Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A42447
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Some considerations concerning the Trinity and the ways of managing that controversie
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Gastrell, Francis, 1662-1725.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing G303; ESTC R14599
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33,473
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64
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just before declared Now the Reasons which determined my Opinion in this Matter were such as freely offered themselves upon an unprejudiced reading of Scripture and considering the Design Connexion and Analogy of those Writings And I am apt to believe if any Man else took the same Method and considered Things togegether and not only in loose Texts and Passages the first Result of his Thoughts would be the same viz. These Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost must all be so understood as to include the same God in their Signification and that any other Sense or Explication of the Words would be attended with greater Difficulties But this being a Reflexion which is founded upon the Agreement and Coherence of all the Parts of Scripture 't would be a very improper and ineffectual Design to go about to confirm the Truth of it from some particular Passages Omitting therefore all those Texts which are a great many where any of these Terms Father Son or Holy Ghost appear to be directly affirmed of God according to a fair Construction of the Words I shall only observe Two or Three Passages from the History of our Saviour and his Gospel which to my Apprehension do as strongly prove what I have advanced as the most formal Expressions and are less liable to be perverted by the Criticisms of Language The first Observation I have to make concerns the common Forms of Baptism Salutation and Blessing used in several Places of the New Testament Now these are Matters no way controverted That our Saviour commanded his Disciples to go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That St. Paul makes use of such Salutations as these The Lord be with you The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ And particularly closes his Second Epistle to the Corinthians with this 〈◊〉 and fuller Blessing The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all From whence I infer that all these Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost signifie God because I cannot possibly conceive 't is agreeable to the Nature of the Christian Religion that the Ministers of it should Teach Baptize or Bless the People in any other Name but God's It cannot be imagined but the People must equally believe in those in whose Names they are Baptized or Bless'd They must believe that those who are call'd upon to bestow Graces and Blessings upon them are able to give what they are called upon for And whatever is meant by Baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it seems very plain that these Three are all equally concerned in what 's done in that Sacrament Whether by this Form of Baptism be signified on the Minister's Part the Authority or Commission by which he acts in his Administration or whether on the Part of the Person baptized be meant any Acknowledgment or Confession Submission or Dedication of himself or whether this Phrase in the Name or as in the Greek into the Name does imply all this and more the whole Force and Importance of the Expression does in the same Extent belong to Father Son and Holy Ghost The Power and Authority here received is derived from all Three They are all to be acknowledged as Authors of our Salvation all infallible and to be believed in what they Teach have all the same Title to our Submission and Obedience and are Joint-Parties in that Covenant we make in Baptism The Inference from hence is very Plain and Easie That if any one of these Terms signifie God they must all Three signifie God and if all Three signifie God they must all Three signifie one and the same God for God is but One. Now that the One Supreme God the Lord and Maker of All Things is here meant by the Word Father is a Thing not questioned and therefore Son and Holy Ghost are Terms expressive of the same Divine Nature Should we but suppose the contrary That by Son was meant only a meer Man or some Heavenly Being of highest Rank under God and by Holy Ghost was signified only some created Spirit inferior to the Son or the Power Efficacy Love Favour or Vertue of God how strange would such a Form of Baptism appear I Baptize thee in the Name of God Peter the Apostle and the Power or Love of God or I Baptize thee in the Name of God Michael the Archangel and Raphael a Ministring Spirit There needs no more but a bare Mention of such an Exposition to shew the Falshood of it What absurd Consequences may be drawn from it I shall leave to every Man 's particular Reflexion Another Thing which mightily confirmed me in this Belief that the Father Son and Holy Ghost so often named in Scripture are One and the same God under those Three different Appellations was this That the Son who is the same with him that is in other Places called the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes only Jesus or Christ was worship'd with a Religious Worship by those that followed him and embraced his Gospel For if he that was called the Son of God or Christ was thus to be worship'd it plainly and evidently follows from hence according to all the Notions we have of God and Religion either from Nature or Revelation that the Son was also God the same true and only God with the Father And if the Son be allowed to be God as well as the Father it will be easily admitted that the Holy Ghost is so too who appears in Scripture invested with all the same Characters of Divinity For Father Son and Holy Ghost are as consistent with the Vnity of the Godhead as Father and Son only and besides there 's greater difficulty in conceiving the Son to be God than the Holy Ghost because of his Humane Nature But that he was God manifest in the Flesh is I say apparent from the divine Worship that was pay'd to him For that God only is to be worship'd is an evident Principle as well as an indispensable Duty and I can as soon believe a thing to be and not to be as that any thing that is not God should be worshipped as God Now that Christ received the Honour and Worship due to God only is plain from abundance of Places of Scripture where we find he was not only adored with all the outward Expressions of Reverence and Devotion but confess'd and acknowledged to be God by an Application of the Divine Attributes to him such as agree only to God and are incommunicable to any other as might be proved at large if it had not been done already But this being fully insisted upon by others I shall only name Two Passages to this Purpose the one Phil. 4. 13. the other Act. 7. 59. which if there were no other are of
themselves sufficient to shew what the Faith of the first Christians was For who but one that believed that Christ was God could say with St. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me or with St. Stephen at the instant of Death cry out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit From these and many other Texts it seems plain to me that Christ was worshipped and acknowledged as God and that therefore he ought so to be worshipped and acknowledged we have all the same Reasons to believe as we have that the Scriptures are True the Establishment of a False Worship being a thorough Disproof of the Authority that Commands it Supposing therefore the Truth of the Scriptures there 's no way of eluding this Argument but by giving another Interpretation to all those Places which seem to ascribe divine Honour to Christ which can no otherwise be done than by framing a particular Dialect for this Purpose and giving new Significations to Words when applied to our Saviour which they never had before when used upon other Occasions I shall not enter upon a particular Proof of this but pass on to Another Argument I observ'd from Scripture which gave me further Assurance of the Divinity of the Son and consequently of the Truth of the whole Proposition before advanced and that is The Character of Jesus Christ considered meerly as a Man Now 't is certain that the Man Christ Jesus the Son of David according to the Flesh is represented by all the Evangelists as having his Conversation in this World with all Lowliness and Humility and with perfect Holiness and Unblameableness of Life And it is not imaginable that a Person of this Character should have suffered any Titles to have been given him any Honour or Respect to have been pay'd him which were not strictly and indispensably due to him much less have taken the Honour and Worship peculiar to God only to himself if he had not been infallibly conscious that of a Truth God dwelt in him I cannot possibly conceive that one who declined all Appearance of Grandeur Dominion and Authority should have allowed of any thing that look'd like Worship or Adoration or might have been mistaken for it or that he who knew he was believed to be the Son of God in such a Sense which some thought Blasphemy would not have undeceived his Followers and justified himself to his Enemies had he not really been what 't was Blasphemy to have pretended to be if he were not I might easily pursue these Reflections a great deal further and bring more Arguments to confirm the truth of what I have asserted that these Names or Titles of Father Son and Holy Ghost are applyed in Scripture to the One True God but I judge it altogether unnecessary not only because it has been fully made out already in several set Discourses upon this Subject but because it is so plainly and expresly revealed that I am verily perswaded every Man that reads would believe were it not for the additional Explications such a Belief is charged with 3. Which is the next thing to be considered And indeed here lyes the whole difficulty of the matter the main stress of the Controversie For that God should be called Father Son and Holy Ghost is as easily to be believed as that he should be called Adonai Elohim and Jehovah That the same thing should be signified and expressed by several names is no such incredible Mystery But if we allow that these Terms Father Son and Holy Ghost are all applyed to God in Scripture 't is not thought sufficient to say that these are three several Names which signifie God but we are further required to believe that God is One and Three the same God but three different Hypostases or Persons And that one of these three Hypostases or Persons is both God and Man These are the hard sayings which puzzles some Mens Understandings and make them chuse rather to wrest and pervert the plainest Texts than admit such seemingly inconsistent Consequences Here therefore I shall Examine what grounds there are in Scripture for such an Exposition And what we are obliged from thence to believe when we express our Faith in this particular manner First then as to these forms of Expression That God is One and Three c. It is to be observed that these Names Father Son and Holy Ghost are applyed to God in Scripture in a different way from what any of his other Names are For the other Names of God signifie only Partial Conceptions of the Divine Nature such as Self-Existence Power c. and are all contained within the same Idea of God and so are indifferently used upon any occasion to express the whole Idea of God to which they belong which is the same under every denomination These therefore cannot be the Foundation of any distinction in the Godhead But Father Son and Holy Ghost according to our way of conceiving things signifie something Extrinsecal and Accessory to the Divine Nature as much as we know of the Divine Nature by reason the whole Idea of God being conceived as full and compleat before the application of these terms And though all of them are separately and together affirmed of God yet each of them in so peculiar a manner that there are several occasions where when one of these terms is used with relation to God 't would be improper to use either of the other From whence it follows that these three Names of God Father Son and Holy Ghost must denote a three-fold difference or distinction belonging to God but such as is consistent with the Vnity and Simplicity of the Divine Nature For each of these Names includes the whole Idea we have of God and something more so far as they express the Nature of God they all adequately and exactly signifie the same 't is the additional signification which makes all the distinction betwixt them What particular kind or manner of distinction this is is not expressed in Scripture but since the Church has thought fit to assign a Name for it that of Person seems to me as proper and agreeable to the whole Tenor and Design of the Holy Writings as any other that could have been chosen for that purpose For Father Son and Holy Ghost whether we consider the Primitive sense and intention of the words the general and constant use of them or the particular Connexion and Circumstances in which they are mentioned in Scripture have plainly a Personal Signification each of them without any figure of Speech being determined to signifie some intelligent Being Acting in such a manner as is there related There needs no Proof of this the plain distinction of Persons imported by those Terms being the chief Argument made use of to shew that they cannot all be applied to God but must necessarily signifie Three distinct Beings But that they are all applyed to God in Scripture has been proved already And therefore Father Son and