age do professe Faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Rules of Faith and Life delivered in the Word 3. Desire that the above mentioned Officers should be incorporated in one Eldership and joyn in all acts of Government of the Church 4. Hold the same censures of Admonition and Excommunication and do likewise receive such as have been censured into communion again as soon as they give testimony of their repentance to them Godly Independents doe acknowledg that Parochial Churches wherein Ministers and others endeavor to remove all things justly offensive that so all ordinances may be administred in purity are true Churches of Christ. 2. They retaine Communion with these Parochicall Churches by baptizing their Children and receiving the Lords Supper there as occasion serves And if occasionall Communion with us be lawfull constant Communion with us would not be sinfull 3. They receive the members of such parishes as aforesaid unto Communion with themselves in their own Congregations also occasionally 4. They professe that they are ready to give an account to such Parochiall Congregations as to Sister-Churches whensoever they are offended at any irregular administrations in Independent Churches 5. They esteem a sentence of Non-Communion passed by such Parochicall Congregations is Churches against them upon any scandall wherein they are unsatisfied as a means to humble them and as an ordinance of God to reduce them Much more might be added But it is clear from these premises that prudent and godly Independents cannot conceive themselves obliged 1. To set up other Churches with differing rules of Constitution or Worship For Presbyterians and Independents did both agree in the same Confession of Faith and Directory for Worship and resolved to practice most of the same things and those the most substantiall in respect of Government also as doth appeare by those few transactions in the Assembly and Committee for Accommodation which have been Printed 2. Nor can they say that they are enforced to gather new Churches out of true Reformed Churches for a circumstantiall difference cannot be a sufficient ground for leaving of all ordinary Communion with true reforming Churches The prudent and godly Presbyterians have set no bounds to themselves in their Reformation but the Word of God and therefore if the Independents will set forth a compleat Modell of their whole Church-way and Church-order fully freely and clearely and prove it by plaine Texts out of the holy Scriptures we shall thankfully receive whatsoever they shall convincingly impart And I shall be bold to say that there had been a judicious affectionate and practicall Accommodation between us notwithstanding some speculative differences in notionall Ideas if there had been no interposition of Statesmen or Sword-men when the Committee of Accommodation had sadly considered and reviewed all materiall Arguments on this side and on that And if you set aside all reasons of State and saecular considerations I do not see why men who agree in the substance of the Service and Worship of God in the Directory according to the Preface in the Confession of Faith set forth by the Assembly and in the Doctrine contained in the Confessions and Writings of the reformed Churches should not mind the same thing and walk by the same Rule that there might be a Practicall Communion between us in all points wherein there is a Doctrinal Agreement and we might go hand in hand to heaven together with meeknesse of wisdome and sincerity of love Let men of both perswasions beware of such a superstitious tendernesse as doth usually arise from some unconscionable errour and unmortified lust because it is no priviledge but a judgement to be given up to errour or lust and from such ensnaring liberty which is indeed perfect bondage good Lord deliver us No man is obliged to follow the Positive Praescript of an erroneous conscience in any point or case whatsoever Differences of Iudgment did not extinguish the relation of membership amongst the Romans and Corinthians And it is certaine that the Substantials of Church-Government must not be changed in every age acording to the graduall differences of light in severall persons and Congregations We humbly desire that there may be a strict and mutuall obligation condescended to in some expedient by all godly men of both perswasions for mutuall edification and for the preservation of all the Churches in these Dominions in truth godlinesse and peace that we may not passe unchristian censures upon our Christian Brethren Let all private quarrels then fall to the ground and let us mind the common interest of the Lord Iesus and seriously promote it in our respective places in faith and love And let all Statesmen beware 1. That they do not fall into the same spirituall or civill evils which they themselves have condemned in the King and Prelates 2. Beware of ERASTIANISME which doth overthrow all Church-government both Presbyterian and Independent 3. Take heed of CIVILL SCEPTICISME which doth overthrow the Fundamentals of publike Faith and publike rights and plucks up all Civill Government by the roots 4. Beware of Familisticall Polytheisme for the Familists affirme that there are as many Christs as many Gods manifested in the flesh as there are Saints on earth But to us there is but one God and one Lord Iesus Christ it is enough for blind Pagans to talk of many Gods and many Mediatours 5. Beware of Atheisme the great Monster of this Age compounded of Socinianisme Familisme Libertinisme and Antinomianisme The Ephesians complaine of none but robbers of Churches and blasphemers Acts 19. 37. But we have cause to complaine of them and Apostates Idolaters Atheists and what not 6. Beware of a Toleration of intolerable errours Reverend Mr Cotton is afraid that the Antichristian Whore will steale in at the Back-doore of a Toleration The Magistrates of England are engaged by the Oath of God to root out whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godlinesse That man is seduced by a private Spirit as you observe well in your Orthodox Book who lusteth after envy after Sects and Divisions but the holy Spirit is a Catholike Spirit a Spirit of Catholike Faith and Catholike love an unreserved and universall Love to all that beleeve and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us then all hold fast the wholesome forme of sound words in faith and love For they who waver against the credit of their own testimony are not as the Civilians say to be heard or regarded because they have lost their credit We are reserved for some service in this declining Age and therefore it doth become us to be Orthodox Saints steady Christians that our Posterity may imitate us and see those glorious daies which some conceive are come already because they have attained a little vainglory in this Age of vanity The Writers of this present time who seeme to contradict one another concerning the light and glory of
13 14 16 Here is the freewill of the Elect but Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and unblameable before him in love c. Ephes. 1. 3 4 5. Our thankfulnesse should be shewen for this free Grace to all three Persons in our thanksgiving believing obeving as is cleare from these places and so our prayers should be answerable to our faith love and thankfulness and therefore it is observable that in the very same Chapter the Apostle makes his addresse after this modell That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdome and Revelation in the acknowledgement of Christ Ephes. 1. 17. and so 2 Thes. 2 16. Rev. 1. 4 5. 2 Cor. 13. 14. many other places may be urged which containe the mystery of faith worship and obedience and if Christ and his Spirit be not alwaies named in them yet the benefits of Christ the gifts graces fruits comforts of the spirit which are named do direct us to both Moreover when the name of God is used indefinitely all three Persons must be understood to be comprehended in that essentiall Title because they are one and the same God Finally one Person doth subsist in another and the same honour is due to all three because all three have the same divine Nature which is single because infinite and therefore there is enough discovered to prevent all scruples in the upright-hearted and Cavils in the contrary-minded Read the third and fourth Chapters of the Epistle to the Colossians and there you will see a very pregnant proofe of this point Put on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humbleness of mind above all these things put on charity let the peace of God rule in your hearts do all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him What ever you do do it heartily as to the Lord. And then the summe of all their requests is That they may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God This takes in the full scope of Law and Gospell whatever belongs to faith worship or obedience whatever is just and equall or well-pleasing unto God Col. 3. 20. Col. 4. 1. And the Epistle to the Ephesians runs parallel with this to the Colossians Ye are elected and therefore ye must be holy before all three Coessentiall Persons by whom ye were elected ye must beleeve the Word of truth as the truth is in Iesus that ye may be sealed with the Spirit and filled with all the fulnesse of God ye must bow your knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ you must study the unity of Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God ye must keep the unity of the Spirit ye must grow up into Christ in all things ye must not grieve the holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption but maintaine a fruitfull fellowship with God in Christ by the communion of the holy Ghost for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousnesse and truth ye must be filled with the Spirit giving thanks alwaies for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ ye must do whatsoever is right or equall Ephes. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is right just and equall Put on the whole armor of God take the sword of the Spirit the shield of Faith pray alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Peace be to the Brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity I need make no inferences the words are so plaine that they prove the point in terminis terminantibus as we use to say Consider the discourse of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle hath even lost his reader in the depth of this Mystery of the eternal counsel of Father Son and holy spirit he puts this question to all the busie disputants who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour and concludes that of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen We have mercy from him faith and repentance from him by an effectual vocation according to his purpose of election Rom. 8 28 29. Rom. 9. 11. 15. 16. 18 23 24 29 30. Rom. 10. 20. Rom. 11. 2 5 6 7 29 30 32. 36. We have mercy grace and glory from all three and therefore all honour and glory be to all three for ever Amen And the Apostle doth beseech the God of patience and consolation the God of hope and the God of peace to fill them with all joy and peace in beleeving that they may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost who is the God of hope comfort and peace for the Kingdom of God doth consist in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. and if wee serve Christ who is God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. in these things we shall be acceptable to God and approved of men Rom. 14. 18. The fruits of the spirit in us are markes because fruits of our election by God The Apostle writing to the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ begs grace and peace for them from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ remembers their work of faith labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father and then concludes their election of God because the Gospel came to them in power and in the Holy Ghost for they received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost The Apostle exhorts them in every thing to give thanks because it is the will of God in Christ Jesus and bids them beware of quenching the Spirit and beseeches the Spirit who is undeniably the God of Peace and by special office our Sanctifyer and Comforâ—er to sanctfy us wholly The very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. And the Apostle discourses in like manner in the second Epistle to Timothy God saith he hath given us the spirit of power of love and of a sound mind saved us and called us with an holy calling according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began And tells us that every one who doth pretend to be elected or presumes to call upon Christ and claim an interest in him must depart from iniquity be sanctifyed
exclude false gods but I say it doth also deny Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost to be different Gods other gods from God the Father because they are one and the same God with the Father as is evident in those two places 1 Iohn 5. 7. 20. cited before Those learned men doe well to exclude false gods the Socinians do ill to exclude the Son and Spirit who are the same God with the Father onely doth exclude every false god but the Son and Spirit are as the Father is the onely true God blessed for ever The term onely doth not exclude any Divine person but it doth exclude all and every one of the creatures because every Divine person hath the same Divine nature but no creature is capable of the Divine nature unlesse we do understand it as 2 Pet. 1. 4. is to be understood of the image of God or having such an interest in the Divine Attributes that God will exercise and put forth his wisdome power and all for their everlasting good and be himself their all sufficient reward portion and objective happinesse And it is to be observed that the termes Only and True are both applied to the same part of the Proposition namely to the Praedicate alone 5. This is life eternall to know thee But the Text saith This is life eternall to know Iesus Christ also that is this is the way and meanes for the obtaining of eternall life and this is the beginning of eternal life to know believe love and obey Jesus Christ. But eternall life is perfected by knowing of God in heaven not by faith but by sight Now eternall life doth not consist in the knowledge belief or love of any meer creature and therefore the Godhead of Jesus Christ is proved out of this very Text which they urge who deny his Godhead to justifie their blasphemy in the denial of it 6. Eternall life doth consist in knowing of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent to be our Mediatour and this eternall life will be perfected in heaven when the mediation of Christ will have an end and therefore it is the knowing of and believing in this Mediatour as God satisfying for us which makes us happy for he doth perfect the work of Mediatour as God by his eternall Spirit that is his divine nature Heb. 9. 14. and by the bloud of God Act. 20. 28. By the sufferings of the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. for he obtained eternall redemption for us by vertue of his eternall spirit Heb. 9. 12. 14. 7. To know Jesus that is to know him as a Saviour as one that saves us from our sins is to know him as a God as one God with his Father as the true God the only God according to that which we read Isa. 43. 10 11 12 25. that ye may know and believe and understand that I am he I even I am Iehovah and beside me there is no Saviour And Isa. 45. 21 22 23 24 25. There is no God else beside me A just God a Saviour there is none beside me Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else to me every knee shall bow in Jehovah have I righteousnesse In Iehovah shall the seed of Israel be justified Compare this with Rom. 14. 10 11 and the Socinians may as safely conclude that theâ—e is no other God but Jesus Christ as they maâ— conclude that there is no God but God the Father from the 17. of Iohn But they and we ought to conclude from these and the other Scriptures mentioned before that Iesus Christ is not a different God from his Father but is one and the same God with him These exclusive and restrictive Terms One and Alone c. doe not then exclude any of those three who are one in nature and essence though they differ in their manner of subsistence for I cannot conclude from that â—ext 1 Cor. 8. 6. To us there is but one God the Father c. that the Father only is God no more then I can conclude from the words following in the very samâ— verse and one Lord Jesus Christ that Christ only is Lord and so exclude the Father from Lordship as the Socimans would exclude the Son from the Godhead 1 Tim 6. 14 15 16. is urged by some to prove that Jesus Christ only hath immortality but they dare not conclude from thence that God the Father is not immortall I read Mat 23. 10. One is your Master even Christ but I must not conclude that the Father is not our Master for the Father teaches Ioh. 6. 45. and the Holy Ghost was Doctor Master Teacher even to the Apostles themselves Ioh. 14. 26. Ioh 16. 13. If that Text 1 Tim. 6. 15 16. be meant as some conceive it is of God the Father yet I find the same Titles given to Jesus Christ Rev. 19. 16. and therefore I conclude That both are one and the same immortall God and King 1 â—im 1. 12 16 17. 1 Joh. 5. 20. I read 1 Cor. 12. 4. That the same God worketh all in all v. 11. that one and the self same Spirit worketh all but I dare not conclude from thence that the Spirit only is God and that the Father and the Sonne work nothing at all From these and many other such like expressions we may safely conclude 1. That these terms one and only are not alwayes universally exclusive in the Scripture sense if all circumstances be duly considered and the Scriptures rightly compared 1 Cor. 9. 6. I only and Barnabas The word only doth not exclude Barnabas but include him Barnabas was joyned with Paul but Jesus Christ is more nearly joyned with the Father Ioh 8. 9. Jesus was left alone but the woman was with him all that were for her condemnation are excluded 1 King 12. 20. There are two exclusive termes There was none followed the house of David but the Tribe of Iudah only and yet the Tribe of Benjamin adhered to David as you may read in the next verse But surely the Father Son and Holy Ghost are more closely united then the Tribe of Iudah was with the Tribe of Benjamin Deut. 1. 36. None should see the good Land save Caleb but Iosuah is joyned with him v. 38. and therefore he was not excluded You see here is some union or conjunction still between the persons that are included but there is the highest union nay unity between the Father Sonne and Spirit because these three are one in nature and that nature most simply single and singularly one 2. When the term Only or any the like term is applied to the Divine nature or to any Divine Title Attribute or Work the Father Son and Holy Ghost being one in nature cannot be divided or separated by that exclusive terme though there is a personal difference between them and a speciall order
of Isaiah are Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel Isaiah 7. 14. they shall call his name Iesus Matth. 1. 21. he shall be called the Son of the highest the Son of God Luke 1. You see the words are different and therefore we must have speciall respect to the thing signified Observe then 1. That the Prophet did foretell two particulars First that a Virgin should bear a Son Secondly that the Son born of her should be called the Son of God The Virgin doubts of the first particular and enquires how that could be without the knowledge of a man The Angel informs her that she should conceive after a peculiar and admirable manner by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and from thence infers the second particular that she should bring forth a Son who was to be called the Son of God and he gives the very same reason which was given by Saint Matthew because it was so foretold by the Prophet Isaiah Matth 1. 20 21 22. for the particle Therefore Luke 1. 35. is not to be referred to the conception of Christ as the Cause of this divine sonship but to the Prophecy of Isaiah recorded Luke 1. 31. for all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Matth. 1. 22. 2. They shall call his name Immanuel God with us and therefore he the same person shall be called the Son of God this is an higher reason then that which the Socinians alleage 3. The Socinians put a Fallacy upon us by assigning that to be the Cause which is not the true Cause he shall be called that is declared and acknowledged to be the Son of God This Declaration or manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh was temporall 1 Tim. 3. 16. but his generation was eternall Micah 5. 2. The Son of God was sent manifested incarnate in the fulnesse of time Gal. 4. 4. but he was the Son of God before his Incarnation and therefore his Incarnation is not the cause of his divine sonship the effect cannot be before the cause but the divine sonship of Christ was before the world was The Holy Ghost is never called the Father of Christ and he could not be the principle of the subsistence or the Word and therefore not the Cause of this divine sonship The Apostle states the point and puts it past all dispute Rom. 1. 3 4. Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh but determined and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead from whence it followes directly that Christ is not properly the Son of God according to the flesh but is in that consideration rather to be called the Son of David as we observed above because Christ came of David as concerning the flesh but the eternall Son of God is God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. When the Jewes said that our Saviour blasphemed because he made himself God John 10 33. Christ askes them whether they did accuse him of blasphemy because he said he was the son of God v. 36. whereby he declared that he was the Son of God according to his person which is truly divine beleeve saith he that the Father is in me and I in him v. 38. The force of his answer is evident I am in the Father and the Father in me and therefore I am a divine person I am the Son of God and therefore the divine nature is communicated to my person I am begotten in the unity of the God head I am in the Father and therefore if it be no blasphemy for me to say that I am the Son of God it is no blasphemy at all to say that I am God because the divine nature is communitated to the naturall and proper Son of God there 's the proper reason why Christ is called the Son of God because the divine nature was communicated to him by an eternal generation II. The second cause assigned by the Socinians why Christ is called the Son of God is the sanctification of Christ for which they cite Iohn 10. 35 36. Behold say they the second cause of this divine sonship plainly set forth unto us Christ hath obtained an excellent portion of the Spirit he is sanctified and sent with a divine power into the world to save mankind To which we answer that here is the same fallacy obtruded again because 1. Christ was the Son of God before he was sent into the world 2. God did not give the spirit by measure to him Iohn 3. 34. 3. Christ proves in that tenth chapter of Iohn that he is one with his Father in power and therefore in nature as appears 1. Because he doth the same works that his Father doth v. 37. 2. Because he is in his Father and his Father in him v. 38. 3. Because he is the Naturall Son of God and therefore might truly call himself God v. 33. 36. 4. Because they themselves called Magistrates Gods upon a cheaper account only in regard of their Commission and Office much more might he call himself God because he was sanctified without measure had an higher office and Commission being sent to do the work of God to satisfie the justice of God and save the elect of God which he could not have done if he had not had the Nature of God and been thereby fully enabled to perfect this work of God The Argument is grounded upon the infinite distance and imparity between the office of a Mediatour and the office of a Magistrate between the only begotten Son of God who is one with his Father who begot him and the Sons of men who are but the Deputies of God III. The third Cause which they assigne of this divine sonship is the speciall love of the Father to this excellent Son Matth. 3. 17. To this we answer that God did not make Christ his Son because he loved him but he loves him because he is his Son a Son equall to himself one with himself the expresse Image of his person the illustrious brightnesse of his glory That very place which they cite makes much against them God doth from heaven own Christ for his proper and naturall Son in that very place Matth. 3. 17. God said not so to the best of Angels Hebr. 1. 4. 5 To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee that one place is sufficient to discover the fraud of the Socinians in this point IV. The fourth Cause which they assign is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ because when Christ was raised from the dead he was as it were begotten again from the dead Acts 13. 32 33. To which we answer that Christ was the Naturall and Proper Son of God before his Resurrection only he was declared to be the Son of God by
brings in a Christian Catechising the heathens in the Doctrine of the Trinity 3. The forme of Baptism strictly observed in the Churches notwithstanding the great ignorance and contention in the East and the grand Apostacy in the West doth sufficiently prove that this Doctrine of the Trinity had taken deep root in the minds of men and that they were by the providence and speciall grace of God very diligent and faithfull in communicating of it to their posterity from time to time 4. The Doxology or as some call it the Hymn of glory doth evince the same and therefore the Arrians endeavoured to make an alteration in the Doxology and instead of saying Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy-Ghost they said Glory be to the Father By the Son and In the Spirit from whence we may observe by the way that if we suffer the Fundamentall Doctrine of our Faith to be corrupted we shall not be able to preserve the Fundamentals of our worship pure and uncorrupt 5. The Form of Apostolicall Benediction which stands upon record 2 Cor. 13. 14. doth cleerly hold forth the Doctrine of the Trinity to be a Fundamentall both of Faith and Worship And all who desire the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God the communion of the Holy-Ghost for their everlasting comfort salvation must beleeve and adore all three as onâ— God blessed for ever 6. All who beleeve in God are commanded to beleeve in Christ as God as one and the same God with the Father Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me Joh. 14. 1. They are commanded to honour the Son as they honour the Father Joh. 5 23. And therfore the Doctrine of the divine person of Christ as Coessential with his Father is a Fundamentall both of Faith and worship 7. The Doctrine of the incarnation of the Word the naturall and proper Son of God the Doctrines of Christs satisfaction of our Redemption and justification by Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour are Fundamentall Doctrines necessary to be known beleeved and embraced for our eternall Salvation for we know the blood of a meere man cannot give satisfaction to the justice of God for those grosse affronts injuries and abuses which have been offered by man to the infinite Majesty of God The Church of God is purchased with the blood of God Act. 20. 28. And if Christ hath not redeemed the Church with the blood of God then the Church is not redeemed your Faith and our preaching are both vain because you and we are yet in our sins for then God hath not received satisfaction for our sins nor a sufficient ransome for our souls If the Son of God did not take flesh then was not God manifested in the flesh then the whole mystery of godlinesse which should be without controversie great and precious in the eyes of Christians will be cheap and vile and of no account for the whole mystery of godlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. depends upon the manifestation of God in the flesh Now the divine person of the Son took flesh the person of the Father was not incarnate 8. It is not enough to beleeve that the Son of Mary is risen from the dead we must beleeve that the Son of God is risen Rom. 1. 3 4. It is Iesus our Lord that rose for our justification Rom. 4. 24 25. Rom. 10. 9. 9. It is not sufficient to beleeve that there is a man sitting at the right hand of God we must beleeve that Iehovah sits there Psal. 110. 1. Mat. 22. 43 44 45. And the like must be said of our Advocate he must be such a one as can plead the worthinesse of his person the merit of his obedience and sufferings one who is able to save us to the uttermost Heb. 7. 25. 1 Ioh. 2. 1. 2 One who can plead with some Authority Majesty Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Ioh. 17. 24. He speaks with Authority I will he speaks like a Coessentiall and Coequall person and it is for the glory of the Father to beleeve that the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father that the Son is Lord equal to the Father Ioh. 14. 10 11. Phil. 2. 6 11. Many arguments more might be collected from divers places of Scripture cited above in the fourth chapter of this book and I shall enlarge upon this argument in the ninth Chapter 10. The Holy Ghost is the same God with the Father and Son the same object of divine Faith and Evangelical worship the same Author of the Scriptures and all-saving Grace Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 12. 6. 11. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Through the Son and by the spirit we have accesse to the Father Eph. 2. 18. All Church administrations are to be performed in the power of the Holy Ghost and are made acceptable by the merit of the Lord Iesus Christ. If we will heare the Spirit speaking in the Scriptures to the Churches if we feel the Spirit Sanctifying of our hearts if we do not desire to undermine the foundation of the Christian Church and so overthrow the Church of Christ if we do not renounce our Christian Faith and our Baptisme the Sacrament thereof if we do not reject the fundamentall blessing the best portion of our selves and little ones the grace of Christ the love of God and communion of the Spirit why then I beseech you as the Apostle doth for the Lord Iesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit Rom. 15. 30. and for the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 11. that you will beleeve adore embrace love and obey the Father Son and Holy Ghost as three Divine and Coessentiall Subsistents in the single God-head as one God blessed for ever the adaequate object and Authour of your Faith hope love and happinesse I do not desire to obtrude any thing upon the acutest disputant as Fundamentall that is curious or unnecessary Nay there are many things necessary for the maintenance of â—his truth and refutation of contrary errors when we are to deal with subtile Hereticks which I do not set before the common people as food fit to nourish them and for that reason I do desire them that they will look upon much of my sixth chapter and of some other chapters in this booke as â—t for the direction of young Scholers in this weighty point for I find young wits apt to be seduced by Logicall subtilities or rather fallacies Metaphysical notions Poetical raptures nice distinctions and vaine curiosities from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ and therefore I have taken some pains in divers chapters but specially in the margine for the direction of hopefull youths who have been too often entangled and ensnared by Socinian fallacies and at last tempted into loud and hideous blasphemies We do therefore lay down these plain truths as necessary to be known and beleeved for the
maintaining of saving communion with God 1. That God is For he who commeth unto God must beleeve that God is Heb. 11. 6. 2. That there is but one God Deut. 6. 4. 3. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are this one God because they are all three Coessentiall subsistents in this most single Godhead 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. Phi. 2. 6. 1 Io 5. 7 Ioh. 10. 30. Mat. 3. 16 17. Mat. 28. 19. Act. 5. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 6. 11. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Ioh. 15. â—6 Rev. 1. 4. 5. Reverend Calvin was not so morose and austere in this point as to contend about unnecessary words or curious phrases so there were such words used as did fitly and fully expresse the whole mistery of Faith in this weighty point and sufficiently refute the damnable errours of Arrius and Sabellius If men will but acknowledge 1. That the Father Son and Spirit are one God and the selfe same God 2. That the Son is not the Father nor the Spirit the Son but that these three are distinguished by speciall Relations Incommunicable and unchangeable properties so that there is a Trinity of Coessentiall Subsistents in the selfe-same Divine Essence we are all agreed Arrius would acknowledge that Christ is God buâ— not Consubstantiall or Coessentiall with his Father for he did deny Christ to be the same God with his Father And in like manner the Socinians will say that they acknowledge and maintaine the true Divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost but they do deny that the Son and Spirit are one and the same God with the Father and affirme that the Reformed Churches who beleeve that all three persons have the selfe same God-head do ascribe a false and imaginary God-head to the Son and Spirit which the Holy Scriptures do no where acknowledge or declare And this is the true reason why the Orthodox Doctors of the Church have been so unanimous especially of late yeares in maintaining this Proposition Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father Son Holy Spirit are one and the self-same God On the other side Sabellius acknowledged that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God but if you say that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three different subsistents then he cryed out as M. Fry doth that you acknowledge three Gods the best way to avoid these saith judicious Calvin is to say That there is a Trinity of Persons in one and the same essence of God For we must needs acknowledge the unity of the Divine nature because we read that the Father Son and Spirit are one and we must acknowledge the Trinity of these Coessentiall Subsistents or persons because we read that they are three Now the Trinity and unity make a Coessential Trinunity if the unity of the God-head and Trinity of the Subsistents or persons be acknowledged we shall not wrangle about curious phrases or unnecessary words The most judicious and moderate men amongst the Orthodox Doctors of the Church agree in this The learned and Reverend Doctor Davenant in his judicious exhortation to Brotherly Communion betweene the Protestant Churches teaches us how to distinguish between points that are fundamentall and Problems or Propositions that are not Fundamentall and when he comes to reckon up Fundamentals he instances in the Trinity and expresses himself after this manner That God is one in Essence three in Persons distinguished betwixt themselves That the Son is begotten of the Father That the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son That these three persons are coeternall and coequall All these saith he are deservedly determined and ranked amongst the Fundamentall Articles Now if any should contend that all those things which are disputed of the School-men of the manner of proceeding and begetting are also fundamentall and necessary to be determined on one side verily he by this his rash judgement would gaine no favour with Christ. But it is objected by some who do acknowledge Christ to be God that they have no reason to close with us when we say That Iesus Christ is Coessentiall with God his eternall Father because we do impose a new word upon them and so make a new Fundamentall of our own Inventition to which I answer 1. That if we make an old truth plaine by a new word they ought to forgive us that injury 2. We explaine our new Terme 3. We save them the trouble of an artificiall and tedious deduction for as soon as they do but understand the word they must necessarily imbrace the sense and acknowledge that though the word seem new to them yet the Doctrine is old for if the persons be of a different Divine Essence then there would be more Gods then one 4. We doe hereby secure them against the subtilty of pernicious Hereticks who endeavour to seduce them into damnable Heresies For if the Father Son and Spirit have not the same Divine Essence then either there will be more Gods then one or else the Son and Spirit are no Gods at all but such petty inferiour Gods as the Socinians make them 5. No man that hath a sound braine and a single eye can conceive that there are divers Gods in the same Essence and therefore the expression is necessary and safe The Father Son and Spirit are three Coesential subsistents in the same single God-head they are all three one and the selfe-same God who is God by nature the only true God blessed for ever in this Faith we will live and in this we will dye as it becomes Orthodox Christians who were bâ—ptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost CHAP. IX This Grand Mystery of Faith hath an Effectuall influence into the Practical Mystery of Godlinesse and Power of Religion IT is the great designe and faithfull endeavour of sincere Christians to attaine unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Colos. 2. 2. They who have but a Forme of Godlines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of painted powerlesse shaddow of piety may look upon the Doctrine of the Trinity as a School-point a meer speculative Doctrine which men receive by Tradition from their fore-fathers but they who live in the spirit and walke in the spirit Gal. 5. 25. have a life that is hid with Christ in God Colos 3. 3. hid from formall men as colours are hid from blind men and these spirituall Christians do account the love of the Father the grace of Christ and the communion of the Spirit to be their Heaven upon earth They receive Iesus Christ so as to live by him walke in him and live to him Colos. 2. 6. Phil. 1. 21 1 Ioh. 5. 12 2 Cor. 5. 15. What is a Godly life but a life of faith and love of joy and thankfulnesse of self-denyall and devotion of patience and obedience hope
and perseverance victory and triumph This is the life of God or that godly life to which the Ephesians were all strangers till they had learned the truth as it is in Iesus Ephes. 4. 20 21. And how come we to be quickned to this Godly life but by being begotten of the Father Iam. 1. 17 18. borne of the Spirit Ioh. 3. 6. and hearing the voice of the Son of God Ioh. 5. 25 26 When we have learnt of the Father and are drawne by the Spirit we come unto the Son who is the way the truth and the life Ioh. 6. 44 45. Ioh. 14. 6. And how is this Spirituall life maintained but by the Supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ Philip. 1 19. Let us take the whole frame of a godly life to pieces and view every part and Spring and wheel and pin and then put it together againe and then we shall be able to judge what effectuall influence these three Coessentiall persons considered as one and the same God or as three distinct persons subsisting in the single God-head have into the Practicall Mystery of Godlinesse and Power of Religion The Doctrine of Godlinesse containes 1. Our Faith in God 2. Worship of God 3. Obedience to God 1. Our Faith in God I have spoken of this grand Mystery of Faith and shewn that it is necessary to be known and beleeved in the eight Chapter at large But I shall now treat of it in a more practicall way Adam in his Innocency was bound for to beleeve in the Father Son and Holy Ghost who are one Almighty God Creator Upholder and Governour of Heaven and Earth Self-sufficient and All-sufficient blessed in and of himselfe the only cause and adaequate object of the blessednesse of his creatures Adam was created by all three after the Image of all three for God said Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse Gen. 1. 26. and therefore we cannot conceive but that all three were revealed to Adam that he might know and beleeve in all three surely Adam was better Catechized then Jews Turkes and Pagans are in this great point and therefore did know beleeve and Worship all three There is no question but he entred into Covenant with all three and therefore beleeved in all three I cannot beleeve that two of the Divine Persons had no worship or service from Adam their creature before his fall And doubtlesse Adam knew whom he beleeved and whom he worshipped as his Almighty Creator and All-sufficient God Adam under the first Covenant was bound to beleeve in the second Person as God but not as God-man the Mediatour betwixt God and sin full man Adam did owe the right of subjection to all three from whom he received the Honour of Dominion The world was made for man man for the honour and glory of Father Son and Holy Ghost Adams originall righteousnesse did incline and enable him to beleeve in all three and surely Adam understood that severe rebuke which was given him presently after his fall Gen. 3. 22. And the Lord God said Behold the man is become as one of us But because I will forbeare disputes I will not proceed further upon this Argument The Faith of Christians delights to exercise it selfe upon God the Father Son and holy Spirit God the Father is pleased to be our Tutor to condescend so far as to teach us and oportet discentem credere Schollers must beleeve their teachers It is written in the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learnt of the Father cometh unto me Ioh. 6. 45. We must beleeve the Record that God the Father gives of his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 10. When we look upon God as the father of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ look upon him as our God and Father in Christ these neer and deare relations do encourage us to beleeve him and beleeve in him to beleeve his truth to beleeve his love his fatherly tender bowels do perswade and even constraine us to fix our beleife and place our confidence in God the Father The heires of Promise have good encouragement to beleeve their Father who gives them all they have and hope for when he declares the immutability of his Counsell in a faithfull promise and confirmes it by an unchangeable Oath Heb. 6. 17 18. Surely the Father will not deceive his owne children of their Inheritance which he hath made over to them by promise and Oath this is the ground of all our hope and comfort we may safely cast Anchor here Heb. 6. 18. 19. In the Old Testament the Covenant runs in the names of Abraham Isaac and Iacob but in the New Testament it runs in the name of Christ there we read the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob but here we read God our Father the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that is our God and Father in Christ and for Christ our Father because Christs Father Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ Ephes. 1. 2 3. We cannot but look up with Faith and confidence to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and our Father as the fountaine of all blessing the fountain of grace and peace and glory This deare Fatherly relation of God to Christ and in Christ to us is sometimes darkly intimated and but hinted and sometimes cleerly fully expressed to encourage our Faith The Disciples were very sad because they heard our Saviour speak of going to his Father go saith Christ to my brethren and say unto them Ioh. 20. 17. What should Mary say for their consolation was it enough to tell them my Lord is alive and calls you his brethren no that were too darke an intimation and therefore our Saviour gives her her message in words at length Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20 17. here 's an Evangelical ground of faith hope and comfort in the time of the saddest distresse The great Argument used to encourage poor trembling beleevers to come to Christ when they have interrupted their fellowship with God the Father Christ and the Holy Comforter by any grievous wounding sinne is this If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous God is a Father both to us and our Advocate therefore renew the sense of your justification by faith at a Ihrone of Grace you see our faith is encouraged in the saddest tryals by this Argument The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ is the Father of mercyes and the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. the fountaine of grace and peace Rom 1. 7. Gal. 1. 3. Iesus Christ make it his oâ—â—inesse to perswade poor tempted soulâ—s to beleeve that
Saviour saith God is a Spirit and from thence concludes that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and truth but in respect of the Divine Persons also We are to worship God as a Creator as the first of Causes last of Ends best of Beings to whom we owe our Being and our well-being but we must worship God the Father as God and look upon him as the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and as our Father reconciled to us in Christ this is that worship which becomes the Gospel and therefore we ought to worship God the Father considered after this Evangelicall manner that he may be glorifyed we moved and affected with those endearing expressions O God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and our Father in him Such expressions as these do beget in us 1. Holy boldnesse mixed with Reverence 2. Christian confidence our Father wil supply the wants of his children out of his rich treasure for he commands Heaven earth 3. Filial Love and cheerefull obedience which are even con-naturall to our new man upon due consideration of this sweet relation between God and us Ier. 3. 19. 4. A thankefull acknowledgement of Gods fatherly bounty even unto admiration Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1 Joh. 3. 1. Nay heyres of God Rom. 8. 17. What are we vile wretches wormes and no men yea by reason of our filthinesse Dogs and Devils that we should be adopted into the family of God married to the Sonne of God and made co-heyrs with the Lord of glory When the Spirit of a man is raised by such thankfull acknowledgements unto an Holy admiration then it is brought into a Gospel frame and by such high and sweet thoughts of Gods fatherly love and bounty fitted for filiall and Gospel-worship But it will be said that the whole Trinity is our Father and therefore all three persons are to be worshipped under that fatherly consideration and in that deare Relation To which I answer 1. That when the word Father is attributed unto God essentially though all creatures are excluded yet all the three Divine persons are included because they are co-equal they have one nature will and worship they are one and the same God and they are one Father also in opposition to Images Ier. 2. 27. To Saints Is. 63. 16. Doubtlesse thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Thou O Lord art our Father our Redeemer thy name is from everlasting And in opposition to all creatures Mat. 23. 9. and in the Lords Prayer Father Son and Holy Ghost are all called upon as our Father 2. The word Father is sometimes taken personally and attributed to a single person of the God-head More frequently and more peculiarly to God the Father who is the first Principle of subsisting life even in respect of his own naturall and Co-essentiall Son as hath been proved at large in this Treatise and is to be reckoned first in order and finally in regard of our Adoption and the mysterious and divine Oeconomy and dispensation vouchsafed for the salvation of man and yet these peculiar notions do not exclude the other persons from being God as hath been proved above in the fourth chapter nor do they exclude them from being our Father in the common notion of Father in opposition to creatures and Idols nay all three persons have a Fatherly care of us and love to us and therefore Christ is called our Father Isa. 9. 6. Heb. 2. 13 14. And it is the proper office of the Holy Ghost to Regenerate us as it is of the Father to Adopt us but then the Father doth Adopt us in Christ who is a Father to us though a Son to God the Father and the holy Spirit is the Spirit of Regeneration and Adoption and therefore all three Co-essentiall persons are our Father 3. We may direct our Prayers to any one person as Steven directed his to the Lord Jesus Act. 7. 59. Lord Iesus receive my Spirit 4. We may direct our Prayers expressely unto two of the divine persons Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you 1 Thes. 3. 11. 5. We may direct our Prayers unto all three as we do in the administration of Baptisme and in that Fundamentall Benediction 2 Cor. 13 14. 6. When we direct our prayers to one of the divine persons we exclude none because the Persons are in one another the Father is in the Son and they are all three coessentiall coequall They are one God and therefore are to be worshipped with that selfe same religious and divine Worship which is due to their single and undivided Godhead 7. When we direct our prayer to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the terme Father is taken in a peculiar notion not in the common notion and the Apostle directs his prayer after this peculiar manner Eph. 3. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named God the Father looks upon us poore wormes as part of his Family nay as his deare children whilest we are here on earth as well as he looks upon his other children the glorious Saints who are made perfect in heaven Oh what a quickning consideration is this to bring us upon our knees at a Throne of grace before Christs Father and our Father that we may have a childs Portion and be prepared for that place which Christ is now preparing for us We are part of the Family numbred amongst those of the best ranke we are children and have the same Father that Christ and the Saints in heaven have Iohn 20. 17. Ephes. 3. 14. and therefore shall come to be Coheires with Christ and them Here is heavenly encouragement unto Gospell-worship and Gospell-conversation It is no wonder then if that Gospell-worship be frequently performed to God under this endearing consideration and in this sweet and comfortable relation The Apostle wishes us grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 7. and in like manner 1 Cor. 1 3. 2 Cor. 1. 2. Observe that solemn forme of thanksgiving Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. Oh how willingly and cheerefully do we run to the God of all mercies and comfort in a time of temptation and affliction 2 Cor. 1. 4. For the Father discovers his bowels of mercy on purpose to invite us to him The Father himselfe loves you Iohn 16. 27. All spirituall glorious eternall blessings our Election Redemption Salvation are ascribed to this Father of all grace mercy comfort glory
Christ redeemes us according to the will of God and our Father Gal. 1. 4. Iohn 10. 17 â—8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ according as he hath chosen us Ephes. 1. 3 4 11. Much more might be said to this purpose but this may suffice It is now time to proceed to my next Point which is that 2. Divine Worship is due to the second Person of this Coessentiall Trinity to Jesus Christ our Lord and God There is but one immediate formall proper Adaequate and Fundamentall reason of Divine Worship or Adorability as the Schooles speak and that is the Soveraign Supreme singular Majesty independent and infinite excellency of the eternall Godhead There is a peculiar and singular esteeme Faith Love and Worship due to Father Son and Holy Ghost who are one God the only true God These three are the only Object of Religion and therefore the only Object of religious Adoration There is but one kind of Divine Worship that Worship and all degrees of it is due to this one God Father Son and Holy Ghost this truth is made good against the Papists as well as against the Socinians and divers others whom I need not name the Ubiquitists and Arminians by a cleare stating of the point in Controversie and invincible demonstrations to confirme the Truth First For the cleare stating of this Point we must look a little into the rise of this Controversie and consider how far it hath been discussed by Learned men and stated by such as are Orthodoxe and prudent men since the Socinians Ubiquitists and Arminians have endeavoured to make the question more perplexed and the truth more obscure The Papists are deeply engaged to prove that religious honour may be given to a Creature at least in some degree their distinctions are so well known that I need not to insist upon them Cardinall Perron exceeds them all for sophisticall distinctions which he who is at leisure may read in his fifth Book and twentieth Chapter of his Answer to King Iames. But Smiglecius being engaged against the Socinians states the Point right he distinguisheth between Christs Naturall Power as he is the Naturall and Coessentiall Son of God and his Delegated Power which he hath as Mediatour and concludes that Christ is to be worshipped as he is the Naturall Son of God with Divine Worship because his Naturall Power is his Divine Nature But saith he Christ is not to be worshipped in the second consideration with Divine Worship Doctor Rainolds in his Book de Idololatria Romana hath abundantly refuted all that the Papists bring to excuse their Idolatry and proves clearely that It is Idolatry to give Religious honour to any Creature I shall not therefore trouble my Reader with any set-dispute upon that Argument The Socinians tell us that The Father is the only Absolute Supreme Independent God but Christ is a Dependent and subordinate God And therefore may be worshipped as he is Mediatour with a Relative and subordinate Worship which they are not affraid to call Divine Worship But they confess that they worship the Father only as the supreme Cause the First Efficient and the last End But they worship Christ as the second or middle Cause of our Salvation and the intermediate end of Religion The ground and formall Reason of this subordinate Worship is as they conceive Christs mediatory Office the new subordinate Godhead and Lordship over us bestowed upon him for his obedience unto death which they say is the Mediate as his Exaltation is the Immediate Cause of this Subordinate glory The Arminians in their Apology and other writings endeavour to excuse and gratifie the Socinians for they deny that our grand Argument taken from the Divine Honour and Worship of Christ doth sufficiently prove his Nature to be Divine and Christ to be one God with his Father This Argument say they is not invincible and irrefragable nay they call it a leaden Argument because this Divine Honour is given to him by his Fathers gratification in time Some Lutherans are very much to blame in this Point for they say That the Divine Majesty Worship Glory Omnipotence Omnipresence of the Son of God are communicated to Christ as man but enough of that Divers Learned Orthodoxe Judicious Doctours of the Church have given the Enemy too much advantage by their unwary expressions in this Point and the vigilant Enemy hath taken that advantage and made a very vnhappy use of it to the great prejudice of Christianity Vno absurdo dato mille sequuntur Error parvus in Principio fit magnus in Fine I do therefore entreat the most accurate and nice Reader at his best leasure to read Iunius Chamier Polanus Polyander Pareus Camero Maccovius Cluto Beza Heidan Diest Zanchius Voetius Altingius and other sate Writers upon this Point who have observed every turn ward shift of the Enemy and have given a very faire account of all For the present State of the Question be pleased seriously to consider these plaine and weighty conclusions following 1. Divine excellency infinite Majesty and Perfection is the Formall and Adequate ground and reason of Divine Worship For by Divine Worship we do acknowledge and declare the Infinite Majesty Truth Wisdome Goodnesse and Glory of our blessed God We do not esteeme any thing worthy of Divine Honour and Worship which hath but a finite and created glory because Divine Honour is proper and peculiar to the only true God who will not give his glory to any other who is not God God alone is the Adequate Object of divine Faith Hope Love and Worship because these graces are all exercised and this worship performed in acknowledgement of his infinite perfection and independent excellency and therefore no such worship can be due to any thing below God But the most glorious and excellent Creatures are all below God and therefore that point is cleare 2. The Father Son and Holy Ghost are one and the same God as hath been proved in the fourth Chapter of this Treatise and therefore one and the same worship is due to all three because they are Coessentiall Coequall Coeternall they have one and the same divine nature excellency perfection and essentiall glory and therefore the same acknowledgement is due to all three both from men and Angels There is not one kind of divine honour due to the Father and another to the Son nor one degree of honour due to the Father and another to the Son for there can be no degrees imaginable in one and the same excellency which is single because infinite and what is infinite doth excell and transcend all degrees and bounds And if there be no degrees in the ground and Adaequate reason of Divine Worship there can be no ground or reason of a difference of degrees in the
and Ordinances as he himself should from time to time appoint The due acknowledgement of Gods immensity and infinite Majesty in our attendance on the Instituted means of worship is clearly opposed to the Image-worship in the 40th Chapt of Isaiah and first Chapter to the Romans and therefore the inside and compass of this second Commandement is spirituall though the words of it are so comprehensive as to take in ceremoniall as well as Evangelicall worship For Reverend Divines have made it cleare that though the second Commandement be morall in regard of its substance and generall nature which containes the immutable Law above mentioned yet in regard of its particular application to those significant Ceremonies Sacrifices and Sacraments which God did appoint we say all Ceremoniall Institutions are referred unto and comprehended under the second morall Commandement of God See Mr. Shepheard in his excellent Treatise of the morality of the Sabbath pag. 24. 40 41. 3. The third Commandement prescribes a reverend use of all the Titles Properties Works and Ordinances of God with Spirituall understanding and affection with faith reverence love joy sincerity and thankfulnesse in thought word and life 4. In the fourth Commandement we are not only required to rest but to sanctifie a rest to Jehovah If then we find the Titles Properties Works of Jehovah given to Christ and his holy Spirit in the Old and New Testament we must conclude that Christ and his holy Spirit are to be worshipped in the same Ordinances with the same spirituall and divine worship which is due to God the Father The scope of Law and Gospell is to bring us unto God by the Mediation of Christ and assistance of the Spirit that we may rest upon Christ for justification walk and grow up in Christ in the progress of our sanctification for our everlasting satisfaction Our business therefore is to avoid those two dangerous Rocks upon which so many split and suffer shipwrack in this tempestuous age namely the Rock of neglecting duties in the course of our sanctification and the Rock of resting in Duties which overthrows our justification We must labour by all means appointed by God to gaine a spirituall Practicall experimentall knowledge of the love of Iesus Christ a knowledge which surpasses all intellectuall knowledge an affectionate knowledge which is felt in the heart but cannot be comprehended in the braine This is the right Evangelicall knowledge which prepares a man for spirituall and Evangelicall worship for heavenly Communion with Father Son and holy Ghost in all Gospell dispensations and Gospell-Conversation that he may come to be enriched with the unsearchable riches of Christ and filled with all the fulness of God For this Cause saith the Apostle and well he might I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ mark the strain it is purely Evangelicall that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit That Christ may dwell in your hearts Here are all the three co-essentiall Persons but how may this be obtained And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge to know it in my heart to beleeve it with my heart to feele it in my heart because the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the holy Spirit But what shall I gaine by this Why the Apostle goes on That ye may be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes. 3. 14 16 17 19. The great design of the Apostle was to be found in Christ having the righteousness which is of God through the faith of Christ without pleading his own righteousnesse which is of the Law for his justification And to have a Spirituall and Practicall knowledge of Christ grounded upon a deep and affectionate experience of the vertue of Christs Death and Resurrection in his own soule Phil. 3. 9 10. that he might be thereby encouraged and provoked to press forward in the course of Sanctification toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus v. 14. that his faith might act in all holy services Iustifying faith is the Principle of Evangelicall Worship and Gospell-conversation Grace be to you and peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from Iesus Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud And hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Rev. 1. 4 5 6. The hearts of true beleevers are golden vials full of odours and incense faith and love sincerity and zeale selfe-denyall and thankfulnesse humility and godly reverence and the beliefe of their redemption by the blood of Christ moves them to acknowledge the divine power of their Redeemer and to give him divine worship The Angles Elders People all joyne even ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands in this acknowledgement Worthy is the Lamb that was slaine to receive â—â—wer and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing glory honour and power be unto him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever And the foure beasts said Amen And the foure and twenty Elders fell down and worshipped him that liâ—eth for ever and ever Rev. 5. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. We must be brought to the knowledge and faith of the Son of God before ever we can be wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. Isa. 53. 11. Ioh. 3. 14 15. Gal. 2. 20. When once we come to beleeve the love of Christ then we love adore obey Father Son and holy Spirit after an Evangelical manner All the Fundamentall Articles of our faith have reference unto Christ as the Foundation because they are all such as concern his Father his Spirit his Incarnation Mediation or his Church and the benefits which the Church receives from him And in like manner all our worship is directed unto Father Son and Spirit as one God by the Mediation of Christ and assistance of thâ— Spirit Eph. 2. 18. 2 Cor. 13. 14. 1 Pet. 2. 5 1 Ioh. 1. 3 4. Ephes. 4. 15. It is our happiness our heaven upon earth to beleeve adore anâ— live to Father Son and holy Spirit by maintaining an holy Communion with all three aâ— one God and our God in the use of all Ordinances and Duties required of us This is the mystery of Godliness the Art of living unto God this is the Lesson which all Members of the Church universall must learne the foure beasts who joyne with Angels and Presbyters in adoring the Lamb are as
the Beasts mark they renounce the Dragon and his Angels all his pomps vanities worship and all the furniture of his worship all the errours and Idols of the false Prophets though they lose their trading the comforts of their life yea and life it selfe This is the Lambs mark 9. These Redeemed Virgins make a publike profession of their faith in and love to the Lamb and his Father they have the marke of both in their forehead and they cry aloud their voice is like the voice of Thunder Rev. 14 1 2. Rev. 5. 12. They are not ashamed or afraid to acknowledge Father Son and the holy Spirit the only and adequate object of divine Faith and Worship and the sole cause of Justification Sanctification Redemption Peace and Glory for all this is held forth to us clearly in this Book of the Revelation and there is a speciall blessing promised to such as read and heare the words of this Prophesie and keep those things which are written therein â—Rev 1. 3. And amongst other blessings they have the blessing of victory and triumph vouchsafed them they get victory over the Beast over his Image his Marke and the number of his Name Rev. 15. 2. They defie the Romane errours and Idols and are armed with faith and patience against this cruelty and Tyranny of Antichrist They cannot be enticed by any rewards seduced by any subtilties terrified by any threats to embrace any doctrine or forme of worship derogotary to the honour of the Father the Lamb or the holy Spirit for the Spirit doth in this Book teach the Churches to come in to Christ and defie the Beast and the Churches hearken to the Spirit as the Fountain of truth grace peace and glory This is the mystery of Gospel-worship we must beleeve love adore obey the Father the Lamb and the Spirit of Grace and Peace the Doctour and Comforter of all Christian Churches throughout all the foure quarters of the world East West North South that so the promise Isaiah 43. may be exactly fulfilled Rev. 7. 9 10. A great multitude an innumerable multitude of all Nations cry Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb. The Kingdoms of the World must become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. Rev 11. 15. And when the Divell and his Angels who deceive the World accuse the Brethren and blaspheme Christ are cast forth then there is a loud voice in Heaven Now is come Salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down c. Rev. 12. 9 10. In a word when the Redeemed Virgins and noble Conquerours come to sing their triumphant Song that Song doth contain the Scope of the Law and the substance of the Gospell for they are to sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. Rev. 15. 3. And they who sing are such as do keep the Commandements of God and the testimony of Iesus Rev. 12. 17. And the testimony of Jesus is the Testimony of the Spirit delivered in the Word to the Churches of Christ Rev. 2. 7 11. all three persons do deliver the same testimony 1 Ioh. 5. 7. but the Son and the Spirit do most eminently joyne in delivering their testimony Rev. 2. 11 18 29. Rev. 3. 1 6 7 13 14 21 22. Rev. 19. 10. The Spirit doth encourage them to beleeve his Testimony and follow the Lambe and the Martyrs are slaine for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held Rev. 6. 9. and they overcome by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony Rev. 12. 11. The testimony of the Spirit and the testimony of Iesus Rev. 12. 17. And when the Spirit hath encouraged them to love Christ better then their lives Rev. 12. 11. and they have overcome by the testimony of the Spirit and the bloud of the Lamb then the Spirit doth pronounce them blessed Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit Rev. 14. 13. The Church is begotten instructed perswaded governed upheld comforted by the holy Spirit as Babylon is the habitation of Devils and the hold of every foule spirit Rev 18. 2. It is the Spirit which wooes the Church and perswades her to be the wife of the Lambe and to make her selfe ready for the marriage And the Spirit and the Bride say come Rev 22. 17. And that we may look upon this whole Prophesie as comming from the Spirit as well as the Lamb the Angel assures us that the Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie Rev 19. 10. The love of the Father and the grace of the Lord Jesus is communicated to us by the holy Spirit and therefore although the grace of the Lord Iesus is alone expressed in the close of this Booke of the Revelation yet the love of the Father and Communion of the holy Spirit must needs be understood according to the Prayer in the beginning of the Book Rev. 1. 4 5. Grace c. 3. The Spirit is worshipped in this Book of the Revelation Grace be to you and peace from the seven Spirits Rev. 1. 4. It is not agreeable to the Christian faith to pray unto Angels and beg grace and peace of them They do not hold the Head who worship Angels Col. 2. 18 19. Angels are our fellow servants and do forbid us to give that worship to them which is due to God only and they refuse to be worshipped because it is contrary to the Testimony of Jesus Rev. 19. 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me see thou do it not I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Iesus worship God This is the testimony of Jesus Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4. 10. The Book of the Revelation doth containe divers cleare testimonies against worshipping of Angels I am of them saith the Angel that keep the saying of this Book worship God Rev. 22. 9. And therefore that place Rev. 1. 4. must needs be understood of the holy Spirit For God will not give his glory to another and good Angels will not take it from him but protest against this Will worship as Idolatry The Holy Ghost is called seven Spirits by an usuall Metalepsis of the effect for the cause he doth pour forth various gifts seven is a note of Perfection and the holy Spirit one and the same Spirit is given to all the seven Churches every Church hath so much of the holy Ghost as is necessary and it runs as if every one of the seven Churches had seven Spirits because every one hath enough of the Spirit for their Sanctification and Salvation The Apostle therefore begging
grace and peace from this Co-essentiall Trinunity the Father the seven Spirits and Iesus Christ doth sufficiently instruct us in this mystery of Evangelicall Worship Some object that then the Spirit will be set before the Son but the answer is easie that there is a Metathesis in the words and it is observable that the Son is sometimes named before the Father 2 Cor. 13. 14. and sometimes the Spirit is named before the Son as Rev. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1 2. and sometimes the naturall order is observed the Father is named first the Son second and the Holy Ghost third The naturall order is not overthrown when the Father is named after the Son or the Spirit before the Son Nor is the equality of Persons overthrown when the naturall order is observed And therefore that objection is not considerable Naturall worship is due to the Holy Ghost because he hath the same divine nature with the Father and the Son That divine Faith is due to the Spirit hath been proved at large That divine love is due to him is cleare Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit The Spirit is the Author and object of all those graces which are called divine ex parte objecti faith hope and love Rom. 15. 13 16 30. In a word Instituted Worship is due to the Holy Ghost by vertue of both Sacraments Mat. 28. 19. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Mat. 3. 11. Ioh. 5. 5. In hearing of the Word we must hearken to the Spirit with the self-same attention devotion as we do to the Father and the Son Heb. 3. 7 8. compared with Ps. 95. The holy Ghost forbids us to harden our hearts against himself speaking in the Word Acts 7. 51. We grieve the Spirit when we resist the Spirit and will not put our seale to the Word by a Spirituall assent and fiduciall consent and hinder the Spirit from sealing up our Election and Redemption to us For though Christ makes the Purchase yet the Spirit makes the assurance 1 Iohn 3. 24. Iohn 14. 16 17. Iohn 15. 26. In Prayer we are to call upon the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 13. 14. Rev. 1. 4. because the Holy Ghost is God 1 Cor. 12 6 11. Act. 5. 3 4. I cannot but wonder at them who say that holy and spirituall worship is not due to the holy Spirit when the truth is we can give no worship at all to the Father or the Son untill we are enabled by the holy Spirit Rom. 5. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 3. 2 Cor. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 13. 14. And when by the Communion of the Spirit we have Communion with the Father and Son in Gospell-worship we are the Temples not only of the Holy Ghost but of the Co-essentiall Trinunity of Father Son and Holy Ghost all three do dwell in us walk in us and abide in us For when we receive the Spirit of truth he abides with us dwels in us perswades and enables us to love God the Father and the Lord Jesus and then all three Co-essentiall Persons make their abode with us as is clearely held forth to us Ioh. 14. 16 17 23. 2 Cor. 6. 16 18. 1 Cor. 3. 16. Ephes. 3. 16 17. But if a man have not the Spirit of Christ he hath no saving interest as yet in Iesus Christ. Rom. 8. 9. because he is not as yet the Son of God by Regeneration or Adoption he is not a member of Jesus Christ he is not the Temple of the Holy Ghost He doth not worship this Co-essentiall Trinunity as he ought to do in Spirit and in truth He who hath the Spirit in him doth worship the Spirit in spirit and truth because the Spirit is the Power of the Highest even as Christ is the Son of the Highest a Personall Power Luk. 1. 32 35. compared The Spirit is the spirit of Elohim Gen. 1. 2. The Spirit of Iehova Isa. 11. 2. The God of Israel 2 Sam. 23. 2 3. The spirit of God and the spirit which is God 1 Cor. 2. 11. 12. Acts 5. 3 4. This point hath been sufficiently proved in the fourth Chapter and therefore I need say no more considering that the Socinians have no Arguments which are considerable when compared with these plaine places of the Holy Scriptures and those many places and proofes which have been formerly produced in this Treatise If any desire to have their Arguments such as they be answered at large he may read Mr. Estwicks learned Treatise concerning the Godhead of the Holy Ghost lately published I proceed to the third part of Godliness which is Obedience 3. Obedience is due to the Father Son and Holy Ghost all three Co-essentiall Persons because they are Co-essentiall because they are one God blessed for ever 1. Obedience is due to God the Father This truth is generally acknowledged by all that are not Atheists the Iews and Socinians subscribe to it If we do acknowledge God the Father to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in him the inference will be immediate cleare and strong that we ought to honour and obey our heavenly Father For how shall God put us among his Children unless every one of us say unto him my Father my Father I do obey thee and will not depart from thee But I said how shall I put thee among the Children and give thee a pleasant Land a goodly Heritage of the hosts of Nations And I said Thou shalt call me my Father and shalt not turne away from me Jer. 3. 19. And when God speaks to them as to Children they presently submit Return ye backsliding children And I will heale your backslidings they presently reply Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Ier. 3. 22. A Son honoureth his Father if then I be a Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. 6. Mal. 2. 16. Mat. 12. 50. Mat. 23. 9. When God is considered under this endearing relation of a Father we yeeld a filiall obedience unto God we performe a foederall obedience a sincere and Evangelicall obedience I saith Jehovah will be your God I will be your Father Having these Promises saith the Apostle let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the feare of God 2 Cor. 6. 16 18. 2 Cor. 71. 1 Pet. 1 14 17 18. As we are to worship God in this Fatherly relation Mat. 6. 9. Gal. 4. â— so are we to obey him also Whosoever shall do the will of my Father c. Mat. 12. 50. That all three Co-essentiall Persons are our Father hath been proved already in this very Chapter pag. 326 327. and that
God the Father is our Father in a peculiar consideration pag. 328. and therefore I need not insist longer upon this Point since the Scriptures are cleare so cleare that even very Cavillers confess this truth Christ himself as man obeyed the Father Iohn 4. 34. 2. God the Son is to be obeyed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare ye him Mat. 17. 5. Heare him beleeve him obey him the Godhead of Christ is the Formall reason of our Obedience but all his benefits are sweet encouragements to us to performe our duty Be obedient as children saith the Apostle and if ye call on the Father c. passe the time of your sojourning here in feare For as much as ye know ye were not redeemed but with the precious bloud of Christ. 1 Pet. 1. 14 17 18 19. Why do the Presbyters throw down their Crowns at the feet of Christ and fall down before the Lamb but to testifie their subjection and profess how ready they are to serve and obey Jesus Christ Rev. 4. 10 11. Rev. 5. 8. Christ is the Author of Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. The life of a Christian is a living unto Christ a life of faith love and obedience Gal. 2. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Phil. 1. 20 21. We are made new Creatures in Christ that we may performe new obedience to Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. He who serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Rom. 14. 18. We are under the Law to Christ. 1. Cor. 9. 21. All manner of obedience inward and outward is due unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Cursed is he that doth not prize and love Christ above all the Kingdoms of the World and glory of them above all the comforts of life and life it self 1 Cor. 16. 22. Luk. 14. 26 33. Mat. 13. 44 46. Phil. 3. 7 8 10. Col. 3. 23 24. Eph. 6. 6. 7. Eph. 5. 26 27. and Tit. 2. 14. compared together 3. God the holy Ghost is to be obeyed We are devoted to his service in Baptisme our bodies and soules are temples consecrated to his honour and service the Spirit doth conquer our carnall reason mortifie our corruptions and subdue our hearts unto the obedience of himself as well as to the obedience of the Father and the Lord Jesus We are debtors to the Spirit We are his Creatures The spirit of Elohim did forme and fashion the rude Mass out of which all things were made Gen. 1. 2. The renovation of all things by continued propagation is ascribed to the Spirit Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth Psal. 104. 30. Our soules are breathed into us by this Spirit of life Gen. 2. 7. Iob 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life The soule is enabled and adorned with all abilities by the Spirit that it may be qualified for all manner of service In respect of Counsell and Government Numb 11. 25. In respect of resolution and action Iudg. 14. 6. But that which is most endearing is that the Spirit is the Spirit of Conviction Regeneration Conversion Sanctification Edification and Consolation 1. Pet. 1. 2. 2 Thes. 2. 13. Gal. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 12. 8 9. The Spirit is the God of all comfort it is his speciall office to comfort mourners The Spirit fitted the man Christ to be our Mediatour as is most evident because 1. The Spirit formed the nature of man of the substance of the Virgin after an extraordinary manner Luk. 1. 35. compared with Gal. 4. 4. for the service of the Lord Christ. 2. He sanctified the humane Nature which Christ assumed after such a perfect manner that it was free from all sin in the very moment of conception Luke 1. 35. 3. He united this pure humane nature with the divine in the same Person the Person of the Son of God Luk. 1. 35. compared with Heb. 10. 5. a body hast thou fitted unto me by the holy Ghost Our Saviour was annointed with the Spirit above measure that he might be a fit head and Mediatour for us that we and his whole Church might receive of his fulnesse graces answerable to his graces Ioh. 1. 16. Ioh. 3. 34. Ioh. 1. 14. Isa. 61. 1. Psal. 45. 7. compared together Act. 10. 38. Luk. 2. 40 52. Mat. 3. 16 17. Ioh. 7. 39. If we consider how the Spirit hath manifested his divine power in garnishing heaven and earth Iob. 26. 13. in annointing Christ and Christians 1 Ioh. 2. 27. in ordering and regulating Church-affaires and enabling Ministers for all Church-service that the Elect might be gathered converted perefected saved by the efficacy of the Spirit in all Ministeriall Dispensations we shall see reason enough to acknowledge the divine power of the Spirit by all spirituall and heavenly obedience 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 8 9 11 13. Isa 6. 1. 9. Act 28 25. compared If we harden our hearts against the Precepts and Exhortations of the spirit speaking in the Word if we vexe grieve resist and quench the Spirit we are in a ready way to that black and unpardonable sin of doing despight to the Spirit of grace and therefore unlesse we meane to proceed to totall and finall disobedience it highly concerns us to obey the holy Spirit and answer the many cals and motions of the Spirit by sincere obedience that our effectuall Vocation may evidence our Election and the Spirit may seale us up unto the day of Redemption for the same spirit is the Spirit of Sanctification and Adoption the spirit of Revelation Mortification Vivification Consolation The Spirit quickens moves enables enclines perswades us to beleeve in Christ and to love one another to keep all the Commandements of God Now this spirit of faith love and obedience is the Spirit of Sanctification and if you find the spirit of sanctification in you be of good comfort though the spirit of Adoption seeme to withdraw yet he is certainly present nay is not idle or silent he speaks by his reall works and sweet fruits for the spirit of Sanctification is the spirit of Adoption it is one and the self-same spirit This is his Commandement That we should beleeve on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandement And he that keepeth his Commandements dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Ioh. 3. 23 24. And hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 Ioh. 4. 13. And therefore if there be a spirit of faith love and obedience in you rejoyce in it lift up your heart to God in thankfulness for it
Holy Ghost above a world is not as yet acquainted with the mystery of Faith or the Power of Godliness he hath neither Father Son nor Spirit in him CHAP. X. Christians who have a lively sense and sweet experience of this grand mystery of Faith and practicall mystery of Godliness are afraid to hold Communion with such as pretend to be Spirituall Christians and yet deny the divine Nature and distinct subsistences of Christ and his holy Spirit IT is observed by a great States man That he who follows Truth too neere at heeles may have his Teeth heat out but I had rather lose my teeth than not teach and profess the truth He who presses this point in this Licentious Age wherein Scepticks in the highest points are called Seekers and Hereticks good Christians had need beg the promise of the Father that he may be endued with vertue from on high that is a magnanimous and more then an Heroicall spirit to preach the truth We must not feare the face of man in the cause of God if the Devill might set up his Church in England wherein Heresie is instead of a Preacher profaneness and ungodliness instead of Ruling Elders yet I must be bold to say that these Seekers whom the Reformers called Libertines are as the Fathers called them but Nullifidians and Atheists professed Atheists for They are Atheists who will not beleeve and adore the only true God Father Son and holy Ghost and such are the Seekers whom I am to deale with who deny the Lord Christ to be God and I shall easily discover that this is Atheisme whether reigning Atheisme or no let the Socinian Seekers and Deifyed Atheists judge Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God he who abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son The second Epistle of Iohn the ninth verse Who is a lyar but he that denyeth that Iesus is the Christ He is Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father 1 Ioh. 2. 22 23 24. He who hath not the true God Father Son and holy Ghost for his God is an Atheist for if he do acknowledge a false God a false God being no God it must still bee granted that no man can bee excused from Atheisme by his acknowledgment or worship of any thing that is not God I speak of such speculative Atheisme as doth commonly run into practical Atheism and may consequently end in direct and down-right Atheisme or at least such affected Atheisme as will permit that Radicall and Seminall Atheisme which was borne with them to sit quietly in their hearts as on a Throne so that they have no actuall belief of the true God which doth amount to an historicall beliefe much lesse any that can effectually over-power or dethrone their natural Atheisme And yet I beleeve these Atheistical Libertines can never fully blot out all the natural notions of a Godhead written in their hearts by the finger of God though many of them have made a very unhappy progress in this devillish study for the devils themselves have not attained to any Atheistical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devils beleeve and tremble but enough of that the Socinians are Atheists Interpretativè at the least It is not enough for Christian Communicants to attaine to the first principle of natural Theology and confess that there is a God but they must acknowledge the first principle of Christianity which is indeed Supernatural Divinity and acknowledge that Father Son and holy Ghost are the only true God for else we go no farther then Pharaoh that grand Seeker did when he asked who is Iehovah that I should obey his voice Exo. 5. 2. or then the Samaritans and Athenians did who worshipped they knew not what Ioh. 4. 22. Act. 17. 23. The Turks the Pagans the Jews do acknowledge that there is a God unless then we do intend to hold Church-Communion with Pagans Jews Mahumetans we must require somewhat more of those whom we admit unto Christian Communion than a bare acknowledgment that there is a God or that the Father is God For he who doth deny the Godhead of the Son doth deny the Father also and consequently hath no God at all for his God as hath been proved already from the ninth verse of the second Epistle of Iohn and 1 Iohn 2. 22 23 24. He that honoureth not the Son as highly as he honoureth the Father he doth not honour the Father who sent his co-equall Son to give us life Ioh. 5. 21 23. We must acknowledge the Son to be equall to the Father for this redounds to the glory of God the Father Phi. 2. 6. 11. We can have no Christian and spiritual Communion with God the Father but in his natural Son and by their Coessential Spirit as is manifest by comparing these Texts together 1 Ioh. 1. 3. 1 Cor. 1. 9. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Rev. 1. 4 5. Mat. 28. 19 20. Ephes. 2. 18 22. 1 Cor. 12. 3 6 8 11 13. and by the full scope of all my practical Discourse in the ninth Chapter of this Treatise This is life eternal c. Iohn 1 7 3. 1 Iohn 5. 6 7 11 12 13 20. When Saint Paul doth enlarge the bounds of Christian Communion as far as he can he writes thus Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Cor. 1. 2. We cannot maintaine any Christian Communion with such as deny the Godhead of Christ for they must as Francis David and David George c. did deny that Christ is to be worshipped with divine faith and love because as they blaspemously said he hath not the same divine nature with God the Father or else they must say as Socinus who wrote against Francis David said that Christ is to be worshipped with divine worship and then they will if you put their principles together as you may see them together in that Racovian Alcoran the Racovian Catechisme be found to be even the very best o◠them but a pack of Blasphemous Idolaters With whom We ought not to hold Communion For whilst they do blasphemously affirme that Christ is a meere man in glory and the Son of God only in a metaphoricall not any proper sense We must draw these conclusions The best of the Socinians maintaine 1. That Jesus Christ our Lord is but a meere man in glory a very Creature and no more and therefore they are blasphemers and so are all they who say that they are as much God as Iesus Christ for these are high swelling blasphemies such as the Deified Atheists of the Family of love with whom I feare Mr. Fry hath had too
shew and the Toleration of Seducers made the world Antichristian as Mr. Cotton proves And how the Christian world hath been not onely shaken but even broken by the Arian and Eâ—tychian persecutions by the insurrection of the Macedonians in Greece and by the Antichristian warres and persecutions for many hundred years is evidently proved by sad and experimentall demonstrations When King James did tolerate Papists he did persecute Puritans as they then called men that were seriously and invincibly pious When Seducers get head they strengthen their party by force aswell as fraud and oppose such as dissent from their damnable errours as the Circumcellians did with Clubs and Swords or as Zedekiah did Micaiah with his fists Muncer Becold c. who were so tender and careful to preserve the Tares would not suffer the wheat to grow till harvest XII We must distinguish as judicious Davenant did between tolerable and intolerable errours simple and complicate errours as others speak There are corrigible and incorrigible Heretikes some Hereticks are but perverted and they are teachable others are subverted men that are smitten with a Spirit of Obstinacy impenitent and self-condemned men condemned Formally by their own conscience or Virtually by their proud and stubborn contempt of Christian admonition and their voluntary rejection of plaine truths that they may enjoy their beloved errours and their haereticall lusts men whose lives are as full of Atheisme as their assertions of blasphemy Seducing Heretikes who endeavour to thrust away others from the beliefe or worship of the only true God Father Son and Holy Ghost The Calvinists do not say that any one ought to be put to death for simple Heresie as the reverend and learned Professours of Leyden shew in their censure of the Arminian confession And on the otherside the Lutherans grant that seditious blasphemous seducing Heretikes Idolators and Apostates are when they grow incorrigible to be punished with death aswell as Sorcerers Traytours or Adulterers Let them name one of us saith Beza if they can who saith that all Heretikes ought to be put to death or that calls every one Heretike who dissents from him in some proâ—itable but not Fundamentall points Servetus saith Mr. Calvin might have saved his life if hee had been a modest Heretike Master Cotton approves the Decree of the Senate of Geneva for punishing of Servetus with death No judicious Protestant will affirme that errours are to be confuted with fire and faggot but with meeknesse of wisedome expressed in faithfull instructions and admonitions our reasons are spirituall and if the Magistrate draw the sword in Gods name it is not to punish simple errour but to smite some intolerable errour that is twisted and complicated with blasphemy Apostacy Obstinacy or some such sins as are eminent in Seducing Heretikes and destructive to the Soules Religion and Peace of Christians Some erroneous persons have the itch and some the plague some of them are melancholike and some of them are mad and mad men must be bound or at least not permitted to walk abroad without their keeper The itch and the plague are both infectious but they are not both alike dangerous and nothing is more clear in point of Civill-government then that Magistrates should not suffer any to go about with plague-sores running on them Seducing Apostates Blasphemous Heretikes and grosse Idolators do not only subvert Order and Peace but Faith Piety they infect nay poyson souls XIâ—I The glory of God the good of Soules the happinesse of Christian societies are irresistible Motives to quicken the Magistrate to act against such dangerous persons as we have described according to the law of judgement and their different demerits in Faith and Love 1. In Faith for the Christian Magistrate doth not act like himself if he doth not performe acts of Civill-justice in Faith And it is cleare that if there be no morall equity in any of the judiciall Lawes in the Old Testament and there are none at all extant in the New the Christian Magistrate cannot performe any act of Civill-justice in Faith But it is indeed too evident to be denyed that All divine lawes which concern the punishment of Morall transgressions are of perpetuall obligation and therefore still remaine in force according to their substance and generall equity abstracted from speciall circumstances Typicall Accessories and the old formes of Mosaicall Politie For 1. These divine Lawes are not expired in their own nature 2. They are not repealed by God 3. The authority of the Law-giver is the same under both Administrations old and new the consciences of Christians aswell as Jewes are subject to his soveraigne and perpetuall jurisdiction 4. The matter of the Lawes is Morall and very agreeable to the Dictates of nature as doth appeare by the severall Lawes and Decrees of Heathens Dan. 3. 29. Ezra 7. 23. 25 26 27. Ezra 10. 3. 5. 8. compared with Numb 15. 30 31. Levit. 24. 15 16. Deut. 13. 8 9. Zach. 13. 3 6. Seducing poysoning slaying of Soules is by the law of Nature and Nations the worst of injuries 5. The reason of these divine Lawes is immutable and that reason is sometimes expressed and declared But it is not necessary that there should be any expresse ratification of every Morall Law in the New Testament which is plainly delivered in the Old 6. These divine Lawes are Independent on the will of Man and therefore indispensable mans authority II. The Magistrate is to act in Christian Love and charity against these dangerous men It is mercy to drive away the wolfe and cruelty to spare him there must be so much Fatherly love shewen to the souls of Christians to the â—â—ttle flock as to preserve them from Wolves and Foxes Hee who loves Christ the Christian religion the souls and peace of Christians will not beare the sword in vaine his head heart hand bowels will keep time in working according to the written Rule XIV The Happinesse of Civill societies aswell as Church Assemblies doth much depend upon the punishing of Antichristian Heretikes seducing Apostates c. according to the nature and measure of their offences In all Civil States whose Acts are recorded in sacred or profane stories the Magistrates were to have a care not only of Justice Honesty but of that Religion also which they estemed divine for the good happinesse of their Civil state though it is no wonder if the Heathens did misapply this zealous instinct of nature to the maintenance of Superstition and Idolatry of a false Religion and false Gods Socrates Theodorus and Protagoras famous Philosophers were all three condemned at Athens by the Law against Irreligion But let us look into Christian states When the means of Instruction and Reformation have been vouchsafed to a people that are in Covenant with God and they corrupt the truth and worship of God the Lord doeth not onely punish degenerate Churches but even