chapter of this epistle he says, that the other apostles, that were pillars, and had lived long with Christ, and had the Spirit come down upon them, to enlighten them in what Christ had taught them, added nothing to him. All, then, that God works upon you savingly, from first to last, is a discovery of Christ, some way or other, in you. It is either the knowledge of his person, or it is a conformity to him, or it is dispositions suited to what you know of him; workings upon us, and operations of God upon us suitable to what is in him; and this I call the sum or substance of our religion. Even as to the first work upon a man when he is humbled for sin, my opinion thereof is, that in a man that shall be saved it is a different work from what is in wicked men, that have terrors of conscience, and shall not be saved; and that accordingly there is in it a part of conformity to Christ crucified; and I shall give you scriptures for it. Gal. ii. 19, he speaks of being dead to the law through the law, which is to be convinced of sin; and it is effected by the power of Christ crucified, so as if you ask, How came Paul to be thus dead to the law? he tells you, Rom. vii. 4, that it was by the body of Christ.' The very work of humiliation is a conformity to Christ; and it is a beginning of revealing Christ in us. And if a man will look back upon all hath been wrought in him, he shall see that it is all Christ. But however, that which is the eminency of Christianity, the bulk and substance of it, that, to be sure, is, all of it, Christ in us. It was Paul's eminency that Christ was the sum of all he had and did, to the end that he might know and preach Christ; and it is the whole of Christ that God reveals sooner or later, more or less, in and to all Christians, whether they know it or no. If any ask, Why, when he speaks of revealing Christ in us, he should rather say, revealing his Son in us? my answer is, The word Son comprehends the whole of Christ. I shall give you but an observation or two more. 1. Happy is that soul that in conversion or calling was pitched first on Christ, or soon upon his conversion. If you that are now converted had lived in our younger days, you would have seen that we were held under John Baptist's water, of being humbled for sin, and the work of sanctification. But now, happy it is with some whose lot it is that their conversion work begins with Christ. Next after their humiliation for sin, they are pitched upon Christ. The work upon Paul was in this manner, who had the advantage of us this way, for Christ himself appeared to him, and yet he was humbled, and saw sin to be above measure sinful, Rom. vii., and therefore the work of humiliation is necessary unto faith in Christ. 2. Another observation is, that whoever of you will be preachers of the word, get Christ revealed in you, that you may preach him unto others, out of the experience of that revelation. John ate the book, and then wrote it, as you have it in Rev. x. 10. 3. Blessed is he that from his first conversion was pitched upon reaching out the experiences he had to others. Some men have, as Paul had, their inward motion to be ministers upon their being called; as Paul had it conjoined therewith. And as God separated Paul from the womb for both, so he hath separated such. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. BOOK I. Of the Godhead, and the three Persons within itself. That there is but one God. That in the divine nature, or one Godhead, there are three Persons conversing with, speaking to, and glorifying one another.-Which union and communion of the three Persons between themselves is peculiar to the Deity, and incommunicable to any mere creature. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.— 1 COR. VIII. 6. CHAPTER I. That God is one in essence. THAT God is but one, you have this declared concerning him by Moses, Deut. vi. 4, The Lord our God is one Lord.' Also by God's own immediate testimony you have the same truth pronounced, Deut. xxxii. 39, 'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me.' To which you may add Isa. xliv. 8, 'Is there a god besides me? I know not any.' He puts that last clause as the clearest evidence and the most ultimate demonstration of the truth of this, that God himself, the true God, and the God of truth, could give us. It is parallel for certainty and infallibility with God's adding an oath to his word, even such is this speech here, ‘I know not any.' It comes in as upon second deliberate thoughts, after the former speech declared. And, to be sure, if there were another god besides him, he must needs know it. For, 1, He that is God knows all that are, if they be existent; and therefore if there were another, he must needs be privy to it. Especially, 2, Another god: for if there were another god, he must be immense in extent of being, and so take up so much room for that his being to dwell in as he could not hide nor conceal himself from this one God, nor scape the omniscience of his eye, who is the true God. And, 3, another god would have been his compeer for our true God his Godhead; the rivalship would have been for no less. Such is the interest of the very God in this matter, that his jealousy (who professeth of himself that he is a jealous God, in point of worshipping him as God, otherwise than he hath appointed), his jealousy, I say, would have risen to the height of it, and have provoked him to have seen to that, and to have searched out that of all things else. To have an equal (Pompeiusve parem*), a corrival for the Godhead, would have detracted from the glory of him who hath said it, I will not give my glory to another,' Isa. xlii. 8. Sole dominion is the essential point to every one that is a monarch; and God's glory and blessedness lies in that very point of sole dominion: and therefore you find these two conjoined, viz., God's blessedness and sovereignty, 'who is the blessed and only potentate' (says Paul of him, 1 Tim. vi. 15). You may therefore well believe him, and take it upon his word when he speaks it in this manner, upon his knowledge, I know not any.' We need not seek out many reasons: one God, and one sufficient reason for it is enough; and that is sufficient which hath been in a manner mentioned already before: that there is no room or space for two immense beings, diverse from each other. When therefore God says, in Isa. Ixiii. 3, There is none with me,' his meaning must be the same with this in 1 Cor. viii. 5, There is no other God but one,' i.e., no God diverse from him. The Godhead is but one, yet the persons in this one Godhead are more than one. We may safely say of each person, as of the Father, that he is God, and likewise of the Son, that he is God, and of the Holy Ghost, that he is God. And that there are three, each of whom is God, but still it is but one and the same God for nature, and that oneness, 1 John v. 8, in and by which the three are said to be one, is that they all three are one God alike. The Godhead is but one, and we must be wary of saying there are three Gods; that would sound at least too much as if there were one God diverse from the other; whereas one and the same Godhead is in all and each of the three, you may say it of each thrice over, the Father is God, the Son is God, &c. But that there are three Gods sounds harsh, and is condemned by Scripture language, yea, by the text, 'There are many gods, but to us but one.' And the reason of it is his infiniteness for perfection, as well as his immensity; for he comprehends all perfections within himself, or else he were not infinite, and his blessedness consists in it, so that there cannot be a God diverse from himself. CHAPTER II. That this God, one in essence, is three in persons, who jointly co-operate in all God's external works. To us there is but one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ.-1 COR. VIII. 6. Here are two persons mentioned in the text, the Father, and Christ the Lord; and these two persons are made distinct in the Godhead. The *The reference is to the saying that Cæsar would not brook a superior, nor Pompey an equal.-ED. |