Nature tells us ch 6.14 and the Scripture affirms it Psal 51.12 Establish me with thy free Spirit which Spirit is the Fountain of all liberty Natural and Moral for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty When the Scripture teaches that God swears by his own Life we are sure he therein doth no more than what he had a right to do and therefore he has his life in the disposal of his own will which he gages as he pleases and so all things stand in the infinite holiness of the most absolute free-will of God both by Natural and Supernatural Evidence 10. Lastly Nature teaches these three real distinct Subsistences are really Personal ch 7. and the Scripture owns it for Christ acknowledges the Holy Ghost hath Personal Rights but that he should not speak of himself but should take of that which was the Sons and shew it to the Disciples and presently thereupon informs us of the distinct Personal Rights of the Father and the Son all things that the Father hath are mine says the Son where we see though they all have right to the same things yet each hath his own distinct right here asserted according to that all thine are mine and mine are thine and therefore each of the three is a Person When St. Paul teaches that the Spirit does act dispose of and bestow things by the disposition of his own will this is what nothing but a Person can do nor can any other Person do so justly but the Owner or Lord of the things so disposed or bestowed I have thought for a Heathen Hierocles guess'd ingenuously that God did Create all the material substance of which the World was made or else he could not justly have framed the World because he would have medled with what was none of his own 11. Thus Nature by the reason of things and Scripture by the reason of speech do both teach the same Trinity in all Points the one by natural the other by instituted significancy Gods Works and Gods Word conspiring to assure us there is one God and three Persons For the Coincidence of the Rational and Scriptural account in all particulars I take to be the proper evidence of this truth because had the account been given upon an Hypothesis the coincidence of it with the Scripture had been only a proof of the good contrivance of its Maker but being all deduced from the very first Principles of Sense and Reason the Coincidence proves the truth of the thing it self and demonstrates there is no contrivance in it for where Nature leads there if no room left for invention but things must be taken as they are found in themselves The Arians begged a Days or a Minutes time for the making of their second and third God in this was a blunder in the device it self for a God cannot be made in less time than a Triangular Circle But I am not exposing their pretence in point of ingenuity but observing that when they say there are such made Gods without the evidence of Nature or Scripture this is Hypothesis and Fiction and therefore it will then be time enough to write serious Confutations of such imaginary Beings when it is become fashionable gravely to prove at large that Romances are not Histories 12. To the Divine Revelation of this Doctrine I might subjoyn the Authority of the Catholick Church whose Faith is delivered in our common Creeds and evince that these are perfectly conform to the Doctrine of the preceding Discourse but these being so well known I shall seem in the judgment of the intelligent Reader to write the same things over again out of meer formality Yet because the Adversaries do boast of their late attempts against the Athanasian Creed with such an insolence of glorying it is not amiss to remark particularly that there is no expression in all that Creed about the matter of the Trinity but what hath been above distinctly accounted for from Reason and Scripture what there concerns Christs Incarnation I shall consider afterwards I might also observe that the common Institusion of the Christian Schools giving an account of the Second Person from the Divine Wisdom and of the third from the Divine Love or Benevolence cannot be understood to differ from the main reason of what has here been taught So that besides the Divine Evidence Natural and Supernatural we have all that can be accounted Ecclesiastical Authority to confirm us in this Belief And as the Creeds and their Expositors so the form of Baptism in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which is the very Text that all the Creeds themselves were purely designed to expound and is of Divine Appointment and irrefragable Authority does as a foederal Rite give further confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine But being to give an account of the Mystery of the Trinity what concerns the nature of the Trinity in that Stipulation shall be there considered with its Covenant-use in the Christian State CHAP. IX The Adversaries Interpretations of the Scriptures IN the mean time having before shewed how the Unitarians have dealt with the Evidence of Reason I must here observe how they use that of Authority For having resolved all the General Councils and the Christian Doctors and Schools into the number of Adversaries they disclaim all Ecclesiastical Authority and assume to themselves the right of being their own Judges which Office so assumed in consequence they are to execute without a deference to the Judgment of the main body of Christians and if they be haughty with defiance to it Their demur to the Authority of the Christian Church being somewhat extraneous to the Merits of this Cause I need not examine Though Protestants indeed allow it not to be a proper jurisdiction yet all sober Christians must confess that it hath an argumentative force next to that which is Divine But since these Men had rather want so great a confirmation of their Faith then not to please themselves even to themselves be it the Rights of God and of his Church cannot be vacated by such Judges as Create their own Office 2. Though these men do not formally disown the Divine Authority of the Bible yet they treat all the Scripture proofs of the Trinity with great contempt and that they might seen to do so with less absurdity they take no notice of the great accession which that sacred Evidence acquires by the concurrence of so many circumstances in such a great number of Testimonies and variety of Expressions which adds a mighty force to what they would have if they were only to be considered asunder as we experience in all sorts of Evidence which is given us of the Existence of things And yet even against the single Texts they have nothing to alledge but some Evasions which are manifestly so far fetched that if charity did not bid us hope better they would tempt us to suspect instead of a serious Paraphrase
import their constitution in the Sacerdotal State of the Universe But I must here lay no stress upon this lest I beg a Principle of those that will not grant it I note it however for the sake of them which know the Truth that they may discern the whole of what I include in the compleat notion of a Christian Mystery 2. Nature instructs us in the knowledge of Gods Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.32 and of his Providence and Righteous Judgment and likewise teaches that his Subsistence is such as belongs Naturally to the Supream Self-Originate Spirit what that is I have shewed above But that God is Incarnate that he now Governs the World in Humane Nature and will Judge the World in the man Christ Jesus is not to be learned from Natural John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Acts 17 31. but only from Supernatural Revelation Nothing then that depends upon these as all Religious Mysteries now do can be proved otherwise than from the Scriptures 3. From the Natural Reason of the thing we have therefore no evidence to assert that Christ is God Mark 1.1 Joh. 20.13 but there is nothing that the Gospel makes more certain then that Christ is the Son the only Son the only begotten Son of God this being the grand assertion of the New Testament And this being made certain to us by the Gospel the former discourse whereby we naturally learn there is one only Son of God does assure us that whoever or whatever Christ is Cap. 5. though he be even a man he is himself really and truly God and yet not God the Father nor the Holy Ghost This is all that our present undertaking obliges us to say in demonstration of our Saviours Divinity 4. But that I may not wholly baulk the expectation of the Reader I shall annex the sum of a large Scriptural evidence made ready to our hands as I find it recapitulated by the excellent Dr. III. Serm. of the Trinity P. 86 Wallis after a particular inforcement of it He therefore who is as Christ has been shewed from the Scriptures to be God the true God the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Eternal God the First and the Last before whom nothing was and after whom nothing shall be That Was and Is and Shall be the same Yesterday and to Day and for Ever the Almighty by whom the World was Made by whom all things were Made and without whom nothing was Made that was Made who Laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of his hands who when the Heavens and the Earth shall fail His Years endure for Ever who searcheth the Hearts and the Reins to give to every one according to his Works who is Jehovah the Lord God of Israel the Supream Being who is over all God blessed for Ever who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen That God says he of whom all these things are said is certainly not a meer Titular God who is called God but is not a Creature God or only a Dignified Man for if these be not Characters of the True God by what Characters shall the True God be described 5. We are now to observe how the Natural Doctrine of the former Discourse does correspond with all these viz. That Christ is Man and is the Son of God is God but not the Father nor the Holy Ghost First then Of the Humanity of Christ about which more anon we must remember that there is no Created Nature Cap. 5.5 Cap. 5.10 but has its Being wholly by being Conceived in the Divine Mind therefore Christs Humanity is a Nature Subsisting by being Conceived by God 2. The Divine Nature in its second Subsistence is the only begotten Son of God as being God Conceived therefore Jesus Christ being the Son of God is God conceived and being but one and yet Man he is God conceived one with Man or he is God conceived and Man conceived in Unity by the Divine Conception and therefore by vertue of the Divine Essential Truth God conceived one with Man is thereby really one with Man Thus Christ abideth ever God and Man in one Cap. 5.5 6. But because it is God conceived that is thus one with Man therefore it is neither God the Father or the Holy Ghost that is one with Man For God Conceived or Begotten is the Deity in its second subsistence Christ therefore is the Son of God even of the Father and from him and the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost 7. Since Unity hath several significations it will be impossible in some sense for God in any subsistence to be one with Man therefore we must observe that God the Son being Eternally God conceived is Eternally God and Eternally conceived he therefore is not changed in his nature nor subsistence which being still the same he ceases not to be God nor the Son of God by becoming Man And we may say more generally he ceases not to be what he ever had been but begins to be what before he was not There is therefore neither a Conversion of the Godhead changing it from a Divine into a Humane Nature nor yet a confusion whereby upon the union of the two Natures there results a third which is neither of the two as when a blew thread is dipt into a yellow Vat there comes out a third colour which is neither blew nor yellow but green so that the Properties Natural and Personal of the Son of God remain the same unvaried by this Union 8. Jesus Christ being one who is God conceived and Man conceived in the unity of the Divine Conception he is the Son of God both in his Divine and Humane Nature This subsistence therefore of the Son of God in Union with Man is Mystical in the full and adequate notion of Mysticalness for the Divine Nature might have been and have governed the whole Creation Cap. 10.1 though in no one of its Personal subsistences it had been one with Man Jesus Christ therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity hath in him a Mystical subsistence of God and Man become one and therefore is a Mystical Divine Person 9. And because this Mystical Union was effected by the unity of the Divine Conception therefore God conceiving the Divine and Humane Nature is one Rom. 15. in as such the God and Father of Jesus Christ and therefore is as such the Divine Nature in its first subsistence become Mystical 10. And the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son in this their Mystical subsistence being as such the Spirit of the Father of Jesus 1 Cor. 2.12 and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus is the Divine Nature as such in its third subsistence hereby become Mystical Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.6 Phil. 1.19 Cap. 10.1 So that God in the three subsistences of the Divine Nature upon our Saviours Incarnation is become Mystical 11. Now it is this Mystical Trinity that
shamefully prevaricate and joyned with the Heathen in their Idolatry So that God after long patience did serve the designs of his own Kingdom by their miserable Dissipation and Captivity for he had oft times foretold them by his Prophets that when they were cast out of their own Land both they should know that he was the Lord and he would be sanctified in them before the Heathen both which we find exactly fulfilled in the Event For 1. In their Captivity they learned in a few Years to renounce the Heathen Idolatry for ever which in their own Land they could not be taught to do in many Ages And 2. Forthwith an Edict is issued forth over the greatest Empire in the World Dan. 3. Ezra 1. Dan. â— requiring an Universal acknowledgment of the one True Supream God above all other Gods and after that another by Cyrus of the like purpose and a third by Dairus over all the Empire of the Medes and Persians It is to be further observed that the Ten Tribes were first dispersed into the Cities of the Medes and sometime after the Jews were scattered about the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy So that the Israelitts had conversation with almost all Nations and they owning but one God and Worshiping him in their several Dispersions considering men being acquainted with their pretensions would by the reason of the thing be drawn to favour the Truth and by further inquiries abroad be fully satisfied And accordingly after this Dispersion of theirs we begin to meet with the Grecian Sages and Philosophers whereas before they had nothing amongst them but Mythology which was some obscure remainders of Ancient Tradition but so disguised with old fabulous stories that Truth could not be known from Falshood And as many Learned Men as well of late as formerly have proved from the Antient Records of those times the effect of all this was that generally all Nations did acknowledge one God over all though they did not leave off the Worship of their Heathen Gods No more than the Papists that believe but one Supream God do therefore forbear to Worship many of the Invisible World or to invocate the Aid of Saints and Angels whilst they confess but one Advocate with the Father Thus much did Truth gain for the establishment of the Divine Monarchy and asserting rhe Unity of the Godhead 5. In the mean time some Sophisters had devised a new way to subvert the Divine Government and Religion under the profession of one God There being two ways of doing this both were abetted and that by very many for some time before the coming of our Saviour The first giving us for the Supream God a Vivacious Self-activity or an Universal Life without Understanding assigning this to be the source of all Motion Now though this Life according to their fancy is all the force of the World yet it is plain the force is not Omnipotence as that attribute belongs to the true God and being it is supposed to have neither Wisdom or Goodness no thanks or Religious regard is due to it These were those spurious â—permatists who though they were not formed into any Sect were yet growing very Popular and these instead of God who is a blessed mind intruded upon us an Eternal vivid impetuosity impelling all things without Counsel The other were the infamous Sect of the Epicurians who confessed indeed the Divine Nature to be an intelligent mind but without all concern or resentments uncapable of being pleased or displeased and so for God that is a Holy Spirit they substituted an Everlasting Gaze. I know they oft depredicated the blessedness of their Deity which had it been done without collusion would indeed have argued him to be a Spirit But as Cicero said of these same men long ago we are not to regard what they say but what they are to say in consequence of their own Opinions The blessedness of their God which they mean and as they define it is nothing else than no pain of Body or grievance of Mind and then a mind that is no Spirit nor capable of being pleased or displeased in their notion of blessedness must of necessity be ever blessed and so is the Body of a Stone and the Soul of a Psychopannuchite most perfectly blessed Now it is plain all Religious Addresses or Respect had to an unconcerned Mind which having no Spirit is uncapable of liking or disliking are most absurd and Ridiculous So that each sort of these Philosophers in their several ways may profess and believe but one God only and yet both wholly evacuate the Power of the Divine Kingdom and defeat all the Counsels which God had in revealing himself unto Mankind and entring into a Covenant with them 6. But when in the Wisdom of God as St. Paul observes the World through Wisdom even this spurious Philosophy knew not God â— Cor. 1 21. it pleased God through preaching to save them that believe The Truth therefore by which God saved Men from these destructive Delusions was that which the Apostles Preached which we know was the very same Faith which they Baptized Believers into and we are sure they were to baptize into the Name of the Fâ—â—her the Son and the Holy Ghost â—aâ— 28. Therefore the acknowledgment of the Trinity was the Covenant Stipulation instituted by God and set up against the Error that was brought in by the Grecian Wisdom to save men from perishing by that growing destructive mischief For it is manifest from the foregoing account ch 4. ch 5. that the Psychical Men that believe God to be Life without Conciousness cannot acknowledge there are more real Subsistences of the Deity than one and whoever believes more must in consequence confess God to be an Intellectual Being The Epicureans might own two though not Personal Subsistences of their Deity but being consistent with themselves they could not confess a third whilst they denied Gods being pleased or displeased as appears ch 5. ch 6. Therefore this form of Covenant requiring the explicite acknowledgment of three Persons in one God was as directly opposite to those deceits that were then prevailing in the World as was the express owning of the Divine Government to the Anarchical Old World or of the Divine Monarchy to the Antimonarchical Heathen World for all these are suitable Sacramental engagements listing men for God against these several Apostacies And considering the Trinity in the state of the Divine Nature and not in its Mystery these are so many forms of a Covenant that is one and the same in Substance but diversified in the Expressions as the condition of Religion in the several Ages of the World did require And from hence 1. It appears that God entred our express belief of the Trinity into the Covenant of Life not only because it was a most true and weighty a most honourable and glorious acknowledgment of his Divine Majesty for a Trinity of real Subsistences as has been seen speaks
all the most absolute perfections of being in Substantial Subsistence but likewise out of pity to the pressing necessity of Mankind because it was necessary and seasonable wholesome and profitable to Men to save their Souls from the Deceits of this present World 2. Atheism and Polytheism being provided against by the two former forms of Covenant it appears if men be not Psychical or Epicurean Divines in consequence of their own opinions they are to acknowledge the truth of the Natural Trinity So that Deists Jews Mahometans and all Genuine Philosophers will joyn with the Trinitarians when they please to reason warily upon their own Principles which when they do it may somewhat dispose them to a better opinion of Christianity if they please to remember that this sublime Doctrine was the institution of the Holy Fishers and withal take notice that they had been with Jesus CHAP. XIV Of the Christian form of Baptism 1. HAD Christianity been nothing else but Natural Religion yet this account might have been given why we should have made a formal recognition of the Blessed Trinity at our foederal initiation into it but because our Religion is a Mystery of Godliness and Baptism a Mystical Rite of that Religion we are further to observe that God having given us as far as is possible an ocular demonstration of the Trinity by sending the Son and the Spirit visibly into the World Cap. 10.8 our Saviour Jesus Christ being the second Person in the Mystical Trinity and in that state commanding all Mankind to be Baptized in the Name of his Father Himself and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. his and his Fathers Spirit it is plain by this Command he obliges all formally and primarily into the confession of the Christian Mystical Trinity but noâ— of the Natural Trinity saving as in consequence thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 and because Baptism does now save us upon this Recognition heartily made the acknowledgment of this Mystical Trinity by this institution of Christ is become necessary that we may be instated with the peace of God in the Rights of the Divine Kingdom 2. This is evident from the very foundation of the Christian Religion which is that Jesus is the Christ for he that believes that Jesus is not the Christ is lost beyond all Redemption 1 Cor. 3.11 but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ believes that Jesus Christ is one and the same Person And he that believes that Jesus the Son of Man is Christ the Son of God does believe that the Son of Man and the Son of God is one and the same Person and because this Jesus is so the Son of Man as to be himself Man and this Christ so the Son of God as to be himself God therefore God and Man is one and the same Person even Jesus Christ And because this same Person that is God and Man is so God as to be the Son of God therefore there is another Person beside even his Father that is God In the confession of Jesus to be the Christ Cap 1â— 8 9. there is included then the acknowledgement of two Personal Subsistences of the Godhead and because the one of these is in Personal Union with Man therefore both he himself and his Father are Persons of the Mystical Trinity 3. But because God and Man was not always united in one Person it is to be considered by what Power this Union was effected If he that is to be Baptized knows not he is first to be instructed before he may be Baptized yea though he hath had some initiative engagement to believe in Jesus he is to be taught and baptized again as the case of those Ephesians shews Asts 19. But should the person demanding Baptism be so profligate an admirer of the power of darkness as to aver that the Infernal Powers did unite the Godhead into this personal Union with Man and then Inaugurate this Person into his Office by a visible descent upon him and authorize him to teach the Doctrine which he taught and impower him to work Miracles for its confirmation and afterwards in ostentation of his power over God and Man first ignominiously put him to death and then raise him from the dead c. this heighth of flagitious obloquy and horrid blasphemy being never to be forgiven he is never to be baptized but utterly rejected as an eternally unpardonable Reprobate But if the Union of God and Man in one Person be acknowledged to be effected by the Divine Power Cap. 11 6. Câ—p. 1â— 10 then the Holy Ghost which is the Divine Power thus operating is the Spirit of the Father of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and consequently is a Mystical Person of the Blessed Trinity Therefore our Confession of Jesus to be the Christ does contain in it the acknowledgment of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity And this is the Faith which the Church in all Ages is to contend for into which it is to baptize all its visible Members and to explicate in its Symbols or Creeds For the shortest abridgment or foundation of the Christian Faith is Jesus is the Christ The next is the Mystery of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Baptismal Stipulation and the next the Creeds 4. The practice of this Faith is briefly deduced thus Since the natural Trinity is become Mystical by the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God Cap. 10. Cap. 12. and thereupon the Universal Kingdom of God is put under the government of God in that Mystical state of the Divine Nature wherein as such God the Son made Man is the first in the Address the same honour therefore belongs to the Son as to the Father And in the retrospect since Christ says that the Father hath totally committed the government of the Divine Kingdom to the Son John 5. John 5.22 23. and that because he is the Son of Man that is the word made flesh and thereupon all are to honour the Son even as they honour the Father and that he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father this duty supposes the belief of the Mystical Trinity as that belief inferred this duty For we cannot understand how to go about the discharging this duty unless we believe the Father and the Son either to be two several equal Gods or being they are two different Persons to be each equally one and the same God For to honour one Person in my heart as I honour another whose personal perfections at the same time I believe to be inferiour to the others is such a thought as no Mans Mind can think though â—e would never so fain But every one honours the Son as he honours the Father who believes that the Father is God and that the Son is the same God conceived and with infinite truth and reality living and subsisting himself in that conception and that
he is nevertheless God for his being Man For it is plain such a one cannot deny the Divine Being of the Son but he must deny the Being of God the Father or deny any perfection to be in the Son but he must deny the same of the Father Therefore according to the reason of the Mystical Divine Kingdom and the Testimony of our Saviour This equal honouring of God the Father and the Son is the Moral and Religious form of all Christian Worship and Service Which proves that though the Doctrine of the Christian Trinity be speculative in the disquisition of it as even Justice and Temperance are yet it is such a speculation that without the attainment of that Faith in our Minds we can perform no Religious Duty truly Christian a Christian Life it self being nothing else but the Praxis upon the belief of the Kingdom of God as governed in the hand of Christ by the Mystical Trinity We are then to receive the institutions of Christ not as the Ordinances of a Moses a Mediatory Angel or a Vicegerent but as the Orders of a Lord in his own House Heb. 3.2 3 4. which is the whole Family of Heaven and Earth 5. Having pointed out the practical use of this Doctrine in general I need not descend to the particulars It s other uses are first the Political for the re-establishing the state of the Divine Kingdom by reconciling all things in Heaven and Earth so that the part that had made a revolt might upon satisfaction given be re-instated with the peace of God into the Blessed Society and all things in Heaven and Earth become one And 2dly the Spiritual for redintegration by physical or if you please supernatural efficiency quickning all things with such Divine Life as is requisite to the happiness of the Subjects of Gods Kingdom that are in his favour But I desire to be excused from medling with these because the Antitrinitarians generally now denying the Sacrifice of Christs death whereon the political force does depend and scarcely confessing the Resurrection of the Body which is the most conspicuous effect of the reâ—integrating vertue of the Divine Life in Christ I intend not to enter into any Dispute upâ—â— these Points yet if I might not displease them I would as a Frienâ— remind them that as I hope it does now competently appear 〈◊〉 their opposition against the Trinity is grounded upon a Metaphysâ—â— presumption of theirs wherein they take it for â—â—anted that thâ—â—â—pream Spirit must needs subsist only in one real Subsistence fo◠〈◊〉 Reason because it is impossible for Matter or any Created Spiriâ—â— have any more which now is found to be no reason at all 〈◊〉 doubt not but upon due examination they will find that their deâ—â— of Christ's Satisfaction is built upâ—â— a false System in Morality 〈◊〉 Politicks and their scruple about 〈◊〉 Resurrection upon an arbiâ—â—â—â—â— and insufficient Hypothesis in Physicks 6. But whatever they do since we have found that the Reason 〈◊〉 Nature of the Thing and the Testimony of the Scripture the Myâ—â—â—ry in the Incarnation of the Son of God God manifest in the Flâ—â—â— and the Obligation of our Vow in Baptism do all concur to conâ—â—â— us in the belief of the Blessed Trinity let us who have attaineâ— the acknowledgment of the Truth as it is in Jesus be sure to hold 〈◊〉 Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience and then we shall both â—â—ceive the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God and Communion of the Holy Ghost and likewise give Glory to God Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons God Holy Blessed and Eternal For his is the Kingdom Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever Amen FINIS
delivers her Faith is justified by these the sole Authentick Judges of such Controversies and for the truth of the thing refers her self to the Authority of God in Nature and Scripture 3. Now though this be abundantly sufficient for this verbal Controversie yet we may observe that in accord with this sense of the word Person the Scripture it self teaches us in many cases to distinguish betwixt a Man and his Person as when it says both that God accepts no Man's Person yet that in every Nation he accepts the Man that feareth God and worketh Righteousness Whereby we learn that God accepts the righteous man yet accepts not the righteous man's person I observe then every Spiritual Nature is voluntary and no Nature whatsoever is capable of any Personal Subsistence at all that is not voluntary which being premised it is easie to observe that according to the Classical and Scriptural use a Person does not precisely signifie the Being of a voluntary Nature but a voluntary Nature subsisting with a Reciprocal Aspect upon somewhat as it were mutually fancying one another in which Reciprocal Aspect the voluntary Being is considered directly in no other than its voluntary Capacity Thus it is in all persons made by Prosopopaeia in all Mimical Histrionical Hypocritical and all other persons whose Personality is fictitious so it is in all real persons both necessary and arbitrary in Civil Political persons in Bodies Politick that is one person consisting of many Men in Moral and Natural persons Now the Three Persons of the Trinity are plainly of this last sort being persons from the nature of the thing in it self For the Divine Nature being spiritual that is a voluntary Being and subsisting as has been shewed in three real distinct subsistences it has in every one of these three subsistences a distinct reciprocal aspect upon it self in its other two real subsistences and therefore the Deity subsisting in any one of these real subsistences is a real Person and consequently the Deity is in himself three several distinct Persons in the propriety of the word Person Nor would it be otherwise were the account to be given not in the antient Native but in the present English use of the word Person wherein the reciprocal aspect always implyed in Personality is that of a thing upon it self as when we say every Mans Person is himself For according to this acception of the word if we should say the Father is himself the Son is himself and the Holy Ghost is himself then every ones self here is the Person of him whose self it is Therefore the same difference that is betwixt the Father himself and the Son himself and the Holy Ghost himself the same there is betwixt the three Persons but the Father is not the Son but as has been shewed is really distinct therefore the Person of the Father which is himself is not the Person of the Son C. 5.9 10. consequently here are two really distinct Persons and the Holy Ghost by the like reason is the third 4. And the Course which the Latine Church took to establish the Ecclesiastical use of the word when it began to be questioned does very little if at all differ from this account Hypostasis englished Person Heb. 1. is of Divine Authority and Persona did intend the very same thing in the Latine Church For Hypostasis signifies the subsistence of a Nature or Being in its Station or State and since it is plainly apply'd Heb. 1. to a Voluntary Nature whose State is Personal the Divine Authority of the Greek warrants the use of the Latine as an Original does a Translation done with due allowance of Idioms This appears by the method used afterward on this occasion For to express the real subsistence of the Being in its state the Latine Schools used the term suppositum which hath in its make a manifest reference to the Family of the Greek Hypostasis And because this was the Hypostasis of a Spiritual Nature which is always Personal to answer that voluntariness of the suppositum they added rationale and so defined a Person suppositum rationale which as they understood rational was very allowable For the Schools intended their Definition of Person should reach not only Minds Incorporate but likewise Mind Coelestial And they likewise generally Taught that Angels had their knowledge not by ratiocination collecting from what they know already the perception of what they know not but by intuition therefore they here took rationale not in the imperfect sense for the faculty of reasoning but for the conscious perception of the formal reasons which are the very Nature or Essence of things And in this sense not only Angels are rational but likewise God himself is most eminently rational accordingly Cicero attributes to the Divine Nature Summa Ratio According to this intention the Schools definition of a Person agrees to every Being that is a Person and to none else Howbeit I have thought the Personal Capacity of any Being consists in its voluntariness more immediately than its rationality because the chief if not only consideration of a Person respects decent undecent praise dispraise right wrong merit demerit misery happiness now all these have their proximate aspect on the Will and not the Reason I confess when any of these are concerned in a Persons actions consideration uses to be had whether the actions were done wittingly or not but this is not enquired after for it self or directly but only as a sign of their being done willingly For should a Man contrary to all reason give away his Estate from his own most intirely Beloved Son to his greatest Enemy in the World the Right in Nature will pass by his meer Will though he declares that wittingly and without any reason and contrary to all reason but his own Will he so disposed of it I have therefore given the account of personality not from the rationality but voluntariness of the Suppositum though I know no inconvenience in the School Definition but that we cannot so expediently argue upon it and for my dissent in such a formality I presume that is enough In short the first Consideration does vindicate the Churches Right to the use of the Word the second proves that she used her Right well and the third that it is not now in the Power of the Church honestly to disuse it as being agreeable in its proper significancy to the reason of the thing and from all we learn that in the three distinct real Subsistences there are three distinct real Personalities I shall therefore conclude here the Natural Evidence whereby I suppose it is sufficiently manifest that the Churches acknowledgment of three Persons and one God is so far from being Contradictious to reason that the denial of it is repugnant to the condition and reason of the Divine Nature 5. And though by this means the Adversaries Artillery is turned upon themselves yet it is done with no hostile
the Gospel teaches Indeed whilst the Scriptures deliver the Doctrine of the Mystical Trinity they do as I have said insinuate the state of the natural Trinity but so they instruct us in almost all things in Nature whilst they teach us their relation to the Mystical and Sacerdotal state of the Divine Kingdom On the other hand we see the knowledge of the Natural Trinity which we learn from the perfections of the Divine Nature does so lead us to the Faith of the Mystical as to leave that Christian Mystery to be wholly of supernatural Revelation For the Mystery I say the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity rests wholly upon the ground and pillar of Truth which is confessed to be the great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh so that our Faith of this Mystery it is plain stands not in the Wisdom or Reasonings of Men but in the veracity of Gods word This is sufficient to justifie the distinction which I make betwixt the Mystical and Natural Trinity for this is but analogous with the reason of that difference which is betwixt Christian and Natural Vertue for though the Natural form of vertue may be understood by Natural Light yet the Christian form cannot which includes all the Vertuousness of the Natural and somewhat more which is likewise praise-worthy CAP. XI Of Christs Humanity 1. WE must confess if Christs humanity had been wholly Created anew by its being conceived one with the word it would then have been nothing of kin either with Man or with any other thing in the World Whereas we are assured he that is the word came into that World which had been made by him John 1.10 1 Joh. 4.17 and we are in this World even as he was in this World his Humane Nature was not therefore strictly Created but made of some substance preexistent in the World 2. Neither was his Manhood made out of any thing that is not of humane race for then he had had no more cognation with that Mankind that is in the World then with any other parts of this mundane System but we are taught Heb. 2.14 that because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same he has therefore a prime relation to us and as such Heb 3.11 he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren 3. If Christs Humane Nature then be made out of that one blood whereof are all the Nations of men he is the Son of man and is made so of God by Nature and therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.5 as the Author of Nature produced this Manhood 4. But tho it be God that does produce this Human Nature yet if he do it by the sole powers of Natural Ordination according to the Laws establish'd before in the World for the Production of Mankind he will not thereby carry off any corrupt or inordinate sensuality which passes according to course in the natural constitution of things and tho we should suppose that the Personality of this individual Manhood is not subsistent because of the personal Union with the Divine Logos yet that of it self changes not this Human Nature in its dispositions and therefore this Nature would indeed be like ours in its Causes and Constitution but it would be too like us because it would not be undefiled Whereas we know this Nature was Holy and Harmless and Undefiled Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 1.19 that it might be offered without spot to God as a Lamb without blemish and without spot It was not therefore solely produced by the powers of Nature 5. If the Manhood wherewith God is one be produced by the Powers of Nature so far as they will reach with rectitude and by Divine Power superadded to supply what is defective then this Manhood hath all that is really and essentially natural to us and so is related naturally to us and the supernatural Divine Operation takes away all the depravation of Nature Whereby it comes to pass that though he was in all things to be like unto us that he might have the feeling of our Infirmities and Temptations Heb. 2.17 Heb. 4.15 Heb. 7.27 28. yet he had no sin at all for our High-Priest can have no Infirmities or Sins of his own to offer for according to the fundamental constitution of the Divine Kingdom though Moses his Law allowed sinful Men to be Priests and to offer first for themselves and then for the People 6. Wherefore God in framing the humanity of Christ did continue the powers of Nature to work by their own stated Rules and without exalting them by a supernatural efficiency added thereto did produce an effect in the world which is beyond the force of Natural Powers Now all such effects as are produced by the force of Natural Powers and Divine energy added thereto are ever in Scripture peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.4 Thus when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters or liquid such effects followed as the powers of water are naturally uncapable of producing So both Jesus his and his Disciples miraculous operations upon the powers of Nature and all supernatural Graces are peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost for all these diversities of Operations worketh one and the same Holy Spirit by the personal disposition of his own Will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. 7. This Manhood become one with the Son of God is peculiarly therefore the work of the Holy Ghost and because it was effected by the Holy Ghost coming upon a Woman and the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was born of her Luk. 1.35 Mat. 1.20 therefore this is a Child conceived by the Holy Ghost and has that Woman for its Mother 8. It is also the Child of Adam Luk. 3.38 Gen. 3.20 Mat. 1. and of Eve the Mother of all Living and of Noah And if God had said that it should be by the descent of any particular Line as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah Jesse David it will be the Child of these Progenitours and such Predictions and Promises are Divine Characteristicks of the individual Person of Gods Son become Man both to the Ages preceding and following his Birth 9. The depravation of our Nature being removed not by the natural efficacy but supernatural efficiency of the Holy Ghost there will be no more reason to assert this Woman to have been her self born without all inordinate sensuality because she was the Mother of this Child than to affirm the same of all his Pro-parents in the direct Line up to Adam 10. But whether she is to be called the Mother of God is a question of names and strife of words for as much as there is a sense wherein she is and another wherein she is not therefore
it hath a Substantial Subsistence that Nature is very properly begotten in such a Subsistence by that Conception 4. Wherefore since it hath appeared by the Natural Reason of the Supream Being that the first Person is the Deity in its Parental Subsistence and the second in the Filial Chap. 5.14 And the Scripture teaches the first Person is the Father and the second the Son we are hereby assured that the Scriptural and the Natural Account of the Trinity are the same in the general only Nature teaches the bare thing as in it self and the Scripture in its Religious state Having said this to justifie the main of the process I shall now proceed to Evince that the particular Characters of the three Persons are the very same in Scripture with those I have delivered from the Light of Nature But I must first advise the Reader that I am not now so much to prove the Trinity from Scripture which has been done abundantly by many others but to compare the Natural Doctrine with the Scripture and shew their accord in all the branches of each which I shall do a briefly as I can 5. Reason taught us that the Divine mind in its first Subsistence does Subsist Conceiving the Divine Nature Chap 4.10 Cap. 5.10 this is confirmed by the Holy Oracles of the Father to the Son Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee We learn from the Divine Nature that the first Person is really distinct from the second Chap. 5.9 10 and we learn from the Scripture also that besides the Son that bears witness of himself there is another even the Father that bears witness of him and these are the two distinct witnesses But yet the reason of the thing assures us that it is one and the same Divine Nature that Subsists in these two distinct and real Subsistences Chap. 5.12 And accordingly Divine Revelation teaches us I and my Father are one ◠one nature or one thing 6. Natural Light instructs us that the second Subsistence of the God head is a Substantial Subsistence Chap. 5.9 10. The Holy Scriptures conformably affirms That in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily that is Substantially The Son himself is Naturally God even God by himself and that by Nature Chap. 5.11 13. The Scripture attests the same styling him God even God blessed over all and warns us of the future appearance of the great God even our Saviour Jesus Christ That the Deity in its second Substantial Subsistence is the Son and that not by Adoptive Reputation but Real Generation appeared from the nature of the thing Chap. 5.14 and this is confirmed by the Testimony of Gods word which says This day have I begotten thee That the Son conceives his own Divine Nature is a Natural Document and likewise that this is neither more nor less than his own Essential Subsistence Chap. 5.15 Both these the Sacred Dialect teaches declaring that he Lives in him is Life And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given the Son to have Life in himself The Son begotten of the Father is one and Eternally the same as reason teaches Chap. 5.16 and the Religious institution stiles him therefore the only begotten of the Father The Son Conceives the Divine Nature but with a Conception that do's not Procreate another Subsistence of the Deity as was shewed Cap. 5.15 And accordingly as the Scripture teaches that there is but one which is therefore the only begotten of the Father so it teaches there is but one the same that is the only begoten Son of God confirming the Natural Doctrine that there is but one only Substantial Subsistence of the Divine Nature by any Conception of it whatsoever But yet nevertheless the Fathers Conception and the Sons Conception are equally creative of all other things as is taught Chap. 5.17 which the Scripture witnesses For the Father worketh hitherto and I work and whatsoever the Father doth the same the Son doth also All things are of the Father and by the Son all things were made that were made and without him was not any thing made that was made He laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of his hands and in him all things consist Thus we see in all points the Principles of Natural Truth and Instituted Religion do harmoniously accord But let us with the like brevity touch the other Scriptural Characters of the Son and observe how exactly they are conform to the natural condition of his Person for since the Essence of any Being as conceived is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God The Word therefore the Deity subsisting in Conception is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently this second Subsistence of the Divine Nature both according to the reason of its Nature and of the Religious Style will either be turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Emphatically the WORD or else Explicitely the WORD OF GOD because Reason teaches that this is the Divine Nature in a Substantial Subsistence Cap. 5.10 This will be properly signified by affirming the Word it self to be God and that in it is Life all which St. John distinctly takes notice of 1 John 1.23 Telling us likewise Explicitly Rev. 19.15 That THE WORD OF GOD is his Name or the Character given him from the condition of his Person 2. TRUTH The reality of the Divine Nature Subsisting in the second Person consists in the Essential truth of the Divine minds Conception as was shewed Cap. 5.10 This person is therefore with peculiar respect to this condition of his Being to be called the TURTH as we read he is I am the TRVTH THY Word is TRUTH And St. John inculcates this so vehemently that it 's manifest he puts a special remark upon it that we might not omit to take particular notice of it 1 Joh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given unto us an understanding that we might know him that is TRUE and we are in him that is TRUE even in his Son Jesus Christ he is the TRUE GOD and Eternal Life 3. For the like cause this person will be styled the Light as he oft is that is the intellectual Light of a Conscious Life seeing his Subsistence is in the perspicacious Conception of the Divine Mind as the Nature of the thing teaches Cap. 5.10 4. And because what is perfectly conceived is thereby thoroughly understood and it is an infinite wisdom to understand all the perfections of the Divine Nature and their true excellencies for God is all in all Therefore this Wisdom conceiving is the personal Wisdom of the Father but then this Wisdom Subsisting Substantially by being conceived is the Son or it is Sapientia nata as St. Austine speaks distinguishingly after an Elaborate disquisition of this matter And as I have shewed the Reason if the Supream Spirit does teach this Cap. 5.10 11 12 13 14. so it is