multiplyed yet in respect of communication it is otherwise it is communicated unto more namely to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And therefore if any thing be intended to be concluded from hence the Proposition must be expressed according to what the subject requires as capable of communication or Attribution to more than one as thus who ever is the only true God is the Father which Proposition these Persons and their Masters shall never be able to prove I have given in particular these strictures thus briefly upon these empty Sophisms partly because they are well removed already and partly because they are meer exscriptions out of an Author not long since translated into English unto whom an entire answer may ere long be returned That which at present shall suffice is to give a general answer unto all these cavills with all of the same kind which the men of these principles do usually insist upon I. The things they say which we teach concerning the Trinity are contrary to Reason and thereof they endeavour to give sundry instances wherein the summ of the opposition which they make unto this truth doth consist But first I ask what Reason is it that they intend It is their own the carnal reason of men By that they will judge of these Divine Mysteries The Scripture tells us indeed that the Spirit of a man wâ—ich is in him knows the things of a man A mans Spirit by natural Reason may judge of natural things But the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. So that what we know of these things we must receive upon the Râ—vâ—lation of the Spirit of God meerly if the Apostle may be believed And it is given unto men to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God To some and not to others and unless it be so given them they cannot know them In particular none can know the Father unless the Son reveal him Nor will or doth or can flesh and blood reveal or understand Jesus Christ to be the Son of the living God unless the Father reveal him and instruct us in the truth of it Matth. 16. 18. The way to come to the acknowledgement of these things is that described by the Apostle Ephes. 3. 14 15 16 17 18 19. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant ye according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints c. As also Col. 2. 2. That ye might come unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge It is by faith and prayer and through the Revelation of God that we may come to the acknowledgement of these things and not by the carnal reasonings of men of corrupt minds 2. What Reason do they intend If Reason absolutely the Reason of things we grant that nothing contrary unto it is to be admitted But Reason as it is in this or that man particularly in themselves we know to be weak maimed and imperfect and that they are and all other men extreamly remote from a just and full comprehension of the whole Reason of things Are they in such an estate as that their apprehension shall pass for the measure of the nature of all things we know they are far from it So that though we will not admit of any thing that is contrary to reason yet the least intimation of a Truth by Divine Revelation will make me embrace it although it should be contrary to the reason of all the Socinians in the world Reason in the abstract or the just measure of the answering of one thing unto another is of great moment But Reason that is what is pretended to be so or appears to be so unto this or that man especially in and about things of Divine Revelation is of very small importance of none at all where it riseth up against the express testimonies of Scripture and these multiplyed to their mutual confirmation and explanation 3. Many things are above Reason that is as considered in this or that subject as men which are not at all against it It is an easie thing to compel the most curious enquirers of these dayes to a ready confession hereof by multitudes of Instances in things finite and temporary And shall any dare to deny but it may be so in things Heavenly Divine and Spiritual Nay there is no concernment of the Being of God or his properties but is absolutely above the comprehension of our reason We cannot by searching find out God we cannot find out the Almighty to perfection 4. The very foundation of all their Objections and Cavils against this truth is destructive of as fundamental principles of reason as are in the world They are all at best reduced to this it cannot be thus in things finite the same Being cannot in one respect be one in another three and the like and therefore it is so in things Infinite All these reasonings are built upon this supposition that that which is finite can perfectly comprehend that which is Infinite An assertion absurd foolish and contradictory unto it self Again it is the highest reason in things of pure Revelation to captivate our understandings to the Authority of the Revealer which here is rejected So that by a loud specious pretence of Reason these men by a little captious Sophistry endeavour not only to countenance their unbelief but to evert the greatest principles of Reason it self 5. The Objections these men principally insist upon are meerly against the Explanations we use of this Doctrine not against the Primitive Revelation of it which is the principal object of our faith which how preposterous and irrational a course of proceeding it is hath been declared 6. It is a Rule among Philâ—sophers that if a man on just grounds and reasons have embraced any opinion or perswasion he is not to desert it meerly because he cannot answer every Objection against it For if the Objections wherewith we may be entangled be not of the same weight and importance with the reason on which we embraced the opinion it is a madness to forego it on the Account thereof And much more must this hold amongst the common sort of Christians in things spiritual and divine If they will let go and part with their faith in any truth because they are not able to answer distinctly some Objections that may be made against it they may quickly find themselves disputed into Atheism 7. There is so great an intimation made of such an expression and resemblance of a Trinity in Unity in the very
A Brief DECLARATION AND VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY As also of the Person and Satisfaction of CHRIST Accommodated to the Capacity and Use of such as may be in danger to be seduced and the establishment of the Truth John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures By J. Owen D. D. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ponder at the Sign of the Peacock in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet 1669. Imprimatur Rob. Grove R. F. D. Episcop Lond. à Sac. Dom. Feb. 3. 1668 69. TO THE READER Christian Reader THis Small Treatise hath no other design but thy Good and establishment in the Truth And therefore as laying aside that Consideration alone I could desirously have been excused from the Labour of those Hours which were spent in its Composure so in the Work it self I admitted of no one thought but how the things treated of in it might and ought to be mannaged unto thy spiritual Benefit and Advantage Other designs most men have in writing what is to be exposed to publick view and lawfully may have so in this I have nothing but meerly thy Good I have neither been particularly provoked nor opposed by the Adversaries of the Truth here pleaded for nor have any need from any self respect to publish such a small plain discourse as this Love alone to the Truth and the welfare of thy soul have given Efficacy to their importunity who pressed me to this small service The matters here treated of are on all hands confessed to be of the greatest moment such as the Eternal welfare of the souls of men is immediately and directly concerned in This all those who believe the Sacred Truths here proposed and explained do unanimously profess and contend for nor is it denyed by those by whom they are opposed There is no need therefore to give thee any especial Reasons to evince thy concernment in these things nor the greatness of that concernment thereby to induce thee unto their serious consideration It were well indeed that these great sacred and mysterious Truths might without contention or controversies about them be left unto the Faith of Believers as proposed in the Scripture with that Explanation of them which in the ordinary Ministry and Dispensation of the Gospel is necessary and required Certainly these tremendous Mysteries are not by us willingly to be exposed or prostituted to the Cavils of every perverse querist and disputer those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose pretended Wisdom indeed ignorance darkness and folly God hath designed to confound and destroy in them and by them For my part I can assure thee Reader I have no mind to contend and dispute about these things which I humbly adore and believe as they are revealed It is the Importunity of Adversaries in their Attempts to draw and seduce the souls of men from the Truth and Simplicity of the Gospel in these great Fundamentals of it that alone can justifie any to debate upon or eristically to handle these awful Mysteries This renders it our Duty and that indispensibly in as much as we are required to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints But yet also when this necessity is imposed on us we are by no means discharged from that humble Reverence of mind wherewith we ought alwayes to be conversant about them nor from that regard unto the way and manner of their Revelation in the Scripture which may preserve us from all unnecessary intermixture of litigious or exotick Phrases and Expressions in their Assertion and declaration I know our Adversaries would upon the matter decry any thing peculiarly Mysterious in these things although they are frequently and emphatically in the Scriptures affirmed so to be But whilest they deny the Mysteries of the things themselves which are such as every may become the glorious Being and Wisdom of God they are forced to aâ—sign such an aenigmatical sense unto the Words Expressions and Propositions wherein they are revealed and declared in the scripture as to turn almost the whole Gospel into an Allegory wherein nothing is properly expressed but in some kind of Allusion unto what is so elsewhere which irrational way of proceeding leaving nothing certain in what is or may be expressed by Word or Writing is covered over with a pretence of Right Reason which utterly refuseth to be so employed These things the Reader will find afterwards made manifest so far as the nature of this brief discourse will bear And I shall only desire these few things of him that intends its perusal First That he would not look on the subject here treated of as the matter of an ordinary Controversie in Religion Neque enim hic levia aut ludicra petuntur Praemia lectoris de vita animaeque salute Certatur They are things which immediately and directly in themselves concern the eternal salvation of the souls of men and their consideration ought alwayes to be attended with a due sense of their weight and importance Secondly Let him bring with him a due Reverence of the Majesty and Infinite incomprehensible nature of God as that which is not to be prostituted to the captious and sophistical scanning of men of corrupt minds but to be humbly adored according to the Revelation that he hath made of himself Thirdly That he be willing to submit his Soul and Conscience to the plain and obvious sense of Scripture Propositions and Testimonies without seeking out Evasions and pretenses for unbelief These Requests I cannot but judge equal and fear not the success where they are sincerely complyed withall I have only to add that in handling the Doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ I have proceeded on that Principle which as it is fully confirmed in the Scripture so it hath constantly been maintained and adhered unto by the most of those who with Judgement and Success have managed these Controversies against the Socinians And this is that the Essential Holiness of God with his Justice or Righteousness as the Supream Governour of all did indispensibly require that sin should not absolutely go unpunished and that it should do so stands in a Repugnancy to those Holy Properties of his Nature This I say hath been alwayes constantly maintained by far the greatest number of them who have throughly understood the Controversie in this matter and have successfully engaged in it And as their Arguments for their Assertion are plainly unanswerable so the neglect of abiding by it is causelesly to forego one of the most fundamental and invincille Principles in our Cause He who first laboured in the defence of the Doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ after Socinus had formed his imaginations about the salvation that he wrought and began to dispute about it was Covetus a Learned man who laid the foundation of his whole Disputation in the Justice of God necessarily requiring and indispensibly the punishment of sin And indeed the state of the Controversie as it is laid down by Socinus in his Book De Jesu
Christo servatore which is an Answer to this Covetus is genuine and that which ought not to be receded from as having been the direct ground of all the Controversial Writings on that subject which have since been published in Europe And it is in these words laid down by Socinus himself Communis Orthodoxa ut asseris sententia est Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia divinae Justiciae per quam peccatores damnari merebamur pro peccatis nostris plene satisfecerit quae satisfactio Per fidem imputatur Nobis ex dono Dei credentibus This he ascribes to Covet The Common and Orthodox Judgement is that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath satisfied the Justice of God by which we being sinners deserved to be condemned for all our sins In opposition whereunto he thus expresseth his own opinion Ego vero censeo Orthodoxam sententiam esse arbitror Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia salutis aeternae viam nobis annuntiaverit confirmaverit in sua ipsius persona cum vitae exemplo tum ex mortuis resurgendo manifeste ostenderit vitamque aeternam nobis ei fidem habentibus ipse daturus sit Divinae autem justitiae per quam peccatores damnari meremur pro peccatis nostris neque illum satisfecisse neque ut satisfaceret opus fuisse arbitror I judge and suppose it to be the Orthodox Opinion that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath declared unto us the way of eternal salvation and confirmed it in his own person manifestly shewing it both by the example of his life and by rising from the dead and in that he will give eternal life unto us believing in him And I affirm that he neither made satisfaction to the Justice of God whereby we deserved to be damned for our sins nor was there any need that he should so do This is the true state of the Question and the principal subtilty of Crellius the great Defender of this part of the Doctrine of Socinus in his Book of the Causes of the Death of Christ and the Defence of this Book De Iesu Christo servatore consists in speaking almost the same words with those whom he doth oppose but still intending the same things with Socinus himself This Opinion as was said of Socinus Covetus opposed and everted on the Principle before mentioned The same Truth was confirmed also by Zarnovitius who first wrote against Socinus his Book as also by Otto Casmannus who engaged in the same work and by Abraham Salinarius Vpon the same Foundation do proceed Paraeus Piscator Lubbertus Lucius Camero Voetius Amiraldus Placaeus Rivetus Walaeus Thysius Altingius Maresius Essenius Arnoldus Turretinus Baxter With many others The Lutherans who have managed these Controversies as Tarnovius Meisnerus Calovius Stegmannus Martinius Franzius with all others of their way have constantly maintained the same great fundamental Principle of this Doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ and it hath well and solidly been of late asserted among our selves on the same foundation And as many of these Authors do expresly blame some of the Schoolmen as Aquinas Durandus Biel Tataretus for granting a possibility of pardon without satisfaction as opening a way to the Socinian Error in this matter so also they fear not to affirm that the foregoing of this Principle of Gods Vindictive Justice indispensibly requiring the Punishment of sin doth not only weaken the cause of the Truth but indeed leave it indefensible However I suppose men ought to be wary how they censure the Authors mentioned as such who expose the Cause they undertook to defend unto contempt for greater more able and Learned Defenders this Truth hath not as yet found nor doth stand in need of J. O. THE PREFACE THE Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ having made that great confession of him in distinction and opposition unto them who accounted him only as a Prophet thou art Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 14 15 16. He doth on the occasion thereof give out unto them that Great Charter of the Churches stability and continuance Vpon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it v. 18. He is himself the Rock upon which his Church is built as God is called the Rock of his People on the account of his eternal power and immutability Deut. 32. 4 18 31. Isa. 26. 4. And himself the Spiritual Rock which gave out supplies of Mercy and Assistance to the people in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Relation of the Professing Church unto this Rock consists in the faith of this Confession that he is Christ the Son of the living God This our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised to secure against all attempts yet so as plainly to declare that there should be great and severe opposition made thereunto For whereas the Prevalency of the Gates of Hell in an enmity unto this confession is denyed a great and vigorous attempt to prevail therein is no less certainly foretold neither hath it otherwise fallen out In all Ages from the first solemn foundation of the Church of the New Testament it hath one way or other been fiercely attempted by the Gates of Hell For some time after the Resurrection of Christ from the dead the principal endeavours of Satan and Men acting under him or acted by him were pointed against the very foundation of the Church as laid in the expression before mentioned Almost all the Errours and Heresies wherewith for three or four Centuries of years it was perplexed were principally against the Person of Christ himself and consequently the Nature and Being of the holy and blessed Trinity But being disappointed in his design herein through the watchful care of the Lord Christ over his Promise in the following Ages Satan turned his craft and violence against sundry parts of the superstructure and by the assistance of the Papacy cast them into confusion nothing as it were remaining firm stable and in order but only this one confession which in a particular manner the Lord Christ hath taken upon himself to secure In these latter Ages of the World the power and care of Jesus Christ reviving towards his Church in the Reformation of it even the ruined heaps of its building have been again reduced into some tolerable order and beauty The old Enemy of its peace and welfare falling hereby under a disappointment and finding his travail and labour for many Generations in a great part frustrate he is returned again to his old work of attacqueing the Foundation it self as he is unweary and restless and can be quiet neither Conquerour nor conquered nor will be so until he is bound and cast into the lake that burneth with fire For no sooner had the Reformation of Religion firmed it self in some of the Europaean Provinces but immediately in a proportion of distance not unanswerable unto what fell out
from the first foundation of the Church sundry Persons by the instigation of Satan attempted the disturbance and ruine of it by the very same errours and Heresies about the Trinity the Person of Christ and his Offices the person of the Holy Ghost and his Grace wherewith its first trouble and ruine was endeavoured And hereof we have of late an instance given among our selves and that so notoriously known through a mixture of imprudence and impudence in the managers of it that a very brief reflection upon it will suffice unto our present design It was alwaies supposed and known to some that there are sundry Persons in this Nation who having been themselves seduced into Socinianism did make it their business under various pretences to draw others into a compliance with them in the same way and perswasion Neither hath this for sundry years been so secretly carryed but that the design of it hath variously discovered it self by overt acts of Conferences disputations and publishing of Books which last way of late hath been sedulously pursued Unto these three is now a visible Accession made by that sort of People whom Men will call Quakers from their deportment at the first erection of their way long since deserted by them until by some new Revolutions of Opinions they cast themselves under a more proper denomination That there is a conjunction issued between both these sorts of Men in an Opposition to the holy Trinity with the Person and Grace of Christ the Pamphlets of late published by the one and the other do sufficiently evince For however they may seem in sundry things as yet to look divers waies yet like Sampson's Foxes they are knit together by the tayle of consent in these fire-brand Opinions and joyntly endeavour to consume the standing Corn of the Church of God And their joynt management of their business of late hath been as though it were their design to give as great a vogue and report to their Opinions as by any waies they are able Hence besides their attempts to be proclaiming their Opinions under various pretences in all Assemblies whereunto they may intrude themselves as they know without trouble they are exceedingly sedulous in scattering and giving away yea imposing gratis and as to some ingratiis their small books which they publish upon all sorts of persons promiscuously as they have advantage so to do By this means their Opinions being of late become the talk and discourse of the common sort of Christians and the Exercise of many amongst whom are not a few that on sundry accounts which I shall not mention may possibly be exposed unto disadvantage and prejudice thereby it hath been thought meet by some that the Sacred Truths which these men oppose should be plainly and briefly asserted and confirmed from the Scripture that those of the meanest sort of Professors who aâ—e Sincere and upright exercising themselves to keep a good conscience in matters of faith and obedience to God may have somewhat in a readiness both to guide them in their further enquiry into the Truth as also to confirm their Faith in what they have already received when at any time it is shaken or opposed by the cunning sleights of men that lye in wait to deceive And this comprizeth the design of the ensuing discourse It may possibly be judged needless by some as it was in its first proposal by him by whom it is wriâ—â—â—â— and that because this matter at present is by an especial providence cast on other hands who both have and doubtless as occasion shall require will well acquit themselves in the defence of the Truths opposed Not to give any other account of the Reasons of this small undertaking it may suffice that in publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every mans concernment lying in a common danger it is free for every one to manage it as he thinks best and is able so it be without prejudice to the whole or the particular concerns of others If a City be on fire whose bucket that brings water to quench it ought to be refused The attempt to cast fire into the City of God by the Opinions mentioned is open and plain and a timely stop being to be put unto it the more hands are orderly employed in its quenching the more speedy and secure is the effect like to be Now because the Assertors of the Opinions mentioned do seem to set out themselves to be some great Ones above the ordinary rate of men as having found out and being able publickly to maintain such things as never would have entred into the minds of others to have thought on or conceived and also that they seem with many to be thought worthy of their consideration because they now are new and such as they have not been acquainted withall I shall in this Prefatory entrance briefly manifest that those who have amongst us undertaken the management of these Opinions have brought nothing new unto them but either a little contemptible Sophistry and caption of words on the one hand or futulous affected unintelligible expressions on the other the Opinions themselves being no other but such as the Church of God having been opposed by and troubled with from the beginning hath prevailed against and triumphed over in all generations And were it not that Confidence is the only relief which engaged impotency adheres unto and expects supplies from I should greatly admire that those amongst us who have undertaken an inforcement of these old exploded errours whose weakness doth so openly discover and proclaim it self in all their endeavours should judge themselves competent to give a new spirit of life to the dead carkass of these rotten Heresies which the faith of the Saints in all Ages hath triumphed over and which Truth and Learning have under the care and watchfulness of Christ so often baffled out of the world The Jews in the time of our Saviours converse on the earth being fallen greatly from the Faith and Worship of their forefathers and ready to sink into their last and utmost Apostacy from God seem amongst many other truths to have much lost that of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and of the Person of the Messiah It was indeed suited in the dispensation of God unto the work that the Lord Jesus had to fulfill in the world that before his Passion and Resurrection the knowledge of his Divine Nature as unto his individual person should be concealed from the most of men For this cause although he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation by taking on him the form of a servant and made in the likeness of men that being found in the fashion of a man he might be obedient unto death Phil. 2. 7 8 9. whereby his Divine Glory was veiled for a season until he was declared to be the Son of God with power according unto the Spirit of
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is
the Personal Union The Divine and humane nature in Christ have but one personal subsistence and so are but one Christ one distinct personal principle of all Operations of all that he did or doth as Mediator And this undeniably follows from what is declared in the Testimonies mentioned For the Word could not be made flesh nor could he take on him the seed of Abraham nor could the mighty God be a Child born and given unto us nor could God shed his blood for his Church but that the two natures so directly expressed must be united in one Person for otherwise as they are two natures still they would be two Persons also 2. Each nature thus united in Christ is entire and preserves unto it self its own natural properties For he is no less perfect God for being made Man nor no less a true perfect Man consisting of soul and body with all their essential parts by that natures being taken into subsistence with the Son of God His Divine nature still continues Immense Omniscient Omnipotent infinite in Holiness c. his bumane nature finite limited and before its Glorification subject to all infirmities of life and death that the same nature in others absolutely considered is obnoxious unto 3. In each of these natures he acts suitably unto the essential properties and principles of that nature As God he made all things upholds all things by the word of his Power fills Heaven and Earth c. As man he lived hungred suffered dyed rose ascended into Heaven Yet by reason of the Union of both these natures in the same Person not only his own Person is said to do all these things but the Person expressed by the name which he hath on the account of one nature is said to do that which he did only in the other So God is said to redeem his Church with his own blood and to lay down his life for us and the Son of Man to be in Heaven when he was in the Earth All because of the unity of his Person as was declared And these things do all of them directly and undeniably flow from what is revealed concerning his Person as before is declared Of the Satisfaction of CHRIST THE last thing to be enquired into upon occasion of the late opposition to the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel is the satisfaction of Christ. And the Doctrine hereof is such as I eonceive needs rather to be explained than vindicated For it being the Center wherein most if not all the Lines of Gospel Promises and Precepts do meet and the great medium of all our Communion with God in Faith and Obedience the great distinction between the Religion of Christians and that of all others in the world it will easily on a due proposal be assented unto by all who would be esteemed Disciples of Jesus Christ. And whether a parcel of insipid Cavils may be thought sufficient to obliterate the Revelation of it men of sober minds will judge and discern For the term of Satisfaction we contend not about it It doth indeed properly express and connote that great Effâ—ct of the Death of Christ which in the cause before us we plead for But yet because it belongs rather to the Explanation of the Truth contended for then is used expresly in the Revelation of it and because the right understanding of the Word it self depends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration I shall not in this entrance of our discourse insist precisely upon it but leave it as the natural conclusion of what we shall find expresly declared in the Scripture Neither do I say this as though I did decline the Word or the right use of it or what is properly signified by it but do only cast it into its proper place answerable unto our method and design in the whole of this brieâ— discourse I know some have taken a new way of expressing and declaring the Doctrine concerning the Mediation of Christ with the causes and ends of his death which they think more rational than that usually insisted on But as what I have yet heard of or seen in that kind hath been not only unscriptural but also very irrational and most remote from that accuracy whereunto they pretend who make use of it so if they shall publish their conceptions it is not improbable but that they may meet with a Scholastical Examination by some hand or other Our present work as hath been often declared is for the establishment of the Faith of them who may be attempted if not brought into danger to be seduced by the slights of some who lye in wait to deceive and the clamours of others who openly drive the same design What therefore the Scripture plainly and clearly reveals in this matter is the subject of our present enquiry And either in so doing as occasion shall be offered we shall obviate or in the close of it remove those Sophisms that the Sacred Truth now proposed to consideration hath been attempted withal The summ of what the Scripture reveals about this great truth commonly called the satisfaction of Christ may be reduced unto these ensuing heads 1. That Adam being made upright sinned against God and all mankind all his posterity in him Gen. 1. 27. So God created man in hit own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them Gen. 3. 11. And he said who told thee that thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whreof I commandeded thee that then shouldst not eat Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Ver. 18. Therefore by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Ver. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners 2. That by this Sin of our first Parents all men are brought into an Estate of Sin and Apostacy from God and of an enmity unto him Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sâ—â—â—pen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God fâ—r it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Chap. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Thirdly That in this state all men continue in sin against God nor of themselves can do otherwise Rom. 3. 10 11 12. There is none righteous no not one there is none
Scripture Testimony for his good will towards Men. O the infamous portraicture this Doctrine draws of the Infinite Goodness is this your retribution O injurious Satisfactionists Answ. This is but a bold Repetition of what in other words was mentioned before over and over Wherein the Love of God in this matter consisted and what is the obligation on us unto thankfulness and obedience hath been before also declared And we are not to be moved in Fundamental Truths by vain exclamations of weak and unstable Men. It is said 9. That Gods Justice is satisfied for sins past present and to come whereby God and Christ have lost both their power of injâ—yning Godliness and prerogative of punishing disobedience for what is once paid is not revokable and if punishment should arrest any for their debts it argues a breach on God or Christs part or eâ—se that it hath not been sufficiently solved and the penalty compleat sustained by another Answ. The intention of this pretended consequence of our Doctrine is that upon a supposition of satisfaction made by Christ there is no solid foundation remaining for the prescription of Faith Repentance and Obedience on the one hand or of punishing them who refuse so to obey believe or repent on the other The Reason of this Inference insinuated seems to be this that sin being satisfied for cannot be called again to an Account For the former part of the pretended consequence namely that on this supposition there is no foundation left for the prescription of Godliness I cannot discern any thing in the least looking towards the confirmation of it in the words of the Objection laid down But these things are quite otherwise as is manifest unto them that read and obey the Gospel For 1. Christs satisfaction for sins acquits not the creature of that dependance on God and duty which he owes to God which notwithstanding that God may Justly and doth prescribe unto him suitable to his own Nature Holiness and Will The whole of our regard unto God doth not lye in an acquitment from sin It is moreover required of us as a necessary and indispensible consequence of the Relation wherein we stand unto him that we live to him and obey him whether sin be satisfied for or no. The manner and measure hereof are to be regulated by his prescriptions which are suited to his own Wisdom and our condition And they are now referred to the heads mentioned of Faith Repentance and new Obedience 2. The Satisfaction made for sin being not made by the sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and law-Constitution how the sinner may come to be interested in it and made partaker of it For the consequent of the Freedom of one by the suffering of another is not natural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-Constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way Constituted and Appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture If Men believe not they are no less liable to the punishment due to their sins than if no satisfaction at all were made for sinners And whereas it is added forgetting that every one must Appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the body Yea and every one must give an Account of himself to God closing all with this but many more are the gross absurdities and Blasphemies that are the genuine fruits of this so confidently believed Doctrine of satisfaction I say it is 3. Certain that we must all Appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in the body and therefore Wo will be unto them at the great day who are not able to plead the Attonement made for their sins by the blood of Christ and an Evidence of their interest therein by their faith and obedience or the things done and wrought in them and by them whilst they were in the body here in this World And this it would better become these persons to betake themselves unto the consideration of than to exercise themselves unto an unparallel'd confidence in reproaching those with absurdities and blasphemies who believe the Deity and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God who dyed for us which is the ground and bottom of all our Expectation of a blessed life and immortality to come The removal of these Objections against the Truth scattered of late up and down in the hands of all sorts of Men may suffice for our present purpose If any amongst these Men who judge that they have an ability to mannage the opposition against the Truth as declared by us with such pleas Arguments and exceptions as may pretend an interest in appearing Reason they shall God assisting be attended unto With men given up to a spirit of railing or reviling though it be no small honour to be reproached by them who reject with scorn the eternal Deity of the Son of God and the Satisfactory Attonement he made for the sins of Men no Person of Sobriety will contend And I shall further only desire the Reader to take notice that though these few sheets were written in few hours upon the desire and for the satisfaction of some private Friends and therefore contain meerly an expression of present thoughts without the least design or diversion of mind towards accuracy or Ornament yet the Author is so far confident that the Truth and nothing else is proposed and confirmed in them that he fears not but that an opposition to what is here declared will be removed and the Truth reinforced in such a way and manner as may not be to its disadvantage FINIS An Appendix THE preceding Discourse as hath been declared was written for the Use of Ordinary Christians or such as might be in danger to be seduced or any way entangled in their minds by the late attempts against the Truths pleaded for For those to whom the dispensation of the Gospel is committed are debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the Wise and to the unwise Rom. 1. 14. It was therefore thought meet to insist only on things necessary and such as their faith is immediately concerned in and not to immix therewithall any such Arguments or Considerations as might not by reason of the Terms wherein they are expressed be obvious to their Capacity and Understanding Unto Plainness and Perspicuity Brevity was also required by such as judged this work necessary That design we hope is answered and now discharged in some usesul measure But yet because many of our Arguments on the head of the satisfaction of Christ depend upon the genuine signification and notion of the Words and Terms wherein the Doctrine of it is delivered which for the Reasons before mentioned could not conveniently be discussed in the foregoing discourse I shall here in some few Instances give an Account of what farther confirmation the Truth might receive by a due Explanation of them And