Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"received honour one of another, and had not the "love of God in them." Every hypothesis of human growth, which was pretty sure to agree with their complexion, and reflected some honour upon themselves by exalting the nature of man, that can make a religion for itself, and comes in its own name; that they would gladly receive. But if any thing was offered to them in the name of God, to be received for the love of him, and the spiritual comfort of a pure conscience, and the hope of a better world: it was rejected, as an encroachment upon their natural rights, and an invective against the innocent pleasures of a carnal Jerusalem. And so it is with us at this time for if an author does but hang out the sign of Nature and reason in his title-page, there are readers in plenty, who will buy up and swallow his dregs by wholesale: but if God, of his infinite mercy and condescension, shews to them the way of salvation, his words are to be abstracted from the evidence upon which he requires us to believe them, then put into this alembic of reason, and demonstrated to be no poison, before they can be brought to taste them. And if they should happen to be a little disagreeable to flesh and blood, and the operation should miscarry, the

a See John v. 39.-ad fin.

fault

fault is charged upon God, and not upon themselves, who ought to have gone another way to work; as they will certainly find.

We conclude, therefore, because Christ has affirmed it, that every degree of doubt and disputation against the words of God, is just so much unbelief; proceeding not from the head or understanding, but from the heart and affections. And the world is filled with the vain jangling of uncertainty, for this short reason “ all men have not faith."

[blocks in formation]

IN all the Texts which are compared together in the following work, those particular words, whereon the stress of the comparison lies, are printed in Capitals; that the argument obtained from them may shew itself to the reader upon the first inspection. And I hope, after what has been observed to him in the foregoing discourse, that this is the only admonition he will stand in need of. The arguments I have drawn from the Scripture are, to the best of my knowledge, most of them new; and, if I may judge from my own mind, the manner in which they are laid down, is more likely to convince, than any I have yet seen. Had I thought otherwise, I could easily have forborn to trouble myself or the world with the transcribing and printing them. The end I have proposed is not to obtain any reputation (to which this is not the way) but to do some little good, of which there is much need. I do therefore sincerely recommend the following work, and every reader of it, to the grace and blessing of Almighty God, well knowing, that "un"less the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh "but in vain."

THE

THE

CATHOLIC DOCTRINE

OF A

TRINITY

CHAP. I.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

I.

Isa. VIII. 13, 14. Sanctify the LORD. OF HOSTS HIMSELF, and let HIM be your fear, and let HIM be your dread: and HE shall be for a Sanctuary; but for a STONE OF STUMBLING and ROCK OF OFFENCE to both houses of Israel.

1 Pet. II. 7, 8. The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a STONE OF STUMBLING and ROCK OF OF

FENCE.

VOL. I.

Instead

Instead of reasoning upon these words of the Prophet Isaiah, according to any private Interpretation, I add another passage of Scripture, wherein they are expressly applied to the person of Christ; and then shew what must be the result of both. If the Scripture, thus compared with itself, be drawn up into an argument, the conclusion may indeed be denied, and so may the whole Bible, but it cannot be answered. For Example,

The Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence, as the former text affirms, is the Lord of Hosts himself; a name which the Arians allow to no other but the one, only, true, and supreme God".

But, this Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence, as it appears from the latter text, is no other than Christ, the same stone which the builders refused; Therefore,

Christ is the LORD OF HOSTS HIMSELF: and the Arian is confuted upon his own principles.

II.

Isai. VI. 5. Mine Eyes have SEEN the King, the LORD OF HOSTS.

a See an Essay on Spirit, p. 65. Clark's Doctt. of the Trin. C. I. § 3. 402.

John

« AnteriorContinuar »