but that howsoever it is true And because of the mysteriousness of these Gospel Divine Truths there is a necessity for a Christian to deny himself before he can follow Christ Matt. 16. 24. deny his carnal Wit and corrupt Reason therefore in the Lord's work of Man's Conversion in which He applys His exceeding great and Mighty Power Eph. 1. 19. He casts down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringeth into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. where albeit the Almighty Hand of God is first in order and chief in the work yet the Christian himself willingly consents to captivate all his carnal Imaginations and Thoughts and over the belly of them all gives the assent of Faith to the Mysteries of the Gospel because they are the Truth of God who is infinite in Truth and cannot Lie for he who piously and humbly captivates his Thoughts to Christ will stop the mouth of all Objections of corrupt Reason with Abraham against hope believing in hope Rom. 4. 18. which assent of Faith gives God far more Glory then the assent of Science which flows naturally from the force of that natural Light born in by the knowledge of the Cause but the assent of Faith is supernatural being a supernatural Grace and gift of God with all its degrees And because the Mystery of the Trinity and Christ's Incarnation were so high above Man's corrupt Reason therefore in the first 400. Years of the New Testament Satan wrought mightily in the Children of Disobedience and did find it an easie work to raise up many blasphemous Hereticks who in the pride of their undaunted Heart refused to captivate their corrupt Reason to believe the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation which were not contrary to Reason but above it CHAP. II. This Chapter hath three Parts First a Catalogue of the Chief Ring-leading Hereticks against the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity the first 400. Years Secondly The many evils of Sin and Misery that followed upon these Heresies Thirdly How the Lord and His Church opposed and confounded them AS for the Roll of the Ring leading Hereticks after our Lord's Ascension intending brevity We passe by all the Errors or Heresies mentioned or foretold in the New Testament Matth. 24. v 9. and 24. Act. 20. v. 29 and 30. Acts 15. Rom. 16. v. 17 and 18. Gal. 1. 6 7. Col. 3. v. 1. Col. 9. v. 10. Col. 2. v. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Col. 9. 1. 2 Tim. 2. v. 17 18. 2 Tim. 3. 8. 2 Thess 2. v. 8. Albeit therein be instanced diverse Doctrines of Devils and St. Peter foretells that some would deny the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. v. 4. and St. John 2 Epist 4. 3. mentions many Antichrists in the General and denyers of Christ but particularizeth none as such for Simon Magus Act. 8. 18. Was a baptised Christian and falling in the Sin of Simonie in a most gross manner was justly and bitterly rebuked by the Apostle Peter And Ecclesiastick Hystoriographers record that thereafter he returned with the Doge to his vomite and with the Sow to the wallowing in the myre went to Rome and turned to his old trade of witchcraft where he was admired for his Lying Satanical Wonders as before his Baptism he had been admired in Samaria Act. 8. v. 9 10. and blasphemously called himself Father Son and Holy Ghost b Euseb hist Eccles lib. 2 cap. 1. cap. 12. 13 14. Ignatius Epistola ad Tralesios Ireneus lib. 1. cap. 20. Justinus Martyr Apologia secunda fusius Cerinthus blasphemed Christ Jesus to be only a Man and not the Messia Anno Dom. 75. c Ireneus lib. 1. cap. 25. lib. 3. cap. 3. Euseb lib. 3. cap. 22. The third Ring-leader Heretick Ebion vented the like Blasphemies by occasion of which three Hereticks and their many followers the Apostle St. John who lived to this time wrot the Gospel in which his chief intent is to prove and maintain against these Blasphemous Hereticks that Christ is God and Man in one Person d Ireneus lib. 1. cap. 26. Eusebius lib. 3. cap. 21. Ignatious epist ad Trallianos Epiphanius heresie 51. Cerdon Blasphemed that the God of the Old Testament was not Christ's Father Anno Dom. 143. e Ireneus lib. 1 cap. 28. Euseb lib. 4. cap. 10. Valentinus of whom came the Genosticks rejected the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity and made up a fiction as it were of three Gods Anno Dom. 145. f Euseb lib. 4. cap. 10. Ireneus lib. 1. cap. 1. alibi passim multis refutat a Euseb lib. 5. cap. ult Eumcum prioribus refutat Ignatius nominatim Epist ad Tralianos Theodotus That Christ was only Man he denyed Christ to be the Word Joh. 1. 1. An. Dom. 194. b Hos refutat Tertul. Praxeas denyed the Trinity his Followers were called Patripossiani Anno Dom. 210. c Hos refutat Tertul. Melchizedeciani blasphemed that Melchizedeck was greater then Christ d Eus lib. 7. cap. 5. refutatur ad Athanasio Sabellius denyed the blessed Trinity e Damnatus in Concilio Antiocheno Anno Dom. 272. Samosatenus denyed Christ to be God Anno Dom. 269. f Eus lib. 7. cap. 25. Socrat 1. lib. 1. cap. 17. Exortus est Anno Dom. 276. eum Augustinius multus eruditus refutavit Manes and his Followers denyed Christ and the Holy Ghost to be God g Damnatus a 318. Episcopis Socret lib. 1. cap. 3 4 5. Theodoret lib. cap. 1. 7. Sozomen lib. 1. cap. 16. Anno Dom. 325. Arius denyed the second Person of the blessed Trinity to be one in substance co-equall and co-eternall with God the Father he was confuted in the Council of Nice his Blasphemy condemned and he Excommunicated An. Dom. 325. h Socrat. lib. 2. cap. 24. a Basilio magno in disputatione devictus Photinius fell unto the heresie of Sabellius and Sam. Satanius he was condemned in the Council of Serinium i Socrates lib. 2. cap. 35. ab Athanasio Basillo refutatus Macedonius denyed the Holy Ghost to be God Anno Dom. 360. He was condemned in the General Council of Constantinople Anno Dom. 381. k Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 33. in hoc concilio contra Nestorium Cyrillus magnam sustinuit partem Nestorius denyed the Personal Union of Christ's Divine and Humane Natures Therefore was condemned by a General Council at Ephesus by 200. Bishops Anno Dom. 431. And being obstinat was banished by the Emp. Theodosius Albeit these forementioned Heriticks all Blasphemed the Sacred Trinity yet none of them but were poysoned with moe Errors besides for mans corrupt heart is a too fertill soil to receive Satans Inventions l Di onisius Episcopus Alexandrinus Eus lib. 7. cap. 6. Anno Dom. 260. One of the Antients by reading the Blasphemies of Hereticks did not only condemne them but also
of Faith to be allowed and accepted of God and to be comfortable to your Soul for I suppone it well grounded on the Word of God His Promise and Command whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved John 3. 16. and John 6. 40. But I John such a one believe in Jesus Christ therefore I John such a one shall be saved the General Promise is express in the Word but not your two following Acts of Faith builded thereon and yet you will assume they are Acts of true Faith and for the first of the two it 's truth is best known to your selves who are alone privy to that heart secret of yours 1 Cor. Chap. 2. 11. For all within the visible Church say I believe in Christ â—ccording to the Apostles Creed received by the universal Church for an Act of true Faith and yet a great part speak not truly This is a sad but sure Truth but as truely as thou believes in Christ it is assuredly as true thou shall be saved then if I grant that your Act whereby you believe to be saved is True Faith and rightly believed by you albeit it is not express in in your Bible then why shall not this be an Act of Faith when a Christian believes it is lawfull to sing Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost albeit these words be not express in the Bible altogether but deduced from the Scripture by infallible consequence I could proceed further in this point but because the Babes are not able to bear it and the Learned are fully clear in this Truth I shall not insist and these who will not assent to the Truth the defect is in themselves and not in the Truth for Children so long as they are such will think speak and understand as Children for which the strong Christian should not despise the Babes but consider they were once Babes themselves and on the other hand the Children should not presume nor overwean themselves nor judge uncharitably of the strong but that they sing the Doxology in Faith grounded on a strong Scriptural Consequence as when the weak Christian takes his Sacrament and I request the weak Christian to think soberly of himself when David a Man according to Gods own heart said in sincerity Psalm 131. 2. I have quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother and if ye will ask wherein he so behaved he tells you himself he did not aspired things too high for him If every Christian would do so there would be more peace in the Church CHAP. XI The Reasons why the General Assembly was not in power to lay aside the Doxology proving their great reluctancy to their own deed with several other circumstances alleviating the same IN this Chapter we are to answer the Grand Objection to wit That the singing of the Doxology in the publick worship of God was laid aside by the Generall Assembly of this Church Anno Dom. 1649. To this my first answer is that Assembly hath fourty two Sessions mentioned in the Index of the imprinted Acts thereof but the laying aside of the Doxology is not mentioned in the Printed Acts of that Assembly nor yet in the index of the imprinted Acts therefore seing there is no mention in the Register of the Church to prove to Posterity that the Doxology was laid aside it may put some to demurr in that affair seing there is no legal proof of it extant 2 dly I answer though the laying aside of the Doxology was res gesta yet seing there is not a word of it in the Register of the Church the laying of it aside will come under the Notion of an unwritten Tradition to Posterity 3 dly I answer That it is to be considered whether or not the Generall Assembly was in potestate and had lawfull power to lay aside the Doxology for in their National Covenant they grant their Religion as reformed at the first expelling of Idolatry and was Ratified in Parliament in Anno Dom. 1560. And it 's Confession of Faith to be Christs true and perfect Religion that they shal adhere to it all their dayes to which they bind themselves with Solemn and fearfull Curses but so it is That at the said Reformation in the Lyturgy then appointed and Printed at the beginning of the Psalm Book Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning is now and aye shall last is extant in Print yea in that Psalm Book of the Church of Scotland of the old Edition there is great variety of the Meeter Poesies and lest any of them having their diverse Tune should want the Doxology sung at the close of it each of these diverse Poesies have a diverse Doxology one in substance with the ordinar Doxology but differing in some words being framed to be sung according to the particular musical Tunes all which Doxologies were in use in the Church of Scotland after the Reformation which Book is yet extant Printed at Aberdeen cum privilegio in Anno Dom. 1638. So that the National Covenant compared with our first Reformation engadgeth us in all Scotland not to quite the Doxology under the pain of perjury as for that foresaid Lyturgy of Scotland which was Printed and bound in with the Psalm Book it was drawn up by the General Assembly Anno Dom. 1560. and 1555 and 1567. The Fourth Answer The General Assembly 1639. August 30. Which day that Assembly hath enacted thus The General Assembly considering that the intended Reformation being recovered may be established Ordains that no Innovation which may disturbe the peace of the Church and make division be suddenly proponed or enacted but so as the motion be first communicat to the severall Synods Presbytries and Churches that the matter may be approven by all at home and Commissioners may come well prepared unanimously to conclude with settled deliberation upon these points in the general Assembly Which Act of Assembly as it was prudently made so accordingly practised thereafter for in the General Assembly Anno Dom. 1642. August 6. There are four Overtures Printed with the Acts of that Assembly to be advised by Presbyters against the next Assembly So that his laudable Act was carefully obeyed in other things but not so in laying aside the Doxology For it was done abruptly without the knowledge or advertisement of particular Churches Presbytries or Synods who should have been acquainted before and canvassed the matter before any thing had been determined in the General Assembly anent the Doxology and the laying of it aside which was an innovation suddenly proponed and instantly passed to the discomforming division of themselves from all transmarin Protestants yea and from the universal Church Fifthly In the Solemn League and Covenant of Scotland and England approven by the General Assembly of Scotland Anno. Dom. 1643. August 17. In the said League and Covenant with hands lifted up to the most high God they swear sincerely and constantly to
the Doxologie ye detain the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. and rebel against the light and hate the light John 3. 20. And they who wilfully harden themselves would not embrace the truth albeit Christ the wisdom of the Father were Preaching it unto them unlesse he did apply his Almighty gracious power as he did to Saul in his conversion Acts 9. ver 5 6. Which he does not ordinarily on those that harden themselves and close their eyes against the light darting in upon their understanding for he resists the proud but giveth grace to the humble and lowly The Apostle speaks of unreasonable men by which are meant the unbeliever and unregenerat For the true believer his saving Faith clears up and fortifies his reason Therefore if thou be a furnished and true believer and grant the truth of the first two sentences of any one or all the reasons then thou will assent to the third sentence which is to sing Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and if thou find thy heart inclining to consent then blow at that spunk that is kindled in thy soul by the Holy Ghost and go to thy knees in all humility sincerity and self-denial and beg of him to lead thee in all truth and to shew thee the good and the right way and whether it will tend more to the glory of God to sing Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost or to be dumb and silent and say in your heart I will not sing glory to God even when my fellow-Christians are singing it Do you believe with all your soul that God sent his Son from Heaven to earth to bring you from earth to Heaven that Christ suffered the sorrows of death and hell to save thee from endless torments and will ye refuse to sing glory to him for so doing and suffering for you If a poor brother of Jesus were asking an alms from you and you would not give him one mite and yet would say at that same time to standers by if that poor man were going to Prison I would give him a great sum of money to relieve him would they believe you or rather laugh you to scorn So when you are desired to sing glory to the blessed Trinity and ye refuse to do it who would believe you that you would suffer tormenting flames for the glory of that blessed Trinity I know you will say you have some reasons why you refuse to sing the Doxologie but ye would have no reason to refuse martyrdome I answer your corruption that prompts you with excuses to refuse to sing the Doxologie which is the easier duty would furnish you with more excuses to shun burning so that ye who will not give God his due honour to sing glory to him it is too like would never suffer martyrdome for him and so the true ground of your refusing is want of true Faith Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake As for your pretences and excuses you bring for not singing the Doxologie lay it to heart that your excuses which your prejudged Conscience it may be accepts of so as to give you a seeming and deceitful peace for a time yet trust not that he who is greater then your Conscience will accept of these excuses which in this life men who are blind and partial Judges in their own cause thinks to be good and relevant Our Saviour in the Gospel gives a list of excusers of themselves but the Judge of quick and dead tells the true reason which the excusers would not have told Mat. 22. 5. they made light of it But I intreat you make it not a light thing to refuse to sing Glory to Father Son and Holy Ghost for these reasons I have set before you are founded on the Word of God by which we shall be judged and your pretences and excuses in that day will be burnt with the hay and stubble 1 Cor. 3. 12. CHAP. IX 15. Reason from the necessary Difference of the Christians Worship as in Reading of the Word Prayer and Sacraments they exceedingly differ from Christians shall not then also be a difference betwixt the Christian singing of Psalms and the Jews by singing the Doxology 16. As the Jews in their Psalms of David close many of them with a Doxology answering to the measure of their Light dispensed to them in the Old Testament so it becomes the Christian to have a Doxology answerable to their greater measure of Light of the Trinity in the New Testament 17. Reason founded upon the signification of Jehovah Elohim which is often in the Doxology of the Old Testament TAke three Reasons more to be pondered by the judicious and unbyassed Christian The first is thus grounded the Worship of God consists in two parts either God speaks to us or we speak to God God speaks to us in the Word read or exponed by Preaching We speak to God by Prayer suiting things needful to Soul and Body or by Praises of His infinite Excellencies and for His Benefites These two last to wit Petitions or Praises are either done without Song or in a Song but so it is that God in His infinite Wisdom and Goodness hath made the Christian Worship in the New Testament to differ from the Jews Worship in the Old Testament in fulness clearness and comfortableness they had only the Old Testament we have the New Testament added to it they had the Old Testament read and exponed by the Church-men and Prophets we have Old and New Testament both read exponed and preached more plainly and fully to our greater saving Knowledge and Comfort for the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater then John Baptist Matth. 11. 11. Secondly Our Prayers and Praises of God in the New Testament are proportional to the Word read and preached even more full clear and comfortable then the Jew had in the Old Testament but so it is that the obstinate and impenitent Jew refused to joyn with us Christians in any of these three parts of the Worship of God they will not hear the Gospel read because it is the Gospel of Christ whom they reject and blaspheme they will not hear the Word preached because we preach Christ crucified which is to the Jews a stumbling-block 1 Cor. 1. 23. Thirdly They will not joyn with us in Prayer for they refuse to pray to Father Son and Holy Ghost and they will seek nothing from God in the Name of Christ Fourthly They reject our Sacraments for they refuse to be baptized in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost nor yet will they communicate with us because it is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Seing then the all-wise Lord hath made the Christian to differ from and excell the Jew in the Word and Sacraments in Preaching and Praying is it not convenient and suitable to the other parts of our Christian
benedictio videtur absque cantu Deo oblata 3. Davidis Doxologia solemnior Jehovah Elohim videtur prorsus ultima jam moribundi inquit Tremellius sanctam ipsius animam Deo reddentis Psal 72. 18 19. benedictus sit Jehovah Elohim v. 19. benedictum nomen gloriae ejus in seculum impleaturque gloriâ ejus tota terra Amen Amen huic Davidis Doxologiae seraphim Isai cap. 6. vers 3. stantes clamabant Trinitati Doxologiam ut supra probatum est hujus tractatus pagin◠47. plena est omnes terra gloria ejus quod quam belle respondet quasi implet verba Davidis nempe impleaturque gloria ejus tota terra Gods most proper Name most often used in the Old Testament it comes from an Hebrew word that signifies To Be and so Jehovah signies Gods Essence and Being of Himself and the giving of Being to all His Creatures therefore Exod. 6. 3. the Lord prefers His Name Jehovah to His other Name God Almighty for this Name implyes Gods Almighty Power to wit Elshaddai but Jehovah importeth Gods infinite Perfections therefore Psal 83. 18. God alone His Name is Jehovah and Isa 42. 8. I am Jehovah that is my Name and Exod. 15. 3. Jehovah is His Name therefore Num. 6. 24 25 26. when God endites the words of the Blessing to Moses how the Priest should pray over his People it is all in the Name of Jehovah and so the Lord puts His Name Jehovah upon His People The second Name of God most frequent in the Old Testament is Elohim it is the Plural Number and is sometimes indeed used in the Old Testament in the Singular Number but not so often by far as it 's in the Plural Number It is dispute among Divines what can be the reasons why the Lord should take to Himself so often a Name signifying Moe to wit a Plurality and to joyn that to another of His Names to wit Jehovah which is of the Singular Number for albeit often in the Old Testament God design Himself by other moe Names as God Almighty Lord of Hosts God of Israel c. yet most often He designs Himself Jehovah Elohim which is ordinarily rendered in the Bible Lord God For answer to the question proponed generally it is this That albeit from these two words there cannot be demonstrate the Unity of the Godhead and Trinity of the Persons by a convincing Argument against obstinate Jews and Antitrinitarian Hereticks yet from it may be brought a probable Argument to moderate and sober spirited Christians to prove that Moses and other Pen men of the Old Testament who themselves undoubtedly did know the Mystery of the Trinity as Moses David Isaiah c. and therefore when they did so often write these two Names of God together Jehovah Elohim the first being the Singular Number the second the Plural did thereby intimate the Unity of the Essence in the Godhead with the Trinity of Persons therefore Pareus on Genesis pag. 23. having dispute the question at length concludes No godly Man will deny the probability of this reason drawen from Elohim joined with another word of the Singular Number as it is here with Jehovah and so think the Westminster Synod Notes on the first two words of Genesis Elohim Bara the first Elohim being in the Plural Number jovned with Bara in the Singular Number He did creat and that Moses and the rest of the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures in the Old Testament did know this Mystery is out of question to the Doctors both of the Reformed and Roman Church all which with the Fathers and Councils bring many strong and clear Arguments from the Old Testament to prove the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity Therefore Tremellius a Jew born in his Notes upon Gen. 1. 26. Let us make Man after our own image saith God Note this here God Father Son and Holy Ghost one God in three distinct Persons so appoint Let us here saith Tremellius is a Testimony of the Sacred Trinity and that not an obscure one And therefore the Westminster Notes prove from the Scriptures that Moses was not ignorant of the Doctrine of the Trinity and it is observable that in the first three Chapters of Genesis Moses nineteen times calls God Jehovah Elohim and who will deny that Abraham saw Christs day John 8. 56. and did not David call Him Lord when in the Spirit of Prophecy he spake of Him Mat. 22. 44. and Isaiah saw His Glory John 12. 41. And if some object If there be so many clear Testimonies in the Old Testament of the Doctrine of the Trinity how came it to pass that now the Jews who have and read the Old Testament deny the Sacred Trinity The Scriptures will answer you our Saviour in the Gospel pronounces them blind Mat. 15. 14. the blind lead the blind and often elsewhere and so the Apostle calls them Rom. 11. 7. were they not broken off for their Unbelief Rom. 11. 20. till the fulness of the Gentiles come in and since their rejection and breaking off the Vail is on their Eyes until this day while they read the Old Testament 2 Cor. 3. 13. yet it will not follow but that the Mystery of the Trinity was known to the Saints and saved in the Old Testament who believed the Covenant of Grace made with Adam in Paradice the seed of the Woman should tread down the head of the Serpent which our blessed Saviour was to the Saints in the Old Testament as well as to us the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14. 6. and the same to day yesterday and for ever Heb. 13. 8. So that as the believing Jews and Church of God in the Old Testament did believe the Doctrine of the Trinity albeit we grant that that Mystery of the Trinity was not so clearly revealed to these Saints in the Old Testament as it is now to us Christians under the New Testament asserted to them in many Testimonies of Scripture so they reading and hearing the Hebrew Text which was their Mother Language and therein two Names of God so often joyned together Jehovah Elohim the one in the Singular the other in the Plural Number the Holy Ghost and His Pen-men did thereby insinuate to them the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity and according to this in many of the Hebrew Psalms and some Spiritual Songs there is a Doxology to Jehovah Elohim closing the Psalm to wit these Psalms following 76 80 84 90 92 99 144 146 and 1 Chron. 16. 36. and Chap. 29. vers 20. and Psal 72. vers 18 and 19. If then the Jew closed many Psalms with the Doxology to the blessed Trinity shall not the Christian to whom the Mystery is more clearly revealed and in which he is baptized and without which he cannot be saved for no Salvation without Christ Acts 4. 12. and he who denieth the Son hath not the Father 1 John 2. 23. and as the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the