3. His next Argument is, The Spirit is obtained for us of God by our Prayers; therefore itself is not God. But this has been answered already; for though the One Supreme God cannot be fent, nor given (which I fuppofe is the force of his Argument yet in the ever blessed Trinity, One Divine Perfon may fend and give another; the Father may fend the Son, and give the Holy Spirit. And yet face they like that better, we will allow, That the Holy Spirit does give himself, and is asked of himself; for the Divine Perfons in the Trinity, as I have often obferved and proved, do not act feparately, but as the Father and the Son give the Holy Spirit, fo the Holy Spirit gives himself in the fame individual Act. And when we pray to God for his Holy Spirit, we pray to Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, who are this One God, and One entire object of Worship: It is the ever bleffed Trinity we invoke,when we pray Our Father, which art in Heaven. For as they are infeparably One God, so they are the infeparable Object of our Worship; fince this great Mystery of a Trinity in Unity is fo plainly revealed to us, we cannot worship this One Supreme God, but we muft direct our Worship to all Three Divine Perfons in the Unity of the fame Godhead; for we do not worship this One Supreme God, unless we worship, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and therefore whether we invoke each Perfon diftinctly, as our Church does in the beginning of the Litany; or pray only to God by the Name of the most High God, or by the Name of Father; or the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, it is all one, for Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft is the One Supreme God,and the entire Object of our Worship: and whoever worships One God, but not Father, Son, and C c and Holy Ghost, does not worship the true God, not the God of the Chriftians. Before this was fo plainly revealed, it was fufficient to worship One Supreme God, without any conception of the diflinct Perfons in the Godhead; but when it is plainly revealed to us, that this One Supreme God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whoever does not worship Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, does not worship the true God; for the true God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft,and there is no God befides him: which I would defire our Vnitarians (as they falfly call themselves) and our Deifts carefully to confider: if any thing be fundamental in Religion, it is the worthip of the One true God, and if Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft be this One true God, those who worship a God, who is not Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, do not worship the true God, and that I think is the true Notion of Idolatry. So that these Men are fo far from being Chriftians, that I cannot fee, how they are worshippers of the true God: which fhould at least make them concern ed to examine this matter with more Care and lefs Prejudice than they have yet done. So that when we worship One God, we worshipFather, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and when the Glory of thefe Divine Perfons was made known to the World, there was no need of any new Command to worship these three Divine Perfons; for when it is revealed that they are the One Eternal God, the Command of worshipping this One God muft include them all. Which gives a fufficient Answer to what he adds, That there is neither Precept nor. Example in all Holy Scripture, of Prayer made to the Spirit, on this or any other occafion: which on the Trinitarian Suppofition, that the Holy Spirit is a Person and God, no less than the the Father, is very furprizing, nay utterly unaccountable. But I hope this will fatisfie any man, that it is not unaccountable; for though the Spirit be God, he is but One God, with Father and Son, and therefore not a distinct and separate Object of Worship, but is worshipped with the Father and the Son in the Unity of the fame Godhead, and this required no new Command, nor any separate worship of the Holy Spirit. 1 Hebr.6. There is indeed a distinct worship paid to Chrift: All men must honour the Son,as they honour the Father. When God brought his first begotten into the World, that is, when he raised him from the Dead, and exalted him to his own right hand, he said, and let all the Angels of God worship him: God hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name, which is above every 3 Phil. 10,11. Name, that at the Name of Jefus every Knee should3 bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth. But this is not meerly as he is the Son of God, the fecond Perfon in the Trinity, for fo he is worshipped as One God with the Father and the Holy Ghoft; but as he is a Mediator or a Mediatory King; as he has a Kingdom diftinct from the Natural Kingdom of the Father, as I have already fhown, fo there is a worship proper to him as Mediator; but the Holy Spirit has no diftinct Kingdom, and therefore no diftinct Worship, but is worshipped in the Unity of the Godhead, and this required no new Command; for he who knows, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are One Supreme God, must worship Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as One Supreme God. 4. His next Argument is against a Trinity of Per Page 19. fons in the Godhead, which, he fays, is contrary to the whole Scripture, which speaks of God but as One Perfon, and peaks of him, and to him, by fingular Pronouns, fuch as I, Thou, Me, Him. His Proofs that the Scripture fpeaks of God, as but One Perfon, are very wonderful. His firft is, that of 13 Job 7,8 Job; Will ye fpeak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him? Will ye accept his Perfon? will ye contend for God? But furely to accept God's Perfon, no more fignifies the Perfonality of the Godhead, than to accept the Perfon of a Man, fignifies his Human Perfon: the Hebrew is his Face, which is far from fignifying a Perfon in the fense we fay, there are Three Perfons in the Godhead. To refpect the Perfon of a Man is to do something for him, which neither Law, nor Justice, nor Equity required, not because he is a Perfon, which every Man is, but from fome partial respect we have to his particular Perfon; and therefore to accept the Perfon of God here fignifies to speak wickedly for God; which is an abfurd and fenflefs thing, as Job reprefents it, whether the Supreme God be One Perfon, or Three; for in this fenfe of Perfon, One God can be but One Perfon. The other Text that Chrift is the exprefs Image 1 Hebr.1,2. of God's Perfon, is as little to the purpose; for it is plain, the Perfon of whom the Son is the express Image, is the Person of God the Father; and the Father indeed is but One Perfon. For As for his fingular Pronouns, they prove indeed that there is but One God, as we all own, not that there are not Three Perfons in the Godhead. when the Scripture fpeaks of God without any particular respect to the diftinction of the Perfons, it must fpeak but of One God, because God is but One, and. fingular fingular Pronouns are most properly applied to One God. As for what he objects, That no Inftance can rage 20. be given in any Language of Three Persons whoever Spoke of themfelves, or were spoken to, by the fingular Pronouns, I, Thou, Me, Him, Thee; it were fulficient to answer, That there is no other Example in Nature neither, of Three Perfons who are effentially One; and if the manner of fpeaking must be conformed to the Nature of Things, there can be no other Inftance of this way of speaking, because there is no other Example of this Unity; but all Languages fpeak of One in the fingular Number, and fo the Scripture ufes fingular Pronouns of One God. But this is not the Cafe; for when God fpeaks of himself, he does not speak of himself, as Three Perfons, but as One God, and therefore may fay I and Me and when the Prophets fpeak of God, or pray to him, they pray to him as One God, and therefore may fay, Thou, and Him, and Thee. When Three Perfons are One God, God may speak of himself, or we may fpeak of, or to God, either confidered as Three Perfons, or as One God; and though Three Perfons require the Plural Number, yet One God may speak of himself, or be fpoken to, by fingular Pronouns. : 5. He fays, Had the Son or Holy Ghoft been God, this would not have been omitted in the Apostles Creed. And I fay, Had not the Son been God, and the Holy Ghost God,they would not have been put into the ApoftlesCreed,no more than into the form of Baptifin,which is the original of the Apoftles Creed. That the Primitive Chriftians did believe the Divinity of the Son,and of the Holy Ghoft,we are fufficiently affured from all the ancient Records of their Faith; but there was no reafon to exprefs this in fo fhort a Creed, before the Arian and Page 22. |