consequent to plurality of representers that there be a plurality of persons though of one and the same substance Stud. You surprize me here with such an explication of the Trinity as has not been invented by any Heretick of the unluckiest wit for these sixteen hundred years And now I am guided after the manner of the multitude whose curiosity leads them to see the deformed births and mishapen effects of miscarrying nature rather than to contemplate the Master-pieces of the Creation it is not so much the goodness as the prodigiousness of this novel doctrine which enticeth me to consider it And in truth this conception of a Trinity seems to me more a Monster than the head of Cerberus that is death it self which head would have been call'd four-fold if the fourth part of the world America had been then discover'd but this conception as will by and by appear may multiply it self an hundred fold and be rather a Century than a Trinity There is also in it this inconvenience that before the dayes of Moses you must affirm one only natural person to have been in the divine nature Mr. Hobbes There was but one from whence we may gather the reason why those names Father Son and Holy Spirit in the signification of the Godhead are never used in the Old Testament for they are Persons that is they have their names from representing which could not be till divers men had represented Gods Person in ruling or in directing under him Our Saviour both in teaching and reigning representeth as Moses did the person of God which God from that time forward but not before is called the Father Stud. Where is now your will to pay a reverence to the Law by whose Authority you are taught in the first Article of the Church of England that there be three persons of one substance power and eternity But you will say that your Leviathan was published in those dayes when the King by your doctrine was no King when the Parliament having the supreme strength had for that very reason the reason which you give and I may consider in its assigned place the sovereign Right by which they preferred their own Ordinances and the Constitutions of the Assembly to the Canons and Articles of the Convocation And indeed you have told us in that Book that you submitted in all Questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Commonwealth whose Subject you were that is to say to the Annotations of the Assembly of Divines wherein no doubt you might have read the Doctrine of an eternal Trinity asserted seeing in their shortest Catechism 't is not omitted But Law and Scripture like the servants of an hard and selfish Master are used by you whilest they have strength to serve your purpose but when you cannot work your design by them they are cast off with utter neglect But to proceed you your self together with the Law have affirmed Jesus to be God-man and Arrius granted to him a duration before the world and Eusebius who had some favour for the Arrian Doctrine supposeth him often to have appeared before and under the times of the Law And a very late Writer who has not fear'd in his Rhapsodie of Ecclesiastick Stories to deny the Eternal God-head of Christ hath yet maintained it to he very dangerous to deny his Pre-existence There were then and it follows from the sense of your own confession at least two natural persons of the Father and of Christ before this world was founded Further if every one representing the Person of God in ruling or directing under him addeth a person to the God-head then may it be thence concluded as Enjedinus speaks in relation to Pope Alexander who would infer three persons from the three Attributes of Fecit dixit benedixit at the beginning of Genesis that there are not only three but six hundred For all Civil Powers are Representatives of the King of the Universe and you your self affirm that any Civil Sovereign is Lieu-tenant of God and representeth his person To speak with propriety Moses was rather a Mediator betwixt God and the People who were under a Theocracy and not a Sovereign on earth And Saul who was appointed them in the place of God whom in their unreasonable wishes out of an apish imitation of the Heathen Models they had deposed seems the first Person representing God among the Iews It is also to be noted that the Apostles were Representers not strictly of Gods Person but of Christ God-man from whom they received commission in his name to teach and baptize after all power was given to him Wherefore the Bishop of Rome has presumed to call himself rather falsly than improperly the servant of the servants of God and Vicar of Christ. But if you are not willing to multiply Persons in the Godhead by the number of Vicegerents but chuse to understand this three-fold representation of a three-fold state of People under Moses Christ and the Apostles which yet is an evasion not at all suggested by you even by this artifice you will not find a back door open out of which you may escape For besides that the Apostolical times are but the continuation of the state begun by Christ and that the Reign of Christ at his second coming will be a state perfectly new we must remember that there were two states before the dayes of Moses the one to be computed from Adam who in most eminent manner represented God being appointed by him Universal Monarch of the Earth the other from the Revelation made to Abraham who may be said the first person with whom God made a formal Covenant Sealed by the Rite of Circumcision and by Promises guarded from violation Again whereas you have affirmed that the names of Father and Son in the signification of the God-head are never used in the Old-Testament therein you consulted not your Concordance For seeing Christ is called the Son in the second Psalm the cor-relative Father is as directly pointed out as if the very name had in Capital Letters been written down Neither do I here create by my Fancy as is the manner of such who deal in Allegories of Scripture a mystical sense because the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews ha's expounded the words of our blessed Lord and not of David Saint Matthew likewise ha's made the same interpretation if Iustin Martyr was not deceived either by his memory or by oral Tradition or a spurious Copy for in stead of those words from Heaven at the baptism of Jesus This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased he ha's in two places affirmed the voice to have been this Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Mr Hobbes Let us not labor any longer in a particular sifting of such mysteries as are not comprehensible nor fall under any rule of natural
notion which may be delivered in another form of words And moreover when you say that Plato and Aristotle could not conceive a spirit by reason that with them it signified a wind to be incorporeal therein also you ought not to have used such confidence in your assertion for if wind be motion and motion be so unglued and loose as to pass from Body to Body I know not whether the nâ—me of wind may not more promote than obstruâ—t the apprehension of an incorporeal Being We are informed by Sextus Empiricus that some of the Antients contended expresly for the incorporeity of motion I mean by motion that force so little yet understood which is the cause of the translation of bodies and not as you somewhere speak the relinquishing of one place and acquiring another But leaving this subtiler Consideration I will proceed to shew that neither the Scripture nor the School of Plato or Aristotle is wholly unacquainted with the Doctrine of an incorporeal spirit Concerning the holy Scripture it saith that God created all things and filleth all things and therefore it teacheth that he is immaterial And for the very term we may perhaps meet with it in the words of our blessed Lord who appearing to the doubting and amazed Disciples encouraged and confirmed their faith by saying to them Lay hold of me handle me and see that I am not an incorporeal Daemon you will now tell me that I follow not the true Copy of the New Testament in the translation of this produced Text. I defend my self by answering that I follow holy Ignatius who in his undoubted Epistle to those of Smyrna cited both by Eusebius and St. Hierome bringeth in our Lord using these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This excellent person who saw our Lord after his resurrection did either cite the words exactly or else which also strengtheneth my cause he eâ—press'd the sence of them according as it was received in the incorruptest Age of the Christian Church Concerning the Philosophy of Plato in relation to the Question which lay before us there is nothing more received than that he affirmed the most celestial parts of matter neither to be God or Angel or spirit of man but to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the phrase of Hierocles the spiritual Chariots of prae-existing Angels or of departed minds In the beginning of the Dialogue with the Jew Trypho Iustin Martyr at large relating his small proficiency under the Tutorage of a Stoick a Peripatetick and a Pythagorean adds also that he adjoyn'd himself at last to a Platonist of great fame that he improved daily by his instruction that he was extreamly pleas'd amongst other parts of science by him taught with the notion of incorporeal beings and if I well remember the great admirer of Plato Psellus has call'd the Soul an immaterial and incorporeal fire And touching Plato himself I am sure that I have read this Maxime in his Politicus that incorporeal Beings which are of all others the most glorious and great are only conspicuous to the faculty of Reason which though it be there said by Hospes yet it is approved of by Plato himself under the name of Socrates who reply'd that he had excellently spoken Neither will I pass by the testimony of Aristotle who by his separate Intelligences meaneth saith Ben Maimon the same with those who maintain the existence of incorporeal Angels And concerning the rational soul he teacheth that it is separable from the body because it is not the Entelech of any body having a while before enquired whether it be endued with any peculiar function not arising from this compounded estate He also denieth that motion can arise from a body Mr. Hobbes It is manifest by your thick quotations that you are much in love with Authority to that therefore in the second place I will refer you Know then that whatsoever can be inferr'd from the denying of incorporeal substances makes Tertullian one of the antientest of the Fathers and most of the Doctors of the Greek Church as much Atheists as my self Stud. You have not by this means advanc'd your hopes of victory for I shall make it evident that the Forces in whose numbers you trust are falsly muster'd The Fathers of the Greek Church believe in the same sence with the Doctors of our own that God is a Spirit for Ignatius and Iustin Martyr you have heard already on what side they stand Athenagoras in his Embassie in behalf of the Christians to M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Aurelius Commodus discourseth to this purpose The Athenians did most justly condemn Diagoras for sacrilegious impiety who rather than his Coleworts should remain unboylâ—d would cut in pieces the Statue of Hercules who also did expresly affirm that there was no God at all But as for us who separate God from matter and teach that God is one thing and matter another the reproach of Atheism is most unreasonably and injuriously charg'd upon our Creed The same Athenagoras in a few Pages after this discourse again professeth not as his private opinion but as the faith of the Christians of that Age that God admitteth not of any division neither consisteth of any parts Then for Theophiluâ— the Patriarch of Antioch who likewise writeth not as a private man but as a common Apologist for the Christians he tells Antolycus the Heathen that God is every where and that every thing is in God Had he believed God to have been a Body he would not have placed all other Beings in his boundless Essence unless we shall take the boldness to accuse the holy Patriarch of that fault which Des-Cartes imagined he had espied in your self of failing whatsoever the Premisses be in the Illations deduced from them If we consult Tatianus in his Oration contra Graecos we shall likewise obtain his suffrage for the immateriality of the first cause There are said Tatianus who do maintain that God is a Body I am not of the same belief with them for my perswasion is that he is incorporeal Eâ—sebius may be produc'd in the same place both against your self touching the materiality and against Idolaterâ— touching the worship of Angels for thus he speaks We have learn't to honour the incorporeal powers according to the degree of their dignity ascribing divine honour to God alone St. Athanasius tells the Followers of Sabellius that it is a very childish and foolish conceit by the eye or by the circumscription of place to comprehend that which is incorporeal understanding this speech of the infinite Majesty of Almighty God St. Chrysostome in the same place affirmeth God and the soul of man to be incorporeal I might here subjoyn in favour of the common opinion St. Irenâ—eus St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Gregory Nyssen St. Epiphanius and a long order of others if it were not a needless labour and would
body as he somtimes had but meerly by the framing again and moving of such matter as he is supposed to have wholly consisted of and by the help of which he hath done worthy or shameful acts then either the same man who obeyed or transgressed is not raised up to an estate of reward or punishment or else he is raised with all the parts of matter which conduced to action and appertained to him almost from the cradle to the grave and is therefore in the last day of such dimensions that he may not only equal the antient Gyants of which we read in story but likewise come nigh the bulk of those very mountains which they are said to have heaped up in defiance of Hâ—aven Mr. Hobbes Well whatsoever the essence of man is or whensoever any part of him is supposed to be happy it is most probable that at the last day the place of heaven shall be on earth The kingdom of God in the writings of Divines and specially in Sermons and treatises of devotion is taken most commonly for eternal felicity after this life in the highest heaven which they also call the kingdom of glory and somtimes for the earnest of that felicity sanctification which they term the kingdome of grace but never for the Monarchy that is to say the Soveraign power of God over any subjects acquired by their own consent which is the proper signification of Kingdom To the contrary I finde the Kingdom of God to signifie in most places of Scripture a Kingdom properly so named constituted by the votes of the people of Israel in peculiar manner wherein they chose God for their King by Covenant made with him upon Gods promising them the possession of the land of Canaan Now the Throne of this our King is in Heaven without any necessity evident in Scripture that man shall ascend to his happiness any higher then Gods footstool the earth Stud. There is no need of the consent of men in the right notion of the Kingdom of God for the Lord is King be the people never so unquiet Also there is nothing more frequent in the New Testament then the notion of Gods Kingdom of Grace in the dispensation of the Gospel and of glory in the highest Heavens And for the latter we pray in the second petition of that Form which our Lord taught us and the former we acknowledge in the Doxologie The holy Baptist being the fore-runner of the Christ preached unto the Jews who though they justifi'd themselves at present by the works of the Law yet held repentance necessary to the reception of the Messiah the Doctrine of Penance adding this reason because the kingdom of heaven was at hand and this had been an improper Doctrine if the Messiah as you dream was not to have a Kingdom till after more then sixteen hundred years Our Saviour therefore when he preached as his Fore-runner had done that Doctrine of Repentance he us'd not the same phrase Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand but he said Repent and believe the Gospel that is forsake sin and enter into the Kingdom of the Messiah by Grace Our Lord also in the twelfth Chapter of St. Matthew proveth by his great power over Satan and the Kingdom of darkness that the Kingdom of the Messiah was then come And he declared That Baptism was a Sacrament of entrance and admission into the Kingdom of the Gospel And he receiv'd the Hosannah's of the people who saluted him as that King of Israel who came unto them in the name of the Lord. And when he was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come he answered The Kingdom of God is within you that is it is already come it is amongst you The further manifestation of his Kingdom he foretold in prophesying of his coming to take vengeance on the bloudy Jews by his scourges the Romans in the destruction of Ierusalem the History of which as it standeth in Iosephus if it be duly compared with the predictions of our Lord is sufficient to stop the widest mouth of profaneness and to hold up a powerful light against the dim Ey-balls of the most forsaken Atheists To this the words of St. Mark have relation in the ninth Chapter and first Verse Verily I say unto you that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power Mr. Hobbes Those words alledged by Beza long ago if taken grammatically make it certain that either some of those men that stood by Christ at that time are yet alive or else that the Kingdom of God must be now in this present world But yet if this Kingdom were to come at the Resurrection of Christ why is it said Some of them rather then All for they all lived till after Christ was risen Stud. Christ at his Resurrection had vindicated to himself by way of conquest over Death and Hell this spiritual Kingdom but the manifestation of it in power was displayed in the desolation of the City of Ierusalem And because for instance St. Iohn liv'd to see the triumph of Christ over his bloud-thirsty Enemies though all the Apostles did not there was therefore reason for saying Some of them rather then All. Mr. Hobbes If it be lawful to conjecture at the meaning of the words by that which immediately follows both here and in St. Luke where the same is again repeated it is not unprobable to say they have relation to the Transfiguration which is described in the Verses immediately following And so the promise of Christ was accomplished by way of Vision Stud. You are to look backward and not forward for the words do manifestly relate to those of the eighth Chapter where our Saviour had commanded the embracers of his Gospel to take up the Cross and promised that by their constancie in their Christian Profession they should save their lives whilst others who would endeavour to preserve life by denying the persecuted faith should be destroyed and so it came to pass when Gallus even against the reason of State did raise the Siege before Ierusalem the Christians and convert-Jews escapeing whilst a door was open unto the Mountains and into the City Pella and not remaining 'till Titus some moneths after renewed the Siege After this exhortation to constancie and promise of deliverance our Saviour threatned that he would be ashamed of such who should refuse to confess him before men at his coming in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels which coming with Angels and open rejection of cowardly spirits importing their present claim and his refusal agreeth not to his Transfiguration which was transacted in secret with some of the Disciples and the apparition of Moses and Elias There is therefore reason for Divines to insist upon a kingdome of Christ alreadie come a kingdom of the Gospel neither want they