is God which W. P. also doth deny and this also I shall prove from Scripture I. But Peter said Act. 5. 4 3. Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy Ghost to keep back part of the price of the Land c. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Him whom the Apostle calleth Holy Ghost in the 3d. verse he calleth God in the 4. verse and him whom he calleth God in the 4th verse he calleth the Spirit of the Lord in the ninth verse How is it that ye have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord II. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6. 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 He that is called the same Spirit in the 4th verse is called the same Lord in the fifth verse and the same God which worketh all in all in the sixth verse and that what is spoken of Administrations and Operations in the fifth and sixth verses is attributed to the Spirit as appeareth by the seventh verse where they are called The manifestation of the Spirit given to every man to profit withal and more plainly verse 11. But all this worketh that one and the same Spirit dividing unto every man severally as he will And what can be more plain to prove that the Holy Ghost or Spirit is God when he worketh all in all and distributeth spiritual gifts unto men according to his own good pleasure III. Isa. 6. 1. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne c. v. 2 3. Above stood the Seraphims and cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts The three Holies signifie the three Persons the Lord of Hosts the one God ver 8. I heard the voice of the Lord ver 9. And he said Go tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not c. This must needs be spoken of God and it is by the Apostle applyed to the Holy Ghost Act. 28. 25. Well spake the Holy Ghost go to this people and say hearing you shall hear c. IV. 1 Cor. 2. 10. For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God None is omniscient to know all things yea whatsoever is in the unsearchable minde of God but he that is God and therefore the Holy Ghost is God I might speak further of his divine Works as Regeneration Ioh. 3. 5. guiding Believers into all truth Ioh. 16. 13. Sanctification and the like of our being baptized by him Mat. 3. 11. and in his name Mat. 28. 19. and his being called One that is one God where he is numbred up amongst the three Persons that bare record in heaven 1 Ioh. 5. 7. All which undeniably prove that the Holy Ghost is God co-essential and co-equal with the Father and the Son 5. The fifth and last thing is to prove That Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct Subsistents or Persons Concerning the name Person I shall not speak of it because Mr. Danson intendeth to vindicate that word from the cavils of W. P. in answer to what concerneth him p. 10. That there are three such distinct Persons in one Divine Essence is evident from the Scripture See Math. 3. 16 17. And Iesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water and to the Heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And lo a voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Here is a distinction of all the three Persons the Son was clothed in flesh and came up out of the water the Spirit was in the shape of a Dove which came down from heaven the Fa was in the voice saying This is my beloved Son Another Scripture which holdeth forth this distinction is Ioh. 16. 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth The Son prayeth the Father giveth The Spirit of Truth is the Comforter that is given I shall adde a third Scripture 1 Ioh. 5. 7. There are three that bare record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one They are the distinct Persons but one undivided Essence But further to confirm this truth denied by the Adversaries I shall prove from the Scripture that there are three distinct Persons in one Divine Essence 1 From the distinct Names given to them 2 From their distinct personal Acts. 3 From their distinct personal Properties 1. From their distinct Names they are called Father Son and Holy Ghost Math. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Father Word and Holy Ghost in Ioh. 5. 7. before cited These names do evidence a distinction not of nature and essence for they are one therefore of personality 2. From their distinct personal acts I mean such acts as can be ascribed unto none but such as are persons 1 Giving the Comforter is ascribed to the Father Ioh. 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter it is proper onely to a person to give this act requiring both understanding and will 2 Sending the Comforter is ascribed to the Son Ioh. 15. 6. When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father and it is proper onely to a person to send 3 Guiding into all truth speaking what he heareth is ascribed to the Holy Ghost Ioh. 16. 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And who can deny that these are personal acts The distinction of the persons in these acts is evident in all these places where the Son speaketh of himself in the first person I will pray I will send he speaketh of the Father and the Spirit in the third person which persons he evidently distinguisheth one from another by the preposition from speaking of the Spirit whom I will send from the Father Surely he must wink very hard that doth not perceive a distinction of the persons of Father Son and Spirit in these places 3. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct persons is evident from these distinct personal and incommunicable Properties 1. The personal property of the Father is to beget the Son Heb. 1. 5. Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and the Son being eternal as hath been proved this generation must be eternal 2. The personal property of the Son is to be begotten of the Father Ioh. 1. 14. We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten of the Father 3. The personal
Religion than the Papists themselves And because W. P. doth take occasion from the meeting with me and others in disputation if it might be so called where nothing was directly answered to put forth his Pamphlet and because he giveth but a lame and in somethings a false account of transactions therefore I shall 1. give a true and brief Narative of what passed at the Meetting or Conference with answer to his Postscript 2 Establish the truths he objecteth against by Scripture and Argument 3 Answer his objections against those truths Lastly apply my self to deluded Quakers for the recalling of them and to all other Christians for the cautioning and establishing of them against the attempts of such as would draw them aside into the dark and dangerous path which doth as certainly lead to Hell as the broad way of Prophaneness CHAP. II. A brief Narrative of T. V's meeting with some Quakers in Spittle-yard with the occasion and transactions there and some exceptions to the account which W. P. hath given thereof MY first meeting with the Quakers was upon desire at the house of a friend in Houndsditch in der to the preserving of some who were tempted to go amongst them I met there several Quakers two of which were the chief speakers It would tire the Reader as I believe it did the hearers to give relation of all their wild and impertinent discourse I could not get them to speak out and plainly to assert some of their Principles through fear it is likely lest their mouths should be stopped before the people yet after many words they asserted the perfection of Saints in this Life and the place of Scripture which they brought for the proof of their assertion was 1 Iob. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin Unto this I answered That the words in the Original were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of them interrupted me at the mention of the Original words saying It was the smoke of the bottomless pit that the signification was doth not make it his business to sin and the meaning was that such as were born again did not make a trade of sin did not go on in a course of sin or did not commit sin that is with the full bent of the will as the wicked do But that it could not be understood of not committing sin at all because the same Apostle in the same Epistle Chap. 1. 8. telleth thus If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There he speaketh of himself and others that were born again and plainly acknowledgeth they were not without sin It was further urged that if all that were born of God were perfectly free from sin then it would follow that who ever found any sin in them were not born of God consequently in state of nature and so if they should die with any sin remaining they would certainly go to Hell and so none there yea none in the world would be saved Moreover I appealed to the experience of the best of them whether they could say they were wholly free from sin whether they had no irregular thoughts nor affections this they would not affirm neither did they absolutely deny when they pleaded the perfection the Apostle Paul speaketh of Phil. 3. 15. I replied that the same Apostle v. 12. acknowledgeth that he had not as yet attained neither was yet perfect and if the Apostle Paul who had arrived to so great a heighth in grace that he was how ever as some think little in bodily stature yet taller by the head and shoulders than others in regard of his grace and spiritual attainments how could Audacious Quakers who if Quakers indeed because of their damnable opinions I am confident have not the least degree of true grace boast of perfection as if they had got above the Apostle himself I told them that all true Believers were perfect in a sence they were Evangelically perfect but not legally not absolutely perfect they had perfection of parts but not perfection of degrees and in this sence the work of Grace though the work of God was not perfect in regard of our selves but by degrees was carried on unto further perfection After this when they could give no answer to the Arguments urged against them they burst out into a clamor and talking all altogether opening their mouths as wide as they could and shutting their ears as hard as they could repeating the same things over and over again You make your selves the Patrons of sin He that committeth sin is of the Devil And whilst they pleaded That all which were born of God were without sin they discovered themselves to be none of those that were born of God by the sin which they were palpably guilty of in the multitude of their words especially in their wresting the Scripture from its genuine sence meaning and in the perverse disputings of their corrupt minds Our discourse was to this effect wherein they discovered so much of their rotten Tenents so much of their folly and weakness being unable to maintain what they had asserted that one said to them An 't please God I will believe you no more Others that were wavering before were confirmed against them aud established in the ways of Truth and so continue still to this day The next week after this meeting I went into the Country for a fortnight and in my absence two of my friends Mother and Daughter went off to the Quakers the Daughter was the first whose inclinations and humour carried her that way for some time before for the preserving of whom from the Quakers delusions upon the request of the Mother I had several discourses with her I gave several reasons against their tenents and ways unto which she could give no answer nor any ground of her liking their ways which was not answered onely a perverse will which I am inform'd her Mother hath so much indulg'd in other things unbefitting a parent that in this it is like to prove the destinction both of mother and child did lead her this way against all reasons and perswasions I acknowledge I did say It was worse to go to the Quakers meetings than to a Bawdyhouse because the defilement of the soul with their damnable erors which there she was likely to contract was more deep and more hardly to be washt off than the defilement of whoredom or adultery and what our Saviour said of the Pharisees I may say of the Quakers that harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven sooner than they moreover I told her that If there stood a cup of poyson in the window I would rather drink it than suck in their damnable Doctrines because poysoning of the body was not so bad as the poysoning and damning of the soul. I said further not that I would give her up but that if she went again God might give her up to believe a lye that she might be damned the
no direct reply to this Sylogism but findeth fault with the terms and W. P. telleth us that God did not use to wrap his Truths in Heathenish Metaphysicks but in plain language but let the Reader judge whether there be the heathenish Metaphysicks he speaketh of in this Sylogism wherein there is not a word but what is to be found in the Scripture not but that some words may be made use of in explaining Scripture Truths which are not in the Scripture themselves so they expresse the thing which the Scripture doth signify in other Phrases more proper to the languages the Scripture were wrot in and I could make it evident out of the Books of the Quakers themselves that they use many words which are not in the Scripture No answer could be obtained to my argument in the Meeting but W. P. taking the argument into further consideration attempteth at length in his Pamphlet to make a reply and first taxeth me to be as little a Scholar in regard of the manner of my Sylogism as a Christian in regard of the matter of it My Sylogism was urged to prove the three glorious persons in the Godhead the denial of which doth necessarily infer the denial of Christ to be God equal with the Father and let any judge who approveth himself most a Christian either W. P. in denying this or I in asserting and proving it As to the manner of my Sylogism some Quakers it may be who know not what a Sylogism is may believe that it bespeaks me to be little a Scholar but no Scholar will judge so from that Sylogism which they know to be according to rule and to carry a firm proof in it drawn from the Induction of particulars but W. P. discovereth himself to be that which he taxeth me for namely little a Scholar and though he hath been at the University yet that either he never read Logick or never understood Logick or hath forgot Logick or that purposely he hath laid aside Logick that herein he might be like to the Quakers in answering nothing to the purpose for besides his finding fault with my Sylogism his reply to it doth most of all detect his want of Learning and grosse absurdity for which he would have been hissed out of the Schools had he done it in the University for though he telleth us he will give his reason why he will deny my Minor yet most ridiculously and ignorantly he argueth against my conclusion The Minor as he repeateth it is But they are not three manifestations three operations three substances or three some things else besides subsistences The conclusion Therefore three subsistences If he had indeed denied the Minor he must have asserted that they were either three substances or operations or manifestations or something else but he mistaketh the conclusion for the Minor and argueth that they are not three subsistences No one substance can have three distinct subsistences c. W. P. argueth against the Trinity of persons in the unity of Essence behold the Christian he argueth against the conclusion of a Sylogism calling it the Minor behold the Scholar yet because his argument is against our Doctrine therefore I shall give answer thereunto and his other cavils together in the sixth chap. After this he reflected upon Mr. Madox in the 11. page whose answer you have in the following Chapter CHAP. III. An Answer to the 11. page of W. P's pernicious Pamphlet by W. M. ANd because G. W. willing to bring this strange Doctrine This Doctrine is strange to none but such as are strangers to God and ignorant of the Scriptures whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. but as Ephraim when joyned to idols counted the great things of Gods Law a strange thing Hos. 8. 12. so these men having prostituted themselves to an Idol of their own brains The Light within which is their Christ and Savior count the Doctrine of the true God a strange Doctrine To the capacity of the people You mean to the scorn and contempt of the people for his design was not to explain but to expose the Doctrine and it is absurd to imagine that he could facilitate that to the understanding of others which he himself neither derstands nor believes Compar'd their three Persons to three Apostles By their three persons you mean the three increated Persons of the ever blessed Trinity the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost Of the insolency and wickedness of this Comparison you shall hear by and by onely here let me tell you that we have endeavoured to make them ours by a fiducial application of them to our selves and it is no dishonor to us though it be a blasphemous reflection on them that they are in reproach called our three persons because we appear in vindication of them saying he did not understand how Paul Peter and Iohn could be three persons and one Apostle Neither did we assert it either directly or by consequence For though we call the father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons or He 's according as they are held forth in the Scriptures yet we say there is a vast and infinite difference between three created and the three increated persons for three created persons are so many distinct and separate Essences as they are persons but all the increated persons have the same simple and unseparated essence of God Ioh. 10. 30. I and my Father are one 1 Joh. 5. 7. These three are one not one in person for so the Father is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another from Christ Ioh. 5. 32. There is Another c. and the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 14. 16. Another Comforter i. e. Another as to subsistence or manner of being but one in nature and essence so that though Paul Peter and Iohn being of a finite nature cannot be three persons and one Apostle yet I am sure from the Scripture that the Father Son and Holy Ghost being of an infinite nature are three persons and yet but one God and till you can prove that finite and infinite or God and the Creature are all one it will be in vain to make such a comparison for the shaking of this Foundation-truth A most apt comparison to detect the ridicult of their doctrine Or rather to discover the monstrous blindness hardness and unbelief of his own and your hearts who dare so boldly spit in the face of God like men that have cast off all fear and reverence of God as well as of men One Maddocks whose zeal out-stript his knowledge busling hard as one that had some necessary matter for the decision of Controversie These extravagant expressions designed to cast disgrace on my person I purposely overlook because I contend not for mine own honor but for the honor of God In stead thereof perhaps to save his brethren
Trinity of Persons that three should be one and one should be three that three should be distinguished but not divided that one should not be another the first should not be the second nor the second third nor the second or third the first and yet the first second and third the same that the first should be in the second and the second in the first and both first and second in the third and that without composition without confusion all related to one another and al distinguished one from another by incommunicable personal properties and yet all one and the same in regard of one individual Essence this is such a mystery as doth exceed the weak and narrow understanding of the most enlightned and clear sighted Christians fully to comprehend some by gazing too long upon the Sun become blind and some by prying too much into this mystery and attempting to bring it to the standard and module of their reason have lost the sight thereof and sunk into grosse apprehensions and denied either the unity of the Godhead affirming the three persons to be three distinct Gods or denied the Trinity affirming the Godhead to be without three distinct persons thus while they have professed and conceited themselves to be wise they have proved themselves to be fools void of true understanding by changing the glory of God into that which is unworthy of him But we having a sure word of Prophecy in the Scriptures which is like a light shining in a dark place ought to give heed thereunto and conform all our conceptions of God according to the discoveries which he hath made of himself in his word God knoweth himself better than any creature can know and what he hath spoken of himself must needs be so because he cannot represent himself otherwise than he is and if there be a mystery in him which we cannot reach we adde folly to our weakness if we do in the least question it reason it may be will leave us in our search after the Deity in the Trinity and the Trinity in the Deity but where reason faileth Faith must supply it's room the proper object of Divine Faith is such things as we purely do assent unto upon Divine authority such are not onely Histories and Prophesies but also Mysteries which reason cannot demonstrate unto us in this mystery of the Trinity we must exercise our Faith though we cannot clear it to our selves by demonstration not as if we were to lay reason quite aside in this thing or trample it under foot not as if we should put out the eye of reason that we might see more clearly with the eye of Faith for though this mystery be above reason yet it is not against reason yea there is the greatest reason in the world that we should assent unto that for truth which God hath revealed of himself in his word because he is a God of truth and nothing is more true than that which God hath spoken Wherefore if the Scriptures have revealed that there are three distinct persons in one Divine Essence it is a certain truth and it is reason and duty that every one should assent unto it though the mystery of it there being no such thing to be found in nature cannot be fully comprehended Here then I shall propound my assertion and prove it out of Scripture My assertion according to the generally believed Doctrine of the Church of God is this That there are three distinct subsistents or persons in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead The argument bottom'd upon the Scripture to prove my assertion is this If the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one and the Father is God and the Son God and the Holy Ghost God and the Father Son and Holy Ghost be three distinct subsistents or persons then there are three distinct subsistents or persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead But the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one and the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct subsistents or persons Therefore there are three distinct subsistents or persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same single Divine Essence or Godhead The consequent of the major proposition is plain and firm that no man of reason can in the least question or deny The minor proposition is that which must be proved and there are five things in the proposition to be proved 1. That the Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one 2. That the Father is God 3. That the Son is God 4. That the Holy Ghost is God 5. That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct subsistents or persons 1. The Divine Essence or Godhead is and can be but one Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Isa. 44. 6. Thus saith the Lord I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Isa. 45. 21 22. There is no God else besides me a just God and Saviour there is none besides me look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else And it cannot be otherwise for if there were more than one God then the Godhead might be divided it might be limited and by consequence would be finite and so not God because God is infinite I need not insist upon this because the unity of the Godhead is not denied by the adversaries I have to deal withal 2. The Father is God 1 Cor. 8. 6. To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him I need not multiply places of Scripture nor adde arguments to prove that the Father is God since it is generally acknowledged by all that acknowledge a Deity and the Scriptures 3. The Son is God this William Penn plainly denieth he denieth that the Lord Jesus Christ is God wretched blasphemy that would thrust the Lord Jesus Christ off from the Throne of his Godhead His denial of the Divinity of Christ as well as the Divinity of the Holy Ghost is plain enough I shall repeat his words as they lye in his first argument against the three distinct persons in the Godhead page 13. And since the Father is God the Son is God and the Spirit is God which their opinion necessitates them to confesse then unlesse the Father Son and Spirit are three distinct nothings they must be three distinct substances and consequently three distinct Gods I shall answer the argument in its proper place only observe here that he denieth the Son and Spirit to be God by a plain consequence for first he telleth us that our opinion necessitates us to acknowledge that the Father is God and the Son God and the Spirit God which showeth that his opinion is otherwise that the Son and Spirit are not
Father the only true God In this place Christ excludeth not himself from being God but only excludeth all false Gods and if you mark it the word only as also the word one doth belong to the predicate God and not to the subject Father it being not onely thee to be the true God but thee to be the only true God and so it may be applyed to the Son and Iesus Christ whom thou bast sent to be the only true God which is signifyed in that place and expressed 1 Iob. 5. 10. we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life The other Scriptures prove that there is one God essentially in opposition unto all that upon any other account are called Gods not being Gods by essence all which do but assert that which is acknowledged and hath been already proved in the former Chapter that there is but one God In the argument which W. P. draws from the fore-mentioned Scriptures he doth again show his ignorance if he know not that in several of these places the word one is not in the Hebrew or his deceitfulness if he know and dissemble it and thinks by laying stress on the word one to impose upon the understandings of the vulgar as if there were some great force in his argument from those places when indeed they prove not in the least what he alledgeth them for But allowing W. P. to draw his argument from those places which do prove the unity of God though God be declared and believed to be but one it will not follow that the Divine nature doth not subsist in three persons the Scripture indeed doth hold him forth as one God but there it speaketh of his essence and yet withal doth elsewhere sufficiently declare that in this one essence there are three distinct persons therefore we professe our beleif of the Holy three persons as well as the Holy one God and both according to the plain Scripture before urged for proof hereof 1 Ioh. 5. 7. There are three that bare record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one But this distinction of one God and three persons so plainly signifyed in that Scripture W. P. most impudently and blasphemously calleth impertinent and the reason he giveth is because God was not declared and believed incompleatly or without his subsistance nor did require homage from his creatures as an incompleat and abstracted being c. which is a most egregions non sequitur besides that he fastneth that on us which neither we nor any Orthodox Christian ever yet affirmed viz that God was ever declared or believed incompleatly without his subsistance or as an incompleat and abstracted Being we know no such thing as the essence of God without a subsistance we know the Divine nature only in the three persons not abstracted from them or being any way out of them and so God is not manifested or worshipped without that which is absolutely necessary to himself namely without his subsistance but the Divine essence is worshipped as subsisting in the three persons and so the blessed Trinity is not our nor any mans fiction as he impiously speaks but this folish and absurd notion is his own fiction or the fiction of some of his Socinian brethren After W. P's vain attempts to refute the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Scripture he fronts his other arguments with the swelling but false title Refuted from right reason false I say for besides that what ever attempt reason doth make for the refuting of any Scripture truth which is the object of faith as this is concerning the Trinity of persons in the unity of the Divine essence it doth hereby discover it self to be crooked and depraved reason and the arguings from it are called the perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth 1 Tim. 6. 5. compared with the fourth verse W. P. who before had charged me for using Heathenish Metaphysicks in disputing for the Truths of God though my terms were either Scripture-words or carried Scripture-sense doth here most Heathenishly make use of Metaphysical terms in arguing against the truth but that so weakly that his Argumentation is so far from deserving the name of right reason that more properly it may be called no reason as shall be made evident in the Answer unto his Arguments which if they seem crabbed it is not because of the strength but because of the obscurlty of them for some of the phrases are so uncouch and his reasoning are so odly jointed together to avoid that part of a Scholar in putting them into a Sylogistical form that it is more difficult to find out what his cloudy brains conception and meaning is than to give answer unto any of his cavilling Arguments And here having promised to reply to his reason p. 10. why he flatly denied my minor proposition in the Sylogism before mentioned wherein he argueth onely against the conclusion endeavouring to prove that there are not three subsistences and the argument he useth being the same in sense and scope with his first argument under that which he calleth a Refutation from right reason I shall answer both together and omit nothing in his argument that hath any show of cogency in it His argument is thus No one substance can have three distinct subsistances and perserve its own unity and not to repeat all his words in the obscure way that he propoundeth his arguments but to help him in the methodizing of them his consequence is that every distinct Subsistance will have its own substance and consequently that three distinct subsistances will require three distinct substances consequently if the Doctrine of the Trinity of subsistences were true there would be three Gods And in his first argument he argueth that every person is inseparable from it's own substance and therefore Father Son and Spirit either are three distinct nothings or if persons then three distinct substances and consequently three distinct Gods Answer If Substance be taken here for Essence as it must be otherwise it will conclude nothing against us then the proposition is most false that no one substance can have three distinct subsistances and preserve it 's own unity for though a created Essence being finite limited and divisible cannot be communicated unto any more than one subsistance yet it followeth not that the divine Essence which is infinite and indivisible cannot be communicated to several subsistances neither doth W. P's reason prove the contrary viz that every subsistance will have it 's own substance unlesse he can prove that each distinct subsistence must necessarily have it 's own substance in God as well as Creatures distinct from what the other subsistences have For one and the same singular nature or substance may be and is the substance or nature subsisting in each person of the Trinity and so every subsistence hath it's own substance and yet
There he pretends to inform the Reader concerning the original of this doctrine and first he would have the Reader assure himself that it is neither from Scripture nor reason But I suppose most Readers will be more wise and cautious than to build their assurance upon the bold assertions and crude reasonings of this presumptuous and Heaven-daring disputant That this doctrine is not from reason will be easily granted yea that it is contrary to corrupt reason such as W. P. hath plainly declared it self to be it is a mystery which flesh and blood cannot reveal but the Father which is in Heaven yet so as it is not contrary to right and truly sanctifyed reason And whereas W. P. asserteth that it is not from Scripture he must not think to impose this upon Christians who have look't into the Word any more than what he further asserts as to the first three hundred years upon those that have look't into the writings of the ancient Fathers The Doctrine of the Trinity is as old as the Scriptures themselves and hath been proved out of the first Chapter of Genesis and other places of the Old Testament by Mr. M. Chap. 4th and abundantly out of the New Testament Chap. 5. The Readers that search and believe the Scriptures will never believe W. Penn. That the Doctrine of the Trinity came into the world above three hundred years after the first preaching of the Gospel by the nice distinctions and too daring curiosity of the Bishop of Alexandria is one of W. Pen's loud lyes It was indeed opposed by Arius about that time who denied Christ to be equal to and of the same substance with the Father yet not first opposed by him but by other hereticks before him one of whose disciples if not worse W. P. hath in his Pamphlet sufficiently proved himself to be and if it were opposed before sure it was known before so that W. P. might have derived the pedigree of his abomination and blasphemy if he had consulted Church History higher than from Arius The miserable end of which blasphemour and dishonourer of the eternal Son of God who voided his entrails with his excrements in a place of easement and so died by an unheard of death should caution all others from offering the like indignities unto the Son as to disrobe him of his Deity and number him amongst creatures like themselves lest he stretch forth the arm of his Almighty power and make them feel him if they will not otherwise acknowledge him to be God by bringing some remarkable destruction upon them in this world W. P. Thus was it conceived in ignorance brought forth and maintained by cruelty c. What a strange composition is here of impudence and folly thus boldly and blasphemously to assert this great fundamental truth to be conceived in ignorance and maintained by cruelty and yet in the next breath he owns persecution to be as well on the Arians side as the other and so by his own confession the Arian Doctrine was maintained by cruelty and with how great cruelty and bitternesse those which look into the Histories of those times may easily see To say nothing of W. P's so proud censuring so eminent a champion of Jesus Christ as Athanasius was when he shall produce the grounds of his suspecting the Creed commonly called The Athanasian Creed to be the Results of Popish School-men it will be time enough to answer that Clause Next W. P. cautioneth the Reader to take heed of embracing the Determinations of prejudiced Councils c. and yet giveth no reason why the Reader should be prejudic'd against them except the belying of the Scripture testimony be a reason which I suppose was the ground of their Determinations in this point and no further are any Councils to be heeded than they do agree in their Results with the Scriptures I hope the Reader will rather take heed of embracing such damnable Doctrine as this peremptory Dictatour would impose upon the understanding of the weak and indeed weak they must needs be and blinde too and either renounce the Scriptures or their own senses that will suffer their assent to these great scripture-Scripture-truths to be in the least enfeebled by any thing that this raw Disputer alledgeth for the maintaining of this Blasphemy and Heresie or oppugning our received and never to be shaken Foundations And here W. P. who had discovered before his skill in Logick by arguing against the conclusion of my Syllogism telling us he opposed the Minor his skill in the Original Tongues in noting the Holy ONE in great letters to prove Gods Unity when the word One is not to be found in the Hebrew Text doth make a third attempt to show something of a Scholar but is as unhappy as before and as grosly as in the two former attempts doth signifie to all that understand Learning that he is a proud boaster and pretender to that which he never attained unto He telleth us the Doctrine of the Trinity was never believed by the Primitive Saints nor ever thus stated by any he hath read in three first Centuries particularly Irenaeus Just in Martyr Tertullian Origen Theophilus Theophilact who lived several hundred after Athanasius was cited by W. P. but I finde in the Errata it is corrected Theophilus with many other who appear wholly forreign to the matter in controversie But who ever will peruse these Authors W. P. maketh mention of with others who writ in those times will finde both his lies to be very great and his reading to be very little notwithstanding this vain flourish and boasting The Doctrine of the Trinity is plainly enough to be gathered from several passages in Irenaeus Lib. 1. Cap. 2. Ecclesia accepit fidem quae est in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem in unum Christum filium Dei incarnatum in Spiritum Sanctum qui per Prophet as praedicavit The Faith which the Church hath received is in one God the Father omnipotent and in Christ the Son of God who was made flesh and in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets Do not these words hold forth a distinction of these three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost And cap. 19. Omnium Deus per verbum spiritum omnia faciens gubernans The God of all things making and governing all things by his Word and Spirit Here the making and governing of all things are attributed to the Word and Spirit as well as to the Father and as the former place doth show that he believed they were three distinct persons so this latter place that he believed they were but one God Iust. Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Title of this Book being concernig faith in the holy Consubstantial Trinity sheweth he was not a stranger to this Doctrine Read some of his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When as the Father doth beget the Son of his substance and of the same doth produce the Holy
Ghost most rightly they do partake of the same Essence and are dignified with one and the same Godhead What can be more plain And he goeth on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How can any say that he which begetteth doth not differ from him which is begotten that he which proceedeth doth not differ from him from whom he proceedeth Here is Unity of Essence and Trinity of distinct Persons asserted plainly I shall add but one place more of many in Resp. 17. ad Ortho. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore there is but one God in one indistinct Essence and three Persons with distinction of their Persons or Subsistences Tertullian Lib. de Trinitate adversus Proaxnean doth express his faith in this doctrine throughout the whole Book and argueth it strongly from the Scriptures Cap. 12. Si te adhuc numerus scandalizat Trinitatis quasi non connexae in unitate simplici interrogo quomodo unicus singularis pluraliter loquitur Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram Adam factus est tanquam unus ex nobis quia adhunc adhaerebat illi Filius secundae persona tertia Spiritus ideo pluraliter pronunciavit Faciamus nostram nobis If the number of the Trinity doth offend thee as if it could not be joyned in the simple unity I ask thee how thee one and single God doth speak pluraly Let us make Man after our Image Adam is become like one of us because the Son the second person and the Spirit the third did adhere to him therefore he spake pluraly Let us make our us Chap. 13. Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus Sanctus Deus the Father is God and the Son God and the Holy Ghost God Chap. 31. Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus tres crediti unum Deum sistunt The Father Son and Holy Ghost the three we are to believe in bold forth but one God Theophilus Lib. 1. Com in Evang doth acknowledge the Trinity Margarita pretiosa est Sancta Trinitas quae dividi non potest nam in unitate consistit The Holy Trinity is a precious Iewel which cannot be divided because it consisteth in unity Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in preaemio and Cap. 2. I am informed by a learned Author doth expresse his Faith in this Doctrine but I have not that Peice of Origen by me as I have the rest to consult I could adde the testimony of other Fathers who lived before the time W. P. maketh mention of but it is enough to cite these for the detection of the falshood of W. P. who telleth us that these Fathers were strangers to the Doctrine of the Trinity wherefore the weakness absurdity falshood and folly of this man being made manifest I suppose people will be more cautious than to follow him and the guidance of the light which W. P. saith is communicated unto all and forsake the true Light of the Word and Spirit which alone can guide men into all truth CHAP. VII The Doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ the second person of the real and glorious Trinity asserted and proved IF the doctrine of the ever glorious Trinity or three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in one Godhead had been overthrown by W. P. or could be indeed shaken by the Sociniant which with all the argument they can device in vain they do endeavour if he or they could prove which they never can that there is but one person in the God-head then it would follow that Christ could not be the eternal Son of God the second person of this glorious Trinity as W. P. most blasphemously stileth him the second person of the imagin'd Trinity and by consequence the Doctrine of satisfaction depending upon this person would fall to the ground and might by invincible argument be refuted it being impossible for any meer finite creature to make plenary satisfaction to the infinite Justice of God But the Doctrine of the Trinity being established by Scripture Testimony and the Lord Jesus Christ proved to be God equal with the Father the Doctrine also of satisfaction dependent upon this second person of the real and ever glorious Trinity will remain firm against all Quaker and Socinian attempts to overthrow it and before I give answer unto the objections and cavils against this Doctrine I shall breifly assert and prove the doctrine by the Word of Truth in the Holy Scripture W. P. in his title The impossibility of Gods pardoning offin without a plenary satisfaction refuted seemeth to infinuate that he denyeth onely the impossibility of Gods pardoning sin without satisfaction but whoever readeth his arguments shall finde them to be the very same which the Socinians use against Satisfaction it self and that he plainly denyeth the thing therefore I shall not concern my self to enquire what God could or might do if he pleased but what he hath decreed and determined to do and declared in the Scripture to be his will and here I affirm 1. That God never doth nor will nor can pardon any sinner without satisfaction made to his offended Iustice for their sins And that because his holiness righteousness and truth obligeth him to take vengeance upon all that have transgressed his Law the Lord is so Holy that he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal. 5. 5. and what is Gods hatred but Percatum pro merito suo velle punire as Bradsh de Iust. his will to punish sin and sinners according to their desert His Justice doth engage him by no means to clear the guilty Exod. 34. 7. and his truth would be enfringed if he should not curse every one that centinueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. II. That no sinners themselves by any thing they can do or suffer in this life can give satisfaction unto Gods Iustice for their sins And the reason is because whatever good they do is no more than duty wherein also they must have Divine help to enable them and when they have done their duty their works are but imperfect and they unprofitable servants and this can make no compensation for their faults before Luk. 17. 10. When have done all the things commanded say we are unprofitable servants c. Our righteousnesses are as filthy raggs Isa. 64. 6. And what ever sinners suffer in this life it is infinitely short of what their sins have deserved Gods Justice is infinite and requierth an infinite satisfaction sinners are finite and therefore there is no porportion between any thing they can bring and what Gods Justice doth require for satisfaction III. That Iesus Christ being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man in one person was onely fit to make and hath actually made satisfaction unto Gods infinite and offended Iustice for the sins of Men. It was necessary that the person that should make satisfaction should be man because none but a creature could suffer and none but a man could be a fit
the works of your Father you do and will do you are his more close and subtle agents that in a seeming more refined way do all you can to enlarge the bounds of his Kingdom and like Satan when the Sons and Daughters of God assemble themselves to worship their Father some of you will appear amongst them to disturb them I wonder how you can have the face to pretend Religion when it is so apparent that you are more than ordinarily acted by the Devil to oppose it 4. You are Serpents and a generation of Vipers full of deadly poyson poyson in the head the poyson of damnable errours from whence poyson doth drop forth at your lipps and into your pens you are Serpents putting forth your stings where ever you come hissing at all those who are not of your brood If our Saviour were on Earth to preach to you as he did to the Pharisees he would with as great reason thus stile you as he did them Que II. Do you know where you are 1. You are in the Devils School he is training you up in some of the deepest mysteries of his Kingdom some amongst you are but raw Scholars and in the lower form but you that I speak to are arrived to some proficiency and are well instructed in some of the chief principles of the Devils Catechism so that you are able also to instruct others in the Devilish Doctrines you have learnt of him Your master is a lyer from the beginning and the Father of lyes and you have learnt and believed some of his lyes as if they were certain truths 2. You are in the Devils arms he huggeth you so fast that it is more difficult to pluck you from thence than the most wicked and profane 3. You are in the Devils chains whereby he is leading you captive at his will they are chains of darkness and errour which he hath upon you whereby he is dragging you towards the regions of eternal darkness Que III. Do you know what you are doing 1. You are dishonouring God in dishonouring the Son you dishonour the Father in reproaching Gods Embassadours you reproach the King that sent them you are spots and blemishes to Religion and render it ridiculous to the prophane world 2. You are murdering your own Souls embruing your hands in your own blood you are poysoning wounding killing your selves and you are some of the greatest soul-murderers of others of any that live upon the Earth Que. IV. Do you know whether you are going You are going the certain way to Hell your way is not in the common rodewith others but it is a by-way and dark path in which you often stumble and fall and at length it will meet with the great rode of the world at the Gate of Hell in which you will as certainly enter at last if you go on in this path as Cain and Iudas that are there already And here I might sound a peal of Judgement in your ears and forewarn you of the wrath to come to escape which one day you would give ten thousand worlds for an interest in Christs Satisfaction and imputed Righteousness when it will be too late but for the present most of you are Judgement-proof and Sermon-proof and so prejudiced against us Ministers who are employed as Watch-men by the Lord to forewarn the people of their danger that our reproofsand warnings are rejected and railing language is the return of our admonitions Yet in the name of the Eternal and Living God Father Son and Holy Ghost whose I am and whom I serve in the work of the Ministry I call upon you that are eluded by the Quakers and have not as yet sucked in all their poysonous principles which they have cunningly concealed from you but now have made manifest to the world that without any further delay you would come out from amongst them and seperate your selves that you would save your selves from this untoward generation that you would deliver your selves as a bird out of the snare of the fowler and as a Roe out of the hand of the hunter praying to the Lord to grant you repentance for going amongst them unto the acknowledgement of his truths which they deny and that you may be recovered out of the snare of the Devil who hath hitherto led you captive considering that if you go in this way your steps will certainly take hold on Hell O then hasten hasten poor captiv'd deluded Souls hasten for the Lords sake for your poor souls sake hasten from these Soul-murderers unto the Lord Jesus the Soul-Savior and into the ways of life and salvation which he hath prescribed in his word Lastly I shall in a word bend my speech unto all as yet undeluded Christians by way of exhortation to stedfastness in the truths and way of the Lord and as they desire their salvation to beware of the Quakers damnable Doctrines There are two ways whereby God doth try his people the one is by persecution and other is by heresie and the Apostle telleth us 1 Co. 11. 19. that it is necessary heresies should arise that they which are approved might be made manifest this later way doth sometimes discover more unsound Professours than the former the approved and elect of God I am sure will stand and if any go out from us it is a sign they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would still have continued with us 1 Ioh. 2. 19. And here I shall again repeat what I did before assert that it were better for you to drink a cup of poyson than to suck in the Quakers damnable opinions Take heed of this infection which is worse than poyson and plague more dangerous and destructive For this end labour to get on the girdle of truth let the truths of the word be fastned about the loyns of your minds that is get the principles of Religion fixed in you which that they may mingle them with faith and love and live under the powerful influence of them And that you may be the further off from danger avoid the Company and Meetings of the Quakers lest coming thither out of novelty being out of Gods way you be left by God and as too many have been you be caught by the Devil in the snares which there he layeth and come not neer the Tents of these enemies of Jesus Christ lest you be swallowed up in the same ruine which is coming upon them If you would save your selves from their plagues you must keep your selves out of their ways I shall shut up all with the exhortation of the Apostle Peter having told believers of the unlearned and unstable who did wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction as do the Quakers he exhorteth them 2 Epist. 3. cap. 17. 18. v. Yee therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being lead away with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Now to God the Father to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be glory and honour both now and for ever Amen FINIS ERRATA THe speeding of the sheets off the Presses hath caused too many both literal Errata's and in the sence too the chiefest found out in a hasty reveiw you have as follow and are desired to mend Page 9 line 21 read destruction p. 11. l. 25 read own p. 15 l. 11. read understands p. 16 l. 30 r. redicule l. 32 r. heart p. 17 l. 24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 18 l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 12 Iob 35. 10. l. 2 my l. 14 for my r. thy l. 18 r. for 18 28 p. 20 l. 3 for the r. three l. 10 after substances adde therefore the Father Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct substances or three distinct nothings p. 23 l. 27 blot out W. P. required his presence else where p. 27 l. 18. blot out Father Son and Holy Ghost p. 28 l. 17 r. blasphemer p. 34 l. 28 r. Three p. 35 l. 33 r. their p. 40 l. 6 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 23 r. true where ever you find subsistance read subsistence p. 42. r. foolish l. last r. reasonings p. 45 l. 15 r. there p. 48 l. 18 r. W. P's p. 51 l. last r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 52 l. 1 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 12 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17 r. Praxean l. 28 for thee r. the p. 53 l. 8 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 34 r. arguments p. 54 l. 27 r. much concern my self l. 29 r. but chiefly p. 55 l. 2 r. peccatum l. 7 r. when ye have c. p. 56 l. last r. to give p. 59 l. 31 r. out of