the same time therefore several Persons indued with several individuating differences cannot be partakers of the same common nature which is false as I will now immediately show you proceeding with all imaginable caution that the intellectual System being a wild country and very full of woods I may not unadvisedly fall into an Ambuscade by the following well weigh'd and well considered steps First I say that that which is in it self one cannot be conceived as three without division Secondly that those things which are in themselves distinctly three cannot be conceived as one without composition Thirdly that the Divine Nature being infinitely and immutably perfect is likewise simple and uncompounded uncapable of division on the one hand or composition on the other Fourthly by God the Father I understand that simple similar and Omnipresent Divine Substance or space endued with all possible power goodness and wisdom whose parts by reason of the Omnipresence of the whole are even by cogitation inseparable from each other or that Omnipresent Divine activity and life which is as much and more simply one in and with it self then any other secondary or derivative life can be being all over nothing else but one entire Will Vnderstanding Goodness Fruitfulness or Power of Action and Production which being only that which is truly and properly God is therefore called God the Father as being the most simple in it self and also the source and fountain of Divinity in the two subordinate Persons for the Persons are not equally perfect as to their whole nature although the Divine Substance which makes them all to be God be in all three Numerically and individually the same Fifthly by God the Son I understand the second Person of the Blessed Trinity resulting from the Vnion of the humane Nature with the Divine Substance which Divine Substance being endued and furnished with a life by it self is for that reason a Person by it self simply and abstractly considered for this is the most general and comprehensive notion of a Person that it is a being endued with life or with self-consciousness or self-sensation to which Divine Life the Human being added and being influenced animated and acted by it and vitally united to it there arises from hence a compound life which is distinct from the simple which is a life by it self without the accession of the other and if a life and a person be the very same then another sort of life makes another sort of Person and another sort of person is another person that is a compound Person which is no more the same with simple then unity and composition are themselves the same But to make the solidity of this notion the more plainly to appear it is to be considered that though these two natures the Divine and the Human are always vitally united to one another so as they feel and enjoy the same common life yet there are some cases to be met with wherein the Father that is the Divine and Simple Substance acts as a Person distinctly by it self without the concurrence of the Human with it and there are others wherein they act in concurrence together as if they had but one Will one Vnderstanding one simple and undivided Power of Action and Operation To the first of these Heads there are the following particulars unquestionably belonging First when the Father is said to beget and the Son to be begotten which he did from all Eternity by way of Emanation as it is very easie for any Man to conceive he might do for whatsoever is not in it self impossible and contradictory to be done or performed is a possible object of the Divine Power and was so without question from all Eternity because the Divine Nature was always absolutely and infinitely perfect and by consequence the sphere of possibility to which it is coextended for there is nothing possible which is not so a Divine Power was from all Eternity exactly the same though there had not been that eternal congruity and disposition which there appears to have been in the Divine Nature to the production of the Human by that means as it were to exemplifie and enjoy it self in its most perfect image and resemblance and the Father when he is said to have begotten the Son it is not by any means so to be understood as if one Divine Substance could beget another which is the very height of Non-sense and Blasphemy into the bargain but these two things are manifestly couched under it and to be understood by it First that the Father that is the simple and similar ubiquitary Divine Substance did from all Eternity by way of emanation produce that Human soul or Personality which was the pre-existing soul of Christ before his Incarnation and before all Worlds being the first born of every Creature Secondly he did likewise from all Eternity constitute a vital Vnion betwixt his own simple and ubiquitary Substance and this eternally begotten or emanatively produced Human Soul so as they were made to feel and enjoy one another and where ever there is an Vnity of self-consciousness and reciprocal enjoyment of each others life so as the human life does at the same time participate and share in the Divine this is enough to constitute one common person resulting from the vital Vnion of the Divine and Human Nature into this common life and mutual enjoyment for an Vnity of life is the most strict inseparable and indivisible sort of Vnity that can possibly be conceived and yet notwithstanding the Human Nature though it were eternally produced yet it did not nor could not possibly produce it self which is to suppose a thing or person to be before it is neither did it or could it possibly unite it self in that entire and close manner with the Divine but in both these respects the Human Nature is originally passive though to the latter it may be supposed to concur by a consent of Will though not of Power and God the Father that is the simple and original Divine Substance is considered as a person acting by himself In the second place when the Father is said to send and the Son to be sent here the Father or the simple and self-existing Divine Substance is to be considered as a Person by it self and acting apart from the Son who is said to be sent for in the first place the Divine Substance which is Vbiquitary and Omnipresent cannot be said with respect unto it self either to send or to be sent for whatsoever is Omnipresent is at the same time considered as immoveable and quiescent there being no place into which it is possible for it to remove and this perhaps may not improbably be lookt upon as one eternal cause of the blessedness and Tranquillity of the Divine Nature that by reason of its Omnipresence it is always perfectly at rest within it self it is impassible from it self and from any thing without it it being impossible it should yield or give place to
my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but ast thou wilt and the reluctancy of the fleshly nature or of the human Soul united to a Body of Flesh and Blood for in that it consisted was so much the more painful and exquisitely tormenting by reason that it was as it were a tearing in sunder the divine and the human Nature which were at once united by the strongest Bond of Vnion and for that reason must needs be the most tenderly and painfully sensible of any Divorce or Disagreement between them for in the first place it was not only a very old but an eternal Vnion there being no time when the human nature of Christ was not or when it was not united to the divine Secondly it was an Vnion of Emanation proceeding from or begotten by the Eternal Fruitfulness of that divine Substance which is called God the Father which shews it not to be a positive union but a natural an Vnion whose parts are actually inseparable and therefore upon supposition that the Natures thus united are indued with Life and that both or either of these Natures are passible and capable of being affected with pain the least endeavour or tendency towards a Separation must cause an exquisite regret anguish and pain in that part of the Composition which is passible and subject to it wherefore the Vnion of the divine and human Nature in the Person of Christ being an Vnion of Affection and Will an Vnion of Intellect and Vnderstanding so far as the human Nature is capable of Vnderstanding and imbibing the Wisdom of the Divine and an Vnion of Life Self-consciousness and mutual Enjoyment it must needs be that in the human Nature which is confessedly passible upon the least disagreement or repugnancy of it to the Will of the Divine there must arise a most quick acute and pungent Sense created in the humanity incarnate betwixt the reasonable and the fleshly Nature the first of which resigns it self up perfectly to the most perfect Wisdom to which it hath a vital congruity and with which it studies always to preserve a most perfect agreement and finds a complacency in being conformed to it withal considering the important Reasons for which it was necessary that he should suffer upon the Cross and become a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World in which the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Justice were all of them in a manner equally concerned but the latter full of human Passions Apprehensions and Fears had a Dread and Abhorrence of such a cruel Death and by consequence found within it self a strange reluctancy and an unwillingness almost as painful as the most tormenting and cruel Death it self to undergo it besides that being at the same time vitally and personally united to the divine Substance this was another and without question the most bitter part of the Agony which our Saviour underwent betwixt submission to the divine Will and reluctancy against it both of which it did at the same time by the Combat of the reasonable and the incarnate life one of which could not think of death without a most passionate and painful aversation and to the other disobedience was worse than death to an extremity not to be exprest so that though it was only the human nature of Christ which properly speaking suffered upon the Cross yet by reason of the intimate Vnion of it with the Divine he suffered infinitely more than any other Man could do Fourthly in that Action by which the Father or the divine Substance perpetually feels and enjoys it self and adaequately understands and comprehends the whole extent and latitude of its own infinite and absolute Perfection in that Action the Father is considered as a Person acting by himself and because there is no assignable moment of Eternity when he does not do this therefore he does always really preserve a distinction of his Person and Substance from the Person of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as well as by being from and to all Eternity vitally united to the human Nature of Christ and to a certain subtle and aetherial Matter he does at the same time concur to the making up of two other Persons in that manner which hath been and shall be still hereafter more fully and particularly declared for though the human Nature of Christ be not only the most perfect in it's kind but without question the most perfect of any finite immaterial Substance whatsoever though you take in all the Hierarchy of Angels and Immortal Spirits and though by being personally and vitally and that from all Eternity united to the divine Substance it must needs for this reason have the truest Enjoyment and the fullest comprehension and understanding of it of any other Creature whatsoever yet as being but a Creature though an eternal one as being but a finite Substance though incomparably and indisputably the most perfect of any other finite Substance whatsoever it cannot have a just and adequate comprehension of an infinitely perfect Nature For nothing can adequately and fully comprehend that which is really infinite or which is all one which is endued with all possible Perfection which is not so it self and this the humane nature of Christ is not neither indeed can it be unless you suppose the divine and humane nature of Christ to be the same for all that is meant by the divine nature is a nature endued with all possible perfection so that it remains firm what I have asserted in this fourth particular that in that action in which God the Father or the Divine Substance feels enjoys and understands himself in a full perfect adaequate and truly comprehensive manner he is to be considered as a Person acting by himself distinct from the Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost Fifthly in that Action or Operation of the Divine mind by which at once he surveys the whole possibility of things and hath all their Ideas and all their several properties differences relations connexions and dependencies at the same time present to him which he always hath and which it is absolutely impossible for any finite or limited understanding at any one time to comprehend together in this action likewise in its full extent the Father is considered as a Person by himself and is really so for although as to many particulars there may be and actually is a concurrence of the Divine understanding and the Human together so as to view several of these Ideas at the same time and with a common prospect and to have exactly the same notion and apprehension concerning them it being impossible for the Human understanding to differ from the Divine so far as it is capable of imbibing it and of being influenced and acted by it which it always is to the utmost of its capacity which is but finite and so far they act as a common Person informed and ammated by one common life yet where the Human
either we must say that the Conceptions of Sarah and Elizabeth were not Typical and Significative of that of Mary the Mother of our Lord which hath been already sufficiently proved or that the latter was as certainly a pure and untainted Virgin as that the two former had past the time of Child bearing and that it had ceased to be with them after the manner of a Women and therefore it is observable that as Elizabeth's Son was by the Angel himself called by the Name of John as much as to say that he was Conceived by the Grace and Favour of God when Nature was no longer able to bring so wonderful an effect to pass so is Sarah the Mother of Isaac called by Sanchaniathon Annobert which is as much as to say she that conceiveth or bringeth forth by grace notwithstanding the inabilities and decays of Nature and they might all three in some respect and degree as well Isaac and John as our very Jesus himself be said to have been conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost or by the wonderful Power of God working without and contrary to nature The Third thing which I shall urge to prove that it was Typically and Prophetically necessary that the Messias should be born of a Virgin shall be that passage of the Psalmist Psal 45. 16 Instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have Children whom thou mayst make Princes in all Lands which words if we consider that the Jewish Genealogies were always reckoned by the Males it being not material in any Genealogy who was the Mother but who was the Father and Male Progenitor of the descending Issue from whence Women in Hebrew were called Nashim from a word that signifies to forget but Men Zecariâ—â— from another that signifies remembrance because they were the Root and Spring of Genealogy and their Names were always inserted into the Tables of descent and by that means were perpetuated to after ages I say from hence it follows that this place cannot so properly be interpreted of any as of her that being a Virgin was to conceive and bring forth for in this case the Genealogy could not be reckoned by the Father since there was no such human Parent to be met with and so it would be true as the Psalmist expresses it instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have Children that is the Genealogy was of necessity in this case to be computed from the maternal stock and I presume our Church may be supposed to have looked upon this as a genuine interpretation by appointing this Psalm for one of the proper Psalms for Christmas day and it is still more pertinent to this purpose what follows in the next Verse I will make thy Name to be remembred in all Generations therefore shall the People praise thee for ever For this is no more then what the Blessed Virgin said expresly of her self Behold from henceforth all Generations shall call me Blessed My fourth Instance to prove the same thing shall be taken from the story of Melchisedek as it is represented by the Author to the Hebrews c. 7. v. 1 2 3. compared with the 6th Chapter and the last Verse the whole place runs thus Even Jesus made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek for this Melchisedek King of Salem Priest of the most high God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all first being by Interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace without Father without Mother having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God abideth apriest continually where not to insist upon any other instance of the Parallel betwen Melchisedek and Christ which will be more properly reserved for the second branch of the Text wherein I shall assert and vindicate the Divinity of his Person I shall here only take notice that Melchisedek who in so many several respects was made like unto the Son of God did also resemble him in this that he had neither Father nor Mother the first of which if we speak of an Human Parent was true of the whole Person of Christ and the second was likewise true if we understand it of the ordinary ways of Generation or if we extend the title of Mother in propriety of speech to the Divine Nature as well as to the Human although I know because of the Union of the two natures in the same Person the Church hath taken the liberty to call her the Mother of God as well as he calls himself the Son of Man with reference to his Human and Inferiour Nature My last Instance shall be taken from the Story of Lot and his two Daughters a Story which though if it were not Recorded in Scripture and if all Scripture were not written for our Instruction it might need an Apology yet being to be found there and having so wholesome and so instructive a Lesson contained in it I shall made none for it but only observe that from one of these incestuous congressions Moab was descended from whom the Moabites had their Name And who was Moab It is known to all that understand the Sacred Language that Moab is Miab as much as to say Begotten of his Father Begotten of the same common Parent who was the Father of his Mother as well as of himself which was in some sense the Case of our Saviour with respect to the Blessed Virgin for God is the common Father of us all though he were in a more intimate and immediate sence the Father of Christ now it is manifest that Christ according to his Human nature was contained in the Loyns of Moab by the Mariage of Boaz a Jew to Ruth a Moabitish Woman neither let it offend any Man that the Conjunction of Lot with his two Daughters was infamous and incestuous in the Highest degree for the matter of fact is unquestionably true that Christ was contained as to his Humane nature in the Loyns of Moab besides it is farther true in the Genealogy of our Saviour that he was descended of Pharez who was the incestuous Off-spring of Judah Thamar and Pharats in Hebrew from whence Pharez had his Name signified to break down or to break through and he by this Name was a Type as was as a Progenitor of him that was to break down the Partition Wall betwixt the Jew and Gentile that so all Mankind might be as one Sheepfold under one Sheepheard which Vnion of the Jew and Gentile by the Sacrifice and by the Dispensation and in the Person of Christ was likewise Typically denoted in the marriage of Boaz a Jewish Man to Ruth a Moabitish Woman that is of a Jew to a Gentile besides that Boaz marrying her by vertue of that Law by which the next of Kin was to redeem the Inheritance of the Deceased and Childless Husband this signified that he was
simple and uncompounded or else each person if it have not a piece of a Will which is a piece of Non-sense whether you respect the faculty in general or any particular operation proceeding from it must have a distinct Will by it self which though it may possibly be consistent with a consent of Will in them all three yet with the self same Will it is not and therefore I rather look upon this as the Doctor ought to have done for another instance of the uncertain and fluctuating humour of Athanasius then any necessary consequence or result from the Fantastick Trinity of integration which it is so far from that the contrary is evidently true if there be any such thing as truth or demonstration in the world and in strictness of Speech that other expression of Athanasius which he cites in pag. 619. will bear no other sense than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Godhead of the Son is the Godhead of the Father For this cannot be true of a Specifical Unity though of a Numerical it may and must for granting that all the Three Persons have a Specifical agreement yet the Godhead of the one is not the Godhead of the other any more then the Person of the one is the Person of the other as Peter and Paul agree specifically in the Humane Nature but yet the Humane Soul of Peter is not the Humane Soul of Paul any more then the Two Persons of Paul and Peter are the same and this I think is sufficient to demonstrate that Athanasius did not certainly and constantly determine upon any thing as to the Modus by which the Three Persons are one God only in general he was always stedfast and firm to this position that there was but one God notwithstanding that there are Three Divine Persons and so having fairly dispatcht this second point which was of the inconsistency of Athanasius with himself it is now time to proceed to the third thing proposed to be considered which was to show that in this respect the Doctor is an exact parallel to the great Athanasius altho' in other respects the comparison will not hold for he is also troubled with that worst sort of self-denyal which consists in palpably contradicting and varying from himself For it is no longer ago then p. 605. that he told us as he had it from Petavius's own mouth a person well acquainted with Ecclesiastick Antiquity page 604. that the word Homoousios was never used by greek Writers otherwise then to signifie the agreement of things Numerically differing from one another in some common Nature or Vniversal Essence or their having a Generical Vnity or Identity and what he affirms here of all the Greek Writers in general that he saith more particularly concerning Athanasius himself page 606. after many instances there produced from all which it is unquestionably evident that Athanasius did not by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand that which hath the same singular and Numerical Essence with another but the same common generical or specifical only and consequently that he conceived the Son to be Co-essential or Con-Substantial with the Father after that manner and yet here page 619. he hath the confidence to tell us that Athanasius himself a Greek Writer to be sure and the same Athanasius that he was before that this same Athanasius himself one of the Greek Writers that never used the word Homoousios otherwise then for a specific Vnity but only now and then when they do use it otherwise as the Greeks have always been observed to be of a very changeable and inconstant humour that this very Athanasius Affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Tree is congenerous or homogenical with the Root and the Branches co-essential with the Vine and his meaning is as it should seem that the Stock and Branches are not only of one kind but also altogether make up the entire essence of one Plant or Tree and this I think hath been sufficiently proved to be another sort of Vnity than that which is call'd Specific neither was this the only time that the Greek Writer Athanasius in spite of Petavius and his Transcriber Dr. C. used the word Homoousios after the same manner for so the Doctor himself tells us pag. 606. out of Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Branches are Homoousious and congenerous with the Vine or with the Root thereof and this testimony is the more to be regarded not only because it is alledged by the Doctor himself to the utter undoing of his general observation pag. 605. that the word Homoousios is never us'd otherwise by Greek Writers then to signifie the agreement of things Numerically differing from one another in some common Nature or Vniversal Essence But still the rather because this is one of those very Citations from which the Doctor infers that observation as a legitimate conclusion in the bottom of that page From all which it is unquestionably evident that Athanasius did not by the word Homoousios understand that which hath the same singular and Numerical Essence with another but the same common generical or specifical only and again before this also page 598. speaking of the Platonick Trinity he hath these words The entireness of the whole Divinity is made up of all these three together which have all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same Energy or Action ad extra and therefore as the Centre radious distance moveable circumference may be all said to be co-essential to a Sphere and the Root Stock and Bows or Branches co-essential to an entire Tree so but in a much more perfect sense are the Platonick Tagathon Nous and Psyche co-essential to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Divinity in the whole Vniverse neither was Athanasius a stranger to this notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also he affirming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Branches are coessential with and indivisible from the Vine and illustrating the Trinity by that similitude But notwithstanding that at some times the Doctour may look upon this Vnity of Integration not as a different Vnity tho' such it be most certainly but as an improvement of the Specifick which is the thing he drives at p. 619. yet at others he is pleased to display his ignorance in another way and talks after such a manner as if the Specific Vnity and the Vnity of Integration were the same for so p. 606. He not only tells us according to the Doctrine and Language of Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Branches are Homoousios Co-Essential or Con-substantial and Congenerous with the Vine or with the Root thereof But he parallels this place of Athanasius with another of Plotinus where he affirms concerning the Soul that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is full of Divine things by reason of its being Cognate or Congenerous Homoousios with them That is by reason of
by which the Son and Holy Ghost are distinguished from the Father and from each other is on both hands a Creature though it be an eternal one depending upon and eternally flowing from an eternal cause for that which constitutes the Person of the Son is the human nature united to the Divine and that which fills up the nature and notion of the Holy Ghost is a certain subtle subeternal matter united and incorporated with the Divine and Human Nature and animated by the common life of both and yet though these two things by which the Persons are distinguished from each other and from God the Father who is the Source and Fountain of the Godhead are without all question Creatures of his making yet the whole Person which results on either hand from the Vnion of the Created and Vncreated Nature together is truly and properly God for by God nothing else is or can be understood but a Person acted and animated by a life that is truly and properly Divine and such without question both of these Persons are otherwise there can be no vital Vnion between the created and uncreated Nature in them which is that upon which their Divine personality depends and as they may all three as well the one as the other be truly and properly said to be God so also notwithstanding what hath been said yet is the Father uncreate the Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate that is the Godhead which is in the whole Person the eternal simple abstracted Life in the one the cause of life and personality and the principal ingredient of life and personality in the two other which are Persons of a Dissimilar Heterogeneous and Compounded Nature and the whole Person is rightly denominated from its principal and chiefest Life is in all three not only Vncreate but Numerically the same so that there are not three Vncreates but one Vncreate nor three Incomprehensibles but one Incomprehensible nor three Gods but one God as it is expresly asserted in that Creed which goes how truly I do not now dispute under the Name of Athanasius and was allowed for Orthodox before the Lateran Council But yet as the rest of the Trinitarian Fathers when they were pressed by the Arians or other Heretics or disputed and argued the case too nicely with themselves were used to recur to the Specific Vnity and the Emperichoresis and the Vnity of Integration and such like very improper and inadequate expedients to help themselves so Marcellus being equally at a loss how to explain the Doctrine of the Trinity being a firm and resolute Assertor of the Vty of the Godhead and disdaining to make use of such Vnphilosophical ways of solving the difficulty which was in effect but to make a new riddle instead of explaining the old though he could not for his life being as he was a very honest and impartial Person bring himself to doubt but that the Language of the Scripture in its most plain and obvious Interpretation did assert the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost yet at some times being startled with the difficulty of the thing he would say with something of doubt and hesitation betwixt the difficulty of the thing and the plainness of the Scripture in asserting and maintaining it that the Scripture did seem to say thus much for so in the Confession sent to Julius he says of those that denied the Divinity of the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems to be repugnant to the Orthodox Faith grounded upon the Scriptures for that is his meaning as it follows in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Evangelist St. John tells us that the word was God but yet it must be confessed that this Interpretation which I have put upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the only possible Interpretation neither as I do verily believe so agreeable to the Sentiments of Marcellus as another which I will now mention and that is that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be understood not as if he had spoken doubtfully that the Scripture seems to look that way as if Christ were a Divine Person as well as God the Father but that he really is so and that this appears plainly to be the sence of the Scriptures for so the word seems to have been used in that place of the Author to the Hebrews where God is said to have made the things that are seen out of things which did not appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is out of things which really were not and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place are things not which barely appear or are supposed to be but which have a real undoubted and positive existence and in this sense the Adjectives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used not for things which are only in fancy or opinion but which have a real and a manifest Existence and are discovered by their own light and it is plain that this sense is most agreeable to what follows in Marcellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But I saith he have learnt or know for certain that the Son is the indivisible or inseparable Power of the Father for our Saviour himself even our Lord Jesus Christ saith I am in the Father and the Father in me and I and the Father are one and he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also which citations of his as they cannot so clearly and so naturally be applied to any thing as to the Numerical Essence so when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know or I have learnt for certain that the Son c. The Rules of Connection do require that this be spoken in opposition to the two Opinions just mentioned before one of which asserted a Plurality of Gods and the other denyed the Divinity of Christ and being exprest in such peremptory dogmatical and categorical Terms this is a plain and undenyable Testimony of Marcellus to himself that he was for the singular existent Essence which he did not only maintain in this Epistle to Pope Julius but he tells him it had always been his constant Doctrine for so he goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Faith I having received from the Scriptures and Tradition I preach in the Church as well as I have owned and asserted it in this Epistle to you Nevertheless for that he would not presume as others did when they were prest upon it by their Adversaries or intangl'd in their own private Meditations to explain the Modus of the Trinity for this reason he was charged by his Enemies with denying the thing it self as if in effect he had asserted but one divine Person because he stuck to one Numerical Substance without so much as pretending to explain how it was possible for a Trinity of Persons at this rate to exist this was the reason why Athanasius himself would sometimes speak with doubt and hesitancy concerning him or at
well as Melchisedek was made like to the Son of God that is he is God and Man united together into one common Person as Melchisedek was and taking not only humane Nature which he did before but human Flesh upon him as Melchisedek appeared to Abraham to have done though in truth it were neither better nor worse than only the Son of God or the Eternal Word Vnited by divine Power to a Vehicle of fitly modify'd Air or other subtle matter and by that means carrying the external shape and appearance of an human Body And that Melchisedek who is the same with Christ was God as well as Man and Man as well as God that is that there was a real and vital Vnion of two distinct Natures the Divine and the Humane in his Person is so unquestionably evident from the same place that as it is the extremity of impudence and Impiety in conjunction together to call in question the Authority of this Writer who hath been allowed for Canonical and received as such in all Ages of the Church so it is absurd and foolish to make the least doubt or scruple of his meaning if his Authority be once received That he was God is plain and will for ever continue to be so to the eternal confusion of all the Arian and Socinian cavils till they can shew us a Creature to whom this Character may justly be applied without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life And as this Character proclaims him God so his being a Priest does at the same time confess him to be a Man otherwise God will be a Priest to himself which is absurd but as without the Godhead Vnited to the Humane Nature Christ who was a Priest after the order of Melchisedec could not have made an adaequate expiation to God the Father for the sins of the whole World the value of the Priest and Sacrifice by him offered which was the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross being enhanced to an infinite and estimable price by the infinite perfection and dignity of the Person who was God as well as Man so that he was Man as well as God is expresly testifyed by the sacred PenMan himself now consider saith he how this great Man c. and without his being Man as well as God it was impossible for him to be either Priest or Sacrifice at all so that these things I think are so plain that it is impossible for plainness and perspicuity themselves to be more so plain that I need stay no longer upon this first particular and therefore I proceed The second thing which I had in my mind was that Miracle of Joshua which we find recorded Josh 10. 12. where Joshua speaks thus to the Sun and Moon Sun stand thou still in Gibeon and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajalon and then it follows v. 13 14. And the Sun stood still and the Moon stayed until the People had avenged themselves upon their Enemies is not this written in the Book of Jasher so the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day and there was no day like that before or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a Man for the Lord fought for Israel Now Joshua in several respects in his Name and in that he was the Introductor of the Israelites into the Land of Canaan which was Typical of the eternal rest and peace of the future State after the toyls hazzards and temptations of this was figurative and significative of Jesus the Messias that was to come who had nature at his beck as being the God of it and at the instant of whose Passion as if Nature her self had been expiring with him the Sun was darkned and the day was turned into night and nature her self put on Mourning to attend the Funeral Solemnity of her Lord and Maker as it is said to have happened at the death of Caesar which was taken and represented either by the superstition or flattery of the Romans for a certain argument of his Apothesis Ille etiam extincta miseratus Caesare Romam Tunc caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem The Sun condoling with afflicted Rome When Caesar fell by an untimely doom Withdrew his conscious and offended light And guilty nations fear'd eternal night But not to stretch this Type any further then it will go I do confess that if any Man will deny so much to have been presignifyed by this miracle of Joshua as I have represented I know not how to prove it only I leave it to be considered fairly between Man and Man whether the allusion be not fairly drawn and whether in concurrence with other arguments which prove more directly and with greater force it ought not to corroberate the Doctrin of the Divinity of Christ though the passages that have been cited concerning Melchisedec alone if there were nothing else to be considered are enough to demonstrate unanswerably all that is contended for and stand in no need of any other confirmation Wherefore it being thus clear if we will submit our selves to the Authority of Scripture and to the Voice of God himself that there are indeed more Divine Persons then one it remains now only that I enquire very briefly how it is possible for a plurality of Persons distinct from one another to be consistent with a Numerical Identity of Divine Substance which the voluminous Creatour of the Intellectual System denies as an impossible and contradictious notion where speaking of the word Homoousios and saying that it was never used otherwise by Greek Writers then to signifie the agreement of things Numerically differing from one another in some common Nature or universal Essence or their having a generical Vnity or Identity he adds nor indeed is it likely that the Greek Tongue should have any name for that which neither is a thing in nature nor falls under human Conception viz. several things having one and the same singular Essence and here though the Doctor did not distinguish so nicely as he ought to have done betwixt things and persons yet I will grant him thus much that several things being supposed to be several are at the same time what they are Numerically by themselves and are Numerically dictinct from one another But yet it does not follow but that several persons may all have the same Numerical Divine Substance tho' to make a distinction of persons in this case there be requisite an accession of some individuating Circumstances or Properties which shall be superadded to the common Nature and this is a great errour of which the Doctor is guilty if it be consistent with the insolence of his humor to endure to be told of his faults because several things cannot be the same which is no such very deep and profound speculation for how can they be several and the same at
in a great measure from the jarring and disagreement of two natures so closely united and accompanied all the while with a vehement desire to submit in the midst of as vehement an aversation to it as hath been already declared and lastly the vital and inseparable Vnion of the Human and Divine life with one another these were the things that did inhance the merit and value of that Sacrifice and therefore in this case the Divine and Human Nature are considered as joyntly and equally concerned Thirdly and lastly in the business of the Intercession at the Right hand of God God that is the divine Nature cannot properly be said to intercede with himself and yet the Intercession of the human without so close and vital a Connexion with the divine would be every whit as insignificant and unavailable as without the same Vnion the Sacrifice of himself would have been besides that it would perhaps be inexcusable were it not for this Vnion For one meer man a finite and a little Creature like our selves to take upon him to supplicate and intercede for all the rest so that as his human Nature entitules him to the Priesthood for the God and the Priest are supposed to be two things so it is the Vnion of that Nature with the divine that makes him an High Priest that Vnion is his entrance into the Holy of Holies and inhances the price and value of his Intercession and therefore in this third and last particular also the divine and human Nature are considered as acting joyntly together and constituting one Person resulting from the Vnion of them both And now having laid down so clear a Notion of the blessed Trinity I cannot see what is wanting to give it all the advantage which it very well deserves for it is not only very consonant to Scripture but it hath likewise so clear and so strong a Foundation in the reason of things that when both these meet as they do here together it must be acknowledged to be more then a possible Idea and that it is neither more nor less then the very truth it self and a truth that seems to lie so plain that it is much more wonderful it should be concealed thus long then that at last it should be discovered As for the Scripture what more plain then that those Texts I am in the Father and the Father in me and I and the Father are one may by this notion be very clearly explained for the human nature of Christ is absorped and swallowed up in the Divine of God the Father and does on the other hand by vertue of its intimate Vnion imbibe and take in the Divine Nature into it self as far as its capacity will reach which it does much further then by reason of its littleness and finite Circumscription it may seem to do because the parts of the Divine Extension being all of them similar and actually inseparable by reason that the whole is commensurate to an infinite space whatsoever is united by an unity of life and selfconsciousness to any part is at the same time effectually united to that indivisible life which is but one and the same self-consciousness and self-enjoyment through the whole extension And so I and the Father are one that is one in the common species of immaterial nature one by mutual penetration and imbibition one by an unity of self-consciousness and reciprocal feeling of each others life one by an unity of affection and will and one in many cases by an unity of operation and mutual concurrence to the same effect neither is there any other possible difficulty to be started in this case unless it be how two lives can be so twisted and intimately interwoven together as to become one life and to constitute one Person to which it may be answered First that in fact it is true that an immaterial and material Nature may be so Vnited as is plain in every human composition consisting of Soul and Body and that there is a greater congruity of one immaterial Nature to another then there can be of that which is called life and activity to that which is utterly destitute and devoid of both which is the case of matter which yet by its union with an immaterial substance is made to taste and feel it self to become the subject and seat either of pleasure or pain and to concur with the other towards the constituting of a common Person resulting from them both Secondly upon supposition that one life is capable of being imprest and influenced by another as there is more reason that it should then that that which is utterly devoid of life should be capable of the same impressions this is enough to constitute one common person for by a person nothing else is meant but a self-conscious nature and therefore where there is in two personalities a mutual enjoyment or feeling of each others life there arises a compound personality from the mutual reciprocation enjoyment or imbibition of two several lives acting upon and influencing each other and being brought to a perfect Harmony and entire consent of understanding and will and it is sufficient in this case that the difficulties in the union of the two natures to make up and constitute the second person in the Blessed Trinity are not greater no nor so great neither as those in the union of our own soul and body of which notwithstanding we are intimately and perfectly conscious to our selves Thirdly there is no way to expound several places of Scripture with any plausibility or shew of truth but by admitting such an union as this which seems in those places to be so plainly asserted Fourthly and lastly in the Sympathies of friendship whether in joy or grief and in the mutual complacency and satisfaction which entire friends experience in the conversation and company of each other in their common sentiments common wishes and common designs there is something very like this union which we contend for though it be far from being so perfect and entire It being therefore so rational to believe that there may be such a personal union of two immaterial natures together to constitute the Person of the Son that other of these two natures or persons so united to a certain subtle subeternal and aethereal matter to constitute the third Person of the Blessed Trinity which is called the Holy Ghost must be admitted as a possible union because the vital union of an immaterial nature to a material is no more then we do all of us every day experience in our selves as hath been already observed The Father is the simple divine substance by himself the Son is the vital Vnion of an human soul to the substance and Person of God the Father and the Holy Ghost is nothing else but an Aethereal and Emanative matter vitally united to both the former That which makes them all to be God is the same Numerical Divine substance belonging to them all and that which
makes the distinction of the Persons is the addition of a Created immaterial nature in the second Person of the Blessed Trinity of a Created material one in the third and the substraction or precision of both of these in the first The Son is said to be begotten of the Father being a similar immaterial and as it were univocal effect of his Power and Will and the Holy Ghost to proceed from them both because though the human nature of Christ and the subtle matter which makes the body of that Person which is called the Holy Ghost be both of them emanative and by consequence eternal yet the emanation seems more natural from one immaterial nature to another then from immaterial to material and so the Son is at least prior natura then the Holy Ghost though not cognitione and the subtle matter which is one part of the third Person of the Blessed Trinity being Created though from all Eternity yet in some sense for the sake of the Son as hath been already declared and being also produced by the Father by a contemporary consent of will in the Son or in the human nature though they be supposed contemporary to one another yet this is enough to make it no improper way of expression to say that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son though in this I do not justifie the heats on either side between the Greek and Latin Churches neither do I think the Schism to be the less inexcusable because the Latins in a matter of this subtlety were in the right I do not deny but that the Father or the simple divine substance is always vitally united to the human nature of Christ and also to a certain subtle and aethereal matter in that manner which hath been already declared but yet notwithstanding the real distinction of the Father from the Son or of the first Person of the Blessed Trinity from the second is always as really and as clearly preserved as if in the first case there were no second Person or no vital union with the human nature or as if in the second there were no third or no vital union of the divine and human nature with the aethereal matter for in the first place as hath been already largely represented there are some operations of the simple divine substance to which the human nature being but finite cannot adaequately extend and in this case that substance is of necessity considered as a Person acting by it self and in the second notwithstanding the vital union of one or more immaterial nature to a material yet there are some abstracted operations wherein the immaterial substances do perfectly withdraw themselves from any intercourse or communication with matter as is plain in those operations of the human soul which are purely speculative and intellectual in which the animal concupisciblâ— or plastick life have no share but they are purely the operations of separated and abstracted Spirits and such as would undoubtedly accompany the mind of Man though it were disentangled from this mortal body and yet the vital union is not interrupted all this while but the digestion and Animal secretion still goes on the bloud still circulates and the Plastic faculties perform their office in men not yet arrived to their full growth as well as in Embrios not yet attained to their just form and shape in their Mothers Womb not that I would be thought to compare these things with one another but only in general to represent that an immaterial nature tho vitally united to a material may yet have operations purely spiritual and altogether abstracted in which that union is not at all concerned and those operations which are performed on the one hand by the abstracted and on the other by the Compound and Heterogeneous nature may well enough be considered as the actions of two Jeveral and distinct persons as in St. Paul's description of the strife and contention between the Flesh and Spirit Rom. 7. 15. That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Where it is manifest that the soul of man considered by it self in its most inward and abstracted speculation is considered as one person and as united and vitally interwoven with a body or vehicle of matter as another and this is enough to show that a compound and a simple person are by no means the same or to defend the personality of the Holy Ghost as distinct from the simple substance of God the Father Further that by the Holy Ghost nothing else is meant but the vital union of an aethereal or subtle matter to the simple and original divine substance of God the Father is clear not only from the words themselves by which it is expressed in Hebrew Rouach and in Greek Pneuma which signifie nothing else but a subtle matter but also from the History of the Creation where the spirit of God is said to have moved upon the face of the Waters in the Hebrew it is Merachepheth which the Rabbins interpret of the incubation of any bird or fowl upon the young or eggs by which it is manifest that they understood the Spirit of God not simply of any wind or subtle matter whatsoever but of such as was animated with a divine life and fitly disposed by brooding upon the Chaos to make it fruitful and fertile and when God spake to Moses out of the burning bush when he gave the Law upon Mount Sinai in Fire and Smoak when he went before the Camp of the Israelites like a Cloud by day and like a Flame by night when such flaming and fiery apparitions as these are so frequently called in Scripture by the name of the glory of God all these are meant of that subtle matter which being animated and enlivened by a divine life is called Rouach hachodesh pneuma hagion the Holy Spirit the spirit or breath or wind of God so also when Moses desired to see the face of God but was denied for this reason that no Man could see the face of God and live but yet was permitted to see his back parts which were nothing else but a certain vigorous and piercing flame the meaning is plainly this that no Man in this life can converse with the naked essence or immaterial nature of God but his back parts or that aethereal and subtle matter to which from all eternity he hath been vitally united these may possibly fall under human cognizance as they did under that of Moses even in this life and this in truth is the main if not only business of this subtle matter besides the forming of Ideas in it as hath been already suggested that being animated and informed by the life of God it is the instrument of the divine power in its external operations thus as God being cloathed with this subtle matter did incubate and brood upon the Mass and order and dispose its several parts as seemed best
618. am in the Father and the Father in me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Arians began to quarrel with that of our Lord I am in the Father and the Father in me objecting how is it possible that both the former should be in the latter and the latter in the former Or How can the Father being greater be received in the Son who is lesser In why of reply whereunto saith the Doctour Athanasius first observes that the ground of this Arian Cavillation was the grosseness of their apprehensions and that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceive of incorporeal things after a corporeal manner and then does headd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the Father and the Son are not as they suppose transvasated and poured out one into another as into an empty Vessel as if the Son filled up the Concavity of the Father and again the Father that of the Son and neither of them were full and perfect in themselves For all this is proper to bodies wherefore though the Father be in some sence greater than the Son yet notwithstanding may he be in him after an manner But now if we speak of an an extended Substance it is manifest that the Arians were thus far in the right that a lesser Extension such as is the Humane Soul and Humane Nature of Christ which was all that they meant in this exception cannot swallow up and receive into it self a greater and much less that which is infinite as the Divine Substance was on both sides acknowledged to be and therefore to say that the Father was in the Son that is to say a greater extension in a less after an incorporeal manner was an absurd and impossible reply for Extension is the same in both cases and it is as impossible that the part should be bigger then the whole in the immaterial as in the meterial World How this Place of Scripture proves against the Arians and by consequence the Socinians too shall be declared hereafter in the Process of this Address which I perceive is like to swell to a much greater Proportion than I at first intended for it and would as little suit with Patience on your part as with good manners on mine but that You are used to put a favourable Interpretation upon every thing that I do and that where no Offence is taken on the one side neither can there be any given on the other but I cannot chuse but take notice before I go any further that this place of Scripture by the Confession of the Arians themselves was an utter Enemy to the Arian cause and in truth I think the Scripture is so very flat and peremptory against it that for a Man to profess himself at the same time to be an Arian and a Christian are two professions that are plainly incompetible and inconsistent together a Man ought to disown the Authority of the Scriptures before he sets up for an Arian or Socinian and it would be much less impious and much more modest to do so then at the same time when a Man calls himself a Christian to oppose with the constancy of a good cause or the Impudence peculiar to a bad one that which is so plainly so expresly so frequently so industriously Revealed in the Gospel Yet after all Athanasius being as little satisfied at sometimes with this fine expedient the distinction I mean betwixt Corporeal and Incorporeal to salve the Unity of the Godhead in the Trinity as with that other of the Specifical agreement trys a third conclusion of the Integral parts of which the Physical totum or whole is constituted and composed and he illustrates it as hath been seen by the comparison of a Vine to whose Integrity the Stock Root and Branch do p. 〈…〉 concurrently belong and in like manner saith the Doctour as he thinks according to the Sentiments of Athanasius himself those three Hypostases the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not only Congenerous and Co-essential as having all the Essence of the Godhead alike in them but also as concurrently making up one entire Divinity But herein was the Doctour very plainly and very grosly mistaken for these two Vnities as I have shown are either opposite and inconsistent the one with the other or else they are at least Vnities of a quite different nature so that the one cannot improve or strengthen the other wherefore Athanasius did not pitch upon this expedient to make the Specifick Vnity more close but only that being dissatisfied with that way of Solution and being loath as he had reason when it is so plainly Revealed to part with his main position which was that there is but one God notwithstanding that there are three Divine Persons he fled as it were for refuge out of that Solution into this which was as absurd as the other for as sure as God is he is a Being simple and uncompounded neither is there any possible way to be conceived wherein this notion may be rendred intelligible unless it be by conceiving God to be as he is an Infinite and Omnipresent Extension endued with all possible blessedness and perfection one part of which space shall be looked upon as the Father another as the Son and another as the Holy Ghost which bateing the Blasphemy and Impiety of it how foolish and how childishly absurd it is I leave to any Man of common Sense and common understanding to consider So that this way of removing the difficulty being every whit as ineffectual and to as little purpose as the other he was sometimes forced upon the Numerical essence whether he would or no And accordingly saith the Doctor Athanasius further p. 619. concludes these three Divine Hypostases have not a consent of will only but essentially one and the self same will and that they do also joyntly produce ad Extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the self same Energy operation or action nothing being peculiar to the Son as such but only the Oeconomy of the Incarnation and for this he produces a place of Athanasius for which I referr you to p. 620. of his Book for I care not for more Greek then needs must I Know the connexion of the word accordingly which is the beginning of this excerption from the Doctor was designed to confirm what he had said that Athanasins did sometimes look upon the Trinity as upon the constituent and concurrent parts by which the whole is made up Accordingly whereunto saith he Athanasius concludes that these three Divine Hypostases have not a consent of will only but essentially one and the self same Will But by his good favour this is so far from being a consequence that it is more naturally inverted quite the contrary way for if they have one and the self same Will which Will it is absurd to say that it can be divided into three parts then is it plain that that substance in which this Will resides must likewise of necessity be
any impressions or that it should be capable of any motion mutability or change in which the very nature of true happiness consists for perfect rest and perfect peace go together Secondly It is absurd to say that one Divine Substance can send another for this were to suppose a plurality of Gods which hath been already sufficiently exploded besides that to send implying a superiority and to be sent a subjection both of which are absolutely impossible and absurd with respect to two Divine or infinitely perfect substances compared together it is likewise absurd in this respect to affirm of one Divine Substance that it sends or commands or that it is obedient to or is sent by another Thirdly though the Human Nature of Christ be so intimately twisted with and so vitally Vnited to the Divine and Omnipresent Substance of God the Father as that these two lives the Divine and the Human do by this means become one life and have a mutual self-consciousness and enjoyment of each other so as to constitute the same Person the unity of Person consisting in nothing else but an unity of common life yet when we speak of sending and being sent this in the utmost propriety of Speech can be understood of nothing else but the Human Nature of Christ which being formerly Vnited for it is but finite and by consequence cannot be adequately coextended to the whole divine space which is infinite and Omnipresent to that part of the Divine space where the most perfect and the most highly honoured and exalted Spirits have their sublime and glorious abode far above the dreggs and impurities of this Earthy Region was in the fulness of time for wise and gracious purposes predetermined and preordained of God from everlasting commanded to descend into it and adding human flesh to human nature to appear in the likeness of a mortal Man and to put on the form of a Servant notwithstanding that the vital union betwixt the Father and him continued all this while and being really united in that intire and vital manner to any one part of the Divine Substance or space it was as much in some sense as if he had been really and adaequately coextended to the whole because tho' in this Divine space it may be said of this what is in general true of all extension that it hath partem extra partem so that this part is not that or vice versa yet in the first place the parts of an Omnipresent extention are therefore utterly inseparable and indivisible even by cogitation from each other because the whole is Omnipresent and fills the very utmost possibility of space and in the second tho' the parts be never so distinct yet are they all of them acted by the same Divine Life which is one self-consciousness or self-sensation running through the whole indivisible inseparable and tyed to it self by an Vnity of self-enjoyment which is the highest the noblest and the strictest unity in the nature of things by which means it comes to pass as it is plain it must do that whatsoever is vitally united to any part of this Divine space which is all of it animated by one indivisible and inseparable life is at the same time effectually united to the whole and hath always the highest and the closest enjoyment and imbibition of that Divine life which a finite Substance is capable of receiving But yet in this action of sending and being sent it is not the Human nature but the Divine that sends and it is not the Divine nature but the Human that is sent and as the Father is said to beget the Son in these two senses which have been already explained first that he begat or produced the human nature of Christ out of the emanative fruitfulness of the Divine substance by an eternal generation secondly that by the same emanative and eternal power and goodness he did vitally unite this first born of all the Creatures the only begotten Son of God in that immediate and emanative sense into a feeling and enjoyment of his own Divine substance and life so that they became one Person which may very truly and properly be said to be God as being deno-Minated as there is all the reason in the world it should from the principal chiefest life so the descent of the Human Nature of Christ from one part of the divine substance to another notwithstanding that it were all the while vitally and consciously united to that Divine life which is indivisibly inseparably and self-consciously the same through all the parts of the Divine substance or space is as plainly asserted as it is possible for words to express it in that passage of St. John c. 3. 13. where our Saviour saith concerning himself No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven in which place by Heaven God or the Divine space was understood in the Language of the Jews and by his coming down from thence was meant the removal of his Human substance from one part of this Divine space to another and by his being in Heaven as every Man is in some sense being included in the large comprehension of the Divine space is meant in a more especial manner for it is manifest that something peculiar to himself is here exprest the vital union of the two natures together by which he was really God as well as Man and by his ascending thither notwithstanding that his Human substance continued all this while below is meant that he that is vitally united to any one part of the Divine space does at the same time enjoy a most entire and perfect Communion with the whole by reason of that indivisible and inseparable Life which enjoys it self fully perfectly and entirely in every part of the divine space which is the strictest Bond of Vnity that can be conceived and by which all the parts besides that they are actually inseparable by reason of the Omnipresence of the whole are still more closely and intimately connected with each other as if they were all the very same Thirdly in that Prayer of our Saviours uttered in the bitter Agonies of his human nature immediately before his Passion O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt which the Evangelist assures us to have been three times repeated it is manifest that the divine nature or substance is consider'd as a distinct and separate Person by it self endued and furnished with a distinct Will from that of the human nature and though it be true that in the human nature it self there was an absolute resignation to the divine Will nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt yet these Words themselves do sufficiently express it to have been only a passive resignation and an Instance not so much of Inclination as Obedience it was an Instance of submission and reluctancy together O
after as if the next thing to the Creation of Angels were that of the sensible and acceptable world he subjoyns who laid the Foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever But this is not all it was further necessary that this subtle matter should be Created for it neither is or can be by it self any more then a Creature and that from all Eternity by an emanative way that the Son or the second Person of the Blessed Trinity or the human nature of Christ vitally and personally united to the Divine of God the Father might have from all Eternity the more large and comprehensive notion of that infinitely perfect nature to which it was thus vitally and personally united and by consequence might be the more closely united and enjoy the more perfect Friendship and Communion with it for it is but reasonable to suppose that in this subtle matter not only the Vehicles of Angelick Forms and Spirits but also the sensible Ideas and Patterns of this lower World were originally drawn and in this sense the Heavens that is the emanative subtle matter in which those Archetypal Ideas were framed may be said to have declared the Glory of God in another and an antecedent notion to that in which the Psalmist understood those words by representing the Original Patterns of the World that was designed to be Created in the fulness of time to the Human nature of Christ and to those Angels and separated Spirits which were in time produced before the Foundations of the World which taught them more fully and perfectly to understand and celebrate the Power and Wisdom of God then without such outward helps any finite or created Being was capable of doing and this was no more then Seneca hath represented concerning God himself that he made use from all Eternity of a certain subtle matter in which the first Patterns and Archetypal examples of all things whatsoever were drawn Miremur saith he in his 58th Epistle See Apol. for middle way A. p. 283 to 289 in sublimi volitantes rerum omnium formas Deumque inter illa versantem ac providentem quemadmodum quae immortalia sacere non potuit quia materia prohibibat defendat a morte ac ratione vitium corporis vincat in which passage though it be manifest that he supposed God to be one Supreme Vbiquitary and Immaterial Nature which is his genuine and true notion and so must not be supposed in this particular to adhere strictly to the Stoical Principles which did not acknowledge any thing but matter in the world and though that supreme ubiquitary and immaterial Nature to help him to form and model his Ideas may not perhaps have any need of any such subtle and subeternal matter although it be somewhat difficult to conceive how material Ideas can be represented or conveyed otherwise then by material objects or by the help of the materia Ideata yet with respect to the human nature of Christ it was perhaps a matter of absolute necessity that such a subtle matter should from all Eternity be created wherein the first Patterns and Exemplars of things should be drawn to fill it with the more large and comprehensive notion of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which was a natural means of the most close and intimate Communion with him and this is a second sense in which the Son may be said no have Created the World because it was Created as it were on purpose for him that part of it I mean which makes up the subtle matter of the Vniverse which is infinitely the most considerable proportion of it But thirdly the Son may be said to have Created the World in this sense also not that the Power or Wisdom of the Human Nature could extend so far as to the Creation of the World but only that God the Father that is the original and radical divine substance did as it were take the advice and Council of the human nature in it that is he created such a World as should have a beauty congruity in it to the Human Nature because that Nature which in its abstracted separate Estate is much the same with the Angelic was to be the Principal Inhabitant of the Vniverse and therefore beauty or congruity being nothing else but a certain satisfaction complacency and delight which a certain object strikes upon a certain nature such a World was to be Created as was most naturally suited to please its best Inhabitant with its outward appearance as well as to afford it matter of Contemplation so that as all the Creatures were at first brought to Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever he called them that was the Name thereof so was the whole Creation presented to the Human Nature of Christ as it were for his approbation and to him perhaps it was especially to be applied what we find written at the end of every days work in the History of the Creation that God that is the human nature of Christ in conjunction with the divine saw that it was good that is it had a goodness of congruity to the Human part and I take upon me to affirm that no sense can be put upon this place which gives so intelligible an account of the goodness mentioned in the Text as this which I have mentioned seems to do so also St. John tells us That by him all things were made and without him was not any thing made that was made all things were made by him in the sense already explained because of the intimate union of the two Natures by which it comes to pass that the effects and operations of the one are alike attributed and ascribed to the other and without him not any thing was made that was made that is without his consent concurrence and approbation to whom the World that was to be made was to be so fitted that it was to have in it a certain congruity and harmony with his Nature and to strike a certain Sympathy and complacency upon it and in this sense it is that he is perhaps called by the Prophet Isaiah the Councellor as well as the Mighty God God having in this great work of the Creation consulted principally the happiness of his Creature Man and ordered matters after such a manner as should be most suitable most delightful most congruous and most useful to the human nature But secondly a second instance in which the divine and human nature may be considered as acting as one commen Person is the great affair of our Redemption for the divine nature of it self was impassible and the human of it self could not satisfie for the sins of the World but the innocence of the human nature of Christ which was I take it for granted owing to the intimate presence and union of it with the Divine the exquisite and inconceiveable painfulness of that death which our blessed Lord suffered upon the Cross for our sakes resulting