^ "Baptizate gentes in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiiitus Sancti. In nomine dixit, non in nominibus. Non ergo aliud nomen Patris. aliud nomen Filii, aliud noincn Spi- ritus Sancti, quam unus Deus." — Ambros. de Spir. Sane. lib. i. cap. 4.
74 DIVINE NATUBE AND PERSONALITY OE THE [BOOK I.
note of difference as to deity or personality, is a strange fondness, destructive of all religion, and leading the minds of men towards polytheism. And as we engage into all religious obedience unto the Father and Son herein, to believe in them, trust, fear, honour, and serve them, so Ave do the same with respect unto the Holy Ghost ; which how we can do, if he be not as they are, no man can understand. We do not, then, in this case, from hence merely plead our being \ baptized into the " Holy Ghost," as some pretend ; nor, indeed, are ! we said so to be. Men may figuratively be said to be baptized into a doctrine, when their baptism is a pledge and token of their pro- fession of it. So the disciples whom the apostle Paul met with at Ephesus, Acts xix. 3, are said to be baptized s/g to ladwov l3d-Trrie/j.a, " into the baptism of John," — that is, the doctrine of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, whereof his baptism was a pledge. So also the Israelites are said to be baptized sig MuCsnv, " into Moses," 1 Cor. X. 2, because he led and conducted them through the sea, when they were sprinkled with the waves of it as a token of their initiation into the rites and ceremonies which he was to deliver unto them. But we are said to be baptized into his " name ;" which is the same with that of the Father and Son. And certainly this pro- posal of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be the object of all our faith and worship, and our engagement hereunto required as the foundation of all our present religion and future hopes, being made unto us, and that under one and the same name ; if the doc- trine of a Trinity of persons, subsisting in the same undivided essence, be not taught and declared in these words, we may justly despair of ever having any divine mystery manifested unto us. / 2. His appearance in and under a visible sign argues his personal I existence. This is related. Matt. iii. 16; Luke iii. 22; John i. 32. Luke speaks first in general that he descended h s'/dsi auz/^ariKOj, " in a bodily shape" or appearance; and they all agree that it was the shape of a dove under which he appeared. The words in Matthew are, E/Ss rb TLvsufLa rov Qsov xaraQaTvov uffsi 'Kipidnpav Kai sp^o/Mivov W aurof — " He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and light- ing" (or rather coming) " upon him." " He," that is John the Bap- tist, not Christ himself. The relative, au-og, refers in this place to the more remote antecedent ; for although " he," that is Christ him- self, also saw the descending of the Holy Sj^irit, yet I suppose this relates unto that token which was to be given of him unto John, whereby he should know him, John i. 32, S3. The following words are ambiguous : for that expression, " like a dove," may refer to the manner of his descending, — descending (in a bodily shajie) as a dove descends; or they may respect the manner of his appearance, — he appeared like a dove descending. And this sense is determined
CHAP. III.] HOLY SPIRIT PROVED AND VINDICATED. 75
in the other evangelists to the bodily shape wherein he descended. He took the form or shape of a dove to make a visible representa- tion of himself by ; for a visible pledge was to be given of the com- ing of the Holy Ghost on the Messiah, according to the promise, and thereby did God direct his great forerunner to the knowledge of him. Now, this was no real dove. That would not have been a thing so miraculous as this ajopearance of the Holy Ghost is represented to be. And the text will not bear any such apprehension, though it was entertained by some of the ancients; for it is evident that this shape of a dove came out of heaven. He saw the heavens opened and the dove descending; that is, out of heaven, which was opened to make way, as it were, for him. Moreover, the expression of the opening of the heavens is not used but with respect unto some a.p- pearance or manifestation of God himself And so (or which is the same) the bowing of the heavens is often used : Ps. cxliv. 5, " Bow thy heaA^ens, O Lord, and come down;'' 2 Sam. xxii. 10; Isa. Ixiv. 1 ; Ezek. i. 1, " The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God;" so Acts vii. 56. God used not this sign but in some mani- festation of himself ; and had not this been an appearance of God, there had been no need of bowing or opening the heavens for it. And it is plainly said that it was not a dove, but the shape or repre- sentation of a dove. It was Bidog au/jjanxov, "a bodily shape;" and that 'ffspiSTspac,, " of a dove."