An explanation of the grand mystery of godliness, or, A true and faithfull representation of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the onely begotten Son of God and sovereign over men and angels by H. More ...

CHAP. II. 1. That there is a latitude of Sense in the words of Athanasius his Creed, and that One and Unity has not the same signification every where. 2. The like in the terms God and Omnipotent. 3. Of the word Equal, and to what purpose so distinct a knowledge of the Deity was communicated to the Church. 4. In what sense the Son and Holy Ghost are God. That Divine adoration is their unquestionable right. And that there is an in∣telligible sense of Athanasius his Creed, and such as supposes neither Polytheisme, Idolatry nor Impossibility. 5. That there is no intricacy in the Divinity of Christ but what the Schools have brought in by their false notions of Suppositum and Union Hypostatical. 6. That the U∣nion of Christ with the Eternal Word implies no Contradiction, and how warrantable an Object he is of Divine worship. 7. The Appli∣cation thereof to the Iews. 8. The Union of Christ with God compared with that of the Angels that bore the Name Jehovah in the Old Testa∣ment. 9. The reasonableness of our Saviours being united with the E∣ternal Word, and how with that Hypostasis distinct from the others.

1. NOw that there is necessarily understood this latitude of variety in the sense of several of the words of the Creed, is apparent from the consent of those that do subtilize this Mystery to the utmost curiosity. For it is impossible for them or any else to think that the Godhead of the whole Trinity is One in the same sense that the Father considered alone is One, or the Son or Holy Ghost so considered. For then there being no more Unity in the single Hypostases then in the whole Trinity, every Hypostasis will be Triune; which no man will assert. Wherefore there is a lati∣tude of sense in the word One or Unity allowable in the Creed.

2. So when the Father is said to be Omnipotent, the Son Omnipotent, and the Holy Ghost Omnipotent, it is evident that Omnipotent has not the same sense in all. For the Father has the power of Eternal Generation of the Son, and both Son and Father of an Eternal Emission of the Spirit; but the Son does not proceed from the Spirit, neither is the Father genera∣ted of the Son. Yet the Spirit and the Son which are both from the Fa∣ther, how infinitely do they exceed the Creation of the World? And the like may be said of the term God; by which if you understand That which is first of all in such a sense as that all else is from him, and he from none, the Son and the Spirit cannot be said to be God in this signifi∣cation, because the Father is not from them, but they from the Father.

3. And therefore it is further manifest that the word Equal is not to be understood mathematically and absolutely, but in an useful reference to us. Which is a Key that will easily open the whole Mystery of the Creed, which God did not communicate to the world to spin and weave unprofitable cobwebs out of; but did thus explicitly impart the know∣ledg of his Divine glory, that understanding the Distinctness of his God∣head in the Triunity thereof, the Divinity of Christ might the better be conceived, and how warrantable an Object he is of our worship & Divine Adoration. For it passing through the Titles of the Humanity to the Eternal Son of God, there cannot be the least scruple or show of Idolatry in such Divine worship.

4. For the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, as well as the Father, that is to say, they are all Eternal, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnicre∣ant; and therefore Divine Adoration is due without question to the whole Trinity from the Creatures. And not upon this account onely, but be∣cause they are so perfectly One, and have the same indivisible Omnipresency, and therefore are One entire Godhead, One coequal Glory and Majesty coe∣ternal. I say then that this latitude of sense being once admitted, which is necessarily implied, the meaning of Athanasius his Creed may prove such as no imputation of either Polytheisme, Idolatry, or unconceivable Impossibility can be alledged against it; and the end of this Mystery fully served in such an intelligible Interpretation. But I shall not un∣dertake any such Paraphrase in this place. And what I have already ven∣tured at is rather by way of Essay or invitation to others to make trial, then peremptory assertion in so profound a point, that deserves rather our humble admiration then curious disquisition. It is sufficient that so far as Scripture has determined of this Article, it is without excepti∣on or Contradiction.

5. The Divinity of Christ in my apprehension is a more easie Object of belief, being as intelligible as the Union of our Soul and Body. For as they two make up one man, so God and Man make one Christ, as A∣thanasius himself has expressed it. This the Schools call Hypostatical U∣nion, which has no intricacy in it but what they themselves have be∣stowed upon it. For every Substance is of it self an Individual Substance, and Universals but a Logical notion arising from our comparing of Sub∣stances of like nature together. Neither is there any Substance but by due preparatory modifications may be capable of being united with some other Individual Substance, and these Two Individual Substances become One whole Substance. Which yet are not so One as that they cease to be Two Numerical Substances; because they ar•• ••o otherwise said to be One, I am sure are no otherwise One, then by the apt Union of one with another. Which yet hinders not but that they are still; and if they are, they are Two: namely, my Soul and Body are still this Indivi∣dual Soul and this Individual Body, though they be, as they term it, Hypo∣statically united. For it onely implies conjunction, not confusion of Sub∣stances, nor any losse of the Individuality of the Substances thus conjoin∣ed. For there is no Substance conjoinable with another, but remains this Individual Substance, even for that very reason because it is a Sub∣stance, every Substance being of it self Individual, as I have already said, and yet conjoinable with another Substance: whence it is plain that the Scholastick notion of Suppositum is a mere foolery.

6. Out of which we may easily understand how that the Humanity of Christ and the Eternal Word may be Hypostatically united without any contradiction to humane Reason unsophisticated with the fopperies of the Schools, and both their Hypostases remain still entire. Of which I will exhibite this as a more sensible representation. Suppose a vast Globe made all of solid Gold, saving one very small section which we will sup∣pose of Silver. This individual Gold and this individual Silver, re∣maining still this individual Gold and Silver, make up one entire Globe, which is not an entire Globe without either. So in Christ, made up (as I may so speak) of the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity and of that hu∣mane Person that conversed at Jerusalem; He is that individual Silver, and the other that individual Gold, and both these together One Christ, the sphere of whose Divinity filling all things, and being every where at hand, cannot but be a warrantable Object of our Praiers and Invocations, as the passive Humanity of Christ the prop of our Faith and confidence by his bitter Passion and Intercession.

7. What Superstition therefore can there be, or least suspicion of Ido∣latry, when we pray unto Christ, if we do but think of him to whom we pray? For the Eternal Godhead does so outshine every thing in this Ob∣ject of Devotion, that our minde is in a manner wholly transported into God, though with a due reflexion of honour upon the Person of our Sa∣viour, in virtue of whose Death and Intercession we make our addresses. Which Truth might also passe with the Jew, without any scruple at all, if he do but call to minde with what devout Humility their fore-fathers have adored the presence of Angels. To whom in their Law Iehovah,

the most holy name of God, is also attributed. And if an Angel, that sustains the Person of God onely by way of Embassy, has this divine ho∣nour; how much more then is due to Christ, who is Iehovah not onely by Title and external Function, but by real Union with the Eternal Son of God? Which the Platonists in their Triad also call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the same in Greek that Iehovah is in Hebrew.

8. Or if they could imagine that there was so extraordinary a kind of Union of these Angels with God, where so high a name is attributed to them, as being in such an universalizing Rapture that they had lost the sense of their own Personalities, and were wholly actuated by God, who used them as fully and commandingly as our Soul does our Bodies; yet this may fall short in a two-fold respect of that Union which is betwixt the Humanity of Christ & the Eternal Word. For first, it may not be of the same kinde, but differs as much, it may be, as the union of a Spirit with a dead Corps does from the union of the Soul of Man in an healthful bo∣dy. Or if it could be admitted that there was some Principle excited and awaked, or some way inserted into the Essence of an Angel, whereby he might have real and vital union with God, yet it being but temporary, it is not to be compared with this lasting and durable union in the Messias. Nor does the visible presence of the Angel warrant Divine worship more to him then to Christ. For Christ according to his higher and more adorable nature is every where present.

9. I conclude therefore that the Divinity of Christ is not at all repug∣nant to Reason, I mean his Real and Physical union, as I may so call it, with the Eternal Word. For being that it was this VVord or Eternal VVis∣dome whereby God made all things, it is very decorous and congruous that that great Instrument of the restoring so choice a piece of his Crea∣tion as Man is, should be united particularly to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Eternal VVord. Nor is it unconceivable how he may be united particularly and immediately to this Hypostasis, and not the other two, from what we observe in Nature. For even the Faculties of the Soul residing in the same part of the Soul, according as the part of the Body is tempered or modified, one Faculty may exert it self in the part, and another be silent and take no hold thereon. And further it is evident, that though the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Nature be every where present in the World, and lie in the very same points of space; yet their actions, ap∣plications or engagings with things are very distinct. For the Spirit of Nature takes hold only of Matter, remanding grosse bodies towards the centre of the Earth, shaping Vegetables into all that various beauty we finde in them; but does not act at all on our Souls or Spirits with di∣vine illumination, no more then the Holy Spirit meddles with remanding of Stones downwards, or tumbling broken tiles off from an house. Which things rightly considered and improved make this Mystery intelligible enough for those that are fit for such Speculations. So that I need adde nothing more, having already proceeded further then I intended, in zeal against the fraud of some, and indiscretion of others, who so confidently maintain, That some main Points in Christian Religion are not onely obscure (which I willingly acknowledge, and that thereby our Religion is

the more Venerable;) but also repugnant to Reason, which I utterly deny, and shall in its due place shew the sad inconvenience of so rash an As∣sertion.

Notes

• Exod. 34.8.
• Gen. c. 18, & 19. Exod. c. 3, 14, 32, & 34.