THE SNARE BROKEN, OR, THE NATURAL and ETERNAL DEITY of the SON of GOD; As also Of the HOLY GHOST, ASSERTED:  
By a Person, who having been formerly a a SOCINIAN, and then an ARRIAN, came at length, by a free Consideration of the SCRIPTURES, to be fully convinced of the Truth of the Catholic Faith concerning the Blessed TRINITY.  Nihil tam Certum, quam quod ex Dubio Certum. 
Printed in the Year 1692.   

ADVERTISEMENT.  
THis Treatise was written by the Author (yet living) about ten or twelve Years since, and thus occasioned to be published.  
The Author being suspected (for some former carriages) to be a Socinian, was questioned by several as being such: And a Friend of his intimating so much to him, he told his Friend, That he could sufficiently disprove that Calumny by a Paper that had lain by him these ten Years; which the same Friend desired to see, and communicated to others for their Satisfaction: one of whom, that had been greatly prejudiced against the Author, upon sight of it, earnestly desired of him in a pressing Letter that he would publish it for the common Good. To whom he replied, That if he would Print it, the Author would give him the Copy, with his Permission to publish it, if he thought it might be of any Use.   

To the Publisher of the following Treatise.  
Sir,  
I Truly congratulate that Event of Providence, which has brought to your hands such a surprising Vindication of the Truth in this Age of Infidelity and Apostasy. You are obliged not to let it lie any longer hid, and I think the Author is not to be excused by his Modesty, for having suppressed it so long. There is a Restitution we all own to injured Truth; and I have always esteemed it the greatest Indication of a noble Mind, not to be afraid, or ashamed to declare where I have trod amiss; and to warn others from falling into those pits, which I had much ado to escape. I am not a little sensible of some considerable Advantages that have been given to the Adversaries of the Holy Doctrine maintained in the following Treatise, by the Unwariness or intemperance of some of its Vindicators; who, tho' no ordinary Masters of Sense and Learning, have either by the impression of Orthodox Education, or Heat of Temper, or perhaps something else, been insensibly prevailed on to rush into the Battle, before they have been fully acquainted with the strength, or Measures of the adverse Party. I shall always despair of seeing any considerable Conquests made by the depth of Metaphysical Speculations▪ (be they in themselves never so true,) or the toilsome labour of Ecclesiastical History, (be it never so incorrupted and impartial:) And I believe, hardly any one will expect much good from either of these ways, if he but considers the Humours of that Sect of Men we have to deal with, what Volzogen has written against the one, and Sandius performed in the other; the small number of those whose Heads are cast into such a Mould, (as a Modern Metaphysician phrases it,) as to be able clearly to comprehend the former; or who have 〈◊〉 long enough to be sufficient Judges of the latter: and the frequent insuccessfulness of such Attempts that have been carried on in both these ways, with such an ingenuity, solidity, and accuracy, as is not easily to be found. I do not at all doubt but that among the Anti-trinitarians, as well Arrians as Socinians, there are several who with great sincerity seek after the Truth: Neither do I at all wonder that here are such, who from the prevalency of Temper or Conversation, are so far carried away by the Niceties of some Metaphysical Divines, and the Uncertain Relations of some Church Historians, as to throw away what they most earnestly search after. It will be no easy task to remove these Obstacles, by which (as I am willing to judge) some well-meaning Persons are perverted from the possession of the greatest and most noble Truths; but I trust it will be no very hard one to engage such to follow their own Methods, and leisurely to examine the Steps which the worthy Author, (once under the same Infidelity, or Scruples with them,) has taken to find out the True Catholic Faith, and to free himself from the Snare into which he was fallen.   

Erudito, ac Pio Lectori S.  
TE Oro, & Obtestor, Frater Charissime, per JESV Nostri Viscera, ut Christianismi Professionem per tot hominum Satanicorum dicta, Factaque Antichristianissima vacillantem sustentare totis Viribus annitaris. Veritatis Salutiferae ex oculis nostris auferendae ingruentibus undique Periculis Mecum semper Ingemiscas.  usque Illi adhaerere possimus, qui dicit, Ego sum Via, Veritas, ac Vita, Audiamus Illum etiam dicentem: Attollite Jugum meum super vos, & Discite a Me, quia Mitis sum, & Humilis Cord. Ardentissimas Cogitationes Animum meum ingenti pondere quodammodo opprimentes juvat hoc Disticho aliquatenus Explicare:  
Sola potest Submissa DEUM Mens Cernere CHRISTUM,  
Odit Mens HUMILEM quaeque SUPERBA DEUM.  
Opto te bene Valere, atque Erudito hujus Tractatus Authori, Dulcissimam tibi Veritatem propinanti, maximas habere Gratias.   

The Natural and Eternal Deity of the SON of GOD, as also of the HOLY GHOST, Asserted.  
CHRISTIAN, and therefore Courteous Reader, I hold myself obliged in Conscience to make what amends God shall enable me to the Public for the wrong that I have done, but especially to endeavour to repair the Glory of God my Saviour, and God the Holy Ghost, as I shall be enabled; which I fear I have by my ignorance, and Rashness diminished, and for which I humbly implore the pardon, and mercy of the Almighty. I was formerly of the Socinian Persuasion, and declared myself so for about two months near the Year 1651, by which I know I grieved many good Persons that knew me, and had charitable thoughts of me, and I doubt I might make some to question the truth, which they had believed; tho' I hope not many: for that I was neither busy in meddling with the Consciences of others, neither was I of ability to manage an Argument with any great subtlety. But after about two months that I had conversed with the Socinians in London, Mr. John Biddle, being then alive, observing many odd Notions that he had, as particularly that of the Anthropomorphites, I returned to Oxford, and conversed, and communicated with the Orthodox ever after. Yet I confess I continued to doubt of those matters, and was on and off in my thoughts about them for near twenty Years together. Dr. Thomas Goodwin, who was then Precedent of our College, was satisfied that I should receive the Sacrament with him, tho' he knew my Doubts; because, as he observed (and it was true) that I could never forego the Notion of Christ's Death as a proper Sacrifice, whatever the Socinians offered to the contrary in their Glosses, upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And I can, and do call God to witness, that what I writ is not for worldly Interest. Nay, I am sensible that I may do myself considerable damage by it: But I think it a piece of Honesty at this time, to cast in my Mite to the Treasury of those many worthy Labours, which will be occasioned (as I suppose) to be published through the raw and bold Attempts of divers, to divest our Saviour of his Natural Deity, as being the Eternal Son of God; and the Holy Ghost of his being the most High God also.— I am much troubled to think what Work Men may make of it upon this Subject. Learning, I suppose, was never so common, nor perhaps the Wits of Men of any Age ever more quick and smart, or the Humours of Men in a greater ferment, than they are now all over Europe: and now for the Philosopher to fall to work with his Arguments, and the Linguist with his Criticisms in a subject of the highest nature, and indeed utterly surpassing the Wit of Man to comprehend, might do a world of mischief, and for all I can foresee, set all Europe in another Flame, tho' that which the French and Turk have kindled, should be never so happily quenched. And therefore I humbly advise (who am wholly disinterested further than as I am a Christian, and have thought of the Subject now these 35 Years, and that with serious concern) First; That Men would lay aside their Philosophy in enquiring into, and hardly this subject; that is, as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or intrinsic Reasons, for it is impossible by reason to comprehend the Being of God. Secondly▪ That they wholly betake themselves to a Scriptural consideration of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and my thoughts what they are as informed by Scripture, after so long a Pause, as with shame I have mentioned, I humbly offer as followeth: only here observe that I design not to be so prolix, as to mention all, or the most Arguments that may be brought for the proof of the Deity of our LORD, or the Holy Ghost, but only those that have chief swayed with me.  
And first, For that of our Saviour I consider the clearness of his Praeexistence to his being Born of the Virgin. Before Abraham was, I am. Joh. 8.58. Thou art not fifty years old (say the Jews) and hast thou seen Abraham? In the Verse immediately before; upon which our Saviour utters this, which certainly the Jews took in that sense, as asserting a Praeexistence and thereupon took up stones to stone him. But it is more plainly asserted in Joh. 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Ver. 14. And the Word was made Flesh. What was that which was made Flesh, or became Flesh, (for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) but something that was, before it was made or became Flesh? Therefore the Word was in being before it became Flesh. But in the second Chap. of the Hebr. V. 13, 14. it is, yet much more plainly expressed: And again, I and the Children that thou hast given me; speaking of Christ, Ver. 14. And because the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood, he also himself likewise took part of the fame, that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death, that is the Devil. He in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, took part with the Children, whom he was to Redeem by dying in flesh and blood. Who took part, but he that had another Nature before? He took part upon design in order to an end, viz. That of dying, therefore he was a designing Person before, a Person of Counsel, and Wisdom, and great designs. Another great Argument to me of his Praeexistence, which hath often affected me, is his being with the Father, hearing from the Father his Doctrine that he afterwards preached: Coming from the Father, which our Saviour so often makes mention of, as being before his coming into the World. Now for the Answer that is made by the Socinians, that our Saviour was caught up into Heaven sometime before his Appearing in the World, in the Course of his Ministry, and conversed with God, as Moses did in the Mount; it is a Non scriptum, and to me looks like a very unsavoury Fiction. How roundly, and fully doth our Saviour express this thing? Joh. 16.28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the World, again I leave the World, and go to the Father. That is; After my Death, I leave off being here in the World, and go to Heaven to my Father altogether; as before I was Born of my Mother, and came into the World, I was with my Father altogether, rejoicing always before him: And upon this as fully, and roundly spoken the Disciples Answer. Now spakest thou plainly, and spakest no Proverb: Now we know and believe that thou camest forth from God; that is from God as his Mansion place, where he had ever been before he came to them. So Joh. 6.62. Our Saviour having before asserted that he was the Bread of Life, which came down from Heaven; and finding that this with other Mysterious expressions, had offended, many of his Hearers, he asks them in Ver. 〈◊〉. What, saith he, doth this offend you? What, and if you should see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Is it not as credible that I should come down from Heaven, the place of my Residence at first; as that I should ascend thither at last; and that visibly so, as ye shall see it with your eyes? Doth not this speak plainly that Christ was not only with the Father occasionally, and for a time of Instruction only, (as the Socinians would have it) but that he was in Heaven, as his Mansion, and Dwelling-place for ever before; and here upon Earth only occasionally, and for a time? Give me Scriptures in their plain, and obvious sense and meaning without a force, or a strain: for if once Men begin to strain for the sense, farewell the genuine Truth; and therefore I do, and have often despaired of Truth, when it is once engaged in Dispute; when Men for their Credit will strain their Wits: and therefore no wonder if they strain the Word, and wrest it from its genuine sense and scope.  
And indeed while I was a Socinian, (for I will do all Men and Parties (that I have to do with) all the right I can) for I honestly pretend to an Universal Candour;) I say while I was a Socinian, I was so ex animo; and then went to take Scriptures in their plain sense, scope and tendency, and did never think it adviseable to undertake to be a Patron of that Cause, for that I saw Disputes would be endless, and Disputants might hold an Argument pro, & con in this Subject to the end of the World, according to the several Distinctions that have been framed. But now I believe, That taking Scriptures according to plain sense and meaning, for our Saviour's Natural Deity, hath the better of my so taking them when I was a Socinian; and the Judgement of my Belief I submit to the Reader of my Arguments.  
So much, I humbly conceive, may serve to be spoken concerning the Praeexistence of our Saviour, to his being Born of the Virgin.  
But here comes in the Arrian: And, saith he, I grant our Saviour was Preaexistent to his being Born of the Virgin; and he was made Flesh, who had existed Personally before, and he was made to partake of Flesh and Blood, as those that were to be his Children did, that he might die for them, and Redeem them. He had dwelled in Heaven before ever he came into the World; and was not only caught up into Heaven to see, and hear what he was to reveal; but he was only a Created Spirit, or Angel, and was in the fullness of time united to the Humane Nature, by the power of the Holy Ghost. This Opinion, I confess I have inclined to also: But I am also beaten out of this by the Apostle's Discourse, or whosoever was the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the first and second Chapters, Ch. 1.13. To which of the Angels said he at any time, Sat thou at my Right Hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all Ministering Spirits? Ver. 5. Unto which of the Angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? Ver. 6. And again when he bringeth his First Begotten into the World, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him. Now if all the Angels of God must worship him, and that God the Father said not so, or so to any one of all the Angels; he is clearly set forth as one above all the Orders of Angels; and therefore in plain meaning above all Creatures; therefore no less than God. Nay, whereas the Apostle only words it, Worship him all ye Angels; or, Let all the Angels of God worship him, it is in the Psalmist; whence the Apostle quotes the Expression, Psal. 97.7. ' Worship him ' all ye Gods. So that whatever Titular God there is, or can be conceived in the whole Creation, they are all inferior to him, and he is not of their Rank, or Kind; therefore not a Creature, as to his Divine Nature, but of the proper genuine Essence of the most High God; as a Son is of the fame kind with his Father; and we know there is but One God in number, tho' the Son, and the Father among us make Two in number.  
But that which yet further, and beyond all these things convinceth me that our Lord Christ is God by Nature, is, That he undertook to Answer, and Satisfy the Law for Sinners.  
‛ The sting of Death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law. It were a very small matter for us to Die, were it not for Sin that follows us to our Graves, to Judgement, and to Hell; and Sin could have no strength in it to Damn us, and cast us into Hell, were it not for the Law of God that forbids it, and threatens Death, and Hell upon the Commission of it. Now this Law of God is empowered and invigorated with all the Majesty and Authority of that God that made it, and binds down the Sinner unavoidably to destruction, until some one come that can deal with this Law so full of Majesty, and Authority: Until, I say, such a One come and free us from this Law, the Sinner cannot be set at Liberty from the Condemning Power of it. I meddle not with that Question, Whether God can Pardon without a Satisfaction, or no; I think it is evidently declared that he will not, Without shedding of Blood there is no Remission; Heb. 9.22. and therefore it comes all to one in this matter. Now what Creature tho' never so Great, Wise, and Innocent, dares appear in the face of the Law to rescue the Prisoners; for all the World is become guilty before God, Jews, and Gentiles. There is no Creature but is subject to the Law of God; and the utmost Good that the Creature can receive from the Law, is to be acquitted in his own Person, having never offended it. Why yet here comes a Champion into the field our Lord JESUS by Name; and he comes into the field as it were (for that seems to be the Apostle's Scheme, Habit, or Form of Expression) and demands Liberty for the Law's Captives, which he hath Liberty from the Father to Redeem; not by offering Violence to the Law, but by paying a Price which shall be tantamont to the Damnation, or Eternal Sufferings of all the sinful Men, and Women of all Ages of the World, and by the Ordination of God the Father the Law must yield, may not detain them any longer under the Sentence of Condemnation, in Case this Great Redeemer Pay to the Law a Valuable Consideration, which accordingly he did by Dying. And whereas before we were all Naturally, or by Condition of our Natures as it were Married to the Law; the Law is now by the Death of Christ reputed as Legally-dead; and we are no Adulteresses, tho' we be Married to another; that is, to the Son of God, who Redeemed us, bought us off from the Law, and Marries us to Himself upon the New Conditions of Faith, and sincere Obedience: and this shall now be accepted at our hands, as effectually, as perfect unerring Obedience would have been from our first Husband the Law, had we stood Innocent. I confess the Tropes seem to interfere, those of Champion; and Surety, those of the Fields and the Court; but they are all justified by Expressions, that we may pick up out of the Apostle's Discourses of this subject. And if our Understandings be at last well informed, it is no great matter what become of the Figures, which were only by the Fancy to introduce the matter into our Understanding. That Christ's Death-was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Price of our Redemption is expressed often; and that he delivered us from the Law is as often found; and that this Law was not only the Ceremonial, but the Moral Law, I think it as plain: For else how should the whole World become guilty before God, but by the Sentence of the Moral Law, which is the Strength of sin? And how could our Saviour deliver the Gentiles from their sin, but by weakening its Strength; that is, taking off the Condemning Power of the Law? And how could he take off the Condemning Power of the Law, but by suffering the Penalty of it? And what Creature could sustain the Wrath of God, which the Law was armed with? Methinks it is as plain as one of the First Principles in Metaphysics. Who but God could sustain the Wrath of God, and not perish under it? And yet this we find Performed by our Saviour, as it had been Prophesied of him, Zech. 13.7. Awake, O Sword, against my Shepherd, and against the Man that is my Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts: Smite the Shepherd, and the Sheep shall be scattered. This is applied by our Saviour to himself, in the very Evening of his Passion, Matth. 26.31. Mark 14.27. Joh. 16.32. And we see it accomplished in these words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now by this Suffering Christ satisfied the Law; and in that way did as it were Conquer it: He 
PLACE =" foot" n =" *" I am apt to think that this Expression of Nailing it to his Cross, may be chief intended of the Ceremonial Law; because that which was Nailed to the Cross, was Canceled; whereas that is not true concerning the Moral Law; tho' it were left in a sense Dead, that is as to the Power of Condemnation against Believers.  Nailed it to his Cross, Col. 2.14. The Law brought Christ Jesus to his Death, and Cross more effectually than the Jews and Romans; and there our Saviour left the Law for Dead; as it is expressed at large in an Elegant Allegory by the Apostle Paul, Rom. 7. the first 6. Verses: Know ye not, Brethren, for I speak to them that know the Law, how that the Law hath dominion over a Man, as long as he liveth. For the Woman, which hath an Husband, is bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he liveth; but if the Husband be dead, she is free from the Law of her Husband. So than if while her Husband liveth she be married to another Man, she shall be called an Adulteress; But if her Husband be dead, she is free from that Law; so that she is no Adulteress tho' she be married to another Man. Wherefore, my Brethren, ye also are become Dead to the Law by the Body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him that is raised from the Dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the Flesh, the motions of Sin, which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death: But now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we were held (that is the Law) that we should serve in newness of Spirit, and not in the oldness of the Letter. Here you see the Law is Dead by the Body of Christ Crucified, and thereby we are free to be married to another, even to Him that is raised from the Dead; nay, who raised himself from the Dead; For, saith he, I have power to lay down my Life, and I have power to take it again, Joh. 10.18. Now; who can this be but God, but the Natural Son of God? For, who could confront the Law of God, without doing Affront unto it, and leave it for dead by dying, and yielding to it, and not perish under it? Or, how could any other Nature give Value to his Suffering to make it a just Price of Redemption of the whole World, but the Natural Son of God?  
There are many other things and Expressions, which have greatly affected and moved me to my present persuasion; as that in Heb. 1.10, 11, 12. His making and destroying the World: Our being commanded to Worship and Trust in Him, as God, even as we Honour the Father: His Saying, I, and the Father are One: His Answering Philip as he did, when he desired him that he would show them the Father, Joh. 14.8. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me; hath seen the Father: Which fully accords with that in Heb. 1.2, 3. God hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed Heir of all things; by whom also he made the Worlds: who being the Brightness of his Glory, and the Express Image of his Person.— A Native, and as it were, a Domestical Expression of one that is a Son by Nature. And then the Intimacies that our Saviour signifies that he had with his Father: The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doth, and he will show him greater things than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the Dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will, Joh. 5.20, 21. The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seethe the Father do; for whatsoever things he doth, these also doth the Son likewise, Ver. 19 As the Father hath Life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself, Ver. 26. Which Expression I take to be Incommunicable to any Creature. These things may suffice to have been spoken as the Grounds of my Belief concerning the Natural Deity of God the Son; I come in the next place to give the Reasons for my Belief, That the Holy Ghost is God of the fame Essence with the Father, and the Son, and not a mere Creature; yea a Person, and no mere Power: And in this I shall be very Brief, because the Evidences are not so many, tho' they are as Effectual.— And here first, It is plain that the Spirit of God by its Omnipotent Incubation did produce all the Variety of Creatures, when it moved upon the face of the Waters, Gen. 1.2. Again, All Christians acknowledge that the Scriptures were written by Men Divinely Inspired; they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspired, or Spirited, and breathed on by the Spirit of God: and who can sanctify the heart but he that knows the heart; and who knows the heart but God? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? ' I the Lord, Jer. 17.9, 10. Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? thou hast not lied unto Men, but unto God, Acts 5.3, 4. All the Gifts given to the Church were given by the Spirit of God, and that with an Authentic Authority, 1 Cor. 12.11. All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every Man severally as He Will. And to demonstrate how the Spirit, as a Person, and a Divine Spirit assumeth his Authority, as God; see Acts 13.2. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas, and Saul for the Work whereunto I have called them. Can this be the Voice and Command of any True Spirit, inseriour unto God? But to conclude; and to give in the last place the greatest Instance that affects me: for that is my Design especially to declare with what Scriptures and Mediums, I am chief induced to settle in the Orthodox Persuasion. It is that in 1 Cor. 2.6. Howbeit we speak Wisdom among them that are Perfect, yet not the Wisdom of this World, nor of the Princes of this World, that come to nought. The Apostles had the Treasury of a Celestial Philosophy committed to them, which they published, and discoursed, and made it their Business so to do. It was indeed a Mysterious Wisdom, Ver. 7. But we speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery, even the hidden Wisdom, which God ordained before the World unto our Glory: Ver. 8. Which none of the Princes of this World knew: Ver. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, neither have entered into the Heart of Man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Well, how came they to know this Recluse hidden Mysterious Wisdom, which the very Chief of the World, Princes, and Philosophers did not know; neither had entered into the Heart of Man to conceive? Why, Ver. 10. But God hath Revealed them to us by his Spirit: Why, how did the Spirit know? Why, the Spirit searcheth all things, even the Deep things of God. There are none of the Secrets of Eternity but the Spirit knows them intimately. How so? The Apostle hath not done with it yet, but instanceth further, and proves by a notable similitude, Ver. 11. that the Spirit must needs know all that God knows, and therefore I think must needs be God; the words are these: For what Man, knoweth the things of a Man, save the Spirit of a Man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no Man: It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and it is poorly translated No Man, it ought to have been translated (as I humbly conceive) No one, neither Man not Spirit, nor any Creature; No one but the Spirit of God. And if the Spirit of a Man be not Essentially One with a Man, what is there One with him? And now being but a Similitude, it cannot be pressed to a Sameness; as Nullum simile est idem: Yet I must humbly conceive the simile could not have been made without Blasphemy, had not the Spirit been of the Divine Essence: For what Proportion can there be betwixt Infinite and Finite; so that the Spirit, or Holy Ghost should be to God, as the Spirit of a Man is to him, to know all his secrets, to search into them, and from his perfect intimate knowledge of all the secrets of God to be able to communicate them to us? The Spirit is so one with the Father and the Son, as that there is no Mystery hidden, or that can be hidden from him: Therefore he is God with the Father and the Son: and as here it is spoken perhaps chief of his Intimacy with the Father, who ordinarily sustains the name of God: So in Joh. 16.15, 16, 17. is mention made of his Intimacy with the Son: He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. So here you see is the Counsel of the Trinity. No wonder therefore where there is so great an Intimacy and Oneness, if they often appear together; the Father in a Voice, and the Spirit in a Dove upon the Son: no wonder if these be the Three that are said to bear Record in Heaven. If Baptism be ordained to be celebrated in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and (to give the last sweet and blessed Farewell to my proofs) if the Apople conclude his Epistle to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. 13.14. with this Valediction; The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God the Father, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.  
I have now only this to add touching the Doctrine of the Trinity, That tho' I believe this Essential Unity, which I have mentioned, and I hope, proved, yet that I suppose there is a great Respect to behad to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or difference of these Persons in the Trinity. For, as I humbly conceive, they that are of the Orthodox Opinion, as touching the Unity of the Three Persons in the Godhead, are in great danger of Non-attendance to this Real Difference, that there is between the several Persons; and are ready to swallow up all the Difference and Distinction or Distinctness in the Unity, and to think the Difference to lie only in a various and different Manifestation of the Being of God. Whereas there are so plain different Attributes, or Attributions of the Three Persons, as if they were Three distinct Being's. The Father is manifestly the Fons Trinitatis, the Fountain of the Trinity; The Son is united to our Nature so, as the Father is not, and the Spirit, is not: The Son died in our Nature; so did not the Father, nor the Spirit. The Son was sent by the Father; so was not the Father by either the Son, or the Holy Ghost: The Holy Ghost was sent by the Father in the Name of the Son, Joh. 14.26. and sent by the Son himself, Joh. 16.7. The Father is the Person on whom our, Faith and Hope do ultimately terminate, 1 Pet. 1.21. So it doth not on the Son, or Holy Ghost: The Father in the Work of Redemption sustains the Person of the Parties offended, and yet giving his Son in order to the Reconciling the World to himself the Son the Person of Mediator, the Spirit applies all that is done by the Father and the Son, in Conviction, Conversion, Quickening, Comforting, Sealing, and Intercession within us, Rom. 8.26, 27. I could instance in many more Particulars, which ought to have a serious consideration; especially the great Business of Intercession now in Heaven, where the Son Ministers as a Kingly Priest at his Father's Right hand, in the true Tabernacle, which God hath pitched, and not Man. Is there not a great distinction here made betwixt the Father and the Son in sustaining two different Persons? And (what is consequent upon this Observation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,) methinks it should seem highly Rational to every Christian, every one that owns the Mystery of the Trinity, That as there are Three distinct Persons, that All justly claim the Name and Title of God as they have the Essence; so that they should All (that is Each) have their distinct Honour from him according to the several Discoveries that are made of them, of their several distinct Habitudes, and Relations to us, and that it should not seem so absurd a Notion, as I find it doth to some, that we may have a distinct Communion with the Three Persons of the Trinity: For if it be nothing else but to endeavour to Abear ourselves with distinct, Honourable Thoughts, and Apprehensions towards them according to the several Attributions, or Parts Assigned to them, and most really. Assumed by them for our Good; and to do this with the greatest Reverence, and Joy that we can conceive in our Minds, what is this less than to have Communion with the Three Persons distinctly, yet not exclusively: to love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, to believe in him, Ye believe in God (that is in the Father) believe also in me; and by him we are to believe in God, that is the Father, that by him our Faith and Hope may be in God, 1 Pet. 1.21. The words at large are these: Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead, and gave him Glory, that your Faith and Hope might be in God. And as this is proper to be endeavoured and done by us, as one Part of Communion; to wit, that on our Part, so we find Two of the Divine, Persons promised to come to us together, in case we do the Will of God, Joh. 14.21, 23. Jesus answered and said unto him. If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. And do you think the Communion of the Holy Ghost shall be denied to that Person, where the Father, and the Son come and dwell? And is not here Communion with the Three Persons? and yet I desire all this may be understood modestly and humbly. And indeed, however it far with the Notion of these things, the Things themselves shall never be understood, and experienced, but by those that are Humble indeed.  
Z.M. A.M.  
FINIS.