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
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
Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them And Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World Jer. 23.24 Matth. 18.20 chap. 28.20 Psalm 139.7 to 14. Psalm 94.10 11. If any say that Christ means only that his Doctrine shall continue among the Faithful that congregate in his Name or as Ephes 3.17 To dwell in our Hearts by Faith viz. in his Doctrine It is answered That not simply his Doctrine as it is mixt with Faith in its abstract from inward feeling is here to be understood but some other presence of Christ with his People for he saith John 14.23 If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Where note that to such as have already received his Word by Faith in the love of it and keep it he hath promised a further Presence And what can it be but the inward sensation or feeling of his Love as sometimes we have Rom 5.1 to 6. tho at other times we have not Job 13.15 ch 23.8 to 11. But they may further say If this be the Presence of Christ you speak of it is not his personal Presence but by the Spirit which is called the Spirit of Faith that sheddeth the Love of God abroad in our Hearts To this I reply True it is not the personal Presence of Christ either as God-Man or of the Divine Person of the Son but as in and through the Spirit which will prove what is denied by them viz. That the Holy Spirit is God yea and the Son also For the Office of the Spirit is universal to all Saints throughout the World at the same instant time which is beyond the power of any finite Creature indeed Satan deceives the World but not by an infinite Presence at the same time in every place but by a finite personal going to and fro and walking up and down in it seeking whom he may devour being assisted by his evil Angels Job 1.7 1 Pet. 5.8 And as the Holy Spirit by his Office must be Omnipresent So also the Son as well as the Father is Omnipresent in and through the Spirit with the Saints in all places and in and with all Persons Places and Things whatsoever though not by the same Ministrations or Operations yet at the same instant Season and as the Father is Omnipresent in and through the Spirit so I see not the least reason why we should deny it to the Son but understand his Presence in the same sense seeing both are present in the Unity of the same Spirit For know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you As God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them And he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with the Father and the Son for the Holy Ghost is called The Spirit of our Father that speaketh in us and the Spirit of the Son sent forth into our Hearts crying Abba Father And the Spirit which is upon Christ shall not depart out of his Mouth nor out of the Mouth of his Seed nor of his Seed's Seed from henceforth and for ever and if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and by our Communion with the Holy Ghost we have Fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and are one in them and they will come and make their abode with us through that one Spirit whereby we are joyned unto the Lord. 1 Cor. 3.16 2 Cor. 6.16 1 Cor. 6.17 Mark 13.11 Matth. 10.20 Gal. 4.6 Isa 59.21 2 Cor. 13.14 1 John 1.3 John 17.21 chap. 14.23 And it is comfortable for us to believe that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World 1 John 4.4 Otherwise what may the Soul say when he is in trouble Surely I fear that notwithstanding the fulness of the precious Promises and the great Engagements of Christ to me that Christ and the Holy Spirit are far from me and are busied with other Saints and know not my Distress and therefore I may perish before they come to help me But blessed be God that hath laid help upon one that is Mighty Psal 89.19 who is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7.15 that knoweth all our open and secret Wants Rev. 2.23 and makes Intercession for us And as for the Holy Spirit our Bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us that abides with us for ever though his Operations may sometimes cease when he is grieved by us 1 Cor. 6.19 John 14.16 So that the Holy Ghost is not as one that cometh but now and then to visit our Souls but he makes his constant abode in us and so is always ready to mortify and sanctify our vile Natures and make them meet to have Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Jo. 1.3 And this is a Christian's Mercy that as none is able to pluck him out of Christ's Hands so the greatest Corruptions are not able to withstand the powerful Sanctifyings of the Holy Spirit Satan may withstand an Holy Angel of God for his Fall doth not deprive him of the natural Power of an Angel but yet he cannot withstand Christ nor the Holy Spirit because of the Potency of their Nature John 10.28 and 30. Rom. 8.13 2 Cor. 10.4 to 7. Dan. 10.13 Jude 9. and we may say in this case as John did concerning the sealed Book Rev. 5. That none in Heaven nor on Earth nor under the Earth was found worthy besides the Son and the Holy Spirit to redeem and sanctify the fallen Sons of Adam The Angels could not do it for they are beholden to Christ for their standing 1 Tim. 5.26 But blessed be God our Saviour for in him shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Tit. 2.10 Isa 45.25 To whom be Glory and Praise now and for evermore Amen So then if we ascribe and acknowledg the Work of Mans Salvation to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost which are ranked together as the efficient Cause and therefore receive the Glory of it and seeing both the Father and the Son dwells in us in and through the Holy Spirit whose Office in his Omnipresence bespeaks his unlimited and infinite Nature I cannot conceive but that the great Unity of these three Subsistencies should be in Essence Secondly The Unity of the Holy Trinity is manifest from Isa 6.23 where the Seraphims cried one unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts agreeable to Rev. 4.8 Now here are three Holies viz. Holy Father Holy Son and Holy Ghost and though I do not lay the stress of the proof on the bare repetition of the word Holy yet doubtless it ecchoes to the Truth that is couched in this
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