are hence the Distinction of a Specifical and Numerical Unity and of a Specifical and Numerical Essence though I take Essence to be a common Nature or General Idea taking in several things at one view and that there is no such thing as particular Essence distinct from particular Beings so that there is no multiplication of Essence in several Divine Persons or Beings Now as to those three being One it may be meant in any way whatever so far as those words alone import but there are other places of Scripture and there is a connexion and analogy of our Faith from all places compared together which oblige us to believe that the Son and Holy Ghost have the same Divine Nature and Essence with the Father derived and communicated to them Eternally Permanently and Perpetually and that they are in the Father as in the Fountain of their Being and are naturally and inseparably united to him and that he is the self-existent Unoriginated Principle the Root and Fountain of the other two and therefore they are One with him because though having real Beings and subsistences of their own yet they are from him and in him But still it will be objected that each of them is God the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and then there must be Three Gods and yet but One God which brings the contradiction still upon us I Answer The One God is spoken of God the Father in Scripture as I have shown you and as a great many * Ignat. Irenae Athanas Greg. Naz. Euseb Novat Hilar. Ambrose Austin Calv. Zanchy Comen Petav. Bull. c. and particularly Bishop * Art 1. Pearson upon the Creed observes That the Name of God taken absolutely is often in Scripture spoken of the Father and is in many places to be taken particularly of the Father and from hence says he he is stiled One God the True God the Only True God and this he sayes further is a most necessary Truth to be acknowledged for the avoiding multiplication and Plurality of Gods He laying the Unity mainly here as I have done so that though the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God which they are not often call'd in Scripture which rather reserves and gives the name of God absolutely and peculiarly to the Father * Observandum est quod plerumque Paulus suis Epistolis no nen Dei Patri tribuit in Novo Testamento plerumque tantum prima persma vocatur Deus Flac. Illyric Clavis Scripturae in verbo Deus as God loved the World God sent his Son and the like yet neither of them are meant by that one God which the Scripture speaks of when it speaks peculiarly of the Father They indeed having the Divine Nature and the Divine Attributes and Perfections belonging to them may each of them be properly called God and the Divinity does certainly and truly belong to each of them but then the Word God is not taken alwayes in one and the same Sence but it is sometimes meant of one Person and sometimes of another or of all being taken either Essentially or Personally as all Divines own and generally if not alwayes in Scripture taken absolutely and spoken so of one God it is meant of God the Father which may give us such an account of the Trinity and of the Unity Vbi enim est diversa significatio non estcontradictio Affirmantis negantis Aequivocatio enim impedit contradictionem Aquin Sum. P. 1. Qu. 13. as may take off all the charge of a contradiction since they are not one three nor is each of them God and all of them God or one God in the same respect sense and meaning of the words but in different Those Terms being not alwayes taken in the same adaequate Univocal Sense but are used often Equivocally The Father is the only self-existent unoriginated Being the Cause and Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the other two as the Antients often call him and so is the most absolutely Perfect Being and God in the highest Sense and the Scriptures Creeds and Christian Offices call him so absolutely and by way of Eminence and Prerogative The Son is produced of the Father and so is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God in that Sense as the Father who is from none but is God of God and is very God as having the Divine Nature and Perfections belonging to him but Communicated and derived from the Father as the Holy Ghost from both 3. As by our Faiths being Mysterious and Incomprehensible and Unaccountable to our Reason I do not mean that ' its Idea's or Terms destroy one another or imply a contradiction which is to make it contrary to it self so neither is it contrary to any certain Principle of Reason nor to any Natural Truth whatsoever known to us If it were it could not be true for one Truth cannot be contrary to another and what is true by Nature cannot be false by Revelation for then God the Author of both and the God of Truth would lye and contradict himself There are common notions Principles of Reason and some Natural Truths known by Sense and Experience which we are as certain of as of our Beings and which are the Foundations of all Knowledge and which we have such evidence of that to give them up would be to run into boundless Scepticisme and own nothing to be True or False but that God hath made us of such faculties that we might be deceived in every thing now Revelation can by no means destroy these as that the whole is greater then a part that one is not three nor three one in the same respect and meaning that a Body cannot be in two places at once that our Senses are true and the like and therefore Transubstantiation cannot be true nor can that be the Sense of those words this is my Body but now in the Trinity there is nothing contrary to any Natural Truth or to any Principle of Reason for that God should have a Son of the same Nature and Divinity with himself and that an Eternal Spirit should proceed from both tho' it be a Truth by it self and of pure and immediate Revelation which our Reason could not have found out from any known Property of the Divine Nature nor from any Reason and Necessity in the thing it self yet there is nothing in it contrary to the Natural Notion of a God or to any other certain Principle of Truth or Reason The only thing that can be pretended is that of the Divine Unity which is thought to be such a Natural Notion as to be inconsistent with any more Divine Persons then one and therefore has been objected against the Trinity by all the Adversaries of this Doctrine by the Jews and Mahometans by the Samosatenians the Photinians the Arrians the Macedonians and the Socinians who have all charged it with Tritheism and Polytheism contrary to the Divine
cap. Helmon in Alcoran Nec Christum Deum adorare confessus est sc Mahomet ne forte duos Deos adorare deprehenderetur Cantacuzen in Mahomet Orat. 3. offers several reasons against it among which this is one That God and his Son would make two Gods and that they must worship only one God These Reasons I think may be fairly answered but Reason it self could nor have known or collected this either from the Divine fecundity or from any Natural Perfection or Property of God knowable by the Light of Nature 't is only Revelation acquaints us with it and lets us at the same time see the admirable ends and uses and purposes of this if not for the designs of Creation and Providence yet for the Redemption of the World by this Son of God which is a work as great and as Divine if not more so than the other two 'T is the peculiar Character Frame and Scheme of Christianity to reveal this Mystery fully to us this adorable Mystery of Divine Love and Wisdom God's Saving Lost and undone Mankind by his Son Jesus Christ Reason could not have discovered this nor can it now penetrate into all the deep Counsels of the Divine Govenment and hidden Reasons of the Divine Wisdom which made this either absolutely necessary or to be sure the most fit and convenient Method to Save and Redeem Mankind This is such a Mystery of State such a Secret of the Heavenly and Divine Policy and Management that whether God could have Effected and Accomplished this any other way is unknown to us and our Reason must cry out upon the Thoughts of it O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Further The Christian Revelation discovers to us another Divine Person besides the Son to wit the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Son and who was sent by them in a Visible and extraordinary manner and was to be the Comforter and Paraclete as Christ the Redeemer and Saviour and was to Sanctifie and Fit and Qualifie all Christians for that Salvation which Christ had Purchased and Obtained for them without whom Christianity could not have been spred and established in the World nor in the Hearts of Men and who was therefore to bear a Peculiar and Distinct part and Office in the Accomplishing the great work of our Redemption which was to be Performed by the Fathers sending his Son and both sending the Holy Ghost to Perfect and Effect this Great Thing and This is the Constitution the Frame the Faith of Christianity as a Religion distinct from Natural and which is such a Mystery as could not have been found out by Natural Light and Reason without an immediate Divine Revelation for it was not any Natural Property of the Divine Nature so far as we know to have a Son and a Holy Spirit nor did the Purposes of Creation and Providence require this and therefore the Deists and others think more than one Divine Person and one Infinite Being Unnecessary and as far as Reason alone goes neither the Truth nor the Necessity of more would appear but Revelation and especially the Christian acquaints us with God's having a Son and a Holy Spirit distinct Persons from himself the one Begotten of him and so his only Son the other proceeding from him and the Son both and these two still in the Father naturally and inseparably united to him as to the Fountain of their Being One with him in the same Divine Nature and Essence and All Three together Accomplishing Effecting and Perfecting the Redemption of Mankind and bearing distinct parts in that Great and Blessed Work 2. As Reason could not have known or found out any thing of this so the Revelation of it was at first very Obscure and Imperfect there being only some smaller Glimpses and lesser manifestations of it and those covered with Types and shadows and Prophetic Symbols through which the Fathers saw as through a Glass darkly and beheld the Promises of the Messiah yet afar off so that the Jewish Law and Dispensation though it wholly pointed at this thing and Christ was the end of it yet was but a Shadow of these good things to come and Moses had a vail over his face by which the Children of Israel could not see to the end of their own Typical Institution till the vail was taken away in Christ And the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began a 2 Cor. 3.14 which had been hid from Ages and Generations b Rom. 16.25 and which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sins of Men c Col. 1.26 was by the Gospel revealed and manifest and made known to all men to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews d Eph. 3.5 Adam immediately after his Fall had this Mystery of Gods sending the Messiah into the World for the Salvation of Mankind promised and revealed to him in those words The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 And no doubt he transmitted this great and comfortable Tradition to all his Posterity and there seem to be the broken remains and Characters of it in some parts of the Religion of all Mankind especially in the general if not Universal Custom of Sacrifices and the secret Cabala and mysterious design seems to run through the Gentile Theology which was a corruption of the Patriarchal Religion from whence some Marks and Footsteps of this Original Mysterious Tradition were preserved and continued among the Gentiles as appears in the Prophesies of Balaam of Old and the Sybils afterwards and in the Notion of a Trinity among the Platonists and others which outdoes any thing to be found about that matter in any Jewish Writer and must come from some Antient Cabala and Traditionary Account of it How far the Jews had a knowledge and belief of it we want their Writings to acquaint us though in some of those we have there are remarkable intimations of it as in the Caldee Paraphrase the Messiah is often called the Mamra Jehovae the Word of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. John calls him and there and in the Hierusalem Targum he is represented as a substantial Word and as a Divine Person and several of their Rabbies interpret that of 110 Psalm The Lord said unto my Lord of the Messiah and so that of Jeremy 23. where he is called the Lord or Jehovah our Righteousness and they often speak of their Emanations from the Kedem or Essence of the Antient of days and in their Prayers and Liturgies particularly in a Collect used at the Feast of Tabernacles God is invoked as Sanctified with three Sanctifications and in a Famous Book among them called The Gate of Righteousness this Sanctification is called a Mystery whereby they say is meant the Procession of the Emanations from the Corona which is the Mystery
in Isa 6.3 Holy Holy Holy Galatinus and Voisin and other Rabbinical Writers produce many such Instances out of the Jewish Writers to this purpose notwithstanding which I doubt the Notion of the Messiah as a Divine Person and as the Son of God in our Sense was lost among all the latter Jews who looked upon him only as a Temporal Prince and an Earthly Monarch and though in many places of the Old Testament and especially in the Book of Psalms there are several Proofs and Authorities for the belief of a Trinity and the Messiah's being a Divine Person yet there is nothing in their Revelation that has any Evidence of it equal to that of the Gospel and therefore notwithstanding all imperfect and obscure Revelations of it before it is called there a Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and Generatiins but is now made manifest Colos 1.26 Which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest Rom. 16.26 Which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of men as it is now revealed unto us Eph. 3.6 Our Socinian Adversaries will allow the Christian Faith to be a Mystery upon these two Accounts I have mention'd And I must confess the word Mystery is generally used in Scripture in these Sences but it is not so much the Word as the Thing we are to Consider namely whether there be any Truths in Religion Incomprehensible to our Reason And this is the Third Reason why I would have the Christian Faith called a Mystery which they so much Expose and Ridicule and which I shall endeavour to Defend as it contains 3. Something Incomprehensible and Vnconceivable and Vnaccountable to our Reason and Vnderstanding even after it is the most fully and clearly revealed by the Gospel By which I do not mean that we have no Idaea Conception or Knowledge at all of what we do believe concerning it for then it would be just such a Mystery as it is to those who know nothing at all of it a Thing perfectly unknown a Nullity a Non-Entity which is no manner of Object of our Faith and concerning which we can neither affirm or deny any things not have any Perswasion or Disswasion about it The Trinity would then be only an empty word or sound without any meaning or signification like the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the unlearned Greek Scribes mention'd by St. Hierome Epist 136. put for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we know very well what is meant by those words of Father Son and Holy Ghost or Spirit though to connect and unite those Idea's and to make such Propositions out of those Terms as are agreeable to Faith may be a difficulty 2. Yet neither are we so to joyn and unite those Idea's nor to make any such Propositions out of those Terms as shall be inconsistent with themselves and destroy and contradict one another as to say that they are One and that they are Three in the same respect the same sense and consideration The doing this or endeavouring to do it has wretchedly perplext our Christian Faith and made it be called by its Enemies a Mystery of Nonsense Absurdity and Contradiction and exposed it as such to our Heretical Adversaries whereas had we gone no farther then Scripture the only Rule of our Faith in this matter and held with that that to us there is One God the Father One God 1 Cor. 8.6 Eph. 4.6 John 17.3 and Father of all who is above all and had we known him the onely true God as Christ calls him not exclusively but eminently and by way of Excellency and Prerogative by which the Name and Title of God is peculiarly praedicated of God the Father in Scripture Calvin in Protheses Valent. Gent. as Calvin ingenuously delivers it to use his own words Ingenue tradimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei nomen Patri proprie ascribi And another Protestant Divine his Follower Zanchius de tribus Elohim L. 5. C. 5. Patrem sic vocari Vnum solum Deum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia totius est Deitatis fons which is the great Reason given by the Fathers of the Divine Unity and in this the * Peculiaritèr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tribuitur Patri nomen Dei Ravanell Bibl. v. Deus Persona Papists agree with them Had we considered this plain Scriptural account and observation that one God is spoken and praedicated of the Father and meant of him when it is said both in the Old Testament and the New The Lord thy God is One God Deut. 6.4 Mark 12.32 and there is none other but he or besides him we had not given occasion for that objection of our Adversaries against our Faith of its implying a Contradiction or of its setting up more Gods than one The One God whom we Pray to in the Lord's Prayer and in other Christian Offices and Addresses whom we profess to believe in in our Creed and whom the Scripture calls so is God the Father Almighty and he hath an onely begotten Son of the same Nature and Essence with himself who is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and there is also an Holy Spirit proceeding from both and sent by both who hath the Characters and Attributes of Divinity plainly ascribed to him and who is joyned with the Father and the Son in the Office of Christian Baptism and in the Form of Christian Blessing and against whom the most high and unpardonable Sin may be committed This is our Christian Faith which as it lies in the Scripture has no contradiction in it that I know of nor do the several terms whereof it consists destroy or oppose one another These three are one is the only thing in Scripture or in our Faith that sounds as a Contradiction and in one and the same sense it must be owned such a downright contradiction that it cannot be true some would therefore suspect and throw out that passage and are very willing to find some Copies of the Bible without it it being the only place of Scripture that sayes this but our Saviour sayes He and his Father are one John 10.30 and three may be one as well as two We must therefore consider the true sense and meaning of the words which was not to teach us a new way of numbring or to destroy the nature of numbers no more then when it is said Man and Wife are One Christ and Believers are One and the many hundred Converts to Christianity were of one Heart and of one Soul there are several sorts of Unity there is an Unity of Consent and agreement which may be amongst a great many of Power and Authority which may be possessed and executed by several Persons who may be all one General Admiral Chancellor and even one Sovereign and Royal Monarch A great many Individuals may be one in Nature and Essence as all Mankind
to be capable of Divine Worship to pray to him and trust in him as a God and hope for Salvation from him and yet to believe him to be only a Man is an Absurdity so gross so contrary to all Notions of God and a Creature and confounding all this Infinite distance and difference between them and so destroying all the Reasons and arguments of giving Divine Worship to God only and such a Principle of Paganism and Idolatry so directly contrary to Christianity that nothing is comparable to it were it never so true but which with the greatest falseness they object to the contrary side It does highly aggravate and increase this difficulty and absurdity and no way lessen and abate it to ascribe as they do all the Divine Perfections of Almighty Power and Infinite Goodness and Vertual Omnipresence to this mere Man and born Creature which is not only robbing God of his Incommunicable Attributes and giving his Glory to Another but taking away all the strongest Arguments for proving God to be Almighty and All-perfect by making a man to be so and therefore capable to make and Create the World as well as God himself for if he is capable of such Perfections as belong to God he is capable of doing the same things and so of taking his Work out of his hands and then we cannot prove a God from the Creation since a man a Creature if as powerful and as perfect as God which they make Christ to be under this consideration may be able also to effect and Redemption is a Greater and a more Glorious work then Creation and if that may be accomplished by a mere man and we can owe our Salvation to him as such then we owe more thanks and greater praises and acknowledgments and more gratitude to him to the Lord that bought us than we do even to the Lord that made us I might Instance in a great many other Particulars but I must proceed to The Second General Head of Discourse How we are to Hold the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience By which these several Things may be implyed 1. That out of Regard to the Revelation and out of Conscience of believing whatever God reveals to us we firmly assent to it and bring our Vnderstandings to comply with it notwithstanding the Difficulty and Mysteriousness of the Thing 2. That we do not out of Vanity or Singularity or from any faults of the Will or Sinister Ends and Designs pervert or corrupt or deny this Mystery of Faith 3. That we hold and maintain it with Christian and Good Tempers 4. With a Good Life in General and with a Conscience so pure as to be void of all sin and wilful wickedness 1. That out of regard to c. Otherwise we take away both the Truth and the Authority of Divine Revelation Christianity not Mysterious pag. 38. and make it with a late Author Not a motive of Assent but only a means of Information Or as he further words it Not a Ground of our Perswasion or a Reason we have to believe a Thing as if we were to receive it only because revealed which he will not allow but only from the evidence in the thing it self and the clear Conception we form of it If so then Revelation is only to lay such things before us and we are to judge of the Truth of them our selves and the truth of things depends not upon the Revelation nor is our belief of them to be resolved into that but into our own Conceptions so that we are not to believe them because the God of Truth reveals them but because we have other reasons to know they are true This is setting aside the Infallibility and Authority of Divine Revelation and Judging the matter over again by our own Reason and making that Superior to it So that if what God reveals be never so clear and plain and the sense and meaning of the Words be never so evident yet if there be not an Evidence in the thing and it do not carry its own Conviction in it and we have not a perspicuous and distinct Conception of it then we have not Reason to believe it as true At this rate Revelation must never go beyond our Natural Knowledge and let God say or reveal what he pleases to us yet we are not bound to believe it barely upon his Word without some further reason or some other ground of perswasion from the thing it self This is a most Arrogant and Impudent treating of God and the Holy Scriptures and barring them from revealing any thing and excusing us from believing it if we have not some further ground and reason for it But surely God is true and his Word to be Credited for it self alone without any further Security or Evidence of the thing it self and if we are once satisfied about the Revelation and do own that to be true we are not to demurre to the plain sense and meaning of it though there be no other Evidence in the thing nor any other ground of perswasion for the Truth of it but only that and sure we are as much bound to bring our Reason and Understandings to submit to the Truth of what God says as our Wills to the Obedience of what he Commands though we have no other reason for the Truth of the one or the goodness of the other and though both may seem very difficult to us Else we make our selves and not God Judges of what is true and false and either prejudge a thing not to be true whatever he says of it and so prevent any Revelation about it or else Judge it over again by other Measures and condemn and reject it if it comport not with those and be not conformable and agreeable to our Reason and Conceptions of things though we know nothing of it but by Revelation and that both clear and evident and undoubted 2. Our holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience implies That we do not Pervert Corrupt or Deny it out of any Vanity and Vain-glory Singularity or Affectation of Novelty or out of any corrupt Inclination and fault of the Will or any Sinister and by-end whatsoever Most Heresies have proceeded from some such Causes as these and therefore are by the Apostle call'd the works of the Flesh Gal. 5.20 The Error having had its first Rise and Original not so much from the Weakness and Infirmity of the Understanding as from the strength and Obstinacy the Corruption and Depravity of the Will and it has had its chief tincture of Malignity and poyson from this root of Bitterness and from this corrupt fountain from whence it sprung and arose A proud and conceited opinion of Mens being Wiser not only than their Teachers but than the whole Christian Church and a natural itch after Novelty and Curiosity and the pleasing vanity of being Singular and Remarkable or of being the Heads of a Party and giving the Name
used that Name was not according to them to be charged presently with Blasphemy much less he whom the Father hath sanctified chosen and appointed to the great Office of Messiah and then sent him into the World to execute it Whether there be any force in what some observe (a) Quod alii ad humanium tantum Naturam restringunt ego extendo ad totam Christi Personam nam ex tribus Persnis in Coelo hic unus fuit selectus ad hoc Officium Mediatoris Zanch. de trib Eloh p. 124. that the Father chose him the Second Person of the Trinity rather than the Third and that there is also an Emphasis in the words And sent him into the world after he was first sanctified and appointed by God the Father in Heaven where he was before his Natural Begotten Son (b) Maldonat in loc and afterwards sent into the World This I shall not insist on but only allow that this was Argumentum ad homines as we say such as Christ thought the fittest and properest to offer at that time to those gross and stupid and ignorant Jewish Accusers and that was indeed only a minori ad majus whereby he designed only to wipe off the blackest and foulest parts of this Charge but not to inform and instruct them so fully and perfectly in a Truth they could not bear and were not prepared then to receive however he would not deny but did own and acknowledge their Charge of his making himself God in their sense And if this be not proved from these words of his here yet it is no way disproved any more than when he was asked whither he were the Christ or Messiah his not answering directly proves that he was not or his not instructing his Disciples so fully about his Crucifixion or Resurrection proved he was not to Dye or to Rise again Neither the Jews nor the Disciples themselves could bear some Truths at first nor the full opening the Mystery of the Gospel all at once nor had Christ dispatched all the work of his Life nor was then willing to dye or be stoned by them for a direct Charge of Blasphemy And therefore though he did not deny the Charge which he would have done had it been false yet he avoided it and defended himself against it as far as his Infinite Wisdom thought then prudent and convenient But there are other places and other Arguments to prove Christs Divinity to us his being one with the Father in Nature and the Natural and Eternal Son of God which I shall now produce and then show the usefulness and necessity of this Doctrine I shall not produce all but only select some that are the most plain and considerable The First shall be his Title and Character here given by himself The Son of God and his making God his Father which is to be meant in a proper and most excellent and natural sense upon the account of his Divine and not his Humane Nature or any thing belonging to that as he was the Son of God antecedently to his being born of the Virgin being begotten of the Father from all Eternity and having his Divine Being from the Father of the same Nature with himself For tho' the Title of the Son of God is given to others in Scripture and to Christ himself upon other accounts as God calls the Children of Israel his Son and his First-born Exod. 4.22 as being in a state of Favour and Covenant with him And Christians are thus more especially the Adopted Sons and the Children of God in the Scripture stile And Christ himself is called the Son of God upon several other accounts as upon his Extraordinary Humane Birth and Conception by the Holy Ghost Luke 1.35 upon account of his Resurrection his being the First-born or First-begotten from the Dead St. Paul applying to him the words of David in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee upon this very account Acts 13.33 and as afterwards upon his Ascension he was made Heir of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1.15 The first-born and heir of the whole Creation But there is a higher Ground and Reason than all these of this great Character given to Christ in Scripture the Son of God namely his Eternal Divine Generation his being begotten of the Father in his own Likeness and Image and having his Divine Nature communicated to him for this is the first and most proper Notion of a Son Another Person or Being for nulla res generat seipsam as St. Austin sayes de Trin. l. 1. c. 1. produced or begotten in the same Nature and Likeness with its Father or Producent That Christ was thus generated of the Father and of the Substance of the Father and not Created or Made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Arrians held and that he was the Son of God and God his Father in this proper and excellent sense as the Christian Church has alwayes declared and believed so the Scripture bears witness to it in all those places where it calls Christ God and ascribes the Divine Nature and Divine Perfections to him as I shall show it does and sayes he was in the beginning before the World or from all Eternity with God and that he was in the Form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God i. e. as having the same Nature with him which must be by that Communication of it which we call Generation for he had not this from himself or from none but from another who is therefore call'd his Father But on this Head I insist only upon the propriety of those phrases his being the Son of God and God being his Father which are to be understood in the proper literal and natural meaning as all persons would understand them when spoken of a Humane Father and Son and so they are to be taken when there is not a Connotation or a particular Reason expressed to denote an improper and Metaphorical use of them And there is one word frequently used in Scripture which I think is a sufficient proof of this and that is when Christ is call'd not only the Son but the only Son and the only begotten Son of God as John 1.14 John 3.16 1 John 4.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a verbal signifying as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or uni-genitus is one who has no partner or sharer in that Sonship which is ascribed to him but Christ as an adopted Son has many Brethren and therefore it must be meant of that Divine Generation and Sonship which belongs to him alone and God by sending his only begotten Son intended to express his utmost Love to Mankind and to that purpose St. John uses the phrase God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son But nothing raises this Love so high as his sending his own Natural Son a Person of the highest
Dignity next to himself and one of the same Divine Nature with himself whereas if he were only an Adopted Son or a Son upon the other accounts only neither the Love of the Father nor the Condescension of the Son would appear in such Great Characters as the Scripture designedly sets them out by I have insisted longer on this Title of Son and only begotten Son because they are the only words in the Apostolick and the oldest Creeds to express the belief of Christs Divinity thereby designing to answer a great Objection of our Adversaries I shall be more brief on the rest 2. As Christ is called the Son of God so he is called God also in Scripture in several places John 1.1 The Word was with God and the Word was God My Lord and my God John 20.28 God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 And in others especially those taken from the Old Testament and applyed to Christ in the New Now what can our Adversaries say to this Sometimes they say The Word is not meant of Christ But that is so undeniable in some places that they cannot but own it And therefore they say Christ though having only the Humane and not the Divine Nature is called God in a certain sense viz. by Office as Moses and other Magistrates who were the Ministers and Deputies and Embassadors of God and upon that account have that Name sometimes attributed to them and Christ by having that extraordinary Office of Messiah and that extraordinary Power over all things committed to him as Mediator after his Ascension is upon this account they say God and may be called God and the True God and the most High God as Socinus Stichlingius Smalcius Ruarus and others of them speak but still they deny that Christ is God by Nature or that he has the True Divine Nature the same with the Father belonging to him but only as a Man he is made and exalted to be a God by being advanced to an extraordinary Power and Authority over all other Creatures but this leaves him still in the rank and order of Creatures nay makes him a God of a meer Man a Late not an Eternal God One who had no Being before he was Born of the Virgin and no Divinity till after his Resurrection and his Ascension into Heaven so that they may date his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and know exactly how many Years and Dayes he has been God in their Ridiculous Blasphemous and Heathenish Sense of the word God But God is an Eternal Infinite All-perfect Being who was and is and is to come whose Existence is Necessary and not Contingent Eternal and not of Yesterday who has the True Divine Essence and Nature and the Incommunicable Excellencies and Perfections belonging to it And in this sense Christ is God and True God and God by Nature as I shall prove evidently from Scripture He is not indeed God the Father or God from none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that sense we believe in One God the Father Almighty and to us there is but One God the Father as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 8.6 and Christ is the Son of this God the Father who had his Being and Nature from him but he is God of God very God of very God as the Nicene Creed expresses it has the Divine Nature and Divine Perfections Naturally belonging to him and in that Sense is true God This I shall prove further 3. From his being joyned with the Father in the Baptismal Office and in the Christian Form of Benediction as we have them Mat. 28 19. 1 Cor. 13.14 Now can we think that Christ and the Holy Ghost would be joyned together in both those with the Father if they were only Creatures though of the highest Dignity and Quality and were not truly God and of the same Nature Honour and Dignity with the Father We may as well and much better suppose that a Charter of Priviledges should be Granted in the name of the King and of two of his greatest Subjects or Homage Sworn to them and to the King both together and that they should be joyned in the same Royal and Sovereign Acts of Favour and have the same acknowledgements and Oaths of Fidelity made to them as that God the Father should be joyned with two mere Creatures in such Solemn Religious acts of Christianity Baptism is the Highest and most Solemn Devoting and Dedicating our Selves to God and professing the Christian Faith by the special and distinguishing Characters of it as containing the Belief of Father Son and Holy Ghost which are the Fundamental 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christianity as distinct from natural and Jewish Religion Now to do this to Creatures or in the name of Creatures as well as God would be a strange anomally and unaccountable absurdity The Jews indeed were Baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea 1 Cor. 20.2 as our Adversaries often remind us but this was only Mystically and Figuratively and almost into the Religion delivered by Moses they were not Devoted to Moses but to the God of Israel nor were Baptized in the name of the God of Israel and of Moses joyned together as Christians are in the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost nor was there ever any Benediction given in the name of Moses or of Abraham and the like but only in the name of God the God of Israel who would not give his Glory to another nor allow any Creatures to be his Rivals or share with him in the most Religious Acts of Homage and Fealty and in the incommunicable rights tenders and acknowledgments of Divine Honour payed to Him or in the Grants and Donations of special Favour that flowed and issued from himself alone So that I take this Form of Christian Baptism and Christian Blessing to be a very strong Evidence to all but perverse Unbelievers of the Divinity both of the Son and of the Holy Ghost who are thus joyned with the Father in very short and solemn Forms as of equal Honour Power and Dignity with him to whom Christians are alike to Devote themselves and to expect like Blessings and Favours from all of them 4. The Divinity of Christ is fully proved and Demonstrated from such Divine Acts and operations such Divine Excellencies Attributes and Perfections as belong only to God and the Divine Nature and which are expresly ascribed to Christ in the Holy Scriptures as to Create and make the World to be Omnipotent Omnipresent Omniscient Eternal and the like The Notion we have of a God is a being endued with these Infinite Persections which cannot belong to a Finite and Limited Creature however excellent unless we confound the Idaea's of Finite and Infinite of God and a Creature and bring the one down so low or raise the other so high as to make no difference between them These are the proper Attributes Properties and Excellencies of the Divine Nature and he that hath these must have the Divine
Nature from whence they Result and to which they peculiarly belong Now that Christ is Omnipotent appears from his making the World for nothing but Almighty Power could do that and produce all Things out of nothing which is what we mean by Creation Now the Scripture is positive that all things were made by him and that without him was not any thing made that was made Joh. 1.3 For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisibe all things were created by him and for him Colos 1.16 and by him God made the World Heb. 1.2 To say all this is meant of a Spiritual Creation or of Christs making a new Gospel World and not a Natural is such an unnatural and ridiculous force and violence to the Words as not only Confutes but Exposes it self and makes the plainest words in Scripture even those that describe the Creation in Genesis and Christs Birth in St. Matthew and the whole Scripture History to be liable to be rarefied away by a strained and forced Allegory If Christ then Created all Things He is certainly God for he that Built or Made all Things is God according to the Apostles Argument Heb. 3.4 And if his Creating the World doth not prove him to be truly God then we cannot prove a God from the Creation and that undoubted Argument for the proof of a God must be given up which the Atheists will very much thank the Arrians for That Christ is Omnipresent appears by his Promise to his Disciples Mat. 18.25 that where two or three of them were gathered together in any part of the World there he was in the midst of them That he is Omniscient is testified by St. Peter Lord thou knowest all things Joh. 21.17 and that he knoweth the hearts of all Men and will judge all Men at the last Day That He is Eternal and was not only before Abraham but in the beginning before the World which is a Jewish Phrase for Eternity is plain also from Scripture notwithstanding all the little Cavils of our Adversaries If Christ then be the Omnipotent Maker of the World who upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power by whom all Things subsist who is an Omnipresent Omniscient and Eternal Being He is a God by Nature of whom we cannot have a higher Idaea and Conception only that He is not from himself or from none which belongs only to the Father from whom he received his Being and all the Perfections of it 5. The Divinity of Christ appears from our Praying to him and Worshipping him our invoking and Adoring him as we are Commanded to do in Scripture and as has bin Observed by the Christian Church in all Ages For nothing is an Object of Divine Worship but God or a Being that has the Divine Nature and Perfections Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve is a standing Rule both of the Jewish and Christian Religion Deut. 6.13 Mat. 4.10 and of Natural too for the Glorious and Infinite Excellencies of the Divine Nature which cannot be Communicated to a Creature and wherever they are Communicated Constitute that Being a God these are the Ground of that Peculiar and Incommunicable Honour which we give to God and the Infinite distance between God and Created Beings who however Excellent yet are Infinitely below the supream and transcendent Excellencies of the Divine Nature makes Creatures uncapable of Divine Worship and makes it always unlawful in us and a robbing God of his Glory to give it them The Arrians therefore were alwayes accused by the Orthodox of Idolatry for Worshipping Christ and believing him to be a Creature though of the highest Order that could be And when Socinus had perswaded his Disciples to Dis-believe Christs Divinity Davidis and several of them rightly concluded that then he was not to be Worshipped and our late Sophisters seem inclined to agree with them in this finding it impossible to avoid the same Charge in Worshipping Christ as a Man though never so exalted that lyes against the Church of Rome for Worshipping Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary and that they can no way come off but by the same distinctions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sovereign and Inferior Worship which are equal but very weak Pleas to Defend Popery Paganism and Socinianism But how bold and rash an Assertion is it on the other side to deny that Christ is to be Worshipped when all the Angels are Commanded to Worship him Heb. 1.6 and when all Men are to Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father Joh. 5.20 and he that doth not thus Honour the Son Honoureth not the Father that sent him No pious and good Christians who own Christ to be their Saviour will ever be brought off from worshipping and praying to him and calling upon his name as the first Christians did Acts 9.14 21. and St. Stephen Acts 7.59 and St. Paul Acts 12.8 and the whole Christian Church afterwards Socinus was so sensible of this that he set himself most zealously to defend and assert both the Lawfulness and Necessity of it though many of his Followers have been against both But this is such a weight upon Socinianism as will help to sink it It can never free it self from one of those streights that will ruine and destroy it Either to throw off wholly the worship of Christ which is to throw off Christianity and which will never be born by any number of Pious Christians or to own that Idolatrous Principle That a Creature may be worship'd which will never be admitted by Protestants They who will not worship and pray to Christ cease to be Christians and they who do pray to him must own him to be Omnipresent Omniscient and Almighty to be able to grant their Requests to know their Hearts and to hear their Prayers and be present with them in all places and so to have those Divine Attributes and Perfections that belong only to God 6. And Lastly I might prove the Divinity of Christ from the Universal Consent and Belief of the Christian Church and from the Testimony of the greatest Adversaries to Christianity who alwayes supposed and charged this as the Sentiment of Christians that they held Christ to be God The Consent and Belief of the Christian Church is evident from its Creeds and its Prayers its Doctrine and its Practice in worshipping Christ and from its Zeal against all those early Hereticks that opposed this Doctrine and its determinations both in Private Synods and General Councils for the maintaining and asserting it It must be very strange that the whole Christian Church should be mistaken in a matter of this Importance and should have all along a False Object of Worship and when it was so zealous against all Idolatry and had so many Martyrs upon that score that it should bring in the same another way and worship a meer Creature It