Irenaeus Tertullian and even Origen himself who is called the Father of Interpreters are most express and positive in this matter For Ignatius was the Scholar of Polycarp who was a Disciple of St. John and Justin Martyr lived in the next Age to that of the Apostles and Origen was a man of infinite learning and reading and in his Comments upon Scripture seems to have considered all the Interpretations of those that were before him So that if this which Socinus is so confident is the true sense of St. John had been any where extant he would not probably have omitted it nay rather would certainly have mentioned it if for no other reason yet for the surprising novelty and strangeness of it with which he was apt to be over-much delighted So that if this interpretation of Socinus be true here are two things very wonderful and almost incredible First that those who lived so very near St. John's Time and were most likely to know his meaning as Ignatius Justin Martyr c. should so widely mistake it And then that the whole Christian World should for so many Ages together be deceived in the ground and foundation of so important an Article of Faith if it were true or if it were not should be led into so gross and dangerous an Error as this must needs be if Christ had no real existence before he was born into the World And which would be necessarily consequent upon this that no man did understand this Passage of St. John aright before Socinus This very consideration alone if there were no other were sufficient to stagger any prudent man's belief of this Interpretation And as to the Novelty of it Socinus himself makes no difficulty to own it nay he seems rather to rejoice and to applaud himself in it Unhappy man that was so wedded to his own Opinion that no Objection no difficulty could divorce him from it And for this I refer my self to his Preface to his Explication of this first Chapter of St. John's Gospel where you shall find these words concerning the Passage now in controversy quorum verus sensus omnium prorsus qui quidem extarent explanatores latuisse videtur the true sense of which words says he seems to have been hid from all the Expositors that ever were extant And upon those words v. 10. He was in the World and the World was made by him he hath this expression quid autem hoc loco sibi velit Johannes à nemine quod sciam adhuc rectè expositum fuit but what St. John means in this place was never yet that I know of by any man rightly explain'd And Schlictingius after him with more confidence but much less decency tells us that concerning the meaning of those expressions in the beginning and of those which follow concerning the Word the ancient Interpreters did ab Apostoli mente delirare went so far from the Apostle's meaning as if they had rav'd and been out of their wits Which is so extravagantly said and with so much contempt of those great and venerable Names who were the chief Propagaters of Christianity in the World and to whom all Ages do so justly pay a reverence that nothing can be said in excuse of him but only that it is not usual with him to fall into such rash and rude expressions But the man was really pinch'd by so plain and pressing a Text and where Reason is weak and blunt Passion must be whetted the only weapon that is left when Reason fails And I always take it for graned that no man is ever Angry with his Adversary but for want of a better Argument to support his Cause And yet to do right to the Writers on that side I must own that generally they are a Pattern of the fair way of disputing and of debating matters of Religion without heat and unseemly reflections upon their Adversaries in the number of whom I did not expect that the Primitive Fathers of the Christian Church would have been reckoned by them They generally argue matters with that temper and gravity and with that freedom from passion and transport which becomes a serious and weighty Argument And for the most part they reason closely and clearly with extraordinary guard and caution with great dexterity and decency and yet with smartness and subtilty enough with a very gentle heat and few hard words Vertues to be praised whereever they are found yea even in an Enemy and very worthy our imitation In a word they are the strongest managers of a weak Cause and which is ill founded at the bottom that perhaps ever yet medled with Controversy Insomuch that some of the Protestants and the generality of the Popish Writers and even of the Jesuits themselves who pretend to all the Reason and subtilty in the World are in comparison of them but mere Scolds and Bunglers Upon the whole matter they have but this one great defect that they want a good Cause and Truth on their Side which if they had they have Reason and Wit and temper enough to defend it But to return to the business That which I urge them withall and that from their own confession is this that this interpretation of theirs is perfectly new and unknown to the whole Christian World before Socinus and for that reason in my opinion not to be bragg'd of Because it is in effect to say that the Christian Religion in a Point pretended on both Sides to be of the greatest moment was never rightly understood by any since the Apostles days for fifteen hundred years together And which makes the matter yet worse that the Religion which was particularly design'd to overthrow Polytheism and the belief of more God hath according to them been so ill taught and understood by Christians for so many Ages together and almost from the very beginning of Chistianity as does necessarily infer a Plurality of Gods An inconvenience so great as no Cause how plausible soever it may otherwise appear is able to stand under and to sustain the weight of it For this the Socinians object to us at every turn as the unavoidable consequence of our interpretation of this Passage of St. John and of all other Texts of Scripture produced by us to the same purpose notwithstanding that this interpretation hath obtain'd in the Christian Church for so many Ages Now whosoever can believe that the Christian Religion hath done the Work for which it was principally design'd so ineffectually must have very little reverence for it nay it must be a marvellous civility in him if he believe it at all All that can be said in this Case is that it pleases God many times to permit men to hold very inconsistent things and which do in truth though they themselves discern it not most effectually overthrow one another Secondly Another mighty prejudice against this Interpretation is this that according to this rate of liberty in interpreting Scripture it will signify very little or
World And if the Author of this Epistle does affirm these words of the Psalmist to be spoken of Christ then they must acknowledge Christ to be the true God who made Heaven and Earth But the Author of this Epistle does as evidently affirm these words to be spoken to or of Christ as he does the words of any other Text cited in this Chapter And for this I appeal to the common sense of every man that reads them These Interpreters indeed are contented that the latter part of this Citation should be spoken of Christ but not the former But why not the former as well as the latter when they have so expresly told us that all the words of this Psalm are manifestly spoken of God What is the mystery of this Could they not as easily have interpreted the former part which speaks of the Creation of Heaven and Earth concerning the moral World and the new Creation or Reformation of Mankind by Jesus Christ and his Gospel as well as so many other plain Texts to the same purpose No doubt they could as well have done it and have set as good a face upon it when they had done it But why then did they not do it It was for a reason which they had no mind to tell but yet is not hard to be guessed at namely that if they had admitted the former words to have been spoken of Christ they knew not what to do with the latter part of this Citation They shall perish but thou remainest they shall wax old as agarment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed What shall perish and wax old and be changed Why the Earth and the Heavens which the Son had made that is the moral World the Reformation of Mankind and the new Creation of things by the Gospel All these must have undergone the same fate with the natural World and must not only have been defaced but utterly destroy'd and brought to nothing This they would not say but they did see it tho they would not seem to see it And we may plainly see by this that they can interpret a Text right when necessity forceth them to it and they cannot without great inconvenience to their Cause avoid it But when men have once resolv'd to hold fast an Opinion they have taken up it then becomes not only convenient but necessary to understand nothing that makes against it And this is truly the present case But in the mean time where is ingenuity and love of Truth And thus I have with all the clearness and brevity I could search'd to the very foundations of this new Interpretation of this Passage of the Evangelist upon which the Divinity of the Son of God is so firmly established and likewise of the gross misinterpretations of several other Texts to the same purpose in this Evangelist and in other Books of the New Testament All which Interpretations I have endeavoured to shew to be not only contrary to the sense of all Antiquity of which as Socinus had but little knowledge so he seems to have made but little account but to be also evidently contrary to the perpetual tenour and style of the H. Scripture Before I go off from this Argument I cannot but take notice of one thing wherein our Adversaries in this Cause do perpetually glory as a mighty advantage which they think they have over us in this Point of the Divinity of the Son of God and consequently in that other Point of the B. Trinity namely that they have Reason clearly on their Side in this Controversy and that the Difficulties and Absurdities are much greater and plainer on our part than on theirs Here they are pleas'd to triumph without modesty and without measure And yet notwithstanding this I am not afraid here likewise to join issue with them and am contented to have this matter brought to a fair Trial at the Bar of Reason as well as of Scripture expounded by the general Tradition of the Christian Church I say by general Tradition which next to Scripture is the best and surest confirmation of this great Point now in question between us and that which gives us the greatest and truest light for the right understanding of the true sense and meaning of Scripture not only in this but in most other important Doctrines of the Christian Religion I am not without some good hopes I will not say confidence for I never thought that to be so great an advantage to any Cause as some men would be glad to make others believe it is hoping to help and support a weak Argument by a strong and mighty confidence But surely modesty never hurt any Cause and the confidence of man seems to me to be much like the wrath of man which St. James tells us worketh not the righteousness of God that is it never does any good it never serves any wise and real purpose of Religion I say I am not without some good hopes that I have in the foregoing Discourses clearly shewn that the tenour of Scripture and general Tradition are on our Side in this Argument and therefore I shall not need to give my self the trouble to examine this matter over again Now as to the Point of Reason the great Difficulty and Absurdity which they object to our Doctrine concerning this Mystery amounts to thus much that it is not only above Reason but plainly contrary to it As to its being above Reason which they are loth to admit any thing to be this I think will bear no great Dispute Because if they would be pleased to speak out they can mean no more by this but that our Reason is not able fully to comprehend it But what then Are there no Mysteries in Religion That I am sure they will not say because God whose infinite Nature and Perfections are the very Foundation of all Religion is certainly the greatest Mystery of all other and the most incomprehensible But we must not nay they will not for this reason deny that there is such a Being as God And therefore if there be Mysteries in Religion it is no reasonable Objection against them that we cannot fully comprehend them Because all Mysteries in what kind soever whether in Religion or in Nature so long and so far as they are Mysteries are for that very reason incomprehensible But they urge the matter much further that this particular Mystery now under debate is plainly contrary to Reason And if they can make this good I will confess that they have gained a great Point upon us But then they are to be put in mind that to make this good against us they must clearly shew some plain Contradiction in this Doctrine which I could never yet see done by any Great Difficulty I acknowledge there is in the explication of it in which the further we go beyond what God hath thought fit to reveal to us in Scripture concerning it the more we
to mean no more but the Chief of the Angels These were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dii Superi and Dij Caelestes superior and heavenly Gods The Scripture terms them the Host of Heaven meaning the Sun Moon and Stars which they supposed to be animated or at least to be inhabited by Angels or glorious Spirits whom they called Gods Other of their Deities were accounted much inferior to these being supposed to be the Souls of their deceased Heroes who for their great and worthy Deeds when they lived upon Earth were supposed after Death to be translated into the number of their Gods And these were called Semidei and Deastri that is half Gods and a sort of Gods And as the other were Celestial so these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Terrestrial Spirits that were Presidents and Procurators of Human affairs here below that is a middle sort of Divine Powers that were Mediators and Agents between God and Men and did carry the Prayers and Supplications of Men to God and bring down the Commands and Blessings of God to Men. But in the midst of all this Crowd and confusion of Deities and the various Superstitions about them the Wiser Heathen as Thales Pythagoras Socrates Plato Aristotle Tully Plutarch and others preserved a true Notion of One Supreme God whom they defined an infinite Spirit pure from all Matter and free from all imperfection And all the variety of their Worship was as they pretended in excuse of it but a more particular owning of the various representations of the Divine Power and Excellencies which manifested themselves in the World and of the several communications of Blessings and Favours by them imparted to Men and Tertullian observes that even when Idolatry had very much obscured the Glory of the Sovereign Deity yet the greater part of Mankind did still in their common Forms of Speech appropriate the Name of God in a more especial and peculiar manner to One saying If god grant If God please and the like So that there is sufficient ground to believe that the Unity of the Divine Nature or the Notion of One Supreme God Creator and Governor of the World was the Primitive and general belief of Mankind And that Polytheism and Idolatry were a corruption and degeneracy from the Original Notion which Mankind had concerning God as the Scripture-History doth declare and testify And this account which I have given of the Heathen Idolatry doth by no means excuse it For whatever may be said by way of extenuation in behalf of some few of the wiser and more devout among them the generality were grossly guilty both of believing more Gods and of worshipping false Gods And this must needs be a very great Crime since the Scripture every where declares God to be particularly jealous in this Case and that he will not give his glory to another nor his praise to graven Images Nay we may not so much as make use of sensible Images to put us in mind of God lest devout Ignorance seeing the Worship which Wise men paid towards an Idol should be drawn to terminate their Worship there as being the very Deity it self which was certainly the Case of the greatest part of the Heathen World And surely those Christians are in no less danger of Idolatry who pay a Veneration to Images by kneeling down and praying before them and in this they are much more inexcusable because they offend against a much clearer Light and yet when they go about to justify this Practice are able to bring no other nor better Pleas for themselves than the Heathen did for their worshipping of Images and for praying to their inferior Deities whom they looked upon as Mediators between the Gods in Heaven and Men upon Earth There is but one Objection that I know of against the general Consent of Mankind concerning the Unity of God and it is this That there was an ancient Doctrine of some of the most ancient Nations that there were two First Causes or Principles of all things the one the Cause of all Good and the other of all the Evil that is in the World The reason whereof seems to have been that they could not apprehend how things of so contrary a nature as Good and Evil could proceed from one and the same Cause And these two Principles in several Nations were called by several Names Plutarch says that among the Greeks the Good Principle was called God and the Evil Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Devil In conformity to which ancient Tradition the Manichees a Sect which called themselves Christians did advance two Principles the one infinitely Good which they supposed to be the Original Cause of all the good which is in the World the other infinitely Evil to which they ascribed all the evils that are in the World But all this is very plainly a corruption of a much more ancient Tradition concerning that old Serpent the Devil the Head of the fallen Angels who by tempting our First Parents to transgress a positive and express Law of God brought Sin first into the World and all the Evils consequent upon it of which the Scripture gives us a most express and particular account And as to the Notion of a Being infinitely Evil into which this Tradition was corrupted after Idolatry had prevailed in the World besides that it is a Contradiction it would likewise be to no purpose to assert two opposite Principles of infinite that is of equal force and Power for two Infinites must of necessity be equal to one another because nothing can be more or greater than infinite and therefore if two infinite Beings were possible they would certainly be equal and could not be otherwise Now that the Notion of a Principle infinitely Evil is a Contradiction will be very plain if we consider that what is infinitely Evil must in strict Reasoning and by necessary consequence be infinitely imperfect and therefore infinitely weak and for that reason though never so malicious and mischievous yet being infinitely weak and foolish could never be in a capacity either to contrive mischief or to execute it But if it should be admitted that a Being infinitely mischievous could be infinitely knowing and powerful yet it could effect no Evil because the opposite Principle of infinite Goodness being also infinitely Wise and Powerful they would tye up one another's hands So that upon this supposition the Notion of a Deity must signify just nothing because by virtue of the eternal opposition and equal conflict of these two Principles they would keep one another at a perpetual Baye and being just an equal Match to one another the one having as much mind and power to do good as the other to do evil instead of being two Deities they would be but two Idols able to do neither good nor evil And having I hope now sufficiently cleared this Objection I shall proceed to shew how agreeable this Principle that there is but
Duration past present and to come Besides that the Attribute of Almighty is also a part of this Description which is so peculiar a Property of God I mean of Him who is God by Nature that the Scripture never gives it to any other II. I shall in the next place produce those Texts which do expresly affirm that the World and all Creatures whatsoever were made by him And this will not only infer his existence before his Incarnation but from all Eternity And for this besides this Passage of St. John we have the Apostle to the Hebrews most express who says that by him God made the Worlds And St. Paul likewise says the same more fully and particularly calling Jesus Christ who was the Son of God the first born of every Creature that is as I have shewn in my former Discourse the Heir and Lord of the whole Creation For by him says he were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible Whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers for so he calls the several Orders of Angels all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things Or as he is described in St. John's Vision he is the beginning of the Creation of God that is the Principle and Efficient Cause of the Creation or else he was when all things began to be made and therefore must be before any thing was created and for that reason could not be a Creature himself and consequently must of necessity have been from all Eternity Now these Texts must necessarily be understood of the old Creation and of the natural World and not of the moral World and the Renovation and Reformation of the minds and manners of men by the Gospel For that was only the World here below which was reform'd by him and not things in Heaven not the invisible World not the several Orders of good Angels which kept their first station and have no need to be reform'd and made anew Nor the Devil and his evil Angels for though since the preaching of the Gospel they have been under greater restraint and kept more within bounds yet we have no reason to think that they are at all reform'd but are Devils still and have the same malice and mind to do all the mischief to Mankind that God will suffer them to do So that these Texts seem at first view to be very plain and pressing of themselves but they appear to be much more convincing when we consider the groundless interpretations whereby they endeavour to evade the dint and force of them For can any man that seriously attends to the perpetual style and Phrase of the New Testament and to the plain scope and drift of the Apostle's reasoning in these Texts be induc'd to believe that when St. Paul tells us that all things were created by him that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers I say can any man of good sense persuade himself that by all this the Apostle means no more than the moral Renovation of the World here below and the Reformation of Mankind by Jesus Christ and his Gospel which was preach'd unto them But there is yet one Text more to this purpose which I have reserv'd to the last place because I find Schlictingius and Crellius in their joint Comment upon it to be put to their last shifts to avoid the force of it It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews at the beginning of it Where the Apostle thus describes the Son of God God says he hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath constituted heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds From whence he argues the excellency of the Gospel above the Law For the Law was given by Angels but the Gospel by the Son of God whose preheminence above the Angels he shews at large in the two first Chapters of this Epistle And to this end he proves the two parts of the Description which had been given of him namely that God had constituted him heir of all things and that by Him he made the Worlds First That God had constituted him heir of all things which is nowhere said of the Angels But of him it is said that was made so much better than the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they The Angels are only called God's Ministers for which the Apostle cites the words of the Psalmist but to Christ he gives the Title of his Son and his first begotten by virtue whereof he is heir of all things For to which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And this I will agree with them to be spoken of Christ with respect to his Resurrection by which as St. Paul tells us he was powerfully declared to be the Son of God This is the first Prerogative of Christ above the Angels But there is a far greater yet behind for he proves Secondly That he had not only the Title of God given him but that he was truly and really God because he made the World That the Title of God was given him he proves by a citation out of the Psalmist But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. And that he was truly and really God because he made the World he proves by a citation out of another Psalm where it is said of him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of they hands They shall perish c. Let us now see how Schlictingius and Crellius interpret this Text cited out of the Psalmist by the Apostle as spoken of Christ They say that the Author of this Epistle could not have referr'd to Christ the former words of this Citation which speak of the Creation of Heaven and Earth unless he had taken it for granted that Christ is the most high God especially if they be understood as they must necessarily be by those who take this for granted to be spoken in the first place and directly to or concerning Christ For since all the words of the Psalm are manifestly spoken of the most High God but that Christ is that God is not signified no not so much as by one word in that Psalm it is necessary that if you will have these words to be directed to Christ you must take it for granted that Christ is that most High God of whom the Psalmist there speaks Now we will join issue with these Interpreters upon this Concession viz. that the Author of this Epistle could not have referr'd these words which speak of the Creation of Heaven and Earth to Christ without taking it for granted that Christ is truly that God who made the
requires of us exemplified in our Nature and really performed and practised by a Man like our selves And that likewise in our nature he might conquer and triumph over the two great Enemies of our Salvation the World and the Devil And by first suffering Death and then overcoming it and by rescuing our nature from the power of it by his Resurrection from the dead he might deliver us from the fear of Death and give us the glorious hopes of a blessed Immortality For by assuming our frail and mortal Nature he became capable of suffering and of shedding his precious Blood for us and by that means of purchasing forgiveness of sins and eternal Redemption for us And further yet that by being subject to the miseries and infirmities of Humanity he might from his own Experience the surest and most sensible sort of knowledge and instruction learn to have a more compassionate sense of our infirmities and be more apt to commiserate us in all our sufferings and temptations and more ready to succour us labouring under them And finally that as a Reward of his Obedience and sufferings in our Nature he might in the same Nature be exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high there to continue for ever to make intercession for us II. I shall in the next place consider the Objections against the Incarnation of the Son of God from the supposed impossibility and incongruity of the thing I shall mention three and endeavour in as few words as I can to give a clear and satisfactory Answer to them First It is objected that the Incarnation of the Son of God as I have explained it neccessarily supposing an Union of the Divinity with human Nature is if not altogether impossible yet a very unintelligible thing Now that there is no impossibility in the thing seems to be very evident from the Instance whereby I have endeavoured to illustrate it of the Union between the Soul and the Body of man which we must acknowledge to be a thing possible because we are sure that it is and yet no man can explain either to himself or to any one else the manner how it is or can be conceived to be but for all that we are certain as we can be of any thing that it is so And is it not every whit as possible for God if he so please to unite himself to human Nature as it is for the Soul to be united to the Body And that we are not able to conceive the manner how this is or can be done ought not in reason to be any prejudice against the truth and certainty of the thing This indeed may make it seem strange to us but by no means incredible Because we do most firmly believe a great many things to be the manner of whose Being we do not at all comprehend And therefore I take it for an undoubted Principle which no Man can gainsay That to assure us that a thing really is it is not necessary for us to know the manner how it is or can be It is sufficient for us to know that the thing is not impossible and of that we have the very best Demonstration that can be if we be sure that it is Secondly supposing this thing to be possible and capable in any measure to be understood which yet I have shewn not to be necessary to our firm belief of it it is further objected that it seems to be a thing very incongruous and much beneath the Dignity of the Son of God to be united to human Nature and to submit to so near an Allyance with that which is so very mean and despicable Yea to be infinitely more below Him than for the greatest Prince in this World to match with the poorest and most contemptible Beggar But herein surely we measure God too much by our selves and because we who are evil have seldom so much goodness as to stoop beneath our selves for the benefit and good of others we are apt to think that God hath not so much goodness neither And because our ill nature and pride and folly as indeed all pride is folly will not suffer us to do it we presently conclude that it does not become God But what Pliny said to the Emperour Trajan concerning earthly Kings and Potentates is much more true of the Lord of Glory the great King of Heaven and Earth Cui nihil ad augendum fastigium supereft hoc uno modo crescere potest si se ipse submittat securus magnitudinis suae He that is at the top and can rise no higher hath yet this one way left to become greater by stooping beneath himself which he may very safely do being secure of his own Greatness The lower any Being be he never so high condescends to do good the glory of his Goodness shines so much the brighter Men are many times too proud and stiff to bend too perverse and ill natur'd to stoop beneath their own little Greatness for the good of others But God whose ways are not as our ways and whose thoughts are as much above our low and narrow thoughts as the Heavens are high above the earth did not disdain nor think it below him to become Man for the good of Mankind and as much as the Divinity is capable of being so to become miserable to make us happy We may be afraid that if we humble our selves we shall be despis'd that if we stoop others will get above us and trample upon us But God though he condescend never so low is still secure of his own Greatness and that none can take it from him So that in truth and according to right Reason it was no real diminution or disparagement to the Son of God to become Man for the Salvation of Mankind But on the contrary it was a most glorious Humility and the greatest Instance of the truest Goodness that ever was And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews when he says that Christ glorifyed not himself to be made an High-Priest but was appointed of God to this Office as was Aaronâ— does hereby seem to intimate that it was a glory to the Son of God to be made an High-Priest for the Sons of Men For though it was a strange condescention yet was it likewise a most wonderful Argument of his Goodness which is the highest Glory of the Divine Nature In short if God for our sakes did submit himself to a condition which we may think did less become him here is great cause of thankfulness but none surely of cavil and exception We have infinite reason to acknowledge and admire his goodness but none at all to upbraid him with his kindness and to quarrel with him for having descended so much beneath himself to testifie his love to us and his tender concernment for our happiness Besides that when we have said all we can about this matter I hope we will allow God himself to be the best and most competent Judge what
men the Man Christ Jesus by whom we are to offer up our Prayers to God And that we need not look out for any other since the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us that he is able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God by him seeing he lives for ever to make intercession for us And for this reason the Church of Rome is altogether inexcusable in this Point for introducing more Mediators and Intercessors more Patrons and Advocates in Heaven for us And this not only without any necessity for who can add any vertue and efficacy to the powerful and prevalent intercession of the Son of God but likewise in direct contradiction to the express Constitution and appointment of God himself who says there is but one Mediator between God and men and they say there ought to be many more not only the B. Virgin but all the Saints and Angels in Heaven Besides that by this very thing they revive one notorious Piece of the old Pagan Idolatry which God so plainly design'd to extinguish by appointing One only Mediator between God and Men. By this Condescension likewise God hath given us the comfortable assurance of a most powerful and a perpetual Intercessor at the right hand of God in our behalf For if we consider Christ as Man and of the same Nature with us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh so very nearly allied and related to us we may easily believe that he hath a most tender care and concernment for us That he sincerely wisheth our happiness and will by all means seek to procure it if we our selves by our own willful obstinacy do not hinder it and resist the kindness and the counsel of God against our selves For if we be resolv'd to continue impenitent there is no help for us we must die in our Sins and Salvation it self cannot save us But to proceed it cannot surely but be matter of greatest consolation to us that the Man Christ Jesus who is now so highly exalted at the right hand of God and who hath all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him is our Patron and Advocate in Heaven to plead our Cause with God Since we cannot but think that He who was pleased to become Brother to us all does bear a true affection and good will to us And that He who assumed our Nature will heartily espouse our Cause and plead it powerfully for us and will with all possible advantage recommend our Petitions and Requests to God But then if we consider further that He did not only take our Nature but likewise took our infirmities and bore them many years in which he had long and continual experience of the saddest sufferings to which human Nature is subject in this World and was tempted in all things like as we are This gives us still greater assurance that he who suffer'd and was tempted himself cannot but be touched with a lively sense of our infirmities and must have learn'd by his own Sufferings to compassionate ours and to be ready to succour us when we are tempted and to afford us grace and help suitable to all our wants and infirmities For nothing gives us so just a sense of the Sufferings of others as the remembrance of our own and the bitter experience of the like Sufferings and Temptations in our selves And this the Apostle to the Hebrews doth very particularly insist upon as matter of greatest comfort and encouragement to us that the Son of God did not only assume our Nature but was made in all things like unto us and during his abode here upon Earth did suffer and was tempted like as we are For verily says the Apostle he took not on him the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God For in that he himself suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted And again exhorting the Jews who were newly converted to Christianity to continue stedfact in their Profession notwithstanding all the sufferings to which upon that account they were exposed he comforts them with this consideration that we have at the right hand of God so powerful an Advocate and Intercessor for us as the Son of God who is sensible of our Case having suffered the same things Himself and therefore we cannot doubt of his compassion to us and readiness to support us in the like Sufferings Seeing then says he that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our Profession For we have not an High-Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin From whence he concludes that having such an Intercessor we may with great confidence and assurance address our Supplications to God for his mercy and help in all our wants and weakness to supply the one and to assist the other Let us therefore says he come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace for seasonable relief So that our B. Saviour and Redeemer now that he is advanced to Heaven and exalted to the right hand of God is not unmindful of us in this height of his Glory and Greatness but with the tenderest affection and compassion to Mankind doth still prosecute the Design of our Salvation and in vertue of his meritorious Obedience and Sufferings which he presents to God continually he offers up our Prayers to Him and pleads our Cause with Him and represents to Him all our wants and necessities and procures for us a favourable answer of our Prayers and supplies of grace and strength proportionable to our temptations and infirmities And thus by vertue of this prevalent intercession of his with God for us our Sins are forgiven and our Wants supplied and our Requests granted and the gracious assistance and supports of God's H. Spirit are seasonably afforded to us and we are kept by the mighty power of God through Faith unto Salvation In a word all those Blessings and Benefits are procured for us by his Intercession in Heaven which he purchased for us by his Blood upon Earth So that in this Method of our Salvation besides many other gracious Condescensions which God hath made to the weakness and prejudices of Mankind our B. Saviour hath perfectly supplied the two great Wants concerning which Mankind was at so great a loss before namely the Want of an effectual Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin upon Earth and of a prevalent Mediator and Intercessor with God in Heaven And he hath in great Goodness and Condescension to our inveterate Prejudices concerning these things taken effectual care fully to supply both these Wants having appeared in the
was a free act of his Goodness to save us even by the Satisfaction and Sufferings of his own Son 2dly It was in effect freely too notwithstanding the mighty Price which was paid for our Redemption Because this Price was not of our own procuring but of God's providing He found out this Ransome for us And will any man say that a Prince who prevails with his Son to intercede for the Pardon of a Rebel yea and to suffer some punishment or to pay a Fine for the obtaining of it does not in effect and in all equitable and grateful construction forgive him freely Thirdly It is yet further objected That this seems to be more unreasonable than the sacrificing of Beasts among the Jews nay than the sacrificing of Men among the Heathen and even of their own Sons and Daughters Because this is the offering up of the Son of God the most innocent and the most excellent Person that ever was To which I answer that if we consider the manner and the design of it the thing will appear to be quite otherwise As to the manner of it God did not command his Son to be sacrificed but his Providence permitted the wickedness and violence of men to put him to death And then his Goodness and Wisdom did over-rule this worst of Actions to the best of Ends. And if we consider the matter aright how is this any more a reflection upon the Holy Providence of God than any Enormities and Cruelties which by his permission are daily committed in the World And then if we consider the End and Design of this permission of Christ's Death and the application of it to the purpose of a general Expiation we cannot but acknowledge and even adore the gracious and merciful Design of it For by this means God did at once put an end to that unreasonable and bloody way of Worship which had been so long practiced in the World And after this one Sacrifice which was so infinitely dear to God the benefit of Expiation was not to be expected in any other way all other Sacrifices being worthless and vain in comparison of this And it hath ever since obtained this effect of making all other Sacrifices to cease in all Parts of the World where Christianity hath prevailed Fourthly The last Objection is the Injustice and Cruelty of an innocent Person 's suffering instead of the Offender To this I answer That they who make so great a noise with this Objection do seem to me to give a full and clear Answer to it themselves by acknowledging as they constantly and expresly do that our Saviour suffered all this for our benefit and advantage though not in our place and stead For this to my apprehension is plainly to give up the Cause unless they can shew a good reason why there is not as much Injustice and Cruelty in an innocent Person 's suffering for the benefit and advantage of a Malefactor as in his suffering in his stead So little do Men in the heat of dispute and opposition who are resolved to hold fast an Opinion in despite of Reason and good sense consider that they do many times in effect and by necessary consequence grant the very thing which in express terms they do so stifly and pertinaciously deny The truth of the matter is this there is nothing of Injustice or Cruelty in either Case neither in an Innocent Person 's suffering for the benefit of an Offender nor in his stead supposing the Suffering to be voluntary But they have equally the same appearance of Injustice and Cruelty Nor can I possibly discern any reason why Injustice and Cruelty should be objected in the one Case more than in the other there being every whit as little reason why an Innocent Person should suffer for the benefit of a Criminal as why he should suffer in his stead So that I hope this Objection which above all the rest hath been so loudly and so invidiously urged hath received a just Answer And I believe if the matter were searched to the bottom all this perverse contention about our Saviour's suffering for our benefit but not in our stead will signify just nothing For if Christ dyed for our henefit so as some way or other by vertue of his Death and Sufferings to save us from the wrath of God and to procure our escape from eternal Death this for ought I know is all that any body means by his dying in our stead For he that dies with an intention to do that benefit to another as to save him from Death doth certainly to all intents and purposes dye in his place and stead And if they will grant this to be their meaning the Controversie is at an end and both sides are agreed in the thing and do only differ in the phrase and manner of expression which is to seek a quarrel and an occasion of difference where there is no real ground for it a thing which ought to be very far from reasonable and peaceable Minds For the Socinians say that our Saviour's voluntary Obedience and Sufferings did procure his Exaltation at the right hand of God and Power and Authority to forgive Sins and to give eternal Life to as many as he pleased So that they grant that his Obedience and Sufferings in the meritorious consequence of them do redound to our Benefit and advantage as much as we pretend and say they do only they are loth in express terms to acknowledge that Christ dyed in our stead And this for no other reason that I can imagine but because they have denied it so often and so long But I appeal to the ingenuity of our Adversaries whether this do not in the last issue come all to one and be not on their part a mere Controversie about words For suppose a Malefactour condemned to some grievous punishment and the King's Son to save him from it is contented to submit to great disgrace and sufferings In reward of which Sufferings the King takes his Son into his Throne and sets him at his own right hand and gives him power to pardon this Malefactour and upon a fitting Submission and Repentance to advance him to honour Will not any man in this Case allow that the King's Son suffer'd instead of this Malefactour and smile at any man that shall be so nice as to grant that indeed he suffered for him but yet to deny that he was punish'd for him to allow that he bore the inconvenience of his faults but yet obstinately to stand it out that the faults of this Malefactour were not laid upon him or in any wise so imputed to him that he can be said to have suffered in his stead This is just the Case and the difference in reality and in the last result of things is nothing but words Thus far have I tryed your patience in a contentious Argument in which I take no pleasure but yet shall be glad if I may be so happy as
now to grapple withal And this I hope I have in some measure done in one of the former Discourses Nor indeed do I see that it is any ways necessary to do more it being sufficient that God hath declared what he thought fit in this matter and that we do firmly believe what he says concerning it to be true though we do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of all that he hath said about it For in this and the like Cases I take an Implicite Faith to be very commendable that is to believe whatever we are sufficiently assured God hath revealed though we do not fully understand his meaning in such a Revelation And thus every man who believes the H. Scriptures to be a truly Divine Revelation does implicitely believe a great part of the Prophetical Books of Scripture and several obscure expressions in those Books though he do not particularly understand the meaning of all the Predictions and expressions contained in them In like manner there are certainly a great many very good Christians who do not believe and comprehend the Mysteries of Faith nicely enough to approve themselves to a Scholastical and Magisterial Judge of Controversies who yet if they do heartily embrace the Doctrines which are clearly revealed in Scripture and live up to the plain Precepts of the Christian Religion will I doubt not be very well approved by the Great and Just and by the infallibly Infallible Judge of the World III. Let it be further considered That though neither the word Trinity nor perhaps Person in the sense in which it is used by Divines when they treat of this Mystery be any where to be met with in Scripture yet it cannot be denied but that Three are there spoken of by the Names of Father Son and H. Ghost in whose Name every Christian is baptized and to each of whom the highest Titles and Properties of God are in Scripture attributed And these Three are spoken of with as much distinction from one another as we use to speak of three several Persons So that though the word Trinity be not found in Scripture yet these Three are there expresly and frequently mentioned and a Trinity is nothing but three of any thing And so likewise though the word Person be not there expresly applied to Father Son and H. Ghost yet it will be very hard to find a more convenient word whereby to express the distinction of these Three For which reason I could never yet see any just cause to quarrel at this term For since the H. Spirit of God in Scripture hath thought fit in speaking of these Three to distinguish them from one another as we use in common speech to distinguish three several Persons I cannot see any reason why in the explication of this Mystery which purely depends upon Divine Revelation we should not speak of it in the same manner as the Scripture doth And though the word Person is now become a â—erm of Art I see no cause why we should decline it so long as we mean by it neither more nor less than what the Scripture says in other Words IV. It deserves further to be considered That there hath been a very ancient Tradition concerning three real Differences or Distinctions in the Divine Nature and these as I said before very nearly resembling the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity Whence this Tradition had its original is not easie upon good and certain grounds to say but certain it is that the Jews anciently had this Notion And that they did distinguish the Word of God and the H. Spirit of God from Him who was absolutely called God and whom they looked upon as the First Principle of all things as is plain from Philo Judaeus and Moses Nachmanides and others cited by the Learned Grotius in his incomparable Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion And among the Heathen Plato who probably enough might have this Notion from the Jews did make three Distinctions in the Deity by the Names of essential Goodness and Mind and Spirit So that whatever Objections this matter may be liable to it is not so peculiar a Doctrine of the Christian Religion as many have imagined though it is revealed by it with much more clearness and certainty And consequently neither the Jews nor Plato have any reason to object is to us Christians especially since they pretend no other ground for it but either their own Reason or an ancient Tradition from their Fathers whereas we Christians do appeal to express Divine Revelation for what we believe in this matter and do believe it singly upon that account V. It is besides very considerable That the Scriptures do deliver this Doctrine of the Trinity without any manner of doubt or question concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature And not only so but do most stedfastly and constantly assert that there is but One God And in those very Texts in which these three Differences are mentioned the Unity of the Divine Nature is expresly asserted as where St. John makes mention of the Father the Word and the Spirit the Unity of these Three is likewise affirmed There are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these Three are One. VI. It is yet further considerable That from this Mystery as delivered in Scripture a Plurality of Gods cannot be inferred without making the Scripture grosly to contradict it self which I charitably suppose the Socinians would be as loth to admit as we our selves are And if either Councils or Fathers or Schoolmen have so explained this Mystery as to give any just ground or so much as a plausible colour for such an Inference let the blame fall where it is due and let it not be charged on the H. Scriptures but rather as the Apostle says in another Case Let God be true and every Man a liar VIIthly and Lastly I desire it may be considered That it is not repugnant to Reason to believe some things which are incomprehensible by our Reason provided that we have sufficient ground and reason for the belief of them Especially if they be concerning God who is in his Nature Incomprehensible and we be well assured that he hath revealed them And therefore it ought not to offend us that these Differences in the Deity are incomprehensible by our finite understandings because the Divine Nature it self is so and yet the belief of that is the Foundation of all Religion There are a great many things in Nature which we cannot comprehend how they either are or can be As the Continuity of Matter that is how the parts of it do hang so fast together that they are many times very hard to be parted and yet we are sure that it is so because we see it every day So likewise how the small Seeds of things contain the whole Form and Nature of the things from which they proceed and into which by degrees they grow and yet we
plainly see this every year There are many things likewise in our Selves which no man is able in any measure to comprehend as to the manner how they are done and performed As the vital union of Soul and Body Who can imagine by what device or means a Spirit comes to be so closely united and so firmly link'd to a material Body that they are not to be parted without great force and violence offer'd to Nature The like may be said of the operations of our several Faculties of Sense and Imagination of Memory and Reason and especially of the Liberty of our Wills And yet we certainly find all these Faculties in our selves though we cannot either comprehend or explain the particular manner in which the several Operations of them are performed And if we cannot comprehend the manner of those Operations which we plainly perceive and feel to be in our Selves much less can we expect to comprehend things without us and least of all can we pretend to comprehend the infinite Nature and Perfections of God and every thing belonging to Him For God himself is certainly the greatest Mystery of all other and acknowledged by Mankind to be in his Nature and in the particular manner of his Existence incomprehensible by Human Understanding And the reason of this is very evident because God is infinite and our knowledge and understanding is but finite And yet no sober man ever thought this a good reason to call the Being of God in question The same may be said of God's certain knowledge of future Contingencies which depend upon the uncertain Wills of free Agents It being utterly inconceivable how any Understanding how large and perfect soever can certainly know beforehand that which depends upon the free Will of another which is an arbitrary and uncertain Cause And yet the Scripture doth not only attribute this Foreknowledge to God but gives us also plain Instances of God's foretelling such things many Ages before it happened as could not come to pass but by the Sins of Men in which we are sure that God can have no hand though nothing can happen without his permission Such was that most memorable Event of the Death of Christ who as the Scripture tells us was by wicked hands crucified and stain and yet even this is said to have happened according to the determinate foreknowledge of God and was punctually foretold by Him some hundreds of years before Nay the Scripture doth not only ascribe this power and perfection to the Divine Knowledge but natural Reason hath been forced to acknowledge it as we may see in some of the wisest of the Philosophers And yet it would puzzle the greatest Philosopher that ever was to give any tolerable account how any Knowledge whatsoever can certainly and infallibly foresee an Event through uncertain and contingent Causes All the reasonable satisfaction that can be had in this matter is this that it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that infinite Knowledg may have ways of knowing things which our finite Understandings can by no means comprehend how they can possibly be known Again There is hardly any thing more inconceivable than how a thing should be of it self and without any Cause of its Being and yet our Reason compels us to acknowledge this Because we certainly see that something is which must either have been of it self and without a Cause or else something that we do not see must have been of it self and have made all other things And by this reasoning we are forced to acknowledge a Deity the mind of Man being able to find no rest but in the acknowledgment of one eternal and wise Mind as the Principle and first Cause of all other things and this Principle is that which Mankind do by general consent call God So that God hath laid a sure foundation of our acknowledgment of his Being in the Reason of our own Minds And though it be one of the hardest things in the world to conceive how any thing can be of it self yet necessity drives us to acknowledge it whether we will or no And this being once granted our Reason being tired in trying all other ways will for its own quiet and ease force us at last to fall in with the general apprehension and belief of Mankind concerning a Deity To give but one Instance more There is the like Difficulty in conceiving how any thing can be made out of nothing and yet our Reason doth oblige us to believe it Because Matter which is a very imperfect Being and merely passive must either always have been of it self or else by the infinite Power of a most perfect and active Being must have been made out of nothing Which is much more credible than that any thing so imperfect as Matter is should be of it self Because that which is of it self cannot be conceived to have any bounds and limits of its Being and Perfection for by the same reason that it necessarily is and of it self it must necessarily have all perfection which it is certain Matter hath not and yet necessary Existence is so great a Perfection that we cannot reasonably suppose any thing that hath this Perfection to want any other Thus you see by these Instances that it is not repugnant to Reason to believe a great many things to be of the manner of whose Existence we are not able to give a particular and distinct account And much less is it repugnant to Reason to believe those things concerning God which we are very well assured he hath declared concerning Himself though these things by our Reason should be incomprehensible And this is truly the Case as to the matter now under debate We are sufficiently assured that the Scriptures are a Divine Revelation and that this Mystery of the Trinity is therein declared to us Now that we cannot comprehend it is no sufficient Reason not to believe it For if this were a good Reason for not believing it then no man ought to believe that there is a God because his Nature is most certainly incomprehensible But we are assured by many Arguments that there is a God and the same natural Reason which assures us that He is doth likewise assure us that He is incomprehensible and therefore our believing Him to be so doth by no means overthrow our belief of His Being In like manner we are assured by Divine Revelation of the truth of this Doctrine of the Trinity and being once assured of that our not being able fully to comprehend it is not reason enough to stagger our belief of it A man cannot deny what he sees though the necessary consequence of admitting it may be something which he cannot comprehend One cannot deny the Frame of this World which he sees with his eyes though from thence it will necessarily follow that either that or something else must be of itself which yet as I said before is a thing which no man can comprehend how it can be