Witness but St. John it were more than sufficient to condemn the Blasphemy In the days of the Emperor Domitian one Ebion a Samaritan and his Sectators denying Christ's Divinity the Apostle did write his Gospel to prove it which in so many places thereof is done as positively fully and clearly as Heart can desire Only some few I shall take notice of to begin with the first Verse of Chap. 1. * John 1.1 14. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God compared with V. 14. and the Word was made Flesh Afford us this Argument the Word was God the Word was made Flesh therefore God was made Flesh And as the name Word is proper to Christ who was made Flesh it followeth that Christ is God And in another place he is in a most specifical manner called * Chap. 3.16 God's only begotten Son whereby he is affirmed to be of the same Nature and Substance and equal with him * Chap. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father saith he The Reason he gives elsewhere * Chap. 10.30 I and my Father are one and to Philip he saith ‖ Ch. 14.10 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me which for greater Confirmation he had said just in the Verse before this Demonstrates a stricter Union than meerly one of Favour and Grace this shews the Unity of Nature in the Distinction of Persons which though distinguished amongst themselves so that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father yet both are Gods and Divine Nature is common to both nothing can be more like the Person of the Father than the Person of the Son wherefore he is called * Colos 1.15 the Image of the invisible God God the Father is Invisible no Man hath ever seen him but he hath made himself visible in the Person of his Son who is partaker of his Nature To this purpose the Lord Jesus is said to be * Heb. 11.3 the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person This is no Flattery to him nor Favour for it is his Right herein he is no Usurper nor Intruder for if he was God would not suffer it being as he is so Jealous of his Honour and Glory 't is therefore upon a just Title that * Phil. 2.5 6. Christ thought it no Robbery to be equal with God None but God can truly and really be equal with God I would know what meer Creature may lawfully be compared to and be equal with God The Lord Jesus himself declares at several times how he came from the Father that is from above * John 3.31 from Heaven how the Father had sent him which is to be understood when he became Man and was born of a Woman Now he could not be sent and come before he had a Being and as he was come from the Father so he returned to the Father as he declared it to his Disciples But I desire a special notice to be taken of what is said * John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was Whence we infer how the Lord Jesus was before the World that is from Eternity for time began only at the Creation how not only he was but also had Glory equal with the Father This cannot be understood of his Humanity because he was Born in Time and he was not Glorified till after his Resurrection nor he could not have a Glory except he had a Being which Being had no relation to his Humanity but to his Divinity And because thorough his Humiliation that Glory had been eclipsed he was to return and again to appear in it after the Work he came about was over There would be no end if I would enlarge and bring in so many places as the Old and New Testaments do afford to prove this Point the strength of which the bitter Enemies of this Truth being sensible of it makes them do what they can to elude it and undervalue the Authority of the Scripture which must be the Judge in the Cause reserving the Interpretation thereof to their own Fancy or Reason as they would call it Wherefore to be short I shall according to the usual way in Schools of Divinity resolve the whole into an Argument which is this He to whom in God's Word are appropriated the Names Attributes Works and Divine Honour he is true Eternal God but to the Lord Jesus all these are attributed in Scripture therefore the Lord Jesus is true Eternal God We must descend to Particulars First as to the Names we begin with the Old Testament few out of many He is called * Isa 7.14 Immanuel which being interpreted is ‖ Matt. 1.23 God with us And by the same Prophet amongst other Glorious Names he is called the * Isa 9.6 Mighty God And in another place ‖ Ch. 35.4 5 6. Behold your God will come with Vengeance even God with a Recompense c. which our Saviour * Matt. 11.5 applieth unto himself So the Name of God and of Jehovah which Jews own to be an incommunicable Name of God never to be pronounced but once a Year by the High Priest in the Holiest of all are given him as in * Ch. 16.13 18.1 this to be compared with Hos 12.6 Genesis and in ‖ Exod. 3.15 Exodus in †Mal. 3.1 Malachy he is called the Lord the Messenger of the Covenant who often appeared to the Fathers as a forerunning of his Incarnation amongst others to * Josh 5.14 15. Joshua under the name of Captain of the Host of the Lord to whom Joshua by his Command rendered the same Honour as ‖ Exod. 3.5 Moses had done before Put off thy Shoes from off thy Feet for the place where thou standest is Holy Ground in which place he is called the Angel of the Lord v. 2. v. 4. the Lord and God This is the Angel of God promised to be sent before his People * Exod. 23.20 21 22. for my Name is in him he is called by the same Name as I am and he is the same as I am even God Of the word Jehovah which is Englished the Lord being attributed to our Saviour we have besides others two considerable Instances one is ‖ Isa 40.3 The Voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the Desert a High-way for our God The Voice is * John 1.23 applied to John the Baptist as our Saviour whose Forerunner he was is the Lord and God The other Instance is this ‖ Hos 1.7 I will have Mercy upon the House of Judah and I will Save them by the Lord their God Now there is no other Saviour but Jesus Christ the Messiah which he plainly declared to the Woman
to be called is really to be so as of John Baptist Thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest Luke 1.76 shall really be so or else if he had not really been it had been a Lie Man was to have no hand in the Birth of that Child for the Virgin knew no Man it was to be a Production only of the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin and of the Power of the Highest overshadowing her Here we must draw a Curtain and a Door before this high Mystery yet we may say that to bring into the World one that should be meerly a Man there had been no need of this transcendent unspeakable and incomprehensible way If it was intended he should have been no more than a Man there had been no need of altering the usual Course of Generation as it was not in * Take notice of the difference Moses as a Servant Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 3.5 6. Moses Elijah upon whom afterwards God poured his Spirit So if the Lord Jesus had been but a Man he might have been begotten of a Man and afterwards God might have bestowed his Spirit upon him in a higher measure than ever it had been upon any Man that went before but the overshadowing of the Highest was not in vain because God doth nothing in vain The Holy Ghost alone might have preserved him from Sin in his Conception but there had been no need of the overshadowing of the Highest Take notice how Christ is also called the Highest and the Great God Luke 1.76 Tit. 2.13 Let us compare the Cases between the Birth of John the Baptist of whom our Saviour saith thus * Luke 7.28 Amongst those that were born of Women there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist and that of the Lord Jesus In the first two things are remarkable the first That an Angel was sent to Announce his Birth The second That he should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers Womb all the rest was Natural and Common Chap. 1. Thy Wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a Son Here according to the usual Course of Nature a Child was to be born of a Husband and his Wife though Old yet the thing happened before to others but in the Person of Christ is a Child born of a Woman without Man The Angel said to Zachariah nothing of the Holy Ghost coming upon Elizabeth nothing of the highest overshadowing her as to the Virgin Mary And we know how never one Man or one Prophet spoke of another as John Baptist did of our Lord and Saviour he knew his distance the difference between them and his nothing in comparison with him * John 1.27 30 He that comes after me and whose Shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose the same was before me yet born six Months after him and before Abraham too though there were 42 Generations between them O that Pre-existence hath no Humane Foundation and can be attributed to nothing but to an Eternal Being he owneth he was not the Christ but he was sent before him to cry in the Wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord Jehovah Verse 34 and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God Wherefore upon occasion our Saviour saith of John Baptist He bare record of me unto the Truth Chap. 5.33 34. though I need no such thing for I receive not Testimony from Man however he bare Witness unto the Truth that I am the Son of God And indeed if to prove it there was but one or few such Texts and Particulars in Scripture about Christ some might happen to think there is room for Cavils and Exceptions but so many things and in so many several places being said to that purpose and all tending to confirm that Truth how he is True God and Only True Son of God there is no reasonable ground left to doubt of it ‖ 1 John 5.20 We know saith St. John that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life Nothing plainer than that Jesus Christ is the True God Relatives ought to be applied to the next Scripture mentioneth four kinds of Generation the first by Father and Mother that is the Common The second without Father or Mother which is properly Creation so Adam was begotten and on this account called Son of God The third of a Father without Mother thus Eve was formed out of Adam's Rib But the fourth and more Miraculous is of a Mother without a Father thus our Blessed Saviour was born of a Woman without the help of Man But all these do relate only to a Temporal Generation but that of Jesus Christ Son of God in a strict Sence by the Father is Eternal Now the Office of Mediator required a Person that should be both God and Man to perform those things that were to be done in relation to both As for instance To Suffer and Die was the part of Humane Nature which the Divine is not capable of but to overcome Death and our Spiritual Enemies could not be effected but by a Divine Power And it also became the Majesty of God that the Mediator should be God which Majesty is so great that none but he that is intimate and equal with the Father could interpose between God and Man Angels themselves could and dared not undertake it for they stand in need of Christ Mediator and * Job 15.15 they are not Pure in God's sight which makes them hide their ‖ Isa 6.2 Face in his Presence now much less any Man only such Besides who but a God could destroy Sin appease God's Wrath overcome the Power of Satan and Death Natural and Eternal Who could make Expiation for Offences committed against an Infinite God but he that is Infinite himself By whose Intercession could God's Anger be pacified but thorough his that is his Beloved Son By whose Power could Satan and the whole Power of Darkness be overcome but by him that is stronger than all the Devils and Hell And who could conquer Death but he that hath destroyed him that hath the Power of Death Heb. 2.14 And as none but a God could deliver us from all these Evils under whose Power we were so none but a God could restore us to the Goods we had lost As first Who could have restored us to a perfect Righteousness but he that is Righteousness it self Who to God's Image Chap. 1.3 but he that is the express Image of his Person and the Brightness of his Glory Who could make us Children of God but he that is his Natural and only begotten and beloved Son Who could bestow upon us the Holy Ghost but he from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth And who could give us Eternal Life but he that is Life it self And by whom could we
come to God but thorough him that is the way Hence it appears John 14.6 how none but a True and not a made God could be a Mediator between God and us If one Man sin against another 1 Sam. 2.25 saith Eli the Judge shall judge him But if a Man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him No meer Man can only he that is Lord God himself * Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh is a place worthy to take up our Serious Thoughts This sheweth first the Law could not justifie us by reason of Weakness thorough the Flesh or Humane Nature which to remedy 't was necessary God should send his own Son to relieve this Weakness and Impossibility for that wherein our Nature thorough Frailty was wanting must be helped by Divine Nature Secondly This sheweth how this help came by means of God's own Son whom God sent into the World and by a Sacrifice for Sin effected that which was impossible for any Man whatsoever to do Now if they can let them find stronger and more proper Expressions to signifie Christ Jesus to be the True Proper Natural Son of God than these in Scripture God's own Son the only begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father in whom the Father is well pleased Can this be said of one that is a meer Man No nor of any Angel which is a nobler Creature For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 6 8. this day have I begotten thee And again when he bringeth the first Begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He cannot be called the First Begotten in relation to a Temporal Generation for many other Sons of Adoption God had begotten long before Christ's appearing in the World but upon account of an Eternal take notice of what is added But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne 1 Tim. 1.1 Tit. 1.3 O God is for ever and ever not only here and in other places I already quoted he is called God but also St. Paul in two places gives him the name of God our Saviour he is God as certainly as he is our Saviour for in both places both are joyned together Now as when the Spirit of God doth in Scripture call him Man we ought to believe him to be a Man indeed so when he calls him God we must believe him to be God indeed for with St. Paul * Rom. 2.2 We are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And immediately after his Conversion he began to preach the Gospel with this Fundamental Truth thereof namely That he is the Son of God Acts 9.20 And whosoever owns him not to be truly God gives God the Lye disowns him to be our Saviour and our Mediator for as the Mediator doth act the part of Man with God so with Men he is to perform the part of God he stands between two Extreams and reaches them both with filling the space though never so distant between them he immediately approacheth unto God whom he pacifieth towards Men and from him upon the account of his own Merit obtaineth for them all Gifts and Graces necessary to their Salvation All this none but a God can do for us But here I must stop for insensibly I am driven farther than I intended only few words I shall speak in relation to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity which they deny Divine Nature is most simply and singularly one yet in that one Essence are Three Persons distinguished in Number Order Manner of Acting and with Personal Names and Attributes And though the words Trinity and Persons be not in so many Letters set down in Scripture no more than the word Sacrament Symbole or Creed Lord's-Prayer c. Yet as we agree that these are contained in and deduced out of the Word of God so we may say of those now in question For Brevity sake I shall mention none of the several Proofs taken out of the Old Testament and pitch upon few of those out of the New The Baptism of the Lord Jesus doth afford a clear and strong Proof God the Father speaks * Matt. 3.16 17. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ the Son of God is Baptised The Spirit or Holy Ghost descended from Heaven like a Dove and lighted upon him Then the Apostles are commanded to * Chap. 28.19 Baptise in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost furely by any one that can reckon it will be found there are Three Hypostases or Persons for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in relation to God the Father for the Son is said to be * Heb. 1.3 the express Image of his the Father's Person In the following Text we also find there ‖ John 14.16 17. I will Pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter the Father I and the Comforter there called the Spirit of Truth and in the next Chapter 't is said * Chap. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father again here they be Three St. Paul also mentioneth them * 2 Cor. 13.14 The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God that is the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost This I shall conclude with that of another Apostle * 1 John 5.7 For there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. I think from the word Three that of Trinity may well be derived Here is proved the Trinity of Persons and the Unity or Oneness of Essence or Nature The Trinity of Persons doth not multiply the Nature without any Contradiction a Subject may in one respect be one and manifold in another This is clear out of several Instances in Nature Man hath a Soul this Soul hath three several distinct Faculties the Mind Will and Memory the Mind is not the Will nor the Will the Memory these are three different Faculties yet but one Soul In the Sun are three things the Body the Light and the Heat of the Sun yet not many Suns yet only one A Father hath a Son the Father and the Son are two different Persons yet they have the same Nature and both are Men. There are many more such Instances which I now forbear to mention to shew how in created Substances Trinity or Multiplicity doth not destroy Unity so we may reasonably infer that in the Godhead the Trinity of Persons is no Prejudice to the Unity of Essence or Nature But for all this they will deny the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the first I proved and I think 't
Serious Advice TO A PRESERVATIVE Against the Blasphemous Heresie OF SOCINIANISM Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them mine Enemies Psal 139.21 22. By J. G. G. LONDON Printed for Geo. Grafton and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1695. Serious Advice to a Preservative against the Blasphemous Heresie of Socinianism NOW more than ever there is cause to say the last Days and Times foretold by the Apostles * 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. St. Paul and ‖ 1 John 2.18 St. John are come upon us For not only Iniquity in Practise doth abound every where and the Man and Manner of Sin is daily more and more discovered But also Perverseness in Judgment in no less than Heresie and Blasphemy walks bare-faced with those who are so far delivered up to Satan as to deny the Lord of Glory For abominable Socinianism which is a Sink of the Cerinthians Ebionites Sabellians Samosatenians Photinians Arrians Semi-Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Pelagians and of several other Hereticks doth now proudly appear and in Effect defie Christian Religion and attempts to overthrow the Foundation of the Gospel not in one but several parts thereof It is for me a Matter of Wonderful Grief to see the Boldness and Impudence of that Abominable Heresie as it were Triumphantly to come in of one side and the Silence and Sluggishness of those that should oppose it on the other * Jer. 9.1 O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Guilt which is thereby contracted upon the Nation My Purpose is for the present by the Grace of God only to give in my Evidence in the Case and that as briefly and plainly as I can to condescend to the meanest Capacity But if by Providence I be further engaged in the Matter I shall grudge neither Time nor Pains upon so Just so Necessary and so Glorious an Account as to bear Record for the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion Laelius Socinus the Uncle and Faustus Socinus his Nephew both of Siena in Italy soon after the Death of Detestable Servetus did the first conceive and the second bring forth their Damnable Opinions which amongst the rest are these They deny the most Holy and Adorable Trinity Christ's Divinity his being Coeternal in Time if we may use that word with the Father Coessential in Nature and Coequal in Power they will not own he hath given the Father Satisfaction for our Sins but only obtained for us by our Faith and Obedience to satisfie for our selves They say he died for our Good but not in our Place he died for himself not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmity of our Nature which he had assumed he became not our High Priest till after his Ascension into Heaven How Man before his Fall was Naturally Mortal and had no Original Righteousness that in us there is no Original Sin as it imports a Deformity of Nature The Holy Ghost they admit not to be God no more than Christ whose Incarnation they affirm to be against Reason and without Proofs of Scripture With Pelagians they are against Providence and Matters of Grace All these and others abominable Errors which destroy the whole Foundation and Work of our Salvation are to be found in the Books of Socinus Crellius Ostorodius c. How far will Men go when once they are fallen into and engaged in an evil way When God hath left them in the Blindness and Darkness of their Understanding and given them up to the Imaginations and Counsels of their evil Hearts to the Temptations of Satan and to their own Natural Corruption We see it in the case of that Wicked Arrius who within a short time from the Year 323 till 336 drew a great part of the World after him and in the other of that great Impostor Mahomet who agreed with Arrius against the Deity of the Lord Jesus wherein he is followed by Socinians That Man thorough a Judgment of God * 2 Thess 2.11 sending a strong Delusion that Men should believe a Lye by the means of a Foolish Book of a Nonsensical Alcoran of pretended Trances and Raptures when he was in his Fit of the Falling-sickness and of the Cheat of a Pidgeon picking as it had been taught some Grains out of his Ear as if the Angel Gabriel under that shape had then been Suggesting his Religion and Doctrine to him with some Allowance to the Pleasures of the Flesh in this World and Promises of the like in the next by these means and the Trick of his Tomb at Mecca hath drawn a great part of the World after him In order to settle their Impious Principles Socinians go about two things First To overthrow the Ground of our Faith and Religion with their attempting to undermine Holy Scriptures which are the Foundation and Rule of it To bring it about They affirm the Old Testament to be needless for Christians as for the Books of the New they allow not the Authors thereof to have been Inspired by the Spirit of God positively against what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 and therein they would have some places to contradict others grant this and you take away the Infallibility and Truth of Scripture and if it be yielded of one Text why not of many more If so What will become of Christian Religion grounded upon the Gospel For if we must believe St. Paul who * Gal. 1.11 12. Certifies it is not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was he taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ The second thing Socinians do to promote their Blasphemies is To make Natural Reason the Principle of Religion for they give all to Reason as if it was Infallible and could not be imposed upon and nothing to the Authority and Consent of the Church nor of Scripture it self according to this Rule of theirs That no Interpretation of Holy Scripture is to be admitted except it doth agree with Natural Reason and to the Evident Experience of outward Senses Instead of the Traditions which Papists bring in they would have their own Reason without the Influences of the Spirit of God to be the genuine and proper Interpreter of God's Holy Word So take away the Rule and you bring in Disorder and Confusion We know and own how Faith doth not destroy Reason rather it doth Refine and Purifie it so God forbid we should exclude Reason from Religion for 't is Subservient to it Reason indeed hath something of Religion for by the Light of Nature in things of the World and Course of Providence one may be convinced how there is a Being of Beings a first Cause of all and a God whose Power and Wisdom appeareth in the Works and Order of Nature which as * Psal
now he knew every thing * John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things saith Peter unto him ‖ Ch. 2.24 25. he knew all Men and needed not that any should testifie of Man for he knew what was in Man There was no Dissembling before him * Heb. 4.13 14. for all things are and were naked and open unto the Eyes of him with whom we are to do even Jesus the Son of God who when upon Earth knew ‖ John 6.70 and 13.11 which of the Twelve was a Devil for he knew who should betray him This Record he bears of himself and we know his Record is true * Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the Reins and Hearts All this is very plain In the Word of God our Saviour is declared to be Almighty for ‖ John 5.19 whatsoever things the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise and †Heb. 1.3 he upholdeth all things by the word of his Power In the fore-quoted place of Rev. 1. he calls himself the Almighty Christ Jesus is also present every where another Attribute of an Infinite Being * Matt. 18.20 Chap. 28.20 Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there I am in the midst of them and Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World But not only all these forenamed Attributes incommunicable to the Creature such is every meer Man are applied unto the Lord Jesus also Divine Works are as the Creation of the World ‖ John 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Which St. Paul confirmeth * Colos 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones and Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him We know the Work of Creation is peculiar to God he never imparted it to any Creature for none is capable of it only an Infinite Being and Power can fill up an infinite distance between an ens and non ens a real Being and nothing between these two is an unpassable Gulf for any Creature an Abyss that can be filled up by no Man nor Angel To create is God's incommunicable Work the Name of Creator or Maker of something out of nothing belongs to God alone and seeing the World was created by the Word and that Christ is the Word that was made Flesh it followeth that Christ is God Heb. 1.2 God by his Son made the Worlds So he Rules and Preserves the World as in the fore-quoted place Heb. 1.3 He upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power He saith himself ‖ John 14.11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the very Works sake He is one of the Elohim that created the World Gen. 1.1 It is also a Divine Work to raise Men from the Dead this also belongs to Christ for as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will The words as and so do shew an Equality in the Acts our Saviour raised Jairus his Daughter Lazarus c. nay he raised himself by his own Power * John 10.18 I have Power to lay down my Life and take it up again Can any one but God give Eternal Life But ‖ Chap. 10.20 Christ gives his Sheep Eternal Life Who can forgive Sins but God only The Jews were in the Right according to their Primciples to call it Blasphemy because they believed him to be a meer Man and not God as he was * Mark 2.7 10. Why doth this Man thus speak Blasphemies who can forgive Sins but God only Whereupon immediately our Saviour to shew he was God said That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive Sins c. he proveth it with a Miracle The raising of the Dead and other Miracles done by the Apostles were not in their Names and by their Power as all Christs were * Acts 3.6 but in the Name and by the Power of Jesus of Nazareth Lastly Divine Worship and Honour is and ought to be rendred to our Saviour by Angels and Men and ‖ Heb. 1.6 let all the Angels of God worship him and * John 5.23 that all Men should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father that is alike that signifies in the same Nature Manner and Degree but God declares ‖ Isa 42.8 he will not give his Glory to another Wherefore Christ must needs be the same as the Father of the same Nature and not a Titular God as they would make of him So they who deny him truly to be the Son of God in that are worse than the Devils which owned him to be such Matt. 8.29 which Truth hath been sealed with the Blood of Millions of Martyrs And to come to Particulars * John 3.15 16 we must believe in him we must ‖ Matt. 28.19 be Baptised in his Name and * Phil. 2.10 at his Name every Knee should bow If Christ were not God it were Idolatry to worship him yet our Blessed Saviour who was no Friend to Idolatry would not have suffered the Man in the Gospel to have worshipped him but far from forbidding he encouraged him to it and under what Notion as Son of God for he asked him ‖ John 9.35 36 37 38. Doest thou believe on the Son of God The Man answered Who is he Lord Christ replied Thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee Can we desire a plainer Declaration that Christ is the Son of God and ought to be worshipped and if he were not the true Son of God of the same Nature it had been Idolatry and Blasphemy in Thomas to call him * John 20.28 My Lord and my God God foreseeing the Devil would raise his strongest Batteries against his Son who came to destroy the Works of the Devil which therefore would have cut him off in his very Cradle and stirred up the whole Malice of Earth and Hell and to Discredit his Doctrine that Father of Lies found Instruments that defamed his Person and said he was a Samaritan a Friend to Publicans and Sinners that had a Devil and did cast out Devils by Belzebub he was the Carpenter's Son such a Fellow as they knew not from whence he was a Seducer Deceiver and Impostor I say God fore-knowing all this provided sufficient Remedies and by his Holy Spirit in his Word gave such clear and full Evidences as none but those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds could doubt of or call to question this Truth of the Gospel * John 3.16 Chap. 1.18 That God sent his own Son into the World Moreover His only begotten Son which is in the Bosom
of his Father he hath declared him which no body else could it must be God's only Begotten the reason is given in the beginning of the Verse no Man hath seen God at any time Shall not God's only Begotten Son receive and be Partaker of his Father's Nature If absolutely no Man hath seen God at any time he that hath seen and declared him must needs be God Though this Matter be so copious yet to keep my self within my narrow Bounds I shall to this Point add a few words more St. John saith that * 1 John 2.18 in his time there were many Antichrists and ‖ Chap. 4.1 many False Prophets were gone out into the World These Opposers of Christ were of two sorts some who denied Christ Jesus to be come into the World or in the Flesh that is That the Messiah which took up the whole Expectation of the Jews was not come for we know the Messiah and * John 4.25 Christ to be but one and the same Now those that confessed not Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah were Antichrists the Messiah was to come in the Flesh that is To take upon him our Humane Nature and become Man All Prophesies and Types under the Law in every Circumstance were fulfilled in the Person of the Lord Jesus born of the Virgin Mary and whosoever denied it was an Antichrist The second sort of Antichrists in St. John's time were those that as the Ebionites did then the Arrians since and now Socinians do own Christ to be a Prophet and a Saviour but would have him to be meerly a Man and only a Creature a Man they would not deny him to be but disowned him for a God Now against these the Apostle doth speak * 1 John 4.15 Whosoever shall confess saith he that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God So by the Rule of Contraries and the Stile of Scriptures we do infer that whosoever shall not confess that Jesus is in a true and a proper Sence the Son of God God dwelleth not in him nor he in God both which that is the Validity of this Inference and the Apostle's Position that Jesus is the Son of God do appear in the following Chapter * Chap. 5.9 10 11. He that believeth not that Christ is the Son of God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son For this is the Witness of God which is greater than the Witness of Men which he hath testified of his Son Wherein the Apostle relateth not only to the Time of our Saviour's Baptism when the Voice came from Heaven saying * Matt. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased but also to the Transfiguration when the Voice came out of the Cloud with the same words with this Addition * Chap. 17.5 Hear ye him which St. Peter takes special notice of when he saith For he Jesus Christ ‖ 2 Pet. 1.17 18. received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount Where the Apostle plainly declares That as the Voice came from God the Father so it was spoken of and to God the Son or else the distinction of Father and Son had been improper and superfluous God in the Voice calls him his Beloved Son the Apostle saith the Voice came from God the Father If there was not some special Energy and Signification in the word Father the Apostle would only have said that Christ received from God Honour c. but speaking of the Father and of the Son who are Relatives that shews the distinction of two different Persons of the Godhead This Voice was the Application to the Person of whom long before Psal 2. wherein the Kingdom of Christ was Prophesied of * Psal 2.7 The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Yea such as David whose Son he was according to the Flesh in Spirit calls him Lord which place our Saviour makes use of against the Pharisees for after they had answered his Question Whose Son Christ was He much to his purpose asketh them * Matt. 22.42 43 44 45. If David then call him Lord How is he his Son This could not be in the Capacity of his Son for the Son is not Lord over the Father wherefore it must be upon some other account there was between them another Relation it could be no Humane one within such a distance of Time Hence is appears That if God doth so often and in so singular a manner call the Lord Jesus his Only Begotten Son in whom he is well pleased If God I say speaks Truth the Lord Jesus must be his Son not in that way of Favour and Grace only as Socinians would have it and as all his Elect are but in a stricter and essential Relation to beget is to communicate his Nature and Substance and in this Sence he is the only Begotten Son there is but one thus properly God's Son We have a Text which speaks plainly to the purpose and gives a right Interpretation of the Phrase the meaning whereof the Jews understood very well it is said * John 5.18 The Jews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God So then when Christ called God his Father he meaned that he was equal with God the Jews say so the Evangelist doth not say they were mistaken and our Blesied Saviour * Ver. 19 21. the best Interpreter of the thing confirmeth they had a right Notion of the Matter for in the 19 and 21 Verses he affirmeth his Equality in Power with the Father For what things soever he doth these also doth the Son likewise For as the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will This Equality in Power argueth an Equality in Nature for though God can do great and miraculous things by some Creatures yet still 't is the working of his own Power but God cannot bestow an Infinite Power upon a Finite and bound Creature which it is not capable of because it would imply a Contradiction An Infinite Power in Christ such as the Father hath doth in him import an Infinite Nature But at this time I must not suffer my self to be drawn too far into the Matter Well as we heard St. John calls Antichrist him that denies Christ to be the Son of God * 1 John 2.22 He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son Surely Father and Son must have the same Nature deny one and you deny both Who is a Liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ To what he calls Antichrists and Liars St. Paul giveth the
Name of Blasphemers and begins with himself as he was before his Conversion * 1 Tim. 1.12 13. Putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor Wherein was he such He speaks something of it when he saith ‖ Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth What doth he mean by the Name of Jesus His Person he could not reach his Members he persecuted as much as he could nay as he saith he compelled them to do as he did What 's that To Blaspheme he compelled them to Blaspheme his Name Acts 26.11 his Religion and say many things against his Person and deny him to be the Messiah the Son of God and the Profession of his Gospel to defame and dishonour him And do not Socinians do part of this and the worst of it with as much as in them lies depriving him of his Godhead attacking him in the best and most sensible Part Methinks these Men should have observed and taken warning by God's signal Judgments upon former Blasphemers against the Person of Christ Arrius their great Founder whilst he was easing himself of the Necessities of Nature his Bowels came forth and with them his Life Artemon Samosatenus and several more in former and later Ages came to miserable Deaths The end of Julian the Apostate is well known These should make them Fear and Tremble However in them is a Hardness as was in the Jews whose Arguments they borrow * Acts 13.45 Blaspheming and Contradicting as they did to what concerning this Matter was spoken by Paul and Barnabas The Grounds of their Error I shall not at this time go about to refute that I reserve for another occasion if God permit However two things I shall mention which like two Rocks they commonly split upon and this being well understood affordeth Answers to most of their Arguments St. Peter's words by him spoken in another case I here shall make use of * 2 Pet. 3.5 For this they are willingly Ignorant of namely the difference of Christ's State of Humiliation and that of his Exaltation The Jews who receive not the New Testament may be ignorant of this yet not willingly but Socinians who say and pretend they admit it cannot be Ignorant but willingly After this Rule we may resolve those places in Scripture the Sence whereof thorough their Prejudice they mistake wherein Christ is made Inferior to the Father and the Father said to be greater than he 'T is most true that as he performed the Office of Mediator as he was Man as at that time when he was upon Earth in that low and humble Condition he then was Inferior to the Father but it was not so before for he to obtain Salvation for us voluntarily left that Glory which he had with the Father before the World began and of himself as the Apostle saith * Phil. 2.6 7 8. took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Man and he humbled himself and made himself of no Reputation He had a Being before he was made Man and that Being as the Apostle faith in that place was the Form and Nature of God whereby without Robbery or Usurpation he was equal with God After the time of his Humiliation was over he went up to the place whence he was come down again to appear in his Natural Glory which Glory here he had still but it was under a Cloud which made it invisible to Man His Humane Nature was that Cloud which Scripture calls * Heb. 10.20 the Vail of his Flesh which under the Law was typified by the Vail of the Temple because the Light of the Sun when 't is behind the Clouds doth not appear bright and glorious in our Eyes Must Men say he hath no Brightness nor Glory Still there is enough left to convince us that in it is a Light or else it would be quite Dark So though the Lord Jesus his Divine Glory and Majesty was eclipsed for a time yet several Beams of it appeared in his state of Exinanition as in his Baptism Transfiguration and when * John 12.28 29. the Voice came from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and I will glorifie it again which made some of the People that stood by say it thundred and others An Angel spake to him Besides those many miraculous Works he did which none but a Divine Power could effect all these leave unbelieving Enemies of his Divinity without Excuse for they refuse to receive the Testimony of God the Father of Christ himself and of the Apostles and Evangelists which is as good as to call him a Deluder and an Impostor Their other Stumbling-block and Rock of Offence is the Incarnation of the Son of God or his taking upon him our Humane Nature out of the Virgim Mary thorough the Operation of the Holy Ghost which by no means they will own though Scripture saith in that Famous Prophesie of the Coming of the Messiah * Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall Conceive and bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Immanuel ‖ Matt. 1.23 to this answers John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Which being interpreted is God with us What doth this Interpretation God with us signifie else than an Union of Divine with Humane Nature one Person to be both God and Man which doth meet in the Person of our Blessed Saviour who for Confirmation of this is in Scripture so often called God Son of God and Man Son of Man Can there be any thing more positive than this * John 1.1 14. The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh by Flesh is meant Humane Nature then God was made Man as to the Manner it could not be by Transubstantiation change of Substance of Divine Nature into Humane which had imported an Annihilation of Divine Nature which to think is Blasphemy elsewhere Scripture saith positively God was manifest in the Flesh a Text parallel to that of John to prove the Incarnation which the place sheweth to be said of Christ in whom are terminated all the Prophesies and Figures under the Law about the Messiah and though the Modus and Manner of things be above the reach of Men to dive into and so we must not be rash about it yet God in his Word having revealed the thing to be and said something about the Manner it must not be neglected by us See the Angel's answer to the question of the Virgin * Luke 1.34 35 How shall this be seeing I know no Man The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee This indeed is a high Mystery the Coming of the Holy Ghost the overshadowing of the Highest Yet however this is plain that that Holy Thing or Person to be born of Mary should be the Son of God and really called so for
is fit I should say something to the last but as shortly as I can In order to it I shall resolve all into one Argument as before I did about Jesus Christ The Syllogism is this He is True and Eternal God whom Scripture gives to the Names Attributes Works and Worship of God but all these Scripture attributeth to the Holy Ghost therefore the Holy Ghost is True Eternal God To begin with the first I say the Names of the True God are simply and absolutely given to the Holy Ghost * 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not saith Paul that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The latter part explaineth the first the dwelling of God alone doth make and constitute the Temple of God and those very same whom he calleth the Temple of God he calleth the Temple or Dwelling of the Holy Ghost We have another when Paul said to Ananias * Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Satan filled thy Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and in the next Verse Thou hast not lied to Men but unto God Whom he before called the Holy Ghost he now called God these last words tend to exaggerate and aggravate the greatness of his Sin The name of Jehovah is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for the Lord said * Numb 12.6 He will make himself known to and speak by Prophets Now if we compare this with what Peter saith * 2 Pet. 1.21 Holy Men or Prophets of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost we shall find that Jehovah who promised to speak by Prophets is the Holy Ghost which moved them to speak The Attributes of the True God do also belong to the Holy Ghost as first Eternity 't is said * Heb. 9.14 Christ thorough the Eternal Spirit offered him so doth Omniscience for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God also Omnipresence he is every where * Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spiri c. That is I can go no where from it and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you so he doth in every Believer for * Rom. 8.9 he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his as for Almightiness all his Works do demonstrate it Also the Works of the True God are attributed to the Holy Ghost as the Creation of the World * Psal 33.6 By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Breath Spirit of his Mouth and * Job 26.13 By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens the Preservation is represented by his ‖ Gen. 1.2 moving upon the face of the Waters or laying upon as a Hen doth to preserve her Chickens But as the proper Attribute of the Holy Ghost is to be Holy and Sanctifier the great Actor in the high Mystery of Regeneration and applying of Salvation the Work whereof is altogether Divine so to clear it we shall come to some Particulars as teaching of the Prophets who by him were moved as already observed out of St. Peter Now 't is said * Heb. 1.1 God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets then the Spirit that spoke by them is God ‖ 1 Cor. 12. from Verse 4 to 12. The diversities of Gifts are of the same Spirit the difference of Administration of the same Lord and the diversities of Operators of the same God Now this distribution of Gifts whither of Wisdom of Knowledge of Faith working of Miracles of Pongues c. all these worketh that self-same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will 't is all his Free Gift and that there may be no mistake about the word Spirit the Apostle in that place V. 3. calls him the Holy Ghost The Government of the Church which is the Work of God is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for * Acts 13.2 the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them which Institution of Ministers in the Church made by the Holy Ghost is also mentioned in another place * Chap. 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers that Commission is in the Name and by the Power of the Holy Ghost Thus also the Works of the True God are attributed unto the Holy Ghost when he is called * John 15.26 the Spirit of Truth ‖ Rom 8.15 Spirit of Adoption †Chap. 1.4 Spirit of Sanctification or of Holiness and the * Tit. 3.5 Spirit of Regeneration our Blessed Saviour himself owneth that ‖ Matt. 12.28 he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God Thus Honour and Worship due to the only true God is also rendred to the Holy Ghost Thus St. Paul calls * Rom. 9.1 upon him as a Judge of his Conscience and Searcher of his Heart In ‖ Matt. 28.19 Baptism he is called upon as well as the Father and the Son and that which in Scripture is said about * Chap. 12.31 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven and ‖ 1 John 5.16 which we are forbidden to Pray for doth sufficiently convince how the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped with no less Piety Honour and Adoration than are the Father and the Son This short Scheme which upon occasion may be enlarged I at this time have drawn against the Blasphemous Heresies of Socinians that by the Paw the Reader may know the Lyon and so to give People warning of the Danger and Nature of the Poison which strikes at no less than to overthrow the Fundamentals of True Christian Religion Thus if Men having been forewarned stand upon their Guards they may by the Grace of God be able to avoid the Evil and Occasion of it As to the other Points wherein they Err especially about Matters of Grace as that the Causes of Predestination are not in God but in us that he doth not predestinate to Salvation any particular or certain Persons and that Predestination is mutable and may be frustrated These and others I now omit only give this hint to shew how they are broke loose against the Person and Grace of our Blessed Saviour in them we find united and concentered the Damnable Errors of the two great Heresiarks Arrius and Pelagius even against Scripture Reason and Authority the Belief of the True Christian Primitive Church That which now remaineth for me to do is directly to address my self to several sorts of Persons First To the Clergy-men both to the Sound and Unsound part thereof whom God hath set to be Watchmen over Israel his People they cannot be Ignorant of God's Charge to them and how strictly God will require at their Hands the Blood of those that shall Perish thorough their Faults It is the Duty of them all whither Superior or Inferior and ought to be their diligent Care