plainly see this every year There are many things likewise in our Selves which no man is able in any measure to comprehend as to the manner how they are done and performed As the vital union of Soul and Body Who can imagine by what device or means a Spirit comes to be so closely united and so firmly link'd to a material Body that they are not to be parted without great force and violence offer'd to Nature The like may be said of the operations of our several Faculties of Sense and Imagination of Memory and Reason and especially of the Liberty of our Wills And yet we certainly find all these Faculties in our selves though we cannot either comprehend or explain the particular manner in which the several Operations of them are performed And if we cannot comprehend the manner of those Operations which we plainly perceive and feel to be in our Selves much less can we expect to comprehend things without us and least of all can we pretend to comprehend the infinite Nature and Perfections of God and every thing belonging to Him For God himself is certainly the greatest Mystery of all other and acknowledged by Mankind to be in his Nature and in the particular manner of his Existence incomprehensible by Human Understanding And the reason of this is very evident because God is infinite and our knowledge and understanding is but finite And yet no sober man ever thought this a good reason to call the Being of God in question The same may be said of God's certain knowledge of future Contingencies which depend upon the uncertain Wills of free Agents It being utterly inconceivable how any Understanding how large and perfect soever can certainly know beforehand that which depends upon the free Will of another which is an arbitrary and uncertain Cause And yet the Scripture doth not only attribute this Foreknowledge to God but gives us also plain Instances of God's foretelling such things many Ages before it happened as could not come to pass but by the Sins of Men in which we are sure that God can have no hand though nothing can happen without his permission Such was that most memorable Event of the Death of Christ who as the Scripture tells us was by wicked hands crucified and stain and yet even this is said to have happened according to the determinate foreknowledge of God and was punctually foretold by Him some hundreds of years before Nay the Scripture doth not only ascribe this power and perfection to the Divine Knowledge but natural Reason hath been forced to acknowledge it as we may see in some of the wisest of the Philosophers And yet it would puzzle the greatest Philosopher that ever was to give any tolerable account how any Knowledge whatsoever can certainly and infallibly foresee an Event through uncertain and contingent Causes All the reasonable satisfaction that can be had in this matter is this that it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that infinite Knowledg may have ways of knowing things which our finite Understandings can by no means comprehend how they can possibly be known Again There is hardly any thing more inconceivable than how a thing should be of it self and without any Cause of its Being and yet our Reason compels us to acknowledge this Because we certainly see that something is which must either have been of it self and without a Cause or else something that we do not see must have been of it self and have made all other things And by this reasoning we are forced to acknowledge a Deity the mind of Man being able to find no rest but in the acknowledgment of one eternal and wise Mind as the Principle and first Cause of all other things and this Principle is that which Mankind do by general consent call God So that God hath laid a sure foundation of our acknowledgment of his Being in the Reason of our own Minds And though it be one of the hardest things in the world to conceive how any thing can be of it self yet necessity drives us to acknowledge it whether we will or no And this being once granted our Reason being tired in trying all other ways will for its own quiet and ease force us at last to fall in with the general apprehension and belief of Mankind concerning a Deity To give but one Instance more There is the like Difficulty in conceiving how any thing can be made out of nothing and yet our Reason doth oblige us to believe it Because Matter which is a very imperfect Being and merely passive must either always have been of it self or else by the infinite Power of a most perfect and active Being must have been made out of nothing Which is much more credible than that any thing so imperfect as Matter is should be of it self Because that which is of it self cannot be conceived to have any bounds and limits of its Being and Perfection for by the same reason that it necessarily is and of it self it must necessarily have all perfection which it is certain Matter hath not and yet necessary Existence is so great a Perfection that we cannot reasonably suppose any thing that hath this Perfection to want any other Thus you see by these Instances that it is not repugnant to Reason to believe a great many things to be of the manner of whose Existence we are not able to give a particular and distinct account And much less is it repugnant to Reason to believe those things concerning God which we are very well assured he hath declared concerning Himself though these things by our Reason should be incomprehensible And this is truly the Case as to the matter now under debate We are sufficiently assured that the Scriptures are a Divine Revelation and that this Mystery of the Trinity is therein declared to us Now that we cannot comprehend it is no sufficient Reason not to believe it For if this were a good Reason for not believing it then no man ought to believe that there is a God because his Nature is most certainly incomprehensible But we are assured by many Arguments that there is a God and the same natural Reason which assures us that He is doth likewise assure us that He is incomprehensible and therefore our believing Him to be so doth by no means overthrow our belief of His Being In like manner we are assured by Divine Revelation of the truth of this Doctrine of the Trinity and being once assured of that our not being able fully to comprehend it is not reason enough to stagger our belief of it A man cannot deny what he sees though the necessary consequence of admitting it may be something which he cannot comprehend One cannot deny the Frame of this World which he sees with his eyes though from thence it will necessarily follow that either that or something else must be of itself which yet as I said before is a thing which no man can comprehend how it can be
have since made it a lawful way of lying which their Father of whom they learn'd it had not credit and authority enough to do And it deserves likewise to be very well considered by us that nothing hath given a greater force to the Exceptions of the Church of Rome against the H. Scripture's being a sufficient and certain Rule of Faith than the uncertainty into which they have brought the plainest Texts imaginable for the establishing of Doctrines of greatest moment in the Christian Religion by their remote and wrested interpretation of them Which way of dealing with them seems to be really more contumelious to those H. Oracles than the downright rejecting of their Authority Because this is a fair and open way of attacquing them whereas the other is an insiduous and therefore more dangerous way of undermining them But as for us who do in good earnest believe the Divine Authority of the H. Scriptures let us take all our Doctrines and Opinions from those clear Fountains of Truth not disturb'd and darkned by searching anxiously into all the possible Senses that the several words and expressions of Scripture can bear and by forcing that sense upon them which is most remote and unnatural and in the mean time wilfully overlooking and passing by that sense which is most obvious and easie to the common apprehension of any unbyass'd and impartial Reader This is to use the H. Scriptures as the Church of Rome have done many Holy and good men whom they are pleased to brand with the odious Name of Hereticks to torture them till they speak the mind of their Tormentors though never so contrary to their own I will now conclude this whole Discourse with a Saying which I heard from a great and judicious Man Non amo nimis argutam Theologiam I love no Doctrines in Divinity which stand so very much upon quirk and subtilty And I cannot upon this occasion forbear to say that those Doctrines of Religion and those Interpretations of Scripture have ever been to me the most suspected which need abundance of Wit and a great many Criticisms to make them out And considering the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God I cannot possibly believe but that all things necessary to be believ'd and practis'd by Christians in order to their eternal Salvation are plainly contain'd in the H. Scriptures God surely hath not dealt so hardly with Mankind as to make any thing necessary to be believ'd or practis'd by us which he hath not made sufficiently plain to the capacity of the unlearned as well as of the learned God forbid that it should be impossible for any man to be saved and to get to Heaven without a great deal of learning to direct and carry him thither when the far greatest part of Mankind have no learning at all It was well said by Erasmus That it was never well with the Christian World since it began to be a matter of so much Subtilty and Wit for a man to be a true Christian SERMON III. Concerning the Incarnation of CHRIST Preached in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry December 21. 1680. JOHN I. 14. The Word was made flesh THE last Year about this Time and upon the same Occasion of the Annual Commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of our B. Lord and Saviour I began to discourse to you upon these Words In which I told you were contained three great Points concerning our Saviour the Author and Founder of our Religion First His Incarnation the Word was made or became flesh Secondly His Life and conversation here amongst us and dwelt among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pitched his Tabernacle among us he lived here below in this World and for some time made his residence and abode with us Thirdly That in this state of his Humiliation he gave great and clear evidence of his Divinity Whilst he appear'd as a Man and lived amongst us there were great and glorious Testimonies given of Him that he was the Son of God and that in so peculiar a manner as no Creature can be said to be And we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth I began with the first of these namely his Incarnation the Word was made flesh For the full and clear explication of which words I proposed to consider these two things I. The Person here spoken of and who it is that is here said to be incarnate or made flesh namely the Word And this I have handled at large in my two former Discourses upon this Text. I shall now proceed in the II. Second place to give some account of the nature and manner of this Incarnation so far as the Scripture hath thought fit to reveal and declare this Mystery to us The Word was made flesh that is He who is personally called the Word and whom the Evangelist hath so fully and clearly described in the beginning of his Gospel he became flesh that is assumed our Nature and became man for so the word flesh is frequently used in Scripture for Man or Human Nature So that by the Word 's becoming flesh that is Man the Evangelist did not only intend to express to us that he assumed a human Body without a Soul but that he became a perfect Man consisting of Soul and Body united It is very probable indeed that the Evangelist did purposely chuse the word flesh which signifies the frail and mortal part of Humanity to denote to us the great condescension of the Son of God in assuming our Nature with all its infirmities and becoming subject to frailty and mortality for our sake Having thus explain'd the meaning of this Proposition the Word was made flesh I shall in a further prosecution of this Argument take into consideration these three things First I shall consider more distinctly what may reasonably be suppos'd to be implied in this expression of the Word 's being made flesh Secondly I shall consider the Objections which are commonly brought against this Incarnation of the Son of God from the seeming impossibility or incongruity of the thing Thirdly And because after all that can be said in answer to those Objections it may still appear to us very strange that God who could without all this circumstance and condescension even almost beneath the Majesty of the Great God at least as we are apt to think have given Laws to Mankind and have offer'd forgiveness of Sins and eternal life upon their Repentance for sins past and sincere tho imperfect obedience for the future I say it may seem strange that notwithstanding this God should yet make choice of this way and method of our Salvation I shall therefore in the last place endeavour to give some probable account of this strange and wonderful Dispensation and shew that it was done in great condescension to the weakness and common prejudices of Mankind and that when it is throughly consider'd it will appear to be much
Irenaeus Tertullian and even Origen himself who is called the Father of Interpreters are most express and positive in this matter For Ignatius was the Scholar of Polycarp who was a Disciple of St. John and Justin Martyr lived in the next Age to that of the Apostles and Origen was a man of infinite learning and reading and in his Comments upon Scripture seems to have considered all the Interpretations of those that were before him So that if this which Socinus is so confident is the true sense of St. John had been any where extant he would not probably have omitted it nay rather would certainly have mentioned it if for no other reason yet for the surprising novelty and strangeness of it with which he was apt to be over-much delighted So that if this interpretation of Socinus be true here are two things very wonderful and almost incredible First that those who lived so very near St. John's Time and were most likely to know his meaning as Ignatius Justin Martyr c. should so widely mistake it And then that the whole Christian World should for so many Ages together be deceived in the ground and foundation of so important an Article of Faith if it were true or if it were not should be led into so gross and dangerous an Error as this must needs be if Christ had no real existence before he was born into the World And which would be necessarily consequent upon this that no man did understand this Passage of St. John aright before Socinus This very consideration alone if there were no other were sufficient to stagger any prudent man's belief of this Interpretation And as to the Novelty of it Socinus himself makes no difficulty to own it nay he seems rather to rejoice and to applaud himself in it Unhappy man that was so wedded to his own Opinion that no Objection no difficulty could divorce him from it And for this I refer my self to his Preface to his Explication of this first Chapter of St. John's Gospel where you shall find these words concerning the Passage now in controversy quorum verus sensus omnium prorsus qui quidem extarent explanatores latuisse videtur the true sense of which words says he seems to have been hid from all the Expositors that ever were extant And upon those words v. 10. He was in the World and the World was made by him he hath this expression quid autem hoc loco sibi velit Johannes à nemine quod sciam adhuc rectè expositum fuit but what St. John means in this place was never yet that I know of by any man rightly explain'd And Schlictingius after him with more confidence but much less decency tells us that concerning the meaning of those expressions in the beginning and of those which follow concerning the Word the ancient Interpreters did ab Apostoli mente delirare went so far from the Apostle's meaning as if they had rav'd and been out of their wits Which is so extravagantly said and with so much contempt of those great and venerable Names who were the chief Propagaters of Christianity in the World and to whom all Ages do so justly pay a reverence that nothing can be said in excuse of him but only that it is not usual with him to fall into such rash and rude expressions But the man was really pinch'd by so plain and pressing a Text and where Reason is weak and blunt Passion must be whetted the only weapon that is left when Reason fails And I always take it for graned that no man is ever Angry with his Adversary but for want of a better Argument to support his Cause And yet to do right to the Writers on that side I must own that generally they are a Pattern of the fair way of disputing and of debating matters of Religion without heat and unseemly reflections upon their Adversaries in the number of whom I did not expect that the Primitive Fathers of the Christian Church would have been reckoned by them They generally argue matters with that temper and gravity and with that freedom from passion and transport which becomes a serious and weighty Argument And for the most part they reason closely and clearly with extraordinary guard and caution with great dexterity and decency and yet with smartness and subtilty enough with a very gentle heat and few hard words Vertues to be praised whereever they are found yea even in an Enemy and very worthy our imitation In a word they are the strongest managers of a weak Cause and which is ill founded at the bottom that perhaps ever yet medled with Controversy Insomuch that some of the Protestants and the generality of the Popish Writers and even of the Jesuits themselves who pretend to all the Reason and subtilty in the World are in comparison of them but mere Scolds and Bunglers Upon the whole matter they have but this one great defect that they want a good Cause and Truth on their Side which if they had they have Reason and Wit and temper enough to defend it But to return to the business That which I urge them withall and that from their own confession is this that this interpretation of theirs is perfectly new and unknown to the whole Christian World before Socinus and for that reason in my opinion not to be bragg'd of Because it is in effect to say that the Christian Religion in a Point pretended on both Sides to be of the greatest moment was never rightly understood by any since the Apostles days for fifteen hundred years together And which makes the matter yet worse that the Religion which was particularly design'd to overthrow Polytheism and the belief of more God hath according to them been so ill taught and understood by Christians for so many Ages together and almost from the very beginning of Chistianity as does necessarily infer a Plurality of Gods An inconvenience so great as no Cause how plausible soever it may otherwise appear is able to stand under and to sustain the weight of it For this the Socinians object to us at every turn as the unavoidable consequence of our interpretation of this Passage of St. John and of all other Texts of Scripture produced by us to the same purpose notwithstanding that this interpretation hath obtain'd in the Christian Church for so many Ages Now whosoever can believe that the Christian Religion hath done the Work for which it was principally design'd so ineffectually must have very little reverence for it nay it must be a marvellous civility in him if he believe it at all All that can be said in this Case is that it pleases God many times to permit men to hold very inconsistent things and which do in truth though they themselves discern it not most effectually overthrow one another Secondly Another mighty prejudice against this Interpretation is this that according to this rate of liberty in interpreting Scripture it will signify very little or
And by the same Reason a man must not deny what God says to be true though he cannot comprehend many things which God says As particularly concerning this Mystery of the Trinity It ought then to satisfy us that there is sufficient evidence that this Doctrine is delivered in Scripture and that what is there declared concerning it doth not imply a Contradiction For why should our finite understandings pretend to comprehend that which is infinite or to know all the real Differences that are consistent with the Unity of an Infinite Being or to be able fully to explain this Mystery by any similitude or resemblance taken from finite Beings But before I leave this Argument I cannot but take notice of one thing which they of the Church of Rome are perpetually objecting to us upon this Occasion And it is this That by the same reason that we believe the Doctrine of the Trinity we may and must receive that of Transubstantiation God forbid Because of all the Doctrines that ever were in any Religion this of Transubstantiation is certainly the most abominably absurd However this Objection plainly shews how fondly and obstinately they are addicted to their own Errors how mishapen and monstrous soever insomuch that rather than the Dictates of their Church how absurd soever should be called in question they will question the truth even of Christianity it self and if we will not take in Transubstantiation and admit it to be a necessary Article of the Christian Faith they grow so sullen and desperate that they matter not what becomes of all the rest And rather than not have their Will of us in that which is controverted they will give up that which by their own confession is an undoubted Article of the Christian Faith and not controverted on either Side except only by the Socinians who yet are hearty Enemies to Transubstantiation and have exposed the absurdity of it with great advantage But I shall endeavour to return a more particular Answer to this Objection and such a one as I hope will satisfy every considerate and unprejudiced mind that after all this confidence and swaggering of theirs there is by no means equal reason either for the receiving or for the rejecting of these two Doctrines of the Trinity and Transubstantiation First There is not equal reason for the belief of these Two Doctrines This Objection if it be of any force must suppose that there is equal evidence and proof from Scripture for these two Doctrines But this we utterly deny and with great reason because it is no more evident from the words of Scripture that the Sacramental Bread is substantially changed into Christ's natural Body by virtue of those words This is my Body than it is that Christ is substantially changed into a natural Vine by virtue of those words I am the true Vine or than that the Rock in the Wilderness of which the Israelites drank was substantially changed into the Person of Christ because it is expresly said That Rock was Christ or than that the Christian Church is substantially changed into the natural Body of Christ because it is in express terms said of the Church That it is his Body But besides this several of their own most learned Writers have freely acknowledged that Transubstantiation can neither be directly proved nor necessarily concluded from Scripture But this the Writers of the Christian Church did never acknowledge concerning the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ but have always appealed to the clear and undeniable Testimonies of Scripture for the Proof of these Doctrines And then the whole force of the Objection amounts to this That if I am bound to believe what I am sure God says tho I cannot comprehend it then I am bound by the same reason to believe the greatest Absurdity in the World though I have no manner of assurance of any Divine Revelation concerning it And if this be their meaning though we understand not Transubstantiation yet we very well understand what they would have but cannot grant it because there is not equal reason to believe two things for one of which there is good proof and for the other no proof at all Secondly Neither is there equal reason for the rejecting of these two Doctrines This the Objection supposes which yet cannot be supposed but upon one or both of these two grounds Either because these two Doctrines are equally incomprehensible or because they are equally loaded with Absurdities and Contradictions The First is no good ground of rejecting any Doctrine merely because it is incomprehensible as I have abundantly shew'd already But besides this there is a wide difference between plain matters of Sense and Mysteries concerning God and it does by no means follow that if a man do once admit any thing concerning God which he cannot comprehend he hath no reason afterwards to believe what he himself sees This is a most unreasonable and destructive way of arguing because it strikes at the foundation of all Certainty and sets every man at liberty to deny the most plain and evident Truths of Christianity if he may not be humor'd in having the absurdest things in the World admitted for true The next step will be to persuade us that we may as well deny the Being of God because his Nature is incomprehensible by our Reason as deny Transubstantiation because it evidently contradicts our Senses 2dly Nor are these two Doctrines loaded with the like Absurdities and Contradictions So far from this that the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is delivered in the Scriptures and hath already been explained hath no Absurdity or Contradiction either involved in it or necessarily consequent upon it But the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is big with all imaginable Absurdity and Contradiction And their own Schoolmen have sufficiently exposed it especially Scotus and he designed to do so as any man that attentively reads him may plainly discover For in his Disputation about it he treats this Doctrine with the greatest contempt as a new Invention of the Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent Ill. To the Decree of which Council concerning it he seems to pay a formal submission but really derides it as contrary to the common Sense and Reason of Mankind and not at all supported by Scripture as any one may easily discern that will carefully consider his manner of handling it and the result of his whole Disputation about it And now Suppose there were some appearance of Absurdity and Contradiction in the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is delivered in Scripture must we therefore believe a Doctrine which is not at all revealed in Scripture and which hath certainly in it all the absurdities in the World and all the Contradictions to Sense and Reason and which once admitted doth at once destroy all Certainty Yes say they why not since we of the Church of Rome are satisfied that this Doctrine is revealed in Scripture or if it be not is defined by the