The Jews, in the time of our Saviour's converse on the earth, being fallen greatly from the fixith and worship of their forefathers, and ready to sink into their last and utmost apostasy from God, seem, amongst many other truths, to have much lost that of the doctrine of the holy Trinity, and of the person of the Messiah. It was, indeed, suited, in the dispensation of God, unto the work that the Lord Jesus had to fulfil in the world, that, before his passion and resui'rection, the knowledge of his divine nature, as unto his individual person, should be con- cealed from the most of men. For this cause, although he was " in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation, by taking on him the form of a servant, and being made in the like- ness of men, that being found in the fashion of a man, he might be obedient unto death," Phil. ii. G-8 ; whereby his divine glory was vailed for a season, until he was " declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resun*ection from the dead," Rom. i. 4; and then " was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was," John xvii. 6. And as this dispensation was needful unto the accomplishment of the whole work which, as our mechator, he had undertaken, so, in particular, he who was in himself the Lord of hosts, a sanctuary to them that feared him, became hereby " a stone of stumbling and a rock of ofience to both the houses of Isi'ael, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem," Isa. viii. 13, 14. See Luke ii. 34 ; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8; Isa. xxviii. 16. But yet, notwithstanding, as occasions re- quired, suitably unto his own holy ends and designs, he forbare not to give plain and open testimony to his own divine nature and eternal pre-existence unto his incarnation. And this was it which, of all other things, most provoked the carnal Jews with whom he had to do ; for having, as was said, lost the doctrine of the Trinity and person of the Messiah, in a great measure, whenever he asserted his Deity, they were immediately enraged, and endeavoured to destroy him. So was it, plainly, John viii. 5G-59. Saith he, " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him. Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say imto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him." So, also, John x. 30-33, " 1 and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus ans\^'ered them, Many good
i)74! THE PREFACE.
works have I showed you fi-om my Father ; for which of thosa works Jo ye stona me ? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not ; hut for hlasphcmy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." They understood well enough the meaning of those words, " I and my Father are one," — namely, that they were a plain assertion of his being God. This caused their rage. And this the Jews all abide by to this day, — namely, that he declared him- self to be God, and therefore they slew lam. Whereas, therefore, the first discovery of a plurality of persons in the divine essence consists in the revelation of the divine nature and personality of the Son, this being opposed, persecuted, and blasphemed by these Jews, they may be justly looked upon and esteemed as the^rs^ assertors of that misbelwf which now some seek again so earnestly to promote. The Jews persecuted the Lord Christ, because he, being a man, declared himself also to be God ; and others are ready to revile and reproach them who belie\e and teach what he declared.
After the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, all things being filled with tokens, evidences, and effects of his divine nature and power (Rom. i. 4), the church that began to be gathered in his name, and according to his doctrine, being, by his especial institution, to be initiated into the express j^rofession of the doc- trine of the holy Trinity, as being to be baptized hi the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, — which confession compriseth the whole of the truth contended for, and by the indispensable placing of it at the first entrance into all obedience unto him, is made the doctrinal foundation of the church, — it continued for a season in the quiet and vindisturbed possession of this sacred treasure.
The first who gave disquietment unto the disciples of Christ, by perverting the doctrine of the Trinity, was Simon Magus, with his followers ; — an account of whose monstrous figments and unintelligible imaginations, with their coincidence ^\'ith what some men dream in these latter days, shall elsewhere be given. Nor shall I need here to mention the colluvies of Gnostics, Valentinians, Marcionites, and INIanichees; the foundation of all whose abominations lay in their misappre- hensions of the being of God, their unbelief of the Trinity and person of Christ, as do those of some others also.