Chapter 5. Concerning the Persons of the Godhead.
WILLIAM PERKINS
Chapter 5. Concerning the Persons of the Godhead.
The Persons are those which, subsisting in one Godhead, are distinguished by incommunicable properties. 1Joh 5.7, There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. Gen 19.24, Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah in heaven.
Joh 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God.
They are therefore co-equal, and are distinguished not by degree, but by order.
The Constitution of a Person is when, as a personal property, or the proper manner of subsisting, He is adjoined to the Deity, or to one divine nature.
The Distinction of persons is that which, although every Person is one and the same perfect God, yet the Father is not the Son or the Holy Ghost, but the Father alone; and the Holy Ghost is not the Father or the Son, but the Holy Ghost alone. Nor can they be divided by reason of the infiniteness of the most simple essence, which is all one in number, and the same in the Father, the same in the Son, and the same in the Holy Ghost.
So that, in these there is diversity of Persons, but unity in Essence.
The communion of the Persons, or rather union, is that by which each one is in the rest, and with the rest by reason of the unity of the Godhead. And therefore, each and every one possesses love, and glorifies another, and works the same thing. Joh 14.10, Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I spoke to you, I did not speak of myself; but the Father that dwells in me, He does the
A GOLDEN CHAIN
works. Pro 8.22, The Lord has possessed me in the beginning of his way: I was before the works of old. And verse 30, Then I was with him as a nourisher, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Joh 1.1,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God.
And Joh 5.19, The Son can do nothing of himself, save what he sees the Father do; for whatever things
He does, the Son does the same also.
There are three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Mat 3.16-17, And Jesus, when he was baptized, came straight out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him, and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice came from heaven saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'
The Father is a Person without beginning, who from all eternity begat the Son. Heb 1.3, Who being the brightness of the glory, and the engraved form of his person. Psa 2 7, You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.
In the generation of the Son, these properties must be noted:
1. He that begets, and he that is begotten, are together, and not one before another in time.
2. He that begets communicates with him that is begotten, not some one part, but his whole essence.
3. The Father begot the Son not out of himself, but within himself.
The incommunicable property of the Father, is to be unbegotten, to be a Father, and to beget. He is the beginning of actions, because he begins every action of himself, effecting it by the Son and the Holy Ghost.
1Cor 8.6, Yet unto us there is but one God, which is 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. Rom 11.36, For of him, and through him, and for him, are all things.
WILLIAM PERKINS
The other two Persons, namely, the Son and the Holy Ghost, have the Godhead, or the whole divine essence of the Father, by communication.
The Son is the second Person, begotten of the Father from all eternity. Heb 1.5, For to which of the Angels did he say at any time, You are my Son, this day
I begat you? Col 1.15, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Joh 1.14, And we saw the glory thereof, as of the only begotten son of the father. Rom 8.32, He who did not spare his own son…
For this cause, he is said to be sent from the father.
Joh 8.42, I proceeded forth and came from God, nor did I come of myself, but He sent me. This sending does not take away the equality of essence and power, but declares the order of the Persons. Joh 5.18, Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, not only because he had broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, and made himself equal with God.
Phi 2.6, Who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God.
Although the Son is begotten of his Father, yet nevertheless, he is of and by himself truly God. For he must be considered either according to his essence, or according to his filiatio or Sonship. In regard to his essence, he is (autoqeov — auto-theos), i.e., of and by himself truly God. For the Deity which is common to all three Persons is not begotten. But as he is a Person, and the son of the Father, he is not of himself, but from another. For he is the eternal Son of his father. And thus he is truly said to be "very God of very God."
For this cause also, he is the Word of the father — not a vanishing, but an essential word; because just as a word is, as it were, begotten of the mind, so the Son is begotten of the Father; and also, because he brings glad tidings from the bosom of his Father — Nazian, in his Oration of the Son; Basil in his preface before John's
Gospel.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
The property of the Son is to be begotten.
His proper manner of working is to execute actions from the Father, by the Holy Ghost. 1Cor 8.6, Our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Joh 5.19, Whatever things he does, the Son does the same also.
The Holy Ghost is the third person, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Joh 15.26, But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. Rom 8.9, But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, seeing the Spirit of dwells in you. But if there is any who does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Joh 16.13, 14, But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will conduct you into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and will declare to you things which are to come. He will glorify me, for he will receive of mine, and show it to you.
What may be the essential difference between proceeding and begetting, the Scriptures do not determine, nor does the Church know.
The incommunicable property of the Holy Ghost, is to proceed. His proper manner of working, is to finish an action, effecting it, as from the Father and the Son.
And though the Father and the Son are two distinct Persons, yet they are both but one beginning of the Holy Ghost.