Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

and hij Son !fefus [brifi. other. It begun to be quellioned in the firfl: Age_ of Chrifl:ianity ; and, at ~ times, bath been fo ever lince.. Reafon contrtbutes ltttle to It, but remains un- ~ fatisfied; and yet God bath (hll call: the Splf!ts of his People, and won them over to it. Receive it, I fay, by Faith; Chri!l: puts them upon bare believing it; John I 4· IO, I I. '73elieveji thou not, that 1am in the Father, a11d the Father in Me? The wordrthat 1fpealz unto you, 1 fpealz not of my fe!f; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doth the Wor~'· Believe me, that I '""in the Father, and the Father in Me: Or elfe believe me for the very Work.'/ foA!.- And when they required a demonfl:rative Argument, or rational Evidence of it ; Chrifl: only affirms it, and having affirmed, refers them to his Works, after he had faid it; as was obferved before, out of John I O. 38. for if he had not faid true, fuch glorious Divine Works would not have followed fuch a Doctrine and Profeffion: And thereupon he calls for Faith, from that Evidence John Io. 37, 38. If I do not the Work_< of my father, believe me 1JOt: But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the Worlzr; that ye n1ay know and believe, that the Father i< in me, and I in him. David is faid to be in Spirit, when he brings in the Lord (peaking to the Lord: By which Speech was difcovered, both thefe Perfons to be in the Godhead, and difl:inct as Perfons, (peaking thus one to another; The Lord foid unto niy Lord, Pial. I ro. David in Sptrit ( fays Chrill) foid thi<, Matth. 2 2. 43, 44· and I remember not that phrafe fpoken of David, upon any other occafion but this, although it be (aid, The Spirit of the Lord jpaA! by me: And this was neceffary, for Reafon would, of all elfe, never have revealed it, nor entertained it as it is revealed. Heaven opened, when there was the firfl: open difiinct difcovery of the Three : The Father fpake, Th;, i< my Son, and the Holy Ghofl: defcended. For but by opening Heaven, and upon occafion of difcovering the Son, was this difiinctly revealed. CHAP. IV. That the Three Perfons in the Cjodhead, have an Union and Communion between themfelves apart 3 and Incommunis;able unto us. THE Affertion which I undertake to prove, is this, That God, and Chrifl:, and by conlequence the Holy Ghofl:, have an Union and Com– munion of a higher kind, than what we are ordained ever to receive; arld therefore I call it the fupream Sovereign Union. In a word, the Creatures are not God, vailed under the appearance of Creatures, and fo hid– den as under a Veil, which is the impious falfi~catiQn of many of the Ranters of our late Age, os appears by their Writings, and which put me upon writing this Difcourfe. I. To prove that there is a Sovereign, Supream Union between the three Perfons in the Godhead peculiar, and proper to themfdvcs alone, and which cannot be communicated to any mere Creature ; I have chofe thofe Paffages in Chrifl:'s Prayer, whereon to found my Difcourfe; John 17. 21, 22, 23. That they all ma} be one, M thOit Father art in me, and I in tbee, that they alfo may be one in 1fl ; that the World may believe that thou haft fent me. And tbe Glory which thou gave.ft me, I have given them; that they may be one, even M we are one, I in them, and thou i>t me, tbat tbey may be 111ade perfei1 in one, and th<~t tbe World may /znow that tho~t haft fent me, and haft loved them, M thou h<~{lloved me. Whatever ufe . I have made of this 17th of Jobn, in difcourfing oi' this Union to another pur- ~)J. D-f'""fo pofe;' my (cope now is to fhew, how all the Ancients have judged this very '/;,.~:~:~~~Thing, (which I have afferted) with clear evidt;nce of Reafon, from Chrifi's manner of Speech, both Negatively and Affirmatively, as I fhall alledge their Tefiimonies by and by. This

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