proper office ^ They are also declared to be sources of distinct blessings to the Church ; the Apostle prays, that " the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, may be withus all'.]
3. Each of these persons is God without any dif- ference or inequality —
[\Ve shall not occupy any time with proving the Godhead of the Father ; but, taking that for granted, shall esta- blish the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
To each of these belong the same names as unto the Father. Is the Father God P so is the Word ^ (as Christ is called in the text). He is " Emmanuel, God with us'," God manifest in the flesh™, the mighty God", God over all, blessed for ever- more". To Him is also given the incommunicable name, Jehovah ; for we are to call him, " Jehovah our Righteous- ness K" To the Holy Spirit also these names belong. Ananias, in lying unto the Holy Ghost, lied unto God''. And we, in being the temples of the Holy Ghost, are the temples of God ^ The words also which were confessedly spoken by Jehovah to the prophet Isaiah*, are quoted by St. Paul as spoken by the Holy Ghost*.
To each of these the same attributes also are ascribed as characterize the Father. Is the Father eternal, omnipresent,
omniscient, almightij P So is the Son" • — and so is the
Holy Ghost ^ ]
What now is the conclusion to be drawn from these premises, but that which is asserted in the text, that " there are Three that bear record in heaven ; and that those Three are One ^ ?"
Having
'' 1 Pet. 1.2. '2 Cor. xiii. 14. " John i. 1.
' Matt. i. 23. "' 1 Tim. iii. l6. " Isai. ix. 6.
° Rom. ix. 5. •' Jer, xxiii. 6. '^ Acts v. 3, 4.
■^ 1 Cor. iii. 10. ' Isai. vi. g, 10. ' Acts xxviii.25.
"Mic. v. 2. & Heb. xiii. 8. — Malt. xviii.20. & xxviii. 20 — John ii. 25. & xxi. 17.— John 1.3. & Matt, xxviii. IS.
=* Heb. ix. 14. — Fs.cxxxix. 7, 8.— 1 Cor. ii. 10.— Gen. i. 2. & Job xxvl. 13.
>' Hence we see how properly we are taught to express our belief of this doctrine In the Athanasian Creed : " We woibhip one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity ; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance ; for there is one person of the Father, another of the Si)n, and another of the Holy Ghost : but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal ... So that in all things the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped.*'
282 ijoiiN, V. 7. [1192.
Having shewn that by the Three witnesses we are to understand the Tri-une God, we proceed to shew,
II. What that is concerning which they bear record —
We may well expect that the importance of the matter to which these Divine witnesses have borne record, is suited to the majesty of the witnesses themselves. Accordingly we find, that
Their testimony relates to the salvation that is in Christ Jesus —
[God, who had passed by the angels that fell, has looked in mercy upon fallen man, and has given us eternal life, in and through his Son Jesus Christ ^ He sent his dear Son to die in our stead, and, by his own obedience unto death, to work out a righteousness whereby we might be saved. The merit whereby we are to be justified, and the grace whereby we are to be renewed, he treasured up for us in Christ ; and he calls all men to receive these blessings out of his fulness. This way of salvation is open for all, and suffi- cient for all : but, this rejected, no other remains for us.
This is the sum and substance of the Gospel ; and this it is to which the sacred Three bear record.]