Chap. IX. In the ninth chapter and those following, we treat of the divine honour that is due unto the person of Christ, expressed in adoration, invocation, and obedience, proceeding from faith and love. And the foundation of the Avhole is laid in the discovery of the true nature and causes of that honour ; and three things are designed unto confirmation herein. 1. That the divine nature, which is individually the same in each person of the holy Trinity, is the proper formal object of all divine worship, in adoration and invocation ; wherefore, no one person is or can be worshipped, but in the same individual act
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of worship each person is equally worshipped and adored. 2. That it is lawful to direct divine honour, worship, and invocation unto any person, in the use of his peculiar name — the Father, Son, or Spirit — or unto them altogether ; but to make any request unto one per- son, and immediately the same unto another, is not exemplified in the Scripture, nor among the ancient ^vriters of the church. 3. That the person of Christ, as God-man, is the proper object of all divine honour and worship, on the account of his divine nature ; and all that he did in his human nature are motives thereunto.
The first of these is the constant doctrine of the whole ancient church, viz., that whether, (for instance,) in our solemn prayers and invocations, we call expressly on the name of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit ; whether we do it absolutely or relatively, that is, with respect unto the relation of one person to the other — as calling on God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, on Christ as the Son of his love, on the Holy Spirit as proceeding from them both — we do formally invocate and call on the divine nature, and consequently the whole Trinity, and each person therein. This tiiith they principally confirmed with the form of our initiation into Christ at baptism: " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." For as there is contained therein the sum of all divine honour, so it is directed unto the same name, (not the names,) of the Father, Son, and Spirit, which is the same Deity or divine nature alone.
So speak the Fathers of the second General Council in their letters unto the bishops of the west ; as they are expressed in Theodoret, lib. V. cap. 9. This form of baptism teach eth us, say they, liisnviiv iig TO ovo/ia 70\j irarplg, r.at rot/ i^/oD, xa/ tou dyiov Wivfiaroc, Bi^}Mdr,, ^s6- T^Tog rs zai dvvd/xsojg y.ai ovelag /j^iag rov rrarphg, vma rou v'lov, xai rov aylov '^TVi'jiJjUrog rTiffrivc/j.'sWiC, o/j^orl/jbou T^g d^lag, y.ai ffvva'/diov rrig jSaffiX- siag, h Tpial riXiiaig v'Trosrd.Gser — "to believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; seeing that the Deity, sub- stance, and power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one and the same ; their dignity equal ; their kingdom co-eternal, in three perfect persons." "In nomine dixit, non nominibus, ergo non aliud nomen Patris est," &c., "quia unus Deus:" Ambrose, De Spirit. Sanct., lib. i. cap. 14. "Ovofjba ds Tiomv tuv rpiuv sv, i] ^soVjjg. — "The one name com- mon to the three is the Deity :" Gregor. Nazianzen, Orat. xl. Hence Augustine gives it as a rule, in speaking of the Holy Trinity : "Quando unus trium in aliquo opere nominatur, universa operari trinitas intel- ligitur :" Enchhid., cap. xxxviii. — "When one person of the three is named in any work, the whole Trinity is to be understood to effect it." " There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism," according to the Scriptures. Wherefore, as there is one faith in Christ, and one bap-
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tism of truth, although we are baptized and behove in the Father, Son, and Spirit, xara rhv avrhv, oJfiai, rpo'xov xai Aoyoc, /xia irpoa-A-uvrisig ij varpbg, xai ivav^puiir-^aavrag u'lou, -/.ai uyiou Ti'si/a.aro; ; — "so plamly, in my judgment, there is one and the same adoration of the Father, the Son incarnate, and the Holy Spirit:" Cyril. Alex, de Recta Fide, cap. xxxii.
And this they professed themselves to hold and believe, in that ancient doxology which was first invented to decry the Arian heresy: " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." The same glory, in every individual act of its assignation or ascrip- tion, is directed unto each person jointly and distinctly, on the account of the same divine nature in eacla of them. I need not produce any testimonies in the farther confirmation hereof ; for, in all their writ- ings against the Arians, they expressly and constantly contend that the holy Trinity (that is, the divine nature in three persons) is the individual object of all divine adoration, invocation, and all religious worship ; and that by whatever personal name — as the Father, Son, or Spirit — we call on God, it is God absolutely who is adored, and each person participant of the same nature. See August. Lib. con. Serm, Arian. cap. xxxv., and Epist. Ixvi. ad Maximum.
For the second thing, or the invocation of God by any personal name, or by the conjunction of the distinct names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together, nothing occurs more frequently among them. Yea^ it is common to find in their writings, prayers begun unto one person, and ended in the name of another; yea, begun unto Christ, and closed in the name of His only-begotten Son ; it beinof one and the same divine nature that is called on. Yea, the schoolmen do generally deny that the persons of the holy Trinity, under the consideration of the formal reason which is constitutive of their personality, are the formal object and tenn of divine worship; but in the worship of one, they are all worshipped as one God over all, blessed for ever. See Aquin. xxii. q. 81, a. 3, ad prim., and q. 84, a. 1, ad tertium; Alexand. Aiens. p. 3, q. 30, m. 1, a. 3.