This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info@umich.edu for further information or permissions.
In which after a short Introduction, the Case is briefly stated.
GOD who at sundry Times, and in divers Manners, spake in Times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets; hath in these last Days spoken unto us by his Son: Who first in his own Person declared the Father's Will, and then by his Holy Apo∣stles,
through the Spirit, more fully open∣ed the Mysteries (that had been hid from Ages and Generations) unto his Saints, and left them upon Sacred Record for fu∣ture Ages. By which means we come to the knowledg not only of the Grace, Of∣fice and Operations of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but of the great Myste∣ry of these Three, for ever blessed, holy, and divine Persons, subsisting in the Uni∣ty of the Godhead from all Eternity. But no sooner did the Glory of the Holy Trinity begin to shine in the Ministra∣tion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: But Satan the Prince of Darkness (lest Men should imbrace the Truth, and so his Kingdom should fall) did what he could to hinder the Progress of the Gospel in its primitive Purity, and in Enmity to the weal of Mankind, suggested many pernicious Errours into their Minds, as we may find in the Writings of the Apo∣stles of our Blessed Lord, which I for∣bear here to mention.
And throughout every successive Age he hath not wanted some Instruments, to disturb the Peace of the Church with false and erronious Doctrines, thereby to weaken the true Interest of Jesus Christ,
as well as to ruin the Souls of Men.
And among others that have been broached in the World, this is one, viz. That the Son of God, and the Holy Spi∣rit, are not one infinite and eternal God, Coessential with the Father, but are so much inferiour in Nature to him, as to be but Creatures only.
But to speak more particularly, Some affirm that Jesus Christ is only humane, or nothing but Man: And though the Racovian Catechism, doth acknowledg he is more than a meer Man; yet they do not allow Christ to have a divine Nature, as we may see in Pag. 27, 28. of that Catechism: Where by way of Question, they say, Is the Lord Jesus then a meer Man? The Answer is, by no means; For he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary; and there∣fore is, from his very Conception and Birth, the Son of God, as we read Luke 1.30. and the Answer is closed with these Words, That the Lord Jesus ought by no means to be reputed a meer Man.
Yet the next Question being put, Hath he not also a Divine Nature? The An∣swer is, At no Hand; for that is repug∣nant
not only to sound Reason, but also to the Holy Scriptures.
Now if they will not allow Jesus Christ to have a Divine Nature, and yet do say he is more than a meer Man; what can he then be? unless we suppose either (as Biddle saith Article 6. of his Confession of Faith) that the Holy Spirit is an An∣gel, and so by Conception he may be said to participate of their Nature; or else that His visible and external Exercise of the Power of God, is his Divine Nature. From the first Socinus (whom Biddle repro∣veth for it) and Crellius do dissent, for they deny the Spirit to be a Person, but the Power and Efficacy of God the Fa∣ther.
So that according to their opinion Christ cannot be of the Nature of Angels by conception. Nay, Biddle himself, though he asserts the Holy Ghost to be an Angel, and Christ to be conceived by him, yet he saith that Christ hath no o∣ther than a humane Nature. Article the 3d.
Secondly, If his external and visible Exercise of the Divine Power of God, be the external and visible Exercise of his own Nature; it is what we are plead∣ing
for, and if this were but granted, the main Controversy would quickly cease, for the Power of God as it is in God, is his Nature: so it must be in Christ.
But it's hard to conclude from what these Men do say, what Christ and the Holy Spirit are; for some are for having Christ nothing but Humane: and others, that He is more than a Man, viz. the Son of God by Conception, and yet that he is not God by Nature: So likewise Bid∣dle is for having the Holy Ghost to be an Angel; others say, That he is the Power and Efficacy of God the Father: And what they will hammer forth at last, or where they will settle, who can tell? However, in this they all agree, That neither the Son nor the Holy Ghost, are God by Nature, or have the supream Divine Nature of God for their own Na∣ture: And therefore, forasmuch as there hath been great endeavours used to suppress the Doctrine of the Holy Trin∣unity; and to raze out, or so besmear the written Word of God, that we should not discern the Beauty and Excellency of the Nature of Christ, and the Holy Spirit; I shall endeavour to demonstrate the
Truth of their Deity; and in order there∣unto,
First, I shall note, that on all Hands it is agreed among Christians, that the Scriptures do distinguish and make a difference between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that there is but one that is personally called the Fa∣ther, and but one other Chief and only Son of that Father, and also a third distinguished from both, and called the Holy Ghost, besides which there is not another that is so called, as may be col∣lected from the following Scriptures, Eph. 4.4, 5, 6. 1 John 4.9. chap. 5.7. 2 Pet. 1.16, 17. John 6.27. ch. 14.26.