Temple of God; and yet we are here faid to be the Temple of God, because the Spirit dwelleth in us. And fo elfewhere, Know ye not, faith the Apoftle, that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you? 1 Cor. vi. 19. which could not be unless the Holy Ghost was God.

Another exprefs Scripture we have for it in Alts v. 3, 4) where St. Peter propounds this Queftion to Ananias, Why bath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost? And then tells him in the next Verfe, Thou hast not yed to men but to God: And fo exprefly afferts the Holy Ghost to be Godhead B011 to 21 I sib yaled te noh Yca subd

hot

Moreover, That the Holy Ghoft is truly God, coequal to the Father and Son, is plain, in that the Scriptures affert him to be, to have, and to do whatfoever the Father or Son is, hath, or doth, as God. For, Is the Father and Son eternalfo is the Spirit, Hebrews ix. 14. Is God the Father and the Son everywhere? fo is the Spirit, Pfalm cxxxix. 7. Is God the Father, and the Son, a wife, under

ftanding,

ftanding, powerful, and knowing God? fo is the Spirit, Ifaiah xi. 2. Are we baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son? fo are we baptized in the Name of the Holy Ghoft. May we Sin against the Father and the Son? fo may we Sin too against the Holy Ghoft. Nay, the Sin against this Perfon only is accounted by our Saviour to be a Sin never to be pardoned, Matthew xii. 31, 32. We may Sin against God the Father, and our Sin may be pardoned: We may Sin against God the Son, and our Sin may be pardoned: But if we Sin or Speak against the Holy Ghoft, that fhall never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor yet in that which is to come. But if the Holy Ghost be not God, how can we Sin against him? or how comes our Sin against him only to be unpardonable, unless he be God? I know it is not therefore unpardonable because he is God, for then the Sins against the Father and the Son would be unpardonable too, feeing they both are God as well as he : Yet though this Sin is not therefore unpardonable, because he is God, yet it could not be unpardonable unless he was God. For, fuppofing

fuppofing him not to be God, but a Creature, and yet the Sin against him to be unpardonable, then the Sin against a Creature would be unpardonable, when Sins against God himself are pardoned: Which, to fay, would, itfelf, I think, come near to the Sin against the Holy Ghoft. But feeing our Saviour describes this unpardonable Sin, by blafpheming or speaking against the Holy Ghoft, let them have a care that they be not found guilty of it, who dare deny the Holy Ghoft to be really and truly God, and fo blafpheme and fpeak the worst that they can against him.

III. We have feen what Ground swe have to believe, that there are Three Perfons in the Godhead, and that eve ry one of these Perfons is God, we are now to confider the Order of thofe Perfons in the Trinity, defcribed in the Words before us,

Firft, The Father, and then the Son, and then the Holy Ghoft; every one of which is really and truly God and yet they are All but One real and true God. A Myftery which we are

a great

;

all bound to believe, but yet must have a great Care how we fpeak of it; it being both eafy and dangerous to miftake in exprefling fo myfterious a Truth as this is. If we think of it, How hard is it to contemplate upon one numerically Divine Nature, in more than one and the fame Divine Perfonor, upon Three Divine Perfons in no more than One and the fame Divine Nature? If we fpeak of it, How hard is it to find out fit Words to exprefs it? If I fay, The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be Three, and every One diftinctly God, it is true: But if I fay, They be Three, and every one a diftinét God, it is falfe. I may fay, The Divine Perfons are diftinct in the Divine Nature: But T cannot fay, That the Divine Nature is divided into the Divine Perfons. may fay, God the Father is One God, and the Son is one God, and the Holy Ghoft is One God: But I cannot fay, That the Father is One God, and the Son Another God, and the Holy Ghost a Third God. I may fay, The Father begat another who is God; yet I cannot fay, That he begat another God. And from the Father and the Son proceeded another who is God; yet I H

I

cannot

C

cannot fay, from the Father and the Son proceedeth another God. For, all this while, though their Nature be the fame, their Perfons are distinct; and though their Perfons be diftinct, fill their Nature is the fame. So that though the Father be the First Perfon in the Godhead, the Son the Second, and the Holy Ghoft the Third'; yet the Father is not the First, the Son a Second, and the Holy Ghoft a Third God. So hard a thing is it to word fo great a Myftery aright; or to fit fo high a Truth with Expreffions fuitable and proper to it, without going one way or another from it. And therefore I fhall not ufe many words about it, left fome fhould flip from me unbecoming of it. But, in as few Terms as I can, I will endeavour to fhew, upon what account the Father is the Firft, the Son the Second, and the Holy Ghost the Third Perfon in the Trinity.

A

First, therefore, The Father is placed firft, and really is the Firft Perfon, not as if he was before the other Two, for they are all Coeternal; but because the other Two received their Effence from him: For the Son was begotten of the

Father,