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
works of the Creation as learned men have manifested by various instances that it is most unreasonable to suppose that to be contrary to reason which many objects of rational consideration do more or less present unto our minds 8. To add no more considerations of this nature Let any of the Adversaries produce any one Argument or grounds of reason or those pretended to be such against that that hath been asserted that hath not already been bafflâ—d a thousand times and it shall receive an answer or a publick acknowledgement that it is Indissoluble Of the Person of Christ. THE next Head of Opposition made by the men of this conspiracy against this sacred truth is against the head of all truth the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Socinians indeed would willingly put a better face or colour upon their Error about the Person of Christ then it will bear or indure to lye on it For in their Catechism unto this Question Is the Lord Jesus Christ purus Homo a meer man they Answer by no means How then hath he a divine nature also which is their next question To this they say by no means for this is contrary to right reason How then will these pretended Masters of Reason reconcile these things For to us it seems that if Christ have no other nature but that of a man he is as to his nature purus Homo a meer man and no more Why they answer that he is not a meer man because he was born of a Virgin Strange that that should be an argument to prove him more than a man which the Scripture and all men in their right wits grant to be an invincible reason to prove him to be a man and as he was born of her no more Rom. 1. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law But say they he was endowed with the Spirit wrought Miracles was raised from the dead had all power given in Heaven and Earth for by these degrees he became to be God But all men see that the inquiry is about the nature of Christ and this Answer is about his state and condition Now this changeth not his nature on the one hand no more than his being humbled poor and dying did on the other This is the right reason we have to deal withall in these men If a man should have enquired of some of them of old whether Melchizedeck were purus Homo a meer man some of them would have said no because he was the Holy Ghost some no because he was the Son of God himself and some no because he was an Angel for such foolish opinions have men fallen into But how sottish soever their conceptions were their Answer to that enquiry would have been regular becaâ—se the Question and Answer respect the same subject in the same respect But never any was so stupid as to answer he was not a meer man that is by nature because he was a Priest of the high God which respects his Office and condition Yet such is the pretence of these men about the Person of Christ to incrustate and give some colour unto their soul mis-belief as supposing that it would be much to their disadvantage to own Christ only as a meer man though the most part of their disputes that they have troubled the Christian World withall have had no other design nor aim but to prove him so to be and nothing else I shall briefly according to the method insisted on first lay down what is the direct Revelation which is the object of our faith in this matter then express the Revelation it self in the Scripture testimonies wherein it is recorded and having vindicated some one or other of them from their exceptions manifest how the Doctrine hereof is farther explained unto the Edification of them that believe That there is a Second Person the Son of God in the holy Trin-Vnity of the God-head we have proved before That this Person did of his infinite Love and Grace take upon him our nature bumane nature so as that the divine and humane nature should be come one Person one Christ God and Man in one so that whatever he doth in and about our Salvation it is done by that one Person God and Man is revealed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith And this is that which we believe concerning the Person of Christ. Whatever acts are ascribâ—d unto him however immediately performed in or by the Humane Nature or in and by his Divine Nature they are all the acts of that one Person in whom are both these natures That this Christ God and Man is because he is God and on the account of what he hath done for us as Man to be believed in worshipped with worship Religious and Divine to be trusted and obeyed this also is asserted in the Scripture And these things are as it were the common notions of Christian Religion the common Principles of our Profession which the Scriptures also abundantly testifie unto Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call his name Emanuel that is he shall be God with us or God in our nature Not that that should be his name whereby he should be called in this World but that this should be the condition of his Person he should be God with us God in our nature So are the words expounded Mat. 1. 21 22 23. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us His name whereby he was to be called was Jesus that is a Saviour And thereby was accomplished the prediction of the Prophet that he should be Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us Now a Child born to be God with us is God in that Child taking our nature upon him and no otherwise can the words be understood Isa. 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called the mighâ—y God The Child that is born the Son that is given is the mighty God and as the mighâ—y God and a Child born or Son given he is the Prince of peace as he is there called or our Saviour John 1. 14. The Word was made flesh That the Word was God who made all things he had before declared Now he affirms that this Word was made flesh How converted into flesh
the Personal Union The Divine and humane nature in Christ have but one personal subsistence and so are but one Christ one distinct personal principle of all Operations of all that he did or doth as Mediator And this undeniably follows from what is declared in the Testimonies mentioned For the Word could not be made flesh nor could he take on him the seed of Abraham nor could the mighty God be a Child born and given unto us nor could God shed his blood for his Church but that the two natures so directly expressed must be united in one Person for otherwise as they are two natures still they would be two Persons also 2. Each nature thus united in Christ is entire and preserves unto it self its own natural properties For he is no less perfect God for being made Man nor no less a true perfect Man consisting of soul and body with all their essential parts by that natures being taken into subsistence with the Son of God His Divine nature still continues Immense Omniscient Omnipotent infinite in Holiness c. his bumane nature finite limited and before its Glorification subject to all infirmities of life and death that the same nature in others absolutely considered is obnoxious unto 3. In each of these natures he acts suitably unto the essential properties and principles of that nature As God he made all things upholds all things by the word of his Power fills Heaven and Earth c. As man he lived hungred suffered dyed rose ascended into Heaven Yet by reason of the Union of both these natures in the same Person not only his own Person is said to do all these things but the Person expressed by the name which he hath on the account of one nature is said to do that which he did only in the other So God is said to redeem his Church with his own blood and to lay down his life for us and the Son of Man to be in Heaven when he was in the Earth All because of the unity of his Person as was declared And these things do all of them directly and undeniably flow from what is revealed concerning his Person as before is declared Of the Satisfaction of CHRIST THE last thing to be enquired into upon occasion of the late opposition to the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel is the satisfaction of Christ. And the Doctrine hereof is such as I eonceive needs rather to be explained than vindicated For it being the Center wherein most if not all the Lines of Gospel Promises and Precepts do meet and the great medium of all our Communion with God in Faith and Obedience the great distinction between the Religion of Christians and that of all others in the world it will easily on a due proposal be assented unto by all who would be esteemed Disciples of Jesus Christ. And whether a parcel of insipid Cavils may be thought sufficient to obliterate the Revelation of it men of sober minds will judge and discern For the term of Satisfaction we contend not about it It doth indeed properly express and connote that great Effâ—ct of the Death of Christ which in the cause before us we plead for But yet because it belongs rather to the Explanation of the Truth contended for then is used expresly in the Revelation of it and because the right understanding of the Word it self depends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration I shall not in this entrance of our discourse insist precisely upon it but leave it as the natural conclusion of what we shall find expresly declared in the Scripture Neither do I say this as though I did decline the Word or the right use of it or what is properly signified by it but do only cast it into its proper place answerable unto our method and design in the whole of this brieâ— discourse I know some have taken a new way of expressing and declaring the Doctrine concerning the Mediation of Christ with the causes and ends of his death which they think more rational than that usually insisted on But as what I have yet heard of or seen in that kind hath been not only unscriptural but also very irrational and most remote from that accuracy whereunto they pretend who make use of it so if they shall publish their conceptions it is not improbable but that they may meet with a Scholastical Examination by some hand or other Our present work as hath been often declared is for the establishment of the Faith of them who may be attempted if not brought into danger to be seduced by the slights of some who lye in wait to deceive and the clamours of others who openly drive the same design What therefore the Scripture plainly and clearly reveals in this matter is the subject of our present enquiry And either in so doing as occasion shall be offered we shall obviate or in the close of it remove those Sophisms that the Sacred Truth now proposed to consideration hath been attempted withal The summ of what the Scripture reveals about this great truth commonly called the satisfaction of Christ may be reduced unto these ensuing heads 1. That Adam being made upright sinned against God and all mankind all his posterity in him Gen. 1. 27. So God created man in hit own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them Gen. 3. 11. And he said who told thee that thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whreof I commandeded thee that then shouldst not eat Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Ver. 18. Therefore by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Ver. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners 2. That by this Sin of our first Parents all men are brought into an Estate of Sin and Apostacy from God and of an enmity unto him Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sâ—â—â—pen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God fâ—r it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Chap. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Thirdly That in this state all men continue in sin against God nor of themselves can do otherwise Rom. 3. 10 11 12. There is none righteous no not one there is none
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
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is