said before from the nature of Man of Gold and of Silver so that if only it be like a Man and like Gold then 't is neither true Man nor true Gold for simile non est idem the thing like is not the same If the true God be he that hath Gods Nature and Essence certainly he is the high and independent God seeing Divine Essence is in itself Chief and Independent Now secondly and improperly or metaphorically are they called Gods that in something are like God by participation and likeness as Moses was to Pharaoh so Angels and Men but these metaphorical Gods may not be called true God nor worshipt as such that which is somewhat like a thing may never be called the same thing Thus I do premise in opposition to Socinus's Notion how in Scripture the word God is taken for the high God independent from any other and for him who by the chief God is in some manner made partaker of the Divinity In the first sense God is God the Father called one in the second is Christ and some other Men he because of his Sanctification and being sent into the World where Christ as he would have it doth not affirm himself to be God but with dependency that is a titular a made and coined God as by vertue of that Sanctification and Mission when that very Sanctification and sending into the World shew him to be true God Joh 10.36 for in the place is meant that Sanctification which preceded his coming into the World for the Father sanctified first and then sent him which belonged to him not as a Man but had it before he was Man and before he came into the World for he saith first he was sanctified by the Father and then afterwards sent into the World that is he became Man for before he was made flesh he had been sanctified by the Father that is appointed and constituted Mediator and Head of the Church but Mediator he could not be except he were true eternal God As to his being sent into the World that also sheweth that his Being is not of this World but from above from Heaven whence he was sent into the World from the Bosom of the Father which argueth him to be above Man and to have had a Being before he was made Man for he was the Son of God in Heaven he was not Man but
to the Father I answer the name of God is taken either personally namely as he begets and as he is begotten and thus the Son is distinguished from the Father and upon this account the Apostle speaks of them separately Christ is distinguished from God both in Person and Office not in the Godhead or Essence or else the name is absolutely simply Rom. 8.31 32. 1 Tim. 1.1 1 John 5.20 Joh. 14.1 and essentially taken when the Question is about the Godhead then as to the Deity the Son is not distinguished from the Father as when Christ saith there is none good but God he doth not exclude himself from being good 't is as if he had said unto the Man if thou believest me to be good for so thou callest me thou must also believe me to be God for none is good but God and this was to have the Man to look upon him to be God Again When our Saviour saith Vnto God all things are possible and that God is able out of Stones to rise Children unto Abraham when the Apostles in their Salutations name first God and our Father and then the Lord Jesus Christ 't is no good Consequence to say that the Son is not of the same Nature with the Father for the Name of God is therein attributed unto the Father as the Spring and first in order of the Deity then the Son is proposed as Mediatour to lead us unto God for we are led by Christ unto the Father to worship and adore him together with the Father for he saith Ye believe in God believe also in me thereby shewing we ought to render unto him the same things we render to the Father wherefore in several places we read how when the Name Father is added yet that of God is immediately put before when generally something is taught which belongeth to Father Son and Holy Ghost then having named the Father the Mediatour is mention'd to breed in us Hope and Comfort thus the same Apostle opposeth one God to Idols where Christ is not excluded for immediately in the same Verse he declareth who that one God is namely the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things 1 Cor. 8.6 Ephes 4.5 6. and we by him thus in another place he saith there is one God as there is one Baptism Christ in whose Name we are baptized is not excluded from that oneness of Godhead Joh. 14.6 and because he would come to the Mediatour he very fitly nameth the Father to whom as the Head of the Deity there is no approach without the Mediator so by the Name Father is represented God essentially offended by Mankind and by the Son and Christ that Person of the adorable Trinity who hath undertaken to make our Peace and reconcile us unto God he is the way the truth and the life and none can come to the father but by him So when we read the word God we must not separate the Father nor the Son because the Divinity of the Father and of the Son is but one and the same Moreover they object the Father is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself hath all of himself and acts of himself but the Son is not God of himself he is from the Father himself he saith he came from the Father and the Father sent him to this I answer They go upou a wrong Principle for they would have this to be of one self or of another to import a different Essence or Nature for even in created things that which is begotten is ever of the same Nature with that which hath begotten but by reason of Imperfection these are one only in Species but God the Father and the Son may not be said to be one in Species or Kind because thus they would make two Gods What they add how in Divine things he that begetteth and he that is begotten are not one either in Essence or Species because Men and Angels are called Sons of God which are not one with God either in Nature or Kind is very frivolous for 't is certain they are call'd Sons of God upon a very different account from that on which Christ is so call'd None is ever call'd God's own and proper Son only begotten come from the Bosom of the Father for unto which of the Angels or Men said he at any time thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 this day have I begotten thee and again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son Moreover they are mistaken to think that to be of another is to be of a different and inferiour Nature indeed he who receiveth not all but out of favour only part of what another hath may be said to be inferiour to him of whom he receiveth but he not so who hath all that another hath not by favour but by Nature and Generation They are farther much mistaken when they deny Christ simply and absolutely to be God of himself for he must need be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is a being or Essence of himself Life of himself Holy of himself Power of himself is good of himself Light of himself Truth of himself Wisdom of himself Righteousness of himself Perfect of himself and Glory of himself which all are Attributes of the Deity and to whom they belong So doth also Divine Nature all which Attributes were by the antient Orthodox Doctors of the Church and after them by the eminent Instruments of Reformation owned to be the Right and Property of the Son of God grounding themselves upon the Authority of Scripture in several Places especially that of 1 John 5.20 by me already quoted we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life If we look upon the Son of God as he is from Eternity begotten of the Father and as he is the second Person on such an account we own the Son to be from the Father seeing he is true Son but if we consider him as God he is altogether self God and God of himself for the Divinity is wholly unbegotten and of her self knoweth of no beginning and needs not to borrow of others what it hath of it self and if to the Son one would attribute a Begotten and formed Essence this is from the Father to make a second God Lastly Many of the Places which the Adversaries do heap up do speak of Christ's Office of Mediator which they improperly misapply to his Divine Nature for though Christ's Humane Nature hath no Personality but is upheld by the Divine Person yet that upholding doth not confound the Natures otherwise Passion and Death might be attributed to Divine Nature On this Matter they form other Arguments grounded upon false Suppositions as sometimes they would have Father Son and Holy Ghost to be three Spirits and the words unbegotten begotten and proceeding
and of these we may say as of a Watch the several pieces of which being asunder seem to be insignificant but put them together in their due place they are of good use and commend the Art of the Maker when he hath shewed us what it is good for which before we could not know of our selves Thus one or few acts of divine Providence are Mysteries to us which we cannot dive into nor understand till God hath manifested them to us What would all the Humane Reason in the World say of the Command which Abraham received to sacrifice his own Son in all appearance it was a murther and a barbarous and unnatural one too for a Father to destroy his own Son God's Will to try his Faith and Obedience was a Secret As Job's Afflictions for a trial of his Patience and to make him in Ages to come an Example of it Joseph's being cast in Prison for so good an Act as to refuse committing Adultery with his Master's Wife would puzzle the Brains and Reason of any Man who believes God to be just and pure if by the several things which the same wife Providence brought to pass God had not made his design known which David saith was to try him Ps 105.19 the word of the Lord tried him So God's command to the Prophet Hosea to take unto him a Wife of Whoredoms when the Lord is a most holy God That the Son of God who is just harmless undefiled separate from Sinners should by Blasphemers be accused of condemned and executed for Blasphemy and this by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God is that which doth transcend the poor weak frail Understanding of Man tho' never so much screwed up or his Reason put to the rack I am sure David a Prophet as well as a King speaks of himself to that purpose about the Prosperity of the Wicked in this World so foolish was I Psal 73.22 16 17. and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and when I thought to know this it was too painful for me too hard for me to understand until I went into the sanctuary of God No Humane Reason only Divine Revelation could make it intelligible Whoso is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord that is Psal 107.43 from 40. the Wisdom from above not the Humane can teach us to understand God's Gracious Dispensations especially in the wise Government of his Church which to Humane Reason is passed understanding as concerning God's Works and Thoughts of which David saith O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep which if we may believe him Ps 92 5 6. a bruitish man knows not neither doth a fool understand this With Admiration and Exclamation he saith it and so deep that Humane Reason cannot fathom it without Revelation Heavenly Light maketh some know and understand but the Bruitish the Fool and Wicked doth not and cannot for want of this Divine Grace and when they would find to measure Divine Mysteries with the Line of this Reason then they become Fools so to them these things still continue to be Mysteries This Author is one of those whom the Prophet speaks of Psal 64.5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter for at first he concealed his Name whether out of Fear or Modesty he knows best but now in his second Edition he pulled off the Vizzard and hath his Name at length how he came by that Encouragement deserves as I think to be inquired into by those that are more than I immediately concerned I agree with him when he speaks the Truth as thus how the Converted Jews would still retain some of the Levitical Ceremonies as may be seen Act. 15. and therein might happen to be too much Compliance as with the Gentiles who brought in some of the Heathenish Rites and that Remisness in some afterwards made those things a part of Christianity it self thus they degenerated from the Simplicity of the Gospel by means of self and worldly ends Hence we see how from Page 165 till 172 he takes Advantage upon account of Ceremonies and such foolish or selffish Priestcraft as he calls it But after all do this Socinian People think to monopolize to themselves and be sole Masters of all good Sense and Reason surely others among the Antients and now are as rational as they why should not their Wisdom and Reason seeing they make it to be natural differ from Wisdom and Reason that is Spiritual From hence I am sure St. Panl makes not only a difference but also a great Opposition between them for saith he We speak not in the words of humane wisdom but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and God hath revealed them that is the Doctrines of the Gospel unto us by his Spirit and as 't is not the Wisdom or Reason of Man which the same Apostle in the same Epistle Ch. 3.19 calls foolishness with God but the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom 1 Cor. the whole Ch. c. And where this Spirit of God is not pleased to teach the Truth of the Gospel that remains hidden all the Reason in the World cannot understand it 2 Cor. 4.33 and we know it is hid to some to them that are lost among whom are some of the most learned and wise in the World endued with as much Natural Reason and great Parts as any of our Adversaries yet this natural Reason cannot comprehend it I go farther and say that some of these things of God remain still Mysteries and if not wholly yet in part are hidden even to those who have the Spirit of God because by reason of the weakness of their Nature they are not capable and 't is above their reach to understand it first as to God's Nature to us it is incomprehensible because infinite behold the heaven 1 Kings 8.27 Compar'd with Job 11.7 8 9. and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee nor Reason comprehend So in his Attributes his greatness is unsearchable and his understanding is infinite so are his Works both of Power and Providence Wisdom Mercy and Justice far above the reach of Humane Reason as to be seen in Job in the Psalms and other parts of Scripture and let one Text of Job serve for all great things doth he God Psal 145.3 Ps 147.5 Job 37.5 which we cannot comprehend and to apply this to our present purpose we own that the Doctrines of the Gospel necessary to be known both as to the Substance and to the Declaration are clear and perspicuous but still there are some as to the Difficulties which learned Men and Doctors do study to understand which they can never rightly do without a special Assistance of the Spirit of God for 't is he and he alone that can lead us into all Truth for if of our selves we cannot understand the plainest much less the hardest wherefore