158 THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. PRor. XLSince there is and can be but one true God, these Three, who have such a Communion in Godhead, maypro. perly be called the one God, or the only true God. The reason of it is this : Because, if God will not givehis glory, and his name to any other, as we have before proved, Is. xlii. 8. then those to whom he has given his name and his glory, are not another, but they are one and the same with him- self. There is a sameness of godhead, therefore, that belongs to these three, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit : So that the Son and the Spirit cannot be called another god, or gods ; for if they could, this would support, and not destroy, the polytheism, or multiplicity of gods, which was acknowledged and believed by the heathen nations. And perhaps it is better to express this by a sameness of godhead, than by calling it an equality ; for equality is more properly found between several distinct beings : Now whereinsoever these three are distinct, it may admit ofsome doubt and argument whether they are equal or no. Therefore we cannot fall into any mistake of doctrine, when we read in scripture, that the Father, the Son, and Spirit are one, if we suppose it to signify, or at least to include, they are one in divine nature, or godhead ; they are properly one and the same God ; as whenChrist expresses himself thus ; John x. 30. " I and my Father are one ;" and when the apostleJohn, speak- ing of the holy Trinity, saith ; 1 John v. 7. " For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost : And these three are one." Whatsoever other sense may possibly be put on the first of these texts, I and my Father are one, since Christ hadnot in that day so fully revealed his own godhead ; yet it is evident, that this last expression of the three that bear record in heaven, 'cannot signify these three are one in their testimony'; or, one in design and agreement, as some would have it : Because when the apostle, in the following verse, speaks of the agreement of the three witnesses on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the bloods; he asserts expressly these three, os so o on agree in one thing: But in this verse he says concerning the Father, theWord, and the Spirit, they are one, o orn which must mean that the three witnesses in heaven have some superior, and more intimate union or oneness, than the three witnesses on earth pretended to : And what can this more justly be applied to, than a oneness in the divine nature ? This last text bath been thesubject of many cavils and disputes, whether it were written originally by the apostle, or whether it were not foisted into the scripture in some later ages ; but upon the best examinationwe can make, I think there are good reasons to approve it apostolical. Now since there is but only true and living God, these three, or each of them, may be called the only trueand livingGod :
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