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
end of the World to take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself and in vertue of that Sacrifice appearing now in Heaven in the presence of God for us he is become our perpetual Advocate and a most prevalent Intercessor with God in our behalf For instead of the various and endless Sacrifices of the Jews and Heathen the Son of God hath by one Sacrifice for Sins perfected for ever them that are sanctified And instead of the Mediation of Daemons and Hero's to offer up our Prayers to God which were the Intercessors made use of among the Heathen we have one Mediator between God and men appointed by God himself even the Son of God who is entred into Heaven it self there to appear in the presence of God for us And to assure us that he commiserates our Case and hath a true and tender sense of our infirmities and sufferings the very manner of his Intercession for us as the Scripture represents it to us is a plain Demonstration of the thing For he intercedes for us in Heaven by representing to God his Father his sufferings upon Earth and pleading them in our behalf So that the very Argument which he useth to God for us cannot but stir up compassion in Him towards us and whilst he represents his Own sufferings in our behalf we cannot think that he is unmindful and insensible of Ours You see then that in this Dispensation of God for our Salvation by sending his Son in our Nature things are not only suited in great condescension to our apprehensions but are likewise in great compassion to us every way fitted for our comfort and encouragement God hath made him our great Patron and Advocate who was our Sacrifice and Propitiation And surely we have all the reason in the World to believe that he who in the days of his flesh humbled himself and became obedient to the death for our sakes will be ready to do us all good offices now that he is advanced to the right hand of God that he who dyed for us upon Earth now that he lives again will make intercession for us in Heaven and perfect that Salvation which he purchased for us upon the Cross And therefore we find in Scripture that as the purchasing of our Salvation is ascribed to the Death and Sufferings of Christ so the perfecting of it is attributed to his Intercession for us at the right hand of his Father Wherefore says the Apostle to the Hebrews he is able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God by him seeing he liveth for ever to make intercession for us He dyed once to purchase these benefits but he lives for ever to procure them for us and to apply them to us And now that he is in Heaven he is as intent upon our Concernments and lays our Happiness as much to heart as when he dwelt here among us on Earth and poured out his Blood a Sacrifice for Sin upon the Cross And that when he lived here below he suffer'd and was tempted as we are this very consideration gives us the greatest assurance possible that he is still touched with the feeling of our infirmities and hath a lively sense of our Sufferings and consequently that he doth compassionate our Case and will use all his power and interest for our advantage for our seasonable support and succour in all our trials and sufferings But besides the wonderful Gondescension of this Dispensation there is likewise in the Fifth and last place a great Congruity and fitness in the thing it self and this Method of our Salvation which the Wisdom of God hath pitched upon is in many other respects very much for our real benefit and comfort For by this means we have a perfect and familiar Example of holiness and obedience in our own Nature by which we plainly see that God requires nothing of us but what he himself when he submitted to become Man did think fit to do For being made of a Woman he was of necessity made under the Law and by assuming human Nature he became naturally subject to the Laws and conditions of his Being And here likewise is a provision made for the Expiation and Forgiveness of our Sins in a way not only very honourable to the Justice of God and the Authority of his Laws but likewise very effectual to discountenance Sin and to deter men from it since God did not think fit to forgive the Sins of men without great Sufferings and that in our Nature For though God was willing to save the Sinner yet rather than encouragement should be given to Sin by letting it go unpunish'd he was contented to give up the dearly beloved of his Soul to be a Sarcifice and Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World By the same means also we have a most powerful Antidote against the fear of Suffering and particularly against the fear of Death one of the greatest slaveries of human Nature So also the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us that for this cause Christ himself also took part of flesh and blood that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and might deliver those who through fear of Death were all their life-life-time subject to bondage Again we have hereby full assurance of a blessed Immortality in another Life because in our Nature Death and all the Powers of Darkness were baffled and overcome The Death of Christ which could not have been without his Incarnation and so likewise his Resurrection from the dead and his Ascension into Heaven are sensible Demonstrations to all Mankind of a blessed Immortality after Death which is the most powerful motive in the world to Obedience and a holy Life And lastly we may upon this account promise to our selves a fair and equal Trial at the Judgment of the great Day because we shall then be judged by a Man like our selves Our Saviour and Judge himself hath told us that for this reason God hath committed all Judgment to the Son because he is the Son of man And this in human Judgments is accounted a great Privilege to be judged by those who are of the same Rank and condition with our selves and who are likely to understand best and most carefully to examine and consider all our circumstances and to render our Case as if it were their own So equitably doth God deal with us that we shall be acquitted or condemned by such a Judge as according to human measures we our selves should have chosen by One in our own Nature who was made in all things like unto us that only excepted which would have rendered him incapable of being our Judge because it would have made him a Criminal like our selves And therefore the Apostle offers this as a firm ground of assurance to us that God will judge the World in Righteousness because this Judgment shall be administred by a Man like our selves He hath saith he appointed a
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
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
nothing when any Person or Party is concern'd to oppose any Doctrine contained in it and the plainest Texts for any Article of Faith how fundamental and necessary soever may by the same arts and ways of interpretation be eluded and render'd utterly ineffectual for the establishing of it For example If any man had a mind to call in question that Article of the Creed concerning the Creation of the World why might he not according to Socinus his way of interpreting St. John understand the first Chapter of Genesis concerning the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation and interpret the Creation of the Heaven and the Earth to be the Institution of the Jewish Politie and Religion as by the new Heavens and the new Earth they pretend is to be understood the new State of things under the Gospel And why may not the Chaos signify that state of darkness and ignorance in which the World was before the giving of the Law by Moses And so on as a very learned Divine of our own hath ingeniously shewn more at large There is no end of Wit and Fancy which can turn any thing any way and can make whatever they please to be the meaning of any Book though never so contrary to the plain design of it and to that sense which at the first hearing and reading of it is obvious to every man of common sense And this in my opinion Socinus hath done in the Case now before us by imposing a new and odd and violent sense upon this Passage of St. John directly contrary to what any man would imagine to be the plain and obvious meaning of it and contrary likewise to the sense of the Christian Church in all Ages down to his Time who yet had as great or greater advantage of understanding St. John aright and as much integrity as any man can now modestly pretend to And all this only to serve and support an Opinion which he had entertain'd before and therefore was resolv'd one way or other to bring the Scripture to comply with it And if he could not have done it it is greatly to be feared that he would at last have called in question the Divine Authority of St. John's Gospel rather than have quitted his Opinion And to speak freely I must needs say that it seems to me a much fairer way to reject the Divine Authority of a Book than to use it so disingenuously and to wrest the plain expressions of it with so much straining and violence from their most natural and obvious sense For no Doctrine whatsever can have any certain foundation in any Book if this liberty be once admitted without regard to the plain Scope and Occasion of it to play upon the words and phrases with all the arts of Criticism and with all the variety of Allegory which a brisk and lively Imagination can devise which I am so far from admiring in the expounding of the Holy Scriptures that I am always jealous of an over-labour'd and far-fetch'd interpretation of any Author whatsoever I do readily grant that the Socinian Writers have managed the Cause of the Reformation against the Innovations and Corruptions of the Church of Rome both in Doctrine and Practice with great acuteness and advantage in many respects But I am sorry to have cause to say that they have likewise put into their hands better and sharper weapons than ever they had before for the weakning and undermining of the Authority of the H. Scriptures which Socinus indeed hath in the general strongly asserted had he not by a dangerous liberty of imposing a foreign and fore'd sense upon particular Texts brought the whole into uncertainty Thirdly Which is as considerable a prejudice against this new interpretation of this Passage of St. John as either of the former I shall endeavour to shew that this Point of the existence of the Word before his Incarnation does not rely only upon this single Passage of St. John but is likewise confirmed by many other Texts of the New Testament conspiring in the same sense and utterly incapable of the interpretation which Socinus gives of it I find he would be glad to have it taken for granted that this is the only Text in the New Testament to this purpose And therefore he says very cunningly that this Doctrine of the existence of the Son of God before his Incarnation is too great a Doctrine to be establish'd upon one single Text And this is is something if it were true that there is no other Text in the New Testament that does plainly deliver the same sense And yet this were not sufficient to bring in question the Doctrine delivered in this Passage of St. John That God is a Spirit will I hope be acknowledged to be a very weighty and fundamental Point of Religion and yet I am very much mistaken if there be any more than one Text in the whole Bible that says so and that Text is only in St. John's Gospel I know it may be said that from the light of natural Reason it may be sufficiently prov'd that God is a Spirit But surely Socinus of all men cannot say this with a good grace because he denies that the existence of a God can be known by natural light without Divine Revelation And if it cannot be known by natural light that there is a God much less can it be known by natural light what God is whether a Spirit or a Body And yet after all it is very far from being true that there is but one Text to this purpose which yet he thought fit to insinuate by way of excuse for the novelty and boldness of his interpretation of which any one that reads him may see that he was sufficiently conscious to himself and therefore was so wise as to endeavour by this sly insinuation to provide and lay in against it I have likewise another reason which very much inclines me to believe that Socinus was the first Author of this interpretation because it seems to me next to impossible that a man of so good an understanding as he was could ever have been so fond of so ill-favour'd a Child if it had not been his own And yet I do not at all wonder that his Followers came in to it so readily since they had him in so great a veneration it being natural to all Sects to admire their Master besides that I doubt not but they were very glad to have so great an Authority as they thought him to be to vouch for an interpretation which was so seasonably devis'd for the relief of their Cause in so much danger to be overthrown by a Text that was so plain and full against them And how little ground there is for this Insinuation that this is the only Text in the New Testament to this purpose I shall now shew from a multitude of other Texts to the same sense and purpose with this Passage of St. John And I shall rank them under
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
by any thing that hath been said to contribute towards the putting an end to so unhappy a Controversy which hath troubled the World so long and raised such a dust that very few have been able to see clearly through it However I cannot dismiss this Argument without making some useful but very short reflection upon this great Doctrine of our Religion namely That the Son of God being made a Sacrifice for us and exposed to such bitter Sufferings and so cruel a Death for the Expiation of our Sins should create in us the greatest dread and detestation of Sin and for ever deter us from all wilful transgression and disobedience For if the guilt of our Sins was done away upon such hard terms and cost the dearly beloved Son of God so much sweat and blood then surely we ought to take great heed how by our renewed Provocations we renew his Passion and do what in us lies to crucify to our selves the Son of God afresh and to put him to an open shame If God did so terribly afflict the dearly beloved of his Soul for our sakes if the Son of God was so grievously wounded for our transgressions and so sorely bruised for our iniquities If so fearful a Storm of Vengeance fell upon the most innocent Person that ever was for our Sins then we have reason to take that kind and merciful admonition of the Son of God to Sinners to sin no more lest a worse thing if it be possible come upon our selves In this Dispensation of God's Grace and Mercy to Mankind by the Death of his Son God seems to have gone to the very extremity of things and almost further than Goodness and Justice will well admit to afflict Innocency it self to save the Guilty And if herein God hath expressed his hatred of Sin in such a wonderful way of love and kindness to the Sons of Men as looks almost like hatred of Innocency and his own Son This ought in all ingenuity and gratitude to our gracious Redeemer who was made a curse for us and loved us to that degree as to wash us from our Sins in his own Blood I say This ought to beget in us a greater displeasure against Sin and a more perfect detestation of it than if we had suffered the punishment due to it in our own Persons For in this Case we could only have been displeased at our Selves and our Sins as the just Cause of our Sufferings but in the other we ought to hate Sin as the unhappy occasion of the saddest Misfortune and sorest Calamities to the best Man that ever was and to our best Friend for our Sins and for our Sakes Since then the Son of God hath so graciously condescended to be made in all things like unto us Sin only excepted let us aspire as much as is possible to become like to Him Above all let us hate and avoid Sin as the only thing in which the Son of God would have no part with us though he was contented to suffer such bitter things to save us from the Defilement and Dominion of it from the Punishment and all the dismal consequences of it He had no Sin but God was pleased to lay upon him the iniquities of us all and to make his Soul an offering for Sin and to permit all that to be done to Him which was due to us He was contented to be sacrificed once for all Mankind that Men might for ever cease from that inhuman and ineffectual way of sacrificing one another whereby instead of expiating their guilt they did inflame it and by thinking to make Atonement for their Sins they did in truth add to the number and heinousness of them And let us likewise learn from this admirable Pattern to pity those that are in misery as Christ also hath pitied us and to save them that are ready to perish for His sake who came to seek and to save us that were lost Let us upon all occasions be ready to open our bowels of Compassion towards the Poor in a thankful imitation of his Grace and Goodness who for our sakes chose to be a Beggar that we for his sake might not despise the Poor but might have a tender regard and compassion to those whose Condition in this World does so nearly resemble that in which the Son of God thought it fittest for him to appear when he was pleased to become Man In a word Let us in the whole course and in all the actions of our lives shew forth the Vertues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light and hath raised up a mighty Salvation for us that being delivered from all our spiritual Enemies from Sin and all the Powers of darkness we might serve him who hath saved us walking in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives Now to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him who hath loved us and washed from our Sins in his own Blood and whilst we were Enemies to Him loved us at such a rate as never any man did his Friend To Him who became Man that he might bring us to God and assumed our frail and mortal Nature that he might cloath us with Immortality and Life To Him who was pleased to dwell and live amongst us that he might teach us how to live To Him who dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and lives for ever to make Intercession for us To Him be Glory and Dominion Thanksgiving and Praise to Eternal Ages Amen SERMON VI. Concerning the Vnity of the Divine Nature and the B. Trinity c. 1 TIM II. 5. For there is one God THE Particle for leads us to the consideration of the Context and Occasion of these words which in short is this The design of this Epistle is to direct Timothy to whom St. Paul had committed the Government of the Church of Ephesus how he ought to demean himself in that great and weighty Charge And at the beginning of this Chapter he gives direction concerning Publick Prayers in the Church that Prayers and Thanksgiving he made for all men and for all Ranks and Orders of men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them Christians might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And this he tells us was very suitable to the Christian Religion by which God designed the Salvation of Mankind and therefore it must needs be very acceptable to him that we should offer up Prayers and Thanksgivings to him in behalf of all men For this saith the Apostle is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth And then it follows in the next words
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all As if he had said this universal Charity of Christians in praying for all men must needs be very acceptable to Him to whom we put up our Prayers God the Father who sent his Son for the Salvation of all men And to Him likewise by whom we offer up our Prayers to God and is among us Christians the only Media or between God and Men in virtue of that Price and Ransom which he paid for the Redemption of all Mankind I say for this reason it must needs be very acceptable to Him that we should pray for all men because he died for all men and now that he is in Heaven at the right hand of God intercedes with him for the Salvation of those for whom he died There is One God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all Which words though they be brought in to prove more immediately that it is acceptable to God our Saviour that we should put up Prayers to Him for all men because he desires the Salvation of all men and hath sent his Son to purchase the Salvation of all men by the Sacrifice of himself and in virtue of that Sacrifice to be the only Mediator between God and us I say though this be the immediate scope and design of these words yet they are likewise a direction to us unto whom we ought to address our Prayers namely to God and by whose mediation and intercession we ought to put up our Prayers to God the Father namely by his Son Jesus Christ who is constituted the only Mediator between God and Men. There are several Propositions contained in this and the following verse but I shall at present confine my self to the first namely That there is One God that is but One as St. Paul elsewhere expresseth it There is none other God but One. And Moses lays this as the Foundation of the Natural Law as well as of the Jewish Religion The Lord he is One God and there is none besides him that is besides Jehovah whom the People of Israel did worship as the only true God And this the Prophet Isaiah perpetually declares in opposition to the Polytheism and variety of Gods among the Heathen I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And again Is there any God besides me there is no God I know not any He who hath an infinite knowledge and knows all things knows no other God And our B. Saviour makes this the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the knowledge of it necessary to every man's Salvation This says He is life eternal to know thee the only true God The Unity of the Divine Nature is a Notion wherein the greatest and the wisest part of Mankind did always agree and therefore may reasonably be presumed to be either natural or to have sprung from some Original Tradition delivered down to us from the first Parents of Mankind I mean that there is One Supreme Being the Author and Cause of all things whom the most ancient of the Heathen Poets commonly called the Father of Gods and men And thus Aristotle in his Metaphysicks defines God the eternal and most excellent or best of all Living Beings And this Notion of One Supreme Being agrees very well with that exact Harmony which appears in the Frame and Government of the World in which we see all things conspiring to one End and continuing in one uniform Order and Course which cannot reasonably be ascribed to any other but a constant and uniform Cause and which to a considering man does plainly shew that all things are made and governed by that One powerful Principle and great and wise Mind which we call God But although the generality of Mankind had a Notion of One Supreme God yet the Idolatry of the Heathen plainly shews that this Notion in process of time was greatly degenerated and corrupted into an apprehension of a Plurality of Gods though in reason it is evident enough that there can be no more Gods than One and that One who is of infinite Perfection is as sufficient to all purposes whatsoever as ten thousand Deities if they were possible could possibly be as I shall shew in the following Discourse Now this multitude of Deities which the fond Superstition and vain Imagination of Men had formed to themselves were by the Wiser sort who being forced to comply with the Follies of the People endeavoured to make the best of them supposed to be either Parts of the Universe which the Egyptians as Plutarch tells us thought to be the same with God but then the more considerable parts of the Universe they parcelled out into several Deities and as the Ocean hath several Names according to the several Coasts and Countries by which it passeth so they gave several Names to this One Deity according to the several Parts of the World which several Nations made the Objects of their Worship Or else they adored the several Perfections and Powers of the One Supreme God under several Names and Titles with regard to the various Blessings and Benefits which they thought they received from Him Thus the Indian Philosophers the Brachmans are said to have worshipped the Sun as the Supreme Deity and he certainly is the most Worshipful of all sensible Beings and bids fairest for a Deity especially if he was as they supposed animated by a Spirit endued with knowledg and understanding And if a man who had been bred in a dark Cave should all on the sudden be brought out at Noon-day to behold this visible World after he had viewed and consider'd it a while he would in all probability pitch upon the Sun as the most likely of all the things he had seen to be a Deity For if such a man had any Notion of a God and were to chuse one upon sight he would without dispute fix upon the Sun and fall down before Him and worship Him And Macrobius manageth this as his main Plea for the Idolatry of the Heathen that under all the several Names of their Gods they Worshipped the Sun And this diversity of Names was but a more distinct conception and acknowledgment of the many Blessings and advantages which mankind received from Him and a more particular and express Adoration of the several Powers and Perfections which were in Him And this was the very best defence and all the tolerable sense which the Wisest among the Heathen could make of the multitude of their Deities And yet whilst they generally owned One Supreme Being that was the Principle and Original of all things they worshipped several subordinate Deities as really distinct from one another Some of these they fancied to be superior to the rest and to have their residence in Heaven by which Marsilius Ficinus supposes Plato