Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A38061
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A preservative against Socinianism. The first part shewing the direct and plain opposition between it, and the religion revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures / by Jonath. Edwards.
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Edwards, Jonathan, 1629-1712.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing E217; ESTC R24310
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65,484
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89
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have a good opinion of themselves in that they make not only their reason to be the adequate Judge of his revelations but even their own passions and weakness the rule by which they measure at least make an estimate of his infinite nature and most adorable perfections an attempt besides the impiety of it more ridiculous then if a man should endeavour to take the dimensions of the Heavens with a single span or to fathome the depth and reach the bottome of the Ocean with his little finger In the next place we must consider God Relatively in the great mystery of the Trinity And that which the Scriptures teach us to believe of this matter is briefly summed up in the first Article of our Religion established in this Church concerning faith in the Holy Trinity in these words In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance Power and Eternity Father Son and Holy Ghost Or as it is with some alteration of words but to the same purpose expressed in the Doxology to be repeated upon Trinity Sunday wherein we are taught to make this acknowledgement of Almighty God That he is one God one Lord not one only person but three persons in one substance for that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality A brief but comprehensive Epitome of what is more largely declared and explained in the Creed which the Socinians and Remonstrants have so great a spight against commonly called the Athanasian Creed This is the Faith of all the Reformed Churches being herein Agreeable to the doctrine held by the Church of God in all Ages ever since the first planting of Christianity in the world what we and they believe of this matter being conformable to the plain and express declarations of Scripture and especially of what Christ and his Apostles have delivered to us concerning this matter in the writings of the New Testament For this you may consult the Harmony of their Confessions both Lutheran and Calvinist all exactly agreeing in this doctrine without any the least difference or variety where you may likewise see the consent of the Catholick Church from the first Ages next to that of the Apostles from whose inspired writings the Fathers received this Doctrine which by an uninterrupted Tradition thro all the successive Ages of the Church hath bin delivered and brought down to the times we live in In this Faith we have all bin baptized being at our first admission into the Christian Church solemnly consecrated to the worship and service of those three ever blessed and glorious persons Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28. These being the three that bear witness in Heaven and these three are one 1 Jo. 5. 7. For that Text we shall not easily part with notwithstanding the Cavils of the Socinians and the over officious endeavours of some others whether Papists or Protestants who would weaken the Authority of that Testimony and thereby rob us of the advantage of it For tho some Greek MSS. want it yet there are others more approved and of greater antiquity in which you may meet with it Besides it is to be found in the writings of the Ancients Tertull. Cypr. Athanasius and Jerome who quote these very words and if you have a mind to know more of this matter without going any further you may peruse what Mr. Poole in his Synopsis hath quoted out of Gerhard Dr. Hamond and other Writers in vindication of this Text. From which I think it will appear that the Authority of this place remains clear and in full force notwithstanding the attempts that have bin made to overthrow it Tho if we gave up this Text yet we should not the holy Doctrine contained in it which is so plainly delivered in other places of Scripture and shines there with so bright a lustre that a man had need wink hard who would avoid the conviction or else must have so great a confidence in his Eyes that he may hope in time to stare the Sun it self out of countenance For as in some places of Scripture he will find the unity of the Godhead asserted so in others he will find the name and not only so but to avoid any Cavils and exceptions that may be made about the ambiguous signification of that word he will find the same divine Attributes and Operations on all hands acknowledged to belong to God the Father ascribed likewise to the Son and the Holy Ghost who yet are allwaies mentioned as distinct from one another from whence by an easie and a necessary deduction it must unavoidably follow that since they are really distinguished from each other and yet agree in the same common nature as the same properties and the same operations irrefragably evince they must be what we have bin taught hitherto to believe and profess of them in the Language of the Church three Persons and one God And as we pretend to agree in the same doctrine with the Ancient Church so I think it is highly fitting and for many just reasons in a manner necessary to preserve the same words in which it hath bin delivered down to us in opposition to any new modes of speaking For the Ancient words by prescription and long use have obtained both a just Authority among Christians and a setled and determinate signification whereas new phrases may be liable to great exceptions and introductive at long run of new and unwarrantable opinions about these mysteries beyond the intention of them who first made use of them Now against all this the Socinians will tell you that this doctrine concerning the Trinity is so far from being a fundamental truth that it is indeed the foundation of all the errors that have crept into the Christian Church as being opposite to the Scriptures and plainly repugnant to reason it is a Popish doctrine so saith Socinus Lib. quod Regm Polon c. cap. 4. so Welsing Lib. de Oâ—â—ic Hominis Christiani and by so saying they do exceedingly advance the Reputation of Popery by making it of so great and venerable antiquity embraced by all sound Christians ever since the Apostles days It is a Paganish opinion Ethnicismum sapit so saith Smalcius Exam. Cent. Err. So opposite to reason that it is a wonder how any man in his wits could ever have thought of it So saith Ostorod he cannot imagine quomodo homini ulli ratione praedito in mentem venire posset Inst Rel. Christianae Cap. 4. that is sure it could never have entred into any mans head that ever had any brains there Nay it is not only a very foolish but a very dangerous error that puts a stumbling block and rub in mens way to Heaven Strange that that doctrine should be thought an hindrance to mens happiness the belief of which by all good Christians hath hitherto bin thought necessary to salvation but so it is if you
acknowledge but one supreme God by nature and that Christ is only a God by Appointment and Office not natus but factus not born but made and deifyed after his ascension by a communication of the divine power wisdom and goodness to him I Answer that this is so far from abating that it rather encreases the difficulty and makes the Socinian notion both absurd and impious as may be shewn more at large hereafter when we come to lay the charge of Idolatry at their door Indeed one would think it should be a debasing of the name and honour that is due to God to give either of them to any but him that is so from all eternity the same Wolzogenius will tell you you may if you please reproach them for so doing but he values it not a rush nos non erubescimus we are not ashamed to own that we worship Deum factum vel factitium a made God not made indeed by a Goldsmith or Engraver ab aliquo sculptore vel aurifabro but they acknowledge with St. Peter Acts 2. 36. that God hath made Jesus who was crucifyed Lord and Christ that is saith he deum eximium fecerit hath made him a great and eminent God Ibid. If this be not enough if you please to consult Smalcius he will give you all the satisfaction that you can possibly desire further in this matter For first he will tell you that whereas the Scriptures assure us that there is but one only true God yet that must be taken sano sensu not as if there were no other true God besides God the Father but that there is none that is God eodem prorsus modo just in the same manner as he is For otherwise the thing is certain and past all doubt that there are more true Gods then one and let the Inspired writers be never so positive yet he and his friends can and will with equal confidence advance this contrary position that the true God is not one only God Nay it is not an indifferent matter but a truth which they firmly believe and earnestly contend for And therefore pronounce it without any haesitation that there are more true Gods then one And indeed they have reason to contend earnestly for this opinion if it be true what he saith in the same place that to acknowledge and confess and adore one only chief and supreme God is purely Judaical and a renunciation of the Christian Religion Here he speaks as home to the point as you can possibly desire and it is enough in all conscience Thus whereas the Scriptures tell us there is but one God the Socinians say there are two one God by nature another by grace one Supreme another Inferior one Greater another Lesser one Elder and eternal the other a junior and modern God and this by Socinus is made the great mystery of the Christian Religion greater indeed if true and more incomprehensible than any other or than all the other stupendous and adorable mysteries of our Faith put together Now as the Socinians say there are two Gods so if you believe Curcellaeus he will confidently tell you there are three who tho he be no Socinian yet he agrees perfectly with them in almost all their other Errors except that which concerns the doctrine of the Trinity where he hath a peculiar notion of his own distinct as he tells you both from Arius and Socinus for he makes the Son and Holy Ghost to have a divine nature communicated to them from all eternity but yet such that is different in each of them so that they are thee distinct divine beings And to the objection made by Maresius that this notion must inevitably imply that there are three Gods he Answers that if by three Gods be meant three specifically distinguished from each other he disowns any such distinction between the persons of the Trinity but if by three by meant three persons agreeing in the same common nature yet numerically distinguished in each of them it is that which he owns and earnestly contends for that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are as much three Gods as Peter Paul and John agreeing in the same common nature are three distinct men And if you believe him he will tell you the Ancients were not afraid of the imputation of Polytheism in this sense and to think of the same individual nature being communicated to three persons was a notion that never entered into the heads of any of the Fathers in their disputes against the Arians as being against both Reason and Religion Curcell Dissert prima de vocibus Trinit c. cap. 105. deinceps And Limburg who publishes and recommends him to the world I suppose is of the same opinion The 2 d Attribute which the Scriptures ascribe to God is his immensity and omnipresence assuring us that his nature is infinite and consequently that it cannot be confined to any place or circumscribed within any limits Tho he is peculiarly and eminently resident in Heaven yet Solomon will tell us that Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him 1 King 8. 27. and the Psalmist puts the question Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there also Ps 139. 7 8. So St. Stephen Act. 7. 48. the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands that is is not confined within those limits as many of the Heathens thought their Gods were for as saith the Prophet heaven is my Throne and the earth is my footstool And indeed not only the infinite nature of God but the belief of his providence necessarily supposes it Upon which account we are said in him to live and move and have our being Act. 17. 28. forasmuch as he is above all and through all and in all Eph. 4. 6. Now in opposition to this important Truth which is not only revealed in Scripture but dictated by the light of nature and acknowledged upon that score to be such by all sober Heathens as well as by sound Christians the Socinians will tell you that God is not infinite in his Essence or Nature but that he is so confined to the Heavens as not to be substantially present elsewhere or not to fill any places out of those limits And therefore when urged with those places of Scripture which say that God fills Heaven and Earth and that he is every where present Jer. 23. 24. Ps 139. They answer that they must be Interpreted only with respect to the vertue power and operations of God which extend to the remotest places where he is not essentially present As the Sun which is the Instance some of them give us to illustrate this matter is confined to the Heavens and indeed takes up but a small roome there in comparison yet may be said to be ubique terrarum because he