mortal Life he raised and changed the Body of Lazarus which was corrupted that the Power by which he restored Lazarus to Life again was not our Lords own proper Power but God's that is the Fathers is plainly intimated by our Lord himself John 11. 41. Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me c. Almighty God can lodge even in dry Bones a Power of restoring the dead 2 Kings 13. 21. see also what hath been said on John 5. 19. 20. John 8. 56 58. Abraham rejoiced or desired to see my Day and saw it Before Abraham was I am Or as 't is rendred by the Syriac Nonnus and Grotius I was Answ 1. Abraham saw Christ's Day in the Spirit of Prophecy he saw it as coming not as present he foresaw as he desired the time when it should be 2. St. Austin has confessed that Christ is here said to be before Abraham not actually but in the Counsel Decree and Ordination of God. And so St. Peter explains this matter 1 Pet. 1. 20. Who verily was fore-ordained from the Foundation of the World but was made manifest in these last times In like manner at Rev. 13. 8. Christ is called the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World. The Words are Whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World. Every one sees that Christ could be no otherways slain from the Foundation of the World but in the Counsel and Decree of God. See more such Instances on John 17. 5. 'T is true the Jews did not apprehend in what sense our Lord meant he was before Abraham but neither did he intend or care they should for finding them averse from Truth and Piety he often so spake to some of them as to perplex and affront their Blindness and Arrogance yet more and not to instruct them see for this Luke 8. 10. 21. John. 10. 30. I and the Father are one Answ Not one God but as Friends are said to be one Thus our Lord explains himself John 17. 11. Keep them whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are The Disciples could be one no otherways than as Friends are one namely in Affection and Design neither with one another nor with God. Ver. 22. The Glory which thou gavest me i. e. the Power of doing Miracles I have given them that they may be one as we are one 22. John 10. 33. Thou being a Man makest thy self God or a God. Answ It appears they lied by our Saviours Answer at ver 36. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God. Had our Lord been more than the Son of God he would have owned his Dignity when they charged him with Blasphemy for saying those things from which it might by their strained Consequences be inferred that he made himself a God. Camero on this Text ingenuously confesses that in this Context our Lord doth not make himself God He adds that times and circumstances required that the Revelation of this Mystery should be deferred till our Lord's Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven In which saying he gives up to the Socinians all the Texts of the Evangelists 23. John 10. 38. The Father is in me and I in him Answ 'T is also said 1 John 4. 16. He that dwelleth in Love i. e. exerciseth Love and Charity dwelleth in God and God in him Therefore Christ and Christians are said to be in God and God in them by their mutual Love or because of their mutual Love. 24. John 12. 41. These things said Isaias when he saw his Glory and spake of him Answ see on Isai 6. 1 8 9. 25. John 14. 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me Answ Our Lord has himself interpreted this John 12. 44. He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me 26. John 14. 7 9. If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him He that hath seen me hath seen the Father how sayest thou then shew us the Father Answ It is also said Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me 't is there farther added He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Shall we now infer that the Disciples and Ministers of Christ are Christ nay are him also that sent Christ namely God The Truth therefore is when we are said to know see hear despise God in knowing seeing hearing or despising Christ or his Ministers the meaning only is that Christ and his true Ministers being the Ambassadours and Messengers of God and revealing to us his Nature and Will they are so far forth to be esteemed one with God and in seeing and hearing them we see and hear him as much as the invisible God can be seen or heard in this mortal Life 27. John 14. 14. If ye ask any thing in my Name I will do it Answ The obvious meaning is if ye pray for any thing to God using my Name I will cause it to be done for you by my Intercession the general Intercession that I will make for all good Christians Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save them that come unto God by him i. e. that pray to God in his Name seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them 28. John 16. 8 13 14. When he the Comforter or Spirit is come he will reprove the World of Sin He shall not speak of himself He shall receive of mine and shew it to you Here the Spirit is plainly spoken of as a Person Answ 1. Of those that are Vnitarians all the Arians and very many Socinians do acknowledg that the Holy Spirit is a Person chief of the Heavenly Spirits prime Minister of God and Christ because he is here called the Comforter or Advocate and said to hear speak and teach and elsewhere to interceed for us But they add that this very Context in telling us ver 13. He will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself Sufficiently sheweth that he is not God or a God. For it were intolerable to say of God he shall lead you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself the contrary is true of God he shall lead you into all Truth For he shall speak of himself 2. But more generally the Socinians say that Actions proper to Persons are by a Figure ascribed to things and even to Qualities of things not only in Holy Scripture but in all Writers God's Commandments are called Counsellours Psal 119. 24. Understanding is said to lift up her Voice Prov. 8. 1. Wisdom to build her House and hew out her seven-Pillars Prov. 9. 1. Charity to think no evil 1 Cor. 13. 5. Water and Blood to bear Witness 1 John 5. 8. The Stone set up by Joshua to hear all the Words
that our High-Priest and Intercessor having been in our very Circumstances is touched with a true Feeling of our Infirmities and therefore doth with great Earnestnest intercede for us all in general 35. Heb. 7. 3. Without Father without Mother having neither Beginning of Days nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest for ever Answ All acknowledg that these Words are spoken of Melchizedec And that because neither his Father nor Mother nor the time of his Birth or Death are mentioned in Scripture he is therefore said to be withour Father or Mother and without Beginning of Days or end of Life But he is not herein like the Son of God the time of whose Birth and Death is recorded in Scripture and whose Mother was blessed Mary and his Father the everlasting God but he is like the Son of God in that he abideth a Priest for ever 36. Heb. 10. 5. A Body hast thou prepared for me Answ 'T is undoubted that God prepared a Body for the Soul of Christ 37. Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming i. e. Moses esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt Answ The sense is Moses preferred being reproached and ill used by Pharaoh and the Egyptians as Christ was reproached and abused when he came to deliver the true Israel of God from the Bondage of Sin and Satan before all the Treasures and Riches which he as an adopted Son of Pharaoh's Daughter might have expected and had in Egypt So Grotius and others the most esteemed Interpreters 38. Heb. 13. 8. Jesus the same yesterdy today and for ever Answ This is prefaced to what here follows be not carried away with diverse and strange Doctrines as an Argument to perswade Constancy in the true Faith. The sense is the Lord Christ and his Gospel is the same thing that it always was be not therefore carried about to every novel Doctrine Ye will by Experience find that 't is a good thing to be establish'd in the Grace of the Gospel and not in Doctrines about Meats which the Jews from the Mosaic Law and the Gentiles from the Dictates of their Philosophers so much urge 39. 1 Pet. 1. 11. Searching what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ. Answ 1. The Spirit of Christ that is the same Spirit of Prophecy that was in Christ Or 2. The Prophetick Spirit in them which spoke of Christ So Grotius interprets here Others confirm his Interpretation by observing that the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error mentioned 1 John 4. 6. are those Spirits which speak the Truth and teach Error So we call Virgil the Poet of Eneas and Homer of Achilles and Vlisses because they have written and spoken of Eneas Achilles and Vlisses 40. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. Quickned by the Spirit by which also he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison which sometimes were disobedient in the days of Noah Answ This Text seems to speak of Christ's descent into Hell. The sense is Christ being dead was shortly quickned or brought to Life again by the Spirit or Power of God by which also that is by assistance of which Spirit he preached and spoke to the Spirits imprisoned in Hell who would not harken to Noah who in his Life-time preached Righteousness to them 2 Pet. 2. 5. Cardinal Bellarmine has quoted above thirty of the Fathers who interpret this Text after this manner The Interpretation seems confirmed by 1 Pet. 4. 6. For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead For that he speaketh of the real dead appears by the foregoing verse 41. 1 John 1. 1 c. That which was from the Beginning which we have seen with our Eyes of the Word of Life declare we unto you Answ The Word of Life here is the Gospel The sense is we declare or preach to you that Gospel or Word of Life which from the Beginning was in the Mind and Decree of the Father So St. John explains himself in these Words at ver 3. That eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us He calleth the Word of Life eternal Life as 't is the ordinary and appointed means and way to eternal Life He saith he had heard it and seen it with his Eyes and handled it with his Hands to signify by these Expressions that it was fully certainly and perfectly known to him For the Hebrews use to express full and certain Knowledg of things by Words and Phrases borrowed from the senses 42. 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Answ Neither the Syriac nor almost any Greek Copy of the Bible hath the Word God in this Text. The true reading is hereby perceive we his Love because he Christ laid down his Life for us 2. Admitting the reading in the English Bible yet he in this Text is not God but Christ the Son of God who was mentioned ver 8. So Grotius And the Interpretation is certain for God cannot lay down his Life 43. 1 John 4. 3. Every Spirit that confesseth not that Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God. Answ This saying is come in the Flesh or in Flesh for so 't is in the Greek is opposed to those false Prophets and Teachers that affirmed Christ had not a real Body of Flesh and Blood but a spiritual and consequently was not a true Man nor the Off-spring of David On the contrary St. John here teaches that Christ is come in Flesh or in the Flesh that is was clothed with a real Body of real Flesh 44. 1 John 5. 7. There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Answ 1. This verse was not originally in the Bible but has been added to it 'T is not found in the most ancient Copies of the Greek nor in the Syriac or Arabick or Ethiopic or Armenian Bibles nor in the most ancient Latin Bibles 'T is not acknowledged by the Fathers who treated professedly of this Question of the Trinity 't is wholly rejected by abundance of the most learned Criticks and Interpreters and by all acknowledged to be doubtful and uncertain 2. Admitting this verse to be genuine yet the most learned Trinitarians confess the sense is not these three are one God but these three are one in their Testimony or they agree in their Testimony for they are here considered and spoken of as Witnesses So Beza Vatablus Calvin Erasmus the English-Geneva Notes And accordingly most of the Greek Bibles which have this verse in them read here as they do in the next verse not these three are one but these three agree in one i. e. in one and the same Testimony 45. 1 John 5. 20. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an Vnderstanding
of the Lord Josh 24. 27. Are these things Persons Is it not evident that Actions proper to Persons are ascribed to them as well as to the Holy Spirit or Power and Inspiration of God by the Figure called Prosopopeia Briefly We ought to conceive thus of this matter a great Effusion of God's Inspiration and Power being to be given to the Disciples that it might be a continual Director and Guide when the Lord Christ was no more personally with them therefore this Guide is by the aforesaid Figure spoken of in such terms as if it were some Doctor Teacher and Advocate Hence it is said to reprove the World to guide into all Truth to intercede for us namely because it suggesteth Prayer and Affection in Prayer also not to speak of himself but to speak what he shall hear from God to receive of Christ's that is receive of God the Remainder of Christ's Doctrine and teach it to the Apostles For 't is to be noted that our Lord left some things to be taught by this Inspiration of God because the Disciples were not capable to hear and believe them till they had seen the great Miracles of our Lords Resurrection and Afcension into Heaven John 16. 12. I have yet many things to say to you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he shall guide you into all Truth The Spirit that guided the Apostles into all Truth was it not the meer Inspiration of God It is for the same Reason and by the same Figure that this Power and Inspiration of God in the Apostles is said to bear Witness John 15. 26. to search Mysteries 1 Cor. 2. 10. 11. to distribute Gifts 1 Cor. 12. 2. to appoint Bishops Acts 20. 28. to glorify Christ John 16. 14. Finally It appeared in the Form of a Dove on Christ and of Cloven Tongues on the Apostles Matth. 3. 16. Acts 2. 3 4. Because God conveyed this Divine Energy to the Lord Christ and to the Apostles in these outward Symbols which were fit Emblems of the Quality of the Gifts then bestowed The Dove signified the mild and peaceable Spirit of Christ and that the Power then conveyed to him should not be for the Damage or Hurt of Mankind The Tongues denoted that the Apostles did then and there receive the Gift or Faculty of speaking with many Tongues But what sense can the Trinitarians make of these things they say the Spirit is a Person and God did God receive and assume the Shape of a Dove that is of a Brute What hinders but that they may believe all the Transformations in the Metamorphosis of Ovid 29. John 16. 15. All things that the Father hath are mine Answ 1. St. Paul hath said as much of every Christian 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. All things are Yours things present things to come all are yours 2. All things in this Text of St. John are all things relating to the Christian Faith Doctrine and Discipline for it follows Therefore said I He the Spirit shall take of mine and shew it to you The meaning of the whole Passage is all things relating to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Christian Church which the Father hath in his Mind and Design are mine that is are known to me and shall for the most part of them be ordered by my self as for the rest which I my self do not discover or order the Spirit shall receive it and shew it to you 30. John 17. 5. Glorify me with thine own self with the Glory I had with thee before the World was Answ 1. St. Austin and many other learned and Orthodox Interpreters not only grant but contend that the meaning here is Let me now actually receive that Glory with thy self which I had with thee in thy Decree and Design before the World was This Interpretation is confirmed by this that the Sufferings of Christ were to precede his actual Glory 1 Pet. 1. 11. Searching what and what manner of time the Spirit did signify when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 2. As 't is here said The Glory that I had with thee before the World was so 't is said 2 Cor. 5. 1. We have a Building of God an House not made with Hands Where we have is we have it in God's Decree and Intention or it is prepared for us 2 Tim. 1. 9. Grace was given us in Christ before the World was Where again was given to us is was given in God's Decree and Intention Therefore so also we may understand that Christ had Glory before the World was 31. John 17. 10. All mine are thine and thine are mine Answ It appears by the foregoing verse and by what follows that Christ speaks of such as were or should be his Disciples His meaning is all that are my Disciples are of thy giving to me and still remain thine and all that are true Servants and Lovers of God readily become mine that is Disciples to me 32. John 17. 24. For thou lovedst me from the Foundation of the World. Answ None can deny that God loved all the Elect from the Foundation of the World. To God all things are present not only what is past but what is to come is present to the Divine Mind and Knowledg 33. John 20. 28. Thomas answered and said unto him my Lord and my God Or O my Lord and O my God! For 't is an Attic Vocative Answ 1. Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople was of Opinion that these Words were not designed to Christ but to God. For though the Evangelist saith Thomas answered and said unto him i. e. to Christ O my Lord and O my God. Yet the Exclamation might be addressed to God as it's Object tho it was also an Answer to our Saviour or in Answer to our Saviour and to what he had said at ver 27. Or if the Words were addressed to our Saviour also it may be admitted as true what others say here Namely 2. When Thomas had felt the Prints of the Spear and Nails in our Saviour's Side and Hands and was thereby fully satisfied that he was indeed risen again he breaks forth into this Exclamation the first part of which he directed to Christ the other to God. O my Lord are Words of Congratulation to our Saviour And O my God! Words of Admiration and Praise to God. 34. Acts 5. 3 4. Why hath Satan filled thine Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Thou hast not lied unto Men but unto God. Answ Some of the most celebrated Interpreters among the Trinitarians have owned that this Text ought to be thus understood Why hast thou lied to the Holy Ghost i. e. to us Apostles who have thou knowest the Holy Spirit or Inspiration of God in us Thou hast not lied unto Men but unto God i. e. thou hast not hereby lied to Men only or chiefly but to God who is in us by his Spirit and Inspiration This
World that he gave his only begotten Son to die and shed his Blood for us From SIR Your Faithful and Assured A Fourth Letter TO A FRIEND Concerning the UNITARIANS Called also SOCINIANS Containing the Texts objected to them out of the Epistles and Revelation Rom. 1. 25. Who changed the Truth of God into a Lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen Printed in the Year 1687. A Fourth Letter Concerning the Unitarians vulgarly called Socinians SIR WE are come to the last part of our Task the Texts of the Epistles and Revelation and the Answers of the Socinians to them 1. Rom. 1. 3. Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 9. 5. Of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Answ 1. It is very probable by the Syriae and by some Passages in Ignatius and other Fathers that the word God was not originally in this Text for they read it thus Of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is blessed above all for ever 2. But admitting the reading in the vulgar Editions of the Greek the Greek Words as Erasmus and Curcellaeus observe should have been thus translated Of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came God who is over all be blessed for ever For the Words are a Thanksgiving for Christ and for his Exaltation The Addition of the word Amen proper in Prayers and Thanksgivings doth much countenance this Translation 3. These Words according to the Flesh and as concerning the Flesh never signify as Trinitarians would here interpret them according to his humane Nature as if Christ had also a Divine Nature Rom. 9. 3. My Kinsmen according to the Flesh Rom. 4. 1. Abraham our Father as pertaining to the Flesh Col. 3. 22. Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh Had now Abraham or Paul's Kinsmen or have Masters a Divine Nature because these Words according to the Flesh and as pertaining to the Flesh are used of them The Truth is these Phrases are only as much as to say according to the Body and are to signify that Abraham is the Father of the Jews according to their Bodies as God is the Father of their Souls or Spirits and that the Jews were Paul's Kinsmen according to the Body but not of Kin to him in Respect of Likeness in Faith or Manners also that Masters are Masters over our Bodies not of our Minds or Spirits Therefore in the other Texts also where Christ is said to be of the Seed of Abraham of Israel and of David according to the Flesh the meaning can only be that as to his Body or outward Man he descended of the House of David and of the Stock of Israel and Abraham his Soul or Spirit being from God. 2. Rom. 2. 16. God shall judg the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 4. 5. Who both will bring to light the hidden things of Darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of Hearts Answ The Knowledg Christ hath or at the last Judgment shall have of the Secrets of Hearts is purely by Revelation from God and the Divine Word communicated to him Rev. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to shew unto his Servants 3. Rom. 10. 12. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him Answ This and what follows is spoken of God not of Christ 4. 1 Cor. 1. 2 3. All that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ Ver. 3. Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Answ 1. As to the former of these Texts see on Acts 9. 14 21. For all that is there said takes place here also 2. But as to ver 3. It shows plainly that Christ is not God for it speaks of him as a distinct and different Person from God Therefore Grace and Peace is wished to the Corinthians from God as the Author of every good and perfect Gift and from Christ to use the Words of Origen as the Procurer by his Intercession with God. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are Temples of the living God. Answ The Holy Ghost or Spirit being the Inspiration and Power of God the same Bodies that are Temples of one must needs be Temples also of the other 6. 1 Cor. 10. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents It had been said before at ver 4. They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ Answ 1. The Rock was Christ not really but in Signification it signified and prefigured Christ for which reason 't is called a spiritual Rock So St. Austin contr Advers Leg. et Prophet l. 2. c. 6. This Interpretation is confirmed by Instances of like Nature Gen. 41. 26. The seven good Kine are seven Years and the seven good Ears are seven Years that is they signify and prefigure seven Years of plenty This Rock prefigured Christ as he is the true Rock of his People and Church Its Waters also signified Christ for as they were the Refreshment and Life of the Israelites in the Wilderness so is Christ of the true Israel of God in the howling Wilderness of this present World. 2. Whereas we are bid at ver 9. not to tempt Christ 't is to be noted that the ancient and true reading of this Text is Let us not tempt God. S. Epiphanius hath left upon record that it was the Heretick Marcion who corrupted this Text by putting Christ for God in the Copies by him published Epiphan L. 1. T. 3. p. 358. Edit Petav. But admitting the reading in the English Bibles yet the sense will be Let us not tempt that is murmur against Christ as the Israelites tempted or murmured against God in the Wilderness That tempting God and Christ is rightly interpreted by murmuring against them appears by Numb 14. 27 28 29. 7. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 11. There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit Differences of Administrations but the same Lord Diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all All these worketh that one and the same Spirit Answ The plain meaning is God and his Spirit that is God by his Spirit and Inspiration worketh that great Diversity of Gifts Prophecy Tongues Healing which were in the Christians of those times and that though there are different Administrations that is Orders of Men in the Church yet they are all under one Lord or Head even Christ 8. 2 Cor. 8. 9. Ye know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his Poverty might become rich Answ The sense is Such was the Favour and Love of Christ to Mankind that in his