his body should be carried out of Egypt as it were going to Jerusalem in Pilgrimage there to meet Christ at his coming And not to trouble my self with so many testimonies all which do sufficiently prove the truth of Christs coming and that Christ must needs be the Son of God which presupposeth the great mysterie of the Trinity take one instance for all When God did deliver his people out of Egypt with so many wonders and miracles and that he gave the Law and used the ministry of Angels yet notwithstanding at that time Moses out of the certainty of his hope should use these words Mitte quem missurus es Lord use no such preparation but send him whom thou art about to send that is send thine own son immediately for he must needs be the Son of God for he must be greater then Moses greater then the Angels who were then imployed greater then all the commands of God which were then to be delivered to his people and his work and imployment must be greater then their deliverance from Egypt and therefore it must be a freedom and liberty from the captivity of sin hell and damnation and the conducting of us to that heavenly Jerusalem the true land of promise which is a work and imployment only fit for the Deity Many other types might be produced Suppose the three Children in the fire all praising God with one voyce see how three do concurre in one and that the fire did not hurt them as the fire did not burn the bramble bush wherein God appeared to Moses they saw one among them like the Son of God so here is not only an acknowledgement of the Son but as if they had known him by his face and countenance that he was the Son of God What shall we bring further instances when it is most certain that the whole scope and intent of the Law tends only to Christ and therefore must undoubtedly assure us that he could be no less then God for if we should think that God would rest satisfied with the slaughter of unreasonable creatures we must thinke it to be a very unreasonable service and we cannot imagine that Gods service should be directed to any other end but himself which must inforce the Deity of Christ. But further you shall observe that whereas the form of our Baptisme is That we are Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost and that the matter of our Baptisme is water and therein we make a profession of the Trinity certainly the Jews had a tradition that the Messias should institute Baptisme in this manner for whereas there is no such thing written in Scripture yet the Priests and the Levites did send to Saint John Baptist to know whether he were the Mâ—…ssias or not and if he were not then why he did Baptize In token and memory hereof some there were who kept watering pots after the manner of the Jews S. John 20. And this was done likewise by tradition for they had no warrant in Scripture Joh. 5. To the message of the Priests and to the common custom of Jews give me leave to adde that miraculous pool of Bethesda John the 5th where the Angell came down at a certain season and moved the waters and such as took the first opportunity to be let into the water were cured of all their diseases this first letting down did only betoken their watchfulness their zeale their strength of Faith and how the endeavours of men must concurre cooperate and correspond with Gods goodness and providence Here then we have the matter of Baptisme the element of water severall times intimated shall we then think that the Jews were utterly ignorant of the form which is no lesse then the profession or acknowledgement of the blessed Trinity Certainly as they had types and figures of the one so they might have an obscure knowledge of the other and this I do rather beleive because at the Baptism of Christ when the three Persons did so manifestly discover themselves for there was vox Patris This is my well beloved Son there was the Person of the Son and there was the holy Ghost in the form of a Dove yet we do not read that this seemed any way new or strange to Saint John Baptist who certainly if he had been utterly ignorant would have been strangely strucken with astonishment and admiration of this so great a mysterie then revealed but Saint John not contenting himself with that present mysterie taking it as granted he points out a further mysterie when this Son of God should become the Lamb of God and be made a sacrifice to satisfie for the sins of the whole world Ecce agnus dei qui tollit peccata mundi Now it is not credible that the Jews should have so many tokens and such use of the element of waters as the matter of Baptisme and should be utterly ignorant without any the least intimation or notice of the form of Baptisme which is the profession of the Trinity and to conclude how often do we read in Scripture Verbum Domini venit ad prophetas spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum which very Phrases seem to imply Persâ—…ns in the Deity I will yet further proceed certainly at the time of their sacrifice they did use prayers onely to that effect That God would send down his Son for the redemption of the world for in Scripture there is no mention made what prayers they used in the time of sacrifice but it is hence gathered Luk. 1. when Zachary was sacrificing The Angel said unto him Thy prayers are heard but what these prayers were did not yet appear mâ—…rk then by the successe and so you shall know the effect of his and their prayers which was that the Angel Gabriel told him that he should have a Son who should be the forerunner to the Messias who was the expectation of Nations and the same Angel a little after carried another message to the blessed Virgin for her conception of Christ so then here was the effect of their prayers at the time of their sacrifice That God would hasâ—…en his own coming and no longer feed them with types But it doth most especially appear in the cessation of the Law which falling out at the coming of Christ it must needs argue that Christ could be no less then the end of the Law and therefore God for you shall understand that about a full age before the birth of Christ there was a cessation of Prophets and God sent no message to his people As when the Sun ariseth the Stars are obscured So lest the Jews might take any of Gods messengers for the Messias the time now approaching for his coming therefore God sent no messengers untill at length Zachary at the time of his sacrifice was strucken dumb and so continued untill the Birth of his Son to whom he gave the
the creatures and therefore it is only proper to the understanding and the will of God that only from them there should be a generation of the Son and a procession of the Spirit and so a difference of Peâ—…sons Some do here object against some termes which as they say are not to be found in Scripture but are only imposed by the Church and that is the word Trinity and the word Persons and that in a mysterie of this infinite high nature there should be no addition of mans wit and invention but we should tye our selves most strictly to the terms of Scripture seeing this mysterie so infinitly exceeds mans understanding To whom I return this answer Do ye think that what the Church shall determin in this and other mysteries that it proceeds from the wit and invention of man do you ascribe no more to the cloven tongues that fell upon the Apostles whereby they were replenished with Gods Spirit and which Spirit they did conferre upon others by imposition of hands by election or succession and do you stile all this by the wit and invention of man when I consider the determinations of the Church their form of divine Service their Canons their Discipline their religious Orders God knows I do verily believe that I do see more in them then the wit and invention of man and I think them to be the immediate dictates and directions of Gods Spirit But call them what you will for these words of Persons and Trinity truly I conceive them to be nothing but the translation of Scripture and I hope you will think translations very necessary for the Evangelists and the Apostles use the translations of the Septuagints in their quotations of the old Testament if then Christ shall prescribe the form of our Baptism to be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost and that we know there are no Accidences in God but all are Substances and distinct Substances surely I know not by what other term I should call Substances and distinct Substances but by the name of Persons and if these three Persons be one God and so the Scripture stiles them The word was with God and God was the word surely I know not with what other words to express it but by the name of Trinity or triunity So likewise those words of Schoolmen Deus intelligendo seipsum genuit verbum are not these words taken out of Scripture hodie genui te and thence they infer verbum in intellectu Thus without the determinations of the Church and unless due respect and reverence be given to the Church no Religion can subsist but will instantly fall to confusion Thus as our understanding begets a word and there is a mutuall love and correspondency between this understanding and this word so if God be said to beget a Son or a Word in a spirituall manner in his understanding and that from both proceeds the holy Ghost the Church must then necessarily conclude that they are severall and distinct Persons not that we should conceive them to be like the Persons of men with circumscription of time and of place in various and different formes but to be divine Persons all alike partaking of one infinite nature and what God hath revealed what the Church hath explicated that we believe desiring the same God by the inlightning of his Spirit to engender faith in our hearts to strengthen and increase it and what God hath reserved only for his own knowledge that not curiously to pry into but content our selves with such a measure and proportion of knowledge as he hath been pleased to impart remembring that the first Sin which gave occasion to all the mischieves and miseries which have befallen us it was the tasting of the Tree of knowledge whereby in stead of that great light which we aymed at whereby we should have knowledge like God indeed we had our eyes opened but it was to see and feel our own nakedness to our own confusion Yet to give some little information I will only make this instance If I should take out of a River severall Cups full of water I would ask what difference there were in these waters Surely none would appear in the nature but as they are distinct in severall Cups or Vessels which give them severall forms and severall dimensions and thus it is in all homogeneall bodies suppose I should insist in spirituall qualities as in Light certainly the difference would be less what then if I should insist in spiri's themselves which are not capable of dimensions yet still in respect of the finitness of their nature there would be some difference but if I should ascend to an infinit nature then there would be no difference in respect of the nature yeâ—… a difference there would be in respect of their different manner of subsisting as by generation procession c. Yet here we must take heed of curiosity and know the weakness of mans understanding that we cannot speak of God but after the manner of men and it is most probable that God should commit his secrets to the care and custody of his Church which may put them into such form and fashion of speech as may best beseem them rather then that particular spirits who are so apt to be misled with errors even in things of least moment should be left to their own inventions and expressions in the highest mysteries But how should the whole Deity be in every Person is it not true in all Homogeneall bodies Suppose the elements that where they are they are totally they carry their whole nature about them but this truth more especially appears in spirits for there is nothing so common and triviall in Schooles as this known principle Anima ubi est tota est tota in toto tota in qualibet parte totius But if this Deity be wholly imparted yet then how should it still remain whole and entire is it not proper to all spirituall qualities as Light Knowledge and the like that they should be communicated without any loss or diminution of themselves Here then at length consists the whole difficulty that the nature being imparted there should be no difference in number reason seeing the difficulty sees likewise the reason of the difficulty for her own further satisfaction for this in the creatures proceeds from the bounded finite and limited nature of the creatures which must be circumscribed both with time and with place and so make a difference in the number but if you will suppose this nature to be infinite as is the Deity then would it admit no difference as not in nature so not in number What I have hitherto written hath been according to the opinion of our best and most â—…earned Divines together with the acknowledgement of the whole Catholick Church to which I do believe a man may very safely subscribe for whatsoever is there related as
mysteries discovered by our Saint Iohn and secondly the Eagle renewes her age to betoken the long life of Saint Iohn or rather the eternity of such things as he prophesied in so much that it gave occasion to a false report for whereas Christ made only a supposition they conceived it as really true that Saint Iohn should not die and thus far indeed it proved true that he died not of a violent death as all the rest of the Apostles suffered Martyrdom but his Matyrdom it should seem was then when he did assist at the Passion of Christ and none other Apostle attended there but himself and no doubt but his then sorrow and grief might equall or rather exceed in virtue and power the Martyrdom of others And secondly that common fame and report of his not dying might thus far prove true that he died not in that age but lived to the beginning of the second Century being now very old as S. Hierome relates in his commentaries upon the Epistle to the Galatians when he could not goe of himself but was carryed by others to the Church or place of meetings he made no other Sermon but this Filioli diligite alterutrum quia praeoeptum Domini est si solim fiat sufficit it should seem being the beloved Disciple the love of Christ was so fastened and fixed in him that it made a repercussion and became an Echo and brake out into these termes of love Filioli my sons whom I so dearly love let not my love rest in you as singulars but impart it to each other that so you may be united and linked together in the Bonds and Chaines of love that as this love proceeds from Christ to me and from me to you so from you to each other among your selves that we may all lay hold on the Anchor of our hope Christ the Son of God who hath reconciled us to God notwithstanding our sins and transgressions I will now come directly to the Text which is the very keâ—…nell the marrow the Elixiâ—… of all Christian Religion and hath ever been received with the greatest admiration and astonishment and at the very naming of the words Christians were 〈◊〉 to bow and to express all possible honour and reverence The ineffable Trinity And the word was made flesh THe first word of my Text standing in the forefront and being a conjunction copulative gives me occasion to look back and mark the dependence wherein I dare boldly say that neither the large volumes of the Fathers nor the subtill and curious invention of the Schooles nor the deep and profoundest Divines can better unfold the mystery of this word then may be well gathered by the precedent and express words of this Evangelist onely here stands our weakness That as Moses having talked with God his countenance received that light that the Israelites could not behold the face of Moses so this our Apostle having leaned on the bosom and sucked out these mysteries he is now become Boanerges the son of Thunder rather astonishing the eare with wonder and amazement then distinctly informing the heart in things which are too high for the weak state and condition of man but I pray mark the first verse of this Chapter In principio erat verbum in the beginning was the word â—…ere is the eternall generation of this word not proceeding from Gods free will and election not supposing his determinate decree and purpose but a natural and a necessary generation equally existing with God in the moment of his eternity as the Sun and the light were together created the Soul and the understanding together infusect so is the generation of â—…his word equall in time and continuance with the deity Et verbum erat apud deum And the word was with God here is the distinction and relation of the Persons apud deum with God not as a property or quality not as an attribute or faculty but as a person distinctly existing and that by a different manner of generation from the Father Et deâ—… erat verbum And God was the Word here is the mutuall communication and participation of the deity for it is a property of the greatest good that it should be most fruitfull in his own kind and communicate it self in the largest and greatest manner now in the creatures we find some foot-steps of the deity as appears by their being moving order perfection but necessary it is that God should impart his own nature which nature though infinitely imparted yet still continuing infinite it can be but one and the same nature equally communicated to the three Persons three persons and one God If a man communicate his nature to his son this nature though still continuing the same in kind and condition yet must it differ in number in regard of the finitenesse of our nature the circumscription both of time and of place but it is otherwise with God for out of the infinite extent of his own nature one and the same deity the same in number the same in virtue and power is equally and totally imparted to the three persons in one blessed and undivided Trinity Thus much ad intra concerning the relation of Persons within themselves now ad extra in respect of the creatures it followes in the third verse of this Chapter Et verbo facta sunt omnia and without him nothing was made so that both inwardly and outwardly the deity of this Word appears inwardly in the coeternall existency and infinite participation of the Godhead and outwardly as together concurring in the creation framing and making of this world And having thus discovered the second person because we acknowledge another person in the deity take therefore the testimony of this second person concerning the third when the holy Ghost whom I shall send unto you from the Father the spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father he shall give testimony of me John the 15. 16. 26. these are the mutuall testimonies of Persons in behalf of each other and hereunto I shall adde what the holy Catholick Church out of other texts of Scripture doth undoubtedly demonstratively and most necessarily conclude Verbum a word must necessarily imply intellectum an understanding to conceive this word this understanding being alwayes active the word must be of like continuance and eternity and being active as there was an eternall so is there a daily and continuall generation of this word Hodie genui te This word being naturall to the understanding it proceeds not from any voluntary or free election of God but from the necessity of his nature and according to his nature so is it begotten in a spirituall and most unspeakable manner being in the understanding answerable to the understanding and of like extent It can be no creature seeing by it all things were made and created and being in the understanding it must subsist of the same nature which nature being