under his feet yea in all he is the Fathers Servant but this is only until the Mystery be finished and then the Son shall be glorified with the Father with the same glory which he had with him before the World was 13. I need but note the Constitution of the Divine Kingdom being thus far changed in the Mystical State that the Laws and Priviledges the Rights and State of its Subjects its Provisions and Defences its Power and Administration are all altered so as shall comport therewith for these are plain enough in the Scripture to observant Readers and for our own particular it is sufficient to remark That Repentance toward God Acts 20.21 and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which had no place in the Primitive Institution of God's Kingdom are now the sum of the Articles in the Fundamental Contract of this Mystical Kingdom CHAP. XIII Of the Covenant of Gods Kingdom MOSES designing to teach the Church in the Wilderness that it was Jehovah that is the only God and their God which Created the World as we read Geâ— 2.4 â—e so introduces that Conclusion Chap. 1. That it appears their God by the saying of his Word and the operation of his Spirit did make all things which with the Psalmists exposition does sufficiently insinuate that God his Word and his Spirit was the maker of the World Psal 33.6 When therefore St. John informs us there are Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.7 and these three are one he therein teaches no other than the Doctrine of Paradise It cannot be doubted but mens apprehensions of this as well as other things were very much darkned by the fall but God not sealing up Mankind irrevocâ—bly for Hell did continue to his People in the succeeding Ages some sufficient knowledge of this as well as of other saving Truths For in the Old Testament there are such attributions to the Word of God as could not belong to a verbal significancy of what God means nor yet to the Works of God as indications to men of what was in Gods mind Those Holy Men therefore that attributed such things to Gods Word did conceive in it a more Vital Substantial Subsistence as hath been asserted by many Doctors not only in the Christian Church but also amongst the Jews 2. But though Gods People of old had believed the Doctrine of the Trinity most distinctly yet the Reasons of State in the Divine Government did not then call for their express acknowledgment of it in that stipulation whereby they held their Rights in Gods Kingdom For 1. The most proper form of Covenant against the defection by Anarchy is the acknowledgment of the Divine Government And 2. Against the defection by Polytheism the acknowledgment of the Divine Monarchy And 3. Against the defection by Sophistry depraving the Divine Nature the acknowledgment of the Trinity as being Sacraments most accommodate to List men on Gods side in direct opposition to these respective Apostacies as they did arise in the World 3. For first Before the Flood were the Violent the Ungodly that thought not on Heaven would do what they Listed Gen. 6.11 2 Pet. 2.5 Mat. 24.37 Gen. 6.5 12. and were Ungovernable and these acknowledged therefore no Superiour Power Governing the World And therefore Josephus as I remember somewhere calls them the Anarchical The acknowledgment of Subjection to the Divine Government as was then the most apposite form of Covenant which Men were to enter into and they that took it were called the Sons of God in the sense that Subjects in opposition to Strangers or Aliens are called the Children of the King Gen. 6.2 Mat. 17.25 Mat. 8.12 Gen. 4.26 and the Children of the Kingdom In the days of Enos Men began to be called the Lords as making such a Publick Profession for so many interpret that Expression Gen. 4.26 Somewhat like that of Jacobs Gen. 48.16 But more parallel to that of St. Paul Of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is called Eph. 3.15 Jude 14. 2 Pet. 2.5 Enoch's denouncing vengeance asserts the Divine Rights of Government and Noah's Preaching Righteousness Proclaims the Divine Judicature But Wickedness and Irreligion prevailing against the methods of Governing Grace and Wisdom God destroys them bringing in the Flood upon the Ungodly but saving Noah and his House Yet soon after the same Anarchical Impiety sprung up again for at Babel God complains of the Children of Men Gen. 11.6 the style of their Predecessors in the Old World that they were all one and would do what they listed and would not be restrained or governed And the Divine Vengeance which destroyed the Error leaving the Men alive on Earth was peculiarly adapted to their Case for the Dividing of their Tongues being a stroak immediately upon their own Mental Nature by confounding their Conceptions either of Things or Words did so throughly convince them that there was a Superiour Being which exercised a Power over their minds that we meet not with one Atheist for many Hundred years after nor with any Nation of Atheists ever since this very Day So far then did the acknowledgment of the Divine Government obtain 4. But shortly after there grew up another Error alike pernicious for we find in Abraham's days Polytheism did spread very far Against this God calls forth Abraham Jâ—s 24.2 3 â—â— 15 and afterwards Isaac and Jacob and charges them with the care of his Truth appearing to them by the Name of God Almighty Exod. 6.3 which is that style that infallibly asserts the Unity of the Deity for as much as two or more Almighties is a plain contradiction So that now the fundamental Covenant in opposition to Polytheism required an explicite acknowledgment of one God only and of the Divine Monarchy To this Josephus refers in many places For however it was before not only the Anarchical but the Antimonarchical were now all Aliens and Traytors to God But when this one God Almighty upon his delivering Israel out of Egypt did assume to himself the style of the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob as his Everlasting Memorial This was an introduction to the Covenant of peculiarity which he made expresly with his Church as separate from all other Nations Exod. 3.15 When God therefore as Jehovah the God of Israel indents with them that they should have no other God beside himself thereupon he takes that Nation to be to him a Nation of Priests Exod. 20. whereby as Philo Judaeus rightly asserts the Nation of Israel became the Priest of all Mankind Exod. 19.5 6. and consequently of all this lower World But alas this National Priesthood was so far from bringing the blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles contained either in the Monarchical Covenant of the one true God or in the Covenant of peculiarity to Proselites of the gates or of Righteousness that they themselves did
which being for Contrivance and Counsel as it were the Master-piece of Divine Skill in Matter God statedly beholds this singular Work of his own Hands when arrived at due Maturity with such a favourable Aspiration as is no less or but a little less than that which he vouchsafeth to the Inhabitants of the Intellectual World And as we see much what the same measure of strength as suppots a weight will serve to raise it so same the favourable Aspiration that upholds an Intellectual Creature in Being is of force sufficient to raise it into Being Therefore such Aspiration will give Being to a Conscious Life as preserves the Mental Natures of the Invisible World 2. But then this Aspiration being included in the Divine favourable intuition on what his hand hath curiously wrought in these lower parts of the Earth Psa 139.15 though it hath a Conscious Life for its effect yet it is not a separate Conscious Life but a Conscious Life enlivening that accurate frame of Matter now a conscious Life vitally United to a Humane Body is a rational Soul 3. And because this Soul doth result from the Divine Aspiration on a being framed by the course of Natural Causes in the material System of this World therefore it is not Properly Created nor yet Miraculous but Natural 4. Yet this Soul cannot be said to be therefore educed out of the powers of Matter because the Divine Aspiration is not of that kind which concurs with Corporeal Motions but such as is afforded to the Intellectual Natures though upon the approbation of this singular piece of Divine Workmanship in this World of Bodies 5. He that said of the Humane Soul Creatur infundendo or infunditur Creando spoke something this way but whether expresly enough needs not be inquired since the Scripture assures us that the Lord who Created the whole frame of this Visible World besides that does form the Spirit of Man within him That the Spirit in Man being by the Inspiration of the All-mighty Zech. 12.1 Job 32.8.27.3 Gen. 2.7 is Intellectual and the breath in our Nostrils our Spirit and Life is the Spirit of God which he Breathed into Mans Nostrils by which he became a living Soul So that if Brutes have Souls and they be educed out of the Powers of Matter yet the Soul of Man according to a course settled by God in Nature being a Conscious Life is by a Divine Aspiration correspondent to those of the Superiour World By which it appears Mans Nature participates both of this and the other World in its Constitution 6. Therefore the Son of God who is God being one Person with Man hath thereby a new alliance both to the Material and Intellectual World and a new Cognation both with the Coelestial and Terrestial Inhabitants and because the Union of God and Man in Christ is Mystical Cap. 10.8 therefore the whole Kingdom of God is put into a Mystical state and frame upon this new Cognation with all things in Heaven and Earth 7. And if according to the Opinion of some of the most celebrated Philosophers in this Age the motion of every part of Matter does really so diffuse it self that the whole System of Matter is affected thereby and if withal the parts that make up the Intellectual World have a correspondent Communion amongst themselves then by this Union of God and Man there is as it were a new Leaven which may be sufficient in Gods due time to Leaven the Mass of the whole Creation And Christs Resurrection is a Specimen of its efficacy and a ground of our expectation But should this prove only to be their Conjecture and not the Natural way of efficiency yet we are however sufficiently assured that the effect shall be produced and that in Christ all things in Heaven and Earth shall be recollected into one Eph. 1.10 Col. 1.17 18 19 20. 2 Thes 2.1 Acts. 3.21 and that there shall be a restitution of all things whereby they shall be restored into one blessed frame 8. The Mystical constitution of the Divine Kingdom being therefore for the restoration of the Natural Kingdom in a renewed integrity it is a form of Government which in its Nature and design is manifestly subordinate to the Original Government of the Divine Kingdom in its Primitive institution 9. If then the Supream Governour be the same yet as King of this Mystical Kingdom he is less than the King of the Natural Kingdom not in himself or Naturally but in the state of a Governour or Politically the Antients call it Oeconomically But in plain terms the sense stands thus God that humbleth himself when he inspects the things that are done in Heaven and in Earth however he undertakes the Government and Management of them does yet more humble himself when for the good of the Creation Psal 113.6 he governs the Universe in the Mystical constitution for the redintegrating of the Natural Kingdom into one blessed frame 10. Whereas then God in the first Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Father is first in the Address as Lord of the Natural Kingdom so God even the same God in the second Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Son is first in the Address as Lord of the Mystical Kingdom considered as Mystical and Subordinate because God manifest in the Flesh is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness 11. Before the Mystery was made known therefore the stile Lord did more directly and more usually indigitate God the Father as we find in the old Testament but since the Mystery is to be acknowledged by all the Subjects of Gods Kingdom the Title of Lord doth more directly denote God the Son and is therefore in the new Testament most commonly attributed to Jesus Christ though they be both one Lord as well as one God 12. The Son therefore being Lord of the Divine Kingdom in its Mystical and Subordinate State in treating with his Subjects will have occasion to speak of himself as less than his Father in many of the affairs of the Mystical Kingdom and Government especially in and about the change of the Natural into the Mystical Frame though he be the same God Lord with the Father For God doth humble himself more in condescending to Govern the World in this State than in the first Natural Constitution of his Kingdom The Son therefore is less than the Father not only as Man but also as God Governing the Divine Kingdom in the Mystical State John 3.35 Mat. 11.27 Acts 2.32 Joh. 10.20 1 Cor. 11.3 John 6.38 1 Cor. 3.23 1 Cor. 15.27 Phil. 2.7 Zech. 3.8 Joh 17.5 Accordingly we read the Sons Power is given is received of the Father he receives command from the Father the head of Christ is God even the Father for he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Christ is Gods who put all things
shamefully prevaricate and joyned with the Heathen in their Idolatry So that God after long patience did serve the designs of his own Kingdom by their miserable Dissipation and Captivity for he had oft times foretold them by his Prophets that when they were cast out of their own Land both they should know that he was the Lord and he would be sanctified in them before the Heathen both which we find exactly fulfilled in the Event For 1. In their Captivity they learned in a few Years to renounce the Heathen Idolatry for ever which in their own Land they could not be taught to do in many Ages And 2. Forthwith an Edict is issued forth over the greatest Empire in the World Dan. 3. Ezra 1. Dan. â— requiring an Universal acknowledgment of the one True Supream God above all other Gods and after that another by Cyrus of the like purpose and a third by Dairus over all the Empire of the Medes and Persians It is to be further observed that the Ten Tribes were first dispersed into the Cities of the Medes and sometime after the Jews were scattered about the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy So that the Israelitts had conversation with almost all Nations and they owning but one God and Worshiping him in their several Dispersions considering men being acquainted with their pretensions would by the reason of the thing be drawn to favour the Truth and by further inquiries abroad be fully satisfied And accordingly after this Dispersion of theirs we begin to meet with the Grecian Sages and Philosophers whereas before they had nothing amongst them but Mythology which was some obscure remainders of Ancient Tradition but so disguised with old fabulous stories that Truth could not be known from Falshood And as many Learned Men as well of late as formerly have proved from the Antient Records of those times the effect of all this was that generally all Nations did acknowledge one God over all though they did not leave off the Worship of their Heathen Gods No more than the Papists that believe but one Supream God do therefore forbear to Worship many of the Invisible World or to invocate the Aid of Saints and Angels whilst they confess but one Advocate with the Father Thus much did Truth gain for the establishment of the Divine Monarchy and asserting rhe Unity of the Godhead 5. In the mean time some Sophisters had devised a new way to subvert the Divine Government and Religion under the profession of one God There being two ways of doing this both were abetted and that by very many for some time before the coming of our Saviour The first giving us for the Supream God a Vivacious Self-activity or an Universal Life without Understanding assigning this to be the source of all Motion Now though this Life according to their fancy is all the force of the World yet it is plain the force is not Omnipotence as that attribute belongs to the true God and being it is supposed to have neither Wisdom or Goodness no thanks or Religious regard is due to it These were those spurious â—permatists who though they were not formed into any Sect were yet growing very Popular and these instead of God who is a blessed mind intruded upon us an Eternal vivid impetuosity impelling all things without Counsel The other were the infamous Sect of the Epicurians who confessed indeed the Divine Nature to be an intelligent mind but without all concern or resentments uncapable of being pleased or displeased and so for God that is a Holy Spirit they substituted an Everlasting Gaze. I know they oft depredicated the blessedness of their Deity which had it been done without collusion would indeed have argued him to be a Spirit But as Cicero said of these same men long ago we are not to regard what they say but what they are to say in consequence of their own Opinions The blessedness of their God which they mean and as they define it is nothing else than no pain of Body or grievance of Mind and then a mind that is no Spirit nor capable of being pleased or displeased in their notion of blessedness must of necessity be ever blessed and so is the Body of a Stone and the Soul of a Psychopannuchite most perfectly blessed Now it is plain all Religious Addresses or Respect had to an unconcerned Mind which having no Spirit is uncapable of liking or disliking are most absurd and Ridiculous So that each sort of these Philosophers in their several ways may profess and believe but one God only and yet both wholly evacuate the Power of the Divine Kingdom and defeat all the Counsels which God had in revealing himself unto Mankind and entring into a Covenant with them 6. But when in the Wisdom of God as St. Paul observes the World through Wisdom even this spurious Philosophy knew not God â— Cor. 1 21. it pleased God through preaching to save them that believe The Truth therefore by which God saved Men from these destructive Delusions was that which the Apostles Preached which we know was the very same Faith which they Baptized Believers into and we are sure they were to baptize into the Name of the Fâ—â—her the Son and the Holy Ghost â—aâ— 28. Therefore the acknowledgment of the Trinity was the Covenant Stipulation instituted by God and set up against the Error that was brought in by the Grecian Wisdom to save men from perishing by that growing destructive mischief For it is manifest from the foregoing account ch 4. ch 5. that the Psychical Men that believe God to be Life without Conciousness cannot acknowledge there are more real Subsistences of the Deity than one and whoever believes more must in consequence confess God to be an Intellectual Being The Epicureans might own two though not Personal Subsistences of their Deity but being consistent with themselves they could not confess a third whilst they denied Gods being pleased or displeased as appears ch 5. ch 6. Therefore this form of Covenant requiring the explicite acknowledgment of three Persons in one God was as directly opposite to those deceits that were then prevailing in the World as was the express owning of the Divine Government to the Anarchical Old World or of the Divine Monarchy to the Antimonarchical Heathen World for all these are suitable Sacramental engagements listing men for God against these several Apostacies And considering the Trinity in the state of the Divine Nature and not in its Mystery these are so many forms of a Covenant that is one and the same in Substance but diversified in the Expressions as the condition of Religion in the several Ages of the World did require And from hence 1. It appears that God entred our express belief of the Trinity into the Covenant of Life not only because it was a most true and weighty a most honourable and glorious acknowledgment of his Divine Majesty for a Trinity of real Subsistences as has been seen speaks
he is nevertheless God for his being Man For it is plain such a one cannot deny the Divine Being of the Son but he must deny the Being of God the Father or deny any perfection to be in the Son but he must deny the same of the Father Therefore according to the reason of the Mystical Divine Kingdom and the Testimony of our Saviour This equal honouring of God the Father and the Son is the Moral and Religious form of all Christian Worship and Service Which proves that though the Doctrine of the Christian Trinity be speculative in the disquisition of it as even Justice and Temperance are yet it is such a speculation that without the attainment of that Faith in our Minds we can perform no Religious Duty truly Christian a Christian Life it self being nothing else but the Praxis upon the belief of the Kingdom of God as governed in the hand of Christ by the Mystical Trinity We are then to receive the institutions of Christ not as the Ordinances of a Moses a Mediatory Angel or a Vicegerent but as the Orders of a Lord in his own House Heb. 3.2 3 4. which is the whole Family of Heaven and Earth 5. Having pointed out the practical use of this Doctrine in general I need not descend to the particulars It s other uses are first the Political for the re-establishing the state of the Divine Kingdom by reconciling all things in Heaven and Earth so that the part that had made a revolt might upon satisfaction given be re-instated with the peace of God into the Blessed Society and all things in Heaven and Earth become one And 2dly the Spiritual for redintegration by physical or if you please supernatural efficiency quickning all things with such Divine Life as is requisite to the happiness of the Subjects of Gods Kingdom that are in his favour But I desire to be excused from medling with these because the Antitrinitarians generally now denying the Sacrifice of Christs death whereon the political force does depend and scarcely confessing the Resurrection of the Body which is the most conspicuous effect of the reâ—integrating vertue of the Divine Life in Christ I intend not to enter into any Dispute upâ—â— these Points yet if I might not displease them I would as a Frienâ— remind them that as I hope it does now competently appear 〈◊〉 their opposition against the Trinity is grounded upon a Metaphysâ—â— presumption of theirs wherein they take it for â—â—anted that thâ—â—â—pream Spirit must needs subsist only in one real Subsistence fo◠〈◊〉 Reason because it is impossible for Matter or any Created Spiriâ—â— have any more which now is found to be no reason at all 〈◊〉 doubt not but upon due examination they will find that their deâ—â— of Christ's Satisfaction is built upâ—â— a false System in Morality 〈◊〉 Politicks and their scruple about 〈◊〉 Resurrection upon an arbiâ—â—â—â—â— and insufficient Hypothesis in Physicks 6. But whatever they do since we have found that the Reason 〈◊〉 Nature of the Thing and the Testimony of the Scripture the Myâ—â—â—ry in the Incarnation of the Son of God God manifest in the Flâ—â—â— and the Obligation of our Vow in Baptism do all concur to conâ—â—â— us in the belief of the Blessed Trinity let us who have attaineâ— the acknowledgment of the Truth as it is in Jesus be sure to hold 〈◊〉 Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience and then we shall both â—â—ceive the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God and Communion of the Holy Ghost and likewise give Glory to God Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons God Holy Blessed and Eternal For his is the Kingdom Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever Amen FINIS