took on him the seed of Abraham The following Argument is also in mode and figure 't is thus all Goodness is Essentially in God alone but Jesus Christ is Essentially good therefore he is Essentially God The Major Proposition I thus explain by Essentially is meant Primarily Originally and in its Nature God is Independently sole good in and of himself and is the Author of all Goodness Metaphysicians among the Proprieties entis of a Being which by a Virtual Reciprocration do result from and are converted with the ens or being reckon three by them called Incomplexe or spoken without disjunction to distiguish them from the Complexe which are attended with a disjunction The three are Vnum one which implies a Negation of a Division for ens when multiplied ceases to be one Verum true is the second which imports a relation to the Mind as Bonum good which is the third doth to the Will Now if according to this every created Being is one true and good in its self how much more transcendently must it be so with the ens entium Being of Beings as the Philosopher calls the first Cause of all that is God infinite who is Essentially One True and Good But because the question is now about the last and that Goodness of his is so fully and universally known in this place I shall say no more to demonstrate it Therefore I come to the proof of my Major namely That all Goodness is Essentially in God alone and to be short out of so many Texts of Scripture I shall bring but one which is home and to the purpose the words are our Saviour's Matth. 19.17 There is none good but one that is God Essentially and absolutely meant what goodness there is in the Creature being all derived from him This I take for granted and so come to prove my assumption how Christ is Essentially Good If all things that the Father hath be his as he saith they are then certainly that Divine Attribute Essential Goodness is included and as he hath the Nature so the inseparable Attribute of that Nature è converso if the Attribute then the Nature Of Divine Goodness there are two Proprieties one that it is diffusive and communicative of it self the other that 't is most desirable In two ways God doth communicate his Goodness first inwardly which Communication is natural and necessary whereby God the Father hath from all Eternity by Generation communicated his Nature and manner of Subsisting unto his Son and both to the Holy Ghost by spiration The Second way is Free and Voluntary whereby God hath communicated his Goodness unto his Creatures which makes David to say Psal 119.68 Acts 10.38 Thou art good and doest good Thus Peter observes about our Saviour that he went about doing good Now this Goodness of God hath in several ways been communicated to his Creatures as in the Creation and Preservation of the World in the work of Incarnation Adoption and Eternal Happiness in every one of which relating to Salvation our Saviour hath been an Efficient and Meritorious Cause and hath together with the Father communicated his Natural Divine Goodness in these several branches or kinds thereof first in Grace whereby God in himself is altogether lovely and therein doth favour and benefit his Creatures The second is Love whereby God takes pleasure in what he likes doth it good and unites it unto himself this love the word speaks of Joh. 3.16 when it saith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And doth not Scripture say also that his Son Ephes 5.25 Ephes 3.19 Jo. 15.13 1 Joh. 4.8 gave himself for us and this love of his for us is so great that the Apostle saith It passeth all knowledge and greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends In few words God is love Furthermore Mercifulness is another branch of God's Goodness exalted in so many places of Scripture that I take it to be unnecessary to insist upon 't And was not Christ all along full of tender Mercies and Compassions towards poor sinners which among his own unbelieving Nation got him the Name of a Compassionate and merciful Nature and all the rich Graces of the Father as Paul calls them are conveyed to us in by and with Christ Lastly God's Patience is another part of his Goodness which is highly commended in Scripture and O the wonderful Meekness Forbearance and Patience of Christ who by the Preaching of his Gospel doth invite sinners to Repentance and as it were doth beseech them to be reconciled unto God and though by too many he be slighted and rejected yet he still waiteth That same in several places of Scripture is the Character given of him and in part for that Meekness Gentleness and Patience he is called a Lamb. But to come to the second Attribute of Goodness 't is what in its Nature is appetibile desirable or what all desire We know the Summum bonum the supreme good is Summoperè appetibile Supremely desirable but can any in Heaven or Earth be more desirable than the Lord Jesus who is the chiefest among ten thousand Songs 5.10 ver 16. Hagg. 2.7 and altogether lovely called the desire of all Nations This demonstrates him Essentially to have in him that Divine Goodness which is inherent to and inseparable from Divine Nature and consequently to be Essentially God Before I leave off this I must answer an Objection which might happen to be made against this great Truth of Christ's being essentially good 't is drawn out of the same Chapter which already I have made use of wherein the Lord speaks to one who came to him for Counsel about his Salvation and by him as a Prophet to be taught the way to Heaven Good Master said he What good thing shall I do that I may have Eternal Life The first part of our Saviour's Answer was Why callest thou me good As if he disproved his calling him so but that was not the Lord 's Meaning who denies not himself to be good for he saith not I am not good or thou art mistaken to call me so but he lays hold upon that occasion to teach the Man that he is God As if he had said Thou ownest me to be good and so I am but that 's not enough thou must also believe me to be God because there is none good but one that is God the meaning is essentially good and of himself and seeing in that sense Christ is good he must needs be God and that 's the same Argument which here I prosecute thus it runneth Thou shouldest not call me good except also thou be perswaded that I am God These two Propositions are convertible God is essentially good and he who is essentially good is God So if in that sense Christ be good then he is God The Hammer of the Word Jer. 23.29 for so 't is
Intercession which is the other part of it and though Paul saith that Rom. 8.34 Christ is at the Right-Hand of the Father where he maketh Inetercession for us yet one without giving any reason to the contrary which is their Magisterial way of deciding Controversies saith Christ in Heaven only improperly doth intercede for us So of him they would make only an improper and figurative Intercessour But we mean not that Intercession of his to be with Tears and upon his Knees as in the Days of his Humiliation when he was upon Earth but he offers our Prayers to God and by vertue of his Merits makes them acceptable to the Father therefore our Prayers to God we offer in the Name and by the Merits and Mediation of the Lord Jesus They in every thing to shew themselves against him Joh. 2.19 and 10.17.18 though in several places he saith that he can and will raise himself and others from the Dead yet when we say he raised himself by his own Power they laugh at and ridicule it for saith Socinus * Disp de unius fil exist quid enim c. what doth more deserve to be laught at as more contrary to Truth or can seem or be so than to say * Resp ad nov Monst that he who is Dead can call himself again to Life And that wicked Scoffer his Disciple Smalcius like another Lucian doth bluntly declare It is a Fable to say that Christ manifested any Power in his Resurrection which as it is false so it destroys it self and in the †part 2. c. 21. fabula est c. p. 216. Racov. Cat. 't is thus They are extremely mistaken who say that Christ raised himself from the Dead But they think it not enough for them to strick at him in his Grave for they pursue him after his Resurrection they say * Ostorod instit c. 41. Immediately after his Resurrection his Body was not Immortal only after it was taken up into Heaven So saith Socinus himself †De stat prim Hom. c. 8. p. 203. The Body of Christ attain'd to Imortality and Glory only after it had been carried up to Heaven This is not grounded upon any Reason only screw'd out of their shallow Brains and rotten Hearts Nay they pursue him into Heaven it self and amidst his Glory they would have it to cease from being a true Humane Body for there they strip him of Flesh and Blood without which it cannot be a true Humane Body for this reason that he would be Imperfect and Defiled if he had any Blood Whereupon they would misapply the Apostles saying Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Whereby are meant the Corrupt Affections of Humane Nature so they who therein indulge themselves are wholly govern'd by live and die in them shall not be saved As to the Body I say 't is true Corruptible Flesh and Blood as now we have shall not go into Heaven but not so when Corruption shall have put on Incorruption 't is a different Body as to the quality not as to the substance But our Saviour hath the same Body he had upon Earth in the Grave and after his Resurrection with this difference that now 't is an Immortal Incorruptible and Gloryfied Body Socinians make a Dispute about the Duration of Christ's Kingdom for they affirm it will last no longer than the World's end for saith one * Ostorod l. c. 6. n. 2. Civibus hujus Regni salutem c. Salvation Glory and Joy shall be given the Citizens of this Kingdom when this Spiritual Kingdom shall come to an end which is directly against those Texts Luk. 1.33 wherein 't is said he shall Reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end and I will Establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever 2 Sam. 7.13 Dan. 2.44 and 7.14 again that Kingdom shall never be destroy'd further his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroy'd As this Kingdom had no beginning so it shall have no end when I say it had no beginning I mean not as to the Administration for in that sense it had but I mean as to the Right and Title for from Eternity the Father appointed him to be a King He had a Glory before the World was he also had at that time if so we may call Eternity a People given him for in him the Father hath chosen us before the Foundation of the World and he began to exercise his Royal Authority over his Subjects as soon as they began to be So this Kingdom of his he had before he was Born of the Virgin but than that King had only Divine Nature though in that sense he was not King as God for therein he had submitted to the Father but as soon as God was made Man Humane Nature became Partner of this Royal Authority to this effect he answered Pilate's question whether he was a King thou says that I am a King to this end was I Born John 18.37 Psal 5.1 2 3 and 20 1 9. and for this cause came I into the World Under the Old Testament believers call'd him their King and their God and as such pray'd unto him and he was born King of the Jews and by the Wise Men adored for such The time of Christ's Kingdom hath three several Periods the first from Adam to Moses Second from Moses to his birth of the Virgin And the third from his birth to the World's end Matth. 2.2 Zechar. 9.9 Rev. 7.17 yet then this Kingdom shall not cease for to all Eternity he shall rule over his People in that State of Glory for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne between the Father and the Holy Ghost shall feed them and lead them unto living Fountains of Waters The Kingdom shall be the same Rev. 7.17 but with a different administration the believers shall not then as now they are be governed by his Word no more Promises nor Threatnings no Pains nor Rewards no defending against Enemies for there shall be none As to matters of Grace though Scripture takes away from Man all Power and Disposition by Nature to do Good and what is acceptable to God yet in that State wherein he is but a slave of Satan sold under Sin who cannot cease from Sin they allo a free-will and power to fullfil the Law for they say though * Racov. Ca. p. 197. commonly in Men by Nature the strength to do what God requires be but small yet the Will to do those things is naturally in every one Farthermore †Smalc de perfect justit although by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh it be very difficult for a Man to come really to that perfection of doing what God requires yet 't is not altogether impossible But he goes further for he affirms it
the old ones After what I hitherto observed of them and of their Principles these following things I offer to the Serious consideration of the Reader but more especially to that of the Government and Magistracy which are more immediatly concern'd First That our Controversies against Socinians are not about indifferent things or few Ceremonies but concerning the most Fundamental Truths of our Holy Religion for the Doctrines of the Trinity of two Natures in Christ of his Satisfaction of the Grace and Providence of God are not Problematical nor meerly School disputes but of the necessity of Christian Faith I also affirm that Socinians are Christians only in Name not really and in Truth for they own not Christ for what he is and if the * Athan. orat 3.4 cont Arian Ancient Doctors of the Church reckoned the Arians among the Gentiles so we now may account Socinians to be Constantine the Great made an Edict forbidding the Porphyrians to be call'd Christians and that all their Books should be Burnt so this were the proper Course to suppress those of Socinians but instead of that they are suffered not only daily to Print new ones but also to Reprint old ones and thus not only here at home but also to have them from abroad Socinians do not truly confess Christ seeing they deny he hath Divine Nature and make of him but a secondary God an Idol and a Creature God then which nothing more absurd I farther say they ought not to be suffered to have Communion with the Church because they do not together with us know own and Worship the true God who is Father Son and Holy Ghost but they pretend to Worship one first God the Father and another inferiour God made such that is the Son moreover they lay another foundation than that is laid 1 Cor. 3.11 for instead of Christ who is a Divine Person with two Natures they set up another Person who is a meer Man seeing than they lay another Foundation deny Christ Son of God to be come in the Flesh and do not adore him with us for such as he is than we may have no Brotherly Communication with them than they have not with us the same washing of the Blood of Christ and do not believe therewith to be Purged and Sanctify'd for they deny his Satisfaction that he hath laid down a Price to Redeem us they farther deny or depravate the causes and means of our Salvation and are guilty of Idolatry for paying a Religious Worship to him who is not God by Nature and though they would be thought to be Disciples of Jesus Christ yet they deny his Person and betray his Truth I add they Love not Christ and against such 1 Cor. 16.22 the Apostle pronounces Anathema for they Blaspheme against him they pretend to love him only as a Creature when he should be loved as Creator then they are not Pious for such cannot be said to live piously who deprive the true God Father Son and Holy Ghost of the Honour due to him and they are highly mistaken when they would make civil honesty to be Christian Piety and the true knowledge of God and a constant profession thereof not to be a necessary part of Piety They ought not to be suffered in a Christian State so as to have liberty of Conscience with free exercise of and teaching or publishing their Blasphemous and Impious Opinions because they overthrow the foundation of Christian Religion to the dishonour of God's Holy Name seduction of Souls and disturbance of the Church and as 't is a Collection of fundamental Heresies so to tolerate Socinians is thereby to tolerate all those Heresies whereby God's Judgments are drawn upon Nations wherefore Pious Christian Emperours and Kings to promote the Glory of God ever took care to suppress Heresies and Blasphemies as the Ecclesiastical Histories do fully prove it and thereupon let Justinian's Code be consulted against the Heresies of Photinus and of Paulus Samosatenus which Socinians do openly profess Now the Churches in Poland according to the three several Protestant Confessions there will have no Communion with Socinians who at several times were thence banished by their Kings In Holland * In 1598. the States-General having about Socinus asked the Opinion of Junius Trecaltius and Gomarus three Eminent Divines at Leyden the answer was He is no Christian but half Turk for Christians do believe one God with a distinction of Persons but the Mehometan Religion is for one God without distinction of Persons so are Socinians the Judgment of these three Divines agrees †Voidov Ostorod in Apol. in 1600. not only with the truth but also with the general consent of Christians against the Order of the States-General by vertue of which their Blasphemous Books were burnt at the Hague and they Banish'd out of their Dominions they unjustly complain'd and that act they compared with the Spanish Inquisition which here is their usual Discourse and Question will ye bring an Inquisition upon us and as then so now they would plead it to be the interest of the State to tolerate them whereof the contrary I sufficiently proved besides that Religion is against it whose Voice is to be heard sooner than that of false Reason neither ought God's cause to be made a Sacrifice of to any wordly interest among the Burnt Books in Holland was Ostorodus's Manuscript against Tradelius wherein he called Christ's Satisfaction an invention of the Trinitarians according to the place of his where he calls it a false childish ridiculous and blasphemous errour like an old Womens Superstitious and Popish Fable Certainly Men who have so obstinate an hatred of the Truth such mean Thoughts of and Contempt for him who is the way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14.6 are a shame to a Nation a Reproach to a People and a Scandal to Religion also Dangerous because they lose no Opportunity of Publishing their erroneous Opinions and their being supported makes them the bolder therefore 't is wish'd as indeed there is a necessity for it to see our Springs cleared as from Idolatry so from Blasphemy Papists who are great Idolaters are I thank God by Law excluded from having any hand in the Legislative or Executive Powers and 't is but fit that Blasphemers Socinians who confidently brag of their Errours should be so too The Receiver is as bad as the Thief I remember a Blasphemer here James Naylor to stand at the Pilory have his Tongue bored thorough in the Forehead Branded with the Letter B and Condemned during Life to be in Prison without Pen Ink or Paper and though about those times unhappily sprung up several Sects yet general care was ever taken of the main and Fundamentals of Religion even in the Army where was the greatest Latitude allowed for in their Laws and Ordinances of War the first Article was against Blasphemy in these very Words First let no Man presume to Blaspheme the Holy and
Christian World Sixthly Not only they will not confine themselves within the bounds of the received Faith by the Primitive Church but do forge new Articles of Faith and cannot forbear giving ill language revilings and lies Seventhly they despise and contemptuously reject the Testimonies and Witnesses of the Doctors of the Primitive Church against all rules of decency and modesty Eighthly they take upon themselves peremptorily and magisterially to blame and condemn all Christian Protestant Churches as if they knew nothing and were nothing which in them is an effect of rashness and pride Ninethly not only they cannot forbear opposing the fundamental Principles of Christian Religion but also will not abstain from Impieties Blasphemies and abominable Expressions against the most Holy Trinity the Divinity of the Son of God who is the God of the Christians against his Incarnation c. as it hath already been plainly demonstrated such detestable things the Apostles never did against the Idols of the Gentiles for we read how the Town-Clerk of Ephesus said to the People Acts 19.37 ye have brought hither these Men which are neither Robbers of Churches nor yet Blasphemers of your Goddess the Apostles were for destroying Idolatry but therein they behaved themselves with a Christian Prudence and Modesty though in a good cause thus Paul calmly upon the account of the Altar to the unknown God Chap. 17.23 said to the Athenians whom ye ignorantly Worship him declare I unto you disputed with good arguments not with injuries according to the rule he gives his Disciple 2 Tim. 2.24.25 the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all Men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves But Lastly they are Wise in their own conceit setting up for the sole competent judges of all Controversies when alass that Reason of theirs which they so much trust to doth often fail and deceive them is very uncertain and proves a blind guide whereof I shall now give a considerable instance and therein shew their unreasonableness for calling themselves Vnitarians for the oneness of God lies in the Unity of Nature not of Persons Now I come to them and say Our Doctrine consists with it self for one of the Reasons why we confess Christ to be God is because we know there is but one true God but yours contradicts it self because ye make two Gods of different Natures when there is no true God but he that is such by Nature so if there is but one God there must be only one Divine Nature and none is God but he who hath that Divine Nature and if we worship those who by Nature are not Gods we worship false Gods and are Idolaters To make Gods of several Natures is meer Polytheism and Plurality of Gods which Scripture is so much against but to have several Persons yet of one and the same Nature doth not make many Gods so that when we affirm there is but one Divine Nature we assert the Oneness of God whilst they with affirming there are two Gods of different Natures destroy that Unity which consists in the Essence or Nature and therefore the Name Vnitarians which they call themselves by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abusively taken they make one God by Divine Nature and another with a human Nature a great Absurdity which to any rational man must appear to bring in many Gods so multiplicity of Gods which without cause they would father upon us is justly fastned upon them Besides let it be taken notice of what kind of God they would make our Saviour to be a God not born but made a God by office and favour not by nature a God who had a beginning and shall have an end and at last be stripp'd of his Divinity a God who is not the first and shall not be the last who hath not made Heaven and Earth which the Apostle after a Prophet gives as a Character of the true God a God not such by Nature Acts 17.24 Jerem. 10.11 13. which Paul opposes to the true God an improper a metaphorical a dependent and without Blasphemy let it be said a Mock-god made by degrees like the Popish Wafer-god a God of about 1700 Years standing such a God they make our Saviour to be who is over all Rom. 9.5 God blessed for ever which is to make a God no God and as much as in them lies to ridicule the Godhead a God who hath not his Being of himself and is not the Author of being to the Creature which all are absurd Contradictions But I elsewhere abundantly proved our Saviour and Lord to be of the same Nature with the Father by an eternal generation Is it not very absurd and contradictious to give one the Essential Attributes of Divine Nature yet deny him Divine Nature which is inseparable from those Attributes so that where the Nature is there the Attributes must also be and where the Attributes so must also the Nature 'T is very strange that this people look upon 't as a thing impossible for God to communicate his Nature to one whom they own to have received Divine Knowledge Wisdom Power and that Divine Worship is his due which are proper Attributes of Divine Nature not really distinct but inseparable from it When men pay honour to a Person they first of all in their mind must be satisfied how in that Person is some Excellency and Dignity which deserves it and this leads them upon this account to make their Heart and Affections willing to entertain a singular Veneration for that person Hence in the third place arises a desire and resolution by some outward acts to express the inward disposition to the Glory and Honour of that Person and to let other men see and know it Now to have first such a Notion of a meer Creature such they affirm our Lord to be then in the heart to receive such impressions of rendring honour to such a person and lastly by some outward act to declare it this I say is perfect Idolatry for 't is to do for the Creature all that can be done for the Creator who unto himself alone hath reserved that Religious Worship for 't is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Out of this it appears how their Opinion sets up Polytheism and Idolatry for to affirm two Persons of different Nature is certainly to make two different Gods and wholly to destroy the Unity of the Godhead for as they own a Plurality of Persons so they do a Plurality of Natures how then can they find the Oneness of God and wherein will they make it consist Neither can they wash off the charge of Idolatry for rendring to Christ whom they say to be a meer Man and a Creature the Worship due to the most high God which to maintain they sink deeper into the mire for by one Idolatry they would defend another and by one false
the Heathen and Persecuting Emperors from the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church so from the attemps of Socinians and other Hereticks whatsoever either in time past or present and will for that which is to come to the great Comfort and Assurance of his People Now having vindicated that 1 John 5.7 and given Reasons for its being part of and belonging to the Chapter Genuine as are the rest I think my self engag'd to do one thing more which is to clear another Text of the false and improper Interpretation they would put upon 't John 10.30 't is this I and my Father are one * Answer to the I. Letter P. 35 36. elsewhere I have said enough towards it but to make the matter more plain and clear it being so excellent a Text I shall add something more to 't There our Saviour speaking of his Father comparatively with himself saith they both are one with the Pronoun Possessive my as he twice calls him in the foregoing Verse ver 27 28. he therein speaks of his Sheep and saith I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any Man pluck them out of my hand Observe first how he calls them his Sheep for he by his Death purchased them then as he speaks Truth unto them he will give Eternal Life and is eternal Life the gift of any but of God alone Can any one but God give Eternal Life Yet Christ gives it so certainly that they shall never perish here by the by is an unanswerable Proof against the pretended Apostasy of Saints and the infallibility of this gift of Eternal Life he confirms by an Argument drawn out of his own power for neither shall any Man pluck them out of his Hand But because to a People who lookt upon him as a meer Man ver 29. this might seem too high and unlikely he gives a convincing Reason my Father which gave them me is greater and stronger than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand Pray observe the equality of Power between him and the Father expressed in the very same words none shall â—uck them out of my Hand and none is able to pluck â—em out of my Father's Hand Now that he spake of God his Father and that they understood it so it appears out of verse 33. and because that unbelieving People might happen to have ask'd him how it is that thou â—akest thy Hand as strong as God's Hand Or as in â—hat verse it 's expressed That thou being a Man makest by self God For they well understood his meaning â—e gives them for a Reason the equaliy in power of â—is with the Father's in these words I and my Father â—re one One God of one and the same Nature and Power which must needs be Divine seeing no Man is â—ble to resist and overcome it between Man and Man â—one so strong but he may happen to meet with a stronger than himself but no such thing in relation to God In the God-head is Oneness of Nature and distinction of Persons the Persons of the most holy Trinity are really distinct one from another not by any Essential but by some Personal Attribute I know the Idle and not in the least pertinent Solution they would give of the Text namely they are â—ne in Consent but this is neither the Scope of our Saviour's words nor is it the true and proper sence of the place That there is a full and perfect Agreement between God the Father and his Son the Lord Jesus â—one doth question what the Father willeth the Son willeth also and what the Son willeth the Father willeth likewise so in every thing they are of one Will and Mind which by the the by as I said elsewhere argues Oneness of Nature But that this is not the meaning of our Saviour's words 't is plain enough out of the place if it had been only so the Jews never would have call'd it Blasphemy nor taken up Stones to Stone him they well knew how the Law of God requir'd a Conformity of Man's Will with God's and that the Creatures Duty and Happiness consists in yielding Obedience to God's Commands A Harmony between God's Will and Man's is a kind of Perfection in the Creature and not Blasphemy no more than 't was Blasphemy in Paul to say Rom. 7.16 I consent unto the law that it is good Therefore our Saviour highly meant more than a consent when he said I and my Father are one for the question was not about a Consent but about a Divine Power and Nature which the Jews interpreted that he being a Man made himself God which the Lord Jesus did not gainsay but explains it thus ver 36. I said I am the Son of God So if the Question had been only about Oneness of Consent the Jews would never have about it made so much noise as they did But I find my self by degrees engag'd in these Fundamental Matters farther than I intended at first yet for all this I must not draw off rather go on and here add some things to strengthen what I said in other places and more and more to make matters clear I shall by the Grace of God fill up some more Leaves to prove and explain a Subject so excellent in its self and so necessary to be known that the Apostle makes it his Prayer not only for the Philippians Phil. 1.9 but also for all Believers That our love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment for our Love and Obedience to God with our Zeal for his Glory and Service must be according to true and sound Knowledge hence it is that of Faith the Mother of all Christian Graces Knowledge is the first part and God sets a Brand with a dreadful threatning upon those who want it Isai 27.11 It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that form'd them will shew them no favour God in Scripture having said nothing in vain but all things therein being written for our Instruction and strengthening of our Faith we must not about our Disputes against Socinians omit a kind of proof therein contain'd which though it be not the clearest yet much to our purpose may be learn'd out of it In the Old Testament in three ways besides that of Vrim and Thummim God communicated with and spake to his People by the Prophets in Dreams and Visions which last though elsewhere we said something about it when we mention'd several Apparitions yet we now shall add that to Gideon Judg. 6.11 12 14. One in two several verses call'd the Angel of the Lord but in another the Lord himself for 't is said The Lord lookt upon him appear'd and spake indeed like the Lord God and said go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites have I
made Man 't was very proper for him to appear in that Figure even before he was manifest in the flesh for though at that time he was not actually so yet was accounted to be such because in time to come he was so to be made Man according to the first promise after the fall Gen. 3.15 the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head not the Seed of Man immediately though called Abraham's and David's Seed but mediately in the Womans Seed immediately for he was made a Man by the Womans not by the Mans Seed his Body was formed our of her Substance without the help of any Man so that she might properly according to the Flesh be call'd his Mother but no Man might properly be named his Father for in that respect he had none Luke 3.23 for Joseph was but a supposed Father to him and David was his Father only in her who had been derived from him he hath a Father namely God but upon the account of another Generation and God the Father in a most authentick way from Heaven more than once hath declared and owned him to be his Son that is as he came from Heaven there lies the ground of that Sonship God the Father never call'd him Son of Man but his own beloved only begotten Son in whom he is well pleased Now in the manifestation of his Glory because Divine Nature hath in the Person of the Son mediately been united with humane Nature and so God in the Person of the Son appearing like Man he appears in a Nature which is his own because the Son assumed it and God whether essentially taken or for the Person of the Father never did or doth in the way of Mercy and Favour manifest himself but in the face of Jesus Christ Mediatour God and Man as there is no access unto God but in and thorough him and as 't is now so it was ever from the very beginning wherefore he is call'd the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 and this is the reason why God manifested himself under the shape of a Man to shew how in the Person of the Son who took upon him that Nature he is reconciled to Mankind and of old the Son appeared in that likeness to signify how in that Nature he would make our peace with and reconcile us 〈◊〉 God the Apostle speaking of Christ's Incarnation â—alls it he was made like unto Men the word like there denotes truly and really a Man Philip. 2.7 this is to prove his Humanity but how much stronger terms doth he use to prove his Divinity when he saith who heing in the form of God the form is the Nature whether of a Person or of a Thing for 't is that which gives it a Being so that expression signifies that Christ is and was such as God himself and therefore God for there is none in all parts like to God but God himself but what he adds in the same verse doth highly confirm the truth he thought it not robbery to be equal with God his being equal with God not by robbery demonstrates it was his due and own right Now this point we intend to conclude with John's Vision for if the former Visions agree with this and if this relates to the Son of God who was God and before his Incarnation appeared in his Divine Glory in the likeness of a Man then with him we may well affirm he had a Being and a Glory with the Father before the World was That Christ the eternal Son of God and Redeemer of the World is that Glorious God and Person who shewed his beloved Disciple this Vision in the Isle of Patmos where he had by the Emperour Domitian been confin'd as he saith for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 1.9 is so clear that I think the adversaries themselves being the judges there is no ground left to doubt of it to what I already said about it I shall add what followeth This revelation is of Jesus Christ as we learn it out of the first line of the first Chapter it being as the Title of the Book that is the Lord Jesus revealed it unto John V. 13.14 who gives a glorious description of him I saw one like unto the Son of Man clothed with a Garment down to the Foot and girt about the Paps with a Golden Girdle his Head and his Hairs were white like Wool as white as Snow and his Eyes were as a Flame of Fire These last words of the description are almost the same but altogether to the same purpose with what we read of the Ancient of days who did sit Dan. 7.9 whose Garment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wool his Throne was like the fiery Flame now the adversaries cannot deny but that by the ancient of days is mean'd the true eternal God so he whose description St. John makes with the same attributes as Daniel gives of him must needs be the same but the Apostle continues the description thus V. 13.15 and his Feet like unto fine Brass as if they had burned in a Furnace and his Voice as the sound of many Waters again let this latter and first part of the description about the clothing and girdle of Gold be compared with Daniel's Vision already quoted and by this comparing Scripture with Scripture we shall find out the truth how in both places the same is described and so if Daniel saw the God of Israel the true God by nature he whom John saw is such which we shall know better and better if we read in the last Verse of Chap. 4. what the four Beasts and twenty four Elders said to him that sat upon the Throne thou art worthy to receive Glory and Honour and Power And if that Verse we compare with the 12. of 5. Chap. which is the following we shall find these words worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing So that we must conclude the Lamb to be the same Lord spoken of before I mean the same in nature and to the Lamb is rendered the same Honour and Worship as is to the Lord with the same Attributes which is expressed with some enlargement and in more words than in the foregoing Chapter but by whom is this Divine Honour rendered unto the Lamb 't is expressed in the foregoing Verse Rev. 5.11 and I beheld and I heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands which last words seem to be taken out of Daniel's Vision Dan. 7.10 to shew how all this was rendered to one and the same and I say that the sameness of Worship doth argue for the sameness of Nature we find the
upon the word only they ought to take notice of a thing material to our purpose how their Notion doth not consist with the scope of the place for there the Apostle speaks not of Christ's Kingdom but of his Person call'd the brightness of the Glory and the express Image of the Father's Person Colos 1.19 so in that other A pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell 't is not spoken of the Doctrine but of the Person of Christ That sort of Men first do what they can to wrest God's Word which abominably they generally do in the Texts about Christ's Satisfaction and almost in every other Point but when they see that cannot do they fly in the Face of Holy Writers Thus * Schlichtingius one of them upon the words But a Body hast thou prepared me saith how these words the Apostle quoted not to his purpose Non necesse c. 'T is not necessary to believe that the Author in his quotation of the words had any regard unto their proper sense but had quoted them only because they were joined with others that were to his purpose Which in him is not only an ignorance of the Scope of the place but also a Reflection upon the Apostle as if he had not well known what he said and wherefore as if he at that time had not been Inspired of God which is both Prophaneness and Impiety However they cannot deny him to have been a very Rational Man but they will be for Deism or Natural Religion in opposition to Revelation If seriously and impartially we look upon Socinians we may about the things in question well compare them with the Scribes Pharisees and Sadducees that were in our Saviour's and his Apostles days as being acted by the same Evil Spirit as they were and equally full of Gall and Bitterness against the Person Honour and Doctrine of our Lord whom upon all occasions these do as the others did undervalue taking him for a meer Man and consequently for a Lyar and Impostour when he called himself true God Son of God in Power equal with the Father and one with him Thus Impiously the Jews call'd him a Samaritan who had a Devil a Seducer a Deceiver a Malefactor and a Blasphemer The Pharisees were full of Pride and Self-Conceit would pass for the only Good Knowing Wise Men in the World sat in Moses's Chair nam'd themselves his Disciples said of those who were not of their Opinion about Jesus Christ This People who knows not the law are cursed How did they use the blind-born Man when to them he spoke good Sense and Reason Thou wast altogether born in sin Joh. 9.34 and doest thou teach us Implying as if they were not born in sin but were Pure and Holy Likewise Socinians pretend to a Pharisaical Righteousness they were not born in sin for they say there is in them no Original Sin and they pretend they can in this World attain to such a Perfection as not to Sin also with the Sadducees they deny the Resurrection of the Dead at least of the Wicked so of the Good too as to the Body The Scribes and Pharisees could not deny the mighty and miraculous Works of our blessed Lord for they were Matters of Fact done not in a Corner but in many several places and in the presence of Thousands of People nay in their Council they confess'd it and said What do we For this man doth many miracles John 11.47 They could not deny their Senses but were in their Judgments convinc'd of it yet their Hearts would not be wrought upon by reason of a desperate Obstinacy but it was prepossess'd with Rage and Malice and would not yield to the Truth nor give Glory to God This is the very Case of Socinians they cannot deny the Supreme Divine Power which the Lord Jesus exerted in so many of his Actions nor absolutely deny him to be God they cannot convince him of Lye nor of any Sin They cannot be ignorant of the Testimony which more than once from Heaven the Father gave of him neither the Record which John bare of him nor that which upon several occasions he gave of himself as to his Divine Nature and Power this they cannot deny but will not confess it and hold the Truth of God in Unrighteousness whereupon we must say they are worse than the Rulers Elders Scribes Pharisees and Sadducees who upon the account of a Miracle done by Peter and John by the Power of our Saviour and in his Name said we cannot deny it Joh. 4.16.14 and they could say nothing against it but Socinians speak against it and the Truth Satan hath so filled the Heart of some of them that though they cannot deny God's Essential Names and Attributes Divine Works and Worship to belong to him yet will not own him to be true God and by Nature which is the only true God in opposition to Idols and Creatures which by Nature are not God's Gal. 4.8 But their Hearts are so perverse and set against him that notwithstanding those lights of the Truth they will not be convinced They cannot deny that Christ did cast out Devils but rather that to give him Glory for it with the Jews they wiâ—â— forge in their Heads and Impiously say he cast them out by Beelzebub for such Cavils and Wrestings they never want which helps them to speak and write against the known Truths Julian being over taken with a signal Judgment could in 't perceive Christ'â— Hand which made him cry out Thou hast overcome 〈◊〉 Galilean Though his rage could not suffer him to own he had been in the wrong and will Socinians waiâ— till they feel such a stroke of Christ's avenging Hand aâ— did the Apostate and some of their Ring-Leaders Out of these and many things more it appears how to Socinians chiefly belongs the Apostle's Saying of those who wrest some things in Paul's Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction The serious consideration of this engages the same Apostle to give those whom he writes to this necessary warning Ye therefore beloved v. 17. seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Errors of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness A most seasonable Caution in these as well as in those Times The Society of such which too often proves an occasion of falling into their abominable Heresies we also ought to avoid and this I speak not of my self but have an Apostle's Warrant for it and such a one as made it his chief business plainly and fully to assert the Divinity of the Son of God Jesus Christ our Lord 2 John 10.11 If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds 2 Cor. 5.11 And Paul forbids us
the highest degree and nothing in 't but what I do or can prove and leave it to be judg'd of by the Reader and withal I solemnly declare as in the Presence of God that I do not write out of any Self-end or Worldly Consideration whatsoever but meerly out of Conscience Love to the Truth for the Honour of God and the Cause of the Lord Jesus for 't is our Duty as we are Christians to abhor all that 's said or done against our Saviour and to look upon all that do so to be Enemies to God and Seducers of Souls Christ is the Object of my Faith the Ground of my Hope and the Desire of my Soul God's Nature and Essential Attributes I intend by the Grace of God to begin with which Nature is Spiritual for Joh. 4.24 saith our Blessed Saviour God is a Spirit therefore Moses gave the People this strict Warning Deuter. 4.15 Take ye therefore good heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb Ex. 20.4 c. therefore make not any likeness of him of any thing that is in Heaven above in the earth below or in the water under the earth upon this Account God doth more than once expostulate thus Isa 40.18 and 46.5 To whom then will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him But against this sprung up a sort of Hereticks called Anthropomorphites because unto God they really and properly appropriated the Shape and Members of Human Body when they should know how such things are improperly spoken of him only thereby to condescend to our weak Capacities and to signifie some of his Proprieties or some special thing he doth effect as Eyes and Ears to denote his Omniscience his Hands his Power c. For all this Socinians have not been ashamed to give God a Body thus * Conrad Vorstius de Deo Attrib p. 210. one of them saith Caeterùm nihil vetat c. Nothing forbîds us to attribute a Body to God if we take the word Body in a larger Signification There hath also been another kind of Hereticks called Anthropopathites because unto God they appropriated Human Passions and thought they were really so in him a thing so much against the Analogy of Faith so absurd and unworthy of God which is to affirm there are actually in God Afflictions Disturbances and Commotions as are Anger Grief to repent c. which is improperly said to condescend to our Weakness and make us understand the Effects of Justice Power Mercy and Wisdom of God upon the Creature and not any such Affections upon him which in our Nature are Effects of Frailty and Imperfections What God speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 improperly and after the manner of Man must by us be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a manner becoming and worthy of God however one of their greatest * Crellius de Deo Attrib pag. 321 323. Men saith That the Passions in Scripture attributed unto God are certain Stirrings and Motions of his Will yet so that when he is said to be grieved angry and to repent such unpleasant things without do not so affect and trouble him but that he still continues in that Eternal Pleasure which he enjoys in himself Though he be not so brazen-fac'd as to deprive God of the Pleasure he hath in himself yet he would insinuate as if he really was moved stirred and disturbed at some things this he farther adds about Grief Est affectio c. There is in God a displeasing Sense and Affection arising out of this That his good Actions through the Fault of others have a most unworthy Success What sort of impious Notions of God are these Sometimes in Scriptures are such improper Expressions as ought not literally to be taken or else Contradictions and Absurdities would follow a thing not without Blasphemy to be thought of the Spirit of God who is the Author of infallible Truth by whose Direction they were written This I could out of the Word in several Cases give Instances of but now shall do 't only in one which is that of a Prosopopoeia or Fiction of Persons as we read in the Prophecy where here and there are several Flowers of Divine Rhetorick Hear O heavens and give ear O earth Heaven and Earth have properly no Ears Isa 1.2 so cannot hear but this is a figurative manner of speaking and as they cannot hear so one would think it to be in vain to speak to inanimate things without Soul and Understanding yet God in his infinite Wisdom thinks it fit to use that way which Men who are not wiser than God may not gainsay Also thou son of man Ezek. 36.1 saith God to his Prophet prophesie unto the mountains of Israel and say Ye mountains of Israel hear the word of the Lord and somewhat lower the word is also directed to the hills to the mountains to the rivers to the valleys ver 4. c. Certainly this is not literally to be understood no more is it when Members of the Body or Passions of the Soul are attributed unto God These Opinions of Members and Passions in God do overthrow his Simplicity which is an Essential and Incommunicable Attribute of Divine Nature whereby 't is free from all manner of real Composition which is that whereby out of several really different things a thing is really made one whereof Philosophers assign many kinds as of Matter and Form Thus a Man consists of Soul and Body Then of Subject and Accident as is Colour upon a Wall or Learning in a Man the third is of Act and Power as in every Creature which may be made what it is not and cease to be what it is Another is of the Genus and the Difference properly so called as when a generical Nature is added to a Difference which reduces it to a certain Species or Kind The last is a nice one called of Esse and Essentia or of Being and Essence when a thing is said to be by her Essence But in God are none of all these for all that is in God is God himself This making God subject to Passions doth also overthrow another Attribute of his Nature namely his Immutability for if sometimes he be pleased sometimes angry and at other times grieved he ceases to be what he was before and becomes what he was not which is to father Changeableness upon the Unchangeable God with whom is no changeableness Jam. 1.17 neither shadow of turning Who is such in his Nature which always is Immortal Eternal In his Place for ever he fills up all things and never goes out of himself But to be short these Passions in God overthrow his perfect Happiness Self-sufficiency and Independency which all are Essential Attributes of the Godhead What an Impiety then is it for Socinians to shoot at so high a Mark as God is But they
by the Word John 5.7 the Son must be Understood for Father and Son are relatives and as the Father is a Person so must the Son so must the Holy Ghost yet they deny the most Holy Trinity asserted in Scriptures and confirm'd to have been the belief of the Whole Primitive Church as contained in the Apostolical Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and in the Constantinopolitan wherein the others were Comprehended and owned in the Confession of Faith of all Christian Churches in the World which was and is still made the first Article of Faith of One God in Three Persons yet against these great Lights they impiously say * Catech. Racov. Sententiam eorum c. the Opinion of these who do Attribute Divine Nature unto Christ is contrary not only to sound Reason but also to the Word of God and they do grosly err who affirm that not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Ghost are Persons in one Godhead and †Vorstius one saith the Arguments by the Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines made use of for the Eternal Generation of Christ are either Fallacious or Frivolous and * Smalcius ad nov monst part 2. c. 22. p. 198. another calls them Ratiunculae Nugatoriae Trifling words the same in another place affirms that †Exam. 100. Errâ—r Er. 26. Christ before his Resurrection was not perfectly Christ or Son of God or God And elsewhere that Christ's Divinity consists in his sitting at the Right Hand of the Father Sessio Christi ad dextram Dei est Christi divinitas I begin to tremble when I think of what I am just now entring upon but 't is fit they should be known in their own Colours Here with Horror read how Blasphemonsly those Hellish and Abominable Monsters as are Servetus Dudithius Socinus himself and several others of those wicked Men so much admir'd by Vnitarians writ of the most Holy and most Blessed Trinity they call it Monstrum Tricipitem Cerberum Tricorporem Gerionem Deum fictitium ac Sophisticum Idolum novum Fabulosam Chymeram humanum Commentum Diabolicam Idaeam Babelis Turrim of many more I shall add the following which makes the Pen drop out of my Hand The most adorable Trinity is call'd Blasphemum dogma ex imô orcô per Filium perditionis virtute Satanae gentium Ecclesiis obtrusum I am at a stand whether or not to put this in English which though it makes my Heart ake and defiles my Pen yet to the end every one which understands no Latin may abhor such transcendent Blasphemies I say The most Holy Trinity they call a Monster a three Headed Cerberus a Geryon with three Bodies a Forged and Sophistical God a new Idol a Fabulous Chymera a Human Invention a Devilish Idea a Tower of Babel a Blaspemous Doctrine by the Son of Perdition and power of Satan drawn out of the very bottom of Hell and obtruded upon the Church of the Gentiles After this Socinians must not find it strange if I who through God's Grace am a Christian do abhor and detest those Principles which do overthrow the Christian Religion to set up a new one of their own and if I cannot be much in Charity with those who are for such Impieties and Blasphemies Tho' what I have already said be too much yet to shew how they break all Rules and do more and more sink into the Mire and if not worse yet are as bad as the Devil himself for Non audet Stygius Pluio tentare quod audet Effraenis Socinus there they will not stop for he must run fast whom the Devil drives I shall upon the matter add one thing or two more out of their Hellish Writings one of them writing against one of his Adversaries takes an occasion to fall upon Austin * Dudiâ—h Epist ad Bezam in Socin Oper. Tom. 1. p. 525. Tuum tibi Augustinum c. I shall speak to thee of thy Austin For having said many things quite contrary to the Gospel he also hath Publish'd this Eostatical Fancy of three Gods they the first drunk of this Wine afterwards they made others drunken with it so to them is happen'd what usually befals Men who when their sight is troubl'd instead of one they see three or more The same in another place saith †Epist ad Petrum Carol p. 538. Tricipitem Ter geminum c. The Apostles never knew this three Headed and threefold God nor the whole Orthodox Church this is impudently to tell this lye who can without Indignation read such things Do such Miscreants deserve to breath God's Air What that Man saith * Socin Animadv 10. in assert Theol. Coll. posnan Socinus Subscribes to when he saith Deum quidem c. The whole Vniversal Church owns that there is one God but that it doth reverence Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity no Church of God may by any means own seeing 't is altogether a Humane Invention which Divine Truth doth every way speak against After this ever since our Saviour's days the Church hath been in Ignorance and Darkness nay in a great and damnable Error about these Fundamentals of our Religion but this is not all For as to our Blessed Saviour's Incarnation or the Son of God being made Flesh they impiously Ridicule and Revile it * Ostorod Instit c. 17. p. 96. One calls it Purum c. A meer Porgery of Superstitious Men. Then the Evangelists and Apostles by whose means the Holy Ghost convey'd those Divine Truths to us were Forgers of Lyes thus they set Hand and Seal to what said that Impious Pope Leon X. the Fable about Jesus Christ hath procur'd the Church great Riches Another calls that high and adorable Mystery †Smalc Refut Graveri de Incarnâ—t Dogma c. A most Monstrous Doctrine unworthy to be receiv'd by the Christian Church And the same in a direct opposition to what St. John saith The Word was made Flesh hath this * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 49. Verbum non est Caro factum the Word was not made Flesh and to say the contrary is an Error and that vile Man thinks he can say any thing against Christ and in opposition to Scripture for in the same Book he adds Christus c. Christ from his Birth was not full of Grace and Truth Again Christ at his Death ceased to be Son of God Error 50. and therein he calls it a Fable Tanta est Fabula c. So great is this Fable of the Vnion of two Natures also a Dream of old Women Somnium anile many more such Impieties I could quote but it makes my Heart sick and amaz'd thereat strikes me with Horror and makes the Pen drop out of my Hand About the Holy Ghost they hold three Fundamental Errors First They deny him to be God though in several places Scripture simply and absolutly calls him so Acts. 5.3 4. Peter said to Ananias
to mind what the Prophets or what God saith by the Prophets this is a bold stroak of a pen against the Old Testament he that is so sawcy with the Old can soon be so with the New and so against all Revealed Religion but because 't is fit for me to shew upon what occasion he saith it I must pass to another point and say few Words to it the more because this hits our Socinians who call themselves Vnitarians in that place the question is between the strict Socinians and the sect of Davidians whether or not Christ should be Worship'd and Pray'd to which Socinus was for though indeed to little purpose only as a Medium as †Tom. 2. p. 772. he saith and in Relation to God but Francis David against now Socinus and his Adherents were very strict and positive for their Opinion such as it is * Epist 3. ad Radecium Tom. 1. p. 391. he himself is large upon it and there saith de re omnium maxima c. 't is the greatest point of all in our Religion and somewhat lower he adds noli igitur rogo obsecro c. do not I beseech you oppose a most clear Truth but own the most excellent Mystery and foundation of Christian Religion here by the by take Notice how contrary to some of the Gang he calls Mystery something in our Religion and †Epist ad Synod Waegrov elsewhere to an Assembly of Antitrinitarians he saith they ought in their Churches to maintain the Adoration and Invocation of Christ for saith he if it be despised Judaism nor Epicurism or Atheism cannot be kept out and their * Catec Racov p. 115. eos prorsus non esse Christianos Catechism saith of those Men who pray not to Christ and hold he must not be adored they are no Christians at all seeing they really have not Christ whom they deny in deed though dare not do 't in Words This hits home the Vnitarians let them Answear it as they can But to say all tho' Socinus had as you read so strongly pressed that point yet †Epist ad Enjedin Tom. 1. p. 485. elsewhere he reckons it among indifferent things such as God in his Word hath neither commanded nor forbidden and so not altogether necessary It is very strange how one can be for the Adoration of Christ yet Blasphemously to call him * Smalc exam err 100. a made God or a deisied man a God of the second order a God subordinate to the supreme One but after what he saith in the same Book we must wonder at nothing from him †Err. 8. non est certum c. 't is not certain that God is precisely to be adored for his Divine Nature and elsewhere * Err. 15. non est certum c. to Worship one Onely God who is supreme God by Nature and independent is somewhat to Judaize and deny the Christian Religion nay he goes further and saith †Err. 17. Angelis qui sunt dij c. No man may deny that Divine Worship may be and hath under the Old Testament really been rendered to Angels which are heavenly Gods After this distinction there are also hellish Gods Further God may Command that every Angel be Worshiped for a God but I am sure God never will for he never contradicts himself is not this perfect Idolatry which we charge Socinianism with but I must get out of this stinking Blasphemous and Idolatrous dunghill the Devil John 8.44 saith the Lord is a lyar and his Children are liars and this Man is such one with a Witness for he gives God the lie But before I leave off this point to come closer upon some of our Socinians here I must with a stroak of my Pen hit their great Master Francis David who to shew his want of sincerity and his perverseness of Heart doth so wretchedly wrest the Protomartyr's Prayer to the Lord Jesus when being stoned to death he said Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit which with his ignorant and unsound Interpretation the Heretick would thus depravate O God the Father who art the Lord of Jesus receive my Soul Did any wretch ever screw up his hellish brains to force such a sense upon Words so plain without the least shaddow or appearance of ground for it only because he would have him by no means called upon was ever any Text worse mangled than this by the Additions of that Wicked Man This is the Spirit of those who call themselves Vnitarians and I Socinian-Davidians but to the thing There is a phrase which answers this Chap. 9.14 viz. All that call on thy Name which can admit of no such sense as the Heretick would force upon the other for there Ananias speaks to the Lord Jesus of those who pray'd to and believed in him there is besides a prayer of St. John to our Blessed Lord which leaves not in the least place to quibble or cavil at Amen even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.20 which as to the Object fully and plainly answers that of Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit when Paul besought the Lord thrice he certainly thereby pray'd to him who answered and said my grace is sufficient unto thee and that this was the Grace of Christ who thus answered his prayer in plain Words he declared it 2. Cor. 12.9 I will Glory in my Insirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me so that the Divinity and Invocation of our Blessed Saviour is clear enough out of Scripture so 't is out of the Faith and Practice of the Christian Church at all times That by the Primitive Christians he was believed to be true Consubstantial God and adored as such it appears not only out of the Writings of the Doctors of the Church both before and after the Nicene Council who Condemn'd as Hereticks all that did speak or writ against it but also by the Testimony of their Heathen Enemies as Pliny in what he did write to the Emperour Trajan about the Christians who gave of them this Character that they owned Christ to be God and as such Sung hymns in his Praise Now we must go on and speak of other things concerning Adam they hold many bad and dangerous Errours as Scripture saith Gen. 1.27 he was Created in God's own Image which consisted not in one but in many things in Soul and Body and in the Union of both in his Person the Soul is in the Image of God First As to her Nature which is Spiritual and Immortal Secondly As to the Faculties namely the Understanding and Will Thirdly As to the habits of those Faculties that is in Wisdom and Righteousness for as God is Spiritual and Immortal so is the Soul as to Understand and to Will are Proprieties of God so he endued Man's Soul with an Understanding and a Will as to the Body though there be less of God's Image in it than
great Sin to disobey God with neglecting and slighting his Ordinances Sure I am a great threatning was Thundered against such in the case of Circumcision Gen. 17.14 The uncircumcised man Child was to be cut off from his People for he hath broken my covenant which was the Reason of it and we have a notable Evidence of the danger which in the inn Moses was in for having neglected it in one of his Sons Exod. 4.24 25. when the Lord met him and sought to kill him Now Baptism is an introduction into the Church whereby we are made Members of it admitted into God's Covenant and take upon us his Badges and Livery the washing of the new Birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 which in the matter of our Salvation is no small thing yet they say * Scrivierus de bapt it belongs to our Sins no more than Noah's Ark Jeremiah's Yoke and King Joash's Arrows without special command of God but do they every day look for a Command did not Christ once for all say go and Teach all Nations Baptising them Did not after that precept the Apostle's baptise Persons and whole Families Matth. 28.19 but Socinus †Disp de bapt c. 16. baptismum aquae c. as if he had known Christ's mind better than himself and his Apostles saith the Baptism of Water was not Commanded by Christ but only freely used by the Apostles And that the Baptism of Water was only for a time not perpetual so it doth not belong to those who come after the Command of outward washing given by C. 5. p. 53. Peter Acts 2.28 was not for ever but only for a time thus he and others of his Kidney go on after that rate They also slight infant Baptism as of no advantage which may as well be left off as used They positively say * Racov. Cat. p. 151. Infants do not at all belong to the Ceremony of Baptism for neither is there any Precept for it in Scripture nor have we any example of it This to favour Anabaptists yet the Baptism of Infants is a Divine Ordinance and this is to Unchurch and Unchristianise them 'T is an errour saith one of them to think that the Baptism of Infants is a Divine Ordinance or really a thing that agrees therewith Many more things of that nature we read in their Writings As to the Lord's Supper they are against the name for they would not have it call'd Sacrament and have very wrong Notions of the thing for they make of it a bare empty Ceremony which neither effects any thing in us not doth God thereby bestow any grace upon us only we thereby return God Thanks yet Paul calls the bread which we break the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 and the Cup of Blessing which we Bless the Communion of the Blood of Christ Therefore the Elements in that holy Sacrament are no empty signs for therein the Lord's Body is to be discern'd and he who doth not Eateth and Drinketh Damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's Body Chap. 11.29 The word Sacrament they call barbarous invented by idle Men containing something of superstition or in part of Idolatry and hath been made use of to conceal the fraud But the word hath abundantly been used by the Orthodox Fathers and Doctors of the Latin Church among the Latin prophane Authors it hath several significations as first the Money in the hands of their pontifs in loco Sacro deposited by those that were at Law also it signified an Oath which was taken upon the invocation of God hence in Cicero's sense Sacramento contendere and jure jurando affirmare to take a Sacrament or an Oath are the same among the Ecclesiastical Authors sometimes 't is taken in a large sense for every Secret or Mystery of Christian Religion at other times in a stricter sense for a sign instituted of God whereby he doth Seal his graces and benefits unto his People as here it is Sacrament a Sacred because 't is a Sacred thing and also therein we take an Oath to Christ to own him as our head and to fight under his banners Now the signification of words is what use makes them to be and 't is received in all Orthodox Schools as appears by the several Confessions of Faith so though it be abused and misapply'd by some as Papists 't is no just cause to wrangle with the word nor for me here to say any more about it the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mystery which is no less Ambiguous than that of Sacrament But to the thing nobis in coena c. saith one * Smalc disp de Coenâ thes 106. 't is the veriest and purest truth of the Gospel that in the Supper nothing is confer'd on us only we thereby give God Thanks to say that in that action Christ doth communicate to us his Body and Blood is a doctrine to be rejected as absurd pernicious and an old Womans Tale and the very Children may understand how much they dote and are near upon running mad who in the eating of Bread and drinking of Wine seek for the Body and Blood of Christ thus these Wretches do ridicule and impiously prophane the high mysteries of our Faith and though we explain it to be not in a corporeal manner as Papists say but in a spiritual yet they will not be satisfied for say they †Racov. Cat. p. 146. sunt qui c. there are those who in the Lord's Supper think to be truly partakers though spiritually of the Body and Blood of the Lord which Opinion is with the rest deceitful and erroneous And 't is added haud animadvertunt c. ‖ Lib. quod Regni polon c. Cap. 4. Err. 5. they do not take notice how in that Sacred Ceremony there is nothing belonging properly to any singular advantage for us in the matter of Eternal Salvation but only it tends to the glory of God and of Christ. They destroy the nature of the Sacrament which by a visible sign represents an invisible grace for as Bread nourishes our Body so doth Christs Body Spiritually feed our Souls and as Wine quickens and chears up the Body so the Blood of Christ works the same effects upon our Souls which to deny is to make the Seals of the Covenant to be insignificant and unprofitable and to deprive us of the Spiritual Joy Comfort Assurance and increase of Faith which thereby we receive for the Lord's Supper is a comforting and a strengthening Ordinance †disp 12. de coen thes 78. How can it be true saith Smalcius that in the use of the Lord's supper Faith is strengthened and increased seeing some who receive it may happen to be most confirmed before they receive Socinus Morosovius c. say the same but there is no Man so much strengthened and confirmed but he may admit some farther degree of
Learned and Pious Mr. Toland makes me doubt your Reasons being clouded by Priest-craft and Court-craft To-redeem you from both I sent to be left at your Lodging in the beginning of the last Week two Books as a Specimen of Mr. Toland's Labour and Parts They will I hope if you will not willfully shut the Eyes of your Reason convince you of the Errors that Education and a Superstitious standing Army of Black Gowns worse by far than a standing Army of Red Coats have wrought in you the last will only take away your Liberty but the first your Reason the last will only settle Arbitrary Power the first Nonsense Contradictions Suspicion and Blasphemy against the only true God who is and will be most jealous of his Honour I pray to him and him only to give you this Grace and Understanding in all things your Friend if you will be your own Tho. Firmin Redivivus This betrays no Wit nor Wisdom in the Scribler but on the other side can any thing more rashly maliciously and insolently be Penn'd It affords sufficient Matter for Observation I have only time to take notice of that Spirit of theirs which makes them charge those who differ from them with Nonsense Contradictions and Blasphemy and as they so falsely and easily charge the Orthodox with Blasphemy so as sharply and easily there they would punish it if once they had the Power in their Hand as for the Learn'd and Pious Mr. Toland I doubt he would make his own Panegyrick which is indecent and fulsom in a thing not true nor to the purpose But they go farther and presume to deprive the Magistrate of the Authority which God hath given him and this should make him concern'd to look to himself for they deny him the Right to put any Man to death for any Cause whatsoever thus the State is pester'd with these Vipers in its Bosom * Ostorod inst c. 28. praecepta Christi c. Christ's precepts allow no Man to take away another Man's Life saith one they make no difference between a private and a publick Person no private Man indeed ought to do so but 't is otherwise of the Civil Magistrate whom God hath Constituted to do Justice Nay they come to Particulars and would not have Thieves Adulterers and Murtherers punish'd with Death which is to settle such a Society of Men as Romulus call'd to set up his new State How can People live with and be safe among such a Generation yet one of theirs is plain enough †Smalc Disp de rebus Civil Sect. 2. Quemadmodum c. As Christ commanded not to put murtherers to death much less may we say he ordered thieves and adulterers to be put to death Yet before the Law Adultery or Whoredom for the Woman was a Widow was punish'd with Death Gen. 38.24 as we read in the Case of Tamar which Frantzius in his Thes 30. brought in for an instance who should have been burnt but 't is all one to them for saith the same Author in the same place As well the things before as those under the Law we must look upon to have been abolish'd by Christ as far as they relate to Judgment which is as if he had said Christ by taking away all Penalties and Punishments from Malefactors hath by this Impunity encourag'd and allow'd them to commit Thefts Adulteries and Murthers c. Is this the Gospel of Christ who came to destroy sin and reclaim Men from their evil ways and plainly tells us He came not to destroy Matth. 5.17 but to fulfil the law Nay that Man spares not the Moral Law for he adds * Ib. Resp ad Thes 47. Legent Divinam Moralem c. The divine moral law and with it the law of nature ought to be reformed limited and moderated by the law of Christ What Reformers are these this is a very great step towards Antinomians if they be not such already but such Principles lead not into Holiness Righteousness Good-Life and Conversation But the Law of Christ is not contrary to the Moral the abuses of which he indeed went about to Reform for the Jews had through their Inventions and Innovations brought in many but the Law it self he never Reform'd we find the contrary when he said to the Man If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Matth. 19.17 18 19. which are thou shalt do no murther thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal These are the three he mentions to be Reformed and Moderated yet our Saviour far from mitigating them and bringing in a moderation puts a higher tye thereupon when he saith Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her chap. 5.28 hath committed adultery with her already in his heart So to the same purpose he speaks about Murther wherein he appears very far from dispensing from the strictness of the Law whilest he presseth the inward Obedience in the Heart but to return to the Socinianp-rinciple about abolishing and moderating the Moral Law and putting no Man to Death for any Crimes it is of a dangerous Consequence for after this rate 't is not lawful either for the Prince by Arms to stand in the just defence of himself or of his Subjects nor for the Subjects to take up Arms to defend themselves and their Prince Thus if Socinians had the upper hand and were about to destroy those who oppose them then they would not have the Magistrate make use of Arms against them though Blasphemers and Seditious there are several things more of that nature which I omit for fear of engaging too far in so fulsome a matter leaving it for those whom it doth concern to make farther Observations upon 't However as to the use of forcible means I say we are against it thereby to promote and propagate but not to defend Religion if by Arms it be assaulted by the same it may be defended for Vim vî repellere licet an unjust Violence may justly be repulsed yet we by no means do approve of the Popish interpretation given that Text Compell them to come in Those that are without may not well be forced but invited and persuaded co come in but the case is very different for those who are in for being Members of a Church or of a State or of both as they enjoy the benefit of the Laws so they must not presume to break them but in things not against God's commands they must be made to yield Obedience thereunto curb'd and punish'd when they do the contrary and when gentle and fair means have been try'd but prove ineffectual this is not to violate the Conscience but to break the obstinacy of the Mind about Fundamentals in Religion I own this was not practised by the Apostles nor in their time because indeed it was not their work nor their Commission which was of another nature but at that time there were no Christian Magistrates all Jews or Gentiles but the
thing went otherwise when Emperours and other Men of Authority in the World became Christians then they became Nursing Fathers to the Church defended and maintained it against her Enemies by Arms against those who therewith assaulted it and by Councils against those who would have undermin'd her Doctrines And so it ought now to be against those who impiously Blaspheme that God whom the Christian Church ever own'd and worship'd whereunto the Adversaries agree for saith * Tom. 1. Sol. Scrup. 30. ad eum p. 327. Socinus Constat Justinum c. It is certain that Justin and Irenaeus had a different Opinion from what we have of the Person of Christ Therefore Men who willfully recede from such Fundamental and Universal Truths and Blaspheme there-against may very well be restrain'd and punish'd and by an Argument ad Hominem here upon the matter I return Socinus's own words upon himself for saith he †Epist ad Mart. Vadovit The Heresiarcks who raise Seditions and in promoting their Heresies mind only their own conveniencies ought most severely to be used as those whose Fault and Vice lieth not in the Vnderstanding but in the Will He farther adds How the Heresiarcks whose Frailty lies only in the Mind ought to be dealt with as furious Men and out of their Senses because though they be pity-worthy yet when found to do mischief are restrain'd and though these like the others may be pity'd yet if need requires their endeavours to propagate their Doctrine ought to be suppress'd even if otherwise it cannot be done with Bonds and Imprisonment That is in plain English if they had the Power in their hand thus they would use those who differ from them and by them are call'd Hereticks so upon themselves they pass a Sentence of Condemnation This Coercive Power at several times hath by the Magisttrate been made use of it was for an instance when several Bishops of the East met together to get Paulus Samosatenus an Heresiarck well known to Socinus remov'd from bis Bishoprick of Antioch for his Heresy and addressed to the Emperour Aurelian who effected it But to go much beyond the time of Christian Emperours we have a remarkable example of what is the Duty and ought to be the Care of Princes and Governours to make use of the Power which God hath put into their hands to promote his Glory and suppress all that is contrary to it Dan. 3.29 Nebuchadnezzar's Decree which he made after Shadrach and his two Companions had miraculously been deliver'd from the fiery Furnace that every not only Person but Nation and People that should speak any thing amiss or as it is in the old Translation Blaspheme against the God of Shadrach should be cut in pieces and their houses be made a dunghill If this Heathen King would not leave Blasphemy unpunish'd but mov'd by God's Spirit made a Law and appointed a Punishment for such Transgressours much more ought all who profess the Christian Religion take care to see such Impieties suppress'd or else as their Knowledge and Charge is greater if therein they be wanting they are in danger of suffering double Punishment What Treason is in Humane things that in some kind Blasphemy is in Divine for as Treason is against the King's Person or Government so Blasphemy is against God's Nature or his Works now as Treason is justly punish'd so there is a Punishment due to Blasphemy But to come to other things I say that for all their pretences to Piety and Vertue their Principles lead quite to the contrary and what I am going to say though there was nothing else can bring it home upon them here I positively charge them by means of some of their damnable Opinions to encourage Vice Prophaneness Immorality with all manner of Wickedness and this by the Grace of God I can make good so that it shall stick and let them wash it off as they can They are for the Mortality of the Soul after Death like the Body they would have her to be uncapable of Pleasure or Pains she neither acts nor is acted by but is asleep together with the Body till the Resurrection-Day to this purpose speaks * Epist 5. ad Volk So. Epist 3. ad Dudith p. 507. Socinus which was †Def. Puccii ad Resp Soc. tom 2. Oper. Soc. p. 264.267 Fr. Puccius's Charge against him Non me latet c. saith Puccius I know that thou deniest the Immortality of the Souls of those who are not Christians in the Resurrection so with the Epicureans thou believest the Impious Doctrine that the Souls dye with the Body and are both Annihilated by Death We use to say sins are linck'd together and go by couples so one Errour draws into another thus by a good consequence they deny there is now a Triumphing Church consisting of the Souls of those who enjoy God's presence when Scripture saith Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit Rev. 14.13 that they may rest from their labours Upon this Subject Calvin hath written an excellent Treatise call'd Psychopannichia about the condition of Souls after this Life to be seen at the beginning of his Opuscula's which I refer the Reader to not to trouble my self with refuting the Dream of the Soul falling asleep after Death till the Resurrection They also deny that there shall be a Hell being for a total Annihilation that is after Judgment the Wicked shall be reduc'd to nothing as if they had never been then no Torments for them to suffer upon this †Epist 3. ad Dudith nec de Immortalitate animae c. Socinus speaks plain enough I don't believe that any where in the whole Old Testament any clear mention is made either of the Immortality of the Soul or of any other Life Here is your Saducee but what 's become of the Soul after Death Solomon speaks to the purpose Then shall the dust that is the Body Eccles 12.7 return to the Earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it now in God's presence is fullness of joy and at his right-hand pleasures for evermore Psalm 16.11 Certainly the Soul when 't is with God in that special manner must feel Joy and Comfort but Socinians are of a contrary Opinion for they affirm * Smalc Err. 100. Err. 81. Err. 98. Animae Sanctorum c. The Souls of Saints after Death feel nothing and enjoy nothing Nay they deprive them of the blessed Vision of God for he adds The Souls of Saints do not see God before the Day of Judgment yet Scripture speaks of a place of Ease and Rest call'd Abraham's Bosom and though Parables be not Argumentative Luke 16.22 25. yet they are Illustrative to make us understand as far as we are able a thing that is and that same place without any Parable our Saviour calls Paradise when speaking to the repenting Malefactor
the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Now to find out the Conformity of this Vision with that of John we must join the first and fourth Chapters of the Revelation and observe the Concomitants Fire and Brightness his eyes were as a flame of fire Rev. 1 1â— v. 16. chap. 4.2 3 6 7. and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength also there was a throne in heaven and one sat on the throne And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rain-bow round about the throne in sight like unto an Emerald And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto chrystal And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind 〈◊〉 â—usâ— beast was like a lion the second like a calf the third had the face as a man and the fourth was like a flying eagle These circumstances do pretty well agree in both Visions and 't will appear the better if we speak of him who sate upon the Throne the Prophet saith he had the likeness as the appearance of a man and the Apostle writes chap. 1.13 in the midst of the seven candleshicks was one like unto the son of man who there appears among the Churches represented by Candlesticks as their Head but in chap. 4. we see him upon the Throne the word like and likeness is used not only by the Prophet but also by the Apostle John as also by Paul who speaking of the Lord Jesus saith He was made in the likeness of men Phil. 2.7 This after the Incarnation but Ezekiel speaks before that time and of a Vision so expresseth it by the word likeness and appearance because he who then sate upon the Throne was not actually but afterwards was to be made Man not by any Change of Substance but by Assumption of humane Nature however he describes a humane Body when he saith Rev. 1.13 14 15. of his loyns upward and even of his loyns downward which John doth in a more emphatical way when from head to foot he describes one like unto the son of man he doth not in general say like unto Man but like unto the Son of Man which name our Lord when upon Earth used to call himself by Now I say that he who sate upon the Throne was God Almighty for 't is called the likeness of the Glory of the Lord Ezekiel 1.28 And if a Person of the Godhead it relates unto the Son who afterwards was manifested in the Flesh and before under the Old Testament had appeared in the Shape and Likeness of a Man which the Father never did and of him we read no such thing Before I make an end with this Head I must take notice how because precious Stones are even beyond Gold the more valuable things in this World so when God was pleased to grant a special Manifestation of his Presence to set a value upon it always something of Jewels was offered to the eye whereby it is delighted and this not only in Ecstasies and Visions but upon other occasions thus Moses Exod. 24.9 10. Aaron Nadab Abihu and seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel and there were under his feet as it were a paved work of saphire-stone and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness The third Vision is Daniel's Dan. 7.13 Acts 1.9 one we read of Chap. 7.13 directly relating to our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven how one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven to the Ancient of Days which we find fullfilled when his Disciples beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their Sight this I shall not speak of for I mention'd it in another place only I take notice how the expression like the Son of Man doth point at that Individual Person who being the Son of God was made like unto the Son of Man for it denotes that he was something else besides the Son of Man and before he was the Son of Man or else the words behold a Man came with the Clouds had sufficiently describ'd the Person if he had been a meer Man without saying the Son of Man but by that expression which as already observed is the very name which he who often call'd himself Son of God used also to call himself by the Prophet mean'd something more than a bare Man Dan. 9.23 Chap. 2.44 and 7.14 for he being a Man greatly beloved of God by means of the great and many Revelations he had relating both to the Kingdom and Person of Christ he though at so great a distance might see the Son of God as become the Son of Man chiefly in the Vision of the 70 Weeks and in that same Chap. in his Prayer to God for his Nation he mentions Christ the Messiah V. 17. for he doth beseech to be heard for the Lord's sake which plainly implies a distinction of the Person he Prays to by him call'd Our God and of that for whose sake he prays to be heard for the Lord's sake that is for Christ's in whom God alone accepteth all our Prayers John 14.6 for none can come to the Father but by him and now this is our form of Prayer to God that he be pleas'd to hear us for the sake of his Son who is he that appeared to the Prophet in another place in the Vision of the battel between the Ram and the Geâ—â— Dan. 8. V. 15.16 for he saith behold there stood before me as the appearance of a Man who gave the Angel Gabriel the word of Command make this Man to understand the Vision but if we proceed to that Vision of his contain'd in Chap. 10.5 6. we shall find the description of a Person which doth exactly suit with that in Revel 1.13 14 15. for saith the Prophet I lift up mine Eyes and look'd and behold a certain Man clothed in Linen whose Loyns were girded with fine Gold of Vphaz his Body also was like the Bâ—ryl and his Face as the appearance of lightning and his Eyes as Lamps of fire and his arms and his feet like in colour to polish'd brass and the Voice of his Words like the Voice of a multitude We may take notice how in these Visions of the Glory of God commonly appear'd a Man or one like a Man sitting upon a Throne why like a Man not as if Divine Nature in the abstract was like the human for such a wrong notion Scripture declares against but to teach how in the Godhead in the Concrete there is something or rather Person Man like Man then more than Man and something besides Man which became Christ made like a Man not in every thing a Man because no Sinner Now as the Father was never made Man so it would have been improper for him to appear in the shape of a Man but for the Son who in time was
Lord Jesus by reason of his priestly Office which is one of the three belonging to his Mediatorship to be call'd the Lamb Rev. 7.17 Chap. 22.1 3. now this Lamb is in â—he midst of the Throne which is the proper Seat for Almighty God then God and the Lamb sit together upon â—he same Throne so there is but one Throne for God â—nd the Lamb but God is jealous of his Glory which â—e hath solemnly declared he never will communicate â—o another who is not God or to a meer Creature Isai 42.8 between them that are inequal the Throne is excepted â—hough Pharaoh was willing to raise Joseph to the greatest Honour above any one in his Kingdom over the which â—e made him absolute Ruler yet he made this exception between him and Joseph only in the Throne will I be greater â—han thou if Christ be not God Gen. 41.40 there would be an infinitely greater difference between the Father and him â—han there was between Pharaoh and Joseph and God is â—o less jealous of his Honour than Pharaoh was of his But to return to John Rev. 1.17 he in his Vision knew â—he Son of God therefore when he saw him in â—hat Glorious and dreadful sight amidst Fire and â—lame he fell at his Feet as dead and the Lord himself to confirm him in his Opinion and that he was not mistaken when he thought he knew him said I am he that liveth and was dead so all the Glorious things spoken of and perform'd in the Book are rendered to him who liveth and was dead the true Son of God who sent Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and all the Prophets who being subordinate to him as the Head and great one received â—ll their Commissions from him and were all Acted and moved by that Holy Spirit of his for as after his Ascension he sent the Comforter the Holy Spirit to his Apostles so before his Incarnation as well as now he Administred his Office of Mediator Ruled and Govern'd his Church which he could not have done except he had had a Being and Existed before he was Born of the Blessed Virgin Mary Hereupon our Litigious Adversaries may happen to Cavil and say such great and Fundamental Truths as these ought not to be grounded upon Visions and Prophecies I consess if we had no other proofs I in some degree would allow of the Objection but they know we have so many plain and clear of another kind that these we make use of not for want of others but bring them in as over and above the full measure my inclination leads me far enough from being one of those who would dive into the Secret things of God which I know belong nâ—â— to us but those that are Revealed do I own that oâ—â— must be endued with the Spirit of a Prophet before he caâ— understand a Prophecy till it be accomplish'd but wheâ— it is fulfilled though but in part then it becomes a History if not wholly yet in part and that part helps towards knowing what remains 't is an intolerable presumption in some which we hear of too often to dispoâ—â— of those times and seasons which God reserves in his owâ— Hand whereby they would Limitate the Holy one 〈◊〉 Israel when to a certain Year and time they pretenâ—â— rashly to fix very great and considerable Events which God twice complains of by his Prophet Jer. 49.19 and 50 44. who will appoint 〈◊〉 the time I think they have enough to study in the Revealed Will of God without diving into his Secret one bâ—â— what I have done is of a quite different Nature and 't is most certain how all Types and Prophecies relating 〈◊〉 the first coming and Sufferings of Christ the Messiah 〈◊〉 we consult Scriptures we shall find to be fulfilled he saiâ— unto his Disciples Luke 22.37 Jo. 19.30 the things concerning me have an end and upon the Cross he declared it is finished Now the Prophets out of what they heard and saw having foretoâ—â— who the Messiah that should come was what he wouâ—â— do and Suffer and for what end we ought to neglect nothing that may clear up to us that whole important maâ—ter As under the Law there were Prophecies and Vision about these high and adorable Mysteries so there weâ—â— Types and Figures of the same of which I formerly mention'd some and shall now add one thing more of Godâ—â— Son's Incarnation God was in the Cloud in the Tabernacle and in the Temple thus God's Dwelling in theâ—â— sented his Dwelling with us in our Human Nature upon which account the Prophet calls him Immanuel or Goâ— with us no doubt but that the Infinitely Wise God whâ— doth nothing in vain had some special meaning when hâ—â— chose to Dwell in the Cloud which as we read 1 Kings 8.10 11 12. filled thâ— House of the Lord so that the Priests could not stand to Minster because of the Cloud for the Glory of the Lord fill'd thâ— House of the Lord and in that place Solomon took Notiâ—â— how the Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness a God full of Infinite Light Brightness Majesty and Glory to dwell in thick darkness I see no Reason whâ— the same may not Dwell in a Humane Body especially â—eing it is written a body hath thou prepared me and also 〈◊〉 Tabernacle of God is with men Rev. 21.3 alluding to the Tabernaâ—â— wherein he dwelt and farther the Lord Jesus's Flesh 〈◊〉 Humane Body is by the Apostle call'd the Vail Heb. 10.20 Exod. 34.30 33. which â—â—aceal'd and if I may so say contain'd his Divine Perâ—â— and Nature wherein the Apostle alludeth to the Vail 〈◊〉 Moses when he came down from the Mountain he put a â—â—il on his Face for the People could not look upon the â—â—ightness of it but were afraid to come nigh him If â—â—en could not behold the Glory of God only in some â—eams of reflection upon Moses's Face for having been â—while with him upon the Mount and having seen only God's Back parts not his Face his Goodness not his Glory â—uch less could the World have look'd upon that Divine â—ssential Glory of his Son come out of his own Bosom â—od having a mind to Communicate and Converse with â—ankind it had been impossible for Men to behold that Glory in open Face and not Die therefore God out of â—is Infinite Mercy to condescend to our Weakness did as it â—ere conceal it in a Body and put on the Vail that is his â—Resh to this purpose the Apostle saith Colos 2.9 in him dwelleth â—â—l the fulness of the Godhead bodily or in his Body but â—aving spoken of the Cloud and of the Tabernacle we â—ust say these few words about the Temple when our â—aviour said to the Jews John 2.19 21. destroy this Temple and in three â—ays I will raise it up again the Evangelist observes that â—e spake of the Temple of his Body so his
Body he call'd by â—he name of the Temple whereby he seem'd to point at the Temple wherein God was said to dwell as if he had said this Body wherein I now dwell as formerly I did in the Temple you may and shall take and destroy as it happened when they Crucified him but this I give you for a proof of my Divinity so as to make you know who I am â—his same Body or Temple in three days I of my self and by my own Power will raise it up again that Body is â—ow Glorious in Heaven whilest there is on Earth neither Ark Tabernacle nor Temple At this time I have insisted upon the head of Visions which is one of the Classes out of which we draw Arguments for the Holy Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God though they were more frequent under the Old Testament when those Holy Mysteries were not so plain as since they were made by the coming of our Lord and Saviour yet God in his Infinite Wisdom to confirm all that in that kind had been under the Law shew'd Abraham and his Posterity hath under the Gospel Transmitted to his Church thereby to shew an harmony between his Promises and the Execution thereof that Revelation to St. John Iown there are some proofs may be not so strong because not so plain as others for some do prove a Truth more directly and positively than others yet in the Word of God every kind of proof hath its use for God in his Infinite Wisdom hath thought fit therein to instruct us in several ways and methods if we had only Collateral and somewhat dark proofs we would not lay so great a stress thereupon but to the most positive and clear we join others to shew the excellent harmony that is in God's Word in asserting things in some places more in others less plainly for sometimes in one we find that which seem'd wanting in another but altogether they make the thing to be undisputably true This consideration moves me in the disputes we have against Socinans to draw up some Arguments which as yet I made no use of to prove and more and more demonstrate those great Truths of that kind the following is one 't is said of Moses that he esteemed the reproach of or for Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Aegypt Heb. 11.26 How is the reproach of Christ mentioned in relation to a time that was so long before his Birth in the place the Apostle saith it was by Faith now one that is not or that is a meer Man cannot be the Object of saving Faith for we believe in God not in Man therefore we must say Christ was in Moses's time and as then he was not a Man nor an Angel he must needs be God Moses whom a while after God so clearly communicated himself to and so familiarly conversed with knew well that Angel who afterwards was with him all along in the Wilderness who to him had appeared in the Bush to be God himself Existing at that time since he was with him and who in time to come under the name of a Prophet like himself was to be manifested in the Hesh the Messiah and Christ as to his Office and at that time God by Nature we must believe that Paul on that occasion mentioning Christ had cause for so doing which can be assigned to be no other than upon the account of his Deity before he had upon him taken our Humanity This Reproach of Christ another Apostle under the name of his Sufferings mentions as having of old been under the Eye and Prospect of the Prophets who saith he 1 Pet. 1.10 11. Inquired diligently searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow all which related to a coming of his in the Flesh but lookt upon him as having then another Being and Existence for by the Testimony of the same Spirit they knew the Messiah to come in their time to be God As to the word Reproach of Christ used by the Apostle we elsewhere have it in Scripture Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me The Reproaches Revilings and Blasphemies against God by wicked Men are fallen upon Christ for not only he hath born upon him David's Adultery and Murthers the Thefts and Robberies of the repenting Malefactor the Unbelief Persecution and Blasphemy of Paul as Peter's Denying Swearing and Cursing but also the Reproaches Mockeries Revilings and Injuries which Malice and Wickedness could invent fell upon him from his Baptism to his Death especially in the High-Priest's House in the Judgment Hall and upon the Cross when Hell was quite broke loose upon him They that passed by reviled him Matth. 27.39 40 41 42 43. wagging their heads saying if thou be the Son of God come down from the cross likewise the chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said he saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him he trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God These last words contain the ground of all their malicious Blasphemies wherein Socinians would have joyned with the Jews and if for the Cause no doubt also for the Effect Were not these Reproaches against God whose Holy Name was Impiously made use of They Reproaching for trusting in God and for saying I am the Son of God which certainly is to reproach God but all these Blasphemies and wicked Reproaches fell upon Christ who was made the Object thereof thus was fullfill'd the Prophecy for David pointed at him when he said The Reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me There are two undisputable proofs to shew how in that place the Psalmist speaks not of himself but of our Saviour one is in the beginning of the same Verse The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up to him applied the other is ver 21. Joh. 2.17 In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and if for this Truth we want another Evidence we have it at hand for even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written Rom. 15.3 The Reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me So then if Paul speaks truth in Moses's time there was that which may be call'd the Reproach of Christ then in some sense Christ was at that time and that might well be seeing he declared he was before Abraham Something more we must say about this the better to explain it we know Divine Nature to be impassible and out of the reach of any wrong on injury however those that impiously attempt to do 't are accounted to have effected it for what they could they have done towards it and in God's Eye are as
guilty as if they had done it Now in Moses's time the Son of God in his human Nature either in Soul or Body could not be sensible of any Reproaches for he then had it not actually but according to Scripture there are two Bodies of Christ his Natural which he took long after and the Mystical which at that time was in being the Church is this Mystical Body From Eternity the Son of God had his Commission to be Head of the Church thereby to bring many Sons into Glory this Commission after the beginning of the World he began to execute in the Exercise of his Royal and Prophetical Offices with ruling and disposing things for the good of his Church the Father having put into his hands and made over to him the whole Administration of that Occumenical Kingdom he is the King spoken of Psal 2.6 set upon the holy hill of Sion who rules over and preserves his People from the Attempts of their Enemies and taught them by the Prophets in whom his Spirit was and this mediately and actually till the time came when himself was to perform the Work of Mediation and Redemption in the passive part thereof which was his Priestly Office in offering himself a Sacrifice and shedding his precious Blood for a proper satisfaction to Divine Justice and Remission of Sins This was the part of human Nature to suffer but all the while before the Work was going on not by means of human Soul and Body which at that time he had not how then could the Mystical Body the Church live and be acted if there had been no Head and how there be a Head if there had been no Being Seeing then there could be no such Body without a Head and that no Man nor Angel could be that Head who then but a God could be it Therefore all the while before the Incarnation Divine Nature in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity was acting in the ordering and delivering his People out of the Flood out of Sodom out of Egypt and punishing their Enemies as we see them opposed in the Persons of Abel and Cain of Noah and his Family to the rest of the World of Shem and Ham of Lot and those of Sodom and in this Text of his Church under the Name of People of God in opposition to the Egyptians as the Apostle opposes the afflictions of the people of God unto the pleasures of sin in Egypt which Moses might have enjoyed when called Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and the Reproach of Christ to the Treasures in Egypt Scripture doth in several places certifie That Christ is the Head of the Church Eph. 5.23 but he who now is the Head of the Church was ever so before or else there would have been two Heads of the Church which is as absurd as 't is monstrous to talk of a Body with two Heads Therefore as there was a Body of the Church from the beginning of the World so from that time hath Christ been the Head of that Body and at that time he was as sensible of Injuries done to his Members as we read he was after his Ascension when he from Heaven said to Saul Acts 9.4 5. why persecutest thou me that is the Members of his Mystical Body for his Natural one was far enough out of his reach Here with a sad heart I must say how since the Lord Jesus's Ascension he never was more reproached or suffered more than now we have a Generation of Men who with the Rebels spoken of in the Gospel say Luke 19.14 Ps 22.6 We will not have this man to reign over us as much as in them lies they would make him a reproach of men and despised of the people and would as the Prophet speaks make him again a man of sorrow acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 despised and rejected of men The Jews when upon Earth depriv'd him of his Life and Socinians now when he is in Heaven would strip him of the Dignity of his Person that chiefly consists in his Divinity which they would rob him of and because they cannot understand that high Mystery they will not believe it so against what the Apostle saith they walk by sense not by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Is it a reasonable Consequence to say a thing is not because they cannot comprehend it as if because I am not able to know well how Bread which hath neither Life Heat or Motion can preserve my Life and Vital Faculties procure heat and enable me to move I should cast it off They also attempt to reproach Christ in his Person so in his Offices of Mediator he came to destroy sin and save Sinners to seek and save that which was lost he came to destroy the Devil's Work Heb. 7.27 9.14 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 4.25 Gal. 2.20 and that 's Sin this hath been the Way and Means to save Sinners which was effected as Scripture saith by making himself an offering for sin by being made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him with being deliverd for our offences with loving us and giving himself for us Yet all this they daily speak and blaspheme against as already we have abundantly demonstrated Before I proceed farther to what I formerly said against their denying that there are any Mysteries in Religion or above the reach of human Reason this I shall add That there are Mysteries in the Work of Creation as we read in the 37 38 39 40 and 41 Chapters of Job how many intricate and mysterious things therein which Job a knowing Man and who had his Reason about him could not answer and calls them things too wonderful for him Job 42.3 which he knew not And chap. 5.9 't is said of God which doth great things and unsearchable And chap. 9.10 which doth great things past finding out yet presumptuously these Men will be searching into those unsearchable things and pretend they can find those things that are past finding out But if there be unknown Mysteries in the Creation of the World why then should there be none of the Wisdom of God in the Redemption of it There are in Nature such mysterious Puzlings as can sometimes as much stagger some Mens Faith of God's creating the World as that of the most Holy Trinity and Incarnation can shake the Faith of others about the Redeeming it yet 't is as certain that God redeemed the World as that he created it And as God hath let us see so much of the Creation as to convince us he made us of nothing and when we were nothing so in the Work of Redemption he hath shewed us he redeemed us when we were lost with clear and sufficient Evidences of his Power Wisdom and Mercy and what therein he hath revealed we ought to believe as our Saviour said to Thomas about his Resurrection Be not faithless Joh. 20.27 Luk. 8.50 but believing
To believe is what the Gospel requires of us thus Christ said to Jairus believe only In Matters of Salvation is on our part required an Obedience of Faith for as the Apostle saith We walk not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Col. 2.2 4.3 or by senses but by faith So when Scripture saith We must acknowledge the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ we ought to believe there is such a Mystery for so Paul calls it after the Revelation of Christ and of the Gospel and 't is a damnable Presumption to bring these Truths of God under the Scrutiny of human Reason and submit them to it and reject them when that poor blind corrupt and unsound Reason cannot understand them 't is a most false Inference to say I understand neither the Trinity nor the Incarnation therefore there is no such thing as if I should say I cannot understand what God is therefore there is no God my Reason cannot understand the Infiniteness and Eternity of God therefore God is neither Infinite nor Eternal I do not apprehend the design of God's Wisdom therefore no such thing in him He permits Evil and because I cannot comprehend his Reason for it must I blasphemously say he is wicked These are such impertinent Conclusions that any Novice in the Philosophy or Divinity Schools would hiss out I would hear by what Authority I may set up my Reason as Judge over that which is so much above it and which I do not well know All these Wanderings of Men I say can conclude nothing except they prove their Understanding to be infallible and infinite What to fathom these great Depths of God with the very short Line of humane Reason this is an intolerable Self-conceitedness If at first when Watches were made one who never saw one neither understood the Watch-Maker's design seeing the several Pieces asunder upon a Table would have said This is of no use and good for nothing had not such a one deserv'd to be laugh'd at as a shallow Pate void of good Sense and Reason Yet 't is transcendently more foolish for any one to say his Reason must judge whether what God hath revealed be true or not O the nonsensical silly shallow Brains of some Men As in another place of this Discourse 't is observed how God said that he would dwell in the thick darkness Ps 97.2 and that clouds and darkness are round about him so 't is to shew how Men must not attempt to pry into 't for they cannot see the great dark mysterious and incomprehensible things of God 1 Sam. 6.19 Let the dreadful Punishment inflicted upon the Bethshemites for looking into the Ark of the Lord serve for a Warning to all who make themselves guilty of the like Attempts 'T is also faid That God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6.16 which tends to keep men from meddling too far and presumptuously attempting to look into the secret and glorious things of God beyond what he hath revealed But Socinians pretend to be clear-sighted enough to see through that thick darkness and to be strong-sighted enough with the Eye of their humane Reason stedfastly to look on the Infinite Glorious and Unaccessible Majesty of God and as it were to stare him in the face but they should know how in this sense no man shall see his face and live After this rate these all-knowing Men may happen to attempt giving a Description of Heaven which according to their Principles is a thing not above their Reason to do or beyond the reach of their Capacity so no Mystery to them Thus they shall go beyond Paul and know more than he who though he was caught up to the third heaven into Paradise yet saith 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell and there he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter We would desire Socinians whom as they say nothing in Religion is a Mystery unto and who think their Reason can and may know that which others say they neither can nor may know because they are Mysteries I say we would desire them to give the World an account of what that Paradise is and what are the unspeakable words which Paul hearâ— there and which it was not lawful for such a Man as St. Paul to utter But once for all to come to the Jugulum Causae to the very heart of the point in all Matters ' of Religion we must have a fixed Law and Rule to be guided and judg'd by which Rule must be backt by an infallible or Divine Authority to stand to which is our Case against Papists who would have the Authority or the Reason of the Church to be that same Rule as Socinians more unreasonably would have every private Man's Reason to be it which as occasion shall serve can by Fancy or Interest under the name of Reason be wrested and by assed so that Reason so apt to be blinded and imposed upon cannot be the Law for there is no reason why one Man should be guided and directed by the Opinion of another if he hath no Commission from God proved by Miracles for the wisest of Men may happen to be blinded by Ignorance as the best corrupted by Interest and Lust After this Men will never stand to any thing but will quickly run into thousands of Confusion Superstition and Idolatry both in respect of God and of his Worship Without a true Divine Rule and that 's only God's Word no certainty of the true Knowledge of God and of his Worship for all the Precepts of Nature are doubtful and uncertain for they must be drawn from long Observations of Nature it self great strength of Reasoning deep skill in Philosophy and so many other dependencies and circumstances that 't is almost impossible to find a Man endow'd with all such necessary Qualifications So then to depend upon one's natural Reason as a Guide to Salvation is to trust upon a bruised Reed on which if a Man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it but if we trust in God's Word which is the Word of Truth the Holy Ghost will thereby in order to Salvation make all safe and sure to us whilst he leaves those who abound in their own sense to do so still and those who will not understand what they will not believe to continue in their Ignorance Unbelief and Wilfulness as for us Scripture is our Rule Now Scripture speaks of the Son of God long before his Incarnation as of a Person Acting Punishing Delivering c. an unanswerable proof that he then Existed or else he would not have acted for Modum essendi sequitur modus operandi none can Act except he be which as observed could not be in his Humane Nature Now in the Word of God we read no such thing of the greatest and best Men as Moses Elias John
't is spoken of the same two Persons whom the Name Lord belongs to The Father's Person is but one but the Father's and Son's Persons are two Persons yet but one Jehovah or Lord with this difference That as the Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son so the Son doth Administer and Execute all Judgment in the World commanding and making use of this Authority sometimes under the Name of the Angel before whom stood Joshua cloathed with filthy Garments Now that this Angel was really and truly God it appears by his commanding of his own Authority Joshua's filthy Garments to be taken away from him and by his saying to him Behold I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee which none but the true God can say or do for none can forgive sins but God alone which is a Phrase equivalent to this I have caused thine Iniquity to pass from thee this more and more appears out of what is contained in verses 6 and 7. And the Angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua thus saith the Lord of Hosts If thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my House and shalt also keep my Courts Who but the true God can speak after this manner And that no ground should be left to doubt of this Truth that same Angel calls himself the Lord of Hosts for the Angel of the Lord protested saying Thus saith the Lord of Hosts as if he had said I who am the Lord of Hosts protest unto thee If thou wilt c. then I promise thee so and so c. this is the proper style of him who absolutely is Lord and Master of all Hence we may learn another thing which is that Joshua being the High-priest was a Type of Jesus Christ our High-priest in things pertaining to Salvation who as Peter saith His own self bare our sins which are the filthy garments spoken of by the Prophet in his Body 1 Pet. 2 24. and which by his Death having made a full Atonement for he was cloathed with change of Raiment or with his own Righteousness Heb. 1.3 And when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high But farther to prove his Divinity here I shall bring in two Arguments which no where else I made use of before The first is this All men that is meerly men and no more than men are Sinners but Christ is no Sinner therefore Christ is no meer man but more than a man According to Rules this Argument is in Mode and Figure and both of these Propositions can fully and unanswerably be proved out of God's Word As to the Major 't is made good in two ways first by positive Assertions secondly by Examples The first hath two Branches whereof one is That every man is originally a sinner by nature for human Nature is sinful and corrupt the other is That every man is an actual sinner for as said before as at first the Person infected the Nature so since the Nature hath infected the Persons for by one man sin entered into the world Rom. 5.12.24 and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned though not every one after the similitude of Adam's transgression and when David saith Psal 5.3 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me he meaneth it of all men as well as of himself for without any difference or exception Ephes 2.3 we are all children of wrath even as others As for the other part That every man is an actual sinner 1 Kings 8.46 Jam. 3.2 't is plain for there is no man that sinneth not and Paul saith All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and another Apostle saith In many things we offend all wherefore in Scripture sometimes men are call'd by the Epithet of sinners and sinful But in Scripture the Holy Ghost is not satisfied to affirm every man to be a sinner but he therein gives Instances of and mentions the sins of the best and greatest Servants of God Adam's sin I shall not name which whole Mankind has cause to remember with a witness but I shall take notice of Noah's Drunkenness Gen. 9.21 chap. 19. chap. 12. and 20. chap. 26. chap. 43.15 Gen. 45.13 Exod. 4. Ps 106.33 James 5. Act. 15.39 of Lot's Drunkenness and Incest of the Mistrust and Dissembling of Abraham twice the like of Isaac of Joseph's learning to swear by the Life of Pharaoh with something of vanity in him when he said to his Brethren You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt of Moses's Refractoriness to obey God when he commanded him to go to the Children of Israel in Egypt and to Pharaoh and his Unadvisedness so Job's Impatience David's Adultery and Murther Solomon's Idolatry and that zealous Servant of God Elias was subject to like Passions as we are so Peter's Denyal Paul and Barnabas Falling out about no great Matter In few words every Servant of God had their Flaws and therefore in a way of defiance Solomon asketh Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Now I unquestionably proved every man to be a sinner Now must I prove the Minor Proposition of my Argument That the Lord Jesus is no sinner which to do is an easie task He never was nor is a sinner for though he assumed our human sinful Nature yet by the immediate working of the Holy Ghost which sanctified that part of the Substance of the Virgin out of which was form'd our Saviour's Body it was preserved from natural corruption wherefore the Apostle calls him Heb. 7.26 holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners And as he ever was free from Original so he never committed any Actual sin which made him defie the Jews thus Joh. 8.46 Heb. 4.15 Which of you convinceth me of sin None could for though he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin 1 Pet. 1.19 therefore the Apostle calls him a Lamb without blemish and without spot and in the next Chapter he adds who did no sin chap. 2.22 1 Joh. 3.5 neither was guile found in his mouth and in him was no sin saith another Apostle which Truth I look upon as undeniably proved And so from the Premises I may well conclude That seeing the Lord Jesus is a Man yet not a sinner he must needs be no meer Man but more than a Man and so God and Man if he had been a meer Man ut sic reduplicative he also had been a sinner but seeing he is not a sinner then he is not a meer Man In this case any consideration drawn from Angels is not pertinent for the question is only of Divine and Humane Nature not of the Angelical for He took not on him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he
commanded his own Soldiers and Servants for we read in several places how the Lord Jesus with speaking the Word to Diseases Winds and to Devils he rebuked them so that they could do no otherwise but to obey which proves his Divine Power and so his Divine Nature for none but God hath a Divine Power Upon this ground after the miraculous Work of curing the Impotent Man who had been sick 38 Years there our Lord compares his miraculous Works to his Father's when he said John 5. My Father works hitherto and I work The word my in the place is very emphatical to shew that his Works and the Father 's were wrought by the same Divine and Infinite power which meaning they understood well enough whence upon good grounds they concluded he had said God was his Father in a strict and proper sense and made himself equal with God In another place we read of some of the ten Men that were Lepers whom the Lord Jesus had cured Luk. 17.15 who when he saw that he was healed returned back and with a loud voice glorified God he turned back to Christ the great Physician to give him Thanks and Praises v. 16. and worship him upon his Knees for we must look upon him in that posture since our Saviour told him Arise go thy way v. 19. And by that Act he paid him a Divine Honour and by comparing v. 18. with v. 15. we shall find Christ to be the God whom the Man glorified for the Evangelist's and the Lord's Words are the same tend to the same purpose and the Object of the Glory given is the same There are not found said the Lord that returned to give glory to God that is to me who healed them save this stranger Farther to go on upon the matter let us observe how the Apostle speaking of Christ by his Name Jesus saith We have a great High-priest that is past into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 Jesus the Son of God The last words are put in to give us a proper and distinguishing Character of the Person whom he speaks of as indeed in the place this is added to make a difference between Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and the Jesus he had nam'd before v. 8. whereby he meaned Joshua for in Greek 't is the same as Joshua in Hebrew and here we see plainly how the Name Son of God proper to Christ doth distinguish him not only from Joshua Son oâ— Nun but from every other Man in the World as being his proper Name tho' never so good or great in God's Favour We must know that Joshua in bringing into Canaan the Children of Israel was the Type of Christ's bringing God's People into the Heavenly Land of Promise therefore in relation to that Office his Name was changed by Moses Numb 13.16 for his Name before was Oshea We must also take notice how those two great Servants of God had two several shares and acted two different parts which both parts thereby Typified were perform'd by the Lord Jesus their Antitype for Moses brought the People out of Egypt but introduced them not into the Land of Promise which Joshua did yet brought them not out of Egypt but our Blessed Saviour is the Author and will be the finisher of both our Deliverances from the bondage of Sin the Curse of the Law and from the power of Hell and also he will lead us into Heaven and Glory for he who hath began in and for us that good Work will perfect it to him upon a surer ground we may apply what Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3.18 He will not be in rest until he have finish'd the thing Now when we are upon the Name Joshua Jesus or Saviour I am put in mind of that excellent place generally granted to be spoken of the Messiah whom none but Jews will deny to be Jesus Christ Isa 63.1 I am mighty to save 't is absolutely said mighty of himself not through the help of any one else v. 3. For in the place he saith I alone have trodden the Wine-press and of the people there was none with me No meer Man ever spoke after this rate for there as God he by the Mouth of the Prophet speaks of himself with this compare Zephaniah 3.7 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save One Saviour and that in both a mighty one Now mark how in a very different stile the great Apostle Paul speaks of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me such a manner of speaking the Lord Jesus never used but it seems Paul doth point at the quoted place of the Prophet when he saith that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Here is a might to save not only in part or only some but fully and to the uttermost therefore the Name Jesus was given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their Sins His People that is the Israel of God for they are not all Israel Gal. 6.16 Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel Now the Lord Jesus is not only said to be a Saviour which in his capacity of Mediator may be called his proper Name so that every one may know whom we mean thereby This is the Character of God Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour For in that absolute way in Scripture none but God is so call'd but also in the Abstract Christ is said to be Salvation for he is the spring of it Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 which yet Socinians would lodge in every Man who can be saved if he will but in the Word God and Saviour go often together and as to the thing are never asunder and as Christ is Saviour so he is God St. John who better than all Socinians knew who God is and who Christ is in his Writings doth often joyn God and Christ when he commended God's Love to us he meaned certainly the true God by Nature of him he saith 1 John 3.16 Thereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us None but the Patripassian Hereticks will say That God the Father laid down his Life for us but God the Son hath as in the next Chapter he thus explains it In this was manifested the Love of God towards us chap. 4.9 because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him so the God who laid down his Life for us is the only begotten Son of God Who as is said in the next Verse Was sent to be the propitiation for our sins v. 10. this was the end of his coming and thus the laying down of his Life was a propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for our sins St. Paul saith Now
God himself and our Father 1 Thess 3.11 and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you here is a Prayer which is a Religious Worship directed to God himself Who this God is 't is equally said our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ equally prayed to because both equally able to perform and answer the Prayer's end so that whether the Name God himself be taken essentially then our Lord Christ is as well as the Father comprehended under it or if personally then to leave no doubt of it by way of explanation his Name is express'd as well as that of the Father and may no more than the Father be excluded from being God himself but it would be almost an endless Work if one would make use of all Texts in Scripture which either directly or indirectly by plain Assertions or good Consequences prove Christ's Divinity for one of the ends of the Gospel is to declare Christ to be properly God Joh. 20.31 Son of God These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet Socinians would make him to be like those false Gods whom Moses speaks of in opposition to the true God of them he gives this description Deut. 32.17 They sacrificed unto Devils not to God to Gods whom they knew not to new Gods that came newly up These upstart Gods were Devils which they worshipped no true God but what from all eternity is such by Nature now if the Lord Jesus be as they would have him a God come up within these 1700 Years whom they worship I leave them to wash off the obvious blasphemous consequence As to what they say that he is God only by Office and by vertue of his being anointed I answer Anointing was a Ceremony to make and declare a King but the Anointing made him not a Man for that he was before Thus the Lord Jesus the Son of God being Anointed and made Christ that Anointing indeed made and declared him a King a Prophet and a Priest and thereby those Offices were conferred on him but that could not make him God for he was such before Christ is a Name of Office as God is of Nature Upon every other account they are full of their Cavils thus they would have the Name Jehovah not to be an essential incommunicable Name Psal 68.4 which with that of Jah signifies his Nature and incomprehensible Majesty whereby he is declared to be the only true God of Israel in opposition to all false Gods and they would have their false Notion to stand because they pretend that most Holy Name to be attributed to Creatures as to the Ark Jerusalem c. which sufficiently * The Blasphemous Socinian Heresie Confut. p. 60. Zec. 14.20 I refuted elsewhere This only I now shall add that the Name Jehovah is no more attributed to the Ark or any Creature than that most holy Name and Holiness it self is to the Bells of Horses when 't is said In that Day shall there be upon the Bells of the Horses Holiness unto the Lord But as they strike at his Divine Nature so they do against its essential Attributes as Omniscience which I also have spoken of This I shall add That when the Prophets knew of things to come 't was by vertue of Revelation for 't is often said The Word of the Lord came to me thus things they knew from God but the Lord Jesus knew things from himself whether past or to come as among other Instances that of the Samaritan Woman can shew about her five Husbands John 4. chap. 5 6. Matt. 25. ch 17.27 ch 16.21 ch 21.38 ch 26.23 v. 34. and that of the Man who had long been sick He also knew future things thus he foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem about forty Years before it happened thus of the Fish which Peter should catch and of the piece of Money in his Mouth so he foretold his Death and the manner of that of Peter's that Judas should betray and Peter deny him and several other things Now this in God's Language proves Christ's Divinity because foretelling of things to come is given as a Character of the true God as we have it Isa 41.22 23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods after he in the foregoing Verse had said Let them shew us what shall happen or declare things for to come There is a considerable place to prove our Lord's Divinity which must be to the purpose seeing Paul as good an Interpreter of Scripture as any of them all makes use of it in the same sense as we do The words of the Psalm are these Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Psal 45.6 Heb. 8. which the Apostle apply'd to the Son Jesus Christ but as they are apt to take unjust Exceptions at any thing that hits them so they do at this and would give the words only a literal sense relating to Solomon's Marriage with Pharaoh's Daughter We may own something therein to relate to Solomon but withal 't is chiefly in a spiritual way intended to represent Christ's Union with his Church and that 't is not Solomon's Epithalamy or a Psalm upon his Marriage it appears from the very first Verse My heart is inditing a good matter for certainly Marrying Pharaoh's Daughter was no good matter for absolutely God had forbidden his People to make any Marriage with other Nations Deut. 7.3 1 Kings 11.3 4. and that Wife of his was one of those who turn'd his Heart after other Gods to serve them Besides what is said therein Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever doth not belong to Solomon nor what is said The King's Daughter is all glorious within to his Wife Their distinction of most high which they would attribute only to the Father and of high God to the Son to make him a subordinate God is frivolous for in the Divinity that makes no difference The true God of Israel is sometimes call'd so in the superlative degree and at other times in the positive yet that distinction doth not make two Gods of Israel in one and the same Psalm he is called by both Titles in one Verse the most High Psal 78.56.35 And they tempted and provoked the most high God and in another before 't is said They remembered that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer so that God the high God and the most high God is but one and the same God The Record which John Baptist bare of our Saviour ought to be weighty for God sent him to the end he should bear it and also unquestionable for then he spake against himself when he gave Christ the whole preference which must be attributed only to his saying the truth John 1.15.27 30. The record is this He that comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me Which Truth is of so high a
concernment to be known that in one and the same chapter 't is thrice mentioned and in every one of those Verses 't is applied to Christ who is directly pointed at in these words This was he of whom I spake and he it is who coming after me and this is he of whom I said ver 34 Now the Testimony or Record is this is the son of God by Nature not by Grace for if only in this last relation it had been unneccessary for therein had been no preference for John was such and this is the plain Result of the Circumlocution by him used before he cometh after me and he is preferred before me of which he giveth the reason for he was before me Here is a Comparison between John and Christ wherein Christ hath the preference not because he came after but because he was before John let the Dignity be contained in the words he is preferred still the reason of it is that though he came after yet he was before him do not to come after and to be before relate to time For here the words relate to their Birth now we must believe that in these two Phrases he comes after me and he was before me there is Truth Reason good Sense and no Contradiction in the same respect he cannot be said to come after and be before but it must be in a different one which is this and if they can let them assign another he comes after me into the World as ver 10. that is he was born after me which is the plain Truth for the Angel Gabriel Luk. 1.36 six Months after Elizabeth had Conceived foretold the Virgin Mary our Saviour's Birth so that according to the usual Course of Nature the Lord Jesus was born six Months after John and in that sense he came after him But how was he Born before him seeing in relation to his Temporal Generation he was after It must be in regard of a Generation of another kind for no Man hath or can have but one Natural Generation and can be born but once what else then may it be but an Eternal one by vertue of which Christ in his time was before John For saith John he was not is before me to shew how the question is about time And if in one sense Christ had been but six Months before John as he was born six Months after then in that sense we may well conclude for hundreds and thousands of Years and so to Eternity Our blessed Lord and Saviour to give an Example and to condescend to the frailty of our Nature thereby to draw Men to himself by degrees was lowly and humble yet without any prejudice to his Right which when questioned he maintained and upon several occasions asserted though sometimes to the danger of his Life He could tell the Jews Joh. 6.38 ch 8.14.23 I came down from heaven and though I bear record of my self yet my record is true for I know whence I came and whither I go 'T is a special Prerogative of God to bear Record of himself again Ye are from beneath I am from above ye are of this world I am not of this world And as he told them ch 10.38 that if they believed not his word yet they should believe his works which were so Glorious and Miraculous and clear Demonstrations of his Divine Nature and Power he said that Lazarus's Sickness was for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Son of God simply and absolutely is God in that case he spake of himself for by raising Lazarus as he did from the Dead he thereby was Glorified and he that was Glorified was God Son of God for as there was but one Glory so there was but one God Glorified This verse ought to be compared with the 40. where Christ said to Martha Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldst see the glory of God That is his own Glory by her Brother's Resurrection which he was just upon going to essect so in the other case of the Man that was Blind from his Birth he said to his Disciples that He was born blind chap. 9.3 that the work of God should be made manifest in him Which happened when he by his own Divine Power gave him his Sight and was thereby Glorified as God We must observe how the Son of God absolutely taken as 't is here is God as well as the Son of Man is Man And the Lord Jesus doth explain the first part for the glory of God by the last that the Son of God be glorified which shews it to be the same or equivalent Thus in another place our Saviour interprets the Phrase making himself God chap. 10.33.36 by saying I am the Son of God with calling himself Son of God in his and their Sense he certainly thereby made himself God which they called Blasphemy but he deny'd it to be so though he owned he had call'd himself God and in the very sense that they had taken it Because our Lord sometimes call'd himself Son of Man they would take advantage of it but when he did it was to point at the Promise made to our first Parents that the Woman's Seed should bruise the Serpent's Head and to teach Men how they ought to look upon him as being that same Seed who was come not to conquer Kingdoms as at that time the Jews fancied but to execute the Promise of bruising the Serpent's Head Joh. 10.36 when he called himself Son of Man he spoke the truth but he thereby denied not that he was the Son of God for sometimes he call'd himself by that Name and to confirm this great and fundamental Truth there stands upon record and shall to the Worlds end the famous Confession of Peter in his and of all the Apostles Name upon a solemn occasion Thou art the Son of the Living God a truth which came not out of his own Head or out of any humane Principle but was from Heaven immediately revealed unto him namely that Jesus Christ was by Office the Messiah and by Nature the true Son of the living God Now if he had been Son of God only by deputation there had been no need of Revelation but at that time 't was necessary to let Men know how he is such by Nature and to refute the wrong Notions which the Jews had of our Saviour God thought fit to inform them better with declaring his Divinity and this is one of those Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Luk. 8.10 which the Lord Jesus said to his Disciples It was given unto them to know wherein he plainly declared how in and after his teaching in Religion were Mysteries not to be known but by the Gift of God and Revelation And I think he was a competent Judge of such things and when he call'd himself Son of God he could also tell whether or not he was so which to
If any Man that is call'd a Brother be a Fornicator or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner to keep Company with such an one no not to eat much more if a Blasphemer ever a capital Criminal among all Nations which have but a tolerable knowledge of God And elsewhere he requires the same in relation to Men of an ill Life Now we command you 2 Thess 3.6 Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ a strong Adjuration That ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition this also relateth to the Doctrine which he received of us v. 14. And somewhat lower If any Man obey not our word by this Epistle note that Man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed That good Man was ever desirous to reclaim Sinners from their evil Courses but still his great care was to preserve Men in their soundness of mind and of affections and to keep them from danger he would have them to avoid occasions leading to 't namely the Company of those who are infected Judg 23. for fear of being so too for which reason we ought to hate even the Garment spotted by the Flesh and with the Angel of the Church of Ephesus which is his great commendation to hate the Deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate Rev. 2.6 saith the Son of God and so he doth the Blasphemy of Socinians as his beloved Apostle hated and avoided the Company of Cerinthus one of if not the first Ring-leader when at Ephesus he would not stay in but went out of the Bathing-house as soon as he heard Cerinthus was come in there should in the Sheep be an Antipathy against the Wolves company and in the Shepherd a care to prevent their coming in among the Flock Our Lord Jesus Christ is considered in three Capacities as God as Man and as both or as he is Mediator when Scripture speaks of him in any of these it doth relate to the Capacity he is spoken of and every one who reads the Word of God when he doth must have a great care not to confound but to distinguish them well for else great Inconveniences will follow Qui benè distinguit benè docet saith the Philosopher and herein lyeth in part the want of sincerity in Socinians that by any means they go about to accommodate the sense of Scripture to their own ends as sometimes when 't is literal to wrest it into a Metaphorical and when 't is improper to make it literal without any regard at all to the Analogy of Faith After this way when a Text is to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum quid and only in some sense they would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and absolutely interpret it as they do this John 14.28 My Father is greater than I for want of making a necessary distinction between his Divinity and his Humà nity between his State of Glory and that of his Humiliation Philip. 2.8 He humbled himself also the Son of God is after the Father only in Order but not in Nature and Dignity But to shew their unreasonable partiality I ask Why do they not also literally interpret these places wherein his Divinity is asserted As when he saith Before Abraham was I am which is a very plain Assertion of his priority of Existence before Abraham with twice Verily I say John 8.58 which is a very strong Asseveration by him used upon the weightest Matters so when he saith chap. 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was Doth not this plainly shew that Christ the Son of God was glorified with the Father before the Creation of the World Colos 2.9 Also when the Apostle saith In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Can any thing more plainly and fully assert the Divinity of Christ So when 't is expresly said The Word was God in the beginning Again John 10. when he saith himself I and the Father are one God Almighty out of whose Hands no Man can pluck the Sheep which is the plain scope of that place and which that enlargement and explanation doth naturally and so easily flow from seeing there the Subject of his Discourse is to shew how no Man can pluck his Sheep out of his or his Father's Hands for they are one God Almighty The like we may say of the Text where St. Paul saith Rom. 9.5 Christ is over all God blessed for ever Is not this plain enough So is what another Apostle speaks of him thus 1 Joh. 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal Life Can any thing be said more plainly than this that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life Why then do not they literally interpret these and other Texts which so clearly do assert Christ's Divinity When he speaks as God the Maker of the World he useth one kind of Stile and when as Man who had in our stead subjected himself to the Curse and Penalty of the Law another Yet tho' he suffered not as God he ceased not to be God as the Sun behind a Cloud ceaseth not in it self to be bright and glorious so the Lord Jesus's Divine Nature under the Vail of the Flesh had not lost her Divine Glory which during the time of his Humiliation was hidden from Man's Eyes yet still some Beams thereof appeared in his Baptism in his Transfiguration and Miracles but after his Resurrection and Ascension was manifested as is the brightness of the Sun when the Cloud is dispersed then indeed he was again glorified with the Father with the Glory which he had with him before the World was This leads me to the following Consideration which if well minded can by God's Blessing contribute to the better understanding of this whole matter After the manner of Man that is weakly and imperfectly we may conceive God infinitely Glorious in himself yet as his great and ultimate end is and ever was to promote that Glory of his he from all Eternity decreed to glorifie himself for ever and ever by the Manifestation of his Power Wisdom Goodness Justice and every other Attribute and as the first in Intention is the last in Execution so in order thereunto to communicate himself he resolved to create the World and in the visible part of it to lodge Man as the Chief of his Creatures and to permit him to sin and thereby become guilty of Eternal Damnation And as God is glorified in the ways of Mercy and of Justice so he also resolved of whole Mankind to make Objects of these two Attributes to save some through free Grace and
to leave others in the natural State of sin And as in the Work of Creation so in that of Redemption the Three Persons of the most Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost agreed about the Means conducing to that End The Father was to send his Son Jesus Christ Epes 3.4 in whom he hath chosen us before the foundation of the World The Son to come purchase and work Salvation for us and the Holy Ghost to apply that Purchase and make it effectual In order to this the whole Administration of this great and Glorious Work was committed to the Son Acts 10.36 Heb. 1.2 Matt. 28.18 Joh. 5.19 who thereby was made King and Lord of all and Heir of all things so all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth Hence it is that what things soever the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise Nay in this he is so fully and absolutely Plenipotentiary that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son This Office of Mediatour and Saviour he from the Creation of the World began to administer it in the Royal part as executing Judgment upon the Wicked and saving his People sometimes by Angels at other times by himself in the shape of a Man Also his Prophetical Office even before the Flood 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 1.11 by Noah called a Preacher of Righteousness and afterwards by all the Prophets in whom his spirit was Thus from the beginning of the World he hath every where from Abel to Abraham and in Egypt the Wilderness c. been Ordering Ruling and Governing his Church and the whole World which he continues to do and will till after the last Judgment Day when having gotten all his Elect together he will introduce them into everlasting Glory all this by his own Power And this is such a work as infinitely exceedeth all Humane and Angelical Strength and Wisdom so that none but a Divine Power can perform it therefore he that doth it till all his Enemies be brought under his Feet and fully overcome must need be true Essential and Eternal God Who but he who is the true God by Nature can Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 6.33 But John Baptist according to the Testimony he had from Heaven bare witness that Christ doth as he actually did his Apostles according to the promise he made to them And in the same place John Baptist bare record that this is the Son of God Acts 2. chap. 1.5 John 1.33.34 Luk. 7.28 John 1.27 and 3.30.31 Why to call him thus if he was not really such Hereby he shews that vast difference between the Lord and himself of whom our Saviour said Among those that are born of Women there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist who in several places made himself a meer nothing in comparison of the Lord Jesus and here by the name Son of God he is distinguished from all Men John never call'd himself nor no Man else Son of God only this Jesus Christ and none else is the Son of God with the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a but the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsemet this very same which that he is is so certain a truth that our Lord owned it before the Council of the Chief Priests and Scribes who were not so blind as Socinians are or would seem to be for though our Saviour had spoken to them not so plainly Luke 22.69 yet this meaning they understood well Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God Though he called himself Son of Man yet the last words made them to conclude that he made himself the Son of God and consequently God for none but the proper Son of God can sit on the right hand of the Power of God therefore they all presently asked him Art thou then the Son of God which was a Natural Consequence of what he had said and the Particle then is a Note of inference which our Saviour owned in these words ye say that I am That is plainly I am and ye are not mistaken which they call'd Blasphemy so would Socinians have said if they had been there for now they do so set their Hand and Seal Mark 14.64 to his Condemnation for Blasphemy and consequently that he was justly put to Death for it when truely properly and in the sense which the Jews took it he made himself Son of God which as much as in them lies is To crucifie the son of God a-fresh Heb. 6.6 and put him to an open shame Hitherto though I had occasion to do 't I have taken no notice of the Opinion of those who say St. John's Gospel to have been written by Cerinthus for 't is such a nonsensical untruth and so absurd a Forgery that I ever thought it not worth minding In John's time the Heresiark Cerinthus denyed our Saviour's Divinity which that Gospel proves as often fully and plainly as any Book whatsoever in the the New Testament as indeed that Apostle did write it a purpose to prove it and thereby to confute the Impious Heresie of that Instrument of Satan as he declares it when he saith These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God Joh. 20.3 and that ye might have life through his name To say a proof is against a thing when 't is visibly for it gives a just cause to put the question whether he or they who said so knew what they said But Drowning Men will lay hold on any thing that comes into their Hand Besides 't is a great Impiety to make a Blasphemous Heretick Author of an Holy Gospel generally owned to be Canonical and Inspired by the Holy Ghost This Holy Gospel doth confound the Enemies of our blessed Lord and Saviour's Divinity therefore they so often would have been nibbling at it not one chapter but affords strong proofs of it For not to mention here those several places out of which we have drawn strong Arguments for it How many things to confirm it did the Lord Jesus speak therein from the time of his eating the Passover till he was taken that was but short which he took to prepare his Disciples for that separation which by his Death was to follow comforting them with telling what he would and could do for them I shall take notice of that only wherein he speaks of that high point of his Divine Glory by a mutual Glorification between the Father and him Joh. 13.31 32. Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him but this is not all for if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself This indeed were a Blasphemy for a meer Creature to speak after this manner here is a perfect Equality of Glory they glorifie one another and are glorified one in another God shall glorifie him not without but
in England against Blasphemy and Prophaneness or as he calls it Impiety and Debauchery hath met with great opposition And here 't is known how that Intelligence was too true tho' 't is very sad that two such abominable things as are Blasphemy and Prophaneness should find Friends to favour and support them which none but those who are guilty thereof either directly or by a side-wind will offer to do and it is too true that whilst some good and worthy Persons used their Endeavours to promote the Cause of God others as bad as these are good with their utmost power opposed it And as in the Body when there is a weak and infected part all bad Humours fall in with it so in this case we find a Combination against the Truth not only of the Jews our Saviour's sworn Enemies and of their Friends but also of the worst Sects or Excrements of Christianity so that with the Psalmist we may say Edom Ishmael Psalm 83.5 6 7 8 9. Moab Gebal Ammon Amalek the Philistines c. have consulted together with one consent and are confederate against it Among others for Socinians appeared the Quakers who with them agree in many things as against Revelation and the Word of God which they subject one to their Spirit and Light within the other to their Reason Upon reasonable Grounds it may be question'd Whether Men who own no other Christ but that which they say to be within them who never were Baptized in his Name own in the Church no Ministery by way of Office and receive no Sacraments of Christ's Institution may be called Christians as for Socinians tho' they call themselves so yet are only in Name nor really such but rather Enemies to his Person and his Cross whose Dignity and Merits for all their fair pretences they strive and intend if they can to pull down to that effect they use all they think may conduce to 't but let them design it never so much I can upon certain Grounds assure them they shall never execute it because God's Word we have for it Something else there is which I must take notice of the more because in relation to Laws and Penalties they keep a pother about that Party doth sound a general Alarm and would make many more afraid besides themselves as if they were all concerned for a common Cause but I think none but the guilty ought to fear God forbid the Innocent should suffer with the Guilty but withal the Guilty must not escape with the Innocent for both he that justifieth the Guilty Prov. 17.15 and he that condemneth the Innocent are abomination to the Lord I cannot blame Men for being cautious how to prevent Inconveniencies as much as 't is possible lest the harmless should be involved in the same Condemnation with the mischievous Man which hath sometimes happened and so may again but for Men without a just and visible cause to be over fearful it argues either a faintedness in the Heart or a guilt in the Conscience however let a due Prudence be made use of both in fixing the Guilt and inflicting the Punishment upon the Guilty As 't is necessary and just that Men should plainly know what they are forbidden and must avoid so out of Christian Prudence there ought a difference to be made between the seducer and seduced the obstinate and ignorant the leader and the mis-led Deut. 22.19 29. 'T is to be taken notice of how under the Law there were Fines and Money-penalties laid upon Offenders which may be a warning for these times Now as to the distinction to be made of Persons about the Jews for whom a great regard hath been had of late a necessary care ought to be taken to prevent their spreading abroad their Blasphemies against our Lord and to confine them within their Synagogue for matters of Religion nor suffer them to go about seducing of Souls they should consider here they stand upon no Act of Parliament only upon Connivence Thus we shall pity their Hardness and Unbelief Rom. 11.33 thorough the unsearchable judgments of God which is a continuation of that which their Fore-fathers had from the beginning But Socinians we may look upon with a different eye for they are Apostatized from the Truth which the Jews never professed and continuing obstinate in their Blasphemies they deserve to be delivered unto Satan 1 Tim. 1.20 that they may learn not to blaspheme This is St. Paul's Direction and Practice VVhen a Law is to be made to prevent its becoming a snare it ought to be worded in as plain full and clear Terms as possibly may be though for all that at one time or other some out of perverseness of Nature will study how to wrest it And no wonder seeing they attempt to put false Glosses upon God's Word even in those places which are as plain as can be But from a general Rule to come to a particular one which is what I now purpose I shall now reduce it to the case of Blasphemy about which the Controversie is between the Orthodox and Socinians The occasion of my coming to this when I was just upon concluding this Discourse is given me a sheet of Paper under the Name of a Caution about passing the Bill against Blasphemy whereof the Author goes upon two Heads the first VVhat Blasphemy is in it self the second How far the Civil Authority may go to suppress it This Paper tends to what most of their others do to make all Dissenters even the best sort to think that there is a design to disquiet them but the cloven Foot cannot be hidden for all that own the Doctrinal part of the Thirty nine Articles are not affected only those that be Blasphemers and prophane Men and 't is what they are afraid of 'T is very reasonable and just to make a difference between Ceremonial and Doctrinal Circumstantial and Essential to cut a little Bough is one thing but to lay the Axe at the Root of the Tree is much another The Definition or Description therein given of Blasphemy namely A speaking evil of God is not full and comprehensive enough but in the next Page he adds something as an irreligious and scornful treating of the Divine Majesty in his Nature and Attributes but still this is defective for Blasphemy is not only against the Nature and Attributes but also against the Persons of the Godhead and against the Word and Works of God For Scripture doth plainly speak of Blasphemy against the Son of God Jesus Christ and against the Holy Ghost by Name as elsewhere I gave some Instances of so 't is Blasphemy to speak against what is clearly said in God's Word for herein men give God the lye and make a Lyar of the God of Truth 'T is also Blasphemy to say that all that God made was not good and that in all his VVorkings he is not just and wise Again we Christians own the Knowledge and Belief of
with their pernicious Books For I thank God we are always ready openly to assert and defend it but some not so well grounded as the thing requires might through the Cavils and Sophistry of Seducers happen to be entangled and deceived the Wolves would gladly be among the Sheep for which purpose they often disguise themselves in Sheeps cloathing but the Sheep must carefully avoid coming near the Wolf pag. 127 128 129. But this Author pleads for a Communion hence it is that with us they would be accounted Members of the Church and be thought to agree with us But I wonder not that the Scabby Sheep would come among the Sound for there they can catch no harm but can do some but on the contrary the Sound ones need not to desire the Company of those which be Rotten for they can receive some harm tho' they can do none This People by means of a confused mixture would joyn God with the Idol Christ with Belial and Light with Darkness so Truth with Falshood Protestants with Papists Jews Idolaters and Blasphemers Is not this a kind of Juggling But upon what Terms can this Union be For we must stand upon what God saith to Jeremiah Jer. 15.19 Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Now saith there this Author this Communion is the way whereby all Schisms Heresies Hatred Animosities and Vncharitableness would be destroyed yet our Saviour and his Apostles say there must be Schisms and Heresies but they know a way how infallibly to root out all such things What Mountebanks in Religion are they who pretend to cure of all Spiritual Diseases and quickly restore Christendom to Truth and Unity Thus far I stepp'd aside to take notice of these few things among many more which this Author hath said because in general they contribute towards my main design to shew the Spirit of Socinianism and now in particular I must vindicate those places of Scripture which demonstrate it to be part of the Magistrates Office to punish Blasphemers we can plainly see they would make Religion subservient unto what they call the Publick Good and they mind the Glory of God if at all at the most in subordination to the State Two Texts of Scripture they answer one out of the New the other out of the Old Testaments The Words of the first are these Rulers are not a Terrour to good Works Rom. 13. Job 31. v. 3 4. v. 2. but to the evil Wilt thou not then be afraid of the Power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain Here the Magistrate is said to be by God's Ordinance and a Minister of God and can it reasonably be thought that God hath appointed Rulers to mind only the Concerns of their People and not at all his own Honour and Service Scripture saith 2 Chron. 19.6 They judge not for Man but for the Lord often such cases happen as are not between Man and Man but between God and Man Must Justice be rendered for Man and not for God This is as absurd as to say That any one whether Judges Governours or others Commissionated by the King are to take care only of the Subjects concerns but not at all of the King 's whose Servants and Ministers they are Is there any word in the Text that can afford the least ground to confine the Office and Power of Rulers within Civil Matters and to exclude those which relate to Religion I can see no such Clause in the Commission neither they nor no Body else if they do let them shew it Without restriction or limitation 't is absolutely said He is not a Terrour to good Works but to the evil of what nature soever thus the Commission is general and by vertue of it he ought without exception to praise and reward every good Work to punish and revenge every evil one but they cannot deny that in things of Religion as well as in Civil Matters are good and evil Works and the very Name of Conscience v. 5. for whose sake we must be subject which is within the Predicament of Religion doth abundantly express that as for Religion and Conscience sake we ought to obey so it must be about Religious as well as Civil Matters concerning which he exercises his Authority otherwise 't is plainly to introduce Atheism into Human Society for no Religion no God and there is no God owned where Religion is not minded and by whom should it be but by those who have the Power in Hand and the Administration of the Government which if neglected as good to live in Woods and Forests among wild Beasts so it will be homo homini lupus This the very Heathens were so sensible of that the Wise among them to tame the Ferocity of some Mens Nature did in order to 't lay Religion as the Foundation for indeed except there be something of it such is the Temper of most Men that they never will submit to order Hence it is that no Nation tho' never so Wild and Barbarous but had something of Religion by these means Numa Pompilius brought under some Rules and Discipline that parcel of Rogues Murtherers and Villains in every kind of which Romulus had formed his Kingdom and took care to instruct and give them Laws and Principles of Religion such as they were and afterwards the Romans took care to send their Children into Hetruria or Toscany to have them instructed in the way of their false Religion and when an Addition or Alteration was therein to be made 't was ever done by the Publick Authority which shews this Man's great Mistake in what he saith p. 81. But to come to God's People how careful were the good Kings of Judah to reform Abuses crept into Religion as appears by the Examples of Asa Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josiah But let us take special notice of Moses's Behaviour upon the occasion of the Golden Calf under God he was the chief Magistrate of that numerous People did he not make use of his Authority when he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder Exod. 32.20 and strawed it upon the waters and made the children of Israel drink of it Besides he upbraided and chid Aaron his elder Brother and High-priest when he angrily said unto him What did this people unto thee ver 21 that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them Meerly by his complyance to shew how when God's Service was concerned he minded no relation in the World as 't is every Magistrate's Duty to do specially of those who know and worship the true God who also are in Conscience bound to restrain and punish those who are not content to go about robbing the Son of God of his true Divine
Nature but would also deprive Rulers of their chief Glory which is to assert and vindicate the Honour and Service of God and by their Authority to suppress whatsoever is contrary to 't But to turn to the Text the Author saith we ought to prove two things pag. 69. first That meer Errours of the Vnderstanding are evil-Works which by the Grace of God I hope to do but knowing their Cavilling Humour we must clear the way before us The Understanding being the Spring and proper Seat of Theorical Errours it had been fit for him to have said what he meaneth by the word meer whether a transient false Speculation or an immanent such a one as goes no farther but stops there in the Mind This last doth affect only the Party and it making sometimes but a slight Impression is in time forgotten but the first produceth ill Effects for it passes into the Heart where it settles and thence breaks out Now I say that these meer Errours of the Understanding are evil Works The Understanding is the Judgment-Seat of the Soul where whatsoever comes into it is examined and there Judgment passed whether it be true or false And as the Will follows the last Dictate of the Intellect so thence it passes into the Will and is either received as good or rejected as evil when the first as commonly 't is then the Affections seated in the Heart or Will are engaged When we say the Errours of the Understanding are evil Works by Works we do not mean what is generally opposed to Thoughts for all Man's Actions are distinguished into Thoughts Words and Deeds or Works now the Understanding hath its Works and Operations as well as the other Faculties of the Soul or Members of the Body but in another manner and of a different Nature to represent this we use to say that Man hath a working Head and his Brains are at work In this sense we say that Errours of the Understanding are evil Works such is the black List by our Saviour spoken of Mark 7.21 22. Out of the heart of men proceed evil Thoughts Adulteries Fornications Murthers Thefts Covetousness Wickedness Blasphemy c. all these are evil Works and all come from within and Blasphemy which is the great thing in question is named and Heresie another great Evil which we justly charge Socinians with Gal. 5.20 is reckoned among the Works of the Flesh Such workings are in Mind and Heart In heart ye work wickedness saith David Ps 58.2 These are evil Works punishable by the Magistrate according to the Text of the Romans which we now are upon and both Blasphemy and Heresie are certainly Matters of Irreligion which to punish as also Idolatry doth bind the Christian as it did the Jewish Magistrate and he is as much obliged to execute Justice upon as against Adulteries Fornications Murthers Thefts and other Wickednesses already mention'd Now to close up this Head I say that as meer Errours in the Understanding are evil Works it necessarily follows that those who be guilty thereof are Evil-doers all we can do for those who will deny this is in the words of the Roman Poet to wish them mentem sanam in corpore sano a sound Mind in a sound Body The second thing he would have us to prove is this that the Apostle means such here that is as hold Fundamental Errors and are guilty of Blasphemy Heresie and Idolatry else it were not to the purpose for these are the things in question and do own profess and practise it for else no Man being a searcher of the Heart and Mind knows what passes therein and so may not Punish but for what comes within his certain knowledge therefore there ought to be Informations and Proofs drawn out of Overt Acts as Words Discourses Writings and the like the Apostle saying here that the Ruler is a Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil and not adding in Civil Matters which had been necessary if he intended to have restrained it only to such or else he had not sufficiently expressed his Mind but seeing he simply saith Vpon him that doth Evil Can any thing forbid us to believe and affirm he meant doing Evil in things pertaining to God as well as to Men And is it not an abominable thing for them to exclude things of Religion and to make Limitations where God hath made none Therefore if God hath appointed the Magistrate to punish all that do Evil for the word him being indefinite doth generally comprehend all that do so and hath not said against his Neighbour or against the Publick Good why should we not understand it in any kind that deserves Punishment and consequently in Religious Matters as well as those of the Civil Society What he saith that this relates only to Civil Matters because of these words Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same is not to the purpose as it will appear somewhat lower We are not so sawcy as they to limitate it only to Matters of Religion and not also extend it to those of a Civil Nature for we own it relates to both Temporal and Spiritual things Here the Apostle from verse 1 to 7. inclusively upon three Motives exhorted to Obey the Superiour Powers First Hope of Reward Second Fear of Punishment and Third for Conscience sake in case the other two could not prevail and though he doth not so plainly mention the Duty of Rulers yet he insinuates how they ought to Reward Good Works and Punish Evil ones Now to Command and to Obey are two Relatives and if Actively or Passively we must Obey in all Just and Lawful things as are not against but for the Honour and Glory of God as are all of a truely Religious Nature then the Magistrate may command all that are such and by Penalties compel Men to Obey in things relating to Religion as well as to Civil Society and if he may make Laws to force Men to be Just one to another much more hath God Authoriz'd him by Law to force them to give God his due and not rob him of his own as more immediately and in a special manner are things belonging to Religion for in the Text Obedience is commanded to be yielded out of a Principle of Conscience verse 5. and for fear of Damnation verse 3. both which certainly relate to Religion When God gave Moses the Decalogue he divided it into two Tables whereof the first immedily related to him as being Matters of Religion as the second did to the Civil Society and were not the breakers of the first Table punished as those of the second Or is it reasonable to think that God took care of Man's Concern and wholly neglected his own so that in this World they might offend him and go unpunished what kind of Encouragement would this have been to all manner of Impiety