05.30. How the three persons of the Godhead are
How the three persons of the Godhead are distinguished. The Son is distinct from the Father ’ being the express image of his person,’ Hebrews 1:2. ; and in John 8:17-18. he reckons his Father one witness and himself another. And that the Holy Ghost is distinct from both, appears from John 14:16-17. ’ I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever : even the Spirit of truth.’ And the text is plain for the distinction of all the three. Now, they are distinguished by their order of subsisting, and their incommunicable personal properties. In respect of the order of subsistence, the Father is the first person, as the fountain of the Deity, having the foundation of personal subsistence in himself ; the Son is the second person, and hath the foundation of personal subsistence from the Father ; and the Holy Ghost is the third person, as having the foundation of personal subsistence from the Father and the Son. And so for their personal properties,
1. It is the personal property of the Father to beget the Son, Hebrews 1:5-6. Hebrews 1:8. ’ Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. --But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.’ This cannot be ascribed either to the Son or Holy Ghost.
2. It is the property of the Son to be begotten of the Father, John 1:14. John 1:18. ’ We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. No man hath seen God at any time : the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.’
3. The property of the Holy Ghost is to proceed from the Father and the Son, John 15:26. ’ When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me,’ in Galatians 4:6. he is called ’ the Spirit of the Son ;’ and in Romans 7:9. ’ the Spirit of Christ,’ He is said to receive all things from Christ,’ John 14:14-15; to be ’ sent by him,’ John 15:26. ; and to be ’ sent by the Father in Christ’s name,’ John 14:26. All this plainly implies, that the Holy Spirit proceedeth both from the Father and the Son. This generation of the Son and Holy Ghost was from all eternity. For as God is from everlasting to everlasting, so must this generation and procession be and to deny it, would be to deny the supreme and eternal Godhead of all the three glorious persons.