the sure spirituall band of union betweene Christ the head and them the members of the same mysticall body Quest What is Adoption Answ. It is a necessary consequent of the union of the Elect with Christ For Christ being the only begotten Son of God by eternall generation as hee is God and as hee is Man by personall union with God the Sonne and by a supernaturall and miraculous generation and so heire of all things Heb. 1. 2. It must necessarily follow that whosoever are in him one body with him and lead by his Spirit do thereby come under the account of children and heires of God and of coheires with Christ and so God the Father doth esteeme respect and accoumpt them the Spirit dwelling in them doth witnesse with their spirit that they are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. Quest What is the Communion with Christ of all his benefits Answ. It is a consequent that is a grace necessarily following from union with Christ For whosoever are by one Spirit baptized into Christ and made one spirituall body with him as really and substantially as all members in a mans body are one naturall body with the head they must needs have such a spirituall communion of all Christs treasures vertues and endowents as is the naturall communion which all the members in a mans body have with the head Christs sufferings satisfaction for sin righteousnesse ransome and intercession are theirs and they have a right and interest in them and communion of them all And thus God justifies and makes them fundamentally righteous by Christs perfect righteousnesse frees them from the guilt of all their sins by his satisfactory sufferings and accepts them for his redeemed and reconciled ones through Christs intercession and makes them actually accepted in his beloved Christ Eph. 1. 6. Quest What are the works of saving grace which God so worketh in the Elect that they also being moved by his Spirit do cooperat and worke together with him Answ. They are the actions of the Elect regenerat exercising by the motion of the Spirit those spirituall gifts and Christian vertues which were given them by renovation or renuing of the holy Ghost Quest Which is the first of them Answ The first is actuall Faith or Beleeving in God and in Christ for as the gift of Faith is the first of all spirituall gifts which by the renuing of the holy Ghost is wrought in the elect regenerate So the worke of their Faith that is actuall beleeving is the first of all which by the motion of the Spirit they performe after they are quickned and raised up to live a spirituall life Quest Why is the work of their Faith the first before the acts of knowledge repentance love hope and the rest Answ. Because Faith possesseth the whole heart and soule of man and informeth after a sort all the powers and faculties thereof even the understanding will and affections It is the opening of the understanding to take notice of Gods goodnesse and of the truth of his Word It is the inclining of the will to give assent to the whole Word of God and all truth therein revealed and to acknowledge all Gods Truth Goodnesse and Mercy in Christ It is the rectifying of the affections and the plyablenesse of them to trust in God to rely on him to hope in his mercy to love feare and reverence him and to hate all offence of his holy Majesty to sorrow for sin with godly sorrow to repentance to rejoyce and delight in the things of God and to bee zealous of good works and resolve to serve honour and obey God in a constant course of life This saving Faith sets a work all other graces and therefore all works of true godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse performed by the Elect regenerate and sanctified are called fruits of Faith by which their Faith is openly shewed and made knowne as a tree by the fruits of it Quest Which is the proper work of true saving Faith Answ The proper work of it by which all other graces are set a work is a firme and stedfast beleeving with the whole heart of the Word of God and all things therein revealed which concerne their salvation by Christ that is both eternall life in the fruition of God and the way to it Quest What difference is there betweene this beleeving and that which is in Devils and in carnall hypocrites who beleeve these things or at least many of them at some times Answ. There is as great difference between them as between light and darknesse The beleeving of the Elect regenerat proceeds from a supernaturall cause and from a Divine and holyroot even the Spirit of God dwelling in them as Gods immortall seed and sanctifying them and therefore it is holy firme and stedfast and reacheth beyond all hope sense and reason But that of the Devils and carnall hypocrites proceeds from their own naturall reason convinced by sense experience and plaine arguments or by a common illumination of the Spirit shining from without into the hearts of hypocrites and temporary beleevers as we read of Simon Magus Act. 8. 13. and the hypocriticall Iews who beleeved in Christs name when they saw his miracles John 2. 23. And therefore their beleeving is carnall temporary and vanishing and goeth no further than sense and naturall reason do lead The beleeving of the Elect is the subsisting of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. That is they have the things which they beleeve as certainly as they beleeve that they have them and hope for them and their beleeving is a cleare evidence to them of their being in Christ and of their communion with him in grace and of their portion in Heaven which things are not seene with carnall eyes of sense or reason For the Spirit which works this beleefe hath united them to Christ and made Christ and all his benefits theirs already so that their beleeving is infallible and cannot deceive them But Devils carnall men and hypocrites cannot reach so far as to beleeve their own particular salvation in Christ or their having of things thereto belonging And if any of them do at any time Mich. 3. 11. it is but a false and vanishing beliefe In a word whosoever doth by a true saving Faith beleeve historically the Word of God and the truth therein conteined he hath withall an affiance in God and grace to beleeve by all other acts of Faith even to apply to himselfe all Gods promise by beleeving steadfastly that they belong to himself in particular For as the Spirit wch works this faith is the fountain of all grace and unites the beleevers to Christ makes him all his benefits theirs So this Faith necessarily produceth all acts of beleeving in them and makes them able by beleeving to apply to themselvs to enjoy all blessings which are to be found in Christ Quest What benefits do the Elect receive by
beleeving applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men is only an assent unto the Word of God that it is true arising from carnal reason and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth or any relying on it On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason but guided by Gods Spirit and joyned with a relying on God and his Word upon the Divine authority of the speaker and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation may in that respect be called a saving beliefe as we see at large Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt and such like acts of beleeving proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith are declared to bee saving Faith Quest How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate and justified Answ. By the sense feeling and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse satisfaction and intercession it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God to us in Christ And being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts so that being inflamed with the love of God wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins which are offensive to his holy Majesty We are ashamed and confounded because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God and mercifull Father wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance wee strive and wrastle against our lusts and by the assistance of the Spirit tame and subdue them so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies we contend to sollow hard after God to cleave to him in love and to bee still more more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour that wee may abound in all good works and still forgetting those things which are behind may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In all which workes of saving grace as God moves us by his Spirit so we being moved enabled and made a free people do cooperate and work together with him till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ and be fitted to see God in glory Quest What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace and the works of grace in them For they are borne again of incorruptible seed that is of the Spirit by the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them through Christ and the first saving worke even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts and leads them into all truth John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith for Faith commeth by hearing and none can beleeve except heheare Rom. 10. 14 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation is conteined in the Word and there only to be learned John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin and their own misery humbles them in their own eies and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk and is a lamp to their feet and light to their steps Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life and sets before them the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God in Christ and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God with joy and delight in God and with zeale for his glory and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy love and charity and in all holinesse and sanctification till they be conformed to Christ and to serve honour and worship God And in a word the whole Scripture which is the sure infallible Word of God given by Divine inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest How must the Word of God bee used that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles but also preached and expounded by godly able and learned Ministers who are called and sent of God Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen who have a charge given to watch for mens soules Ezek. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word the Bread of Life Act. 20. 28. Ezek. 34. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest What other meanes are to be used Answ None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word to wit the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word publike Prayers Invocation and Worship of God And also good education and private Prayers and instruction and often reading of Gods Word alone and in private Families Quest What is a Sacrament Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes seales pledges and
1 Tim. 26. and by him all things are said to consist Coloss. 1. 17. Quest How can Christs vertue reach to them who are a far off Aliens and Strangers from him and enemies to his Crosse and sufferings Answ. It reacheth to them not immediatly by vertue of union with him as it doth to the Faithfull but after a secondary manner for his Elects sake For Christ by his mediation hath obteined of God that all the World which was made for mans use should be upheld by his generall providence that the Heavens and the Sun Moon and Stars should keep their course and continue in their naturall being and give light and influence to the good and the bad the just and unjust and that the Aire the Earth and the Sea should breed and nourish living creatures and herbes plantes fruit-trees and all other things usefull for men yea the wicked prosper and flourish in wealth and strength either that they may be a wall of defence to the Elect which live among them or that they may build houses plant vineyards and subdue the Earth for them as the cursed Canaanites did for Israel or that they may be progenitors and instruments to bring forth an elect seed as our fore-fathers the Heathen Gentiles were to us their Christian progeny or for the punishing and correcting of the sins of the elect as the Canaanites were kept alive to punish the Israelites when they sinned and for the tryall and exercise of their Faith and patience by unjust persecution Christ by his Mediation hath procured all these things for his elects sake to all creatures which otherwise should have perished with man being all stained and corrupted by his sin And hence it is that he is said to beare up the pillars of the world when the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved Psal. 75 3. And thus farre we may grant and acknowledge an universall grace which Christ by his Mediation hath procured to all the world even to the wicked reprobates which perish Quest Hath not Christ procured to all man-kind grace and ability to beleeve repent and be saved if they will do as much as they are able for the obteining of regeneration and other saving graces of the Spirit Answ. No certeinely For Regeneration Effectuall calling Faith and all saving Graces are purchased and given by Christ only to the Elect for whom alone he prayed and doth still make intercession And they also while they remaine in the common state of Nature have no power in themselves either to will or to do any work truly good but are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes. 2. 1. They are aliens and enemies in their minds and all their thoughts incline to evill Colos. 1. 21. If all men even they who perish had power and liberty of will to beleeve and be saved certeinely some of them who are not elect would beleeve and be regenerate and use their liberty to the saving of their soules For it is given for that end that it might be brought into act and take effect if it never doth it is given by God in vaine But Nature as the Philosophers observed never gives power in vaine and much more doth the God of Nature abhorre to give men a vaine power which never comes into act Quest If it be not in their power to do any worke tending to life nor to beleeve and repent why are they condemned for infidelity impenitency and omission of good works Answ. Though they cannot beleeve nor repent to salvation yet they have a power left by common grace to use the meanes which lead to Faith and Repentance as hearing of the Word reading the Scriptures hearkning to Reproofes and to good admonitions and exhortations and this naturall power they refuse to exercise and wickedly and wilfully neglect and reject those outward meanes Also by their sin in Adam they have disabled themselves are become froward and averse from all actions truly good and are a cursed generation justly condemned Quest How come the Elect to bee redeemed and saved by the Mediation of Christ seeing they by nature have no more interest in Christ than others Answ. They are redeemed and saved by the most gracious supernaturall working of God in them according to his eternall Counsel Purpose and Decree For as he hath ordeined them to eternall life in Christ before the foundation of the world so it doth in the time appointed gather them to himselfe in and by the Lord Iesus Christ Quest By what meanes doth God worke saving grace in them Answ. By the Ministery and Preaching of his holy Word which is a worke of the Propheticall office of Christ For by that Word spoken to the Elect Fathers of old in Dremes Visions and Apparitions and after spoken and written by Moses the Prophets and Holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and since by the mouth of Christ and his Apostles Evangelists and their successors hee hath revealed and doth continually reveale himselfe to them in Christ teacheth them the onely right way to salvation cals upon them and invites them by gracious promises to come unto him and by the threatenings of the Law he drives them out of themselvs discovers their sins and the dangerous estate in which they are by reason of sinne and suffers them to find no place wherein to rest untill like Noahs dove they flee unto his Arke the true Church Quest Can the Word Preached bring men to Christ and to salvation in him Answ. It is the only outward ordinary meanes which God useth for that purpose and we never read of any who without the word beleeved were called effectually to Christ and saved All Heathen Infidels Turks and Pagans who either never heard the Word Preached or hearing do refuse and reject it do undoubtedly perish in their unbeliefe For he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3. 18. and without the Word heard none can beleeve Rom. 10. 14. Quest What then shall wee thinke of infants borne of beleeving parents which dye before they heare or are able to beleeve the Word Answ God teacheth and inclineth them inwardly by his Spirit to long after Christ and to grope after him as they do after their mothers breasts for milk and bodily nourishment but yet not without the Word For by the Word preached to their Fathers hee workes Faith in them and makes his covenant of life in Christ with them and their seed and so by the Ministery of the Word their infants come to be in the Covenant And God doth often times sanctifie them by his Spirit from the wombe as we read of Jeremy and John the Baptist or in their baptisme at the Prayers of his Church And therefore we ought charitably to beleeve and judge that children of beleeving parents as they are from the wombe holy by dedication 1 Cor. 7. 14. and capable of baptisme so are inwardly baptized by the Spirit into Christ and if they dye
in their infancy are saved by the free Grace of God who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will Quest How doth the Word preached worke saving grace in men Answ. Not barely by it selfe nor by any divine vertue inherent in it but by the free grace of God and the inward operation of the Spirit working with it when and where and in whom he will For the Word preached doth not profit when it s notmingled with Faith in them that heare it Heb. 4. 2. as we see in the Iewes to whom Christ himselfe preached and yet they were not turned to God but the Word by him spoken through their infidelity turned to their hurt wrought to the hardening of them in their sins and left them without all excuse or any cloak for their wickednesse Iohn 15. 22. Quest What are those necessary works and saving graces which God by his Word and Spirit worketh in men to bring them to salvation in Christ Answ. They are works and graces which flow from Gods eternall election and are only wrought in the elect They are necessary because without them none can be saved and they are called saving works and graces because the persons in whom they are once wrought can never fall away and perish but shall certeinely persevere in them and be saved And they all may be brought under two heads The first are the works which God alone by his Word and Spirit worketh in his Elect. The second sort are the works which God so worketh that they also do cooperat with him and work together with his Spirit Quest Which are the works which God alone by his Spirit worketh in the Elect Answ. The first is regeneration from which all the rest do flow to wit renovation which is called renuing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Effectuall calling union with Christ adoption and Communion of all Christs benefits as of his ransome satisfaction righteousnesse and intercession for redemption remission of sins justification and perfect reconciliation Quest Which is the first saving grace Answ. The first which is the ground of al the rest is Regeneration Quest What is Regeneration Answ. It is that worke of God by which he sheds the Holy Ghost on his Elect through Iesus Christ of which Spirit given to dwell in them as his immortall seed they are borne again and become new creatures and spirituall members of Christ and children of God by a new birth and Generation Quest What is Renovation Answ. It is the work of God which he by his Spirit shed on them and dwelling in them doth work in them renuing them after the image of Christ and making them conformable to him both in his death by mortification and in his life by vivification Quest What is Mortification Answ. It is that work of Gods Spirit wherein hee deriveth the vertue of Christs death unto them and worketh in them such a sense of their misery sin and corruption and such a godly griefe sorrow contrition of heart loathing and abhorring of themselvs as doth tame their rebellious lusts and gives a deadly blow to the old man of sinfull corruption in them so that sinne can no more reigne in their mortall bodies but by grace they prevaile more and more over their corruption and do mortifie it continually Quest What is Vivification Answ. It is that worke of the Spirit by which he derives the vertue of Christs holy life unto them to quicken them and sanctifie them by inherit holines and to make them in the whole course of their life conformable to the holy and upright life of Christ Quest What gifts and graces are wrought in the Elect by Renovation Answ. The first which is as it were the root of the rest is Faith For as the Devill did first breath into Adam an unbeleefe and distrust of God and his truth so that hee beleeved not the Word and threatning of God but gave credit to Satans lyes and relyed on them and by his false beliefe Satan drew him on to a false opinion of God and a conceipt that God envyed his greater good whereupon hee began proudly to imagine that he might by eating of the forbidden tree become wise as God and did conceive enmity in his mind against God ambitious lusts and evill affections So God in renuing man doth first worke Faith in him which is the gift of beleeving in God and relying on his Word and Promises And by his Word beleeved he gives light of undeâ—standing and knowledge which drives out errors and false opinions and enables man to see his owne vilenesse and Gods goodnesse towards him whence ariseth the grace of humility and repentance also a sincere holy love of God feare and reverence of his Majesty joy rejoycing hope and delight in God and a will and desire to obey him in all things and in a word all Christian vertues by which a man becomes conformable to Christ Quest What is Effectuall Calling Answ. It is the work of the Spirit of Regeneration who by giving to the elect a new heart and spirit doth incline and enable them to follow the outward calling of the Word and to turne from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. Quest What is the Vnion of the Elect with Christ Answ. It is not a making of their severall persons one undivided Essence and Substance with the person of Christ For that unity is only in God and in the three persons of the blessed Trinity Neither is it a making of them one person with Christ by such a personal union as is between his Godhead and Manhood and betweene the soule and body of every man Neither is it a bodily uniting of them with Christ by a bodily mixture and composition of the substance of their soules and bodyes with the substance of the soule and body of Christ as wine and water are mingled together For such an union makes the things united inseparable in place one from another so that wheresoever Christs body is there they must needs be and can be in no other proper place who are thus united Neither is this union only in heart and affection But this is a spirituall mysticall and substantiall union in which Christ sitting at Gods right hand above the Heavens and they dispersed over all the Earth are made one spirituall and mysticall body whereof Christ is the head and they members by meanes of the same Spirit dwelling and working in them after the same maner as he dwelleth and worketh in the humane nature of Christ from his first conception and framing in the wombe For by one Spirit they are all Baptized into one body whereof Christ is the head and being many members they make up one body even as all members in naturall body though they be many make up but one body because they all have but one soule and life the holy Spirit of which they are regenerate borne againe and made new creatures is
beene shall be or can be and his Will is the rule of all things and is limitted to no rule or law but is it selfe the rule and law of all things Quest If God be infinite in Essence and Will and all Attributes and wholy present in all places by his whole Essence and all his Attributes How comes it to passe that he sheweth his glory above the Heavens more than in the World which is below and in one place hee doâ—h shew more power and justice and in another place and to other persons hee sheweth more goodnesse graâ—e and mercy Answ. There is great difference betweene God as he is in himselfe and as he is seene felt and apprehended by his creatures in his Word and Workes Though he is Omnipotent and can do all things yet he doth not worke all things in all to the full according to his infinite power but only so much as he pleaseth when where and in whom he will as in his Wisdome he thinkes fit for every one Neither can wee see and conceive Gods Essence and properties in themselves but in the effects and works of them which are limitted by his Will and Wisdome And though hee worketh by degrees and by measure Yet his Essence and essentiall properties are without measure and degree and his Word is fitted to our capacy Quest What other properties do you conceive to be in God Answ. There is no shadow of excellency Vertue Goodnesse or Grace in any creature but it is in God Essentially and Substancially one and the same thing with his very Essence and Substance He is Essentially Good Wise Iust Mercifull Gracious and Loving and even Goodnesse Wisdome Iustice and Mercy it selfe And as the Apostle saith that God is Love so we may truely and most properly say of him that he is Goodnesse Wisdom Iustice and Mercy and yet hee is in himselfe a most pure and simple Essence free from all mixture composition and division Quest Wherein doth this purity and simplicity of God consist Answ. It consists First in this that though God filleth Heaven Earth and is in and withall creatures Yet his substance is not mingled with any of them Secondly that hee is not compounded of things different neither of act and power as other Spiriturall substances are nor of matter and forme Substance and Accidents such as quantity quality and the like as bodily creatures are Thirdly that he cannot bee divided into severall parts as mens bodies are He is not of the same kind and nature with any other thing whatsoever But is a most pure simple Spirit or Spirituall substance in comparison of whom the most pure Spirits and Angels are but grosse substances and impure In a word his Substance and properties are all one and the same thing and wheresoever he is present there his whole Essence and all and every one of his essentiall properties are actually present even in all places at once Quest If God be only one most pure and simple Why do the Scriptures speak of three persons the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost and doe call every one of them IEHOVAH and God Though there is but one God and one Iehovah even one most pure and simple Nature and Essence Yet in this one pure simple undivided Essence there are three distinct persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all which three are but one Iehovah and one God and every one of them is called Iehovah and God because they are all of one and the same simple and Divine Essence Quest How are they then three persons distinguished one from another Answ. They are distinguished not by their Essence and Nature which in all three is one singular and undivided but by their personall subsistence and properties Quest Which are they Answ. First the Father subsists of himself and is not begotten of any but begets the Son The Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity and receives his personall subsistence from the person of the Father alone The Father and the Son together breath out the Spirit and the Spirit hath his subsistence by proceeding from them from all eternity Secondly in order the Father is the first the Son the second and the Holy Ghost the third though in time and dignity none of them is before or after other but all are coeternall consubstantiall and coequall of the same dignity glory and Majesty Quest How can he who is Jehovah and God eternall proceed and receive his personall subsistence from another Seeing Jehovah the true God is of himselfe and can receive nothing from any Answ. It is true that the persons considered according to their nature and substance which is common to all three and is one and the same in them all cannot beget nor be begotten nor proceed one from another For if God absolutely considered could beget as he is an absolut essence or be begotten or proceed then there might be more Gods than one But a person or personall subsistence in that one simple essence of God may beget another person but not another God and may be begotten and proceed not from the simple essence of God but from another person in that one Essence Wherefore the Son is begotten not as he is one and the same Essence with the Father but as hee is another person in that Essence and so the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as he is another person in the same Essence And so Iehovah the true God doth proceed from none nor receiveth any thing from any but a person which subsists in the Essence of God and is Iehovah the true God receiveth subsistence from another person in the same Essence Quest I see you do rightly conceive of God the Creator both in the unity of his Essence and in the Trinity of persons Now tell me which of the three persons created the world Answ. Though the Father is called the Creator of whom are all things Yet he alone did not create the world nor any thing in it but the Son and the Spirit also did work with the Father and had an equall hand in the Creation of every thing For in all the outward works of God that is the joynt operation of all the three persons Quest How doth it appeare that the creation is the work of all the three persons Answ. By plaine testimonies of holy Scripture for in the description of the Creation we have expresse mention of the Word that is the Sonne and of the Spirit Gen. 1. 1 2 3. and David Psal. 33. 6. saith by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth that is bâ— the son the Spirit For the Sonne is called the eternall Word one God with the Father by whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that was made John 1 1 2 3. And the Apostle Colos. 1. 16. saith that by Christ the Son all