was pierced upon the cross, and redeemed us by his blood; yet that blood was the blood of God.P and upon his cross Jehovah was pier· ced.q That the objections urged against all these positive proofs, proceed wholly upon false principles; being drawn, partly, from natural religion and philosophy, which never was nor ever will be subject to the law of God; and is not intended so to be by those who set it up and dispute for it. Partly from the economical offices and humiliation of Christ in the flesh;r in which it is nevertheless affirmed, that God himself was made manifest.s And lastly, from the unityt of God so often asserted and insisted upon in the scripture; not in opposition to the godhead of Christ, but to the idolsu then worshipped all over the heathen world. Hence it is, that God is called the true God; for they were false ones: one God; for they were many: the living God;w for they were vanities without life. Yet in the place of these idols, who are to supply the contrast, they have substituted the person of their blessed Redeemer, the true God,x the everlasting Father,y the Lord of Glory,z 'whọ is able to subdue all things to himself, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end. p XLIX. q XLIV. t XXIV. XXXIII. w Acts xiv. 15. r XXV. XXVI. XXXIX. y XX. z 1 Cor. ii. S. From the second chapter it has appeared, that the Holy Ghost is our spiritual Father,a by whose divine power we are begotten to a new life; and to whom we daily pray that he would not lead us into temptation. That he is the Lord,c even the Lord of Hosts, the ruler of the christian economy, calling men to that honor in his church, which God onlye can bestow upon them. That he is incomprehensibly united with God, and sensible of the omnipotent will in himself; even as the human Spirit is united to man, and understandeth its own thoughts. That his power, is the immediate power of God himself; his inspiration, is the inspiration of God;h his presence, the presence of God. That he is God k even the highest; for the man Christ Jesus, who is the Son of God, and the Son of the highest, was so called BECAUSE he was begotten of the Holy Ghost. That the objections usually brought to disguise and destroy this evidence, are taken from the unity, the attributes and will of God, and the ministration of the Spirit in the economy of grace; all of them falsely interpreted.m For as to the unity of God, it is not an unity of person. As to the supreme attribute of goodness, it is also possessed by the Spirit. As to the will of God, according to which the gifts and graces of the Spirit are distributed, it is opposed to the will of man, not to that of the Spirit; which is said to blow where it histeth, and to divide or distribute unto every man his gifts, not as man the receiver, but as he himself willeth.n It has appeared from the third chapter, that God is signified to us throughout the Old Testament by a name that is plural,o and proved to be such from many particular instances; yet generally so restrained and qualified, as to destroy the suspicion of a plurality of gods. That to this common name of God, many other plural names and expressions are added;p and that an enterchanging of the plural and singular, is frequently observed, which neither grammar nor reason can account for upon any principle, but that of a real divine plurality. That the persons of God are three in number, precisely distinguished on some occasions by the personal names of the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit, and also by different offices. That the same term is not always peculiar and proper to the same person; because the words God, Lord, Jehovah, and Father, are sometimes applied to one person, sometimes to another; while at other n XXV. p V. VI. VII. VIII. r XVIM: o Chap. III. Art. I. qIX. X. times they are not personal, but general names of the divine nature. That in the Lord of hosts,s sitting upon his throne, and speaking of himself in the plural to the prophet Isaiah, there was not one person only, but three; the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost, all expressed under one name in the Old Testament, but personally distinguished to us by three different ones in the New, where this matter is referred to. In the fourth and last chapter, the passages of the scripture have been laid together, and made to unite their beams in one common centre, the unity of the trinity. Which unity is not metaphorical and figurative, but strict and real and there can be no real unity in God, but that of his nature, essence, or substance, all of which are synonymous terms: this unity considered in itself, is altogether incomprehensible: but it is one thing to read and to know that there is a divine nature, and another thing to describe it. That it is proved to be an unity of essence; 1st. Because the three persons are all comprehended under the same individual and supreme appellation. They are the one Lord absolutely so called. The creator of the world, and the God of Isra elu 2dly, Because they partake in common of the name Jehovah,w which, being interpre S XIX. t Chap. IV. Art. I. III. u IV. ted, means the divine essence: and what it signifies in one person, it must also signify in the others; as truly as the singular name Adam, in its appellative capacity, expresses the common nature of all mankind. And this name neither is nor can be communicated, without a contradiction, to any derived or inferior nature, as well on account of its signification as its application, which is expressly restrained to one only. 3dly, It is farther proved in that the authority the secret mindy or council, and the powerz by which all things are established and directed, is ascribed to Christ and the Spirit in common with God the Father; and that in the same exercise of it, and upon the same occasions. 4thly, Because there is a participation of such divine attributesa as cannot subsist but where they are original. Our understanding, if it be moderately instructed, will satisfy us there can be one only whois eternal, and possessed of holiness, truth, life, &c. in and from himself. Yet the whole trinity is eternal, holy, true, living and omnipresent: therefore these three were, and will be one God from everlasting to everlasting. 5thly, and lastly, Because there is a concurrence of the whole undivided godhead in all those acts,b every one of which have in them the character of a divine wisdom and omni XVI. y VI z VII. b XIII. &c. ad fin: a VIII, IX, X. XI. XII |
