the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Now to find out the Conformity of this Vision with that of John we must join the first and fourth Chapters of the Revelation and observe the Concomitants Fire and Brightness his eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1 1â— v. 16. chap. 4.2 3 6 7. and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength also there was a throne in heaven and one sat on the throne And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rain-bow round about the throne in sight like unto an Emerald And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto chrystal And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind 〈◊〉 â—usâ— beast was like a lion the second like a calf the third had the face as a man and the fourth was like a flying eagle These circumstances do pretty well agree in both Visions and 't will appear the better if we speak of him who sate upon the Throne the Prophet saith he had the likeness as the appearance of a man and the Apostle writes chap. 1.13 in the midst of the seven candleshicks was one like unto the son of man who there appears among the Churches represented by Candlesticks as their Head but in chap. 4. we see him upon the Throne the word like and likeness is used not only by the Prophet but also by the Apostle John as also by Paul who speaking of the Lord Jesus saith He was made in the likeness of men Phil. 2.7 This after the Incarnation but Ezekiel speaks before that time and of a Vision so expresseth it by the word likeness and appearance because he who then sate upon the Throne was not actually but afterwards was to be made Man not by any Change of Substance but by Assumption of humane Nature however he describes a humane Body when he saith Rev. 1.13 14 15. of his loyns upward and even of his loyns downward which John doth in a more emphatical way when from head to foot he describes one like unto the son of man he doth not in general say like unto Man but like unto the Son of Man which name our Lord when upon Earth used to call himself by Now I say that he who sate upon the Throne was God Almighty for 't is called the likeness of the Glory of the Lord Ezekiel 1.28 And if a Person of the Godhead it relates unto the Son who afterwards was manifested in the Flesh and before under the Old Testament had appeared in the Shape and Likeness of a Man which the Father never did and of him we read no such thing Before I make an end with this Head I must take notice how because precious Stones are even beyond Gold the more valuable things in this World so when God was pleased to grant a special Manifestation of his Presence to set a value upon it always something of Jewels was offered to the eye whereby it is delighted and this not only in Ecstasies and Visions but upon other occasions thus Moses Exod. 24.9 10. Aaron Nadab Abihu and seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel and there were under his feet as it were a paved work of saphire-stone and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness The third Vision is Daniel's Dan. 7.13 Acts 1.9 one we read of Chap. 7.13 directly relating to our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven how one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven to the Ancient of Days which we find fullfilled when his Disciples beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their Sight this I shall not speak of for I mention'd it in another place only I take notice how the expression like the Son of Man doth point at that Individual Person who being the Son of God was made like unto the Son of Man for it denotes that he was something else besides the Son of Man and before he was the Son of Man or else the words behold a Man came with the Clouds had sufficiently describ'd the Person if he had been a meer Man without saying the Son of Man but by that expression which as already observed is the very name which he who often call'd himself Son of God used also to call himself by the Prophet mean'd something more than a bare Man Dan. 9.23 Chap. 2.44 and 7.14 for he being a Man greatly beloved of God by means of the great and many Revelations he had relating both to the Kingdom and Person of Christ he though at so great a distance might see the Son of God as become the Son of Man chiefly in the Vision of the 70 Weeks and in that same Chap. in his Prayer to God for his Nation he mentions Christ the Messiah V. 17. for he doth beseech to be heard for the Lord's sake which plainly implies a distinction of the Person he Prays to by him call'd Our God and of that for whose sake he prays to be heard for the Lord's sake that is for Christ's in whom God alone accepteth all our Prayers John 14.6 for none can come to the Father but by him and now this is our form of Prayer to God that he be pleas'd to hear us for the sake of his Son who is he that appeared to the Prophet in another place in the Vision of the battel between the Ram and the Geâ—â— Dan. 8. V. 15.16 for he saith behold there stood before me as the appearance of a Man who gave the Angel Gabriel the word of Command make this Man to understand the Vision but if we proceed to that Vision of his contain'd in Chap. 10.5 6. we shall find the description of a Person which doth exactly suit with that in Revel 1.13 14 15. for saith the Prophet I lift up mine Eyes and look'd and behold a certain Man clothed in Linen whose Loyns were girded with fine Gold of Vphaz his Body also was like the Bâ—ryl and his Face as the appearance of lightning and his Eyes as Lamps of fire and his arms and his feet like in colour to polish'd brass and the Voice of his Words like the Voice of a multitude We may take notice how in these Visions of the Glory of God commonly appear'd a Man or one like a Man sitting upon a Throne why like a Man not as if Divine Nature in the abstract was like the human for such a wrong notion Scripture declares against but to teach how in the Godhead in the Concrete there is something or rather Person Man like Man then more than Man and something besides Man which became Christ made like a Man not in every thing a Man because no Sinner Now as the Father was never made Man so it would have been improper for him to appear in the shape of a Man but for the Son who in time was
to leave others in the natural State of sin And as in the Work of Creation so in that of Redemption the Three Persons of the most Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost agreed about the Means conducing to that End The Father was to send his Son Jesus Christ Epes 3.4 in whom he hath chosen us before the foundation of the World The Son to come purchase and work Salvation for us and the Holy Ghost to apply that Purchase and make it effectual In order to this the whole Administration of this great and Glorious Work was committed to the Son Acts 10.36 Heb. 1.2 Matt. 28.18 Joh. 5.19 who thereby was made King and Lord of all and Heir of all things so all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth Hence it is that what things soever the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise Nay in this he is so fully and absolutely Plenipotentiary that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son This Office of Mediatour and Saviour he from the Creation of the World began to administer it in the Royal part as executing Judgment upon the Wicked and saving his People sometimes by Angels at other times by himself in the shape of a Man Also his Prophetical Office even before the Flood 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 1.11 by Noah called a Preacher of Righteousness and afterwards by all the Prophets in whom his spirit was Thus from the beginning of the World he hath every where from Abel to Abraham and in Egypt the Wilderness c. been Ordering Ruling and Governing his Church and the whole World which he continues to do and will till after the last Judgment Day when having gotten all his Elect together he will introduce them into everlasting Glory all this by his own Power And this is such a work as infinitely exceedeth all Humane and Angelical Strength and Wisdom so that none but a Divine Power can perform it therefore he that doth it till all his Enemies be brought under his Feet and fully overcome must need be true Essential and Eternal God Who but he who is the true God by Nature can Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 6.33 But John Baptist according to the Testimony he had from Heaven bare witness that Christ doth as he actually did his Apostles according to the promise he made to them And in the same place John Baptist bare record that this is the Son of God Acts 2. chap. 1.5 John 1.33.34 Luk. 7.28 John 1.27 and 3.30.31 Why to call him thus if he was not really such Hereby he shews that vast difference between the Lord and himself of whom our Saviour said Among those that are born of Women there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist who in several places made himself a meer nothing in comparison of the Lord Jesus and here by the name Son of God he is distinguished from all Men John never call'd himself nor no Man else Son of God only this Jesus Christ and none else is the Son of God with the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a but the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsemet this very same which that he is is so certain a truth that our Lord owned it before the Council of the Chief Priests and Scribes who were not so blind as Socinians are or would seem to be for though our Saviour had spoken to them not so plainly Luke 22.69 yet this meaning they understood well Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God Though he called himself Son of Man yet the last words made them to conclude that he made himself the Son of God and consequently God for none but the proper Son of God can sit on the right hand of the Power of God therefore they all presently asked him Art thou then the Son of God which was a Natural Consequence of what he had said and the Particle then is a Note of inference which our Saviour owned in these words ye say that I am That is plainly I am and ye are not mistaken which they call'd Blasphemy so would Socinians have said if they had been there for now they do so set their Hand and Seal Mark 14.64 to his Condemnation for Blasphemy and consequently that he was justly put to Death for it when truely properly and in the sense which the Jews took it he made himself Son of God which as much as in them lies is To crucifie the son of God a-fresh Heb. 6.6 and put him to an open shame Hitherto though I had occasion to do 't I have taken no notice of the Opinion of those who say St. John's Gospel to have been written by Cerinthus for 't is such a nonsensical untruth and so absurd a Forgery that I ever thought it not worth minding In John's time the Heresiark Cerinthus denyed our Saviour's Divinity which that Gospel proves as often fully and plainly as any Book whatsoever in the the New Testament as indeed that Apostle did write it a purpose to prove it and thereby to confute the Impious Heresie of that Instrument of Satan as he declares it when he saith These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God Joh. 20.3 and that ye might have life through his name To say a proof is against a thing when 't is visibly for it gives a just cause to put the question whether he or they who said so knew what they said But Drowning Men will lay hold on any thing that comes into their Hand Besides 't is a great Impiety to make a Blasphemous Heretick Author of an Holy Gospel generally owned to be Canonical and Inspired by the Holy Ghost This Holy Gospel doth confound the Enemies of our blessed Lord and Saviour's Divinity therefore they so often would have been nibbling at it not one chapter but affords strong proofs of it For not to mention here those several places out of which we have drawn strong Arguments for it How many things to confirm it did the Lord Jesus speak therein from the time of his eating the Passover till he was taken that was but short which he took to prepare his Disciples for that separation which by his Death was to follow comforting them with telling what he would and could do for them I shall take notice of that only wherein he speaks of that high point of his Divine Glory by a mutual Glorification between the Father and him Joh. 13.31 32. Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him but this is not all for if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself This indeed were a Blasphemy for a meer Creature to speak after this manner here is a perfect Equality of Glory they glorifie one another and are glorified one in another God shall glorifie him not without but
is this Let their table become a snare befor them Ps 69.22 and for welfare a trap in English the Sense is lame in the latter part of the Verse therefore 't was necessary thus to supply it and that which should have been for their Welfare let it become a Trap. The other Text is this For my love they are my adversaries but I give my self unto prayer Ps 109.4 in the latter part of the Verse the words give my self unto are not in the Hebrew only but I prayer which is no sense in English David is not Prayer nor an Iniquity the Judge therefore it should be supplied which the Translatours have well done Now to be even with this Author these two things I leave for him to prove first That this is not the Idiom of the Hebrew Language the second That the Words supplied to make out the Sense in these places are against the Analogy of Faith or the Scope of God's Spirit therein and I give him a long time to consider upon 't But enough of this As to their politick Reasons against the Magistrate's Authority in point of Religion and for a general Naturalization whereby they at once would blow up an English Birth-Right with the Seven Years Apprentiship and bring in all Foreigners to engross the English Trade unto themselves and sow the pernicious Tares of Heresie Blasphemy c. among us with more liberty for they are also for a general Toleration in all these I say their Policy is no better than their Divinity as might easily be demonstrated Indeed to Tolerate some Opinions about indifferent Circumstantial Things can contribute towards Peace and Union do much Good and no Harm but 't would be very pernicious concerning Fundamental Errours God Christ and Religion must not be sacrificed to Interest and other Worldly Considerations Yet if Pagans and Mahommetans would not disturb the Government they would be content to bring them in as already we have the unbelieving Jews whose Conversion I earnestly pray for whom upon the account of Trade and of something else they are so fond of that a great Care must be had to give them no Distaste for fear they would be gone when they are as glad to stay here as some seem afraid lest they should go as if here they were the Pillars of Trade but some think there is cause to believe the contrary I can remember how in Cromwell's time they sent over Manasseh Ben-Israel to get leave to come and settle here he offered 200000 l whereupon Cromwell call'd some Divines for Advice Whether in Conscience he might Receive and Tolerate those that disown and are professed Enemies to Christ They answered He might because it might afford some occasion for their Conversion Then he sent for Lawyers to know because long before they had been Banish'd whether according to Law he might do 't The Answer was He might as long as he and the Parliament who are the Legislative Power were agreed But last of all he summon'd some of the chief Merchants to have their Opinion about it in relation to Trade but these broke the Neck of the Business for they represented how that Nation being cunning would to the prejudice of the English by crafty means engross Trade wholly unto themselves whereupon there was an end And it must be owned that Cromwell and his Counsel understood well enough the Nations Interest in point of Trade neither doth it appear why the same Reasons should not be now as good as they were at that time since 't is the same People which still follows the same steps as any one may see that will take notice of it But enough of these Human Considerations I wish every Man would seriously lay Hand upon his Conscience and in earnest mind what account they can give God who certainly soon or late will call them to 't of the Talents he hath committed and of the Authority he hath put into their Hands what good they have done and what evil prevented or punish'd to answer the Giver's Ends I say my Horse is to carry me my Oxe to Plough my Ground and my Dog to watch about my House or to follow me all these answer my Ends or else I put them off and may not every one else as well as I reasonably put this Question to himself For what End hath God brought me into the World Certainly not to please my own Fancy follow my own Humour or satisfie my own Lust and Passion but in my station to honour and serve him that 's the Work and the one needful thing For saith our Saviour Luke 10.42 Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all things shall be added unto you God is the good Master who will take care of our Concerns if we neglect not his but do follow the Apostle's Rule to do all things for the Glory of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The same Apostle saith to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them the Jews in the Wilderness also tempted so I say let none of us tempt Christ as did the Jews in his time who still asked for a Sign after he had given them several Must he every Day give them new Signs and work new Miracles to prove himself to be the true and proper Son of God That unbelieving Nation in the highest degree tempted him when they said Matth. 27. If he be the Son of God let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him to be the Son of God But he to prove himself to be the Son of God did more and a greater thing than they desired for after Death to raise himself as he did out of the Grave was more than if he had come down from the Cross when alive Was not our Blessed Redeemer sufficiently tempted upon Earth by the Jews that he must be tempted again now when he is in Heaven The Jews tempted him in his State of Humiliation and now Socinians do when he is Glorified The Jews would then have had him to come down from the Cross and now the Socinians would have him to come down from Heaven to prove himself to be the Son of God yet against them he hath from Heaven provided a Witness since his Ascension I mean Paul as we read Acts 22.14 15. Before I make an end I neither can nor must forbear to say how it affords too much matter of sad Thoughts in those who are concern'd for the Cause and Interest of the Eternal Son of God and of the Protestant Religion to see here Heresie Blasphemy and Idolatry as good as Tolerated and Unpunish'd and abroad the Professors of the true Christian Religion unjustly and cruelly persecuted In France against all Edicts Engagements and Promises in their Lives Liberties and Fortunes most barbarously in the Valleys of Piedmont the Vaudois which we may well call that Mother Church
THE TRUE CHARACTER OF THE Spirit and Principles OF SOCINIANISM Drawn out of their Writings WITH Some Additional PROOFS of the Most Holy Trinity of our Lord's and of the Holy Ghost's Divinity By J. GAILHARD Gent. They changed the Truth of God into a Lye Rom. 1.25 Therefore Give them O Lord What will thou give Give them a Miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts Hos 9.14 LONDON Printed for J. Hartley over-against Grays-Inn in Holborn MDCXCIX THE PREFACE TO THE Christian READER ALL Prayers and Endeavours against the Abominations of the Times have not altogether been in vain a kind of Curb having by the late Act been put upon it and if the Offenders be strictly punish'd through God's Blessing we may hope to see the Sins really suppressed the Law if not well kept is but a dead Letter and becomes contemptible but a strict Execution makes it useful and effectual which we promise our selves to see by the Pious Care of a Prince whose Chief and most Glorious Title is Defender of the True Christian Faith whilst Violent and Cruel Persecutions are raging abroad and sad Anti-christian Impieties at home who knoweth whether he be come to the Kingdom for such a Time as this to be an Eminent Instrument in God's Hands to do that Work God in an extraordinary manner hath raised him upon the Throne of these Three Kingdoms and as he doth nothing in vain so we may well conceive it to be for some extraordinary Ends. Therefore I now upon my Knees do most humbly beseech Him by whom Kings Reign in a plentiful measure to give the King the Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge and Vnderstanding and of the Fear of his Name that he may truly know what God after the great things he hath done for him doth now expect from him and to guide direct and with his helping Hand support Him in bringing those Great Ends about HIS MAJESTY hath given us Peace with Men and we now humbly desire he would endeavour to procure it with God and cause the War we are at against Heaven to cease which we cannot so much as hope for as long as God's Great Name is Prophaned his Son Dishonoured his Holy Spirit Blasphemed his Word wrested and Impiously ridiculed by a sort of Men in the World who not only in private but openly with Tongue and Pen go about to pull our Holy Religion up by the very Root and to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christianity who not only proudly despise the Judgment of the whole Primitive Church but that which is infinitely worse through their Impieties and Blasphemies they Crucifie again the Lord of Glory make the Wounds of Christ to bleed afresh and who to speak in the Apostle's Words Have trodden under Foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we are Sanctified an Unholy thing and have done Despite unto the Spirit of Grace That Holy Blood which at other times speaks better things than that of Abel's doth now upon this Occasion cry loud for Vengeance because 't is abominably prophaned and by the denial of the Causes and Effects of its being shed undervalued We thank God for the Prospect we have to see the Evil remedied through His Majesty's wholsome Influences The Life of our Laws without which they are insignificant we hope to see derived from him and if I may be allowed to make a Comparison in a thing which admits of none as the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters to quicken and make them fruitful so the Breathings from the Throne and the Motions of the Royal Authority can infuse an effective Vertue into our Acts of Parliament For as of a Bill to make a Law the King's Assent is necessary without which 't is but a dead Lump without Form and signifies nothing so when 't is passed the Executive Power Originally in the King is that which gives it Life and Strength or else 't is dormant and languisheth Now upon the present Account far be it from us to think that for want of commanding a due execution of the Laws His Majesty will ever suffer Blasphemy Idolatry Prophaneness and Immorality to be Blots and Stains in his Reign His Majesty's Word we have for and may depend upon 't insomuch that in case the Act doth not produce it 's due Effect as considering the Spirit of that Odious Sect some are of Opinion it will not no doubt but that His Majesty without being prompted to 't will of himself be pleased to mind the Honour of God and of Religion The Ground of our Hope and Confidence is this At the opening of the last Session of Parliament the King in his Speech to both Houses promised to take care to suppress Prophaneness and Immorality which afforded the Honourable House of Commons an Occasion to Address to His Majesty concerning it and His Majesty's Answer when 't was presented deserves to be written in Letters of Gold Thus it was Gentlemen I cannot but be very well pleased with an Address of this Nature and will give immediately Directions in the several Particulars you desire But I could wish some more effectual Provision were made for the suppressing those pernicious Books and Pamphlets your Address takes notice of The Work of Reformation is great but the time short so it 's necessary to begin it betimes and follow it close No Man as our Saviour saith having put his Hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God Therefore no one that in his Station hath concern'd himself in this good and just Cause must draw back but within the Sphere of his Activity must go on to promote it and not be weary in well doing Before Men engage in a Matter they ought to know why and upon what Grounds But once being satisfy'd with its Justice and Goodness notwithstanding Difficulties and Oppositions they are bound to continue for and not forsake it for God in his due time will bring all to a happy end Men either must not believe or else must own what they believe and profess what they own He that comes with God's Word in his Mouth needs not be ashamed or afraid For my part with the Royal Prophet I may say I will speak of thy Testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed Books Printed for and sold by John Hartley over-against Grays-Inn in Holborn THE Blasphemous Socinian Heresie disprov'd and confuted Wherein the Doctrinal and Controversial parts of those Points are handled and the Adversaries Scripture and School-Arguments answered With Animadversions upon a late Book call'd Christianity not Mysterious Humbly dedicated to both Houses of Parliament By J. Gailhard Gent. 8 vo Price 3 s. 6 d. The Epistle and Preface to the Book against the Blasphemous Socinian Heresie vindicated and the Charge therein against Socinianism made good In Answer to two Letters By J. Gailhard Gent. Price 1 s. Herodian's History of the Roman Emperors containing many Strange and Wonderful Revolutions of
Why hath Satan fill'd thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost in the next verse it 's said Thou hast not ly'd unto Men but unto God These last Words explain the first how to lye to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 3.16 is to lye to God Paul is another Evidence when he saith Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you That Spirit which dwelleth in them is the same true God whose Temple they are farther as God is every where Psal 139.7 so is the Holy Ghost Whither shall I go from thy Spirit saith David which comes to this I can go no where but there he is so the Holy Ghost is Infinite and none but God is such Rom. 8.9 and the Spirit of God dwells in you as he doth in every Believer and as there are Believers of all Nations Ages Sexes Qualities c. in the World so the Holy Ghost who is in them all is all the World over and so God absolute Eternity belongs to God and the Holy Ghost is Eternal too as we have it thus Heb. 9.14 1 Cor. 2.10 Christ through the Eternal Spirit offered himself and who but God can know all things whether of Men or of God But the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God The Work of the Creation is proper to God and incommunicable to the Creature which cannot be both Creator and Creature to Create imports in him that doth an infinite Power to fill up an infinite Space between a nothing and something which no Creature is capable of he who is to all others the Author of their Beings must need have his own of himself and that is God for he that built all things is God Psal 33.6 Job 26.13 now the Holy Ghost made the World for as By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made so all the Host of them by the breath Spirit of his Mouth to this purpose 't is said by his Spirit he hath garnish'd the Heavens And in the History of the Creation Gen. 1.2 we read how that same Spirit moved upon the face of the Waters to give Life Motion and make them Fruitful besides none but God can bestow the Spiritual and Heavenly gifts of Grace but the Holy Ghost is the Distributer of them for he divideth to every Man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. that is independently as of his own and without giving any Accounts farthermore the Ruling of the Church appointing of Apostles and other Ministers and accordingly he endu'd the Apostles and on the Day of Pentecost filled them with Gifts to qualifie them for their work and the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have call'd them Acts. 13.2 'T was God's work and 't was God who appointed them so he not only gave them Commission to go but also appointed them the Field where to sow the Seed of the Word Chap. 16.6 7. for the Holy Ghost did forbid them to preach the word in Asia tho' they had a mind to it then they would have gone to Bithynia but the Spirit suffer'd them not again Paul tells the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that The Holy Ghost had made them Overseers over that Flock Chap. 20.28 In sew Words all Offices and Gifts in the Church he absolutely disposes of as to him seems good Besides we must take notice of the Glorious Titles given him in Scripture applyable to no Creature as are the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Adoption John 15.26 Rom. 8.15 Chap. 1.4 Tit. 3.5 Matth. 12.28 Rom. 9.1 Matth. 18.9 2 Cor. 13 14. John 5.7 Matth. 12.31 the Spirit of Sanctification and the Spirit of Renewing or Regeneration and by whom Miracles as Casting out of Devils are wrought furthermore how Divine Worship Honour and Prayer is due and render'd unto the Holy Ghost thus Paul calls upon him as he who knew the Hearts And in the Form of Baptism in the Apostolical Blessing he is equally call'd upon with the Father and the Son and equally concern'd with them in bearing Record in Heaven besides the Holy Ghost must be God seeing The Sin of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven being the most Abominable and Damnable of all hence I conclude the Holy Ghost equally to be God with the Father and with the Son Their second Error is to deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person but seeing as we already prov'd he is God of the same Nature with the Father and the Son he must be a Person as indeed the Proprieties of a Person are Attributed unto him for in our Saviour's Conception he Acted and Sanctifi'd the Virgins Womb in his Baptism he appear'd in the visible shape of a Dove and of cloven Tongues in the Day of Pentecost in his name we are equally Baptiz'd with the Father's and the Son 's He sent the Apostles Rom. 8.26 He maketh intercession for us besides that he doth create and work Miracles and to none but a Person it doth belong and is proper so to act and so to do Of this Error of theirs there is another branch for they would not have the Holy Ghost to be a Person of the Godhead distinct from the Father and from the Son but the contrary doth appear John 15.26 for in Scripture he is call'd the Spirit of the Father and of the Son he is sent by the Father and by the Son he is distinguish'd from the Father and from the Son by a personal Property to proceed as he is expresly call'd another from the Father and from the Son The Father will give you another Comforter Chap. 14.16 Saith our Saviour that is another from the Father and from me The Heretick Macedonius deny'd the Divinity and Personality of the Holy Ghost and affirm'd it to be only a Vertu and Power whereby the * Smalc Exam. Err. 157. Err. 132. and 137. Father and the Son do work which Fundamental Error Socinians borrow'd of him Spiritum Sanctum c. saith one of them The Holy Ghost is in God a Propriety or Attribute as are Wisdom and Justice Furthermore The Holy Ghost is not one but many of inequal Dignity because there are different Gifts he would set up different Spirits 1 Cor. 12.4 tho' the Apostle saith positively There are diversity of Gifts but the same Spirit We own as we did before how according to an unusual improper and figurative way sometimes the word Spirit signifies the Gift and Workings of the Holy Ghost but when 't is properly taken then it signifies the third Person in order of the Godhead partaker of the Nature therefore call'd God as prov'd Another Socinian calls the Holy Ghost Virtutem illam c †Schlichting in Simbol p. 99. That Virtue whereby God particularly sanctifies those Men which are dear to him And so all along he runs on
as at one time to take off every Letter of the Inscription at another only some and make new ones in the place and many more such things which those who are skill'd in the Art know that thereby Men who somewhat understand those things are often cheated the like may be said concerning Manuscripts several either wholly or in part are Spurious therefore several things ought to be observ'd and a great care used when we examine them wherein also are some certain Rules but not known to every one that goes about it and even some who know these Rules may happen to be grosly mistaken when they come to the Application these Truths known to those whose Genius and Practice hath qualified them to enter upon such Matters if at leisure I could enlarge upon but as there are so many particular cases which would require several instances for brevity sake I now shall forbear saying any more to 't and return to the point But suppose the Text was not in the Original as it is Socinians would not thereby get so great an advantage as they imagine if we had only that Text to prove the Holy Trinity they might boast indeed but we have others besides which were never questioned in the least as are that of our Saviour's Baptism where from Heaven the Father calls Jesus Christ his beloved Son and at the same time the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a Dove and can any thing in the World be more formal plain and positive than these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Matth. 28.19 To Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Certainly he who therein cannot read the Trinity must be desperately blind but I †The Blasphemous Socin Heresie Confuted elsewhere have given Reasons enough out of the Old and New Testaments to prove that Fundamental Article of our Religion about the most Holy Trinity which all the wicked endeavours of Hell and its Instruments cannot prejudice but the more to confirm what I already said upon the point I shall add what follows a place is remarkable Hear O Israel Deut. 6.4 the Lord our God is one Lord. Or as in the Original Jehovah our God Jehovah is one Twice the Lord and once our God the word our is joyn'd neither to the first the Father nor to the third the Holy Ghost but to the second Person our God who is become ours by taking our Humane Nature upon him and thus God is become Man may be in that prospect God said Gen. 3.22 Man is become as one of us That is as he of us who is to be Man or the Son as indeed the second Person is the Angel who went with and led them thro' the Wilderness that was made man this is not as some would have it to be understood as a distinction of the God of the Jews from the false Gods of the Gentiles for if this had been all therein intended the name of Jehovah needed not to have been repeated a second time and the words Jehovah our God is one had fully expressed the impiety of the Heathen for making themselves many Gods but this was to shew three Persons in that one Godhead for he that was the God of the Jews is as truly the God of the Gentiles so of both Jews and Gentiles therefore saith the Apostle Is he the God of the Jews only Rom. 3.29 Mark 12.26 out of Exod. 3.6 Is he not also of the Gentiles yea of the Gentiles also This manner of speech is by our Saviour used I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. The name God is thrice in one God who Created Redeemed and Sanctified which Works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification are in Scripture in a special manner attributed the first to the Father the second to the Son and the third to the Holy Ghost Withall seeing the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob are not three but one and the same God something seeing Scripture saith nothing in vain must thereby be intended if it had been in relation to the Father Son and Grand-Son it would sufficiently have been express'd with once naming God as the God of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob but God being named thrice yet there being but one God it must needs relate to some Trinity therein which being not in the Nature can be Relative only to the three Persons of the Godhead For a greater confirmation of this let us read that Blessing which by God's immediate command Moses in God's own words appointed Aaron and his Sons to pronounce to the People Numb 6.24 25 26. we have it thus The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace The Lord or Jehovah is thrice named yet Jehovah being an Essential name of God in that sense there can be but one Jehovah seeing there is but one God yet since God saith and doth nothing in vain some reason there must be why in this place 't is thrice mention'd which we may find if with attention we read the Text the first Verse doth contain Attributes properly belonging to the Father as to bless and keep 't is proper for the Father to bless his Children and God the Father is specially call'd the Maker and Preserver of the Creatures as being chiefly stiled the Creatour therefore we read God created man Gen. 1.27 28. male and female and blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply here the Blessing answers Aaron's Prayer that God would bless so to be fruitful and multiply them what Aaron pronounc'd that God would keep and preserve them both generally and individually Besides that the Greek Etymology of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Father from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I keep or preserve shews plainly how a Father is he who preserves those whose Father he is so a Father of a Family keeps his whole Family and he who takes care of all is a common Father to all therefore the blessing The Lord bless and keep thee doth specially and properly belong to God the Father though it excludes none of the other two Persons of the most Holy Trinity The second Verse contains that which is particularly attributed to the Son as to make his face shine upon and be gracious unto them Exod. 33.14 The Face is a part of Humane Body but none of the Persons of the most Holy Trinity only the Son hath a Humane Body so 't is proper to the Son Now the Son is the Face and Image of the Father in whom only God is seen and visible we must remember how God said to Moses my face for so 't is i◠the Original shall go with thee and who is he that
made Man 't was very proper for him to appear in that Figure even before he was manifest in the flesh for though at that time he was not actually so yet was accounted to be such because in time to come he was so to be made Man according to the first promise after the fall Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head not the Seed of Man immediately though called Abraham's and David's Seed but mediately in the Womans Seed immediately for he was made a Man by the Womans not by the Mans Seed his Body was formed our of her Substance without the help of any Man so that she might properly according to the Flesh be call'd his Mother but no Man might properly be named his Father for in that respect he had none Luke 3.23 for Joseph was but a supposed Father to him and David was his Father only in her who had been derived from him he hath a Father namely God but upon the account of another Generation and God the Father in a most authentick way from Heaven more than once hath declared and owned him to be his Son that is as he came from Heaven there lies the ground of that Sonship God the Father never call'd him Son of Man but his own beloved only begotten Son in whom he is well pleased Now in the manifestation of his Glory because Divine Nature hath in the Person of the Son mediately been united with humane Nature and so God in the Person of the Son appearing like Man he appears in a Nature which is his own because the Son assumed it and God whether essentially taken or for the Person of the Father never did or doth in the way of Mercy and Favour manifest himself but in the face of Jesus Christ Mediatour God and Man as there is no access unto God but in and thorough him and as 't is now so it was ever from the very beginning wherefore he is call'd the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 and this is the reason why God manifested himself under the shape of a Man to shew how in the Person of the Son who took upon him that Nature he is reconciled to Mankind and of old the Son appeared in that likeness to signify how in that Nature he would make our peace with and reconcile us 〈◊〉 God the Apostle speaking of Christ's Incarnation â—alls it he was made like unto Men the word like there denotes truly and really a Man Philip. 2.7 this is to prove his Humanity but how much stronger terms doth he use to prove his Divinity when he saith who heing in the form of God the form is the Nature whether of a Person or of a Thing for 't is that which gives it a Being so that expression signifies that Christ is and was such as God himself and therefore God for there is none in all parts like to God but God himself but what he adds in the same verse doth highly confirm the truth he thought it not robbery to be equal with God his being equal with God not by robbery demonstrates it was his due and own right Now this point we intend to conclude with John's Vision for if the former Visions agree with this and if this relates to the Son of God who was God and before his Incarnation appeared in his Divine Glory in the likeness of a Man then with him we may well affirm he had a Being and a Glory with the Father before the World was That Christ the eternal Son of God and Redeemer of the World is that Glorious God and Person who shewed his beloved Disciple this Vision in the Isle of Patmos where he had by the Emperour Domitian been confin'd as he saith for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 1.9 is so clear that I think the adversaries themselves being the judges there is no ground left to doubt of it to what I already said about it I shall add what followeth This revelation is of Jesus Christ as we learn it out of the first line of the first Chapter it being as the Title of the Book that is the Lord Jesus revealed it unto John V. 13.14 who gives a glorious description of him I saw one like unto the Son of Man clothed with a Garment down to the Foot and girt about the Paps with a Golden Girdle his Head and his Hairs were white like Wool as white as Snow and his Eyes were as a Flame of Fire These last words of the description are almost the same but altogether to the same purpose with what we read of the Ancient of days who did sit Dan. 7.9 whose Garment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wool his Throne was like the fiery Flame now the adversaries cannot deny but that by the ancient of days is mean'd the true eternal God so he whose description St. John makes with the same attributes as Daniel gives of him must needs be the same but the Apostle continues the description thus V. 13.15 and his Feet like unto fine Brass as if they had burned in a Furnace and his Voice as the sound of many Waters again let this latter and first part of the description about the clothing and girdle of Gold be compared with Daniel's Vision already quoted and by this comparing Scripture with Scripture we shall find out the truth how in both places the same is described and so if Daniel saw the God of Israel the true God by nature he whom John saw is such which we shall know better and better if we read in the last Verse of Chap. 4. what the four Beasts and twenty four Elders said to him that sat upon the Throne thou art worthy to receive Glory and Honour and Power And if that Verse we compare with the 12. of 5. Chap. which is the following we shall find these words worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing So that we must conclude the Lamb to be the same Lord spoken of before I mean the same in nature and to the Lamb is rendered the same Honour and Worship as is to the Lord with the same Attributes which is expressed with some enlargement and in more words than in the foregoing Chapter but by whom is this Divine Honour rendered unto the Lamb 't is expressed in the foregoing Verse Rev. 5.11 and I beheld and I heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands which last words seem to be taken out of Daniel's Vision Dan. 7.10 to shew how all this was rendered to one and the same and I say that the sameness of Worship doth argue for the sameness of Nature we find the
Body he call'd by â—he name of the Temple whereby he seem'd to point at the Temple wherein God was said to dwell as if he had said this Body wherein I now dwell as formerly I did in the Temple you may and shall take and destroy as it happened when they Crucified him but this I give you for a proof of my Divinity so as to make you know who I am â—his same Body or Temple in three days I of my self and by my own Power will raise it up again that Body is â—ow Glorious in Heaven whilest there is on Earth neither Ark Tabernacle nor Temple At this time I have insisted upon the head of Visions which is one of the Classes out of which we draw Arguments for the Holy Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God though they were more frequent under the Old Testament when those Holy Mysteries were not so plain as since they were made by the coming of our Lord and Saviour yet God in his Infinite Wisdom to confirm all that in that kind had been under the Law shew'd Abraham and his Posterity hath under the Gospel Transmitted to his Church thereby to shew an harmony between his Promises and the Execution thereof that Revelation to St. John Iown there are some proofs may be not so strong because not so plain as others for some do prove a Truth more directly and positively than others yet in the Word of God every kind of proof hath its use for God in his Infinite Wisdom hath thought fit therein to instruct us in several ways and methods if we had only Collateral and somewhat dark proofs we would not lay so great a stress thereupon but to the most positive and clear we join others to shew the excellent harmony that is in God's Word in asserting things in some places more in others less plainly for sometimes in one we find that which seem'd wanting in another but altogether they make the thing to be undisputably true This consideration moves me in the disputes we have against Socinans to draw up some Arguments which as yet I made no use of to prove and more and more demonstrate those great Truths of that kind the following is one 't is said of Moses that he esteemed the reproach of or for Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Aegypt Heb. 11.26 How is the reproach of Christ mentioned in relation to a time that was so long before his Birth in the place the Apostle saith it was by Faith now one that is not or that is a meer Man cannot be the Object of saving Faith for we believe in God not in Man therefore we must say Christ was in Moses's time and as then he was not a Man nor an Angel he must needs be God Moses whom a while after God so clearly communicated himself to and so familiarly conversed with knew well that Angel who afterwards was with him all along in the Wilderness who to him had appeared in the Bush to be God himself Existing at that time since he was with him and who in time to come under the name of a Prophet like himself was to be manifested in the Hesh the Messiah and Christ as to his Office and at that time God by Nature we must believe that Paul on that occasion mentioning Christ had cause for so doing which can be assigned to be no other than upon the account of his Deity before he had upon him taken our Humanity This Reproach of Christ another Apostle under the name of his Sufferings mentions as having of old been under the Eye and Prospect of the Prophets who saith he 1 Pet. 1.10 11. Inquired diligently searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow all which related to a coming of his in the Flesh but lookt upon him as having then another Being and Existence for by the Testimony of the same Spirit they knew the Messiah to come in their time to be God As to the word Reproach of Christ used by the Apostle we elsewhere have it in Scripture Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me The Reproaches Revilings and Blasphemies against God by wicked Men are fallen upon Christ for not only he hath born upon him David's Adultery and Murthers the Thefts and Robberies of the repenting Malefactor the Unbelief Persecution and Blasphemy of Paul as Peter's Denying Swearing and Cursing but also the Reproaches Mockeries Revilings and Injuries which Malice and Wickedness could invent fell upon him from his Baptism to his Death especially in the High-Priest's House in the Judgment Hall and upon the Cross when Hell was quite broke loose upon him They that passed by reviled him Matth. 27.39 40 41 42 43. wagging their heads saying if thou be the Son of God come down from the cross likewise the chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said he saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him he trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God These last words contain the ground of all their malicious Blasphemies wherein Socinians would have joyned with the Jews and if for the Cause no doubt also for the Effect Were not these Reproaches against God whose Holy Name was Impiously made use of They Reproaching for trusting in God and for saying I am the Son of God which certainly is to reproach God but all these Blasphemies and wicked Reproaches fell upon Christ who was made the Object thereof thus was fullfill'd the Prophecy for David pointed at him when he said The Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me There are two undisputable proofs to shew how in that place the Psalmist speaks not of himself but of our Saviour one is in the beginning of the same Verse The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up to him applied the other is ver 21. Joh. 2.17 In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and if for this Truth we want another Evidence we have it at hand for even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written Rom. 15.3 The Reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me So then if Paul speaks truth in Moses's time there was that which may be call'd the Reproach of Christ then in some sense Christ was at that time and that might well be seeing he declared he was before Abraham Something more we must say about this the better to explain it we know Divine Nature to be impassible and out of the reach of any wrong on injury however those that impiously attempt to do 't are accounted to have effected it for what they could they have done towards it and in God's Eye are as
Person of the Messiah are compared with the Office and Person of Melchisedec it denotes a difference between them for that which is like is not the same with that which 't is like unto The ancient Jews believed R. Menahem that by reason of the Wickedness of the first World Schechina with Enoch was returned up to Heaven whereby they own he was come down from thence as afterwards our Saviour himself declared it John 6. Gen. 12.7 As to Jehovah who in Canaan appeared unto Abraham according to the constant Tradition of the Jews it was Schechina for * Rakenat p. 43. col 4 Acts 7.2 1 Cor. 2.8 one saith it him Stephen call'd the God of Glory and Paul the Lord of Glory †Nachm in Gen. 15. Menahem in Thor. p. 16. Some of the Rabbies say this Apparition in Canaan to have been in the Night but the other after the Victory over the Kings happened certainly in the Day They § Menah and Nachmanid in Gen. 17.22 also say that the Lord who in Gen. 17. appeared to Abraham and instituted Circumcision did in his sight return up into Heaven this they * Bechai p. 89. call the Glory of God by the Name whereby they usually denote the Son of God Elsewhere I observed how the Son of God constituted the Judge of the World executed upon Sodom that terrible Judgment which †Rakenat f. 51. c. 4. one attributeth to Schechina Hereupon the 14th Canon of the Council of Syrmium called by Constantine is very considerable the Words are these Si quis illud quod c. If any one saith that what is written The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah Brimstone and Fire from the Lord out of Heaven is not to be understood of the Father and of the Son but affirms that he rained himself from himself let him be Anathema for the Lord the Son rained from the Lord the Father This Lord Jehovah the Son is the same who dwelt in the Ark between the Cherubims above the Mercy-seat Exod. 25.22 whence God communed with Moses but in the way of Mercy God never communes with Men but in and through his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus who as in the Old Testament was called Jehovah so in the New is simply and absolutely called Lord which is equivalent to the other for the Septuagint rendered the Hebrew Word Jehovah by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord so that under the New Testament he had the same Name as under the Old 1 Chron. 13.6 hence it is that the Ark was called the Ark of the Lord or Jehovah This namely that Schechina dwelt in the Ark * Bechai in Thor. p. 9. c. 3 4. Numb 24.17 the Jews owned Balaam's Prophecy of the Messiah There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. Onkelos Jonathan Ben Vziel and Nachmanides explain it of the Schechina and Aben Ezra owns it to be the Opinion of many and tho' this be a Prophecy of what was to come yet still 't is of the same which was before in the Garden of Eden as already observed The clear Prophecy by Haggai of the Messiah's coming into the second Temple ch 2.7 8. or whilst the second Temple was yet standing I elsewhere enlarged upon which as we read in Drusius R. Akiba hath explained it of Christ and Jarchius hath said ch 12.1 that all should see Schechina conversing in the second Temple In Daniel mention is made of Michael the Great Prince understood of Christ and to be compared with Rev. 12.7 in whom is God's Name indeed for it signifies who is like unto thee thou mighty God which the wisest * Menah in Thor. p. 34. c. 2. Nachman in Exod. 3.2 and l. c. Rakenat p. 80. c. 2. Gen. 14.19 20. among the Jews do rightly interpret to be the Angel Revenger and Deliverer the Angel of God's Presence and in some place Nachmanides calls †Nachm in Exod. 14.19 Gen. 19.20 it the Glory of Schechina and speaking of the Angel of the Lord who went before the Camp of Israel and removed behind to be between them and the Egyptians whom he drowned he saith is the great Prince This is the same who having before appeared to Moses in the Bush was afterwards pleased to speak to him upon the Mount and the Words are remarkable The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai that is from Heaven whence afterwards to be made Flesh he came upon Earth in Judea which coming our Saviour doth mention at several times tho' one of these Jewish Doctors thought that the Angel of whom God said I send an Angel before thee c. was a created one and not the same Angel of the Covenant of whom when he was well pleased he said My Presence shall go with thee yet he owns that the Angel of God's Face had been with him but saith * Rakenat p. 120. c. 1. The glorious Presence of God Schechina was withdrawn for he thought God was still angry but Moses had already appeased him The Jews hold that the Law was given by the Mouth of Schechina upon Mount Sinai for as he brought the People out of Egypt which yet excludeth not the Father who brought them out by his Son so in the Wilderness he often spake to them chiefly upon this solemn Occasion The Truth is confirmed by Scripture Deut. 33.2 3. compared with Habak 3.3 Levit. 26.11 12. The Lord came from Sinai saith Moses and rose up from Seir unto them he shined from Mount Paran and he came with ten Thousands of Saints From his right Hand went a fiery Law for them And to shew him to be their Law-giver Prophet and Teacher he adds Yea he loved ihe People all the Saints are in thy Hand and they sat down at thy Feet every one shall receive of thy words compared with another place Levit. 26.11 12. And I will set my Tabernacle among you and I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my People To shew his gracious condescension and how familiarly he would converse with them now this was a Prophecy for he spake in the future of things to come and this seems to relate only to the Jews but thanks be to God that now we may speak of it in the Preter-tense of a thing fulfilled on the behalf of Gentiles as well as of Jews which I affirm not out of my own Head but out of the Word of God And I heard a great Voice out of Heaven Rev. 21.3 behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God Here is the Prophecy fulfilled in the very Words he who promised it in the Old Testament hath made it good in the New he is the same in both not in person in the Old and only by proxy in the New for here 't is said
God himself Psal 68.8 David witnesseth that Mount Sinai was moved or trembled at the presence of the God of Israel now certainly the Son is the Presence or Face of the God of Israel Heb. 12.26 v. 18. and he whose Voice then shook the Earth This is the same to whom in the same Psalm he saith Thow hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for Men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them which being compar'd with Ephes 4.8 shews it to have been spoken of Christ Now in the Tabernacle which was set up for the glory of God Schechina or the Son of God not only appeared sometimes but continually dwelt therein Levit. 9.23 24. chap. 1.1 Num. 1.1 Ex. 25.22 upon all occasions manifesting his Glory thence he rendered his Oracles and called unto Moses to speak unto him so that whensoever God spake unto Moses Aaron and their Successors ever it was from that place according to his own appointment R. Kimhi saith that according to the Psalm 82.1 God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty Schechina is always in the midst of the Congregation of Israel The Inscription over the Ark was this The Name of the Lord of Hosts sitteth among the Cherubims they call'd it the Glory of Israel Psal 4.22 therefore after it had been taken by the Philistines 't was said The Glory is departed from Israel Now by the Glory and Name of the Lord the * Bechai in Leg. p. 88 89. Masters of the Cabbala always understand the Messiah who is God the Face of God King David and the Mouth of Jehovah which to apply we must take notice of what John saith And we beheld his glory Joh. 1.14 the glory as of the only begotten of the Father chiefly in his Transfiguration He as said before Acts 7.2 1 Cor. 2.8 Hebr. 1.3 Matth. 19.28 25.31 is the God of Glory and the Lord of Glory also the brightness of the glory of the Father he hath in Heaven the Throne of his Glory By vertue of the Covenant made in Sinai between God and the People God in a most eminent way between the Cherubims dwelt among them as he continued to do after the Ark was lodged in the Temple he taught them either immediately by himself or by his Prophets provided for an delivered them from their Enemies and it hath been the constant Tradition of the understanding Jews †Bechai in Thor. p. 88 c. 4. that the Name of the God who dwelt in the Temple was the Schechina and as he ever was with Moses upon all occasions to help and strengthen him So after his Death he said to Joshua Josh 1.5 As I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not fail thee nor forsake thee as both a Prophet to guide and direct and as a King by his power to defend him If we may look back to the ground of this series of Divine Dispensations we must know that from Eternity God Father Son and Holy Ghost decreed to bring many Sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 as the Apostle calls it which the Son undertook to execute and so under the Old Testament he at several times and to several Persons declared and revealed this Will and Pleasure of God made and renewed the Promises but as the chief part of that great and glorious Design which all other means were to depend upon was the satisfaction to be given Divine Justice by the Death of the Mediator so other things before were only preparations and dispositions in order to 't to which purpose the Mosaical Law was instituted therefore as the execution was only at and after the Death of the Testator till which the Testament is of no force ch 9.9 10. so before that time under the Law was shed the Blood of Calves Goats Lambs c. instead of the Testator's till the fulness of the appointed time when that precious Blood was shed upon the Cross This I shall add how God's Covenant was for Glory and Eternity but the Law was a Medium or means as the Deliverance out of Aegypt to bring them into a Land where God in a most eminent and excellent way might dwell among teach and make himself well known to them in and by the Son who is the Wisdom and the Power of God about this the Psalmist well observes Ps 147.20 He hath not dealt so with any Nation As indeed he through the Spirit of God was so exact an observer of things relating to the Messiah whom according to God's promise he knew should come out of his Family that our blessed Saviour after his Resurrection referred his Disciples not only to the Law of Moses◠and to the Prophets but also to the Psalms Luke 24.44 to know the things concerning him for therein are spoken of his God-head Eternal Generation Covenant with the Father his Humanity Sufferings Death Resurrection Ascension into Heaven distribution of gifts among Men his Kingly Prophetical and Priestly Offices and his Victory over his Enemies All this I brought in to shew how according to the Doctrine of the Antient Jews the Schechina or Meniah was the Son of God had a Being and acted from the beginning not of the Gospel but of the World and thus in the Godhead they made a distinction of Persons And if Socinians will own the Lord Jesus to be the Christ then either with the antient Jews they must own him to have been and acted from the beginning of the Creation and so to have had a Being long before his Birth of the Virgin or else they must joyn with the Modern Jews deny him to be the Messiah and thus proclaim themselves to be no Christians nay Idolaters and such as neither know nor worship the true God for he that owns not and worshippeth not Father Son and Holy Ghost doth not own nor worship the true God but they plainly deny the Holy Ghost and in effect deny the Son which is very hard and unworthy Because the Son of God for our sake was pleased to take upon him our Humane Nature some Men unthankfully and impiously go about to strip him of his Divine On our behalf he humbled himself and for that some Men undervalue him as if their Eye was Evil because he is good We reckon several Ages of the Church whereof every one affords Demonstrations of the Son of God her Head's Presence and Actings for her The first is of her Birth and Childhood from the Creation to the Flood the second her first Infancy from the Flood to Moses when she began to gather a Youthful Strength by means of God's special Favour to and Presence among them in that signal and eminent way of the Son of God's dwelling in the Sanctuary which David calls Goings and Actings when he saith Ps 68.24 v. 7 8. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my
call'd will help to strike the Nail farther into the Head of those proud and unchristian Sisera's Unbelievers I may also call them seeing they refuse to believe the true God of Israel when he speaks of his Son who under the Name of this Angel he promised should go before them Ex. 32.34 Mine Angel shall go before thee And in the next Chapter God calls him his Presence ch 33.14 or his Face God hath many Angels but in a most special manner that he calls his but God hath not many Faces 2 Cor. 4.6 only one and that is the Face of Jesus Christ in whom only is the knowledge of the glory of God for God giveth the knowledge of his glory only in him Because he is the express Image of his Heb. 1.3 the Father's Person Those two Texts in the Old Testament compared with and explained by these two in the New shew that the Lord Jesus the proper Son of God went before and guided his People in the Wilderness so pre-existed the time of his Birth of the Virgin and that it may not be said of any Creature that the glory of God is in his Face or that he is the express Image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of his glory as the Beam is the brightness of the glory of the Sun In my way towards a Conclusion I shall by the grace of God briefly bring in some few Texts which do explain and confirm the great Truths now in question some I elsewhere have taken notice of however I now shall add something to what I then said but others I shall mention which I did not before but this I shall premise In the Apostle John's Days who lived to a very Old Age sprang up some Heresiarks as Simon the first of all Cerinthus Ebion and Menander who deny'd the Divinity of Christ as now Socinians do This moved the Apostle to assert and vindicate it as in his Gospel Epistles and Revelation he hath done so fully that if there were no other Books left of the New Testament there is in them abundantly enough to certifie and confirm that Heavenly Truth as out of several places in his Writings I sufficiently demonstrated in my Book against the Blasphemies of Socinianism which he doth so plainly and so often that we must take notice how the Holy Ghost by his Pen intended chiefly and strongly to suggest to and convince Men of the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion namely that the Lord Jesus is the proper Son of God 1 Joh. 5.5.9 10 11 12 13 20. and to the end that great Truth may make a deep impression upon the Souls of Men in one Chapter in no less than seven Verses he emphatically calls him the Son of God and v. 10 he is twice so called so twice in the 13th and that in such a manner so sensibly and with such Circumstances as denote a true proper and natural kind of Son-ship and he is so earnest upon 't may be all that time having in his Eye the Blasphemy of those Hereticks as to charge those who deny Christ to be the Son of God and believe not in him to make God a Lyar who is the God of Truth the highest Blasphemy that the Devil can infuse into Men For saith he he that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar He saith wherein Because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And what is that Record Besides his Commission in sending him into the World and the Works attended with so many Miracles and Wonders which the Father gave him to finish and to the evidence of which our Saviour did appeal we have it in his Baptism in a most eminent and special manner for the Father bare record of him when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Certainly God spoke absolutely truly and properly and not Metaphorically improperly and by a Figure not my Son according to the Flesh spiritually or only in some respect but simply my Son that is begotten of my substance and of the same Nature with me as a Son ought to be and is of the same Nature with the Father Volkel l. 5. c. 12. whose only begotten he is which is the proper signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a Socinian would corrupt and render by that of Most beloved to enervate the strength of it The Priests Philosophers and Poets among the Heathen either out of Noah's or Abraham's Schools or by some other way had a kind of dark knowledge of this Truth which for want of Revelation they understood not therefore did hide it under Fables and Lies as may be that of Mercury Jupiter's Son and Messenger of Pallas born out of his Head but for Socinians who have God's Word so positively affirming this Truth 't is for them the unpardonable sin of Unbelief which sinks them into Atheism for whosoever knoweth not and worshipeth not the true God he is without God and all who deny Father Son and Holy Ghost to be the true God know not the true God poor Wretches who presume with the Line of their shallow Brain and weak Reason to fathom the deep things of God which prompts them to put several impertinent rash and blasphemous Questions how short do they fall of the Modesty Sobriety and Wisdom of an Heathen Sextus the Pythagorean who said Concerning God inquire of nothing but what thou mayst lawfully say nothing of God but what thou hast learned of God 't is better for one to lose his Life than to speak an idle word of God it is better to say nothing of God than rashly to speak of him Such Men shall at the last Day rise in Judgment against Socinians Among the Greeks Pythagoras himself made all perfection to consist in the number of three or in Trinity and Plato constituted three Principles of all things Good Understanding and the Soul or Life whereby we Christians may understand Father Son and Holy Ghost who created the World But I must go on The Centurion's Words are remarkable when he said to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed just as Scripture speaks in the matter of Creation Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood Such a Word of Command we read of in Jonah And the Lord spake unto the Fish Jonah 2.10 and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry Land which last words imply a special Providence and ordering of things for the Fish might have vomited him in the middle or the bottom of the Sea but because God would save him 't was upon dry Land But to return to the Centurion whose great Faith the Lord commended he believed and was not mistaken that our Saviour might as absolutely command Distempers and Health Death and Life as he
commanded his own Soldiers and Servants for we read in several places how the Lord Jesus with speaking the Word to Diseases Winds and to Devils he rebuked them so that they could do no otherwise but to obey which proves his Divine Power and so his Divine Nature for none but God hath a Divine Power Upon this ground after the miraculous Work of curing the Impotent Man who had been sick 38 Years there our Lord compares his miraculous Works to his Father's when he said John 5. My Father works hitherto and I work The word my in the place is very emphatical to shew that his Works and the Father 's were wrought by the same Divine and Infinite power which meaning they understood well enough whence upon good grounds they concluded he had said God was his Father in a strict and proper sense and made himself equal with God In another place we read of some of the ten Men that were Lepers whom the Lord Jesus had cured Luk. 17.15 who when he saw that he was healed returned back and with a loud voice glorified God he turned back to Christ the great Physician to give him Thanks and Praises v. 16. and worship him upon his Knees for we must look upon him in that posture since our Saviour told him Arise go thy way v. 19. And by that Act he paid him a Divine Honour and by comparing v. 18. with v. 15. we shall find Christ to be the God whom the Man glorified for the Evangelist's and the Lord's Words are the same tend to the same purpose and the Object of the Glory given is the same There are not found said the Lord that returned to give glory to God that is to me who healed them save this stranger Farther to go on upon the matter let us observe how the Apostle speaking of Christ by his Name Jesus saith We have a great High-priest that is past into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 Jesus the Son of God The last words are put in to give us a proper and distinguishing Character of the Person whom he speaks of as indeed in the place this is added to make a difference between Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and the Jesus he had nam'd before v. 8. whereby he meaned Joshua for in Greek 't is the same as Joshua in Hebrew and here we see plainly how the Name Son of God proper to Christ doth distinguish him not only from Joshua Son oâ— Nun but from every other Man in the World as being his proper Name tho' never so good or great in God's Favour We must know that Joshua in bringing into Canaan the Children of Israel was the Type of Christ's bringing God's People into the Heavenly Land of Promise therefore in relation to that Office his Name was changed by Moses Numb 13.16 for his Name before was Oshea We must also take notice how those two great Servants of God had two several shares and acted two different parts which both parts thereby Typified were perform'd by the Lord Jesus their Antitype for Moses brought the People out of Egypt but introduced them not into the Land of Promise which Joshua did yet brought them not out of Egypt but our Blessed Saviour is the Author and will be the finisher of both our Deliverances from the bondage of Sin the Curse of the Law and from the power of Hell and also he will lead us into Heaven and Glory for he who hath began in and for us that good Work will perfect it to him upon a surer ground we may apply what Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3.18 He will not be in rest until he have finish'd the thing Now when we are upon the Name Joshua Jesus or Saviour I am put in mind of that excellent place generally granted to be spoken of the Messiah whom none but Jews will deny to be Jesus Christ Isa 63.1 I am mighty to save 't is absolutely said mighty of himself not through the help of any one else v. 3. For in the place he saith I alone have trodden the Wine-press and of the people there was none with me No meer Man ever spoke after this rate for there as God he by the Mouth of the Prophet speaks of himself with this compare Zephaniah 3.7 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save One Saviour and that in both a mighty one Now mark how in a very different stile the great Apostle Paul speaks of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me such a manner of speaking the Lord Jesus never used but it seems Paul doth point at the quoted place of the Prophet when he saith that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Here is a might to save not only in part or only some but fully and to the uttermost therefore the Name Jesus was given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their Sins His People that is the Israel of God for they are not all Israel Gal. 6.16 Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel Now the Lord Jesus is not only said to be a Saviour which in his capacity of Mediator may be called his proper Name so that every one may know whom we mean thereby This is the Character of God Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour For in that absolute way in Scripture none but God is so call'd but also in the Abstract Christ is said to be Salvation for he is the spring of it Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 which yet Socinians would lodge in every Man who can be saved if he will but in the Word God and Saviour go often together and as to the thing are never asunder and as Christ is Saviour so he is God St. John who better than all Socinians knew who God is and who Christ is in his Writings doth often joyn God and Christ when he commended God's Love to us he meaned certainly the true God by Nature of him he saith 1 John 3.16 Thereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us None but the Patripassian Hereticks will say That God the Father laid down his Life for us but God the Son hath as in the next Chapter he thus explains it In this was manifested the Love of God towards us chap. 4.9 because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him so the God who laid down his Life for us is the only begotten Son of God Who as is said in the next Verse Was sent to be the propitiation for our sins v. 10. this was the end of his coming and thus the laying down of his Life was a propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for our sins St. Paul saith Now
concernment to be known that in one and the same chapter 't is thrice mentioned and in every one of those Verses 't is applied to Christ who is directly pointed at in these words This was he of whom I spake and he it is who coming after me and this is he of whom I said ver 34 Now the Testimony or Record is this is the son of God by Nature not by Grace for if only in this last relation it had been unneccessary for therein had been no preference for John was such and this is the plain Result of the Circumlocution by him used before he cometh after me and he is preferred before me of which he giveth the reason for he was before me Here is a Comparison between John and Christ wherein Christ hath the preference not because he came after but because he was before John let the Dignity be contained in the words he is preferred still the reason of it is that though he came after yet he was before him do not to come after and to be before relate to time For here the words relate to their Birth now we must believe that in these two Phrases he comes after me and he was before me there is Truth Reason good Sense and no Contradiction in the same respect he cannot be said to come after and be before but it must be in a different one which is this and if they can let them assign another he comes after me into the World as ver 10. that is he was born after me which is the plain Truth for the Angel Gabriel Luk. 1.36 six Months after Elizabeth had Conceived foretold the Virgin Mary our Saviour's Birth so that according to the usual Course of Nature the Lord Jesus was born six Months after John and in that sense he came after him But how was he Born before him seeing in relation to his Temporal Generation he was after It must be in regard of a Generation of another kind for no Man hath or can have but one Natural Generation and can be born but once what else then may it be but an Eternal one by vertue of which Christ in his time was before John For saith John he was not is before me to shew how the question is about time And if in one sense Christ had been but six Months before John as he was born six Months after then in that sense we may well conclude for hundreds and thousands of Years and so to Eternity Our blessed Lord and Saviour to give an Example and to condescend to the frailty of our Nature thereby to draw Men to himself by degrees was lowly and humble yet without any prejudice to his Right which when questioned he maintained and upon several occasions asserted though sometimes to the danger of his Life He could tell the Jews Joh. 6.38 ch 8.14.23 I came down from heaven and though I bear record of my self yet my record is true for I know whence I came and whither I go 'T is a special Prerogative of God to bear Record of himself again Ye are from beneath I am from above ye are of this world I am not of this world And as he told them ch 10.38 that if they believed not his word yet they should believe his works which were so Glorious and Miraculous and clear Demonstrations of his Divine Nature and Power he said that Lazarus's Sickness was for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Son of God simply and absolutely is God in that case he spake of himself for by raising Lazarus as he did from the Dead he thereby was Glorified and he that was Glorified was God Son of God for as there was but one Glory so there was but one God Glorified This verse ought to be compared with the 40. where Christ said to Martha Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldst see the glory of God That is his own Glory by her Brother's Resurrection which he was just upon going to essect so in the other case of the Man that was Blind from his Birth he said to his Disciples that He was born blind chap. 9.3 that the work of God should be made manifest in him Which happened when he by his own Divine Power gave him his Sight and was thereby Glorified as God We must observe how the Son of God absolutely taken as 't is here is God as well as the Son of Man is Man And the Lord Jesus doth explain the first part for the glory of God by the last that the Son of God be glorified which shews it to be the same or equivalent Thus in another place our Saviour interprets the Phrase making himself God chap. 10.33.36 by saying I am the Son of God with calling himself Son of God in his and their Sense he certainly thereby made himself God which they called Blasphemy but he deny'd it to be so though he owned he had call'd himself God and in the very sense that they had taken it Because our Lord sometimes call'd himself Son of Man they would take advantage of it but when he did it was to point at the Promise made to our first Parents that the Woman's Seed should bruise the Serpent's Head and to teach Men how they ought to look upon him as being that same Seed who was come not to conquer Kingdoms as at that time the Jews fancied but to execute the Promise of bruising the Serpent's Head Joh. 10.36 when he called himself Son of Man he spoke the truth but he thereby denied not that he was the Son of God for sometimes he call'd himself by that Name and to confirm this great and fundamental Truth there stands upon record and shall to the Worlds end the famous Confession of Peter in his and of all the Apostles Name upon a solemn occasion Thou art the Son of the Living God a truth which came not out of his own Head or out of any humane Principle but was from Heaven immediately revealed unto him namely that Jesus Christ was by Office the Messiah and by Nature the true Son of the living God Now if he had been Son of God only by deputation there had been no need of Revelation but at that time 't was necessary to let Men know how he is such by Nature and to refute the wrong Notions which the Jews had of our Saviour God thought fit to inform them better with declaring his Divinity and this is one of those Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Luk. 8.10 which the Lord Jesus said to his Disciples It was given unto them to know wherein he plainly declared how in and after his teaching in Religion were Mysteries not to be known but by the Gift of God and Revelation And I think he was a competent Judge of such things and when he call'd himself Son of God he could also tell whether or not he was so which to