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Religion Forum Index » Christian Methodist Forum » An Unpublished Essay On The Trinity...
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| Carl... |
 Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 2:07 am |
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The following is an article Jonathan Edwards wrote on the Biblically-based
doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
---
An Unpublished Essay On The Trinity
by Jonathan Edwards
It is common when speaking of the Divine happiness to say that God is
infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself, in perfectly beholding and
infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, His own essence and perfection, and
accordingly it must be supposed that God perpetually and eternally has a
most perfect idea of Himself, as it were an exact image and representation
of Himself ever before Him and in actual view, and from hence arises a most
pure and perfect act or energy in the Godhead, which is the Divine love,
complacence and joy. The knowledge or view which God has of Himself must
necessarily be conceived to be something distinct from His mere direct
existence. There must be something that answers to our reflection. The
reflection as we reflect on our own minds carries something of imperfection
in it. However, if God beholds Himself so as thence to have delight and joy
in Himself He must become his own object. There must be a duplicity. There
is God and the idea of God, if it be proper to call a conception of that
that is purely spiritual an idea.
If a man could have an absolutely perfect idea of all that passed in his
mind, all the series of ideas and exercises in every respect perfect as to
order, degree, circumstance and for any particular space of time past,
suppose the last hour, he would really to all intents and purpose be over
again what he was that last hour. And if it were possible for a man by
reflection perfectly to contemplate all that is in his own mind in an hour,
as it is and at the same time that it is there in its first and direct
existence; if a man, that is, had a perfect reflex or contemplative idea of
every thought at the same moment or moments that that thought was and of
every exercise at and during the same time that that exercise was, and so
through a whole hour, a man would really be two during that time, he would
be indeed double, he would be twice at once. The idea he has of himself
would be himself again.
Note, by having a reflex or contemplative idea of what passes in our own
minds I don't mean consciousness only. There is a great difference between a
man's having a view of himself, reflex or contemplative idea of himself so
as to delight in his own beauty or excellency, and a mere direct
consciousness. Or if we mean by consciousness of what is in our own minds
anything besides the mere simple existence in our minds of what is there, it
is nothing but a power by reflection to view or contemplate what passes.
Therefore as God with perfect clearness, fullness and strength, understands
Himself, views His own essence (in which there is no distinction of
substance and act but which is wholly substance and wholly act), that idea
which God hath of Himself is absolutely Himself. This representation of the
Divine nature and essence is the Divine nature and essence again: so that by
God's thinking of the Deity must certainly be generated. Hereby there is
another person begotten, there is another Infinite Eternal Almighty and most
holy and the same God, the very same Divine nature.
And this Person is the second person in the Trinity, the Only Begotten and
dearly Beloved Son of God; He is the eternal, necessary, perfect,
substantial and personal idea which God hath of Himself; and that it is so
seems to me to be abundantly confirmed by the Word of God.
Nothing can more agree with the account the Scripture gives us of the Son of
God, His being in the form of God and His express and perfect image and
representation: (II Cor. 4:4) "Lest the light of the glorious Gospel of
Christ Who is the image of God should shine unto them." (Phil. 2:6) "Who
being in the form of God." (Col. 1:15) "Who is the image of the invisible
God." (Heb. 1:3) "Who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person."
Christ is called the face of God (Exod. 33:14): the word [A.V. presence] in
the original signifies face, looks, form or appearance. Now what can be so
properly and fitly called so with respect to God as God's own perfect idea
of Himself whereby He has every moment a view of His own essence: this idea
is that "face of God" which God sees as a man sees his own face in a looking
glass. 'Tis of such form or appearance whereby God eternally appears to
Himself. The root that the original word comes from signifies to look upon
or behold: now what is that which God looks upon or beholds in so eminent a
manner as He doth on His own idea or that perfect image of Himself which He
has in view. This is what is eminently in God's presence and is therefore
called the angel of God's presence or face (Isa. 63:9). But that the Son of
God is God's own eternal and perfect idea is a thing we have yet much more
expressly revealed in God's Word. First, in that Christ is called "the
wisdom of God." If we are taught in the Scripture that Christ is the same
with God's wisdom or knowledge, then it teaches us that He is the same with
God's perfect and eternal idea. They are the same as we have already
observed and I suppose none will deny. But Christ is said to be the wisdom
of God (I Cor. 1:24, Luke 11:49, compare with Matt. 23:34); and how much
doth Christ speak in Proverbs under the name of Wisdom especially in the 8th
chapter.
The Godhead being thus begotten by God's loving an idea of Himself and
shewing forth in a distinct subsistence or person in that idea, there
proceeds a most pure act, and an infinitely holy and sacred energy arises
between the Father and Son in mutually loving and delighting in each other,
for their love and joy is mutual, (Prov. 8:30) "I was daily His delight
rejoicing always before Him." This is the eternal and most perfect and
essential act of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite
degree and in the most perfect manner possible. The Deity becomes all act,
the Divine essence itself flows out and is as it were breathed forth in love
and joy. So that the Godhead therein stands forth in yet another manner of
subsistence, and there proceeds the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy
Spirit, viz., the Deity in act, for there is no other act but the act of the
will.
We may learn by the Word of God that the Godhead or the Divine nature and
essence does subsist in love. (I John 4: "He that loveth not knoweth not
God; for God is love." In the context of which place I think it is plainly
intimated to us that the Holy Spirit is that Love, as in the 12th and 13th
verses. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is
perfected in us; hereby know we that we dwell in Him ... because He hath
given us of His Spirit." 'Tis the same argument in both verses. In the 12th
verse the apostle argues that if we have love dwelling in us we have God
dwelling in us, and in the 13th verse He clears the force of the argument by
this that love is God's Spirit. Seeing we have God's Spirit dwelling in us,
we have God dwelling in [in us], supposing it as a thing granted and allowed
that God's Spirit is God. 'Tis evident also by this that God's dwelling in
us and His love or the love that He hath exerciseth, being in us, are the
same thing. The same is intimated in the same manner in the last verse of
the foregoing chapter. The apostle was, in the foregoing verses, speaking of
love as a sure sign of sincerity and our acceptance with God, beginning with
the 18th verse, and he sums up the argument thus in the last verse, "and
hereby do we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit that He hath given
us."
The Scripture seems in many places to speak of love in Christians as if it
were the same with the Spirit of God in them, or at least as the prime and
most natural breathing and acting of the Spirit in the soul. (Phil. 2:1) "If
there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercies, fulfil ye my joy that ye
be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." (II
Cor. 6:6) "By kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned." (Romans
15:30) "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and
for the love of the Spirit." (Col. 1: "Who declared unto us your love in
the Spirit." (Rom. 5:5) "Having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given to us." (Gal. 5:13-16) "Use not liberty for an
occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not
consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The Apostle argues that Christian
liberty does not make way for fulfilling the lusts of the flesh in biting
and devouring one another and the like, because a principle of love which
was the fulfilling of the law would prevent it, and in the 16th verse he
asserts the same thing in other words: "This I say then walk in the Spirit
and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."
The third and last office of the Holy Spirit is to comfort and delight the
souls of God's people, and thus one of His names is the Comforter, and thus
we have the phrase of "joy in the Holy Ghost." (I Thess. 1:6) "Having
received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14:
17) "The kingdom of God is ... righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost." (Acts 9:31) "Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of
the Holy Ghost." But how well doth this agree with the Holy Ghost being
God's joy and delight, (Acts 13:52) "And the disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost"--meaning as I suppose that they were filled with
spiritual joy.
This is confirmed by the symbol of the Holy Ghost, viz., a dove, which is
the emblem of love or a lover, and is so used in Scripture, and especially
often so in Solomon's Song, (1:15) "Behold thou art fair; my love, behold
thou art fair; thou hast dove's eyes:" i.e. "Eyes of love," and again 4:1,
the same words; and 5:12, "His eyes are as the eyes of doves," and 5:2, "My
love, my dove," and 2:14 and 6:9; and this I believe to be the reason that
the dove alone of all birds (except the sparrow in the single case of the
leprosy) was appointed to be offered in sacrifice because of its innocence
and because it is the emblem of love, love being the most acceptable
sacrifice to God. It was under this similitude that the Holy Ghost descended
from the Father on Christ at His baptism, signifying the infinite love of
the Father to the Son, Who is the true David, or beloved, as we said before.
The same was signified by what was exhibited to the eye in the appearance
there was of the Holy Ghost descending from the Father to the Son in the
shape of a dove, as was signified by what was exhibited to the eye in the
voice there was at the same time, viz., "This is My well Beloved Son in Whom
I am well pleased."
(That God's love or His loving kindness is the same with the Holy Ghost
seems to be plain by Psalm 36:7-9, "How excellent (or how precious as 'tis
in the Hebrew) is Thy loving-kindness O God, therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings, they shall be abundantly
satisfied (in the Hebrew "watered") with the fatness of Thy house and Thou
shalt make them to drink of the river of Thy pleasures; for with Thee is the
fountain of life and in Thy light shall we see light."
Doubtless that precious loving-kindness and that fatness of God's house and
river of His pleasures and the water of the fountain of life and God's light
here spoken [of] are the same thing; by which we learn that the Holy
anointing oil that was kept in the House of God, which was a type of the
Holy Ghost, represented God's love, and that the "River of water of life"
spoken of in the 22nd [chapter] of Revelation, which proceeds out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb, which is the same with Ezekiel's vision of
Living and life-giving water, which is here [in Ps. 36] called the "Fountain
of life and river of God's pleasures," is God's loving-kindness.
But Christ Himself expressly teaches us that by spiritual fountains and
rivers of water of life is meant the Holy Ghost. (John 4:14; 7:38,39).That
by the river of God's pleasures here is meant the same thing with the pure
river of water of life spoken of in Revelation 22:1, will be much confirmed
if we compare those verses with Revelation 21:23, 24; 22:1,5. (See the notes
on chapters 21, 23, 24) I think if we compare these places and weigh them we
cannot doubt but that it is the same happines2 that is meant in this Psalm
which is spoken of there.)
So this well agrees with the similitudes and metaphors that are used about
the Holy Ghost in Scripture, such as water, fire, breath, wind, oil, wine, a
spring, a river, a being poured out and shed forth, and a being breathed
forth. Can there any spiritual thing be thought, or anything belonging to
any spiritual being to which such kind of metaphors so naturally agree, as
to the affection of a Spirit. The affection, love or joy, may be said to
flow out as water or to be breathed forth as breath or wind. But it would
[not] sound so well to say that an idea or judgment flows out or is breathed
forth.
It is no way different to say of the affection that it is warm, or to
compare love to fire, but it would not seem natural to say the same of
perception or reason. It seems natural enough to say that the soul is poured
out in affection or that love or delight are shed abroad: (Rom. 5:5) "The
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts," but it suits with nothing else
belonging to a spiritual being.
This is that "river of water of life" spoken of in the 22nd [chapter] of
Revelation, which proceeds from the throne of the Father and the Son, for
the rivers of living water or water of life are the Holy Ghost, by the same
apostle's own interpretation (John 7:38, 39); and the Holy Ghost being the
infinite delight and pleasure of God, the river is called the river of God's
pleasures (Ps. 36:, not God's river of pleasures, which I suppose
signifies the same as the fatness of God's House, which they that trust in
God shall be watered with, by which fatness of God's House I suppose is
signified the same thing which oil typifies.
It is a confirmation that the Holy Ghost is God's love and delight, because
the saints communion with God consists in their partaking of the Holy Ghost.
The communion of saints is twofold: 'tis their communion with God and
communion with one another, (I John 1:3) "That ye also may have fellowship
with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus
Christ." Communion is a common partaking of good, either of excellency or
happiness, so that when it is said the saints have communion or fellowship
with the Father and with the Son, the meaning of it is that they partake
with the Father and the Son of their good, which is either their excellency
and glory (II Peter 1:4), "Ye are made partakers of the Divine nature"; Heb.
12:10, "That we might be partakers of His holiness;" John 17:22, 23, "And
the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one,
even as we are one, I in them and Thou in Me"); or of their joy and
happiness: (John 17:13) "That they might have My joy fulfilled in
themselves."
But the Holy Ghost being the love and joy of God is His beauty and
happiness, and it is in our partaking of the same Holy Spirit that our
communion with God consists: (II Cor. 13:14) "The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with
you all, Amen." They are not different benefits but the same that the
Apostle here wisheth, viz., the Holy Ghost: in partaking of the Holy Ghost,
we possess and enjoy the love and grace of the Father and the Son, for the
Holy Ghost is that love and grace, and therefore I suppose it is that in
that forementioned place, (I John 1:3). We are said to have fellowship with
the Son and not with the Holy Ghost, because therein consists our fellowship
with the Father and the Son, even in partaking with them of the Holy Ghost.
In this also eminently consists our communion with the Son that we drink
into the same Spirit. This is the common excellency and joy and happiness in
which they all are united; 'tis the bond of perfectness by which they are
one in the Father and the Son as the Father is in the Son.
I can think of no other good account that can be given of the apostle Paul's
wishing grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the
beginning of his Epistles, without ever mentioning the Holy Ghost, - as we
find it thirteen times in his salutations in the beginnings of his
Epistles, - but [i.e., except] that the Holy Ghost is Himself love and grace
of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and in his blessing at the end
of his second Epistle to the Corinthians where all three Persons are
mentioned he wishes grace and love from the Son and the Father [except that]
in the communion or the partaking of the Holy Ghost, the blessing is from
the Father and the Son in the Holy Ghost. But the blessing from the Holy
Ghost is Himself, the communication of Himself. Christ promises that He and
the Father will love believers (John 14:21,23), but no mention is made of
the Holy Ghost, and the love of Christ and the love of the Father are often
distinctly mentioned, but never any mention of the Holy Ghost's love.
(This I suppose to be the reason why we have never any account of the Holy
Ghost's loving either the Father or the Son, or of the Son's or the Father's
loving the Holy Ghost, or of the Holy Ghost's loving the saints, tho these
things are so often predicated of both the other Persons.)
And this I suppose to be that blessed Trinity that we read of in the Holy
Scriptures. The Father is the Deity subsisting in the prime, un-originated
and most absolute manner, or the Deity in its direct existence. The Son is
the Deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and
subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the Deity subsisting in act, or
the Divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's Infinite love to
and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly
and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that
each of them are properly distinct Persons.
It is a maxim amongst divines that everything that is in God is God which
must be understood of real attributes and not of mere modalities. If a man
should tell me that the immutability of God is God, or that the omnipresence
of God and authority of God is God, I should not be able to think of any
rational meaning of what he said. It hardly sounds to me proper to say that
God's being without change is God, or that God's being everywhere is God, or
that God's having a right of government over creatures is God.
But if it be meant that the real attributes of God, viz., His understanding
and love are God, then what we have said may in some measure explain how it
is so, for Deity subsists in them distinctly; so they are distinct Divine
Persons.
One of the principal objections that I can think of against what has been
supposed is concerning the Personality of the Holy Ghost - that this scheme
of things does not seem well to consist with [the fact] that a person is
that which hath understanding and will. If the three in the Godhead are
Persons they doubtless each of them have understanding, but this makes the
understanding one distinct person and love another. How therefore can this
love be said to have understanding, (Here I would observe that divines have
not been wont to suppose that these three had three distinct understandings,
but all one and the same understanding.)
In order to clear up this matter let it be considered that the whole Divine
office is supposed truly and properly to subsist in each of these three,
viz., God and His understanding and love, and that there is such a wonderful
union between them that they are, after an ineffable and inconceivable
manner, One in Another, so that One hath Another and they have communion in
One Another and are as it were predicable One of Another; as Christ said of
Himself and the Father "I am in the Father and the Father in Me," so may it
be said concerning all the Persons in the Trinity, the Father is in the Son
and the Son in the Father, the Holy Ghost is in the Father, and the Father
in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is in the Son, and the Son in the Holy
Ghost, and the Father understands because the Son Who is the Divine
understanding is in Him, the Father loves because the Holy Ghost is in Him,
so the Son loves because the Holy Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him, so
the Holy Ghost or the Divine essence subsisting is Divine, but understands
because the Son the Divine Idea is in Him.
Understanding may be predicated of this love because it is the love of the
understanding both objectively and subjectively. God loves the understanding
and that understanding also flows out in love so that the Divine
understanding is in the Deity subsisting in love. It is not a blind love.
Even in creatures there is consciousness included in the very nature of the
will or act of the soul, and tho perhaps not so that it can so properly be
said that it is a seeing or undemanding will, yet it may truly and properly
be said so in God by reason of God's infinitely more perfect manner of
acting so that the whole Divine essence flows out and subsists in this act,
and the Son is in the Holy Spirit tho it does not proceed from Him by reason
( of the fact) that the understanding must be considered as prior in the
order of nature to the will or love or act, both in creatures and in the
Creator. The understanding is so in the Spirit that the Spirit may be said
to know, as the Spirit of God is truly and perfectly said to know and to
search all things, even the deep things of God.
(All the Three are Persons for they all have understanding and will. There
is understanding and will in the Father, as the Son and the Holy Ghost are
in Him and proceed from Him. There is understanding and will in the Son, as
He is understanding and as the Holy Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him.
There is understanding and will in the Holy Ghost as He is the Divine will
and as the Son is in Him.
Nor is it to be looked upon as a strange and unreasonable figment that the
Persons should be said to have an understanding or love by another person's
being in them, for we have Scripture ground to conclude so concerning the
Father's having wisdom and understanding or reason that it is by the Son's
being in Him; because we are there informed that He is the wisdom and reason
and truth of God, and hereby God is wise by His own wisdom being in Him.
Understanding and wisdom is in the Father as the Son is in Him and proceeds
from Him. Understanding is in the Holy Ghost because the Son is in Him, not
as proceeding from Him but as flowing out in Him.)
But I don't pretend fully to explain how these things are and I am sensible
a hundred other objections may be made and puzzling doubts and questions
raised that I can't solve. I am far from pretending to explaining the
Trinity so as to render it no longer a mystery. I think it to be the highest
and deepest of all Divine mysteries still, notwithstanding anything that I
have said or conceived about it. I don't intend to explain the Trinity. But
Scripture with reason may lead to say something further of it than has been
wont to be said, tho there are still left many things pertaining to it
incomprehensible.
It seems to me that what I have here supposed concerning the Trinity is
exceeding analogous to the Gospel scheme and agreeable to the tenor of the
whole New Testament and abundantly illustrative of Gospel doctrines, as
might be particularly shown, would it not exceedingly lengthen out this
discourse.
I shall only now briefly observe that many things that have been wont to be
said by orthodox divines about the Trinity are hereby illustrated. Hereby we
see how the Father is the fountain of the Godhead, and why when He is spoken
of in Scripture He is so often, without any addition or distinction, called
God, which has led some to think that He only was truly and properly God.
Hereby we may see why in the economy of the Persons of the Trinity the
Father should sustain the dignity of the Deity, that the Father should have
it as His office to uphold and maintain the rights of the Godhead and should
be God not only by essence, but as it were, by His economical office.
Hereby is illustrated the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. Proceeding [from] both
the Father and the Son. Hereby we see how that it is possible for the Son to
be begotten by the Father and the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and
Son, and yet that all the Persons should be Co-etemal. Hereby we may more
clearly understand the equality of the Persons among themselves, and that
they are every way equal in the society or family of the three.
They are equal in honor: besides the honor which is common to them all,
viz., that they are all God, each has His peculiar honor in the society or
family. They are equal not only in essence, but the Father's honor is that
He is, as it were, the Author of perfect and Infinite wisdom. The Son's
honor is that He is that perfect and Divine wisdom itself the excellency of
which is that from whence arises the honor of being the author or Generator
of it. The honor of the Father and the Son is that they are infinitely
excellent, or that from them infinite excellency proceeds; but the honor of
the Holy Ghost is equal for He is that Divine excellency and beauty itself.
'Tis the honor of the Father and the Son that they are infinitely holy and
are the fountain of holiness, but the honor of the Holy Ghost is that
holiness itself. The honor of the Father and the Son is [that] they are
infinitely happy and are the original and fountain of happiness and the
honor of the Holy Ghost is equal for He is infinite happiness and joy
itself.
The honor of the Father is that He is the fountain of the Deity as He from
Whom proceed both the Divine wisdom and also excellency and happiness. The
honor of the Son is equal for He is Himself the Divine wisdom and is He from
Whom proceeds the Divine excellency and happiness, and the honor of the Holy
Ghost is equal for He is the beauty and happiness of both the other Persons.
By this also we may fully understand the equality of each Person's concern
in the work of redemption, and the equality of the Redeemed's concern with
them and dependence upon them, and the equality and honor and praise due to
each of them. Glory belongs to the Father and the Son that they so greatly
loved the world: to the Father that He so loved that He gave His Only
Begotten Son: to the Son that He so loved the world as to give up Himself.
But there is equal glory due to the Holy Ghost for He is that love of the
Father and the Son to the world. Just so much as the two first Persons
glorify themselves by showing the astonishing greatness of their love and
grace, just so much is that wonderful love and grace glorified Who is the
Holy Ghost. It shows the Infinite dignity and excellency of the Father that
the Son so delighted and prized His honor and glory that He stooped
infinitely low rather than [that] men's salvation should be to the injury of
that honor and glory.
It showed the infinite excellency and worth of the Son that the Father so
delighted in Him that for His sake He was ready to quit His anger and
receive into favor those that had [deserved?] infinitely ill at His Hands,
and what was done shows how great the excellency and worth of the Holy Ghost
Who is that delight which the Father and the Son have in each other: it
shows it to be Infinite. So great as the worth of a thing delighted in is to
any one, so great is the worth of that delight and joy itself which he has
in it.
Our dependence is equally upon each in this office. The Father appoints and
provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price and grants the thing
purchased; the Son is the Redeemer by offering Himself and is the price; and
the Holy Ghost immediately communicates to us the thing purchased by
communicating Himself, and He is the thing purchased. The sum of all that
Christ purchased for men was the Holy Ghost: (Gal. 3:13,14) "He was made a
curse for us... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith."
What Christ purchased for us was that we have communion with God [which] is
His good, which consists in partaking of the Holy Ghost: as we have shown,
all the blessedness of the Redeemed consists in their partaking of Christ's
fullness, which consists in partaking of that Spirit which is given not by
measure unto him: the oil that is poured on the head of the Church runs down
to the members of His body and to the skirts of His garment (Ps. 133:2).
Christ purchased for us that we should have the favor of God and might enjoy
His love, but this love is the Holy Ghost.
Christ purchased for us true spiritual excellency, grace and holiness, the
sum of which is love to God, which is [nothing] but the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost in the heart. Christ purchased for us spiritual joy and comfort,
which is in a participation of God's joy and happiness, which joy and
happiness is the Holy Ghost as we have shown. The Holy Ghost is the sum of
all good things. Good things and the Holy Spirit are synonymous expressions
in Scripture: (Matt. 7:11) "How much more shall your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." The sum of all spiritual good which
the finite have in this world is that spring of living water within them
which we read of (John 4:10), and those rivers of living water flowing out
of them which we read of (John 7:38,39), which we are there told means the
Holy Ghost; and the sum of all happiness in the other world is that river of
water of life which proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb, which we
read of (Rev. 22:1), which is the River of God's pleasures and is the Holy
Ghost and therefore the sum of the Gospel invitation to come and take the
water of life (verse 17).
The Holy Ghost is the purchased possession and inheritance of the saints, as
appears because that little of it which the saints have in this world is
said to be the earnest of that purchased inheritance. (Eph. 1:14) Tis an
earnest of that which we are to have a fullness of hereafter. (II Cor. 1:22;
5:5) The Holy Ghost is the great subject of all Gospel promises and
therefore is called the Spirit of promise. (Eph. 1:13) This is called the
promise of the Father (Luke 24:49), and the like in other places. (If the
Holy Ghost be a comprehension of all good things promised in the Gospel, we
may easily see the force of the Apostle's arguing (Gal. 3:2), "This only
would I know, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith?") So that it is God of Whom our good is purchased and it
is God that purchases it and it is God also that is the thing purchased.
Thus all our good things are of God and through God and in God, as we read
in Romans 11:36: "For of Him and through Him and to Him (or in Him as eis is
rendered, I Cor. 8:6) are all things." "To Whom be glory forever." All our
good is of God the Father, it is all through God the Son, and all is in the
Holy Ghost as He is Himself all our good. God is Himself the portion and
purchased inheritance of His people. Thus God is the Alpha and the Omega in
this affair of redemption.
If we suppose no more than used to be supposed about the Holy Ghost, the
concern of the Holy Ghost in the work of redemption is not equal with the
Father's and the Son's, nor is there an equal part of the glory of this work
belonging to Him: merely to apply to us or immediately to give or hand to us
the blessing purchased, after it was purchased, as subservient to the other
two Persons, is but a little thing [compared] to the purchasing of it by the
paying an Infinite price, by Christ offering up Himself in sacrifice to
procure it, and it is but a little thing to God the Father's giving His
infinitely dear Son to be a sacrifice for us and upon His purchase to afford
to us all the blessings of His purchased.
But according to this there is an equality. To be the love of God to the
world is as much as for the Father and the Son to do so much from love to
the world, and to be the thing purchased was as much as to be the price. The
price and the thing bought with that price are equal. And it is as much as
to afford the thing purchased, for the glory that belongs to Him that
affords the thing purchased arises from the worth of that thing that He
affords and therefore it is the same glory and an equal glory; the glory of
the thing itself is its worth and that is also the glory of him that affords
it.
There are two more eminent and remarkable images of the Trinity among the
creatures. The one is in the spiritual creation, the soul of man. There is
the mind, and the understanding or idea, and the spirit of the mind as it is
called in Scripture, i.e., the disposition, the will or affection. The other
is in the visible creation, viz., the Sun. The father is as the substance of
the Sun. (By substance I don't mean in a philosophical sense, but the Sun as
to its internal constitution.) The Son is as the brightness and glory of the
disk of the Sun or that bright and glorious form under which it appears to
our eyes. The Holy Ghost is the action of the Sun which is within the Sun in
its intestine heat, and, being diffusive, enlightens, warms, enlivens and
comforts the world. The Spirit as it is God's Infinite love to Himself and
happiness in Himself, is as the internal heat of the Sun, but as it is that
by which God communicates Himself, it is as the emanation of the sun's
action, or the emitted beams of the sun.
The various sorts of rays of the sun and their beautiful colors do well
represent the Spirit. They well represent the love and grace of God and were
made use of for this purpose in the rainbow after the flood, and I suppose
also in that rainbow that was seen round about the throne by Ezekiel (Ezek.
1:28; Rev. 4:3) and round the head of Christ by John (Rev. 10:1), or the
amiable excellency of God and the various beautiful graces and virtues of
the Spirit. These beautiful colors of the sunbeams we find made use of in
Scripture for this purpose, viz., to represent the graces of the Spirit, as
(Ps. 68:13) "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall be as the wings
of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," i.e.,
like the light reflected in various beautiful colors from the feathers of a
dove, which colors represent the graces of the Heavenly Dove.
The same I suppose is signified by the various beautiful colors reflected
from the precious stones of the breastplate, and that these spiritual
ornaments of the Church are what are represented by the various colors of
the foundation and gates of the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21; Isaiah 54:11, etc.)
and the stones of the Temple (I Chron. 29: 2); and I believe the variety
there is in the rays of the Sun and their beautiful colors was designed by
the Creator for this very purpose, and indeed that the whole visible
creation which is but the shadow of being is so made and ordered by God as
to typify and represent spiritual things, for which I could give many
reasons. (I don't propose this merely as an hypothesis but as a part of
Divine truth sufficiently and fully ascertained by the revelation God has
made in the Holy Scriptures.)
I am sensible what kind of objections many will be ready to make against
what has been said, what difficulties will be immediately found, How can
this be? And how can that be!
I am far from affording this as any explication of this mystery, that
unfolds and renews the mysteriousness and incomprehensibleness of it, for I
am sensible that however by what has been said some difficulties are
lessened, others that are new appear, and the number of those things that
appear mysterious, wonderful and incomprehensible, is increased by it. I
offer it only as a farther manifestation of what of Divine truth the Word of
God exhibits to the view of our minds concerning this great mystery.
I think the Word of God teaches us more things concerning it to be believed
by us than have been generally believed, and that it exhibits many things
concerning it exceeding [i.e., more] glorious and wonderful than have been
taken notice of; yea, that it reveals or exhibits many more wonderful
mysteries than those which have been taken notice of; which mysteries that
have been overvalued are incomprehensible things and yet have been exhibited
in the Word of God tho they are an addition to the number of mysteries that
are in it. No wonder that the more things we are told concerning that which
is so infinitely above our reach, the number of visible mysteries increases.
When we tell a child a little concerning God he has not an hundredth part so
many mysteries in view on the nature and attributes of God and His works of
creation and Providence as one that is told much concerning God in a
Divinity School; and yet he knows much more about God and has a much clearer
understanding of things of Divinity and is able more clearly to explicate
some things that were dark and very unintelligible to him; I humbly
apprehend that the things that have been observed increase the number of
visible mysteries in the Godhead in no other manner than as by them we
perceive that God has told us much more about it than was before generally
observed.
Under the Old Testament the Church of God was not told near so much about
the Trinity as they are now. But what the New Testament has revealed, tho it
has more opened to our view the nature of God, yet it has increased the
number of visible mysteries and they thus appear to us exceeding wonderful
and incomprehensible. And so also it has come to pass in the Church being
told [i.e., that the churches are told] more about the incarnation and the
satisfaction of Christ and other Gospel doctrines.
It is so not only in Divine things but natural things. He that looks on a
plant, or the parts of the bodies of animals, or any other works of nature,
at a great distance where he has but an obscure sight-of it, may see
something in it wonderful and beyond his comprehension, but he that is near
to it and views them narrowly indeed understands more about them, has a
clearer and distinct sight of them, and yet the number of things that are
wonderful and mysterious in them that appear to him are much more than
before, and, if he views them with a microscope, the number of the wonders
that he sees will be increased still but yet the microscope gives him more a
true knowledge concerning them.
God is never said to love the Holy Ghost nor are any epithets that betoken
love anywhere given to Him, tho so many are ascribed to the Son, as God's
Elect, The Beloved, He in Whom God's soul delights, He in Whom He is well
pleased, etc. Yea such epithets seem to be ascribed to the Son as tho He
were the object of love exclusive of all other persons, as tho there were no
person whatsoever to share the love of the Father with the Son. To this
purpose evidently He is called God's Only Begotten Son, at the time that it
is added, "In Whom He is well pleased." There is nothing in Scripture that
speaks of any acceptance of the Holy Ghost or any reward or any mutual
friendship between the Holy Ghost and either of the other Persons, or any
command to love the Holy Ghost or to delight in or have any complacence in
[the Holy Ghost], tho such commands are so frequent with respect to the
other Persons.
That knowledge or understanding in God which we must conceive of as first is
His knowledge of every thing possible. That love which must be this
knowledge is what we must conceive of as belonging to the essence of the
Godhead in it's first subsistence. Then comes a reflex act of knowledge and
His viewing Himself and knowing Himself and so knowing His own knowledge and
so the Son is begotten. There is such a thing in God as knowledge of
knowledge, an idea of an idea. Which can be nothing else than the idea or
knowledge repeated.
The world was made for the Son of God especially. For God made the world for
Himself from love to Himself; but God loves Himself only in a reflex act. He
views Himself and so loves Himself, so He makes the world for Himself viewed
and reflected on, and that is. The same with Himself repeated or begotten in
His own idea, and that is His Son. When God considers of making any thing
for Himself He presents Himself before Himself and views Himself as His End,
and that viewing Himself is the same as reflecting on Himself or having an
idea of Himself, and to make the world for the Godhead thus viewed and
understood is to make the world for the Godhead begotten and that is to make
the world for the Son of God.
The love of God as it flows forth ad extra is wholly determined and directed
by Divine wisdom, so that those only are the objects of it that Divine
wisdom chooses, so that the creation of the world is to gratify Divine love
as that is exercised by Divine wisdom. But Christ is Divine wisdom so that
the world is made to gratify Divine love as exercised by Christ or to
gratify the love that is in Christ's heart, or to provide a spouse for
Christ. Those creatures which wisdom chooses for the object of Divine love
as Christ's elect spouse and especially those elect creatures that wisdom
chiefly pitches upon and makes the end of the rest of creatures. |
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