For if they be not God, they are creatures; if they be creatures, reason as well as Scripture forbids the same honour and worship to be conferred on them, which is given to God Himself, and only due to Him; which here, notwithstanding, we see is given to them, and that by our Lord Himself, commanding Baptism to be administered in His Own Name and in the Name of the Holy Ghost, as well as in the Name of the Father, and so making Himself and the Spirit equal sharers in the same honour that is given to the Father. So that, was there no other place in the whole Scripture to prove it, this alone would be sufficient to convince any gainsayer, that the Son and Spirit are God, as well as the Father, or rather the same God with Him. But that I may unveil this mystery, and confirm this truth more clearly, we will consider each person distinctly, and shew that one as well as the other is really and truly God. (1.) That the Father is God, none ever denied it, and therefore we need not prove it. But, if the Father be God, the Son must needs be God too; for the same names, properties, works, and worship, which in Scripture are ascribed to the Father, are frequently ascribed to the Son also in Scripture; the Father is called Jehovah in Scripture, so is the Son, Hos. i. 7; Jer. xxiii. 6: the Father is called God, so is the Son; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word John 1. 1. was with God, and the Word was God;" with God, as to His person; God, as to His nature. So also, John xx. 28; Acts xx. 28, &c. Moreover, is the Father Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last? So is the Son, Rev. i. 8. Is the Father eternal? So is the Son, Isa. ix. 6; Rev. i. 8. Is the Father Almighty? So is the Son, Heb. i. 3. Is the Father every where? So is the Son, Matt. xviii. 20. Doth the Father know all things? So doth the Son, John xxi. 17; chap. ii. 24. Did the Father make all things? So did the Son, John i. 3. Doth the Father preserve all things? So doth the Son, Heb. i. 3. Doth the Father forgive sins? So doth the Son, Matt. ix. 6. So is the Son, Heb. i. 6. is the Son, John v. 23. being thus in the " form of God, thought it no robbery to be Phil. 2. 6. equal with God." He did not rob God of any glory, by Is the Father to be worshipped? saying Himself was equal to Him. The greatest wonder is, how any one can believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God, and yet deny this great truth, than which nothing can be more plain from Scripture; nothing being more frequently and more clearly asserted than this is. And verily it is well for us that it is so; for if Christ was not God, neither could He be our Saviour; none being able to free us from our sins, but only He against Whom they were committed. And therefore I cannot imagine how any one can doubt of Christ's divinity, and yet expect pardon and Salvation from Him: all our hopes and expectations from Him depending only upon His assumption of our human nature into a Divine Person. (2.) And that the Holy Ghost also is God, is frequently asserted in the Holy Scriptures, which Himself indited. Indeed this very inditing of the Scriptures was a clear argument of His Deity, as well as the Scriptures indited by Him. What man, what Angel, what creature, who but God, could compose such articles of faith, enjoin such Divine precepts, foretell and fulfil such prophecies as in Scripture are contained? Who spake unto or by the Prophets? Whom did they mean when they said, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts?" Who was this Lord of Hosts that instructed them what to speak or write? Was it "God the Father," or "God the 2 Pet. 1. 21; Son?" No, but it was "God the Holy Ghost:" "For the Acts 28. 25; prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost, therefore, being the Lord of Hosts, He must needs be God; there being no person that is or can be called the Lord of Hosts, but He that is the Very and Eternal God. 21. 11. 1 Cor. 6. 19. "Know This also may be gathered from 1 Cor. iii. 16. ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" for none can be the Temple of God, but he in whom God dwells; for it is God's dwelling in a place that makes that place the Temple of God; and yet we are here said to be the Temple of God, because the Spirit dwelleth in us. And so elsewhere, "Know ye not," saith the Apostle," that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you?" which could not be unless the Holy Ghost was God. Another express Scripture we have for it in Acts v. 3, 4, where St. Peter propounds this question to Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" and then tells him in the next verse, "Thou hast not lied to men, but to God," and so expressly asserts the Holy Ghost to be God. Moreover, that the Holy Ghost is truly God, co-equal to the Father and Son, it is plain in that the Scriptures assert Him to be, to have, and do whatsoever the Father or Son is, hath, or doeth, as God. For, is the Father and Son eternal? So is the Spirit, Heb. ix. 14. Is God the Father and the Son every where? So is the Spirit, Ps. cxxxix. 7. Is God the Father, and the Son, a wise, understanding, powerful, and knowing God? So is the Spirit, Isa. xi. 2. Are we baptized in the Name of the Father and the Son? So are we baptized in the Name of the Holy Ghost. May we sin against the Father and the Son? So may we sin, too, against the Holy Ghost. Nay, the sin against this Person only is accounted by our Saviour to be a sin never to be pardoned, Matt. xii. 31, 32. We may sin against God the Father, and our sin may be pardoned; we may sin against God the Son, and our sin may be pardoned; but if we sin or speak against the Holy Ghost, "that shall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come." But, if the Holy Ghost be not God, how can we sin against Him; or how comes our sin against Him only to be unpardonable, unless He be God? I know it is not therefore unpardonable, because He is God, for then the sins against the Father and the Son would be unpardonable too, seeing They both are God as well as He; yet though this sin is not therefore unpardonable, because He is God, yet it could not be unpardonable, unless He was God. For, supposing Him not to be God, but a creature, and yet the sin against Him to be unpardonable, then the sin against a creature would be unpardonable, when sins against God Himself are pardoned which to say, would itself, I think, come near to the sin against the Holy Ghost. But seeing our Saviour describes this unpardonable sin, by blaspheming or speaking against the Holy Ghost, let them have a care that they be not found guilty of it, who dare deny the Holy Ghost to be really and truly God, and so blaspheme and speak the worst that they can against Him. 3. We have seen what ground we have to believe that there are Three Persons in the Godhead, and that every one of these Three Persons is God; we are now to consider the order of those Persons in the Trinity, described in the words before us :-First the Father, and then the Son, and then the Holy Ghost: every one of which is really and truly God: and yet they are but one real and true God. A mystery which we are all bound to believe, but yet must have a great care how we speak of it, it being both easy and dangerous to mistake in expressing so mysterious a truth as this is. If we think of it, how hard is it to contemplate upon One numerically Divine nature, in more than One and the same Divine Person; or upon Three Divine Persons in no more than One and the same Divine nature! If we speak of it, how hard is it to find out fit words to express it! If I say the 'Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' be Three, and every One distinctly God, it is true; but if I say, They be Three, and every One a distinct God, it is false. I may say, the Divine Persons are distinct in the Divine nature; but I cannot say, that the Divine nature is divided into the Divine Persons. I may say, God the Father is One God, and the Son is One God, and the Holy Ghost is One God; but I cannot say, that the Father is One God, and the Son another God, and the Holy Ghost a Third God. I may say, the Father begat another Who is God; yet I cannot say, that He begat another God. And from the Father and the Son proceedeth another, Who is God; yet I cannot say, from the Father and the Son proceedeth another God. For all this while, though their Persons be distinct, yet still their nature is the same. So that though the Father be the first Person in the Godhead, the Son the second, the Holy Ghost the third; yet the Father is not the first, the Son the second, the Holy Ghost a third God: so hard a thing is it to word so great a mystery aright, or to fit so high a truth with expressions suitable and proper to it, without going one way or another from it. And therefore I shall not use many words about it, lest some should slip from me unbecoming of it; but, in as few terms as I can, I will endeavour to shew upon what account the Father is the first, the Son the second, and the Holy Ghost the third Person in the Trinity. (1.) First, Therefore, the Father is placed first, and really is the first Person, not as if He was before the other Two, for They are all co-eternal; but because the other Two received Their essence from Him; for the Son was begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceedeth both from the Father and the Son; and therefore the Father is termed by the Primitive Christians, ‘Ρίζα καὶ Πηγὴ Θεότητος, • the Root and the Fountain of Deity.' As in waters there is the fountain or well-head, then there is a spring that boils up out of that fountain, and then there is the stream that flows both from the fountain and the spring, and yet all these are but one and the same water; so here God the Father is the Fountain of Deity; the Son, as the spring that boils up out of the fountain; and the Holy Ghost, that flows from both; and yet all Three are but One and the same God. The same may also be explained by another familiar instance: the sun, you know, begets beams, and from the sun and beams together proceed both light and heat; so God the Father begets the Son, and from the Father and Son together proceeds the Spirit of knowledge and grace: but as the sun is not before the beams, nor the beams before the light and heat, but all are together: so neither is the Father before the Son, nor Father or Son before the Holy Ghost, but only in order and relation to one another; in which only respect the Father is the first Person in the Trinity. (2.) Secondly, The Son is the second Person, Who is called the Son, yea, and the Only-begotten Son of God,' because He was begotten of the Father, not as others are by spiritual regeneration, but by eternal generation, as none but Himself is for the opening whereof, we must know, that God that made all things fruitful, is not Himself sterile or barren; but He that hath given power to animals to generate and produce others in their own nature, is Himself much more able to produce one, not only like Himself, but of the self-same nature with Himself, as He did in begetting |
