Ends of our consideration of the dispensation of the Spirit — Principles premised thereunto — The nature of God the foundation of all religion — Divine revelation gives the rule and measure of religious worship — God hath revealed himself as three in one — Distinct actings and operations ascribed unto these distinct person; therefore the Holy Spirit a divine distinct person — Double opposition to the Holy Spirit — By some his personality granted and his deity denied — His personality denied by the Socinians — Proved against them — The open vanity of their pretences — Matt. xxviii. 19, pleaded — Appearance of the Spirit under the shape of a dove explained and improved — His appearance as fire opened — His personal subsistence proved — Personal properties assigned unto him — Understanding — Argument from hence pleaded and vindicated — A will — John iii. 8, James iii. 4, cleared — Exceptions removed — Power — Other personal ascriptions to him, with testimonies of them, vindicated and explained.
We shall now proceed to the matter itself designed unto consideration, — namely, the dispensation of the Spirit of God unto the church; and I shall endeavour to fix what I have to offer upon its proper principles, and from them to educe the whole doctrine concerning it. And this must be so done as to manifest the interest of our faith, obedience, and holy worship, in the whole and each part of it; for these are the immediate ends of all divine revelations, according to that holy maxim of our blessed Saviour, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” To this end the ensuing principles are to be observed:—
First, The nature and being of God is the foundation of all true religion and holy religious worship in the world. The great end for which we were made, for which we were brought forth by the power of God into this world, is to worship him and to give glory unto him; for he “made all things for himself,” or his own glory, Prov. xvi. 4, to be rendered unto him according to the abilities and capacities that he hath furnished them withal, Rev. iv. 11. And that which makes this worship indispensably necessary unto us, and from whence it is holy or religious, is the nature and being of God himself. There are, indeed, many parts or acts of religious worship which immediately respect (as their reason and motive) what God is unto us, or what he hath done and doth for us; but the principal and adequate reason of all divine worship, and that which makes it such, is what God is in himself. Because he is, — that is, an infinitely glorious, good, wise, holy, powerful, righteous, self-subsisting, self-sufficient, all-sufficient Being, the fountain, cause, and author of life and being to all things, and of all that is good in every kind, the first cause, last end, and absolutely sovereign Lord of all, the rest and all-satisfactory reward of all other beings, — therefore is he by us to be adored and worshipped with divine and religious worship. Hence are we in our hearts, minds, and souls, to admire, adore, and love him; his praises are we to celebrate; him [are we] to trust and fear, and so to resign ourselves and all our concernments unto his will and disposal; to regard him with all the acts of our minds and persons, answerably to the holy properties and excellencies of his nature. This it is to glorify him as God; for seeing “of him, and through him, and to him are all things,” to him must be “glory for ever,” Rom. xi. 36. “Believing that God thus is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” is the ground of all coming unto God in his worship, Heb. xi. 6. And herein lies the sin of men, that the “invisible things of God being manifest unto them, even his eternal power and Godhead,” yet “they glorify him not as God,” Rom. i. 19–21. This is to honour, worship, fear God for himself; that is, on the account of what he is himself. Where the divine nature is, there is the true, proper, formal object of religious worship; and where that is not, it is idolatry to ascribe it to or exercise it towards any. And this God instructs us in, in all those places where he proclaims his name and describes his eternal excellencies, and that either absolutely or in comparison with other things. All is, that we may know him to be such a one as is to be worshipped and glorified for himself, or his own sake.
Secondly, The revelation that God is pleased to make of himself unto us gives the rule and measure of all religious worship and obedience. His being, absolutely considered, as comprehending in it all infinite, divine perfections, is the formal reason of our worship; but this worship is to be directed, guided, regulated, by the revelation he makes of that being and of those excellencies unto us. This is the end of divine revelation, — namely, to direct us in paying that homage which is due unto the divine nature. I speak not now only of positive institutions, which are the free effects of the will of God, depending originally and solely on revelation, and which, therefore, have been various and actually changed; but this is that which I intend:— Look, what way soever God manifesteth his being and properties unto us, by his works or his word, our worship consisteth in a due application of our souls unto him according to that manifestation of himself.