Use Afli. Of Exhortation. If there be but one God, as God is one, so let them that serve him be one. This is what Christ prayed so heartily for, John xvii. 21., " That they all may be one." Christians should be one, 1. In judgment ; the apostle exhorts to be all of one mind, 1 Cor. i. 18. How sad is it to see religion wearing a coat of divers colours ; to see Christians of so many opinions, and going so many different ways ? It is Satan hath sown these tares of divi- sion. Mat. xiii. 39. He first divided men from God, and now divides one man from another. — 2. One in affection. They should have one heart, Acts iv. 32., " The multi- tude of them that believed, were of one heart, and of one soul." As in music, though there be several strings of a viol, yet all make one sweet harmony: so, though there are several Christians, yet there should be one sweet harmony of affection among them. There is but one God, and they that serve him should be one. There is nothing would render the true religion more lovely, or make more proselytes to it, than to see the professors of it tied together with
the heart-strings of love, Ps. cxxxiii. 1., " Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity !" It is as the sweet dew on Her- mon, and the fragrant ointment poured on Aaron's head. If God be one, let all that profess him be of one mind, and one heart; this fulfils Christ's prayer, " that they all may be one." — 2. If there be but one God, let us labour to clear the title, that this God is ours, Ps. xlviii. 14., " This God is our God." What comfort can it be to hear that there is a God, and that he is the only God, unless he be our God ? AVhat is Deity without property ? O let us labour to clear the title! Beg the Holy Spirit: the Spirit works by faith ; by faith we are one with Christ, and through Christ we come to have God for our God, and so all his glorious fulness is made over to us by a deed of gift. Use blh. What cause have we to be thank- ful, that we have the knowledge of the only true God? How many are brought up in blindness ? Some worship Mahomet ; divers of the Indians worship the devil ; they light a candle to him, that he should not hurt them. Such as know not the true God must needs stumble into hell in the dark. O be thankful that we are born in such a land, where the light of the gospel hath shined ! To have the knowledge of the true God, is more than if we had mines of gold, rocks of diamonds, islands of spices ; espe- cially if God hath savingly revealed himself to us, — if he hath given us eyes to see the light, — if we so know God as to be known of him, as to love him, and believe in him : Matth. xi. 25., we can never be enough thankful to God, that he hath hid the know- ledge of himself from the wise and prudent of the world, and hath revealed it unto us.
OF THE TRINITY.
Quest. IV. HOW many persons are there in the Godhead ?
Jxs. Three persons, yet but one God. — 1 John v. 7., " There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and tlie llolv Ghost, and these three are
one.
God is but one, yet are there three dis- tinct persons subsisting in one Godhead. This is a sacred mystery whicli the light within could never have discovered. As the two natures in Christ, yet but one per- son, is a wonder: so three persons, yet but one Godhead. I am in a great deep : the
OF THE TRINITY.
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Father God, — the Son God, — tlie Holy Ghost God, — yet not three Gods, but one God. The three persons in tlie blessed Trinity are distinguished, but not divided ; three substances, but one essence. This is a divine riddle, where one make three, and three make but one. Our narrow thougrhts can no more comprehend the Trinity in Unity, than a little nut-shell will hold all the water in the sea. Let me shadow it out by this similitude : in the body of the sun, there is the substance of the sun, the beams, and the heat; the beams arc begot- ten of the sun, the heat proceeds both from the sun and the beams ; but these three, thougli different, are not divided ; they all three make one sun : so in the blessed Tri- nity, the Son is begotten of the Father, the Holy Ghost proceeds from both ; yet though they are three distinct persons, yet but one God. First, let me speak of the Unity in Trinity ; then of the Trinity in Unity.
I. Of the Unity in Trinity. The Unity of the persons in the Godhead consists in two things :
1. The identity of essence. In the Tri- nity there is an oneness in essence : the three persons are of the same divine nature and substance ;" so that in Deo non est magis et minus, — there are no degrees in the God- head ; one person is not God more than a- nother.
2. The Unity of the persons in the God- head consists in the mutual in-being of them, or their being in one together. The three persons are so united that one person is in another, and with another : John xvii. 21., '• Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee."