the Personal Union The Divine and humane nature in Christ have but one personal subsistence and so are but one Christ one distinct personal principle of all Operations of all that he did or doth as Mediator And this undeniably follows from what is declared in the Testimonies mentioned For the Word could not be made flesh nor could he take on him the seed of Abraham nor could the mighty God be a Child born and given unto us nor could God shed his blood for his Church but that the two natures so directly expressed must be united in one Person for otherwise as they are two natures still they would be two Persons also 2. Each nature thus united in Christ is entire and preserves unto it self its own natural properties For he is no less perfect God for being made Man nor no less a true perfect Man consisting of soul and body with all their essential parts by that natures being taken into subsistence with the Son of God His Divine nature still continues Immense Omniscient Omnipotent infinite in Holiness c. his bumane nature finite limited and before its Glorification subject to all infirmities of life and death that the same nature in others absolutely considered is obnoxious unto 3. In each of these natures he acts suitably unto the essential properties and principles of that nature As God he made all things upholds all things by the word of his Power fills Heaven and Earth c. As man he lived hungred suffered dyed rose ascended into Heaven Yet by reason of the Union of both these natures in the same Person not only his own Person is said to do all these things but the Person expressed by the name which he hath on the account of one nature is said to do that which he did only in the other So God is said to redeem his Church with his own blood and to lay down his life for us and the Son of Man to be in Heaven when he was in the Earth All because of the unity of his Person as was declared And these things do all of them directly and undeniably flow from what is revealed concerning his Person as before is declared Of the Satisfaction of CHRIST THE last thing to be enquired into upon occasion of the late opposition to the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel is the satisfaction of Christ. And the Doctrine hereof is such as I eonceive needs rather to be explained than vindicated For it being the Center wherein most if not all the Lines of Gospel Promises and Precepts do meet and the great medium of all our Communion with God in Faith and Obedience the great distinction between the Religion of Christians and that of all others in the world it will easily on a due proposal be assented unto by all who would be esteemed Disciples of Jesus Christ. And whether a parcel of insipid Cavils may be thought sufficient to obliterate the Revelation of it men of sober minds will judge and discern For the term of Satisfaction we contend not about it It doth indeed properly express and connote that great Effâ—ct of the Death of Christ which in the cause before us we plead for But yet because it belongs rather to the Explanation of the Truth contended for then is used expresly in the Revelation of it and because the right understanding of the Word it self depends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration I shall not in this entrance of our discourse insist precisely upon it but leave it as the natural conclusion of what we shall find expresly declared in the Scripture Neither do I say this as though I did decline the Word or the right use of it or what is properly signified by it but do only cast it into its proper place answerable unto our method and design in the whole of this brieâ— discourse I know some have taken a new way of expressing and declaring the Doctrine concerning the Mediation of Christ with the causes and ends of his death which they think more rational than that usually insisted on But as what I have yet heard of or seen in that kind hath been not only unscriptural but also very irrational and most remote from that accuracy whereunto they pretend who make use of it so if they shall publish their conceptions it is not improbable but that they may meet with a Scholastical Examination by some hand or other Our present work as hath been often declared is for the establishment of the Faith of them who may be attempted if not brought into danger to be seduced by the slights of some who lye in wait to deceive and the clamours of others who openly drive the same design What therefore the Scripture plainly and clearly reveals in this matter is the subject of our present enquiry And either in so doing as occasion shall be offered we shall obviate or in the close of it remove those Sophisms that the Sacred Truth now proposed to consideration hath been attempted withal The summ of what the Scripture reveals about this great truth commonly called the satisfaction of Christ may be reduced unto these ensuing heads 1. That Adam being made upright sinned against God and all mankind all his posterity in him Gen. 1. 27. So God created man in hit own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them Gen. 3. 11. And he said who told thee that thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whreof I commandeded thee that then shouldst not eat Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Ver. 18. Therefore by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Ver. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners 2. That by this Sin of our first Parents all men are brought into an Estate of Sin and Apostacy from God and of an enmity unto him Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sâ—â—â—pen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God fâ—r it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Chap. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Thirdly That in this state all men continue in sin against God nor of themselves can do otherwise Rom. 3. 10 11 12. There is none righteous no not one there is none
But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is
Christo servatore which is an Answer to this Covetus is genuine and that which ought not to be receded from as having been the direct ground of all the Controversial Writings on that subject which have since been published in Europe And it is in these words laid down by Socinus himself Communis Orthodoxa ut asseris sententia est Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia divinae Justiciae per quam peccatores damnari merebamur pro peccatis nostris plene satisfecerit quae satisfactio Per fidem imputatur Nobis ex dono Dei credentibus This he ascribes to Covet The Common and Orthodox Judgement is that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath satisfied the Justice of God by which we being sinners deserved to be condemned for all our sins In opposition whereunto he thus expresseth his own opinion Ego vero censeo Orthodoxam sententiam esse arbitror Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia salutis aeternae viam nobis annuntiaverit confirmaverit in sua ipsius persona cum vitae exemplo tum ex mortuis resurgendo manifeste ostenderit vitamque aeternam nobis ei fidem habentibus ipse daturus sit Divinae autem justitiae per quam peccatores damnari meremur pro peccatis nostris neque illum satisfecisse neque ut satisfaceret opus fuisse arbitror I judge and suppose it to be the Orthodox Opinion that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath declared unto us the way of eternal salvation and confirmed it in his own person manifestly shewing it both by the example of his life and by rising from the dead and in that he will give eternal life unto us believing in him And I affirm that he neither made satisfaction to the Justice of God whereby we deserved to be damned for our sins nor was there any need that he should so do This is the true state of the Question and the principal subtilty of Crellius the great Defender of this part of the Doctrine of Socinus in his Book of the Causes of the Death of Christ and the Defence of this Book De Iesu Christo servatore consists in speaking almost the same words with those whom he doth oppose but still intending the same things with Socinus himself This Opinion as was said of Socinus Covetus opposed and everted on the Principle before mentioned The same Truth was confirmed also by Zarnovitius who first wrote against Socinus his Book as also by Otto Casmannus who engaged in the same work and by Abraham Salinarius Vpon the same Foundation do proceed Paraeus Piscator Lubbertus Lucius Camero Voetius Amiraldus Placaeus Rivetus Walaeus Thysius Altingius Maresius Essenius Arnoldus Turretinus Baxter With many others The Lutherans who have managed these Controversies as Tarnovius Meisnerus Calovius Stegmannus Martinius Franzius with all others of their way have constantly maintained the same great fundamental Principle of this Doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ and it hath well and solidly been of late asserted among our selves on the same foundation And as many of these Authors do expresly blame some of the Schoolmen as Aquinas Durandus Biel Tataretus for granting a possibility of pardon without satisfaction as opening a way to the Socinian Error in this matter so also they fear not to affirm that the foregoing of this Principle of Gods Vindictive Justice indispensibly requiring the Punishment of sin doth not only weaken the cause of the Truth but indeed leave it indefensible However I suppose men ought to be wary how they censure the Authors mentioned as such who expose the Cause they undertook to defend unto contempt for greater more able and Learned Defenders this Truth hath not as yet found nor doth stand in need of J. O. THE PREFACE THE Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ having made that great confession of him in distinction and opposition unto them who accounted him only as a Prophet thou art Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 14 15 16. He doth on the occasion thereof give out unto them that Great Charter of the Churches stability and continuance Vpon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it v. 18. He is himself the Rock upon which his Church is built as God is called the Rock of his People on the account of his eternal power and immutability Deut. 32. 4 18 31. Isa. 26. 4. And himself the Spiritual Rock which gave out supplies of Mercy and Assistance to the people in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Relation of the Professing Church unto this Rock consists in the faith of this Confession that he is Christ the Son of the living God This our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised to secure against all attempts yet so as plainly to declare that there should be great and severe opposition made thereunto For whereas the Prevalency of the Gates of Hell in an enmity unto this confession is denyed a great and vigorous attempt to prevail therein is no less certainly foretold neither hath it otherwise fallen out In all Ages from the first solemn foundation of the Church of the New Testament it hath one way or other been fiercely attempted by the Gates of Hell For some time after the Resurrection of Christ from the dead the principal endeavours of Satan and Men acting under him or acted by him were pointed against the very foundation of the Church as laid in the expression before mentioned Almost all the Errours and Heresies wherewith for three or four Centuries of years it was perplexed were principally against the Person of Christ himself and consequently the Nature and Being of the holy and blessed Trinity But being disappointed in his design herein through the watchful care of the Lord Christ over his Promise in the following Ages Satan turned his craft and violence against sundry parts of the superstructure and by the assistance of the Papacy cast them into confusion nothing as it were remaining firm stable and in order but only this one confession which in a particular manner the Lord Christ hath taken upon himself to secure In these latter Ages of the World the power and care of Jesus Christ reviving towards his Church in the Reformation of it even the ruined heaps of its building have been again reduced into some tolerable order and beauty The old Enemy of its peace and welfare falling hereby under a disappointment and finding his travail and labour for many Generations in a great part frustrate he is returned again to his old work of attacqueing the Foundation it self as he is unweary and restless and can be quiet neither Conquerour nor conquered nor will be so until he is bound and cast into the lake that burneth with fire For no sooner had the Reformation of Religion firmed it self in some of the Europaean Provinces but immediately in a proportion of distance not unanswerable unto what fell out
from the first foundation of the Church sundry Persons by the instigation of Satan attempted the disturbance and ruine of it by the very same errours and Heresies about the Trinity the Person of Christ and his Offices the person of the Holy Ghost and his Grace wherewith its first trouble and ruine was endeavoured And hereof we have of late an instance given among our selves and that so notoriously known through a mixture of imprudence and impudence in the managers of it that a very brief reflection upon it will suffice unto our present design It was alwaies supposed and known to some that there are sundry Persons in this Nation who having been themselves seduced into Socinianism did make it their business under various pretences to draw others into a compliance with them in the same way and perswasion Neither hath this for sundry years been so secretly carryed but that the design of it hath variously discovered it self by overt acts of Conferences disputations and publishing of Books which last way of late hath been sedulously pursued Unto these three is now a visible Accession made by that sort of People whom Men will call Quakers from their deportment at the first erection of their way long since deserted by them until by some new Revolutions of Opinions they cast themselves under a more proper denomination That there is a conjunction issued between both these sorts of Men in an Opposition to the holy Trinity with the Person and Grace of Christ the Pamphlets of late published by the one and the other do sufficiently evince For however they may seem in sundry things as yet to look divers waies yet like Sampson's Foxes they are knit together by the tayle of consent in these fire-brand Opinions and joyntly endeavour to consume the standing Corn of the Church of God And their joynt management of their business of late hath been as though it were their design to give as great a vogue and report to their Opinions as by any waies they are able Hence besides their attempts to be proclaiming their Opinions under various pretences in all Assemblies whereunto they may intrude themselves as they know without trouble they are exceedingly sedulous in scattering and giving away yea imposing gratis and as to some ingratiis their small books which they publish upon all sorts of persons promiscuously as they have advantage so to do By this means their Opinions being of late become the talk and discourse of the common sort of Christians and the Exercise of many amongst whom are not a few that on sundry accounts which I shall not mention may possibly be exposed unto disadvantage and prejudice thereby it hath been thought meet by some that the Sacred Truths which these men oppose should be plainly and briefly asserted and confirmed from the Scripture that those of the meanest sort of Professors who aâ—e Sincere and upright exercising themselves to keep a good conscience in matters of faith and obedience to God may have somewhat in a readiness both to guide them in their further enquiry into the Truth as also to confirm their Faith in what they have already received when at any time it is shaken or opposed by the cunning sleights of men that lye in wait to deceive And this comprizeth the design of the ensuing discourse It may possibly be judged needless by some as it was in its first proposal by him by whom it is wriâ—â—â—â— and that because this matter at present is by an especial providence cast on other hands who both have and doubtless as occasion shall require will well acquit themselves in the defence of the Truths opposed Not to give any other account of the Reasons of this small undertaking it may suffice that in publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every mans concernment lying in a common danger it is free for every one to manage it as he thinks best and is able so it be without prejudice to the whole or the particular concerns of others If a City be on fire whose bucket that brings water to quench it ought to be refused The attempt to cast fire into the City of God by the Opinions mentioned is open and plain and a timely stop being to be put unto it the more hands are orderly employed in its quenching the more speedy and secure is the effect like to be Now because the Assertors of the Opinions mentioned do seem to set out themselves to be some great Ones above the ordinary rate of men as having found out and being able publickly to maintain such things as never would have entred into the minds of others to have thought on or conceived and also that they seem with many to be thought worthy of their consideration because they now are new and such as they have not been acquainted withall I shall in this Prefatory entrance briefly manifest that those who have amongst us undertaken the management of these Opinions have brought nothing new unto them but either a little contemptible Sophistry and caption of words on the one hand or futulous affected unintelligible expressions on the other the Opinions themselves being no other but such as the Church of God having been opposed by and troubled with from the beginning hath prevailed against and triumphed over in all generations And were it not that Confidence is the only relief which engaged impotency adheres unto and expects supplies from I should greatly admire that those amongst us who have undertaken an inforcement of these old exploded errours whose weakness doth so openly discover and proclaim it self in all their endeavours should judge themselves competent to give a new spirit of life to the dead carkass of these rotten Heresies which the faith of the Saints in all Ages hath triumphed over and which Truth and Learning have under the care and watchfulness of Christ so often baffled out of the world The Jews in the time of our Saviours converse on the earth being fallen greatly from the Faith and Worship of their forefathers and ready to sink into their last and utmost Apostacy from God seem amongst many other truths to have much lost that of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and of the Person of the Messiah It was indeed suited in the dispensation of God unto the work that the Lord Jesus had to fulfill in the world that before his Passion and Resurrection the knowledge of his Divine Nature as unto his individual person should be concealed from the most of men For this cause although he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation by taking on him the form of a servant and made in the likeness of men that being found in the fashion of a man he might be obedient unto death Phil. 2. 7 8 9. whereby his Divine Glory was veiled for a season until he was declared to be the Son of God with power according unto the Spirit of
Holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. And then was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was John 17. 3. And as this dispensation was needful unto the accomplishment of the whole work which as our Mâ—diator he had undertaken so in particular he who was in himself the Lord of Hosts a Sanctuary to them that feared him became hereby a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem Isa. 8. 13 14. See Luke 2. 34. Rom. 9. 33. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Isa. 28. 26. But yet notwithstanding as occasions required suitably unto his own holy ends and designs he forbare not to give plain and open testimony to his own Divine Nature and eternal pre-existence unto his Incarnation And this was it which of all other things most provoked the carnal Jews with whom he had to do For having as was said lost the Doctrine of the Trinity and Person of the Messiah in a great measure when ever he asserted his Deity they were immediately enraged and endeavoured to destroy him So was it plainly John 8. 56 57 58 59. Saith he Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad then said the Jews unto him thou art nâ—t yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am then took they up stones to cast at him So also John 10. 30 31 32 33. I and my Father are one then the Jews took up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do you stone me The Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God They understood well enough the meaning of those words I and my Father are one namely that they were a plain Assertion of his being God This caused their rage And this the Jews all abide by to this day namely that he declared himself to be God and therefore they slew him Whereas therefore the first discovery of a plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence consists in the Revelation of the Divine Nature and personality of the Son this being opposed persecuted and blasphemed by these Jews they may be justly looked upon and esteemed as the first Assertors of that misbelief which now some seek again so earnestly to promote The Jews persecuted the Lord Christ because he being a Man declared himself also to be God and others are ready to revile and reproach them who believe and teach what he declared After the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus all things being filled with tokens evidences and effects of his Divine Nature and Power Rom. 1. 4. The Church that began to be gathered in his name and according to his Doctrine being by his especial institution to be initiated into the express profession of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as being to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which confession comprizeth the whole of the truth contended for and by the indispensible placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience unto him is made the doctrinal foundation of the Church it continued for a season in the quiet and undisturbed possession of this Sacred Treasure The first who gave disquietment unto the Disciples of Christ by perverting the Doctrine of the Trinity was Simon Magus with his followers an account of whose monstrous figments and unintelligible imaginations with their coincidence with what some men dream in these latter daies shall elsewhere be given Nor shall I need here to mention the Colluvies of Gnosticks Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their mis-apprehensions of the being of God their unbelief of the Trinity and Person of Christ as do those of some others also In especial there was one Cerinthus who was more active than others in his opposition to the Doctrine of the person of Christ and therein of the Holy Trinity To put a stop unto his Abominations all Authors agree that John writing his Gospel prefixed unto it that plain declaration of the eternal Deity of Christ which it is prefaced withall And the story is well attested by Irenaeus Eusebius and others from Polycarpus who was his Disciple that this Cerinthus coming into the place where the Apostle was he left it adding as a reason of his departure lest the building through the just judgement of God should fall upon them And it was of the Holy Wise Providence of God to suffer some impious Persons to oppose this Doctrine before the death of that Apostle that he might by infallible Inspiration farther reveal manifest and declare it to the establishment of the Church in future Ages For what can farther be desired to satisfie the minds of men who in any sense own the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures than that this Controversie about the Trinity and Person of Christ for they stand and fall together should be so eminently and expresly determined as it were immediately from Heaven But he with whom we have to deal in this matter neither ever did nor ever will nor can acquiesce or rest in the divine determination of any thing which he hath stirred up strife and controversie about For as Cerinthus and the Ebionites persisted in the Heresie of the Jews who would have slain our Saviour for bearing witness to his own Deity notwithstanding the evidence of that testimony and the right apprehension which the Jews had of his mind therein so he excited others to engage and persist in their Opposition to the truth notwithstanding this second particular determination of it from Heaven for their confutation or confusion For after the more weak and confused oppositions made unto it by Theodotus Coriarius Artemon and some others at length a stout Champion appears visibly and expresly engaged against these fundamentals of our faith This was Paulus Sa nosatenus Bishop of the Church of Antioch about the year 272. A man of most intolerable pride passion and folly the greatest that hath left a name upon Ecclesiastical Records This man openly and avowedly denyed the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ in an especial manner For although he endeavoured for a while to cloud his impious sentiments in ambiguous expressions as others also have done Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 27. yet being pressed by the Professors of the truth and supposing his party was somewhat confirmed he plainly defended his Heresie and was cast out of the Church wherein he presided Some sixty years after Photinus Bishop of Syrmium with a pretence of more sobriety in life and conversation undertook the management of the same design with the same success What ensued afterwards among the Churches
as nothing but they can enable him for is abundantly proved by the foregoing Testimonies Now all these concern a divine nature a natural Essence a Godhead and not such power or authority as a man may be exalted unto Yea the ascribing any of them to such a one implyes the highest contradiction expressible Thirdly This God in Authority and Office and not by nature that should be the Object of Divine Worship is a new abomination For they are divine essential excellencies that are the formal Reason and Object of Worship Religious and divine And to ascribe it unto any one that is not God by nature is Idolatry By makeing therefore their Christ such a God as they describe they bring him under the severe commination of the true God Jer. 10. 11. The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens That Christ they worship they say is a God but they deny that he is that God that made the Heavens and the Earth and so leave him exposed to the threatnings of him who will accomplish it to the uttermost Some other general exceptions sometimes they make use of which the Reader may free himself from the entanglement of if he do but heed these ensuing Rules X. Distinction of persons of which afterwards it being in an infinite substance doth no way prove a difference of Essence between the Father and the Son Where there fore Christ as the Son is said to be Another from the Father or God spoken personally of the Father it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him That in one Essence there can be but one person may be true where the substance is finite and limâ—ted but hath no place in that which is infinite 2. Distinction and Inequality in respect of Office in Christ doth not in the least take away his equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature and Essence Phil. 2. 7 8. A Son of the same nature with his Father and therein Equal to him may in Office be his inferiour his subject Thirdly The Advancement and exaltation of Christ as Mediator to any dignity whatever upon or in reference to the work of our Redemption and salvation is not at all inconsistent with the essential Honour Dignity and Worth which he hath in himself as God blessed for ever Though he humbled himself and was exalted in Office yet in Nature he was one and the same he changed not Fourthly The Scriptures asserting the Humanity of Christ with the concerments thereof as his birth life and death do no more thereby deny his Deity than by asserting his Deity with the essential properties thereof they deny his humanity Fifthly God working in and by Christ as he was Mediator denotes the Fathers Soveraign Appointment of the things mentioned to be done not his immediate efficiency in the doing of the things themselves These Rules are proposed a little before their due place in the Method which we pursue But I thought meet to interpose them here as containing a sufficient ground for the resolution and answering of all the Sophisms and Objections which the Adversaries use in this cause From the cloud of witnesses before produced every one where of is singly sufficient to evert the Socinian Infidelity I shall in one of them give an infiance both of the clearness of the Evidence and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to put in against them as was promised And this is John 1. 1 2 3. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made By the Word here or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on what account soever he be so called either as being the Eternal Word and wisdom of the Father or as the great Revealer of the Will of God unto us Jesus Christ the Son of God is intended This is on all hands acknowledged and the context will admit of no haesitation about it For of this Word it is said that he came into the World v. 10. was rejected by his own v. 11. was made flesh and dwelt amongst us whose glory was the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father v. 14. called expresly Jesus Christ v. 17. the only begotten Son of the Father v. 18. The subject then treated of is here agreed upon And it is no less evident that it is the design of the Apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom he treateth Here then if any where we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ which also we may certainly do if our minds are not perverted through prejudice whereby the God of this world doth blind the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. Of this Word then this Son of God it is affirmed that he was in the beginning And this Word if it doth not absolutely and formally express Eternity yet it doth a preexistence unto the whole Creation which amounts to the same For nothing can preexist unto all Creatures but in the nature of God which is eternal unless we shall suppose a creature before the Creation of any But what is meant by this expression the Scripture doth elsewhere declare Prov. 8. 23. I was set up from everlasting before the beginning or ever the earth was John 17. 5. Glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Both which places as they explain this phrase so also do they undeniably testifie unto the Eternal pre-existence of Christ the Son of God And in this case we prevail against our Adversaries if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his Incarnation which as they absolutely deny so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresie in this matter And therefore they know that the testimony of our Saviour concerning himself if understood in a proper intelligible sense is perfectly destructive of their pretensions John 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am For although there be no proper sense in the words but a gross â—quivocation if the Existence of Christ before Abraham was born be not asserted in them seeing he spake in Answer to that objection of the Jews that He was nâ—t yet fifty years old and so could not have seen Abraham nor Abraham him and the Jews that were present understood well enough that he asserted a divine preexistence unto his being born so long ago as that hereon after their manner they took up stones to stone him as supposing him to have blasphemed in asserting his Deity as others now do in the denying of it yet they seeing how fatal this prae-existence though not here absolutely
in and may peculiarly be sinned against the great Author of all Grace in Believers and order in the Church This is the summ of what we believe of what is revealed in the Scripture concerning the Holy Ghost As in the consideration of the preceding head we vindicated one Testimony in particular from the exceptions of the adversaries of the truth so on this we may briefly summ up the evidence that is given us in the testimonies before produced that the Reader may the more easily understand their intendment and what in particular they bear witnesse unto The summ is that the Holy Ghost is a divine distinct person and neither meerly the power or vertue of God nor any created Spirit whatever This plainly appears from what is revealed concerning him For he who is placed in the same series or order with other divine persons without the least note of difference or distinction from them as to an Interest in personality who hath the names proper to a divine person only and is frequently and directly called by them who also hath personal properties and is the voluntary Author of personal divine Operations and the proper Objâ—ct of Divine Worship he is a distinct divine person And if these things be not a sufficient evidence and demonstration of a divine intelligent substance I shall as was said before despair to understand any thing that is expressed and declared by words But now thus it is with the Holy Ghost according to the Revelation made concerning him in the Scripture For First He is placed in the same rank and order without any note of difference or distinction as to a distinct interest in the Divine Nature that is as we shall see personality with other Divine persons Matth. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the Son and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Cor. 12. 3 4 5 6. No man can say the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all Neither doth a denyal of his divine being and distinct existence leave any tolerable sense unto these Expressions For read the words of the first place from the mind of the Socinians and see what is it can be gathered from them Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the vertue or efficacy of the Father Can any thing be more absonant from Faith and Reason than this absurd expression And yet is it the direct sense if it be any that these men put upon the words To joyn a quality with acknowledged persons and that in such things and cases as wherein they are proposed under a personal consideration is a strange kind of Mysterie And the like may be manifested concerning the other places Secondly He also hath the Names proper to a divine person only For he is expresly called God Acts 5. He who is termed the Holy Ghost ver 3. And the Spirit of the Lord verse 9. Is called also God ver 4. Now this is the name of a divine Person on one Account or other The Socinians would not allow Christ to be called God were he not a divine person though not by nature yet by â—ffice and authority And I suppose they will not find out an office for the Holy Ghost whereunto he might be exalted on the account whereof he might become God seeing this would acknowledge him to be a person which they deny So he is called the Comforter John 16. 7. A personal Appellation this is also and because he is the Comforter of all Gods people it can be the name of none but a divine person In the 〈…〉 it is frequently 〈…〉 come that he shall and will do such and such things all of them declaring him to be a person Thirdly He hath personal properties assigned unto him as a Will 1 Cor. 12. 11. He divideth to every man severally as he will and understanding 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God As also all the actings that are ascribed unto him are all of them such as undeniably affirm personal properties in their principle and Agent For Fourthly He is the voluntary Author of Divine operations He of old cherished the creation Gen. 1. 3. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters He formed and garnished the Heavens He inspired acted and spake in and by the Prophets Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers 2 Pet. 1. 21. The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He regenerateth enlightneth sanctifieth comforteth instructeth leadeth guideth all the Disciples of Christ as the Scriptures every where testifie Now all these are personal Operations and cannot with any pretence of sobriety or consistency with Reason be constantly and uniformly assigned unto a quality or vertue He is as the Father and Son God with the properties of Omniscience and Omnipotency of Life Understanding and Will and by these properties works acts and produceth effects according to Wisdom Choice and Power Fifthly The same regard is had to him in Faith Worship and Obedience as unto the other persons of the Father and Son For our being baptized into his name is our solemn engagement to believe in him to yield obedience to him and to worship him as it puts the same obligation upon us to the Father and the Son So also in reference unto the Worship of the Church He commands that the Ministers of it be separated unto himself Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Ver. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed which is comprehensive of all the religious Worship of the Church And on the same account is he sinned against as Acts 5. 3 4 9. For there is the same Reason of Sin and Obedience Against whom a man may sin formally and ultimately him he is bound to obey worship and believe in And this can be no quality but God himself For what may be the sense of this expression Thou hast lyed to the efficacy of God in his operations Or how can we be formally obliged unto obedience to a quality There must then an antecedent Obligation unto Faith Trust and Religious Obedience be supposed as the ground of rendring a person capable of being guilty of sin towards wards any For sin is but a â—ailure in Faith Obedience or Worship These therefore are due unto the Holy Ghost or a man could not sin against him so signally and fatally as some are
the Father Son and Spirit are one God and then let it be debated whether they are one in Substance and three in Persons or how else the matter is to be stated If they deny it it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing and the way of expressing it whilst the thing it self is denyed to have a being for of that which is not there is neither manner property adjunct nor effect Let then such persons as this sort of men are ready to attempt with their Sophistry and to amuse with cavils about persons substances subsistences and the like desire to know of them what it is that they would be at What would they deny what would they disapprove Is it that God is one or that the Father is God or the Son or the Holy Ghost is so If they deny or oppose either of these they have Testimonies and instances of divine Revelation or may have in a readiness to confound the Devil and all his Emissaries If they will not do so if they refuse it then let them know that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about Expressions and Explanations of any thing or doctrine about the manner respects or relations of any thing untill the thing it self or Doctrine be plainly confessed or denyed If this they refuse as generally they do and will which I speak upon sufficient experience and will not be induced to deal openly properly and rationally but will keep to their Cavils and Sophisms about terms and expressions all farther debate or conference with them may justly and ought both conscienciously and rationally to be refused and rejected For these sacred mysteries of God and the Gospel are not lightly to be made the subject of mens contests and disputations But as we dealt before in particular so here I shall give Instances of the Sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this Doctrine and that with respect unto some late collections and Representations of them From whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words Phrases and Expressions themselves which they make use of The summ of what they say in general is How can these things be How can three be one and one be three Every person hath its own substance and therefore if there be three persons there must be three substances and so three Gods Answ. 1. Every person hath distinctly its own substance for the one substance of the Deity is the substance of each person so it is still but one But each person hath not its own distinct substance because the substance of them all is the same as hath been proved 2. They say That if each person be God then each person is Infinite and there being three persons there must be three Infinites Answ. This follows not in the least for each person is Infinite as he is God Alâ— divine properties such as to be Infinite is belong not to the persons on the account of their personality but on the account of their nature which is one for they are all natural properties But they say If each person be God and that God subsist in three persons then in each person there are three persons or Gods Answ. The collusion of this Sophism consists in that expression be God and that God in the first place the nature of God is intended in the latter a singular person Place the words intelligibly and they are thus If each person be God and the nature of God subsists in three persons then in each person there are three persons and then the folly of it will be evident But they farther infer That if we deny the persons to be Infinite then an Infinite Being hath a finite mode of subsisting and so I know not what supposition they make hence that seeing there are not three Infinites then the Father Son and Spirit are three finites that make up an Infinite The pitiful weakness of this Cavil is open to all for finite and Infinite are properties and adjuncts of Beings and not of the manner of the subsistence of any thing The nature of each person is Infinite and so is each person because of that nature Of the manner of their subsistence finiâ—e and Infinite cannot be predicated or spoken no farther than to say an Infinite Being doth so subsist But you grant say they that the only true God is the Father and then if Christ be the only true God he is the Father Answ. We say the only true God is Father Son and Holy Ghost We never say the Scripture never sayes that the Father only is the true God whence it would follow that he that is the true God is the Father But we grant the Father to be the only trne God and so we 〈◊〉 is the Son also And it doth not 〈◊〉 all thence follow that the Son is 〈◊〉 Father Because in saying the 〈…〉 the true God we respect not his paternity or his paternal Relation to his Son but his Nature Essence and Being And the same we affirm concerning the other persons And to say that because each person is God one person must be another is to crave leave to disbelieve what God hath revealed without giving any Reason at all for their so doing But this Sophism being borrowed from another namely Crellius who insisted much upon it I shall upon his account and not on theirs who as far as I can apprehend understand little of the intendment of it remove it more fully out of the way It is proposed by him in way of Syllogism thus The only true God is the Father Christ is the only true God therefore he is the Father Now this Syllogism is ridiculously Sophystical For in a Categorical Syllogism the Major Proposition is not to be particular nor equipollent to a particular For from such a Proposition when any thing communicable to more is the subject of it and is restrained unto one particular nothing can be inferred in the conclusion But such is this Proposition here the only true God is the Father It is a particular Proposition wherein the subject is restrained unto a singular or individual predicate though in it self communicable to more Now the Proposition being â—o made particular the terms of the subject or predicate are supposed recâ—procal namely that one God and the Father are the same which is false Unless it be first proved that the name God is communicable to no more or no other than is the other term of Father which to suppose is to begg the whole Question For the only true God hath a larger signification than the term of Father or Son So that though the only true God be the Father yet every one who is true God is not the Father Seeing then that the name of God here supplyes the plaâ—e of a species though it be singular absolutely as it respects the Divine Nature which is absolutely singular and one and cannot be
works of the Creation as learned men have manifested by various instances that it is most unreasonable to suppose that to be contrary to reason which many objects of rational consideration do more or less present unto our minds 8. To add no more considerations of this nature Let any of the Adversaries produce any one Argument or grounds of reason or those pretended to be such against that that hath been asserted that hath not already been bafflâ—d a thousand times and it shall receive an answer or a publick acknowledgement that it is Indissoluble Of the Person of Christ. THE next Head of Opposition made by the men of this conspiracy against this sacred truth is against the head of all truth the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Socinians indeed would willingly put a better face or colour upon their Error about the Person of Christ then it will bear or indure to lye on it For in their Catechism unto this Question Is the Lord Jesus Christ purus Homo a meer man they Answer by no means How then hath he a divine nature also which is their next question To this they say by no means for this is contrary to right reason How then will these pretended Masters of Reason reconcile these things For to us it seems that if Christ have no other nature but that of a man he is as to his nature purus Homo a meer man and no more Why they answer that he is not a meer man because he was born of a Virgin Strange that that should be an argument to prove him more than a man which the Scripture and all men in their right wits grant to be an invincible reason to prove him to be a man and as he was born of her no more Rom. 1. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law But say they he was endowed with the Spirit wrought Miracles was raised from the dead had all power given in Heaven and Earth for by these degrees he became to be God But all men see that the inquiry is about the nature of Christ and this Answer is about his state and condition Now this changeth not his nature on the one hand no more than his being humbled poor and dying did on the other This is the right reason we have to deal withall in these men If a man should have enquired of some of them of old whether Melchizedeck were purus Homo a meer man some of them would have said no because he was the Holy Ghost some no because he was the Son of God himself and some no because he was an Angel for such foolish opinions have men fallen into But how sottish soever their conceptions were their Answer to that enquiry would have been regular becaâ—se the Question and Answer respect the same subject in the same respect But never any was so stupid as to answer he was not a meer man that is by nature because he was a Priest of the high God which respects his Office and condition Yet such is the pretence of these men about the Person of Christ to incrustate and give some colour unto their soul mis-belief as supposing that it would be much to their disadvantage to own Christ only as a meer man though the most part of their disputes that they have troubled the Christian World withall have had no other design nor aim but to prove him so to be and nothing else I shall briefly according to the method insisted on first lay down what is the direct Revelation which is the object of our faith in this matter then express the Revelation it self in the Scripture testimonies wherein it is recorded and having vindicated some one or other of them from their exceptions manifest how the Doctrine hereof is farther explained unto the Edification of them that believe That there is a Second Person the Son of God in the holy Trin-Vnity of the God-head we have proved before That this Person did of his infinite Love and Grace take upon him our nature bumane nature so as that the divine and humane nature should be come one Person one Christ God and Man in one so that whatever he doth in and about our Salvation it is done by that one Person God and Man is revealed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith And this is that which we believe concerning the Person of Christ. Whatever acts are ascribâ—d unto him however immediately performed in or by the Humane Nature or in and by his Divine Nature they are all the acts of that one Person in whom are both these natures That this Christ God and Man is because he is God and on the account of what he hath done for us as Man to be believed in worshipped with worship Religious and Divine to be trusted and obeyed this also is asserted in the Scripture And these things are as it were the common notions of Christian Religion the common Principles of our Profession which the Scriptures also abundantly testifie unto Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call his name Emanuel that is he shall be God with us or God in our nature Not that that should be his name whereby he should be called in this World but that this should be the condition of his Person he should be God with us God in our nature So are the words expounded Mat. 1. 21 22 23. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us His name whereby he was to be called was Jesus that is a Saviour And thereby was accomplished the prediction of the Prophet that he should be Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us Now a Child born to be God with us is God in that Child taking our nature upon him and no otherwise can the words be understood Isa. 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called the mighâ—y God The Child that is born the Son that is given is the mighty God and as the mighâ—y God and a Child born or Son given he is the Prince of peace as he is there called or our Saviour John 1. 14. The Word was made flesh That the Word was God who made all things he had before declared Now he affirms that this Word was made flesh How converted into flesh
are really so from whence they receive their denomination that it is meet it should be wholly in the power of these persons to declare But 2. What should hinder the death of Christ to be a Sacrifice a proper Sacrifice and according to the nature end and use of Sacrifices to have made Attonement and Satisfaction for sin 1. It is expresly called so in the Scripture wherein he is said to offer himself to make his soul an offering to offer himself a Sacrifice Eph. 5. 2. Heb. 1. 3. Heb. 9. 14 25. 26. Chap. 7. 27. And he is himself directly said to be a Priest or a Sacrificer Heb. 2. 18. And it is no where intimated much less expressed that these things are not spoken properly but Metaphorically only 2. The Legal Sacrifices of the Old Law were instituted on purpose to represent and prepare the way for the bringing in of the Sacrifice of the Lâ—mb of God so to take away the sin of the World And is it not strange that true and real Sacrifices should be Types and R presentations of that which was not so On this supposition all those Sacrifices are but so many seductions from the right understanding of things between God and sinners 3. Nothing is wanting to render it a proper propitiatory Sacrifice for 1. There was the person offering and that was Christ himself Heb. 9. 14. He offered himself unto God He that is the Sacrificer denotes the person of Christ God and Man and Himself as the Sacrifice denotes his Humane Nature whence God is said to purchase his Church with his own blood Act. 20. 28. For he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit so that 2. There was the Matter of the Sacrifice which was the Humane Nature of Christ soul and body His soul was made an offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10 And his body the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Hob. 10 11. His blood especially which is often Synecdochically mentioned for the whole 4. His death had the nature of a Sacrifice For 1. Therein were the sins of men laid upon him and not in his entrance into Heaven for he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2. 23. God made our sins then to meet upon him Isa. 53. 6. Which gives the formality unto any Sacrifices Quod in ejus Caput sit is the formal reason of all Propitiatory Sacrifices and ever was so as is expresly declared Lev. 16. 21 22. And the phrase of bearing sin of bearing iniquity is constantly used for the undergoing of the punishment due to sin 2. It had the End of a proper Sacrifice it made expiation of sin propitiation and attonement for sin with reconciliation with God and so took away that enmity that was between God and sinners Heb. 1. 3. Rom. 3. 25 26. Heb. 2. 17 18. Heb. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. And although God himself pesigned appointed and contrived in Wisdom this way of Reconciliation as he did the means for the attoning of his own Anger towards the friends of Job commanding them to go unto him and with him offer Sacrifices for themselves which he would accept Chap. 4. 28. Yet as He was the Supream Governour the Lord of all attended with Infinite Justice and Holiness Attonement was made with him and satisfaction to him thereby What hath been spoken may suffice to discover the emptiness and weakness of those exceptions which in general these men make against the Truth before laid down from the Scripture A brief examination of some particular instances wherein they seek not so much to oppose as to reproach the Revelation of this Mysterie of the Gospel shall put a close to this discourse It is said then 1. That if this be so then it will follow that God is gracious to Forgive and yet impossible for him unless the debt be fully satisfied Answ. I suppose the confused and abrupt expression of things here in words scarcely affording a tolerable sense is rather from weakness than captiousness and so I shall let the manner of the proposal pass 2. What is this should follow that God is gracious to forgive sinners and yet will not cannot on the account of his own Holiness and Righteousness actually forgive any without Satisfaction and Attonement made for sin the worst that can be hence concluded is that the Scripture is true which affirms both these in many places 3. This sets out the exceeding greatness of the Grace of God in forgiveness that when sin could not be forgiven without satisfaction and the sinner himself could no way make any such satisfaction that he provided himself a Sacrifice of Attonement that the sinner might be discharged and pardoned 4. Sin is not properly a debt for then it might be paid in kind by sin it self but is called so only because it binds over the sinner to punishment which is the satisfaction to be made for that which is properly a Transgression and improperly only a debt It is added 2. Hence it follows that the finite and impotent creature is more capable of extending Mercy and Forgiveness than the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator Answ. God being Essentially Holy and Righteous having ingaged his faithfulness in the sanction of the Law and being naturally and necessarily the Governour and Ruler of the World the Forgiving of sin without satisfaction would be no perfection in him but an effect of impotency and imperfection a thing which God cannot do as he cannot lye nor deny himself 2. The direct contrary of what is insinuated is asserted by this Doctrine for on the supposition of the Satisfaction and Attonement insisted on not only doth God freely forgive but that in such a way of Righteousness and Goodness as no Creature is able to conceive or express the glory and excellency of it And to speak of the poor halving pardons of private Men upon particular offences against themselves who are commanded so to do and have no right nor authority to require or exact punishment nor is any due upon the meer account of their own concernment in comparison with the forgiveness of God ariseth out of a deep ignorance of the whole matter under consideration 3. It is added by them that hence it follows that God so loved the World he gave his only Son to save it and yet that God stood off in high displeasure and Christ gave himself as a compleat satisfaction to offended Justice Answ. 1. Something these Men would say if they knew what or how for 1. That God so loved the World as to give his only Son to save it is the expression of the Scripture and the foundation of the Doctrine whose truth we contend for That Christ offered himself to make Attonement for sinners and therein made satisfaction to the Justice of God is the Doctrine it self which these Men oppose and not any consequent of it 3. That God stood off in high displeasure is an expression which neither the Scripture useth
nor those who declare this Doctrine from thence nor is suited unto divine perfections or the manner of divine operations That intended seems to be that the Righteousness and Law of God required the punishment due to Sin to be undergone and thereby satisfaction to be made unto God which is no consequent of the Doctrine but the Doctrine it self 4. It is yet farther objected that if Christ made satisfaction for sin then he did it either as God or as Man or as God and Man Answ 1. As God and Man Acts 20. 28. God redeemed his Church with his own blood 1 John 3. 16. Herein was manifest the Love of God that he laid down his life for us Heb. 9. 14. 2. This dilemma is proposed as that which proceeds on a supposition of our own principles that Christ is God and Man in one Person which indeed makes the pretended difficulty to be vain and a meer effect of ignorance For all the Mediatory acts of Christ being the acts of his Person must of necessity be the acts of him as God and Man 3. There is yet another mistake in this inquiry for satisfaction is in it looked on as a real act or operation of one or the other nature in Christ when it is the Apâ—telesma or Effect of the actings the doing and suffering of Christ the Dignity of what he did in reference unto the end for which he did it For the two natures are so united in Christ as not to have a third compound principle of Physical acts and operations thence arising but each nature acts distinctly according to its own being and properties yet so as what is the immediate act of either nature is the act of him who is one in both from whence it hath its dignity 4. The summ is that in all the Mediatory actions of Christ we are to consider 1. The Agent and that is the Person of Christ. 2. The immediate principle by which and from which the Agent worketh and that is the natures in the Person 3. The Actions which are the effectual Operations of either nature 4. The Effect or work with respect to God and us and this relates unto the Person of the Agent the Lord Christ God and Man A blending of the natures into one common principle of operation as the compounding of Mediums unto one end is ridiculously supposed in this matter But yet again it is pretended that sundry consequences irreligious and irrational do ensue upon a supposition of the satisfaction pleaded for What then are they 1. That it is unlawful and impossible for God All-mighty to be gracious and merciful or to pardon Transgressors Answ. 1. The miserable confused misapprehension of things which the proposal of this and the like consequences doth evidence manifests sufficiently how unfit the makers of them are to mannage Controversiâ—s of this nature For 1. It is supposed that for God to be Gracious and Merciful or to pardon Sinners are the same which is to confound the Essential properties of his nature with the free acts of his will 2. Lawful or unlawful are terms that can with no tolerable sense be used concerning any properties of God all which are natural and necessary unto his Being as Goodness Grace and Mercy in particular are 3. That it is impossible for God to pardon Transgressors according to this Doctrine is a fond Imagination for it is only a declaration of the manner how he doth it 4. As God is gracious and Merciful so also he is Holy and Righteous and true and it became him or was every way meet for him in his way of exercising Grace and Mercy towards sinners to order all things so as that it might be done without the impeachment of his Holiness Righteousness and Truth It is said again 2. That God was inevitably compelled to this way of saving Men the highest affront to his uncontroulable Nature Answ. Were the Authors of these exceptions put to declare what they mean by Gods uncontroulable nature they would hardly disentangle themselves with common sence Such Masters of Reason are they indeed whatever they would fain pretend to be Controulable or uncontroulable respect actings and operations not Beings or Natures 2. That upon the Principle opposed by these Men God was inevitably compelled to this way of saving Men is a fond and Childish Imagination The whole business of the Salvation of Men according unto this Doctrine depends on a meer free Soveraign act of Gods will exerting it self in a way of Infinite Wisdom Holiness and Grace 3. The meaning of this Objection if it hath either sence or meaning in it is that God freely purposing to save lost sinners did it in a way becoming his holy Nature and righteous Law What other course Infinite Wisdom could have taken for the satisfaction of his Justice we know not That Justice was to be satisfied and that this way it is done we know and believe 3. They say it hence follows that it is unworthy of God to pardon but not to inflict punishment on the Innocent or require a satisfaction where there was nothing due Answ. 1. What is Worthy or unworthy of God himself alone knows and of men not any but according to what he is pleased to declare and reveal But certainly it is unworthy any Person pretending to the least Interest in Ingenuity or use of Reason to use such frivolous Instances in any case of importance which have not the least pretence of Argument in them but what ariseth from a gross misapprehension or misrepresentation of a Doctrine designed to opposition 2. To pardon sinners is a thing becoming the Goodness and Grace of God to do it by Christ that which becometh them and his Holiness and Righteousness also Rom. 3. 25. Ephes. 1. 6 7. 3. The Lord Christ was Personally Innocent but He who knew no sin was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. And as the Mediator and Surety of the Covenant he was to answer for the sins of them whom he undertook to save from the wrath to come by giving himself a ransome for them and making his soul an Offering for their sin 4 That nothing is due to the Justice of God for sin that is that sin doth not in the Justice of God deserve punishment is â— good comfortable Doctrine for Men that are resolved to continue in their sins whilest they live in this World The Scripture tells us that Christ paid what he took not that all our iniquities were caused to meet upon him that he bare them in his own body on the Tree that his soul was made an offering for sin and therei by made Reconciliation or Ationement for the sins of the People if these Persons be otherwise minded we cannot help it 4. It is added that this Doctrine doth not only disadvantage the true vertue and real intent of Christs life and death but intirely deprives Gâ—d of that praise which is oâ—ing to his greatest Love and Goodness Answ. I
suppose that this is the first time that this Doctrine fell under this imputation nor could it possibly be lyable unto this charge from any who did either understand it or the grounds on which it is commonly opposed For there is no end of the Life or death of Christ which the Socinians themselves admit of but it is also allowed and asserted in the Doctrine now called in Question Do they say that he taught the Truth or revealed the whole mind and will of God concerning his Worship and our obedience We say the same Dâ— they say that by his death he hare testimony unto and confirmed the truth which he had taught it is also owned by us Do they say that in what he did and suâ—fered he set us an Example that we should labour after conformity unto it is what we acknowledge and teach Only we say that all these things belong principally to his Prophetical Office But we moreover affirm and believe that as a Priest or in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office he did in his death and sufferings offer himself a Sacrifice to God to make Attonement for our sins which they deny and that he dyed for us or in our stead that we might go free without the faith and acknowledgement whereof no part of the Gospel can be rightly understood All the ends then which they themselves assign of the Life and death of Christ are by us granted and the principal one which gives life and efficacy to the rest is by them denyed Neither 2. doth it fall under any possible imagination that the praise due unto God should be Ecclipsed hereby The Love and Kindness of God towards us is in the Scripture fixed principally and fundamentally on his sending of his only begotten Son to dye for us And certainly the greater the work was that he had to do the greater ought our acknowledgement of his Love and kindness to be but it is said 5. That it represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father Answ. 1. The Scripture referreth the Love of the Father unto two heads 1. The sending of his Son to dye for us John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 John 4. 8. 2. In choosing sinners unto a participation of the fruits of his love Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. The Love of the Son is fixed signally on his actual giving himself to dye for us Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 5. 25. Rev. 1. 5. What ballances these Persons have got to weigh these Loves in and to conclude which is the greatest or most weighty I know not 2. Although only the actual discharge of his Office be directly assigned to the Love of Christ yet his condâ—scention in taking our nature upon him expressed by his mind Ephes 6. 7. and the readiness of his Will Psalm 40. 8. doth eminently comprise Love in it also Thirdly The Love of the Father in sending of the Son was an act of his will which being a natural and essential property of God it was so far the act of the Son also as he is partaker of the same nature though eminently and in respect of order it was peculiarly the act of the Father 4. The anger of â—od against sin is an effect of his essential Righteousness and Holiness which belong to him as God which yet hinders not but that both Father and Son and Spirit acted Love towards sinners They say again 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction Answ. 1. It were endless to consider the improper and absurd expressions which are made use of in these exceptions as here the last words have no tolerable sence in them according to any principles whatever 2. If the Son 's purchasing Redemption for us procuring obtaining it do rob God of the gift of his Son for our redemption the Holy Ghost must answer for it For having obtained for us or procured or purchased eternal redemption is the word used by himself Heb. 9. 14. And to deny that he hath laid down his Life a ransome for us and to have bought us with a price is openly to deny the Gospel 2. In a word the great gift of God consisted in giving his Son to obtain Redemption for us 3. Herein he offered himself unto God and gave himself for us and if these Persons are offended herewithal what are we that we should withstand God They say 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the debt is not hereby absolved or forgiven but transferred only and by consequence we are no better provided for salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father Answ. The looseness and dubiousness of the expressions here used makes an appearance that there is something in them when indeed there is not There is an Allusion in them to a debt and a payment which is the most improper expression that is used in this matter and the interpretation thereof is to be regulated by other proper expressions of the same thing But to keep to the Allusion 1. Christ paid his own but not for himself Dan. 9. 26. 2. Paying it for us the debt is discharged and our actual discharge is to be given out according to the wayes and means and upon the conditions appointed and constituted by the Father and Son 3. When a debt is so transferred as that one is accepted in the room and obliged to payment in the stead of another and that payment is made and accepted accordingly all Law and Reason require that the original Debtor be discharged 4. What on this account we owe to the Son is praise thankfulness and obedience and not the debt which he took upon himself and discharged for us when we were non-solvent by his love So that this matter is plain enough and not to be involved by such cloudy expressions and incoherent discourse following the Metaphor of a debt For if God be considered as the Creditor we all as Debtors and being insolvent Christ undertook out of his Love to pay the debt for us and did so accordingly which was accepted with God it follows that we are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love who hath made this satisfaction for us which we shall eternally acknowledge It is said 8. It no way renders Men beholding or in the least obliged to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the least farthing so that the acknowledgements are peculiarly the Sons which destroyes the whole current of
I shall mention here but few of them because a large Dissertation concerning them all is intended in another way First For the Term of satisfaction it self It is granted that in this matter it is not found in the Scripture That is it is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Syllabically but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing it self intended is asserted in it beyond all Modest contradiction Neither indeed is there in the Hebrew Language any word that doth adequately answer unto it no nor yet in the Greek As it is used in this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly sponsio or fide jussio in its actual discharge maketh the nearest approach unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to the same purpose But there are Words and Phrases both in the Old Testament and in the New that are equipollent unto it and express the matter or thing intended by it As in the Old are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This last word we render satisfaction Numb 35. 32 33. where God denyes that any compensation Sacred or Civil shall be received to free a Murderer from the punishment due unto him which properly expresseth what we intend Thou shalt admit of no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer In the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of the same importance and some of them accommodated to express the thing intended beyond that which hath obtained in vulgar use For that which we intended hereby is the Voluntary Obedience unto Death and the Passion or suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ God and Man whereby and wherein he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit for a propitiatory Sacrifice that he might fulfill the Law or answer all its universal Postulata and as our Sponsor undertaking our Cause when we were under the sentence of condemnation underwent the punishment due to us from the Justice of God being transferred on him whereby haveing made a perfect and absolute Propitiation or Attonement for our sins he procured for us deliverance from death and the Curse and a Right unto life everlacting Now this is more properly expressed by some of the words before mentioned than by that of Satisfaction which yet nevertheless as usually explained is comprehensive and no way unsuited to the matter intended by it In general men by this word understand either reparationem offensae or solutionem debiti either Reparation made for offence given unto any or the payment of a debt Debitum is either oriminale or pecuniarium that is either the obnoxiousness of a man to punishment for crimes or the guilt of them in answer to that justice and Law which he is necessarily liable and subject unto or unto a payment or compensation by and of money or what is valued by it which last consideration neither in it self nor in any reasonings from an Analogie unto it can in this matter have any proper place Satisfaction is the effect of the doing or suffering what is required for the answering of his charge against faults or sins who hath Right Authority and Power to require exact and inflict punishment for them Some of the Schoolment define it by voluntaris radditio aequivalentis indebiti of which more elsewhere The true meaning of to satisfie or make satisfaction is tantum facere aut pati quantum satis sit juste irato ad vindictam This satisfaction is impleaded as inconsistent with free Remission of Sins how causlesly we have seen It is so far from it that it is necessary to make way for it in case of a Righteous law transgressed and the publick Order of the Universal Governour and Government of all disturbed And this God directs unto Lev. 4. 31. The Priest shall make an Attonement for him and it shall be forgiven him This Attonement was a Legal Satisfaction and it is by God himself premised to Remission or Pardon And Paul prayes Philemon to forgive Onesimus though he took upon himself to make satisfaction for all the wrong or dammage that he had sustained Epist. v. 18 19. And when God was displeased with the friends of Job he prescribes a way to them or what they shall do and what they shall get done for them that they might be accepted and pardoned Job 42. 7 8. The Lord said unto Eliphaz my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends therefore take unto you now seven Bullocks and seven Ramms and go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt offering and my servant Job shall pray for you for him I will accept lest I deal with you after your folly He plainly enjoyneth an Attonement that he might Freely pardon them And both these namely satisfaction and pardon with their order and consistency were solemnly represented by the great Institution of the Sacrifice of the Scape Goat For after all the sins of the people were put upon him or the punishment of them transferred unto him in a Type and Representation with quod in ejus caput-sit the Formal Reason of all Sacrifices propitiatory he was sent away with them denoting the oblation or forgiveness of sin after a Translation made of its punishment Lev. 16. 21 22. And whereas it is not expresly said that that Goat suffered or was slain but was either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hircus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Goat sent away or was sent to a Rock called Azazel in the Wilderness as Vatablus and Oleaster with some others think which is not probable seeing though it might then be done whilest the people were in the Wilderness of Sinai yet could not by reason of its distance when the people were setled in Canaan be annually observed it was from the poverty of the Types whereof no one could fully represent that Grace which it had particular respect unto What therefore was wanting in that Goat was supplyed in the other which was slain as a sin offering v. 11. 15. Neither doth it follow that on the supposition of the satisfaction pleaded for the Freedom Pardon or Acquitment of the person originally guilty and liable to punishment must immediately and ipso facto ensue It is not of the nature of every solution or satisfaction that deliverance must ipso facto follow And the Reason of it is because this satisfaction by a succedaneous substitution of one to undergo punishment for another must be founded in a voluntary compact and Agreement For there is required unto it a Relaxation of the Law though not as unto the punishment to be inflicted yet as unto the person to be punished And it is otherwise in personal guilt than in pecuniary debts In these the Debt it self is solely intended the person only obliged with reference thereunto In the other the person is firstly and principally under the Obligation And therefore when a pecuniary debs is paid by whomsoever it be paid the Obligation of the person
himself unto payment ceaseth ipso facto But in things criminal the guilty person himself being firstly immediately and intentionally under the Obligation unto punishment when there is introduced by compact a vicarious solution in the fubstitution of another to suffer though he suffer the same absolutely which those should have done for whom he suffers yet because of the Acceptation of his person to suffer which might have been refused and could not be admitted without some Relaxation of the Law Deliverance of the guilty persons cannot ensue ipso facto but by the intervention of the Terms fixed on in the Covenant or Agreement for an admittance of the substitution It appears from what hath been spoken that in this matter of Satisfaction God is not considered as a Creditor and sin as a debt and the Law as an obligation to the payment of that Debt and the Lord Christ as paying it though these notions may have been used by some for the Illustration of the whole matter and that not without countenance from sundry expressions in the Scripture to the same purpose But God is considered as the infinitely holy and righteous Author of the Law and Supream Governour of all mankind according to the Tenor and Sanction of it Man is considered as a sinner a transgressor of that Law and thereby obnoxious and liable to the punishment constituted in it and by it answerably unto the Justice and Holiness of its Author The Substitution of Christ was meerly Voluntary on the part of God and of himself undertaking to be a Sponsor to answer for the sins of men by undergoing the punishment due unto them That to this End there was a Relaxation of the Law as to the persons that were to suffer though not as to what was to be suffered Without the former the Substitution mentioned could not have been admitted And on supposition of the latter the suffering of Christ could not have had the nature of punishment properly so called For punishment relates to the Justice and Righteousness in Government of him that exacts it and inflicts it And this the Justice of God doth not but by the Law Nor could the Law be any way satisfied or fulfilled by the suffering of Christ if antecedently thereunto its obligation or power of obliging unto the penalty constituted in its Sanction unto sin was relaxed dissolved or dispensed withall Nor was it agreeable to Justice nor would the nature of the things themselves admit of it that another punishment should be inflicted on Christ than what we had deserved nor could our sin be the impulsive cause of his death nor could we have had any benefit thereby And this may suffice to be added unto what was spoken before as to the nature of satisfaction so far as the brevity of the discourse whereunto we are confined will bear or the use whereunto it is designed doth require Secondly The Nature of the Doctrine contended for being declared and cleared we may in one or two instances manifest how evidently it is revealed and how fully it may be confirmed or vindicated It is then in the Scripture declared that Christ dyed for us that he dyed for our sins and that we are thereby delivered This is the foundation of Christian Religion as such Without the faith and acknowledgement of it we are not Christians Neither is it in these general terms at all denyed by the Socinians It remains therefore that we consider 1. How this is revealed and affirmed in the Scripture and 2. What is the true meaning of the Expressions and Propositions wherein it is revealed and affirmed for in them as in sundry others we affirm that the satisfaction pleaded for is contained 1. Christ is said to dye to give himself to be delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for us for his sheep for the life of the world for sinners John 6. 51. Chap. 10. 15. Rom. 5. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Gal. 2. 20. Heb. 2. 9. Moreover he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. Gal. 1. 4. The End whereof every where expressed in the Gospel is that we might be freed delivered and saved These things as was said are agreed unto and acknowleded 2. The meaning and importance we say of these Exprâ—ssions is that Christ dyed in our Room Place or Stead undergoing the Death or Punishment which we should have undergone in the way and manner before declared And this is the satisfaction we plead for It remains therefore that from the Scripture the nature of the things treated of the proper signification and constant use of the. Expressions mentioned the Exemplification of them in the Customs and Usages of the Nations of the World we do evince and manifest that what we have laid down is the true and proper sense of the words wherein this Revelation of Christs dying for us is expressed so that they who deny Christ to have dyed for us in this sense do indeed deny that he properly dyed for us at all what ever benefits they grant that by his death we may obtain First We may consider the Use of this Expression in the Scripture either indefinitely or in particular Instances Only we must take this along with us that dying for sins and Transgressions being added unto dying for sinners or persons maketh the substitution of one in the room and stead of another more evident than when the dying of one for another only is mentioned For whereas all Predicates are regulated by their subjects and it is ridiculous to say that one dyeth in the stead of sins the meaning can be no other but the bearing or answering of the sins of the sinner in whose stead any one dyeth And this is in the Scripture declared to be the sense of that Expression as we shall see afterwards Let us therefore consider some Instances John 11. 50. The words of Caiaphas Counsel are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people and that the whole Nation perish not which is expressed again Chap. 18. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perish for the people Caiaphas feared that if Christ were spared the people would be destroyed by the Romans The way to free them he thought was by the destruction of Christ him therefore he devoted to death in lieu of the People As He Vnum pro multis dabitur Caput One head shall be given for many Not unlike the Speech of Otho the Emperour in Xiphilin when he slew himself to preserve his Army For when they would have perswaded him to renew the war after the defeat of some of his Forces and offered to lay down their lives to secure him he replyed that he would not adding this Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is far better and more just that one should perish or dye for all than that many should perish for one that is One in the stead of many that they may go free