Appendix - CHAPTER 2 SECTION III OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE BY REVELATION

CHAPTER 2 SECTION III OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE BY REVELATION

We have now brought the mind of man, by several steps, to the utmost knowledge it can reach by its own faculties. Whatever is beyond that contained under the foregoing heads, is communicated to it from heaven. When we observe, 1. The more particular and full discoveries of those relations we had some knowledge of, by the light of nature ;* and, 2. Those relations we bear to God, and God to us, which are entirely new, and undiscoverable by the light of nature: this knowledge includes the foundation and substance of all revealed religion. As to the first. When to that general knowledge we have by the light of nature, of God, as the Creator of all things, it is revealed, that he “spoke them” into being, and created them “by his word ;“ that he made man in particular “out of the earth,” and breathed into him a principle of a higher kind; that he was created in innocence, and “in the image of God ;" and that from him all mankind descended.

Again. When to the general relation of his providence over us, it is more particularly revealed, That he “upholdeth all things by the word of his power ;“ that “in Him we live, move, and have our being ;“ that “not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him ;“ nay, that “the hairs of our head are all numbered ;“ and, lastly, when his relation to us, as a Judge, is rendered more full and express by these particulars, that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good ;“ that “He shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. that “he hath appointed a day, in which He will judge the world; and that, in order to this universal judgment, there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.

*I believe all "the light of nature,” so called, to flow from preventing grace

Again. When it is revealed, that “there is but one God :" opposition to the multitude of heathen deities; that this God "is a Spirit,” that “ there is none good but He ;“ that “He only is wise," and his wisdom is infinite; that he is Almighty, bath all power, is “above all, the only Potentate, King of kings,” and “Lord of lords:" that "He is the Most High, the Lord of hosts,” who “ only hath immortality :“ these and such like equally express declarations, concerning the One God, are evident improvements of that which we have by the light of nature.These expressions are all plain and intelligible, so that, when we use them we know what we say. But as to the following expression concerning the One God, That he is “God of himself, Root, Principle, and Original :“ that he is a “ Pure Act, simple, undivided, Self. existent, absolutely supreme ;“ together with the words, “Subordinate, co-ordinate,” and above all, his metaphysical "Substance and essence :“ these are not the language of revelation, especially when used to explain the Unity of God; but affected terms, invented by un to express their several sentiments of that Unit) Can we sufficiently lament the mischief, which has been done, by. the rumbling of these, and such like sounding words, through whole volumes; to the confounding both the writer and the reader, and perplexing that great article of our faith, the Trinity: which as it lies in the scripture, is, so far as we are to believe it, the plainest thing in the world All this pompous affectation of being more knowing in the Christian mysteries, than the scriptures can make men, tends only to propagate absurd and inconsistent notions, which a plain, rational man would be ashamed of. Such as these, That the Son of God was produced by an external act of the Father’s power, but was not made or created That there are Three Persons truly Divine; one of them the true God, the Second, truly God, the Third, no God at all. That we may arid must pay divine worship to Two Gods, and divine honour to a Third Person, who is no God. That by the term TRINITY we must mean, a Trinity of Two Gods, and a Divine Person, but no God.

These and many such positions are either expressly, or by plain consequence, contained in some of our modern systems of religion, and are set down here, not as they are a total subversion of the Christian faith, but as they are a bold and arbitrary imposition on the common sense and reason of mankind. The relation we bear to God as our Creator, which was partly discovered by the light of nature, is made nearer yet, and more dear and engaging, by that entirely new distinction in the One God, revealed to us under the different characters of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the unspeakable blessings we derive from their several offices and operations. This distinction, utterly incomprehensible in itself, could never have been known to men, but by revelation. Nor could we have conceived it in any degree, had it not been discovered to us, under the semblance of such relations, as are familiar among men : as that of a Father and a Son, and the Spirit of a man, which is in him. And, if we admit this distinction at all, we must hold it to be so really founded in the Divine Nature, that we cannot think or speak of it any otherwise, than as a personal distinction. For the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are, in respect of one another, thus distinguished through the’ whole language of revelation: and, in respect of mankind, they are ever distinguished by such different operations, as we distinguish human persons by. So that whatever is denoted by Father, Son, and Spirit, we must either flatly reject the scriptures, or else always speak and think of those Three, as we do of three human persons. That Christ, the second person, had a being, before lie was born of a virgin, is so evident from revelation, that we can make no sense or coherence of scripture, without allowing it; and there can be no other purpose, in revealing all things concerning him, under the character of a son, and only begotten son, but to convince us, that he has all the natural, essential attributes of his Father, that, as a human son possesses the entire human nature, so the Son of God possesses the entire divine nature. That the Holy Spirit, who is in scripture distinguished from the Father and the Son, is a distinct person from both, is plain from the commission given the apostles to baptize, in the name of the Father. and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This form, if each of these be not a distinct person, sufficiently tends to confound mankind, If the Holy Ghost be not a distinct person, but only a tower of the Father, then the sense of it runs thus: “Go and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Father again.” Therefore to say the third person, here mentioned, is a mere name, and imports only the power of the Father, is not only charging God with laying a snare to deceive us, but denying his commission to be common sense. That the Holy Spirit is God, is evident from revelation, which every where distinguishes him by this peculiar character of Holy. For absolute holiness is the peculiar attribute of the absolutely supreme God; and he being every where called “the Holy Spirit,” by way of excellency, and distinction from all created spirits, that epithet must imply an original intrinsic and essential holiness in him Especially, if we observe, that this is his constant distinguishing character not only where he is mentioned with relation to us, but also where he is named together with the Father and the Son. Insomuch, that He alone is expressly styled holy, wherever the three persons are’ expressly named together in scripture. The word holy in those places cannot be added, in opposition to the Father and the Son; nor as exclusive of them; because they are both absolutely holy, as well as the Spirit: so that they naturally lead us into a belief, that his is the same holiness with that of the Father and the Son, namely, the intrinsic holiness of Jehovah, the most’ high the supreme God. To this if we add, that He is called, “The Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Glory, the Eternal Spirit,” and very often, the Spirit of God, as particularly at the baptism of Christ, where be was personally distinguished from the Father, even in a visible appearance. We must have our reason strangely amused by subtlety criticism, and be turned quite out of the plain way of thinking, before we can understand these revelations to mean any thing else, than that lie is God, equal with the Father. The sum is this. Since both reason and revelation show, there is but one God, we can own and worship but one. And since that One God is set forth to us in scripture, under three distinct relations, and accordingly represented by distinct personal names, and characters, and operations, and offices; therefore we worship but one God, with this distinction of his own making, not of ours.

It is said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve :“ by which all Divine worship is utterly cut off from the Son and Holy Ghost, unless they are one with the Lordour God. Again, it is written, “The Lord thy God is one Lord, whom we are to love with all our heart, mini, soul and strength.” But if so, all Divine love is cit off from the Son and Holy Ghost, unless they are that one Lord our God, who is a jealous God, and will by no means suffer any part of his worship to be paid to any other.

According to this plain and natural way of Thinking, as we are baptized by one anti the same solemn act of worship, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” so we ever after adore them, without any degrees or inequality of worship; which, indeed, as it is truly Divine, can admit of no degrees or inequality. Whereas, they who argue for an inequality in the divine Persons, and for an inferiority of nature in the Son and Holy Ghost to the Father, necessarily involve themselves and all their adherents in endless uncertainty and confusion. For they can never settle the different kinds and degrees of that lower Divine worship, “a contradiction in the very terms” which is to be pail to the Son and the Holy Ghost. They can never distinguish it with such exactness, that it shall neither be the worship due to the supreme God, nor that honour, which is to be paid to mere creatures, and varied according to their several dignities. But to make it vet more clear, that the mind of man cannot, without absurdity, have any other conception of the Son and Holy Ghost, than as being one absolutely Supreme God with the Father, and one joint Object of all Christian worship ; let us collect the two seemingly inconsistent doctrines, into opposite propositions.

Now both these precepts are express scripture, and therefore equally objects of our faith; it being evident, that here is no contradiction in terms, and that the seeming contradiction is with regard to a unity and distinction, for the direct apprehension of which, there is no capacity in the mind of man. The wisdom of God has left it for us to believe them both, and to reconcile them according to the best of our understanding: not by taking upon us to show, how the Divine Nature is One, and how it is Three; but by solving the seeming opposition, in a way most obvious to a plain capacity; that is, by concluding, since there is but One God, who alone is to be worshipped, and since the Son and Holy Ghost are both called God in Scripture. and expressly commanded to be worshipped therefore they are One with the Most High God, though how they are One we cannot comprehend.

Thus has the Gospel revelation improved the knowledge of man kind, in these important points. And it has no less improvement Our knowledge, in the grand article of future rewards and punishments. As to rewards. 1. Whereas, all that was before expected in the: other world, was sensual pleasure for the body, and pleasing contemplation for the soul. Now we learn the joys of heaven to be of a sort, whereof nature can give us no conception: we shall be as the angels of God in heaven.

2. The resurrection of the same body. is a point entirely new, of which Christ’s rising with the same body assures us. That this body will be CHANGED, is likewise entirely new ; that this change shall be effected in a moment; that the dead in Christ shall rise first; that their change shall be into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body: alt which particulars are beyond whatever could have been suggested, by the mere understanding of man.

Another instance of revelation, entirely new with respect to these rewards, is, that of living for ever in the immediate presence of God, the Fountain of All happiness. We are now informed, that we “shall see God as lie is. face to face, in whose presence is fulness of joy ;“ that we “shall be where he is,” shall “behold his glory,” and shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father. This is a strain, no imagination, merely human, could ever reach or aspire to. We may add, that whatever the wisest heathens spoke of future rewards, was only from faint conjecture; whereas now we have the plain, and express, and repeated promise of God for, them. As to future punishments, we learn from revelation alone,

1.  That they are both for soul and body, which are distinguished by “the worm that dieth not,” and “the fire that is not quenched.” And accordingly we are bid to “fear Him, who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.”

2.  That the soul will be “punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord.” That the chief of all misery, in another life, would be, exclusion from the sight of God, was never thought of by the wisest heathens, who placed all happiness in themselves.

3.  That the body will be punished by fire, than which we have not any revelation more express and positive. And as it is an instance of the great goodness of God, that the joys of heaven are represented, figuratively, as exceeding the utmost of our conceptions; so it is an argument of his strict justice, that the pains of hell are more literally foretold.

4.The eternity of these punishments is revealed, as plainly as words can express it. Not that the punishments denounced are mere arbitrary sanctions, like those annexed to human laws. But those denunciations are withal so many previous warnings of the inevitable consequence. the natural tendency of sin to misery. So that an unrepenting sinner cannot be otherwise than miserable, in another life, by a necessity of nature: since there never can be any alteration of his condition, without such a change of the whole man, as would put the natural and settled order of creation out of course. With respect to these rewards and punishments, we have these farther revelations: that the very “day is appointed by God, in which lie will judge the world in righteousness, by the man, whom He bath ordained ;“ that He hath committed all judgment to the Son; and that all mankind must come upon their trial at once. The glorious pomp and majesty of his appearance, the awful solemnity of the whole procedure, nay, the very words of the sentence, both on the just, and on the unjust, are discovered to us. It is farther revealed, that in this day of God, while He descendeth with ten thousand of his angels, “the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” These are “the terrors of the Lord,” which are sufficient to make the stout hearted tremble, and are such motives to all holiness of heart, and holiness of conversation, as nothing but infidelity, or wilful want of consideration. can render ineffectual.