Chapter II
That there are three persons in the Godhead, who have undertaken distinct
offices in the work of our salvation.
Though I have already* handled this fundamental point, that in the essence and nature of our one God there are found this plurality of persons, yet I shall, both for the explication of this text in this Epistle of John, and
for the making my way clearer to the understanding of the reader unto the second point, which is the main subject afore me, now add what was then reserved for this place. I then baulked any handling of this scripture, which, in that article of the Trinity, is made by all divines the eminentest and most proper seat for the handling the doctrine of it. But I saw it would be behoveful, that when this great point of the three works of these three persons should, in their due place, come to be discoursed of, that
something to prove that there are three such persons in the Godhead should
immediately before precede and revive the doctrine thereof, in order to the
clearer understanding of this about their several works ; and, finding that
this scripture in John gave a foundation for both, I chose to set both
together, so far as this one scripture at once gives a bottom unto both ; rather than part the one so far from the other, as I -should have done, if I had treated of the trinity of persons, as this scripture holds it forth ; these and this other of their several works out of this same head, in this
place only.
1. Then I shall give the proof of the trinity of persons in the one nature of God, who have such distinct works in our salvation.
The apostle, to evidence Christ to be the Son of God, and the salvation of us men in him, produceth two trinities of witnesses.
1. Three on earth, which witness but as things or evidences use to
witness. I say as things use to be evidences ; as a bloody knife, &c., is of
murder, or as effects are of their causes. Thus the blood
gof Christ is one of the witnesses on earth, as being sprinkled on the conscience, and pacify ing of it, is an evidence that Christ alone is that Messiah and Son of God ; his blood having such an effect. So water (the second), or sanctification
wrought and inherent in us, witnesseth as an effect useth to do its cause. And so the seal of the Spirit, which is the third witness on earth, leaving the impress of itself on the hearts of men on earth, witnesseth as a seal nseth to do ; according to that in Eph. i.,
< After ye believed, ye were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
2. But then there are three in heaven, and these do witness as persons * In his discourse Of the Knowledge of God the Father, &c., Book i. Vol. ii. of his Works. [Vol. IV. of this series. ED.]
524 MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. II.
use to do, the Father, the Word, the Spirit ; of which three he affirms that they are one, namely, in nature, and also concurring in testimony ; and then concludeth concerning this thing, a truth witnessed unto by these latter three : verse 9, If we receive the witness of men (as when two or three men come in as witnesses to a thing, it is accounted valid), the witness of God (that is, of God one in essence, being these three in persons, and each of them God, and each [of the] three giving their distinct witness), this witness is greater, because it transcendently containeth at once all that may be required in any sufficient testimony, according to the rules whereby men do estimate the validity of a testimony, and it is the testimony of God himself to boot.
1. Verity and faithfulness is required to a sufficient testimony ; that the persons witnessing be of credit, and reputation, and fide digni, worthy to be believed ; and this is superabundantly found here, in that it is the testimony of God ; verse 9, This is the witness of God, says he, and ver. 10,
< He that believeth not God, hath made God a liar ; which to do was to deny the whole of religion. God is of known repute with all nations, it being a received maxim, God cannot lie, Titus i. 2.
^ 2. But besides, in this testimony of God there is found a plurality of witnesses, there being three in that one nature of God ; and a plurality doth, according to the laws of men, found a validity
: In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established. And this validity, as from a plurality of witnesses, the apostle had in his eye, appears in his using the
plural when he speaks of the witnesses of men in the plural (as will more
fully appear after). No one single testimony of one man, though of never so good repute, is received. And both these do in the coherence, and the
apostle s knitting things together, seem manifestly to have been his scope, if we narrowly do eye and put all together in the foregoing 7th verse with verse 9 ; for, first, he had numbered and counted them three several wit nesses : and yet of those three (though three as witnesses) he says they are but one ; and that oneness he means is not barely in respect of their concurring in witnessing one and the same thing ; for he by this doth
distinguish this oneness of theirs from that of the witnesses on earth, that they indeed agree in one, but of those he further says, that they are one. Now what one thing is it that they should be said to be, but their being one
God ? For the Father, who is the first of the three, he is acknowledged by all to be God, and that to be his nature. If therefore the other two and he are but one, then they are one God in nature with him ; and so it
necessarily follows they are but one God, and yet three distinct witnesses ; and so it comes to pass there is both the highest verity, God, and a full
plurality of three in God, testifying the same thing, they being one God. Now, he having premised and forelaid these two assertions thus in the 7th verse, he then brings down and contracts the strength of both into the 9th verse, thereby to urge and exact faith from us, in these words, If we receive the witness of men (in the plural), the witness of God is greater, wherein his scope is to greaten (as the word is) this testimony of the three, which is it he is now upon. For the clearing of which look what the one
part of the sentence is not explicit in, the other part containeth and sup plies (as the use and manner of the Scriptures is, when it sets things out by oppositions and comparisons made between two things, which is found in the Proverbs almost every verse), and thus by that rule there are two arguments to greaten this testimony suggested and involved in these two sentences : the one from the comparing a testimony ofman with this, which is
CHAP. II.] MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 525
God s ; the other, couched in that he says of men, in the plural, in which his perfect reference and aspect is unto the plurality of those witnesses he had spoken of and counted three, verse 7 ; and so his drift is to set the number also of the three witnesses (there spoken of) in opposition to, and comparison with, a plurality of men that use to come in as witnesses, which
plurality is that which makes their testimony with men to be received, and so the 7th verse, comes down into this of the 9th, and falls with this in
finite and irresistible weight upon our faith, that if the witnesses of two or three men, who are but men, is received, how much more should the record of three such witnesses in heaven, who are God, be received by being so much greater, as witnesses that are God are greater than man or all men ?
It may be objected, that the next words that follow, For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son, being spoken particu larly of the Father (to whom as a Father it only is that Christ bears the relation of being a Son), that therefore the sense of those foregoing words in verse 9, The witness of God is greater, is wholly contracted unto the
particular testimony of the Father, and so are understood of the Father s
single testimony, whom all acknowledge to be God ; to which I answer
1. That this prejudiceth not, but strengtheneth rather this our interpre tation of that former passage ; for it was necessary that the Father s testimony should be in a particular manner on this occasion specified, because the thing or matter in a special manner testified unto by all was, that Jesus Christ was his Son ; and so his relation as a father unto him as his Son, and his testimony thereby to own him as his Son, as in such a case it becomes a father to do, was in a singular way requisite to be added to the other. And thus the witness of the Word and Spirit is still involved in this of the Father s, in that he, in this his single testimony of his Son, is brought in but as the fore witness of the other two ; namely, to utter the matter itself which they all jointly witnessed to, which was that Christ was his Son ; and so we find at his baptism (unto which this whole passage of our apostle doth point), the voice uttering it was the Father s only, in
saying, This is my well beloved Son, for he only could say it and own him as his Son ; but the Holy Ghost shewed his consent unto it in
descending as a dove, and the Son of God himself owned it by his receiv
ing baptism upon it ; and so there was the testimony of more persons than one, even the whole three, as John here had said afore, that they were witnesses as well as the Father, and that these three are one ; and so still the first passage or sentence in ver. 9, if we receive the witness of men, of a plurality of men,
* the witness of these three, who are one God, is greater, holds still good, yea, is confirmed thereby. But,
2, I answer by calling in the help and light of another scripture, which
evidently speaks to this sense I have given of the words, ver. 9 ; and the comparing thereof with this hath greatly confirmed me both in this assertion in hand and in this interpretation given of this place. And it is a scripture in which Christ himself, in his arguings with the Jews, by way of conviction who and what manner of person he was, speaketh the same
things that we have heard John doth here ; and both having been recorded by one and the same pen, namely, of this our apostle, have the more evidence by comparing one with the other, and becomes more fully expli cative one of the other ; and what the one is obscure in the other clears.
Now these passages of Christ which I mean to hold this intelligence with these here, are in the 8th and 10th chapters of the Gospel of John.
526 MAN S RESTOEATION BY GEACE. [CHAP. II.
In the 8th chapter, verse 17-19, It is also written in your law, that the
testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father : if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. The parallel between these two scriptures of Christ s and John s Epistle here runs thus along.
1. As in the Epistle of John, &c., the thing witnessed unto us is, that
the person of Christ is the Son of God the Father, so in this of the Gospel of John, chap. viii. ver. 12, I am the light of the world; though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true ;
* I know whence I came, and whither I go ; and ver. 19, If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also ; and ver. 24, If ye believe not that I am he (the great He, and only Messiah, Son of God), ye shall die in your sins. They
said, Who art thou ? Jesus saith, The same that I said unto you from
the beginning, even the very Son of God. For that was it he had all
along said, and from the beginning averred in the substance of it ; yea, to
his now* very end also ; and they understood him well enough so to mean, as appears by their quarrelling with him for it here, and by the question is asked him at his death by their high priest ; so from the beginning to the end it was that which he held forth.
2. As in the Epistle the apostle puts a weight upon the plurality of these witnesses for this matter witnessed, so Christ in that part of that gospel, ver. 14, doth just the same: Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true ; ver. 16, For I am not alone, but I and the Father that
sent me ; and ver. 18, I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me ; yea, and expressly in the 5th
chapter, speaking of his Father as a witness, he says, ver. 32, There is another that beareth witness of me ; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Now these two, the Father and himself here, are two of, yea, the very same witnesses mentioned in the Epistle here, the Father and the Word ; therein then both places they agree. 3. These witnesses do witness as distinct persons in both places, and
therein especially doth one place clear the other, as to this point you see
I drive at. For in this latter (the Gospel) Christ plainly and purposely
pleadeth the validity of this testimony of his Father and himself upon this
very ground (which the Jews would all acknowledge), It is written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true, ver. 17 ; and then subjoins, ver. 18, I am one that witness of myself, and the Father that sent me
another. So then these two do witness as persons, and so he expressly argueth the validity of their testimony ; he argues from this that they were two persons, and that in as great reality and truth as that two men (that come in for witnesses) are, I say, two persons ; for upon that ground it is
that the testimony of two men isj received as valid. We use to say there
are two persons that witness. And doth not the apostle here in the Epistle as plainly enforce and intend the very same plea and allegation which
Christ used, when here he says, If we receive the witness of men, ver. 9, of men in the plural, and that when two men at least come in and affirm
the same thing, we are to receive it as legal and of force ?
So the argument holds strong from the comparing of these two scriptures
: 1. That these being such witnesses as men are in law
together either way
cases, that therefore they are distinct persons, and do witness as persons, * Qu. own ? ED.
CHAP. II.] MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 527
and not as things use to be evidences of a matter so or so ; and 2. That the ground why they are (even according to man s own rule and law) to be acknowledged authentic witnesses, is because they are two distinct persons, and as really such, and therefore are to be denominated and called persons, and esteemed by us as such, as really as two men are ; and thereupon their witness is admitted. Now when unto these two witnesses, the Father and the Son, the apostle adds a third, the Spirit, his meaning must be that
he is also^ a witness of the same rank and sort, and hath the same station and rank in heaven that the other two have, the same order that they two were of; and therefore is another distinct third person together with them, in that he is a witness together with them, and his witness alleged to all intents and purposes as the same that the others, both Father and Son, are, so that here is an invincible warrant to style these three in John s Epistle by the name of three persons, after the sense and usage of man in speech ; for they could not have been alleged and cited as a plurality of three jegal witnesses else, nor are they witnesses in reality and truth further than in reality they are persons.
4. We find in another altercation Christ had with the Jews, John x. 30, him to affirm, My Father and I are one. Those then whom in this 8th chapter he had declared so manifestly to be two, as witnesses, and so also persons, the same two in the 10th chapter he as manifestly professeth to be but one. And doth not the apostle here in the Epistle speak just the same? There are three witnesses in heaven, and these three are one; only what is defective in John s speech, Christ s speech supplies, are one. The apostle had not that word are, though ii is necessarily and ordinarily under stood. John wrote both these passages, and uniformly pursued the same drift and intent in either ; and look in what sense or purpose Christ uttered the one and the other of these two passages, in the same sense the apostle did also in his Epistle. And what was it the Jews themselves understand by his saying,
< My Father and I are one, but that as, ver. 33, he that was but a man, made himself God ? And so plain is that in Scripture lanaua<*e (and not in the reality of the thing itself only), and in terminis you have one God and three persons, and that in two several scriptures thus at once compared. Yea, and in this 8th chapter he doth in other large expressions affirm no less than in that 10th chapter he had done, for, ver. 19, If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father. Take two men (unto whom in respect of testimony Christ had compared himself and his Father, as they are two witnesses and two persons), and they are such two persons as are not one and the same man, and yet they may and ordinarily do concur in testifying one and the same thing, and their testimony is received, and yet he that knows the one doth not necessarily (or perhaps not at all) know the other, for every man bears the nature of man apart to himself, and dividedly from the other. But here these, though distinct as persons (as being distinct witnesses), yet in nature they are altogether one, in that he that knows the one must necessarily know the other ; and in the Epistle the apostle shews plainly that they are not one only in respect of agreeing m one, in witnessing the same thing (as those three on earth are said to do) ; but as noting a nearer oneness, he speaks thus of these three in heaven, that these three are one, and so are one in nature. 1. The last parallel and conclusion of the whole is, that
1 both Christ and John do alike urge and infer and set out the high validity of the testimony of these heavenly witnesses in both, yea, all respects, as infinitely trans cending that of two or three that are but men, when witnesses ; which will
28 MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. II.
appear by the comparative of the one with, or rather taken from, the other.
First, Christ urgeth, indeed, the plurality of his own and his Father s wit
nesses, but with all the transcendency of them as such. My Father, says
he, you all acknowledge to be God, therefore, if I should allege him only,
it would infinitely excel any plurality even of all men, for let God be true,
and all men liars, and would weigh down the balance in which all men,
put together, are found to be too light. If God were but one person only,
this were superabundant, if he testified it ; but Christ s intent is to urge
* I am one that bear witness of myself, and my Father that sent me. Now,
his own testimony of himself to be valid as a witness with his Father ;
in the law, which he had alleged in the verse afore for the value of a tes
timony, a man s own witness of himself, if he were a mere man, was to be
reckoned as no witness at all, as Christ speaks, John v. 31, and here verse
14 does imply. Yea, it is then rejected with scorn ; and had he been but
a mere man, or so intended it, it must have been esteemed such, and no
other. How came it to pass then, and why, then, doth he urge the law of
two witnesses, when himself was one of them ? Yea, further, had he been
but a mere man, it had been the greatest presumption, yea, impudence,
that ever had been shewn, to have yoked himself thus as a witness with God himself, and to have offered to have come in and set himself down
with God in this matter. His meaning, therefore, plainly was, and must
be understood to be, that himself was a person as creditable as God him
self, and that he was God as well as his Father, and not a mere man, and
as such it was he stood forth, yea, stands out with the Father, as equal
with him in witnessing, because in nature equal with him, and as truly God
as he. And he stands upon it, verse 14, and outdares also all such allega
tions and exceptions against his testimony on his own behalf with these
< Though I bear record of myself, of myself (which in no case useth
words,
to be admitted), yet my record is true, for I know whence I came, and
whither I go. As if he had said, I myself know what a person I am, and
know my original out of God s essence and bosom, and that I am the Son
of the living God, and so equal with my Father as such, and so my tes
timony is equal to that of my Father s. And verse 16, I am not alone,
but I and the Father (which is as high as Ego et Eex mew). ^ And
hence it is that Christ argues the transcendent weight of his testimony
joined with his Father s; that here is a plurality, a two of persons, that are
both of them God. And now let Christ go on as he doth: verse 17, It
is written in the law that the testimony of two men, though but mere men
(so the opposition runs), is true : his inference insinuated is from this
comparative of that of men, as the lowest, to rise to this as the highest,
< how much more, or infinitely much more, then, must the testimony of
two such persons as I and my Father, yea, of two persons that are God,
one God, be of validity with you. And therefore he boldly further goes on
in verse 18, I am one who testify of myself, and the Father that sent me
beareth witness of me ; and look, as he is God, so also am I myself, and
therefore if you receive, according to your law, the testimony of two men
that are but men (that are or may be liars), how much more of two persons
that are God. Thus Christ argues here in the Gospel. Now go to the
Epistle ; doth not the apostle speak the very same intendment and infer
ence, and almost the same words? For having first said, There are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, Word, and Spirit ; and these three
are one, ver. 7, he closeth upon it, and infers and presseth upon our faith :
ver. 9, If we receive the witness of men (of two or three men, that are
CHAP. III.] MAN S KESTOKATION BY GRACE. 529
* the witness of God (viz., in these three several persons, who are one God, as ver. 7) must be greater. And is not this effectually the same you heard Christ himself even now to say ? And so these two scrip tures fall in every way parallel, and give light to each the other, and both
but men),
for the confirmation of my first assertion propounded, the trinity of the
persons ; than which, thus enforced, there is not found a greater.