Person They confound us yet more if more can be by telling us only and so often of the Creator never of Creators as Trinitarians would have us to speak Gen. 6.7 Jebovah said I will destroy Man whom I have made Isa 42.5 HE that created the Heavens HE that spread out the Earth HE that giveth Breath unto the People Nehem. 9.6 THOV hast made the Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host the Earth and all things therein the Sea and all that is therein and THOV preservest them all and the Host of Heaven worshippeth THEE This Text assures us there was no dividing the work between two or more Persons It was one THOU who both created and preserves all things and THEE saith the Text the the Host of Heaven worshippeth not YE not THEM not more Persons but one only Isa 4.28 The CREATOR of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not Rom. 1.25 Served the Creature more than Gr. besides the CREATOR But what is not really found in Scripture for their purpose Trinitarians know how to discover that 't is there which with respect to the case before us they do these two ways First by interpreting the Texts which by Confession of their ablest Criticks speak of the new Creation or Renovation of the World from Idolatry to the Knowledg of the one true God which was by Christ concerning the old Creation or the making of Heaven and Earth which was by God Secondly They oft-times honestly add the word or words that were wanting on their behalf which they have done in abundance of Contexts But for both these Artifices their Detection and their Confutation I refer to the brief History of the Vnitarians Of Original Sin SOon after the Creation Adam the first Man transgressing the Law given to him of not eating the forbidden Fruit he thereby incurred the Penalty of Death that was the Penalty annex'd to the Law which he had violated But first he incurred this Penalty not only for himself who was the actual and real Offender but for his whole Posterity God impating to them or reckoning to them his Offence as if they had been the Doers of it Secondly We are to know that in the word Death there is implied not only what is naturally and commonly meant thereby even the Separation of the Soul from the Body and the Body's returning to Dust but first such a Corruption and Depravation of our Faculties that we are all born naturally averse from every good Word and Work and inclined to Evil only and to all kinds of Evil. Then all Temporal Calamities and Evils to which human Life is subject and finally Eternal Damnation All these are implied in the words of the Sanction The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die and they are by Divines commonly called the three Deaths or the threefold Death Spiritual Temporal and Eternal But we mean not to say that the word Death doth in its first or proper Signification import all the abovesaid Evils But it pleased God when He passed Sentence on Adam to extend the Signification of that Word which exprest and contained the Penalty of his Law 'T is true 't would be cried out on as most unjust among Men to reckon or impute the Transgression of a Father to his Children and other Posterity and much more if they were punish'd for it in a far more extream manner than is truly and indeed implied in the Penalty annex'd to the Law that was violated that is if the Word or Words of the Penalty were extended and strained beyond their proper and natural meaning Yet these things cannot be unjust with God because He can do no Unjustice and the reason of that is because Things or Actions are not just or unjust in themselves or in their own Natures but only as God who hath all Authority and Power either willeth and commandeth them or on the contrary nilleth and forbiddeth them The Notes This Postulatum that Things or Actions are not just or unjust in themselves or in their own Natures but only as the Supream Authority and Power that is to say GOD shall please to will or nill them to command or forbid them is indeed necessary to the Defence of such Doctrines as these that God doth arbitrarily impute the Sin of one Man to all Men and that in punishing those whom he hath made guilty by his meer Will he infinitely exceeds the true proper and natural Signification of the Words in the Sanction that is of the words of that part of his Law which contain the Penalty of transgressing it That Postulatum is so necessary to this Doctrine of Original Sin that it must be owned that the Calvinists have judged better and spoke more consistently than their Opposers of some other Sects and Churches who hold Original Sin as 't is before described and yet seem unwilling to allow of that only Basis on which Calvinists have rightly seen it will stand namely this that Just and Unjust Good and Evil are only the Will and Prohibition of him that hath Supream Power But as the Postulatum is necessary to the Doctrine for which it was devised so it as much destroys the Eternal Rectitude and Holiness of God as the Doctrines in the foregoing Paragraphs which have been already considered overthrow the Unity the Omnipresence and other his Essential Perfections and Attributes It is horrible but to think that these Imputations on the most Holy God are such as would make up the just Character of an Almighty Devil For if the Devil had Supream Power what worse could he do than they feign is done by the Fountain it self of Rectitude and Holiness Could he do worse than impute the Sin of one Man to all Men and punish them for it besides and beyond his own Sanction with an utter Inability to all that is good then punish Inability which was neither their Act nor Desert and of which himself was the only cause with Eternal Damnation Here many to help themselves a little say God saves some from this Ruine he rescues his Elect tho not from Sin and Temporal Death and Calamity yet from Eternal Damnation nay bestows on them the unspeakable and everlasting Beatitudes of Heaven But this is no better than the other For the highest Injustice to the far-greater number is so far from being excused by an ungrounded Partiality for a very few that this latter may be truly called a new and fresh Instance of sort of Unjustice Is it not Partiality and Vnjustice too to make a great number of Creatures of the same kind and tho one deserves no more than another of them either for Good or Evil cherish one with whatsoever Omnipotence can do for him and burn against the other with Wrath eternal and insupportable But they say God having all Authority and Power what He willeth must needs be Law that is to say Justice and what He nills or forbids must be Transgression that is to say Evil Sin and Vnjustice
a Reprieve of about Eighty Years Our Opposers can show no Context of Holy Scripture in which their threefold Death for this Sin is contained or in which the Posterity of Adam are said to have his Sin imputed to them and that they are punish'd for it The only Offer they make is from Romans Chap. 5. the Apostle there at v. 19. saith As by one Man's Disobedience many are made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous By one Man's Disobedience say they that is by God's Imputation of one Man's Disobedience to them even Adam's in Paradise so many have been made Sinners How much more dexterously and agreeably to the Justice and Wisdom of God Pelagius and the Vnitarians By one Man's Disobedience that is saith Pelagius not as Austin has newly fancied by God's Imputation but by our Imitation of one Man's Disobedience so many have been made Sinners and on the other hand by the Obedience of one that is by Imitation not by Imputation of one Man's Obedience even the Lord Christ's many shall be made Righteous Trinitarians make the same Blunder at ver 18. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came or shall come upon all Men to Justification and Life Here again they see not that by the Offence of one Man and again by the Righteousness of one Man are not as much as to say by the Imputation of one Man's Offence and of one Man's Righteousness but by Imitation of one Man's Righteousness and of another Man's Offence Justification and Condemnation have come upon all Men. We die for imitating the Disobedience of Adam and we shall be justified and saved for and by imitating the Righteousness of the Lord Christ And thus it is that St. Paul himself explains himself in this very Chapter v. 12. As by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin so also Death hath passed upon all Men for that or because all have sinned He saith not as Trinitarians do because Adam sinned but because all have sinned therefore Death hath passed on all that is all of us have deserved the Death we must undergo or have undergone by our own Sins But they say Infants die and what Sin have they unless you allow the Imputation of Adam's Sin to all his Descendents But why do they not consider too that Beasts die is Adam's Sin Imputed also to them They ought therefore to know that Holy Paul in that Context is speaking only of Adult and Grown Persons as for Infants Beasts and such like that have not Sin because they have not Vnderstanding of Good and Evil of Moral and Immoral such die because they have Mortal Bodies liable to Diseases and Accidents From which Accidents and Diseases to deliver and rescue them it does not please God to Interpose by an Extraordinary and Miraculous Power For which sort of Providence towards them divers Probable Reasons might be given but being not Necessary or Proper to be here inserted I omit them Of Partial Redemption THE Transgression of Adam in Paradise or his eating the Forbidden Fruit was in Him Actual Sin in his Descendents 'tis called Original Sin but the Effects of it are the same in Both namely the before-mentioned three-fold Death or three Deaths Death Temporal which is the separation of the Soul from the Body and all temporal Calamities and Evils Death Spiritual which is the Corruption of the Faculties that we are averse to all Good and inclined to all Evil. Death Eternal which is the everlasting Suffering of Body and Soul in Hell-fire These Deaths are the Consequences and Desert of Adam's Sin to himself as the Actual Offender to us as his Sin is Imputed to us by the Justice of God But the Mercy of God and his Wisdom have found out a most Gracious and Glorious Expedient by which to deliver Mankind though not from Temporal Death yet in part from Spiritual Death and wholly and altogether from Death Eternal But before we speak more particularly of the Expedient 't is necessary to caution Learners that they fall not into this Error that God designed the Benefit of the Expedient for All Men and Women For when we say Mankind or all Men have been Redeemed from the before-mentioned Deaths our meaning is that the Elect or as that most consider'd and weigh'd 17th Article of the English Church speaks Those whom God hath chosen out of Mankind are as that Article farther says brought to everlasting Salvation as Vessels of Honour These are called according to God's purpose in due Season his Spirit working in them And they through Grace obey that Calling These Elect are a definite certain and unalterable Number that can neither be increased nor diminished as is Expresly and in words declared by the Suffrage of the Divines of Great Britain at the Synod of Dort Suffrage p. 9. It is saith the same Suffrage at p. 43. for the Elect that Christ died that He might Effectually obtain for them and Infallibly bestow on them both Remission of Sins and Salvation If the Unskilful ask here How this Doctrine agreeth with those Declarations of Holy Scripture so often repeated which seem to say that Christ died for the Sins of the World or for All Men The Divines above said answer at p. 47. Here it is that the secret Decree of Election sheweth it self inasmuch as the Price was indeed payed for All yet is not Beneficial to All because All have not the Gist of fulfilling the Condition of the Covenant They mean All have not Saving Grace given to them whereby to Believe and to Obey the Gospel They rightly add at p. 55. We no where meet in Scripture any Promise by which God hath bound himself to impart his Grace to All and every One Farthermore the same excellent Suffrage teaches at p. 27. that 't is a Supposition without any good ground that all Infants are saved It saith that those Infants who are saved are saved by virtue of their Election which respecteth not the Age of Persons but only looketh upon the common heap of Fallen Mankind out of which it chooseth And concerning such Choosing or Election it teaches at p. 34. that Grace doth find some whom it Adopteth out of the most Wicked and at their last End while Many who seem less Guilty have no part in this Gift Therefore when All are said to be Redeemed or when 't is said Christ died for All or such like Expressions are used this is to be understood of All sorts or orders of Men and Women He died for High and Low for Old Men and Infants for Youth and Middle-age for Rich and Poor for Wise and Unwise for all these sorts for some particular Persons of all these for such of all these sorts as are Elected And those whoever they be who extend any farther than this the Redemption purchased by Christ are Arminians But
Infinite Punishment of all Mankind no nor of one Man 4. But if it were admitted that one Man was so dignified by the Inhabitation of God in him as to be an Equivalent for all Men admitting also that the three days Temporal Death of such a Man amounts to as much as the Deaths Temporal and Spiritual and the Eternal Damnation of all Mankind What will follow hereupon It will follow that God is obliged in Equity to release all Mankind from all the three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal else He hath received an Equivalent on behalf of Mankind without discharging those for whom He received it which is contrary to Equity nay to Justice For in Equity an Equivalent ought to discharge the Person whether he be Offender or Debtor but if the Equivalent be not only tendred but accepted also on behalf of the Debtor or Offender the Offender hath Wrong done him if he is not immediately discharged of his Punishment and the Debtor of his Debt But do Trinitarians pretend or dare they that God doth discharge Mankind from the three Deaths on the Oblation and Sacrifice of himself made by the Lord Christ on their behalf By no means they own we are not at all discharged from Death Temporal but in some part from Death Spiritual and only a few Persons from Death Eternal It follows that the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour were not in deed an Equivalent to the three Deaths of Mankind 5. To add now no more The Unitarian Doctrine is consistent nay is the very same with what the Scriptures every-where say namely that Almighty God of his Grace the Riches and Abundance of his Grace and Love has pardoned Offenders for Christ's sake on the Conditions on their part of Faith Repentance and Newness of Life But the Trinitarian Doctrine which saith the Punishment laid on the Lord Christ was truly equivalent to the Punishment due to all Mankind doth deprive God our Maker and Father of the Glory of his Pardoning Grace and Mercy Nay it saith in effect that we are not beholden to God our Father on that account It saith he hath been harsh nay hath been apparently unjust in that he hath received more than an Equivalent for our discharge from the three Deaths and yet he hath not wholly releas'd any and but very few are at all released I will only add Whereas Trinitarians call the Sufferings of the Lord Christ a Punishment and will have that Punishment to be equivalent to the Infinite Punishment due they say to Mankind for Sin Original and Actual and whereas they call this Doctrine the Doctrine of the SATISFACTION by the Lord Christ they have mistaken in the Name as well as in the Thing 'T is the Unitarians who in proper speaking hold that the Lord Christ made Satisfaction to God for Sin not Trinitarians We say that the Sufferings of the Lord Christ not being equivalent in the exact Scales of Justice for what all Mankind have deserved yet God was satisfied with them that is was graciously pleased to accept them as an Intercession on our behalf and this is the proper Notion of a Satisfaction But Trinitarians in saying the Sufferings of Christ were equivalent to the Demerit of our Sins were a full Payment to the Justice of God for them do not hold a Satisfaction but a Reparation or Plenary Amends The more elegant Latinists call Confession Deprecation and such like imperfect and partial Reparations and Payments by the Name of Satisfactions Of the Incarnation BEcause no other but a Person of Infinite Merit and Dignity could satisfy the Divine Justice for Adam's Transgression therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity called the Son offered himself to undergo the Equivalent to that Punishment or threefold Death which belonged to Adam and his Descendents and this Offer was accepted by the other two Persons of the Trinity It was agreed that the Son should become incarnate in an Human Nature should be Whole and All united to a Finite Man even the Man Christ Jesus and be one Person with him By this means the Man Christ Jesus became of that unspeakable Merit and Dignity that one drop of his Blood was an Equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of all Mankind in Hell-Fire and his Holiness and the Merit thereof was infinitely more than enough for himself it was meritorious of Heaven for never so many Sinners The Son was so incarnate in a particular Human Nature as to be personally thereto united in the very Womb of the Virgin Mary so that Mary as General Councils of the Orthodox have rightly defined was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother of God This Incarnation of the Son in the Man Christ Jesus begets also such a Communication of Idioms that is of Properties and Attributes between the Divinity and the Humanity of the Lord Christ that we must say on the one hand God was born God suffered God died as we must say also on the other hand the Man Christ Jesus is Eternal Omnipotent Omnipresent Creator of Heaven and Earth As all Learned Divines acknowledg and Cardinal Bellarmine in particular has largely proved from Fathers and Councils of the Orthodox Bellar. de Christo l. 3. c. 9. The Notes The Doctrine of the Incarnation claims the place of all the Trinitarian Doctrines even of the Trinity it self in regard of its Seniority For while our Opposers were only Homo-ousians that is believed and professed only two Eternal and Consubstantial Persons not having yet dreamt that the Holy Spirit is God in the days of the first Nicene Council even then they held the Incarnation of the second of those Persons Neither does this Doctrine come behind any of their Doctrines either in the Number or the Rarity and Strangeness of its Wonders and Mysteries but of these three are more remarkable than the rest I will make a short Reflection on each of them The first Wonder is that an Infinite Person is whole and all incarnate in a Finite Nature Which amounts to this That Infinite is less than Finite for else how should Infinite be incarnate that is cased in the Finite But make the greatest Allowances possible yet the Infinite which is whole and all incarnate in the Finite can at most but be commensurate to the Finite that is but equal to it Now these are two such Paradoxes that till our Opposers can separate them from their Doctrine of the Incarnation they will never perswade that Doctrine to any who make use of their Reason and Consideration The second great Mystery or Wonder of this Doctrine is that the particular Human Nature in which a Person of the Trinity vouchsafed to be incarnate became thereby of Infinite Dignity and Merit for 't was an Equivalent for an Infinite number of Men and for the Infinite Punishment due to them and yet still remained and continued a meer and bare Human Nature Which is to say a
are as bad as the Devil you shall presently be inclined to as much Good as will save you from Hell and qualify you for Heaven And this no less certainly if you are one of the Elect for else the Churches Incantation produces only a Momentary Effect and a false Appearance of Good no less certainly I say than by tying the Norman Knot you may gain the Love of the Person you desire or by other Devices recorded in the learned Books so Fools esteem them of Magick you may cause Hatred raise Winds and do a thousand other Feats which have no more natural or real Agreement with those Causes that are said to produce them than Faith and Obedience have with a bit of Bread or with a sprinkling of Water Therefore when St. Austin defined a Sacrament to be the outward visible Sign of an inward invisible Grace or Energy the good Father should have considered that this is the Definition of a Charm not of a Gospel-Sacrament For a Charm is a bare outward visible Sign that has no natural or real Agreement with the Effect and if the Effect prove for the good of the Person concerned it may be called the inward invisible Grace of such Sign or Charm as when the Effect is to beget Love or such like But if the Effect of the Charm be hurtful as to kill or such like then it must be called the Energy not the Grace of the Charm as that damning Quality or Power which our Opposers impute to the Sacrament of the Supper when not received aright cannot be called the Grace of that Sacrament but only the Energy So that let them turn themselves which way soever they can they have turned the Gospel-Sacraments as I said before into Charms and Spells Now on the contrary Unitarians think of the Sacraments reverently not extravagantly or superstitiously They like not indeed the word Sacraments because 't is no Scripture-word and because the Criticks have noted that 't is a very improper Term or Name to denote the Ceremonies of Baptism and of commemorating the Passion and Death of our Saviour But they will not quarrel about words if the Things signified be agreeable to Reason or Holy Scripture We think that Baptism was a Ceremony or Rite appointed by our Saviour for divers most weighty Reasons whereof this was the chief to initiate or enter Jews and Heathens into the Christian Church It was a very proper and significant Rite and Ceremony for the washing and cleansing the Body in Water doth very aptly signify that Repentance and those Purposes of Holiness and Purity which such as enter themselves into the Christian Church or are born in that Church should profess and practise He that comes to be baptized that is to be washed in Water doth thereby profess he will in like manner purge his Mind and Conscience and his whole Conversation from Impurity and Wickednesses of all sorts by delivering himself up to the Institution and Guidance of that Gospel which was given by the Father or God as its Author was brought by the Son our Lord Christ as the Messenger and confirmed by the Holy Spirit or the Power and Inspiration of God by abundance of Signs Miracles and Wonders Therefore according to the Vnitarians 't is not this Sacrament that worketh ought in us much less renews regenerates and changes our Natures but the Person who receives this Sacrament is to resolve and purpose Renovation Regeneration or Newness of Life This Doctrine we learn form St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.21 The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the Filth of the Flesh i. e. not the meer Ceremony of Baptism that is of dipping and washing in Water but the Answer of a good Conscience towards God That is if as our Bodies are baptized or wash'd in Water so also we purify our Consciences of all Disobedience towards God From this Explication of Baptism some have drawn these two Corollaries or Consequences 1. That Baptism should be administred by dipping in Water for by that cleansing of the Body is effected at least is intended and signified but sprinkling doth neither cleanse nor signify cleansing the Body and so is very improper to signify the Answer of a good Conscience that is the cleansing the Heart and Conscience from Evil. 2. That no Person is capable of this Rite but such as can profess and intend the thing signified by Baptism even a clean Conscience and a new Life As to the Lord's-Supper every one knows the mighty Wonders ascribed by our Opposers to this Sacrament Papists say the Substances of Bread and Wine are changed into the Substance of Christ's Body Lutherans say they are consubstantiated with his Body The Church of England goes beyond the Papists for she saith in the Catechism that the Body and Blood of Christ are VERILY and INDEED taken and received by the Faithful not by others in the Lord's-Supper This implieth such a Real and Universal Presence of our Lord's Body in the Sacrament as far exceeds the Popish Transubstantiation for that limits the Presence to only the Substance of Christ's Body and excludes the Accidents but this takes in both The Vnitarian Doctrine concerning this Sacrament is plain and simple We say our Saviour has told us the meaning of this Sacrament in those words Luke 22.19 This do in remembrance of me And St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.26 As oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death That is you commemorate and represent the shedding the Lord's Blood and the breaking his Body for Mankind But for the miraculous Effects and Consequences ascribed to the right partaking of this Sacrament Unitarians can find them nowhere but in the Books and Sermons of the superstitious Admirers I might have said Idolaters of External Things 'T is true the Apostle blameth the Corinthians for receiving unworthily But the Vnworthiness was their Drunkenness in the very Act of communicating that is of commemorating the Death of our Saviour and 't is of this and the like Disorders in the Act of communicating that he there bids them to examine themselves before they presume to take the Memorials of their Lord's Death As for those words of our Saviour at John 6.53 Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you and divers such-like Expressions in that Chapter especially toward the latter end of it 't is certain and agreed by the most Learned Interpreters Papists and Protestants as well as Socinians that our Saviour is not there speaking of the Sacrament of the Supper which when he made those Discourses was not yet instituted but of believing in him and imitating his Example H. Grotius hath very judiciously and learnedly and very amply also proved this to be the meaning of that Context and I believe hath satisfied as many as have carefully read and considered that part of his Annotations Wherefore I refer to