Godhead is brought in speaking to another divine perfon, or to two others. They who are fpoke to, are addrefs'd in the strongest language of perfonality; and I am apt to imagine, it will not found fo well, if we fay, God faid to his own effential wisdom and power, The man is become like one of us; as if we allow the Father to speak fo to his Son and Spirit, on the fuppofition of their being diftinct perfons. The fame argument will hold good from this paffage, & The Lord faid, Come, let us go down and confound their language." And to add no more, we have a plain diverfity of perfons mentioned, in the account h of the destruction of Sodom, "Jehovah rained brimftone and fire from the Lord out of heaven."

The paffages I have produced make it evident, that there are real divine perfons, who confult together; but they do not tell us exprefly who they are; for this we must have recourfe to the new Teftament, which manifefts them to us under the names of Father, Son, and holy Spirit, and speaks of them as we do of perfons; as appears from the hiftory of the baptifm of Chrift, which is thus recorded by the evangelift Luke, "Jefus being baptized, and praying, the heavens were opened, and the holy Spirit defcended in a bodily fhape, like a dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven which faid, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased." This paffage, of old, gave occafion to a common faying, Go Arian to Jordan, and there you will fee a Trinity: It is a more direct proof of three divine perfons; for here the

Gen. xi. 6, 7.
Luke iii. 21, 22:

2

Gen. xix. 24.

Son

Son is mentioned, the Father is in that relative term implied, and the Spirit is represented as taking a visible shape. The Spirit could not mean any property of God, for the properties of God are never defcribed in Scripture, as taking visible shapes, and defcending on any one. The diftinction of three perfons appears from their various actions: the Father spoke, and was heard, but not feen; the Spirit descended in a bodily fhape, but was not heard; and the Son was baptized, and pray'd on the banks of Jordan, in the view of the fpectators. The language would be full of Catechrefes, if it express'd the Father's telling his intelligent volitive power, cloath'd with our nature, that it was his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, and his fending his intelligent effective power to rest upon it.

k

The inftitution of baptifin has been always reckon'd a full declaration of three divine perfons, as well as a tacit affertion of their unity in the fame Godhead: Chrift thus commanded his

disciples, 1 Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit." From hence it may be gather'd, that the prime defign of the Gospel revelation was, to call off the nations from the belief of numerous deities, to believ

κ Επ' ὀνόματα γὰρ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν ὅλων καὶ Δεσπότε θεοῦ, καὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χρσοῦ, καὶ πνέυματα αγίν, τὸ ε TŰ ÚDATI TÓTE ASTρor vra. Juftin. Apol. p. 89. Ed. Thirlby, cap. 79. Edit. Oxon.

Noviffime mandans, ut tingerent in Patrem, Filium, & Spiritum fanctum, non in unum, nam nec femel, fed ter, in fingula nomina, in perfonas fingulas tingimur. Tertullian contra Praxeam, cap. 26.

Matt. xxviii. 19.

ing in three divine perfons, whom yet they could not look upon as three gods, because the unity of God was as ftrongly infifted on, in the preaching of the apostles, as the Trinity of Perfons; and at the fame time that they declared it to be necessary for thofe they preach'd to, to believe in Father, Son, and Spirit, they urg'd upon them the neceffity of forfaking idols, and cleaving to the one living and true God. It is generally now agreed among the learned, that it was the cuftom of the Jews, to initiate profelytes into their religion, by baptifm: profclytes were baptized into the profeffion of the one God, in oppofition to idols. This cuftom of

m

the Jews our Lord was pleafed to adapt to the Gospel fervice; and when he appointed baptifm to be adminiftred, with the folemn invocation of the name of Father, Son, and Spirit, can it be thought, he only added a pompous form of words to the Jewish baptifm? The Jews baptized their profelytes in the name of the one God; and if he defign'd that his followers fhould be baptized in the name of the one God, and his two effential powers, I can fee no need to give out fo folemn a form. In my apprehenfion, it would have made Christianity a very obfcure religion, if when converts had been baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, they must have been told, that in order to have clear ideas of that religion they profefs'd, they must not conceive of the Father, Son, and Spirit, as three

m See Dr. Wall's introduction to his history of infant baptism, p. 67---110. Ed. in 8oo, and his answer to Mr. Gale, c. 9. 10. P. 211 -233.

IV.

See my true [fcripture doctrine of the Trinity, Part I. Chap.

real

real perfons, but muft conceive of them as one proper divine perfon, with his two effential powers, the intelligent volitive power, and the intelligent effective power. It is not in the leaft probable, that Chrift's defign in inftituting baptifm was, that we should be baptized into the name of one divine perfon, and two divine powers; for this confounds, and does not clear our ideas of this folemn piece of religious fervice. But Mr. Watts makes the Son, as to his human nature, a real perfon; fo that he makes baptifm to be in the name of two real perfons; and why the third that is named fhould not be fo, no good reason is or can be given by him. It is a very crude fuppofition, that we are baptized in the name of one proper, real divine perfon, one real created perfon, and one divine power, perfonaliz'd by idioms of fpeech. Nay, is it not moft irrational and ridiculous to affert ", that our faith, worship, and obedience should be directed, and intended to fuch a Triad, God, a creature, and a divine power?

Another thing that proves the Father, Son, and Spirit to be three real perfons, is the way of fpeaking Chrift ufed, when he promised the miffion of the Spirit as a comforter: "When the Comforter is come, whom I will fend to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth,

n In baptifm we own Father, Son, and holy Ghoft, and are facredly initiated, confecrated, or dedicated to the service and worship of Father, Son, and holy Ghoft: and to conceive that any one that is not God, as the Father is, that is not a person, as he is, and the Son likewife, is join'd with them; and for the end, and in the manner mentioned, without the leaft note of difference, as to Deity, or perfonality, is a strange fondrefs, deftructive of all religion, and leading the minds of men towards Polytheism. Dr. Owen of the Spirit, p. 510.

which proceeds from the Father, he shall teflify of me; and you alfo fhall teftify, because you have been with me from the beginning." I do not think it is poffible for words to exprefs a real perfonality, more strongly than these do. Sending is truly a perfonal action; it would be great impropriety of speech to say, one property, or power of God, was to fend another property, or power, to testify of it: and it would be monftrous to affirm, that a created perfon could fend a divine power in his name. Besides, the work of the Spirit is spoke of, as the work of a perfon; he was to teftify of Chrift, which certainly is as much a perfonal action as that of the apoftles, who, when they were inftructed by the Comforter, were to teftify of Chrift. In short, fending and testifying are the works of real perfons, and not of properties or powers. According to our author's interpretation, the sense of the words is this; when God's intelligent effective power is come, which I, his intelligent volitive power, will fend from the Father, P" who confider'd as exhibiting the prime phyfical idea or dignity of Godhead, and fuftaining the moral idea or dignity of it, may be conceived as the original of the two divine powers, and confequently to have the original right and power of fending the Spirit," he, the active power, fhall testify of me, the cognofcitive power. This is the author's interpretation, exprefs'd in the terms which he thinks conveigh the clearest and brighteft ideas to us; tho' I can't help thinking, it makes but a whimfical figure. If this is not darkening counsel with words without knowledge, I fhall never be able to know what is.