one God is to the common Reason of Mankind and to the clearest and most essential Notions which we have of God And this will appear these two ways First By considering the most essential Perfections of the Divine Nature Secondly From the repugnancy and impossibility the great absurdity and inconvenience of supposing more Gods than One. First By considering the most essential Perfections of the Divine Nature Absolute Perfection which we ascribe to God as the most essential Notion which Mankind hath always had concerning Him does necessarily suppose Unity because this is essential to the Notion of a Being that is absolutely Perfect that all Perfection meets and is united in such a Being But to imagine more Gods and some Perfections to be in one and some in another does destroy the most essential Notion which men have of God namely that He is a Being absolutely Perfect that is as perfect as is possible Now to suppose some Perfections in one God which are not in another is to suppose some possible Perfection to be wanting in God which is a Contradiction to the most natural and the most easie Notion which all men have of God that He is a Being in whom all Perfections do meet and are united But if we suppose more Gods each of which hath all Perfections united in Him then all but One would be superfluous and needless and therefore by just and necessary consequence not only may but of necessity must be supposed not to be since necessary existence is essential to the Deity and therefore if but One God be necessary there can be no more Secondly From the repugnancy and impossibility the great absurdity and inconvenience of the contrary For suppose there were more Gods two for example and if there may be two there may be a Million for we can stop no where I say suppose two Gods either these two would be in all Perfections equal and alike or unequal and unlike If equal and alike in all things then as I said before one of them would be needless and superfluous and if one why not as well the other they being supposed to be in all things perfectly alike and then there would be no necessity at all of the being of a God and yet it is granted on all hands that necessary existence is essential to the Notion of a God But if they be unequal that is one of them inferior to and less perfect than the other that which is inferior and less perfect could not be God because he would not have all perfection So that which way soever we turn the thing and look upon it the Notion of more Gods than One is by its own repugnancy and self-contradiction destructive of it self Before I come to apply this Doctrine of the Unity of God I must not pass by a very considerable Difficulty which will most certainly arise in every mans mind without taking particular notice of it and endeavouring to remove it if I can And it is the Doctrine of the B. Trinity or of three real Differences or distinct Persons in One and the same Divine Nature And though this be not a Difficulty peculiar only to the Christian Religion as by the generality of those who urge this Objection against Christians hath been inconsiderately thought for it is certain that long before Christianity appeared in the World there was a very ancient Tradition both among Jews and Heathen concerning three real Differences or Distinctions in the Divine Nature very nearly resembling the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity as I shall have occasion more fully to shew by and by Yet it cannot be denied but that this Difficulty doth in a more especial manner affect the Christian Religion the generality of Christians who do most firmly believe the Trinity believing likewise at the same time more stedfastly if it be possible that there is but One God To us saith St. Paul that is to us Christians there is but One God But how can this possibly consist with the common Doctrine of Christians concerning the Trinity God the Father Son and H. Ghost to each of whom they Attribute as they verily believe the Scripture does the most incommunicable Properties and Perfections of the Divine Nature And what is this less in effect than to say That there are three Gods For the clearing of this Difficulty I shall with all the brevity I can offer these following Considerations which I hope to an impartial and unprejudiced Judgment will be sufficient to remove it or at least to break the main force and strength of it I. I desire it may be well considered that there is a wide difference between the nice Speculations of the Schools beyond what is revealed in Scripture concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity and what the Scripture only teaches and asserts concerning this Mystery For it is not to be denied but that the Schoolmen who abounded in wit and leisure though very few among them had either exact skill in the H. Scriptures or in Ecclesiastical Antiquity and the Writings of the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church I say it cannot be denied but that these Speculative and very acute men who wrought a great part of their Divinity out of their own Brains as Spiders do Cobwebs out of their own bowels have started a thousand subtleties about this Mystery such as no Christian is bound to trouble his head withal much less is it necessary for him to understand those niceties which we may reasonably presume that they who talk of them did themselves never thoroughly understand and least of all is it necessary to believe them The modesty of Christians is contented in Divine Mysteries to know what God hath thought fit to reveal concerning them and hath no curiosity to be wise above that which is written It is enough to believe what God says concerning these matters and if any man will venture to say more every other man surely is at his liberty to believe as he sees reason II. I desire it may in the next place be considered that the Doctrine of the Trinity even as it is asserted in Scripture is acknowledged by us to be still a great Mystery and so imperfectly revealed as to be in a great measure incomprehensible by Human Reason And therefore though some learned and judicious Men may have very commendably attempted a more particular explication of this great Mystery by the strength of Reason yet I dare not pretend to that knowing both the difficulty and danger of such an Attempt and mine own insufficiency for it All that I ever designed upon this Argument was to make out the credibility of the thing from the Authority of the H. Scriptures without descending to a more particular explication of it than the Scripture hath given us lest by endeavouring to lay the Difficulties which are already started about it new ones should be raised and such as may perhaps be much harder to be removed than those which we have
now to grapple withal And this I hope I have in some measure done in one of the former Discourses Nor indeed do I see that it is any ways necessary to do more it being sufficient that God hath declared what he thought fit in this matter and that we do firmly believe what he says concerning it to be true though we do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of all that he hath said about it For in this and the like Cases I take an Implicite Faith to be very commendable that is to believe whatever we are sufficiently assured God hath revealed though we do not fully understand his meaning in such a Revelation And thus every man who believes the H. Scriptures to be a truly Divine Revelation does implicitely believe a great part of the Prophetical Books of Scripture and several obscure expressions in those Books though he do not particularly understand the meaning of all the Predictions and expressions contained in them In like manner there are certainly a great many very good Christians who do not believe and comprehend the Mysteries of Faith nicely enough to approve themselves to a Scholastical and Magisterial Judge of Controversies who yet if they do heartily embrace the Doctrines which are clearly revealed in Scripture and live up to the plain Precepts of the Christian Religion will I doubt not be very well approved by the Great and Just and by the infallibly Infallible Judge of the World III. Let it be further considered That though neither the word Trinity nor perhaps Person in the sense in which it is used by Divines when they treat of this Mystery be any where to be met with in Scripture yet it cannot be denied but that Three are there spoken of by the Names of Father Son and H. Ghost in whose Name every Christian is baptized and to each of whom the highest Titles and Properties of God are in Scripture attributed And these Three are spoken of with as much distinction from one another as we use to speak of three several Persons So that though the word Trinity be not found in Scripture yet these Three are there expresly and frequently mentioned and a Trinity is nothing but three of any thing And so likewise though the word Person be not there expresly applied to Father Son and H. Ghost yet it will be very hard to find a more convenient word whereby to express the distinction of these Three For which reason I could never yet see any just cause to quarrel at this term For since the H. Spirit of God in Scripture hath thought fit in speaking of these Three to distinguish them from one another as we use in common speech to distinguish three several Persons I cannot see any reason why in the explication of this Mystery which purely depends upon Divine Revelation we should not speak of it in the same manner as the Scripture doth And though the word Person is now become a â—erm of Art I see no cause why we should decline it so long as we mean by it neither more nor less than what the Scripture says in other Words IV. It deserves further to be considered That there hath been a very ancient Tradition concerning three real Differences or Distinctions in the Divine Nature and these as I said before very nearly resembling the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity Whence this Tradition had its original is not easie upon good and certain grounds to say but certain it is that the Jews anciently had this Notion And that they did distinguish the Word of God and the H. Spirit of God from Him who was absolutely called God and whom they looked upon as the First Principle of all things as is plain from Philo Judaeus and Moses Nachmanides and others cited by the Learned Grotius in his incomparable Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion And among the Heathen Plato who probably enough might have this Notion from the Jews did make three Distinctions in the Deity by the Names of essential Goodness and Mind and Spirit So that whatever Objections this matter may be liable to it is not so peculiar a Doctrine of the Christian Religion as many have imagined though it is revealed by it with much more clearness and certainty And consequently neither the Jews nor Plato have any reason to object is to us Christians especially since they pretend no other ground for it but either their own Reason or an ancient Tradition from their Fathers whereas we Christians do appeal to express Divine Revelation for what we believe in this matter and do believe it singly upon that account V. It is besides very considerable That the Scriptures do deliver this Doctrine of the Trinity without any manner of doubt or question concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature And not only so but do most stedfastly and constantly assert that there is but One God And in those very Texts in which these three Differences are mentioned the Unity of the Divine Nature is expresly asserted as where St. John makes mention of the Father the Word and the Spirit the Unity of these Three is likewise affirmed There are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these Three are One. VI. It is yet further considerable That from this Mystery as delivered in Scripture a Plurality of Gods cannot be inferred without making the Scripture grosly to contradict it self which I charitably suppose the Socinians would be as loth to admit as we our selves are And if either Councils or Fathers or Schoolmen have so explained this Mystery as to give any just ground or so much as a plausible colour for such an Inference let the blame fall where it is due and let it not be charged on the H. Scriptures but rather as the Apostle says in another Case Let God be true and every Man a liar VIIthly and Lastly I desire it may be considered That it is not repugnant to Reason to believe some things which are incomprehensible by our Reason provided that we have sufficient ground and reason for the belief of them Especially if they be concerning God who is in his Nature Incomprehensible and we be well assured that he hath revealed them And therefore it ought not to offend us that these Differences in the Deity are incomprehensible by our finite understandings because the Divine Nature it self is so and yet the belief of that is the Foundation of all Religion There are a great many things in Nature which we cannot comprehend how they either are or can be As the Continuity of Matter that is how the parts of it do hang so fast together that they are many times very hard to be parted and yet we are sure that it is so because we see it every day So likewise how the small Seeds of things contain the whole Form and Nature of the things from which they proceed and into which by degrees they grow and yet we
plainly see this every year There are many things likewise in our Selves which no man is able in any measure to comprehend as to the manner how they are done and performed As the vital union of Soul and Body Who can imagine by what device or means a Spirit comes to be so closely united and so firmly link'd to a material Body that they are not to be parted without great force and violence offer'd to Nature The like may be said of the operations of our several Faculties of Sense and Imagination of Memory and Reason and especially of the Liberty of our Wills And yet we certainly find all these Faculties in our selves though we cannot either comprehend or explain the particular manner in which the several Operations of them are performed And if we cannot comprehend the manner of those Operations which we plainly perceive and feel to be in our Selves much less can we expect to comprehend things without us and least of all can we pretend to comprehend the infinite Nature and Perfections of God and every thing belonging to Him For God himself is certainly the greatest Mystery of all other and acknowledged by Mankind to be in his Nature and in the particular manner of his Existence incomprehensible by Human Understanding And the reason of this is very evident because God is infinite and our knowledge and understanding is but finite And yet no sober man ever thought this a good reason to call the Being of God in question The same may be said of God's certain knowledge of future Contingencies which depend upon the uncertain Wills of free Agents It being utterly inconceivable how any Understanding how large and perfect soever can certainly know beforehand that which depends upon the free Will of another which is an arbitrary and uncertain Cause And yet the Scripture doth not only attribute this Foreknowledge to God but gives us also plain Instances of God's foretelling such things many Ages before it happened as could not come to pass but by the Sins of Men in which we are sure that God can have no hand though nothing can happen without his permission Such was that most memorable Event of the Death of Christ who as the Scripture tells us was by wicked hands crucified and stain and yet even this is said to have happened according to the determinate foreknowledge of God and was punctually foretold by Him some hundreds of years before Nay the Scripture doth not only ascribe this power and perfection to the Divine Knowledge but natural Reason hath been forced to acknowledge it as we may see in some of the wisest of the Philosophers And yet it would puzzle the greatest Philosopher that ever was to give any tolerable account how any Knowledge whatsoever can certainly and infallibly foresee an Event through uncertain and contingent Causes All the reasonable satisfaction that can be had in this matter is this that it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that infinite Knowledg may have ways of knowing things which our finite Understandings can by no means comprehend how they can possibly be known Again There is hardly any thing more inconceivable than how a thing should be of it self and without any Cause of its Being and yet our Reason compels us to acknowledge this Because we certainly see that something is which must either have been of it self and without a Cause or else something that we do not see must have been of it self and have made all other things And by this reasoning we are forced to acknowledge a Deity the mind of Man being able to find no rest but in the acknowledgment of one eternal and wise Mind as the Principle and first Cause of all other things and this Principle is that which Mankind do by general consent call God So that God hath laid a sure foundation of our acknowledgment of his Being in the Reason of our own Minds And though it be one of the hardest things in the world to conceive how any thing can be of it self yet necessity drives us to acknowledge it whether we will or no And this being once granted our Reason being tired in trying all other ways will for its own quiet and ease force us at last to fall in with the general apprehension and belief of Mankind concerning a Deity To give but one Instance more There is the like Difficulty in conceiving how any thing can be made out of nothing and yet our Reason doth oblige us to believe it Because Matter which is a very imperfect Being and merely passive must either always have been of it self or else by the infinite Power of a most perfect and active Being must have been made out of nothing Which is much more credible than that any thing so imperfect as Matter is should be of it self Because that which is of it self cannot be conceived to have any bounds and limits of its Being and Perfection for by the same reason that it necessarily is and of it self it must necessarily have all perfection which it is certain Matter hath not and yet necessary Existence is so great a Perfection that we cannot reasonably suppose any thing that hath this Perfection to want any other Thus you see by these Instances that it is not repugnant to Reason to believe a great many things to be of the manner of whose Existence we are not able to give a particular and distinct account And much less is it repugnant to Reason to believe those things concerning God which we are very well assured he hath declared concerning Himself though these things by our Reason should be incomprehensible And this is truly the Case as to the matter now under debate We are sufficiently assured that the Scriptures are a Divine Revelation and that this Mystery of the Trinity is therein declared to us Now that we cannot comprehend it is no sufficient Reason not to believe it For if this were a good Reason for not believing it then no man ought to believe that there is a God because his Nature is most certainly incomprehensible But we are assured by many Arguments that there is a God and the same natural Reason which assures us that He is doth likewise assure us that He is incomprehensible and therefore our believing Him to be so doth by no means overthrow our belief of His Being In like manner we are assured by Divine Revelation of the truth of this Doctrine of the Trinity and being once assured of that our not being able fully to comprehend it is not reason enough to stagger our belief of it A man cannot deny what he sees though the necessary consequence of admitting it may be something which he cannot comprehend One cannot deny the Frame of this World which he sees with his eyes though from thence it will necessarily follow that either that or something else must be of itself which yet as I said before is a thing which no man can comprehend how it can be
Church which is every whit as good But is this equal to demand of us the belief of a thing which hath always been controverted not only between us and them but even among themselves at least till the Council of Trent And this upon such unreasonable terms that we must either yield this Point to them or else renounce a Doctrine agreed on both Sides to be revealed in Scripture To shew the unreasonableness of this proceeding Let us suppose a Priest of the Church of Rome pressing a Jew or Turk to the belief of Transubstantiation and because one kindness deserves another the Jew or Turk should demand of him the belief of all the Fables in the Talmud or in the Alchoran since none of these nor indeed all of them together are near so absurd as Transubstantiation Would not this be much more reasonable and equal than what they demand of us Since no Absurdity how monstrous and big soever can be thought of which may not enter into an Understanding in which a Breach hath been already made wide enough to admit Transubstantiation The Priests of Baal did not half so much deserve to be exposed by the Prophet for their Superstition and folly as the Priests of the Church of Rome do for this sensless and stupid Doctrine of theirs with a hard Name I shall only add this one thing more That if this Doctrine were possible to be true and clearly prov'd to be so yet it would be evidently useless and to no purpose For it pretends to change the substance of one thing into the substance of another thing that is already and before this change is pretended to be made But to what purpose Not to make the Body of Christ for that was already in Being and the Substance of the Bread is lost nothing of it remaineth but the Accidents which are good for nothing and indeed are nothing when the Substance is destroy'd and gone All that now remains is to make some practical Inferences from this Doctrine of the Unity of the Divine Nature And they shall be the same which God himself makes by Moses which Text also is cited by our Saviour Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self So that according to our Saviour the whole Duty of Man the love of God and of our neighbour is founded in the Unity of the Divine Nature I. The love of God The Lord thy God is One Lord therefore thou shalt love Him with all thy heart c. this is the first and great Commandment And it comprehends in it all the Duties of the first Table as naturally flowing from it As that we should serve him only and pay no Religious Worship to any but to Him For to pay Religious Worship to any thing is to make it a God and to acknowledge it for such And therefore God being but One we can give Religious Worship to none but to Him only And among all the parts of Religious Worship none is more peculiarly appropriated to the Deity than solemn Invocation and Prayer For he to whom men address their Requests at all times and in all places must be supposed to be always every where present to understand all our desires and wants and to be able to supply them and this God only is and can do So likewise from the Unity of the Divine Nature may be inferr'd that we should not worship God by any sensible Image or Representation Because God being a singular Being there is nothing like Him or that can without injuring and debasing his most spiritual and perfect and immense Being be compared to Him As He himself speaks in the Prophet To whom will ye liken me saith the Lord and make me equal And therefore with no Distinction whatsoever can it be lawful to give Religious Worship or any part of it to any but God We can pray to none but to Him because He only is every where present and only knows the Hearts of all the children of men which Solomon gives as the reason why we should address our Supplications to God only who dwelleth in the Heavens So that the Reason of these two Precepts is founded in the Unity and Singularity of the Divine Nature and unless there be more Gods than One we must worship Him only and pray to none but Him Because we can give Invocation to none but to Him only whom we believe to be God as St. Paul reasons How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed II. The love likewise of our Neighbour is founded in the Unity of the Divine Nature and may be inferr'd from it Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is One Lord therefore thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And the Apostle gives this reason why Christians should be at unity among themselves There is One God and Father of all and therefore we should keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace that is live in mutual love and peace The Prophet likewise assigns this reason why all Mankind should be upon good terms with one another and not be injurious one to another Have we not all One Father hath not One God created us Why do we then deal treacherously every man against his brother And therefore when we see such hatred and enmity among Men such divisions and animosities among Christians we may not only ask St. Paul's question Is Christ divided that we cannot agree about serving him either all to serve him in one way or to bear with one another in our differences I say we may not only ask St. Paul's question Is Christ divided but may ask further Is God divided Is there not One God and are we not all his Offspring Are we not all the Sons of Adam who was the Son of God So that if we trace our selves to our Original we shall find a great nearness and equality among men And this equality that we are all God's creatures and Image and that the One only God is the Father of us all is a more real ground of mutual love and peace and equity in our dealings one with another than any of those petty differences and distinctions of strong and weak of rich and poor of wise and foolish of base and honourable can be to encourage men to any thing of Insolence injustice and inequality of dealing one towards another Because that wherein we all agree that we are the Creatures and Children of God and have all One common Father is essential and constant but those things wherein we differ are accidental and mutable and happen to one another by turns Thus much may suffice to have spoken concerning the first Proposition in the Text There is one God To Him Father Son and H. Ghost be all Honour
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Ps 45. 6 7. v. 10 11 12. * Ne referre quidem haec priora verba de coeli terraeque creatione loquentia ad Christum potuisset Autor nisi pro concesso sumsisset Christum esse summum illum Deum coeli terrae Creatorem praesertim si ea ut necesse soret primò directè ad Christum dicta esse censeas Nam cum omnia Psalmi verba manifestè de Deo loquuntur Christum autem Deum illum esse ne unico quidem verbo in toto hoc Psalmo indicetur necesse est ut si verba illa ad Christum directa esse velis pro concesso sumas Christum esse Deum illum summum de quo in Psalmo seâ—mo est v. 11 12. ch 1. v. 20. 1 John 5. 7. Rom. 1. 25. Gal. 4 8. Hebr. 2. 16. Matth. 14. 31. 1 Cor. 1. 24. Heb. 5. 5. Job 33. 12 13. 1 Cor. 1. 21. Chap. I. v. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. III. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Heb. 1. 2. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 7. 25. Heb. 2. 16 17 18. Heb. 4. 14 15 16. Heb. 2. 14 15. Joh. 5. 22 27. Heb. 12. 14. 1 Joh. 3. 3. 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Joh. 1. 20. ver 21. Joh. 3. 16. Heb. 4. 15 Joh. 8. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Heb. 7. 26. 27. Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Eph. 5. 10 1 Pet. 1. 18. Joh. 15. 12. V. 13. Rom. 6. 6 7 8. 1 Cor. 5. 7. Lev. 1. 4. Heb. 9. 28. v. 28. Obj. 1st Obj. 2d Obj. 3d. Obj. 4th 1 Cor. 8. 4. Deut. 4. 35. Isai 44. 6. v. 8. Adversus Marcionem I. 1. c. 10. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Serm. II. L. 5. Joh 15 1. Eph. 1. 23. Deut. 6 4. Mark 12. 2â— 30 3â— Isa 46. 5. 1 Kings 8. 39. Rom. 10. 14. Eph. 4. 6. Mal. 2. 10.
had the same Notion from the Jews which made Amelius the Platonist when he read the beginning of St. John's Gospel to say this Barbarian agrees with Plato ranking the Word in the order of Principles meaning that he made the Word the Principle or efficient Cause of the World as Plato also hath done And this Title of the Word was so famously known to be given to the Messias that even the Enemies of Christianity took notice of it Julian the Apostate calls Christ by this Name And Mahomet in his Alchoran gives this Name of the Word to Jesus the Son of Mary But St. John had probably no reference to Plato any otherwise than as the Gnosticks against whom he wrote made use of several of Plato's words and notions So that in all probability St. John gives our B. Saviour this Title with regard to the Jews more especially who anciently call'd the Messias by this Name Secondly We will in the next place consider What might probably be the Occasion why this Evangelist makes so frequent mention of this Title of the Word and insists so much upon it And it seems to be this Nay I think that hardly any doubt can be made of it since the most ancient of the Fathers who lived nearest the time of St. John do confirm it to us St. John who survived all the Apostles liv'd to see those Heresies which sprang up in the beginnings of Christianity during the lives of the Apostles grown up to a great height to the great prejudice and disturbance of the Christian Religion I mean the Heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus and the several Sects of the Gnosticks which began from Simon Magus and were continued and carried on by Valentinus and Basilides Carpocrates and Menander Some of which expresly denied the Divinity of our Saviour asserting him to have been a mere man and to have had no manner of existence before he was born of the B. Virgin as Eusebius and Epiphanius tells us particularly concerning Ebion Which those who hold the same Opinion now in our days may do well to consider from whence it had its Original Others of them I still mean the Gnosticks had corrupted the simplicity of the Christian Doctrine by mingling with it the fancies and conceits of the Jewish Cabbalists and of the Schools of Pythagoras and Plato and of the Chaldaean Philosophy more ancient than either as may be seen in Eusebius de Preparat Evan. and by jumbling all these together they had framed a confused Genealogy of Deities which they called by several glorious Names and all of them by the general Name of Eons or Ages Among which they reckon'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Life and the Word and the only begotten and the Fulness and many other Divine Powers and Emanations which they fancied to be successively derived from one another And they also distinguished between the Maker of the World whom they called the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New And between Jesus and Christ Jesus according to the Doctrine of Cerinthus as Irenaeus tells us being the man that was born of the Virgin and Christ or the Messias being that Divine Power or Spirit which afterwards descended into Jesus and dwelt in him If it were possible yet it would be to no purpose to go about to reconcile these wild conceits with one another and to find out for what reason they were invented unless it were to amuse the People with these high swelling words of vanity and a pretence of knowledg falsly so called as the Apostle speaks in allusion to the Name of Gnosticks that is to say the Men of knowledge which they proudly assum'd to themselves as if the knowledge of Mysteries of a more sublime nature did peculiarly belong to them In opposition to all these vain and groundless conceits St. John in the beginning of his Gospel chuses to speak of our B. Saviour the History of whose life and death he was going to write by the Name or Title of the Word a term very famous among those Sects And shews that this Word of God which was also the Title the Jews anciently gave to the Messias did exist before he assumed a human Nature and even form all Eternity And that to this eternal Word did truly belong all those Titles which they kept such a canting stir about and which they did with so much senseless nicety and subtilty distinguish from one another as if they had been so many several Emanations from the Deity And he shews that this Word of God was really and truly the Life and the Light and the Fulness and the only begotten of the Father v. 5. In him was the Life and the Life was the Light of men and v. 6. And the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not and v. 7 8 9. where the Evangelist speaking of John the Baptist says of him that he came for a witness to bear witness of the Light and that he was not that Light but was sent to bear witness of that Light And that Light was the true Light which coming into the World enlightens every man And v. 14. And we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth And v. 16. And of his fulness we all receive c. You see here is a perpetual Allusion to the glorious Titles which they gave to their Aeons as if they had been so many several Deities In short the Evangelist shews that all this fanciful Genealogy of Divine Emanations with which the Gnosticks made so great a noise was mere conceit and imagination and that all these glorious Titles did really meet in the Messias who is the Word and who before his Incarnation was from all eternity with God partaker of his Divine Nature and Glory I have declared this the more fully and particularly because the knowledge of it seems to me to be the only true Key to the interpretation of this Discourse of St. John concerning our Saviour under the Name and Title of the Word And surely it is a quite wrong way for any man to go about by the mere strength and subtilty of his Reason and Wit though never so great to interpret an ancient Book without understanding and considering the Historical occasion of it which is the only thing that can give true light to it And this was the great and fatal mistake of Socinus to go to interpret Scripture merely by Criticising upon words and searching into all the senses that they are possibly capable of till he can find one though never so forc'd and foreign that will save harmless the Opinion which he was before-hand resolved to maintain even against the most natural and obvious sense of the Text which he undertakes to interpret Just as if a man should interpret ancient Statutes and Records by
made and consequently is without any beginning of Time for that which was never made could have no beginning of its Being Secondly That in that state of his existence before the Creation of the World he was partaker of the Divine Glory and Happiness And this I have shew'd to be the meaning of that expression and the Word was with God For thus our B. Saviour does explain his being with God before the World was And now O Father glorify me with thy own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Thirdly That he was God And the Word was God Not God the Father who is the Principle and fountain of the Deity To prevent that mistake after he had said that the Word was God he immediately adds in the next verse the same was in the beginning with God He was God by participation of the Divine Nature and Happiness together with the Father and by way of derivation from him as the light is from the Sun Which is the common illustration which the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church give us of this Mystery and is perhaps the best and fittest that can be given of it For among finite Beings it is not to be expected because not possible to find any exact resemblance of that which is infinite and consequently is incomprehensible because whatever is infinite is for that reason incomprehensible by a finite understanding which is too short and shallow to measure that which is infinite and whoever attempts it will soon find himself out of his depth Fourthly That all things were made by him Which could not have been more emphatically express'd than it is here by the Evangelist after the manner of the Hebrews who when they would say a thing with the greatest force and certainty are wont to express it both affirmatively and negatively as He shall live and not die that is he shall most assuredly live so here All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made that is he made all Creatures without exception and consequently he himself is not a Creature because it is evidently impossible that any thing should ever make it self But then if he be and yet was never made it is certainly true that he always was even from all Eternity All these Assertions are plainly and expresly contain'd in this description which the Evangelist St. John here makes of the Word and this according to the interpretation of these expressions by the unaminous consent of the most ancient Writers of the Christian Church Who some of them had the advantage of receiving it from the immediate Disciples of St. John Which surely is no small prejudice against any newly invented and contrary interpretation as I shall hereafter more fully shew when I come to consider the strange and extravagant interpretation which the Socinians make of this Passage of St. John which is plain enough of it self if they under a pretence of explaining and making it more clear had not disturb'd and darken'd it Now from this description which the Evangelist here gives of the Word and which I have so largely explain'd in the foregoing Discourse these three Corallaries or Conclusions do necessarily follow First That the Word here described by St. John is not a Creature This Conclusion is directly Against the Arians who affirm'd that the Son of God was a Creature They grant indeed that he is the first of all the Creatures both in Dignity and Duration for so they understand that expression of the Apostle wherein he is called the first-born of every Creature But this I have endeavoured already to shew not to be the meaning of that expression They grant him indeed to have been God's Agent or Instrument in the Creation of the World and that all other Creatures besides himself were made by him But still they contend that he is a Creature and was made Now this cannot possibly consist with what St. John says of him that he was in the beginning that is as hath been already shewn before anything was made And likewise because he is said to have made all things and that without him was not anything made that was made and therefore he himself who made all things is necessarily excepted out of the condition and rank of a Creature as the Apostle reasons in another Case He hath put all things under his feet But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted who did put all things under him In like manner if by him all things were made and without him was not any thing made that was made then either he was not made or he must make himself which involves in it a plain contradiction Secondly That this Word was from all Eternity For if he was in the beginning that is before any thing was made he must of necessity always have been because whatever is must either have been sometime made or must always have been for that which was not and afterwards is must be made And this will likewise follow from his being said to be God and that in the most strict and proper sense which doth necessarily imply his Eternity because God cannot begin to be but must of necessity always have been Thirdly From both these it will undeniably follow that he had an existence before his Incarnation and his being born of the B. Virgin For if he was in the beginning that is from all Eternity which I have shewn to be the meaning of that expression then certainly he was before his being born of the B. Virgin And this likewise is implied in the Proposition in the Text And the Word was made flesh viz. that Word which the Evangelist had before so gloriously described that Word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God and by whom all things were made I say that Word was incarnate and assumed a human Nature and therefore must necessarily exist and have a Being before he could assume humanity into an union with his Divinity And this Proposition is directly levelled against the Socinians who affirm our B. Saviour to be a mere man and that he had no existence before he was born of the Virgin Mary his Mother Which Assertion of theirs doth perfectly contradict all the former Conclusions which have been drawn from the description here given by St. John of the Word And their interpretation of this passage of St. John applying it to the beginning of the publication of the Gospel and to the new Creation or Reformation of the World by Jesus Christ doth likewise contradict the interpretation of this passage constantly received not only by the ancient Fathers but even by the general consent of all Christians for fifteen hundred years together as I shall hereafter plainly shew For to establish this their Opinion that our B. Saviour was a mere man and had no existence before his Birth they are forc'd to interpret
are entangled and that which men are pleased to call an explaining of it does in my apprehension often make it more obscure that is less plain than it was before which does not so very well agree with a pretence of Explication Here then I fix my foot That there are three Differences in the Deity which the Scripture speaks of by the Names of Father Son and H. Ghost and every where speaks of them as we use to do of three distinct Persons And therefore I see no reason why in this Argument we should nicely abstain from using the word Person though I remember that St. Jerome does somewhere desire to be excused from it Now concerning these Three I might in the first place urge that plain and express Text There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the H. Ghost and these three are one But upon this I will not now insist because it is pretended that in some Copies of greatest antiquity this Verse is omitted the contrary whereof is I think capable of being made out very clearly But this matter would be too long to be debated at present However that be thus much is certain and cannot be deni'd that our Saviour commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And that the Apostles in their Epistles do in their most usual form of Benediction join these Three together And it is yet further certain that not only the Name and Title of God but the most incommunicable Properties and Perfections of the Deity are in Scripture frequently ascribed to the Son and the H. Ghost one Property only excepted which is peculiar to the Father as he is the Principle and Fountain of the Deity that he is of himself and of no other which is not nor can be said of the Son and H. Ghost Now let any man shew any plain and downright Contradiction in all this or any other Difficulty besides this that the particular manner of the existence of these three Differences or Persons in the Divine Nature express'd in Scripture by the Names of Father Son aud H. Ghost is incomprehensible by our finite Understandings and inexplicable by us In which I do not see what Absurdity there is since our Adversaries cannot deny that many things certainly are the particular manner of whose existence we can neither comprehend nor explain Let us now see whether the Opinion of our Adversaries hath not greater Difficulties in it and more palpable Absurdities following from it They say that the Son of God is a mere Creature not God by Nature and yet truly and really God by Office and by Divine appointment and constitution to whom the very same Honour and Worship is to be given which we give to Him who is God by Nature And can they discern no Difficulty no Absurdity in this What no absurdity in bringing Idolatry by a back-door into the Christian Religion one main Design whereof was to banish Idolatry out of the World And will they in good earnest contest this matter with us that the giving Divine Worship to a mere Creature is not Idolatry And can they vindicate themselves in this Point any other way than what will in a great measure acquit both the Pagans and the Papists from the charge of Idolatry What no Absurdity in a God as it were but of yesterday in a Creature God in a God merely by positive Institution and this in opposition to a plain moral Precept of eternal obligation and to the fix'd and immutable Nature and Reason of things So that to avoid the shadow and appearance of a Plurality of Deities they run really into it and for any thing I can see into downright Idolatry by worshipping a Creature besides the Creator who is blessed for ever They can by no means allow two Gods by Nature no more can we But they can willingly admit of two Gods the one by Nature and the other by Office to whom they are content to pay the same Honour which is due to Him who is God by Nature Provided Christ will be contented to be but a Creature they will deal more liberally with him in another way than in reason is fit And do they see no absurdity in all this nothing that is contrary to Reason and good sense nothing that feels like inconsistency and Contradiction Do they consider how often God hath declar'd that he will not give his glory to another And that the Apostle describes Idolatry to be the giving service or worship to things which by Nature are no Gods Surely if Reason guided by Divine Revelation were to chuse a God it would make choice of one who is declared in Scripture to be the only begotten of the Father the first and the last the beginning and the end the same yesterday to day and for ever much rather than a mere Creature who did not begin to be till about seventeen hundred years ago I only propose these things without any artificial aggravation to their most serious and impartial consideration after which I cannot think that these great Masters of Reason can think it so easy a matter to extricate themselves out of these Difficulties The God of Truth lead us into all Truth and enlighten the minds of those who are in Error and give them Repentance to the acknowledgment of the Truth For his sake who is the Way the Truth and the Life And thus much may suffice to have said upon this Argument which I am sensible is mere Controversy A thing which I seldom meddle with and do not delight to dwell upon But my Text which is so very proper for this Season hath almost necessarily engaged me in it Besides that I think it a Point of that concernment that all Christians ought to be well instructed in it And I have chosen rather once for all to handle it fully and to go to the bottom of it than in every Sermon to be flurting at it without saying any thing to the purpose against it A way which in my opinion is neither proper to establish men in the truth nor to convince them of their Error I shall only at present make this short reflection upon the whole That we ought to treat the Holy Scriptures as the Oracles of God with all reverence and submission of mind to the Doctrine therein revealed And to interpret them with that candour and simplicity which is due to the sincere Declarations of God intended for the instruction and not for the deception and delusion of men I say we should treat them as the Oracles of God and not like the doubtful Oracles of the Heathen Deities that is in truth of the Devil which were contrived and calculated on purpose to deceive containing and for the most part intending a sense directly contrary to the appearing and most obvious meaning of the Words For the Devil was the first Author of Equivocation though the Jesuits
more for our comfort and advantage than any other way which the wisdom of this World would have been apt to devise and pitch upon And in all this I shall all along take either the plain declarations of Scripture or the pregnant intimations of it for my ground and guide I. I shall consider more distinctly what may reasonably be supposed to be implied in this expression of the Word 's being made flesh namely these five things First The truth and reality of the thing That the Son of God did not only appear in the form of human flesh but did really assume it the Word was made flesh as the Evangelist expresly declares For if this had been only a Phantasme and Apparition as some Hereticks of old did fancy it would in all probability have been like the appearance of Angels mentioned in the old Testament sudden and of short continuance and would after a little while have vanish'd and disappear'd But he dwelt among us and convers'd familiarly with us a long time and for many years together and the Scripture useth all the expressions which are proper to signify a real Man and a real Human Body and there were all the signs and evidences of reality that could be For the Word is said to be made flesh and Christ is said to be of the seed of David according to the flesh and to be made of a Woman and all this to shew that he was a real Man and had a real and substantial Body For he was born and by degrees grew up to be a Man and did perform all such actions as are natural and proper to Men He continued a great while in the World and at last suffer'd and dy'd and was laid in the grave He did not vanish and disappear like a Phantasme or Spirit but he dyed like other Men And his Body was raised again out of the grave and after he was risen he conversed forty days upon Earth and permitted his body to be handled and last of all was visibly taken up into Heaven So that either we must grant Him to have had a real Body or we have cause to doubt whether all Mankind be not mere Phantasms and Apparitions For greater evidence no man can give that he is really clothed with and carries about him a true and substantial Body than the Son of God did in the days of his flesh It is to me very wonderful upon what ground or indeed to what end the Hereticks of old Marcion and others did deny the reality of Christ's flesh Surely they had a great mind to be Hereticks who took up so sensless an Opinion for no reason and to no purpose Secondly Another thing implyed in the Word 's being made flesh is that this was done peculiarly for the benefit and advantage of Men The Word was made flesh that is became Man for so I have shewn the word flesh to be often used in Scripture And this the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes very special notice of as a great grace and favour of God to Mankind that his Son appear'd in our Nature and consequently for our Salvation as it is said in the Nicene Creed who for us Men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate c. For verily says the Apostle He took not on him the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not assume the Angelical Nature so our Translators understood the phrase but the word also signifies to take hold of a thing which is falling as well as to assume or take on him He did not take hold of the Angels when they were falling but suffered them to lapse irrecoverably into misery and ruine But he took hold of Human Nature when it was falling and particularly of the Seed of Abraham and by the Seed of Abraham that is by himself in whom all the Nations of the Earth were blessed he brought Salvation first to the Jews and then to the rest of Mankind The Apostle chuses to derive this Blessing from Abraham that so he might bring it nearer to the Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle and might thereby more effectually recommend the Gospel to them and the glad tidings of that great Salvation in which they had so peculiar an interest And it is some confirmation of the interpretation I have given of that expression he took not on him c. that the Evangelist uses the very same word for taking hold of one that was ready to sink For so it is said of St. Peter when he was ready to sink that Christ put forth his hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and caught hold of him and saved him from drowning And thus the Son of God caught hold of Mankind which was ready to sink into eternal perdition He laid hold of our Nature or as it is express'd in the same Chapter he took part of flesh and blood that in our Nature he might be capable of effecting our Redemption and Deliverance But it is no where said in Scripture not the least intimation given there that the Son of God ever shew'd such grace and favour to the Angels But the Word became flesh that is became Man He did not assume the Angelical Nature but was contented to be cloathed with the Rags of Humanity and to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh that is of sinful Man Thirdly This expression of the Word 's being made flesh may further imply his assuming the infirmities and submitting to the miseries of Human Nature This I collect from the word flesh by which the Scripture often useth to express our frail and mortal Nature The Son of God did not only condescend to be made Man but also to become mortal and miseraable for our sakes He submitted to all those things which are accounted most grievous and calamitous to human nature To hunger and want to shame and contempt to bitter pains and agonies and to a most cruel and disgraceful death So that in this sense also he became flesh not only by being cloathed with human nature but by becoming liable to all the frailties and sufferings of it of which he had a greater share than any of the Sons of men ever had for never was sorrow like to his sorrow nor suffering like to his sufferings the weight and bitterness whereof was such as to wring from him the meekest and most patient endurer of sufferings that ever was that doleful complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Fourthly In this expression the Word was made Flesh is likewise implyed the Union of the Divinity with Human Nature in one Person And this the Text expresseth in such words as seem to signifie a most perfect and intimate and vital Union of the Divine and human Natures of Christ in one Person The Word was made or became flesh Which what else can it signify but one of these two things Either that the eternal
Word and only begotten Son of God was changed into a Man which is not only impossible to be but impious to imagin Or else that the Son of God did assume our Nature and became Man by his Divinity being united to human Nature as the Soul is vitally united to the Body without either being changed into it or confounded with it or swallowed up by it as the Eutychian Hereticks fancied the human Nature of Christ to be swallowed up of his Divinity Which had it been so St. John had expressed himself very untowardly when he says The Word became flesh for it had been quite contrary and flesh had become the Word being changed into it and swallowed up by it and lost in it The only thing then that we can reasonably imagine to be the meaning of this expression is this that the Son of God assumed our Nature and united himself with it as our Souls are united with our Bodies And as the Soul and Body united make one Person and yet retain their distinct Natures and Properties so may we conceive the Divine and human Natures in Christ to be united into one Person And this without any change or confusion of the two Natures I say the Divinity united it self with human Nature For though flesh be only mentioned in the Text yet he did not only assume a human Body which was the Heresie of Apollinaris and his Followers upon a mistake of this and some other Texts of Scripture But he assumed the whole human Nature that is a human Soul united to a real and natural Body for so I have shewn the word flesh to be frequently used in Scripture not only for the Body but for the whole Man by an usual Figure of speech As on the other hand Soul is frequently used for the whole Man or Person So many Souls are said to have gone down with Jacob into Egypt that is so many Persons But this I need not insist longer upon our Saviour being so frequently in Scripture and so expresly said to be a Man which could with no propriety of speech have been said had he only assumed a human Body Nor could he have been said to have been made in all things like unto us sin only excepted had he only had a human Body but not a Soul For then the meaning must have been that he had been made in all things like unto us that is like to a Man that only excepted which chiefly makes the Man that is the Soul And the addition of those words Sin only excepted had been no less strange because a human Body without a Soul is neither capable of being said to have Sin or to be without it And this may suffice to have been spoken in general concerning that great Mystery of the Hypostatical as they that love hard words love to call it or Personal Union of the Divine and human Natures in the Person of our B. Saviour In the more particular explication whereof it is not safe for our shallow understandings to wade further than the Scripture goes before us for fear we go out of our depth and lose our selves in the profound inquiry into the deep things of God which he has not thought fit in this present state of darkness and imperfection to reveal more plainly and fully to us It ought to be thought sufficient that the Scripture speaking of the same Person Jesus Christ our B. Saviour doth frequently and expresly call him both God and Man Which how it can be so easily conceived upon any other Supposition than that of the Union of the Divine and human Natures in one Person I must confess that I am not able to comprehend Fifthly and lastly All this which I have shewn to be implyed in this Proposition the Word was made flesh does signifie to us the wonderful and amazing condescension and love of God to Mankind in sending his Son into the World and submitting him to this way and method for our Salvation and recovery The Word was made flesh What a step is here made in order to the reconciling of Men to God From Heaven to Earth from the top of Glory and Majesty to the lowest gulf of meanness and misery The Evangelist seems here to use the word flesh which signifies the meanest and vilest part of Humanity to express to us how low the Son of God was contented to stoop for the Redemption of Man The Word was made flesh Two terms at the greatest distance from one another are here brought together The Son of God is here expressed to us by one of his highest and most glorious Titles the Word which imports both Power and Wisdom Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God as the Apostle calls him And human Nature is here described by its vilest part flesh which imports frailty and infirmity The Word became flesh that is submitted to that from which it was at the greatest distance He who was the Power of God and the Wisdom of God submitted not only to be called but really to become a frail and miserable Man not only to assume our Nature but to put on all the infirmities and which is the greatest of all the Mortality of it And this is the great Mystery of godliness that is of the Christian Religion that God should be manifested in the flesh and become man with a most gracious and merciful design to bring man back again to God That he should become a miserable and a mortal man to save us from eternal death and to make us partakers of everlasting life That the Son of God should condescend to inhabit our vile Nature to wear Rags and to become a beggar for our sakes and all this not only to repair those dismal Ruins which Sin had made in it and to restore us to our former estate but to better and advance our condition and by degrees to bring us to a state of much greater perfection and happiness than that from which we fell And that he should become man on purpose that he might dwell among us and converse with us and thoroughly instruct us in our Duty and shew us the way to eternal life by his heavenly Doctrine and as it were take us by the hand and lead us in that way by the perfect and familiar Example of a most blameless and holy life shewing us how God himself thought fit to live in this World when he was pleased to become man That by conversing with us in the likeness and nature of man he might become a human and in some sort an equal and familiar an imitable and encouraging Example of innocency and goodness of meekness and humility of patience and submission to the Will of God under the forest afflictions and sufferings and in a word a most perfect Pattern of a Divine and Heavenly conversation upon Earth And that by this means we might for our greater encouragement in holiness and vertue see all that which the Law of God
requires of us exemplified in our Nature and really performed and practised by a Man like our selves And that likewise in our nature he might conquer and triumph over the two great Enemies of our Salvation the World and the Devil And by first suffering Death and then overcoming it and by rescuing our nature from the power of it by his Resurrection from the dead he might deliver us from the fear of Death and give us the glorious hopes of a blessed Immortality For by assuming our frail and mortal Nature he became capable of suffering and of shedding his precious Blood for us and by that means of purchasing forgiveness of sins and eternal Redemption for us And further yet that by being subject to the miseries and infirmities of Humanity he might from his own Experience the surest and most sensible sort of knowledge and instruction learn to have a more compassionate sense of our infirmities and be more apt to commiserate us in all our sufferings and temptations and more ready to succour us labouring under them And finally that as a Reward of his Obedience and sufferings in our Nature he might in the same Nature be exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high there to continue for ever to make intercession for us II. I shall in the next place consider the Objections against the Incarnation of the Son of God from the supposed impossibility and incongruity of the thing I shall mention three and endeavour in as few words as I can to give a clear and satisfactory Answer to them First It is objected that the Incarnation of the Son of God as I have explained it neccessarily supposing an Union of the Divinity with human Nature is if not altogether impossible yet a very unintelligible thing Now that there is no impossibility in the thing seems to be very evident from the Instance whereby I have endeavoured to illustrate it of the Union between the Soul and the Body of man which we must acknowledge to be a thing possible because we are sure that it is and yet no man can explain either to himself or to any one else the manner how it is or can be conceived to be but for all that we are certain as we can be of any thing that it is so And is it not every whit as possible for God if he so please to unite himself to human Nature as it is for the Soul to be united to the Body And that we are not able to conceive the manner how this is or can be done ought not in reason to be any prejudice against the truth and certainty of the thing This indeed may make it seem strange to us but by no means incredible Because we do most firmly believe a great many things to be the manner of whose Being we do not at all comprehend And therefore I take it for an undoubted Principle which no Man can gainsay That to assure us that a thing really is it is not necessary for us to know the manner how it is or can be It is sufficient for us to know that the thing is not impossible and of that we have the very best Demonstration that can be if we be sure that it is Secondly supposing this thing to be possible and capable in any measure to be understood which yet I have shewn not to be necessary to our firm belief of it it is further objected that it seems to be a thing very incongruous and much beneath the Dignity of the Son of God to be united to human Nature and to submit to so near an Allyance with that which is so very mean and despicable Yea to be infinitely more below Him than for the greatest Prince in this World to match with the poorest and most contemptible Beggar But herein surely we measure God too much by our selves and because we who are evil have seldom so much goodness as to stoop beneath our selves for the benefit and good of others we are apt to think that God hath not so much goodness neither And because our ill nature and pride and folly as indeed all pride is folly will not suffer us to do it we presently conclude that it does not become God But what Pliny said to the Emperour Trajan concerning earthly Kings and Potentates is much more true of the Lord of Glory the great King of Heaven and Earth Cui nihil ad augendum fastigium supereft hoc uno modo crescere potest si se ipse submittat securus magnitudinis suae He that is at the top and can rise no higher hath yet this one way left to become greater by stooping beneath himself which he may very safely do being secure of his own Greatness The lower any Being be he never so high condescends to do good the glory of his Goodness shines so much the brighter Men are many times too proud and stiff to bend too perverse and ill natur'd to stoop beneath their own little Greatness for the good of others But God whose ways are not as our ways and whose thoughts are as much above our low and narrow thoughts as the Heavens are high above the earth did not disdain nor think it below him to become Man for the good of Mankind and as much as the Divinity is capable of being so to become miserable to make us happy We may be afraid that if we humble our selves we shall be despis'd that if we stoop others will get above us and trample upon us But God though he condescend never so low is still secure of his own Greatness and that none can take it from him So that in truth and according to right Reason it was no real diminution or disparagement to the Son of God to become Man for the Salvation of Mankind But on the contrary it was a most glorious Humility and the greatest Instance of the truest Goodness that ever was And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews when he says that Christ glorifyed not himself to be made an High-Priest but was appointed of God to this Office as was Aaronâ— does hereby seem to intimate that it was a glory to the Son of God to be made an High-Priest for the Sons of Men For though it was a strange condescention yet was it likewise a most wonderful Argument of his Goodness which is the highest Glory of the Divine Nature In short if God for our sakes did submit himself to a condition which we may think did less become him here is great cause of thankfulness but none surely of cavil and exception We have infinite reason to acknowledge and admire his goodness but none at all to upbraid him with his kindness and to quarrel with him for having descended so much beneath himself to testifie his love to us and his tender concernment for our happiness Besides that when we have said all we can about this matter I hope we will allow God himself to be the best and most competent Judge what
consider the Light and advantages which the Jewish Nation had above the Gentile World That so by this Means and Method he might wean them by degrees from their gross conceptions of things and rectify more easily their wrong apprehensions by gratifying them in some measure and in a gracious compliance with our weakness by bending and accommodating the way and Method of our Salvation to our weak Capacity and imperfect Conceptions of things Fourthly And that God hath done this in the Dispensation of the Gospel will I think very plainly appear in the following Instances in most of which I shall be very brief and only insist somewhat more largely upon the last of them 1st The World was much given to admire Mysteries in Religion The Jews had theirs several of which by God's own appointment were reserv'd and kept secret in a great measure from the People others were added by the Superstition of after Ages and held in equal or rather greater Veneration than the former And the Heathen likewise had theirs the Devil always affecting to imitate God so far as served his wicked and malicious design of seducing Mankind into Idolatry and the Worship of himself And therefore the Scripture always speaks of the Heathen Idolatry as the Worship of Devils and not of God So that almost every Nation had their peculiar and celebrated Mysteries most of which were either very odd and phantastical or very lewd and impure or very inhuman and cruel and every way unworthy of the Deity But the great Mystery of the Christian Religion the Incarnation of the Son of God or as the Apostle calls it God manifested in the flesh was such a Mystery as for the greatness and wonderfulness for the infinite mercy and condescension of it did obscure and swallow up all other Mysteries For which reason the Apostle in allusion to the Heathen Mysteries and in contempt of them speaking of the great Mystery of the Christian Religion says without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the flesh c. Since the World had such an admiration for Mysteries he instanceth in that which was a Mystery indeed a Mystery beyond all dispute and beyond all comparison 2dly There was likewise a great inclination in Mankind to the Worship of a visible and sensible Deity And this was a main Root and Source of the various Idolatries in the Heathen World Now to take Men off from this God was pleased to appear in our Nature that they who were so fond of a visible Deity might have one to whom they might pay Divine Worship without danger of Idolatry and without injury to the Divine Nature even a true and natural Image of God the Father the Fountain of the Deity or as the Apostle to the Hebrews describes the Son of God the resplendency or brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Character or Image of his Person 3dly Another Notion which had generally obtained among Mankind was concerning the Expiation of the Sins of men and appeasing the offended Deity by Sacrifice upon which they supposed the punishment due to the Sinner was transferred to exempt him from it Especially by the Sacrifices of Men which had almost universally prevailed in the Gentile World And this Notion of the Expiation of Sin by Sacrifices of one kind or other seems to have obtained very early in the World and among all other ways of Divine Worship to have found the most universal reception in all Times and Places And indeed a great part of the Jewish Religion and Worship was a plain Condescension to the general apprehensions of men concerning this way of appeasing the Deity by Sacrifice And the greatest part of the Pagan Religion and Worship was likewise founded upon the same Notion and Opinion which because it was so universal seems to have had its Original from the first Parents of Mankind either immediately after the Creation or after the Flood and from thence I mean as to the substance of this Notion to have been derived and propagated to all their Posterity And with this general Notion of Mankind whatever the ground and foundation of it might be God was pleased so far to comply as once for all to have a general Atonement made for the Sins of all Mankind by the Sacrifice of his only Son whom his wise Providence did permit by wicked hands to be crucified and slain But I shall not at present insist any further upon this which requires a particular Discourse by it self and may by God's assistance in due time have it 4thly Another very common Notion and very rife in the the Heathen World and a great Source of their Idolatry was their Apotheoses or Canonizing of famous and eminent Persons who in their Life time had done great things and some way or other been great Benefactors to Mankind by advancing them after their Death to the Dignity of an inferiour kind of Gods fit to be worship'd by men here on Earth and to have their Prayers and Supplications address'd to them as proper and powerful Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Superiour Gods To these they gave the Titles of Hero's and Semidei that is half Gods though the Notion of a Being that is just half-infinite seems to me very hard to be conceiv'd and defin'd Now to take men off from this kind of Idolatry and to put an end to it behold One in our Nature exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high to be worshipped by Men and Angels One that was the truly Great Benefactor of mankind One that was dead and is alive again and lives for evermore to make intercession for us 5thly To give but one Instance more which I have already intimated The World was mightily bent upon addressing their requests and supplications not to the Deity immediately because their Superstition thought that too great a presumption but by some Mediators between the Gods and them who might with advantage in this humble manner present their Requests so as to find acceptance To this end they made use of the Daemons or Angels and of their Hero's or Deifyed Men whom I mentioned before by whom they put up their Prayers to the Supreme Gods hoping by their Intercession and Patronage of their Cause to obtain a gracious answer of them In a gracious compliance with this common apprehension and thereby more easily and effectually to extirpate this sort of Idolatry which had been so long and so generally practised in the World God was pleased to constitute and appoint One in our Nature to be a perpetual Advocate and Intercessor in Heaven for us to offer up our Prayers to God his Father and to obtain mercy for us and grace to help in time of need And for ever to take us off from all other Mediators we are expressly told in Scripture that as there is but one God to whom we are to pray so there is but one Mediator between God and
to send his own his only Son into the World to seek and save us and by Him to repair all our ruines to forgive all our iniquities to heal all our spiritual diseases and to crown us with loving kindness and tender mercies And what Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving should we also offer up to this gracious and most merciful Redeemer of ours the everlasting Son of the Father who debased himself so infinitely for our sakes and when he took upon Him to deliver Man did not abhor the Virgins womb Who was contented to be born so obscurely and to live all his life in a poor and persecuted condition and was pleased both to undergo and to overcome the sharpness of Death that he might open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Every time we have occasion to meditate upon this especially when we are communicating at his H. Table and receiving the blessed Symbols and Pledges of his precions Death and Passion How should our Hearts burn within us and leap for Joy How should the remembrance of it revive and raise our Spirits and put us into an Extasie of Love and Gratitude to this great Friend and Lover of Souls And with the B. Mother of our Lord how should our Souls upon that blessed occasion magnify the Lord and our Spirits rejoyce in God our Saviour The Holy men of old were transported with Joy at the obscure and confused apprehension and remote foresight of so great a Blessing at so great a distance It is said of Abraham the Father of the faithful that he saw His Day afar off and was glad How should we then be affected with Joy and Thankfulness to whom the Son of God and B. Saviour of Men is actually come He is come many ages ago and hath enlightened a great part of the World with his Glory Yea He is come to us who were in a manner separated from the rest of the World To Us is this great Light come who had so long sate in Darkness and the shadow of Death And this mighty Salvation which He hath wrought for us is near to every one of us that is willing to lay hold of it and to accept it upon those gracious terms and conditions upon which it is offer'd to us in his H. Gospel And by His Coming he hath delivered Mankind from that gross Ignorance and thick Darkness which covered the Nations And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true And we are in Him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal Life And then it immediately follows Little Children keep your selves from Idols What can be the meaning of this Caution and what is the Connection of it with the foregoing Discourse It is plainly this That the Son of God by His Coming had rescued Mankind from the sottish Worship of Idols and therefore he Cautions Christians to take great heed of relapsing into Idolatry by worshipping a Creature or the Image and likeness of any Creature instead of God And because he foresaw that it might be objected to Christians as in fact it was afterwards by the Heathen that the Worship of Christ who was a man was as much Idolatry as that which the Christians charged the Heathen withal Therefore St. John effectually to prevent the force of this plausible Objection though he perpetually throughout his Gospel declares Christ to be really a Man yet he expresly also affirms Him to be God and the true God and consequently Christians might safely pay Divine Worship to Him without fear or danger of Idolatry We are in Him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal Life Little Children keep your selves from Idols But this I am sensible is a Digression yet such a one as may not be alltogether useless To proceed then in the recital of those great Blessings which the Coming of the Son of God hath brought to Mankind He hath rescued us from the bondage of Sin and from the slavery of Satan He hath openly proclaimed Pardon and Reconciliation to the World He hath clearly revealed eternal Life to us which was but obscurely made known before both to Jews and Gentiles but is now made manifest by the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and immortality to light by the Gospel He hath purchased this great Blessing for us and is ready to confer it upon us if we will be contented to leave our Sins and to be saved by Him A Condition without which as Salvation is not to be had so if it were it would not be desirable it could not make us happy because our Sins would still separate between God and us and the guilt and horrour of our own minds would make us eternally miserable And now surely we cannot but thus judge that all the Praises and acknowledgments all the Service and Obedience which we can possibly render to Him are infinitely beneath those infinite Obligations which the Son of God hath laid upon the Sons of men by his Coming into the World to save Sinners What then remains but that at all times and more especially at this Season we gratefully acknowledge and joyfully commemorate this great and amazing Goodness of God to us in the Incarnation of his Son for the Redemption and Salvation of the sinful and miserable Race of Mankind A Method and Dispensation of the Divine Grace and Wisdom not only full of mercy and condescension but of great power and vertue to purifie our hearts and to reform our Lives to beget in us a fervent love of God our Saviour and a perfect hatred and detestation of our Sins and a stedfast purpose and resolution to lead a new Life following the Commandments of God and walking in his ways all the days of our life In a word a Method that is every way calculated for our unspeakable Benefit and Comfort Since then the Son of God hath so graciously condescended to be made in all things like unto us Sin only excepted let us aspire to be as like to Him as is possible in the exemplary Holiness and Vertues of his Life We cannot be like Him in his Miracles but we may in his Mercy and Compassion We cannot imitate his Divine Power but we may resemble Him in his Innocency and Humility in his Meekness and Patience And as He assumed Human Nature so let us re-assume Humanity which we have in great measure depraved and put off and let us put on bowels of mercy towards those that are in misery and be ready to relieve the poor for His sake who being rich for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich To conclude Let us imitate Him in that which was his great Work and business here upon Earth and which of all other did best become the Son of God I
by any thing that hath been said to contribute towards the putting an end to so unhappy a Controversy which hath troubled the World so long and raised such a dust that very few have been able to see clearly through it However I cannot dismiss this Argument without making some useful but very short reflection upon this great Doctrine of our Religion namely That the Son of God being made a Sacrifice for us and exposed to such bitter Sufferings and so cruel a Death for the Expiation of our Sins should create in us the greatest dread and detestation of Sin and for ever deter us from all wilful transgression and disobedience For if the guilt of our Sins was done away upon such hard terms and cost the dearly beloved Son of God so much sweat and blood then surely we ought to take great heed how by our renewed Provocations we renew his Passion and do what in us lies to crucify to our selves the Son of God afresh and to put him to an open shame If God did so terribly afflict the dearly beloved of his Soul for our sakes if the Son of God was so grievously wounded for our transgressions and so sorely bruised for our iniquities If so fearful a Storm of Vengeance fell upon the most innocent Person that ever was for our Sins then we have reason to take that kind and merciful admonition of the Son of God to Sinners to sin no more lest a worse thing if it be possible come upon our selves In this Dispensation of God's Grace and Mercy to Mankind by the Death of his Son God seems to have gone to the very extremity of things and almost further than Goodness and Justice will well admit to afflict Innocency it self to save the Guilty And if herein God hath expressed his hatred of Sin in such a wonderful way of love and kindness to the Sons of Men as looks almost like hatred of Innocency and his own Son This ought in all ingenuity and gratitude to our gracious Redeemer who was made a curse for us and loved us to that degree as to wash us from our Sins in his own Blood I say This ought to beget in us a greater displeasure against Sin and a more perfect detestation of it than if we had suffered the punishment due to it in our own Persons For in this Case we could only have been displeased at our Selves and our Sins as the just Cause of our Sufferings but in the other we ought to hate Sin as the unhappy occasion of the saddest Misfortune and sorest Calamities to the best Man that ever was and to our best Friend for our Sins and for our Sakes Since then the Son of God hath so graciously condescended to be made in all things like unto us Sin only excepted let us aspire as much as is possible to become like to Him Above all let us hate and avoid Sin as the only thing in which the Son of God would have no part with us though he was contented to suffer such bitter things to save us from the Defilement and Dominion of it from the Punishment and all the dismal consequences of it He had no Sin but God was pleased to lay upon him the iniquities of us all and to make his Soul an offering for Sin and to permit all that to be done to Him which was due to us He was contented to be sacrificed once for all Mankind that Men might for ever cease from that inhuman and ineffectual way of sacrificing one another whereby instead of expiating their guilt they did inflame it and by thinking to make Atonement for their Sins they did in truth add to the number and heinousness of them And let us likewise learn from this admirable Pattern to pity those that are in misery as Christ also hath pitied us and to save them that are ready to perish for His sake who came to seek and to save us that were lost Let us upon all occasions be ready to open our bowels of Compassion towards the Poor in a thankful imitation of his Grace and Goodness who for our sakes chose to be a Beggar that we for his sake might not despise the Poor but might have a tender regard and compassion to those whose Condition in this World does so nearly resemble that in which the Son of God thought it fittest for him to appear when he was pleased to become Man In a word Let us in the whole course and in all the actions of our lives shew forth the Vertues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light and hath raised up a mighty Salvation for us that being delivered from all our spiritual Enemies from Sin and all the Powers of darkness we might serve him who hath saved us walking in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives Now to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him who hath loved us and washed from our Sins in his own Blood and whilst we were Enemies to Him loved us at such a rate as never any man did his Friend To Him who became Man that he might bring us to God and assumed our frail and mortal Nature that he might cloath us with Immortality and Life To Him who was pleased to dwell and live amongst us that he might teach us how to live To Him who dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and lives for ever to make Intercession for us To Him be Glory and Dominion Thanksgiving and Praise to Eternal Ages Amen SERMON VI. Concerning the Vnity of the Divine Nature and the B. Trinity c. 1 TIM II. 5. For there is one God THE Particle for leads us to the consideration of the Context and Occasion of these words which in short is this The design of this Epistle is to direct Timothy to whom St. Paul had committed the Government of the Church of Ephesus how he ought to demean himself in that great and weighty Charge And at the beginning of this Chapter he gives direction concerning Publick Prayers in the Church that Prayers and Thanksgiving he made for all men and for all Ranks and Orders of men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them Christians might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And this he tells us was very suitable to the Christian Religion by which God designed the Salvation of Mankind and therefore it must needs be very acceptable to him that we should offer up Prayers and Thanksgivings to him in behalf of all men For this saith the Apostle is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth And then it follows in the next words
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all As if he had said this universal Charity of Christians in praying for all men must needs be very acceptable to Him to whom we put up our Prayers God the Father who sent his Son for the Salvation of all men And to Him likewise by whom we offer up our Prayers to God and is among us Christians the only Media or between God and Men in virtue of that Price and Ransom which he paid for the Redemption of all Mankind I say for this reason it must needs be very acceptable to Him that we should pray for all men because he died for all men and now that he is in Heaven at the right hand of God intercedes with him for the Salvation of those for whom he died There is One God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all Which words though they be brought in to prove more immediately that it is acceptable to God our Saviour that we should put up Prayers to Him for all men because he desires the Salvation of all men and hath sent his Son to purchase the Salvation of all men by the Sacrifice of himself and in virtue of that Sacrifice to be the only Mediator between God and us I say though this be the immediate scope and design of these words yet they are likewise a direction to us unto whom we ought to address our Prayers namely to God and by whose mediation and intercession we ought to put up our Prayers to God the Father namely by his Son Jesus Christ who is constituted the only Mediator between God and Men. There are several Propositions contained in this and the following verse but I shall at present confine my self to the first namely That there is One God that is but One as St. Paul elsewhere expresseth it There is none other God but One. And Moses lays this as the Foundation of the Natural Law as well as of the Jewish Religion The Lord he is One God and there is none besides him that is besides Jehovah whom the People of Israel did worship as the only true God And this the Prophet Isaiah perpetually declares in opposition to the Polytheism and variety of Gods among the Heathen I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And again Is there any God besides me there is no God I know not any He who hath an infinite knowledge and knows all things knows no other God And our B. Saviour makes this the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the knowledge of it necessary to every man's Salvation This says He is life eternal to know thee the only true God The Unity of the Divine Nature is a Notion wherein the greatest and the wisest part of Mankind did always agree and therefore may reasonably be presumed to be either natural or to have sprung from some Original Tradition delivered down to us from the first Parents of Mankind I mean that there is One Supreme Being the Author and Cause of all things whom the most ancient of the Heathen Poets commonly called the Father of Gods and men And thus Aristotle in his Metaphysicks defines God the eternal and most excellent or best of all Living Beings And this Notion of One Supreme Being agrees very well with that exact Harmony which appears in the Frame and Government of the World in which we see all things conspiring to one End and continuing in one uniform Order and Course which cannot reasonably be ascribed to any other but a constant and uniform Cause and which to a considering man does plainly shew that all things are made and governed by that One powerful Principle and great and wise Mind which we call God But although the generality of Mankind had a Notion of One Supreme God yet the Idolatry of the Heathen plainly shews that this Notion in process of time was greatly degenerated and corrupted into an apprehension of a Plurality of Gods though in reason it is evident enough that there can be no more Gods than One and that One who is of infinite Perfection is as sufficient to all purposes whatsoever as ten thousand Deities if they were possible could possibly be as I shall shew in the following Discourse Now this multitude of Deities which the fond Superstition and vain Imagination of Men had formed to themselves were by the Wiser sort who being forced to comply with the Follies of the People endeavoured to make the best of them supposed to be either Parts of the Universe which the Egyptians as Plutarch tells us thought to be the same with God but then the more considerable parts of the Universe they parcelled out into several Deities and as the Ocean hath several Names according to the several Coasts and Countries by which it passeth so they gave several Names to this One Deity according to the several Parts of the World which several Nations made the Objects of their Worship Or else they adored the several Perfections and Powers of the One Supreme God under several Names and Titles with regard to the various Blessings and Benefits which they thought they received from Him Thus the Indian Philosophers the Brachmans are said to have worshipped the Sun as the Supreme Deity and he certainly is the most Worshipful of all sensible Beings and bids fairest for a Deity especially if he was as they supposed animated by a Spirit endued with knowledg and understanding And if a man who had been bred in a dark Cave should all on the sudden be brought out at Noon-day to behold this visible World after he had viewed and consider'd it a while he would in all probability pitch upon the Sun as the most likely of all the things he had seen to be a Deity For if such a man had any Notion of a God and were to chuse one upon sight he would without dispute fix upon the Sun and fall down before Him and worship Him And Macrobius manageth this as his main Plea for the Idolatry of the Heathen that under all the several Names of their Gods they Worshipped the Sun And this diversity of Names was but a more distinct conception and acknowledgment of the many Blessings and advantages which mankind received from Him and a more particular and express Adoration of the several Powers and Perfections which were in Him And this was the very best defence and all the tolerable sense which the Wisest among the Heathen could make of the multitude of their Deities And yet whilst they generally owned One Supreme Being that was the Principle and Original of all things they worshipped several subordinate Deities as really distinct from one another Some of these they fancied to be superior to the rest and to have their residence in Heaven by which Marsilius Ficinus supposes Plato
to mean no more but the Chief of the Angels These were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dii Superi and Dij Caelestes superior and heavenly Gods The Scripture terms them the Host of Heaven meaning the Sun Moon and Stars which they supposed to be animated or at least to be inhabited by Angels or glorious Spirits whom they called Gods Other of their Deities were accounted much inferior to these being supposed to be the Souls of their deceased Heroes who for their great and worthy Deeds when they lived upon Earth were supposed after Death to be translated into the number of their Gods And these were called Semidei and Deastri that is half Gods and a sort of Gods And as the other were Celestial so these were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Terrestrial Spirits that were Presidents and Procurators of Human affairs here below that is a middle sort of Divine Powers that were Mediators and Agents between God and Men and did carry the Prayers and Supplications of Men to God and bring down the Commands and Blessings of God to Men. But in the midst of all this Crowd and confusion of Deities and the various Superstitions about them the Wiser Heathen as Thales Pythagoras Socrates Plato Aristotle Tully Plutarch and others preserved a true Notion of One Supreme God whom they defined an infinite Spirit pure from all Matter and free from all imperfection And all the variety of their Worship was as they pretended in excuse of it but a more particular owning of the various representations of the Divine Power and Excellencies which manifested themselves in the World and of the several communications of Blessings and Favours by them imparted to Men and Tertullian observes that even when Idolatry had very much obscured the Glory of the Sovereign Deity yet the greater part of Mankind did still in their common Forms of Speech appropriate the Name of God in a more especial and peculiar manner to One saying If god grant If God please and the like So that there is sufficient ground to believe that the Unity of the Divine Nature or the Notion of One Supreme God Creator and Governor of the World was the Primitive and general belief of Mankind And that Polytheism and Idolatry were a corruption and degeneracy from the Original Notion which Mankind had concerning God as the Scripture-History doth declare and testify And this account which I have given of the Heathen Idolatry doth by no means excuse it For whatever may be said by way of extenuation in behalf of some few of the wiser and more devout among them the generality were grossly guilty both of believing more Gods and of worshipping false Gods And this must needs be a very great Crime since the Scripture every where declares God to be particularly jealous in this Case and that he will not give his glory to another nor his praise to graven Images Nay we may not so much as make use of sensible Images to put us in mind of God lest devout Ignorance seeing the Worship which Wise men paid towards an Idol should be drawn to terminate their Worship there as being the very Deity it self which was certainly the Case of the greatest part of the Heathen World And surely those Christians are in no less danger of Idolatry who pay a Veneration to Images by kneeling down and praying before them and in this they are much more inexcusable because they offend against a much clearer Light and yet when they go about to justify this Practice are able to bring no other nor better Pleas for themselves than the Heathen did for their worshipping of Images and for praying to their inferior Deities whom they looked upon as Mediators between the Gods in Heaven and Men upon Earth There is but one Objection that I know of against the general Consent of Mankind concerning the Unity of God and it is this That there was an ancient Doctrine of some of the most ancient Nations that there were two First Causes or Principles of all things the one the Cause of all Good and the other of all the Evil that is in the World The reason whereof seems to have been that they could not apprehend how things of so contrary a nature as Good and Evil could proceed from one and the same Cause And these two Principles in several Nations were called by several Names Plutarch says that among the Greeks the Good Principle was called God and the Evil Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Devil In conformity to which ancient Tradition the Manichees a Sect which called themselves Christians did advance two Principles the one infinitely Good which they supposed to be the Original Cause of all the good which is in the World the other infinitely Evil to which they ascribed all the evils that are in the World But all this is very plainly a corruption of a much more ancient Tradition concerning that old Serpent the Devil the Head of the fallen Angels who by tempting our First Parents to transgress a positive and express Law of God brought Sin first into the World and all the Evils consequent upon it of which the Scripture gives us a most express and particular account And as to the Notion of a Being infinitely Evil into which this Tradition was corrupted after Idolatry had prevailed in the World besides that it is a Contradiction it would likewise be to no purpose to assert two opposite Principles of infinite that is of equal force and Power for two Infinites must of necessity be equal to one another because nothing can be more or greater than infinite and therefore if two infinite Beings were possible they would certainly be equal and could not be otherwise Now that the Notion of a Principle infinitely Evil is a Contradiction will be very plain if we consider that what is infinitely Evil must in strict Reasoning and by necessary consequence be infinitely imperfect and therefore infinitely weak and for that reason though never so malicious and mischievous yet being infinitely weak and foolish could never be in a capacity either to contrive mischief or to execute it But if it should be admitted that a Being infinitely mischievous could be infinitely knowing and powerful yet it could effect no Evil because the opposite Principle of infinite Goodness being also infinitely Wise and Powerful they would tye up one another's hands So that upon this supposition the Notion of a Deity must signify just nothing because by virtue of the eternal opposition and equal conflict of these two Principles they would keep one another at a perpetual Baye and being just an equal Match to one another the one having as much mind and power to do good as the other to do evil instead of being two Deities they would be but two Idols able to do neither good nor evil And having I hope now sufficiently cleared this Objection I shall proceed to shew how agreeable this Principle that there is but