much questioned but that the Revelation in both Points is clear enough if the things be not impossible As to that of the Trinity I have already shewed in a former Letter That there is therein no Impossibility but that what in one consideration are Three which we commonly call three Persons may yet in another consideration be One God I shall now proceed to shew That neither is there any Impossibility as to the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this consists of two Branches That of his being born of a Virgin and that of the Hypostatical Union as it is commonly called of the Humane Nature with the Second Person of the Sacred Trinity As to the former of the two there can be no pretence of Impossibility For the same God who did at first make Adam of the Dust of the Earth without either Father or Mother and who made Eve of Adam's Rib without a Mother at least however Adam may be fansied as a Father and who shall at the last day recall the Dead out of the Dust may doubtless if he so please cause a Woman without the help of Man to conceive a child There is certainly no Impossibility in nature why it may not by an Omnipotent Agent be brought to pass And when the Scripture declares it so to be there is no reason if we believe the Scripture to disbelieve the Thing It is no more than when Christ cured the blind man's eyes with day and spittle Or when he said Lazarus come forth and he did so Or when God said Let there be Light and there was Light And of the whole Creation He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast No more than when he made Aaron's Rod a dry Stick to bud and blossom and yield Almonds Or what is implied in that Let not the Eunuch say I am a dry tree And not much more than when God gave Abraham a Son in his old age and notwithstanding the deadness of Sarah's womb I was about to say and it is not much amiss if I do it is not much more than what pretty often happens amongst men when God gives both Sexes to the same person such there are and have been and I think there is one yet living who was first as a Woman married to a Man and is since as a Man married to a Woman and what hinders then but that God if he please may mingle the Effects of both these Sexes in the Same Body A little alteration in the structure of the Vessels would do it For when there is in the same body and so near Semen virile muliebre what hinders but there might be a passage for them to mix And Plants we know do propagate without a fellow though it be otherwise in Animals And whereas this is said to be by the Holy Ghost coming upon her and the Power of the Highest over shadowing the Blessed Virgin it is not much unlike that of the Spirit of God's Incubation or moving upon the face of the Waters So that as to this Point here is nothing Impossible nothing Incredible The other Particular as to the Hypostatical Union How God and Man can be united in one Person may seem more difficult for us to apprehend because we understand so little of the Divine Essence and consequently are less able to determine what is and what is not consistent with it And when all is done if we be never so certain that there is such an Union yet it will be hard to say How it is But we have no reason from thence to conclude the thing Impossible because we know not How it is done Because there be many other things in nature which we are sure to Be of which we are almost at as great a loss as to the manner How they be as in the present case Solomon as wise as lie was and how well so ever skilled in Natural Philosophy doth yet acknowledge himself in many things to be at a loss when he would search out the bottom of Natural things and even when he made it his Business so to do When says he I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth Then I beheld all the work of God that a man cannot find out the work of God that is done under the sun Because though a man labour to seek it out yet he shall not find it Yea further though a wise man seek to know it yet shall he not be able to find it Eccles. 8. 16 17. And shall we then say of the deep things of God The thing is impossible because we cannot find it out And if we consider how many puzzling Questions God puts to Iob in the 37 38 39 40 41. Chapters of Iob even in natural things we may very well as Iob did abhor our selves in dust and ashes and be ashamed of our ignorant curiosity and confess as he doth I have uttered what I understood not things too wonful for me which I know not when he found he had talked like a fool while he thought to be wise and would measure the Power and Wisdom of God by the narrow limits of our understanding And might come to Iob's Resolution when he had well weighed the matter I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be withholden from thee Job 42. 2 3 6. The wind bloweth where it listeth not where you please to appoint it thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth saith Christ to Nicodemus But shall we therefore conclude The Wind doth not blow because we know not how or whence it bloweth Or that God cannot command the Winds because we cannot We should rather conclude The Wind doth certainly Blow because we hear the sound of it though we know neither How nor Whence And though they do not obey us yet the Wind and the Seas obey him Now as he there further argues If when he tells us of earthly things we do not apprehend it how much more if he tell us of Heavenly things of the deep things of God But to come a little nearer to the business consider we a little the Union of our own Soul and Body 'T is hardly accountable nor perhaps conceivable by us who are mostly conversant with material things How a Spiritual Immaterial Being such as our Souls are and capable of a separate existence of its own should inform actuate and manage a material substance such as is that of our Body and be so firmly United as to be One Person with it By what handle can a Spirit Intangible take hold of a Tangible Material Body and give Motion to it Especially if we should admit Lucretius's Notion Tangere vel Tangi nisi Corpus nulla potest res which he repeats almost as often as Homer doth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who
doth thence repute it impossible for an Immaterial Being to move a Body But we who believe the Soul to be a a Spirit know it to be possible Much more is it possible for God though a Being infinitely Act. 17 25 27 28. more pure who giveth to all Life and Breath and All things and in whom we Live and Move and have our Being and who is not far from every one of us It would be hard for us to give an intelligible account either how God moves all things or how our Soul moves the Body yet we are sure it is so That a Body may move a Body seems not so strange to apprehend for we see one Engine move another But by what Mechanism shall a Spirit give Motion to a Body when at rest or Stop it when in Motion or Direct its Motions this way or that way It would be thought strange that a Thought of ours should Move a stone And it is as hard to conceive did we not see it daily How a Thought should put our Body in Motion and another Thought stop it again Yet this we see done every day though we know not How And it is almost the same thing in other Animals And more yet when an Angel assumes a Body There are none of these things we know How and yet we know they are done I shall press this a little farther Our Soul we all believe doth after Death continue to exist in a separate condition from the Body And I think we have reason to believe also that it will continue to Act as an Intellectual Agent not to remain in a stupid sensless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Else I see not why Paul should desire to depart or to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better rather than to abide in Flesh. For while he abides in the Flesh he hath some enjoyment of Christ as well as an opportunity of doing some Service which is more desirable if when he is departed he have none at all And how can he then say That to Dye is gain Whether the Soul thus separated shall be said to have a Subsistence as well as an Existence Or whether it may be properly said then to be an intire Person as the Soul and Body are before Death and after the Resurrection I will not Dispute because that were to contend about Words and such Words so signify as we please to define them and bear such a Sence as we please to put upon them But it is as the Angels are an Intellectual Spiritual Agent and we use to say Actiones sunt Suppositorum and Suppositum Rationale is either a Person or so near a Person that it would be so if men please to call it so And the Spiritual Being which doth now separately Exist shall at the Resurrection resume a Body into the same Personality with it self and shall with it become one Person as before Death it had been Now if a Spiritual Immaterial Intellectual Being separately existent by it self and separately acting as an Intellectual Agent may at the Resurrection assume or reassume a Material Corporeal Being Heterogeneous to it self into the same Personality with it self or so as to become one Person with it while yet it self remains Spiritual as before What should hinder for it is but one step further but that a Divine Person may assume Humanity into the same personality with it self without ceasing to be a Divine Person as before it was If it be said That Person and Personality in the Sacred Trinity are not just the same as what we so call in other cases It is granted and by these words which are but Metaphorical we mean no more but somewhat analogous thereunto and which because of such analogy we so call as knowing no better words to use instead thereof According as we use the words Father Son generate beget and the like in a metaphorical sence when applied to God For no words borrowed from Created Beings can signifie just the same when applied to God as when they were applied to Men but somewhat analogous thereunto And if the Soul though we know not How may and do at the Resurrection assume a Body so as to become the same Person with it self though neither the Body be thereby made a Soul nor the Soul a Body but remain as before that a Body and this a Soul though now united into one Person Why may not a Divine Person assume Humanity so to be what is analogous to what we call a Person the Humanity remaining Humanity and the Divinity remaining Divinity though both united in One Christ though we do not particularly know How We should be at a great loss if to answer an Atheist or one who doth not believe the Scriptures we were put to it to tell him How God made the World Of what Matter With what Tools or Engines or How a Pure Spirit could produce Matter where none was He would tell us perhaps Ex nihilo nihil in nihilum nil posse reverti Where nothing is nothing can be made and what once is though it may be changed can never become Nothing And will never believe the World was made but rather was from all Eternity except we can tell him How it was made Now if in this case we may satisfie our selves though perhaps it will not satisfie him by saying God made it but we know not How The same must satisfie us here That Christ was Incarnate God and Man we are certain for so the Scripture doth assure us as well as That God made the World But How God made the World or How the Son of God assumed Humanity we cannot tell Nor indeed is it fit for us to enquire farther than God is pleased to make known to us All further than this are but the subtile Cob-webs of our Brain Fine but not Strong Witty Conjectures How it may be rather than a clear Resolution How it is Another Objection I have met with to which the Objecters must be contented with the same Answer We know it Is but we know not How It would be endless for us and too great a Curiosity to think our selves able fully to explicate all the Hidden things of God The Objection is this Since the Three Persons cannot be Divided How is it possible that One of them can Assume Humanity and not the other And why the Second Person and not the First or Third As to the Question Why I say It is so because so it pleased God And he giveth not account of his Matters He is not accountable to us why he so willeth As to the Question How is it Possible I see no difficulty in that at all The Persons are Distinguished though not Divided As in the Divine Attributes God's Justice and Mercy are Distinguishable though in God they cannot be Divided And accordingly some things are said to be Effects of his Justice others of his Mercy So the Power and Will of God
the phrase Filioque that they are so ready to quarrel at this Creed rather than the Nicene but from some other reason and most likely because the Doctrine of the Trinity is here more fully expressed than in that at which the Socinian is most offended I observe also That these Personal Properties are expressed just by the Scripture words Beget Begotten Proceeding without affixing any sence of our own upon them but leaving them to be understood in such sence as in the Scripture they are to be understood Agreeable to that modest Caution which is proper in such Mysteries It follows So there is One Father not three Fathers One Son not three Sons One Holy Ghost not three Holy Ghosts And in this Trinity none is afore or after other That is not in Time though in Order None is greater or less than another But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly persons or properly persons and co-eternal each with other and co-equal Having thus finished these particular Explications or Illustrations concerning the Trinity without any condemning Clause of those who think otherwise other than what is there included namely that if this be True the contrary must be an Errour He then resumes the General as after a long Parenthesis So that in all things as is aforesaid the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be Worshipped And to this General annexeth this Ratification He therefore that will he saved must thus think of the Trinity or thus ought to think of the Trinity or Let him thus think of the Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to this I suppose we do all agree who believe the Doctrine of the Trinity to be true For if the thing be true those who would be saved ought to believe it He then proceeds to the Doctrine of the Incarnation Which he declares in general as necessary to salvation Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ. Which is no more than that of Iohn 3. 36. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And therefore we may safely say this also There being no other Name under Heaven whereby we must be saved neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4. 12. After this as before he had done of the Doctrine of the Trinity he gives first a general Assertion of his being God and Man and then a particular Illustration of his Incarnation For the right Faith is that we believe and confess That our Lord Iesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man What follows is a further Explication of this General God of the substance of the Father begotten before the Worlds And Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World Perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable Soul and humane Flesh subsisting Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and Inferiour to the Father as touching his Manhood Who although he be God and Man yet he is not Two but One Christ. One not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God One altogether not by Confusion of Substance but by Unity of Person For as the reasonable Soul and Flesh is one Man so God and Man is One Christ. And thus far as to the Description of Christ's Person and Natures The Particulars of which I take to be all true and therefore such as ought to be believed when understood But such many of them as persons of ordinary capacities and not acquainted with School Terms may not perhaps understand Nor was it I presume the meaning of the Pen-man of this Creed that it should be thought necessary to Salvation that every one should particularly understand all this but at most that when understood it should not be disbelieved That in the general being most material That Iesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man the rest being but Explicatory of this Which Explications though they be all true are not attended with any such clause as if without the explicite knowledge of all these a man could not be saved He then proceeds to what Christ hath done for our Salvation and what he is to do further at the last Judgment with the Consequents thereof Who Suffered for our Salvation Descended into Hell Rose again the third day from the Dead That Clause of descending into Hell or Hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we meet with here and in the Apostles Creed as it is now read is not in the Nicene Creed nor was it anciently as learned Men seem to be agreed in what we call the Apostles Creed When or how it first came in I cannot well tell Nor will I undertake here to determine the sence of it The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek Hades which here we translate Hell by which word we now-a-days use to denote the Place of the Damned was anciently used to signifie sometime the Grave sometime the Place State or Condition of the Dead whether good or bad And when Iob prays Iob 14. 13. O that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol as in the Hebrew or in Hades as in the Greek Septuagint certainly he did not desire to be in what we now call Hell but rather as we there translate it in the Grave or the condition of those that are Dead But what it should signifie here is not well agreed among learned Men. The Papists generally because that is subservient to some of their beloved Tenents would have it here to signifie the Place of the Damned and would have it thought that the Soul of Christ during the time his Body lay in the Grave was amongst the Devils and Damned Souls in Hell Others do with more likelyhood take it for the Grave or condition of the Dead and take this of Christ's descending into Hades to be the same with his being Buried or lying in the Grave The rather because in the Nicene Creed where is mention of his being Buried there is no mention of his descent into Hell or Hades And here in the Athanasian Creed where mention is made of this there is no mention of his being Buried as if the same were meant by both phrases which therefore need not be repeated And though in the Apostles Creed there be now mention of both yet anciently it was not so that of his descent into Hell being not to be sound in ancient Copies of the Apostles Creed If it signifie any thing more than his being Buried it seems most likely to import his Continuance in the Grave or the State and Condition of the Dead for some time And the words which follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say nothing of his coming out of Hell but only of his rising from the Dead But the words here stand undetermined to any particular sence