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A44636
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The Trinity asserted a sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at the cathedral church of St. Paul, upon Trinity-Sunday, Anno Dom. 1700 / John Howard.
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Howard, John, 1647-1729?
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1700
(1700)
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Wing H2983; ESTC R15897
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20,219
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33
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State of our Souls knows all our Thoughts distinguishes between what is good and evil in them he can awaken our Consciences to feel Remorse for Sin and work what Change in us he pleases And then it follows Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open'd unto the eyes of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning whom we speak or with whom our present Business is and that is Christ who is the Subject of this latter part of the Chapter and mention'd as well before as after these Verses I have read to you 2. The Perfections of God are ascrib'd to the Word or the Son Some of these I have occasionally mention'd in speaking to those Names which are given to him in Scripture and therefore shall now speak more briefly to them His Eternity was hinted to under the Name of the Word at the beginning of St. John's Gospel and the Name Jehovah doth also imply it but there are several Expressions more full and plain to this Purpose Isa 9.6 Rev. 1.8 17. The Prophet Isaiah calls him the everlasting father and he himself saith I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending which is and which was and which is to come And again I am the first and the last the same which God saith of himself Isaiah 44.6 I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God So Christ asserts his Eternity Joh. 8.58 when he saith Before Abraham was I am where he uses the very Term by which God made himself known to the Israelites Ex. 3.14 which denotes his Eternity This appears also from those Places in the Gospel where Christ saith he came from God from Heaven c. The Infinity of Christ is also asserted by himself when he saith Mat. 18.20 Chap. 28.20 Joh. 3.13 Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them When he tells his Disciples I am with you alway even unto the end of the world and when he affirms No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven where we are plainly taught that at the same time Christ was upon Earth he was also in Heaven and therefore fill'd all Places And it is remarkable that he here calls himself the Son of Man to assure us that he who was Man was also the Eternal and Infinite Son of God and so was one and the same Person in two so distinct Natures The Omnipotence of God which we had Occasion to take Notice of in our Saviour before is attributed to him by the Apostle Heb. 1.3 who saith he upholds all things by the word of his power and plainly intimated in that Promise of Christ Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name Joh. 14.13 that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son For he must have all Power who can do whatsoever his People shall desire Yea he hath expresly told us Rev. 1.8 that he is the Almighty His Omniscience of which we had before a remarkable Proof out of the Epistle to the Hebrews where he is called the Word of God is also attested by St. John where he saith of some of our Saviour's Followers Joh. 2.24 25. that Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testifie of man for he knew what was in man It is acknowledg'd by St. Peter in these Words Lord Joh. 21.17 thou knowest all things It is affirm'd by St. Paul when he saith In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 Rev. 2.23 and it is asserted by himself in these Words I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works In a word he hath all the Perfections of God the Father for he saith All things that the father hath are mine Joh. 16.15 So that the Essence the Attributes and the Glory of God do belong to him And St. Paul assures us Col. 2.9 that in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily None can deny that Christ is meant in this Place for the Apostle is speaking of him here for many Verses together He mentions his Name several times and immediately before these Words And it is evident that they ascribe all the Perfections of the Deity to Christ as plainly as any can do The Word bodily indeed that is here added is capable of different Interpretations but whether we take it for wholly and entirely as it may well be meant or essentially and personally because it was usual with the Greeks as it is with us to call a Person a Body it doth not only confirm what was said before but denotes the hypostatical Union of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ Or if we will allow it to be only meant in the Body or together with it though in this Sense it adds nothing to the Character of his Divinity before given yet it can detract nothing from it On the account of these Perfections in Christ Col. 1.15 he is call'd the Image of the invisible God the Brightness of his Father's Glory Heb. 1.3 and the express Image of his Person Phil. 2.6 he is said to be in the form of God and equal with him 3. The Works of God are also attributed to the Son He tells us himself that what things soever the father doth these also doth the Son likewise Joh 5.19 And as it is said in the beginning of St. John's Gospel that he made all things so the Apostle affirms that God made the Worlds by him Heb. 1.2 not as an instrumental but a principal efficient Cause The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there render'd the Worlds properly signifies Ages but because Time was created together with the World and it is the Measure of all material things therefore it is sometimes us'd siguratively for the World the Creation of which is ascrib'd to Christ again Ver. 10. in these Words Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands The Sense of which Place is express'd more fully and particularly by St. Paul when he saith Col. 1.16 17. By him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist The Works of Providence are also his for he is said to uphold all things Heb. 1.3 and this he could not do without infinite Wisdom and Power to supply every Creature with what is necessary to maintain its Being He forgives sins against God Luk. 5.21 which none but God
so many different Names of the same Person but Three Subsistences or Persons really distinct from one another 3. I shall shew what Relation they have to each other 4. I shall prove that these Three are One God 1. Every One of these is the Great and Most High God 1. The Father is so but I need not say any thing to prove this because it is acknowledged by those who deny the Trinity that all the Glorious Titles Perfections and Works of the Deity are attributed to him and that to him belongs Divine Honour and Worship from his Creatures That he is an Infinite and Eternal Being Glorious in Holiness and Fearful in Praises a God of all Power and Might Truth and Righteousness Wisdom and Goodness in a word that of Him and through Him and to Him are all Things Therefore I proceed 2. To speak of the Word or the Son who also is God in the same Sense with the Father as will abundantly appear to all unprejudiced Men from the Names by which he is call'd the Perfections ascrib'd to him the Works he is said to do and the Honour and Worship which all Intelligent Creatures are requir'd to give him in the Holy Scriptures 1. The Names he is called by as the Name of God Jehovah the Son of God and the Word The Name of God is very frequently given to Christ both in the Old and New Testament The Psalmist speaking of him Ps 49.6 says Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and the Prophet Isaiah calls him the mighty God Isa 9.6 St. Thomas plainly owns his Divinity in these Words Joh. 20.28 My Lord and my God When St. Luke says of the Jews they stoned Stephen calling upon God Acts 7.59 and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit he teaches us that Jesus is the God he prayed to And St. Paul in exhorting the Elders of Ephesus to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 which he hath purchased with his own Blood doth assure us that the same Person who shed his Blood for us upon the Cross is the God of the Church Rom. 9.5.1 Tim. 3.16.1 Joh. 5.20 This Apostle tells us also of Christ that he is over all God blessed for ever and that God was manifest in the Flesh And St. John affirms of him that he is the true God Now if it be said of one or two of these Places that the word God is not in some ancient Copy or Version this Omission might easily happen through the Mistake of a Transcriber and ought not to be accounted any Prejudice to those Places seeing they are entire in all other Copies And tho' some object that the Name of God is given to Magistrates in the Scripture and therefore doth not prove the Divinity of Christ they ought to see that it is applied to him after a very different manner and with such Distinctions as cannot belong to any Creature For what Christian durst ever call a Magistrate my God as St. Thomas calls our Saviour or say he is God blessed for ever or the true and mighty God as the Scripture terms him The Name Jehovah which is the incommunicable Name of the Great God is also given to him Those Words Psal 102.25 Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands are applied to Christ Heb. 1.10 and yet the same Person of whom they are spoken is called Jehovah no less than seven or eight times in that Psalm The Prophet Isaiah speaking of Christ and his Forerunner saith Chap. 40.3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make strait in the desart a high-way for our God There is no question but the Person whose Way John the Baptist who is here meant by him that cries in the wilderness was to prepare was Christ the Son of God therefore it is he whom the Prophet calls not only our God but the Lord that is Jehovah in the 2d and 5th Verses of that Chapter But the Prophet Jeremiab is yet more express when speaking of the Messias as a righteous branch and a King that should descend from David Chap. 23. he says Ver. 6. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness A Place sufficient one would think of it self to satisfie any that Christ is the True and Eternal God were it not obscur'd a little by the Repetition of it with some difference Chap. 33.16 where it is in our Translation This is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness And some Interpreters understand it in the same Sense as if this Name was applied here to Jerusalem or the Church and from hence some conclude it is not the incommunicable Name of God and that nothing more is said of Christ in the Place before-mentioned than of the Church in this Now how well the Words in the Original will bear that Interpretation I shall not determine but I think they are very capable of another which hath been also given them by some Learned Men namely this And he who shall call her that is Jerusalem before-mention'd is the Lord our Righteousness And tho' there is some difference in the Hebrew between this and the other Place yet the Authors of the several Learned Versions taking the Sense to be the same in both do not only apply this to the Messias but render it in the same Words as they do the other with very little Alteration in any of them And if we allow of that Interpretation which applies this Name to Jerusalem yet it can belong to it no otherwise than as the Church hath a Relation to him and is Interested in his Righteousness who is properly call'd by it The Name of the Son of God as it is given to Christ and is to be understood of his Only-begotten Son as he is sometimes call'd is a further Proof of his Divinity For this denotes a more Eminent Relation than that which belongs to his Human Nature either from his Conception or his Resurrection from the Dead For tho' he was conceiv'd by the immediate Power and Operation of the Holy Ghost and for this Reason is sometimes call'd the Son of God yet we cannot say he had much the Advantage of Adam in this who by the same efficient Cause was formd out of the Dust of the Ground as Christ was of the Substance of the Virgin and therefore Adam is call'd the Son of God in a peculiar Sense distinct from that Relation which other good Men have to him Luke 3.38 The Holy Angels have also the same Relation to God for this Reason who made them eminently Partakers of his own Nature and constituted them in a State of Happiness and Immortality And tho' our Saviour was made the Son of God in another Respect by his Resurrection from the Dead as Saint Paul