A Golden Chain, Chapter 5
CHAP. 5. Concerning the persons of the Godhead.
THe persons are they, which subsisting in one Godhead, are distinguished by incommunicable properties. 1. Ioh. 5.7. There are three that beare record in heauen, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost, and these three are one. Gen. 19.24. Then Iehouah raigned vponupon Sodom and vponupon Gomorrah, brimstone, and fire from Iehouah in heauen. Ioh. 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God.
They therefore are coequall, and are distinguished not by degree, but by order.
The Constitution of a person is, when as a personall proprietie or the proper manner of subsisting is adioyned to the Dietie, or one diuine nature.
Distinction of persons, is that, which albeit eueryevery person is one and the same perfect God, yet the Father is not the Sonne or the holy Ghost, but the Father alone; and the holy Ghost is not the Father or the Sonne, but the holy Ghost alone: neither can they be deuided, by reason of the infinitnesse of their most simple essence, which is all one in number, and the same in the Father, the same in the Sonne, and the same in the holy Ghost: so that in these there is diuersitie of persons, but vnitie in essence.
The communion of the persons, or rather vnion, is that by which each one is in the rest, and with the rest, by reason of the vnitie of the Godhead: & therfore euerie each one doth possesse, louelove, and glorifie another, and worke the same thing. Ioh. 4.10. Beleeuest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? the wordes that I spake vntounto you, I speake not of my selfe, but the father that dwelleth in me, he doth the workes. Prov. 8.22. The Lord hath possessed me in the beginning of his way: I was before the works of old. And vers. 20. Them was I with him as a nourisher, and I was daily his delight, reioicing alwaie before him. Ioh. 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God. and chap. 5.19. The Sonne can doe nothing of himselfe, saue that he seeth the Father do: for whatsoeuer things he doth, the same doth the Sonne also.
There be three persons: the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, Matth. 3.16.17. And Iesus when hee was baptized, came straight out of the water, and lo, the heauens were opened vntounto him, and Iohn saw the Spirit of God, descending like a doue, and lighting vponupon him: and loe, a voyce came from heauen, saying, This is my belooued sonne, in whome I am well pleased.
The father, is a person without beginning, who from all eternitie begate the Sonne, Heb. 1.3. Who being the brightnes of the glorie, and the ingraued forme of his person. Psal. 2.7. Thou art my Sonne, this day hauehave I begotten thee.
In the generation of the Sonne, these properties must be noted: I. Hee that begetteth, and he that is begotten are togither, and not one before another in time. II. He that begetteth doth communicate with him that is begotten, not some one part, but his whole essence. III. The Father begot the Sonne not out of himselfe, but within in himselfe.
The incommunicable propertie of the Father, is to be vnbegotten, to be a Father, and to beget. He is the beginning of actions, because he beginneth eueryevery action of himselfe, effecting it by the Sonne and the holy Ghost. 1. Cor. 8.6. Yet vntounto vsus, there is but one God, which is the Father of whome are all things and we in him, and one Lord Iesus Christ, by whome are all things, and wee by him. Rom. 11.…6. For of him, and through him, and for him are all things.
The other two persons hauehave the Godhead, or the whole diuine essence, of the Father by communication, namely, the Sonne and the holy Ghost.
The Sonne is the second person, begotten of the Father from all eternitie. Heb. 1.5. For vntounto which of the Angels said be at any time, Thou art my Sonne, this day begat I thee? Col. 1.15. Who is the image of the inuisible God, the first borne of eueryevery creatur…. Ioh. 1.14. And we saw the glory thereof as the glory of the only begotten sonne of the father. Rom. 8.32. He who spared not his owne sonne.
For this cause he is said to be sent from the father. Ioh. 8.42. I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of my selfe, but he sent me. This sending taketh not away the equalitie of essence and power, but declareth the order of the persons. Ioh. 5…18. Therefore the Iewes sought the more to kill him, not onelyonly because he had broken the Sabboth: but said also that God was his Father, and made himselfe equall with God. Phil. 2.6. Who being in the forme of God, thought it no robberie to be equall with God.
Although the Son be begotten of his Father, yet neuertheles he is of & by himselfe very God: for he must be considered either according to his essence or according to his filiatiō or Sonship. In regard of his essence, he is (foreign) i. of and by himselfe very God: for the Deitie which is commō to all the t…ree persons is not begotten. But as he is a person, and the sonne of the Father, he is not of himselfe, but from another: for he is the eternall Sonne of his father. And thus he is truely said to be very God of very God.
For this cause also he is the WORD of the father, not a vanishing, but an essentiall word; because as a word is, as it were, begotten of the mind, so is the Sonne begotten of the Father; and also, because hee bringeth glad tydings from the bosome of his Father. Nazian. in his Oration of the Sonne. Basil in his preface before Iohns Gospel.
The propertie of the Sonne, is to be begotten.
His proper manner of working, is to execute actions from the Father, by the holy Ghost. 1. Cor. 8. 6. Our Lord Iesus Christ, by whome are all things, and we by him. Ioh. 5.19. Whatsoeuer things he doth, the same doth the Sonne also.
The holy Ghost, is the third person, proceeding from the Father and the Sonne. Ioh. 15. 26. But when the Comforter shall come, whom I will send vntounto you from the Father, euen the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth of the Father, he shall testifie of me. Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, seeing the spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if there be any that hath not the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Ioh. 16.13,14. But when the Spirit of truth shall come, he shall conduct you into all truth: for he shall not speake of himselfe, but whatsoeuer he heareth, he shall speake, and shall declare vntounto you such things as are to come. He shall glorifie me, for he shall receiue of mine, and shew it vntounto you.
What may be the essentiall difference betwixt proceeding, and begetting, neither the Scriptures determine, nor the Church knoweth.
The incommunicabl… propertie of the holy Ghost, is to proceed.
His proper manner of working, is to finish an action, effecting it, as from the Father and the Sonne.
And albeit the Father and the Sonne are two distinct persons, yet are they both but one beginning of the holy Ghost.