The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction
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• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
• §1.
• §2.
• §3
• §4
• §5
• §6
• §7
• §8
• §9
• §10
• §11
• §12
• §13
• §14.
• §15
• §16
• §17
• §18
• §19
• §20
• §21
• §22
• §23
• §24.
• §25
• §26
• §27
• §28
• §29
• §30
• §31
• §32
• §33
• §34
• §35
• §36
• §37
• §38
• §39.
• §40
• §41
• §42
• §43
• §44
• §45
• §46
• §47
• §48
• §49
• §50
• §51
• §52
• §53
• §54
• §55
• §56
• §57
• §58
• §59
• §60
• §61
• §62
• §63
• §64
• §65
• §66
• §67
• §68
• §69
• §70
• §71
• §72
• §73
• §74
• §75
• §76
• §77
• §78
• §79
• §80
• §81
• §82
• §83
• §84
• §85
• §86
• §87
• §88
• §89
• §90
• §91
• §92
• §93
• §94

§39.

To the more intimate Understanding of the Nature of this Covenant, it is necessary that One or Two Things presupposed to it be distinctly explain’d, without which it cannot possibly be understood, as well as also the Conditions of the Covenant it self on both Parts. To the former Head belongs the Article of the most sacred Trinity, or that there are Three Persons existing in one Divine Essence. For altho’ it may be thought that even our first Parents in their State of Innocence had some Knowledge of this, as we have intimated before; yet it was necessary to make this known, to give us a right Understanding of the Nature of the new Covenant, inasmuch as without this that Covenant could not have been. For since the Saviour is by the Holy Scripture pronounced to be true God, and yet ’tis said God entred into Covenant with the Saviour about the reconciling Mankind to himself, it is necessary that there must be more than One Person to whom the Name, and Thing, or Essence, of true Deity or Godhead must belong. But because whatever Knowledge we have of more Persons than One in the Divine Essence is deriv’d entirely from the Holy Scriptures, therefore it is not lawful to those who call themselves Christians to oppose the wild Reasonings of Men to that Doctrine. And it ought to suffice to a sober and pious Christian, that divers personal Characters, and divers Actions, are attributed to the Persons who are honour’d with the Name of God, and such as cannot possibly meet in one Person; as for instance, to beget and to be begotten, to send and to be sent, to bear Testimony the one of the other. Altho’ moreover the Works of Providence and Power are wont to be attributed by Appropriation to the Father, the Works of Counsel and Wisdom to the Son, and those of Love to Mankind; such as are Illumination and Sanctification are appropriated to the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Scriptures confine the Number of Persons in the Divine Essence precisely to Three, and the Sacrament of Initiation, whereby Christians are admitted into the number of the Subjects of Christ’s Kingdom is expresly order’d to be administred in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; which Form were certainly absurd, if the Holy Spirit were only an Affection or Vertue of the Divine Essence, not a true and distinct Person together with the Father and the Son. And that very thing, the Command to initiate in that Form, implies the Necessity of our believing this Article, and that it is laid as the Foundation to the Christian Religion; which if we deny, we overthrow the whole. As does also that which is said, Joh. 5:23. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. To the Holy Ghost also may be applied, Rom. 8:9. If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; 1 Joh. 2. Whosoever denies the Son, hath not the Father. Add 1 Joh. 5:7, &c. But if any would fancy that the Son and the Holy Spirit are unequal and inferiour to the Father, he would therein utterly deny the Simplicity of the Divine Essence, and would make it compounded of Parts of an unlike Nature, and unequal Excellency, and so would indeed overthrow the whole Divine Essence. And to feign the Son of God to be among the Number of the Creatures, and to be taken by Adoption into a Communion and Fellowship of Godhead, is no less beyond Reason than to believe him to be of the same Essence with the Father. And therefore that we may comply with the Weakness of Humane Reason, which cannot reach these Incomprehensible Things, it is not necessary that we should much concern our selves with prying into the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity, or about the Equality of the Persons therein. But this we must take great Heed to, that we do not destroy that Mystery, or look upon the Three Persons but as Three distinct Names given to the Deity, with respect to certain Benefits bestow’d by God on Mankind. Under which Pretence some of the soberest of the Heathens excused the Multitude of their false Gods. Neither are the Persons of the Trinity by any Means to be conceiv’d of after the manner of moral Persons, which result from the State or Office, and of which ’tis certain several may fall together upon one Man. As Cicero (de Oratore) says,36I alone sustain Three Persons; the one of my self, the other of my Adversary, the other of my Judge. For tho’ by that Way of explaining this Mystery there would remain no more Difficulty in it, yet ’tis plain this Sence cannot take place here. For ’tis not possible that one and the same Person can be Father and Son, with respect to himself, or that one and the same can be a Father and Son to himself, or can be he that sends, and him that is sent, or him from whom one proceeds, and also he that proceeds from him. As also it is incongruous that one should make a Covenant with himself. For where Job says, 31:1. I have made a Covenant with mine Eyes, there is nothing else meant by that Metaphorical Expression, but that he had made a holy and firm Resolution and Purpose not to abuse his Eyes in the Service of Sin. So then, he who denies the Trinity, does therein take away all that is Mysterious, and August, or Venerable, in Christian Religion; and he also rejects the chief Person upon whom our Salvation does depend, and does therein overthrow the whole Covenant.

[36.]Marcus Tullius Cicero, De oratore (On the Orator), II, XXIV, 102.