Orders from him as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us when God bringeth in the first begotten into the World that is when God raised him from the dead and received him into Heaven to sit at his right hand he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him obey his Commands and be his Ministers and Servants The Holy Spirit is given by him he sends the Spirit to dwell in his Church which is his Body and to animate all the true and sincere Members of it He governs this lower World disposes of Kingdoms and Empires in subserviency to the ends of his Spiritual Kingdom He has the Power of pardoning sins of judging the World of raising the dead whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Should the Father judge the World he must judge as the Maker and Soveraign Lord of the World by the strict Rules of Righteousness and Justice and then how could any sinner be saved but he has committed Judgment to the Son as a Mediatory King who judges by the Equity and Chancery of the Gospel The Power indeed whereby he administers his Kingdom is the Power of the whole Trinity of Father Son and Holy Ghost for they being essentially One God have but one Energy and Power and therefore can never act separately and therefore the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is ascribed to God the Father God raised him from the dead to Christ himself as he tells the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up And I lay down my life that I may take it again I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again And to the Holy Spirit If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Where God indeed is said to raise up Christ from the dead but it was by his Spirit and by the same Spirit he will raise us But yet this is the Kingdom of Christ because now the Administration and Exercise of this Power is committed to him and is as it were under his direction and influence The Natural Kingdom and Government of the World is peculiarly attributed to God the Father though the Son and Holy Ghost reign with him as one God because the Father is Original Mind and Wisdom and therefore the beginning of all Power and Energy As the Father begets the Son not the Son the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son not Father and Son from the Holy Ghost so the Son and Holy Ghost will and act with the Father not the Father with the Son and the Holy Ghost that is if we may so speak where there is but One individual Act and Energy the Father is the first Mover in the Sacred Trinity For reflex Wisdom that is the Son who is begotten Wisdom moves and acts at it is begotten by Original Mind and Wisdom who is the eternal Father as Christ himself tells us The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do for whatsoever things he doth these also doth the Son likewise And my Father worketh hitherto and I work But the Father is the Principle and Beginning of Action and therefore the Government and Monarchy must receive its Denomination from him that it is the Kingdom of the Father But now in the Mediatory Kingdom the exercise of the Divine Power is committed into the hands of the Mediator and is administred by the measures and terms of his Mediation The Power is not taken out of God's hands for that is impossible Father Son and Holy Ghost govern the World still by One individual Act and Power but as in the Natural Government of the World the Exercise of this Power begins with the Father so in this Mediatory Kingdom it begins with the Son and is directed by his Mediation that is God governs the World now not meerly as a Natural Lord by the Rules of Natural Justice but with respect to the Mediatory Power and Authority of his Son and to serve the ends of his Mediatory Kingdom Now the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgment to the Son He hath power to save and to destroy whom he pardons God pardons whom he condemns God condemns all Petitions are put up to God in his Name all Blessings both temporal and spiritual are obtained from God in his Name that is it is the Name and Authority of Christ by which God now governs the World This is the Name God has given him which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow both of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father That Angels in Heaven move at his Command and obey his Power that Men on Earth worship God and expect all from him in his Name that evil Spirits tremble at his Name and yield to his Power and that all the World confess the Supreme and Soveraign Authority of the Son to the Glory of the Father who hath thus highly exalted him There can be no other meaning but this in what Christ tells his Disciples after his Resurrection from the Dead All Power is given unto me both in Heaven and Earth For unless it be some Power which he had not before as the Eternal Son of God how can it be said to be now given unto him and yet before in conjunction with and subordination to his Father he had all Power both in Heaven and Earth but then this Power was not in his own Name nor seated immediately in himself as his own Personal Authority but now the Son is immediately invested with this Power and Authority as a Mediatory King And this is the meaning of what he tells us As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself To have life in himself is to have the Power and Authority of bestowing Life as appears both from what goes before and from what follows As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them so the Son quickneth whom he will Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they-that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation This Power the Son always had as begotten of his Father from all Eternity and One God with him but he here speaks of a
God and is not God himself as he says the Holy Spirit is if it have any Personal Acts must be a distinct Person and if these Personal Acts are such as are proper only to God it must be a distinct Divine Person He says this Holy Spirit is the Inspiration of God be it so This Inspiration then is either within God himself or without him in Creatures who have this Inspiration If it be within God himself it must be a Person or else it cannot be distinct from God and a Divine Person unless any thing be in God which is not God If this Inspiration be without God in Creatures who are inspired by him how is it the Spirit of God for the Spirit of God must be in God as the Spirit of Man is in Man How does this Inspiration in Creatures search all things yea the deep things of God and knoweth the things of God as the Spirit of a Man knoweth the things of a man For the inspiration in Creatures searcheth nothing of God and knoweth nothing of God but what God is pleased to reveal The Inspiration knows nothing of God but the inspired Mind knows as much as it is inspired with the knowledge of So that according to this Account the Spirit of God is nothing but the inspired knowledge in Creatures and therefore no Personal Acts can be attributed to it but what Creatures can do by such Inspiration and let any man consider whether this Answers those Characters we have of the Spirit of God in Scripture If this be so I desire to know How the Spirit of God differs from his Gifts and Graces For if the Spirit be nothing but God's Inspiration in Creatures the Spirit is either a Gift or a Grace and is not One in All but as many as those Creatures are that are inspired and as different as the Gifts and Graces are with which they are Inspired Whereas St. Paul tells us There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of Administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all So that the Spirit is distinguished from his Gifts as the Lord is from his Administrations and God from his Operations and is the same Spirit in all as it is the same Lord and the same God 3. His next Argument is The Spirit is obtained for us of God by our Prayers therefore itself is not God But this has been answered already for though the One Supreme God cannot be sent nor given which I suppose is the force of his Argument yet in the ever blessed Trinity One Divine Person may send and give another the Father may send the Son and give the Holy Spirit And yet since they like that better we will allow That the Holy Spirit does give himself and is asked of himself for the Divine Persons in the Trinity as I have often observed and proved do not act separately but as the Father and the Son give the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit gives himself in the same individual Act. And when we pray to God for his Holy Spirit we pray to Father Son and Holy Ghost who are this One God and One entire object of Worship It is the ever blessed Trinity we invoke when we pray Our Father which art in Heaven For as they are inseparably One God so they are the inseparable Object of our Worship since this great Mystery of a Trinity in Unity is so plainly revealed to us we cannot worship this One Supreme God but we must direct our Worship to all Three Divine Persons in the Unity of the same Godhead for we do not worship this One Supreme God unless we worship Father Son and Holy Ghost and therefore whether we invoke each Person distinctly as our Church does in the beginning of the Litany or pray only to God by the Name of the most High God or by the Name of Father or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ it is all one for Father Son and Holy Ghost is the One Supreme God and the entire Object of our Worship and whoever worships One God but not Father Son and Holy Ghost does not worship the true God not the God of the Christians Before this was so plainly revealed it was sufficient to worship One Supreme God without any conception of the distinct Persons in the Godhead but when it is plainly revealed to us that this One Supreme God is Father Son and Holy Ghost whoever does not worship Father Son and Holy Ghost does not worship the true God for the true God is Father Son and Holy Ghost and there is no God besides him which I would desire our Vnitarians as they falsly call themselves and our Deists carefully to consider if any thing be fundamental in Religion it is the worship of the One true God and if Father Son and Holy Ghost be this One true God those who worship a God who is not Father Son and Holy Ghost do not worship the true God and that I think is the true Notion of Idolatry So that these Men are so far from being Christians that I cannot see how they are worshippers of the true God which should at least make them concerned to examine this matter with more Care and less Prejudice than they have yet done So that when we worship One God we worship Father Son and Holy Ghost and when the Glory of these Divine Persons was made known to the World there was no need of any new Command to worship these three Divine Persons for when it is revealed that they are the One Eternal God the Command of worshipping this One God must include them all Which gives a sufficient Answer to what he adds That there is neither Precept nor Example in all Holy Scripture of Prayer made to the Spirit on this or any other occasion which on the Trinitarian Supposition that the Holy Spirit is a Person and God no less than the Father is very surprizing nay utterly unaccountable But I hope this will satisfie any man that it is not unaccountable for though the Spirit be God he is but One God with Father and Son and therefore not a distinct and separate Object of Worship but is worshipped with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the same Godhead and this required no new Command nor any separate worship of the Holy Spirit There is indeed a distinct worship paid to Christ All men must honour the Son as they honour the Father When God brought his first begotten into the World that is when he raised him from the Dead and exalted him to his own right hand he said and let all the Angels of God worship him God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth But this
is not meerly as he is the Son of God the second Person in the Trinity for so he is worshipped as One God with the Father and the Holy Ghost but as he is a Mediator or a Mediatory King as he has a Kingdom distinct from the Natural Kingdom of the Father as I have already shown so there is a worship proper to him as Mediator but the Holy Spirit has no distinct Kingdom and therefore no distinct Worship but is worshipped in the Unity of the Godhead and this required no new Command for he who knows that Father Son and Holy Ghost are One Supreme God must worship Father Son and Holy Ghost as One Supreme God 4. His next Argument is against a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead which he says is contrary to the whole Scripture which speaks of God but as One Person and speaks of him and to him by singular Pronouns such as I Thou Me Him His Proofs that the Scripture speaks of God as but One Person are very wonderful His first is that of Iob Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Will ye accept his Person will ye contend for God But surely to accept God's Person no more signifies the Personality of the Godhead than to accept the Person of a Man signifies his Human Person the Hebrew is his Face which is far from signifying a Person in the sense we say there are Three Persons in the Godhead To respect the Person of a Man is to do something for him which neither Law nor Justice nor Equity required not because he is a Person which every Man is but from some partial respect we have to his particular Person and therefore to accept the Person of God here signifies to speak wickedly for God which is an absurd and sensless thing as Iob represents it whether the Supreme God be One Person or Three for in this sense of Person One God can be but One Person The other Text that Christ is the express Image of God's Person is as little to the purpose for it is plain the Person of whom the Son is the express Image is the Person of God the Father and the Father indeed is but One Person As for his singular Pronouns they prove indeed that there is but One God as we all own not that there are not Three Persons in the Godhead For when the Scripture speaks of God without any particular respect to the distinction of the Persons it must speak but of One God because God is but One and singular Pronouns are most properly applied to One God As for what he objects That no Instance can be given in any Language of Three Persons whoever spoke of themselves or were spoken to by the singular Pronouns I Thou Me Him Thee it were sufficient to answer That there is no other Example in Nature neither of Three Persons who are essentially One and if the manner of speaking must be conformed to the Nature of Things there can be no other Instance of this way of speaking because there is no other Example of this Unity but all Languages speak of One in the singular Number and so the Scripture uses singular Pronouns of One God But this is not the Case for when God speaks of himself he does not speak of himself as Three Persons but as One God and therefore may say I and Me and when the Prophets speak of God or pray to him they pray to him as One God and therefore may say Thou and Him and Thee When Three Persons are One God God may speak of himself or we may speak of or to God either considered as Three Persons or as One God and though Three Persons require the Plural Number yet One God may speak of himself or be spoken to by singular Pronouns 5. He says Had the Son or Holy Ghost been God this would not have been omitted in the Apostles Creed And I say Had not the Son been God and the Holy Ghost God they would not have been put into the Apostles Creed no more than into the form of Baptism which is the original of the Apostles Creed That the Primitive Christians did believe the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost we are sufficiently assured from all the ancient Records of their Faith but there was no reason to express this in so short a Creed before the Arian and Socinian Heresies had disturbed the Church and indeed there was no need of it for the only Son of God must be by Nature God and the Spirit of God is as essentially God as the Spirit of a Man is essential to a Man He concludes That theirs the Socinians is an accountable and reasonable Faith but that of the Trinitarians is absurd and contrary both to Reason and to it self and therefore not only false but impossible The Faith of a Trinity in Unity I hope I have sufficiently vindicated already from Absurdity and Contradiction But it will be worth the while briefly to consider how accountable and reasonable the Socinian Faith is The Socinian Doctrine is That Christ who is called the Son the only begotten Son of God the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person is no more than a meer Man who had no Being till he was Conceived in the Womb of the Virgin Mary and is called the Son of God because God formed him by an immediate Power in the Virgins Womb and raised him from the Dead and exalted him to his own right hand in Heaven and that the Holy Spirit is only the Power and Inspiration of God that is is either God himself or the Operation of his Power in Creatures This is their accountable and reasonable Doctrine and to show how very accountable and reasonable it is I come now to draw up my charge against it 1. That it ridicules the Scriptures 2. That it ridicules the whole Jewish oeconomy 3. That it ridicules the Christian Religion 4. That it justifies or at least excuses both Pagan and Popish Idolatries The Charge is full enough and I am contented it should pass only for big huffing words till I have proved it and then I hope it may pass for a just Return to the ridiculous Blasphemies of the Brief Notes and Brief History 1. That it ridicules the Scripture by putting either an absurd or a very mean trifling sense on it unworthy of the Wisdom of God by whom it was inspired and this I shall give some Instances of in their Expositions of Scripture which I find in the Brief History of the Vnitarians In the second Letter he takes notice of some Texts in the Old Testament which speak of God and in the New Testament are applied to Christ which we think a very good Argument to prove That Christ is that God to whom those Texts belong in the Old Testament for though possibly without such an Application we could not certainly have known that these Texts were