in a great measure from the jarring and disagreement of two natures so closely united and accompanied all the while with a vehement desire to submit in the midst of as vehement an aversation to it as hath been already declared and lastly the vital and inseparable Vnion of the Human and Divine life with one another these were the things that did inhance the merit and value of that Sacrifice and therefore in this case the Divine and Human Nature are considered as joyntly and equally concerned Thirdly and lastly in the business of the Intercession at the Right hand of God God that is the divine Nature cannot properly be said to intercede with himself and yet the Intercession of the human without so close and vital a Connexion with the divine would be every whit as insignificant and unavailable as without the same Vnion the Sacrifice of himself would have been besides that it would perhaps be inexcusable were it not for this Vnion For one meer man a finite and a little Creature like our selves to take upon him to supplicate and intercede for all the rest so that as his human Nature entitules him to the Priesthood for the God and the Priest are supposed to be two things so it is the Vnion of that Nature with the divine that makes him an High Priest that Vnion is his entrance into the Holy of Holies and inhances the price and value of his Intercession and therefore in this third and last particular also the divine and human Nature are considered as acting joyntly together and constituting one Person resulting from the Vnion of them both And now having laid down so clear a Notion of the blessed Trinity I cannot see what is wanting to give it all the advantage which it very well deserves for it is not only very consonant to Scripture but it hath likewise so clear and so strong a Foundation in the reason of things that when both these meet as they do here together it must be acknowledged to be more then a possible Idea and that it is neither more nor less then the very truth it self and a truth that seems to lie so plain that it is much more wonderful it should be concealed thus long then that at last it should be discovered As for the Scripture what more plain then that those Texts I am in the Father and the Father in me and I and the Father are one may by this notion be very clearly explained for the human nature of Christ is absorped and swallowed up in the Divine of God the Father and does on the other hand by vertue of its intimate Vnion imbibe and take in the Divine Nature into it self as far as its capacity will reach which it does much further then by reason of its littleness and finite Circumscription it may seem to do because the parts of the Divine Extension being all of them similar and actually inseparable by reason that the whole is commensurate to an infinite space whatsoever is united by an unity of life and selfconsciousness to any part is at the same time effectually united to that indivisible life which is but one and the same self-consciousness and self-enjoyment through the whole extension And so I and the Father are one that is one in the common species of immaterial nature one by mutual penetration and imbibition one by an unity of self-consciousness and reciprocal feeling of each others life one by an unity of affection and will and one in many cases by an unity of operation and mutual concurrence to the same effect neither is there any other possible difficulty to be started in this case unless it be how two lives can be so twisted and intimately interwoven together as to become one life and to constitute one Person to which it may be answered First that in fact it is true that an immaterial and material Nature may be so Vnited as is plain in every human composition consisting of Soul and Body and that there is a greater congruity of one immaterial Nature to another then there can be of that which is called life and activity to that which is utterly destitute and devoid of both which is the case of matter which yet by its union with an immaterial substance is made to taste and feel it self to become the subject and seat either of pleasure or pain and to concur with the other towards the constituting of a common Person resulting from them both Secondly upon supposition that one life is capable of being imprest and influenced by another as there is more reason that it should then that that which is utterly devoid of life should be capable of the same impressions this is enough to constitute one common person for by a person nothing else is meant but a self-conscious nature and therefore where there is in two personalities a mutual enjoyment or feeling of each others life there arises a compound personality from the mutual reciprocation enjoyment or imbibition of two several lives acting upon and influencing each other and being brought to a perfect Harmony and entire consent of understanding and will and it is sufficient in this case that the difficulties in the union of the two natures to make up and constitute the second person in the Blessed Trinity are not greater no nor so great neither as those in the union of our own soul and body of which notwithstanding we are intimately and perfectly conscious to our selves Thirdly there is no way to expound several places of Scripture with any plausibility or shew of truth but by admitting such an union as this which seems in those places to be so plainly asserted Fourthly and lastly in the Sympathies of friendship whether in joy or grief and in the mutual complacency and satisfaction which entire friends experience in the conversation and company of each other in their common sentiments common wishes and common designs there is something very like this union which we contend for though it be far from being so perfect and entire It being therefore so rational to believe that there may be such a personal union of two immaterial natures together to constitute the Person of the Son that other of these two natures or persons so united to a certain subtle subeternal and aethereal matter to constitute the third Person of the Blessed Trinity which is called the Holy Ghost must be admitted as a possible union because the vital union of an immaterial nature to a material is no more then we do all of us every day experience in our selves as hath been already observed The Father is the simple divine substance by himself the Son is the vital Vnion of an human soul to the substance and Person of God the Father and the Holy Ghost is nothing else but an Aethereal and Emanative matter vitally united to both the former That which makes them all to be God is the same Numerical Divine substance belonging to them all and that which
makes the distinction of the Persons is the addition of a Created immaterial nature in the second Person of the Blessed Trinity of a Created material one in the third and the substraction or precision of both of these in the first The Son is said to be begotten of the Father being a similar immaterial and as it were univocal effect of his Power and Will and the Holy Ghost to proceed from them both because though the human nature of Christ and the subtle matter which makes the body of that Person which is called the Holy Ghost be both of them emanative and by consequence eternal yet the emanation seems more natural from one immaterial nature to another then from immaterial to material and so the Son is at least prior natura then the Holy Ghost though not cognitione and the subtle matter which is one part of the third Person of the Blessed Trinity being Created though from all Eternity yet in some sense for the sake of the Son as hath been already declared and being also produced by the Father by a contemporary consent of will in the Son or in the human nature though they be supposed contemporary to one another yet this is enough to make it no improper way of expression to say that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son though in this I do not justifie the heats on either side between the Greek and Latin Churches neither do I think the Schism to be the less inexcusable because the Latins in a matter of this subtlety were in the right I do not deny but that the Father or the simple divine substance is always vitally united to the human nature of Christ and also to a certain subtle and aethereal matter in that manner which hath been already declared but yet notwithstanding the real distinction of the Father from the Son or of the first Person of the Blessed Trinity from the second is always as really and as clearly preserved as if in the first case there were no second Person or no vital union with the human nature or as if in the second there were no third or no vital union of the divine and human nature with the aethereal matter for in the first place as hath been already largely represented there are some operations of the simple divine substance to which the human nature being but finite cannot adaequately extend and in this case that substance is of necessity considered as a Person acting by it self and in the second notwithstanding the vital union of one or more immaterial nature to a material yet there are some abstracted operations wherein the immaterial substances do perfectly withdraw themselves from any intercourse or communication with matter as is plain in those operations of the human soul which are purely speculative and intellectual in which the animal concupisciblâ— or plastick life have no share but they are purely the operations of separated and abstracted Spirits and such as would undoubtedly accompany the mind of Man though it were disentangled from this mortal body and yet the vital union is not interrupted all this while but the digestion and Animal secretion still goes on the bloud still circulates and the Plastic faculties perform their office in men not yet arrived to their full growth as well as in Embrios not yet attained to their just form and shape in their Mothers Womb not that I would be thought to compare these things with one another but only in general to represent that an immaterial nature tho vitally united to a material may yet have operations purely spiritual and altogether abstracted in which that union is not at all concerned and those operations which are performed on the one hand by the abstracted and on the other by the Compound and Heterogeneous nature may well enough be considered as the actions of two Jeveral and distinct persons as in St. Paul's description of the strife and contention between the Flesh and Spirit Rom. 7. 15. That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Where it is manifest that the soul of man considered by it self in its most inward and abstracted speculation is considered as one person and as united and vitally interwoven with a body or vehicle of matter as another and this is enough to show that a compound and a simple person are by no means the same or to defend the personality of the Holy Ghost as distinct from the simple substance of God the Father Further that by the Holy Ghost nothing else is meant but the vital union of an aethereal or subtle matter to the simple and original divine substance of God the Father is clear not only from the words themselves by which it is expressed in Hebrew Rouach and in Greek Pneuma which signifie nothing else but a subtle matter but also from the History of the Creation where the spirit of God is said to have moved upon the face of the Waters in the Hebrew it is Merachepheth which the Rabbins interpret of the incubation of any bird or fowl upon the young or eggs by which it is manifest that they understood the Spirit of God not simply of any wind or subtle matter whatsoever but of such as was animated with a divine life and fitly disposed by brooding upon the Chaos to make it fruitful and fertile and when God spake to Moses out of the burning bush when he gave the Law upon Mount Sinai in Fire and Smoak when he went before the Camp of the Israelites like a Cloud by day and like a Flame by night when such flaming and fiery apparitions as these are so frequently called in Scripture by the name of the glory of God all these are meant of that subtle matter which being animated and enlivened by a divine life is called Rouach hachodesh pneuma hagion the Holy Spirit the spirit or breath or wind of God so also when Moses desired to see the face of God but was denied for this reason that no Man could see the face of God and live but yet was permitted to see his back parts which were nothing else but a certain vigorous and piercing flame the meaning is plainly this that no Man in this life can converse with the naked essence or immaterial nature of God but his back parts or that aethereal and subtle matter to which from all eternity he hath been vitally united these may possibly fall under human cognizance as they did under that of Moses even in this life and this in truth is the main if not only business of this subtle matter besides the forming of Ideas in it as hath been already suggested that being animated and informed by the life of God it is the instrument of the divine power in its external operations thus as God being cloathed with this subtle matter did incubate and brood upon the Mass and order and dispose its several parts as seemed best
by which the Son and Holy Ghost are distinguished from the Father and from each other is on both hands a Creature though it be an eternal one depending upon and eternally flowing from an eternal cause for that which constitutes the Person of the Son is the human nature united to the Divine and that which fills up the nature and notion of the Holy Ghost is a certain subtle subeternal matter united and incorporated with the Divine and Human Nature and animated by the common life of both and yet though these two things by which the Persons are distinguished from each other and from God the Father who is the Source and Fountain of the Godhead are without all question Creatures of his making yet the whole Person which results on either hand from the Vnion of the Created and Vncreated Nature together is truly and properly God for by God nothing else is or can be understood but a Person acted and animated by a life that is truly and properly Divine and such without question both of these Persons are otherwise there can be no vital Vnion between the created and uncreated Nature in them which is that upon which their Divine personality depends and as they may all three as well the one as the other be truly and properly said to be God so also notwithstanding what hath been said yet is the Father uncreate the Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate that is the Godhead which is in the whole Person the eternal simple abstracted Life in the one the cause of life and personality and the principal ingredient of life and personality in the two other which are Persons of a Dissimilar Heterogeneous and Compounded Nature and the whole Person is rightly denominated from its principal and chiefest Life is in all three not only Vncreate but Numerically the same so that there are not three Vncreates but one Vncreate nor three Incomprehensibles but one Incomprehensible nor three Gods but one God as it is expresly asserted in that Creed which goes how truly I do not now dispute under the Name of Athanasius and was allowed for Orthodox before the Lateran Council But yet as the rest of the Trinitarian Fathers when they were pressed by the Arians or other Heretics or disputed and argued the case too nicely with themselves were used to recur to the Specific Vnity and the Emperichoresis and the Vnity of Integration and such like very improper and inadequate expedients to help themselves so Marcellus being equally at a loss how to explain the Doctrine of the Trinity being a firm and resolute Assertor of the Vty of the Godhead and disdaining to make use of such Vnphilosophical ways of solving the difficulty which was in effect but to make a new riddle instead of explaining the old though he could not for his life being as he was a very honest and impartial Person bring himself to doubt but that the Language of the Scripture in its most plain and obvious Interpretation did assert the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost yet at some times being startled with the difficulty of the thing he would say with something of doubt and hesitation betwixt the difficulty of the thing and the plainness of the Scripture in asserting and maintaining it that the Scripture did seem to say thus much for so in the Confession sent to Julius he says of those that denied the Divinity of the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems to be repugnant to the Orthodox Faith grounded upon the Scriptures for that is his meaning as it follows in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Evangelist St. John tells us that the word was God but yet it must be confessed that this Interpretation which I have put upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the only possible Interpretation neither as I do verily believe so agreeable to the Sentiments of Marcellus as another which I will now mention and that is that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be understood not as if he had spoken doubtfully that the Scripture seems to look that way as if Christ were a Divine Person as well as God the Father but that he really is so and that this appears plainly to be the sence of the Scriptures for so the word seems to have been used in that place of the Author to the Hebrews where God is said to have made the things that are seen out of things which did not appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is out of things which really were not and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place are things not which barely appear or are supposed to be but which have a real undoubted and positive existence and in this sense the Adjectives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used not for things which are only in fancy or opinion but which have a real and a manifest Existence and are discovered by their own light and it is plain that this sense is most agreeable to what follows in Marcellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But I saith he have learnt or know for certain that the Son is the indivisible or inseparable Power of the Father for our Saviour himself even our Lord Jesus Christ saith I am in the Father and the Father in me and I and the Father are one and he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also which citations of his as they cannot so clearly and so naturally be applied to any thing as to the Numerical Essence so when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know or I have learnt for certain that the Son c. The Rules of Connection do require that this be spoken in opposition to the two Opinions just mentioned before one of which asserted a Plurality of Gods and the other denyed the Divinity of Christ and being exprest in such peremptory dogmatical and categorical Terms this is a plain and undenyable Testimony of Marcellus to himself that he was for the singular existent Essence which he did not only maintain in this Epistle to Pope Julius but he tells him it had always been his constant Doctrine for so he goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Faith I having received from the Scriptures and Tradition I preach in the Church as well as I have owned and asserted it in this Epistle to you Nevertheless for that he would not presume as others did when they were prest upon it by their Adversaries or intangl'd in their own private Meditations to explain the Modus of the Trinity for this reason he was charged by his Enemies with denying the thing it self as if in effect he had asserted but one divine Person because he stuck to one Numerical Substance without so much as pretending to explain how it was possible for a Trinity of Persons at this rate to exist this was the reason why Athanasius himself would sometimes speak with doubt and hesitancy concerning him or at
well as Melchisedek was made like to the Son of God that is he is God and Man united together into one common Person as Melchisedek was and taking not only humane Nature which he did before but human Flesh upon him as Melchisedek appeared to Abraham to have done though in truth it were neither better nor worse than only the Son of God or the Eternal Word Vnited by divine Power to a Vehicle of fitly modify'd Air or other subtle matter and by that means carrying the external shape and appearance of an human Body And that Melchisedek who is the same with Christ was God as well as Man and Man as well as God that is that there was a real and vital Vnion of two distinct Natures the Divine and the Humane in his Person is so unquestionably evident from the same place that as it is the extremity of impudence and Impiety in conjunction together to call in question the Authority of this Writer who hath been allowed for Canonical and received as such in all Ages of the Church so it is absurd and foolish to make the least doubt or scruple of his meaning if his Authority be once received That he was God is plain and will for ever continue to be so to the eternal confusion of all the Arian and Socinian cavils till they can shew us a Creature to whom this Character may justly be applied without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life And as this Character proclaims him God so his being a Priest does at the same time confess him to be a Man otherwise God will be a Priest to himself which is absurd but as without the Godhead Vnited to the Humane Nature Christ who was a Priest after the order of Melchisedec could not have made an adaequate expiation to God the Father for the sins of the whole World the value of the Priest and Sacrifice by him offered which was the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross being enhanced to an infinite and estimable price by the infinite perfection and dignity of the Person who was God as well as Man so that he was Man as well as God is expresly testifyed by the sacred PenMan himself now consider saith he how this great Man c. and without his being Man as well as God it was impossible for him to be either Priest or Sacrifice at all so that these things I think are so plain that it is impossible for plainness and perspicuity themselves to be more so plain that I need stay no longer upon this first particular and therefore I proceed The second thing which I had in my mind was that Miracle of Joshua which we find recorded Josh 10. 12. where Joshua speaks thus to the Sun and Moon Sun stand thou still in Gibeon and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajalon and then it follows v. 13 14. And the Sun stood still and the Moon stayed until the People had avenged themselves upon their Enemies is not this written in the Book of Jasher so the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day and there was no day like that before or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a Man for the Lord fought for Israel Now Joshua in several respects in his Name and in that he was the Introductor of the Israelites into the Land of Canaan which was Typical of the eternal rest and peace of the future State after the toyls hazzards and temptations of this was figurative and significative of Jesus the Messias that was to come who had nature at his beck as being the God of it and at the instant of whose Passion as if Nature her self had been expiring with him the Sun was darkned and the day was turned into night and nature her self put on Mourning to attend the Funeral Solemnity of her Lord and Maker as it is said to have happened at the death of Caesar which was taken and represented either by the superstition or flattery of the Romans for a certain argument of his Apothesis Ille etiam extincta miseratus Caesare Romam Tunc caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem The Sun condoling with afflicted Rome When Caesar fell by an untimely doom Withdrew his conscious and offended light And guilty nations fear'd eternal night But not to stretch this Type any further then it will go I do confess that if any Man will deny so much to have been presignifyed by this miracle of Joshua as I have represented I know not how to prove it only I leave it to be considered fairly between Man and Man whether the allusion be not fairly drawn and whether in concurrence with other arguments which prove more directly and with greater force it ought not to corroberate the Doctrin of the Divinity of Christ though the passages that have been cited concerning Melchisedec alone if there were nothing else to be considered are enough to demonstrate unanswerably all that is contended for and stand in no need of any other confirmation Wherefore it being thus clear if we will submit our selves to the Authority of Scripture and to the Voice of God himself that there are indeed more Divine Persons then one it remains now only that I enquire very briefly how it is possible for a plurality of Persons distinct from one another to be consistent with a Numerical Identity of Divine Substance which the voluminous Creatour of the Intellectual System denies as an impossible and contradictious notion where speaking of the word Homoousios and saying that it was never used otherwise by Greek Writers then to signifie the agreement of things Numerically differing from one another in some common Nature or universal Essence or their having a generical Vnity or Identity he adds nor indeed is it likely that the Greek Tongue should have any name for that which neither is a thing in nature nor falls under human Conception viz. several things having one and the same singular Essence and here though the Doctor did not distinguish so nicely as he ought to have done betwixt things and persons yet I will grant him thus much that several things being supposed to be several are at the same time what they are Numerically by themselves and are Numerically dictinct from one another But yet it does not follow but that several persons may all have the same Numerical Divine Substance tho' to make a distinction of persons in this case there be requisite an accession of some individuating Circumstances or Properties which shall be superadded to the common Nature and this is a great errour of which the Doctor is guilty if it be consistent with the insolence of his humor to endure to be told of his faults because several things cannot be the same which is no such very deep and profound speculation for how can they be several and the same at
the same time therefore several Persons indued with several individuating differences cannot be partakers of the same common nature which is false as I will now immediately show you proceeding with all imaginable caution that the intellectual System being a wild country and very full of woods I may not unadvisedly fall into an Ambuscade by the following well weigh'd and well considered steps First I say that that which is in it self one cannot be conceived as three without division Secondly that those things which are in themselves distinctly three cannot be conceived as one without composition Thirdly that the Divine Nature being infinitely and immutably perfect is likewise simple and uncompounded uncapable of division on the one hand or composition on the other Fourthly by God the Father I understand that simple similar and Omnipresent Divine Substance or space endued with all possible power goodness and wisdom whose parts by reason of the Omnipresence of the whole are even by cogitation inseparable from each other or that Omnipresent Divine activity and life which is as much and more simply one in and with it self then any other secondary or derivative life can be being all over nothing else but one entire Will Vnderstanding Goodness Fruitfulness or Power of Action and Production which being only that which is truly and properly God is therefore called God the Father as being the most simple in it self and also the source and fountain of Divinity in the two subordinate Persons for the Persons are not equally perfect as to their whole nature although the Divine Substance which makes them all to be God be in all three Numerically and individually the same Fifthly by God the Son I understand the second Person of the Blessed Trinity resulting from the Vnion of the humane Nature with the Divine Substance which Divine Substance being endued and furnished with a life by it self is for that reason a Person by it self simply and abstractly considered for this is the most general and comprehensive notion of a Person that it is a being endued with life or with self-consciousness or self-sensation to which Divine Life the Human being added and being influenced animated and acted by it and vitally united to it there arises from hence a compound life which is distinct from the simple which is a life by it self without the accession of the other and if a life and a person be the very same then another sort of life makes another sort of Person and another sort of person is another person that is a compound Person which is no more the same with simple then unity and composition are themselves the same But to make the solidity of this notion the more plainly to appear it is to be considered that though these two natures the Divine and the Human are always vitally united to one another so as they feel and enjoy the same common life yet there are some cases to be met with wherein the Father that is the Divine and Simple Substance acts as a Person distinctly by it self without the concurrence of the Human with it and there are others wherein they act in concurrence together as if they had but one Will one Vnderstanding one simple and undivided Power of Action and Operation To the first of these Heads there are the following particulars unquestionably belonging First when the Father is said to beget and the Son to be begotten which he did from all Eternity by way of Emanation as it is very easie for any Man to conceive he might do for whatsoever is not in it self impossible and contradictory to be done or performed is a possible object of the Divine Power and was so without question from all Eternity because the Divine Nature was always absolutely and infinitely perfect and by consequence the sphere of possibility to which it is coextended for there is nothing possible which is not so a Divine Power was from all Eternity exactly the same though there had not been that eternal congruity and disposition which there appears to have been in the Divine Nature to the production of the Human by that means as it were to exemplifie and enjoy it self in its most perfect image and resemblance and the Father when he is said to have begotten the Son it is not by any means so to be understood as if one Divine Substance could beget another which is the very height of Non-sense and Blasphemy into the bargain but these two things are manifestly couched under it and to be understood by it First that the Father that is the simple and similar ubiquitary Divine Substance did from all Eternity by way of emanation produce that Human soul or Personality which was the pre-existing soul of Christ before his Incarnation and before all Worlds being the first born of every Creature Secondly he did likewise from all Eternity constitute a vital Vnion betwixt his own simple and ubiquitary Substance and this eternally begotten or emanatively produced Human Soul so as they were made to feel and enjoy one another and where ever there is an Vnity of self-consciousness and reciprocal enjoyment of each others life so as the human life does at the same time participate and share in the Divine this is enough to constitute one common person resulting from the vital Vnion of the Divine and Human Nature into this common life and mutual enjoyment for an Vnity of life is the most strict inseparable and indivisible sort of Vnity that can possibly be conceived and yet notwithstanding the Human Nature though it were eternally produced yet it did not nor could not possibly produce it self which is to suppose a thing or person to be before it is neither did it or could it possibly unite it self in that entire and close manner with the Divine but in both these respects the Human Nature is originally passive though to the latter it may be supposed to concur by a consent of Will though not of Power and God the Father that is the simple and original Divine Substance is considered as a person acting by himself In the second place when the Father is said to send and the Son to be sent here the Father or the simple and self-existing Divine Substance is to be considered as a Person by it self and acting apart from the Son who is said to be sent for in the first place the Divine Substance which is Vbiquitary and Omnipresent cannot be said with respect unto it self either to send or to be sent for whatsoever is Omnipresent is at the same time considered as immoveable and quiescent there being no place into which it is possible for it to remove and this perhaps may not improbably be lookt upon as one eternal cause of the blessedness and Tranquillity of the Divine Nature that by reason of its Omnipresence it is always perfectly at rest within it self it is impassible from it self and from any thing without it it being impossible it should yield or give place to
my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but ast thou wilt and the reluctancy of the fleshly nature or of the human Soul united to a Body of Flesh and Blood for in that it consisted was so much the more painful and exquisitely tormenting by reason that it was as it were a tearing in sunder the divine and the human Nature which were at once united by the strongest Bond of Vnion and for that reason must needs be the most tenderly and painfully sensible of any Divorce or Disagreement between them for in the first place it was not only a very old but an eternal Vnion there being no time when the human nature of Christ was not or when it was not united to the divine Secondly it was an Vnion of Emanation proceeding from or begotten by the Eternal Fruitfulness of that divine Substance which is called God the Father which shews it not to be a positive union but a natural an Vnion whose parts are actually inseparable and therefore upon supposition that the Natures thus united are indued with Life and that both or either of these Natures are passible and capable of being affected with pain the least endeavour or tendency towards a Separation must cause an exquisite regret anguish and pain in that part of the Composition which is passible and subject to it wherefore the Vnion of the divine and human Nature in the Person of Christ being an Vnion of Affection and Will an Vnion of Intellect and Vnderstanding so far as the human Nature is capable of Vnderstanding and imbibing the Wisdom of the Divine and an Vnion of Life Self-consciousness and mutual Enjoyment it must needs be that in the human Nature which is confessedly passible upon the least disagreement or repugnancy of it to the Will of the Divine there must arise a most quick acute and pungent Sense created in the humanity incarnate betwixt the reasonable and the fleshly Nature the first of which resigns it self up perfectly to the most perfect Wisdom to which it hath a vital congruity and with which it studies always to preserve a most perfect agreement and finds a complacency in being conformed to it withal considering the important Reasons for which it was necessary that he should suffer upon the Cross and become a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World in which the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Justice were all of them in a manner equally concerned but the latter full of human Passions Apprehensions and Fears had a Dread and Abhorrence of such a cruel Death and by consequence found within it self a strange reluctancy and an unwillingness almost as painful as the most tormenting and cruel Death it self to undergo it besides that being at the same time vitally and personally united to the divine Substance this was another and without question the most bitter part of the Agony which our Saviour underwent betwixt submission to the divine Will and reluctancy against it both of which it did at the same time by the Combat of the reasonable and the incarnate life one of which could not think of death without a most passionate and painful aversation and to the other disobedience was worse than death to an extremity not to be exprest so that though it was only the human nature of Christ which properly speaking suffered upon the Cross yet by reason of the intimate Vnion of it with the Divine he suffered infinitely more than any other Man could do Fourthly in that Action by which the Father or the divine Substance perpetually feels and enjoys it self and adaequately understands and comprehends the whole extent and latitude of its own infinite and absolute Perfection in that Action the Father is considered as a Person acting by himself and because there is no assignable moment of Eternity when he does not do this therefore he does always really preserve a distinction of his Person and Substance from the Person of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as well as by being from and to all Eternity vitally united to the human Nature of Christ and to a certain subtle and aetherial Matter he does at the same time concur to the making up of two other Persons in that manner which hath been and shall be still hereafter more fully and particularly declared for though the human Nature of Christ be not only the most perfect in it's kind but without question the most perfect of any finite immaterial Substance whatsoever though you take in all the Hierarchy of Angels and Immortal Spirits and though by being personally and vitally and that from all Eternity united to the divine Substance it must needs for this reason have the truest Enjoyment and the fullest comprehension and understanding of it of any other Creature whatsoever yet as being but a Creature though an eternal one as being but a finite Substance though incomparably and indisputably the most perfect of any other finite Substance whatsoever it cannot have a just and adequate comprehension of an infinitely perfect Nature For nothing can adequately and fully comprehend that which is really infinite or which is all one which is endued with all possible Perfection which is not so it self and this the humane nature of Christ is not neither indeed can it be unless you suppose the divine and humane nature of Christ to be the same for all that is meant by the divine nature is a nature endued with all possible perfection so that it remains firm what I have asserted in this fourth particular that in that action in which God the Father or the Divine Substance feels enjoys and understands himself in a full perfect adaequate and truly comprehensive manner he is to be considered as a Person acting by himself distinct from the Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost Fifthly in that Action or Operation of the Divine mind by which at once he surveys the whole possibility of things and hath all their Ideas and all their several properties differences relations connexions and dependencies at the same time present to him which he always hath and which it is absolutely impossible for any finite or limited understanding at any one time to comprehend together in this action likewise in its full extent the Father is considered as a Person by himself and is really so for although as to many particulars there may be and actually is a concurrence of the Divine understanding and the Human together so as to view several of these Ideas at the same time and with a common prospect and to have exactly the same notion and apprehension concerning them it being impossible for the Human understanding to differ from the Divine so far as it is capable of imbibing it and of being influenced and acted by it which it always is to the utmost of its capacity which is but finite and so far they act as a common Person informed and ammated by one common life yet where the Human
understanding will not reach as it will not certainly extend to the utmost possibility of Ideas at one and the same time which implies infinite knowledge or knowledge in its utmost Latitude and Perfection an attribute belonging to the Divine Substance and incommmunicable with any other there this Divine Substance is again considered in this fifth particular as a Person acting distinctly by it self Sixthly and lastly in the actuation of those Divine Ideas or in the bringing them out of a state of notion into a state of reality and extra-notional Existence or in the Creation of the material and intellectual World together with the several modifications and motions of the one the several orders and degrees of the other in this also the Father is to be considered as acting by himself the Power of Creation or the producing realities out of a state of non-existence out of a state of possibility into a state of being and from a state of notion into a state of impenetrability tangibility or life being only competible to God himself and belonging only to infinite Power as the Ideas themselves which were the principles and patterns according to which the realities were made could not in their full extent and comprehension and at one and the same time be present to any wisdom or understandng but that which was infinite and by consequence Divine though I deny not but that the Son that is the human nature in conjunction with the divine for of it self it could not do it may in some sense be said to have made the World as the Scripture asserts him to have done and in what sense that is shall be now very suddenly and very clearly declared For as there are some operations of the divine nature to be met with wherein the Father or the simple divine substance acts as a distinct Person by it self without the concurrence of the human nature so there are others wherein the divine and human nature act joyntly and as it were confederately together and are considered as one common person endued with one common life understanding and will and they are these First in the business of Creation which though it hath been already appropriated as an incommunicable act to the simple divine substance yet we find notwithstanding in Scripture that the Creation of the World is attributed to the Son likewise that is to the second person of the blessed Trinity or to the human nature vitally and personally united to the divine as well as to God the Father or to the simple divine substance it self the reasons of which if I am not mistaken are principally if not only these that follow First that all things being produced out of nothing by the divine power or by a bare act of the divine will and the human nature being vitally and personally united to the divine so as to be partaker of the life of God and to be wholly determined and acted by his will the will of the human nature being as it were included absorpt and swallowed up in the divine and the one being perfectly determined and acted by the other whatsoever effect follows any determination or motion of the divine will may very properly be said to be the effect also of the human in conjunction with it and acting as one common person with one indivisible and common determination it being no more possible to separate the one will from the other than it is to dissolve the union of the two natures or to divide any emanative and immediate effect from its immediate and emanative cause and it is in a manner the same case as in the Line Where if you consider A as the first mover and B and C as quiescent yet B being first moved by the motion of A the motion of C is rightly affirmed to be owing to them both acting in common and in conjunction together notwithstanding that the original power of moving be wholly to be ascribed to and to be derived from A whose Creature B as to its motion is as C in the same respect may be said to be the common creature of them both Secondly the human nature of Christ tho' personally and vitally united to the divine yet being as it hath been said already but a finite nature and though there were in it a perfect Conjunction and Symphony of will in all things to the divine will and understanding so far as the sphere of its capacity would reach yet that capacity being finite and imperfect it wanted some external helps to give it the more full and comprehensive notion of the divine nature and by consequence the more large and plentiful enjoyment of it for which reason it was that from all Eternity there was Created a Sub-eternal and Aethereal matter which being united to and animated by the ubiquitary and original life which is called God the Father constituted the third Person of the Blessed Trinity which is called the Holy Ghost Now God being infinitely perfect and happy in himself it could not be that this Aethereal matter was produced by him for the more full and perfect enjoyment of himself for there could be nothing in any Creature especially an inanimate one as this subtle matter without the conjunction and animation of the divine life must be which was not before hand eminently and transcendently to be found in himself who is considered as its emanative and its only cause neither is it reasonable to conceive though it proceeded from all eternity from the Divine Substance by way of emanation that it was created out of no end or design or that no use was made of it from all eternity till in the fulness of time the aspectable Vniverse was Created wherefore it is but reasonable in this case to suppose that this subtle matter was employed partly in forming the Vehicles of the Caelestial Hierarchy the Angels and immortal Spirits the Morning Stars and Sons of God that sung together and shouted for joy when the first corner stone of the World was laid and consequently did exist before it And that they were really cloathed with such Aetherial Vehicles or Caelestial Bodies as we shall be our selves after the Resurrection if there be any sense in the 15th Chapter of the first to the Corinthians and our Saviour himself assures us that in the future state we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels or equal to the Angels that are in Heaven seems to me plainly to be asserted by the Psalmist in these words Psal 104. 4. Who maketh his Angels Spirits his Ministers a flaming Fire not to repeat here what I have * Apology for the mid way Sermon of the Omnipresence elsewhere said concerning the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Angel in the new Testament and that they had also a pre-existence before the Foundation of the World were laid seems not obscurely to be imployed by the Psalmist in that immediately
the Specifical but Numerical Nature and to say that Epiphanius or those from whom he borrowed it for there is no question but it was the received Argument of the Orthodox in those times neither he or they though they urged a good Argument yet understood wherein the strength of it lay but that on the contrary they did not argue ad idem and that according to them it was no Argument at all is at once precarious and rude into the bargain and is almost like the monstrous absurdity of the Epicurean Doctrine that affirms all things to have come by chance notwithstanding all the out-strokes appearances and signatures of the most exquisite Wisdom and the most perfect Skill The third and last place of Epiphanius which I shall mention is where speaking of the Antient formulary of Faith which he saith was delivered by Tradition from the Apostles and agreed upon in a Council of 310 Bishops in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy City that is Jerusalem he explains that Article which is at present extant in the Nicene confession and was taken from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Begotten of his Father before all Worlds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Substance of the Father now there is no other way to elude the force of that argument which may be drawn from hence in favour of the singular Essence but either to question the Authority of Epiphanius without reason and to say there was never any such Council at Jerusalem nor by consequence any such formulary of Faith agreed upon therein or else to affirm with the impious confidence of a down right Atheist that the Apostles did not understand themselves and that notwithstanding all their pretences to a Divine Spirit they were yet so foolish and ignorant to believe that one Divine Substance could beget another But yet I am far from pretending that all the Fathers of which the Nicene Assembly was composed were all of them at all times constant and firm to the defence and maintenance of the singular Essence no their fluctuation and uncertainty hath been already sufficiently discovered and Epiphanius himself giving his judgment of the meaning of the word Homoousios notwithstanding his Argument which hath been lately produced to prove the Divinity of the Holy Ghost speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not signifie Numerically one but by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two perfect natures are to be understood not differing Specifically from each other nor averse from being United into one Neither indeed does there seem to have been any after the Arian Heresie sprung up from that time till a good while after the Nicene Council who did stoutly and resolutely adhere to the singular Essence without any wavering or hesitation notwithstanding the difficulties with which it was attended unless it were this Marcellus and his followers who from their Masters name are by Epiphanius called Marcelliani so that it proves true of him what Horace said of another of the name after all the reproaches and calumnies with which his Adversaies have in vain endeavoured to blast his reputation Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo Fama Marcelli And if we consider that it was to Julius Bishop of Rome who had exactly as to this matter the same Apprehensions with Marcellus himself to whom that Epistle was written in which this Orthodox Confession is contained we may also then go on as Flaccus does micat inter omnes Julium sidus velut inter ignes Luna minores Or in the Language of another Poet we may say of Marcellus with respect to the Trinitarian Bishops who were used to take shelter in the Specific Identity or other inadaequate expedients that have been mentioned Aspice ut insignis spoliis Marcellus opimis Ingreditur victorque viros supreeminet omnes And if there be any that stand up firm and faithful to the singular Essence without betraying and exposing it as the Learned Doctour hath endeavoured to do we may say of him as Anchises did when he had finished the Prophetic Character of his Roman Heroe Tu Marcellus eris And as Marcellus by his courage and resolution answers the great Character of his glorious Namesake in Virgil so we may every whit as justly compare the Hesitating Fathers who sometimes seemed to patronise the Numerical Essence and sometimes to seek Patronage and shelter from it in very improper and inadaequate expedients such as rather served to delay the time and afford new matter of rangling and dispute then either to consute the Arians or to assure the Victory of the Orthodox Party to Fabius the Cunctator who is immediately before prophetically described by Anchises and who by frequent halts and countermarches and by false alarms without daring to come to the decision of a Battel prepared Hannibal for the Conquest first of Marcellus and then of the great Scipio from his African Trophies sirnamed Africanus who removed the Seat of War into the Enemies Country and perfected that Victory which Fabius had scarce the hardiness to begin But still it is true that though the Fathers were generally inconstant and uncertain in their resolutions concerning the Blessed Trinity yet when ever they swerved from the Numerical Essence it was only because of the puzling absurdities with which it was encompassed as to the manner of it otherwise there is no question not only that St. Athanasius and St. Basil and others of the Fathers who seemed to have wavered in their determinations but even St. Cyril Damascen and Gregory Nyssen themselves would have declared unanimously for the Numerical Essence by which alone the Vnity of the Trinity is possible to be maintained and which alone could free them from the imputation and absurdity of Polytheism with which the Specific Vnity was encumbred such an expedient as this if it could have been found out in those early ages of the Church would have nipped the Arian Heresie in the bud it would have silenced the Enthusiasm of Sabellius for it was nothing better and the intollerable impudence of Photinus and it would have prevented that uncertainty and those endless jangles which happened among the Orthodox themselves who being destitute of a solid resolution exposed themselves and one another to contempt by inadaequate fancies the Creatures not of reason but ignorance and imagination All the several Hereticks would have been ashamed of themselves and would not have dared to elude the force of so many peremptory Texts in favour of the Divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost by far fetcht interpretations and distorted expositions when not only the Scriptures were plain in their behalf but also the nature and reason of the thing this would have rendred the Roman Emperors more favourable then they were to the Orthodox party whereas for want of this to put an end to all controversies and animosities that might arise by the disagreeing opinions concerning the modus of the Trinity disagreeing from
any impressions or that it should be capable of any motion mutability or change in which the very nature of true happiness consists for perfect rest and perfect peace go together Secondly It is absurd to say that one Divine Substance can send another for this were to suppose a plurality of Gods which hath been already sufficiently exploded besides that to send implying a superiority and to be sent a subjection both of which are absolutely impossible and absurd with respect to two Divine or infinitely perfect substances compared together it is likewise absurd in this respect to affirm of one Divine Substance that it sends or commands or that it is obedient to or is sent by another Thirdly though the Human Nature of Christ be so intimately twisted with and so vitally Vnited to the Divine and Omnipresent Substance of God the Father as that these two lives the Divine and the Human do by this means become one life and have a mutual self-consciousness and enjoyment of each other so as to constitute the same Person the unity of Person consisting in nothing else but an unity of common life yet when we speak of sending and being sent this in the utmost propriety of Speech can be understood of nothing else but the Human Nature of Christ which being formerly Vnited for it is but finite and by consequence cannot be adequately coextended to the whole divine space which is infinite and Omnipresent to that part of the Divine space where the most perfect and the most highly honoured and exalted Spirits have their sublime and glorious abode far above the dreggs and impurities of this Earthy Region was in the fulness of time for wise and gracious purposes predetermined and preordained of God from everlasting commanded to descend into it and adding human flesh to human nature to appear in the likeness of a mortal Man and to put on the form of a Servant notwithstanding that the vital union betwixt the Father and him continued all this while and being really united in that intire and vital manner to any one part of the Divine Substance or space it was as much in some sense as if he had been really and adaequately coextended to the whole because tho' in this Divine space it may be said of this what is in general true of all extension that it hath partem extra partem so that this part is not that or vice versa yet in the first place the parts of an Omnipresent extention are therefore utterly inseparable and indivisible even by cogitation from each other because the whole is Omnipresent and fills the very utmost possibility of space and in the second tho' the parts be never so distinct yet are they all of them acted by the same Divine Life which is one self-consciousness or self-sensation running through the whole indivisible inseparable and tyed to it self by an Vnity of self-enjoyment which is the highest the noblest and the strictest unity in the nature of things by which means it comes to pass as it is plain it must do that whatsoever is vitally united to any part of this Divine space which is all of it animated by one indivisible and inseparable life is at the same time effectually united to the whole and hath always the highest and the closest enjoyment and imbibition of that Divine life which a finite Substance is capable of receiving But yet in this action of sending and being sent it is not the Human nature but the Divine that sends and it is not the Divine nature but the Human that is sent and as the Father is said to beget the Son in these two senses which have been already explained first that he begat or produced the human nature of Christ out of the emanative fruitfulness of the Divine substance by an eternal generation secondly that by the same emanative and eternal power and goodness he did vitally unite this first born of all the Creatures the only begotten Son of God in that immediate and emanative sense into a feeling and enjoyment of his own Divine substance and life so that they became one Person which may very truly and properly be said to be God as being deno-Minated as there is all the reason in the world it should from the principal chiefest life so the descent of the Human Nature of Christ from one part of the divine substance to another notwithstanding that it were all the while vitally and consciously united to that Divine life which is indivisibly inseparably and self-consciously the same through all the parts of the Divine substance or space is as plainly asserted as it is possible for words to express it in that passage of St. John c. 3. 13. where our Saviour saith concerning himself No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven in which place by Heaven God or the Divine space was understood in the Language of the Jews and by his coming down from thence was meant the removal of his Human substance from one part of this Divine space to another and by his being in Heaven as every Man is in some sense being included in the large comprehension of the Divine space is meant in a more especial manner for it is manifest that something peculiar to himself is here exprest the vital union of the two natures together by which he was really God as well as Man and by his ascending thither notwithstanding that his Human substance continued all this while below is meant that he that is vitally united to any one part of the Divine space does at the same time enjoy a most entire and perfect Communion with the whole by reason of that indivisible and inseparable Life which enjoys it self fully perfectly and entirely in every part of the divine space which is the strictest Bond of Vnity that can be conceived and by which all the parts besides that they are actually inseparable by reason of the Omnipresence of the whole are still more closely and intimately connected with each other as if they were all the very same Thirdly in that Prayer of our Saviours uttered in the bitter Agonies of his human nature immediately before his Passion O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt which the Evangelist assures us to have been three times repeated it is manifest that the divine nature or substance is consider'd as a distinct and separate Person by it self endued and furnished with a distinct Will from that of the human nature and though it be true that in the human nature it self there was an absolute resignation to the divine Will nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt yet these Words themselves do sufficiently express it to have been only a passive resignation and an Instance not so much of Inclination as Obedience it was an Instance of submission and reluctancy together O
after as if the next thing to the Creation of Angels were that of the sensible and acceptable world he subjoyns who laid the Foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever But this is not all it was further necessary that this subtle matter should be Created for it neither is or can be by it self any more then a Creature and that from all Eternity by an emanative way that the Son or the second Person of the Blessed Trinity or the human nature of Christ vitally and personally united to the Divine of God the Father might have from all Eternity the more large and comprehensive notion of that infinitely perfect nature to which it was thus vitally and personally united and by consequence might be the more closely united and enjoy the more perfect Friendship and Communion with it for it is but reasonable to suppose that in this subtle matter not only the Vehicles of Angelick Forms and Spirits but also the sensible Ideas and Patterns of this lower World were originally drawn and in this sense the Heavens that is the emanative subtle matter in which those Archetypal Ideas were framed may be said to have declared the Glory of God in another and an antecedent notion to that in which the Psalmist understood those words by representing the Original Patterns of the World that was designed to be Created in the fulness of time to the Human nature of Christ and to those Angels and separated Spirits which were in time produced before the Foundations of the World which taught them more fully and perfectly to understand and celebrate the Power and Wisdom of God then without such outward helps any finite or created Being was capable of doing and this was no more then Seneca hath represented concerning God himself that he made use from all Eternity of a certain subtle matter in which the first Patterns and Archetypal examples of all things whatsoever were drawn Miremur saith he in his 58th Epistle See Apol. for middle way A. p. 283 to 289 in sublimi volitantes rerum omnium formas Deumque inter illa versantem ac providentem quemadmodum quae immortalia sacere non potuit quia materia prohibibat defendat a morte ac ratione vitium corporis vincat in which passage though it be manifest that he supposed God to be one Supreme Vbiquitary and Immaterial Nature which is his genuine and true notion and so must not be supposed in this particular to adhere strictly to the Stoical Principles which did not acknowledge any thing but matter in the world and though that supreme ubiquitary and immaterial Nature to help him to form and model his Ideas may not perhaps have any need of any such subtle and subeternal matter although it be somewhat difficult to conceive how material Ideas can be represented or conveyed otherwise then by material objects or by the help of the materia Ideata yet with respect to the human nature of Christ it was perhaps a matter of absolute necessity that such a subtle matter should from all Eternity be created wherein the first Patterns and Exemplars of things should be drawn to fill it with the more large and comprehensive notion of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which was a natural means of the most close and intimate Communion with him and this is a second sense in which the Son may be said no have Created the World because it was Created as it were on purpose for him that part of it I mean which makes up the subtle matter of the Vniverse which is infinitely the most considerable proportion of it But thirdly the Son may be said to have Created the World in this sense also not that the Power or Wisdom of the Human Nature could extend so far as to the Creation of the World but only that God the Father that is the original and radical divine substance did as it were take the advice and Council of the human nature in it that is he created such a World as should have a beauty congruity in it to the Human Nature because that Nature which in its abstracted separate Estate is much the same with the Angelic was to be the Principal Inhabitant of the Vniverse and therefore beauty or congruity being nothing else but a certain satisfaction complacency and delight which a certain object strikes upon a certain nature such a World was to be Created as was most naturally suited to please its best Inhabitant with its outward appearance as well as to afford it matter of Contemplation so that as all the Creatures were at first brought to Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever he called them that was the Name thereof so was the whole Creation presented to the Human Nature of Christ as it were for his approbation and to him perhaps it was especially to be applied what we find written at the end of every days work in the History of the Creation that God that is the human nature of Christ in conjunction with the divine saw that it was good that is it had a goodness of congruity to the Human part and I take upon me to affirm that no sense can be put upon this place which gives so intelligible an account of the goodness mentioned in the Text as this which I have mentioned seems to do so also St. John tells us That by him all things were made and without him was not any thing made that was made all things were made by him in the sense already explained because of the intimate union of the two Natures by which it comes to pass that the effects and operations of the one are alike attributed and ascribed to the other and without him not any thing was made that was made that is without his consent concurrence and approbation to whom the World that was to be made was to be so fitted that it was to have in it a certain congruity and harmony with his Nature and to strike a certain Sympathy and complacency upon it and in this sense it is that he is perhaps called by the Prophet Isaiah the Councellor as well as the Mighty God God having in this great work of the Creation consulted principally the happiness of his Creature Man and ordered matters after such a manner as should be most suitable most delightful most congruous and most useful to the human nature But secondly a second instance in which the divine and human nature may be considered as acting as one commen Person is the great affair of our Redemption for the divine nature of it self was impassible and the human of it self could not satisfie for the sins of the World but the innocence of the human nature of Christ which was I take it for granted owing to the intimate presence and union of it with the Divine the exquisite and inconceiveable painfulness of that death which our blessed Lord suffered upon the Cross for our sakes resulting
therefore he is Eternal and self-existent and consequently God They are the words of the Author to the Hebrews which have been already cited Melchisedek being by interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Peace without Father without Mother having neither beginning of Days nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest continually he was so like him that he was certainly the same for there is but one Eternal and Everlasting High Priest but one Mediatour betwixt God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who was King of Righteousness and King of Peace in whose Dispensation and Person that saying was fulfilled Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other at whose auspicious birth the quire of Heaven proclaimed with ravishing Notes and charming Voices Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards Men his Gospel was the Gospel and he was the Prince of Peace and his Spirit is the Spirit and the Soul of Peace and Love and he is said to be like Melchisedek as he is said in another place to have thought it no robbery to have been equal with God because he was indeed the very same besides that the first ingredient in that notion which we mortals are used to entertain of God is that he is a self-originated self-existent Being without beginning of Days or end of Life who is the first cause the first principle and mover upon which all other things whether in Heaven or on Earth have a necessary dependance as upon their primitive Sourse and Fountain and we are as sure that there can be but one such being as that there can be but one God and that there is none besides him But Seavently My seventh Argument shall be taken from those words of our Saviour in St. John No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven now it is clear that in one sense our Saviour had not yet ascended up to Heaven nor was he like to do it till after his Resurrection till when his Body and his Human Nature were to be confined to the Earth and it is further clear that in this very Sense Elijah had ascended in his Fiery Chariot before him and so had Enoch too before him wherefore we must refer this Saying to the ubiquitariness and omnipresence of the Divine Nature by which he was in Heaven and Earth at the same time and was alike present to all places at once no man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven or else we must understand the Word Heaven of God as the Jews in their Writings do frequently understand it and to this Sense it is used in several Places of the New Testament and in one of the Old and so the Sense will be this no Man hath ascended up to God that is no man enjoys a perfect and entire Commerce and Correspondence with him but he that came down from God even the Son of Man which is in God as our Saviour says expresly of himself elsewhere that he is in the Father and the Father in him and by this way of Interpretation the Vnion of the Divine and Human Nature in the Person of Christ will be very fitly and aptly represented but otherwise than by one of these two Interpretations I do not see what Sense can be made of the Place Eightly and lastly For I shall mention no more though there be a Cloud of other Witnesses which have been already summoned by other learned Men to give their Evidence to this mighty Truth the Divinity and Co-essentiality of the Person of Christ with that of God the Father I argue the same thing from the nature of that Sacrifice which he performed for us upon the Cross for it is certain that all the Jewish Sacrifices did point at this great and final Propitiation which was in the fulness of time to be made and therefore he is called Christ our Pass-over and the Author to the Hebrews expresly makes the Sin and the Trespass-Offering among the Jews to have been Typical of the Sufferings of Christ upon the Cross it is certain likewise that those Sacrifices were looked upon to be of an expiatory Nature by the Priest or the Owners laying his hand upon them as it were to transfer the guilt upon their heads and by the Blouds being forbidden to be eaten among the Jews because it had contracted a Levitical Uncleanness by the guilt of the offending Parties as also by the Sin and the Trespass-Offerings being burnt in many cases without the camp because of it's Uncleanness as Christ suffered without the Gate For the same reason if we will believe the Author to the Hebrews that by this he might answer the Sin-Offering among the Jews Lastly it is certain that this Expiation of the Jewish Sacrifices whatever Opinion the Jews themselves might have of it was not real but typical and pointed at that great Sacrifice which was indeed and in truth to expiate for the Sins of the whole world For it was not possible that the bloud of Bulls and Goats should take away Sins as the Author to the Hebrews tells us and for the same reason it was as little possible that the blood of one man should be able to atone and expiate for the sins of another and much less for those of all mankind so that it was utterly impossible that any thing but the blood of God himself should be able to work so great so universal and so lasting an Atonement which is all that I shall offer at present as to the second branch of the Text which concerns the Divinity of the Person of Christ only from what hath been said there are some practical Improvments to be made which I will but name From his being born of a Virgin we are in a Figure acquainted with the purity and cleanness of his Person and his Doctrine and with that Chastity and Innocence which is expected from us if we pretend to be his Followers and Disciples and from the Divinity of his Person there is a twofold Lesson which we are to learn First the Infiniteness and unconceivable vastness of that condescension by which he did not only stoop to human nature but to the worst and most afflicting Circumstances of Poverty Disgrace Contempt and Scorn that it can be loaded withal and to the most vile painful and ignominious Death which human Nature was capable of Suffering and this ought when ever we consider it to be a powerful and present Remedy against all manner of Insolence and Pride in our best Condition when the Son of God who was God himself humbled himself so much for our sakes and gave us through the whole course of the time he spent upon Earth a perpetual Example of humility and Meekness Secondly it ought to arm us with
moved with equal swiftness that all the matter of which the Vniverse consists is not crumbled into the finest Air and the most subtle aether it can be referred to nothing but this that that Cause or â—â—â—â—ciple in which the Power of self-activity and self-motion resides can either suspend decrease or utterly withdraw that motion as it pleases it self and this is confirmed by our own daily Experience of our selves who being a lower sort of immaterial Beings are likewise in our Proportion endued with a Power of self-activity and self-motion from within which though as being the Power of a finite and imperfect agent it cannot be extended beyond such a sphere of activity yet within that sphere or proportion or degree it may either suspend or encrease or utterly remove and withdraw its activity as it pleases it self Lastly since this being is not only furnished with an ability to act or move but with a power of proportioning that activity and that motion according to its pleasure and since it appears farther by our daily and perpetual experience of all the objects about us by the earth which he hath made and by the Heavens which are the work of his hands by the admirable beauty and artifice of all things considered by themselves by their agreement and harmony with one another for the Preservation of the whole and by the fitness of the whole Fabrick and the seeming conspiracy of its several parts for the subsistence and happiness of those Creatures that belong to the sensitive and the reasonable world I say since it appears by all this that the activity or self-motion of the Divine Substance is tempered by measures of the most obliging goodness the most exact Justice the most profound wisdom and yet that all the several instances compared together are at the same time an irrefragable argument of a most unbounded and uncontroulable power this makes up in short the perfect and compleat demonstration of what I undertook to prove that God is nothing else but an infinite extention or omnipresent Substance endued with all possible goodness and wisdom and power SECT II. That there is of necessity an Immaterial Extention to be granted against DES CARTES DES Cartez distinguishes very rightly betwixt cogitation or thinking and extention for they are two things and therefore the notion of the latter does not of necessity include in it that of the former there may be an extended substance which does not which cannot think but yet for all that there can be no thinking substance but what is extended the reason is because extention is the common attribute of all substance whatsoever and if the very essence and being of an immaterial substance do depend wholly and entirely upon cogitation and upon nothing else I would willingly demand of the maintainers of this Doctrine whether we must understand this of actual or only of potential or possible cogitation If the former if nothing but actual cogitation will serve the turn then the Soul in a sleep or trance or what we are used to call a brown study ceasing to think must also cease to be for there can be no cogitation without self consciousness or a sense of thinking and when it begins to think again it must be supposed to be Created a new or rather every distinct cogitation every particular thought that comes into our heads must be a distinct Soul which things are so absurd that nothing can be more But if we understand it only of potential or possible cogitation that is to say of a power of thinking which is sometimes employed and sometimes not which is all that is true in this notion then there must be a substance in which this power must reside which power must therefore be distinct from the substance it self as causes are distinct from their effects how immediate or emanative soever those effects be as modifications that is particular shapes colours magnitudes or respects of the parts of any body are distinct from that matter to which they belong or as the Elasticity or springiness of recoyling bodies is distinct from the matter of which those bodies are composed or because nothing can be more plain then the thing it self I say again that that substance which hath a power within it self of exerting or suspending a certain degree of activity as it pleases must needs be distinct from that power which may either be exerted or suspended or indeed while the Soul continues united to this earthly body cannot always be equally exerted in our selves besides the difference of temperament and constitution which there is betwixt our selves and others though the substance in which this activity resides be always the same in us and always specifically the same that is a substance of exactly the same nature in others Des Cartez is the less to be credited in setting cogitation and extention at so wide a distance from one another because it is plain he did it to serve a turn for in that Mechanical World which is of his contriving he hath ordered the matter so as to divide the whole universe into certain Vortices or Whirlpools in the centre of one of which is the Sun round about which the Earth is moved by the subtle matter of the Heavens much after the same manner as you shall see a straw turn round in a Whirl-pool of the water when by reason of too strait a passage and too swift a motion the water cannot pass freely on in a direct course but is obstructed by it self and is reflected back with an eddy towards the Fountain For all natural motion is in a strait line as is evident by this that where there is no such obstruction there the water flows easily in a direct Channel without any such violent returns upon it self thus smoak ascends directly when its motion is not disturbed by the wind and heavy bodies descend in a perpendicular line and the same is likewise further confirmed by Dez Cartez himself by the experiment of a Sling which the faster it is swung about in a circular motion the more strait and tite is the string or thong of it kept by the stone which is at the bottom which resists and opposes the circular motion which is violent and unnatural to it and endeavours all the while to fly off and be gone in a strait or direct line besides that motion in a right line is the most simple and easie sort of motion whereas there is no such thing in nature as an exact and Mathematical Circle but it consists in effect only of so many little straight Lines passing out of one into another that is of so many several violences and interruptions done to the direct and rectilinear motion Since therefore Des Cartez had divided the whole Universe into so many great Vortices or Whirl pools one of which is that which we inhabit the Center of which is the Sun as all the fixt Stars that we see in a Starry Night are if
from Epicurus so whether his Cometology the absorption of his Stars and the Formation of his Planets were not a part of the Philosophy of the antient World may be a question which deserves to be considered For some such thing seems to be alluded to in that Expression of St. Jude v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wandring or Planetary Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever SECTION III. Des Cartez an Atheist his Argument from the Idaea represented BUt I am firmly of opinion whatever the Philosophers are pleased to say who whether they be more conceited of themselves or of their Master Des Cartez is hard to determine that Des Cartez was as rank an Atheist and a far more dangerous one than either Diagoras or Theodorus or any of those whom Antiquity hath branded with that Name and that he had a Design of introducing Atheism and a Belief of nothing but Body into the World For though indeed he does very rightly affirm the Notions of extension and cogitation to be as they are very different from one another yet when he makes extension to be the very Essence and constitutive Nature of matter and takes upon him to assert not only that all matter is extended but also that nothing is extended but what is matter the consequence of this is when I come afterwards to consider that I can have no notion of Substance without extension and I have already granted extension and matter to be the same that cogitation shall be only a certain mode or disposition of the infinitely diversifyed and variously complicated Parts of this extension Again his rejecting those arguments for the existence of a God which have been used all along to be taken from the Fabrick and contrivance of the World as indeed it was necessary for him to do who had contrived such a giddy Vniverse of his own and substituting in the stead of it that Bulrush of an Idea unable to withstand the least puff of disputation which instead of defending the existence of a God is manifectly to betray the cause of God and of Religion does but too plainly discover what thoughts we are to entertain of him by whom so fallacious and inconclusive an argument was substituted in the stead of that which is so strong in it self and hath been so successful in all ages to preserve the belief and worship of a God among Men. To be sure David and this Philosopher were not of a mind for he tells us very honestly for want of this new Philosophy wherewith after ages have been blessed The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard Their line is gone out through all the Earth and their words to the end of the World And that we may see the better how weak and inconclusive his argument drawn from the Idea is I will explain as clearly as I can what it is that he understands by it he tells us therefore what is very true that we are all of us born Infants and that we come into the world without any knowledge or experience of the things about us from whence it so falls out that in some things we pass a wrong Judgment our selves and in others we are deceived by taking things upon trust from those that are themselves mistaken that having once embraced an errour and espoused it for a long time it is very hard as indeed it is for us to undeceive our selves or to believe otherwise of it then as of a most certain and undoubted truth he saith that our senses do in many things delude us and impose upon us as a stick in the water shall appear crooked tho' it be indeed straight and a square Tower or Building shall at a distance have the appearance of round and a Marble touch'd by two fingers crossing one another shall affect one with a Sense as if it were two though it be indeed but one he tells us that in our dreams things do appear to us to be as real as when we are never so wide awake and that there is no certain way to distinguish betwixt the realities of the day and the delusions of the night since the one doth always appear as real as the other and at that time when they strike our Imagination we do as really believe them to be true there are many saith he that argue from a false Principle and then it is impossible but all the Conclusions that are built upon it must either be false or uncertain there are others that let their Principle be never so right yet they do not argue rightly from it and on both sides it happens that those things are taken for certain Demonstrations which are indeed nothing better than very foul and palpable Mistakes and upon such considerations as these he exhorts his Disciple as the best way to discover the Truth to doubt of all things the truth of his Faculties the evidence of his Senses the certainty even of direct and Mathematical Demonstrations but yet at the same time saith he it is impossible I should believe otherwise but that I that doubt must be For I can never give my Assent to this Proposition That that which is not can either doubt or think therefore he lays down this as the first proposition of which we can be certain I doubt therefore I am or I think therefore I am that is I am as yet uncertain of the Existence of my body which being only an Object of my Senses I may be deceived in it as well as in any other sensible Object whatsoever but yet still notwithstanding it is most certainly true I doubt therefore I am that is that thing or nature whatever it is which doubts or thinks or disputes with it self about all other things must of necessity have a real and undoubted Existence of its own and though I be deceived in all the Judgments which I make upon the things about me or that appear to me as if they had a Being yet thus much is still unquestionably true I am deceived therefore I am for that which is not cannot be deceived Wherefore being certain of the Truth of this first Proposition that is so certain that it is impossible for me to doubt of it any longer I doubt or I think or I am deceived therefore I am his next Enquiry is into the nature of this Being that thus pronounces of it self and from it's thinking infers it's Existence and saith he when I look into my self I find the Sphere of my knowledg to be very short and all that I pretend to know very doubtful and uncertain when I look back I cannot recollect that I have been long in Being and when I look forward I have no certainty that I shall exist the next moment from whence he infers of himself That he is
an imperfect and dependent Creature that could not give Being to its self for then he should always have been and cannot preserve it self in Being For then he should be sure of his Existence for ever after and comparing the Idea's or Notions which he finds within himself he discovers some of them to be the Ideas or Representatiosn of sensible Objects in which he cannot tell but he may be deluded and imposed upon and others though they appear to be of greater certainty yet men have been deceived even in Mathematical Conclusions of which they thought themselves as certain as the most certain Evidence and the most unquestionable Demonstration could make them but at last after a great deal of Rummaging and Tumbling over the Ideas of his mind he finds one Idea or Notion of a Being necessarily existent and this he tells us cannot chuse but be because it hath necessary Existence included in it's Nature and this is that which he calls God SECT IV. The CARTESIAN Argument from the IDEA Refuted I Have laid down in the former Section as plain and candid a Representation as I am able to make of that famous Argument for the Existence of a God which is drawn from the Idaea or from the Notion of a God implanted in the minds of Men including necessary existence in it from whence the Philosopher is pleased to infer that thing or Being which is represented by it must of necessity be But against this profound way of Reasoning that hath drawn so many eminent Disciples after it there are these following Objections to be made First that if we would go the Cartesian way to work yet this Proposition I think therefore I am cannot possibly be the first Proposition of which I must be certain but there must of necessity be three other Propositions of whose Truth I must be well assured before I can be certain of this and these Propositions are evidently these First Nihili nulla sunt Attributa that which is not hath no attributes or affections belonging to it Secondly cogitatio est attributum cogitation or thinking is an attribute or affection of some substance And then Thirdly from this I infer quod cogitat est that which thinks must be which in the last place I apply to my self ego cogito ergo sum I think therefore I am so that it is manifestly impossible for a Man to doubt of all things besides his own Existence since it is so plain and demonstrably certain that there must be three other Propositions of which he must be sure before he can be sure of that Secondly Suppose a Man to be never so sure of his own existence yet in this sceptical way of Reasoning when I am once at a doubt of the existence of all other things besides my self it is utterly impossible that ever I should get rid of this scruple by any means whatsoever for though I do find the Idea or Notion of a Being necessarily existent impressed upon my mind yet if I understand this of any thing without and besides my self how can I tell but I may be deceived in this Idaea as well as in any other It is true indeed there must be somewhat necessarily existent or else nothing could be for out of nothing comes nothing but how can I tell but I my self am that self-originated that self-existent Being For because I cannot look back for any long space of time it does by no means follow from thence that there was any time when I was not for I may possibly have forgot my self as those that assert the pre-existence of the Soul do say that she had a Being in the Regions above before she was thrust down into this dungeon of the Earth notwithstanding that neither they nor we have any the least Sense or Memory of any such thing and upon supposition that any thing may be forgotten when we come to doubt of all things this is a very unexceptionable way of Reasoning in the case proposed and so on the other side though I am not sure I shall exist the next moment yet it does not follow but I may exist to all Eternity for I was not sure a minute ago that I should live till now and yet for all that it still remains to this very moment and may do to the next and so on a very true Proposition cogito ergo sum I think therefore I am Neither are those frailties or infirmities which I seem to my self to be sensible of those decays and weaknesses which I seem to feel in my body any argument at all that I am indeed that frail and dependent Creature which I seem to my self to be for all these are only matters of sence in which I may possibly be deceived and after all the complaints which I am perpetually making of Aches in this part and Sickness in the other it may still be true according to Dez Cartez that all this is nothing but a meer delusion and that I have no body and consequently no pain or sickness about me Neither can I make any better inference from the sickness or infirmity or death of others that I my self am of a mortal and a fading Nature for all this for ought I know is nothing but a dream and perhaps there is no Creature nor any substance in the World besides my self Lastly the narrowness of my sphere of Knowledge or of Power are not any arguments that I am not indeed that necessarily Existent being whose Idaea or notion I have in my mind for if there be nothing but I and I know my self I know as much as can be known and again if there be nothing but I and consequently no Power but what I have I can do as much as can be done and by consequence I am endued with those two attributes of Power and Wisdom in their very utmost latitude and extent or which is all one I am a Being endued with all possible perfection which is all that is meant by God So that according to this new method of Philosophysing it is impossible for a Man when he is got so far as to call all things into question ever to get rid of those incurable scruples it is impossible for him to be sure of the Existence of any Substance whatsoever but his own and though it be never so certain that there must be something which doth exist of it self otherwise nothing could ever be yet since I can have no certainty of the Existence of any thing besides my own Person and Substance I have more reason to conclude that I my self am that self-originated and self-existent Being then that there is any other besides me and thus hath Des Cartez very fairly banished a God out of the World and the World out of it self and left himself alone to contemplate and admire his own self-existent and solitary being and if this be not fine Philosophy and profound reasoning such as deserves that admiration which
it hath met with in the World let his admirers and Champions themselves be Judges If this Philosophy were true Men might e'en shut up their Shops and sow up their Mouths and trouble themselves no farther about the things of this Life for why should any Man concern himself about things that are not but only seem to be and when it is utterly impossible for him to get rid of his doubts I can hardly understand how it is possible for such a Man to act with that steadiness and gravity and constant purpose of mind as if he were well satisfied in the truth of his senses It is true indeed that it does by no means become a Philosopher to take things upon trust without examining into their truth himself but yet to doubt of all things is notwithstanding every whit as Vnphilosophical as to examine into nothing for a Philisopher if he be any thing at all is a Man that pretends to know somewhat more then his Neighbours but at this rate of Philosophising he will know less or at least it will be impossible that they should know less then he for no man can know less than nothing and this is the highest pitch to which a Cartesian Philosopher can attain But thirdly I affirm that we have no notion of a being necessarily existent imprinted upon us by Nature but it is only the effect of our reasoning with our selves and with one another we find our selves by experience to be frail and imperfect Creatures we are sensible that we come into the world not by any power or vertue of our own and that this was the case of our Parents before us and of theirs before them we remember that we were once Infants infirm and helpless things that we grew up by slow and insensible proportions to the strength and stature and maturity of a Man we find our selves all the while subject to a thousand casualties and diseases assaulted by infirmities from within and by enemies from without that we are liable to hunger and thirst and cold that we are unable to subsist by our selves without being mutually kind and helpful to one another that we stand in need of Houses and Garments and Weapons to defend us against the weather the wild beasts and one another of Food to recruit the sensible evacuations and the insensible perspirations of Nature and of Physick to repair its defects and supply what it wants of sufficiency to preserve it self that notwithstanding this our very pleasures and enjoyments do by degrees impair us and bring a satiety and loathsomeness upon themselves that that very food which was intended by nature for the support of Life does sometimes in the most temperate prove the occasion of sickness and diseases that the very Ayr without which we cannot live or breath does by degrees consume us and prey upon us in the nature of a menstruum till at last old age give a period to all the satisfactions and enjoyments of Youth and Death put an end to the complaints and miseries of Old Age. And by this means being made sensible of our own imperfection that we are born without our own consent and that we die whether we will or no that we cannot subsist without perpetual recruits and that those recruits themselves do by degrees impair and weaken that Nature which they were intended to preserve we are forced to acknowledg our selves to be a sort of obnoxious and dependent Creatures and that we owe our being which we see so plainly it was impossible for us to bestow upon our selves or to preserve it for any length of time after it was bestowed to something more perfect and more noble then our selves which if it be a dependent and created Nature notwithstanding that it is of greater excellence and perfection then is to be found in our selves we must still run higher in the chain of causes till we come to some cause that hath a self-existence and a nature which it did not receive or borrow from any other and this is indeed a Being necessarily Existent to the knowledge of which we arrive not by any Idaea or notion implanted upon our natures but by a gradual and painful ratiocination Neither indeed were there ever any before Des Cartez who did assert any such innate Idaeas or inbred Notions implanted upon the minds of Men antecedently to their converse with the objects that are about them and the reasoning which they make within themselves by comparing and collating things with one another but the antient Platonists and those that have received it from them Men of a Kidney far different from Des Cartez and his Disciples who did it upon this account that they supposed us to have lived in times past in a Superiour State in the Region of Angels and immortal Spirits cloathed all about with bodies of an Aethereal and Heavenly contexture but that for our Transgressions in that blessed State we were cast down from thence by the just Judgment of God into this lowest Region of the World which is the very sink and sediment of nature which was not only intended as a punishment but as an act of goodness to make a new experiment upon us whether we would reform our selves and having obtained a perfect Conquest over our lusts and passions return again into that blessed place from whence by our sins and enormities we had departed and from hence they supposed that as in a Shipwreck though the far greatest part of the Vessel and her freight be irrecoverably lost yet some part of both will frequently swim to shoar so after this great Shipwreck of our selves being cast away from the Divine presence and from the Company of Angels and immaculate Spirits yet there were still as it were some planks some broken remainders and fragments of Knowledge that were preserved and therefore that all our Knowledge here was nothing else but reminiscency or a calling to mind those notions with which our Souls were replenished in the other world and which though mightily defaced and blemished made a hard shift to swim along with us and to preserve some footsteps of themselves in our minds in and after our passage into this But not to concern our selves about this Doctrine of Praeexistence a Doctrine which hath exercised the Wits and Pens of so many learned Men It is plain that this Platonick fancy of innate or inbred notions ought by no means to find entertainment in the Creed of wise and understanding Men not only because it is precarious but also because it is needless for it may be evidently shewn by a particular induction that there is no notion which the mind of Man is capable of receiving which he may not derive from the information of his senses by conversing with external objects by comparing them together and affirming or denying them according to the congruities or disagreements which by experience we find in them of one another By conversing with objects singly and by