THE Foundation of God standeth sure OR A Defence of those Fundamental and so generally believed Doctrines Of The Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence The Satisfaction of Christ the second Person of the Real and Glorious Trinity The Justification of the Ungodly by the Imputed Righteousness of Christ. Against the Cavils of W. P. I. a Quaker in his Pamphlet Entituled The Sandy Foundation shaken c. Wherein his and the Quakers Hideous Blasphemies Socinian and damnably-heretical Opinions are discovered and refuted W. P's ignorance weakness falshoods absurd arguings and folly is made manifest unto all With a Call unto all such who in the simplicity of their hearts have been deluded by the Quakers to come out from amongst them And an Exhortation to all Christians as they desire their Salvation to beware of their damnable Doctrines and not to come neer the Tents of these enemies of Jesus Christ lest they be swallowed up in their ruin By Thomas Vincent sometime Minister of Maudlins Milk-street London 1 Joh. 5. 7. For there are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are One. Mat. 20. 28. The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for many Rom. 4. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness LONDON Printed in the Year 1668. CHAP. I. The INTRODVCTION WILLIAM PENN Entituleth his Pamphlet The Foundation shaken which however he termeth a Sandy Foundation he acknowledgeth to be at least our Foundation In the beginning of his Epistle to the Reader he doth inveigh against Human Tradition amongst which he numbreth not onely those things which are Circumstantial but also those Doctrines which Protestants generally believe to be Essential And at the latter end of his Epistle he confesseth the Doctrines of the Trinity Satisfaction and Iustification by imputed Righteousness to be cardinal Points and chief Doctrines firmly believed as Articles of Christian Faith which he telleth us he hath endeavoured the total enervation of It is plain then that this man striketh at the Root and laboureth to overthrow the Foundation of Christianity as we have built upon it that he might overthrow the faith of weak and unestablished Christians But the Foundation of God standeth sure the great Fundamental Truths concerning our Lord Jesus Christhis Godhead being the second Person of the Trinity equal with the Father his satisfaction which he made to God's Justice for Man's sin and justification by his imputed Righteousness are like a Rock which cannot be moved against which what ever waves do arise and beat for removal of though the noise and clamors be great yet the attempts will be in vain the Rock remaineth where it was and the waves of opposition are broken to pieces It is possible indeed that the Faith of some may suffer shipwrack by such assaults because they were never well grounded fastned and fixed in the principles of Religion because they never received the truths of the Word either with true saving Faith or true sincere Love and therefore the Lord hath threatned to give such up unto strong delusions to believe a lie that they might be damned 2 Thes. 2 10 11 12. These are the persons who hear Christ's Word and do not practice accordingly therefore our Saviour compareth them to fools that build their house upon the sand upon which the rain descendeth and the floods come and the winds blow and beat and it falleth and the fall therefore is great Mat. 7. 26 27. This is the Sandy Foundation which W. P. and the Quakers may shake and overthrow and be instrumental to pull down into the same ruine and destruction with themselves But such who have built upon the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only true Foundation 1 Cor. 3. 11. Such who have built indeed upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles whereof Iesus Christ himself is the chief Corner-stone Eph. 2. 20. They have built upon the Rock upon which whosoever stumbleth and falleth will be broken to pieces but upon which whosoever buildeth is safe therefore are not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine neither is it possible because of Christ's care and undertaking for them that they should be overthrown by any of the blasts of Satan or any of his instruments Math. 24. 24 If it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. The Quakers however some of them and those of the chiefest and Ring-leaders have at sometimes let fall from their Black-mouths most hideous Blasphemies and vented most damnably-heretical Doctrines as for instance George Fox positively affirmed thus I am equal with God this was deposed at a general Sessions in Westmerland Iames Nayler said in the hearing of Mr. Baldwin a man of eminent trust and integrity That he did witness that he was as holy just and good as God In the Quakers book called Saul's Errand to Damascus it is asserted That there is no distinction of Persons in the Godhead Nayler and others have spoken to this effect That whosoever expects to be saved by him that died at Ierusalem shall be deceived I might mention many other such Blaspemies and Heresies See The perfect Pharisee by the Newcastle Ministers at the beginning I say though the Quakers have sometimes spoken out their blasphemies and corrupt Doctrines yet for the most part they are so subtle that they do not suffer the inward shape of their mind to appear so plainly abroad lest every one should run from them with loathing and abhorrency and however the import of their words be blasphemy and heresie yet they shroud their meaning under ambiguous phrases and especially at their first assault and endeavours to gain proselities and followers they cover the hook with the pleasing bait of sugred words and fair speeches whereby they deceive those that are unskilful in the word of Righteousness and in the method of their erroneous ways whence it is that many ere they are aware and not knowing whither they are going are drawn into their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of But W. P. being himself a Quaker and speaking in their name and vindication as himself telleth us p. 36. and they dispersing his books and calling for an answer and he being counted amongst them one of their chief because of some smattring of learning which they conceit he hath and which he himself seemeth to have a high conceit of which how groundless it is shall be discovered in the places where he doth attempt to show something of a Scholar doth in his Pamphlet plainly assert and stand up for those Quaker-Doctrines which I shall prove to be blasphemous and damnable Heresies And hath openly made it known to the World that the Quakers in those three great points which he doth militate against and endeavour the refutation of are Rank Socinians who more grosly erre in the Fundamentals of
of Christians in the truths and ways of God In W. P's conclusion by way of caution he teleth us he doth not disown Father Word and Spirit to be one but he disowneth them to be three Persons which hath been proved out of the Scripture that the Trinity as he saith hath not a foundation in the Scripture that its original was three hundred years after Christianity was in the World hath been proved to be false What he speaketh concerning the Council of Sirmia That the controversie concerning the Trinity should not be remembred because the Scriptures made no mention thereof is also falsely alledged for by that very Council the Doctrine of the Trinity is expresly asserted as a chief article of the Christian faith and the distinction of Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost plainly implyed in the Anathema which was pronounced upon those that asserted they were but one Person that which W. P. citeth is concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which this Council was heterodox as it might well be when so much influenced by the Emperor Constantius who himself was infected with Arianisme But W. P. should have looked into the Councils more ancient and authentique than the Sirmian namely the first Nicene Council which condemned the Arian heresie blasphemously denying the Son to be coeternal and coessential with the Father the first Constantinopolitan council which condemned the Macedonian heresie denying the Deity of the Holy Ghost The Council of Ephesus Chalcedon who with other approved oecumenical Councils generally assented to the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Consubstantiality of the three Persons What W. P. further addeth concerning the occasion of Idolatry is groundless the scandalizing of Turks c. is no wonder when the preaching of Christ crucified was such a stumbling-block of old After he confesseth that Christ offered unto God a Satisfactory Sacrifice and yet he denieth Christs Satisfaction and Justification by his imputative Righteousness all which three Doctrines being Fundamental established by the Word of Truth W. P's attempts to subvert them are in vain and have discovered him to be both a Blasphemer and an Heretick Since I began my Answer to W. P. there came to my hands a Pamphlet subscribed by Solomon Eccles styled The Quakers Challenge wherein amongst others he challengeth me at two Weapons as he calleth them to Fast seven days and seven nights and to Wake seven days and seven nights and that hereby tryal shall be made who are in the truth Though the Pamphlet be ridiculous yet I was unwilling to let it pass without any remark and my Answer is when the Lord hath appointed these ways for tryal of the Orthodox and Hereticks I shall undertake them but not finding any such Command or Warrant in the Word to forbear Food or Sleep so long but on the contrary because it is a tempting of God and a breach of the sixth Commandment which requireth all lawful endeavors for the preservation of our own life as well as the lives of others therefore it would be a God-provoking sin to endanger self-murther by such Weapons The Scripture Instances of Fasting many days together were miraculous and not for our imitation others I have heard of that have lived as many days together as he speaketh of without meat or drink or sleep but they have been distracted people amongst whom this man deserveth to be numbred and if I should answer him in the way he challengeth I should be accounted by the sober as mad as himself His Lie he venteth concerning me is refuted already in my Narrative CHAP. X. The Call and Exhortation HAving asserted and proved the three great Doctrines of the Trinity Satisfaction and Iustification denyed by W. P. I shall further add by way of premise to the Call and Exhortation what was before intimated that these three are great Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion necessary to be believed in order to Salvation the unbelief and denyal of which will bring unavoidable damnation 1. The Doctrine of the Trinity of distinct Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence is a Fundamental Truth because the Godhead in the three persons is the proper object of saving Faith and right Worship and those that do not savingly believe and rightly worship God cannot possibly be saved besides the denyal of the three distinct persons in the Godhead doth necessarily inferr the denyal of the co-eternal co-essential Deity of the Son and Holy Ghost which is Blasphemy and damnable Heresie so accounted by the most ancient and authentique Councils and by the true Church of God in all Ages II. The Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction and Justification by his imputed Righteousness are Fundamental Truths also without which there can be no Redemption Reconciliation Remission and consequently no Salvation This being premised I shall now apply my self first to the Quakers and then to others To W. P. and other Quakers who believe these and other Quaker damnable errors I shall propound these four Queries which I shall answer according to truth Que. 1. Do you know what you are 1. You are strangers to Christ whatever your fancy be of Christ within you and I am confident that none of you all that believe these errors have had experience of the new birth and forming of Christs image upon your hearts since there never is a work of regeneration and uniting the souls of any to Christ that leaveth them in such darkness and error as you are left and bound up in No had you been ever truly regenerated you would have been humbled and emptied of your selves you would have seen your selves lost in your selves and your need of Christs satisfaction and imputed Righteousness without which you would have been assured that there is no possibility Gods anger should be appeased and your souls saved It is not turning Quaker that is turning from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to Christ but on the contrary it is a turning from light to darkness and from Christ to Satan and what will be the issue hereof not remission of sins and salvation but the fastening of guilt upon you and eternal destruction 2. You are enemies to Christ and I believe that Jesus Christ hath scarcely greater enemies under the Sun than you who are greater enemies to Christ than those who deny his eternal Deity as I have proved to be the plain consequence of W. P's words and of the denial of the Trinity who are greater enemies to Christ than those that deny his Satisfaction and Justification by his merrits who are greater enemies to Christ than those that oppose his faithful Ministers and Embassadors and that lye in wait to deceive and mislead Christians you are enemies to his truths and ways and ordinances and cause and interest and Ministers and true Disciples and all this with Christ in your mouths and I am confident the Lord doth hate and abhor you for such hypocrisy 3. You are Children of the Devil and
the works of your Father you do and will do you are his more close and subtle agents that in a seeming more refined way do all you can to enlarge the bounds of his Kingdom and like Satan when the Sons and Daughters of God assemble themselves to worship their Father some of you will appear amongst them to disturb them I wonder how you can have the face to pretend Religion when it is so apparent that you are more than ordinarily acted by the Devil to oppose it 4. You are Serpents and a generation of Vipers full of deadly poyson poyson in the head the poyson of damnable errours from whence poyson doth drop forth at your lipps and into your pens you are Serpents putting forth your stings where ever you come hissing at all those who are not of your brood If our Saviour were on Earth to preach to you as he did to the Pharisees he would with as great reason thus stile you as he did them Que II. Do you know where you are 1. You are in the Devils School he is training you up in some of the deepest mysteries of his Kingdom some amongst you are but raw Scholars and in the lower form but you that I speak to are arrived to some proficiency and are well instructed in some of the chief principles of the Devils Catechism so that you are able also to instruct others in the Devilish Doctrines you have learnt of him Your master is a lyer from the beginning and the Father of lyes and you have learnt and believed some of his lyes as if they were certain truths 2. You are in the Devils arms he huggeth you so fast that it is more difficult to pluck you from thence than the most wicked and profane 3. You are in the Devils chains whereby he is leading you captive at his will they are chains of darkness and errour which he hath upon you whereby he is dragging you towards the regions of eternal darkness Que III. Do you know what you are doing 1. You are dishonouring God in dishonouring the Son you dishonour the Father in reproaching Gods Embassadours you reproach the King that sent them you are spots and blemishes to Religion and render it ridiculous to the prophane world 2. You are murdering your own Souls embruing your hands in your own blood you are poysoning wounding killing your selves and you are some of the greatest soul-murderers of others of any that live upon the Earth Que. IV. Do you know whether you are going You are going the certain way to Hell your way is not in the common rodewith others but it is a by-way and dark path in which you often stumble and fall and at length it will meet with the great rode of the world at the Gate of Hell in which you will as certainly enter at last if you go on in this path as Cain and Iudas that are there already And here I might sound a peal of Judgement in your ears and forewarn you of the wrath to come to escape which one day you would give ten thousand worlds for an interest in Christs Satisfaction and imputed Righteousness when it will be too late but for the present most of you are Judgement-proof and Sermon-proof and so prejudiced against us Ministers who are employed as Watch-men by the Lord to forewarn the people of their danger that our reproofsand warnings are rejected and railing language is the return of our admonitions Yet in the name of the Eternal and Living God Father Son and Holy Ghost whose I am and whom I serve in the work of the Ministry I call upon you that are eluded by the Quakers and have not as yet sucked in all their poysonous principles which they have cunningly concealed from you but now have made manifest to the world that without any further delay you would come out from amongst them and seperate your selves that you would save your selves from this untoward generation that you would deliver your selves as a bird out of the snare of the fowler and as a Roe out of the hand of the hunter praying to the Lord to grant you repentance for going amongst them unto the acknowledgement of his truths which they deny and that you may be recovered out of the snare of the Devil who hath hitherto led you captive considering that if you go in this way your steps will certainly take hold on Hell O then hasten hasten poor captiv'd deluded Souls hasten for the Lords sake for your poor souls sake hasten from these Soul-murderers unto the Lord Jesus the Soul-Savior and into the ways of life and salvation which he hath prescribed in his word Lastly I shall in a word bend my speech unto all as yet undeluded Christians by way of exhortation to stedfastness in the truths and way of the Lord and as they desire their salvation to beware of the Quakers damnable Doctrines There are two ways whereby God doth try his people the one is by persecution and other is by heresie and the Apostle telleth us 1 Co. 11. 19. that it is necessary heresies should arise that they which are approved might be made manifest this later way doth sometimes discover more unsound Professours than the former the approved and elect of God I am sure will stand and if any go out from us it is a sign they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would still have continued with us 1 Ioh. 2. 19. And here I shall again repeat what I did before assert that it were better for you to drink a cup of poyson than to suck in the Quakers damnable opinions Take heed of this infection which is worse than poyson and plague more dangerous and destructive For this end labour to get on the girdle of truth let the truths of the word be fastned about the loyns of your minds that is get the principles of Religion fixed in you which that they may mingle them with faith and love and live under the powerful influence of them And that you may be the further off from danger avoid the Company and Meetings of the Quakers lest coming thither out of novelty being out of Gods way you be left by God and as too many have been you be caught by the Devil in the snares which there he layeth and come not neer the Tents of these enemies of Jesus Christ lest you be swallowed up in the same ruine which is coming upon them If you would save your selves from their plagues you must keep your selves out of their ways I shall shut up all with the exhortation of the Apostle Peter having told believers of the unlearned and unstable who did wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction as do the Quakers he exhorteth them 2 Epist. 3. cap. 17. 18. v. Yee therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being lead away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Now to God the Father to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be glory and honour both now and for ever Amen FINIS ERRATA THe speeding of the sheets off the Presses hath caused too many both literal Errata's and in the sence too the chiefest found out in a hasty reveiw you have as follow and are desired to mend Page 9 line 21 read destruction p. 11. l. 25 read own p. 15 l. 11. read understands p. 16 l. 30 r. redicule l. 32 r. heart p. 17 l. 24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 18 l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 12 Iob 35. 10. l. 2 my l. 14 for my r. thy l. 18 r. for 18 28 p. 20 l. 3 for the r. three l. 10 after substances adde therefore the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct substances or three distinct nothings p. 23 l. 27 blot out W. P. required his presence else where p. 27 l. 18. blot out Father Son and Holy Ghost p. 28 l. 17 r. blasphemer p. 34 l. 28 r. Three p. 35 l. 33 r. their p. 40 l. 6 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 23 r. true where ever you find subsistance read subsistence p. 42. r. foolish l. last r. reasonings p. 45 l. 15 r. there p. 48 l. 18 r. W. P's p. 51 l. last r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 52 l. 1 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 12 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17 r. Praxean l. 28 for thee r. the p. 53 l. 8 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 34 r. arguments p. 54 l. 27 r. much concern my self l. 29 r. but chiefly p. 55 l. 2 r. peccatum l. 7 r. when ye have c. p. 56 l. last r. to give p. 59 l. 31 r. out of
Religion than the Papists themselves And because W. P. doth take occasion from the meeting with me and others in disputation if it might be so called where nothing was directly answered to put forth his Pamphlet and because he giveth but a lame and in somethings a false account of transactions therefore I shall 1. give a true and brief Narative of what passed at the Meetting or Conference with answer to his Postscript 2 Establish the truths he objecteth against by Scripture and Argument 3 Answer his objections against those truths Lastly apply my self to deluded Quakers for the recalling of them and to all other Christians for the cautioning and establishing of them against the attempts of such as would draw them aside into the dark and dangerous path which doth as certainly lead to Hell as the broad way of Prophaneness CHAP. II. A brief Narrative of T. V's meeting with some Quakers in Spittle-yard with the occasion and transactions there and some exceptions to the account which W. P. hath given thereof MY first meeting with the Quakers was upon desire at the house of a friend in Houndsditch in der to the preserving of some who were tempted to go amongst them I met there several Quakers two of which were the chief speakers It would tire the Reader as I believe it did the hearers to give relation of all their wild and impertinent discourse I could not get them to speak out and plainly to assert some of their Principles through fear it is likely lest their mouths should be stopped before the people yet after many words they asserted the perfection of Saints in this Life and the place of Scripture which they brought for the proof of their assertion was 1 Iob. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin Unto this I answered That the words in the Original were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them interrupted me at the mention of the Original words saying It was the smoke of the bottomless pit that the signification was doth not make it his business to sin and the meaning was that such as were born again did not make a trade of sin did not go on in a course of sin or did not commit sin that is with the full bent of the will as the wicked do But that it could not be understood of not committing sin at all because the same Apostle in the same Epistle Chap. 1. 8. telleth thus If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There he speaketh of himself and others that were born again and plainly acknowledgeth they were not without sin It was further urged that if all that were born of God were perfectly free from sin then it would follow that who ever found any sin in them were not born of God consequently in state of nature and so if they should die with any sin remaining they would certainly go to Hell and so none there yea none in the world would be saved Moreover I appealed to the experience of the best of them whether they could say they were wholly free from sin whether they had no irregular thoughts nor affections this they would not affirm neither did they absolutely deny when they pleaded the perfection the Apostle Paul speaketh of Phil. 3. 15. I replied that the same Apostle v. 12. acknowledgeth that he had not as yet attained neither was yet perfect and if the Apostle Paul who had arrived to so great a heighth in grace that he was how ever as some think little in bodily stature yet taller by the head and shoulders than others in regard of his grace and spiritual attainments how could Audacious Quakers who if Quakers indeed because of their damnable opinions I am confident have not the least degree of true grace boast of perfection as if they had got above the Apostle himself I told them that all true Believers were perfect in a sence they were Evangelically perfect but not legally not absolutely perfect they had perfection of parts but not perfection of degrees and in this sence the work of Grace though the work of God was not perfect in regard of our selves but by degrees was carried on unto further perfection After this when they could give no answer to the Arguments urged against them they burst out into a clamor and talking all altogether opening their mouths as wide as they could and shutting their ears as hard as they could repeating the same things over and over again You make your selves the Patrons of sin He that committeth sin is of the Devil And whilst they pleaded That all which were born of God were without sin they discovered themselves to be none of those that were born of God by the sin which they were palpably guilty of in the multitude of their words especially in their wresting the Scripture from its genuine sence meaning and in the perverse disputings of their corrupt minds Our discourse was to this effect wherein they discovered so much of their rotten Tenents so much of their folly and weakness being unable to maintain what they had asserted that one said to them An 't please God I will believe you no more Others that were wavering before were confirmed against them aud established in the ways of Truth and so continue still to this day The next week after this meeting I went into the Country for a fortnight and in my absence two of my friends Mother and Daughter went off to the Quakers the Daughter was the first whose inclinations and humour carried her that way for some time before for the preserving of whom from the Quakers delusions upon the request of the Mother I had several discourses with her I gave several reasons against their tenents and ways unto which she could give no answer nor any ground of her liking their ways which was not answered onely a perverse will which I am inform'd her Mother hath so much indulg'd in other things unbefitting a parent that in this it is like to prove the destinction both of mother and child did lead her this way against all reasons and perswasions I acknowledge I did say It was worse to go to the Quakers meetings than to a Bawdyhouse because the defilement of the soul with their damnable erors which there she was likely to contract was more deep and more hardly to be washt off than the defilement of whoredom or adultery and what our Saviour said of the Pharisees I may say of the Quakers that harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they moreover I told her that If there stood a cup of poyson in the window I would rather drink it than suck in their damnable Doctrines because poysoning of the body was not so bad as the poysoning and damning of the soul. I said further not that I would give her up but that if she went again God might give her up to believe a lye that she might be damned the
no direct reply to this Sylogism but findeth fault with the terms and W. P. telleth us that God did not use to wrap his Truths in Heathenish Metaphysicks but in plain language but let the Reader judge whether there be the heathenish Metaphysicks he speaketh of in this Sylogism wherein there is not a word but what is to be found in the Scripture not but that some words may be made use of in explaining Scripture Truths which are not in the Scripture themselves so they expresse the thing which the Scripture doth signify in other Phrases more proper to the languages the Scripture were wrot in and I could make it evident out of the Books of the Quakers themselves that they use many words which are not in the Scripture No answer could be obtained to my argument in the Meeting but W. P. taking the argument into further consideration attempteth at length in his Pamphlet to make a reply and first taxeth me to be as little a Scholar in regard of the manner of my Sylogism as a Christian in regard of the matter of it My Sylogism was urged to prove the three glorious persons in the Godhead the denial of which doth necessarily infer the denial of Christ to be God equal with the Father and let any judge who approveth himself most a Christian either W. P. in denying this or I in asserting and proving it As to the manner of my Sylogism some Quakers it may be who know not what a Sylogism is may believe that it bespeaks me to be little a Scholar but no Scholar will judge so from that Sylogism which they know to be according to rule and to carry a firm proof in it drawn from the Induction of particulars but W. P. discovereth himself to be that which he taxeth me for namely little a Scholar and though he hath been at the University yet that either he never read Logick or never understood Logick or hath forgot Logick or that purposely he hath laid aside Logick that herein he might be like to the Quakers in answering nothing to the purpose for besides his finding fault with my Sylogism his reply to it doth most of all detect his want of Learning and grosse absurdity for which he would have been hissed out of the Schools had he done it in the University for though he telleth us he will give his reason why he will deny my Minor yet most ridiculously and ignorantly he argueth against my conclusion The Minor as he repeateth it is But they are not three manifestations three operations three substances or three some things else besides subsistences The conclusion Therefore three subsistences If he had indeed denied the Minor he must have asserted that they were either three substances or operations or manifestations or something else but he mistaketh the conclusion for the Minor and argueth that they are not three subsistences No one substance can have three distinct subsistences c. W. P. argueth against the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence behold the Christian he argueth against the conclusion of a Sylogism calling it the Minor behold the Scholar yet because his argument is against our Doctrine therefore I shall give answer thereunto and his other cavils together in the sixth chap. After this he reflected upon Mr. Madox in the 11. page whose answer you have in the following Chapter CHAP. III. An Answer to the 11. page of W. P's pernicious Pamphlet by W. M. ANd because G. W. willing to bring this strange Doctrine This Doctrine is strange to none but such as are strangers to God and ignorant of the Scriptures whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. but as Ephraim when joyned to idols counted the great things of Gods Law a strange thing Hos. 8. 12. so these men having prostituted themselves to an Idol of their own brains The Light within which is their Christ and Savior count the Doctrine of the true God a strange Doctrine To the capacity of the people You mean to the scorn and contempt of the people for his design was not to explain but to expose the Doctrine and it is absurd to imagine that he could facilitate that to the understanding of others which he himself neither derstands nor believes Compar'd their three Persons to three Apostles By their three persons you mean the three increated Persons of the ever blessed Trinity the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost Of the insolency and wickedness of this Comparison you shall hear by and by onely here let me tell you that we have endeavoured to make them ours by a fiducial application of them to our selves and it is no dishonor to us though it be a blasphemous reflection on them that they are in reproach called our three persons because we appear in vindication of them saying he did not understand how Paul Peter and Iohn could be three persons and one Apostle Neither did we assert it either directly or by consequence For though we call the father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons or He 's according as they are held forth in the Scriptures yet we say there is a vast and infinite difference between three created and the three increated persons for three created persons are so many distinct and separate Essences as they are persons but all the increated persons have the same simple and unseparated essence of God Ioh. 10. 30. I and my Father are one 1 Joh. 5. 7. These three are one not one in person for so the Father is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another from Christ Ioh. 5. 32. There is Another c. and the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 14. 16. Another Comforter i. e. Another as to subsistence or manner of being but one in nature and essence so that though Paul Peter and Iohn being of a finite nature cannot be three persons and one Apostle yet I am sure from the Scripture that the Father Son and Holy Ghost being of an infinite nature are three persons and yet but one God and till you can prove that finite and infinite or God and the Creature are all one it will be in vain to make such a comparison for the shaking of this Foundation-truth A most apt comparison to detect the ridicult of their doctrine Or rather to discover the monstrous blindness hardness and unbelief of his own and your hearts who dare so boldly spit in the face of God like men that have cast off all fear and reverence of God as well as of men One Maddocks whose zeal out-stript his knowledge busling hard as one that had some necessary matter for the decision of Controversie These extravagant expressions designed to cast disgrace on my person I purposely overlook because I contend not for mine own honor but for the honor of God In stead thereof perhaps to save his brethren
Trinity of Persons that three should be one and one should be three that three should be distinguished but not divided that one should not be another the first should not be the second nor the second third nor the second or third the first and yet the first second and third the same that the first should be in the second and the second in the first and both first and second in the third and that without composition without confusion all related to one another and al distinguished one from another by incommunicable personal properties and yet all one and the same in regard of one individual Essence this is such a mystery as doth exceed the weak and narrow understanding of the most enlightned and clear sighted Christians fully to comprehend some by gazing too long upon the Sun become blind and some by prying too much into this mystery and attempting to bring it to the standard and module of their reason have lost the sight thereof and sunk into grosse apprehensions and denied either the unity of the Godhead affirming the three persons to be three distinct Gods or denied the Trinity affirming the Godhead to be without three distinct persons thus while they have professed and conceited themselves to be wise they have proved themselves to be fools void of true understanding by changing the glory of God into that which is unworthy of him But we having a sure word of Prophecy in the Scriptures which is like a light shining in a dark place ought to give heed thereunto and conform all our conceptions of God according to the discoveries which he hath made of himself in his word God knoweth himself better than any creature can know and what he hath spoken of himself must needs be so because he cannot represent himself otherwise than he is and if there be a mystery in him which we cannot reach we adde folly to our weakness if we do in the least question it reason it may be will leave us in our search after the Deity in the Trinity and the Trinity in the Deity but where reason faileth Faith must supply it's room the proper object of Divine Faith is such things as we purely do assent unto upon Divine authority such are not onely Histories and Prophesies but also Mysteries which reason cannot demonstrate unto us in this mystery of the Trinity we must exercise our Faith though we cannot clear it to our selves by demonstration not as if we were to lay reason quite aside in this thing or trample it under foot not as if we should put out the eye of reason that we might see more clearly with the eye of Faith for though this mystery be above reason yet it is not against reason yea there is the greatest reason in the world that we should assent unto that for truth which God hath revealed of himself in his word because he is a God of truth and nothing is more true than that which God hath spoken Wherefore if the Scriptures have revealed that there are three distinct persons in one Divine Essence it is a certain truth and it is reason and duty that every one should assent unto it though the mystery of it there being no such thing to be found in nature cannot be fully comprehended Here then I shall propound my assertion and prove it out of Scripture My assertion according to the generally believed Doctrine of the Church of God is this That there are three distinct subsistents or persons in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead The argument bottom'd upon the Scripture to prove my assertion is this If the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one and the Father is God and the Son God and the Holy Ghost God and the Father Son and Holy Ghost be three distinct subsistents or persons then there are three distinct subsistents or persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead But the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one and the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct subsistents or persons Therefore there are three distinct subsistents or persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead The consequent of the major proposition is plain and firm that no man of reason can in the least question or deny The minor proposition is that which must be proved and there are five things in the proposition to be proved 1. That the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one 2. That the Father is God 3. That the Son is God 4. That the Holy Ghost is God 5. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct subsistents or persons 1. The Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Isa. 44. 6. Thus saith the Lord I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Isa. 45. 21 22. There is no God else besides me a just God and Saviour there is none besides me look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else And it cannot be otherwise for if there were more than one God then the Godhead might be divided it might be limited and by consequence would be finite and so not God because God is infinite I need not insist upon this because the unity of the Godhead is not denied by the adversaries I have to deal withal 2. The Father is God 1 Cor. 8. 6. To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him I need not multiply places of Scripture nor adde arguments to prove that the Father is God since it is generally acknowledged by all that acknowledge a Deity and the Scriptures 3. The Son is God this William Penn plainly denieth he denieth that the Lord Jesus Christ is God wretched blasphemy that would thrust the Lord Jesus Christ off from the Throne of his Godhead His denial of the Divinity of Christ as well as the Divinity of the Holy Ghost is plain enough I shall repeat his words as they lye in his first argument against the three distinct persons in the Godhead page 13. And since the Father is God the Son is God and the Spirit is God which their opinion necessitates them to confesse then unlesse the Father Son and Spirit are three distinct nothings they must be three distinct substances and consequently three distinct Gods I shall answer the argument in its proper place only observe here that he denieth the Son and Spirit to be God by a plain consequence for first he telleth us that our opinion necessitates us to acknowledge that the Father is God and the Son God and the Spirit God which showeth that his opinion is otherwise that the Son and Spirit are not
is God which W. P. also doth deny and this also I shall prove from Scripture I. But Peter said Act. 5. 4 3. Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost to keep back part of the price of the Land c. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Him whom the Apostle calleth Holy Ghost in the 3d. verse he calleth God in the 4. verse and him whom he calleth God in the 4th verse he calleth the Spirit of the Lord in the ninth verse How is it that ye have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord II. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of Administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all He that is called the same Spirit in the 4th verse is called the same Lord in the fifth verse and the same God which worketh all in all in the sixth verse and that what is spoken of Administrations and Operations in the fifth and sixth verses is attributed to the Spirit as appeareth by the seventh verse where they are called The manifestation of the Spirit given to every man to profit withal and more plainly verse 11. But all this worketh that one and the same Spirit dividing unto every man severally as he will And what can be more plain to prove that the Holy Ghost or Spirit is God when he worketh all in all and distributeth spiritual gifts unto men according to his own good pleasure III. Isa. 6. 1. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne c. v. 2 3. Above stood the Seraphims and cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts The three Holies signifie the three Persons the Lord of Hosts the one God ver 8. I heard the voice of the Lord ver 9. And he said Go tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not c. This must needs be spoken of God and it is by the Apostle applyed to the Holy Ghost Act. 28. 25. Well spake the Holy Ghost go to this people and say hearing you shall hear c. IV. 1 Cor. 2. 10. For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God None is omniscient to know all things yea whatsoever is in the unsearchable minde of God but he that is God and therefore the Holy Ghost is God I might speak further of his divine Works as Regeneration Ioh. 3. 5. guiding Believers into all truth Ioh. 16. 13. Sanctification and the like of our being baptized by him Mat. 3. 11. and in his name Mat. 28. 19. and his being called One that is one God where he is numbred up amongst the three Persons that bare record in heaven 1 Ioh. 5. 7. All which undeniably prove that the Holy Ghost is God co-essential and co-equal with the Father and the Son 5. The fifth and last thing is to prove That Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct Subsistents or Persons Concerning the name Person I shall not speak of it because Mr. Danson intendeth to vindicate that word from the cavils of W. P. in answer to what concerneth him p. 10. That there are three such distinct Persons in one Divine Essence is evident from the Scripture See Math. 3. 16 17. And Iesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water and to the Heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And lo a voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Here is a distinction of all the three Persons the Son was clothed in flesh and came up out of the water the Spirit was in the shape of a Dove which came down from heaven the Fa was in the voice saying This is my beloved Son Another Scripture which holdeth forth this distinction is Ioh. 16. 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth The Son prayeth the Father giveth The Spirit of Truth is the Comforter that is given I shall adde a third Scripture 1 Ioh. 5. 7. There are three that bare record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one They are the distinct Persons but one undivided Essence But further to confirm this truth denied by the Adversaries I shall prove from the Scripture that there are three distinct Persons in one Divine Essence 1 From the distinct Names given to them 2 From their distinct personal Acts. 3 From their distinct personal Properties 1. From their distinct Names they are called Father Son and Holy Ghost Math. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Father Word and Holy Ghost in Ioh. 5. 7. before cited These names do evidence a distinction not of nature and essence for they are one therefore of personality 2. From their distinct personal acts I mean such acts as can be ascribed unto none but such as are persons 1 Giving the Comforter is ascribed to the Father Ioh. 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter it is proper onely to a person to give this act requiring both understanding and will 2 Sending the Comforter is ascribed to the Son Ioh. 15. 6. When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father and it is proper onely to a person to send 3 Guiding into all truth speaking what he heareth is ascribed to the Holy Ghost Ioh. 16. 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And who can deny that these are personal acts The distinction of the persons in these acts is evident in all these places where the Son speaketh of himself in the first person I will pray I will send he speaketh of the Father and the Spirit in the third person which persons he evidently distinguisheth one from another by the preposition from speaking of the Spirit whom I will send from the Father Surely he must wink very hard that doth not perceive a distinction of the persons of Father Son and Spirit in these places 3. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct persons is evident from these distinct personal and incommunicable Properties 1. The personal property of the Father is to beget the Son Heb. 1. 5. Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and the Son being eternal as hath been proved this generation must be eternal 2. The personal property of the Son is to be begotten of the Father Ioh. 1. 14. We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father 3. The personal
Father the only true God In this place Christ excludeth not himself from being God but only excludeth all false Gods and if you mark it the word only as also the word one doth belong to the predicate God and not to the subject Father it being not onely thee to be the true God but thee to be the only true God and so it may be applyed to the Son and Iesus Christ whom thou bast sent to be the only true God which is signifyed in that place and expressed 1 Iob. 5. 10. we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life The other Scriptures prove that there is one God essentially in opposition unto all that upon any other account are called Gods not being Gods by essence all which do but assert that which is acknowledged and hath been already proved in the former Chapter that there is but one God In the argument which W. P. draws from the fore-mentioned Scriptures he doth again show his ignorance if he know not that in several of these places the word one is not in the Hebrew or his deceitfulness if he know and dissemble it and thinks by laying stress on the word one to impose upon the understandings of the vulgar as if there were some great force in his argument from those places when indeed they prove not in the least what he alledgeth them for But allowing W. P. to draw his argument from those places which do prove the unity of God though God be declared and believed to be but one it will not follow that the Divine nature doth not subsist in three persons the Scripture indeed doth hold him forth as one God but there it speaketh of his essence and yet withal doth elsewhere sufficiently declare that in this one essence there are three distinct persons therefore we professe our beleif of the Holy three persons as well as the Holy one God and both according to the plain Scripture before urged for proof hereof 1 Ioh. 5. 7. There are three that bare record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one But this distinction of one God and three persons so plainly signifyed in that Scripture W. P. most impudently and blasphemously calleth impertinent and the reason he giveth is because God was not declared and believed incompleatly or without his subsistance nor did require homage from his creatures as an incompleat and abstracted being c. which is a most egregions non sequitur besides that he fastneth that on us which neither we nor any Orthodox Christian ever yet affirmed viz that God was ever declared or believed incompleatly without his subsistance or as an incompleat and abstracted Being we know no such thing as the essence of God without a subsistance we know the Divine nature only in the three persons not abstracted from them or being any way out of them and so God is not manifested or worshipped without that which is absolutely necessary to himself namely without his subsistance but the Divine essence is worshipped as subsisting in the three persons and so the blessed Trinity is not our nor any mans fiction as he impiously speaks but this folish and absurd notion is his own fiction or the fiction of some of his Socinian brethren After W. P's vain attempts to refute the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scripture he fronts his other arguments with the swelling but false title Refuted from right reason false I say for besides that what ever attempt reason doth make for the refuting of any Scripture truth which is the object of faith as this is concerning the Trinity of persons in the unity of the Divine essence it doth hereby discover it self to be crooked and depraved reason and the arguings from it are called the perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6. 5. compared with the fourth verse W. P. who before had charged me for using Heathenish Metaphysicks in disputing for the Truths of God though my terms were either scripture-Scripture-words or carried Scripture-sense doth here most Heathenishly make use of Metaphysical terms in arguing against the truth but that so weakly that his Argumentation is so far from deserving the name of right reason that more properly it may be called no reason as shall be made evident in the Answer unto his Arguments which if they seem crabbed it is not because of the strength but because of the obscurlty of them for some of the phrases are so uncouch and his reasoning are so odly jointed together to avoid that part of a Scholar in putting them into a Sylogistical form that it is more difficult to find out what his cloudy brains conception and meaning is than to give answer unto any of his cavilling Arguments And here having promised to reply to his reason p. 10. why he flatly denied my minor proposition in the Sylogism before mentioned wherein he argueth onely against the conclusion endeavouring to prove that there are not three subsistences and the argument he useth being the same in sense and scope with his first argument under that which he calleth a Refutation from right reason I shall answer both together and omit nothing in his argument that hath any show of cogency in it His argument is thus No one substance can have three distinct subsistances and perserve its own unity and not to repeat all his words in the obscure way that he propoundeth his arguments but to help him in the methodizing of them his consequence is that every distinct Subsistance will have its own substance and consequently that three distinct subsistances will require three distinct substances consequently if the Doctrine of the Trinity of subsistences were true there would be three Gods And in his first argument he argueth that every person is inseparable from it's own substance and therefore Father Son and Spirit either are three distinct nothings or if persons then three distinct substances and consequently three distinct Gods Answer If Substance be taken here for Essence as it must be otherwise it will conclude nothing against us then the proposition is most false that no one substance can have three distinct subsistances and preserve it 's own unity for though a created Essence being finite limited and divisible cannot be communicated unto any more than one subsistance yet it followeth not that the divine Essence which is infinite and indivisible cannot be communicated to several subsistances neither doth W. P's reason prove the contrary viz that every subsistance will have it 's own substance unlesse he can prove that each distinct subsistence must necessarily have it 's own substance in God as well as Creatures distinct from what the other subsistences have For one and the same singular nature or substance may be and is the substance or nature subsisting in each person of the Trinity and so every subsistence hath it's own substance and yet