in that this term is extended to Creatures to Men to Angels you are to think of Father Son and Holy Ghost as increated persons from whom therefore you must remove all creature-imperfections even in your very thoughts As 1 Created persons are of a determined or rather finite nature 1. Of finite perfections 2. of a finite presence 3. of finite power and 4. of a finite permanence or duration But these increated persons are infinite in their nature the Godhead being infinite 1. Of infinite perfections Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out Job 37.23 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection It is as high as heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know c. Job 11.7 8 9. 2. Of an infinite presence Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. Yea blessed Lord whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence Jerem. 23.24 Psalm 139.7 c. 3. Of an infinite power I am God almighty saith he Is any thing too hard for me c. Gen. 35.11 Jer. 32.27 4. Of an infinite permanence or duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity Psal 90.2 Isa 57.15 2 Created persons are of a divisible and compounded nature and therefore changable But these increated persons are of a most indivisible simple and immutable nature For so is the Godhead a most pure a most perfect nature without the least change without the least composition Each person is called Jehovah who is what he is viz. a most pure and perfect being without variableness or so much as a shadow of turning Exod. 3.14 Jam. 1.17 God is light and in him is no darkness at all 1 Joh. 1.5 3 Created persons are of a dependent nature As all created persons depend upon their first cause or principles for their continued preservation so the nature doth depend upon its proper person for its support or sustentation But now the divine nature which is in these three persons doth not depend upon any or upon all these persons for its sustentation or subsistence But all three persons subsist in this one independent nature as is said of the subsistence of the Son Phil. 2.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsisting in the form i.e. in the essential form of God as being equal with God as it follows The Godhead it self is independent or it is not Godhead or it is not infinite He is Jehovah which implys that his being is neither from nor for nor in nor by any other but is most absolute and independent I am the first and I am the last and beside me there is no God Isa 44.6 c. 45.21 22. 4 Created persons are of different natures numerically different though not specifically True it is that Peter Paul Philip are of the same specifical nature i.e. they are all of them men but they are not of the same singular or numerical nature i.e. they are not the same man But these increated persons are of the same nature not only of the same specifical but of the same singular nature they are the same God That as you may safely say God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost So you must think and say of them that they are one and the same God one and but one These three are one 1 Joh 5.7 Hear O Israel the Lord our God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one Lord. You must not then think of these three uncreated persons as you would of those three created as if these were distinct Gods as those are distinct men 5 Created persons have many different accidents and are distinguished from each other by a congeries or heap of accidents as time place c. But these increated persons are of that infinite perfection as being the same God that they are above any such thing as an accident The infinite simplicity of the Divine nature cannot admit of such finite things as are accidents as also nor can its immutability 'T is a confessed maxim amongst Christians Whatsoever is in God is God I have sworn by my holiness saith God Psal 89.35 God sware by himself saith the Apostle Heb. 6.13 God's Holiness then is God himself 'T is true the Father Son and Holy Ghost are distinguished by their personal properties or if you will needs so call it by their personal attributes But they are not different by any personal accidents as James and John are This their perfect nature is utterly alien from and abhorrent of Direct 2. Think of Father Son and Holy Ghost as the same God subsisting in one and the same undivided essence or Godhead See that you do not divide the nature when you distinguish the persons Therefore John having shewn you these three distinct persons immediately subjoyneth that they have but one undivided essence 1 Joh. 5.7 The same in effect doth Jesus Mat. 28.19 as we have noted before Q. 1. Prop. 6. Enough may seem to have been already spoken to this both there and but even now But I add you should not only think of them as one and the same God in the same most single essence but think of them as inseparably subsisting in and with one another in the unity of this same essence That the Son subsists in the Divine nature or essence you saw but even now from Phil. 2.6 Direct 1. That the Son and Father subsist in the same Divine essence is manifest in that the Son is the express image of his Fathers person or subsistence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Father and he are one in essence Heb. 1.3 Joh. 10.30 The Holy Ghost therefore must and doth subsist in the same essence for he is one God with the Son and Father 1 Joh. 5.7 Believest thou not saith Christ to Philip that I am in the Father and the father in me And then he calleth upon him from his word and from his works which were the Fathers in and with him Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me Joh. 14.10 And again afterward he assureth his Disciples That at that day when the Holy Ghost the Comforter should be more plentifully communicated to them from the Father at that day ye shall know that I am in the father ver 20. Now the Holy Ghost being co-essential with the Father and with the Son and subsisting with them in the same single and omnipresent nature doth therefore also subsist in and with the Father and Son and they also in and with the Spirit In short then you must so think of them that you do not divide when you do distinguish them 1. Think of them as whose essential attributes are undivided That the Son and Holy Ghost are equally excellent infinite immutable c. with God the Father because God equal with the Father And there can be no inequality betwixt them who are all infinite Phil. 2.6
God He that tells a lie to the Spirit tells a liâ—â—to God not unto men but unto God Act. 5.3 4. Prop. 5. The Father Son and Holy Ghost being verily and truly Gods and being distinct persons in the one only and same Godhead we may then according to the grounds laid direct our prayers to God with express mention of one only or of more or of all the persons in the Godhead The laudable examples in Scripture may evince the lawfulness hereof Paul directs his prayers with the express mention sometimes but of one person Ephes 3.14 Sometimes of two persons 1 Thes 3.11 Sometimes of all three 2 Cor. 13.14 John and Steven explicitely address themselves to the second person Rev. 22.20 Act. 7.59 Paul attests the third person Rom. 9.1 as well as others apply themselves to the first person and St. John invocates all three persons Rev. 1.4 5. Prop. 6. The Father Son and Holy Ghost being but one only God of one nature mind will power Godhead they are therefore according to the first Proposition to speak strictly and properly but one only formal object of prayer and of other parts of religious worship So that our Saviour bids us baptize not in the names but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 Not only to intimate their coequality in power and authority among themselves as being one and the same God with whom are no degrees of power or perfection But to instruct us how we should consider of and come before them in that and in all other acts of worship upon the same reason as those that are co-essential and co-equally the original and object of all as natural so instituted worship Thus also were the Priests bound to say in blessing the people Jehovah Jehovah Jehovah bless thee c. Num. 6.24 25 26. Thereby pointing them and us That though they are distinguished in their personal subsistence yet they are not to be divided in our prayers and supplications Rather that as these three are one in the unity of the divine essence so they should be eyed as one in the unity of an end or object in all our devout and religious exercises Prop. 7. In directing prayer therefore to God with express mention but of one or two persons the Saints of old did not and our selves ought not to exclude the other person or persons because they are all one God co-equal and co-eternal co-existing with each other yea in each other in the same Godhead Believe me saith Christ that I am in the Father and the Father in me Joh. 14.11 You need not any proofs from me that the Godhead or divine nature and excellency is the formal and adequate ground and reason of divine Worship Or that these three persons are God and therefore equal in the Godhead equal in glory not one greater or less than another not one above or below another These premisses being of infallible verity the inference is plain and obvious therefore are they to be equally worshipped not one more or less than another not one above or beneath another For there being no difference or degrees in the ground and adequate reason of the divine Worship that is due unto them there can be no difference or degrees admittable with any ground or reason in the worship that is done unto them If one be not less a God than another one may not be less glorified than another Prop. 8. Yet lastly the Father being the fountain and first principle though not of their essential subsistence yet of the personal subsistence of the Son and of the Holy Ghost of which in the next Question and so of their peculiar manner of working ad extra or without the Godhead viz. the Son working from the Father and the Holy Ghost from them both The Saints therefore have and your selves may eminently though not exclusively direct your prayers to God the Father yea and that for those benefits which come to you by the more especial and eminent operation of God the Son or of God the Holy Ghost 'T is easie to instance Paul blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the blessings in and by Christ the remission of his sins the redemption of his soul c. Ephes 1.3 c. Then beseecheth he that the God of our Lord Jesus the Father of glory may give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of Christ ver 17. c. And again Chap. 3. v. 14 15 16 17. I bow my knees saith he unto the Father of our Loâ—â— Jesus Christ that you may be strengthned by his â—pirit that Christ may dwell in your hearts by â—aith c. Much to the same effect is the prayer of Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not to mention those passages of the Psalmist Vphold me with thy free spirit Lead me by thy spirit c. Psal 51.12 143.10 Q. 2. How may we order our thoughts aright in distinguishing these three persons Father Son and Holy Ghost I am not willing to weary either my self or you with a needless discussion of what you intend by this expression order your thoughts aright I suppose you would not have me understand thoughts so much in their larger and less proper notion and acceptation as they include all the interior acts of the Soul as in their more limited strict and proper sense as they import the acts and apprehensions of the intellect And that your meaning is how you may order your apprehensions or more briefly may apprehend aright in or touching the distinction of those persons And truth is according as your thoughts are well or ill ordered in this strict sense that your apprehensions are either fitting or faulty so will your thoughts be in that larger sense all the other inward motions of your Soul with relation hereunto will be well or ill ordered more free or more faulty This only I shall therefore further premise Father Son and Holy Ghost are and may be presented to our thoughts under a twofold consideration 1. Common or essential as they are God 2. Peculiar or personal as they are persons in the Godhead And this consideration of them is either 1. More absolute as they all subsist in the unity of the same nature Or 2. Meerly relative in the order of one person to another and distinction of one person from another And now in accord to your desires I offer you these Directions Direct 1. Think of Father Son and Holy Ghost as divine and increated persons That they are persons I do not attempt to confirm because you already confess both thing and name as that which best agreeth to the Scripture-expression as it doth Heb. 1.3 'T is true that this term person doth import the most excellent kind of subsistence viz. intelligent and rational We call not the best of brutes a person But
Psal 139.7 2. Think of them as whose essential actions are undivided That whatsoever the Father doth as God I say not as a person in the Godhead the same doth the Son and the Holy Ghost likewise as in creating the world quickning the dead c. Joh. 5.19 Job 33.4 Rom. 8.11 Direct 3. Think of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as three distinct persons in the undivided Godhead Let your thoughts work according to the word of truth Read that blessed Scripture 1 Joh. 5.7 Lo how they are distinguished by their names the Father the Word i.e. the Son Joh. 1.14 and the Holy Ghost distinguished by number three these three that are one one God of one nature Remember the Baptism of your Saviour There might you have heard the Father owning the Son and have seen the Son who had taken our flesh with the heavens opened to him by the Father and have beheld the Spirit descending on the Son like a Dove from the Father Mat. 3.16 17. Reflect else on your own Baptism as it is required by our Saviour Mat. 28.19 Here their several distinct names are propounded and their singular or Divine nature pointed at Recall else if you will that beloved Sermon of our Mediator Joh. 14. He doth more than once deliver you their distinction distinguishing the Father from himself and the Spirit from them both The Father will send the Holy Ghost in my name ver 26. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter even the spirit of truth ver 16 17. Another from himself who as to his corporal presence was going from them another from the Father Who as he saith shall give you another comforter But how another Another God It is impossible Another person is only intelligible So then you must think of Father Son and Holy Ghost not as distinct Gods but as distinct persons in the Godhead as one and the same God but not as one and the same person Think of the Father as not being the Son or the Son as not being the Father on the Holy Ghost as being neither Father nor Son and upon the Father and Son as not being the Holy Ghost Look upon them as coequal and therefore as distinct It being most absurd to say that the same person is equal to himself 1 Think of them as distinguished in and by the personal and incommunicable actions The Father begets the Son and hath given the Son to have life in himself as the Father hath life in himself Heb. 1.5 Joh. 5.26 The unbegotten Father then is clearly distinguished from the only begotten Son and the Son also from the Father The Father and Son do emit the Holy Ghost by an eternal spiration or communicating to him his distinct subsistence in the Divine Essence The holy Scriptures speak of the holy Spirit as sent by and from both the Father and the Son and as receiving from the Son as well as from the Father Joh. 14.26 c. 15.26 c. 16.14 15. As the Spirit both of the Son and of the Father Mat. 10.20 Gal. 4.6 So that the Father and Son sending are and must be distinguished from the Spirit sent No one sends himself or to himself Joh. ibid. c. 14.16 17. Nor doth the Scripture mention the Holy Ghost as the power only of the Godhead but as a person in the Godhead 'T is not said it but he shall lead you he shall glorifie me the Comforter whom the Father will send It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the neuter gender Joh. 16.13 Yet ver 14. not in the neuter but in the masculine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He the Spirit of truth he he he he he he he seven times besides in those two verses and once more he ver 15. 2 Think of them as distinguished in and by their personal and incommunicable properties 'T is proper to the Father to beget the Son to the Son to be begotten of the Father to the Holy Ghost to proceed both from the Father and the Son Heb. 1.5 6. Joh. 15.26 These distinct incommunicable properties infer plainly the distinction of the persons The Son begotten cannot be the Father begetting And the spirit proceeding cannot be either Father or Son from whom he doth proceed 3. Think of them as distinguished in and by the principle original and order of their personal existence The personal subsistence of the Father is from himself i.e. he receives subsistence from no other without himself but is the principle of subsisting to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Joh. 5.26 c. 14.26 The personal subsistence of the Son is from the Father I live by the Father saith he I came forth from the Father Joh. 6.57 c. 16.28 The personal sublistence of the Holy Ghost is both from Father and Son from whom he proceeds and by whom he is sent Joh. 15.26 c. 16.14 15. 4 Think of them as distinguished in and by the principle original and order of their operations and actions which are terminated without the Godhead The order of working follows that of being As their essential being is undivided so are their external works undivided also You know the received rule Opera trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa As Sanctification is wrought in us both by God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Jude 1. 1 Cor. 1.2 c. 6.11 As their personal being or subsistence is distinguished in the same order are their works also distinguished Is the Father of himself so he worketh of himself The Father of whom are all things saith the Apostle All things are delivered unto me of my Father saith our Saviour 1 Cor. 8.6 Mat. 11.25 26 27. Is the Son of and from the Father so he worketh of and from the Father I have not spoken saith he of my self I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me c. The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do c. Joh. 12.49 c. 8.28 c. 5.19 20. Is the spirit both from Father and Son So he worketh from the Father and Son He shall not speak of himself saith Christ but whatsoever he shall hear viz. from the Father and from himself that shall he speak He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Joh. 16.13 14. with Joh. 15.26 c. 14.26 Direct 4. Think of Father Son and Holy Ghost as distinguished not only in but from the Divine essence Though it be true they are not essentially distinguished yet it is also true that they are distinguished from the essence The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God these three are one God Yet though the Godhead be predicated of all the three persons the persons in the Godhead are not predicated of one another The Father is not the Son nor is the Son the Father nor is the Holy Ghost either Father or Son or either of those the Holy Ghost The divine essence doth not beget nor is begotten nor doth
according to a consecution or emanation from Mans nature As when we say Man is by nature endowed with an Understanding Will c. Thus the powers and properties of Mans nature are said to be natural to him 3. Or for that which is by and according to a connexion with Mans nature as Paul saith We were by nature children of wrath Eph. 2.3 This condition was connexed with our nature we were subject to the revenging justice of God as soon as we received the nature of man Thus the pravity and pollution of Mans nature is said to be natural to him The import of this question is not Whether the Conscience be evil either in regard of its natural constitution or essence In this sense it must needs be good because it is by the special efficience and gift of God Job 32.8 Chap. 20.7 Or 2. in regard of any natural consecution or emanation from its nature Thus it cannot be bad but good for the same reason because it cometh from the blessed God whose work is perfect Deut 32.4 But 3. in regard of a natural connexion i.e. Whether Conscience in man by and according to the condition which is connexed with his nature be morally evil or sinful yea or no That every mans Conscience is by nature sinful in the sense last mentioned appears First From the notorious defilement of every man by nature These propositions are of Apostolical proof That all have sinned and that they are all under sin That all the world is become guilty before God And that they are all by nature children of wrath Rom. 3.9 19 23. Ephes 2.3 What is man that he should be clean and that which is born of a woman that he should be righteous saith Eliphaz All persons and all the parts of man are impure and defiled Job 15.14 15 16. Rom. 3.9 19. And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean To them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Job 14.4 Tit. 1.15 The leaven of sin hath over-spread the whole lump The leprosie of sin hath left no faculty untainted The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint It reacheth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot So that the Conscience is corrupt as well as the corporeal part 1 Cor. 5.6 Isa 1.4 5 6. Secondly From the notable declarations in the Covenant of Grace What on Gods part is therein more clearly proposed than this I will put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will circumcise your hearts I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts c. Ezek. 11.19 20. Chap. 36.26 Jer. 31.33 Deut. 30.6 And what can on mans part then be more clearly supposed than this That the heart of man is of a stony adamantine and uncircumcised temper without the sculpture of any saving truth e're grace takes him within the Covenant And surely by nature the sons of men are all strangers from the Covenants of Promise Zach. 7.12 Jer. 9.26 27. 2 Cor. 3.3 Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Thirdly From the known design of the Commandments and conveyance of Grace A good Conscience is the end of Gods Commandments 1 Tim. 1.5 1 Pet. 3.16 If Conscience were good by nature how should the goodness thereof be the end and effect of the Gospel of Grace A good Conscience was not found by the Gospel in the regions where it came but was the fruit of the Gospel The Gospel was sent amongst them not as supposing their Conscience already good but to set them right and leave them good whom it found bad Act. 26.18 20. 1 Cor. 14.24 25 Heb. 4.12 A good Conscience is the effect of the grace of faith in Christ God purifying mens hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Heb. 10.22 Before the coming of faith then the Conscience is defiled To the unbeliever nothing 〈◊〉 pure And manifest enough it is that faith it Christ never grew in the garden of nature when most pure from the weeds of sin which the Fall hath brought in but is an eflux of divine grace and an especial gift of God Tit. 1.15 Heb. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 Phil. 1.29 Fourthly From the necessary diffusion of sanctifying grace throughout the whole nature of Man The God of peace sanctifie you wholly the whole then was sinful And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless c. The upper region of Mans soul then and which is rational as well as the lower region and which is more sensitive were stained and culpable The Conscience therefore cannot but be corrupted 1 Thes 5.23 The Conscience could neither require nor receive the renovation of grace if it were righteous by nature But renovation passeth through all the parts and powers Behold all things are become new This is to put on the new man and to put off the old man Sin did and Sanctification now doth extend it self over all the man especially the mind To be renewed is eminently in the spirit of our mind 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.22 23 24. Fifthly From the noted derivation of a good Conscience to us by means of Christ Till his blood be sprinkled on us the Conscience is not sanctified in us as is implied Heb. 9.14 'T is the blood of Christ Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God which purgeth your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Hebr. 9.14 Conscience is impure then till Christ purgeth it 'T is he freeth it from sin and fitteth it for Gods service But by nature we are all without Christ alienated and enemies in our minds by wicked works Men do not come by nature but are called by grace unto the fellowship of the Son Jesus Christ Eph. 2.12 cum 3. Col. 1.21 1 Cor. 1.9 Sixthly From the notable defilement of Conscience in the discharge of its acts and offices Now laesae actiones laesas facultates indicant It must needs be a maimed and diseased power that puts forth such maimed and diseased performances These I shall briefly instance in the next Question and judg needful to pluck down the pride of Man and to preserve you from the dangerous precipices of many who cry up Conscience and its conduct for Salvation instead of calling men to Christ and to the conduct of the Scriptures Q. 2. What are the evils of Mans Conscience naturally which we should be heedful of and and humbled under Though I cannot fully open that sink of sin which lieth here a work that is more accurately done by an acute and able hand * Anth. Burgess Orig. sin par 3. c. 2. §. 1 8. and though a further manifestation hereof must follow in our ventilation of the several sorts of an evil Conscience of which hereafter yet something shall be done for the discovery of this evil and putrefaction Conscience may