Q. 1. What is meant by the Godhead?
Q. 2. Are there three divine natures or essences, or are there three Gods?
Q. 3 What is meant by the three persons in the Godhead?
Q. 4. What is the personal property of the Father?
Q. 5. What is the personal property of the Son?
Q. 6. What is the personal property of the Holy Ghost?
Q. 7. How doth it appear that the Father is God?
Q. 8. How doth it appear that the Son is God?
Q. 9. How doth it appear that the Holy Ghost is God?
Q. 10. How doth it appear that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, being one God, are three distinct
persons?
Q. 11. What should we Judge of them that deny that there are three distinct persons in one Godhead?
VI. Ques. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
Ans. 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.
A. By the Godhead is meant the divine nature or essence.
A. No; for though the three persons be God, the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, yet
they are rot three Gods, but one God. The essence of God is the same in all the three persons. "There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word [that is, the Son], and the Holy Ghost; and these
three are one." 1 John 5:7.
A. By the three persons in the Godhead, we are to. understand the same nature of God with three ways of
subsisting, each person having its distinct personal properties.
A. The personal property of the Father is to beget the Son, and that from all eternity. "Unto which of the
angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? Unto the Son he saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever." Heb. 1:5, 8.
A. The personal property of the Son is to be begotten of the Father. "We beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only-begotten of the Father." John 1:14.
A. The personal property of the Holy Ghost is to proceed from the Father and the Son. "But 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." John 15:26.
A. Because the Father is the original of the other persons, and of every thing else, and because divine
attributes and worship are ascribed to him.
A. 1. Because he is called God in the Scriptures. "And the Word was God." John 1:1. "Of whom, as
concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Rom. 9:5. 2. Because the
attributes of God are ascribed unto him. Eternity. "Before Abraham was, I am." John 8:58.
Omniscience. "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." John 21:17.
Omnipresence. "Where two or three are gathered together in my liame, there am I in the midst of
them." Matt. 18:20. Divine power. "He uphoideth all things by the word of his power." Heb. 1:3.3.
Because the honour and worship which is due only to God, do belong to him. In him we must believe.
"Believe also in me." John 14:1. In his name we must be baptized. "Baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. " Matt. 28:19. Upon his name we must call. "With all
that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 1:2. Because if the Son were not God, he
could not have been a fit Mediator.
A. 1. Because the Holy Ghost is called God. "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost!
Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God " Acts 5:3-4. 2. Because the attributes of God are ascribed
unto him. Omnipresence. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit I" Ps. 139:7. Especially, he is present in
the hearts of all believers. "He dwelleth in you, and shall be in you." John 14:17. Omniscience. "The
Spirit searcheth all things." 1 Cor. 2:10. 3. Because of the powerful works of the Spirit, which none
but God can effect: such as Regeneration. "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God." John 3:5. Guiding believers into all truth. "Howbeit, when the Spirit of truth is
come, he will guide you jute all truth." John 16:13. Sanctification. "That the offering up of the Gentiles
might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Rom. 15:16. Comfort, called therefore the
Comforter. "But 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." John 15:26. Communion. "The
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all" 2 Cor. 13:14. 4. Because the honour and worship due
only to God, do belong unto the Spirit, we must believe in him. This is an article of the creed (commonly
called the Apostles' Creed), "I believe in the Holy Ghost." We must be baptized in his name. "Baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28:19.
A. 1. The Father begetting, is called a person in the Scripture. Heb. 1:3. Christ is said to be the express
image of his person; and by the same reason, the Son begotten of the Father, is a person, and the Holy
Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son is a person. 2. That the Father and the Son are distinct
persons, is evident from John 18:16-18 "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also
written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself; and the
Father that sent me beareth witness of me." 3. That the Holy Ghost is a distinct person from the Father
and the Son, appeareth 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," &c. 4. That the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost are three distinct persons, in one essence, may be gathered from 1 John 5:7. "There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.
These three are either three substances, or three manifestations, or three persons, or something else
besides persons; but (l.) They are not three substances, because in the same verse they are called one.
(2.) They are not three manifestations, because all the attributes of God are manifestations, and so there
would be more than three or thirteen; and then one manifestation would be said to beget and send
another, which is absurd. (3.) They are not something else besides persons; therefore, they are three
distinct persons, distinguished by their relations and distinct personal properties.
A. 1. We ought to judge them to be blasphemers, because they speak against the ever-glorious God, who
hath Set forth himself in this distinction in the Scripture. 2. To be damnable heretics; this doctrine of the
distinction of persons in the unity of essence being a fundamental truth, denied of old by the Sabellians,
Arians, Photineans and of late by the Socinians, who were against the Godhead of Christ the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost; amongst whom the Quakers are also to be numbered, who deny this distinction.