voices from amongst us, inventions of men, to express, and to make us understand the Trinity, in pictures, and in comparisons: all which (to contract this point) are apt to fall into that abuse, which we will only note in one; at first, they used ordinarily to express the Trinity in four letters, which had no ill-purpose in it at first, but was a religious ease for their memories, in Catechisms : the letters were II, and Y, and A, and II; the II was Пarǹp, and the T was Tiòs, and the two last belonged to the last Person, for A was Aytov, and II was IIveûμa, and so there was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as if we should express it in F, and S, and H, and G. But this came quickly thus far into abuse, as that they thought, there could belong but three letters, in that picture, to the three Persons; and therefore allowing so many to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they took the last letter P, for Petrus, and so made Peter head of the church, and equal to the Trinity. So that for our knowledge, in this mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, let us evermore rest, in voce de cœlis, in that voice which came from heaven.

But yet it is vox dicens, a voice saying, speaking, a voice that man is capable of, and may be benefited by. It is not such a voice as that was, (which came from heaven too) when Christ prayed to God to glorify his name, that the people should say, some, That it was a thunder, some That it was an angel that spake". They are the sons of thunder, and they are the ministerial angels of the church, from whom we must hear this voice of heaven nothing can speak, but man: no voice is understood by man, but the voice of man; it is not vox dicens, that voice says nothing to me, that speaks not; and therefore howsoever the voice in the text were miraculously formed by God, to give this glory, and dignity to this first manifestation of the Trinity in the Person of Christ, yet because he hath left it for a permanent doctrine necessary to salvation, he hath left ordinary means for the conveying of it; that is, the same voice from heaven, the same word of God, but speaking in the ministry of man. And therefore for our measure of this knowledge, (which is our third and last part) we are to see, how Christian men, whose office it

14 John xii. 28.

hath been to interpret Scriptures, that is, how the Catholic church hath understood these words, Hic est Filius, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

But

How we are to receive the knowledge of the Trinity, Athanasius hath expressed as far as we can go; Whosoever will be saved, he must believe it; but the manner of it is not exposed so far as to his belief. That question of the prophet, Quis enarrabit? Who shall declare this? carries the answer with it, Nemo enarrabit, No man shall declare it. But a manifestation of the Being of the Trinity, they have always apprehended in these words, Hic est Filius, This is my beloved Son. To that purpose therefore, we take, first, the words to be expressed by this evangelist St. Matthew, as the voice delivered them, rather than as they are expressed by St. Mark, and St. Luke; both which have it thus, Tu es, Thou art my beloved Son, and not Hic est, This is; they two being only careful of the sense, and not of the words, as it falls out often amongst the evangelists, who differ oftentimes in recording the words of Christ, and of other persons. where the same voice spake the same words again, in the transfiguration, there all the evangelists express it so, Hic est, This is, and not Tu es, Thou art my beloved Son; and so it is, where St. Peter makes use by application of that history, it is Hic est, and not Tu es15. So that this Hic est, This man, designs him who hath that mark upon him, that the Holy Ghost was descended upon him, and tarried upon him; for so far went the sign of distinction given to John, the Holy Ghost was to descend and tarry; Manet, says St. Hierome, The Holy Ghost tarries upon him, because he never departs from him, Sed operatur quando Christus cult, et quomodo vult, The Holy Ghost works in Christ, when Christ will, and as Christ will; and so the Holy Ghost tarried not upon any of the prophets; they spoke what he would, but he wrought not when they would. St. Gregory objects to himself, that there was a perpetual residence of the Holy Ghost upon the faithful, out of those words of Christ, The Comforter shall abide with you for ever; but as St. Gregory answers himself, This is not a plenary abiding, and Secundum omnia dona, In a full operation, according to all his gifts, as he tarried upon Christ: neither

15

15 2 Pet. i. 17.

indeed is that promise of Christ's to particular persons, but to the whole body of the church.

Now this residence of the Holy Ghost upon Christ, was his unction; properly it was that, by which he was the Messiah, that he was anointed above his fellows; and therefore St. Hierome makes account, that Christ received his unction, and so his office of Messiah, at this baptism, and this descending of the Holy Ghost upon him: and he thinks it therefore, because presently after baptism, he went to preach in the synagogue, and he took for his text those words of the prophet Esay, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, that I should preach the Gospel to the poor. And when he had read the text, he began his sermon thus, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. But we may be bold to say, that this is mistaken by St. Hierome; for the unction of Christ by the Holy Ghost, by which he was anointed, and sealed into the office of Messiah, was in the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost in his conception, in his assuming our nature: this descending now at his baptism, and this residence, were only to declare, that there was a Holy Ghost, and that Holy Ghost dwelt upon this person.

It is Hic, This Person; and it is Hic est, This is my Son; it is not only Fuit, He was my Son, when he was in my bosom, nor only Erit, He shall be so, when he shall return to my right hand again; God does not only take knowledge of him in glory; but est, he is so now; now in the exinanition of his Person, now in the evacuation of his glory, now that he is preparing himself to suffer scorn, and scourges, and thorns, and nails, in the ignominious death of the cross, now he is the Son of the glorious God; Christ is not the less the Son of God for this eclipse.

Hic est, This is he, who for all this lowness is still as high as ever he was, and that height is, est Filius, he is the Son. He is not servus, the servant of God; or not that only, for he is that also. Behold my servant, (says God of him, in the prophet) I

will stay upon him, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles". But Christ is this Servant, and a Son too: and not a

16 Isaiah Lxi. 1.

17 Isaiah XLii. 1.

Son only; for so we observe divers filiations in the school; Filiationem vestigii, that by which all creatures, even in their very being, are the sons of God, as Job calls God, Pluvia Patrem, The Father of the rain; and so there are other filiations, other ways of being the sons of God. But hic est, this Person is, as the force of the article expresses it, and presses it, ille Filius, the Son, that Son, which no son else is, neither can any else declare how he is that which he is.

This Person then is still the Son, and Meus Filius, says God, My Son. He is the Son of Abraham, and so within the covenant; as well provided by that inheritance, as the son of man can be naturally. He is the Son of a Virgin, conceived without generation, and therefore ordained for some great use. He is the Son of David, and therefore royally descended; but his dignity is in the Filius meus, that God avows him to be his Son; for, Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son1? But to Christ he says in the prophet, I have called thee by thy name: and what is his name? Meus es tu, Thou art mine. Quem a me non separat Deitas, says Leo, non dividit potestas, non discernit æternitas: Mine so, as that mine infiniteness gives me no room nor space beyond him, he reaches as far as I, though I be infinite; My Almightiness gives me no power above him, he hath as much power as I, though I have all; my eternity gives me no being before him, though I were before all in mine omnipotence, in mine omnipresence, in mine omniscience, he is equal partner with me, and hath all that is mine, or that is myself, and so he is mine.

My Son, and My beloved Son; but so we are all, who are his sons, Delicia ejus, says Solomon", His delight, and his contentment is to be with the sons of men. But here the article is extraordinarily repeated again, Ille dilectus, That beloved Son, by whom, those, who were neither beloved, nor sons, became the beloved sons of God; for, there is so much more added, in the last phrase, In quo complacui, In whom I am well pleased.

Now, these words are diversly read. St. Augustine says, some copies that he had seen, read them thus, Ego hodie genui te, This

is my beloved Son, this day have I begotten him: and with such copies, it seems, both Justin Martyr, and Irenæus met, for they read these words so, and interpret them accordingly: but these words are misplaced, and mistransferred out of the second Psalm, where they are. And as they change the words, and instead of In quo complacui, In whom I am well pleased, read, This day have I begotten thee; St. Cyprian adds other words, to the end of these, which are, Hunc audite, Hear him: which words, when these words were repeated at the transfiguration, were spoken, but here, at the baptism, they were not, what copy soever misled St. Cyprian, or whether it were the failing of his own memory. But St. Chrysostom gives an express reason, why those words were spoken at the transfiguration, and not here: because, says he, Here was only a purpose of a manifestation of the Trinity, so far, as to declare their Persons, who they were, and no more at the transfiguration, where Moses and Elias appeared with Christ, there God had a purpose to prefer the Gospel above the law, and the prophets, and therefore in that place he adds that, Hunc audite, Hear him, who first fulfils all the law, and the prophets, and then preaches the Gospel. He was so well pleased in him, as that he was content to give all them, that received him, power to become the sons of God, too; as the apostle says, By his grace, he hath made us accepted in his beloved 2o.

Beloved, that you may be so, come up from your baptism, as it is said that Christ did; rise, and ascend to that growth, which your baptism prepared you to: and the heavens shall open, as then, even cataractæ cæli, all the windows of heaven shall open, and rain down blessings of all kinds, in abundance; and the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you, as a dove, in his peaceful coming, in your simple, and sincere receiving him; and he shall rest upon you, to effect and accomplish his purposes in you. If he rebuke you, (as Christ when he promises the Holy Ghost, though he call him a Comforter, says, That he shall rebuke the world of divers things) yet he shall dwell upon you as a dove, Quæ si mordet, osculando mordet, says St. Augustine: If the dove bite, it bites with kissing, if the Holy Ghost rebuke, he rebukes with 20 Eph. i. 6.

21 John xvi. 7.