in the Unity and the still Eternity no such thing as Father and Son and Holy Ghost known all Three being as part of the Generation of God Included within the Bounds of this Denomination to wit of the Nasciture or Generation of God the Father being not known more than the Son or Spirit without Nature or before the Generation of God or his Manifestation tho' at him this Nasciture or Generation Beings Natura quasi dicas Nascitura La naissance the Nativity of God Respectu Creaturae or God bringing forth himself to a Generation or a Manifestation to Communicate himself or his good without himself to some things besides himself So that Nature is only God himself Manifested and his Motion to Nature is his Generation And as he moved himself as by three Steps or Degrees in this his Generation he Manifesteth himself under three Appearances Forms Natures or Essences of Fire Light and Spirit or Father Son and Spirit which tho' the Trinity be from Eternity in God or Coeternal to God that is to the Unity the Generation of God being from Eternity are not known as I said before God moved himself to Nature without himself but were hid in God himself and brought to pass in himself before his outward Nature or his manifestation the Godhead in Unity as it is without Nature being but a dark Abyss And these three appearances or distinct forms and degrees of Gods manifestation are called Father and Son and Spirit Father because the Godhead or Unity is the ground the stock the Womb that brings forth out of its deep the Light its first Born or Son and only begotten Son called Son by the Hebrews on the very same account as their Language calls a Spark the Son of the burning Coal Son because he doth come forth like a Spark out of the Coal by breaking and shining forth out of the dark lump or deep 2 Cor. 4. 6. And thirdly they are called by the name of the Spirit because the same Unity doth not only shew it self or make it self manifest in the Light or by the Son but makes it self to be felt and communicates its good in the form of a Spirit or Beams flowing from the Light nothing in Nature being so fit to diffuse convey and communicate the good as the Light and its efflux the Influences whereof are the Holy Ghost in God and in the World the Spirit which makes what we call the Air by vapourising Water or turning it to vapour 17. Quaere What is a Spirit Answer It is a Substance as imperceptible as God himself to natural Men whose knowledge goeth no higher than sense and intelligece 1 Cor. 2. 14. The thing that is and exists Exod. 3. 14. for it is the same as God who is but a pure Spirit Joh. 4. 24. the substance of substances that actuates all substance and gives it form and Essence In God alone and the Soul to wit regenerated it is simple immaterial but in this World where it was at first mixt with the Water its concrete and material and hath the three dimensions that all other concretes have and is that which raiseth up the Water into vapours Out of it and of Water comes all material Substance or Matter for out of both this material World was made Gen. 1. 2. 2 Pet. 3. 5. All things saith Lucretius are come from their spiritual and their invisible State to a visibility and a palpability By its joyning to Water which it inspissates to Oyl then concocts into a Salt Earth and Body comes to be Corporification and Terrification being one and the same thing And by its separation and freedom from its vehicle whilst it is clearing it self of the Vapour that holds it for it leaves it not wholly not a spark of pure Spirit being suffered in the World for then it would inflame it fire and the destruction of things compacted by it for ejus ope totum cum toto compactum est are still made and come to pass From the Spirit all encrease and decrease or corruption of material things proceed From the Spirit as Spirit their Multiplication Multiplication being but a flux or extension of the first central Spirit infused into the deep and a propagation made a traduce of the same and from it as a fire Quateuus become fire their decrease and corruption that is the separation of that which was compacted In fine the stock of all things of God and of the Creature being Spirit and all things coming from a spiritual invisible and unknown state into materiality Ken perceptibility all things agree in substance and as God is a Spirit and Spirit is the substance and stock of the Deity the three in the Deity which we call the Trinity agree into this one thing and are but one in substance not so in Form or Essence 18. And the Truth is the Scripture speaking of Persons no where there is no reason wherefore we should set up this Notion and make of Hypostasis which is the stock and substance the things dependent of it viz. the form or the Persons tho' I am not ignorant that the Schools make of the form what I make of substance to wit The most Essential and Principal part of things But Christians who learn of Christ being anointed by him with that which teacheth all things Joh. 14. 26. 1 Joh. 2. 27. or else they were not Christians for a Christian signifyeth one that is anointed ought not to take upon tick from the Schools and the Heathen their Theosophick Notions nor such as is or may be the occasion of Errours but from Nature and Scripture and the Etymology of words if they have any as here of Hypostasis ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is by no Greek Author made use of to signify an individual Person And the Scriptures speak only of Three or a Trinity which bear Record in the World or make known the Deity which three things agree in one and are One and the same Thing 1 Joh. 5. 7. in the stock or the substance but divers in the Essence The Nature or the Essence of the Light being divers from that of the dark fire which is the Father of it and from that of the Spirit or beams that flow out of both as is that of the Spirit different from that of both the Light and Fire likewise 19. And that it is so to wit that these three appearances being divers in Essence are the same in the substance or one and the same Spirit and so that the Holy Ghost and Christ as the Light of God and the second Appearance of the Three in the Godhead are but One and the same Thing St. John saith there be three things in Earth bear Record of it the Spirit Water and Blood which last is but a concrete of Water and of Spirit digested and concocted in the Animal Bodies and I say that all things in the whole World witness it the World it self Man and Beast
the Senses or the whole Life and much less beget the Soul or give it its Life again nor that which comes from Hearing or Understanding viz. Faith And if for reading of Words or for hearing them Preached Men had Faith wrought in them and were regenerated it would follow that all those which heard Christ preach believed and that none of those who hear Sermons and read the Scripture are unregenerated and that all may be saved at the same cheap easy rate that Papists hope to be so that is for hearing Mass said and some few Ave Maries cryed about them when they die And Mr. Keith hath ill Luck to have met with so few Men that believe a he tells us Pag. 12. of his Reasons among so many Hearers for he reckons in that Place no more than 40 Persons brought over by his Preaching from Quakery to his Church 6. So that the Word in the Mouth being not that which begets and worketh Faith in the Soul it remains that the inward spiritual Word in the Heart and Soul is that which doth it being quick and powerful and sharper than any Sword piercing to the very Soul and inward Thoughts of the Heart Hebr. 4. 12. as Peter shewed it to be in the Case of Ananias and of Sapphira his Wife Act. 5. 3 9. to work powerfully there and stir up all the Powers of the Soul and the Body And this Word being Spirit and Life as Christ himself saith Joh. 6. 63. and a Spirit that giveth life and quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. it is therefore the only Word that liveth and begets the Soul again and it is on this Account of being a Spiritual and a penetrating Word represented by a Sword coming from the Mouth of Christ Rev. 1. 16. and with some known by the Name of the Sword of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. And as it is that which was from the beginning with God Joh. 1. 2. it is also that alone which abideth for ever 7. The word of Faith which St. Paul and the Apostles preached and by which they begat Souls 1 Cor. 4. 15. Jam. 1. 18. was inward and spiritual in the heart Rom. 10. 8. and a Spirit for they were the Ministers of the Spirit that gives Life and not of the dead Letter or outward word that killeth 2 Cor. 3 6. Ministring to that Spirit which Christ himself ministreth Gal. 3. 5. that thereby Men might serve God in newness of the Spirit and no more in the oldness of the Letter of Scripture Rom. 7. 6. of the Doctrine of Baptisms of Repentance from dead works and other fundamentals as Mr. Keith doth call them and recommend pag. 10. of the Christian Religion or of the Doctrine of Christ which St. Paul exhorts to leave Hebr. 6. 1 2. and Mr. Keith to stick to And they preached the Gospel which is the Power of God Rom. 1. 16. and which being a Spirit they begat Souls again by 1 Cor. 4. 15. This Power being the same as the Power from on high which is the Holy Spirit Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1 5 8. and which regenerates Souls Joh. 3. 5. So that the Word they preach'd being Power and Spirit it is not the empty Word in the Mouth of Mr. Keith which they begat or became Fathers in God to Souls with but the inward spiritual powerful Word in the Heart of good Men which they stirr'd up and set a working by that which they received of Christ and which his Sheep heard therefore speaking through their Heart and Mouth John 10. 3 5. 8. If the Protestants become Fathers in God by preaching the written outward Word why may not the Popish Priests be so too by their Preaching But if Preachers become such by Preaching and Ministring the spiritual Word of Truth Pray to whom Fathers in God and whose Ministers are they that stand for another Word and countenance its Preaching It is strange Fathers in God should beget they know not how nor by what and if they know should keep their Trades to themselves and should not let Mr. Keith who hath deserv'd it so well at their hands know the Knack on 't I am afraid Mr. Keith will never spoil a Bishop but always remain a Tool Quaere Pray Mr. Preacher what 's Religion now a-days Answ It is nothing but Acting the Story of Christ and a Cloak with as many Facings as Parties or Sects for the Sophisters of each to carry on their Designs and for every Party to act their Non-sense under impudently to the face of those that know better things as the silly Papists did their Mass in King James his time Poor King to take his Priest-craft for a Religious Worship and to be thus put upon in his most weighty Concern by dull Souls more confined and less knowing than himself But tho' Kings pay dear for it and have paid so ever since the time of Jereboam who became a sad Example of God's Justice upon such 1 Kings 13. 34. Yet no Calves no King prevails in the Mouth of their Profets and of their Politicians who must have some Calvish Priests Ch. 12. 31. to preach a Calvish Worship that is fit for Calves only and for making of Men Calves that they may lead them like Calves and will prevail to the End whilst Kings learn nothing from them of God judging in the Earth Psal 58. 11. and disposing of Kingdoms giving them to whom he will and setting up over them even the Basest of Men. Dan. 4. 17. The Kings that knew God themselves not only serv'd him themselves but preached and reformed their Priests and Clergy themselves 1. King 8. 12 14. 2 King 23. 2. 2 Chron. 29. 5. Psal 51. 13. 119. 46. but all they that know him not give their Power to the Beast Rev. 17. 13. Kings might serve God by Proxy if they had none of that Word in the Heart which all Men have and could give God an account by their Priests and Favourites 9. It is the Spirit gives life quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. Joh. 6. 63. creates forms reforms and upholds all things living Gen. 1. 2. Psal 33. 6. 104. 30. and that begets Souls therefore Without it all things lie dead and return to their Nothing vers 29. Jam. 2. 26. and he is the conveyer of Life unto all Creatures The hand and the arm of God Joh. 12. 38. whereby he makes all his Works From him the First Man Adam received his Breath of Lives Gen. 2. 7. that is both of the Divine and of the Natural Life for note that the Hebrew Word is Chajim in the Plural not Chajah as it should be to signify Breath of Life And as Adam received the Life of his Soul from him so from him we must get it again and be born of it not from the material Word or dead Letter of Scripture God's Kingdom or Salvation as St. Paul saith is through it Rom. 14. 17. then we must be born again of it Joh. 3. 5. and be born
must have Christ as a Spirit within us to Understand and Believe we must know him not only without us in that Body that died upon the Cross to fulfil all Righteousness and reconcile us to God Rom. 5. 10. that thereby having access V. 2. Hebr. 4. 16. we might obtain his good Gift to wit the Holy Spirit Matth. 7. 11. Luk. 11. 13. but within us in Spirit since he cannot enter in and dwell there in Flesh and Blood tho' he should work the Miracle of the Transubstantiation and Mr. Keith should plead for an outward Christ or a Christ without us as hard again as he doth in his Reasons about the 26th page Henceforth we know Christ no more saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 16. after the Flesh And as a Spiritual Christ forming the Kingdom of God by his Spirit Rom. 14. 17. within us Luk. 17. 21. Especially seeing that he is glorified again with the Glory which he had before his Incarnation Joh. 17. 5. and sits in that Majesty which belongs to God alone Hebr. 1. 3. Rev. 3. 21. and into which Flesh and Blood cannot pretend to enter 1 Cor. 15. 50. Christ being to die but once Rom. 6. 9. Hebr. 9 28. took our Flesh and Blood once to bear our Sins in it and now having done with it he appears the second time without Sin to Salvation and therefore in the Spirit Salvation or God's Kingdom being in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. to them that look for him so and are no more concerned with his Flesh or his Body since he comes in the Spirit that is since his Ascension and Glorification Joh. 7. 39. Touch me not saith he himself Joh. 20. 17. that is be not concerned with me whilst in Flesh and Blood because I am not as yet ascended and Glorifyed and cannot yet give you Gifts Eph. 4. 8. viz. the Gifts of the Spirit of which see 1 Cor. 12. or come to you in Spirit the Holy Ghost being not given till after the time of his Ascension on High Joh. 7. 39. he being not till after ready to answer the end of his coming in the Flesh to wit to bring upon them the Promise of the Father or the Gift of the Spirit the shedding of which Spirit was the fulfilling of that same Promise as hath been said Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5. 2. 17 23. Touch me not know me no more therefore in the Flesh saith he for when I come to you a second time to save you to answer expectation and the end of my coming it shall not be in the Flesh which I have died in but in quite another form to wit that of a Spirit capable to comfort you or to give you Strength and Life Joh. 14. 18 28. in a more Spiritual from than at my Resurrection and my Transfiguration when my gross Body of Flesh it self Shined like the Sun Matth. 17. 2. and passed through Doors and Walls Joh. 20. 19 26. 14. And mistake me not Reader I do not mean that Christ in puting off Flesh and Blood hath put off Humanity that is the Human Nature for then he were no more Christ that is to say God and Man a Concrete of both Natures or the Human nature Anointed with the Divine But he remains Christ or God and Man to Eternity For God's works are Eternal He being the most Wise God whose Purpose and Power stands Nothing but the Devils works the corruption and defects introduced in the World being to be destroyed And we must know Christ as Christ or as God and Man that is as a thing distinct from God or as a Person distinct from the Trinity it self to obtain Eternal Life or else he had never said that it is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sends John 3. 17. Distinguishing Christ from God as a Person subsisting besides and apart from God But this I say that Christ hath put off his Flesh and Blood as being Accidental and not at all Essential to Man or Humanity For the first Father Adam was not Created with it but fell in it by his Lust which by Attraction drew in the Elements that took hold of him and Transmuted him made of Isch a shining Man such as he was an Adam that is a Man over-cast with dark clouds from Ad a mist and so got this Monstrous Shape And if it were Essential to Man or Human Nature God would never destroy it as he will certainly do 1 Cor. 6 13. to deliver the Faithful from the Body of this Death and its restraint and bondage into the glorious liberty of God's Children Rom. 7. 24. 8. 21. 23. Man shall put it off himself to rise with a Spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 44. and Angelical Body Luke 20. 36. that shall Shine forth as the Sun Matth. 13. 43. as it did before the Fall when Adam was as yet Isch or shining from Esch fire So that Christ as King of Men possessing Eminently all the Perfections to which Human Nature can pretend hath put off that which makes Isch Adam a dark beastly man contemptible and miserable Isa 53. 3. Rom. 7. 24. And his State and Condition ought not to be supposed since his Glorification worse than that of Man himself 15. But to clear another Riddle that is how the Anointed or the Christ or Messiah is the same Quatenus God with the Anointing Spirit I must do a bold thing which Reverend Mr. Keith will doubtless Bless himself at that is Contradict his Church and Athanasius his Creed shew that Athanasius and his Church are mistaken one in rendring by Person the Greek word Hypostasis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Substance and the other in Saying not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance For the Substance of the Three in the Godhead is the same and is to be confounded and their Essence or Nature or their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divers so ought to be divided And the word Hypostasis which they render by Person doth signifie a Substance and can bear no other Sense a Substance being that which Substat accidentibus which is the very meaning and signification of the word Hipostasis ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Substo Substituor the Hypostasis being the Subjectum or the Ground of the Three in the Godhead And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Essence as being the Participle of the Verb Esse in Greek 16. Then to make Persons in God is absurd and impious there being no such thing as Persons in the Godhead for a Person is a thing that Subsisteth of it self without any dependance even of that very thing it is a Relative to as a Son can well Subsist altho' his Father be dead But here in the Trinity the Father doth not Subsist without the Son and Spirit nay and is not before them Beginning but with the Son being but a Relative Property to God the Son there being in the Godhead that is
in all other Beings the fire light and spirit to be the same in substance and one and the same spirit so it is in God likewise but eminently that is in a more sublime manner as for Illustration sake is felt in the Peace and Joy and burning of the Conscience when after a long conflict of grief horror and despair called the fiery Tryal 1 Pet. 4. 12. Light breaks out in the dark Soul and it hath Light and gladness Esth 8. 16. God being a pure Spirit free from Passion and all that the Spirit is subject to both in Man and in the World where being mixt with Water for there is not an Atome of it unmixt in the World or it would soon enflame it and reduce it to Ashes it becomes Corporeal and hath the three Dimensions except in the Soul of Man which is not all of this World and not only a spirit but the spirit of Spirits that actuates all Spirits and is their Form and their Soul doth act most transcendently and is not confined to the same Laws Order and Rules as created Spirits are in propagating themselves Neither do I suppose that the heat of the fire was manifested in God as it is now in the Sun for God as God is the Good meer Love Light Joy and Delight inwhom there is no darkness fierceness or austerity 1 Joh. 1. 5. 4. 16. and in him therefore is no fire and heat perceptible anger and austerity but in the Creature only when it departs from the Light and the Love of Paradise But the Scripture teaching us that God is an angry God and a consuming fire we may believe that in God is the root of the fire serving as the Gall in Man and Acids in sweet Liquors to exacuate the Light and Love of his blessed State Love and Light being the State in which God aquiesceth Matth. 13. 17. Being not properly God in the Father and Spirit but in the Light of the Son in whom he is well pleased And St. John saith that the World being the Image of God as well as Man and his Soul represents the Trinity or bears witness by three things which all Men may see therein in one and the same subject to wit in the first Spirit infused into the Deep of the Trinity in God for he saith they bear witness to the Father to the Word and to the Holy Spirit which is the whole Trinity and Paul saith that by the World and the Things which are therein we may not only find out but clearly see the God-head Rom. 1. 20. that is God in Unity in the still Eternity and all the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. such as is the Trinity And I believe we may for I see it my self 21. And I see through the World not only the Trinity but the Coeternity of the three Appearances that as no Light can exist and subsist without Fire and neither without the Air So in God there is no Son nor Father without Spirit nor no Spirit without Light but all three appear at once from the very beginning of God's Manifestation Joh. 1. 2. And I see there likewise the Generation of God God generating himself and being generated and introducing himself by his Beams and his Efflux at first into the Great World next into the little World and thirdly when both were fall'n deprav'd and corrupted into the Seed of a Maid there to supply the Office of the Spirit in Mans Seed and to beget the Man God Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all things from Corruption Rom. 8. 21 23. And fourthly and lastly by the Mediation or the Mean of that Man God into the Soul of all those that look for him in Spirit Hebr. 9. 28. and know him spiritually 1 Cor. 2. 24. 11. 29. Secundum modum tamen recipientis in each that is as every one doth evacuate himself or set himself in order or prepare himself for it Act. 13. 48. But most superlatively in his third introduction his Efflux the Holy Ghost which Christ was Conceived by bringing with him at that time all the might of the Father and the virtue of the Light the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ bodily Col. 2. 9. he having not received the Holy Ghost by Measure Joh. 3. 34. And if thou hadst my Spectacles which I cannot lend thee Science is the Gift of God not of Man nor of the Schools thou wouldst see and believe it also as well as I without the help of Scripture for thou wouldst understand it and to understand is to believe Intelligere ipsum credere est 22. And thou wouldst see and believe therefore that the Son of Man as the Son and Light of God is the same as Gods Spirit and comes with the Holy Ghost bringing with him in his Wings or the Efflux of his Light Health and Life or Salvation Mal. 4. 2. being the same in substance and being not a Person or subject distinct from them But that as the Son of Man or Emmanuel God in Man or as the Human Nature anointed with the Divine he is as much a Person subsisting a part from God tho' in an undivided manner as the Church from him and as the Beams from the Sun as Man and the World it self And thou wouldst see how he is the First Born of the Creature or of the whole Creation Col. 1. 15. not of every Creature for that Translation is false the only begotten Son of God and dwelling in God the Father and God in him Joh. 1. 1. 14. 11. and how he is one with God Ch. 10. 30. and not only one with him but the most Bright Glorious and Excellent of the three Essences of the Godhead the Light or Oyl of gladness which he is anointed with Ch. 1. 9 14. Hebr. 1. 9. And yet less than the Father who Quatenus the Godhead is greater than the Person of Christ or of God and Man Joh. 14. 28. In fine how as God and Man he becomes the Son of Man not only of one Virgin but of all the Virgin Souls that will make themselves Virgins or dis-impregnate themselves of the Lusts and Affections they are fill'd with from their Youth Matth. 24. 19. till Christ is form'd in them Gal. 4. 19. that is before their new Birth of Water and of Spirit And the Head and the Spring Head and the Fountain of Mankind Eph. 1. 22. Col. 1. 18. instead of the first Adam where all the Sons of Adam must re-enter and die in become as dead as Water Rom. 6. 4. and as one Water with him that they may be born again of him and of his Spirit and as the Brooks of the Spring become partakers of his Nature and his Righteousness And as such that is as Head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22. he deserves tho' but a Man or however God and Man that every Knee of Things both in Heaven and in Earth should bow and fall at his Name Phil.