confirmed in the Scripture where we read of a Wisdom Subsisting with God which was brought forth conceiv'd or begotten from Everlasting brought forth before the Depths the Hills or ever the Earth was and such the Second Person of the Deity in Reason is for ever for in him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom 5. This Second Person being Divinus Conceptus Chap. 10.15 is not the Image of the Divine Nature for he is the very Divine Nature Subsisting really in this Personal Subsistence and in him the first Subsistence does really Subsist but in the Reverse or Antitype as it were this Nature dictates Chap. 4.7 Chap. 6.8 Therefore though the Son be not the express Image of the Divine Nature yet he is according to the Reason of the thing and of the Holy Language as we find Heb. 1.3 the express Image of God the Father which being so critically expressed by that Divine and Accurate Author do's manifestly point out to us the very Account which from Nature I have offered of the Subsistence of the Second Person For indeed all these Scriptural Characters are so agreeable to the reason of the thing that they leave us no rational doubt in this matter 7. The third Subsistence of the Deity is by volition and volition is the agency of the Spirit of the Divine Mind this was proved by Reason ch 5.20 ch 6.11 and this is attested by the Scriptures as often as they style the Third Person the Spirit of God or emphatically the Spirit which is so frequently that I need not hint the places This Person proceeds and is not begotten as appears by the reason of the Divine Nature cap. 5.21 accordingly the Scripture no where says the Spirit is begotten but that it proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of the Son and sent by the Son The Nature of the Deity taught there is one and but one substantial subsistence of the Godhead by procession ch 5.22 the Divine Oracles confirm this for there is one Body and one Spirit even one and the self same Spirit This Spirit creates according to the condition of its subsistence in Nature cap. 5.23 which we also learn Psal 33 6. where all the Host of Heaven and Earth are Created by this Divine Breath This Person is a real distinct subsistence by it self of the Divine Nature cap. 5.24 and the Scripture teaches he is not the Father being sent by the Father nor the Son being sent by the Son And whilst this Spirit like a Dove did alight upon Jesus at his Baptism the Father at the same time by an audible voice from Heaven did own him for his well-beloved Son and the Son declares that the Spirit is another from himself and as Nature ch 5.25 so the Scripture teaches he is the third in order by the Ordinance of Baptism in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We learn from Nature that the Spirit is God ch 5.27 which is averr'd by the Scripture teaching us that lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God and ascribing such perfections to this same Spirit as are incommunicable to any other Nature But let us proceed to the other Scriptural properties of this Spirit which we may observe to have a singular Congruousness with the natural Condition of this third Divine Person For since the third Person subsists by the Almighty Volition of the Divine Spirit c. 5.20 According to the Reason of the thing and of the Sacred Language it will exegetically be called the Power of the Most High and the Finger of God as it is Luke 1.35 c. 11.20 and because it subsists in the Divine Benevolence ch 5.19 with some peculiar attribution will this be styled the Good Spirit as Nehemiah 9.20 Thou gavest them thy Good Spirit Psal 143.10 Thy Spirit is Good and this Spirit of the Lord accordingly is directly opposed to the Evil Spirit and the prime Communication of this Spirit will be Love to all the World of Spirits because Moral Truth consists in the constancy of the Will c. 5.21 therefore this is the Spirit of Truth in the Moral sense as the Scripture often teaches which is an eminent vertue in a Witness or a Friend But above all we are to mark that according to the Nature and Reason of the thing this Person subsists in the Eternal Unchanged Holiness of the Divine good-will ch 6.5 because the Most Famous Character which the Scripture gives of this Person is that of the Holy Ghost So punctually doth the Testimony of the Scripture agree with the Doctrine of Nature 8. From the Natural Condition of the Three Persons the Consequents were that they are Coeternal Three in Number Coequal each intirely God inseparable self-subsistent and mutually inexistent and one Principle only In confirmation of all this the Scripture teaches the Father is God from Everlasting to Everlasting that the Son is set up from Everlasting whose goings forth are from Everlasting that he indures and his years have no end that the Spirit is the Eternal Spirit It likewise teaches us there are three but no more and in the same order as Nature doth the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And again the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost one of these Three accounts it no Robbery to be equal with another asserting all to be his which the other hath that he was with the other and in the beginning with the other that he is not alone but the other is with him yea one mutually inexistent in the other I in thee and thou in me and as the one hath life in himself so the other hath life in himself 9. Nature Scripture then we have seen do both teach each of these three Persons is God and yet notwithstanding Nature assures us that there is not therefore three but only one God as is taught ch 5.26 and the Scripture every where confirms this Natural Dictate assuring us that there is but one God Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I am and there is no God besides me There is but one Uncreated Self-sufficient Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible One Supream in Glorious Majesty according to the Evidence given by Reason ch 6.9 Now though the Scripture as has been shew'd does attribute the perfections of the Divine Nature to every one of these Persons as well as reason did yet no where doth it speak of more Eternals more Almighties more All-sufficients then one only And there being in Nature but one energy upon the Creatures abroad ch 6.10 the Scripture concurs herewith teaching there is but one Creatour one Saviour one Sanctifier one King one Law-giver one Judge one Lord one Adorable Being or Object of Religious Worship and one Majesty According to the voice of Nature Truth and Moral goodness have a substantial subsistence in God ch 6.11 12. this is asserted by the Scripture as often as it says God is Light or God is Love That the Spirit of God is free
intention but rather with a charitable design to aid them in their streights for since they have so weak a Faith that they cannot believe Gods word without relief from the evidence of Reason I hope I have sufficiently shewed them that they may be most strictly Catholick Christians and yet most rigorously Rational Men. For if they will reason warily enough I see not how they can use reason too much about the Christian Religion And it will ever be found most reasonable that Christian Men should imploy all the Reason that God hath given them not to spie out incongruities in the Language which he uses with his Church but rather to maintain the verity of all those things which he has with perspicuity and great veracity ef expressions asserted in the Holy Scripture which I shall presently shew he has done on the Subject in hand Indeed the Papists of late by a sly Artifice would have had us account the Trinity a sensless Doctrine that it might make a fit Prologue as they used it to introduce the Monster of their Transubstantiation but we find it is no way accommodate to any such purpose For what the Christian Doctrine Teaches of the Trinity is exactly agreeable to the Reason and Nature of the Supream Spirit but Transubstantiation teaches nothing but what is repugnant to the Condition of the Corporeal Nature For first they tell us of a thing that has not at all the Nature of a Body as they describe it and then teach us that the Bread and Wine are turned into that Body It may indeed well enough beseem Persons that have Worldly Designs of their own to be served upon the Christian Religion to resolve Faith and all the Points of it into an obscurity of assent that other Men may take their Creeds from their mouths and believe as they would have them for their own turns but for such as intend no other end in their Faith than the Salvation of their own and others Souls I see not but reason if used with soberness is of great advantage and comfortable use to them in their Religion For my own part I like not the Catholick Doctrine of the Trinity ever the worse but rather much the better because I find that all the reason in the World which I can understand is in that Mystery on the Churches side CHAP. VIII The Scripture Evidence NAture teaches first what a thing is or is not in it self and having implanted in us self-love and other concerns thereby prompts us to consider the thing Comparatively with reference to our own interests So that the Natural account of the thing is best delivered in the most simple and bare terms But Prophetical institution passing through the Spirits of the Holy Men of God is to be delivered in terms that express both the things themselves and their devout regard to them conjunctly and therefore such an institution is at once adapted to instil Knowledge and Religion into the Hearers Minds for Religion is not naked speculation but that belief of things whereby we form the Councels of our Lives and Affections of our Hearts St. Paul assures us that this is eminently the Character of the Christian Institution which he therefore stiles the Doctrine and again the Truth which is according to Godliness and refers to this notion on so many several occasions that it is plain he looks upon it as one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Christian Religion Therefore the Expressions wherein the Christian Doctrine is taught will accordingly be such as in the common use of words do bespeak reverence or Holy Fear and Love The Gospel Preaches Christ to be the Lord of all to whom Divine Honour is due on the account of the Excellency of his Person Now since the subsistence of things in conception as amongst Men is but weak as being only notional and in common use through pravity is extreamly subject to vanity had Christ been called the Divine conceptus the infinite distance betwixt Gods conceptions and ours being not obvious enough in common use this Style had not been so well accommodated to procure Reverence as is calling him the Son the only Begotten Son of God But the Religious Concern being set aside for the bare truth of the thing Nature more expeditely teacheth it by assuring us that God is a perfect Mind and therefore he perfectly conceives or has a perfect conception of his own Divine Nature for this is certain at the first sight from the Condition of the Mental Nature But if we say God is a perfect Mind therefore he begets his own Nature many things must be cleared before the necessity of this Consequence will be perceived whereby we see Nature teaches best in one set of Expressions and Prophets in another which by the way may take off offence if I have given any by using some terms in explication of the Trinity that are not Scriptural whilst the Argument led me not to consider the importance of it in Religion but precisely the Natural Evidence of its Truth 2. But when I consider that almost all words are inadequate to the significaâ—ion of any words in other Languages I easily believe that this Observation may be needful only for our Vulgar Tongues for so large is the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gigno c. That if we use any term significant of Breeding it is included within the comprehensiveness of these words which are the Scripture expressions most commonly used on this occasion For these words applyed to Corporeal Productions import the joint interest of both Sexes and the intire efficiency of either severally as likewise breeding by spiration by fusion by solar influence by the Earth as in Beasts Insects Fishes Plants c. So that they are not limited to any particular form of causation in breeding but signifie with the greatest latitude and are therefore to be rendred into the Modern Languages by such words as are in use upon particular occasions Whether then we say conceive or beget we are within the compass of the original significancy For whether we say well the Earth breeds or begets Grass we say well terra gignit herbas So homo herba nascitur is well said though it be neither well englished Man and Grass is born nor Man and Grass do grow 3. It is manifest both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. signifie not only Coporeal Generation or Conception but likewise Mental and this with such indifference that I see no reason why they should be thought less proper or more metaphorical when they are applied to these than to the others for Proud Thoughts Humble Thoughts Love Joy Fear and Grief c. are all properly begotten in our minds by being conceived in our minds These indeed have only a Notional Subsistence but yet their Nature such as it is is begotten by the minds conceptive powers wherefore if a Substantial Nature is conceived in a mind by a Conception wherein
import their constitution in the Sacerdotal State of the Universe But I must here lay no stress upon this lest I beg a Principle of those that will not grant it I note it however for the sake of them which know the Truth that they may discern the whole of what I include in the compleat notion of a Christian Mystery 2. Nature instructs us in the knowledge of Gods Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.32 and of his Providence and Righteous Judgment and likewise teaches that his Subsistence is such as belongs Naturally to the Supream Self-Originate Spirit what that is I have shewed above But that God is Incarnate that he now Governs the World in Humane Nature and will Judge the World in the man Christ Jesus is not to be learned from Natural John 1.14 Mat. 28.18 Acts 17 31. but only from Supernatural Revelation Nothing then that depends upon these as all Religious Mysteries now do can be proved otherwise than from the Scriptures 3. From the Natural Reason of the thing we have therefore no evidence to assert that Christ is God Mark 1.1 Joh. 20.13 but there is nothing that the Gospel makes more certain then that Christ is the Son the only Son the only begotten Son of God this being the grand assertion of the New Testament And this being made certain to us by the Gospel the former discourse whereby we naturally learn there is one only Son of God does assure us that whoever or whatever Christ is Cap. 5. though he be even a man he is himself really and truly God and yet not God the Father nor the Holy Ghost This is all that our present undertaking obliges us to say in demonstration of our Saviours Divinity 4. But that I may not wholly baulk the expectation of the Reader I shall annex the sum of a large Scriptural evidence made ready to our hands as I find it recapitulated by the excellent Dr. III. Serm. of the Trinity P. 86 Wallis after a particular inforcement of it He therefore who is as Christ has been shewed from the Scriptures to be God the true God the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Eternal God the First and the Last before whom nothing was and after whom nothing shall be That Was and Is and Shall be the same Yesterday and to Day and for Ever the Almighty by whom the World was Made by whom all things were Made and without whom nothing was Made that was Made who Laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of his hands who when the Heavens and the Earth shall fail His Years endure for Ever who searcheth the Hearts and the Reins to give to every one according to his Works who is Jehovah the Lord God of Israel the Supream Being who is over all God blessed for Ever who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath Immortality to whom be Honour and Power Everlasting Amen That God says he of whom all these things are said is certainly not a meer Titular God who is called God but is not a Creature God or only a Dignified Man for if these be not Characters of the True God by what Characters shall the True God be described 5. We are now to observe how the Natural Doctrine of the former Discourse does correspond with all these viz. That Christ is Man and is the Son of God is God but not the Father nor the Holy Ghost First then Of the Humanity of Christ about which more anon we must remember that there is no Created Nature Cap. 5.5 Cap. 5.10 but has its Being wholly by being Conceived in the Divine Mind therefore Christs Humanity is a Nature Subsisting by being Conceived by God 2. The Divine Nature in its second Subsistence is the only begotten Son of God as being God Conceived therefore Jesus Christ being the Son of God is God conceived and being but one and yet Man he is God conceived one with Man or he is God conceived and Man conceived in Unity by the Divine Conception and therefore by vertue of the Divine Essential Truth God conceived one with Man is thereby really one with Man Thus Christ abideth ever God and Man in one Cap. 5.5 6. But because it is God conceived that is thus one with Man therefore it is neither God the Father or the Holy Ghost that is one with Man For God Conceived or Begotten is the Deity in its second subsistence Christ therefore is the Son of God even of the Father and from him and the Father proceeds the Holy Ghost 7. Since Unity hath several significations it will be impossible in some sense for God in any subsistence to be one with Man therefore we must observe that God the Son being Eternally God conceived is Eternally God and Eternally conceived he therefore is not changed in his nature nor subsistence which being still the same he ceases not to be God nor the Son of God by becoming Man And we may say more generally he ceases not to be what he ever had been but begins to be what before he was not There is therefore neither a Conversion of the Godhead changing it from a Divine into a Humane Nature nor yet a confusion whereby upon the union of the two Natures there results a third which is neither of the two as when a blew thread is dipt into a yellow Vat there comes out a third colour which is neither blew nor yellow but green so that the Properties Natural and Personal of the Son of God remain the same unvaried by this Union 8. Jesus Christ being one who is God conceived and Man conceived in the unity of the Divine Conception he is the Son of God both in his Divine and Humane Nature This subsistence therefore of the Son of God in Union with Man is Mystical in the full and adequate notion of Mysticalness for the Divine Nature might have been and have governed the whole Creation Cap. 10.1 though in no one of its Personal subsistences it had been one with Man Jesus Christ therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity hath in him a Mystical subsistence of God and Man become one and therefore is a Mystical Divine Person 9. And because this Mystical Union was effected by the unity of the Divine Conception therefore God conceiving the Divine and Humane Nature is one Rom. 15. in as such the God and Father of Jesus Christ and therefore is as such the Divine Nature in its first subsistence become Mystical 10. And the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son in this their Mystical subsistence being as such the Spirit of the Father of Jesus 1 Cor. 2.12 and the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus is the Divine Nature as such in its third subsistence hereby become Mystical Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.6 Phil. 1.19 Cap. 10.1 So that
God in the three subsistences of the Divine Nature upon our Saviours Incarnation is become Mystical 11. Now it is this Mystical Trinity that the Gospel teaches Indeed whilst the Scriptures deliver the Doctrine of the Mystical Trinity they do as I have said insinuate the state of the natural Trinity but so they instruct us in almost all things in Nature whilst they teach us their relation to the Mystical and Sacerdotal state of the Divine Kingdom On the other hand we see the knowledge of the Natural Trinity which we learn from the perfections of the Divine Nature does so lead us to the Faith of the Mystical as to leave that Christian Mystery to be wholly of supernatural Revelation For the Mystery I say the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity rests wholly upon the ground and pillar of Truth which is confessed to be the great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh so that our Faith of this Mystery it is plain stands not in the Wisdom or Reasonings of Men but in the veracity of Gods word This is sufficient to justifie the distinction which I make betwixt the Mystical and Natural Trinity for this is but analogous with the reason of that difference which is betwixt Christian and Natural Vertue for though the Natural form of vertue may be understood by Natural Light yet the Christian form cannot which includes all the Vertuousness of the Natural and somewhat more which is likewise praise-worthy CAP. XI Of Christs Humanity 1. WE must confess if Christs humanity had been wholly Created anew by its being conceived one with the word it would then have been nothing of kin either with Man or with any other thing in the World Whereas we are assured he that is the word came into that World which had been made by him John 1.10 1 Joh. 4.17 and we are in this World even as he was in this World his Humane Nature was not therefore strictly Created but made of some substance preexistent in the World 2. Neither was his Manhood made out of any thing that is not of humane race for then he had had no more cognation with that Mankind that is in the World then with any other parts of this mundane System but we are taught Heb. 2.14 that because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same he has therefore a prime relation to us and as such Heb 3.11 he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren 3. If Christs Humane Nature then be made out of that one blood whereof are all the Nations of men he is the Son of man and is made so of God by Nature and therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.5 as the Author of Nature produced this Manhood 4. But tho it be God that does produce this Human Nature yet if he do it by the sole powers of Natural Ordination according to the Laws establish'd before in the World for the Production of Mankind he will not thereby carry off any corrupt or inordinate sensuality which passes according to course in the natural constitution of things and tho we should suppose that the Personality of this individual Manhood is not subsistent because of the personal Union with the Divine Logos yet that of it self changes not this Human Nature in its dispositions and therefore this Nature would indeed be like ours in its Causes and Constitution but it would be too like us because it would not be undefiled Whereas we know this Nature was Holy and Harmless and Undefiled Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 1.19 that it might be offered without spot to God as a Lamb without blemish and without spot It was not therefore solely produced by the powers of Nature 5. If the Manhood wherewith God is one be produced by the Powers of Nature so far as they will reach with rectitude and by Divine Power superadded to supply what is defective then this Manhood hath all that is really and essentially natural to us and so is related naturally to us and the supernatural Divine Operation takes away all the depravation of Nature Whereby it comes to pass that though he was in all things to be like unto us that he might have the feeling of our Infirmities and Temptations Heb. 2.17 Heb. 4.15 Heb. 7.27 28. yet he had no sin at all for our High-Priest can have no Infirmities or Sins of his own to offer for according to the fundamental constitution of the Divine Kingdom though Moses his Law allowed sinful Men to be Priests and to offer first for themselves and then for the People 6. Wherefore God in framing the humanity of Christ did continue the powers of Nature to work by their own stated Rules and without exalting them by a supernatural efficiency added thereto did produce an effect in the world which is beyond the force of Natural Powers Now all such effects as are produced by the force of Natural Powers and Divine energy added thereto are ever in Scripture peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.4 Thus when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters or liquid such effects followed as the powers of water are naturally uncapable of producing So both Jesus his and his Disciples miraculous operations upon the powers of Nature and all supernatural Graces are peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost for all these diversities of Operations worketh one and the same Holy Spirit by the personal disposition of his own Will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. 7. This Manhood become one with the Son of God is peculiarly therefore the work of the Holy Ghost and because it was effected by the Holy Ghost coming upon a Woman and the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was born of her Luk. 1.35 Mat. 1.20 therefore this is a Child conceived by the Holy Ghost and has that Woman for its Mother 8. It is also the Child of Adam Luk. 3.38 Gen. 3.20 Mat. 1. and of Eve the Mother of all Living and of Noah And if God had said that it should be by the descent of any particular Line as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah Jesse David it will be the Child of these Progenitours and such Predictions and Promises are Divine Characteristicks of the individual Person of Gods Son become Man both to the Ages preceding and following his Birth 9. The depravation of our Nature being removed not by the natural efficacy but supernatural efficiency of the Holy Ghost there will be no more reason to assert this Woman to have been her self born without all inordinate sensuality because she was the Mother of this Child than to affirm the same of all his Pro-parents in the direct Line up to Adam 10. But whether she is to be called the Mother of God is a question of names and strife of words for as much as there is a sense wherein she is and another wherein she is not therefore
all the most absolute perfections of being in Substantial Subsistence but likewise out of pity to the pressing necessity of Mankind because it was necessary and seasonable wholesome and profitable to Men to save their Souls from the Deceits of this present World 2. Atheism and Polytheism being provided against by the two former forms of Covenant it appears if men be not Psychical or Epicurean Divines in consequence of their own opinions they are to acknowledge the truth of the Natural Trinity So that Deists Jews Mahometans and all Genuine Philosophers will joyn with the Trinitarians when they please to reason warily upon their own Principles which when they do it may somewhat dispose them to a better opinion of Christianity if they please to remember that this sublime Doctrine was the institution of the Holy Fishers and withal take notice that they had been with Jesus CHAP. XIV Of the Christian form of Baptism 1. HAD Christianity been nothing else but Natural Religion yet this account might have been given why we should have made a formal recognition of the Blessed Trinity at our foederal initiation into it but because our Religion is a Mystery of Godliness and Baptism a Mystical Rite of that Religion we are further to observe that God having given us as far as is possible an ocular demonstration of the Trinity by sending the Son and the Spirit visibly into the World Cap. 10.8 our Saviour Jesus Christ being the second Person in the Mystical Trinity and in that state commanding all Mankind to be Baptized in the Name of his Father Himself and the Holy Ghost Math. 28. his and his Fathers Spirit it is plain by this Command he obliges all formally and primarily into the confession of the Christian Mystical Trinity but noâ— of the Natural Trinity saving as in consequence thereof 1 Pet. 3.21 and because Baptism does now save us upon this Recognition heartily made the acknowledgment of this Mystical Trinity by this institution of Christ is become necessary that we may be instated with the peace of God in the Rights of the Divine Kingdom 2. This is evident from the very foundation of the Christian Religion which is that Jesus is the Christ for he that believes that Jesus is not the Christ is lost beyond all Redemption 1 Cor. 3.11 but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ believes that Jesus Christ is one and the same Person And he that believes that Jesus the Son of Man is Christ the Son of God does believe that the Son of Man and the Son of God is one and the same Person and because this Jesus is so the Son of Man as to be himself Man and this Christ so the Son of God as to be himself God therefore God and Man is one and the same Person even Jesus Christ And because this same Person that is God and Man is so God as to be the Son of God therefore there is another Person beside even his Father that is God In the confession of Jesus to be the Christ Cap 1â— 8 9. there is included then the acknowledgement of two Personal Subsistences of the Godhead and because the one of these is in Personal Union with Man therefore both he himself and his Father are Persons of the Mystical Trinity 3. But because God and Man was not always united in one Person it is to be considered by what Power this Union was effected If he that is to be Baptized knows not he is first to be instructed before he may be Baptized yea though he hath had some initiative engagement to believe in Jesus he is to be taught and baptized again as the case of those Ephesians shews Asts 19. But should the person demanding Baptism be so profligate an admirer of the power of darkness as to aver that the Infernal Powers did unite the Godhead into this personal Union with Man and then Inaugurate this Person into his Office by a visible descent upon him and authorize him to teach the Doctrine which he taught and impower him to work Miracles for its confirmation and afterwards in ostentation of his power over God and Man first ignominiously put him to death and then raise him from the dead c. this heighth of flagitious obloquy and horrid blasphemy being never to be forgiven he is never to be baptized but utterly rejected as an eternally unpardonable Reprobate But if the Union of God and Man in one Person be acknowledged to be effected by the Divine Power Cap. 11 6. Câ—p. 1â— 10 then the Holy Ghost which is the Divine Power thus operating is the Spirit of the Father of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and consequently is a Mystical Person of the Blessed Trinity Therefore our Confession of Jesus to be the Christ does contain in it the acknowledgment of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity And this is the Faith which the Church in all Ages is to contend for into which it is to baptize all its visible Members and to explicate in its Symbols or Creeds For the shortest abridgment or foundation of the Christian Faith is Jesus is the Christ The next is the Mystery of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the Baptismal Stipulation and the next the Creeds 4. The practice of this Faith is briefly deduced thus Since the natural Trinity is become Mystical by the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God Cap. 10. Cap. 12. and thereupon the Universal Kingdom of God is put under the government of God in that Mystical state of the Divine Nature wherein as such God the Son made Man is the first in the Address the same honour therefore belongs to the Son as to the Father And in the retrospect since Christ says that the Father hath totally committed the government of the Divine Kingdom to the Son John 5. John 5.22 23. and that because he is the Son of Man that is the word made flesh and thereupon all are to honour the Son even as they honour the Father and that he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father this duty supposes the belief of the Mystical Trinity as that belief inferred this duty For we cannot understand how to go about the discharging this duty unless we believe the Father and the Son either to be two several equal Gods or being they are two different Persons to be each equally one and the same God For to honour one Person in my heart as I honour another whose personal perfections at the same time I believe to be inferiour to the others is such a thought as no Mans Mind can think though â—e would never so fain But every one honours the Son as he honours the Father who believes that the Father is God and that the Son is the same God conceived and with infinite truth and reality living and subsisting himself in that conception and that
assured that we do perceive it and without this consciousness there could be no Reasoning But it is true this consciousness admits of no Argument for its Truth but is self-evident to us For as we are sure that we feel pain by no other means but by our feeling it self so we are assured of this consciousness by no other evidence but the Conscience it self Now every intelligent conscious Life is a Mind 8. Let Foreign objects be represented to the Sensorium by an intentional Species or by Effluviums or by Vibration Jog or Tumult as the Philosophers can agree it comes all to one in our present Inquiry for it is plain no one of these can import more than what is done by the Laws of matter from my Face to the Looking-Glass which yet is no cause of Intelligence in the Glass for that no wise doth thereby percieve the difference between the Existence and Non-existence of the Object this Perception therefore is the pure Agency of the Mind For though to judge aright of the Existence of things in the World we need such objective Notices by Species or Motion yet to perceive that the things either are or are not we need no objective Notice at all For the Mind in its Self perceives the diffirence betwixt Existence and Non-Existence is such that they are immediately opposite so that if the one be not the Case then the other is wherefore since our Mind in it Self doth thus conceive a diffirence betwixt being no being it is even in the Body such a conscious life that by its own Energetical Agency does Elicit Acts so purely Intellectual that they depend not on the Existence of any other thing in the World From hence it follows that though there was no other being Existent in the World besides the Mind it self only God by whom it is what it is yet the Mind would Live and Understand therefore according to the Condition of its Nature it will survive the Dissolution of any or every part of this visible World that shall be dissolved and consequently the frame of its own Body Every Mind therefore is naturally Immortal and Immortally Intelligent 9. That we have resentments whereby we are pleased or displeased do like or dislike is most certain to us by our own Conscience and need no farther proof Now a Mind endowed with such resentments is Spiritual But a Spiritual Mind perceiving a difference betwixt Desires and no Desires betwixt Aversions and no Aversions as also betwixt Existence and Non-existence of things clearly perceives that here is a variety of Objects to be liked or not liked to be disliked or not disliked Now since here is anoption propounded to an Intelligent Life that in its Consciâ—us Acts does Act without a dependence on any thing in this World it is left to its self to determine such an Option either way by its own vital Agency as it pleases which ever therefore the Mind pitches upon it chuses with an intire freedom but a free choice is the Agency of a free will therefore every Spiritual Mind animus is a voluntary Agent A Spirit therefore that we may define it is a Nature which by the Energetical Agency of its own Life doth Consciously understand and will 10. As therefore the Mind by vertue of its Essential Life survives immortal so by its Spirituality it is capable of being Pleased or Displeased in its separate State Therefore it will be Happy or Miserable as it is Pleased or Displeased with that Holy Will of God according to which all thingâ— are done in the Spiritual World which being an Eternal State and consequently immutable is not susceptive of Repentance 11. According to this account we may collect that such a Nature as hath no Life whereby it can commence an Action purely by its own Energy but does in all its acts depend upon the foreign Agency of other things I say such a Nature hath no Appetites but Acts upon other things by an Extrinsick force or pulsion If there be a Life but no Intellect discerning the difference betwixt Existence and Non-existence there may be an Appetite but no Liberty because in the Sphear of its Activity there lies but one course open for the Agency of its natural Power to Operates in but if there be an Appetite and an Intellect too then there will be a free choice so that every Conscious Appetite is a free Will and there is no free Will but in a Conscious Life In our Perception of the Coherence or In-coherence of these choices with one another is seated the Power of Reasoning in Theory and of Counsel in the Affairs of Life 12. I am here to advise that we shall not be concerned to enquire on this occasion whether there be Existent any proper Energy that is not Vital or any Life that is not Sensitive or any Sensitive Life that is not Intelligent or any Intellectal Life not endowed with Spirit No nor yet whether the Faculties of a Spirit do really or only nominally differ amongst themselves for as such things have been debated in the Schools so we may leave them there to be decided it being sufficient for my design that it is absolutely certain to us by the Dictates of Nature that there is Existent a Spirit which lives understands and wills for then it is certain whatever is Essential to any one of these Three is included in that Spiritual Nature and it is not any other Nature but this precisely that I am to account for 13. As then we are so well acquainted with the condition of matter that if the Divine Nature be material we can from thence infer that it hath length breadth and thickness so it appears we are so well acquainted with the Condition of a Spirit that if the Deity be Spiritual we can from thence infer God is a Being that lives understands and wills but whether the Divine Nature be either or neither of the two is yet to be inquired and in the mean time this however is certain That CHAP. III. The most high Being is Spiritual 1. GOD is the most high Being in the most ample significancy of the word Supream whereby we intend not only that he is so the most High that there is nothing above him for this is consistent with another Being as high as he is not barely that he is Superior to all Existent Beings for then there might have been though there is not another Being equal with him but first that his Being is such that it is above the possibility of any others being equal with him and that Secondly Not because it happened that there wanted something powerful enough to yield it self a Being equal with his but because the Supream Being is so the most High that it is a flat contradiction to the nature of substance that any other Being should be so high as he is or that even he himself might have happened to have been higher then he is We can conceive of a
that in despite of all the Wickedness and Folly that can enter into Mortals God will have this Testimony for himself inviolably Sacred and fixed in their Hearts by the help whereof they may when they like to think soberly come to the knowledge of the Truth 7. When we perceive that things Subsist in the World we do not only perceive that such their subsistence does differ from Non-existence but likewise from that Subsistence which they have by being conceived in our Mind For we are assured that they Subsist in the World when they are not in our Thoughts as well as when they are and we can think of things that Subsist not at all in the World as well as of those that do Since then these two Subsistences do thus differ we may term the Subsistence which things have in the World their real Subsistence and that which they have in our Mind their notional Subsistence which is not therefore really no Subsistence of the thing at all but is not that real Subsistence whereby the thing is what it is in the World Our Conception therefore of things Subsistent in the World gives them another distinct Subsistence such as it is in our Minds But we must observe farther that because in this case it is the very thing and its Subsistence in the World that the Mind conceives therefore that thing and its Subsistence which is real in the World do both notionally subsist in one Conception I say the thing and its real Subsistence in the World do both subsist notionally in our Mind Here then are two distinct Subsistences of the same thing which do differ not only in number but in their condition or kind Hence it follows 8. Because matter and its qualities hath no power to conceive its own Subsistence therefore it can have in it self only one of these Subsistences which is the real When I actually conceive in my Mind the visible World or any part of it I perceive that it hath a Subsistence in Nature which is its real Subsistence and a second in the conception of my Mind which is its notional Subsistence so that the visible World and every piece of it hath only one real Subsistence but then the World and its real subsistence hath as many notitional subsistences as there are Souls actually thinking of it 9. When my Mind does actually form a Conception of its own being then does my Mind actually subsist in its self in two distinct subsistences the one real and the other notional but when my Mind does not actually conceive its own being as we know the Mind does not when it is wholly taken up with the Thoughts of other things it has for that time one one subsistence in it self the really but not the notional 10. Supposing then a Mind that without any diversion does always actually conceive its own real subsistence it is evident that such a Mind hath perpetually two subsistences in it self the first in order is its real subsistence and the second that in the Conception Now since we suppose the Supream Spirit is such a Mind as is not ignorant of its own real subsistence and hath no dorment Powers that it should ever be diverted from the actual conception of it self therefore this Mind subsists perpetually in two different subsistences God therefore the Supream Spirit does in himself subsist in no less than two distinct subsistences whereof the one is a real subsistence But whether the second be a real and substantial subsistence of the God-head or only notional I confess cannot be inferred barely from God's being of a mental Nature but on the contrary if he be a Mind of the very best of that sort of Minds whereof our Souls are or of any other besides the most High or if the Supereminency of the Supream Mind above all others be only its uninterrupted actual conception of its own being and of all others which it knows it might be demonstrated that there is but one real subsistence of the Deity We must therefore inquire wherein is the Supereminence of this most high Being that we may examine whether there be in it discernably such peculiar Characters as yield us a sufficient Evidence that it has naturally more real subsistences than one for if there be not the nature of the Deity will not evince this point of the Churches Faith But the Church is left wholly to its own proper province and to prove it by Scripture and that proof however will retain its own full strength tho' this natural Evidence should not be super-added CHAP. V. Of the Trinity 1. VVE have seen that no one can rationally deny that the Divine Nature being mental does subsist at least in two distinct subsistences the first whereof is real and for the condition of the second we are to consider the peculiar Characters of the Supream Spirit which we know to be such attributes as these An independent self-subsistence being as some call it self Originate self Sufficiency even All-sufficiency Omnipotence Omniscience Ubiquity Immutability Unity Eternity most perfect Truth Goodness Blessedness Holyness c. These may be proved both from the reason of the thing and Revelation to be perfections of the Divine Nature but I need not undertake here what hath been done by many others and is universally acknowledged 2. This being the condition of God the Supream Mind we are fully assured by the Omniscience c. of this Divine Mind 1st That whatever God does not conceive that really is nothing and we are no less assured by the absolute perfection of the Divine Truth c. 2d That whatever God does conceive not to be that hath no Being and is nothing And 3d. On the other hand whatever God does positively conceive to be that really is or doth subsist And 4th The independent All-sufficiency of God c. Assures us that without the concurrence or assistence of any other thing whatever this Divine Mind can positively conceive a thing to be And from hence we can Argue as from certain Principles 3. That since God can positively conceive a thing to be without the Presence or Antecedent Being of any other thing besides himself he can when there was nothing else besides himself conceive a World to be and if he does so then according to the reason of the Mental Divine Nature chap. 4. the World hath a subsistence in the Divine Mind by such a positive conception of it And because God never positively conceives a thing to be but it doth really subsist in it self therefore the World having a positive subsistence in the Divine Conception hath a real subsistence in it self 4. Now since the real subsistence of the World in it self was made and yet not made with hands but by the Agency of an Almighty Mind we must observe that this Almighty Mind causeth all things which it does cause in a way whereby the mental Agency does effect Now the mental Agency being conceptive and every positive Conception
substantially distinct the one from the other 11. By this account it likewise is plain that the conception whereby the Divine Nature subsists in its second subsistence is not a conception creative of the Divine Nature for a creative conception gives being to a substance that otherwise hath no real subsistence but the substance which hath its subsistence by this conception 〈◊〉 â— 6 hath otherwise a real subsistence I say therefore this conception is not creative but yet it is procreative or generative by which I mean it is such a conception whereby a substantial nature hath a second real subsistence which hath otherwise than by conception another real subsistence And this procreative or generative conception infinitely differs from the creative for the creative is indifferent because God may be Cap. 5.7 and yet may or may not create a World but this procreative conception of the Divine Mind is essential to its nature and therefore the second real subsistence which is by this procreative or generative conception is natural to the Being of the Deity as well as the first 12. The Divine Mind in its first subsistence does conceive the Divine Nature If this Divine Nature so conceived Cap. 4.10 be not the same the very same with the Divine Mind that doth conceive it then there is some defect in the truth of the Divine Conception God conceiving not his own very Nature but some other Nature instead of his own which is contradictious to the Attribute of the Divine Truth We have therefore the assurance of God's Essential Truth that it is the same the very same Divine Mind the very same Divine Nature subsisting in the first of these two real Subsistences not conceived and in the second conceived Therefore there is really and truly only one and the very same God subsisting in these two real Subsistences which are really distinct Subsistences 13. If the Divine Nature really subsisting be not God indeed then to be God and not to be God is all one which is a contradiction but if the Divine Nature really subsisting be God indeed then the Divine Nature really subsisting in the first real subsistence is God indeed and the Divine Nature really subsisting in the second real subsistence is God indeed so that each of the two is God indeed as well as both is God indeed 14. Now since the Divine Mind in its first subsistence does conceive the Divine Nature Câ—p. 4.10 Cap. 5.10 and that nature hath by such conception a second distinct subsistence therefore the first with respect to the second subsistence of the Divine Nature is the Parental subsistence of the Divine Nature and the second with respect to the first is the filial subsistence of the Divine Nature 15. It hath been shewed before that it is of the Essence of a mental nature to conceive wherefore since God in the filial subsistence Cap. 4. â— Cap. 5.14 is the divine mind substantially subsisting he does in this second subsistence conceive the divine nature But then the conception whereby the divine mind in its second subsistence does conceive the divine nature is not procreative I use the Latine Conceptus becâ—â—â—e one English word is too much debased in common use And the reason of this is heedfully to be observed for the very form of this second subsistence is Divinus Conceptus and therefore the divine mind in this subsistence conceiving imports no more than this its own formal subsistence of the divine nature and consequently by it there is no other real subsistence of the Deity but precisely its own for when a thought thinks a life lives a Conceptus conceives it is no more than barely a thought is or subsists a life is or a Conceptus is so that when the Divine Conceptus conceives its own nature this is neither more nor less than the Divine Conceptus does actually exist in its own Essential Subsistences therefore this Conception which the Divine Mind in this its second Subsistence hath of its own nature inferring no other Subsistence of the Deity but only its own is not a Procreative Conception 16. The Conception which the Divine Mind in its first Subsistence does conceive Cap. 4.10 Cap. 5.10 is procreative of another Subsistence of the Deity but then this Procreative Conception is one and eternally the same Now because the Conception which the Divine Mind in its second Subsistence hath Cap. 5.15 is not procreative therefore according to the reason of the Divine Nature the Deity hath no more than one and the same Subsistence by being conceived There is then but one Filial Subsistence of the Divine Nature and that is eternally the same 17. But yet the Divine Mind in its second Subsistence does conceive with a Conception creative of other things for though in this its second Subsistence its conceiving its own Being is precisely its own second Subsistence yet it is plain conceiving a World is not so Now because whatever is positively conceived by the Divine Mind hath a real Subsistence by its being so conceived Cap. 5.4 therefore the Divine Mind in its second Subsistence whenever it conceives any other Nature besides its own does conceive with a creative Conception which gives a substantial Subsistence to that other Nature conceived Therefore the Divine Mind in its first Subsistence only does by conception procreate another Subsistence of the Divine Nature but both in its first and second Subsistence it doth create the World Thus doth the condition of the Divine Nature discover that God the Creator doth subsist in no less than two real substantially distinct Subsistences For if we will not affirm God to be a Dependent Being or assert other things to be independent if we will not reduce him to the measures of a Creature nor deny him in truth to be the Creator we cannot deny but at least there are two real distinct Subsistences of the Deity but whether the Most High Being discovers it self to have a third comes now to be considered 18. In order to which we must remember that every Mind that is Spirit animus hath resentments Cap. 2.9 whereby it is pleased or displeased liketh or disliketh Cap. 3.12 and that no Mind could frame the World but a Mind indued with Spirit The Divine Mind as has been shewed is a Spirit Cap. 3.14 which is also certain from the Attributes of the Deity for if the Divine Mind was without resentments it would have no concern for its own or any other Being It would not indeed like evil but neither would it like good it would not be miserable but neither would it be blessed it would not be unholy but neither would it be holy as being a Nature wholly uncapable of such perfections But it is sure and confessed by all that goodness blessedness and holiness are essential to the Divine Nature which therefore has resentments and likes or dislikes is pleased or displeased Now these being in God
the resentments of a conscious life they are therefore voluntary Cap. 2.9 and consequently God wills or nills as he likes or dislikes These things being acknowledged and certain 19. I observe the natural good of every thing in its self is the preservation or improvement of its Being and that is naturally good to other things which contributes naturally to this good of them All benevolence therefore that is to say all willing of good does will the being or improvement of the thing to which it is benevolent Now it being infallibly certain that God does not dislike his own Divine Being for it is the very Spirit of the Devil to dislike his own Being and the Divine Being too and it also being certain that he is not indifferent towards it for that is repugnant to the Spirit of his Mind Cap. 2.9 therefore he does like the Being of his own Divine Nature and because he wills as he likes therefore he does certainly will the Being or Improvement of his own Divine Nature but because the Being of the Divine Nature is the Most High Being and it is contradictious to the whole Nature of all Beings Cap. 3. â— to be higher than the highest Being actually is it is therefore a contradiction for any Volition that wills Being to will the Improvement of the highest Being consequently that Divine Volition which wills the Being of his own Divine Nature is a complacential benevolence whereby precisely the Being of the Divine Nature it self is willed 20. Every Volition which really wills the Being of any thing if it be an absolute Volition without Reserve it does so will the Being of that thing that the thing does really subsist by being so willed if in case it be in the power of that will but if the thing willed does not subsist thereby then it is from some defect in the power of that will from whence such a Volition becomes a vain and empty wish But God's Volition of the Being of the Divine Nature is an almighty unreserved all-sufficient willing of it therefore through no defect of power is the Divine Volition a vain or empty wish and consequently the Being of the Divine Nature is and does subsist for Being so willed with such an almighty Volition for it is a contradiction for that not to be which is willed unreservedly by an omnipotent Mind even because it is willed and since it is the real Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is willed Cap. 5.19 therefore the Divine Nature has really such a Subsistence by being so willed even because it is so willed 21. Now because this Divine Volition doth statedly exert it self this Subsistence of the Divine Nature doth proceed statedly from such stated willing the Being of the Divine Nature therefore in this Subsistence is by procession 22. And as I remarked concerning the second Subsistence so I may proportionably of this Subsistence Cap. â— 1â— for it never proceeds forward to another Subsistence of the Divine Nature by Volition because all Subsistence of the Divine Nature by Volition is no other than this very Subsistence of the Deity 23. But though the Deity in this Subsistence never proceeds forward to another Subsistence by willing the Being of the Divine Nature yet that hinders not but the Divine Nature in this Subsistence may efficaciously will the Subsistence of that which is not the Divine Nature such is the World and consequently the Divine Nature in this Subsistence of it is no less creative of other things than in its two forementioned Subsistences 24. I say the other two for the first real Subsistence of the Divine Nature being its Subsistence in vital Agency conceiving and the second being its Subsistence by being conceived they are really two distinct Subsistences and this real Subsistence by procession being neither of them it is therefore really distinct 25. No Nature is willed but a Nature conceived in the Mind therefore the real Subsistence of the Divine Nature by conception according to the reason of the thing is in order before its Subsistence by Volition and because the Subsistence by conception is in order posterior to the real Subsistence of the Divine Mind conceiving the Divine Nature therefore the Divine Mind conceiving that is the Deity in its Parental Subsistence is the first in order and the Divine Mind conceived that is the Deity in its Filial Subsistence is the second and this its Subsistence by being willed is in order the third which because it is by Volition Cap. 2 â— is therefore the Deity in its Spiritual Subsistence 26. Yet it is no other Nature which really subsists in this third Subsistence but the same which subsists in the other two for as I shewed it is the same C p 5.19 the very same Divine Nature whose Subsistence is willed therefore only one and the same God substantially subsists in all these three distinct real Subsistences 27. If the Divine Nature really subsiâ—â—ing be not God then there is no God but if the Divine Nature really subsisting be God then the Divine Nature really subsisting in this third real Subsistence is God so every one of these Three is intirely the one God as well as all the Three intirely is the one God 28. To conclude therefore having learned from the things that are made and the Creation of the World that God is and is the Most High Being the Supream Spirit we are in consequence to acknowledge from the perfections of the Supream Spirit that he subsists in three really distinct substantial Subsistences But this consequence we shall not perceive unless our understandings have first cleared themselves from false apprehensions of the Spiritual Nature for if we only build upon our childish fancies and conceit a Spirit to be an extended substance but much purer than the thinnest Air or subtilest Aether and thinking it not yet rair enough refine it higher into a meer imaginary space or finding all places full of bodies that we may find room for it to exist in affix to it penetrability or some such arbitrary notion we shall as certainly conclude according to this process of Thoughts that the Supream Spirit hath but one real Subsistence as we are sure that matter hath no more But if laying aside such incoherent notions we ground our Thoughts of a Spirit upon what Nature it self God's Grace assisting does plainly teach us all we shall then be fully convinced that there is a Being which does conceive a difference betwixt Existence and Non-existence betwixt something and nothing which being so conceiving is a Mind or Spirit and that this Mind forming Conceptions of its own Being or of other things does thereby give them such a Subsistence in it self as is answerable to its conceptive Abilities of which also Nature gives us an absolute Assurance This will lead us directly to conclude that the Supream Spirit does indeed subsist in three really distinct Subsistence according to the reason of its most
blessed Perfections For God subsists in vital Agency conceiving his own Nature as God is really true he does also really subsist by being so conceived God absolutely wills the Being of his own Nature and as God is really holy he does also really subsist by being so willed He that denies this denies in Reason the Being of the Supream Spirit he that confesses it confesses Three real Subsistences of the Most High Being God says of himself I am that I am and conformably we may say he is Existence in a Subsistence and he is no less so in real Truth and he is no less so in real Holiness And when we have said this we may perceive we have said at once that he is the Supream Spirit and that he subsists in a Trinity of real Subsistences if we do but observe that there is no Truth but what subsists in a Mind the Truth of a notion in a notional Subsistence and the Truth of a thing in a real Subsistence and that there is no Holiness but what subsists in a Will If therefore we do not disbelieve God's real Truth and Holiness traducing thereby his great and terrible Name Jehovah we are in reason to confess the ever Blessed Trinity CHAP. VI. The Natural and Moral Consequenâ—â— 1. BEfore we proceed to the Scripture Evidence we may observe First some Natural Secondly some Moral Consequents reserving the Practical to the close of all In deducing the preceeding account of the Trinity I oft used the terms because and consequently which are to be understood as causal or consequential in arguing not in the reason of the Existence For we having in our Mind a prior Evidence of one Divine Perfection or Subsistence do thereby discern that this perfection or subsistence is of such a Condition that it does not subsist without another but in the Divine Nature or its Subsistences There is no Cause or Consequent there being nothing in God before or after either in causation or in time But we perceive the Divine Mind doth not substantially subsist conceiving the Divine Nature if the Divine Nature doth not also substantially subsist in conceptu And the Divine Nature being spiritual doth not in its two first subsistences will its own real subsistence if it does not also really and substantially subsist being willed by an Almighty volition By this whole process therefore we are to understand that the Divine Nature is such that according to its condition it does subsist in Trinity but the cause of its doing so is not assigned only the cause of our apprehending it From hence we see that the three real subsistences being natural in the Deity since the Deity is Eternal the Nature and all its three real subsistences are therefore coeternal As we would say whether matter be Temporary or Eternal its subsistence and its three dimensions are all Contemporary or Coeternal 2. By the like reason we see there are no more than three distinct real subsistences of the Deity For since the supream life light and benevolence or the supream life mind and will do compleat or are the intire spiritual nature there are neither fewer nor more subsistences than agree to the reason of such a nature And as that has appeared to be no less than three so we find no more belong to such a being About thirty years ago came forth a Pamphlet of the Origenian Doctrine which as I remember was to this effect The super-abundant fulness of Being in the Deity did represent it self in a second subsistence which though somewhat rebated in its perfections was yet nevertheless really Divine and so proceeded to a third which was inferiour to the second but yet truly Divine likewise and then the Divine faecundity being so far exhausted that there could be no more Beings truly Divine what was made afterwards was Created Celestial Spirits and the Souls of the World and then Matter a substance wholly passive and then what was not wholly substance such as material forms which some account evanid substances others moods and accidents of matter and so being quite effected it ceased But this should not have been given us as the Origenian nor yet as the Genuine Platonick Doctrine of the Trinity if we may believe the Factors of that Philosophy for that they say was nearer the truth if not the very truth whence soever its Heathen Author came by it But whether Plato receiv'd it from the Jews who in his time and before had their Synagogues for Worship in Greece or from others that learned it from them or from some Ancient Tradition or from the reason of the thing which I have shewed to be practicable we are no ways concerned to know But it is true this Scheme was consonant to the opinion of the later Platonists and from some such invented model of old the Arrian Heresie seems to have had its rise some few Texts of Scripture being pressed by force to serve the Hypothesis For this whole draught is meer presumption and arbitrary fiction which though it be laden with a thousand absurdities yet has no ground to support it but the pretty fancy of a gradation whereby they would avoid what they account the too great distance betwixt the Divine Nature and the Created But since God is infinitely Blessed over all there will be an infinite distance betwixt the perfections of his Nature and those of all Natures not infinite So that this is a Fabrick erected without any Foundation and would not answer the use it was designed for though it had been never so well supported Such finenesses may indeed serve to entertain the leisure of a Reader but every considerative Man frames the Counsels of his Life upon the solid Evidence of Nature and not on the concinnity of a pickquaint Wit And to speak a sad truth the licentiousness of Hypothesis-Makers hath done unspeakable mischief to the present Age that is of it self but too much addicted to the gaity of Romantick Conceits But for what concerns the Divine Being in this devised Scheme we may observe that it is plainly frivolous for should the reason why the prime spiritual Nature does subsist in no more than three representations be as he says it is because the faecundity of the Divine Being was exhausted so far that it could yield no more afterward with the like reason we are to affirm that God made Matter which is the prime Corporeal Nature to subsist only in three dimensions for this very Reason even because there was not stuff enough in it to replenish four dimensions or more But as we see well enough that the too great consumption of matter is not the reason why it subsists only in three dimensions but because the Corporeal Nature is perfectly compleat in these three and an extended substance is uncapable of more In like manner we learn that the Deity exists in no more than three subsistences not for lack of any suffiâ—iency for then he is not the Supream Being but because
his Spiritual Nature as has been seen is perfect in these and admits no more 3. And for the inequality of these three suggested in the Hypothesis it is also repugnant to the perfections of the Deity For since the Divine Nature is independent on any other thing that subsistence which it has in the agency of an Eternally Holy Will is equal to that which it hath in the agency of an Eternally Perfect Truth and each of these is equal to that subsistence which it hath in the agency of an Eternally Conscious Life 4. The three Divine Subsistences have been thought by some to be only our partial inadequate conception of the one Divine Nature and one Writer observing that the Divine Intellect and Will have commonly been considered in the explication of the Trinity he has through great ignorance not without scornful slander of the Catholick Faith and contumelious usage of the Divine Majesty exposed them to the World under the approbrious style of Faculty Gods But it appears from the foregoing account of the Trinity that such apprehensions and wrath are from meer mistake for the infinite Life Light and Love or the infinite Life Mind and Spirit is intirely the Divine Nature and this subsists intirely in the first subsistence conceiving and intirely in the second conceived and intirely in the third willed 5. Since the Divine Mind in its first subsistence is not it self unless it does conceive the Divine Nature and yet there is no conceiving the Divine Nature if there be no conceptus of the Divine Nature and vice versâ no conceptus of the Divine Nature subsists if the Nature subsists not conceiving it therefore the first and second substantial subsistence of the Divine Nature are not at all themselves if they be separated 5. Again no Nature subsists by being willed unless it also subsists in conceptu therefore the subsistence of the Divine Nature by volition is not it self if it be separated from that subsistence of the same Nature which is in conceptu Therefore no one of these subsiences of the Divine Nature subsists at all or is its self unless all three subsist in coexistence 6. But though they be inseparable yet every one in their coexistence is in it self independent for though no one is it self unless in union with the other yet being in union each is what it is by its own independent subsistence therefore though the Parental subsistence is not it self what it is if it be not coexistent with the other two yet being in union it is what it is by its own independent subsistence And for the same Reason neither is the second nor the third it self if not in union with the other two but being in coexistence each is what it is independently and consequently every subsistence is an independent subsistence 7. These three subsistences have yet their order and that not arbitrary but natural In the Angles of an equilateral Triangle any one is the first arbitrarily as we please to begin but in natural order they are all simultaneous but in a solid the length is in natural order the first dimension the breadth the second and the depth the third The Divine Nature in its first subsistence does not suppose the subsistence in conceptu though it does connote it but the subsistence in conceptu doth both suppose and connote the first and the subsistence in volition doth suppose and connote both the other So here is but one the first and that is the first in the Natural Order therefore there is but one Principle in the Godhead and then the second subsistence and third in the Natural Order But when the first is called the Fountain and Original of the Trinity these expressions are so very Metaphorical that though they sound not amiss yet their sense is very undeterminate 8. The three subsistences have also a mutual inexistence or in-being of one in the other that is to say not only the one individual Nature exists substantially in three distinct subsistences but every one of those subsistences hath mutually a real existence in the other two for example the Divine Nature in its first subsistence is God not conceived but this same Divine Nature and its first subsistence are positively conceived to be and therefore both this Nature and its first subsistence have in this conception a conceived subsistence which is a second real subsistence but then the first subsistence of the Deity unconceived is the first subsistence subsisting in its own proper form but as it subsists in the second it is not so but in the conceived subsistence and in the third in the willed subsistence and correspondently it is in the reciprocal in-being of the other two this is plain in the notional subsistence of things in our own Minds and this I take to be the mutual consciousness Cap. 4.7 which a very Learned Author of late hath at large discoursed of in a Book of great instruction 9. The Subsistences being thus in themselves and thus related to each other it is manifest that every one of these is God and all the same God because the same Divine Nature does substantially subsist intirely and equally in all and in every one of the Three Therefore the same Glorious Nature the same Supream Majestick Nature the same Incomprehensible Eâ—ernal Omnipotent Uncreated Nature does subsist one and the same in all and every one of the three Subsistences Therefore there is but one Uncreate one Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible one Supream in Glorious Majesty 10. This one Blessed Mind in all its Subsistences does operate with one agency upon all other Inferiour Beings that are in the Universe Now as we find in our selves If our Life Understanding and Will have internally amongst themselves divers interests yet their energy in the motion whereby they move our Bodies from place to place is but one they therefore yield but one force that moves the hand or foot in one only single Line straight or crooked Wherefore though the Deity in all its three real subsistences operates upon other things yet there is but one Divine Agent and one Divine Agency in the World There is then but one Creatour one Redeemer one Sanctifier there is but one Invisible Adorable Being one Lord one King one Judge one Majesty to whom all subjection is due 11. Let us now proceed to the Moral Consequents The Physical Goodness of the Divine Nature is the Divine Nature it self considered as a thing to be willed But the Moral goodness of the Divine Nature is its free willing of the Divine Being Since therefore the Divine Nature it self in its third substantial Subsistence Câ—p 5 2â— does subsist in this All-mighty but free Volition of the Divine Being therefore this free Volition which is the Divine Moral Goodness hath in God a substantial Subsistence So that Moral goodness is substantial in the Divine Nature but is not so in any other Nature how sublime soever In this sense none is good
shamefully prevaricate and joyned with the Heathen in their Idolatry So that God after long patience did serve the designs of his own Kingdom by their miserable Dissipation and Captivity for he had oft times foretold them by his Prophets that when they were cast out of their own Land both they should know that he was the Lord and he would be sanctified in them before the Heathen both which we find exactly fulfilled in the Event For 1. In their Captivity they learned in a few Years to renounce the Heathen Idolatry for ever which in their own Land they could not be taught to do in many Ages And 2. Forthwith an Edict is issued forth over the greatest Empire in the World Dan. 3. Ezra 1. Dan. â— requiring an Universal acknowledgment of the one True Supream God above all other Gods and after that another by Cyrus of the like purpose and a third by Dairus over all the Empire of the Medes and Persians It is to be further observed that the Ten Tribes were first dispersed into the Cities of the Medes and sometime after the Jews were scattered about the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy So that the Israelitts had conversation with almost all Nations and they owning but one God and Worshiping him in their several Dispersions considering men being acquainted with their pretensions would by the reason of the thing be drawn to favour the Truth and by further inquiries abroad be fully satisfied And accordingly after this Dispersion of theirs we begin to meet with the Grecian Sages and Philosophers whereas before they had nothing amongst them but Mythology which was some obscure remainders of Ancient Tradition but so disguised with old fabulous stories that Truth could not be known from Falshood And as many Learned Men as well of late as formerly have proved from the Antient Records of those times the effect of all this was that generally all Nations did acknowledge one God over all though they did not leave off the Worship of their Heathen Gods No more than the Papists that believe but one Supream God do therefore forbear to Worship many of the Invisible World or to invocate the Aid of Saints and Angels whilst they confess but one Advocate with the Father Thus much did Truth gain for the establishment of the Divine Monarchy and asserting rhe Unity of the Godhead 5. In the mean time some Sophisters had devised a new way to subvert the Divine Government and Religion under the profession of one God There being two ways of doing this both were abetted and that by very many for some time before the coming of our Saviour The first giving us for the Supream God a Vivacious Self-activity or an Universal Life without Understanding assigning this to be the source of all Motion Now though this Life according to their fancy is all the force of the World yet it is plain the force is not Omnipotence as that attribute belongs to the true God and being it is supposed to have neither Wisdom or Goodness no thanks or Religious regard is due to it These were those spurious â—permatists who though they were not formed into any Sect were yet growing very Popular and these instead of God who is a blessed mind intruded upon us an Eternal vivid impetuosity impelling all things without Counsel The other were the infamous Sect of the Epicurians who confessed indeed the Divine Nature to be an intelligent mind but without all concern or resentments uncapable of being pleased or displeased and so for God that is a Holy Spirit they substituted an Everlasting Gaze. I know they oft depredicated the blessedness of their Deity which had it been done without collusion would indeed have argued him to be a Spirit But as Cicero said of these same men long ago we are not to regard what they say but what they are to say in consequence of their own Opinions The blessedness of their God which they mean and as they define it is nothing else than no pain of Body or grievance of Mind and then a mind that is no Spirit nor capable of being pleased or displeased in their notion of blessedness must of necessity be ever blessed and so is the Body of a Stone and the Soul of a Psychopannuchite most perfectly blessed Now it is plain all Religious Addresses or Respect had to an unconcerned Mind which having no Spirit is uncapable of liking or disliking are most absurd and Ridiculous So that each sort of these Philosophers in their several ways may profess and believe but one God only and yet both wholly evacuate the Power of the Divine Kingdom and defeat all the Counsels which God had in revealing himself unto Mankind and entring into a Covenant with them 6. But when in the Wisdom of God as St. Paul observes the World through Wisdom even this spurious Philosophy knew not God â— Cor. 1 21. it pleased God through preaching to save them that believe The Truth therefore by which God saved Men from these destructive Delusions was that which the Apostles Preached which we know was the very same Faith which they Baptized Believers into and we are sure they were to baptize into the Name of the Fâ—â—her the Son and the Holy Ghost â—aâ— 28. Therefore the acknowledgment of the Trinity was the Covenant Stipulation instituted by God and set up against the Error that was brought in by the Grecian Wisdom to save men from perishing by that growing destructive mischief For it is manifest from the foregoing account ch 4. ch 5. that the Psychical Men that believe God to be Life without Conciousness cannot acknowledge there are more real Subsistences of the Deity than one and whoever believes more must in consequence confess God to be an Intellectual Being The Epicureans might own two though not Personal Subsistences of their Deity but being consistent with themselves they could not confess a third whilst they denied Gods being pleased or displeased as appears ch 5. ch 6. Therefore this form of Covenant requiring the explicite acknowledgment of three Persons in one God was as directly opposite to those deceits that were then prevailing in the World as was the express owning of the Divine Government to the Anarchical Old World or of the Divine Monarchy to the Antimonarchical Heathen World for all these are suitable Sacramental engagements listing men for God against these several Apostacies And considering the Trinity in the state of the Divine Nature and not in its Mystery these are so many forms of a Covenant that is one and the same in Substance but diversified in the Expressions as the condition of Religion in the several Ages of the World did require And from hence 1. It appears that God entred our express belief of the Trinity into the Covenant of Life not only because it was a most true and weighty a most honourable and glorious acknowledgment of his Divine Majesty for a Trinity of real Subsistences as has been seen speaks