of Prescience as it is in God who sees them actually and ex parte rei Nor can we conceive how this Prescience of his is reconcileable with the contingency of things thô we are sure it is so from those Prophecies of very minute circumstances many hundreds of years before they came to pass I might thus run through all the Attributes of God and shew in every one of them how we make to our selves some representations of them by compounding and enlarging those Idea's we have either of sensible Objects or of the operations of our own Minds And thus we represent the Wisdom and Power and Justice and Holyness and Mercy c. of God from the scanty notions we have of these things in our selves thô they exhibit to us no more of the real nature of these things as they are in God than continu'd extension doth of his Omnipresence or a great number doth of his Infinity or many ages of his Eternity So that in all our thoughts of that divine Being we don't proceed thus The nature of God is such therefore these things follow But these things are the greatest perfections we are able to conceive and therefore by help of these we form the best and most honourable Idea of God that is possible for us in this condition of infirmity and blindness that we are now in Not but that after we have fram'd the biggest Idea of God our Minds are capable of by the greatest enlargement of these perfections after all 't is as gross a representation of him as Darkness is of Light and expresseth nothing of the reall nature of that incomprehensible Being to us nor do they give us the least glimps of him as he is in himself 2. But 2dly As we can have no such proper and immediate Idea of God himself so neither have we such Idea's of any thing relating to another World And therefore it is that the Glory of Heaven is reveal'd to us under the notion of Light the greatness and splendour of that place by that of a Kingdom and the joys of Heaven by sensual pleasures such as Eating and Drinking the operation of Grace by the nourishment of our Bodies c. and when God himself is spoke of 't is always by analogy with the Members of a Human Body and the operations of our Minds Thus he is mention'd as having Hands and Feet as Seeing and Hearing and as being affected with all the passions of a Human Soul because he hath no other way to speak of himself to us now since we have neither Words nor Idea's to think or speak of him after any other manner or indeed of any other Objects of another World And therefore it is that the Spirit of God in all his Revelations hath made use not only of the Words and Phrases commonly receiv'd and understood but likewise of those common notions in the minds of Men of things in this World to represent Truths which are in respect of us now unconceivable and for which there are as yet no capacities in our nature So that in truth all the Idea's we at present have of the things of another World are no other than a sort of Types and Figures of things the real nature of which is totally obscur'd from us And this is the literal meaning of those words of St. Paul That now we see through a Glass darkly i. e. by analogy only with the things of this World But then Face to Face i. e. we shall have as immediate a view of those heavenly Objects as we have now of these things which only represent them to us So that when we are said to have these divine Truths reveal'd to us in part the meaning is not that any real part of the thing as it is in it self is exhibited to our view and the rest obscur'd or that we have any indistinct view of the thing it self as we see an Object at a great distance But the meaning is that the whole is reveal'd to us under the resemblance of some things in this World whereof we have clear and distinct Idea's And thus it is plain that thô we may be said to have Idea's of God and Divine things yet they are not immediate or proper ones but a sort of composition we make up from our Idea's of Wordly Objects which at the utmost amounts to no more than a Type or Figure by which something in another World is signified of which we have no more notion than a Blind-man hath of Light And now that I am fallen into this Metaphor which seems well to explain the nature of the thing let us pursue it a little and suppose that to a Man who had never seen or heard any thing of it it were to be reveal'd that there was such a thing as Light This man as yet hath neither a name nor a notion for it nor any capacity of conceiving what it is in it self 'T is plain therefore God wo'd not reveal this to him by the name of Light a word wholly unknown to him nor by stamping on his Mind any immediate Idea of the thing it self for then it were utterly impossible for him to communicate this Revelation to others as blind as himself for nothing but the same Almighty impression cou'd do that So that this Revelation must be made by Words and Notions which are already in him And accordingly when he is told that it is a thing which can diffuse it self in an instant many thousands of miles round and enable him to know in a moment what order all things lay at a great distance from him and what proportion they bore one to another nay that it cou'd make him know where the Heavens lay and by the help of this he shou'd there discern at once a vast and almost infinite number of very pleasant Bodies and in short that without the help of his Stick or his Hand he shou'd know every thing that lay before him After all 't is plain this Man wou'd form to himself an Idea of Light from his Touch he wou'd think it very like feeling and perhaps call it by that name because this was the best way he had of distinguishing one thing from another and therefore wou'd conclude that those Bodies he heard of must needs be wondrous soft and smooth Just thus do we conceive the things of another World so that we may rack our invention and turn and wind all those Idea's we have into ten Thousand different shapes and yet never make up any likeness or similitude of the real Nature of those Objects of another World And now I hope he will grant it a thing possible for God to make such a Revelation as this to a Blind man And yet by this concession he destroys his whole Book For upon his Principles it were a thing utterly impossible for any man that was born Blind to believe there is such a thing as Light upon the testimony either of God or Man
much oâ— what they have no Idea of it must always end in darkness and confusion That part of a Christian Mystery which is intelligible and plain was ever so and that part which is mysterious notwithstanding all their vain endeavours will ever be so till we coâ—â— to another World Therefore our way to deal with these men is to fix the right sence and meaning of those Propositions wherein the Mysteries of the Gospel are reveal'd to us and then to insist upon the Proofs we have for the truth of the Revelation and shew that they are such as ought to convince any reasonable unprejudic'd man insomuch that if they do not give their assent to them they shall be without excuse when they come to be try'd for their Infidelity Thus we shou'd turn the course of our Thoughts into a right Chanel and confound all these Enemies of our excellent Religion For by freely owning as becomes us that we have no notion at all of these mysterious things as they are in themselves we cut off a multitude of frivolous and impertinent Objections And shew these men that our Christian Faith however is no lazy credulity or blind implicite assent since it is built upon a better foundation than is possible for any man to lay without the concurrence of the Almighty Power of God insomuch that we are ready to join issue with them upon the Principles of Reason in every point of our Christian Faith as far as the things reveal'd fall within the compass of it And therefore were I to give a reason of my belief of the TRINITY laying aside all affectation of hard words and abstruse Metaphysical Notions I wou'd do it thus I am fully perswaded of the necessity of Revelation in general in order to all the purposes of Vertue and Piety in this life and I am convinc'd that those Revelations of the things of another World which are made in the Gospel have better proofs of their Divinity than any other whatsoever They have such testimonies of their coming from God from Prophecies and Miracles and the agreeableness of the Doctrines therein contain'd to our common Notions that if I use my Reason with the same impartiality in these that I do in other things I must give my assent to them In those writings I find this Proposition There are Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are one From whence and from many other passages in the Scriptures I find that there is a Distinction made in the Godhead under these three names of Father Son and Holy-Ghost which the Church hath exprest altogether by the word Trinity and singly by the word Person And I think these terms proper enough to express all that we know of this Mystery Now I find no account of the Manner and Nature of this Distinction in the holy Scriptures any otherwise than that the Son was begotten and that the Holy Ghost comes from the Father and the Son I conclude there is something more than a meer Nominal Distinction because we are said to be Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost Which must needs import something more than if that Commission had run thus Go Baptize all Nations in the name of Jehovah and of Elohim and of Adonai And if there were not something more intended than barely that they shou'd do it in the name of God this were a needless tautology Again I conclude that they are not three distinct different Spirits for then there must be three Gods contrary to Reason and Scripture From all which I infer there is in the Godhead something more than a meer nominal Distinction and something less than that of three different Spirits And because I find each Person seperatly as well as jointly mention'd as God and Divine Worship allow'd and paid to them Therefore as that excellent Creed expresseth it I worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance Now at the same time I make this profession of my Faith I allow I have not the least knowledg how strict this Union is nor how great the Distinction It is as much beyond my Reason as the Glory of God is beyond my Sight and any man who strives to conceive it himself or takes pains to explain it to others is guilty of such a folly that I can't think of any action in nature extravagant enough to match it If we saw a Man stretching up his hand with a great deal of Vehemence to pull down a Star we shou'd certainly conclude him distracted because 't is utterly impossible for him to reach it or grasp it if he cou'd 'T is the very case of those men who go about to account for the manner of that Unity and Distinction for which they have neither Words nor Idea's And therefore I say it again in opposition to this Insolent Man that I thus adore what I cannot comprehend This is one of those Mysteries reveal'd in the Gospel and it is never the less a Mystery for any thing he hath yet said or ever will say for the Union is inexplicable and will be so to the end of the World However my assent to this is not precarious and implicite or any easie blind Credulity but is â—ounded upon clear and distinct Idea's For there are three things to be done by every reasonable thinking man concerning any Proposition wherein a Mystery is reveal'd 1. To be sure that he understand well the meaning of the Words 2. That he discern no Contradiction in them 3. That he hath sufficient evidence of the Revelations coming from God 1. As to the first of these in respect of the Mystery I am now upon I understand very well the meaning of the Words wherein it is reveal'd and they themselves who oppose this Doctrine understand them as well as I for if they did not know what was meant by the Words they wou'd never set themselves to argue against it for there is no other way of conâ—uting Nonsence but saying it is such So that thus far if it prove to be true these Propositions wherein the Trinity is reveal'd will hold good against them at the day of Judgment and render them without Excuse 2. As to the second thing I see no Contradiction in it and if there were I would utterly reject it For to say that Three are One is so far from being a contradiction that there is nothing more common in ordinary discourse than for any one to say that Three or any other greater number of things are but one and if every man who spoke such seeming contradictions were catch't up immediately and forc'd to explain himself upon all such occasions it wou'd make conversation very troublesome As if one shou'd say that there are three distinct things in a Man a Body the Animal Spirits and an Immaterial Substance and yet
we can't apprehend it than a Circle is because we may But why because Reason goes as far as it can in both The Circle is to be imagin'd but Eternity is not essentially imaginable if it were Reason wou'd have it as well as the Circle yes that it wou'd but you wou'd not have Reason to imagine any thing that is not to be imagined And yet but a few lines after he will make us imagine it in his next Book as perfectly as that 3 and 2 make 5. But this is a strange Circle in arguing to prove that Eternity is not above our Reason because it is And you see the cause of this blunder is because he confounds Idea with Imagination one of the best distinctions we are beholding to the modern Logicians for 'T is plain there are many things we have Idea's of which we are not able to imagine and Eternity is one of them And because we can't frame any imagination of it it doth not follow that we can't apprehend it at all for Reason can frame an Idea of it as it doth of the other things of another life i. e. by Analogy and for this reason it is more a Mystery than a Circle which we perfectly imagine Once more thô the Essence of matter lies hid from us as well as that of a Spirit yet we know much more of it's properties as that it hath Gravity Extension Solidity Impenetrability Divisibility and this Table on which I write thô I can't actually divide it into infinite parts yet I can carry it on in my Mind and conceive it divisible Now these are properties of matter which agree to it in general and are not meer modifications of it But we know no more of a Spirit but that it thinks i. e. just enough to prove it's Existence and no more for as to all the different modifications of Thought it is but thinking still and therefore is answerable but to that one property of Extension in matter Besides we don't attribute this of Thinking immediately and positively to a Spirit for we don't say a Spirit thinks because we know so much of the real nature of it as to discover this but we say it thinks because we can prove that matter can't Now when I say the Idea we have of a Spirit is not positive I mean that it is not so in respect of our understanding because we have no way of attributing it to a Spirit but by a negation of it to matter I must confess if we take a Spirit in the sense that some men do i. e. only for a Thinking Being then indeed we come to the notion of it by Reflection we find something in us that Thinks and from thence we immediately attribute it to that Being But for any thing that is yet concluded this Thinking Being may be meer matter and when we proceed to infer the existence of an immaterial substance which is the true notion of a Spirit as it is distinguish'd from matter and in which sence God is said to be a Spirit then the Idea we have of it is as far from being positive as the words by which we express it Then we have no other way of conceiving it but by removing from it Extension Divisibility Solidity c. which are the properties of Body and we conclude that the substance in us that thinks must be immaterial because this operation exceeds the power of meer matter i. e. while it is such for if God shou'd alter all the properties of it so as to make it something else and not matter then no one can deny but it may think but how far this implies a contradiction I shall not now dispute So that again I can't but wonder any one shou'd affirm positively that we have as clear and distinct Idea's of the Nature and Properties of Spirit as we have of Body Mr Lock 's Notion of the Soul is only that of a thinking substance without any regard either to the materiality or immateriality of it tho' one wou'd think he inclines to the former when he shews this to be the sence of the word Spirit both in Prophane and Divine Authors However he says afterwards that the utmost Proof we can have for the immateriality of it will amount only to a Probability and thus much concerning it he thinks deducible from his Principles and particularly from his supposition of a System of matter and adds that he would gladly see a better proof of it either from the Bishop of Worcester or any one else To speak to this now wou'd be no other then a digression from the business I am upon but I do not dispair of giving him this Demonstration which he wou'd so gladly see and shewing him withal 〈…〉 〈◊〉 how very much he is out in his application of those Texts of Scripture he makes use of I know 't is easy for a person to deny any thing to be demonstration which is not mathematically such but if it appears that we have as good proof for the immateriality of the Soul as we can reasonably expect for any natural or moral truth this is sufficient for the conviction of any except those who by their Principles are oblig'd to oppose it But to return it is Evident from what hath been said that we are so far from forming any Idea of Spirit as clear and distinct as that we have of matter that we can't form a simple Idea of any property in it which is positive in respect of our understanding and therefore since simple Idea's are the foundation of all our knowledg as they are laid down by that Delicate and Curious Head which this man of Forehead only has so grossly mistaken that defect in the first principles shall run through all our after Reasonings about the real nature of it and render them much more confus'd imperfect than those concerning matter I might say the same of a Spiritual or Glorified Body that we can frame no Idea of it but by negation of those imperfections that are incident to us in this frail condition of mortality and those few passages related of our Saviour's Body after his resurrecton are wholy unaccountable by us at least much more than the ordinary appearances of Nature as particularly his vanishing out of their sight all of a sodain and appearing in the midst of them at a time when the doors were shut c. and that these things were not any miraculous operations but the real properties of a glorifi'd Body is more likely to think than that he shou'd have rarify'd the Door or the Walls of the House to get entrance or have secretly convey'd himself along with them as some learned men have endeavour'd to solve these passages Nor can we conceive how a body shou'd be divested of it's gravity so as to mount the Skies as our Saviour's did at his ascension and as the Bodies of the Saints shall do at the general resurrection None of these things are
said to be the Son of another Because it is reveal'd to us that there are endless Joys in Heaven it doth not follow that we know as much of them as we do of sensual pleasures Because it is clearly reveal'd to us that we shall be rais'd at the last day in the glorious likeness of Christ it doth not follow that we know as well what this Glory will be as we know what it is to be of a Fair and Beautiful Complection and so in all the rest And this is the reason of those seemingly opposite expressions of St. Paul the one in 2 Cor. 3. 18. where speaking of the Clearness of the Gospel in opposition to the Obscurity of the Law he says We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord. And yet in 1. Cor. 13 12. speaking of this same present state of the Gospel in opposition to our future state in Heaven he says That now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face By the first he denotes the clearness of the Revelation as to the Existence and Design of those things now under the Gospel by the latter he denotes the present obscurity of them as to their Manner and Properties But it may be objected here that thus they are but Types still and therefore the things contain'd in the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies are as little reveal'd now as they were before But whosoever makes this Objection can't but know these two things to be true which I contend for however we are able to reconcile them viz. 1. That those things signified by Jewish Rites and Ceremonies since the coming of Christ are more clearly reveal'd to us than they were before And 2. That now they are more clearly reveal'd to us yet we have no Idea's of the real Nature or Properties of them which I have sufficiently prov'd Whosoever allows these two things must be of my opinion whether I were able to answer this objection or no. But it is easy for any one to apprehend that when I say the Idea's we have of the things of another World are no other than a sort of Types or Figures I don't take them in the strictest sence of the Words as they are applied to Jewish Rites and Ceremonies which were all of them actions conversant about external Objects and design'd to represent some divine transaction which was to have it's completion in this life and even then was to have a farther reference to something intended by it in another World But my meaning is that the best notion we can frame of a Divine Object represents nothing of the real nature of the thing to us as it is in it self if any one finds fault with the word let them call them by what other name they please since it is plain they must allow the thing And now he sees if he was really blind before in what Sence this Vail is remov'd and in what sence we affirm it to remain and if he thinks himself able to do it instead of proving operosely what no man denies that the Vail is taken away in Christ let him prove the truth of it in that sence which we deny viz. That it is taken away not only as to the Reality and Existence and Intent of the things reveal'd which we allow but as to the Manner and Properties of them so that now we have as perfect a notion and compre hensive a knowledg of them as we have of the Manner and Properties of any thing in nature or in his own can't that we have as clear and distinct Idea's of them as of any sensible Objects As for instance Jonas's being in the Whales belly was a Type of our Saviours Burial and Resurrection and therefore now this is reveal'd he must make it out that there is nothing more mysterious in our Saviours Death and Resurrection than in a mans being carried into a Vault and walking out again upon his leggs The feast of the Passover was a Type of Christ and represented the Lords Supper and this now is but a Type of the joys of Heaven as our Saviour himself makes it by those words Hence forth I shall not drink of this fruit of the Vine till I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom But this man must shew us the real nature of those pleasures which are here signified by the Fruit of the Vine And now that it appears what he was to have prov'd to save me the labour of transcribing do but look over every Text he hath quoted by way of Proof and try to make his inference from it and then you will be satisfied that Quaker or any other Enthusiast never apply'd Scripture so impertinently Do but apply this distinction of a thing 's being reveal'd as to it's Existence and Design and the Relation it hath to us only or as to the manner and property of the thing it self and then the little fallacy will appear which runs through his application of them all I shall only instance in the two or three first 1. Cor 2 7 8. We speak the Wisdom of God hid in a Mystery which God ordain'd before the World for our glory which none of the Princes of this World knew from whence he makes this inference viz. That this divine Wisdom was then a Mystery for want of revealing Information Who denies it and to confirm this he adds the following words Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have enter'd into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him but God hath reveal'd them to us by his Spirit which proves no more than what every body owns That it was impossible by strength of Reason to have attain'd to the knowledg of those means which God had appointed for our Salvation and now they are reveal'd it is only as to the truth and reality of their existence as to their Intent and the Relation they have to us and not as to the Manner and Properties of them The things here spoke of which cou'd not have enter'd into the heart of Man were the Incarnation of the Son and the Descent of the Holy Ghost which were the contrivances of infinite Wisdom for the restoration of fallen Man and this was what the wisest heads among us cou'd never have thought of These things were obscur'd in Jewish Types and Ceremonies and at length God reveal'd it clearly to us that those were the means he had appointed for our Salvation Now the inference this man must make if he wou'd speak to the purpose is That therefore we now know as perfectly the manner of that conception wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost in a pure Virgin as of the ordinary way of Generation and because it is reveal'd to us that the Holy Ghost works in us therefore we must know the manner of it as perfectly as we do that of the nourishment of our Bodies by meat and drink The next