the Personal Union The Divine and humane nature in Christ have but one personal subsistence and so are but one Christ one distinct personal principle of all Operations of all that he did or doth as Mediator And this undeniably follows from what is declared in the Testimonies mentioned For the Word could not be made flesh nor could he take on him the seed of Abraham nor could the mighty God be a Child born and given unto us nor could God shed his blood for his Church but that the two natures so directly expressed must be united in one Person for otherwise as they are two natures still they would be two Persons also 2. Each nature thus united in Christ is entire and preserves unto it self its own natural properties For he is no less perfect God for being made Man nor no less a true perfect Man consisting of soul and body with all their essential parts by that natures being taken into subsistence with the Son of God His Divine nature still continues Immense Omniscient Omnipotent infinite in Holiness c. his bumane nature finite limited and before its Glorification subject to all infirmities of life and death that the same nature in others absolutely considered is obnoxious unto 3. In each of these natures he acts suitably unto the essential properties and principles of that nature As God he made all things upholds all things by the word of his Power fills Heaven and Earth c. As man he lived hungred suffered dyed rose ascended into Heaven Yet by reason of the Union of both these natures in the same Person not only his own Person is said to do all these things but the Person expressed by the name which he hath on the account of one nature is said to do that which he did only in the other So God is said to redeem his Church with his own blood and to lay down his life for us and the Son of Man to be in Heaven when he was in the Earth All because of the unity of his Person as was declared And these things do all of them directly and undeniably flow from what is revealed concerning his Person as before is declared Of the Satisfaction of CHRIST THE last thing to be enquired into upon occasion of the late opposition to the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel is the satisfaction of Christ. And the Doctrine hereof is such as I eonceive needs rather to be explained than vindicated For it being the Center wherein most if not all the Lines of Gospel Promises and Precepts do meet and the great medium of all our Communion with God in Faith and Obedience the great distinction between the Religion of Christians and that of all others in the world it will easily on a due proposal be assented unto by all who would be esteemed Disciples of Jesus Christ. And whether a parcel of insipid Cavils may be thought sufficient to obliterate the Revelation of it men of sober minds will judge and discern For the term of Satisfaction we contend not about it It doth indeed properly express and connote that great Effâ—ct of the Death of Christ which in the cause before us we plead for But yet because it belongs rather to the Explanation of the Truth contended for then is used expresly in the Revelation of it and because the right understanding of the Word it self depends on some notions of Law that as yet we need not take into consideration I shall not in this entrance of our discourse insist precisely upon it but leave it as the natural conclusion of what we shall find expresly declared in the Scripture Neither do I say this as though I did decline the Word or the right use of it or what is properly signified by it but do only cast it into its proper place answerable unto our method and design in the whole of this brieâ— discourse I know some have taken a new way of expressing and declaring the Doctrine concerning the Mediation of Christ with the causes and ends of his death which they think more rational than that usually insisted on But as what I have yet heard of or seen in that kind hath been not only unscriptural but also very irrational and most remote from that accuracy whereunto they pretend who make use of it so if they shall publish their conceptions it is not improbable but that they may meet with a Scholastical Examination by some hand or other Our present work as hath been often declared is for the establishment of the Faith of them who may be attempted if not brought into danger to be seduced by the slights of some who lye in wait to deceive and the clamours of others who openly drive the same design What therefore the Scripture plainly and clearly reveals in this matter is the subject of our present enquiry And either in so doing as occasion shall be offered we shall obviate or in the close of it remove those Sophisms that the Sacred Truth now proposed to consideration hath been attempted withal The summ of what the Scripture reveals about this great truth commonly called the satisfaction of Christ may be reduced unto these ensuing heads 1. That Adam being made upright sinned against God and all mankind all his posterity in him Gen. 1. 27. So God created man in hit own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them Gen. 3. 11. And he said who told thee that thou wast naked Hast thou eaten of the Tree whreof I commandeded thee that then shouldst not eat Eccles. 7. 29. Lo this only have I found that God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Ver. 18. Therefore by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation Ver. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners 2. That by this Sin of our first Parents all men are brought into an Estate of Sin and Apostacy from God and of an enmity unto him Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sâ—â—â—pen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God fâ—r it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Chap. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Thirdly That in this state all men continue in sin against God nor of themselves can do otherwise Rom. 3. 10 11 12. There is none righteous no not one there is none
the Father Son and Spirit are one God and then let it be debated whether they are one in Substance and three in Persons or how else the matter is to be stated If they deny it it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing and the way of expressing it whilst the thing it self is denyed to have a being for of that which is not there is neither manner property adjunct nor effect Let then such persons as this sort of men are ready to attempt with their Sophistry and to amuse with cavils about persons substances subsistences and the like desire to know of them what it is that they would be at What would they deny what would they disapprove Is it that God is one or that the Father is God or the Son or the Holy Ghost is so If they deny or oppose either of these they have Testimonies and instances of divine Revelation or may have in a readiness to confound the Devil and all his Emissaries If they will not do so if they refuse it then let them know that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about Expressions and Explanations of any thing or doctrine about the manner respects or relations of any thing untill the thing it self or Doctrine be plainly confessed or denyed If this they refuse as generally they do and will which I speak upon sufficient experience and will not be induced to deal openly properly and rationally but will keep to their Cavils and Sophisms about terms and expressions all farther debate or conference with them may justly and ought both conscienciously and rationally to be refused and rejected For these sacred mysteries of God and the Gospel are not lightly to be made the subject of mens contests and disputations But as we dealt before in particular so here I shall give Instances of the Sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this Doctrine and that with respect unto some late collections and Representations of them From whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words Phrases and Expressions themselves which they make use of The summ of what they say in general is How can these things be How can three be one and one be three Every person hath its own substance and therefore if there be three persons there must be three substances and so three Gods Answ. 1. Every person hath distinctly its own substance for the one substance of the Deity is the substance of each person so it is still but one But each person hath not its own distinct substance because the substance of them all is the same as hath been proved 2. They say That if each person be God then each person is Infinite and there being three persons there must be three Infinites Answ. This follows not in the least for each person is Infinite as he is God Alâ— divine properties such as to be Infinite is belong not to the persons on the account of their personality but on the account of their nature which is one for they are all natural properties But they say If each person be God and that God subsist in three persons then in each person there are three persons or Gods Answ. The collusion of this Sophism consists in that expression be God and that God in the first place the nature of God is intended in the latter a singular person Place the words intelligibly and they are thus If each person be God and the nature of God subsists in three persons then in each person there are three persons and then the folly of it will be evident But they farther infer That if we deny the persons to be Infinite then an Infinite Being hath a finite mode of subsisting and so I know not what supposition they make hence that seeing there are not three Infinites then the Father Son and Spirit are three finites that make up an Infinite The pitiful weakness of this Cavil is open to all for finite and Infinite are properties and adjuncts of Beings and not of the manner of the subsistence of any thing The nature of each person is Infinite and so is each person because of that nature Of the manner of their subsistence finiâ—e and Infinite cannot be predicated or spoken no farther than to say an Infinite Being doth so subsist But you grant say they that the only true God is the Father and then if Christ be the only true God he is the Father Answ. We say the only true God is Father Son and Holy Ghost We never say the Scripture never sayes that the Father only is the true God whence it would follow that he that is the true God is the Father But we grant the Father to be the only trne God and so we 〈◊〉 is the Son also And it doth not 〈◊〉 all thence follow that the Son is 〈◊〉 Father Because in saying the 〈…〉 the true God we respect not his paternity or his paternal Relation to his Son but his Nature Essence and Being And the same we affirm concerning the other persons And to say that because each person is God one person must be another is to crave leave to disbelieve what God hath revealed without giving any Reason at all for their so doing But this Sophism being borrowed from another namely Crellius who insisted much upon it I shall upon his account and not on theirs who as far as I can apprehend understand little of the intendment of it remove it more fully out of the way It is proposed by him in way of Syllogism thus The only true God is the Father Christ is the only true God therefore he is the Father Now this Syllogism is ridiculously Sophystical For in a Categorical Syllogism the Major Proposition is not to be particular nor equipollent to a particular For from such a Proposition when any thing communicable to more is the subject of it and is restrained unto one particular nothing can be inferred in the conclusion But such is this Proposition here the only true God is the Father It is a particular Proposition wherein the subject is restrained unto a singular or individual predicate though in it self communicable to more Now the Proposition being â—o made particular the terms of the subject or predicate are supposed recâ—procal namely that one God and the Father are the same which is false Unless it be first proved that the name God is communicable to no more or no other than is the other term of Father which to suppose is to begg the whole Question For the only true God hath a larger signification than the term of Father or Son So that though the only true God be the Father yet every one who is true God is not the Father Seeing then that the name of God here supplyes the plaâ—e of a species though it be singular absolutely as it respects the Divine Nature which is absolutely singular and one and cannot be
works of the Creation as learned men have manifested by various instances that it is most unreasonable to suppose that to be contrary to reason which many objects of rational consideration do more or less present unto our minds 8. To add no more considerations of this nature Let any of the Adversaries produce any one Argument or grounds of reason or those pretended to be such against that that hath been asserted that hath not already been bafflâ—d a thousand times and it shall receive an answer or a publick acknowledgement that it is Indissoluble Of the Person of Christ. THE next Head of Opposition made by the men of this conspiracy against this sacred truth is against the head of all truth the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Socinians indeed would willingly put a better face or colour upon their Error about the Person of Christ then it will bear or indure to lye on it For in their Catechism unto this Question Is the Lord Jesus Christ purus Homo a meer man they Answer by no means How then hath he a divine nature also which is their next question To this they say by no means for this is contrary to right reason How then will these pretended Masters of Reason reconcile these things For to us it seems that if Christ have no other nature but that of a man he is as to his nature purus Homo a meer man and no more Why they answer that he is not a meer man because he was born of a Virgin Strange that that should be an argument to prove him more than a man which the Scripture and all men in their right wits grant to be an invincible reason to prove him to be a man and as he was born of her no more Rom. 1. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Gal. 4. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law But say they he was endowed with the Spirit wrought Miracles was raised from the dead had all power given in Heaven and Earth for by these degrees he became to be God But all men see that the inquiry is about the nature of Christ and this Answer is about his state and condition Now this changeth not his nature on the one hand no more than his being humbled poor and dying did on the other This is the right reason we have to deal withall in these men If a man should have enquired of some of them of old whether Melchizedeck were purus Homo a meer man some of them would have said no because he was the Holy Ghost some no because he was the Son of God himself and some no because he was an Angel for such foolish opinions have men fallen into But how sottish soever their conceptions were their Answer to that enquiry would have been regular becaâ—se the Question and Answer respect the same subject in the same respect But never any was so stupid as to answer he was not a meer man that is by nature because he was a Priest of the high God which respects his Office and condition Yet such is the pretence of these men about the Person of Christ to incrustate and give some colour unto their soul mis-belief as supposing that it would be much to their disadvantage to own Christ only as a meer man though the most part of their disputes that they have troubled the Christian World withall have had no other design nor aim but to prove him so to be and nothing else I shall briefly according to the method insisted on first lay down what is the direct Revelation which is the object of our faith in this matter then express the Revelation it self in the Scripture testimonies wherein it is recorded and having vindicated some one or other of them from their exceptions manifest how the Doctrine hereof is farther explained unto the Edification of them that believe That there is a Second Person the Son of God in the holy Trin-Vnity of the God-head we have proved before That this Person did of his infinite Love and Grace take upon him our nature bumane nature so as that the divine and humane nature should be come one Person one Christ God and Man in one so that whatever he doth in and about our Salvation it is done by that one Person God and Man is revealed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith And this is that which we believe concerning the Person of Christ. Whatever acts are ascribâ—d unto him however immediately performed in or by the Humane Nature or in and by his Divine Nature they are all the acts of that one Person in whom are both these natures That this Christ God and Man is because he is God and on the account of what he hath done for us as Man to be believed in worshipped with worship Religious and Divine to be trusted and obeyed this also is asserted in the Scripture And these things are as it were the common notions of Christian Religion the common Principles of our Profession which the Scriptures also abundantly testifie unto Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call his name Emanuel that is he shall be God with us or God in our nature Not that that should be his name whereby he should be called in this World but that this should be the condition of his Person he should be God with us God in our nature So are the words expounded Mat. 1. 21 22 23. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us His name whereby he was to be called was Jesus that is a Saviour And thereby was accomplished the prediction of the Prophet that he should be Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us Now a Child born to be God with us is God in that Child taking our nature upon him and no otherwise can the words be understood Isa. 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called the mighâ—y God The Child that is born the Son that is given is the mighty God and as the mighâ—y God and a Child born or Son given he is the Prince of peace as he is there called or our Saviour John 1. 14. The Word was made flesh That the Word was God who made all things he had before declared Now he affirms that this Word was made flesh How converted into flesh
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
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
and therefore is so still unless he who is once God can cease so to be But the meaning is that afterwards God exalted him and made him God as to Rule Authority and Power This making of him God is an expression very offensive to the ears of all sober Christians and was therefore before exploded And these things here as all other figments hang together like a rope of sands In the beginning of the Gospel he was God before any knew him but only God That is after he had preached the Gospel and dyed and rose again and was exalted at the right hand of God he was made God and that not properly which is absolutely impossible but in an improper sense How prove they then this perverse non-sense to be the sense of these plain words They say it must needs be so Let them believe them who are willing to perish with them Thus far then we have their sense In the beginning that is about sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago the Word that is the Humane nature of Christ before it was made flesh which it was in its being was with God that is known to God alone and in the beginning that is afterwards not in the Beginning was made God which is the summ of their Exposition of this place But what shall we say to what is affirmed concerning his making of all things so as that without him that is without his making of it nothing was made that was made especially seeing that these all things are expresly said to be the world vers 10. And all things therein contained even in Heaven and Earth Col. 1. 16. An ordinary man would think that they should now be taken hold of and that there is no way of escape left unto them But they have it in a readiness By the all things here are intended all things of the Gospel the preaching of it the sending of the Apostles to preach it and to declare the Will of God and by the world is intended the world to come or the new state of things under the Gospel This is the substance of what is pleaded by the greatest masters amongst them in this matter and they are not ashamed thus to plead And the Reader in this instance may easily discern what a desperate cause they are engaged in and how bold and desperate they are in the management of it For First The words are a plain Illustration of the Divine Nature of the Word by his Divine Power and works as the very series of them declares He was God and he made all things for he that made all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Secondly There is no one word spoken concerning the Gospel nor the Preaching of it nor any effects of that Preaching which the Apostle expresly insists upon and declares afterwards verse 14. and so onwards Thirdly The making of all things here ascribed unto the Word was done in the beginning But that making of all things which they intend in erecting the Church by the Preaching of the VVord was not done in the beginning but afterwards most of it as themselves confess after the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Fourthly In this gloss what is the meaning of all things only some things say the Socinians VVhat is the meaning of were made that is were mended by him that is the Apostles principally preaching the Gospel and this in the beginning after it was past for so they say expresly that the Principal things here intended were effected by the Apostles afterwards I think since the beginning place it when you will the beginning of the world or the beginning of the Gospel there was never such an Exposition of the word of God or man contended for Fifthly It is said he made the World and he came into it namely the world which he made and the World or the Inhabitants of it knew him not But the VVorld they intend did know him or the Church knew him and acknowledged him to be the Son of God For that was the foundation that it was built upon I have instanced directly in this only testimony to give the Reader a pledge of the full confirmation which may be given unto this great fundamental truth by a due improvement of those other Testimonies or distinct Revelations which speak no less expresly to the same purpose And of them there is not any one but we are ready to vindicate it if called thereunto from the exceptions of these men which how bold and Sophistical they are we may in these now considered also learn and know It appeareth then that there is a full sufficient Revelation made in the Scripture of the Eternal Deity of the Son of God and that he is so as is the Father also More particular testimonies I shall not at present insist upon referring the full discussion and vindication of these truths to another season We are therefore in the next place to manifest that the same or the like testimony is given unto the Deity of the Holy Spirit that is that he is revealed and declared in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Worship and Obedience on the account and for the Râ—ason of those divine Excelleneies which are the sole Reason of our yielding religious worship unto any or expecting from any the Reward that is promised unto us or to be brought by them to the end for which we are And herein lyes as was shewed the concernment of faith When that knows what it is to believe as on Divine Revelation and is enabled thereby to regulate the soul in its present obedience and future expectation seeing it is its nature to work by love and hope there it rests Now this is done to the utmost satisfaction in the Revelation that is made of the divine Existence divine Excellencies and divine Operations of the Spirit as shall be briefly manifested But before we proceed we may in our way observe a great congruency of success in those who have denyed the Deity of the Son and those who have denyed that of the holy Spirit For as to the Son after some men began once to dis-believe the Revelation concerning him and would not acknowledge him to be God and man in one person they could never settle nor agree either what or who he was or who was his Father or why he was the Son Some said he was a Phantasm or appearance and that he had no real subsistence in this world and that all that was done by him was an appearance he himself being they know not what elsewhere That proud beast Paulus Samâ—satenus whose flagitious life contended for a preheminence in wickedness with his prodigious heresies was one of the first after the Jews that positively contended for his being a man and no more who was followed by Photinus and some others The Arians perceiving the folly of this opinion with the odium of it amongst all that bare the name of Christians and that they had as good deny the
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
into a Man so that he who was God ceased so to be and was turned or changed into flesh that is a Man besides that this is utterly impossible it is not affirmed For the Word continued the Word still although he was made flesh or made of a Woman as it is elsewhere expressed or made of the seed of David or took our flesh or nature to be his own Himself continuing God as he was became Man also which before he was not The Word was made flesh this is that which we believe and assert in this matter See John 3. 13. and ver 31. John 6. 62. Chap. 16. 28. All which places assert the Person of Christ to have descended from Heaven in the Assumption of Humane nature and ascended into Heaven therein being assumed and to have been in Heaven as to his Divine nature when he was in the Earth in the flesh that he had assumed Acts 20. 28. Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Person spoken of is said to be God absolutely the Church of God And this God is said to have blood of his own the blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of him that was God though not the blood of him as God For God is a Spirit And this undeniably testifies to the unity of his Person as God and Man Rom. 1. 3 4. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Hâ—liness by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen This is all we desire that we may believe without disturbance from the clamours of these Men. Namely that the same Christ as concerning the flesh came of the Fathers of David and in himself is over all God blessed for ever This the Scripture asserts plainly and why we should not believe it firmly let these Men give a reason when they are able Gal. 6. 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman He was his Son and was made of a woman according as he expresses it Heb. 10. 5. A body hast thou prepared Me as also Rom. 8. 3. Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Mâ—n It is the same Christ that is spoken of And it is here affirmed of him that he was in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God But is this all is this Jesus Christ God only Doth he subsist only in the form or nature of God No saith the Apostle he took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of Men and was found in fashion as a Man that his being truly a Man is expressed in these words our Adversaries deny not and we therefore believe that the same Jesus Christ is God also because that is no less plainly expressed 1 Tim. 3. 16. And without controversie great is the mysterie of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels It is a Mysterie indeed under which name it is despised now and reproached nor are we allowed so to call it but are reflected on as flying to mysteries for our defence But we must take leave to speak in this matter according to his directions without whom we cannot speak at all A Mysterie it is and that a great mysterie and that confessedly so by all that do believe And this is that God was manifested in the flesh That it is the Lord Christ who is spoken of every one of the ensuing expressions do evince Justified in the Spirit seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory And this also is the substance of what we believe in this matter Namely That Christ is God manifest in the flesh which we acknowledge own and believe to be true but a great mysterie yet no less great and Sacred a truth notwithstanding Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same ver 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this plainly affirms his pre-existence unto that Assumption of our nature and the unity of his Person in it being so assumed 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us He who was God laid down for a season and parted with that life which was his own in that nature of ours which he had assumed And that taking of our nature is called his coming in the flesh which who so denyes is not of God but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ 1 John 4. 3. These are some of the places wherein the Person of Christ is revealed unto our Faith that we may believe on the Son of God and have Eternal Life The Method formerly proposed would require that I should take off the general Objections of the Adversaries against this Divine Revelation as also vindicate some peculiar Testimonies from their exceptions But because a particular opposition unto this Truth hath not as yet publickly and directly been maintained and managed by any that I know of among our selves though the denyal of it be expresly included in what they do affirm I shall leave the further confirmation thereof unto some other occasion if it be offered and it be judged necessary And this is that which the Faith of Believers rests in as that which is plainly revealed unto them namely that Jesus Christ is God and Man in one Person and that all his actings in their behalf are the actings of him who is God and Man and that this Son of God God and Man is to be believed in by them and obeyed that they have Eternal Life What is farther added unto these express testimonies and the full Revelation of the Truth contained in them in this matter in way of explication educed from them and suitable unto them to the edification of the Church or information of the minds of Believers in the right apprehension of this great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh may be reduced to these heads 1. That the Person of the Son of God did in his assuming humane nature to be his own not take an individual Person of any one into a near conjunction with himself but preventing the personal subsistence of humane nature in that flesh which he assumed he gave it its subsistence in his own Person whence it hath its individuation and distinction from all other persons whatever This is
himself unto payment ceaseth ipso facto But in things criminal the guilty person himself being firstly immediately and intentionally under the Obligation unto punishment when there is introduced by compact a vicarious solution in the fubstitution of another to suffer though he suffer the same absolutely which those should have done for whom he suffers yet because of the Acceptation of his person to suffer which might have been refused and could not be admitted without some Relaxation of the Law Deliverance of the guilty persons cannot ensue ipso facto but by the intervention of the Terms fixed on in the Covenant or Agreement for an admittance of the substitution It appears from what hath been spoken that in this matter of Satisfaction God is not considered as a Creditor and sin as a debt and the Law as an obligation to the payment of that Debt and the Lord Christ as paying it though these notions may have been used by some for the Illustration of the whole matter and that not without countenance from sundry expressions in the Scripture to the same purpose But God is considered as the infinitely holy and righteous Author of the Law and Supream Governour of all mankind according to the Tenor and Sanction of it Man is considered as a sinner a transgressor of that Law and thereby obnoxious and liable to the punishment constituted in it and by it answerably unto the Justice and Holiness of its Author The Substitution of Christ was meerly Voluntary on the part of God and of himself undertaking to be a Sponsor to answer for the sins of men by undergoing the punishment due unto them That to this End there was a Relaxation of the Law as to the persons that were to suffer though not as to what was to be suffered Without the former the Substitution mentioned could not have been admitted And on supposition of the latter the suffering of Christ could not have had the nature of punishment properly so called For punishment relates to the Justice and Righteousness in Government of him that exacts it and inflicts it And this the Justice of God doth not but by the Law Nor could the Law be any way satisfied or fulfilled by the suffering of Christ if antecedently thereunto its obligation or power of obliging unto the penalty constituted in its Sanction unto sin was relaxed dissolved or dispensed withall Nor was it agreeable to Justice nor would the nature of the things themselves admit of it that another punishment should be inflicted on Christ than what we had deserved nor could our sin be the impulsive cause of his death nor could we have had any benefit thereby And this may suffice to be added unto what was spoken before as to the nature of satisfaction so far as the brevity of the discourse whereunto we are confined will bear or the use whereunto it is designed doth require Secondly The Nature of the Doctrine contended for being declared and cleared we may in one or two instances manifest how evidently it is revealed and how fully it may be confirmed or vindicated It is then in the Scripture declared that Christ dyed for us that he dyed for our sins and that we are thereby delivered This is the foundation of Christian Religion as such Without the faith and acknowledgement of it we are not Christians Neither is it in these general terms at all denyed by the Socinians It remains therefore that we consider 1. How this is revealed and affirmed in the Scripture and 2. What is the true meaning of the Expressions and Propositions wherein it is revealed and affirmed for in them as in sundry others we affirm that the satisfaction pleaded for is contained 1. Christ is said to dye to give himself to be delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for us for his sheep for the life of the world for sinners John 6. 51. Chap. 10. 15. Rom. 5. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Gal. 2. 20. Heb. 2. 9. Moreover he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. Gal. 1. 4. The End whereof every where expressed in the Gospel is that we might be freed delivered and saved These things as was said are agreed unto and acknowleded 2. The meaning and importance we say of these Exprâ—ssions is that Christ dyed in our Room Place or Stead undergoing the Death or Punishment which we should have undergone in the way and manner before declared And this is the satisfaction we plead for It remains therefore that from the Scripture the nature of the things treated of the proper signification and constant use of the. Expressions mentioned the Exemplification of them in the Customs and Usages of the Nations of the World we do evince and manifest that what we have laid down is the true and proper sense of the words wherein this Revelation of Christs dying for us is expressed so that they who deny Christ to have dyed for us in this sense do indeed deny that he properly dyed for us at all what ever benefits they grant that by his death we may obtain First We may consider the Use of this Expression in the Scripture either indefinitely or in particular Instances Only we must take this along with us that dying for sins and Transgressions being added unto dying for sinners or persons maketh the substitution of one in the room and stead of another more evident than when the dying of one for another only is mentioned For whereas all Predicates are regulated by their subjects and it is ridiculous to say that one dyeth in the stead of sins the meaning can be no other but the bearing or answering of the sins of the sinner in whose stead any one dyeth And this is in the Scripture declared to be the sense of that Expression as we shall see afterwards Let us therefore consider some Instances John 11. 50. The words of Caiaphas Counsel are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people and that the whole Nation perish not which is expressed again Chap. 18. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perish for the people Caiaphas feared that if Christ were spared the people would be destroyed by the Romans The way to free them he thought was by the destruction of Christ him therefore he devoted to death in lieu of the People As He Vnum pro multis dabitur Caput One head shall be given for many Not unlike the Speech of Otho the Emperour in Xiphilin when he slew himself to preserve his Army For when they would have perswaded him to renew the war after the defeat of some of his Forces and offered to lay down their lives to secure him he replyed that he would not adding this Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is far better and more just that one should perish or dye for all than that many should perish for one that is One in the stead of many that they may go free