it respects the direct Revelation of God made by himself in the Scripture and the first proper general end thereof Let this be clearly confirmed by direct and positive divine Testimonies containing the declaration and Revelation of God concerning himself and faith is secured as to all its concerns For it hath both its proper formal object and is sufficiently enabled to be directive of divine Worship and Obedience The Explication of this Doctrine unto Edification suitable unto the Revelation mentioned is of another consideration And two things are incumbent on us to take care of therein First that what is affirmed and taught do directly tend unto the ends of the Revelation it self by informing and inlightning of the mind in the knowledge of the mysterie of it so far as in this life we are by Divine Assistance capable to comprehend it that is that faith may be increased strengthned and confirmed against temptations and oppositions of Satan and men of corrupt minds and that we may be distinctly directed unto and encouraged in the Obedience unto and Worship of God that are required of us Secondly That nothing be affirmed or taught herein that may beget or occasion any undue apprehensions concerning God or our Obedience unto him with respect unto the best highest securest Revelations that we have of him and our duty These things being done and secured the End of the Declaration of this Doctrine concerning God is attained In the declaration then of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church there is contained a farther Explanation of the things before asserted as proposed directly and in themselves as the object of our faith namely how God is one in respect of his Nature Substance Essence Godhead or Divineâ— Being How being Father Son and Holy Ghost he subsisteth in these three distinct persons or Hypostâ—sies and what are their mutual respects to each other by which as their peculiar properties giving them the manner of their subsistence they are distinguished one from another with sundry other things of the like necessary consequence unto the Revelation mentioned And herein as in the Application of all other Divine Truths and Mysteries whatever yea of all moral commanded duties use is to be made of such words and expressions as it may be are not literally and formally contained in the Scripture but only are unto our conceptions and apprehensions expository of what is so contained And to deny the Liberty yea the necessity hereof is to deny all interpretation of the Scripture all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one another which is in a word to render the Scripture it self altogether useless For if it be unlawful for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of the Scripture and the nature of the thing signified and expressed by them it is unlawful for me also to think or conceive in my mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things which to say is to make brutes of our selves and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great priviledge of his word Wherefore in the declaration of the Doctrine of the Trinity we may lawfully nay we must necessarily make use of other words phrases and expressions that what are Literally and Syllabically contained in the Scriptures but teach no other things Moreover whatever is so revealed in the Scripture is no less true and divine as to whatever necessarily followeth thereon than it is as unto that which is principally revealed and directly expressed For how far soever the lines be drawn and extended from truth nothing can follow and ensue but what is true also and that in the same kind of truth with that which it is derived and deduced from For if the principal Assertion be a truth of Divine Revelation so is also whatever is included therein and which may be rightly from thence collected Hence it follows that when the Scripture revealeth the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be one God seeing it necessarily and unavoidably follows thereon that they are one in Essence wherein alone it is possible they can be one and three in their distinct Subsistences wherein alone it is possible they can be three This is no less of Divine Revelation than the first principle from whence these things follow These being the respects which the Doctrine of the Trinity falls under the necessary method of 〈◊〉 and Reason in the beheving and declarâ—ing of it is plain and evident 1. The Revelation 〈◊〉 it is to be asserted and vindicated as it 〈◊〉 proposed to be believed for the ends mentioned Now this is as was declared that there is one God that this God is Father Son and Holy Ghost and so that the Father is God so is the Son so is the Holy Ghost This being received and admitted by faith the Explication of it is 2. To be insisted on and not taken into consideration untill the other be admitted And herein lyes the preposterous course of those who fallaciously and captiously go about to oppose this sacred truth They will alwayes begin their opposition not unto the Revelation of it but unto the Explanation of it which is used only for farther edification Their Disputes and Cavils shall be against the Trinity Essence Substance Persons Personality Respects Properties of the Divine Persons with the modes of expressing these things whilst the plain Scriptural Revelation of the things themselves from whence they are but explanatory deductions is not spoken to nor admitted unto confirmation By this means have they entangled many weak unstable souls who when they have met with things too high hard and difficult for them which in Divine Mysteries they may quickly do in the Explication of this Doctrine have suffered themselves to be taken off from a due consideration of the full and plain Revelation of the thing it self in Scripture until their temptations being made strong and their darkness increased it was too late for them to return unto it as bringing along with them the Cavils wherewith they were prepossessed rather than that Faith and Obedience which is required But yet all this while these Explanations so excepted against are indeed not of any Original consideration in this matter Let the direct express Revelations of the Doctrine be firmed they will follow of themselves nor will be excepted against by those who believe and receive it Let that be rejected and they will fall of themselves and never be contended for by those who did make use of them But of these things we shall treat again afterwards This therefore is the way the only way that we rationally can and that which in duty we ought to proceed in and by for the asserting and confirming of the Doctrine of the holy Trinity under consideration namely that we produce Divine Revelations or Testimonies wherein faith may safely rest and acquiesce that God is one that this one God
But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
the Father Son and Spirit are one God and then let it be debated whether they are one in Substance and three in Persons or how else the matter is to be stated If they deny it it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing and the way of expressing it whilst the thing it self is denyed to have a being for of that which is not there is neither manner property adjunct nor effect Let then such persons as this sort of men are ready to attempt with their Sophistry and to amuse with cavils about persons substances subsistences and the like desire to know of them what it is that they would be at What would they deny what would they disapprove Is it that God is one or that the Father is God or the Son or the Holy Ghost is so If they deny or oppose either of these they have Testimonies and instances of divine Revelation or may have in a readiness to confound the Devil and all his Emissaries If they will not do so if they refuse it then let them know that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about Expressions and Explanations of any thing or doctrine about the manner respects or relations of any thing untill the thing it self or Doctrine be plainly confessed or denyed If this they refuse as generally they do and will which I speak upon sufficient experience and will not be induced to deal openly properly and rationally but will keep to their Cavils and Sophisms about terms and expressions all farther debate or conference with them may justly and ought both conscienciously and rationally to be refused and rejected For these sacred mysteries of God and the Gospel are not lightly to be made the subject of mens contests and disputations But as we dealt before in particular so here I shall give Instances of the Sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this Doctrine and that with respect unto some late collections and Representations of them From whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words Phrases and Expressions themselves which they make use of The summ of what they say in general is How can these things be How can three be one and one be three Every person hath its own substance and therefore if there be three persons there must be three substances and so three Gods Answ. 1. Every person hath distinctly its own substance for the one substance of the Deity is the substance of each person so it is still but one But each person hath not its own distinct substance because the substance of them all is the same as hath been proved 2. They say That if each person be God then each person is Infinite and there being three persons there must be three Infinites Answ. This follows not in the least for each person is Infinite as he is God Alâ— divine properties such as to be Infinite is belong not to the persons on the account of their personality but on the account of their nature which is one for they are all natural properties But they say If each person be God and that God subsist in three persons then in each person there are three persons or Gods Answ. The collusion of this Sophism consists in that expression be God and that God in the first place the nature of God is intended in the latter a singular person Place the words intelligibly and they are thus If each person be God and the nature of God subsists in three persons then in each person there are three persons and then the folly of it will be evident But they farther infer That if we deny the persons to be Infinite then an Infinite Being hath a finite mode of subsisting and so I know not what supposition they make hence that seeing there are not three Infinites then the Father Son and Spirit are three finites that make up an Infinite The pitiful weakness of this Cavil is open to all for finite and Infinite are properties and adjuncts of Beings and not of the manner of the subsistence of any thing The nature of each person is Infinite and so is each person because of that nature Of the manner of their subsistence finiâ—e and Infinite cannot be predicated or spoken no farther than to say an Infinite Being doth so subsist But you grant say they that the only true God is the Father and then if Christ be the only true God he is the Father Answ. We say the only true God is Father Son and Holy Ghost We never say the Scripture never sayes that the Father only is the true God whence it would follow that he that is the true God is the Father But we grant the Father to be the only trne God and so we 〈◊〉 is the Son also And it doth not 〈◊〉 all thence follow that the Son is 〈◊〉 Father Because in saying the 〈…〉 the true God we respect not his paternity or his paternal Relation to his Son but his Nature Essence and Being And the same we affirm concerning the other persons And to say that because each person is God one person must be another is to crave leave to disbelieve what God hath revealed without giving any Reason at all for their so doing But this Sophism being borrowed from another namely Crellius who insisted much upon it I shall upon his account and not on theirs who as far as I can apprehend understand little of the intendment of it remove it more fully out of the way It is proposed by him in way of Syllogism thus The only true God is the Father Christ is the only true God therefore he is the Father Now this Syllogism is ridiculously Sophystical For in a Categorical Syllogism the Major Proposition is not to be particular nor equipollent to a particular For from such a Proposition when any thing communicable to more is the subject of it and is restrained unto one particular nothing can be inferred in the conclusion But such is this Proposition here the only true God is the Father It is a particular Proposition wherein the subject is restrained unto a singular or individual predicate though in it self communicable to more Now the Proposition being â—o made particular the terms of the subject or predicate are supposed recâ—procal namely that one God and the Father are the same which is false Unless it be first proved that the name God is communicable to no more or no other than is the other term of Father which to suppose is to begg the whole Question For the only true God hath a larger signification than the term of Father or Son So that though the only true God be the Father yet every one who is true God is not the Father Seeing then that the name of God here supplyes the plaâ—e of a species though it be singular absolutely as it respects the Divine Nature which is absolutely singular and one and cannot be
is Father Son and holy Ghost So that the Father is God so also is the Son and the holy Ghost likewise and as such are to be believed in obeyed worshipped acknowledged as the first cause and last end of all our Lord and Reward If this be not admitted if somewhat of it be not particularly denyed we need not we have no warrant or ground to proceed any farther or at all to discourse about the Unity of the Divine Essence or the distinction of Persons We have not therefore any original contest in this matter with any but such as deny either God to be one or the Father to be God or the Son to be God or the Holy Ghost so to be If any deny either of these in particular we are ready to confirm it by sufficient Testimonies of Scripture or clear and undeniable Divine Revelation When this is evinced and vindicated we shall willingly proceed to manifest that the explications used of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church are according to truth and such as necessarily are required by the nature of the things themselves And this gives us the method of the small ensuing Discourse with the Reasons of it The first thing which we affirm to be delivered unto us by divine Revelation as the Object oâ— ouâ— Faith is that God is one I know that this may be uncontroulably evidenced by the â—ight of Reason it self unto as good and quiet an Assurance as the mind of man is capable of in any of its apprehensions whatever But I speak of it now as it is confirmed unto us by Divine Revelation How this Assertion of one God respects the Nature Essence or Divine Being of God shall be declared afterwards At present it is enough to represent the Testimonies that he is one only one And because we have no difference with our Adversaries distinctly about this matter I shall only name some few of them Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. A most pregnant Testimony and yet notwithstanding as I shall elsewhere manifest the Trinity it self in that one divine Essence is here asserted Isa. 44. 6 8. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any In which also we may manifest that a plurality of Persons is included and expressed And although there be no more absolute and sacred truth than this that God is one yet it may be evinced that it is no where mentioned in the Scripture but that either in the words themselves or the context of the place a plurality of persons in that one sence is intimated Secondly It is proposed as the object of our Faith that the Father is God And herein as is pretended there is also an agreement between us and those who oppose the Doctrine of the Trinity But there is a mistake in this matter Their hypothesis as they call it or indeed presumptuous errour casts all the conceptions that are given us concerning God in the Scripture into disorder and confusion For the Father as he whom we worship is often called so only with reference unto his Son as the Son is so with reference to the Father He is the only begotten of the Father John 1. 14. But now is this Son had no praeexistence in his Divine nature before he was born of the Virgin there was no God the Father seventeen hundred years ago because there was no Son And on this ground did the Marcionites of old plainly deny the Father whom under the New Testament we Worship to be the God of the Old Testament who made the World and was Woâ—shipped from the foundation of it For it seems to follow that he whom we worship being the Father and on this supposition that the Son had no praexistence unto his incarnation he was not the Father under the Old Testament he is some other from him that was so revealed I know the folly of that inference yet how on this opinion of the sole existence of the Son in time Men can prove the Father to be God let others determine He who abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son but whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God 2 John 9. Whoever denyes Christ the Son as the Son that is the eternal Son of God he loses the Father also and the true God he hath not God For that God which is not the Father and which ever was and was not the Father is not the true God Hence many of the Fathers even of the first Writers of the Church were forced unto great pains in the confirmation of this truth that the Father of Jesus Christ was he who made the World gave the Law spake by the Prophets and was the Author of the Old Testament and that against Men who professed themselves to be Christians And this bruitish apprehension of theirs arose from no other principle but this that the Son had only a temporal Existence and was not the Eternal Son of God But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other Controversies than what lyes directly before us and seeing the Adversaries of the truth we contend for do in words at least grant that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God or the only true God I shall not further shew the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession But take it for granted that to us there is one God the Father 1 Cor. 8. 6. See John 17. 3. So that he who is not the Father who was not so from Eternity whose paternity is not equally coexistent unto his Deity is no God unto us Thirdly It is asserted and believed by the Church that Jesus Christ is God the Eternal Son of God that is He is proposed declared and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God that is to be served worshipped believed in obeyed as God upon the account of his own Divine excellencies And whereas we believe and know that he was Man that he was born lived and dyed as a Man it is declared that he is God also and that as God he did preexist in the form of God before his Incarnation which was effected by voluntary actings of his own which could not be without a preexistence in another nature This is proposed unto us to be believed upon Divine Testimony and by Divine Revelation And the sole enquiry in this matter is whether this be proposed in the Scripture as an Object of Faith and that which is indispensibly necessary for us to believe Let us then nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter and that in the order of the Books of it in some particular instances which at present occurr to mind as these that follow Psalm
as nothing but they can enable him for is abundantly proved by the foregoing Testimonies Now all these concern a divine nature a natural Essence a Godhead and not such power or authority as a man may be exalted unto Yea the ascribing any of them to such a one implyes the highest contradiction expressible Thirdly This God in Authority and Office and not by nature that should be the Object of Divine Worship is a new abomination For they are divine essential excellencies that are the formal Reason and Object of Worship Religious and divine And to ascribe it unto any one that is not God by nature is Idolatry By makeing therefore their Christ such a God as they describe they bring him under the severe commination of the true God Jer. 10. 11. The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens That Christ they worship they say is a God but they deny that he is that God that made the Heavens and the Earth and so leave him exposed to the threatnings of him who will accomplish it to the uttermost Some other general exceptions sometimes they make use of which the Reader may free himself from the entanglement of if he do but heed these ensuing Rules X. Distinction of persons of which afterwards it being in an infinite substance doth no way prove a difference of Essence between the Father and the Son Where there fore Christ as the Son is said to be Another from the Father or God spoken personally of the Father it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him That in one Essence there can be but one person may be true where the substance is finite and limâ—ted but hath no place in that which is infinite 2. Distinction and Inequality in respect of Office in Christ doth not in the least take away his equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature and Essence Phil. 2. 7 8. A Son of the same nature with his Father and therein Equal to him may in Office be his inferiour his subject Thirdly The Advancement and exaltation of Christ as Mediator to any dignity whatever upon or in reference to the work of our Redemption and salvation is not at all inconsistent with the essential Honour Dignity and Worth which he hath in himself as God blessed for ever Though he humbled himself and was exalted in Office yet in Nature he was one and the same he changed not Fourthly The Scriptures asserting the Humanity of Christ with the concerments thereof as his birth life and death do no more thereby deny his Deity than by asserting his Deity with the essential properties thereof they deny his humanity Fifthly God working in and by Christ as he was Mediator denotes the Fathers Soveraign Appointment of the things mentioned to be done not his immediate efficiency in the doing of the things themselves These Rules are proposed a little before their due place in the Method which we pursue But I thought meet to interpose them here as containing a sufficient ground for the resolution and answering of all the Sophisms and Objections which the Adversaries use in this cause From the cloud of witnesses before produced every one where of is singly sufficient to evert the Socinian Infidelity I shall in one of them give an infiance both of the clearness of the Evidence and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to put in against them as was promised And this is John 1. 1 2 3. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made By the Word here or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on what account soever he be so called either as being the Eternal Word and wisdom of the Father or as the great Revealer of the Will of God unto us Jesus Christ the Son of God is intended This is on all hands acknowledged and the context will admit of no haesitation about it For of this Word it is said that he came into the World v. 10. was rejected by his own v. 11. was made flesh and dwelt amongst us whose glory was the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father v. 14. called expresly Jesus Christ v. 17. the only begotten Son of the Father v. 18. The subject then treated of is here agreed upon And it is no less evident that it is the design of the Apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom he treateth Here then if any where we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ which also we may certainly do if our minds are not perverted through prejudice whereby the God of this world doth blind the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. Of this Word then this Son of God it is affirmed that he was in the beginning And this Word if it doth not absolutely and formally express Eternity yet it doth a preexistence unto the whole Creation which amounts to the same For nothing can preexist unto all Creatures but in the nature of God which is eternal unless we shall suppose a creature before the Creation of any But what is meant by this expression the Scripture doth elsewhere declare Prov. 8. 23. I was set up from everlasting before the beginning or ever the earth was John 17. 5. Glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Both which places as they explain this phrase so also do they undeniably testifie unto the Eternal pre-existence of Christ the Son of God And in this case we prevail against our Adversaries if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his Incarnation which as they absolutely deny so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresie in this matter And therefore they know that the testimony of our Saviour concerning himself if understood in a proper intelligible sense is perfectly destructive of their pretensions John 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am For although there be no proper sense in the words but a gross â—quivocation if the Existence of Christ before Abraham was born be not asserted in them seeing he spake in Answer to that objection of the Jews that He was nâ—t yet fifty years old and so could not have seen Abraham nor Abraham him and the Jews that were present understood well enough that he asserted a divine preexistence unto his being born so long ago as that hereon after their manner they took up stones to stone him as supposing him to have blasphemed in asserting his Deity as others now do in the denying of it yet they seeing how fatal this prae-existence though not here absolutely
asserted to be eternal would be to their cause they contend that the meaning of the words is that Christ was to be the light of the world before Abraham was made the Father of many Nations An interpretation so absurd and sottish as never any man not infatuated by the God of this world could once admit and give countenance unto But in the Beginning as absolutely used is the same with From Everlasting as it is expounded Prov. 8. 23. and denoteth an eternal existence which is here affirmed of the Word the Son of God But let the Word beginning be restrained unto the subject matter treated of which is the Creation of all things and the praeexistence of Christ in his divine nature unto the Creation of all things is plainly revealed and inevitably asserted And indeed not only the Word but the discourse of these verses doth plainly relate unto and is expository of the first verse in the Bible Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth There it is asserted that in the beginning God created all things here that the Word was in the beginning and made all things This then is the least that we have obtained from this first word of our Testimony namely that the Word or Son of God had a personal praeexistence unto the whole Creation In what nature this must be let these men of Reason satisfie themselves who know that Creator and Creatures take up the whole nature of Beings one of them he must be and it may be well supposed that he was not a Creature before the Creation of any But Secondly Where or with whom was this Word in the beginning it was saith the Holy Ghost with God There being no creature then existing he could be no where but with God that is the Father as it is expressed in one of the testimonies before going Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possest me in the beginning of his wayes before his works of old ver 30. Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing alwayes before him that is in the beginning this Word or Wisdom of God was with God And this is the same which our Lord Jesus asserts concerning himself John 3. 13. And no man saith he hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven And so in other places He affirms his being in Heaven that is with God at the same time when he was in the earth whereby He declares the immensity of his Nature and the distinction of his person and his coming down from Heaven before he was Incarnate on the earth declaring his preexistence by both manifesting the meaning of this Expression that in the beginning he was with God But hereunto they have invented a notable evasion For although they know not well what to make of the last clause of the words that say then he was in Heaven when he spake on Earth the Son of man which is in Heaven answerable to the description of Gods Immensity do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Jer. 23. 27. But say that he was there by Heavenly meditation as another man may be yet they give a very clear Answer to what must of necessâ—â—y be included in his descending from Heaven namely his preexistence to his Incarnation For they tell us that before his publick Ministry he was in his humane nature which is all they allow unto him taken up into Heaven and there taught the Gospel as the great Impostor Mahomet pretended he was taught his Alcoran If you ask them who told them so they cannot tell but thâ—y can tell when it was namely when he was led by the spirit into the Wilderness for forty days after his baptism But yet this instance is subject to another her misadventure in that one of the Eâ—angelists plainly affirms that he was those forty dayes in the Wilderness with the wild beasts Mark 17. 13. And so surely not in Heaven in the same nature by his bodily presence with God and his holy Angels And let me add this by the way that the Interpretation of this place Joh. 1. 1. to be mentioned after wards and those of the two places before mentioned John 8. 58. chap. 3. 31. Faustus Socinâ—s learned out of his Uncle Laelius papers as he confesseth and doth more than intimate that he believed he had them as it were by Revelation and it may be so they are indeed so forced absurd and irrational that no man could ever fix upon them by any reasonable Investigation But the Author of this Revelation if we may judge of the Parent by the Child could be no other but the spirit of Error and darkness I suppose therefore that notwithstanding these exceptions Christians will believe that in the beginning the word was with God that is that the Son was with the Father as is frequently elsewhere declared But who was this Word saith the Apostle He was God He was so with God that is the Father as that he himself was God also God in that the notion of God which both nature and the Scripture doth represent Not a God by Office one exalted to that dignity which cannot well be pretended before the Creation of the world but as Thomas confessed him our Lord and our God John 20. 28. Or as Paul expresses it over all God blessed for ever or the most high God which these men love to deny Let not the infidelity of men excited by the craft and malice of Satan sâ—ek for blind occasions and this matter is determined if the Word and Testimony of God be able to umpire a difference amongst the Children of men Here is the sum of our Creed in this matter In the beginning the Word was God and so continues unto Eternity being Alpha and Omâ—ga the first and the last the Lord God Almighty And to shew that he was so God in the beginning as that he was distinct one in some thing from God the Father by whom afterwards he was sent into the world he adds ver 2. the same was in the beginning with God Father also to evince what he hath asserted and revealed for us to believe the Holy Ghost adds both as a firm declaration of his Eternal Deity and also his immediate care of the world which how he variously exercised both in a way of providence and grace he afterwards declares verse 3. All things were made by him He was so in the beginning before all things as that he made them all And that it may not be supposed that the All that he is said to make or create was to be limited unto any certain sort of things he adds that without him nothing was made that was made which gives the first Assertion an absolute universality as to its subject And this he farther describes v. 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him The world that was
said to do in the foregoing testimonies I say therefore unto this part of our Cause as unto the other that unless we will cast off all Reverence of God and in a king of Atheism which as I suppose the prevailing wickedness of this Age hath not yet arrived unto say that the Scriptures were written on purpose to deceive us and to lead us into mistakes about and misapprehensions of what it proposeth unto us we must acknowledge the Holy Ghost to be a substance a person God yet distinct from the Father and the Son For to tell us that he will come unto us that he will be our Comforter that he will teach us lead us guide us that he spake of old in and by the Prophets that they were moved by him acted by him that he searcheth the deep things of God works as he will that he appointeth to himself Ministers in the Church In a word to declare in places innumerable what he hath done what he doth what he will do what he sayes and speaks how he acts and proceeds what his will is and to warn us that we grieve him not sin not against him with things innumerable of the like nature and all this while to oblige us to believe that he is not a person an helper a comforter a searcher a willer but a quality in some especial operations of God or his power and vertue in them were to distract men not to instruct them and leave them no certain conclusion but this that there is nothing certain in the whole Book of God And of no other tendency are these and the like imaginations of our Adversaries in this matter But let us briefly consider what is objected in general unto the truth we have confirmed First They say the Holy Spirit is said to be given to be sent to be bestowed on men and to be promised unto them and therefore it cannot be that he should be God for how can any of these things be spoken of God I answer As these Expressions do not prove him to be God nor did ever any produce them to that purpose yet they undeniably prove him to be a person or an intellingent voluntary Agent concerning whom they are spoken and affirmed For how can the power of God or a quality as they speak be said to be sent to be given to be bestowed on men so that these very Expressions are destructive to their imaginations Secondly He who is God equal in nature and being with the Father may be promised sent and given with respect unto the holy dispensation and condescension wherein he hath undertaken the Office of being our Comforter and Sanctifier Thirdly The communications distributions impartings divisions of the spirit which they mention as they respect the Object of them Or those on whom they were or are bestowed denote only works gifts operations and effects of the spirit the rule whereof is expressed 1 Cor. 12. 7. He workeeth them in whom he will and as he will And whether these and the like exceptions taken from Actings and operations which are plainly interpreted and explained in sundry places of Scripture and evidently enough in the particular places where they are used are sufficient to impeach the truth of the Revelation before declared all who have a due reverence of God his word and truths will easily understand and discern These things being declared in the Scripture concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost it is moreover Revealed and these three are one that is one God joyntly to be worshipped feared adored believed in and obeyed in order unto eternal life For although this doth absolutely and necessarily follow from what is declared and hath been spoken concerning the one God or onenesâ— of the Derty yet for the confirmation of our faith and that we may not by the distinct consideration of the three be taken off from the one it is particularly declared that these three are one that one the one and same God But whereas as was said before this can no otherwise be the testimonies given thereunto are not so frequently multiplyed as they are unto those other heads of this truth which through the craft of Satan and the pride of men might be more lyable to exceptions But yet they are clear full and distinctly sufficient for faith to acquiesce in immediately without any other expositions interpretations or arguments beyond our understanding of the naked importance of the words Such are they of the Father the Son John 10. 30. I and my Father are one Father Son and Spirit Joh. 5. 7. three that bare witness in Heaven Father Son and Spirit and these three are one Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Spirit For if those into whose name we are Baptized be not one in nature we are by our Baptism engaged into the Service and Worship of more Gods than one For as being Baptized or sacredly initiated into or in the name of any one doth Sacramentally bind us unto a holy and Religious obedience unto him and in all things to the avowing of him as the God whose we are and whom we serve as here we are in the Name of the Father Son and Spirit so if they are not one God the Blasphemous consequence before mentioned must unavoidably be admitted which it also doth upon the Socinian principle who whilest of all others they seem to contend most for one God are indeed direct polutheists by owning others with Religious respect due to God alone which are not so Once more it is revealed also that these three are distinct among themselves by certain peculiar Relative properties if I may yet use these terms So that they are distinct living divine intelligent voluntary principles of operation or working and that in and by internal acts one towards another and in acts that outwardly respect the Creation and the several parts of it Now this distinction originally lyeth in this that the Father begetteth the Son and the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both of them The manner of these things so far as they may be expressed unto our Edification shall afterwards be spoken to At present it sufficeth for the satisfaction and confirmation of our faith that the distinctions named are clearly revealed in the Scripture and are proposed to be its proper object in this matter Psalm 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Matth. 16. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 1. 14. We saw his Glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father Ver. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath revealed him John 5. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 1 Joh. 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding Joh. 14. 26.
suppose that this is the first time that this Doctrine fell under this imputation nor could it possibly be lyable unto this charge from any who did either understand it or the grounds on which it is commonly opposed For there is no end of the Life or death of Christ which the Socinians themselves admit of but it is also allowed and asserted in the Doctrine now called in Question Do they say that he taught the Truth or revealed the whole mind and will of God concerning his Worship and our obedience We say the same Dâ— they say that by his death he hare testimony unto and confirmed the truth which he had taught it is also owned by us Do they say that in what he did and suâ—fered he set us an Example that we should labour after conformity unto it is what we acknowledge and teach Only we say that all these things belong principally to his Prophetical Office But we moreover affirm and believe that as a Priest or in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office he did in his death and sufferings offer himself a Sacrifice to God to make Attonement for our sins which they deny and that he dyed for us or in our stead that we might go free without the faith and acknowledgement whereof no part of the Gospel can be rightly understood All the ends then which they themselves assign of the Life and death of Christ are by us granted and the principal one which gives life and efficacy to the rest is by them denyed Neither 2. doth it fall under any possible imagination that the praise due unto God should be Ecclipsed hereby The Love and Kindness of God towards us is in the Scripture fixed principally and fundamentally on his sending of his only begotten Son to dye for us And certainly the greater the work was that he had to do the greater ought our acknowledgement of his Love and kindness to be but it is said 5. That it represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father Answ. 1. The Scripture referreth the Love of the Father unto two heads 1. The sending of his Son to dye for us John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 John 4. 8. 2. In choosing sinners unto a participation of the fruits of his love Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. The Love of the Son is fixed signally on his actual giving himself to dye for us Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 5. 25. Rev. 1. 5. What ballances these Persons have got to weigh these Loves in and to conclude which is the greatest or most weighty I know not 2. Although only the actual discharge of his Office be directly assigned to the Love of Christ yet his condâ—scention in taking our nature upon him expressed by his mind Ephes 6. 7. and the readiness of his Will Psalm 40. 8. doth eminently comprise Love in it also Thirdly The Love of the Father in sending of the Son was an act of his will which being a natural and essential property of God it was so far the act of the Son also as he is partaker of the same nature though eminently and in respect of order it was peculiarly the act of the Father 4. The anger of â—od against sin is an effect of his essential Righteousness and Holiness which belong to him as God which yet hinders not but that both Father and Son and Spirit acted Love towards sinners They say again 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction Answ. 1. It were endless to consider the improper and absurd expressions which are made use of in these exceptions as here the last words have no tolerable sence in them according to any principles whatever 2. If the Son 's purchasing Redemption for us procuring obtaining it do rob God of the gift of his Son for our redemption the Holy Ghost must answer for it For having obtained for us or procured or purchased eternal redemption is the word used by himself Heb. 9. 14. And to deny that he hath laid down his Life a ransome for us and to have bought us with a price is openly to deny the Gospel 2. In a word the great gift of God consisted in giving his Son to obtain Redemption for us 3. Herein he offered himself unto God and gave himself for us and if these Persons are offended herewithal what are we that we should withstand God They say 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the debt is not hereby absolved or forgiven but transferred only and by consequence we are no better provided for salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father Answ. The looseness and dubiousness of the expressions here used makes an appearance that there is something in them when indeed there is not There is an Allusion in them to a debt and a payment which is the most improper expression that is used in this matter and the interpretation thereof is to be regulated by other proper expressions of the same thing But to keep to the Allusion 1. Christ paid his own but not for himself Dan. 9. 26. 2. Paying it for us the debt is discharged and our actual discharge is to be given out according to the wayes and means and upon the conditions appointed and constituted by the Father and Son 3. When a debt is so transferred as that one is accepted in the room and obliged to payment in the stead of another and that payment is made and accepted accordingly all Law and Reason require that the original Debtor be discharged 4. What on this account we owe to the Son is praise thankfulness and obedience and not the debt which he took upon himself and discharged for us when we were non-solvent by his love So that this matter is plain enough and not to be involved by such cloudy expressions and incoherent discourse following the Metaphor of a debt For if God be considered as the Creditor we all as Debtors and being insolvent Christ undertook out of his Love to pay the debt for us and did so accordingly which was accepted with God it follows that we are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love who hath made this satisfaction for us which we shall eternally acknowledge It is said 8. It no way renders Men beholding or in the least obliged to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the least farthing so that the acknowledgements are peculiarly the Sons which destroyes the whole current of
multiplyed yet in respect of communication it is otherwise it is communicated unto more namely to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And therefore if any thing be intended to be concluded from hence the Proposition must be expressed according to what the subject requires as capable of communication or Attribution to more than one as thus who ever is the only true God is the Father which Proposition these Persons and their Masters shall never be able to prove I have given in particular these strictures thus briefly upon these empty Sophisms partly because they are well removed already and partly because they are meer exscriptions out of an Author not long since translated into English unto whom an entire answer may ere long be returned That which at present shall suffice is to give a general answer unto all these cavills with all of the same kind which the men of these principles do usually insist upon I. The things they say which we teach concerning the Trinity are contrary to Reason and thereof they endeavour to give sundry instances wherein the summ of the opposition which they make unto this truth doth consist But first I ask what Reason is it that they intend It is their own the carnal reason of men By that they will judge of these Divine Mysteries The Scripture tells us indeed that the Spirit of a man wâ—ich is in him knows the things of a man A mans Spirit by natural Reason may judge of natural things But the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. So that what we know of these things we must receive upon the Râ—vâ—lation of the Spirit of God meerly if the Apostle may be believed And it is given unto men to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God To some and not to others and unless it be so given them they cannot know them In particular none can know the Father unless the Son reveal him Nor will or doth or can flesh and blood reveal or understand Jesus Christ to be the Son of the living God unless the Father reveal him and instruct us in the truth of it Matth. 16. 18. The way to come to the acknowledgement of these things is that described by the Apostle Ephes. 3. 14 15 16 17 18 19. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant ye according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints c. As also Col. 2. 2. That ye might come unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge It is by faith and prayer and through the Revelation of God that we may come to the acknowledgement of these things and not by the carnal reasonings of men of corrupt minds 2. What Reason do they intend If Reason absolutely the Reason of things we grant that nothing contrary unto it is to be admitted But Reason as it is in this or that man particularly in themselves we know to be weak maimed and imperfect and that they are and all other men extreamly remote from a just and full comprehension of the whole Reason of things Are they in such an estate as that their apprehension shall pass for the measure of the nature of all things we know they are far from it So that though we will not admit of any thing that is contrary to reason yet the least intimation of a Truth by Divine Revelation will make me embrace it although it should be contrary to the reason of all the Socinians in the world Reason in the abstract or the just measure of the answering of one thing unto another is of great moment But Reason that is what is pretended to be so or appears to be so unto this or that man especially in and about things of Divine Revelation is of very small importance of none at all where it riseth up against the express testimonies of Scripture and these multiplyed to their mutual confirmation and explanation 3. Many things are above Reason that is as considered in this or that subject as men which are not at all against it It is an easie thing to compel the most curious enquirers of these dayes to a ready confession hereof by multitudes of Instances in things finite and temporary And shall any dare to deny but it may be so in things Heavenly Divine and Spiritual Nay there is no concernment of the Being of God or his properties but is absolutely above the comprehension of our reason We cannot by searching find out God we cannot find out the Almighty to perfection 4. The very foundation of all their Objections and Cavils against this truth is destructive of as fundamental principles of reason as are in the world They are all at best reduced to this it cannot be thus in things finite the same Being cannot in one respect be one in another three and the like and therefore it is so in things Infinite All these reasonings are built upon this supposition that that which is finite can perfectly comprehend that which is Infinite An assertion absurd foolish and contradictory unto it self Again it is the highest reason in things of pure Revelation to captivate our understandings to the Authority of the Revealer which here is rejected So that by a loud specious pretence of Reason these men by a little captious Sophistry endeavour not only to countenance their unbelief but to evert the greatest principles of Reason it self 5. The Objections these men principally insist upon are meerly against the Explanations we use of this Doctrine not against the Primitive Revelation of it which is the principal object of our faith which how preposterous and irrational a course of proceeding it is hath been declared 6. It is a Rule among Philâ—sophers that if a man on just grounds and reasons have embraced any opinion or perswasion he is not to desert it meerly because he cannot answer every Objection against it For if the Objections wherewith we may be entangled be not of the same weight and importance with the reason on which we embraced the opinion it is a madness to forego it on the Account thereof And much more must this hold amongst the common sort of Christians in things spiritual and divine If they will let go and part with their faith in any truth because they are not able to answer distinctly some Objections that may be made against it they may quickly find themselves disputed into Atheism 7. There is so great an intimation made of such an expression and resemblance of a Trinity in Unity in the very