xvi. 13, 14, 15. And therefore when creation is ascribed to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, it is said that the Father created by them: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth," Psalm xxxiii. 6. Thus also the redemption of the Son was the work of the Father, Rom. iii. 25, 26, 2 Cor. i. 30, and so likewise the sanctification of the Holy Ghost is a work of the Father and the Son, Titus iii. 4, 5, 6.

Inasmuch as a right knowledge of this mystery conduceth much to an explanation of the emphasis of the phrases in the word of God, to an illustration of the great mysteries of God, to the confutation of errours, which proceed especially from an ignorance of this mystery, and to the direction of the people of God in all their communications and intercourses with and relative to God; we shall therefore insist somewhat longer on this subject. We must know then, that God, purposing to glorify himself by, exhibiting the lustre of his wisdom, justice, goodness and power, resolved to save certain persons of mankind, and to appoint others objects of his wrath; and that in order to accomplish this great purpose, he decreed to create mankind, to enter into a covenant of works with them, to permit them to fall, and to send his Son to be a Saviour of some of them, and to give them his Spirit, in order to prepare them for an inheritance with the saints in light: "All this God worketh after the council of his own will," Eph. i. 11. It is also accordingly evident, that the three divine Persons have, according to an eternal appointment in the council of peace, distributed this whole work among themselves, and that each Person hath taken a particular work to himself, in order to contribute his part to perfect the salvation of the sinner; this appears from the event, inasmuch as grace is attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ, as love is to God the Father, and the communion of the sinner with the Father and the Son in their love and grace to the Holy Spirit. We see this in our text, and in our baptism, Matt. xxviii. 19. And therefore the ancients were not to be blamed for reducing all the articles of faith to the doctrine of the Trinity; for which reason our form of baptism also refers God's whole work of grace with the elect sinner to tach divine Person, showing what each Person signifieth and sealeth to the person who is baptized; and thus in the 24th question, creation is ascribed to the Father, redemption to the Son, and sanctification to the Holy Ghost. It ought to be particularly noted, that as the Father is the first in the order of subsistence, so he is also the first in the order of working, and that the Father therefore undertook to display in his Person the majesty of the Godhead of the Trinity, and that the Sop

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submitted to conceal his divinity under his humanity in his humiliation, and the Holy Ghost consented to act as the ambassadour of the Father and of the Son. This is the reason why the Father is more frequently called God than the Son and the Holy Ghost; therefore the Father is considered as the beginning and end of all things, as creation and all that pertaineth to it, is also on this account ascribed to him See Rom. xi. 36. 1 Cor. viii. 6. For this reason also the Son is the mediator and the servant of the Father, that he may by redemption bring the sinner to God, Isaiah xlix. 3. 1 Pet. iii. 18. And the Holy Ghost conveys the great work of the Father, and of the Son to the sinner by an effectual application and sanctification. See this John xviii. 13, 14, 15. We shall see the economy or work of each Person, when we contemplate each Person in particular.

D. Finally, it tends to explain this doctrine, that these three Persons are one. They are not one in the same respect, in which they are three, as if three persons were one person, or three essences one essence; for this is a contradiction. Neither are these three Persons one with respect to generation or kind, as Peter, John, and James are of one human generation or kind; for they would then have each his particular essence, and there would then be three divine essences: neither are they one by composition, as though each Person were a third part of the divine essence; for this is contrary to the simplicity of the divine essence. Finally, we may not say, that these three Persons are one only in will, because in this sense, all the saints may be said to be one with God; but they are one in essence, inasmuch as each Person hath his peculiar manner of subsistence in one and the same simple essence, by which means the Persons subsist through, and on account of the essence, in each other. This the Saviour declares, when he saith, He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me," John xiv. 9, 10, 11. See also John x. 30, and xvii. 21.

It was necessary that we should say so much in order to explain this great mystery; but we must also prove it, that our minds may be established in the belief of this capital article, of the divine mys ́teries, and that we may confute the Jews and the Socinians, who blaspheme this mystery in the most horrible manner. This cannot be done by the light of reason, as the schoolmen and others, who foldow them, pretend, imagining that the Father, by understanding

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himself, produced a living image of himself which was his Son, and that the Father and the Son by loving themselves, caused a love tọ proceed and issue from themselves, which was the Holy Ghost. But what likeness hath this to the mystery under consideration? and where doth the word of God speak thus? There is nothing innate in man, no not in his state of integrity, that can induce him to think of a plurality of divine persons; neither will a contemplation of the created universe suggest this to him. God's understanding and loving of himself are not personal acts, as the generation of the Son, and the proceeding of the Holy Ghost are; but they are essential acts of God, and so God would not thereby produce another Person, but another essence. Yea, if God's understanding and loving of h ́mself did produce a Person, the Persons might be infinitely multiplied, since each Person understands and loves himself, and the other Persons.

Neither need we betake ourselves, in order to prove this mystery of the Trinity, to the tradition and authority of the church, as the Papists do, that they may accuse the scripture of imperfection. The purified tradition and doctrine of the church can indeed propose and illustrate this truth to us; but her authority and doctrine cannot oblige us to believe it, any further than they prove it to us from the word of God: "That our faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God," 1 Cor. ii. 5. "Faith cometh by hearing, and bearing by the word of God," Rom. x 17. Therefore the twenty-fifth question saith, "that God hath revealed himself thus in his word."

And verily the word of God proves this truth abundantly; for (a) God speaks in his word of himself in the plural number: "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," Gen. i. 26. This we find also, Gen. iii. 22. xi 7. Isaiah vi. 8. We cannot say that God speaks here of the angels, since man was not made in the image of the angels; neither may we say that God speaks here after the manner of kings, who say in their behests, "We" command this or that, this or that pleaseth "us;" for this is a later usage, and we do not find that any king is introduced in scripture speaking in this manner.(b) We also find that one Person is distinguished from another, as God and Lord, Psalm xlv, 7.* “ O God, thy God hath anointed thee," Psalm cx. 1. "The Lord said unto my Lord." This silenced the unbelieving Jews, Matt. xxii. 42-46. Many cite here also the passage, Gen. xix. 24 (c) Add to this,

We have rendered this passage according to the Dutch translation.

In the Old testament we find,

that God speaks of himself as three. Isaiah Ixi. 1, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me." This we see also Psalm xxxiii. 6. Isaiah lxiii. 9. 10. Haggai ii. 5, 6. We shall not speak now of the priestly blessing, Num. vi 24, 25, 26, nor of the churches reciting the name of the Lord three several times in her celebration of him, Isaiah xxxiii. 22. Attend only to Isaiah vi. 3, where God is celebrated thrice as "the Holy Lord. That the Father alone is not praised there as holy appears, because more than one person is spoken of in that passage; "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" vrs. 8. Therefore John also saith,

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that the glory of Jesus also was seen" there, John xii. 41, and Paul applies that vision to the Holy Ghost also, Acts xxviii. 25. In the New Testament we find these three Persons in the baptism of Christ, Matt. iii. 16, 17, in our baptism, Matt. xxviii. 19, in the blessing of Paul, 2 Cor. xiii. 13. And that these three are one, is shown by John, 2 John v. 7. All these passages serve to prove that there are three divine Persons, because they are associated in them, as participating in the execution of some divine work.(d) Finally, the word of God teacheth us, that the salvation of sinners is ascribed unto three Persons; that the Son saves by his grace, the Father by his love, and the Holy Ghost by his communion, 2 Cor. xii. 13. which the three Persons also seal to us in baptism, Mat. xxviii. and believe ers also experience, that they are brought by the Holy Spirit through the Son to the Father, Eph. ii. 18. Therefore our Netherland con- fer fession also saith, Article 9, "All this we know, as well from the tes- hic timonies of holy writ, as from their operations; and chiefly by those we feel in ourselves." Now it is certain, that it is a divine work to save sinners. See this, Isaiah xlv. 21-24. Hosea i. 7. Titus iii. 4. Consequently there are three, who are God. We could now furthermore prove, that divine names, attributes, works, and worship are ascribed to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Father: but since we must treat formally of the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hereafter, we shall therefore defer these proofs for the present.

In order to form now a conclusion from what hath been said, we know, and it is evident of itself, that there is only one God; and since we have now proved that there are three, who are God, it follows that these three are the one. God in essence, agreeably to our explanation. And therefore we say from 1 John v. 7. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." The brevity of our method

will not permit us to enlarge here, in order to rescue this passage from the cavils of the Socinians.

II. "Since there is but one divine essence, why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?" thus asks the instructor. The force of this objection consists herein, that three cannot be one, nor one three. But we satisfy it fully by saying, that God hath revealed himself as three and one in his word. To this we must submit, and bring our thoughts, which cannot fully comprehend it, into captivity. Should it be said that there cannot be any contradictions in God, and that the word of God cannot reveal contradictions; we say, that this is true, and that there are no contradictions in this mystery, as there would be, if God were one and three in the same respect, but God is one in respect of his essence, and in another respect, to wit, in respect of his Persons, he is three; which is by no means a contradiction.

We

They object also, John xviii. 3. "This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Hence, say they, the Father alone is called God, and the only God, and therefore the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be God. say, the Father is only, that is, nothing but God, as the words only and alone are used. See Jer. xxxii. 30 But the Son is something' besides God, he is man also; and therefore we must connect the word "only" with "God," and not with "thou."

We shall not attend here to other objections, since they must be referred to the thirteenth, and to the twentieth Lord's days; on which we must prove the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

But there are still two things, which require our consideration ;(a First, whether the doctrine of the Trinity be a fundamental article of the faith, upon which our salvation depends? or whether it be only a scholastic question, which we may believe, or not believe, without injury to our salvation? This is the opinion of the Remonstrants, which they entertain to gratify the Socinians, although in other respects they maintain this doctrine: but we reckon this to be a fundamental doctrine of the faith, upon which our everlasting life depends, according to John xvii. 3. It is the first principle of Christianity, which is proposed before all others to those who are to be baptised, as the foundation of their salvation, and which they are obliged to believe. If we believe not this doctrine, we deny then other fundamental articles also, as the union of the two natures in Christ, his satisfaction and effectual grace, as oppears in the So-"cinians.