come to God but thorough him that is the way Hence it appears John 14.6 how none but a True and not a made God could be a Mediator between God and us If one Man sin against another 1 Sam. 2.25 saith Eli the Judge shall judge him But if a Man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him No meer Man can only he that is Lord God himself * Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh is a place worthy to take up our Serious Thoughts This sheweth first the Law could not justifie us by reason of Weakness thorough the Flesh or Humane Nature which to remedy 't was necessary God should send his own Son to relieve this Weakness and Impossibility for that wherein our Nature thorough Frailty was wanting must be helped by Divine Nature Secondly This sheweth how this help came by means of God's own Son whom God sent into the World and by a Sacrifice for Sin effected that which was impossible for any Man whatsoever to do Now if they can let them find stronger and more proper Expressions to signifie Christ Jesus to be the True Proper Natural Son of God than these in Scripture God's own Son the only begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father in whom the Father is well pleased Can this be said of one that is a meer Man No nor of any Angel which is a nobler Creature For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son Heb. 1.5 6 8. this day have I begotten thee And again when he bringeth the first Begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He cannot be called the First Begotten in relation to a Temporal Generation for many other Sons of Adoption God had begotten long before Christ's appearing in the World but upon account of an Eternal take notice of what is added But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne 1 Tim. 1.1 Tit. 1.3 O God is for ever and ever not only here and in other places I already quoted he is called God but also St. Paul in two places gives him the name of God our Saviour he is God as certainly as he is our Saviour for in both places both are joyned together Now as when the Spirit of God doth in Scripture call him Man we ought to believe him to be a Man indeed so when he calls him God we must believe him to be God indeed for with St. Paul * Rom. 2.2 We are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And immediately after his Conversion he began to preach the Gospel with this Fundamental Truth thereof namely That he is the Son of God Acts 9.20 And whosoever owns him not to be truly God gives God the Lye disowns him to be our Saviour and our Mediator for as the Mediator doth act the part of Man with God so with Men he is to perform the part of God he stands between two Extreams and reaches them both with filling the space though never so distant between them he immediately approacheth unto God whom he pacifieth towards Men and from him upon the account of his own Merit obtaineth for them all Gifts and Graces necessary to their Salvation All this none but a God can do for us But here I must stop for insensibly I am driven farther than I intended only few words I shall speak in relation to the most Holy and Blessed Trinity which they deny Divine Nature is most simply and singularly one yet in that one Essence are Three Persons distinguished in Number Order Manner of Acting and with Personal Names and Attributes And though the words Trinity and Persons be not in so many Letters set down in Scripture no more than the word Sacrament Symbole or Creed Lord's-Prayer c. Yet as we agree that these are contained in and deduced out of the Word of God so we may say of those now in question For Brevity sake I shall mention none of the several Proofs taken out of the Old Testament and pitch upon few of those out of the New The Baptism of the Lord Jesus doth afford a clear and strong Proof God the Father speaks * Matt. 3.16 17. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ the Son of God is Baptised The Spirit or Holy Ghost descended from Heaven like a Dove and lighted upon him Then the Apostles are commanded to * Chap. 28.19 Baptise in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost furely by any one that can reckon it will be found there are Three Hypostases or Persons for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in relation to God the Father for the Son is said to be * Heb. 1.3 the express Image of his the Father's Person In the following Text we also find there ‖ John 14.16 17. I will Pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter the Father I and the Comforter there called the Spirit of Truth and in the next Chapter 't is said * Chap. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father again here they be Three St. Paul also mentioneth them * 2 Cor. 13.14 The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God that is the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost This I shall conclude with that of another Apostle * 1 John 5.7 For there are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One. I think from the word Three that of Trinity may well be derived Here is proved the Trinity of Persons and the Unity or Oneness of Essence or Nature The Trinity of Persons doth not multiply the Nature without any Contradiction a Subject may in one respect be one and manifold in another This is clear out of several Instances in Nature Man hath a Soul this Soul hath three several distinct Faculties the Mind Will and Memory the Mind is not the Will nor the Will the Memory these are three different Faculties yet but one Soul In the Sun are three things the Body the Light and the Heat of the Sun yet not many Suns yet only one A Father hath a Son the Father and the Son are two different Persons yet they have the same Nature and both are Men. There are many more such Instances which I now forbear to mention to shew how in created Substances Trinity or Multiplicity doth not destroy Unity so we may reasonably infer that in the Godhead the Trinity of Persons is no Prejudice to the Unity of Essence or Nature But for all this they will deny the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the first I proved and I think 't
Serious Advice TO A PRESERVATIVE Against the Blasphemous Heresie OF SOCINIANISM Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them mine Enemies Psal 139.21 22. By J. G. G. LONDON Printed for Geo. Grafton and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1695. Serious Advice to a Preservative against the Blasphemous Heresie of Socinianism NOW more than ever there is cause to say the last Days and Times foretold by the Apostles * 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. St. Paul and ‖ 1 John 2.18 St. John are come upon us For not only Iniquity in Practise doth abound every where and the Man and Manner of Sin is daily more and more discovered But also Perverseness in Judgment in no less than Heresie and Blasphemy walks bare-faced with those who are so far delivered up to Satan as to deny the Lord of Glory For abominable Socinianism which is a Sink of the Cerinthians Ebionites Sabellians Samosatenians Photinians Arrians Semi-Arrians Anti-Trinitarians Pelagians and of several other Hereticks doth now proudly appear and in Effect defie Christian Religion and attempts to overthrow the Foundation of the Gospel not in one but several parts thereof It is for me a Matter of Wonderful Grief to see the Boldness and Impudence of that Abominable Heresie as it were Triumphantly to come in of one side and the Silence and Sluggishness of those that should oppose it on the other * Jer. 9.1 O that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Guilt which is thereby contracted upon the Nation My Purpose is for the present by the Grace of God only to give in my Evidence in the Case and that as briefly and plainly as I can to condescend to the meanest Capacity But if by Providence I be further engaged in the Matter I shall grudge neither Time nor Pains upon so Just so Necessary and so Glorious an Account as to bear Record for the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion Laelius Socinus the Uncle and Faustus Socinus his Nephew both of Siena in Italy soon after the Death of Detestable Servetus did the first conceive and the second bring forth their Damnable Opinions which amongst the rest are these They deny the most Holy and Adorable Trinity Christ's Divinity his being Coeternal in Time if we may use that word with the Father Coessential in Nature and Coequal in Power they will not own he hath given the Father Satisfaction for our Sins but only obtained for us by our Faith and Obedience to satisfie for our selves They say he died for our Good but not in our Place he died for himself not for his Sins but for the Mortality and Infirmity of our Nature which he had assumed he became not our High Priest till after his Ascension into Heaven How Man before his Fall was Naturally Mortal and had no Original Righteousness that in us there is no Original Sin as it imports a Deformity of Nature The Holy Ghost they admit not to be God no more than Christ whose Incarnation they affirm to be against Reason and without Proofs of Scripture With Pelagians they are against Providence and Matters of Grace All these and others abominable Errors which destroy the whole Foundation and Work of our Salvation are to be found in the Books of Socinus Crellius Ostorodius c. How far will Men go when once they are fallen into and engaged in an evil way When God hath left them in the Blindness and Darkness of their Understanding and given them up to the Imaginations and Counsels of their evil Hearts to the Temptations of Satan and to their own Natural Corruption We see it in the case of that Wicked Arrius who within a short time from the Year 323 till 336 drew a great part of the World after him and in the other of that great Impostor Mahomet who agreed with Arrius against the Deity of the Lord Jesus wherein he is followed by Socinians That Man thorough a Judgment of God * 2 Thess 2.11 sending a strong Delusion that Men should believe a Lye by the means of a Foolish Book of a Nonsensical Alcoran of pretended Trances and Raptures when he was in his Fit of the Falling-sickness and of the Cheat of a Pidgeon picking as it had been taught some Grains out of his Ear as if the Angel Gabriel under that shape had then been Suggesting his Religion and Doctrine to him with some Allowance to the Pleasures of the Flesh in this World and Promises of the like in the next by these means and the Trick of his Tomb at Mecca hath drawn a great part of the World after him In order to settle their Impious Principles Socinians go about two things First To overthrow the Ground of our Faith and Religion with their attempting to undermine Holy Scriptures which are the Foundation and Rule of it To bring it about They affirm the Old Testament to be needless for Christians as for the Books of the New they allow not the Authors thereof to have been Inspired by the Spirit of God positively against what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 and therein they would have some places to contradict others grant this and you take away the Infallibility and Truth of Scripture and if it be yielded of one Text why not of many more If so What will become of Christian Religion grounded upon the Gospel For if we must believe St. Paul who * Gal. 1.11 12. Certifies it is not after Man for he neither received it of Man neither was he taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ The second thing Socinians do to promote their Blasphemies is To make Natural Reason the Principle of Religion for they give all to Reason as if it was Infallible and could not be imposed upon and nothing to the Authority and Consent of the Church nor of Scripture it self according to this Rule of theirs That no Interpretation of Holy Scripture is to be admitted except it doth agree with Natural Reason and to the Evident Experience of outward Senses Instead of the Traditions which Papists bring in they would have their own Reason without the Influences of the Spirit of God to be the genuine and proper Interpreter of God's Holy Word So take away the Rule and you bring in Disorder and Confusion We know and own how Faith doth not destroy Reason rather it doth Refine and Purifie it so God forbid we should exclude Reason from Religion for 't is Subservient to it Reason indeed hath something of Religion for by the Light of Nature in things of the World and Course of Providence one may be convinced how there is a Being of Beings a first Cause of all and a God whose Power and Wisdom appeareth in the Works and Order of Nature which as * Psal
19. David saith and ‖ Rom. 10.18 Paul after him takes notice of day unto day uttereth Speech and night unto night sheweth Knowledge But our Religion and Faith in Christ is not a Doctrine of Nature or else Salvation thorough his Name had been known to every Man but Experience convinces us of the contrary And St. Paul doth positively and plainly declare upon the Matter in the case of those who wanted no Natural Reason when by the Rules thereof they would measure true Religion * Rom. 1.21 22 Became vain in their Imagination and their foolish Heart was darkened Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools All and the best Natural Reason in the World nay the greatest Gifts of Nature in Knowledge Wisdom Parts whither innate or acquired by the Philosopher Orator c. come very short of Faith which in us is the Soul of our Religion for * 1 Cor. 2.14 The Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are Spiritually discerned So that with St. Paul we may upon this account ask * 1 Cor. 1.20 Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Where is the Rational Man Hath not God made Foolish the Wisdom of this World The Reason that is meerly Natural he hath infatuated and to shew that Reason alone cannot bring us to true Religion that is to the Gospel it is called a Mystery * Eph. 3.4 the Mystery of Christ and ‖ 1 Tim. 3.9 the Mystery of the Faith and a great one too * 1 Tim. 3.16 for without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh then Christ is God for none but he was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up in Glory all these are appliable to Christ and to none but him to God made Flesh The Knowledge of this is so far above Reason that to make it known 't was necessary it should be revealed * Eph. 3.3 How that by Revelation he God made known to me the Mystery yea such a Mystery as Natural Reason could not attain unto for 't is * Col. 1.26 the Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations Surely during these Ages and Generations there were those Men who wanted not good Natural Reason but now is made manifest to his Saints not to every Man for * Matt. 13.11 unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Then it comes not by Natural Reason but 't is a Gift of God Now the Gospel and the Preaching of Jesus Christ is the Doctrine of Christian Religion and this * Rom. 16.25 According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began If we want another Apostle's Evidence we have it in St. Peter in the case of the Prophets under the Old Testament who * 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. enquired and searched diligently of the Grace that should come unto you all which had been in vain but they got it by Revelation unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you no need of Revelation where Natural Reason can attain unto yet without Revelation the Prophets which wanted no Natural Reason could not I go further and say Angels who are clear sighted far above Men * 2 Pet. 2.11 greater in Power and Might and have a greater depth of Reason What of them Which things says the same Apostle in the same place that is the Mysteries of the Gospel the Angels desire to look into not to dive but to look into to see and adore that Incomprehensible Mystery they cannot look into or else they would not desire it for none desires to have that which he hath Angelical Nature cannot fathom those Depths and do we think the shallow Brain of the most Rational Man can Hereupon I think I may follow our Blessed Saviour's way of arguing in the case of the Day of Judgment only he doth from the lesser to the greater and I from the greater to the lesser * Mark 13.32 Of that Day and that Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels which are in Heaven Thus the Mystery of the Salvation of Mankind knoweth no Angel much less any Man be he never so Rational only as much as God hath been pleased to reveal in the Gospel that Knowledge comes not by Reason or any thing else of Nature but by Grace I think this sufficiently sheweth how deficient Natural Reason is to lead us to True Christian Religion without Revelation which God effected by means of Angels Prophets Apostles and Evangelists and this not with a bare outward Declaration but an inward effectual Working and Revelation of his Holy Spirit But I must not exceed the narrow Bounds I prescribed my self So then in Opposition to Socinians as we believe the Perfection and Infallibility of Holy Scripture we also must own there are in our Holy Religion several things above Reason Indeed Matters of Fact do fall under our Senses but those of Faith go far beyond them Material things such as our Senses hold no Proportion with Spiritual such is Faith highly elevated also beyond Reason Certainly this Generation of Men come under the Curse pronounced by St. Paul * 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha 'T is to Hate and not to Love him as to go about to derogate from his Right and as much as in them lies to deprive him of his Due and dishonour him as he told the Jews * John 8.49 Verse 12 18 24 28 29 40 42. I honour my Father and ye dishonour me Wherein It is set down in several places of the same Chapter as namely they would not believe him to be the Light of the World nor the Witness which he and the Father did bare of him and that he was he that is the Messiah the Christ the Son of God who had told them the Truth he had heard of God whom he there calls often his Father for I proceeded forth and came from God Yet 't is as true as strange that notwithstanding so many clear Proofs of his Divinity in Scripture Socinians deny him to be God without which he had not been qualified to be Mediator between God and us for a Mediator must have the Nature of both Parties nor gotten the Victory over all the Enemies of our Salvation Though to avoid Prolixity I must not insist upon the Proofs of our Lord's Divinity which is the Life of our Faith Hope and Comfort yet something I must now say to it If we had no other
* John 4.26 I that speak unto thee am he If then Christ spoke the Truth and St. John hath written the Truth Christ is he who is also called ‖ Isa 63.9 8. the Angel of God's presence who saved them his People so he was their Saviour All this spoken of the Lord Jesus The Proofs of this out of the New Testament are as clear as can be besides the Texts already quoted observe the following * John 17.3 This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ that is to be the only true God a thing usual amongst the Hebrews for though the Language be Greek yet the Writers were Jews whose Tongue and manner of expressing themselves is Compendious and Laconick and commonly implies more than it doth express especially in avoiding of Repetitions of many Instances let one serve for all 't is this ‖ Psal 37.25 I have been Young and now am Old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread supply the word forsaken before expressed for sometimes the Seed of the Righteous God suffers by way of Trial to beg but though they beg yet he never forsaketh them Thus in this place after the words Jesus Christ the words to be the only true God ought to be supplied and understood The same Evangelist addeth elsewhere * John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God of the Living God according to the Confession before made by Peter ‖ Chap. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God The Son and only Son of the Living God must needs also be the Living God 'T is said * Acts 20.28 God hath purchased the Church with his own Blood Properly speaking God hath no Blood How then can he purchase a Church with his own Blood otherwise than by the means of an Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Natures in one Person by vertue whereof the Blood which belongs to Humane Nature is called God's own Blood Thomas calls him * John 20.28 my Lord and my God and St. Paul saith ‖ Rom. 9.5 he is over all God Blessed for ever and †Colos 2.9 in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily How fully doth this express it thus * 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the Flesh and his beloved Apostle saith ‖ 1 John 5.20 And we know that the Son of God is come in the Flesh and hath given us an understanding that we might know him that is true Son of God even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the True God and Eternal Life This Jesus Christ is not God only in comparison of other Men or by some special Prerogative of Favour or in some higher degree than all the rest but this Jesus Christ is the True God How can it be more plainly and fully expressed that he is the True God So every where else the Lord Jesus is absolutely called God the True God and not relatively as Moses is said * Exod. 7.1 to be made a God to Pharaoh Holy Scripture gives our Blessed Saviour Attributes that are incommunicable to the Creature so he must needs be True God As first Eternity whereof he is called the Father or * Isa 9.6 the Everlasting Father also ‖ Rev. 1.8 17 18. Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending which is which was and which is to come the Almighty repeated Verses 11 12. namely when the Apostle turned to see the Voice that spake to him that had called himself Alpha and Omega which being the first and last Letters of the Greek Alphabet signifie first of all and last of all that is his Eternity he saw one like the Son of Man that is the Lord Jesus who v. 17. calls also himself the first and the last and the next Verse shews it to be understood of Christ for he saith I am he that liveth and was dead And Chap. 21.6 he saith again I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End to be compared with v. 3. The Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them To be understood of the Incarnation as expressed by the same Apostle John 1 14. and if any Doubt should remain 't is fully cleared Chap. 22.13 where again and together are rehearsed the general words spoken asunder in the other places I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End the First and the Last and to know who saith so of himself read v. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angel and v. 6. is called the Lord God And the Lord God sent his Angel c. And that all this is the Attribute and Prerogative of the only true Eternal God Isa 41.4 and 44.6 it appears out of Isaiah which our Saviour's words in the Revelations relate to Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the Last and besides me there is no God which to the same purpose are repeated in other places of the same Prophesie To condescend unto our Capacity the Spirit of God doth represent this Eternity in three parts Past Present and to come by him which is which was Rev. 1.4 and which is to come and it cannot be denied thereby the True Eternal God to be understood and hereunto doth fitly answer that place of Scripture which applies it to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Socinians would have Christ's Being to have began with his Birth of the Blessed Virgin but he peremptorily confutes them with the Jews when he saith * John 8.58 before Abraham was I am Can that Generation of Vipers deny he spoke the Truth when he said so If they do then with the Jews they declare themselves to be the Children of the Devil who as our Saviour said to them * Verse 44. Is a Liar and the Father of it If now our Saviour was amongst them they would take up Stones to Stone him as the Jews did at that time according to their Principles which are the same with those of the Jews they would call him a Blasphemer and make use of their words * Chap. 10.33 For a good Work we stone thee not but for Blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God I ask Did the Lord Jesus upon this Charge deny himself to be God Which he would have done if he had not been Or else Was he an Impostor or Deluder Which he must needs have been if he would have passed for God when he was not O the Horrid and Insufferable Blasphemy of Wicked Men. Then Scripture attributes Omniscience unto Christ when he was upon Earth as well as
Name of Blasphemers and begins with himself as he was before his Conversion * 1 Tim. 1.12 13. Putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor Wherein was he such He speaks something of it when he saith ‖ Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth What doth he mean by the Name of Jesus His Person he could not reach his Members he persecuted as much as he could nay as he saith he compelled them to do as he did What 's that To Blaspheme he compelled them to Blaspheme his Name Acts 26.11 his Religion and say many things against his Person and deny him to be the Messiah the Son of God and the Profession of his Gospel to defame and dishonour him And do not Socinians do part of this and the worst of it with as much as in them lies depriving him of his Godhead attacking him in the best and most sensible Part Methinks these Men should have observed and taken warning by God's signal Judgments upon former Blasphemers against the Person of Christ Arrius their great Founder whilst he was easing himself of the Necessities of Nature his Bowels came forth and with them his Life Artemon Samosatenus and several more in former and later Ages came to miserable Deaths The end of Julian the Apostate is well known These should make them Fear and Tremble However in them is a Hardness as was in the Jews whose Arguments they borrow * Acts 13.45 Blaspheming and Contradicting as they did to what concerning this Matter was spoken by Paul and Barnabas The Grounds of their Error I shall not at this time go about to refute that I reserve for another occasion if God permit However two things I shall mention which like two Rocks they commonly split upon and this being well understood affordeth Answers to most of their Arguments St. Peter's words by him spoken in another case I here shall make use of * 2 Pet. 3.5 For this they are willingly Ignorant of namely the difference of Christ's State of Humiliation and that of his Exaltation The Jews who receive not the New Testament may be ignorant of this yet not willingly but Socinians who say and pretend they admit it cannot be Ignorant but willingly After this Rule we may resolve those places in Scripture the Sence whereof thorough their Prejudice they mistake wherein Christ is made Inferior to the Father and the Father said to be greater than he 'T is most true that as he performed the Office of Mediator as he was Man as at that time when he was upon Earth in that low and humble Condition he then was Inferior to the Father but it was not so before for he to obtain Salvation for us voluntarily left that Glory which he had with the Father before the World began and of himself as the Apostle saith * Phil. 2.6 7 8. took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Man and he humbled himself and made himself of no Reputation He had a Being before he was made Man and that Being as the Apostle faith in that place was the Form and Nature of God whereby without Robbery or Usurpation he was equal with God After the time of his Humiliation was over he went up to the place whence he was come down again to appear in his Natural Glory which Glory here he had still but it was under a Cloud which made it invisible to Man His Humane Nature was that Cloud which Scripture calls * Heb. 10.20 the Vail of his Flesh which under the Law was typified by the Vail of the Temple because the Light of the Sun when 't is behind the Clouds doth not appear bright and glorious in our Eyes Must Men say he hath no Brightness nor Glory Still there is enough left to convince us that in it is a Light or else it would be quite Dark So though the Lord Jesus his Divine Glory and Majesty was eclipsed for a time yet several Beams of it appeared in his state of Exinanition as in his Baptism Transfiguration and when * John 12.28 29. the Voice came from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and I will glorifie it again which made some of the People that stood by say it thundred and others An Angel spake to him Besides those many miraculous Works he did which none but a Divine Power could effect all these leave unbelieving Enemies of his Divinity without Excuse for they refuse to receive the Testimony of God the Father of Christ himself and of the Apostles and Evangelists which is as good as to call him a Deluder and an Impostor Their other Stumbling-block and Rock of Offence is the Incarnation of the Son of God or his taking upon him our Humane Nature out of the Virgim Mary thorough the Operation of the Holy Ghost which by no means they will own though Scripture saith in that Famous Prophesie of the Coming of the Messiah * Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall Conceive and bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Immanuel ‖ Matt. 1.23 to this answers John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Which being interpreted is God with us What doth this Interpretation God with us signifie else than an Union of Divine with Humane Nature one Person to be both God and Man which doth meet in the Person of our Blessed Saviour who for Confirmation of this is in Scripture so often called God Son of God and Man Son of Man Can there be any thing more positive than this * John 1.1 14. The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh by Flesh is meant Humane Nature then God was made Man as to the Manner it could not be by Transubstantiation change of Substance of Divine Nature into Humane which had imported an Annihilation of Divine Nature which to think is Blasphemy elsewhere Scripture saith positively God was manifest in the Flesh a Text parallel to that of John to prove the Incarnation which the place sheweth to be said of Christ in whom are terminated all the Prophesies and Figures under the Law about the Messiah and though the Modus and Manner of things be above the reach of Men to dive into and so we must not be rash about it yet God in his Word having revealed the thing to be and said something about the Manner it must not be neglected by us See the Angel's answer to the question of the Virgin * Luke 1.34 35 How shall this be seeing I know no Man The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee This indeed is a high Mystery the Coming of the Holy Ghost the overshadowing of the Highest Yet however this is plain that that Holy Thing or Person to be born of Mary should be the Son of God and really called so for
is fit I should say something to the last but as shortly as I can In order to it I shall resolve all into one Argument as before I did about Jesus Christ The Syllogism is this He is True and Eternal God whom Scripture gives to the Names Attributes Works and Worship of God but all these Scripture attributeth to the Holy Ghost therefore the Holy Ghost is True Eternal God To begin with the first I say the Names of the True God are simply and absolutely given to the Holy Ghost * 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not saith Paul that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The latter part explaineth the first the dwelling of God alone doth make and constitute the Temple of God and those very same whom he calleth the Temple of God he calleth the Temple or Dwelling of the Holy Ghost We have another when Paul said to Ananias * Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Satan filled thy Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and in the next Verse Thou hast not lied to Men but unto God Whom he before called the Holy Ghost he now called God these last words tend to exaggerate and aggravate the greatness of his Sin The name of Jehovah is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for the Lord said * Numb 12.6 He will make himself known to and speak by Prophets Now if we compare this with what Peter saith * 2 Pet. 1.21 Holy Men or Prophets of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost we shall find that Jehovah who promised to speak by Prophets is the Holy Ghost which moved them to speak The Attributes of the True God do also belong to the Holy Ghost as first Eternity 't is said * Heb. 9.14 Christ thorough the Eternal Spirit offered him so doth Omniscience for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God also Omnipresence he is every where * Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spiri c. That is I can go no where from it and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you so he doth in every Believer for * Rom. 8.9 he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his as for Almightiness all his Works do demonstrate it Also the Works of the True God are attributed to the Holy Ghost as the Creation of the World * Psal 33.6 By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Breath Spirit of his Mouth and * Job 26.13 By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens the Preservation is represented by his ‖ Gen. 1.2 moving upon the face of the Waters or laying upon as a Hen doth to preserve her Chickens But as the proper Attribute of the Holy Ghost is to be Holy and Sanctifier the great Actor in the high Mystery of Regeneration and applying of Salvation the Work whereof is altogether Divine so to clear it we shall come to some Particulars as teaching of the Prophets who by him were moved as already observed out of St. Peter Now 't is said * Heb. 1.1 God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets then the Spirit that spoke by them is God ‖ 1 Cor. 12. from Verse 4 to 12. The diversities of Gifts are of the same Spirit the difference of Administration of the same Lord and the diversities of Operators of the same God Now this distribution of Gifts whither of Wisdom of Knowledge of Faith working of Miracles of Pongues c. all these worketh that self-same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will 't is all his Free Gift and that there may be no mistake about the word Spirit the Apostle in that place V. 3. calls him the Holy Ghost The Government of the Church which is the Work of God is also attributed to the Holy Ghost for * Acts 13.2 the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them which Institution of Ministers in the Church made by the Holy Ghost is also mentioned in another place * Chap. 20.28 Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers that Commission is in the Name and by the Power of the Holy Ghost Thus also the Works of the True God are attributed unto the Holy Ghost when he is called * John 15.26 the Spirit of Truth ‖ Rom 8.15 Spirit of Adoption †Chap. 1.4 Spirit of Sanctification or of Holiness and the * Tit. 3.5 Spirit of Regeneration our Blessed Saviour himself owneth that ‖ Matt. 12.28 he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God Thus Honour and Worship due to the only true God is also rendred to the Holy Ghost Thus St. Paul calls * Rom. 9.1 upon him as a Judge of his Conscience and Searcher of his Heart In ‖ Matt. 28.19 Baptism he is called upon as well as the Father and the Son and that which in Scripture is said about * Chap. 12.31 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven and ‖ 1 John 5.16 which we are forbidden to Pray for doth sufficiently convince how the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped with no less Piety Honour and Adoration than are the Father and the Son This short Scheme which upon occasion may be enlarged I at this time have drawn against the Blasphemous Heresies of Socinians that by the Paw the Reader may know the Lyon and so to give People warning of the Danger and Nature of the Poison which strikes at no less than to overthrow the Fundamentals of True Christian Religion Thus if Men having been forewarned stand upon their Guards they may by the Grace of God be able to avoid the Evil and Occasion of it As to the other Points wherein they Err especially about Matters of Grace as that the Causes of Predestination are not in God but in us that he doth not predestinate to Salvation any particular or certain Persons and that Predestination is mutable and may be frustrated These and others I now omit only give this hint to shew how they are broke loose against the Person and Grace of our Blessed Saviour in them we find united and concentered the Damnable Errors of the two great Heresiarks Arrius and Pelagius even against Scripture Reason and Authority the Belief of the True Christian Primitive Church That which now remaineth for me to do is directly to address my self to several sorts of Persons First To the Clergy-men both to the Sound and Unsound part thereof whom God hath set to be Watchmen over Israel his People they cannot be Ignorant of God's Charge to them and how strictly God will require at their Hands the Blood of those that shall Perish thorough their Faults It is the Duty of them all whither Superior or Inferior and ought to be their diligent Care