But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
the Father Son and Spirit are one God and then let it be debated whether they are one in Substance and three in Persons or how else the matter is to be stated If they deny it it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing and the way of expressing it whilst the thing it self is denyed to have a being for of that which is not there is neither manner property adjunct nor effect Let then such persons as this sort of men are ready to attempt with their Sophistry and to amuse with cavils about persons substances subsistences and the like desire to know of them what it is that they would be at What would they deny what would they disapprove Is it that God is one or that the Father is God or the Son or the Holy Ghost is so If they deny or oppose either of these they have Testimonies and instances of divine Revelation or may have in a readiness to confound the Devil and all his Emissaries If they will not do so if they refuse it then let them know that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about Expressions and Explanations of any thing or doctrine about the manner respects or relations of any thing untill the thing it self or Doctrine be plainly confessed or denyed If this they refuse as generally they do and will which I speak upon sufficient experience and will not be induced to deal openly properly and rationally but will keep to their Cavils and Sophisms about terms and expressions all farther debate or conference with them may justly and ought both conscienciously and rationally to be refused and rejected For these sacred mysteries of God and the Gospel are not lightly to be made the subject of mens contests and disputations But as we dealt before in particular so here I shall give Instances of the Sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this Doctrine and that with respect unto some late collections and Representations of them From whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words Phrases and Expressions themselves which they make use of The summ of what they say in general is How can these things be How can three be one and one be three Every person hath its own substance and therefore if there be three persons there must be three substances and so three Gods Answ. 1. Every person hath distinctly its own substance for the one substance of the Deity is the substance of each person so it is still but one But each person hath not its own distinct substance because the substance of them all is the same as hath been proved 2. They say That if each person be God then each person is Infinite and there being three persons there must be three Infinites Answ. This follows not in the least for each person is Infinite as he is God Alâ— divine properties such as to be Infinite is belong not to the persons on the account of their personality but on the account of their nature which is one for they are all natural properties But they say If each person be God and that God subsist in three persons then in each person there are three persons or Gods Answ. The collusion of this Sophism consists in that expression be God and that God in the first place the nature of God is intended in the latter a singular person Place the words intelligibly and they are thus If each person be God and the nature of God subsists in three persons then in each person there are three persons and then the folly of it will be evident But they farther infer That if we deny the persons to be Infinite then an Infinite Being hath a finite mode of subsisting and so I know not what supposition they make hence that seeing there are not three Infinites then the Father Son and Spirit are three finites that make up an Infinite The pitiful weakness of this Cavil is open to all for finite and Infinite are properties and adjuncts of Beings and not of the manner of the subsistence of any thing The nature of each person is Infinite and so is each person because of that nature Of the manner of their subsistence finiâ—e and Infinite cannot be predicated or spoken no farther than to say an Infinite Being doth so subsist But you grant say they that the only true God is the Father and then if Christ be the only true God he is the Father Answ. We say the only true God is Father Son and Holy Ghost We never say the Scripture never sayes that the Father only is the true God whence it would follow that he that is the true God is the Father But we grant the Father to be the only trne God and so we 〈◊〉 is the Son also And it doth not 〈◊〉 all thence follow that the Son is 〈◊〉 Father Because in saying the 〈…〉 the true God we respect not his paternity or his paternal Relation to his Son but his Nature Essence and Being And the same we affirm concerning the other persons And to say that because each person is God one person must be another is to crave leave to disbelieve what God hath revealed without giving any Reason at all for their so doing But this Sophism being borrowed from another namely Crellius who insisted much upon it I shall upon his account and not on theirs who as far as I can apprehend understand little of the intendment of it remove it more fully out of the way It is proposed by him in way of Syllogism thus The only true God is the Father Christ is the only true God therefore he is the Father Now this Syllogism is ridiculously Sophystical For in a Categorical Syllogism the Major Proposition is not to be particular nor equipollent to a particular For from such a Proposition when any thing communicable to more is the subject of it and is restrained unto one particular nothing can be inferred in the conclusion But such is this Proposition here the only true God is the Father It is a particular Proposition wherein the subject is restrained unto a singular or individual predicate though in it self communicable to more Now the Proposition being â—o made particular the terms of the subject or predicate are supposed recâ—procal namely that one God and the Father are the same which is false Unless it be first proved that the name God is communicable to no more or no other than is the other term of Father which to suppose is to begg the whole Question For the only true God hath a larger signification than the term of Father or Son So that though the only true God be the Father yet every one who is true God is not the Father Seeing then that the name of God here supplyes the plaâ—e of a species though it be singular absolutely as it respects the Divine Nature which is absolutely singular and one and cannot be
it respects the direct Revelation of God made by himself in the Scripture and the first proper general end thereof Let this be clearly confirmed by direct and positive divine Testimonies containing the declaration and Revelation of God concerning himself and faith is secured as to all its concerns For it hath both its proper formal object and is sufficiently enabled to be directive of divine Worship and Obedience The Explication of this Doctrine unto Edification suitable unto the Revelation mentioned is of another consideration And two things are incumbent on us to take care of therein First that what is affirmed and taught do directly tend unto the ends of the Revelation it self by informing and inlightning of the mind in the knowledge of the mysterie of it so far as in this life we are by Divine Assistance capable to comprehend it that is that faith may be increased strengthned and confirmed against temptations and oppositions of Satan and men of corrupt minds and that we may be distinctly directed unto and encouraged in the Obedience unto and Worship of God that are required of us Secondly That nothing be affirmed or taught herein that may beget or occasion any undue apprehensions concerning God or our Obedience unto him with respect unto the best highest securest Revelations that we have of him and our duty These things being done and secured the End of the Declaration of this Doctrine concerning God is attained In the declaration then of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church there is contained a farther Explanation of the things before asserted as proposed directly and in themselves as the object of our faith namely how God is one in respect of his Nature Substance Essence Godhead or Divineâ— Being How being Father Son and Holy Ghost he subsisteth in these three distinct persons or Hypostâ—sies and what are their mutual respects to each other by which as their peculiar properties giving them the manner of their subsistence they are distinguished one from another with sundry other things of the like necessary consequence unto the Revelation mentioned And herein as in the Application of all other Divine Truths and Mysteries whatever yea of all moral commanded duties use is to be made of such words and expressions as it may be are not literally and formally contained in the Scripture but only are unto our conceptions and apprehensions expository of what is so contained And to deny the Liberty yea the necessity hereof is to deny all interpretation of the Scripture all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one another which is in a word to render the Scripture it self altogether useless For if it be unlawful for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of the Scripture and the nature of the thing signified and expressed by them it is unlawful for me also to think or conceive in my mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things which to say is to make brutes of our selves and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great priviledge of his word Wherefore in the declaration of the Doctrine of the Trinity we may lawfully nay we must necessarily make use of other words phrases and expressions that what are Literally and Syllabically contained in the Scriptures but teach no other things Moreover whatever is so revealed in the Scripture is no less true and divine as to whatever necessarily followeth thereon than it is as unto that which is principally revealed and directly expressed For how far soever the lines be drawn and extended from truth nothing can follow and ensue but what is true also and that in the same kind of truth with that which it is derived and deduced from For if the principal Assertion be a truth of Divine Revelation so is also whatever is included therein and which may be rightly from thence collected Hence it follows that when the Scripture revealeth the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be one God seeing it necessarily and unavoidably follows thereon that they are one in Essence wherein alone it is possible they can be one and three in their distinct Subsistences wherein alone it is possible they can be three This is no less of Divine Revelation than the first principle from whence these things follow These being the respects which the Doctrine of the Trinity falls under the necessary method of 〈◊〉 and Reason in the beheving and declarâ—ing of it is plain and evident 1. The Revelation 〈◊〉 it is to be asserted and vindicated as it 〈◊〉 proposed to be believed for the ends mentioned Now this is as was declared that there is one God that this God is Father Son and Holy Ghost and so that the Father is God so is the Son so is the Holy Ghost This being received and admitted by faith the Explication of it is 2. To be insisted on and not taken into consideration untill the other be admitted And herein lyes the preposterous course of those who fallaciously and captiously go about to oppose this sacred truth They will alwayes begin their opposition not unto the Revelation of it but unto the Explanation of it which is used only for farther edification Their Disputes and Cavils shall be against the Trinity Essence Substance Persons Personality Respects Properties of the Divine Persons with the modes of expressing these things whilst the plain Scriptural Revelation of the things themselves from whence they are but explanatory deductions is not spoken to nor admitted unto confirmation By this means have they entangled many weak unstable souls who when they have met with things too high hard and difficult for them which in Divine Mysteries they may quickly do in the Explication of this Doctrine have suffered themselves to be taken off from a due consideration of the full and plain Revelation of the thing it self in Scripture until their temptations being made strong and their darkness increased it was too late for them to return unto it as bringing along with them the Cavils wherewith they were prepossessed rather than that Faith and Obedience which is required But yet all this while these Explanations so excepted against are indeed not of any Original consideration in this matter Let the direct express Revelations of the Doctrine be firmed they will follow of themselves nor will be excepted against by those who believe and receive it Let that be rejected and they will fall of themselves and never be contended for by those who did make use of them But of these things we shall treat again afterwards This therefore is the way the only way that we rationally can and that which in duty we ought to proceed in and by for the asserting and confirming of the Doctrine of the holy Trinity under consideration namely that we produce Divine Revelations or Testimonies wherein faith may safely rest and acquiesce that God is one that this one God
is Father Son and holy Ghost So that the Father is God so also is the Son and the holy Ghost likewise and as such are to be believed in obeyed worshipped acknowledged as the first cause and last end of all our Lord and Reward If this be not admitted if somewhat of it be not particularly denyed we need not we have no warrant or ground to proceed any farther or at all to discourse about the Unity of the Divine Essence or the distinction of Persons We have not therefore any original contest in this matter with any but such as deny either God to be one or the Father to be God or the Son to be God or the Holy Ghost so to be If any deny either of these in particular we are ready to confirm it by sufficient Testimonies of Scripture or clear and undeniable Divine Revelation When this is evinced and vindicated we shall willingly proceed to manifest that the explications used of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church are according to truth and such as necessarily are required by the nature of the things themselves And this gives us the method of the small ensuing Discourse with the Reasons of it The first thing which we affirm to be delivered unto us by divine Revelation as the Object oâ— ouâ— Faith is that God is one I know that this may be uncontroulably evidenced by the â—ight of Reason it self unto as good and quiet an Assurance as the mind of man is capable of in any of its apprehensions whatever But I speak of it now as it is confirmed unto us by Divine Revelation How this Assertion of one God respects the Nature Essence or Divine Being of God shall be declared afterwards At present it is enough to represent the Testimonies that he is one only one And because we have no difference with our Adversaries distinctly about this matter I shall only name some few of them Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. A most pregnant Testimony and yet notwithstanding as I shall elsewhere manifest the Trinity it self in that one divine Essence is here asserted Isa. 44. 6 8. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any In which also we may manifest that a plurality of Persons is included and expressed And although there be no more absolute and sacred truth than this that God is one yet it may be evinced that it is no where mentioned in the Scripture but that either in the words themselves or the context of the place a plurality of persons in that one sence is intimated Secondly It is proposed as the object of our Faith that the Father is God And herein as is pretended there is also an agreement between us and those who oppose the Doctrine of the Trinity But there is a mistake in this matter Their hypothesis as they call it or indeed presumptuous errour casts all the conceptions that are given us concerning God in the Scripture into disorder and confusion For the Father as he whom we worship is often called so only with reference unto his Son as the Son is so with reference to the Father He is the only begotten of the Father John 1. 14. But now is this Son had no praeexistence in his Divine nature before he was born of the Virgin there was no God the Father seventeen hundred years ago because there was no Son And on this ground did the Marcionites of old plainly deny the Father whom under the New Testament we Worship to be the God of the Old Testament who made the World and was Woâ—shipped from the foundation of it For it seems to follow that he whom we worship being the Father and on this supposition that the Son had no praexistence unto his incarnation he was not the Father under the Old Testament he is some other from him that was so revealed I know the folly of that inference yet how on this opinion of the sole existence of the Son in time Men can prove the Father to be God let others determine He who abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son but whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God 2 John 9. Whoever denyes Christ the Son as the Son that is the eternal Son of God he loses the Father also and the true God he hath not God For that God which is not the Father and which ever was and was not the Father is not the true God Hence many of the Fathers even of the first Writers of the Church were forced unto great pains in the confirmation of this truth that the Father of Jesus Christ was he who made the World gave the Law spake by the Prophets and was the Author of the Old Testament and that against Men who professed themselves to be Christians And this bruitish apprehension of theirs arose from no other principle but this that the Son had only a temporal Existence and was not the Eternal Son of God But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other Controversies than what lyes directly before us and seeing the Adversaries of the truth we contend for do in words at least grant that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God or the only true God I shall not further shew the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession But take it for granted that to us there is one God the Father 1 Cor. 8. 6. See John 17. 3. So that he who is not the Father who was not so from Eternity whose paternity is not equally coexistent unto his Deity is no God unto us Thirdly It is asserted and believed by the Church that Jesus Christ is God the Eternal Son of God that is He is proposed declared and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God that is to be served worshipped believed in obeyed as God upon the account of his own Divine excellencies And whereas we believe and know that he was Man that he was born lived and dyed as a Man it is declared that he is God also and that as God he did preexist in the form of God before his Incarnation which was effected by voluntary actings of his own which could not be without a preexistence in another nature This is proposed unto us to be believed upon Divine Testimony and by Divine Revelation And the sole enquiry in this matter is whether this be proposed in the Scripture as an Object of Faith and that which is indispensibly necessary for us to believe Let us then nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter and that in the order of the Books of it in some particular instances which at present occurr to mind as these that follow Psalm
from the first foundation of the Church sundry Persons by the instigation of Satan attempted the disturbance and ruine of it by the very same errours and Heresies about the Trinity the Person of Christ and his Offices the person of the Holy Ghost and his Grace wherewith its first trouble and ruine was endeavoured And hereof we have of late an instance given among our selves and that so notoriously known through a mixture of imprudence and impudence in the managers of it that a very brief reflection upon it will suffice unto our present design It was alwaies supposed and known to some that there are sundry Persons in this Nation who having been themselves seduced into Socinianism did make it their business under various pretences to draw others into a compliance with them in the same way and perswasion Neither hath this for sundry years been so secretly carryed but that the design of it hath variously discovered it self by overt acts of Conferences disputations and publishing of Books which last way of late hath been sedulously pursued Unto these three is now a visible Accession made by that sort of People whom Men will call Quakers from their deportment at the first erection of their way long since deserted by them until by some new Revolutions of Opinions they cast themselves under a more proper denomination That there is a conjunction issued between both these sorts of Men in an Opposition to the holy Trinity with the Person and Grace of Christ the Pamphlets of late published by the one and the other do sufficiently evince For however they may seem in sundry things as yet to look divers waies yet like Sampson's Foxes they are knit together by the tayle of consent in these fire-brand Opinions and joyntly endeavour to consume the standing Corn of the Church of God And their joynt management of their business of late hath been as though it were their design to give as great a vogue and report to their Opinions as by any waies they are able Hence besides their attempts to be proclaiming their Opinions under various pretences in all Assemblies whereunto they may intrude themselves as they know without trouble they are exceedingly sedulous in scattering and giving away yea imposing gratis and as to some ingratiis their small books which they publish upon all sorts of persons promiscuously as they have advantage so to do By this means their Opinions being of late become the talk and discourse of the common sort of Christians and the Exercise of many amongst whom are not a few that on sundry accounts which I shall not mention may possibly be exposed unto disadvantage and prejudice thereby it hath been thought meet by some that the Sacred Truths which these men oppose should be plainly and briefly asserted and confirmed from the Scripture that those of the meanest sort of Professors who aâ—e Sincere and upright exercising themselves to keep a good conscience in matters of faith and obedience to God may have somewhat in a readiness both to guide them in their further enquiry into the Truth as also to confirm their Faith in what they have already received when at any time it is shaken or opposed by the cunning sleights of men that lye in wait to deceive And this comprizeth the design of the ensuing discourse It may possibly be judged needless by some as it was in its first proposal by him by whom it is wriâ—â—â—â— and that because this matter at present is by an especial providence cast on other hands who both have and doubtless as occasion shall require will well acquit themselves in the defence of the Truths opposed Not to give any other account of the Reasons of this small undertaking it may suffice that in publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every mans concernment lying in a common danger it is free for every one to manage it as he thinks best and is able so it be without prejudice to the whole or the particular concerns of others If a City be on fire whose bucket that brings water to quench it ought to be refused The attempt to cast fire into the City of God by the Opinions mentioned is open and plain and a timely stop being to be put unto it the more hands are orderly employed in its quenching the more speedy and secure is the effect like to be Now because the Assertors of the Opinions mentioned do seem to set out themselves to be some great Ones above the ordinary rate of men as having found out and being able publickly to maintain such things as never would have entred into the minds of others to have thought on or conceived and also that they seem with many to be thought worthy of their consideration because they now are new and such as they have not been acquainted withall I shall in this Prefatory entrance briefly manifest that those who have amongst us undertaken the management of these Opinions have brought nothing new unto them but either a little contemptible Sophistry and caption of words on the one hand or futulous affected unintelligible expressions on the other the Opinions themselves being no other but such as the Church of God having been opposed by and troubled with from the beginning hath prevailed against and triumphed over in all generations And were it not that Confidence is the only relief which engaged impotency adheres unto and expects supplies from I should greatly admire that those amongst us who have undertaken an inforcement of these old exploded errours whose weakness doth so openly discover and proclaim it self in all their endeavours should judge themselves competent to give a new spirit of life to the dead carkass of these rotten Heresies which the faith of the Saints in all Ages hath triumphed over and which Truth and Learning have under the care and watchfulness of Christ so often baffled out of the world The Jews in the time of our Saviours converse on the earth being fallen greatly from the Faith and Worship of their forefathers and ready to sink into their last and utmost Apostacy from God seem amongst many other truths to have much lost that of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and of the Person of the Messiah It was indeed suited in the dispensation of God unto the work that the Lord Jesus had to fulfill in the world that before his Passion and Resurrection the knowledge of his Divine Nature as unto his individual person should be concealed from the most of men For this cause although he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation by taking on him the form of a servant and made in the likeness of men that being found in the fashion of a man he might be obedient unto death Phil. 2. 7 8 9. whereby his Divine Glory was veiled for a season until he was declared to be the Son of God with power according unto the Spirit of
Holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. And then was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was John 17. 3. And as this dispensation was needful unto the accomplishment of the whole work which as our Mâ—diator he had undertaken so in particular he who was in himself the Lord of Hosts a Sanctuary to them that feared him became hereby a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem Isa. 8. 13 14. See Luke 2. 34. Rom. 9. 33. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Isa. 28. 26. But yet notwithstanding as occasions required suitably unto his own holy ends and designs he forbare not to give plain and open testimony to his own Divine Nature and eternal pre-existence unto his Incarnation And this was it which of all other things most provoked the carnal Jews with whom he had to do For having as was said lost the Doctrine of the Trinity and Person of the Messiah in a great measure when ever he asserted his Deity they were immediately enraged and endeavoured to destroy him So was it plainly John 8. 56 57 58 59. Saith he Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad then said the Jews unto him thou art nâ—t yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am then took they up stones to cast at him So also John 10. 30 31 32 33. I and my Father are one then the Jews took up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do you stone me The Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God They understood well enough the meaning of those words I and my Father are one namely that they were a plain Assertion of his being God This caused their rage And this the Jews all abide by to this day namely that he declared himself to be God and therefore they slew him Whereas therefore the first discovery of a plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence consists in the Revelation of the Divine Nature and personality of the Son this being opposed persecuted and blasphemed by these Jews they may be justly looked upon and esteemed as the first Assertors of that misbelief which now some seek again so earnestly to promote The Jews persecuted the Lord Christ because he being a Man declared himself also to be God and others are ready to revile and reproach them who believe and teach what he declared After the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus all things being filled with tokens evidences and effects of his Divine Nature and Power Rom. 1. 4. The Church that began to be gathered in his name and according to his Doctrine being by his especial institution to be initiated into the express profession of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as being to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which confession comprizeth the whole of the truth contended for and by the indispensible placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience unto him is made the doctrinal foundation of the Church it continued for a season in the quiet and undisturbed possession of this Sacred Treasure The first who gave disquietment unto the Disciples of Christ by perverting the Doctrine of the Trinity was Simon Magus with his followers an account of whose monstrous figments and unintelligible imaginations with their coincidence with what some men dream in these latter daies shall elsewhere be given Nor shall I need here to mention the Colluvies of Gnosticks Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their mis-apprehensions of the being of God their unbelief of the Trinity and Person of Christ as do those of some others also In especial there was one Cerinthus who was more active than others in his opposition to the Doctrine of the person of Christ and therein of the Holy Trinity To put a stop unto his Abominations all Authors agree that John writing his Gospel prefixed unto it that plain declaration of the eternal Deity of Christ which it is prefaced withall And the story is well attested by Irenaeus Eusebius and others from Polycarpus who was his Disciple that this Cerinthus coming into the place where the Apostle was he left it adding as a reason of his departure lest the building through the just judgement of God should fall upon them And it was of the Holy Wise Providence of God to suffer some impious Persons to oppose this Doctrine before the death of that Apostle that he might by infallible Inspiration farther reveal manifest and declare it to the establishment of the Church in future Ages For what can farther be desired to satisfie the minds of men who in any sense own the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures than that this Controversie about the Trinity and Person of Christ for they stand and fall together should be so eminently and expresly determined as it were immediately from Heaven But he with whom we have to deal in this matter neither ever did nor ever will nor can acquiesce or rest in the divine determination of any thing which he hath stirred up strife and controversie about For as Cerinthus and the Ebionites persisted in the Heresie of the Jews who would have slain our Saviour for bearing witness to his own Deity notwithstanding the evidence of that testimony and the right apprehension which the Jews had of his mind therein so he excited others to engage and persist in their Opposition to the truth notwithstanding this second particular determination of it from Heaven for their confutation or confusion For after the more weak and confused oppositions made unto it by Theodotus Coriarius Artemon and some others at length a stout Champion appears visibly and expresly engaged against these fundamentals of our faith This was Paulus Sa nosatenus Bishop of the Church of Antioch about the year 272. A man of most intolerable pride passion and folly the greatest that hath left a name upon Ecclesiastical Records This man openly and avowedly denyed the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ in an especial manner For although he endeavoured for a while to cloud his impious sentiments in ambiguous expressions as others also have done Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 27. yet being pressed by the Professors of the truth and supposing his party was somewhat confirmed he plainly defended his Heresie and was cast out of the Church wherein he presided Some sixty years after Photinus Bishop of Syrmium with a pretence of more sobriety in life and conversation undertook the management of the same design with the same success What ensued afterwards among the Churches
things consist 1 Tim. 3. 16. Without Controversie great is the Mysterie of godliness God was manifested in the flesh Tit. 2. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us Hebrewes the first throughout Chap. 3. 4. For every house is builded by some man but he that built all things is God 1 Pet. 1. 11. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie Chap. 3. 18 19. But Christ also hath once suffered for sinners being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah 1 John 3. 16. Hereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his life for us Chap. 5. 20. And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternal life Rev. 1. 8. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty Ver. 11. I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a Book and I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven Golden Candlesticks and in the midst of the seven Candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man Ver. 17. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the First and the Last Chap. 2. 23. I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and will give unto every one of you according to your works These are some of the places wherein the truth under consideration is revealed and declared some of the Divine Testimonies whereby it is confirmed and established which I have not at present enquired after but suddenly repeated as they came to mind Many more of the like nuture and importance may be added unto them and shall be so as occasion doth require Let now any one who owns the Scripture to be the Word of God to contain an infallible Revelation of the things proposed in it to be believed and who hath any conscience exercised towards God for the receiving and submitting unto what he declares and reveals take a view of these Testimonies and consider whether they do not sufficiently propose this Object of our faith Shall a few poor trifling Sophisms whose terms are scarcely understood by the most that amongst us make use of them according as they have found them framed by others be thought meet to be set up in opposition unto these multiplyed Testimonies of the Holy Ghost and to cast the Truth confirmed by them down from its credit and reputation in the consciences of men For my part I do not see in any thing but that the Testimonies given to the Godhead of Christ the Eternal Son of God are every way as clear and unquestionable as those are which testifie to the Being of God or that there is any God at all Were men acquainted with the Scriptures as they ought to be and as the most considering the means and advantages they have had might have been did they ponder and believe on what they 〈◊〉 or had any tenderness in their consciences as to that Reverence Obedience and Subjection of soul which God requires unto his Word it were utterly impossible that their faith in this matter should ever in the least be shaken by a few lewd Sophisms or loud clamours of men destitute of the truth and of the Spirit of it That we may now improve these Testimonies unto the end under design as the nature of this brief discourse will bear I shall first remove the general Answers which the Socinians give unto them and then manifest farther how incontrolable they are by giving an instance in the frivolous exceptions of the same Persons to One of them in particular And we are ready God assisting to maintain that there is not any one of them which doth not give a sufficient ground for faith to rest on in this matter concerning the Deity of Christ and that against all the Socinians in the world They say therefore commonly that we prove not by these testimonies what is by them denyed For they acknowledge Christ to be God and that because he is exalted unto that Glory and Authority that all creatures are put into subjection unto him and all both men and Angels are commanded to worship and adore him So that he is God by Office though he be not God by nature He is God but he is not the most high God And this last expression they have almost continually in their mouths He is not the most high God And commonly with great contempt and scorn they are ready to reproach them who have solidly confirmed the Doctrine of the Deity of Christ as ignorant of the state of controversie in that they have not proved him to be the most high God in subordination unto whom they acknowledge Christ to be God and that he ought to be worshipped with Divine and Religious worship But there cannot be any thing more empty and vain than these pretences And besides they accumulate in them their former Errors with the addition of new ones For First The name of the most high God is first ascribed unto God in Gen. 49. 18 19 22. denoting his Soveraignty and Dominion Now as other Attributes of God it is not distinctive of the subject but only desscriptive of it So are all other Excellencies of the nature of God It doth not intimate that there are other Gods only he is the most high or one over them all but only that the true God is most high that is indued with Soveraign Power Dominion and Authority over all To say then that Christ indeed is God but not the most high God is all one as to say he is God but not the most holy God or not the true God And so they have brought their Christ into the number of false Gods whilst they deny the true Christ who in his divine nature is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. A phrase of speech perfectly expressing this Attribute of the most high God Secondly This Answer is suited only unto those testimonies which express the name of God with a correâ—ponding Power and Authority unto that name For in reference unto these alone can it be pleaded with any pretence of reason that he is a God by Office though that also be done very Futilously and impertinently But most of the Testimonies producâ—d speak directly unto his divine Excelâ—encies and properties which belong unto his nature necessarily and absolutely That he is Eternal Omnipotent Immense Omniscient Infinitely wise and that he is and worketh and produceth Effects suitable unto all these properties and such
as nothing but they can enable him for is abundantly proved by the foregoing Testimonies Now all these concern a divine nature a natural Essence a Godhead and not such power or authority as a man may be exalted unto Yea the ascribing any of them to such a one implyes the highest contradiction expressible Thirdly This God in Authority and Office and not by nature that should be the Object of Divine Worship is a new abomination For they are divine essential excellencies that are the formal Reason and Object of Worship Religious and divine And to ascribe it unto any one that is not God by nature is Idolatry By makeing therefore their Christ such a God as they describe they bring him under the severe commination of the true God Jer. 10. 11. The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens That Christ they worship they say is a God but they deny that he is that God that made the Heavens and the Earth and so leave him exposed to the threatnings of him who will accomplish it to the uttermost Some other general exceptions sometimes they make use of which the Reader may free himself from the entanglement of if he do but heed these ensuing Rules X. Distinction of persons of which afterwards it being in an infinite substance doth no way prove a difference of Essence between the Father and the Son Where there fore Christ as the Son is said to be Another from the Father or God spoken personally of the Father it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him That in one Essence there can be but one person may be true where the substance is finite and limâ—ted but hath no place in that which is infinite 2. Distinction and Inequality in respect of Office in Christ doth not in the least take away his equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature and Essence Phil. 2. 7 8. A Son of the same nature with his Father and therein Equal to him may in Office be his inferiour his subject Thirdly The Advancement and exaltation of Christ as Mediator to any dignity whatever upon or in reference to the work of our Redemption and salvation is not at all inconsistent with the essential Honour Dignity and Worth which he hath in himself as God blessed for ever Though he humbled himself and was exalted in Office yet in Nature he was one and the same he changed not Fourthly The Scriptures asserting the Humanity of Christ with the concerments thereof as his birth life and death do no more thereby deny his Deity than by asserting his Deity with the essential properties thereof they deny his humanity Fifthly God working in and by Christ as he was Mediator denotes the Fathers Soveraign Appointment of the things mentioned to be done not his immediate efficiency in the doing of the things themselves These Rules are proposed a little before their due place in the Method which we pursue But I thought meet to interpose them here as containing a sufficient ground for the resolution and answering of all the Sophisms and Objections which the Adversaries use in this cause From the cloud of witnesses before produced every one where of is singly sufficient to evert the Socinian Infidelity I shall in one of them give an infiance both of the clearness of the Evidence and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to put in against them as was promised And this is John 1. 1 2 3. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made By the Word here or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on what account soever he be so called either as being the Eternal Word and wisdom of the Father or as the great Revealer of the Will of God unto us Jesus Christ the Son of God is intended This is on all hands acknowledged and the context will admit of no haesitation about it For of this Word it is said that he came into the World v. 10. was rejected by his own v. 11. was made flesh and dwelt amongst us whose glory was the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father v. 14. called expresly Jesus Christ v. 17. the only begotten Son of the Father v. 18. The subject then treated of is here agreed upon And it is no less evident that it is the design of the Apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom he treateth Here then if any where we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ which also we may certainly do if our minds are not perverted through prejudice whereby the God of this world doth blind the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. Of this Word then this Son of God it is affirmed that he was in the beginning And this Word if it doth not absolutely and formally express Eternity yet it doth a preexistence unto the whole Creation which amounts to the same For nothing can preexist unto all Creatures but in the nature of God which is eternal unless we shall suppose a creature before the Creation of any But what is meant by this expression the Scripture doth elsewhere declare Prov. 8. 23. I was set up from everlasting before the beginning or ever the earth was John 17. 5. Glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Both which places as they explain this phrase so also do they undeniably testifie unto the Eternal pre-existence of Christ the Son of God And in this case we prevail against our Adversaries if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his Incarnation which as they absolutely deny so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresie in this matter And therefore they know that the testimony of our Saviour concerning himself if understood in a proper intelligible sense is perfectly destructive of their pretensions John 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am For although there be no proper sense in the words but a gross â—quivocation if the Existence of Christ before Abraham was born be not asserted in them seeing he spake in Answer to that objection of the Jews that He was nâ—t yet fifty years old and so could not have seen Abraham nor Abraham him and the Jews that were present understood well enough that he asserted a divine preexistence unto his being born so long ago as that hereon after their manner they took up stones to stone him as supposing him to have blasphemed in asserting his Deity as others now do in the denying of it yet they seeing how fatal this prae-existence though not here absolutely
asserted to be eternal would be to their cause they contend that the meaning of the words is that Christ was to be the light of the world before Abraham was made the Father of many Nations An interpretation so absurd and sottish as never any man not infatuated by the God of this world could once admit and give countenance unto But in the Beginning as absolutely used is the same with From Everlasting as it is expounded Prov. 8. 23. and denoteth an eternal existence which is here affirmed of the Word the Son of God But let the Word beginning be restrained unto the subject matter treated of which is the Creation of all things and the praeexistence of Christ in his divine nature unto the Creation of all things is plainly revealed and inevitably asserted And indeed not only the Word but the discourse of these verses doth plainly relate unto and is expository of the first verse in the Bible Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth There it is asserted that in the beginning God created all things here that the Word was in the beginning and made all things This then is the least that we have obtained from this first word of our Testimony namely that the Word or Son of God had a personal praeexistence unto the whole Creation In what nature this must be let these men of Reason satisfie themselves who know that Creator and Creatures take up the whole nature of Beings one of them he must be and it may be well supposed that he was not a Creature before the Creation of any But Secondly Where or with whom was this Word in the beginning it was saith the Holy Ghost with God There being no creature then existing he could be no where but with God that is the Father as it is expressed in one of the testimonies before going Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possest me in the beginning of his wayes before his works of old ver 30. Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing alwayes before him that is in the beginning this Word or Wisdom of God was with God And this is the same which our Lord Jesus asserts concerning himself John 3. 13. And no man saith he hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven And so in other places He affirms his being in Heaven that is with God at the same time when he was in the earth whereby He declares the immensity of his Nature and the distinction of his person and his coming down from Heaven before he was Incarnate on the earth declaring his preexistence by both manifesting the meaning of this Expression that in the beginning he was with God But hereunto they have invented a notable evasion For although they know not well what to make of the last clause of the words that say then he was in Heaven when he spake on Earth the Son of man which is in Heaven answerable to the description of Gods Immensity do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Jer. 23. 27. But say that he was there by Heavenly meditation as another man may be yet they give a very clear Answer to what must of necessâ—â—y be included in his descending from Heaven namely his preexistence to his Incarnation For they tell us that before his publick Ministry he was in his humane nature which is all they allow unto him taken up into Heaven and there taught the Gospel as the great Impostor Mahomet pretended he was taught his Alcoran If you ask them who told them so they cannot tell but thâ—y can tell when it was namely when he was led by the spirit into the Wilderness for forty days after his baptism But yet this instance is subject to another her misadventure in that one of the Eâ—angelists plainly affirms that he was those forty dayes in the Wilderness with the wild beasts Mark 17. 13. And so surely not in Heaven in the same nature by his bodily presence with God and his holy Angels And let me add this by the way that the Interpretation of this place Joh. 1. 1. to be mentioned after wards and those of the two places before mentioned John 8. 58. chap. 3. 31. Faustus Socinâ—s learned out of his Uncle Laelius papers as he confesseth and doth more than intimate that he believed he had them as it were by Revelation and it may be so they are indeed so forced absurd and irrational that no man could ever fix upon them by any reasonable Investigation But the Author of this Revelation if we may judge of the Parent by the Child could be no other but the spirit of Error and darkness I suppose therefore that notwithstanding these exceptions Christians will believe that in the beginning the word was with God that is that the Son was with the Father as is frequently elsewhere declared But who was this Word saith the Apostle He was God He was so with God that is the Father as that he himself was God also God in that the notion of God which both nature and the Scripture doth represent Not a God by Office one exalted to that dignity which cannot well be pretended before the Creation of the world but as Thomas confessed him our Lord and our God John 20. 28. Or as Paul expresses it over all God blessed for ever or the most high God which these men love to deny Let not the infidelity of men excited by the craft and malice of Satan sâ—ek for blind occasions and this matter is determined if the Word and Testimony of God be able to umpire a difference amongst the Children of men Here is the sum of our Creed in this matter In the beginning the Word was God and so continues unto Eternity being Alpha and Omâ—ga the first and the last the Lord God Almighty And to shew that he was so God in the beginning as that he was distinct one in some thing from God the Father by whom afterwards he was sent into the world he adds ver 2. the same was in the beginning with God Father also to evince what he hath asserted and revealed for us to believe the Holy Ghost adds both as a firm declaration of his Eternal Deity and also his immediate care of the world which how he variously exercised both in a way of providence and grace he afterwards declares verse 3. All things were made by him He was so in the beginning before all things as that he made them all And that it may not be supposed that the All that he is said to make or create was to be limited unto any certain sort of things he adds that without him nothing was made that was made which gives the first Assertion an absolute universality as to its subject And this he farther describes v. 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him The world that was
and therefore is so still unless he who is once God can cease so to be But the meaning is that afterwards God exalted him and made him God as to Rule Authority and Power This making of him God is an expression very offensive to the ears of all sober Christians and was therefore before exploded And these things here as all other figments hang together like a rope of sands In the beginning of the Gospel he was God before any knew him but only God That is after he had preached the Gospel and dyed and rose again and was exalted at the right hand of God he was made God and that not properly which is absolutely impossible but in an improper sense How prove they then this perverse non-sense to be the sense of these plain words They say it must needs be so Let them believe them who are willing to perish with them Thus far then we have their sense In the beginning that is about sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago the Word that is the Humane nature of Christ before it was made flesh which it was in its being was with God that is known to God alone and in the beginning that is afterwards not in the Beginning was made God which is the summ of their Exposition of this place But what shall we say to what is affirmed concerning his making of all things so as that without him that is without his making of it nothing was made that was made especially seeing that these all things are expresly said to be the world vers 10. And all things therein contained even in Heaven and Earth Col. 1. 16. An ordinary man would think that they should now be taken hold of and that there is no way of escape left unto them But they have it in a readiness By the all things here are intended all things of the Gospel the preaching of it the sending of the Apostles to preach it and to declare the Will of God and by the world is intended the world to come or the new state of things under the Gospel This is the substance of what is pleaded by the greatest masters amongst them in this matter and they are not ashamed thus to plead And the Reader in this instance may easily discern what a desperate cause they are engaged in and how bold and desperate they are in the management of it For First The words are a plain Illustration of the Divine Nature of the Word by his Divine Power and works as the very series of them declares He was God and he made all things for he that made all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Secondly There is no one word spoken concerning the Gospel nor the Preaching of it nor any effects of that Preaching which the Apostle expresly insists upon and declares afterwards verse 14. and so onwards Thirdly The making of all things here ascribed unto the Word was done in the beginning But that making of all things which they intend in erecting the Church by the Preaching of the VVord was not done in the beginning but afterwards most of it as themselves confess after the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Fourthly In this gloss what is the meaning of all things only some things say the Socinians VVhat is the meaning of were made that is were mended by him that is the Apostles principally preaching the Gospel and this in the beginning after it was past for so they say expresly that the Principal things here intended were effected by the Apostles afterwards I think since the beginning place it when you will the beginning of the world or the beginning of the Gospel there was never such an Exposition of the word of God or man contended for Fifthly It is said he made the World and he came into it namely the world which he made and the World or the Inhabitants of it knew him not But the VVorld they intend did know him or the Church knew him and acknowledged him to be the Son of God For that was the foundation that it was built upon I have instanced directly in this only testimony to give the Reader a pledge of the full confirmation which may be given unto this great fundamental truth by a due improvement of those other Testimonies or distinct Revelations which speak no less expresly to the same purpose And of them there is not any one but we are ready to vindicate it if called thereunto from the exceptions of these men which how bold and Sophistical they are we may in these now considered also learn and know It appeareth then that there is a full sufficient Revelation made in the Scripture of the Eternal Deity of the Son of God and that he is so as is the Father also More particular testimonies I shall not at present insist upon referring the full discussion and vindication of these truths to another season We are therefore in the next place to manifest that the same or the like testimony is given unto the Deity of the Holy Spirit that is that he is revealed and declared in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Worship and Obedience on the account and for the Râ—ason of those divine Excelleneies which are the sole Reason of our yielding religious worship unto any or expecting from any the Reward that is promised unto us or to be brought by them to the end for which we are And herein lyes as was shewed the concernment of faith When that knows what it is to believe as on Divine Revelation and is enabled thereby to regulate the soul in its present obedience and future expectation seeing it is its nature to work by love and hope there it rests Now this is done to the utmost satisfaction in the Revelation that is made of the divine Existence divine Excellencies and divine Operations of the Spirit as shall be briefly manifested But before we proceed we may in our way observe a great congruency of success in those who have denyed the Deity of the Son and those who have denyed that of the holy Spirit For as to the Son after some men began once to dis-believe the Revelation concerning him and would not acknowledge him to be God and man in one person they could never settle nor agree either what or who he was or who was his Father or why he was the Son Some said he was a Phantasm or appearance and that he had no real subsistence in this world and that all that was done by him was an appearance he himself being they know not what elsewhere That proud beast Paulus Samâ—satenus whose flagitious life contended for a preheminence in wickedness with his prodigious heresies was one of the first after the Jews that positively contended for his being a man and no more who was followed by Photinus and some others The Arians perceiving the folly of this opinion with the odium of it amongst all that bare the name of Christians and that they had as good deny the
whole Scripture as not grant unto him a preexistence in a divine nature antecedent to his Incarnation they framed a new Deity which God should make before the world in all things like to himself but not the same with him in Essence and substance but to be so like him that by the writings of some of them ye can scarce know one from the other and that this was the Son of God also who was afterwards Incarnate Others in the mean time had more monstrous imaginations some that he was an Angel some that he was the Sun some that he was the Soul of the World some the light within men Departing from their proper rest so have they hovered about and so have they continued to do until this day In the same manner it is come to pass with them who have denyed the Deity of the Holy Ghost They could never find where to stand or abide but one hath cryed up one thing another another At first they observed that such things were every where ascribed unto him in the Scripture as uncontroulably evidenced him to be an intelligent voluntary Agent This they found so plain and evident that they could not deny but that he was a person or an intelligent subsistence Wherefore seeing they were resolved not to assent unto the Revelation of his being God they made him a created spirit chief and above all others But still whatever else he were he was only a Creature And this course some of late also have steered The Socinians on the other hand observing that such things are assigned and ascribed unto him as that if they acknowledge him to be a person or a substance they must upon necessity admit him to be God though they seemed not at first at all agreed what to think or say concerning him positively yet they all coneurred peremptorily in denying his personality Hereon some of them said he was the Gospel which others of them have confuted some that he was Christ. Neither could they agree whether there was one Holy Ghost or more whether the spirit of God and the Good spirit of God and the holy spirit be the same or no. In general now they conclude that he is vis Dei or virtus Dei or efficacia Dei no substance but a quality that may be considered either as being in God and then they say it is the spirit of God or as sanctifying and conforming men unto God and then they say it is the Holy Ghost Whether these things do answer the Revelation made in the Scripture concerning the Eternal Spirit of God will be immediately manifested Our Quakers who have for a long season hovered up and down like a swarm of flies with a confused noise and humming begin now to settle in the opinions lately by them declared for But what their thoughts will fall into be concerning the Holy Ghost when they shall be contented to speak Intelligibly and according to the usage of other men or the pattern of Scripture the great rule of speaking or treating about spiritual things I know not and am uncertain whether they do so themselves or no. Whether he may be the light within them or an infallible afflatus is uncertain In the mean time what is revealed unto us in the Scripture to be believed concerning the Holy Ghost his Deity and personality may be seen in the ensuing testimonies The summ of this Revelation is that the Holy Spirit is an eternally divine existing substance the Author of Divine operations and the Object of Divine and Religious Worship that is over all God Blessed for ever as the ensuing testimonies evince Gen 1. 2. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his mouth Job 26. 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens Job 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me Psalm 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are Created Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Acts 1. 16. That Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake Acts 5. 3. Peter said to Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lye to the Holy Ghost Vers. 4. Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our Fathers saying go unto this people and say 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 12. 11. All these worketh that one and self-same spirit dividing to every man as he will 2. 6. And there are deversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all 2 Cor. 13. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Acts 20. 28. Take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Matth. 12. 31. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit John 14. 26. But the Comforteâ— which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Luke 12. 12. The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say Acts 13. 3. And as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Vers. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed into c. 2 Pet. 1. 21. For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of men but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost It is evident upon the first consideration that there is not any thing which we believe concerning the Holy Ghost but that it is plainly revealed and declared in these testimonies He is directly affirmed to be and is called God Acts 5. 3 4. Which the Socinians will not say is by vertue of an Exaltation unto an Office or Authority as they say of the Son That he is an intelligent voluntary Divine Agent he knoweth he worketh as he will which things if in their frequent repetition they are not sufficient to evince an intelligent Agent a personal subsistence that hath Being Life and Will we must confess that the Scripture was written on purpose to lead us into mistakes and misapprehensions of what we are under penalty of eternal ruine rightly to apprehend and believe It declareth also that he is the Author and Worker of all sorts of Divine Operations requiring Immensity Omnipotency Omnisciency and all other Divine Excellencies unto their working and effecting Moreover it is revealed that he is peculiarly to be believed
in and may peculiarly be sinned against the great Author of all Grace in Believers and order in the Church This is the summ of what we believe of what is revealed in the Scripture concerning the Holy Ghost As in the consideration of the preceding head we vindicated one Testimony in particular from the exceptions of the adversaries of the truth so on this we may briefly summ up the evidence that is given us in the testimonies before produced that the Reader may the more easily understand their intendment and what in particular they bear witnesse unto The summ is that the Holy Ghost is a divine distinct person and neither meerly the power or vertue of God nor any created Spirit whatever This plainly appears from what is revealed concerning him For he who is placed in the same series or order with other divine persons without the least note of difference or distinction from them as to an Interest in personality who hath the names proper to a divine person only and is frequently and directly called by them who also hath personal properties and is the voluntary Author of personal divine Operations and the proper Objâ—ct of Divine Worship he is a distinct divine person And if these things be not a sufficient evidence and demonstration of a divine intelligent substance I shall as was said before despair to understand any thing that is expressed and declared by words But now thus it is with the Holy Ghost according to the Revelation made concerning him in the Scripture For First He is placed in the same rank and order without any note of difference or distinction as to a distinct interest in the Divine Nature that is as we shall see personality with other Divine persons Matth. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the Son and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Cor. 12. 3 4 5 6. No man can say the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all Neither doth a denyal of his divine being and distinct existence leave any tolerable sense unto these Expressions For read the words of the first place from the mind of the Socinians and see what is it can be gathered from them Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the vertue or efficacy of the Father Can any thing be more absonant from Faith and Reason than this absurd expression And yet is it the direct sense if it be any that these men put upon the words To joyn a quality with acknowledged persons and that in such things and cases as wherein they are proposed under a personal consideration is a strange kind of Mysterie And the like may be manifested concerning the other places Secondly He also hath the Names proper to a divine person only For he is expresly called God Acts 5. He who is termed the Holy Ghost ver 3. And the Spirit of the Lord verse 9. Is called also God ver 4. Now this is the name of a divine Person on one Account or other The Socinians would not allow Christ to be called God were he not a divine person though not by nature yet by â—ffice and authority And I suppose they will not find out an office for the Holy Ghost whereunto he might be exalted on the account whereof he might become God seeing this would acknowledge him to be a person which they deny So he is called the Comforter John 16. 7. A personal Appellation this is also and because he is the Comforter of all Gods people it can be the name of none but a divine person In the 〈…〉 it is frequently 〈…〉 come that he shall and will do such and such things all of them declaring him to be a person Thirdly He hath personal properties assigned unto him as a Will 1 Cor. 12. 11. He divideth to every man severally as he will and understanding 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God As also all the actings that are ascribed unto him are all of them such as undeniably affirm personal properties in their principle and Agent For Fourthly He is the voluntary Author of Divine operations He of old cherished the creation Gen. 1. 3. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters He formed and garnished the Heavens He inspired acted and spake in and by the Prophets Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers 2 Pet. 1. 21. The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He regenerateth enlightneth sanctifieth comforteth instructeth leadeth guideth all the Disciples of Christ as the Scriptures every where testifie Now all these are personal Operations and cannot with any pretence of sobriety or consistency with Reason be constantly and uniformly assigned unto a quality or vertue He is as the Father and Son God with the properties of Omniscience and Omnipotency of Life Understanding and Will and by these properties works acts and produceth effects according to Wisdom Choice and Power Fifthly The same regard is had to him in Faith Worship and Obedience as unto the other persons of the Father and Son For our being baptized into his name is our solemn engagement to believe in him to yield obedience to him and to worship him as it puts the same obligation upon us to the Father and the Son So also in reference unto the Worship of the Church He commands that the Ministers of it be separated unto himself Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Ver. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed which is comprehensive of all the religious Worship of the Church And on the same account is he sinned against as Acts 5. 3 4 9. For there is the same Reason of Sin and Obedience Against whom a man may sin formally and ultimately him he is bound to obey worship and believe in And this can be no quality but God himself For what may be the sense of this expression Thou hast lyed to the efficacy of God in his operations Or how can we be formally obliged unto obedience to a quality There must then an antecedent Obligation unto Faith Trust and Religious Obedience be supposed as the ground of rendring a person capable of being guilty of sin towards wards any For sin is but a â—ailure in Faith Obedience or Worship These therefore are due unto the Holy Ghost or a man could not sin against him so signally and fatally as some are
works of the Creation as learned men have manifested by various instances that it is most unreasonable to suppose that to be contrary to reason which many objects of rational consideration do more or less present unto our minds 8. To add no more considerations of this nature Let any of the Adversaries produce any one Argument or grounds of reason or those pretended to be such against that that hath been asserted that hath not already been bafflâ—d a thousand times and it shall receive an answer or a publick acknowledgement that it is Indissoluble Of the Person of Christ. THE next Head of Opposition made by the men of this conspiracy against this sacred truth is against the head of all truth the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Socinians indeed would willingly put a better face or colour upon their Error about the Person of Christ then it will bear or indure to lye on it For in their Catechism unto this Question Is the Lord Jesus Christ purus Homo a meer man they Answer by no means How then hath he a divine nature also which is their next question To this they say by no means for this is contrary to right reason How then will these pretended Masters of Reason reconcile these things For to us it seems that if Christ have no other nature but that of a man he is as to his nature purus Homo a meer man and no more Why they answer that he is not a meer man because he was born of a Virgin Strange that that should be an argument to prove him more than a man which the Scripture and all men in their right wits grant to be an invincible reason to prove him to be a man and as he was born of her no more Rom. 1. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law But say they he was endowed with the Spirit wrought Miracles was raised from the dead had all power given in Heaven and Earth for by these degrees he became to be God But all men see that the inquiry is about the nature of Christ and this Answer is about his state and condition Now this changeth not his nature on the one hand no more than his being humbled poor and dying did on the other This is the right reason we have to deal withall in these men If a man should have enquired of some of them of old whether Melchizedeck were purus Homo a meer man some of them would have said no because he was the Holy Ghost some no because he was the Son of God himself and some no because he was an Angel for such foolish opinions have men fallen into But how sottish soever their conceptions were their Answer to that enquiry would have been regular becaâ—se the Question and Answer respect the same subject in the same respect But never any was so stupid as to answer he was not a meer man that is by nature because he was a Priest of the high God which respects his Office and condition Yet such is the pretence of these men about the Person of Christ to incrustate and give some colour unto their soul mis-belief as supposing that it would be much to their disadvantage to own Christ only as a meer man though the most part of their disputes that they have troubled the Christian World withall have had no other design nor aim but to prove him so to be and nothing else I shall briefly according to the method insisted on first lay down what is the direct Revelation which is the object of our faith in this matter then express the Revelation it self in the Scripture testimonies wherein it is recorded and having vindicated some one or other of them from their exceptions manifest how the Doctrine hereof is farther explained unto the Edification of them that believe That there is a Second Person the Son of God in the holy Trin-Vnity of the God-head we have proved before That this Person did of his infinite Love and Grace take upon him our nature bumane nature so as that the divine and humane nature should be come one Person one Christ God and Man in one so that whatever he doth in and about our Salvation it is done by that one Person God and Man is revealed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith And this is that which we believe concerning the Person of Christ. Whatever acts are ascribâ—d unto him however immediately performed in or by the Humane Nature or in and by his Divine Nature they are all the acts of that one Person in whom are both these natures That this Christ God and Man is because he is God and on the account of what he hath done for us as Man to be believed in worshipped with worship Religious and Divine to be trusted and obeyed this also is asserted in the Scripture And these things are as it were the common notions of Christian Religion the common Principles of our Profession which the Scriptures also abundantly testifie unto Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call his name Emanuel that is he shall be God with us or God in our nature Not that that should be his name whereby he should be called in this World but that this should be the condition of his Person he should be God with us God in our nature So are the words expounded Mat. 1. 21 22 23. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us His name whereby he was to be called was Jesus that is a Saviour And thereby was accomplished the prediction of the Prophet that he should be Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us Now a Child born to be God with us is God in that Child taking our nature upon him and no otherwise can the words be understood Isa. 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called the mighâ—y God The Child that is born the Son that is given is the mighty God and as the mighâ—y God and a Child born or Son given he is the Prince of peace as he is there called or our Saviour John 1. 14. The Word was made flesh That the Word was God who made all things he had before declared Now he affirms that this Word was made flesh How converted into flesh
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is
the Personal Union The Divine and humane nature in Christ have but one personal subsistence and so are but one Christ one distinct personal principle of all Operations of all that he did or doth as Mediator And this undeniably follows from what is declared in the Testimonies mentioned For the Word could not be made flesh nor could he take on him the seed of Abraham nor could the mighty God be a Child born and given unto us nor could God shed his blood for his Church but that the two natures so directly expressed must be united in one Person for otherwise as they are two natures still they would be two Persons also 2. Each nature thus united in Christ is entire and preserves unto it self its own natural properties For he is no less perfect God for being made Man nor no less a true perfect Man consisting of soul and body with all their essential parts by that natures being taken into subsistence with the Son of God His Divine nature still continues Immense Omniscient Omnipotent infinite in Holiness c. his bumane nature finite limited and before its Glorification subject to all infirmities of life and death that the same nature in others absolutely considered is obnoxious unto 3. In each of these natures he acts suitably unto the essential properties and principles of that nature As God he made all things upholds all things by the word of his Power fills Heaven and Earth c. As man he lived hungred suffered dyed rose ascended into Heaven Yet by reason of the Union of both these natures in the same Person not only his own Person is said to do all these things but the Person expressed by the name which he hath on the account of one nature is said to do that which he did only in the other So God is said to redeem his Church with his own blood and to lay down his life for us and the Son of Man to be in Heaven when he was in the Earth All because of the unity of his Person as was declared And these things do all of them directly and undeniably flow from what is revealed concerning his Person as before is declared Of the Satisfaction of CHRIST THE last thing to be enquired into upon occasion of the late opposition to the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel is the satisfaction of Christ. And the Doctrine hereof is such as I eonceive needs rather to be explained than vindicated For it being the Center wherein most if not all the Lines of Gospel Promises and Precepts do meet and the great medium of all our Communion with God in Faith and Obedience the great distinction between the Religion of Christians and that of all others in the world it will easily on a due proposal be assented unto by all who would be esteemed Disciples of Jesus Christ. And whether a parcel of insipid Cavils may be thought sufficient to obliterate the Revelation of it men of sober minds will judge and discern For the term of Satisfaction we contend not about it It doth indeed properly express and connote that great Effâ—ct of the Death of Christ which in the cause before us we plead for But yet because it belongs rather to the Explanation of the Truth contended for then is used expresly in the Revelation of it and because the right understanding of the Word it self depends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration I shall not in this entrance of our discourse insist precisely upon it but leave it as the natural conclusion of what we shall find expresly declared in the Scripture Neither do I say this as though I did decline the Word or the right use of it or what is properly signified by it but do only cast it into its proper place answerable unto our method and design in the whole of this brieâ— discourse I know some have taken a new way of expressing and declaring the Doctrine concerning the Mediation of Christ with the causes and ends of his death which they think more rational than that usually insisted on But as what I have yet heard of or seen in that kind hath been not only unscriptural but also very irrational and most remote from that accuracy whereunto they pretend who make use of it so if they shall publish their conceptions it is not improbable but that they may meet with a Scholastical Examination by some hand or other Our present work as hath been often declared is for the establishment of the Faith of them who may be attempted if not brought into danger to be seduced by the slights of some who lye in wait to deceive and the clamours of others who openly drive the same design What therefore the Scripture plainly and clearly reveals in this matter is the subject of our present enquiry And either in so doing as occasion shall be offered we shall obviate or in the close of it remove those Sophisms that the Sacred Truth now proposed to consideration hath been attempted withal The summ of what the Scripture reveals about this great truth commonly called the satisfaction of Christ may be reduced unto these ensuing heads 1. That Adam being made upright sinned against God and all mankind all his posterity in him Gen. 1. 27. So God created man in hit own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them Gen. 3. 11. And he said who told thee that thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whreof I commandeded thee that then shouldst not eat Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Ver. 18. Therefore by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Ver. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners 2. That by this Sin of our first Parents all men are brought into an Estate of Sin and Apostacy from God and of an enmity unto him Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sâ—â—â—pen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God fâ—r it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Chap. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Thirdly That in this state all men continue in sin against God nor of themselves can do otherwise Rom. 3. 10 11 12. There is none righteous no not one there is none
his own Body on the Tree 4. That he answered the Law and the penalty of it Rom. 8. 3. God sent forth his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Chap. 4. 4 5. God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law 5. That he dyed for sin and sinners to expiate the one and in the stead of the other Rom. 4. 25. He was delivered for our offences Rom. 5. 10. When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son 1 Cor. 15. 3. Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures 2 Cor. 5. 14. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead 1 Thes. 5. 9 10. 6. Hence on the part of God it is affirmed that he spared him not but delivered him up for us all Rom. 8. 32. And caused all our iniquities to meet upon him Isa. 53. 7. 7. The Effect hereof was 1. That the Righteousness of God was glorified Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins 2. The Law fulfilled and satisfied as in the places before quoted Rom. 8. 3. Gal. 3. 13 14. Gal. 4. 5. 3. God reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Heb. 2. 17. He made reconciliation for the sins of the People 4. Attonement was made for sin Rom. 5. 11. By whom we have now received the Attonement and peace was made with God Eph. 2. 14. For he is our peace who hath made both one that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross having slain the emnity thereby 〈◊〉 Made an end of sin Dan. 9. 24. To finish transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting Righteousness The glory of God in all these things being exalted himself well pleased Righteousness and everlasting Redemption or Salvation purchased for Sinners Heb. 9. 14. In that the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that by his stripes we are healed he being punished that we might go free himself became a Captain of Salvation unto all that do obey him I have fixed on these particulars to give every Ordinary Reader an instance how fully and plainly what he is to believe in this matter is revealed in the Scripture And should I produce all the Testimonies which expresly give witness unto these positions it is known how great a part of the Bible must be transcribed And these are the things which are indispensibly required of us to believe that we may be able 〈◊〉 and regulate our obedience according to the mind and will of God In the Explanation of this Doctrine unto further Edification sundry things are usually insisted on which necessarily and infallibly ensue upon the propositions of Scripture before laid down and serve to beget in the minds of Believers a due apprehension and right understanding of them As 1. That God in this matter is to be considered as the chief supream absolute Rector and Governour of all as the Lord of the Law and of sinners but yet so as an offended Ruler Not as an offended Person but as an offended Ruler who hath right to exact punishment upon Transgressors and whose Righteousness of Rule requires that he should so do 2. That because he is Righteous and Holy as he is the supream Judge of all the World it is necessary that he do right in the punishing of sin without which the order of the Creation cannot be preserved For sin being the Creatures deduction of it self from the order of its dependance upon and obedience unto the Creator and supream Lord of all without a reduction of it by punishment confusion would be brought into the whole Creation 3. That whereas the Law and the Sanction of it is the moral or declarative cause of the punishment of sin and it directly obligeth the sinner himself unto punishment God as the supream Ruler dispenseth not with the act of the Law but the immediate object and substitutes another sufferer in the room of them who are principally lyable unto the sentence of it and are now to be acquitted or freed that so the Law may be satisfied requiring the punishment of sin Justice exalted whereof the Law is an effect and yet the sinner saved 4. That the Person thus substituted was the Son of God incarnate who had power so to dispose of himself with will and readiness for it and was upon the account of the dignity of his Person able to answer the penalty which all others had incurred and deserved 5. That God upon his voluntary susception of this Office and condescention to this work did so lay our sins in and by the sentence of the Law upon him that he made therein full satisfaction for whatever legally could be charged on them for whom he dyed or suffered 6. That the special way terms and conditions whereby and whereon sinners may be interested in this satisâ—action made by Christ are determined by the Will of God and declared in the Scripture These and the like things are usually insisted on in the Explication or declaration of this head of our confession And there is not any of them but may be sufficiently confirmed by Divine Testimonies It may also be farther evinced that there is nothing asserted in them but what is excellently suited unto the common notions which mankind hath of God and his Righteousness and that in their practice they answer the light of nature and common reason exemplified in sundry Instances among the Nations of the World I shall therefore take one Argument from some of the testimonies before produced in the confirmation of this Sacred Truth and proceed to remove the objections that are commonly banded against it If the Lord Christ according to the Will of the Father and by his own counsel and choice was substituted and did substitute himself as the Mediatour of the Covenant in the room and in the stead of sinners that they might be saved and therein bare their sins or the punishment due unto their sins by undergoing the curse and penalty of the Law and therein also according to the Will of God offered up himself for a propitiatory expiatory Sacrifice to make Attonement for sin and Reconciliation for sinners that the Justice of God being appeased and the Law fulfilled they might go free or be delivered from the wrath to come and if therein also he paid a real satisfactory price for their Redemption then he made satisfaction to God for sin For these are the things that