any Angel or Spirit that he proceedeth out of or from God the Father then haply this will not prove the Holy Ghost to be one and the same God with the Father that is the most high God For as for that word indeed our Adversaries do marvellously please and gratifie their weak Disciples with it Sect. 11 falling foul and uttering evil speeches against several kinds of expressions which the Scriptures themselves speaking of God as three and one do invite and lead men unto Now because these things cannot be explained nor made sutable to the minds of men by any thing found in the Creature that should answer them they fall foul upon them and say that they are nothing but devices tricks and subtilties of men which they say are contrary to Principles of Reason and Understanding Whereas the truth is they are things that are most rational and of an elevating nature unto those who understand them whose Element they are who are versed in the traversing of such curious questions and mysterious speculations I say they are most rational unto them and admit of the most curious debates But that which in the general may satisfie the meanest capacity concerning the Three in One we may thus conceive That according to the Nature Essence or simple Being of every thing whatsoever such likewise is the Modus or manner of that respective Being For there is nothing that hath a simple Being but it hath a Modus or a particular manner of Being according to which it is or hath its subsistence Now this Modus or manner of Being or subsistence take it where you will it alwaies follows the Being as the shadow doth the body or substance whose it is For Essence or Being is one thing but the manner of its subsistence this is another If you cannot so well consent unto this at the first view yet you will find upon a diligent enquiry that the Notion is true viz. That every thing hath a manner of Being as well as a Being it self and that this Modus or manner of Being is something which is distinct from the Essence or Being it self Now then look as things are more excellent in their simple Essence and Nature so have they a more excellent Modus or manner of Being than such things whose Nature and Essence are beneath and less noble and excellent in the order of Creatures So now if we shall carry up this Rule or Principle unto God and apply it unto his Essence and Being it will be no manner of offence to any man's Reason and Understanding that he should not be able to comprehend how or after what manner the Divine Nature and Essence doth subsist Because his Essence is so infinitely above and differing from all created Essences or Beings Otherwise we shall conceive rudely of God and pollute his Nature and bring him down from what he is and mingle him amongst finite and limited Creatures if we shall seek for any parallel or likeness of his Being And if so then we must conceive that the manner of his Being is of the same kind and commensurable unto his Being it self A peculiar and appropriate manner of subsisting which is not to be parallelled in the subsistence of any finite Being whatsoever And besides we have the help and light of Scriptures to help us in this namely to find out what manner of subsistence this is that is One in Three This I say we have from the Scriptures And though some men do undertake to make it to be nothing but what is very agreeable to the Principles of Reason and Understanding that is in man to cnceive that there should be such a subsistence in the Divine Nature Yet for this we shall not undertake nor advance so high in such a mystery as this is Only this is clear and the foundation is as a Rock under our feet that there must be a peculiar Modus or manner of Tubsistence appropriate to the Divine Essence or Being which doth not parallel nor cannot be matched by the whole Creation And that it may be thus as well as any otherwise I think is as clear as the other For whatsoever you will imagine or whatsoever your Understandings should project unto you to be the peculiar manner of this subsistence most certain it is that it will be as hard to explain and bring it down to the capacity and apprehension of men as the Being it self which is infinite or as the subsistence of Three in One. Sect. 12 I shall only add a few more Testimonies from the Scriptures wherein the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost shineth as light at the noon day and then proceed to shew the fallacies and other weaknesses of those pretenses wherein our Adversaries rejoyce so much as if they were Arguments above Answer and so put an end to our present debate The first Scripture shall be Joh. 20.22 And when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained First When Christ breathing upon his Disciples said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Is it tolerable to imagine that his meaning should be Receive ye an Angel or the supreme Angel That by the Holy Ghost here he doth not cannot mean the gifts of the Holy Ghost so called but the gift of the Holy Ghost himself appears 1. From the nature of the Symbol or outward sign which Christ useth in communicating or giving the Holy Ghost unto them viz. That inflation or breathing upon them The Holy Ghost himself is elsewhere compared unto the wind which is a kind of breathing or moving of the air and fitly so may be partly because his manner of proceeding from the Father and the Son is by way of spiration or breathing i.e. The ineffable and inexplicable manner of his proceeding amongst all created things or things intelligible unto men is best resembled by or comes nearest unto a spiration or breathing Partly also because as the original or first cause and so likewise that which becomes of the wind or that which is done by the wind is very secret unto men So is the first spring or original of the Spirits entring or coming into men as likewise the end which the Spirit makes with men into whom he cometh are great secrets hidden mysteries unto the generality of men very hard and dissicult and of an abstruse definition and demonstration This our Saviour Joh. 3.8 describes by the nature of the wind The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit It is very likely that God made this same material World in such a shape as he hath now done and such and such Creatures as now are made And so such Laws for these Creatures to act and move by and
is termed the Lord of Hosts by Isaiah is by the Apostle Paul's interpretation the Holy Ghost And if he was worshipped by the Angels certainly he was no Angel no created Angel himself but truly God Neither can our Adversaries take Sanctuary under the wing of their common Evasion viz. by pretending that it might be the Lord of Hosts or the most High God that put the words specified into the mouth of Isaiah and yet do it too by an Angel For 1. here is no ground at all no touch or breathing of any circumstance to build such a conceit or pretense upon 2. That which the Lord of Hosts did unto Isaiah by the Ministery of an Angel in his Vision is expresly ascribed to the Angel who did minister unto him in this kind Isa 6.6 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the Altar and he laid it upon my mouth and said Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged What God did by an Angel unto Isaiah is as we hear expresly attributed to the Angel that did it And if it had been an Angel that by order and Commission from God dictated that Prophesie unto Isaiah which here he is commanded to utter unto the People why should not this have been mentioned and the act of dictation we speak of ascribed unto the Angel as well as that other Especially considering that the Angel which is pretended to have been ministerial unto God in the latter I mean in suggesting the words of the Prophesie unto the Prophet is supposed to be an Angel of far greater worth and dignity than the other for such the Holy Ghost is supposed to be by our Adversaries viz. the supreme Angel in dignity Now it is no waies reasonable to suppose that the Act of an inferiour Agent or Instrument should be recorded and the act of a far greater Instrument in and about the same business should be buried in silence Nay 3. And lastly for this the Prophet Isaiah is expresly said ver 11. to have called him Lord who had said unto him Go tell this people c. Then said I Lord how long If men had though but a competent anoynting with that wisdom which is from above as James speaketh Jam. 3.17 and so were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to be perswaded indeed possible to be perswaded by the truth or to the truth these things might satisfie and perswade them For what greater proof or argument can there be to evince the Holy Ghost to be truly God or God by Nature as the Apostle distinguisheth than that he should be worshipped or adored by the Angels who very well know to whom worship belongeth Yea as Christ the Son of God is directly prayed unto by Stephen Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and again by John Rev. 22.20 Even so come Lord Jesus So is the Holy Ghost by the Church or Spouse of Christ Cant. 4.16 Awake thou North wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out q.d. O Spirit of God breath upon my heart and soul be thou operative by thy grace and power upon me that so my Graces my holy Dispositions and Affections may freely utter themselves in the World with sutable actions and deportments Some I know understand this as if it were rather spoken by Christ to the Holy Ghost in reference to his Church whom they conceive he calleth his Garden than by the Spouse in respect of her self but the words in the latter end of the verse seem to evince the contrary for they must needs be understood as spoken by the Spouse Let my Beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits Here she styles her self his Garden because of the pleasure and delight she knew he took in her and invites him into his Garden to eat his pleasant fruits i. e. Desires him to take contentment in her Graces and Services We heard not long since that the Spirit of God is in the Scriptures resembled by the wind and why Yet more plainly than this Sect. 16 John prays for mercy and peace for the seven Churches of Asia not only from God the Father and from Jesus Christ but also from the Holy Ghost Rev. 1.4 signified by the seven Spirits before the Throne of the Father for the multiplicity of his distributions and gifts given unto men And here it may be noted that the Holy Ghost is not only joyned together with the Father and the Son by John as with them constituting one and the same object of Divine Worship but is likewise mentioned out of the order wherein they are more usually named when all three are mentioned together viz. not in the last place but in the middle between the Father and the Son which is I suppose occasioned from hence because John had more to say in the immediate sequel of the Context concerning Christ and therefore according to the usual manner of the Scriptures in like case reserved the last place in the enumeration for him though his proper place were before If any man shall here object and say That John doth not properly or directly pray in the passage mentioned to the Holy Ghost no nor yet to the Father or the Son but only wisheth Grace and Peace unto the seven Churches from them joyntly To this I answer 1. If it be conceived that John only wisheth or desireth Grace and Peace unto the Churches yet it is plain that he wisheth them equally and indifferently from the Spirit of God as well as from the Father and the Son therefore he supposeth him to be a joynt Donour with the other two of these Blessings Doubtless he would not have wished or desired them from one that had no power or right of interest to confer them and if the Holy Ghost hath power to confer them what can either God the Father or the Son have more If it be said God the Father may have an original power and the Holy Ghost a derivative or communicated power only I reply 1. Here as not the least intimation of any such difference between the power of the one and of the other in the sense at least of him that objecteth For there is a sense indeed wherein it may be admitted without any prejudice to the Deity of the Holy Ghost that he hath only a derived or communicated right or power to give Grace and Peace and the Father alone the power Original in this kind As his Personality or Subsistence in the Divine Nature or Essence is communicated unto him by and from the Father together with the Son so may all Rights and Powers belonging hereunto and founded in such a Subsistence be said to be derived and communicated unto him also But as he partakes of or subsists in the same Divine Essence with the Father and the Son so his Right
that the word God in such Sayings as these cannot be taken Personally but of necessity must be taken Essentially viz. as signifying the Divine Nature or Essence wherin both Persons Father and Son do partake so that the sense and meaning of this Proposition is That the Father and the Son do subsist or are partakers of the same Divine Nature and Essence which Divine Nature or Essence is sometimes expressed by the word God So again when God is said to be a Spirit as Joh. 4.24 it is not to be taken Personally as if the meaning were either that the Father or the Son or the Spirit were a Spirit for though it be true of every of them that they are Spirits the Father is a Spirit and so the Son is a Spirit yet that our Saviour should here affirm it determinately or particularly of any one of them more than other no sufficient Reason can be given Therefore the meaning of our Saviour saying God is a Spirit must needs be this That the Divine Nature and Essence which is communicated to the Three Persons or wherein the Three Persons subsist and so are Essentially one and the same God that thâ—s Nature and Divine Essence is spiritual immaterial and invisible And yet more plainly Rom. 16.27 where God is termed only wise To God only wise be Glory The word God is to be taken Essentially because if it should be here taken Personally viz. for God the Father which our Adversary conceiveth and contendeth for with might and main affirming That to take God otherwise than Personally is to take him otherwise than he is and to mistake him and that there is no such acceptation of the word God in the Scriptures with the like But I say that in the place now before us To God only wise be Glory the word God must needs be taken essentially and not Personally is evident from hence because otherwise the Apostle must suppose that neither Christ nor the Holy Ghost had any wisdom in them or none considerable but God the Father only which how near or far off it is from Blasphemy I leave to sober men to determine Other places there are without number wherein the word God must needs be taken Essentially But these few produced and insisted on are sufficient for the proof thereof Therefore the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially is not a distinction unheard of in Scriptures as our Adversarie groundlesly affirmeth unless as we noted before by being unheard of he meaneth in respect of the sound of words not in respect of the truth and substance of the matter neither do they who speak of God according to the sense and import of that distinction Affirm any thing of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures and so are free from all the guilt of presumption upon such an account But the Adversary cannot be perswaded himself Sect. 3 nor be willing that others should be perswaded that the Scriptures should own or countenance any such distinction as that of God taken Personally and Essentially and therefore trieth his skill to make us believe that it is disclaimed by reason and accordingly levieth three Arguments or Reasons against it We shall propound them in their order as himself hath drawn them up and give replies unto them one by one First saith he It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the thing and not to delude himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two Beings or things in his mind and consequently two Gods This is his first Reason to which we reply three things 1. Whereas to perswade others into his own Judgment or opinion he would put them upon endeavouring to conceive the thing distinctly to mould frame and fashion in their minds or imaginations the manner how a Divine Person should be distinguished from the Divine Nature or Essence Doth he not put men upon a direct course to make shipwrack of their Christianity and all they believe touching the Gospel and Christ Jesus For whereas there are many things plainly asserted and partly clearly supposed of the main Pillars of that Religion and Worship of God which the Gospel commendeth unto the World the mode or distinct manner whereof cannot be conceived or understood by men if so be men shall reject or deny them upon this account I mean because they cannot distinctly conceive or satisfie their imaginations how they should be they must together with the rejection of these reject all that which is built or hangs upon them which is as hath been said the main Fabrick or body of Christianity As to give an instance Because it is once and again plainly affirmed in the Gospel that a Virgin conceived and brought forth a Child and upon this Conception and Child thus brought forth we know that the whole projection and frame of the Gospel dependeth Yet who is able to conceive in his mind the distinct manner how she should or did Conceive or what the Holy Ghost particularly acted or did in order to enable or make her to Conceive or what she her self likewise did towards or about this Conception For to Conceive as well as bring forth is a Verb Active and importeth the doing of somewhat either per modum naturae or per modum voluntatis or both by her who is said to Conceive But that the whole Transaction between the Holy Ghost and the Virgin about the Conception of the Lord Jesus Christ God blessed for ever was mysterious and secret and the manner of it in respect of particulars purposely veiled by God is plainly enough intimated by the words or Phrases wherein the Holy Ghost himself expresseth the said business by the mouth of the Angel who first brought tidings from Heaven unto the Virgin of this high Favour intended by God towards her The Holy Ghost saith the Angel unto her shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vertue or power of the most High shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 Shall overshadow thee i. e. shall secretly and after a manner unknown not fit to be revealed unto men negotiate this great business with thee Now if a man should reason so or speak thus unto us about the Virgins Conception It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the things and not delude both himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to understand or comprehend how a Virgin should Conceive Should he not attempt to perswade us out of the belief of the Gospel and to abandon our Christianity only upon this account because it requireth us to believe such a thing which we cannot conceive how it was or should be And what doth he less that argueth after the same manner to draw us from believing that a divine Person and the divine Essence can be
distinguished because we cannot conceive the particular manner how they are or may be distinguished Take another Instance of a thing oft supposed in the Scriptures and which is though in another kind very Fundamental too to Christian Religion at least to our embracing and professing of it The reasonable soul of a man is united unto the body and so the body is united likewise unto the Soul so as to make one and the same man or person This the Scripture supposeth in twenty places and ten we shall not need to cite any for the proof of it But who is there that is able distinctly to conceive or shape in his mind how or after what manner by what Ligament or bonds the Soul is united and knit unto the Body and the Body to it Or how or by what vertue or property inherent in the Soul it should enliven strengthen or give motion unto the Body To omit many particulars more relating to the state and condition of the Soul and Body in their union The things themselves being certain though the distinct manner of them or of their being be inscrutable unto men will a man charge him with deluding himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding who himself believeth and would have others believe also that the reasonable soul in natural union or conjunction with an humane body maketh one and the same intire man or person of man only because he cannot distinctly conceive the manner how such a thing should be Will a man go about to perswade himself that he is not a man Surely no all the Philosophers in the World and all the Learned men who have called up all their Learning and Principles to enquire about it were never able to reach the manner how such a thing should be We know not as Solomon informeth us Eccles 11.5 what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child Shall we therefore deny that there is any such thing as the growing of a Child in the womb of her that bears it because no man knoweth how they do grow It is not a more common than true saying That many effects are visible and certain the reason or causes whereof are hid from men as the flowing and ebbing of the Sea that is a famous instance and the saltness of the water the Spots in the Moon the pointing of the Loadstone towards the North with many the like in Nature And if the Reasons and Causes of things be so hard to be come at so inaccessible to the Capacities and Understandings of men How much more are the modes the respective manner of the beings and subsistings of things these being many degrees more subtil and farther remote from the Understandings of men than the Causes and Reasons of the other And if the modi the intrinsical manner as the Schoolmen term them of created beings and their subsisting be so difficult to be conceived and understood it needeth not seem strange to us that the manner of the infinite and increated being which we call God and of his subsisting should be so far above our Apprehensions and capacities So that to put men upon endeavouring to conceive in their minds the particular manner how every thing should be or may be which the Scriptures only affirm to be and in case they cannot thus conceive of them to perswade them to deny their beings is in effect to perswade and bear them in hand that if they cannot he wise above that which is written they had as good throw up or cast aside that wich is written as vanity and untruth Most true it is that we ought not to believe any thing in matters of Religion but what we have a sufficient and substantial ground in Reason why we should believe it i. e. unless we have the Word of God for it which is the most substantial ground in Reason of all others why a thing should be believed But the Word of God revealeth many things simply to be the distinct manner of the being whereof it doth not reveal in which respect we stand bound to believe the truth and being of many things the manner of whose beings we are no way bound to believe because it is not revealed So that though we can not conceive nor stand bound to believe how or after what manner the divine Person differeth from the divine Essence nor again this Essence from such a Person yet we may and do stand bound to believe that they are distinguished the Scripture revealing this and not the other This for reply to the Argument propounded in the first place Secondly Whereas the Argument affirmeth Sect. 4 That it is impossible for any man to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two beings in his mind and consequently two Gods We reply further That this is manifestly untrue if by two beings he meaneth two things compleatly subsisting each a part by it self as for instance In Intellectual created Beings I can conceive a man or the person of a man and again the humane Nature or Essence of a man which differs from his Person for a man as Thomas or any other is not the Humane Nature but only partakes of it or subsists in it I say I can conceive in my mind the Person of Thomas and the Nature of Thomas and yet not conceive two things compleatly and a part subsisting and consequently not conceive two Thomases For the Nature of Thomas I mean the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist in Thomas his person a part by it self but only in the several and respective persons of mankind In like manner I can very well conceive in my mind a divine Person for instance the Father or the Son and likewise can conceive the divine Nature and Essence and yet not necessarily conceive or frame two beings i.e. two things completely and apart subsisting in my mind for the Divine Nature or Essence doth not really subsist apart from or out of the divine Persons which partakes therein be they one or be they more as the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist but in Thomas John and the rest of the individual persons of mankind who partake of this nature But though the Divine Essence be one and the same thing really and substantially with a divine Person and with all the Three yet doth it differ from it in consideration and respect so that I may conceive a divine person in my mind and conceive the divine Essence also and yet not necessarily conceive two things really distinct much less two Gods but two things distinct only in consideration but really one and the same As in the divine Attributes the Justice of God and the Mercy of God and so the Wisdome Patience Goodness c. they are really one and the same thing in God but they differ in consideration for when I conceive or consider the Justice of God the
inward conception of my mind differeth much from that which I raise or conceive within me when I consider of the Mercy or Wisdom of God c. And so again Abraham the Father of Isaac and Abraham the Father of the Faithful are really but one and the same thing yet differ in consideration or respect for when I conceive of him or consider him as the Father of Isaac my consideration is differing much from what it is when I conceive of him as the Father of the Faitful I might instance in those and many more particulars which are really one and the same and yet may truly be considered or conceived in my mind very differently so that it is but an illiterate and weak Allegation to affirm That it is impossible for a man to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two things or beings in my mind and consequently two Gods Why may I not as well distinguish the Person from the Essence of God without framing in my mind two Gods as distinguish the Person of an Angel as Gabriel Michael or the like from the common Essence or Nature of Angels wherein both Gabriel Michael and other Angels partake That is to be taken along as a general Rule in all disputes concerning God and the divine Nature that when we borrow resemblances or notions from one kind or other from the Creature to explain matters relating unto God it is not to be expected that these resemblances or notions should hold in all particulars nor necessarily in any more than in that one only unto which they are applied viz. When we shew and prove that a man may very well distinguish the Person from the Essence of God without framing any such thing in his mind which should imply two Gods by shewing that a man may distinguish the person of an Angel or a man from the common Nature or Essence of either without framing in his mind either two Angels or two men it cannot be excepted against this proof or resemblance that it is not pertinent or that it reacheth not the business for which it is brought because the person of an Angel and so of a man as well as the Nature or Essence of both are finite beings whereas a divine Person and the divine Essence are both infinite or the like The notion or comparison is sufficient for that end for which it is used and insisted upon if by way of similitude it sheweth and proveth that a man may frame in his mind a distinct consideration of a person subsisting in or partaking of such or such a Nature or Essence and again of this Nature or Essence wherein they do partake without framing a conceit of two such things which should imply or include two persons of either kind Thirdly and lastly For answer to our Adversaries first Reason against distinguishing the Person of God from the Essence of God Sect. 5 if himself grant both which clearly he seems to do neither was there ever any man yet who acknowledge a God that denied either viz. That there is a divine Nature and Essence and again that there is a person suppose one only as his erroneous supposition indeed is who partakes of the Nature then himself owns and grants the distinction which with so much clamour he falls foul upon When he saith in his third and last Reason against the said distinction That to talk of God taken only essentially is ridiculous he clearly granteth and supposeth that God may be taken Essentially though not Essentially only and consequently that there is a divine Essence as well as a divine Person if so Why may I not conceive and consider in my mind as well the one as the other Or what is this but to distinguish the one from the other Or when himself acknowledged as well the one as the other did he acknowledge them under one and the same notion or inward conception of them in his mind so that when he acknowledged a divine Person he had no other notion and impression in his mind than he had when he acknowledged a divine Nature or Essence Now then this is that I say if he did thus acknowledge or thus conceive of them then is he himself guilty of that presumption which he chargeth upon his Adversaries as we heard viz. Of affirming that of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures For most certain it is that God hath affirmed no such thing of himself here viz. That the divine Person and his divine Nature or Essence are to be apprehended and conceived by one and the self same notion or conception in the minds of men without any variation or distinction at all So that the Adversaries first Reason against the forementioned distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially is very weak and hath nothing of weight or strength in it and what there is in it it is every whit as much against himself as those whom he would seem to oppose His second Reason against the said Distinction he draweth up in these words If the Person be distinct from the Essence of God Sect. 6 then it is either something or nothing If nothing How can it be distinguished since nothing hath no accidents If something then either it is some finite or infinite thing If finite then there will be something finite in God and consequently since by the confession of the Adversaries themselves every thing in God is God himself God will be finite which the Adversaries themselves will likewise confess to be absurd If infinite then there will be two infinites in God to wit the Person and Essence of God and consequently two Gods which is more absurd than the former This is the account of his second Reason against the oft mentioned distinction but that this also is of the same calculation with the former and hath as little in it as that and that which it hath is as much against himself as his Adversaries may be made readily to appear For First Whereas he reasoneth thus If the Person be distinguished from the Essence of God then it is either something or nothing there is no great weight either of Learning or Understanding in the Proposition For first In the former part of this Proposition If the Person be distinct from the Essence of God he supposeth the Person to be somewhat otherwise the meaning of the clause should be this If nothing or that which is nothing be distinct from the Essence of God which is ridiculous And yet having thus in the former part of the Proposition supposed it to be somewhat from this supposition in the latter part of it he infers it to be either something or nothing Who ever reasoned at such a rate as this If nothing be distinct from something then is it either something or nothing They that can make sense of this must have sharper understandings than mine Secondly Let the word Person
therefore he is not God This Argument is drawn up in many swelling words after the manner of some of the rest but the sinews and strength of it lyeth in this that the Holy Ghost in the Scripture is said to hear from another that which he speaks or reveals unto men or which he did reveal unto the Apostles and that from hence it follows according to our Saviours supposition Joh. 8.26 compared with ver 28. that he is taught by another and consequently cannot be God The life and soul of this Argument is bound up in this small bundle of words therefore we reply briefly to it First That the very bottom and foundation upon which this Argument standeth is crasie and loose viz. That he that heareth from another what he should speak is taught if by being taught he means the receiving of new knowledge or of the knowledge of things which we knew not of before which he must mean if he means any thing with sense For many may hear from another what they are or ought to speak without being taught in such a sense as when a Jury of men give in a Verdict upon Oath it doth not follow that he that speaks or gives in his Testimony in the second or third place is taught by him that speaks the same thing before him in his hearing for he may speak the same thing out of his own Judgment and Conscience and which he was otherwise resolved to speak though he had not heard it spoken by another before he utters it and so they who spend their time in the study of the Scriptures and in the searching after truth may find that spoken or written which is equivalent to hearing and is hearing in a sense by another which yet falls in with their own thoughts and apprehensions formerly conceived in this case they may be said to hear that from another which they speak and yet not be taught Therefore Secondly Whereas he labours to prove the truth of that assertion from these two passages of the Scriptures Joh. 8.26 28. compared together his labour is in vain for his proof is notoriously defective and weak and this upon a double account For first he takes that for granted which he should have proved as being no waies evident in it self And secondly He supposeth that if it be true in one case that he that heareth from another what he shall speak is taught that therefore it must be true in all cases which is very ridiculous First That which he takes for granted in his proof from these passages is That our Saviour in the latter of the places expoundeth himself in the former or that he speaketh one and the same thing for substance of Notion in them both This I say no way appears nor indeed is much probable For when in the former place he speaks thus But he that sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him very probable it is that he speaks of the ineffable and unconceivable hearing whereby all the three Persons hear one another speaking the same things according to that of the same Apostle 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one If they all bear record in Heaven doubtless they hear one another or one from another Or else our Saviour in the words mentioned may be conceived to speak of the Eternal hearing from the Father which is appropriate to him as being his Son by Eternal Generation for the Father communicating one and the same Divine Nature or Essence with himself unto the Son by Eternal Generation must needs communicate all the Divine Attributes and Perfections together with it being indeed but one and the same thing with it and amongst the rest that infinite knowledge and understanding which is proper to it which communication of knowledge may properly enough be termed Christ's hearing of the Father Again When he saith in the latter place Joh. 8.28 he saith According as the Father hath taught me these things I speak He speaks of his teaching or being taught as man or as Mediator in which respect he is elsewhere â—ermed the servant of God and his Father said to be greater than he And consequently he must be inferiour to the Father and so may properly enough be said to be taught by him And that indeed he speaks here of his being taught as man appeareth from the next Verse but that we must not stand to scan all things Thus you see our Adversary in the main proof of his Argument takes that for granted which is not only questionable and uncertain but improbable also in the highest Again Secondly Suppose that which he taketh for granted without proof or probability in the case before us should be granted unto him viz. That our Saviour by hearing of the Father and by being taught by the Father meaneth one and the same thing or explaineth the one by the other yet it no way followeth that therefore all hearing and all teaching should be the same or that every one that heareth of another what he shall speak should be taught by him We gave a sufficient account of this lately it is a weak kind of arguing to reason thus Such and such words or Phrases are to be taken in such and such a sense in this or in that place of Scripture therefore they are to be so taken in all others So that this Argument also is of the same House and Linage with the former only before we dismiss it it may not be unworthy of your observation how strangely God blindeth the eyes of him that composed the Argument when towards the beginning of it to prove that the Holy Spirit is taught and heareth from another what he shall speak he refers us to Isa 40.13 14. which place expresly teacheth the quite contrary viz. That the Spirit of God hath none to teach or direct him the tenour of the place is this Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him With whom took he counsel or who instructed him and taught him in the path of Judgment and taught him knowledge and shewed to him the way of understanding I know not what words can with more pregnant and express emphaticalness assert the undeceivedness of the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Ghost than these The Prophet David maketh this an Argument or sign of the departure of men from the Tents of such persons who are secret Enemies unto God viz. making their Tongues to fall upon themselves that is their uttering and speaking such things which apparently make against their own interest and designs Psal 64.8 So they shall make their own Tongues to fall upon themselves all that see them viz. thus ensnared and entangled shall fly away that is shall forsake their party shall no longer be confederate with them This for his fourth Argument The fifth Argument
his beloved Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and compounds it with a Verb which without it signified somewhat more than simply an abundance and so calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace superabounding or rather grace superredounding But where sin aboundeth grace superaboundeth or abounded much more Rom. 5.20 Thirdly Sect. 10 A third thing wherein the graciousness and freeness of the Spirit consists Huge Grot. in Rom. 5.20 is that in all that he acts and moves and works in men according to all that variety and manifoldness of working which proceeds from him at any time he doth proceed by his own Laws and these every waies gracious full of equity and sweetness and not by any thing any Law engagement or terms imposed upon him by men When men by having as the Scripture expression is that is by imploying and improving what they have viz. from the Spirit for men have nothing of any spiritual or gracious import but from him come to have more given viz. by this gracious Spirit more light more knowledge more wisdom love zeal courage faithfulness c. they come by this means to have in abundance Now they that have in this sense according to our Saviours promise this advance of his presence and growing tenour of his operation do not procure or draw it from him by any vertue or engagement of merit nor by any terms imposed upon him by the endeavours actings or improvements of their own but only the rich efficacy and vertue of his most gracious good pleasure and will who was pleased to prescribe the Law of this grace and goodness unto himself As when God justifies and saves those that believe he doth it freely of himself and from himself because he hath made this Law unto himself and established it he hath published and declared That whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall be justified and consequently saved he doth it freely and of meer grace not by judging himself obliged to do it by any worth or merit found in mens believing and yet he doth it constantly toties quoties and without failing as oft as he meets with believers in Jesus Christ he justifieth them he saveth them And indeed it is impossible he should do otherwise because as the A postle informeth us he cannot lie neither can he deny himself in his truth and faithfulness In like manner the Spirit of God hath prescribed unto himself the like Laws and terms for all his transactions dealings and proceedings with men according to the tenour whereof he will inlarge and advance his presence in the hearts and souls and spirits of men and will not walk contrary to them nor advance or put forth himself in any eminency of working but only where his lower or former motions have been obeyed and consented unto Yet he doth not this because men regard his presence but because he regards his own righteous counsels and purposes That which the Creature doth in this case is but a weak and inconsiderable thing to ingage such an infinite Spirit as the Spirit of God is to do such great things as those in men And as God will not save those that believe because of any merit that is in their Faith but because the counsel of his will is so to do So the Spirit of God will not do as hath been said because of any worthiness in mens compliance with him but he hath made this for a Law unto himself and honoureth his own Law and himself too by observing it To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath Now we shall prove from that very passage that it is a Law which the Holy Ghost hath made and declares that he would walk by it towards the Sons and Daughters of men in all their succeeding Generations to the worlds end To him that hath that is that shews that he hath that declares that he hath that improves and imploys that which he hath namely that which is given originally to him by way of stock from the Spirit of God to him that thus hath shall be given namely by way of addition he shall have more abundantly he shall still be going on and be having and having and having he shall have and have still At last he shall have abundance he shall have a full and glorious estate in Spiritual riches in wisdom in knowledge in understanding in Faith in humility in love in zeal in temperance in patience and whatever else is necessary to enrich the soul of a man and to prepare him and put him into a capacity of the richest and highest glory So that we see this is a clear and declared method by which the Holy Ghost will proceed with men and women in his communications of himself unto them And though their be nothing in the creature to invite and move him in this kind yet nevertheless there is his own wisdom his own righteousuess and goodness by which he made this Law and imposed it upon himself these are sacred ingagements upon him to do all that he doth in the case we speak of And doubtless there was abundance of reason which did induce him to it whereof though we be not so capable for his Counsels are very deep yet something in the business may with good probability be conceived by us But for the thing it self he it seems will do it as constantly as universally at least in his ordinary dispensations as if it were the greatest injustice in him and most inconsistent with the rectitude and purity of his nature not to do it It may be here objected Sect. 11 and said that the Holy Ghost doth not observe any such Law or Rule in his actings or workings in men as now you ascribe unto him or at least tell us that he hath prescribed unto himself For doth he not sometimes come upon such men that have been formerly prophane vain and sinful above measure Doth he not sometimes come upon such men after some such manner as he came upon the A postles at the time of Pentecost like a mighty rushing wind I mean with an high hand of power and conviction and so in short time works the great work of Conversion and Repentance in them Was not Paul a stiff-necked Pharisee and Blasphemer a Persecutor of the Gospel and of the Saints all his daies before Yea as himself saith the chiefest of sinners And did not the Spirit of God come upon him as a whirlwind with a strong and high hand in an irresistible and miraculous manner to effect his Conversion To this I answer First That when with the Holy Ghost himself we say that unto him that hath shall be given and interpret this to be meant of the Holy Ghost advancing his presence and operations in men even as they hearken unto him and respectively comport with him in his preventing and lower motions And so again on the other hand
mutter their lives and doings speak their Faith but brokenly and indistinctly they do but whisper so that the generality of men can understand but little of what they say in this kind They speak in their way as men that were jealous and half afraid least in time they should or might be discovered to speak untruth when they say they believe in Jesus Christ Such a broken intricate and uncertain account as this given by men unto the World that they believe in Jesus Christ doth no great service unto the World For all such a restimony or assertion of these mens believing in Christ the World will be at liberty and find it self loose enough from being perswaded or convinced that such men do in deed and in truth believe in him And whilst they remain at liberty in this kind they are but where they were the Faith of a person made known but by halves hath but a weak influence but a faint operation upon men being like unto a Trumpet that gives an uncertain sound upon which no man prepares unto the battel as the Apostle speaketh But now he that shall speak out shall speak plainly and without a Parable that shall with authority give or rather make the World to know that he doth really and in truth believe on Christ he will do some worthy execution upon them he will make work to some purpose in the hearts and consciences of men Such a testimony will cause men to awake out of their sleep and stand up from the dead and so prepare and put them in an immediate capacity of receiving the light of life from Christ Eph. 5.14 We know there is an attracting an encouraging Sect. 2 and provoking force in Example to the similitude and likeness of actions yea and sometimes to the similitude of passions or of sufferings also at least to the adventure making of like suffering as Paul said Many waxed confident by his bonds and suffering Phil. 1.14 and were hereby much more bold to speak the Word without fear For seeing Paul make no more of his bonds than he did they began to think that suffering persecution for the Gospel was no very great matter Therefore now they also would preach the Word confidently and with all boldness as he had done In like manner when men shall see the World neglected trodden and trampled upon by a person believing in Jesus Christ by means of this his believing and shall behold this person raised in his spirit enlarged in his comforts and enjoyments with the World under his feet the sight of such an example as this will provoke them also to trample the World under their feet likewise Your Zeal saith the Apostle speaking of their great forwardness and alacrity in contributing towards the necessities of the poor Saints 2 Cor. 9.2 hath provoked very many viz. in the same kind to the like bounty and liberality And yet we know men are as hard as unlikely to be provoked by examples in this kind I mean to part with their money as by any other kind of example whatsoever In like manner the zeal of any man in believing in Jesus Christ being made visible unto men by such deportments and actions which can in reason or in the judgment of conscience have no other root to bear them but this the zeal I say of such a Believer may set the whole World on fire round about him and provoke many to do likewise Abraham may very probably be thought to have the spirit of this glory cast upon him to be stiled the Father of Believers because his notable Example was in the nature and proper tendency of it so generative so apt and likely to replenish and fill the World with a generation of Believers And the Apostle Heb. 12.1 brings a cloud of Witnesses to this very end unto those to whom he writes viz. to encourage strengthen and provoke them to believing yet more and more and to continue believing unto the end So then this is one Reason which plainly demonstrates an Obligation lying upon every man to be a signal Benefactor unto the world viz. That he stands obliged by command from God to believe in Jesus Christ and not only this but to compel the World to know that he deth indeed thus believe He that shall do this shall lift up his hand on high to bless the Generation of the Sons and Daughters of men amongst whom he converseth and shall take a course to open a door unto them to become the Sons and Daughters of God by believing likewise and consequently to become happy and blessed for ever And because of this notable efficacy and potent tendency which a man's Faith in Christ demonstratively asserted by life and waies appropriate to it hath to bless the World by drawing men into Communion in the same course of engagement with him the Lord Christ hath I conceive imposed it in the nature of a spiritual Assessment on every man and woman in the World that believeth namely that they make Profession of this their Belief in the Face of the World that so the World may be made to know that they believe yea and hath included it in the same act by which Salvation it self is granted unto believers Thus Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart c. Now because Confession is one way by which the Faith of men may be made known to the World therefore doth he impose by way of Tax the Confession of the mouth his meaning is as Expositors generally understand it the whole life and conversation He that believes and is baptized shall be saved Here he joyns faith or believing and profession together and insures Salvation upon both Baptism or to be baptized in those daies especially was as it were the first born of their profession of Faith in Jesus Christ And therefore I take it to be an assertion that is to be understood figuratively or syneedochically viz. for a solemn or serious Profession of their Faith He that believeth and is baptized that is he that believeth and shall let the World know that he believeth such a man shall be saved So Mat. 10.32 He that confesseth me before men him will I confess c. So that we still find that upon mens Believing or upon their Conversion they have had some such spiritual imposition as this laid upon them viz. to be helpful to others When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethreu So behave thy self that this Conversion of thine may efficaciously tend unto the Conversion or Confirmation of others And so David knew what his duty was what was imposed upon him when as God should restore unto him the joy of his salvation Psal 51 13. Then saith he shall I teach transgressers the way and sinners shall be converted unto thee As if he had said I know the task that is laid by the hand of the Righteousness of Heaven upon me namely that
into the Kingdom of Glory may be obtained in the lower waies of Godliness and men in their desires design no more nothing higher than these certain it is from the unquestionable ground on which we now argue that men will not provoke or strain themselves to walk in the upper or higher waies of Godliness for the obtaining of them at least if they be satisfied in their Judgments and Consciences that the lower waies we speak of will carry them up to them And now upon the Premises let us gather up to our intended Conclusion If it be the duty of all the Saints and Servants of God to lift up their hearts and hands to the highest and holiest and greatest of the Commandments of God and every one to strive to go before other in adorning their Profession and magnifying the Lord Jesus in the World which I presume is no man's doubt or question then must it needs be their duty also to ascend up in their desires unto those Mansions in Heaven in which they shall be as near Neighbours unto Christ himself as may be and not content themselves with seeking meerly to be saved and to escape hell fire The Reason of this Consequence is evident from the Premises viz. because 1. Men will not rise higher in their endeavours or in the use of means for obtaining the ends projected and desired by them than they judge necessary for their attainment 2. Because it cannot lightly but be known and concluded by the Saints that they must quit themselves at another manner of rate in all Christian Worth and Godliness to be made capable of sitting at the right hand and left of Christ in his Kingdom or in any of the places near adjoyning than is necessary to give them a bare entrance into this Kingdom Desires and hopes of the lesser and lower enjoyments in Heaven will not wind up their hearts to that height of zeal and resolution for the glory of God and Jesus Christ which the greater things there would do were they ardently desired and accordingly hoped for and expected It is somewhat more than probable unto me that the neglect of that duty the face whereof we have now endeavoured to unveil I mean the duty of desiring and designing not the bare but the heaped up measure of Salvation hath occasioned and bred that dwarfe generation of Professing Christians which I cannot suddenly resolve whether I should rather call the shame or the honour of the Churches of Christ in the World Fifthly and lastly For I shall propose only one consideration more and this very briefly for the clearing up of that truth which we are now pleading The desire not simply of good but of that which is the best for us and so apprehended by us is planted by God himself in the frame of the nature of man This Assertion I conceive needs no proof being if not one of those common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the knowledge or belief of which men are prompted by nature without discourse yet very near of kin unto sundry of them However this Reason in a word evinceth it If there were in men only a desire of that which is simply and positively good and not of that which is superlatively good or best of all than whensoever that which is only positively good or good in a lower degree and that which is excellently good are set together before them though they should apprehend the difference between them yet should they be necessitated in their choice or desires to that which is evil for so a lesser good is in respect of a greater and not at liberty to chuse or desire that which is really and absolutely good for them Therefore doubtless there is in every man by nature from the God thereof an inclination or desire unto that which they apprehend to be best for them all circumstances considered and weighed together I remember a Saying of one of the Fathers somewhat to this purpose Etiam perditâ felicitate voluntatem felicitatis non perdidimus Though we have lost our happiness yet have we not lost our will or desire of being happy Now all desires or inclinations which are in men from God ought to be cherished strengthened and improved by them Nor are they at liberty to neglect or suffer them to languish or to lose any thing of their native force or vigour within them For they are implanted in them by God to lead them into such waies and unto such actions whereby himself as the Author and Donor of them may be glorified and themselves following their conduct be made meet to be rewarded by him So then the Saints as they are men being invested by God not with desires of things that are simply good but of the things that are of greatest and best concernment unto them when they may be had stand bound in duty to nourish and maintain these desires and not to despise or turn aside from them From whence it clearly follows That it is not a matter of indifferency or what they may do or not do as they please but a matter of duty and of obedience unto God to awaken and stir up desires in them after the greatest enjoyments in Heaven knowing in themselves that these may be obtained by waies and means both honourable and such which are or may be by seeking unto God accordingly within their power to use But two things may be here said 1. Sect. 19 The Saints may be ignorant whether they be under any possibility of obtaining those greater things in Heaven you speak of what means soever they shall use in order thereunto How then should they desire them It being a true Notion as well in Divinity as Philosophy that voluntas non vult impossibile The will never willeth that with a settled or deliberate act of willing the attainment whereof a man judgeth to be impossible unto him To this I answer That if any of the Saints be ignorant of such a thing it is their sin and such their ignorance is not justifiable and therefore it cannot excuse them under the omission of that which otherwise is their duty to do although the difficulty of overcoming it being in some degree considerable may qualifie in part the guilt of it and so likewise of that other sin which it occasioneth For though I judge it too hard to call it an affected ignorance in any of the Saints Yet I fear that in many of them it may without any breach of charity be termed a voluntary or willing ignorance because it may by a diligent search into and pondering and comparing of the Scriptures be clearly found God being no respecter of persons and standing declared that he will judge and reward every man according to his works that any person of mankind that will advance and lay out himself in waies and works of righteousness and true holiness accordingly may receive from him a Crown of the greatest weight of glory Secondly It may be said
and cut off their Garments to the middle and so sent them away That which Hanun did in this case reflected upon David and was an affront put upon him but the particular things done unto his Messengers cannot be truly said to be done unto David Hanun cannot be said to have shaved off the one half of David's beard or to have cut off David's Garment in the middle Take one instance more Paul styles himself 2 Cor. 6.4 and those who preach the Gospel the Ministers of God and elsewhere 2 Cor. 5.20 Embassadours meaning of God for Christ i. e. for Christ's sake to procure acceptance for him with men Now in case these Ministers or Embassadours of God be evil intreated by men in the World in one kind or other the evil that is done unto them God accounts as done to himself But however not in respect of the specifical or particular nature of the evils done to them but in the general as being highly affronted When men killed the Apostles as our Saviour foretold they would God doth not look upon himself as killed by them but highly injured and despised In like manner in case the Holy Ghost in Peter or other holy men were only a Messenger sent from God and men should lye unto him yet they cannot in this respect with any tolerable congruity or truth of speech be said to lye unto God but only in lying unto his Messenger to have dealt wickedly and unworthily by him So that what our Adversary layeth in by way of answer or reply to these passages of Scripture yet before us when it comes to be fifted and narrowly searched into vanisheth into smoke Another Text of Scripture Sect. 14 evincing above all contradiction the Deity of the Holy Ghost is 1 Joh. 5.7 For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see it is expresly said that these three the Father together with the Son and the Holy Ghost are one If they be one then one in Nature one in Essence one in Subsistence otherwise there could not be that unity in any sense Now this could not be expressed in more emphaticalness of words and which better bear such a Notion as this Here again we have an evasion as indeed there is no end of these things Satan is an old Fox and hath his devices to keep men from the knowledge of all truths but more especially such which lie any whit remote from the common and ordinary thoughts of men such that men must take a long journey to come at such are these which we are now treating of Now Satan takes the slightest occasion to colour over and bedawb them knowing that there is not one man among many that will be willing to take the pains or undergo any hard travel to wipe off the colours that Satan puts on them And as in long journeys there are many bottoms and hills and Wood-sides and there you are in danger of Thieves and Robbers So there are some Doctrines some matters in the Christian Religion where you are to expect and hear of this great Destroyer of the Souls of men lying in wait to rob them of their spiritual Treasure by labouring to confound the World according to the state of things there for he well knows the state of it and how it goes from day to day But Now as to the business in hand several exceptions there are which being searched into vanish into nothing but air As one while the Adversary pretends that these words are wanting in some Greek Copies Now for that when there was no Printing in the World and consequently Copies of Books especially such great Books as the Scripture when it was written and translated they were but few in comparison of what they are now and if there were any Sect or any great Faction of men As for instance of the Arians when they spread the whole Christian World in a manner over like a Deluge Now during such a time the men of this Notion being very many they very well might and in all probability they did corrupt and falsifie Copies and that is the ground that you hear sometimes that one Copy reads it thus and a second thus and a third thus and a fourth different from all the former And it is not likely but that there should be such difference and variety of Copies We know that the Papists now have a great deal of the Christian World under their Jurisdiction and how they are wont and that of latter times the fruit is fresh in memory to take and to throw out what they thought good out of the Notes and Copies of the Fathers wherein we may see the very footsteps of the Pope There are Books extant which they call Indices expurgatorii which are Indexes or Tables of what Sentences are left out and what are put in and these are great Books and there are two or three several kinds of them Even so it might very well be that men of this Opinion I mean the Arians whilst it spread it self might expunge and put out such passages and such Texts of Scripture as these which they saw did bear so hard and with so mighty and strong hand upon their opinion but this Clause is found in one of the ancientest of all Writers that we know of in Cyprian who lived about two hundred and forty years after Christ Now then seeing we find that in his writings which are more ancient than all those Copies where it is wanting it is at least a very probable Argument that it was in the original Copies Again another Pretext he hath against this viz. in that the Apostle saith in ver 8. that these three agree in one meaning only that they did testifie and assert the same truth Not that they are one in Essence but as I said that they agree namely in their Testimony they avouch one and the same truth So now saith the Adversary the other three which bear record in Heaven are only one in their Testimony joyning together in asserting one and the same thing but it doth not follow from hence that these three are one and the same in Nature and Essence For answer to this we must know that the Apostle John doth make a very apparent and express difference in the expressing the one and the other As in the former verse where he speaks of three that bear Record in Heaven He doth not say that these three agree in one but that these are one but when he speaks of the three that bear witness on Earth He doth not say that they are one but that they agree in one So that as I said here is a signal and manifest difference between the expression of that unity or Oneness which is attributed to the three former and that which is ascribed unto the three latter Neither can the former union be understood of agreement and consent only unless
Holy Ghost may be said to receive that which is Christs which is so far from impairing his Divinity or Godhead that it fully asserts and confirms it But this being somewhat mysterious and requiring some larger Explication we shall not at present dive into it that which hath been given is more obvious and agreeable to the words and scope of the place and sufficient to detect the vanity of the Argument built upon it in opposition to the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost And this for the fifth Argument The sixth Argument riseth thus He that is sent by another is not God Sect. 12 the Holy Spirit is sent by another therefore He is not God The Minor is proved from Joh. 16.26 The Major he that ministreth is not God this is the whole compass of the sixth Argument The substance and strength of this Argument is That to be sent forth by another to minister and to receive commands are things incompatible to the Soveraign Majesty of God and that these are in Scripture affirmed of the Holy Ghost therefore he cannot be God To this we reply First That the man being a perfect Anthropomorphite notioning and conceiving that all those things which are attributed unto God in the Scriptures after the manner of men as bodily members humane passions a circumscriptiveness unto place c. are in the litteral and proper nature and formality of them to be found in him builds his Arguments upon this sandy and rotten foundation And because it is so with men that he that is sent or sent forth by another is inferiour to him that sends him though this be not alwaies so neither as we shall see presently he therefore conceiveth that when these things are spoken of Christ or of the Holy Ghost they must be understood litterally and formally of them also whereas if we do but own and acknowledge the infinity and incomprehensibleness of God we must of necessity admit of and own that Rule delivered long since by Austin and the ancient Fathers and ever and anon remembred by all learned men that have written of these things Quando humana transferuntur ad Deum c. When things properly belonging unto men are transferred over unto God they are to be understood so that no dishonour nor disparagement be offered unto the Divine Nature and whatsoever in them imports imperfection is to be separated and left behind and only that to be conceived to be meant of God which implieth perfection for whatsoever proceeds from God so far as it cometh from him hath no imperfection in it therefore nothing which includes imperfection in it so far as it includes it can be with truth attributed unto him Secondly When the Holy Ghost and there is the same consideration of the Son in this respect is in Scripture said to be sent whether by the Son as Joh. 16.26 or by the Father as Joh. 14.26 it doth not imply either subjection or inferiority to either of the Persons sending because subjection savoureth of imperfection Nor secondly doth it imply any removal from place to place for this also savoureth of Creature-like imperfection not to be present every where at once Nor thirdly doth it imply Ministery or Service properly so called i. e. The doing of any thing in the fruit and benefit whereof he that is sent hath not an equal interest or share with him that sendeth him For this also implies some kind of imperfection If you ask me What then doth it imply I answer first It implies the plurality of beings or subsistencies which we call persons in the Divine Essence for the sender and he that is sent must needs be more than one Secondly It implies another thing as namely the order of the persons between themselves For he that is sent must in order though not in nature or dignity be after him that sendeth Though there be not a superiority and inferiority one to command and another to be subject Yet notwithstanding there is an order amongst them and the order is this the Father is as the Schoolmens Expression frequently is Fons Deitatis the Fountain of the Godhead because the Son though he doth partake of the same Divine Nature and Essence with him and is every way God with him yet he hath the Sonship or Divine Person communicated unto him by God the Father So the third Person hath a divine Nature and Essence communicated unto him by a joynt spiration as they express it or by way of Procession he hath it joyntly from the Father and the Son And hence it is that you never find in Scripture that the Father is said to be sent either by the Son or by the Holy Ghost But you find concerning both the Son and the Holy Spirit sometimes the Son is said to be sent into the World by the Father and so the Spirit is said to be sent This therefore sheweth indeed the Plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence and so likewise the order of subsistence between them that there is one as it were before who hath a priority of order though not of excellency or dignity nor of greatness nor any such thing And then again that which I suppose is the principle thing meant by it viz. the Phrase of sending is that the work mode or manner of working which is proper for the Holy Ghost that this is to be performed by him according to the order that we lately shewed First the Father then the Son then the Holy Ghost So that now every one of these though as indeed they have one and the same Essence and Nature so they alwaies joyn in one and the same operation and working ad extra without yet notwithstanding they have every one of them a peculiar and an appropriate and distinct manner of working answerable to that order wherein they subsist among themselves As for example The Father beginneth the work which is proper for the Original Author of the Work and then the Son he doth something but in a mediate kind of way between the beginning and consummation or finishing of it and the Holy Ghost according to his place in his order being the third and last He worketh after the manner of him that perfecteth or finisheth or consummates the work The Father he hath laid the Counsel and Platform of Salvation for men The Son he hath carried on the work so far as to make the attonement for them And yet there remaineth something to be done for the Salvation of the World and that is the reducing and bringing men to believe in this Saviour and to accept of that Attonement which he hath made for them and this being the consummating work about the salvation of the World although the Father and the Son both have a hand in it and it is doubtless their work as well as his yet the manner of the accomplishing of it concluding wise this is appropriate unto the Holy Spirit And now because his work importeth such a thing
how many pretenders have we to little less than a Prophetick Unction to mystical discoveries to a deep and further insight into the mind of God in the Scriptures and to the understanding of things there whose Notions notwithstanding the pretended fruits of such their high Anointings and Revelations being weighed in the Balance of the Sanctuary are found light and to have nothing of the mind of God or of Christ in them Therefore in the first place unless these discoveries which are pretended unto and held forth with the greatest confidence shall commend themselves for truth unto the judgments and understandings of sober and judicious men much versed and exercised in the Scriptures either from their own light or evidence or else shall be made out by light of Argument and Demonstation Whether from the Scriptures or clear Principles in reason to be real truths and such things that are every waies worthy the Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness of God they are not to be looked upon as proceeding from any fulness of the Spirit in their Authors but as the exertions and puttings forth of a Spirit of vanity and delusion in men For certainly God would not have sent Christ Jesus in the end of the World to seal vp Revelations and Prophesies and to set bounds unto the Children of men and afterward send these men to gather up what Jesus Christ hath scattered and to make perfect what he hath left imperfect Wko knoweth not that the New Testament is sealed with a Curse with dread and terrour unto the man or woman that shall either make any breach upon that which is there delivered by diminishing ought thereof and so likewise unto any that shall bring any new or further Revelation than what is already brought in there Secondly In case by the opportunity and advantage of Education Sect. 21 liberty for Study and searching into Authors and Writers or the advantage of pregnancy of Wit quickness of Apprehensions or the like any man shall attain unto a greater dexterity or ability to unfold the Scriptures and to bring many of the secrets thereof to light which have been hidden from the eyes of others this doth not necessarily argue a fulness of or a being filled with the Spirit at least in the sense wherein we have prosecuted the Doctrine hitherto i. e. a filling with the Spirit as sanctifying unless it shall appear by their lives and waies that they are really and throughly perswaded of the truth and certainty of these things which they hold forth from the Scriptures It is true many men may do great Services for the Christian World and for the Saints and that by opening the great Deeps or Fountains of the Scriptures and may cause many beams of light and Spiritual understanding to break forth and many waies of Wisdom there to appear and yet may not believe As it is with a fained Story though there may be some kind of rationality in it yet the rationality of it doth not therefore argue its truth and verity just so men may maintain the reasonableness of the Scriptures and consequently many great truths therein contained they may argue excellently and shew how one thing giveth light unto another and yet nevertheless at the bottom there may be nothing else but uncertainties and doubtings of the truth of all the Story and this hollowness and defection at the bottom and core and root of the heart is like to break out and bewray it self in such a kind of life and conversation which is unsutable unto the tenour of Scripture and unto the Genius Nature and light of the glorious Gospel which they declare or preach unto men The Reason of the Character or sign last mentioned Sect. 22 whereby to judge of any mans being filled with the Spirit is because it is the proper work of the Spirit to open and reveal unto men the Scriptures and the mind of God there so that when any person man or woman shall be found to excell in such a way upon the terms and with the cautions lately specified I mean to be richly acquainted with the mind of God in the Scripture it must needs argue a great measure of the Spirit of God in them For it is I say the property of the Spirit of God to reveal the mind of God in the Scriptures and to reveal such and such truths which have lain dormant in the bodies of the Scriptures wound up and unpublished For the Spirit of God hath reserved and set apart some particular portion of truth which is appropriate to every Age and Generation that cometh over the World which is to be opened unto it Some conceive that the seven Seals do respect several Ages and times wherein several truths are to be revealed as that in such an Age and Time when one Seal was broken up there was such a part of the mind of God let out and so at the breaking up of a second then cometh forth another part of the mind of God This is clear and experience teacheth us that every Generation and every Age have had some sealed or fallow ground of Scripture broken up unto them some considerable passage of Scripture that hath never seen the Sun that hath never been so generally understood or known by men as in the present Generation so that it being the proper work of the Spirit of God to take away the vail and covering which hath been upon the Scriptures when he findeth some person whom he doth much delight in he will single him out for this service 1 Cor. 2.10 11 c. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God That is according to Scripture Language teacheth men to search and to find out by searching the deep things of God i. e. such Counsels of his which do not lie in the surface of the Scriptures such things which cannot be seen at the first cast of a mans eye For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now the Notions which are bred in the Mind and in the Nature of God are of another sort of a quite different nature from those which are ingendred and conceived in the mind of men even as those impressions in bruit beasts are of a far other nature and kind from those which are in men and being of another nature and kind and also inferiour to those Notions or Impressions which are in man they cannot understand or comprehend those Notions or Impressions and those Principles of Action that are in men and by which they order and steere their course The Reason is because these Notions or Impressions that are in Men are of a superiour kind to those in Beasts and out of the reach of them or any other created being especially beneath themselves So that though it should be supposed that
to the Creature in a lower sense Thirdly It is here said that the love of God when it is perfect in the sense declared casteth out fear meaning that the Genius or property of this holy and heavenly affection is to work or cast our fear viz. that kind of fear which hath pain or torment in it as he presently expresseth himself perfect love casteth out fear viz. when it is set on work and imployed accordingly for no passion or affection in man acteth or moveth but only upon some apprehensions or other answerable to that affection especially spiritual affections or affections when spiritualized and as such do not produce the effects that are most natural and proper to them but by the mediation and engagement of the understanding The reason hereof seems to be because such affections as these are not natural unto men but are as it were grafted and implanted upon or into their natures by the Spirit of God associating himself in the work by means whereof their effects and consequents especially some of the richest and choicest and most excellent of them are like strangers unto them they cannot be produced by the affections themselves but by the intervening of the Reasons and Judgments and Understandings of men consulting with the Scriptures or Word of God Now where such affections take place in men the affection is ready to produce the fruit that is natural and proper to it so that when it is said Perfect love casteth out fear it doth not import that this is alwaies done but only that it may be done that there is that in the nature of love that is sufficient and proper to do it We lately gave you this Rule that Verba agendi quandoque naturam seu vim tantùm innuunt Verbs properly signifying action many times only declare the natures and properties of things and what they are able apt and likely to do as when the Apostle saith that knowledge puffeth up but charity or love edifieth 1 Cor. 8.1 the meaning is not that knowledge alwaies puffeth up but only it importeth that there is a kind of property in knowledge which is apt to puff up And so when he saith Charity edifieth the meaning is not that this grace is alwaies working thus but it only declares the genius of this famous grace viz. That it is apt to provoke men and women to seek for their spiritual enriâ—hing with the light and knowledge of God So here Perfect love casteth out fear i. e. it is the nature and property of love to cast fear out of the heart viz. when it is grown perfect in the sense lately declared If it be here demanded Sect. 12 but if it be the nature or property of love to cast out fear Why is the effect here appropriate unto perfect love and not rather unto love simply in what degree soever Things that are essential to the nature of things are not suspended upon their degrees To this I reply if the act or effect here spoken of the casting out of fear did proceed simply and solely from love let the degree of it be what it will doubtless love in the lowest degree of it as well as in that perfection or strength here required would do the service But as in another case faith is said to act or work by love so in the case in hand Love in casting out fear worketh by knowledge As thus a man must not simply love God but he must know he loveth God for otherwise our love to God will not be found to have such power to cast out fear as a Sun-Dial the use and end of it being to shew the time of the day yet will do nothing in this kind but only when the Sun shineth upon it So it is in this case if the love of God be in the heart of man yet if it be not shined upon by the understanding and so have strength and vigour added to it it will be insignificant and do nothing towards the casting out of fear Or as the Well of water near Hagar Gen. 21.19 did not refresh her nor minister any hope of life until she knew where it was So likewise is it with the love of God if it lieth unknown to the mind of a man it will be as if it were asleep it will not stir nor do any thing that is worthy of it If a man or woman who loves God but a little yet really and truly could certainly know that they do thus love him this lower degree of this affection would cast out fear So that the reason why this great effect of casting out fear is appropriated to love when it is perfect is because usually it is not nay it very hardly can be known but only where it sheweth it self like the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven otherwise a man will be alwaies questioning whether he love God yea or no. Now when a man cannot be thoroughly satisfied that he loves God it cannot be that his love should cast out fear But if he have the knowledge that he loveth God this love of God though but small would cast out fear as well as the other which is perfect If it be further demanded But why should love though perfect cast out fear What is there or what may there be conceived to be in the nature of it that should have that kind of antipathy against fear so as to remove and not to suffer it to abide in the heart and soul I answer The reason of this effect as proceeding from love is to be found as well in the nature of that fear which is cast out by it as in love it self or the nature hereof For it is not the property of love to cast out every thing else as well as fear Therefore the Reason at least somewhat of the reason why it worketh here by way of antipathy doth depend upon the nature and genius of this fear and the reason here given of this effect of love is in reference only to the nature of fear Perfect love saith he casteth out fear because fear hath Torment so that it is that fear which is apt to offend grieve disquiet and discourage the hearts of men that is cast out by perfect love But why should that fear which hath this property in it namely to torment give an opportunity to love to throw it out of the hearts of men The Reason hereof again is because the love of God is a grace of such high acceptation with God and renders those wherever it is found Friends of God and God is not willing that any of his Friends any of those that love him should taste any thing that is grievous or obstructive unto their peace and therefore he hath given perfect love this property he hath put enmity between this principle of love in men and between whatsoever doth pain or trouble or torment them and whatsoever it hath of this kind of property to discharge all fear that hath torment in