they do penetrate one another for they most perfectly and infinitely know and love one another now Love is an earnest desire of Union so then they be most intirely united The Apostle makes the necessary difference of the Three on Earth he saith they agree in One but of the Three in Heaven he saith they are One. Moreover either one knows something which the other doth not or loves something which the other doth not love or can do something which the other cannot do or not if the former how are they God For God knows and can do all if the last then not only they have one Will but also one Mind one Power one Knowledg one Love Now let Man think upon several Natures of the same kind which mutually do penetrate themselves and by a mutual inclination do embrace and unite themselves inseparably and have the same Thoughts Will and Action doth not all this conclude for one and the same Nature And that there is no difference but in some manner of Existing which because they are such are distinct one from another without Confusion all which from Oneness of Will leads to Oneness of Essence for the Will of God is not a thing different from his Nature Another Text wherein the most holy Trinity is demonstrated and not only may be read but also be heard and seen is that about our Saviour's Baptism where the Father speaks from Heaven and calls him his Son Christ the Son is baptized and the Holy Ghost appears in the shape of a Dove if Men do believe Scripture this they must believe to be true S. Austin lookt upon this Text as a strong and convincing Proof of that divine and essential Truth Vade ad Jordanem c. saith he Go to the River Jordan and there thou shalt find the holy Trinity and be convinced of the Verity thereof Besides these we have a Cloud of other Witnesses to prove this Truth where the Three Persons are mentioned under their proper Names and first * Acts 2.22 23. This Jesus being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost the Three Persons are plainly named Again the same Jesus Christ was declared †Rom. 1.3 4. to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness Elsewhere the same Apostle saith ‖ Tit. 3.4 5 6. God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ And in another place ‡ Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts by the word God is meaned the Person of the Father * Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offereth himself without spot to God Furthermore †Ephes 2.18 Through him Christ we both have an access by one spirit unto the Father Our blessed Saviour himself out of his own sacred Mouth doth plainly and positively speak to this purpose when he saith * John 14.16.17 I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter the Father I the Son and the comforter whom he calls the Spirit of Truth are Three Persons which in the next Chapter †Chap. 15 26. is by him repeated But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth One Text more I shall bring to confirm this * 2 Cor. 13.14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God that is the Father and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all And in the Text of another Apostle †1 Pet. 1.2 are contained the Workings of the Three Persons in the Trinity Elect according to the fore knowledg of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ As the New Testament is full of Proofs to confirm this holy Doctrine for indeed these Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation are more clearly and fully therein related so out of the Old Testament we have enough to confute the Enemies of this Truth and because we look upon Socinians in their Principles to be a sort of Jews and as well as they Blasphemers against our holy and blessed Saviour so we will bring such Arguments against them as we would if we were disputing against unbelieving Jew◠only a few Texts out of many We begin with the Book of Genesis Chap. 1. wherein is contained a relation of the History of the Creation which is a Work common to the Three Persons of the Trinity and though we may not look upon it as the clearer upon the matter yet in it is Light enough to shew the Truth we now assert I shall say nothing of the Name God under that of Elohim which already we have spoken of as representing the plurality of Persons in the most holy Trinity but we may say that though the Name God was there which it is not in the singular and taken for the Person of the Father yet the Son had a hand in the act of Creation for it is God said here is the word which is the proper Name of the Son our Lord Jesus Christ who in Scripture especially by S. John is so often called by that Name the Word God saying and speaking is that which made the World We read God said when any thing was created which being compared with what is spoken by John * John 1.3 All things were made by him that is the Word the Person of Jesus Christ for actiones sunt suppositorum acting is proper to Persons and without him was not any thing made that was made now that Word God said is that which created every thing so then here is the Person of the Son but we also find the Person of the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.2 the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters by his acting represented by motion to cherish give life and motion to things as a Hen doth when sitting upon her Eggs for the word in the Original signifies such a thing This sense is given by a competent Interpreter †Psal 33.6.9 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host thereof by the breath of his mouth Here we can read distinctly the Lord if it were to be understood only of the first Person about which there is no dispute the Word and the Breath or Spirit this though it be clear I could set in a greater Light with comparing it with other places which I now forbear to do because I shall have occasion to make use of them in some other branch of my Discourse Another Text is this * Isai 42.1 Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him besides the Person that speaks namely the Father here we have the Son under the name
of his Servant of his elect in whom his Soul delighteth whereby none may deny the Lord Jesus to be understood and the Holy Ghost or Spirit Nothing better than this can quadrate with the History of our Saviour's Baptism ‖ Matth. 3.16 And in another place of the same Prophet †Iâ—al 6.3 when he saw the Vision and heard that Trisagion or holy holy holy which long after was also heard by John * Rev. 4 8. that three-fold repetition of God's Name compar'd with the proper Hypotheses of the antient Jews ' that it signified three things in God is adapted to the Trinity of Persons in S. John's Vision we have some enlargement as to the Lord Jesus represented by the Lamb for the same Twenty four Elders and Four Beasts * Rev. 5.8 9 13. fell down before the lamb and sung a new song and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea paid the same Worship to the Lamb as to him that sitteth on the Throne Again the same Prophet †Isai 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath anointed me this to be understood of Christ as applyed Luke 4.18 and of the Holy Ghost by the anointing for he was anointed with the Oyl of Gladness that is the Graces of the Spirit These Three are also to be read amongst the last Words of David * 2 Sam. 23.2 saying The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and the Word was in my tongue here is the Lord the Word and the Spirit To the same purpose speaks another Prophet †Hagg. 2.5 according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you the Father with the Word his Son and his Spirit made a Covenant with Israel There are several other Texts in the Old Testament of the Nature of One which I already made use of I mean of the thrice holy wherein the Name of God or Lord is thrice repeated I own I have such a persuasion of the infinite Wisdom of God as to believe there is nothing at all in his Word but what there is a particular reason for it to be in and in this belief of mine I am confirmed by what our blessed Saviour saith in earnest and with a strong Asseveration †Matt. 5.18 Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled and I am sufficiently satisfied that though through the Infirmity of our Nature in the Ignorance of our Mind we cannot apprehend the Causes of many things in the Word of God yet therein is nothing without a Cause So out of that Principle I dare say God meaneth something when in the Blessing which he prescribed to be pronounced to the People the Lord's Name is thrice in it thus * Numb 6.24 25 26. The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and when God speaks unto Moses he dictates what he was to speak to the Children of Israel when he was come to them in his Name that is The Lord God of your Fathers one would have thought this had been enough but no for he addeth †Exod. 3.15 The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob it was the same God yet thrice named So when the Law is given he saith ‖ Exod. 20.5 I the Lord thy God am a jealous God once Lord and twice God which is the same so in another place the * Psalm 136.1 2 3. Psalmist exhorteth thrice to give thanks to whom unto the Lord unto the God of Gods to the Lord of Lords One more I shall quote and 't is this †Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King Why thrice and no more Surely God aims at something for as he doth nothing so he saith nothing in vain these things are not in by Chance and seeing with a full assurance I believe according to Revelation a Trinity of Persons in the Divine Nature Why should not I also believe that these things relate to it Now if one would seriously attend upon these quoted places and compare them with others of the same kind may be God would impart upon the Matter greater Discoveries than I for the present am able to give only this I shall add how the Name Jehovah called in Greek Tetragrammaton because it originally consists only of four Letters signifieth both God's Self-existence for the Root whence 't is derived doth denote to be and also his Eternity for it contains all times to come present and past one out of the two first Letters draws the Words beginning and to live and the third having a Vertue of copulating or joyning together is for Love whereby is denoted the Holy Ghost as by the two before are Father and Son and because the second Letter h is twice in he would have both Natures in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity to be meaned tho' I have nothing to say against these mysterious Interpretations which may be well grounded yet we build not our main Arguments thereupon however knowing that essential and incommunicable Holy Name to confist of three different Letters I can see nothing to hinder me from believing that that same Nature is communicated to Three Persons and as the same Letter is twice in it doth signifie Two Natures in One Person especially it falling upon the Second Letter relating to the Second Person of the most blessed Trinity and as God is the Author of the Name Why may not he in his Infinite Wisdom therein denote some Mystery This I take to be Rational Here I must not omit for Proof of this great Truth to bring in our Creed called the Apostolical as an Evidence I meddle not with the others for the Adversaries will not own them though they ever were by better more Learned more Pious and Sound in all Ages than they are or I doubt can be I know the World hath afforded some Men who out of a vain-glory and to seem to be something through a tryal of their Parts have attempted to enervate with their Criticisms the Strength and Orthodoxy of these Creeds but as to this Socinians themselves can except against it no more than they do against the written Word of God whence this is extracted Father Son and Holy Ghost are all Three named in the Creed and as the Word God is expressed when joined with the Father so 't is understood of Son and Holy Ghost thus I believe in God his only begotten Son and I believe in God the Holy Ghost for to them it also doth belong and as there we profess to believe in that is to
in this Comparison of Persons all Things may be acceptable unto him but hence it doth not follow that Christ is not of the same Nature with the Father seeing they are not compared in relation to the Essenâ—â— but herein he doth condescend to their Capacity whom not owning his Deity he would by degrees bring to the knowledge thereof As to the use of the Name of God in Scripture the remaining Evidences are reduced under two kinds First In some the Name of God is absolutely taken for God the Father Secondly In others is added an exclusive Particle which is by some joyned with the Name of God and by others with the Things spoken of and attributed unto God Out of the first nothing may be deduced contrary to this Doctrine for in all those places by them quoted which anon we shall mention is a Comparison of the Persons wherein the Name of God is properly attributed to the Father upon the account of Order and Origin but 't is inconsequent to say that in every place where the Name of God is absolutely taken that is without Comparison of the Persons it is to be understood only of the Father for in several places where the Word God is indefinitely set down yet it is by no means to be reduced to the Father alone as to the other sort of Proofs wherein an exclusive Particle is expressed that exclusive Particle relates to the Creatures and to every thing which by Nature is not God whither they be things in Nature as Sun Moon and Stars which Heathens worshipped as Gods or else those which are Effects of Man's fancy and imagination such are several Idols by foolish Men worshipped as Gods wherefore seeing the True and Essential God is opposed to those which by Nature are not Gods it follows that by the Word God may well be understood Father Son and Holy Ghost likewise though sometimes mention be made only of One Person we must not take it as if thereby the other Persons were excluded but only that which by Nature is not God and that this is a right Interpretation it may well be proved out of several places of Scripture as for Instance when God saith by * Isa 43.11 the Prophet I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour and by another †Hos 13.4 For there is no Saviour besides me Here in the Adversaries Opinion Salvation is attributed to the Father but that the Son is not excluded it appears out of several places amongst the rest out of this ‖ Act. 4.12.10 Neither is there Salvation in any other that is in Jesus Christ who hath been crucified and we know Scripture doth not contradict it self and if out of the Prophet's one would exclude the Son he might as well out of this exclude the Father Again the Lord Jesus saith No man knows the Father but the Son now if all but the Son be excluded from knowing the Father as in the foregoing Text he would be excluded from being a Saviour so in this from knowing himself also the Holy Ghost would be excluded from knowing the Father though he be said To * 1 Cor. 2.10 search all things yea the deep things of God in this very same Sense Paul said ‖ Chap. 2.1 10. I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified he doth not thereby deny that he determined to know the Father and the Holy Ghost but he meaneth he knows nor owns no way of Salvation out of Christ and v. â—1 The things of God knows no man but the spirit of God but in other places we read how * Joh. 5.20 the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father and the Father shews the Son all things that himself doth hence we may conclude how the Apostle speaks exclusively only of Creatures not of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost CHAP. VI. Christ is True Natural Son of God by Eternal Generation BUT we must by the Grace of God come to another Head as Scripture gives Christ truly properly and essentially the Name of God so it doth give him that of Son of God the First we shewed already the Second whereby he is declared the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity we must now speak of as we observed that the Word God in Scripture is spoken in several Senses as the True God properly Angels and Magistrates improperly and * Judg. 9.2 l. 46. Idols †2 Cor. 4.4 the Devil and the ‖ Phil. 3.19 Belly abusively So here I must say how the Name Son of God admits of Three different Significations for God hath three sorts of Sons for all others are reduced under these three Heads the First is by Creation and Preservation which is a continued Creation for * Act. 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being thus Adam is called †Luke 3.38 Son of God and Men ‖ Gen. 6.2 Sons of God on this Account God is Father of all Creatures whether in Heaven as Angels nay of the Sun Moon Stars of the Birds of the Air and on Earth of all Men Beasts Plants c. and of Fishes under Water this in relation to Nature and in general to the whole Creation The Second kind of God's Sons or Children is by Adoption and Grace such are his Elect and People of these in a special manner God is called the Father In a Third way Scripture speaks of a Son of God and of none else thus the only begotten from all Eternity namely our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is not Son according to the first manner which being common to all Men would make no difference between him and others and bring him into a Croud of the whole Work of Creation neither is he Son of God upon the account of Grace and Adoption which they would have him to be but if he be by Adoption how can he be the Only Begotten Son seeing that through Grace God hath adopted so many adopted Sons once and before their Adoption were not Sons of God which cannot be said of the Lord Jesus that the time hath been when he was not Son of God all and every adopted Son of God were once * Ephes 2. dead in trespasses and sins and by nature children of wrath even as others once †Colos 1.13 under the power of darkness and ‖ Rom. 5.10 enemies to God none of which things may without Blasphemy be spoken or thought of the Lord Jesus He is called Son not by Creation for * Colos 1.16 all things were created by him and one cannot be Creatour and Creature nor by Adoption for †Ephes 1.5 in him we are adopted nor by any Dignity or Eminency over inferiour Creatures as are Angels for the ‖ Heb. 1.4 5. Apostle denies it nor also upon the account of a personal Vnion or Incarnation as he is called Son
that is against Reason nor Christian that is against Scripture nor peaceable that is against the Church for they speak against Reason Scripture and the general Consent of the Church If their Exposition be true Christ might and would have said Glorifie me with the Glory which thou hast decreed for me before the World was then he had said nothing but what every Believer may say how that before the World was God fore-ordained them to the Glory which they shall enjoy at the last day so might every one else say before the World was I was fore-ordained to have Wife Children Lands Offices c. nay according to their opinion at the same time when Christ asked that Glory he had it if to be appointed thereunto be to have it and if he had it why should he ask for it If Christ had said nothing but this And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self it had sufficiently declared the Sense of our Adversaries without saying any thing of the Glory which he had with him so with thine own self they explain to be in Heaven as if he had said in thy House but if that had been Christ's intention he would have said Glorifie me in Heaven but since he expresses himself otherwise and makes mention of the Glory which he had with the Father before the World was if we can believe he well knew what he would have and was able to express his Thoughts then we must say he had very good cause for all he said Now we shall proceed to some other of his Attributes Christ's Omnisci he knows all things Omniscience and perfect Knowledg and Wisdom ‖ Rom. 16.27 which belongs to God alone whereby God in a divine manner understands himself and every thing else doth also belong to the Son who saith to the exclusion of all Creatures * Mat. 11.27 No man knows the Son but the Father neither knows any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him And †Rev. 19.12 no man knoweth his name but himself thus he hath a perfect knowledg of his Deity and of every thing else even of the most contingent whereby the true God is distinguished from all and every Creature this also belonged to the Lord Jesus as he sometimes foretold his Disciples and in the case ‖ Mat. 21.2 of the Ass and Colt and * Luk. 22.10 13. of preparing the Passover and to Peter †John 21 19. the manner of his Death and all the Prophets being acted by his Spirit foretold things to come that holy Spirit ‖ Ch. 16.13 14. shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you and ‡ Rev. 13.10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesie And to make this the more excellent and conspicuous he attributes unto himself that which no body will deny to belong unto God alone * Psal 7 9. and 26.2 1 Sam. 16.7 The righteous God tryeth the heart and reins the Heart is unsearchable to any but to God alone Thou even thou only saith Solomon †1 Kings 8 39. knowest the hearts of all the children of men but Christ doth attribute it to himself ‖ Rev. 2.23 I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and ‡ John 2.24 25. he knoweth all men and what was in man and needed not that any 〈◊〉 should testifie of man for * Mat. 9 4 he knew the thoughts of the Scribes and †〈◊〉 12.25 the thoughts of the Pharisees 〈◊〉 ‖ John 16.19 be knew the desires of his disciples withal â‚ Chap. 6.64 and Chap. 18.4 he 〈◊〉 from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him he knew all things that should come upon him and in few words he know all things Christ is present every where Christ's Omnipâ—esence which argueth his Immensity and Infiniteness which elsewhere I have spoken of whereunto I may add how though absent in the Body he saw * Joh. 1.48 49. Nathanael under the Fig-tree whereupon he call'd him the Son of God the King of Israel a Title which Scripture gives the only true God and also he affirmeth this when he saith †Chap. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven by the Son of Man he meaneth himself who if we must believe was in Heaven when to Nicodemus he spoke these words upon Earth which cannot be understood of his Humanity which he assumed in the Virgin 's Womb but of his Divinity which alone is infinite But here they take exception and say that by to be in Heaven is meaned only to know and understand heavenly things according to Paul's saying * Phil. 3.20 and Ephes 2.6 Our conversation is in Heaven The Conversation of pious Men in Heaven is said in opposition to worldly mindedness when they were said to be quickned in Christ and as expressed to fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus they say not to be in Heaven but in and with Christ in heavenly things †Colos 3.3 Our life is hid with Christ in God We do not intend to prove the Divinity of Christ barely because one who is upon Earth is said upon any account to be in Heaven but out of this that Christ is said not only to be descended from Heaven and is again to go up and out of this that though he be come down from Heaven he is still there whence we may well conclude for his Omnipresence Now to descend from Heaven upon Earth and to ascend from Earth to Heaven are spoken of Christ only as to his Person and thereby is meaned his coming upon Earth There is such another place ‖ Eph. 4.9 to the same purpose about ascending and descending This we must say that whilst Christ in his human Nature was on Earth with his divine he filled the Heavens Elsewhere he explains it as to places Mat. 18.20 and 28.20 Christ's Almightyness Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am As to time For I am with you always unto the end of the world The Lord Jesus is also almighty Omnipotency which is an infinite Power incommunicable to any Creature for all are uncapable of it Christ applyes it to himself when he saith * Rev. 1.8 he is the Almighty I have already shewed how every thing in that Verse Christ speaks of himself only I shall add how the same Name is given him in several other places of the Book We give thee thanks Ch. 11.17 O Lord God Almighty which art and was and art to come which are the same Expressions used in that v. 8. and what is the reason of the Thanksgiving 't is in the latter end of this same Verse Because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned so who
that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it Luke 14.26 Nay If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren yea and his own life he cannot be my disciple Is not this the manner of love which God requireth of us and doth not this lay upon us a duty to love Christ with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind and with all our strength thus this honour is proper for and ought equally to be rendered to the Father and to the Son for all men ought to honour the Son as they honour the Father I hope the sense we give the Text is sufficiently proved how all men without distinction or exceptionare bound to honour the Son as they honour the Father and the manner is by our Saviour prescribed in spirit and truth Joh. 4.24 Now I must shew how the Texts they bring against us cannot admit of the sense which ours doth because 't is contrary to the Scope of the Apostles and to the Analogy of Faith First to the scope for the end of both Apostles 1 Thes 4.7 Luk. 1.74 75. Psal 93.5 Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 is to exhort Christians to study and labour after Purity and Holiness which they are called unto All that are adopted Children ought to walk in holiness because holiness becomes the house of God and as without faith 't is impossible to please God so without holiness no man shall see the Lord. This great and necessary duty I say the two Apostles in these Texts do exhort men to strive and labour after not as to attain to such a perfection of holiness as is in God which is impossible for any Man for all that we can desire is that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 Mat. 5.48 and receive some degrees of it In the same sense is to be understood that other place Be ye therefore perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect a duty we ought to study after because as much as we can we must be conformable unto God Secondly Such an interpretation would destroy the Analogy of Faith as contrary to the truth set down in other places of Scripture For though holiness be a communicable Attribute of God yet there cannot be so much as thought to be an equality between Purity and Holiness in God and those small portions he is graciously pleased to impart unto us Holiness is Essentially and Originatively in God nay Holiness is God infinitely and most simply holy and we are naturally unclean transgressors from the Womb conceived in Sin brought forth in Iniquity wallowing in our own Blood till God be pleased to wash and cleanse us to derive from himself and by his holy spirit to work some small degree of holiness in us God is most holy Luke 6.36 thrice Holy In the same sense we are commanded to be merciful as our Father also is merciful that is as far as God will be pleased to enable us we ought to follow and imitate that Pattern but not pretend or hope to arrive to the perfection of it which in both Mercy and Holiness were no less than Blasphemy wherefore such interpretations God's word doth abhor and in that place St. John saith not Every man that hath this hope hath purified in the Praetertense but in the Present purifieth himself to shew how he doth but aim at it and by degrees And St. Peter in the 16. v. explains the sense of the foregoing verse because it is written saith he be ye holy for I am holy he shews no equality or parity of holiness The word as which he used before he now renders by for as a motive and a cause why we ought to be holy Because God is holy To what I said before I shall now add at last how the word as doth in other places denote an equality as the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father John 10.15 which in the Greek word is taken for to love he equally knows and loves the Father with an Eternal and perfect Love as the Father knoweth and loveth him The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when spoken of the Father and the Son denote an equality not a similitude as the Father hath life in himself so hath the Son life in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original Now to understand the foregoing places of an equality Chap 5. 26. is not contrary to other Scriptures nor to the Analogy of Faith but doth tend to the glory of both Father and Son for the rule is most true in the Text now in question he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that sent him but he that honoureth the Son honoureth the Father also which is a natural inference out of the place But that people who pretend to honour the Father have taken a quite contrary way to do 't which is dishonouring the Son Joh. 8.49 as he said to the Jews I honour my Father and ye dishonour me with robbing him if they could of his divine Nature and Attributes when 't is most true that he that honoureth not the Son Chap. 5.23 Chap. 12. We are baptized in Christ's name honoureth not the Father and the Father beareth witness from Heaven that he is glorified in the Son Having thus proved in general that divine worship belongs to Christ we must now come to the places which demonstrate it in the particulars As first we are baptized in his name Baptism is a divine ordinance whereby being admitted to be members of Christ's mystical body we take an Oath of Allegiance to him whereby we own him to be our God and Redeemer this is the seal of the Covenant Now no Covenant is in force till it be passed the Seal this Seal in Baptism is not only instituted by Christ but also administred in his name and authority whereby it doth appear that this is his Right which Right of his Matth. 28.19 he would make use of when he commanded all Nations to be baptized in his name None but God can institute Sacraments for none but he can bestow the grace therein represented none but the Lord of the House hath right to make Laws in his House now the Church is God's House and seeing the preaching of the Word and administration of both Sacraments therein is done by Christ's authority and in his name he is thereby not only owned but also worshiped as God and Lord of it wherefore the Church is called Christ's own house Heb. 3.6 I find indeed there was a subordination between God and Moses this being but a Servant but the same subordination between God and Moses was between the Son of God and Moses as is now of all Ministers of the Gospel under Christ Mal. 3. ◠for he is the Lord of the Temple who
against Man that trusteth in Man not in every Man or upon every account but against him that trusteth in Man not appointed by God to give help and relief that is which is not endued with divine gifts but if to be endued with divine gifts had been a sufficient ground to secure men from this Curse then we might have trusted in Moses Elias Daniel c. persons endued with divine and extraordinary gifts but God here makes it a general rule which admitteth of no exception for he simply saith in man it is a most abominable presumption for a man so often to attempt to make the spirit of God to speak in his own Language but suppose there be a man appointed of God to help yet we are not to trust in him for though a man hath divine Gifts and Power yet ceaseth not to be but still remains a man and if God speaketh truth whoever trusteth in man departeth from God though we should happen to know a man endued with divine power and appointed of God to the end he should help us yet we might not trust in him which if we do we become liable altogether to this Sentence of the Curse of God In the third place we do and must believe in him which not to do is sin We believe in Christ Joh. 16.8 9. 1 Joh. 3.23 Chap. 5.1 5 10. yet such an one as the Holy Ghost reproveth the world for It is our duty for there is a precept for it and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ which is a sign we are born of God and whereby we overcome the world and have the witness in our selves for this end God sent him into the world 1 Joh. 3.16 17 18 36. that we should believe in him that we should not be condemned nor perish but be saved and have everlasting life now to believe is to do the work of God for this is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Chap. 6.29 all our hope for glory is grounded upon the promise which is not perfectly made sure to us till it be sealed now the Seal is the Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession but we cannot be sealed in Christ with the spirit till we have believed Eph. 1.13 14. for so saith the Apostle in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed c. after and not before No man is the true proper object of our faith for to believe in one is to put in him his whole trust and confidence which we may not in any meer man whatsoever so though we believe in Christ except we believe him to be God our faith is vain and not true This makes the Apostle write his Epistles to whom and unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God Joh. 5 13. but for what end doth he write those things that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God reduplicative as he is Son of God true natural Son of God by whom all things were created in him ought our faith to be terminated for if he was only a medium and not the Object of it then we should believe in him only Ministerially not Principally but in Faith there is no subordination for 't is a Theological Virtue which as it comes only from God so it hath God alone for its object it cannot have two such different and infinitely distant Objects as are the Creator and the Creature To believe in Christ was the chief thing which the Apostles ever exhorted men to do For indeed 't is the whole end and substance of the Gospel but not as an imperfect Christ a meer man but as the true Son of God of the same nature this thing he always commanded men to do namely to believe in him about the time of his leaving this world he charged his Disciples to do 't whereby they should find a present remedy and comfort to those troubles of heart that might happen to befall them this he doth with a great Emphasis he doth not barely say believe in me Joh. 17.1 but he goes higher to shew what manner of Faith they ought to repose in him Ye believe in God believe also in me have in me the same Faith as you have in God if here the word God be taken for the person of the Father the Lord Jesus maketh himself equal with him seeing he will have us to believe in him no less than in the Father if the word God be Essentially taken then he doth affirm himself to be God while he attributes unto himself the same faith which all Believers have and repose in God alone for this fiducial honour God doth not communicate to another no other reason can be assigned why the Son would have us to believe in him as in the Father but because in Nature Power and Honour he is equal with the Father and consequently the primary object of Faith that in matter of worship he owned himself such it doth clearly appear in some instances the first of the man in the Gospel whose eyes he had opened whom our Saviour far from forbidding him to worship him he encouraged to it not under the notion of Son of Man but of Son of God for he asked dost thou believe on the Son of God Chap. 9.35 36 37 38. The man answered who is he Lord Christ replied thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee and the man said Lord I believe and he worshiped him If he had not been the true Son of â—od by nature I maintain this had been Idolatry which he was no savourer to The other instance is of Thomas who for calling Christ my Lord and my God in the Sense he did after his conviction that he was actually raised from the dead had spoken blasphemy in case he had not truly been Lord and God which far from being reproved for it what our Saviour after said unto him and the manner how he said it import an approbation of what Thomas had said and done and at another time all the Disciples together did perform the same for they came and held him by the feet Matth. 28.9 Luke 24.52 Act. 10.43 Luke 24.47 We pray to Christ and worshiped him In few words whosoever believeth on Christ shall have remission of his sins and he commanded his Disciples that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations Now we come to the fourth part of that religious worship which is due and paid unto him Namely Prayer this floweth from the foregoing for every Prayer should be made in Faith according to what the Apostle saith Rom. 10.10 how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed That to call upon and pray to God is a duty by men to be performed is
doubt with an Intent to pull it down if they can and so to set up an Idol of their own that is their Reason against Revelation or Scripture and thus to go a whoring after their own Inventions without any Measure and Bounds all our Understanding and Reason in Religious Matters should be guided by Revelation for saith David Psal 119.1 9. Give me understanding according to thy word not according to my Reason except that word be a Lamp unto our Feet and a Light unto our Path we are sure to go astray and deviate from the Rule and miss the Mark hence spring those seeming Contradictions which arise from the shallow ness of Man's Brains and not from the Repugnancy of things which sometimes makes them fight against the Man in the Moon as their fancy suggests to them to go out of the Road so by Attempts to explain things they entangle them the more and so what themselves call Strength of Wit and Reason others upon better Grounds look upon 't as effects of a distemper'd Imagination for they think to have engrossed and monopolized to themselves all Wit and Learning as for us about these Controversies we follow the Method of Aopollor who shew'd not by the strength of his own Reason Act. 1â— 28 but by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ and thereby mightily convinced the Jews for he was mighty in Scriptures Socinians would seem to refer themselves to be judged by Scripture and Reason as Papists by Scripture and Tradition but the reason of one as the Tradition of the other is a devourer for Reason of one side as Tradition on the other do swallow up Scripture which tho' first named is with them last minded and signifieth least as indeed they both would make of it a stalking Horse and subservient one to his Tradition and the other to his Reason and these would set up for the only Rational Men in the World and whatsoever doth no come up to them they hastily call Nonsense and Contradiction after which Rate the Holy Spirit of God in Scripture is liable to their Censure and shall be as he is by some of them charged with Contradiction yet we know Truth doth not gainsay it self the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth his word the word of Truth for so saith he who is Truth it self These Imaginary Contradictions arise not out of the things themselves but out of the Perverseness of Man's Heart and Blindness of their Judgment which as the Apostle says prompts them to wrest Scripture unto their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 such are not the learned and steady in the Truth as some Men in the World account themselves to be but the unlearned and unstable as the Apostle calls them so we may in the Prophet's Words say they are not valiant for the truth Jerem. 9.3 There is a great Difference between gross Contradictions to our Reason and barely being above it that is not having any distinct Conception of the Nature of things in a clear Idea which is a full and evident Perception of it Of two contrary Propositions if one be true the other must necessarily be false according to the rule of Contraries but no such thing as this is to be found in any part of Scripture consequently we may conclude how the great Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation therein contain'd are true not to be cavilled at by Humane Reason for what is infinite is above our Comprehension no Duration without Succession which is not to be found in an infinite and Eternal Being that existeth of himself yet that Eternity we cannot understand only by parts of time as past present and to come which imply Duration and Succession the reason is because it exceeds our Capacity The way to obviate and prevent any seeming Contradictions in Scripture is first to observe the Analogy of Faith in some places God to condescend to our weak Capacity doth attribute unto himself Humane Passions as Anger Wrath Fury to repent and Members of Man's Body as the Eye Hand Arm c. yet thereupon we must not say God is subject to our Passions like the Antropopathites or hath a Body like the Antropomorphites because we are taught in Scripture God is a Spirit and unchangeable so the second thing to be observ'd is the Scope of the place of many Instances I shall bring but this the blind and dumb both spake and saw Matth. 12.22 Here is a seeming Contradiction if the Blind sees then he is not blind if the Dumb speaks he is not dumb but let the Scope of the place be consulted and it will set things at right and therein we find how a Man blind and deaf was miraculously cur'd by our Saviour so that he who before was blind and deaf both spake and saw having recover'd his Sight and Hearing What he saith Page 138 doth not belong to us for we are not for an implicite Faith we are not against but searching into and examining the Grounds of our Religion but withal say all that Examination will signifie nothing except it be given us from above to understand therefore 't is beyond our Reason Our Religion is not of Works but of Faith which this Opinion of theirs about Reason destroyeth Faith is a strong Perswasion grounded and built not upon Reason but upon God's gracious and special Promise infused into us by the Holy Ghost wherefore in several places of Scripture 't is called the immediate Gift of God for though Faith comes by the Word yet the Application thereof wherein it doth chiefly consist is the immediate and effectual working of the Spirit The several Objections as brought in by him Page 142 143 45 46 have but little in them as I could easily demonstrate if I had but time and room enough I shall take notice of what he saith about the latter end of Page 146. Now Reason is from God as well as Revelation but he must know that Reason is corrupt but Revelation not so when Reason was whole yet it deviated but Revelation is always the same the Light of Reason thorough Sin is become Darkness and a Guide that hath and doth commonly if not constantly err Here he would give us a sound reason which is so no more than a sound Nature Pag. 148. How often doth God in the Old-Testament and Christ in the New complain that People could not hear and understand what was said to them and what he saith to them in the last quoted Page how slowly must the Gospel have moved at the beginning if those that were to preach it had been obliged to qualifie themselves is insignificant 't is known they were immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost and Heaven qualified them not they themselves for if Humane Reason be fallible in natural much more in super-natural things There are many dark and mysterious Passages of God's Providence which our Reason nor any Humane thing can understand whereof Scripture affords many Instances
and of these we may say as of a Watch the several pieces of which being asunder seem to be insignificant but put them together in their due place they are of good use and commend the Art of the Maker when he hath shewed us what it is good for which before we could not know of our selves Thus one or few acts of divine Providence are Mysteries to us which we cannot dive into nor understand till God hath manifested them to us What would all the Humane Reason in the World say of the Command which Abraham received to sacrifice his own Son in all appearance it was a murther and a barbarous and unnatural one too for a Father to destroy his own Son God's Will to try his Faith and Obedience was a Secret As Job's Afflictions for a trial of his Patience and to make him in Ages to come an Example of it Joseph's being cast in Prison for so good an Act as to refuse committing Adultery with his Master's Wife would puzzle the Brains and Reason of any Man who believes God to be just and pure if by the several things which the same wife Providence brought to pass God had not made his design known which David saith was to try him Ps 105.19 the word of the Lord tried him So God's command to the Prophet Hosea to take unto him a Wife of Whoredoms when the Lord is a most holy God That the Son of God who is just harmless undefiled separate from Sinners should by Blasphemers be accused of condemned and executed for Blasphemy and this by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God is that which doth transcend the poor weak frail Understanding of Man tho' never so much screwed up or his Reason put to the rack I am sure David a Prophet as well as a King speaks of himself to that purpose about the Prosperity of the Wicked in this World so foolish was I Psal 73.22 16 17. and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and when I thought to know this it was too painful for me too hard for me to understand until I went into the sanctuary of God No Humane Reason only Divine Revelation could make it intelligible Whoso is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord that is Psal 107.43 from 40. the Wisdom from above not the Humane can teach us to understand God's Gracious Dispensations especially in the wise Government of his Church which to Humane Reason is passed understanding as concerning God's Works and Thoughts of which David saith O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep which if we may believe him Ps 92 5 6. a bruitish man knows not neither doth a fool understand this With Admiration and Exclamation he saith it and so deep that Humane Reason cannot fathom it without Revelation Heavenly Light maketh some know and understand but the Bruitish the Fool and Wicked doth not and cannot for want of this Divine Grace and when they would find to measure Divine Mysteries with the Line of this Reason then they become Fools so to them these things still continue to be Mysteries This Author is one of those whom the Prophet speaks of Psal 64.5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter for at first he concealed his Name whether out of Fear or Modesty he knows best but now in his second Edition he pulled off the Vizzard and hath his Name at length how he came by that Encouragement deserves as I think to be inquired into by those that are more than I immediately concerned I agree with him when he speaks the Truth as thus how the Converted Jews would still retain some of the Levitical Ceremonies as may be seen Act. 15. and therein might happen to be too much Compliance as with the Gentiles who brought in some of the Heathenish Rites and that Remisness in some afterwards made those things a part of Christianity it self thus they degenerated from the Simplicity of the Gospel by means of self and worldly ends Hence we see how from Page 165 till 172 he takes Advantage upon account of Ceremonies and such foolish or selffish Priestcraft as he calls it But after all do this Socinian People think to monopolize to themselves and be sole Masters of all good Sense and Reason surely others among the Antients and now are as rational as they why should not their Wisdom and Reason seeing they make it to be natural differ from Wisdom and Reason that is Spiritual From hence I am sure St. Panl makes not only a difference but also a great Opposition between them for saith he We speak not in the words of humane wisdom but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and God hath revealed them that is the Doctrines of the Gospel unto us by his Spirit and as 't is not the Wisdom or Reason of Man which the same Apostle in the same Epistle Ch. 3.19 calls foolishness with God but the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom 1 Cor. the whole Ch. c. And where this Spirit of God is not pleased to teach the Truth of the Gospel that remains hidden all the Reason in the World cannot understand it 2 Cor. 4.33 and we know it is hid to some to them that are lost among whom are some of the most learned and wise in the World endued with as much Natural Reason and great Parts as any of our Adversaries yet this natural Reason cannot comprehend it I go farther and say that some of these things of God remain still Mysteries and if not wholly yet in part are hidden even to those who have the Spirit of God because by reason of the weakness of their Nature they are not capable and 't is above their reach to understand it first as to God's Nature to us it is incomprehensible because infinite behold the heaven 1 Kings 8.27 Compar'd with Job 11.7 8 9. and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee nor Reason comprehend So in his Attributes his greatness is unsearchable and his understanding is infinite so are his Works both of Power and Providence Wisdom Mercy and Justice far above the reach of Humane Reason as to be seen in Job in the Psalms and other parts of Scripture and let one Text of Job serve for all great things doth he God Psal 145.3 Ps 147.5 Job 37.5 which we cannot comprehend and to apply this to our present purpose we own that the Doctrines of the Gospel necessary to be known both as to the Substance and to the Declaration are clear and perspicuous but still there are some as to the Difficulties which learned Men and Doctors do study to understand which they can never rightly do without a special Assistance of the Spirit of God for 't is he and he alone that can lead us into all Truth for if of our selves we cannot understand the plainest much less the hardest wherefore
to the end we may know the Truths of God we must be taught them of God now as all Promises are Yea and Amen in Jesus Christ so are all and every Truth of the Gospel in him which to understand we must be taught by him and by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4.21 2 Cor. 3.6 for the letter alone killeth but the spirit giveth life It is very strange yet true that Socinians will trust and depend upon their own Reason notwithstanding the Advice of wise Solomon given them long ago Lean not unto thine own understanding Prov. 3.5 which is the Seat and Center of Reason for if Men have any thing of Reason there it lays as to natural things but as to supernatural it is derived out of Scriptures whereupon our Holy Religion is grounded therein is nothing useless and needless yet still something is mysterious either as to Matter or in the Manner wherein it is spoken and 't is this which God hath given us for our continual Exercise in this World therefore he requireth we should inquire intoâ—t with all possible Diligence and utmost Endeavours and they who fall into that course do and will by Experience upon frequent reading of the Word daily find new Lights new Discoveries and new cause of Admiration which thorough Grace from above are the Fruits of their Obedience and Industry as there is nothing unnecessary superfluous and useless and that for all sorts of Christians whether weak or strong so the the right consideration of the Matter the Words Order Contexture the Design of the Holy Ghost in them do instruct us of and guide us in our Duty towards God whereof the parts are various large great and wonderful upon this account saith David Ps 119.96 Thy commandment is exceeding broad because it contains the whole Revelation of God unto us which is full of infinite Wisdom in the whole Frame and Order of it and as the Revelation in the Word is from God so is the Understanding of that Revelation that is the reasn why Men should not as some do perplex themselves to find out the Grounds and Suitableness of some things in the New-Testament with others in the Old when they should know how 't is not in their Power to know the heighth depth length and breadth of God's Infinite Wisdom therein contained when may be the Holy Ghost aimeth at such things as they cannot dive into who by degrees openeth Man's Eyes more and more to know things necessary for them for as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 3.2 He feeds us first with milk then with meat when we are able and strong enough to bear it for as another Apostle saith New-born Babes desire the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 that they may grow thereby and thus till we come unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 And those Men who in these things rely upon the Strength of their own Reason I may well compare to these little Babes who being not able to feed themselves lay Hand into their Milk wherewith they do not feed but only slubber themselves or to that Child that would not have the Nurse to hold him tho' he wants strength of himself to go if the Hand that bears him up doth but hold off then he is gone and sure to fall So 't is of any one that trusteth to his Understanding and leaneth upon his own Reason 't is a bruised Reed that will go into his Hand and pierce it Wherefore God's sends us to the law Isa 8.20 and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them for their Light doth come from the word yet not all at once but by degrees and in their several Kinds all which as the Apostle saith worketh that one and the self-same spirit 1 Cor. 12. dividing to every man severally as he will and let us know never so much out of Scripture there is still more to be learned Ought not this to convince Men that it doth contain Mysteries The Apostle directs us to think soberly Rom. 12.3 not to allow our Fancy and curious Speculations to go beyond the bounds of a becoming Sobriety in things above us which Scripture doth both command and commend and is very much suitable unto right Reason Now the rule of that Sobriety is positively fully and unalterably given thus Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those which are revealed unto us Deur 29 2â— and to our children In those things Divine Revelation must be the measure and rule of our Knowledge the contrary is an effect of Pride Vanity and Presumptuousness forbidden in Scripture not to 〈◊〉 above that which is written which if Mâ—n obey 1 Cor. 4.6 it will bring them to Certainty and Truth whereof the contrary leads them into all kinds of Error But to conclude this for I must no longer insist upon 't as I never intended fully to answer it only to take notice of it on my way as to the point of Reason see how foolish in these things Man is and how confounded his â—eason by the Example of Peter an Elect of God a Disciple dear unto Christ The Lord Jesus comes to him to wash his Feet but he presently said John 13.5 6 7. Thou shalt never wash my feet but our Saviour answering If I wash thee not thou host no part in me Peter soon goes to another Extream first he would not have Christ to wash him at all but now he would be washed every where not only the feet but also hand and head too but our Saviour shews him Reason why he ought to suffer himself to be guided and not to take upon him to direct his Lord and Master in what he was to do he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet Now the cause of this wandring and error of Peter is expressed v. 7. namely his Ignorance What I do thou knowest not now Where was his Reason at that time For certainly he was unreasonable to be of a different Mind from his Saviour and till he submitted unto his Will the like we may say about these things unto those who fancy themselves so rational and would set up their blind and lame Reason for a competent Judge Reason is always striving and always at a loss all our Reason hath to do is to be guided by Scripture and to own it to be the infallible word of God all beyond this is the work of Faith for Christ is an object not to be known naturally or by natural Reason and the obligation to know Christ and believe in him springs and ariseth only from a positive Command superadded unto the Law of Nature If St. Paul speaks Truth Col. 1.27 Christ in us is a mystery considering the manner whereby he is in us therefore the Image of the new Man in us is called the hidden and inner
found alive at the last Day They would have Christ's Incarnation to be against Reason and Scripture they deny him to be truly God the like of the Holy Ghost That there is in One God no Trinity of Persons and that the Old Testament is needless for Christians c. All these and other Blasphemies are found in the Works of Socinus in the Racovian Catechism whereof Smalcius is the Author of Ostorodius Crellius Wolkelius Vaydovius c. but we shall by the Grace of God insist only upon some of their greatest Blasphemies Now to the Cause Matters of this high Nature and fundamental Concernment to our Holy Religion must not be prostituted to the captious scanning of Men of corrupt Minds nor the ways of God be made layable to the Judgment of Men rather humbly to be adored with Submission of Mind and Obedience of Faith to the Revelation declared in God's Word and herein we ought the more to be sober and cautious that we know Errors to be link'd together and to have a dependency one upon another he that strikes at the Grace of the Lord Jesus will afterwards make no Conscience to fly out against his Person he who denies him to be a Prophet will soon disown him to be a King and a Priest for as one Depth calls to another so an Arminian can easily become a rank Pelagian and Socinian Wherefore 't is necessary at the very beginning to oppose Errors defend every inch of ground against such as will daily grow worse and worse as do the * James 1.8 double-minded men that are for their own more than for the Truth 's Interest for they are unstable in all their ways and the more Hands orderly employed the better is the Effect like to be This Consideration makes me to appear amongst those who heretofore did and now do oppose false Teachers who not only privily but also in publick bring in again those damnable Heresies which of old Truth and Learning exploded and baffled out of the World The Divinity of Christ was the Stumbling-block to the Jews who could not endure to hear him call himself the Son of God absolutely and without limitation and thereat were enraged which made 'em take up Stones to cast at him John 8.59 and also at another time Chap. 10.31 the Doctrines about the Holy Trinity and the Person and Deity of Christ do stand and fall together In our Saviour's time it began to be oppos'd by the Jews and since from time to time continu'd to be so by the Devil's Instruments raised to that same purpose and within the last Age revived by the fore-named Blasphemers against the Rock of the Church which is built on the Confession that Christ is the Son of the living God not by any special Favour or any such Restriction for then there would be only a gradual difference between his and our being Sons of God but he is simply the Son of God yea his only begotten Before we enter upon this important Matter some things to clear the state of the Question must be premised so that we must shew wherein we agree before we speak of that wherein we differ as to the first this Foundation must be laid there is a God the Cause of all the Effect of none who hath made all and is made by none who hath given all things their Being and hath his own of himself This is not denyed so I shall not go about to prove it the Light of Nature the Book of Scripture and the Testimony of Conscience do sufficiently convince Men of it The next thing is what God is He being infinite cannot be defined but imperfectly described only according to what he hath in his Word revealed of himself how he is infinite independent self-sufficient eternal unchangeable But such is the blindness of some Mens Judgments or the Perverseness of their Hearts that they will cavil at the Nature Names Attributes and Works of this eternal and infinite Being But about this fundamental Truth our Faith must be directed by the Revelation which God hath made of it in his holy Word herein Men must not follow their own fancy for * 〈◊〉 Mat. 〈…〉 no man knoweth the father but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him Now the sum of this Revelation in the Word is that God is One that this One God is Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is the Father of the Son and the Son the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and of the Son and that they are distinct one from another in respect of this their mutual Relation by this Rule we must be guided how to know believe worship love fear and obey him that is the Father One true God the Son One true God and the Holy Ghost One true God to be believed worshiped and obeyed Now for our Edification and further Instruction thâ—â— Doctrin admits of some Enlargement and Explanation to prevent undue Notions of God which by reason of the Blindness and Ignorance we are naturally involv'd in our Minds are liable unto thus out of the Revelation that God is One we easily deduce he is so in respect of his Nature Essence or Godhead and how being Father Son and Holy Ghost he doth subsist in these Three distinct Persons thence also is derived the manner of their Subsistence what are their mutual respects to each other and such like things by a necessary Consequence from the Revelation Upon these Grounds were compiled the Nicene Athanasian and other Creeds or Articles of Faith in opposition to the Heresies of those Times for therein was explained the true Sense of Scripture about those matters which were wrested by the Enemies of the Truth and though the Orthodox Doctors and Councils to oppose the Error and lay open the Venom made use of some Words and Expressions which in so many Letters are not set down in the Word of God yet they were not to blame for they were drawn out of it by lawful and necessary Consequences Men may lawfully conceive in their Minds what is the nature of the Things or the sense of the Words according to the scope of the Spirit of God in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and also as to the Analogy of Faith or else we are no better than Brutes So that if the chief Assertion contained in the Revelation be true so must also be whatsoever is therein included and in the Explication thereof drawn by a true and right Consequence Wherefore seeing God hath declared Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One God it necessarily follows they are One in Nature because therein only they can be One And this is the ground of any other Unity and seeing it is also declared they are Three it must be explained of three distinct Persons or Subsistences wherein only it is possible they can be Three The Revelation is clear there is One God this God is
Upon the Account of our Salvation which by no means can be obtained without it let Arminians say on the contrary what they will For †John 17.3 this is eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And who is he but ‖ 1 John 5.20 the Son of God the true God and eternal life We say Trinity or Triunity not Triplicity for this last implies a Composition of Three Parts Father Son and Holy Ghost are alius alius not aliud aliud other and other but not other thing and other thing Three distinct Persons but One and the same Nature we distinguish the Persons saith * De Trin. Vnit cap. 11. Austin but divide not the Deity or Essence they are not distinct Essentially for there is but one Essence but personally that is one Person is not the other the Father not the Son nor the Son the Father and the Holy none of the other two Peter Paul and John are not only distinct amongst themselves but also divided one from another so they are three Men though but one specifical Nature because created and finite but in an infinite Being 'tis otherwise Father Son and Holy Ghost though distinct yet not divided for there is but one numerical Nature the three are Consubstantial or Coessential in Nature Coeternal in Time and Coequal in Power The Knowledge of One God may be had by the Light of Nature but that of the Holy Trinity only out of Scripture for the one is according to Reason but the other above it two ways there are to know God the 1st Nature the 2d Revelation that is defectuous this is perfect to which God tied his Church which alone knoweth and calleth upon God according to what he manifested of himself in his Holy Word and thereby her Religion is different from that of all the rest of the World and there is no other saving way to come to God but by Christ whose Gospel is preached as the only Doctrine of Salvation and we must not have of God such Notions as our Fancy or natural Reason suggest unto us but such as he hath declared in his Word for he is a voluntary Cause of all whose Ways and Methods we ought to observe and be guided by in our Religion for †Ephes 1.11 v. 5. he works all things according to the counsel of his own will and according to the good pleasure of his will Yet this Holy Mystery is a stumbling-block unto the Jews and unto the Greeks foolishness and both look upon it as Heresie though if God's Word be the Word of Truth this as we hope to shew is certainly the True Sound Doctrine because grounded upon it though unsound Men will neither believe it nor consent about it to the Faith of the Primitive Church and Orthodox Doctors of all Ages nor to the Confessions of Faith of all Christian Reformed Churches as if the Spirit of God and of Truth was departed from them All to be only amongst Socinians Second Substances do exist only in the First Man in general existeth only in James John that are individual and Words are what Use makes them an Indivisible and most single Essence abstractively considered may and doth concretively exist in Three Persons no Man may well say that an infinite Essence doth not admit of three Modes or Manners of Subsistence but he only which fancies within his shallow and finite Intellect to understand perfectly an infinite Nature with her Modes of subsisting which to pretend to implieth Absurdity and Impiety And to affirm that to be One in relation to its Essence and many as to the Modes is no more contradictory than to say the same Man is real in respect of his Essence and modal as to his Subsistence wherefore they who would terminate an infinite Essence only to one manner of subsisting so that it may not be communicated to another Person either they understand not what an infinite Nature is or else misTake the meaning of the word Terminate or Confine which is not to prescribe limits for that an infinite Nature doth abhor but the meaning is that an Essence as may be the Father's is so the Father's Essence as may not be the Son 's in the same manner but it may be in a different way Upon this Matter it ought carefully to be observed how the Divine Essence is considered either Absolutely or Relatively to the manner of existing in respect to both the Father is of himself in relation to the first the Son also is of himself but as to the second he is from the Father so is the Holy Ghost of himself in respect to the first that is absolutely consider'd but as to the second he proceedeth from both Father and Son Wherefore the Father is absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self God because both as to his Essence and as to his Person he is not from another but the Son and Holy Ghost are also Self God though not as to the Person the Son being begotten by the Father as the Holy Ghost proceedeth from both but as to the Nature because both are by that Essence which is not produced by another or depend upon another but that same which of it self and by it self doth exist from all Eternity the Three Persons have but One and the same Essence and they are not essentially distinstinguished The Son is from the Father by Generation not as to his Essence but in relation to his Person not absolutely as God but relatively as Son for the Son hath the same Nature and Substance as the Father Self God as he though not in the same manner the Father may not be called Essentiator if I may so say of the Son or Holy Ghost nor these Essentiated the Son is God of himself though not Son of himself the manner whereby theSon is said to be from the Father is in Scripture described by the word Generation which is nothing else but a Communication of one and the same Essence or Life that is Eternal and Indivisible as expressed Psal 2.7 and John 5. v. 26. which are not to be confounded with nor measured by physical Generation there being neither priority nor posteriority of Duration no mutation or passing from Power to Act from a not Being to a Being from a division and multiplication of Essence from a formal Reason of active and passive Generation from a dependency of him that is begotten upon him that hath begotten or from a greater to the lesser so there is no such Imperfections as are in Natural and Metaphysical in which are priority and posteriority of Nature though not of Time So there is no Consequence to be drawn out of one for the other thus though a natural begetter doth efficiently beget of himself materially from himself terminatively out of himself no such thing is to be conceived of this Generation of the Son of God for though in Human Things the
Essence also they make a Confusion between being and the manner of it And they ask us why we do not rather multiply Essences in the plurality of the Persons than Persons in the Unity of Essence whereunto we answer that we therein follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost in the word and he who makes Three Essences doth also make Three Gods but he that saith there is One divine Nature in Three Persons doth not make Three Gods now Scripture and Reason teach us there is but One God and the same Scripture saith also Father Son and Holy Ghost are but One God and 't is to be observ'd how the word Father when used alone as 't is in the Lord's Prayer without relation to the Son is as well as that of God common to the Three Persons but when it signifies a Person of the Trinity first in order then 't is relatively to the Son Now the Plurality of Persons in One divine Essence is proved by Arguments drawn out of Five several Heads whereof the First doth consist in several clear Testimonies out of Scripture Secondly from the relatives or opposite Relations as Father Son Spirit to beget to be begotten and to proceed from the Father and from the Son Thirdly by distinguishing Properties as Creator to the Father Redeemer to the Son Sanctifier to the Holy Ghost Fourthly by peculiar Apparitions to be read in both the Old and New Testaments And Fifthly by different Operations the Four last I shall not insist upon only some of them I shall have occasion to speak of in some place of my Discourse but the first I intend by the Grace of God chiefly to enlarge upon These Scripture Proofs are of three kinds the first speaks of a Plurality of Persons in God the second of Three Persons and the third mentions the Son by himself and the Holy Ghost by himself for about the Father there is no Dispute yet to avoid Prolixity we shall make use only of some few places out of the many which Scripture doth afford We shall begin with that of Genesis * Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created in the Hebrew the Word God is in the Plural Number not Eloah which is the Singular but Elohim the Plural surely there must be some reason why a Nominative in the Plural is joyned to a Verb in the Singular as Bara is that signifies created certainly this shews some kind of Plurality in the divine Nature we may well say it is not without cause that in a Tongue whereof in a special manner God is the Author and in which are many Names in the Singular Number yet this in the Plural is made use of to signifie God not only in this place but very often and in many more There are many other Names of God but none more frequently used than this in the Plural Why then if in the Godhead there be but One single Person should God delight so much in being called so often in the Plural I say farther that as the History of the Creation could not be written but by help of Revelation and that God chose Moses a Man of very great Wisdom so 〈◊〉 being inspired of God inserted therein nothing 〈◊〉 might be called rash and superfluous so 't was 〈◊〉 at a venture that he chose that Word amongst so many others to name God in the great Work of Creation which being terminated outwardly is common and belongs to the Three Persons of the Trinity and a thing very observable is that in that first Chapter of Genesis no less than Thirty two times that very same word Elohim in the plural is construed with a Verb in the singular when in the Second Chapter that of Jehovah which is a singular is Eleven times joyned to the Verb of a singular Number What else can the plural Number in God signifie but some Plurality The Name Elohim is the first given to God in Scripture and though it be plural yet 't is not personal but essential and according to the Hebrew Idiome is spoken both of the Nature and of the Persons hence there is only One Elohim not Three as in the Athanasian Creed 't is well observed that the Father is Almighty the Son Almighty the Holy Ghost Almighty yet not Three Almighties but only One now the Name Elohim being derived from God's Power there are not Three Elohims no more than Three Almighties wherefore 't is joyned with an Adjective singular Elohim Zaddik Deus juste O God righteous Psal 7.10 which they who are for Three Spirits and Three Substances are desired to take notice of and how their Hypothesis is herein contrary to the Athanasian Creed Farthermore in the beginning of the * Exod. 20.2 Decalogue this word Elohim is joyned with the Pronoun possessive in the singular thy though the word God be in the plural and †Josh 24.19 elsewhere we have it joyned with an Adjective in the plural and with a Relative in the singular he is an holy God he is in the singular God and holy are in the plural Nay we have it also prefix'd to a Verb in the plural where Abraham said * Gen. 20.13 When God caused this Verb is in the plural me to wander So we have it elswhere †2 Sam. 7.23 hence we may conclude how in the Text in hand not by chance but by a special divine direction the Name God is in the plural Number and in the place already quoted in the Preface of the Ten Commandments God makes use of the Lord Jehovah and God Elohim the one as it seems to declare the Vnity of his Nature and the other the Plurality of the Persons Adonai a Name of God also in the plural Number is frequently used either when God speaks of himself or Men to or of him Another Text to prove the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead is this * Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our image and after our likeness which is an Exhortation to the other Persons that had a hand in the Creation the Verb and the Pronouns are used in the plural 't is not said let me but let us make 't is not said in my but in our image not after my but after our likeness This manner of speaking so different from the foregoing is not in vain but with a purpose to give us for whose sake that History was written a Subject to meditate upon I know they say God there speaks as 't is usual with Princes in the plural Number for Majesty and Greatness sake and what if great men do so must this through man's wandrings be father'd also upon God Princes do represent their People and also they comprehend their Counsellours whence it is that in every Proclamation we have that Form By the Advice of our Privy Council which God doth not want Let us more seriously consider this doth God speak it to no body I am necessitated to make use of that Expression or to some
Surely no man that hath any regard to God can say or think that in so serious a matter God speaks to nothing if to some then either to Angels or to some other Creature not to Angels for they are not of God's Council nor to any other of the Creatures which had neither Soul nor Reason and the next Verse doth decide the thing * Vers 27. So god created man in his own image in the image of God created he him and not after the Image of Angels or of any other Creature neither did God speak to the Souls for as yet they were not created To what I said of Angels I shall add that this could not be spoken to them for they neither principally or instrumentally had any hand in the Creation of Man for they could not the Work of Creation requiring an infinite Power but it must be to the other persons of the most holy Trinity the Word and the Spirit As to the Enallage or that manner of speaking in the plural for Greatness sake we own it hath place in some Languages but we deny it ever was in the Hebrew Tongue in the Old Testament no Man no person in Authority no Priest no Judg no King ever spoke of himself in the plural Number Well hath the Prophet said †Isai 40.12 13.7 Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him But for any one Grotius not excepted to say that the plural Number is used for Greatness or Majesty sake is certainly to prevaricate in the Cause of God for as 't is contrary to the Idiom of the Hebrew Tongue so to the practice of all those former times and it is but a modern Use and Invention which so support some Men contrary to all true Reason have forged in their imagination Besides that in these latter times wherein the Use hath been introduced no Emperor King or Prince in any Language useth his Proper Name or Appellative in the plural Number We Leopolds Williams Henrys Emperors Kings c. but always in the singular Leopold William Emperour King Well though no Man of what rank soever spoke after that way we find God hath in other places as after Adam's Sin * Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us not as I but one of us then there is more than One person for God speaks of himself of the Deity not of Angels whom he makes no comparison with when in the Transfiguration the Voice came from Heaven saying †Mat. 17.5 8. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased 't is observable the Apostles saw no Man save Jesus onely that it might appear it was not spoken of Moses or Elias but only of the Lord Jesus Another place there is also to the same purpose where upon the occasion of the building of the Tower of Babel †Gen. 11.6 7. The Lord said let us go down and there confound their language 't is not said I will but let us go â—â—wn in the plural Number as speaking of many which may not be understood of the Nature which is most singularly One but of the Persons Socinians say to this that though out of this we could prove Plurality yet we must not conclude for a Trinity but the Cavil is vain for 't is enough that the Name of God is in Scripture attributed only to Three Father Son and Holy Ghost to infer a Trinity and 't is well known how Three is the first Number of the plural Hence Hebrews and Greeks do distinguish the plural Number from the dual neither do we read of any more Terms or Words than two of divine Emanations namely of the Son by Generation and of the Holy Ghost by Procession Our second kind of Arguments consists of those Texts of Scripture which do expresly declare a Trinity as is that when our blessed Saviour sends his Apostles to * Mat. 28.19 baptize the Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hence the Son and Holy Ghost are proved to be Persons because we are distinctly baptised in their Name to baptise in one's Name is to make him disciple or initiate and bring him under the Discipline of him in whose Name he is baptized now if the Father in whose Name we are baptized be a Person so must the Son so must the Holy Ghost be because in every circumstance we are baptized in their Name as well as in the Fathers And observe it is not said in the Name of God whereby the Essence only might absolutely be taken but of the Father Son and Holy Ghost to shew that relative Equality which is between the Persons that have but one and the same Nature In this Text our blessed Saviour with his own Mouth declared the Trinity Another place very plain and positive to our purpose is this * 1 John 5.7 There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one Here the Trinity of Persons and Unity of Essence are so clear that the Adversaries have nothing to say but first to call in question the Verse as if it had been inserted because it is not in some Greek Copies out of which the Enemies of the Truth did formerly take it away but we have it in so many others even before the Council of Nice in Cyprian's time that there is no just ground left to doubt of its being true and authentick which place was by Athanasius made use of against Arrius In this Text the Apostle doth treat of confessing and believing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God which he to confirm doth bring in the Article of the holy Trinity whereof he is the second Person and to any one that doth seriously consider the sense and scope of the place it will appear how without that Verse there would be a breach in that part of the Chapter to bear a proportion of Three that bear witness in Heaven with the Three that bear it on Earth Their next Cavil upon this place is upon the latter part of the Verse and these three are one that is say they not in Nature but in Mind and Consent which is as absurd as if one would say when Scripture affirms * Deut. 6 4. Mark 12.29 O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord the meaning is only the Consent of many Wills but doth not this Oneness of Will argue a Unity of Essence For how can there naturally and essentially be one Will and Consent if there be not one Essence and Nature How can it essentially be one Will if there be not one but many divine Natures Rather there shall be many different Gods whose different Wills shall oppose one another than the which nothing can be more absurd Again either those Persons are finite or infinite if finite then they have not divine Nature which is infinite if infinite then
sake I do but point at now when this Name is absolutely spoken or reduplicatively as †Matth. 7.21 not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord or with an Emphasis as Lord of Lords in the fore-quoted place of Timothy or with an Idiom and Property as ‖ Psalm 135.5 great Lord or with an Energy as * Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power whereby the Worship due to him is expressed it properly belongs to God alone in the New Testament it is mostly appropriated to our blessed Saviour which he owns as the fore-quoted Text not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord and when he speaks of the Day of Judgment when the Son of Man shall come in his Glory †Matth. 25.44 they will say Lord when saw we thee an hungered and about the time of his washing of his Disciples Feet he said ‖ Joh. 13.13 ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am when after his Resurrection he appeared John said to Peter it is the Lord John 21.7 that 's the usual Name which the Apostles in their Writings do call him by 'T is observable how after his Ascension there are two Things peculiarly called by the Lord's Name that is the * 1 Cor. 10.21 Lord's-Table and the †Rev. 1.10 Lord's-Day Now we must come to another Thing and shew how the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God is in Scripture in a true and proper Sense given to Jesus Christ Fourth GOD. but something must be premised before we come to the point in the question what God is we must distinguish either absolutely or relatively that is considered either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essentially or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Personally the one relates to the Nature and essential Attributes the other to the Persons of the most Holy Trinity and to their Attributes Here we assert two Things against Socinians First the Name of God with Attributes is not a Name of Office as Emperor King Consul Judge c. but of Essence and Nature as are the Names Spirit Man Lyon c. Secondly The Name God in its first and proper signification is not appellative but proper for it signifieth an Essence of a most singular Nature though we know it to be also improperly used and abused as the Idols of the Ammonites and of several other Nations are called their Gods but there are with it such Circumstances as make us easily know the difference Commonly there are such Epithets when the True God is mentioned alone with it as the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob Israel One God True God Eternal Life God blessed for ever which leave no doubt that the True God by Nature is spoken of The Word God in the New Testament doth properly first and chiefly signify the True God and such by Nature but secondarily and improperly those that are in high Places of Office and Power which Sense Socinians would restrain it to when 't is spoken of our blessed Saviour but 't is spoken of him not only attributively but subjectively as 't is in that place When * â—al 4.8 ye knew not God ye did service unto them which by nature are not Gods for if there that Name had been of Office and Dignity the Galatians might have excused themselves that they did serve those that were Gods by Dignity and Place though not by Nature but the Apostle reproves them for it so tho' they be called Gods yet if they are not such by Nature they are no Gods according to what the Lord saith by the Prophet †Jerem. 2.11 Hath a nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods The reason is by the same given elsewhere because ‖ Chap. 16.20 man makes them Gods unto himself the proper Character which another Prophet gives of the True God is he * Isa 43.10 before whom there was no God formed neither shall there be after him for being of himself he hath no beginning and shall have no end such is the Son of God the Saviour of the World before whom there was no God formed upon which account he is by the Prophet called the antient of days Dan. 7.22 neither shall there be after him thus he must needs be such by Nature and every one knows that neither Angels nor Magistrates are Gods because not such by Nature as is the Son of God which by God's Grace we shall demonstrate and neither the Galatians nor none of the Gentiles could well know God and as he ought to be till God was manifest in the Flesh when this Second Person of the Godhead took Human Nature in the Virgin 's Womb. The Word God is either first and properly spoken of the True Eternal God or of the Creature if of the Creature then the Creature shall properly be called and properly be God which is Blasphemy but if it be spoken of the High True and Eternal God then it must signify his Essence and Nature seeing God is such from all Eternity through the perfection of his Nature not upon the account of any Dignity or Power different from his Nature the Name of God if absolute denoteth his Nature and not any Office but if it be relative and signifieth only an Office then from Eternity God was not God They would have the Word God without an Article as we observed of the Word Lord to signify those that are Secondarily such but with an Article only the True God both which Notions are false for first the True God is sometimes denoted without an Article as Joh. 1.6.12.13.18 so is the Inscription of the * Rom. 1.7 Epistle to the Romans and in other places so is the other Notion false for the Word God attributed to false Gods is sometimes with the Article as Act. 7.43 and 2 Chron. 4.4 both which Examples are joyned together in the fore-quoted place to the Galatians so then the signification depends not upon the Article but the Nature of the Subject but to leave off such Criticisms of the Schools and not to bestow our time upon Words more than upon Things I say the Word God is Jesus Christ's proper Name for God and Christ are so unseparably united that †Ephes 2.12 they that were without Christ were also without God in the world So then the Name God signifies the Essence or Nature not barely the Office and Dignity for otherwise it would follow it should belong to God only in relation to Creatures but 't is most true it absolutely belongs to him for he was God before there were any Creature now our God by Nature is opposed to those that are only called so the Apostle saith ‖ 1. Cor. â— 5 6. Though there be that are called Gods many c. to us there is but one God and by the Epithet True God is distinguished from them therefore when the Word God is spoken of the True God
the Angel no less than twice doth direct to the true and only Object of worship when he said ‖ Rev. 19.10 and 22.9 worship God But this belonging to another Head I now shall proceed no farther in it Now to remove all improper and figurative meaning when the word God is attributed to Christ and to prove his Consubstantiality with the Father Scripture sets down Names and Epithets which not only distinguish him from and raise him above all and every Creature but also make him equal with God the Father Thus he is called l 1 John 5.20 the true God and m Tit. 2.13 Re. 19.17 the great God so n Rom. 9.5 God over all blessed for ever also o Jude 4. the only Lord God c. Hence the Name Jehovah is joyntly equally and comparatively given unto the Son as p Psal 2.11 12. serve the Lord with fear c. and q Isai 25.9 this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce in his salvation Now comparatively or in a Parallel Christ is the same r Isai 8.13 14. Lord of Hosts which shall be for a Sanctuary a Stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence to both the Houses of Israel as confirm'd ſ Luke 2.34 and Rom. 9.32 Christ is he who being by the Right Hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost shed forth those Gifts we read of t Act. 2.3.4.33 and 't is the Lord God of Israel unquestionably the true God that promiseth u Joel 2.28 in the last days to pour out his spirit c. so 't is the same Lord God of Israel the Lord Jesus is the same who is first and last comparing x Isai 44.6 Isaiah with S. John y Rev. 1.17 The Son of God saith z Isai 48.12 16. He is sent from the Lord God and from his spirit after he had said v. 12. I am the first and also am the last So the Titles proper to the true God are given Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords as by God's Grace we shall shew when we speak about the Attributes So then the Son is true God as we observed before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of himself when we speak of the Son simply and without relation to the Father we properly call him Jehovah and self being for he hath it of himself but when consider'd relatively to the Father then we say he hath his Being from the Father the Son is by himself not of himself his Essence hath no Spring but his Person is from the Father the Essence is not communicated to the Son but only the manner of subsisting in the Essence when the Son is called God personally then he is not call'd the manner of subsisting but an Existence with the manner of being now the modus or manner is understood with the Essence because as the manner of Divinity is not Divinity it self so the mode of Essence is not Essence it self thus when he is called God personally 't is in the Concret not in the Abstract If Christ be not God by Nature he is not true God for nothing is really such but what is so by Nature The Adversaries say that those things which comparatively are called such in Scripture are truly such as Christ is called * Joh. 1.9 Chap. 18.1 the true light and the true vine though he be so called by way of a Metaphor But we do not deny how sometimes the Name true is appropriated to those things that are so called metaphorically but then the sense of the Metaphor doth not really belong to them for in every Metaphor there is true and false in the manner of it thus Christ is call'd the True Light for though in a metaphorical way he be a Light that is spiritually works the same Effect as a corporal Light doth bodily in the like manner he is called a True Vine because that the Metaphor is truly proper to him but here the question is not about the truth of Words taken metaphorically but properly for when the word True is joyn'd to those that are properly taken then it signifieth the very Nature of the thing so when the word true is joyned with that of God it necessarily signifies the Nature of God and whensoever the Name of True God is given any thing thereby is Divine Nature attributed to it This shews how Socinians do not own Christ to be the true God because according to Scripture there is but one true God they deny him to be that only true God When God is called the onely Maker of Heaven and Earth and the onely true God 't is not said only by way of Excellency as comparing God with the Creatures but we thereby exclude all others for in those places the only true God is opposed to false gods in relation to which he is not called true by way of Eminency but because it is the truth for they are true gods by no means and the true God is ever opposed to false gods and Idols wherefore called the Living God Psal 36.9 because saith David with thee is the fountain of Life He that is God only by Participation and not by Nature is not true God for Participation doth import a Likeness but Likeness of a thing is never the thing it self and if they would have Christ to be God only by Participation this in effect is to deny him to be true God that is to make him an improper and metaphorical God and after that way Men and Angels might be called true Gods which is not only Folly but also Blasphemy to say and think But they say if God and Angels be not true Gods then God doth mock when he calls them so but 't is no Mockery to give one some Name in an improper and figurative sense or else when Christ calls his Apostles * Matth. 5.13 14. The light of the world the salt of the earth and a City that is set on an hill he would have mock'd too so would Paul calling †1 Cor. 3.11 and Eph. 2.20 Christ a foundation and a chief corner stone Seeing the Apostles are not true Light only improperly and metaphorically and Christ a Stone figuratively they that are Gods only by Likeness and Communication and not by Nature are not Gods Every thing is called true as I hinted before according to its Nature a true Man true Gold true Silver from the Nature of Man Gold and Silver Now as to Christ can he be esteemed as a true God who first had a Being according to their Principles and was not God then was God and like the Popish Wafer God by degrees was God more and more till he came to a perfection of the Godhead and we may say was
account to be call'd such a Man's Son yet not be his proper Son thus an adopted though he excel never so much above the rest yet that can never make him to be a proper Son To refute some Cavils of theirs one thing more we are again to take notice of upon this matter how the the word God is in Scripture sometimes taken essentially for the most holy Trinity and sometimes personally for one of the Persons as when 't is said * Acts 20.28 God hath purchased his church with his own blood which is meaned our Saviour the second Person of the Godhead In the first sense must be understood those places of Scripture wherein 't is said The name of the Lord is one and there is none besides him there is but one God and others to the same purpose to shew the Oneness of the Nature which as well as they we do affirm but as to teach well one must distinguish well so for want of observing this Rule that which is spoken of the Essence of God they mis-apply it to the Persons and so make a Confusion between things to be distinguished We already proved how the Unity of Nature doth not take away the Trinity of Persons nor the Plurality of Persons destroy the Unity of Nature which Mistake of theirs doth also hold in the Mystery of the Incarnation or of the Word being made Flesh and about our Saviour's Person in whom they confound the Natures so that which is spoken of his Humanity they mis-apply to his Divinity The second Argument whereby Christ is proved to be God's natural Son is drawn from the word only begotten which for greater confirmation is attributed to Christ in several * John 1.18 places wherefore in Scripture Christ is called the Son of God to shew he is the only begotten for that 's the signification of the word and †Heb. 1.2 vers 5. Paul's interpretation of it for he saith Such is the Son to whom only God saith Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and other places of Scripture By the words God's only begotten Son do all mean Christ only The Adversaries would have him to be called so only in a special manner above the rest as we already have taken notice of in the instance about Isaac whereunto here we shall add that of Solomon which also they made use of called say they * Prov. 4.3 only begotten in the sight of his mother but they must not go about to impose upon us for in the original the word begotten is not in but only which in our Bibles is according to the sense of the place explained by beloved only beloved one may be the only yet not only begotten Son when of many Children one alone is remaining and the rest are dead as to Isaac we already observed he was the only begotten in relation to Sarab by Promise but Christ is so called God's only begotten Son that it was never said to any one else Thou art my Son c. whence we may conclude him so to be God's Son as to be the only begotten of him that is according to his Nature in the word he is properly and absolutely called the only begotten * John 1.14 We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is not comparative as only denoting a likeness but as Chrysostomus observes well is expressive of the truth as being really as if one willing to describe a Royal State and Carriage of a King should say as that is in a manner becoming and proper for a King and farther the Evangelist addeth v. 18. The only begotten son which is in the besom of the Father he hath declared him where Christ is called the only begotten 〈◊〉 it being his own proper Name signifying how besides him there is no true natural Son of God again ‖ John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and * 1 John 4.9 God sent his only begotten son into the world See what a care the Spirit of God hath taken to confirm and make that Truth known how Christ is properly and absolutely God's only begotten Son now he is absolutely only begotten that is not only so called lookt upon and loved as such but that is really so and indeed we know our blessed Saviour is call'd †Joh. 20.17 Brother of his Disciples and of ‖ Heb. 2.17 Believers but not in a proper and strict sense The relation of Brotherhood hath a great latitude for among the Jews Persons belonging to any branch of a Family to a Tribe or to any of the Tribes were call'd Brethren * Gal. 1.19 James and John were call'd the Lord's Brothers and in another sense our Saviour calls †Mat. 12.50 his brother his sister and his mother whosoever shall do the will of God He is our Brother in that he hath taken upon him our human Nature all Men are Brothers in human Nature but Adoption cannot be the ground of his as 't is of our being call'd the Sons of God he is never called adopted as we are neither can he be adopted with us seeing we are adopted in him we are the Branches of the wild Olive-Tree that have been grafted in him who is the true natural Olive-Tree and thereby are become Members of his mystical Body How can our blessed Saviour be called God's only begotten Son if he be not partaker of the same Nature And the more to enforce this in that sâ—â—e Chapter and Verse John 18. 't is added which is in the bosom of the Father can he be in and from the Bosom of the Father and not be of the same Nature All other Children of God are made but this is begotten and only begotten none but he is properly begotten Our Third Argument is taken out of our Saviour's Question to the Pharisees * Mat. 12.41 41 4â— 44. What think ye of Christ whose son is he they say unto him the son of David he saith unto them how then doth David in spirit call him Lord By this way of arguing he shewed how in him besides human Nature there was another namely the divine according to which he by no means might be called David's Son but David's Lord which to the Pharisees proved an unanswerable Argument for upon this same 't is positively said v. 46. and no man was able to answer him a word one would think this should also stop the mouth of Socinians Indeed there the Lord proposeth the Question about the Nature of Christ or the Son whose natural Son he was Whereunto the Pharisees returned an imperfect Answer for only they said he was the Son of David but the Lord Jesus out of Scripture which they could not deny concluded that since he was by David's confession his Lord he must in him have another Nature besides human according to which he might not be called
for the unjust as a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot It seems these Socinians set their Hand and Seal to his Condemnation the same Question as was between our Saviour and the Jews is now between Socinians and us he said he was Son of God equal and one with the Father which Socinians no more than Jews are willing to believe and do flatly deny in the sense for which he was condemned namely for calling himself the Son of God and making himself equal with God when the Devil himself was not so peremptory for he made it but questionable when at the time he tempted him he said if thou be the son of God yet at several other times those wicked Spirits owned him to be the Son of the living God But Socinians give him the lye when he doth several times call and suffer himself to be called Son of God in the true sense and contrary to that of Socinians Surely he who is the Truth would not have spoken against it nor allowed others to tell a lye Now 't is most certain that he calls himself Son of God not only in the fore-quoted place of John where he owns he calls himself the Son of God according to the sense which the Jews had given his words and had made himself God in opposition to man that is God by Nature which no man is but also in other places as when he asked the blind Man Dost thou believe in the Son of God Which he declared himself to be in whom the Man ought to believe and to worship him as he did and 't is certain that Men must believe in and worship the only true God Also Martha * Joh. 11.27 declareth she believes him to be the Christ the Son of God by a gradation from his Office to his Person for the Christ or Messiah which should come into the world The antient Jews according to several Prophecies believed the Messiah to be the true Son of God and God by Nature which that Second Psalm doth clearly prove among many others thou art my Son wherefore the Psalmist v. 10. exhorteth kings to be wise and the judges of the earth to be instructed and to serve the Lord with fear and to kiss the Son to kiss his Feet in token of Obedience and Submission lest he be angry and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little a little Wrath is sufficient to break the Heathens and the uttermost parts of the Earth and to dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel All this is spoken of him to whom 't is said Thou art my Son and in the latter end of the last Verse the Prophet declareth blessed are all that put their trust in him and Men are not to put their trust in any but in the true God by Nature in which sense Scripture sheweth how Christ is called God and Son of God not only in that positive Text I and the Father are one but also out of this other * John 8.19 Ye neither know me nor my Father for if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also because we are one and he that sees me seeth him that sent me because he is the express Image of him that sent him And all this is confirmed in that other notable place †John 12.45 ch 14.9 10 11. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father for I am in the Father and the Father in me this truth must needs be very important for 't is affirmed in one Verse and confirmed in the next which truth appears yet farther v. 7. If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him the reason must needs be this because ye have seen me and in the same Chapter to shew that Oneness and Sameness of his in Nature and Power with the Father he saith Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will do which for greater assurance and confirmation is repeated in the next Verse If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it I my self there being no need for you to go to any one else S. Paul speaking of the Mystery of Godliness * 1 Tim 3.16 whereof the first part is that God was manifest in the Flesh saith it is a great one by his Expressions the thing is unquestionable and most certain for he saith Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness but Socinians are of another mind for they make not only a great Controversie but give a flat denyal of God being manifest in the Flesh and one of them here among us hath lately reprinted and set his Name to a Book with this Title Christian Religion not mysterious as it were to give the Apostle the lye on which I intend by the Grace of God to make some few general Observations towards the latter end of my Discourse we must do our Duty tho others neglect theirs and endeavour out of Scripture to convince or confound the Enemies of the Truth who are suffer'd with bare face to sow their Tares and spread their Poyson and Blasphemies as if it be only a Problem and a disputable Case whether or not the Lord Jesus did justly or unjustly suffer for Blasphemy for having affirmed himself to be Son of God Good Lord what times are we come to and how great a Darkness is the Nation falling into after so much light And now we are upon the matter of Blasphemy let me observe how in Scripture there is enough said about it to prove Christ to be the Essential Son of God let the Etymology and Derivation of the word Blasphemy be what it will it is most certain that in Scripture * Rev. 13.5 6. it is used to express when any thing is said or done against God in his Nature or Attributes or when one doth assume and arrogate unto himself that which belongs to God alone in the first sense we read when Hezekiah heard the words of Rab-shakeh 2 Kings 19.3 6 22. he said This is a day of Blasphemy and God called it so within few Verses after The servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me and again whom hast thou blasphemed In the second sense the Jews called our blessed Saviour Blasphemer We stone thee not say they to him ‖ John 10.33 for a good work but for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thy self God and so after his Confession before the Chief Priests they said ye have heard the blasphemy Wherefore if Blasphemy be against God truly and essentially taken may we not conclude the Lord Jesus to be truly essentially God He calls Blasphemy what the Jews had said against him * Mark 3.22 23. that be did cast devils by Beelzebub prince of devils the Evangelist lays upon occasion of the Abuses put upon him after he was brought before the High Priest †Luk. 22.65 And
Condescention is a wonderful Argument of God's Goodness which is the greatest Glory of Divine Nature this is cause of Thankfulness not of Cavils and Exceptions he knows what is best and fittest for him to do and wants not our Counsel had the Son of God appeared as a great Prince he probably would thereby have made more Hypocrites than real Converts and not so well persuaded Men to Holiness and Goodness for Arguments to do it must not be fetch'd from the Pomp and Prosperity of this World but from the great Rewards and Glory of that which is to come But before I leave this Point I must take notice of that place wherein the Apostle makes the Son of God upon his coming into the World speak thus Heb. 10.5 but a body hast thou prepared me the Body was prepared against his coming into the World and that prepared Body at his coming he took so then he was before the Body was prepared for him and before his coming into the World for nothing can be said to be sitted as the word implies in the Original for one who is not hence we conclude how the Son of God was before his Incarnation and had a Being but we now return to our Proofs The next place is of the same Prophet Isa 9.6 For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful Counsellour the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end c. I ask Is this appliable to any Son that was to be born of Ahaz For this is the same Person mentioned in the fore-quoted place and may be seen if compared together Observe how the different Expressions do denote different Natures the Child is for Humanity the Son for the Divinity the Child is born but the Son not born but given in relation to Human Nature he had a beginning and a progress he was a Child before he was a Man but the Son not so a Child is not before he be born but the Son had a being and did exist before he was given yet both united in one Person for the Child was not one Person and the Son another for all along the Prophet though he had named a Child and a Son speaks in the singular number his Shoulder his Name his Government as his Name is wonderful so is the manner of the Union these two Natures are in one Person without Confusion the Divine retained her Proprieties so hath the Human and yet these different Proprieties are so united in one Person that the Person may be called by the Name of both Natures Christ is God and Christ is Man in the Concret tho' in the Abstract it may not be said Divinity is Humanity nor Humanity Divinity they are united but without Confusion But to return to our Point there was never so many glorious Names joyned together to describe one Person as we find to be in this place to him alone they all belong because the Spirit of Truth saith so which if they were not properly his by right he would not give them Wonderful in his Name in his Nature in his Person in his Incarnation Wonderful every way Counsellour for he is the Wisdom of the Father without which the Only Wise God never doth any thing the Mighty God most proper to God and never in the singular number given any Creature * Isa 10.21 the remnant saith our Prophet shall return even the remnant of Jacob unto the mighty God the true essential God the God of Israel is meaned in the place 't is such a Name as is made use of when in a most Eminent way God is described †Deut. 10.17 your God is God of Gods and the Cord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible And ‖ Nehem. 9.32 now therefore our God the great the mighty and the terrible God and elsewhere * Jerem 32.18 the great the mighty God the Lord of hosts is his name and when the Question is to know who is the King of Glory the Answer is the Lord strong and mighty this High and Divine Name is here in the place aâ—â—â—ibuted to Jesus Christ the Son of God about whom is the Prophecy that which follows is no less considerable or incommunicable the everlasting Father or as 〈…〉 Father of Eternity nothing more Noble or becoming God can be said than to call him so nothing â—ut the True God is Eternal and nothing more propâ—â—â— to God than Eternity How can a Child or any meet mortal Man be called everlasting Father Now what can hinder us hence to argue thus the mighty God and everlasting Father is true God by Nature but Christ is such out of this place therefore Christ is true God by Nature Two things more are here said of this Son of God he is the Prince of Peace for by his Death he made our Peace with God and procured an inward Peace of Conscience and reconciled things in Heaven and on the earth he came into the World in time of universal Peace when the Roman Empire the greatest in the World fully enjoy'd it and for a Sign the Temple of Janus in Rome was shut up nay Herod and Pilate Luke 23.12 both his Enemies were before his death upon his account reconciled one to another Secondly 't is said of him The government shall be upon his shoulders and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end After the Father had said to him * Psal 2.7 8 9. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee he promiseth to give him the Heathens for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereunto agreeth another Scripture †Rev. 12 5. of the Man-child that was to rule all Nations with a Rod of Iron this he declared unto Pilate ‖ John 18.37 Rev. 11.15 Luke 1.33 I am a king to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world So then the kingdoms of this world are his and he shall reign for ever and ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end The New Testament doth also in several places demonstrate two Natures in the Person of Christ S. John having affirmed the Word to be God which relates to his eternal Generation he doth afterwards speak of his Incarnation when he saith * Joh. 1.14 The word that was God was made flesh that is the Person call'd the Word the Son of God took upon him our human Nature and so united two Natures divine and human in one Person for this Word is in the whole Chapter spoken of as of a Person acting making or creating coming all this is the Character of a Person
there was any difference the words for the first seem stronger than those for the last for to be in the form is more than to be in the likeness because forma dat esse rei a thing hath being from its Form or Nature but he gave sufficient and great demonstration of both Natures in him to those among whom he did converse Socinians would wrest the Text of Luke 1.3 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall over-shadow thee therefore that also which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God They would have the Particle therefore to signifie the Cause wherefore Christ was to be called the Son of God that is that miraculous Conception by the Holy Ghost but no such thing may be deduced 't is not the Cause but the Consequence or Inference which is signified by the words therefore and wherefore by which Particles we usually draw Conclusions from Premises whether they be Causes Effects or Signs or that which upon any other account whatsoever may be deduced therefrom And in this place out of the scope thereof it cannot be demonstrated out of any Circumstances that the Conception by the Holy Ghost is the true cause why Christ was to be called the Son of God 't is not upon the account of that manner of his Conception for then for that same cause either Christ would call himself or be called by others Son of God else the Angel's Prediction should prove false by which reason he rather should not be called than called the Son of God even according to their Principles which deny the Holy Ghost to be true God but the words of the Angel do import not that he should be called once or by some few Son of God but always and generally by all that should own him to be the Son of God Besides this Exposition of theirs they can bring no Example to confirm it for in abundance of places we read Christ to be called Son of God but find none at all wherein he is called Son of God according to the Flesh And the Angel doth not say therefore he may happen to be but absolutely and publickly declareth he shall be called wherefore seeing he no where is called Son of God according to the Flesh we may necessarily conclude he is not such in that sense to be called is sometimes really to be as in that Text * 1. John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God that is that we should really be owned and declared to be the Sons of God such as truly we are being adopted in Christ his true natural Son The word holy used gives a strong Evidence that Christ was to be called Son of God for a much better and higher reason than that he was to be born of a Virgin he shall be called Son of God because he is holy therefore not upon the account of the Flesh but by reason of his Holiness because the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin some holy thing was to be born of her that makes the Angel say Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God not as to the manner of Conception but as to the thing to be conceived though by the Angel it be not expressed how great was that Holiness we may well conceive it to be that highest and infinite Holiness as becomes the Son of God wherefore Isaiah in his Prophecy of him calls him as already observed the mighty God Elizabeth calls him Luke 1.43 her Lord the Angel calls him ‖ Chap. 2.11 Saviour Christ the Lord and Daniel * Dan. 9.24 He was anointed the most Holy Before the wise Men fell down and worshipped him which they were sent to do and to that purpose guided by a Star †Mat. 2.2 11. and according to the Prophecies ‖ Psal 72.10 offered him Gifts and Presents as to a King for under that Name his Birth was declared to them and promised therefore the Holiness of Christ is the Holiness of God and of him who is by Nature Lord and King The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and or also which follows therefore is not in vain but shews a Comparison and is related not to the word called but to be born and the sense is not only that word which from Eternity is born of God is Son of God but that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God because that eternal Son of God shall take human Nature and be born of thee And this is one of the things which the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin was to do namely that she should conceive without Man and conceive a Man him who from eternity is according to divine Nature the Son of God which could not otherwise be effected than with the Holy Ghost uniting human Nature which was to be formed out of her own Blood and Substance sanctified before and preserved from Sin and Corruption with the Person of the Son Men must not think there is in Scripture the least tittle or word without cause for the Holy Ghost doth and saith nothing in vain Another reason is the Angel saith Christ shall be called the Son not of the Holy Ghost but of God the Father Now if the manner of this Conception was the cause of his being called Son of God he should properly be the Son of the Holy Ghost not of the Father for he is said to be conceived by the Holy Ghost but they deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person yet actiones sunt suppositorum is a Rule in Philosophy and this Conceiving being an Act the Holy Ghost must be a Person for I defie them to shew any thing to be done but by a Person Scripture in the quoted place Rom. 1.3 the Question being about Christ's being the Son of God excludes the Flesh to attribute it to the Spirit but Socinians would have it according to both yet S. Paul's scope is to teach how he is Son of God according to the Flesh and how according to the Spirit as to the first he explains himself when he saith which was made of the seed of David as to be second he declareth his meaning when he saith he was declared Son of God with power whence we may conclude he saith Christ to be called and really be the Son of God not according to the Flesh but to the Spirit or else he had not sufficiently declared in what sense he is the son of God and 't is clear how he opposes the Flesh to the Spirit according to the first he was made of the Seed of David according to the last he was declared the Son of God Withal Scipture would have such a Son of God as is without Father c. such as Melchisedec no mention being made of his Father Mother or Genealogy
he seemed not to be born on Earth but rather fallen from Heaven having neither beginning of Days nor ending of Life but made like unto the Son of God whereof he was a Type shewing these Attributes to be more proper to and true of the Son of God which cannot be otherwise understood then thus either that the Son of God hath such a Nature as doth by no means come and is derived from earthly and carnal Parents without beginning or end and so eternal to all eternity such as is divine Nature or else that both Natures of Christ divine and human are denoted human without Father upon Earth divine without Mother in Heaven and either overthrows the imaginary Notion of Socinus of Father according to the Flesh This must not be understood of the Priesthood about which the Question is not but about his Origine and Genealogy he is said to be without Father or Mother not but that he had some only there is no mention nor description made of it for the Greek word without Genealogy signifieth not the Genealogy it self but the description of it besides that the words without beginning of Days or ending of Life may by no means be applyed to the Priesthood wherefore he is said to have no beginning of Days not but that he had but is brought in as if he had not to answer him whose Type he was Days and Life are not referred to a Priesthood but to a Being a Person an Existence and Life the beginning or ending whereof absolutely no mention is made at all so then in this place the Comparison is not about the Priesthod but about the eternal Person of Christ for Christ's Priesthood had a beginning as is expressy set down in Scripture * Heb. 5.5 6. For he glorified not himself to be made an High Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee as he saith also in another place Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec So then in that sense it cannot properly be applyed to Christ 't is frivolous to say as if it were to be understood of any Family for the Apostle absolutely speaks of beginning of Days not of a Priesthood to speak absolutely of a Beginning and of a beginning of a Family are two things and that is to wrest the Apostle's sense and meaning and make him say a thing which he never intended We don't deny but that the Apostle speaks of the Priesthood of Melchisedec and of Christ's but it must be owned he also speaks of other things as of Melchisedec's being King of Righteousness King of Salem King of Peace c. and his being without beginning of Days or ending of Life relates to his Person and Life for no mention is made of his Birth or of his Death though both besel him but from the Eternity of his Person the Apostle inferreth the Eternity of his Priesthood So then when the Lord Jesus is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Person of Melchisedec the two last are not to be understood of his temporal Generation and Birth of the Virgin for two Evangelists have written his Genealogy but of his eternal Generation and of this speaks the Prophet †Isai 53.8 Who shall declare his generation An Expression equivalent to this no Man can it is eternal incomprehensible When our Saviour was born of the Virgin he was born in time ‖ Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of the time was come as Scripture calls it Now this Parallel between the Type and Anti-Type Melchisedec and Christ doth not run upon our Saviour's Birth according to the Flesh and about his human Nature but about something higher his Divinity wherefore the Apostle in the place where he saith Melchisedec to be without Father c. doth ascend higher saying * Heb. 7.3 but made like unto the Son of God The more â—o prosecute this Argument we must say how Christ in his Childhood even in the Womb was God for he is Immanuel God with us from the Virgins Womb the thing is clear out of this that God being not Flesh but Spirit can have no carnal only spiritual Sons the true Birth makes the true Sons and this is of two sorts those that are born of the Flesh are carnal those of the Spirit are spiritual for saith Christ Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit now to be born of the Flesh is to be born of a carnal Seed as to be born of the Spirit is to be born of a spiritual Seed wherefore Peter †Pet. 1.23 24 25. mentioneth two Seeds one corruptible the other incorruptible that of the Flesh as Grass withereth away the spiritual endureth for ever If then Christ was born of the Spirit as not long before we took notice the Adversaries would have him to be because he is said to have been conceived by the Holy Ghost then that Birth of Christ would be spiritual but not according to the Flesh 'T is not without cause that when Scripture speaks of our Blessed Saviour in several places it makes a restriction according to the Flesh and an Opposition to 't according to the Spirit thus 't is in the fore-quoted places Rom. 1.3 4. and Chap. 9.5 thus The word was made flesh the Word and Flesh do signifie two different Principles distinguished and in opposition one to another So the Apostle saith * 1 Pet. 3.18 Chap. 4.1 Christ was put to death in the Flesh but quickened in the Spirit and again He hath suffer'd for us in the flesh that is in his human Nature then in him is a Nature in which he suffer'd not and 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the flesh In one and the same Subject are two different Natures divine signified by the word God and humane by the Flesh What mean those words of S. Peter * Acts 2.30 31. how God had sworn unto David That of the fruit of his loins according to the Flesh he would raise up Christ and that his Flesh did not see corruption but to shew that in Christ was another Being different from that according to the Flesh according to which he was not David's Son Thus S. Paul as already quoted said God sent his Son in likeness of sinful Flesh there is a difference between being Son of God and being in the likeness of sinful Flesh And elsewhere †Ephes 2.15 Colos 1.22 Heb. 5.7 Ch. 10.20 Having abolished in his Flesh and You hath be reconciled in thâ—â—body of his Flesh again Who in the days of his Flesh and Through the vail that is to say his Flesh that visible Vail did hide some invisible thing Now I say it were in vain in Scripture to see so often mention made of Christ's Flesh if there was in him no other thing as the ground of the Distinction thus when we speak
is here said to reign The Lord God Almighty but to reign belong to Kings and if we go back to v. 15. this we shall find The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ who is called * Ch. 19.16 Vers 6. King of Kings and Lord of Lords and if we go back to v. 6. we may hear Alleluia the reason is for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth and in another place we read of the song of the lamb which I suppose no Man doubts to be the Lord Jesus and what is the Song Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty He is the Almighty God and certainly we have as many Evidences of his Omnipotency as there be Miracles wrought by him And if God the Father be Almighty as they will not deny him to be the Son must also be Almighty †John 5.19 for whatsoever things the father doth these also doth the son likewise Unchangeableness belongs to the true essential God Christ's Immutability but thou art the same saith the Psalmist 102.27 and Christ is unchangeable in his Words and Promises ‖ Matt. 24 35. Heaven and earth pass away but my words shall not pass away for * 2 Cor. 1.20 All the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen and †Rev. 19.11 He is called faithful and true Other Names and Attributes there are in Scripture which though not incommunicable yet are so eminently spoken of the Divinity that they are almost equivalent to it so that they be fixed in God as their Spring and in the Creature but detivatively and as it were a small Drop in comparison with the vast Ocean and these being attributed unto Christ by way of Excellency do not only illustrate but also prove his Divinity I shall speak but few words about them the first is the highest which indeed I find in Scripture never to be spoken of Men in the superlative degree This is spoken of Christ in the place where it is said * Gen. 14.18 19 20. Melchizedec was the Priest of the most high God equivalent to the word highest and in the two following Verses 't is repeated so that no less than thrice the Name most high is set down which I conceive to be not without cause and may be in relation to the most holy and blessed Trinity Well this Name is attributed unto the Lord Jesus as what Zacharias said of his Son John †Luke 1.76 And thou child shalt be called the Prophet of the highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways So the Attribute is given to the Person therein spoken of which no Man may question to be the Lord Jesus This was given him by the Multitude and approved by him upon his entrance into Jerusaâ—em for they cryed saying * Mat. 21.9 Hosanna to the son of David Hosanna in the highest and though as I said this be simply proper to God and †1 Tim. 6.15 belonging only to him yet being joyned with the Name of God is attributed unto Christ ‖ Acts 16. These men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Servant of Christ is a Title which Paul doth usually take upon him Who this Most High God is we read in the next Verse Jesus Christ in whose Name he commanded the Spirit to go out which he did the same hour The word the blessed with an Article doth as I have had occasion to shew signifie the same as God and 't is said of the Son of God *âŽ* Psal 72 17. All nations shall call him blessed and the Multitude in the fore-quoted place called him so blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord and in that noted place the Apostle joyneth both blessed and God and gives him * Rom. 9.5 who is over all God blessed for ever Paul saith not Let him be in a way of Wish and Desire nor he shall be as if then the thing was not but only to come but he saith He is God blessed for ever thereby meaning his Being and Nature In Scripture †Isai 14. Psal 71.23 the Name of holy one is given to the only true God whom Israel doth worship This also is spoken of Christ ‖ Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption and Peter *âŽ* Acts 2.27 and 3.14 doth certainly declare those words to have been spoken of Christ The Angel said to Mary * Luke 1.35 Therefore also that holy thing or holy one for it was a Person which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God before he was born Holiness was his Attribute and 't is †Rom. 1.4 according to the spirit of holiness that he was declared to be Son of God with power he not only is holy but also Holiness it self in the abstract To him sitting upon a Throne the Seraphims ‖ Isai 6.1 2 3. cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory which is by John â‚ Joh. 12.41 applyed unto Christ These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him and * Rev. 4.8 The four beasts â—est not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come which last is in S. John's stile a Description of the first these words spoken to him who sits upon the Throne and I hope none will deny Christ is sitting upon the Throne as absolutely expressed in several places of this Book So Daniel ‖ Dan. 9.24 called him The most holy Other Names and Titles Scripture doth appropriate unto Christ which are all strong Demonstrations of what he is namely the natural Son of God which I only shall name for indeed it would be almost an endless Work to insist upon all Testimonies of Scripture upon the matter He is then King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 17.14 and 19.16 King and Lord of glory Psal 24.7 10. compared with 1 Cor. 2.8 Lord of David Psal 110. with Matth. 22.44 where 't is observable how the same Name given to the Lord spoken â—f is also given to the Lord spoken to as equally belonging to both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in this sense he is in several places of Scripture called one Lord 1 Cor. 8.6 and Lord of all Acts 10.36 because all things were made by him John 1.3 So the Lord and Saviour because there is no Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 Let special notice be taken of Psal 68. where speaking of Christ according to Paul's interpretation Ephes 4.8 he among other high and great Names is called the Lord God the God of our salvation and such more which certainly do belong only to the true essential God In Scripture the Names of Lord God King absolutely taken or with the distinction
all men knowing him to be one with the Father may honour the Son even as they honour the Father whereby he demonstrates himself to be God for divine honour belongs to none else for thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve We must love honour and worship one person of the God-head as well as the other as we love God in the person of the Father so we must love God in the person of the Son and of the Holy Ghost for if any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be an Athema 1 Cor. 16.22 Maran-atha He who loveth not the Son loveth not the Father and he who loves not the Holy Ghost loveth not the Father nor the Son Here I bring in point of worship the instance of love because without it no true worship We ought not to worship God otherwise than he hath declared in his word he that woshipeth not God the Father Son and Holy Ghost doth not worship God as he ought 't is not enough to worship God as God essentially but also he must be in the three persons for all three are the object of worship or else our Religion is vain and we are to look not only to the object but also to the order of worship the Father through the Son John 16. and by the Son to go to the Father and so by the means of the Holy Ghost we go to both for we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. â— 26 1 Cor. 12.3 but the spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us Neither can one say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost And in giving glory to God 't is not enough to glorifie him except it be in the three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost And the consideration of this Mistery of one God in three persons which ought to be our guide in worshiping that eternal and infinite Being ought to teach us modesty and humility which is so essential in our serving God to adore the incomprehensibility of these high things the Majesty of God and the Mistery of his Son 's being made Flesh and be made sensible of our weakness and then endeavour to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Here I cannot forbear inserting the words of two eminent Doctors of the Primitive Church Ambros de fid ad gratian lib. 1. cap. 5. Mihi impossibile est saith one generationis scire secretum mens deficit voxsilet non mea tantum sed Angelorum licet scire quod natus fit non licet discutere quomodo natus sit illud negare mihi non licet hoc quaerere metus 'T is impossible for me to know the secret of that Generation my understanding faileth me my mouth is stopt 't is lawful not only for me but also for Angels to know He is born but 't is not lawful to enquire how he is born that I cannot deny but I am afraid to search into this The other saith filium esse a deo patre immortali genitum novi sed quemadmodum ignoro spiritum ex co procedere scio Chrisost hom de incomprehens dei natura sed quemadmodum nescio I know the Son to be begotten of the immortal Father but in what manner I cannot tell I know the Holy Ghost to proceed from him but how I know not These being just come into my thoughts though they exactly are not belonging to the present part of our discourse yet being much to the purpose of the whole I here have set them down Indeed in things of that nature men ought to yield an obedience of Faith and believe unity of Nature and Trinity of Persons for numero deus impare gaudet so we must worship one God in three persons Our present purpose is to prove Christ to be true Essential Eternal God because the same worship due only to the true Eternal God is rendred unto him as anon we shall by the grace of God make it appear But now somethings must be premised which can contribute towards the better understanding of the point first Christ's enemies are not agreed in this particular one Valentinus Gentilis by us named in the beginning of this Discourse and some others do flatly deny Christ this Divine Worship because they disown him essentially to be God and no divine worship is to be rendred to the Creature which to do is Idolatry but Socinus said he is to be worshiped but with such restrictions as such a worship is all most no better than none at all They would have him to be worshiped only after his resurrection and that the resurection was the standing sign and true reason why one whom God raised from the dead should be worshiped but if this be true then the Son of the Widow of Sarepta of the Shunamite 1 Kings 17.22 2 Kings 4.34 c. Chap. 13.21 and of the dead man that having touched the bones of Elisha was revived under the Old Testament and the Son of the Woman of Naim and the daughter of Jairus Lazarus Dorcas and Eutichus under the New are to be worshiped according to this rule of theirs Wherefore some other cause than this must be assigned why Christ must be worshiped they say he ought to be so as he is Mediator we own that Christ Mediator is to be worshiped but that honour belongs to him in relation to his Deity for when God bringeth in the first born into the world Heb. 1.6 he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him he is called first begotten not in relation to his humanity for many were Children of God before his Birth but in respect to his eternal generation He is to be adored by Angels though he be not their Mediator when we adore Christ as Mediator 't is not in relation to his Office abstracted from his Deity but as he is true God In this sence the Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive as he did by the Angels Rev. 5.12 the Beasts and the Elders honour and glory and blessing because in his humane nature dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily Colos 2.9 The Ark was not worshiped but God in the Ark as not the Bush but God in the Bush not the ground which Moses stood upon but God in that place sanctified by his special presence and so in several other places of the Old Testament Indeed Christ is to be worshiped Phil. 2.7 though in the form of a Servant and made a little lower than the Angels though not as a Servant or as lower than the Angels by which all God would have him to be adored for no other cause but for his divine nature V. 6. the form of God whereby he shall remained equal with the Father in his state of humiliation As Angels are commanded to worship Christ so is the Church under the
Essentially exclusively not to Son and Holy Ghost but to Idols and Creatures the word Father is here taken for God as 't is when said one God and Father of all and Abba-Father Ephes 4.6 Rom. 8.15 Also the Father of Spirits The words our Father are often taken for our God and Lord In those places the word Father is said relatively not to the Son Heb. 12.9 Matth. 10.21 29. Luke 30.32 John 14.13 Chap. 3.13 but to men whose Father God is The things in the Lord's Prayer asked and prayed for are asked of the Son as well as of the Father as the coming of his Kingdom the forgiveness of our Sins whence saith our Lord Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will do And the words which are in Heaven do belong to the Son as to the Father and the Holy Ghost too as appeareth out of Psal 139.7 8. and Matth. 3.16 Nay as we said before the Son is called the everlasting Father And if we consider the Etymology of the word which in the Original signifieth to preserve all things we shall find he is a Father indeed by whom all things are upheld and preserved which the Holy Spirit within us beareth witness unto when our heart laying under the sense of some trouble or mercy doth on a sudden by means of an Ejaculatory Prayer either in thoughts words or both poure it self before him begging for help or giving thanks breaking out upon occasion into these or the like expressions Lord Jesus have pity on me or Lord Jesus make me thankful Thus I through the grace of God have under those several heads brought in proofs for our blessed Lord and Saviour's divinity of many more which Scripture affords I shall take notice but of few wherein he is properly and truly called God which to assert is the main drift of the word as it is the foundation of the whole Gospel for it was absolutely necessary he should be God by nature or else any man might have preached taught prayed given good example and made intercession as well as Christ and if he came into the world and dyed only to teach us good doctrine and give us good example he had done for us no more than the Apostles and Martyrs who taught good doctrine and gave good example so might as well be called our Mediators and Saviours If this had as they say been the whole work of the Mediator our redemption had been no hard matter to be performed But I say that his threefold office of Mediatorship Prophecy Kingship and Priesthood demonstrate him to be true Essential God for none of the three could perfectly have been performed but by a God himself As to the Prophetical to enlighten the understanding and effectually to turn the heart as to the Regal to defend Believers against the Power of Satan and as to the Priestly to obtain forgiveness of Sins favour of God and glory none of these could be obtained but by him who is infinite as in Power so in Nature there is an infinite distance between God who is infinite and every finite Creature no proportion between Infinite and Finite Scripture owneth nothing but God to be higher than Angels now Christ is higher and above all Angels Besides that the necessity of satisfaction to be given to Divine Justice doth argue a necessity for Christ to be God for the satisfaction could not have been adequate as it ought to be except he was God and this divinity in him doth prove the plurality of persons in the God-head which is the whole of the difficulty alledged against the most holy Trinity Certainly the great design of the Apostles and others was to preach Christ to be truely and really God Son of God whereby their Ministry was exalted this was the foundation they were to build upon Acts 8.37 The Eunuch must make this Confession I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God before he could be baptized so did every one else being converted to the Faith this in our Religion is the first thing to be known and preached thus Paul after his Conversion Chap. 9.20 the first thing he did was to preach that Christ is the Son of God for that was the great question the Jews denyed him not to be Man Son of Man but he went about to convince them how also he was God Son of God and he was by Nature God as certainly as by nature he was Man Wherefore he would raise the thoughts of the Corinthians from the consideration of Christ's humanity to that of his Deity when he saith 2 Cor. 5.16 though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more after the flesh but according to the spirit not in the humane but in the divine nature according to which he is called by the glorious names of the holy one Act. 3.14 15. 1 Cor. 2.8 and the just the prince of life and the Lord of glory our Blessed Saviour who when he was in the world had so often declared himself to be the Son of God in a proper sense after his Ascension when he had a full possession of that glory as it were to confirm from Heaven what he had declared upon Earth in the Revelation he made to that disciple of his who doth so eminently bear witness of his divinity 1 Joh. 4.14 15. when he saith we have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and not otherwise I say on that occasion the Lord Jesus from Heaven proclaims himself to be Son of God in the letter to the Angel of the Church in Thiatira with this glorious description Rev. 2.18 compared with chap. 1.14 15. These things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass Tho his enemies would not hear him upon earth during the time of his humiliation when through his Passive Obedience he was about performing the first part of his Priestly Office to satisfie divine Justice and make expiation for our sins I think now they should when he speaks from Heaven whence he exercises his Royal Office I know well enough how what I say about his satisfying Divine Justice through his death doth not affect his enemies who deny he hath given satisfaction for us but what can his intercession on in Heaven which is the second part of his Priesthood be grounded upon but his own merits through his Sufferings and Death he thereby hath payed our Debts and by vertue of that payment he asks we should be released but that point I intend not to meddle with in this place In the New Testament the name Saviour is as proper to him as that of Christ as indeed that of Jesus the same with Saviour was given him by the Angel and
by †De Vnit Eccles Cyprian and also by Tertullian Ignatius c. This Text doth so well agree with that of the Evangelist to baptize all Nations in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which it doth allude unto that none may doubt but it was suggested by the same Spirit and the name word particular to St. John doth sufficiently witness how those lines together with the rest came out of his Pen Non unus sed unum saith one of the fore-quoted Fathers Not one Person sed unum c. one Nature not only the unity of Testimony as they are three distinct Witnesses not only the unity of Consent and Will but also of Nature as I and the Father are one Joh 10.30 which the Jews understood very well for thereupon they accused him of Blasphemy and took up Stones to have cast at him the reason they give for 't is this Because thou being a man V. 33. makest thy self God In few words we cannot be baptized in the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost except the names of these three equal in Authority Dignity and Essence be called upon on our behalf and as I observed before 't is unlawful to be baptized in the name of any man The Israelites were baptized by the Worâ—â— or Ministry or as the Syriack hath it in the Hand of Moses but not in his Name Before we leave off these Objections against the most adorable Trinity for the better understanding of the matter I shall speak some few words more for indeed the point is of so high a concernment and affords such a plenty and variety of Discourse that we can never say enough of what is to be known in the case Tho' as we said they be the same in Essence yet they differ first in personal Names as Father Son and Holy Ghost Secondly in their Order Father first as the Spring then Son thirdly Holy Ghost Thirdly In their manner of Operation the Father doth act of himself the Son from the Father and the Holy Ghost from both Gal. 4.4 John 14.26 15.26 so the Son is sent by the Father the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son but we never read the Father was sent So there is a difference in the outward Works for tho' they be common to the three Persons yet Creation is properly attributed to the Father Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the Holy Ghost Thus these three Persons have every one their personal unity in number they are distinguish'd yet are but one God in number of Essential and natural unity wherefore in God are not three Beings three Infinites or three Things Yet they object the names of Trinity Personality and Essence were not heard of before the Apostles time nor the Doctrin of the Trinity I answer to the first that tho' the Names were not yet the Things were and Words are to signifie Things that there is one God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit as it appears out of the places quoted to prove the Divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost which here I need not to repeat and if the things be true why should Men dispute about words which do not in the least prejudice the Analogy of Faith on the contrary do explain and confirm it As to the Second I say that the Doctrin of the Trinity was mentioned of old as I proved it already out of several places of Scripture the Question is not about the Father but the Son concerning whom is the clear Testimony of Psal 2 whose coming as Jehovah and God of Israel for the Prophet speaks to Israel when he calls him your God was foretold Behold Isa 35 4 5. Mat. 11.4 5. Psal 51.10 11. your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you which is applied unto Christ Of the Holy Ghost mention is made by David and in other places but that which under the Old Testament was under a Vail is clearly revealed under the New for the Persons are plainly named and their number expressed as in the places already made use of not only in the Baptism of our Saviour but in his Commission given his Apostles to baptize c. which as I shewed is unlawful to be done in any man's name As there is truth in Jesus so this is the truth of his Gospel which also hath in conformity thereunto been the sense of the general Orthodox Councils and of the Doctors of the Primitive Church however this must be said that tho' this Mystery of the holy Trinity be expressed in Scripture yet 't is such a one as exceedeth our understanding and capacity Again they say In most places of Scripture 't is said there is but one God and that this God is the Father of Jesus Christ I answer The Name God when properly spoken and of the true God is taken either essentially for Divine Nature or personalty for some of the Persons when taken in the first sense it doth not exclude but include the Persons only it is set down in opposition to Idols and false Gods which by Nature are not Gods the things absolutely spoken of the Oneness of God do not at all prejudice the Persons which are that onely God hence it is that not only the Father but also Son and Holy Ghost are called God In this Essential sense are taken the places they quote out of the Old and New Testament as for instance Mark 2.7 Luk. 5.21 that of Mark and of Luke which among others they make use of Who can forgive sins but God only The word God belongs to the Essence yet that power doth belong to the Son as to the Father for there Christ assumeth it to himself which same power is also attributed unto the Holy Ghost Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 22. whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them When the word God is to be understood personally then there is a note of distinction joyned to know what Person is spoken of whether Father Son or Holy Ghost What we say of the word God the same we affirm of the name Father which doth not always signifie the first Person but also the Nature and three Persons Thus when God is said to be Father of all and in the Lord's Prayer we call him Our Father when we cry Abba Father c. in all Texts of that nature Father Son and Holy Ghost are understood As to the Particle besides me sometimes used it excepts nothing within tho' every thing without the Deity or that hath not the Divine Nature But one of the Arguments which most of all they ground themselves upon is this Joh. 17.3 And this is eternal life to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ They would have Christ to be excluded from being the only true God which they restrain only to the Father but herein they are much
assert the Distinction of Persons but because they are distinct Persons it doth not follow that there is not one and the same Essence of the three Persons and that they are not one only God Father Maker and Preserver of all and out of the Texts they produce they cannot make out what they intend how the Father and the Son are never contain'd together under the Name of God for the Persons are distinguish'd where Scripture speaketh Relatively of God and doth oppose or compare them or describe their Proprieties Further they object they have distinct Essences whose workings are distinct but Father's and Son's workings are distinct therefore their Essences are so But we say the major Preposition is to be understood of Operations ad extra or outward for if whilst one doth work the other ceaseth then the Essences are distinct but as to the inward workings there is no distinction or difference of Essences far from it that the Generation of the Son and the Procession of the Holy Ghost do confirm the unity of Essence for by the Generation one and the same whole Essence of the Father is communicated unto the Son and by this same reason there is but one and the Essence of both Now the Minor Proposition speaketh of inward Operations and this Omonimy or Ambiguity of Terms brings in four Termini in the Argument contrary to Rules but if one and the same kind of Operations be understood then one of the Propositions is false the major is understood of those ad imra the minor of those ad extra and in the case of the Incarnation there are two terms to be consider'd a quo from whom and ad quem to or in whom tho' as thus it be terminatively in the Son yet a quo or originatively it is the work of the whole Trinity Another Argument of theirs is this the Essence unbegotten and begetting is not the same with the Essence begotten and not begetting but the Essence of the Father is unbegotten yet hath begotten the Son but the Son 's is begotten yet nor begetting therefore the Essence of the Father is not the same with that of the Son This Argument is borrow'd from the Arrians whereof the minor Preposition is false namely that the Essence of the Son is begotten the Names begotten or not begotten do not belong to the Essence but shew an Hypostatical or Personal Difference Should the Essence beget it would either beget it self and so should be begotten of it self so it would make many different Essences of the Godhead whence would follow many Gods Moreover as in natural things not the Essence but the compositum doth beget so in divine things the Person begets and is begotten which yet is not a vain Relation seeing it is not constituted without the Essence Now if it were true that the Divine Essence doth beget one could say either the Son doth beget or deny the Son to have the Divine Essence Again They say Two or three distinct Persons have so many distinct Essences for the distinction of Essences doth follow that of Persons so then Father Son and Holy Ghost being three distinct Persons they have three distinct Essences but the first Preposition is true only in natural not in Divine things besides they are in a mistake when they think there is no real Distinction except the things do differ in an Essential Number when there are several things that differ in the thing and definition which yet in Essence and Number are but one Here by the by I say the words like and likeness when a Comparison is made between the Persons is not convenient to be used but equal and equality which indeed containeth a likeness but something above Another thing I shall add here how some things are properly spoken of the Essence which also are properly spoken of the Persons for 't is properly said of the Essence and of the Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost that they are Spirit and Holy for the word Spirit is spoken of as common and essential John 4.24 God is a Spirit properly and personally of the Son Christ declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of Holiness Rom. 1.4 Heb. 9.14 â—Pet 3 18. and who thorough the Eternal Spirit offereth himself and elsewhere Christ was put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit So of the Father and Holy Ghost also to be holy is an Attribute of the Essence yet in particular and properly in Scripture attributed to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Upon this Matter one thing more I shall take notice of how Adjectives in the Plural may be attributed to God by reason of the Number of Persons and Substantives in the Singular only upon account of the Essence Further they object Christ hath a Father who is the God of Christ but the Father hath no God call'd his therefore Father and Son are distinguished in Essence the major they prove out of our Saviour's Word I ascend unto my Father and to your Father unto my God and to your God and my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I answer Christ hath a common Father and God with us in as much as the word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and in as much as the Man Jesus Christ is Mediator between God and Man yet so as in his Mediatorship he is true Man so he is true God This Discourse being intended for his Brethren he begins with the Profession he makes to own them as his Brothers Go to my Brethren all which to be understood of the Nature which the Brotherhood doth relate to and tho' the Father continueth such in relation to what the Son was when the Word was with God yet in the Birth and Incarnation the Father remaineth what he was God is the Father of all Flesh but not in the same manner and sense as he is the Father of the word in Scripture 't is declared in what sense and on what side they are Brethren to the only begotten Son of God Colos 1.18 I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren but he said before I am a Worm and no Man Psal 22.6 Christ is by the Apostle call'd the First-born amongst many Brethren also because the First-born from the Dead Furthermore they say if Christ when he speaketh of God stould mean also himself he would include himself in the mention he makes of God but he doth not but maketh a difference between himself and God whom he calls the true God so in the Apostolical Writings God and Christ are spoken of asunder which places I quote in the Margin c. John 3.16 and 17.3 d. Rom. 16.23 1 Tim. 6.13 14 15 16. 1 Cor. 15.24 Col. 1.3 Eph. 4.5 1 Thes 1.2 3 9 10. to shew we omit none of them So say they he not joyning himself with God sheweth he is not the same with God thus the name God absolutely taken belongeth only
to the Father I answer the name of God is taken either personally namely as he begets and as he is begotten and thus the Son is distinguished from the Father and upon this account the Apostle speaks of them separately Christ is distinguished from God both in Person and Office not in the Godhead or Essence or else the name is absolutely simply Rom. 8.31 32. 1 Tim. 1.1 1 John 5.20 Joh. 14.1 and essentially taken when the Question is about the Godhead then as to the Deity the Son is not distinguished from the Father as when Christ saith there is none good but God he doth not exclude himself from being good 't is as if he had said unto the Man if thou believest me to be good for so thou callest me thou must also believe me to be God for none is good but God and this was to have the Man to look upon him to be God Again When our Saviour saith Vnto God all things are possible and that God is able out of Stones to rise Children unto Abraham when the Apostles in their Salutations name first God and our Father and then the Lord Jesus Christ 't is no good Consequence to say that the Son is not of the same Nature with the Father for the Name of God is therein attributed unto the Father as the Spring and first in order of the Deity then the Son is proposed as Mediatour to lead us unto God for we are led by Christ unto the Father to worship and adore him together with the Father for he saith Ye believe in God believe also in me thereby shewing we ought to render unto him the same things we render to the Father wherefore in several places we read how when the Name Father is added yet that of God is immediately put before when generally something is taught which belongeth to Father Son and Holy Ghost then having named the Father the Mediatour is mention'd to breed in us Hope and Comfort thus the same Apostle opposeth one God to Idols where Christ is not excluded for immediately in the same Verse he declareth who that one God is namely the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things 1 Cor. 8.6 Ephes 4.5 6. and we by him thus in another place he saith there is one God as there is one Baptism Christ in whose Name we are baptized is not excluded from that oneness of Godhead Joh. 14.6 and because he would come to the Mediatour he very fitly nameth the Father to whom as the Head of the Deity there is no approach without the Mediator so by the Name Father is represented God essentially offended by Mankind and by the Son and Christ that Person of the adorable Trinity who hath undertaken to make our Peace and reconcile us unto God he is the way the truth and the life and none can come to the father but by him So when we read the word God we must not separate the Father nor the Son because the Divinity of the Father and of the Son is but one and the same Moreover they object the Father is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself hath all of himself and acts of himself but the Son is not God of himself he is from the Father himself he saith he came from the Father and the Father sent him to this I answer They go upou a wrong Principle for they would have this to be of one self or of another to import a different Essence or Nature for even in created things that which is begotten is ever of the same Nature with that which hath begotten but by reason of Imperfection these are one only in Species but God the Father and the Son may not be said to be one in Species or Kind because thus they would make two Gods What they add how in Divine things he that begetteth and he that is begotten are not one either in Essence or Species because Men and Angels are called Sons of God which are not one with God either in Nature or Kind is very frivolous for 't is certain they are call'd Sons of God upon a very different account from that on which Christ is so call'd None is ever call'd God's own and proper Son only begotten come from the Bosom of the Father for unto which of the Angels or Men said he at any time thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 this day have I begotten thee and again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son Moreover they are mistaken to think that to be of another is to be of a different and inferiour Nature indeed he who receiveth not all but out of favour only part of what another hath may be said to be inferiour to him of whom he receiveth but he not so who hath all that another hath not by favour but by Nature and Generation They are farther much mistaken when they deny Christ simply and absolutely to be God of himself for he must need be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is a being or Essence of himself Life of himself Holy of himself Power of himself is good of himself Light of himself Truth of himself Wisdom of himself Righteousness of himself Perfect of himself and Glory of himself which all are Attributes of the Deity and to whom they belong So doth also Divine Nature all which Attributes were by the antient Orthodox Doctors of the Church and after them by the eminent Instruments of Reformation owned to be the Right and Property of the Son of God grounding themselves upon the Authority of Scripture in several Places especially that of 1 John 5.20 by me already quoted we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life If we look upon the Son of God as he is from Eternity begotten of the Father and as he is the second Person on such an account we own the Son to be from the Father seeing he is true Son but if we consider him as God he is altogether self God and God of himself for the Divinity is wholly unbegotten and of her self knoweth of no beginning and needs not to borrow of others what it hath of it self and if to the Son one would attribute a Begotten and formed Essence this is from the Father to make a second God Lastly Many of the Places which the Adversaries do heap up do speak of Christ's Office of Mediator which they improperly misapply to his Divine Nature for though Christ's Humane Nature hath no Personality but is upheld by the Divine Person yet that upholding doth not confound the Natures otherwise Passion and Death might be attributed to Divine Nature On this Matter they form other Arguments grounded upon false Suppositions as sometimes they would have Father Son and Holy Ghost to be three Spirits and the words unbegotten begotten and proceeding
to the prejudice of this be guided by our own Reason which in such matters is but an ignis fatuus a false and deceitful Guide that will lead us to Rocks and Precipices that only must be our Rule which God hath revealed in his Word For an Instance Will not Human Reason suggest that if our Saviour instead of poor Fishermen unlearned and of no account in the World had called the Josephs of Arimathea the Nicodemus and men of good parts and of quality in the World the Gospel would hove gotten more ground and been more spread abroad in the World yet this is contrary to God's Method who hath hidden these things from the wise and prudent Mat. 11.25.26 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28 29 and revealed them unto Babes who hath chosen and called the foolish the weak and base things of the world to confound the wise and the mighty And why so first because so it seemed good in his sight secondly to the end that no flesh should glory in his presence Joh. 7.48 This confirmed by Experience for Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him So then to insist on this reason is no less than to arraign the Wisdom of God which no Man may or ought to do Farther some things there are taught by Philosophy of the Soul of the World of several things therein and of Man's Soul which to human Understanding appear to have no Truth in them yet in those things if upon the account of the Learning and Wit of those great Men we have a kind of esteem and reverence for their Opinions much more ought we to have a reverence for the Truth contained in God's Word and received by so many great and good Christians and suffer'd for by them in all Ages for never was any Divine Truth more universally and in all places and times received notwithstanding the opposition of some wicked men than the Mystery of the most holy Trinity As indeed not only the Offering and Preaching but also the whole Application of Salvation to be obtained in this and another Life do depend upon the truth of the holy Trinity because everywhere the Father works by his Son and this with the Father by the Holy Ghost which if we believe not we cannot have either the use or comfort of things relating to Salvation but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 12. and we have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God 'T is then our Duty and Comfort to know the Father in the Son and both through the Holy Ghost for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God as Christ saith none knoweth the Father but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal him so John testifies that he that hath not the Son hath not the Father and Paul Mat. 11.27 1 Joh. 2.23 Eph. 2.12 that those that are without Christ are also without Hope and without God in the world 'T is said indeed how God at sundry times and in several manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets but the knowledge of him and of Salvation then was in the dark till the last days when he spoke unto Men by his Son When we hear of the salvation which God sent into the World then at the same time the Son and Holy Ghost are mention'd because without them there is none Among several other places in Scripture wherein this great work is spoken of and wherein we find the three Persons mention'd that is remarkable wherein the Apostle joyneth them together Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace All three are concerned so they were before salvation was actually effected long before when all was under Types and Figures 1 Pet. 1.11 12 compared with 2 Pet. 1.21 for by the spirit of Christ the Prophets prophesied of old so now in this great business the Son hath his part and the Holy Ghost his also As much as God hath been pleased to reveal unto us about this adorable Mystery we must study and enquire after but no farther where God is silent we must be so too and we ought to curb our Curiosity and Presumption and not to stretch our Brains to find out Proofs out of Comparisons with Sun Soul Rainbow Trees Triangle c. which are all lame and defective This I speak as to us who believe that high and incomprehensible Mystery upon God's Word wherein he hath revealed it unto us for as to the abominable wretches which out of Hell are broken loofe against it and not only make a Jest of and despise and hate it we must leave them to God if peradventure he will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. â—â— to the acknowledging of the Truth As to our blessed Saviour whom they go about to rob of that Glory and Honour which Scripture declares do belong to him and which therein he assumeth unto himself and whom they would make a meer Man a Creature and if I dare speak it without blasphemy an imaginary and a mock God acting the part of a God as an Actor doth upon a stage that of a Prince when he is not such In Scripture the Names of God absolutely attributed to none but unto the true God and that also in so many places of Scripture whereof many we already quoted and others not We have given instances of all the incommunicable Names of Divine Nature appropriated unto him also we made it appear how all Attributes proper to the true God and never communicated to the Creature do belong to Christ as do all divine works truly such why then should not all own him to be true God by Nature seeing essential Attributes are inseparable from the Essence The Oneness of which Essence with the Father he doth attribute unto himself explaining in what sense he calleth God his Father not by Adoption or Grace or meerly by reason of his assumption of our human Nature John 10.30 38. or by vertue of any Office and Dignity but because of his eternal Generation and Co-essentiality with the Father in which sense he saith I and the Father are one Chap. 1.14 3.16 Rom. 8.3 32. Mar. 14.33 and upon the account of this oneness of Nature he saith The Father is in me and I in him And this eternal Generation in one Essence is denoted in Scripture when called only begotten of the Father Gods own and proper Son the true Son of God yea such a Son as is Heir of all things and in opposition to Angels as the Son is to the Servants which Sonship and Generation is more clearly expressed when he is called the Brightness and
express Image of the Father's Person because in him through that eternal Generation is expressed the whole Person and Glory of the Father for which Image of God he is called the First-born of every Creature that is begotten before there was any Creature and so from Eternity as in the Form and Nature of God to be equal with God who otherwise hath not and owneth none equal to himself 2 Sam. 7 1â— In these high and divine matters Men must not presume beyond what is written and revealed in Gods Word nor wrest the Delign of the Spirit of God or force an unusual and contrary sense to the words of the Text but we ought to keep our selves within the bounds of that holy reverence which becomes us in the contemplation of the Majesty of God In these very things Hierom as said before was very cautions about acknowledging three Hypostases in the Deity because he thought the word to denote substance When God was upon withdrawing the Spirit of Prophecy from among his People Chap. 4.4 he by Malâ—câ—y the last of the Prophets commands them to remember the law of Moses his servant So now when the Apostles immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost ceased so long since men should wholly acquiesce to the sound Doctrine which those Servants of his Son Jesus left for our use and instruction wherein we learn how God hath revealed himself and communicated his own infinite fulness unto his Creatures in all of them immediately by his own Son first in the creation of all things secondly in their providential disposal and rule thirdly in the revelation of his Will and Ordinances fourthly in the communication of his Spirit and Grace in none of which is the Person of the Father otherwise represented unto us than in and by the Person of the Son for the whole end of the Gospel is 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Tim 6.10 1 â—oâ—n 4.12 to give knowledge of the glory of God in the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ that is the glory of the 〈◊〉 visible God whom no man hath seen Now in that forenamed Prophecy of Malachy the same Chapter and two last Verses the coming of the 〈◊〉 which had often been prophesied of before is again promised yea of the Lord himself who then was and had been from all Eternity but was to come only at such a time which is called the great and dreadful day of the Lord for against the appearing and long before of that Sun of Righteousness all those Stars the Prophets were to disappear one only excepted like the Morning-star before the rising of the Sun Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord By whom the Lord Jesus is meant as John Baptist is by Elijah so called because he came in the spirit and power of Elias for both were endow'd with a fervency of Spirit which made them spare neither Kings nor People And the Evangelist makes use of the words of the Prophet He shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children Luke 1.17 compared with Matt. 11.14 Mark 9.11 12 13. That same Lord whose coming with such Concomitants as great and dreadful was Jehovah himself the God of Israel whose words tho' in his state of humiliation were so conspicuous glorious and great as he in one particular said himself to the man out of whom he had cast a Legion of Devils Return to thine own house Luk. 8.39 and shew what great things God hath done unto thee And the Evangelist who in the beginning of the Verse relateth Christ's words to the man doth in the latter end of the same declare what the man did And he went his way and published throughout the whole City how great things Jesus had done unto him he did it in the same words how great things only instead of God he said Jesus so that Jesus was the God that had done great things unto him This was in the Land of Judah where no other God but the true God of Israel was own'd and worshipped so the Lord Jesus was that same God whom the Father from Heaven calls his Son which is the Name mentioned Phil. 2.9 that is above every name and this name more excellent than any given the Angels Heb. 1.4 he hath obtained by inheritance not by favour according to what saith the Apostle for the name by him designed is that of Son of God Thou art my Son with the exegetical adjunct of his generation This day have I begotten thee Acts 13.33 which words Paul doth apply to the Lord Jesus This day of Eternity after the manner of time spoken in relation to God with whom are no parts of time as with Men past present and to come With God are not days but only one day which had no beginning and shall have no end It was never said to any Angel personally upon his own account Thou art the Son of God much less with the reason of the appellation This day have I begotten thee so in that place the Apostle doth not speak of the general Name of a Son but of the particular appropriation thereof unto the Lord Jesus upon his own account When the Apostle saith he is the first-born the thing it self is not meant of being the first begotten but the Dignity and Privilege that attended it Psal 89.27 Thus God saith of David I will make him my first-born explained in the later part of the Verse higher than the Kings of the carth Thus among Men one may say I will make such a one my First-born or my Heir which is the Privilege attending the Birth-right This is Christs Title by Nature and not by Office anointing was a Ceremony used to make and declare a King but that anointing made him not a Man for he was so before So the Lord Jesus was God before he was Christ CHAP. XI Some Animadversions upon a Book called Christianity not Mysterious WHAT I said somewhat before concerning Reason puts me in mind of a thing I promised about the middle of my Discourse namely to take notice of a Book with the Title of Christianity not mysterious wherein the Author undertakes to shew there is nothing in the Gospel or in our Religion against or above Reason And tho' I have hardly any room left yet to be as good as my word I must briefly say something to it We agree with him against all human Authority contrary to the Word and own Scripture to be the only competent Judge and allow of our Reason as long as it draweth out of that Spring and not otherwise Let us be sincere and avoid Ambiguities there is true and sound Reason whereof the Word of God is the right and standing infallible Rule for the Will of God is the measure of all Truth and Equity and our Reason to be Reason indeed must be guided by that or else it doth deviate from the Rule There is also that
be true even in natural things how much more in those of a spiritual and divine Nature which to Men's understanding are past finding out wherefore I affirm it to be but reasonable for them in such things to submit Reason to Faith which is a Mystery to our natural Reason 1 Tim. 3.9 so called by S. Paul Holding the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience when he was writing this Faith with its Object was clearly revealed yet still he then calls it a Mystery and I hope no Socinian dares say he knows the Nature of Faith better than that great Apostle did As for Scripture they pretend to own and do quote it so also could the Devil but mis-apply'd it Before him whom he knew to be the Son of God he could say it is written And as in the beginning of the Predication of the Gospel so in the renewing of the Truth of it by Reformation Tares sprung up with the Grain some Men would not order and regulate their Opinions according to Scripture but would bring it to be subservient to their Notions and of it to make a Nose of Wax to serve their turn hence it is that they wrest things that therein are so plain which if we believe Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 must be to their own destruction I know of no wrong the Son of God hath done them that in all their Writings they should so slightly speak of and so much below him Of late one S among others Page 20. saith of the Lord Jesus In that great Instance of Magnanimity he hath outdone all the mentioned Heroes of Greece and Rome he would seem to speak much in his Commendation but latet anguis in herbâ there is a Malice in the bottom to enervate the Truth of our Saviour's Life as if there were in 't some of the Tales and fabulous Accounts which are found in the Lives of the Heroes be mentions They would have him a Man and nothing more though upon all occasions even before that wicked Counsel of the Priests Scribes and Elders Matt. 26.63 64. being by the High Priest adjured in the Name of the Living God to tell whether he was the Son of God He owned himself to be which he would not have done if it had not been true and so had died to maintain a Lye which is the part of an Impostor and this Confession of his being Son of God was the very ground of his Accusation Condemnation and Execution we have a law John 19.7 said they and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God and at the time of his Death all their Revilings and Injuries against him did run upon this Matt. 27.40 43 54. If thou be the Son of God come down from the cross and he said I am the Son of God it had been very strange if he had suffered for saying he was that which he was not in the Sense he spoke it and they took it To deny this is to be worse than the very Heathens the Roman Soldiers for the Centurion and they that were with him having seen the things that were done said Truly this was the Son of God thereby pointing at the Cause of his Death as if they had said He was what he affirmed himself to be and what he dyed for that is Truly the Son of God What S. Paul saith in another Caese about the Resurrection Acts 26.8 Why should it be thought incredible with you that God should raise the dead We may say it in that of the Incarnation of the Son of God for if God attended by two Angels in the shape of Men Gen. 18. more familiarly to dine and converse with Abraham shewed how he could assume the Figure of a Man why might he not in time take upon him our humane Nature The Scripture being so full of Evidences that he could he would and hath done it But what can we say of People who deny it to be day though the Sun shineth never so brightly like the Philosophers Maid who being blind would not own it but said the Room she was in was dark this is the case of those in whom the God of this World hath so blinded the Minds that they cannot and their Hearts that they will not see I wish God may be pleased in this high Concern of his to stir up the Hearts of every one to act in his Station whether Civil or Ecclesiastical They which in this last Capacity are Men of Piety and Learning might out of Presses and Pulpits be very instrumental in asserting the Truth if they were pleased to consult with Scripture preferably before their own Reason for the Word of God being the Spring of right Reason will afford Reasons enough to confute and convince Blasphemy and Heresie Therein lies our strength about these Matters This ought to be the method and manner of those who engage in the Cause Let us all well observe what is said of Apollos who in this same Subject was concerned against an unbelieving and obstinate Nation Acts 18.24 that he was mighty in the Scriptures About these Controversies some thing hath already been attempted by Men otherwise of Learning and good Parts but upon the account of some Principles of theirs little good is herein to be expected from them Arminians I mean whom I look upon as not very sit to write against Socinians no more than Arminus would not write against Socinus though they were contemporary when I am reading Socinian Disputes I often in my way meet with Worstius Episcopius Bertius Curcelaeus and such others who favour them if not in all yet in too many things wherein they go hand in hand and they will mince the matter with them but if after what several Men have written heretofore some other Persons of Learning and sound in the doctrinal part of the XXXIX Articles would now appear as a Reverend and very able Prelate hath in some Points effectually done then it might be hoped through God's Blessing for us to see those impious and Heterodox Opinions justled out of doors to the Honour of God the Peace of his Church and clearing the Land of such a Generation as in some respect may be called worse than the Devils Matt. 8.29 Mar. 1.24 and 5.7 Luke 4.34 41. 8.28 Psal 119.126 who publickly owned the Lord Jesus to be the Son of God of the most high God the holy one of God whom they confessed to have the Power not only to command but also to torment and destroy them whilst these Men deny him truly to be such With David we must say It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy law In the mean time though very sensible of my Weakness and Incapacity I presume to appear in publick trusting in him whose Cause we defend that he will make his Virtue perfect in our Weakness and with the gracious Influence of his holy
Spirit supply that which is wanting in us Herein I handle not only some things of the Controversie but also do in some measure bring in the doctrinal part which is a great help to the Elenctical and upon which indeed this last must be grounded for I writ not only to refute but also to instruct and afford a Preservative against the Poyson And tho' sometimes I bring in things which directly relate to the Jews yet they reach Socinians as well as Jews for both are Enemies the first indeed deny Christ to be the Messiah though the Antients owned him to be God and Socinians own him to be a Messiah but deny him to be true God I omit the Debate about the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and of the high Point of Christ's Satisfaction c. The Meditation on the most holy Trinity and the Lord Jesus his Divinity affording Matter enough to fill up these Sheets wherein I hope the Truth is cleared and confirmed and Errour refuted If the Reader findeth good by it as I pray God be may as it doth come from God so from first to last let him return the whole Praise and Glory to him whom alone it belongeth unto THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. OF the Persons of Head Socinians and of their Opinions page 1. Chap. II. Of Divine Essence p. 13. Chap. III. Of the Persons of the Godhead p. 16. Chap. IV. Of the Holy Trinity p. 22. Chap. V. Of Christ's Divinity p. 46. Chap. VI. Christ is true natural Son of God by Eternal Generation p. 84. Chap. VII Essential divine Attributes belong to Christ p. 138. Chap. VIII Works proper to God belong to Christ page 161. Chap. IX Worship proper and due to the true God belongs to Christ p. 185. Chap. X. The Socinians Objections answered p. 260. Chap. XI Animadversions upon a Book called Christianity not Mysterious p. 315. CHAP. I. Of the Persons of head Socinians and of their Opinions OUR blessed Lord and Saviour in his Parable * Mat. 13 of the Sower and the Tares doth plainly declare and forewarn us of what should befal his Church from his time which was that of her Birth unto the end of the World In general the Field is the World but in particular 't is his Church the Sower as he explains it is himself both in person and by means of the Labourers his Disciples and other Servants of his the good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom and the true sound Doctrines thereof taught by his faithful Ministers but the Tares are the Children of the wicked one not only as to Persons but in relation to false Doctrines Errors and Heresies which whilst Men that ought to have watched slept Christ's Enemy which is the Devil took that opportunity for he loses none and in part through the fault of the Watchmen did his work This Mystery is by S. Paul represented under the notion and name of a Building whereof the Lord Jesus is the Foundation for saith he * 1 Cor. 3.11 12. other foundation can no man lay the wise and faithful Builders do upon that Foundation build Gold Silver and precious Stones but the unfaithful and mercenary are not content to raise a Superstructure of their own which is Wood Hay and Stubble but also attempt to overthrow the Foundation and in opposition to the City of God would build a Babel of their own yet I make no doubt but through God's just Judgment it will at last end in their Confusion as 〈◊〉 happeneth unto all that * Acts 5.39 be found even to fight against God Surely in the superlative degree they fight against God who reach and as far as they can do strike at divine Nature and at the Godhead it self which any one doth that speaks or writes against the holy Trinity of Persons or denies the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as Socinians do To what I said †Serious Advice to a Preservative against c. elsewhere of the Authors of such Blasphemies I shall add some few Circumstances of their Rise and Progress whereby it will appear how as the Devil at our Saviours coming into the World was very busie to use means and by Herod to destroy his Person so by the Scribes and Pharisees to oppose the Preaching and Progress of the Gospel Thus about the time when God dispersed Popish Errors Darkness and Ignorance and through a happy Reformation caused the Light of the Gospel again to shine the same Enemy to God and Mankind stirred up Instruments to stop the Work or at least to corrupt and hinder it from coming to its due perfection These hellish Instruments were Michael Servetus born in Artagon one of the Kingdoms of Spain who having past his Youth in Africa amongst Jews and Mahometans was infected with their Blasphemies and being come back into Europe did in 1525. write Books entituled The Divine Nature of Christ and the Errors of the Trinity c. that Wretch made such an abominable and hellish Comparison of the most adorable Trinity that I abhor to think on 't much more to set it down upon Paper He came to Geneva where neither the Writings of nor Conferences with Calvin could work upon him so that at last in the Year 1553. he there was put to death for Blasphemy and Sedition The next is Valentinus Gentilis of Cosenza in Italy◠who forged the Blasphemy of Three Gods and otherwise corrupted the Doctrin of the Vnity of Essence and Trinity of Persons This Man after Servetus's death was in the same Town put in Prison and recanted soon after he went away but returned to his Vomit for he again asserted it in publick and dispersed it in Poland and Suitzerland but being taken in the Canton of Bern in 1566. was there put to death Laelius Socinus Son to Marius Socinus a famous Lawyer of Siena came also to Geneva which at that time was the great place of refuge for those who went out of Italy and neighbouring Countries to forsake Popery where he was known to Calvin and thence he went to Zurich but Calvin having found him out did write him two sharp Letters one in 1552. the other in 1555. at Zurich he did but under the borrow'd Name of Martinus Bellius write something to shew how Servetus had unjustly been put to death In his Commentary upon the first Chapter of John he lays the Foundation of whole Socinianism which indeed is but a Chaos and Confusion of natural and spiritual Ignorance and a meer Contempt of the Word of God Zanchius was one of the first that refuted it This Loelius all the while he conversed with Zanchius never opened himself to him only seemed to propound him Questions according to the Schoolway to exercise his Parts but not to be positive so that indeed he imposed upon him and Melanchton so cunning was he not to discover his Opinions Bur his Nephew Faustus born in Siena in 1538. was a bolder Man