Witness but St. John it were more than sufficient to condemn the Blasphemy In the days of the Emperor Domitian one Ebion a Samaritan and his Sectators denying Christ's Divinity the Apostle did write his Gospel to prove it which in so many places thereof is done as positively fully and clearly as Heart can desire Only some few I shall take notice of to begin with the first Verse of Chap. 1. * John 1.1 14. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God compared with V. 14. and the Word was made Flesh Afford us this Argument the Word was God the Word was made Flesh therefore God was made Flesh And as the name Word is proper to Christ who was made Flesh it followeth that Christ is God And in another place he is in a most specifical manner called * Chap. 3.16 God's only begotten Son whereby he is affirmed to be of the same Nature and Substance and equal with him * Chap. 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father saith he The Reason he gives elsewhere * Chap. 10.30 I and my Father are one and to Philip he saith ‖ Ch. 14.10 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me which for greater Confirmation he had said just in the Verse before this Demonstrates a stricter Union than meerly one of Favour and Grace this shews the Unity of Nature in the Distinction of Persons which though distinguished amongst themselves so that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father yet both are Gods and Divine Nature is common to both nothing can be more like the Person of the Father than the Person of the Son wherefore he is called * Colos 1.15 the Image of the invisible God God the Father is Invisible no Man hath ever seen him but he hath made himself visible in the Person of his Son who is partaker of his Nature To this purpose the Lord Jesus is said to be * Heb. 11.3 the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person This is no Flattery to him nor Favour for it is his Right herein he is no Usurper nor Intruder for if he was God would not suffer it being as he is so Jealous of his Honour and Glory 't is therefore upon a just Title that * Phil. 2.5 6. Christ thought it no Robbery to be equal with God None but God can truly and really be equal with God I would know what meer Creature may lawfully be compared to and be equal with God The Lord Jesus himself declares at several times how he came from the Father that is from above * John 3.31 from Heaven how the Father had sent him which is to be understood when he became Man and was born of a Woman Now he could not be sent and come before he had a Being and as he was come from the Father so he returned to the Father as he declared it to his Disciples But I desire a special notice to be taken of what is said * John 17.5 And now O Father glorifie thou me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was Whence we infer how the Lord Jesus was before the World that is from Eternity for time began only at the Creation how not only he was but also had Glory equal with the Father This cannot be understood of his Humanity because he was Born in Time and he was not Glorified till after his Resurrection nor he could not have a Glory except he had a Being which Being had no relation to his Humanity but to his Divinity And because thorough his Humiliation that Glory had been eclipsed he was to return and again to appear in it after the Work he came about was over There would be no end if I would enlarge and bring in so many places as the Old and New Testaments do afford to prove this Point the strength of which the bitter Enemies of this Truth being sensible of it makes them do what they can to elude it and undervalue the Authority of the Scripture which must be the Judge in the Cause reserving the Interpretation thereof to their own Fancy or Reason as they would call it Wherefore to be short I shall according to the usual way in Schools of Divinity resolve the whole into an Argument which is this He to whom in God's Word are appropriated the Names Attributes Works and Divine Honour he is true Eternal God but to the Lord Jesus all these are attributed in Scripture therefore the Lord Jesus is true Eternal God We must descend to Particulars First as to the Names we begin with the Old Testament few out of many He is called * Isa 7.14 Immanuel which being interpreted is ‖ Matt. 1.23 God with us And by the same Prophet amongst other Glorious Names he is called the * Isa 9.6 Mighty God And in another place ‖ Ch. 35.4 5 6. Behold your God will come with Vengeance even God with a Recompense c. which our Saviour * Matt. 11.5 applieth unto himself So the Name of God and of Jehovah which Jews own to be an incommunicable Name of God never to be pronounced but once a Year by the High Priest in the Holiest of all are given him as in * Ch. 16.13 18.1 this to be compared with Hos 12.6 Genesis and in ‖ Exod. 3.15 Exodus in †Mal. 3.1 Malachy he is called the Lord the Messenger of the Covenant who often appeared to the Fathers as a forerunning of his Incarnation amongst others to * Josh 5.14 15. Joshua under the name of Captain of the Host of the Lord to whom Joshua by his Command rendered the same Honour as ‖ Exod. 3.5 Moses had done before Put off thy Shoes from off thy Feet for the place where thou standest is Holy Ground in which place he is called the Angel of the Lord v. 2. v. 4. the Lord and God This is the Angel of God promised to be sent before his People * Exod. 23.20 21 22. for my Name is in him he is called by the same Name as I am and he is the same as I am even God Of the word Jehovah which is Englished the Lord being attributed to our Saviour we have besides others two considerable Instances one is ‖ Isa 40.3 The Voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the Desert a High-way for our God The Voice is * John 1.23 applied to John the Baptist as our Saviour whose Forerunner he was is the Lord and God The other Instance is this ‖ Hos 1.7 I will have Mercy upon the House of Judah and I will Save them by the Lord their God Now there is no other Saviour but Jesus Christ the Messiah which he plainly declared to the Woman
to be called is really to be so as of John Baptist Thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest Luke 1.76 shall really be so or else if he had not really been it had been a Lie Man was to have no hand in the Birth of that Child for the Virgin knew no Man it was to be a Production only of the Holy Ghost coming upon the Virgin and of the Power of the Highest overshadowing her Here we must draw a Curtain and a Door before this high Mystery yet we may say that to bring into the World one that should be meerly a Man there had been no need of this transcendent unspeakable and incomprehensible way If it was intended he should have been no more than a Man there had been no need of altering the usual Course of Generation as it was not in * Take notice of the difference Moses as a Servant Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 3.5 6. Moses Elijah upon whom afterwards God poured his Spirit So if the Lord Jesus had been but a Man he might have been begotten of a Man and afterwards God might have bestowed his Spirit upon him in a higher measure than ever it had been upon any Man that went before but the overshadowing of the Highest was not in vain because God doth nothing in vain The Holy Ghost alone might have preserved him from Sin in his Conception but there had been no need of the overshadowing of the Highest Take notice how Christ is also called the Highest and the Great God Luke 1.76 Tit. 2.13 Let us compare the Cases between the Birth of John the Baptist of whom our Saviour saith thus * Luke 7.28 Amongst those that were born of Women there was not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist and that of the Lord Jesus In the first two things are remarkable the first That an Angel was sent to Announce his Birth The second That he should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers Womb all the rest was Natural and Common Chap. 1. Thy Wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a Son Here according to the usual Course of Nature a Child was to be born of a Husband and his Wife though Old yet the thing happened before to others but in the Person of Christ is a Child born of a Woman without Man The Angel said to Zachariah nothing of the Holy Ghost coming upon Elizabeth nothing of the highest overshadowing her as to the Virgin Mary And we know how never one Man or one Prophet spoke of another as John Baptist did of our Lord and Saviour he knew his distance the difference between them and his nothing in comparison with him * John 1.27 30 He that comes after me and whose Shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose the same was before me yet born six Months after him and before Abraham too though there were 42 Generations between them O that Pre-existence hath no Humane Foundation and can be attributed to nothing but to an Eternal Being he owneth he was not the Christ but he was sent before him to cry in the Wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord Jehovah Verse 34 and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God Wherefore upon occasion our Saviour saith of John Baptist He bare record of me unto the Truth Chap. 5.33 34. though I need no such thing for I receive not Testimony from Man however he bare Witness unto the Truth that I am the Son of God And indeed if to prove it there was but one or few such Texts and Particulars in Scripture about Christ some might happen to think there is room for Cavils and Exceptions but so many things and in so many several places being said to that purpose and all tending to confirm that Truth how he is True God and Only True Son of God there is no reasonable ground left to doubt of it ‖ 1 John 5.20 We know saith St. John that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life Nothing plainer than that Jesus Christ is the True God Relatives ought to be applied to the next Scripture mentioneth four kinds of Generation the first by Father and Mother that is the Common The second without Father or Mother which is properly Creation so Adam was begotten and on this account called Son of God The third of a Father without Mother thus Eve was formed out of Adam's Rib But the fourth and more Miraculous is of a Mother without a Father thus our Blessed Saviour was born of a Woman without the help of Man But all these do relate only to a Temporal Generation but that of Jesus Christ Son of God in a strict Sence by the Father is Eternal Now the Office of Mediator required a Person that should be both God and Man to perform those things that were to be done in relation to both As for instance To Suffer and Die was the part of Humane Nature which the Divine is not capable of but to overcome Death and our Spiritual Enemies could not be effected but by a Divine Power And it also became the Majesty of God that the Mediator should be God which Majesty is so great that none but he that is intimate and equal with the Father could interpose between God and Man Angels themselves could and dared not undertake it for they stand in need of Christ Mediator and * Job 15.15 they are not Pure in God's sight which makes them hide their ‖ Isa 6.2 Face in his Presence now much less any Man only such Besides who but a God could destroy Sin appease God's Wrath overcome the Power of Satan and Death Natural and Eternal Who could make Expiation for Offences committed against an Infinite God but he that is Infinite himself By whose Intercession could God's Anger be pacified but thorough his that is his Beloved Son By whose Power could Satan and the whole Power of Darkness be overcome but by him that is stronger than all the Devils and Hell And who could conquer Death but he that hath destroyed him that hath the Power of Death Heb. 2.14 And as none but a God could deliver us from all these Evils under whose Power we were so none but a God could restore us to the Goods we had lost As first Who could have restored us to a perfect Righteousness but he that is Righteousness it self Who to God's Image Chap. 1.3 but he that is the express Image of his Person and the Brightness of his Glory Who could make us Children of God but he that is his Natural and only begotten and beloved Son Who could bestow upon us the Holy Ghost but he from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth And who could give us Eternal Life but he that is Life it self And by whom could we
come to God but thorough him that is the way Hence it appears John 14.6 how none but a True and not a made God could be a Mediator between God and us If one Man sin against another 1 Sam. 2.25 saith Eli the Judge shall judge him But if a Man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him No meer Man can only he that is Lord God himself * Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh is a place worthy to take up our Serious Thoughts This sheweth first the Law could not justifie us by reason of Weakness thorough the Flesh or Humane Nature which to remedy 't was necessary God should send his own Son to relieve this Weakness and Impossibility for that wherein our Nature thorough Frailty was wanting must be helped by Divine Nature Secondly This sheweth how this help came by means of God's own Son whom God sent into the World and by a Sacrifice for Sin effected that which was impossible for any Man whatsoever to do Now if they can let them find stronger and more proper Expressions to signifie Christ Jesus to be the True Proper Natural Son of God than these in Scripture God's own Son the only begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father in whom the Father is well pleased Can this be said of one that is a meer Man No nor of any Angel which is a nobler Creature For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 6 8. this day have I begotten thee And again when he bringeth the first Begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He cannot be called the First Begotten in relation to a Temporal Generation for many other Sons of Adoption God had begotten long before Christ's appearing in the World but upon account of an Eternal take notice of what is added But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne 1 Tim. 1.1 Tit. 1.3 O God is for ever and ever not only here and in other places I already quoted he is called God but also St. Paul in two places gives him the name of God our Saviour he is God as certainly as he is our Saviour for in both places both are joyned together Now as when the Spirit of God doth in Scripture call him Man we ought to believe him to be a Man indeed so when he calls him God we must believe him to be God indeed for with St. Paul * Rom. 2.2 We are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And immediately after his Conversion he began to preach the Gospel with this Fundamental Truth thereof namely That he is the Son of God Acts 9.20 And whosoever owns him not to be truly God gives God the Lye disowns him to be our Saviour and our Mediator for as the Mediator doth act the part of Man with God so with Men he is to perform the part of God he stands between two Extreams and reaches them both with filling the space though never so distant between them he immediately approacheth unto God whom he pacifieth towards Men and from him upon the account of his own Merit obtaineth for them all Gifts and Graces necessary to their Salvation All this none but a God can do for us But here I must stop for insensibly I am driven farther than I intended only few words I shall speak in relation to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity which they deny Divine Nature is most simply and singularly one yet in that one Essence are Three Persons distinguished in Number Order Manner of Acting and with Personal Names and Attributes And though the words Trinity and Persons be not in so many Letters set down in Scripture no more than the word Sacrament Symbole or Creed Lord's-Prayer c. Yet as we agree that these are contained in and deduced out of the Word of God so we may say of those now in question For Brevity sake I shall mention none of the several Proofs taken out of the Old Testament and pitch upon few of those out of the New The Baptism of the Lord Jesus doth afford a clear and strong Proof God the Father speaks * Matt. 3.16 17. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ the Son of God is Baptised The Spirit or Holy Ghost descended from Heaven like a Dove and lighted upon him Then the Apostles are commanded to * Chap. 28.19 Baptise in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost furely by any one that can reckon it will be found there are Three Hypostases or Persons for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in relation to God the Father for the Son is said to be * Heb. 1.3 the express Image of his the Father's Person In the following Text we also find there ‖ John 14.16 17. I will Pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter the Father I and the Comforter there called the Spirit of Truth and in the next Chapter 't is said * Chap. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father again here they be Three St. Paul also mentioneth them * 2 Cor. 13.14 The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God that is the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost This I shall conclude with that of another Apostle * 1 John 5.7 For there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. I think from the word Three that of Trinity may well be derived Here is proved the Trinity of Persons and the Unity or Oneness of Essence or Nature The Trinity of Persons doth not multiply the Nature without any Contradiction a Subject may in one respect be one and manifold in another This is clear out of several Instances in Nature Man hath a Soul this Soul hath three several distinct Faculties the Mind Will and Memory the Mind is not the Will nor the Will the Memory these are three different Faculties yet but one Soul In the Sun are three things the Body the Light and the Heat of the Sun yet not many Suns yet only one A Father hath a Son the Father and the Son are two different Persons yet they have the same Nature and both are Men. There are many more such Instances which I now forbear to mention to shew how in created Substances Trinity or Multiplicity doth not destroy Unity so we may reasonably infer that in the Godhead the Trinity of Persons is no Prejudice to the Unity of Essence or Nature But for all this they will deny the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the first I proved and I think 't
* John 4.26 I that speak unto thee am he If then Christ spoke the Truth and St. John hath written the Truth Christ is he who is also called ‖ Isa 63.9 8. the Angel of God's presence who saved them his People so he was their Saviour All this spoken of the Lord Jesus The Proofs of this out of the New Testament are as clear as can be besides the Texts already quoted observe the following * John 17.3 This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ that is to be the only true God a thing usual amongst the Hebrews for though the Language be Greek yet the Writers were Jews whose Tongue and manner of expressing themselves is Compendious and Laconick and commonly implies more than it doth express especially in avoiding of Repetitions of many Instances let one serve for all 't is this ‖ Psal 37.25 I have been Young and now am Old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread supply the word forsaken before expressed for sometimes the Seed of the Righteous God suffers by way of Trial to beg but though they beg yet he never forsaketh them Thus in this place after the words Jesus Christ the words to be the only true God ought to be supplied and understood The same Evangelist addeth elsewhere * John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God of the Living God according to the Confession before made by Peter ‖ Chap. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God The Son and only Son of the Living God must needs also be the Living God 'T is said * Acts 20.28 God hath purchased the Church with his own Blood Properly speaking God hath no Blood How then can he purchase a Church with his own Blood otherwise than by the means of an Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Natures in one Person by vertue whereof the Blood which belongs to Humane Nature is called God's own Blood Thomas calls him * John 20.28 my Lord and my God and St. Paul saith ‖ Rom. 9.5 he is over all God Blessed for ever and †Colos 2.9 in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily How fully doth this express it thus * 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the Flesh and his beloved Apostle saith ‖ 1 John 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come in the Flesh and hath given us an understanding that we might know him that is true Son of God even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life This Jesus Christ is not God only in comparison of other Men or by some special Prerogative of Favour or in some higher degree than all the rest but this Jesus Christ is the True God How can it be more plainly and fully expressed that he is the True God So every where else the Lord Jesus is absolutely called God the True God and not relatively as Moses is said * Exod. 7.1 to be made a God to Pharaoh Holy Scripture gives our Blessed Saviour Attributes that are incommunicable to the Creature so he must needs be True God As first Eternity whereof he is called the Father or * Isa 9.6 the Everlasting Father also ‖ Rev. 1.8 17 18. Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending which is which was and which is to come the Almighty repeated Verses 11 12. namely when the Apostle turned to see the Voice that spake to him that had called himself Alpha and Omega which being the first and last Letters of the Greek Alphabet signifie first of all and last of all that is his Eternity he saw one like the Son of Man that is the Lord Jesus who v. 17. calls also himself the first and the last and the next Verse shews it to be understood of Christ for he saith I am he that liveth and was dead And Chap. 21.6 he saith again I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End to be compared with v. 3. The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them To be understood of the Incarnation as expressed by the same Apostle John 1 14. and if any Doubt should remain 't is fully cleared Chap. 22.13 where again and together are rehearsed the general words spoken asunder in the other places I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End the First and the Last and to know who saith so of himself read v. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angel and v. 6. is called the Lord God And the Lord God sent his Angel c. And that all this is the Attribute and Prerogative of the only true Eternal God Isa 41.4 and 44.6 it appears out of Isaiah which our Saviour's words in the Revelations relate to Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the Last and besides me there is no God which to the same purpose are repeated in other places of the same Prophesie To condescend unto our Capacity the Spirit of God doth represent this Eternity in three parts Past Present and to come by him which is which was Rev. 1.4 and which is to come and it cannot be denied thereby the True Eternal God to be understood and hereunto doth fitly answer that place of Scripture which applies it to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Socinians would have Christ's Being to have began with his Birth of the Blessed Virgin but he peremptorily confutes them with the Jews when he saith * John 8.58 before Abraham was I am Can that Generation of Vipers deny he spoke the Truth when he said so If they do then with the Jews they declare themselves to be the Children of the Devil who as our Saviour said to them * Verse 44. Is a Liar and the Father of it If now our Saviour was amongst them they would take up Stones to Stone him as the Jews did at that time according to their Principles which are the same with those of the Jews they would call him a Blasphemer and make use of their words * Chap. 10.33 For a good Work we stone thee not but for Blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God I ask Did the Lord Jesus upon this Charge deny himself to be God Which he would have done if he had not been Or else Was he an Impostor or Deluder Which he must needs have been if he would have passed for God when he was not O the Horrid and Insufferable Blasphemy of Wicked Men. Then Scripture attributes Omniscience unto Christ when he was upon Earth as well as
Name of Blasphemers and begins with himself as he was before his Conversion * 1 Tim. 1.12 13. Putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor Wherein was he such He speaks something of it when he saith ‖ Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth What doth he mean by the Name of Jesus His Person he could not reach his Members he persecuted as much as he could nay as he saith he compelled them to do as he did What 's that To Blaspheme he compelled them to Blaspheme his Name Acts 26.11 his Religion and say many things against his Person and deny him to be the Messiah the Son of God and the Profession of his Gospel to defame and dishonour him And do not Socinians do part of this and the worst of it with as much as in them lies depriving him of his Godhead attacking him in the best and most sensible Part Methinks these Men should have observed and taken warning by God's signal Judgments upon former Blasphemers against the Person of Christ Arrius their great Founder whilst he was easing himself of the Necessities of Nature his Bowels came forth and with them his Life Artemon Samosatenus and several more in former and later Ages came to miserable Deaths The end of Julian the Apostate is well known These should make them Fear and Tremble However in them is a Hardness as was in the Jews whose Arguments they borrow * Acts 13.45 Blaspheming and Contradicting as they did to what concerning this Matter was spoken by Paul and Barnabas The Grounds of their Error I shall not at this time go about to refute that I reserve for another occasion if God permit However two things I shall mention which like two Rocks they commonly split upon and this being well understood affordeth Answers to most of their Arguments St. Peter's words by him spoken in another case I here shall make use of * 2 Pet. 3.5 For this they are willingly Ignorant of namely the difference of Christ's State of Humiliation and that of his Exaltation The Jews who receive not the New Testament may be ignorant of this yet not willingly but Socinians who say and pretend they admit it cannot be Ignorant but willingly After this Rule we may resolve those places in Scripture the Sence whereof thorough their Prejudice they mistake wherein Christ is made Inferior to the Father and the Father said to be greater than he 'T is most true that as he performed the Office of Mediator as he was Man as at that time when he was upon Earth in that low and humble Condition he then was Inferior to the Father but it was not so before for he to obtain Salvation for us voluntarily left that Glory which he had with the Father before the World began and of himself as the Apostle saith * Phil. 2.6 7 8. took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Man and he humbled himself and made himself of no Reputation He had a Being before he was made Man and that Being as the Apostle faith in that place was the Form and Nature of God whereby without Robbery or Usurpation he was equal with God After the time of his Humiliation was over he went up to the place whence he was come down again to appear in his Natural Glory which Glory here he had still but it was under a Cloud which made it invisible to Man His Humane Nature was that Cloud which Scripture calls * Heb. 10.20 the Vail of his Flesh which under the Law was typified by the Vail of the Temple because the Light of the Sun when 't is behind the Clouds doth not appear bright and glorious in our Eyes Must Men say he hath no Brightness nor Glory Still there is enough left to convince us that in it is a Light or else it would be quite Dark So though the Lord Jesus his Divine Glory and Majesty was eclipsed for a time yet several Beams of it appeared in his state of Exinanition as in his Baptism Transfiguration and when * John 12.28 29. the Voice came from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and I will glorifie it again which made some of the People that stood by say it thundred and others An Angel spake to him Besides those many miraculous Works he did which none but a Divine Power could effect all these leave unbelieving Enemies of his Divinity without Excuse for they refuse to receive the Testimony of God the Father of Christ himself and of the Apostles and Evangelists which is as good as to call him a Deluder and an Impostor Their other Stumbling-block and Rock of Offence is the Incarnation of the Son of God or his taking upon him our Humane Nature out of the Virgim Mary thorough the Operation of the Holy Ghost which by no means they will own though Scripture saith in that Famous Prophesie of the Coming of the Messiah * Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall Conceive and bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Immanuel ‖ Matt. 1.23 to this answers John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Which being interpreted is God with us What doth this Interpretation God with us signifie else than an Union of Divine with Humane Nature one Person to be both God and Man which doth meet in the Person of our Blessed Saviour who for Confirmation of this is in Scripture so often called God Son of God and Man Son of Man Can there be any thing more positive than this * John 1.1 14. The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh by Flesh is meant Humane Nature then God was made Man as to the Manner it could not be by Transubstantiation change of Substance of Divine Nature into Humane which had imported an Annihilation of Divine Nature which to think is Blasphemy elsewhere Scripture saith positively God was manifest in the Flesh a Text parallel to that of John to prove the Incarnation which the place sheweth to be said of Christ in whom are terminated all the Prophesies and Figures under the Law about the Messiah and though the Modus and Manner of things be above the reach of Men to dive into and so we must not be rash about it yet God in his Word having revealed the thing to be and said something about the Manner it must not be neglected by us See the Angel's answer to the question of the Virgin * Luke 1.34 35 How shall this be seeing I know no Man The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee This indeed is a high Mystery the Coming of the Holy Ghost the overshadowing of the Highest Yet however this is plain that that Holy Thing or Person to be born of Mary should be the Son of God and really called so for
doubt draw in their Horns nay some of them take upon them to Travel abroad in the Capacity of Governours to young Noblemen and Gentlemen though in a high degree infected with that Plague yet these things are not taken notice of though of such a Nature as deserves strictly to be look'd and narrowly inquired into And God knows what Judgments this is like to bring upon the Nation as if before we had not Sins enough to answer for but there must be this new Addition However we have some Law against Blasphemy and Socinianism which makes great Noise and spreads too much God knows whose Fault it is with the Royal Prophet we must say Psal 119.126 It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law We want no Presidents nor Examples out of Scripture to shew how 't is the Magistrates Duty to punish such Enormities for as they have the Sword to defend the Innocent so 't is to punish Malefactors of which there can be no greater than Blasphemers As of the two kinds of Treasons that which is against the Prince's Person is in a higher degree and greater than that against his Government so the Blasphemy against God's Works and Providence may be called less than that which is immediately against his Nature and Persons God requireth of Magistrates and so they in Conscience are bound to provide that Subjects be rightly instituted in his True Religion and consequently to have every thing removed and punished that is contrary thereunto This course was taken by the good Kings of Judah as Asa Jehoshaphat Hezechiah and Josiah so since Christ's Coming good Christian Emperors did so hence to suppress Hereticks the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Calcedon were summoned by the Emperors Constantine Theodosius Martian c. as to the Blasphemer mentioned in the Old Testament He was stoned by God's immediate command Levit. 24.14 Here Worstius's Book De Deo was in King James's Time burnt by the Hangman as some Years after the Racoviensis Catechism was by order of Parliament condemned to be Lastly I come and address to all and every particular Subject of whatsoever Rank and Quality whither Noble or Ignoble High or Low Rich or Poor Young or Old and earnestly desire them as they are tender of the Glory of God of their own Salvation and of the Welfare and Prosperity of their Religion and Country not to suffer themselves to be mislead and seduced by those Ravenous Wolves who do not come in Sheeps-cloathings for they deal above-board but like Roaring Lyons with such keep no company and as much as possibly you can avoid all Communication * 1 Cor. 5.11 no not to eat as St. Paul saith which if you do you tempt God as much as one who would lye a bed with another that hath the Plague yet think himself in no danger of it * Rom. 16.17 18. Now saith the same Apostle in another place I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have received and avoid them This is both Warning and Command and Beseeching against the Enemies of the True Doctrine he taught the reason he gives in the next Verse For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the Simple Let the Simple beware of such Deceivers This Advice in such cases he gives the Simple as being most of all in danger of being seduced but to the Learned and Clergy in the Person of Titus he saith that which I wish them to mind * Tit. 3.10 11. A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself What the Holy Apostle saith he backs with a Reason Here I cannot forbear with all due Respect in God's Name to declare to Kings Parliaments and to any that have a Hand in the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government that in case they every one in their Station and to the utmost of their Power do not go about to restrain and suppress that Damnable and Antichristian Poison they thereby become accessary to the Blasphemy it is their Duty and in their Power to oppose it which to neglect is to encourage it for Impunity is an Encouragement to Crimes and they must know God at one time or other will require it at their hands and these few Lines I have written shall rise up in Judgment against them Let them remember and apply Mordecai's words to Esther Esther 4.14 If thou altogether holdest thy Peace at this time then shall Deliverance arise from another place but thou and thy Father's House shall be destroyed But to return to those whom I am Addressing to I say to them Mistrust the Deceitfulness of Sin the Craftiness of the Devil and the Weakness and Corruption of your own Hearts As you are to avoid their Discourses so have nothing to do with their Books this I speak chiefly to the Ignorant and Unlearned who must never read them but in the Works of sound Divines that refute them but be very frequent in reading the Word of God which can afford both Offensive and Defensive Weapons against such Enemies therein you may find strong and full Proofs with Demonstrations of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour of the Holy Ghost and of every other high and necessary Point of our Faith for therein God hath not left himself without a Witness against all Opposers and Blasphemers whatsoever This against such Deceivers and Antichrists as St. John calls them in his second Epistle I shall now conclude with what the same Apostle saith in the same place If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine 2 John 10.11 receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed You see he forbiddeth to wish them well in the following Verse he gives the reason For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil Deeds makes himself Accessary to his Error and Guilt This Holy Apostle not only gives us this Rule but also his own Example in the case of Cerinthus another Heretick in his time who denied Christ to be God or Son of God We have it related out of Polycarpus by * Lib. 3. cap 3. Ireneus and ‖ Lib 4. Hist Eccles cap. 14. Eusebius How at Ephesus St. John being gone to wash himself in a Bath as soon as he heard Cerinthus was there he went away abhorring the place and this he added He feared the place wherein such an Enemy of the Truth had Bathed would fall and he no sooner came out but the House fell wherewith Cerinthus and all others within it were killed Now to him * Rev. 19.13 16. whose Name is called the Word of God and who hath on his Vesture and on his Thigh a Name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords * 1 Tim. 6.14 15. To the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Blessed and only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords To ‖ 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ who is the Power and Wisdom of God even that Wisdom that speaks thus * Prov. 8.22 23. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his Works of Old I was set up from Everlasting from the Beginning or ever the Earth was To him be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen FINIS