PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 1. It seems necessary, here, to acquaint the reader that, as Dr. Priestley had asserted the doctrine of the trinity to be irrational, and that of our Lord's divinity to have no foundation either in the Old Testament or the New; Mr. Fletcher, in opposition to these assertions, had intended this work to consist of three parts; the first containing a Rational Defence of the Catholic Faith, respecting the trinity and the divinity of our Lord; and the two last, a Vindication of the Prophets and Apostles, "from the antichristian service, (as Mr. Fletcher's phrase is,) to which the doctor had pressed them." But being unexpectedly called to his reward, he left them all in a very imperfect state. Even of this first part (which indeed seems to have been begun after the others) he had only written the introduction, the first letter, and four chapters; and of these the third and fourth seem not to have been quite finished. 2. I was in doubt, for some time, whether it would not be best just to correct the manuscripts and give them to the public in their unfinished state; especially as I could not learn, either from any hints left in writing, or from any thing he had said to Mrs. Fletcher or any one else, what plan Mr. Fletcher intended to have pursued in the farther prosecution of the subject. But after more maturely considering the matter, it appeared that this would by no means answer the end the pious author had in view in beginning this work, as he did not seem to have proceeded far enough to have formed what could be called a proper vindication of the doctrine of Christ's divinity. It was judged necessary therefore to carry the argument at least a little farther, in order that the work might, in some tolerable degree, be complete. In doing this, as I could form no judgment concerning Mr. Fletcher's intentions, I have been under the necessity of pursuing that plan which. seemed most likely to answer the end proposed; endeavouring, however, to preserve such a connection between the part I have added and that which Mr. Fletcher had written, that the whole might appear one continued treatise, and not a kind of patchwork. 3. As to the style, indeed, the reader will doubtless observe a material difference between that which is Mr. Fletcher's and what I have composed; and will regret that (with respect to this first part) he must take leave of so entertaining as well as instructive a writer as the ingenious author of the Checks, so early as at the conclusion of the fourth chapter, and join company with one much less able to mix the agreeable with the useful, and render a needful and profitable subject also pleasing. Truth, however, is of more consequence than the garb in which it appears; and in what I have written I have attended chiefly to that; and, therefore, have endeavoured, in imitation of the very pious and truly reverend author of these unfinished papers, to keep close to the Scriptures as my guide, and that both with respect to sentiment and expression. It seems to me to be a dangerous thing, especially in a subject of such importance, concerning which we can know nothing but by Divine revelation, to depart from the Bible, or to go a hair's breadth farther than God hath therein plainly revealed, or than we can fairly infer from what he hath so revealed. I am fully persuaded that most of the errors and controversies which have darkened, perplexed, and divided the Church in all ages, respecting this matter, have arisen from a desire to be wise above what is written, not being contented with the information God hath seen fit to give us in his holy word, the sole rule of faith as well as practice. 4. It is undoubtedly a most desirable thing to know as much as we can concerning the person of our adorable Saviour, on whom all our hopes depend: but after all we can know, his person is and will remain a mystery. Of this the Scriptures fail not to give us warning. "Wherefore inquirest thou after my name? (says he, Judges xiii, 18,) seeing it is secret," or wonderful as the word also means. "His name," says Isaiah, ch. ix, 6, "shall be called No wonderful, or secret." “He hath a name written which no one knoweth but himself," saith St. John. "No one knoweth the Son," says the Lord Jesus, "but the Father, even as no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." It is true, he has revealed himself in some degree by his apostles and prophets, and reveals himself still more, or rather gives us the true understanding of what he has revealed, by the inward illumination of his Spirit. But this respects his offices rather than his person: what he is to us and the rest of the creatures rather than what he is in himself. And to know this, viz. what he is to us, as it most concerns us, so it is the principal thing meant in Scripture by the knowledge of Christ." 5. And I may say the same concerning the knowledge of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. It does not consist in having abstracted and speculative ideas of the nature and attributes of God and the distinctions in the Divine essence; but is the beholding, (as St. Paul says, 2 Cor. iii, 18,) with open, avaxexaλuuμeve, with unvailed face, (the vail of unbelief being rent from our minds,) in the glass of his word and works, and especially in the person of his Son, "his glory," so as to be "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" Surely he only knows the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus,” who being made his child by adoption and grace, and having the "Spirit of adoption sent into his heart, crying, Abba, Father," so "beholds what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon him," as to "love God who hath first loved him." For "he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love;" whereas "he that loveth," and only he, is "born of God," and "knoweth God." He only knows the Lord Jesus who knows him as "the way, the truth, and the life;" as the way, through whom he "comes to the Father;" as the truth, whose testimony he fully receives, and on whose veracity he absolutely depends; and the life, who has quickened his soul, dead in sin, and by his grace made him a "living branch" in himself the "living vine," a living member in his mystical body, vitally united to the living head. And he only knows the Holy Spirit, who being born of him and possessed of his witness and his fruits, even "love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance," is become a "temple of the Holy Ghost, a habitation of God through the Spirit." 6. On the other hand, if this be wanting, whatever speculative knowledge we may have of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and of their natures and relations to each other, we are properly unacquainted with the Christian doctrine of the trinity, and have not received that real benefit from it which the revelation of it was designed to produce. Nay, and for any spiritual or saving advantage we derive from it, it might as well not have been revealed to us. Thus Dr. Jer. Taylor, "He that goes about to speak of the mystery of the trinity, and does it by words and names of man's invention, talking of essences and existences, hypostases and personalities, priorities in co-equalities, &c, and unity in pluralities; may amuse himself and build a tabernacle in his head, and talk something he knows not what; but the good man that feels the power of the Father, and to whom the Son is become “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," and in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is shed abroad,-this man, though he understands nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he alone truly understands the Christian doctrine of the trinity." (Jer. Taylor on John vii, 17.) 7. The apostle teaches us the true knowledge and use of this doctrine, and at the same time informs us who they are that understand it aright, when, Eph. ii, 18, he says, "Through him," viz. Christ, the only Mediator between God and 66 man, we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit unto the Father." But when this is not our experience; when we do not approach or have not access to the Father, through him and by the Spirit; when we are strangers to the influence of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, and of consequence are devoid both of true repentance and saving faith, which are both of the operation of God; see Col. ii, 12, 13;-when, though we have "free liberty to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, in that new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail," that is to say, "his flesh," and have "a great High Priest over the house of God;" yet we do not use our liberty, and "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience," as well as our bodies washed with pure water;" when we do not believe in Christ, with our heart unto righteousness," so as to be 'justified by faith in Christ," find "peace with God," and obtain "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us," —then is the whole doctrine of Christ concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost hid from us, or abused by us. 8. There is indeed one mystical body of Christ, but we do not belong to it, are not members of it; one Spirit, but we have not received him, he does not dwell in us, does not quicken and renew our souls; there is one Lord, but we are not subject to him, he does not reign in and over us, and therefore he is not our Lord; one faith in that one Lord, even a "faith working by love, purifying the heart, and overcoming the world," but we have it not; one baptism, but we are not baptized with it, or if we have had the sign, have not had the "thing signified thereby," even a "death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness;" there is one God and Father of all, who in and through that one Lord, and by that one Spirit," is above all, and through all, and in all" real believers; but he is not our Father, nor are we his children, nor do we worship him "in spirit and in truth." 9. This I apprehend is that ignorance or denial of the blessed trinity, which is most to be dreaded, because most destructive. It leaves the soul in its fallen and disordered state, immersed in sin, and exposed to wrath; an " alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger to the covenant of promise, having no [lively, well grounded] hope, without Christ and without God in the world:" it leaves it devoid of the true 66 grace of Christ," the real "love of God," and ennobling and comforting "communion of the Holy Ghost." Such, not having received the Spirit of Christ, are none of his ;" and not belonging to Christ, not "having the Son, they have not the Father," and not having the Father, have neither" the true God nor eternal life." "He that hath the Son," indeed, "hath life," but he that hath not the Spirit, as we have just seen, hath not the Son, and therefore "hath not life," but abideth in death spiritual, and is in the high road to death eternal. Nor will his pretended regard to the Father save him for "he that honoureth not the Son," especially in his mediatorial character and in the offices he sustains for a lost world; he that believeth not on him with a living faith, as "made of God unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, honoureth not the Father," who hath appointed him to execute those offices and bear those characters for our salvation. : 10. I said with a living faith, for it is not a cold, languid, lifeless |