infinite truth, is no less perfect than he; and his love, which, proceeding from the inexhaustible source of good, hath all the fullness of it, cannot fail of having an infinite perfection: and since we have no other idea of God than that of perfection, each of these subsistences considered in itself deserves to be called God: but because these three agree necessarily to one and the same nature, these three are but one God. We must not then conceive any thing unequal, or separate in this adorable Trinity: and however incomprehensible the equality may be, our soul, if we listen to it, will tell us something of it. It is, and as it knows perfectly what it is, its understanding is correspondent to the truth of its being; and as it loves its being, together with its understanding, as much as they deserve to be loved, its love equals the perfection of both. These three are never to be separated, and contain one another: we understand that we are, and that we love; and we love to be, and to understand. Who can deny this if he understands himself? And not only one is no better than another, but the three together are no better than any one of them in particular, seeing each contains the whole, and in the three consists the happiness and dignity of the rational nature. Thus, and in an infinitely higher degree is the Trinity, whom we wor ship, and to whom we are consecrated by our baptism, perfect, inseparable, one in essence, and in short, equal in every seuse. But we ourselves, who are the image of the Trinity, in another respect are also the image of the incarnation. Our soul, of a spiritual and incorruptible nature, has a corruptible body united to it; and from the union of both results a whole, which is man, a mind and body together, at the same time incorruptible and corruptible, at once intelligent, and merely brutish. These attributes agree to the whole, with relation to each of its two parts: thus, the divine Word, whose virtue sustains the whole, is united in a peculiar manner, or rather becomes itself, by a perfect union, that Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, which makes one to be God and man together begotten in eternity, and begotten in time; ever living in the bosom of the Father, and dying upon the cross for our salvation. But wherever God is concerned, comparisons drawn from human things cannot but be imperfect. Our soul is not before our body, and something is wanting to that, when separated from this. The Word, perfect in itself from all eternity, unites itself to our nature, only to honour it. That soul which presides over the body, and makes various changes in it, suffers itself some from it in its turn. If the body is moved at the command, and according to the will of the soul, the soul is troubled, the soul is afflicted, and agitated a thousand ways, either painful or pleasing, according to the disposition of the body; so that as the soul exalts the body to itself by governing it, it is also debased beneath itself by the things it suffers from it; but in Jesus Christ the Word presides over all, the Word keeps all under its management. Thus man is exalted, and the Word is not debased by any occurrence; immoveable and unalterable, it rules in all things, and in all places that nature which is united to it. Hence it comes, that in Jesus Christ man is absolutely subject to the inward direction of the Word, which exalts him to itself, has none but divine thoughts, none but divine affections. All he thinks, all he wills, all he says, all he conceals within, all he discovers without, is animated by the Word, guided by the Word, worthy of the Word, that is, worthy of reason itself, of wisdom itself, and of truth itself. Therefore all is light in Christ Jesus; his conduct is a rule; his miracles are instructions; his words are spirit, and life. It is not given to all rightly to understand these sublime truths, nor perfectly to see in themselves that marvellous image of divine things which St. Augustine and the other fathers have believed so certain. The senses govern us too much, and our imagination, which will intrude itself in all our thoughts, does not permit us always to dwell upon so pure a light. We do not know ourselves; we are ignorant of the riches we bear in our nature, and no eyes, but the most pure, can per ceive them. But the little we do enter into this secret, and discern in ourselves the image of the two mysteries, which are the foundation of our faith, is sufficient to raise us above all earthly things, so that no mortal object can turn us from it. And therefore does Jesus Christ call us to an immortal glory, which is the fruit of the faith we have in the mysteries. That God-man, that incarnate truth and wisdom, which makes us believe so great things upon his sole authority, promises us the clear and beatific vision of them in eternity, as the certain reward of our faith. In this way, is the mission of Jesus Christ infinitely exalted above that of Moses. B. Bossuet's Universal History, Part II. pp. 197-208. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. NUMBER I. page. I. Introduction to the whole work, in which is set forth the divine strength 9 12 13 V. The Unitarian principle, that the Scriptures must have every where an intelligible meaning is, when understood, in the Unitarian sense, false, irrational, and absurd,.............................. 14 17 VI. God has a right to reveal to men impenetrable mysteries, and to exact from them an implicit belief in the same,......... VII. If God cannot reveal mysteries to men, then God cannot communicate himself at all to them; and if man cannot reasonably believe what is above the sphere of his reason, he can believe nothing,..... 20 VIII. The assertion, that the mysteries of Religion involve contradiction, is itself a contradiction in the very terms,...... IX. What is above reason is not always against reason,................................. X. It is most worthy of God's infinite wisdom and goodness to reveal mysteries to men,............. 29 38 NUMBER II. On Original Sin. XI. Division of the whole subject, and brief historical sketch of those an- 49 vine revelation, 51 XIII. Man has no natural or sufficient aptness to know God as far as it is sufficient for him to know him, 56 58 XIV. Man is not such as he ought to be,........................ XV. Man is not such as he was created by his God,......... XVI. Two most intimate and opposite natural tendencies in the heart of man, demonstrate that man is not such as he was created by his Maker,........... 59 59 XVII. The conclusion is, that the nature of man is vitiated and corrupted, 63 No. VII. 38 XVIII. First objection against the above truth,... XIX. Another objection, ................... XX, Another moral proof that man is not such as he ought to be; he is not such as he was created by God,................................. XXI. Vanity and want of reflection connatural to man,.. XXII. Conclusion from the above,.......... XXIII. Man is out of his true and natural state,........ XXIV. Continuation of the same reflection,....... 69 71 77 79 82 83 XXV. The conclusion is, that man is out of his true and natural state,.... NUMBER III.! 84 89 92 XXVII. What has brought this great evil on mankind,....... XXVIII. General objection against the above dissertation, derived from the possibility of the state of pure nature,............................... XXIX. Original Sin irrefragably demonstrated from revelation and the Sacred Volumes of both the old and new dispensation,................ 94 XXX. Original Sin evinced from the authority and uniform consent of the holy Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers of the primitive ages of the Church, .... ... 99 XXXI. The same proved by the authority of the Councils of the four first ages of the Church,.................................... XXXII. The same proved by the universality of the death of Christ for all men, ......... 102 XXXIII. The same invincibly demonstrated, 1st, from the nature of baptism; 2dly, from the necessity of baptism; 3dly, from the ceremonies of baptism,..... ....... 103 XXXIV. Unitarian objections answered, and the strange process of the Unitarians in opposing their pretended superior reason to the overwhelming weight of the past ages and all christendom proved to be illegal, unphilosophical, such, in fine, as would be hooted out of any court of human judicature,.... XXXV. The christian cause against the Unitarians, proved to be supported by the most authentic and indisputable titles, the Scriptures; the true and genuine meaning of these titles attested by the most unexceptionable witnesses, the primitive Fathers of the Church; by the decisions of the most respectable tribunals; the venerable Ecomenic Councils: and, in fine, by a peaceful and undisturbed prescription of eighteen hundred years, which prescription is evinced by the uniform and constant belief and practice of the whole Christian world; from which christians logically conclude, that the meaning in which the Christian world has hitherto taken the Scriptures, is the only true, the only divine meaning, the only meaning intended by the Holy Ghost-and, that of course the Unitarian novelties are both anti-philosophical, and anti-scriptural, ... 108 |