The HOLY SPIRIT, therefore, is JEHOVAH.

ISAIAN VI. 9. JEHOVAH SABAOTH said, go and tell this people, bear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not, &c. But the Apostle says,

ACTS xxviii. 25. Well spake the HOLY GHOST by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this people, and say, bearing ye shall bear, and shall not understand, &c. Therefore,

The HOLY GHOST is JEHOVAH SABAOTH.§

NUMBERS xii. 6. If there be a propbet among you, I JEHOVAH will make myself known unto bim in a vision, &c.

2 PET. i. 12. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but boly men of God spuke as they were moved by the HOLY GHOST.

The HOLY GHOST, therefore, must be JEHOVAH.

The name JEHOVAH in the Old Testament is rendered by Kupios in the New, and into the English by Lord, which certainly doth not convey the sense of the original word. It is, however, as well as to the Father and the Son, applied to the Holy Spirit; though not very modestly or carefully denied by the opposers of his divinity. Thus,

2. Cor. iii. 17, 18. For the Lord is the Spirit-even as by the Lord the Spirit; for so it should have been translated; as indeed it is so translated in the margin of our larger Bibles. Col. ii. 9. In bim [Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godbead bodily.

Isaiah xi. 2. And the Spirit febovab shall rest upon him, &c. Matth. xii. 18. I will put my Spirit upon him, &c.

The Spirit therefore is the fullness of the Godhead, not separate from (for that is impossible, the Godhead being one) the other divine Persons, but in unity with them, participating the undivided essence.

Isaiah lxiii. 10. The Israelites of old rebelled and vexed bis HOLY SPIRIT. But in

Numb. xiv. 11. They are said to have provoked JгпоVAн, and in Psalm lxxviii. 56. to have tempted and provoked the MOST HIGH GOD.

The HOLY SPIRIT is, therefore, JEHOVAH and the MOST HIGH GOD.

Psalm xxxiii. 6. By the word of JEHOVAH were the Heavens made and all the bost of them by the SPIRIT [mm] of bis mouth. But it is said,

§ See some valuable notes from the Fathers upon this argument, in that excellent volume of sermons upon the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, by the late Mr. John Hurrion: Printed 1784. And also an Answer to some Objections in SLOSS's Sermons upon the Trinity; Serm. xvi. Se also WITSIJ Exerc, in Is. vi.

Prov. xvi. 4. JEHOVAH made all things for himself, &c. And that, Acts xvii. 24. GOD made the world, and all things

therein.

The SPIRIT, therefore, as well as the Son, is both JEHOVAH and GOD.

Romans xv. 9. The apostle ascribes the mighty signs and wonders, wrought in confirmation of the gospel, to the power of the SPIRIT of God. But the Psalmist says, in

Psalm cxxxvi. that it is JEHOVAH, the ALEHIM, the Lord of Lords, who ALONE doeth great wonders.

The HOLY GHOST, therefore, is JEHOVAH, GOD over all, blessed for ever.

Many more arguments of this kind might be drawn from the Scriptures; but these, it is presumed, may suffice: At least, they may suffice, till they are proven not to support the Holy Spirit's Divinity, or that the term Jehovah may belong to a creature, an emanation, or a sort of inferior God like the demi-god of the heathen; which probably the adversaries of this truth, with all their acuteness, may not be in haste to perform. When they have done this, they have but one step farther, and that is, to prove that self-existence belongs to any thing or nothing, just as they please.

But if God be true, and can give the best account of his own being; then, upon the authority of his holy word, we may rest satisfied, that the Spirit is Jehovah. It seems even wonderful, how any man, who pretends to reason or philosophize upon the data of the Bible, can be absurd enough to deny a truth, so strongly marked from one end of that book to the other. For, to talk of the Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of the Alehim, or of God, as a separate, inferior, and dependent being; is to assume, that God hath parts and divisions, and that, so far from having a simplicity of nature, he is a composition of superiority and inferiority, enduring a comparison with himself, which entirely takes away every idea of his perfection, infinitude and eternity. If the Spirit be separate from Jehovah, or is not Jehovah himself; then the title Spirit of Jehovah, so frequently given, is a dreadful mistake into which (it seems) God himself hath led us; and the being so called dwindles down at once into a mere minister of deity, an angel, or some other creature. It follows too, that something can be in the Godhead, which is not of the Godhead, and that God's Spirit, by which he made all things, may be like our breath and vanish into thin air. To such absurdity of blasphemy does some men's opinions necessarily lead them, if they are but extended to their natural length, without any straining or perversion.

If likewise, the Spirit be inferior or dependent, he can nçither be infinite nor eternal: Or, if he be infinite-and eter

nal, he will be equal to Jehovah himself, and consequently must either be Jehovah, which we believe; or there must be two Jehovahs, two eternal and infinite beings, which we deny, and which no man in his senses can maintain. The doctrine of two first principles is absurd in reason; and by religion we are told, that JEHOVAH our ALEHIM is but ONE JEHOVAH. GOD is one pure, uncompounded, infinite, and eternal, essence; a mere and simple act; the spring of all power, wisdom and being. HE only IS: And whatever can be predicated of him, does not merely belong to him, like a quality in the creatures; but IS HIMSELF. Whatever is now in him, ever was in him: It is his Ens; it is Himself. If, therefore, the SPIRIT be of JEHOVAH, according to his name and the proofs already given from divine authority; then HE IS JEHOVAH essentially, infinitely, and eternally: And there is no avoiding this conclusion, but by denying him to be the Spirit of God; in which case, a flat contradiction will be given to every text of Scripture, which calls him by that name.

The SPIRIT, therefore, being JEHOVAH, not of like but of one and the same essence; he depends upon no other being for his being, but is necessarily self-existent, infinite, and eterna

If he be not self-existent, &c. then he is not Jehovah, or a person in the essence Jebovab; for that name implies an AUTOQUn or self-existence; and consequently he is only a creature. But if he be not a creature, but Jebovab, himself; he then is whatever can be predicated of Jehovah, and possesses all the attributes which Jehovah has claimed, or which can possibly be ascribed to him. And when the Wisdom of God informs us, that in the ONE JEHOVAH there are THREE Hypostases, or Persons, or ALEHIM, economically styled FATHER, SON, and SPIRIT; we may be assured there can be no contradiction in this testimony. Nor is this testimony proposed to us as a matter to be submitted to our little reasonings and speculation, but as an article of faith, in the reception of which we may be led up to communion with the Godhead in three persons, agreeable to our dependence upon them in their respective offices of Father, kedeemer, and Sanctifier. Nor yet do we "divide the substance" of Deity by this our faith; for though we say, that each of the three

* Marcion and Cerdon, with some other of the ancient heretics, maintained this preposterous tenet, which common sense can easily refute.

To this effect, Eulogius of Alexandria observes, "that Ens (or essence of all being) is more than to be. Man hath a being, but he is not properly the Ens or essence of that being. For that properly is Ens, which proceeds from nothing else, and which doth not sease to be the Ens of all other things." Apud Puer. Cod. ccxxx.

Persons is self-existent, and so properly Jehovah; yet we do not maintain either or all to be separate-existent, or to form more than ONE Jehovah. In other things, men can distinguish where they do not divide, and can allow three inseparable peculiarities (as in the case of the sun, or in the mind, will, and affection of man, &c.) to constitute but one substance or being, and all this upon no better evidence than human sensation, which (as we said before) is often fallible. Surely, then, having the infallible declartaion of God with us; we may be bold to speak a truth, which cannot contradict our reason, because it is not, and cannot be the

subject of it. We must follow God in this high matter implicitly and surely we may follow him with safety, where we cannot conduct ourselves. All the objects of religion do indeed rise above the poor intellect of man and he can know nothing of another life, of immortality, or even of the grand purpose of his own existence, but by divine revelation. How then by searching can be find out God; or bow study the Almighty to perfection? Here, as one of the fathers says, mens deficit, vox silet; "The mind fails, and the tongue is dumb." And surely it should be so among short-sighted beings, who cannot tell bow their own spirits act upon their bodies, or in what mode the spring of life is exerted and influenced within them.

The Christian doth not pretend to explain the modus existendi, or manner of existence, which the Holy Spirit has in the divine nature; because no finite nature, human or angelic, can form a comparative idea of what is infinite: And we properly know nothing from reason but by comparison. It is quite sufficient for the believer, that GOD HATH SAID any proposition; and he leaves it (and it is both his wisdom and his duty to leave it) to GOD, either to be reserved as an infcrutable truth, or to be opened to his mind by a farther explanation. There are mysteries, which one day will be mysteries to him no more; and there are mysteries, which from their own exalted nature, must remain so for ever. As he grows in grace, though now imprisoned in a frail and corruptible body, which acts like a clog upon his spirit, he grows in the knowledge of many truths, which once he did not comprehend: And there is just cause to believe, that, in his advances from glory to glory, he will increase ad infinitum in the conceptions of heavenly things, and still be finding a glorious infinitum before him. The height and depth, the length and breadth, (as the apostle speaks, while himself is absorbed in the vastness of the subject) of the wisdom and love of God around him, will still be unexplored; and that infinite ocean of everlasting entity and truth muft remain, to all

ranks and orders of being, both unbounded and unfathomable for ever.

What then hath man to do, but to act like the angels, who wonder and adore? And if man knew what angels know, and was but as unclouded with sin as they; he would find it his supreme delight, to hold company and communion with them in this blessed employment.

Over and above all other arguments, the real believer in Jesus hath a testimony, that the HOLY SPIRIT is JEHOVAH, which lies out of the view of the world, because it is within him. Behold, says Christ, the kingdom of God is within you. A throne is erected in every believing heart, from which the Spirit of God directs his rule, bringing every thought into captivity, and into sweet subjection to Christ. The promise of the Father is accomplished in the Christian when the Spirit is poured out upon him, like oil to enliven, or like water to purify, his new-born soul. He sees clearly, that none but JEHOVнн could vouchsafe the Holy Spirit; and he views as plainly, that this HOLY SPIRIT must be febovah, to perform the wonderful works, which are ascribed to him in nature and grace, and a portion of which he feels to be wrought in him by his power. He reads his Bible, and sees, that the everlasting covenant can only be performed by those divine persons who made it, and that the full completion of it, being reserved for the Spirit, could only be effectuated by Him, as He is Jehovah. Believing in Him, therefore, as Jehovah, he cannot but consider him fully able to accomplish all that is said of him in the Scriptures, and all that is necessary for his people to life eternal. And this was the next part of the subject to be considered.

Man is repesented by the Scriptures, in a state of spiritual death, through the fall. This was the penalty of his transgression In that day, thou shalt surely die. Gen. ii. 17. Now Adam lived, as to his body, many hundred years after his sin; and therefore the denunciation must be understood, in order to justify divine truth, to imply that death of the soul that immediatly befel him, which consists in its separation from the life of God, and removal from the fruition of holiness, happiness, and heaven. All men experience the absence of this good; but all men are not sensible of its worth: Their spirits being dead to God, and to the things of God. And the people of God themselves are by nature as dead in this respect, as other men. This is fully expressed in the Xxxviith chapter of Ezekiel, under the vision of the dry bones. These bones belonged to the house of Israel, or the people of God: And these the SPIRIT of God renewed to Vol. II. С

Joel ii. 28. Acts ii. 39.