not sent thee No created Angel might speak so but only the Son of God appearing in a visible Form who in several other places is call'd Angel who being the great Deliverer of his People chose what Instruments he pleased to do the work and sent them have I not sent thee This same appeared unto Manoah who asking for his Name received this answer chap. 13.18 ver 22. Why askest thou thus after my name seeing it is secret or wonderful And soon after that Angel is called God We shall surely die saith Manoah because we have seen God Which was a common Proverb among the Jews spoken of the only true God Now we find no where in Scripture that God the Father appear'd to Man in Humane shape Well though we formerly mentioned some things in relation to this yet now by the Grace of God we shall take notice of some considerable Visions relating to our point which we read in the Books of the Prophecies of Isaiah Ezekiel and Daniel which afford new matter and to shew a sweet Harmony between the Old and New Testaments we shall compare them with St. John's Vision and Revelation but briefly to speak of every one in order and by it self we shall by the Grace of God begin with that of Isaiah This Prophet who the oftner and plainest of any others Prophesied about the Messiah's or God's Son's coming into the World as in Chapters 7 9 11 40. and in many other places chiefly in the whole Chap. 53. which compared with the History of his Passion and all therein expressed in the Preter-Tense almost leaves a ground to ask which is the Prophecy and which is the History Wherefore he is by some justly call'd the Evangelical Prophet The same relates a Vision he had of the glory of God the meaning whereof the Holy Ghost hath in other places taken care to explain to us The Prophet saw the Lord sitting upon a throné and John saw one sitting upon a throne which was the Lord God Almighty Isa 6.1 2.3 4. Rev. 4.2.8 In the Prophet about the throne stood the Seraphims which had each six wings So in John round about the throne were four beasts which had each of them six wings The Seraphims cryed one to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory And the four beasts rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come and in Chap. 5.11 many Angels in this holy Consort joyn their voice with the Beasts and the Elders The Prophet heard the Voice of the Lord Isa 6.8 saying Whom shall I send and who will go for us And the Apostle receiv'd his Commission Thou must prophesie before many peoples Rev. 10.11 and nations and tongues and kings All these Circumstances are remarkable and shew how the Glory which the Prophet saw though within so great a distance of time was the same and of the same Lord God The Lord sitting upon the Trone sent the Prophet 1 Pet. 1.10.11 1 Joh. 3.24 and the Lord Jesus sent the Apostles and Prophets too for the spirit of Christ was in the Prophets and hereby we know saith John that he abideth in us by the spirit he hath given us So that he who sent the Prophets is the same who sent the Apostles and if we may believe John who two Years after he had his Revelation John 12 38 39 40 41. did write his Gospel assureth us that the Lord Jesus the Son of God is the same whom before his Incarnation the Prophet saw sitting upon the Throne and whom in his Vision he had seen in the Isle of Patmos for there he quoted that place of the Prophet Isas 53.1 Lord who hath believed our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed And immediately out of the same Chap. of the Prophet when he saw the Vision ver 9 10. he quotes these words though not exactly in the same order but in the same sence He hath blinded their Eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their hearts and be converted and I should heal them And to make the thing the plainer the Evangelist named the time when the Prophet said so Joh. 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him that is in that Chap. 6. when he saw the Vision and when he spake of him whom the Evangelist is then speaking of and if we go back few Verses before we shall find he speaks of our blessed Saviour ver 37. but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him So then it is plain how he whose Life John in his Gospel writes the History of namely the Lord Jesus is the same Lord whose Glory Esaias saw so long before his appearing in the Flesh John 17.5 and this our Saviour might allude to when he said And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory I had with thee before the World was For if he had it in Isaiah's time we may well conclude he had it also before the World was so that glory being not Humane nor Angelical must needs be Divine and when he had a Being This farther out of the Prophet I take notice of The Lord said whom shall I send By the Singular Number to shew the â—â—eness of Essence and by who will go for us The plurality of Persons according to that in Genesis Let us make man in our image after our likeness chap. 1.26 chap. 1. Ezechiel's Vision is this the appearance of the glory of God but before is given an account of the Antecedents by a whirl-wind out of the north with a fire ver 4 5. ver 10. ver 18. ver 22. ver 24. ver 26. and a brightness then the likeness of four living Creatures the likeness of whose face was of a man of a liâ—n of an ox and of an Eagle and they were full of Eyes round about them And the likeness of the firmament over the heads of the living creatures was as the colour of the terrible crystal also there was a noise like the noise of great waters as the voice of the Almighty After this the Prophet saw above the firmament the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a saphire-stone and upon the likeness of the throne v. 27 28. was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it whose description is made in the following Verses as the appearance of fire round about from the appearance of his loins even upwards and from the appearance of his loins even downwards I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain After which the Prophet concludes thus this was
call'd will help to strike the Nail farther into the Head of those proud and unchristian Sisera's Unbelievers I may also call them seeing they refuse to believe the true God of Israel when he speaks of his Son who under the Name of this Angel he promised should go before them Ex. 32.34 Mine Angel shall go before thee And in the next Chapter God calls him his Presence ch 33.14 or his Face God hath many Angels but in a most special manner that he calls his but God hath not many Faces 2 Cor. 4.6 only one and that is the Face of Jesus Christ in whom only is the knowledge of the glory of God for God giveth the knowledge of his glory only in him Because he is the express Image of his Heb. 1.3 the Father's Person Those two Texts in the Old Testament compared with and explained by these two in the New shew that the Lord Jesus the proper Son of God went before and guided his People in the Wilderness so pre-existed the time of his Birth of the Virgin and that it may not be said of any Creature that the glory of God is in his Face or that he is the express Image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of his glory as the Beam is the brightness of the glory of the Sun In my way towards a Conclusion I shall by the grace of God briefly bring in some few Texts which do explain and confirm the great Truths now in question some I elsewhere have taken notice of however I now shall add something to what I then said but others I shall mention which I did not before but this I shall premise In the Apostle John's Days who lived to a very Old Age sprang up some Heresiarks as Simon the first of all Cerinthus Ebion and Menander who deny'd the Divinity of Christ as now Socinians do This moved the Apostle to assert and vindicate it as in his Gospel Epistles and Revelation he hath done so fully that if there were no other Books left of the New Testament there is in them abundantly enough to certifie and confirm that Heavenly Truth as out of several places in his Writings I sufficiently demonstrated in my Book against the Blasphemies of Socinianism which he doth so plainly and so often that we must take notice how the Holy Ghost by his Pen intended chiefly and strongly to suggest to and convince Men of the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion namely that the Lord Jesus is the proper Son of God 1 Joh. 5.5.9 10 11 12 13 20. and to the end that great Truth may make a deep impression upon the Souls of Men in one Chapter in no less than seven Verses he emphatically calls him the Son of God and v. 10 he is twice so called so twice in the 13th and that in such a manner so sensibly and with such Circumstances as denote a true proper and natural kind of Son-ship and he is so earnest upon 't may be all that time having in his Eye the Blasphemy of those Hereticks as to charge those who deny Christ to be the Son of God and believe not in him to make God a Lyar who is the God of Truth the highest Blasphemy that the Devil can infuse into Men For saith he he that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar He saith wherein Because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And what is that Record Besides his Commission in sending him into the World and the Works attended with so many Miracles and Wonders which the Father gave him to finish and to the evidence of which our Saviour did appeal we have it in his Baptism in a most eminent and special manner for the Father bare record of him when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Certainly God spoke absolutely truly and properly and not Metaphorically improperly and by a Figure not my Son according to the Flesh spiritually or only in some respect but simply my Son that is begotten of my substance and of the same Nature with me as a Son ought to be and is of the same Nature with the Father Volkel l. 5. c. 12. whose only begotten he is which is the proper signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a Socinian would corrupt and render by that of Most beloved to enervate the strength of it The Priests Philosophers and Poets among the Heathen either out of Noah's or Abraham's Schools or by some other way had a kind of dark knowledge of this Truth which for want of Revelation they understood not therefore did hide it under Fables and Lies as may be that of Mercury Jupiter's Son and Messenger of Pallas born out of his Head but for Socinians who have God's Word so positively affirming this Truth 't is for them the unpardonable sin of Unbelief which sinks them into Atheism for whosoever knoweth not and worshipeth not the true God he is without God and all who deny Father Son and Holy Ghost to be the true God know not the true God poor Wretches who presume with the Line of their shallow Brain and weak Reason to fathom the deep things of God which prompts them to put several impertinent rash and blasphemous Questions how short do they fall of the Modesty Sobriety and Wisdom of an Heathen Sextus the Pythagorean who said Concerning God inquire of nothing but what thou mayst lawfully say nothing of God but what thou hast learned of God 't is better for one to lose his Life than to speak an idle word of God it is better to say nothing of God than rashly to speak of him Such Men shall at the last Day rise in Judgment against Socinians Among the Greeks Pythagoras himself made all perfection to consist in the number of three or in Trinity and Plato constituted three Principles of all things Good Understanding and the Soul or Life whereby we Christians may understand Father Son and Holy Ghost who created the World But I must go on The Centurion's Words are remarkable when he said to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed just as Scripture speaks in the matter of Creation Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood Such a Word of Command we read of in Jonah And the Lord spake unto the Fish Jonah 2.10 and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry Land which last words imply a special Providence and ordering of things for the Fish might have vomited him in the middle or the bottom of the Sea but because God would save him 't was upon dry Land But to return to the Centurion whose great Faith the Lord commended he believed and was not mistaken that our Saviour might as absolutely command Distempers and Health Death and Life as he
commanded his own Soldiers and Servants for we read in several places how the Lord Jesus with speaking the Word to Diseases Winds and to Devils he rebuked them so that they could do no otherwise but to obey which proves his Divine Power and so his Divine Nature for none but God hath a Divine Power Upon this ground after the miraculous Work of curing the Impotent Man who had been sick 38 Years there our Lord compares his miraculous Works to his Father's when he said John 5. My Father works hitherto and I work The word my in the place is very emphatical to shew that his Works and the Father 's were wrought by the same Divine and Infinite power which meaning they understood well enough whence upon good grounds they concluded he had said God was his Father in a strict and proper sense and made himself equal with God In another place we read of some of the ten Men that were Lepers whom the Lord Jesus had cured Luk. 17.15 who when he saw that he was healed returned back and with a loud voice glorified God he turned back to Christ the great Physician to give him Thanks and Praises v. 16. and worship him upon his Knees for we must look upon him in that posture since our Saviour told him Arise go thy way v. 19. And by that Act he paid him a Divine Honour and by comparing v. 18. with v. 15. we shall find Christ to be the God whom the Man glorified for the Evangelist's and the Lord's Words are the same tend to the same purpose and the Object of the Glory given is the same There are not found said the Lord that returned to give glory to God that is to me who healed them save this stranger Farther to go on upon the matter let us observe how the Apostle speaking of Christ by his Name Jesus saith We have a great High-priest that is past into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 Jesus the Son of God The last words are put in to give us a proper and distinguishing Character of the Person whom he speaks of as indeed in the place this is added to make a difference between Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and the Jesus he had nam'd before v. 8. whereby he meaned Joshua for in Greek 't is the same as Joshua in Hebrew and here we see plainly how the Name Son of God proper to Christ doth distinguish him not only from Joshua Son oâ— Nun but from every other Man in the World as being his proper Name tho' never so good or great in God's Favour We must know that Joshua in bringing into Canaan the Children of Israel was the Type of Christ's bringing God's People into the Heavenly Land of Promise therefore in relation to that Office his Name was changed by Moses Numb 13.16 for his Name before was Oshea We must also take notice how those two great Servants of God had two several shares and acted two different parts which both parts thereby Typified were perform'd by the Lord Jesus their Antitype for Moses brought the People out of Egypt but introduced them not into the Land of Promise which Joshua did yet brought them not out of Egypt but our Blessed Saviour is the Author and will be the finisher of both our Deliverances from the bondage of Sin the Curse of the Law and from the power of Hell and also he will lead us into Heaven and Glory for he who hath began in and for us that good Work will perfect it to him upon a surer ground we may apply what Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3.18 He will not be in rest until he have finish'd the thing Now when we are upon the Name Joshua Jesus or Saviour I am put in mind of that excellent place generally granted to be spoken of the Messiah whom none but Jews will deny to be Jesus Christ Isa 63.1 I am mighty to save 't is absolutely said mighty of himself not through the help of any one else v. 3. For in the place he saith I alone have trodden the Wine-press and of the people there was none with me No meer Man ever spoke after this rate for there as God he by the Mouth of the Prophet speaks of himself with this compare Zephaniah 3.7 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save One Saviour and that in both a mighty one Now mark how in a very different stile the great Apostle Paul speaks of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me such a manner of speaking the Lord Jesus never used but it seems Paul doth point at the quoted place of the Prophet when he saith that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Here is a might to save not only in part or only some but fully and to the uttermost therefore the Name Jesus was given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their Sins His People that is the Israel of God for they are not all Israel Gal. 6.16 Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel Now the Lord Jesus is not only said to be a Saviour which in his capacity of Mediator may be called his proper Name so that every one may know whom we mean thereby This is the Character of God Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour For in that absolute way in Scripture none but God is so call'd but also in the Abstract Christ is said to be Salvation for he is the spring of it Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 which yet Socinians would lodge in every Man who can be saved if he will but in the Word God and Saviour go often together and as to the thing are never asunder and as Christ is Saviour so he is God St. John who better than all Socinians knew who God is and who Christ is in his Writings doth often joyn God and Christ when he commended God's Love to us he meaned certainly the true God by Nature of him he saith 1 John 3.16 Thereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us None but the Patripassian Hereticks will say That God the Father laid down his Life for us but God the Son hath as in the next Chapter he thus explains it In this was manifested the Love of God towards us chap. 4.9 because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him so the God who laid down his Life for us is the only begotten Son of God Who as is said in the next Verse Was sent to be the propitiation for our sins v. 10. this was the end of his coming and thus the laying down of his Life was a propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for our sins St. Paul saith Now
If any Man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner to keep Company with such an one no not to eat much more if a Blasphemer ever a capital Criminal among all Nations which have but a tolerable knowledge of God And elsewhere he requires the same in relation to Men of an ill Life Now we command you 2 Thess 3.6 Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ a strong Adjuration That ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition this also relateth to the Doctrine which he received of us v. 14. And somewhat lower If any Man obey not our word by this Epistle note that Man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed That good Man was ever desirous to reclaim Sinners from their evil Courses but still his great care was to preserve Men in their soundness of mind and of affections and to keep them from danger he would have them to avoid occasions leading to 't namely the Company of those who are infected Judg 23. for fear of being so too for which reason we ought to hate even the Garment spotted by the Flesh and with the Angel of the Church of Ephesus which is his great commendation to hate the Deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate Rev. 2.6 saith the Son of God and so he doth the Blasphemy of Socinians as his beloved Apostle hated and avoided the Company of Cerinthus one of if not the first Ring-leader when at Ephesus he would not stay in but went out of the Bathing-house as soon as he heard Cerinthus was come in there should in the Sheep be an Antipathy against the Wolves company and in the Shepherd a care to prevent their coming in among the Flock Our Lord Jesus Christ is considered in three Capacities as God as Man and as both or as he is Mediator when Scripture speaks of him in any of these it doth relate to the Capacity he is spoken of and every one who reads the Word of God when he doth must have a great care not to confound but to distinguish them well for else great Inconveniences will follow Qui benè distinguit benè docet saith the Philosopher and herein lyeth in part the want of sincerity in Socinians that by any means they go about to accommodate the sense of Scripture to their own ends as sometimes when 't is literal to wrest it into a Metaphorical and when 't is improper to make it literal without any regard at all to the Analogy of Faith After this way when a Text is to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum quid and only in some sense they would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and absolutely interpret it as they do this John 14.28 My Father is greater than I for want of making a necessary distinction between his Divinity and his Humà nity between his State of Glory and that of his Humiliation Philip. 2.8 He humbled himself also the Son of God is after the Father only in Order but not in Nature and Dignity But to shew their unreasonable partiality I ask Why do they not also literally interpret these places wherein his Divinity is asserted As when he saith Before Abraham was I am which is a very plain Assertion of his priority of Existence before Abraham with twice Verily I say John 8.58 which is a very strong Asseveration by him used upon the weightest Matters so when he saith chap. 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was Doth not this plainly shew that Christ the Son of God was glorified with the Father before the Creation of the World Colos 2.9 Also when the Apostle saith In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Can any thing more plainly and fully assert the Divinity of Christ So when 't is expresly said The Word was God in the beginning Again John 10. when he saith himself I and the Father are one God Almighty out of whose Hands no Man can pluck the Sheep which is the plain scope of that place and which that enlargement and explanation doth naturally and so easily flow from seeing there the Subject of his Discourse is to shew how no Man can pluck his Sheep out of his or his Father's Hands for they are one God Almighty The like we may say of the Text where St. Paul saith Rom. 9.5 Christ is over all God blessed for ever Is not this plain enough So is what another Apostle speaks of him thus 1 Joh. 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal Life Can any thing be said more plainly than this that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life Why then do not they literally interpret these and other Texts which so clearly do assert Christ's Divinity When he speaks as God the Maker of the World he useth one kind of Stile and when as Man who had in our stead subjected himself to the Curse and Penalty of the Law another Yet tho' he suffered not as God he ceased not to be God as the Sun behind a Cloud ceaseth not in it self to be bright and glorious so the Lord Jesus's Divine Nature under the Vail of the Flesh had not lost her Divine Glory which during the time of his Humiliation was hidden from Man's Eyes yet still some Beams thereof appeared in his Baptism in his Transfiguration and Miracles but after his Resurrection and Ascension was manifested as is the brightness of the Sun when the Cloud is dispersed then indeed he was again glorified with the Father with the Glory which he had with him before the World was This leads me to the following Consideration which if well minded can by God's Blessing contribute to the better understanding of this whole matter After the manner of Man that is weakly and imperfectly we may conceive God infinitely Glorious in himself yet as his great and ultimate end is and ever was to promote that Glory of his he from all Eternity decreed to glorifie himself for ever and ever by the Manifestation of his Power Wisdom Goodness Justice and every other Attribute and as the first in Intention is the last in Execution so in order thereunto to communicate himself he resolved to create the World and in the visible part of it to lodge Man as the Chief of his Creatures and to permit him to sin and thereby become guilty of Eternal Damnation And as God is glorified in the ways of Mercy and of Justice so he also resolved of whole Mankind to make Objects of these two Attributes to save some through free Grace and
to leave others in the natural State of sin And as in the Work of Creation so in that of Redemption the Three Persons of the most Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost agreed about the Means conducing to that End The Father was to send his Son Jesus Christ Epes 3.4 in whom he hath chosen us before the foundation of the World The Son to come purchase and work Salvation for us and the Holy Ghost to apply that Purchase and make it effectual In order to this the whole Administration of this great and Glorious Work was committed to the Son Acts 10.36 Heb. 1.2 Matt. 28.18 Joh. 5.19 who thereby was made King and Lord of all and Heir of all things so all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth Hence it is that what things soever the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise Nay in this he is so fully and absolutely Plenipotentiary that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son This Office of Mediatour and Saviour he from the Creation of the World began to administer it in the Royal part as executing Judgment upon the Wicked and saving his People sometimes by Angels at other times by himself in the shape of a Man Also his Prophetical Office even before the Flood 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 1.11 by Noah called a Preacher of Righteousness and afterwards by all the Prophets in whom his spirit was Thus from the beginning of the World he hath every where from Abel to Abraham and in Egypt the Wilderness c. been Ordering Ruling and Governing his Church and the whole World which he continues to do and will till after the last Judgment Day when having gotten all his Elect together he will introduce them into everlasting Glory all this by his own Power And this is such a work as infinitely exceedeth all Humane and Angelical Strength and Wisdom so that none but a Divine Power can perform it therefore he that doth it till all his Enemies be brought under his Feet and fully overcome must need be true Essential and Eternal God Who but he who is the true God by Nature can Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 6.33 But John Baptist according to the Testimony he had from Heaven bare witness that Christ doth as he actually did his Apostles according to the promise he made to them And in the same place John Baptist bare record that this is the Son of God Acts 2. chap. 1.5 John 1.33.34 Luk. 7.28 John 1.27 and 3.30.31 Why to call him thus if he was not really such Hereby he shews that vast difference between the Lord and himself of whom our Saviour said Among those that are born of Women there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist who in several places made himself a meer nothing in comparison of the Lord Jesus and here by the name Son of God he is distinguished from all Men John never call'd himself nor no Man else Son of God only this Jesus Christ and none else is the Son of God with the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a but the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsemet this very same which that he is is so certain a truth that our Lord owned it before the Council of the Chief Priests and Scribes who were not so blind as Socinians are or would seem to be for though our Saviour had spoken to them not so plainly Luke 22.69 yet this meaning they understood well Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God Though he called himself Son of Man yet the last words made them to conclude that he made himself the Son of God and consequently God for none but the proper Son of God can sit on the right hand of the Power of God therefore they all presently asked him Art thou then the Son of God which was a Natural Consequence of what he had said and the Particle then is a Note of inference which our Saviour owned in these words ye say that I am That is plainly I am and ye are not mistaken which they call'd Blasphemy so would Socinians have said if they had been there for now they do so set their Hand and Seal Mark 14.64 to his Condemnation for Blasphemy and consequently that he was justly put to Death for it when truely properly and in the sense which the Jews took it he made himself Son of God which as much as in them lies is To crucifie the son of God a-fresh Heb. 6.6 and put him to an open shame Hitherto though I had occasion to do 't I have taken no notice of the Opinion of those who say St. John's Gospel to have been written by Cerinthus for 't is such a nonsensical untruth and so absurd a Forgery that I ever thought it not worth minding In John's time the Heresiark Cerinthus denyed our Saviour's Divinity which that Gospel proves as often fully and plainly as any Book whatsoever in the the New Testament as indeed that Apostle did write it a purpose to prove it and thereby to confute the Impious Heresie of that Instrument of Satan as he declares it when he saith These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God Joh. 20.3 and that ye might have life through his name To say a proof is against a thing when 't is visibly for it gives a just cause to put the question whether he or they who said so knew what they said But Drowning Men will lay hold on any thing that comes into their Hand Besides 't is a great Impiety to make a Blasphemous Heretick Author of an Holy Gospel generally owned to be Canonical and Inspired by the Holy Ghost This Holy Gospel doth confound the Enemies of our blessed Lord and Saviour's Divinity therefore they so often would have been nibbling at it not one chapter but affords strong proofs of it For not to mention here those several places out of which we have drawn strong Arguments for it How many things to confirm it did the Lord Jesus speak therein from the time of his eating the Passover till he was taken that was but short which he took to prepare his Disciples for that separation which by his Death was to follow comforting them with telling what he would and could do for them I shall take notice of that only wherein he speaks of that high point of his Divine Glory by a mutual Glorification between the Father and him Joh. 13.31 32. Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him but this is not all for if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself This indeed were a Blasphemy for a meer Creature to speak after this manner here is a perfect Equality of Glory they glorifie one another and are glorified one in another God shall glorifie him not without but
thing went otherwise when Emperours and other Men of Authority in the World became Christians then they became Nursing Fathers to the Church defended and maintained it against her Enemies by Arms against those who therewith assaulted it and by Councils against those who would have undermin'd her Doctrines And so it ought now to be against those who impiously Blaspheme that God whom the Christian Church ever own'd and worship'd whereunto the Adversaries agree for saith * Tom. 1. Sol. Scrup. 30. ad eum p. 327. Socinus Constat Justinum c. It is certain that Justin and Irenaeus had a different Opinion from what we have of the Person of Christ Therefore Men who willfully recede from such Fundamental and Universal Truths and Blaspheme there-against may very well be restrain'd and punish'd and by an Argument ad Hominem here upon the matter I return Socinus's own words upon himself for saith he †Epist ad Mart. Vadovit The Heresiarcks who raise Seditions and in promoting their Heresies mind only their own conveniencies ought most severely to be used as those whose Fault and Vice lieth not in the Vnderstanding but in the Will He farther adds How the Heresiarcks whose Frailty lies only in the Mind ought to be dealt with as furious Men and out of their Senses because though they be pity-worthy yet when found to do mischief are restrain'd and though these like the others may be pity'd yet if need requires their endeavours to propagate their Doctrine ought to be suppress'd even if otherwise it cannot be done with Bonds and Imprisonment That is in plain English if they had the Power in their hand thus they would use those who differ from them and by them are call'd Hereticks so upon themselves they pass a Sentence of Condemnation This Coercive Power at several times hath by the Magisttrate been made use of it was for an instance when several Bishops of the East met together to get Paulus Samosatenus an Heresiarck well known to Socinus remov'd from bis Bishoprick of Antioch for his Heresy and addressed to the Emperour Aurelian who effected it But to go much beyond the time of Christian Emperours we have a remarkable example of what is the Duty and ought to be the Care of Princes and Governours to make use of the Power which God hath put into their hands to promote his Glory and suppress all that is contrary to it Dan. 3.29 Nebuchadnezzar's Decree which he made after Shadrach and his two Companions had miraculously been deliver'd from the fiery Furnace that every not only Person but Nation and People that should speak any thing amiss or as it is in the old Translation Blaspheme against the God of Shadrach should be cut in pieces and their houses be made a dunghill If this Heathen King would not leave Blasphemy unpunish'd but mov'd by God's Spirit made a Law and appointed a Punishment for such Transgressours much more ought all who profess the Christian Religion take care to see such Impieties suppress'd or else as their Knowledge and Charge is greater if therein they be wanting they are in danger of suffering double Punishment What Treason is in Humane things that in some kind Blasphemy is in Divine for as Treason is against the King's Person or Government so Blasphemy is against God's Nature or his Works now as Treason is justly punish'd so there is a Punishment due to Blasphemy But to come to other things I say that for all their pretences to Piety and Vertue their Principles lead quite to the contrary and what I am going to say though there was nothing else can bring it home upon them here I positively charge them by means of some of their damnable Opinions to encourage Vice Prophaneness Immorality with all manner of Wickedness and this by the Grace of God I can make good so that it shall stick and let them wash it off as they can They are for the Mortality of the Soul after Death like the Body they would have her to be uncapable of Pleasure or Pains she neither acts nor is acted by but is asleep together with the Body till the Resurrection-Day to this purpose speaks * Epist 5. ad Volk So. Epist 3. ad Dudith p. 507. Socinus which was †Def. Puccii ad Resp Soc. tom 2. Oper. Soc. p. 264.267 Fr. Puccius's Charge against him Non me latet c. saith Puccius I know that thou deniest the Immortality of the Souls of those who are not Christians in the Resurrection so with the Epicureans thou believest the Impious Doctrine that the Souls dye with the Body and are both Annihilated by Death We use to say sins are linck'd together and go by couples so one Errour draws into another thus by a good consequence they deny there is now a Triumphing Church consisting of the Souls of those who enjoy God's presence when Scripture saith Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit Rev. 14.13 that they may rest from their labours Upon this Subject Calvin hath written an excellent Treatise call'd Psychopannichia about the condition of Souls after this Life to be seen at the beginning of his Opuscula's which I refer the Reader to not to trouble my self with refuting the Dream of the Soul falling asleep after Death till the Resurrection They also deny that there shall be a Hell being for a total Annihilation that is after Judgment the Wicked shall be reduc'd to nothing as if they had never been then no Torments for them to suffer upon this †Epist 3. ad Dudith nec de Immortalitate animae c. Socinus speaks plain enough I don't believe that any where in the whole Old Testament any clear mention is made either of the Immortality of the Soul or of any other Life Here is your Saducee but what 's become of the Soul after Death Solomon speaks to the purpose Then shall the dust that is the Body Eccles 12.7 return to the Earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it now in God's presence is fullness of joy and at his right-hand pleasures for evermore Psalm 16.11 Certainly the Soul when 't is with God in that special manner must feel Joy and Comfort but Socinians are of a contrary Opinion for they affirm * Smalc Err. 100. Err. 81. Err. 98. Animae Sanctorum c. The Souls of Saints after Death feel nothing and enjoy nothing Nay they deprive them of the blessed Vision of God for he adds The Souls of Saints do not see God before the Day of Judgment yet Scripture speaks of a place of Ease and Rest call'd Abraham's Bosom and though Parables be not Argumentative Luke 16.22 25. yet they are Illustrative to make us understand as far as we are able a thing that is and that same place without any Parable our Saviour calls Paradise when speaking to the repenting Malefactor
guilty as if they had done it Now in Moses's time the Son of God in his human Nature either in Soul or Body could not be sensible of any Reproaches for he then had it not actually but according to Scripture there are two Bodies of Christ his Natural which he took long after and the Mystical which at that time was in being the Church is this Mystical Body From Eternity the Son of God had his Commission to be Head of the Church thereby to bring many Sons into Glory this Commission after the beginning of the World he began to execute in the Exercise of his Royal and Prophetical Offices with ruling and disposing things for the good of his Church the Father having put into his hands and made over to him the whole Administration of that Occumenical Kingdom he is the King spoken of Psal 2.6 set upon the holy hill of Sion who rules over and preserves his People from the Attempts of their Enemies and taught them by the Prophets in whom his Spirit was and this mediately and actually till the time came when himself was to perform the Work of Mediation and Redemption in the passive part thereof which was his Priestly Office in offering himself a Sacrifice and shedding his precious Blood for a proper satisfaction to Divine Justice and Remission of Sins This was the part of human Nature to suffer but all the while before the Work was going on not by means of human Soul and Body which at that time he had not how then could the Mystical Body the Church live and be acted if there had been no Head and how there be a Head if there had been no Being Seeing then there could be no such Body without a Head and that no Man nor Angel could be that Head who then but a God could be it Therefore all the while before the Incarnation Divine Nature in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity was acting in the ordering and delivering his People out of the Flood out of Sodom out of Egypt and punishing their Enemies as we see them opposed in the Persons of Abel and Cain of Noah and his Family to the rest of the World of Shem and Ham of Lot and those of Sodom and in this Text of his Church under the Name of People of God in opposition to the Egyptians as the Apostle opposes the afflictions of the people of God unto the pleasures of sin in Egypt which Moses might have enjoyed when called Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and the Reproach of Christ to the Treasures in Egypt Scripture doth in several places certifie That Christ is the Head of the Church Eph. 5.23 but he who now is the Head of the Church was ever so before or else there would have been two Heads of the Church which is as absurd as 't is monstrous to talk of a Body with two Heads Therefore as there was a Body of the Church from the beginning of the World so from that time hath Christ been the Head of that Body and at that time he was as sensible of Injuries done to his Members as we read he was after his Ascension when he from Heaven said to Saul Acts 9.4 5. why persecutest thou me that is the Members of his Mystical Body for his Natural one was far enough out of his reach Here with a sad heart I must say how since the Lord Jesus's Ascension he never was more reproached or suffered more than now we have a Generation of Men who with the Rebels spoken of in the Gospel say Luke 19.14 Ps 22.6 We will not have this man to reign over us as much as in them lies they would make him a reproach of men and despised of the people and would as the Prophet speaks make him again a man of sorrow acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 despised and rejected of men The Jews when upon Earth depriv'd him of his Life and Socinians now when he is in Heaven would strip him of the Dignity of his Person that chiefly consists in his Divinity which they would rob him of and because they cannot understand that high Mystery they will not believe it so against what the Apostle saith they walk by sense not by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Is it a reasonable Consequence to say a thing is not because they cannot comprehend it as if because I am not able to know well how Bread which hath neither Life Heat or Motion can preserve my Life and Vital Faculties procure heat and enable me to move I should cast it off They also attempt to reproach Christ in his Person so in his Offices of Mediator he came to destroy sin and save Sinners to seek and save that which was lost he came to destroy the Devil's Work Heb. 7.27 9.14 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 4.25 Gal. 2.20 and that 's Sin this hath been the Way and Means to save Sinners which was effected as Scripture saith by making himself an offering for sin by being made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him with being deliverd for our offences with loving us and giving himself for us Yet all this they daily speak and blaspheme against as already we have abundantly demonstrated Before I proceed farther to what I formerly said against their denying that there are any Mysteries in Religion or above the reach of human Reason this I shall add That there are Mysteries in the Work of Creation as we read in the 37 38 39 40 and 41 Chapters of Job how many intricate and mysterious things therein which Job a knowing Man and who had his Reason about him could not answer and calls them things too wonderful for him Job 42.3 which he knew not And chap. 5.9 't is said of God which doth great things and unsearchable And chap. 9.10 which doth great things past finding out yet presumptuously these Men will be searching into those unsearchable things and pretend they can find those things that are past finding out But if there be unknown Mysteries in the Creation of the World why then should there be none of the Wisdom of God in the Redemption of it There are in Nature such mysterious Puzlings as can sometimes as much stagger some Mens Faith of God's creating the World as that of the most Holy Trinity and Incarnation can shake the Faith of others about the Redeeming it yet 't is as certain that God redeemed the World as that he created it And as God hath let us see so much of the Creation as to convince us he made us of nothing and when we were nothing so in the Work of Redemption he hath shewed us he redeemed us when we were lost with clear and sufficient Evidences of his Power Wisdom and Mercy and what therein he hath revealed we ought to believe as our Saviour said to Thomas about his Resurrection Be not faithless Joh. 20.27 Luk. 8.50 but believing
took on him the seed of Abraham The following Argument is also in mode and figure 't is thus all Goodness is Essentially in God alone but Jesus Christ is Essentially good therefore he is Essentially God The Major Proposition I thus explain by Essentially is meant Primarily Originally and in its Nature God is Independently sole good in and of himself and is the Author of all Goodness Metaphysicians among the Proprieties entis of a Being which by a Virtual Reciprocration do result from and are converted with the ens or being reckon three by them called Incomplexe or spoken without disjunction to distiguish them from the Complexe which are attended with a disjunction The three are Vnum one which implies a Negation of a Division for ens when multiplied ceases to be one Verum true is the second which imports a relation to the Mind as Bonum good which is the third doth to the Will Now if according to this every created Being is one true and good in its self how much more transcendently must it be so with the ens entium Being of Beings as the Philosopher calls the first Cause of all that is God infinite who is Essentially One True and Good But because the question is now about the last and that Goodness of his is so fully and universally known in this place I shall say no more to demonstrate it Therefore I come to the proof of my Major namely That all Goodness is Essentially in God alone and to be short out of so many Texts of Scripture I shall bring but one which is home and to the purpose the words are our Saviour's Matth. 19.17 There is none good but one that is God Essentially and absolutely meant what goodness there is in the Creature being all derived from him This I take for granted and so come to prove my assumption how Christ is Essentially Good If all things that the Father hath be his as he saith they are then certainly that Divine Attribute Essential Goodness is included and as he hath the Nature so the inseparable Attribute of that Nature è converso if the Attribute then the Nature Of Divine Goodness there are two Proprieties one that it is diffusive and communicative of it self the other that 't is most desirable In two ways God doth communicate his Goodness first inwardly which Communication is natural and necessary whereby God the Father hath from all Eternity by Generation communicated his Nature and manner of Subsisting unto his Son and both to the Holy Ghost by spiration The Second way is Free and Voluntary whereby God hath communicated his Goodness unto his Creatures which makes David to say Psal 119.68 Acts 10.38 Thou art good and doest good Thus Peter observes about our Saviour that he went about doing good Now this Goodness of God hath in several ways been communicated to his Creatures as in the Creation and Preservation of the World in the work of Incarnation Adoption and Eternal Happiness in every one of which relating to Salvation our Saviour hath been an Efficient and Meritorious Cause and hath together with the Father communicated his Natural Divine Goodness in these several branches or kinds thereof first in Grace whereby God in himself is altogether lovely and therein doth favour and benefit his Creatures The second is Love whereby God takes pleasure in what he likes doth it good and unites it unto himself this love the word speaks of Joh. 3.16 when it saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And doth not Scripture say also that his Son Ephes 5.25 Ephes 3.19 Jo. 15.13 1 Joh. 4.8 gave himself for us and this love of his for us is so great that the Apostle saith It passeth all knowledge and greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends In few words God is love Furthermore Mercifulness is another branch of God's Goodness exalted in so many places of Scripture that I take it to be unnecessary to insist upon 't And was not Christ all along full of tender Mercies and Compassions towards poor sinners which among his own unbelieving Nation got him the Name of a Compassionate and merciful Nature and all the rich Graces of the Father as Paul calls them are conveyed to us in by and with Christ Lastly God's Patience is another part of his Goodness which is highly commended in Scripture and O the wonderful Meekness Forbearance and Patience of Christ who by the Preaching of his Gospel doth invite sinners to Repentance and as it were doth beseech them to be reconciled unto God and though by too many he be slighted and rejected yet he still waiteth That same in several places of Scripture is the Character given of him and in part for that Meekness Gentleness and Patience he is called a Lamb. But to come to the second Attribute of Goodness 't is what in its Nature is appetibile desirable or what all desire We know the Summum bonum the supreme good is Summoperè appetibile Supremely desirable but can any in Heaven or Earth be more desirable than the Lord Jesus who is the chiefest among ten thousand Songs 5.10 ver 16. Hagg. 2.7 and altogether lovely called the desire of all Nations This demonstrates him Essentially to have in him that Divine Goodness which is inherent to and inseparable from Divine Nature and consequently to be Essentially God Before I leave off this I must answer an Objection which might happen to be made against this great Truth of Christ's being essentially good 't is drawn out of the same Chapter which already I have made use of wherein the Lord speaks to one who came to him for Counsel about his Salvation and by him as a Prophet to be taught the way to Heaven Good Master said he What good thing shall I do that I may have Eternal Life The first part of our Saviour's Answer was Why callest thou me good As if he disproved his calling him so but that was not the Lord 's Meaning who denies not himself to be good for he saith not I am not good or thou art mistaken to call me so but he lays hold upon that occasion to teach the Man that he is God As if he had said Thou ownest me to be good and so I am but that 's not enough thou must also believe me to be God because there is none good but one that is God the meaning is essentially good and of himself and seeing in that sense Christ is good he must needs be God and that 's the same Argument which here I prosecute thus it runneth Thou shouldest not call me good except also thou be perswaded that I am God These two Propositions are convertible God is essentially good and he who is essentially good is God So if in that sense Christ be good then he is God The Hammer of the Word Jer. 23.29 for so 't is
God himself and our Father 1 Thess 3.11 and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you here is a Prayer which is a Religious Worship directed to God himself Who this God is 't is equally said our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ equally prayed to because both equally able to perform and answer the Prayer's end so that whether the Name God himself be taken essentially then our Lord Christ is as well as the Father comprehended under it or if personally then to leave no doubt of it by way of explanation his Name is express'd as well as that of the Father and may no more than the Father be excluded from being God himself but it would be almost an endless Work if one would make use of all Texts in Scripture which either directly or indirectly by plain Assertions or good Consequences prove Christ's Divinity for one of the ends of the Gospel is to declare Christ to be properly God Joh. 20.31 Son of God These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet Socinians would make him to be like those false Gods whom Moses speaks of in opposition to the true God of them he gives this description Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed unto Devils not to God to Gods whom they knew not to new Gods that came newly up These upstart Gods were Devils which they worshipped no true God but what from all eternity is such by Nature now if the Lord Jesus be as they would have him a God come up within these 1700 Years whom they worship I leave them to wash off the obvious blasphemous consequence As to what they say that he is God only by Office and by vertue of his being anointed I answer Anointing was a Ceremony to make and declare a King but the Anointing made him not a Man for that he was before Thus the Lord Jesus the Son of God being Anointed and made Christ that Anointing indeed made and declared him a King a Prophet and a Priest and thereby those Offices were conferred on him but that could not make him God for he was such before Christ is a Name of Office as God is of Nature Upon every other account they are full of their Cavils thus they would have the Name Jehovah not to be an essential incommunicable Name Psal 68.4 which with that of Jah signifies his Nature and incomprehensible Majesty whereby he is declared to be the only true God of Israel in opposition to all false Gods and they would have their false Notion to stand because they pretend that most Holy Name to be attributed to Creatures as to the Ark Jerusalem c. which sufficiently * The Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Confut. p. 60. Zec. 14.20 I refuted elsewhere This only I now shall add that the Name Jehovah is no more attributed to the Ark or any Creature than that most holy Name and Holiness it self is to the Bells of Horses when 't is said In that Day shall there be upon the Bells of the Horses Holiness unto the Lord But as they strike at his Divine Nature so they do against its essential Attributes as Omniscience which I also have spoken of This I shall add That when the Prophets knew of things to come 't was by vertue of Revelation for 't is often said The Word of the Lord came to me thus things they knew from God but the Lord Jesus knew things from himself whether past or to come as among other Instances that of the Samaritan Woman can shew about her five Husbands John 4. chap. 5 6. Matt. 25. ch 17.27 ch 16.21 ch 21.38 ch 26.23 v. 34. and that of the Man who had long been sick He also knew future things thus he foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem about forty Years before it happened thus of the Fish which Peter should catch and of the piece of Money in his Mouth so he foretold his Death and the manner of that of Peter's that Judas should betray and Peter deny him and several other things Now this in God's Language proves Christ's Divinity because foretelling of things to come is given as a Character of the true God as we have it Isa 41.22 23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods after he in the foregoing Verse had said Let them shew us what shall happen or declare things for to come There is a considerable place to prove our Lord's Divinity which must be to the purpose seeing Paul as good an Interpreter of Scripture as any of them all makes use of it in the same sense as we do The words of the Psalm are these Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Psal 45.6 Heb. 8. which the Apostle apply'd to the Son Jesus Christ but as they are apt to take unjust Exceptions at any thing that hits them so they do at this and would give the words only a literal sense relating to Solomon's Marriage with Pharaoh's Daughter We may own something therein to relate to Solomon but withal 't is chiefly in a spiritual way intended to represent Christ's Union with his Church and that 't is not Solomon's Epithalamy or a Psalm upon his Marriage it appears from the very first Verse My heart is inditing a good matter for certainly Marrying Pharaoh's Daughter was no good matter for absolutely God had forbidden his People to make any Marriage with other Nations Deut. 7.3 1 Kings 11.3 4. and that Wife of his was one of those who turn'd his Heart after other Gods to serve them Besides what is said therein Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever doth not belong to Solomon nor what is said The King's Daughter is all glorious within to his Wife Their distinction of most high which they would attribute only to the Father and of high God to the Son to make him a subordinate God is frivolous for in the Divinity that makes no difference The true God of Israel is sometimes call'd so in the superlative degree and at other times in the positive yet that distinction doth not make two Gods of Israel in one and the same Psalm he is called by both Titles in one Verse the most High Psal 78.56.35 And they tempted and provoked the most high God and in another before 't is said They remembered that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer so that God the high God and the most high God is but one and the same God The Record which John Baptist bare of our Saviour ought to be weighty for God sent him to the end he should bear it and also unquestionable for then he spake against himself when he gave Christ the whole preference which must be attributed only to his saying the truth John 1.15.27 30. The record is this He that comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me Which Truth is of so high a