An Help for the Ignorant, WSC Question 6

QUEST. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

ANSW. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Q. What is meant by the Godhead?

A. The divine nature or essence.

Q. What is a person?

A. A complete substance, which can think and act by itself.

Q. Are then irrational creatures persons?

A. No; for they cannot properly think.

Q. Is the human nature of Christ a person?

A. No; for it never thought or acted but in union to his divine person.

Q. Are men and angels persons, notwithstanding of their dependence on God?

A. Yes: for though they think and act dependently on God; yet their thoughts and actions cannot be properly called his, but their own.

Q. What is a person in the Godhead?

A. It is the divine nature, as subsisting with a particular personal property.

Q. What is the difference between a created and a divine person?

A. Besides other differences, every created person has a different substance; but all the three divine persons are the same in substance.

Q. How is this distinguishing perfection of God, relative to persons in the Godhead, ordinarily called?

A. TRINITY; which signifies three in one.

Q. Who are these three persons in the Godhead?

A. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Q. Is the residing or subsisting of the same divine nature in three distinct persons, as natural and necessary thereto as the very existence of it?

A. Yes; it is altogether as natural and necessary.

Q. Is it natural and necessary to the divine nature to reside in the first person as a Father, in the second as a Son, and in the third as one proceeding from the Father and Son?

A. Yes; there is nothing in the Godhead, or any person in it, that is not natural and necessary in the highest sense.

Q. Are then these three divine persons equally independent upon one another?

A. Yes.

Q. Does the light of nature discover that the one divine nature subsists in three distinct persons?

A. No; the light of nature discovers no more of God’s perfection than is necessary to our giving him that honour we owe him as the author of our being.

Q. Can the reason of creatures comprehend the subsistence of one divine nature in three persons?

A. No; no more than it can comprehend the infinity, eternity, etc. of God.

Q. Why have Satan and his instruments so much opposed the doctrine of the Trinity?

A. Because it is a fundamental truth, upon which the whole work of redemption, and all revealed religion, is founded.

Q. How is the whole work of redemption founded on it?

A. Because if there had not been one divine person to send, and be exacting judge, another to be sent as atoning surety, and a third to apply his purchase, we could not have been saved.

Q. How is the whole of revealed religion founded on the doctrine of the Trinity?

A. Because we must worship the Father, in the Son, and by the Spirit.

Q. Is the knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity necessary to salvation?

A. Yes, John 17:3.

Q. How can that be, when it is so mysterious?

A. So is every thing in God: and it is only necessary that we know and believe concerning it what the scripture plainly reveals in 1 John 5:7, etc.

Q. How prove you there are three persons in the Godhead?

A. The scripture affirms, that in the name of three divine persons baptism is administered; and that these three bear witness to divine truths, bestow divine blessings, and acted different parts at Christ’s baptism.

Q. What different parts did these persons act at Christ’s baptism?

A. The Father from heaven gave testimony to Christ, the Son stood on Jordan’s bank, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him like a dove.

Q. How prove you that these three are persons, and not bare names or properties?

A. Because thinking, willing, and such acts and relations as are proper only to persons, are in scripture ascribed to each of them.

Q. How do you prove that they are distinct persons from one another?

A. Because they have distinct offices in the work of redemption, and distinct personal properties.

Q. What distinct office or agency have they in the work of redemption?

A. The Father proposes, the Son purchases, and the Holy Ghost applies it.

Q. Whereby are these divine persons properly distinguished?

A. By their distinct personal properties.

Q. What is the personal property of the Father?

A. To beget the Son, Psalm 2:7.

Q. What is the personal property of the Son?

A. To be begotten of the Father, John 1:14.

Q. What is the personal property of the Holy Ghost?

A. To proceed from the Father and the Son.

Q. How prove you that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well as the Father?

A. Because he is called the Spirit of the Son, and is sent by him as well as by the Father, Galatians 4:6; John 16:7.

Q. When did the Father beget the Son, and the Spirit proceed from both?

A. From all eternity.

Q. Is it the divine nature or substance absolutely considered, that begets, is begotten, or proceeds?

A. No; it is a divine person: the person of the Father begets, the person of the Son is begotten, and the person of the Holy Ghost proceeds from both.

Q. Wherein doth a personal and an essential property differ?

A. An essential property is common to all the divine persons; but a personal property is peculiar to one person, and incommunicable to another.

Q. Are the properties of absolute independency, necessary existence, most high and only true God, equally applicable to all the divine persons?

A. Yes; for these are absolute and essential, not personal properties.

Q. Is it then safe to call the Father the fountain of the Godhead?

A. No.

Q. Is it not a preferring of one person to another, to call the Father the first, the Son the second, and the Holy Ghost the third?

A. No; it only say they subsist and act in that order.

Q. Is it safe to say the Father begets the Son by knowing himself, and that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the mutual love of Father and Son?

A. No; for God’s knowledge and love in himself are the very same.

Q. How prove you these three persons are one God?

A. There is but one God; and all these three are in scripture called God and one, 1 John 5:7; John 10:30.

Q. How can these three persons be one God ?

A. By their being the very same in substance.

Q. Has each of these persons only a part of the divine nature, and a substance perfectly like to one another?

A. No: they have the very same divine substance, and each the whole of it; for the divine essence is simple, and cannot be divided.

Q. If these persons be the same, how are they said to be equal ?

A. They are the very same in substance and nature, but are equal as persons.

Q. Wherein are they as persons equal?

A. In all divine perfections and glory.

Q. How prove you that the Father is God?

A. The scripture often affirms him to be God; and none but Atheists ever doubted of it.

Q. Is the Father only God?

A. No.

Q. How then is he called the only true God? John 17:3.

A. Though he be the only true God, so as to exclude all false gods; yet that does not infer that he only is the true God, so as to exclude the Son and Holy Ghost from being God.

Q. How do you prove that the Son is God?

A. Because the names, attributes, works, and worship proper to God, are given to him as well as the Father in scripture.

Q. What divine names are given to the Son?

A. He is called Jehovah, the great God, the God of glory, etc. Isaiah 45:24; Titus 2:13; etc.

Q. What divine attributes are ascribed to the Son?

A. Eternity, unchangeableness, almighty power, knowledge of all things, and being everywhere present.

Q. What divine works are ascribed to the Son?

A. Creating and upholding all things, redeeming sinners, forgiving sins, raising the dead, judging the world, etc. John 1:2. Colossians 1:17; etc.

Q. What divine worship is required and ascribed to the Son?

A. Honouring him even as the Father, believing, and being baptised in, and calling on his name.

Q. How then is the Son called the Father’s servant; and himself says, The Father is greater than I?

A. The meaning is only, that the Son, (not as Son, but) as man and Mediator, is inferior to the Father.

Q. How do you prove that the Holy Ghost is God?

A. Because the same divine names, attributes, works, and worship, are ascribed to him in scripture as to the Father and Son.

Q. What divine names are given to the Holy Ghost?

A. He is called Jehovah, God, etc. Acts 5:4.

Q. What divine attributes are ascribed to him?

A. Eternity, knowledge of all things, and being everywhere present, Hebrews 9:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10.

Q. What divine works are ascribed to him?

A. Creation, formation of Christ’s human nature, regeneration, and sanctification of sinners, etc.

Q. What divine worship is ascribed to the Spirit?

A. Prayer, praise, baptism in his name, etc. Revelation 1:4.

Q. Can the mystery of the Trinity be illustrated by similitudes?

A. No: whatever similitudes men have used to this purpose, have rather clouded than cast light upon it.

Q. What does the denial of any of the divine perfections, or of the divinity of any of the persons in the Godhead, amount to?

A. To blasphemy and heresy.

Q. What is blasphemy?

A. A reviling of God.

Q. What is heresy?

A. The denial of a fundamental truth by a professed church-member, especially if obstinately persisted in.

Q. How is the mystery of the Trinity terrible to the wicked?

A. Because the wrath of all the three divine persons shall be eternally poured out upon them.

Q. How is it sweet to believers?

A. Because these three persons do attest the gospel-truths the saints believe; and shall be their infinite and eternal portion.