is Father Son and holy Ghost So that the Father is God so also is the Son and the holy Ghost likewise and as such are to be believed in obeyed worshipped acknowledged as the first cause and last end of all our Lord and Reward If this be not admitted if somewhat of it be not particularly denyed we need not we have no warrant or ground to proceed any farther or at all to discourse about the Unity of the Divine Essence or the distinction of Persons We have not therefore any original contest in this matter with any but such as deny either God to be one or the Father to be God or the Son to be God or the Holy Ghost so to be If any deny either of these in particular we are ready to confirm it by sufficient Testimonies of Scripture or clear and undeniable Divine Revelation When this is evinced and vindicated we shall willingly proceed to manifest that the explications used of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church are according to truth and such as necessarily are required by the nature of the things themselves And this gives us the method of the small ensuing Discourse with the Reasons of it The first thing which we affirm to be delivered unto us by divine Revelation as the Object oâ— ouâ— Faith is that God is one I know that this may be uncontroulably evidenced by the â—ight of Reason it self unto as good and quiet an Assurance as the mind of man is capable of in any of its apprehensions whatever But I speak of it now as it is confirmed unto us by Divine Revelation How this Assertion of one God respects the Nature Essence or Divine Being of God shall be declared afterwards At present it is enough to represent the Testimonies that he is one only one And because we have no difference with our Adversaries distinctly about this matter I shall only name some few of them Deut. 6. 4. Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. A most pregnant Testimony and yet notwithstanding as I shall elsewhere manifest the Trinity it self in that one divine Essence is here asserted Isa. 44. 6 8. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God Is there a God besides me Yea there is no God I know not any In which also we may manifest that a plurality of Persons is included and expressed And although there be no more absolute and sacred truth than this that God is one yet it may be evinced that it is no where mentioned in the Scripture but that either in the words themselves or the context of the place a plurality of persons in that one sence is intimated Secondly It is proposed as the object of our Faith that the Father is God And herein as is pretended there is also an agreement between us and those who oppose the Doctrine of the Trinity But there is a mistake in this matter Their hypothesis as they call it or indeed presumptuous errour casts all the conceptions that are given us concerning God in the Scripture into disorder and confusion For the Father as he whom we worship is often called so only with reference unto his Son as the Son is so with reference to the Father He is the only begotten of the Father John 1. 14. But now is this Son had no praeexistence in his Divine nature before he was born of the Virgin there was no God the Father seventeen hundred years ago because there was no Son And on this ground did the Marcionites of old plainly deny the Father whom under the New Testament we Worship to be the God of the Old Testament who made the World and was Woâ—shipped from the foundation of it For it seems to follow that he whom we worship being the Father and on this supposition that the Son had no praexistence unto his incarnation he was not the Father under the Old Testament he is some other from him that was so revealed I know the folly of that inference yet how on this opinion of the sole existence of the Son in time Men can prove the Father to be God let others determine He who abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son but whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ he hath not God 2 John 9. Whoever denyes Christ the Son as the Son that is the eternal Son of God he loses the Father also and the true God he hath not God For that God which is not the Father and which ever was and was not the Father is not the true God Hence many of the Fathers even of the first Writers of the Church were forced unto great pains in the confirmation of this truth that the Father of Jesus Christ was he who made the World gave the Law spake by the Prophets and was the Author of the Old Testament and that against Men who professed themselves to be Christians And this bruitish apprehension of theirs arose from no other principle but this that the Son had only a temporal Existence and was not the Eternal Son of God But that I may not in this brief discourse digress unto other Controversies than what lyes directly before us and seeing the Adversaries of the truth we contend for do in words at least grant that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God or the only true God I shall not further shew the inconsistency of their hypothesis with this confession But take it for granted that to us there is one God the Father 1 Cor. 8. 6. See John 17. 3. So that he who is not the Father who was not so from Eternity whose paternity is not equally coexistent unto his Deity is no God unto us Thirdly It is asserted and believed by the Church that Jesus Christ is God the Eternal Son of God that is He is proposed declared and revealed unto us in the Scripture to be God that is to be served worshipped believed in obeyed as God upon the account of his own Divine excellencies And whereas we believe and know that he was Man that he was born lived and dyed as a Man it is declared that he is God also and that as God he did preexist in the form of God before his Incarnation which was effected by voluntary actings of his own which could not be without a preexistence in another nature This is proposed unto us to be believed upon Divine Testimony and by Divine Revelation And the sole enquiry in this matter is whether this be proposed in the Scripture as an Object of Faith and that which is indispensibly necessary for us to believe Let us then nakedly attend unto what the Scripture asserts in this matter and that in the order of the Books of it in some particular instances which at present occurr to mind as these that follow Psalm
Holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. And then was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was John 17. 3. And as this dispensation was needful unto the accomplishment of the whole work which as our Mâ—diator he had undertaken so in particular he who was in himself the Lord of Hosts a Sanctuary to them that feared him became hereby a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem Isa. 8. 13 14. See Luke 2. 34. Rom. 9. 33. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Isa. 28. 26. But yet notwithstanding as occasions required suitably unto his own holy ends and designs he forbare not to give plain and open testimony to his own Divine Nature and eternal pre-existence unto his Incarnation And this was it which of all other things most provoked the carnal Jews with whom he had to do For having as was said lost the Doctrine of the Trinity and Person of the Messiah in a great measure when ever he asserted his Deity they were immediately enraged and endeavoured to destroy him So was it plainly John 8. 56 57 58 59. Saith he Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad then said the Jews unto him thou art nâ—t yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am then took they up stones to cast at him So also John 10. 30 31 32 33. I and my Father are one then the Jews took up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do you stone me The Jews answered him saying for a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because that thou being a Man makest thy self God They understood well enough the meaning of those words I and my Father are one namely that they were a plain Assertion of his being God This caused their rage And this the Jews all abide by to this day namely that he declared himself to be God and therefore they slew him Whereas therefore the first discovery of a plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence consists in the Revelation of the Divine Nature and personality of the Son this being opposed persecuted and blasphemed by these Jews they may be justly looked upon and esteemed as the first Assertors of that misbelief which now some seek again so earnestly to promote The Jews persecuted the Lord Christ because he being a Man declared himself also to be God and others are ready to revile and reproach them who believe and teach what he declared After the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus all things being filled with tokens evidences and effects of his Divine Nature and Power Rom. 1. 4. The Church that began to be gathered in his name and according to his Doctrine being by his especial institution to be initiated into the express profession of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as being to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which confession comprizeth the whole of the truth contended for and by the indispensible placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience unto him is made the doctrinal foundation of the Church it continued for a season in the quiet and undisturbed possession of this Sacred Treasure The first who gave disquietment unto the Disciples of Christ by perverting the Doctrine of the Trinity was Simon Magus with his followers an account of whose monstrous figments and unintelligible imaginations with their coincidence with what some men dream in these latter daies shall elsewhere be given Nor shall I need here to mention the Colluvies of Gnosticks Valentinians Marcionites and Manichees the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their mis-apprehensions of the being of God their unbelief of the Trinity and Person of Christ as do those of some others also In especial there was one Cerinthus who was more active than others in his opposition to the Doctrine of the person of Christ and therein of the Holy Trinity To put a stop unto his Abominations all Authors agree that John writing his Gospel prefixed unto it that plain declaration of the eternal Deity of Christ which it is prefaced withall And the story is well attested by Irenaeus Eusebius and others from Polycarpus who was his Disciple that this Cerinthus coming into the place where the Apostle was he left it adding as a reason of his departure lest the building through the just judgement of God should fall upon them And it was of the Holy Wise Providence of God to suffer some impious Persons to oppose this Doctrine before the death of that Apostle that he might by infallible Inspiration farther reveal manifest and declare it to the establishment of the Church in future Ages For what can farther be desired to satisfie the minds of men who in any sense own the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures than that this Controversie about the Trinity and Person of Christ for they stand and fall together should be so eminently and expresly determined as it were immediately from Heaven But he with whom we have to deal in this matter neither ever did nor ever will nor can acquiesce or rest in the divine determination of any thing which he hath stirred up strife and controversie about For as Cerinthus and the Ebionites persisted in the Heresie of the Jews who would have slain our Saviour for bearing witness to his own Deity notwithstanding the evidence of that testimony and the right apprehension which the Jews had of his mind therein so he excited others to engage and persist in their Opposition to the truth notwithstanding this second particular determination of it from Heaven for their confutation or confusion For after the more weak and confused oppositions made unto it by Theodotus Coriarius Artemon and some others at length a stout Champion appears visibly and expresly engaged against these fundamentals of our faith This was Paulus Sa nosatenus Bishop of the Church of Antioch about the year 272. A man of most intolerable pride passion and folly the greatest that hath left a name upon Ecclesiastical Records This man openly and avowedly denyed the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ in an especial manner For although he endeavoured for a while to cloud his impious sentiments in ambiguous expressions as others also have done Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 27. yet being pressed by the Professors of the truth and supposing his party was somewhat confirmed he plainly defended his Heresie and was cast out of the Church wherein he presided Some sixty years after Photinus Bishop of Syrmium with a pretence of more sobriety in life and conversation undertook the management of the same design with the same success What ensued afterwards among the Churches
it respects the direct Revelation of God made by himself in the Scripture and the first proper general end thereof Let this be clearly confirmed by direct and positive divine Testimonies containing the declaration and Revelation of God concerning himself and faith is secured as to all its concerns For it hath both its proper formal object and is sufficiently enabled to be directive of divine Worship and Obedience The Explication of this Doctrine unto Edification suitable unto the Revelation mentioned is of another consideration And two things are incumbent on us to take care of therein First that what is affirmed and taught do directly tend unto the ends of the Revelation it self by informing and inlightning of the mind in the knowledge of the mysterie of it so far as in this life we are by Divine Assistance capable to comprehend it that is that faith may be increased strengthned and confirmed against temptations and oppositions of Satan and men of corrupt minds and that we may be distinctly directed unto and encouraged in the Obedience unto and Worship of God that are required of us Secondly That nothing be affirmed or taught herein that may beget or occasion any undue apprehensions concerning God or our Obedience unto him with respect unto the best highest securest Revelations that we have of him and our duty These things being done and secured the End of the Declaration of this Doctrine concerning God is attained In the declaration then of this Doctrine unto the Edification of the Church there is contained a farther Explanation of the things before asserted as proposed directly and in themselves as the object of our faith namely how God is one in respect of his Nature Substance Essence Godhead or Divineâ— Being How being Father Son and Holy Ghost he subsisteth in these three distinct persons or Hypostâ—sies and what are their mutual respects to each other by which as their peculiar properties giving them the manner of their subsistence they are distinguished one from another with sundry other things of the like necessary consequence unto the Revelation mentioned And herein as in the Application of all other Divine Truths and Mysteries whatever yea of all moral commanded duties use is to be made of such words and expressions as it may be are not literally and formally contained in the Scripture but only are unto our conceptions and apprehensions expository of what is so contained And to deny the Liberty yea the necessity hereof is to deny all interpretation of the Scripture all endeavours to express the sense of the words of it unto the understandings of one another which is in a word to render the Scripture it self altogether useless For if it be unlawful for me to speak or write what I conceive to be the sense of the words of the Scripture and the nature of the thing signified and expressed by them it is unlawful for me also to think or conceive in my mind what is the sense of the words or nature of the things which to say is to make brutes of our selves and to frustrate the whole design of God in giving unto us the great priviledge of his word Wherefore in the declaration of the Doctrine of the Trinity we may lawfully nay we must necessarily make use of other words phrases and expressions that what are Literally and Syllabically contained in the Scriptures but teach no other things Moreover whatever is so revealed in the Scripture is no less true and divine as to whatever necessarily followeth thereon than it is as unto that which is principally revealed and directly expressed For how far soever the lines be drawn and extended from truth nothing can follow and ensue but what is true also and that in the same kind of truth with that which it is derived and deduced from For if the principal Assertion be a truth of Divine Revelation so is also whatever is included therein and which may be rightly from thence collected Hence it follows that when the Scripture revealeth the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be one God seeing it necessarily and unavoidably follows thereon that they are one in Essence wherein alone it is possible they can be one and three in their distinct Subsistences wherein alone it is possible they can be three This is no less of Divine Revelation than the first principle from whence these things follow These being the respects which the Doctrine of the Trinity falls under the necessary method of 〈◊〉 and Reason in the beheving and declarâ—ing of it is plain and evident 1. The Revelation 〈◊〉 it is to be asserted and vindicated as it 〈◊〉 proposed to be believed for the ends mentioned Now this is as was declared that there is one God that this God is Father Son and Holy Ghost and so that the Father is God so is the Son so is the Holy Ghost This being received and admitted by faith the Explication of it is 2. To be insisted on and not taken into consideration untill the other be admitted And herein lyes the preposterous course of those who fallaciously and captiously go about to oppose this sacred truth They will alwayes begin their opposition not unto the Revelation of it but unto the Explanation of it which is used only for farther edification Their Disputes and Cavils shall be against the Trinity Essence Substance Persons Personality Respects Properties of the Divine Persons with the modes of expressing these things whilst the plain Scriptural Revelation of the things themselves from whence they are but explanatory deductions is not spoken to nor admitted unto confirmation By this means have they entangled many weak unstable souls who when they have met with things too high hard and difficult for them which in Divine Mysteries they may quickly do in the Explication of this Doctrine have suffered themselves to be taken off from a due consideration of the full and plain Revelation of the thing it self in Scripture until their temptations being made strong and their darkness increased it was too late for them to return unto it as bringing along with them the Cavils wherewith they were prepossessed rather than that Faith and Obedience which is required But yet all this while these Explanations so excepted against are indeed not of any Original consideration in this matter Let the direct express Revelations of the Doctrine be firmed they will follow of themselves nor will be excepted against by those who believe and receive it Let that be rejected and they will fall of themselves and never be contended for by those who did make use of them But of these things we shall treat again afterwards This therefore is the way the only way that we rationally can and that which in duty we ought to proceed in and by for the asserting and confirming of the Doctrine of the holy Trinity under consideration namely that we produce Divine Revelations or Testimonies wherein faith may safely rest and acquiesce that God is one that this one God
as nothing but they can enable him for is abundantly proved by the foregoing Testimonies Now all these concern a divine nature a natural Essence a Godhead and not such power or authority as a man may be exalted unto Yea the ascribing any of them to such a one implyes the highest contradiction expressible Thirdly This God in Authority and Office and not by nature that should be the Object of Divine Worship is a new abomination For they are divine essential excellencies that are the formal Reason and Object of Worship Religious and divine And to ascribe it unto any one that is not God by nature is Idolatry By makeing therefore their Christ such a God as they describe they bring him under the severe commination of the true God Jer. 10. 11. The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens That Christ they worship they say is a God but they deny that he is that God that made the Heavens and the Earth and so leave him exposed to the threatnings of him who will accomplish it to the uttermost Some other general exceptions sometimes they make use of which the Reader may free himself from the entanglement of if he do but heed these ensuing Rules X. Distinction of persons of which afterwards it being in an infinite substance doth no way prove a difference of Essence between the Father and the Son Where there fore Christ as the Son is said to be Another from the Father or God spoken personally of the Father it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him That in one Essence there can be but one person may be true where the substance is finite and limâ—ted but hath no place in that which is infinite 2. Distinction and Inequality in respect of Office in Christ doth not in the least take away his equality and sameness with the Father in respect of nature and Essence Phil. 2. 7 8. A Son of the same nature with his Father and therein Equal to him may in Office be his inferiour his subject Thirdly The Advancement and exaltation of Christ as Mediator to any dignity whatever upon or in reference to the work of our Redemption and salvation is not at all inconsistent with the essential Honour Dignity and Worth which he hath in himself as God blessed for ever Though he humbled himself and was exalted in Office yet in Nature he was one and the same he changed not Fourthly The Scriptures asserting the Humanity of Christ with the concerments thereof as his birth life and death do no more thereby deny his Deity than by asserting his Deity with the essential properties thereof they deny his humanity Fifthly God working in and by Christ as he was Mediator denotes the Fathers Soveraign Appointment of the things mentioned to be done not his immediate efficiency in the doing of the things themselves These Rules are proposed a little before their due place in the Method which we pursue But I thought meet to interpose them here as containing a sufficient ground for the resolution and answering of all the Sophisms and Objections which the Adversaries use in this cause From the cloud of witnesses before produced every one where of is singly sufficient to evert the Socinian Infidelity I shall in one of them give an infiance both of the clearness of the Evidence and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to put in against them as was promised And this is John 1. 1 2 3. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made By the Word here or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on what account soever he be so called either as being the Eternal Word and wisdom of the Father or as the great Revealer of the Will of God unto us Jesus Christ the Son of God is intended This is on all hands acknowledged and the context will admit of no haesitation about it For of this Word it is said that he came into the World v. 10. was rejected by his own v. 11. was made flesh and dwelt amongst us whose glory was the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father v. 14. called expresly Jesus Christ v. 17. the only begotten Son of the Father v. 18. The subject then treated of is here agreed upon And it is no less evident that it is the design of the Apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom he treateth Here then if any where we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ which also we may certainly do if our minds are not perverted through prejudice whereby the God of this world doth blind the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. Of this Word then this Son of God it is affirmed that he was in the beginning And this Word if it doth not absolutely and formally express Eternity yet it doth a preexistence unto the whole Creation which amounts to the same For nothing can preexist unto all Creatures but in the nature of God which is eternal unless we shall suppose a creature before the Creation of any But what is meant by this expression the Scripture doth elsewhere declare Prov. 8. 23. I was set up from everlasting before the beginning or ever the earth was John 17. 5. Glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Both which places as they explain this phrase so also do they undeniably testifie unto the Eternal pre-existence of Christ the Son of God And in this case we prevail against our Adversaries if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his Incarnation which as they absolutely deny so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresie in this matter And therefore they know that the testimony of our Saviour concerning himself if understood in a proper intelligible sense is perfectly destructive of their pretensions John 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am For although there be no proper sense in the words but a gross â—quivocation if the Existence of Christ before Abraham was born be not asserted in them seeing he spake in Answer to that objection of the Jews that He was nâ—t yet fifty years old and so could not have seen Abraham nor Abraham him and the Jews that were present understood well enough that he asserted a divine preexistence unto his being born so long ago as that hereon after their manner they took up stones to stone him as supposing him to have blasphemed in asserting his Deity as others now do in the denying of it yet they seeing how fatal this prae-existence though not here absolutely
asserted to be eternal would be to their cause they contend that the meaning of the words is that Christ was to be the light of the world before Abraham was made the Father of many Nations An interpretation so absurd and sottish as never any man not infatuated by the God of this world could once admit and give countenance unto But in the Beginning as absolutely used is the same with From Everlasting as it is expounded Prov. 8. 23. and denoteth an eternal existence which is here affirmed of the Word the Son of God But let the Word beginning be restrained unto the subject matter treated of which is the Creation of all things and the praeexistence of Christ in his divine nature unto the Creation of all things is plainly revealed and inevitably asserted And indeed not only the Word but the discourse of these verses doth plainly relate unto and is expository of the first verse in the Bible Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth There it is asserted that in the beginning God created all things here that the Word was in the beginning and made all things This then is the least that we have obtained from this first word of our Testimony namely that the Word or Son of God had a personal praeexistence unto the whole Creation In what nature this must be let these men of Reason satisfie themselves who know that Creator and Creatures take up the whole nature of Beings one of them he must be and it may be well supposed that he was not a Creature before the Creation of any But Secondly Where or with whom was this Word in the beginning it was saith the Holy Ghost with God There being no creature then existing he could be no where but with God that is the Father as it is expressed in one of the testimonies before going Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possest me in the beginning of his wayes before his works of old ver 30. Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing alwayes before him that is in the beginning this Word or Wisdom of God was with God And this is the same which our Lord Jesus asserts concerning himself John 3. 13. And no man saith he hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven And so in other places He affirms his being in Heaven that is with God at the same time when he was in the earth whereby He declares the immensity of his Nature and the distinction of his person and his coming down from Heaven before he was Incarnate on the earth declaring his preexistence by both manifesting the meaning of this Expression that in the beginning he was with God But hereunto they have invented a notable evasion For although they know not well what to make of the last clause of the words that say then he was in Heaven when he spake on Earth the Son of man which is in Heaven answerable to the description of Gods Immensity do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Jer. 23. 27. But say that he was there by Heavenly meditation as another man may be yet they give a very clear Answer to what must of necessâ—â—y be included in his descending from Heaven namely his preexistence to his Incarnation For they tell us that before his publick Ministry he was in his humane nature which is all they allow unto him taken up into Heaven and there taught the Gospel as the great Impostor Mahomet pretended he was taught his Alcoran If you ask them who told them so they cannot tell but thâ—y can tell when it was namely when he was led by the spirit into the Wilderness for forty days after his baptism But yet this instance is subject to another her misadventure in that one of the Eâ—angelists plainly affirms that he was those forty dayes in the Wilderness with the wild beasts Mark 17. 13. And so surely not in Heaven in the same nature by his bodily presence with God and his holy Angels And let me add this by the way that the Interpretation of this place Joh. 1. 1. to be mentioned after wards and those of the two places before mentioned John 8. 58. chap. 3. 31. Faustus Socinâ—s learned out of his Uncle Laelius papers as he confesseth and doth more than intimate that he believed he had them as it were by Revelation and it may be so they are indeed so forced absurd and irrational that no man could ever fix upon them by any reasonable Investigation But the Author of this Revelation if we may judge of the Parent by the Child could be no other but the spirit of Error and darkness I suppose therefore that notwithstanding these exceptions Christians will believe that in the beginning the word was with God that is that the Son was with the Father as is frequently elsewhere declared But who was this Word saith the Apostle He was God He was so with God that is the Father as that he himself was God also God in that the notion of God which both nature and the Scripture doth represent Not a God by Office one exalted to that dignity which cannot well be pretended before the Creation of the world but as Thomas confessed him our Lord and our God John 20. 28. Or as Paul expresses it over all God blessed for ever or the most high God which these men love to deny Let not the infidelity of men excited by the craft and malice of Satan sâ—ek for blind occasions and this matter is determined if the Word and Testimony of God be able to umpire a difference amongst the Children of men Here is the sum of our Creed in this matter In the beginning the Word was God and so continues unto Eternity being Alpha and Omâ—ga the first and the last the Lord God Almighty And to shew that he was so God in the beginning as that he was distinct one in some thing from God the Father by whom afterwards he was sent into the world he adds ver 2. the same was in the beginning with God Father also to evince what he hath asserted and revealed for us to believe the Holy Ghost adds both as a firm declaration of his Eternal Deity and also his immediate care of the world which how he variously exercised both in a way of providence and grace he afterwards declares verse 3. All things were made by him He was so in the beginning before all things as that he made them all And that it may not be supposed that the All that he is said to make or create was to be limited unto any certain sort of things he adds that without him nothing was made that was made which gives the first Assertion an absolute universality as to its subject And this he farther describes v. 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him The world that was
in and may peculiarly be sinned against the great Author of all Grace in Believers and order in the Church This is the summ of what we believe of what is revealed in the Scripture concerning the Holy Ghost As in the consideration of the preceding head we vindicated one Testimony in particular from the exceptions of the adversaries of the truth so on this we may briefly summ up the evidence that is given us in the testimonies before produced that the Reader may the more easily understand their intendment and what in particular they bear witnesse unto The summ is that the Holy Ghost is a divine distinct person and neither meerly the power or vertue of God nor any created Spirit whatever This plainly appears from what is revealed concerning him For he who is placed in the same series or order with other divine persons without the least note of difference or distinction from them as to an Interest in personality who hath the names proper to a divine person only and is frequently and directly called by them who also hath personal properties and is the voluntary Author of personal divine Operations and the proper Objâ—ct of Divine Worship he is a distinct divine person And if these things be not a sufficient evidence and demonstration of a divine intelligent substance I shall as was said before despair to understand any thing that is expressed and declared by words But now thus it is with the Holy Ghost according to the Revelation made concerning him in the Scripture For First He is placed in the same rank and order without any note of difference or distinction as to a distinct interest in the Divine Nature that is as we shall see personality with other Divine persons Matth. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear witness in Heaven the Father the Son and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Cor. 12. 3 4 5 6. No man can say the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all Neither doth a denyal of his divine being and distinct existence leave any tolerable sense unto these Expressions For read the words of the first place from the mind of the Socinians and see what is it can be gathered from them Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the vertue or efficacy of the Father Can any thing be more absonant from Faith and Reason than this absurd expression And yet is it the direct sense if it be any that these men put upon the words To joyn a quality with acknowledged persons and that in such things and cases as wherein they are proposed under a personal consideration is a strange kind of Mysterie And the like may be manifested concerning the other places Secondly He also hath the Names proper to a divine person only For he is expresly called God Acts 5. He who is termed the Holy Ghost ver 3. And the Spirit of the Lord verse 9. Is called also God ver 4. Now this is the name of a divine Person on one Account or other The Socinians would not allow Christ to be called God were he not a divine person though not by nature yet by â—ffice and authority And I suppose they will not find out an office for the Holy Ghost whereunto he might be exalted on the account whereof he might become God seeing this would acknowledge him to be a person which they deny So he is called the Comforter John 16. 7. A personal Appellation this is also and because he is the Comforter of all Gods people it can be the name of none but a divine person In the 〈…〉 it is frequently 〈…〉 come that he shall and will do such and such things all of them declaring him to be a person Thirdly He hath personal properties assigned unto him as a Will 1 Cor. 12. 11. He divideth to every man severally as he will and understanding 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God As also all the actings that are ascribed unto him are all of them such as undeniably affirm personal properties in their principle and Agent For Fourthly He is the voluntary Author of Divine operations He of old cherished the creation Gen. 1. 3. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters He formed and garnished the Heavens He inspired acted and spake in and by the Prophets Acts 28. 25 26. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers 2 Pet. 1. 21. The Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He regenerateth enlightneth sanctifieth comforteth instructeth leadeth guideth all the Disciples of Christ as the Scriptures every where testifie Now all these are personal Operations and cannot with any pretence of sobriety or consistency with Reason be constantly and uniformly assigned unto a quality or vertue He is as the Father and Son God with the properties of Omniscience and Omnipotency of Life Understanding and Will and by these properties works acts and produceth effects according to Wisdom Choice and Power Fifthly The same regard is had to him in Faith Worship and Obedience as unto the other persons of the Father and Son For our being baptized into his name is our solemn engagement to believe in him to yield obedience to him and to worship him as it puts the same obligation upon us to the Father and the Son So also in reference unto the Worship of the Church He commands that the Ministers of it be separated unto himself Acts 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Ver. 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed which is comprehensive of all the religious Worship of the Church And on the same account is he sinned against as Acts 5. 3 4 9. For there is the same Reason of Sin and Obedience Against whom a man may sin formally and ultimately him he is bound to obey worship and believe in And this can be no quality but God himself For what may be the sense of this expression Thou hast lyed to the efficacy of God in his operations Or how can we be formally obliged unto obedience to a quality There must then an antecedent Obligation unto Faith Trust and Religious Obedience be supposed as the ground of rendring a person capable of being guilty of sin towards wards any For sin is but a â—ailure in Faith Obedience or Worship These therefore are due unto the Holy Ghost or a man could not sin against him so signally and fatally as some are
But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of me Now as the nature of this distinction lies in their mutual Relation one to another so it is the foundation of those distinct actings and operations whereby the distinction it self is clearly manifested and confirmed And these actings as was said are either such as where one of them is the object of anothers actings or such as have the creature for their objects â— The first sort are testified unto Psalm 110. 1. John 1. 18. Chap. 5. 20. Chap. 17. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. Prov. 8. 21 22. Most of which places have been before recited They which thus know each other love each other delight in each other must needs be distinct and so are they represented unto our faith And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them see Gen. 19. 24. Zachariah 2. 8. Joh. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Our conclusion from the whole is that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture than this sacred truth is that there is one God Father Son and holy Ghost which are divine distinct intelligent voluntary omnipotent principles of operation and working which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe and concerning others in this discourse we are not solicitous This is that which was first proposed namely to manifest what is expresly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father Son and Holy Ghost so as that we may duly believe in him yield Obedience unto him enjoy communion with him walk in his love and fear and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore Nor doth faith for its security establishment and direction absolutely stand in need of any farther Exposition or Explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the Temptations of Satan and opposed by the subtle sâ—phisms of men of corrupt minds and whereas it is the duty of the Disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe so far as they are capable of them this Doctrine hath in all ages of the Church been explained and taught in and by such Expressions Terms and Propositions as farther declare what is necessarily included in it or consequent unto it with an exclusion of such things notions and apprehensions as are neither the one nor the other This I shall briefly manifest and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions and so close this dissertation That God is One was declared and proved Now this Oneness can respect nothing but the Nature Being Substance or Essence of God God is one in this respect Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture But whereas they are of the same importance and signification and none of them include any thing of imperfection they are properly used in the declaration of the Vnity of the God-head There is mention in the Scripture of the God-head of God Rom. 1. 20. His Eternal power and Godhead And of his Nature by excluding them from being objects of our Worship who are not God by nature Gal. 4. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God is his Substance or Essence with all the Holy divine Excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto Such are Eternity Immensity Omnipotency Life Infinite Holiness Goodness and the like This one Nature Substance or Essence being the Nature Substance or Essence of God as God is the Nature Essence and Substance of the Father Son and Spirit one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them For none can be God as they are revealed to be but by vertue of this divine Nature or Being Herein consists the Vnity of the Godhead Secondly The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father Son and Spirit is that whereby they are three â—â—pâ—stasis or Persons distinctly subsisting in the same divine Essence or Being Now a divine person is nothing but the divine Essence upon the account of an especial property subsisting in an especial manner As in the Person of the Father there is the Divine Essence and Being with its property of begetting the Son subsisting in an especial manner as the Father And because this Person hath the whole Divine Nature all the Essential Properties of that nature are in that person The Wisdom the Understanding of God the Will of God the Immensity of God is in that person not as that Person but as the Person is God The like is to be said of the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hereby each Person having the Understanding the Will and power of God becomes a distinct principle of operation and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God they are undivided and are all the works of one of the self same God And these things do not only necessarily follow but are directly included in the Revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scriptures There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this Doctrine of the â—rinity as the manner of the eternal Generaâ—â—on of the Son of the Essence of the Father of the procession of the Holy Ghost and the difference of it from the Generation of the Son of the mutual in-being of the persons by reason of their unity in the same Substance or Essence the nature of their personal subsistence with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished all which are true and defensible against all the Sophisms of the Adversaries of this truth Yet because the distinct apprehension of them and their accurate expression is not necessary unto faith as it is our guide and principle in and unto Religious Worship and obedience they need not here be insisted on Nor are those brief Explications themselves before mentioned so proposed as to be placed immediately in the same rank or order with the Original Revelations before infisted on but only are pressed as proper Expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and further our edification And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denyed nor ever were by any but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed yet they that do so deny or oppose them are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the Oneness of the Deity or to prove that the Father or Son or Holy Ghost in particular are not God before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the Explication of the truth concerning them For either they grant the Revelation declared and contended for or they do not If they do let that concession be first laid down namely that
suppose that this is the first time that this Doctrine fell under this imputation nor could it possibly be lyable unto this charge from any who did either understand it or the grounds on which it is commonly opposed For there is no end of the Life or death of Christ which the Socinians themselves admit of but it is also allowed and asserted in the Doctrine now called in Question Do they say that he taught the Truth or revealed the whole mind and will of God concerning his Worship and our obedience We say the same Dâ— they say that by his death he hare testimony unto and confirmed the truth which he had taught it is also owned by us Do they say that in what he did and suâ—fered he set us an Example that we should labour after conformity unto it is what we acknowledge and teach Only we say that all these things belong principally to his Prophetical Office But we moreover affirm and believe that as a Priest or in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office he did in his death and sufferings offer himself a Sacrifice to God to make Attonement for our sins which they deny and that he dyed for us or in our stead that we might go free without the faith and acknowledgement whereof no part of the Gospel can be rightly understood All the ends then which they themselves assign of the Life and death of Christ are by us granted and the principal one which gives life and efficacy to the rest is by them denyed Neither 2. doth it fall under any possible imagination that the praise due unto God should be Ecclipsed hereby The Love and Kindness of God towards us is in the Scripture fixed principally and fundamentally on his sending of his only begotten Son to dye for us And certainly the greater the work was that he had to do the greater ought our acknowledgement of his Love and kindness to be but it is said 5. That it represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father Answ. 1. The Scripture referreth the Love of the Father unto two heads 1. The sending of his Son to dye for us John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 John 4. 8. 2. In choosing sinners unto a participation of the fruits of his love Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. The Love of the Son is fixed signally on his actual giving himself to dye for us Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 5. 25. Rev. 1. 5. What ballances these Persons have got to weigh these Loves in and to conclude which is the greatest or most weighty I know not 2. Although only the actual discharge of his Office be directly assigned to the Love of Christ yet his condâ—scention in taking our nature upon him expressed by his mind Ephes 6. 7. and the readiness of his Will Psalm 40. 8. doth eminently comprise Love in it also Thirdly The Love of the Father in sending of the Son was an act of his will which being a natural and essential property of God it was so far the act of the Son also as he is partaker of the same nature though eminently and in respect of order it was peculiarly the act of the Father 4. The anger of â—od against sin is an effect of his essential Righteousness and Holiness which belong to him as God which yet hinders not but that both Father and Son and Spirit acted Love towards sinners They say again 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction Answ. 1. It were endless to consider the improper and absurd expressions which are made use of in these exceptions as here the last words have no tolerable sence in them according to any principles whatever 2. If the Son 's purchasing Redemption for us procuring obtaining it do rob God of the gift of his Son for our redemption the Holy Ghost must answer for it For having obtained for us or procured or purchased eternal redemption is the word used by himself Heb. 9. 14. And to deny that he hath laid down his Life a ransome for us and to have bought us with a price is openly to deny the Gospel 2. In a word the great gift of God consisted in giving his Son to obtain Redemption for us 3. Herein he offered himself unto God and gave himself for us and if these Persons are offended herewithal what are we that we should withstand God They say 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the debt is not hereby absolved or forgiven but transferred only and by consequence we are no better provided for salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father Answ. The looseness and dubiousness of the expressions here used makes an appearance that there is something in them when indeed there is not There is an Allusion in them to a debt and a payment which is the most improper expression that is used in this matter and the interpretation thereof is to be regulated by other proper expressions of the same thing But to keep to the Allusion 1. Christ paid his own but not for himself Dan. 9. 26. 2. Paying it for us the debt is discharged and our actual discharge is to be given out according to the wayes and means and upon the conditions appointed and constituted by the Father and Son 3. When a debt is so transferred as that one is accepted in the room and obliged to payment in the stead of another and that payment is made and accepted accordingly all Law and Reason require that the original Debtor be discharged 4. What on this account we owe to the Son is praise thankfulness and obedience and not the debt which he took upon himself and discharged for us when we were non-solvent by his love So that this matter is plain enough and not to be involved by such cloudy expressions and incoherent discourse following the Metaphor of a debt For if God be considered as the Creditor we all as Debtors and being insolvent Christ undertook out of his Love to pay the debt for us and did so accordingly which was accepted with God it follows that we are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love who hath made this satisfaction for us which we shall eternally acknowledge It is said 8. It no way renders Men beholding or in the least obliged to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the least farthing so that the acknowledgements are peculiarly the Sons which destroyes the whole current of
or as another speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Let one be given up to dye in the stead of all Joh. 13. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are the words of St. Peter unto Christ I will lay down my life for thee To free thee I will expose my own head to danger my life to death that thou maist live and I dye It is plain that he intended the same thing with the celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old who exposed their own lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one another such were Damon and Pythias Orestes Pylades Nisur Eurialus Whence is that saying of Seneca Succurram perituro sed ut ipse nâ—n peream nisi si futurus ero magni hominis aut magnae rei merces I will relieve or succour one that is ready to perish yet so as that I perish not my self unless thereby I be taken in lieu of some great man or great matter For a great man a man of great worth and usefulness I could perish or dye in his stead that he might live and go free We have a great Example also of the importance of this Expression in those words of David concerning Absolom 2 Sam. 18. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who will grant me to dye I for thee or in thy stead My Son Absolom It was never doubted but that David wished that he had dyed in the stead of his Son and to have undergone the death which he did to have preserved him alive As to the same purpose though in another sense Mâ—zentius in Virgil expresseth himself when his Son Lausus interposing bâ—tween him and danger in Battel was slain by Aeneas Tantane me tenuit vivendi nate voluptas Vt pro me hostili paterer succedere dextrae Quem genui tuane haec genitor per vulnera servor Morte tuâ vivam Hast thou O Son fallen under the Enemies hand in my stead am I saved by thy wounds do I live by thy death And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by David doth signifie when applyed unto persons either a succession or a substitution still the coming of one into the Place and Room of another When one succeeded to another in Government it is expressed by that word 2 Sam. 10. 1. 1 Kings 7. 7. Chap. 19. 16. In other cases it denotes a substitution So Jehu tells his Gurad that if any one of them let any of Baals Priests escape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Kings 10. 24. his life should go in the stead of the life that he had suffered to escape And this answereth unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek which is also used in this matter and ever denotes either equality contrariety or substitution The two former senses can here have no place the latter alone hath So it is said that Archelaus reigned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 2. 1 2. In the room or stead of Herod his Father So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 5. 38. is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth And this word also is used in expressing the death of Christ for us He came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20. 28. To give his life a ransome for many that is in their stead to dye So the words are used again Mark 10. 45. And both these notes of a succedaneous substitution are joined together 1 Tim. 2. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to buy any thing to purchase or procure any thing with the price of ones life So Tigranes in Xenophon when Cyrus askt him what he would give or do for the liberty of his Wife whom he had taken prisoner answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will purchase her liberty with my life or the price of my soul. Whereon the Woman being freed affirmed afterwards that she considered none in the company but him who said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would purchase my liberty with his own life And these things are added on the occasion of the Instances mentioned in the Scripture whence it appears that this expression of dying for another hath no other sense or meaning but only dying instead of another undergoing the death that he should undergo that he might go free And in this matter of Christs dying for us add that he so dyed for us as that he also dyed for our sins that is either to bear their punishment or to expiate their guilt for other sense the words cannot admit and he that pretends to give any other sense of them than that contended for which implyes the whole of what lyes in the Doctrine of Satisfaction erit mihi magnus Apollo even he who was the Author of all ambiguous Oracles of old And this is the common sense of mori pro alio and pati pro alio or pro alio discrimen capitis subire a substitution is still denoted by that expression which sufficeth us in this whole cause for we know both into whose room he came and what they were to suffâ—r Thus Entellus killing and sacrificing an Ox to Eryx in the stead of Dares whom he was ready to have slain when he was taken from him expresseth himself Hanc tibi Eryx meliorem animam pro morte Daretis Persolvo He offered the Ox a better Sacrifice in the stead of Dares taken from him So Fratrem Pollux alternà morte redemit And they speak so not only with respect unto death but where ever any thing of Durance or suffering is intended So the Angry Master in the Comoedian Verberibus Caesum te Dave in pistrinum dedam usque ad necem Eâ lege atque omine ut si inde te exemerim ego pro te molam He threatned his Servant to cast him into Prison to be macerated to death with labour and that with this engagement that if he ever let him out he would grind for him that is in his stead Wherefore without offering Violence to the common means of Understanding things amongst men another sense cannot be affixed to these words The Nature of the thing it self will admit of no other Exposition than that given unto it and it hath been manifoldly exemplified among the Nations of the world For suppose a man guilty of any crime and on the account thereof to be exposed unto Danger from God or man in a way of Justice Wrath or Vengeance and when he is ready to be given up unto suffering according unto his demerit another should tender himself to dye for him that he might be freed let an appeal be made to the common Reason and Understandings of all men whether the intention of this his dying for another be not that he substitutes himself in his stead to undergo what he should have done however the translation of punishment from one to another may be brought about and asserted For at present we treat not of the Right but of the fact or the thing it self And to deny this
words in the Scripture the nature of the thing it self concerning which they are used the uncontrolled use of that Expression in all sorts of Writers in expressing the same thing which the instances and examples of its meaning and intention among the Nations of the World is to deny that he dyed for us at all Neither will his dying for our Good or advantage only in what way or sense soever answer or make good or true the Assertion of his dying for us and our sins And this is evident in the Death of the Apostles and Martyrs they all dyed for our Good our advantage and benefit was one end of their sufferings in the will and appointment of God And yet it cannot be said that they dyed for us or our sins And if Christ dyed only for our Good though in a more effectual manner than they did yet this altereth not the kind of his dying for us nor can he thence be said properly according to the only due sense of that expression so to do I shall in this brief and hasty discourse add only one consideration more about the death of Christ to confirm the Truth pleaded for And that is that he is said in dying for sinners to bear their sins Isa. 53. 11. He shall bear their iniquities v. 12. He bare the sins of many explained v. 5. He was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree c. This expression is purely Sacred It occurreth not directly in other Authors though the sense of it in other words do frequently They call it luere peccata that is delictorum supplicium ferre to bear the punishment of sins The meaning therefore of this phrase of speech is to be taken from the Scripture alone and principally from the Old Testament where it is originally used and from whence it is tranferred into the New Testament in the same sense and no other Let us consider some of the places Isa. 53. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used vers 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And our griefs he hath born them The word signifies properly to bear a Weight or a Burden as a man bears it on his shoulders bajulo porto And it is never used with respect unto sin but openly and plainly it signifies the undergoing of the punishment due unto it so it occurrs directly to our purpose Lam. 5. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Fathers have sinned and are not and we have born their iniquities The punishment due to their sins And why a new sense should be forged for these words when they are spoken concerning Christ who can give a just reason Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 12. And he bear the sin of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used with respect unto sin sometimes with reference unto Gods actings about it and sometimes with reference unto mens concerns in it In the first way or when it denotes an act of God it signifies to lift up to take away or pardon sin and leaves the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where with it is joyned under its first signification of iniquity or the gâ—ilt of sin with respect unto punishment ensuing as its consequent For God pardoning the guilt of sin the removal of the punishment doth necessarily ensue Guilt containing an Obligation unto punishment In the latter way as it respects men or sinners it constantly denotes the bearing of the punishment of sin and gives that sense unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with respect unto the guilt of sin as its cause And hence ariseth the ambiguity of those words of Cain Gen. 14. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes an act of God if the words be spoken with reference in the first place to any acting of his towards Cain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retains the sense of iniquity and the words are rightly rendered My sin is greater than to be fogiven If it respect Cain himself firstly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assumes the signification of Punishment and the words are to be rendred My punishment is greater than I can bear or is to be born by me This I say is the constant sense of this expression nor can any Instance to the contrary be produced Some may be mentioned in the confirmation of it Numb 14. 33. Your children shall wander in the Wilderness forty years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall bear your Whoredoms v. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye shâ—ll bear your in quities forty years that is the punishment due to your whoredoms and iniquities according to Gods Provideneial dâ—aling with them at that time Lev. 19. 8. He that eateth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall bear his iniquities How 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sâ—ul shall be cut off To bâ— cut off for sin by the punishment of it and for its guilt is to bear in quity So Chap. â—0 16 17 18. for a man to bear his iniquity and to be killed slain or put to death for it are the same Ezek. 18. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul that sinneth it shall dye the Son shall not bear the sin of the Father To bear sin and to dye for sin are the same More Instances might be added all uniformity speaking the same sense of the words And as this sense is sufficiently indeed invincibly established by the invariable use of that Expression in the Scripture so the manner whereby it is affirmed that the Lord Christ bare our iniquities sets it absolutely free from all danger by Opposition For he bare our iniquities when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord made to meet on him or laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa. 53. 6. which words the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord gave him up or delivered him unto our sins That is to be punished for them for other sense the words can have none He made him sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. so he bore our sins Isa. 53. 11. How in his own Body on the tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. that when he was and in his being stricken smitten afflicted wounded bruised slain so was the chastisement of our Peace upon him Wherefore to deny that the Lord Christ in his death and suffering for us underwent the punishment due to our sins what we had deserved that we might be delivered as it everts the great foundation of the Gospel so by an open perverting of the plain words of the Scripture because not suited in their sense and importance to the vain imaginations of men it gives no small countenance to Infidelity and Atheism FINIS