found alive at the last Day They would have Christ's Incarnation to be against Reason and Scripture they deny him to be truly God the like of the Holy Ghost That there is in One God no Trinity of Persons and that the Old Testament is needless for Christians c. All these and other Blasphemies are found in the Works of Socinus in the Racovian Catechism whereof Smalcius is the Author of Ostorodius Crellius Wolkelius Vaydovius c. but we shall by the Grace of God insist only upon some of their greatest Blasphemies Now to the Cause Matters of this high Nature and fundamental Concernment to our Holy Religion must not be prostituted to the captious scanning of Men of corrupt Minds nor the ways of God be made layable to the Judgment of Men rather humbly to be adored with Submission of Mind and Obedience of Faith to the Revelation declared in God's Word and herein we ought the more to be sober and cautious that we know Errors to be link'd together and to have a dependency one upon another he that strikes at the Grace of the Lord Jesus will afterwards make no Conscience to fly out against his Person he who denies him to be a Prophet will soon disown him to be a King and a Priest for as one Depth calls to another so an Arminian can easily become a rank Pelagian and Socinian Wherefore 't is necessary at the very beginning to oppose Errors defend every inch of ground against such as will daily grow worse and worse as do the * James 1.8 double-minded men that are for their own more than for the Truth 's Interest for they are unstable in all their ways and the more Hands orderly employed the better is the Effect like to be This Consideration makes me to appear amongst those who heretofore did and now do oppose false Teachers who not only privily but also in publick bring in again those damnable Heresies which of old Truth and Learning exploded and baffled out of the World The Divinity of Christ was the Stumbling-block to the Jews who could not endure to hear him call himself the Son of God absolutely and without limitation and thereat were enraged which made 'em take up Stones to cast at him John 8.59 and also at another time Chap. 10.31 the Doctrines about the Holy Trinity and the Person and Deity of Christ do stand and fall together In our Saviour's time it began to be oppos'd by the Jews and since from time to time continu'd to be so by the Devil's Instruments raised to that same purpose and within the last Age revived by the fore-named Blasphemers against the Rock of the Church which is built on the Confession that Christ is the Son of the living God not by any special Favour or any such Restriction for then there would be only a gradual difference between his and our being Sons of God but he is simply the Son of God yea his only begotten Before we enter upon this important Matter some things to clear the state of the Question must be premised so that we must shew wherein we agree before we speak of that wherein we differ as to the first this Foundation must be laid there is a God the Cause of all the Effect of none who hath made all and is made by none who hath given all things their Being and hath his own of himself This is not denyed so I shall not go about to prove it the Light of Nature the Book of Scripture and the Testimony of Conscience do sufficiently convince Men of it The next thing is what God is He being infinite cannot be defined but imperfectly described only according to what he hath in his Word revealed of himself how he is infinite independent self-sufficient eternal unchangeable But such is the blindness of some Mens Judgments or the Perverseness of their Hearts that they will cavil at the Nature Names Attributes and Works of this eternal and infinite Being But about this fundamental Truth our Faith must be directed by the Revelation which God hath made of it in his holy Word herein Men must not follow their own fancy for * 〈◊〉 Mat. 〈…〉 no man knoweth the father but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him Now the sum of this Revelation in the Word is that God is One that this One God is Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is the Father of the Son and the Son the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and of the Son and that they are distinct one from another in respect of this their mutual Relation by this Rule we must be guided how to know believe worship love fear and obey him that is the Father One true God the Son One true God and the Holy Ghost One true God to be believed worshiped and obeyed Now for our Edification and further Instruction thâ—â— Doctrin admits of some Enlargement and Explanation to prevent undue Notions of God which by reason of the Blindness and Ignorance we are naturally involv'd in our Minds are liable unto thus out of the Revelation that God is One we easily deduce he is so in respect of his Nature Essence or Godhead and how being Father Son and Holy Ghost he doth subsist in these Three distinct Persons thence also is derived the manner of their Subsistence what are their mutual respects to each other and such like things by a necessary Consequence from the Revelation Upon these Grounds were compiled the Nicene Athanasian and other Creeds or Articles of Faith in opposition to the Heresies of those Times for therein was explained the true Sense of Scripture about those matters which were wrested by the Enemies of the Truth and though the Orthodox Doctors and Councils to oppose the Error and lay open the Venom made use of some Words and Expressions which in so many Letters are not set down in the Word of God yet they were not to blame for they were drawn out of it by lawful and necessary Consequences Men may lawfully conceive in their Minds what is the nature of the Things or the sense of the Words according to the scope of the Spirit of God in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and also as to the Analogy of Faith or else we are no better than Brutes So that if the chief Assertion contained in the Revelation be true so must also be whatsoever is therein included and in the Explication thereof drawn by a true and right Consequence Wherefore seeing God hath declared Father Son and Holy Ghost to be One God it necessarily follows they are One in Nature because therein only they can be One And this is the ground of any other Unity and seeing it is also declared they are Three it must be explained of three distinct Persons or Subsistences wherein only it is possible they can be Three The Revelation is clear there is One God this God is
they come This is the rational Man who will dive too far the Apostle for his pains calls him a Fool thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die so in Matter of God's Decrees thou wilt then say unto me why doth he yet find fault The Apostle's Answer is * Rom. 9.19 20. Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God This is to curb that idle and presumptuous Curiosity of vain and foolish Men who work their shallow Brains to find out things which can be known no otherwise than by Revelation wherefore let us stick to that Rule about the Holy Trinity we can and must know no more than is revealed in Scripture and herein we must follow the Example of the Doctors of the pure Primitive Church who borrowed no Arguments of Philosophy against the Hereticks that troubled them but only out of Scripture the more because in Matters of so great a Concernment as are the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the Devil hath used his strongest Batteries but he that trusteth to his own Reason will fall short of the necessary Knowledge thereof and in this case I may say what is spoken in another that if Men had been satisfied to make use only of their own Eye without any other help they could never have found out the magnitude of the Sun c. if so in the Secrets of Nature much less in Things of Divine Concernment and of Deity it self in human and finite Things we conceive well enough how in the same Nature are many Persons to whom it is communicated but that that Nature is but one and the same and that so many Individuals make but one Man in the kind no Mind can conceive but in Men the Reason of the Multiplication is in the finite Individuals which are not only distinct one from another but also have their several Bounds and that universal Nature is as if it were rented into so many Parts but as God is Infinite the Father Son and Holy Ghost is Infinite the Infinite cannot so much as in thought be separated wherefore it must not be thought an absurdity if in Divine Things there is no multiplicity of Gods as there is of Men in human Nature but still after this reasoning I return within the Circle to consult Scripture more than to stretch our Reason with Job let us say †Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection c. O ‖ Isai 55.8 9. my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. Every Man may in this Matter apply to himself what is said in the Book of Proverbs * Chap. 30.2.3 4. Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended who hath gathered the winds in his fists who hath bound the waters in a garment who hath established all the ends of the earth what is his name and what is his sons name if thou canst tell This is by way of defiance In this Controversie Three several things are to be taken notice of first The truth of the thing namely that there is a God but One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost which to hold is necessary to our Faith Secondly the Explanation thereof relating to the Doctrine which we already have said several things about whereunto we now shall in part repeat and in part add these few things Divine Essence communicable to Three Persons is neither multiplyed nor divided as 't is in Men and Angels for though their Natures be but one and the same in Species yet 't is different in Number but in the Deity not so for the same Nature in Father Son and Holy Ghost is but one and the same in Number in the Persons is an order of origine according to which proceedeth not Essence from Essence absolutely consider'd nor Person from Essence nor one God from another God but one Person from another Person and from other Persons very God of very God for the Three Persons are One God and every Person is perfect God in every Person is to be consider'd the common and the proper Mode in God we may not conceive any thing besides One Essence and Three Modes whereby with the Essence are constituted Three Persons in these Persons one is not before or after the other only in order and manner of subsisting whatsoever is essential is common to the Three and what is personal is proper to every one of the Three the Mode or Personality is the Abstract but the Mode with the Nature is the Concret Here is no Accident no Genus no Species no Difference no specific Unity in God but an essential and individual Nature The Difference of Hypostases or Persons in Divine Nature is from the different relation and manner of Subsistence which cannot be confounded There are essential and relative Properties the first belong to every Person because every Person hath the same Nature but not the second whereby they are distinguished one from another the Son is not the Father nor the Father the Son This also is to be taken notice of that a finite Nature is capable of Division which an infinite is not or else it were not infinite therefore in this God's Nature admits of no Comparison with any created one whatsoever The Third thing to be observed in this Controversie is the Proof not to be taken out of Nature or Reason but out of Scripture of both Old and New Testaments and herein we must be very cautious how we draw and press Consequences from the Creature to the Creator because there is an infinite Disparity and Disproportion between them as there is between a finite and an infinite Nature this last filleth all when the other is confined within narrow bounds for the infinite as we said being communicated is neither divided multiplied nor alienated Scripture calls God the True God God's own and proper Son yet Socinians have rather in the Christian Religion to admit two Gods whereof one is a made feigned titular God than a plurality of Persons in the Unity of Essence which Opinion of theirs is really more absurd than they would have the Truth we own to seem to be because it doth quite destroy divine Nature for a made and secondary God is absurd and a mere Contradiction as good as to say God no God This is a Notion borrowed from the Heathens who had their Semi-gods that is Men who in their life-time having done some great Actions were after their death by Apotheosis deifi'd and reckon'd among their gods According to this fancy our Saviour may be such a Heroe and God as their Hercules was This is their good Christian Doctrine The ground of their Error is that they think the number of Persons doth multiply the
of Man because manifested in the Flesh he is not called Son of God upon any such account or in any of these Senses as Socinians would have him 1 Job 4.14.15 for they cannot deny the Lord Jesus to be called God Son of God for that Name is given him in so many places of Scripture and herein they would seem to agree but not sincerely for they cavil about the manner and disagree as to the true Sense he is called Son of God by reason of an Eternal Generation by the Father wherefore he is called God's * Rom. 8.3 32. own and proper Son and †Joh. 3.16 only begotten Christ is from the Father by Generation and the Holy Ghost by Spiration to be from the Father by Generation is to be generated or begotten by the Father long before the fulness of times and his appearing in the Flesh God absolutely said to him ‖ Psal 2.7 thou art my Son this day have â—â—begotten thee this represented with Comparisons as when called * Prov 8. Wisdom for as Wisdom is produced by the Mind so is the Son by the Father and in the New Testament by the similitude of †Colos 1.15 an Image of 〈◊〉 Father's ‖ Heb 1.3 Person and of the brightness of his glory and of the inward * Job 1.1 Word in the Mind for as an Image is not every likeness but the express Effigie or Representation of that whereof it is the Image so the Son in his Essence and Essential Attributes is so much the express Image of the Father that * Joh. 14.9 whosoever sees him doth see the Father also as the brightness of the Beam is from the Sun so the Son is from the Father as Light from Light as equally the glorious Image of his Nature as a Letter doth exactly represent the Character out of which it is drawn thus the Son doth exactly represent the Father by whom he is begotten as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word is conceived by the Mind and remains in it so is the Son begotten by the Father and remains in him and as the Wisdom Image Brightness the Word are one thing from another so the Son is of the Father from the Father not as an Essence is from another but as a Person is from a Person because he is the Character or express Image of the Person of the Father all these in created Things are accidents but in the Son who is in himself and by himself they are essential hence appears how in this there is a true distinction of the Persons begetting and begotten So then Christ is called the Son of God not by reason of any gracious Communication of Existence or of Power but upon the account of a secret and incomprehensible Generation of the Father of his Essence for he is the true proper only begotten highly beloved Son of the Living God and the prepositive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son frequently join'd to this Subject doth denote a Filiation or Sonship altogether of another kind from that of †Heb. 1.5 Angels or Men which can be no other than an essential one a True Son is begotten of the Essence of his Father but the Son of God is a True Son therefore he is begotten of the Essence of his Father Again the proper Son is said to be and is he that hath his proper Father now he is the proper Father who hath begotten his Son of his own Essence Farthermore the Only Begotten Son is only he that is begotten of the Substance of his Father which is demonstrated by the Opposition of natural and adopted Sons who are loved for the sake of the well beloved natural Son of God that Confession of Peter in the Name of the Disciples thou art not * Matth. 16.14 16 17. repeated John the Baptist nor Elias nor Jeremias who had been great in God's Favour nor none of the Prophets they were a meer nothing in Comparison of Christ but †Joh. 6.68 69. Ver. 17. thou art Christ the Son of the living God is not only in its true Sense approved of by our Saviour but he also there attributes it to Divine Revelation as of an incomprehensible Mystery Blessed art thou Simon Bar-â—â—â—as for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven Isaac as they object is called * Gen 23.2 and Heb. 11.17 Only Begotten Son but he is not absolutely so called but relatively secundum quid because he was the Only Begotten Son of Abraham by Sarah in a lawful Marriage and thereby made his only Heir to the exclusion of Ishmael whom he had before by Hagar he was Only Begotten Son in relation to the Promise which is expressed in the following Verse ‖ Heb. 11.18 of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called The excellency of Filiation is between those who differ in Degrees but here the Difference is greater than in the whole kind as Heb. 1.4 5. Isaac was a Type of Christ in relation to the Sacrifice but not of the Generation the Father hath begotten his Son thorough the Communication of his Nature and so of a true and proper Generation but not of a Physical or Natural such as Man's and of other animated Creatures but by a Supernatural whereby God begets according to the Truth of his Word for the more Excellent he is that begets so the more Excellent is the Generation as it appears by the Example of every thing that doth generate that which is esteemed a Perfection in natural Generation is in an infinitely most Eminent Degree attributed unto God as to beget that which is like unto himself and by the Communication of his Nature as to the thing it self the Generation besides its being asserted in the Word of God the secundity of God's Nature is a reason for it for it requites a Communication to several Persons according to that of the Prophet * Isa 66.9 shall I cause to bring forth and not bring forth or beget my self saith the Lord as if he had said shall I make others fruitful and be barren my self that in relation to the Son and to the Holy Ghost may be done in two ways after the manner of Spiritual Substances namely begetting the Son by a natural Intellection and by the same Will or Love breathing the Holy Ghost both consubstantial to himself and of the same Nature and Perfection distinguished amongst themselves and one from another only by their personalities and personal Attributes this consideration serves to demonstrate not only the Generation of the Son but also the Procession of the Holy Ghost and consequently the whole Trinity for Scriptures describe Son and Holy Ghost as existing of themselves as the Father working understanding witnessing sending c. taken not only passively which is of Things but actively which is of Persons for it belongs to none