not My Kingdom is not of this World but from this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. My Kingdom is not owing to Men but to God's own appointment I am a King indeed but this Kingdom I received from God's own Hands My Kingdom is not from hence as he explains it but from above Acts 2. 36. God has made that same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ i. e. King And chap. 17. 31. He has appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by the MAN whom he has ordained 1 Cor. 15. 24 28 Then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father Then shall the Son be also subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all This I take to be the true account of Christ's Kingdom according to Scripture Thus God performed the Oath which he sware to David even by raising up an Horn of Salvation in his House Luke 1. 69. Thus the Kingdom of Christ who is the Seed of David shall last as long as the Sun and Moon But we no where find in Scripture that this Kingdom is bestowed upon him as he is the Eternal Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity St. Paul was so far from believing that that discoursing of the principal Act of Christ's Kingly Power and Authority viz. his judging the World he says that God has appointed a Day to perform this by the MAN whom he has ordained Acts 17. 31. In a Word as Christ has been exalted by God and has received a Kingdom from him So when the appointed End cometh he shall deliver it up to God and remain SUBJECT to him as St. Paul expresly teaches 1 Cor. 15. 28. These two things demonstratively prove that Christ is a King barely as a Man and that his Mediatory Kingdom so much spoken of by our Author is a Chimera I proceed now to his other Answers to this Objection That Christ knows not the day of Judgment He replies pag. 177. Christ in that Text speaks of himself as Man St. Matthew does not mention the Son which shews that the Son is included in St. Matthew's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None or no Man and therefore these Texts must speak of Christ only as a Man I answer so they do for he is no more than a Man St. Mark tells us that Christ as the Son of God knows not that Day and Hour Now our Author will have Christ's Sonship founded in his Eternal Generation from the Father and that he is the Son not as he is Man but as he is God so he saith at pag. 166. and elsewhere This is indeed a very easy distinction were it but true but Trinitarians are the Authors of it not Scripture In St. Mark 's Gradation Christ is named after Men and Angels to shew his present Excellence and Exaltation above them but in St. Matthew that very Son of God who is above Men and Angels is included in the None or no Man Thus this glorious Title of the Son of God denotes here Christ Man As the Father in St. Mark is God so the Son of God who knows not that Day and Hour is Christ Man who is so stiled in all the New Testament without any respect to a second Nature CHAP. IV. THE sixth Argument in the Brief History runs thus God giveth what and to whom He pleases He needs not the aid of any other He intreateth not for Himself or his People He cannot die and deriveth his Power from none but Himself But 't is certain that the Lord Christ could not himself without the previous Ordination of the Father confer the prime Dignities of Heaven or of the Church He placed his Safety in his Father's Presence and Help he prayed often and fervently to the Father both for himself and for his Disciples he died and was raised from the Dead by the Father after his Resurrection he received from another all that great Power which he now injoys To this he answers Christ interceeds with no Creature receives Authority from no Creature c. nor from any God neither who is separated from himself For he is One God with the Father and the Holy Ghost That he interceeds with the Father proves indeed that he is a distinct Person from the Father not that he is not one God with him But why I pray does it not prove that he is not one God with the Father For if he intercedes with God can he be that very God with whom he intercedes if he is what need is there for him to intercede Besides this Author says before pag. 167 169 170. The Three Divine Persons can never act separately they have but One Energy and whatever is done they do it by one Individual Act. Now I hope he will grant that Prayer and Intercession are real Acts or Actions I infer therefore when the Son intercedes the Father and Holy Spirit must intercede too Thus Intercession and Prayer are not peculiar to the Son but there are in the Godhead three Intercessors three Beseeching Persons Whom what Person or God does this Trinity beseech Good God! how long shall it be that Men will love Darkness rather than Light and prefer a Novel and Unintelligible Gospel before the old plain and easy One Pag. 183. He says For God to make a Creature Advocate and Mediator is to give a Creature Authority over himself which cannot be for it is a Debasement to the Divine Nature and a reproach to the Divine Wisdom it is as if God did not better know how to dispose of his Grace and Mercy than any Creature does But why so has our Author forgot or is he to learn that Moses thô a meer Creature was a Mediator between God and his People I am sure St. Paul calls him so in these Words at Gal. 3. 19. The Law was ordained by Angels in the Hand of a Mediator And at Deut. 5. 5. He stood between the Lord and them to shew them the Word of the Lord. And the same Apostle tells us that the MAN Jesus Christ is a Mediator between God and Men. Does not the Scripture mention Moses his Intercession with God and that God was moved by his Intreaty Why then does this Author affirm that to intercede with the Authority of a Mediator is above the Nature and Order of Creatures To the next Argument viz. That Jesus Christ is in Holy Scripture always spoken of as a distinct and different Person from God and described to be the Son of God and the Image of God He answers This we own and he had no need to prove it This is a wonderful Argument to convince those who acknowledg Three distinct Persons in the Godhead that Christ is not God because he is a distinct Person from the Father for so according to the Language of Scripture God signifies God the Father when he is distinguished from the Son and Holy Spirit as
of Moses Acts 7. 53. Who have received the Law by the Disposition of Angels Ver. 38. This Moses is He who was with the Church in the Wilderness with the Angel who spake to him in Mount Sinai These Texts do more than sufficiently prove that the Son of God is not meant by the Prophets and other Writers of the Old Testament where they mention the Lord God and Jehovah But to return to Christ's Mediatory Kingdom He says pag. 167. The Son has a Kingdom of his own which is peculiarly his and administred in his Name and by his Sovereign Authority But how is this consistent with what we read pag. 168. The Power indeed whereby he administers his Kingdom is the Power of the whole Trinity of Father Son and Holy Ghost for they being essentially one God have but one Energy and Power and therefore can never act separately How can the Son or the second Person of that Trinity have a Kingdom of his own if whatever he does is also done by the Father and Holy Ghost have not they hereby as great a share in this Kingdom as the Son This therefore is a plain Contradiction and perfect Non-sense Let us hear him further pag. 169 170. The Power is not taken out of God's Hands that is impossible Father Son and Holy Ghost govern the World still by one individual Act and Power but as in the Natural Government of the World the exercise of this Power begins with the Father so in the exercise of this Mediatory Kingdom it begins with the Son and is directed by his Mediation That is God governs the World now not meerly as a Natural Lord by the Rules of Natural Justice but with respect to the Mediatory Power and Authority of his Son and to serve the ends of his Mediatory Kingdom This Chimerical reasoning will not free the Author 's System from Contradiction For as in the Natural Government of the World tho as he dreams the exercise of the Power begins with the Father yet the Son and Holy Spirit acting in conjunction with the Father by an individual Act it cannot be said that the Power or Kingdom is peculiar to the Father so in the supposed Mediatory Kingdom tho the exercise of the Power begins with the Son yet as long as the Father and Holy Spirit act together with him and can never act separately it cannot be said that the Son has a Kingdom of his own or that he is the Mediatory King more than the Father or Spirit Yet by the help of this contrived Mediatory Kingdom our Author undertakes at pag. 173. to overthrow the Fourth Argument in the History of the Vnitarians even this because God doth all things in his own Name and by his own Authority but Christ comes in the Father's Name does his Will and seeks his Glory This only proves says he that he is not the Father but the Son and the King of God For this Mediatory Kingdom as he says at pag. 172. is erected by the Father and by him given to the Son But I ask is not the Son equal to the Father both in Energy and Authority How then can he be said to be sent by his Father to receive his Commands and to seek his Glory Can all this be ascribed to the Supream God Nay if the Father together with the Son and Spirit be but one God is it not absurd to say that the Father sends the Son and the Son does the Will of the Father Why not rather in his own Mediatory Kingdom does his own Will seeks his own Glory I think I could as soon believe White is Black as swallow the Absurdities of our Author 's Mediatory Kingdom But 't is plain to every discerning Reader that he has often not understood what he said Having thus shown the Absurdity of his Hypothesis concerning Christ's Mediatory Kingdom I will set down in a few Words what I take to be the true Notion of Christ's Kingdom God had promised to David that he would establish his Throne for ever and there should never be wanting one of his Seed to sit thereon Psal 89. 3 4. I have made a Covenant with my Chosen I have sworn unto David my Servant thy Seed will I establish for ever and build up thy Throne to all Generations And again vers 29. His Seed will I make to indure for ever and his Throne as the Days of Heaven Again ver 35 36 37. Once I have sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie unto David his Seed shall indure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me it shall be establisht for ever as the Moon and as a faithful Witness in the Heavens Now that this Promise does not relate only or chiefly to David's Successors in the Political Government of Israel without any respect to the Messias who was also the Son of David does plainly appear by the Event for the Political Kingdom of David has been destroyed for several Ages and the Series of Successors in the Davidical Line is utterly broken off This Promise therefore had its full Accomplishment in our Messias Jesus Christ who is the Son of David and the King of Israel But this Kingdom of Christ is both more ample and more durable than David's was For all Power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. And 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. He must reign till he has put all Enemies under his Feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death Thus his Throne shall indure as long as the Sun and Moon He may be called with greater reason than David was Psal 89. 27. God's First-born Higher than the Kings of the Earth for he is Rev. 19. 16. King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 1. 5. Prince of the Kings of the Earth But his Power reaches not only over Men but over Angels too 1 Pet. 3. 22. He is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him This is God's Anointed whom he has invested with the Power of enacting Laws for the good of his Subjects When God did not so immediately govern Israel as during the Theocracy but by Kings David as God's Deputy and Vicegerent appointed Musick Singers Porters and made such other Regulations as were fit in the Worship of God So Christ who is a King immediately appointed by God by virtue of the Power and Instructions given to him took away the Ceremonial Law set up a Spiritual Worship and being a King over the Gentiles as well as over the Jews made such Laws as were able to unite them into one Body in the Worship of one God that there might be but one Flock and one Shepherd Christ's Kingdom is not only Spiritual but Temporal I mean he has so much Power over all Creatures as is necessary to enable him to perform the ends of his Spiritual Kingdom Nor is this contradicted by our Saviour's Words at John 18. 36. The Original has it
Dead comforts convinces sanctifies and dwells in the Church Thus we do not prove that the Holy Ghost is no Person only because Personal Acts are sometimes Figuratively attributed to that which is no Person as this Author mistakes But having proved by Scripture that the Holy Ghost is no Person we say that Personal Acts are figuratively ascribed to it as they are to Charity Wisdom and other Things both in Scripture and in Prophane Authors and in common familiar Speech 2. The second Argument against the Spirit 's being God is this A manifest Distinction is made as between God and Christ so also between God and the Holy Spirit or Power and Inspiration of God so that 't is impossible the Spirit should be God himself To this our Author answers pag. 191. This Holy Spirit is either a Divine subsisting Person or nothing but a Name If this Spirit were a Divine Virtue or Power as he would have it then it is not distinct from God but is God himself As the Powers and Faculties of the Mind thô they may be distinguished from each other yet they can't be any thing distinct from the Mind but are the Mind it self and therefore if the Spirit as he says be represented in Scripture as so distinct from God that 't is impossible he should be God himself then he must be a distinct Divine Person and not the meer Power of God which is not distinct from God himself To this I answer the Holy Spirit is neither a Divine subsisting Person nor a meer Name In order to the clearing of this I must observe that the Holy Ghost signifies in Scripture sometimes the Power of God sometimes the Effects of that Power or all miraculous extraordinary Gifts In the first sense we read Luke 1. 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee Here it is evident that the Holy Ghost signifies the Power of God whereby he effected the miraculous Conception of our Blessed Saviour In the latter sense we read Gal. 3. 5. He therefore that ministreth to you the Spirit and worketh Miracles among you doth he it by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith Here the Spirit is plainly meant of the miraculous Gifts bestowed upon the first Christians and the meaning of the Apostle's Question is this whether the Galatians had been indued with that Spirit and those extraordinary Gifts by submitting to the Ceremonial Law of Moses or only upon their imbracing the Gospel In the first sense the Holy Ghost is only an Attribute of God and so is not a meer Name nor is it a Divine subsisting Person which to say were ridiculous and contrary to the Notion of an Attribute This Attribute may be distinguish'd from God in such manner as Attributes are wont to be distinguish'd that is God may be said to act by his Power as he is said to act by his Wisdom But he saith If this Spirit were a Divine Vertue or Power then it is not distinct from God but is God himself I answer if this be all our Author contends for that the Holy Spirit or Power of God is God in such sense as other Vertues and Faculties of God may be called God himself the Socinians never denied it and this is all that his Argument proves Secondly He ought to know the Holy Spirit is not distinct from God as one Person from another but is distinguished from God as his Attribute This is easy and plain and agreeable to Reason and Scripture and is a full answer to what he adds in these words A Power which is distinct from God and is not God himself as he says the Holy Spirit is if it has any Personal Acts must be a distinct Person and if these Personal Acts are such as are proper only to God it must be a distinct Divine Person He goes on He says this Spirit is the Inspiration of God be it so This Inspiration then is either within God himself or without him in his Creatures who have this Inspiration If it be within God himself it must be a Person or else it cannot be distinct from God and a Divine Person unless any thing be in God which is not God If this Inspiration be without God in the Creatures who are inspired by him how is it the Spirit of God For the Spirit of God must be in God as the Spirit of a Man is in a Man I answer If every thing that is in God be a Person then there must be as many Persons in the Godhead as there are Attributes or Immanent Acts in God which to say is too sensless and ridiculous to need Confutation God's Inspiration as 't is an Act is in God as 't is an Effect 't is in Creatures and is called the Spirit of God because 't is an Effect of that Spirit Energy or Power which God uses to make his Will known to Men by inward Suggestion or Inspiration He desires to know pag. 192. how the Spirit of God differs from his Gifts and Graces I answer As the cause from its effects so that there are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 4. The same Cause produces several effects out of the same Power spring several Gifts 3. The next Argument is The Spirit is obtained of God by our Prayers therefore it self is not God This he pretends to answer by his Old Sophism that One Divine Person may send and give another which has been already confuted He adds The Spirit gives himself and is asked of himself for the Divine Persons in the Trinity do not act separately but as the Father and the Son give the Spirit so the Holy Spirit gives himself in the same Individual Act. But how can this be the same Individual Act The Father and the Son says he send the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost gives himself Can sending another and giving one's self be one and the same Act Farther If the Father Son and Holy Ghost cannot act separately when the Holy Ghost gives himself Father and Son must give themselves too or else it will not be the same Individual Act. But were it so this would not be made peculiar to the Holy Ghost who only is said in Scripture to be given and obtained of God But the thing is plain and easy if by the Spirit we understand God's Power and Inspiration which with their Effects are communicated to those that pray for them CHAP. VI. 4. THE next Argument is against a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead Which saith the Historian is contrary to the whole Scripture For that speaks of God but as one Person and speaks of him and to him by Singular Pronouns such as I Thou Me Him c. He cites also Heb. 1. 2. where Christ is called the express Image of God's Person Our Author returns this Answer It is plain that the Person of whom the Son is called the express Image is the
this Belief that he was sent from God and had his Doctrine from him and by such an Acknowledgment he profest at the same time that God bare testimony to this Doctrine by the plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost So that to be Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and to be Baptized only in the Name of the Son are one and the same thing I shall conclude this with the Words of the Learned Mr. Limborck Theol. Christ pag. 645. Dominus Jesus ritui c. In English thus To this Rite before practised by John Baptist the Lord Jesus added another Signification viz. the Profession of his Name and the Publick Reception of the Doctrine he had preached Therefore he ordered that Baptism should be administred in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28. 19. That those who should receive the Rite of Baptism might thereby give up themselves to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and profess themselves Disciples of that Doctrine which is originally derived from the Father revealed and preached by the Son and confirmed by the Holy Ghost with divers Miracles Signs Prodigies and Distributions of Gifts So that the Reception of Baptism was a publick Profession of the Doctrine of Christ Therefore it is that the Faithful are said every where to be Baptized in the Name of Christ that is to profess by their being Baptized that they receive his Doctrine as Divine and will be called by his Name as being their heavenly Master and only Saviour The Historian adds that 'T is in vain not to say ridiculously pretended that a Person or thing is God because we are Baptized unto it or in the Name of it For then Moses and St. John Baptist also would be Gods 1 Cor. 10. 1 2. Our Fathers were all Baptized unto Moses Acts 19. 3. Vnto what then were ye baptized And they said unto John 's Baptism that is say the Generality of Interpreters unto John and the Doctrine by him delivered He replies pag. 212. I confess he had answered this Argument could he have shewn us that the Jews were baptized in the Name of God and in the Name of Moses for that had joined Moses with God as our Saviour joins the Son and Holy Ghost with the Father in the form of Baptism But if the Jews were baptized in the Name of Moses who can doubt that they were baptized in the Name of God too as those who are baptized in the Name of Jesus are thereby baptized also in the Name of God as has been before shewed It is plain the Apostle compares Moses with Christ and tells the Corinthians that as they were baptized in the Name of Jesus the Son and Messenger of God so the Fathers had been baptized in the Name of Moses the Servant of God But we can afford the Author some places of Scripture wherein Creatures are joined with God Thus Exod. 14. 31. it is said And the People feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his Servant Moses In the Hebrew 'tis in the Lord and in Moses his Servant Here Moses the Man is joined with God and the Jews are said to believe in him as they believed in God So 1 Tim. 5. 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things c. Here elect Angels thô Creatures are ranked with God in so great and important a Matter and act of Religion as an Obtestation Again Rev. 1. 4. Grace be to you and Peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne If Moses and Angels may be joined with God in Acts of Faith of Obtestation and of Benediction why not the Son and Spirit in Baptism thô neither of them is God himself We plainly see by St. Paul's Words to the Corinthians that to be baptized in the Name of One does not import that he is God 1 Cor. 1. 14 15. I thank God says he I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius lest any should say that I had baptized in my own Name He plainly intimates that a meer Man may baptize in his own Name and if any of the Corinthians had thought so of the Apostle I hope they would not have concluded from thence that he was God or made himself God He adds It is plain that to baptize unto Moses is a Figurative and Allusive Expression and does not and cannot signify that they were baptized in the Name of Moses because it is not true Indeed the Jews were not baptized as Christians are but still they were baptized Let the Author call it a Figurative and Mystical Baptism or what else he pleases it was still a Baptism as St. Paul assures us And to be baptized into Moses is the same with being baptized in the Name of Moses as in the New Testament to be baptized into or unto Christ is the same with being baptized in the Name of Christ This was rightly understood by Vorstius who paraphrases this place thus Scitis etiam c. i. e. You know also that they were all baptized in the Doctrine of Moses as the Messenger of God as the Cloud and the Passage thrô the Red-Sea were designed for a Confirmation of the Ministry of Moses But he denies that to be baptized into Christ and baptized in the Name of Christ signify the same thing But he mistakes as grosly as he uses to do for any one may observe it that compares the Texts where these Phrases are used Thus John 3. 18. He that believeth on him in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or into or unto him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God So at Rom. 6. 3. and Gal. 3. 27. to be baptized into Christ and at Acts 2. 38. and 8. 16. to be baptized in the Name of Christ are used as equivalent terms Indeed the plain meaning of Rom. 6. 3. is this Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized in the Name of Christ and profest to obey his Doctrine lay thereby under an Obligation of a Spiritual Conformity to his Death in dying to Sin as he is dead and living to God as he is raised from the dead and lives with God So that the first words contrary to our Author's Assertion relate to the form of administring Baptism in the Name of Jesus and the latter to the effect of it This we may apply also to Gal. 3. 27. He further denies That to be baptized unto or into John 's Baptism signifies to be baptized in the Name of John for says he John did not baptize in his own Name but made Proselytes to the Messias But I hope he will not deny that to be baptized into Christ's Baptism is all one with being baptized in the Name of