Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_000.lzh/D_092.TXT

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92                                 OF A PLURALITY IN THE G. ODHEAD, &c.                                                       Book I.

faith to receive it, and pronounces men justified by it,
1 Cot. vi. 11.
The text in I Cor. viii. 6. which expresses ihe faith of
Christians, there is but one God the Father, of whom are
a7ll things, stands opposed not to any other persons in the
Godhead, but to the many lords and gods among the
heathens, v 5. nor is the Father called the Father of
Christ, or opposed to him, but the Father of all; that is,
the Creator; see Mal. ii. 10. in which character, the Son
and Spirit are included, Eccles. xii. 1. Besides, if Christ
could be thought to stand excluded from the one God,
the Father, by the same rule of interpretation, God the
Father must stand excluded from the one I, ord, said of
Christ in the same text; and these observations may be
applied to Eph. iv. 5, 6. and will serve to clear and ex-
plain the words there to the same sense.
It is also said in 1 Tim. ii. 5. that there is one God,
and one Mediator between God and men, the man .Christ
Jesus: now the reason why Christ is spoken of as distinct
from the one God, though not different, is for the sake
of the mention of him in his office as Mediator; but
then if he was not the .one God, with the other divine
persons; or the true God, and the great God, he could
not be a Mediator between God and man; he could not
be a day's-man between them, and lay his hands on both;
he could not draw nigh to God, and treat with him about
peace and reconciliauon; and much less niake peace for
men, and be a ransom for the/n; as in the following
verse: but after all, though there are three persons in
the Godhead, as will more clearly appear hereafter, and
none of them stand excluded from Deity, yet there is but
one God; this is an article that must be inviolably
maintained.
The doctrine of the unity of the divine Being, is of
great importance in religion; especially in the affair of
worship. God, the one only God, is the object of it.
This is the sense of the first and second Commands,
which forbid owning any other God but one, and the
worship of any creature whatever, angels or men, or any
other creature, and the likeness of them; which to do is
to worship the creature, besides, or along with the Crea-
tor. But this hinders not but that the Son and Spirit
may have acts of worship performed to them, equally as
to the Father; and for this reason, because they are, with
him, the one God; hence baptism is administered equally,
in the name of all Three; and prayer is jointly made
unto them; both solemn acts of religious worship; see
Matt. xxviii, 19. Rev. i. 4, 5. And this doctrine of the
unity of the divine Being, as it fixes and settles the object
of worship, so being closely artended to, it guides the
mind right in the consideration of it, while worshipping,
without any confusion and division in it; for let the di-
rection, or address, be to which person it may, as each
may be distinctly addressed; be it to the Father, he is
considered in the act of worship, as the one God, with
the Son and Spirit; if the address is to the Son, he is
considered as the one God, with the Father and the
Spirit; or if the address is to the Spirit, he is considered
as the one God, with the Father and Son. And this
doctrine also serves to fix and settle the object of our
faith, hope, and 1ove, without division and distraction of

~ IB voce \~agiov\~.

mind; which are not to be exercised on different objects,
and to be divided between them; but are to centre in
one object, the one only true God, Father, Son, and
Spirit; whom alone we are to make our confidence, our
hope, and the centre of our affections, Jer. xvii. 7. Psalm
lxxiii. 25. As well as this doctrine carries a strong and
powerful argument to promote unity, harmony, and con-
cord among the saints; for which it is used in Eph. iv.
3 4,5,6.
,

C H A P. XXVII.

OF A PI, URALITY IN THE GODHEAD; OR, A TRINITY OF
PERSONS IN ThE UNITY or 'rile DIVINE ESSENCE.

['lAVING proved the unity of the divine Being, and
explained the sense in which it is to be understood; my
next work will be to prove that there is a. plurality in the
Godhead; or, that there are more persons than one, and
that these are neither more, nor fewer, than three; or,
that there is a Trinity of Persons iu the unity of the
divine essence. Some except to these terms, because not
literally and syllabically expressed in scripture; as Es-
sence, Unity, Trinity, and Person; of which see the In-
troduction, p. vi. I shall,
First, Prove that there is a plurality of persons in the
one God; or, that there are more than one. Teh He-
brew word \^Mynp\^ which answers to the Greek word \~proswpa\~,
is used of the divine persons, \^ynp\^ My persons shall go
with thee, Exod. xxxiii. 14. and if \^Kynp\^ thy persons go
not with me, v 15. and he brought thee out \^wynpb\^ by his
persons, Dent. iv. 37. The word is used three times iu
Psalm xxvii. S, 9. and in each clause the Septuagint has
the word \~proswpon\~, and which, as Suidas {} observes, is
expressive of the sacred Trinity. That there is such a
plurality of persons, will appear more clearly,
1. From the plttral Ranges and epithets of God. His
great and incommunicable name Jehovah, is. always in
the singular number, and is never used plurally; the rea-
son of which iS, because it is expressive of his essence,
which is but one; it is the same with .[ ./tM that _f
AM; but the first name of God we meet with in scrip-
ture, and that in the first verse of it, is plural; Jn lhe
beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the
earth, Gen. i. 1. and therefore must design more than
one, at least two, and yet not precisely two, or two only;
then it would have been dual; but it is plural; and, as
the Jews themselves say, cannot design fewer than three
Now Moses might have made use of other names of
God, in his account of the creation; as his name Je-
hovah, by which he made himself known to him, and to
the people of Israel; or rEloah, the singular of Elohim,
which is used by him, Deut. xxxii. 15, 16. and in the
book of Job frequently; so that it was not want of sin-
gular names of God, nor the barrenness of the Hebrew
language, which obliged him to use a plural word; it
was no doubt of choice, and with design; and which
will be more evident when it is observed, that one end
of the writings of Moses is to extirpate the polytheism
of the heathens, and to prevent the people of Israel
from going into it; and therefore it may seem strange,

; Vid. Alting. Dissert. Philolog. 4. s. 6, 7, 8.