The First Principle Expounded

Q. What is God? A. God is a Spirit, or spiritual substance, most wise, most holy, eternal, infinite. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:24. Q. How do you persuade yourself that there is a God? A. Besides the testimony of the Scripture, plain reason will shew it. Q. What is one reason? A. When I consider the wonderful frame of the world, me thinks the silly creatures that be in it could never make it, neither could it make itself and therefore, besides all these, the Maker of it must needs be God. Even as when a man comes into a strange country and sees fair and sumptuous buildings, and yet finds no living creatures there besides birds and beasts, he will not imagine that either birds or beasts reared those buildings, but he presently conceives that some men either are, or have been there. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” – Rom. 1:20; “Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” – Acts 14:17. Q. What other reason have you? A. A man commits any sin, murder, fornication, adultery, blasphemy, c. albeit he doth so conceal the matter (that no man living know of it), yet oftentimes he hath a griping in his conscience, and feels the very flashing of hell fire, which is a strong reason to shew that there is a God, before whose judgment seat he must answer for his fact. “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” – Rom. 2:15; “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden…And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” – Gen.3;8,10; “And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.” – Gen.42:21. Q. How many Gods are there? A. No more than one. “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” – 1 Cor. 8:6. Q. How do you conceive this God in your mind? A. Not by framing an image of him in my mind (as ignorant folks do, that think him to be an old man sitting in heaven) but I conceive him by his properties and works. “Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female” – Deut.4:16; “For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.” – Amos 4:13. Q. What be his chief properties? A. First he is most wise, understanding all things aright and knowing the reason of thema. Secondly, he is most holy, which appeareth in that he is most just and merciful unto his creaturesb. Thirdly, he is eternal, without either beginning or end of daysc, and lastly, he is infinite, both because he is present in all placesd and because he is of power sufficient to do whatsoever he wille. a “With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.” – Job 12:13. b “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” – Isa. 6:3; “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” – Exod. 20:5. c “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” – Isa. 41:4. d “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.” – Psa. 139:2. e “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?” – Job 9:4; “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward” – Deut. 10:17. Q. What be the works of God? A. The creation of the world, and everything therein, and the preservation of them, being created by his special providence. “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” – Jer. 10:12; “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” – Psa. 33:6. Q. How know you that God governeth every particular thing in the world by his special providence? A. To omit the Scripturesa, I see it by experience: meat, drink and clothing, being void of heat and life, could not preserve the life of man unless there were a special providence of God to give virtue unto themb. a “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” – Matt. 10:30; “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” – Prov. 16:33. b “And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.” – Lev. 26:26; “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” – Matt. 4:4. Q. How is this one God distinguished? A. Into the Father, which begetteth the Son; into the Son, who is begotten of the Father; into the Holy Ghosta, who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonb. a “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” – 1 John 5:7. b “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.