Secondly. The distinction which the Scripture reveals between Father, Son, and Spirit, is that whereby they are three hypostases or persons, distinctly subsisting in the same divine essence or being. Now, a divine person is nothing but the divine essence, upon the ac- cou7it of an especial property, subsisting in an especial manner. As in the person of the Father there is the divine essence and being, with its property oi begetting the Son, subsisting in an especial man- ner as the Father, and because this person hath the whole divine nature, all the essential properties of that nature are in that person. The wisdom, the understanding of God, the will of God, the immen- sit)^ of God, is in that person, not as that person, but as the person is God. The like is to be said of the persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Hereby each person having the understanding, the will, and power of God, becomes a distinct principle of operation ; and yet all their actings ad extra being the actings of God, they are undi- vided, and are all the works of one, of the self-same God. And these things do not only necessarily follow, but are directly included, in the revelation made concerning God and his subsistence in the Scrip- tures.
[Thirdly.] There are, indeed, very many other things that are taught
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and disputed about this doctrine of the Trinity ; as, the manner of the eternal generation of the Sou, — of the essence of the Father. — of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and the difference of it from the gene- ration of the Son, — of the mutual in-being of the persons, by reason of their unity in the same substance or essence, — the nature of their personal subsistence, with respect unto the properties whereby they are mutually distinguished ; — all which are true and defensible against all the sophisms of the adversaries of this truth. Yet, because the distinct apprehension of them, and their accurate expression, is not necessary unto faith, as it is our guide and principle in and unto re- ligious worship and obedience, they need not here be insisted on. Nor are those brief explications themselves before mentioned so pro- posed as to be placed immediately in the same i-ank or order with the original revelations before insisted on, but only are pressed as proper expressions of what is revealed, to increase our light and farther our edification. And although they cannot rationally be opposed or denied, nor ever were by any, but such as deny and oi^pose the things themselves as revealed, yet they that do so deny or oppose them, are to be required positively, in the first place, to deny or dis- approve the oneness of the Deity, or to prove that the Father, or Son, or Holy Ghost, in particular, are not God, before they be allowed to speak one word against the manner of the explication of the truth concerning them. For either they grant the revelation declared and contended for, or they do not. If they do, let that concession be first laid down, namely, — that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are one God ; and then let it be debated, whether they are one in substance and three in persons, or how else the matter is to be stated. If they deny it, it is a plain madness to dispute of the manner of any thing, and the way of expressing it, whilst the thing itself is denied to have a being ; for of that which is not, there is neither manner, property, adjunct, nor effect. Let, then, sucb persons as this sort of men are ready to attempt v/ith their sophistry, and to amuse with cavils about persons, substances, subsistences, and the like, desire to know of them what it is that they would be at. What would they deny? what would they disapprove? Is it that God is one? or that the Father is God, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost is so? If they deny or op- pose either of these, they have testimonies and instances of divine revelation, or may have, in a readiness, to confound the devil and all his emissaries. If they will not do so, if they refuse it, then let them know that it is most foolish and unreasonable to contend about ex- pressions and explanations of any thing, or doctrine, about the man- ner, respects, or relations of any thing, until the thing itself, or doc- trine, be plainly confessed or denied. If this they refuse, as generally they do and will (which I speak upon sufficient experience), and will
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not be induced to deal openly, properly, and rationally, but will keep to their cavils and sophisms about terms and expressions, all farther debate or conference with them may justly, and ought, both con- scientiously and rationally, to be refused and rejected. For these sacred mysteries of God and the gospel are not lightly to be made the subject of men's contests and disputations.
But as we dealt before in particular, so here I shall give instances of the sophistical exceptions that are used against the whole of this doctrine, and that with respect unto some late collections and repre- sentations of them ; from whence they are taken up and used by many who seem not to understand the words, phrases, and expressions them- selves, which they make use of.