Surely no man that hath any regard to God can say or think that in so serious a matter God speaks to nothing if to some then either to Angels or to some other Creature not to Angels for they are not of God's Council nor to any other of the Creatures which had neither Soul nor Reason and the next Verse doth decide the thing * Vers 27. So god created man in his own image in the image of God created he him and not after the Image of Angels or of any other Creature neither did God speak to the Souls for as yet they were not created To what I said of Angels I shall add that this could not be spoken to them for they neither principally or instrumentally had any hand in the Creation of Man for they could not the Work of Creation requiring an infinite Power but it must be to the other persons of the most holy Trinity the Word and the Spirit As to the Enallage or that manner of speaking in the plural for Greatness sake we own it hath place in some Languages but we deny it ever was in the Hebrew Tongue in the Old Testament no Man no person in Authority no Priest no Judg no King ever spoke of himself in the plural Number Well hath the Prophet said †Isai 40.12 13.7 Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him But for any one Grotius not excepted to say that the plural Number is used for Greatness or Majesty sake is certainly to prevaricate in the Cause of God for as 't is contrary to the Idiom of the Hebrew Tongue so to the practice of all those former times and it is but a modern Use and Invention which so support some Men contrary to all true Reason have forged in their imagination Besides that in these latter times wherein the Use hath been introduced no Emperor King or Prince in any Language useth his Proper Name or Appellative in the plural Number We Leopolds Williams Henrys Emperors Kings c. but always in the singular Leopold William Emperour King Well though no Man of what rank soever spoke after that way we find God hath in other places as after Adam's Sin * Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us not as I but one of us then there is more than One person for God speaks of himself of the Deity not of Angels whom he makes no comparison with when in the Transfiguration the Voice came from Heaven saying †Mat. 17.5 8. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased 't is observable the Apostles saw no Man save Jesus onely that it might appear it was not spoken of Moses or Elias but only of the Lord Jesus Another place there is also to the same purpose where upon the occasion of the building of the Tower of Babel †Gen. 11.6 7. The Lord said let us go down and there confound their language 't is not said I will but let us go â—â—wn in the plural Number as speaking of many which may not be understood of the Nature which is most singularly One but of the Persons Socinians say to this that though out of this we could prove Plurality yet we must not conclude for a Trinity but the Cavil is vain for 't is enough that the Name of God is in Scripture attributed only to Three Father Son and Holy Ghost to infer a Trinity and 't is well known how Three is the first Number of the plural Hence Hebrews and Greeks do distinguish the plural Number from the dual neither do we read of any more Terms or Words than two of divine Emanations namely of the Son by Generation and of the Holy Ghost by Procession Our second kind of Arguments consists of those Texts of Scripture which do expresly declare a Trinity as is that when our blessed Saviour sends his Apostles to * Mat. 28.19 baptize the Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hence the Son and Holy Ghost are proved to be Persons because we are distinctly baptised in their Name to baptise in one's Name is to make him disciple or initiate and bring him under the Discipline of him in whose Name he is baptized now if the Father in whose Name we are baptized be a Person so must the Son so must the Holy Ghost be because in every circumstance we are baptized in their Name as well as in the Fathers And observe it is not said in the Name of God whereby the Essence only might absolutely be taken but of the Father Son and Holy Ghost to shew that relative Equality which is between the Persons that have but one and the same Nature In this Text our blessed Saviour with his own Mouth declared the Trinity Another place very plain and positive to our purpose is this * 1 John 5.7 There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one Here the Trinity of Persons and Unity of Essence are so clear that the Adversaries have nothing to say but first to call in question the Verse as if it had been inserted because it is not in some Greek Copies out of which the Enemies of the Truth did formerly take it away but we have it in so many others even before the Council of Nice in Cyprian's time that there is no just ground left to doubt of its being true and authentick which place was by Athanasius made use of against Arrius In this Text the Apostle doth treat of confessing and believing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God which he to confirm doth bring in the Article of the holy Trinity whereof he is the second Person and to any one that doth seriously consider the sense and scope of the place it will appear how without that Verse there would be a breach in that part of the Chapter to bear a proportion of Three that bear witness in Heaven with the Three that bear it on Earth Their next Cavil upon this place is upon the latter part of the Verse and these three are one that is say they not in Nature but in Mind and Consent which is as absurd as if one would say when Scripture affirms * Deut. 6 4. Mark 12.29 O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord the meaning is only the Consent of many Wills but doth not this Oneness of Will argue a Unity of Essence For how can there naturally and essentially be one Will and Consent if there be not one Essence and Nature How can it essentially be one Will if there be not one but many divine Natures Rather there shall be many different Gods whose different Wills shall oppose one another than the which nothing can be more absurd Again either those Persons are finite or infinite if finite then they have not divine Nature which is infinite if infinite then
Essentially exclusively not to Son and Holy Ghost but to Idols and Creatures the word Father is here taken for God as 't is when said one God and Father of all and Abba-Father Ephes 4.6 Rom. 8.15 Also the Father of Spirits The words our Father are often taken for our God and Lord In those places the word Father is said relatively not to the Son Heb. 12.9 Matth. 10.21 29. Luke 30.32 John 14.13 Chap. 3.13 but to men whose Father God is The things in the Lord's Prayer asked and prayed for are asked of the Son as well as of the Father as the coming of his Kingdom the forgiveness of our Sins whence saith our Lord Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will do And the words which are in Heaven do belong to the Son as to the Father and the Holy Ghost too as appeareth out of Psal 139.7 8. and Matth. 3.16 Nay as we said before the Son is called the everlasting Father And if we consider the Etymology of the word which in the Original signifieth to preserve all things we shall find he is a Father indeed by whom all things are upheld and preserved which the Holy Spirit within us beareth witness unto when our heart laying under the sense of some trouble or mercy doth on a sudden by means of an Ejaculatory Prayer either in thoughts words or both poure it self before him begging for help or giving thanks breaking out upon occasion into these or the like expressions Lord Jesus have pity on me or Lord Jesus make me thankful Thus I through the grace of God have under those several heads brought in proofs for our blessed Lord and Saviour's divinity of many more which Scripture affords I shall take notice but of few wherein he is properly and truly called God which to assert is the main drift of the word as it is the foundation of the whole Gospel for it was absolutely necessary he should be God by nature or else any man might have preached taught prayed given good example and made intercession as well as Christ and if he came into the world and dyed only to teach us good doctrine and give us good example he had done for us no more than the Apostles and Martyrs who taught good doctrine and gave good example so might as well be called our Mediators and Saviours If this had as they say been the whole work of the Mediator our redemption had been no hard matter to be performed But I say that his threefold office of Mediatorship Prophecy Kingship and Priesthood demonstrate him to be true Essential God for none of the three could perfectly have been performed but by a God himself As to the Prophetical to enlighten the understanding and effectually to turn the heart as to the Regal to defend Believers against the Power of Satan and as to the Priestly to obtain forgiveness of Sins favour of God and glory none of these could be obtained but by him who is infinite as in Power so in Nature there is an infinite distance between God who is infinite and every finite Creature no proportion between Infinite and Finite Scripture owneth nothing but God to be higher than Angels now Christ is higher and above all Angels Besides that the necessity of satisfaction to be given to Divine Justice doth argue a necessity for Christ to be God for the satisfaction could not have been adequate as it ought to be except he was God and this divinity in him doth prove the plurality of persons in the God-head which is the whole of the difficulty alledged against the most holy Trinity Certainly the great design of the Apostles and others was to preach Christ to be truely and really God Son of God whereby their Ministry was exalted this was the foundation they were to build upon Acts 8.37 The Eunuch must make this Confession I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God before he could be baptized so did every one else being converted to the Faith this in our Religion is the first thing to be known and preached thus Paul after his Conversion Chap. 9.20 the first thing he did was to preach that Christ is the Son of God for that was the great question the Jews denyed him not to be Man Son of Man but he went about to convince them how also he was God Son of God and he was by Nature God as certainly as by nature he was Man Wherefore he would raise the thoughts of the Corinthians from the consideration of Christ's humanity to that of his Deity when he saith 2 Cor. 5.16 though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more after the flesh but according to the spirit not in the humane but in the divine nature according to which he is called by the glorious names of the holy one Act. 3.14 15. 1 Cor. 2.8 and the just the prince of life and the Lord of glory our Blessed Saviour who when he was in the world had so often declared himself to be the Son of God in a proper sense after his Ascension when he had a full possession of that glory as it were to confirm from Heaven what he had declared upon Earth in the Revelation he made to that disciple of his who doth so eminently bear witness of his divinity 1 Joh. 4.14 15. when he saith we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and not otherwise I say on that occasion the Lord Jesus from Heaven proclaims himself to be Son of God in the letter to the Angel of the Church in Thiatira with this glorious description Rev. 2.18 compared with chap. 1.14 15. These things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass Tho his enemies would not hear him upon earth during the time of his humiliation when through his Passive Obedience he was about performing the first part of his Priestly Office to satisfie divine Justice and make expiation for our sins I think now they should when he speaks from Heaven whence he exercises his Royal Office I know well enough how what I say about his satisfying Divine Justice through his death doth not affect his enemies who deny he hath given satisfaction for us but what can his intercession on in Heaven which is the second part of his Priesthood be grounded upon but his own merits through his Sufferings and Death he thereby hath payed our Debts and by vertue of that payment he asks we should be released but that point I intend not to meddle with in this place In the New Testament the name Saviour is as proper to him as that of Christ as indeed that of Jesus the same with Saviour was given him by the Angel and
was really in Heaven before he came down upon Earth and as he really and actually ascended up into it so he really and actually descended from thence upon Earth here are two terms a quo and ad quem as he could not go up to Heaven but from the Earth so he could not come down upon the Earth but from Heaven and is there the least ground in the whole Chapter to think Christ's intention was to entertain them with his having been in Heaven in Idea and Meditation when his design was to shew how what he had said of being the Author of Resurrection and Life and the manner of it by means of eating his flesh was a thing not to give them offence nor impossible Considering what he was originally from Heaven therefore not to be considered as a meer man but such a one as was far more divine and powerfull than any man They finding this will not do yet to dispute the ground as long as they can they forged in a Dream for otherwise it cannot be a very strange adventure that Christ was in Heaven before he was upon Earth seemeth undeniable therefore because they dare not give him the lye they would mince the matter thus how Christ between his Birth and Death and before he preached went up into Heaven where for a while he remained to be better instructed by the Father in the things which he was to teach mankind after which he came down again but there is not the least ground but only fancy for it The Evangelists do give us an account of most passages of Christ's Life and how could they all four have forgotten this which is one of the most important that might have befallen him in that kind The Evangelists Matthew and Luke in their four first Chapters relate many things belonging to that time as not only his birth but also his Circumcision on the eighth day and his being carryed to the Temple to be presented to the Lord received by Simeon spoken of by Anna a Prophetess adored by the Wise Men carryed into Egypt his return to Nazareth his being found in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors asking them questions his being subject to Joseph and Mary baptized of John tempted in the Wilderness c. and not one word about this pretended ascension How came it that he was not missed by any This they would to have been in imitation of Moses whom God called up to the Mount That it was so with Moses we read in the word but nothing like it of our Saviour And when God is silent our mouth should be stopped and nothing allowed to fancy or imagination besides when Moses was called up the people had publick notice given them of it and by God's command he took Aaron's Sons and Seventy of the Elders all the people saw the glory of God upon the Mount and when Moses came back all Israel saw him with his face shining none of which things can be said of this pretended Ascension of christ's whereof there are no witnesses not so much as any of his Disciples as he had in his Trassiguration which three Evangelists give an exact account of Which though important yet not so considerable as this which could not be performed without a great Miracle whether he had been carryed up only in Soul for then his Soul had been separated from the Body so death must have followed or whether in Body and Soul the Body could not have been sustain'd in the Air without a Miracle And during that time where were his Disciples This certainly should have made a great Gap in the History of his Life which we cannot perceive in any of the Evangelists no nor in those that have written his Life from his Birth to his Death Resurrection and Ascension St. Luke saith of the Gospel he had written how he had made a Treatise of all that Jesus begun both to do and to teach Yet not a word of this Acts 1.1 as indeed there was no necessity for Christ to go up to Know as they say his Father's Will which might have been communicated unto him as to Moses John Baptist without going up to Heaven in case he had not known it but he knew it before At his Baptism the Heavens were opened unto him the Father had highly owned him the Holy Ghost was descended upon him so that he return'd from Jordan full of the Holy Ghost Luke 4.1 wherefore there was no need of his going and so the Cause ceasing so must the Effect so that also it had been preposterous after what happen'd in his Baptism for him to have gone up into Heaven upon such an Errand Besides that we are assured he enter'd but once into the holy place Heb. 9.12 Hereby we see how if we were willing to take it that sort of Men would be ready to put upon us every Suggestion of theirs for an Argument every Argument for a Law yea and every Dream for a Revelation Tho' our Saviour here calls himself Son of Man and not Son of God it doth not in the least prejudice what we say for if he had call'd himself Son of God it had been a begging of the Question for they would not own him to be such And this sheweth the better the Oneness of the Person when there is a Communication of the Idioms when in the Person that which is proper to one Nature is spoken of the other Christ according to the Flesh was never in Heaven before his Ascension but according to the Spirit that is his Divine Nature he was Here our blessed Saviour calling himself Son of Man may allude to with intent to make Men take notice of what is spoken of himself by the Prophet Dan. 7.13 14. I saw in the night Visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion c. This is an exact Prophecy of his Ascension One thing more they have to say and 't is the Example of Paul's having been caught up to the third Heaven but must it from what hath happen'd to Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 follow that the same must needs have befaln the Lord Jesus That indeed we read of Paul therefore we ought to believe but of Christ we read no such thing Yet for all that we never read that either Paul was from Heaven or came down as we read it of Christ very often Paul speaks of that with the greatest modesty in the World for fear he should seem to exalt himself but our Lord without any ambiguity or fear that Men would think he takes too much upon himself doth speak loud highly declares and often proclaims himself to be the Son of God equal with him sent by the
of great Physicians and if your Honours be pleased but to mind this and in earnest go about it you may by the Grace of God find it within your reach and not to exceed your Skill and Power to heal it which I pray God to move and inspire you to go upon now when temporal Concerns are at this time as good as over And after you hitherto have been working for Men be pleased with minding God's Work and his Glory to make a happy end of this Session From the Bench you sit upon as Judges be pleased first to look down upon the Nation of one side you may see the generality of it over Head and Ears in corrupt Principles and evil Practices wallowing themselves in their great many and frequent Sins which cry loud to Heaven for Vengeance on the other side you may represent unto your selves a very small Number who upon their Knees mourn for all these Abominations and pray to God to avert his so justly deserved Judgments then I beseech you look up towards Heaven and observe God with Thunderbolts in one Hand and Mercies in the other speaking thus Hitherto with me Prayers have prevailed over Sins and withheld my Hand from striking down but now Mercy and Judgment lye ready chuse which you will have O for God's sake whose Hand is lifted up take pity on the Nation and as far as God will enable you purge wash and cleanse it from blasphemous Opinions and wicked Practices or else prepare for the heaviest Judgments for the slower Vengeance is a coming the harder it strikes when come and 't is a fearful thing both in this Life and that which is to come to fall into the hands of the living God when he is angry he overtakes Men Persons and Nations in every kind of Judgment Hosea 3.12 14. therefore saith God will I be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the House of Judah as rottenness and if that be not enough I will be unto Ephraim as a lyon and as a young lyon to the house of Judah Men must not make Cyphers of themselves and insignificant as if they were thus placed only for a sign or a shew like Blazing Stars and fiery Vapours in the Sky but rather to have wholsom Influences upon things below their sphere to answer the end of him who lodged them in those high Stations no true Friend can patiently suffer nor no loyal Subject quietly endure his Friend or Prince to be ill spoken of if he can help it And shall not Men do for God that which they do one for another but quietly hear him blasphemed and robbed of his due when they ought and can help it My Lords and Honourable I hope the Consideration of these things will as I hinted at first though I be in no publick Station either in Church or State clear me from Blame for the Freedom I now assume thus openly to appear and most humbly to address my self to you that is to what next to Sovereignty is greatest and most sacred among us which I may well call the supports of Monarchy two parts of three of the Legislative Power the supreme Court of Judicature and the Representatives of the whole Body of the Nation One thing indeed there is that needs something of an Apology I know how short Epistles are usual and proper especially when so highly address'd as this is which is long and may be tedious which if it be I humbly beg Pardon but I thought the Matter and Nature of the thing the Greatness and Nearness of the Evil the Danger of worse the present Necessity of a Remedy and several other weighty Circumstances attending the State we now are in might plead for an Excuse And as this is the first time that ever I appear'd in your sight in this Capacity and is like to be the last so about this important Matter I have longer than ordinary allow'd my self the liberty of speaking my mind to the full As I wish so hope this most humble Request for the Cause of the Lord Jesus shall not be in vain however I enjoy the satisfaction to have given in my Evidence for the Truth whereupon I call Heaven and Earth for a Record and by the Grace of God shall ever be ready to do 't again in a due and proper manner without being either ashamed or afraid to own and declare out of what Springs we draw these living Waters Acts 17.2 with S. Paul reasoning out of Scriptures though with a sorrowful Heart let it be spoken we have among us too many Men unconcerned who Gallio like care for none of those things Chap. 18.17 for they are very narrow hearted But I hope that what is wanting abroad as to Piety Virtue and Concernedness for the Honour of God shall by his Grace be found within your Walls till by your Care and Zeal that great and good Work be brought to its Maturity and full Perfection which that ye may be able to do I beseech the only wise God the Father of Lights from whom proceedeth every good and perfect Gift to endue you from above with both Wisdom which consists in choice and Prudence in Fore-sight that of two Goods you may chuse the greatest and of two Evils the least and fore-see the Advantages of doing him Service and Dangers for being wanting therein which is the earnest Desire and hearty Prayer of Right Honourable and Honourable Your Honours most humble and most obedient Servant J. GAILHARD THE PREFACE IT is indeed very sad in a Countrey where the Light of the Gospel hath so clearly shined to see the Enemies of Christ so brazen-fac'd as not only to Print and Publish but even at the Doors of both Houses of Parliament to Distribute their Books full of Blasphemies and no other Check put upon them but burning one Copy may be of Thousands dispersed abroad which Impunity is for them an Encouragement to continue in their Crime In Commendation of the Parliament of Scotland I must take notice of the Act which in one of their last Sessions was passed there against Blasphemy whereby not only they ratified the Twenty First of the first Session of Charles II. but also Enacted farther that whosoever in Discourse or Writing shall deny quarrel argue or reason against the Being of a God or any of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity or against the Authority of the Holy Scripture or Providence of God in Governing the World shall for the first time be Imprisoned till he hath in publick acknowledged the Offence For the second Offence Imprisoned and a Fine besides and for the third Death as obstinate Blasphemers For indeed Blasphemy and Idolatry by God's express Command ought to be destroyed out of the Land Every thing hath its proper Center heavy things go down and light fly up and since the Glory of God is the proper Center of Man for he was created to Honor and Serve him Why then doth he not as well as
of his Servant of his elect in whom his Soul delighteth whereby none may deny the Lord Jesus to be understood and the Holy Ghost or Spirit Nothing better than this can quadrate with the History of our Saviour's Baptism ‖ Matth. 3.16 And in another place of the same Prophet †Iâ—al 6.3 when he saw the Vision and heard that Trisagion or holy holy holy which long after was also heard by John * Rev. 4 8. that three-fold repetition of God's Name compar'd with the proper Hypotheses of the antient Jews ' that it signified three things in God is adapted to the Trinity of Persons in S. John's Vision we have some enlargement as to the Lord Jesus represented by the Lamb for the same Twenty four Elders and Four Beasts * Rev. 5.8 9 13. fell down before the lamb and sung a new song and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea paid the same Worship to the Lamb as to him that sitteth on the Throne Again the same Prophet †Isai 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath anointed me this to be understood of Christ as applyed Luke 4.18 and of the Holy Ghost by the anointing for he was anointed with the Oyl of Gladness that is the Graces of the Spirit These Three are also to be read amongst the last Words of David * 2 Sam. 23.2 saying The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and the Word was in my tongue here is the Lord the Word and the Spirit To the same purpose speaks another Prophet †Hagg. 2.5 according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you the Father with the Word his Son and his Spirit made a Covenant with Israel There are several other Texts in the Old Testament of the Nature of One which I already made use of I mean of the thrice holy wherein the Name of God or Lord is thrice repeated I own I have such a persuasion of the infinite Wisdom of God as to believe there is nothing at all in his Word but what there is a particular reason for it to be in and in this belief of mine I am confirmed by what our blessed Saviour saith in earnest and with a strong Asseveration †Matt. 5.18 Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled and I am sufficiently satisfied that though through the Infirmity of our Nature in the Ignorance of our Mind we cannot apprehend the Causes of many things in the Word of God yet therein is nothing without a Cause So out of that Principle I dare say God meaneth something when in the Blessing which he prescribed to be pronounced to the People the Lord's Name is thrice in it thus * Numb 6.24 25 26. The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and when God speaks unto Moses he dictates what he was to speak to the Children of Israel when he was come to them in his Name that is The Lord God of your Fathers one would have thought this had been enough but no for he addeth †Exod. 3.15 The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob it was the same God yet thrice named So when the Law is given he saith ‖ Exod. 20.5 I the Lord thy God am a jealous God once Lord and twice God which is the same so in another place the * Psalm 136.1 2 3. Psalmist exhorteth thrice to give thanks to whom unto the Lord unto the God of Gods to the Lord of Lords One more I shall quote and 't is this †Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King Why thrice and no more Surely God aims at something for as he doth nothing so he saith nothing in vain these things are not in by Chance and seeing with a full assurance I believe according to Revelation a Trinity of Persons in the Divine Nature Why should not I also believe that these things relate to it Now if one would seriously attend upon these quoted places and compare them with others of the same kind may be God would impart upon the Matter greater Discoveries than I for the present am able to give only this I shall add how the Name Jehovah called in Greek Tetragrammaton because it originally consists only of four Letters signifieth both God's Self-existence for the Root whence 't is derived doth denote to be and also his Eternity for it contains all times to come present and past one out of the two first Letters draws the Words beginning and to live and the third having a Vertue of copulating or joyning together is for Love whereby is denoted the Holy Ghost as by the two before are Father and Son and because the second Letter h is twice in he would have both Natures in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity to be meaned tho' I have nothing to say against these mysterious Interpretations which may be well grounded yet we build not our main Arguments thereupon however knowing that essential and incommunicable Holy Name to confist of three different Letters I can see nothing to hinder me from believing that that same Nature is communicated to Three Persons and as the same Letter is twice in it doth signifie Two Natures in One Person especially it falling upon the Second Letter relating to the Second Person of the most blessed Trinity and as God is the Author of the Name Why may not he in his Infinite Wisdom therein denote some Mystery This I take to be Rational Here I must not omit for Proof of this great Truth to bring in our Creed called the Apostolical as an Evidence I meddle not with the others for the Adversaries will not own them though they ever were by better more Learned more Pious and Sound in all Ages than they are or I doubt can be I know the World hath afforded some Men who out of a vain-glory and to seem to be something through a tryal of their Parts have attempted to enervate with their Criticisms the Strength and Orthodoxy of these Creeds but as to this Socinians themselves can except against it no more than they do against the written Word of God whence this is extracted Father Son and Holy Ghost are all Three named in the Creed and as the Word God is expressed when joined with the Father so 't is understood of Son and Holy Ghost thus I believe in God his only begotten Son and I believe in God the Holy Ghost for to them it also doth belong and as there we profess to believe in that is to
express Image of the Father's Person because in him through that eternal Generation is expressed the whole Person and Glory of the Father for which Image of God he is called the First-born of every Creature that is begotten before there was any Creature and so from Eternity as in the Form and Nature of God to be equal with God who otherwise hath not and owneth none equal to himself 2 Sam. 7 1â— In these high and divine matters Men must not presume beyond what is written and revealed in Gods Word nor wrest the Delign of the Spirit of God or force an unusual and contrary sense to the words of the Text but we ought to keep our selves within the bounds of that holy reverence which becomes us in the contemplation of the Majesty of God In these very things Hierom as said before was very cautions about acknowledging three Hypostases in the Deity because he thought the word to denote substance When God was upon withdrawing the Spirit of Prophecy from among his People Chap. 4.4 he by Malâ—câ—y the last of the Prophets commands them to remember the law of Moses his servant So now when the Apostles immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost ceased so long since men should wholly acquiesce to the sound Doctrine which those Servants of his Son Jesus left for our use and instruction wherein we learn how God hath revealed himself and communicated his own infinite fulness unto his Creatures in all of them immediately by his own Son first in the creation of all things secondly in their providential disposal and rule thirdly in the revelation of his Will and Ordinances fourthly in the communication of his Spirit and Grace in none of which is the Person of the Father otherwise represented unto us than in and by the Person of the Son for the whole end of the Gospel is 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Tim 6.10 1 â—oâ—n 4.12 to give knowledge of the glory of God in the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ that is the glory of the 〈◊〉 visible God whom no man hath seen Now in that forenamed Prophecy of Malachy the same Chapter and two last Verses the coming of the 〈◊〉 which had often been prophesied of before is again promised yea of the Lord himself who then was and had been from all Eternity but was to come only at such a time which is called the great and dreadful day of the Lord for against the appearing and long before of that Sun of Righteousness all those Stars the Prophets were to disappear one only excepted like the Morning-star before the rising of the Sun Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord By whom the Lord Jesus is meant as John Baptist is by Elijah so called because he came in the spirit and power of Elias for both were endow'd with a fervency of Spirit which made them spare neither Kings nor People And the Evangelist makes use of the words of the Prophet He shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children Luke 1.17 compared with Matt. 11.14 Mark 9.11 12 13. That same Lord whose coming with such Concomitants as great and dreadful was Jehovah himself the God of Israel whose words tho' in his state of humiliation were so conspicuous glorious and great as he in one particular said himself to the man out of whom he had cast a Legion of Devils Return to thine own house Luk. 8.39 and shew what great things God hath done unto thee And the Evangelist who in the beginning of the Verse relateth Christ's words to the man doth in the latter end of the same declare what the man did And he went his way and published throughout the whole City how great things Jesus had done unto him he did it in the same words how great things only instead of God he said Jesus so that Jesus was the God that had done great things unto him This was in the Land of Judah where no other God but the true God of Israel was own'd and worshipped so the Lord Jesus was that same God whom the Father from Heaven calls his Son which is the Name mentioned Phil. 2.9 that is above every name and this name more excellent than any given the Angels Heb. 1.4 he hath obtained by inheritance not by favour according to what saith the Apostle for the name by him designed is that of Son of God Thou art my Son with the exegetical adjunct of his generation This day have I begotten thee Acts 13.33 which words Paul doth apply to the Lord Jesus This day of Eternity after the manner of time spoken in relation to God with whom are no parts of time as with Men past present and to come With God are not days but only one day which had no beginning and shall have no end It was never said to any Angel personally upon his own account Thou art the Son of God much less with the reason of the appellation This day have I begotten thee so in that place the Apostle doth not speak of the general Name of a Son but of the particular appropriation thereof unto the Lord Jesus upon his own account When the Apostle saith he is the first-born the thing it self is not meant of being the first begotten but the Dignity and Privilege that attended it Psal 89.27 Thus God saith of David I will make him my first-born explained in the later part of the Verse higher than the Kings of the carth Thus among Men one may say I will make such a one my First-born or my Heir which is the Privilege attending the Birth-right This is Christs Title by Nature and not by Office anointing was a Ceremony used to make and declare a King but that anointing made him not a Man for he was so before So the Lord Jesus was God before he was Christ CHAP. XI Some Animadversions upon a Book called Christianity not Mysterious WHAT I said somewhat before concerning Reason puts me in mind of a thing I promised about the middle of my Discourse namely to take notice of a Book with the Title of Christianity not mysterious wherein the Author undertakes to shew there is nothing in the Gospel or in our Religion against or above Reason And tho' I have hardly any room left yet to be as good as my word I must briefly say something to it We agree with him against all human Authority contrary to the Word and own Scripture to be the only competent Judge and allow of our Reason as long as it draweth out of that Spring and not otherwise Let us be sincere and avoid Ambiguities there is true and sound Reason whereof the Word of God is the right and standing infallible Rule for the Will of God is the measure of all Truth and Equity and our Reason to be Reason indeed must be guided by that or else it doth deviate from the Rule There is also that
't is not appellative or common but proper for if it were not so God would not absolutely be one for that is common which belongs to many and proper that which belongs only to one and the Name of one only thing must needs be proper since Scripture teaches us there is but one God the Name of God must needs be proper and farther when a Name doth of it self belong to one and to others in relation only to that same one it must be accounted to be that one 's proper Name thus the Name of God of it self belongs to God alone not in relation to any thing else but to others it belongs only in relation to the only True God and as the Word God spoken of the True God is as already said taken Essentially or personally so is the Name Father either for the Essence of God or for the first Person of the Trinity now the Person is taken either abstractively or concretively when we say the Word God is taken personally we do not mean abstractively or separately from but concretively or joyntly with the Essence so the Name Father is taken either essentially or personally in the first manner when in the Lord's Prayer we say our Father and personally when in the Creed we say I believe in God the Father Thus far we in these matters do agree with the Adversaries that there is but One God and that * Isai 42.8 he gives not his Name and Glory to another for to whom God doth communicate the Honor of his Name and Titles to the same he thereby imparts his Glory Now there is a Name of God proper and another appellative this is given to the Creatures and 't is either properly or figuratively in the first Sence the Word is not always to be understood to be the absolute Being but a relative one as when some Nation doth through Error and Idolatry name to herself some Divinity or other in this Sense God and People are relatives so the Name God taken in the predicament of Relation and not in that of Substance may properly be spoken of a Creature thus I speak properly when I say Chamos is the God of the Moabites and Malcom of the Ammonites but when I come to examine the Opinion of those Nations it is very true that they are the Gods of such Nations but 't is not true that they are Gods in Nature and Substance they are but erroneously look'd upon as Gods by such Nations so this is not a substantial and absolute Truth only Relative which the Adversaries may not affirm of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as being feigned and invented Gods between which the Word of God makes a difference †1 Thess 1.9 Ye turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God Now the figurative signification is when by reason of some likeness God's Name is attributed to some Creatures ‖ Psal 8. thus Angels are called Elohim and * Job 1.6 Sons of God by reason of the Excellency of their Nature Magistrates are called †Psal 82.6 Gods and Sons of God upon the account of the Dignity of their Office But here the Case is very different the question is Whether the Name of God be properly or improperly and figuratively attributed to the Son and to the Holy Ghost I mean the Name taken appellatively denoting in him that is so called the Divine Nature and Essence Socinians though they be brazen-fac'd enough yet not to that degree as to say that the Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost are called God only by way of Figure but they cavil that the Word signifies not a Nature but an Office so the proper signification of the Word they extend to Angels and Magistrates as if the Word God signified Governour Preserver and Benefactor c. but before their Heresy broke out no Man ever taught so then no Language gives that Sence to the Word for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies the Nature for some accounted to be Gods are false ones * Gal. 4.8 which by nature are not Gods and Philosophers reckoned the Gods of the Heathens amongst the Animals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking and rational and the Hebrew Word Elohah doth certainly properly signify the Nature as being given to the supreme Being which is so called not relatively but absolutely when to the first Man the common Name is attributed he is not simply called Adam till that became his proper Name Now as to the Origin or Etymology of the Word 't is falsly deduced from the signification of governing helping and preserving but truly from the Notion of the word Worship and Adoration we must not think that our first Parents were so wanting in their Piety towards their Maker whom they worshipped so devoutly to call him by a common Name proper to Creatures as if afterwards it had been attributed to him by way of Excellency And is it likely that God had been so wanting in what related to his Honor as being himself the Author of the Hebrew Tongue the Knowledge whereof he infused into Adam and Eve as not to provide a Name proper to distinguish his own Nature For having instituted for himself a Religious Worship and Adoration he must need also have declared a proper Name incommunicable to any Creature whatsoever Now the Name of God is given the Son not only attributively †Joh. 1.1 the word was God and ‖ Rom. 9.13 Christ God blessed for ever but also subjectively * 1 Tim 3.16 God was manifested in the flesh and * Acts 20.28 God purchased his church with his own blood even in the Old Testament †Psal 97.6 7. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory c. Worship him all ye gods Now the Adversaries do confess that as often as the Name of God is spoken subjectively as they call it it signifies a Substance and Person but of God the Father of Christ still they own it signifies a Substance and Person of the Godhead but why only of the Father of Christ that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerly their Opinion without any Proof As to that which they say about the Article in the Greek I shewed already it is an idle Distinction for out of some places of Scripture I shewed how the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the true God is sometimes with an Article and sometimes without as * 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Thomas †Joh. 20.28 my Lord and my God he spoke to one whom he knew was to be worshipped with religious worship and he own'd it so yet Scripture commands and often repeats that the Lord our God alone is to be worshipped which our Saviour Christ confirmed * Mat. 4.10 with his own Mouth and Paul †Gal. 4.8 after him and
that is against Reason nor Christian that is against Scripture nor peaceable that is against the Church for they speak against Reason Scripture and the general Consent of the Church If their Exposition be true Christ might and would have said Glorifie me with the Glory which thou hast decreed for me before the World was then he had said nothing but what every Believer may say how that before the World was God fore-ordained them to the Glory which they shall enjoy at the last day so might every one else say before the World was I was fore-ordained to have Wife Children Lands Offices c. nay according to their opinion at the same time when Christ asked that Glory he had it if to be appointed thereunto be to have it and if he had it why should he ask for it If Christ had said nothing but this And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self it had sufficiently declared the Sense of our Adversaries without saying any thing of the Glory which he had with him so with thine own self they explain to be in Heaven as if he had said in thy House but if that had been Christ's intention he would have said Glorifie me in Heaven but since he expresses himself otherwise and makes mention of the Glory which he had with the Father before the World was if we can believe he well knew what he would have and was able to express his Thoughts then we must say he had very good cause for all he said Now we shall proceed to some other of his Attributes Christ's Omnisci he knows all things Omniscience and perfect Knowledg and Wisdom ‖ Rom. 16.27 which belongs to God alone whereby God in a divine manner understands himself and every thing else doth also belong to the Son who saith to the exclusion of all Creatures * Mat. 11.27 No man knows the Son but the Father neither knows any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him And †Rev. 19.12 no man knoweth his name but himself thus he hath a perfect knowledg of his Deity and of every thing else even of the most contingent whereby the true God is distinguished from all and every Creature this also belonged to the Lord Jesus as he sometimes foretold his Disciples and in the case ‖ Mat. 21.2 of the Ass and Colt and * Luk. 22.10 13. of preparing the Passover and to Peter †John 21 19. the manner of his Death and all the Prophets being acted by his Spirit foretold things to come that holy Spirit ‖ Ch. 16.13 14. shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you and ‡ Rev. 13.10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesie And to make this the more excellent and conspicuous he attributes unto himself that which no body will deny to belong unto God alone * Psal 7 9. and 26.2 1 Sam. 16.7 The righteous God tryeth the heart and reins the Heart is unsearchable to any but to God alone Thou even thou only saith Solomon †1 Kings 8 39. knowest the hearts of all the children of men but Christ doth attribute it to himself ‖ Rev. 2.23 I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and ‡ John 2.24 25. he knoweth all men and what was in man and needed not that any 〈◊〉 should testifie of man for * Mat. 9 4 he knew the thoughts of the Scribes and †〈◊〉 12.25 the thoughts of the Pharisees 〈◊〉 ‖ John 16.19 be knew the desires of his disciples withal â‚ Chap. 6.64 and Chap. 18.4 he 〈◊〉 from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him he knew all things that should come upon him and in few words he know all things Christ is present every where Christ's Omnipâ—esence which argueth his Immensity and Infiniteness which elsewhere I have spoken of whereunto I may add how though absent in the Body he saw * Joh. 1.48 49. Nathanael under the Fig-tree whereupon he call'd him the Son of God the King of Israel a Title which Scripture gives the only true God and also he affirmeth this when he saith †Chap. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven by the Son of Man he meaneth himself who if we must believe was in Heaven when to Nicodemus he spoke these words upon Earth which cannot be understood of his Humanity which he assumed in the Virgin 's Womb but of his Divinity which alone is infinite But here they take exception and say that by to be in Heaven is meaned only to know and understand heavenly things according to Paul's saying * Phil. 3.20 and Ephes 2.6 Our conversation is in Heaven The Conversation of pious Men in Heaven is said in opposition to worldly mindedness when they were said to be quickned in Christ and as expressed to fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus they say not to be in Heaven but in and with Christ in heavenly things †Colos 3.3 Our life is hid with Christ in God We do not intend to prove the Divinity of Christ barely because one who is upon Earth is said upon any account to be in Heaven but out of this that Christ is said not only to be descended from Heaven and is again to go up and out of this that though he be come down from Heaven he is still there whence we may well conclude for his Omnipresence Now to descend from Heaven upon Earth and to ascend from Earth to Heaven are spoken of Christ only as to his Person and thereby is meaned his coming upon Earth There is such another place ‖ Eph. 4.9 to the same purpose about ascending and descending This we must say that whilst Christ in his human Nature was on Earth with his divine he filled the Heavens Elsewhere he explains it as to places Mat. 18.20 and 28.20 Christ's Almightyness Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am As to time For I am with you always unto the end of the world The Lord Jesus is also almighty Omnipotency which is an infinite Power incommunicable to any Creature for all are uncapable of it Christ applyes it to himself when he saith * Rev. 1.8 he is the Almighty I have already shewed how every thing in that Verse Christ speaks of himself only I shall add how the same Name is given him in several other places of the Book We give thee thanks Ch. 11.17 O Lord God Almighty which art and was and art to come which are the same Expressions used in that v. 8. and what is the reason of the Thanksgiving 't is in the latter end of this same Verse Because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned so who
which saith Acts 14.15 Chap. 17.24 26. in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth which is certainly the same as created so God made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein And God that made the world and all things therein Again and hath made of one blood all Nations of Men c. So he is a great stranger to Scripture who denies to Make the World and to Create the World not to be the same so seeing this shift cannot hold they betake themselves to another which is that God made the world by Christ as aâ—â— instrumental cause but that sort of men will go about overturning Heaven and Earth rather than to depart from their damnable opinions for what can they ground upon this instrumentality of Christ For the preposition by signifieth no such thing as it appears out of the following places Gal. 1.1 Eph. 1.1.1 Cor. 1.9 Rom. 11.36 Heb. 2.10 Paul an Apostle not of men nor by men but by Jesus Christ and God the Father And Paul an Apostle of Jesus by the will of God Also God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Elsewhere for of him and through or by him and to him are all things Furthermore for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things c. No sign in these or many more places of the word by signifying any instrumental Cause God by whom are all things Colos 1.17 never made the world by and instrument but by his word who not only in Dignity but also in nature and time is before all things The adversaries cannot upon any rational grounds prove that the Apostle meant the world to come but we want no good reasons to shew how the Creation of the world is to be understood for first 't is neither the idiom of the Jews nor the stile of Scripture by the world to understand the future for out of these words of verse 10. And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth Heb. 1.10 out of Psal 102.25 and the heavens are the work of thine hands I see no cause why the Creation of the world should not be understood rather than the beginning of the Gospel the ancient earth rather than the new one and the old Heavens rather than the new The more because when the Apostle intends to speak of the world to come he plainly saith it when he speaks of those that have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come Chap. 6.5 Chap. 2.5 So he doth when he saith unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come So when he hath a mind to say a thing he well knows how to express it Moreover if he had said in the present he males not in the praeter tense he might have left some thing more of liberty thereby to understand the future for speaking in the time past he shews how he doth speak of those ages which the praeter tense doth fit better than the future Furthermore the worlds or ages in the plural is more proper for ancient times than for that which is to come for this world hath had several ages and shall continue to have till the last day but after that the world to come shall last for ever and be all Eternity without end And when Scripture doth by the name world signifie the future not only it doth add a distinction as whosoever shall for Christ's sake leave all Mark 10.29 30. Luke 18.30 shall in the world to come have life everlasting But also ever speaketh in the singular number the reason is because this world hath several ages and that which is to come shall have but one Besides I must say how the Apostle understands the world which God already had made and not that which he was to make by his Son that which was made had a being but that which was to be made had none so we must conclude he spoke of things that were and not of that which was not Now that the Lord Jesus as principal and efficient cause made the world and so that the word beginning is to be understood of the Creation it appears out of this Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son which our Saviour represented before by the parable of the Vineyard and the Husbandmen Maâ—â— â—1 33 This Son he hath appointed heir of all things by whom he made the worlds Angels are called only God's Ministers but Christ is called the Son the first begotten not made upon which account the Author of the Epistle affirms the Son reaâ—lâ— and truly to be God and proves it out of Psal 45.6 7. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever And this the Apostle still speaking of the same proves by his having created the world v. 10. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the sound dation of the earth Observe how the word beginning is meant of the Creation of the world which is attributed to the Son 't is added and the heavens are the works of thine hands which must necessarily be understood in a literal sence of the Creation of the world and not of the new Creation of things by the Gospel out of what follows v. 11. They shall perish c. and be changed c. This shall be the fate of the natural world which cannot be said of the work of Regeneration or new Creation The word was in the beginning 1 Joh. 1.1 which is the same with from the beginning as expressed by the same Apostle that is of the time of the Creation when things began to be made that is from Eternity by these phrases before the world was and before the Foundation of the world the first born of every Creature that is before any thing was created Col. 1.15 16. as appears by the reason given in the next words For by him were all things created c. For he could not be before himself and had created himself which is absurd In the place 't is explained he is before all things in time or dignity because the maker is always in time before the thing which he made This head we shall conclude with the following Text 1 Cor. 8.6 But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Here the Apostle upon the occasion of eating things offered unto Idols saith that an Idol is nothing in the world though it be called God as many things are called Gods and Lords yet in reallity are not so the names of God and Lord do properly belong only to the true God whom he here opposeth to things falsely
a gall of bitterness as well as the bond of iniquity with a slight and contempt of his person the Man that Man this Man Man in every case and all this to lose no occasion of robbing him of his Divinity 2 Kings 49.27 and Isai 3.28 this calls to my mind God's words against Sennacherib another great Blasphemer which by the Lord might have been applied to Socinus I know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me And let all his Sectators remember what the Apostle saith Jud. 14.15 behold the Lord cometh to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him that is Christ when he cometh to judge the world Another thing here to be taken notice of is this that in verse 5. where the Lord Jehovah is called the Lord of the whole Earth it must be spoken of one and the same person for if they had been two different the copulative particle and had not been omitted after the words Psal 37.5 the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord there should have been and at the presence of the Lord of the whole Earth the first words of the verse do sufficiently denote the Lord of the whole Earth to be the God of Israel Jehovah named just before at whose presence only and of none else the hills melted like wax hereunto answereth that place psal 11.7 tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob whereby the interpretation of this now in hand is confirmed and the God of Jacob is put instead of the Lord of the whole earth in both which places the repetition of the word Presence is very Emphatical which joyned with what I observed before and with the words the scope and the thing it self do all together fully shew here is but one person spoken of which is confirmed more and more because in what follows the Prophet speaks but of one as in the singular number vers 6.7 8. as thus the Heavens declare his righteousness and the people see his glory and worship him all ye Gods Also because of thy judgments whereby it appears 't is spoken of one and not of two but rather than to yield they will sooner give Christ whom otherwise they would rob of any thing he hath but his humane nature which they cannot do because they must have an Historical Faith or else may be they would and reduce him to nothing I say they chuse rather to give Christ that title and exclude God Jehovah from being the Lord of the whole earth than to own Christ to be Jehovah so what they do is not out of kindness they only give him that which they think the least to rob him of what they account to be the chief though indeed it be the same Again the words of verse 7. do farther confirm this Confounded be all they that serve graven images that boast themselves of Idols therefore worship him all ye Gods For who is opposed to graven Images and Idols but he that is by nature the true God And who is religiously to be worshiped but the true God Jehovah And who but he who is the God of Gods is to be adored by all Gods vers 9. This is confirmed out of verse 9. Thou Lord art high above all the earth thou art exalted far above all Gods The first part contained a proper attribute of the true God namely the highest or most high God for saith David Psal 33.18 that men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the most high over all the earth Is not this the same as to be Lord over all the earth So that both to be Jehovah and Lord over all the earth are attributed only to one and if he be the only most high upon the earth none but he is Lord over all the earth The latter part of the verse doth afford a reason and a very good one why all Gods and Angels ought to worship him because he is for exalted above all Gods No less than six times he is in this Psalm called Jehovah which cannot well be denied to be the same with God of Israel One thing more I shall say as to this Psalm which with the foregoing and following contain an exhortation to all Creatures with and without life to sing and rejoyce before the Lord and why for he cometh he cometh to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth which none that hath any sence can deny to be a Prophesie of Christ's coming to judge the world which he speaks of himself When the Son of man shall come in his glory Matth. 25.31 and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory Then indeed in that divine and glorious State being attended and worshiped by all millions of Angels he shall reign fill with joy the hearts of his people and perform the other things contained in this Psalm He that is to do all this if we believe the Psalmist is the Lord Jehovah and the Lord Jesus Christ if we must give faith to the Apostle Now we must draw nearer to the words of the Apostle who is to be believed as well as the Prophet preferably to Socinians who being not able to deny it own that Angels ought to worship Christ One would think they at last would yield to the Truth and give glory to God Phil. 2.7 8 c. but no such thing for they say they may worship him as a man and not upon the consideration of any divinity in him only upon the account of his Humiliation and Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross upon which account he was highly exalted But pray whence doth arise the value and merit of that Humiliation and Obedience but from the divinity of the person which underwent it If he had been a meer man it had been no very great matter no more than what many more could have done A King 's only Son sacrifices himself for the safety of a whole Kingdom some among the ordinary people might have done the like but that which raiseth the merit of the thing is not his being a man for any man else therein is equal with him but 't is the Royal Blood running in the Veins of the young Prince which doth make the act so meritorious and so considerable so if I may continue a lame comparison so defectuous to represent what I have a mind the Blood which our Saviour shed upon the Cross doth not receive its unexpressible value for coming out of the Veins of a Man but because it is the blood of God wherewith he hath purchased his Church Acts 20.28 Neither was the Obedience yielded
was the Creator of all which is the reason given in the next verse why he calls him the first born of every Creature For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in carth And which is more at the later end of the verse all things were created by him and for him He created all things for himself which may not be said of any Creature for if he were a Creature he had been before himself And if we desire a farther explanation we have it in the following verse heb 1.2.6 and he is before all things And if we compare this place with another we shall find a sweet harmony in both he is called God's Son Col. 1.13 yea his dear Son in the first in both Creatour or maker of the World saith the last by whom also God made the worlds As to Creation so as to preservation for one saith by him all things consist and the other by him all things are upheld and the phrase in the Colossians the first born of every Creature is in the Epistle to the Heb. interpreted by this appointed heir of all things That is to be Lord of every Creature or whole Creation the first born is the Heir and Lord The Elder Brother or First Born is loco parentis Heb. 12.13 as a Father and so in the same Epistle behold I and the children which God hath given me Now the reason is clear and the consequence obvious Christ is before all things because all things were created by him upon which account he calls himself the beginning of the Creation of God That is the efficient cause which expressions are both joyned together as being of the same importance the beginning and first born from the dead Rev. 3.14 Col. 1.13 that is the efficient cause of the Resurection from the Dead These two places out of Colos and Heb. ought to be lookt upon as parallel one with another Now by the Son of Gods or the word 's making the worlds we have an eminent Testimony of his Eternal Godhead and Power for saith the Apostle he that made all things is God Heb. 3.4 So since all things were made by the Son he must be God Here I must take notice of their cavil against the place where it is said God made the world by his Son they would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom to be taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for whom as if God had made them for his Son for his sake which is a down-right corruption of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not with an accusative to signifie propter but in the Genitive which never denoteth a final but always an efficient cause In the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by is used about 600 times with a Genitive Cafe and in no one may be rendred propter for and so cannot be here and suppose it could yet it would be against the constant use of the word for which some particular reason ought to be given why such a sence should be admitted for which there is none in this place it also must be taken notice of how the case is not the same where Things as where Persons are spoken of What now I am by the grace of God entering upon is to shew how our Blessed Saviour had a real being before he was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin and my reasons shall be drawn out of the 6. chap. of St. John's Gospel where the matter conducing to our purpose is spoken of at large â—â—r Christ doth in several places thereof speak of his being come from Heaven and shall begin with the last verse wherein he discourseth upon the point because it will by degrees lead us back to the rest Joh. 6.6 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before which words he spoke of himself to remove the offence which what he said about the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood had given many of his disciples for he saith his words are not literally or corporally but spiritually to be understood for he was to leave the Earth and go up into Heaven where he was before out of which words we may easily conclude how Christ was in Heaven before he was upon earth this seems to be clear But however they will not agree to it Vers 32.33 38 50.51 Ver. 41.42 first they cavil about the place saying that by where he was before Heaven is not meant when in this very chapter no less than five times he saith he came down from Heaven which the Jews took special notice of and murmured at which truth our Saviour had before declared to Nicodemns and No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man Joh. 3.13 which is in Heaven so that although in this verse the word Heaven be not named yet is so plainly described that there is not the least ground left for any one to doubt of it either for his Disciples or others for what need of his naming again that which he named so many times before There is a Text parallel with this Joh. 16.28 which doth explain it I came forth from the father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father To say he shall ascend up where he was before and to return to the place whence he came is it not the same and had he not declared at several times that his Father is in Heaven And if any doubt should remain 't is wholly cleared by the execution and when the thing was fulfilled at his ascension for while they beheld he was taken up Acts 1.9 and a cloud received him out of their sight But this not serving their turn but by these Texts being pincht to the quick to hold out they take another way which is figuratively to explain the words where he was before and wrest their proper signification into a Metaphor that is Christ in his mind and thoughts conversed in Heaven being taken up in Meditation with those heavenly mysteries that are there which were so present unto him that although he was upon Earth yet he might be said to be in Heaven this indeed is a way of perverting the sense of Scriptures but not a fair one But if so our Saviour would have spoken in the present is and not in time past was for as they say he continually was taken up with such thoughts if continually then not discontinued when at that time he discoursed with them But the word before doth import a relative opposition between the time wherein our Saviour was in Heaven and that when he spoke upon Earth besides that actually and really he was upon Earth when they make him to have been in Heaven meerly in Thoughts and Meditation which holds no proportion between his being in Heaven and upon Earth so then Christ
Father descended from Heaven where he is again to return c. This he owned openly and when he had said to the man sick of the Palsie Thy sins are forgiven thee some of the Scribes having said within themselves This man blasphemeth Christ called evil these Thoughts of theirs Mat. 9.4 Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts Another place in this same Chapter already mention'd Joh. 6.38 and to our purpose is this I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me The words taken in their natural signification are plain enough and admit of no difficulty Christ speaks of himself what Heaven is we know 't is as his natural place whence he came down into a state of Humiliation in taking upon him our human Nature the End of his coming down was to do his Father's Will not his tho' we must not think that when he did his Father's Will he acted any thing against his own for whatsoever he did and suffer'd was voluntarily as he had said long before by the Prophet I delight to do thy will Psal 40.5 6 7. Sacrifice and Offering thou didst not desire Then said I Lo I come And when the Will of his Father was executed and the Work he gave him to do finish'd he went back if we may so say home again into Heaven The Difficulty then lies not in the words but about the sence Christ who spoke the words is true tho' every sence that is attempted to be given to the words be not true yet a true sence there is He makes mention of his Person and of his Flesh his Person is that which came down from Heaven his Flesh is that which was formed in the Virgins Womb that indeed did not come from Heaven however he speaks of his Flesh and Blood to intimate his Death and that Life which he promiseth to those that eat his Flesh He procureth it in two ways by Merit or Impetration and by Efficacy or Application The Merit by his Death consists in the Dignity of the Person which suffer'd it the Application and Efficacy in the Spirit which is in the Person By the Opposition he makes between himself and the Manna he sufficiently declares that he really came down from Heaven The Adversaries would have the coming down from Heaven to signifie no more than to proceed from God which to confirm they make use of some Texts as when our Saviour asked the Chief Priests whence was the Baptism of John Matth. 21.25 was it from Heaven or of Men Thus every good and perfect Gift is said to be from above and to come down from the Father of light Again This Wisdom descendeth not from above Thus John saith Jam. 1.17 3.15 Rev. 21.2 he saw the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven But none of these places is to the purpose for they are about Things and the Question is about Persons Scripture makes no dissiculty to say that Things whereof God is immediate Author come down from Heaven there being no danger to say so but it never saith it of Persons In the Word of God none besides Father Son and Holy Ghost and Angels none tho' never created or born in so eminent a manner is said to be come down from Heaven neither Adam nor Eve nor Isaac the Son of a Special promise and whose Birth considering the age of Abraham and of sarah was very extraordinary But that Christ came down from Heaven in a manner different from what is expressed in those places it appeareth out of the fore-quoted place What and if ye shall see the Son ascend up where he was before whereby is implied that he was in Heaven before he came down from it which he confirmeth in that other place No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven whereof the sence is made known by the design of Christ who speaking to Nicodemus about being born again and Regeneration saith If I have told you earthly things and of such as are done in earth which by your own experience you may see and know yet ye believe me not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things that is such as are or be done in Heaven which ye neither can know of your selves nor by any one else but by me for I have been in Heaven and none else Besides that if what the Adversaries say in their sence were true it would follow that Christ is said to be come down from Heaven either in relation to his Person or to his Office As to the first it cannot well be said I mean as to his miraculous Conception or else the same might have been said of John Baptist who only by a Divine Power was born of an old and barren Mother an Angel having foretold his Birth and given his Name before-hand yet he far from saying he came or descended from Heaven speaks quite the contrary of himself when he affirms this of Christ John 3.31 He that cometh from above is above all he that is of the earth is tarthly and speaketh of the earth he that cometh from Heaven is above all And further Christ may not be said to be come down from I seaven upon the account of his miraculous Conception no neither by reason of his being born without the help of Man for this may also be said of Adam born not only without the help of Man but of Woman also yet for all that he is never said to be come down from Heaven on the contrary he is said to be of the Earth in opposition to Christ 1 Cor. 15.47 The first man is of the earth caâ—thy the second man is the Lord from Heaven As to the Office of Christ it is certainly from Heaven in that sence but it followeth not that because the Office is the Person must be so for neither 〈◊〉 whose Baptism was from Heaven nor none of the Prophets or Apostles were ever said to be descended from Heaven Now according to this Opinion of theirs Christ would have had no Advantage over the Manna which was every day miraculously created and rained upon the People yet our Saviour takes this Preference over the Manna John 4.31 33. that he was come down from Heaven the Manna not so Why doth our Lord deny that Manna was come down from Heaven but that himself was the Bread of God which came down from Heaven Our Lord's words I came down from Heaven to do the will of him that sent me do certainly contain more than barely I am created by the wonderful Counsel and Power of God herein he speaks as would an Embassador sent by his Prince wherefore the words imply first that Christ was in Heaven 2dly That he was sent from thence 3dly To do the Will and perform the Work of him that sent him And if it had not been in
to screw it up into an Allegory nor when the Discourse is doctrinal and the words in it usual proper and suited to the things intended to be expressed this indeed is what Peter calls a resting the Scriptures to their own destruction The later part of the Verse doth explain the first for the words signifie Christ's Ascension into Heaven they were spoken upon the occasion of Christ's instructing encouraging and disposing his Disciples to that Separation which was suddenly to happen by his Death after which tho' he shewed himself alive by many infallible Proofs being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God yet he conversed not with them in the same manner as before his Passion Acts 1.2 Now this occasion which they were spoken upon sheweth how he discoursed about leaving the World going to his Father and ascending into Heaven which reaily and visibly happen'd forty days after his Resurrection By these Expressions which were familiar with him of going up or ascending to the Father he signified the same thing and tho' the Father doth fill up Heaven which is his Throne and Earth his Footstool yet in Scripture he is said to sit and dwell in Heaven as in his home Joh. 14.2 wherefore our Saviour calls Heaven his Father's House Now as this later part of the verse signifieth Christ's Ascension from the Earth to the Father so the first signifieth his coming down from Heaven upon Earth Again the Opposition which is seen between both parts as I came forth from the Father with and go to the Father and I am come into the World with again I leave the World do shew that if to come from the Father doth denote to be sent from Heaven to Earth by the Father so to go to the Father signifieth the contrary to that namely to go from Earth up to Heaven to the Father Christ leaving the World is gone to the Father and going to the Father he hath left the World wherefore to go to the Father and leave the World are the same So likewise Christ coming forth from the Father came into the World and coming into the World he came forth from the Father And these two kinds of Expressions signifie the same thing Chap. 13.3 and as he was come from God so he went to God This coming from the Father and coming into the World do imply first a sending as the Lord declareth it John 8.42 I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me And then something posterior to the Mission and as it were belonging to the execution thereof for if one should ask Wherefore came Christ into the World it would be well answer'd to say Because the Father sent him So that he who is sent must come from him that sent him to the place whereunto he is sent Then the words I came from the Father must be understood of the execution of the sending rather than the sending itself It is a wrong sence given as to apply them to a divine production I came from the Father that is I am miraculously produced by the Father This Exposition doth confound things that are different for none can be sent before he hath a Being but that 's produced which hath no Being Production is before Sending Thus the words must signifie that Christ return'd to the place whence he came and ascended into that whence he descended before This he went about to inculcate into the Mind of the Jews in the opposition he makes of his Origin with theirs Ye are from benedth V. 23. I am from above ye are of this world I am not of this world but from the Father not from Earth but from Heaven He was not in the World by a natural necessity but voluntarily and by a determined counsel he came into 't as Embassador from his Father to reveal unto Men the Doctrin and Means of Salvation and for Judgment Chap. 9.39 For judgment am I come into this world and all the while he was here even very betimes he minded what he came about Unto his Mother after she found him in the Temple and asking him Why hast thou thus dealt with us he answer'd How is it that ye sought me wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Luke 2.48 49. So that he continued upon Earth till that was over before which time he would not go back John 17.4 but before his departure he declar'd I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do whereupon he returned back to his Father from whom he was come before leaving Earth a place so disproportionate and inferiour to Heaven whence he had his extraction and consequently unworthy to contain him any longer This Reason he gives his Disciples whose Heart upon his declaring he was about leaving of them had been fill'd with Sorrow how it was not just he should always be among those that had used him so unworthily and withal it was expedient for them that he should go away or else the Comforter Chap. 16. â— 7. who was to be with them after his departure would not come After all that hither to hath been said may not I ask concerning the method and carriage of the Adversaries Is it fair about these fundamental points to turn the whole Scripture into an Allegory and make the Spirit of God never to speak properly to force upon and wrest out of the Word of God such Sences and Expositions as are contrary to the scope of the Spirit to the Deigns of the holy Writers and to the Analogy of Faith and if this cannot serve the turn to screw up and work their Bâ—â—ing how to contrive and forge an imaginary After son of Christ into Heaven about the 〈◊〉 of his Ministry and consequently a ceasing â—â—wn from thence after it yet at the same time deny that true and real descending of â—is upon Earth which is so much and so often assorted in Scripture which is as good as to say Tho' Truth and Scripture do not bear it yet we I now how to supply it of our own Flectere si nequco saperos Ae eroma movebo Now to strengthen what I have said to prove our Lords Divinity before I proceed to answer Objecting I shall add what followeth upon the forementioned Head of the Angel in the Old Testament I mean the increated Angel whose Person in appearance is Man in office Angel in nature God the second Person of the most holy Trinity I shall somewhat insist upon a most notable place and much to our purpose though I already said something about it for I can not willing to lay aside a strong and very useful weapon because I made use of it before for when once it hath been try'd we are the surer of and may better depend upon it On the occasion of the abominable Idolatry of the golden Calf God refused to go up
sweet harmony between the Old and New Testaments about Christ's governing his Church under both as to Names as well as to Things for he is called Captain of the Lord's Host as in the fore-quoted place and God is a man of war and Lord of hosts is one of God's Titles not only 1 Sam. 1.1 but in a hundred places more So Christ is in the New Testament called the Captain of our salvation Exod 15.3 Heb. 2.10 to be compleated in Heaven whereof the Promised Land was a Type This Angel the People were commanded to take care not to provoke him yet they did In this case the Question may be put to our Socinian Rabshakehs which in another God did concerning Sennacherib 2 Kin. 19.22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and the same Answer return'd Even against the holy one of Israel So here if it be asked Whom did the Children of Israel provoke tempt and limit in the Wilderness the Psalmist will say Psal â—8 40 41 56. God the holy one of Israel and the most high God compared with Psal 95. c. And if of St. paul we ask Whom did the People tempt in the Wilderness he will answer They tempted Christ 1 Cor. 10 9. compared with Heb. 3.9 for there he speaks of Christ as Son of God it may not be understood that Christ was tempted after he was born of the Virgin Mary tho' after his Baptism he was by the Devil in the Wilderness which indeed may point at the Temptation by the People in the Wilderdess which we read of in the old Testament However I say that Temptation after the coming out of Egypt which was so long before he was born cannot be meaned of any thing after his Birth yet if Scripture saith truth Christ was by the People tempted in the Wilderness the same Person tho' not in the same Nature which he took afterwards Now the Person of the Word in his divine nature existed before he was made Flesh or else how was it possible it should be tempted at that time So I can see nothing to the contrary but that we may well conclude the Lord Jesus Son of God to be the Angel that went before them whom they were forbidden to provoke and the most high God the holy one of Israel whom they tempted and provoked he is called the Angel of God's Presence or of God's Face for the Lord said to Moses Mypresence shall go Exod 33.14 It donoteth a distinct Person in the Godhead from him whose Angel and whose Face he is We must understand where the Angel was God was present because that same Angel and Person was God and what in v. â—â— is named Presence in v. 18 't is called Glory to be compared with what John saith And we beheld his glory Chap. 1.14 as the glory of the only begotten of the Father He also is called the Angel of the Covenant for 't is plain how the Covenant of Grace between God and man is grounded only in Christ and none else Isa 63.9 for Scripture saith in him we are chosen and adopted and only by him we shall be saved This Truth that the Angel who went before the People was the true God the Spirit of God hath judged so important and necessary to be known that at several times and in many places he declared it Among others the following is very considerable if we mind time place and the very words compared together I send an Angel before thee saith the Lord Psal 68.7 8. and David O God when thou wentest before thy people when thou didst march through the wilderness compared with that before quoted of the Church in the Wilderness and the same who went before the People is by the Psalmist in the same place called God the God of Israel of whom v. 18 't is said Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive c. for here is certainly a Prophecy of Christ's Ascension as to that purpose this place is quoted by St. Paul Ephes 4.8 9 10. for indeed here mention is made of the Figure and Type namely the Ark as we see in the words of v. 1 2 taken out of Numb 10.35 when the Ark was setting forward and of the Antitype the truth and body of the Type Jesus Christ and upon good ground namely that of Ephes 4 many are of opinion that this is a triumphant Psalm of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven for David who was a Prophet as a King and knew himself in some things to be a Type of the Messiah among things relating to his Kingdom used to mix and comprehend some belonging to Christ which is the chief scope of the Psalm So Jah Jehovah God and Lord are to be understood of the Angel or Christ for as a little before we observed the Deliverance out of Egypt leading through the Wilderness and bringing into the Land of Promise was a Figure of the great Salvation of God's People and of the deliverance of the Church which is the proper work committed unto the Son of God the Lord Jesus as King Head and Preserver of it When David speaks of ascending he acts not the Part of an Historian but of a Prophet and this is of an Ascension joyned with a Triumph and leading of Captives which doth not belong to that of Sinai Neither do we read any where that God ascended into Heaven from Sinai but Christ having obtained victory over Death the Grave and all his and our Enemies went up to Heaven which cannot be said of the Ark But the Ascension here spoken of as Paul to the Ephesians doth interpret it relateth to him who descended first into the lower parts of the earth that is to Christ who ascended far above all Heavens that he might fit all things if we may take an Apostle's Interpretation of a Prophet and it was Christ's or the Son of God's Voice that shook the Earth or Mount Sinai as we may read it Heb. 12.26 Before I leave this matter to what I said upon another Text which is much to our purpose about this Angel concerning Jacob I shall farther add how the same person that appeared unto him was in the shape of a man There wrestled a man with him Gen. 32.24 2ly That same when Jacob was about blessing Joseph's Children Gen. 48.16 he called an Angel The 3d thing is That he is expresly said to be God Lord of Hosts by Hosea for the Prophet speaking of Jacob said He had power with God upon the occasion of his wrestleing and added Yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us even the Lord God of hosts the Lord is his memorial Hos 12.3 4 5. So hence it appears how the Person who at Bethel appeared to him when he fled from the Face of his Brother Esau Gen. 28.13 compared with Chap. 35.1
and of these we may say as of a Watch the several pieces of which being asunder seem to be insignificant but put them together in their due place they are of good use and commend the Art of the Maker when he hath shewed us what it is good for which before we could not know of our selves Thus one or few acts of divine Providence are Mysteries to us which we cannot dive into nor understand till God hath manifested them to us What would all the Humane Reason in the World say of the Command which Abraham received to sacrifice his own Son in all appearance it was a murther and a barbarous and unnatural one too for a Father to destroy his own Son God's Will to try his Faith and Obedience was a Secret As Job's Afflictions for a trial of his Patience and to make him in Ages to come an Example of it Joseph's being cast in Prison for so good an Act as to refuse committing Adultery with his Master's Wife would puzzle the Brains and Reason of any Man who believes God to be just and pure if by the several things which the same wife Providence brought to pass God had not made his design known which David saith was to try him Ps 105.19 the word of the Lord tried him So God's command to the Prophet Hosea to take unto him a Wife of Whoredoms when the Lord is a most holy God That the Son of God who is just harmless undefiled separate from Sinners should by Blasphemers be accused of condemned and executed for Blasphemy and this by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God is that which doth transcend the poor weak frail Understanding of Man tho' never so much screwed up or his Reason put to the rack I am sure David a Prophet as well as a King speaks of himself to that purpose about the Prosperity of the Wicked in this World so foolish was I Psal 73.22 16 17. and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and when I thought to know this it was too painful for me too hard for me to understand until I went into the sanctuary of God No Humane Reason only Divine Revelation could make it intelligible Whoso is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord that is Psal 107.43 from 40. the Wisdom from above not the Humane can teach us to understand God's Gracious Dispensations especially in the wise Government of his Church which to Humane Reason is passed understanding as concerning God's Works and Thoughts of which David saith O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep which if we may believe him Ps 92 5 6. a bruitish man knows not neither doth a fool understand this With Admiration and Exclamation he saith it and so deep that Humane Reason cannot fathom it without Revelation Heavenly Light maketh some know and understand but the Bruitish the Fool and Wicked doth not and cannot for want of this Divine Grace and when they would find to measure Divine Mysteries with the Line of this Reason then they become Fools so to them these things still continue to be Mysteries This Author is one of those whom the Prophet speaks of Psal 64.5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter for at first he concealed his Name whether out of Fear or Modesty he knows best but now in his second Edition he pulled off the Vizzard and hath his Name at length how he came by that Encouragement deserves as I think to be inquired into by those that are more than I immediately concerned I agree with him when he speaks the Truth as thus how the Converted Jews would still retain some of the Levitical Ceremonies as may be seen Act. 15. and therein might happen to be too much Compliance as with the Gentiles who brought in some of the Heathenish Rites and that Remisness in some afterwards made those things a part of Christianity it self thus they degenerated from the Simplicity of the Gospel by means of self and worldly ends Hence we see how from Page 165 till 172 he takes Advantage upon account of Ceremonies and such foolish or selffish Priestcraft as he calls it But after all do this Socinian People think to monopolize to themselves and be sole Masters of all good Sense and Reason surely others among the Antients and now are as rational as they why should not their Wisdom and Reason seeing they make it to be natural differ from Wisdom and Reason that is Spiritual From hence I am sure St. Panl makes not only a difference but also a great Opposition between them for saith he We speak not in the words of humane wisdom but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and God hath revealed them that is the Doctrines of the Gospel unto us by his Spirit and as 't is not the Wisdom or Reason of Man which the same Apostle in the same Epistle Ch. 3.19 calls foolishness with God but the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom 1 Cor. the whole Ch. c. And where this Spirit of God is not pleased to teach the Truth of the Gospel that remains hidden all the Reason in the World cannot understand it 2 Cor. 4.33 and we know it is hid to some to them that are lost among whom are some of the most learned and wise in the World endued with as much Natural Reason and great Parts as any of our Adversaries yet this natural Reason cannot comprehend it I go farther and say that some of these things of God remain still Mysteries and if not wholly yet in part are hidden even to those who have the Spirit of God because by reason of the weakness of their Nature they are not capable and 't is above their reach to understand it first as to God's Nature to us it is incomprehensible because infinite behold the heaven 1 Kings 8.27 Compar'd with Job 11.7 8 9. and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee nor Reason comprehend So in his Attributes his greatness is unsearchable and his understanding is infinite so are his Works both of Power and Providence Wisdom Mercy and Justice far above the reach of Humane Reason as to be seen in Job in the Psalms and other parts of Scripture and let one Text of Job serve for all great things doth he God Psal 145.3 Ps 147.5 Job 37.5 which we cannot comprehend and to apply this to our present purpose we own that the Doctrines of the Gospel necessary to be known both as to the Substance and to the Declaration are clear and perspicuous but still there are some as to the Difficulties which learned Men and Doctors do study to understand which they can never rightly do without a special Assistance of the Spirit of God for 't is he and he alone that can lead us into all Truth for if of our selves we cannot understand the plainest much less the hardest wherefore