Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A60327
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Christus Deus The divinity of our Saviour : asserted and vindicated from the exceptions of the Socinians and others : in a sermon preached at St. Peter's Hungate, in Norwich, upon the festival of St. Philip and St. James, in the year 1673 / by Bernard Skelton, sometime vicar of Hinton.
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Skelton, Bernard.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3933; ESTC R37553
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16,850
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32
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they would interpret the Place is clear without they make the Scripture speak Contradictions and so to be taken up into Glory be to be received gloriously on Earth and then up is down above below Earth Heaven Besides it is the same Word which is used by the Septuagint for the Assumption of Enoch and Elijah and in the New Testament for the Ascension of our Saviour Mark 16.19 Acts 1.2 Acts 1.11 22. Wherefore this being the constant Notion of the Word we must either learn a Language which the Scriptures know not and the Holy Ghost never use or else according to their own Rule Jesus must be this most High God manifested in the Flesh Would you read this Doctrine engraven by the Point of a Diamond Consult St. John's first Epistle chap. 5. ver 20. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an Vnderstanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is he true God and eternal Life To this our Adversaries object only That there is a Possibility the last Words in Grammatical Construction may be referred to the Father But because the Son is the immediate Antecedent to which the Relative can properly be referred 2. The Son is here chiefly treated on which is the Rule they give for interpreting such Places of Scripture And 3. since the Reason rendred why we are in the true God is because we are in the Son viz. because the Son is the true God And 4. in St. John the constant Title of our Saviour is Eternal Life Since I say all these Reasons are in the Text it self why the Title of the true God should be attributed to the Son and not here referred to the Father who indeed is spoken of in the Text but at a distance I cannot but conclude that our Saviour is the True God and Eternal Life the most High God the God of Israel If we look into the Old Testament we shall find many Places which directly speak of the God of Israel which are interpreted by the Apostles in the New to be meant of none but Christ If David say The Israelites lusted in the Wilderness and tempted God in the Desart and Moses describes the History thereof Numb 21.5 6. and tells us God sent fiery Serpents to destroy them St. Paul will tell us this God was Christ 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of fiery Serpents What indeed would these Men have if we must not believe such Places and palpable Truths as these are Will they make both us and themselves Idolaters And yet they do no otherwise who give the Honour and Worship to the Creature which is due only to the Creator for besides that God saith he will not give his Honour to another what I pray you is Religious Worship but that Homage Faith and Obedience which ought to be paid and is really due from the Creature to the great Creator Now as it is impossible that God can be otherwise than the first Cause and Creator of all things and so cannot devest himself of that Soveraignty which he hath over the Creature so it is equally impossible that another should have the same Homage Honour and Religious Worship with the most High God without Idolatry and yet we are bound to honour the Son as we honour the Father unless he be likewise the first Cause the great Creator which for a Creature to be implies a Contradiction Since then the Reason of the Law viz. our Obligation to worship God upon the Account of Creation always continues why not the Law it self which commands Thou shalt worship God alone and him only shalt thou serve If they say their Worship of Christ is subordinate and directed through Christ to God the Father why then do they call the Romanists Idolaters Why do they not shake Hands with Bellarmine and kiss the Pope's Toe who allows no other Worship to the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints than they do to Christ whom they make altogether a Creature Neither will their Simily of a King and his Son or a Favourite do here for a King may devest himself of his Royal Authority but it is otherwise with God he cannot but be the first Cause of all things and therefore the Creature will be always bound to worship him as such Now as it 's contrary to the Justice and Truth of God to command us to worship him for the first Cause for the Creator who is but a mere Creature So since we are obliged by Scripture to pay the same Homage Faith and Obedience to the Son as to the Father to honour the Son as we honour the Father we must conclude that the Son as well as the Father is the first Cause the great Creator the most High God the God of Israel But I will not stand any longer to prove the Sun gives Light Our Saviour himself who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the highest Reason proves the Truth of this Doctrine in this very Gospel appointed for this Day in the Verses immediately following the Text from the In-dwelling of the Father and the Son the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Circumincessio but I know not well how to render it Our Saviour saith Because I am in the Father and the Father in me which is fully expressed by the Apostle For in him saith he dwells the Fulness of the Godhead bodily The second Argument is drawn from his Words or Doctrine The Words saith he that I speak I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me The Prophets of old spake as they were moved and directed by God but here it is God himself that speaks God who at sundry times and in divers Manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last Days saith the Divine Author to the Hebrews spoken unto us by his Son his natural Son The Word being here taken emphatically as appears by the Opposition here made to the Prophets who are in Scripture-Language stiled the Children or Sons of God Never Man spake as he spake by his Adversaries own Confession Vox non hominem sonat est Deus certè What was blasphemously ascribed to Herod is most certainly true here it is the Voice of God and not of Man The third Argument is taken from his Works and Miracles He the Father saith Christ doth the Works believe me ver 11. For the very Works sake they declare my infinite Vertue and demonstrate my Omnipotency The ruffling and roaring Winds the boisterous Waves obey his Voice and the Seas acknowledg the Lord High Admiral of the Ocean to be aboard The Fish bring Silver in their Mouths to do Homage and pay their Quit-Rents to their supream Lord and Maker The Loaves and Fishes multiply as receiving another Nature from the God of Nature and the Author of all
kind by way of Understanding which in spiritual Beings is Conception or Generation so it 's no contradiction that there be an infinite Act of the Will too by way of infinite Love or Volition which is Procession But saith the Objector if it be necessary that an infinite Good be infinitely communicable how can these two be one as it is indeed the usual Method of our Adversaries to pose us with the manner of the Existence of a Plurality of Persons in one Divine Essence But who knows not that as to argue from the Existence to the manner of existing is no Consequence so to argue we know not the manner of it therefore it is not is very bad Logick We know not how the Loadstone drills and draws the Iron into its close Embraces but we are sure it is so The Wind we know blows but whence it comes and whither it goes we are ignorant In these and a thousand things more is Reason pos'd in Naturals much more in Supernaturals So that it is a sufficient Answer to say Scripture and Reason tell us it is so but how it is so we know not Neither do we desire to know left with the Bethlemites we smart for our peeping into the Ark of the Lord. But we are not altogether in the dark as to this neither There is something in Nature which tho there be no proportion between finite and infinite may yet at the least shadow out something not altogether unlike this Plurality of Persons in one Essence If we lift up our Eyes towards Heaven and look upon the Sun we cannot but perceive some Glimmerings of this great Truth in that beautiful and glorious Body Is it not the Fountain and Cause of natural Light Was it ever destitute of this pleasing Act of Generation Did it not ever since it was a Sun send forth these bright and joyful Emanations Thus the Son of God is the Brightness of his Father's Glory the eternal Son of an eternal Father Are not the Sun and its darling Light distinct Supposites Do they not differ as Cause and Effect Begetter and Begotten It is a poor shift here to say that Light is a Quality for Reason in the best of Antients Democritus Epicurus and generally in all the modern Philosophers speaks the contrary In short the Sun naturally and necessarily produceth Light Thus God who is the most free Agent in this great Act of Generation acts ex necessitate Naturae naturally which is the highest Perfection as I said before because being infinitely Good he is infinitely Communicable Now that the Sun and Light which as Cause and Effect Begetter and Begotten have one and the same individual Essence appears from the tacit Consent of all Men I ever met with for if nothing interposeth between the Rays of the Sun and them they will say they are in the Sun And it is true for the Sun is Light and Light is the Sun they are one in Essence tho distinct as Cause and Effect I could enlarge much upon this Similitude and make it clearer than the Sun it self But Time calls me to answer their other way of arguing which is by Scripture wherein I will be as concise as may be for I fear I have already tired your Patience First say our Adversaries his Divinity was by Donation as appears from Phil. 2.9 And again the Father is called the Head nay the God of Christ I answer All this is in respect of his humane Nature as we may see in the Chapter cited Phil. 2. for he that was in the Form of God and thought it no Robbery to be equal with God took upon him the Form of a Servant submitting to the Death of the Cross the Punishment of Slaves and Servants The Exaltation therefore of the Humane Nature as a Reward of his Death and Suffering could be no prejudice to his Divinity which the Apostle asserts fully in the foregoing Verses But saith the Objector how can the Son be the Father To do nothing of himself not to come of himself or seek his own Glory are Imperfections not suitable to the Divine Nature I answer What he calls Imperfections are the greatest Perfections for since the Divine Nature can be but one Christ if he be the proper natural Son of God as he is said to be in Scripture must have the same individual Essence with the Father and so consequently what the Jews affirmed for Blasphemy the most High God and he doth nothing of himself because the Father that dwelleth in him worketh together with him Opera Dei ad extra sunt indivisa The third sort of Objections are from those Scriptures which deny some Perfections to belong to Christ in some certain Respect But our Adversaries deny them absolutely as not to know the Day of Judgment and the like The fourth Objection is when they attribute some Imperfection to Christ absolutely which is spoken of him in Scripture only in some certain Respect as to be Man to Die to Pray to be Raised again that the Father is greater than he and the like all which are said of him only in respect of his Humanity Lastly saith the Objector Christ gives this as the only Reason why he is said to be God because he was sanctified and sent into the World And here I beg your leave to be more copious and that I may not seem to derogate or take any thing from the strength of the Argument I will repeat the very Words of their Authors as they are set down in the Racovian Catechism pag. 19. Having premised that the word God is taken two ways in Scripture first for the most High secondly for him who hath some sublime Dominion under him they add that in the latter Signification the Word of God is in certain Places dignified with the Title of God And this we prove saith the Racovian Catechism from the very Words of the Son himself John 10.35 If ye call them Gods to whom the Word of God comes and the Scripture cannot be broken Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God By this Speech Christ doth clearly intimate both that the word God is sometimes attributed in Scripture to them who are far inferiour to that one God as also that he called himself the Son of God for no other reason than because he had been sanctified by the Father and sent into the World To this I answer 1st That I admit the distinction but that the word God is applied to Christ only in the latter Signification is false as I have before proved And to say only as they do that in certain Places of Scripture the Word when attributed to Christ is taken in the latter Signification for him that hath some derivative Power from the most High God makes nothing against us for in certain other Places of Scripture it is attributed to Christ in the former Signification