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A41567 The true character of the spirit and principles of Socinianism, drawn out of their writings With some additional proofs of the Most Holy Trinity, of our Lord's and of the Holy Ghost's divinity. By J. Gailhard, Gent. Gailhard, J. (Jean) 1699 (1699) Wing G130; ESTC R213338 180,830 207

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the old ones After what I hitherto observed of them and of their Principles these following things I offer to the Serious consideration of the Reader but more especially to that of the Government and Magistracy which are more immediatly concern'd First That our Controversies against Socinians are not about indifferent things or few Ceremonies but concerning the most Fundamental Truths of our Holy Religion for the Doctrines of the Trinity of two Natures in Christ of his Satisfaction of the Grace and Providence of God are not Problematical nor meerly School disputes but of the necessity of Christian Faith I also affirm that Socinians are Christians only in Name not really and in Truth for they own not Christ for what he is and if the * Athan. orat 3.4 cont Arian Ancient Doctors of the Church reckoned the Arians among the Gentiles so we now may account Socinians to be Constantine the Great made an Edict forbidding the Porphyrians to be call'd Christians and that all their Books should be Burnt so this were the proper Course to suppress those of Socinians but instead of that they are suffered not only daily to Print new ones but also to Reprint old ones and thus not only here at home but also to have them from abroad Socinians do not truly confess Christ seeing they deny he hath Divine Nature and make of him but a secondary God an Idol and a Creature God then which nothing more absurd I farther say they ought not to be suffered to have Communion with the Church because they do not together with us know own and Worship the true God who is Father Son and Holy Ghost but they pretend to Worship one first God the Father and another inferiour God made such that is the Son moreover they lay another foundation than that is laid 1 Cor. 3.11 for instead of Christ who is a Divine Person with two Natures they set up another Person who is a meer Man seeing than they lay another Foundation deny Christ Son of God to be come in the Flesh and do not adore him with us for such as he is than we may have no Brotherly Communication with them than they have not with us the same washing of the Blood of Christ and do not believe therewith to be Purged and Sanctify'd for they deny his Satisfaction that he hath laid down a Price to Redeem us they farther deny or depravate the causes and means of our Salvation and are guilty of Idolatry for paying a Religious Worship to him who is not God by Nature and though they would be thought to be Disciples of Jesus Christ yet they deny his Person and betray his Truth I add they Love not Christ and against such 1 Cor. 16.22 the Apostle pronounces Anathema for they Blaspheme against him they pretend to love him only as a Creature when he should be loved as Creator then they are not Pious for such cannot be said to live piously who deprive the true God Father Son and Holy Ghost of the Honour due to him and they are highly mistaken when they would make civil honesty to be Christian Piety and the true knowledge of God and a constant profession thereof not to be a necessary part of Piety They ought not to be suffered in a Christian State so as to have liberty of Conscience with free exercise of and teaching or publishing their Blasphemous and Impious Opinions because they overthrow the foundation of Christian Religion to the dishonour of God's Holy Name seduction of Souls and disturbance of the Church and as 't is a Collection of fundamental Heresies so to tolerate Socinians is thereby to tolerate all those Heresies whereby God's Judgments are drawn upon Nations wherefore Pious Christian Emperours and Kings to promote the Glory of God ever took care to suppress Heresies and Blasphemies as the Ecclesiastical Histories do fully prove it and thereupon let Justinian's Code be consulted against the Heresies of Photinus and of Paulus Samosatenus which Socinians do openly profess Now the Churches in Poland according to the three several Protestant Confessions there will have no Communion with Socinians who at several times were thence banished by their Kings In Holland * In 1598. the States-General having about Socinus asked the Opinion of Junius Trecaltius and Gomarus three Eminent Divines at Leyden the answer was He is no Christian but half Turk for Christians do believe one God with a distinction of Persons but the Mehometan Religion is for one God without distinction of Persons so are Socinians the Judgment of these three Divines agrees † Voidov Ostorod in Apol. in 1600. not only with the truth but also with the general consent of Christians against the Order of the States-General by vertue of which their Blasphemous Books were burnt at the Hague and they Banish'd out of their Dominions they unjustly complain'd and that act they compared with the Spanish Inquisition which here is their usual Discourse and Question will ye bring an Inquisition upon us and as then so now they would plead it to be the interest of the State to tolerate them whereof the contrary I sufficiently proved besides that Religion is against it whose Voice is to be heard sooner than that of false Reason neither ought God's cause to be made a Sacrifice of to any wordly interest among the Burnt Books in Holland was Ostorodus's Manuscript against Tradelius wherein he called Christ's Satisfaction an invention of the Trinitarians according to the place of his where he calls it a false childish ridiculous and blasphemous errour like an old Womens Superstitious and Popish Fable Certainly Men who have so obstinate an hatred of the Truth such mean Thoughts of and Contempt for him who is the way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14.6 are a shame to a Nation a Reproach to a People and a Scandal to Religion also Dangerous because they lose no Opportunity of Publishing their erroneous Opinions and their being supported makes them the bolder therefore 't is wish'd as indeed there is a necessity for it to see our Springs cleared as from Idolatry so from Blasphemy Papists who are great Idolaters are I thank God by Law excluded from having any hand in the Legislative or Executive Powers and 't is but fit that Blasphemers Socinians who confidently brag of their Errours should be so too The Receiver is as bad as the Thief I remember a Blasphemer here James Naylor to stand at the Pilory have his Tongue bored thorough in the Forehead Branded with the Letter B and Condemned during Life to be in Prison without Pen Ink or Paper and though about those times unhappily sprung up several Sects yet general care was ever taken of the main and Fundamentals of Religion even in the Army where was the greatest Latitude allowed for in their Laws and Ordinances of War the first Article was against Blasphemy in these very Words First let no Man presume to Blaspheme the Holy and
Blessed Trinity God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost nor the known Articles of our Christian Faith upon pain to have his Tongue bored with a Red-Hot Iron and in the Humble Petition and Address of the Officers of the Army to the Parliament signed on Thursday May 12. 1659 and presented by Eighteen of the Chief of them though at that time they were grown High and Sawcy yet in their Petitioning for Liberty of Conscience they excluded those that were against the most Holy Trinity and the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as 't is in the 6th Article thus That all Persons who Profess Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God and in the Holy Spirit God Co-equal with the Father and the Son one God Blessed for ever And do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Revealed or Written Word or Will of God shall not be restrained from their Profession c. Which plainly imports that those who deny the Holy Trinity c. should be restrained in the same Article they also exclude from that Liberty Popery or any that held forth Licentiousness or Prophaness under the Profession of Religion These things not usual to come from an Army were very good Also the late Act of Toleration which in the latter part of this Discourse I shall have occasion to make use of excludes all Anti-Trinitarians from the benefit of it And Hobb's Leviathan was in October 1666. Condemned by the Parliament in their Bill against Atheism and Prophaneness And both that and his Book de Cive by the Convocation in July 21. 1683. all this shews how from time to time and upon occasion here care hath been taken justly to punish Blasphemers that they might learn not to Blaspheme and be made an example to others for they are a publick raging Plague destructive wheresoever they be not to be suffered to profess and publish their Blasphemies in any Christian State or Society When God's time is come and he will be pleased to incline the Hearts and over-rule the Councils of Men to stand against Blasphemy Prophaneness and Immorality which all except Blasphemers Prophane and Immoral Livers will do then the nature of them that are guilty thereof and whom we do and shall complain against till there be a relief must well be considered to make the remedy effectual experience shews them to be proud willful obstinate and insolent strong mouthed therefore require strong curbs and to be hard bound in order to it 't is humbly conceived and with possible respect submitted to the judgment of Superiours how the words of a new Law when enacted ought to be full and plain that when it comes to be executed there be no ground left for difficulties and exceptions so that therein the end of the Law be sufficiently express'd and the things 't is intend against clearly set down 't is but to dally with and flatter the distemper not to lay strict and sensible penalties upon all that speak writ or otherwise directly or indirectly do oppose the Truth and appear for the Sin First the Authors Abettors Fomenters Printers or other Publishers ought to feel the severity of the Law not only in a privative way as to be made incapable of any publick charge or office whatsoever in Church or State but also to strike a terrour and come nearer home to inflict Money penalties and the like for the fear of a pecuniary mulct will work upon some Men whether Author's Printers or Publishers but as 't is not enough to punish the Persons but also the things must be suppress'd thereupon a Prohibition to Print any more New Pamphlets and Books tending to Propagate Heresy and Blasphemy is as necessary as the Burning or otherwise Destroying those which already are abroad no Bookseller under such a Penalty should be allowed to have any in his Shop not to distribute any either publickly or in private those that are abroad should be called in and Publickly Burnt and none few excepted be allowed to keep any no more than they are to have Treasonable Books and against the State This would make People have a care how they meddle with such things Lastly to make a Law more Effectual it requires great and severe penalties against those who are to execute the Law as Justices of the Peace Constables and others concern'd if they neglect it the executive part is the Life and Soul of the Law without which 't is insignificant we already have several Laws in force against Blasphemy Prophaneness and immorality whereof an abstract was publish'd not long ago 't is both pity and a shame they are not put in execution and no body punish'd for want of it a good new Act to revive them all would much tend to the Glory of God the Church's Good the Honour and Happiness of the Nation to encourage Piety and Vertue and to suppress all manner of Sin whether in Doctrine or Practice We read of the ten Plagues of Egypt and we complain of the like number of the Adversaries evil Practices which in matters controverted between them and us they plague the World with as since their beginning they ever did and now continue to do there is hardly any prospect to hope that in time to come they will alter for thorough a long custom they in their Hearts where the plague lyeth have turn'd it into an habit they want Sincerity and deal not fairly thus to make them appear in their own colours and shew how much they prevaricate we charge them with the ten following things First they wrest God's Word to confirm their Doctrines instead of examining their Doctrines by that word according to the Analogy of Faith and the general consent of the Christian Church Secondly they introduce strange perverse unheard of and condemn'd Senses and Interpretations contrary to the usual signification of the words and phrases of Scripture and to the Scope of the Texts Thirdly they take the liberty at their pleasure to alter and change the full stops Commas Colons Letters Syllables and whole words and this to set up their Doctrines and false Interpretations as also at sometimes they add at others they take away to serve their ends which in maters of Religion is what in civil ones we call to forge and falsify deeds a very infamous thing but worse in matters of Religion because to the falsehood are join'd Impiety and Sacrilege Fourthly to the light of Revelation they oppose that of Human Reason which is dark weak deceitful and fallible as by experience we find in Humane and Natural Things but the other is clear certain infallible and leading us to the knowledge of the Truth Points of Faith must not be examined by Humane Reason which is often contrary to it Fifthly they digg up out of their Graves ancient and condemn'd Heresies to revive them like a new Plague to be spread again over the
Baptist no mention at all of them till after their Birth only John Baptist's was foretold not long before but not a word of any thing he did before he was Born 1 Cor. 10.4.9 as we read of Christ that He was the Rock that follow'd the People in the Wilderness that he was tempted by them c. And in what the Angel said to Zacharias of the Birth of a Son mention is made of our Saviour Luk. 1.16 by the name of the Lord God of the Children of Israel many of the Children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God and who this Lord God is 't is imply'd in these words He shall go before him that is the Lord their God in the spirit and power of Elias Now that John Baptist went before the Lord Jesus To prepare the way of the Lord and make straight the way for our God that is the God of Israel it appears out of Isaiah Isai 40.3 compar'd with Malachy 4.6 fulfilled Matth. 3.3 Mark 1.3 Luke 3.4 John 1.23 Wherein we see how the four Evangelists take notice of the Prophecy and fullfilling thereof in relation to our blessed Saviour all which proves him to be true God by Nature and consequently that he had a Being before he was Born of the Virgin Upon this point the Harmony of two Prophets with the Evangelist is so considerable that some things more I must observe about it The true God of Israel speaks by Malachy chap. 3.1.7 10 11 12 14. c. and in a Chapter which is much to our purpose at several times calls himself The Lord of Hosts who is the same that ver 1. saith Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me This is a Prophecy about John Baptist Messenger to the Lord of Hosts before whom he was to prepare the way observe first he that speaks and will send is the Lord of Hosts he that is to be sent is his Messenger and he that is to come is the Lord of Hosts who speaks and will send his Messenger before me in Person not by Proxy We know John Baptist prepared the way not before God the Father of whom in Scripture we never read that he was to come into the World but before the Lord Jesus Christ his Son whose fore-runner he was therefore Jesus Christ is plainly the Lord of Hosts who is the true Eternal God who under the name of Shiloh and Messiah was to come and actually did few Months after John Baptist's Birth chap. 4.2 In the last Chap. is renew'd the promise of Christ's coming under the name of the Sun of Righteousness that should arise with healing in his wings and of John Baptist under the name of Elijah ver 5. Matth. 17.12 13. Luk. 1.16 before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord that is of Christ who call'd John by the name of Elias because said the Angel he shall go before him that is in the foregoing Verse The Lord God of Israel spoken of Christ whom John went before in the spirit and power of Elias that is with the same fervent Zeal which Elias was acted by and in that Spirit saith the Prophet He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children Mal. 4.6 Which are the very words by the Angel spoken to Zacharias Malachy calls Christ who was to come Luk. 1.17 The Lord the Lord of Hosts a peculiar and proper Attribute of the Almighty and Eternal God and the Angel names him the Lord God of Israel Let to this the other Prophet's Testimony be joyn'd Isai 40.3.4 5. The voice of him that cryeth in the Wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord c. which is Parallel to the other and by which John Baptist is design'd for unto himself he apply'd it he whose way he was to prepare Joh. 1.23 is call'd the Lord and our God that is of Israel at whose coming the glory of the Lord shall be revealed The Lord God of Israel was to come himself and when he was come his Glory was reveal'd the Son of God under the name of Jesus Christ came himself and when he came the Glory was reveal'd therefore Jesus Christ was the true God of Israel this Truth depends upon the Evidence of two Prophets and of an Angel as related by an Evangelist whereunto is joyned the Testimony of Zacharias who at that time as express'd was filled with the Holy Ghost out of all this it will appear that no Person was ever better designed nor his Titles more plainly describ'd than is in those places the coming in the Flesh of Christ the true Son of God and who he was Another place which I think doth Evidence Christ's Divinity Jo. 10.15 is this As the Father knows me even so know I the Father There is a great Emphasis in the words as and even which implies in the same manner nature and degree the comparison shews a parity in Persons or else it had been enough to have said the Father knows me and I know the Father If the Son knows the Father only in part then the Father knows the Son but in part which to assert is Impiety but if the Father knows the Son perfectly so the Son also knows the Father perfectly and as no finite Creature can perfectly know the infinite God so he that perfectly knows the infinite God must himself be infinite God such is the Lord Jesus his own Son When Thomas answered Jo. 20.28 My Lord and my God he answer'd him who spake to him that is Christ so then Thomas owned him for his Lord and his God he knew out of the Law and by what Christ had taught him that there is but one God Matth. 8.2 and 9.18 and 14.33 and 15.25 and 20.20 and 28.17 therefore he would not have called him his God and worshipped him as such if he had not believed him to be the true God of Israel To this I shall add that our Saviour who was no Friend to Idolatry suffered himself at several times as may be seen in the Margin to be Religiously worshipped that is as God and never hindred any from it but if he had not been God he would never have permitted any one to worship him as such So under the shape of a Man he had been by Abraham very long before Gen. 18.1 for we read how the Lord or Jehovah appeared to him in the plains of Mamre in ver 1. 't is positively said Jehovah but in 2 we read three men stood by him whereof one was the Lord attended by two Angels at which sight that Father of Believers bowed himself towards the ground and addressed his Speech only to one My Lord saith he if I have found favour in thy sight c. and by the Discourse that afterwards happened it plainly appears the same was the true Eternal God who promised Sarah should have a Son
God himself Psal 68.8 David witnesseth that Mount Sinai was moved or trembled at the presence of the God of Israel now certainly the Son is the Presence or Face of the God of Israel Heb. 12.26 v. 18. and he whose Voice then shook the Earth This is the same to whom in the same Psalm he saith Thow hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for Men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them which being compar'd with Ephes 4.8 shews it to have been spoken of Christ Now in the Tabernacle which was set up for the glory of God Schechina or the Son of God not only appeared sometimes but continually dwelt therein Levit. 9.23 24. chap. 1.1 Num. 1.1 Ex. 25.22 upon all occasions manifesting his Glory thence he rendered his Oracles and called unto Moses to speak unto him so that whensoever God spake unto Moses Aaron and their Successors ever it was from that place according to his own appointment R. Kimhi saith that according to the Psalm 82.1 God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty Schechina is always in the midst of the Congregation of Israel The Inscription over the Ark was this The Name of the Lord of Hosts sitteth among the Cherubims they call'd it the Glory of Israel Psal 4.22 therefore after it had been taken by the Philistines 't was said The Glory is departed from Israel Now by the Glory and Name of the Lord the * Bechai in Leg. p. 88 89. Masters of the Cabbala always understand the Messiah who is God the Face of God King David and the Mouth of Jehovah which to apply we must take notice of what John saith And we beheld his glory Joh. 1.14 the glory as of the only begotten of the Father chiefly in his Transfiguration He as said before Acts 7.2 1 Cor. 2.8 Hebr. 1.3 Matth. 19.28 25.31 is the God of Glory and the Lord of Glory also the brightness of the glory of the Father he hath in Heaven the Throne of his Glory By vertue of the Covenant made in Sinai between God and the People God in a most eminent way between the Cherubims dwelt among them as he continued to do after the Ark was lodged in the Temple he taught them either immediately by himself or by his Prophets provided for an delivered them from their Enemies and it hath been the constant Tradition of the understanding Jews † Bechai in Thor. p. 88 c. 4. that the Name of the God who dwelt in the Temple was the Schechina and as he ever was with Moses upon all occasions to help and strengthen him So after his Death he said to Joshua Josh 1.5 As I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not fail thee nor forsake thee as both a Prophet to guide and direct and as a King by his power to defend him If we may look back to the ground of this series of Divine Dispensations we must know that from Eternity God Father Son and Holy Ghost decreed to bring many Sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 as the Apostle calls it which the Son undertook to execute and so under the Old Testament he at several times and to several Persons declared and revealed this Will and Pleasure of God made and renewed the Promises but as the chief part of that great and glorious Design which all other means were to depend upon was the satisfaction to be given Divine Justice by the Death of the Mediator so other things before were only preparations and dispositions in order to 't to which purpose the Mosaical Law was instituted therefore as the execution was only at and after the Death of the Testator till which the Testament is of no force ch 9.9 10. so before that time under the Law was shed the Blood of Calves Goats Lambs c. instead of the Testator's till the fulness of the appointed time when that precious Blood was shed upon the Cross This I shall add how God's Covenant was for Glory and Eternity but the Law was a Medium or means as the Deliverance out of Aegypt to bring them into a Land where God in a most eminent and excellent way might dwell among teach and make himself well known to them in and by the Son who is the Wisdom and the Power of God about this the Psalmist well observes Ps 147.20 He hath not dealt so with any Nation As indeed he through the Spirit of God was so exact an observer of things relating to the Messiah whom according to God's promise he knew should come out of his Family that our blessed Saviour after his Resurrection referred his Disciples not only to the Law of Moses● and to the Prophets but also to the Psalms Luke 24.44 to know the things concerning him for therein are spoken of his God-head Eternal Generation Covenant with the Father his Humanity Sufferings Death Resurrection Ascension into Heaven distribution of gifts among Men his Kingly Prophetical and Priestly Offices and his Victory over his Enemies All this I brought in to shew how according to the Doctrine of the Antient Jews the Schechina or Meniah was the Son of God had a Being and acted from the beginning not of the Gospel but of the World and thus in the Godhead they made a distinction of Persons And if Socinians will own the Lord Jesus to be the Christ then either with the antient Jews they must own him to have been and acted from the beginning of the Creation and so to have had a Being long before his Birth of the Virgin or else they must joyn with the Modern Jews deny him to be the Messiah and thus proclaim themselves to be no Christians nay Idolaters and such as neither know nor worship the true God for he that owns not and worshippeth not Father Son and Holy Ghost doth not own nor worship the true God but they plainly deny the Holy Ghost and in effect deny the Son which is very hard and unworthy Because the Son of God for our sake was pleased to take upon him our Humane Nature some Men unthankfully and impiously go about to strip him of his Divine On our behalf he humbled himself and for that some Men undervalue him as if their Eye was Evil because he is good We reckon several Ages of the Church whereof every one affords Demonstrations of the Son of God her Head's Presence and Actings for her The first is of her Birth and Childhood from the Creation to the Flood the second her first Infancy from the Flood to Moses when she began to gather a Youthful Strength by means of God's special Favour to and Presence among them in that signal and eminent way of the Son of God's dwelling in the Sanctuary which David calls Goings and Actings when he saith Ps 68.24 v. 7 8. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my
't is spoken of the same two Persons whom the Name Lord belongs to The Father's Person is but one but the Father's and Son's Persons are two Persons yet but one Jehovah or Lord with this difference That as the Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son so the Son doth Administer and Execute all Judgment in the World commanding and making use of this Authority sometimes under the Name of the Angel before whom stood Joshua cloathed with filthy Garments Now that this Angel was really and truly God it appears by his commanding of his own Authority Joshua's filthy Garments to be taken away from him and by his saying to him Behold I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee which none but the true God can say or do for none can forgive sins but God alone which is a Phrase equivalent to this I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee this more and more appears out of what is contained in verses 6 and 7. And the Angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua thus saith the Lord of Hosts If thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my House and shalt also keep my Courts Who but the true God can speak after this manner And that no ground should be left to doubt of this Truth that same Angel calls himself the Lord of Hosts for the Angel of the Lord protested saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts as if he had said I who am the Lord of Hosts protest unto thee If thou wilt c. then I promise thee so and so c. this is the proper style of him who absolutely is Lord and Master of all Hence we may learn another thing which is that Joshua being the High-priest was a Type of Jesus Christ our High-priest in things pertaining to Salvation who as Peter saith His own self bare our sins which are the filthy garments spoken of by the Prophet in his Body 1 Pet. 2 24. and which by his Death having made a full Atonement for he was cloathed with change of Raiment or with his own Righteousness Heb. 1.3 And when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high But farther to prove his Divinity here I shall bring in two Arguments which no where else I made use of before The first is this All men that is meerly men and no more than men are Sinners but Christ is no Sinner therefore Christ is no meer man but more than a man According to Rules this Argument is in Mode and Figure and both of these Propositions can fully and unanswerably be proved out of God's Word As to the Major 't is made good in two ways first by positive Assertions secondly by Examples The first hath two Branches whereof one is That every man is originally a sinner by nature for human Nature is sinful and corrupt the other is That every man is an actual sinner for as said before as at first the Person infected the Nature so since the Nature hath infected the Persons for by one man sin entered into the world Rom. 5.12.24 and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned though not every one after the similitude of Adam's transgression and when David saith Psal 5.3 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me he meaneth it of all men as well as of himself for without any difference or exception Ephes 2.3 we are all children of wrath even as others As for the other part That every man is an actual sinner 1 Kings 8.46 Jam. 3.2 't is plain for there is no man that sinneth not and Paul saith All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and another Apostle saith In many things we offend all wherefore in Scripture sometimes men are call'd by the Epithet of sinners and sinful But in Scripture the Holy Ghost is not satisfied to affirm every man to be a sinner but he therein gives Instances of and mentions the sins of the best and greatest Servants of God Adam's sin I shall not name which whole Mankind has cause to remember with a witness but I shall take notice of Noah's Drunkenness Gen. 9.21 chap. 19. chap. 12. and 20. chap. 26. chap. 43.15 Gen. 45.13 Exod. 4. Ps 106.33 James 5. Act. 15.39 of Lot's Drunkenness and Incest of the Mistrust and Dissembling of Abraham twice the like of Isaac of Joseph's learning to swear by the Life of Pharaoh with something of vanity in him when he said to his Brethren You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt of Moses's Refractoriness to obey God when he commanded him to go to the Children of Israel in Egypt and to Pharaoh and his Unadvisedness so Job's Impatience David's Adultery and Murther Solomon's Idolatry and that zealous Servant of God Elias was subject to like Passions as we are so Peter's Denyal Paul and Barnabas Falling out about no great Matter In few words every Servant of God had their Flaws and therefore in a way of defiance Solomon asketh Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Now I unquestionably proved every man to be a sinner Now must I prove the Minor Proposition of my Argument That the Lord Jesus is no sinner which to do is an easie task He never was nor is a sinner for though he assumed our human sinful Nature yet by the immediate working of the Holy Ghost which sanctified that part of the Substance of the Virgin out of which was form'd our Saviour's Body it was preserved from natural corruption wherefore the Apostle calls him Heb. 7.26 holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners And as he ever was free from Original so he never committed any Actual sin which made him defie the Jews thus Joh. 8.46 Heb. 4.15 Which of you convinceth me of sin None could for though he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin 1 Pet. 1.19 therefore the Apostle calls him a Lamb without blemish and without spot and in the next Chapter he adds who did no sin chap. 2.22 1 Joh. 3.5 neither was guile found in his mouth and in him was no sin saith another Apostle which Truth I look upon as undeniably proved And so from the Premises I may well conclude That seeing the Lord Jesus is a Man yet not a sinner he must needs be no meer Man but more than a Man and so God and Man if he had been a meer Man ut sic reduplicative he also had been a sinner but seeing he is not a sinner then he is not a meer Man In this case any consideration drawn from Angels is not pertinent for the question is only of Divine and Humane Nature not of the Angelical for He took not on him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he
call'd will help to strike the Nail farther into the Head of those proud and unchristian Sisera's Unbelievers I may also call them seeing they refuse to believe the true God of Israel when he speaks of his Son who under the Name of this Angel he promised should go before them Ex. 32.34 Mine Angel shall go before thee And in the next Chapter God calls him his Presence ch 33.14 or his Face God hath many Angels but in a most special manner that he calls his but God hath not many Faces 2 Cor. 4.6 only one and that is the Face of Jesus Christ in whom only is the knowledge of the glory of God for God giveth the knowledge of his glory only in him Because he is the express Image of his Heb. 1.3 the Father's Person Those two Texts in the Old Testament compared with and explained by these two in the New shew that the Lord Jesus the proper Son of God went before and guided his People in the Wilderness so pre-existed the time of his Birth of the Virgin and that it may not be said of any Creature that the glory of God is in his Face or that he is the express Image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of his glory as the Beam is the brightness of the glory of the Sun In my way towards a Conclusion I shall by the grace of God briefly bring in some few Texts which do explain and confirm the great Truths now in question some I elsewhere have taken notice of however I now shall add something to what I then said but others I shall mention which I did not before but this I shall premise In the Apostle John's Days who lived to a very Old Age sprang up some Heresiarks as Simon the first of all Cerinthus Ebion and Menander who deny'd the Divinity of Christ as now Socinians do This moved the Apostle to assert and vindicate it as in his Gospel Epistles and Revelation he hath done so fully that if there were no other Books left of the New Testament there is in them abundantly enough to certifie and confirm that Heavenly Truth as out of several places in his Writings I sufficiently demonstrated in my Book against the Blasphemies of Socinianism which he doth so plainly and so often that we must take notice how the Holy Ghost by his Pen intended chiefly and strongly to suggest to and convince Men of the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion namely that the Lord Jesus is the proper Son of God 1 Joh. 5.5.9 10 11 12 13 20. and to the end that great Truth may make a deep impression upon the Souls of Men in one Chapter in no less than seven Verses he emphatically calls him the Son of God and v. 10 he is twice so called so twice in the 13th and that in such a manner so sensibly and with such Circumstances as denote a true proper and natural kind of Son-ship and he is so earnest upon 't may be all that time having in his Eye the Blasphemy of those Hereticks as to charge those who deny Christ to be the Son of God and believe not in him to make God a Lyar who is the God of Truth the highest Blasphemy that the Devil can infuse into Men For saith he he that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar He saith wherein Because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And what is that Record Besides his Commission in sending him into the World and the Works attended with so many Miracles and Wonders which the Father gave him to finish and to the evidence of which our Saviour did appeal we have it in his Baptism in a most eminent and special manner for the Father bare record of him when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Certainly God spoke absolutely truly and properly and not Metaphorically improperly and by a Figure not my Son according to the Flesh spiritually or only in some respect but simply my Son that is begotten of my substance and of the same Nature with me as a Son ought to be and is of the same Nature with the Father Volkel l. 5. c. 12. whose only begotten he is which is the proper signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a Socinian would corrupt and render by that of Most beloved to enervate the strength of it The Priests Philosophers and Poets among the Heathen either out of Noah's or Abraham's Schools or by some other way had a kind of dark knowledge of this Truth which for want of Revelation they understood not therefore did hide it under Fables and Lies as may be that of Mercury Jupiter's Son and Messenger of Pallas born out of his Head but for Socinians who have God's Word so positively affirming this Truth 't is for them the unpardonable sin of Unbelief which sinks them into Atheism for whosoever knoweth not and worshipeth not the true God he is without God and all who deny Father Son and Holy Ghost to be the true God know not the true God poor Wretches who presume with the Line of their shallow Brain and weak Reason to fathom the deep things of God which prompts them to put several impertinent rash and blasphemous Questions how short do they fall of the Modesty Sobriety and Wisdom of an Heathen Sextus the Pythagorean who said Concerning God inquire of nothing but what thou mayst lawfully say nothing of God but what thou hast learned of God 't is better for one to lose his Life than to speak an idle word of God it is better to say nothing of God than rashly to speak of him Such Men shall at the last Day rise in Judgment against Socinians Among the Greeks Pythagoras himself made all perfection to consist in the number of three or in Trinity and Plato constituted three Principles of all things Good Understanding and the Soul or Life whereby we Christians may understand Father Son and Holy Ghost who created the World But I must go on The Centurion's Words are remarkable when he said to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed just as Scripture speaks in the matter of Creation Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood Such a Word of Command we read of in Jonah And the Lord spake unto the Fish Jonah 2.10 and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry Land which last words imply a special Providence and ordering of things for the Fish might have vomited him in the middle or the bottom of the Sea but because God would save him 't was upon dry Land But to return to the Centurion whose great Faith the Lord commended he believed and was not mistaken that our Saviour might as absolutely command Distempers and Health Death and Life as he
upon the word only they ought to take notice of a thing material to our purpose how their Notion doth not consist with the scope of the place for there the Apostle speaks not of Christ's Kingdom but of his Person call'd the brightness of the Glory and the express Image of the Father's Person Colos 1.19 so in that other A pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell 't is not spoken of the Doctrine but of the Person of Christ That sort of Men first do what they can to wrest God's Word which abominably they generally do in the Texts about Christ's Satisfaction and almost in every other Point but when they see that cannot do they fly in the Face of Holy Writers Thus * Schlichtingius one of them upon the words But a Body hast thou prepared me saith how these words the Apostle quoted not to his purpose Non necesse c. 'T is not necessary to believe that the Author in his quotation of the words had any regard unto their proper sense but had quoted them only because they were joined with others that were to his purpose Which in him is not only an ignorance of the Scope of the place but also a Reflection upon the Apostle as if he had not well known what he said and wherefore as if he at that time had not been Inspired of God which is both Prophaneness and Impiety However they cannot deny him to have been a very Rational Man but they will be for Deism or Natural Religion in opposition to Revelation If seriously and impartially we look upon Socinians we may about the things in question well compare them with the Scribes Pharisees and Sadducees that were in our Saviour's and his Apostles days as being acted by the same Evil Spirit as they were and equally full of Gall and Bitterness against the Person Honour and Doctrine of our Lord whom upon all occasions these do as the others did undervalue taking him for a meer Man and consequently for a Lyar and Impostour when he called himself true God Son of God in Power equal with the Father and one with him Thus Impiously the Jews call'd him a Samaritan who had a Devil a Seducer a Deceiver a Malefactor and a Blasphemer The Pharisees were full of Pride and Self-Conceit would pass for the only Good Knowing Wise Men in the World sat in Moses's Chair nam'd themselves his Disciples said of those who were not of their Opinion about Jesus Christ This People who knows not the law are cursed How did they use the blind-born Man when to them he spoke good Sense and Reason Thou wast altogether born in sin Joh. 9.34 and doest thou teach us Implying as if they were not born in sin but were Pure and Holy Likewise Socinians pretend to a Pharisaical Righteousness they were not born in sin for they say there is in them no Original Sin and they pretend they can in this World attain to such a Perfection as not to Sin also with the Sadducees they deny the Resurrection of the Dead at least of the Wicked so of the Good too as to the Body The Scribes and Pharisees could not deny the mighty and miraculous Works of our blessed Lord for they were Matters of Fact done not in a Corner but in many several places and in the presence of Thousands of People nay in their Council they confess'd it and said What do we For this man doth many miracles John 11.47 They could not deny their Senses but were in their Judgments convinc'd of it yet their Hearts would not be wrought upon by reason of a desperate Obstinacy but it was prepossess'd with Rage and Malice and would not yield to the Truth nor give Glory to God This is the very Case of Socinians they cannot deny the Supreme Divine Power which the Lord Jesus exerted in so many of his Actions nor absolutely deny him to be God they cannot convince him of Lye nor of any Sin They cannot be ignorant of the Testimony which more than once from Heaven the Father gave of him neither the Record which John bare of him nor that which upon several occasions he gave of himself as to his Divine Nature and Power this they cannot deny but will not confess it and hold the Truth of God in Unrighteousness whereupon we must say they are worse than the Rulers Elders Scribes Pharisees and Sadducees who upon the account of a Miracle done by Peter and John by the Power of our Saviour and in his Name said we cannot deny it Joh. 4.16.14 and they could say nothing against it but Socinians speak against it and the Truth Satan hath so filled the Heart of some of them that though they cannot deny God's Essential Names and Attributes Divine Works and Worship to belong to him yet will not own him to be true God and by Nature which is the only true God in opposition to Idols and Creatures which by Nature are not God's Gal. 4.8 But their Hearts are so perverse and set against him that notwithstanding those lights of the Truth they will not be convinced They cannot deny that Christ did cast out Devils but rather that to give him Glory for it with the Jews they wi●● forge in their Heads and Impiously say he cast them out by Beelzebub for such Cavils and Wrestings they never want which helps them to speak and write against the known Truths Julian being over taken with a signal Judgment could in 't perceive Christ'● Hand which made him cry out Thou hast overcome 〈◊〉 Galilean Though his rage could not suffer him to own he had been in the wrong and will Socinians wai● till they feel such a stroke of Christ's avenging Hand a● did the Apostate and some of their Ring-Leaders Out of these and many things more it appears how to Socinians chiefly belongs the Apostle's Saying of those who wrest some things in Paul's Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction The serious consideration of this engages the same Apostle to give those whom he writes to this necessary warning Ye therefore beloved v. 17. seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Errors of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness A most seasonable Caution in these as well as in those Times The Society of such which too often proves an occasion of falling into their abominable Heresies we also ought to avoid and this I speak not of my self but have an Apostle's Warrant for it and such a one as made it his chief business plainly and fully to assert the Divinity of the Son of God Jesus Christ our Lord 2 John 10.11 If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds 2 Cor. 5.11 And Paul forbids us
the Trinity to be as Essential in Religion as that of the Deity for not to know and believe the true God is Atheism as well as not to know and believe a God We own we may by Nature know there is a God but to know who is that true God we must depend upon Revelation which nameth Father Son and Holy Ghost whereunto our Faith must acquiesce so 't is not every Knowledge of God that can serve only the true Knowledge of him in Three Persons which to deny is Blasphemy By means of a distinction he makes of Blasphemy he would lessen and so secure it from being punish'd by the Magistrate which is the thing they chiefly aim at we know in this as in every other Sin by means of some Circumstances there is a gradual difference which makes it greater or lesser aggravates or extenuates it thus one hath in his mind evil Thoughts and blasphemous Opinions whence they pass into the heart thence come into the mouth or drop from the Pen and are set forth in Lives and Conversation these from the very Spring deserve God's Judgements for though in relation to the other degrees something of Excuse might be pleaded for as arising out of Ignorance or of a mistaken Education and that in relation to men there might be some charitable Allowance yet in regard to God they are a damnable Guilt which stands in need of Pardon that makes Paul say 1 Tim. 1.13 He obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly but as to some men as long as they confine their blasphemous Opinions in their mind and within themselves no Law nor Magistrate doth or can take notice of it but they do and ought when contrary to Gospel and Law to the Disturbance of Church or State they promote and publish and that presumptuously too those blasphemous Opinions of theirs 'T is true that herein out of mistake or partiality some things may be amiss on the executive Part however for all that it doth not follow but that a due Care must be taken to punish and suppress the Evils of Blasphemy or Heresie and they who see not a necessity of it must needs through their prejudices have a thick mist raised before their eyes and if they be not under some such Conviction it ought to be attributed to the swimming Conceit of their own Head and to a deluded or wounded Imagination or to a high Ferment of Passions But to secure themselves from Punishment for Blasphemy they pitch upon three ways the first That in express Terms of Scripture the thing ought to be declared Blasphemy which is very unreasonable because there are so many Cases that Scripture doth not express every one but 't is enough to have them implyed for Particulars are contained under Generals as we easily see it in the Ten Commandments of the Moral Law in things therein commanded or forbidden sometime 't is enough to have things deduced by good and natural Consequences this was our Saviour's way in his Dispute against the Sadducees about the Resurrection they brought their Cavils wherewith they thought to have entangled him in difficulties with their Argument drawn from the Woman who had had seven Husbands but he soon resolved the Sophism and then to prove the Point brought in his Argument not out of express words in Scripture Luke 20.27 28 29 c. but by a Deduction and good Consequence and to the Purpose for I hope Socinians who in their Disputes do follow the Cavilling way of the Sadducees though they will not own him to be true Essential God yet they dare not deny him to have been a very Rational Man If God be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who then were dead and God be the God not of the Dead but of the Living it followeth that at one time or other namely at the last Day they should be made alive which can be no otherwise than by a Resurrection Their second way is when we give them positive and express Proofs out of Scriptures then they go about to force improper and unusual Significations upon the words Their third way is sometimes to raise such unnecessary Difficulties as are very hard if not impossible to be resolved by Men thus they talk of a Self-condemned Heretick only to be punished Indeed a really Converted Heretick will declare his Sin his Sorrow for and Repentance of it but in case there be no such Self-condemning Blasphemer for it happens but very seldom though he be known to be Guilty by many Overt Acts as Discourses Pamphlets c. must he be let alone But I say that such as are Self-condemners and confess their Guilt are Objects fitter for Mercy than for Judgment on the contrary those who will not own their Fault but continue in a denial of it deserve Punishment more than Favour and except they confess how can Men know they are Self-condemned 'T is by him added I say again to make a culpable and punishable Blasphemer there must be an Irreligious and Despiteful Intention in the words of the Person accused When alas the most wicked do often pretend most to Piety and conceal their Evil Designs under Specious and Hypocritical Pretences is it an easie thing to know Man's Intentions How few Self-Accusing and Self-Condemning Men is there in the World But why should I any longer insist upon what is contain'd in less than a Sheet of Paper when at large and more daringly we have these and and many more things in a * An Essay concerning the Power of the Magistrate c. in Matters of Religion late Book which some of their own do set a high value upon for the Author of one of the two Letters against my Epistle doth highly commend it to be read and though such Commendations I do not much value yet just when I was upon concluding this Providence having brought it into my Hand I read it over in the Countrey and not to be altogether silent upon 't and give every one his due in few things therein I shall agree with him as in what he calls Persecution which he makes his strongest Argument of against former Proceedings of Church and State for certainly there hath been a great severity and bitterness used about indifferent Circumstances and Ceremonies against those who refused to Conform thereunto which of late some are become sensible of and could wish such things had never happened and may be this Author having been Passively concern'd Judg. 16.28 desires to be avenged for his two Eyes but this they say out of a design to disunite those who ought all to Unite against them who are become the common Enemy about much higher things than those in question at that time we ought to make a great difference between cutting a Button off my Cloaths and tearing them all in pieces certainly Persecution is an odious thing but sometimes the name is misapply'd We own that in the way of Penalties to punish those
go further and blasphemously deny God's Omnipresence and consequently his Infiniteness and Immensity Now God is present every where first by his Essence 1 Kings 8.27 for thereby he fills up all things the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him And whither shall I go from thy spirit Psal 139.7 8 9 10. or whither shall I flee from thy presence c. God is also every where by his Knowledge Heb. 4.13 for nothing is hidden from it for all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do God is also every where by his Power and Operation 1 Cor. 12.6 for he worketh all in all Yet for all these a Socinian * Crellius de Deo p. 278. Author denies God to be every where for he would not have him to be amidst filthy and defiled things as if his Holiness was thereby in danger of being defiled But I ask is the Sun less pure or is it stain'd for shining upon Filth and Dunghills or is it thereby infected God they would confine in Heaven which indeed is the Chief Seat of his Glory and as the Word saith Is his Throne and the Earth is his Footstool And as God in his Glory is in Heaven Isa 66.1 in his terrible Justice is in Hell so in Earth he is both in his Mercy and Justice Thus he is every where God's Eternity they dare not openly to deny but the Nature of it they very much corrupt for God's Eternity is his own Existence which is necessary and by reason of most supreme Perfection cannot not be Vorstius in not ad Thes 7. disp de Deo therefore what one of the worst of Men writes is false Inanis Logomachia c. It is an idle dispute about words for any one to deny Eternity to be the same with eternal time for Time is a Contingent and Duration but Eternity doth denote a necessary and unmeasur'd Duration therefore Crellius runs upon as bad ground when he saith That God's Eternity hath Parts when it is altogether indivisible and seeing God's Eternity is God himself Eternal it admits of no Accident and therein is no Priority nor Posteriority as 't is in time As to God's Omniscience they would confine it within certain Bounds for saith one of them * Crellius cap. 24. p. 202. 't is not extended unto things which cannot be known by Nature So he denies the Determination of future Contingents And † Praelect Theol. p. 547. alibi Socinus though he owns a Divine Prediction of some things to come yet will not attribute it to God's Prescience but only to a Divine Decree But their abominable Impieties about these Matters are plainly and abundantly to be seen in * Protest Anti-Vorst pag. 361 362. one of their Authors whose Book King James caused to be burnt here by the Hangman Against the Author and Book he published something of his own and did write to the States General to turn him out of his Place of Divinity-Professour at Leyden and to banish him for he knew it to be the Duty of Princes to suppress Blasphemy and punish Blasphemers He made an Extract written with his own Hand of some of this Man 's blasphemous Impieties and sent it to his then Ambassador in Holland by him to be presented to the said States-General Vorstius p. 112. as we find them among his Works one of which is his giving God a Body as already mention'd The 2d is this Non satis igitur p. 232. c. They who affirm God both in Essence and Will wholly to be unchangeable want a due circumspection Further p. 237. nusquam Scriptum legimus c. We read no where God's Substance to be simply Insinite but many things there are which seem to have a contrary sense Another is this Magnitudo nulla c. No Magnitude is actually infinite therefore God himself is not There are three things more of the same Stamp observed by that King p. 308 441 171. one about the Determination of future Contingents from Eternity Another for a general Science of God without the special one of things to come And the last is That many things may happen in the World without God's Fore-knowledge Thus those Wretches do meddle not only against the Persons of the Godhead but also against the Nature and Attributes of it But the Orthodox and Learned King James to suppress Blasphemy and Heresie burnt the Books that contain'd it for besides that of Vorstius he caused that of Bertius for the Apostasie of Saints also to be burnt whence we may infer That if the Authors had been within his Dominions he would have punish'd them And some Years after the Racovian Catechism which is the Socinian Gospel was by the Parliament condemn'd to be burnt They write and act against the Three Persons both singly and jointly first against the Father with denying him to have been such from Eternity for they affirm he had no Son from Eternity without which he could not properly nor actually be a Father thus by a new Relation of Paternity in time he was made that which he had not been from Eternity Secondly against the Son by denying his Divinity and Eternal Generation which is the Foundation of Christian Religion 1 Cor. 3.11 and other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Not that he is a meer Man for the Church of God is not built upon Man Matt. 16.18 but that He is the Son of the living God For upon that Truth which Peter made solemn Confession of he said Vpon this rock that I truly and properly am the Son of the Living God I will build my Church wherefore the Apostle calls him the chief corner-stone 1 Pet. 2.6 Thirdly Against the Holy Ghost whose Divinity and Personality they also deny tho' Scripture appropriates to him as I shew'd elsewhere and somewhat lower shall speak of the Names Attributes Works and Worship proper to the only True God We know that in Scripture the Name Holy Ghost and Spirit of God are sometimes improperly taken for the Gifts of the Holy Ghost or for the Vertue of God but withal when 't is properly spoken which happens often then it signifies the Third Person of the most Holy Trinity therefore he is represented as the Father's and Son's Ambassadour whose secret Councils he knows and by whom he is said to be sent and so Faithful one that he speaks not of himself but what he hears that he speaks and he is called the Comforter Paraclete and Advocate to signify a Person and not a Vertue But as those Blasphemers are not satisfied to prevaricate against every Person of the most Holy Trinity separately they also do 't together and jointly against the Three for though the Word of God affirms that in the Unity of Nature there are Three Named the Father the Word and Holy Ghost where
by the Word John 5.7 the Son must be Understood for Father and Son are relatives and as the Father is a Person so must the Son so must the Holy Ghost yet they deny the most Holy Trinity asserted in Scriptures and confirm'd to have been the belief of the Whole Primitive Church as contained in the Apostolical Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and in the Constantinopolitan wherein the others were Comprehended and owned in the Confession of Faith of all Christian Churches in the World which was and is still made the first Article of Faith of One God in Three Persons yet against these great Lights they impiously say * Catech. Racov. Sententiam eorum c. the Opinion of these who do Attribute Divine Nature unto Christ is contrary not only to sound Reason but also to the Word of God and they do grosly err who affirm that not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Ghost are Persons in one Godhead and † Vorstius one saith the Arguments by the Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines made use of for the Eternal Generation of Christ are either Fallacious or Frivolous and * Smalcius ad nov monst part 2. c. 22. p. 198. another calls them Ratiunculae Nugatoriae Trifling words the same in another place affirms that † Exam. 100. Err●r Er. 26. Christ before his Resurrection was not perfectly Christ or Son of God or God And elsewhere that Christ's Divinity consists in his sitting at the Right Hand of the Father Sessio Christi ad dextram Dei est Christi divinitas I begin to tremble when I think of what I am just now entring upon but 't is fit they should be known in their own Colours Here with Horror read how Blasphemonsly those Hellish and Abominable Monsters as are Servetus Dudithius Socinus himself and several others of those wicked Men so much admir'd by Vnitarians writ of the most Holy and most Blessed Trinity they call it Monstrum Tricipitem Cerberum Tricorporem Gerionem Deum fictitium ac Sophisticum Idolum novum Fabulosam Chymeram humanum Commentum Diabolicam Idaeam Babelis Turrim of many more I shall add the following which makes the Pen drop out of my Hand The most adorable Trinity is call'd Blasphemum dogma ex imô orcô per Filium perditionis virtute Satanae gentium Ecclesiis obtrusum I am at a stand whether or not to put this in English which though it makes my Heart ake and defiles my Pen yet to the end every one which understands no Latin may abhor such transcendent Blasphemies I say The most Holy Trinity they call a Monster a three Headed Cerberus a Geryon with three Bodies a Forged and Sophistical God a new Idol a Fabulous Chymera a Human Invention a Devilish Idea a Tower of Babel a Blaspemous Doctrine by the Son of Perdition and power of Satan drawn out of the very bottom of Hell and obtruded upon the Church of the Gentiles After this Socinians must not find it strange if I who through God's Grace am a Christian do abhor and detest those Principles which do overthrow the Christian Religion to set up a new one of their own and if I cannot be much in Charity with those who are for such Impieties and Blasphemies Tho' what I have already said be too much yet to shew how they break all Rules and do more and more sink into the Mire and if not worse yet are as bad as the Devil himself for Non audet Stygius Pluio tentare quod audet Effraenis Socinus there they will not stop for he must run fast whom the Devil drives I shall upon the matter add one thing or two more out of their Hellish Writings one of them writing against one of his Adversaries takes an occasion to fall upon Austin * Dudi●h Epist ad Bezam in Socin Oper. Tom. 1. p. 525. Tuum tibi Augustinum c. I shall speak to thee of thy Austin For having said many things quite contrary to the Gospel he also hath Publish'd this Eostatical Fancy of three Gods they the first drunk of this Wine afterwards they made others drunken with it so to them is happen'd what usually befals Men who when their sight is troubl'd instead of one they see three or more The same in another place saith † Epist ad Petrum Carol p. 538. Tricipitem Ter geminum c. The Apostles never knew this three Headed and threefold God nor the whole Orthodox Church this is impudently to tell this lye who can without Indignation read such things Do such Miscreants deserve to breath God's Air What that Man saith * Socin Animadv 10. in assert Theol. Coll. posnan Socinus Subscribes to when he saith Deum quidem c. The whole Vniversal Church owns that there is one God but that it doth reverence Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity no Church of God may by any means own seeing 't is altogether a Humane Invention which Divine Truth doth every way speak against After this ever since our Saviour's days the Church hath been in Ignorance and Darkness nay in a great and damnable Error about these Fundamentals of our Religion but this is not all For as to our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation or the Son of God being made Flesh they impiously Ridicule and Revile it * Ostorod Instit c. 17. p. 96. One calls it Purum c. A meer Porgery of Superstitious Men. Then the Evangelists and Apostles by whose means the Holy Ghost convey'd those Divine Truths to us were Forgers of Lyes thus they set Hand and Seal to what said that Impious Pope Leon X. the Fable about Jesus Christ hath procur'd the Church great Riches Another calls that high and adorable Mystery † Smalc Refut Graveri de Incarn●t Dogma c. A most Monstrous Doctrine unworthy to be receiv'd by the Christian Church And the same in a direct opposition to what St. John saith The Word was made Flesh hath this * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 49. Verbum non est Caro factum the Word was not made Flesh and to say the contrary is an Error and that vile Man thinks he can say any thing against Christ and in opposition to Scripture for in the same Book he adds Christus c. Christ from his Birth was not full of Grace and Truth Again Christ at his Death ceased to be Son of God Error 50. and therein he calls it a Fable Tanta est Fabula c. So great is this Fable of the Vnion of two Natures also a Dream of old Women Somnium anile many more such Impieties I could quote but it makes my Heart sick and amaz'd thereat strikes me with Horror and makes the Pen drop out of my Hand About the Holy Ghost they hold three Fundamental Errors First They deny him to be God though in several places Scripture simply and absolutly calls him so Acts. 5.3 4. Peter said to Ananias
Why hath Satan fill'd thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost in the next verse it 's said Thou hast not ly'd unto Men but unto God These last Words explain the first how to lye to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 3.16 is to lye to God Paul is another Evidence when he saith Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you That Spirit which dwelleth in them is the same true God whose Temple they are farther as God is every where Psal 139.7 so is the Holy Ghost Whither shall I go from thy Spirit saith David which comes to this I can go no where but there he is so the Holy Ghost is Infinite and none but God is such Rom. 8.9 and the Spirit of God dwells in you as he doth in every Believer and as there are Believers of all Nations Ages Sexes Qualities c. in the World so the Holy Ghost who is in them all is all the World over and so God absolute Eternity belongs to God and the Holy Ghost is Eternal too as we have it thus Heb. 9.14 1 Cor. 2.10 Christ through the Eternal Spirit offered himself and who but God can know all things whether of Men or of God But the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God The Work of the Creation is proper to God and incommunicable to the Creature which cannot be both Creator and Creature to Create imports in him that doth an infinite Power to fill up an infinite Space between a nothing and something which no Creature is capable of he who is to all others the Author of their Beings must need have his own of himself and that is God for he that built all things is God Psal 33.6 Job 26.13 now the Holy Ghost made the World for as By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made so all the Host of them by the breath Spirit of his Mouth to this purpose 't is said by his Spirit he hath garnish'd the Heavens And in the History of the Creation Gen. 1.2 we read how that same Spirit moved upon the face of the Waters to give Life Motion and make them Fruitful besides none but God can bestow the Spiritual and Heavenly gifts of Grace but the Holy Ghost is the Distributer of them for he divideth to every Man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. that is independently as of his own and without giving any Accounts farthermore the Ruling of the Church appointing of Apostles and other Ministers and accordingly he endu'd the Apostles and on the Day of Pentecost filled them with Gifts to qualifie them for their work and the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have call'd them Acts. 13.2 'T was God's work and 't was God who appointed them so he not only gave them Commission to go but also appointed them the Field where to sow the Seed of the Word Chap. 16.6 7. for the Holy Ghost did forbid them to preach the word in Asia tho' they had a mind to it then they would have gone to Bithynia but the Spirit suffer'd them not again Paul tells the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that The Holy Ghost had made them Overseers over that Flock Chap. 20.28 In sew Words all Offices and Gifts in the Church he absolutely disposes of as to him seems good Besides we must take notice of the Glorious Titles given him in Scripture applyable to no Creature as are the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Adoption John 15.26 Rom. 8.15 Chap. 1.4 Tit. 3.5 Matth. 12.28 Rom. 9.1 Matth. 18.9 2 Cor. 13 14. John 5.7 Matth. 12.31 the Spirit of Sanctification and the Spirit of Renewing or Regeneration and by whom Miracles as Casting out of Devils are wrought furthermore how Divine Worship Honour and Prayer is due and render'd unto the Holy Ghost thus Paul calls upon him as he who knew the Hearts And in the Form of Baptism in the Apostolical Blessing he is equally call'd upon with the Father and the Son and equally concern'd with them in bearing Record in Heaven besides the Holy Ghost must be God seeing The Sin of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven being the most Abominable and Damnable of all hence I conclude the Holy Ghost equally to be God with the Father and with the Son Their second Error is to deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person but seeing as we already prov'd he is God of the same Nature with the Father and the Son he must be a Person as indeed the Proprieties of a Person are Attributed unto him for in our Saviour's Conception he Acted and Sanctifi'd the Virgins Womb in his Baptism he appear'd in the visible shape of a Dove and of cloven Tongues in the Day of Pentecost in his name we are equally Baptiz'd with the Father's and the Son 's He sent the Apostles Rom. 8.26 He maketh intercession for us besides that he doth create and work Miracles and to none but a Person it doth belong and is proper so to act and so to do Of this Error of theirs there is another branch for they would not have the Holy Ghost to be a Person of the Godhead distinct from the Father and from the Son but the contrary doth appear John 15.26 for in Scripture he is call'd the Spirit of the Father and of the Son he is sent by the Father and by the Son he is distinguish'd from the Father and from the Son by a personal Property to proceed as he is expresly call'd another from the Father and from the Son The Father will give you another Comforter Chap. 14.16 Saith our Saviour that is another from the Father and from me The Heretick Macedonius deny'd the Divinity and Personality of the Holy Ghost and affirm'd it to be only a Vertu and Power whereby the * Smalc Exam. Err. 157. Err. 132. and 137. Father and the Son do work which Fundamental Error Socinians borrow'd of him Spiritum Sanctum c. saith one of them The Holy Ghost is in God a Propriety or Attribute as are Wisdom and Justice Furthermore The Holy Ghost is not one but many of inequal Dignity because there are different Gifts he would set up different Spirits 1 Cor. 12.4 tho' the Apostle saith positively There are diversity of Gifts but the same Spirit We own as we did before how according to an unusual improper and figurative way sometimes the word Spirit signifies the Gift and Workings of the Holy Ghost but when 't is properly taken then it signifies the third Person in order of the Godhead partaker of the Nature therefore call'd God as prov'd Another Socinian calls the Holy Ghost Virtutem illam c † Schlichting in Simbol p. 99. That Virtue whereby God particularly sanctifies those Men which are dear to him And so all along he runs on
as at one time to take off every Letter of the Inscription at another only some and make new ones in the place and many more such things which those who are skill'd in the Art know that thereby Men who somewhat understand those things are often cheated the like may be said concerning Manuscripts several either wholly or in part are Spurious therefore several things ought to be observ'd and a great care used when we examine them wherein also are some certain Rules but not known to every one that goes about it and even some who know these Rules may happen to be grosly mistaken when they come to the Application these Truths known to those whose Genius and Practice hath qualified them to enter upon such Matters if at leisure I could enlarge upon but as there are so many particular cases which would require several instances for brevity sake I now shall forbear saying any more to 't and return to the point But suppose the Text was not in the Original as it is Socinians would not thereby get so great an advantage as they imagine if we had only that Text to prove the Holy Trinity they might boast indeed but we have others besides which were never questioned in the least as are that of our Saviour's Baptism where from Heaven the Father calls Jesus Christ his beloved Son and at the same time the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a Dove and can any thing in the World be more formal plain and positive than these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Matth. 28.19 To Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Certainly he who therein cannot read the Trinity must be desperately blind but I † The Blasphemous Socin Heresie Confuted elsewhere have given Reasons enough out of the Old and New Testaments to prove that Fundamental Article of our Religion about the most Holy Trinity which all the wicked endeavours of Hell and its Instruments cannot prejudice but the more to confirm what I already said upon the point I shall add what follows a place is remarkable Hear O Israel Deut. 6.4 the Lord our God is one Lord. Or as in the Original Jehovah our God Jehovah is one Twice the Lord and once our God the word our is joyn'd neither to the first the Father nor to the third the Holy Ghost but to the second Person our God who is become ours by taking our Humane Nature upon him and thus God is become Man may be in that prospect God said Gen. 3.22 Man is become as one of us That is as he of us who is to be Man or the Son as indeed the second Person is the Angel who went with and led them thro' the Wilderness that was made man this is not as some would have it to be understood as a distinction of the God of the Jews from the false Gods of the Gentiles for if this had been all therein intended the name of Jehovah needed not to have been repeated a second time and the words Jehovah our God is one had fully expressed the impiety of the Heathen for making themselves many Gods but this was to shew three Persons in that one Godhead for he that was the God of the Jews is as truly the God of the Gentiles so of both Jews and Gentiles therefore saith the Apostle Is he the God of the Jews only Rom. 3.29 Mark 12.26 out of Exod. 3.6 Is he not also of the Gentiles yea of the Gentiles also This manner of speech is by our Saviour used I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. The name God is thrice in one God who Created Redeemed and Sanctified which Works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification are in Scripture in a special manner attributed the first to the Father the second to the Son and the third to the Holy Ghost Withall seeing the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob are not three but one and the same God something seeing Scripture saith nothing in vain must thereby be intended if it had been in relation to the Father Son and Grand-Son it would sufficiently have been express'd with once naming God as the God of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob but God being named thrice yet there being but one God it must needs relate to some Trinity therein which being not in the Nature can be Relative only to the three Persons of the Godhead For a greater confirmation of this let us read that Blessing which by God's immediate command Moses in God's own words appointed Aaron and his Sons to pronounce to the People Numb 6.24 25 26. we have it thus The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace The Lord or Jehovah is thrice named yet Jehovah being an Essential name of God in that sense there can be but one Jehovah seeing there is but one God yet since God saith and doth nothing in vain some reason there must be why in this place 't is thrice mention'd which we may find if with attention we read the Text the first Verse doth contain Attributes properly belonging to the Father as to bless and keep 't is proper for the Father to bless his Children and God the Father is specially call'd the Maker and Preserver of the Creatures as being chiefly stiled the Creatour therefore we read God created man Gen. 1.27 28. male and female and blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply here the Blessing answers Aaron's Prayer that God would bless so to be fruitful and multiply them what Aaron pronounc'd that God would keep and preserve them both generally and individually Besides that the Greek Etymology of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Father from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I keep or preserve shews plainly how a Father is he who preserves those whose Father he is so a Father of a Family keeps his whole Family and he who takes care of all is a common Father to all therefore the blessing The Lord bless and keep thee doth specially and properly belong to God the Father though it excludes none of the other two Persons of the most Holy Trinity The second Verse contains that which is particularly attributed to the Son as to make his face shine upon and be gracious unto them Exod. 33.14 The Face is a part of Humane Body but none of the Persons of the most Holy Trinity only the Son hath a Humane Body so 't is proper to the Son Now the Son is the Face and Image of the Father in whom only God is seen and visible we must remember how God said to Moses my face for so 't is i● the Original shall go with thee and who is he that
went with Moses and led the People through the Wilderness but the Angel of his face or presence Isai 63.9 2 Cor. 4.6 whom I elsewhere fully proved to be the Son of God Jesus Christ in whose face as the Apostle saith We behold the glory of God The word to shine which is in the Verse doth signifie a property of the Son Mal. 4.2 1 John 1.16 ver 17. 1 Cor. 16.33 Gal. 6.18 Phil. 4.23 1 Thess 5.28 2 Thess 3.18 Philemon 25. for the Son is call'd the Son of righteousness the latter part the Lord be gracious unto thee doth plainly relate to the Son Jesus Christ who is the Fountain of Grace for of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace no true Grace to be had but only in him for saith the Evangelist Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ after this Form of Blessing it is that Paul doth conclude several of his Epistles as a Prayer to God for those whom he did write to or as a Blessing of God upon them The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all The 3 Verse hath things specially attributed unto the Holy Ghost as To lift up his countenance upon and give them peace It seems as if David pointed at this when he saith Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us Now to enlighten encourage countenance quicken and strengthen Men Psalm 4.6 is the proper work of the Holy Ghost so is to give peace therefore he is call'd the Comforter who gives us inward joy assurance and peace of Conscience and unto our Souls he applys the benefits of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us the better to understand this let us comp●re these 3 verses of Numbers 6. with Paul's words which are an Explanation thereof The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 13.14 and the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all This shews a Conformity in the Form of Blessing under the Old and New Testaments the like we find in Jude ver 20 21. where the three Persons are distinctly set down This I shall conclude with the following Observation how St. John explains Moses's words in the beginning John 1.1 and that the word Bara Created in Hebrew consists of three Letters for though there be four yet one being twice in there are but three different and these three begin each the Hebrew words signifying Father Son and Holy Ghost as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aleph begins the name Abba Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth the second Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet as Aleph is the first begins the word Ben or Son and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resh begins Ruach Spirit Hachodesh which signifie the Holy Ghost now must we proceed to other things We know it to have been the practice of all Hereticks who would not downright deny Scriptures but keep an outward shew as if they own'd them to come in and by a side Wind to corrupt the Truths therein contained and no Sect went on in that way more cunningly presumptuously and obstinately than Socinians who would make of it a tool with wresting and falsifying them to serve their ends and though they so highly pretend to an unreconcilableness with the Romish Church yet therein they follow their Methods and have taken great and unhappy pains in corrupting both the word of God and the Writings of Men but God who is and loves truth in his infinite Wisdom to the confusion of the Authors of such Works of Darkness brings them to light the World hath been acquainted with the notorious Cheat of the Jesuits of Mentz who with the leave of the then Prince Elector Palatine borrow'd of the Library Keeper of Heidelberg the Manuscript of Anastasius about the Lives of the Popes which they offer'd to get Printed at their own Charges and after they had given good Security that the Manuscript should be return'd they had it upon this Condition that every thing therein should be printed and nothing left out which Condition was put in in relation to the History of Pope Joan that was in 't But mark the Trick the Jesuits got it Printed and in one Book only which they were engaged to put in the Palsgrave's Library all was according to the Manuscript but that which related to Pope Joan was left out in every other Book Which Cheat of theirs the Library-Keeper having afterwards found out he about it publish'd his Complaint to the World That Manuscript is now in the Vatican among the rest of the Heidelberg Library but though when I was in Rome I several times used means to see it I could never obtain it nor in Milan neither where another Manuscript of the same is said to be in the Ambrosian Library 't was own'd to me that there is one but when I desired to see it which I did more than once with one pretence or other 't was ever put off Such are the shifts by Papists used to conceal the proofs of a Woman having been a Pope and an infallible Head of their Church Thus Socinians are glad of any pretence which to the utmost of their power they would improve to have the 7th Ver. of the 5th Chap. of 1 John expunged because it lies so heavy upon them but the consideration of such Practices affords an occasion to admire and adore God's wise and infinite Providence with great Mercy to his Church that notwithstanding the malice and craftiness of Hell and its Instruments wholly or in part to suppress Holy Scripture yet such hath been his Divine Care of it having given his People that Holy Word of his never to fail to the Worlds end that he hath blasted the wicked Endeavours of all who would have depriv'd the Church of that Heavenly Bread but through so many Ages and amidst so many various Dispensations of his Providence hath to this day continued whole and in its Purity for the Good and Benefit of his People Thus in the days of Josiah was by Hilkiah the High Priest 1 Kings 22.8 found the book of the law in the House of the Lord which was the Copy that Moses left with them as it appears out of 2 Chron. 34.14 which either by the Negligence of the Priests had been lost or by the wickedness of Idolatrous Kings had been rejected and in some kind abolish'd The like care God was pleased to use at the Taking and Burning of Jerusalem and of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar though 't is not express'd how for we must not mind the Jewish Fabulous Stories about it yet so it was as we gather out of Artaxerxes's words to Ezra Ezra 7.14 Thou art sent of the King and of his seven Counsellors to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand Thus God hath rescu'd his Holy Word of the New Testament from the Rage and Malice of the Jews of
the Heathen and Persecuting Emperors from the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church so from the attemps of Socinians and other Hereticks whatsoever either in time past or present and will for that which is to come to the great Comfort and Assurance of his People Now having vindicated that 1 John 5.7 and given Reasons for its being part of and belonging to the Chapter Genuine as are the rest I think my self engag'd to do one thing more which is to clear another Text of the false and improper Interpretation they would put upon 't John 10.30 't is this I and my Father are one * Answer to the I. Letter P. 35 36. elsewhere I have said enough towards it but to make the matter more plain and clear it being so excellent a Text I shall add something more to 't There our Saviour speaking of his Father comparatively with himself saith they both are one with the Pronoun Possessive my as he twice calls him in the foregoing Verse ver 27 28. he therein speaks of his Sheep and saith I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any Man pluck them out of my hand Observe first how he calls them his Sheep for he by his Death purchased them then as he speaks Truth unto them he will give Eternal Life and is eternal Life the gift of any but of God alone Can any one but God give Eternal Life Yet Christ gives it so certainly that they shall never perish here by the by is an unanswerable Proof against the pretended Apostasy of Saints and the infallibility of this gift of Eternal Life he confirms by an Argument drawn out of his own power for neither shall any Man pluck them out of his Hand But because to a People who lookt upon him as a meer Man ver 29. this might seem too high and unlikely he gives a convincing Reason my Father which gave them me is greater and stronger than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand Pray observe the equality of Power between him and the Father expressed in the very same words none shall ●uck them out of my Hand and none is able to pluck ●em out of my Father's Hand Now that he spake of God his Father and that they understood it so it appears out of verse 33. and because that unbelieving People might happen to have ask'd him how it is that thou ●akest thy Hand as strong as God's Hand Or as in ●hat verse it 's expressed That thou being a Man makest by self God For they well understood his meaning ●e gives them for a Reason the equaliy in power of ●is with the Father's in these words I and my Father ●re one One God of one and the same Nature and Power which must needs be Divine seeing no Man is ●ble to resist and overcome it between Man and Man ●one so strong but he may happen to meet with a stronger than himself but no such thing in relation to God In the God-head is Oneness of Nature and distinction of Persons the Persons of the most holy Trinity are really distinct one from another not by any Essential but by some Personal Attribute I know the Idle and not in the least pertinent Solution they would give of the Text namely they are ●ne in Consent but this is neither the Scope of our Saviour's words nor is it the true and proper sence of the place That there is a full and perfect Agreement between God the Father and his Son the Lord Jesus ●one doth question what the Father willeth the Son willeth also and what the Son willeth the Father willeth likewise so in every thing they are of one Will and Mind which by the the by as I said elsewhere argues Oneness of Nature But that this is not the meaning of our Saviour's words 't is plain enough out of the place if it had been only so the Jews never would have call'd it Blasphemy nor taken up Stones to Stone him they well knew how the Law of God requir'd a Conformity of Man's Will with God's and that the Creatures Duty and Happiness consists in yielding Obedience to God's Commands A Harmony between God's Will and Man's is a kind of Perfection in the Creature and not Blasphemy no more than 't was Blasphemy in Paul to say Rom. 7.16 I consent unto the law that it is good Therefore our Saviour highly meant more than a consent when he said I and my Father are one for the question was not about a Consent but about a Divine Power and Nature which the Jews interpreted that he being a Man made himself God which the Lord Jesus did not gainsay but explains it thus ver 36. I said I am the Son of God So if the Question had been only about Oneness of Consent the Jews would never have about it made so much noise as they did But I find my self by degrees engag'd in these Fundamental Matters farther than I intended at first yet for all this I must not draw off rather go on and here add some things to strengthen what I said in other places and more and more to make matters clear I shall by the Grace of God fill up some more Leaves to prove and explain a Subject so excellent in its self and so necessary to be known that the Apostle makes it his Prayer not only for the Philippians Phil. 1.9 but also for all Believers That our love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment for our Love and Obedience to God with our Zeal for his Glory and Service must be according to true and sound Knowledge hence it is that of Faith the Mother of all Christian Graces Knowledge is the first part and God sets a Brand with a dreadful threatning upon those who want it Isai 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that form'd them will shew them no favour God in Scripture having said nothing in vain but all things therein being written for our Instruction and strengthening of our Faith we must not about our Disputes against Socinians omit a kind of proof therein contain'd which though it be not the clearest yet much to our purpose may be learn'd out of it In the Old Testament in three ways besides that of Vrim and Thummim God communicated with and spake to his People by the Prophets in Dreams and Visions which last though elsewhere we said something about it when we mention'd several Apparitions yet we now shall add that to Gideon Judg. 6.11 12 14. One in two several verses call'd the Angel of the Lord but in another the Lord himself for 't is said The Lord lookt upon him appear'd and spake indeed like the Lord God and said go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites have I
the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Now to find out the Conformity of this Vision with that of John we must join the first and fourth Chapters of the Revelation and observe the Concomitants Fire and Brightness his eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1 1● v. 16. chap. 4.2 3 6 7. and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength also there was a throne in heaven and one sat on the throne And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rain-bow round about the throne in sight like unto an Emerald And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto chrystal And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind 〈◊〉 ●us● beast was like a lion the second like a calf the third had the face as a man and the fourth was like a flying eagle These circumstances do pretty well agree in both Visions and 't will appear the better if we speak of him who sate upon the Throne the Prophet saith he had the likeness as the appearance of a man and the Apostle writes chap. 1.13 in the midst of the seven candleshicks was one like unto the son of man who there appears among the Churches represented by Candlesticks as their Head but in chap. 4. we see him upon the Throne the word like and likeness is used not only by the Prophet but also by the Apostle John as also by Paul who speaking of the Lord Jesus saith He was made in the likeness of men Phil. 2.7 This after the Incarnation but Ezekiel speaks before that time and of a Vision so expresseth it by the word likeness and appearance because he who then sate upon the Throne was not actually but afterwards was to be made Man not by any Change of Substance but by Assumption of humane Nature however he describes a humane Body when he saith Rev. 1.13 14 15. of his loyns upward and even of his loyns downward which John doth in a more emphatical way when from head to foot he describes one like unto the son of man he doth not in general say like unto Man but like unto the Son of Man which name our Lord when upon Earth used to call himself by Now I say that he who sate upon the Throne was God Almighty for 't is called the likeness of the Glory of the Lord Ezekiel 1.28 And if a Person of the Godhead it relates unto the Son who afterwards was manifested in the Flesh and before under the Old Testament had appeared in the Shape and Likeness of a Man which the Father never did and of him we read no such thing Before I make an end with this Head I must take notice how because precious Stones are even beyond Gold the more valuable things in this World so when God was pleased to grant a special Manifestation of his Presence to set a value upon it always something of Jewels was offered to the eye whereby it is delighted and this not only in Ecstasies and Visions but upon other occasions thus Moses Exod. 24.9 10. Aaron Nadab Abihu and seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel and there were under his feet as it were a paved work of saphire-stone and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness The third Vision is Daniel's Dan. 7.13 Acts 1.9 one we read of Chap. 7.13 directly relating to our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven how one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven to the Ancient of Days which we find fullfilled when his Disciples beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their Sight this I shall not speak of for I mention'd it in another place only I take notice how the expression like the Son of Man doth point at that Individual Person who being the Son of God was made like unto the Son of Man for it denotes that he was something else besides the Son of Man and before he was the Son of Man or else the words behold a Man came with the Clouds had sufficiently describ'd the Person if he had been a meer Man without saying the Son of Man but by that expression which as already observed is the very name which he who often call'd himself Son of God used also to call himself by the Prophet mean'd something more than a bare Man Dan. 9.23 Chap. 2.44 and 7.14 for he being a Man greatly beloved of God by means of the great and many Revelations he had relating both to the Kingdom and Person of Christ he though at so great a distance might see the Son of God as become the Son of Man chiefly in the Vision of the 70 Weeks and in that same Chap. in his Prayer to God for his Nation he mentions Christ the Messiah V. 17. for he doth beseech to be heard for the Lord's sake which plainly implies a distinction of the Person he Prays to by him call'd Our God and of that for whose sake he prays to be heard for the Lord's sake that is for Christ's in whom God alone accepteth all our Prayers John 14.6 for none can come to the Father but by him and now this is our form of Prayer to God that he be pleas'd to hear us for the sake of his Son who is he that appeared to the Prophet in another place in the Vision of the battel between the Ram and the Ge●● Dan. 8. V. 15.16 for he saith behold there stood before me as the appearance of a Man who gave the Angel Gabriel the word of Command make this Man to understand the Vision but if we proceed to that Vision of his contain'd in Chap. 10.5 6. we shall find the description of a Person which doth exactly suit with that in Revel 1.13 14 15. for saith the Prophet I lift up mine Eyes and look'd and behold a certain Man clothed in Linen whose Loyns were girded with fine Gold of Vphaz his Body also was like the B●ryl and his Face as the appearance of lightning and his Eyes as Lamps of fire and his arms and his feet like in colour to polish'd brass and the Voice of his Words like the Voice of a multitude We may take notice how in these Visions of the Glory of God commonly appear'd a Man or one like a Man sitting upon a Throne why like a Man not as if Divine Nature in the abstract was like the human for such a wrong notion Scripture declares against but to teach how in the Godhead in the Concrete there is something or rather Person Man like Man then more than Man and something besides Man which became Christ made like a Man not in every thing a Man because no Sinner Now as the Father was never made Man so it would have been improper for him to appear in the shape of a Man but for the Son who in time was
made Man 't was very proper for him to appear in that Figure even before he was manifest in the flesh for though at that time he was not actually so yet was accounted to be such because in time to come he was so to be made Man according to the first promise after the fall Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head not the Seed of Man immediately though called Abraham's and David's Seed but mediately in the Womans Seed immediately for he was made a Man by the Womans not by the Mans Seed his Body was formed our of her Substance without the help of any Man so that she might properly according to the Flesh be call'd his Mother but no Man might properly be named his Father for in that respect he had none Luke 3.23 for Joseph was but a supposed Father to him and David was his Father only in her who had been derived from him he hath a Father namely God but upon the account of another Generation and God the Father in a most authentick way from Heaven more than once hath declared and owned him to be his Son that is as he came from Heaven there lies the ground of that Sonship God the Father never call'd him Son of Man but his own beloved only begotten Son in whom he is well pleased Now in the manifestation of his Glory because Divine Nature hath in the Person of the Son mediately been united with humane Nature and so God in the Person of the Son appearing like Man he appears in a Nature which is his own because the Son assumed it and God whether essentially taken or for the Person of the Father never did or doth in the way of Mercy and Favour manifest himself but in the face of Jesus Christ Mediatour God and Man as there is no access unto God but in and thorough him and as 't is now so it was ever from the very beginning wherefore he is call'd the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 and this is the reason why God manifested himself under the shape of a Man to shew how in the Person of the Son who took upon him that Nature he is reconciled to Mankind and of old the Son appeared in that likeness to signify how in that Nature he would make our peace with and reconcile us 〈◊〉 God the Apostle speaking of Christ's Incarnation ●alls it he was made like unto Men the word like there denotes truly and really a Man Philip. 2.7 this is to prove his Humanity but how much stronger terms doth he use to prove his Divinity when he saith who heing in the form of God the form is the Nature whether of a Person or of a Thing for 't is that which gives it a Being so that expression signifies that Christ is and was such as God himself and therefore God for there is none in all parts like to God but God himself but what he adds in the same verse doth highly confirm the truth he thought it not robbery to be equal with God his being equal with God not by robbery demonstrates it was his due and own right Now this point we intend to conclude with John's Vision for if the former Visions agree with this and if this relates to the Son of God who was God and before his Incarnation appeared in his Divine Glory in the likeness of a Man then with him we may well affirm he had a Being and a Glory with the Father before the World was That Christ the eternal Son of God and Redeemer of the World is that Glorious God and Person who shewed his beloved Disciple this Vision in the Isle of Patmos where he had by the Emperour Domitian been confin'd as he saith for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 1.9 is so clear that I think the adversaries themselves being the judges there is no ground left to doubt of it to what I already said about it I shall add what followeth This revelation is of Jesus Christ as we learn it out of the first line of the first Chapter it being as the Title of the Book that is the Lord Jesus revealed it unto John V. 13.14 who gives a glorious description of him I saw one like unto the Son of Man clothed with a Garment down to the Foot and girt about the Paps with a Golden Girdle his Head and his Hairs were white like Wool as white as Snow and his Eyes were as a Flame of Fire These last words of the description are almost the same but altogether to the same purpose with what we read of the Ancient of days who did sit Dan. 7.9 whose Garment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wool his Throne was like the fiery Flame now the adversaries cannot deny but that by the ancient of days is mean'd the true eternal God so he whose description St. John makes with the same attributes as Daniel gives of him must needs be the same but the Apostle continues the description thus V. 13.15 and his Feet like unto fine Brass as if they had burned in a Furnace and his Voice as the sound of many Waters again let this latter and first part of the description about the clothing and girdle of Gold be compared with Daniel's Vision already quoted and by this comparing Scripture with Scripture we shall find out the truth how in both places the same is described and so if Daniel saw the God of Israel the true God by nature he whom John saw is such which we shall know better and better if we read in the last Verse of Chap. 4. what the four Beasts and twenty four Elders said to him that sat upon the Throne thou art worthy to receive Glory and Honour and Power And if that Verse we compare with the 12. of 5. Chap. which is the following we shall find these words worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing So that we must conclude the Lamb to be the same Lord spoken of before I mean the same in nature and to the Lamb is rendered the same Honour and Worship as is to the Lord with the same Attributes which is expressed with some enlargement and in more words than in the foregoing Chapter but by whom is this Divine Honour rendered unto the Lamb 't is expressed in the foregoing Verse Rev. 5.11 and I beheld and I heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands which last words seem to be taken out of Daniel's Vision Dan. 7.10 to shew how all this was rendered to one and the same and I say that the sameness of Worship doth argue for the sameness of Nature we find the
God himself and our Father 1 Thess 3.11 and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you here is a Prayer which is a Religious Worship directed to God himself Who this God is 't is equally said our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ equally prayed to because both equally able to perform and answer the Prayer's end so that whether the Name God himself be taken essentially then our Lord Christ is as well as the Father comprehended under it or if personally then to leave no doubt of it by way of explanation his Name is express'd as well as that of the Father and may no more than the Father be excluded from being God himself but it would be almost an endless Work if one would make use of all Texts in Scripture which either directly or indirectly by plain Assertions or good Consequences prove Christ's Divinity for one of the ends of the Gospel is to declare Christ to be properly God Joh. 20.31 Son of God These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet Socinians would make him to be like those false Gods whom Moses speaks of in opposition to the true God of them he gives this description Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed unto Devils not to God to Gods whom they knew not to new Gods that came newly up These upstart Gods were Devils which they worshipped no true God but what from all eternity is such by Nature now if the Lord Jesus be as they would have him a God come up within these 1700 Years whom they worship I leave them to wash off the obvious blasphemous consequence As to what they say that he is God only by Office and by vertue of his being anointed I answer Anointing was a Ceremony to make and declare a King but the Anointing made him not a Man for that he was before Thus the Lord Jesus the Son of God being Anointed and made Christ that Anointing indeed made and declared him a King a Prophet and a Priest and thereby those Offices were conferred on him but that could not make him God for he was such before Christ is a Name of Office as God is of Nature Upon every other account they are full of their Cavils thus they would have the Name Jehovah not to be an essential incommunicable Name Psal 68.4 which with that of Jah signifies his Nature and incomprehensible Majesty whereby he is declared to be the only true God of Israel in opposition to all false Gods and they would have their false Notion to stand because they pretend that most Holy Name to be attributed to Creatures as to the Ark Jerusalem c. which sufficiently * The Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Confut. p. 60. Zec. 14.20 I refuted elsewhere This only I now shall add that the Name Jehovah is no more attributed to the Ark or any Creature than that most holy Name and Holiness it self is to the Bells of Horses when 't is said In that Day shall there be upon the Bells of the Horses Holiness unto the Lord But as they strike at his Divine Nature so they do against its essential Attributes as Omniscience which I also have spoken of This I shall add That when the Prophets knew of things to come 't was by vertue of Revelation for 't is often said The Word of the Lord came to me thus things they knew from God but the Lord Jesus knew things from himself whether past or to come as among other Instances that of the Samaritan Woman can shew about her five Husbands John 4. chap. 5 6. Matt. 25. ch 17.27 ch 16.21 ch 21.38 ch 26.23 v. 34. and that of the Man who had long been sick He also knew future things thus he foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem about forty Years before it happened thus of the Fish which Peter should catch and of the piece of Money in his Mouth so he foretold his Death and the manner of that of Peter's that Judas should betray and Peter deny him and several other things Now this in God's Language proves Christ's Divinity because foretelling of things to come is given as a Character of the true God as we have it Isa 41.22 23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods after he in the foregoing Verse had said Let them shew us what shall happen or declare things for to come There is a considerable place to prove our Lord's Divinity which must be to the purpose seeing Paul as good an Interpreter of Scripture as any of them all makes use of it in the same sense as we do The words of the Psalm are these Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Psal 45.6 Heb. 8. which the Apostle apply'd to the Son Jesus Christ but as they are apt to take unjust Exceptions at any thing that hits them so they do at this and would give the words only a literal sense relating to Solomon's Marriage with Pharaoh's Daughter We may own something therein to relate to Solomon but withal 't is chiefly in a spiritual way intended to represent Christ's Union with his Church and that 't is not Solomon's Epithalamy or a Psalm upon his Marriage it appears from the very first Verse My heart is inditing a good matter for certainly Marrying Pharaoh's Daughter was no good matter for absolutely God had forbidden his People to make any Marriage with other Nations Deut. 7.3 1 Kings 11.3 4. and that Wife of his was one of those who turn'd his Heart after other Gods to serve them Besides what is said therein Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever doth not belong to Solomon nor what is said The King's Daughter is all glorious within to his Wife Their distinction of most high which they would attribute only to the Father and of high God to the Son to make him a subordinate God is frivolous for in the Divinity that makes no difference The true God of Israel is sometimes call'd so in the superlative degree and at other times in the positive yet that distinction doth not make two Gods of Israel in one and the same Psalm he is called by both Titles in one Verse the most High Psal 78.56.35 And they tempted and provoked the most high God and in another before 't is said They remembered that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer so that God the high God and the most high God is but one and the same God The Record which John Baptist bare of our Saviour ought to be weighty for God sent him to the end he should bear it and also unquestionable for then he spake against himself when he gave Christ the whole preference which must be attributed only to his saying the truth John 1.15.27 30. The record is this He that comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me Which Truth is of so high a
to leave others in the natural State of sin And as in the Work of Creation so in that of Redemption the Three Persons of the most Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost agreed about the Means conducing to that End The Father was to send his Son Jesus Christ Epes 3.4 in whom he hath chosen us before the foundation of the World The Son to come purchase and work Salvation for us and the Holy Ghost to apply that Purchase and make it effectual In order to this the whole Administration of this great and Glorious Work was committed to the Son Acts 10.36 Heb. 1.2 Matt. 28.18 Joh. 5.19 who thereby was made King and Lord of all and Heir of all things so all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth Hence it is that what things soever the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise Nay in this he is so fully and absolutely Plenipotentiary that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son This Office of Mediatour and Saviour he from the Creation of the World began to administer it in the Royal part as executing Judgment upon the Wicked and saving his People sometimes by Angels at other times by himself in the shape of a Man Also his Prophetical Office even before the Flood 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 1.11 by Noah called a Preacher of Righteousness and afterwards by all the Prophets in whom his spirit was Thus from the beginning of the World he hath every where from Abel to Abraham and in Egypt the Wilderness c. been Ordering Ruling and Governing his Church and the whole World which he continues to do and will till after the last Judgment Day when having gotten all his Elect together he will introduce them into everlasting Glory all this by his own Power And this is such a work as infinitely exceedeth all Humane and Angelical Strength and Wisdom so that none but a Divine Power can perform it therefore he that doth it till all his Enemies be brought under his Feet and fully overcome must need be true Essential and Eternal God Who but he who is the true God by Nature can Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 6.33 But John Baptist according to the Testimony he had from Heaven bare witness that Christ doth as he actually did his Apostles according to the promise he made to them And in the same place John Baptist bare record that this is the Son of God Acts 2. chap. 1.5 John 1.33.34 Luk. 7.28 John 1.27 and 3.30.31 Why to call him thus if he was not really such Hereby he shews that vast difference between the Lord and himself of whom our Saviour said Among those that are born of Women there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist who in several places made himself a meer nothing in comparison of the Lord Jesus and here by the name Son of God he is distinguished from all Men John never call'd himself nor no Man else Son of God only this Jesus Christ and none else is the Son of God with the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a but the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsemet this very same which that he is is so certain a truth that our Lord owned it before the Council of the Chief Priests and Scribes who were not so blind as Socinians are or would seem to be for though our Saviour had spoken to them not so plainly Luke 22.69 yet this meaning they understood well Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God Though he called himself Son of Man yet the last words made them to conclude that he made himself the Son of God and consequently God for none but the proper Son of God can sit on the right hand of the Power of God therefore they all presently asked him Art thou then the Son of God which was a Natural Consequence of what he had said and the Particle then is a Note of inference which our Saviour owned in these words ye say that I am That is plainly I am and ye are not mistaken which they call'd Blasphemy so would Socinians have said if they had been there for now they do so set their Hand and Seal Mark 14.64 to his Condemnation for Blasphemy and consequently that he was justly put to Death for it when truely properly and in the sense which the Jews took it he made himself Son of God which as much as in them lies is To crucifie the son of God a-fresh Heb. 6.6 and put him to an open shame Hitherto though I had occasion to do 't I have taken no notice of the Opinion of those who say St. John's Gospel to have been written by Cerinthus for 't is such a nonsensical untruth and so absurd a Forgery that I ever thought it not worth minding In John's time the Heresiark Cerinthus denyed our Saviour's Divinity which that Gospel proves as often fully and plainly as any Book whatsoever in the the New Testament as indeed that Apostle did write it a purpose to prove it and thereby to confute the Impious Heresie of that Instrument of Satan as he declares it when he saith These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God Joh. 20.3 and that ye might have life through his name To say a proof is against a thing when 't is visibly for it gives a just cause to put the question whether he or they who said so knew what they said But Drowning Men will lay hold on any thing that comes into their Hand Besides 't is a great Impiety to make a Blasphemous Heretick Author of an Holy Gospel generally owned to be Canonical and Inspired by the Holy Ghost This Holy Gospel doth confound the Enemies of our blessed Lord and Saviour's Divinity therefore they so often would have been nibbling at it not one chapter but affords strong proofs of it For not to mention here those several places out of which we have drawn strong Arguments for it How many things to confirm it did the Lord Jesus speak therein from the time of his eating the Passover till he was taken that was but short which he took to prepare his Disciples for that separation which by his Death was to follow comforting them with telling what he would and could do for them I shall take notice of that only wherein he speaks of that high point of his Divine Glory by a mutual Glorification between the Father and him Joh. 13.31 32. Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him but this is not all for if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself This indeed were a Blasphemy for a meer Creature to speak after this manner here is a perfect Equality of Glory they glorifie one another and are glorified one in another God shall glorifie him not without but
as Wickednesses go by couples within these few Years is sprung up another detestable Abomination I mean Blasphemy a fit match for Idolatry which is now as bold and insolent as ever the other was and as Weeds usually grow faster and thicker than the good Seed so upon a sudden the Nation seems over-grown with it and no prospect of an effectual Remedy except with a sudden removing of the Props which support it and let Men in high Places look to 't as God in his due time will require it at their Hands for he hath said he will call to account those who consent with and are partakers with Sinners Psal 50.18 19 20 21. which they be if they prevent and punish them not when 't is their Duty and in their Power to do 't Woe be to those who prefer their Worldly Interest before that of Christ and who for their Houses Relations and Lands Mark 5. forsake our Saviour's Cause this is like the Gadarenes who loved their Herds of Swine more than his Presence thus once when upon Earth out of Covetousness and for a little Money he was betray'd by one who made a profession of being his Disciple out of weakness he was deny'd by another and out of fear forsaken by them all but out of what he saith we reasonably infer that whosoever loves Houses Lands Money Places Matt. 19.29 or any thing else whatsoever more than him shall suffer Loss and Punishment as he will reward those that are not ashamed of him nor of his Concerns and this last I may apply to those worthy Persons who hitherto used and still do their utmost endeavours in their several Capacities to promote the Lord's Honour enlarge his Kingdom punish and suppress Blasphemy Prophaneness Immorality and all that is contrary to Piety Vertue and Honour and to carry on a thorough Reformation in Doctrines and Manners such need not to care a Straw for the Frowns Revilings Slanders and Hatred of evil and prophane Men as long as they are sure of the Love and Favour of the Son of God which the World can neither give nor take away from them This is a sufficient Compensation and Comfort in this Life which shall be followed with plentiful and unspeakable yea incomparable Rewards in that which is to come Clogs in a Wheel stop its motion so now when God hath put us in the way and laid a foundation to go upon the necessary Work is to remove Lets and Hinderances Wolves tho' never so much in Sheep's Cloathing must never be made Shepherds when there is any poison in the Spring the safest and readiest way to prevent ill consequences and dangers is to purge and cleanse it as soon as possibly may be Places of Trust and of Influence ought to be in the Hands only of those who are able faithful fearing God and sound in the Faith 'T is a necessary part of Prudence when Officers are chosen to be in a place of Trust in any Capacity high or low to be cautious and examine whether or not such who stand be duly qualifi'd 't is a great folly for a Man to trust a Covetous Greedy Corrupt one with his Purse a Bloody Man with his Life and a Tyrannical one with his Liberty Have we not before our Eyes the Imprudence of a Man who once thought with a Protestant Army to have set up Popery Can I think that an Ungodly Blasphemer Swearer Prophane Immoral Man is a fit Person to secure and propagate our true Christian Religion and Piety and to punish and effectually suppress all that is contrary to 't Or will any Man in the World if he hath any grain of Wisdom entrust with his main Concerns an idle vicious Person who neglects his Business and doth not attend his Service Employ as much as you can Pious and good Men for such are valuable in every relation good Fathers good Children good Masters good Servants good Princes good Subjects and take this for a certain Rule he who is not true to God will prove false to Man he who for Worldly Considerations betrays his Conscience will also betray his Trust have a Man of good Principles and you 'll know where to find him let him be one who hath a Religion the true one who owns the fundamentals of true Christian Religion namely a God the Holy Trinity our Saviour's and the Holy Ghost's Divinity who is no Deist nor a prophane Scoffer who ridicules not only Pious Men but Piety it self and is a favourer of those who do I say such a one is thereby unqualified in any publick capacity to serve in a Christian well regulated State 'T is certainly a great Crime to help to throw Poison into any publick Spring which all do who favour bad Men in their unjust designs and soon or late the Country where such things happen shall smart for it and tho' God in case such Men in Places do ride cross in his way or lay as Blocks before him knows well how infallibly to remove them yet still those that for Self-ends helped them to get up have thereby contracted a Guilt and made themselves accessary to the evil by them committed David who was a good and a wise Man saith The wicked walk on every side Psal 12.8 when the vilest Men are exalted No viler Men than Blasphemers and Idolaters for such when once they are in power would frame Mischief by a Law if they could Ps 94.20 We thank God that Idolaters are by Law excluded from bearing Rule or having any Hand in the Administration of the Government would to God we might in every part say so of Blasphemers for they are the Rust and Moth that can make uneffectual all our Blessings good Men make good Times we have too many of those who pretend to be and would seem to be Christians but in truth and reality are far from it may God be pleased to open the Eyes of those that are concern'd to know and reject them Some would countenance Impiety and support Wickedness in Doctrine and Practise under the specious pretence that they are not for Persecution and so by a side-Wind as much as in them lieth cross any thing tending to punish and effectually suppress it but that Vizard can easily be pull'd off for to punish and suppress Impiety and Blasphemy is Persecution no more than 't is Injustice to punish Murthers Robberies and the like Crimes which if Men do not in his due time God will arise Psal 68.1 and his Enemies shall be scattered Now that those who prophane Religion and would overthrow our Christian Church do deserve Punishment we have the best Instance we could wish for no less than that of our Blessed Lord who himself punished the Impious Men who had prophaned Religion and the Temple with their Worldly Concerns for he cast them all out and overthrew their Tables for Merchandise Mat. 21.12 and herein he not only spake but also employed his Hands for
When he had made a Scourge of small Cords he drove them all out of the Temple And 't is observable John 2.15 that what he said in John Make not my Father's House a House of Merchandise In two other Evangelists 't is said My House is the House of Prayer Mat. 21.13 Luke 19.45 so his Father's House and his is the same And John mentions that his Disciples remembred that it was written The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up Here is a Precedent for all in Authority that love Religion and the Honour of God to be zealous to suppress and punish those who Prophane and Blaspheme it and I must own it to be sad Times when no restraint or curb is set upon them It hath formerly been made a Question which of these two is the worse either when every thing is lawful or when nothing is lawful Tho' both be extremes which commonly are vicious yet the first I reckon to be the worse of the two for I had rather to be deprived of some kind of Liberty than to see others with trespassing upon that Liberty to do and say what they list I can in Temporals be content to part with some Liberty rather than to see others in Spirituals to take a Liberty of Blaspheming and Prophaning God's Holy Name and Religion Yet I would not have a sort of People in the World to take an Advantage of this so as to deprive me of a just and honest Liberty under the Notion of restraining others from an unlawful Freedom in indifferent and circumstantial Matters Liberty may be allowed when it must not be in necessary and Fundamentals That busie and restless Spirit of Socinianism doth upon all occasions discover it self whereof we have a late instance in what happened at Canterbury which is to huff and defie our Church in the very Face of the Primate 'T is a shame that some few Foreigners Tradesmen and others corrupted by their own Natural Confidence and tho' encouragement they here meet with should be suffered to mock our Holy Religion and in spight of our Laws after Tricks Shufflings and such Circumstances as make the thing the more odious to set up Antichristian Meetings as those who are informed of the Matter well know They have the Face to pretend to the benefit of the Toleration Act passed in the first Year of William and Mary but by a Clause in the same they are not qualified for it except they declare their Approbation of and subscribe the 39 Articles very few excepted which relate to the Church Government and Ceremonies for the Act is intended for the Ease and Liberty only of those who differ in Circumstantials or at most those who overthrow not the Fundamentals which they who do are unworthy of or else it were by Law to allow of Impiety Blasphemy Idolatry or any Heresie and in that part of the Act relating to Quakers a Sect very unsound in the Faith there is a great tie upon them for 't is said they shall subscribe a Profession of their Faith in these Words I A. B. profess Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed for evermore and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration Here is a Test for Socinians wherein is asserted the first of the 39 Articles of one God in three Persons so they declare they believe the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as also the Divine Authority of Scripture Now I say that tho' this be expressed only in that part of the Act which relates to Quakers yet we must take it to be the Intention of the Law to reach every one that comes under the benefit of the Act and this is so plain that about the latter end of the same all Anti-Trinitarians such are the Vnitarians are excluded from the benefit of it the words are plain Provided always and be it farther Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that neither this Act nor any Clause Article or any thing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give any ease benefit or advantage to any Papist or Popish Recusant whatsoever or any Person that shall deny in his Preaching or Writing the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as are declared in the aforesaid Articles of Religion After this we may well wonder at any one who will say there is any benefit by this Act intended for Socinians it appearing so much to the contrary that there is no Toleration allowed them By what I said out of the Act it sufficiently appears how binding it is against those who deny the Holy Trinity as Socinians For they who pretend to the benefit of it to qualifie themselves must not only take the Oath to the Government but also subscribe to every Doctrinal Article of the 39 in the first and second whereof chiefly the Anti-Trinitarian detestable Heresie is fully Condemned This as to the Letter of the Law but herein according to the Gospel there is a Christian Prudence to be used Socinians as well as Jesuits have Equivocations and mental Reservations They sometimes to serve their turn subscribe things which as some of them have been heard to say either they do not understand or else have within themselves a particular meaning thereof Now upon such occasions the Officers concerned to tender the Oaths and receive Subscriptions ought to be Cautious how they admit some Men to 't In a Tract I have written concerning Oaths I mentioned several necessary things upon this matter only this I shall say for the present that when there is no ground of Suspicion nor any thing to create doubts of the Sincerity of him or them that are to Swear and Subscribe then the Oath and Subscription to end the business may be admitted leaving it for God to judge of the Truth and Reality of the Party concerned But it should be otherwise when there is cause to doubt of a Man's sincerity for fear of being Instrumental in his Ruin and Damnation I would not easily believe a Man whom I have ground to suspect he is a Lyar nor tender an Oath to one whom I hear to be apt to forswear I do not say a Man may absolutely refuse to put him to his Oath but not to be accessary to his Perjury I would be very wary and cautious and endeavour to find out whether he be real or comes with an ill design Why should I put a Dagger or a Cup of Poison into the hand of one who may happen not to be sound in his Mind and not Compos Mentis therewith to Stab and Poison himself or others in this case of Heresie we have a considerable instance in the Person of Arrius whom we heard of when I spake of the Council of Nice 't is thus The Emperour Constantine upon the suggestions of an Arrian Priest whom
work the Tabernacle the Sanctuary and all things thereunto belonging which was the place where till the Building of the Temple all those Levical Ceremonies were perform'd so this Ceremonial Service was no Priest-craft as most wickedly called but a most Wise Divine Institution Nay all the Pins of the Tabernacle and of the Court round about which seem the least things about it as before observed were of God's own immediate Appointment and Direction Exodus 27.19 as executed chap. 38.20 31. The Apostle saith Col. 2.16 all these Ceremonies were a shadow of things to come but the Body of Christ Therefore no vain nor idle things but Types and Figures as were Gideon's Fleece and the Brazen Serpent which contain'd much of Gospel in it Paul in the case of some Legal Ceremonies saith that thereby the Holy Ghost signified things Heb. 9.8 and if in that case we may well conclude in others too whereof in that same Epistle chap. 13.11 is one That the Bodies of those Beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary were burnt without the Camp One would think there had been no meaning in it but in the following verse the Apostle saith the contrary Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctisie the People with his own Blood suffered without the Gate So without the Gate and without the Camp answered one another as the Antitype and the Type and 't is so certain that Moses received those Laws from God himself that by the last of the Prophets he own'd it and put them in mind to observe it as his own Mal. 4.4 Remember the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments The Apostle Paul who had been brought up in Jerusalem at the Feet of Gama●iel a great Doctor of the Law and who better than any Socinian understood the nature use and end of the Ceremonial Laws declareth how The Priests that offered gifts according to the Law Heb. 4.5 6. served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things which are no vain things nor Moses's Invention for 't is added As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle for see saith he that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount So 't is no less than Blasphemy to say God's Institution is Man's Invention but what care they for't Blasphemy is their Element which they cannot live without This Samaritan hath led us somewhat out of our way therefore we must return where we left about the Imputation and Inherency of Original Sin But against this truth sprung up as detestable an Heresie as ever was broached by Man for Pelagius said All the harm which thereby befel Mankind was only an ill Example given so that Nature is as whole and sound as ever whereby the excellency and necessity of Grace is wholly annulled and to what purpose a Saviour and Mediatour for where is no Distemper there needs no Remedy and if there be no Original Sin yet Death is an effect of Sin how is it then that Children dye though they committed no actual Sin Now Socinans have espoused that Cause and value nothing of what Scripture can say or Arguments thence deduced conclude Socinus in his Exposition of Rom. 5.12 saith * De stratu primaevi Homin Apostolus nequaqam c. The Apostle doth not in the least affirm that all have sinned in Adam which is the very thing that there Paul doth affirm but Socinus makes nothing of that Sin for he saith † Praelect c. 4. in c. 10. p. 195. Vnum illud peccatum c. That one sin had no power within its self to corrupt Adam himself much less all his Posterity To the same purpose speaks the Racovian Catechism and in the last quoted place of Socinus he confidently saith * Peccat Origin nullum prorsus est c. Ex peccatô c. From that sin of our first Parents there is no necessity that any stain or pravity should have been propagated in whole Mankind To this we joyn what the Racovian saith in the fore-quoted place Original sin is nothing at all therefore it could not hurt free-will neither doth scripture teach that Adam's fall was a punishment imputed either to him or his Posterity But as I shew'd Scripture abounds in proofs to the contrary That Heresiarck denies also † Socin praelect c. 4. non fuisse c. Original Righteousness to have been in the first Man which is as positive as are the Words by another used to maintain that Humane Nature was not in the least Prejudiced or Corrupted through Adam 's first sin But one carries on the thing farther saying * Smale contr 〈…〉 206. Illum ab omni c. To say that God for that first sin of Adam punish'd all his Posterity whilest then they were Innocent is very far from Equity and Justice therefore it cannot without Blasphemy be attributed to God Here they challenge God's Justice as elsewhere they have his other Attributes and they slight one of the most important things in our Religion As they sacrilegiously presume upon the Nature and Person of our blessed Saviour so they do upon his Office of Mediator and would Rob us of the Advantages and Benefits which he thereby purchased for us And indeed they go about to corrupt the whole work of our Redemption and overthrow our Deliverance from Sin and Death for to omit here what they 〈◊〉 against his Royal and Prophetical Offices which ● mention'd elsewhere I shall take notice how they 〈◊〉 either wholly deny or partly corrupt what Scriptu●● saith about his Propitiatory Sacrifice his Priesthood Merits Death Resurrection Glorification sitting at the Right-Hand of the Father and his Intercession for his Church His Sacrifice they deny to be true and real only allow it to be Metaphorical thus as they make of him a Metaphorical God so he must be only a Metaphorical Mediator or Saviour and Priest Christus c. saith one * Smale resp ad n●va Monst par 2. c. 3. p. 129. Christ our High-Priest was appointed to make an Offering improperly so called and he is improperly Metaphorically and Allegorically called by the name of Priest Thus after this we are Improperly and Metaphorically saved which is a strange sort of Salvation Paul calls Christ proprerly A Priest for ever Heb. 5.6 Psal 110.4 after the Order of Melchisedeck So had David long before the Lord hath not barely said but sworn thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck To be a Priest after an Order is really and properly to be a Priest yet let David and Paul say what they please Smalcius is of another Opinion when he saith † Err. 57.65 Heb. 3.1 4.14 15 5.5.10 c. He is not a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedeck shall we believe David and Paul or Smalcius How often is our
thing another as falfe They say that before the coming of Christ such * Wolzog. in Matt. 4.10 p. 189. Worship was lawfully and justly rendered to Angels who represented God's Person but that Worship was rendred only to one Angel no created one whom in my former Book I sufficiently proved to be the Son of God The same Author affirms * In Joh. 5.23 That every Man that is sent representing the Person of him who sent him ought to receive that honour due to him that sent After this the Prophets and Apostles sent by God and by Christ ought to have been Worshiped with the same Worship due to the most high God which cannot be deny'd to be Idolatry yet these People would pretend to abhor Papists for their Idolatry which is properly when the Worship due to God alone is paid to the Creature whereby one God is divided into many and as Papists to excuse their Idolatry towards Saints and Images idly distinguish the manner of it under different Names according to the different Objects so do Socinians with their Relative Notions of dependent and independent of high and most high God what by them is mention'd of John's falling before the Angel to Worship him we may look upon 't as a Flaw in him as the denial of Christ was in Peter therein to forbid us the Worship of Angels for we read how the Angel surpris'd at it with a sudden as it were Exclamation as happens at a great trouble of Mind rejected it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See thou do it not Now as this Opinion of the Socinians doth agree with that of Papists who say they worship not the Saint or Image but Relatively to God or God in 't so Socinians say the Adoration is due to Christ not of it self but by accident not terminatively but transittively the Worship passes from him to the Father whom they Worship in Christ just as Papists do God and the Saint in the Image This Opinion of Socinians doth also agree with that of the Heathens about their half or Semi-Gods Gods of an inferiour Orb for besides those made Gods they owned a supreme one and above all the rest Thus the Socinian Divinity agrees with that of Pagans and Gentiles as if I had time I might easily demonstrate not only out of Cicero Seneca Lucian Celsus c. but also out of Lactantius Augustin and other Christian Writers This Opinion of theirs doth also overthrow the Christian Faith for what is to embrace the Christian Faith 1 Thess 1.9 but to be turn'd to God from Idols to serve the living and true God The Gospel which Paul and Barnabas preached to the People of Lystra is this We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God Acts. 14.15 which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein which they say Christ made not Mark here the Question was about the worship which those Heathens would have rendered to the Apostles Farther Socinian Idolatry is directly opposed to the first Precept Matth. 6.24 chap. 2.16.17 Thou shalt have no other Gods before me And induces Men to serve two Lords and two Masters which Scripture saith no Man can do In Hosea we read that God said Thou shalt call me Ishi my Husband and no more Baali my Lord though a fit and proper name to call God by who is Lord and Master over all for his absolute Dominion is extended over all his Works The Reason why he would no more be call'd by that name is because it had been abused and prophaned being given to Creatures and attributed to Idols for our Lord is a jealous God and will not have his Name and Glory communicated to Creatures which he abhorr'd therefore he declar'd in that same place And I will take the names of Baalim out of her mouth Before I leave off this point I shall in a few Words take notice how nice in the Primitive Church Men were about the Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons When the Heresies there against appeared abroad this very thing about Arrius's time was like to have made a great breach between the Greek and Latin Churches which through Athanasius's Piety Care and Prudence was prevented The Controversie was about the Greek word Hypostasis and the Latin one Persona The Latins suspected the Greek word might signifie Essence and Substance which had brought in the Heresie of the Tritheists of three Gods for thus three Essences had made three Gods on the other side the Greeks thought by the Latin word to be meant only a Relation and Office and not truly a Person which had been a meer Relative distinction but nothing real in 't thus the Doctrine of the Trinity had been overthrown and so Sabellianism which saith that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are but one Person had been brought in but in the Synod of Alexandria Athanasius having to remove all suspicion from both sides proposed that the words Hypostasis and Persona might indifferently be used in both Churches it was agreed unto and Peace settled thereby God grant we may here see the like upon the Foundation of Truth to the Confusion of Heresie that with a bare face now walks up and down which in the Prophets words we may say to Thou hast a whore's Forehead thou refusedst to be ashamed Jer. 3.3 but God in his due time will make it so and explode it hence out of what Solomon saith Pride goes before destruction Prov. 16.18 and a haughty Spirit before a fall we may modestly infer that if not a whole downfal at least a fall of that Sect is near at hand towards which we hope there is some steps for never more proud injurious and vile Language than what we read in their former and latter Books the same Spirit from first to last reigning therein Nay when the Parliament was about setting a Curb upon and restraining them still they went on and Published their Pamphlets and had the confidence to have their Socinian Notions in Print distributed among the Honourable Members at the Door of the House of Commons to whom therein they would have prescrib'd how to draw up their Bills and that most impertinently in Scriptural Phrases Did any one ever see Bills and Acts of Parliament drawn up so This is a perfect mixture of Socinianism and Quakerism which tended as I think to get opportunities thereby to wrest our Laws as they do God's Word Here again I must take notice of the * Charitable Samaritan late Pamphlet wherein one may see confirm'd what I said before about their endeavouring to wrest Scriptures for from p. 16 to 22 the Author's aim is to make them uncertain and dubious in all the Texts therein mention'd so when it shall serve their turn they will of any one else He there brings it in p. 20. as being his Friend Mr. Firmin's Opinion who understood neither
at the presence of God the God of Israel and the very same God called Angel we have farther described by the Psalmist whom he nameth God of Gods and in the next verse Lord of Lords and in the last the God of Heaven This certainly is the true God by Nature which as expressed ver 16. Led his people thorough the wilderness and did all the great things mention'd in the other verses of that Psalm all by Stephen comprehended in one verse Acts 7.36 He brought them out after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Aegypt and in the red sea and in the wilderness fourty years This is the same Angel which appeared to Moses in the bush ver 35 38. and which spake to him in mount Sinai Now 't is unquestionably true how that first Martyr's drift was to preach Christ and not Moses to the Jews and upbraid them for murthering at his appearing in the Flesh him who had done so great and many things and wrought all those great Deliverances for their Fathers before his Incarnation who appearing unto Moses in the Bush ver 32. called himself the God of his Fathers of Abraham Isaac and Jacob this is certainly the true God of Israel whom Paul calls the Lord of glory crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 and of whom Stephen call'd the Jews Murtherers this was their God and according to Pilate's Inscription their King which to confirm more and more because Socinians obstinately deny him to be such though elsewhere I have taken notice of I shall here make use of a Prophet's Evidence by whom Christ the Messiah is call'd the King of Sion Zech. 9.9 which when the thing mention'd was actually done to the Lord Jesus the Evangelist applies it as spoken of him by the Prophet Now he who is the King of Sion is the King of Israel and he who absolutely is the King of Israel is the God of Israel so the Lord Jesus whom this is spoken of is the true God of Israel The Psalmist saith Arise O God judge the earth for thou shalt inherite all Nations This is the true God whose two Attributes to Judge the Earth and to Inherit all Nations herein expressed do belong and are proper to the Son of God the Lord Jesus So do many things more variously and abundantly written by the Prophets Isai 8.13.14 as among others is this Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself let him be your fear and let him be your dread And to move them to 't he gives this reason c. He shall be for a sanctuary to those that sanctifie him and whose fear he is but to Transgressours and Disobedient to both houses of Israel he shall be for a stone of stumbling and rock of offence for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem This Prophecy is of Christ in both parts first a Sanctuary to those who fear him and present help and Relief suitable to their wants Joh. 7.37 chap. 6.35 therefore he crieth and saith If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink for he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Matth. 11.28 therefore he made gracious Invitations Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest but if Men will not answer this Call he tells them but ye will not come to me that ye might have life so to those who sanctifie love and fear him he is a Rock of Defence a Sanctuary and a present help in time of trouble as for the other part he is a stumbling-stone Luk. 2.34 Rom. 9.32 33. 1 Pet. 2.5 6 7. and a Rock of Offence to those who do not fear nor believe in him Now this Prochecy is explained to be of him by Simeon to him apply'd by Paul and more at large by Peter this by the Apostles is spoken of him whom the Prophet calls the Lord of Hosts himself mark the Word himself in Person not by a Deputy or any one else that the same is the Stone of stumbling to the Jews hitherto experience hath and doth still shew it to be so The Lord of Hosts himself is certainly the true eternal God but Christ if we may believe an Evangelist and two Apostles is that Lord of Hosts himself Isa 43.10 of whom those things were foretold This one thing more I shall add how Socinians with making Christ a Metaphorical God give God himself the Lye who by the same Prophet saith Before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me for according to them Christ was a formed and made God several Hundreds of Years after God had said so But to convince them of their abominable Errour I shall bring in the Evidence of some of their good Friends the Jews I mean The Jews specially the Masters of the first and true Cabbala do very often mention Schechina whereby they mean the Messiah Shiloh the Son of God who from the beginning of the Creation to the destruction of the first Temple in a clear and illustrious manner dwelt with those that were pious Hence it is that they made Light created on the first day Rom. 5.14 Heb. 9.9.23 1 Cor. 10.6.11 Col. 2.17 Heb. 10.1 to be the first Type of the Messiah now Types are Figures according to Scripture or Examples or Shadows now a Shadow is a dark Figure which goes before the Body when the Light is behind * Bechai p. 4. col 3. And God said Let there be Light to point at the Days of the Messiah of whom Scripture saith Arise shine for thy Light is come and the Glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee And † p. 9. col 2 Isa 10.17 John 1.9 Colos 1.12 13. Mal. 4.2 the Day wherein Light was made is called one or the first Day because Light represents one only and thou knowest that he is the King of Glory And our Saviour the Messiah is in Scripture called Light and lighteth every Man that cometh into the World And as out of the first Light the Sun that great Luminary was made and placed in the Firmament by his continual course to give the World light So is the Messiah called the Sun of Righteousness Rev. 1.13 gloriously shining in the midst of his Church And as 't is by † Aben Ezra in Psal 19. one well observed that the Light of the Sun is very wholsome so doth the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Wings cure the Distempers of the Soul To proceed further into this Matter which I hope to make a good use of in this Cause I say how the Son of God immediately after Adam's Fall as being the Judge of the whole Earth to exert his judicial Power called him to an account for his Sin when to him he said Where art thou As if he had said What hast thou done Answer for thy self Now I say that tho' Father
prove further I shall go on And with the Apostle say Heb. 3.4 He that made all things is God that is truly and properly God of himself now in several places Scripture saith All things were made by the Word which Name John usually calls Christ by John 1.3.10 Colos 1.16 Heb. 1.2 The World was made by him which him or that Person Paul in two places speaking of this same point of Creation calls the Son of God by whom all things were made and by whom he made the Worlds and so all things therein for by the Expression All things in Heaven c. are understood all the Works of Nature the whole Work of the Creation But to elude the weight of the Argument which lies heavy upon them sometimes for they are apt to change and diversifie their Notions and are constant only in unhappy Contrivances how to wrest Scripture they say that the name Word signifies Reason and not the Person of Christ which Notion I * Answer to Lett. I. p. 29 30. elsewhere have spoken against but at other times when they are press'd and cannot deny it to belong to Christ then to shift it off they say the name Word is taken for his Prophetical Office but the Evangelist gives it for Christ's proper and personal Name for that very name is given him upon another account and in a different occasion when he was seen in his Glory and Majesty as a King at the Head of Heavenly Armies going to fight there 't is said his name is called the Word of God Rev. 19.13 ver 16. and in that place he is styled King of kings and Lord of Lords So 't is not in relation to his Prophetical Office for the state wherein he then appeared had been very improper he was a horse-back not to speak and teach but to fight so then the name is not given him upon the account of his Prophetical Office If this be a name of Office what 's the reason why none of the Prophets or Apostles who taught and preach'd God's Word were never call'd by the name the Word 't is often said that the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and other Prophets but never that Isaiah or any of them was the Word of the Lord and this Word now in question was the Son of God 2 Pet. 1.21 1 Pet. 1.11 Rom. 1.25 who came to and spoke by the Prophets for they saith an Apostle spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost who by the same is called The spirit of Christ which was in them I love to make use of Scripture when I answer the Devil and refute his Lies and of those who as Paul saith change the truth of God into a lie After our blessed Saviour's Example I say it is written We must not wonder if some Men go about to impose upon others their Lies for Truths seeing Satan whose Children Liars are had the face to lie to him whom he knew to be God Son of God when he said Luke 4.6 The power of all the kingdoms of the World is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it So we may say of his Children They bend their tongues like their bow for lies Jer. 9.3 but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth But to go on I must observe how the Lord absolutely and subjectively taken doth in Paul's stile ever imply the Person of the Lord Jesus So in John's stile the Name Word used in the same manner doth always signifie the same Person And our Saviour the Eternal Son of God call'd by the Names of Jehovah Lord God Son of God who at several times was in Human Shape seen by the Patriarchs and spoken of by the Prophets is the same who in the fulness of the Times was made Man in the Virgins Womb his Body by the Operation of the Holy Ghost having out of her Substance been therein form'd and preserved from natural human Corruption not that he was transubstantiated into Flesh for what is changed into another ceases to be what he was and begins to be what he was not but God can never cease to be what he is nor become what he was not But to return to the Name the Word when the words are the same and about the same Subject we may believe the Thoughts and the sense to be the same for the meaning is express'd by words In the first Chapter of John the Name God is eleven times in a true and proper sense made use of and in that whole Gospel nor in the whole New Testament can any instance be given that the absolute word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in the Singular be improperly taken but always properly so we must take the word in the usual and natural sense of the Scripture rather than in the improper and metaphorical of Socinians So when John saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was God we must properly understand the Names Word and God the first of the Person the second of the Nature Here they would cavil with saying God is the Subject the Word the Predicate but certainly there being the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and none to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sheweth the contrary but indeed the Exception is frivolous because essentialia praedicata sunt reciproca the essential Predicates are convertible if God be the Word the Word must be God Take notice how as by the Word God the true God is to be understood so when 't is said the Word was God 't is meant the Word was the true God They object he that is with one is not the same whom he is with so the Word must needs be one and God another but they will not take notice how the Evangelist saith not only that the Word was with God but also in the same Verse that the Word was God which is so plain as to need no Interpretation But to answer in the School way I say he is not the same formalitèr sub eodem conceptu formally and under the same Notion but in a different here are two Persons he who is and he whom he is with we confound not but distinguish the Persons the Word is essentially God tho' not relatively the Person of the Father They move every Stone if possible to serve their turn therefore as they would rob the Lord Jesus of having created the World so they go about to deprive him of preserving and upholding it for what is said of God's upholding all things by the Word of his Power Heb. 1.3 Colos 1.17 which in another place is thus By him all things consist which means thè same as the other yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original rendered by to uphold they would Translate to govern which is an idle nicety he that governs well doth uphold what he governs so that provided the thing remains we will not stand