Imatges de pàgina
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lusts; when we consider these things, and find how full of sin we are; we grow in conviction of our sinfulness, and falling down before God, confess our selves the chief of sinners. Our sins are more than the hairs of our heads; are gone over our heads, and reach unto heaven. The more we know of ourselves, and of the sin that dwelleth in us, the more we think of ourselves as the greatest of sinners. Are you convinced you are vile and sinful, poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked? Confess it before God; and know you have no hope but Christ, the Saviour of sinners, and the sovereign and infinite mercy, power and grace of God in him, to forgive your sins, and to heal and save your soul, from sin and the wrath it de

serves.

We pray to God, to teach us the plague of our own hearts; and if he doth it, we are ready to distrust, if not to despair, of his mercy to forgive such a wretch, one so exceeding vile and sinful, beyond expression. And if we have had a hope, are ready to give it up, and to call in question any sincerity in us. Can there be any good, any sincerity, any thing of the grace of God in me ?" But if the view given you of your own heart, fills you with greater self-abasement and abhorrence than before and with self-condemnation, leaving you no hope, but

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the infinite and sovereign mercy and grace of God through Christ; then flee thereto; and look upon what you feel, as the work of the Spirit of God, to convince you of sin, and to bring you, in a sense of sin and belief of the word of God, to flee for refuge to the hope set before you. Look to Christ, his atonement, divine grace and mercy through him as your hope; otherways, you may always, when under a sense of sin, be ready to sink into despair.View sin to humble you, and Christ to give you hope. O wretched man that I am, saith the apostle, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sinful and vile, guilty, miserable and lost, despair of salvation by, or because of any thing in you; and look for it to Christ only, by his atonement and obedience unto death, the sacrifice and offering he made of himself unto God for us, to the mercy and grace of God in and through him. He on ly can save you from sin, and deliver you from the wrath to come.

I have wrote much more than I intended, when I began. You will excuse it, and if it may be of any benefit, this will be an ample and abundant recompence, for any attention given to your case, and any pains taken for your sake.

With sentiments of esteem and respect, I am your friend and servant,

The Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity, &c.
(Continued from p. 424.)

Ezek. viii. 1-3.

VOL. VI. No. 12.

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there upon me—and HE (the Lord God) put forth

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the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head, and the SPIRIT lift me up, &c.

In this text, the name of the Lord God, and the name of the Spirit, do both belong to the same person. For though it be said that the Spirit lifted up the prophet, yet was it no other than the Lord God who put forth the form of an hand and took him: therefore the SPIRIT is the LORD GOD.

XIX.

Acts iv. 24, 25.-They lift up their voice to God with one accord, and said, LORD, thou art GOD, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is. WHO by the mouth of thy servant DAVID hast said, &c.

The terms LORD and GOD are here used to express the Divinity of him, who spake by the mouth of his servant David. But it was the person of the HOLY GHOST, who spake by the mouth of his servant David-for, saith St. Peter-This scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the HOLY GHOST by the mouth of DAVID spake, &c. Therefore the terms LORD and GOD are certainly used to express the Divinity of the HOLY GHOST. So again;

It was the LORD GOD of Israel, who SPAKE by the mouth of his holy Prophets, since the world began. Luke i. 68. 70.

But then, it is written- -well SPAKE the HOLY GHOST by Esaias the prophet, &c.Act xxviii. 25. Therefore the Holy Ghost is the LORD GOD of Israel.

XX.

Psal. cxxxix. 7. Whither shall I go from THY SPIRIT? or whither shall I go from thy Presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there..

The Psalmist, to acknowledge the omnipresence of the Holy Ghost, saysWhither shall I go from thy Spirit? and by what is immediately subjoined, he shews this to be the omnipresence of God himselfIf I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there. So that the terms Thou and thy Spirit, are equivalent; i. e. equally conclusive for the immediate presence of the divine nature itself. XXI.

It was said by the Angel-Luke i. 32.He shall be great, and shall be called the SON of the HIGHEST. But the reason given upon this occasion WHY Christ was called the SON OF GOD, is this, and this only, viz. because he was begotten by the Holy Ghost- "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 66 power of the HIGHEST shall overshadow thee: THERE"FORE also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be "called the Son of GOD." v. 35.

When Jesus is called the Son of God, we understand the supreme and true God, besides whom there is no other. The Devils themselves allowed it, and said- "Jesus, thou Son of

"God MOST HIGH* !" But the Person in God, whose Son Jesus is said to be in this place, is the Holy Ghost, by whose power (called the Power of the highest) he was begotten of the blessed virgin, and thence called the Son of God.

Therefore, the Holy Ghost is God, and the Highest.

The Prophet Isaiah,

LORD OF HOSTS.

the LORD, SAYING. but understand not, &c.

XXII.

in his 6th Chapter, tells us he saw the And at ver. 8. that he heard the voice of Go and tell this people, hear ye indeed,

Yet these very words, which the prophet declares to have been spoken by the Lord, even the Lord of Hosts, were spoken by the Holy Ghost- Well SPAKE THE HOLY GHOST, by Esaias the prophet, unto our Fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand,† &c.

Therefore, the HOLY GHOST is the LORD OF HOSTS. The article of the Holy Ghost's supreme and absolute Divinity being now established in the plainest terms; I shall proceed to answer, from the Scripture, the objections usually made against it from thence.

XXIII.

† Matth. xix. 17. There is none GOOD but ONE, that is, GOD.

-SO

If this be a good objection to the Divinity of Christ, it must be equally strong against that of the Holy Ghost, for it is argued from this passage, that the attribute of goodness is confined to the single person of God the Father; who therefore is a Being superior to, and different from Christ and the Holy Ghost. The Error of this argument has been fully shewn above: for it is not one person, but one God, whom the Scripture has asserted to be good; and I now have an opportunity of confirming it, and of proving withal, that in the unity of this one God, besides whom no other is good, the person of the Holy Ghost is, and must be included. For it is written-Thy SPIRIT is GOOD‡ · that if the same inspired Scripture which declares the person of the Spirit to be good, does also as plainly declare that none is good, but God only; then the Spirit is God, even the only true and supreme God; and we are as well assured of it, as if it had been said, "there is none Good but one, that is the Spirit, who is one "with God." The Hebrew in this place is yet stronger than the English. It is not (TOB) good, but (TOBH) Goodness itself, that is, divine essential uncommunicated goodness, besides which there neither is nor can be any other of the like kind. There is one sort of goodness communicated to men upon earth; as we read, Psal. cxii. 5. the good man sheweth favor, &c. and Acts ii. 24. that Barnabas was a good man, and full of faith, &c. There is another sort of goodness to be found only in heaven, and that is the goodness of God, which is essential; but this goodness is

* Luke viii. 28. † Acts xxviii. 26, 27.

Psalm cxliii. 10.

also an attribute of the Spirit ; who therefore is proved to be very God; and by that argument too, for the sake of which, some have denied him to be God. XXIV.

† Matth. iii. 16. The Spirit of God.

The Spirit, say they, is not God, because he is only the Spirit of God. But so likewise the human Spirit, whence the Apostle has taught us to borrow an Idea of the Divine, is the Spirit OF a man; yet, was it ever pretended, that the Spirit, for this reason, is one Being, and the man another? No, certainly; and the same must be true of God, and the Spirit of God; as far as the Being of the same man, who is one person, can be an image of the same God, who is three persons. But there is the plainest testimony of Scripture, that the Spirit, though said to be the Spirit OF Jehovah, is also called by the express name of Jehovah himself. For it is written, Judg. xv. 14. that the Spirit OF Jehovah CAME upon Samson. Yet at Chap. xvi. 20. it is said, that Jehovah himself DEPARTED from him. Till it can be shewn, then, that the person who came upon him was one, and the person who defarted from him was another; it is undeniable, that the Spirit, though said to be OF Jehovah, is strictly and properly Jehovah himself.

XXV.

† Heb. ii. 4. GOD also bearing them witness withgifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.

Hence it is objected, that the Holy Ghost is subservient and subordinate to the Will of another; therefore he cannot be the supreme and true God. But if this own will of God should prove to be no other, than the will of the Spirit, this imaginary objection of the Arians, which if it be an error must also be a blasphemy, will turn to a demonstration against them. And that the will of God really is the will of the Spirit, is manifest from 1 Cor. xii. 11. All these worketh that one and the self-same SPIRIT, dividing to every man severally as HE (even he himself WILLETH.

XXVI.

† Rom. viii. 26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.

The Spirit is not God, because he maketh intercession with God; and God, as it is imagined, cannot intercede with himself. But it is a matter of fact, that he has actually done this: therefore it is wicked and false to say that he cannot. For God reconciled the world TO HIMSELF, and it was done by Intercession.

The other Objections I meet with, are all of this stamp as that the Spirit is said to be given, to proceed, to be poured out to be sent; and they argue that it is impossible for God to give, to proceed from, or to send, himself. But here the question is begged, that God is but one person, in which case it might be a contradiction

but the Scriptures demonstrate, as it will be seen in the fol

lowing Chapter, that God is three persons; and then there is no contradiction in any of these things. It is also to be observed, that the giving, proceeding, sending, and ministration of the Eternal Spirit to Christ in Glory, are terms that concern not the divine nature, but relate merely to the acts and offices, which the several persons of the blessed Trinity have mercifully condescended to take upon them, for conducting the present Economy of man's redemption and sanctification.

By this time, I take it for granted, every pious reader must have observed, how copious and conclusive the Scriptures of the Old Testament are, upon the subject of the Trinity; and that without having recourse to them upon every occasion, it is impossible for me or for any man to deal fairly and honestly by the Apostolical Doctrine of the Church of England. Our Lord himself has told us, that every Scribe or teacher instructed into the kingdom of heaven, should bring forth out of his treasure, things NEW and OLD. Matt. xiii. 52. It was his own practice. He appealed, at every turn, to the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, for the tes timony of his own doctrine; and the Church has followed his example, from the days of the Apostles, almost down to the present times. And so far is the Old Testament from being no part of the Scripture, that it is the book, and the only book, the Gospel calls by the name of the Scripture. It was this book, which the noble and faithful Bereans searched every day of their lives, to see whether the Gospel then preached, and afterwards published in the New Testament, was agreeable to it; with the intention, eiter to receive or reject it, as it should appear to be recommended by this Authority. It was this Book, for his skill in which, Apellos is praised as one mighty in the Scriptures; the same Scriptures, of which St. Paul was bold to affirm, for the benefit of a brother Christian, that they were able to make him wise unto salvation, through Faith that is in Christ Jesus. As long as this Faith flourished in the Church, these Scriptures were much read and profitably understood: but now it is dwindled into a dry lifeless System of Morality, they are become in a manner useless; and some (it grieves me to say it) even of those who have undertaken to teach others, want themselves to be taught again this first Element of Christianity, that the New Testament can never be understood and explained, but by comparing it with the Old.

Of this Error and its consequences, we have a sad example in the celebrated Dr. Clarke; a man whose talents might have adorned the Doctrine of Christ, had not his Faith been eaten up by an Heathen Spirit of Imagination and Philosophy. He published a Book entitled, The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity; a work of great pains and premeditation. In a short preface, he allows the Subject to be of the greatest importance in religion-not to be treated carelessly--but examined by a serious study of the WHOLE SCRIPTURE. And to convince the world that this and no other was his own practice, he affirms in his Introduction, p. 17. and prints it in capitale, that he has collected ALL the Texts relating

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