by Tho indeed this is a point in which it is more possible for us to arrive at distinct Ideas or somewhat very like them than the other We plainly see that the Union of our Souls to our Bodies consists in a Harmony that God has setled between such an Organization of matter and such Sensations that arise out of the different motions of this Matter so organiz'd Upon which this Matter is in many things under the power of the Mind which by its thoughts commands and moves it and it has from it a continual Influence and Actuation that is called Life so that the Union of the Soul and Body is the result of such a proper Harmony of the Body according to the Mechanical Structure of its necessary parts as makes it fit to give proper Sensations to the Mind and to receive and obey the Impressions of the Mind the breaking of which Harmony brings on death From hence we may apprehend several degrees of the Union of thinking being with Matter The lowest is that if Infants where there is a thought but a thought so entirely under the Impressions of Matter that it is not able to rise above them and either to think of any thing else or to stop the Violence of these Impressions So here is a Spirit wholly immersed in Matter that is in every thing under its dominion and is a slave to it and in this state Ideots continue their whole life long A second degree is that of men in this Life duly ripened in which their Minds are as to their Sensations still subject to Matter that is they must feel pain or pleasure according to the dispositions of Matter but then there is a power in the Soul to govern Matter and not to yield to those Sensations So that there is a lasting struggle between the Sensations that arise from the Body and the Cogitations that spring in the Mind which have the better of one another by turns Here the Soul and Body are as it were equally yoked together only the Soul may by the use of Reason and Liberty be so assisted as to have the ascendant over the Body for the greatest part From these we may conceive two other degrees of Union which may be between Souls and Bodies The one is a State in which the Soul shall have an entire Authority over Matter but yet shall need the assistance of it as a necessary mean of Motion and as having in it a repository of Images and Figures for memory and imagination So that in such a state the Body shall have no power at all over the Mind but shall only serve it as Instruments do a Mechanick and this seems to be a Philosophical Notion of the use that our Bodies shall be of to us in another State in which they shall be no more clogs upon us to give us uneasy or grievous sensations but shall only be the proper Machines for Motion and Memory and for such like uses in which the Body when well tuned can serve the Mind A Fourth degree may be a State in which a Mind may be so entirely perfect in its self and in its own acts that it may have no need of a Body upon its own account but only in order to the ministring to another Spirit that is yet under the power of Matter to give it either Warnings or Assistances which perhaps it cannot communicate but through the Conveyance or by the Mechanical Motions and Impressions of one piece of Matter upon another Upon this account and for this end Spirits of the highest form nay God himself may at some times and for some unknown ends make use of a Body and put it in such a form and so actuate it as thereby to communicate some Light or Influence to minds that are yet much immersed in Matter These are all the ways that we can apprehend of a Mind 's assuming Matter and being united to it which is the having it under its Actuation or Authority so that the Acts of the Mind give such Impressions to the Body as govern and command it By the same way of thinking we may apprehend yet more easily how one Spirit may be united to another which is when a superior Spirit has another of an Inferior Order so entirely under its conduct and Impressions that the Inferior receives constant Communications of Light and Impulse from the Superior And as the Body lives by the presence of the Soul even when it does not by any distinct Act work upon it or enliven it so a superior Mind may have a perpetual conduct of an inferior even when it leaves it to its own liberty and does not break in upon it by any immediate enlightning or animating of it And thus we may conceive the Subsistence of an Intelligent Being to be its acting entirely in it self or upon Matter united to it without any other Spirit 's being constantly present to it actuating it or having it under any immediate Vital and inseparable Influence This seems to give some light towards the Idea of a Subsistence as separated from the Essence and by consequence of one person's Subsistence in by and from another I do not pretend to say that this is the strict Notion of Subsistence but it is the nearest thing that I can imagine to it which will at least help to form some general Idea of it for these being all the distinct Notions that we can frame of the Union of Spirits to other Spirits or of Spirits to Matter they will help us to a more distinct Apprehension of the Union of the Eternal Word to a Human Nature by which it assumed the Man into such an inward and immediate Oeconomy that it did always actuate illuminate and conduct him as we perceive our Souls do our Bodies This is the clearest thought that we give our selves of that Human Nature's subsisting by the Subsistence of the Word that dwelt in it This also agrees well with the Expressions of the Word 's dwelling in Flesh and of the bodily Indwelling of the Fulness of the Godhead in Christ Iesus But having now shewed how far these things may become in some sort intelligible to us I go to my main Design which is to examine no longers whether this ought to be believed or not in case we should find it very expresly affirmed in the New Testament for I hope I have already made that out fully Therefore the only question that now lies before me is Whether this is contained in the New Testament or not for if it is in it and is a part of its Doctrine then since that Doctrine is proved to be all true and revelled by God this must be likewise true if it is a part of it This I will also yield That Authorities brought to prove Articles that are so sublimeâ— as to rise above our ways of Apprehension ought to be made out by a greater fulness of express Proofs and bare Precepts of Morality or more easily
whether its Acts are as is commonly believed one with the Essence or distinct from it This Essence having necessary Existence in its first Conception those free Acts that might not have been are not easily apprehended to be one with his Essence and if those Acts are said not to be free then all things exist by the same necessity by which God exists for if the Immanent Acts of God are one with his Essence then since all the Transient Acts do certainly follow his Immanent ones there is an Universal Necessity equally spread over the whole frame of Nature and God can do nothing otherwise than he does But if those Acts of God are different from his Essence and distinct from it such as our Thoughts are then here are Accidents in God and a succession of Thoughts which seem inconsistent with infinite Perfection that is all one Eternal and Unchangeable Act. Here is a difficulty that perhaps few reflect on but it is every whit as great and as unaccountable as any of the Mysteries of Revealed Religion can be pretended to be tho this arises out of Natural Religion If to this we add all that we be believe concerning the Attributes of God his being every where his knowing every thing his Providence in governing all things together with those unsearchable Methods in which it exerts it self we must acknowledge that he dwells in a Light to which we cannot approach But that as the present frame of our Bodies and structure of our Eyes cannot bear the looking stedfastly on the Sun or the being brought much nearer him of which yet we may be capable in another texture of our Eyes and Bodies so in this state in which we have narrow Notions and gross Imaginations we are not able to frame distinct Ideas even of those Attributes of God of which we make no doubt but yet we find such difficulties in apprehending them that they do blind and confound us and put us to a stand in all our thinkings about them But for all that we still go on believing firmly those his Attributes In fine We are to make a great difference between those plain perceptions we have either of the objects of sense or of simple Theories and the difficulties and deductions that belong to them The one is the voice of our Faculties and we cannot oppose it or believe against it because it is in some sort the voice of God within us since it is the natural result of those powers that he has put in us but it is quite another thing when we go to Inferences and to frame difficulties In this appears our Ignorance of the nature of things of the several ways and manners in which they may operate and of the Consequences that seem to belong to them because we are apt to judge of every Being by our selves and have not extent enough of thought and observation to reason always true or to judge exactly So that this must be setled as a clear difference between plain perceptions and a train of Consequences we are always to be determined by the one but not by the other To instance it then in that which is now before us we have a plain perception that no Being can be both One and Three in the same respect because we are sure that is a plain Contradiction which cannot possibly be true but if a thing is represented as both One and Three this in different respects may be true Thus I have dispatched this first part in which it seemed the more necessary to state this matter aright that so it may appear that no part of the plea for Mysteries belongs to Transubstantiation since here is the fullest evidence of sense in an object of sense which plainly represents to us Bread and Wine to be still the same after Consecration that they were before and therefore we can never be certain of any thing if in this case we are bound to believe in contradiction to such a plain and simple perception but this is not at all applicable to any speculations concerning the Divine Nature I go on from this Previous Discourse to the Subject it self that I am now upon in which there have been three different Opinions the one is That Christ was a Divine Person miraculously conceived and wonderfully qualified for revealing the Will of God to the World which he did in so excellent a manner and set so perfect a pattern both in his Life and Death that in Reward of that God has given him the Government of the World putting the Divine Authority in him and commanding him to be Worshipped and Acknowledged as God and has subjected both Angels and Men to him tho he had no Existence before he was formed in the Virgin 's Womb and no other nature but that which he derived from his Miraculous Conception Others have thought that there was an Essence created by God before all Worlds by which he made and governs all things and that this Essence which was like God dwelt in Christ Iesus and was by the Gospel revealed to the World So that all were bound to honour and obey him Some of these called him a Being of a Nature quite different from and unlike the Divine Nature which was found to be of an unacceptable Sound so others softned it by saying that he was of an Essence like the Father But this was only a milder way of speaking since if this Being was created so that once it was not its nature must be essentially unlike the Father for sure nothing can be more unlike than created and uncreated And by Likeness such Men could only understand a Moral Likeness of imitation and resemblance so that he might be like God as we are called to be like him tho' in vastly higher degrees The 3 d. Opinion is That the Godhead by the Eternal Word the Second in the Blessed Three dwelt in and was so inwardly united to the Human Nature of Iesus Christ that by vertue of it God and Man were truly one Person as our Soul and Body make one Man And that this Eternal Word was truly God and as such is worshipped and adored as the proper Object of Divine Adoration By those of this Perswasion the Name Person came to be applied to the Three which the Scripture only calls by the Names of Father Son or Word and Holy Ghost on design to discover those who thought that these Three were only different names of the same thing But by Person is not meant such a Being as we commonly understand by that word a compleat intelligent Being distinct from every other Being but only that every one of that blessed Three has a peculiar distinction in himself by which he is truly different from the other two This is the Doctrine that I intend now to explain to you When I say Explain I do not mean that I will pretend to tell you how this is to be understood and in what respect these Persons are believed to
All the greater Bodies of those who divide from our Constitutions have some Rituals of their own so the Dispute in this must only be concerning the degrees and extent of this Power For if any Authority is allowed it will not be easy to fix any other Bounds to it but this that it must not invade the Divine Authority nor do any thing beyond the Rules and Limits set in the Scriptures for if there is the least degree of Authority in the Church the grounds upon which it is founded must carry it to every thing that cannot be proved to be unlawful Bare unfitness though it ought to be a Consideration of great weight when such things are deliberated about yet when they are once concluded can be no reason for disobeying them since the fitness of Order and the decency of Unity and Obedience is certainly of much more value than any special unfitness that can be supposed to be in any particular Instance So that one of these two must be admitted either that the Pastors of the Church have no sort of Authority even in the smallest Circumstances but are limited by the Rules of the Scripture and can only execute them strictly and not go beyond them in a title or this Authority must go to every thing that is lawful On that I will dwell no longer here the fuller discussion of this matter belonging to another Discourse It is a natural Consequence of the Authority given to the Pastors of the Church That they having declared and fixed their Doctrine and having setled Rules for their Rituals may excommunicate such as either do not live according to the Rules of their Religion which are a main part of their Doctrine or do not obey the Constitutions of their Society Excommunication in the Strictness of things is only the Churches refusing to receive a person into her Communion now as every Private man is the Master of his own Actions it is clear that every Body of Men must also be the Masters of theirs And thus though Excommunication in some respects is declaratory it being a solemn denunciation of the Judgments of God according to the tenor of the Gospel against persons who live in an open violation of some one or more of its Laws so it is also an authoritative Act by which a Church refuses to communicate with such a Person In this it is true Churches ought to make the terms of Communion with them as large and extensive as may consist with the Rules of Religion and of Order but after all they having a Power over themselves and their own Actions must be supposed to be likewise cloathed with a Power to communicate with other Persons or not to do it as they shall see cause in which great difference is to be made between this Power in it self and the use and management of it for any Abuses whether true or only pretended though they may well be urged to procure a proper Reformation of them yet cannot be alledged against the Power it self which is both just and necessary It is not so very clear to state the Subordination in which the Church is to be put under the Civil Power and how far all Acts of Church Power are subject to the Laws and Policies of those States to which the several Churches do belong It is certain that the Magistrate's being a Christian or not does not at all alter the Case that has only a relation to his own salvation for his Authority is the same whatever his Belief may be in matters of Religion His design to protect or to destroy Religion alters the Case more sensibly for the regards to that Protection and to the Peace and Order that follow upon it together with the Breaches and Disorders that might follow upon an ill understanding between Church and State are matters of Such Consequence that it is not only meer Prudence which may give perhaps too strong a Bias to carnal Fears and Policies but the Rules of Religion which oblige the Church to study to preserve that Order and Protection which is one of the chief Blessings of the Society and a main Instrument of doing much good Great difference is to be made between an Authority that acts with a visible design to destroy Religion and another that intends to protect it but that errs in its conduct and does often restrain the Rules of Order and impose hard and uneasy things Certainly in the latter much is to be born with that may be otherwise uneasy because the main is stil safe and private slips when endured and submitted to can never be compared to those publick disorders that a rigid maintaining of that which is perhaps in it self good must occasion But when the design is plain and that the Conduct of the Civil Powers goes against the Truth of Religion either in whole or in any main Article of it then the Body of the Christians of that State ought to fortify themselves by maintaining their Order and their other Rules in so far as they are necessary to their preservation Upon the whole matter it does not appear that the Church has any Authority to act in opposition to the State but meerly in those things in which the Religion that she professes is plain and positive so that the Question comes to be really this Whether is it better to obey God than Man There the Rule is clear and the Decision is soon made So when the Church acts meerly in obedience to Rules and Laws laid down in Scripture such as in declaring the Doctrine in administring the Sacraments and maintaining the setled Officers of the Church she is upon a sure Bottom and must cast her self upon the Providence of God whatever may happen and still obey God but in all things that have arisen out of ancient Customs and Canons in every thing where she has not a Law of God to support her I do not see any Power she has to act in opposition to Law and to the Supreme Civil Authority In this the constant practice of the Iews is no small Argument whos 's Sanhedrin that was a Civil Court and the Head of their State did give Rules and Orders which their Priests were bound to obey when not contrary to the Law of God We are sure this was the Rule in our Saviour's time and it was never censured nor reproved by him nor by the Apostles The Argument is also strong that is drawn from the constant practice of the Church from the time that she first had the protection of the Civil Authority till the times of the Papal Domination in which we find the Emperours all along making Laws concerning all the Administrations of the Church we find them receiving Appeals in all Church matters which they appointed such Bishops as hapned to be about their Courts to examine This was like our Court of Delegates for the Bishops who judged those matters did not act according to Canon or by the Ecclesiastical
Laws of Princes were made to Enact it and no Men of Authority could so early and so universally have brought such a change into the Order of the Church when there was nothing to tempt any to affect Preheminence Labour and Sufferings being all that then follow'd this Superiour Rank and yet within less than one Century after the days of the Apostles we do plainly see that this was the Constitution even of those Churches that had been gathered and setled by the Apostles themselves Among whom so visible a thing as the Order in which they had put the Church could not possibly be soon forgotten and this was not complain'd of by the Sects of those days particularly the Montanists that had so fair an appearance by their praying and fasting so much that not only Tertullian was drawn away by it but even the Church seems to have taken a Tincture from some of their Methods whether in imitation of them or on design to out-do them is not so easy to determine yet nothing of this kind was ever objected as if the Church had by the Authority given to Bishops departed from the Apostolical Customs Now I will acknowledge that a bare practice tho very Ancient such as the giving the Eucharist to Infants without a colour for it in Scripture ought not to conclude us but when there is a great deal in Scripture that looks favourably to a thing tho the proof from the words alone should not seem full and positive and when the first Writings and clearest Practices of the Ages that immediately follow'd confirms such an Exposition then we have all that is possible for us to pretend to for giving a fixed and determinate sense to such passages From all this then it is clear that we are now upon the same Constitution as to the main on which the Apostles setled the Churches and that we have all the reason that a thing of this nature is capable of to conclude That the distinction of Bishop Priest and Deacon was setled by the Apostles themselves and is related to by many places in the New Testament The division of the World into Diocesses larger or narrower as well as of Parishes some being excessively large and others as unreasonably small does not a whit alter the nature of the thing in it self since tho' it were to be desir'd that Parishes were nearer an equality in point of Labour and Cure yet this is an Inconvenience that we must bear and not disturb the Church by seeking undue Remedies for it So such Disorders as a length of time a corruption of Manners a change of Governments and Civil Policies has brought into a Constitution may put it out of our Power to procure the Redress of many things that yet will as little warrant a renting the Body or dividing the Church upon any such account as it would justify the lazy Sloth of such as may bring things to a better State and yet do not set about it nor do heartily endeavour it Another head of Objections is to set-forms of Prayer in general as a stinting of the Spirit of Prayer of which mention is often made in the New Testament and which ought to have scope given to it since it is a mean to rouze up and quicken heavy minds which become flat when accustom'd to a constant form of Words that render both the Clergy lazy and the People Dead But when it is consider'd that every Man's words become a form to which all the rest of the Assembly is limited the question then lies naturally between the sudden conceptions of one Man who is often young rash without Judgment and who always speaks on the sudden and between a form well digested and prepared by a Body of wise and good Men Since then the People must be under a Form it may seem much more reasonable that they should be under such a form than under the other and that the rather since we see Moses David and the Prophets of old gave the Jewish Church so many forms both for Prayers and Praises We know that in our Saviour's time the Iews had a stated Liturgy of their own which our Saviour was so far from blaming that he himself prescribed his Disciples a Form and compos'd it out of theirs laying together so many Petitions drawn out of their Prayers as answer'd his end in appointing his own And Praises seeming to be the sublimest Acts of Worship in which the Soul ought to arise to its highest Elevation it is not easily accountable why so much excitation should be required in Prayer while Men are left to be still flat and formal in their Praises It is not to be deni'd but that among the extraordinary Gifts that follow'd the wonderful Effusion of the Holy Ghost one was That Men were Inspir'd to offer up such Prayers to God as comprehended the necessities of whole Congregations it appearing in those Prayers that the Spirit in him that pray'd searched all their Hearts and so did prompt him with groanings that were unutterable and it thus appearing that the Spirit or Inspiration which moved any to pray in this sort searched all things every Man finding the sense of his own Heart thus open'd together with suitable Intercessions it was from thence evident that this was the Spirit of God making Intercession for the Saints in the mouth and words of the Inspir'd Person This being a plain account of those words of Praying in or by the Spirit and well agreeing with every thing said concerning it in the New Testament it is a great mistake if we in these days should expect any such Assistances from God So that now a readiness of new or tender Expressions in Prayer is an effect of a quickness of Thought a liveliness of Imagination together with a good Memory much conversant in Scripture-Phrases and long practised in that way All things by a long use grow flat to minds that are not seriously awaken'd but extemporary Prayers do rather kill than feed true Devotion since they must be hearkened to as Discourses which is a distraction to him that Prays after them whereas those accustom'd to set-forms have only the things themselves that their Devotion relate to in their view so they are certainly less tempted to distraction than they must be who follow the other way Those sudden starts that are given to the mind by soft Words and melting Images of things may be according to the different Compositions of Men more or less useful to them in their secret Exercises but they ought not to be let in upon publick Assemblies which being made up of a great variety of Tempers must be entertain'd only with such Devotions that suit with all their Conditions and do equally quadrate to all their necessities and thus it is not only natural but necessary for all Men who will maintain Order in their Worship and will frame it in so diffus'd an extent as to take all equally within it that they have
the Holy Ghost fell visibly on Cornelius and his Friends Can any man forbid water that those should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And with this he settled the minds of those who were a little offended at that action This shews that no pretence to a high dispensation of the Spirit can evacuate that Precept since on the contrary an evidence of the giving the Holy Ghost was pleaded as an Argument for baptizing Nor does any one passage in which Baptism is mentioned in the New Testament limit it to that time and intimate that it belonged only to the beginnings of Christianity or that it was to determine when it was more fully setled so that this with the constant practice of all succeeding Ages without a shadow of any Exception must conclude us as to this Point Our Saviour did also appoint the other Sacrament to be continued in remembrance of him by which St. Paul says we shew forth his death till he come Now these words cannot be understood of any supposed inward and spiritual coming since the most signal coming in that sense was the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and yet after that time the Apostles continued to practice it and delivered it to the Churches as a Precept still obligatory till Christ should come If then we ought still to remember him and shew forth his death if it is the Communion of his Body and Blood if it is the new Covenant in his Blood for the remission of sins then as long as these things are Duties incumbent on us so long we must be under the obligation of eating that Bread and drinking that Cup. Further If Christ has left different Gifts to different Orders of men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangeliste and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for edifying the Body of Christ till we come unto a perfect man and are no more in danger of being tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of doctrine These words do plainly import That as long as mankind is under the frailties of this present state and in this confused Scene that some of these Orders must still be continued in the Church and that those Rules and Preceps given to Timothy and Titus concerning such as were to be ordained Bishops or Elders that is Priests and Diacons were to be lasting and standing Rules for indeed if the design had not been to establish that Order for the succeeding Ages there was less need of it in that in which there was such a plentiful Measure of the Spirit poured out upon all Christians that such Functions in that time might have been well spared if it had not been for this that they were then to be setled under the Patronage if I may so speak of the Apostles themselves from whom they were to receive an Authority which how little necessary soever it might seem in that wonderful time yet was to be more needed in the succeeding Ages Therefore we may well conclude That whatsoever was ordered concerning those Offices or Officers of the Church in the first Age was by a stronger parity of reason to be continued down through all the Ages of the Church and in particular if in that time in which Women received the Gifts of the Holy Ghost so that some prophesied and others laboured much in the Lord that is in the Gospel yet St. Paul did in two different Epistles particularly restrain them from teaching or speaking in the Church to which he adds That it was a shame for Women to speak in the Church that is it might turn to be a reproach to the Christian Religion and furnish Scoffers with some colours of exposing it to the scorn of the Age. This was to be much more strictly observed when all those extraordinary Characters that might seem to be exemptions from common Rules did no longer continue As for those distinctions into which they have cast themselves of the Hat and the denying Titles and speaking in the singular Thou and Thee it is to be considered That how unfit soever it be and how unbecoming Christians to be conformed to this world yet it rather lessens than heightens the great Idea that the world ought to have of the Christian Religion when it states a diversity among men about meer Trifles Our Saviour and his Apostles complied as much in all innocent Customs as they avoided all sinful ones Honour to whom honour is due is a standing Duty and though the bowing the Body and falling prostrate are postures that seem liker Idolatry and more abject in their nature than the Hat yet the very Prophets of God paid these respects to Kings Outward Actions or Gestures signify only what is entended to be expressed and what is generally understood by them so that what is known to be meant only for a piece of Civil respect can never be stretched to a Religious respect and though that abject homage under which the Iewish Rabbies had brought their Disciples and which they had exprest in Titles that imported their profound submission to them was reproved by our Saviour yet we see that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir or Lord was then used as commonly as we now do since Mary Magdalen called him whom shee took for a Gardener Sir or Lord. And St. Paul gave Festus the Title which belonged to his Office it being the same that Claudius Lysias gave Felix who certainly was not wanting in that and that being the Title of men of Rank St. Luke adresses both his Books to Thephilus designing him in one ofthem in the same manner Words signify nothing of themselves as they are meer sounds but according to the signification in which men agree to use them so if the speaking to one man in the plural number is understood only as a more respectful way of treating him then the plural is in this case really but a singular Indeed these things scarce deserve to be so narrowly lookt into The Scruple against Swearing is more important both to them and to the Publick They have indeed the appearance of a plain Command of our Saviour's against all manner of Swearing which is repeated by St. Iames but this must be restricted to their communication according to the words that follow since we find Swearing not only commanded in the Old Testament but practised in the New The Apostles swear at every time they say God is witness and more solemnly when God is called for a record upon their Soul The Angel of God lifts up his hand and swears by him that lives for ever and ever God swears by himself and an Oath for confirmation that is for affirming any matter is the end of all Controversy We find our Saviour himself answered upon Oath when adjured by the High Priest to tell If he was the