you of what is written in the hundred fourty and sixth Psalm Happy is he that Psal 146. 5. hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God EXERCITATION 4. Exerc. 4. The first Inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy § 1. IN the synagogues of old upon the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles called by the Jews Hosanna Rabbah the great Hosanna and by the Evangelist The last day the great day of Jos 7. 37. vid. Ludov. de Dieu in loc the feast four portions of Scripture were wont to be read viz. The close of the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy the last words of the Prophet Malachy the beginning of Joshua and that passage concerning Solomons rising up from his knees after his prayer and blessing the people with a loud voice in the eighth chapter of the first book of Kings Then did Jesus who was the end of the Law and the Prophets the true Joshua and Solomon stand up saying If any man thirst let him John 7. 38. come unto me and drink He that beleeveth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But why did he then speak of waters Tremellius giveth this account of that out Annot. in loc of the Talmud The Jews saith he upon that day used with much solemnity and joy to fetch water from the river Siloah to the Temple where being delivered to the Priests it was by them poured upon the altar the people in the mean time singing out of Isaiah With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells Isa 12 3. of salvation Our Saviour therefore to take them off from this needless if not superstitious practise telleth them of other and better waters which they were to have of him according to what he had elsewhere said by the ministery of the same Prophet in these most emphatical words Ho every one Isa 55. 1 2. that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat yea Come buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Words that besides an intimation of the forementioned truths concerning the creatures inability and the sufficiency of God in Christ to satisfie souls clearly hold forth a double improvement thereof one by way of invitation the other by way of expostulation § 2. The Invitation is set on with vehemence and importunity Ho come but as not content with that he doubleth it yea Come ye and tripleth it yea Come Not Come and look on or Come and cheapen but Come and buy buy and eat They may be rationally said to Come who frequent the Ordinances wherein Christ is usually to be found They to buy who part with somewhat are at some cost and pains in pursuit of him They to eat who feed on him by a lively faith Careless wretches will not so much as vouchsafe to Come by reason of their oxen or farms or some other impediment the Lord must have them excused Formal professours Come indeed but refuse to Buy will lay out no serious endeavours in searching the Scriptures and their own deceitfull hearts but are merely superficial in such undertakings Temporary beleevers whose hearts are really though not savingly wrought upon seem to have bought yet do not eat for want of that spirit of faith which ingrafts men into Christ and makes them as truly one with him as the body is with the meat it feeds upon Want we encouragements to accept of this invitation The place it self presents us with three § 3. One from the fulness of that satisfaction which is here tendered under the metaphors of water wine milk and bread the last whereof is implied partly in those terms of opposition For that which is not bread as if he had said ye might have had that of me which is bread indeed partly in the verb Eat which cannot so properly be applied to any commodity here mentioned water wine and milk being liquids as to bread Now there is somewhat in Christ to answer each of these His flesh is bread his bloud is wine his John 6. 51. Matth. 26. 28 29. John 7. 38 39. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Spirit is waters his doctrine is milk But because I conceive the Holy Ghost in this place doth not so much intend a parallel of these as a declaration of that sufficiency which is to be found in Christ and his benefits for saving to the utmost of all those that shall come unto God by him I shall onely pitch upon that consideration and by adding unto this a like place in the Revelation briefly demonstrate from them both how all-sufficient a Saviour he is This in Isaiah holds forth somewhat proper to every sort of true beleevers Milk for babes water for such Vinum Lac senum as are young and hot wine for the aged bread for all The other is that of Christ to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea I counsel thee to buy of me gold Rev. 3. 18. tried in the fire that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see where he commends his gold for such as is tried in the fire his raiment for such as will take away shame and his eye-salve for a special vertue to make the blinde see Take them together and there is in them enough to supply our principal defects viz. unbelief in the heart for which there is here gold tried in the fire whereby we may probably understand the grace of faith concerning which we read in Peter That the tryal of your faith 1 Pet. 1. 7. being much more pretious then of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise And unholiness in the life for which there is the white raiment if by it we understand inherent righteousness according to that in the Apocalypse To her was granted that she Rev. 19. 8. should be arraied in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints Lastly Ignorance in the minde for which there is his Eye-salve to remove it according to the Apostles prayer for his Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdome Ephes 1. 17 18. and revelation the eyes of their understanding being enlightned c. § 4. A second encouragement is from the universality of this offer Ho every one that thirsteth come so
unto all men in regard of the substance of their souls which are invisible incorporeal and intelligent as God is Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man And Gen. 9. 6. again in James Therewith curse we men James 3 9. which are made after the similitude of God We read of the Emperour Theodosius that having exacted a new tribute from the people of Antioch there arose See Theodor. hist lib. 5. c. 21. a commotion in which the people broke down the Statue of the Empress Placilla his late wife He in a rage sent his Forces against the city to sack it One Macedonius a Monk interceded thus If the Emperour be so much and so justly offended that the image of his wife was so defaced shall not the king of heaven said the Monk be angry at him if he shall deliberately deface and break the image of God in so many men as are like to perish in this Massacre What a vast difference is there betwixt reasonable creatures and that brazen image we for that image are easily able to set up one hundred but the Emperour with all his power is not able to restore so much as an hair of these men if once he kill them upon which admonition Theodosius it is said forbore his design Secondly in a strict sense So 't is appliable onely to Christ who is the image of the invisible God the brightness Colos 1. 15. of his glory and express image of his Heb. 1. 3. person For all the three things that go to make a perfect image viz. Likeness Derivation and Agreement in nature are concurrent here The kings image is in his coin and in his son but after a different manner In his coin there may be likeness and derivation but not identity of Nature which is also added in his son In Saints there are the former they are like to God in their qualities derived from him but in Christ all three Thirdly in a middle sense neither so largely as to extend to all men nor so strictly as to be restrained unto Christ alone but between both So taken it is nothing else but that conformity to God from which all men fell in the first Adam and unto which none but Saints are restored by the second § 6. For the third The parts of which man consisteth are body and soul Moses at first speaks to both The Gen. 〈◊〉 7. Lord God saith he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul God had before made Spirits by themselves and bodies by themselves some celestial others terrestrial now on the sixth day for a conclusion of his works he frames a creature consisting of a spirit and a body joyned together in whom he includes the choice perfections of all the former One observes that God Weemse Portracture p. 41. hath joyned all things in the world by certain Media The earth and water are coupled by slime the air and water by vapours Exhalations are a middle between air and fire Quick silver a middle between water and mettals coral between roots and stones so man between beasts and Angels Manilius hath comprehended much in Manil. lib. 4. apud Lip◠Physiolog l. 3. dissert 2. few verses Quid mirum noscere mundum Si possint homines quibus est mundus in ipsis Exemplúmque Dei quisque est in imagine parva In English thus What wonder if men know the world Since they themselves the world epitomize Yea every one a medal of God is Where he doth in effect call his body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world and his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little God In the pursuance Charron of wisdome pag. 16. of the former the Stoicks were wont to say That it was better being a fool in an humane shape then being wise in the form of a beast Yea Solomon himself in the twelfth of Ecclesiastes findeth in his head both Sun Moon and Stars Well therefore may his head resemble the heavens where these lights are as our eyes also are in our upper parts without which the world would be a dungeon his heart the fire it being kept hot by continual motion and conveying natural heat to the whole body his bloud and other humours the water his spirits the air and his flesh and bones the earth In prosecution of the latter Tully a Platonist Scito te Deum esse c. Lib. de somn Scip. goeth so far as to bid a man take notice that he is a God and some Divines Bonaventurae Amatorium pag. 601. col 2. finde a resemblance of the Trinity in mans soul The understanding will and conscience three faculties but one soul as Father Son and holy Ghost three persons but one God Let us all mean while taste and see how good the Lord is in preparing us such bodies and infusing such souls into us but withall so as to consider and improve the Original of both § 7. Seeing Adams body had its original from the dust of the earth the consideration hereof should be an antidote against pride in all his posterity Art not thou the son of Adam was not he the son of dust was not that the son of nothing when the Lord would humble Adam after the fall he put him in minde of his being dust In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat Gen. 3 19. Gen. 18. 27. thy bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return And when Abraham would be low before God he styleth himself dust and ashes Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes Ecclus 10. 9. Why art thou proud O dust and ashes saith Siracides and Bernard Cùm sis humi limus cur non es humilimus Why art not thou most humble O man seeing thou art but the dust of the earth As for the soul that was purely from God Divinae particula aurae as an ancient Poet calleth it for God saith Moses breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul This should render us restless till that Image after which Adam was made be renewed in us by regeneration The relicks of it found in men unconverted what are they but magni nominis umbra the mere shadow of a great and glorious name How unlike are natural men to God for all them Our Queen Elizabeth once in her progress observing some pictures of hers hung up for signs to be very unlike her caused them to be taken down and burnt Burning must be the end of those that continue unlike to God whereas such as are by converting grace changed into the same 2 Cor. 3. 18. image as Paul speaketh from glory to glory shall at length arrive
are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him § 5. Secondly as Religion a term which both Austine and Lactantius derive à religando because by the true Religion improved mens souls are tied and fastened to the supreme Being it unites us to God and to Christ The graces of union are especially Faith and Love Christian Religion is made up of these two Kiss the Son saith David Psal 2. 12. which implyeth the affection of love Blessed are all they that put their trust in him which holds forth an expression of faith Hold fast the form of sound 2 Tim. 1. 13. words saith Paul which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Love is the fulfilling of the Law faith the fulfilling of the Gospel both the fulfilling of Christian Religion These two pipes being rightly laid from a Christians soul to the fountain of living waters fetch in from thence a dayly supply of such grace as will certainly end in a fulness of glory whereas worldlings all the pipes of whose spirits are laid to cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water must needs continue empty still and for want of Christ who is not seen but by those two eyes nor embraced but by those two arms fall short of happiness how eminent soever they may be in the pursuit of by-ways Thus to discover and to unite are acts of prerogative not communicable to other professions For to maintain as some do that a man may be saved in an ordinary course I meddle not with extraordinary dispensations but leave the secrets of God to himself by any Religion whatsoever provided he live according to the principles of it is to turn the whole world into an Eden and to finde a Tree of life in every garden as well as in the paradise of God EXERCITATION 2. The insufficiency of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshiped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in Natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks § 1. IT hath appeared already in part by what hath been hitherto discoursed that as the other Patriarchs sheaves made obeisance to Josephs so other Religions must bow down to Christianity by name those three grand competitours Paganisme Judaisme and Mahometisme as also those other leading books by name the Talmud the Alcoran and the much applauded writings of heathen Philosophers must all do homage to the Bible Yet will it not I suppose be unworthy of my pains and the Readers patience further to clear the insufficiency of all exotick doctrines by an argument taken from divine worship to which I proceed by certain steps Exerc. 2. I. Religion is a thing which distinguisheth men from beasts more then reason it self doth For some brute beasts have appearances of reason none of Religion Man is a creature addicted to Religion may perhaps be found as true a definition as that which is commonly received Man is a living creature indued with reason II. Some kinde of Deity is acknowledged every where throughout the world and wherever a Deity is acknowledged some kinde of worship is observed Should a Synode of mere Philosophers be convented to consult about the matters of God I make no question but in the issue of their debates they would pronounce one Anathema against Atheisme and another against Irreligion Among the Romanes Parcus Deorum cultor infrequens Horat. lib. 1. Ode 34. to worship sparingly was accounted the next door to being an Atheist III. None but the true God can discover what the true worship of God is As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper Desine cur nemo videat sine Numine Numen Mirari Solem quis sine sole videt light A million of torches cannot shew us the Sun so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is or what worship he expects without divine and supernatural revelation from himself § 2. IV. Before the settling of Christianity and spreading the Gospel throughout the world many every where were unsatisfied concerning the worship they performed and inquisitive after some teacher who might help them therein by his advice This may be gathered not onely from that which was said by the woman of Samaria in that dispute of hers with our John 4. 25. Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui fontem veritatis aperiat c. Marsil Ficinus in vita Platonis Vid. Livium Galan praetar pag. 8. Saviour about worship I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But also by what Ficinus reporteth concerning Plato to wit that being asked by one of his scholars how far forth and how long his precepts were to be obeyed he returned this answer Untill there come a more holy one by whom the fountain of truth shall be opened and whom all may safely follow V. The precepts and practise of such as teach and profess other Religions are inconsistent with those Gospel-rules which Christ and his Apostles have given for the regulating of divine worship Two whereof I shall instance in The first is that which fell from our Saviours own mouth God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Where Spirit in the latter clause seems to stand in opposition partly to the formality of the Jews who did so wholly addict themselves to outward observances in a spiritless way as to give our Saviour occasion of saying well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me In vain do they worship Mark 7. 6 7. me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Partly to the Idolatry of the Gentiles who in stead of tendring service sutable to a spiritual Being worshipped God in and by representations and images of this or that visible creature The word Truth in like manner may probably seem to be opposed partly to the typical worship of the Jews in which there were many resemblances and shadows of things to come as sacrifices incense and other rites the truth whereof was exhibited in Christ and in Gospel-service partly to the perfunctory worship of the Gentiles who for want of Scripture-light framed to themselves sorry forms of devotion which the wisest among them were altogether unsatisfied with yet as knowing no better and being loth to give offence observed them onely for fashions sake so worshipping in shew rather then in truth § 3. Doubtless what Seneca profest in his time was a principle which the most judicious Heathen walked by both in that and the ages foregoing He speaking of their religious observances plainly said A wise man
he is Si omnino ego Deum declararem vel ego Deus essem vel ille Deus non foret § 2. Were all such passages set aside as are not originally the Heathens own but borrowed from Jewish or Christian authours I should not be afraid to affirm that there is one very short expression in Scripture to wit this I am that I am which revealeth Exod. 3. 14. more of God then all the large volumes of Ethnick writers An expression so framed as to take in all differences of time according to the idiome of the Hebrew tongue wherein a verb of the future tense as Ehieh is may signifie time past and present as well as that which is to come Hence ariseth a great latitude of interpretation for according to different readings it implieth different things Reading it as we do I am that I am it importeth the supremacie of Gods being The creatures have more of non-entity then of being in them It is proper to him to say I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Septuagint Or the simplicity thereof whereas in creatures the Thing and its Being Ens and Essentia are distinguishable in him they are both one Or the ineffabilitie as if the Lord had said to Moses enquiring his name I am my self and there is nothing without my self that can fully express my Being Which put Scaliger upon inventing that admirable Scalig. de Subtilit Exercit. 365. § 2. epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Ipsissimus Ipse Or lastly the Eternitie thereof since there never was never will be a time wherein God might not or may not say of himself I am Whence it is that when Christ would manifest his goings out from everlasting as Micah phraseth Micah 5. 2. it he maketh use of this expression Before Abraham was I am not I Joh. 8. 58. was for that might have been said of Enoch Noah and others who lived before Abrahams time yet were not eternal but I am If it be rendered I am what I was as Piscator would have it then it speaketh his Immutability I am in executing what I was in promising Yesterday and to day and the same for ever If as others I will be what I will be then it denotes his Independency That essence which the creatures have dependeth upon the Creatours will None of them can say I will be not having of and in it self any power to make it self persevere in being as God hath It may perhaps intimate all these and Quae verbulo hoc continentur omnium hominum capacitatem transcendunt Andr. Rivet in Exod. 3. 14. much more then the tongues of Angels can utter Verily it is a speech containing more in it as a learned writer acknowledgeth then humane capacities can attain § 3. I shall therefore forbear to enlarge upon it Let me onely observe before I leave it the notorious impudence of apostate spirits Satan not contenting himself to have got the name of Jove in imitation of Jehovah the incommunicable name of God prevailed with his deluded followers to ascribe unto him that which the Lord of heaven and earth assumeth to himself in this mysterious place of Exodus saying I am that I am For over the gate of Apollo's temple in the city of Delphi so famed for oracles was engraven in capital letters this Greek vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Thou art vvhereby those that came thither to vvorship or to consult Satans oracle vvere instructed to acknovvledge him the fountain of being and the onely true God as one Ammonius is brought in discoursing at large of this very thing in the last Treatise of Plutarchs morals vvhereunto I refer the reader § 4. As to the point of divine subsistence Jehova Elohim Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons but one Deus indivisè 〈◊〉 in Trinitate inconfusè trinus in unitate God or in Leo's expression One God without division in a Trinity of Persons and three Persons without confusion in an Unity of Essence it is a discovery altogether supernatural yea Nature is so far from finding it out that novv when Scripture hath revealed it she cannot by all the help of Art comprehend or set it forth as she doth other things Grammar it self wanting proper and full words whereby to express Logick strong demonstrations whereby to prove and Rhetorick apt similitudes whereby to clear so mysterious a truth The terms Essence Persons Trinity Generation Procession and such like which are commonly made use of for want of better have been and will be cavilled at as short of fully reaching the mystery in all its dimensions Of the similitudes usually brought for its illustration that which Hilary said is Omnis comparatio homini potiùs utilis habeatur quà m Do apta Hilar. lib. 1. de Trin. most true They may gratifie the understanding of man but none of them exactly suit with the nature of God For example Not that of a root a trunk and a branch the trunk proceeding from the root the branch from both yet but one tree because a root may for some time be without a trunk and a trunk without a branch but God the Father never was without his Son nor the Father and Son without their coeternal Spirit Neither that of a chrystall Ball held in a river on a Sunshine-day in which case there would be a Sun in the Firmament begetting another Sun upon the chrystall Ball and a third Sun proceeding from both the former appearing in the surface of the water yet but one Sun in all for in this comparison two of the Suns are but imaginary none reall save that in heaven whereas the Father Word and Spirit are distinct Persons indeed but each of them truly and really God § 5. Well therefore may Rhetoricians say It is not in us and in our similitudes fully to clear this high point Logitians also It is not in us and in our demonstrations fully to prove it For however reason be able from the creatures to demonstrate a Godhead as hath been said yet it cannot from thence a Trinity no more then he that looks upon a curious picture can tell whether it was drawn by an English-man or an Italian onely that the piece had an artificer and such an one as was a prime master in that faculty because the limbner drew it as he was an artist not as one of this or that nation So the world is a production of that Essence which is common to all three not any personal emanation from this or that subsistent which is the reason why a Deity may be inferred from thence but not any distinction of Persons much less the determinate number of a Trinity The doctrine whereof is like a Temple filled with smoke such smoke as not onely hinders the view of the quickest eye but hurts the sight of such as dare with undue curiosity pry into it A mystery which my faith embraceth as revealed in the
word but my reason cannot fathome Whilest others run themselves on ground and dispute it till their understandings be non-plust may I be enabled to beleeve what Scripture testifieth concerning an unbegotten Father an onely-begotten Son and an Holy Spirit proceeding from both Three yet but One and therein to acquiesce without enquiring as Mary did when the Angel foretold her miraculous conception How can this thing be To which question my return should be no other but that of Austine who notwithstanding his fifteen books concerning the Trinity modestly said Askest thouâ— me Nescio libenter nescire profiteor August serm de tempore 189. how there can be Three in One and One in Three I do not know and am freely willing to profess my ignorance herein Verily this light is dazling and our eyes are weak It is a case wherein the wisest clerks are punies and the ablest Oratours infants § 6. Yet is the mystery it self written in Scripture as it were with the Sun-beams I reject not as invalid but onely forbear as less evident the places commonly cited out of Moses and the Prophets choosing rather to insist upon New-testament discoveries when the vail which formerly hid the Holy of Holies from mens sight was rent in pieces and the secrets of heaven exposed to more open view then whilest the Church was in her minority At our Saviours baptisme there was a clearer manifestation of the Trinity then ever before as if God had reserved this discovery on purpose to add the greater honour to his onely Sons solemn inauguration into the office of Mediatour-ship which was then most visibly undertaken Who so casts his eye upon the third chapter of the Gospel according to Luke will quickly discern the Father in an audible voice heard but not seen This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Vers 21 22 23. Voce Pater Naâ—us flumine Flamen ave pleased The word made flesh now in the water receiving baptisme and after praying so both heard and seen The Spirit like a Dove descending and resting upon Christ seen but slot heard Insomuch as the Catholicks were wont in the times of Athanasius to send the misbeleeving Arians to Jordan there to learn the knowledge of a Trinity § 7. Behold after this a clear nomination of the three coessential Persons in that commission which Christ our Lord sealed to the Apostles before his ascension in the end of the Gospel according to Matthew when he sent them out to make disciples in all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Who can but see a Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil epist 78. here How can any who by vertue of this institution hath been baptized refuse to beleeve it It becomes us saith Basil to be baptized as we have been taught to beleeve as we have been baptized to glorifie as we have beleeved the Father the Son and the holy Spirit This the great Apostate Julian was not a little sensible of wherefore considering that he could not fairly disclaim the Trinity till he had renounced his baptisme he took the bloud of beasts offered in sacrifice to the heathen Gods as Nazianzen tells Nazian Orar. 1. aduers Juliar circa medium us from the report of his own domestical servants and bathed himself therein all over so as much as in him lay washing off the baptisme he had formerly received Add hereunto that impregnable place which hath hitherto and will for ever hold out against all the mines and batteries of hereticks in the first epistle of John There are three that bear witness in heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7. the Father the Word and the holy Spirit and these three are One. Where a Trinity is proclaimed both in numero numerante there are three and in numero numerato telling us plainly who they are Father Word and holy Spirit And that the same Essence is common to them all For these three are One. § 8. Yet is there a late generation of men commonly known by the name of Socinians who although they maintain against Atheists the Personalitie and Eternitie of God the Father have confounded Christian Religion by denying the Eternitie of the Son whose Personalitie they acknowledge and the personalitie of the Spirit whose Eternitie they confess Methinks it fares with these three blessed Persons as with those three noted wells of which we reade in the twenty sixth of Genesis Two of them Isaacs servants were enforced to strive for with the herdmen of Gerar which made him call the one Esek that is contention the other Sitnah that is hatred A third they got quiet possession of and he called the name of it Rehoboth saying Now the Lord hath made room for us The Fathers Godhead is like the well Rehoboth which there was no strife about the Sons divinity like the well Esek we are forced to contend for that as also for the Deity of the Spirit which is as Sitnah to the Socinians they hate the Exerc. 4. thoughts of it much more the acknowledgement But can any man say by the Spirit of God that the Spirit is not God Is it not as clear by Scripture-light that Christ is God as by Natures light that God is Are they Christians and Spiritual who denie the divinity of Christ and the Spirit Let the judgement of charity enjoy its due latitude but for my part I would not for a thousand worlds have a Socinians account to give at the end of this EXERCITATION 4. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiositie to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweeteness of taste sense of interest and sinceritie of obedience NExt to the Essence and Subsistence of God his Attributes are to be considered concerning which I premise this rule § 1. The degrees of our respect are to keep proportion with degrees of worth in persons and things ordinary worth requiring esteem eminent calling for reverence supereminent for admiration yea and adoration too if it be an uncreated object Hence the Psalmist upon contemplation of God crieth out as in an extasie O Lord our Lord how excellent Psal 8. 1 and 9. is thy Name in all the earth His Attributes are his Name their worth so superexcellent as far to transcend the utmost pitch of that observance which we poor we are able any way to render Seeing as the stars of heaven disappear and hide their heads upon the rising of the Sun that out-shineth them so creatures seem not to be excellent yea not to be when the being and excellency of their Maker displayeth it self according to that All nations before Isai 40. 17. him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity The best of them have but some perfections