they do penetrate one another for they most perfectly and infinitely know and love one another now Love is an earnest desire of Union so then they be most intirely united The Apostle makes the necessary difference of the Three on Earth he saith they agree in One but of the Three in Heaven he saith they are One. Moreover either one knows something which the other doth not or loves something which the other doth not love or can do something which the other cannot do or not if the former how are they God For God knows and can do all if the last then not only they have one Will but also one Mind one Power one Knowledg one Love Now let Man think upon several Natures of the same kind which mutually do penetrate themselves and by a mutual inclination do embrace and unite themselves inseparably and have the same Thoughts Will and Action doth not all this conclude for one and the same Nature And that there is no difference but in some manner of Existing which because they are such are distinct one from another without Confusion all which from Oneness of Will leads to Oneness of Essence for the Will of God is not a thing different from his Nature Another Text wherein the most holy Trinity is demonstrated and not only may be read but also be heard and seen is that about our Saviour's Baptism where the Father speaks from Heaven and calls him his Son Christ the Son is baptized and the Holy Ghost appears in the shape of a Dove if Men do believe Scripture this they must believe to be true S. Austin lookt upon this Text as a strong and convincing Proof of that divine and essential Truth Vade ad Jordanem c. saith he Go to the River Jordan and there thou shalt find the holy Trinity and be convinced of the Verity thereof Besides these we have a Cloud of other Witnesses to prove this Truth where the Three Persons are mentioned under their proper Names and first * Acts 2.22 23. This Jesus being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost the Three Persons are plainly named Again the same Jesus Christ was declared †Rom. 1.3 4. to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness Elsewhere the same Apostle saith ‖ Tit. 3.4 5 6. God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ And in another place ‡ Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts by the word God is meaned the Person of the Father * Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offereth himself without spot to God Furthermore †Ephes 2.18 Through him Christ we both have an access by one spirit unto the Father Our blessed Saviour himself out of his own sacred Mouth doth plainly and positively speak to this purpose when he saith * John 14.16.17 I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter the Father I the Son and the comforter whom he calls the Spirit of Truth are Three Persons which in the next Chapter †Chap. 15 26. is by him repeated But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth One Text more I shall bring to confirm this * 2 Cor. 13.14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God that is the Father and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all And in the Text of another Apostle †1 Pet. 1.2 are contained the Workings of the Three Persons in the Trinity Elect according to the fore knowledg of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ As the New Testament is full of Proofs to confirm this holy Doctrine for indeed these Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation are more clearly and fully therein related so out of the Old Testament we have enough to confute the Enemies of this Truth and because we look upon Socinians in their Principles to be a sort of Jews and as well as they Blasphemers against our holy and blessed Saviour so we will bring such Arguments against them as we would if we were disputing against unbelieving Jew◠only a few Texts out of many We begin with the Book of Genesis Chap. 1. wherein is contained a relation of the History of the Creation which is a Work common to the Three Persons of the Trinity and though we may not look upon it as the clearer upon the matter yet in it is Light enough to shew the Truth we now assert I shall say nothing of the Name God under that of Elohim which already we have spoken of as representing the plurality of Persons in the most holy Trinity but we may say that though the Name God was there which it is not in the singular and taken for the Person of the Father yet the Son had a hand in the act of Creation for it is God said here is the word which is the proper Name of the Son our Lord Jesus Christ who in Scripture especially by S. John is so often called by that Name the Word God saying and speaking is that which made the World We read God said when any thing was created which being compared with what is spoken by John * John 1.3 All things were made by him that is the Word the Person of Jesus Christ for actiones sunt suppositorum acting is proper to Persons and without him was not any thing made that was made now that Word God said is that which created every thing so then here is the Person of the Son but we also find the Person of the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.2 the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters by his acting represented by motion to cherish give life and motion to things as a Hen doth when sitting upon her Eggs for the word in the Original signifies such a thing This sense is given by a competent Interpreter †Psal 33.6.9 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host thereof by the breath of his mouth Here we can read distinctly the Lord if it were to be understood only of the first Person about which there is no dispute the Word and the Breath or Spirit this though it be clear I could set in a greater Light with comparing it with other places which I now forbear to do because I shall have occasion to make use of them in some other branch of my Discourse Another Text is this * Isai 42.1 Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him besides the Person that speaks namely the Father here we have the Son under the name
must never attempt to pry into this is a Mystery which most humbly and with an awful reverence we ought to adore and believe without any farther enquiry into it because God hath revealed it it is so namely that the Son not the Father nor the Holy Ghost was made Flesh In Religion there are several other things which we do simply believe tho it be impossible for our Reason to comprehend them as the Infiniteness Immensity and Eternity of God whereof the former is every where within and without the greatest and least things So is that union of both Natures in one Person incomprehensible Thus that which is spoken of the divine Essence may be attributed to the three Persons but to be understood of things which of themselves are competent to the nature of the Creatour Almightiness Eternity and such-like Attributes but not so in the things which belong to the Essence only upon the account of one Person for such things belong only to that Person for whose sake they are spoken of the Essence as the Incarnation of the Son the Voice of the Father from Heaven and the appearing of the Holy Ghost under the shape of a Dove We know how the Works ad extra or outward are undivided and common to the three Persons always excepting that wherein they destroy the proper Attributes of the Persons Thus the Son and Holy Ghost not the Father are sent the Son not the Father nor Holy Ghost was made Flesh tho' the Father and Holy Ghost had a hand in the Incarnation for the Angel said Luk. 1.35 The power of the highest shall overshadow thee and the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Prov. 9.1 Rev. 21.3 and Wisdom whereby the Son is represented hath builded her House otherwise called the Tabernacle of God So then the work of the Incarnation is common to the three Persons but in the effect is terminatively only in the Son When the Apostle speaks of the Mystery of our Salvation in the adorable and incomprehensible Incarnation of the Son of God or his taking â—ur human Nature he saith 1 Pet. 1.12 Exod. 25.20.22 which things the Angels desire to look into alluding to the two Cherubims on the Mercy Seat towards which their Faces were as desirous to see into 't In th Tabernacle was the Ark and above upon the Art was the Mercy Seat as the most holy part of he whole for there God met with Moses and from thence he communed with him all which was disposed according to God's own appointment for the Mercy Seat was a Type of Jesus Christ in whom and by whom alone God doth neet and commune with Men in the way of Mercy and as the Ceremonial Law was as a School-master to bring us to Christ as to him that was the end of the Law so all Figures and Prophecies aimed at him After God had sent all his Servants and he would have no more Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices then he sent his only Son to offer up himself a Sacrifice unto him for Sin This most holy and blessed Son by the Mouth of the Prophet David long before his coming said Lo I come to do thy will Psal 40.6 7. Heb. 10.7 9. O God He knew the Will of God and declared he would come to do 't The words contain a particular emphasis different from any thing of that nature express'd in Scripture When the Prophets foretold Josiah's Birth 1 Kin. 13 2. Isa 44. 45. and Cyrus's Empire they are not introduced as saying any thing themselves only one was to be born the other to be holden and supported because at that time they were not But here the Son of God speaks as one who then was in being and as a person who delighted to execute his Father's Will as he effectually did both actively and passively and this he declared when come Joh. 6.38 I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me and when upon the approach of the Hour wherein that Will was to be Joh. 12.27 his Soul was troubled he said For this cause came I unto this hour and when the bitter Cup which caused in him some Horror was put into his hand Luk. 22.42 he said Not my will but thine be done Let these words in the Evangelists with those in the Psalm be compared anâ— there will appear such a divine harmony as wiâ— convince they both came out of the same Persâ—â— only with this difference that in the Psalmis seen a steddy resolution such as became a divine Person and in the Gospel something of human Frailty the reason is because the first is expressed by a Prophet inspired by his Spirit and the last by himself in the days of his Flesh However coming is meant of a Person who pre-existed before that coming and in the time of the Prophecy And the circumstances oâ— God's having no more pleasure in Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings and his saying Lo I come which preceeded his coming do demonstrate in him a Choice and Resolution which is the act of a Person as the quoted place out of St. Peter's doth denote Christs coming into the World to be such a Mystery as the Angels so excellent and knowing Creatures desire to know and look into But I return to my Answer to their Objections These things being seriously considered will afford matter enough to answer and refute the Cavils of the Enemies to this Truth Before I proceed farther in answering some more Objections of theirs I think it will not be amiss for me because they make a scandalous Exception against that common place of the Apostle which proves the most holy Trinity There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost To add something more to what in the beginning I said about it They say it is wanting in some Greek Copies and in the Syriack but through the Fraud of the Arrians as saith Jerome and Erasmus Praefat. in Epist Can. whom Socinians would seem to appeal unto confesseth it to be in the most ancient Manuscripts of Brittany Spain and Rhodes and it is clear out of the Connexion of the Text V. 4 5 6. that it cannot be taken away without making a palpable breach and interruption of the sense for he hath just before spoken of God the Father of Christ and of the Spirit and to agree with what he saith v. 8 there are three that bear witness in Earth there must also be three that bear record in Heaven there must be Witnesses in Heaven as there are in Earth the three in Earth agree in one the three in Heaven are one We read it quoted by * Ad Theoph. lib. 1. in disp contra Aâ—rium in Conc. Nic. Athanasius so doth †Contra Varimadum Idacius so * Contra Arrian Fulgentius also it is quoted before the times of Athanasius in the Controversie against the Arrians
by †De Vnit Eccles Cyprian and also by Tertullian Ignatius c. This Text doth so well agree with that of the Evangelist to baptize all Nations in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which it doth allude unto that none may doubt but it was suggested by the same Spirit and the name word particular to St. John doth sufficiently witness how those lines together with the rest came out of his Pen Non unus sed unum saith one of the fore-quoted Fathers Not one Person sed unum c. one Nature not only the unity of Testimony as they are three distinct Witnesses not only the unity of Consent and Will but also of Nature as I and the Father are one Joh 10.30 which the Jews understood very well for thereupon they accused him of Blasphemy and took up Stones to have cast at him the reason they give for 't is this Because thou being a man V. 33. makest thy self God In few words we cannot be baptized in the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost except the names of these three equal in Authority Dignity and Essence be called upon on our behalf and as I observed before 't is unlawful to be baptized in the name of any man The Israelites were baptized by the Worâ—â— or Ministry or as the Syriack hath it in the Hand of Moses but not in his Name Before we leave off these Objections against the most adorable Trinity for the better understanding of the matter I shall speak some few words more for indeed the point is of so high a concernment and affords such a plenty and variety of Discourse that we can never say enough of what is to be known in the case Tho' as we said they be the same in Essence yet they differ first in personal Names as Father Son and Holy Ghost Secondly in their Order Father first as the Spring then Son thirdly Holy Ghost Thirdly In their manner of Operation the Father doth act of himself the Son from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both Gal. 4.4 John 14.26 15.26 so the Son is sent by the Father the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son but we never read the Father was sent So there is a difference in the outward Works for tho' they be common to the three Persons yet Creation is properly attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost Thus these three Persons have every one their personal unity in number they are distinguish'd yet are but one God in number of Essential and natural unity wherefore in God are not three Beings three Infinites or three Things Yet they object the names of Trinity Personality and Essence were not heard of before the Apostles time nor the Doctrin of the Trinity I answer to the first that tho' the Names were not yet the Things were and Words are to signifie Things that there is one God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit as it appears out of the places quoted to prove the Divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost which here I need not to repeat and if the things be true why should Men dispute about words which do not in the least prejudice the Analogy of Faith on the contrary do explain and confirm it As to the Second I say that the Doctrin of the Trinity was mentioned of old as I proved it already out of several places of Scripture the Question is not about the Father but the Son concerning whom is the clear Testimony of Psal 2 whose coming as Jehovah and God of Israel for the Prophet speaks to Israel when he calls him your God was foretold Behold Isa 35 4 5. Mat. 11.4 5. Psal 51.10 11. your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you which is applied unto Christ Of the Holy Ghost mention is made by David and in other places but that which under the Old Testament was under a Vail is clearly revealed under the New for the Persons are plainly named and their number expressed as in the places already made use of not only in the Baptism of our Saviour but in his Commission given his Apostles to baptize c. which as I shewed is unlawful to be done in any man's name As there is truth in Jesus so this is the truth of his Gospel which also hath in conformity thereunto been the sense of the general Orthodox Councils and of the Doctors of the Primitive Church however this must be said that tho' this Mystery of the holy Trinity be expressed in Scripture yet 't is such a one as exceedeth our understanding and capacity Again they say In most places of Scripture 't is said there is but one God and that this God is the Father of Jesus Christ I answer The Name God when properly spoken and of the true God is taken either essentially for Divine Nature or personalty for some of the Persons when taken in the first sense it doth not exclude but include the Persons only it is set down in opposition to Idols and false Gods which by Nature are not Gods the things absolutely spoken of the Oneness of God do not at all prejudice the Persons which are that onely God hence it is that not only the Father but also Son and Holy Ghost are called God In this Essential sense are taken the places they quote out of the Old and New Testament as for instance Mark 2.7 Luk. 5.21 that of Mark and of Luke which among others they make use of Who can forgive sins but God only The word God belongs to the Essence yet that power doth belong to the Son as to the Father for there Christ assumeth it to himself which same power is also attributed unto the Holy Ghost Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 22. whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them When the word God is to be understood personally then there is a note of distinction joyned to know what Person is spoken of whether Father Son or Holy Ghost What we say of the word God the same we affirm of the name Father which doth not always signifie the first Person but also the Nature and three Persons Thus when God is said to be Father of all and in the Lord's Prayer we call him Our Father when we cry Abba Father c. in all Texts of that nature Father Son and Holy Ghost are understood As to the Particle besides me sometimes used it excepts nothing within tho' every thing without the Deity or that hath not the Divine Nature But one of the Arguments which most of all they ground themselves upon is this Joh. 17.3 And this is eternal life to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ They would have Christ to be excluded from being the only true God which they restrain only to the Father but herein they are much
found alive at the last Day They would have Christ's Incarnation to be against Reason and Scripture they deny him to be truly God the like of the Holy Ghost That there is in One God no Trinity of Persons and that the Old Testament is needless for Christians c. All these and other Blasphemies are found in the Works of Socinus in the Racovian Catechism whereof Smalcius is the Author of Ostorodius Crellius Wolkelius Vaydovius c. but we shall by the Grace of God insist only upon some of their greatest Blasphemies Now to the Cause Matters of this high Nature and fundamental Concernment to our Holy Religion must not be prostituted to the captious scanning of Men of corrupt Minds nor the ways of God be made layable to the Judgment of Men rather humbly to be adored with Submission of Mind and Obedience of Faith to the Revelation declared in God's Word and herein we ought the more to be sober and cautious that we know Errors to be link'd together and to have a dependency one upon another he that strikes at the Grace of the Lord Jesus will afterwards make no Conscience to fly out against his Person he who denies him to be a Prophet will soon disown him to be a King and a Priest for as one Depth calls to another so an Arminian can easily become a rank Pelagian and Socinian Wherefore 't is necessary at the very beginning to oppose Errors defend every inch of ground against such as will daily grow worse and worse as do the * James 1.8 double-minded men that are for their own more than for the Truth 's Interest for they are unstable in all their ways and the more Hands orderly employed the better is the Effect like to be This Consideration makes me to appear amongst those who heretofore did and now do oppose false Teachers who not only privily but also in publick bring in again those damnable Heresies which of old Truth and Learning exploded and baffled out of the World The Divinity of Christ was the Stumbling-block to the Jews who could not endure to hear him call himself the Son of God absolutely and without limitation and thereat were enraged which made 'em take up Stones to cast at him John 8.59 and also at another time Chap. 10.31 the Doctrines about the Holy Trinity and the Person and Deity of Christ do stand and fall together In our Saviour's time it began to be oppos'd by the Jews and since from time to time continu'd to be so by the Devil's Instruments raised to that same purpose and within the last Age revived by the fore-named Blasphemers against the Rock of the Church which is built on the Confession that Christ is the Son of the living God not by any special Favour or any such Restriction for then there would be only a gradual difference between his and our being Sons of God but he is simply the Son of God yea his only begotten Before we enter upon this important Matter some things to clear the state of the Question must be premised so that we must shew wherein we agree before we speak of that wherein we differ as to the first this Foundation must be laid there is a God the Cause of all the Effect of none who hath made all and is made by none who hath given all things their Being and hath his own of himself This is not denyed so I shall not go about to prove it the Light of Nature the Book of Scripture and the Testimony of Conscience do sufficiently convince Men of it The next thing is what God is He being infinite cannot be defined but imperfectly described only according to what he hath in his Word revealed of himself how he is infinite independent self-sufficient eternal unchangeable But such is the blindness of some Mens Judgments or the Perverseness of their Hearts that they will cavil at the Nature Names Attributes and Works of this eternal and infinite Being But about this fundamental Truth our Faith must be directed by the Revelation which God hath made of it in his holy Word herein Men must not follow their own fancy for * 〈◊〉 Mat. 〈…〉 no man knoweth the father but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him Now the sum of this Revelation in the Word is that God is One that this One God is Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is the Father of the Son and the Son the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and of the Son and that they are distinct one from another in respect of this their mutual Relation by this Rule we must be guided how to know believe worship love fear and obey him that is the Father One true God the Son One true God and the Holy Ghost One true God to be believed worshiped and obeyed Now for our Edification and further Instruction thâ—â— Doctrin admits of some Enlargement and Explanation to prevent undue Notions of God which by reason of the Blindness and Ignorance we are naturally involv'd in our Minds are liable unto thus out of the Revelation that God is One we easily deduce he is so in respect of his Nature Essence or Godhead and how being Father Son and Holy Ghost he doth subsist in these Three distinct Persons thence also is derived the manner of their Subsistence what are their mutual respects to each other and such like things by a necessary Consequence from the Revelation Upon these Grounds were compiled the Nicene Athanasian and other Creeds or Articles of Faith in opposition to the Heresies of those Times for therein was explained the true Sense of Scripture about those matters which were wrested by the Enemies of the Truth and though the Orthodox Doctors and Councils to oppose the Error and lay open the Venom made use of some Words and Expressions which in so many Letters are not set down in the Word of God yet they were not to blame for they were drawn out of it by lawful and necessary Consequences Men may lawfully conceive in their Minds what is the nature of the Things or the sense of the Words according to the scope of the Spirit of God in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and also as to the Analogy of Faith or else we are no better than Brutes So that if the chief Assertion contained in the Revelation be true so must also be whatsoever is therein included and in the Explication thereof drawn by a true and right Consequence Wherefore seeing God hath declared Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One God it necessarily follows they are One in Nature because therein only they can be One And this is the ground of any other Unity and seeing it is also declared they are Three it must be explained of three distinct Persons or Subsistences wherein only it is possible they can be Three The Revelation is clear there is One God this God is
Surely no man that hath any regard to God can say or think that in so serious a matter God speaks to nothing if to some then either to Angels or to some other Creature not to Angels for they are not of God's Council nor to any other of the Creatures which had neither Soul nor Reason and the next Verse doth decide the thing * Vers 27. So god created man in his own image in the image of God created he him and not after the Image of Angels or of any other Creature neither did God speak to the Souls for as yet they were not created To what I said of Angels I shall add that this could not be spoken to them for they neither principally or instrumentally had any hand in the Creation of Man for they could not the Work of Creation requiring an infinite Power but it must be to the other persons of the most holy Trinity the Word and the Spirit As to the Enallage or that manner of speaking in the plural for Greatness sake we own it hath place in some Languages but we deny it ever was in the Hebrew Tongue in the Old Testament no Man no person in Authority no Priest no Judg no King ever spoke of himself in the plural Number Well hath the Prophet said †Isai 40.12 13.7 Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him But for any one Grotius not excepted to say that the plural Number is used for Greatness or Majesty sake is certainly to prevaricate in the Cause of God for as 't is contrary to the Idiom of the Hebrew Tongue so to the practice of all those former times and it is but a modern Use and Invention which so support some Men contrary to all true Reason have forged in their imagination Besides that in these latter times wherein the Use hath been introduced no Emperor King or Prince in any Language useth his Proper Name or Appellative in the plural Number We Leopolds Williams Henrys Emperors Kings c. but always in the singular Leopold William Emperour King Well though no Man of what rank soever spoke after that way we find God hath in other places as after Adam's Sin * Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us not as I but one of us then there is more than One person for God speaks of himself of the Deity not of Angels whom he makes no comparison with when in the Transfiguration the Voice came from Heaven saying †Mat. 17.5 8. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased 't is observable the Apostles saw no Man save Jesus onely that it might appear it was not spoken of Moses or Elias but only of the Lord Jesus Another place there is also to the same purpose where upon the occasion of the building of the Tower of Babel †Gen. 11.6 7. The Lord said let us go down and there confound their language 't is not said I will but let us go â—â—wn in the plural Number as speaking of many which may not be understood of the Nature which is most singularly One but of the Persons Socinians say to this that though out of this we could prove Plurality yet we must not conclude for a Trinity but the Cavil is vain for 't is enough that the Name of God is in Scripture attributed only to Three Father Son and Holy Ghost to infer a Trinity and 't is well known how Three is the first Number of the plural Hence Hebrews and Greeks do distinguish the plural Number from the dual neither do we read of any more Terms or Words than two of divine Emanations namely of the Son by Generation and of the Holy Ghost by Procession Our second kind of Arguments consists of those Texts of Scripture which do expresly declare a Trinity as is that when our blessed Saviour sends his Apostles to * Mat. 28.19 baptize the Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hence the Son and Holy Ghost are proved to be Persons because we are distinctly baptised in their Name to baptise in one's Name is to make him disciple or initiate and bring him under the Discipline of him in whose Name he is baptized now if the Father in whose Name we are baptized be a Person so must the Son so must the Holy Ghost be because in every circumstance we are baptized in their Name as well as in the Fathers And observe it is not said in the Name of God whereby the Essence only might absolutely be taken but of the Father Son and Holy Ghost to shew that relative Equality which is between the Persons that have but one and the same Nature In this Text our blessed Saviour with his own Mouth declared the Trinity Another place very plain and positive to our purpose is this * 1 John 5.7 There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one Here the Trinity of Persons and Unity of Essence are so clear that the Adversaries have nothing to say but first to call in question the Verse as if it had been inserted because it is not in some Greek Copies out of which the Enemies of the Truth did formerly take it away but we have it in so many others even before the Council of Nice in Cyprian's time that there is no just ground left to doubt of its being true and authentick which place was by Athanasius made use of against Arrius In this Text the Apostle doth treat of confessing and believing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God which he to confirm doth bring in the Article of the holy Trinity whereof he is the second Person and to any one that doth seriously consider the sense and scope of the place it will appear how without that Verse there would be a breach in that part of the Chapter to bear a proportion of Three that bear witness in Heaven with the Three that bear it on Earth Their next Cavil upon this place is upon the latter part of the Verse and these three are one that is say they not in Nature but in Mind and Consent which is as absurd as if one would say when Scripture affirms * Deut. 6 4. Mark 12.29 O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord the meaning is only the Consent of many Wills but doth not this Oneness of Will argue a Unity of Essence For how can there naturally and essentially be one Will and Consent if there be not one Essence and Nature How can it essentially be one Will if there be not one but many divine Natures Rather there shall be many different Gods whose different Wills shall oppose one another than the which nothing can be more absurd Again either those Persons are finite or infinite if finite then they have not divine Nature which is infinite if infinite then
of his Servant of his elect in whom his Soul delighteth whereby none may deny the Lord Jesus to be understood and the Holy Ghost or Spirit Nothing better than this can quadrate with the History of our Saviour's Baptism ‖ Matth. 3.16 And in another place of the same Prophet †Iâ—al 6.3 when he saw the Vision and heard that Trisagion or holy holy holy which long after was also heard by John * Rev. 4 8. that three-fold repetition of God's Name compar'd with the proper Hypotheses of the antient Jews ' that it signified three things in God is adapted to the Trinity of Persons in S. John's Vision we have some enlargement as to the Lord Jesus represented by the Lamb for the same Twenty four Elders and Four Beasts * Rev. 5.8 9 13. fell down before the lamb and sung a new song and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea paid the same Worship to the Lamb as to him that sitteth on the Throne Again the same Prophet †Isai 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath anointed me this to be understood of Christ as applyed Luke 4.18 and of the Holy Ghost by the anointing for he was anointed with the Oyl of Gladness that is the Graces of the Spirit These Three are also to be read amongst the last Words of David * 2 Sam. 23.2 saying The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and the Word was in my tongue here is the Lord the Word and the Spirit To the same purpose speaks another Prophet †Hagg. 2.5 according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you the Father with the Word his Son and his Spirit made a Covenant with Israel There are several other Texts in the Old Testament of the Nature of One which I already made use of I mean of the thrice holy wherein the Name of God or Lord is thrice repeated I own I have such a persuasion of the infinite Wisdom of God as to believe there is nothing at all in his Word but what there is a particular reason for it to be in and in this belief of mine I am confirmed by what our blessed Saviour saith in earnest and with a strong Asseveration †Matt. 5.18 Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled and I am sufficiently satisfied that though through the Infirmity of our Nature in the Ignorance of our Mind we cannot apprehend the Causes of many things in the Word of God yet therein is nothing without a Cause So out of that Principle I dare say God meaneth something when in the Blessing which he prescribed to be pronounced to the People the Lord's Name is thrice in it thus * Numb 6.24 25 26. The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and when God speaks unto Moses he dictates what he was to speak to the Children of Israel when he was come to them in his Name that is The Lord God of your Fathers one would have thought this had been enough but no for he addeth †Exod. 3.15 The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob it was the same God yet thrice named So when the Law is given he saith ‖ Exod. 20.5 I the Lord thy God am a jealous God once Lord and twice God which is the same so in another place the * Psalm 136.1 2 3. Psalmist exhorteth thrice to give thanks to whom unto the Lord unto the God of Gods to the Lord of Lords One more I shall quote and 't is this †Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King Why thrice and no more Surely God aims at something for as he doth nothing so he saith nothing in vain these things are not in by Chance and seeing with a full assurance I believe according to Revelation a Trinity of Persons in the Divine Nature Why should not I also believe that these things relate to it Now if one would seriously attend upon these quoted places and compare them with others of the same kind may be God would impart upon the Matter greater Discoveries than I for the present am able to give only this I shall add how the Name Jehovah called in Greek Tetragrammaton because it originally consists only of four Letters signifieth both God's Self-existence for the Root whence 't is derived doth denote to be and also his Eternity for it contains all times to come present and past one out of the two first Letters draws the Words beginning and to live and the third having a Vertue of copulating or joyning together is for Love whereby is denoted the Holy Ghost as by the two before are Father and Son and because the second Letter h is twice in he would have both Natures in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity to be meaned tho' I have nothing to say against these mysterious Interpretations which may be well grounded yet we build not our main Arguments thereupon however knowing that essential and incommunicable Holy Name to confist of three different Letters I can see nothing to hinder me from believing that that same Nature is communicated to Three Persons and as the same Letter is twice in it doth signifie Two Natures in One Person especially it falling upon the Second Letter relating to the Second Person of the most blessed Trinity and as God is the Author of the Name Why may not he in his Infinite Wisdom therein denote some Mystery This I take to be Rational Here I must not omit for Proof of this great Truth to bring in our Creed called the Apostolical as an Evidence I meddle not with the others for the Adversaries will not own them though they ever were by better more Learned more Pious and Sound in all Ages than they are or I doubt can be I know the World hath afforded some Men who out of a vain-glory and to seem to be something through a tryal of their Parts have attempted to enervate with their Criticisms the Strength and Orthodoxy of these Creeds but as to this Socinians themselves can except against it no more than they do against the written Word of God whence this is extracted Father Son and Holy Ghost are all Three named in the Creed and as the Word God is expressed when joined with the Father so 't is understood of Son and Holy Ghost thus I believe in God his only begotten Son and I believe in God the Holy Ghost for to them it also doth belong and as there we profess to believe in that is to
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
in this Comparison of Persons all Things may be acceptable unto him but hence it doth not follow that Christ is not of the same Nature with the Father seeing they are not compared in relation to the Essenâ—â— but herein he doth condescend to their Capacity whom not owning his Deity he would by degrees bring to the knowledge thereof As to the use of the Name of God in Scripture the remaining Evidences are reduced under two kinds First In some the Name of God is absolutely taken for God the Father Secondly In others is added an exclusive Particle which is by some joyned with the Name of God and by others with the Things spoken of and attributed unto God Out of the first nothing may be deduced contrary to this Doctrine for in all those places by them quoted which anon we shall mention is a Comparison of the Persons wherein the Name of God is properly attributed to the Father upon the account of Order and Origin but 't is inconsequent to say that in every place where the Name of God is absolutely taken that is without Comparison of the Persons it is to be understood only of the Father for in several places where the Word God is indefinitely set down yet it is by no means to be reduced to the Father alone as to the other sort of Proofs wherein an exclusive Particle is expressed that exclusive Particle relates to the Creatures and to every thing which by Nature is not God whither they be things in Nature as Sun Moon and Stars which Heathens worshipped as Gods or else those which are Effects of Man's fancy and imagination such are several Idols by foolish Men worshipped as Gods wherefore seeing the True and Essential God is opposed to those which by Nature are not Gods it follows that by the Word God may well be understood Father Son and Holy Ghost likewise though sometimes mention be made only of One Person we must not take it as if thereby the other Persons were excluded but only that which by Nature is not God and that this is a right Interpretation it may well be proved out of several places of Scripture as for Instance when God saith by * Isa 43.11 the Prophet I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour and by another †Hos 13.4 For there is no Saviour besides me Here in the Adversaries Opinion Salvation is attributed to the Father but that the Son is not excluded it appears out of several places amongst the rest out of this ‖ Act. 4.12.10 Neither is there Salvation in any other that is in Jesus Christ who hath been crucified and we know Scripture doth not contradict it self and if out of the Prophet's one would exclude the Son he might as well out of this exclude the Father Again the Lord Jesus saith No man knows the Father but the Son now if all but the Son be excluded from knowing the Father as in the foregoing Text he would be excluded from being a Saviour so in this from knowing himself also the Holy Ghost would be excluded from knowing the Father though he be said To * 1 Cor. 2.10 search all things yea the deep things of God in this very same Sense Paul said ‖ Chap. 2.1 10. I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified he doth not thereby deny that he determined to know the Father and the Holy Ghost but he meaneth he knows nor owns no way of Salvation out of Christ and v. â—1 The things of God knows no man but the spirit of God but in other places we read how * Joh. 5.20 the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father and the Father shews the Son all things that himself doth hence we may conclude how the Apostle speaks exclusively only of Creatures not of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost CHAP. VI. Christ is True Natural Son of God by Eternal Generation BUT we must by the Grace of God come to another Head as Scripture gives Christ truly properly and essentially the Name of God so it doth give him that of Son of God the First we shewed already the Second whereby he is declared the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity we must now speak of as we observed that the Word God in Scripture is spoken in several Senses as the True God properly Angels and Magistrates improperly and * Judg. 9.2 l. 46. Idols †2 Cor. 4.4 the Devil and the ‖ Phil. 3.19 Belly abusively So here I must say how the Name Son of God admits of Three different Significations for God hath three sorts of Sons for all others are reduced under these three Heads the First is by Creation and Preservation which is a continued Creation for * Act. 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being thus Adam is called †Luke 3.38 Son of God and Men ‖ Gen. 6.2 Sons of God on this Account God is Father of all Creatures whether in Heaven as Angels nay of the Sun Moon Stars of the Birds of the Air and on Earth of all Men Beasts Plants c. and of Fishes under Water this in relation to Nature and in general to the whole Creation The Second kind of God's Sons or Children is by Adoption and Grace such are his Elect and People of these in a special manner God is called the Father In a Third way Scripture speaks of a Son of God and of none else thus the only begotten from all Eternity namely our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is not Son according to the first manner which being common to all Men would make no difference between him and others and bring him into a Croud of the whole Work of Creation neither is he Son of God upon the account of Grace and Adoption which they would have him to be but if he be by Adoption how can he be the Only Begotten Son seeing that through Grace God hath adopted so many adopted Sons once and before their Adoption were not Sons of God which cannot be said of the Lord Jesus that the time hath been when he was not Son of God all and every adopted Son of God were once * Ephes 2. dead in trespasses and sins and by nature children of wrath even as others once †Colos 1.13 under the power of darkness and ‖ Rom. 5.10 enemies to God none of which things may without Blasphemy be spoken or thought of the Lord Jesus He is called Son not by Creation for * Colos 1.16 all things were created by him and one cannot be Creatour and Creature nor by Adoption for †Ephes 1.5 in him we are adopted nor by any Dignity or Eminency over inferiour Creatures as are Angels for the ‖ Heb. 1.4 5. Apostle denies it nor also upon the account of a personal Vnion or Incarnation as he is called Son
all men knowing him to be one with the Father may honour the Son even as they honour the Father whereby he demonstrates himself to be God for divine honour belongs to none else for thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve We must love honour and worship one person of the God-head as well as the other as we love God in the person of the Father so we must love God in the person of the Son and of the Holy Ghost for if any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be an Athema 1 Cor. 16.22 Maran-atha He who loveth not the Son loveth not the Father and he who loves not the Holy Ghost loveth not the Father nor the Son Here I bring in point of worship the instance of love because without it no true worship We ought not to worship God otherwise than he hath declared in his word he that woshipeth not God the Father Son and Holy Ghost doth not worship God as he ought 't is not enough to worship God as God essentially but also he must be in the three persons for all three are the object of worship or else our Religion is vain and we are to look not only to the object but also to the order of worship the Father through the Son John 16. and by the Son to go to the Father and so by the means of the Holy Ghost we go to both for we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. â— 26 1 Cor. 12.3 but the spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us Neither can one say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost And in giving glory to God 't is not enough to glorifie him except it be in the three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost And the consideration of this Mistery of one God in three persons which ought to be our guide in worshiping that eternal and infinite Being ought to teach us modesty and humility which is so essential in our serving God to adore the incomprehensibility of these high things the Majesty of God and the Mistery of his Son 's being made Flesh and be made sensible of our weakness and then endeavour to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Here I cannot forbear inserting the words of two eminent Doctors of the Primitive Church Ambros de fid ad gratian lib. 1. cap. 5. Mihi impossibile est saith one generationis scire secretum mens deficit voxsilet non mea tantum sed Angelorum licet scire quod natus fit non licet discutere quomodo natus sit illud negare mihi non licet hoc quaerere metus 'T is impossible for me to know the secret of that Generation my understanding faileth me my mouth is stopt 't is lawful not only for me but also for Angels to know He is born but 't is not lawful to enquire how he is born that I cannot deny but I am afraid to search into this The other saith filium esse a deo patre immortali genitum novi sed quemadmodum ignoro spiritum ex co procedere scio Chrisost hom de incomprehens dei natura sed quemadmodum nescio I know the Son to be begotten of the immortal Father but in what manner I cannot tell I know the Holy Ghost to proceed from him but how I know not These being just come into my thoughts though they exactly are not belonging to the present part of our discourse yet being much to the purpose of the whole I here have set them down Indeed in things of that nature men ought to yield an obedience of Faith and believe unity of Nature and Trinity of Persons for numero deus impare gaudet so we must worship one God in three persons Our present purpose is to prove Christ to be true Essential Eternal God because the same worship due only to the true Eternal God is rendred unto him as anon we shall by the grace of God make it appear But now somethings must be premised which can contribute towards the better understanding of the point first Christ's enemies are not agreed in this particular one Valentinus Gentilis by us named in the beginning of this Discourse and some others do flatly deny Christ this Divine Worship because they disown him essentially to be God and no divine worship is to be rendred to the Creature which to do is Idolatry but Socinus said he is to be worshiped but with such restrictions as such a worship is all most no better than none at all They would have him to be worshiped only after his resurrection and that the resurection was the standing sign and true reason why one whom God raised from the dead should be worshiped but if this be true then the Son of the Widow of Sarepta of the Shunamite 1 Kings 17.22 2 Kings 4.34 c. Chap. 13.21 and of the dead man that having touched the bones of Elisha was revived under the Old Testament and the Son of the Woman of Naim and the daughter of Jairus Lazarus Dorcas and Eutichus under the New are to be worshiped according to this rule of theirs Wherefore some other cause than this must be assigned why Christ must be worshiped they say he ought to be so as he is Mediator we own that Christ Mediator is to be worshiped but that honour belongs to him in relation to his Deity for when God bringeth in the first born into the world Heb. 1.6 he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him he is called first begotten not in relation to his humanity for many were Children of God before his Birth but in respect to his eternal generation He is to be adored by Angels though he be not their Mediator when we adore Christ as Mediator 't is not in relation to his Office abstracted from his Deity but as he is true God In this sence the Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive as he did by the Angels Rev. 5.12 the Beasts and the Elders honour and glory and blessing because in his humane nature dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily Colos 2.9 The Ark was not worshiped but God in the Ark as not the Bush but God in the Bush not the ground which Moses stood upon but God in that place sanctified by his special presence and so in several other places of the Old Testament Indeed Christ is to be worshiped Phil. 2.7 though in the form of a Servant and made a little lower than the Angels though not as a Servant or as lower than the Angels by which all God would have him to be adored for no other cause but for his divine nature V. 6. the form of God whereby he shall remained equal with the Father in his state of humiliation As Angels are commanded to worship Christ so is the Church under the
that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it Luke 14.26 Nay If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren yea and his own life he cannot be my disciple Is not this the manner of love which God requireth of us and doth not this lay upon us a duty to love Christ with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind and with all our strength thus this honour is proper for and ought equally to be rendered to the Father and to the Son for all men ought to honour the Son as they honour the Father I hope the sense we give the Text is sufficiently proved how all men without distinction or exceptionare bound to honour the Son as they honour the Father and the manner is by our Saviour prescribed in spirit and truth Joh. 4.24 Now I must shew how the Texts they bring against us cannot admit of the sense which ours doth because 't is contrary to the Scope of the Apostles and to the Analogy of Faith First to the scope for the end of both Apostles 1 Thes 4.7 Luk. 1.74 75. Psal 93.5 Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 is to exhort Christians to study and labour after Purity and Holiness which they are called unto All that are adopted Children ought to walk in holiness because holiness becomes the house of God and as without faith 't is impossible to please God so without holiness no man shall see the Lord. This great and necessary duty I say the two Apostles in these Texts do exhort men to strive and labour after not as to attain to such a perfection of holiness as is in God which is impossible for any Man for all that we can desire is that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 Mat. 5.48 and receive some degrees of it In the same sense is to be understood that other place Be ye therefore perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect a duty we ought to study after because as much as we can we must be conformable unto God Secondly Such an interpretation would destroy the Analogy of Faith as contrary to the truth set down in other places of Scripture For though holiness be a communicable Attribute of God yet there cannot be so much as thought to be an equality between Purity and Holiness in God and those small portions he is graciously pleased to impart unto us Holiness is Essentially and Originatively in God nay Holiness is God infinitely and most simply holy and we are naturally unclean transgressors from the Womb conceived in Sin brought forth in Iniquity wallowing in our own Blood till God be pleased to wash and cleanse us to derive from himself and by his holy spirit to work some small degree of holiness in us God is most holy Luke 6.36 thrice Holy In the same sense we are commanded to be merciful as our Father also is merciful that is as far as God will be pleased to enable us we ought to follow and imitate that Pattern but not pretend or hope to arrive to the perfection of it which in both Mercy and Holiness were no less than Blasphemy wherefore such interpretations God's word doth abhor and in that place St. John saith not Every man that hath this hope hath purified in the Praetertense but in the Present purifieth himself to shew how he doth but aim at it and by degrees And St. Peter in the 16. v. explains the sense of the foregoing verse because it is written saith he be ye holy for I am holy he shews no equality or parity of holiness The word as which he used before he now renders by for as a motive and a cause why we ought to be holy Because God is holy To what I said before I shall now add at last how the word as doth in other places denote an equality as the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father John 10.15 which in the Greek word is taken for to love he equally knows and loves the Father with an Eternal and perfect Love as the Father knoweth and loveth him The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when spoken of the Father and the Son denote an equality not a similitude as the Father hath life in himself so hath the Son life in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original Now to understand the foregoing places of an equality Chap 5. 26. is not contrary to other Scriptures nor to the Analogy of Faith but doth tend to the glory of both Father and Son for the rule is most true in the Text now in question he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that sent him but he that honoureth the Son honoureth the Father also which is a natural inference out of the place But that people who pretend to honour the Father have taken a quite contrary way to do 't which is dishonouring the Son Joh. 8.49 as he said to the Jews I honour my Father and ye dishonour me with robbing him if they could of his divine Nature and Attributes when 't is most true that he that honoureth not the Son Chap. 5.23 Chap. 12. We are baptized in Christ's name honoureth not the Father and the Father beareth witness from Heaven that he is glorified in the Son Having thus proved in general that divine worship belongs to Christ we must now come to the places which demonstrate it in the particulars As first we are baptized in his name Baptism is a divine ordinance whereby being admitted to be members of Christ's mystical body we take an Oath of Allegiance to him whereby we own him to be our God and Redeemer this is the seal of the Covenant Now no Covenant is in force till it be passed the Seal this Seal in Baptism is not only instituted by Christ but also administred in his name and authority whereby it doth appear that this is his Right which Right of his Matth. 28.19 he would make use of when he commanded all Nations to be baptized in his name None but God can institute Sacraments for none but he can bestow the grace therein represented none but the Lord of the House hath right to make Laws in his House now the Church is God's House and seeing the preaching of the Word and administration of both Sacraments therein is done by Christ's authority and in his name he is thereby not only owned but also worshiped as God and Lord of it wherefore the Church is called Christ's own house Heb. 3.6 I find indeed there was a subordination between God and Moses this being but a Servant but the same subordination between God and Moses was between the Son of God and Moses as is now of all Ministers of the Gospel under Christ Mal. 3. ◠for he is the Lord of the Temple who
Essentially exclusively not to Son and Holy Ghost but to Idols and Creatures the word Father is here taken for God as 't is when said one God and Father of all and abba-Abba-Father Ephes 4.6 Rom. 8.15 Also the Father of Spirits The words our Father are often taken for our God and Lord In those places the word Father is said relatively not to the Son Heb. 12.9 Matth. 10.21 29. Luke 30.32 John 14.13 Chap. 3.13 but to men whose Father God is The things in the Lord's Prayer asked and prayed for are asked of the Son as well as of the Father as the coming of his Kingdom the forgiveness of our Sins whence saith our Lord Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will do And the words which are in Heaven do belong to the Son as to the Father and the Holy Ghost too as appeareth out of Psal 139.7 8. and Matth. 3.16 Nay as we said before the Son is called the everlasting Father And if we consider the Etymology of the word which in the Original signifieth to preserve all things we shall find he is a Father indeed by whom all things are upheld and preserved which the Holy Spirit within us beareth witness unto when our heart laying under the sense of some trouble or mercy doth on a sudden by means of an Ejaculatory Prayer either in thoughts words or both poure it self before him begging for help or giving thanks breaking out upon occasion into these or the like expressions Lord Jesus have pity on me or Lord Jesus make me thankful Thus I through the grace of God have under those several heads brought in proofs for our blessed Lord and Saviour's divinity of many more which Scripture affords I shall take notice but of few wherein he is properly and truly called God which to assert is the main drift of the word as it is the foundation of the whole Gospel for it was absolutely necessary he should be God by nature or else any man might have preached taught prayed given good example and made intercession as well as Christ and if he came into the world and dyed only to teach us good doctrine and give us good example he had done for us no more than the Apostles and Martyrs who taught good doctrine and gave good example so might as well be called our Mediators and Saviours If this had as they say been the whole work of the Mediator our redemption had been no hard matter to be performed But I say that his threefold office of Mediatorship Prophecy Kingship and Priesthood demonstrate him to be true Essential God for none of the three could perfectly have been performed but by a God himself As to the Prophetical to enlighten the understanding and effectually to turn the heart as to the Regal to defend Believers against the Power of Satan and as to the Priestly to obtain forgiveness of Sins favour of God and glory none of these could be obtained but by him who is infinite as in Power so in Nature there is an infinite distance between God who is infinite and every finite Creature no proportion between Infinite and Finite Scripture owneth nothing but God to be higher than Angels now Christ is higher and above all Angels Besides that the necessity of satisfaction to be given to Divine Justice doth argue a necessity for Christ to be God for the satisfaction could not have been adequate as it ought to be except he was God and this divinity in him doth prove the plurality of persons in the God-head which is the whole of the difficulty alledged against the most holy Trinity Certainly the great design of the Apostles and others was to preach Christ to be truely and really God Son of God whereby their Ministry was exalted this was the foundation they were to build upon Acts 8.37 The Eunuch must make this Confession I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God before he could be baptized so did every one else being converted to the Faith this in our Religion is the first thing to be known and preached thus Paul after his Conversion Chap. 9.20 the first thing he did was to preach that Christ is the Son of God for that was the great question the Jews denyed him not to be Man Son of Man but he went about to convince them how also he was God Son of God and he was by Nature God as certainly as by nature he was Man Wherefore he would raise the thoughts of the Corinthians from the consideration of Christ's humanity to that of his Deity when he saith 2 Cor. 5.16 though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more after the flesh but according to the spirit not in the humane but in the divine nature according to which he is called by the glorious names of the holy one Act. 3.14 15. 1 Cor. 2.8 and the just the prince of life and the Lord of glory our Blessed Saviour who when he was in the world had so often declared himself to be the Son of God in a proper sense after his Ascension when he had a full possession of that glory as it were to confirm from Heaven what he had declared upon Earth in the Revelation he made to that disciple of his who doth so eminently bear witness of his divinity 1 Joh. 4.14 15. when he saith we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and not otherwise I say on that occasion the Lord Jesus from Heaven proclaims himself to be Son of God in the letter to the Angel of the Church in Thiatira with this glorious description Rev. 2.18 compared with chap. 1.14 15. These things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass Tho his enemies would not hear him upon earth during the time of his humiliation when through his Passive Obedience he was about performing the first part of his Priestly Office to satisfie divine Justice and make expiation for our sins I think now they should when he speaks from Heaven whence he exercises his Royal Office I know well enough how what I say about his satisfying Divine Justice through his death doth not affect his enemies who deny he hath given satisfaction for us but what can his intercession on in Heaven which is the second part of his Priesthood be grounded upon but his own merits through his Sufferings and Death he thereby hath payed our Debts and by vertue of that payment he asks we should be released but that point I intend not to meddle with in this place In the New Testament the name Saviour is as proper to him as that of Christ as indeed that of Jesus the same with Saviour was given him by the Angel and
assert the Distinction of Persons but because they are distinct Persons it doth not follow that there is not one and the same Essence of the three Persons and that they are not one only God Father Maker and Preserver of all and out of the Texts they produce they cannot make out what they intend how the Father and the Son are never contain'd together under the Name of God for the Persons are distinguish'd where Scripture speaketh Relatively of God and doth oppose or compare them or describe their Proprieties Further they object they have distinct Essences whose workings are distinct but Father's and Son's workings are distinct therefore their Essences are so But we say the major Preposition is to be understood of Operations ad extra or outward for if whilst one doth work the other ceaseth then the Essences are distinct but as to the inward workings there is no distinction or difference of Essences far from it that the Generation of the Son and the Procession of the Holy Ghost do confirm the unity of Essence for by the Generation one and the same whole Essence of the Father is communicated unto the Son and by this same reason there is but one and the Essence of both Now the Minor Proposition speaketh of inward Operations and this Omonimy or Ambiguity of Terms brings in four Termini in the Argument contrary to Rules but if one and the same kind of Operations be understood then one of the Propositions is false the major is understood of those ad imra the minor of those ad extra and in the case of the Incarnation there are two terms to be consider'd a quo from whom and ad quem to or in whom tho' as thus it be terminatively in the Son yet a quo or originatively it is the work of the whole Trinity Another Argument of theirs is this the Essence unbegotten and begetting is not the same with the Essence begotten and not begetting but the Essence of the Father is unbegotten yet hath begotten the Son but the Son 's is begotten yet nor begetting therefore the Essence of the Father is not the same with that of the Son This Argument is borrow'd from the Arrians whereof the minor Preposition is false namely that the Essence of the Son is begotten the Names begotten or not begotten do not belong to the Essence but shew an Hypostatical or Personal Difference Should the Essence beget it would either beget it self and so should be begotten of it self so it would make many different Essences of the Godhead whence would follow many Gods Moreover as in natural things not the Essence but the compositum doth beget so in divine things the Person begets and is begotten which yet is not a vain Relation seeing it is not constituted without the Essence Now if it were true that the Divine Essence doth beget one could say either the Son doth beget or deny the Son to have the Divine Essence Again They say Two or three distinct Persons have so many distinct Essences for the distinction of Essences doth follow that of Persons so then Father Son and Holy Ghost being three distinct Persons they have three distinct Essences but the first Preposition is true only in natural not in Divine things besides they are in a mistake when they think there is no real Distinction except the things do differ in an Essential Number when there are several things that differ in the thing and definition which yet in Essence and Number are but one Here by the by I say the words like and likeness when a Comparison is made between the Persons is not convenient to be used but equal and equality which indeed containeth a likeness but something above Another thing I shall add here how some things are properly spoken of the Essence which also are properly spoken of the Persons for 't is properly said of the Essence and of the Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost that they are Spirit and Holy for the word Spirit is spoken of as common and essential John 4.24 God is a Spirit properly and personally of the Son Christ declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of Holiness Rom. 1.4 Heb. 9.14 â—Pet 3 18. and who thorough the Eternal Spirit offereth himself and elsewhere Christ was put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit So of the Father and Holy Ghost also to be holy is an Attribute of the Essence yet in particular and properly in Scripture attributed to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Upon this Matter one thing more I shall take notice of how Adjectives in the Plural may be attributed to God by reason of the Number of Persons and Substantives in the Singular only upon account of the Essence Further they object Christ hath a Father who is the God of Christ but the Father hath no God call'd his therefore Father and Son are distinguished in Essence the major they prove out of our Saviour's Word I ascend unto my Father and to your Father unto my God and to your God and my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I answer Christ hath a common Father and God with us in as much as the word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and in as much as the Man Jesus Christ is Mediator between God and Man yet so as in his Mediatorship he is true Man so he is true God This Discourse being intended for his Brethren he begins with the Profession he makes to own them as his Brothers Go to my Brethren all which to be understood of the Nature which the Brotherhood doth relate to and tho' the Father continueth such in relation to what the Son was when the Word was with God yet in the Birth and Incarnation the Father remaineth what he was God is the Father of all Flesh but not in the same manner and sense as he is the Father of the word in Scripture 't is declared in what sense and on what side they are Brethren to the only begotten Son of God Colos 1.18 I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren but he said before I am a Worm and no Man Psal 22.6 Christ is by the Apostle call'd the First-born amongst many Brethren also because the First-born from the Dead Furthermore they say if Christ when he speaketh of God stould mean also himself he would include himself in the mention he makes of God but he doth not but maketh a difference between himself and God whom he calls the true God so in the Apostolical Writings God and Christ are spoken of asunder which places I quote in the Margin c. John 3.16 and 17.3 d. Rom. 16.23 1 Tim. 6.13 14 15 16. 1 Cor. 15.24 Col. 1.3 Eph. 4.5 1 Thes 1.2 3 9 10. to shew we omit none of them So say they he not joyning himself with God sheweth he is not the same with God thus the name God absolutely taken belongeth only
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
to the prejudice of this be guided by our own Reason which in such matters is but an ignis fatuus a false and deceitful Guide that will lead us to Rocks and Precipices that only must be our Rule which God hath revealed in his Word For an Instance Will not Human Reason suggest that if our Saviour instead of poor Fishermen unlearned and of no account in the World had called the Josephs of Arimathea the Nicodemus and men of good parts and of quality in the World the Gospel would hove gotten more ground and been more spread abroad in the World yet this is contrary to God's Method who hath hidden these things from the wise and prudent Mat. 11.25.26 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28 29 and revealed them unto Babes who hath chosen and called the foolish the weak and base things of the world to confound the wise and the mighty And why so first because so it seemed good in his sight secondly to the end that no flesh should glory in his presence Joh. 7.48 This confirmed by Experience for Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him So then to insist on this reason is no less than to arraign the Wisdom of God which no Man may or ought to do Farther some things there are taught by Philosophy of the Soul of the World of several things therein and of Man's Soul which to human Understanding appear to have no Truth in them yet in those things if upon the account of the Learning and Wit of those great Men we have a kind of esteem and reverence for their Opinions much more ought we to have a reverence for the Truth contained in God's Word and received by so many great and good Christians and suffer'd for by them in all Ages for never was any Divine Truth more universally and in all places and times received notwithstanding the opposition of some wicked men than the Mystery of the most holy Trinity As indeed not only the Offering and Preaching but also the whole Application of Salvation to be obtained in this and another Life do depend upon the truth of the holy Trinity because everywhere the Father works by his Son and this with the Father by the Holy Ghost which if we believe not we cannot have either the use or comfort of things relating to Salvation but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 12. and we have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God 'T is then our Duty and Comfort to know the Father in the Son and both through the Holy Ghost for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God as Christ saith none knoweth the Father but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal him so John testifies that he that hath not the Son hath not the Father and Paul Mat. 11.27 1 Joh. 2.23 Eph. 2.12 that those that are without Christ are also without Hope and without God in the world 'T is said indeed how God at sundry times and in several manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets but the knowledge of him and of Salvation then was in the dark till the last days when he spoke unto Men by his Son When we hear of the salvation which God sent into the World then at the same time the Son and Holy Ghost are mention'd because without them there is none Among several other places in Scripture wherein this great work is spoken of and wherein we find the three Persons mention'd that is remarkable wherein the Apostle joyneth them together Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace All three are concerned so they were before salvation was actually effected long before when all was under Types and Figures 1 Pet. 1.11 12 compared with 2 Pet. 1.21 for by the spirit of Christ the Prophets prophesied of old so now in this great business the Son hath his part and the Holy Ghost his also As much as God hath been pleased to reveal unto us about this adorable Mystery we must study and enquire after but no farther where God is silent we must be so too and we ought to curb our Curiosity and Presumption and not to stretch our Brains to find out Proofs out of Comparisons with Sun Soul Rainbow Trees Triangle c. which are all lame and defective This I speak as to us who believe that high and incomprehensible Mystery upon God's Word wherein he hath revealed it unto us for as to the abominable wretches which out of Hell are broken loofe against it and not only make a Jest of and despise and hate it we must leave them to God if peradventure he will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. â—â— to the acknowledging of the Truth As to our blessed Saviour whom they go about to rob of that Glory and Honour which Scripture declares do belong to him and which therein he assumeth unto himself and whom they would make a meer Man a Creature and if I dare speak it without blasphemy an imaginary and a mock God acting the part of a God as an Actor doth upon a stage that of a Prince when he is not such In Scripture the Names of God absolutely attributed to none but unto the true God and that also in so many places of Scripture whereof many we already quoted and others not We have given instances of all the incommunicable Names of Divine Nature appropriated unto him also we made it appear how all Attributes proper to the true God and never communicated to the Creature do belong to Christ as do all divine works truly such why then should not all own him to be true God by Nature seeing essential Attributes are inseparable from the Essence The Oneness of which Essence with the Father he doth attribute unto himself explaining in what sense he calleth God his Father not by Adoption or Grace or meerly by reason of his assumption of our human Nature John 10.30 38. or by vertue of any Office and Dignity but because of his eternal Generation and Co-essentiality with the Father in which sense he saith I and the Father are one Chap. 1.14 3.16 Rom. 8.3 32. Mar. 14.33 and upon the account of this oneness of Nature he saith The Father is in me and I in him And this eternal Generation in one Essence is denoted in Scripture when called only begotten of the Father Gods own and proper Son the true Son of God yea such a Son as is Heir of all things and in opposition to Angels as the Son is to the Servants which Sonship and Generation is more clearly expressed when he is called the Brightness and
which was and which is to come as for Persons though it be not as to the Letter in Scripture yet 't is virtually first in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equivalent to that of †Heb. 1.3 Person then in the very same word but spoken of * 2 Cor. 1.11 Men where it signifies an Individuum or a Person and though just the very word is not used in Scripture 't is not material because in Divinity not the Word but the Thing not the Sound but the Sense are to be minded And though the word Person be deduc'd from Stages and things not serious yet we ought to look to the Use more than to the Eâ—ymology or Derivation and what if it be taken from things created and very unlike to God So we may say Are all Words purified from their original Imperfefection But for the abuse of a Word or a Thing we must not leave the right use of it When Scripture saith there is One God this Oneness can relate to nothing but to the Being Essence or Nature of God for in this respect God is one so we have reason thereby to represent the Unity of the Godhead there is in Scripture mention of God's Godhead * Rom. 1.20 and of his Nature when they which by nature are no gods †Gal. 4.8 are excluded from being Objects of our Worship So when Scripture reveals there is Father Son and Holy Ghost it makes a distinction between them yet calls every one God have we not cause thereupon to call them Three Persons and affirm that in One Essence or Godhead are Three Persons Do not these Words express the thing without doing it any Wrong or Injury for they are neither profane nor unworthy of God if the Words Essence Unity Trinity be not in so many Letters in Scriptures no more is the Word Sacrament yet though the Name be not in the thing is But herein they are more peevish than their Father Socinus who tells Francis David * Vol. I. p. 778. that though the Terms of Essence and Person be not in Scripture if the Sense be 't is no matter and that they who went upon such Grounds exposed their Cause The Method which the Enemies to this Truth ought to take should be this Whether they own according to the Revelation the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One God Which if they deny we want no Proofs but if they own it then let them proceed to a Debate whether they are One in Nature and Three in Persons or how the Case is to be stated for it is very unreasonable to dispute about Words and Explication of any thing concerning the Relations or Manner till the thing it self be plainly confessed or denied Now by the Grace of God we must proceed and though I love not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Dispute about Words yet as Words do signifie Things so some are so fundamental to the matter in hand that something I must say about 'em the first is Essence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he which is what * Exod. 3.14 we call Essence or Nature is not an imaginary thing and existing only in the Mind as in an Idea neither is it a thing separated from the Persons but always inherent in them whereby they subsist so that if there were no Individuum of such a Species there also would be no Essence of that Species as in the case of Human Nature which comprehends a rational Soul and an organical Body then Humanity is that whereby every Man is a Man but this Nature doth not subsist without Men but is so inherent in Men that in case there were no Men there could be no human Nature or Humanity Thus in God the Divine Essence is not a thing Existing without Son Father and Holy Ghost as if it was a fourth thing wherein these Three be contained but as we say in Philosophy of the Soul est tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so divine Nature is whole in the Father whole in the Son and whole in the Holy Ghost and that in an infinitely more excellent way than either Nature or the Soul are in us for they are finitely in Men but infinitely in every Person of the Trinity and exactly and perfectly the same for indeed the Essence of God is nothing else but his Nature namely the Deity or the Godhead God is not divided into divers Essences but distinguished into divers Persons God cannot be divided into several Natures or Parts so the Persons which subsist in that One Essence are only distinct and not separate one from another He who saith a Person of the holy Trinity saith One Essence common to Three Persons Hereupon we must know how in the most Holy Trinity something is common to the Three Persons such is the Essence and something incommunicable and proper to every one in their respective relations We ought further to know how the Words Essence Substance and Nature though in some respect they may admit of some difference yet when spoken of the Godhead they are taken for one and the same Whereunto may be added Deity and God's being there is in Schools of Divinity and Philosophy but one Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be to signifie Essence and Substance and therefore let me speak to some by way of warning that they may multiply Substances no more than Essences for 't is but one and the same thing without running into Tritheism or the Blasphemy of Three Gods neither may they entertain the Notions of Three Minds Beings or Spirits for as there is but One divine Nature and Being and but One God so that same God is but One Spirit Wherefore in these times Men should follow the Christian Prudence and Moderation of the Doctors of the Church in former Ages who were very cautious not to rush into new Notions of their own about these Matters or rashly to run into new fangled Opinions or Hypotheses as they call them or Suppositions of their own when it would be much better for them to follow the Theses of the Text among Attributes of what we call Essence Metaphysicians reckon this to be one that it is to be participatively indivisible because 't is equally imparted to those whose Essence it is for if there was any Addition Diminution or Alteration it would not be the same much more and upon a better account doth this hold about that Divine Nature by the Apostle in the very words attributed unto God 2 Pet. 1.4 In the Godhead there is no Division only Distinction the Essence and Persons not really but rationally distinct for the Essence is whole and indivisible in every Person but the Persons be really distinct one from another by means of some incommunicable Attribute for the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost either Father or Son The
Essence is as School-men say the Quiddity of the thing that whereby the thing is what it is concerning which this is to be observed the Essence neither begetteth nor is begotten it neither breatheth nor is breathed this is the Attribute of the Person not of the Nature nevertheless in the Generation and Breathing is the whole Essence because 't is indivisible communicated to the Person begotten the Son and to the proceeding the Holy Ghost and 't is true the Son is begotten of the Essence of the Father for he is God of God Light of Light and to his only begotten Son the Father hath given all things except to be Father according to that saying of our blessed Saviour * John 5.26 as the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself CHAP. III. Of the Persons of the Godhead BUT this leads me to speak of the Persons and upon the matter 't is fit to know in general what a Person is namely one particular thing indivisible incommunicable living reasonable subsisting in it self and not having part of another the first because no general Notion is a Person the second because a Person may not be divided into many parts the third because thô one may communicate his Nature yet his Personality he cannot communicate the fourth no Person without Life and Reason the fifth because every Person is a Being that hath its own proper subsisting thus Christ's Humanity is not a Person because it doth not subsist in it self the sixth because that which is part of another is no Person thus the Soul of Man separated from the Body is no Person Now the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of a larger extent than that of Person for they are spoken of any individual Substance but a Person is an individual Substance complete rational and as we said differing from another by means of some incommunicable Property Hence we say that a Person in the Trinity is whole God not absolutely or simply consider'd but by means of some personal Propriety 't is not a Species of God or of the Deity nor part nor a thing different from the Deity nor a bare relation or only a manner of being and subsisting but 't is the Essence of God with a certain manner of subsisting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither is it a Compound of the Essence or of the manner of subsisting So then a Person of the Deity is usually described to be an incommunicable Subsistence of the divine Essence for in One and most simple nature of God are several Persons distinct to whom the infinite and singular Nature of One onely God is common for Scripture doth teach us that there is but One God and Three distinct Persons to whom it doth attribute the Proprieties of God whence we may conclude that there is in God Oneness or Unity of Essence and Plurality of Persons This is matter of Faith to be believed and not of Fact to be cavil'd at Hence we find how in Scripture the word God is sometimes taken for the Essence and Nature of God and at other times for certain Persons of the Godhead as we shall have occasion to shew the Father hath his Essence originally in himself and from none other the Son and the Holy Ghost have the self-same increated Essence in themselves as well as the Father but not from themselves the Son and Holy Ghost are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same nature with the Father not in the same sense as Men are among themselves for Men are divided one from another but the Persons of the blessed Trinity not so for they be absolutely undivided so that the Three are but One God The Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Person in the same signification as we use when we say the Person of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Now Scripture names them as things distinguished between themselves individual subsisting c. as we said just before if they be as they are working and acting then they are Persons according to the Axiome in Philosophy actiones sunt suppositorum Now if the Father be such if the Son and Holy Ghost be such what can hinder us from saying the Father is a Person the Son is a Person the Holy Ghost is a Person The Greek Fathers made use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in * Heb. 1.3 Scripture we find in the same sense that is Person as we use it where Christ is called the express Image of his the Father's person I say they made use of it against Hereticks who denyed Father Son and Holy Ghost to be Three things so different as that the one is not and cannot be the other though as I already said in Scripture we have not in so many Letters the Words of Unity Trinity Essence and Person yet we therein have the things themselves whence they be derived and the very Words we find used by many of the antient Fathers Now Person and Personality are in divine much different of what they are in human things because the one is infinite and the other finite human Nature is One but in Specie in many Persons as Peter James Paul but divine Nature is but One and the same in number existing in Father Son and Holy Ghost as far as we are able to apprehend the Person differs from the Nature not really but rationally as the manner of a thing from the thing it self as may be a degree of heat from the heat it comes to Divine Essence is whole in every Person but not as the whole is in its parts for 't is not divided as we said but indivisible now the manner of subsisting of the Divine Essence which is but One in number in Three Persons is incomprehensible and unexpressible and the manner how the Godhead is attributed to the Three is singular and wonderful which no Reason can demonstrate nor Example illustrate to which purpose saith our Saviour * Luk. 10.22 No man knows who the son is but the father and who the father is but the son and to whom the son will reveal him By virtue of that Revelation the manner of knowing the Father is not the same as is in the Son yet Nature doth not produce Nature nor Nature Person nor Person Nature but Person doth Person not of the Essence but in unity of the same Nature common to the Three Persons neither doth it produce without it self as in corporeal things because no Penetration of Dimension but within it self for 't is infinite Now the Father gives Nature to the Son and both to the Holy Ghost not by Alienation but by Communication which is so imparted to the Receiver as that it still remains in the Giver as one Light hath it from another without any Diminution Hence it is that one Person doth not subsist without the other as 't is in Men but all Three do one
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
Upon the Account of our Salvation which by no means can be obtained without it let Arminians say on the contrary what they will For †John 17.3 this is eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And who is he but ‖ 1 John 5.20 the Son of God the true God and eternal life We say Trinity or Triunity not Triplicity for this last implies a Composition of Three Parts Father Son and Holy Ghost are alius alius not aliud aliud other and other but not other thing and other thing Three distinct Persons but One and the same Nature we distinguish the Persons saith * De Trin. Vnit cap. 11. Austin but divide not the Deity or Essence they are not distinct Essentially for there is but one Essence but personally that is one Person is not the other the Father not the Son nor the Son the Father and the Holy none of the other two Peter Paul and John are not only distinct amongst themselves but also divided one from another so they are three Men though but one specifical Nature because created and finite but in an infinite Being 'tis otherwise Father Son and Holy Ghost though distinct yet not divided for there is but one numerical Nature the three are Consubstantial or Coessential in Nature Coeternal in Time and Coequal in Power The Knowledge of One God may be had by the Light of Nature but that of the Holy Trinity only out of Scripture for the one is according to Reason but the other above it two ways there are to know God the 1st Nature the 2d Revelation that is defectuous this is perfect to which God tied his Church which alone knoweth and calleth upon God according to what he manifested of himself in his Holy Word and thereby her Religion is different from that of all the rest of the World and there is no other saving way to come to God but by Christ whose Gospel is preached as the only Doctrine of Salvation and we must not have of God such Notions as our Fancy or natural Reason suggest unto us but such as he hath declared in his Word for he is a voluntary Cause of all whose Ways and Methods we ought to observe and be guided by in our Religion for †Ephes 1.11 v. 5. he works all things according to the counsel of his own will and according to the good pleasure of his will Yet this Holy Mystery is a stumbling-block unto the Jews and unto the Greeks foolishness and both look upon it as Heresie though if God's Word be the Word of Truth this as we hope to shew is certainly the True Sound Doctrine because grounded upon it though unsound Men will neither believe it nor consent about it to the Faith of the Primitive Church and Orthodox Doctors of all Ages nor to the Confessions of Faith of all Christian Reformed Churches as if the Spirit of God and of Truth was departed from them All to be only amongst Socinians Second Substances do exist only in the First Man in general existeth only in James John that are individual and Words are what Use makes them an Indivisible and most single Essence abstractively considered may and doth concretively exist in Three Persons no Man may well say that an infinite Essence doth not admit of three Modes or Manners of Subsistence but he only which fancies within his shallow and finite Intellect to understand perfectly an infinite Nature with her Modes of subsisting which to pretend to implieth Absurdity and Impiety And to affirm that to be One in relation to its Essence and many as to the Modes is no more contradictory than to say the same Man is real in respect of his Essence and modal as to his Subsistence wherefore they who would terminate an infinite Essence only to one manner of subsisting so that it may not be communicated to another Person either they understand not what an infinite Nature is or else misTake the meaning of the word Terminate or Confine which is not to prescribe limits for that an infinite Nature doth abhor but the meaning is that an Essence as may be the Father's is so the Father's Essence as may not be the Son 's in the same manner but it may be in a different way Upon this Matter it ought carefully to be observed how the Divine Essence is considered either Absolutely or Relatively to the manner of existing in respect to both the Father is of himself in relation to the first the Son also is of himself but as to the second he is from the Father so is the Holy Ghost of himself in respect to the first that is absolutely consider'd but as to the second he proceedeth from both Father and Son Wherefore the Father is absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self God because both as to his Essence and as to his Person he is not from another but the Son and Holy Ghost are also Self God though not as to the Person the Son being begotten by the Father as the Holy Ghost proceedeth from both but as to the Nature because both are by that Essence which is not produced by another or depend upon another but that same which of it self and by it self doth exist from all Eternity the Three Persons have but One and the same Essence and they are not essentially distinstinguished The Son is from the Father by Generation not as to his Essence but in relation to his Person not absolutely as God but relatively as Son for the Son hath the same Nature and Substance as the Father Self God as he though not in the same manner the Father may not be called Essentiator if I may so say of the Son or Holy Ghost nor these Essentiated the Son is God of himself though not Son of himself the manner whereby theSon is said to be from the Father is in Scripture described by the word Generation which is nothing else but a Communication of one and the same Essence or Life that is Eternal and Indivisible as expressed Psal 2.7 and John 5. v. 26. which are not to be confounded with nor measured by physical Generation there being neither priority nor posteriority of Duration no mutation or passing from Power to Act from a not Being to a Being from a division and multiplication of Essence from a formal Reason of active and passive Generation from a dependency of him that is begotten upon him that hath begotten or from a greater to the lesser so there is no such Imperfections as are in Natural and Metaphysical in which are priority and posteriority of Nature though not of Time So there is no Consequence to be drawn out of one for the other thus though a natural begetter doth efficiently beget of himself materially from himself terminatively out of himself no such thing is to be conceived of this Generation of the Son of God for though in Human Things the
begetter and the begotten do sometimes differ in the genus sometimes in the species or kind in Divine Things they differ only in the modus or manner This Generation is without any Motion hath no beginning nor ending because he that begets and he that is begotten are Coeternal What we say of the Son may be affirmed of the Holy Ghost who is from the Father and from the Son by way of procession not as to the Nature but as to the Person for the Essence and Self-being of the Holy Ghost is just the same with that of the Father and of the Son he is Self-God Actually though not Originally Essentially though not Personally Now these Three Persons of the Godhead are distinguished by their Names Orders Attributes and Workings which Distinctions do not prejudice either the Unity or Simplicity of Essence for it is not composed of Persons which are not before it either in Time or Order but every one hath the whole Essence neither can the Persons be said to be composed of the Essence because it is not before the Persons neither doth the manner of subsisting induce any Composition into the Essence only a Distinction and is said to modificate not to multiply it Now the modus or manner is here improperly taken for commonly 't is posterior to the Subject it doth modifie But in this it is not so there is not in the Persons of the most Holy Trinity such a real Distinction as is between Things and Things for the Person is not a different Thing from the Divine Essence but 't is the very Essence with the manner of subsisting In some natural Things the manner of them is hard and sometimes impossible to be understood Can a Man upon sure Grounds find out how Grass and Corn grows How the Wind is formed Whence it comes and whither it goes and several such things in Nature we no ways doubt but that there are in the World those who pretend to know all things and pretend for most things to give Reasons such as they are But can a Man know how he himself was made and formed How his Soul came to be united to his Body This Ignorance in common Matters we daily see and feel to be in our selves and what must it be in those Spiritual and High Ones which are such as no Eye hath seen nor Ear hath heard nor ever entered into the Heart of Man and which 't is impossible for the Wit of Man to conceive which Consideration should curb the Idle Curiosity of vain Men who as with a little short Line would with their shallow Brains fathom the bottomless and unsearchable Depths of these adorable Mysteries when with the Apostle * 2 Cor. 12.4 that was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable Words they should cry out †Rom. 11.33 O the depth that cannot be fathomed Yet to shew we are not altogether unacquainted with the Notions and Hypotheses of others about these Matters in a stammering manner let us say that the ‖ Psal 147 5. infinite Vnderstanding of God never is or was Idle and as it is his very Being so from all Eternity it ever was taken up and this Understanding of God being All in All it cannot meet with any thing but himself so it did understand and conceive it self as in a Looking-Glass a Man doth conceive and beget a perfect Image of his own Face so God in beholding and minding of himself doth in himself beget a most lively and perfect Image of himself and this in the Blessed Trinity is the Son of God who is called * Heb. 1 3. the perfect Image of God just as if we may use such Comparisons Wax upon a Seal hath the engraven Form of the Seal so the Son of God whom his Father hath begotten of his own Understanding is the very Form of his Father's Understanding and when one is seen the other is seen also as he saith to Philip †Joh. 14.9 he who hath seen me hath seen the Father and under the Name of Wisdom he saith when there were no Depths and before the Mountains were settled ‖ Prov. 8.23 24 25. I was brought forth And as in God's Essence there is an Understanding so there is * Isa 46.10 a Will and by this Will God according to his own Mind applies his Power where when and how he thinks good and as his Understanding doth so his Will everlastingly works upon himself as it hath no other Thing to work upon but it self it delighteth it self in the Infinite Goodness which it knoweth in it self and that Delight which God or his Will hath in its own Infinite Goodness produces a Subsistance in God which is the Holy Ghost and that mutual Love whereby the Father takes Delight in his Son which is his own Image conceived by his Understanding and the Son likewise rejoyceth in his Father now this Action of the Will when it is fulfilled is Liking and Love as when a Man looketh in a Glass if he smiles his Image doth so too and if it takes Delight in it it takes the same in him for they are both One and from these Two doth result the Third all Three are in One Face of One Face and but One Face Thus if we will make use of our Reason in these Mysterious and Incomprehensible Matters we must stutter and stammer wherefore the best is chiefly and only to stand to and depend upon the Revelation thereof that God hath made in his Word beyond which Men ought not to presume for in Matters of so High a Concernment to speak true and certain Things there is some Danger of the contrary Herein we can give no Examples because there is nothing like God we have no natural Grounds and Principles positively to prove these Truths all Comparisons from the Sun the Soul the Rain-bow a Triangle and of my speaking as I my Word and my Breath are Three several Things different one from another yet I am but One Man and such like lame Comparisons fall very short of Illustrating these Mysteries if we cannot understand how Original Sin is propagated in us seeing our Soul is not ex traduce begotten by Parents how much less can we comprehend that Infinite and Eternal Being of One God in Three Persons After this is it not Just that Men should own how the Trinity is a High Mystery which falls not under Senses and is infinitely above our Understanding rather to be believed than felt or understood whereof the Revelation ought to be the sufficient and only Rule as when Scripture saith * 1 Joh. 5.7 there are three in Heaven the Father the Word and Holy Ghost and these three are one I must not puzzle my Brain to know how this can be thus when the Apostle revealeth there is to be a Resurrection of the dead when some Men will say †1 Cor. 15.35 36. How are the dead raised up and with what body do
Essence also they make a Confusion between being and the manner of it And they ask us why we do not rather multiply Essences in the plurality of the Persons than Persons in the Unity of Essence whereunto we answer that we therein follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost in the word and he who makes Three Essences doth also make Three Gods but he that saith there is One divine Nature in Three Persons doth not make Three Gods now Scripture and Reason teach us there is but One God and the same Scripture saith also Father Son and Holy Ghost are but One God and 't is to be observ'd how the word Father when used alone as 't is in the Lord's Prayer without relation to the Son is as well as that of God common to the Three Persons but when it signifies a Person of the Trinity first in order then 't is relatively to the Son Now the Plurality of Persons in One divine Essence is proved by Arguments drawn out of Five several Heads whereof the First doth consist in several clear Testimonies out of Scripture Secondly from the relatives or opposite Relations as Father Son Spirit to beget to be begotten and to proceed from the Father and from the Son Thirdly by distinguishing Properties as Creator to the Father Redeemer to the Son Sanctifier to the Holy Ghost Fourthly by peculiar Apparitions to be read in both the Old and New Testaments And Fifthly by different Operations the Four last I shall not insist upon only some of them I shall have occasion to speak of in some place of my Discourse but the first I intend by the Grace of God chiefly to enlarge upon These Scripture Proofs are of three kinds the first speaks of a Plurality of Persons in God the second of Three Persons and the third mentions the Son by himself and the Holy Ghost by himself for about the Father there is no Dispute yet to avoid Prolixity we shall make use only of some few places out of the many which Scripture doth afford We shall begin with that of Genesis * Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created in the Hebrew the Word God is in the Plural Number not Eloah which is the Singular but Elohim the Plural surely there must be some reason why a Nominative in the Plural is joyned to a Verb in the Singular as Bara is that signifies created certainly this shews some kind of Plurality in the divine Nature we may well say it is not without cause that in a Tongue whereof in a special manner God is the Author and in which are many Names in the Singular Number yet this in the Plural is made use of to signifie God not only in this place but very often and in many more There are many other Names of God but none more frequently used than this in the Plural Why then if in the Godhead there be but One single Person should God delight so much in being called so often in the Plural I say farther that as the History of the Creation could not be written but by help of Revelation and that God chose Moses a Man of very great Wisdom so 〈◊〉 being inspired of God inserted therein nothing 〈◊〉 might be called rash and superfluous so 't was 〈◊〉 at a venture that he chose that Word amongst so many others to name God in the great Work of Creation which being terminated outwardly is common and belongs to the Three Persons of the Trinity and a thing very observable is that in that first Chapter of Genesis no less than Thirty two times that very same word Elohim in the plural is construed with a Verb in the singular when in the Second Chapter that of Jehovah which is a singular is Eleven times joyned to the Verb of a singular Number What else can the plural Number in God signifie but some Plurality The Name Elohim is the first given to God in Scripture and though it be plural yet 't is not personal but essential and according to the Hebrew Idiome is spoken both of the Nature and of the Persons hence there is only One Elohim not Three as in the Athanasian Creed 't is well observed that the Father is Almighty the Son Almighty the Holy Ghost Almighty yet not Three Almighties but only One now the Name Elohim being derived from God's Power there are not Three Elohims no more than Three Almighties wherefore 't is joyned with an Adjective singular Elohim Zaddik Deus juste O God righteous Psal 7.10 which they who are for Three Spirits and Three Substances are desired to take notice of and how their Hypothesis is herein contrary to the Athanasian Creed Farthermore in the beginning of the * Exod. 20.2 Decalogue this word Elohim is joyned with the Pronoun possessive in the singular thy though the word God be in the plural and †Josh 24.19 elsewhere we have it joyned with an Adjective in the plural and with a Relative in the singular he is an holy God he is in the singular God and holy are in the plural Nay we have it also prefix'd to a Verb in the plural where Abraham said * Gen. 20.13 When God caused this Verb is in the plural me to wander So we have it elswhere †2 Sam. 7.23 hence we may conclude how in the Text in hand not by chance but by a special divine direction the Name God is in the plural Number and in the place already quoted in the Preface of the Ten Commandments God makes use of the Lord Jehovah and God Elohim the one as it seems to declare the Vnity of his Nature and the other the Plurality of the Persons Adonai a Name of God also in the plural Number is frequently used either when God speaks of himself or Men to or of him Another Text to prove the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead is this * Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our image and after our likeness which is an Exhortation to the other Persons that had a hand in the Creation the Verb and the Pronouns are used in the plural 't is not said let me but let us make 't is not said in my but in our image not after my but after our likeness This manner of speaking so different from the foregoing is not in vain but with a purpose to give us for whose sake that History was written a Subject to meditate upon I know they say God there speaks as 't is usual with Princes in the plural Number for Majesty and Greatness sake and what if great men do so must this through man's wandrings be father'd also upon God Princes do represent their People and also they comprehend their Counsellours whence it is that in every Proclamation we have that Form By the Advice of our Privy Council which God doth not want Let us more seriously consider this doth God speak it to no body I am necessitated to make use of that Expression or to some
put our whole Trust and Confidence not only in the Father but also in the Son and in the Holy Ghost so thereby we own and declare them to be God as the Father and in the Lord's Prayer which is part of the Worship we render unto God though we name but One that is the Father yet we mean all for the Word is taken Essentially for Father Son and Holy Ghost and not personally only for the first Person because the whole Trinity are our Father in respect of Creation Preservation and Redemption for every such outward Work as said before is common to the Three Persons and so we address our Prayer to all Three Now I shall lay down some few Arguments to prove the Truth this is one he in whose Name we are Baptized is the True Eternal God but we are Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost therefore they Three are True Eternal God the major is clear for Baptism is a Covenant not with Man or any Creature but with God alone as it appears out of * 1 Pet. 3.21 Peter where Baptism is called a Stipulation or Answer of a good Conscience towards God Secondly They in whose Name we are Baptized do justify us but we are Baptized in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost wherefore they justify us and consequently they be True Eternal God for none can justify but †Rom. 4.5 chap. 8.33 God alone Thirdly They who regenerate us are the True Eternal God but they in whose Name we are baptized do regenerate us Ergo They are the True Eternal God such as Father Son and Holy Ghost if they deny those in whose Names we are baptized to justify and regenerate us we prove it for the Washing in Baptism signifieth our Justification and Regeneration which is performed by those in whose Names we are baptized which is clear out of St. Paul's Words That ‖ Ephes 5.26 be Christ might sanctify and cleanse it the Church with the washing of water by the word and in another place He * Tit. 3.5 saved us by the washing of regeneration and another Argument is this they who save us are True Eternal God but Father Son and Holy Ghost do therefore they are the True Eternal God the major Proposition is proved out of the Prophet †Isa 45.15 17 21. O God of Israel the Saviour also Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation and I the Lord and there is no God else besides me a just God and a Saviour there is none besides me the Expression in the Name of the Father is observable for the Name signifies ‖ Malac. 1.6 Authority now because the Authority of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is but one and the same for we are equâ—lly baptized in their Name so the Dignity is the same if so then these Three Persons are but One God for none can have equal Dignity with the Father except he be God such a Dignity have the Son and Holy Ghost against this they object how the Fathers are said * 1 Cor. 10.2 to be baptized unto Moses but that 's not to the purpose 't is of a different Nature in that place the Design is to shew the Sacraments of the Jews to be the Types and Figures of ours but here the Question is about the Name and Authority whereby we are baptized they were baptized under the Ministery but not in the Name of Moses so now Ministers do baptize but not in their own Name or Authority CHAP. V. Of Christ's Divinity NOW I must come to the Third Classis of my Proofs out of Scripture namely those Texts which speak singularly of the Son as True Eternal God the like of the Holy Ghost As our Blessed Saviour from the beginning of the World to the time he was manifested in the Flesh was the Chief Object of Prophecies because in him through an eternal and unchangeable Decree was the Ground of the greatest of all outward God's Works for I look upon Redemption on some Account greater than Creation so from time to time God took care to renew and confirm the first gracious Promise of the Seed of the Woman under several Names of Shiloh Messiah Emmanuel the Branch c. and to describe him with several Names and Circumstances that when he was come there should be no just Cause to mistake or deny him to be he and the same and withal it was declared what he should be in his Person and do in his Office so also what he was before he came namely God by his Nature and Attributes all which after his Incarnation was so highly confirmed both by a farther Revelation and many Wonders but as †Luk. 2.34 he was set for a sign which should be spoken against so then he was opposed and so is now by the Enemies to his Person Offices and Doctrine but against such detestable Wretches he hath not left himself without Witnesses to make himself known to be what he really is even God blessed for ever wherefore our Saviour commands us to * John 5.39 search the Scriptures for they testify of him therein we shall find his Deity this course himself took when beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the Things concerning himself To this purpose the Word doth afford such a plenty and variety of Matter in such an essential Point of our Faith and so necessary to be known that indeed it would go near to run one into some Confusion except some Method be used to prevent it the Difficulty lays not in what to say but how to say it wherefore our Discourse and Arguments must be reduced under several Heads and Classes as may be Names Attributes Works and Worship of God Some Words used in this Matter are in Scripture as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Godhead which some would have to differ from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinity as cause an effect the first the Essence the last a Gift communicated though in Scripture they be synonimous and both translated Godhead in Scripture are also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subsistance or Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is others are derived as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three are derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trinity from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being or Existing come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence St. John alone calls the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word and St. Paul alone or the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Character of the express Image of the Person of the Father Of the Names of God some signify the Essence as Jehovah Proved from the Names Jah Ehejah others the Attributes as Elehim Schaddai Adonai c. and in the New Testament 〈◊〉
the Angel no less than twice doth direct to the true and only Object of worship when he said ‖ Rev. 19.10 and 22.9 worship God But this belonging to another Head I now shall proceed no farther in it Now to remove all improper and figurative meaning when the word God is attributed to Christ and to prove his Consubstantiality with the Father Scripture sets down Names and Epithets which not only distinguish him from and raise him above all and every Creature but also make him equal with God the Father Thus he is called l 1 John 5.20 the true God and m Tit. 2.13 Re. 19.17 the great God so n Rom. 9.5 God over all blessed for ever also o Jude 4. the only Lord God c. Hence the Name Jehovah is joyntly equally and comparatively given unto the Son as p Psal 2.11 12. serve the Lord with fear c. and q Isai 25.9 this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce in his salvation Now comparatively or in a Parallel Christ is the same r Isai 8.13 14. Lord of Hosts which shall be for a Sanctuary a Stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence to both the Houses of Israel as confirm'd ſ Luke 2.34 and Rom. 9.32 Christ is he who being by the Right Hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost shed forth those Gifts we read of t Act. 2.3.4.33 and 't is the Lord God of Israel unquestionably the true God that promiseth u Joel 2.28 in the last days to pour out his spirit c. so 't is the same Lord God of Israel the Lord Jesus is the same who is first and last comparing x Isai 44.6 Isaiah with S. John y Rev. 1.17 The Son of God saith z Isai 48.12 16. He is sent from the Lord God and from his spirit after he had said v. 12. I am the first and also am the last So the Titles proper to the true God are given Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords as by God's Grace we shall shew when we speak about the Attributes So then the Son is true God as we observed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of himself when we speak of the Son simply and without relation to the Father we properly call him Jehovah and self being for he hath it of himself but when consider'd relatively to the Father then we say he hath his Being from the Father the Son is by himself not of himself his Essence hath no Spring but his Person is from the Father the Essence is not communicated to the Son but only the manner of subsisting in the Essence when the Son is called God personally then he is not call'd the manner of subsisting but an Existence with the manner of being now the modus or manner is understood with the Essence because as the manner of Divinity is not Divinity it self so the mode of Essence is not Essence it self thus when he is called God personally 't is in the Concret not in the Abstract If Christ be not God by Nature he is not true God for nothing is really such but what is so by Nature The Adversaries say that those things which comparatively are called such in Scripture are truly such as Christ is called * Joh. 1.9 Chap. 18.1 the true light and the true vine though he be so called by way of a Metaphor But we do not deny how sometimes the Name true is appropriated to those things that are so called metaphorically but then the sense of the Metaphor doth not really belong to them for in every Metaphor there is true and false in the manner of it thus Christ is call'd the True Light for though in a metaphorical way he be a Light that is spiritually works the same Effect as a corporal Light doth bodily in the like manner he is called a True Vine because that the Metaphor is truly proper to him but here the question is not about the truth of Words taken metaphorically but properly for when the word True is joyn'd to those that are properly taken then it signifieth the very Nature of the thing so when the word true is joyned with that of God it necessarily signifies the Nature of God and whensoever the Name of True God is given any thing thereby is Divine Nature attributed to it This shews how Socinians do not own Christ to be the true God because according to Scripture there is but one true God they deny him to be that only true God When God is called the onely Maker of Heaven and Earth and the onely true God 't is not said only by way of Excellency as comparing God with the Creatures but we thereby exclude all others for in those places the only true God is opposed to false gods in relation to which he is not called true by way of Eminency but because it is the truth for they are true gods by no means and the true God is ever opposed to false gods and Idols wherefore called the Living God Psal 36.9 because saith David with thee is the fountain of Life He that is God only by Participation and not by Nature is not true God for Participation doth import a Likeness but Likeness of a thing is never the thing it self and if they would have Christ to be God only by Participation this in effect is to deny him to be true God that is to make him an improper and metaphorical God and after that way Men and Angels might be called true Gods which is not only Folly but also Blasphemy to say and think But they say if God and Angels be not true Gods then God doth mock when he calls them so but 't is no Mockery to give one some Name in an improper and figurative sense or else when Christ calls his Apostles * Matth. 5.13 14. The light of the world the salt of the earth and a City that is set on an hill he would have mock'd too so would Paul calling †1 Cor. 3.11 and Eph. 2.20 Christ a foundation and a chief corner stone Seeing the Apostles are not true Light only improperly and metaphorically and Christ a Stone figuratively they that are Gods only by Likeness and Communication and not by Nature are not Gods Every thing is called true as I hinted before according to its Nature a true Man true Gold true Silver from the Nature of Man Gold and Silver Now as to Christ can he be esteemed as a true God who first had a Being according to their Principles and was not God then was God and like the Popish Wafer God by degrees was God more and more till he came to a perfection of the Godhead and we may say was
be by virtue of a natural Privilege and of a divine Prerogative which is the same he had over David Solomon's Father whose Lord he was the same he had over Abraham Pre-existence before Abraham was I am which could not be as to his Humanity wherefore in him there must be another ground namely his Divinity only therein can lay the advantage he had over them all Not only he was greater than all these but also than the Temple it self a place so eminently glorious by reason of God's immediate Presence in it that it was called not only Holy but the inner part of it was called the holiest of all into which none but the High Priest might enter and that only once a year not without Blood yet saith our Saviour Matt. 12.6 8. I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple which can be said of none but of God there he also calls himself Lord of the Sabbath not as Man but as God Temple and Sabbath the two holiest things in Israel The second Text is this * Isai 35.4 5. Behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you then the Eyes of the blind shall be open and the Ears of the deaf shall be unstopp'd which our Saviour applyeth to himself who when John's Disciples ask'd him †Matt. 11.3 5. Art thou he that should come or do we look for another Jesus answered them by this the blind receive their sight c. which were the Signes wherewith Isaiah had prophefied God would come these things he commands them to give John an account of wherein he lookt to the Prophet who foretold such things should be done by the Messiah whom in that place Isaiah calleth God when he saith God himself will come and save you which must not be understood of the Father for first we never read that God the Father came into the World to save us but that he sent his Son to do 't he that sends another in his place cannot properly be said to come himself Secondly there is an Energy in the word he himself whereby is meaned not that another in God's stead but God himself by himself would come and though God be said to come when he shews some gracious effect of his Power yet when he is said to send another 't is not to be understood in that same manner And tho Socinus denies him at that time to be God only that he was appointed hereafter so to be he is refuted by his being in that Text at that time call'd the God of Israel your God whom you worship The third Text is that wherein God saith * Mal. 3.1 Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple Now who that God is before whose face John prepared his way is clear enough that he spake of the Lord Jesus not of the Father's coming after him which he pointed at when he said †John 1 26 27 29.30 compared with Act. 13.24 There standeth one among you whom ye know not he it is that coming after me is preferred before me and to make it clearer he points directly at the Person of Christ for the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world which is he of whom I said after me comes a man which is preferred before me for he was before me Can there be a plainer Designation of a person than this To him alone by means of his Preaching he prepared the way and that which is remarkable our Saviour explains of himself the Text of Malachy This is he of whom it is written behold * Luke 7.27 I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee and the word my face in the Prophet he renders thy face that is of Christ so he quoteth the place not according to the Words but according to the Sense †Luke 1.76 Thou child saith Zechariah of John shalt he called the Prophet of the highest a high Name proper to God for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways it is then most certain that John prepared the way for him that was to come after him and to converse with and dwell among Men not the Father but Christ came after John therefore he is that God that sent his Messenger as in Malachy Socinus his Phrase is no where in Scripture to be read that God came in Christ he sent Christ his Son but came not in him the Father is said to be and dwéll in Christ not to come in Christ he sent him in his own Name Though Christ under the Name Word be called God absolutely * Joh. 1.1 and without any restriction in the same manner as the True God is absolutely called God without any thing to pretext an improper appellation and the repetition of the Word God in the same Signification doth sufficiently demonstrate it †1 Joh. 5.20 nay though he be not barely called God but the True God whence we must necessarily conclude he is true essential God Yet they would have the Father alone to be God and that when the Name of God is absolutely set down it is to be understood only of the Father not of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost so they conclude Father Son and Holy not to be One God to which purpose they wrest some Scripture out of the Old and New Testament which in due time we shall by the Grace of God take an occasion to answer but because the Adversaries use their utmost pernicious Endeavours to oppose these Truths we to make clear these most important Doctrines which our Faith is grounded upon must somewhat more enlarge upon it though we take notice of some things we said before or to the same purpose First We say God is a Name of the Divine Essence or Nature as Man is of Human Nature but whereof there is a different Reason from that of all Names of other Natures for all Individuals are asunder one from another their Nature according to the mental Notion is one but not really so wherefore in them Nature is the species or kind which is predicated and spoken of every singular and individual Person as James is a Man and of many too as Matthew John and Luke are Three Men but as in God the Essence is but One in number and not only in the mental Notion but also is really and most simply One though in Three Persons this Name of God is not predicated as a species of every Person but according to the priority or posteriority of their Origin and Order as thus the Father is God but unbegotten the Son God begotten the Holy Ghost proceeding from both Now if the Name God was as species spoken of the Persons
of Man because manifested in the Flesh he is not called Son of God upon any such account or in any of these Senses as Socinians would have him 1 Job 4.14.15 for they cannot deny the Lord Jesus to be called God Son of God for that Name is given him in so many places of Scripture and herein they would seem to agree but not sincerely for they cavil about the manner and disagree as to the true Sense he is called Son of God by reason of an Eternal Generation by the Father wherefore he is called God's * Rom. 8.3 32. own and proper Son and †Joh. 3.16 only begotten Christ is from the Father by Generation and the Holy Ghost by Spiration to be from the Father by Generation is to be generated or begotten by the Father long before the fulness of times and his appearing in the Flesh God absolutely said to him ‖ Psal 2.7 thou art my Son this day have â—â—begotten thee this represented with Comparisons as when called * Prov 8. Wisdom for as Wisdom is produced by the Mind so is the Son by the Father and in the New Testament by the similitude of †Colos 1.15 an Image of 〈◊〉 Father's ‖ Heb 1.3 Person and of the brightness of his glory and of the inward * Job 1.1 Word in the Mind for as an Image is not every likeness but the express Effigie or Representation of that whereof it is the Image so the Son in his Essence and Essential Attributes is so much the express Image of the Father that * Joh. 14.9 whosoever sees him doth see the Father also as the brightness of the Beam is from the Sun so the Son is from the Father as Light from Light as equally the glorious Image of his Nature as a Letter doth exactly represent the Character out of which it is drawn thus the Son doth exactly represent the Father by whom he is begotten as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word is conceived by the Mind and remains in it so is the Son begotten by the Father and remains in him and as the Wisdom Image Brightness the Word are one thing from another so the Son is of the Father from the Father not as an Essence is from another but as a Person is from a Person because he is the Character or express Image of the Person of the Father all these in created Things are accidents but in the Son who is in himself and by himself they are essential hence appears how in this there is a true distinction of the Persons begetting and begotten So then Christ is called the Son of God not by reason of any gracious Communication of Existence or of Power but upon the account of a secret and incomprehensible Generation of the Father of his Essence for he is the true proper only begotten highly beloved Son of the Living God and the prepositive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son frequently join'd to this Subject doth denote a Filiation or Sonship altogether of another kind from that of †Heb. 1.5 Angels or Men which can be no other than an essential one a True Son is begotten of the Essence of his Father but the Son of God is a True Son therefore he is begotten of the Essence of his Father Again the proper Son is said to be and is he that hath his proper Father now he is the proper Father who hath begotten his Son of his own Essence Farthermore the Only Begotten Son is only he that is begotten of the Substance of his Father which is demonstrated by the Opposition of natural and adopted Sons who are loved for the sake of the well beloved natural Son of God that Confession of Peter in the Name of the Disciples thou art not * Matth. 16.14 16 17. repeated John the Baptist nor Elias nor Jeremias who had been great in God's Favour nor none of the Prophets they were a meer nothing in Comparison of Christ but †Joh. 6.68 69. Ver. 17. thou art Christ the Son of the living God is not only in its true Sense approved of by our Saviour but he also there attributes it to Divine Revelation as of an incomprehensible Mystery Blessed art thou Simon Bar-â—â—â—as for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven Isaac as they object is called * Gen 23.2 and Heb. 11.17 Only Begotten Son but he is not absolutely so called but relatively secundum quid because he was the Only Begotten Son of Abraham by Sarah in a lawful Marriage and thereby made his only Heir to the exclusion of Ishmael whom he had before by Hagar he was Only Begotten Son in relation to the Promise which is expressed in the following Verse ‖ Heb. 11.18 of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called The excellency of Filiation is between those who differ in Degrees but here the Difference is greater than in the whole kind as Heb. 1.4 5. Isaac was a Type of Christ in relation to the Sacrifice but not of the Generation the Father hath begotten his Son thorough the Communication of his Nature and so of a true and proper Generation but not of a Physical or Natural such as Man's and of other animated Creatures but by a Supernatural whereby God begets according to the Truth of his Word for the more Excellent he is that begets so the more Excellent is the Generation as it appears by the Example of every thing that doth generate that which is esteemed a Perfection in natural Generation is in an infinitely most Eminent Degree attributed unto God as to beget that which is like unto himself and by the Communication of his Nature as to the thing it self the Generation besides its being asserted in the Word of God the secundity of God's Nature is a reason for it for it requites a Communication to several Persons according to that of the Prophet * Isa 66.9 shall I cause to bring forth and not bring forth or beget my self saith the Lord as if he had said shall I make others fruitful and be barren my self that in relation to the Son and to the Holy Ghost may be done in two ways after the manner of Spiritual Substances namely begetting the Son by a natural Intellection and by the same Will or Love breathing the Holy Ghost both consubstantial to himself and of the same Nature and Perfection distinguished amongst themselves and one from another only by their personalities and personal Attributes this consideration serves to demonstrate not only the Generation of the Son but also the Procession of the Holy Ghost and consequently the whole Trinity for Scriptures describe Son and Holy Ghost as existing of themselves as the Father working understanding witnessing sending c. taken not only passively which is of Things but actively which is of Persons for it belongs to none
but Persons endued with Reason and as I said before to Persons it belongs to act The high Names of God's Own Son Only Begotten c. which in Scripture are given the Lord Jesus are not upon the account of his miraculous Conception in the Womb of the Virgin as Socinians would have it we confess therein God had a special Hand and it was effected in an extraordinary manner but this is not enough to entitle him to the Filiation which the Question is now about to distinguish him from all others in the World called Sons of God as anon we shall have occasion to speak of Adam had also a miraculous Birth yet the Names of Only Begotten and God's Own and Proper Son do not belong to him in Christ's Conception and Birth God did not concur materially but efficiently with his Power but not with his Substance seeing Christ as to the Flesh was not of any invisible Seed of God but of the †Rom. 1.3 Seed of David what Brothers he had are quite of another ‖ Rom. 8.29 Heb. 2.12 Order and Quality they are such not by Generation but by Regeneration by Adoption not by * 1 Job 1.12 1 Joh. 3.1 1 Pet. 1.23 Jam. 1.18 Nature as the Texts quoted in the Margin which may be perused do declare wherefore Christ is Son of God in another manner than men are so he is called the Image of God and the Character of his Person in a most different way from that whereby Adam is said to be made according to God's likeness As in Creatures 't is a perfection to beget their similes or that which is like unto themselves that may not be denyed God now as we cannot conceive a communicability of a Nature which is spiritual and ad intra but by the two Faculties of Understanding and Willing whose Operations are immanent so it may well be said that there can be but two Processions in God one by way of Intellection whereby the Son is begotten who is called the Word Wisdom and Image of the Father and the other by way of Volition whereby is breathed the Holy Ghost who for that reason is specially called Love and though the Son doth also understand himself yet he begets neither himself nor another for he understands himself not of a notional Intellection to generate which belongs only to the Father but with a notional one which is common to the Father and to the Holy Ghost This is said not to prove our Faith but only to demonstrate that what we believe is not contrary to Reason though it be above it for all these matters as I observ'd before and as all Orthodox and learned Men that writ upon them are agreed are to be grounded on Scripture rather than upon human Reason The chief part of our Comfort and Salvation lies in the Belief of this Doctrine for as in Christ is but one Person so there are two Natures whereby he is in a capacity of perfecting our Redemption which otherwise he could not be in we own he is called Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently and by Excellency but besides he is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved proper only begotten whereby he is distinguished from adopted Sons and by his being called Son of the living God distinguish'd from Elijab Jeremiah and such extraordinary Persons that had been in the World which concludeth his Consubstantiality with the Father for it had been a monstruous Generation if out of the Father's Bosom had come a Son of another Nature He that was to be born of a Virgin was to be called the Son of the Highest not by reason of a miraculous Conception as pretended by Crollius out of Maldonat the Jesuit but because of an eternal Generation chiefly as also by reason afterwards of a personal Union of both Natures for though upon that account he might also be call'd the Son of God yet that could not intitle him to be the only begotten because he is dear and beloved but he is dear and beloved because the only begotten of the Father Christ the first begotten in respect to adopted Brethren not because their Son-ship is of the same Nature with his but only thus far as Adoption imitateth Nature as Civilians say so their Adoption * 1 Pet. 1.23 and Regeneration is a kind of Imitation of his eternal Generation and to him belong all the Privileges of the First-born and is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the †Colos 1.17 18. Rev. 3.14 beginning of the Creature not passively but actively Christ is called the Beginning of the Creation of God or of all things by him created that is the beginner or the first efficient Cause of all Creatures according to a style used in Scripture when the Thing is set for the Person as when the Jewish Nation is called by the name of ‖ Rom. 4.9 Gal. 2.9 Circumcision the Act for the Agent and the Abstract for the Concret thus Christ is said of God made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that is he makes us wise unto Salvation makes us righteous for he is our Justifier Sanctifier and Redeemer thus he is often called * 1 John 2. and 4.2 the Popitation for our Sins and our Salvation for Propitiatour and Saviour Though there be an infinite difference between Christ's and human Generations yet herein they agree that it imports in him that is begotten a Communication of the Nature of the Begetter it is said of Adam †Gen. 5.3 that he begat a Son in his own likeness after his Image is this to be understood of a like Nature only and not of the same Undisputably he begat him out of his own Substance and his own Nature and no other he communicated unto him well represented by the words in his own likeness and after his image the word Likeness doth not shew any Disparity or Difference but an Equality and Sameness of Nature which here by the by I observe in relation to a thing I shall have occasion to mention about the Honour to be render'd unto Christ that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father for they would have it only to be like but not equal or the same when here Likeness is taken for Sameness and Equality Now as of Seth so we must say of Christ the Son of God as the other was of Adam for as Seth had not been Adam's Son except he were of the same Nature so Christ could not truly and properly be God's Son except he were of the same Nature with the Father Seth was begotten after his Father's Image that is of the same Nature and the Lord Jesus more strongly to shew the Sameness in Nature with the Father which he had in a more eminent way than ever Seth had his from Adam is not said to be after his Father's Image but in more noble expressive and lively Words said to be the express Image
there was any difference the words for the first seem stronger than those for the last for to be in the form is more than to be in the likeness because forma dat esse rei a thing hath being from its Form or Nature but he gave sufficient and great demonstration of both Natures in him to those among whom he did converse Socinians would wrest the Text of Luke 1.3 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall over-shadow thee therefore that also which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God They would have the Particle therefore to signifie the Cause wherefore Christ was to be called the Son of God that is that miraculous Conception by the Holy Ghost but no such thing may be deduced 't is not the Cause but the Consequence or Inference which is signified by the words therefore and wherefore by which Particles we usually draw Conclusions from Premises whether they be Causes Effects or Signs or that which upon any other account whatsoever may be deduced therefrom And in this place out of the scope thereof it cannot be demonstrated out of any Circumstances that the Conception by the Holy Ghost is the true cause why Christ was to be called the Son of God 't is not upon the account of that manner of his Conception for then for that same cause either Christ would call himself or be called by others Son of God else the Angel's Prediction should prove false by which reason he rather should not be called than called the Son of God even according to their Principles which deny the Holy Ghost to be true God but the words of the Angel do import not that he should be called once or by some few Son of God but always and generally by all that should own him to be the Son of God Besides this Exposition of theirs they can bring no Example to confirm it for in abundance of places we read Christ to be called Son of God but find none at all wherein he is called Son of God according to the Flesh And the Angel doth not say therefore he may happen to be but absolutely and publickly declareth he shall be called wherefore seeing he no where is called Son of God according to the Flesh we may necessarily conclude he is not such in that sense to be called is sometimes really to be as in that Text * 1. John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God that is that we should really be owned and declared to be the Sons of God such as truly we are being adopted in Christ his true natural Son The word holy used gives a strong Evidence that Christ was to be called Son of God for a much better and higher reason than that he was to be born of a Virgin he shall be called Son of God because he is holy therefore not upon the account of the Flesh but by reason of his Holiness because the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin some holy thing was to be born of her that makes the Angel say Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God not as to the manner of Conception but as to the thing to be conceived though by the Angel it be not expressed how great was that Holiness we may well conceive it to be that highest and infinite Holiness as becomes the Son of God wherefore Isaiah in his Prophecy of him calls him as already observed the mighty God Elizabeth calls him Luke 1.43 her Lord the Angel calls him ‖ Chap. 2.11 Saviour Christ the Lord and Daniel * Dan. 9.24 He was anointed the most Holy Before the wise Men fell down and worshipped him which they were sent to do and to that purpose guided by a Star †Mat. 2.2 11. and according to the Prophecies ‖ Psal 72.10 offered him Gifts and Presents as to a King for under that Name his Birth was declared to them and promised therefore the Holiness of Christ is the Holiness of God and of him who is by Nature Lord and King The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and or also which follows therefore is not in vain but shews a Comparison and is related not to the word called but to be born and the sense is not only that word which from Eternity is born of God is Son of God but that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God because that eternal Son of God shall take human Nature and be born of thee And this is one of the things which the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin was to do namely that she should conceive without Man and conceive a Man him who from eternity is according to divine Nature the Son of God which could not otherwise be effected than with the Holy Ghost uniting human Nature which was to be formed out of her own Blood and Substance sanctified before and preserved from Sin and Corruption with the Person of the Son Men must not think there is in Scripture the least tittle or word without cause for the Holy Ghost doth and saith nothing in vain Another reason is the Angel saith Christ shall be called the Son not of the Holy Ghost but of God the Father Now if the manner of this Conception was the cause of his being called Son of God he should properly be the Son of the Holy Ghost not of the Father for he is said to be conceived by the Holy Ghost but they deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person yet actiones sunt suppositorum is a Rule in Philosophy and this Conceiving being an Act the Holy Ghost must be a Person for I defie them to shew any thing to be done but by a Person Scripture in the quoted place Rom. 1.3 the Question being about Christ's being the Son of God excludes the Flesh to attribute it to the Spirit but Socinians would have it according to both yet S. Paul's scope is to teach how he is Son of God according to the Flesh and how according to the Spirit as to the first he explains himself when he saith which was made of the seed of David as to be second he declareth his meaning when he saith he was declared Son of God with power whence we may conclude he saith Christ to be called and really be the Son of God not according to the Flesh but to the Spirit or else he had not sufficiently declared in what sense he is the son of God and 't is clear how he opposes the Flesh to the Spirit according to the first he was made of the Seed of David according to the last he was declared the Son of God Withal Scipture would have such a Son of God as is without Father c. such as Melchisedec no mention being made of his Father Mother or Genealogy
different things thô pertaining to one and the same Subject or else every Lord were a God thus a Husband were a God unto his Wife because Sarah called Abraham her Lord the Lord of the unfaithful Servant were his God because he calls him his Lord the Lord of the Vineyard were the God of the Vineyard because called it's Lord and many more such Instances And I shall illustrate the thing by a trivial Saying among us A Servant may say his Master is Lord but not God at home The Text that saith * 1 John 2.22 23. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father these words do import how he that denyeth Jesus to be the Christ doth thereby deny the Son not that Christ and the Son do formally signifie the same in themselves but because to be Christ and Son of God do meet in one Person so that none but the Son of God is Christ and Redeemer of the World Withall after this Socinian way of arguing it would follow in this Text that the Names Christ Father and Son do signifie the same for here the Apostle offereth two Propositions the first He is a Lyar that denyeth Jesus to be the Christ the last He is Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son The Adversaries make them both equivalent for in both is the same Object of denyal whence they infer that Christ and the Son are of the same signification but according to this Kule it may be concluded that Christ the Father and the Son signifie the same because in the first Proposition Christ is the Object of the denyal and in the last the Father and Son together Any one may see the Absurdity of such Consequences But because Christ to prove himself to be the Son of God speaks to the Jews about his Sanctification by the Father which Sanctification is the anointing spoken of by Peter †Acts 10.38 wherefore they would have that to be the cause of his being Son of God but if there was no other reason of that divine Filiation but the Sanctification and Anointing then the cause by the Angel given in ‖ Luke 1.35 Scripture were false So then Christ is called the Son of God not only upon the account of his extraordinary Birth and of his kingly Office as Socinus saith but for being of the same Nature and Essence with the Father which that Text of John 10. is not against for in that place our Saviour doth not give in the cause why he is Son of God but only goes about to refute the Slander of Blasphemy by the Jews cast upon him not by an Argument à pari taken from equal things but from the lesser to the greater He had said v. 30. I and my Father are one thereby expresly asserting his Consubstantiality and Oneness of Nature with the Father whereupon they took Stones to stone him because of that pretended Blasphemy in that he being man made himself God which Objection he answereth with an Instance from less to greater Thus if those are without Blasphemy called Gods who exercise a divine Office in their ruling and judging of Men much more and upon a better account may Christ the Messiab from eternity begotten by the Father and in time sent down from Heaven into the World be called God wherefore there is no Blasphemy nor have ye any just cause of stoning me because I said I am the Son of God one with the Father The Name Son of God relates to the eternal Generation by and Consubstantiality with the Father therefore not a Name of Office but of Nature and Person and the Names Christ and Son agree as to the material in one Person but not in the formal the Name Son is by reason of an eternal Generation and that of Christ upon the account of a temporal Anointing to an Office In the mean while we retain the proper and literal Sense of the word and not the metaphorical till we see cause to the contrary And this we leave for them to prove how because Magistrates by reason of their Office are called Children of the most high therefore not because of an eternal Generation and Coessentiality with the Father but for his Royal Dignity the Lord Jesus is called Son of God To be short we have other Texts to prove how the Name God's Son signifieth some essential thing in Christ as that heretofore quoted Christ was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh c. the Flesh signifies his Humanity as doth Declared the son of God according to the spirit of holiness his Divinity for we see * Dan. 9.24 To anoint the most holy doth denote by the most holy his divine Person and by to anoint his Office of Mediatour So we have that of the Angel to the Virgin The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God The Angel's meaning is that in Christ's Conception the Power of God was necessary to the end he that was to be born might be called Son of God but if that Name had related only to the Office and he that was to be invested with it had been a meer Man no need of that Power of the Spirit in the Conception now the Angel calls holy that which it Essential in Christ he was holy before he should be born and that essential holy thing is called the Son of God The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not that Man that was to be born not holy in the Concret but holy in the Abstract Withall seeing in Baptism the word Son doth not in Christ signifie his Office but his Nature for the Names Father and Holy Ghost do not denote any Office but Persons so in Christ it signifies his divine Nature not his Office All this may also be proved out of other Texts as this †John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. compared with ‖ Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all wherein God's Love towards the World and us is so highly comended which if it were only an Office laid upon Christ would come very short of that inflnite Love of God which as Paul saith * Ephes 3.19 18. Passeth knowledg and gives it the four Dimensions bredth length depth and height But to say that God spared not his own beloved and only begotten Son but deliver'd him to death this is Love indeed The same we may learn out of this Heb. 5.8 that though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered What Man is he that would sacrifice his Son to the Safety and Preservation of his Enemies Yet God hath done it
Words and Mind of those whom he discoursed with What could in so serious a Matter and of so high a Concernment as this is to make him alter his method and differ from himself when his main Design was all along to make himself truly known for what he was yet here as much as in them lays they make him say nothing to the purpose of the Jew's Question and Objection as they attempt to rob him of his Divinity so they would of that Heavenly Wisdom Gentleness and Readiness to do good which ever appeared in his whole Carriage here not only they make him not to speak pertinently to the Question but also they so mangle his answer that Men cannot tell what to make of it Is the Etymology or Derivation of Abraham's Name to any purpose here The Jews look'd upon it as very absurd that Christ so young should have been in Abraham's time the Lord doth plainly and to the purpose answer before Abraham was I am and with this very strong Asseveration by him used only in Matters of the highest Concernment Verily verily I say unto you not once but twice Verily now we know him to be †Rev. 3.14 Amen Amen the true and faithful witness Their Brains are fruitful in idle Inventions for upon this place they say one thing more wherein Arminians joyn with them How this before Abraham was I am is to be understood of a Divine Constitution or Pre-ordination that is in the fore-sight and fore-knowledge of God Christ was before Abraham but not really so in Existence but Christ here saith not he was fore-ordained but that he was and existed I am we deny not Christ to have been fore-ordained for * 1 Pet. 1.20 Peter saith he was but we deny that to be the Ground of his Divinity or that in this place Christ saith so when the Question is about his Deity being pre-ordained of God is no Prerogative of Christ for it is †Rom. 8.29 common to all believers Is it not ridiculous for one to say he is older than others because he was fore-ordained of God before they were born This I shall conclude with one thing more I must say to it how our Saviour in this place saith clearly and positively before Abraham was I am the Jews understood how thereby he made himself to have been before Abraham which could not be upon that account of his human Birth our Saviour doth not go about to shew they were mistaken which if it had been the Evangelist would have spoken of on the contrary he did run the hazard of being stoned and indeed he not only is before Abraham but also ‖ Colos 1.17 before all things and Persons Adam not excepted One place more I shall speak of and then shall have done with this Head I am * Rev. 1.8 Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is which was and which is to come the Almighty As before Alpha there is no other Letter in the Green Alphabet which Language the Book is written in so before the Son of God there is nothing and as of all things that are Christ existed the first so he shall exist the last and herein the Metaphor doth exactly fit and is explained by the following words the beginning and the ending which though v. 4. be spoken of the Father yet it hinders not but is here attributed unto the Son neither is there any thing in the whole Verse but what is adapted to the Son as well as to the Father as to the Name Lord How often is the Son in the New Testament called by that Name As to the expressions which is which was and which is to come taken out of the * Isa 44.6 Prophet which are the explanation of the word Jehovah they belong to Christ as we have before proved the Name doth and so doth the Thing for in a place already quoted the Signification is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever he that is named Alpha the beginning and the first and which is may well be called he which was and he who is called Omega the end and the last may also be well called he that is to come which is properly and in a special manner spoken of Christ as it appears out of this †Heb. 10.37 yet a little while and he that shall come will come and this is spoken of him in ‖ Rev. 17. and 3.11 and 16.15 and 22.7 12 20. several places of this Book Besides that in this whole Chapter the Apostle's Design is to describe the Son not the Father as it doth appear by the foregoing and following Verses so 't is not likely he would in this v. 8. describe the Father only and seeing in this first Chapter he was to dispose the seven Churches to receive the Epistles by the Son to be directed to them with that Submission and awful Reverence as became them so to prepare their Spirits it was a due Course to make an ample and glorious Description of the Son for the Father doth not immediatly in his Person shew himself to or speak with Men but the Son doth therefore there is a kind of Necessity that he should make his own Description seeing therefore how the Words and the Things of the Description do belong to Christ why should not we say that the Description is adapted for him This Interpretation of ours is natural with the words and scope of the place it neither altereth taketh away or addeth thereunto as their Interpretation doth with wresting forcing and restraining it to the Person of the Father when the Son absolutely without any limitation or restriction calls himself Alpha and Omega beginning and ending first and last but it seems they would teach the Spirit of God how to speak though nothing can be said more fully and plainly than this is he doth not say only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 am but joyns the Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I so when in the several Epistles †Rev. 2.7.17.26 to him that overcometh he promises to give to eat of the tree of life and of the hidden manna Chap. 2.5.12.21 the white stone and the new name with power over the nations c. and * Chap. 22.17 the water of life freely to him that is thirsty he doth not send them to the Father but offereth it himself as to the †John 4.10 Woman of Samaria nay in his state of Humiliation he calls Men ‖ Chap. 7.37 38. to come to himself much more after his exaltation and glorisition But to conclude this Matt. 11.28 and at the same time shew how this is simply spoken of Christ not only in this 8 verse but also in the 11 and 17 it appears out of the 12 and 13 where he turned to see the voice that spake with him and in the midst of the seven Candleiticks he saw one like
so called As for us we own but one God and one Lord whom he gives proper attributes unto the one God is the Father of whom are all things and we in him the one Lord is Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him for as all things are of him of whom all things are made so all things are by him by whom they are made so then as all things are by Christ he must be before all not only in dignity but also in time Out of this Text we learn first that as there being but one Lord even Jesus Christ doth not exclude God the Father from being Lord so there being but one God even the 〈◊〉 doth not exclude the Lord Jesus from being God also and the Apostle not only affirms that it is so but withall he sheweth how it is by means of the prepositions of and by here used all things are of God the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ all things have the same Principle and Cause but somewhat in a different manner all things are of the Father but by the Son which in the work of making all things sheweth a sort of distribution thereof in the way of it and such a kind of subordination if I may so call it between the two persons as if neither of them was precisely the adequate cause of all things but the person of one God by the person of one Lord and the person of one Lord of the person of one God for if all the same things were not of one God by one Lord but some of one God others of one Lord then the strength of the words of and by with the Order and Coherence between one Lord and one God would fall and so the assertion of one God would be false because there would be two equally first and immediate principles of all things than which nothing can be more contrary to Scripture and reason for the one God is he who is the Supreme Cause not of somethings only but of all and the one Lord is he by whom not only some but all things were and what all these things are it doth appear out of all the Texts I upon this point have made use of being compared together which can make the thing plain enough to any unbiassed and unprejudiced man If here Christ be excluded from being God by the same reason shall the Father be excluded from being Lord. But it seems nothing in the world can stop the boundless impiety of men who with their restrictions will as far as they can confine the Spirit of God within their own Sence for upon the Text they say by all things we are to understand only those which belong to the Church of Christ and to Christianity as such which is a meer invention of Socinus's Brain and not of Christ or of his Apostles However rather than to be mute something he will say that the word all can have no relation to those things that were before him that is before he was born of the Virgin wherein he goes upon his wrong principle as if he was not at all before he was born of Mary for though we own that according to the flesh Christ was not properly before he was born of her yet according to the Spirit he was as accordingly hath been sufficiently demonstrated and as to that Spiritual and Divine Being of his all things were made by him and he was Lord over all But this Dominion of Christ he is endeavouring to reduce not only within the time of our Saviour's being born of the Virgin but also within that of his Resurrection But therein he makes a confusion between Christ's purchased and his natural Dominions which ought well to be distinguished the first was indeed after his death and resurrection grounded upon our redemption as formerly the special Right and Dominion of God over the people of Israel was entailed upon his having delivered them out of the Egyptian bondage but tho he had not delivered them yet still he had been their Lord upon another and more ancient account thus before Christ redeemed us by his death he had a natural Dominion over all things he was our Lord because we were the work of his hands before he was our Lord by a special purchase for before he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a Servant he was in the form of God Son of and equal with God 't is said indeed Rom. 14.9 that Christ both died and rose that he might be Lord both of the dead and living because there the question is about his acquired Dominion but in this place both are spoken of for Christ is opposed unto Idols upon the account of both his Dominions of which both the ground is contained in the words by whom are all things and all things are said to be by him not because he is Lord but rather he is Lord because all things are by him He is Lord of all Acts 10.36 The Apostle saith absolutely and without restriction of whom and by whom are all things yet they would have it reduced only to Christians as such Because 't is said to us but 't is not said of whom or by whom we have all things or all things are ours but barely and generally of whom and by whom are all things without any particular relation to Christians but this would follow that if according to the several relations we stand in we should have some things of one and others of another namely such as creatures such as men and such as Christians we would divide the supreme cause so that there should not be only one but many thus not only one God and one Lord but many quite contrary to what the Apostle saith Besides that if such a restriction be put upon the words one Lord by whom are all things the same must be layed upon the former one God of whom are all things whereby they shall presume upon the Father as well as upon the Son for there is the same reason for both so that both ought either generally or particularly to be taken which how presumptuous an attempt this is let any impartial man judge Not only the work of Creation but also that of divine Providence that is preservation and governing of the world is attributed unto Christ Colos 1 1◠this is of two kinds Ordinary and Miraculous the first spoken of when 't is said and by him all things consist for in the foregoing verse having said by him were all things created in this he addeth by him all things consist for he not only created but also preserveth all things and as 't is said else where all things are upheld by the word of his power Heb 1.3 in which place as in the foregoing is shewed how he who made the world doth also preserve the same the two go together and be inseparable and in the preservation of this world and works of Nature by him created
Jews in his Nature and Power with making a parallel between the Father and himself the more because he useth not a pronoun relative but possessive not the Father but my Father my father worketh hitherto and I work not the Father that is a Common Father as God is to all but my Father in a most special and true manner who hath communicated his nature unto me Now that equality with the Father he on another account doth insist upon but he doth not in the least go about to shew that he made not himself equal with the Father which certainly he would have done if it had not been true and only a mistake in them and thereby he could have calmed their rage on the contrary he speaks to confirm this equality of his with the Father upon the account of his divine power manifested in his works one whereof upon occasion was the restoring the impotent Man that had the infirmity for 38 years to the use of his Limbs and perfect Health which none could deny to have been done by a divine Power Now none but God can have a power equal with God for God's power is infinite but that of any Creature is finite and so there is no equality between finite and infinite this equality of Power and Working is here clearly demonstrated For what things soever the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise That is the Father doth nothing but what the Son doth also and this he instanceth in the case of raising the dead which none but a Divine and Infinite Power can Effect For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will That is without exception he can do what he will now 't is an Attribute of God Psal 115.3 and 135.6 to do what it pleaseth him in Heaven in Earth and in the Sea Because the Jews believed not our Saviour to be more than a Man he in the exercise of his Prophetical Office went often about both in his Discourses and Works to insinuate into them that he was God and in this place he presses it much upon them both by what I already said and by what he addeth in v. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son and the end which in so doing the Father and he in declaring it proposed unto themselves is this that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father as the Son in Nature and Power is equal with the Father so he ought equally to be honoured or worshiped as the Father is and this Divine Honour is so equally due to both that he which honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father for the Father cannot and will not be honoured that is worshiped without him for honour rendred unto God is the same as religious worship The Son must be honoured in the same nature manner and degree as the Father is One would think this to be plain and clear enough beyond all exception yet they Cavil thus the word as doth not import an equal honour but only a likeness and this they go about to confirm out of two places the first is every man that hath this hope in him 1 Joh. 3.3 1 Pet. 1.15 purifieth himself even as he is pure the other is but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation We answer first in the Text of Peter the word as is not sicut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a Preposition not an Adverb The word as doth not always signifie a similitude but some times is a Particle of Causality thus in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.14 the glory as of the only begotten That is because he is the only begotten of the Father So in another place 2 Cor. 3.18 We all are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the same spirit of the Lord. Sometimes the word like signifies equality 2 Pet. 1.1 thus the like precious faith not only of similitude but of the same nature equally precious In the two objected places and in our Text there are indeed duties expressed but different in that of John here 't is in relation to God in the others as to our selves the first doth regard the worship of God the other holiness in our selves in our Text a parity and equality is implied which is not in the others the difference of the sense is grounded upon two things First of the scope of the spirit of God in those places Secondly of the Analogy of Faith To know the scope of the Text we now are upon one must go back to verse 18. the cause of the Jews hatred and seeking to kill our Saviour was because he made himself equal with God which he to shew they had no cause to take exceptions against it as we said before proves it by an equality of power in raising the Dead and of judging the world As to this last he goeth further for he saith the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto him but what doth all this aim at The scope is to the end that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father God the Father will have all men to honour his Son as they honour him without any difference because his Son is equal with him and this affirmative is strengthned with a negative for he that honoureth not the Son Josn 14.1 honoureth not the Father so that to honour one is to honour the other and one cannot well honour the Father except he equally honoureth the Son this is the true sense of the place We ought to honour the Son in the same sense and manner as we must believe in him that is as much and as well as we are to believe in the Father that is to put our whole trust and confidence in the Son as in the Father so all the honour both in quantity and quality which we render to the Father must be given to the Son Now as to the Analogy of Faith that is that this sense doth not contradict but well agree with other Scriptures it appears out of this the Great Commandment and Duty of Man is as our Saviour saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Matth. 22.37 Mark 10.27 with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength None but the true God the God of Israel is so to be loved obeyed and honoured And is not our Blessed Saviour thus to be beloved and honoured Love is the true Ground of honour We ought to love Christ before all things that are near and dear unto us Matth. 10.37 38 39. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me◠is not worthy of me he
by the Prophet was foretold should come to his Temple how the Temple is the place for Adoration and the Lord of the Temple is to be adored and the worship proper for God is due to him We are equally baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost for in the words of the Institution and form of Administration there is no other difference but of order the names are jointly used without any sign of distinction as to Nature or Power all three are therein called upon there being in them an equal Majesty and Authority I read how in the heavenly Jerusalem Rev. 21.22 the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it yet but one Temple as they are but one God But that men were in the practice as by the institution they ought to be baptized in the name of Christ it appears out of what Peter said to the new Converts be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ Acts 2.38 where we see he takes notice only of Jesus Christ not to exclude either Father or Holy Ghost but strongly to insinuate into their minds and hearts how Christ was their God Lord and Saviour which to Preach and perswade was his great end and this he would have them to make open profession of in their being baptized in his name whereby he shews the necessity and comprehensiveness of Christ's name used in the administration of that holy Sacrament and the end thereof is for the remission of sins that is to obtain pardon of sins yea and to receive the gift of the holy ghost So when the Centurion's family was baptized Acts 10.43 chap. 19.5 1 Cor. 1.13 't is said only they were baptized in the name of the Lord. The name signifies the authority of the Lord which in this case Paul was so much concerned for upon the occasion of the contentions that were among the Corinthians which makes him so sharply expostulate with them were ye baptized in the name of Paul This point must needs be one of the highest importance in our Religion seeing he is so earnestly concerned as to say I thank God I baptized none of you c. and he gives his reason for 't lest any should say I baptized in my name Whence we may conclude that to baptize in the name of Christ is one of the most fundamental points of Christian Religion and I think it a rule and practice highly commendable in those Churches where in baptism the word name is prefixed before every one of the three persons thus I baptize thee in the name of the Father in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost distinctly pronounced to prevent the abuse of some wretched Socinians which by reason of the affinity which in some Languages the words name and none or not have do confound them and to baptize in the name of the Father not of the Son not of the Holy Ghost Then it is Essential in baptism to have it administred in the name of the Son as well as of the Father wherefore John who by reason of this office is called Baptist did it not in his own name on the contrary declared himself but a Minister when he pointed at Christ and said I indeed baptize you with water but he that comes after me and is mighter than I he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire as if he had said his Servant can administer only the outward sign but the thing and grace signified he alone can give Hence I conclude that Christ in our being baptized in his name is by us therein worshiped as our God equally with the Father Here they make a difficulty because 't is said the Fathers were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud but that signifieth not to be baptized in the name and authority of Moses but to be settled in the faith to be given to Gods word spoken by the Ministery of Moses Exod. 14.31 Joh. 5.45 46. so they are said to have believed the Lord and his Servant Moses Thus our Saviour saith Moses in whom ye trust and believe so they have Moses and the Prophets that is the Law and Doctrine of Moses When God saith a thing tho but once we ought to believe him as if he had confirmed it many times because in some places things are said which seemed to have been left out in others Another particular is we hope and trust in Christ Matth. 12.21 We hope in Christ Isa 11.10 Rom. 15.12 Ephs 1.12 13. 1 Cor. 15.19 in his name and in his name shall the gentiles trust as it had been Prophesied of long before in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seck hope and trust in him for mercy As 't is by St. Paul explained in him shall the gentiles trust among others such were the Ephesians for saith the Apostle to them That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ if we must believe the same Apostle not only in this life but also in another to come we must and do hope in Christ or else we are of all men most miserable that is we cannot he happy except we hope in Christ for indeed that hope is the ground of all our Comforts and in that hope whereby we manifest our dependency upon him we own him to be he from whom we expect all manner of help and relief in our necessities for in him are all our Springs we hope in him for all and from him we expect all manner of good and therein we worship him as the Author and Fountain of all the good we receive and hope for now to trust in him is not only our duty but also our blessedness and happiness Psal 2.12 for blessed are all they that put their trust in him which is spoken of Christ the Messiah Now if he was a meer man far from being Blessed they would be Cursed for a dreadful Curse is thundred against any that trusteth in man Thus saith the Lord cursed be the man that trusteth in man Jerem. 17.6 and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. These three several expressions signifie the same and go together for to depend upon the Arm of Flesh for Wisdom Strength and Help is to must in Man and whosoever trusteth in Man his heart departeth from the Lord it is incompatible to trust in God and in Man and the heart is not to be divided one of the two it must adhere to for to both it is impossible Wherefore in this same place as we see a Curse against Man-Trusters so there is a blessing for those who trust in God verse 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Here again we meet with detestable Socinus and his jugglings God saith he proclaimeth a Curse
with the People but being appeased by Moses promised to send an Angel before them which Moses and the People were fully satisfied with Who and what this Angel was Chap. 23.20 21 22. we have it in the Book of Exodus with the End for which he was to go before namely to guide them and 't is thus expressed Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared But hear the Charge he gives them concerning this Angel Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him Such terms doth the God of Israel use when he speaks of himself Two things here we must observe first what is here spoken belongs only to the true essential God of Israel the second is the Angel or Person here spoken of is the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God out of which Premises we may well conclude he is the true God of Israel The Caution here given to take heed have a care and beware of him as if he had said take heed to thy self in thy Carriage before him this I say joyned with the Command to obey his Voice is very remarkable The absolute Obedience which God requires them to yield unto the Angel is due to God alone and is never related to the Creature only to himself for his Voice is God's Voice and when he speaketh God speaketh as the words of v. 22. do intimate If thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies The Angels Voice and all that God speaketh is the faâ—â—e and upon their obedience to his Voice depended the performance of the Promises The Lord never so expresly charged any People or Person not to provoke any created Angel or Man as here he doth Provoke him not offend and displease him not why For he will not pardon your Transgressions Rebellions or Sins in Scripture Phrase for Sin is the transgression of the law So then to disobey and to provoke this Angel is to sin and this very same Angel hath right and power if he will to pardon Sin which none but the true God hath power to take upon him to do and 't is Blasphemy for any Creature whatsoever to pretend to 't Another great and unanswerable reason is For my Name is in him a more excellent Name than any of the Angels do enjoy Heb. 1.4 The Name is that appellation by which one thing is distinctly known from another so Gods Name signifieth God himself as to call upon Gods name Gen. 4.26 Exod. 33.19 2 Chron. 7.20 't is his Titles God Jehovah Elohim Lord. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee said God to Moses compared with Chap. 34.3 6. in the former Verse 't is called to proclaim the name of the Lord and in the later to proclaim the Lord the Lord. And in Scripture Phrase the Name of the Lord is taken for God himself that is all in him Majesty Almightiness Psal 29.2 33.21 34.3 61.5 This house saith God which I have sanctified for my name for my self my honour and worship So here when God saith of that Angel my name is in him he meaneth his Nature Titles Attributes Authority Power and Glory In a word I my self am in him which afterwards was well interpreted by the Lord Jesus The Father is in me and I in the Father Now this by the God of Israel being attributed unto another it must be to another himself for his Name is his Glory and he hath solemnly declared my glory will I not give to another Isa 42.8 Exod. 3.2 The Angel spoken of in this place is as already observed the same as before had appeared unto Moses in a flame of Fire out of the midst of a Bush who v. 4 is called Lord and God who out of the same place called unto and required of him divine Honour Draw not nigh hither but put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground And if any doubt should remain 't is cleared v. 6 Moreover be the same Angel said I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. This very same Angel or Person upon the Peoples entring into the Land of Promise under the shape of a Man appeared unto Joshua under the name of Captain of the host of the Lord and in the posture for it was with a drawn Sword Josh 5.13 14 15. to execute his Office of General as God had promised to bring them into the place he had prepared for then the People were just entering upon the Siege of Jericho and this same Angel or Son of God under the shape of a Man exacted of Joshua the same Worship as he before had required of Moses and of him afterwards Joshua said to the People He is a holy God he is a jealous God Josh 24.19 he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins These last words are the same which God said to Moses in the fore-quoted place and so belong to one and the same Now I say this Angel who appeared unto Moses out of the Bush who through the Wilderness went before the People into the Land of Promise and appeared unto Joshua is the Son of God the second Person of the most holy Trinity the same who afterwards took on him our human Nature and was born of the Virgin Mary and among other reasons this I take to be a very good one Acts 7.30 35. because Stephen the first Martyr for this glorious Cause and a good Interpreter of the place makes mention of the Angel of the Lord which appeared unto Moses and this Moses God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hands or power of the Angel which appeared to him in the bush Moses was the Minister or Servant Heb. 3.6 but Christ as a Son over his own house saith the Apostle So things were done by the power of the Angel Moses was in the Church in the Wilderness but the Angel was with him Stephen's mentioning the Church and the Angel doth relate to Christ our Lord the Son of God who is the only Head thereof and by whose Directions Moses took care of it as also Moses spoke of him under the name of a Prophet whom God would raise up unto them Acts 3.22 23. and It shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people saith Peter And tho' from the beginning the Son of God was not made Flesh yet as Head of the Church he took care of his People exercis'd his Mediatorship and administred his spiritual Kingdom of Grace which the bringing out of Egypt and introducing into Canaan was a Figure of and we may easily perceive the
first-born into the world let all the Angels of God worship him before he was set upon his Throne after his Ascension So the Command was antecedent to that Session of his upon the Throne in Heaven And this sitting at the right hand of God puts me in mind now to add something to what I said upon that Text and it is this how we and our Adversaries ought to consider the usefulness and importance of that Testimony Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand for the confirmation of the Dignity and Authority of Christ the Messiah is evidenced by the frequent quotations of it in the New Testament as by our Saviour himself Matth. 22.42 by Peter in Acts 2.34 35 and by Paul in 1 Cor. 55.28 And Heb. 1.13 David was the Pen-man of the Psalm not about himself for him whom he therein doth treat of he calls my Lord as indeed the things therein spoken of belong not to him God did never swear unto David that he should be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek and the Jews knew well how David had nothing to do with the Priesthood as being not of the Tribe of Levi but of Judah We read That David was a King and a Prophet Jeremiah a Priest and a Prophet but the three Offices Prophet Priest and King never met in one Person but in the Lord Jesus CHAP. X. Objections Answer'd THough now and then on our way we refuted some of their Cavils yet now we must by the Grace of God come to the last part but one of our Discourse hear what they say against these Divine Truths and answer their chief Objections against the most holy Trinity the Divinity of Christ his eternal Generation c. As first They would have this Doctrin of the Trinity to be contrary to Reason Because it gives Turks and Jews an aversion against the Christian Religion But it must not be concluded that a Doctrin is contrary to Reason because some men by reason of the corruption of their Nature do not receive it When the Gospel was preached by our blessed Saviour and by his Apostles many refused to receive and believe it though it was very good and not contrary to Reason They that are Servants to their carnal Reason do not receive that which is above it and in this matter there are other Causes of the blindness and hatred of Jews and Turks Hereticks ought to be ashamed to joyn with Infidels to overthrow a Doctrin which in all Ages hath by general Consent been lookt upon as the Foundation of our Religion In four things they would have it to be contrary to Reason the first One is not Three yet say they we affirm God to be One yet Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God and yet the Person of the Son not to be that of the Father nor of the Holy Ghost The second A thing is or is not But say they you say the Paternity or Fatherhood really to be the same with the Essence and the Essence really with the Filiation therefore the Paternity is the same with the Filiation or Sonship and is not the same Thirdly By the Rule of the Tertium the things that are the same in another or in a third are the same among themselves Fourthly 'T is contrary to the Principle of the expository Syllogism which is this The Essence is the Father the Essence is the Son therefore the Father is the Son In these four things say they your Doctrin is contrary to Reason In answer to this First in general we say that such things as gainsay the Principles of true Reason are contrary to it but not those which exceed and are far above Reason Now things objected against by Antitrinitarians do neither fight against nor contradict Reason only are above it then these Principles or Rules are ill applied because they compare God the Author of Nature with natural things Now we answer in particular as to the First Axiom It is not overthrown inasmuch as there is no opposition according to the same thing nothing that is one as it is one and in the same respect may be called three but God is one in Nature and three in Persons the manner of subsisting doth distinguish the Persons but multiplieth not the Essence In the Second there is no Contradiction for the Paternity and Filiation are distinguished among themselves in one way and from the Essence in another it is only a modal distinction between Paternity and Filiation the least degree of distinction is between the thing and the manner of it between the Essence and the Paternity or Filiation wherefore Essence Paternity and Filiation are distinct but not different things We never said 'tis the same but 't is of the same and because they are of the same they differ not as thing and thing And if the Adversaries would argue thus the Father is the same with the Essence the Essence is the same with the Son therefore the Father is the same with the Son they would thereby conclude nothing against us for we affirm the Father and Son not at all to differ as to the Essence but the self-being of the Essence doth not conclude for the self-being of the Person wherefore we say it is and it is not in a different respect upon a different account As to the Third the Paternity and the Filiation are not the same with the Essence but Father and Son have the same Essence Now their Rule doth not here fit their Purpose for if they say Paâ—â—â—ity and Filiation are the same with or in the Essence it is incongruous for Paternity and Filiation are modes or manners of the thing that is in the Essence are not the same with the Essence because the thing and manner of it are not altogether the same But if they say Father and Son are the same in uno tortio inâ—â— third we agree they are the same in this third the Essence though not altogether As to the Fourth they are mistaken for this is no expository Syllogism for in that way of aâ—guing the middle term must be singular and incommunicable But here the term Essence is not simply but instead of an universal and is communicable so then the strength of the major Proposition lies in this Some who is or hath divine Essence is the Father Some that hath divine Essence is the Son Ergo if it be universally construed the proposition is false as thus Every one that hath the divine Essence is the Father or else they are meer particulars Besides that there are four terms for in the major the word Essence is unâ—erstood in relation to an active generation in the minor to a passive They would forge Contradictions where are none at all and the ground of their Error is that they would judge of an infinite Nature by a finite one when the reason of both is very different here the infinite Essence is individual
because infinite communicable without being multiplied in many persons To the same purpose they object in another manner God is One therefore cannot be Three so there is none but the Father The Answer is easie and we already have said something to it that which is one cannot be two or three in the same respect it cannot be one and many in the same sense What Christ says John 10.30 I and my Father are one is most true so that One is related to the Nature and I and Father to the Persons so then God is one as to the Nature and three as to the Persons Seeing the Nature or Godhead cannot be multiplied it follows that the Persons and Subsistences only are multiplied They say farther A simple Essence cannot be of three Persons otherwise it will be divided or multiplied But though this be true of finite it is not so of an infinite Essence neither doth it follow that because the Essence is common to three Persons it may be common to more for it were contrary to divine Revelation which only mentioneth one Father one Son and one Holy ghost the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost God yet not three Gods but only one God Neither doth it follow that because divine Essence is common to three Persons therefore every Person shall be common and because the Persons are not common therefore the Nature must not be This is the cause of their Mistake that they do not mind the distinction of the Person from the Essence for tho they differ not really yet rationally they be distinguished It doth follow to say if the Essence be common to three Persons therefore the Persons are common no more than to say if Abel hath his Nature from Adam and is a Man therefore he hath his Posterity and is a Father from him The things say they that are separately numbered are not one in number and essence but the Father and the Son are separately numbered and are by themselves called one as one God one Mediator one God and Father one Lord wherefore Father and Son are not one only God or one Essence But I say Numeration doth not import a distinction of Essence for in finite things Essences being multiplied they are reckoned individual not in relation to the Essence but to the Persons that which is numbered is one neither is it one without the Essence yet for all that it is not one essentially or by his own Essence separated from any other whatsoever so then when the Father and Son are numbered they are not so essentially but personally also they are the same in number and essence contrary to what is objected whereof one is said to be with the other as the word was with God for in God to be one with another is only an hypostatical or personal distinction for as to be one with another doth import a distinction so the same Evangelist sheweth the Essence of both to be but one and the same when he addeth the word was God Furthermore they argue thus The Father and the Son are really distinguished for the Father is absolutely God that is the divine Essence for say they the words Father and God are synonimous or the same because the word God is explained by the word Father 1 Thes 1.3 therefore the Essence of the Son is distinct from that of the Father Our Answer is Tho' the Persons of the Father and of the Son be really distinct it doth not follow that their Essences are so as if the Essence of one was not that of another seeing the names of Father and Son are relatives which indeed signifie different Persons in the same Nature but rationally distinguished from the same If Father and Essence be synonimous what remaineth for the Son besides a shadow of the Deity For as the Paternity and Innascibility or not being begotten which are proper only to the Father are incommunicable that Essence if it be the same thing as is the Father cannot be communicated unto the Son It doth not follow neither that the Names God and Father are the same because the first is sometimes used for the last seeing it is attributed unto the Father in his Person to constitute the Deity by reason of the Spring and in the comparison and order of Persons and not because the Person of the Father is in no wise distinguished from the divine Essence Paul doth congratulate with the Thessalonians for their Work of Faith Labour of Love and Patience of Hope and because their Hope was in the Coming of the Lord Jesus these three he referreth in God whom he calls Father because he already had made mention of the Mediator But if the Names God and Father be the same by reason that Paul had to the word God joyned Father by way of explication Tit. 2.13 2 Pet. 1.2 then the Names Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ are also the same because two Apostles explain the name of Christ by that of God our Saviour Besides the Argument is faulty for it hath four terms to the end that both Propositions be true in the major the Person of the Father in the minor his Essence are to be understood To this Argument answereth another The eternal Father is not the Son whom John calls the Word but the Essence of the Divinity or that one God of Israel is the eternal Father of the only begotten Son therefore the Essence or the God of Israel is not the Son called the Word The major is false for to have it true the sence ought to be this That Essence or that God which is the Father is not the Son that is the Person of the Father is not the Person of the Son This farther they say The Essence and one God are convertible but according to us in the Unity of God there is Trinity therefore in the Essence there is also Trinity But we say God who is one in Nature is three in Persons so in that onely Essence there is a Trinity that is wholly and indivisibly subsisteth in three Persons there are not three Essences The minor Proposition must be understood of a Trinity of Persons and not of Essences I observed before how they quarrel much with several expressions used in this matter as Trinity Essence Person c. which are neither prophane nor unworthy of God seeing in Scripture there are words which answer to them Rom. 1.20 Col. 2.9 Phil. 2.6 2 Pet. 1.4 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both signifying Godhead and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Form of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Nature Also the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Latin is translated sometimes Substance sometimes Essence sheweth the quiddity or nature of the thing As for the word Person Clastical Authors as well as Divines in this holy Mystery take it for a rational Subsistence or Father Son and Holy Ghost however out of these they
take matter of Argument against us for they say thus The Doctrin of God ought to be taught according to Scripture but those Names are not to be found therein therefore not to be used I answer the major Proposition with a distinction If they mean it of the sence of Scripture we own we ought not to depart from it but if of the letter and bare words we deny it for in the Church is the gift of Prophecy and of explaining the word And whereas Hereticks are apt to wrest the sence and under variety of words to involve and disguise the Truth it is sometimes necessary to make use of new words to hit and refute their false glosses and interpretations in defence of the Truth As to the minor about the several words we say Scripture speaks of one God whence cometh Oneness or Vnity and Divinity is attributed to three Father Son and Holy Ghost hence is Trinity Jah and Jehovah signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him that is so from Esse we derive Essence all which words we are not Authors of but received them from the Primitive Church which by a publick consent used them almost from the Apostles time to these which they reject when themselves would bring in barbarian words to signifie their erroneous notions as God Essentiating and Essentiated Apostolical God Emphatical and articulated God Author and God Executor and the like Thus they make themselves really guilty of such things as unreasonably they would charge us with They must needs have a very great opinion of their own abilities seeing they would make us forbear the expressions used by the Church for so many Ages and impose their new-fangled words upon the World 'T is in them a blasphemous Impiety and a damnable Slander to charge us with bringing in new Gods under such words as are made use of to explain Scripture and they know well enough our meaning thereof as we so often explained it these different words do not change the sense so may not be called erroneous and tho' sometimes there be Variety in words and expressions the sense still remaineth the same so we do not consider them as Popish or Antichristian Forgeries Indeed they make a ridiculous Objection Jehovah the Essentiator Father is of the masculine Gender but Essence is of the feminine therefore not to be used But to say something to the purpose they must prove that in the nature of things according to the Rules of Grammar there is a difference of Sex Of the like nature is this no abstract Name signifieth a Substance but Trinity is an abstract Name therefore c. But the first proposition is false for when we call Deity or Divine Nature we understand a Substance seeing in God all things are Substance and no Accident So by the word Trinity we understand three Persons really subsisting 2 Sam. 23. We find David's mighty Men of Valour to be distinguished by three and three But as to their exception against the fore-named words once for all I say to them Tho' every Truth asserted be not in Scripture in so many Letters yet if it be therein implied and by a good and necessary consequence thence derived 't is to be esteemed the Word of God as if expressed because in it contained Thus Preaching is the Word of God because deduced out of it not as to the words but as to the sense hence it is that Preaching produces the effects attributed to the the Word as to quicken convert regenerate and sanctifie when sometimes in a whole Sermon few Sentences are repeated word by word And in several places of the New Testament the Evangelists and Apostles do quote out of the Old not in the very words but accoding to the sense and scope of the place upon such a ground our Translators do render the word Hypostasis by that of Person and so 't was among the Primitive Church which word we find used in the New Testament only four times thrice in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 1.3 Chap. 3.14 Chap. 11.1 and 2 Cor. 9.4 yet every where in a different sense Some few words more I shall add to answer some other Objections in order thereunto I say In the Deity there is an Essence which is but one in that Essence do subsist three Persons really distinguished one from another but only modally from the Essence which doth not make any fourth thing in the Godhead As there is but one Essence so these three Persons are but one God which Name God is spoken not only of the Essence but also of every one of the three Persons Vnity in relation to the Nature and Trinity in respect to the Persons One Essence there is without which there is no God but the three Persons are this one God in Essence who subsist in that Essence Father Son and Holy Ghost The Adversaries are in an Error when they think there is no real difference except there be some difference in number and Essence they would have a Thing and a Substance to be the same when that which differeth by reason of the definition from another doth also really differ from it God in one number and essence admitteth of no renting or division and they are not three bare Names the Essence doth not as the Genus contain three Species but it doth subsist in three Persons in which all and in every one is the same Nature and Godhead To own three Essences were to assert three Gods and we say that Father Son and Holy Ghost as to the Nature are of themselves tho' not as to the Personality for on this last account we own the Son to be from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both I say again how the Essence maketh no fourth thing in the Godhead as if the three Persons were derived from it as from a thing pre-existing or as if it being common to the three was really distinguished from the three these we never said but are against The Essence is wholly and entirely common to every Person these Persons do not proceed from the Essence but we say they from all Eternity subsist in the Essence and tho' we own a distinction between Essence and Persons yet they are not as a thing abstracted from the Essence The great difficulty arising about this is in the case of the Incarnation which is justly called The wisdom of God in a mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory The Son was incarnated or made Flesh took upon him our human Nature now the Father and Holy Ghost having the same Essence with the Son how were not they both incarnated We know the Person and not the Nature was incarnated but how the Nature which is wholly in the Son as wholly in the Father and in the Holy Ghost was not made Flesh 't is a Mystery that passeth all understanding This is one of the secret things that belong to God which we
mistaken for the word alone or onely which they lay the stress upon doth not belong to the Subject thee but to the Predicate not to thee but to true God not to that which goes before but to that which followeth after 'T is not said to know only thee to be but know thee to be the only true God This we may look upon as one of their usual pieces of Sophistry our Saviour makes it appear that this is the true God whom Scriptures mention namely the Father who sent and the Son that was sent for the true sense of the place we cannot have a better Interpreter of than the Evangelist himself 1 John 5.20 here the true God and eternal Life are joyned in the same the same that is eternal Life is also the true God onely eternal Life and onely true God Now Christ is called true God and eternal Life His Son Jesus Christ John 10.28 this is the true God and eternal life And if here we consider eternal Life as the Gift of the onely true God doth not Scripture say in several places how eternal Life is the gift of Christ Let of many this one serve for all I give unto them his Sheep eternal life If the Son was not that onely true God why should he joyn himself with the Father And whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ to be the only true God This is the true order of the words whereof the true sense is resolved into this The Father is the onely true God and not the onely or Father alone is the true God The words in the original are not thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know thee only the true God but thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know thee the only true God where any one may see how the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not belong to the Pronoun thee but to the true God and tho' the Particle was removed yet thereby Christ would not be excluded for the true God is said as I already observed not in opposition to Christ but to false Gods according to the stile of Scripture the word alone or onely doth not always give a general exclusion as we see it under the Old Testament when Jacob said unto Reuben My Son shall not go down with you Gen. 42.38 for his brother is dead and he is left alone he meaneth by the Mothers side and not by the Father's for all the rest were his Brethren And in the New in the Transfiguration Luk. 9.36 't is said And when the voice was past Jesus was left alone Certainly Peter James and John were not excluded for they were with him but Moses and Elias In the same sense are taken Martha's words to our Saviour Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone Luk. 10.40 only meant of Mary and not of the Servants of the House And to the matter now in hand let it be known that Scripture never saith the Father only is the true God tho' it says the Father is the only true God so is the Son and so is the Holy Ghost Here Christ would not deny himself the honour of being the true God which in other places he attributes unto himself for the two words alone and true go with God not with thee and his meaning is how true eternal Life consists in this Gal. 4.8 1 Thes 1.9 1 Cor. 8.6 that men may detest Idols and false Gods and be converted to thee O Father who art the only true God by nature which Idols are not Thus when the name One Lord is given the Son 't is not to exclude the Father who also is Lord and the name Spirit given the third Person doth not exclude Father or Son who also are Spirit so this Text doth admit of the same construction as this when Paul saith 1 Cor. 9.6 I only and Barnabas have we not power to forbear working where it is plain that Barnabas far from being excluded is joyned and included in the same power with Paul And here the thing requireth it seeing eternal Life is made to consist in the knowledge of Christ as of the Father wherefore both are equally said to be the true God Those men who pretend to know better than God himself what becomes his glory are very apt to lay hold upon any thing like to favour their notions wherefore because 't is said God hath appointed his Son heir of all things Heb. 1.2 John 5.22 and hath committed all judgment unto him with other things to the same purpose they with the Jews do therewith entangle themselves and form this Argument It cannot consist with the Majesty of the God of Israel of the most high God to be appointed Heir by any one but God hath appointed his Son Heir of all things therefore his Son is not the God of Israel nor the most high God In answer to this Objection I say first that the Person of the God of Israel c. is not the Person of his Father but the same Dignity Nature and Authority he hath as already demonstrated common with the Father he is not made Heir of all things in reference to his Nature for he is such of himself by his own right and inheritance not by favour but in relation to his Office of Mediator in which sense he is not only God but God and Man and upon this account is all Judgment committed unto him by the Father but otherwise he is the God of Israel and the most high But secondly this Argument contains two branches which before I have spoken about yet to what hath already been said this I shall add to the first part That the Son of God the Lord Jesus above 3400 years before his being manifested in the Flesh Numb 24.17 Micah 5.2 Luk. 2.32 John 1.49 Acts 5.31 was called the Star of Jacob and the Scepter of Israel and long after the ruler in Israel after his birth the glory of Israel and after his Baptism the King of Israel which in that sense and place is as good as God of Israel as indeed in the same Verse he is called the Son of God that is of the God of Israel a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins As to the other part That he is not the most high God we must in the first place take notice how they set up a high God that is Christ and a most high God the Father which is by such a comparative difference to make two Gods and they would have the Son of the highest not to be highest himself as to Essence and Power The word most high or highest is an Hebraism for in that Language God is called Helion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Supreme whence the Greeks borrowed the Name they call the Sun by because the chief of all Stars and Planets
was made so upon Earth We speak of the rising of the Sun which hath a Being before he riseth on our Hemisphere but only at such a time he appeareth unto us like the Star that guided the Wisemen to the place where he was born and of Christ it is said Thou hast the dew of thy youth from the womb of the morning As to what Socinus saith That Christ is said to be God but not that onely God we answer how Christ is not upon every account said to be God but only he is said to be such a God as true divine Worship is due unto who alone is to be worshipped and served as he saith Mat. 4.10 So he is no other but the onely God in Scripture called the true God They object the place where the Holy Ghost saith 1 Cor. 8.6 But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things who is distinguished from Christ who is one Lord by whom are all things But the Adversaries Prejudice makes that they either will not or cannot see how in the place St. Paul doth not separate one God from Christ nor one Lord from the Father for his scope is to teach us Christians how there are not many Gods nor many Lords but only one God and one Lord Now if the Father was one God and one Lord separately from Christ then there would be two Gods and two Lords which wholly overturns the Apostle's design so that of necessity we must say the Father and Christ are one God and one Lord consequently that God and the Lord are the same for there is no doubt but that God is the Lord and he who by Divine Reason is Lord and opposed to Idols as 't is the true sense of the place he also for certain must needs be God So then when Paul saith that onely God to be the Father he also owns him to be the onely Lord and when he saith the one Lord is Christ he owns him to be one God and as he excludeth not the Father from being Lord so he excludeth not Christ from being God 'T is a weak notion grounded upon these Particles of whom and by whom are all things for both the same in Scripture are attributed to God Rom. 11.36 Of him and through him and to him are all things so there is in them nothing to exclude Christ from being God for both belong to Father and Christ only one is chiefly attributed to one the other chiefly to the other 'T is an Error in the Adversaries to say the words by whom to signifie a second Cause seeing that very same Particle is elsewhere attributed unto God which in the same place we must also believe to be attributed unto Christ seeing the Apostle's mind is to shew there is only one God and one Lord But in Socinus's sense there would be two Gods and two Lords one of whom are all things the other by whom are all things tho' the same Apostle doth without any such Particles absolutely affirm There is one Lord one God and Father of all Ephes 4 5 6. wherefore Men must conceive no Mystery to be in those Particles to make a distinction between God and Lord one and the same Nature or Person is certainly God and Lord. Thus David saith Psal 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak And if two be so one is no prejudice to the other Hence I conclude how no stress is to be laid upon these Particles of and by as if there were two different Natures and Principles as also in another place already quoted they would upon the Particle and where 't is said To know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ where they would have the copulative Particle to joyn different Natures and Persons to exclude him from being the true God but after this manner of interpreting the words God and Father must import two different Subjects and Natures so that God shall be one and Father the other for 't is said Gal. 1.4 according to the will of God and our Father which contradicts their Opinion of one onely God namely the Father but in that place the words God and Father are essentially taken for Father Son and Holy Ghost one only God Farther they argue thus If Christ be the Son of that onely God he is not the onely God himself or else he would be his own Son but he is not his own Son therefore he is not the onely God But I answer the Son is distinguished from that one God not as to the Nature but as to the Person for the Essence cannot be distinguish'd because the Son hath not part of the Nature but wholly together with the Father the Person must be distinguish'd for he is not Son of himself but of another tho' he be God of himself Hence followeth that as to the Nature the Son is that one God not as to the Person seeing in Nature it doth agree but must be distinguish'd as to the Person Another Objection is this If Christ be the Son of that only God then that one is not God the Father Son and Holy Ghost but only the Father so that onely God is not in three Persons We answer When Christ is called the Son of one God one God is there taken for the Person of the Father or as it subsisteth in the Person of the Father for Christ is the Son only of God the Father but when Father Son and Holy Ghost are said to be one God then one God is taken essentially They need not say where are one and three there are four as if the Essence and three Persons were four things really distinct But we answer Where are one Being and three Beings there indeed are four but not where are one Being and three manners of being This may be illustrated by an Example of Metaphysick where is one Ens or Being and three as properties or qualities unum verum and bonum one must not conclude there are four but unum verum bonum to be simply one Being Wherefore seeing in this most simple Essence the Persons are Subsistences or Manners of subsisting it follows that three Persons and one Nature do not make four in God As to the Rule of the tertium which I have taken notice of before it faileth here because the Essence is communicable for Divine Nature being infinite is so Now we come to some Objections relating to the Son of God's eternal generation The Father alone say they is not begotten but the Son and Holy Ghost are begotten and made so cannot be the true God We know how the relative Property of the Father is to beget of the Son to be begotten and of the Holy Ghost to proceed so the word God is attributed to Son and Holy Ghost that the Son is called only begotten because he is the natural Son and the first born as Mediator because he hath many Brethren he is called the
brightness of the Father's glory to shew that as from a lightful Body proceeds Light so the Son as naturally comes from the Father and 't is one thing to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of God Col. 1.15 Heb. 1.3 and another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the express Image of the Father but Christ is called both He who is called the Image of God is thereby distinguish'd from God but he which is called the Character of the Father is distinguish'd from the Father not from God wherefore we say Christ as Mediator may be and is called the Image of God But this comes short of what is intended to express the eternal generation of the Son of God tho' our Adversaries would have that Filiation to be grounded upon his Mediatorship These few things which may have a place in our Discourse being premised I now directly answer the Objection To be begotten is to be understood as becomes God to be begotten in God doth not imply to have a beginning or to be made in time Secondly they say Divine Nature admitteth of no renting or division wherefore nothing doth proceed that is different in number from it I answer There is no Comparison between the Finite and Infinite Essence for this last is communicated to the Persons without multiplication separation or division Thirdly they go on That which is begotten hath a beginning I answer 'T is true in the Creatures but not in God Fourthly Nothing say they is wanting in the Father so it is superfluous to give him a Son I answer The Father is perfect therefore he hath a Son God's fecundity makes the Persons but borroweth nothing from without 5thly Whatsoever cometh from unity to plurality cannot be perfect except the substance be multiplied I answer God doth not come nor go with God there is no terminus a quo not ad quem no place from which and to which but God is always God is not divided but begets indivisibly 6thly If the Son be from the Father it followeth that all the Father hath is divided because it passeth into the Son so the Father hath given the Son part of himself and so the Son hath deprived the Father of something The Answer is The Son is not asunder from the Father for the Essence is the same There is no renting the Father with giving loseth nothing but retains all the Nature is whole in the Father and whole in the Son as one Candle lighteth another without any dimunition of its own light 7thly They say a man hath no Son before he hath begotten I answer Nor God neither but this I must say 't is a gross mistake to draw Consequences from human things to divine which is to measure God by Men God always begetteth as the Sun doth produce its brightness 8thly If God begets 't is either according to his Nature or to his Will not the first for then he would beget without consideration if according to his Will then the Father's Will was before the generation of the Son I answer He begets according to his Nature and that freely 9thly If the Son be born he had a beginning so is not from Eternity I answer The Father is eternal the Son eternal and the Generation eternal in things created to beget is indeed to produce that which is not but in divine and uncreated 't is otherwise 10thly A spiritual Nature doth not beget We say a Spirit created doth not but the Creator exceedeth the Reason of the Spiritual Creature 11thly If the Father hath begotten the Word either he hath begotten Himself or another but neither of these therefore He hath not begotten Himself He hath not begotten as granted nor another neither because there is no other God and so not begotten at all I answer the word he hath begotten alium non aliud another Person but not another thing He hath begotten another who is God but not another God 12ly If God hath begotten the Word either the whole Divine Essence hath begotten or only the Father's Person if the Essence then it hath begotten Himself or another both which be absurd if the Father's Person hath begotten either he is the only true God or else the word is not that Son of the only true God wherefore the Father hath not begotten the Son from Eternity We answer the Father hath of Himself begotten from Eternity there is no necessity for the Father only to be the true God 't is enough he is the only true God therefore the Son is the Son of the only true God not of two Persons but of the Father These Objections which I have set down in short and answer'd as briefly I look not upon as material because not taken out of the word of God the only Judge of those Controversies but herein they shew how they affect Sophistry to impose upon some sort of People but however some Advantage we get by it for out of all these it appears how this true Heavenly Doctrine is not contrary to the Principles of Reason They have three or four Cavils or Questions more which by the Grace of God we shall answer in few words First Whether the Father begat the Son when he was already a Son or before he was the Son I answer the Father is Eternal the Son Eternal and begotten from all Eternity which hath no Parts the Father could no more be without the Son than the Sun without Light or Light without Brightness Their 2d Questie on is Whether the Father after the Generation of the Son hath begotten any other because he is called the only Begotten if he hath Begotten none other then he hath lost the Power of Begetting But I answer that Generation is without time always perfect not successive without beginning or end The 3d is the Father hath begotten either unwilling or willing if unwilling then he hath suffer'd something which he would not if willing then his Will was before the Generation of the Son I say part of this Argument was answered a little before whereunto I shall add The Will of God was indeed before all Creatures for he hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal 115.3 but 't is not so of the Son for of him we read in Scripture he was and is with the Father so the Son is no Creature neither is he made by the Will as Creatures are he is born of the Father and is Co-eternal with the Person of the Father the Father's Will is in Him for in HIm he willeth and by Him He doth all things In those things which proceeded from Nature there is no Fore-counsel or Predeliberation yet the Father hath not begotten being unwilling for He begat with a Will not Antecedent but Concomitant thus the Father's Person is not because He was willing to be but because He is and willeth not Himself not to be so the Son is not born against the Father's Will neither doth the Fathers Will go before His Generation A
4th presumptuous and unbecoming this adorable Mystery Vain and Sophistical Cavil of theirs is this Did the Father cease to beget If so that Discontinuation hath the beginning of the Son The Answer is this The Substance and Generation of God are without and above time and Divine Nature is not depriv'd of a begetting faculty because 't is without time 't is an Impiety to say the Father discontinued for then thereby would be introduced three Parts and Spaces before now and after it were a Change which God is uncapable of He is above those things which import a Duration Fire produces Heat yet is not heated by that Heat it shall never cease to heat and the heat is ever perfect But these Comparisons out of natural things are very defective to represent those high and incomprehensible Mysteries Out of these I leave the Reader to consider the manner of Spirit which that People are acted by how familiar how bold how sawcy they would be with God These holy things lay before them as Pearls before Swine they speak of and handle them as they would in Schools the meanest Subjects of all only to try their Wits which therein are very Prophane and to make a Shew of their Parts when Men that have a true Sense of Piety instead of going about to play with and ridicule them will ever think and speak of them with a Religious Fear and Awful Reverence There is a danger for those who dare to approach to God with a strange Fire only to think on 't should make Men fear and tremble However let them wander and blaspheme never so much concerning that Eternal Generation the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the thing is Scripture hath reveal'd it but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manner how it hath not neither could we comprehend or express it however it hath declar'd as much as is convenient and necessary for us to know Solomon whose glorious Kingdom was a Figure of that of Christ and his Renowned Wisdom was a Type and a Shadow of that of the Son of God who alludeth to it when he saith that the Queen of the South came to hear the Wisdom of Solomon Matth. 12.22 Prov. 3. and behold a greater than Solomon is here That King I lay in that Chapter already mention'd more than once hath under the name of Wisdom made a notable mention of Christ the Wisdom of the Father the Wisdom he therein speaks of is not an Attribute of God or a quality of Wisdom infused into and inherent in Man but is a Person self-subsisting for he is said to cry to call and invite Men to come which Actions are proper for Persons and not for things and to this place of Solomon doth John regard and â—llude when he saith in the beginning was the word the Meaning of which Word beginning is by that King at large explain'd in that place And when the question was put who Christ was Peter in his Confession saith not Moses nor Elias nor none of the Prophets nor John Baptist the greatest among them that were born of Women but the Son of the living God by an Eternal Generation whereunto belongs what our Saviour saith of himself As the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself John 5.26 here as the Father hath Life in himself so the Son hath it in the same manner that is in himself that he may properly be as the Father Ch. 6.57 the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father Socinians would have him to be the Son of God in their Sense after his Resurrection but after it he can be the Son of God no more than David was more the Son of Jesse after he came to be King but Christ being the Son of God he by his Resurrection declared his Deity which he had before for as St. Paul saith was declared to be not made the Son of God by the Resurrection from the Dead They continue Sophistically to argue thus Divine Essence is the Father Divine Essence is the Son therefore the Son is the Father after the fame manner they say the Father is the true God but the Son is not the Father wherefore the Son is not the true God and again the true God is the Father of Christ but the Three Persons are not the Father of Christ therefore the Three Persons are not the true God But these and the like must not be reckon'd among the Expositorious and Categorical Syllogisms because these Terms Divine Essence and True God are not incommunicable but common to the Three Persons consequently they conclude no more than do particular Affirmatives for in a true Syllogism according to the Rules the major Proposition is not to be particular nor equivalent to it for from such a Proposition when any thing communicable to more is the subject of it and is restrained unto one Particular out of it nothing can be concluded and this Proposition being made particular the terms of the Subject or Predicate are supposed to be Reciprocal as if God and the Father be the same which is false we grant the Father to be the only true God so we say of the Son but thence it doth not follow that the Son is the Father for in saying the Father is the true God we do not relate to his Paternity in respect to his Son but to his Being and Nature as the Scripture never said that the Father only is the true God so we do not say that he that is the true God is the Father only but to affirm that because each Person is God therefore one Person must be another is just without giving any reason at all to dis-believe what God hath declar'd The Father say they is the only true God but the Particle alone or only is restrictive of the Predicate not of the Subject for Son and Holy Ghost are the same God the Person is not formally Person by the Essence but by the manner of having that Essence and thus there are Three Persons of the same Essence as to the Generation we do not say that the Father hath sometimes begotten and sometimes not nor that the Generative Faculty is an Attribute of that Nature but a personal Propriety of the first Person who in a peculiar manner hath the Essence wherefore t is no wonder if the other Persons have it not But we must proceed upon other Objections of theirs they say every where Scripture distinguisheth Father and Son one from another and never confounds them together for it teaches that there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in Him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by Him and one Holy Ghost by whom we cry Abba Father they are distinguished by the Manifestation of the Trinity in the Lord's Baptism and in the form of Baptism c. We answer They are Names Relatives which
to be Essential Differences when to speak of three Spirits in the Godhead is as good as to say there are three Gods 1 Cor. 8.4 whilst Scripture saith there is none other God but one who hath his Being from himself and from none else for we must say of every God so called which is not such by Nature Hosea 8.6 what the Prophet saith of the Calf of Samaria the workman made it therefore it is not God and 't is a right Consequence for nothing can be God that is made by another So then to talk of three Spirits in the Godhead is to set up three Gods for God as our Saviour saith absolutely is a Spirit and when we say Spirit we understand his Nature for a Spirit is a Spiritual Substance and being thus they go on still upon their Suppositions they would have the words unbegotten begotten and proceeding to be essential Differences and not personal as they are so other times they would have the Son because he is of the Father not to be one God with the Father who existeth of himself and so not to be the one true God because he hath a Being from another but we must distinguish between the being of Essence and that of the Person the first the Son hath of it self and the second of the Father They farther object he that is Mediator with the God of Israel is not the God of Israel himself for if it were so three Absurdities say they would follow the first God would be inferiour to himself 2dly God would pray to himself 3dly the Party offended shall be Mediatour with himself but to the first we answer Tho' God be Mediator it followeth not he is inferiour to himself for tho' upon the account of the Office he that is a Mediator be inferiour to him whom he intercedeth with yet he is not thereby inferiour in Nature for even among Men one Equal doth intercede with his Equals As to the second the Son prayeth to God for us according to his Humane Nature tho' we exclude not the Divine from interceding for it belongs to it in as much as it is the Eternal Will of the Son that the Father would by reason of his Sacrifice receive us into Favour the Prayers and Submission belong to Humane Nature but the Divine maketh them effectual both Natures being united in one Person The Divine was united with the Humane mediately in the Person of the Son but the same Person was immediately united to Humane Nature As to the third it were absurd indeed if the Party offended was Mediator when there is but one Person offended but where several Persons are offended there is no Absurdity if by their common Consent one of those offended Persons offereth satisfaction for the Offender and to reconcile and in this Case it could not be otherwise for it was required that the Reconciler should be God and 't is but a Cavil to say that he with whom the Son is not Mediator could not be reconciled and that the Son was not Mediator with himself or with the Holy Ghost but only with the Father for first not only he is reconciled and appeased by the Mediator with whom the Son performeth the Office of Mediator but also they that are joyn'd and about it agreed with him wherefore seeing in every thing the Will of Father Son and Holy Ghost be agreed it followeth that through the Merit and Satisfaction of the Mediator the Father being fully satisfied the Son and Holy Ghost are so too I add as to the second it is not absurd as they think that the Son should be Mediator with himself for the Son of God doth the Office of Mediator in both Capacities for as God being one with the Father he receiveth us into Favour and as he is Mediator according to both Natures so as he is God manifested in the Flesh by reason of his Merit and Satisfaction we are received into favour and although this being received into favour be common to Father Son and Holy Ghost yet the Mediator is said to intercede for us with the Father who is consider'd as the Spring of all Divine Counsels and Operations who being willing that the Son should satisfie for our Sins and that by vertue of that satisfaction our Sins should be forgiven it is not possible for the Son to will and do otherwise to this purpose makes what the Apostle saith about our being reconciled to God by Jesus Christ and what the Evangelist writeth he that hath my commandments 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20 21 and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him John 14.21 23. to the same effect doth tend what is said in another place of Christ who when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high So then the Son is appeased Heb. 3.3 and forgiveth our sins receiveth us into favour and giveth us Eternal Life upon the account of his own satisfaction The Father Son and Holy Ghost do the same by reason of the satisfaction given by the Son In the mean while in relation to the Son who for his own sake receiveth us t is call'd his Will in relation to the Father 't is call'd Mediation or Intercession therein the Will of the Son in order of the Person and Divine Working doth follow the Will of the Father Hence it appeareth how they do ill to confound the Divine Nature of Christ under his Office of Mediator as such according to his Humane Nature he pray'd to the Father and taught us a form of Prayer that we should call upon the Father through the Mediator yet he thereby never intended to exclude or deprive himself of his own Due or Right there is no Contradiction to worship the Father in the Face and thorough the Intercession of the Mediator for we worship the Father not in his Person only but of the whole Nature and Christ in John 5.22 as in the form of Baptism proposeth himself to be worshipped for Adoration is not confined in the Person of the Father only They say If the Father be greater than Christ then he is not God equal with the Father but Christ saith John 14.28 the father is greater than I Therefore is not God equal with the Father in this place Christ speaketh not of his Divine Nature but of his Office the Father doth send and the Son is sent and though he be less as to his Humanity he is equal in relation to his Divinity Wherefore I answer Christ is less than his Father in respect to his Humane Nature which he assumed with the Infirmity thereof Sin excepted for he was hungry weary sorrowful and the like and we read he wept tho' never that he laughed but before that Assumption of the Flesh he had a Being of another Nature which can be no
other but Divine as it appeareth of what Scripture saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not Heb. 10.5 but a body hath thou prepared me He certainly need have had a Being before this natural Body was prepared for him me then he was a Person before the Body This Inferiority must be understood of his Person in that voluntary humiliation of his in his state of exinanition yet this his being inferiour to the Father in respect of his Humanity doth not at all take away the equality between him and the Father in relation to his divine Nature for he is the Word Son of God tho' when he was made Flesh he was made that which he was not before with assuming human and mortal Nature yet he still remained that which he was before namely God blessed for ever there was no addition diminution or alteration in his divine Nature but continued the same Person of the most holy Trinity begotten of the Father from all Eternity Christ is less than the Father in respect to his Office of Mediatour We are in Covenant with God not upon our account but upon that of Câ—â—â—st who is thus become the Head of all Men that are in covenant with God and in relation to this he is called the Mediatour of the New Testament Heb. 9.15 wherefore we must observe how in Scripture the Lord Jesus is said to be made Lord and Châ—ist Acts 2.36 but never said to be made God which things are very different for by Nature God is Lorâ— but Christ by Will and Appointment in respect of his Personal Dominion and of the Oeconomical Kingdom belonging to his Mediatorship He is God absolutely but Lord and Christ relatively unto us God essentially and Christ accidentally In this last sense he was anointed with that Oyl and Gifts of the Holy Ghost for in the other sense he wanted no such thing he was not anointed simply as God but as Christ a Prophet a Priest and a King for our sake and for our good And all places in Scripture wherein the Father is said to be greater than Christ to be the Head of Christ to have made Christ Lord to have exalted and anointed him and the like ought to be taâ—â—en in this sense that is in regard of his human Nature and Mediatorship and not as to the divine for when this is spoken of our Saviour himself saith I and my Father are one John 10.30 there is no difference either in Nature or Power After this manner also is to be understood that place John 5.22 27. wherein the Father is said to have committed all judgment unto the Son and given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man which hath a relation to his Office of Mediatorship in the Government of the Church and Judgment over the Enemies thereof His essential Kingdom he hath of himself but this dispensatory one from the Father not because he is the Son of God but because he is the Son of Man which reason tends to breed in us Comfort and Assurance in that we are to be judged by a Man one who having taken our Nature with its Infirmities Sin excepted will compassionate us for he was tempted as we are and in human Judgments 't is a Privilege to be â—ry'd by his Peers and Equals that is of the same â—ank and condition with us In this sense ought also to be taken the place where it is said The Son also shall be subject unto him that put all things ander him 1 Cor. 15.28 and deliver up the Kingdom into his hands the Kingdom of ruling governing and preserving of the Church This giving or dellvering up of the Kingdom is no sign of inequality for as the Son is to give it up to the Father so the Father gave it up to him without any diminution of his Power neither shall the Son receive any diminution of his he shall deliver it in a perfect Oeconomical administration having overcome all Enemies and brought all his Elect to be crowned with Glory so there will be no more to do no need of being a King in that respect By the words Then shall the Son himself be subicel is to be understood the account he is to give of his administration thereof and this is a kind of subjection which shall be swallowed up in that perfect Happiness wherein God will be all in all no more Enemies to fight no more need of a Mediator But for their last gasp they reserve a frivolous and insignificant Exception for some of them say our Arguments are not coherent sometimes we plead for Unity at other times for a Trinity but we form our Arguments according to the nature of the Matters and the Principles of those whom we do dispute against Against the Gentiles and Heathens we prove That there is but one true God against the Jews That besides God the Father there is also another Person namely the Son of God who is also true God We are to deal against several Adversaries to this truth Arrians Sabellians Samosatenians Socinians Tritheists c. and accordingly we frame our Arguments suitably with the Principles of those whom we dispute against If I deal against Gentiles my Arguments must not be drawn out of Scripture which they receive not but from natural Reason and out of the Writings of their Philosophers and other Authors as St. Paul did in Athens Acts 17.28 So if against Samaritans I must argue only out of the Pentatench or five Books of Moses If against Jews only out of the Old Testament because they own not the New and so of the rest This is the substance of what they say in opposition to these Heavenly Truths which to compass they are not ashamed to wrest Scriptures to force upon them a sense contrary to the Design of the Spirit of God and to the Analogy of Faith and in order to form a detestable System whereby they do what they can to overthrow the whole foundation of our holy Religion not only they for many Years rack'd their own Brains to extract all the Poyson which Satan could infuse and 〈◊〉 â—own natural Corruption suggest but also called for Help upon the most infamous and abominable Hereticks that ever were in the Christian World and out of all made a Quintessence of all that erroneously impiously or blasphemously can be forg'd or said against the Divine Nature Attributes Persons and Grace of God Yet not wholly trusting to this they have set up a Diana a God-Idol of their own even their own natural Reason that where abusing Scripture cannot serve the turn their unreasonable Imaginations may do 't wherein they seem to scorn being guided by the Word of God where it doth not answer their Ends but divine things must not be measured by our shallow Capacity And if we believe Scripture to be the Word of God then we must receive that which God teaches us therein and we must not
expressed in Scripture the omission whereof is look't upon as a most heinous sin deserving the heaviest judgments see what character is given of those who neglect it The workers of iniquity have not called upon God Psal 53.4 'T is such a sin as deserveth no less than the wrath of God Pour out thy wrath upon the Kingdoms that have not called upon thy name And as for me Psal 79.6 saith David in another place and all that truely fear God with him I give my self unto prayer Psal 109.4 So that the best commendation under the Old and New Testaments that can be given of a man is what the Lord said to Ananias of Paul Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth and how good a success Cornclius his prayers were crowned withall the Angel declared it unto him thy prayers are come up for a memorial before God Chap. 10.4 And it would prove a long work for one to demonstrate the necessity and excellency of that duty which I may say doth in some respect include every other thing which men owe God and hence we may conclude what a transcendent Eminency there is in Christ no less than his divinity seeing he is the proper object of a duty to be rendered to the only true God Unto the Lord Jesus as his due it is ascribed in the two branches thereof namely Prayer and Praise by Prayer we ask of Christ or of God through Christ the things we want and by Praise or Thanksgiving we return him thanks for what we received Call upon me in time of trouble Psal 50.15 I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me wherein both parts are contained how many Prayers doth that chosen Vessel Paul put up to God and to Christ and how often in his Epistles doth he give thanks With us Prayer and Adoration differ not formaly only as to the Manner Order and like Circumstances but are the same in Nature diversified only according to occasion but still remaining the same as to the Essence Eyes Hands and Hearts not being lifted up upon any thing under Heaven where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father Socinians do thus distinguish between Adoration and Invocation the first signifieth only a reverent bowing to any one the last includeth a religious suing for help that is to be performed even by all Angels as being commanded and necessary but this only by men voluntarily yet lawful and expedient the ground of the first in Christ is Majesty as Power is of the last Thus they always clip one thing or other of his Prerogatives as if Men and Angels were not equally bound to adore and worship him for where we find let all the Angels of God worship him there 't is also written let all men honour the Son even as they honour the Father and men are as well commanded to act their part as Angels are to do theirs The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original to worship is in the New Testament no where used but for the Religious Worship due to God alone and when 't is mentioned as done unto any but God it is remembred as their Idolatry as Rev. 13.12 15. or to forbid it as chap. 19.10 and 22.9 So the worship which God commanded Angels to render his Son is Religious by Virtue of his Authority which alone can make 〈◊〉 worship Religious Christ at his very first coming into the world and not only after his Assension was a fit object of adoration Now out of Scripture we prove how Christ was called upon and prayed to Acts 7.59 they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit He calls him Lord and God he was not the only one that called upon him though the circumstance of his being a dying when no help in men makes it very considerable many others called upon him for this description is made of Christians and Believers Acts 9.13.14 that they called upon him Thus Ananias Lord he hath authority Saul from the chief Priests to bind all that call on thy name all that made a profession of the Gospel Most of his Epistles Paul begins with wishing Grace Peace and Mercy not only from God the Father but also from the Lord Jesus Christ and often the same Epistles he concludeth thus the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all which is nothing else but to call upon him for Favour and Mercy for whosoever wisheth any one Grace and Peace from Christ thereby prayeth to Christ to bestow grace and favour upon such an one 2 Cor. 12.8 9. and in plain and clear terms he called upon and prayed to Christ For this thing I besought the Lord thrice and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness This is to speak as God doth not only Paul called upon the Lord Jesus but saith there were some in every place that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1.2 to whom all as to the Church in Corinth he directed his Epistle And no wonder if they who are desirous of their spiritual wellfare do call upon the name of the Lord for he is so rich unto all that call upon him that he hath entailed Salvation upon the performance of that duty which I speak not as of my self Rom. 10.12 13. Acts 2.21 but two Apostles will be bound for it For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved saith one And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved saith another Joel 2.32 and both have a Prophet for security of what they say Now Prayer is a religious duty to be directed to none but to God all this is example But the reason is this he without whom we cannot call upon the Father must also be called upon but the Father we cannot call upon without Christ John 14.6 because none can come unto the Father but by him and he is the way But here is a command besides Chap. 16.24 hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall receive There is a place in Scripture where three parts of worship due to Christ Acts 22.16 are contained and now saith Ananias unto Paul why tarriest thou be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord in all three is the name of the Lord the first and last are plain but Faith is mean't by washing away sins which are washed when forgiven now our sins are forgiven when we are justified through faith in Christ Chap. 26.18 or when we are sanctified by faith that is in him Against this 't is argued out of the Preface of the Lord's Prayer our Father that there 't is spoken of the Father exclusively to the Son But in that place as in several others the word Father is not taken Personally but