at a full and plain satisfaction in these matters And here we are to call to mind our second Position relating to Humane Reason which teaches us that by the Fall humane reason is exceedingly impair'd and very much incapacitated for those great ends for which it was first bestow'd on Man and it 's plain that though our Saviour has appear'd though he has brought us the glad tydings of life and salvation in and by himself tho' he has taken the kindest care imaginable for the propagation of this Gospel we are still by birth the same naturally miserable and misunderstanding Creatures that we were before and therefore we are in some sence actually regenerate or born again in Baptism being in it born members of the Christian Church and so having a right to all Christian priviledges and it being a Symbol or sign of our new birth or resurrection from dead works to serve the living God yet after our Baptism our intellectuals are still the same poor weak and miserably foolish and hence it comes that Catechetical instructions in the principles of Christian Religion and frequent Sermons or exhortations to true piety and sincere goodness or dehortations from Sin and explications of hard and difficult expressions or doctrines in Scripture and vindications of divine truths from the assaults of Hereticks Schismaticks or Infidels and the refutation of those errors endeavour'd by such to be impress'd on the minds of Men all these things are absolutely necessary for advancing our knowledge in Divine Matters for keeping us from the paths of error and for teaching and shewing us how to live godly righteously and soberly in this present evil world And the more improvements we make according to these means of grace which we enjoy the more powerful assistances and encouragements we meet with from Heaven in our work as was before observ'd in our fourth Position concerning humane reason Yet after all we remain but on the positive side of those great truths laid down in Scripture we believe them firmly and stedfastly because we have an irrefragable and infallible testimony of their truth the veil that was upon the hearts of men is indeed taken away the types shadows and ancient Prophecies relating to the Messias are all made good in his appearance upon earth the way to life is made clear and according to right reason very easie and agreeable to those who endeavour to walk in it and Man so endeavouring is reconciled to God by the blood of his dear Son Jesus Christ and there is a nearer and more close Communion between God and man than heretofore all these things and the infinite love of God in them are now so plainly decipher'd that he who runs may read them But for the rational part of these things or what means an Almighty God could make use of to effect things so stupendous how that dismal distance between a pure Divinity and corrupt Mortality should be made up how God himself should stoop to man when man notwithstanding all his inordinate ambition could never rise to God how that strict communication between God and Man should be maintain'd c. All these things are such mysteries that its impossible for even Angelical Intellectuals to comprehend them fully since common reason will give us this maxim that Nothing but an infinite being can perfectly understand all the operations of an infinite being Therefore we have the Communion between God and Man still shadowed out to us in the Symbols of Bread and Wine consecrated into a clear representation of the body and blood of our Saviour to us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Nor can we believe whatsoever Grotius In tract An. semper sit communicand per Symbola a man of more learning than orthodoxy would perswade us to that we while we have the means and opportunities of communicating with one another and holding a close communion with God by participating of those Symbols which our Lord himself instituted to that very end and purpose can possibly communicate as well without them or that we may make at any time the Bread and Wine a Nehustan a sign of no account or value at all because perhaps it may have been abused to ill purposes by a factious or an Idolatrous Crew but not to insist upon that Tho' it be with S. Chrysostome and many other Antients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dreadful and tremendous Mystery and will be always so accounted by the most understanding and humble Christians there 's not an article of our Faith not one of the principal heads of the Apostles Creed which we so often repeat but it s a body of Mysteries Mysteries after all the pains of the most learned and pious men unintelligible otherwise than as to their positive truth by all mankind and more particularly those clauses concerning our blessed Saviour are so true so essential to our eternal salvation and yet so far above our reach that while we meditate on them seriously our Souls have nothing but miracles of power wisdom mercy and love in view but being known for such they all hold their miraculous nature still and can never be fully decipher'd either by Men or Angels and that we should yet be obliged stedfastly to believe these things though we cannot comprehend them will appear no way unreasonable if we consider these things belonging to the 3d. Inquiry which is What considerable advantages can accrue to Religion from those Mysteries it 's founded upon we consider in pursuit of this Query That by a due reflection upon the nature of such Mysteries as are really necessary and consequently of very great weight and importance men are brought to a due acknowledgment of the deficiency of their own reason they learn how weak and shallow all the utmost flights of wit and reason are when they come once to stand in competition with the results of infinite wisdom and unlimited understanding Men of the most presuming abilities find it very hard to unriddle ancient parables and to give a clear and evident explication of aenigmatical writings and figurative sentences and expressions the youthful Philistines Men without doubt of very brisk parts in their own esteem as we may conclude by their ready acceptance of Sampson's proposition faltred pitifully when they set their wits on work to expound his riddle and the Pharisaical Allumbradoes those men of light who like the modern Chineses concluded almost all the World blind except themselves when our Saviour put that Dilemma to them concerning John's Baptism viz. Whether it were from Heaven or of Men it confounded them so as all their mighty wisdom could never dis-intangle them if these things were difficult the fundamental Mysteries of Religion are much more so Men have attempted several ways to solve the appearances of Nature and some have made such ingenious researches after them and have laid down Hypotheses so very rational for the solution of difficulties in them that they have got themselves the applauding
pleasing It was such an industrious reading and a real desire to understand tho' at that time he confest his ignorance that prepar'd the Aethiopian Eunuch for the instructions of Philip sent unto him on that particular errand And tho' God do not presently send an Evangelist to convert every one that seeks after what 's good yet he has a thousand ways as efficacious to draw men to a sence of true Religion and what matter is it to us what way God makes use of provided he do but work the same glorious effect in us at last God takes delight in those that honour him as those who seek him certainly do Sincerity and humility are required indeed as preparatives in the case yet no more than what 's requisite in those who study books of humane learning For he that does not seriously desire to profit by study never will profit and he that 's too opinionative of his own sence can never make any advantageous use of what he meets with in the discourses of other men and there 's no reason we should expect to improve in those things which concern the weightiest matters in the world viz. our eternal future happiness or misery upon lower terms than in those really of a frivolous and inconsiderable nature But to encourage men to a right application of their reasoning faculty we conclude That the farther a man advances in the study and practice of true Religion the more clear and comprehensive his Reason grows and comes so much the nearer to its primitive acuteness and consequently is able to dive so much the farther into divine Mysteries And this indeed is what true Religion aims at We have lost our Innocence by that loss we have impair'd our Reason that we may assure to our selves that happiness our first Creation had sitted us to God has found out for us those ways that we endeavouring to retrieve our Innocence may retrieve our Reason in a good measure too And having howsoever the infinite merits of a Saviour on our side at last may attain to the first intended happiness Reason is certainly a talent bestowed upon us not to lay it up in a napkin but to use and to make the best of it Had such a Book as Scripture been deliver'd to Adam before his fall I make no question but it would have been in every point intelligible to him as things stand now we may and ought to exercise our reason about it but not so as to limit Scripture by our reason but to limit our reason by Scripture It 's true Scripture may by meer reason be prov'd to be the Word of God but that operation is very slow and requires a very unusual application therefore God in the infancy both of the Jewish and Christian Church made use of Miracles to work more strongly and swiftly upon the Soul not that he design'd to supersede our reason but to quicken it and to set it so much the more industriously on work and withall by a reducing it to an acknowledgment of its own defects to make it submit the more entirely to him whose power was able so far to outreach its utmost capacity Miracles were the common objects of Mens senses and indeed appeals to them and when the Jews had known a Man from his Child-hood that was born blind and when they saw him about forty years of age blest with sight they had no reason to distrust the truth of that of which they every moment saw the effects where there was lodged a power sufficient â—o produce so extraordinary an effâ—ct and the kindness and usefulness of the miâ—â—â— wrought would vindicate it from 〈…〉 of any malignant spirit it 〈…〉 conclude that in the same person was centred a veracity agreeable to that power and consequently it was reasonable to believe what ever was delivered by so great and so benign a Power But after all as reason could not possibly give an account of the manner of working so sensible a miracle but by resolving all into omnipotence nor was it necessary it should so neither was it necessary reason should comprehend every thing that was spoken by God and yet it lies under a necessity of believing every thing true that 's so spoken and that again upon a rational principle viz. that He who speaks being God can neither deceive nor be deceived But as those who engage themselves in the study of any particular Science understand but little at first of its reason but by assiduity and diligence come to see throughly into it so it is in matters of religion he that 's but a Babe can bear no stronger nourishment than milk he that 's stronger can digest substantial meats i. e. the beginner in those studies must pretend to nothing farther than what 's very plain and easie but when by continual meditation be has made those plain things familiar to him there will some consequences offer themselves not so plain but every whit as true as the first principles and that reason which at first was ready to stumble at the most obvious notions will afterwards digest those at a greater distance and be as strongly convinced of them as of the former but in the chain of consequences somewhat will occur at last beyond the reach of the largest unbeatified Soul Thus that Man is naturally miserable is a truth undeniable by reason of our every days experience natures light has confirm'd the World in the truth yet Man is very apt to stumble and perplex himself at the occasion and ground of his being so doubts arise in the case from some weak reflections upon God's justice and goodness yet it s universally believ'd and the reading of Scripture farther confirms the truth that Man miserable as he is making use of such and such means may be happy is a truth reveal'd and without revelation imperceptible yet now it s once reveal'd reason can properly argue that the same things or qualifications which would have secur'd happiness to Man at first must do so now and the attainment of Innocence was that original mean Innocence the indispensible qualification But reason proves again that that primitive Innocence is really unattainable now and it will proceed thus far further that either there must be some way discover'd to make up that unhappy defect or else Man must sink in his natural misery and all the care he can take to prevent it will do him no service here divine revelation goes along with him too and what reason as now affected could never have dream't of we have a revelation relating to the making up of this defect and that by the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God but there Faith rests upon Revelation alone and gets no assistance at all from reason but only from that distant principle that the revealer cannot deceive nor be deceived reason can come no nearer nor can it judge of the revelation by any other principle yet the Man who believes not this how little
grace unto the humble there are some things which relate to Religion wherein God has deliver'd himself so as to let us know words and names but has not reveal'd enough to give us an insight into the matters which are intimated under them Men need not trouble themselves too curiously about such things Moses taught the Israelites very well Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God and the Son of Syrach gives an excellent lesson Seek not out things that are too hard for thee neither search the things that are above thy strength Ecclus. 3.21 22. but what is commanded thee think thereupon with reverence for it is not needful for thee to see with thine eyes the things that are in secret What if among such things I should reckon Mens over-curious enquiries into the nature of God's decrees which enquiries have produced a great many foolish and uncharitable controversies even among good men there is employment enough for a good Man's whole life in things more needful to be known I will not say it 's absolutely unlawful to be prying into what God has thought fit to express himself very obscurely in but this I 'le say that whosoever will be walking in those private paths had need to tread with a very gentle foot to look frequently backward and on each side as well as forward to be very distrustful of his own ability very submissive to the judgment of Superiors in office age or gifts very earnest and indefatigable in his prayers to God for his assistance as he shall see fit to impart it on such an occasion very tender of imposing his own judgment upon others and of being too positive in those opinions he takes up since the corruption of our reason a man frequently thinks he has made a very great discovery in some weighty point and hugs himself with the plausibility of his thoughts he imagines as we are generally apt to be very fond of the products of our own brains every thing he has laid down or methodiz'd in his thoughts to be so very plain and clear that it 's impossible any man of sense should not immediately be his proselyte and some perhaps are ready to flatter such a one in his over-weening conceit by a pretended concurrence in their sentiments with him after all it happens as often that another of as great natural abilities and as searching a head discovers a great many mistakes in the others beautiful Scheme of thoughts and baffles the whole invention the other had admired himself for such things ought to make all especially in religious matters where it 's dangerous jesting or innovating to act with abundance of circumspection and indeed rather to confine themselves to lower studies than to hazard the over-setting their own Intellectuals by engaging into boundless enquiries Those things may in themselves be lawful which yet cannot be very convenient Some such curiosities are very idle and ridiculous as disputing what God did before he made the World Whether He could have pardon'd Mens sins without a Mediatour c. He was fatally answer'd to such a Question who asking an Eminent Christian what the Carpenter's Son meaning Christ was then a doing was told He was making a Coffin for such a lewd Inquirer as himself who dy'd in a very few hours after Ecclus. 3.23 The Son of Syrach advises well Be not curious in unnecessary matters for more things are shew'd unto thee than men understand i. e. God has laid open such infinite treasures of Divine wisdom before us and our understandings are so very short that we need not look out strange subjects of our meditations it 's enough if we can in some tolerable manner comprehend those sacred truths that are deliver'd to us and we are more concern'd to endeavour to do so than some are ready to imagine For though a Socinian may tell us God has declared several things in holy Scripture that are no way necessary to Salvation the assertion is absurd and false that old Axiome Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra That God and Nature never do any thing in vain is enough to refute it for since the end of Scripture is the making Men wise to salvation it 's very bold to say God knew not how to frame such a Book without abundance of impertinencies when we see many Men setting much slighter ends before themselves will yet prosecute their discourses in so close and exact a manner that the most critical judgment may perhaps find what to add but cannot find what to take away from their writings there is therefore no positive truth asserted in holy Writ but what is really useful to Man's Salvation since there 's nothing throughout the whole but what serves to illustrate God's goodness and mercy and truth c. or Man's misery by Sin or happiness by Grace or lays down rules of life and practice or gives us examples of Virtues or Vices in others from all which something very instructive may be drawn nor can we believe that even the genealogical Tables in Scripture were as a late Writer impudently suggests design'd onely to amuse and confound us but to set us in a way to find how all the ancient Prophecies centred in Jesus Christ the promised Messias As the positive assertions so their true and genuine consequences are in some sort and to some Men necessary to salvation God having given greater capacities and larger Souls to some than he has to others expects proportionable improvements from them and a Man of wisdom and learning cannot be saved onely on the same terms on which a person of low and mean endowments may therefore those of greater parts are bound to look into every thing divinely reveal'd and to what may be regularly deduced from it but as perfection in good works is required in every one that is to be saved and yet many are sav'd tho' none are perfectly good so it is in relation to things contain'd in Scripture every one is bound to study them things of common practice are plain and obvious in them things at first to be believ'd are taken for granted but Man is for his life-time employ'd and to be so in farther search into the meaning of those things that are more obscure Could Man once in his life-time attain to a perfect understanding of every thing set down there there would quickly be an end of all sacred study but since the wisest find in the Word of God more than they can understand and yet find they every day by study understand more and more and the meanest wits upon a due care and industry find proportionable advances there is always enough to excite mans utmost diligence and care and as in practical piety so it is here he that improves his time best to get knowledge tho' he cannot reach to all he should his defects shall be pardoned for his sake who in himself contains consummate wisdom But it remains still true
tells us as plainly and as intelligibly That the Lord Jesus Christ is that Lamb of God who takes away the Sins of the World that Christ died for us or for our Sins that he bore our Sins and carried our Transgressions that he redeemed us with his own most precious Blood that he gave his Soul a Redemption-Price for many that he 's our Mediator that he has reconciled us to God and is a Propitiation for our Sins and that the Scripture has very distinctly stated the Comparison between Legal expiatory Sacrifices and the Sacrifice of Christ the former being only so many Types and Shadows the latter the Antitype or the thing so long and so often represented by them And yet according to Socinian Doctrine we must not believe one word of all this but we must fly to foolish Glosses and impertinent Figures to elude the force of all these Assertions and Scripture must be made a Nose of Wax that it may the better be subservient to the ridiculous prejudices of pretended Rationalists But if we may so slightly pass over these Assertions we may as slightly pass the rest and deny that we ow any Gratitude to God on account of the forgiveness of our Sins according to true Catholick Principles we believe both that our Saviour has satisfied for our Sins and that our God has freely forgiven them and none but a Socinian Reasoner would find any difficulty to reconcile those Truths to one another as we have shewn before But we 'll suppose Gratitude to Heaven for Mercies receiv'd especially that of Salvation by Christ would oblige us sufficiently to Holiness of Life it will follow from thence that that Doctrine which sets off the Love and Mercy of God and Christ to the greatest advantage must needs offer the most considerable Motives for our Obedience but here a new Vindicator of Socinianism acknowledges Defence of the Hist of Vnitar p. 50. That the Socinian Doctrine makes the Love of God less wonderful than the Trinitarian therefore the Socinian Doctrine affords us less effectual Motives to grateful Obedience than the Trinitarian Doctrine does and since the Love of God is of so extraordinary a Nature really that it passes knowledge Eph. 3.19 as the Apostle assures us since no words can set it off according to its Excellence nor the very Conceptions of Men reach it for if they could Men might know the utmost dimensions of it then whatsoever Scheme of Doctrine goes about to lessen that Love under a pretence of making it more intelligible that is really destructive of true Piety and as far as possible takes away all Obligations to Obedience arising from Gratitude for God's Love to Mankind So the Doctrine of our Saviour's great Humiliation in being incarnate for our Sakes seems a very powerful reason why we should be meek and lowly in spirit will their Opinion that he was a meer Man taking his first and sole Original from the Blessed Virgin promote Humility more powerfully that he was very great on that account that he did many Miracles we readily own but we cannot but imagine our mighty Man of Reason talks Nonsense when he tells us Ib. Def p. 51. That Christ by the power bestow'd upon him cast out Devils cured all sorts of Diseases raised the dead commanded the Winds and the Seas and was then indeed in the likeness of God but it was a great Humility in him that he was so far from making an Ostentation of his Glory and Greatness that he became like a Servant c. If indeed he had that power of doing such great Miracles and had conceal'd it or had never done any thing miraculous but in Corners and where the Noise of it could never have crept out into the World it might have look'd like somewhat of our Author's Humility but the greatest part of our Saviour's Miracles were done openly in the Synagogues on the Sabbath Day and elsewhere when Multitudes were gathered together and this as we take it was to own and publish his Greatness and Power to the World and it was but necessary he should do so for these Miracles of his were the authentic Evidences of his Messiahship the Evidences to which he appeal'd when he declar'd that If he had not done among them the works which never man did John 15.24 they had had no sin but that now they had no cloke for their sin because they themselves had been Eye-witnesses of those great things which they could no more prove were done by any Diabolical Power than our Socinians can that they were not done by a Power Inherent Natural and Divine in himself and the same Evangelist after having given us the History of Christ's turning Water into Wine at the Marriage of Cana in Galilee adds this Remark to it 2.11 This beginning of Miracles did Jesus and manifested forth his Glory and his Disciples believed on him so that in this particular we see our Saviour not expressing an unwillingness to be known or to have it known what and how great he was and as for his becoming a Servant notwithstanding all that Power it was no matter either so great or so peculiar to him as should render him so extraordinary an Example to us for his Birth as to his Condition in this World was very mean and if we believe as some do that for many Years he follow'd the same Employ which Joseph his suppos'd Father did and that he had an illiterate Education 7.15 as the Jews object to him which particulars are almost unquestionable his Condition was servile from the beginning and therefore not so strange that he should willingly be a Servant to others especially since it has always been the Policy of those who endeavour to head a Party to manage themselves with all the obliging Condescensions in the World so Menelaus in Euripides tells Agamemnon he should remember when he sought the Command of the Grecian Army Euripid. in Aulide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How humble he was taking every Man kindly by the Hand and having his doors always open to the meanest Plow-jobber and courteously speaking to all though they seem'd to take no notice of him If this were the Mode of Great Men aspiring after more Grandeur what of wonder was there that He who had not so much as where to lay his Head should be so humble and so much a Servant to every one especially since he came to call Men to follow him and set up for the Soveraign Head of the greatest Society of Men in the World As for our Saviour's Sufferings notwithstanding his Power of doing Miracles he was far from standing alone in that particular for Moses himself though so great by God's own appointment among his own People though he were a King in Jesurun Exod. 17.4 though he did many Miracles was in danger of Stoning by the discontented Israelites Elijah a Man of a very considerable Character acted as a Servant
him for we shall see him as he is And when reason once comes to use sense so far as to see God as he is infinitely happy infinitely good infinitely glorious it has gone far enough And thus far have I given an account of Humane reason or the light of Nature for I think I may well enough use them as Synonymous and how far it may be useful in matters of a Divine nature I shall draw onely a Corollary or two from thence and then proceed We conclude from what has been discours'd concerning Humane reason That our obligation to Almighty God is infinite in that He who might have taken from us wholly that natural light because we had so extremely slighted it was yet pleas'd to continue it so far as that rightly apply'd it might still be useful to us even in matters of salvation It 's true we cannot examine things with that clearness and satisfaction which Adam's first enquiries were accompany'd with our understandings are somewhat parallel to that Earth which fell under a Curse for the sin of Man It was naturally fertile before in good things but then it was to bring forth onely bryars and thorns yet Man might eat bread from it still onely it must be in the sweat of his brows He must take pains for that now which he might have had without any trouble before So our Natural reason was clear and free at first common occurrences needed no deep meditations nor extraordinary passages any tedious study to apprehend them in every circumstance The case is now otherwise our reason busies it self naturally about trifles and onely puzles and perplexes it self in matters of no weight or moment yet still it may move to good purpose but it requires abundance of care and pains to cultivate it so as it may produce any thing that 's good and even with a great deal of pains too sometimes it makes conclusions onely vain troublesome and miserably false this unhappiness is the consequence of our own follies at first and it's God's unmerited goodness that we can yet by making use of due means distinguish in some measure between truth and falshood at least in the more obvious parts of religion and his goodness yet appears farther in that where our decrepit reason fails he 's pleas'd to interpose with the influences of his blessed Spirit and to preserve the Modest and Humble from falling into damnable Error that our Reason may have a subject profitable to employ it self upon God has given us his Word blessed are they who meditate on that word day and night he calls upon us to apply our selves to the Law and to the testimony to search the Scriptures to search them with the same care and diligence as those who work in Mines seek for the golden Ore Whereas he lays in his Word several Commands upon us He would have us examine them so as we may be convinced that they are not grievous but Holy just and good These Commandments therefore must be examin'd by the rule of right Reason which whosoever follows will be infinitely satisfied in them In his dealings with mankind he calls upon them to examine their own ways by the same rule he enters into arguments highly rational with mankind himself he bids them to judge in their own causes between himself and them and see if discussing things rationally they must not necessarily fall upon that confession That God's ways are equal but the ways of men unequal When he recommends his mercies when he would terrifie with his judgments He appeals to Humane Reason still or that share of light which we are now partakers of Now he that will employ that light he has upon such noble subjects if he be not prejudiced with wicked principles before or puff'd up with self-conceit must necessarily be a very religious man for the clearer any mans rational faculty is the more pious he must be only men of very low abilities can be either Atheists or Hereticks It 's confest indeed some Hereticks as the Socinians in particular with whom we are at present concern'd pretend highly to Reason but they only sham us with fond pretences and their reason is all empty and sophistical and Atheists are the Men of sence if we may believe fools and madmen but there is a vast difference between a flashy Wit and a ridiculing Humour and sound judgment and solid and weighty argument But God who knew before what artifices Hell and wicked men would make use of to pervert truth calls upon us to exercise our reason farther in discovering and baffling those cheats the enemies of our Souls would fain put upon us wherein as Hereticks and Schismaticks generally make their appeals to God's Word and we have warning in that very Word That in those doctrines where there 's any shew of difficulty those who are unlearned and unstable wrest the Scriptures to their own destructions We are warn'd to try the Spirits whether they be of God and Scripture being the rule of tryal we are oblig'd to study the true sence and meaning of that To which end our rational faculty carries us along in studying the original Languages in which Scripture was written and finding out the true meaning and import of words and phrases in other authors and the modes and customs of countries to which any Texts refer Reason goes with us in comparing text with text and matters of faith or practice laid down in one place with those laid down in another in observing the force of those arguments drawn from such and such Texts their real dependance upon or direct consequence from the places alledg'd and the general consistency of opinions offer'd with the end and design of those positive truths laid down in Scripture Reason has here a large field to exercise it self in And whereas we are urg'd by some to abjure that utterly with respect to those points of faith or practice that are under debate pretending they 'd insist only on the letter of Scripture Maximus tells us well in the formerly cited discourse of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they drive you from examining Scripture too strictly insinuating that it 's dangerous to pry too narrowly into secrets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximi disceptatio inter opera Athan. T. 2. p. 296. but disswading it indeed that they might avoid the reproof of their Errors from thence where he takes farther notice how such persons if they meet but with a word that at first hearing sounds favourably to their fancies they run away with it without ever considering the design of the inspired Writer or examining the agreement of their own shallow glosses with the general tenour of Holy Writ an humour that prevails with too many still who prefer the sound of words before the truth and pertinency of texts of Scripture and therefore imagine themselves to argue very piously and agreeably to God's word when all their talk is nothing to the purpose But mysteries the great
mysteries of Religion are reveal'd in Scripture it proves God's goodness yet farther he has by that means given Reason a task proper for its exercise For tho' our Reason be not able to fathom all the depths of those mighty revelations yet as Chymists seeking after their great Arcanum tho' they miss the main design yet by the way they make a thousand useful experiments never otherwise to have been found out So those who take due measures and industriously insist in the searching the nature of mysteries in Religion though they can never in this life reach their utmost extent yet they attain many things in their quest of a very useful and a very comfortable kind Thus we see the Weeks of Daniel the Visions of Ezekiel the whole book of the Revelation have given abundance of employ to the best and wisest Christians who yet have never been able to come to any considerable agreement in the Interpretation of them yet the learned labours of many have been so far from lost that many excellent truths have been fully clear'd many pious Souls wonderfully supported and many controversies happily resolv'd to the security and edification of the Church of God And we have found plainly that some have seen into those mystical secrets much more clearly than others which argues their quicker apprehensions and their more powerful assistances in their studies and is withal a great encouragement to others to prosecute the same studies with patience since tho' their progress is not great it may be sure where something is attained to more may be and we believe it was not without reason that the author of the Apocalypse in particular begins his Visions with that Revel 1.3 c. 22.7 Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein and to conclude them to the same purpose And in his Vision of that beast with seven heads and ten horns to whom the Dragon imparted of his power which arose out of the sea and of that other which came up out of the earth that had horns like a Lamb and spake like a Dragon he gives a kind of challenge to humane Reason Here is wisdom Rev. 13.18 let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a Man and his number is 666. i. e. Here 's a task fit for a man to engage himself in here 's enough for him to exercise all his abilities upon But it would be no such extraordinary blessing for a man to read a book of which he could hope to understand nothing at all and it would be no great evidence of a man's extraordinary wisdom to spend his time in poring after the interpretation of a mystic number and to find out to whom it belong'd if the whole was never design'd to be in the least intelligible No God never set man at work in any inquiry but he intended the profit should at least be worth the pains It must be confest that what Schlicktingius asserts is very true Prophetae novi Testamenti Christo jam exorto arcana Dei ita explicarunt ut ab omnibus intelligi possint quae in novo Testamento scriptae extant futurorum praedictiones claris verbis conceptae sunt That the Prophets of the New Tastament after Christ's appearance explain'd the secrets of God in such a manner as that they might be understood by all And the predictions of future things in the New Testament are express'd in plain words plain words may express very hard matters and there 's no need of uncouth Hyperboles or aenigmatical or ambiguous expressions to make a thing mysterious Our Saviour preach'd in as plain a manner as ever any did or could yet how did the Scribes and Pharisees Schlicktin in 2 op Petri c. 1. v. 21. nay how did the Disciples themselves stumble at his familiar Parables and tho' we have them in some measure interpreted to us in the Gospel-story yet many learned and good men disagree in explaining several particulars contained in them still And I have not yet found that our adversaries themselves pretend to an infallible exposition of any considerable difficulties and the forenamed Author speaking concerning the book of the Revelation tells us it was laid down in Visions and representations Non tam ut Christiani distinctè cognoscerent quid futurum esset id enim nec Ecclesiae nec divinis consiliis expediebat quin potiùs ut ex eventu praesignificatum id esse quod evenit intelligerent not so much that Christians should know what was in future times to come to pass for that was neither agreeable to the Churches necessities nor to Gods designs but only that by the event of things Christians might be able to understand that what hapned had been foretold long since This very comparing of predictions with events would require no small intention of our rational faculties yet here he owns these Visions and representations to be mysterious so long till the event unriddle them And there 's no truth of so profound a nature no expression in Scripture so difficult but that futurity will make it all plain and delightfully intelligible to the Souls of just men made perfect yet here 's constant work for the soundest head and the more such a one discovers of the mysteries of Religion the more he 'll be sensible of the defects of his own understanding and he 'll find the more reason to bless the name of God who has yet continued to him the ruines of a compleat understanding and given him such subjects to exercise it upon as may gradually raise it towards its original strength till heavens glory gives it a consummate perfection But as we are obliged to be thankful to God for giving us the use of Reason so we must take care To use our Reason in all debates about matters of Religion with that sober and humble Modesty as becomes Creatures so much decay'd as we are in our most glorious endowments It has been the abuse of reason and a strange confidence in that which in it self at present is extreamly weak that has introduced so many Errors and Heresies into the Church of Christ a humble and a modest Christian would always secure himself with the famous resolution of St. Augustine Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo I may fall into an Error but I will never be an Heretick i. e. I 'le never be obstinate in any singular opinion of mine own too much diffidence of our selves makes us slaves to every one that has boldness enough to contradict us too much confidence renders us incorrigible in our follies even when much wiser Men would undertake to instruct us and nothing can provoke God more to baffle us in all our inquiries than that innate pride which makes Men value themselves above what is fitting for as St. James tells us God resisteth the proud Jam. 6.4 but he giveth
that it could not reasonably be requir'd that a man should engage himself in the study of the whole Book of God if there were any thing positively asserted there the knowledge and understanding of which would be lost time as the studies of all impertinencies are But howsoever necessary these studies are if they are not prosecuted in a due manner i. e. with an humble sense of our own natural defects with a sober and submissive judgment and with all that modesty which becomes one who is desirous to learn they 'l prove but mischievous and make Hereticks Schismaticks or Atheists instead of knowing and improving orthodox Christians It 's true that nothing ought to be admitted into Religion which is contrary to reason but it must be understood which is contrary to reason in its primitive integrity for that which we call reason now we every one find extremely subject to mistakes and for me to measure those truths which are reveal'd by an infallible God by the standard of that sense or judgment which I know to be mistakeful and fallible is unreasonable with any sober discourser to extremity and it argues too great a pride in our low condition to imagine that because once we were made perfect that therefore we should in any respect continue so though we had sought out to our selves many inventions Many are deceived by their own vain opinion ver 24. says the Son of Syrach and nothing can certainly be more prejudicial to a Man in his disquisitions after truth than a great conceit of his own abilities to find it out God commonly blasts such fond pretenders to ingenuity and makes them take a great deal of pains only to procure infamy and perpetual disgrace to themselves Such mischiefs would be avoided yet Humane Reason have it's due use and esteem if the Apostles injunction were well obey'd that no man should think of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12.3 but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Men ought when they meet with any difficulties in divine Writings not to make their Reason the measure of Truth but to make Truth the measure of their Reason and rather to suspect their own apprehension of it than the weakness or ambiguity on the defectiveness of the authors assertions or expressions And so much for the use of Humane Reason in matters of Religion it 's a great blessing to us still tho' impair'd by sin and if soberly and modestly used will by divine assistance rise to a greater strength and vigour and be able to comprehend every day more and more of the mystery of Godliness till it comes in a glorifi'd state to comprehend every thing that can any way contribute to its consummate happiness Having gone thus far in the debate concerning the use of Humane Reason in matters of Religion and declared how careful we should be not to indulge our selves in vain and useless curiosities for the vindication of our selves as Christians we are to consider that a full proof of the Divinity of the Son of God is a task that comes under no reproof in the case That the blessed Jesus the great captain of our Salvation is God as well as Man that he is God of God light of light very God of very God as the Nicene Creed expresses it that he is perfect God not a factitious or an aequivocal God as some would have him but that He who is God the Son is infinite in all his Attributes God over all blessed for ever as God the Father is is Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae such an Article of our Christian Faith so essential to the Mystical Body of Christ that while it 's embrac'd the Church has a real Being when it 's laid aside the very Being of the Church expires at the same time It 's so necessary an Article of Faith that except a man keep it whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly for he that believes in such a Messias such a Saviour who is not God is really an Idolater as fixing his belief in one that is not able to save For Man's misery is too great to be reliev'd by any inferiour power and the blood of Bulls and of Goats might as well have serv'd for the expiation of Humane guilt as the sufferings of one who was a meer man and consequently could have no proper merit to plead for us no inherent power wherewith to assist us Some of those Hereticks who deny the Divinity of the Son of God have been so sensible of this that they have maintain'd and preach'd it in those Congregations where they have been concern'd That it 's as lawful to pray to the blessed Virgin or to any other Saint or any Angel as it is to pray to the Son of God and that all those are really guilty of Idolatry who make any such Prayers or Supplications to him Now tho other Socinians call these blasphemers on this account they are really injurious to 'em for if that which they all agree in be true viz. That Jesus Christ is not the most high God then whosoever worships him as God breaks the first and second Commandments as much as those of the Church of Rome do and are as notorious Idolaters as we shall hereafter have occasion to prove In quest then of the truth of this doctrine That Jesus Christ is the true God we are to bend our Reason and to meet and baffle those great pretenders to it with their own weapons and to prove to them that tho we think the mystery of godliness to be great as the Text asserts it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostom expresses it to be unexpressible and wonderful and incomprehensible yet we receive some considerable advantages from its being revealed for by that means we know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the positive truth that he who appear'd in the flesh visible to humane eyes and so far humbled to atone for humane Crimes was really God hence to be ador'd by us hence able to perform the work he came about and to save to the utmost all those that come to the Father in and by him and this we firmly and stedfastly believe tho' we cannot comprehend the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the manner how so great a miracle of Mercy should be brought about and those proofs by any particulars whatsoever laid down of this truth using reason with that sobriety and modesty which we ought we may examine and try throughly and judge how far they come up to those things they are designed to make good and so our Faith it self may be rational and thence invincible tho' every particular of it be not intelligible to us in its full extent With relation to the Text then we assert That the Mystery of Godliness which the Apostle tells us is great cannot be apply'd to the several particulars laid down in
by the commands of God i.e. by Worshipping him according to his prescriptions and we cannot come to know the commands of God but by Prophecy or Revelation Or we may rest in the Apostles definition that true Religion is the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness in hopes of eternal life Tit. 1.1 2. But if we respect Religion in general as taken up by all Nations we may describe it as The method of worshipping God by all men suitably to those notions they had of him and of their own duties As for the Jewish Nation they were once the sole professors of true Religion and for the hardness of their hearts were loaded with abundance of Ceremonial institutions but yet in the law of Moses and in the Prophets we find sincere and hearty obedience to the moral Law very much urged and insisted upon as the best evidence of true and unfeigned piety and where God expostulates sharply with his people for their rebellion and disobedience He tells them plainly Ps 50.8 9 13 16 17 23. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before me I will take no bullock out of thy house nor he-goat out of thy fold Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats No these things God could pardon But unto the wicked God says what hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth the reason of the expostulation follows thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee by which words the great folly of those is exprest who pretend themselves the servants of God and instruments of his glory and yet live disagreeably to their profession wherefore it 's added Who so offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Thus again God by the Prophet Samuel argues with Saul 1 Sam. 15.22 Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams So the Prophet Isaiah Isa 1.11 13 16 17 18. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it follows wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widows Well what should be the effect of all this reformation as much as a wretched sinner could hope for from the most benign Being Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow tho' they be red like crimson they shall be as wool So the Prophet Micah Micah 6.6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my Body for the sin of my soul No God requires not these things at our hands but He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Nay Solomon himself who was so personally profuse in his offerings that a man would have suspected he had fixt the whole substance of Religion in such exterior services when he comes to draw up what was incumbent upon Man in a few words passes sacrificing by as inconsiderable in respect of this sincere obedience Eccl. 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man Thus far the writings of the Old Testament receiv'd by the ancient Jews shew us the ends of Religion viz. That where it really had a place it necessarily produc'd purity and sincerity of mind without which no sacrifice tho' never so costly could be accepted with God David teaches us the lesson plainly Ps 51.6 7 10 19. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom purge me with hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and much more to the same purpose then he concludes all Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt-offering then shall they offer bullocks upon thine Altar But since the Jews are for the most part hardned against their own greatest interest and so may be thought to have now changed their minds being known for such bigotted ceremonialists I shall add the confessions of one or two modern Jews So Rabbi Isaac Sangar in the book Cosri before cited Cosri pars 3. p. 157. for thus he tells the King he converses with A holy and pious man is not the rigid man for every ceremonial punctilio but he who where he dwells with a prudent and impartial hand gives every one their right who loves justice oppresses none defrauds none nor bribes any to be his slaves or tools upon occasion Again Because the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth therefore the holy man neither does nor speaks nor thinks any thing but he believes the all-seeing eye of God to be upon him ready not only to reward for what 's well but for what 's ill done too and to visit for every perverse and wicked word or action p. 168. c. To him I shall add Rabbi Moises ben Maimon who in his More Nevochim More Nevoehim pars 3. c. 28. p. 419. or explainer of difficulties teaches us that every precept of God whether it be affirmative or negative aims at these things first that it may take away all violence from among men and beget good manners necessary for the conservation of political Societies and secondly that it may instil true principles of faith such as are in their own nature necessary to be known for the expelling of wickedness and encouraging honesty and virtue Now if these sober and necessary virtues which are of no value if not sincere be the ultimate intention of all God's Laws it follows that those virtues are more accounted of with God which are inward and affect the Soul than all outward performances how pompous soever as much as the end of a thing is more excellent than the means conducing to it The Son of Sirach agrees admirably with this truth He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten Eccl. 34.18 19.
l. 10. p. 360. when making gaudy offerings to them No let but the hand free from guilt be lifted up to the Altars of the Gods not the most rich or costly hecatombs shall sooner reconcile the angry Deities than those I shall add no more to shew that sense the Pagans had of the ends of religion but onely make a short reflection upon God's justice in dealing with Mankind as set down by St. Paul He tells us God will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 c. to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Now that the Jews and Gentiles who stood upon no equal ground yet should suffer equally in case of disobedience seems to some very harsh but if again it be considered that that God who gave the Jewish Nation such great advantages required of them proportionably great returns whilst the Gentiles who had been partakers of less light were onely required to walk in that light they had to come up as near to a perfection in faith and virtue as that would admit of This consider'd the Gentiles were every whit as guilty in neglecting their duties which were lighter and fewer as the Jews in neglecting theirs which were more numerous and difficult since the disobedience to the Divine commands is as notorious in one case as in the other and this reflection reaches farther and teaches those who are more weak and ignorant not to presume too much upon God's mercy because they know so little since it 's as reasonable they should perform that little they know as that we who know more should do our duties and their negligence and proportionable unfruitfulness in good and ours proceed from one and the same damnably offensive principle for as the Apostle urges it v. 12. as many as have sinn'd without Law shall perish without Law and as many as have sinn'd in the Law shall be judg'd by the Law This every Man must acknowledge to be the greatest equity in the World the faith and works of the Jews and so of Christians shall be canvas'd and examin'd by those rules of faith and practice extraordinarily imparted to them the Gentiles had no such Law but the light of Nature was their guide therefore their works shall be tried by that and by no other light now a defect in obedience to the innate light of nature is as much a contempt of God and so as criminal as a defect in obedience to the written Law of God and consequently as justly punish'd now how far this natural light extends as these passages I have quoted from Heathen Writers considerably evidence so the Apostle tells us That the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the same Law that was given to the Jews v. 14. do by nature the things contain'd in the Law they not having the Law are a Law unto themselves This proves that truth that God's written Law is not a disannulling but a confirming and enlarging upon the Law of Nature in the manner of a Commentary upon an intricate Text to illustrate and explain it well then The Gentiles shew this natural Law written in their hearts by the witness of their consciences and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another v. 15. for having as I shew'd before clear apprehensions of the Being of a God and having made very considerable discoveries of his nature so far as legible in the works of the Creation they cannot upon a serious debate with themselves and weighing their own actions by their own notions and rules but have an infallible certainty of the rectitude or pravity of their actions and this is as much as a Jew or Christian can do by his publick Laws and an exact scanning of them Now if my Conscience can certainly inform me of things essentially and eternally so whether they be good or bad the same Conscience will give me as infallible a certainty that God is and must be just when he rewards me according to my actions whether they be good or evil he calls me to account for what I do know not for what I do not know and punishes me for transgressions within the reach of my understanding to have avoided and not for those that were unintelligible without a positive revelation and this even corrupted Reason will own is agreeable to the strictest rules of equity and justice We are to enquire since we have seen what Jews and Gentiles before our Saviour's birth into the World understood concerning the nature and ends of Religion which every one for himself supposed to be true since none can be thought mad enough to trouble himself about that religion he certainly knew to be false We are to enquire how far both Jews and Gentiles had deprav'd and perverted those ends and what care they took to manage themselves according to that knowledge they really had when our Saviour appear'd in the flesh And here again we may begin with the Jews among whom if we find an extraordinary degeneracy we can the less wonder at it among the Gentiles If then we examine the state of things among them we have it thus It was once among them Do this and live i. e. Live here on Earth in a strict obedience to those things commanded you in the Law and you shall be rewarded with an happy future life Now when the terrors and glories of Mount Sinai were fresh in memory and Parents according as they were order'd took care to inculcate God's power justice and goodness particularly exerted toward the People of Israel into their Children and gave agreeable examples in themselves obedience was the common study and peace here and a glorious expectation hereafter the common consequence But when a new generation arose who had not seen God's wonderful dealings with his people and the too prevailing examples of neighbouring Idolaters taught the Israelites a wicked ingratitude the Law of God was slighted and as it is among us at this day the Man who could defie Heaven with the greatest audacity was the most set by And though frequent judgments over-took their Impieties there was no thorough purgation made among them but they went on to add sin to sin so that among the Scribes and Pharisees the great Zealots of the Law at the time of Christ's coming in the flesh things were at that pass that the blessed Jesus had reason when he told his Auditors that Except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 5.20 they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If therefore the very best among the Jews as they were generally esteem'd were utterly uncapable of eternal happiness what may
son of our sacred Mother the English Church says of this manifestation of God in the flesh How it was effected Vid. Montacut Norvic in Act. Mon. Eccles c. 1. par 39. p. 27. 1 Pet. 1.12 by what means made possible heaven and earth cannot understand nor deliver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was a mystery from the beginning the Angels understood it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be a mystery to eternity the Angels as yet can go no farther than their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to receive a glimmering of it as it were by the crany of a window or by the chink of a door and how shall we dare to enquire how it was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this question is indissoluble that inextricable Faith alone has power to resolve them both this we submissively agree to and therefore we enquire not how or in what manner God was made flesh any farther than some particulars relating to that Incarnation are plainly laid down in Scripture far be any such presuming curiosity from us only since the Apostle in the consequent parts of the Text has asserted that God was made flesh which according to the natural sound and common acceptation of such words in all languages and writers is that he who was made flesh or appear'd in the flesh was God since the Apostle has asserted the positive truth and has made it the first part of the great mystery of godliness and such a part as all the other particulars do but serve to prove and confirm We must assert too that this particular point or article of Faith that He who was made flesh for the Salvation of mankind was really God God properly so call'd the most high the eternal God blessed for ever not any made or subordinate God but the maker of all things in a word the true God exclusive of all created Beings whatsoever We assert that this is an Article of our Faith so true and so important that upon a true embracing it in the sence so laid down the Salvation of all men depends as much as upon believing in Christ the Son of God at all or on being neither impious nor blasphemers nor idolaters And therefore we assert farther that how great a mystery soever this may appear and it never ought to appear otherwise to enquire into and seek for all such Scriptures as may render it indisputable is neither impertinent to our Lord's design in being so incarnate nor is it fruitless to those who make it their business to inquire into such proofs nor is it dangerous to any who make that enquiry with due humility and care But on the contrary it 's very dangerous nay fatal as before not to enquire into it or not to be fully satisfied about it I know we have in this point more enemies than the meer Socinians some capital asserters of the Arminian tenets being desirous to give such a latitude to Religion as may take in all their friends are very willing to perswade us that it 's not very material or necessary to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God is God of the same substance or nature with his father So Episcopius a man of great learning and ingenuity in his fourth book of Theological Institutions c. 34. Traitè sur la Divin de J.C.S. 1. c. 1. p. 10. c. the sum of whose plea amounts to this That the essence of Christian Religion consists not in meer contemplative knowledge but in practice and that it consists much more in obedience than in abstracted speculations on the Deity which tho' it be true enough has really no place here for can we call those principles meer or simple speculations which are so important that we our selves are or are not Idolaters accordingly as they are true or false If Christ be of the same substance with his Father or if which comes to the same end Christ be the supreme or sovereign God he ought to be adored in that quality and Socinians themselves cannot without impiety refuse to acknowledge him as such and to honour him under that name but if he be not so we cannot confound him with the Sovereign God without Idolatry The great concern here then is to avoid impiety or idolatry and by consequence those inquiries must be of a practical nature which are of so very great and extraordinary an importance Episcopius makes several vain attempts to shew That it is not at all essential to Salvation to know if Jesus Christ be God by an eternal generation or that being but a simple creature or which is the same a meer man like one of us he is called God upon account of his ministry for when he goes about to make us see that these are no fundamental inquiries in shewing us that those who believe Jesus Christ is a meer Creature may worship him without being guilty of Idolatry because they adore him not as he is man but as he holds the place of God as his Ambassador or Substitute this proof is imperfect and insufficient For to prove that these questions are impertinent or unnecessary it 's not enough to shew that Socinians without being Idolaters may worship him whom they believe to be no more by nature than a meer Man which supposition yet we shall in due time prove God willing to be false But he ought to shew withal that we without Idolatry may worship Jesus Christ as the supreme God as we really are taught to do by the Church of England tho' at the same time he really be not the sovereign God which seems to be a very hard if not an impossible task as I question not but hereafter it will more plainly appear At present I shall only touch upon an argument urged by Episcopius from a Topick very easily found out the reason then given by him why it is not necessary that we should believe Jesus Christ to be perfect or the true God is Quia nuspiam in Scripturâ id necessarium creditu esse asseritur nec per bonam nedum necessariam consequentiam ex eâ elicitur Because it 's a doctrine of which the Scripture no where affirms that it 's necessary to be believed nor can it be drawn from thence by any good much less by any necessary consequence And he goes on to shew that this argument ought to be of very great force among those of the reformation because they profess there 's nothing necessary to be believed but what 's either directly or in plain terms contained in Scripture or drawn from thence by very clear consequence the last indeed the sixth Article of the Church of England agrees with but what she thinks of his first assertion may very well be gathered from the second wherein she propounds this Doctrine as necessary to be believed The Son which is the word of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father the very and eternal God of one substance with the Father took man's
their reasons against it by shewing the certainty of judgment after death the severity of that judgment the uncertainty of the time of our leaving this world the immediate consequence of judgment upon death and that there is no intermedial state of reconciliation to heaven and therefore he advises his disciples Luke 21.34 Let not your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and so that day come upon you unawares he refers them to the instance of the old world where they lived in mirth and jollity till the flood came suddenly upon them and destroyed them all and to the instance of the Sodomites who practised the same dissolute Libertinism Luke 17.27 29. till it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all Now if there be reason to avoid these vices to escape some temporal inconveniences Men should do so much more to shun shame and scandal and eternal torments Thus did the blessed Jesus in all the instances of sin or goodness use so much stronger arguments for the first and against the last than the most studious meer humane zeal could reach to that consequently Men were infinitely more obedient to him than they were to other Dictators in virtue For if Scipio Africanus could truly make it his boast That among all his souldiers there was not one but at his bidding would throw himself off the highest rock into the sea tho' certain to be drown'd how much was our Saviour honoured when so many thousand zealous Christians voluntarily exposed themselves to the most exquisite torments in assertion of that truth He had transmitted to them When not the angry insurrections of the headstrong multitude nor the threatning frowns of raging Tyrants nor the lingring tortures of racks and wheels could affright them from their obedience when all the pitiful subterfuges of mean and common souls were generously scorned and the Crown of Martyrdom esteem'd much more than the Imperial Diadem But it was the clear and unanswerable reason of our Saviours commands of his Laws that convinced so many and those who were unwilling to renounce their own reason were as unwilling to relinquish the precepts of the Gospel tho' they could not be fond of extreme misery yet they would endure any thing rather than to believe they were no Men and it was no sign of predominant madness or Hypochondriacal vapours for men to discourse more intelligently than before to be more earnest in pursuit of wisdom to be more humble more sober more charitable more devout more blameless in their lives and conversations than others But could a meer Man dive so far into the depths of reason beyond the rest of the World who wanted all visible and external means for the improvement of his knowledge and natural abilities Christ had not what we call liberal education the Jews who knew it objected that against him How knoweth this Man Letters having never learned But he answers them appositely enough My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me and adds He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory John 7.15 16 18. but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and there is no unrighteousness in him Now to advance Reason beyond humane reach to promote God's glory not as a Servant but with greater strength of argument and zeal than a meer man could do proves beyond contradiction that the Man Christ Jesus could be none other than the Son of God I come now to enquire into that influence Scripture-history in those cases ought to have upon all those who own the Being of a God whether they be converted to Christianity or not which will necessarily take in that authority which the Word of God as such ought to have with an Infidel which enquiry though it be of a nice and speculative nature yet it will necessarily convince All of that value they ought to set upon Scripture when they call themselves Believers and Christians how careful they should be to punish and discourage all slights and contempts thrown upon it and how ready to lose their lives or any thing that 's dear to 'em rather than part with those truths contain'd in it It were easie to prove Scripture equally valuable to the greatest strangers to Christianity with any other Humane writings whatsoever For Heathens never pretended any such veneration for those Writings they had opportunity to converse with how great names soever they bore in their titles as to be afraid to oppose or confute them and to distinguish among them between truths and falshoods and proper subjects of Credibility and Incredibility for tho' the Opinions of some Persons were look'd upon as more rational than those of others and the Writings of some Historians as more Authentick yet they were all acknowledged full of mistakes and naturally liable to such nay their very Divine Writings those which they thought written and which tradition told them were written by divine instinct were frequently call'd in question and so their Poets the first Authors of their Divinity were generally reputed great Fablers and they deserv'd it well and their Sibyls whose Oracles were so much celebrated among them were by Tully in his 2d Book de Divinatione before the name of Christians or of Christ himself was heard in the World cry'd down as a cheat for the most part and where Acrosticks as some of those so call'd were incapable of that divine Original they pretended to Which instance whether Tully were in the right or no proves yet certainly the dubiousness of Mens minds among the Heathens as to the authority of their most sacred and esteem'd Writings and how small a Crime they held it to impeach any of them Yet they valued many Authors so much as to take a great deal of care to preserve their Writings and to transmit them very carefully to Posterity Now to raise Scripture to this proportion of esteem among them no more needs to be alledg'd than that the Subjects they treat on are generally very good as the Writings of any old Philosophers could pretend to be that though the Nation principally concern'd in it was not so famous as many of the rufling or Politick founders of other large Empires were yet there were such a People really in the World as the Jews and afterwards as the Christians were that they had Laws given them and liv'd under particular forms of Government and that the Historical account given of Jewish Politicks and Monarchs and of the first Founders of Christianity and their industry and success were as Rational and as likely to be true as the Histories of other Political transactions and a great deal more likely to be true in the eldest parts of its History as that of the World's Beginning of the Long Lives of those before the Flood of the Flood it self and the escape of a very small number from it of the Reparation of the World by a new increase of Mankind and other Creatures of the
who reach'd that consummate perfection in our nature and that for His sake we are receiv'd in all these things Heathen wisdom fail'd either prescribing gay impossibilities for practice or propounding happiness as the mark to aim at but teaching Men to shoot the contrary way by engaging them in mean pleasures and downright sensualities and where the speculations were best they had none to appeal to who had ever liv'd up to their own principles their most fam'd Sages being meer prostitutes to notorious immoralities notwithstanding all the fair shew some late Writers have endeavour'd to make with them onely Pagans had some few scatter'd extracts out of Scripture which were in themselves excellent but being onely fragments injudiciously cull'd and incoherent and wretchedly misunderstood were wholly useless Whereas all Rules and Methods of living before discover'd were lame and imperfect not sufficient to carry Men through those extraordinary difficulties and objections they might meet with in a course of virtue as appear'd by the Famous Brutus who because he saw it unfortunate concluded Virtue was nothing but an empty name Scripture is compleat and every way sufficient for the design it carries on and therefore stands at advantage against all other Rules because Whoever follows others most exactly cannot be happy at last but He that sticks close to our Rule cannot be unhappy it informs the Mind it resolves Doubts it answers Objections it encourages Weakness it dissipates Fears it reproves Errors and makes Sufferings easie of which there are so many thousands of instances own'd by Infidels themselves that from hence too it 's past dispute that our Rule has this quality of the Word of God In fine there 's nothing through the whole tenour of it either in its Doctrine or History that 's beneath the Majesty of an infinite God if God would speak to Man he could speak no better therefore he must speak thus and onely thus He that finds Princes composing Sacred Hymns infinitely beyond their Orpheus or Callimachus Moralizing as far beyond their admir'd Antoninus as he beyond Porters or Scavengers He that reads Prophets more soaring and divine than their Plato's or Zeno's or Pythagoras's and in a strain more soft and charming as well as more Majestick and Herdsmen more profound and more truly fatidical than their Sibyls or Apollo and Fishermen more accurate argumentative and rational than their Philosophers of the noblest Sects able to baffle 'em in Disputes to out-reach them in discovering the causes and natures of ordinary appearances in the World He that observes Men of various lives and conditions of different tempers different times distant places different natural abilities writing a series of Historical passages with more clearness better digested â—n point of Chronology more probable in â—atters of fact more full exact and imâ—artial in the Characters of Actions and Perâ—ons more agreeing with one another and â—he best Pagan Writers than all other Hiâ—â—orians whatsoever nay than Old and â—ublick Records themselves though preserv'd and managed with the greatest apparent care and exactness He that can find nothing low flagging and uneven among such variety of Pen-men nothing trifling useless or superfluous let his perswasion be what it will let him be Turk African or Indian if he have but his Reason free he must conclude if God ever did impart his will to Man it must be in this Book which we call Scripture and if He then return to his own principle of the necessity in point of justice that God should give a Rule to Man that might procure his Happiness it will as necessarily follow that our Scripture our Rule must be the Word of God Which proves its own Immortal Original farther in that notwithstanding the continued malice and subtilty of Enemies it could never be destroy'd it could never be disprov'd it could never be interpolated or any thing be added to it nor be made shorter or any thing taken from it but while other Humane Writings have been easily abus'd and additions and alterations made in them not discover'd or well distinguish'd to this day by the most exact Criticks nothing could so be fasten'd upon Holy Writ nor any inferiour Writer or uninspired impose his own upon the World for the Word of God Assur'd of these things We as Christians among other parts of Scripture embrace the History of our Saviour's Incarnation and these things being unanswerable by an Infidel upon his own principles as a Deist and a Rationalist he must own the whole History of Scripture to be true and amongst the rest this of the Birth of Christ for as I have no reason to suspect his Veracity who gives me an account of somewhat to his own advantage who yet has always told me truth in things that made against himself So a Pagan who thinks he has reason to receive all the other parts of Divine History because he finds them exactly true has no reason to suspect the Faith of the same Writers in one particular And besides the thing has been so oft attempted but with so little success that He may justly conclude That matters of fact impossible to be confuted by any argument cannot possibly be false This obliges an Infidel to acknowledge the truth of our History of the Incarnation in particular and Scripture in general own'd to be Divine is a certain foundation to build the Conversion of Infidels upon And thus much for the first head That Jesus Christ the Messias who appear'd on Earth in our Nature was really the Son of God We come now to the Second Particular which is this That the same Blessed Jesus who was the Son of God was God equal with his Father or really and truly God as well as real Man He was God though manifest in the Flesh To prove the Truth of which might seem needless had there not been of old and were there not of late Years reviv'd a Generation of men who under pretence of sacrificing to Reason have set themselves wholly to explode the Belief of a Trinity as a means to make good which adventure of theirs they positively deny the Divinity of the Son of God they cannot well admit of any Mysteries in Religion which themselves cannot comprehend the very pretence to which comprehension is enough to make a Mystery no Mystery for if They who employ themselves in this work can comprehend it every one may do so too or at least the generality of the Intelligent World but what 's generally understood cannot be a Mystery and yet our Apostle in the words preceding the Text tells us that That Mystery of Godliness of which this Text is a part is without all controversie a great Mystery But that Jesus Christ the Son of God was God equal with the Father we shall prove by these Considerations By those accounts of his Appearance and of his Nature laid down in the Old Testament By the Declarations of Himself and of his Apostles in the New Testament By his Actions during
his converse with the World in our Nature From the Faith of the Primitive Church From that common and on every hand approved practice of adoring and presenting our prayers to Him Then We are to consider that account the Scriptures of the Old Testament give of Him and of his Appearance in the World where I will not undertake an exact estimate of every thing that has by Ancient Writers been apply'd that way nor every thing that Modern Controversie-Writers have insisted upon but upon some particular and more remarkable passages onely Among which the First is that of three Angels appearing to Abraham just before the destruction of Sodom Gen. 18.2 where I shall not insist on that that Abraham ran to meet them at their approach and bow'd himself toward the ground because I look upon that and the consequent words as onely expressions of kindness and hospitality suitable to the custome of that Age and Country and to that respect a Person of Abraham's goodness and sagacity would express to Strangers of a promising miene and venerable aspect But after this v. 22. we find the Angels going for Sodom but Abraham standing still before the Lord Two onely went forward so Lot in Sodom met with and entertain'd but Two the Third continued still with Abraham with infinite condescension declaring to him the reason of this extraordinary appearance upon Earth this favour hindred not the design but the other Two pass'd on while Abraham had the liberty to argue the case with him who is particularly stil'd the Lord so the Writer so Abraham in that converse frequently stiles him and that not by the same word originally which Lot made use of to the two Angels appearing to him c. 19.2 which is onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews account a name applicable to any but by that sacred and ineffable name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A name as they say onely applicable to the most High God and here we find Abraham continually speaking as any who ownes and reveres the Eternal Majesty of God would supplicate to Him and making use of that particular argument in his request Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right c. 18.25 He then to whom Abraham apply'd himself was the Judge of all the Earth therefore no created Angel for such were never honour'd with that Character but it 's properly attributed to the Supreme God by the Psalmist Ps 94.1 2. O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy self lift up thy self thou Judge of the Earth and by the Apostle Heb. 12.23 where he tells the Hebrews They were come to God the Judge of all or as your Margin reads it To a Judge the God of all If we look yet forward into this story when Lot was convey'd safe from the destruction which fell upon Sodom Gen. 19.24 we are told The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven Epiph. Haer. l. 3. p. 832. where Photinus from whom some denominate our Socinians owns it was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which rained from the Lord Sandii Hist Enud l. 1. p. 118. but that Word was God as we learn from the Evangelist John 1.1 By this we gain the certainty that our Saviour the Son of God had a Being before he was born of the Virgin Mary that the Title Power Acknowledgment belonging to the true God were given to him therefore that He was the true God To this might be added the History of Jacob's wrestling with the Man when he was left alone The Man he wrestled with Malac. 3.1 antiquity generally understood to be the Angel of the Covenant so Christ is nam'd Heb. 12.24 and this interpretation is no way disagreeable since the wrestler from the very contest gives Jacob the name of Israel which signifies a Prince Gen. 32.28 or one that powerfully prevails with God The Person wrestling with Jacob refuses to tell his name which created Angels were not wont to do Gabriel told Zacharias his name the name of Michael is often mention'd Luke 1.19 and the Writer of the Apocryphal book of Tobit supposes it no unusual thing when he introduces Tobias's companion calling himself Raphael one of the seven Angels that stand in the presence of God i. e. are in a more glorious state than the rest of that Heavenly Host Again Jacob expresses his sense of his Antagonist in the Name he gave to that place and the reason of it for says he I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved And lastly Jacob pray'd to him for a blessing and would not part without it which argued his acknowledgment of a Divine power in him and the Prophet Hosea makes such an interpretation of the Text scarce disputable where speaking of Jacob He had power over the Angel says he and prevailed Hos 12.4 5. He wept and made supplication unto him that was to own Him the true God He found Him in Bethel and there he spake with us Even the Lord GOD of HOSTS the Lord is his Memorial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An expression so great and so high as never any created Being pretended to We may then take notice of the 45 Psalm a Psalm by all the ancient Jews apply'd to the Messias and rightly as will appear that Messias was Jesus Christ in that both Arians of old and Socinians of late as well as the Orthodox agree his very Name carries it He is Jesus the Saviour He is the Christ the anointed of God the Father The Psalmist there represents him at first as a Man tho' Fairer than the rest of humane race Ps 45.2 but he subjoyns Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows where that God to whom the Apostrophe or exclamation refers is called by the same name with that God who is said to anoint him in the original and the whole Text is authentically apply'd to the Son of God by the Apostle Hebr. 1.8 9. even to that Son whom he there shews to be so far above all Angelick Beings that when his Father brings his first begotten into the World he says And let all the Angels of God worship him which the Apostle quotes from the Psalmist Psal 97.7 not literally according to the Hebrew but according to the then current translation of the Septuagint which though varying from our Hebrew a little in words is the same in sense That the word by us translated Gods signifies and is apply'd to Created Beings sometimes we admit of as no way prejudicial to truth but if the Angels are commanded to worship Him and that Angel whom Saint John would have adored forbad him because He though an Angel Rev. 22.9 was but a
God Contra Celsum l. 1. p. 30 so he objects that Christ was educated in the dark was hired a servant in Aegypt that he there tryed their magick powers and returning from thence in confidence of his jugling tricks set up for a God Origen vindicates him from the malicious imputation of being a Magician but never pretends to deny that he was God or that he assumed that title nay he 's so far from that that he takes a great deal of pains to prove that He was God particularly from those passages of the 45 Psalm cited by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in his first chapter which I have clear'd before and he adds that we must here consider the Prophet speaking to that God whose throne is everlasting l. 1. p. 43. and that he asserts that God was anointed by God who was His God with the oyl of gladness above his fellows which is the real sence of the words and which he tells us he had formerly silenc'd an obstinate Jew with In his second book Celsus introduces a Jew speaking against Christ and saying they could not own him for God who did not make good his word who endeavoured poorly to avoid Death and was at last betrayed by one of his own followers c. Origen answers Christians did neither believe the body of Christ nor his soul to be God but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word the Son of the God of all things was God that Christians justly condemn the Jews who acknowledge not him to be God whom their own Prophets so often give testimony to as a powerful Being and as God which he is by the witness of the great God and Father of all things himself That when God in the beginning of the world said Let us make Man in our Image the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word perform'd all that his Father commanded for if according to that of the Psalmist He said and they were made l. 2. p. 6â— he commanded and all things were created if at God's command all the Creatures were framed who according to the meaning of the prophetical Spirit was able to put in execution such his Father's command but He who was the living Word and Truth it self The Word then in the beginning of all things was with God and the Word was God and without him nothing was made that was made It 's the Doctrine of S. John and of Origen too So far then we may know how the beginning of S. John's Gospel was understood in his days and what they thought might conveniently be proved from thence When the Jew afterwards is brought in objecting that Men who are partakers of the same Table would not lye in wait for one another much less would any one have treacherous designs upon God p. 74. Origen might easily have answered that cavil by denying that He was God and then by giving instances of Men false and treacherous to those who have eaten with them at the same Table but He owns his Godhead and only performs the latter Celsus afterwards brings in his Jew objecting against the Divinity of Christ thus Who ever heard of God coming down from heaven to earth on purpose to perswade Men as they say Christ did and failing in his design especially when he was long expected and hoped for a denyal of his Divinity had put a full stop to this objection too but Origen on the contrary retorts upon them That the Jews themselves were instance enough of the possibility of such a thing since God had appear'd so remarkably to them in bringing them up out of the land of Aegypt and in giving them a Law from Sina and yet they nor their Fathers could by that means be perswaded to obedience or prevented from running presently into Idolatry p. 106. After all this Celsus in his own person makes use of this argument to prove that Christ could not be God God says He is good and pure and happy and in himself infinitely excellent and lovely if He should descend to be among Men He must necessarily undergo a change a change from good to bad from pure to impure from happiness to misery and from the most excellent to the most sinful state this God would never undergo To this the Father answers That it 's true God is in himselâ— Immutable nor did he suffer any change oâ— this account But that which descended down to Men was in the form of God but out of his Love to mankind he debased himself so far as that he might be born among them but He suffer'd no change from baâ— to good for that He was without Sin he never committed any He was not chang'd from pure or clean to foul or filthy for Hâ— did not so much as know Sin nor did he fall from happiness to misery He humbled himself indeed but was not a whit the less happy even when he stoop'd the lowest for the good of mankind nor did he fall from the best to the most sinful state because what he did proceeded from Love and Charity to us by being among whom He that was the great Physician of Souls could be no more altered for the worse than a Physician for the body is by conversing with those that are sick and full of diseases But says he if Celsus think that because the immortal God the Word assumed a mortal body and an humane Soul that therefore He suffered an alteration or a change Let him know that the Word essentially continuing the Word still suffers by none of those things which happen either to the body or the Soul but that He condescends to become flesh and to speak in a Body l. 4. p. 169 170. for the sake of those who are not able to behold the eradiations and brightness of his Divinity so long till He who receives him being in a short time rais'd to a greater understanding by the Word may be able to contemplate his original nature And finally in his sixth book against the same Celsus he speaks â—hus excellently If then Celsus enquire how we think to know God and to be saved with him We will answer him That He who is the word of God being in them who seek him or who wait for his appearance is sufficient to make known and to reveal the Father who was not to be seen before His appearance for who else can save the Soul of Man and guide us in every thing to God but only God the Word who being in the beginning with God for the sake of those who are confin'd to flesh became flesh that he might be comprehended by those who were not able to see him as He was the Word and as He was with God and as He was God l. 6. p. 322. and appearing in flesh and speaking in the body He calls those who are in the flesh to himself that first he might make them like to the Word which was made flesh and
Father had made the World it self and all other things by him and that by him He had made known to Men whatsoever he desired should be known by them Thus we have Socinus his own confirmation of what we had before produced as the sense of the Ante-Nicene Fathers After this he touches slightly upon some pieces written by those first Fathers which are of suspected credit but we have nothing to do with them having quoted nothing from any of them but what among Learned Men at present is of undoubted reputation As for the Fathers who writ after the Council of Nice he fairly owns that the Socinian's business is to oppose those Errors which they gave credit to by their Authority in the Church of God The Fathers then are on our side whether those of the eldest or those of an inferior date nor can we desire a greater advantage to our cause since we can neither find out any means by which these Hereticks should know God's Will and Meaning in his Word better than these Antient and Heroick Assertors of the Christian Religion We have no account of any new Visions or Revelations any of them have had Nor have we heard of any Miracles perform'd by them in confirmation of their Heterodoxies therefore when we believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour is God equal with his Father we follow that truth which to our apprehension is very plain in Scripture which holy Saints and Martyrs have from the very beginning of Christianity embrac'd and which really is That Faith which was once delivered to the Saints as God willing will yet more plainly appear hereafter I observe here by the way what Socinus touches upon and what others of his Disciples allege farther that tho' the Fathers do thus make Jesus Christ to be God yet they always put a great difference between Him and his Father and insist particularly on his own Words in the case where He tells the Jews That his Father is greater than He that his Father orders commands directs and enables Him to do every thing c. It 's true they do sometimes speak suspitiously in this matter but what solves the Objection from such Texts of Scripture solves those Objections which may be drawn from such expressions in those antient Writers viz. That where they urge such things their meaning is only to assert that difference there is between Christ's Divine and his Humane Nature as He is Man we doubt not but he is inferior to his Father that he received power from Him and acted here upon earth in subordinacy to hi◠as He was God he was equal with his Father always united with him having the same Will Power Knowledge and Wisdom which his Father had by which means whereas meer flesh and blood would have had a strange reluctance against such sufferings as were necessarily prepar'd for him his Divinity in concurrence with that of his Father supported and enabled meer Humanity to effect and make good the work he had undertaken Thus we find the same Scriptures asserting of Christ Acts 2.32 that his Father raised him from the dead and that he rose from the dead of himself he asserting to himself only that power of laying down his life Joh. 10.18 and of taking it up again and both true as He was God as well as Man none could have taken his life from him without his own consent as He was Man as well as God none could have brought that flesh and blood to life again which was now a carcase by the reparation of the rational Soul without the concurrence of Almighty God but as such He and his Father were one They both Will'd and both Acted as they both were able to effect the same thing But besides this which answers those before-named seeming difficulties it 's enough to say that whereas the first Fathers of the Christian Church were irreconcileable enemies to Idolatry or to worshipping a Multiplicity of Gods which is the same thing whereas in all their Writings they took care to vindicate the Honour of the one true God in opposition to all false Gods when they assert Jesus Christ to be God they mean not that He is a false God for they prove themselves to be the only true Worshippers and they make it their boast that they worship Jesus Christ therefore they look'd upon him as true and real God and worship'd him only as such If then these Fathers did think Christ to be a God of an inferior or subordinate Nature or to be a Created God as the Socinians would have him be they directly contradicted their own Principles and brought in again that multiplicity or at least plurality of Gods they had before exploded As for the notion of a made or created God or a God à parte post as Socinus calls him it 's a dream so senceless and full of contradiction that it 's only to be wondered at that Men pretending to any sharpness of Reason should ever stumble upon so absurd a conceit For Scripture no where makes a distinction between God self-originated and God made by another and both true but it lays us down a plain difference between the true God the Creator and the Creature or any thing that is created by that true God and therefore tho' there be in Nature such things as Spiritual and Corporeal Beings yet the allowance of that difference makes or introduces no intermediate Beings between the Creator and the Creature every thing that is not God is made by God every thing that 's made by God is not God and so it must follow that if the Son be made by God he is not God but a Creature if the Son be in all particulars equal with God he is not made by God but is God himself Again The notion of a true and real God is infinity in every respect Heathens Jews Mahumetans Christians all agree in that if this be a true notion of a real God it must be such a notion as must sufficiently distinguish him from all other Beings infinite Attributes being wholly and only proper to and inseparable from Him If then these infinite attributes do agree to our Lord and Saviour He is and must therefore be the true God in contradistinction to all created Beings if they do not agree to him then He cannot be the true God therefore he must be a false God therefore he must be an Idol therefore he must be no God at all and this is the true and inevitable consequence of the Socinian notion of a made or a Created God For that the Supreme God should make another supreme as himself and yet at the same time continue supreme himself is nonsense and a contradiction that the Supreme God should make another God who yet is no God because the attributes belonging to a real God are not applicable to Him is a contradiction too therefore the Socinians and their Adherents must either declare in plain
try'd He could not reasonably refuse to stand to that Tryal but neither do we find that his Enemies ever went about to shew the Discrepancy between his Doctrines and his Practice and therefore when they thought to cajole him into their snares by a most malicious Complement they gave him indeed no more than a true and proper Character Master we know that thou art true Matth. 22.16 and teachest the way of God in truth neither carest thou for any man for thou regardest not the persons of men this Character was really his due whatsoever they meant by it and they who were unwilling to acknowledge their own Hypocrisie could never fairly go off from so remarkable a Testimonial If then the Blessed Jesus were so signally innocent He was above all other the fittest to assert and vindicate the Authority of his Father's Laws and this he carefully did and made his appeal to all those Laws without exception according as occasions offer'd themselves After all then if he would really put an end to the Ceremonial Law and yet maintain to the last his Character of Truth and Justice He must of necessity be the Son of God and God himself his Authority otherwise notwithstanding the mutable Nature of those Laws not being sufficient to bear him out in so great an Alteration Our Saviour was Incarnate That the Law of God as given to the Jews might in our Nature be fulfilled exactly and according to the Letter and so that he who fulfilled it might be a compleat example of Holiness and Obedience to us and how great an Undertaker this required we shall have hereafter Opportunities enough to understand Now when I lay down this reason by the word Law I understand whatsoever was given to the Jews whether Moral as confirming the Law of uncorrupted Nature or Political as relating to their Civil Government or Ceremonial as referring to their various Religious Rites both the last so far as they could concern the Practice of a private Person so that indeed the whole Law as given to the Jews contain'd in it whatsoever could have been expected from Adam had he retain'd his original Innocence or whatsoever humane Nature in its utmost perfection could possibly attain to Now that such a compleat Obedience should be expected from some One Partaker of humane nature was but reasonable when the great work of Man's Redemption was in hand for since Man created in all that Perfection his Nature was capable of had yet fall'n from that Obedience which was justly expected from him he being in a condition every way capable of performing it and by that fall of his had necessarily involv'd all those who should be deriv'd from him in all those Miseries attending the guilt of Sin and since the intent of God's Goodness was that from the Obedience of one man descended of the same flesh and blood many should be made righteous or be blessed with those Rewards attending upon Righteousness as the Apostle assures us it came to pass it was but just and reasonable that that Man from whom that righteousness was to descend to Mankind that that Man should compleatly make up that Character of the first Man when in Innocence which had he persever'd in as he ought his whole Posterity had been entirely happy and yet that task was abundantly greater for the second Adam our Lord Jesus Christ than it was for the first Adam our great Parent for Adam had no Corruption deriv'd down to him from his Original from whence it has been not impertinently question'd Whether before Sin enter'd into the World and Death by Sin He was liable to the common Rules of Mortality But our Saviour when he took Flesh of the Virgin took it up at such a time as Humane nature was sunk into its utmost depravation nor would an allowance of that Roman Foolery That the Blessed Virgin was born without any Original Sin or Guilt upon her help the matter For so long as she was descended from such Parents as had their share in the Corruption of Humane Nature her Freedom would not of consequence free every one who should be born of her but she being no way beyond other Women but only on account of her Practical Holiness our Lord as descended from her must be in all things like his Brethren liable to all the Inconveniences attending a Body certainly mortal for as for his being without Sin it depended on the Union of a Mortal to an Immortal Being the very nature of which superiour Being was more effectual than the Refiner's Fire on Gold or Silver purifying that otherwise corrupt Body it was united to and fortifying it against all that proclivity to Sin and easie succumbency to Temptation which the rest of Mankind was obnoxious to Nor was it any thing but such a coacting Omnipotence which could possibly have produc'd a clean thing out of an unclean or a Body without Sin out of that which was naturally sinful There is certainly such a state as that of Eternal Happiness but it is attainable only as the reward of Merit in a proper sense or as we ordinarily say it 's as Wages which he who faithfully performs his work deserves and may justly lay claim to as his own and therefore cannot be deny'd without Injustice as for instance whereas the condition of eternal Life is This do and live whosoever it is that performs the Condition and does what 's requir'd he has for so doing provided there be no circumstantial failure in the performance of the work a just and rightful claim to that eternal Life propounded and God himself could not be just should he deny the propos'd reward to such a One as should compleatly perform the Condition set before him Had Man continued in the state of Innocence he had had this proper claim of his own to eternal Happiness he might justly have claim'd it and could not without extremity of Injustice have been deny'd it but that eternal Happiness which we now expect is of Grace or it 's the free Gift of God which we as Sinners and such we are all without exception have no proper or inherent right to but it 's not the immediate free Gift of God as if he without any performance of incumbent duty on our part would bestow upon us an eternally glorious Inheritance for this would be as inconsistent with that infinite Justice which makes up the Idaea of the Supreme God as it would be to deny Wages or a Reward to him that had truly deserved it nor is it a free giving Man such an inward Ability to perform all the punctilio's of the Divine reveal'd Will as by which they might make a full compensation to Divine Justice for the original pravity of Nature and do all such things to the utmost as could be requir'd from the beginning to the end of Life for this were to alter the whole frame of Humane Nature and to give it in the present state of things an
the Socinians tell us otherwise that Christ's dying for us signifies his procuring a great deal of good for us by his Death this we certainly believe he did but cannot imagine it 's any detraction from the Worth of that Good he procured for us to conclude that he suffered instead of Sinners for if he offered himself to Divine Punishment in the place of those who were unquestionably obnoxious to it and if his Father accepted of that Offer then all those Sinners who accept of those Conditions on which alone his Death is effectually beneficial to them are certain of the pardon of their Sins and of eternal Happiness the natural Consquence of that Pardon But they have yet a farther Shift and because St. John tells us We ought to lay down our Lives for the Brethren 1 John 3.16 Col. 1.24 and St. Paul tells the Colossians that by his sufferings he fill'd up what was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for his Body's sake which was the Church they conclude that as those who die for the Brethren cannot be said to die in their stead nor St. Paul to satisfie by his sufferings for the sins of the Church so neither could Christ on account of his being said to die for us be reasonably thought to satisfie for our sins but this Allegation is impertinent for though we are obliged to expose our Lives to the utmost hazards for the Conversion and Edification of others yet where was it ever said We should be wounded for the Transgressions of our Brethren or be bruised for their Iniquities or that they should be healed by our stripes that God should lay on us the Iniquities of all our Brethren that We should make our Souls an Offering for Sin that We should be delivered for the Offences of our Brethren and should bear their Sins in our own Bodies on the Cross all which things with more to the same purpose are spoken of Christ and ought to be the Explications of the other As for that of St. Paul if we translate it as we very well may all their pretences from it are lost I rejoice in all my sufferings for you all or in those Troubles and Persecutions I undergo for Preaching the Gospel to you and in my turn fulfil in my flesh the latter parts of Christ's Afflictions for his own Body that is the Church and so Afflictions or Sufferings for the Church are not apply'd to St. Paul but to Christ who really laid down his Life for his Flock and all the Afflictions of the Servants of Christ are but the Counterparts of what Christ has done for them it being their Duty to mantain what he has delivered to them and to be faithful to Death as he dy'd before for them and the Church the Body of Christ is exceedingly edified and benefitted by the couragious Sufferings of their Fellow-Members Martyrs and Confessors giving the best evidences of the Excellent Nature of the Gospel and confirming and encouraging others in the same Resolutions of dying rather than forsaking Truth but neither can any of the former passages be applied to St. Paul therefore his Words cannot bear the same sense as applied to him as the same Expressions do when they are apply'd to Christ Scripture which is its own best Interpreter no where explaining it in the same manner But further our Saviour is said to have born our sins and to have carried our sorrows this seems to be a Metaphor taken from a Man carrying that Burthen himself which another ought to carry and this is commonly lookt on as a considerable evidence of Love and Kindness 1 Tim. 3.16 c. 2. the same has carried Men out to a willingness to die for one another so Pylades was willing to die for his Friend Orestes only that he might escape a Tyrant's Fury and Nisus in the Poet would gladly have redeem'd his lov'd Euryalus from the Enemy's Sword by putting himself into their hands in lieu of him but the tendry in these Cases was certainly a vicarious Death and the Persons so offering themselves without all doubt concluded that whatsoever could be pretended to by the most severe Justiciaries would be well satisfied by an Innocent's offering his own Life for an Offender and that voluntarily by virtue of which Consent or Desire there could be no wrong done to the innocent Sufferer and hence St. Peter tells us of Christ that he suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once for sins 1 Pet. 3.18 the Just for the Vnjust where by the way we may observe the phrase of dying for Sins is authentically explain'd by dying for Sinners or for the Unjust i. e. He bore that Burden of God's Displeasure in himself though he were Just and Righteous which was due to the Unrighteous and yet as among Men those generous Offers made by Friends for one another are not wont to be displeasing to the greatest Princes nor are they a whit the more angry with the vicarious Innocent though to satisfie the Rules of Justice they accept the Offer no more was God displeased with his Son for taking upon him that Burthen due to Sinners since it only was the Sin which had trespass'd so much on Justice and provided that were punished either in the real or the substituted Offender who was only putatively Criminal infinite Justice would be satisfied Sin condemned and all Mankind be afraid of committing that which they saw was in its own Nature unpardonable One would think too that other passage of the same Apostle were plain enough 1 Pet. 2.24 That Christ bore our Sins in his own body upon the Cross Sins are there put for the Punishment due to Sins and the bearing them in his own Body must signifie his Body's being punished for them and if for them then for those who had committed them now if Christ did not take our place or appear in our room in those Sufferings there can be no reason suitable to Divine Wisdom and Justice why he an Innocent should die at all for our Transgressions for to say That his Father had design'd him for it before and therefore he must die would be impertinent to say that without dying a vicarious Death for us he could procure any good with respect to our Sins would be very hard to prove for he might Die to make good the Truth of those things he had preach'd to set us an example of Patience Submission and Humility which Socinians tell us were the great Ends of his Death and yet we be as far from obtaining Remission of Sins by the means of his Death as we were at first So we believe that St. Stephen was murdered for giving Testimony to Evangelic Truths the very Circumstances of his Death prove him an eminent Example of Patience Fortitude and Resignation his Resolution appearing upon a Socinian view much beyond that of our Saviour himself yet St. Stephen is not said to have died for the sins of the World nor