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CHAP. XIV.

Of the Trinity in Unity.

HAVE hitherto been fhewing (I hope, to your Satisfaction and Conviction) that, 1. the WORD or Divine Nature of our Lord Jefus Christ, 2. the Holy Spirit, are the felfexiftent or very God, and confequently one and the fame Being.

But then 'tis evident, that the Holy Scriptures do notwithstanding manifeftly diftinguish the WORD from the Spirit. The whole Courfe of the New Teftament is a continued Demonftration of this. However, let us reflect upon one Confideration.

The Apoftle declares, that the WORD was made flesh, John 1. 14. So that the WORD was as truly united to the Man Chrift Jefus, as the Spirit of a Man is united to his Body; And during the whole Course of his Miniftry this Union lafted. And yet all this while, the Holy Spirit, as you truly (a) obferve, is defcrib'd in the New Testament as the immediate Author and Worker of all Miracles, even of those done by our Lord himself; and as the Conducter of Chrift in all the Actions of his Life, during his State of Humiliation bere upon Earth. Again, 'twas not the WORD, but the Spirit, which preferved our Lord from Sin; for thro' the eternal Spirit be offer'd himself without spot to God, Heb. 9. 14. And tho' the Union of the WORD and the human Soul continued after the Separation of the Body from the Soul by Death; yet the WORD did not raife the Body again; but 'twas

(a) Script. Doct. p. 301.

P 4

quickned

quickned by the Spirit, 1 Pet. 3. 18. This clearly Thews, that the WORD and the Spirit are as really diftinct in the fame felfexiftent Being, or very God; as the Soul and the Body are really diftinct in the fame created Being, Man. For the WORD and the Spirit are conftantly reprefented as diftinct Principles of Action; and the Spirit acted, in the moft eminent manner, in and thro' the Man Christ Jefus, at the fame time, that the WORD was quiefcent in him.

But farther, as the Holy Scriptures inform us, that the WORD and the Spirit are really diftinct in the felfexiftent Being or very God: fo do they plainly diftinguifh the felfexiftent Being, or very God, both from the WORD and from the Spirit. Particularly the WORD is called the WORD of God, 2 Pet. 3. 5. Rev. 19. 13. and the WORD is faid to have been with God in the beginning, John. 1. 1. And as God made all things by or thro' our Lord, viz. his Divine Nature, 1 Cor. 8. 6. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2, 10. fo God is faid to have made all things by or thro' the WORD, John 1. 3, 10. The Spirit alfo is call'd the Spirit of God, and thereby diftinguish'd from God, whofe Spirit he is, in feveral Places. And confequently the WORD of God, and the Spirit of God, are in fome Senfe diftinguifh'd from God, whofe they are.

From hence it follows, that tho' neither the WORD nor the Spirit is a diftinct Being from that God, whofe WORD and Spirit they are; any more than the Spirit of a Man is a diftinct Being from the Man, whom the Spirit of a Man effentially belongs to: yet there is in the Divine Effence or Nature something diftinct from the WORD and the Spirit; and which together with the WORD and the Spirit, conftitutes the whole Divine Nature or Effence. Now

Now it must be obferv'd, that tho' the WORD and the Spirit are God, that is, effential to, and conftitutive of, the felfexiftent Being; yet that which together with the WORD and the Spirit does conftitute the Divine Nature or Effence, is not known to us by any other Name, than fuch as expreffes the felfexiftent Being, which it (together with the coeffential WORD and Spirit) conftitutes, viz. by the Names God, Father, &c. And because the WORD was made Flesh, and perfonally united to the Man Chrift Jefus, whofe Generation by the Holy Ghoft made him the Son of the felfexiftent Being; therefore the WORD may well be term'd the Son of God upon the Account of this temporal Generation. And as for the eternal Generation of the WORD (tho' that Phrafe is not found in Scripture, nor is God therein ever called the Father of the WORD, nor the WORD called the Son of God, upon any Account antecedent to the Incarnation: yet) because the WORD fubfifts eternally (becaufe neceffarily) in God, not as a diftinct Being from God, but as one and the fame Being with God; and because God (or that which, befides the WORD and the Spirit,is in God,or effential to God) is all along reprefented fo, as that the WORD is his, and he is not the WORD's: therefore we juftly think of the whole Divine Nature or Effence in fuch a manner, as that God, or (if you will fuffer me fo to fpeak; for our Ideas being fo imperfect, and our Language fo defective, I hope, I may be excufed fuch a Figure or Similitude) fo much of the Divine Nature or Effence, as is not by any more particular Name diftinguifh'd in Scripture from the WORD and the Spirit, and which is conceived by us as Prior in order of Confideration to both the WORD and the Spirit, is very properly term'd the eternal Father of the WORD,

which

which WORD is accordingly very properly term'd his eternal and coeffential Son.

Now the Father (in the Sense just now admitted) the Son or WORD, and the Holy Spirit, are commonly called the Three Perfons in the Godhead, or Divine Nature or Effence. What is the original Notation of the Word Perfon, what various Acceptations it has had, and in what Senfes it has been apply'd to Father, Son, and Iioly Ghoft; I fhall not inquire. 'Tis true, the Word Perfon,when apply'd to the Son and Holy Ghoft, does not fignify a diftinct intelligent Being feparat from the Father. For tho' we can't exactly define what a Divine Perfon is, yet we can say what 'tis not. And confequently the three Perfons of the Godhead are not three Perfons in the fame Sense, in which three Men are three Perfons. There is therefore noReason,why we should wrangle about a Phrase. The aforefaid Distinction in the Divine Nature or Effence, is what we mean by Perfonality: and the thing diftinguish'd, is the Perfon. Whether the Terms are properly used, or no; 'tis needlefs to difpute. I only defire, that the ufe of them may be continued, till better can be fubftituted in their room. What is meant, is pretty generally agreed, viz. that the Father, the WORD, and the Spirit, tho' they are truly and really diftinct, fo that one is not the other, yet are not separat Beings, but one and the fame Being, which Being is the felfexiftent or very God.

Briefly therefore, the Father (in the Sense already given) the WORD, and the Spirit, are one and the fame Being with each other. That is, tho' they are diftinct in, yet they are coeffential to, and neceffarily conftitutive of, one and the fame Being. Even as the Soul and the Body are diftinct in, tho' coeffential to, and neceffarily conftitutive of, the fame Being, Man. I do by no means fay, that the Father,

Father, the WORD, and the Spirit, are different Subftances, as the Soul and the Body are in a Man (the Body being a material Subftance, and the Soul an immaterial one) but furely if the Union of diftinct Subftances may conftitute one and the fame Being, Man: certainly the Father, the WORD, and the Spirit (of whofe joint Subftance I affirm nothing, becaufe 'tis not known) may conftitute one and the fame moft fimple and uncompounded Being, viz. the very or felfexiftent God.

The manner of this Diftinction in the very God, I think, 'tis impoffible to affign or comprehend; beeaufe the Divine Subftance is not understood by us. But fince we know fo little of the Subftance of any thing; methinks, we should readily believe, what God himfelf has reveled concerning his own Subftance; tho' at prefent perhaps our Faculties are not qualify'd to form any tolerable Idea of it. This we know, that God is immaterial. But Immateriality is only a Negation. There may be thousands of immaterial Beings, whofe Subftances may be as different, as the Subftance of the human Soul is different from that of the Body. How then can we hope to find out the positive Subftance of God?

Had we been as little acquainted with Matter, as we are with the pofitive Subftance of God; and had a Triangle then been made known to us, not by a Name which expreffes its pofitive Nature, but by fome other Name as little expreffive of its pofitive Nature, as Jeds (for Inftance) is of the pofitive Nature of God: I doubt not but we should have found it as difficult (tho' the Comparison is by no means adequate) to conceive the real Diftinction of the Angles A, B, C, in the Unity of the Nature of the Triangle, to which each of them is coeffential; as we do now find it to conceive

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