import their constitution in the Sacerdotal State of the Universe But I must here lay no stress upon this lest I beg a Principle of those that will not grant it I note it however for the sake of them which know the Truth that they may discern the whole of what I include in the compleat notion of a Christian Mystery 2. Nature instructs us in the knowledge of Gods Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.32 and of his Providence and Righteous Judgment and likewise teaches that his Subsistence is such as belongs Naturally to the Supream Self-Originate Spirit what that is I have shewed above But that God is Incarnate that he now Governs the World in Humane Nature and will Judge the World in the man Christ Jesus is not to be learned from Natural John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Acts 17 31. but only from Supernatural Revelation Nothing then that depends upon these as all Religious Mysteries now do can be proved otherwise than from the Scriptures 3. From the Natural Reason of the thing we have therefore no evidence to assert that Christ is God Mark 1.1 Joh. 20.13 but there is nothing that the Gospel makes more certain then that Christ is the Son the only Son the only begotten Son of God this being the grand assertion of the New Testament And this being made certain to us by the Gospel the former discourse whereby we naturally learn there is one only Son of God does assure us that whoever or whatever Christ is Cap. 5. though he be even a man he is himself really and truly God and yet not God the Father nor the Holy Ghost This is all that our present undertaking obliges us to say in demonstration of our Saviours Divinity 4. But that I may not wholly baulk the expectation of the Reader I shall annex the sum of a large Scriptural evidence made ready to our hands as I find it recapitulated by the excellent Dr. III. Serm. of the Trinity P. 86 Wallis after a particular inforcement of it He therefore who is as Christ has been shewed from the Scriptures to be God the true God the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Eternal God the First and the Last before whom nothing was and after whom nothing shall be That Was and Is and Shall be the same Yesterday and to Day and for Ever the Almighty by whom the World was Made by whom all things were Made and without whom nothing was Made that was Made who Laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of his hands who when the Heavens and the Earth shall fail His Years endure for Ever who searcheth the Hearts and the Reins to give to every one according to his Works who is Jehovah the Lord God of Israel the Supream Being who is over all God blessed for Ever who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen That God says he of whom all these things are said is certainly not a meer Titular God who is called God but is not a Creature God or only a Dignified Man for if these be not Characters of the True God by what Characters shall the True God be described 5. We are now to observe how the Natural Doctrine of the former Discourse does correspond with all these viz. That Christ is Man and is the Son of God is God but not the Father nor the Holy Ghost First then Of the Humanity of Christ about which more anon we must remember that there is no Created Nature Cap. 5.5 Cap. 5.10 but has its Being wholly by being Conceived in the Divine Mind therefore Christs Humanity is a Nature Subsisting by being Conceived by God 2. The Divine Nature in its second Subsistence is the only begotten Son of God as being God Conceived therefore Jesus Christ being the Son of God is God conceived and being but one and yet Man he is God conceived one with Man or he is God conceived and Man conceived in Unity by the Divine Conception and therefore by vertue of the Divine Essential Truth God conceived one with Man is thereby really one with Man Thus Christ abideth ever God and Man in one Cap. 5.5 6. But because it is God conceived that is thus one with Man therefore it is neither God the Father or the Holy Ghost that is one with Man For God Conceived or Begotten is the Deity in its second subsistence Christ therefore is the Son of God even of the Father and from him and the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost 7. Since Unity hath several significations it will be impossible in some sense for God in any subsistence to be one with Man therefore we must observe that God the Son being Eternally God conceived is Eternally God and Eternally conceived he therefore is not changed in his nature nor subsistence which being still the same he ceases not to be God nor the Son of God by becoming Man And we may say more generally he ceases not to be what he ever had been but begins to be what before he was not There is therefore neither a Conversion of the Godhead changing it from a Divine into a Humane Nature nor yet a confusion whereby upon the union of the two Natures there results a third which is neither of the two as when a blew thread is dipt into a yellow Vat there comes out a third colour which is neither blew nor yellow but green so that the Properties Natural and Personal of the Son of God remain the same unvaried by this Union 8. Jesus Christ being one who is God conceived and Man conceived in the unity of the Divine Conception he is the Son of God both in his Divine and Humane Nature This subsistence therefore of the Son of God in Union with Man is Mystical in the full and adequate notion of Mysticalness for the Divine Nature might have been and have governed the whole Creation Cap. 10.1 though in no one of its Personal subsistences it had been one with Man Jesus Christ therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity hath in him a Mystical subsistence of God and Man become one and therefore is a Mystical Divine Person 9. And because this Mystical Union was effected by the unity of the Divine Conception therefore God conceiving the Divine and Humane Nature is one Rom. 15. in as such the God and Father of Jesus Christ and therefore is as such the Divine Nature in its first subsistence become Mystical 10. And the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son in this their Mystical subsistence being as such the Spirit of the Father of Jesus 1 Cor. 2.12 and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus is the Divine Nature as such in its third subsistence hereby become Mystical Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.6 Phil. 1.19 Cap. 10.1 So that
which being for Contrivance and Counsel as it were the Master-piece of Divine Skill in Matter God statedly beholds this singular Work of his own Hands when arrived at due Maturity with such a favourable Aspiration as is no less or but a little less than that which he vouchsafeth to the Inhabitants of the Intellectual World And as we see much what the same measure of strength as suppots a weight will serve to raise it so same the favourable Aspiration that upholds an Intellectual Creature in Being is of force sufficient to raise it into Being Therefore such Aspiration will give Being to a Conscious Life as preserves the Mental Natures of the Invisible World 2. But then this Aspiration being included in the Divine favourable intuition on what his hand hath curiously wrought in these lower parts of the Earth Psa 139.15 though it hath a Conscious Life for its effect yet it is not a separate Conscious Life but a Conscious Life enlivening that accurate frame of Matter now a conscious Life vitally United to a Humane Body is a rational Soul 3. And because this Soul doth result from the Divine Aspiration on a being framed by the course of Natural Causes in the material System of this World therefore it is not Properly Created nor yet Miraculous but Natural 4. Yet this Soul cannot be said to be therefore educed out of the powers of Matter because the Divine Aspiration is not of that kind which concurs with Corporeal Motions but such as is afforded to the Intellectual Natures though upon the approbation of this singular piece of Divine Workmanship in this World of Bodies 5. He that said of the Humane Soul Creatur infundendo or infunditur Creando spoke something this way but whether expresly enough needs not be inquired since the Scripture assures us that the Lord who Created the whole frame of this Visible World besides that does form the Spirit of Man within him That the Spirit in Man being by the Inspiration of the All-mighty Zech. 12.1 Job 32.8.27.3 Gen. 2.7 is Intellectual and the breath in our Nostrils our Spirit and Life is the Spirit of God which he Breathed into Mans Nostrils by which he became a living Soul So that if Brutes have Souls and they be educed out of the Powers of Matter yet the Soul of Man according to a course settled by God in Nature being a Conscious Life is by a Divine Aspiration correspondent to those of the Superiour World By which it appears Mans Nature participates both of this and the other World in its Constitution 6. Therefore the Son of God who is God being one Person with Man hath thereby a new alliance both to the Material and Intellectual World and a new Cognation both with the Coelestial and Terrestial Inhabitants and because the Union of God and Man in Christ is Mystical Cap. 10.8 therefore the whole Kingdom of God is put into a Mystical state and frame upon this new Cognation with all things in Heaven and Earth 7. And if according to the Opinion of some of the most celebrated Philosophers in this Age the motion of every part of Matter does really so diffuse it self that the whole System of Matter is affected thereby and if withal the parts that make up the Intellectual World have a correspondent Communion amongst themselves then by this Union of God and Man there is as it were a new Leaven which may be sufficient in Gods due time to Leaven the Mass of the whole Creation And Christs Resurrection is a Specimen of its efficacy and a ground of our expectation But should this prove only to be their Conjecture and not the Natural way of efficiency yet we are however sufficiently assured that the effect shall be produced and that in Christ all things in Heaven and Earth shall be recollected into one Eph. 1.10 Col. 1.17 18 19 20. 2 Thes 2.1 Acts. 3.21 and that there shall be a restitution of all things whereby they shall be restored into one blessed frame 8. The Mystical constitution of the Divine Kingdom being therefore for the restoration of the Natural Kingdom in a renewed integrity it is a form of Government which in its Nature and design is manifestly subordinate to the Original Government of the Divine Kingdom in its Primitive institution 9. If then the Supream Governour be the same yet as King of this Mystical Kingdom he is less than the King of the Natural Kingdom not in himself or Naturally but in the state of a Governour or Politically the Antients call it Oeconomically But in plain terms the sense stands thus God that humbleth himself when he inspects the things that are done in Heaven and in Earth however he undertakes the Government and Management of them does yet more humble himself when for the good of the Creation Psal 113.6 he governs the Universe in the Mystical constitution for the redintegrating of the Natural Kingdom into one blessed frame 10. Whereas then God in the first Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Father is first in the Address as Lord of the Natural Kingdom so God even the same God in the second Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Son is first in the Address as Lord of the Mystical Kingdom considered as Mystical and Subordinate because God manifest in the Flesh is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness 11. Before the Mystery was made known therefore the stile Lord did more directly and more usually indigitate God the Father as we find in the old Testament but since the Mystery is to be acknowledged by all the Subjects of Gods Kingdom the Title of Lord doth more directly denote God the Son and is therefore in the new Testament most commonly attributed to Jesus Christ though they be both one Lord as well as one God 12. The Son therefore being Lord of the Divine Kingdom in its Mystical and Subordinate State in treating with his Subjects will have occasion to speak of himself as less than his Father in many of the affairs of the Mystical Kingdom and Government especially in and about the change of the Natural into the Mystical Frame though he be the same God Lord with the Father For God doth humble himself more in condescending to Govern the World in this State than in the first Natural Constitution of his Kingdom The Son therefore is less than the Father not only as Man but also as God Governing the Divine Kingdom in the Mystical State John 3.35 Mat. 11.27 Acts 2.32 Joh. 10.20 1 Cor. 11.3 John 6.38 1 Cor. 3.23 1 Cor. 15.27 Phil. 2.7 Zech. 3.8 Joh 17.5 Accordingly we read the Sons Power is given is received of the Father he receives command from the Father the head of Christ is God even the Father for he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Christ is Gods who put all things
it can neither roundly be affirmed nor denied Explicate the meaning of the ambiguous Phrase and the Matter hath no difficulty The Scripture sometime says that this Person that is God and Man is the Son of Abraham of David c. and sometimes with restriction Mat. 1.1 Rom. 1.3 9 5. explains the expression that it is appertaining to the Flesh 11. Seeing God the Son is one with Man of Humane Race put case that this Man had had a Personal Subsistence in the World before this Union then until this Union they were two several Persons and then if the one of these two was Christ the other was not And unless this Union alters their Condition they still continue two several Persons and so if the one of these two be Christ the other is not But we have before proved that the properties personal and natural of God the Son are unvaried by this Union therefore unless the Man be altered in some respect Christ is not God and Man C. 10 7. which is contrary to the supposition whereon the inquiry proceeds How God and Man is one in Christ Should then the Humane Nature of this Person by its Union with the Divine Nature be Annihilated or Changed from its Man-hood Then the Son of God is not by this Union one with Man but with some other thing which is likewise contrary to the supposal And yet if the distinct Personal Subsistence of the Manhood as well as the Nature should continue after this Union then they will remain as much two as they were before but this is contrary to the supposal that they were become one It remains therefore that there is some Change in the distinct Personal Subsistence of the Man by becoming one with the Son of God but because Personal Capacities are indivisible no Change of them is partial but all total Now a total Change of a Person by Union with another Person extinguisheth the Changed Personality so that though it was a voluntary Nature yet by the Union the voluntary Nature becomes a Natural Property of the Person to which it is United If therefore the Manhood of our Saviour had had a Personal Subsistence in the World before its Union with the Godhead the consequence of such Union had been that they which before were Naturally two voluntary Agents by this Personal Union became one Natural Voluntary Agent and so two Natures both Voluntary become one Person And because neither the Divine Nature or Personality of the Son of God is changed this one Person is a Divine Person no less than he was before the Union Now though there was no Manhood in Being before its Union for when God sent forth his Son he was made of a Woman Gal. 4.4 yet by this case put Hypothetically we may the better conceive the Nature of the Union betwixt the two Natures in Christ 12. For as this Nature did in the fore-described formation arrive at the form of a Humane Nature by the Efficiency of the Natural and Supernatural Powers it had its Personal Subsistence in the Word for since as has been shewed a Humane Nature that had a Personal Subsistence in the World being United with the Divine Word may thereupon become one Person with the Word and its own Personality be extinguished Much more shall a Nature that never had Humanity or Personality before as fast as it attains a Humane form so have its Personal Subsistence by its Union with the Divine Word that God and Man are one Voluntary Agent thereby and all the Rights Disposals and Acts of the two Natures are Really and in Truth the Rights Disposals and Acts of this one Person that is God and Man 13. According to which measures it may be truly said that God redeems his Church with his own blood though the Godhead hath no blood of its own Acts. 20.28 John 6.62 John 3.13 And the Son of Man ascends into Heaven where he was before though that was never before the place of the Humane Nature and whilst he was speaking of that future ascent the Son of Man was even then in Heaven though his Humane Nature was at that time only on Earth 14. God that made two Stones in the condition of two several moveables so that one may move upwards whilst the other moves downward or one rest whilst the other moves could have made the Substance of these two stones to have adhered together inseparably and become only one movement And though Volitions are not motions yet Volitions are the Acts of Wills as Motions if they be Actions are the Actions of Bodies We cannot make Natural Wills and consequently we cannot make Natural Persons and therefore it is that we cannot make many Natural Persons to become one Natural Person But when God hath made men that are Natural Persons we can of them Create Political Persons because we can Create a Political Will and therefore we can also of many Political Persons make one Political Person We can make one man a King because we can give one a Soveraign Will in this Country and another a King in another Country and a third in another and we can joyn all these three into one Political Person by making the Will of the major part the will of the whole Governing all these Kingdoms in the Person of a Trium virate For the Power of making many Persons of any kind into one Person of the same kind is but commensurate to the power of making several Persons of the same Condition Wherefore since God can make several natural Persons he can by the same Omnipotence make two Natural Persons to become one Natural Person for this must needs be as feasible to the Divine Power as the other is to ours Now though the Divine Nature and Person of God the Son be Eternal yet the Humane Nature being Temporal it is obnoctious to the Divine Arbitriment notwithstanding its voluntariness whether it shall have a Personal Subsistence of its Self or be the Natural Property of the Person of the Son of â—od and so God and Man be so United that they become one Voluntary Agent and one Divine Person Now since we are ascertained that God wills the Word to become Flesh Rom. 5.17 1 Cor. 8.6 Eph. 4.5 we are thereby assured that God wills God and Man to be one Christ one Lord and one Person CHAP. XII Of the Mystery of Gods Kingdom 1. NOW if the Son of God be one Person with Man he is one Person with a Humane Body Vitally United with a Reasonable Soul let us reflect then upon our own make and frame that we may the better understand this Mystery of the Universe Now a Humane Body is a Body exalted by a regular Efficiency of Mans Prolifick Powers to that Curious Stupendious and Unparallel'd Mechamisme by Organization and to that refined Temperature by more than Myriads of exquisite Percolations as is not to be found in any other parts of this Visible World
his Spiritual Nature as has been seen is perfect in these and admits no more 3. And for the inequality of these three suggested in the Hypothesis it is also repugnant to the perfections of the Deity For since the Divine Nature is independent on any other thing that subsistence which it has in the agency of an Eternally Holy Will is equal to that which it hath in the agency of an Eternally Perfect Truth and each of these is equal to that subsistence which it hath in the agency of an Eternally Conscious Life 4. The three Divine Subsistences have been thought by some to be only our partial inadequate conception of the one Divine Nature and one Writer observing that the Divine Intellect and Will have commonly been considered in the explication of the Trinity he has through great ignorance not without scornful slander of the Catholick Faith and contumelious usage of the Divine Majesty exposed them to the World under the approbrious style of Faculty Gods But it appears from the foregoing account of the Trinity that such apprehensions and wrath are from meer mistake for the infinite Life Light and Love or the infinite Life Mind and Spirit is intirely the Divine Nature and this subsists intirely in the first subsistence conceiving and intirely in the second conceived and intirely in the third willed 5. Since the Divine Mind in its first subsistence is not it self unless it does conceive the Divine Nature and yet there is no conceiving the Divine Nature if there be no conceptus of the Divine Nature and vice versâ no conceptus of the Divine Nature subsists if the Nature subsists not conceiving it therefore the first and second substantial subsistence of the Divine Nature are not at all themselves if they be separated 5. Again no Nature subsists by being willed unless it also subsists in conceptu therefore the subsistence of the Divine Nature by volition is not it self if it be separated from that subsistence of the same Nature which is in conceptu Therefore no one of these subsiences of the Divine Nature subsists at all or is its self unless all three subsist in coexistence 6. But though they be inseparable yet every one in their coexistence is in it self independent for though no one is it self unless in union with the other yet being in union each is what it is by its own independent subsistence therefore though the Parental subsistence is not it self what it is if it be not coexistent with the other two yet being in union it is what it is by its own independent subsistence And for the same Reason neither is the second nor the third it self if not in union with the other two but being in coexistence each is what it is independently and consequently every subsistence is an independent subsistence 7. These three subsistences have yet their order and that not arbitrary but natural In the Angles of an equilateral Triangle any one is the first arbitrarily as we please to begin but in natural order they are all simultaneous but in a solid the length is in natural order the first dimension the breadth the second and the depth the third The Divine Nature in its first subsistence does not suppose the subsistence in conceptu though it does connote it but the subsistence in conceptu doth both suppose and connote the first and the subsistence in volition doth suppose and connote both the other So here is but one the first and that is the first in the Natural Order therefore there is but one Principle in the Godhead and then the second subsistence and third in the Natural Order But when the first is called the Fountain and Original of the Trinity these expressions are so very Metaphorical that though they sound not amiss yet their sense is very undeterminate 8. The three subsistences have also a mutual inexistence or in-being of one in the other that is to say not only the one individual Nature exists substantially in three distinct subsistences but every one of those subsistences hath mutually a real existence in the other two for example the Divine Nature in its first subsistence is God not conceived but this same Divine Nature and its first subsistence are positively conceived to be and therefore both this Nature and its first subsistence have in this conception a conceived subsistence which is a second real subsistence but then the first subsistence of the Deity unconceived is the first subsistence subsisting in its own proper form but as it subsists in the second it is not so but in the conceived subsistence and in the third in the willed subsistence and correspondently it is in the reciprocal in-being of the other two this is plain in the notional subsistence of things in our own Minds and this I take to be the mutual consciousness Cap. 4.7 which a very Learned Author of late hath at large discoursed of in a Book of great instruction 9. The Subsistences being thus in themselves and thus related to each other it is manifest that every one of these is God and all the same God because the same Divine Nature does substantially subsist intirely and equally in all and in every one of the Three Therefore the same Glorious Nature the same Supream Majestick Nature the same Incomprehensible Eâ—ernal Omnipotent Uncreated Nature does subsist one and the same in all and every one of the three Subsistences Therefore there is but one Uncreate one Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible one Supream in Glorious Majesty 10. This one Blessed Mind in all its Subsistences does operate with one agency upon all other Inferiour Beings that are in the Universe Now as we find in our selves If our Life Understanding and Will have internally amongst themselves divers interests yet their energy in the motion whereby they move our Bodies from place to place is but one they therefore yield but one force that moves the hand or foot in one only single Line straight or crooked Wherefore though the Deity in all its three real subsistences operates upon other things yet there is but one Divine Agent and one Divine Agency in the World There is then but one Creatour one Redeemer one Sanctifier there is but one Invisible Adorable Being one Lord one King one Judge one Majesty to whom all subjection is due 11. Let us now proceed to the Moral Consequents The Physical Goodness of the Divine Nature is the Divine Nature it self considered as a thing to be willed But the Moral goodness of the Divine Nature is its free willing of the Divine Being Since therefore the Divine Nature it self in its third substantial Subsistence Câ—p 5 2â— does subsist in this All-mighty but free Volition of the Divine Being therefore this free Volition which is the Divine Moral Goodness hath in God a substantial Subsistence So that Moral goodness is substantial in the Divine Nature but is not so in any other Nature how sublime soever In this sense none is good
they designed to entertain us with a sort of Traversty transprosed the Text and their sense being confronted appear to speak of things so vastly distant Ex. Gr. St. John agreeably to other Scriptures and in exact accord with the reason of the Divine Nature as before explained John 1.2 tells us In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Gloss of those who pretend to the most rational interpretation of the Scripture in plain sense is to this purpose In the beginning That is as they expound Not in the beginning but in the days of Augustus Caesar Was the word That is not the word but a meer man whose name was Jesus and and not the word And the word was with God That is not in Heaven where God is but in Galilee in a retired privacy as if one should say God knows where And the wo d was God That is not God but one by false reputation so styled All things That is not all things but somethings Were made by him That is not made by him but disposed into another order by him And without him was not any thing made that was made that is every Substantial thing that was made was made without him but some respects of some things were not without him disposed otherwise than they had been before Thus they Surely this is to read us a Riddle or give us an Account of some Parabolical Projection and not to give us the exposition of a Doctrinal instruction for here every word shifts its signification to comport with a secret contrivance which the speaker had projected in his thoughts not to inform but to amuse the Hearers But after the adversaries have with such force and artifice set this Scene all the expression following for Ten or Twelve Verâ—â—s together lie so crosly that though they torture their wits they cannot wrest them to any tollerable compliance with their design and their Comments upon other Texts are much what of the like consistency But when the word as hath been proved does so properly signifie the Subsistence of the Deity in the Divine Conception and all the subsequent assertions about it in this Chapter are as Natural as could be chosen on a subject of so august solemnity it would tempt a friendly Monitor to ask these men what they see in such a ramble of fanciful extravagance that can please them better than the plain obvious and native sense of this portion of holy Scripture That a force is used upon the expression is as manifest as can be to every one that understands the Language but it appears not what could constrain these men to use it besides some reasonings about the thing in their own minds and then it is their own preconceived opinion and nothing else that necessitates them thus to dstort the Scriptures For I have shewed what is here said is most consonant to the Nature and reason of the thing in its self and to many express assertions in other Texts All their reasonings which have appeared against the Scripture language on this Head have no other foundation but a presumption that because they see all Created Beings must needs Subsist in one Subsistence alone therefore the Divine Nature cannot Subsist in any more Whereas it is manifest upon more wary thoughts that though all dependent Substances seeing there is but one Divine Energy Ad Extra can have but one and that a dependent Subsistence yet a Substance yielding to its self it s own Subsistence will yield it self so many distinct real Subsistences as the condition of that blessed Nature doth require and whether that be one or more cannot be concluded from the manner of the Subsistence of other things in the World without interpreting the Parable wherein the World do's present to us the Divine Nature how that is to be done I have briefly hinted above The face of the World which we behold bears in it the Prints of the makers hand by which we reasoning right from our outward and inward sensations may understand what a Being the Deity is but then we must remember in all our reckonings to allow for all Parabolical Projections in the delineation as not only we but the Antitrinitarians themselves do in all other questions of the Divine Nature but this they not allowing or not heeding in the question of the Trinity are in consequence forced to make all the Scriptures Parabolical which teach the several branches of the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is in Truth and this is the cause of their rending and tearing the words and the sense asunder The case of Christians in this point stands thus if we be not Naturalists skilful enough to resolve the Projection then however God has given us the Scripture as an intelligible declaration of what God would have us to believe concerning his own Divine Being Now nothing can be more absurd than to pretend to understand a Persons meaning by his sayings and yet at the same time to destroy the very reason of that speech making it insignificant of that which the expressions signifie to all that understand the Language But if we can interpret the Parable of Nature aright then we see the words of Truth in the Scripture interpret themselves for we see the Language of Scripture understood according to the Reason of Speech speaks the same that the Nature of the thing doth when we have made such an allowance for the different realities as Reason teaches us there is betwixt a Dependent and self Originate Substance CHAP. X. Of the Mystical Trinity 1. THings secret and abstruse which lie out of the way of common understanding are according to their subject matter usually termed Mysteries of Art or Nature of Trade or State of Iniquity or Religion These last being stiled by Christ the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 13.11 they are therefore such things as belong to the invisible State of Gods Kingdom Yet it is neither the abstruseness of the things nor their Religiousness nor yet their invisible state in the intellectual World that compleats the form of their Christian Mysteriousness For St. Paul teaching that God manifest in the Flesh is the Ground and Pillar of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness we thereby learn that it is the relation to or dependence upon the words being made Flesh which now constitutes a Religious Mystery in the Christian State Accordingly Lactantius frequently denies that the Heathens understood the Mystery of the World though they knew the Natural Condition and Frame of the World I suppose no less than Christians I would further observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are mostly applied to such things as are appropriate to the use of propitiating and conciliating the favour of the Deity and so the Mysticalness of Religious things will properly
God in the three subsistences of the Divine Nature upon our Saviours Incarnation is become Mystical 11. Now it is this Mystical Trinity that the Gospel teaches Indeed whilst the Scriptures deliver the Doctrine of the Mystical Trinity they do as I have said insinuate the state of the natural Trinity but so they instruct us in almost all things in Nature whilst they teach us their relation to the Mystical and Sacerdotal state of the Divine Kingdom On the other hand we see the knowledge of the Natural Trinity which we learn from the perfections of the Divine Nature does so lead us to the Faith of the Mystical as to leave that Christian Mystery to be wholly of supernatural Revelation For the Mystery I say the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity rests wholly upon the ground and pillar of Truth which is confessed to be the great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh so that our Faith of this Mystery it is plain stands not in the Wisdom or Reasonings of Men but in the veracity of Gods word This is sufficient to justifie the distinction which I make betwixt the Mystical and Natural Trinity for this is but analogous with the reason of that difference which is betwixt Christian and Natural Vertue for though the Natural form of vertue may be understood by Natural Light yet the Christian form cannot which includes all the Vertuousness of the Natural and somewhat more which is likewise praise-worthy CAP. XI Of Christs Humanity 1. WE must confess if Christs humanity had been wholly Created anew by its being conceived one with the word it would then have been nothing of kin either with Man or with any other thing in the World Whereas we are assured he that is the word came into that World which had been made by him John 1.10 1 Joh. 4.17 and we are in this World even as he was in this World his Humane Nature was not therefore strictly Created but made of some substance preexistent in the World 2. Neither was his Manhood made out of any thing that is not of humane race for then he had had no more cognation with that Mankind that is in the World then with any other parts of this mundane System but we are taught Heb. 2.14 that because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same he has therefore a prime relation to us and as such Heb 3.11 he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren 3. If Christs Humane Nature then be made out of that one blood whereof are all the Nations of men he is the Son of man and is made so of God by Nature and therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.5 as the Author of Nature produced this Manhood 4. But tho it be God that does produce this Human Nature yet if he do it by the sole powers of Natural Ordination according to the Laws establish'd before in the World for the Production of Mankind he will not thereby carry off any corrupt or inordinate sensuality which passes according to course in the natural constitution of things and tho we should suppose that the Personality of this individual Manhood is not subsistent because of the personal Union with the Divine Logos yet that of it self changes not this Human Nature in its dispositions and therefore this Nature would indeed be like ours in its Causes and Constitution but it would be too like us because it would not be undefiled Whereas we know this Nature was Holy and Harmless and Undefiled Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 1.19 that it might be offered without spot to God as a Lamb without blemish and without spot It was not therefore solely produced by the powers of Nature 5. If the Manhood wherewith God is one be produced by the Powers of Nature so far as they will reach with rectitude and by Divine Power superadded to supply what is defective then this Manhood hath all that is really and essentially natural to us and so is related naturally to us and the supernatural Divine Operation takes away all the depravation of Nature Whereby it comes to pass that though he was in all things to be like unto us that he might have the feeling of our Infirmities and Temptations Heb. 2.17 Heb. 4.15 Heb. 7.27 28. yet he had no sin at all for our High-Priest can have no Infirmities or Sins of his own to offer for according to the fundamental constitution of the Divine Kingdom though Moses his Law allowed sinful Men to be Priests and to offer first for themselves and then for the People 6. Wherefore God in framing the humanity of Christ did continue the powers of Nature to work by their own stated Rules and without exalting them by a supernatural efficiency added thereto did produce an effect in the world which is beyond the force of Natural Powers Now all such effects as are produced by the force of Natural Powers and Divine energy added thereto are ever in Scripture peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.4 Thus when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters or liquid such effects followed as the powers of water are naturally uncapable of producing So both Jesus his and his Disciples miraculous operations upon the powers of Nature and all supernatural Graces are peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost for all these diversities of Operations worketh one and the same Holy Spirit by the personal disposition of his own Will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. 7. This Manhood become one with the Son of God is peculiarly therefore the work of the Holy Ghost and because it was effected by the Holy Ghost coming upon a Woman and the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was born of her Luk. 1.35 Mat. 1.20 therefore this is a Child conceived by the Holy Ghost and has that Woman for its Mother 8. It is also the Child of Adam Luk. 3.38 Gen. 3.20 Mat. 1. and of Eve the Mother of all Living and of Noah And if God had said that it should be by the descent of any particular Line as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah Jesse David it will be the Child of these Progenitours and such Predictions and Promises are Divine Characteristicks of the individual Person of Gods Son become Man both to the Ages preceding and following his Birth 9. The depravation of our Nature being removed not by the natural efficacy but supernatural efficiency of the Holy Ghost there will be no more reason to assert this Woman to have been her self born without all inordinate sensuality because she was the Mother of this Child than to affirm the same of all his Pro-parents in the direct Line up to Adam 10. But whether she is to be called the Mother of God is a question of names and strife of words for as much as there is a sense wherein she is and another wherein she is not therefore
all the most absolute perfections of being in Substantial Subsistence but likewise out of pity to the pressing necessity of Mankind because it was necessary and seasonable wholesome and profitable to Men to save their Souls from the Deceits of this present World 2. Atheism and Polytheism being provided against by the two former forms of Covenant it appears if men be not Psychical or Epicurean Divines in consequence of their own opinions they are to acknowledge the truth of the Natural Trinity So that Deists Jews Mahometans and all Genuine Philosophers will joyn with the Trinitarians when they please to reason warily upon their own Principles which when they do it may somewhat dispose them to a better opinion of Christianity if they please to remember that this sublime Doctrine was the institution of the Holy Fishers and withal take notice that they had been with Jesus CHAP. XIV Of the Christian form of Baptism 1. HAD Christianity been nothing else but Natural Religion yet this account might have been given why we should have made a formal recognition of the Blessed Trinity at our foederal initiation into it but because our Religion is a Mystery of Godliness and Baptism a Mystical Rite of that Religion we are further to observe that God having given us as far as is possible an ocular demonstration of the Trinity by sending the Son and the Spirit visibly into the World Cap. 10.8 our Saviour Jesus Christ being the second Person in the Mystical Trinity and in that state commanding all Mankind to be Baptized in the Name of his Father Himself and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. his and his Fathers Spirit it is plain by this Command he obliges all formally and primarily into the confession of the Christian Mystical Trinity but noâ— of the Natural Trinity saving as in consequence thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 and because Baptism does now save us upon this Recognition heartily made the acknowledgment of this Mystical Trinity by this institution of Christ is become necessary that we may be instated with the peace of God in the Rights of the Divine Kingdom 2. This is evident from the very foundation of the Christian Religion which is that Jesus is the Christ for he that believes that Jesus is not the Christ is lost beyond all Redemption 1 Cor. 3.11 but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ believes that Jesus Christ is one and the same Person And he that believes that Jesus the Son of Man is Christ the Son of God does believe that the Son of Man and the Son of God is one and the same Person and because this Jesus is so the Son of Man as to be himself Man and this Christ so the Son of God as to be himself God therefore God and Man is one and the same Person even Jesus Christ And because this same Person that is God and Man is so God as to be the Son of God therefore there is another Person beside even his Father that is God In the confession of Jesus to be the Christ Cap 1â— 8 9. there is included then the acknowledgement of two Personal Subsistences of the Godhead and because the one of these is in Personal Union with Man therefore both he himself and his Father are Persons of the Mystical Trinity 3. But because God and Man was not always united in one Person it is to be considered by what Power this Union was effected If he that is to be Baptized knows not he is first to be instructed before he may be Baptized yea though he hath had some initiative engagement to believe in Jesus he is to be taught and baptized again as the case of those Ephesians shews Asts 19. But should the person demanding Baptism be so profligate an admirer of the power of darkness as to aver that the Infernal Powers did unite the Godhead into this personal Union with Man and then Inaugurate this Person into his Office by a visible descent upon him and authorize him to teach the Doctrine which he taught and impower him to work Miracles for its confirmation and afterwards in ostentation of his power over God and Man first ignominiously put him to death and then raise him from the dead c. this heighth of flagitious obloquy and horrid blasphemy being never to be forgiven he is never to be baptized but utterly rejected as an eternally unpardonable Reprobate But if the Union of God and Man in one Person be acknowledged to be effected by the Divine Power Cap. 11 6. Câ—p. 1â— 10 then the Holy Ghost which is the Divine Power thus operating is the Spirit of the Father of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and consequently is a Mystical Person of the Blessed Trinity Therefore our Confession of Jesus to be the Christ does contain in it the acknowledgment of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity And this is the Faith which the Church in all Ages is to contend for into which it is to baptize all its visible Members and to explicate in its Symbols or Creeds For the shortest abridgment or foundation of the Christian Faith is Jesus is the Christ The next is the Mystery of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Baptismal Stipulation and the next the Creeds 4. The practice of this Faith is briefly deduced thus Since the natural Trinity is become Mystical by the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God Cap. 10. Cap. 12. and thereupon the Universal Kingdom of God is put under the government of God in that Mystical state of the Divine Nature wherein as such God the Son made Man is the first in the Address the same honour therefore belongs to the Son as to the Father And in the retrospect since Christ says that the Father hath totally committed the government of the Divine Kingdom to the Son John 5. John 5.22 23. and that because he is the Son of Man that is the word made flesh and thereupon all are to honour the Son even as they honour the Father and that he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father this duty supposes the belief of the Mystical Trinity as that belief inferred this duty For we cannot understand how to go about the discharging this duty unless we believe the Father and the Son either to be two several equal Gods or being they are two different Persons to be each equally one and the same God For to honour one Person in my heart as I honour another whose personal perfections at the same time I believe to be inferiour to the others is such a thought as no Mans Mind can think though â—e would never so fain But every one honours the Son as he honours the Father who believes that the Father is God and that the Son is the same God conceived and with infinite truth and reality living and subsisting himself in that conception and that