Now from these Texts of Scripture I shall make these three Observations First That we may as well say that the Father and the Son are Qualities as the Holy Spirit And Secondly The baptizing in the Name of the Spirit denotes him to be a Person as well as the Name of the Father and the Son by their Names are so denoted Thirdly He cannot be a Quality for if the Word and the Holy Ghost be Qualities and the Father only a Person or else the Father and Word Persons and only the Holy Ghost a Quality yet the three can neither be one Person nor one Quality Fourthly The Holy Ghost is a Person and is so far from being a Quality in God that he hath in himself the Quality of Knowing and Understanding 1 Cor. 2.11 Even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God and also of willing John 16.7 8. 1 Cor. 12.11 But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will And therefore the Holy Spirit having personal Qualities is denoted to be a Person and there is not the least reason to believe but that the Holy Ghost is a Person who is so generally treated of as a Person Secondly The Holy Spirit is God from the Testimony of four several Scriptures First is Matth. 28.19 Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost If the Holy Ghost were not God why should we be baptized into his Name and ascribe unto him a share in the Work of Man's Salvation But that as the Father was pleased to elect and ordain the Son to lay our Iniquities upon him and accept us in him and as the Son was willing as it were to disrobe himself of the Glory he had before the World was to bear the Wrath of God that was due to us for our Sins that we might be delivered from it and to reconcile him to us by the precious Blood of his Cross So the Holy Spirit changes our Hearts and reconciles them to God by infusing into us a new Nature with Holy Dispositions and Power against Sin which the good Angels could never do for though they have great Power to communicate to our Spirits and influence our Souls with good things yet the evil Angels having the same Power of Nature and being first in Possession may keep our Souls in Bondage till one that is stronger casts them out Luke 11.22 1 John 4.4 And therefore the Holy Spirit having so great a hand in this glorious Work may rightly receive a share with other Divine Persons of our Acknowledgment of it which demonstrates that the Holy Ghost is God for otherwise we should ascribe that Work unto the Creature which is above the Power of its Nature and is only possible for God himself Second Scripture is 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you To have the Spirit of God dwelling in us is to have our Bodies the Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 And the Temple of the Holy Ghost is the same as the Temple of God and to say that the Temple of God is the Temple of a Creature or to give it the Name of a Creature is a Dishonour to it as not sanctified unto God And therefore the same Spirit or Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us is God that dwelleth in us Third Scripture is 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one This Scripture is so clear an Evidence for the Truth I am pleading for that there have been some who would blot it out denying its Authority to be equal with other Scriptures which I shall answer unto in its proper place But whereas it is said and these three are one it must be understood that they are one in Essence for in ver 8. where the Essences differ the manner of speaking also differs as agree in one viz. in Testimony but in the Text it is are one viz. in Essence as the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are not only one in Agreement of their Testimony as the Blood the Water and the Spirit are but are one in Essence And this Distinction was made in the two Verses that we might not miss of the Truth of God in them Fourth Scripture is 2 Cor. 3.17 Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Ver. 18. We are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or as it is in the Margent Of the Lord the Spirit Now if the Holy Spirit were not of the same Divine Essence it could not be said the Lord is that Spirit Thirdly I shall shew that the Holy Spirit is God by the Works of Creation that are ascribed to him 1st Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life 2dly Job 26.13 By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens his Hand hath formed the crooked Serpent 3dly Psalm 104.30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are Created c. 4thly Gen. 1.1 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters The Spirit did co-create with other Divine Persons or Subsistences in the Deity And therefore it is said That in the beginning Gods or the Almighties created the Heavens and the Earth Which Words being inclusive of more than one Person and the Spirit of God being said to move upon the Face of the Waters I think we may safely say that the Holy Spirit did co-work with other Divine Persons in the work of Creation and was one of those Persons of whom it 's said Let us make Man in our Image after our Likeness c. So that from these Scriptures it is clear that the Holy Spirit did create and therefore we cannot deny his Deity Fourthly The Deity of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated by what is ascribed to him in the Conception of our Lord Jesus and by the Works that he accomplished through the Power received from him First Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost Luke 1.34 Then said Mary unto the Angel How shall this be seeing I know not a Man Vers 35. And the Angel answered and said unto her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee Therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And Matth. 1.18 Mary was found with Child of the Holy Ghost From both these Scriptures it appears that our Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost the Power of the Highest which is God Not that any should imagine from hence that every particular attribute in God are so many Persons in the Godhead but essential Properties of the One
Lord God Almighty We grant that because these are different therefore it would be absurd to infer that Moses is the Lord where is the Holy Ghost called God's Servant or God's Instrument The second place Isa 65. 1. with Rom. 10.20 in the one place it is said I am found of those that sought me not so saith God in another place Isaiah saith the same Words therefore Isaiah is the Lord. It is clear the Lord by Isaiah foretold the Conversion of the Gentiles and that he by his Grace moved them to seek him before they looked for Salvation by Christ St. Paul relating the same Text sheweth that Isaiah freely spake of the calling of the Gentiles Who is so blind as not to see clearly that Isaiah used those Words as God's Messenger in the Name of the Lord and what is more usual with the Prophets than to use such Words to gain due respect to their Words Thus saith the Lord. This Example then is not parallel to that under Debate it is not agreeable to the Scripture-Language for the Holy Ghost to speak in the Name of the Lord. The third touching God's saving and Paul's saving is as unfit and as far from the Mark as the former for evident it is that Paul himself could not plant except God gave the Blessing and he always ascribes Salvation to God as the principal cause thereof and confesseth that he is but God's Instrument by whose Ministry he saved much People A Creature cannot be properly called God nor doth any other Scripture or the nature of the thing it self teach any such thing nor doth the New Testament unless by quoting Texts out of the old Shadows being gone use such Expressions lest we should conceive Gods subordinate to the High God This you grant but you add withal That you can make the same answer touching the Lord and the Holy Ghost You have the Face not to blush at strange Answers What is it that you cannot write But if you should be peremptory in such an Answer you cannot make it good What Line in God's Words yea what probability can you produce for this Parallel It is great Reason that if a Man will forsake the Common Road that he should give a good account of his going into By-Ways not trodden by Passengers many hundred years together It is well that by your own Confession the other alledged-Scriptures do clearly distinguish betwixt the principal Cause and Instrument and it will be requisite if you look to be credited that you demonstrate by the Circumstances of the Text Isa 6. or by some other convincing Proof that the Holy Spirit is a created Angel and that he is in a proper Notion God's Ambassador and his Instrument to inspire the Holy Prophets to discharge their Embassy which is a Task I know impossible to be performed by you There is say you an intimation in the Texts themselves for Isaiah only heard the words in a Vision and was to tell them to the People not present with him But Paul ascribes them to the Holy Ghost because whatsoever was spoken in the Scriptures is recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and so spoken by him This is then his meaning These Words were from the Lord as first delivered by him to Isaiah and from the Holy Ghost as they were penn'd in the Scripture This is a sensless and groundless Figment as though the Holy Ghost spoke not as well to Isaiah in that Vision to deliver his Message to the People as to inspire him to write infallibly what he had heard in that Divine Vision Is there any intimation of difference in these to be distinguished Actions and as tho the Lord himself did not both The Current of the Scripture is to this purpose without a shadow of Contradiction Take that one place 2 Pet. 1.20 21. No Prophecy of Scripture is of any private Interpretation Prophets prophesied not to their Auditors their own Sense but God's Mind For Prophecy came not at any time by the Will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So that they were acted by the Spirit not only in writing but in speaking yea those Prophets which were not God's Pen-men as Elias and Elisha yet were inspired by the Holy Ghost Such vain Fancies as yours are Mr. Biddle can please none but vain and unsetled Heads To this I add that the Lord 's speaking to Isaiah in the Vision chap. 6. and the Holy Ghost speaking by him to the Fathers Acts 28. cannot be understood that at two different times the Lord and the Holy Ghost speake to the Prophet 1. Because the Holy Ghost did not only inspire the Prophet afterwards to record in writing his Message to the Fathers but by Word sent the Prophet saying Go unto this People and say c. So that the Prophet was to say to the Fathers what the Holy Ghost had said by word to him in the Vision 2dly Because John tells us Joh. 12.41 that Isaiah said these things when he saw his Glory and spake of him whereby it is manifest that the Prophet spake these things unto the Fathers from the Mouth of the Lord and the Holy Ghost in the Vision And forasmuch as the Apostle tells us that it was the Holy Ghost which spake in that Vision it shews that he is the same Lord and Jehovah that the Seraphims worshipped Objection to 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you It is objected by some from this place that the Holy Spirit is God in that our Body is said to be his Temple I answer That it would follow could it be proved that our Body is so the Temple of the Holy Spirit as to be his by the highest Interest and primarily dedicated to his Honour they are his by Inhabitation The Spirit is disposed of and given by God to us and consequently he is ours by Interest not we his And accordingly the Apostle concludeth from thence that we ought with our Body to glorify not the Spirit but God who is openly distinguished from the Spirit and declared to be the Proprietor of our Body Answer First They say indeed that our Body is not the Temple of the Holy Ghost by Interest but they cannot prove it for our being his by Inhabitation excludes not our being his by Interest any more than God's dwelling in the Temple which Solomon built did exclude his highest Interest to it and its chief Dedication to his Glory but our being his first by Interest makes us his by Inhabitation Secondly Though the Holy Spirit be given of God and so by donation becometh ours yet neither doth this exclude us from being his by the highest Right for the Holy Spirit 's being sent and given to us sheweth his Office and not his Essence of which I shall speak hereafter and if his being sent doth not disprove his Divine Essence it cannot
disprove us from being his by the highest Right which is in effect the same Thirdly Nor doth it thence follow that because the Apostle saith we must glorify God in our Body that therefore he not the Spirit is the Proprietor of our Bodies For if the Holy Ghost had a lesser Right to our Body as a Creature only helping with us to worship God our Body could not be properly said to be his Temple for no Temple beareth the Name of the Worshippers which then with us the Spirit would be but of him that dwelleth therein and is worshipped and therefore seeing that our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and it consequently follows that he is to be glorified therein it then agrees with the Apostle's words Glorify God in your Body And to say that the Holy Ghost inhabits the Temple of God 1 Cor. 2.16 and receives the same Worship either defiles and dishonours his Temple and gives his Glory to another or acknowledgeth the Holy Spirit to be God And therefore as we must not presume to think that the Holy Apostle should so dishonour the Temple of God and pollute his Holy Name as to ascribe the name of a Creature to it So we may conclude that our Body which is the Temple of God as appears in 1 Cor. 3.16 would not be asserted to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost unless by his highest Interest as he is God And though our Adversaries would have the words Glorify God in your Body to inforce the Sense of the Text in favour of their opinion yet they have a far different Signification than to bring in God as Proprietor of our Body in opposition to the Holy Ghost's highest Interest to us For the Apostle does not intend by these words either to exclude the Holy Spirit from the highest Interest to our Bodies or to intimate to us that God and the Holy Ghost are two different Essences but he rather designs by the word God indefinitely spoken instead of the Holy Spirit before mentioned to include also the Father and the Son that not only the Holy Ghost but all three Divine Persons should be glorified in our Body and in our Spirit which are God's Now let us sum up the whole and see what our Adversaries gain by these Objections First I have shewed that our being his by Inhabitation excludes not our being his by Interest Nor Secondly does the Donation of the Holy Ghost or his being sent exclude our being his by the highest Right Nor yet Thirdly do these words Glorify God in your Body destroy the primacy of the Holy Spirit to our Bodies And if neither of these disprove that our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost by the highest Right and as primarily dedicated to his Glory then nothing yet they have said can disprove his Deity from this Scripture for as it is confessed that to prove the one is to prove the other so not to disprove the one is not to disprove the other Objection to 2 Cor. 3.17 Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty By that Spirit is not here meant the third Person in the Holy Trinity but the Expression implieth the same Spirit that was before in the 6th Verse opposed to the Letter and consequently the Mystery or hidden Sense of the Law denoted by the Letter for thus the word Spirit is to be taken Rom. 2.29 Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter And Rom. 7.6 But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter And Rev. 11.8 where Jerusalem is mystically and spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Wherefore the Sense of the Words of Paul is this namely That the Lord Christ is the Mystery Life Scope and Kernel of the Law as being both foretold therein and prefigured by the Ceremonies thereof Answer First As they say Spirit is not put for his Person in ver 6 8. but for his Effects and Operations or Gospel-Ministration however it cannot from thence follow that Spirit in ver 3 17 18. is put only for his Effects and not his Person 1st Because the Effects of the Spirit viz. his Writing and Gospel-Liberty is joined together with the Spirit and therefore the Spirit here is not put for his Effects but for Himself and so it is in ver 18. where it 's said We are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Margent Of the Lord the Spirit Here also the effect of the Spirit to wit our change into the same Image of Christ's Glory being joined together with the Spirit there is a necessity that by Spirit must be meant his Person and not Effect And this is noted to us by the Translators of our Bible in writing Spirit with a great Letter when for his Person and with a little Letter when the Spirit is put for his Effects which may be seen in this Chapter where thrice ver 3 17 18. the Person of the Spirit is understood and thrice his Effects ver 6 8. 2dly That the Lord Christ is the Mystery Life Scope and Kernel of the Law as being both foretold therein and prefigured by the Ceremonies thereof may be granted to them but not that this is properly intended by those Words The Lord is that Spirit as pointing thereby only to his Effects in ver 6 8. 1st Because we may better refer those Words to that Spirit which is put for his Person in ver 3. which as it there appears is the efficient cause of the Epistle of Christ written both in the Hearts of the Apostles and of the Church of Corinth ver 2 3. So that that Spirit is there first put for his Person and the efficient cause of the Effects for which it is put in ver 6 8. and afterwards in ver 17 18. being joined with his effects and thereby differenc'd as the efficient cause and Person of the Spirit is said to be the Lord or as it is exprest the Lord is that Spirit and therefore if they will have these words that Spirit ver 17. to point at Spirit before mentioned in the Chapter it must then be referred to Verse 3d Person to Person and not Person to effect 2dly Nothing is more plain than that Spirit in ver 17. must be taken for his Person because his Effects are so strongly joined to him viz. Liberty which the Gospel it self viz. the Letter of it does not give but by the Power and Efficacy of the Holy Spirit So that it 's clear from the Text that by these words the Lord is that Spirit must be understood the Person of the Spirit in the Unity of Essence with the second Person the Son of God 3dly In Verse 18. We are said with open face to behold as in a Glass viz. of the Gospel the
essentially considered may have equally the same Worship and Adoration given to them but respecting the different Share Work and Office belonging to our Salvation proper to each Divine Person we ought in Divine Worship to make different Attributions accordingly thereunto Thirdly The Apostle's Design was not to make a full Description of God unto us but to shew the calling of the Church that it was but one body in the Unity of one Spirit in one Hope and Faith in one Lord unto one God and Father who is above all the ministerial Offices of Christ and the Holy Spirit who work from him and through them he is in us all And therefore it was needful to use those different Titles otherwise the Union of the Church in one Spirit with one Lord the Mediator and head in our Nature and Order of Faith and Worship could not so distinctly be understood Objection from John 17.3 And this is Life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Since Christ so described the Father as to call him the only true God it is understood that only the Father of Christ is the most high God to exclude them from the true Godhead who were then falsly esteemed and worshipped for Gods and not only them but all others also besides the Father from the most high Godhead for the word only excludeth all others from the Communion of the Predicate viz. the true God besides him viz. the Father to whom it is applied and consequently Christ and the Holy Spirit For if the Gods of the Heathen are by those words of Christ understood to be excluded from the true Godhead because it is apparent that they are different from the Father then it is necessary that all who are apparently different from the Father of Jesus Christ should be excluded from that true Godhead for otherwise the Argument which should from these Words be drawn to exclude the Idols of the Heathen from the true Godhead would be invalid Answer 1st Christ so describeth the Father as the only true God to exclude them from the true Godhead who are falsly so esteemed and worshipped for Gods and that are not God by Nature But it is not to be understood as if the Person of the Father only were the true God for though they say that the Adjective only as often as it is implied to exclude other Subjects from the Communion of the Predicate belongs to the Subject not the Predicate yet this must be only granted where the Subject is not in the Unity of the same Essence with other Subjects but here it is and therefore the word only belongs to the Predicate not the Subject Now then the Question will be whether the word only is here so used as to exclude others that are in the Unity of Essence with the Subject from the Predicate or not If it had been said that the Father only is the true God it had excluded all others from the Unity of Essence with him and consequently Christ and the Holy Spirit But the words are That they might know thee the only true God and thus the word only doth not exclude such from the Communion of the Predicate viz. the true God that are in the Community of the Subject viz. the Father as Christ and the Holy Spirit are but those only that are out of Community with him So that they must first prove that the Son and the Holy Spirit are not in the Unity of Essence coessential with the Father before this Argument can be of use to them 2dly I shall note wherefore Christ did assert his Father's Deity more than his own and that was to inform us what was Life eternal For as the Knowledg of the Father as true God yea as the only true God is essential to Salvation so also is the Knowledg of the Son of God as Mediator in both Natures for to know and believe in the Son as the only true God only will not save us but we must know him also as he is in our Nature in which he purchased eternal Life Rom. 3.25 1 John 4.3 John 6.53 Now seeing that it was necessary to assert the Father to be the only true God and to mention the Son that we should know him as Mediator in both Natures as his Name Jesus Christ sutes unto why then should any imagine that this Text of Scripture opposes the Deity of Jesus Christ To what is before objected concerning the Holy Spirit I shall add what another of our Adversaries saith on this Text viz. That our Saviour Christ setting down those Persons in the Knowledg of whom eternal Life consisteth makes no mention of the Holy Spirit whereas if he were God the Knowledg of him would be as necessary for the Attainment of eternal Life as that of the Father To this I answer First That here to omit the mentioning of the Holy Spirit does not deny the Knowledg of him as God to be essential to Salvation For as was said to know Jesus Christ in both Natures is essential to Salvation for we find that eternal Lise is entailed on the Son of God John 3.18 viz. his Person in our Nature and not in his human Nature alone for that is but an Appendent to his Person and then the Holy Ghost being only omitted by Name he must be included in the Knowledg of the Father and the Son as being the Spirit of the Father and the Son and personally proceeding from them both and subsisting coessentially in them And therefore when the Father and the Son are mentioned the Holy Spirit must be included Secondly All saving Knowledg or Revelation of God depends upon God himself who only can so reveal himself unto his Creatures Matth. 11.25 27. I thank thee O Father because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes No Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him And John 16.15 All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I He viz. the Spirit shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you And 1 Cor. 2.10 11. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit For what Man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God From which Scriptures we find that the Revelation of the Knowledg of God is appropriated to the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and that none but the Father save the Son and but the Holy Spirit can savingly reveal God or each other personally and essentially unto us And as we cannot exclude our Knowledg of the Father and the Son from the Revelation of the Spirit though it is appropriated to the Father and the Son by those words but the Father and save the Son nor exclude our Knowledg of
if they will run the Comparison to demonstrate the Being of God we must then conclude that as the Spirit or Soul of Man being the most excellent part of his Nature is essential to his Being so by this Rule is the Spirit of God also which proves his Deity Objection from John 1.32 And John bare Record saying I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him The Spirit is not God because he changed place and descended in a bodily Shape Answer First This Descension of the Holy Ghost disproveth not his Deity because the like hath been said of God in Gen. 11.5 And the Lord came down to see the City and the Tower And in Gen. 18.21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it And the Lord descended on Mount Sinai Exod. 34.5 Secondly Although the most High God hath no shape yet he appeared to Abraham in the Shape of a Man representing his Assumption of that Nature Gen. 18.2 22. chap. 19.1 and therefore this Objection against the Deity of the Holy Ghost is of no weight and not only from the aforesaid Example but also because we find that when the Holy Ghost fell on the Disciples that there were cloven Tongues which was an outward and visible sign of the Gifts and Operation of the Holy Spirit and did neither betoken his corporal Substance nor was a description of his Shape In like manner the Holy Spirit 's descending in the bodily shape of a Dove did neither betoken his corporal Substance nor change of place but like Noah's Dove Peace and Glad-tidings towards Men. For Peter in his first Epistle chap. 3.20 21. makes the Waters of Noah a Type of Gospel-Baptism and then as after Noah's Ark did rest upon dry Ground a Dove was the minister of glad-tidings to him and all his House so God was pleased in answer to that Type and as was fittest to represent the Innocency of Christ after his Baptism and Salvation from the Water to send the Holy Ghost to him in the same shape and afterwards to his Disciples to minister such divine Power and Comfort as might strengthen comfort and incourage them to that work which God had appointed for them so that there is not the least reason from this Scripture to deny the Deity of the Holy Spirit Objection from John 16.13 Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shew you things to come Ver. 14. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Ver. 15. All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you The Holy Spirit is here said not to speak of himself but what he hears which sheweth that he receiveth those things by Commission from another and therefore he is not God for God cannot be said to receive any thing from another which he had not before Answer First The Holy Spirit must be two ways considered 1. Essentially as he is essentially God 2. Personally as he is a Divine Person in the Godhead First As he is essentially God he can neither receive Commission or be under the direction of any other of what he should either do or speak 2dly As he is a Divine Person or Subsistent in the Godhead and proceedeth from the Father and the Son and hath his peculiar Office he may be said to receive to speak and be sent by Comission from another he may be inferiour in Office though not in Nature to the other Divine Persons And hence it is that some times the Holy Ghost is said to be sent in another's Name and given to us John 14.26 and at other times it is spoken as of his Power in himself to work according to his Will John 16.7 8. 1 Cor. 12.11 Now each of these are proper to the Holy Ghost viz. to be given sent to receive and speak from another or to have Power in himself to work as he will The first they respect his Office according to his Personal Subsistence by procession from the Father and the Son and not that he had not the Knowledg of those things before and the other takes in the Divine Essence too Secondly It may be further said That the Disciples of our Lord had much darkness on them and were ignorant of many things contained in the Holy Scriptures till Christ did enlighten their Understandings and therefore they might not have fully understood and digested this sacred Truth for we read of some which said We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Luke 24.45 Acts 1.6 Acts. 19.2 This being premised our Lord Jesus might speak this to assure them of the Holy Ghost's infallible Conduct into all Truth not only because he is the Spirit of Truth himself which cannot err but also because he should not speak only as a single voluntary Act of his own but with the mutual concurrence of the Father and the Son So that whatsoever he should hear actually interceded for by Christ and assented to by God the Father which should be needful for us to know that the Holy Spirit should shew unto us So that this Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost is said not to speak of himself but what he hears c. hath a peculiar relation unto his Ministerial Office which cannot be repugnant to his Divine Nature for one Person may be inferiour to another in Office and yet of the same Nature as hath been said Objection from Rev. 1.1 13. ch 2.7 where it appears that the Spirit which the seven Churches of Asia were required to hearken unto was none other but the Angel that was sent to John and did personate Jesus Christ and therefore the Holy Spirit cannot be God equal with the Father Answer The Angel that personated Jesus Christ the same bid the Apostle John to write to the seven Churches of Asia But in all the Epistles he did not speak to him in his own Name or first Person nor dictate the Epistles as from himself but from the Person of Jesus Christ saying unto John Write these things saith he viz. the Son of God the First and the Last which was Dead and is Alive c. So that when the Angel in the conclusive part of the Epistles saith to John He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches he speaks not of and from himself but of Jesus Christ who is that Spirit whom they are bid to hear And this agrees with 2 Cor. 3.17 The Lord is that Spirit and is farther confirmed and laid as a Foundation-Truth in the Beginning of this Vision viz. that what the Angel said must be referred to the Almighty Lord ver 8. I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and
to be Scripture which certainly he would have done if there had been any doubt made of it in the primitive times It is cited by Cyprian in his Book de Vnitate Ecclesiae Paxillus in his Book de Monomachia proves by an Induction of the learned Doctors of the Church both before and since Athanasius that the Doctrine of the coessential Trinunity of these Heavenly Witnesses was generally received by all that were esteemed orthodox and pious in the Church of Christ Calovius also in his Fides patrum ante Concilium Nicenum gives in a Catalogue for the Satisfaction of all that desire Resolution in this weighty point See Mr. Estwick of the Godhead of the Holy Ghost Dr. Alting his Vindication of this Text in his Confutation of the Racovian Catechism CHAP. V. Wherein are answered some Objections inferred by our Adversaries from divers Texts of Scripture to disprove the Deity of the Holy Ghost OBjection from Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father and no Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him How could this be true were the Holy Spirit a Divine Person distinct from the Father and the Son and in all things equal unto both for some other besides the Father would have known the Son and some other besides the Son would have known the Father namely the Holy Spirit Answer First We must not understand this Text in the strictest sense as if Christ the Son of God was not known at that time by any besides the Father 1. He was known as Man John 7.27 We know this Man whence he is 2. He was known as the Son of God John 1.41 49. Said Andrew to Simon Peter We have found the Messias Nathaniel answered and said unto him Rabbi Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel His Disciples believed on him chap. 2.11 and others chap. 4.53 Secondly Neither is this Scripture to be considered as though Christ's Disciples and others then had not some Knowledg of God the Father for in John 6.44 45. it is said No Man can come to me except the Father draw him Every Man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me So that no Man could come to Christ without some Knowledg and Teachings of God the Father Thirdly It then follows that if this Text is not to be understood totally to exclude all Men from some Knowledg of the Father and the Son until afterwards they should be revealed then it intends only to exclude them from some special and peculiar Knowledg which they have and in reference to their revealing of each other The Father knoweth the Son and the Son the Father in a different manner from all Creatures in that they know each other perfectly of their own Self-Knowledg Yet the Words of Christ are not to be taken simply of that peculiar Knowledg but with reference to the Revelation which the Father makes of the Son and Christ of the Father as appears in ver 25. where Christ saith I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes And now it follows that Christ tells us No Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him As if he had said No Man knoweth the Son so as to reveal him savingly but the Father neither doth any Man after the same manner know the Father save the Son only And this suits with the following Invitation for burthened Souls to come to Christ as to one that can reveal and open the Father's Heart wherein they may through him have rest for their weary Souls ver 28 c. chap. 1.18 ch 6.41 Fourthly Having opened the Text and shewed that it must not be positively understood I shall now answer directly to what is objected concerning the Holy Spirit And First I shall note that if Men who are named and only intended are but in part excluded then the Holy Ghost who is not named neither intended cannot from these words be excluded from the knowledg of the Father and the Son Secondly We must not conceive that the Holy Spirit is excluded from the Fellowship of this Knowledg which the Father and the Son have of each other because he is not mentioned for the Ministration of the Spirit was not yet come I said before that here we are not to understand Knowledg simply but with reference to Revelation and this was now ministred by the Father and the Son more secretly through the Spirit but apparently to assure his Disciples and convince the Sons of Men that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God that was sent forth from the Bosom of the Father to declare his Will by such sensible visible and external Testimonies as would leave all Men without excuse The Father bearing witness to the Son twice by a Voice from Heaven and the Son by the mighty Works he wrought in the Father's Name bore witness of him and gave undeniable proof of his special Mission from God and that he was the Messiah that was to come John 1.18 chap. 5.17 36 43. chap. 14.10 2 Pet. 1.17 18. Matth. 3.17 And this was the very reason that so little mention was made of the Holy Ghost the Mystery of God being left more fully to be opened and revealed after Christ's Ascension by that Divine Person whose proper Work it was to confirm the Testimony of the Father and the Son that went before So that the Holy Ghost was not omitted by Christ because he was not in the Unity of that Knowledgâ— but because the time for the great work of his ministerial Revelation was not yet come So that no Foundation can be laid on this Scripture in opposition to the Deity of the Holy Ghost Objection from 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God The Spirit which is of God is God's Effect and depends upon him and so is inferiour to him Answer 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit For what Man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God Now we have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God First The Apostle useth this Comparison not to demonstrate the Being of God but to shew that we cannot know the things of God till the Spirit of God reveals them to us Secondly They cannot from thence conclude that the Spirit of God is God's Effect and so is inferiour to him any more than that the Spirit of Man is also the Effect of Man and so inferiour to Man But