(2.) That this divine power belongeth in common to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who being one and the same God, concurred in the same work ; and whatever is done by the Father or Son, is done by the Spirit also ; and whatever is done by the Spirit, is done by the Father and Son also. As for instance, apply it to the resurrection of Christ, or our resurrection. — To the resurrection of Christ, it is ascribed to the Father, ' and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.' To God the Son iu other places ; Christ is said to rise again by his own virtue and power : Kom. iv. 25, ' He died for our oSences, and rose again for our justification ; ' not raised only, but rose again. So the Spirit is said to raise Clirist : Rom. i. 4, ' And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- tion from the dead. So 1 Pet. iii. 18, ' Crucified in the flesh, and quickened in the Spirit.' So our resurrection ; we are raised by the Father ; for in the text it is said, we are raised by the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead. We are raised by Christ : John v. 21, ' For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.' So by the Spirit we are raised, as in the text, ' He sliall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spiiit that dwelleth in you.'
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 21
(3.) They all concur in a way proper to them. In all their personal operations it is ascribed to the Father as the first fountain of working, and spring and well-head of all grace, who doth all things from himself; and by the Son and Holy Ghost, as it refers to Christ's resurrection, and ours also. So Christ's resurrection ; it is ascribed to God the Father, who in the mystery of redemption hath the relation of supreme judge: Acts ii. 32, 'This Jesus hath God raised up;' and Acts X. 40, ' Him hath God raised up the third day.' And there is a special reason why it should be ascribed to God, as the Apostles when they stood upon their privilege, ' Let them come and fetch us out,' Acts xii. 39 ; so, ' The God of peace that brought again from the dead the great shepherd,' etc., as referring it to his judicial power : Heb. xiii. 26. Though Christ had power to rise, yet no authority ; our surety was fetched out of prison by the judge. And then it is ascribed to Christ himself: John ii. 19, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up : wliich he spake of the temple of his body.' To prove the divinity of his person, it was necessary that he should thus speak ; or to prove himself to be God : John x. 18, ' I have power to lay down my life, and to take it up again.' He could put a period to his sufferings when he pleased. So for the Holy Ghost, he raised Christ, because the Spirit sanctified his humanity, and by him the human nature of Christ was made partaker of created holiness, and so qualified to rise again when he had done his work. All the created gifts came from the Spirit, and therefore tliey are called the anointing of the Holy Ghost, with which he was anointed. So to our resurrection, God raiseth the dead, as it is usually said in scripture ; and Christ raiseth the dead, ' Every one that believeth on the Sou hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day,' John vi. 40. The Spirit raiseth, and still in a way proper to each person ; to understand which, we must ob.serve that there are three ways of subsistence in the divine nature, which carry a great correspondence with the prime attributes in God, which are power, wisdom, and goodness. Power we conceive eminently in God the Father, if, being the most obvious by which the Godhead is apprehended, and so proper to him who is the begiuning of being and working: Rom. i. 20, ' His eternal power and Godhead are seen by the things which are made.' Wisdom is appropriated to Christ, who is often represented in scripture as the wisdom of the Father : especially, Prov. viii. And goodness to the Spirit, therefore often called the good spirit : Neh. ix. '20 ; and Ps. cxiiii. 10. Not but that all these agree to each person, for tlie Father is powerful, wise, and good ; so the Son, and so the Holy Ghost ; and love is sometimes appropriated to the Father ; namely, the fountain and original love ; but the evangelical, operative, and communicative love of God is more distinctly ascribed to the Spirit, because all benefits come to the creature this way ; we have our natural being from him : Job. xxxiii. 4, ' The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.' ' The first clause relateth to the body, the Spirit of the Lord hath made me ; ' that is, framed the body ; the second to the soul, that spirit of life that God breathed into man when his body was framed and organised to receive it. The Spirit created and formed in man the reasonable soul ; so the new being which is communicated to