Person Hypostasis or Subsistence of the Divine Nature It is too great Presumption for any in the State of Mortality to determine the manner of the Oneness of the Father Son and Eternal Spirit which is so clearly declared a Mystery near the close of the Canon of Scripture never unfolded after in it The Trinity hath been asserted and owned with the greatest Firmness and Forwardness in the purest State of the antient Christian Church and the least Derogation attempted against it by the Arians hath been condemned with Abhorrence by the most Eminent and Orthodox Fathers and by the Determination and Solemn Confession of Faith by the Council of Nice and it is amongst the most incontestably Catholick Doctrines of the Universal Church owned by all National Societies of Christians in the World above the course of a thousand Years Augustine and some others of the Fathers have attempted to give some Resemblances of the Trinity in Unity though he still acknowledgeth it to be a Mystery they could not fully comprehend So Augustine in his 15th Book of that Treatise he wrote upon the Trinity saith That we have a Representation of the Generation of the Son by the Father in that he is called the Word of God as all Idea's are conceived by Words of the Mind so God's Idea of himself and his Decrees is his Word essential and substantial For all that is in God is God The Son is also the Character of his Person his Image the Brightness of his Glory his Wisdom that was with him from Eternity He says also That the Procession of the Holy Ghost is his Love to Himself by his Idea of Himself with his whole Decrees and that all the Persons of the Trinity are Wise and Powerful by the same Power and Wisdom because they have but one Godhead The Generation of a Son doth not import an Imperfection or Inequality of the Nature of the Son more than of the Father much less doth the Generation of the Eternal Son imply an Inequality of the Son with the Father or a dependance of his Being from the Father as if he needed Preservation like Creatures Yea all the Persons are increated without any Cause and so Self-existent and Coeternal The Errors of Socinians are much more abominable than those of the Arians the Socinians acknowledg nothing of the Son before he was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin The Light of Nature was ever sufficient to confute the Multiplicity of Gods and to convince that there could only be one God Albeit the Multiplicity of Gods did far prevail in the World it was long before it did prevail and not until God had given Men up to their own Ways because of their Wickedness against the clear Light of Nature for they were given up to believe Lies because they did not receive the Truth which by the Light of Nature they knew in Love to live according to it The knowledg of one God was not alone among the Hebrew or Jewish Nation as the Scripture maketh evident in Job and his Friends among whom there was so much clear Knowledg of the Divine Perfections and even of a Saviour and of a Resurrection which are not deducible from any inbred Principle by the Light of Nature and therefore they could not want Revelation yet we have no ground to know any Communication between the Hebrews and them Neither were there a few Persons indued with that Light but a City and Common-wealth having Judges and Counsellors that sate at their Gates Balaam also knew and acknowledged the only true God not by Communication with the Israelites there being a vast distance and no Communication between Aram and Egypt The three Wise Men of the East that were led by a Star to come to Bethlehem when Christ was born could not possibly by Astrology have discovered the Birth of the Mediator and therefore did neither want Revelation nor a miraculous Sign Neither is there any ground to believe that they were Idolaters but that they knew and worshipped the true God and it is highly probable that they were not the only Persons of their Country that did so Yet they did not desire for ought I know to become Proselytes of the Jews Neither is there ground to doubt that Moab or Ammon the Sons of Lot or Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons by Keturah or Esau their nearest Posterity were convinced that there was but one God nor could their Posterity be soon brought to believe a Plurality of Gods So that we have no ground to doubt that the Knowledg of the one God did long and largely propagate it self in the World though through defect of History the Particulars be little known I do not hear of Idolatry before the Flood the cause of it in God's just Judgment is attributed to Mens corrupting of their Ways and the wickedness of their Works After the Flood the Notion of one God did long remain as appears by the common Name of Baal or Lord which was long almost universal and the several Nations that worshipped Baal gave him different Epithets according to their apprehension of his Attributes of which there is frequent mention in the Scripture So the Moabites God was Baal without addition the Sidonians also called their God Baal so did the Canaanites Some Nations called their God Baal Berith that is cursing Baal others Baal Gad Baal Hamon Baal Meon Baal Peor Baal Hanan Baal Hazor Baal Hermon Baal Perazin Baal Zebub the God of Ekron Places also were denominated from Baal as Baal Perazin Baal Shalisha Baal Zebub Baal Zephon and Bell of the Babylonians is but a different Dialect of Baal but that which was the Name of one God with different Epithets did easily come to be apprehended as so many Gods yet the several Nations did not worship many Gods but their own So after the Captivity of the ten Tribes those that were planted in their places being plagued conceived it was by the Anger of the God of that Place and therefore sent for the Jewish Priests to appease him The Greeks were the first that worshipped many Gods and after them the Romans for then the Souls of Men eminent upon Earth were supposed to be cooptated among the Gods in different Orders and as the Nations and Places had Interest in them they had Confidence in them and became forgetful of the true God After arose Images and the relative Honour and Worship attributed to them not only to the Images and Pictures of these Deified Men but also to those Bodies wherein the Gods were supposed to delight and to reside It is not imaginable that so many Men of Discretion and Spirit could with direct Worship adore inanimate Creatures or the meanest Brutes or Plants but that they thought they were delightful to and resided in by Deities and so the Sun the Moon Planets came to be worshipped even by those who did not believe that they had Life or Understanding or were Bodies informed by a Deity but that
A VINDICATION OF THE Divine Perfections Illustrating the Glory of God In Them By Reason and Revelation Methodically Digested into several MEDITATIONS By a Person of Honour LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill M DC XC V. The PREFACE THE essential and absolute Perfections of which the Deity is possest for ever are the Object of our supream Reverence and Adoration Love and Joy Affiance and Trust. The comprehensive Knowledg of them infinitely exceeds our finite Faculties but their Discovery is of God which is of gradual Accomplishment according to our Conceptions and Capacities and in order to our transforming Contemplation of him in his imitable Excellencies The Light of Reason like the early Morning when the Shadows of the Night are mix'd with the Light of the Day affords some glimmering Notices and scattered Glances of the Divine Essence and Attributes The Light of Faith like the ascending Light of the Sun that dispels the Mists in the Air gives a more clear and extensive Discovery The Light of Glory like the Sun in its full Lustre reveals them in the most resplendent manner In the whole Frame of Nature in the Variety and Union of its Parts in their Order and Efficacy the Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Divine Maker appear or rather shine his Attributes and Excellencies are visibly signed and engraven on his Works But since the Revolt and Ruine of Man the Understanding is strangely darkned and disordered in its Operations Of this there is sad Evidence in the numberless Errors that swarm'd in the World concerning God The Heathen Notions of him were in such a degree of Deformity as infinitely blasphem'd his Nature It will be sufficient to mention one fundamental Error To the enlightned Mind the Divine Perfections carry their Evidence in a Circle one Attribute illustrates and strongly infers another yet they could not conceive the absolute Perfection of God's Nature but fancied every Attribute to be a singular Deity These portentous Mistakes did not proceed from the Defect of Visibility in the Object but of Sight in the Eye of Reason so weakned and vitiated in our lapsed State It pleased therefore the Father of Lights in his admirable Mercy to afford a new Revelation of himself to the Minds of Men. The same Heavenly Inspiration from whence the reasonable Soul proceeds was requisite to renew the true Knowledg of God in it The sacred Scripture is the Medium of this Revelation wherein are such Characters of the Deity that none but a perverse Mind can suspect it not to be the Word of God In that Glass his most Divine Perfections are revealed Wisdom Goodness Holiness Justice that are principally exercised in the Moral Government of the World The external Revelation of God's Nature and compassionate Counsels in the Gospel when productive of an inward Revelation to the Mind so powerful as to regulate the Will and Affections is of saving Efficacy The wise Men with the Direction of a miraculous Star had internal Illumination that discovered the Incarnate Son of God and Saviour of the World to them The Light of Faith is as much below the Light of Glory as 't is above the Light of Nature Now the Manifestation of God is temper'd to our frail Faculties if his transcendent Excellencies were display'd to us we should be swallowed up in Extasy and Astonishment But in the future State where the Natural Body shall be spiritualized we shall know as we are known In Heaven God shines by direct Beams the clear and uninterrupted Vision of his Glory is the Cause and Consummation of the Felicity of Angels and Saints for ever We begin our Heaven here by the attentive and transforming Contemplation of the Deity The Noble Author of the following Discourses has obliged the wise and inquiring Christians by communicating his Treasures The Clearness and Vigor of his Spirit are illustriously visible in managing a Subject so deep and difficult And as in the blessed God there is a Union of all glorious and amiable Excellencies as are perfective of our Minds and attractive of our Wills so in our Author's unfolding them there is joined with the strength of Argument that Beauty of Perswasion as may enlighten and engage all under standing Readers to be happy in the entire Choice of God for their everlasting Portion We have here an imitable and instructive Example to Great Men the Dignity of whose Stations in the World too commonly seems to plead an Exemption from a more sedulous Intention and Application of Mind to the Affairs of Religion that have final Reference to another World This Performance of the Noble Author shows it to be a thing not impracticable as it is most Praise-worthy amidst the greatest secular Employments to find Vacancy and a Disposition of Spirit to look with a very inquisitive Eye into the deep Things of God Which if it were the Author's Pleasure to be known would let it be seen the Statesman and the Divine are not Inconsistencies to a great and comprebensive Mind so as to consider them with Distinction and without confounding them or making the two Spheres intersect one another so as that in so large a Theological Work here is no mixture of Political Matters except wherein the Nature of the things themselves they are contiguous And were it not so or if this Work concern'd Policies and Governments by Men it were without our Compass to recommend it to the World Which having had some Taste of it we make so much haste to do as not to allow our selves the Pleasure of engrossing it or of perusing it alone till we have imparted it and made it possible to others to partake with us therein W. BATES J. HOWE THE CONTENTS Meditation I. INtroductory 1 II. Upon God's being a Spirit 19 III. Upon the Self-existence and Eternity of God 28 IV. Upon God's Omniscience 36 V. Upon the Will and Pleasure of God 67 VI. Upon the Power of God 78 VII Upon the Oneness of God 89 VIII Upon God's Freedom 140 IX Upon the Blessedness of God implying his Self-sufficiency Self-comprehension his infinite Love to and Delight in Himself 118 X. Upon God's Holiness or Godlikeness 126 Page XI Upon the Unchangeableness of God 141 XII Upon the Goodness of God 150 XIII Upon the Truth of God 168 XIV Upon the Justice of God 179 XV. Upon the Mercy of God 200 XVI Upon the Faithfulness of God 213 XVII Upon the Wisdom of God 224 XVIII Upon the Dominion of God and his Dispensations thereof towards his Rational Creatures especially by the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace 257 MEDITATION I. Introductory The greatest Duty of Man towards God is to delight in God as in the most excellent and most amiable Object It is also the highest Accomplishment of Man's Happiness for by delighting in God he doth enjoy him Delight can only arise from the Knowledg of the lovely Object in the Perfections thereof And according to
the Person injured and if there be any thing of Reparation due by the Wrong it may be lawfully prosecuted but the Aversion and Resentment arising from the Injury is that which Men are required to forgive and obliterate There was indeed a Debt of that holy Action that by Sin was transgressed but every Debt is not a Debt of Payment for Payment imports the delivery of some Fungible as Money or Grain but other Debts consist not in Payment but in Prestation or performance of some Deed as the doing any Work putting one in Possession giving Honour or Obedience And so Creatures Obligements to God are not Debts of Payment but of Prestation or Performance much less can the Guiltiness of Sin import a Debt of Payment but it doth not even import a Debt of Performance A Criminal is not obliged to offer himself to the Justice of the Magistrate who therein is the Minister of God no not to confess his Crime when accused by another unless it can be otherwise proved Nor doth the Judg punishing take Payment but useth his Authority in the way of Vindication as an Act of Punitive Justice done by him on the Criminal and not done to him by the Criminal Prestation of Facts being omitted especially to God can never be repayed that which is past cannot be recalled nor is it compensable by any Liquid Payment but only the Damage done by it and if there be no other Damage the Grief arising by the Injury may be compensed with Joy arising from the Application of some of the Injurer's Goods to the Injured and oftentimes Men count it a Satisfaction by taking Pleasure in the suffering of the Injurer but that is it which Men are required to forgive How can it then be imagined that God requireth Payment for the failure in Duty by the Committer of Sin He is not capable of Grief or Damage and he hath not only said but sworn that he taketh no Pleasure in the Torment of his Creature As I live saith the Lord I delight not in the Death of a Sinner If Sin inferred a Debt of Payment it might be forgiven without any Satisfaction for scarce is any Creditor obliged to exact the Debt due to him but he may freely forbear it or forgive it And therefore if Sin did properly infer a Debt God might forgive it without Satisfaction therefore God punisheth not Sin as a Creditor exacting his Debt but as he is the King Ruler and Judg of the World he vindicates the Injury against his Law and manifests his infinite Aversion and Abhorrence of Sin not his Delight in the Misery of his Creature 3. I consider the part of the Son in the Decree and Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace not as a making Payment for the Debt of Sinners but a submitting to these Sufferings which do as much manifest God's Abhorrence of Sin and Delight in his indispensable Law as if the whole Race of Mankind had been eternally in Hell and thereby he made way to God's Mercy to fallen Man so far as it was congruous to the Divine Perfections If Christ's Satisfaction had been the Payment of the Sinner's Debt the Forgiveness of Sin would not be by free Grace A Cautioner or any interposed Person paying a Debt the Creditor cannot be said to give a free Discharge to the principal Debtor for he has gotten all he could demand Law doth not suffer a Creditor to refuse Payment from any that shall please to interpose which therefore would be far from exalting the free Goodness of God in pardoning Sin as the Scripture sets it forth beside that all interposed Persons acquire Right to the Debt and have Recourse against the principal Debtor for whom they pay But Scripture makes no mention of Sinners becoming Debtors to Christ for Punishment If Sin had been undertaken by and transferred on Christ the Sinner being so liberated how could the Sinner beg Pardon of the Sin that was already payed Thence some have imagined that it was a fault to mourn for Sin and that so they were no way under the Law but under Grace And those who are a little more modest say that they do not observe the Law as a Debt by Justice but as a free Gratification mistaking grosly that place that the Regenerate are not under the Law but under Grace that is that the Law is no more the Counterpart of the Covenant between God and them as it was in the Covenant of Works but is still a Law obliging them to Performance without Abrogation Derogation Indulgence or Pardon of Sin before it were committed anterior in its Obligation to any Covenant of and with Man The reason of the severe Punishment of Sin is commonly given because it is committed against the infinite Majesty of God to which I think it may be well added that as the Aversion of God from Sin and as his Purity is infinite so his Justice requires an infinite Punishment which because a Creature cannot bear in a finite Duration it becomes an infinite Punishment Thence also it is evident that Christ's Satisfaction could not be infinite in Weight for Weight can no more be infinite than Bulk but it becomes infinite in Value by the Dignity of the Person that suffered it 4. All that deserve the Name of Christians do agree that God's Justice could not be satisfied nor Sin expiated without the suffering of Christ of infinite Value but they do exceedingly disagree in the Terms of the Covenant betwixt the Father and the Son and betwixt God and Man All do agree that in every Covenant there must be mutual Prestations by either Party but the Question is what these Prestations were in the Terms of the Covenant of Grace what is God's part and what is Man's part in it There be many Errors not only perillous but pernicious especially when they are wilfully maintained That Infallibility the Church of Rome pretends makes all her Errors to become wilful and sinful if once they have been owned in that way they count infallible All others may and oftentimes do retract their Mistakes It were highly uncharitable to imagine that any of these had wilfully or willingly taken up an Error in this matter which is the greatest Interest of Men but at first they behoved to be mistaken I do therefore think it worth my utmost Endeavour for my own clearing to consider how they have fallen into these Mistakes and by what way they might come cut of them 1. The Pelagians held That the natural Powers God had given Men by Creation were sufficient for Regeneration and that which seems to have led them into that Error was that it could not consist with the Goodness and even with the Justice of God to damn Men for that which was never in their Power to avoid Seeing nothing can be a Crime but what is voluntary and where the Will might have actually chosen or followed the contrary and so at least it was in their natural Power to