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
it respects the direct Revelation of God made by himself in the Scripture and the first proper general end thereof Let this be clearly confirmed by direct and positive divine Testimonies containing the declaration and Revelation of God concerning himself and faith is secured as to all its concerns For it hath both its proper formal object and is sufficiently enabled to be directive of divine Worship and Obedience The Explication of this Doctrine unto Edification suitable unto the Revelation mentioned is of another consideration And two things are incumbent on us to take care of therein First that what is affirmed and taught do directly tend unto the ends of the Revelation it self by informing and inlightning of the mind in the knowledge of the mysterie of it so far as in this life we are by Divine Assistance capable to comprehend it that is that faith may be increased strengthned and confirmed against temptations and oppositions of Satan and men of corrupt minds and that we may be distinctly directed unto and encouraged in the Obedience unto and Worship of God that are required of us Secondly That nothing be affirmed or taught herein that may beget or occasion any undue apprehensions concerning God or our Obedience unto him with respect unto the best highest securest Revelations that we have of him and our duty These things being done and secured the End of the Declaration of this Doctrine concerning God is attained In the declaration then of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church there is contained a farther Explanation of the things before asserted as proposed directly and in themselves as the object of our faith namely how God is one in respect of his Nature Substance Essence Godhead or Divineâ— Being How being Father Son and Holy Ghost he subsisteth in these three distinct persons or Hypostâ—sies and what are their mutual respects to each other by which as their peculiar properties giving them the manner of their subsistence they are distinguished one from another with sundry other things of the like necessary consequence unto the Revelation mentioned And herein as in the Application of all other Divine Truths and Mysteries whatever yea of all moral commanded duties use is to be made of such words and expressions as it may be are not literally and formally contained in the Scripture but only are unto our conceptions and apprehensions expository of what is so contained And to deny the Liberty yea the necessity hereof is to deny all interpretation of the Scripture all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one another which is in a word to render the Scripture it self altogether useless For if it be unlawful for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of the Scripture and the nature of the thing signified and expressed by them it is unlawful for me also to think or conceive in my mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things which to say is to make brutes of our selves and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great priviledge of his word Wherefore in the declaration of the Doctrine of the Trinity we may lawfully nay we must necessarily make use of other words phrases and expressions that what are Literally and Syllabically contained in the Scriptures but teach no other things Moreover whatever is so revealed in the Scripture is no less true and divine as to whatever necessarily followeth thereon than it is as unto that which is principally revealed and directly expressed For how far soever the lines be drawn and extended from truth nothing can follow and ensue but what is true also and that in the same kind of truth with that which it is derived and deduced from For if the principal Assertion be a truth of Divine Revelation so is also whatever is included therein and which may be rightly from thence collected Hence it follows that when the Scripture revealeth the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be one God seeing it necessarily and unavoidably follows thereon that they are one in Essence wherein alone it is possible they can be one and three in their distinct Subsistences wherein alone it is possible they can be three This is no less of Divine Revelation than the first principle from whence these things follow These being the respects which the Doctrine of the Trinity falls under the necessary method of 〈◊〉 and Reason in the beheving and declarâ—ing of it is plain and evident 1. The Revelation 〈◊〉 it is to be asserted and vindicated as it 〈◊〉 proposed to be believed for the ends mentioned Now this is as was declared that there is one God that this God is Father Son and Holy Ghost and so that the Father is God so is the Son so is the Holy Ghost This being received and admitted by faith the Explication of it is 2. To be insisted on and not taken into consideration untill the other be admitted And herein lyes the preposterous course of those who fallaciously and captiously go about to oppose this sacred truth They will alwayes begin their opposition not unto the Revelation of it but unto the Explanation of it which is used only for farther edification Their Disputes and Cavils shall be against the Trinity Essence Substance Persons Personality Respects Properties of the Divine Persons with the modes of expressing these things whilst the plain Scriptural Revelation of the things themselves from whence they are but explanatory deductions is not spoken to nor admitted unto confirmation By this means have they entangled many weak unstable souls who when they have met with things too high hard and difficult for them which in Divine Mysteries they may quickly do in the Explication of this Doctrine have suffered themselves to be taken off from a due consideration of the full and plain Revelation of the thing it self in Scripture until their temptations being made strong and their darkness increased it was too late for them to return unto it as bringing along with them the Cavils wherewith they were prepossessed rather than that Faith and Obedience which is required But yet all this while these Explanations so excepted against are indeed not of any Original consideration in this matter Let the direct express Revelations of the Doctrine be firmed they will follow of themselves nor will be excepted against by those who believe and receive it Let that be rejected and they will fall of themselves and never be contended for by those who did make use of them But of these things we shall treat again afterwards This therefore is the way the only way that we rationally can and that which in duty we ought to proceed in and by for the asserting and confirming of the Doctrine of the holy Trinity under consideration namely that we produce Divine Revelations or Testimonies wherein faith may safely rest and acquiesce that God is one that this one God
is Father Son and holy Ghost So that the Father is God so also is the Son and the holy Ghost likewise and as such are to be believed in obeyed worshipped acknowledged as the first cause and last end of all our Lord and Reward If this be not admitted if somewhat of it be not particularly denyed we need not we have no warrant or ground to proceed any farther or at all to discourse about the Unity of the Divine Essence or the distinction of Persons We have not therefore any original contest in this matter with any but such as deny either God to be one or the Father to be God or the Son to be God or the Holy Ghost so to be If any deny either of these in particular we are ready to confirm it by sufficient Testimonies of Scripture or clear and undeniable Divine Revelation When this is evinced and vindicated we shall willingly proceed to manifest that the explications used of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church are according to truth and such as necessarily are required by the nature of the things themselves And this gives us the method of the small ensuing Discourse with the Reasons of it The first thing which we affirm to be delivered unto us by divine Revelation as the Object oâ— ouâ— Faith is that God is one I know that this may be uncontroulably evidenced by the â—ight of Reason it self unto as good and quiet an Assurance as the mind of man is capable of in any of its apprehensions whatever But I speak of it now as it is confirmed unto us by Divine Revelation How this Assertion of one God respects the Nature Essence or Divine Being of God shall be declared afterwards At present it is enough to represent the Testimonies that he is one only one And because we have no difference with our Adversaries distinctly about this matter I shall only name some few of them Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. A most pregnant Testimony and yet notwithstanding as I shall elsewhere manifest the Trinity it self in that one divine Essence is here asserted Isa. 44. 6 8. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any In which also we may manifest that a plurality of Persons is included and expressed And although there be no more absolute and sacred truth than this that God is one yet it may be evinced that it is no where mentioned in the Scripture but that either in the words themselves or the context of the place a plurality of persons in that one sence is intimated Secondly It is proposed as the object of our Faith that the Father is God And herein as is pretended there is also an agreement between us and those who oppose the Doctrine of the Trinity But there is a mistake in this matter Their hypothesis as they call it or indeed presumptuous errour casts all the conceptions that are given us concerning God in the Scripture into disorder and confusion For the Father as he whom we worship is often called so only with reference unto his Son as the Son is so with reference to the Father He is the only begotten of the Father John 1. 14. But now is this Son had no praeexistence in his Divine nature before he was born of the Virgin there was no God the Father seventeen hundred years ago because there was no Son And on this ground did the Marcionites of old plainly deny the Father whom under the New Testament we Worship to be the God of the Old Testament who made the World and was Woâ—shipped from the foundation of it For it seems to follow that he whom we worship being the Father and on this supposition that the Son had no praexistence unto his incarnation he was not the Father under the Old Testament he is some other from him that was so revealed I know the folly of that inference yet how on this opinion of the sole existence of the Son in time Men can prove the Father to be God let others determine He who abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son but whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God 2 John 9. Whoever denyes Christ the Son as the Son that is the eternal Son of God he loses the Father also and the true God he hath not God For that God which is not the Father and which ever was and was not the Father is not the true God Hence many of the Fathers even of the first Writers of the Church were forced unto great pains in the confirmation of this truth that the Father of Jesus Christ was he who made the World gave the Law spake by the Prophets and was the Author of the Old Testament and that against Men who professed themselves to be Christians And this bruitish apprehension of theirs arose from no other principle but this that the Son had only a temporal Existence and was not the Eternal Son of God But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other Controversies than what lyes directly before us and seeing the Adversaries of the truth we contend for do in words at least grant that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God or the only true God I shall not further shew the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession But take it for granted that to us there is one God the Father 1 Cor. 8. 6. See John 17. 3. So that he who is not the Father who was not so from Eternity whose paternity is not equally coexistent unto his Deity is no God unto us Thirdly It is asserted and believed by the Church that Jesus Christ is God the Eternal Son of God that is He is proposed declared and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God that is to be served worshipped believed in obeyed as God upon the account of his own Divine excellencies And whereas we believe and know that he was Man that he was born lived and dyed as a Man it is declared that he is God also and that as God he did preexist in the form of God before his Incarnation which was effected by voluntary actings of his own which could not be without a preexistence in another nature This is proposed unto us to be believed upon Divine Testimony and by Divine Revelation And the sole enquiry in this matter is whether this be proposed in the Scripture as an Object of Faith and that which is indispensibly necessary for us to believe Let us then nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter and that in the order of the Books of it in some particular instances which at present occurr to mind as these that follow Psalm
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
of God in this matter is of too large and diffused a nature to be here reported These instances I have fixed on only to intimate unto persons whose condition or occasions afford them not ability or leisure of themselves to enquire into the memorials of times past amongst the Professors of the Gospel of Christ that these oppositions which are made at present amongst us unto these fundamental Truths and derived immediately from the late renewed inforcement of them made by Faustus Socinus and his followers are nothing but old baffled attempts of Satan against the Rock of the Church and the building thereon in the confession of the Son of the living God Now as all men who have ought of a due Reverence of God or his truth remaining with them cannot but be wary how they give the least admittance to such Opinions as have from the beginning been witnessed against and condemned by Christ himself his Apostles and all that followed them in their faith and waies in all Generations so others whose hearts may tremble for the danger they apprehend which these sacred Truths may be in of being corrupted or defamed by the present opposition against them may know that it is no other but what the Church and faith of Professors hath already been exercised with and through the power of him that enables them have constantly triumphed over And for my part I look upon it as a blessed effect of the holy wise providence of God that those who have long harboured these Abominations of denying the holy Trinity the person and satisfaction of Christ in their minds but yet have sheltered themselves from common observation under the shades of dark obscure and uncouth expressions with many other specious pretences should be given up to joyn themselves with such Persons and to profess a community of perswasion with them in those opinions as have rendred themselves infamous from the first foundation of Christianity and wherein they will assuredly meet with the same success as those have done who have gone before them For the other head of Opposition made by these Persons unto the truth in Reference unto the satisfaction of Christ and the imputation of his Righteousness thereon unto our Justification I have not much to say as to the time past In general the doctrine wherein they boast being first brought forth in a rude mishapen manner by the Pelagian Hereticks was afterwards improved by one Abailardus a Sophistical Scholar in France but owes its principal form and poison unto the endeavours of Faustus Socinus those who have followed him in his subtle attempt to corrupt the whole doctrine of the Gospel Of these Mâ—n are those amongst us who at this day so busily dispute and write about the Trinity the Deity of Christ and his satisfaction the Followers and Disciples And it is much more from their Masters who were some of them Men learned diligent and subtle than from themselves that they are judged to be of any great consideration For I can truly say that upon the sedate examination of all that I could ever yet hear or get a sight of either spoken or written by them that is any amongst us I never yet observed an undertaking of so great importance managed with a greater evidence of incompetency and inability to give any tolerable countenance unto it If any of them shall for the future attempt to give any new countenance or props to their tottering errours it will doubtless be attended unto by some of those many who cannot but know that it is incumbent on them to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints This present brief endeavour is only to assist and direct those who are less exercised in the waies of managing controversies in Religion that they may have a brief comprehension of the truths opposed with the firm foundations whereon they are built and have in a readiness to shield their Faith both against the fiery darts of Satan and secure their minds against the cunning sleights of Men who lye in wait to deceive And wherein this discourse seems in any thing to be too brief or concise the Author is not to be blamed who was confined unto these strait bounds by those whose requests injoyned him this service The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Explained and Vindicated THe Doctrine of the blessed Trinity may be considered two wayes First In respect unto the Revelation and proposal of it in the Scripture to direct us unto the Author Object and End of our Faith in our worship and obedience Secondly As it is farther declared and explained in terms expressions and propositions educed from the Original Revelation of it suited thereunto and meet to direct and keep the mind from undue apprehensions of the things it believes and to declare them unto farther edification In the first way it consists meerly in the propositions wherein the Revelation of God is expressed in the Scripture And in this regard two things are required of us First To understand the terms of the propositions as they are Enunciations of Truth And Secondly To believe the things taught revealed and declared in them In the first Instance no more I say is required of us but that we assent unto the Assertions and Testimonies of God concerning himself according to their natural and genuine sence as he will be known believed in feared and worshipped by us as he is our Creator Lord and Rewarder and that because he himself hath by his Revelation not only warranted us so to do but also made it our duty necessary and indispensible Now the sum of this Revelation in this matter is that God is one that this one God is Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is the Father of the Son and the Son the Son of the Father and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of the Father and the Son and that in respect of this their mutual Relation they are distinct from each other This is the substance of the Doctrine of the Trinity as to the first direct concernment of faith therein The first intention of the Scripture in the Revelation of God towards us is as was said that we might fear him believe worship obey him and live unto him as God That we may do this in a due manner and worship the only true God and not adore the false imaginations of our own minds it declares as was said that this God is one the Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Father is this one God and therefore is to be believed in worshipped obeyed lived unto and in all things considered by us as the first cause soveraign Lord and last end of all that the Son is the one true God and therefore is to be believed in worshipped obeyed lived unto and in all things considered by us as the first cause Soveraign Lord and last end of all And so also of the Holy Ghost This is the whole of Faiths concernment in this matter as
and therefore is so still unless he who is once God can cease so to be But the meaning is that afterwards God exalted him and made him God as to Rule Authority and Power This making of him God is an expression very offensive to the ears of all sober Christians and was therefore before exploded And these things here as all other figments hang together like a rope of sands In the beginning of the Gospel he was God before any knew him but only God That is after he had preached the Gospel and dyed and rose again and was exalted at the right hand of God he was made God and that not properly which is absolutely impossible but in an improper sense How prove they then this perverse non-sense to be the sense of these plain words They say it must needs be so Let them believe them who are willing to perish with them Thus far then we have their sense In the beginning that is about sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago the Word that is the Humane nature of Christ before it was made flesh which it was in its being was with God that is known to God alone and in the beginning that is afterwards not in the Beginning was made God which is the summ of their Exposition of this place But what shall we say to what is affirmed concerning his making of all things so as that without him that is without his making of it nothing was made that was made especially seeing that these all things are expresly said to be the world vers 10. And all things therein contained even in Heaven and Earth Col. 1. 16. An ordinary man would think that they should now be taken hold of and that there is no way of escape left unto them But they have it in a readiness By the all things here are intended all things of the Gospel the preaching of it the sending of the Apostles to preach it and to declare the Will of God and by the world is intended the world to come or the new state of things under the Gospel This is the substance of what is pleaded by the greatest masters amongst them in this matter and they are not ashamed thus to plead And the Reader in this instance may easily discern what a desperate cause they are engaged in and how bold and desperate they are in the management of it For First The words are a plain Illustration of the Divine Nature of the Word by his Divine Power and works as the very series of them declares He was God and he made all things for he that made all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Secondly There is no one word spoken concerning the Gospel nor the Preaching of it nor any effects of that Preaching which the Apostle expresly insists upon and declares afterwards verse 14. and so onwards Thirdly The making of all things here ascribed unto the Word was done in the beginning But that making of all things which they intend in erecting the Church by the Preaching of the VVord was not done in the beginning but afterwards most of it as themselves confess after the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Fourthly In this gloss what is the meaning of all things only some things say the Socinians VVhat is the meaning of were made that is were mended by him that is the Apostles principally preaching the Gospel and this in the beginning after it was past for so they say expresly that the Principal things here intended were effected by the Apostles afterwards I think since the beginning place it when you will the beginning of the world or the beginning of the Gospel there was never such an Exposition of the word of God or man contended for Fifthly It is said he made the World and he came into it namely the world which he made and the World or the Inhabitants of it knew him not But the VVorld they intend did know him or the Church knew him and acknowledged him to be the Son of God For that was the foundation that it was built upon I have instanced directly in this only testimony to give the Reader a pledge of the full confirmation which may be given unto this great fundamental truth by a due improvement of those other Testimonies or distinct Revelations which speak no less expresly to the same purpose And of them there is not any one but we are ready to vindicate it if called thereunto from the exceptions of these men which how bold and Sophistical they are we may in these now considered also learn and know It appeareth then that there is a full sufficient Revelation made in the Scripture of the Eternal Deity of the Son of God and that he is so as is the Father also More particular testimonies I shall not at present insist upon referring the full discussion and vindication of these truths to another season We are therefore in the next place to manifest that the same or the like testimony is given unto the Deity of the Holy Spirit that is that he is revealed and declared in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Worship and Obedience on the account and for the Râ—ason of those divine Excelleneies which are the sole Reason of our yielding religious worship unto any or expecting from any the Reward that is promised unto us or to be brought by them to the end for which we are And herein lyes as was shewed the concernment of faith When that knows what it is to believe as on Divine Revelation and is enabled thereby to regulate the soul in its present obedience and future expectation seeing it is its nature to work by love and hope there it rests Now this is done to the utmost satisfaction in the Revelation that is made of the divine Existence divine Excellencies and divine Operations of the Spirit as shall be briefly manifested But before we proceed we may in our way observe a great congruency of success in those who have denyed the Deity of the Son and those who have denyed that of the holy Spirit For as to the Son after some men began once to dis-believe the Revelation concerning him and would not acknowledge him to be God and man in one person they could never settle nor agree either what or who he was or who was his Father or why he was the Son Some said he was a Phantasm or appearance and that he had no real subsistence in this world and that all that was done by him was an appearance he himself being they know not what elsewhere That proud beast Paulus Samâ—satenus whose flagitious life contended for a preheminence in wickedness with his prodigious heresies was one of the first after the Jews that positively contended for his being a man and no more who was followed by Photinus and some others The Arians perceiving the folly of this opinion with the odium of it amongst all that bare the name of Christians and that they had as good deny the
in and may peculiarly be sinned against the great Author of all Grace in Believers and order in the Church This is the summ of what we believe of what is revealed in the Scripture concerning the Holy Ghost As in the consideration of the preceding head we vindicated one Testimony in particular from the exceptions of the adversaries of the truth so on this we may briefly summ up the evidence that is given us in the testimonies before produced that the Reader may the more easily understand their intendment and what in particular they bear witnesse unto The summ is that the Holy Ghost is a divine distinct person and neither meerly the power or vertue of God nor any created Spirit whatever This plainly appears from what is revealed concerning him For he who is placed in the same series or order with other divine persons without the least note of difference or distinction from them as to an Interest in personality who hath the names proper to a divine person only and is frequently and directly called by them who also hath personal properties and is the voluntary Author of personal divine Operations and the proper Objâ—ct of Divine Worship he is a distinct divine person And if these things be not a sufficient evidence and demonstration of a divine intelligent substance I shall as was said before despair to understand any thing that is expressed and declared by words But now thus it is with the Holy Ghost according to the Revelation made concerning him in the Scripture For First He is placed in the same rank and order without any note of difference or distinction as to a distinct interest in the Divine Nature that is as we shall see personality with other Divine persons Matth. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the Son and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Cor. 12. 3 4 5 6. No man can say the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all Neither doth a denyal of his divine being and distinct existence leave any tolerable sense unto these Expressions For read the words of the first place from the mind of the Socinians and see what is it can be gathered from them Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the vertue or efficacy of the Father Can any thing be more absonant from Faith and Reason than this absurd expression And yet is it the direct sense if it be any that these men put upon the words To joyn a quality with acknowledged persons and that in such things and cases as wherein they are proposed under a personal consideration is a strange kind of Mysterie And the like may be manifested concerning the other places Secondly He also hath the Names proper to a divine person only For he is expresly called God Acts 5. He who is termed the Holy Ghost ver 3. And the Spirit of the Lord verse 9. Is called also God ver 4. Now this is the name of a divine Person on one Account or other The Socinians would not allow Christ to be called God were he not a divine person though not by nature yet by â—ffice and authority And I suppose they will not find out an office for the Holy Ghost whereunto he might be exalted on the account whereof he might become God seeing this would acknowledge him to be a person which they deny So he is called the Comforter John 16. 7. A personal Appellation this is also and because he is the Comforter of all Gods people it can be the name of none but a divine person In the 〈…〉 it is frequently 〈…〉 come that he shall and will do such and such things all of them declaring him to be a person Thirdly He hath personal properties assigned unto him as a Will 1 Cor. 12. 11. He divideth to every man severally as he will and understanding 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God As also all the actings that are ascribed unto him are all of them such as undeniably affirm personal properties in their principle and Agent For Fourthly He is the voluntary Author of Divine operations He of old cherished the creation Gen. 1. 3. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters He formed and garnished the Heavens He inspired acted and spake in and by the Prophets Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers 2 Pet. 1. 21. The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He regenerateth enlightneth sanctifieth comforteth instructeth leadeth guideth all the Disciples of Christ as the Scriptures every where testifie Now all these are personal Operations and cannot with any pretence of sobriety or consistency with Reason be constantly and uniformly assigned unto a quality or vertue He is as the Father and Son God with the properties of Omniscience and Omnipotency of Life Understanding and Will and by these properties works acts and produceth effects according to Wisdom Choice and Power Fifthly The same regard is had to him in Faith Worship and Obedience as unto the other persons of the Father and Son For our being baptized into his name is our solemn engagement to believe in him to yield obedience to him and to worship him as it puts the same obligation upon us to the Father and the Son So also in reference unto the Worship of the Church He commands that the Ministers of it be separated unto himself Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Ver. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed which is comprehensive of all the religious Worship of the Church And on the same account is he sinned against as Acts 5. 3 4 9. For there is the same Reason of Sin and Obedience Against whom a man may sin formally and ultimately him he is bound to obey worship and believe in And this can be no quality but God himself For what may be the sense of this expression Thou hast lyed to the efficacy of God in his operations Or how can we be formally obliged unto obedience to a quality There must then an antecedent Obligation unto Faith Trust and Religious Obedience be supposed as the ground of rendring a person capable of being guilty of sin towards wards any For sin is but a â—ailure in Faith Obedience or Worship These therefore are due unto the Holy Ghost or a man could not sin against him so signally and fatally as some are
said to do in the foregoing testimonies I say therefore unto this part of our Cause as unto the other that unless we will cast off all Reverence of God and in a king of Atheism which as I suppose the prevailing wickedness of this Age hath not yet arrived unto say that the Scriptures were written on purpose to deceive us and to lead us into mistakes about and misapprehensions of what it proposeth unto us we must acknowledge the Holy Ghost to be a substance a person God yet distinct from the Father and the Son For to tell us that he will come unto us that he will be our Comforter that he will teach us lead us guide us that he spake of old in and by the Prophets that they were moved by him acted by him that he searcheth the deep things of God works as he will that he appointeth to himself Ministers in the Church In a word to declare in places innumerable what he hath done what he doth what he will do what he sayes and speaks how he acts and proceeds what his will is and to warn us that we grieve him not sin not against him with things innumerable of the like nature and all this while to oblige us to believe that he is not a person an helper a comforter a searcher a willer but a quality in some especial operations of God or his power and vertue in them were to distract men not to instruct them and leave them no certain conclusion but this that there is nothing certain in the whole Book of God And of no other tendency are these and the like imaginations of our Adversaries in this matter But let us briefly consider what is objected in general unto the truth we have confirmed First They say the Holy Spirit is said to be given to be sent to be bestowed on men and to be promised unto them and therefore it cannot be that he should be God for how can any of these things be spoken of God I answer As these Expressions do not prove him to be God nor did ever any produce them to that purpose yet they undeniably prove him to be a person or an intellingent voluntary Agent concerning whom they are spoken and affirmed For how can the power of God or a quality as they speak be said to be sent to be given to be bestowed on men so that these very Expressions are destructive to their imaginations Secondly He who is God equal in nature and being with the Father may be promised sent and given with respect unto the holy dispensation and condescension wherein he hath undertaken the Office of being our Comforter and Sanctifier Thirdly The communications distributions impartings divisions of the spirit which they mention as they respect the Object of them Or those on whom they were or are bestowed denote only works gifts operations and effects of the spirit the rule whereof is expressed 1 Cor. 12. 7. He workeeth them in whom he will and as he will And whether these and the like exceptions taken from Actings and operations which are plainly interpreted and explained in sundry places of Scripture and evidently enough in the particular places where they are used are sufficient to impeach the truth of the Revelation before declared all who have a due reverence of God his word and truths will easily understand and discern These things being declared in the Scripture concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost it is moreover Revealed and these three are one that is one God joyntly to be worshipped feared adored believed in and obeyed in order unto eternal life For although this doth absolutely and necessarily follow from what is declared and hath been spoken concerning the one God or onenesâ— of the Derty yet for the confirmation of our faith and that we may not by the distinct consideration of the three be taken off from the one it is particularly declared that these three are one that one the one and same God But whereas as was said before this can no otherwise be the testimonies given thereunto are not so frequently multiplyed as they are unto those other heads of this truth which through the craft of Satan and the pride of men might be more lyable to exceptions But yet they are clear full and distinctly sufficient for faith to acquiesce in immediately without any other expositions interpretations or arguments beyond our understanding of the naked importance of the words Such are they of the Father the Son John 10. 30. I and my Father are one Father Son and Spirit Joh. 5. 7. three that bare witness in Heaven Father Son and Spirit and these three are one Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Spirit For if those into whose name we are Baptized be not one in nature we are by our Baptism engaged into the Service and Worship of more Gods than one For as being Baptized or sacredly initiated into or in the name of any one doth Sacramentally bind us unto a holy and Religious obedience unto him and in all things to the avowing of him as the God whose we are and whom we serve as here we are in the Name of the Father Son and Spirit so if they are not one God the Blasphemous consequence before mentioned must unavoidably be admitted which it also doth upon the Socinian principle who whilest of all others they seem to contend most for one God are indeed direct polutheists by owning others with Religious respect due to God alone which are not so Once more it is revealed also that these three are distinct among themselves by certain peculiar Relative properties if I may yet use these terms So that they are distinct living divine intelligent voluntary principles of operation or working and that in and by internal acts one towards another and in acts that outwardly respect the Creation and the several parts of it Now this distinction originally lyeth in this that the Father begetteth the Son and the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both of them The manner of these things so far as they may be expressed unto our Edification shall afterwards be spoken to At present it sufficeth for the satisfaction and confirmation of our faith that the distinctions named are clearly revealed in the Scripture and are proposed to be its proper object in this matter Psalm 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Matth. 16. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 1. 14. We saw his Glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father Ver. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath revealed him John 5. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself 1 Joh. 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding Joh. 14. 26.
But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
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
we intend by that expression of satisfaction But now all those things are openly and fully witnessed unto in the Testimonies before produced as may be observed by suiting some of them unto the several particulars here asserted As 1. What was done in this matter was from the will purpose and love of God the Father Psalm 40. 6 7 8. Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Act. 4. 28. John 3. 16. Rom. 8. 3. 2. It was also done by his own voluntary consent Phil. 2. 6 7 8. 3. He was Substituted and did Substitute himself as the Mediator of the Covenant in the room and stead of sinners that they may be saved Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Chap. 7. 22. Rom. 3. 25 26. Rom. 5. 7 8. 4. And he did therein bear their sins or the punishment due to their sins Isa. 53. 6 11. 1 Pet. 2. 23. And this 5. By undergoing the Curse and penalty of the Law Gal. 3. 13. Or the punishment of sin required by the Law 2 Cor. 5. 21. Rom. 8. 3. 6. Herein also according to the will of God He offered up himself â— propitiatory and expiatory Sacrifice to make Attonement for sin and Reconciliation for sinners Ephes. 5. 2. Rom. 2. 17. Heb. 9. 11 12 13 14. Which he did that the Justice of God being satisfied and the Law fulfilled sinners might be freed from the wrath to come Rom. 3. 25. 1 Thes. 1. last 7. And hereby also He paid a real price of Redemption for sin and sinners 1 Pet. 1. 17 18. 1 Cor. 6. last These are the things which we are to believe concerning the satisfaction of Christ And our Explication of this Doctrine We are ready to defend when called thereunto The consideration of the Objections which are raised against this great fundamental Truth shall close this Discourse And they are of two sorts First In general to the whole Doctrine as declared or some of the more signal heads or parts of it Secondly Particular Instances in this or that supposal as consequences of the Doctrine asserted And in general 1. They say This is contrary to and inconsistent with the Love Grace Mercy and Goodness of God which are so celebrated in the Scripture as the principal properties of his nature and Acts of his Will wherein he will be glorified Especially contrary to the freedom of Forgiveness which we are encouraged to expect and commanded to believe And this exception they endeavour to firm by Testimonies that the Lord is Good and Gracious and that He doth freely forgive us our sins and trespasses Answer First I readily grant that whatever is really contrary to the Grace Goodness and Mercy of God whatever is Inconsistent with the free Forgiveness of sin is not to be admitted For these things are fully revealed in the Scripture and must have a consistency with whatever else is therein revealed of God or his Will Secondly As God is Good and Gracious and Merciful so also He is Holy Righteous True and Faithful And these things are no less revealed concerning him than the other and are no less Essential Properties of his Nature than his Goodness and Grace And as they are all Essentially the same in him and considered only under a different habitude or respect as they are exerted by Acts of his will so it belongs to his Infinite Wisdom that the effects of them though divers and produced by divers waies and means may no way be contrary one to the other but that Mercy may be exercised without the prejudice of Justice or Holiness and Justice be preserved entire without any obstruction to the Exercise of Mercy Thirdly The Grace and Love of God that in this matter the Scripture reveals to be exercised in order unto the forgiveness of sinners consists principally in two things 1. In his Holy Eternal Purpose of providing a relief for lost sinners He hath done it to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1. 6. 2. In the sending his Son in the pursuit and for the accomplishment of the holy purpose of his Will and Grace Herein most eminently doth the Scripture celebrate the Love Goodness and kindness of God as that whereby in Infinite and for ever to be adored Wisdom and Grace he made way for the forgiveness of our sins Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world as he gave his only begotten Son Rom. 3. 24 25. Whom he hath set forth to be a propitiation through saith in his blood Rom. 5. 7 8. God commendeth his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Titus 3. 4. 1 John 4. 8 9. Herein consists that ever to be adored Love Goodness Grace Mercy and Condescension of God Add hereunto that in that act of causing our iniquities to meet on Christ wherein he immediately intended the Declaration of his Justice Rom. 3. 25. Not sparing him in delivering him up to death for us all Rom. 8. 32. There was a blessed harmony in the highest Justice and most excellent Grace and Mâ—rcy This Grace this Goodness this Love of God toward mankind towards sinners our Adversaries in this matter neither know nor understand and so indeed what lyes in them remove the foundation of the whole Gospel and of all that faith and obedience which God requires at our hands Fourthly Forgiveness or the actual condonation of sinners the pardon and forgiveness of sins is free but yet so as it is every where restrained unto a respect unto Christ unto his death and blood-shedding Eph. 1. 7. We have Redemption in his blood even the forgiveness of sins Chap. 4. 32. God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Rom. 3. 25 26. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sins It is absolutely free in respect of all immediate transactions between God and sinners Free on the part of God First In the Eternal purpose of it when he might justly have suffered all men to have perished under the guilt of their sins 2. Free in the means that he used to effect it unto his Glory 1. In the sending of his Son and 2. In laying the punishment of our sin upon him 3. In his Covenant with him that it should be accepted on our behalf 4. In his tender and proposal of it by the Gospel unto sinnâ—rs to be received without money or without price 5. In the actual condonation and pardon of them that do believe Secondly It is free on the part of the persons that are forgiven In that 1. It is given and granted to them without any satisfaction made by them for their former transgressions 2. Without any merit to purchâ—se or procure it 3. Without any poenal satisfactory suffering here or in a purgatory hereafter 4. Without any Expectation of a future recompence or that being pardoned they should then make or give any satisfaction for what they had done before And as any of these things would so nothing else can
are really so from whence they receive their denomination that it is meet it should be wholly in the power of these persons to declare But 2. What should hinder the death of Christ to be a Sacrifice a proper Sacrifice and according to the nature end and use of Sacrifices to have made Attonement and Satisfaction for sin 1. It is expresly called so in the Scripture wherein he is said to offer himself to make his soul an offering to offer himself a Sacrifice Eph. 5. 2. Heb. 1. 3. Heb. 9. 14 25. 26. Chap. 7. 27. And he is himself directly said to be a Priest or a Sacrificer Heb. 2. 18. And it is no where intimated much less expressed that these things are not spoken properly but Metaphorically only 2. The Legal Sacrifices of the Old Law were instituted on purpose to represent and prepare the way for the bringing in of the Sacrifice of the Lâ—mb of God so to take away the sin of the World And is it not strange that true and real Sacrifices should be Types and R presentations of that which was not so On this supposition all those Sacrifices are but so many seductions from the right understanding of things between God and sinners 3. Nothing is wanting to render it a proper propitiatory Sacrifice for 1. There was the person offering and that was Christ himself Heb. 9. 14. He offered himself unto God He that is the Sacrificer denotes the person of Christ God and Man and Himself as the Sacrifice denotes his Humane Nature whence God is said to purchase his Church with his own blood Act. 20. 28. For he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit so that 2. There was the Matter of the Sacrifice which was the Humane Nature of Christ soul and body His soul was made an offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10 And his body the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Hob. 10 11. His blood especially which is often Synecdochically mentioned for the whole 4. His death had the nature of a Sacrifice For 1. Therein were the sins of men laid upon him and not in his entrance into Heaven for he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2. 23. God made our sins then to meet upon him Isa. 53. 6. Which gives the formality unto any Sacrifices Quod in ejus Caput sit is the formal reason of all Propitiatory Sacrifices and ever was so as is expresly declared Lev. 16. 21 22. And the phrase of bearing sin of bearing iniquity is constantly used for the undergoing of the punishment due to sin 2. It had the End of a proper Sacrifice it made expiation of sin propitiation and attonement for sin with reconciliation with God and so took away that enmity that was between God and sinners Heb. 1. 3. Rom. 3. 25 26. Heb. 2. 17 18. Heb. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. And although God himself pesigned appointed and contrived in Wisdom this way of Reconciliation as he did the means for the attoning of his own Anger towards the friends of Job commanding them to go unto him and with him offer Sacrifices for themselves which he would accept Chap. 4. 28. Yet as He was the Supream Governour the Lord of all attended with Infinite Justice and Holiness Attonement was made with him and satisfaction to him thereby What hath been spoken may suffice to discover the emptiness and weakness of those exceptions which in general these men make against the Truth before laid down from the Scripture A brief examination of some particular instances wherein they seek not so much to oppose as to reproach the Revelation of this Mysterie of the Gospel shall put a close to this discourse It is said then 1. That if this be so then it will follow that God is gracious to Forgive and yet impossible for him unless the debt be fully satisfied Answ. I suppose the confused and abrupt expression of things here in words scarcely affording a tolerable sense is rather from weakness than captiousness and so I shall let the manner of the proposal pass 2. What is this should follow that God is gracious to forgive sinners and yet will not cannot on the account of his own Holiness and Righteousness actually forgive any without Satisfaction and Attonement made for sin the worst that can be hence concluded is that the Scripture is true which affirms both these in many places 3. This sets out the exceeding greatness of the Grace of God in forgiveness that when sin could not be forgiven without satisfaction and the sinner himself could no way make any such satisfaction that he provided himself a Sacrifice of Attonement that the sinner might be discharged and pardoned 4. Sin is not properly a debt for then it might be paid in kind by sin it self but is called so only because it binds over the sinner to punishment which is the satisfaction to be made for that which is properly a Transgression and improperly only a debt It is added 2. Hence it follows that the finite and impotent creature is more capable of extending Mercy and Forgiveness than the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator Answ. God being Essentially Holy and Righteous having ingaged his faithfulness in the sanction of the Law and being naturally and necessarily the Governour and Ruler of the World the Forgiving of sin without satisfaction would be no perfection in him but an effect of impotency and imperfection a thing which God cannot do as he cannot lye nor deny himself 2. The direct contrary of what is insinuated is asserted by this Doctrine for on the supposition of the Satisfaction and Attonement insisted on not only doth God freely forgive but that in such a way of Righteousness and Goodness as no Creature is able to conceive or express the glory and excellency of it And to speak of the poor halving pardons of private Men upon particular offences against themselves who are commanded so to do and have no right nor authority to require or exact punishment nor is any due upon the meer account of their own concernment in comparison with the forgiveness of God ariseth out of a deep ignorance of the whole matter under consideration 3. It is added by them that hence it follows that God so loved the World he gave his only Son to save it and yet that God stood off in high displeasure and Christ gave himself as a compleat satisfaction to offended Justice Answ. 1. Something these Men would say if they knew what or how for 1. That God so loved the World as to give his only Son to save it is the expression of the Scripture and the foundation of the Doctrine whose truth we contend for That Christ offered himself to make Attonement for sinners and therein made satisfaction to the Justice of God is the Doctrine it self which these Men oppose and not any consequent of it 3. That God stood off in high displeasure is an expression which neither the Scripture useth
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