Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ...…

Prop. I.

The Blessed God, who is Father, and Son, and Spirit, is the Creator of Men: Unto Man about God it may be said, He is thy Creators. Indeed in God there are more Persons than one. In the New Testament that Mystery of a Trinity is more particularly insisted on. Athanasius of old would say unto them that had any Doubt about the Trinity, Go to Jordan, and you may see what you seek. On the Banks of Jordan, at the Baptism of our Saviour, in Matth. 3. 16, 17. we have a Glorious Representation of it. But in the Old Testament too, the Mystery of a Trinity is not concealed from the Church of God; the ⟨p. 51⟩History of the Creation alone may be enough to give a mention of it: We find God the Creator, we find a Creating Word, and we find a Creating Spirit there distinctly spoken of. The very first Clause in the Bible is, In the Beginning God Created: The Name, God, is in the plural Number, but the Verb, Created, is in the singular; which intimates, that though there be but one God, yet there is more than one Person in Him. The like Intimation is given to us, in Gen. 1. 26. Where God said, Let us make Man in our Image. It is impious to suppose that the Angels are consulted or invited for the making of Man; 'tis expressly said, God made him: Nor in any Case would the Most High speak to Instrumental Causes in the fi•st Person plural so. The fond and blind Jews are put unto wretched shifts, when they would banish their Notice of a Trinity from Scriptures thus plain and clear. Now this great God, who is thus Three in One, is the Creator of the World. The most High God who is the Possessor, is also the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It is true, that in some sort the Work of Creation belongs most properly to the Father, but the Son and the Spirit also are not excluded from