the temple of God; and yet we are here said to be the temple of God, because the Spirit dwelleth in us. And 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 "Thou hast not lied to men, but to God;" and so expressly asserts the Holy Ghost to be God. next verse, Moreover, that the Holy Ghost is truly God, co-equal to the Father and the Son, is plain, in that the scriptures assert him to be, to have, and do, whatsoever the Father or Son is, hath, or doth, 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, Psalm cxxxix. 7. Is God the Father, and the Son, a wise, understanding, powerful, and knowing God? So is the Spirit, Isaiah 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; though this sin is not therefore unpardonable because he is God, yet, it could not be unpardonable, unless he were God. For, supposing him not to be God, but a creature, and yet the sin against him to be unpardonable, then the sins 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. III. 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 believė, 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. the Father is one God, and the I may say, God 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 other 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 ean, I will endeavour to show, upon what account the Father is the first, the Son the second, and the Holy Ghost the third person in the Trinity. 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 Son; and therefore, the Father is termed by the primitive Christians, Risa kai pege Theotetos, "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 the 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 altogether: 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. 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 his Son, by communicating his own unbegotten essence and nature to him. For the person of the Son was most certainly begotten of the Father, or otherwise he would not be his Son; but his essence was unbegotten, otherwise he would not be God; and therefore, the highest apprehensions that we can frame of this great mystery, the eternal generation of the Son of God, is only by conceiving the person of the Father to have communicated his divine essence to the person of the Son. And so of himself begetting his other self the Son, by communicating his own eternal and unbegotten essence to him. I say, by communicating of his essence, not of his person to him, for then they would be both the same person, as now they are of the same essence. The essence of the Father did not beget the Son by communicating his person to him; but the person of the Father begat the Son by communicating his essence to him; so that the person of the Son is begotten, not communicated, but the essence of the Son is communicated, not begotten. |