verfation. Extend it to all the Circumstances of holy Obedience, that it may not only enlighten my Mind, but purify my Heart, conquer my Paffions, and correct all thofe falfe Maxims concerning Riches, and Honours, and Pleasures, which prevail in the World; and make it perfect by Charity, which is the true Character of thy Difciples; that by believing in thee, and loving thee in this Life, I may fee and enjoy thee eternally in thy Heavenly Kingdom, through the Merits of Jefus Chrift my only Lord and Saviour. Amen. CHA P. XXIV. Trinity Sunday. Q W A Moveable Feaft. HAT Festival doth the Church cele brate this Day? A. The Mystery of the blessed Trinity. Q. What is meant by the Trinity in the ChriStan Church? A. That there is one God in Three distinct Perfons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft. Q. What is God? A. An eternal incomprehenfible Spirit, infinite in all Perfections; who made all Things out of nothing, and who governs them by his wife Providence. Q. What is meant by the Word Perfon? A. It fignifies the Effence with a particular Manner of Substance, which the Greek Fa thers thers called Hypoftafis, taken it for the incommunicable Property that makes a Person. Q. Why do we believe the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, to be three diftin&t Perfons in the Divine Nature? A. Because the Holy Scriptures in speaking of these three, do diftinguish them from one another, as we use in common Speech to distinguish three several Perfons. Q. What Inftances have we in the Holy Scriptures to this Purpose? A. Several; more particularly the Form in adminiftring the Sacrament of Baptifm, which is in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Mat. 28. Holy Ghoft. And that folemn Benediction with 19. which St. Paul concludes his fecond Epiftle to the Corinthians: The Grace of our Lord Jefus 2 Cor. 13. Chrift, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the 14. Holy Ghost. And the three Witneffes in Hea ven, mentioned by St. John, the Father, the 1 Joh. 5.7. Word, and the Holy Ghoft. Q. How does it appear that each of the Perfons is God? A. Because the Names, Properties, and Opetations of God are attributed to each of them in the Holy Scriptures. Q. Where are the Names, Properties, and Operations of God, attributed to the fecond Perfon in the bleffed Trinity, the Son? A. St. John fays, The Word was God; St. Paul, John 1. 1. That God was manifefted in the Flesh. Christ is over all, God blessed for ever. That Tim. 3. attributed John 5. the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged Heb. 4. Sword, and is a Difcerner of the Thoughts and 12. Intents of the Heart. Eternity is to him, the Son hath Life in himself. X 3 26. He is the Heb. 1. fame 12. fame, and his Years fhall not fail. Perfection of John 10. Knowledge, As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father. The Creation of all Things, All ch. 1. 3. Things were made by him, and without him was 15. 1. not any Thing made that was made. And we are ch. 5. 23. commanded, to honour the Son as we honour the Father. And the glorified Saints fing their HalRev.7.10. lelujahs as to God the Father, fo alfo to the Lamb for ever and ever. Acts 5. 3, 4. 16. Q. Where are the Names, Properties, and Operations of God, attributed to the third Perfon in the bleed Trinity, The Holy Ghost? A. Lying to the Holy Ghoft is called Lying to God. And because the Chriftians are the Tem1 Cor. 3. ples of the Holy Ghoft, they are faid to be the Temples of God. His teaching all Things; His guiding into all Truth; His telling Things to come, His fearching all Things, even the deep Things of God; His being called the Spirit of the Lord, in Oppofition to the Spirit of Man; are plain Characters of his Divinity. Befides, he is. joined with God the Father, who will not imMat. 28. part his Glory to another, as an Object of Faith and Worship in Baptifm, and the Apoftolical Be2 Cor. 13. nediction. And the Blafphemy committed aMat. 12. gainft him is faid to be forgiven neither in this World nor the World to come. Which although it be not therefore unpardonable because he is God, yet unless he was God it could not be unpardonable. 19. 14. 32. Q. What are we obliged to believe concerning the Holy Trinity? Artic. I. A. That there is but one living and true God everlasting, without Body, Parts, or Paffions, of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, the Maker and Preferver of all Things both visible and invisible; invisible; and in the Unity of this Godhead there be three Perfons of one Subftance, Power, and Eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. Q. Wherein confifts the Mistery of the bleffed Trinity? A. In that we are not able to comprehend the particular Manner of the Existence of the three Perfons in the Divine Nature. Q. Is it reafonable to believe Things concerning God, which we cannot comprehend? A. The Perfections of the Divine Nature are infinite, and confequently above our Reach; and therefore if there be fuch Divine Perfections, which our Faculties are not fufficient to comprehend, and yet that we have all imaginable Reafon to believe them; there can be no Ground from Reason to reject fuch a Doctrine which God hath revealed, though very misterious, and the Manner of it incomprehenfible to us; fince Natural Light did always acknowledge the Divine Nature to be incomprehenfible. Q. But though the Doctrine of the Trinity is above Reafon, in that we cannot comprehend the Manner of it; is it not only contrary to Reafon? And does it not imply a Contradiction to say, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet there are not three Gods, but one God? A. No; Because we do not affirm they are one and three in the fame refpect. The Divine Effence is that alone which makes God; that can be but one, and therefore there can be no more Gods than one; but because the Scriptures, which affure us of the Unity of the Divine Effence, do likewife with the Father join the Son X 4 and and Holy Ghost, in the fame Attributes, Operations, and Worship, therefore they are capable of Number as to their Relation to each other, but not as to the Effence, which is but one.. Q. Is any farther Explication of this great Mystery neceffary? A. I think it, with Submiffion, not neceffary, it being fufficient firmly to believe that to be St. Cyr. true, which God hath thought fit to reveal conHier. ca- cerning this Matter, though at the fame Time we tech. XI. do not perfectly comprehend the Manner of the P. 144. pre. Ho Thing which is the Object of our Faith: Befides, the Attempt, as it is attended with great Difficulty, fo with great Danger; the Enemies of our Faith being ready to wound the holy Doctrine Orat. 1. through the Sides of our Explications. This de incom- Method St. Chryfoftom, who is justly placed in the first Rank of the learned and pious Fathers, obferved. When he treated upon the Mysteries of the Chriftian Religion, he proves them from the Testimonies of Holy Writ, and the Universal Belief of Chriftians, without pretending to make them clearer by a nice Explication. mil. 24. in Q. Are there any Footsteps of the Doctrine of the Trinity among the Jews and Gentiles? A. There hath been a very ancient Tradition concerning three Perfons in the Divine Na ture. The Jews did diftinguish the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, from him whom they looked upon as the first Principle of all Things: as is plain from Philo Judæus and Mofes NachDe Verit. manides, as cited by Grotius. And among the Heathens, Plato made three Diftinctions in the Deity, by the Names of effential Goodness, Mind, and Spirit. Chrift. Relig. Q. What Ule may we make of this? A. That |