A Wakening Call, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Concerning the Trinity.
THE three distinct Powers in the Divine Essence or Father, shining forth, from all Eternity, in the Divine Form or Son, consider'd separately, in each, or jointly in both, are call'd Father, Word and Holy Ghost, 1 John 5. 7. The one of these is not the other in the Divine Father or Son.
The word, Father, as the Divine Essence is call'd, in distinction from the Divine Form or Son, is of a very differing Consideration from the same Word, as signifying the first of the Divine Three in both. So, the word, Son, as signifying the Divine Form, is of a very differing Signification from the same Word, as signifying the Second of the Divine Three, in Father and Son. The like may be said of the Third of the Divine Three, the Holy Ghost, in Father and Son, of distinct Significancy from what the Divine Father and Son, jointly together, are so call'd, as the one Infinite Divine Being.
The Three distinct Divine Powers in the Divine Father and Son, do beget and set up their distinct secondary Record or Witness of themselves, in a Creature-Form, distinct from the Divine Form. The whole Creature-nature of the Mediator, Root and Branch, is call'd Earth, in distinction from the Divine Form in him, the supream Heaven of Heavens. Their threefold Witness in Earth, is signified by Spirit, Water and Blood, 1 John 5.8. The same Three that are One in the Divine Nature, agree in compleating the one Mind of all Three, in the Earth, or whole Creature-nature of the Mediator. The Witness of the First of the Divine Three, is Spirit, a Creature-spirit of originally immortal, Holiness and eternal Life. The Witness of the Second, is call'd Water, signifying the Creature-Son and Branch, in the Fountain-purity of all mortal Being and Life, design'd to be set up in Angels and Men, by a first Creation. Blood signifies the Death of that, as first-born of every Creature, in order to its Resurrection into the originally unchangeable Life of its Root and Father, and, therein, first-born from the dead. In, by and through this Creature-form, do the three in the Divine let down the Vision of themselves, to the spiritual Sight and Enjoyment of Angels and Men; and by such Transactions, therein, do notify to both, the only Means and Way for their true Blessedness, by the Death and Loss of all Life and Things receiv'd by them, in the mortal First-Covenant Law-life of the first Creation, in order to ascend into and receive his originally immortal new and everlasting Covenant Gospel-life, by a second, communicated to them by the exalted Son and Branch, as first-born from the dead; and, therein, the immediate Performer of the one Will of the Divine Three, in both Creations, and in dealing with all Angels and Men, Good and Bad, in final Love or Wrath, to all Eternity, accordingly as they submit, or refuse to submit to the Terms of receiving the Life, offer'd by a second.
Thus was the Foundation laid, within God himself, in the Creature-part of the Mediator, for rendring the three that are one in the Divine Nature, discernable and enjoyable to blessed Saints and Angels, in their spiritual new-Creation Capacities. Man's highest Wisdom and Understanding sees not the heavenly Creature-things of God, by which only the Divine Three can be known, 1 Cor. 2.9. So, all his Conceptions, Thoughts and Words, about the Trinity, can be but implicite random-Conjectures and Discourses, not seeing or knowing what he says.
The immediate discernable Objects of Man's highest natural Understanding, are but the mortal Life and Things of the first Creation, by which they ought to conclude and may know, there is an eternal Power and Godhead; but see nor that, nor his heavenly Creature-things, immediately, Rom. 1. 20, 21. 1 Cor. 2. 9. Isai. 66. 2.
The Three in the Divine Essence or Father, singly and abstractedly consider'd, will be absolutely invisible to Saints and Angels in Heaven to all Eternity. And the Divine Form, Son or Glory thereof, in Christ's Person, will never be the immediate Object of their Sight, but be let down to them, in the first Conjunction thereof, with his Creature-root, through the exalted Creature-Son and Branch in him, the immediate Creator of all. This is the Branch, God made strong for himself, (Psal. 80. 15.) to perform his whole Divine Mind, in both Creations; in this World, and the eternal World to come. This is the Branch that shall reign on Earth, execute Iudgment and Iustice, therein, as the Lord our Righteousness, Jer. 23. 5, 6. & 33. 15, 16. By and through this exalted Branch, the immediate Do-all, in both Creations, will the same Three in the Divine Essence, that shin'd forth in the Divine Form, from Eternity, let down themselves to blessed Angels and Saints, to Eternity. All the Three in the Divine Essence, and heavenly Creature-Glories, are one Trinity, and that Trinity, one individual God, Iohn 10. 20.
The Three that are One in the Divine Nature, are the immediate Object to the Sight and Enjoyment of the whole Creature-nature in Christ (Root and exalted Branch) that's in personal Union therewith: but never so, to any meer Creatures, blessed Saints or Angels, 1 Tim. 6. 15, 16. Iohn 1. 18. Mat. 11. 27. They are personally united with the exalted Branch, in him, as Members of his mystical, spiritual Body, to which he is Head. But never so to his Creature-root; and much less, yet, to his Divine Nature.
The Three in the Divine Nature, shining forth to meer spiritual Creatures, by and through the exalted Branch, are no where, in Scripture, call'd a Trinity, nor said to be three Persons. If they be three Persons, as three distinct individual Angels or Men, in Angelical or humane Nature are, would they not be three distinct individual Gods? would not this be the asserting a Tritheism, the lesser sort of Polytheism? If they be call'd three Persons, it must be, as acknowledg'd in a Unity, transcendently above meer Creatures, who are so, in one specifical humane or angelical Nature. The three, in God, are three, in one individual Divine Nature, shining forth to Saints and Angels, in the Mediator's one individual Creature-nature, which, in and with his Divine Nature, is, with his Divine Father or Essence, one individual God. In this Sense, if any, may they be call'd three Persons. But the acknowledging three distinct Powers in God, may justly secure any, from the Imputation of Antitrinitarianism. They are so three, that the first is not the second; nor second, the third. The Divine Form in Christ, is not the Divine Essence, nor his Creature-nature, his Divine; nor his Creature-root, the Branch in him; but all one individual incomprehensible God, Iohn 10. 30. He that says (knows and owns) God the Father and his Divine and Creature-Son, says all that God is, or is God. Man, in the fallible Understanding and corruptible Will of his First-creation Life, can never truly see, rightly know and do the one Will of both. All, therefore, that trust to their own Understanding, deny both the Divine Father, and the divine and heavenly Creature-Son. Whosoever denies the Divine and Creature-Son, hath not the Father. But he that rightly acknowledges the Son, hath the Father also, 1 John 2.22, 23. Antichristian Deniers of both, pass in reputed Orthodox Man's Day of Judging, under Satan, God of this World, as the only true Christians, excommunicating or casting out of their worldly Churches, the true Owners of both, as the arrantest Hereticks and Blasphemers in the World.
God the Son, or Mediator, in the Divine and Creature-glories of the Divine Essence or Father, is call'd a Person, 2 Cor. 2. 10. In his Creature-part, he is call'd the Brightness of the Divine Glory in himself; and, therein, the express Creature-Image of God's whole Divine Person, Essence and Form, Heb. 1. 3.
The Creature-root in the Mediator is God's Soul, not immediately discernable to the highest spiritual Understanding of meer Creatures: but, in its first Conjunction with Divine Nature, is let down to their Sight and Enjoyment, in and by the exalted Creature-Son and Branch, as God's Body, or Visibility of all, to them. Of the Creature-root, God's Soul, himself says, in reference to the unpardonably sinning Shepherds (or pretending Teachers of the Way to Heaven, and Peace with God, in but the restor'd Life and Righteousness of Man) my Soul loath'd them, and their Soul, also, abhorred me, Zech. 11. 8.
Every individual Man, in the three essential Ingredients into his personal Constitution, Spirit, Soul and Body (1 Thess. 5. 23.) is a shadowy Image of the three in one God; and of the Divine Spirit, Creature-root or Soul, and Creature-body or Branch, in Christ's wonderful compounded Person. Man, in another Sense, was in the primitive Purity of his whole Being, a shadowy Image of God's Righteousness. This was lost, to all Mankind, by their first Sin, in and with Adam. The Reason therefore of the threaten'd Death on Murderers (that whosoever sheds Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed: for in the Image of God, made he Man, Gen. 9. 6.) relates to Man's being the Image of God, in the former Sense, Gen. 1. 26, 27. The Image of him, in the latter, being wholly lost, the Murderers of him, in reference to that, might seem unaccountable.
The Spirit of Man, singly and abstractedly consider'd, may seem a dark Shadow of the very Divine Essence, as comprehending in it, a threefold distinct Life, rational, sensual, and vegetable; but all three, invisible and unexercis'd, till brought into hypostatical or personal Union with its fitly organiz'd Body. And, all the said three Lives, when brought into Exercise, are called a living Soul, in distinction from the Spirit, separately consider'd; and, from the Body, that's the personal Appearance or Visibility of the whole Man. And, in both and all, the Man is but one Person.