CHAPTER II: God, one in essence, is three in persons, jointly co-operate in all God's external work
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. 63:3, 'There is none with me,' his meaning must be the same with this in 1 Cor. 8:5, '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 5:8, 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. 8:6.
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 Father is a relate, and there must be a Son to answer as a correlate there-unto, and an only-begotten Son, for he is that one
Lord over us saints, and all other things, in the text. So great a Father would put no other person into that sovereignty with himself, but such a Son who is of as high a birth, and for substantiality of nature and generation, equal with himself, and who in his very person should greaten and fill up this office of Lord over all the saints, by whom we and all things else are, and do subsist.
There is a third person in the Godhead, the Spirit of God the Father, and of Christ; who in my handling the point will fall in, and appear to be that only true God, as well as these other two named.
And this is a prime principle for me to premit, for it is influential into the most particular parts of this whole discourse. It runs through every vein of it, and we shall meet with it at every turn; yea, whole treatises in it refer to the doctrine of the three persons in the Trinity; and therefore it cannot be omitted here, but deservedly and necessarily claims a place amongst these principles I set first.
And further, there is this occasion of my inserting it. We may and cannot but know, that there hath risen up in this our age a generation, of all others the most presumptuous, that have affirmed all the whole creation to be but emanations of the Godhead, or, in plain words, to be materially God himself, though turquoised and translated by himself into so many lesser parcels of beings, which considered apart we call creatures. And that it is but the folly and ignorance of men to think themselves to be but creatures different essentially from God; and that if men would but believe themselves to be God really, and indeed (which, say they, we all are), they would be freed from that fond dotage of being in subjection to the law of God, and bondage to the fear of hell, and should instantly be enfranchised, and enter into all the privileges the Godhead hath. And because they hear of, and in scriptures find three spoken of, to be in
that one God, as persons distinct, whom these men foreseeing to stand in their way to this their aspirement of each and every man to be as so many distinct persons enjoying the Godhead themselves with God; therefore they make no more ado but throw down that blessed society of three in the Godhead, allowing them no other reality in the divine being, but as three manifestations, or else operations of God in us, and to us, doing herein like men that are ambitious, and would rise, they cast down those that are in rank above them; so these would deal with the Trinity, as if they stood in their way to this high preferment. An high preferment indeed, which Satan (having first sinned himself by the like impious ambition) prompted our first father unto, Gen. 3:5, 'You shall be as gods.' And he has left the seeds of this aspirement in our corrupted nature, upon which God said, 'Man is become as one of us.'
But the nature of God, blessed for ever, cannot admit of this, nor be able to raise a creature unto it, for it is utterly inconsistent. For evidence of which the man Jesus, though the Father loved him above all his saints and angels, yet all the power in God could not make him
God in essence or in nature; all that could be done for him was to be one in person with him who is God. This he might be, but to turn his human nature into the divine being was incompatible with it.
A lower degree of accursed pride than this fell into the heart of the devil himself, whose sin in his first apostatising from God, take the height of it then, is conceived to be but a stomaching that man should be one day advanced unto the hypostatical union, and be one in person with the Son of God, which his proud angelical nature
(then in actual existence the highest of creatures) could not brook.
But the devil was modest in comparison to these men's pride, which usurps upon the whole of the three persons at once; and will not endure them compeers with themselves. And truly these could have no better way whereby to step into these thrones in their imaginations, than to depose our blessed three by setting up a religion and opinion whereby millions of persons, instead of those three blessed ones, should communicate of the Godhead, in the same
manner as these blessed persons do. This caused me to review the Scriptures afresh, for the disquisition of this great truth.
My method in despatching this great point must be brief and contracted. And therefore, though the Scriptures afford plenty of evidence everywhere, yet I was satisfied with one full passage of Scripture which I met with at first in the very first entrance of my disquisition about the trinity of the persons in the one Godhead; and which is usually cited out of Moses for it, in several passages of his in that one book of Genesis. And I considered with myself that as he was the first penman of any Scripture, so he must needs have laid the foundation (though more darkly and obscurely) of such gospel truths, as this of the persons must be supposed to be, if it proved to be a truth at all; and I finding that Christ in his concertations with the carnal Jew, professeth in preaching the gospel which seemed new to them, to witness and preach none other things than those which Moses particularly and the prophets did say; and the doctrines of the gospel bringing forth this great truth to light more clearly, and so positively and determinately, I judged that this great truth (if a truth at all) must be extant in Moses; and Paul having appealed unto
Moses to give evidence, unto Moses I did go.
And in the beginning of his first chapter I was accosted with his narrative of the creation, as it is in the first day's work set out, ver. 1,
2, 3. And after that, more particularly, with that renowned consultation which God had about the making of man, and his speech uttered concerning it. 'Let us make man' (the summary of all things that he had made) 'in our image, according to our likeness,' ver. 24 of that chapter, in which Moses bringeth God in, speaking in the language of an US, 'Let us make man,' Which us imports a plurality of persons to have been with God when he created man.*
And we have the same us twice used by Moses, when in like manner he bringeth God in speaking of, and to himself, Gen. 3:22, 'The man is become as one of us.' And then chap. 11 ver. 7, at the confusion of languages, 'Let us go down.' And at the overthrow of Sodom, it is said
in Gen. 19:24, 'That the LORD rained fire from the Lord out of heaven.'
And though I find some of our divines somewhat difficult to admit those arguments, drawn from all the proofs out of the first chapter of Genesis, and are exceptions here and there against some of them, yet, finding in a search and study of other scriptures, which be alleged for the confirmation of the whole point itself, and so many of those scriptures usually brought for it out of the prophets, and the New Testament, do flow into this current of Moses, and speak the same things, and well nigh in the same phrases that Moses hath used, and all onto this one purpose and intent, that there are such blessed persons in the Godhead, God with God; I thereupon resolved to content myself with those few allegations out of Moses alone. And finding them so strangely and strongly backed by those other scriptures that came in with their suffrages unto those of Moses, I then set up my rest in these citations out of him, to make them the rendezvous and centre of those other Scripture proofs, which of themselves, though standing severed and single, might each be a sufficient argument alone by themselves, yet marching under Moses's banner, and being further explanations of his speech, they altogether have a joint united force, as so many twisted cords, or as so many smaller, they contribute their waters into the same great stream and channel.
1. For those words used about the whole creation, Gen. 1:1–3, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.' These words being prefaced to the whole of the creation, many judicious divines insist upon them as denoting the hand that each person had in the whole work of creation; and this is no less backed by other Scriptures which follow. The Father is said to 'create all things by Jesus Christ,' Eph.
3:9. And the Son is said to create, Heb. 1. 'Unto the Son he says, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,' ver. 8; 'and God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows,' ver. 9; 'And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands,' ver. 10. And the Holy Ghost is said to create, 'Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth,' Ps. 104:30. And the word Elohim being used of each person singly, though it be a word of the plural number, yet, as when magistrates are styled Elohim, 'I have said, you are gods,' Ps. 82:6, each magistrate may be called
Elohim; so, applied to each person singly, it may be said that Elohim the Father created, and Elohim the Son created, &c., creation being an action that is common to the persons jointly. Both the plural in the word אלהים, God, and the singular in the word ברא, created, are fitly joined then, when the great and materially the general work of the creation of the whole world, visible and invisible, made out of nothing immediately, is first spoken of, as this of creating both heaven and earth in the beginning was. And the creation in a singular manner is common to the three, without a special appropriation to any one of the three. And then the argument for this interpretation will run thus, that who created heaven and earth is that Elohim of whom Moses did speak; but out of other scriptures it is plain that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost created heaven and earth, and therefore these words of Elohim are spoken of all three.
I will not utterly leave out that argument from the first words, 'God created,' which many judicious and holy divines insist upon. That the word אלהים, God, is in the plural number, signifying more than one, and yet ברא, created, is in the singular, because that the Persons were in a plurality, or more than one; but the verb created was in the singular, to notify the unity and oneness of the Godhead. But there are so many exceptions against this, which have broken the wards of the lock, that it is difficult to find a key which shall open it. I confess I like not to say of the persons that they are Gods, in the plural; to say of each person singly that he is God, that is safe; but it is not so to say of them, that they are Gods. It founds a diversity of the Godhead, as well as distinction of the persons. The word אלהים, Elohim, therefore,
though in the declension of it it be of the plural number, yet in the sense of it it is singular, sometimes used to signify the Godhead, sometimes applied to each of the persons singly, and so no argument can be fetched from it.
But the argument I urge from these three verses is, that in them the three persons are distinctly rehearsed in the work of the creation.
First, the Father, in that saying 'God created heaven and earth,' which work of creation is more generally attributed to the Father; as in our creed, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth,' &c. Then the Son, who is the Word of the Father,
'by whom he made all things,' Eph. 3:9, is hiddenly covered, and yet truly notified in the 3d verse, 'God said, Let there be light,' &c. And this word is in the chapter repeated five times, in the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth days' work of the creation; and adds a confirmation, that the Son was included, and aimed at ultimately in Moses his 'God said,' for in John 1:3 it is said, 'Without the Word nothing was made that was made.' As in Moses, all was by the same, 'God said, Let there be,' created, as well as the light. And it is no objection to say, that the first day's work, the creation of heaven and earth, was without it, or that heaven and the earth was made the first day, before the light, which was the second day. For the heavens are said to be made by the Word of God. Ps. 136:5, 'To him that by wisdom made the heavens,' not by the attribute wisdom, for in the Proverbs Wisdom is the person; and it is said, 'The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth,' Prov. 3:19. They were therefore all made, both heaven and earth, and all things in them, by one and the same 'God said,' and by his Word.
But finding the word us repeated again and again in Moses's story, denoting persons whom God speaks unto, as at the creation of man; and again in matters of government about man, as at confounding their languages, 'Let us go down,' Gen. 11:7; and in the prophets the same, and so many other scriptures flowing in, compared with these of Moses, to give evidence, I resolved to content myself with the testimony of Moses alone, as it came illustrated unto me by so many
concurrent witnesses; so that I will not divert, but will centre in this one proof alone, as the seal for all the other.
Gen. 1:26, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'
First, It is God speaking himself, 'God said,' and not Moses, as in the name of God. And there is no instance in the Hebrew that we or us is ever used of one single person, when God himself speaks of himself.
And, Secondly, It is God speaking, not by way of declaration of what he could do alone singly, but uttered by way of conference unto and with some other persons. And not only so, but it is an excitation or calling upon them to do it with him, as if he should say, 'Come, let us make,' as those that being 'with God' at that time were to join in that work also with him.
Thirdly, God speaks not to his attributes. No wise man ever thus speaks to his own abilities, Come, let us do such or such a thing; which more especially appears in that other speech, 'Let us go down,'
It is a person or persons who are said to descend, as elsewhere the Holy Ghost is said to 'descend in the likeness of a dove,' Mat. 3:16; and the Son of God, often in the gospels, to come from heaven.
Fourthly, These spoken unto were not the angels (as some think), for they are never called our creators; but God alone is said to create expressly, Job 9:8, Isa. 45:18. And he is still said to create by himself, because he used no other instrument. So expressly in Isa. 44:24,
'Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, and spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;' and chap. 45:18 especially. The angels create not the souls of men, which God alone is the Father of, not angels, Heb. 12:9. Nor are we said to be made after their image, but God's, Col. 3:10.
Nor are the angels meant when it is said, 'thy makers are thy husband,' as Isa. 54:5; or, 'Remember thy Creators in the days of thy
youth,' which style of Creators is yet in the plural used, when God is spoken of, in multitudes of other places: Ps. 149:2, 'In his Makers;'
Isa. 44:2, 'The Lord thy Makers.' Yea, as 'Let us make' is in the excitation to it, so in the next verse, which mentions the performance of this work, it is accordingly said, 'so God created man,' which was the thing done, it is thrice repeated: 1. 'So God created man in his own image;' 2. 'in the image of God created he him;' 3. 'male and female created he them;' God, not angels. Nor did he use them as instruments, as when he gave the law he did, but not in the creation of the least creature.
But let us further consider things impartially, comparing the Old and New Testaments together, as to the explication of this one passage,
'Let us,' &c.
1. Let us inquire whether it be not elsewhere in the New Testament said, when the creation is spoken of, that there were persons, yea, that these persons were 'with God;' yea, and that when man was made, John 1:1, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God;' and again, ver. 2, 'The same was in the beginning with God.' Yea, and is it not as expressly there affirmed that that Word that was with God was at the making of man? 'All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,' ver. 3. And if all things were, and nothing made without him, then man certainly. And doth it not follow also from ver. 4 that 'he was the life of man?' 'In him was life, and the life was the light of men.'
Again, we find another person, the Spirit of God, to have been with God at the creation, moving and upholding the waters: Gen. 1:2, 'And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' And Ps. 33:6, 'By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.' The Psalmist interpreting Moses, and referring to the creation, speaks thus. And why should not we think then these to be the us; even the Father, Word, and Spirit. This at the creation.
2. Again, in that other place, we find a consultation about a fact belonging to the government of the world, to be done even as here,
'Let us make;' so, here, 'Come, let us descend.' Now, let us see if more persons than one are not said to have been of counsel with God in these. It is certain he excludes all creatures to be of his counsel; Isa.
40:13, 14, 'Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his counsellor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?' but professeth of his Son, that he is his 'counsellor.' Isa. 9:6, 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.' And the same of his Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 'But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.' And as here, in Genesis, when God was to create man; so there, when he was to judge and exert a great act of government in the world. And it came to matter of fact, which when it is to be done, he speaks to those of counsel with him, as parsons interested therein, and shews them what he is about to do; even in like manner as he doth at the creating of man, 'Let us make man,' &c. Now then, when we shall read in the New Testament, and find that 'Word,' who was 'with God in the beginning,' John 1:1, expressly called God at first dash, and to have been with God as a person distinct from him, and this person called the Word there, to be the only-begotten Son of God, in ver. 14; and shall further hear, that the Son of man, whom that word is said to be made one person with, is one with God; and that in his person he says, John 5:19, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise.' When we consider this, it will be then plain to us, that God doth nothing without an us; and that his Son was an original co-worker with him in all things, which he accordingly sheweth unto him; for it follows, 'That doth the
Son likewise.' God doth nothing, but the Son likewise; he shews and tells his Son first, and by shewing it to him, consulteth with him about it. And mark the coherence, ver. 17. He not only consulteth with him, but they two are said to work together everything that is done, from that first beginning of acting anything outwardly even from the creation; 'My father worketh hitherto, and I work;' and the Jews thereupon, ver. 18, 'seek the more to kill him, not only because he had broken the sabbath, but had said also, that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God; having a joint hand with him, and working all and everything as much as the Father, whom all acknowledge to be God. Whereupon such words of theirs it was that Christ pertinently replies, as you heard, ver. 19, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise;' acknowledging they had spoken rightly according to his very true sense and intent. Now judge impartially; you find this man, this person, speaks in the name of one that was with God afore the world was, John 1:1, one 'equal with God,' Verse 18 of this 5th chapter of John, you find himself say, that God doth nothing, but he shews it to him, as one to co-work and join with him. And you find here in Moses, that God, when he was to make man, he consulted some or other person then with him, saying, 'Let us make,' that is, join together in the same work; 'Let us make man;' and shall we not judge that this his Son was here, and one of the us? And there is a Spirit, who is of this cabinet-council, John 16:13, 15, who 'shews' (as Christ's word of him is) and overhears all, and is privy to what the Father still says unto the Son. So then, here are three that make the us.
3. As in creating, these are joined as an us, so in governing and judging the world; 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,' says
Christ, John 5:17. In such works also this us is used: in confounding the languages; and in bringing vengeance on Sodom; in bringing them out of Egypt we find the same; Gen. 11:7, 'Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language,' The Holy Ghost descended to give tongues, and he descended to confound them. And, far the
judgment on Sodom, I shall insist upon it a little. Gen 18 ver. 1, it is said, 'The Lord appeared.' How? Verse 2, three angels came, one whereof was the Lord, and the other two created angels, companions of him. Two angels went to Sodom, ver. 22, and the third stayed, chap. 19:1, who was the Lord himself that communed with Abraham; of whom it is said, chap. 18:20, 21, 'The Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it,' &c. And he stayed with Abraham. It is also said, ver. 22, 'But Abraham stood yet before the Lord.' This angel was
God, or bearing the person of one that was God; for, Exod. 3:2, the angel that appeared in the bush says, ver. 6, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;' the same that as an angel appeared to the fathers: to Abraham, Gen. 18; to Isaac, Gen. 26; and to Jacob, chap. 31 and chap. 32:9, 24. Whom, Gen. 48:15, 16, Jacob, in his blessings, calls both God and an angel; as Hosea also doth, chap.
12:3, 4, 5. This angel, who was betrusted with the government of the world, and said he 'would see,' ver. 21, was not the Father, for he is never missus, sent, as the word angel imports this was, and yet withal was God, though in the appearance and office of an angel. And we read of 'God sent by God,' in Zech. 2:8, 'Thus saith the Lord, he hath sent me to the nation,' &c. It is Christ's speech of his Father's sending him. So also Isa. 48:16, 17, 'The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me,' &c. He that is the Lord says, he was sent by the Lord; even as, we read, the New Testament also speaks of Christ. And he that is sent, must be distinct, and a person distinct from the sender. Now there are two persons that send him there, 'The Lord God and his
Spirit hath sent me.' And he that was sent was God, and no less Jehovah than they; as all the contexts afore and after shew. So then, you find three persons there; and for this cause it is he is styled 'the angel of God's face,' Isa. 63:9.
And there you meet with the three persons too, as joining in that great work of redemption out of Egypt. First, the Father is spoken of in ver. 7, 8, 'I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on
us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie; so he was their Saviour.' The Son in ver. 9, 'In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them and carried them all the days of old.' The Spirit in ver. 10, 'But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit.' He that is called
Holy Spirit in the New, is, according to the Hebraism, called the 'Spirit of holiness' in the Old. But it is Christ that was the angel of his presence, appearing afore God, interceding, and in whose face God shines, 2 Cor. 3. Exod. 33:2, 'My angel,' in ver. 14, is interpreted,
God's face, presence. John 14:9, 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' And he it was that saw the affliction of his people, Exod. 3:7, who, ver. 8, is said to 'come down;' even as upon the occasion of Sodom you have heard it in like manner spoken. And it was this angel, in whom (God says) his name was; that is, his very nature,
Exod. 23:20, 21, 22. And it was he that governed them in the wilderness.
Now, this angel, or, the 'Lord sent' in that appearance, both to Abraham about Sodom, and to Moses, Exod. 3, and to the people of Israel, was one and the same, as all places shew. And this was the Lord himself; as Mal. 3:1, he is expressly called 'The Lord,' and the angel of the covenant; even Christ, the second person, whom they tempted. So Paul, 'Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents,' 1 Cor. 10:9. So Stephen expressly, Acts 7:32, 37, 38, 'I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;' ver. 37, 'This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he that was with the church in the wilderness, with the angel, which spake to him in the mount Sinai,'
And this person, who came down in the appearance of an angel to Abraham about Sodom, Abraham as expressly enstyles 'The Lord,' and 'Judge of all the world,' Gen. 18:25. All which consider, how it
punctually agrees with what in the New Testament out of John 5 hath been observed, as by comparing them will appear. For, as the Son hitherto had wrought in all works with the Father, as you heard out of John 5:20, 21, so, ver. 22 of that chapter, 'God hath committed all judgment unto the Son,' And it is answerably said by Moses, Gen.
19:24, 'The Lord,' or Jehovah, 'rained down fire from Jehovah;' that is, the Son, who was God, he did it by commission from the Father, that was God with him, as to whom he had committed the judgment of the world, and so was, by his office, the proper executioner of this vengeance upon Sodom; he also joining in all works afore and since, together with the Father, who, 'shewing him all he doth, the Son doth it likewise; that all might honour the Son as well as the Father;' as Christ there infers, John 5:23.
4. That which fully added to my conviction that the us in Scripture language, when spoken of, and by God, intends these three in God, whom we call persons; and that to be spoken more regio, after the manner and style of kings, is, that I further expressly find these three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each singly and apart, using it in the name of the other two, saying us and we.
(1.) The Father, he whom all grant is he that is to be understood when it is said, 'God said, Let us;' and as speaking to the rest.
(2.) The Holy Ghost, Isa. 6:8, 'Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' If the question be, What person spake this us here, and what other persons he speaks of as involved in it?
[1.] For the person that speaks it, it is the Holy Ghost. Read Acts 28:25, 26. Paul resolves it so; 'Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say,
Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand,' &c. Who is the same Lord that in Isaiah says, chap. 6, ver. 9, 'Go and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but understand not,' &c. And he it is that said also, ver. 8, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And the like
speech and character of language, attributed to the Holy Ghost in the New Testament elsewhere, argues that he is the person. For, upon the very same or like occasion, we find him as a person brought in, speaking of himself apart, under the style of me. The errand or business whereof he here speaks, 'Who will go for us?' was the sending forth ministers, and teachers, and prophets; as it is express in that of the Acts, and in Isaiah. Nay, when the same occasion or errand came afore him, we hear him another time expressly speaking, Acts 13:2, 'The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.' It is the same employment of sending out ministers, Paul and Barnabas, and it is the same person, the Holy Ghost, in both, and he a person; for he speaks as a person, I and I, me and me; and one that was God. Add to this that of Isa. 48:17, 'And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me,' Thus much that he was the person that spake it. And,
[2.] For the persons in whose name he says us, they are the Father and the Son. In ver. 3 you have the angels' cry, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.' All that some would make of these holies is not in respect of the three persons, but to shew God is ter sanctus, ter optimus, most holy, which alone I would not urge. But when I considered that in this chapter there is such a presence and mention of these persons, I cannot but affix even that also, and that the us, ver. 8, refers to it; and that the Holy Ghost in that verse doth give that interpretation or gloss upon it.
The Father to be Lord of hosts all acknowledge; and that the Son Christ is particularly intended, the first verse of Isa. 6 compared with John 12:37, 39, 40, 41, does manifest, 'Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, &c. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.' What him? He of whom he had spoken in ver. 37, 'But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.'