understanding distinct from and inferiour to that of God inasmuch as he is distitute of such a perfection as the searching of the hearts which is inseparable from the divine majesty These two considerations have I added at the close of my twelfth Argument because they are not so much new Arguments as props and further confirmations of the ninth and eleventh Arguments An Exposition of Mat. 28. 19. GO ye therefore and make all the Nations Disciples so the Original hath it baptizing them into the name so it is also in the Original of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe whasoever I have commanded you Into the name of the Holy Spirit that is into the holy Spirit by a circumlocution usual in the Scripture see Act. 19. 5. And when they had heard they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus compared with Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death And into the Holy Spirit that is into the guidance of the Holy Spirit Thus the Jewes are said to have been all baptized into Moses for so the Greek hath it 1 Cor. 10. 2. So that our Saviour's words amount to thus much Initiating them into the confession and obedience of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father and of the Holy Spirit the Advocate and Guide of all the Truth Now the Holy Spirit is mentioned together with God and Christ because he is their chief instrument whereby they guide govern sanctifie and endow the Church and to intimate that whereas men before they gave their names to Christ lived according to the Prince of this world the unclean Spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience they ought henceforth being sequestred from the world and admitted into the Church to resign up themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit whom God and Christ appoint and send to order and direct the Church Neither can it be rightly inferned that because the Holy Spirit is here ranked with the Father and the Son therefore he is equal to them by this account when the Apostle 1 Tim. 5. 21. saith I charge thee Gr. I obtest before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without prejudice doing nothing by partiality joyning the elect Angels with the Father and the Son in so great a matter as obtestation to excite an Evangelist to do his duty with sincerity this would imply that the elect Angels are equal to the Father and the Son Nor doth it follow that because it is said not into the names but into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit therefore they three have but one Name power or dignity since by the like reasoning I might argue that because Christ Luke 9. 26. saith Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of himself so it is in the Greek and of the Father and of the Holy Angels therefore the Father the Son and the Holy Angels have but one and the self-same glory For that the Holy Spirit is not ranked with the Father and the Son as being equal to them is evident by other punctual places of the Scripture as 1 Cor. 12. 3 4 5 6. Eph. 4. 4 5 6. where when the mention of him is joyned with that of the Father and of the Son he is expresly and emphatically excluded from being either that one God or that one Lord of Christians by being contradistinguished from both but if he be neither that one God nor that one Lord of Christians as the Apostle not onely in the fore-quoted places but elsewhere also plainly testifieth see 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. Yet to us there is one God the Father of whom are all the things and we for him And one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all the things and we by him he cannot be equal to the Father and the Son but is onely the chiefe Minister of both peculiarly sent out to Minister on their behalf that shall inherit salvation An Exposition of 1 John 5. 7. For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these three are one It would have been hard if not impossible had not men been precorrupted that it should ever come into any ones head to imagine that this phrase are one did signifie have one Essence since such an exposition is not onely contrary to common sence but also to other places of the Scripture wherein this kinde of speaking perpetually signifieth an union in consent and agreement or the like but never an union in Essence To omit other Sacred Writers this very Apostle in his Gospel chap. 17. verse 11. 21 22 23 useth the same expression six times intimating no other but an union of agreement yea in verse 8. of this very chapter in his Epistle he useth it in the same sence For though the expression variech somewhat in the ordinary Greek Testaments in that the preposition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is prefixed although the Complutensian Bible readeth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in both verses yet is the sence the same this latter being spoken after the Hebrew idiome the former according to the ordinary phrase for confirmation whereof see Matth. 19. comparing verse 5. and 6. together in the Original wherefore this expression ought to be rendred alike in both verses as the former Interpreters did it though the latter Interpreters in verse 8. have rendred it agree in one putting the glosse in stead of the Translation So that this place maketh nothing for them that hold the Holy Spirit to have one and the same Essence with the Father unless they can prove that those who are one in agreement must likewise necessarily be one in essence or that two or three cannot be one but it must presently be in essence I omit for the present to speak of the suspectedness of this place how it is not extant in the ancient Greek Copies and namely in that famous one of Tecla here in England nor in the Syriack Translation nor in most ancient Books of the Latine edition and rejected by sundry Interpreters both ancient and modern An Exposition of Act. 5. 3 4. BVt Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lye to or deceive the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the Farm while it remained remained it not to thee and being sold was it not in thine owne power why fast thou conceived or put or purposed in thy heart this thing Thou hast not lyed to men but to God In this passage the Holy Spirit is neither expresly as every one seeth nor by good consequence called God For admit the ordinary Translation were true as it
Spirit searcheth the depths of God as Rom. 8. 27. he intimateth that God searcheth the heart of the Spirit but to search the depths of any one necessarily supposeth one understanding in him that searcheth and another understanding in him-whose depths are searched as is evident not onely by collation of other places of the Scripture as 1 Pet. 1. 11. Rev. 2. 23. but even by common sense dictating to every man so much that none can without absurdity be said to search the depths of his own understanding Whence the Apostle going about to illustrate what he had spoken of the Spirit of God by a similitude drawn from the spirit of a man doth not say that the spirit of a man doth search but know the things of a man though his former words did seem to lead him thereunto Argument XII He that hath a will distinct in number from that of God is not God The Holy Spirit hath a will distinct in number from that of God Ergo The Major is irrefragable The Minor is asserted thus He that willeth conformably to the will of God hath a will distinct in number from that of God The Holy Spirit so willeth Ergo The Major is plain for conformity must be between twain at least else it will not be conformity but Identity The Minor is confirmed by Rom. 8. 26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with grones unutterable But he that searcheth the hearts knoweth the minde of the Spirit for he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Neither let any man here reply that there is no mention made in the Greek either of the will of the Spirit or of the will of God For first the word intercede which signifieth to make suit for something implyeth both the will of him that maketh the suit for if he did not will the thing he would not make suit for it and also the will of him to whom the suit is made for were he not endued with a will it would be bootless to make suit unto him all suits whatsoever being made to bend the will of him to whom they are made so that this without any more sufficiently sheweth that the Holy Spirit hath a will distinct in number from that of God since the one sueth the other is sued to at the same time and for the same thing Secondly the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in English rendred Mind doth here signifie the same with Will or Desire as appeareth from the 6. and 7. verses of this Chapter and also from the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whence it is derived which signifieth to Affect Will Desire Pursue see verse 5. of the same chapter and Col. 3. 2. Thirdly though the Greek hath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to God yet is this in the judgement of the English Translators themselves the same as if it had been said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to the will of God neither can any other commodious interpretation be put upon the words But this passage of the Apostle doth further afford us a second and third impregnable Argument of the Holy Spirit 's being inferiour to God For first he is here said to make intercession for us as we before urged his praying to Christ Argument 9. and that with grones unutterable which is not so to be understood as if the Holy Spirit were here said to help our infirmities onely by suggesting petitions and groanes unto us as is commonly but falsly affirmed for the very words of the context sufficiently exclude such a gloss since they say that the Spirit himself not we by the Spirit as we have it in the 15. verse of the same chapter maketh intercession for us yea vicarious intercession as the Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth But to help others infirmities by making intercession and what is more vicarious intercession for them is not to instil petitions into them but to pour out petitions apart in their behalf as is apparent both from the thing is self since none can intercede for himself all intercession at least such as is here spoken of requiring the entermise of a third person and by the Collation of verse 34. of the same Chapter and 1 Tim. 2. 1. Heb. 7. 25. Neither let any man think to baffle off this place which is written with a beam of the Sun and hath together with that Joh. 16. 13 14. quite nonplussed not onely Modern Authors but the Fathers themselves by saying that this is improperly spoken of the Holy Spirit for besides that he hath no other ground to say so but his own preconceived opinion touching the Deity of the Holy Spirit he ought to know that the Scripture though it speaketh some things of God in a figure and improperly yet doth it nowhere say any thing that argueth his inferiority to and dependance on another But this passage of the Apostle plainly intimateth that the Holy Spirit is inferiour to God and dependent on him otherwise what need had he to make intercession to God and that with grones unutterable for the Saints Secondly the Holy Spirit is here distinguished from him that searcheth the hearts and this description is made use of to put a difference between God and the Holy Spirit but how could this be done were the holy Spirit also a searcher of the hearts For can a description that is common yea alike common to twain for so the Adversaries hold concerning God and the Holy Spirit be set to distinguish the one from the other For instance to prepare the Passover for Christ is an action common to Peter with John for they twain were sent by Christ to that purpose and did accordingly perform it see Luke 22. 8 13. wherefore can a description taken from this action be fit to difference Peter from John and is it suitable to say He that prepared the Passeover for Christ was a greater Apostle then John would not this plainly argue that John did not prepare the Passeover for Christ So that it is apparent that the Holy Spirit is not a searcher of the hearts If therefore it would not follow that the Holy Spirit is God although it had been said in the Scripture that he searcheth the hearts unless he had such a faculty originally and of himself for nothing hinders but that God may confer it upon others as we see by the Scripture that he hath de facto conferred it on Christ having given him all judgement and that because he is the Son of man John 5. 22 27. for such judgement requireth that he be a searcher of the hearts If I say it would not even then follow that he is God how clearly how irrefragably doth it on the contrary follow that he is not God but hath an
would either procure my discharge or at least make report to the House touching my denial of the supposed Deity of the Holy Spirit For that this onely is the matter in contestation you very well know having both heard my confession before the Committee and remembring how when I was urged to declare my judgement concerning the Deity of Christ I waved the question as neither being that I was accused of nor which I had yet sufficiently studyed to engage my self publickly therein As for my opinion touching the Holy Spirit it is thus I believe the holy Spirit to be the chief of all * ministring spirits pecultarly sent out from heaven to minister on their behalf that shall inherit salvation and I do place him both according to the Scripture and the Primitive Christians and by name Justin Martyr in his Apologie in the third rank after God and Christ giving him a pre-eminence above all the rest of the heavenly host So that as there is one principal spirit amongst the evil angels known in the Scripture by the name of Satan or the a Adversary or b the unclean spirit or c the evil spirit of God or d the Spirit of God or e the Spirit by way of eminence even so is there one principal Spirit I borrow this appellation from the Septuagint who render the later clause of the 12 vers. of Psal. 51. in this manner {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Spiritu principali fulci me Stablish me with thy principal Spirit there is I say one principal spirit amongst the good Angels called by the name of the a Advoate or b the holy Spirit or c the good Spirit of God or d the Spirit of God or e the Spirit by way of eminence This opinion of mine is attested by the whole tenour of the Scripture which perpetually speaketh of him as differing from God and inferiour to him but is irrefragably proved by these places of Scripture Neh. 9. 6 20. Thou even thou art Lord or Jehovab alone thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their hast Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them the Children of Israel John 16. 7 8. c. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the m Advocate will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And when he is come he will reprove in the Original convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall be speak and he shall shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I be shall take of mine and shew it unto you Rom. 8. 26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered But he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the minde or desire of the spirit for be maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Acts 19. 2. And Paul finding certain Disciples said unto them Have ye received the holy Spirit since ye believed And they said unto him we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit Eph. 4. 4 5 6. There is one body and one Spirit even as ye have been called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all 1 Cor. 12. 3 4. c. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit But there are diversities of gifts yet the same Spirit And there are diversities of administrations yet the same Lord and there are diversities of operations yet it is the same God that worketh all in all Luk. 3. 21 22. It came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 13. But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things even the depths of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth none but the Spirit of God he doth not adde as before which is in him Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God Rev. 22. 12 17. Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give unto every man according as his work shall be and the Spirit and the â—ride say Come Act. 5. 32. And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Spirit whom God hath given to them that obey him Gal. 3. 5. He therefore that ministreth or giveth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you doth he it by the works of the Law or by the hearing or rather preaching of Faith He that ministreth or giveth the Spirit to you a strange kinde of speech if the Holy Ghost were God The Scripture is wont to speak more soberly of Almighty God then to say that he is given by another much less by men as it is here said of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 8. 4 5 6. We know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one For though there be that are called Gods whether in Heaven or in Earth as there be many Gods and many Lords yet unto us there is but one God even the Father of whom are all things and we unto him and one Lord even Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him You see here that the Apostle being about to set downe who is the onely God and onely Lord of Christians maketh no mention of the Holy Spirit which could not have been done by so faithful an Apostle had the Holy Spirit been either God or Lord Of these places thus recited no man though never so subtile and though he turn and wind his wit every way shal ever be able to make sence unless he take the Holy Spirit to be what I say Behold now the cause for which I have lien under persecution raised against me by my adversaries who being unable to justifie by Argument their practice of giving glory to the Holy Spirit as God in
heard Satan cometh immediately and taketh the word that was sown in their hearts Suppose now that the seed of the Word be sown in ten thousand places at one time as it happeneth on every Lords day How can Satan whom the Adversaries will deny to be omnipresent come and immediately snatch the Word out of the hearts of the greatest part of the hearers The same Resolution that they shall give to this Question will I apply to their own Objection If this be not sufficient take yet more proofs that may seem to evince the omnipresence of the unclean spirit Thus is he said to have been a lying spirit in the mouth of four hundred false prophets 1 King 22. 22 23. and there is the same reason between four hundred and four millions Thus is he said to hold the impenitent who make the greatest part of mankinde in his snare and to take them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. ult. To blinde the mindes of them that believe not 2 Cor. 4. 4. To dwell in the ungodly Rev. 2. 13. To shew the wicked whatsoever they practise Joh. 8. 38. Yea to deceive the whole world Rev. 12. 9. 20. 2 3. If they dare not for all this to affirm the unclean spirit to be omnipresent Why do they on less ground conclude the omnipresence of the holy Spirit especially when the Scripture so plainly testifieth that he changeth place as Joh. 15. 26. But when the Advocate is come whom I will send you from the Father the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth or goeth out from the Father he shall testifie of me How could the holy Spirit be sent and go out from the Father to the disciples if he were already with them and could not but stay with the Father Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father This sheweth that the Spirit was not in their hearts before otherwise he needed not to be sent out into them 1 Pet. 1. 12. The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the holy Spirit sent down from heaven Could the holy Spirit be sent down from heaven if he were already upon the earth and continued still in heaven For that the coming of the holy Spirit down from heaven is properly to be taken appeareth by the very sight in that John the Baptist did see the Spirit descending from heaven in a bodily shape like a dove and he abode on Christ Joh. 1. 32. compared with Luke 3. 21 22. where the words of the Scripture are diligently to be heeded for it is not said that the bodily shape did descend but the Spirit in the shape so that the descent did primarily and by it self agree to the holy Spirit but in a secondary way and by accident to the shape which he had assumed Now is it possible to descend out of heaven to the earth and not change place Or is there any thing better then an ocular demonstration to evince a change of place Certainly if notwithstanding all this and much more which may be alleadged it is yet true that the holy Spirit doth not go from place to place what assurance can I have when the Scripture saith of any one whomsoever that he is sent or cometh down or goeth out that he moveth from one place to another and doth not abide where he was before Neither is it rightly done by the Adversaries when against so many evident Scriptures they alleadge one obscure passage Psal. 139. 7 8. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there For to omit that the Psalmist as the precedent and subquent words yea the passage it self cited at large doth shew intendeth onely to prove the omnipresence of God himself and not of his Spirit and that divers of the very Adversaries as namely the Divines of the Assembly in their Annotations on this place do by Spirit here understand the knowledge or power of God and not the holy Spirit should it be granted that thesewords Whither shall I go from thy Spirit are meant of the holy Spirit yet do they import no more then that David could go into no place but the Spirit could be there with him and so sign fie not that he is in all places at one time but can be in them at several times accordingly as David should come into them Again should it be further granted what the Adversaries are not able to evince that Davids meaning is that he could go into no place where the Spirit was not present yet would not this presently argue that he was there present in his person or substance as the Adversaries conceive when they say that he is Omnipresent and therefore God since it is sufficient for the truth hereof that he is in every place by his knowledge so that a man can be in no place whatsoever but the holy Spirit will know where he is This Omnipresence which I verily believe belongeth to the holy Spirit doth not hinder him to go from one place to another Yea whosoever diligently looketh into Davids words shall finde that he intended in this Psalm to assert no other Omnipresence to God himself then that of knowledge and power For he openly speaketh of the knowledge of God in the first six verses saying in the second of them Thou understandest my thoughts afar off Which implyeth that the person or substance of God himself was not upon the earth with David otherwise he would understand David's thought neer at hand and not afar off But in the tenth verse which is an explication of the three preceding ones he speaketh of the hand of God whereby is wont to be understood his power Afterwards vers. 11. and 12. he returneth to the knowledge of God whereof he had before spoken Moreover the main current of the Scripture runneth that way and plainly intimateth that the person or substance or shape of God I speak the language of the Scripture see Job 13. 7. Will ye accept his God's Person will ye contend for God Heb. 1. 3. Who being the brightness of his God's Glory and express Image of his person Gr. substance John 5. 37. And the Father himself which hath sent me hath born witness of me Ye have neither heard this voice at any time nor seen his shape is nowhere else but in Heaven Neither let the Adversaries reply that if I ascribe an universal knowledge of humane affairs to the holy Spirit this very thing will evince him to be God For first I have already excepted the searching of the heart proving in the twelfth Argument that it agreeth not to the holy Spirit Secondly had the holy Spirit an Universal knowledge as of other things so also of the heart yet would not this prove him to be God unless he had this knowledge originally and of himself For it is apparent from the Scripture John 5. 22. that God hath given all judgement unto Christ and consequently all knowledge without which that judgement cannot be managed But if he hath given all knowledge unto Christ he can as well give it to the holy Spirit Wherefore let the Adversaries when they are driven from their opinion by that invincible Argument drawn from the Intercession which the holy Spirit is said to make for the Saints cease to take up the same weapon and contend that the holy Spirit inasmuch as he maketh intercession for the Saints must needs know all their wants and so be God For is not Christ also said to make intercession for the Saints and doth he not intercede with God as a man and so as a man know all their wants But if Christ as a man and so as a Creature maketh intercession unto God for the Saints and knoweth all their wants why not the holy Spirit also though he be a created Spirit and not God As for the dwelling of the holy Spirit in so many persons though I might forbear to shew in what manner this is done untill the Adversaries had answered my Querie yet will I for the satisfaction of such as are studious of the truth here declare it He dwelleth therefore in all the Saints dispersed through the whole world not in his person or substance for then his person or substance would fill the world and dwell in all men a like whereas the indwelling of the holy Spirit is by the Scripture made a peculiar priviledge of the Saints Rom 8. 9. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be or for the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Wherefore he dwelleth in them by his Gifts or Effects since no other dwelling can be imagined which is an Expression frequent in the writings of the Adversaries themselves but that they are wont to forget it when they reason about the Godhead of the holy Spirit FINIS * See Heb. 1. 1 14. whence these words are borrowed and compare it with 1 Pet. 1. 12. as also Heb. 1. 7. compared with Act. 2. 2 3 4. and it will easily appear that the holy Spirit is a minister of God as well as others a 1 Pet. 5. 8. b Zech. 13. 2. c 1 Sam. 16. 15 16. d Ibid. verse the last e 1 Kings 22. 21. See the Original a Joh. 16. 7. b Eph. 4. 30. c Neh. 9. 20. d 1 Cor. 7. 40. e Acts 10. 19. m So the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Original perpetually signifieth amongst Greek Authors and is so rendred by the Translators themselves 1 Joh. 2. 1. and ought to have been so rendred here especially because he saith in the following words that the Holy Spirit shall convince the world for it is proper to an Advocate to convince * By Person I understand as Philosophersdo suppositum intelligens that is an intellectual substance compleat and not a mood or subststence which are fantastical sensless terms brought in to cozen the simple * Abi Ariane ad Jordanem Trinitatem videbis * For when the verb Substantive to be is joyned with the holy Spirit it signifieth his Being or Person not the gifts issuing from him