taken away but strongly confirm'd the necessity of obedience to God's Laws whether written or natural which was as we have before observ'd the general intent of Religion and agreeable to those notions the World commonly had of it Since for the better carrying on this end Mysteries are so very advantageous to religion as to make Men have reverend apprehensions of it upon account of its incomparable Excellencies in its causes and effects and upon account of the weakness and shallowness of their own understandings since all these particulars are true it 's likewise absolutely necessary that the Christian the onely true Holy pure Religion should be built upon such a foundation as might appear to all Men upon the strictest inquiry beyond all doubt or controversie Mysterious inexplicable incomprehensible Nor could it be an impertinent labour to clear this truth because it totally ruines all the pretences of the Socinians that after the Revelation once made of the great fundamentals of our Faith there could remain nothing of so obscure a nature but that we by the pure strength of our own reason might be able to comprehend it In short that though it be true that Scripture as sufficient for that purpose is and ought to be the sole rule of Faith yet reason ought to be the rule of Scripture Reason as it now stands loaded with all the miserable consequences of sin reason so blind as without the extraordinary light of holy Scriptures to be wholly unable to lead a Man to Eternal life it obviates their assertions that the true ancient Catholick Interpretation of this and other Texts of Scripture that speak of the eternal Divine nature of the Son of God or of that glorious Trinity subsisting in the Father Son and Holy Ghost is false and unreasonable meerly because it introduces an unintelligible incarnation and unity of the Divine and Humane nature in Christ a Mysterious co-essentiality of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost c. notwithstanding all those glorious revelations God has made of himself in Scripture For if it be certainly true that Religion in it's general notion cannot subsist unless built upon a mystick foundation and that therefore Christian Religion in particular cannot subsist without it then it will follow that the continuing Mystick nature of the great Articles of our Faith can create no prejudice in any person whatsoever against our Religion on their account since especially it will remain impossible to draw any genuine consequences from those mysteries but what will be so far from impeaching that they will strongly confirm and re-inforce all those duties relating to God or man which are laid upon us by the natural or written Law and it will follow farther that the Socinians themselves by their endeavours to level all the Articles of our Faith the great saving principles of the Gospel to impair'd reason or by endeavouring to leave Christiany naked of all Mysteries do what in them lies to disannul all the Religion of Christians to take away all the use and advantage of the Gospel leaving the world so involv'd in Atheism or in meer Deism at this time very little to be preferr'd before the other Having done now with the positive assertion our next work is with all exactness and humility to consider the illustration of this Proposition in the severals laid down by the Apostle which altogether afford us the whole sum and substance of the Gospel for all that glad tydings sent from Heaven to Earth for the comfort of mankind consists in this That for their sakes to procure their Salvation God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preach'd unto the Gentiles believ'd on in the world receiv'd up into glory all which particulars tho' the full prosecution of the first be all our present task are incomprehensible mysteries yet as well worth our enquiring into as the Apostles writing them who without doubt would never have laid the weight of piety or godliness or true Religion upon those grounds had they not been worth our looking into or their truth worth our vindicating from all the attacks of prejudiced opinionative or haeretical men It 's true a late author tells us Naked Gospel p 34. c. 1. l. 20. That to dispute concerning a Mystery and at the same time to confess it a mystery is a contradiction as great as any in the greatest mystery the expression is worth our remark for the boldness and absurdity it contains It 's bold not to say impious to insinuate so broadly in a discourse where Christianity's concern'd that all great Mysteries are made up of or at least contain contradictions what have we then nothing at all Mysterious in Scripture what 's that love between the blessed Jesus and his Spouse the Church so admirably character'd in the book of Canticles can our Author find nothing Mysterious in all those adumbrations of ineffable love or can he easily give us a Catalogue of the Contradictions there the real Contradictions I mean for things that are of no mysterious nature at all on any other account may seem to contain somewhat contradictory but seeming contradictions are not real Can he fathom every thing relating to Daniel's weeks Men of a great deal of learning industry and sobriety have taken a great deal of pains to explain the mystery of them and have scarce yet given the world satisfaction were not the Vision mysterious it would be more easily clear'd but because it is not must it therefore be contradictious to it self or to make a yet closer instance the nature of a God can He or any Socinian make it comprehensible to humane understandings or else will the very notion of a God imply a contradiction He must be a very new fangled Son of the Church of England who will assert that but why must it imply a contradiction to dispute or discourse about or to enquire into a confest mystery That God was manifest in the flesh is true we believe that every circumstance relating to his Incarnation as laid down in Scripture is true according to the genuine and common interpretation of such words whereby these circumstances are express'd we believe too That as they are true we may dispute about them and clear them from all that Sophistry whereby some subtle men would fain baffle us out of them is no uncouth or irrational opinion yet after all we take the whole account of this Incarnation as laid down in Scripture to be a very great mystery But where lyes the Contradiction either in believing it a mystery or in defending it as such This truth that God was manifest in the flesh is as before intimated that upon the literal truth of which the whole Salvation of mankind depends How he should have been so is to all mankind mysterious and incomprehensible yet may we without any contradiction explain defend prove and draw inferences from it Hear what a Bishop of our own a genuine
yet out of a supine laziness troubled not themselves to improve reason so far as they might and ought to have done and therefore without any consideration of the divine Nature fell to worship Idols or to respect the Creature more than the Creator yet even that Idolatry it self is an uncontroulable evidence of the general notion of God's existence since no man possibly could be drawn to adore several if he really believ'd there were no God at all Nor farther does it follow that because I 'm satisfied there is a God therefore I must necessarily be acceptable to God for tho' my sence of his Divinity may of it self be pleasing to my Maker yet if that sence have no operation upon my life and conversation my continuance in sin must cancel all those advantages I could hope to receive upon an inevitable conviction Nor does Scripture any where tell us of such as believe there is no God Ps 10.4 Ps 14.1 It 's true we read of some in all whose thoughts God is not of the foolish body saying in his heart there is no God but wicked men even assisted by Divine Revelation to the knowledge of God's existence may forget him nay the very best of men do so when they fall into sin and for a wicked man to say in his heart there is no God i. e. to wish heartily there were none and to believe there is none are very different things Caligula that Roman Emperour said in his heart there was no God when he would needs supply the worlds defects by assuming Divinity to himself but Caligula own'd that he was otherwise convinc'd when upon a thunder-storm he sculk'd into vaults and hid his head from the fury of an angry Superiour And we have now a-days but too many Atheistical wretches who employ all their witts to prove to themselves and others that there is no God who yet when death approaches or some terrible distemper shakes their bodies tremble at approaching judgments submit to old innate notions of a God which they had long endeavour'd to have stifled and are ready to cry to the mountains to fall upon them and to the rocks to cover them from his wrath whose very being they formerly pretended to defie Nor yet are there really any Nations discover'd who are wholly without such notions of a God as flow from a due contemplation of Nature vid. Blavii Atlant. maj in America Braslianā Nay the very Brasilians themselves to whose story Socinus refers us tho' of all other nations the most ignorant and barbarous are not so wholly Atheistical but that if we may believe Geographers they believe the Souls immortality and existence after its separation from the body a thought alone which must be attended with the owning of a God and hence Crellius well enough observes De Deo attr l. 1. c. 3. Quod sacri libri non semel ad rerum in naturâ existentium contemplationem nos vocant ut Divinae Majestatis radios in eis relucentes admirandarum ejus proprietatum vestigia illis impressa lustremus That the holy Scriptures do more than once call upon us to meditate on the various parts of Nature that we may see the rays of Divine Majesty shineing in them and the footsteps of God's power wonderfully impressed upon them For not only all the works of Nature in a body but every single thing gives us a particular argument of the being of a God But supposing we pursue the opinion of Socinus recommended by Smalcius to the University of Heidelberg if withal we observe what the Racovian Catechism asserts that Man 's free will is not impair'd by Adam's sin and conclude what 's very natural that the other faculties of the Soul are no more weakned than the Will it will plainly follow that Man even in the state of Innocence was not capable naturally of knowing there was a God and therefore Socinus fairly refers his knowledge in that kind to God's revealing himself at first to him And certainly that natural light which even in primaeval purity could not reach to the bare existence of a God must be at this time very insufficient to judge of every thing God has reveal'd and to comprehend every mystery which is concern'd in man's salvation Farther if such as the Brasilians or Indians are really wholly without the apprehension of a God it will appear from thence that Traditional knowledge may be worn out but as for divine Revelation as extant in the Word of God it can have no credit among Heathens till they are first convinc'd there is a God whose that Word is therefore there must be arguments drawn by discourse from the worlds structure that must first prove that principle and then that there are really divine Revelations and that those writings which we call the Word of God contain those Revelations will be demonstrable enough Tertul. de resur carnis For as Tertullian says Praemisit Deus naturam magistram submissurus prophetiam quo facilius credas Prophetiae Discipulus naturae God sends Nature as a mistress before designing to assist it with revelation or prophecy that being first the disciples of Nature we might the more readily give credit to revelation Therefore S. Basil calls the school of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the school of rational Souls and the disciplinary of the knowledge of God And the antient Monk Anthony answered the inquisitive Philosopher very well when he asked him how he could live without books Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My book is the nature of all existent things a book which is always ready when I would know the words of God Though the words of Tully a Heathen are more directly oppos'd to Socinus De Divination l. 2. Esse praestantem aliquam aeternamque naturam eam suspiciendam adorandámque hominum generi pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum coelestium cogit confiteri That there is some excellent and eternal nature and that to be ador'd and admir'd by mankind the very beauty of the world and the curious order of coelestial bodies will force us to confess If then an Heathen by natures light could discover not only the being of a God but the necessity of worshipping him it 's sufficient evidence of our conclusion That humane reason or the meer light of Nature may shew us the general necessity of Religion notwithstanding those decays it has undergone by Sin For if that notion naturally imbib'd that there was a God urged men to serve him by several methods of Religion it 's plain that notion enforced Religion in general upon all mankind we conclude That humane Reason as it now stands corrupted when it applies it self industriously to Religion or the adoration of a God meerly on general notions as a reward for that industry certainly meets with divine assistances by which means those intentions which at first are honest and sincere are made really
him for we shall see him as he is And when reason once comes to use sense so far as to see God as he is infinitely happy infinitely good infinitely glorious it has gone far enough And thus far have I given an account of Humane reason or the light of Nature for I think I may well enough use them as Synonymous and how far it may be useful in matters of a Divine nature I shall draw onely a Corollary or two from thence and then proceed We conclude from what has been discours'd concerning Humane reason That our obligation to Almighty God is infinite in that He who might have taken from us wholly that natural light because we had so extremely slighted it was yet pleas'd to continue it so far as that rightly apply'd it might still be useful to us even in matters of salvation It 's true we cannot examine things with that clearness and satisfaction which Adam's first enquiries were accompany'd with our understandings are somewhat parallel to that Earth which fell under a Curse for the sin of Man It was naturally fertile before in good things but then it was to bring forth onely bryars and thorns yet Man might eat bread from it still onely it must be in the sweat of his brows He must take pains for that now which he might have had without any trouble before So our Natural reason was clear and free at first common occurrences needed no deep meditations nor extraordinary passages any tedious study to apprehend them in every circumstance The case is now otherwise our reason busies it self naturally about trifles and onely puzles and perplexes it self in matters of no weight or moment yet still it may move to good purpose but it requires abundance of care and pains to cultivate it so as it may produce any thing that 's good and even with a great deal of pains too sometimes it makes conclusions onely vain troublesome and miserably false this unhappiness is the consequence of our own follies at first and it's God's unmerited goodness that we can yet by making use of due means distinguish in some measure between truth and falshood at least in the more obvious parts of religion and his goodness yet appears farther in that where our decrepit reason fails he 's pleas'd to interpose with the influences of his blessed Spirit and to preserve the Modest and Humble from falling into damnable Error that our Reason may have a subject profitable to employ it self upon God has given us his Word blessed are they who meditate on that word day and night he calls upon us to apply our selves to the Law and to the testimony to search the Scriptures to search them with the same care and diligence as those who work in Mines seek for the golden Ore Whereas he lays in his Word several Commands upon us He would have us examine them so as we may be convinced that they are not grievous but Holy just and good These Commandments therefore must be examin'd by the rule of right Reason which whosoever follows will be infinitely satisfied in them In his dealings with mankind he calls upon them to examine their own ways by the same rule he enters into arguments highly rational with mankind himself he bids them to judge in their own causes between himself and them and see if discussing things rationally they must not necessarily fall upon that confession That God's ways are equal but the ways of men unequal When he recommends his mercies when he would terrifie with his judgments He appeals to Humane Reason still or that share of light which we are now partakers of Now he that will employ that light he has upon such noble subjects if he be not prejudiced with wicked principles before or puff'd up with self-conceit must necessarily be a very religious man for the clearer any mans rational faculty is the more pious he must be only men of very low abilities can be either Atheists or Hereticks It 's confest indeed some Hereticks as the Socinians in particular with whom we are at present concern'd pretend highly to Reason but they only sham us with fond pretences and their reason is all empty and sophistical and Atheists are the Men of sence if we may believe fools and madmen but there is a vast difference between a flashy Wit and a ridiculing Humour and sound judgment and solid and weighty argument But God who knew before what artifices Hell and wicked men would make use of to pervert truth calls upon us to exercise our reason farther in discovering and baffling those cheats the enemies of our Souls would fain put upon us wherein as Hereticks and Schismaticks generally make their appeals to God's Word and we have warning in that very Word That in those doctrines where there 's any shew of difficulty those who are unlearned and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destructions We are warn'd to try the Spirits whether they be of God and Scripture being the rule of tryal we are oblig'd to study the true sence and meaning of that To which end our rational faculty carries us along in studying the original Languages in which Scripture was written and finding out the true meaning and import of words and phrases in other authors and the modes and customs of countries to which any Texts refer Reason goes with us in comparing text with text and matters of faith or practice laid down in one place with those laid down in another in observing the force of those arguments drawn from such and such Texts their real dependance upon or direct consequence from the places alledg'd and the general consistency of opinions offer'd with the end and design of those positive truths laid down in Scripture Reason has here a large field to exercise it self in And whereas we are urg'd by some to abjure that utterly with respect to those points of faith or practice that are under debate pretending they 'd insist only on the letter of Scripture Maximus tells us well in the formerly cited discourse of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they drive you from examining Scripture too strictly insinuating that it 's dangerous to pry too narrowly into secrets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximi disceptatio inter opera Athan. T. 2. p. 296. but disswading it indeed that they might avoid the reproof of their Errors from thence where he takes farther notice how such persons if they meet but with a word that at first hearing sounds favourably to their fancies they run away with it without ever considering the design of the inspired Writer or examining the agreement of their own shallow glosses with the general tenour of Holy Writ an humour that prevails with too many still who prefer the sound of words before the truth and pertinency of texts of Scripture and therefore imagine themselves to argue very piously and agreeably to God's word when all their talk is nothing to the purpose But mysteries the great
grace unto the humble there are some things which relate to Religion wherein God has deliver'd himself so as to let us know words and names but has not reveal'd enough to give us an insight into the matters which are intimated under them Men need not trouble themselves too curiously about such things Moses taught the Israelites very well Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God and the Son of Syrach gives an excellent lesson Seek not out things that are too hard for thee neither search the things that are above thy strength Ecclus. 3.21 22. but what is commanded thee think thereupon with reverence for it is not needful for thee to see with thine eyes the things that are in secret What if among such things I should reckon Mens over-curious enquiries into the nature of God's decrees which enquiries have produced a great many foolish and uncharitable controversies even among good men there is employment enough for a good Man's whole life in things more needful to be known I will not say it 's absolutely unlawful to be prying into what God has thought fit to express himself very obscurely in but this I 'le say that whosoever will be walking in those private paths had need to tread with a very gentle foot to look frequently backward and on each side as well as forward to be very distrustful of his own ability very submissive to the judgment of Superiors in office age or gifts very earnest and indefatigable in his prayers to God for his assistance as he shall see fit to impart it on such an occasion very tender of imposing his own judgment upon others and of being too positive in those opinions he takes up since the corruption of our reason a man frequently thinks he has made a very great discovery in some weighty point and hugs himself with the plausibility of his thoughts he imagines as we are generally apt to be very fond of the products of our own brains every thing he has laid down or methodiz'd in his thoughts to be so very plain and clear that it 's impossible any man of sense should not immediately be his proselyte and some perhaps are ready to flatter such a one in his over-weening conceit by a pretended concurrence in their sentiments with him after all it happens as often that another of as great natural abilities and as searching a head discovers a great many mistakes in the others beautiful Scheme of thoughts and baffles the whole invention the other had admired himself for such things ought to make all especially in religious matters where it 's dangerous jesting or innovating to act with abundance of circumspection and indeed rather to confine themselves to lower studies than to hazard the over-setting their own Intellectuals by engaging into boundless enquiries Those things may in themselves be lawful which yet cannot be very convenient Some such curiosities are very idle and ridiculous as disputing what God did before he made the World Whether He could have pardon'd Mens sins without a Mediatour c. He was fatally answer'd to such a Question who asking an Eminent Christian what the Carpenter's Son meaning Christ was then a doing was told He was making a Coffin for such a lewd Inquirer as himself who dy'd in a very few hours after Ecclus. 3.23 The Son of Syrach advises well Be not curious in unnecessary matters for more things are shew'd unto thee than men understand i. e. God has laid open such infinite treasures of Divine wisdom before us and our understandings are so very short that we need not look out strange subjects of our meditations it 's enough if we can in some tolerable manner comprehend those sacred truths that are deliver'd to us and we are more concern'd to endeavour to do so than some are ready to imagine For though a Socinian may tell us God has declared several things in holy Scripture that are no way necessary to Salvation the assertion is absurd and false that old Axiome Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra That God and Nature never do any thing in vain is enough to refute it for since the end of Scripture is the making Men wise to salvation it 's very bold to say God knew not how to frame such a Book without abundance of impertinencies when we see many Men setting much slighter ends before themselves will yet prosecute their discourses in so close and exact a manner that the most critical judgment may perhaps find what to add but cannot find what to take away from their writings there is therefore no positive truth asserted in holy Writ but what is really useful to Man's Salvation since there 's nothing throughout the whole but what serves to illustrate God's goodness and mercy and truth c. or Man's misery by Sin or happiness by Grace or lays down rules of life and practice or gives us examples of Virtues or Vices in others from all which something very instructive may be drawn nor can we believe that even the genealogical Tables in Scripture were as a late Writer impudently suggests design'd onely to amuse and confound us but to set us in a way to find how all the ancient Prophecies centred in Jesus Christ the promised Messias As the positive assertions so their true and genuine consequences are in some sort and to some Men necessary to salvation God having given greater capacities and larger Souls to some than he has to others expects proportionable improvements from them and a Man of wisdom and learning cannot be saved onely on the same terms on which a person of low and mean endowments may therefore those of greater parts are bound to look into every thing divinely reveal'd and to what may be regularly deduced from it but as perfection in good works is required in every one that is to be saved and yet many are sav'd tho' none are perfectly good so it is in relation to things contain'd in Scripture every one is bound to study them things of common practice are plain and obvious in them things at first to be believ'd are taken for granted but Man is for his life-time employ'd and to be so in farther search into the meaning of those things that are more obscure Could Man once in his life-time attain to a perfect understanding of every thing set down there there would quickly be an end of all sacred study but since the wisest find in the Word of God more than they can understand and yet find they every day by study understand more and more and the meanest wits upon a due care and industry find proportionable advances there is always enough to excite mans utmost diligence and care and as in practical piety so it is here he that improves his time best to get knowledge tho' he cannot reach to all he should his defects shall be pardoned for his sake who in himself contains consummate wisdom But it remains still true
to the Jews of whom we acknowledge that they had no such distinct notions of the Trinity as we by the Gospels assistance have at present but yet both among Jews and Gentiles he was declar'd by other names than that of God the Father and if according to our common Logical notions Relatives do mutually suppose or remove one another if Jesus Christ was not really and actually the Son of God pre-existent to his incarnation the name of Father could not properly have been apply'd to the supreme God nor he be preach'd to the World under that character so that in fine we conclude that the preaching of God the Father to the World was no part of the Mystery of Godliness Nor is it properly so to say that God the Father was believ'd on in the World for that too was nothing newly effected by the appearance of our Saviour the World in general from its first original believ'd there was a God if there were any who from those apprehensions they had of the existence of a God set themselves to live virtuously as considering that God under the notion of a knowing and severe Judge and one capable of rewarding men according to their works such Persons believ'd in God according to our own sense when we repeat the Creed Now that some did thus believe before our Saviour's appearance in the flesh is unquestionable all those who liv'd religiously before the promulgation of the Mosaic Law did thus believe in God and are some of them remembred as the great Heroes of Faith in the beginning of the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews If then this were a Mystery it was of a very ancient standing and discovered long before the coming of Christ The application of the particulars thus far failing we have some reason to believe that neither will the last agree any better to that imposed sense He was received up in glory or into glory Here our adversaries flie to God's will again so confounding God and God's will as if they were not to be considered as distinct but this we have consider'd before where we observed that contradiction the Gospel met with in the World As to God the Father where or when or how or by whom was he receiv'd up in glory the holy Scriptures give us no intimation of his having descended at any time from Heaven to Earth and He that 's receiv'd up into glory ought to be so receiv'd by some Being superior to himself which a Socinian knows God the Father cannot have now as the Apostle teaches us He that descended Eph. 4.10 is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things but God the Father never that we hear of in Scripture descended therefore God the Father who ever of himself was surrounded with infinite glory never was by any receiv'd up into glory And thus have we shown the vanity of those glosses which the Socinians and others have fixt upon this Text we shall now show to whom the particulars in the Text do properly and unquestionably belong And here since Scripture makes it very plain that the whole method of serving God in an acceptable manner is laid down by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ That as himself tells us He is the Way the Truth John 14.6 and the Life and no man comes to the Father but by him The whole mystery of Godliness or of true Christian Religion can consist in nothing but what refers to him who is the author of it that is the blessed Jesus concerning whom and whose doings and sufferings for us there is nothing reveal'd in the Gospel or in the foregoing prophecies but what 's mysterious He was indeed God manifest in the flesh God blessed for ever yet for the sake of wretched Sinners descending to Earth and taking our Nature upon him being cloth'd with flesh and all those incumbrances and infirmities attending upon a mortal state sin onely excepted He is that eternal Word which was in the begining with God nay that Word that was God John 1.1.14 and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us as we learn from St. John Now if Christ really was God the most opinionative of the Socinians would conclude the Text plain enough for that Christ was certainly and literally made flesh but if we cannot read this Text of the Apostle truly without inserting the word God And Smalcius one of the great promoters of the Socinian heresie declares Smalc de verbo incarnato c. 18. Nos Graecum textum Vulgatae longe esse anteponendum censemus is vero habet Deum in carne esse manifestatum We look upon the Greek Text as far to be preferr'd before the Vulgar Latine and the Greek reads it God was manifest in the flesh and if neither the Gospel nor the will of God nor God the Father can properly or truly be said to be made flesh and yet God was manifest in the flesh then that Jesus who was truly and literally cloth'd with our flesh must be that God the farther proof of Christ's real and eternal Divinity belongs to another place but his true and indisputable humanity is the first plain and most obvious assertion of the Apostle here This same blessed Jesus was as plainly justified in the Spirit since not onely the miracles he did justified him in the sight of all Mankind and prov'd that he could be no cheat or Impostor as the Jews were willing to have him thought but at the time of his Baptism by John in Jordan while he was praying the Heaven was open'd and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him and a voice came from Heaven which said Thou art my beloved Son Luke 3.21 22. in thee I am well pleas'd Now the Holy Spirit would not in so open a manner have descended on him who had pretended to that relation to Allmighty God which really never belong'd to him Therefore John the Baptist makes a right inference from that descent I saw says he Joh. 1.32 the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him And I knew him not v. 33 34. but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God Our Lord himself makes it one of his last instructions to his Disciples that when the Comforter that Holy Spirit whom he would send should come he should amongst other things convince the world of righteousness because He the blessed Jesus went to his Father and the world should see him no more c. 16. v. 8. 10 14. and that that Holy Spirit should glorifie him for he should receive of his and shew it to men And thus effectually that Sacred Spirit when he was so plentifully according to promise pour'd out
nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin of her substance so that two whole and perfect natures that is to say the Godhead and manhood were joyn'd together in one person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very man c. With the Church of England agrees the Helvetic Confession Vid. Harmoniam Confessionum in notatis c. 3. that of the French Churches Artic. 6. the Scotch Confession Artic. 1. the Synod of Dort Artic. 8. the Synod of Czenger in Hungary in their own Argument against the Socinians and in Artic. 2. the Confession of Augsburg c. 1. of Strasbourg c. 2. the Saxon Confession exhibited to the Synod of Trent c. 1. that of Wittemberg Art 2. the Confession of the Prince Palatine Art 2. that of Bohemia Art 3. and 6. of Basil Art 1. and finally the Orthodox consent of all the Fathers with holy Scripture Artic. 2. c. 1. and it's observable that the authors and subscribers of all these Confessions imagine that they ground this particular Doctrine of the eternal Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ upon Scripture so that they declare they either find it there in express terms or at least thought they drew it very naturally from thence and certainly they were not mistaken for let us reflect a little on the Commandments of the Old Testament there Israel received this charge Hear O Israel Deut. 6.4 Exod. 20.2 3. the Lord our God is one Lord I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other God before my face Observe what the Prophet adds to these precepts Remember says he to the same Israelites the former things of old Isai 46 9. for I am God and there is none else I am God and there is none like me the same Prophet introduces Almighty God speaking thus I am the Lord Isai 42.8 that is my name and my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to graven Images and this particularly in such a place where God is comforting his people with a description of the office power excellency of the Messiah and teaching all to rejoyce upon the certainty of his coming Our Saviour himself when he contested with the most subtle and powerful adversary in the world alledges this against him Matth. 4.10 get thee hence Satan when he had endeavoured to hire him to worship himself for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve This then of the Vnity of the supreme being and the incommunicability of divine worship to any other Being whatsoever seems very Authentick Doctrine and to be very well attested yet after all this to prevent that damning sin of Idolatry whereas S. Peter refus'd the adoration of Cornelius with that reason Acts 10.26 Stand up for I my self also am a man And the Angel who had shewn S. John all those wonderful Prophetick schemes refus'd the worship of that Apostle with those words Rev. 22.9 See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the Prophets worship thou God yet the blessed Jesus He who being the Son of God at least in some sence should have been of all others the most careful for securing his fathers honour yet He tells the Jews that his father had committed all judgment to him Joh. 5.23 that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the father i.e. with the same kind of or with equal honour now every one will own that the Father is to be worshipped as the supreme Being or as the most high God therefore Christ there assumes to himself the glory honour or worship belonging to the most high God nor could this be strange in him who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.6 The same Jesus suffer'd himself to be worshipped without any reluctancy or prohibition of the worshippers He forbad not the wise men from the East Matt. 2.11 when they fell down and worshipped him and made their offerings to him nor did the blessed Virgin who doubtless knew what it was to be an Idolater reprove them for their misapplied adorations nor did the Angel Matt. 8.2 c. 9.18 who was their guide and director in their journey inform them of this error No more did Christ forbid the Leper who worshipp'd him nor the Jewish Ruler who beg'd his goodness for the healing of his daughter Nor his Disciples when by his power delivered from the storm Nor yet all the Disciples when after his resurrection they all came and held him by the feet and worshipp'd him c. 14.33 c. 28.9 now Scripture in all these places puts no difference between that worship that is given to Christ and that which the same persons generally render'd to the supreme God therefore they knew nothing but that he really was of the same nature with God nor could he be so kind or good or wise as he is character'd to us who could see so many guilty of so damning a sin as Idolatry which they must have been guilty of if they gave to him a meer Creature that sovereign worship which belong'd to the Creator without any reproof or check for it Now tho' this danger may seem to infer a great deal of necessity of knowing Christ to be the true God yet we may press it farther For S. Paul tells us in plain terms Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved where he is speaking of no other but our Lord Jesus Christ now this laid together with that other text Acts 4.12 that there is no salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved joyning these together as they assert the positive so they include the negative of equal truth that Without calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Salvation can never be attained but then it follows How shall they call on him in whom they have not believ'd v. 14. or in whom they have not had faith but Faith may not be fixt on any but on him who is the true God true Faith is only towards God Heb. 6.1 as the Apostle's phrase teaches us and the Socinians themselves in the very Text we are now upon would perswade us to believe that it was onely God the Father who was believed on in the World Heb. 11.6 because he onely was the proper object of Faith and we are told that without Faith it is impossible to please God but to imagine that any Faith can please God which is placed in any Being beside himself is foolish and absurd Yet whereas God declared by his Prophet of old Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man and maketh flesh his arm and in his heart departeth from the Lord Jer. 17.5 Christ a little before his Passion bids his Disciples as they believed in God John 14.1
is set down the just Commendation of that one short Rule the miserable failures of Men in putting this in execution the true grounds and reasons of their failures their falling under divine displeasure on that account the means found out to atone that divine displeasure and the extreme difficulty of atoning it the continuing Defects of Humane Obedience the Mercy of God yet equally continued for the sake of that compleat atonement made and God's acceptance of an upright heart and sincere endeavours according to the doctrine of Pagan wise men themselves instead of absolute and unattainable perfection in Virtue and Goodness and Crowning such sincerity and integrity with that happiness due to a total perfection And all these things are illustrated with such an Historical deduction of things as serves exceedingly to confirm all the particulars and to convince the World how angry the True God is with those who transgress and how infinitely pleased He is with those who endeavour to walk by this Rule and All compar'd together shew abundantly that the whole body of Scripture is indeed but one and the same Rule agreeing with it self in all particulars and the Matters of fact laid down with that simplicity impartiality and probability and so agreeably to those broken fragments of Antiquity themselves esteemed most highly and so very pertinent to the drift of the Book it self i. e. to make Men devout towards Heaven and sociable among one another all which things were never pretended to meet in any one Writing whatsoever before that till any firm instance can be produced to the contrary Scripture in this particular must be owned the Word of God If its general and equal respect to all Mankind be enquired after the very manner of expression used in Scripture shews it to be really Universal for when the Rule says Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and yet nominates no particular person to whom the sence should be restrain'd Scripture in that speaks to every individual person who hears or reads it as Nathan to David Thou whether Jew or Gentile bond or free young or old learned or unlearned Christian or Pagan Thou art the Man When in relation to any branch of this short Rule any doubt is propos'd and the solution given to a particular Person either in plain terms or in a Parable that particular solution concerns every man living so when the Lawyer asked Christ Who is my neighbour and Christ had answered him by that Parable of the Man rob'd and wounded between Jerusalem and Jericho and relieved by the good Samaritan and upon the Lawyers declaring for the Samaritan's charity Christ replyed upon him Go and do thou likewise tho' the discourse be to one Man the import reaches You and Me and every Man who at any time may meet the same Objects of Charity and be in the same Circumstances and when in pursuance of the great Rule any thing is forbidden and it 's said Thou shalt not do This or That it means No Man on any pretence whatsoever shall do it and every Judgment against a particular Criminal tells us that Except we repent we shall all likewise perish and every Blessing following Goodness speaks Thus shall it be done to any Man whom the King of all things delights to honour and as happiness eternal is propounded to All which is unquestionably Man's chiefest good so the means propounded for attaining it are the same to All All purchase it at the same rate and acquire it with the same spirit and in this particular all Humane Writings whatsoever own their defects Happiness in Scripture being the end propos'd and we being taught wherein it consists so as to have all sorts of Pagans concurring in the perswasion that it consists in the fruition of the Love and presence of the Supreme God the way to gain it is set down so plain that none who have common reason can doubt of its meaning for though a 1000 Queries and impertinent enough have been made by Casuists in what instances we ought to love God yet never any but Jesuits who had heard the Rule of Scripture Thou shalt love c. could doubt whether Scripture taught us to have any love for God or no Men must resolve to read it backwards as they say Witches do who can doubt its meaning neither can they doubt but that we ought to love God so great and pure a Being in all instances whatsoever The very Pagans themselves were sensible of the little Artifices of that subtle Spirit which was wont to speak in their Oracles when they sought to secure themselves from a charge of falshood by speaking what was dubiously to be interpreted and though sometimes for things Past or Present they 'd speak tolerably yet in all future matters they 'd falter miserably as Croesus King of Lydia found to his cost who chose a God to himself among the multitude by his Veracity having contriv'd it so that several of his Messengers should at one and the same hour enquire of a several Oracle what Croesus was then doing of all which One onely answering right that One He devoted himself to and yet that One when he came to enquire the event of his intended War against Cyrus cheated him with a paltry ambiguity to his ruine their subtilties in that kind quickly grew proverbial to the dishonour of the Impostor but that divine spirit which influenced Holy Writers needed no such subterfuges for apparent weakness nor have any yet been able to discover any such thing in Scripture and though some Prophecies are very dark and obscure at present yet the event of things has so exactly explain'd many of the most difficult that none can doubt but just periods of time will unriddle them all and make the Apocalypse it self as plain as any other part of it Scripture runs upon no vain and trifling speculations such as might disturb and heat the fancy but its whole scope and import affects the practices of Men it advances real knowledge onely and such Knowledge will show it self in our actions To Love God and our Neighbours are things infinitely useful and rational and on that account were admir'd by Pagans in the primitive persecuted Christians the duties are so often and by such variety of Arguments urged in Scripture that as it 's almost impossible Men should be ignorant of what 's requir'd at their hands so it 's as impossible they should not know how to perform it that Book lays no task upon us but what 's pleasant safe and certain commands nothing but what it gives us numerous instances of as perform'd by others and therefore possible to us it shows us God's Perfection and requires Ours as knowing the fairest Copy excites the greatest ingenuity and study to equal it and whereas we cannot but be sensible of our own Errours it shows how God accepts the sincerity of our endeavours and gives us the instance of One great real Man
who reach'd that consummate perfection in our nature and that for His sake we are receiv'd in all these things Heathen wisdom fail'd either prescribing gay impossibilities for practice or propounding happiness as the mark to aim at but teaching Men to shoot the contrary way by engaging them in mean pleasures and downright sensualities and where the speculations were best they had none to appeal to who had ever liv'd up to their own principles their most fam'd Sages being meer prostitutes to notorious immoralities notwithstanding all the fair shew some late Writers have endeavour'd to make with them onely Pagans had some few scatter'd extracts out of Scripture which were in themselves excellent but being onely fragments injudiciously cull'd and incoherent and wretchedly misunderstood were wholly useless Whereas all Rules and Methods of living before discover'd were lame and imperfect not sufficient to carry Men through those extraordinary difficulties and objections they might meet with in a course of virtue as appear'd by the Famous Brutus who because he saw it unfortunate concluded Virtue was nothing but an empty name Scripture is compleat and every way sufficient for the design it carries on and therefore stands at advantage against all other Rules because Whoever follows others most exactly cannot be happy at last but He that sticks close to our Rule cannot be unhappy it informs the Mind it resolves Doubts it answers Objections it encourages Weakness it dissipates Fears it reproves Errors and makes Sufferings easie of which there are so many thousands of instances own'd by Infidels themselves that from hence too it 's past dispute that our Rule has this quality of the Word of God In fine there 's nothing through the whole tenour of it either in its Doctrine or History that 's beneath the Majesty of an infinite God if God would speak to Man he could speak no better therefore he must speak thus and onely thus He that finds Princes composing Sacred Hymns infinitely beyond their Orpheus or Callimachus Moralizing as far beyond their admir'd Antoninus as he beyond Porters or Scavengers He that reads Prophets more soaring and divine than their Plato's or Zeno's or Pythagoras's and in a strain more soft and charming as well as more Majestick and Herdsmen more profound and more truly fatidical than their Sibyls or Apollo and Fishermen more accurate argumentative and rational than their Philosophers of the noblest Sects able to baffle 'em in Disputes to out-reach them in discovering the causes and natures of ordinary appearances in the World He that observes Men of various lives and conditions of different tempers different times distant places different natural abilities writing a series of Historical passages with more clearness better digested â—n point of Chronology more probable in â—atters of fact more full exact and imâ—artial in the Characters of Actions and Perâ—ons more agreeing with one another and â—he best Pagan Writers than all other Hiâ—â—orians whatsoever nay than Old and â—ublick Records themselves though preserv'd and managed with the greatest apparent care and exactness He that can find nothing low flagging and uneven among such variety of Pen-men nothing trifling useless or superfluous let his perswasion be what it will let him be Turk African or Indian if he have but his Reason free he must conclude if God ever did impart his will to Man it must be in this Book which we call Scripture and if He then return to his own principle of the necessity in point of justice that God should give a Rule to Man that might procure his Happiness it will as necessarily follow that our Scripture our Rule must be the Word of God Which proves its own Immortal Original farther in that notwithstanding the continued malice and subtilty of Enemies it could never be destroy'd it could never be disprov'd it could never be interpolated or any thing be added to it nor be made shorter or any thing taken from it but while other Humane Writings have been easily abus'd and additions and alterations made in them not discover'd or well distinguish'd to this day by the most exact Criticks nothing could so be fasten'd upon Holy Writ nor any inferiour Writer or uninspired impose his own upon the World for the Word of God Assur'd of these things We as Christians among other parts of Scripture embrace the History of our Saviour's Incarnation and these things being unanswerable by an Infidel upon his own principles as a Deist and a Rationalist he must own the whole History of Scripture to be true and amongst the rest this of the Birth of Christ for as I have no reason to suspect his Veracity who gives me an account of somewhat to his own advantage who yet has always told me truth in things that made against himself So a Pagan who thinks he has reason to receive all the other parts of Divine History because he finds them exactly true has no reason to suspect the Faith of the same Writers in one particular And besides the thing has been so oft attempted but with so little success that He may justly conclude That matters of fact impossible to be confuted by any argument cannot possibly be false This obliges an Infidel to acknowledge the truth of our History of the Incarnation in particular and Scripture in general own'd to be Divine is a certain foundation to build the Conversion of Infidels upon And thus much for the first head That Jesus Christ the Messias who appear'd on Earth in our Nature was really the Son of God We come now to the Second Particular which is this That the same Blessed Jesus who was the Son of God was God equal with his Father or really and truly God as well as real Man He was God though manifest in the Flesh To prove the Truth of which might seem needless had there not been of old and were there not of late Years reviv'd a Generation of men who under pretence of sacrificing to Reason have set themselves wholly to explode the Belief of a Trinity as a means to make good which adventure of theirs they positively deny the Divinity of the Son of God they cannot well admit of any Mysteries in Religion which themselves cannot comprehend the very pretence to which comprehension is enough to make a Mystery no Mystery for if They who employ themselves in this work can comprehend it every one may do so too or at least the generality of the Intelligent World but what 's generally understood cannot be a Mystery and yet our Apostle in the words preceding the Text tells us that That Mystery of Godliness of which this Text is a part is without all controversie a great Mystery But that Jesus Christ the Son of God was God equal with the Father we shall prove by these Considerations By those accounts of his Appearance and of his Nature laid down in the Old Testament By the Declarations of Himself and of his Apostles in the New Testament By his Actions during
memory of all these things and the testimony of his own Companions whose very looks and discourse the evidences of unwonted joy carried a great deal of innocency and sincerity in them could not prevail with him but he positively declares Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails ver 25. and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe such an unreasonable infidelity that seemed resolved neither to submit to the testimony of others nor to his own sight might justly have been left unsatisfied but our Saviour had a respect to the rest of the World to whom the Gospel should be preached and the Resurrection be propounded as necessary to be believ'd therefore he condescended to the Apostles weakness and after eight days when the Disciples were again together and Thomas with them he appears to them again and with his usual blessing applyes himself immediately to his unbelieving Disciple He shews himself the great Searcher of the heart and reins and tells him without the help of a teacher how great a folly he had been guilty of he commands him to do what he had before desired he by that means leaves him no opportunity of doubting any longer He then who had of all others been the most distrustful to make somewhat of a publick compensation for his former dulness breaks out into that earnest and emphatical confession My Lord and my God! the words seem very plain and proper to express a man's acknowledgment of his Divinity to whom they should be applyed Enjedine yet denyes it His verbis quidem Enjedine in locum non Christum compellat neque eum Dominum Deum suum vocat sed rem inusitatam admirationem suam summam significat In these words really He does not speak to Christ nor call him his Lord and his God but only signifies his admiration of so very unusual a matter yet the Text tells us plainly Thomas answered him and said unto him that is to him who bad him reach out his hand to him in the precedent verse that is to Jesus Christ My Lord and my God! He would have it signifie no more than what a frighted Papist would bless himself with i. e. the outcry of Jesus Maria or as we ordinarily say Good God how strange a thing has hapned lately c. and for this conceit he alleges some such like passages in prophane Authors a very strange method and as little approved of by those of his own party Wolzogenius utterly condemns this fancy and declares of them who first invented it Nullo modo audiendi sunt Wolzogen in locum they are no way at all to be listned to and owns this the first place wherein the Disciples after his resurrection owned him to be God Schlicktingius too declares against it and tells us Schlicktin in locum This passage proves that upon our Saviour's reprimand Thomas fully convinc'd of the truth quitted his former vitious incredulity and believed and therefore he calls Christ his God and Lord as if he should have said Agnosco te Dominum meum Deum meum esse I acknowledge thee to be my Lord and my God but he spoils all at last with this that Christ after his own resurrection was only Deus factus a made God not the great God not the eternal not the most high God not Maker of all things by which names yet and others of the same kind he 's frequently call'd in Scripture Socinus himself in an Epistle to Franciscus Davidis another Antitrinitarian vindicates our common interpretation of these words and will not admit of the others arguments whereby he pretended to prove that these words are no evidence of Christ's being call'd God for besides his alleging that all Copies read it as we have it at present and that there 's no instance in Scripture where such an expression is only a proof of an extraordinary admiration Socini Epistola ad Franc. Dav. p. 395. he shews farther that whereas our Saviour in the following verse shews his approbation of Thomas 's faith there could be no reason of any such approbation if Thomas by these words had only signified his wonderment of what had come to pass with respect to his resurrection and to say truth such an extravagant amazement would have argued some diffidence still remaining in him but indeed here 's no sign in the story of any such wondring at the thing but only here 's a plain confession made of what the Apostle's Faith now was namely that the blessed Jesus was his Lord and his God wherein too he is the mouth of all the rest of the Apostles and there was reason for this Confession S. Thomas had heard his Master's disputes with the Jews the evidences he had given of his being the Messias whom they looked for or the Christ he had heard him often call himself the Son of God declare his equality with his Father and that absolute and indissoluble unity which was between his father and himself he had heard him declare what he was to suffer and that he was to rise again the third day the suffering he had seen the Resurrection he was not so fully satisfied in but when he saw him and felt his wounds now which he had known were really given him before that extraordinary truth which appear'd in all the words and actions of the Son of God open'd his Eyes to see and his Heart to confess that this same Jesus whom he had followed so long was really his Lord and his God Thus his Faith with respect to the Messias was compleat he had seen enough to prove him to be Man in all that time of converse with him before his passion he had seen enough now to prove him to be God not a finite God or an holy Man Deisied but the true the eternal God for tho' Kings or Magistrates may be call'd Gods in Scripture was it ever heard that any called Kings or any other created Being whatsoever My Lord and my God without being charged with Idolatry The Israelites when Aaron had made them a golden Calf Exo. 32.4 cryed presently These be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are thy gods it 's expressed there by that equivocal word which the adversaries of our Faith have so often their recourse to therefore the Israelites might have pleaded for themselves that they meant not by so saying that the golden Calf was the most high God and it 's plain they did not for they presently proclaim a feast to the true God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom this Calf was only design'd to be a Symbol or memorial but such a plea was not accepted but for the crime the Israelites were look'd upon and punished as Iâ—olaters The Prophet Isay setting out the practice of Idolaters and the general original of Idol Images
our God and to serve Him only We know it 's the common practice of all Professors of Christianity and allowed by our Adversaries to worship our Saviour to adore and pray to him as God We think our selves and the Socinians acknowledge that we may do thus without being guilty of Idolatry therefore our Saviour must be the Supreme God the maker of all things c. therefore He and his Father must be One God and so neither the first nor second Commandment at all trespassed upon in those Adorations We find the worship of Images or any false Gods condemn'd as Idolatry frequently in God's Word We find Holy Men refusing to 〈◊〉 worshipped there and Angels themâ— forbidding any signs of Adoration to be offered to them because they would not trespass upon a Law so notorious both in Scripture and in Nature and this we have spoken off before A Socinian will own that our Saviour knew his Father's Will as well as either Holy Men or Angels that He was as careful to Honour his Father in performing his Will as either of them that He who came to die for the sins of Men in what sense soever would never tempt them to commit Sin Yet we find him allowing that Worship offered to himself express'd by outward humility and prostration which yet was that very reverence which good Men and good Angels had refused as unlawful before Either this Worship was Idolatrous or it was not if it was our Saviour was no better than the Jews thought of him viz. A Cheat and an Impostor one who sought their ruine not their happiness therefore to be sure far enough from being that Messias whose title he pretended to If it was not Idolatry then the worshipping of our Saviour was not worshipping more Gods than one tho' he were worshipped under the notion of God therefore he must be the Supreme God all Divine Worship paid to any other Being being largely proved to be Idolatry before But we have no reason to believe that Men of extraordinary Goodness and Wisdom would ever have given us examples of Idolatry or that God would any way have allowed much less have commanded it That It 's fitting to be done the Racovian Catechism proves from that Joh. 5.22 23. The Father hath given all judgment or government to the Son that all should Honour the Son as they Honour the Father and again from that of the Apostle Phil. 2.9 10 11. Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in Heaven and thirds on earth and things that are under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father And tho' they are at a doubt whether there be any direct command to worship Him in Scripture yet when we read that of the Apostle Heb 1.6 Ps 97.7 When He brings his first-born into the World He says let all the Angels of God worship him or as our more immediate translation from the present Hebrew Text reads it Worship him all ye Gods and when according to the acknowledgment of Socinus himself in his dispute with Franciscus Davidis that passage Joel 2.32 Rom. 10.13 â—p 721. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved is applied justly to our Saviour by the Apostle these two passages together appear to be a command strong and forcible enough to oblige every one believing in Christ to call upon his name or to pray to him These are Commands enjoyning us to worship our Saviour even in his Humane Nature but if our Lord and his Father are one God then all those commands which enjoyn the worshipping of one God are so many commands equally obliging us to worship Jesus Christ but supposing a Positive Precept wanting in the case before us tho' we are not to look upon every private Action of a good Man as an obliging Precedent to us yet where we have a Cloud of Witnesses concurring in the case we may reasonably conclude that they would not have worshipped our Saviour so continually meerly to lead us into Error nor would Angels have agreed with them in the practice nor would our Saviour himself have passed them by without a reproof Yet frequently as we find Adorations paid to our Saviour when upon Earth We never find any dissatisfaction in his words and actions Joh. 11.33 He groan'd for the stubbornness and obduracy of Jewish Hearts for their prodigious resolutions not to own him tho' drawing them all with the sacred cords of love and miraculous goodness he wept v. 35. to observe their inflexible and to themselves fatal temper He wept over Jerusalem Luk 19.41 on the dismal prospect of those calamities that wrath to the uttermost which was then hastning upon them Luk. 12.14 He reproved the Man who would needs have made him a temporary Judge or a Divider of Inheritances among them Luk. 22 2â— He reproved his Disciples for their contentions about their future grandeur and seems to check the Man who only called him good Master Mar. 10.17 as if the ascribing Goodness to one whom he took to be a meer Man was too near an encroachment upon the sacred character of the Supreme God And can we imagine he would be so tender in every such little particular and yet so very careless in those important affairs wherein the eternal interests of his followers would be concerned as long as the World endured This is very hard to believe yet that the Concern is so great the late Scribling Arrian owns when to the charge of Blasphemy imputed to his Party for denying the eternal Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost he retorts that question upon us Vindication of Vnitarians p. 3. If you err do not you both blaspheme and commit Idolatry in worshipping the Son and the Holy Ghost as co-equal with the Father We must be guilty of both if they are not but for the Son we hope enough has been or shall be said to prove we are free from danger on that side To clear our own practice yet farther We 'l trace those footsteps our Adversaries themselves have trodden before us and make use of those instances they have laid together on this occaon So the Apostles pray to their Master Lord increase our Faith Luk. 17.5 a Petition of a strange nature to one that was no more than their fellow Creature and so far from any encouraging exaltation in the world that whereas the foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests He the Son of Man had not so much as where to lay his head How could he give them Faith who could not as it seemed give himself security from worldly persecution but our Lord gives them no check for mislaying their Petition nor does he bid them seek to his Father
our Saviour himself He and his Father were One that it was He whom Saint Thomas upon a sufficient Conviction declared to be his Lord and his God that according to Saint Paul He is God over all blessed for ever and that according to the same Apostle He being in the Form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God yet took upon himself the Form of a Servant for our sakes These proofs I explain'd enlarged upon and vindicated them from their Sophistry who would have them look'd upon as proofs insufficient of the Divinity of the Son of God We prov'd the same thing then by those Actions done by himself and in his own Name during his converse upon Earth and done by his Apostles in His Name after his Ascension into Heaven For instance from his passing insensibly through the multitude who led him to the brow of an Hill designing to cast him headlong down from thence From his making the Souldiers who came with Judas to seize him to fall down with barely answering them what they desired and in the kindest and most satisfactory manner From his commanding Lazarous in his own Name to come forth of his Grave after four days burying From his Apprehension of virtue going out of him to heal the Woman with the bloody Issue tho' only touching the Hem of his Garment From his calling those that were weary and heavy laden with their sins to come to him and promising them rest for their Souls upon so doing From his Forgiving sins in an authoritative manner his searching the Heart trying the Reins and according to Saint Peter Knowing all things From his Promising and sending the Holy Ghost and giving it first of all with his Breath opening the Understanding of the Disciples and sending them abroad with a Commission equivalent to that which himself had received from his Father and in conclusion from his Disciples Baptising Preaching and doing Miracles wholly in his Name and by Faith in him From this Head we proceeded to prove our Doctrine that Christ was God equal with his Father from the Faith of the Primitive Church where we confin'd our selves in our Disquisition principally to those Fathers who wrote before the starting of the Arrian Controversie So for the Greek Church we gave you an account of what Clemens the Roman Bishop in his Epistles to the Corinthians of what Saint Ignatius Bishop of Antioch in his several Epistles of what Justine Martyr in his two Apologies and in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew and Irenaeus in his books against Heresies and Clemens Alexandrinus in his Admonition to the Gentiles and in his Stromata and what Origen in his books against Celsus furnishes us with in evidence of our Saviour's Divine Nature Then for the Latin Church we gave you the sence of what Tertullian St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage Arnobius and Lactantius have written from whence we descended to Creeds framed by Gregory Thaumaturgus by Felix the first of that name Bishop of Rome by the First and Second Councils at Antioch summoned on the account of Paulus Samosatenus and the Circular Epistle of the Latter from the circular Letters of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and so from the Epistle and Creed of the Nicene and Constantinopolitane general Councils with the remarkable suffrages of Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperor and Eusebius of Caesarea one much suspected of Arrianism himself but a famous Writer of Church-History Having done with this we prov'd last of all that no true Divine Worship was due to any meer Creature or could be paid to any such without Idolatry That true Divine Worship yet was paid to our blessed Lord by his Apostles and first Followers without Idolatry therefore that our Saviour in consequence could be no meer Creature Thus far we had proceeded and concluded all our works of that nature at an end and our selves at liberty to prosecute our intended discourse farther But Ill Men taking advantage of that Liberty now indulged them a Liberty always fruitful of Errors and Innovations give us yet more Work and a necessary care to prevent that Poyson they scatter from spreading too far amongst those who profess Christianity in these Nations And here we have two mighty Pretenders to Piety and Reason One of which undertakes the Patronage of long exploded Arrianism the Other of the more refined Socinianism and both with old Arguments and it may be some new Finenesses attack the Divinity of our Saviour It 's no small happiness that such Men take up such different Opinions to maintain for by that means One is somewhat of an Antidote against the Other and by these differences between themselves in so weighty a matter Wise and Considerate Christians will learn to believe neither of them As for what our Socinian pleads considering what we asserted in the beginning of our Discourse viz. That Jesus Christ our Saviour is the Son of God which We with all sound Christians understood in a natural sence and that that very Notice inferr'd a co-essentiality of the Son with the Father as it does among Men where the Son is of the same Nature with the Father which begets him we thought we had reason but the Socinians have found us out a way of Filiation or Sonship of being the begotten nay the Only begotten Son of God without any such Essential Relation thus the Racovian Catechism speaking concerning the Original of Christ's being called or being the Son of God tells us He is so First Because He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and being born of a Virgin without the concurrence of a man he had no other Father but God and this Wissowatius in his note upon that passage tells us ought to be observed as the first reason mentioned in Scripture why Christ is the Son of God in opposition to those who found that relation upon his eternal Generation of his Father Secondly Christ says the Catechism is the Son of God because as He himself teaches us He was sanctified by the Father i. e. He was separated from the rest of mankind in a singular manner and besides the perfect holiness of his Life furnished with Divine Wisdom and Power Cat. Raco sect 4. c. 1. p. 24. He was employed by the Father to execute the Office of an Ambassadour with a supreme Authority among Men Thirdly Christ was the Son of God because He was rais'd from the Dead by God and so begotten of him again by this means becoming like God in Immortality and Fourthly Christ is the Son of God because He is invested by God with supreme Authority and Command over all things Our Country man Lushington a great Patron of Socinianism in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews On the Hebrews c. 1. p. 23. reckons up the grounds of Christ's being the Son of God to the same number He 's the Son of God says He First by his Conception Secondly by his Function Thirdly by his Institution being
Harmless Vndefiled separate from Sinners one that needed not first to pray for Pardon for his own Sins and afterwards for the Sins of others and therefore he might be and is properly called the one Mediator between God and Man exclusively of all others 1 Tim. 2.5 as we are told in the same Text there is One God exclusively of all other Deities which could not be if Moses had been a Mediator of the same kind and in the same manner as Christ was and it 's further added of our Mediator That he gave himself a ransom for all which Moses never did and tho' in the heat of his charitable Zeal he was willing to have been blotted out of the Book which God had written that God by that means might have been reconciled to his People that Offer neither was nor could be accepted because it could be no Satisfaction to Divine Justice to punish one Sinner and on account of that punishment to pardon another for why should I pretend to satisfie that Justice on behalf of another which should it proceed severely would pass upon me without any such pretence but he who conscious of his own Innocence is secure from any legal Danger may with reason interpose vigorously for another In our present Case our Lord endeavours to put an end to that difference there is between God and Man arising from Sin God is the Supreme Law-giver and has in his own hand the uncontroulable Power of punishing Trespassers upon his Laws Man is the continual Transgressor having by that means wholly forfeited all pretences to Grace and Favour therefore his Case being it self desperate the Mediation begins on God's part our Lord not being stil'd the Mediator between man and God but between God and man the whole Mediation arising not from man's hopes but from God's mercy and goodness which found out the means of reconciling us to himself by his Son Perhaps a Socinian would find it difficult to give a satisfactory reason why seeing the first Covenant or that between God and Israel could be made by the Mediation of Moses and confirm'd with shedding the Blood onely of ordinary Victims the Evangelical Covenant managed by the Blessed Jesus a Person very much superiour to Moses could not be confirm'd with Blood of like Sacrifices as the former We 'll own freely the Covenant of the Gospel is a better Covenant the Promises in it more plain and numerous the Hope 's rais'd in Men by it stronger and more vigorous but all these things are accounted for in the Dignity of the Undertaker and why Christians should not confide in God upon the same terms on which the Jews did is not easie to determine I am sure they are generally represented as the most tractable Persons Besides this there appears a vast Difference between the Mediatorship of our Lord and Moses on these accounts our Saviour by virtue of his Mediatorial Power was able to remit sins was able to give eternal Life to Believers but Moses could do no such thing he was only a Suppliant to God for Pardon for Israel and Socinians will scarce allow he gave them so much as a Promise of Eternal Life throughout the whole Systeme of his Laws so that though we allow there ought to be some resemblance between the Type and the Anti-type yet we must allow a mighty distance between a Common Man and one on whom the Title of the Son of God his onely begotten Son was fixt and the resemblance must be between Circumstances capable of being represented and not between those which are incapable of it The Death and Passion of our Saviour as an external Accident attending his Humanity might be represented by the Death of those Creatures offer'd in Sacrifice frequently to God the Intercession of our Saviour with his Father for a sinful World by the Intercession of Moses for a sinful Nation but that Satisfaction by Christ given for Sinners to his Father's Justice was so great a thing as nothing could make any proportionable adumbration of it the Confession of the Peoples Sins over the Victim's head and laying their Iniquiries on the Head of the Scape-Goat as a devoted Creature might keep up somewhat of an Idaea of what the Messias was afterwards to do and suffer and the manner how but the Symbol was so dark that even the prophecy of Caiaphas pointing at the Anti-type made very little Impression upon the Jews and made them expect very little from Christ though they saw frequent evidences of his Divine Mission and his Death as a Person devov'd and made Sin as the Apostle expresses it for the safety of the Nation But there 's another Fetch as subtle as the rest that supposing a Mediator ought to partake of the Nature of both the Parties between whom he is to make peace yet this touches not our Saviour for his Mediatorship was only to be employ'd in reconciling men to God for so say they we find God reconciling the world to himself in Christ but there 's no mention of reconciling himself to the World supposing this assertion true is it therefore impossible that God should be angry with a sinful World If so how comes it to pass he sends so many Judgments particular and general upon Men Cities and Countries does he lay his Rod on Mens backs at randome without any displeasure against their Crimes or without any respect to their Demerits did he drown the old World without being angry with them burn Sodom and Gomorrha with their neighbouring Cities and yet not displeased with them these things are incredible That he was often angry with the People of Israel we find frequently attested in Scripture that as an evidence of his Anger he punish'd them severely too we meet with upon record there If he could be angry with the Sins of a particular People he may certainly be angry with the Sins of the whole World for Sin loses not its odious Nature by being more diffusive If God be angry with their Sins he must be angry with the Sinners too especially if they be active and obstinate in their Sins for tho' Man as created at first in the likeness or in the image of God be good yet Man wherein that sacred Image is defaced by Sin is odious and detestable a proper object of God's Displeasure and of himself incapable of avoiding it but if God may be displeased with Sin and Sinners and if his Nature being pure and his Laws holy just and good he must be so then he must be reconciled to Man or Man must be eternally miserable and though we find God frequently in Scripture calling upon Men to turn to Him as if all the Work lay on their hands yet he promises withal that He will turn to them Mal. 3.7 and those kind repeated Calls are only evidences that He who has a great deal of reason to be averse to it will yet be as ready to be reconciled to them as they can be to