blessed Perfections For God subsists in vital Agency conceiving his own Nature as God is really true he does also really subsist by being so conceived God absolutely wills the Being of his own Nature and as God is really holy he does also really subsist by being so willed He that denies this denies in Reason the Being of the Supream Spirit he that confesses it confesses Three real Subsistences of the Most High Being God says of himself I am that I am and conformably we may say he is Existence in a Subsistence and he is no less so in real Truth and he is no less so in real Holiness And when we have said this we may perceive we have said at once that he is the Supream Spirit and that he subsists in a Trinity of real Subsistences if we do but observe that there is no Truth but what subsists in a Mind the Truth of a notion in a notional Subsistence and the Truth of a thing in a real Subsistence and that there is no Holiness but what subsists in a Will If therefore we do not disbelieve God's real Truth and Holiness traducing thereby his great and terrible Name Jehovah we are in reason to confess the ever Blessed Trinity CHAP. VI. The Natural and Moral Consequenâ—â— 1. BEfore we proceed to the Scripture Evidence we may observe First some Natural Secondly some Moral Consequents reserving the Practical to the close of all In deducing the preceeding account of the Trinity I oft used the terms because and consequently which are to be understood as causal or consequential in arguing not in the reason of the Existence For we having in our Mind a prior Evidence of one Divine Perfection or Subsistence do thereby discern that this perfection or subsistence is of such a Condition that it does not subsist without another but in the Divine Nature or its Subsistences There is no Cause or Consequent there being nothing in God before or after either in causation or in time But we perceive the Divine Mind doth not substantially subsist conceiving the Divine Nature if the Divine Nature doth not also substantially subsist in conceptu And the Divine Nature being spiritual doth not in its two first subsistences will its own real subsistence if it does not also really and substantially subsist being willed by an Almighty volition By this whole process therefore we are to understand that the Divine Nature is such that according to its condition it does subsist in Trinity but the cause of its doing so is not assigned only the cause of our apprehending it From hence we see that the three real subsistences being natural in the Deity since the Deity is Eternal the Nature and all its three real subsistences are therefore coeternal As we would say whether matter be Temporary or Eternal its subsistence and its three dimensions are all Contemporary or Coeternal 2. By the like reason we see there are no more than three distinct real subsistences of the Deity For since the supream life light and benevolence or the supream life mind and will do compleat or are the intire spiritual nature there are neither fewer nor more subsistences than agree to the reason of such a nature And as that has appeared to be no less than three so we find no more belong to such a being About thirty years ago came forth a Pamphlet of the Origenian Doctrine which as I remember was to this effect The super-abundant fulness of Being in the Deity did represent it self in a second subsistence which though somewhat rebated in its perfections was yet nevertheless really Divine and so proceeded to a third which was inferiour to the second but yet truly Divine likewise and then the Divine faecundity being so far exhausted that there could be no more Beings truly Divine what was made afterwards was Created Celestial Spirits and the Souls of the World and then Matter a substance wholly passive and then what was not wholly substance such as material forms which some account evanid substances others moods and accidents of matter and so being quite effected it ceased But this should not have been given us as the Origenian nor yet as the Genuine Platonick Doctrine of the Trinity if we may believe the Factors of that Philosophy for that they say was nearer the truth if not the very truth whence soever its Heathen Author came by it But whether Plato receiv'd it from the Jews who in his time and before had their Synagogues for Worship in Greece or from others that learned it from them or from some Ancient Tradition or from the reason of the thing which I have shewed to be practicable we are no ways concerned to know But it is true this Scheme was consonant to the opinion of the later Platonists and from some such invented model of old the Arrian Heresie seems to have had its rise some few Texts of Scripture being pressed by force to serve the Hypothesis For this whole draught is meer presumption and arbitrary fiction which though it be laden with a thousand absurdities yet has no ground to support it but the pretty fancy of a gradation whereby they would avoid what they account the too great distance betwixt the Divine Nature and the Created But since God is infinitely Blessed over all there will be an infinite distance betwixt the perfections of his Nature and those of all Natures not infinite So that this is a Fabrick erected without any Foundation and would not answer the use it was designed for though it had been never so well supported Such finenesses may indeed serve to entertain the leisure of a Reader but every considerative Man frames the Counsels of his Life upon the solid Evidence of Nature and not on the concinnity of a pickquaint Wit And to speak a sad truth the licentiousness of Hypothesis-Makers hath done unspeakable mischief to the present Age that is of it self but too much addicted to the gaity of Romantick Conceits But for what concerns the Divine Being in this devised Scheme we may observe that it is plainly frivolous for should the reason why the prime spiritual Nature does subsist in no more than three representations be as he says it is because the faecundity of the Divine Being was exhausted so far that it could yield no more afterward with the like reason we are to affirm that God made Matter which is the prime Corporeal Nature to subsist only in three dimensions for this very Reason even because there was not stuff enough in it to replenish four dimensions or more But as we see well enough that the too great consumption of matter is not the reason why it subsists only in three dimensions but because the Corporeal Nature is perfectly compleat in these three and an extended substance is uncapable of more In like manner we learn that the Deity exists in no more than three subsistences not for lack of any suffiâ—iency for then he is not the Supream Being but because
confirmed in the Scripture where we read of a Wisdom Subsisting with God which was brought forth conceiv'd or begotten from Everlasting brought forth before the Depths the Hills or ever the Earth was and such the Second Person of the Deity in Reason is for ever for in him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom 5. This Second Person being Divinus Conceptus Chap. 10.15 is not the Image of the Divine Nature for he is the very Divine Nature Subsisting really in this Personal Subsistence and in him the first Subsistence does really Subsist but in the Reverse or Antitype as it were this Nature dictates Chap. 4.7 Chap. 6.8 Therefore though the Son be not the express Image of the Divine Nature yet he is according to the Reason of the thing and of the Holy Language as we find Heb. 1.3 the express Image of God the Father which being so critically expressed by that Divine and Accurate Author do's manifestly point out to us the very Account which from Nature I have offered of the Subsistence of the Second Person For indeed all these Scriptural Characters are so agreeable to the reason of the thing that they leave us no rational doubt in this matter 7. The third Subsistence of the Deity is by volition and volition is the agency of the Spirit of the Divine Mind this was proved by Reason ch 5.20 ch 6.11 and this is attested by the Scriptures as often as they style the Third Person the Spirit of God or emphatically the Spirit which is so frequently that I need not hint the places This Person proceeds and is not begotten as appears by the reason of the Divine Nature cap. 5.21 accordingly the Scripture no where says the Spirit is begotten but that it proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of the Son and sent by the Son The Nature of the Deity taught there is one and but one substantial subsistence of the Godhead by procession ch 5.22 the Divine Oracles confirm this for there is one Body and one Spirit even one and the self same Spirit This Spirit creates according to the condition of its subsistence in Nature cap. 5.23 which we also learn Psal 33 6. where all the Host of Heaven and Earth are Created by this Divine Breath This Person is a real distinct subsistence by it self of the Divine Nature cap. 5.24 and the Scripture teaches he is not the Father being sent by the Father nor the Son being sent by the Son And whilst this Spirit like a Dove did alight upon Jesus at his Baptism the Father at the same time by an audible voice from Heaven did own him for his well-beloved Son and the Son declares that the Spirit is another from himself and as Nature ch 5.25 so the Scripture teaches he is the third in order by the Ordinance of Baptism in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We learn from Nature that the Spirit is God ch 5.27 which is averr'd by the Scripture teaching us that lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God and ascribing such perfections to this same Spirit as are incommunicable to any other Nature But let us proceed to the other Scriptural properties of this Spirit which we may observe to have a singular Congruousness with the natural Condition of this third Divine Person For since the third Person subsists by the Almighty Volition of the Divine Spirit c. 5.20 According to the Reason of the thing and of the Sacred Language it will exegetically be called the Power of the Most High and the Finger of God as it is Luke 1.35 c. 11.20 and because it subsists in the Divine Benevolence ch 5.19 with some peculiar attribution will this be styled the Good Spirit as Nehemiah 9.20 Thou gavest them thy Good Spirit Psal 143.10 Thy Spirit is Good and this Spirit of the Lord accordingly is directly opposed to the Evil Spirit and the prime Communication of this Spirit will be Love to all the World of Spirits because Moral Truth consists in the constancy of the Will c. 5.21 therefore this is the Spirit of Truth in the Moral sense as the Scripture often teaches which is an eminent vertue in a Witness or a Friend But above all we are to mark that according to the Nature and Reason of the thing this Person subsists in the Eternal Unchanged Holiness of the Divine good-will ch 6.5 because the Most Famous Character which the Scripture gives of this Person is that of the Holy Ghost So punctually doth the Testimony of the Scripture agree with the Doctrine of Nature 8. From the Natural Condition of the Three Persons the Consequents were that they are Coeternal Three in Number Coequal each intirely God inseparable self-subsistent and mutually inexistent and one Principle only In confirmation of all this the Scripture teaches the Father is God from Everlasting to Everlasting that the Son is set up from Everlasting whose goings forth are from Everlasting that he indures and his years have no end that the Spirit is the Eternal Spirit It likewise teaches us there are three but no more and in the same order as Nature doth the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And again the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost one of these Three accounts it no Robbery to be equal with another asserting all to be his which the other hath that he was with the other and in the beginning with the other that he is not alone but the other is with him yea one mutually inexistent in the other I in thee and thou in me and as the one hath life in himself so the other hath life in himself 9. Nature Scripture then we have seen do both teach each of these three Persons is God and yet notwithstanding Nature assures us that there is not therefore three but only one God as is taught ch 5.26 and the Scripture every where confirms this Natural Dictate assuring us that there is but one God Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I am and there is no God besides me There is but one Uncreated Self-sufficient Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible One Supream in Glorious Majesty according to the Evidence given by Reason ch 6.9 Now though the Scripture as has been shew'd does attribute the perfections of the Divine Nature to every one of these Persons as well as reason did yet no where doth it speak of more Eternals more Almighties more All-sufficients then one only And there being in Nature but one energy upon the Creatures abroad ch 6.10 the Scripture concurs herewith teaching there is but one Creatour one Saviour one Sanctifier one King one Law-giver one Judge one Lord one Adorable Being or Object of Religious Worship and one Majesty According to the voice of Nature Truth and Moral goodness have a substantial subsistence in God ch 6.11 12. this is asserted by the Scripture as often as it says God is Light or God is Love That the Spirit of God is free
import their constitution in the Sacerdotal State of the Universe But I must here lay no stress upon this lest I beg a Principle of those that will not grant it I note it however for the sake of them which know the Truth that they may discern the whole of what I include in the compleat notion of a Christian Mystery 2. Nature instructs us in the knowledge of Gods Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.32 and of his Providence and Righteous Judgment and likewise teaches that his Subsistence is such as belongs Naturally to the Supream Self-Originate Spirit what that is I have shewed above But that God is Incarnate that he now Governs the World in Humane Nature and will Judge the World in the man Christ Jesus is not to be learned from Natural John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Acts 17 31. but only from Supernatural Revelation Nothing then that depends upon these as all Religious Mysteries now do can be proved otherwise than from the Scriptures 3. From the Natural Reason of the thing we have therefore no evidence to assert that Christ is God Mark 1.1 Joh. 20.13 but there is nothing that the Gospel makes more certain then that Christ is the Son the only Son the only begotten Son of God this being the grand assertion of the New Testament And this being made certain to us by the Gospel the former discourse whereby we naturally learn there is one only Son of God does assure us that whoever or whatever Christ is Cap. 5. though he be even a man he is himself really and truly God and yet not God the Father nor the Holy Ghost This is all that our present undertaking obliges us to say in demonstration of our Saviours Divinity 4. But that I may not wholly baulk the expectation of the Reader I shall annex the sum of a large Scriptural evidence made ready to our hands as I find it recapitulated by the excellent Dr. III. Serm. of the Trinity P. 86 Wallis after a particular inforcement of it He therefore who is as Christ has been shewed from the Scriptures to be God the true God the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Eternal God the First and the Last before whom nothing was and after whom nothing shall be That Was and Is and Shall be the same Yesterday and to Day and for Ever the Almighty by whom the World was Made by whom all things were Made and without whom nothing was Made that was Made who Laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of his hands who when the Heavens and the Earth shall fail His Years endure for Ever who searcheth the Hearts and the Reins to give to every one according to his Works who is Jehovah the Lord God of Israel the Supream Being who is over all God blessed for Ever who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen That God says he of whom all these things are said is certainly not a meer Titular God who is called God but is not a Creature God or only a Dignified Man for if these be not Characters of the True God by what Characters shall the True God be described 5. We are now to observe how the Natural Doctrine of the former Discourse does correspond with all these viz. That Christ is Man and is the Son of God is God but not the Father nor the Holy Ghost First then Of the Humanity of Christ about which more anon we must remember that there is no Created Nature Cap. 5.5 Cap. 5.10 but has its Being wholly by being Conceived in the Divine Mind therefore Christs Humanity is a Nature Subsisting by being Conceived by God 2. The Divine Nature in its second Subsistence is the only begotten Son of God as being God Conceived therefore Jesus Christ being the Son of God is God conceived and being but one and yet Man he is God conceived one with Man or he is God conceived and Man conceived in Unity by the Divine Conception and therefore by vertue of the Divine Essential Truth God conceived one with Man is thereby really one with Man Thus Christ abideth ever God and Man in one Cap. 5.5 6. But because it is God conceived that is thus one with Man therefore it is neither God the Father or the Holy Ghost that is one with Man For God Conceived or Begotten is the Deity in its second subsistence Christ therefore is the Son of God even of the Father and from him and the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost 7. Since Unity hath several significations it will be impossible in some sense for God in any subsistence to be one with Man therefore we must observe that God the Son being Eternally God conceived is Eternally God and Eternally conceived he therefore is not changed in his nature nor subsistence which being still the same he ceases not to be God nor the Son of God by becoming Man And we may say more generally he ceases not to be what he ever had been but begins to be what before he was not There is therefore neither a Conversion of the Godhead changing it from a Divine into a Humane Nature nor yet a confusion whereby upon the union of the two Natures there results a third which is neither of the two as when a blew thread is dipt into a yellow Vat there comes out a third colour which is neither blew nor yellow but green so that the Properties Natural and Personal of the Son of God remain the same unvaried by this Union 8. Jesus Christ being one who is God conceived and Man conceived in the unity of the Divine Conception he is the Son of God both in his Divine and Humane Nature This subsistence therefore of the Son of God in Union with Man is Mystical in the full and adequate notion of Mysticalness for the Divine Nature might have been and have governed the whole Creation Cap. 10.1 though in no one of its Personal subsistences it had been one with Man Jesus Christ therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity hath in him a Mystical subsistence of God and Man become one and therefore is a Mystical Divine Person 9. And because this Mystical Union was effected by the unity of the Divine Conception therefore God conceiving the Divine and Humane Nature is one Rom. 15. in as such the God and Father of Jesus Christ and therefore is as such the Divine Nature in its first subsistence become Mystical 10. And the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son in this their Mystical subsistence being as such the Spirit of the Father of Jesus 1 Cor. 2.12 and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus is the Divine Nature as such in its third subsistence hereby become Mystical Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.6 Phil. 1.19 Cap. 10.1 So that
God in the three subsistences of the Divine Nature upon our Saviours Incarnation is become Mystical 11. Now it is this Mystical Trinity that the Gospel teaches Indeed whilst the Scriptures deliver the Doctrine of the Mystical Trinity they do as I have said insinuate the state of the natural Trinity but so they instruct us in almost all things in Nature whilst they teach us their relation to the Mystical and Sacerdotal state of the Divine Kingdom On the other hand we see the knowledge of the Natural Trinity which we learn from the perfections of the Divine Nature does so lead us to the Faith of the Mystical as to leave that Christian Mystery to be wholly of supernatural Revelation For the Mystery I say the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity rests wholly upon the ground and pillar of Truth which is confessed to be the great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh so that our Faith of this Mystery it is plain stands not in the Wisdom or Reasonings of Men but in the veracity of Gods word This is sufficient to justifie the distinction which I make betwixt the Mystical and Natural Trinity for this is but analogous with the reason of that difference which is betwixt Christian and Natural Vertue for though the Natural form of vertue may be understood by Natural Light yet the Christian form cannot which includes all the Vertuousness of the Natural and somewhat more which is likewise praise-worthy CAP. XI Of Christs Humanity 1. WE must confess if Christs humanity had been wholly Created anew by its being conceived one with the word it would then have been nothing of kin either with Man or with any other thing in the World Whereas we are assured he that is the word came into that World which had been made by him John 1.10 1 Joh. 4.17 and we are in this World even as he was in this World his Humane Nature was not therefore strictly Created but made of some substance preexistent in the World 2. Neither was his Manhood made out of any thing that is not of humane race for then he had had no more cognation with that Mankind that is in the World then with any other parts of this mundane System but we are taught Heb. 2.14 that because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same he has therefore a prime relation to us and as such Heb 3.11 he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren 3. If Christs Humane Nature then be made out of that one blood whereof are all the Nations of men he is the Son of man and is made so of God by Nature and therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.5 as the Author of Nature produced this Manhood 4. But tho it be God that does produce this Human Nature yet if he do it by the sole powers of Natural Ordination according to the Laws establish'd before in the World for the Production of Mankind he will not thereby carry off any corrupt or inordinate sensuality which passes according to course in the natural constitution of things and tho we should suppose that the Personality of this individual Manhood is not subsistent because of the personal Union with the Divine Logos yet that of it self changes not this Human Nature in its dispositions and therefore this Nature would indeed be like ours in its Causes and Constitution but it would be too like us because it would not be undefiled Whereas we know this Nature was Holy and Harmless and Undefiled Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 1.19 that it might be offered without spot to God as a Lamb without blemish and without spot It was not therefore solely produced by the powers of Nature 5. If the Manhood wherewith God is one be produced by the Powers of Nature so far as they will reach with rectitude and by Divine Power superadded to supply what is defective then this Manhood hath all that is really and essentially natural to us and so is related naturally to us and the supernatural Divine Operation takes away all the depravation of Nature Whereby it comes to pass that though he was in all things to be like unto us that he might have the feeling of our Infirmities and Temptations Heb. 2.17 Heb. 4.15 Heb. 7.27 28. yet he had no sin at all for our High-Priest can have no Infirmities or Sins of his own to offer for according to the fundamental constitution of the Divine Kingdom though Moses his Law allowed sinful Men to be Priests and to offer first for themselves and then for the People 6. Wherefore God in framing the humanity of Christ did continue the powers of Nature to work by their own stated Rules and without exalting them by a supernatural efficiency added thereto did produce an effect in the world which is beyond the force of Natural Powers Now all such effects as are produced by the force of Natural Powers and Divine energy added thereto are ever in Scripture peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.4 Thus when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters or liquid such effects followed as the powers of water are naturally uncapable of producing So both Jesus his and his Disciples miraculous operations upon the powers of Nature and all supernatural Graces are peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost for all these diversities of Operations worketh one and the same Holy Spirit by the personal disposition of his own Will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. 7. This Manhood become one with the Son of God is peculiarly therefore the work of the Holy Ghost and because it was effected by the Holy Ghost coming upon a Woman and the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was born of her Luk. 1.35 Mat. 1.20 therefore this is a Child conceived by the Holy Ghost and has that Woman for its Mother 8. It is also the Child of Adam Luk. 3.38 Gen. 3.20 Mat. 1. and of Eve the Mother of all Living and of Noah And if God had said that it should be by the descent of any particular Line as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah Jesse David it will be the Child of these Progenitours and such Predictions and Promises are Divine Characteristicks of the individual Person of Gods Son become Man both to the Ages preceding and following his Birth 9. The depravation of our Nature being removed not by the natural efficacy but supernatural efficiency of the Holy Ghost there will be no more reason to assert this Woman to have been her self born without all inordinate sensuality because she was the Mother of this Child than to affirm the same of all his Pro-parents in the direct Line up to Adam 10. But whether she is to be called the Mother of God is a question of names and strife of words for as much as there is a sense wherein she is and another wherein she is not therefore
all the most absolute perfections of being in Substantial Subsistence but likewise out of pity to the pressing necessity of Mankind because it was necessary and seasonable wholesome and profitable to Men to save their Souls from the Deceits of this present World 2. Atheism and Polytheism being provided against by the two former forms of Covenant it appears if men be not Psychical or Epicurean Divines in consequence of their own opinions they are to acknowledge the truth of the Natural Trinity So that Deists Jews Mahometans and all Genuine Philosophers will joyn with the Trinitarians when they please to reason warily upon their own Principles which when they do it may somewhat dispose them to a better opinion of Christianity if they please to remember that this sublime Doctrine was the institution of the Holy Fishers and withal take notice that they had been with Jesus CHAP. XIV Of the Christian form of Baptism 1. HAD Christianity been nothing else but Natural Religion yet this account might have been given why we should have made a formal recognition of the Blessed Trinity at our foederal initiation into it but because our Religion is a Mystery of Godliness and Baptism a Mystical Rite of that Religion we are further to observe that God having given us as far as is possible an ocular demonstration of the Trinity by sending the Son and the Spirit visibly into the World Cap. 10.8 our Saviour Jesus Christ being the second Person in the Mystical Trinity and in that state commanding all Mankind to be Baptized in the Name of his Father Himself and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. his and his Fathers Spirit it is plain by this Command he obliges all formally and primarily into the confession of the Christian Mystical Trinity but noâ— of the Natural Trinity saving as in consequence thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 and because Baptism does now save us upon this Recognition heartily made the acknowledgment of this Mystical Trinity by this institution of Christ is become necessary that we may be instated with the peace of God in the Rights of the Divine Kingdom 2. This is evident from the very foundation of the Christian Religion which is that Jesus is the Christ for he that believes that Jesus is not the Christ is lost beyond all Redemption 1 Cor. 3.11 but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ believes that Jesus Christ is one and the same Person And he that believes that Jesus the Son of Man is Christ the Son of God does believe that the Son of Man and the Son of God is one and the same Person and because this Jesus is so the Son of Man as to be himself Man and this Christ so the Son of God as to be himself God therefore God and Man is one and the same Person even Jesus Christ And because this same Person that is God and Man is so God as to be the Son of God therefore there is another Person beside even his Father that is God In the confession of Jesus to be the Christ Cap 1â— 8 9. there is included then the acknowledgement of two Personal Subsistences of the Godhead and because the one of these is in Personal Union with Man therefore both he himself and his Father are Persons of the Mystical Trinity 3. But because God and Man was not always united in one Person it is to be considered by what Power this Union was effected If he that is to be Baptized knows not he is first to be instructed before he may be Baptized yea though he hath had some initiative engagement to believe in Jesus he is to be taught and baptized again as the case of those Ephesians shews Asts 19. But should the person demanding Baptism be so profligate an admirer of the power of darkness as to aver that the Infernal Powers did unite the Godhead into this personal Union with Man and then Inaugurate this Person into his Office by a visible descent upon him and authorize him to teach the Doctrine which he taught and impower him to work Miracles for its confirmation and afterwards in ostentation of his power over God and Man first ignominiously put him to death and then raise him from the dead c. this heighth of flagitious obloquy and horrid blasphemy being never to be forgiven he is never to be baptized but utterly rejected as an eternally unpardonable Reprobate But if the Union of God and Man in one Person be acknowledged to be effected by the Divine Power Cap. 11 6. Câ—p. 1â— 10 then the Holy Ghost which is the Divine Power thus operating is the Spirit of the Father of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and consequently is a Mystical Person of the Blessed Trinity Therefore our Confession of Jesus to be the Christ does contain in it the acknowledgment of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity And this is the Faith which the Church in all Ages is to contend for into which it is to baptize all its visible Members and to explicate in its Symbols or Creeds For the shortest abridgment or foundation of the Christian Faith is Jesus is the Christ The next is the Mystery of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Baptismal Stipulation and the next the Creeds 4. The practice of this Faith is briefly deduced thus Since the natural Trinity is become Mystical by the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God Cap. 10. Cap. 12. and thereupon the Universal Kingdom of God is put under the government of God in that Mystical state of the Divine Nature wherein as such God the Son made Man is the first in the Address the same honour therefore belongs to the Son as to the Father And in the retrospect since Christ says that the Father hath totally committed the government of the Divine Kingdom to the Son John 5. John 5.22 23. and that because he is the Son of Man that is the word made flesh and thereupon all are to honour the Son even as they honour the Father and that he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father this duty supposes the belief of the Mystical Trinity as that belief inferred this duty For we cannot understand how to go about the discharging this duty unless we believe the Father and the Son either to be two several equal Gods or being they are two different Persons to be each equally one and the same God For to honour one Person in my heart as I honour another whose personal perfections at the same time I believe to be inferiour to the others is such a thought as no Mans Mind can think though â—e would never so fain But every one honours the Son as he honours the Father who believes that the Father is God and that the Son is the same God conceived and with infinite truth and reality living and subsisting himself in that conception and that
AN ACCOUNT OF THE Blessed Trinity Argued from the Nature and Perfection of the Supream Spirit Coincident with the Scripture Doctrine in all the Articles of the Catholick Creeds Together with its 1 Mystical Uses 2 Foederal Uses 3 Practical Uses In the Christian RELIGION By William Burrough Rector of Chynes in Bucks LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane near the Oxford-Arms-Inn 1694. THE PREFACE IT passes at this day without any hesitancy amongst the Socinians that the Trinity is contrary to reason and it is likely it did so at the very first and so past them too hastily and before they had sufficiently examined the differences of things For upâ—n a more distinct observance of the Scale of Beings I suppose it may appear that though a Trinity of Real Hypostasies either in a single corporeal substance or even in any nature not absolutely perfect be contradictory to the reason of the thing yet it is evident by all our natural notices from internal sense that a Spirit besides its first subsistence hath also two other answerable to the utmost ability of its own Ingeny and therefore in reason we must grant that in the Spirit whose ability is All-sufficiency these its two other subsistencies are really equal in perfection with its first and consequently according to our humane conceptions of a Spirit and its perfections the denial of the Trinity includes in it the denial of the Spirituality or of the absolute perfection of the Deity both of which appear to be contradictory as well to Reason as the Scripture The Three therefore in Scripture and the Trinity in the Catholick Church is of the same significancy with a Spirit of absolute perfection in the Schools of Philosophy but in a stile of more adorable Majesty presenting to us the absoluteness of the perfection to be in a substantial subsistence To this purpose it is observable that our Saviour who came to require from all Men the service of the Supream Being under the express notion of a Spirit without respect to place the peculiar property of Bodies does not only represent him under the Title of the Father in spirit and in truth which in the reason of the thing are our prime notices of the One in Three but likewise appoints to all Nations a solemn recognition of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which in Nature are the proper formal Characters of the Three Persons in that Holy One and without this recognition first made no one is to be admitted into the service of that Soveraign Lord. If these things may appear as I here suppose it will also appear that we are to confess a Trinity in Vnity both as Men and as Christians and consequently they are extreamly injurious who reproach the Being of the God which the Christian Church does Worship as contradictions and absurd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if that most Blessed of all Beings was not to be endured either in Mens Hearts or in the World and that for no other reason but because the Church conform to our Lords institution confesses God to be what he could not be unless he be the most absolutely Blessed 1. The Natural Evidence of the Trinity as well as of the Creation being grounded upon Gods being a Spirit I have shewed that God is known to be so by the same Evidence by which we have the Natural Knowledge of his Existence I confess this would have deserved a larger account than I have bestowed upon it but all Christians confessing God to be a Spirit and my Circumstances not allowing a large account of the Spiritual Nature I hope by this contracted one the intelligent Reader will pâ—rceive from a joynt Evidence in Nature and Scripture that the Supream Spirit is one God Infinitely One and Three Persons Infinitely Three no whit the less one God for being Three Persons no whit the less Three Persons for being only one God Now in this Doctrine not only the Faith of the Church is exactly delivered and the pretensions of the most rigorous Trinitarians satisfied but even what the several opposite parties are concerned for is as fully secured to them as in their own divided ways The Scripture plainly teaches there is one God and yet as expresly attributes Titles and Prerogatives Divine to more Persons than one Hereupon some to preserve the unity of the Deity intire and others to assert the Persons really distinct by mis-apprehension of the one have been necessitated to deny or evacuate the other Now these denyals and elusions were not their choice â—ut of affection to them but unwelcome consequents which they would have avoided had they seen how without rejecting that truth on the other side which they were concerned for for can any one think that the Sabellians had any kindness for the synonimousness of three Names which the Scripture speaks of as so distinct farther than they thought it needful to the compleat unity of the Deity Can we believe the Tritheists if any such there ever were would please themselves with the notion of three numerical and one only specifical God Or the Arians have pleaded there were Gods of several sorts one of a Nature of Supream Divinity and another or two of a Nature of inferiour Divinity Or the Socinians have imagined there was one God only in Nature and two in the Christian Religion but that they found a necessity from the Scripture to acknowledge more persons Divine than one and so they invented these divers conceits to salve the Doctrine of the Divine Vnity For I understand not that any Christian Professor can be delighted in the Worship of more Gods than one whether they be of the same or of a different Nature From which hard Sayings the present Doctrine delivers them and yet intirely secures the Truth for which they contend in their several Hypothesies Shewing how the one God is no less one God for being three Persons and the three Persons no less three Persons for being but one God It may seem indeed the Arians did first resolve upon the different natural excellencies of the Father and the Son and thereby were forced to deny the Being of one God in three Persons but that they asserted both these to be of a Divine Nature was by a manifest force upon them Which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Socinianism is more uncertain whether they denied our Saviours Divine Nature that they might deny the Trinity or denyed the Trinity for the maintaining their denial of our Saviours Divinity That is to say whether they first thought that God had no Son by Nature and thence concluded he made another the Heir of his House or else that he had made another the Heir of his Family therefore surely he had no Son of his own by Nature For it would not agree with the Scripture or the reason they pretend to to think he set aside his own Son and gave the Honour to another to be Lord of Heaven
that in despite of all the Wickedness and Folly that can enter into Mortals God will have this Testimony for himself inviolably Sacred and fixed in their Hearts by the help whereof they may when they like to think soberly come to the knowledge of the Truth 7. When we perceive that things Subsist in the World we do not only perceive that such their subsistence does differ from Non-existence but likewise from that Subsistence which they have by being conceived in our Mind For we are assured that they Subsist in the World when they are not in our Thoughts as well as when they are and we can think of things that Subsist not at all in the World as well as of those that do Since then these two Subsistences do thus differ we may term the Subsistence which things have in the World their real Subsistence and that which they have in our Mind their notional Subsistence which is not therefore really no Subsistence of the thing at all but is not that real Subsistence whereby the thing is what it is in the World Our Conception therefore of things Subsistent in the World gives them another distinct Subsistence such as it is in our Minds But we must observe farther that because in this case it is the very thing and its Subsistence in the World that the Mind conceives therefore that thing and its Subsistence which is real in the World do both notionally subsist in one Conception I say the thing and its real Subsistence in the World do both subsist notionally in our Mind Here then are two distinct Subsistences of the same thing which do differ not only in number but in their condition or kind Hence it follows 8. Because matter and its qualities hath no power to conceive its own Subsistence therefore it can have in it self only one of these Subsistences which is the real When I actually conceive in my Mind the visible World or any part of it I perceive that it hath a Subsistence in Nature which is its real Subsistence and a second in the conception of my Mind which is its notional Subsistence so that the visible World and every piece of it hath only one real Subsistence but then the World and its real subsistence hath as many notitional subsistences as there are Souls actually thinking of it 9. When my Mind does actually form a Conception of its own being then does my Mind actually subsist in its self in two distinct subsistences the one real and the other notional but when my Mind does not actually conceive its own being as we know the Mind does not when it is wholly taken up with the Thoughts of other things it has for that time one one subsistence in it self the really but not the notional 10. Supposing then a Mind that without any diversion does always actually conceive its own real subsistence it is evident that such a Mind hath perpetually two subsistences in it self the first in order is its real subsistence and the second that in the Conception Now since we suppose the Supream Spirit is such a Mind as is not ignorant of its own real subsistence and hath no dorment Powers that it should ever be diverted from the actual conception of it self therefore this Mind subsists perpetually in two different subsistences God therefore the Supream Spirit does in himself subsist in no less than two distinct subsistences whereof the one is a real subsistence But whether the second be a real and substantial subsistence of the God-head or only notional I confess cannot be inferred barely from God's being of a mental Nature but on the contrary if he be a Mind of the very best of that sort of Minds whereof our Souls are or of any other besides the most High or if the Supereminency of the Supream Mind above all others be only its uninterrupted actual conception of its own being and of all others which it knows it might be demonstrated that there is but one real subsistence of the Deity We must therefore inquire wherein is the Supereminence of this most high Being that we may examine whether there be in it discernably such peculiar Characters as yield us a sufficient Evidence that it has naturally more real subsistences than one for if there be not the nature of the Deity will not evince this point of the Churches Faith But the Church is left wholly to its own proper province and to prove it by Scripture and that proof however will retain its own full strength tho' this natural Evidence should not be super-added CHAP. V. Of the Trinity 1. VVE have seen that no one can rationally deny that the Divine Nature being mental does subsist at least in two distinct subsistences the first whereof is real and for the condition of the second we are to consider the peculiar Characters of the Supream Spirit which we know to be such attributes as these An independent self-subsistence being as some call it self Originate self Sufficiency even All-sufficiency Omnipotence Omniscience Ubiquity Immutability Unity Eternity most perfect Truth Goodness Blessedness Holyness c. These may be proved both from the reason of the thing and Revelation to be perfections of the Divine Nature but I need not undertake here what hath been done by many others and is universally acknowledged 2. This being the condition of God the Supream Mind we are fully assured by the Omniscience c. of this Divine Mind 1st That whatever God does not conceive that really is nothing and we are no less assured by the absolute perfection of the Divine Truth c. 2d That whatever God does conceive not to be that hath no Being and is nothing And 3d. On the other hand whatever God does positively conceive to be that really is or doth subsist And 4th The independent All-sufficiency of God c. Assures us that without the concurrence or assistence of any other thing whatever this Divine Mind can positively conceive a thing to be And from hence we can Argue as from certain Principles 3. That since God can positively conceive a thing to be without the Presence or Antecedent Being of any other thing besides himself he can when there was nothing else besides himself conceive a World to be and if he does so then according to the reason of the Mental Divine Nature chap. 4. the World hath a subsistence in the Divine Mind by such a positive conception of it And because God never positively conceives a thing to be but it doth really subsist in it self therefore the World having a positive subsistence in the Divine Conception hath a real subsistence in it self 4. Now since the real subsistence of the World in it self was made and yet not made with hands but by the Agency of an Almighty Mind we must observe that this Almighty Mind causeth all things which it does cause in a way whereby the mental Agency does effect Now the mental Agency being conceptive and every positive Conception
shamefully prevaricate and joyned with the Heathen in their Idolatry So that God after long patience did serve the designs of his own Kingdom by their miserable Dissipation and Captivity for he had oft times foretold them by his Prophets that when they were cast out of their own Land both they should know that he was the Lord and he would be sanctified in them before the Heathen both which we find exactly fulfilled in the Event For 1. In their Captivity they learned in a few Years to renounce the Heathen Idolatry for ever which in their own Land they could not be taught to do in many Ages And 2. Forthwith an Edict is issued forth over the greatest Empire in the World Dan. 3. Ezra 1. Dan. â— requiring an Universal acknowledgment of the one True Supream God above all other Gods and after that another by Cyrus of the like purpose and a third by Dairus over all the Empire of the Medes and Persians It is to be further observed that the Ten Tribes were first dispersed into the Cities of the Medes and sometime after the Jews were scattered about the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy So that the Israelitts had conversation with almost all Nations and they owning but one God and Worshiping him in their several Dispersions considering men being acquainted with their pretensions would by the reason of the thing be drawn to favour the Truth and by further inquiries abroad be fully satisfied And accordingly after this Dispersion of theirs we begin to meet with the Grecian Sages and Philosophers whereas before they had nothing amongst them but Mythology which was some obscure remainders of Ancient Tradition but so disguised with old fabulous stories that Truth could not be known from Falshood And as many Learned Men as well of late as formerly have proved from the Antient Records of those times the effect of all this was that generally all Nations did acknowledge one God over all though they did not leave off the Worship of their Heathen Gods No more than the Papists that believe but one Supream God do therefore forbear to Worship many of the Invisible World or to invocate the Aid of Saints and Angels whilst they confess but one Advocate with the Father Thus much did Truth gain for the establishment of the Divine Monarchy and asserting rhe Unity of the Godhead 5. In the mean time some Sophisters had devised a new way to subvert the Divine Government and Religion under the profession of one God There being two ways of doing this both were abetted and that by very many for some time before the coming of our Saviour The first giving us for the Supream God a Vivacious Self-activity or an Universal Life without Understanding assigning this to be the source of all Motion Now though this Life according to their fancy is all the force of the World yet it is plain the force is not Omnipotence as that attribute belongs to the true God and being it is supposed to have neither Wisdom or Goodness no thanks or Religious regard is due to it These were those spurious â—permatists who though they were not formed into any Sect were yet growing very Popular and these instead of God who is a blessed mind intruded upon us an Eternal vivid impetuosity impelling all things without Counsel The other were the infamous Sect of the Epicurians who confessed indeed the Divine Nature to be an intelligent mind but without all concern or resentments uncapable of being pleased or displeased and so for God that is a Holy Spirit they substituted an Everlasting Gaze. I know they oft depredicated the blessedness of their Deity which had it been done without collusion would indeed have argued him to be a Spirit But as Cicero said of these same men long ago we are not to regard what they say but what they are to say in consequence of their own Opinions The blessedness of their God which they mean and as they define it is nothing else than no pain of Body or grievance of Mind and then a mind that is no Spirit nor capable of being pleased or displeased in their notion of blessedness must of necessity be ever blessed and so is the Body of a Stone and the Soul of a Psychopannuchite most perfectly blessed Now it is plain all Religious Addresses or Respect had to an unconcerned Mind which having no Spirit is uncapable of liking or disliking are most absurd and Ridiculous So that each sort of these Philosophers in their several ways may profess and believe but one God only and yet both wholly evacuate the Power of the Divine Kingdom and defeat all the Counsels which God had in revealing himself unto Mankind and entring into a Covenant with them 6. But when in the Wisdom of God as St. Paul observes the World through Wisdom even this spurious Philosophy knew not God â— Cor. 1 21. it pleased God through preaching to save them that believe The Truth therefore by which God saved Men from these destructive Delusions was that which the Apostles Preached which we know was the very same Faith which they Baptized Believers into and we are sure they were to baptize into the Name of the Fâ—â—her the Son and the Holy Ghost â—aâ— 28. Therefore the acknowledgment of the Trinity was the Covenant Stipulation instituted by God and set up against the Error that was brought in by the Grecian Wisdom to save men from perishing by that growing destructive mischief For it is manifest from the foregoing account ch 4. ch 5. that the Psychical Men that believe God to be Life without Conciousness cannot acknowledge there are more real Subsistences of the Deity than one and whoever believes more must in consequence confess God to be an Intellectual Being The Epicureans might own two though not Personal Subsistences of their Deity but being consistent with themselves they could not confess a third whilst they denied Gods being pleased or displeased as appears ch 5. ch 6. Therefore this form of Covenant requiring the explicite acknowledgment of three Persons in one God was as directly opposite to those deceits that were then prevailing in the World as was the express owning of the Divine Government to the Anarchical Old World or of the Divine Monarchy to the Antimonarchical Heathen World for all these are suitable Sacramental engagements listing men for God against these several Apostacies And considering the Trinity in the state of the Divine Nature and not in its Mystery these are so many forms of a Covenant that is one and the same in Substance but diversified in the Expressions as the condition of Religion in the several Ages of the World did require And from hence 1. It appears that God entred our express belief of the Trinity into the Covenant of Life not only because it was a most true and weighty a most honourable and glorious acknowledgment of his Divine Majesty for a Trinity of real Subsistences as has been seen speaks