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tinct actings and operations, whereby the distinction itself is clearly manifested and confirmed. And these actings, as was said, are either such, as where one of them is the object of another's actings, or such as have the creature for their objects; the first sort are testified unto, Psal. cx. i. John i. 18. v. 20. xvii. 5. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. Prov. viii. 21, 22. most of which places have been before recited. They which thus know each other, love each other, delight in each other, must needs be distinct; and so are they represented unto our faith. And for the other sort of actings the Scripture is full of the expressions of them; see Gen. xix. 24. Zech. ii. 8. John v. 17. 1 Cor. xii. 7-9. viii. 9.

Our conclusion from the whole is, that there is nothing more fully expressed in the Scripture, than this sacred truth; that there is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; which are divine, distinct, intelligent, voluntary, omnipotent principles of operation, and working, which whosoever thinks himself obliged to believe the Scripture must believe; and concerning others, in this discourse, we are not solicitous.

This is that which was first proposed; namely, to manifest what is expressly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; so as that we may duly believe in him, yield obedience unto him, enjoy communion with him, walk in his love and fear, and so come at length to be blessed with him for evermore. Nor doth faith for its security, establishment, and direction, absolutely stand in need of any farther exposition or explanation of these things or the use of any terms not consecrated to the present service by the Holy Ghost. But whereas it may be variously assaulted by the temptations of Satan, and opposed by the subtle sophisms of men of corrupt minds; and whereas it is the duty of the disciples of Christ to grow in the knowledge of God, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Christ, by an explicit apprehension of the things they do believe, so far as they are capable of them; this doctrine hath in all ages of the church, been explained and taught, in and by such expressions, terms, and propositions, as farther declare what is necessarily included in it, or consequent unto it; with an exclusion of such things, notions, and apprehensions, as are neither the one, nor the other. This I

shall briefly manifest, and then vindicate the whole from some exceptions, and so close this dissertation.

That God is one, was declared and proved. Now this oneness can respect nothing but the nature, being, substance, or essence of God. God is one in this respect. Some of these words indeed are not used in the Scripture; but whereas they are of the same importance and signification, and none of them include any thing of imperfection, they are properly used in the declaration of the unity of the Godhead. There is mention in the Scripture of the Godhead of God; Rom. i. 20. His eternal power and Godhead.' And of his nature, by excluding them from being objects of our worship, who are not God by nature; Gal. iv. 8. Now this natural Godhead of God, is, his substance or essence with all the holy divine excellencies which naturally and necessarily appertain thereunto. Such are eternity, immensity, omnipotency, life, infinite holiness, goodness, and the like. This one nature, substance, or essence, being the nature, substance, or essence of God, as God, is the nature, essence, and substance of the Father, Son, and Spirit; one and the same absolutely in and unto each of them. For none can be God as they are revealed to be, but by virtue of this divine nature or being. Herein consists the unity of the Godhead.

Secondly, The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father, Son, and Spirit, is that whereby they are three hypostases, or persons, distinctly subsisting in the same divine essence or being. Now a divine person, is nothing but the divine essence upon the account of an especial property, subsisting in an especial manner. As in the person of the Father, there is the divine essence and being, with its property of begetting the Son, subsisting in an especial manner as the Father; and because this person hath the whole divine nature, all the essential properties of that nature are in that person. The wisdom, the understanding of God, the will of God, the immensity of God, is in that person, not as that person, but as the person is God. The like is to be said of the persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Hereby each person having the understanding, the will, and power of God, becomes a distinct principle of operation; and yet all their actings ad extra being the act

ings of God, they are undivided, and are all the works of one, of the selfsame God. And these things do not only necessarily follow, but are directly included in the revelation made concerning God, and his subsistence in the Scriptures.

There are indeed very many other things that are taught and disputed about this doctrine of the Trinity; as the manner of the eternal generation of the Son, of the essence of the Father, of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and the difference of it from the generation of the Son; of the mutual in-being of the persons, by reason of their unity in the same substance or essence; the nature of their personal subsistence, with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished; all which are true and defensible against all the sophisms of the adversaries of this truth. Yet because the distinct apprehension of them, and their accurate expression, is not necessary unto faith, as it is our guide and principle in and unto religious worship and obedience, they need not here be insisted on. Nor are those brief explications themselves before-mentioned, so próposed as to bé placed immediately in the same rank or order with the original revelations before insisted on, but only are pressed as proper expressions of what is revealed to increase our light and farther our edification. And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denied, nor ever were by any, but such as deny and oppose the things themselves as revealed, yet they that do so deny or oppose them, are to be required positively in the first place to deny or disapprove the oneness of the Deity, or to prove that the Father, or Son, or Holy Ghost in particular, are not God, before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the explication of the truth concerning them. For either they grant the revelation declared and contended for, or they do not; if they do, let that concession be first laid down, namely, that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God; and then let it be debated whether they are one in substance and three in persons, or how else the matter is to be stated. If they deny it, it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing, and the way of expressing it, whilst the thing itself is denied to have a being; for of that which is not, there is neither manner, property, adjunct, nor effect. Let then such persons, as this sort of men are ready to attempt

with their sophistry, and to amuse with cavils about persons, substances, subsistences, and the like, desire to know of them what it is that they would be at. What would they deny, what would they disapprove? Is it that God is one; or that the Father is God, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost is so? If they deny, or oppose either of these, they have testimonies and instances of divine revelation, or may have, in a readiness, to confound the devil and all his emissaries. If they will not do so, if they refuse it, then let them know, that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about expressions and explanations of any thing, or doctrine, about the manner, respects, or relations of any thing, until the thing itself, or doctrine, be plainly confessed or denied. If this they refuse, as generally they do and will, which I speak upon sufficient experience, and will not be induced to deal openly, properly, and rationally, but will keep to their cavils and sophisms, about terms and expressions, all farther debate, or conference with them, may justly, and ought both conscienciously and rationally to be refused, and rejected. For these sacred mysteries of God and the gospel, are not lightly to be made the subject of men's contests and disputations.

But as we dealt before in particular, so here I shall give instances of the sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this doctrine; and that with respect unto some late collections, and representations of them; from whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words, phrases, and expressions themselves, which they make use of.

The sum of what they say in general, is, 'How can these things be? How can three be one, and one be three? Every person hath its own substance, and therefore if there be three persons, there must be three substances; and so three Gods.'

Ans. Every person hath distinctly its own substance, for the one substance of the Deity, is the substance of each person, so it is still but one. But each person hath not its own distinct substance, because the substance of them all is the same, as hath been proved.

They say, 'That if each person be God, then each person is infinite, and there being three persons there must be three infinites.'

Ans. This follows not in the least; for each person is infinite as he is God. All divine properties, such as to be infinite is, belong not to the persons on the account of their personality, but on the account of their nature, which is one, for they are all natural properties.

But they say, 'If each person be God, and that God subsist in three persons, then in each person there are three persons or Gods.

Ans. The collusion of this sophism consists in that expression, 'be God;' and' that God ;' in the first place the nature of God is intended; in the latter a singular person. Place the words intelligibly, and they are thus; If each person be God, and the nature of God subsists in three persons, then in each person there are three persons; and then the folly of it will be evident.

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But they farther infer; That if we deny the persons to be infinite, then an infinite being hath a finite mode of subsisting, and so I know not what supposition they make hence; that seeing there are not three infinites, then the Father, Son, and Spirit are three finites, that make up an infinite.'

The pitiful weakness of this cavil is open to all; for finite and infinite are properties and adjuncts of beings, and not of the manner of the subsistence of any thing. The nature of each person is infinite, and so is each person, because of that nature. Of the manner of their subsistence, finite and infinite cannot be predicated or spoken, no farther than to say, an infinite being doth so subsist.

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But you grant,' say they, 'that the only true God is the Father, and then if Christ be the only true God, he is the Father.'

Ans. We say, the only true God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We never say, the Scripture never says, that the Father only is the true God, whence it would follow, that he that is the true God, is the Father. But we grant the Father to be the only true God; and so we say is the Son also. And it doth not at all thence follow, that the Son is the Father; because in saying the Father is the true God, we respect not his paternity, or his paternal relation to his Son; but his nature, essence, and being. And the same we affirm concerning the other persons. And to

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