N04855:82
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings: &c. In a letter to a pious friend in England. / By Thomas Shepard, M.A. Formerly of Emmanuel-College in Cambridge in England: afterward Minister of Cambridge in New-England. ; Corrected by four several editions.
Boston: printed by Rogers and Fowle, 1747
Case 3: CASE. III. Of conceiving aright of the Holy Trinity.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. But secondly, the Father as Father, is never taken for the same Holy Ghost in Scripture; nor the Son as Son, is taken for the Father; nor the Holy Ghost as Holy Ghost, is at any time taken for the Son: For it is a rule in Theology, though the res substrata, the thing that lies under the Relative property (viz. the God-head) of every person, be common and ⟨p. 20⟩communicated; yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property (as Father, Son and Spirit) it is not common, but peculiar. For the God-head of the Father as Father, is not the God-head of the Son as Son, &c.
2. But secondly, the Father as Father, is never taken for the same Holy Ghost in Scripture; nor the Son as Son, is taken for the Father; nor the Holy Ghost as Holy Ghost, is at any time taken for the Son: For it is a rule in Theologie, though the res substrata, the thing that lies under the Relative property (viz. the God-head) of every person, be common and ⟨p. 20⟩communicated; yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property (as Father, Son and Spirit) it is not common, but peculiar. For the God-head of the Father as Father, is not the God-head of the Son as Son, &c.
3. Hence it follows, that when Christ addresseth himself to the Father as Father in Scripture, it is not because He is either a diverse or greater God than the Holy Ghost, but it is for two other reasons.
1. Because the Father as Father, received primarily the wrong that sin did against his work of creation: For the Father being the first person in order and creation, the first transient act as (election and reprobation were the first immanent); hence this work is attributed chiefly to God the Father, in respect of our orderly apprehension: and hence man sinning then when he was only made, this is chiefly attributed to be against the Father, because his work appeared to be chiefly there; and not against the Son, for his work chiefly appears in redemption, he being the second Person, and this the second main and wonderful work; neither against the Holy Ghost, for his work chiefly appears to us in application, being the third Person, and this the third main act that ever God will do, or show forth to the world in this life. Hence God the Father receiving to our apprehension, the wrong in creation by sin, He is the Person that is to be satisfied, and not the Holy Ghost. And