slight grounds. And this is all I thought necessary to be said, in relation to the words of the text. I now proceed to the matter. My design is to treat of the nature, distinction, union, and offices of the three Divine Persons herein mentioned: not in the dry controversial way, which I think not proper for popular discourses, but in such a way as may be sufficient to give every common hearer a good notion of what I am talking about, and may be useful to him, in respect both of his faith and practice.

In the text, we find first grace, as coming from God the Son; then love, as from God the Father; and lastly, communion, as being of the Holy Ghost.

What these three things mean, I shall shew, when I come to speak of their distinct offices.

The method I intend is this:

I. To treat of the nature, distinction, union, and offices of the three Divine Persons. And,

II. To intimate the use and importance of these great articles of our Christian faith.

I. I am first to treat of the nature, distinction, union, and offices of the three Divine Persons.

1. In the first place, it is proper to say something of the nature of each Person, that you may the better conceive what kind of Persons they are.

The first and most general distinction of all things that are, is into two kinds, created and uncreated. The nature of a creature is this, that it comes into being by the order, will, and pleasure of another, and may cease to be whenever the Creator pleases. Of this kind are the sun, moon, stars, men, angels, and archangels: they are all of a frail, changeable nature; they might cease to be, and sink into nothing, as from nothing they came, were they not supported by a superior hand. Only the three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, they can never fail or cease: they always were, and always will be; their property is always to exist from everlasting to everlasting, without the help or support of any thing else whatever, being indeed the stay and support of the whole creation, of the whole bulk and mass of beings. Our thoughts are quite lost, as often as we think of any person's existing before all beginning: yet we are very certain that so it must be, or else nothing could ever begin to be at all. Whether one only, or more Persons might or do exist in this most perfect and incomprehensible

manner, we could never know by our own reason alone, unassisted with Divine revelation. But sacred Writ sufficiently assures us, that three such Persons there are, who have been from all eternity without beginning, and who cannot but be to all eternity; and these are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I will not stand to prove this to you particularly from holy Scripture, because it would lead me into a large field of inquiry, beyond the compass allowable in discourses of this nature. It is sufficient to say, that this is and has been all along the faith of Christ's Church, founded upon Scripture and my design now is rather to tell you what the true faith is, and to assist you in conceiving it, than to lay down the particular proofs and arguments on which it rests.

To conceive then rightly of the three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consider them as being just the reverse of what creatures are; not frail, mutable, or depending on any one's pleasure; not as beginning to be, or capable of ever ceasing to be; but as being perfect and unchangeable, all-sufficient, and independent, without beginning, and without possibility of ever coming to an end. Such is the nature of these three; and for that reason they are all properly Divine.

2. After this brief account of their nature, I may next consider their distinction. They are constantly represented in Scripture as distinct from each other: the Father is not the Son, nor is the Holy Ghost either of the other two. They are described, as any other distinct persons are, by different characters and offices. This is so plain through every page almost of the New Testament, that it were needless to instance in particulars. The Father is said to send, the Son to be sent, and the Holy Ghost to proceed, or go forth. The Father is represented as one witness, and the Son as another witness: the Son as one comforter, the Holy Ghost as another comforter, not both one comforter. The Father is introduced as speaking to the Son, and the Son as speaking to the Father, and the Holy Ghost as delivering commands from both. These and a multitude of other particulars plainly prove their distinction one from another; which being analogous to, and nearly resembling the distinction of persons among men, or angels, or other rational creatures, we therefore presume to call it a personal distinction, and to call the three, three Persons.

3. But as there is a distinction amongst them, there is also an,

union, a very close and unexpressible union, among the Divine Three. And though Scripture every where represents these three Persons as Divine, and every one singly God and Lord; yet the same Scriptures do as constantly teach that there is but one God and one Lord. From whence it evidently follows, that these three are one God and one Lord. And if such an imperfect union as that of husband and wife be reason sufficient to make them twain to be one flesh; and if the union of a good man to Christ shall suffice to make them in a certain sense one spirita, how much more shall the incomparably closer and infinitely higher union of the three Divine Persons one with another, be sufficient to denominate them one God, or one Lord! There is no other union like it, or second to it; an union of will, presence, power, glory, and all perfections: an union so inseparable and unalterable, that no one of the Persons ever was or ever could be without the other two; it being as necessary for the three to be, and to act together, as to be at all; which is the perfection of unity, and the strongest conjunction possible.

Our blessed Lord therefore intimates, that he and the Father are one and they are represented by St. John in his Revelations, as being one temple, and as having but one throne, and making but one light.

The Holy Ghost likewise is represented as being one with the Father, as much as the soul of man is one with the man whose soul it is. And they are all three together said to be one; "these three are one," which though a disputed text, is yet not without very many and very considerable appearances of being truly genuine. The doctrine however is certain from many other places of Scriptnre, whatever becomes of that text; and the unity of three Persons in one Godhead sufficiently revealed, as well as their distinction. Neither is there any difficulty in admitting that three things may be three and one in different respects; distinct enough to be three, and yet united enough to be one; distinct without division, united without confusion. These therefore together are the one Lord God of the Christians, whom we worship, and into whom we have been baptized.

I proceed now, after considering what the Divine Persons are in themselves, to observe also what their offices are, relative to us. We are taught in our common and excellent Church Catechism,

a 1 Cor. vi. 17. b Rev. xxi. 22. c Rev. xxii. I. d I Cor. ii. II.

e 1 John v. 7.

taken from Scripture, to believe in God the Father who made us, in God the Son who redeemed us, and in God the Holy Ghost who hath sanctified us. So that the peculiar offices of the three Divine Persons are, to create, redeem, and sanctify. To the Father it peculiarly belongs to create, to the Son to redeem, to the Holy Ghost to sanctify. The Father is God the Creator, the Son is God the Redeemer, the Holy Ghost is God the Sanctifier. Which is not to be so understood, as if neither the Son nor Holy Ghost were concerned in creating; nor as if neither the Father nor Holy Ghost were concerned in redeeming; nor as if neither Father nor Son were concerned in sanctifying. All the three Persons concur in every work; all the three together create, redeem, and sanctify: but each Person is represented, in Scripture, as having his more peculiar part or province in regard to these several offices; on account of which peculiarity, over and above what is common to all, one is more eminently and emphatically Creator, another Redeemer, and a third Sanctifier. So much as is common to all, serves to intimate their union one with the other: and so much as is peculiar to any one, in like manner serves to keep up the notion of their distinction. We may observe something of like nature in the words of the text. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." God the Father giveth grace, and the Holy Spirit likewise giveth grace, and is particularly called the Spirit of grace; and grace is the common gift of the whole Trinity: but yet here it is peculiarly attributed to Christ, as his gift and blessing, and denoting the special grace of redemption. The next words are, "the love of God," that is, of God the Father. We read of the "love of Christ," and of the "love of the Spirit ;" and love is common to the whole Trinity, for "God is love." But here one particular kind of love, the love of the Father in sending his Son to redeem us, the Holy Ghost to sanctify us, is intended.

The last words are," and the communion of the Holy Ghost." Now there is a communion both of the Father and the Son with every good man; according to what our Lord says, "If any man "love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, "and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Every good man is the temple of the whole Trinity, which has communion with him, and abides in him; as is plain from innu

f John xiv. 23.

merable texts of Scripture. But, in this text, one special and peculiar kind of communion, appertaining to the Holy Ghost, is signified.

One thing however is observable, that though St. Paul might have indifferently applied grace, or love, or communion, to either Father, or Son, or Holy Ghost, or to all together; yet he chose rather to make the characters several and distinct, to keep up the more lively sense of the distinction of persons and offices. Having intimated as much as is needful, of the nature, distinction, union, and offices of the three Divine Persons of the ever blessed Trinity, I now design very briefly,

II. To intimate likewise the importance and use of these great articles of our Christian faith. The importance of those weighty truths may be judged of from the nature of the thing itself, as well as from the concern which God hath shewn to inculcate and fix them upon our hearts and minds.

1. From the nature of the thing itself. If there really be three such Divine Persons as I have described, (and no one can doubt of it, that reads the Scripture without prejudice,) it must have been as necessary to let mankind into some knowledge of them all, as it is that we should have right and just sentiments of any one. For there is no having a right apprehension of any one, without knowing what relation he stands under to the other two. To know or conceive of God as a single Person, is to know God very imperfectly, or is rather a false conception of God. It is therefore of as great concernment to know that God is three Persons, (supposing it really so,) as it is to conceive truly, rightly, and justly of God. Further, if there really be three Divine Persons, it is as necessary that man should be acquainted with it, as it is that he should direct his worship where it is due, and to whom it belongs. For if all honour, and glory, and adoration, be due to every Person, as much as to any; it was highly requisite that a creature made for worship, as man is, should be instructed where and to whom to pay it. To offer it to any single Person only, when it is claimable by three, is defrauding the other two of their just dues, and is not honouring God perfectly, or in full measure and proportion. Besides, how shall any one Person justly claim all our homage and adoration to himself, and not acquaint us that there are two Persons more, who have an equal claim to it, and ought therefore to receive equal acknowledgments?