save one that is God 12. Because this free Volition is a complacential Volition and is the Divine Moral goodness which is substantial Câ—p. 5.19 therefore the Divine Blessedness which is his being most highly pleased is also a substantial Blessedness and this also as such is an incommunicable Attribute 13. A Complacential Volition is Joy and Delight Now Mental Glory is the fulness oâ— Joy in the Mind exulting in the stability and compleatness of the Blessedness of its own Being Therefore the Divine Glory which is the same with the Divine Joy as the Divine Joy is the same with the Complacential Volition hath also a substantial Subsistence in God We confess that Goodness Blessedness Glory in God are substantial But unless there be three substantial Subsistences of the Godhead and the willed real Subsistence be the third I think we meerly say so but have no meaning 14. From hence we learn also that the Deity is a Being of the most absolute Liberty and that there is no necessity superiour to the Divine Will The Heathen Poetry and Mythology fastened their Deity as it were to a Stulp by the Chain of an uneluctable Fate Their Philosophers in pity let him loose from the Sculp but then the greater part of them taught him such a device of folding his hands and feet together himself semel dixit semper seqâ—itur that he had as little Liberty ever after as when he was bâ—und with the Chain But the Christians ever confessed their God to be most absolutely free believing that he is most freely what he is and does most freely what he does For he that worships one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity in consequence he must not deny this absolute Freedom to be in God as may thus in short be seen There is no will but in a conscious life Cap. 2.11 Every Spirit is indued with a will Every will is naturally free Now no Subsistence of the Deity is it self unless in co-existence with the other two Cap. 2.9 Therefore since the third Subsistences of the Deity doth subsist by being freely willed all the Three Subsistences do freely subsist Cap. 6 5. Cap. 5.20 and so the Deity does wholly and eternally subsist and act by its own free choice 15. And yet there is no fear lest the Divine Nature should therefore become uncertain and contingent because it subsists wholly by its own free choice For seeing that Holiness in a Spirit is a plenary resolved unreserved complacential good will to the Supream Being and that God is most absolutely holy Cap. 5 1. he doth therefore with a Volition eternally unchanged and yet most absolutely free will the Subsistence of the Divine Being 16. From all which we must therefore conclude that the Universe of all being created and uncreated hath its sanction establishment sanctification preservation and persistence in the eternally inviolate Holiness of God To this sense do the Blessed Society sing continually Holy Holy Holy Lord God Omnipotent which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and foâ— thy will they are and they were created Such is the Worship such is the God of Christians CHAP. VII Of the Personalities in the Deity THE Adversaries Opposition rather than any thing else makes it needful to shew these Three distinct real Subsistences of the Deity are Three Personalities For they imagine if there be Three several Persons and every one God then there are Three several Gods Even as amongst us if there be Three several Persons and every one a Man then there are Three several Men. Both parts of this Argument are mistakes This matter therefore I shall expedite in three Considerations before we proceed to the Scripture Evidence 1. Whatsoever is to be said about Personages amongst Men no Solocism can be charged on the Language of the Church for styling the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons For it matters not what the word Person signifies when spoken of any other Subject since it is certain that constant use for above a thousand years in the Church hath fixed it to signifie nothing else than one of these three when we speak of the Divine Being For what all Men mean by a Voice when they speak of any particular matter that is the true and genuine signification of the word when applied to that matter whatever they mean by it when they are speaking of another subject and were it not so all the Languages of the World must be modell'd almost quite anew Should a Sea-man having a Country Nail maker and a Taylor aboard with him tell them after he had turned his Ship that he had just then made a Tack either of them might tell him it was no such matter the one because it had neither head nor point as all Tacks have and the other because it had never a stitch in it But I think such refined Wit would qualifie neither of them for a Doctor whatever the Lord Mayor may think of it upon the next vacancy for a Clown For in good earnest to me they seem not to observe what is the reason of the proper significancy of words who cavil at this Whether then there be three such distinct Subsistences of the Deity may indeed be inquired but whether they are to be styled Personalities needs no further search than to know whether the Christian Church hath so used to call them and this is a matter of fact evident beyond all dispute 2. What they assume about the reason of Personalities amongst Men is likewise a mistake For Cicero who best knew the sense of persona Englished person after a long discourse to that purpose tells us the quite contrary Tâ—â— â—â—t â—â—â— 1. For says he Nature gives or as it were imposes upon every Man two persons and he himself assumes a third Here then is a Trinity of persons in every one Man from the condition of things in Nature wherefore whatever the Nature of a Personality is we are assured by the Soveraign Authority which this Man hath ever had in these matters that a single substance one rational Nature is not only capable of having but actually hath three Personalities and that every individual Man is no less than three persons and those three persons no more than one Man There is therefore no absurdity contradiction or the least incongruity in speech from the Nature of a Personage to affirm that one single Divine Nature or Substance is no more than One only God and that One God no less than Three Persons So that all the reproach that hath been cast upon the Church on this account has been owing not to its Doctrine but to the Scoptical Humour of the Adversaries ignorance or dissimulation For all Classical Latinists according with Cicero as is well known in this use of the word persona The Church for what concerns the expressions wherein she
delivers her Faith is justified by these the sole Authentick Judges of such Controversies and for the truth of the thing refers her self to the Authority of God in Nature and Scripture 3. Now though this be abundantly sufficient for this verbal Controversie yet we may observe that in accord with this sense of the word Person the Scripture it self teaches us in many cases to distinguish betwixt a Man and his Person as when it says both that God accepts no Man's Person yet that in every Nation he accepts the Man that feareth God and worketh Righteousness Whereby we learn that God accepts the righteous man yet accepts not the righteous man's person I observe then every Spiritual Nature is voluntary and no Nature whatsoever is capable of any Personal Subsistence at all that is not voluntary which being premised it is easie to observe that according to the Classical and Scriptural use a Person does not precisely signifie the Being of a voluntary Nature but a voluntary Nature subsisting with a Reciprocal Aspect upon somewhat as it were mutually fancying one another in which Reciprocal Aspect the voluntary Being is considered directly in no other than its voluntary Capacity Thus it is in all persons made by Prosopopaeia in all Mimical Histrionical Hypocritical and all other persons whose Personality is fictitious so it is in all real persons both necessary and arbitrary in Civil Political persons in Bodies Politick that is one person consisting of many Men in Moral and Natural persons Now the Three Persons of the Trinity are plainly of this last sort being persons from the nature of the thing in it self For the Divine Nature being spiritual that is a voluntary Being and subsisting as has been shewed in three real distinct subsistences it has in every one of these three subsistences a distinct reciprocal aspect upon it self in its other two real subsistences and therefore the Deity subsisting in any one of these real subsistences is a real Person and consequently the Deity is in himself three several distinct Persons in the propriety of the word Person Nor would it be otherwise were the account to be given not in the antient Native but in the present English use of the word Person wherein the reciprocal aspect always implyed in Personality is that of a thing upon it self as when we say every Mans Person is himself For according to this acception of the word if we should say the Father is himself the Son is himself and the Holy Ghost is himself then every ones self here is the Person of him whose self it is Therefore the same difference that is betwixt the Father himself and the Son himself and the Holy Ghost himself the same there is betwixt the three Persons but the Father is not the Son but as has been shewed is really distinct therefore the Person of the Father which is himself is not the Person of the Son C. 5.9 10. consequently here are two really distinct Persons and the Holy Ghost by the like reason is the third 4. And the Course which the Latine Church took to establish the Ecclesiastical use of the word when it began to be questioned does very little if at all differ from this account Hypostasis englished Person Heb. 1. is of Divine Authority and Persona did intend the very same thing in the Latine Church For Hypostasis signifies the subsistence of a Nature or Being in its Station or State and since it is plainly apply'd Heb. 1. to a Voluntary Nature whose State is Personal the Divine Authority of the Greek warrants the use of the Latine as an Original does a Translation done with due allowance of Idioms This appears by the method used afterward on this occasion For to express the real subsistence of the Being in its state the Latine Schools used the term suppositum which hath in its make a manifest reference to the Family of the Greek Hypostasis And because this was the Hypostasis of a Spiritual Nature which is always Personal to answer that voluntariness of the suppositum they added rationale and so defined a Person suppositum rationale which as they understood rational was very allowable For the Schools intended their Definition of Person should reach not only Minds Incorporate but likewise Mind Coelestial And they likewise generally Taught that Angels had their knowledge not by ratiocination collecting from what they know already the perception of what they know not but by intuition therefore they here took rationale not in the imperfect sense for the faculty of reasoning but for the conscious perception of the formal reasons which are the very Nature or Essence of things And in this sense not only Angels are rational but likewise God himself is most eminently rational accordingly Cicero attributes to the Divine Nature Summa Ratio According to this intention the Schools definition of a Person agrees to every Being that is a Person and to none else Howbeit I have thought the Personal Capacity of any Being consists in its voluntariness more immediately than its rationality because the chief if not only consideration of a Person respects decent undecent praise dispraise right wrong merit demerit misery happiness now all these have their proximate aspect on the Will and not the Reason I confess when any of these are concerned in a Persons actions consideration uses to be had whether the actions were done wittingly or not but this is not enquired after for it self or directly but only as a sign of their being done willingly For should a Man contrary to all reason give away his Estate from his own most intirely Beloved Son to his greatest Enemy in the World the Right in Nature will pass by his meer Will though he declares that wittingly and without any reason and contrary to all reason but his own Will he so disposed of it I have therefore given the account of personality not from the rationality but voluntariness of the Suppositum though I know no inconvenience in the School Definition but that we cannot so expediently argue upon it and for my dissent in such a formality I presume that is enough In short the first Consideration does vindicate the Churches Right to the use of the Word the second proves that she used her Right well and the third that it is not now in the Power of the Church honestly to disuse it as being agreeable in its proper significancy to the reason of the thing and from all we learn that in the three distinct real Subsistences there are three distinct real Personalities I shall therefore conclude here the Natural Evidence whereby I suppose it is sufficiently manifest that the Churches acknowledgment of three Persons and one God is so far from being Contradictious to reason that the denial of it is repugnant to the condition and reason of the Divine Nature 5. And though by this means the Adversaries Artillery is turned upon themselves yet it is done with no hostile
intention but rather with a charitable design to aid them in their streights for since they have so weak a Faith that they cannot believe Gods word without relief from the evidence of Reason I hope I have sufficiently shewed them that they may be most strictly Catholick Christians and yet most rigorously Rational Men. For if they will reason warily enough I see not how they can use reason too much about the Christian Religion And it will ever be found most reasonable that Christian Men should imploy all the Reason that God hath given them not to spie out incongruities in the Language which he uses with his Church but rather to maintain the verity of all those things which he has with perspicuity and great veracity ef expressions asserted in the Holy Scripture which I shall presently shew he has done on the Subject in hand Indeed the Papists of late by a sly Artifice would have had us account the Trinity a sensless Doctrine that it might make a fit Prologue as they used it to introduce the Monster of their Transubstantiation but we find it is no way accommodate to any such purpose For what the Christian Doctrine Teaches of the Trinity is exactly agreeable to the Reason and Nature of the Supream Spirit but Transubstantiation teaches nothing but what is repugnant to the Condition of the Corporeal Nature For first they tell us of a thing that has not at all the Nature of a Body as they describe it and then teach us that the Bread and Wine are turned into that Body It may indeed well enough beseem Persons that have Worldly Designs of their own to be served upon the Christian Religion to resolve Faith and all the Points of it into an obscurity of assent that other Men may take their Creeds from their mouths and believe as they would have them for their own turns but for such as intend no other end in their Faith than the Salvation of their own and others Souls I see not but reason if used with soberness is of great advantage and comfortable use to them in their Religion For my own part I like not the Catholick Doctrine of the Trinity ever the worse but rather much the better because I find that all the reason in the World which I can understand is in that Mystery on the Churches side CHAP. VIII The Scripture Evidence NAture teaches first what a thing is or is not in it self and having implanted in us self-love and other concerns thereby prompts us to consider the thing Comparatively with reference to our own interests So that the Natural account of the thing is best delivered in the most simple and bare terms But Prophetical institution passing through the Spirits of the Holy Men of God is to be delivered in terms that express both the things themselves and their devout regard to them conjunctly and therefore such an institution is at once adapted to instil Knowledge and Religion into the Hearers Minds for Religion is not naked speculation but that belief of things whereby we form the Councels of our Lives and Affections of our Hearts St. Paul assures us that this is eminently the Character of the Christian Institution which he therefore stiles the Doctrine and again the Truth which is according to Godliness and refers to this notion on so many several occasions that it is plain he looks upon it as one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Christian Religion Therefore the Expressions wherein the Christian Doctrine is taught will accordingly be such as in the common use of words do bespeak reverence or Holy Fear and Love The Gospel Preaches Christ to be the Lord of all to whom Divine Honour is due on the account of the Excellency of his Person Now since the subsistence of things in conception as amongst Men is but weak as being only notional and in common use through pravity is extreamly subject to vanity had Christ been called the Divine conceptus the infinite distance betwixt Gods conceptions and ours being not obvious enough in common use this Style had not been so well accommodated to procure Reverence as is calling him the Son the only Begotten Son of God But the Religious Concern being set aside for the bare truth of the thing Nature more expeditely teacheth it by assuring us that God is a perfect Mind and therefore he perfectly conceives or has a perfect conception of his own Divine Nature for this is certain at the first sight from the Condition of the Mental Nature But if we say God is a perfect Mind therefore he begets his own Nature many things must be cleared before the necessity of this Consequence will be perceived whereby we see Nature teaches best in one set of Expressions and Prophets in another which by the way may take off offence if I have given any by using some terms in explication of the Trinity that are not Scriptural whilst the Argument led me not to consider the importance of it in Religion but precisely the Natural Evidence of its Truth 2. But when I consider that almost all words are inadequate to the significaâ—ion of any words in other Languages I easily believe that this Observation may be needful only for our Vulgar Tongues for so large is the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gigno c. That if we use any term significant of Breeding it is included within the comprehensiveness of these words which are the Scripture expressions most commonly used on this occasion For these words applyed to Corporeal Productions import the joint interest of both Sexes and the intire efficiency of either severally as likewise breeding by spiration by fusion by solar influence by the Earth as in Beasts Insects Fishes Plants c. So that they are not limited to any particular form of causation in breeding but signifie with the greatest latitude and are therefore to be rendred into the Modern Languages by such words as are in use upon particular occasions Whether then we say conceive or beget we are within the compass of the original significancy For whether we say well the Earth breeds or begets Grass we say well terra gignit herbas So homo herba nascitur is well said though it be neither well englished Man and Grass is born nor Man and Grass do grow 3. It is manifest both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. signifie not only Coporeal Generation or Conception but likewise Mental and this with such indifference that I see no reason why they should be thought less proper or more metaphorical when they are applied to these than to the others for Proud Thoughts Humble Thoughts Love Joy Fear and Grief c. are all properly begotten in our minds by being conceived in our minds These indeed have only a Notional Subsistence but yet their Nature such as it is is begotten by the minds conceptive powers wherefore if a Substantial Nature is conceived in a mind by a Conception wherein
it hath a Substantial Subsistence that Nature is very properly begotten in such a Subsistence by that Conception 4. Wherefore since it hath appeared by the Natural Reason of the Supream Being that the first Person is the Deity in its Parental Subsistence and the second in the Filial Chap. 5.14 And the Scripture teaches the first Person is the Father and the second the Son we are hereby assured that the Scriptural and the Natural Account of the Trinity are the same in the general only Nature teaches the bare thing as in it self and the Scripture in its Religious state Having said this to justifie the main of the process I shall now proceed to Evince that the particular Characters of the three Persons are the very same in Scripture with those I have delivered from the Light of Nature But I must first advise the Reader that I am not now so much to prove the Trinity from Scripture which has been done abundantly by many others but to compare the Natural Doctrine with the Scripture and shew their accord in all the branches of each which I shall do a briefly as I can 5. Reason taught us that the Divine mind in its first Subsistence does Subsist Conceiving the Divine Nature Chap 4.10 Cap. 5.10 this is confirmed by the Holy Oracles of the Father to the Son Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee We learn from the Divine Nature that the first Person is really distinct from the second Chap. 5.9 10 and we learn from the Scripture also that besides the Son that bears witness of himself there is another even the Father that bears witness of him and these are the two distinct witnesses But yet the reason of the thing assures us that it is one and the same Divine Nature that Subsists in these two distinct and real Subsistences Chap. 5.12 And accordingly Divine Revelation teaches us I and my Father are one ◠one nature or one thing 6. Natural Light instructs us that the second Subsistence of the God head is a Substantial Subsistence Chap. 5.9 10. The Holy Scriptures conformably affirms That in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily that is Substantially The Son himself is Naturally God even God by himself and that by Nature Chap. 5.11 13. The Scripture attests the same styling him God even God blessed over all and warns us of the future appearance of the great God even our Saviour Jesus Christ That the Deity in its second Substantial Subsistence is the Son and that not by Adoptive Reputation but Real Generation appeared from the nature of the thing Chap. 5.14 and this is confirmed by the Testimony of Gods word which says This day have I begotten thee That the Son conceives his own Divine Nature is a Natural Document and likewise that this is neither more nor less than his own Essential Subsistence Chap. 5.15 Both these the Sacred Dialect teaches declaring that he Lives in him is Life And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given the Son to have Life in himself The Son begotten of the Father is one and Eternally the same as reason teaches Chap. 5.16 and the Religious institution stiles him therefore the only begotten of the Father The Son Conceives the Divine Nature but with a Conception that do's not Procreate another Subsistence of the Deity as was shewed Cap. 5.15 And accordingly as the Scripture teaches that there is but one which is therefore the only begotten of the Father so it teaches there is but one the same that is the only begoten Son of God confirming the Natural Doctrine that there is but one only Substantial Subsistence of the Divine Nature by any Conception of it whatsoever But yet nevertheless the Fathers Conception and the Sons Conception are equally creative of all other things as is taught Chap. 5.17 which the Scripture witnesses For the Father worketh hitherto and I work and whatsoever the Father doth the same the Son doth also All things are of the Father and by the Son all things were made that were made and without him was not any thing made that was made He laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of his hands and in him all things consist Thus we see in all points the Principles of Natural Truth and Instituted Religion do harmoniously accord But let us with the like brevity touch the other Scriptural Characters of the Son and observe how exactly they are conform to the natural condition of his Person for since the Essence of any Being as conceived is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God The Word therefore the Deity subsisting in Conception is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently this second Subsistence of the Divine Nature both according to the reason of its Nature and of the Religious Style will either be turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Emphatically the WORD or else Explicitely the WORD OF GOD because Reason teaches that this is the Divine Nature in a Substantial Subsistence Cap. 5.10 This will be properly signified by affirming the Word it self to be God and that in it is Life all which St. John distinctly takes notice of 1 John 1.23 Telling us likewise Explicitly Rev. 19.15 That THE WORD OF GOD is his Name or the Character given him from the condition of his Person 2. TRUTH The reality of the Divine Nature Subsisting in the second Person consists in the Essential truth of the Divine minds Conception as was shewed Cap. 5.10 This person is therefore with peculiar respect to this condition of his Being to be called the TURTH as we read he is I am the TRVTH THY Word is TRUTH And St. John inculcates this so vehemently that it 's manifest he puts a special remark upon it that we might not omit to take particular notice of it 1 Joh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given unto us an understanding that we might know him that is TRUE and we are in him that is TRUE even in his Son Jesus Christ he is the TRUE GOD and Eternal Life 3. For the like cause this person will be styled the Light as he oft is that is the intellectual Light of a Conscious Life seeing his Subsistence is in the perspicacious Conception of the Divine Mind as the Nature of the thing teaches Cap. 5.10 4. And because what is perfectly conceived is thereby thoroughly understood and it is an infinite wisdom to understand all the perfections of the Divine Nature and their true excellencies for God is all in all Therefore this Wisdom conceiving is the personal Wisdom of the Father but then this Wisdom Subsisting Substantially by being conceived is the Son or it is Sapientia nata as St. Austine speaks distinguishingly after an Elaborate disquisition of this matter And as I have shewed the Reason if the Supream Spirit does teach this Cap. 5.10 11 12 13 14. so it is
confirmed in the Scripture where we read of a Wisdom Subsisting with God which was brought forth conceiv'd or begotten from Everlasting brought forth before the Depths the Hills or ever the Earth was and such the Second Person of the Deity in Reason is for ever for in him are hid all the treasures of Wisdom 5. This Second Person being Divinus Conceptus Chap. 10.15 is not the Image of the Divine Nature for he is the very Divine Nature Subsisting really in this Personal Subsistence and in him the first Subsistence does really Subsist but in the Reverse or Antitype as it were this Nature dictates Chap. 4.7 Chap. 6.8 Therefore though the Son be not the express Image of the Divine Nature yet he is according to the Reason of the thing and of the Holy Language as we find Heb. 1.3 the express Image of God the Father which being so critically expressed by that Divine and Accurate Author do's manifestly point out to us the very Account which from Nature I have offered of the Subsistence of the Second Person For indeed all these Scriptural Characters are so agreeable to the reason of the thing that they leave us no rational doubt in this matter 7. The third Subsistence of the Deity is by volition and volition is the agency of the Spirit of the Divine Mind this was proved by Reason ch 5.20 ch 6.11 and this is attested by the Scriptures as often as they style the Third Person the Spirit of God or emphatically the Spirit which is so frequently that I need not hint the places This Person proceeds and is not begotten as appears by the reason of the Divine Nature cap. 5.21 accordingly the Scripture no where says the Spirit is begotten but that it proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of the Son and sent by the Son The Nature of the Deity taught there is one and but one substantial subsistence of the Godhead by procession ch 5.22 the Divine Oracles confirm this for there is one Body and one Spirit even one and the self same Spirit This Spirit creates according to the condition of its subsistence in Nature cap. 5.23 which we also learn Psal 33 6. where all the Host of Heaven and Earth are Created by this Divine Breath This Person is a real distinct subsistence by it self of the Divine Nature cap. 5.24 and the Scripture teaches he is not the Father being sent by the Father nor the Son being sent by the Son And whilst this Spirit like a Dove did alight upon Jesus at his Baptism the Father at the same time by an audible voice from Heaven did own him for his well-beloved Son and the Son declares that the Spirit is another from himself and as Nature ch 5.25 so the Scripture teaches he is the third in order by the Ordinance of Baptism in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We learn from Nature that the Spirit is God ch 5.27 which is averr'd by the Scripture teaching us that lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God and ascribing such perfections to this same Spirit as are incommunicable to any other Nature But let us proceed to the other Scriptural properties of this Spirit which we may observe to have a singular Congruousness with the natural Condition of this third Divine Person For since the third Person subsists by the Almighty Volition of the Divine Spirit c. 5.20 According to the Reason of the thing and of the Sacred Language it will exegetically be called the Power of the Most High and the Finger of God as it is Luke 1.35 c. 11.20 and because it subsists in the Divine Benevolence ch 5.19 with some peculiar attribution will this be styled the Good Spirit as Nehemiah 9.20 Thou gavest them thy Good Spirit Psal 143.10 Thy Spirit is Good and this Spirit of the Lord accordingly is directly opposed to the Evil Spirit and the prime Communication of this Spirit will be Love to all the World of Spirits because Moral Truth consists in the constancy of the Will c. 5.21 therefore this is the Spirit of Truth in the Moral sense as the Scripture often teaches which is an eminent vertue in a Witness or a Friend But above all we are to mark that according to the Nature and Reason of the thing this Person subsists in the Eternal Unchanged Holiness of the Divine good-will ch 6.5 because the Most Famous Character which the Scripture gives of this Person is that of the Holy Ghost So punctually doth the Testimony of the Scripture agree with the Doctrine of Nature 8. From the Natural Condition of the Three Persons the Consequents were that they are Coeternal Three in Number Coequal each intirely God inseparable self-subsistent and mutually inexistent and one Principle only In confirmation of all this the Scripture teaches the Father is God from Everlasting to Everlasting that the Son is set up from Everlasting whose goings forth are from Everlasting that he indures and his years have no end that the Spirit is the Eternal Spirit It likewise teaches us there are three but no more and in the same order as Nature doth the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And again the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost one of these Three accounts it no Robbery to be equal with another asserting all to be his which the other hath that he was with the other and in the beginning with the other that he is not alone but the other is with him yea one mutually inexistent in the other I in thee and thou in me and as the one hath life in himself so the other hath life in himself 9. Nature Scripture then we have seen do both teach each of these three Persons is God and yet notwithstanding Nature assures us that there is not therefore three but only one God as is taught ch 5.26 and the Scripture every where confirms this Natural Dictate assuring us that there is but one God Thou shalt have no other Gods but me I am and there is no God besides me There is but one Uncreated Self-sufficient Almighty Eternal Incomprehensible One Supream in Glorious Majesty according to the Evidence given by Reason ch 6.9 Now though the Scripture as has been shew'd does attribute the perfections of the Divine Nature to every one of these Persons as well as reason did yet no where doth it speak of more Eternals more Almighties more All-sufficients then one only And there being in Nature but one energy upon the Creatures abroad ch 6.10 the Scripture concurs herewith teaching there is but one Creatour one Saviour one Sanctifier one King one Law-giver one Judge one Lord one Adorable Being or Object of Religious Worship and one Majesty According to the voice of Nature Truth and Moral goodness have a substantial subsistence in God ch 6.11 12. this is asserted by the Scripture as often as it says God is Light or God is Love That the Spirit of God is free
they designed to entertain us with a sort of Traversty transprosed the Text and their sense being confronted appear to speak of things so vastly distant Ex. Gr. St. John agreeably to other Scriptures and in exact accord with the reason of the Divine Nature as before explained John 1.2 tells us In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Gloss of those who pretend to the most rational interpretation of the Scripture in plain sense is to this purpose In the beginning That is as they expound Not in the beginning but in the days of Augustus Caesar Was the word That is not the word but a meer man whose name was Jesus and and not the word And the word was with God That is not in Heaven where God is but in Galilee in a retired privacy as if one should say God knows where And the wo d was God That is not God but one by false reputation so styled All things That is not all things but somethings Were made by him That is not made by him but disposed into another order by him And without him was not any thing made that was made that is every Substantial thing that was made was made without him but some respects of some things were not without him disposed otherwise than they had been before Thus they Surely this is to read us a Riddle or give us an Account of some Parabolical Projection and not to give us the exposition of a Doctrinal instruction for here every word shifts its signification to comport with a secret contrivance which the speaker had projected in his thoughts not to inform but to amuse the Hearers But after the adversaries have with such force and artifice set this Scene all the expression following for Ten or Twelve Verâ—â—s together lie so crosly that though they torture their wits they cannot wrest them to any tollerable compliance with their design and their Comments upon other Texts are much what of the like consistency But when the word as hath been proved does so properly signifie the Subsistence of the Deity in the Divine Conception and all the subsequent assertions about it in this Chapter are as Natural as could be chosen on a subject of so august solemnity it would tempt a friendly Monitor to ask these men what they see in such a ramble of fanciful extravagance that can please them better than the plain obvious and native sense of this portion of holy Scripture That a force is used upon the expression is as manifest as can be to every one that understands the Language but it appears not what could constrain these men to use it besides some reasonings about the thing in their own minds and then it is their own preconceived opinion and nothing else that necessitates them thus to dstort the Scriptures For I have shewed what is here said is most consonant to the Nature and reason of the thing in its self and to many express assertions in other Texts All their reasonings which have appeared against the Scripture language on this Head have no other foundation but a presumption that because they see all Created Beings must needs Subsist in one Subsistence alone therefore the Divine Nature cannot Subsist in any more Whereas it is manifest upon more wary thoughts that though all dependent Substances seeing there is but one Divine Energy Ad Extra can have but one and that a dependent Subsistence yet a Substance yielding to its self it s own Subsistence will yield it self so many distinct real Subsistences as the condition of that blessed Nature doth require and whether that be one or more cannot be concluded from the manner of the Subsistence of other things in the World without interpreting the Parable wherein the World do's present to us the Divine Nature how that is to be done I have briefly hinted above The face of the World which we behold bears in it the Prints of the makers hand by which we reasoning right from our outward and inward sensations may understand what a Being the Deity is but then we must remember in all our reckonings to allow for all Parabolical Projections in the delineation as not only we but the Antitrinitarians themselves do in all other questions of the Divine Nature but this they not allowing or not heeding in the question of the Trinity are in consequence forced to make all the Scriptures Parabolical which teach the several branches of the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is in Truth and this is the cause of their rending and tearing the words and the sense asunder The case of Christians in this point stands thus if we be not Naturalists skilful enough to resolve the Projection then however God has given us the Scripture as an intelligible declaration of what God would have us to believe concerning his own Divine Being Now nothing can be more absurd than to pretend to understand a Persons meaning by his sayings and yet at the same time to destroy the very reason of that speech making it insignificant of that which the expressions signifie to all that understand the Language But if we can interpret the Parable of Nature aright then we see the words of Truth in the Scripture interpret themselves for we see the Language of Scripture understood according to the Reason of Speech speaks the same that the Nature of the thing doth when we have made such an allowance for the different realities as Reason teaches us there is betwixt a Dependent and self Originate Substance CHAP. X. Of the Mystical Trinity 1. THings secret and abstruse which lie out of the way of common understanding are according to their subject matter usually termed Mysteries of Art or Nature of Trade or State of Iniquity or Religion These last being stiled by Christ the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 13.11 they are therefore such things as belong to the invisible State of Gods Kingdom Yet it is neither the abstruseness of the things nor their Religiousness nor yet their invisible state in the intellectual World that compleats the form of their Christian Mysteriousness For St. Paul teaching that God manifest in the Flesh is the Ground and Pillar of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness we thereby learn that it is the relation to or dependence upon the words being made Flesh which now constitutes a Religious Mystery in the Christian State Accordingly Lactantius frequently denies that the Heathens understood the Mystery of the World though they knew the Natural Condition and Frame of the World I suppose no less than Christians I would further observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are mostly applied to such things as are appropriate to the use of propitiating and conciliating the favour of the Deity and so the Mysticalness of Religious things will properly
God in the three subsistences of the Divine Nature upon our Saviours Incarnation is become Mystical 11. Now it is this Mystical Trinity that the Gospel teaches Indeed whilst the Scriptures deliver the Doctrine of the Mystical Trinity they do as I have said insinuate the state of the natural Trinity but so they instruct us in almost all things in Nature whilst they teach us their relation to the Mystical and Sacerdotal state of the Divine Kingdom On the other hand we see the knowledge of the Natural Trinity which we learn from the perfections of the Divine Nature does so lead us to the Faith of the Mystical as to leave that Christian Mystery to be wholly of supernatural Revelation For the Mystery I say the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity rests wholly upon the ground and pillar of Truth which is confessed to be the great Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh so that our Faith of this Mystery it is plain stands not in the Wisdom or Reasonings of Men but in the veracity of Gods word This is sufficient to justifie the distinction which I make betwixt the Mystical and Natural Trinity for this is but analogous with the reason of that difference which is betwixt Christian and Natural Vertue for though the Natural form of vertue may be understood by Natural Light yet the Christian form cannot which includes all the Vertuousness of the Natural and somewhat more which is likewise praise-worthy CAP. XI Of Christs Humanity 1. WE must confess if Christs humanity had been wholly Created anew by its being conceived one with the word it would then have been nothing of kin either with Man or with any other thing in the World Whereas we are assured he that is the word came into that World which had been made by him John 1.10 1 Joh. 4.17 and we are in this World even as he was in this World his Humane Nature was not therefore strictly Created but made of some substance preexistent in the World 2. Neither was his Manhood made out of any thing that is not of humane race for then he had had no more cognation with that Mankind that is in the World then with any other parts of this mundane System but we are taught Heb. 2.14 that because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same he has therefore a prime relation to us and as such Heb 3.11 he is not ashamed to call us his Brethren 3. If Christs Humane Nature then be made out of that one blood whereof are all the Nations of men he is the Son of man and is made so of God by Nature and therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.5 as the Author of Nature produced this Manhood 4. But tho it be God that does produce this Human Nature yet if he do it by the sole powers of Natural Ordination according to the Laws establish'd before in the World for the Production of Mankind he will not thereby carry off any corrupt or inordinate sensuality which passes according to course in the natural constitution of things and tho we should suppose that the Personality of this individual Manhood is not subsistent because of the personal Union with the Divine Logos yet that of it self changes not this Human Nature in its dispositions and therefore this Nature would indeed be like ours in its Causes and Constitution but it would be too like us because it would not be undefiled Whereas we know this Nature was Holy and Harmless and Undefiled Heb. 7.26 1 Pet. 1.19 that it might be offered without spot to God as a Lamb without blemish and without spot It was not therefore solely produced by the powers of Nature 5. If the Manhood wherewith God is one be produced by the Powers of Nature so far as they will reach with rectitude and by Divine Power superadded to supply what is defective then this Manhood hath all that is really and essentially natural to us and so is related naturally to us and the supernatural Divine Operation takes away all the depravation of Nature Whereby it comes to pass that though he was in all things to be like unto us that he might have the feeling of our Infirmities and Temptations Heb. 2.17 Heb. 4.15 Heb. 7.27 28. yet he had no sin at all for our High-Priest can have no Infirmities or Sins of his own to offer for according to the fundamental constitution of the Divine Kingdom though Moses his Law allowed sinful Men to be Priests and to offer first for themselves and then for the People 6. Wherefore God in framing the humanity of Christ did continue the powers of Nature to work by their own stated Rules and without exalting them by a supernatural efficiency added thereto did produce an effect in the world which is beyond the force of Natural Powers Now all such effects as are produced by the force of Natural Powers and Divine energy added thereto are ever in Scripture peculiarly attributed to the Holy Ghost Gen. 1.4 Thus when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters or liquid such effects followed as the powers of water are naturally uncapable of producing So both Jesus his and his Disciples miraculous operations upon the powers of Nature and all supernatural Graces are peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost for all these diversities of Operations worketh one and the same Holy Spirit by the personal disposition of his own Will 1 Cor. 12.4 11. 7. This Manhood become one with the Son of God is peculiarly therefore the work of the Holy Ghost and because it was effected by the Holy Ghost coming upon a Woman and the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was born of her Luk. 1.35 Mat. 1.20 therefore this is a Child conceived by the Holy Ghost and has that Woman for its Mother 8. It is also the Child of Adam Luk. 3.38 Gen. 3.20 Mat. 1. and of Eve the Mother of all Living and of Noah And if God had said that it should be by the descent of any particular Line as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah Jesse David it will be the Child of these Progenitours and such Predictions and Promises are Divine Characteristicks of the individual Person of Gods Son become Man both to the Ages preceding and following his Birth 9. The depravation of our Nature being removed not by the natural efficacy but supernatural efficiency of the Holy Ghost there will be no more reason to assert this Woman to have been her self born without all inordinate sensuality because she was the Mother of this Child than to affirm the same of all his Pro-parents in the direct Line up to Adam 10. But whether she is to be called the Mother of God is a question of names and strife of words for as much as there is a sense wherein she is and another wherein she is not therefore
under his feet yea in all he is the Fathers Servant but this is only until the Mystery be finished and then the Son shall be glorified with the Father with the same glory which he had with him before the World was 13. I need but note the Constitution of the Divine Kingdom being thus far changed in the Mystical State that the Laws and Priviledges the Rights and State of its Subjects its Provisions and Defences its Power and Administration are all altered so as shall comport therewith for these are plain enough in the Scripture to observant Readers and for our own particular it is sufficient to remark That Repentance toward God Acts 20.21 and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which had no place in the Primitive Institution of God's Kingdom are now the sum of the Articles in the Fundamental Contract of this Mystical Kingdom CHAP. XIII Of the Covenant of Gods Kingdom MOSES designing to teach the Church in the Wilderness that it was Jehovah that is the only God and their God which Created the World as we read Geâ— 2.4 â—e so introduces that Conclusion Chap. 1. That it appears their God by the saying of his Word and the operation of his Spirit did make all things which with the Psalmists exposition does sufficiently insinuate that God his Word and his Spirit was the maker of the World Psal 33.6 When therefore St. John informs us there are Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.7 and these three are one he therein teaches no other than the Doctrine of Paradise It cannot be doubted but mens apprehensions of this as well as other things were very much darkned by the fall but God not sealing up Mankind irrevocâ—bly for Hell did continue to his People in the succeeding Ages some sufficient knowledge of this as well as of other saving Truths For in the Old Testament there are such attributions to the Word of God as could not belong to a verbal significancy of what God means nor yet to the Works of God as indications to men of what was in Gods mind Those Holy Men therefore that attributed such things to Gods Word did conceive in it a more Vital Substantial Subsistence as hath been asserted by many Doctors not only in the Christian Church but also amongst the Jews 2. But though Gods People of old had believed the Doctrine of the Trinity most distinctly yet the Reasons of State in the Divine Government did not then call for their express acknowledgment of it in that stipulation whereby they held their Rights in Gods Kingdom For 1. The most proper form of Covenant against the defection by Anarchy is the acknowledgment of the Divine Government And 2. Against the defection by Polytheism the acknowledgment of the Divine Monarchy And 3. Against the defection by Sophistry depraving the Divine Nature the acknowledgment of the Trinity as being Sacraments most accommodate to List men on Gods side in direct opposition to these respective Apostacies as they did arise in the World 3. For first Before the Flood were the Violent the Ungodly that thought not on Heaven would do what they Listed Gen. 6.11 2 Pet. 2.5 Mat. 24.37 Gen. 6.5 12. and were Ungovernable and these acknowledged therefore no Superiour Power Governing the World And therefore Josephus as I remember somewhere calls them the Anarchical The acknowledgment of Subjection to the Divine Government as was then the most apposite form of Covenant which Men were to enter into and they that took it were called the Sons of God in the sense that Subjects in opposition to Strangers or Aliens are called the Children of the King Gen. 6.2 Mat. 17.25 Mat. 8.12 Gen. 4.26 and the Children of the Kingdom In the days of Enos Men began to be called the Lords as making such a Publick Profession for so many interpret that Expression Gen. 4.26 Somewhat like that of Jacobs Gen. 48.16 But more parallel to that of St. Paul Of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is called Eph. 3.15 Jude 14. 2 Pet. 2.5 Enoch's denouncing vengeance asserts the Divine Rights of Government and Noah's Preaching Righteousness Proclaims the Divine Judicature But Wickedness and Irreligion prevailing against the methods of Governing Grace and Wisdom God destroys them bringing in the Flood upon the Ungodly but saving Noah and his House Yet soon after the same Anarchical Impiety sprung up again for at Babel God complains of the Children of Men Gen. 11.6 the style of their Predecessors in the Old World that they were all one and would do what they listed and would not be restrained or governed And the Divine Vengeance which destroyed the Error leaving the Men alive on Earth was peculiarly adapted to their Case for the Dividing of their Tongues being a stroak immediately upon their own Mental Nature by confounding their Conceptions either of Things or Words did so throughly convince them that there was a Superiour Being which exercised a Power over their minds that we meet not with one Atheist for many Hundred years after nor with any Nation of Atheists ever since this very Day So far then did the acknowledgment of the Divine Government obtain 4. But shortly after there grew up another Error alike pernicious for we find in Abraham's days Polytheism did spread very far Against this God calls forth Abraham Jâ—s 24.2 3 â—â— 15 and afterwards Isaac and Jacob and charges them with the care of his Truth appearing to them by the Name of God Almighty Exod. 6.3 which is that style that infallibly asserts the Unity of the Deity for as much as two or more Almighties is a plain contradiction So that now the fundamental Covenant in opposition to Polytheism required an explicite acknowledgment of one God only and of the Divine Monarchy To this Josephus refers in many places For however it was before not only the Anarchical but the Antimonarchical were now all Aliens and Traytors to God But when this one God Almighty upon his delivering Israel out of Egypt did assume to himself the style of the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob as his Everlasting Memorial This was an introduction to the Covenant of peculiarity which he made expresly with his Church as separate from all other Nations Exod. 3.15 When God therefore as Jehovah the God of Israel indents with them that they should have no other God beside himself thereupon he takes that Nation to be to him a Nation of Priests Exod. 20. whereby as Philo Judaeus rightly asserts the Nation of Israel became the Priest of all Mankind Exod. 19.5 6. and consequently of all this lower World But alas this National Priesthood was so far from bringing the blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles contained either in the Monarchical Covenant of the one true God or in the Covenant of peculiarity to Proselites of the gates or of Righteousness that they themselves did