An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity
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.
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 4:8) "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. 1:8) "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.
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. 36:8), 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.
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.
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
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
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.