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 Persona
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 COB. 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 imme
diate 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. Ho
puts that last clause as the clearest evidence and the most ultimate de monstration 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
350 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK. I.
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 God head ; 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 parent*), a corrival
for the Godhead, would have detracted from the glory of him who hath said
* I will not give my glory to another, Isa. xlii. 8. Sole dominion is the
it,
essential point to every one that is a monarch ; and God s glory and bless edness 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 men tioned 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 im
mensity ; 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.