Legislation to permit assisted dying is due to be debated in the House of Commons again. When the bill’s supporters reach an impasse with their arguments from everyone’s supposed autonomy to decide for themselves that their life should be ended, they appeal instead to compassion. They insist that they are motivated by kindness and that the most compassionate response to people’s suffering or perceived loss of dignity is to assist them to die. This directly contradicts the moral imperative to preserve human life. Condensed within the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is the twin principle that it is morally wrong to murder and morally right to preserve our own and our neighbour’s life. This means that when people are in need, we should take steps to alleviate their suffering and allow them to live a fuller life. Assisting someone to end their life is fundamentally a non-compassionate response. In the following abridged extract from his commentary on the ten commandments, Thomas Watson explains.

Life is the most precious thing, and God has set the sixth commandment as a fence about it, to preserve it. “Thou shalt not kill” (Exod. 20:13). He made a statute which has never to this day been repealed, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Gen. 9:6). In the Old Testament, if someone killed another unawares, he was permitted to take sanctuary; but if he killed him willingly, then, even if he fled to the sanctuary, the holiness of the place would not defend him (Exod. 21:14).

Ways of committing this sin

There are various ways in which we may be said to murder someone.

With the hand. This is how Joab killed Abner and Amasa (2 Sam. 20:10).

By plotting their death. Though Jezebel did not lay her own hands on Naboth, yet she contrived his death, and caused two false witnesses to swear against him, she was the murderer (1 Kings 21:9–10).

By poison. The wife of the Roman emperor Commodes tried to kill her husband by poisoning the wine he drank. So, many kill little children by medicines that cause their death.

By having the intention to kill. When Saul made David go against the Philistines, he intended for the Philistine to kill him (1 Sam. 18:17). Here was intended murder, and in God’s account it was as bad as actual murder.

By consenting to someone’s death. Saul consented to the death of Stephen (Acts 22:20). Someone who gives consent is accessory to the murder.

By not hindering someone’s death when it is in our power. Pilate knew that Christ was innocent, but did not hinder His death; therefore he was guilty. Washing his hands in water could not wash away the guilt of Christ’s blood.

By unmercifulness. This includes taking away what is necessary for the support of life, even including the tools by which someone gets their living: “No man shall take the upper or the nether millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man’s life” (Deut. 24:6). It also includes not helping him when he is ready to perish. You may be the death of another by not relieving him, just as much as by committing violence against him. If you don’t feed someone who is starving, you kill him.

Factors which make the sin worse

When blood is shed causelessly. A bee will not sting unless provoked, but many, when not provoked, will take away the life of another. This makes the sin of blood more bloody. The less provocation to a sin the greater the sin.

To shed the blood of a close relative aggravates the murder, and dyes it of a deeper crimson. For a son to kill his father is horrid. Parricides are monsters in nature. The Roman philosopher Cicero said, “He who takes away his father’s life, commits many sins in one;” he is not guilty of murder only, but of disobedience, ingratitude, and diabolical cruelty. “He who striketh his father or mother, shall be surely put to death” (Exod. 21:15).

To shed the blood of any righteous person aggravates the sin. Hereby justice is perverted. Such a person, being innocent, is unworthy of death. In the sense that a saint is a public blessing, who lies in the breach to turn away wrath, so to destroy him is to pull down the pillars of a nation. He is precious to God (Psa 116:15). He is a member of Christ’s body; therefore what injury is offered to him is done to God himself (Acts 9:4).

It should be for a lamentation that this land is defiled with blood (Num. 35:33). How common is this sin in this boasting age! England’s sins are written in letters of blood. Some make no more of killing people than sheep. “In thy skirts is found the blood of the poor innocents” (Jer. 2:34), or in Hebrew, “in thy wings,” alluding to birds of prey, which stain their wings with the blood of other birds. May not the Lord justly take up a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because “blood toucheth blood (Hos. 4:2)? There are wholesale murders.

What should increase our lamentation is that not only man’s blood is shed among us, but Christ’s blood. Profane, flagitious sinners are said to “crucify the Son of God afresh” (Heb. 6:6). They swear by his blood, and so, as it were, make His wounds bleed afresh. They crucify Him in His members; “Why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). And if it was in their power, if Christ was alive on earth today, they would nail Him to the cross again.

Aspects of its sinfulness

To deter everyone from having their hands defiled with blood, consider what a sin murder is.

It is a God-affronting sin. It is a breach of His commandment. It is a wrong done to His own image (Gen. 9:6), and will God endure to be confronted like this by proud dust?

It is a crying sin. Three sins in Scripture are said to cry, oppression (Psa. 12:5), sodomy (Gen. 18:21), and bloodshed. Bloodshed cries so loud that it drowns out all the other cries. Abel’s blood had as many tongues as drops, to cry aloud for vengeance (Gen. 4:10).

It is a diabolical sin. The devil was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). By saying to our first parents, “Ye shall not die,” the devil brought death into the world.

It is a sin which procures God’s wrath (2 Kings 24:4). It procures both temporal judgements (Psa. 55:23) and eternal judgements (Rev. 21:8). Those who have their hands full of blood must undergo the wrath of God. Here is fire mingled with blood, and this fire is inextinguishable (Mark 9:44). Time will not finish it, tears will not quench it.

The kindness of preserving life

The positive duty implied in the sixth commandment is that we should do all the good we can to others, to preserve their life.

We should comfort them in their sorrows, relieve them in their wants, and, like the good Samaritan, pour wine and oil into their wounds. “I was a father to the poor” (Job 29:16); “The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me” (v.13).

It is a great means of preserving the life of another to relieve him when he is ready to perish. When there was a great dearth in Rome, Pompey provided corn for its relief. When the mariners were afraid to sail there in a tempest, he said, “It is not necessary that we should live, but it is necessary that Rome be relieved.” Grace makes the heart tender, it causes sympathy and charity. It melts the heart in contrition towards God, and in compassion towards others. “He has dispersed, he has given to the poor” (Psa. 29:9).

This commandment implies that we should be so far from ruining others that we should do all we can to preserve their lives. When you see the picture of death drawn in their faces, minister to their necessities. Be temporal saviours to then. Draw them out of the waters of affliction with a silver cord of charity.

To persuade you to this, let me lay before you some arguments.

Acts of charity are evidences of grace, both the grace of faith (James 2:18) and the grace of love. Love loves mercy; it is a noble bountiful grace.

To seek to meet the needs of others is not left to our choice, but is an incumbent duty. “Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good; that they be rich in good works” (1 Tim. 6:17–18). This is not only a counsel, but a charge.

Given that God supplies our wants, shall we not supply the wants of others? Will we suck in mercy like sponges, and not dispense it out to others?

We resemble God when we do good to others. It is our excellence to be like God. “Godliness is Godlikeness.” “Thou art good” (there is His essential goodness), “doest good” (there is His communicative goodness) (Psa. 119:68). The more helpful we are to others, the more like we are to God. We cannot be like God in omniscience, or in working miracles; but we may be like him in doing works of mercy.

God remembers all our deeds of charity, and is pleased to accept them from us (Heb. 6:10). The chief butler may forget Joseph’s kindness, but the Lord will not forget any kindness we show to his people (Matt. 25:35).

Hardheartedness to others in misery reproaches the gospel. When people’s hearts are like pieces of rock, and you may as well extract oil out of flint, as the golden oil of charity out of them, they unchristianise themselves. Unmercifulness is the sin of the heathen (Rom. 1:31). It eclipses the glory of the gospel. Does the gospel teach uncharitableness? Does it not bid us, “draw out thy soul to the hungry”? (Isa. 58:10). “These things I will that thou affirm, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works” (Tit. 3:8). While you fail to relieve those who are in want, you walk in opposition to the gospel; you cause it to be evil spoken of, and lay it open to the censure of others.

You lose nothing by relieving those in need. The Shunammite woman was kind to the prophet, and she received kindness from him another way (2 Kings 4:35). Those who pour out the golden oil of compassion to others shall have the golden oil of salvation by God poured out to them; for a cup of cold water they shall have rivers of pleasure. An estate may be imparted without being impaired.

To do good to those in need keeps up the good reputation of Christianity. Works of mercy adorn the gospel, as the fruit adorns the tree. When our light “so shines that others see our good works,” it glorifies God, puts a crown on religion, and silences the lips of gainsayers. Basil says that nothing rendered the true religion more famous in the primitive times, and made more proselytes to it, than the bounty and charity of Christians.

Evil accrues to those who fail to preserve the lives of others, or help them in their necessities. God often sends a secret moth into their estate. “There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24). “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Prov. 21:13). “He shall have judgement without mercy, that has showed no mercy” (James 2:13). Dives denied Lazarus a crumb of bread, and Dives was denied a drop of water. ‘Depart from me, ye cursed; for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat.’ Matt 15: 41. Christ says not, ‘Ye took away my meat;’ but ‘Ye gave me no meat;’ ye did not feed my members, therefore ‘depart from me.’

By all this, be ready to distribute to the necessities of others. This is included in the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Not only shalt thou not destroy another’s life, but thou shalt preserve it by ministering to his necessities.

In fact, it is also implied that we should endeavour to preserve the souls of others. We should counsel them about their souls, set life and death before them, and help them to heaven. In the law of Moses, if one met his neighbour’s ox going astray, he must bring it back again (Exod. 23:4). Much more, if we see our neighbour’s soul going astray, we should use all means to bring him back to God by repentance.

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Every pastor, following Paul, aspires to be able to present believers “perfect in Christ Jesus,” or complete and mature, and “comforted” or encouraged in their hearts, through their labours in preaching and teaching (Colossians 1:28–29; 2:1–2). But in a situation where Christians are divided into different denominations and splinter groups, doesn’t this seem hopelessly idealistic? Or at best something that can only be possible on an individual level and not for Christian congregations or the church as a whole? The London preacher John Howe (1630–1705) had to confront the fact that the animosities and divisions among believers in the 1680s were likely to bring the Christian witness to ruin. In a sermon tackling this, Howe notes that in the epistle to the Colossians, Paul speaks of the role of both love and faith in bringing about this maturing and encouragement. After explaining the comfort that comes from Christian love (Nine Ways to Comfort Believers’ Hearts), in the following updated extract Howe now turns to the crucial importance of our shared faith in healing division and bringing comfort and confirmation within the Christian church. Pastors have a responsibility to lead their people in ways that promote the oneness of the Christian body as a whole, as well as within their own local congregations and denominations. When it comes to the faith we confess, Howe encourages us to start by focusing on what we have in common, rather than finding reasons to persist in division.

Why is Paul working towards comfort?

Paul’s aim in Colossians 2:2 is that believers’ hearts “might be comforted,” or encouraged.

In the preceding verses we see that the avowed design of Paul’s preaching, warning and teaching in all wisdom was that he would “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). Whereas various arts and endeavours were used to adulterate the Christian religion, and pervert men from the simplicity of it, Paul wanted to lose none, but to his very uttermost make it possible for them all to be presented “perfect in Christ Jesus” at last. This means that they would be all entire, complete, and persevering Christians to the end.

It was for this that he “laboured,” “striving,” according to “his working, which wrought in him mightily” (1:29). All his labour, and the strivings of his soul, were acted by divine power, and by a Spirit greater than his own, and they aimed at this goal.

He tells them too how fervent these strivings of his were. “I wish if only you knew what an agony I endure! how great this my conflict is for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh!” And for what? “That their hearts might be comforted” (Col. 2:2), meaning manifestly the same as he has just said, that they would be complete and confirmed Christians to the last.

How does Paul expect to achieve comfort?

The means which the apostle conceives would be most effectually conducive to this blessed purpose are two, mutual love to one another, and a clear, certain, efficacious faith of the gospel. Let us for now consider this faith.

Why is a shared faith so important?

Although the word “faith” is not used in this verse, yet it is described in such a way that it may easily be understood — both what it is, and how necessary it is for this purpose.

Faith is described here as “the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.”

By this faith, (1) our understandings are duly enlightened, so that our minds will rightly grasp the doctrine of the gospel. We see distinctly the meaning and purpose of this mysterious revelation of God in Christ, and we are fully assured of the truth of it.

By this faith, again (2), our hearts are overcome in such a way that we receive the gospel practically and vitally. We acknowledge and receive it, and resign, entrust, and subject ourselves to God in Christ revealed in it.

How does a shared faith contribute to comfort?

How vastly important this is towards our hearts being established, confirmed, fortified and united! and towards our being jointly preserved in our Christian state! We can see its importance in the following ways.

We see the value of the gospel we share

If we had this faith, we would grasp that the things in which we are to unite are truly great. Union is not like to be firm and lasting, if at its centre is a trifle. The faith in which we unite must be something that is of itself apt to attract and hold our hearts strongly to it. Excessive earnestness in attempting a union in external formalities, which have no value or goodness in themselves, when the difficulty involved is so great, and the advantage so little, would be utterly hopeless and insignificant! But “the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of Christ,” how potently and constantly attractive it would be if rightly understood and acknowledged! Here, we should understand, is our life and our all.

We see our small differences in their rightful place

By this faith we would realise that, in comparison, all other things are little. And so our differences about little things would languish and vanish. We would not only know, but consider, and feelingly grasp, that we agree in far greater things than we differ in. Then we would be more strongly inclined to hold together by the things in which we agree, than to contend with one another about the things in which we differ.

Our unitedness has powerful effects

Our religion would revive, and become a living and powerful thing, and consequently more pleasing to God, and awe-inspiring to others.

The favour of God

God is not pleased with the stench of carcases, or with dead displays of religion replacing the living substance. If we were united in the faith we would not be deprived of God’s presence, for we can count on it that He will leave us when we give Him only insipid formalities.

We already know from history what happens to Christianity when Christians manifestly divert from minding the great things of religion to absorbing themselves very busily in little trifling circumstances, or to pursuing worldly advantages and delights.

The attention of others

Then Christianity would make more of an impression on people, even to put some sense of awe on them. Those who are tempted to despise the faint, languid appearances of an impotent, inefficacious, spiritless religion are well able to discern a majesty in the kind which is visibly living, powerful, and productive of suitable fruits.

Think of how the Christian church went into a gradual decline for the 300 years between Constantine and Phocas. Don’t we see there cause both to lament the sin and folly of men, and adore the righteous severity of God? As Christians grew gradually to be loose, wanton, and sensual, and their leaders became contentious, luxurious, covetous, proud, ambitious, and domineering, so the Christian church gradually became forsaken of the divine presence. Just at the time when Boniface obtained from Phocas the title of “Universal Bishop” (in defiance of the severe sentence of his predecessor, Gregory the Great), up sprang the dreadful delusion of Muhammad. It spread itself thorough Asia, Africa, and too considerable a part of Europe, to the extent that where Christians were previously twenty or thirty to one, there was now scarce one Christian to twenty or thirty Muslims, or grosser pagans. And between the Muslim infatuation, and the Popish tyranny, what has Christendom become! when by the one, the very name is lost; and by the other, little else is left but the name!

Our resolve will be strengthened

We will be enabled most resolvedly to suffer, when we are called to it — when it is for the great things of the gospel (the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ), understood and acknowledged clearly and with assurance. A faith like this will not be without its pleasant relishes.

It is an uncomfortable thing to suffer either for the mere spiritless, uncertain, impotent notions and opinions of religion, or for unenlivened outward forms — things that we never felt to do us good, in which we never tasted sweetness, or felt power — that we were really nothing ever the better for.

But who will hesitate at suffering for things as great as the heart of the gospel, which you have clearly understood, which you are fully assured of, and which you have acknowledged in practice, and embraced, so as to feel the energy and power of them, and enjoy their delicious sweetness in your soul! And even if by such suffering you yourself perish from off this earth, your religion lives! And is indeed spread all the more in the present age, and propagated to the generations to come. This is how seminal and fruitful the blood of martyrs is!

The clearer the gospel, the firmer the unity

This faith has the tendency to produce the best, firmest, and most lasting union among Christians (and consequently the preservation of the Christian interest) even when the “mystery” of the gospel is considered only in general terms. So this tendency would be seen all the more distinctly if we consider the more eminent and remarkable parts of it, especially the mystery of the person of the Redeemer.

• The Redeemer!
• The Emmanuel, God uniting Himself with the nature of man.
• His office, as the reconciler of God and man to each other.
• His death, as a propitiatory sacrifice to slay all enmity.
• His victory and conquest over it, on which is founded His universal empire over all.
• His triumphant entrance into heaven, where He is to collect all who ever loved, trusted and obeyed Him, to dwell and be conversant together in His eternal love and praises.
• How directly do all these tend to endear and bind the hearts and souls of Christians to God, and Him, and one another, in everlasting bonds!

What can we do about this?

What now remains but that we lament the decay of these two principles of love and faith, and, to our uttermost, endeavour the revival of them.

Lament

How visible the decay of faith and love is! and how destructive to the common Christian interest! It used to be a common saying, “See how these Christians love one another! They don’t even refuse to die for each other!” Now it might as well be, “How they hate! It looks like they’ll die by the hands of one another!”

And what a cloudy, wavering, uncertain, lank, spiritless thing the faith of Christians in this age has become! How little are the ascertaining grounds of it understood, or even attempted to be understood! How few make it their business to see things with their own eyes, to believe, and be sure that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God! How far are we from the riches of the full assurance of understanding! How little practical effect and influence has the faith of the majority! How little it indicates of an acknowledgment of the mystery of God! How very ineffectual it is!

Attempt

Let us endeavour the revival of these principles. We need no human laws to be our warrant for this practice of loving one another, and cleaving with a more grounded, lively faith to God and His Christ. Here is no place for scruples of conscience.

As to this love. What if others don’t do their bit to make it mutual? What! Shall we only love those who love us, and be fair to those who are fair to us, and salute those who salute us? Do not even the publicans the same? (Matt. 5:47).

As to this faith. Let us endeavour that our faith would be more thoroughly deep-rooted, so that it may be more lively and fruitful. In the following verses, Paul testifies of his joy for what he understood there was of it among the Colossian Christians (Col. 2:5), and exhorts them to keep going in this way (Col. 2:6–7). What! Do we have to pause the exercise and improvement of our faith in the great mysteries of the gospel till everyone else agrees on the same thing?

Let us do our own part, so that we may be able to say, “It was not my fault.” “If the Christian community moulders, decays, becomes enfeebled, broken, dispirited, ruined, this ruin can’t be laid to my account.”

For a more extended discussion on the theme of church unity, a recommended resource is James Durham’s work, The Scandal of Church Divisions, published by Reformation Heritage Books.

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Being isolated and feeling a lack of connection with others is widely recognised as a major problem of our times. By nature humans need relationships and social interaction, and as well as lacking something it is actually harmful to be friendless and alone. This also holds true of believers. In His grace, God “sets the solitary in families,” taking a personal interest in each yet drawing each into a family, a fellowship, a community defined by relationship with Jesus Christ. Sin separates and divides, but those who have union and communion with Jesus (in His grace, death, life) are supposed to have union and communion with each other (in each other’s gifts and graces). Self-interest, mutual suspicion and a constant sense of needing to protect yourself from criticism are hallmarks of an assortment of sinners, the opposite of what we should see in a community of saints. Instead, God gives His people to each other to serve and support each other, bring out the best in each other and help each other make progress towards glory. In the following updated extract, Westminster Assembly member Jeremiah Burroughs pleads with believers not to spoil their fellowship. Urging us, “Take heed of the kind of things which will hinder the good you may have in communion with the saints,” he identifies six things that hinder fellowship.

Going it alone

The first thing that I would forewarn Christians against is the sullenness of spirit that makes them love solitariness rather than communion. This exists amongst many who have true grace.

Sometimes it comes from abundance of pride, for they think that if they come among others, they shall expose their own weakness, and rather than risking this, they will deprive themselves of all that good which they might have.

But consider how unfaithfully you deal with God when you act like this. God has given you a talent, and you are not to wrap it up in a napkin, but to use it for God.

Consider, too, how it wrongs the church, for your gifts are not your own, but the church is to participate in them, and therefore you are to use them for their good.

Again (remembering that the communion of the saints is one of God’s ordinances), consider how you do much wrong to the ordinance of God, when you prefer to indulge your own grievances ahead of His ordinance. In Hosea 4, God threatens it as a judgement that He will “feed his people as a lamb in a large place” (Hos. 4:16), that is, scatter them from the fold, so that they have to go one by one, like a lamb bleating alone in the wild wilderness. Take heed you do not bring this on yourselves.

Again, there is a great deal of danger in this solitariness of spirit.

For one thing, spiritual dryness and barrenness of spirit will increase. It is only justice on God’s part to deprive people of gifts, when they do not have hearts make a good use of the gifts that He has given them.

Then, you will be ready to run into error, and strange delusions. If you observe the workings of your hearts, you have strange opinions of things, and think you are sure of them, until you come among other people, and then although you could not see the weakness of your opinions, others quickly can. Whereas if you refuse to come amongst them, but stick rigidly to your opinions, you run into errors.

Again, you will be vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Immoderate solitariness is joined with immoderate melancholy, and this is the workshop the devil ordinarily uses to forge his temptations in. It is a great evil to keep the devil’s temptations close. Therefore come into communion with the saints!

Making it all about you

Secondly, when you do come into communion with the brethren, take heed of pride. The pride which sometimes keeps us away from communion is also a great hindrance to the benefit of communion.

You know how round things only adjoin with other objects at one point, but when you take flat things, they join each other in every point. It’s the same with us. Hearts swollen with pride cannot join with others, except in such tiny details as serve their turn. But if we have plain hearts, we will embrace each other in all things. Blow up a balloon with air, and when you touch it or handle it, it floats away. But when it is pricked, it falls, and then you may handle it easily. So hearts that are swollen with pride will not get as close to their fellows as low humble hearts will.

A swollen limb is fit for nothing, but all the other members of the body must serve it. Like when someone has a gouty leg — all the other members of the body must tend to it, but it is unfit to be serviceable to any. It’s the same with a proud heart — it expects every one to attend to it, but when it comes to be serviceable to anyone else, it is unfit.

Forgetting the wide expanse of grace

Thirdly, take heed of envying at the gifts and graces of one another. The wicked ones of the world envy one another, because the good they think of as their ultimate goal is so constricted that if one gets very much of it, everyone else must have less.

But the godly don’t need to be constricted like this! Their good is in God, and they have plenty space to spread themselves out in it freely and satisfy themselves. If people are riding or sailing in a narrow passage, they envy the one that is sailing ahead of them, because he is hindering them, but in the sea they don’t even think of them, because they have plenty space for themselves to sail. So, in Christians who place their happiness in God, where there is plenty room, there should not be envy.

Being over-sensitive

Fourthly, take heed of being petulant and irritable, obstinate and difficult to deal with, too easily flying into a temper. All things like this darken communion. By contrast, it is the meek spirit which is fit for communion. Moses suffered much for communion with God’s people, and indeed he was fit both to get good and to do good by communion, for he was the meekest man on earth.

Only looking for what you can get

Fifthly, take heed of self-ends in communion — making self-interest your main aim. When people are so scheming as to revolve around their own goals, and don’t even seem to aim at spiritual things, this hinders the sweetness of communion. Though people like this may manage things for a while so as not to be discerned, yet in the end they will be seen for what they are, only looking out for number one, and all will be shy of them. If you want to have genuinely sweet communion, labour for open hearts to one another, so that you may trust one another.

Failing to look ahead

Sixthly, labour to use the fellowship you enjoy now in such a way that every time you do enjoy it, it will make your heart spring, putting you in mind of the blessed communion you shall have later on with God and His people in heaven. Think like this: “If we find so much joy in enjoying communion with God’s people here, how much joy there will be in the communion our souls shall have in heaven, when we shall not only have communion with a few of God’s servants, but with all of them, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets and apostles!”

The Roman scholar Cicero spoke of the happiness of his death, “O famous day, when I shall go from this rout of people, and go and converse with those famous men!” But for us, brethren, we can think that, through God’s mercy, we have communion with God’s people here already, and also shall in the future enjoy communion with the saints of God for ever!

What isn’t worth enduring in order to reach this?! If it were only the enjoying of communion with Moses alone, it would be worth all you have endured! Therefore comfort yourselves for the present in what you already have, and let your hearts be raised in hope of better things afterwards, when you shall have them perfect.

For now, we rejoice that we are with God’s people if they are so much as conferring about any thing to do with God and Christ. But hereafter, we shall see nothing but God in His saints! We shall see the full glory of God shining in them — even the very bodies of the saints shall shine more glorious than the sun, and how glorious their souls shall be then!

Then there shall be no more danger of fallings out, or headstrong, quarrelsome behaviour — no more jealousies and suspicions. Instead we shall see the image of God perfectly in them, and we shall have perfect love to rejoice as much in the salvation of any as in your own salvation. Then we shall be with them in all holy exercises.

It is good to be with God’s people to do everyday business with them, but better to be with them to pray with them, to receive the sacraments with them, etc — the better the activity, the better it is to be with them. If so, then, what will it be like to enjoy perfect communion with them, and to be always in holy exercises with them, always singing praises to the Lamb, and giving glory to Him that sits on the throne for evermore, blessing God for the great mystery of the gospel?

Therefore make a good use of your communion here, so as not only to put you in mind of your communion hereafter, but to prepare and fit your souls for it.

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In difficult times for the church, we need to think of how to comfort and encourage each other’s hearts. When the Apostle Paul was striving to achieve this for believers in the churches of Colosse and Laodicea (and others he hadn’t even met), he identified two means — knitting together in love, and getting a clearer grasp of their shared faith. Disunity is both a sign of lack of love and something which hinders love and hence comfort. Perhaps we tend to underestimate how discouraging it is for ordinary believers to be separated by church divisions — which inherently thwart expressions of love between Christian and Christian — especially when the denominational boundaries do not reflect differences in the key doctrines we confess. Some of the distress of our hearts would be alleviated if we were more united. John Howe (1630–1705), a highly respected presbyterian minister in London who was ejected in 1662, saw this clearly. In the following extract from his sermon on Paul’s words, Howe identifies nine ways that love knits believers to each other, so as to build each other up and comfort their hearts.

In Colossians 2:2, the apostle’s blessed purpose is “to comfort their hearts,” and he conceives two means which would be most effective in attaining it: love and faith.

“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.”

This comfort would be achieved, more or less, if they were knit or compacted together in love, made all of a piece, cohering and clinging to one another by love.

What is Christian love?

The kind of love which is meant here is specified by what it is conjoined with, “the understanding and acknowledgment of the mystery of Christianity.” It must be the love of Christians to one another as such.

It is not the love which we owe to one another as humans merely. That would be to enlarge it too much. For then we would be as much obliged to love the enemies we

are to unite against as the friends of religion we are to unite with, since all partake equally in human nature. We are to love the children of God in a different way from the children of men.

Also, it is not a love to Christians of this or that denomination only. That would be to equally unduly restrict it. This love is owing to Christians as such, and just as it belongs to them only, so it belongs to all of them who confess genuine Christianity in profession and practice. To limit our Christian love to a sub-group of Christians is so far from leading to “comforting our hearts” that it resists and defeats this end. Instead of a preservative union, it implies most destructive divisions, and scatters what it should collect and gather.

At the same time, I am not to distribute this holy love so indiscriminately as to place it at random on every one who thinks it convenient to call himself a Christian (even though I ought to love the very profession, while I do not know who makes it in sincerity). But let me once get a right grasp of the true essentials of Christianity (whether in doctrinal or vital principles), then my love will extend duly to all in whom these are found, and I come actually to apply it to this or that person as particular occasions arise. In this way I shall always be in a preparation of mind actually to unite in Christian love with every such person, whenever such occasions invite me to it.

What does Christian love do?

What would such an impartial, truly Christian, love do towards the preservation of us all, and to prevent the ruin of Christianity?

Gives life

How greatly it would contribute to the vigour of the Christian life! Then we would all equally hold the head, “from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col 2:19). In this way (as it is in the parallel text), “speaking the truth in love, we shall grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:15–16).

As obstructions in the natural body that hinder the free circulation of blood lead to languishing, so the lack of love in the body of Christ shrivels up the destitute parts, and hinders the diffusion of a nourishing, vital influence.

Inspires courage

Christians generally would be inspired with sacred courage if they knew and felt themselves to be knit together in love. If part of an army revolts, it greatly discourages the rest, for they are no longer entire, and of a piece. Mutual love animates them, as nothing else can, when they are prepared to live and die together. Love joins those who are joined by a shared danger. Otherwise, they are only so many single persons, each only caring how to look out for himself.

Likewise, it makes Christians the more resolute in their adherence to truth and goodness when they are sure of the help, the counsels and the prayers of the Christian community, and when they realise that if they decline, they grieve those whom they love, and who they know love them.

Soothes anger

Christian love extinguishes or abates the unholy fire of our anger and wrath towards one another. Then debates (if there must be any) are managed without intemperate heat.

When we become angry that we cannot make someone else adopt our own sentiments, we make ourselves less capable of reasoning aptly to convince, and we make the other person less susceptible to being persuaded.

Why are we yet to learn that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God”? What is gained by it? Angry contention avails so little that even those who are in the right lose by it, and whatever they gain by it cannot recompense the damage and hurt that ensues to the church and to themselves.

For if the lack of love hinders the nourishment of the body, much more do the things which fill its place. For as naturally as love begets love, so do wrath, envy, malice, calumny, beget one another, and spread a poison through the body which necessarily wastes and tends to destroy it.

Promotes kindness

This love obliges us to all acts of mutual kindness and friendship. If this love governed us, we would always be ready to serve one another in love, to bear each other’s burdens, to give advice and help to one another, and to do our uttermost to strengthen each other’s hands in Christian living. It would not let us do so absurd a thing as to confine our friendship to those of our own denomination, which is as unreasonable as being friends only with people our own height, or those whose hairstyle was most similar to our own. It would make us not be ashamed to be seen in each other’s company, or be shy of acknowledging one another. There would be no partition-wall through which love would not easily open a way of friendly interaction.

Removes suspicion

Prejudices would cease, as would jealousies about each other. We would no more suspect one another of ill designs on each other, any more than we would suspect our right hand of trying to cut off the left. We would believe one another in our mutual professions, both that we wish kindness to one another, and that we really scruple the things we say we do.

This would in turn make us earnestly covet a complete union, to reconcile all the things in which we differ. If only love would incline us to consider the matters of difference themselves, rather than to imagine some ulterior motive in the persons who differ from us, it is likely we might find ourselves much nearer to one another than we thought.

Strives for common ground

This love would make us much more apt to yield to one another as much as we can, in order to reach as full an accommodation as is any way possible. If we cannot agree on either extreme, we may at least meet in the middle. We would compete among ourselves as to who would make the largest concessions to this purpose, like Luther at Marburg, when he did not want the other side to be credited with being more desirous of peace and concord than he!

Lessens judgmentalism

Christian love would certainly make us abstain from censuring one another as insincere for our remaining differences. In defiance of the great God and our blessed Redeemer, who has so expressly forbidden us to judge, lest we be judged (Matt. 7:1), we give ourselves a vast liberty to judge! I do not criticise this as the fault of any one group, but everywhere it arises, for God knows how widespread this poison is!

But uniting, knitting love would make us refrain from judging, not merely from the restraint of God’s laws, but from a benign disposition, which would make our spirits abhor it. Then those on the one side would have no inclination to judge those who do not see things the same way, as if they had on that account cut themselves off from Christ and from the body of Christ.

Again, this love cannot permit us to think all the black thoughts we can invent of them, as if, because they don’t see with our eyes, they are therefore utterly and wilfully blind.

Respects conscience

Christian love would oblige us to hold off from urging one another over the points of difference.

Some try vehemently to get others to comply with them, either by flattery or by threats. Would love let me violate someone else’s conscience in any way? The love I bear to a fellow-Christian, if it is true, would no more let me do that than hurt the apple of my own eye.

Others try by argument to convince their reason and satisfy their consciences. But this too may be unprofitable to those they are trying to persuade, and Christian love, which pursues the peace and quiet of their brethren, should restrain them from doing this. Is it not conceivable that those who differ from me in such lesser things may have reached a settled view on them, just as I have? Is it not possible that they have weighed everything up as much as I have done? Is it not possible that all may have been said which is to be said, and the matter sifted to the very bran? So that all my further arguings will only serve to demonstrate my own vain self-confidence, as if all wisdom were to die with me.

Alternatively it serves to show that this person has a different complexion of mind from me. All cannot receive all things. We cannot make everyone share our sentiments (Rom. 14:1, 3). Is he fit for God’s communion, notwithstanding his scruple, and is he unfit for yours? By the apostle’s precept, he is not to be vexed and importuned with continual disputation.

Avoids running people down

Sincere love restored and exercised more among us would certainly make us hold off from reviling and exposing one another, and industriously seeking one another’s ruin.

What! Will nothing less than our destruction content you? Do you not know that “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him”? I know that many are apt to justify themselves in their animosity towards others by the claim that they bear the same disaffected mind towards them. But besides the fact that this is the most indefensible injustice, how contrary this vindictive spirit is to the rules and spirit of the Christian religion! Is this what it means to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us and despitefully use us? How unalike this retaliatory spirit is to the Christian temperament which Calvin displays in a letter to Bullinger. Speaking of Luther’s harshness towards him, Calvin said, “If Luther a thousand times call me devil, yet I will acknowledge him for a famous servant of God.” Surely no one will say it is against his conscience to love his brother!

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Voices on the political right-wing have become louder recently in calling for more respect to be given to Christian values. This is positive as far as it goes, although God is not there to be co-opted into any political cause whether left or right wing, and using Christian words and imagery must be more than virtue-signalling. “Christian values” are not some nebulous form of niceness which coincides with nostalgia for a less complicated Britain of some decades back. The real value of “Christian values” appears when distinctively Christian truths are lived out in a distinctively Christian lifestyle, i.e., when devotion to the one living and true God expresses itself in the pursuit of godly living. It is when Christians are flourishing in godliness that the nation will be able to see real benefits in both the temporal (political, financial, social) and spiritual domains. This point was made by John Collins (1632?–1687), a fellow of Harvard who was appointed to preach in Scotland in the 1650s before pastoring in London (when he was ejected in 1662, he preached a powerful farewell sermon which was later published). In the following updated abridgement of a sermon on Isaiah 6:13, Collins draws on the metaphor in Isaiah’s prophecy which pictures a nation as a tree, and the Lord’s people in it as its solid trunk.

What kind of people count as Christians?

The really righteous of a nation are, under God, the strength of it — I mean those who have these features.

As far as doctrine goes, they keep to the only foundation which God has laid, the Lord Jesus Christ. They hold as much truth as is ncessary to the life of faith and power of godliness, and maintain no false doctrine which is inconsistent with these.

As far as practice goes, they fear God and work righteousness. They not only believe in Christ, but live in obedience to Him.

All true religion consists in faith and holiness — it glorifies God by believing and obeying.

Clearly, this excludes atheists (who have no religion), idolaters, heretics, and those who follow a false religion.

It also excludes:

• those who don’t know the first thing about Christian teachings, and don’t understand what they say they believe,
• those who lead profane lives, despise those who are good, and persecute powerful godliness,
• those who claim to be Christians, but only for worldly reasons.

In a word, it excludes all who lack true faith and real holiness, and indulge themselves in any known sins, whether more often and obvious, or more private and hidden.

What features do Christians have?

Isaiah decribes them as “the substance” or “stock” of a tree (Isa. 6:13). What does this mean?

Firm and durable

The stock of a tree is its most firm and durable part. The leaves may be shaken off, the branches dry and withered, and even lopped off, yet the stump still continues, and lives. It keeps its place and retains its sap.

When hypocrites and part-time believers fall away and stop taking an interest in Christianity, yet the godly shall continue, and hold their own, and keep their standing. They are all united to Christ, who is like the root of the tree, as well as to each other, as all part of the same stock, and so preserved in life by sap they derive from the root.

Growing

The stock propagates itself. Cut off all the branches, but the stem will shoot out again, and send out new leaves and fruit and seed, from which other trees will come.

The godly propagate their righteousness. They pass it on to others, beget children to God, are spiritual parents, and have spiritual offspring. Many are affected by their instruction, won over by their example, awakened by their warnings, overcome by their persuasion.

How are Christians beneficial to a nation?

It is common in horticulture for the tree to be spared for the sake of the stock. If the gardener finds a cluster or two of grapes on a vine, by those few he perceives that there is life in the tree, and some hope of more fruitfulness to come, and therefore he does not cut it down. “So will I do,” says the Lord, “for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all” (Isa. 65:8). He spares the rest — he does “not destroy them all, for his servants’ sakes,” — i.e., for the sake of the righteous among them.

In fact, the gardener looks after the tree for the sake of the stock. As long as there is life in the stock, he not only doesn’t dig it up, but he prunes it, and bestows on it whatever cost and labour it needs.

Many a blessing, both temporal and spiritual, comes to a nation for the sake of the godly in its midst.

Temporal blessings. God blessed Laban, even though he was an idolater, for Jacob’s sake (Genesis 30:30), and heathen Potiphar for Joseph’s sake (Genesis 39:5). God may give a people peace and plenty, so that His own servants may have their share in it, to encourage them in holiness. The reason why Babylon had such a long time of peace before its downfall was so that God’s people in it would have peace (Jeremiah 29:7).

Spiritual blessings. God gives the means of grace to a people — His Word and ordinances and the offers of salvation — especially for the sake of those who belong to Him. It is no small mercy to have an external gospel call, an offer of Christ. If people neglect their opportunities, forsake their own mercies, lose the benefit of the good they have had, it is their own fault — the privilege is no less in itself. But where God has nobody to call effectually, He does not usually send the gospel. Paul was forbidden to preach in Asia and was prevented from going into Bithynia (Acts 16:6–7), because God did not have any people there who were as yet to be called by His grace. But he was sent into Macedonia (v.10), because there God had work for him, several who were soon to be converted by his ministry. If Gd had not had a seed among the Macedonians, they might have still continued in the same darkness that others were in.

How are Christians the “strength” of a nation?

On what account are the Christians in a nation said to be its strength? What influence do they have on the welfare and security of a people?

They are precious to God

They are God’s favourites, His children, His jewels (Mal. 3:17), His treasure (Ex. 19:5), His portion (Deut. 32:9). They are the most closely related to Him, and most dearly beloved by Him.

Just as people will save their bags and boxes, which are of little worth, if their jewels are in them, so God will show the same concern for His people. Happy is that society where God has many friends, if the people are only wise enough to be friendly to them! It is a pity if the ones who are favoured by heaven are not also favoured by them!

They speak to God for their nation

Christians make use of their relationship with God for the people. They intercede with God for them by prayer. Moses interposed with God for Israel (Psalm 106:23), and Abraham prayed for Abimelech’s household (Genesis 20:17), and Samuel prayed for the Israelites (1 Samuel 12:23). The Christian part of a people are the praying part of them, and so they are the ones who do the most for them.

Grace will always out-pray nature. The prayer of others is only the voice of nature or conscience, but in the true believer it is the language of grace. Others make prayers; only believers pray prayers. Others pray in set forms, or with their gifts, but only believers pray “in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20).

They have faith behind their pleas. They are indeed the only persons who have true faith, and it is faith especially that makes anyone plead with God, and make use of whatever arguments God’s Word warrants. The goodness of prayer is not to be judged by the artistic merit of its composition, or the elegance of its style, or the fervency of its expression, but by the workings of faith.

They do not participate in the wickedness which brings judgment

Christian people in a nation are often a means of stopping the current of wickedness which is ready to overflow a land with judgments, and to bring swift destruction on it. It is the sin of a nation which lays them open to wrath. If you want to keep off wrath, you must endeavour to keep out sin — if you want to hinder the effect, you must obviate the cause. It is the devil’s damnable policy to draw people into sin, so that he will expose them to punishment. The greatest enemies to a people, who go the quickest way to ruin them, are those who draw them into sin, and so into God’s displeasure.

Who is that most hinders sin, and prevents the place being inundated with sin, but the Christians in a nation? They speak against it, they bear testimony against it, if they have any authority they suppress it, and by their example they discourage it. None are so active, none so zealous, in opposing sin as those who are most holy. They not only fear sin in themselves, but labour to prevent it in others.

To prevent sin is their first priority, but if that cannot be, they lament it and mourn over it, and “sigh and cry for the abominations” of a land (Ezekiel 4:4). David “beheld the transgressors, and was grieved” (Psalm 119:158); “rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because they kept not God’s law” (v.136). Jeremiah “wept in secret places” for the pride of his people (Jeremiah 13:17). This does not directly stop the course of sin in a land, yet it is a kind of check to it.

While in this way they lay to heart the sins of others, they are not themselves partakers of these sins, nor do they share in the guilt. These sins are not universal in the nation, when there are at least some who testify their dislike of them by their sorrow for them. The more universal sin is, the more dangerous it is, and it is all the more likely to bring on judgments when the godly themselves become guilty, not exactly by committing it, yet by not mourning over it (which is a degree of fellowship with it). When they mourn for the sin committed by others, they free themselves from the guilt of approving or conniving at it or fellowshipping in it, and in this way they are instrumental in keeping off more general judgments.

They spread goodness

The Lord’s people not only inhibit the progress of sin in the nation, they propagate goodness to others, as well as promoting it in themselves. They do this by advice, warnings, and example. They make it their business not only to do good themselves but to make others good — to bring them to holiness as well as to keep them from sin.

Grace, wherever it is, is communicative. It spreads itself as far as it can. Those who love God see so much loveliness in Him that they long to persuade others to love Him too. Those who walk in God’s ways like them so much, and find so much peace and pleasantness in them, and know there is such a reward at the end of them, that they take every care to get others into the same ways. They know that the one they serve is generous enough and rich enough.

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The year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, arguably the most important creed ever written, and almost certainly the most significant theological anniversary of our lifetimes. If we are Christians, who is the Christ we confess? If we are God’s people, who is the God we belong to? The Nicene Creed (produced in AD 325) is the creed which provides the baseline for a biblically safe way for all believers to talk about who God is (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Every Reformed theologian is gratefully indebted to the Nicene Creed and relies on it unhesitatingly in articulating what the Bible teaches about the Trinity and about Christ. Edward Leigh (1602–1671), a lay member of the Westminster Assembly, is an example of this. In the following updated excerpt from his systematic theology, Leigh rehearses the basic truths about our great God and Saviour, closing with some suggested devotional responses.

Our need for humility

God may be known by light of nature, but we cannot by the light of nature know the mystery of the Trinity, nor the incarnation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7–8). As Aquinas says, it is impossible by natural reason to come to the knowledge of the Trinity of the divine persons.

When one of the Church Fathers was meditating on the mystery of the Trinity, there appeared to him a child with a shell, ladling the sea into a little hole, and he asked what the child was doing. “I intend,” said the child, “to empty the ocean into this hole.” “That is impossible,” said the Father. “As possible,” said the child, “as for you to comprehend this profound mystery of the Trinity in your shallow capacity.”

Although the word “trinity” basically refers to any three things, yet in theological discussions it means the three Persons in the Trinity. This does not mean that God consists of three parts. There is a great difference between “trinity” and “triplicity.” Trinity is when the same essence has different ways of subsisting; “triplicity” is when one thing is compounded of three parts. The persons are three not in respect of essence, or divine attributes, but three in respect of personal properties. That is, the Father is of none, the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is of both — three Persons but one God.

The acts of the Persons

The acts of the Persons in the Godhead are of three sorts.

1. Essential. All the Persons have equal hand in these acts. Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa (“The external works of the Trinity are indivisible”). The outward works (which concern created things) belong to as much to one Person as the other, e.g., to create, to govern.

2. Proper. The personal properties, or internal works, are distinguished: the Father begets, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

3. Appropriated. These are acts of office, more uniquely attributed to one Person than another (Ephesians 4:7). So the Father is said to “give” the Son, the Son is said to “redeem the world,” to be “made flesh,” and the Holy Spirit is the bond of union. God’s plan in the work of redemption was not only (some say) to exalt the attributes of His nature, but to glorify the Persons distinctly according to their appropriated acts.

Describing the differences

There is in the Trinity alius & alius (“another and another”), but not aliud & aliud (“another thing and another thing” (as there is in Christ)). The Father is another Person from the Son, but yet they all have the same nature and essence. They do not differ in their natures, as three men or three angels differ. Men differ in such a way that one may exist without the other, but the Father cannot be without the Son, nor the Son without the Father, such that there is the same numerical essence.

Though there is no inequality in the Persons, yet there is an order — the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit. This is not as if there were so many partial causes, much less as if the Father were the principal cause and the others instrumental causes, but only mere order. A Person is a different way of having the same essence.

The Persons in the divine nature are distinguished from each other by some special or personal property. The personal property of the Father is to beget, that is, not to multiply His substance by production, but to communicate His substance to the Son. The Son is said to be begotten, that is, to have the whole substance from the Father by communication. The Holy Spirit is said to proceed, or to be breathed forth, to receive His substance by proceeding from the Father and the Son jointly (He is called both “the Spirit of the Father” and “the Spirit of the Son”). Only the Father begets, only the Son is begotten, and only the Holy Spirit proceeds (and both procession and generation are ineffable).

In the manner of working they differ. The Father works of Himself, by the Son, and through the Holy Spirit. The Son works from the Father by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works from the Father and the Son by Himself. There is one God such that there are three Persons in that one Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Something is attributed to one in the Scripture that cannot be said of all. The Son was made flesh, and the Son is begotten — this cannot be said of the others. The Son and the Spirit are sent — but this cannot be said of the Father. The Persons are each of them infinite, as each of them is God, yet there are not three Infinites nor three Gods (as per the Athanasian Creed, in use from around the sixth century AD). A Person is the divine nature distinguished by an incommunicable property, and though we cannot express the manner of this great mystery, yet we should believe it.

Jesus is God the Son

That Christ is God, is proved by Scripture and by reasons drawn from Scripture.

Clear texts of Scripture affirm this truth in so many words

“This is his name by which you shall call him: Jehovah, or The Lord our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:16), “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). Paul refers to Him as “God over all, blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5). John says, “This is very God” (1 John 5:20). “Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Thomas confesses, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28).

Evident reasons are drawn from Scripture

Divine names and titles are given to Christ. He is “the only blessed Potentate” (1 Timothy 6:15), “the King of Kings” (Revelation 1:5) and “Lord of Lords” (Revelation 17:14; 19:16). He is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); “the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:3); the “wisdom” of the Father (Proverbs 8:12 and 9:1); the “Word” of God (John 1:1; Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 3:16); “the great God” (Titus 2:13); “the true God” (1 John 5:20); “God over all,” or “Blessed above all” (Romans 9:5); “the Most High” (Luke 1:76); “Lord” (John 20:28); “the only Lord” (Jude 4);. “the Lord of all” (Acts 10:36); “the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:48); “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8); the Lord of “heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18).

The works of God are ascribed to Christ, even the principal and most eminent of all, which are proper to the Lord only. For example, the work of creation (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10–12); the work of preserving and governing all things (Hebrews 1:2); the working of divine miracles (John 6:54 and John 5:21); redeeming mankind (Luke 1:68; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5); sending the Holy Spirit (John 21:22 and 14:16). He forgives sins. He gives eternal life.

The principal and incommunicable attributes of God are given to Him. These include omniscience (John 2:24–25; John 21:17); omnipotence (Revelation 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; Philippians 3:21); eternity (John 17:5; Revelation 1:18; John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6); omnipresence (Matthew 18:20); unchangeableness (Hebrews 1:11–13; 13:8).

The worship due to God is ascribed to Him (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:13) We are commanded to call on His name, to believe and trust in Him (John 14:1, 3:16, 6:40), to hope in Him (Isaiah 11:10). We are baptised in His name (Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:16).

The Gospel of John was written chiefly to prove the deity of Christ. Christ there gives a resolute and constant testimony of Himself, that He was the Son of God, and very God.

He is God by nature

Many heretics have denied the God-head of Christ, including Ebion, Cerinthus, Arius. Arians say that Christ is a creature. Arians and Socinians are more hostile to Athanasius than anyone else. Athanasius stood against three hundred bishops in a council (at Milan, in AD 355), and maintained the divinity of Christ against the Arians. He also wrote most copiously against the Arians, and solidly refuted their arguments.

Christ is God, not by office, nor by favour, nor by similitude, nor in a figure (as sometimes angels and magistrates are called “gods”), but by nature. By nature He is equal and co-essential with His Father. He is not God in any secondary or inferior manner, but in the very form of God is equal to Him, as the Godhead of all the three Persons is one and the same. The first Council of Nicaea was called in order to suppress the heresy of Arius, and the Nicene Creed was made.

The difference between Arius and the Council of Nicaea was one letter — whether Christ was homoiousios “similar in essence” or homoousios “same in essence” with the Father. The Arian heretic demands that Augustine shows where we read the word homoousios in Scripture. Augustine asks in reply, “What is homoousion if not, ‘I and my Father are one’?”

The Holy Spirit is God

The Holy Spirit is also God.

The names and titles of God are given to Him. Three times the apostle calls the Holy Spirit God (1 Corinthians 3:16–17). Taking the shape of a dove, and of tongues of fire, are acts of a distinct Person (Acts 5:3–4; compare Acts 1:16 with Acts 4:24–25; and Numbers 12:6 with 2 Peter 1:21). He is called the Spirit of Glory (1 Peter 4:14).

Divine attributes are given to Him. For example, omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10–11; John 14:26), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7; Romans 8:9; John 14:26), omnipotence (Hebrews 3:7), eternity (Hebrews 9:14).

The works of the true God are given to Him. These include creation (Job 26:13; Psalm 33:6), the preservation and sustaining of all created things (Genesis 1:2; Zechariah 4:6); the work of redemption (1 Corinthians 2:10), the power of working miracles (Matthew 12:28; Acts 2:4), the power to raise the dead (Romans 8:11), the distribution of graces as He pleases (1 Corinthians 12:4), instructing the prophets (2 Peter 1:21), governing the church and making apostles (Acts 13:2, 20:28).

Divine honour and worship is given to Him. We are baptised in His name, as well as in the name of the Father and Son (Matthew 28:10). We are commanded to believe in Him, and call on Him. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven (Matthew 12:31), therefore He is no less to be worshipped than the Father and the Son.

The first Constantinopolitan Council (AD 381), which numbered 150 bishops, was assembled against Macedonius, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

A truth to adore

This is a wonderful mystery to be adored and admired. Every one is bound to know it, with an apprehensive knowledge [grasping the truth of it], though not with a comprehensive knowledge [understanding it fully]. We must worship the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, as it is in the Athanasian Creed.

All the three Persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner, and every believer has a special interest in the promises of the Persons (John 5:19). The order of working in the Persons is suitable to the order of their subsisting (the Father is first in order therefore first in working, etc). Therefore adoption is reckoned by some theologians as the first of spiritual benefits, then redemption and sanctification.

We should walk in the love of them all (1 John 4:16; see John 5:9, 14:23, 16:27) and fear to offend them all, not only the Father, but the Son (Ezekiel 21:10) and the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

We should praise God for revealing this mystery to us in His Word, and be assured that whatever He promises or threatens shall be accomplished, being confirmed by three witnesses.

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