excellent proof of the Divinity of our Great Redeemer He is therefore as you see equal to his Father in Eternity in Immensity in Holiness in Power and in Mercy And what is the result of this Equality but this that our Lord possesseth the Attributes of the Divine Essence and enjoys the Honour that is incontestably due to that Essence This is the third Head whereby we prove that Jesus Christ is equal with his Father That which at first put us upon the Meditation of this Article is that Honourable Rank our Saviour holds in the Scriptures In that Sacred Book where every thing is in its proper place and where nothing that is created is made to go hand in hand with God and yet there we ever see the Son always join'd with his Heavenly Father Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost John 5.7 These are Texts where we see these three Adorable Persons rank'd in one Line St. Paul blesseth the Corinthians from the Son even as from the Father The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God 2 Cor. 13.14 and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all A remarkable passage indeed where we find the Son even nam'd before the Father which yet we find also in many other passages But why is the order here inverted To make it appear Gal. 1.1 2. 2 Thes 2.16 say the Fathers that the order of names does not import a Subordination of different Natures The Father Son and Holy Ghost are only one Divine Nature and therefore it is that the Scripture sometimes placeth the Son above the Father Can we imagine that that Sacred Record would ever have committed such an absurdity if the Son had been no more than a Creature I appeal to any Man who hath in the least degree savour'd the Spirit of Scripture What think we of such a speech as this The Grace of Moses and the Love of God be with you all Or of this Joshua call'd to be a Leader of Israel not of Men nor by Man but by Moses Gal. 1.1 and by God or of this Now Moses and God comfort your Hearts I appeal to any one whether it be not prophane to talk at this rate and yet do but put the Name of Jesus Christ instead of Moses and we shall find all these passages word for word in the New Testament This is an observation rais'd from the Son 's being sometimes named before the Father but tho the Son had been continually plac'd in the second rank as indeed commonly he is yet the Argument for all that continues in its full force The Son would never have been join'd with the Father in the Scripture if the Son had been a Creature because he would have been infinitely inferior to him neither would the Scripture ever have suppress'd this distance by ranging the Father and the Son together in one Line and placing them on one and the same Throne Is not this to tell us plainly and openly that both of them possess the same undivided Nature This is the Honour the Holy Ghost hath given to the Son of God in the Scriptures See we now what Honour we Men ought to render to this Son who is our Master and Saviour Worship is as it were the shadow of the Godhead let us thereby take the height and elevation of the Lord we are to worship To this purpose let us lay this down for a Principle That the Glory of Adoration belongs to none but God alone Should I go about to prove this Truth from the Old Testament I should be fain to take in the Testimony of all the Prophets They have all of them in the most smart and lively terms express'd the Jealousie of God for any Divine Honours exhibited to Creatures We need but cast our Eyes upon the Old Testament to be fully convinc'd thereof It being indeed no other than a perpetual Commentary upon the First Commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods before me There never was any the least variation or contest in this point Never did the Prophets patiently endure to see Men worship any other gods save him alone who hath created Heaven and Earth These Holy Men unanimously declare that to him alone belongs thâ— Glory of Adoration No Creature at all is to be worshipp'd neither Stars nor Plants nor living Creatures nor Men nor Angels Men indeed have sometimes been called gods as we have already taken notice Moses was instead of God to Aaron and Judges are called gods we also find this name given to Angels in some places but this name given by way of Metaphor doth not import Adoration Aaron did not adore Moses neither did Israel adore their Judges or the Angels for this is the glory of God only and he hath sworn he will not give his glory to another Neither hath this point of Divinity been alter'd under the New Testament It is none of those Mosaick Rites that were to cease as soon as the fulness of time was come God is always God and if we may so say he never was more God than he is at present or to soften the Expression he never more appear'd God than in the Manifestation of Grace Herein he hath made all his Goodness to pass before us and consequently he never more deserv'd to be only worshipped Shall we suppose then that under a Dispensation where by a new Effusion of Grace he hath deserved an accession to his former glory of Adoration that he is become unconcern'd for that glory whereof formerly he was so Jealous And to that degree as to set a Creature at his Right Hand A Creature plac'd on God's side is something that is contradictory Let us set every thing in its proper place God always abides alone in the Throne and the Creature at the foot of it But without having recourse to Reasoning which inform us that the glory of God is an unalienable Right and Possession the Holy Scripture assures us that under the Gospel as well as under the Law the glory of Religious worship belongs to God only We know the answer our Lord return'd to a Creature that would fain have been ador'd Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him alone shalt thou serve This answer is good at all times The Apostles use the same Language as their Master they say in more places than one 1 Tim. 1.17 Rom. 16.27 Acts 14.15 To the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen When St. Paul sees Men about to worship the Creature he points them straight to the Living God We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities to the living God 'T is to him alone that your Homage of right is due When the Apostle represents to the Galatians the excess of that Corruption wherewith
a time when the Church was yet in an Age of Innocence or to make use of an Expression of one of the Ancients When she was yet a Virgin in a time when the Saints confirmed their Preaching by Miracles in a time when Truth was ratified by the Seal of Martyrdom in a time when the Voice of the Apostles had but newly ceased from sounding in the Ears of the Members of it What therefore we take from a time so happily circumstanced must needs be of good alloy And may my Soul say I be with those Saints and those Martyrs who taught what they had but newly received from the Mouths of the Apostles themselves Is it possible that a sincere Christian heart should find any relish in the opposite Error which hath the concurring Testimony of the First Centuries against it and which never got into any Credit till after the Primitive Zeal being grown cold and Miracles ceased men began to be left to themselves I confess I have but an ill Opinion of a Doctrine which is supported by no other Foundation There we may find glittering Notions and ingenious Explications of the Scripture which may be apt to take with Minds that affect Novelties But when we consider that the Christian Religion is a Revelation transmitted by the Ministry of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we shall make no Difficulty to take their sense from an Age that we cannot suspect and we shall have very mean thoughts of those Innovators that have confidence enough to say as one of them doth The First Chapter of the Gospel of St. John was never well explain'd till I undertook it My last Reflection is concerning the small concern these Innovators have for the Peace of the Church They would fain have us believe them to be the Disciples of Charity and to hear them talk it should seem that this Virtue is no where to be found but amongst them I will not now enter into an enquiry whether under this plausible appearance they do not design more surely to introduce their Errors and whether after having made them ride Triumphant in the world they would not become instead of the innocent Lambs they seem now to be the most furious Persecutors of the Church To know what Judgment we ought to pass in this case we need only to call to mind the Cruelty of Arius his disciples But l' stop short here and am willing to believe that our Innovators that talk so much of Charity and Concord cherish nothing of this Spirit of Persecution However they must confess that they are none of the best practisers of Charity they know very well that they cannot endeavour the Propagation of their Opinions without troubling the Peace of mens Consciences and without setting Christians together by the Ears There is no need of any deeep consideration to perswade our selves that these are the natural consequences of the endeavours that would be employed to deprive the Christians of a Doctrine they have been possessed of above these Sixteen Centuries Why therefore should the Enemies of this Doctrine set themselves to be the cause of so much disorder There is but one only thing that could Authorise this their pretended Charity viz. If the Doctrine which we Teach and Believe were inconsistent with Salvation I must own that when we see a great multitude of Christians in danger of incurring Damnation we have good reason to say That it is much better to expose them to Temporal Dangers by propounding the Truth to them than to suffer so many Souls to perish by a Criminal Silence What them is it this consideration that animates and pusheth on our Innovators Not in the least they dare not say they are in fear for our Salvation whilst at the same time they set Heaven Gates wide open to all sorts of Hereticks to Mahometans and Heathens They I say who hide themselves in the Society of other Christians and desire nothing so earnestly as to be admitted to their Communion They own us to be in a state of Salvation and declare that we have retained all the Fundamental and Saving Points of Christianity Where is therefore the Charity of these rash Persons in undertaking to shake a Doctrine which cannot be attack'd with any success without filling the Consciences of men with Trouble and without shedding whole torrents of Christian Blood such a design as this cannot be the effect of any thing but Pride In a word Men have a mind to distinguish themselves by the novelty of their Opinions and to raise their own Glory by abasing that of Jesus Christ These who destroy the Temple of God God will destroy I tell you that more than the Temple is here Entreat we our dear Lord Jesus that it may please him to enlighten his Enemies and confirm us more and more in the belief of his Divinity To him even as to the Father and the Holy Ghost be Humour and Glory for ever Amen A Declaration of the Opinion of the French Ministers who are now Refugees in England about some Points of Religion in Opposition to the Socinians WE under written the Refugees French Ministers in England having understood by a Letter which my Lord the Bishop of London who at present is in Holland hath writ to Monsieur le Coq Counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and an Illustrious Confessor of the Truth the strange Reports that have been spread as if we were not sound in the Faith and particularly with relation to the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Grace and the need there is to dissipate the same and being moreover perswaded that by this Explication of our Belief we shall perform a thing that will serve for the Edification and Consolation of our Brethren and will have its fruit if the Lord please especially in the Land of our Nativity after some Amicable and Brotherly Conferences we have had upon this matter in the presence of Monsieur le Coq we have all of us agreed to declare as we do in the Sincerity of our Hearts I. That we Believe the whole Scripture Divinely Inspir'd so that all Men are obliged to receive every thing therein Revealed with an entire Submission of Faith II. That we receive with Reverence and Submission whatsoever the Scripture teacheth concerning the Nature of God and his Attributes of his Spirituality Infiniteness Incomprehensibility Prescience even of Future Contingencies and of all others the said Scripture attributes to him III. That we Believe also what it delivers concerning the Trinity of Persons in one only Divine Essence and concerning the Incarnation of the Son according as the said Articles are set down in the VI. XIV and XV. of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France IV. That we hold also as an Article of our Faith That Jesus Christ by dying on the Cross hath not only left us an Example that we should follow his Footsteps but moreover that his Principal Design therein was
this Example are Humility and Charity O how happy would this Day prove might it see these two Virtues reigning in your Souls We are naturally proud and I don't know from whence that hardness and insensibility comes that we have for our Neighbour for even Nature inspires us with more Charity than appears in our Lives Proud Souls come and humble your selves in the presence of the Child Jesus he who is God was made Man that ye who are but mortal men might be persuaded to become like God Resemble him in his Humility not in his Glory He hath condescended to put himself in a Condition wherein he might be imitated It was the Crime of our First Parents That they would be as God Be satisfied ye Posterity of Adam at present it is a Vertue to be willing to resemble God Humble your selves as he humbled himself who being God was made Man He hath as you see run through infinite spaces to put himself within reach of us From Glory he hath stept down into Nothing You need not travel far to arrive at Annihilation you have no more than a step to take your Nature hath plac'd you almost on the same Level with Nothing You need only well to view and contemplate your selves and precisely keep your selves to the Idea of what you are and you 'll acknowledge that you want little of being Nothing Retire into your own Bosom set aside the Usurpations of Self-love and then tell us what you find over and above It may be your heart will bear you up against all this by repeating to you some advantages you possess as of Birth Wit Goods Employments but all this doth not much remove you from Nothing My design is not in the least to offend the Distinction which Providence it self hath established by the Variety of its Administration I have a consideration for Births Wit Merit and Employs But it were to be wished that those who have these Advantages did not glory in them and might be throughly perswaded that their Elevation doth not raise them much above Nothing Come hither and take a view of him who is infinitely above you he was God and yet was willing to become Man for this purpose he took his Birth from the Womb of a poor and humble Virgin Be not asham'd to enter into the Stable where he was born go thither to learn Humility For if you don't become like this little Blessed Child ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven If the example of the Birth of our Saviour be not sufficient to humble you follow him to Golgotha where you will see an example of the most Transcendent Humility conceivable When we think of a Crucified Jesus we cannot imagine how so much Pride should be amongst Christians For shame let them no longer call themselves the Disciples of a Crucified God Should we judge of the Character of their Master by the Quality of their Manners we would take him to have been some Proud and Self-conceited Philosopher whereas indeed he was a Crucified God Do you ever seriously consider this O ye Christians You are top-full of Pride and yet believe that there is no Salvation for you but by imitating a Master who humbled himself to the Death of the Cross O let us remember for whose sake our Lord hath thus Humbled himself and we shall see what a model of Charity we have to imitate 'T is for men that our Saviour was made Man 't is for the Redemption of men that this God-man died And pray what are these men Why Dust and Ashes miserable Sinners O surpassing Charity O Depth of Riches The Lord God Merciful and Gracious abundant in Goodness What shall we say No words are able to reach such a Love as this And indeed God requires actions rather than words Love for Love Let us Love God as he hath Loved us We cannot do that for him which he hath done for us let us Love him at least with all our strength as he hath Loved us according to the unbounded largeness of his great Compassion Let us Love those whom God hath recommended to our Charity what can we say against them that hinders us to exercise this Virtue towards them They have offended us And what then Had they done us nothing but Good it would not be Charity to Love them Charity consists in this That we Love our Enemies as God hath Loved us us I say that were his Enemies Let us Forgive as God Forgives us exercise also your Charity in distributing to the Poor according to your Ability God who was Sovereignly Rich made himself Poor for our sakes Let us have compassion on those Poor which our Lord hath left with us to prove the Love we bear to him O the happy Christmas this will prove to us in case we can but resolve to practice Humility and Charity For after that we shall have been made conformable to our Blessed Lord by the practice of these two Virtues we shall have a share in his Glory which is the Crown of them Amen The Second Discourse PHILIP II. 6. Who being in the Form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God WE know that the Scripture often speaks of God as of man but it never speaks of man as of God the reason whereof is very evident for the Divine Nature being wholly Spiritual it was but necessary that the Holy Spirit should clothe it with some sensible Representations to the end that entring our Souls by the assistance of these Colours it might make a deeper impression upon them This is done without any danger forasmuch as the Scripture doth elsewhere unfold these Metaphors Or if there be any danger in it with regard to the simpler sort of People 't is only this of falling into an Error which hath no influence upon Divine Worship Hence it is that Scripture makes no difficulty at all to speak of God as of a man but never doth it speak of man as of God For indeed to what purpose should this be So forc'd a Metaphor would be of no use at all and would darken the Stile of the Holy Ghost instead of making it more Intelligible Neither is this the worst that is in it for by this means we should be in danger of taking man for God which is the most dangerous of all other mistakes whatsoever God is too Jealous of his own Glory to set a Creature on equal ground with Himself and he is too much concerned for our Salvation to put us to the Hazard of such a Mistake We find also that the Scripture only bestows very plain encomiums upon the very greatest of men Moses is an emphatical Instance of this After the Death of that glorious Lawgiver and Commander all the Panegyrick God bestows upon him is compriz'd in these words Moses my servant is dead This was enough for a man Josh 1.2 God took care to hide the Body of this Great Law-giver for fear
St. John's Gospel No man hath ascended up to heaven but hothat came down from heaven Joh. 3.13 even the Son of Man which is in heaven He is discoursing with Nicodemus here on Earth and at the same time tells him he is in Heaven This can admit of no tolerable explication but by means of that Immensity whereby he fills heaven and earth These are the two Divine Attributes that are absolutely incommunicable to Creatures Let us next run over the other Attributes that are by some way of Analogy communicable to them but are possest by God in the highest degree of Absoluteness and Perfection I shall not say that our Saviour is Holy that he is Intelligent that he is Powerful and Merciful which are the four Attributes that remain to be examined Should we say no more than so all this may be attributed to Creatures We find amongst them Holiness Knowledge Power and Mercy No body can doubt but that if we make it evident that our Lord possesseth all these four Perfections as God doth you will be furnish'd with as many Demonstrations to evince the Divinity of our Saviour Our Saviour then is Holy but so as God is which we prove from a plain Text of Scripture The Prophet Isaiah tells us in his sixth Chapter that he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne amidst the Acclamations of the Seraphims who cried one to another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts Would you know who this Lord or rather Jehovah is to whom they give the threefold Compellation of Holy St. John the Evangelist will resolve you who tells us in the twelfth Chapter of his Gospel that Isaiah spake of our Saviour Joh. 12 41. These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him Some have been of Opinion that Isaiah was condemn'd to Death because he had presum'd to say That he had seen him who was invisible This seem'd to be a meer piece of Blasphemy but what can be imagin'd more abominable than that which St. John tells us here if our Blessed Lord be not indeed the King the Lord of Hosts the Holy One of Israel Let us make no scruple to believe the Beloved Disciple who repos'd himself on the Breast of the Son of God Trust we the piercing sight of this Eagle who took so near a view of this glorious Son Rely we upon the Testimony of an Evangelist whose end in writing his Gospel was to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God It is he assures us that he whom the Seraphims with so much Humility adore crying to one another and saying Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts was no other than our Blessed Lord. We say further That he hath Knowledge also but as God He knows all that God knows Remember always that we speak of the Son of God We know that the Son of Man had a Knowledge which encreas'd by degrees and what is more that he did not know all things No man knows that hour saith he no not the Son of Man This is true of the Son of Man or of the Human Nature of our Saviour but the Son of God the Divine Nature in our Saviour knew that which the Son of Man knew not The Son of God knows all that God knows that is all things St. Peter tells us as much Lord saith he thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee This Knowledge is Universal and to take a view of it that way where with one cast of the Eye you may discover it to be the Knowledge of God we need only to observe that the Eyes of our Lord pierce to the very bottom of Man's Heart Thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee St. Peter's Heart was not the only Heart that was known to Christ All things were naked and open before him Lord thou knowest all things The Proposition is general The Scribes and Pharisees those Hypocritical Professors could not hide their most secret Thoughts from him this Truth appears from many passages of the Gospel To Cite only one place which by reason of its generality comprehends all the rest we need only take notice of what St. John saith towards the end of the Second Chapter of his Gospel But Jesus did not commit himself unto them saith he Joh. 2.24 25. because he knew all men and needed not that any should testifie of man for he knew what was in man The Case here mentioned is not that of a Prophet to whom God discovers the Heart of some particular Man The Knowledge which the Gospel ascribes to our Saviour is Universal no Heart escapes him He knew what was in man A Knowledge that God in a most peculiar manner appropriates to himself in several places of the Old Testament I know my God 1 Chron. 29.17 Jerem. 17.10 that thou triest the heart said David towards the latter end of his Life I the Lord search the heart I try the reins saith he himself by the Mouth of the Prophet Jeremy Let us read to the end of the Verse Even continues he to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings 'T is God that speaks here and he speaks as God he speaks like himself Never did any Prophet speak thus And yet this is the very passage our Lord ascribes to himself in the Revelation speaking to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Words that make it evident that our Saviour declares expresly that it was himself that spake in Jeremy and that the Knowledge of the Heart of Man belongs to him in chief The Fifth Attribute whereby we learn to know the Divine Nature of Christ is his Power He is powerful but so as to be powerful as God he is the Almighty In Virtue of this power the Son doth all that the Father doth Joh. 5.19 What things soever the Father doth these also doth the Son likewise Doth the Father raise the Dead So doth the Son also he quickneth whom he will Doth the Father create the World The Son doth so likewise Which two instances shew us the extent of the Father's Power Indeed we cannot conceive any greater than that of restoring Life to the Dead and that of creating such a World as this is and yet both these belong to our Saviour In the first place he hath raised the Dead but have not others done the same Miracle Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament and the Disciples of our Lord in the New have not they also raised some that were Dead who for all that never pretended to be equal with God True it is that Elijah and Elisha each of them raised a Child to Life but with what pains do they work these Miracles God makes them sweat for it
the Divinity of our Lord and all those fogs and dark clouds are dissipated and you will meet throughout the whole New Testament neither contradiction nor Snare nor Blasphemy The Holy Ghost is always firm and unalterable in the execution of his designs he proposeth Jesus as the Object of Human Worship because he is God this solves the Contradictions this turns the pretended Snares into Arguments of Piety this changeth the Blasphemies into just and due applications of the Ancient Prophetical passages Were it not so the Holy Ghost would have taken a quite different method to instruct us it would have been so far from leading us on the brinks of the Precipice it would have kept us at the farthest distance from it in a thousand passages it would have said to us Take heed of taking Jesus Christ to be God But why say they should not the Holy Ghost speak magnificently of that Redeemer to whom we are so vastly obliged and whom Providence hath raised to such an extraordinary degree of Glory For that very reason say I the Holy Ghost ought to speak with more reservedness of the Glory of Christ The greater he is the more danger of his being taken for a God His very greatness makes us stand the more in need of Preservatives The Blessed Virgin is without doubt the most Glorious of all Women What hath the Holy Ghost done to prevent others from adoring her He hath to this end scarcely mentioned her in the Gospel Set but aside the History of the Birth of our Saviour where this glorious Virgin makes a necessary Personage we meet with her no more except it be on some few occasions where commonly she appears with some Circumstance or other proper to check the desire any one might have to worship her In the rest of the Scriptures there is not a word of the Blessed Virgin The Acts of the Apostles except what is said in the Chapter and the Epistles make no mention of her at all The reason of this silence is apparent It was necessary for to draw a Vail as it were over the Blessed Virgin lest the Christians might be tempted to worship her The more glorious she is the more need there is to take care to hide her The case would have been the same with our Divine Redeemer if he had not been God the excess of our Obligations to him and the Glory of his Exaltation oblig'd the Holy Ghost not to speak of him or at least seeing it was not possible to Preach his Doctrine without speaking of his Person to make use of such Expressions as might make it evident that he is not God It was necessary in most express terms and on several occasions to tell men This Jesus whom you worship is not God for all that I say it was of absolute necessity to declare this with the greatest clearness and plainess of Expression imaginable But instead thereof the Holy Ghost proposeth him to us as God without the least Caution or Preservative we believe we have prov'd this to you by most clear and self-evident places of Scripture which tho they were doubtful would for all that be of great force because whosoever acknowledges the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost easily perceives that he would never have deliver'd any thing like it concerning the Godhead of our Saviour if he had not been God indeed The Equivocal Expressions that had a favourable sense and a sense contrary to his Divinity would have been too dangerous in this Case The Wisdom of the Holy Ghost would never have thought fit to have made a Representation so proper to delude us what shall we say then of so many places where without any the least Equivocation we see the Divine Glory of Christ shining forth to us it is not one Text of Scripture fetch'd out of a Corner that we insist upon but there are a thousand such Passages scatter'd up and down the Bible which both in the letter and the sense of them assert the Divinity of our Saviour Neither can any thing be said in this Case but this that the Holy Ghost was willing to deceive us and if he hath deceived us it is an innocent Error and for which we shall not be responsible at the last day Yea the very Enemies of the Godhead of Christ leave Heaven-gate open to those that believe the same It cannot be denied say they but that there may be Salvation for those that worship the Man-god On the one hand it appears that they adore nothing but what is adorable for the very Enemies of Jesus Christ profess to adore him And on the other hand they are sensible that the Doctrine of his Divinity is sufficiently confirmed in Scripture at least to justify the belief of the Orthodox So that upon this account they do not doubt of their Salvation why then should any condemn them If they adore nothing but what is indeed adorable their Error will only be in Speculation If they believe nothing but what the Holy Ghost makes them to believe by his way of speaking concerning Christ conclude we this Reflection The Holy Ghost neither can deceive nor can be deceived it will be our Glory to follow him always for he cannot guide us but in the way of Truth The second Reflection upon the Difficulties that are made about this Mystery we have explained to you There are three sorts of Difficulties raised against this Doctrine of the Eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ Heart-difficulties Wit-difficulties and Scripture-difficulties By Heart-difficulties I understand that repugnance we find in our selves to receive revealed Truths with a ready and teachable frame of Heart this is that Temper the heart of Man hath received from the impressions of Sin whatsoever comes from Heaven is suspected tho indeed there be no other reason to suspect it save only this because it comes from Heaven The Experience of all Ages is but too notorious a proof of this sad Truth The most certain Revelation hath been disputed neither is there any thing so clear in Revelation that hath not been contradicted To prove this I will not expose to your view the profane Persons and Hereticks of the Ages past this scandalous Procession would only serve to afflict you Heaven saith it and this is sufficient for man to contradict it to doubt it to deny it It may be that considering the matter with more attention we shall find that men put themselves in an ill Humour against Revelation because they find in it those Moral Precepts that do not at all comport with the corruption of their heart They criticise the Doctrine that they may have a pretence to shake off the Yoke of its commands they controle the Precept to justify their Libertinism I make no question at all but that a part of those Clouds some Men meet with in the Mystery of the Divinity of Christ do proceed from the Vapours of a corrupt Heart They question the Glory of that God whom they have no