Chapter I
The design of the discourse. The two texts of Scripture explained.
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. COL. II. 2. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only,
but by water and blood : and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the
Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost : and these three are one. And there are
three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood, Sc.
1 JOHN V. 6-8.
1. WE have heard of the estate of holiness man was created in ; 2. Of the estate of sin and misery he is fallen into. Now follows, 3. His restoration, or that part of the gospel which contains the doctrine of our salvation and redemption out of sin and misery, in all the particulars of it.
And this I shall divide into three parts, according to three distinct works of the three persons for the accomplishment of it ; which division is natural and genuine, and suited to the things themselves, according to the division of these as the causes of them ; for man s salvation being the highest stage in and on which God shews himself, and all in himself, the three persons of the Trinity have in their infinite love to mankind discovered themselves, and appeared therein, not only taking the effecting of it in common among
522 MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. I.
them (as in all other works they have done), but severally and apart, undertaking to act distinct parts therein, sharing the works thereof unto three eminent acts or scenes, by which the whole is fully accomplished and
perfected.
The method therefore which I shall pursue shall answerably be so to handle the doctrine of our salvation, as withal to glorify these three
glorious persons in their several agencies therein.
The first of these texts, Col. ii. 2, makes God, as the Father, together with his work, and Christ, as the Son, together with a work of his likewise, to be both of them the subject of that mystery the gospel, which in the
first chapter he had been so much extolling ; and as he there attributeth
to the doctrines revealed therein a riches of glory, so the very knowledge of this mystery in us he in this place dignifies with the same titles, calling
< all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ ; so parting and
dividing the doctrine thereof according as these apart are the eminent sub
jects unto which all therein may be and are to be reduced.
1. Of God; the gospel being that mystery which displays in man s
salvation all the attributes of the Godhead.
2. And of the Father; considered as the first person, distinct from the
Son, and also from God, as here taken for the Godhead, as common to
all three persons ; and in saying the mystery of God and of the Father, he means that besides the manifestation of all the divine attributes of the
Godhead, which is one distinct part of the mystery, the Father hath as the
first person apart discovered the glory of his person in a glorious design and agency, in the work of our salvation proper unto him, which collected out of the Scriptures and put together, makes up the deepest mystery.
3. And of Christ ; He also, as a distinct person from the Father, hath both in his person as God-man, and in execution of his Father s design in
his work committed to him,
* all treasures of wisdom and knowledge*
objectively for us to know him by, and subjectively in himself.
4. The Holy Ghost, the third person, though not mentioned here, yet elsewhere hath frequently assigned unto him a third work.
It is the work of salvation, as it hath been transacted by the three
persons, is the subject afore me.
I come therefore to that other text of the First Epistle of John, chap. v.
ver. 6-8. There we find all three brought in together as distinct witnesses unto man s salvation, or as ver. 11, that God hath given eternal life unto us that are of the sons of men. They are indeed brought in as witnesses
also to another grand matter, which he mentions in the verses afore and
after, viz., that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; but yet withal, the same verses all along do tell us that the end of that their witness to that
great truth about Christ (as it is revealed to us) was in direct order unto
that other about our salvation in him, and to draw us on to believe it, and
give credit to it ; and this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he
that hath not the Son hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have
eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. So
that in the issue of all, it is our salvation that is made the great business and matter the three persons do appear as distinct witnesses unto here in
this place.
Now, how do they witness thereto ?
CHAP. II.] MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 523
I answer, Both by their contributing their symbol each of them apart to the effecting it (as will anon appear), and then by bringing it home unto our
faith and assurance, as ver. 13 shews.
There are two things which I insist on out of this scripture
1. That they are set forth unto believers by the apostle, as three distinct
persons in the nature of one God.
2. That in the matter of man s salvation they have appeared to be three
persons, in their becoming three distinct witnesses thereunto, and that they are three distinct witnesses, in being three distinct workers and operators therein.