* John 4.26 I that speak unto thee am he If then Christ spoke the Truth and St. John hath written the Truth Christ is he who is also called ‖ Isa 63.9 8. the Angel of God's presence who saved them his People so he was their Saviour All this spoken of the Lord Jesus The Proofs of this out of the New Testament are as clear as can be besides the Texts already quoted observe the following * John 17.3 This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ that is to be the only true God a thing usual amongst the Hebrews for though the Language be Greek yet the Writers were Jews whose Tongue and manner of expressing themselves is Compendious and Laconick and commonly implies more than it doth express especially in avoiding of Repetitions of many Instances let one serve for all 't is this ‖ Psal 37.25 I have been Young and now am Old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread supply the word forsaken before expressed for sometimes the Seed of the Righteous God suffers by way of Trial to beg but though they beg yet he never forsaketh them Thus in this place after the words Jesus Christ the words to be the only true God ought to be supplied and understood The same Evangelist addeth elsewhere * John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God of the Living God according to the Confession before made by Peter ‖ Chap. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God The Son and only Son of the Living God must needs also be the Living God 'T is said * Acts 20.28 God hath purchased the Church with his own Blood Properly speaking God hath no Blood How then can he purchase a Church with his own Blood otherwise than by the means of an Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Natures in one Person by vertue whereof the Blood which belongs to Humane Nature is called God's own Blood Thomas calls him * John 20.28 my Lord and my God and St. Paul saith ‖ Rom. 9.5 he is over all God Blessed for ever and †Colos 2.9 in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily How fully doth this express it thus * 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the Flesh and his beloved Apostle saith ‖ 1 John 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come in the Flesh and hath given us an understanding that we might know him that is true Son of God even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life This Jesus Christ is not God only in comparison of other Men or by some special Prerogative of Favour or in some higher degree than all the rest but this Jesus Christ is the True God How can it be more plainly and fully expressed that he is the True God So every where else the Lord Jesus is absolutely called God the True God and not relatively as Moses is said * Exod. 7.1 to be made a God to Pharaoh Holy Scripture gives our Blessed Saviour Attributes that are incommunicable to the Creature so he must needs be True God As first Eternity whereof he is called the Father or * Isa 9.6 the Everlasting Father also ‖ Rev. 1.8 17 18. Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending which is which was and which is to come the Almighty repeated Verses 11 12. namely when the Apostle turned to see the Voice that spake to him that had called himself Alpha and Omega which being the first and last Letters of the Greek Alphabet signifie first of all and last of all that is his Eternity he saw one like the Son of Man that is the Lord Jesus who v. 17. calls also himself the first and the last and the next Verse shews it to be understood of Christ for he saith I am he that liveth and was dead And Chap. 21.6 he saith again I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End to be compared with v. 3. The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them To be understood of the Incarnation as expressed by the same Apostle John 1 14. and if any Doubt should remain 't is fully cleared Chap. 22.13 where again and together are rehearsed the general words spoken asunder in the other places I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End the First and the Last and to know who saith so of himself read v. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angel and v. 6. is called the Lord God And the Lord God sent his Angel c. And that all this is the Attribute and Prerogative of the only true Eternal God Isa 41.4 and 44.6 it appears out of Isaiah which our Saviour's words in the Revelations relate to 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 which to the same purpose are repeated in other places of the same Prophesie To condescend unto our Capacity the Spirit of God doth represent this Eternity in three parts Past Present and to come by him which is which was Rev. 1.4 and which is to come and it cannot be denied thereby the True Eternal God to be understood and hereunto doth fitly answer that place of Scripture which applies it to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Socinians would have Christ's Being to have began with his Birth of the Blessed Virgin but he peremptorily confutes them with the Jews when he saith * John 8.58 before Abraham was I am Can that Generation of Vipers deny he spoke the Truth when he said so If they do then with the Jews they declare themselves to be the Children of the Devil who as our Saviour said to them * Verse 44. Is a Liar and the Father of it If now our Saviour was amongst them they would take up Stones to Stone him as the Jews did at that time according to their Principles which are the same with those of the Jews they would call him a Blasphemer and make use of their words * Chap. 10.33 For a good Work we stone thee not but for Blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God I ask Did the Lord Jesus upon this Charge deny himself to be God Which he would have done if he had not been Or else Was he an Impostor or Deluder Which he must needs have been if he would have passed for God when he was not O the Horrid and Insufferable Blasphemy of Wicked Men. Then Scripture attributes Omniscience unto Christ when he was upon Earth as well as
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
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
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
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
to feed their Flocks with Sound Doctrine and with the Sincere Milk of Truth to prevent the Wolves coming into their Sheep-folds which now are waiting for an Opportunity to enter in and tear * Ezek. 13.5 Let them go up into the Gaps and make up the Hedges for the House of God and use every one all possible endeavours with Watching and Preaching to prevent the Poison's creeping within their several Churches and strive with good Lives and Conversations to procure God's Blessing upon their Labours But in a special way to the Superior Clergy who have a great Hand in the Government of the Church and are dignified with Titles that the greater Power they have the more is and shall be required at their Hands when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shall appear I dare not to presume so far of my self as to think I am able to advise much less to prescribe any Methods that must be left to their Christian Prudence and to that Measure which God hath imparted to them of his Spirit However with Submission it will be well to begin at Home and every one see whither all be safe and sound within the Pales of their Jurisdiction and if there appears any signs of Leprosie and Plague without loss of time and in the most proper ways let them Purge Cleanse and Remove it and then use means conducing to keep it out and hinder its coming in Afterwards let them meet and joyn Heads together and be a mutual Help and take such wholsom and vigorous Resolutions as may by the Blessing of God root out and prevent the growing of those dangerous Weeds Let every one not only within his Precincts labour against the Distemper but also altogether strive to drive it out of the Land Let them use their Authority as far as it reacheth in Ecclesiastical things and wherein it falls short they may for help apply to the Civil Power and those amongst them whom God hath endued with sufficient Parts and Learning Let them in God's Name make use of those Weapons to fight against and batter down Error and Heresie to discourage and discountenance it in the Fautors and Professors thereof And speedily they must go about it for fear of coming too late for 't is too true and too publick how the Poison is gotten not only here and there up and down but also into our very Vitals I mean into the Vniversities Let them but be Real and Upright for God and our Saviour's Interest and trust God for a Success But at one time or other * Jer. 48.10 the Curse of God will light upon those that do his Work deceitfully or negligently Wherefore mind ye Christ if ye will have him to mind you be concerned for him and his Glory if you desire him to be concerned for you My next Address is to the Magistrate and Secular Power whither Supreme or Subordinate Legislative or Executive with all humble Respect in the present case to put them in mind of their Duty as they Rule for God who hath placed them in their Stations so at the Last and Terrible Day if not before he will call them to give him an account of their Administration he not only hath called but also preserves them in the Exercise of their Charge and keeps the most Unruly in Awe and Obedience under them As this he doth for them so he expects they shall do other things for him he hath put the * Rom. 13.4 Sword in their Hand which they bear not in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil not only to maintain their own Authority but also and chiefly that of God for all Authority is originatively in him and but derivatively in them for in his Name and by Vertue of his Commission is all Jurisdiction and all Judgment to be executed They are the Keepers of both Tables to punish not only the Transgressors of the second but also those of the first not only Adulterers Thieves and Murtherers but also Profane Impious Idolaters and Blasphemers I do not say presently to Hang Draw and Quarter but let the Guilty be discountenanced and the Obstinate and Contumacious punished Herein let Christian Prudence be their Guide and the Law of the Land not without God's be the Rule whereby they will unnest our Atheistical Impious and Prophane Persons who do shelter themselves under Socinianism I am sure the Devil and all the Powers of Hell can raise no Opinions more Damnable and Blasphemous no more Destructive to the very Foundation of Faith and Salvation than to bring in amongst a Christian Society that which spares not but strikes at Divinity it self which offers to pull out of God's Bosom his only begotten Son who robs that very Son of God of his Nature and of that Glory which he had with the Father from all Eternity and undertakes to Annihilate that Holy and Blessed Spirit of God This indeed is to grieve him that comforteth us in all our Griefs and at once to overthrow the whole Mystery of our Redemption for if Christ be not God he hath not satisfied the Justice of God nor appeased his Wrath And thus our Faith is vain and we are still in our Sins for it was impossible for any Man meerly such to perform that great Work and overcome all our Enemies I say though God had strengthned him never so much for no Man could receive a greater Power than Humane Nature is capable of and God could not of a Man make a God because it implies a Contradiction Humanity being passible was a fit subject to suffer Pains due for Sin and the Curse of the Law but an Infinite Power was necessary to get the Victory over those Torments and over Death I say not only that Humane Nature alone could not perform this but I add That Angelical Nature more noble and perfect would have sunk under the Weight and Burthen of it These Errors we must look upon as Hellish and Prodigious Monsters as indeed they are but withall the Impudence and Shamelesness of those that are therewith infected is a great Aggravation they Glory in their Shame for with a bare and brazen Face they own and publish their Opinions which I could observe to my Grief and Amazement No Modesty in their Behaviour no sign of Piety in their Discourse no Check of Conscience they speak openly write publickly and boldly disperse their Erroneous Books and no Curb no Restraint put upon them they Poison the Souls and no body saith to them What doest thou We have the Ny s the Fer ns the Fr ks c. known for what they be we have here as I am informed one Crel us Nephew to that Infamous Socinian beyond Sea we have here some Fr ch Wretches who before they came over durst not own their Opinions for fear of Fire and Faggot yet here vent them with Liberty who if ever they went back would no