whole Scripture as not grant unto him a preexistence in a divine nature antecedent to his Incarnation they framed a new Deity which God should make before the world in all things like to himself but not the same with him in Essence and substance but to be so like him that by the writings of some of them ye can scarce know one from the other and that this was the Son of God also who was afterwards Incarnate Others in the mean time had more monstrous imaginations some that he was an Angel some that he was the Sun some that he was the Soul of the World some the light within men Departing from their proper rest so have they hovered about and so have they continued to do until this day In the same manner it is come to pass with them who have denyed the Deity of the Holy Ghost They could never find where to stand or abide but one hath cryed up one thing another another At first they observed that such things were every where ascribed unto him in the Scripture as uncontroulably evidenced him to be an intelligent voluntary Agent This they found so plain and evident that they could not deny but that he was a person or an intelligent subsistence Wherefore seeing they were resolved not to assent unto the Revelation of his being God they made him a created spirit chief and above all others But still whatever else he were he was only a Creature And this course some of late also have steered The Socinians on the other hand observing that such things are assigned and ascribed unto him as that if they acknowledge him to be a person or a substance they must upon necessity admit him to be God though they seemed not at first at all agreed what to think or say concerning him positively yet they all coneurred peremptorily in denying his personality Hereon some of them said he was the Gospel which others of them have confuted some that he was Christ. Neither could they agree whether there was one Holy Ghost or more whether the spirit of God and the Good spirit of God and the holy spirit be the same or no. In general now they conclude that he is vis Dei or virtus Dei or efficacia Dei no substance but a quality that may be considered either as being in God and then they say it is the spirit of God or as sanctifying and conforming men unto God and then they say it is the Holy Ghost Whether these things do answer the Revelation made in the Scripture concerning the Eternal Spirit of God will be immediately manifested Our Quakers who have for a long season hovered up and down like a swarm of flies with a confused noise and humming begin now to settle in the opinions lately by them declared for But what their thoughts will fall into be concerning the Holy Ghost when they shall be contented to speak Intelligibly and according to the usage of other men or the pattern of Scripture the great rule of speaking or treating about spiritual things I know not and am uncertain whether they do so themselves or no. Whether he may be the light within them or an infallible afflatus is uncertain In the mean time what is revealed unto us in the Scripture to be believed concerning the Holy Ghost his Deity and personality may be seen in the ensuing testimonies The summ of this Revelation is that the Holy Spirit is an eternally divine existing substance the Author of Divine operations and the Object of Divine and Religious Worship that is over all God Blessed for ever as the ensuing testimonies evince Gen 1. 2. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his mouth Job 26. 13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens Job 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me Psalm 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are Created Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Acts 1. 16. That Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake Acts 5. 3. Peter said to Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lye to the Holy Ghost Vers. 4. Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our Fathers saying go unto this people and say 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 12. 11. All these worketh that one and self-same spirit dividing to every man as he will 2. 6. And there are deversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all 2 Cor. 13. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Acts 20. 28. Take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Matth. 12. 31. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit John 14. 26. But the Comforteâ— which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Luke 12. 12. The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say Acts 13. 3. And as they ministred to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Vers. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed into c. 2 Pet. 1. 21. For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of men but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost It is evident upon the first consideration that there is not any thing which we believe concerning the Holy Ghost but that it is plainly revealed and declared in these testimonies He is directly affirmed to be and is called God Acts 5. 3 4. Which the Socinians will not say is by vertue of an Exaltation unto an Office or Authority as they say of the Son That he is an intelligent voluntary Divine Agent he knoweth he worketh as he will which things if in their frequent repetition they are not sufficient to evince an intelligent Agent a personal subsistence that hath Being Life and Will we must confess that the Scripture was written on purpose to lead us into mistakes and misapprehensions of what we are under penalty of eternal ruine rightly to apprehend and believe It declareth also that he is the Author and Worker of all sorts of Divine Operations requiring Immensity Omnipotency Omnisciency and all other Divine Excellencies unto their working and effecting Moreover it is revealed that he is peculiarly to be believed
of God in this matter is of too large and diffused a nature to be here reported These instances I have fixed on only to intimate unto persons whose condition or occasions afford them not ability or leisure of themselves to enquire into the memorials of times past amongst the Professors of the Gospel of Christ that these oppositions which are made at present amongst us unto these fundamental Truths and derived immediately from the late renewed inforcement of them made by Faustus Socinus and his followers are nothing but old baffled attempts of Satan against the Rock of the Church and the building thereon in the confession of the Son of the living God Now as all men who have ought of a due Reverence of God or his truth remaining with them cannot but be wary how they give the least admittance to such Opinions as have from the beginning been witnessed against and condemned by Christ himself his Apostles and all that followed them in their faith and waies in all Generations so others whose hearts may tremble for the danger they apprehend which these sacred Truths may be in of being corrupted or defamed by the present opposition against them may know that it is no other but what the Church and faith of Professors hath already been exercised with and through the power of him that enables them have constantly triumphed over And for my part I look upon it as a blessed effect of the holy wise providence of God that those who have long harboured these Abominations of denying the holy Trinity the person and satisfaction of Christ in their minds but yet have sheltered themselves from common observation under the shades of dark obscure and uncouth expressions with many other specious pretences should be given up to joyn themselves with such Persons and to profess a community of perswasion with them in those opinions as have rendred themselves infamous from the first foundation of Christianity and wherein they will assuredly meet with the same success as those have done who have gone before them For the other head of Opposition made by these Persons unto the truth in Reference unto the satisfaction of Christ and the imputation of his Righteousness thereon unto our Justification I have not much to say as to the time past In general the doctrine wherein they boast being first brought forth in a rude mishapen manner by the Pelagian Hereticks was afterwards improved by one Abailardus a Sophistical Scholar in France but owes its principal form and poison unto the endeavours of Faustus Socinus those who have followed him in his subtle attempt to corrupt the whole doctrine of the Gospel Of these Mâ—n are those amongst us who at this day so busily dispute and write about the Trinity the Deity of Christ and his satisfaction the Followers and Disciples And it is much more from their Masters who were some of them Men learned diligent and subtle than from themselves that they are judged to be of any great consideration For I can truly say that upon the sedate examination of all that I could ever yet hear or get a sight of either spoken or written by them that is any amongst us I never yet observed an undertaking of so great importance managed with a greater evidence of incompetency and inability to give any tolerable countenance unto it If any of them shall for the future attempt to give any new countenance or props to their tottering errours it will doubtless be attended unto by some of those many who cannot but know that it is incumbent on them to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints This present brief endeavour is only to assist and direct those who are less exercised in the waies of managing controversies in Religion that they may have a brief comprehension of the truths opposed with the firm foundations whereon they are built and have in a readiness to shield their Faith both against the fiery darts of Satan and secure their minds against the cunning sleights of Men who lye in wait to deceive And wherein this discourse seems in any thing to be too brief or concise the Author is not to be blamed who was confined unto these strait bounds by those whose requests injoyned him this service The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Explained and Vindicated THe Doctrine of the blessed Trinity may be considered two wayes First In respect unto the Revelation and proposal of it in the Scripture to direct us unto the Author Object and End of our Faith in our worship and obedience Secondly As it is farther declared and explained in terms expressions and propositions educed from the Original Revelation of it suited thereunto and meet to direct and keep the mind from undue apprehensions of the things it believes and to declare them unto farther edification In the first way it consists meerly in the propositions wherein the Revelation of God is expressed in the Scripture And in this regard two things are required of us First To understand the terms of the propositions as they are Enunciations of Truth And Secondly To believe the things taught revealed and declared in them In the first Instance no more I say is required of us but that we assent unto the Assertions and Testimonies of God concerning himself according to their natural and genuine sence as he will be known believed in feared and worshipped by us as he is our Creator Lord and Rewarder and that because he himself hath by his Revelation not only warranted us so to do but also made it our duty necessary and indispensible Now the sum of this Revelation in this matter is that God is one that this one God is Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is the Father of the Son and the Son the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and the Son and that in respect of this their mutual Relation they are distinct from each other This is the substance of the Doctrine of the Trinity as to the first direct concernment of faith therein The first intention of the Scripture in the Revelation of God towards us is as was said that we might fear him believe worship obey him and live unto him as God That we may do this in a due manner and worship the only true God and not adore the false imaginations of our own minds it declares as was said that this God is one the Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is this one God and therefore is to be believed in worshipped obeyed lived unto and in all things considered by us as the first cause soveraign Lord and last end of all that the Son is the one true God and therefore is to be believed in worshipped obeyed lived unto and in all things considered by us as the first cause Soveraign Lord and last end of all And so also of the Holy Ghost This is the whole of Faiths concernment in this matter as
and therefore is so still unless he who is once God can cease so to be But the meaning is that afterwards God exalted him and made him God as to Rule Authority and Power This making of him God is an expression very offensive to the ears of all sober Christians and was therefore before exploded And these things here as all other figments hang together like a rope of sands In the beginning of the Gospel he was God before any knew him but only God That is after he had preached the Gospel and dyed and rose again and was exalted at the right hand of God he was made God and that not properly which is absolutely impossible but in an improper sense How prove they then this perverse non-sense to be the sense of these plain words They say it must needs be so Let them believe them who are willing to perish with them Thus far then we have their sense In the beginning that is about sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago the Word that is the Humane nature of Christ before it was made flesh which it was in its being was with God that is known to God alone and in the beginning that is afterwards not in the Beginning was made God which is the summ of their Exposition of this place But what shall we say to what is affirmed concerning his making of all things so as that without him that is without his making of it nothing was made that was made especially seeing that these all things are expresly said to be the world vers 10. And all things therein contained even in Heaven and Earth Col. 1. 16. An ordinary man would think that they should now be taken hold of and that there is no way of escape left unto them But they have it in a readiness By the all things here are intended all things of the Gospel the preaching of it the sending of the Apostles to preach it and to declare the Will of God and by the world is intended the world to come or the new state of things under the Gospel This is the substance of what is pleaded by the greatest masters amongst them in this matter and they are not ashamed thus to plead And the Reader in this instance may easily discern what a desperate cause they are engaged in and how bold and desperate they are in the management of it For First The words are a plain Illustration of the Divine Nature of the Word by his Divine Power and works as the very series of them declares He was God and he made all things for he that made all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Secondly There is no one word spoken concerning the Gospel nor the Preaching of it nor any effects of that Preaching which the Apostle expresly insists upon and declares afterwards verse 14. and so onwards Thirdly The making of all things here ascribed unto the Word was done in the beginning But that making of all things which they intend in erecting the Church by the Preaching of the VVord was not done in the beginning but afterwards most of it as themselves confess after the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Fourthly In this gloss what is the meaning of all things only some things say the Socinians VVhat is the meaning of were made that is were mended by him that is the Apostles principally preaching the Gospel and this in the beginning after it was past for so they say expresly that the Principal things here intended were effected by the Apostles afterwards I think since the beginning place it when you will the beginning of the world or the beginning of the Gospel there was never such an Exposition of the word of God or man contended for Fifthly It is said he made the World and he came into it namely the world which he made and the World or the Inhabitants of it knew him not But the VVorld they intend did know him or the Church knew him and acknowledged him to be the Son of God For that was the foundation that it was built upon I have instanced directly in this only testimony to give the Reader a pledge of the full confirmation which may be given unto this great fundamental truth by a due improvement of those other Testimonies or distinct Revelations which speak no less expresly to the same purpose And of them there is not any one but we are ready to vindicate it if called thereunto from the exceptions of these men which how bold and Sophistical they are we may in these now considered also learn and know It appeareth then that there is a full sufficient Revelation made in the Scripture of the Eternal Deity of the Son of God and that he is so as is the Father also More particular testimonies I shall not at present insist upon referring the full discussion and vindication of these truths to another season We are therefore in the next place to manifest that the same or the like testimony is given unto the Deity of the Holy Spirit that is that he is revealed and declared in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Worship and Obedience on the account and for the Râ—ason of those divine Excelleneies which are the sole Reason of our yielding religious worship unto any or expecting from any the Reward that is promised unto us or to be brought by them to the end for which we are And herein lyes as was shewed the concernment of faith When that knows what it is to believe as on Divine Revelation and is enabled thereby to regulate the soul in its present obedience and future expectation seeing it is its nature to work by love and hope there it rests Now this is done to the utmost satisfaction in the Revelation that is made of the divine Existence divine Excellencies and divine Operations of the Spirit as shall be briefly manifested But before we proceed we may in our way observe a great congruency of success in those who have denyed the Deity of the Son and those who have denyed that of the holy Spirit For as to the Son after some men began once to dis-believe the Revelation concerning him and would not acknowledge him to be God and man in one person they could never settle nor agree either what or who he was or who was his Father or why he was the Son Some said he was a Phantasm or appearance and that he had no real subsistence in this world and that all that was done by him was an appearance he himself being they know not what elsewhere That proud beast Paulus Samâ—satenus whose flagitious life contended for a preheminence in wickedness with his prodigious heresies was one of the first after the Jews that positively contended for his being a man and no more who was followed by Photinus and some others The Arians perceiving the folly of this opinion with the odium of it amongst all that bare the name of Christians and that they had as good deny the
said to do in the foregoing testimonies I say therefore unto this part of our Cause as unto the other that unless we will cast off all Reverence of God and in a king of Atheism which as I suppose the prevailing wickedness of this Age hath not yet arrived unto say that the Scriptures were written on purpose to deceive us and to lead us into mistakes about and misapprehensions of what it proposeth unto us we must acknowledge the Holy Ghost to be a substance a person God yet distinct from the Father and the Son For to tell us that he will come unto us that he will be our Comforter that he will teach us lead us guide us that he spake of old in and by the Prophets that they were moved by him acted by him that he searcheth the deep things of God works as he will that he appointeth to himself Ministers in the Church In a word to declare in places innumerable what he hath done what he doth what he will do what he sayes and speaks how he acts and proceeds what his will is and to warn us that we grieve him not sin not against him with things innumerable of the like nature and all this while to oblige us to believe that he is not a person an helper a comforter a searcher a willer but a quality in some especial operations of God or his power and vertue in them were to distract men not to instruct them and leave them no certain conclusion but this that there is nothing certain in the whole Book of God And of no other tendency are these and the like imaginations of our Adversaries in this matter But let us briefly consider what is objected in general unto the truth we have confirmed First They say the Holy Spirit is said to be given to be sent to be bestowed on men and to be promised unto them and therefore it cannot be that he should be God for how can any of these things be spoken of God I answer As these Expressions do not prove him to be God nor did ever any produce them to that purpose yet they undeniably prove him to be a person or an intellingent voluntary Agent concerning whom they are spoken and affirmed For how can the power of God or a quality as they speak be said to be sent to be given to be bestowed on men so that these very Expressions are destructive to their imaginations Secondly He who is God equal in nature and being with the Father may be promised sent and given with respect unto the holy dispensation and condescension wherein he hath undertaken the Office of being our Comforter and Sanctifier Thirdly The communications distributions impartings divisions of the spirit which they mention as they respect the Object of them Or those on whom they were or are bestowed denote only works gifts operations and effects of the spirit the rule whereof is expressed 1 Cor. 12. 7. He workeeth them in whom he will and as he will And whether these and the like exceptions taken from Actings and operations which are plainly interpreted and explained in sundry places of Scripture and evidently enough in the particular places where they are used are sufficient to impeach the truth of the Revelation before declared all who have a due reverence of God his word and truths will easily understand and discern These things being declared in the Scripture concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost it is moreover Revealed and these three are one that is one God joyntly to be worshipped feared adored believed in and obeyed in order unto eternal life For although this doth absolutely and necessarily follow from what is declared and hath been spoken concerning the one God or onenesâ— of the Derty yet for the confirmation of our faith and that we may not by the distinct consideration of the three be taken off from the one it is particularly declared that these three are one that one the one and same God But whereas as was said before this can no otherwise be the testimonies given thereunto are not so frequently multiplyed as they are unto those other heads of this truth which through the craft of Satan and the pride of men might be more lyable to exceptions But yet they are clear full and distinctly sufficient for faith to acquiesce in immediately without any other expositions interpretations or arguments beyond our understanding of the naked importance of the words Such are they of the Father the Son John 10. 30. I and my Father are one Father Son and Spirit Joh. 5. 7. three that bare witness in Heaven Father Son and Spirit and these three are one Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Spirit For if those into whose name we are Baptized be not one in nature we are by our Baptism engaged into the Service and Worship of more Gods than one For as being Baptized or sacredly initiated into or in the name of any one doth Sacramentally bind us unto a holy and Religious obedience unto him and in all things to the avowing of him as the God whose we are and whom we serve as here we are in the Name of the Father Son and Spirit so if they are not one God the Blasphemous consequence before mentioned must unavoidably be admitted which it also doth upon the Socinian principle who whilest of all others they seem to contend most for one God are indeed direct polutheists by owning others with Religious respect due to God alone which are not so Once more it is revealed also that these three are distinct among themselves by certain peculiar Relative properties if I may yet use these terms So that they are distinct living divine intelligent voluntary principles of operation or working and that in and by internal acts one towards another and in acts that outwardly respect the Creation and the several parts of it Now this distinction originally lyeth in this that the Father begetteth the Son and the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both of them The manner of these things so far as they may be expressed unto our Edification shall afterwards be spoken to At present it sufficeth for the satisfaction and confirmation of our faith that the distinctions named are clearly revealed in the Scripture and are proposed to be its proper object in this matter Psalm 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Matth. 16. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 1. 14. We saw his Glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father Ver. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath revealed him John 5. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 1 Joh. 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding Joh. 14. 26.
But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is
suppose that this is the first time that this Doctrine fell under this imputation nor could it possibly be lyable unto this charge from any who did either understand it or the grounds on which it is commonly opposed For there is no end of the Life or death of Christ which the Socinians themselves admit of but it is also allowed and asserted in the Doctrine now called in Question Do they say that he taught the Truth or revealed the whole mind and will of God concerning his Worship and our obedience We say the same Dâ— they say that by his death he hare testimony unto and confirmed the truth which he had taught it is also owned by us Do they say that in what he did and suâ—fered he set us an Example that we should labour after conformity unto it is what we acknowledge and teach Only we say that all these things belong principally to his Prophetical Office But we moreover affirm and believe that as a Priest or in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office he did in his death and sufferings offer himself a Sacrifice to God to make Attonement for our sins which they deny and that he dyed for us or in our stead that we might go free without the faith and acknowledgement whereof no part of the Gospel can be rightly understood All the ends then which they themselves assign of the Life and death of Christ are by us granted and the principal one which gives life and efficacy to the rest is by them denyed Neither 2. doth it fall under any possible imagination that the praise due unto God should be Ecclipsed hereby The Love and Kindness of God towards us is in the Scripture fixed principally and fundamentally on his sending of his only begotten Son to dye for us And certainly the greater the work was that he had to do the greater ought our acknowledgement of his Love and kindness to be but it is said 5. That it represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father Answ. 1. The Scripture referreth the Love of the Father unto two heads 1. The sending of his Son to dye for us John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 John 4. 8. 2. In choosing sinners unto a participation of the fruits of his love Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. The Love of the Son is fixed signally on his actual giving himself to dye for us Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 5. 25. Rev. 1. 5. What ballances these Persons have got to weigh these Loves in and to conclude which is the greatest or most weighty I know not 2. Although only the actual discharge of his Office be directly assigned to the Love of Christ yet his condâ—scention in taking our nature upon him expressed by his mind Ephes 6. 7. and the readiness of his Will Psalm 40. 8. doth eminently comprise Love in it also Thirdly The Love of the Father in sending of the Son was an act of his will which being a natural and essential property of God it was so far the act of the Son also as he is partaker of the same nature though eminently and in respect of order it was peculiarly the act of the Father 4. The anger of â—od against sin is an effect of his essential Righteousness and Holiness which belong to him as God which yet hinders not but that both Father and Son and Spirit acted Love towards sinners They say again 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction Answ. 1. It were endless to consider the improper and absurd expressions which are made use of in these exceptions as here the last words have no tolerable sence in them according to any principles whatever 2. If the Son 's purchasing Redemption for us procuring obtaining it do rob God of the gift of his Son for our redemption the Holy Ghost must answer for it For having obtained for us or procured or purchased eternal redemption is the word used by himself Heb. 9. 14. And to deny that he hath laid down his Life a ransome for us and to have bought us with a price is openly to deny the Gospel 2. In a word the great gift of God consisted in giving his Son to obtain Redemption for us 3. Herein he offered himself unto God and gave himself for us and if these Persons are offended herewithal what are we that we should withstand God They say 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the debt is not hereby absolved or forgiven but transferred only and by consequence we are no better provided for salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father Answ. The looseness and dubiousness of the expressions here used makes an appearance that there is something in them when indeed there is not There is an Allusion in them to a debt and a payment which is the most improper expression that is used in this matter and the interpretation thereof is to be regulated by other proper expressions of the same thing But to keep to the Allusion 1. Christ paid his own but not for himself Dan. 9. 26. 2. Paying it for us the debt is discharged and our actual discharge is to be given out according to the wayes and means and upon the conditions appointed and constituted by the Father and Son 3. When a debt is so transferred as that one is accepted in the room and obliged to payment in the stead of another and that payment is made and accepted accordingly all Law and Reason require that the original Debtor be discharged 4. What on this account we owe to the Son is praise thankfulness and obedience and not the debt which he took upon himself and discharged for us when we were non-solvent by his love So that this matter is plain enough and not to be involved by such cloudy expressions and incoherent discourse following the Metaphor of a debt For if God be considered as the Creditor we all as Debtors and being insolvent Christ undertook out of his Love to pay the debt for us and did so accordingly which was accepted with God it follows that we are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love who hath made this satisfaction for us which we shall eternally acknowledge It is said 8. It no way renders Men beholding or in the least obliged to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the least farthing so that the acknowledgements are peculiarly the Sons which destroyes the whole current of