which have from time to time maintained this truth against all heresies And although it cannot bee denied but that even among the Heathens some of their wisest both Poets and Philosophers knew this mysterie by heare-say as they had received it from the Hebrewes as you may reade in Thom. Aquin. in lib. 1. dist 3. q. 2. and more at large in Struchus de peren Philos lib. 1. 2. and from them in Philip Mornay of the truenesse of Christian Religion Chap. 6. yet among the Hebrewes themselves except the Prophets and schooles of the Prophets this secret was not knowne or taught and that as it may seem lest the misunderstanding multitude might fall into the Idolatrie of many Gods therefore is this thing so taught in the holy text of the Old Testament that the wise onely might understand it for although the Prophets knew well enough that in the dayes of the king Messiah this mysterie should be knowne even to the Gentiles for of him it is written in the 40. Psalme vers 9.10 I will not refraine my lips O Lord thou knowest but I have declared thy truth and thy salvation I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great Congregation Yet because they knew they ministred those things of which they spake not to themselves nor to the people of their owne times but for us unto whom the treasuries of the riches of God in Christ were more fullie to bee opened therefore they taught according to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost who hath so from time to time opened the fountaines of knowledge unto his Church and hereafter will as the holy Church shall be able to receive it This glorious truth then being plainely discovered to us in the New Testament let us see with what diligence and faithfulnesse reason that servant of God doth wait on the authoritie of his Lord and how thereby a wee are summoned to hearken unto this truth for although reason could never have found it out yet being taught what the truth of God is herein it joyes to see the necessitie of that truth which it is bound to beleeve But because I have written somewhat to this Argument already which that you misse not I have caused to bee printed at the end of this booke I may be somewhat more briefe herein Onely the reasons I take up here together and adde such other supplies as seeme to be wanting in that treatise § 2. The word Father is taken either personally as it signifies the first Person of the blessed Trinitie with the relation to the Eternall Sonne or else it is spoken essentially of all the three Persons in the Godhead with respect of the creature which is created susteined and governed thereby Of this through his helpe we shall speake hereafter Chap. 13. but first of the first person of the holie Trinitie The Greeke Churches by the authoritie of the Apostle Heb. 1.3 for the severall distinctions of the Persons in the Godhead hold the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hypostasis which wee from the Latin call a Subsistence or severall substantiall being by it selfe But the Latin Church turned it Persona from an old word Persola because it meanes one onely being intire of it selfe for Solus is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is whole in it selfe and entire with all the parts but yet is Persona a title of honour given unto men alone for they define it to be Rationalis naturae individua substantia that is an individeable substance of a reasonable nature and from thence it is translated to God and Angels A Person then of the holy Trinitie is an incommunicable subsistence in the Divine nature These words have their ground in the holy Scripture to which in this great Article of our faith wee must ever have recourse by reason of the many and strong heresies that have beene thereabout Trinitie Triunitie or a threefold being in one hath ground in that Text which is in Matthew 28.19 Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost But certaine it is that in our Baptisme wee bind our faith and allegiance unto God alone So 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing or one being By subsistence understand a substantiall or essentiall being not comming to or being in the Deitie by chance It answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is different from substance nature being or the like termes that signifie any common or universall being for an Hypostasis meanes a peculiar being wherein the common nature is wholly and entyre as I said before and will say untill you understand mee For example the whole nature or being of man is understood in that word Man and so the Angelicall nature in that word Angell but Peter or Gabriel meane that particular person in which the common being is whole and entyre I meane so as that there is nothing essentiall in the being a man or Angell whereof Peter and Gabriel are not partakers essentially so wee understand the difference The being or essence of the Godhead is one individuall most simplie absolutelie and substantiallie one which infinite and undivideable being of the Godhead is yet neverthelesse in everie Person entyre and wholly so that nothing of the essentiall being of the Godhead is in one which is not in the other And therefore Iustin the Martyr and from him Damascen Dialect Cap. 66. and after them our sound Doctors of all sides agree that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a subsistence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that manner of being proprietie or reall relation which belongs to every one Person in the Holy Trinitie You may here not unfitly note the difference of these words Being Substance and Subsistence Being is that which is common to all things that are The word Substance properlie doth not so much import the verie inward being as that respect which it hath to the accidents that are therein Subsistence signifies that speciall manner of being which belongs to substances that are actually being If you will enquire further you may see what Thom. Aquin. hath writ hereto in Sent. lib. 1. Dist 23. qu. 4. or if you will the Introduct to log Sect. 4. Incommunicable that is peculiar proper or belonging to one alone so that one cannot be another The divine Nature is used 2. Pet. 1.4 and here meanes that being or substance wherein all the three Persons are essentially one and the same One God One I say not compounded or made of the three Persons but One most simple and perfect being in all the three Persons of the Godhead Now the name of a Father is most poperly given unto God the first Person of the Trinitie for of him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all fatherhood of the families both in heaven and earth Ephes 3.15 because
hauing made mans peace through the bloud of his crosse hath reconciled all things both in heaven and earth unto God Col. 1.20 For certainely if the Angels be for man as it is said Heb. 1.14 then can they not possibly have the perfection of their blessednesse but by man Let us therefore with reverence and thankfulnesse come unto that great mysterie of our Religion That God was manifest in the flesh The incarnation of God is the dwelling of the Godhead in the manhood in one person wherein the being of the Godhead and manhood remaine together everlastingly without separation yet in cleere distinction of their severall beings and so without commixtion to cause a third being but that each continuing truly that which it is in it selfe the Godhead according to his eternall decree without any change of it selfe in time tooke to it selfe the manhood that by himselfe hee might reconcile all things to himselfe and bring them to that estate of happinesse and glorie to which they could never have come if God had not so manifested himselfe in the flesh The internall actions of the eternall Deity are all infinite eternall and necessary to be that which they are But whatsoever God doth worke without himselfe in the creature it is onely according to his owne holy pleasure and will But yet seeing his actions upon the creature are the expressions of those perfections which are in himselfe of goodnesse of wisdome of power of glorie c. and that to this end that the creature may bee blessed in him and by him according to that measure of happinesse which he of his goodnesse hath appointed thereto therefore those reasons which are drawne from the dignities of God are of no lesse force for the truth of God in the creature then they were for the manifestation of the truth in himselfe And therefore as by those dignities which by the authority of his word are due to him wee have approved that truth which the holy Scripture teacheth us to beleeve of him both concerning the unitie of his being and the Trinitie of the Persons so let us endeavour in the proofe of this great question And although the great masters in the schoole have given ouer these questions as utterly beyond all proofe or testimony of humane understanding See Thom. Aquin. praef in lib. 4. cont Gent. yet seeing this is that maine point in our most holy faith whereby it differs most from all infidelity and false worships seeing it is that one thing wherein the ground of all our future hope and comfort doth consist if ever the understanding of a Christian held it selfe bound to doe service unto his faith most of all it is bound to give attendance herein I may somtimes use the word of necessity in the conclusions following yet understand me not as if I laid any necessitie or constraint upon God to doe or to suffer but the necessitie that I meane is in the consequence of the reason when the conclusion doth follow necessarily upon the grounds that are laid downe before 1. For although happines be only in the enjoying of that which is good and the greater the good is the greater is the happines but if the good be not enjoyed and possessed it causes no happines at all yet an infinite good is no way to bee come unto or possessed by that which is finite except by the voluntarie motion and inclination of it selfe it doe apply and give it selfe unto that which is finite And because every good spreads it selfe acccording to the power of it selfe upon that which is capable of it the greatest goodnesse is ever with the greatest communication of it selfe therefore the infinite goodnes doth also extend it selfe according to the possibilitie of the creature to be possessed and enioyed thereby which cannot be till it have applied it selfe to something in the creature of which the rest of the creatures being partakers may also thereby be partakers of the infinite goodnesse Now if God who onely is infinite goodnesse had dwelt in the being of the Angels though that had beene made knowne to man yet because man doth not communicate with the Angels in nature or by any merit or service towards them he had had no benefit thereby whereas the Angels by the appointment of their ministerie to mankinde in their continuall presence and succour and that helpe which the soule hath by them in the delivery thereof out of this prison of the body and in the conducting of it unto the Divine presence have in iustice a reward for their service sake and a kinde of interest in all that good whereof man by their ministerie is made partaker 2. Moreover when man had sinned the law of justice required that the satisfaction should be made in that nature that had sinned so that if the Mediatour had taken on him the nature of Angels the satisfaction therein had not beene avayleable for the sinne of man 3. Thirdly the whole creature hath interest in man and man in the whole creature so that God by taking on him the nature of man hath blessed therby the whole creature as you may understand by the answer which is made Cha. 17. to the 5 Object § 4. But if he had the nature of Angels neither man nor the other elementall creatures had had hope of any restoring See Rom. 8.19 c. to 23. 4. Lastly if the deliverance of man had beene made in the nature of Angels the restoring had beene as unsufficient so also man had lost of his dignitie and honour thereby for man before his sinne was bound and subjected to God alone but then had hee beene subjected and bound to the nature of Angels And although man by his sinne nay even our Lord himselfe by his suffering for sinne was made somewhat lower then the Angels yet being raised from the dead the manly nature is exalted far above all principalitie and power and might and every name that is named in this world or in the world which is to come Ephes 1.20.21 Whence it will follow necessarily that God would dwell in the nature of man not in the Angels as you may understand by these Scriptures Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same ver 16. Hee tooke not on him the nature of Angels but hee tooke on him the seed of Abraham And for their attendance is it not said Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall bee heires of salvation Compare herewith Psal 34.7 and 91.11 and conclude with Saint Paul 1. Cor. 3.23 All things are yours and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods The questions before are neere to this as all the Articles of our faith are necessarie consequents one of another therefore let us briefely see by that which is already proved what we can gather to this conclusion 1. Either the whole race of mankinde must be
And therefore the Holy-Ghost is God And His witnesse in our hearts that wee are the sonnes of God is an eternall trueth and such as hath neither falshood nor doubt nor double meaning § 2.1 But you will say Sect. 2 if the word Spirit belong essentially to all the Persons of the God-head and that they bee all holinesse it selfe as it is said Es 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hostes how is it here appropriated to the third Person Is not the difference of Persons taken away hereby seeing every one is a Holy Spirit I answere That in this place as in many other texts of Holy Scripture the words Holy Spirit are taken relatively or Personally as they meane that third Person of the Holy Trinity with that relation of procession which He hath from the Father and the Son as it was shewed Chap. 11. Re. 8. 2. But it is said Iohn 7.39 That the Holy-Ghost was not yet which takes away His eternity and so His God-head Answere Tropes and figures are usuall in every language though not minded by the vulgar sort So here is a Metonymia or taking of the author for the gifts of divers tongues miracles prophecie and such like and these gifts were not yet given as it followes in the text because that Iesus was not yet glorified that it might appeare to all that these were His gifts who was before crucified Compare herewith Iohn 16.7 Ephe. 4.8 and 11.1 Cor. 12.8 c. 3. a If the procession of the Holy-Ghost bee perfect from the Father then doth Hee not proceed from the Sonne or if it be necessary that He proceede from the Sonne also then must there bee in Him something of composition of superaddition or the like whereby his being should not be most simple which were to denie Him to be God So also the procession from the first principle not being perfect would argue a defect therein Answere This is as if you should reason thus If the way betweene Thebes and Athens be the ready way from Thebes to Athens then can it not be the way from Athens to Thebes But I say that the procession emanation or out-flowing of the Holy-Ghost from the Father is most perfect infinite and eternall as from that being from which the procession is actively as the action of understanding is in and yet from the mind which doth understand as from the active principle But the procession or emanation of the Holy-Ghost from the Sonne is likewise infinite and eternall as from the passive principle as the understanding is from that object which is understood And so the procession of the Holy-Ghost is perfect infinite and eternall both from the Father and the Sonne And because all this is in the God-head onely for I speake not now of those graces and mercies which are from God upon the creature therefore it is necessary that the Holy-Ghost be God blessed above all infinitely and eternally one being with the Father and the Sonne You will heere aske me what the difference is betweene generation whereby the Sonne is from the Father and procession whereby the Holy-Ghost is from the Father and the Son If I confesse that I can neither speake nor conceive it you must hold me excused For in those things that are not lawfull nor possible for the creature to know it is not fit to enquire But you may remember that heretofore although we concluded according to the rule of trueth the Holy Scripture that all the Persons in the Holy Trinitie were in their absolute being one yet by the same rule and the enforcement of reason we were compelled to yeeld unto the Father as concerning His Personal being the precedence of originall as being that fountaine of life and glory from which the other Persons doe proceede And because our Lord Iesus is the expresse Image of the Father Heb. 1.3 whose procession or going forth is from eternity Mich. 5.2 and He by the stile of the Holy Scripture called the Sonne of God Psal 2.7 therefore doe wee attribute unto Him as concerning His Personall being the word of generation or being begotten yet in respect of His absolute essence wherein He is one with the Father He is also called the everlasting Father Esay 9.6 But because all things in the Godhead are in the infinitie of perfection and that the being of the Holy-Ghost is alike both from the Father and the Son and that no perfect being hath two Fathers therefore is His personall being said to be rather by procession then by generation § 3. And because this Article is the last in our Creed Sect. 3 whereby we confesse our faith in the holy Trinity it will not be unfit to take up in briefe that which we have spoken hereunto at large It is manifest unto all reason that nothing can be a cause and yet not be for that would bring a contradiction which the understanding of the foole of fooles I meane the Atheist could not endure that a thing that hath no manner of being should bee of such powerfull being as that it should cause either it selfe or another thing to be And because we see that divers things are which could not cause themselues to be when they were not it followes necessarily that there were causes of their being and that all their causes did worke as they were ordered and mooved by their first cause which seeing it is the cause of all beings must of it selfe not onely be but also have power both to be of it selfe and also to moove all other causes to worke to their determinate ends And this most excellent and first being the cause of all other is that which we call God in whom you see the first thing which we can understand is to be but that eternally because there is nothing before Him which might give Him His being and infinitely because there was nothing which could put any bounds to His being The next thing that we can understand of God is that He hath power both to be and to worke but no worke or action can be but in that which hath both actuall being and also power to worke And if from hence I should conclude a Trinity of Persons in the unity of that one powerfull and active being the whole creature would say Amen For as every effect is answerable to the cause and by that voyce which it hath shewes what the cause was so you shall finde that every created being hath in it matier or that which is proportionable thereto which is as the simple being thereof then forme whereby it hath power to worke and lastly working according to that property which ariseth from the matier and the forme For as Saint Paul saith of mankind so is it true in every thing That In Him or By Him we moove that is our action and Live that is the power from whence our action ariseth and Are that is the foundation of both the other But because this argument would be
and goodnesse are one being doth bring forth eternally an infinite good that is the Sonne betwixt whom and himselfe results an infinite Communion of goodnesse viz. the holy Ghost If there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the actions of the Godhead then there must needs bee a difference of Persons otherwise the difference of the termes were idle and vaine if the being understood thereby were not answerable But there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the working of the Godhead For an infinite working already proved must needs be from an infinite worker about an infinite worke Therefore there is a difference of Persons in the unity of the deity 6. If there were not an infinite and eternall production in the Persons of the Godhead then the being of a beginning could not cleerely and evidently bee therein because though the beginner were yet the working of the beginner and the being begun were yet wanting and so these two comming after should bee inferiour or lesse both in continuance and infinitie And so the first and highest cause should bee an infinite beginner without any effect or thing begun by him which must bring on that the first and chiefest cause of all should be infinitely defective and ceasing to worke and of lesse force than other causes subordinate which all worke incessantlie to the bringing forth of their effects unlesse they bee hindered by lets more powerfull Therefore there bee moe Persons than one in the unitie of the Godhead 7. Being and the power of Being working and the power of working are all one in God as was shewed chap. 8. 9. n. 6. But God by his infinite and eternall power can bring forth an infinite and eternall being like Himselfe by the infinite and eternall working of his power Therefore He doth bring forth or if he can and will not that power were in vaine and so his power and will were not equall and infinite So there should bee divers beings in God finite and infinite But all these things are impossible Therefore God doth bring forth an infinite being his Sonne by his infinite working the holy Ghost 8. If the inward working of the deity bee infinite with all the conditions of Infinitie then the understanding of God for example must bee infinite both in the act or perfection of it selfe and in the object which it doth understand and in the worke or action of the understanding about that object So that God understanding his owne being must needs behold himselfe by an infinite action of understanding But the working of God is infinite with all the conditions of infinitie as hath beene proved for otherwise there should bee a greaternesse in being and a lessenesse in working and so the being of God should not bee simple and one Therefore in the unity of the infinite deity there is an infinite understanding which we call the Father an infinite object or image of that understanding in the sight of which that infinite understanding is most delighted because nothing can be more excellent than it and this is God understood that glorious Sonne and an infinite working of the understanding and that is the Holy Ghost which you see cannot be conceived to be if either the infinite understanding or the object were supposed not to be and therefore he is said to proceed from them both And thus is it in all the other dignities of God his goodnesse his infinitie his eternity power will truth glory c. 9. Now the texts whereby this doctrine is taught more darkely in the old Testament lest the true Church with the Heathen might have fallen into the opinion of many Gods are these among many other Gen. 1. v. 26. Let us make man in our owne image Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us Gen. 11.7 Let us goe downe and let us confound their language Gen. 11.7 which manner of speech is not borrowed for manners sake from the custome of Princes and great men who for modestie speake not in their owne name alone Wee but as having determined with their great men and counsellors men like themselves But God doth not so consult nor determine by advice of his Creature Neither yet doth that language admit such forme of speech but as the Easterne languages even to this day speake to one particular person in the number of one as you may reade 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man and 2 Sam. 18 3. Thou shalt not goe forth Thou art worth ten thousand of us Esth 7.3 If I have found favour in thy sight O King But to returne to the holy Trinity You have a like proofe in Numb 6.24.5.6 where the word Iehovah is three times repeated in the blessing and every time with a severall accent So that although his name be one Zach. 14.9 and his being one Deut. 6.4 yet in that one being is a Trinitie of Persons which you shall better understand if you consider the blessings in the new Testament all taken from hence as that 2 Cor. 13.14 Rev. 1.4.5 c. So likewise in Iob. 35.10 Where is God my makers and Psal 149. Let Israel rejoyce in his makers Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creators and againe Psal 11.7 His faces or their faces will view the righteous In which places though for some reason translated singularly Maker Creator Face yet according to the precisenesse of the Hebrew it is as I have told you And yet a more evident proofe is that in Gen. 20.13 where the word Elohim God is ioyned with a verbe of the plurall number And in Ioshuah 24.19 The Trinity of Persons in unity of the being is most cleare For with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim is ioyned an adiective of the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kadoshim and a personall of the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu as if you would say God He the holy ones or as Esay explaneth it Ch. 6.3 Holy Holy Holy art thou O Lord. And againe in the same Chapter ver 8. whom shall I send there is the unity of the Godhead and who shall goe for us there is the Trinity of the Persons And againe in Esay chap. 48.16 Christ speaketh thus There am 1. I. and now the. 2. Lord God and 3. His Spirit hath sent me So you read in Psal 33.6 By the 1. Word of 2. Ichovah were the heavens made and all the host of them by the 3. Spirit of his mouth And in Hag. 2.5.6 From the beginning I was and now I am with you saith the 1. Lord of hostes the 2. word which covenanted with you when you came out of Aegypt my 3. Spirit shall dwell among you And if you desire moe proofes out of the old Testament you may reade Ficinus de Christ Relig. Cap. 31. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ichovah that great and fearefull name of God Deut. 28.58 one name of his owne being containes the mysterie of the Trinity For in the forming
which is God alone or else imparted the image of that Good and so every thing created was very good Gen. 1. Goodnesse is likewise in the vertue and disposition of the minde as Barnabas was a good man Act. 11.24 or manifest in the workes and thus Dorcas was full of good workes Act. 9.36 and our Lord wrought many good workes among the Iewes Ioh. 10.32 In these three kindes our Lord was good as man supereminently above all the orders of created things In the first kinde he was good as God which absolute goodnesse he denyed not to himselfe no more than Hee denyed himselfe to bee God at that confession of Thomas My Lord and my God but rather taught that young man if he had had wit to follow that perfection which hee prescribed For being by the young mans owne confession good it must follow of necessity by that rule of perfection Follow me that he was God and ought to be followed and obeyed Eph. 5.1.1 Cor. 11.1 8. Like unto this are those other arguments which they bring as where it is said Ioh. 6.57 Like as the living Father sent me and I live by the Father So hee c. If he live not by himselfe he cannot be God I answer that this life which the Sonne receives of the Father is not accidentall not of grace not of foresight or purpose but substantiall and eternall seeing the generation is according to the immutable being and eternall working of the Father and his spirituall perfection onely So they object from Heb. 3.2 That hee was faithfull to him that made him and Ioh. 14.28 My father is greater than I so 1 Cor. 15.28 when all things are subdued unto Him then also shall the Sonne himselfe be subject unto him that did put all things under him and many other which you may finde cited and answered by Athanasius and especially by Epiphmius in the places quoted before Wherein observe diligently the differences betweene those termes which signifie his nature and those which have reference to the office of his Mediatorship as in the first place of Heb. 3. Consider what he was made It is plaine by the verses before hee was made the Apostle and high Priest of our profession in which office he was faithfull to him that made him or appointed him thereunto so in the second place to that The Father is greater than I note the difference betweene the Divine and humane nature for the Sonne is inferiour to the Father by nature as man and so as he is the Mediatour in the dispensation of his offices as with us he makes up the body of his Church nay even in the Divine nature the Father is that eternall fountaine whence the Sonne hath his eternall originall although the honour of sending takes not away the equalitie of power nor the excellencie of nature from him that is sent so the greatnesse there spoken of is with respect of the office of the Sonne sent into the world that the world by him might be saved In the third place of delivering the kingdome to God the Father note the communication of idiomes or proprieties of speech according to the rules of Theodoret. That the words proper to either nature become common and indifferent to the Person as the God of glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 that is that Person which is the God of glorie was crucified concerning his humane nature Secondly that the communitie of names makes no confusion in natures now the word Sonne belongs to Christ indifferently either as he is the Sonne of God and so shall hee raigne with the Father and the holy Ghost eternally and of his kingdome there shall be no end Dan. 6.36 Luk. 1.33 And seeing that he as the Son of man hath received all power Mat. 28.18 John 3.35 and 13 3. as to governe his Church Psal 45. so to raise the dead and to execute judgement Iohn 5.26 27. Acts 17.31 Hee shall raigne till all things bee subdued unto him and that he hath utterlie destroyed all the workes of the devill sinne ignorance and death Iohn 1.3.8 that as God the Father doth now raigne by him so he having performed all things which belong to him as the Mediatour may thereafter as God raigne with the Father eternally our everlasting king of glory when God shall be all in all his children as he is in him I am the more briefe in this argument because their arguments are answered in part before § 4. And because this question is neere to that which followes immediately and againe because it is the principall subject of that trearise by me so often mentioned therefore for conclusion first consider the danger of this venome which at once poysons all our hopes of that full satisfaction which is made unto the justice of God by the death of Christ for if he be a creature only then can he not be infinite and if not infinite then cannot the infinite justice that is offended by our sinnes receive a full and sufficient satisfaction by him as you might see it proved in the 21 Chapter before And beside these reasons you may take with you these remembrances against all Arians Turkes Iewes Socinians and other hereticks whatsoever and give honour and glory unto Iesus our Lord and God Esay 9.6 Vnto us a childe is borne unto us a Sonne is given and his name shall be called The Mightie God the Everlasting Father the prince of peace Ier. 33.15 16. In those dayes the branch of righteousnesse shall grow up unto David and Ierusalem shall dwell safely and he that shall call her See Mat. 11.28 is Iehovah our righteousnesse Micah 5.2 Out of Bethlehem shall hee come forth unto mee that shall be ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from everlasting Rom. 9.5 Christ is over all God blessed for ever and ever Amen and 1 Iohn 5.20 We are in him that is true even in his Sonne Iesus Christ This is the true God and eternall life § 10. Thus then our Lord Iesus being declared mightily to be Sonne of God by the testimony of the Father from heaven by his owne profession of himselfe confirmed by his glorious miracles Iohn 5.36.37 by his resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 by the consent of the Apostles and Prophets and by the testimony of the holy Ghost in the hearts of all his Children and being truly man by the testimony of his very enemies the onely question remaining concerning his beeing is that seeing all fulnesse must dwell in him Col. 1.19 whether he be not also that first created being in and by whom all other things were created and are governed and preserved This Postellus in his booke De nativitate Mediatoris doth firmly hold And although it be plaine by Athanasius Epist 1. contra Arianos that Arius held one Word in the Father as we speak of the Trinity and another Word created which he held to be Christ and in his Thaleia mentioned Epist 2. contra Arianos affirmes to
the same purpose a Wisdome increated and a Wisedome created and although Arius affirmed as Postellus That Christ was a creature but not as one of the creatures made but not as one of other things that were made c. and therefore concluded that he held the same faith with the Church and detracted nothing from the glory of Christ when hee called him the first and chiefe creature Epiph. haeres 69. yet Postellus whether he were indeed ignorant of it or whether he dissembled his knowledge makes no mention thereof lest the name Arius might discredit the position although the difference betweene Arius and Postellus be as much as from the East to the West For though Arius held the increated Wisdome or Word to be in the Trinity yet he could not yeeld to this that that Wisdome tooke flesh and became that Saviour to whom we confesse And this was the businesse betweene him and the right meaning Fathers But Postellus held that the created Wisdome that first borne of every creature which in the fulnesse of time tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and in that flesh made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world was hee in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead did dwell Now by the rule of our faith both the extremities are yeelded unto that Christ is God blessed above all and that he is man as hath beene proved But this is now to be examined whether it be necessary to the beeing of our mediatour that hee be that first creature of God created before all times and ages of the world by whom all other things were afterwards made in their due times and are governed as Postellus affirmed The Authorities which Postellus brings are either forraine or else out of the holy Scripture you shall first see them of the first kind with their exceptions then his reasons with their answers and lastly those enforcements which are by him and may beside bee brought from the Word of truth 1. First he saith he is urged to the declaration of this truth by the Spirit of Christ pag. 1 3 7 c. but I say these enthusiasmes and revelations are a common claime not onely to them that speake the truth from God as the holy Prophets say Thus saith the Lord but also to them that vent their owne fantasies and heresies in stead of the truth The second authority is that of the Abisine Church which commonly they call of Presbyter Iohn out of whose Creed he cites for his purpose thus much Pag. 24. 25. We beleeve in the name of the holy Trimty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost who is one Lord three names one Deity three Faces one Similitude the conjunction of the three persons is equall in their Godhead one Kingdome one Throne one Iudge one Love one Word one Spirit But there is a Word of the Father a Word of the Soune and a Word of the Holy Ghost and the Son is the same Word And the Word was with God and with the Holy Ghost and with himselfe without any defect or division the Sonne of the Father the Sonne of himselfe and the beginning of himselfe Where in the first Article you see that Church acknowledges the Trinitie of Persons in the unitie of the Deity according to that faith which wee beleeve The second Article But there is a Word of the Father c. is altogether a declaration of this created Word of Sonne of God by whom all the holy Scriptures were given and inspired as Postel speakes But concerning that Church though Postel to make the authority thereof without exception say it was never troubled with any heresie yet it is not unlikely to have nursed that arch-heretick Arius whom all writers account to be a Lybian Besides it is manifest that they are all Monothelites and so farre forth Iacobites or Eutychians that they condemne the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon for determining two natures to be in Christ Moreover what their learning is like to be you may judge by this that their inferiour Church Ministers and Monkes must live by their labor having no other maintenance nor being suffered to crave almes see Mr Brerewoods Enquiry Chap. 23. 21. a state of the Ministery whereto our sacrilegious patrons and detainers of those livings rightly called Impropriations because they belong most improperly to them that unjustly withhold them from the Church would bring our Church unto But see whereto this want of maintenance hath brought that Church which in the time of the Nicene Councell was of so great regard that their Patriarch had the seventh place in all generall Councels yet now as I have read have they of late yeares beene compelled to send to Rome to beg a religion and teachers from them And this is the Authority of that Church But you will say their Creed is ancient and of authority I say though it be as ancient as Arius yet what wit or judgement was in this to put such a point into their Creed which they themselves by Postels owne confession doe not understand If it were necessary to beleeve it other Churches would not have omitted it if not necessary why was it brought into their Creed But the ancient Paraphrasts Anchelus and Ionathan are without exception and where the Text is And the Lord spake unto Moses they explaine it thus And the Lord spake unto Moses by his word which all the old Interpreters and especially Rambam understand to be spoken of the created Word of God that Word of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost or the Divinitie which is appliable to the created beeings Pag. 24. The Cabalists also concurre with this interpretation and therefore call him the inferiour VVisdome the Throne of Glory the house of the Sanctuary the heaven of heavens united to eternity the superiour habitation in which God dwels for ever as his body is the inferiour habitation after he was incarnate the great Steward of the house of God who according to the eternall decree brings forth every thing in due time And these as I remember are all the authorities which Postellus cites except you will add this that whereas he writes to the Councell of Trent they of the Councell being called for other purposes did not at all passe any censure of the booke or this position which is the maine point therein You may add to these authorities many other and first out of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach Chap. 1. vers 4 5. Wisdome hath beene created before all things and the understanding of Prudence from everlasting The VVord of God most high is the fountaine of wisdome c. which agrees with that in the Creed before that hee is the VVord of the Sonne and the beginning of himselfe And againe verse 9. The Lord created her and saw her and numbred her And Chap. 24.8 9. He that made me caused me to rest he created me from the beginning before the world and I shall never faile And this authority
should bee incarnate when there is not one word in the Holy Scripture whereupon they may ground any such Article of their faith 2. Beside this that which they affirme is utterly impossible For nothing is possible to be in the Trinitie which brings in any confusion or disorder But if the Holy-Ghost should be incarnate then should there not be one Sonne of God incarnate but two sonnes but that were confusion and no way necessary and therefore not possible Compare herewith Chap. 12. Reason 1. and the Reasons of the Chap. 23. 3. Moreover the workes of the Holy-Ghost are the workes of a most pure Spirit whereto a humane body can no way give any furtherance as to renew the mind by Repentance to give faith to teach and comfort the soule to make it love that which is good to hate that which is ill and the like All which and whatsoever else the Holy Spirit doth worke it worketh onely spiritually Therefore it is necessary or meet that the Holy-Ghost should take on Him the body of man 4. That argument which Epiphanius Haer. 66. used against Manes in particular may serve in generall against all the rest If Manues saith he were that Holy-Ghost whom the Lord promised to His disciples then that promise had beene in vaine seeing that this heresie of Manes was not heard of till 247. after the suffering of Christ who also performed that gift of the Holy-Ghost within tenne dayes after His ascension Neither was that heresie of Montanus heard of till about 140. yeeres after Christs ascension And whereas the disciples were commanded not to depart from Ierusalem but to waite there for the promise that was to be fulfilled not many dayes after This heresie of Simon was not broached will after the disciples were scattered from Ierusalem by reason of the persecution that arose about Stephen as some write in the sixt yeere after the suffering of Christ Concerning Melchizedek it is manifest that he was a Priest of the most high God so was not the Holy-Ghost For He onely beares witnesse unto the faithfull soule of Christs eternall Priest-hood The madnesse of Mahumed you shall finde Chap. 34. § 5. N. 8. § 2. Sect. 2 Thus the doubt concerning those persons who were pretended to be the Holy-Ghost being answered it followes next to examine those errours that have been about His being Among these the chiefe was that of Arius who taught that the Son was the first and chiefe creature made by the Father of that which was not And that the Holy-Ghost was a creature of this creature But because the great question with Arius was about the Sonne this heresie is imputed to Macedonius a light fellow fit for his trade which they call the Feathermakers From that he became a Priest and after the Bishop of Constantinople Of him some write that he held the heresie of Arius whole othersome that he held the true faith concerning the Father and the Sonne but erred concerning the Holy-Ghost For some write that he held that the Holy-Ghost was not a Person subsisting in Himselfe but that the Deity of the Father and the Sonne was that which we call the Holy-Ghost Other write that his heresie was this That the Holy-Ghost was the minister of God in the creature or a certaine power created of God in every creature because it is said in Amos 4.13 That God createth the Spirit where although it be manifest by that which goeth before Hee hath formed the mountaines that it is spoken of the mind Yet that adulterate Synod at Lampsacus from thence justified that errour of Macedonius that the Holy-Ghost was a creature For this heresie his followers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fighters against the Holy Spirit And although others were before him in this heresie as the Originists the Arians and Semiarians yet because he was a savage and a fierce man to them that thought not with him therefore this opinion became as it were his peculiar His arguments were onely such as Arius used and therefore answered as they that were brought by him against the Deity of the Sonne as 1. from that in Iohn 17.3 The Father is acknowledged the onely true God Answere 1. I have heretofore said that by the name of Father all the Persons of the Trinitie are understood and to this Father that onely Mediator betweene God and man the Man Iesus Christ confesseth in this place of Saint Iohn See 1. Tim. 2 3 4 5. and Eph. 4.6 Answere 2. Moreover Saint Paul saith Ephe. 3.14 15. That of the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the whole familie in heaven and earth is named So our Saviour heere to take away the opinion of moe gods than one acknowledgeth that God His Father is that eternall Fountaine from which both the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost doth proceede as I have said before but yet seeing the being of the Father is most simple and one that which doth proceede essentially from that simple and pure being of His must necessarily be all one and the same with Him And therefore both the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost must needes bee God 2. Objection All things were made by Him Iohn 1.3 Therefore the Holy-Ghost also was made by Christ and so as the Arians speake Hee is a creature of a creature Answere Those words All things are interpreted by that which followes without Him was not any thing made which was made For if those words All things should be taken in that sence as the Hereticks urge them it should follow that both the Father also and the Sonne Himselfe were made by Himselfe which are things impossible 3. Objection He that receives of another is inferior to Him of whom he doth receive But the Holy-Ghost doth receive of Christ to shew unto His Church Therefore He is inferiour unto Christ and consequently a creature Answere The proposition is false For great Princes receive Presents of their subjects Lords of their Tenants Masters of their Scholars who account it a favour and an honour done unto them that their offers are accepted Moreover that taking of the Holy-Ghost from the Father and the Sonne spoken of in that text of Iohn 16.14 is not of grace but by nature neither is it any other thing than this That as the Father from all eternity had decreed to reconcile the world unto Himselfe by the death of His Sonne and that the Sonne accordingly performed this in due time by His death upon the Crosse So the Father and the Sonne by that Holy Spirit which proceedeth from them both doth sauctifie the hearts of the elect and assure them that this reconciliation with all the fruits and effects thereof was for their eternall comfort and salvation For that peculiar manner of subsistence in the Divine nature which He taketh from the Father and the Sonne whereby it is most necessarily concluded that He is God is not heere spoken of 4. Objection The Holy-Ghost is no where called God in the Scripture
of God they utterly forget that hee is Iust Vnto which infinite Iustice of God if they had taken due regard the same light of reason would further have shewed unto them that the soule that sinnes must beare a punishment answerable to his sinne And because by every sinne against God an infinite Iustice is offended therefore it is impossible that any man by his owne righteousnesse which can never bee any more than by the Law of God he is bound unto should bee able to make any satisfaction for his sinne Vpon which true principle it will follow necessarily in the light of reason either that there is no possible returne to the favour of God which conclusion a man would by all meanes avoid or else that the reconciliation of mankinde unto God must needs bee by the mediation of a man in every respect free from Sinne who bearing the punishment due to sinners might finde redemption and mercy for all them that would beleeve it and live worthy thereof But because all men conceived in lust and sinne are originally tainted therewith for out of uncleannesse who can bring that which is cleane therefore must the generation of this Mediator bee wonderfull and not after the common manner of all men but so that no sinne or taint of the flesh must bee therein So that being both borne and living without sinne hee might by his death become a ransome acceptable for the sinnes of others And although reason could not conceive nor finde how this should bee yet seeing that in the necessitie of the divine justice it must bee thus reason would as easilie yeeld that it might bee as it did finde and see the creation of mankinde and the whole creature out of nothing as by the discourse ensuing it will hereafter appeare If this were not thus how should the whole world of Infidels and misbeleevers bee liable to the justice of God for their ignorance of him for their neglect and for their unbeliefe So taking it as granted till it doth further appeare by the Treatise following that reason hath right good and necessarie use in the things of faith it is too manifest that these wretched times are such as seeme to call aloud for the publishing of some such worke as this for though the fooles that have said in their hearts there is no God dare not in words profes it yet by their continuance in their sinful deeds they do proclaime that their thoughts are so Neither are they altogether wanting which say that Religion is but a politicke invention to keep men in civill obedience but if the conclusions of the Christian Religion bee inferred upon necessarie principles then are they not made out of policie as these Atheists say but cannot prove it except they could also make it appeare that policie was able to make naturall reason I will not denie that Mahumed setled his religion so as they say but hee forbids to dispute of the principles thereof because it is against both reason and Scripture and so perhaps it may bee said of those Will-worships that are or have beene among other Gentiles to whom God vouchsafed not the knowledge of his Law But our most holy faith because it alone is true hath no other author than God himselfe who hath revealed it by his word and because no man shall bee excused if hee beleeve it not hee hath commanded reason whereof all men are partakers to seale thereto in everie point but because in the Treatise before mentioned and by the whole practice of this booke this thing is manifest I will here turne mee onely to answer those doubts which may bee brought against the perswading of matiers of faith by humane reason First it may bee objected that the matiers of faith are farre above humane reason and that therefore it is a great presumption to question or skan them thereby for it is said by S. Paul Rom. 11.33 that his wayes and wisdome are past finding out I confesse we know nothing of God but what he hath revealed of himselfe by his workes or by his words for hee dwelleth in the light that none can approach unto even as S. Paul speakes there of his calling and election to faith a will unrevealed but the Articles of our faith hee hath most plainely taught and revealed And further to the argument I confesse that humane reason turning it selfe to behold the divine truthes is as the eye of a Bat to looke on the Sunne But yet the eternall and infinite truthes are so apprehended by mans finite understanding as the light of the Sunne is by the eye that is verely and indeed the same light and no other for though the eye cannot receive all the light of the Sunne yet that which it doth receive is truly that same light which is in or from the Sunne But you say that if in things of common use as hony salt or any other things vegetable or minerall wee must confesse our exceeding ignorance of their nature properties and possibilities both alone and much more in all manner of compositions it may seeme that our dulnesse may much rather be acknowledged in things divine I yeeld not altogether to this consequence for to the knowledge of naturall things we have our owne witlesse experience to helpe us and the deceitfull authoritie of mistaking men but all those truthes whereon our faith relies are grounded on the infallible rules of Gods owne word revealed by himselfe unto us for this end that we should not bee deceived or mistaken And although it was impossible for humane reason ever to finde out the conclusions and most fundamentall points of our faith as the mysterie of the Trinitie the incarnation of God the resurrection of the body c. yet being by the cleer light of Gods own word made known unto us we approve the same truth by the judgement and voice of reason So the reasons that are brought hereunto are not to establish any truth new or unheard of but for that faith which was heretofore taught delivered unto the Saints if the reasons of themselves be weak and by their weakenes shew how mans understanding is dazled at the divine light yet the conclusions stand sure and unmoveable but if the reasons bee certaine and true then questionlesse they are grounded in the Word and truth of God and the conclusion true either for the reason delivered or for a higher reason which wee cannot finde To this purpose the Father Anselm de Conc. Gratiae lib. arbit saith not unfitlie Sacra Scriptura omnis veritatis quam ratio colligit authoritatem continet cùm illam aut apertè continet aut nullatenus negat Quod enim apertâ ratione colligitur illi ex nullâ parte Scripturae contradicitur quoniam ipsa sicut nulli adversatur veritati itae nulli favet falsitati hoc ipso quiae non negat ejus auctoritate suscipitur Yet you will say that this endeavour is altogether needlesse seeing the
of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hawah or hayah whence the name is derived Ie is the signe of that which is to come as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yeheweh He shall be or He will be Ho of that which is as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being or He that is and wah of that which hath bin as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee hath beene and thus is the word opened Rev. 1.8 He which was in eternitie the fountaine and eternall Father of Him which shall be in eternity by the common band of all continuance that which is in eternity And this is Hee that was and is and is to come And in the new Testament besides the places cited before in the beginning of the chapter in Math. 3.16.17 and Luc. 3.21.22 you may heare the witnesse of the Father concerning the Sonne and see the Holy Ghost comming downe on Him in the likenesse of a dove And againe Ioh. 14. vers 16.17.1 I will pray the 2. Father and he will send you another Comforter even the 3. Spirit of truth And 2 Cor. 13.13 The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holie Ghost bee with you all with many other texts not needfull here to bee cited because that when we come to speake of the other Persons of the Trinitie in the Articles following some of them must bee remembred And if the adversaries testimonie be ought worth you may take hereto the Aegyptian oracle of Serapis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First God and then the Word and Holy Ghost with them Of essence one in one accord And from hence it seemes had Merc. Trism that which hee teaches in Pormand of that Light which is God the Father the word which is the Sonne and that life which is the union of them both See the other arguments inductive in the Notes a andb. Notes a BY reason we are summon'd to hearken to this truth Pref. Tho. Aqu. in his questions on the master of the sentences lib. 1. Dist 2. q. 3. brings a couple of reasons to prove a plurality of Persons in the unity of the Godhead which in effect are these 1. with the greatest happinesse there must bee the greatest pleasure and content But in the Possession of that which is good there cannot be pleasure and content without company seeing the perfection of every good thing stands in the community of the use thereof But company is not without plurality The second reason is from the perfection of the divine love and all love ever wishes well to another But these reasons prove no more a Trinity than a society of Ten and sit better for an ordinary than the high mystery in question And therefore having look't well upon his reasons and seeing that they were very poore inductions he resolves it is no way necessary to put a distinction of Persons in the Deity for the force of reasons but onely for the justifying of our Faith and for the authority of the Holy Scriptures And in the third Disc qu. 4. whether it were possible for the old Philosophers which knew not the Scripture by the knowledge of the creature onely to come to the knowledge of the Trinity hee saith that by the view of the creature they might come to the knowledge of the divine power wisdome and goodnesse as the cause is manifest by the effect and conclude that there is one God even as Saint Paul proves Rom. 1. and againe Rom. 10.18 out of the 19. Psalme But that they could not thereby attaine the knowledge of the Trinity because the Creature was an insufficient meanes to bring them to the knowledge of that high mysterie So in the 4 booke of his Summe Contr. Gentiles Cap. 1. hee determines even so concerning the incarnation and the consequents thereof So likewise concerning the resurrection everlasting life and all our hopes that depend thereon Againe in his Summe of Theologie chap. 33. hee concludes that by naturall reason it is impossible to know God in the distinction of Persons and that for these reasons 1. First it takes away from the worthinesse of our Faith 2. Faith is of things not appearing and such as exceed reason as it is said Heb. 11.1 Thirdly Infidels laugh at that which is not fully proved and therefore saith hee it shall bee sufficient to defend that our faith holds nothing that is impossible But Doctor reason must yeeld that to bee impossible which it cannot make to appeare that it is possible And therefore that our faith bee not set at nought by misbeleevers as being of things impossible you tye us for defence thereof to further proofe which if it be full and sufficient your third reason is nothing worth The first reason is lesse worth in it selfe For that is the glory of a Christian faith and the triumph of it over all false worships that is so surely founded in the truth of God that the Gates of hell cannot prevaile against it Therefore to speake cleerely to this question I say the word naturall reason may either meane that reason whereof a man is capable by that light of understanding which is naturally through the gift of Christ in every man Ioh. 1.4.9 the holy Scripture hath opened this light most clearely and therefore is it called the light of Grace or else it may meane such reasons as are gathered from the causes effects and rules which are manifest onely in naturall things Now although the articles of our creede by way of Induction onely may be manifest by naturall reason thus understood as S. Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 11. cap. 26. in this very question hath made it appeare yet by that first light of understanding which wee call naturall reason because it is in every man according to the possibility of nature they may bee understood and approved by other rules than such as have their grounds in naturall things For God is not the God of nature onely but much more the God of grace and mercy and to the knowledge of these principles and the conclusions gathered thereon wee are led by better guides than Aristotle ever knew that is the holy Scripture and the Spirit of Grace who leades us to the right meaning thereof Yet how farre even Naturall light hath gone in the discovery of the great Mysteries of Divinity even of the Trinity it selfe you may judge by this of Proclus taken out of Plato as you may reade in Steuchus de perenni phi lib. 2. c. 16. These two saith hee unity and Being consisting in the Trinity the first begetting the second begotten the one perfecting the other perfected it must needs be that there is a certaine power by the which and with the which that unity gives subsistence and perfection unto that being For both the procession from that unity to being and the returne from that being unto unity must be by a middle power betweene them both For
how can unity bee Being or Being bee one but by that power which is in both And this Trinity is the excellency of all understanding unity power Being the one bringing forth the other brought forth and power proceeding from unity ioyned with being And this is the first Trinitie that can bee understood or conceived to bee unity being and the power of them both by which divinity is the Father of being being is of unity The Father is the father of wisdome and wisdome the Son of the Father and between these a most high power hidden in the one of producing in the other of being produced as Plato hath shewed it wonderfully Thus Proclus The argument of Pythagoras is not of lesse weight That which is unchangeable must needs be eternal and alwayes one And as al change in every body is by reason of inequality of the parts so that which is absolutely and ever one must be ever in equality so verity and equalitie must be eternall and multiplicity and inequality must necessarily bee after unity and equalitie And as unity is the cause of connexion or being one so inequality is of division And the effect of the first cause must have priority before the effects of the second cause Therefore connexion also must be before division and change and if before change then also eternall And because there can bee but one eternall therefore unity equality and connexion must bee one thing And this is that threefold unity which Pythagoras taught was to bee adored Pet. Blondus de Trenario pag. 106.107 And Cusa de Docta ignorantia lib. 1. cap. 7. Neither is that reason which Cusa Exereroit lib. 7. pag. 134. brings from Aristotle to bee slighted especially by Thomas that great Aristotelian Aristotle saith that the first cause of all must needs be both efficient formall and the end And three firsts there cannot be because before all plurality there must needs be unity Therefore it being one first it must bee a threefold cause efficient formall and finall The efficient cause is neither Formall nor Finall and the formall is neither finall nor efficient Therefore they are three distinct causes considered in their severall subsistences but considered in their firstnesse they are in being one alone many such reasons and authorities to this purpose you may reade in Struchus Deperenni Phi. lib. 1. 2. But how much yet more fitly and more fully hath the illuminated Raimund shewed both this point and all those other which Tho. Aqu. hath given over as past all proofe For Raimund taking all those conditions of the divine being which the holy Scripture gives to God and without which that being could not be perfect and supposing and proving them to be infinite with all the conditions of infinity both in being and working hath taught the way to shew the Trinity of Persons in unity of being by every one of those conditions see Art mag Part. 9. And though his words seeme borrel and rude as bonificans bonificabile Bonificare in una bonitatis essentia Possificans possificabile and possificare in the being of power yet they are full of excellent meaning The learned and witty Cusa de visione Dei cap. 17. gives instance in the unity which is either unity uniting unity united or the union or knot of them both yet all these in the most simple being of unity And againe in love which is either in the Person loving or in the Person loved or in the knot of the Love betweene them all according in the nature of Love and without any of these Love cannot be perfect and compleate yet may every one of these be understood apart inasmuch as a man may love and not be loved loved and not love againe But where that which is Lovely is also loving there the bond of love is firmely tyed and love in every part entire yet is this love but in shadowes among us but perfect in the endlesse and perfect being of love 1 Ioh. 4.8.16 And thus in other conditions of the divine nature have other learned and devout men endevoured to shew their understanding and firme consent unto this high article of the christian Faith one in the power of God another in his wisdome c. according to the proofes you read before And therefore not to goe about to overthrow the reasons brought by Thomas because the authority of so great a Doctor may cut deeper than his reasons and so cut off if not the strength of the reasons in the articles following yet that comfort which the faithfull soule might have thereby I say that all the reasons which are brought to this article and so for the most part in all the rest are onely of two kindes First and chiefely from the impossibilities which would follow upon the contradiction of the thing in question which kinde of discourse I have taught as I can log cap. 8. n. 7. and chap. 26. more at large Secondly by that kinde of demonstration which I call by conversion of termes as I shewed log cap. 18. n. 3. in the syllogisticall handling of such arguments as in effect are all one with them which log cap. 13. n. 5. I shewed to bee by rule in the second kinde of equivalence Now both these kindes of argument prove the question onely that it is that is to say shew onely that the proposition is true and neither prove nor enquire how or for what superiour cause which in this and in many of the other questions here handled cannot be given And there is no proposition how true how universall or manifest soever but it may be proved by these meanes both in the affirmative For in things of the same nature and being whatsoever agrees to one must needs agree to the other and in the negative the ground of impossibilities and all negative discourse whatsoever is denied to the predicate must also bee denyed to the subject Now I thinke it is no more derogation from the truth to bee thus confirmed than it is simplie to bee affirmed as it is in the article of the Creed As if I say there is an eternall being the cause of all Beings there is an infinite wisdome the disposer of all an infinite power that governes all and thereupon conclude that there is a God What dishonour is here offered to God or his truth are not all these termes an eternall Being the cause of all beings An infinite Wisdome c. convertible one with another and all of them meaning one being which wee call God have they not all authority in the Holy Scripture And shall not that which is truely affirmed of one bee as truely affirmed of the other And so on the otherside by impossibilities If there bee not an eternall being the beginner and cause of all other beings then that which is begun must bee a beginning to it selfe But this is impossible for so it should bee a cause and yet not bee Therefore there is a God
children to that faith which is strengthened through knowledge for knowledge doth neither take away faith nor yet abate any thing of the worthinesse thereof but rather encreaseth it more and more while it is thereby rooted and grounded more firmely in him in whom at first we did beleeve as the learned Father August de Trinit Cap. 14. said Fides in nobis per scientiam gignitur nutritur defenditur roboratur b Workes both necessarily yet willingly Pref. This Will they call concomitant because it ever followes the verie being of that wherein the will is The will of God whereby hee gives being to the creature is causall for by it alone the creature is without any other working of God but onely the pleasure or motion of his owne will power and goodnesse c. c Jn the being of goodnesse there is an infinite producer Pref. While I was preparing materials for this building I read the title of a Mart book Abstrusa abstrusorum abstrusissima primaria Symboli Apostolici abstrusa Though I had beene more than once gul'd with such titles Arcana arcanorum arcanissima arcana and the like wherein these writers sweat more than for any thing in the booke beside yet being interpreted a pious and very profound meditation of the deepe mysteries of the Apostles Creed I supposed that such bumbast would never bee quilted into a treatise upon the grounds of our Religion so that I verely hoped that all my labour was at an end At last having got the booke I found that it was nothing in good earnest but a declamation onely of a certaine springal for exercise sake into which as into a common place booke hee had gathered the sentences of learned men wherein they justlie bewaile the miserie of mankinde in his inabilitie to finde out the truth of things whereupon hee would utterlie shut out the use of reason in matiers of faith The consequence is not good as I have shewed Praef. n. 6. His speciall spleene is against Keckerman and his gregales that is them of his ging I thinke hee meanes the Calvinists of whom hee names onely Zanchius and them of whom he received this learning Melancthon and his owne verie Syren and Phaenix Scaliger out of whose shreds hee hath botch't up his declamation such as it is yet in this case he could not spare him that would manifest his understanding of the Trinitie according to Raymunds principles The wicked conclusion that will follow thereon Murshel the declamer goes about to shew out of Andreas Osiander as you shall heare anon Chap. 12. note a But what have Scaliger or Raymund done herein which the ancient Fathers had not done before save that they made the doctrine cleere by forreine comparisons one of the Sunne the beame and the brightnesse or shine thereof another by the body the brightnesse and heat of the fire another of the minde wherein is the word or understanding thereof and the will another saith the minde thinking the word representing that thought and the liking or approving thereof yet another will represent the Trinitie by memorie understanding and will another by the root the stem and the branch Augustine shewes it by a mans owne experience of himselfe who both is and knowes himselfe to bee and loves both his being and knowledge thereof de Civit. Dei lib 11. cap. 26. But his reason in the 24. Chap. from Gen. 1. is of more force which is this He that said Fiat must needs be the Father of that Word but you must understand that word in Himselfe or that eternall word or decree of which our Lord speakes Iohn 5.19 And because the creature was made thereby it must follow that it was made by his word And where it is further said that all that was made was exceeding good if by goodnesse you understand the Holy Ghost the whole Trinitie is manifested unto us in his workes another explaines it by the fountaine and the streame to which Cusa addes the sea and if these saith he be supposed infinite then must all of necessity be one water And the same Cusa lib. de Filiatione Dei expresses it by the knowledge in the minde of the master the word signifying that knowledge and the spirit life or meaning of the word proceeding from the knowledge and the word whereby the scholars are instructed And have not many of these comparisons ground in the holy Scripture Ioh. 1.1 Heb. 1.3 Esay 11.1 and else where But Raymund not by forreine comparisons but by the essentiall properties of the infinite being in the reall relations of every terme in unitie of that one being hath with more cleerenesse expressed to mans weake understanding the unspeakeable mysterie of the Trinitie in the unitie of one undivideable nature as I have shewed in the Preface in the being of goodnesse and Reason 3. of infinitie or greatnesse and Reason 8. of understanding And although I would not erre from company yet seeing I have such company both of the ancient and later writers which by the adversary himselfe are confessed to be of incomparable learning and Divine honestie I need not be ashamed of my company But notwithstanding all this invective against reason in things of faith see the young man by and by in the Sorbon The power of God saith he in the creation of the world wrought upon that which was not to cause it to be Therefore God is Almightie for this must be the conclusion howsoever he would turne it to shut out the use of reason but that will not follow upon the premises So in the case of mans redemption of the incarnation of God of the resurrection hee is over the head and eares in Aristotle and historie but all to prove these things in reason impossible And it is yeelded that all these things are utterly beyond the course of nature but yet upon better and higher principles than Aristotle knew they will all appeare possible and necessarie and then his reasons shall bee answered To this order the declamer would bring their consubstantiation and that which doth necessarilie follow thereon the bodilie presence of Christ in everie place And here he doth farre surpasse himselfe and by two bodies in one place will prove it possible that one body may bee in all places because God hath absolute power of all the nature of being But if this reason be good and sufficient then is hee injurious and unconstant to himselfe so to Hebarre the use of reason in the questions of faith and if that bodily presence of Christ in every place for which he labours so had any ground in the Scripture if it brought any hope or comfort to the conscience if the Primitive Church or the Councels or the ancient Fathers had ever taught it I thinke that by this time reason would have found how to make it more probable than it is but because it is no Article of our Creed it is not fit to trouble you any further hereabout d Therefore
God doth bring forth eternally his Sonne Re. 4. The truth of this conclusion hath beene diversly gainsaid For some have utterly denyed the Trinitie of Persons in the Unitie of the Godhead others with this truth have blended their owne devices The hereticks which held that as there was but one being in the Deitie so there was but one Person called by divers names of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost were of divers families according to the names of the speciall maintainers of this opinion but best knowne by the name of Sabellius one of the most subtile defenders thereof about the yeere 260. which heresie after a long sleepe was againe awaked about the yeere 1110 by one Porretanus who affirmed that the Persons in the Godhead differ not save onely in the apprehensions of our minde not by any reall or true distinction The Iewes likewise among other reasons doe therefore disclaime the Christian Religion because they suppose that by the Trinitie of Persons is taught a pluralitie of Gods contrarie to that which is Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. The Turkes also denie the Trinitie of Persons and hold it therefore impossible for God to have a Sonne because he never had a wife Now of those that held a Trinitie Simon that witch of whom you reade Actes 8. when the gall of his bitternesse had levened him thorowour gave out of himselfe that he in the person of the Father gave the Law to Moses in the dayes of Tiberius suffered in shew under the Person of the Sonne and afterward came downe on the Apostles in fierie tongues August de Haeres Cap. 1. Hierarcha also from the words of the Nicen Creed that Christ was light of light affirmed that the three Persons were as three lights of which one tooke light of another and so he made the beings of the persons separate and apart whereas the Fathers in that Councell meant not any division or being apart but that the Sonne is of the substance of the Father without any lessening or abatement of the Fathers being as one light takes light of another without any losse of light in the former The Metangismonites so called from their opinion taken from vessels that they might avoid the opinion of the separate being of the Persons held that they were as vessels contained one within another falselie supposing with the Anthropomorphites or Man-shapers that God was bodily and so conteined within a certaine space and againe misunderstanding that text of Scripture Iohn 14.11 where our Lord saith I am in the Father so that in the Divine nature they supposed some thing greater which was the Father and something lesse which was the Sonne and a third thing within them both which was the Holy Ghost But against that bodily being which they conceived you have reasons sufficient in the 9. Chapter The text of S. Iohn makes the matter more plaine for as it is impossible that two bodies should bee each one within another except by way of commixation so it quite overthrowes that foolish opinion because it is thrice there added that the Father is in the Sonne so that of necessitie there can bee but one being of them both For if the being of God be not most simple and pure as was shewed before Chap. 9. And if every being answers to the Originall then the essence of the Sonne must be most pure as the Father is so that if each of the Persons be in the other there can be no difference but onely in the manner of being onely See August de Civit. Dei lib. 11. Cap. 10. Then concerning that third falshood which they supposed of a greater and lesser being it cannot possiblie stand with the nature of infinitie whether it be understood of extension or of vertue onely The Triformians likewise to crosse the errour of Sabellius affirmed three Persons and that the whole and entyre being of the Godhead was in all the three taken together yet not in every person wholly but so as one part of it was in the Father another part in the Sonne and a third part in the Holy Ghost By which falshood it would follow that the Godhead were in it selfe a divideable being and so a compound contrary to that which is concluded Chap. 9. The Tritheites are yet more mad then the former that it may appeare how boundlesse errour is They make the being of God not one and the sam as the Triformians did but affirme that there is a threefold nature and distinguish the Persons in their essence or absolute being in place also and other differences of particular substances as Peter James and Iohn and so make three Gods different and apart each from other The Tetratheites would seeme more subtile then all that had beene before them for they beside the three Persons of the Godhead supposed a fourth being which did communicate it selfe to all the three by which communication of divine nature everie one of those three became God By which sottish opinion it must follow that none of those three Persons could be either infinite or eternall if they receive their being from another if they be God by grace onely and communication of another being than their owne neither can their being be simple and one having one being of themselves and another imparted unto them But if that being which they call that fourth common being be that one most simple pure and eternall being which wee confesse to be God then it must follow necessarilie that in that being there bee three Persons as hath been declared in the Chapter before in every one of which the whole Godhead is all in all and all in everie one not by communication from another nor by participation onely but by the whole and proper possession of every Person essentially so that the Godhead is no other being than that which is in the three persons nor the three Persons any other thing than that manner of being which is in the Godhead eternally but they prove it thus Where are one and three trulie and really different there must needs bee foure But in the Deitie there is one being and three Persons really distinguished therefore foure severall beings I answer Where is one and three absolute beings there must needs be foure but in the Godhead there is one absolute being and three manners of being which are the Persons but the manner of being doth not make a number different from the being as Isaac is one absolute being in himselfe yet Jsaac the sonne of Abraham is not a second nor Isaac the father of Iacob a third So the follie of this opinion and the weaknesse of their reasons appearing it remaines for the better understanding of this most high mysterie first that answer bee given to those arguments which Sabellius brought for his opinion secondly that the reasons which are brought of the Tritheits be discussed But that no errour or mistaking may grow concerning the faith in the truth
at all any thing of very being as Keckerman supposes but onely a manner of being which for ought that I can conceive being nothing of being must bee but a meere conceit of ours the opinion of Sabellius must stand for truth and so on the other side if these relations be the very beings or things subsisting nay if the Divine being be the very relation of the Fatherhood and Sonneship as Thomas affirmes both contra Gent. lib. 4. c. 14. then if the Fatherhood differ from the Sonneship and that reallie as being in Divine essence the difference must be most reall and so the Sonneship from the Fatherhood and both of them from the procession of the Holy Ghost it seemes that the Divine being must differ really from it selfe and so there can bee but one being of all the Persons as Arrius affirmed By relation you may understand either that logicall notion which is between the termes relative correlative and so the sayings of Kecker are justifiable or else you may meane thereby the things spoken of with that mutuall respect which they have each to other and so you must understand the doctrine of S. Thomas For your further satisfaction remembes what I told you Introduct in log Sect. 4. n. 11. That those relations which I can necessary commonly called secundum esse are such words as signifie first that mutuall respect which they have to their correlatives and then those beings whereon they depend fundamentally As the name Father first hath reference to a childe next it imports the subsistence or person as of Abraham or Iesse so double first understands single lesse greater next quantities Therefore though I thinke it not fitly said that the fatherhood is the divine essence or that the essence is in the Fatherhood as Thomas speakes for essence imports the simple and absolute being and fatherhood that reference which is to another yet these relations shall not bee so meerely the manner of being but that they may make a reall difference from their correlatives not onely in regard of that substratum or thing meant in their second signification which is really differing from the thing opposed as a Father from a Sonne Iesse from David but also in respect of that being whereon these relations are founded immediately as in Abrabam that lively or naturall strength whereby he is enabled to beget his like in Isaack that lively humanity which was begotten As unity the transcendent is convertible with being both which in quantities are the ground of evennesse or equality in qualities of likenesse And therefore Keckerman to shun a pluralitie of being doth unnecessarily avoyd that reall difference which it is necessary to put in the Persons of the Trinity wherein there are more or divers subsistent beings if you respect the Persons or relations but one thing alone if you regard the essence For the realty in the difference of the relations can no way enforce a plurality in their absolute beings but onely an incommunicable propriety in the things that are different For although in natures created some attributes be essentiall which are in the thing most perfectly Some accidentall as learning Iustice and such other which are not perfect in us some againe are but onely relative which of all other most imperfectly belong unto us as not necessary to our being but sometime depend on things without as a mastership on his servants a fatherhood on his children and even those relations which are nearest doe presuppose not only the being of the subject but also such accidents in the subject from whence the Relation doth arise as the right hand and left hand from the position of the members yet in the superexcellencie of the divine being whereto no perfection can bee wanting which is possible to be either in the being or manner of being in the working or manner of working it is necessary that all things be supereminently according to the most perfect manner of being that is essentially And therefore these relations which are in the Godhead are not so called properly as being utterly in the simplicity of that being which is utterly in dependent yet because hee hath reveiled himselfe unto us by the name of the Father the Word and the Spirit one being in the consideration of which wee come nearest to that relation which is properly so called in the creature we are compeld for helpe of our owne understanding which wee finde so dazeled at that infinite light to hide our Eyes and by little and little as by degrees to take a glympse thereof and so to speake according to that light which we discerne And as in the degrees of light first we see the dawning then the shine or cleare light after the Beames and lastly the body of the Sunne So contrariwise in the knowledge of God from that fountaine of Light His being which is reflected in all the creatures wee view the beames or immediate perfections thereof His goodnesse eternity wisdome and glory and these shew themselves first in their inward working and afterward at an infinite distance in the creature outwardly In their in ward working because they are infinite we must acknowledge an infinite agent an infinite object an infinite action or the termes or limits of all action from whence wherto the middle terme between these two which we call Persons And so though our guide his word bee that Light which shines in the darkenesse yet we must confesse that he dwels in the Light whereto none can approach which to us is all one with that darkenesse which he hath made his pavillion And as in the Being which wee conceive absolute wee put different perfections of wisdome of power of goodnesse c. which neverthelesse wee must confesse to bee one perfection though they bee truly distinguished betweene themselves So in the different relations which wee call Persons though wee know and confesse them to bee really different yet must wee acknowledge the subsistences one in their absolute being And although the understanding in the confideration of created beings wonders how all these things can bee in that uttermost simplicity and unity of Being and that after one most imple manner of Being essentially yet when it remembers that that being is therefore most perfect because it is most simple and that no degree of perfection can bee wanting to that which is most perfect it dispoiles it selfe of all those rules which it doth verifie in created things and because it is not able by one simple apprehension in it selfe either to conceive much lesse to expresse that perfection which is in the simplicity of the divine being it is content with those expressions which it is able to make thereof so that the truth and majestie of the thing bee not hurt thereby Therefore whether s. Thomas deliver it thus or Zanchius thus So long as we know they meane no other thing than that which the holy Scripture hath taught us wee ought not to receive with the
is their reall distinction and that relation whereby they are distinguished is nothing different from any of these nor yet the propriety of their personall being is any other thing than that relation Therefore though the persons are not distinguished by or in that absolute being wherein they are all one yet is it most falsely brought in thereby that any thing shall bee in them beside their essence whereby they are distinguished For the distinction or difference of the persons arises from the action onely or working of the Absolute Being which yet is essentially in the absolute Being and differs not therefrom no more than heat in the fyer doth differ essentially from the fyer or reason feeling and growth in a man doth differ essentially from the soule of man 8. Every relative depends necessarily upon the correlative But nothing which is depending upon another can be truely God Therefore either the Persons differ not by relations only or none of the persons can be God or else there is no relation and so no distinction of the persons at all Answer It is a fallacious and froward kinde of arguing to presse the propriety of speech or use of words to darken the truth of things see log cap. 21. n. 5. It hath beene said 1. that the being of God is supereminently above all being above all created understanding to conceive 2. That relation in created things doth not onely presuppose a subject but also some quantity quality action or other affection in the subject whereon that relation doth depend 3. That those relations in the persons of the deity are nothing else but the very personall proprieties and that the word Relation as many other beside is taken into use in this argument onely to helpe the expressing of our understanding though indeed properly it bee not in the divine being yet can we not conceive but that there is an order in the procession of the persons as I have said elsewhere yet not such as shall bring in any dependence no not in the personall proprieties because the action or eternall working whence the personall differences doe proceed is essentially in the Godhead or if dependence must needes bee yeelded unto yet seeing it can bee nothing but onely the order of procession in the persons of the Godhead it brings in no such inconvenience as that thereupon it should follow that either the Sonne or the Holy Ghost were not God So the foundation of the doubt being but a hil of sand the whole building proves but a trifle And these are the principall reasons brought for the Sabellian heresie The authorities of the Holy Scripture which they falsely alleage hereto are such as prove the absolute unitie of the divine Being as you have heard before in the end of the eighth Chapter which Texts as they doe most strongly confirme the eternall truth of the absolute being of one God so doe they nothing gain say the Trinitie of the Persons which other Texts of the Scripture reach as you have partly heard and shall heare further hereafter when wee come to speake in particular of the Persons of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost So it remaines now only to answer that which is brought for the opinion of the Tritheites which poore fancie though it may vanish at the fight of the Reasons which have beene brought for the simple and one Being of God in the eight Chapter yet because it would justifie it selfe by this doctrine of the Trinitie you shall see what the strength of their Reason is 9 That which is begotten and that which is not begotten must needs be very different The persons of the Trinity are begotten as the Sonne and not begotten as the Father and the Holy Ghost Therefore if every person be God they are different Gods Answer The things which in no respect are different must be the same and there can bee no difference put betweene things which brings not in a deniall on the one side and an affirmation on the other And this opposition is betweene all things howsoever differing So betweene the Persons of the Deity there must be a relative opposition As the Father ergo not the Sonne the Sonne ergo not the Father c. because there is a relative distinction but this doth nothing at all enforce a plurality of Gods or a difference of absolute Beings but of the Persons onely And if you desire to see other arguments like these reade Thomas Aquinas cont Gent. lib. 4. Cap. 10. and their Answers cap. 14. see also the note a on the 24. chap. following sect 9. and note a on the 33. chap. But the answers to all objections will bee easie if you remember what hath beene said and suffer not yourselfe to be carryed away with shew of reasons taken from naturall things which though they bee most true in the creature which had a beginning yet can they no way bound or binde the infinite and eternall truth of Him that is Lord and Creator of nature as I have remembred you elsewhere Remember also to consider in Christ his essence which in all the Persons is coeternall and one and His Person begotten eternally of the Father And in this Person distinguish His natures divine and humane from his offices wherein remember 1. that His sending and obedience abate nothing from His equalitie with the Father concerning the unity of their essence 2. that these names which import His office are spoken of Him in respect of both His natures CHAP. XII That in the Glorious Deity there be Three Persons and no moe YOu misse here a great deale of learning and wit which other men have shewed in the mystery of unity and the number of the Three But because the reasons that might bee made from thence would bee but onely inductive and I desire to stand with you on the lower and plaine ground let us leave those high Speculations to them that please to read them among the Cabalists in Brixianus his comment Symbol and elsewhere and see what other reasons can be brought for the question in hand 1. Nothing can possibly be in the Deity but according to the uttermost perfection of Being that is essentially and necessarily Therefore if it bee not necessary to put moe Persons than Three in the Godhead then is it not possible But it is not necessary to put moe persons in the divine Being either Father Son or holy Ghost For so the Fatherhood Sonship and procession of the Holy Ghost should not bee perfect in these And if in these Persons there should not bee perfect Production then it might follow that there were a disability in the producer and so the first principle of all should bee imperfect unable and weake So nothing besides it nothing after it could bee perfect But all these things are impossible Or if the other Person or Persons to be put in the Godhead should be neither Fathers because they did not produce nor Sons because they were not
propagation and preservation of kinde in the like which it cannot uphold in it selfe by reason of corruption neither is the generation of natural things but with imperfection and their multiplication by decision of naturall things but with imperfection and their multiplication by decision of the seed into divers parts Neither doth any father communicate his whole being to that which is begotten by him neither can the species or common nature so farre forth as it is multiplicable even by one alone be saved whole and entire any one individuall But nothing of all this is in the most glorious spirituall and divine generation for that power of generation is not received but essentiall so that which is begotten is eternall and incorruptible The generation also is in the uttermost perfection because the whole infinite being is communicate thereby but that not for any abasement in the principle but because of the infinite perfection thereof Neither is matier for multiplication either possible or needfull here because all the fulnesse of Fatherhood Sonneship and procession are herein perfectly substantially infinitely and eternally because the procession is not such as tends to any thing without for so that which proceedeth should not bee coequall to the principle from whence it doth proceed But this procession is in the Divine being onely in every Person according to his peculiar subsistence answerable whereto no generation can be found in all the creatures 2. Another objection there is to the like purpose out of Heb. 1.3 where it is said of the second Person that hee susteineth all things by the Word of his power So that if hee being the Word of his Father have also a Word whereby he susteineth all things which therefore is another Word and not the things that are susteined thereby it may seeme that there is a multiplication of Persons and that the former objection is not fully answered I have said Log. Chap. 29. n. 5. That the appointment of all naturall causes to the bringing forth of their effects is the rule or law of Nature Now this law is that necessitie fate or destinie which is ordained by his eternall decree that made Nature and all things therein and blessed all the living creature with power to bring forth according to kinde as it appeares Gen. 1. And this is that Word of which S. Paul speakes No other divine Person but that Word whereby he melteth the yce and Snow Psal 147.18 that ordinance which the creature cannot passe Psal 148.6 Of which you may reade every where in the Holy text and especially in that admirable booke of naturall and Divine Philosophie the booke of Iob in comparison of which all Aristotles naturalls are not worth the while For seeing all naturall causes have their strength from him hath not hee bound nature within those limits beyond which hee gave it no further power to worke And within which hee is trulie said to worke by his word or by his power in the strength of which alone Nature her selfe doth worke Maker of Heaven and Earth CHAP. XIII That the World is not Eternall Section I. THe puritie or uttermost simplicitie of the Divine being is the fountaine from whence all the perfections which are therein doe flowe for neither can any thing be living powerfull wise continuall glorious c. except it bee neither can any thing be such infinitely if it have not an infinite being but an infinite of being cannot be but with the uttermost simplicitie of being For whatsoever is put to being takes away the simplicitie thereof and must needs be a limitation thereto and so take away the infinitie also The manifold perfections therefore in the Divine being are not additions of other beings to make composition therein or to take away the simplicitie thereof seeing they all signifie one and the same being but because the most simple being must needs bee the first of beings as being altogether in act or perfection and no way in possibilitie of being for then were it not a most simple being if it were both in act of being that which it is and in possibilitie of being that which it is not therefore must all other beings depend hereon nay bee herein because all things are virtually contained in their principles And this is that eternitie of the creature which it had in the infinite wisdome and power of God before it was Gen. 2.5 For seeing that in God is infinite perfection and that nothing can bee wanting to that which is perfect neither yet can any thing be perfect but in him therefore the first and highest being of all things must bee in his perfection But because absolute perfection must needs bee with the uttermost simplicitie without othernesse or change therefore must all things in God bee one and he though one alone yet virtually all things But because all things were in him eternally one that they might in time bee different in themselves for otherwise they could never at all either have beene or have beene different It is necessarie to grant that in that one absolute being which the creature had in God there must be first a possibilitie for it to be in it selfe for as things utterlie impossible can never be so can there bee no possibilitie of being but by him Secondly a possibilitie for the things being to be different among themselves and that not onely in their severall kindes but also in their particular existences and this for the manifestation of that manifold wisdome of the Maker And from hence thirdly succeeds that actuall being which things that are being have by that Holy pleasure or will by which they are and continue in their severall beings which Will must needs bee partaker both of the infinite power and infinite wisdome that it might effect that which was possible and foreseene And thus is there in the Unitie of the creature a Trinitie also in possibilitie in difference and actuall being that wee should never forget to adore the eternall Trinitie in the Unitie But the question of the worlds eternitie is onely about this last manner of actuall being for it is not denyed that it is eternall in respect of that being which it had in God as the cause or in it selfe as possible to bee because that while it was not being it had not any power to resist that Almightinesse which called it out of not being into being though to speake more properlie that eternity which it had in pure possibilitie was not in it selfe because it was not and seeing that which any thing hath of it selfe is first therein and more proper thereto than that which it hath of another therefore the world of it selfe having not being it could not possible bee eternall but onely in his eternall purpose which had appointed it unto this being The World therefore in God the principle is not begun but eternall and one but whatsoever is severed from this Principle can neither bee one nor yet eternall but comes
into the reckoning of othernesse and change and so of necessitie must bee subject to time wherein alone all change is wrought §2 1. But here it will be asked whether God who before the creation of the world rested eternallie in his owne glorie and happinesse suffered not some alteration in this that he wrought without himselfe that which hee had not wrought before and how hee can be said both to worke and to rest Gen. 2.2 and yet to bee without all shadow of change Iam. 1.17 2. Then how He infinite in goodnesse and truth and ever one in himselfe subjected the creature to wretchednesse continuall corruption and change 3. Thirdly seeing that to an infinite and eternall power all things are alwayes possible why the world was not brought forth many ages heretofore that seeing it must be subject to vanity it might before this have beene freed from corruption and brought to that libertie whereto it doth yeare Rom. 8.22 1. To the first I answer that although the creature doth of necessitie suppose a Creator without which it could not be yet on Gods part there was no necessitie to enforce him to create but he created onely according to the pleasure of his owne will as it is confessed Revel 4.11 For nothing was able to impose necessitie but onelie that which was superiour in dignitie and power which the superexcellencie of the Divine being suffers not neither can the freedome of an infinite will such as the will of God is bee guided either by chance by destinie or by necessitie But because hee is infinite in goodnesse he envied not to any thing the being thereof but out of not being brought it into being by his Word our Lord Iesus Christ Athanasius de Incarnat Verbi But in this creation he suffered no alteration who had eternally wil'd the creature to be in the time appointed and in the time appointed brought it out only by the motion of his will for his will his wisdome his power being infinite and one being no other motion labour or alteration needed but onely to will that the creature should then bee created when hee had from all eternitie willed that it should bee created So then it was in him both to create that it might appeare that hee had no necessitie of the creature who was absolutely perfect without it and yet at his pleasure to create lest that which was not might seeme to be exempted from his power and againe that the creature might be blessed in his goodnesse and yet he himselfe without all shadow of change As the minde of a man which hath plotted a convenient house and given or described the model to the builder suffers no alteration by the house being builded Therefore after the commandement of water the first matier of all things to bee the labour of the Creator mentioned in the sixe dayes was onely the appointment of secondarie causes to worke in their times to those ends which hee had determined for the bringing forth of their severall effects for as the first agent moves all secondarie agents so it is necessarie that all their ends bee ordered to the ends of their first mover So then the sixe Evenings of the being of things first potentially in their immediate or next causes and in the fieri or way to perfection and the Mornings of their actuall and perfect being are the times * See Esay 66.8 ages or dayes wherein they were brought forth by their naturall causes all moving in the power of the first cause unto their perfection appointed by his eternall decree And this ordering of causes and giving strength thereto was his first worke as his continuall blessing and upholding the creature by his word is his continuall worke wherein hee takes delight Heb. 1.3 Psal 104.31 But his rest in the seventh day was his ceasing to bring forth new creatures which day is therefore said not to have any evening because his rest delight or glorie is eternall and is therefore commanded to bee sanctified by us with a Memento because it is a pledge unto us that after the sixe ages of this worlds travell and wearinesse in vaine we shall at last be made partakers of his rest Compare herewith Gen. 1. 2. to ver 4. Esay 46.10 and 2. Pet. 3.8 But this is beside my purpose and therefore I leave it 2. To the second question of that ill which is in the creature though I have answered sufficiently note a on Chap. 6. yet I say further that contraries are best knowne one by another light by darknesse health by sicknesse And therefore that we may not onelie desire but also better know and enjoy our future happinesse it is fit that wee should taste the momentary wretchednesse and miseries of this life yea drinke at last the gar-ans of death it selfe that wee may truly enjoy the happinesse of everlasting life O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath rest with his possessions But how acceptable is thy doome to him that is vexed in all things Eccles. 41.1 And questionlesse if the elect Angels never had any experience of sorrow neither did at any time sinne for he found no stedfastnesse in his servants and laid folly vpon his Angels Iob. 4.18 And in his beloved Sonne alone is hee well pleased Matth. 3.17 Then doe they wonderfully by our afflictions enjoy their owne happinesse while they dayly behold our manifold miseries and yet know us to be heires of equall glorie Luke 20.36 for therfore are the sons of David dayly scourged with the rods of men corrected every morning and die at last that they may be like unto their Lord be made conformable unto his death for if the Prince of our salvation was consecrated in afflictions how should we hope for any portion in his glorie if we should not with joy be partakers of his sufferings For therefore by his owne example did he teach us obedience because in obedience onely we must walke the way to everlasting life A second reason is that wee may be humbled before him when we consider whereto we are come of our selves that is into miserie but not out and consequently that wee may bee thankefull for that abundant grace by which wee are delivered when our sufferings shall bee recompensed with an exceeding weight of glorie 3. The third doubt concerning the time of the worlds creation hath heretofore so troubled some mens braines that they thought there had beene infinite worlds yet so that after everie ten thousand yeers all things returne againe to the same state wherein they had been before for whether through the weakenes or strength of the imagination in some fore-catchings of the shadowes of things to come for it may bee argued both wayes a man oftentimes perswades himselfe that hee hath beene in the same place with the same persons seene or done the same things heard or spoken the same words before upon which ground it seemes this
And thus was there mercy reserved for man both in regard of that weake estate wherein hee was created in comparison of the Angels and in respect of the quality and measure of his sinne and of the meanes whereby he was drawne thereto whereas the Angels that kept not their first estate but wilfully sinned against God for their three sinnes and for foure could never finde any place of repentance But it is said Iob. 31.33 If I have covered my sinne as Adam By which it seemes his sinne was more than he confessed I answer The word Adam there used and so the word Enoch in divers places of Scripture doe signifie man in his sinnefull and wretched estate indefinitely as Psal 8.4 144.3 Iehovah what is Adam that thou knowest him the Sonne of Enoch that thou makest any account of him And therefore divers good translations reade that text of Iob If I have covered my sinne as Man who doth commonly excuse his sinne and lessen his offence But of what sort soever the sin of man was it is most certaine that he did sinne 1. For as the effect is manifest by the cause so the cause appeares by the effect Now death is the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 so then sinne is the cause of that punishment And every punishment is for some offence But it is ruanifest that Adam was punished even unto death it selfe For otherwise hee had lived untill now and hereafter Therefore it is manifest Adam sinned 2. It is proved before that all the creature was good and upright in every kinde and that man was the prime and chiefe of all the visible creature and therefore that hee was created for the most excellent end which is to bee happy in Him who is the chiefest good of which happinesse hee could not have fayled if he had continued in the state of his creation For every thing ordained for an end by a cause that is powerfull thereto must bee furnished with meanes sufficient for the attainement of that end But it is manifest that Adam hath failed of that happinesse by the utter losse of life and present being Therefore hee continued hee continued not in the state of his creation but sinned against his Creator 3. Death is the punishment of some great offence in the reasonable creature who is able to make a difference betweene good ill But it is manifest that Adam was not created sinfull and therefore not subject to death And againe it is manifest that that state of Adam was changed because he is dead But that change was not made by God because it was contrary to his ordinance neither could it bee made by enforcement of any outward meanes For then Adam had not beene made sinfull thereby Therefore it was made by the willing act of Adam himselfe and hee thereby subjected to Sinne. 4. Nothing can be so inseparably in the whole off-spring which is not first in the originall as the fruit cannot be wholly poysonous if the root or stem bee not first infected But it is learned by lamentable experience that the whole masse of mankinde is wholly sinfull and corrupted and that no man can say his heart is cleane therefore it must needs bee that the root or originall from whence they are descended which wee have already proved to have beene one was sinnefull and corrupt 5. Man with much care and government in his youth with much heed and warinesse in his owne carriage is hardly at last brought unto a course of a vertuous life and that not without many wicked desires and sinfull deedes But if the first man had not corrupted his nature all vertue and that alone had been naturall to all men But experience shewes the contrary Therefore Adam sinned and therby corrupted his whole nature But you will say If that sinne of Adam were onely a sinne of ignorance and that in so small a thing as the eating of an apple the punishment of death and that both of body and soule can no way seeme to be proportionable For shall not the judge of all the world doe right And if the least sinne deserve the greatest punishment what punishment can be left for the greatest sinne or shall wee say as the Stoicks taught that all sinnes are equall I answer That sinnes compared one with another are truly said to be lesser or greater one than another For it is a lesse sinne to thinke ill of a man undeservedly than to hate him And that than to maime him and that than to murder him and that than to defame him For most of these degrees hold in them all those sinnes that are under it So that as the Stoickes truely said every later exceeds by the multitude of sinnes that are therein Yet is there no sinne in it selfe how little soever it seeme but in the rigor of Gods Iustice deserves more punishment than al that which the sinner can beare because of his greatnesse who is dishonoured thereby For the greater any person is the greater is the offence whereby he is dishonoured As for a word of scorne spoken by a meane man against his equall a small acknowledgment may make amends for which offence against a Peere a Scandalum Magnatum may be brought and if it had beene spoken to the dishonour of the king it might iustly bee accounted high treason in the speaker How great then may wee hold that offence to be which is against the Majesty of God before whom all the nations of the earth are not so much as the drop from a bucket falling into a mighty river Es. c. 40.15.2 Moreover every commandement of his being a rule of infinite Iustice an infinite Iustice is offended by the breach therof And what satisfaction can a finite creature make to an infinite Iustice that is offended but because it cannot beare a punishment intensivè infinite or infinite in quantity therefore it is iust that it should beare it extensivè in the infinity of Continuance Now as it was necessary that God should give a law unto man that he might evermore acknowledge that duty and obedience which he ought to his Creator so having enabled him both in body and soule to performe his law which was also so easie a burthen as that it stood not in doing any thing but onely in the forbearance of one fruit among a million it was most necessary that God in His iustice should require that breach of His law Which law the more easie it was to bee kept so much the sorer punishment did Adam deserve for the breach thereof And thus did that murtherer of mankinde by the sinne of our first Parents set open a doore for the Iustice of God to breake out upon them being now liable to eternall punishment yet did they not hereby bring on their owne punishment alone inasmuch as all their children are made lyable with them to the same condemnation §. 2 It may seeme a needlesse question to aske how long Adam stood in his innocency
equall to God yet as man had beene made in his likenesse and lost it so would hee bee made in the likenesse of man and to restore that first image unto man became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2.6.7.8 O Holy and most blessed teacher of our most glorious faith what high doctrine what holy mysteries what pretious promises doth the Christian faith containe That which is infinite dwels in in that which is finite the circumference in the centre The greatest of beings and the least are one Two births eternall and temporary and but one Sonne And because the essentiall proprieties of both natures doe still remaine he that is the Father of eternity is become a childe Esay 9.6 And hee that is the wisdome of the Father increases in knowledge Luk. 2.52 hee that no place can containe doth grow in stature and the Sonne of an eternall love doth grow in favour with God and Man In briefe hee that hath all things with God the Father save this that he is begotten hath all things with man except his sinne But although there be two generations and that of divers kindes eternall and in time in which respect almost all things are double in him yet is not hee two sonnes because Sonneship respects not the diversity of the natures divine and humane but onely the unity of the Person so that if there be but one Person of both natures there can be but one Son Wherefore seeing the Sonne of God took on Him not the Person but the nature of man yet the whole nature body and soule of the substance of his Mother And seeing that whole nature subsists in the Person of the eternall Son He in both respects both of his divine and humane generation is still the onely begotten Sonne of the Father onely begotten I say that he may be discerned from us that are adopted only sonne because we are not hereafter to looke for any other Saviour His onely Sonne not of Ioseph or any man according to the flesh For as according to the law of the eternall life which is in God He is begotten of the substance of the Father not without but in the Person of the Father yet distinct therefrom so according to that generation which was in time was He begotten by the power of the Father without the Person of the Father being conceived in the wombe of the virgin For as a thing conceived in the minde of a man is the first word or expression of his understanding which being spoken or written becomes sensible and to bee understood of others So the Sonne is in the Father that eternall word understood conceived or begotten before the worlds and in the fullnesse of time not ceasing to be eternally begotten as before He was made manifest in the flesh even that word or life which was eternally with the Father was seene with eyes was looked upon and was handled with hands 1 Ioh. 1.1.2 So that as there is but one Father both in the eternall and timely generation so is there but one Sonne by a most holy most true and substantiall generation God and Man the Sonne of God and the blessed virgin Mary Now this one Sonne one Christ one Immanuel one Mediator one Person is such not by mixture not by confusion not by composition of the two natures nor yet by change of one into another but one by assumption or taking of the humane nature into the divine wherein the deity is to dwell eternally without separation but not without distinction And these two natures so dwell together in the Person of our Saviour as that for the unity of the Person the attributes which belong to one nature are given to the other as Ioh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but hee that came downe from heaven even the Sonne of man which is in heaven And againe Acts 20.28 Feed the church of God which He hath purchased with his owne bloud And although I said before chap. 11. that relation properly so called was not in the divine generation but supereminent because all things here are coessentiall a the subjects no other beings than the termes that is the Father and the Sonne the foundation also coessential that is the divine and unconceiveable generation for the termes sake in the Father active in the Sonne passive And although in the second generation neither the subjects nor the termes are coessentiall the subjects are the Person of the eternall word and the Virgin Mary the foundation is the generation whereby the manly being passively was taken of the Virgin unto the person of the word yet in respect of this hypostaticall union or ioyning of the humanity unto the Person of the Eternall Sonne Mary the mother of Iesus is truely said the mother of God not that the Godhead tooke beginning from her but because she brought out that manly being which from the time of its first union was never separated from the Godhead And because the supposition or person wherein both natures are is one Christ of which Person she is truely called the mother though she be mother onely according to the flesh as is said Math. 1.23 A virgin shall bring forth a Sonne and they shall call his name God with us And againe Rom. 9.5 of the Israelites as concerning the flesh came Christ who is God blessed above all for evermore Amen But although there be one only Sonne yet in respect of the two nativities Hee is truely called the Sonne of God and the Sonne of the virgin though with this difference that by the eternall generation he tooke of the Father both his eternall nature and his Person by which he is the sonne of his Father by a supereminent reall relation but of his mother he tooke in time the humane nature but not any humane Person And therefore this Sonship is only rationall except it bee understood with the divine person in which the humanity subsists and so hee is truly said this man and the son of the virgin For as b he tooke on him the humanity soule and body to dwell therein for ever as the Evangelist speaks Ioh. 1.14 The word became flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made his tabernacle in us So did hee give unto the humane nature to bee one Person in him So that God is now truely one with us that wee hereafter may bee one with him according to that prayer of our eternall mediator Iohn 17. I in them and thou in mee that they may bee one as wee are one So the advantage is onely on our side For the humane nature comming to our Lord in the perfection of the infinite deity could adde nothing to His perfection onely the infinite love of God toward man was perfected thereby because the humane nature being taken unto the Sonne of his love wee are assured thereby of his eternall love that Hee hath loved us as Hee hath loved Him Ioh. 17.23 Whereas if our Lord had
not what it was For hee that made that addition of the Timothean Nestorian and Eutychian heresie unto Saint Augustine makes the heresie of Nestorius nothing else but a mingle-mangle of the Photinian and Timothean heresie That Christ was man onely not conceived of the Holy Ghost but that afterward God was mixt with that man Againe Socrates Hist Eccles lib. 7. cap. 32. writes that many supposed that Nestorius sought to bring in the Heresie of Photinus whereas saith hee it is plaine by the writings of Nestorius that he onely avoided this that the virgin should be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God But Tho. Aquin. contragent lib. 4. cap. 38. cites Damascen to this purpose We affirme that there is a perfect union of the two natures not according to the Person as the enemy of God Nesterius affirmed but also according to the Hypostasis From whence Tho. concludes that this was the position of Nestorius to confesse one person in Christ and two Hypostases If by Hypostases he meant the Divine and humane natures united in the one Person of our Mediator neither Damascen nor Thomas can blame him for it But if by the manly Hypostasis consisting of body and soule he must meane a humane person as Thomas in the same place out of Boetius determines you may see how they made a quarrell more than needed For though Nestorius had beene madd yet would he never have held one Person of both natures and also two persons But it is cleare by the later Historians of the Church that this among other was the heresie of Nestorius that as in Christ there were two natures so there were also two persons which opinion might easily take the originall from Gerinthus Photinus and such as stunk of that Pumpe For if God the Word came to dwell in Jesus the sonne of Mary being a perfect humane person of body and soule whether at his Baptisme as Cerinthus taught or from the very instant of his conception as the Nestorians of this time affirme the position of Nestorius must follow of necessitie that there be in him as two natures so two persons For the God head destroyed nothing of the humane perfection which it found So that if it came not to the humane nature but in the subsistence of a manly person then that humane nature must remaine in the perfection of a person as it was before Whence that followes also not unfitly which hee further affirmed that the things of infirmity which were in Christ as to eate to drinke to sleepe to grow in wisedome c. belonged to the sonne of Mary without the Sonne of God and all the glorious miracles which Christ did worke were done by the Sonne of God without the sonne of Mary But the supposition of Nestorius that the deitie came into the humanity when the humanitie had perfect subsistence in soule and body that is in the perfection of a personall beeing is most false For the Word taking flesh of the Virgin caused it to become one person with himselfe so that the body assumed was the proper and peculiar body of God and the humane soule the soule of God not of any other Person but the body and soule of the Sonne of God and this not onely while the soule dwelt in the body according to the naturall life but also while he was yet under the burden of our sinnes his body in the grave his soule in Hell as the Apostle cites the Scripture Act. 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell neither wilt thou give thy Holy one to see corruption So then the body in the grave was the Holy One of God for nothing else of him was subject to corruption and though it were for a time forsaken of the soule yet not of the Godhead which thing the words of the Angel doe confirme Matth. 28.6 Come see the place where the Lord lay So that our Saviour on the Crosse yea even in the bands of death as concerning his body was still the Lord and God of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 And if it be most true that God is more inward and more neare unto every thing than can be expressed by any words of beeing of effence of nature substance moties forme proprietie or the like because he is the foundation unto all these and in him all things consist How much more shall hee bee inward and fundamentall unto that body soule and Spirit of Iesus which hee was pleased to make his own that by that body and blood of his he might redeeme his Church as it is said Acts 20.28 That God purchased his Church with his owne blood that is with the life and blood of that body which was proper and peculiar unto himselfe Thus then the word was made flesh not by any transmutation or change of the one or the other from their true and naturall being but because that by a secret and unspeakable conjunction the Word was made one with the flesh and the flesh with the Word So then the Sonne of GOD tooke the humanitie not that it might be another person beside himselfe but being in himselfe perfect God he would also in himselfe be perfect man taking flesh of the Virgin The differences of union you may see if you will in the principles of N. Byfield Chap. 16. This union of the Godhead and Manhood is manifest by divers Texts of the holy Scripture For evidence of which we will first put this infallible axiome That of two different persons one cannot possibly bee affirmed of the other as to say that Peter is Iohn or Iohn is Peter neither yet that the proprieties of the one can belong to the other as to say that the Gospell of Saint Iohn is the Epistle of Saint Peter Now it is said Ioh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world which belongs to Him as to the Sonne of God as Iohn expounds it 1 Epist 4.9 and then it followes Againe I leave the world and goe to the Father which is peculiar to him as man as it is said Act. 3.21 Therefore Iesus the Sonne of God and the Sonne of the virgin is one and the same person so Col. 1.16 that same He by whom all things were made v. 18. is the head of the Church and the first borne from the dead and Rom. 9.5 Hee who is of the Fathers concerning the flesh is God blessed above all This our Lord affirmed of himselfe Math. 26.63.64 to be the Sonne of God and the Son of man and againe Ioh. 3.13 Hee that came downe from heaven is the Sonne of man and againe Ioh. 3.13 He that came downe from heaven is the Sonne of man which is in heaven For hee that ascended is even Hee that descended Eph. 4.9 Moreover it is said Heb. 9.14 That Christ by his eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot unto God But if the humanity of Christ be another person beside the deity then he offered not
Mediator to every effect as Postellus holds it necessary For the whole creature by the power of that blessing which it received at the creation is able to worke according to the end appointed And if it were necessary to put any common agent in the Creature by which every inferiour Agent were to bee moved which wee cannot doe except we hold that Gods decree the law of nature is too weake or may be broken yet I thinke that the dominion of the heavens set in the earth Iob. 38.33 or that same anima mundi here below mentioned may better stand with the Scripture than the perpetuall imployment of this supposed mediator That I say nothing of those particular intelligences which some Philosophers Postel himselfe pag. 63. have appropriated to every thing beside the specificall vertue of the seed Neither is it cleare that this spirit which moved upon the waters Gen. 1.2 was any such being as Postellus supposes a created divinity or the mediator betweene God and his creature but rather that vigor life or heat concreated with the Chaos that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nephesh anima mundi or spirit whereby every thing is enlivened or made able to worke to the destinate end which ever dwels in the watry part of the compound as the soule in the bloud or if this interpretation be not admitted yet that of Saint Ambrose may stand Hexam lib. 2. that Moses in these words In the beginning God created heaven and earth having made mention of the Father and the Sonne doth rightly adde that clause And the spirit of God moved upon the waters that he might shew that the creation of the world was the worke of the whole Trinity yet may you not hereby suppose that that Spirit of God which fils the whole world sap 1. was carried upon the waters by any locall position but rather as an artificer whose will and understanding is busied in his worke so the holy Spirit disposed the whole creature to naturall action according to his will and power Rab. Maur. Enar. in Gen. If you love to conferre opinions you may read Ioh. Pici Heptaplum D. Willet and other expositors 4. To these reasons of Postellus you may adde a fourth every action is limited by the object so the eternall and infinite action of God the Father understanding himselfe doth thereby produce the eternal Sonne as hath beene further said chap. 11. But because the Father doth also view all the possibilities of being in the creature and that the creature must needes stand in cleare distinction from the Creator therefore as the eternall Sonne is the image of the Father so that idea or image of the creature must needes bee a different being from that image of the Father which wee call the eternall Sonne and so of necessity must come into the reckoning of the creature For the true image of every thing must be like to that whose image it is Answer If the image of the things created were represented to the divine understanding from any thing which is without himselfe the reason were of force But seeing that God knowes all things only in and by his owne being by which being of his only as the cause of all things all things have their possibilitie of being so that his being is the foundation of all beings it followes that the representation of the divine being which wee call the Sonne is also the similitude or representation of all those possibilities of being which are in him so that the creature is in God the Father as the first cause of all equivalently sith his being is equivalent to all being and the possibilities thereof In the Sonne the idea of all being it is as represented or characterized eminently or visibly to the divine understanding and by Him all naturall causes and possibilities are ordered to the bringing of all things into their actuall being And therefore as Christ our Lord Heb. 1.3 is called the expresse image of the Person of the Father so likewise Col. 1.15 is hee the first begotten of every creature For seeing the understanding of God is not by discourse nor habituall as gotten by experience but that it is His owne very being unto the perfection whereof all the termes of Action must of necessity concurre that is both of Him that understands and of the obiect understood and of the action of understanding as was shewed chapter 11. Rea. 8. it is not possible but that seeing they are all infinite they must also bee coessentiall and one and if one then the action of understanding whereby God vieweth himselfe must also bee that whereby hee vieweth the creature for otherwise it were not infinite if it comprehended not all beings at once So then in this action of Gods understanding there cannot bee a prioritie of an infinite being understood that is God the Sonne and a posterioritie of a finite that is the creature By this meanes you say I make the Creature to be coessentiall with God in which inconvenience the strength of the former objection doth stand Answ If you meane the Creature according to the actuall being I put it naturally in the precedent causes and possibilities of nature but as concerning the first and prime cause it is so farre from any inconvenience that it is most necessarie that God and the first cause of all being beside Himselfe be termes convertible essentially And thus the Creature is in God as in the cause But seeing nothing can be in another but according to the manner of that being wherein it is and seeing the being of God is his most Pure understanding the Creature is no otherwise in him but as understood or foreseene and willed eternally And if you will stay to see you may in the Persons of the holy Trinity view a wonderfull presentation of the perfections of the Creature The Father is the foundation that sustaines all The Sonne or Mediator that power or efficacie which perfecteth all The Holy Ghost that infinite activity in the strength of which every thing doth worke The number three supposes two and because neither to worke outwardly nor to will within can bee where there is not a power thereto therefore our Lord saith Iohn 15.5 Without mee yee can doe nothing And secondly supposes first so that power cannot bee without a being wherein it dwels And thus you see the Father the foundation of all being is more inward to every thing than the matier thereof the Sonne more essentiall than the forme and the holy Ghost more proper than any working for of his activitie it is that we will or doe Philip. 2.13 and thus is that Scripture verefied which is in Acts 17. In him first we are secondly live thirdly move 5. A fifth reason of Postellus which I set over of purpose is pag. 74. and this it is Seeing that God in his infinitie is utterly incomprehensible of the creature if such a created Mediator were not in whom the infinite Majestie dwelling might
a full answer to the argument of Postellus so had you need to remember it because it may helpe to the understanding of some places of Scripture which may seeme to make for this conclusion 6. But if such a created Mediatour be as had power to execute the eternall decree and to create therest of the creature the Angels and man and all this visible world from him it may stand well with the justice and honour of God and the love of that Mediatour toward man to offer himselfe for man when hee had sinned whereas otherwise if no such created Mediatour bee then God the party offended must first seeke the attonement and seeing man was not able must likewise make satisfaction to himselfe for the sinne of another against himselfe But this stands neither with the honour of God nor the rule of Iustice Answ Intire affection hates all nicity And so God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that the world through him might be saved And if the onely begotten Sonne be onely that second person of the Trinity what Son is that created Mediatour And so farre is it from dishonour to God to seeke and save that which was lost as that without his mercy and pitie on man in his misery the worke of God in the creature had beene in vaine But concerning that satisfaction which was made for sinne although it had appeared that it was utterly impossible to bee made by one that was onely man Chap. 19. yet was the satisfaction made onely in the manhood of our Saviour dignified and sustained by his divinity unto the endurance of all that punishment which was due to our sinne as it is manifest by the Prophet Esay chap. 53. Col. 1.22 1 Pet. 2.24 and yet for all that is our Saviour the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world Re. 13.8 yet is the blood of his sacrifice upon the Crosse called the blood of the everlasting Testament Heb. 13.20 because that by the eternall spirit he offered himselfe for us unto God Heb. 9.14 That he in his manhood might present his Church unto himselfe God blessed for ever holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 So that the redemption of man is the worke of the whole Trinitie the Sonne by the holy Spirit offering himselfe unto the Father accepting this obedience a ransome for the world And because the Sonne offered himselfe by the eternall Spirit therefore is not our Saviour a created Mediatour as Postellus supposed for no creature can be eternall And malgre all the power of hell it was an eternall Gospell Revel 14.6 Written in the Volume of the Booke of the eternall Decree Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 to the everlasting comfort of the faithfull That the sacrifice for sinne was appointed before there was a sinner 7. Now before I come to those Texts of Scripture which Postel urges directly hereto it will not bee unfit to let you see how he favours his owne opinion by those Scriptures which he interprets unfaithfully as where it is said Deut. 32.39 There is no God with me as Esay interprets it I am God and there is none else he makes the sense pag. 104. he is the created wisdome before which there was no other God created for he is worthily called God saith he for his union with the Deitie And againe pag. 115. for that which is Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting he will have it that this divine wisdome was created not from everlasting for then it could not be a creature but before any ages were numbred by men So to that of Saint Iohn Cap. 1. The Word was with God he addes as it followes in the Abisine Creed and with the Holy Ghost and with himself argues that whosoever is with another must be different therfrom for the most part inferiour indignity I have answered concerning the authority of that Church the collection of inferiority in dignity followes not neither doth this text prove the unity of any such creature with the Creator as hee inferres but rather the difference of persons in the unity of the Godhead for so it followes in the Text And that Word was God I say nothing of other Texts which by allegoricall and forraine interpretations he would bring to his purpose such as that pag. 93. where by the firmament Gen. 1.6 he will understand this Mediator who parted the hidden waters of the Deitie from the manifest waters of the creature whereby it would follow that the Chaos or waters the light and darknesse were created before this Mediator see Gen. 1.13 His argument from that Spirit which moved upon the waters Gen. 1. brought pag. 29. is answered before Reason 3. I impute it no fault to him that he pag. 62. confounds those Texts of Iohn 12.28 and chap. 17.5 Charity sees no mistakings where they make not against the truth But his collection is ill from that text Glorifie me with that glory which I had with thee before the world was to conclude either that the creatures were distinct in him whom he cals God man meaning the created Mediatour or for any other to suppose that the glory of God the Sonne was any whit lessened by the taking of our flesh onely it was shadowed for a time under the Cloud of his humanity except that at some times a glimpse therof appeared in his glorious miracles For first if that eminent being of the creatures in the distinction of their severall beings were not in God the Sonne that second Person of the Trinity but in this created Mediator it would follow that the wisdome of God were not infinite nor yet essentiall unto him when the knowledge of the creature in that manner of being must come unto him by a creature contrary to that which hath been proved Chap. 5. 8. And therefore to avoid this inconvenience hee is compelled to say pag. 74. that that second being of all things taking the equivalent being which they have in the Father for the first is not onely in the eternall wisedome but also in the wisdome created Whence it followes that the Creature by the same manner of being shall bee both in the Creator and in the created Mediator But the reason for otherwise the Angels could no see God The position is false the reason insufficient and answered before then to thinke that the Sonne had lost or abated any thing of his infinite glory because he prayes that he may be glorified as before the world was stands neither with the truth For so neither had the glory beene infinite if once ended nor he coessentiall with the Father neither yet accords it with the circumstance of the Text. Therefore understand it according to the truth That Christ the Sonne of God in his manly being having glorified the Father on earth and finished that worke which he had given him to doe Verse 4. prayeth vers 5. that the infinite glory which was darkned under the forme of a servant Phil. 2.27 might
the Father for both are named by the name of Iehova yet the Father hath the excellency of honour before Him and that he executes no Iudgement in the creature but by his fathers beheast which is yet more evident by that which is Zach. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan whereby it may seeme either that there is not an equality of power in the Persons of the Trinity or else that there is a created Mediator in whom the second Person of the Trinity doth dwell Ans If the dignities of the deity be essential as was proved then if there be one nature of the Father and the Sonne it followes that their power and all other dignities are coequall Onely the Father hath the prerogative of originall in this that the Son is of the Father but the Father is not of the Sonne though he never were without the Sonne And therefore those professions of our Lord all power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth Math. 28 18. And the Father hath committed all judgement to the Sonne Ioh. 5.22 are first and above all to beare witnesse to the truth Ioh. 18.37 For if he received his being originally from the Father then of necessity that power also which is essentiall unto him Secondly that as a Sonne he might honour His Father in the dispensation of that power and execution of his Mediatorship And thus hee destroyed Sodome by the power of the Father and thus he prayes that Satan may bee rebuked and the faith of his disciples confirmed Luk. 22.32 Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ioying in the glory and excellency of the Father as Ignatius speakes Epist ad Smyrâ—enses Fourthly that wee may know that we have one and the same gratious Mediator which did evermore save and defend his church both before and after his incarnation 12. But it is written Exod 23.20 c. Behold I send an Angel before thee beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for bee will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him That this Speaker was Christ who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt it is manifest 1 Cor. 10.9 That this Angel may meane Moses it sorts not with some circumstances especially that He will not pardon your transgressions Therefore some Rabbines understand by this Angell Michael the Prince or Angel that standeth for the nation of the Iewes Dan. 10.13.21 but neither can an Angel forgive sinnes Therefore being compared with Exod. 33. v. 2.3 I will send an Angell before thee but I will not goe up with thee least I consume thee in the way it must follow of necessity that this Angell is not the second Person in the Trinity but that created Mediator the Son of man who had power in earth to forgive sinnes Math. 9.6 Answer That being granted which is Ioh. 10.38 Ioh. 14.10 That Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him these words being spoken in the Person of the Father wil prove that Christ is the worker of al deliverances for his Church both temporall and eternall and that he hath power to forgive sins and that the name or being of God is truely in Him So by this Angell no created Mediator can be understood for every sin is a breach of the law of God against an infinite Iustice which God alone and no creature can forgiue And therefore that sonne of man which had power on earth to forgive sinne must of necessity bee God and not a created Mediator And although Israel were here threatned that God would depart from them for their Calfe yet it is manifest vers 17. that God at the prayer of Moses pardoned their sinne and brought them into Canaan But to take the objection as it may make most for this opinion that God doth threaten to send a created Angel yet these words My name is in him cannot prove him to be this created Mediator but rather that the Angell to be sent should have a power delegate whereby to punish the rebellions of the people without sparing and that power was the power or name of God in him 13. I but Psal 45.6 after the Prophet had confessed unto Christ Thy throne O God is for ever and ever thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity hee addes verse 7. Therefore God even thy God hath annointed thee By which it may seeme that Christ though God yethath a God and is God by grace and a created mediator as Hermes Trismeg in Asclep cals the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creator of this God Answer Christ though God eternall yet as man a created Mediator hath a God as he saith Ioh. 20.17 I ascend to my God and your God and in this sence God is his God which hath annointed Him with the oyle of gladnesse above all that are partakers with him of flesh and bloud For he received not the spirit by measure but of his fulnesse have we received grace 14. Esay saith Chap. 43. v. 10. Before mee was no God formed neither shall there bee after mee Therefore the Mediatour that spake there must bee a created Mediatour Answer It followes Esay 44.6 I am the first and I am the last and beside mee there is no God therefore he is not a created Mediatour but the Creator of all things But that text of 43.10 it seemes did somewhat trouble the Greeke interpreters who with one consent translated the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was formed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was to this sence there was no God before me though some of them left out the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and some kept it according to the Hebrew but this text proves nothing to that purpose for which it is cited but rather as it followeth on the verse before thus much That if none of the Gods of the natione could bring forth their witnesses that they had promised and performed then the Iewes might witnesse with him and especially his chosen servant Iesus in whom all his promises are yea and Amen that hee was before all their formed Gods and should be after them So that if hee were before and after all their formed Gods whom yet they did confesse to bee immortall for no man takes him for a god that must dye Ioh. 12.34 therefore against themselves they must witnesse that he was the true God 15. It is said Rom. 8.26 That the Spirit maketh intercession for us with gronings that cannot be uttered which cannot be but with earnestnesse of desire and paine but neither of these can befall unto God yet is our Mediator one yesterday and to day and the same for ever Therefore the Mediator is a created being which continually hath made and doth make intercession for the Saints according to the will of God vers 27. Answer Though Christ be our eternall Mediatour as was said above Obiect 6. one as the Sonne of God eternall one Sonne of the Virgin
and a soule which two together doe make a whole and perfect man 2. If either the Word or a supercelestiall understanding had beene in a sencelesse body then could not that body have felt either paine without or much lesse inward griefe But the soule of our Saviour was heavy unto death Mat. 26.38 Therefore Hee had a humane soule 3. A thing of one kind cannot bee given as a fit ransome for a thing of another kind but a body must bee given for the ransome of a body and a soule for the ransome of a soule Therefore that Christ might be a sufficient Redeemer it was necessary that He should have both an humane body and a humane soule 4. If either the created Deitie of Arius or the supercelestiall spirit of Apollinarius had beene in Christ in stead of the humane soule then could He not have given His soule for His sheepe But Hee was that Good Sepherd which laid downe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His owne soule or life for His sheepe Iohn 10.11 Therefore He had a humane soule 5. If Christ had not had a soule by the departure of which His body was dead then had not He by His death destroyed him that had the power of death Hebr. 2.14 neither had he triumphed over death by His resurrection neither had Hee beene a sufficient sacrifice and redemption for them that were dead in trespasses and sinnes and so had His comming beene in vaine But all these things are impossible Therefore Hee was in all things like His brethren except their sinnes Hebr. 2.17 6. If Christ had had either a life-lesse body or sensitive onely and in stead of the humane soule either a created deitie or a supercelestiall spirit then had He beene neither God nor man and so an unmeet and insufficient Redeemer of the world For neither had such a body beene perfect man neither is a supercelestiall spirit nor a created deitie perfect God Yet had Apollinarius his reasons though hee erred from the truth and by his reasons it seemes that he had most reverent thoughts of Christ For thus he argues 1. Mans soule is the seate of sinne of anger concupiscence and the like But these things could not be in Christ Therefore neither the humane soule in which onely they dwell Answere Anger sorrow compassion ioy and such motions of the soule are either ordinate which are subject to Wisedome and the rules of the divine Iustice expressed in the Law of God and these were in Christ and were not sinfull But the inordinate affections onely are sinfull and could not bee in Him which knew no sinne 2. Two perfect things in their perfection could not possibly become one Therefore that the God-head with the man-hood might become one Mediator it was necessary that the man-hood should bee assumed imperfit otherwise the Mediator had been two persons Answ This argument was answered before Note g Chapter 24. § 8. Yet in briefe I say that the word perfect hath a two-fold meaning For the God-head tooke the Man-hood unto Himselfe perfect that is According to those parts wherein the perfection of the Man-hood doth consist of Body and Soule But as our Lord in His child-hood did grow in Age Stature Wisedome c. So before His birth did he grow from state to state till the full time of naturall birth And thus the Man-hood was assumed imperfect that is Not yet having attained unto that perfection whereto it was destinate in the Birth the Youth the Manly age and state Therefore that feare of Apollinarius of two persons in Christ was needlesse For beside this that the Humane nature was both conceived and taken to the Divine in one instant nothing in mankind can be called a person till it be living and that it be per se sola of it selfe which seemes not to be before the birth But this is without doubt that that which is sustained or hath the being in another can no way of it selfe be accounted a person But it is manifest that the Humanity of Christ is sustained onely in His divinity You know the received opinion touching the originall of the Soule § 3. Though by all these heapes of Arguments which you may read from Chapter 21. to this place I have beaten out the braines of that beggerly Brat of Ebion which affirmed that our Lord was begotten by Ioseph of his wife Mary as all other children yet you may see how the stinke of that carcase doth rise vp against this Article that He was borne of a Virgin so dangerous a thing an heresie is in matters of Faith But for answere to those reasons that are brought hereto you may reade the Note g § 4. on the 24. Chapter before And although it bee proved by infallible arguments that is to say from authority of Holy Scripture and reasons drawne there-from that our Lord Iesus was both conceived and borne of a Virgin that Hee might be free from originall sinne whereto all the race of man-kind is subject which are begotten and borne according to the common law of humane generation yet would I not be understood in any thing which I haue said thereto to speake contrary to that which the Apostle hath Heb. 13.4 That marriage is honourable among all men for whom it is necessary But notwithstanding the reasons that Christ must be borne of a Virgins the mind will still be asking how He could bee truely man and yet His mother a Virgin Seeing wee have derested the heresies of Valentine Apelles and all such madnesse Whereto I answere That the mysterie of the Gospel is as the treasure of the unsearchable riches so of the manifold Wisedome of God into which the Angels desire to looke Eph. 3.8.10 1. Pet. 1.12 And therefore the pure and simple truth of God being delivered unto you by His holy Apostles and Prophets and after being made manifest by such proofes as reason cannot except against it may seeme an unreasonable thing yet further to require satisfaction for the possibilitie thereof For to an infinite power all things are possible And as our Saviour was conceived so also was Hee borne and His mothers Virginitie saved As He came to the Apostles when the dores were shut Iohn 20.19.26 But you say His body was then changed and made Spirituall He being raised from the dead I confesse it But yet that power by which He hid or made Himselfe invisible Luke 4.30 Iohn 8.59 and 12.36 by which He walked on the waters Iohn 6.14 by which He filled the world with wonders and that before His body was raised from the dead Beside it is not unreasonable for us to thinke that as the woman by whom sinne was brought into the world was brought out of the side of Adam so that man by whom the satisfaction for our sinne was made might likewise bee brought out of the side of the Woman For as it was sufficient for our redemption that our ransome was paid in our whole and perfect nature taken of the
from the other prophecies because they were not given either by dreame or by vision or by hearing a voice or in any extasie but were inspired by the Holy-Ghost immediately And according to this order of the bookes of the Holy Scripture divers Hebrew Bibles have bin lately printed as one by Plantin in Oct. another by Hutterus in Folio and others Now concerning the bookes of the New-Testament Saint Ierom ad Paulin. reckons them as wee And are not these Aramites strucke with blindnesse that print the Bible the decree of Trent and those prologues of Ierom before it that it may appeare how they set the Fathers at naught But for the full decision of this question let us looke unto the undoubted truth of the Scripture by the Scripture it selfe let us learne what is Scripture or the word of God 1. Therfore concerning the books of the New-Testament M. Luther accounted the Epistle of S. Iames to bee aridam stramineam dry as a Kix and his followers give their reasons against it 1. the seeming opposition which is betweene him and S. Paul in the question of justification by faith and by works 2. because hee teacheth not but supposeth onely that which is the sum of the Gospel that is the redemption of the world by the death of Christ as some men speake for Athanasius concerning the booke of Esther that none of the names of God are mentioned therein to which others answere that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mimmakom acher in Chap. 4. v. 14. is for sense in that place equivalent to any of the names of God which the prophet did there forbeare to remember because hee would not that any of the names of God should bee prophaned among the heathen with whom he lived So also Luther held the Revelation to be the writing of some well-meaning honest man but not Canonical Wherein I thinke the wonderfull wisdome and mercy of God appeared to hide the meaning of that booke from him lest he should be destroyed with pride when he should see himselfe and his ministery so alluded to therein But let Luther and his followers in this question thinke by themselues betweene us and the Church of Rome there is no difference both parties holding all the bookes of the New-Testament to be canonical The onely doubt is about the books which we call Apocryphal of unknowne and obscure Authors or strange doctrines delivered therein In which question the Canon or rule of the New-Testament is for us For concerning all the books of the Old-Testament the reason stands thus 1. All the oracles of God or Canonicall Scripture was received in the Church of the Iewes But none of the Apocryphall bookes were received in the Church of the Iewes Therefore none of the Apocryphall bookes are the Oracles of God The proposition is Saint Pauls and he accounts it as well hee may the first and chiefe preeminence of the Iew that unto them the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 The assumption is manifest for the Apocryphall bookes were extant onely in Greeke which language the Iewes never used in their holy seruices And although the booke of Ecclesiasticus were begun by the grand father in Hebrew yet was it augmented and finished in Greeke by the grand-child And although the first booke of the Maccabees were extant in Hebrew yet was it not therefore Canonicall no more than the second that was written in Greeke So the conclusion stands sure And if neither the Church before Christ received those Apocryphall bookes nor the ancient church since His suffering accounted them Canonicall for the Authour of the Sophisticate Cannons of the Apostles wee receive not upon what ground then should the Fathers of Trent presume to doe that which neither the Primitive Church or Fathers attempted before 2. Such another argument you have from Luke 24.27 where it is said that Christ beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things that were written concerning Himselfe So all the Scriptures are understood by the Law and the Prophets as I shewed before and yet for further explication it is added in verse 44. the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes For of all the Cethubim the booke of Psalmes was first and by a Synecdoche is put for all the rest Now to which of all these will you bring the Apocryphall bookes By the Law you understand the five Bookes of Moses which the Samaritanes and all the sects of the Iewish Religion except the hereticks called Nasacheans did receive The sects of the Sadduces and Samaritanes rejected the rest but the Church of the Iewes held all the Prophets both former and later with all the Kebuthim to bee holy Scripture but the Apocrypha are reckoned with none of these 3. A third argument from the holy Scripture against these apocryphals is from Revel 19.10 The testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of prophecie But in these apocryphals which the Iewes received not there is no prophecy no evident testimony of Iesus that was to come Therefore they are no witnesses of Him no word of His. And although in the fourth booke of that supposed Esdras there be mention of Iesus Christ Chap. 7.27 28. yet the false narration of things never done and other fictions See Master Brerew Enq. Chap. 13. have discredited those bookes so farre that the Papists themselves doe not mention them in their new Canon and vouchsafe them a place in the end of their Bibles onely lest they should be lost Object But the Fathers themselves call these bookes Canonicall Answer And our Church yeelds they are so in the meaning of the Fathers that is serving for rules of good life and vertue but not of faith as the holy Scriptures and that is the question betweene us and Trent § 4. Sect. 4 That the holy Scripture is abundantly sufficient to teach all things that belong to faith and godlinesse is manifest by the reasons brought for the proofe of the second question That it was necessary for us that God by His written Word should vouchsafe unto us the knowledge of His will 1. For how could either our hope and comfort in God be firme and sure if they were not grounded upon His holy promises that never faile 2. And if no man know the things of God but onely the Spirit of God how could we beleeve that which is to be beleeved of Him or hoped for our selues as the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of the Son the resurrection of the body c. but by the instruction of His holy Word 3. How could we have the true knowledge of sinne and the punishment thereof but by His Law whereby He hath taught us what duty we owe to Him to our neighbour and to our selues And if the holy Scripture doth thorowly instruct us in all things that we ought to doe or to beleeve is not the sufficiency and perfection thereof able to teach us how to be perfect in every good
ignorantly termes them were made by the Iewes after Ezra and before the time of our Lord for could such treason be wrought against God and His trueth as to peruert His straight waies and His words and would not His Sonne who ever honoured the Father and did that which was pleasing in His sight so much as reprove it not once say sinne no more Nor doe I say it to contradict them who could find no Critick of the books of the Bible before Ezra but to justifie the trueth That the Prophets by the revelation of that Spirit by which they wrote were every one of them the authors of those Keries or notes in their owne bookes as the Doctors in Talmud Babeli in Nedarim or treaties of vowes Chap. 4. fol. 37. b. affirme The word read and not written that is the Keries which are read from the margine and not written in the text and written and not read are the tradition of Moses from mount Sinai and they explaine it so Moses received in Sinai and so delivered it to Israel An example or two by the way will guide us well It is said Gal. 3.19 That the Law was ordained by Angels as ministring Spirits by the divine appointment to Moses the Mediator of the old Covenant He received it by voice and although the eare doth judge of words as the mouth doth taste the meate yet where the meaning of the words was doubtfull there is was necessary for him so to write as in Exod. 21.8 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo not and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo to himselfe have no difference at all in found but onely in sence Our last translation followes the margine If she please not her master who hath betrothed her unto himselfe others thus If shee be ill in the eyes of her master that he doth not betroth her c. The sence is every way excellent and the Law most just and who shall presume to understand the Law better than Gods owne Secretary that writ it or to alter that hee hath written So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieish in Gen. 36.5 and 14. is in the margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieush and is so written in the line verse 18. In verse 40. Duke Aluah is in 1. Chron. 1.51 Duke Aljah and Aluah in the margine I brought before the reasons which are alledged for the marginall readings and now you call for a reason of the difference in the text For if say you the text bee not faulty what needes the wordes in the margine If the margine bee right then mend the text Answere Neither the one nor the other is faulty but both of God and if matier of knowledge or instruction or comfort be in one which is not manifest in the other why should God want of His praise Or the Church be deprived of that benefit which it might receive by both when God shall vouchsafe to make the meaning of both to be fully knowne Moreover the letters of the Hebrew tongue are all numerall letters and He that in His infinite wisedome made all things in number waight and measure doth also governe all things in number waight and measure to bring forth every thing in their appointed times and places And seeing He doth nothing which he doth not reveile to His seruants the Prophets and that it is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled in every perfection as of the things to bee done so of the numbers of times and persons whom they doe concerne Therefore although wee cannot yet see how these things should be yet when the time is come that every secret shall be knowne Matth. 10.26 Then shall the Church glorifie God in this behalfe The number of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 390 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 386. So the words with their consignificant numbers are taken into their places as they fit the prophecies there intended And for this cause as Menahem declares it it is not lawfull to write the bookes of the Law which are for the use of the Synagogue which with so great solemnitie are shewne to all the people on expiation-day with the vowels or pricks because all possibilitie of understanding and interpretation may bee conceived by the substantiall letters of the words which by the vowels might be tyed to one onely meaning If you see this explained by the Scripture it selfe you will both beleeve understand it better Take then that word of Ps 16.10 Thou shalt not give thine Holy one to see corruption which text in Act. 2.27 and else-where is brought to prove the resurrection of Christ before His body should be corrupted in the grave and is applied unto Him peculiarly as to the Prince of our peace and the Author of our full redemption from sinne and death and therefore is the word with the vowels onely of the singular number Yet because therein as Plantin and the best printed copies expresse it is a jod ◠which without the vowels may bee read as a plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chasideica thy holy ones for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chafideca thy holy one thereby is secretly a hope given to the faithfull that they shall not for ever dwell under corruption but that by the vertue of His resurrection they shall rise againe as Saint Paul saith Ephes 2.5 6. That God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus And againe 1 Thes 4.14 If we beleeve that Iesus died and rose againe even so them also which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with Him For the dead in Christ shall rise first vers 16. but the rest of the dead in Saint Iohns vision Revel 20.5 lived not till the 1000. yeeres were finished And this I thinke is sufficient to shew that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are come unto us as they were at first delivered to the Church in the Hebrew tongue 8. Concerning the integrity of the New Testament lesse question will be if we shall first put that which must needs be yeelded unto that through the diversity of copies and carelessenesse of the writers divers differences are found But although in that booke set out in folio by Robert Stephan 1550. the differences I thinke are not fewer then the divers readings in the Old Testament yet are they not such as make any change of the sence at all except such as all will confesse to be the fault of the writer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.11 and these are very seldome found Then concerning that which some others bring for the vulgar edition of the Latine to be authenticall if upon better view they will be content where it is faulty or doubtfull to examine and correct it by the Greeke copy we shall not need to spend any time about it So the onely opposition is from Mahumed who although he speakes more then can be look't for
truenesse of his Religion because he finds no familiar reason to perswade but onely the racke of authorities to constraine him to acknowledge it may perhaps bee hereby satisfied and finde comfort and that they who are already strong may by this overplus triumph in the goodnesse of God who requires them to beleeve no more then they may by that understanding which hee hath given them bee perswaded of I have for their sakes who may reape benefit thereby neglected all froward Censurers not guilty unto my selfe of any offence which I can commit in making it publike Such as it is accept kinde Sir as a parcell of that assertion which may hereafter follow of every Article of our Christian faith if God shall vouchsafe me understanding leisure and maintenance thereto I therefore offer it unto you both because I know you are diligent in reading of bookes of good argument and because I have none other meanes whereby to shew my selfe thankefull for your manifold kindnesses and your love London this 20. of April 1601. Your loving and assured friend A. G. THE TREATISE THough many things discouraged mee to write unto you of this Argument in such sort as I intend considering that neither your daily reading of the Scripture neither the perswasion of learned Divines can moove you to accord unto the truth though by manifest testimony of Scripture they conuince your heresie and most of all that God hath left you to beleeve that lying spirit of Antichrist who denyeth that Iesus is that Christ Yet neverthelesse having some hope that God of His goodnesse will at last pull you as a brand out of the fire and quench you with the dew of His grace that you may grow in the knowledge of His Sonne I will as briefly as I can lay downe some few reasons of that faith which every one that will be saved must hold Whereby if I perswade you nothing yet shall I obtain thus much that you who neither beleeved His word nor yet opened your eyes to see the light of reasonable understanding shall at last confesse that His word and judgments are holy and true But before I come to the point let me first perswade you that although the knowledge of the holy Trinity be one of the most high mysteries which can be knowne or beleeved and that it is the only worke of the Holy-Ghost to worke this faith and knowledge in the heart of man yet neverthelesse God hath not left us destitute of meanes whereby to come to this faith and knowledge but hath also with His word given us a reasonable soule and understanding whereby to grow in the knowledge of Himselfe and His will For when Adam was created he had given unto him all perfect knowledge meete for him Now God who created the world for no other purpose then the manifestation of His owne glory might not leave that creature without understanding of the Godhead who being by nature and creation the most excellent in this visible world was made for that purpose especially above all other to set foorth His praise and to call on Him Now how could he doe this if he knew Him not But I thinke that seeing it is said that man was created in the jmage of God you will not deny that man before his fall had much more perfect understanding of the Godhead then it is possible for him to have till he come to know even as he is known but that by sin you may say this knowledge was lost not lost but corrupted only even as mans will For then it should follow that we were inferior to bruit beasts who have in them a sensible knowledge meete for that end whereto they were created Furthermore it is not possible that mans sinne should frustrate the end which God intended in His creation but it is manifest that man was created to know and honour the Creator Againe seeing in Christ all things consist he being ordained of the Father before all worlds in whom the world should be both created and restored It is plaine that this light of our understanding both proceedeth from Him and is restored in Him as it is said Iohn 1. He is that light that lightneth euery man that cometh into the world not onely His chosen with knowledge of His saving trueth but even generally every man with reasonable understanding whereby we may know whatsoever is to bee knowne of God and how even by the workes of God as it is plainely concluded Rom. 1 19 20. Therefore are they not to bee heard who hold any thing without the compasse of Faith which is without the compasse of Knowledge For Faith ought so to be grounded on Knowledge as Hope is grounded upon Faith So that as Faith Hebr. 11.1 is said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eviction or proofe of things hoped for though they be not seene so may I say that Knowledge is the proofe of things which are beleeved For Faith is nothing else but the Conclusion of a particular Syllogisme drawne from the Conclusion of an universall which the knowledge of God had concluded as it is manifest Iam. 2.19 and Hebr. 11.3 By conference of which two places it appeareth that this knowledge of which I speake this Historicall Faith as to beleeve that there is one God which made all things of nought is onely such a knowledge as the devils and wicked men have but to beleeve and have confidence in this God is that particular conclusion and that faith which causeth us to have hope in His promises Therefore said Christ Have Faith in God that is strive to know God that knowing you may have faith and beleeve in Him And wee see that in these things where a bare faith without knowledge might seeme to be most required because as a man would thinke there were no reason to be given of them namely concerning the maintenance of this life and the resurrection to the life to come both Christ and His Apostles use no other reasons but such as every reasonable man may easily bee perswaded by though authorities of Scripture were not wanting to both purposes as it is manifest Matth. 6. and 1. Cor. 15. Yea Paul at Athens or wheresoever hee perswaded the worship of the true God among the Gentiles hee perswaded not by authoritie of Scripture which amongst them had beene very weake but by such arguments as they knew to bee sufficient even in themselues If these things were not so how then could the Gentiles which knew not the Scriptures be without excuse for their ignorance of God Therefore I conclude that there is nothing which is beleeved but it may also be knowen Now knowledge we know is ingendered by such principles as have trueth in them the which is evident of it selfe So that by plaine and reasonable understanding a man may know whatsoever he beleeveth You will say To what purpose then serue the Scriptures I answere That God infinite in goodnesse hath together with this
but inductive therefore I referre you to the 11. Chapter before for further proofe of the Trinity of Persons in unity of the Godhead Returne then to where you left GOD is the first of beings and therefore eternall à parte antè for otherwise something should have beene before Him which should have caused Him to be but we consented to the contrary before And if He be the first of beings then nothing made by Him can be greater then He by whose power He might be brought to nothing And therefore He is eternall à parte post to endure for ever eternally And if God be the first of all beings then it is necessary that His being be most simple and pure as having nothing therein of any dependance of another unto whom either matier forme composition accident or any possibility to be either more lesser greater or other then He is can any way belong And if God be eternall it followes necessarily that He have infinite power to continue eternally But an infinite power cannot be but in an infinite being therefore His being is infinite And because nothing can be in His most simple being but that which is essentially Himselfe therefore infinitie must be His being and His being infinitie And if God be infinite in His being then it is impossible that any perfection of being should be wanting to His being for so His being could not be infinite And therefore Wisedome Goodnesse Trueth Glory and all other excellencies of being are in Him infinitely perfectly and eternally And because no abatement want or littlenesse can be in infinitie therefore is it necessary that all those perfections which are in God be also active or working in Him for otherwise they could cause no joy or happines unto Him so should they be unto him in want and defect and not in infinity Therefore it is necessary that all those perfections that are in God be not onely active in Him but also as infinite in their action as they are in their being lest a twofold being one in the greatnesse of being and another in lessenesse of action should be in God which is utterly impossible But because no action can be where there is no object to worke upon nor no infinite action where there is not an infinite object therefore it is necessary that there be an infinite object of all that glorious action which is in God whereby He works infinitely and eternally And this infinite object is that glorious Sonne of His love the image of Himselfe wherein all His perfection is actuated and expressed and that infinite action whereby the Sonne is Characterized Hebr. 1.3 Formed See Esay 43.10 or brought foorth eternally is the Holy-Ghost And because there can be no action where either the agent or object is wanting therefore is the Holy-Ghost most truely said to proceed from the Father and the Sonne And because I speake onely of that incommunicable action which is in God Himselfe from whence the difference of the three Persons doth arise therefore you must understand that as the action so the Persons also are in the Godhead essentially and that not onely because the action is according to the purity and perfection of the Divine being but also because all the termes thereof that is the Agent the object and the Action it selfe are infinite and eternall which cannot possibly be found out of the Godhead And thus in briefe you see it manifest not onely that God is but also that His being is infinite and eternall with all the perfections both of being and working and how from the infinitie of His glorious and eternall working the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godhead is concluded and consequently that the Holy-Ghost is God eternally proceeding from the Father and the Sonne For further understanding and proofe of all which things you may if you will as cause is reade any of the 12. first Chapters at the beginning Notes a IF the procession of the Holy-Ghost The heresies which have been about this Article of our Creed have beene many and great For the more necessary any trueth is to be knowne and beleeved the more damnable heresies hath the devill raised thereabout But as the heresies that were about our Lord Christ so these here may be brought to three heads The first concerne the person of the Holy-Ghost § 1. The second His being § 2. The third His properties § 3. § 1. Concerning the person of the Holy-Ghost Simon that eldest sonne of Satan would be all in all For he said that he gave the Law to Moses in mount Sina in the person of the Father that in the dayes of Tiberius he suffered in shew under the Person of the Sonne and that after he was that Holy-Ghost that came upon the Apostles in the shew of cloven tongues Thus saith Augustine Haer 1. But Epiphanius Haer 21. saith that he called his Punke Helena the Holy-Ghost for whose deare sake he transformed himselfe that he might come to her thorow all the heavens unknowne of his angels But this fellow presuming too much on the power of his devills while he tooke upon him to ascend into heaven againe he died of the fall and so the necke of his heresie was broken Manes a Persian the father of the Manichees erred the same heresie with Simon the Witch and gave out himselfe for the holy Spirit but being slayed alive by the King of Persia he found himselfe to be a body and not a spirit Hierax an Egyptian Monke affirmed that Melchizedek of whom you reade Gen. 14. was the Holy-Ghost Some there be that write concerning Montanus the Phrygian that he tooke upon him to be the Holy-Ghost But Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 14. and Augustine Haer 86. affirme that this heresie was onely thus much that he had received that Comforter which was promised Iohn 15.26 in greater measure then the Apostles and in this his followers the Cataphryges and with them Tertullian himselfe as it appeares by some of his writings did consent to him But Epiphanius in that 48. heresie cites the words of montanus thus I came neither Angel nor Ambassador but I am the Lord God even the Father Neither have these hereticks of old time onely so madded themselves but with us of late Wrightman gave out himselfe for the Holy-Ghost as Hacket before him would needes bee Christ But the discipline of Bedlem or Bridewell is fittest to teach such sencelesse people not to set their mouthes against Heaven 1. But that which all these hereticks affirme concerning the Holy-Ghost is utterly beyond all faith and possibility of being Of faith I say because neither Iewes nor Turkes which cannot beleeve a Trinity of Persons in unity of the Deitie can never be brought to thinke that two of these Persons should bee incarnate when they will not receive Him that was approved of God by so many miracles to bee God with us Neither can the Christians bee brought to beleeve that the Holy-Ghost