SERMON XXI. A Defence of the Bleffed Trinity. TRINITY SUNDAY, 1663. Φύσει μὲν ἅπας λόγος σαθρὸς καὶ εὐκίνητος, καὶ διὰ τὸν ἀντιμαχόμενον λόγον ἐλευθερίαν οὐκ ἔχων· ὃ δὲ περὶ Θεοῦ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον, ὅσῳ μεῖζον τὸ ὑποκείμενον, καὶ ὁ ζῆλος πλείων, καὶ ὁ κίνδυνος χαλεπώτερος· καὶ γὰρ νοῆσαι χαλεπὸν, καὶ ἑρμηνεῦσαι ἀμήχανον, καὶ ἀκοῆς κεκαθαρμένης ἐπιτυχεῖν ἐργωδέςερον. Greg. Naz. Orat. 26. Cor. iii. 2. Set your affections on things above. FOR understanding this apoftolical precept, two s E R M. particulars muft be confidered; firft the act, φρο- ΧΧΙ. νεῖν, (which is rendered to fet our affections, then the object, τὰ ἄνω, things above; there we briefly fhall explain. The word ogov doth primarily, and also according to common ufe, denote an advertency, or intent application of the mind upon any object: of the mind, that is, of a man's foul, especially of its rational part; fo as to include the powers of understanding, SER M. will, affection, activity; whence it may imply direcXXI. tion of our understanding to know; of our will to choose and embrace; of our affection to love, desire, relish; of our activity to purfue any good (real or apparent) which is propofed: according to which moft comprehenfive fenfe (fuiting the nature of the thing) I do take the word, fuppofing that St. Paul doth enjoin us to employ all our mental faculties in ftudy, choice, paffion, endeavour upon fupernal things. The ra avw (things above) may be fo taken, as to import all things relating to our fpiritual life here, or our future ftate hereafter; the which do either actually fubfift above in heaven, or have a final reference thither: fo they may comprife, 1. The fubftantial beings, to whom we ftand related, owe refpect, perform duty. 2. The ftate and condition of our fpiritual life here, or hereafter, as we are fervants and fubjects of God, citizens of heaven, candidates of immortal happiness. 3. Rules to be obferved, qualities to be acquired, actions to be performed, means to be used by us in regard to the fuperior place and state. Of these things the incomparably principal and fupreme, the To Unpavw, is the ever moft glorious and bleffed Trinity; to the minding of which this day is peculiarly dedicated, and the which indeed is always the most excellent, moft beneficial, moft comfortable object of our contemplation and affection; wherefore upon it I fhall now immediately fix my difcourfe. The facred Trinity may be confidered, either as it is in itself wrapt up in unexplicable folds of mystery; or as it hath discovered itself operating in wonderful methods of grace towards us. As it is in itself, it is an object too bright and dazzling for our weak eye to faften upon, an abyfs too deep for our short reason to fathom: I can only fay, that we are fo bound to mind it, as to exercife our our faith, and exprefs our humility, in willingly be-S E R M. lieving, in fubmiffively adoring those high myfteries XXI. which are revealed in the holy oracles concerning it, by that Spirit itself, which fearcheth the depths of God, and by that only Son of God, who refiding in his Father's bofom, hath thence brought them forth, and expounded them to us, fo far as was fit for our ca- 'Extīvos išne pacity and ufe: and the lectures fo read by the eter-hi. 18. nal wisdom of God, the propofitions uttered by the mouth of truth itself, we are obliged with a docile ear, and a credulous heart, to entertain. γήσατο. xiv. 10. That there is one Divine Nature or Effence, common unto three perfons incomprehenfibly united, and ineffably distinguished; united in effential attributes, diftinguished by peculiar idioms and relations; all equally infinite in every divine perfection, each different from other in order and manner of fubfiftence; that there is a mutual inexiftence of one in John x. 38. all, and all in one; a communication without any xvii. 21. deprivation or diminution in the communicant; an eternal generation, and an eternal proceffion, without precedence or fucceffion, without proper caufality or dependence; a Father imparting his own, and the Son receiving his Father's life, and a Spirit iffuing from both, without any divifion, or multiplication of effence: these are notions which may well puzzle our reason in conceiving how they agree, but should not stagger our faith in affenting that they are true; upon which we should meditate, not with hope to comprehend, but with difpofition to admire, veiling our faces in the prefence, and proftrating our reason at the feet of wisdom fo far tranfcending us. There be thofe, who, because they cannot untie, dare to cut in funder these facred knots; who, because they cannot fully conceive it, dare flatly to deny them; who, inftead of confeffing their own infirmity, do charge the plain doctrines and affertions of holy Scripture with impoffibility. Others feem to think they can demonftrate these mysteries by E e 4 argu SER M. arguments grounded upon principles of natural light; XXI. and exprefs it by fimilitudes derived from common experience. To reprefs the prefumption of the former, and to reftrain the curiofity of the latter, the following confiderations (improved by our thoughts) may perhaps fomewhat conduce. 1. We may confider, that our reafon is no competent or capable judge concerning propofitions of this nature; Our breaft (as Minutius fpeaketh) is a narrow vefjel, that will not hold much understanding; it is not fufficient, nor was ever defigned to found fuch depths, to defcry the radical principles of all being, to reach the extreme poffibilities of things. Such an intellectual capacity is vouchfafed to us as doth fuit to our degree, (the loweft rank of intelligent creatures,) as becometh our ftation in this inferior part of the world, as may qualify us to difcharge the petty bufineffes committed to our management, and the facile duties incumbent on us: but to know what God is, how he fubfifteth, what he can, what he should do, by our natural perfpicacity, or by any means we can ufe, farther than he pleaseth to reveal, doth not fuit to the meannefs of our condition, or the narrownefs of our capacity; thefe really are the most elevated fublimities, and the abftrufeft fubtilties that are, or can be, in the nature of things: he that can penetrate them, may erect his tribunal any where in the world, and pretend juftly that nothing in heaven or earth is exempted from his judgment. But in truth, how unfit our reason is to exercife fuch univerfal jurifdiction, we may difcern by comparing it to our fenfe; it is obvious that many beafts do (by advantage of a finer fenfe) fee, hear, fmell things imperceptible to us and were it not very unreasonable to conclude that fuch things do Nobis ad intellectum pectus anguftum eft, &c. Min. Felix. • Τὸν μὲν ἐν ποιητὴν, καὶ πατέρα τέδε τῷ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον, καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας αδύνατον λέγειν. Plato in Tim. not XXI. not exist, or are in themfelves altogether infenfible, S ER M. because they do not at all appear to us? Is it not evident, that we ought to impute their imperceptibility (refpecting us) to the defect of our fenfe, to its dulnefs and groffnefs, in regard to the fubtilty of thofe objects? Even fo may propofitions in themfelves, and in regard to the capacity of higher understandings (for there are gradual differences in understanding, as well as in fenfe) be true and very intelligible, which to our inferior reafon feem unintelligible, or repugnant to the prenotions with which our foul is imbued; and our not difcerning those truths, may argue the blindness and weakness of our understanding, not any fault or inconfiftency in the things themselves; nor fhould it caufe us any wife to distrust them, if they come recommended to our belief by competent authority. To fuch purposes indeed the holy Scripture frequently doth vilify our reafon and knowledge: Every Jer. x. 14. man, faith Jeremiah, is brutish in knowledge. The Pfal. ciii. Lord, faith the Pfalmift, knoweth the thoughts of men, 14 Cor. iii. (of wife men, as St. Paul quoteth it,) that they are va- 20. nity. Vain man, faith he in Job, would be wife, though Job xi. 12. man be born like a wild afs's colt; that is, however we affect to seem wife, yet to be dull as an afs, to be wild as a colt, is natural to us. My thoughts (saith Ifa.lv. 8, 9. God in the Prophet) are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways: for as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. God's wifdom is as the heavens, the higheft and top of all wisdom; man's as the earth, beneath which there is no degree, but that of hell and darkness: we therefore in this respect are unfit to determine concerning things fo exceedingly fublime and fubtile. 2. We may confider, that not only the imperfection of our reafon itself, but the manner of ufing it, doth incapacitate us to judge about these matters. Had we competent skill to fail in this deep ocean, yet |