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1. To prove the personality of the Son. If this be reckoned needless, inasmuch as the Arians and Socinians never yet called it in question, we own that it is not necessary, when we dispute with them, to prove it: but inasmuch as the Sabellians deny it, as a late writer has done, who plainly gives in to that scheme, and concludes the Son of God to be no other than the eternal reason of God; and so he renders that text, John i. 1. In the beginning was the word, that is, reason, and by him, that is, by it, were all things made; and when it is objected, that this mode of speaking signifies nothing more than a quality in God, the only answer he gives to it, is, that it signifies no more a quality, than if we should translate it, The word, as it is generally done: I say, if persons, whether they pretend to be Sabellians or no, express themselves in such a manner, it is certainly necessary for us to prove the personality of the Son.

* See Le Clerc's Supplement to Dr. Hammond on the New Testament, preface to John i.

to quicken those who are spiritually dead. This distinct operation indeed, as it corresponds with the order of subsistence, beautifully harmonizes with the distinguishing character belonging to each Person. He, who is essentially the Father, assumes the character of paternity, in a federal respect, towards those who are orphans and aliens. The only begotten Son of God is sent forth, made under the law, that they may "receive the adoption of sons," and appears as "the first-born "among many brethren." The adorable Spirit, "the breath of JEHOVAH," breathes on the slain, that they may live; giving them a new heart and a right spirit. He, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, unites the sinner to both.

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Is it "life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath "sent?" Hath no one the Father, who "denieth the Son?" Can no one honour the Father," who honoureth not the Son?" Is it the Spirit alone who quickeneth, and who teacheth us to "know the things that are freely given us of God?" Can no man say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost?" Is it through Christ that "we have access by one Spirit unto the Father?" Let us bless God for the revelation of the mystery of a Trinity in unity; and especially because he hath revealed it so clearly in the history of our redemption, in relation to that work in which a peculiar operation belongs to each adorable Person, in which the love of a three-one God is so wonderfully displayed, in which we discern so blessed a harmony, not only of divine perfections, but of divine Persons! In all our worship, let us view God according to this revelation, ascribing glory to him "who is, and who was, and who is to come, and to the Seven Spirits which are "before his throne, and to Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the firstbegotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth." Let us earnestly desire communion with this three-one God; with the Father, in his love as the spring of our salvation; with the Son, in all that grace which he hath purchased by his blood; and with the Holy Ghost, in the whole extent of his efficacious operation. In order to this, let us press after union with Christ, that in him we may be united to the Father by that one Spirit who proceeds from both, and who is conferred by both as the Spirit of adoption. Let us cultivate love to the brethren, as members of the same mystical body, desiring to be "one heart and "one soul;" that although many, we may be one, and thus be assimilated, in our weak measure, to the blessed Trinity in respect of unity; as Jesus prays in behalf of his Church:-"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in "thee; that they also may be one in us.-I in them, and thou in me, that they "may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

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JAMIESON.

It appears, therefore, that the Son is a distinct Person from the Father,

(1.) Inasmuch as we often read, in scripture, of two divine Persons speaking to, or of, one another, the distinguishing personal characters, I, thou, and he, being applied to them: thus it is said, Psal. cx. 1. The Lord, that is the Father, said unto my Lord, namely the Son, sit thou at my right-hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool: this may be observed throughout the whole Psalm; thus, ver. 3, Thy people shall be willing; and ver. 6. He, meaning the Son, shall judge among the heathen; and ver. 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way; so Psal. xlv. 2. speaking of the Son, Thou art fairer than the children of men; and ver. 6. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The places of scripture, which have such modes of speaking concerning the Son, are almost innumerable; and therefore we proceed to consider,

(2.) Other personal characters given him; thus, when he is called the Son of God, whatever we are to understand by that relation or character, of which more under a following head, it certainly denotes him a Person distinct from the Father; so does his being sent into the world by the Father, which expression is frequently used in the New Testament; now a quality, relation or property, cannot be said to be sent as the Son is. So when he is described as a Redeemer, a Mediator, a Surety, a Creator; and when he is styled, by the prophet, the everlasting Father; and often described as a prophet, priest, or king; or Lord of all, or the Prince of peace, or the Prince of the kings of the earth; all these characters sufficiently prove his personality; and all those works which he performs, as sustaining these relations or characters, are properly personal; and some of them are never ascribed to any other person. Thus the Father, or Holy Ghost, are never said to assume the human nature, or to become sureties for the salvation of men, or to execute mediatorial offices, subservient thereunto; from all which it evidently appears, that the Son is a distinct Person: that he is a divine Person, will be proved under a following head: we shall therefore proceed,

2. To prove the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost. This is denied, not only by the Sabellians, but by some of the Socinians; yea, even by Socinus himself; who describes the Holy Ghost as the power of God, intending hereby, as his mode of speaking seems to denote, the energy of the divine nature, or that whereby the Father, who is the only one, to whom, according to him, the divine nature is attributed, produces those effects which require infinite power; so that they call the Spirit the power of God essentially considered; these set aside all those proofs, that may be produced from scripture, to evince Vol. I. I i

his personality, which are so plain and evident, that many of them have dissented from Socinus herein, and owned the Spirit to be a person. Accordingly some of them have described him as the chief of created spirits, or the head of the angels, because they deny his divine nature. Thus a bold writer expresses himself; " I believe that there is one principal minister of God and Christ, peculiarly sent from heaven, to sanctify "the church, who, by reason of his eminency and intimacy "with God, is singled out of the number of other heavenly mi"nisters, or angels, and comprised in the holy Trinity, being "the third person thereof; and that this minister of God and Christ is the Holy Spirit."

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Now we shall prove the personality of the Holy Ghost, by considering some personal characters ascribed to, and works performed by him. Thus there are several such characters, by which he is denominated a person; particularly when he is called a Sanctifier, a Reprover, a Witness, a Comforter, it evidently appears from hence that he is a person: thus when it is said, in John xvi. 8. that when he, to wit, the Comforter is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment; and also, that he will guide you into all truth; he shall shew you things to come, &c. And in John xiv. 16, 17. there is the distinct personality of the three persons, and particularly of the Holy Ghost, asserted; I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth; and also in ver. 26. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.t

It is certain, that to be said to teach, or to instruct, is a personal character; so it is to speak, or to dictate, to another what he should say; but this he is said to do, as our Saviour says to his disciples, Whatever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost, Mark

xiii. 11.

Moreover, to witness, or testify, is a personal character; especially when the testimony is not merely objective, as when Job calls his wrinkles and his leanness a witness against him, Job xvi, 8. But when there is a formal testimony given, he

t See Biddle's Confession of Faith, touching the holy Trinity, Article VI.

Some have thought, that exuvos being of the masculine gender, because it refers immediately to vez, which is of the neuter, implies, that the Spirit is taken personally, which is the reason of this grammatical construction; but if it be said that the reason why it is musculine is, because it agrees with wapaukalos, it, notwithstanding, proves the Personality of the Holy Ghost, since a Comforter is a personal character. The same thing is observed in the grammatical construction of that scripture, Eph.i. 13, 14. speaking concerning the Holy Spirit of promise, To #vwμa Tuc erazzerias; it is said, os esy appaCar, which denotes the personal character of the Spirit, otherwise it would have been o say appabor, unless you suppose of agrees with appaCar, which seema to be a more strained sense of the grammatical construction than the other, which proves his personality.

that gives it is, according to our common way of speaking, ge nerally considered as a person; and thus the Holy Ghost is described, Acts v. 32. We are his witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey him. Here the Holy Ghost's being a witness is as much a personal character, as their being witnesses; and, Acts xx. 23. it is said, The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, that bonds and afflictions abide me.

Again, dwelling is a personal character; no one ever supposes that any thing that is in a house dwells there, excepting persons; but the Holy Ghost is said to dwell in believers, John xiv. 17. and alluding hereto, as also connoting his divine personality, it is said, 1 Cor. vi. 19. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; as a house is the dwelling-place of a person, so a temple is the dwelling-place of a divine person,

Again, to send any one is a personal character; but this is attributed to the Holy Ghost, Acts xiii. 4. The apostles being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed.

Again, acting with a sovereign will and pleasure is what belongs only to a person; but this is applied to the Holy Ghost, Acts xv. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.

Again, prohibiting, or forbidding, a person to act, is a personal character; but this is applied to the Holy Ghost, Acts xvi. 6. The apostles were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the

word in Asia.

Again, to constitute, or appoint, any one to execute an office is a personal character; but this the Holy Ghost is said to do, Acts xx. 28. he is said to have made them overseers. There are several other personal works and characters, which might have been mentioned; but these are, I humbly conceive, sufficient to prove the thing intended, that the Holy Ghost is a person. I have no more than mentioned the scriptures, which contain these personal characters, because I shall have occasion under a following head, to refer to some of them for the proof of his deity.(a)

(a)" THAT the Holy Scriptures make mention of Three by way of great eminence and distinction may appear from many passages, out of which I shall only produce some. At the Prediction of the blessed Virgin's conception, which was to be without the concurrence of a man, the divine message is delivered in these words: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; Therefore, also that Holy Thing, that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Here are plainly distinguished from each other, the Holy Ghost, or Power overshadowing; the Highest, whose Power that Spirit is; and the Holy Thing, or Person, who is called the Son of God, because born of a mother, impregnated by that Divine Power. At our Blessed Lord's Baptism, the Spirit of God, we read, descended like a dove and rested upon him, and a voice from Heaven declared him to be the Son of God: Nothing can be plainer than three Persomalities in this transaction; the Father speaking from Heaven, the Son coming out of Jordan, and the Spirit descending from above. In the Promise, which on7

Object. It will be objected, by those who are favourers of the Sabellian scheme, that the characters which we have laid down,

blessed Saviour makes his disciples, to comfort their hearts against what was coming upon them, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth; and 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, there are manifestly Acts, and Persons, and capacities, different. The Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds, whom the Son prays, and by whom, at the Son's Request, the Comforter was given: The Son, praying the Father, sending the Comforter from the Father, and testified of by the Spirit so sent: And the Spirit, given by the Father, sent by the Son, testifying of the Son, and, upon the Son's Departure, abiding for ever with the Disciples.

The great Apostle of the Gentiles, to enforce the Doctrine of the resurrection, tells the Romans, that if the Spirit of him, who raised Jesus from the dead, dwelt in them, he that raised Christ from the dead would also quicken their mortal bodies by his Spirit, that dwelled in them; where he evidently refers to Jesus, the Son of God, raised from the Dead; to the Spirit of God, by which he was raised; and to him that raised Jesus, and at the last great day shall raise all others, in whom his Spirit dwells. The same apostle, to satisfy the Corinthians of the benefits of their conversion, after having enumerated several ranks of sinners, and such were some of you, says he, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God, i. e. God the Father. It cannot be denied that Sanctification and Justification are the gifts of God alone; for none can absolve us from the Guilt and pollution of sin, but he only: But then the Apostle tells the Corinthians, that this benefit they received not only from God the Father, but from the Lord Jesus likewise, and from the Holy Spirit: Analogous to which is that other Passage in the same epistle; There are diversi ties of gifts, but the same Spirit, (there is the third Person in the Trinity) there are differences of Administration, but the same Lord, (there is the second Person) and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, (or first person in the Trinity) that worketh all in all. Once more, the same Apostle, in his prayer for the Thessalonians, directs his devotion to the ever blessed Trinity: Now God himself, even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you, and the Lord, (i. e. the Holy Ghost) make you to increase and abound in love one towards another: For that by the Lord we are here to understand the Holy Ghost, I think is very plain from the next verse; " to the end, that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints; since he is the Sanctifier, and to establish our hearts in holiness is his proper work and office: And if so, then is there a plain enumeration of the three Persons of the Trinity in this passage.

The great Apostle of the Jews begins his first Epistle general to his dispersed Brethren sth a declaration of the same article, when he calls them elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through Sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus; for there we may observe, that the three Persons are not only expressly named, but their distinct employments, with reference to man's salvation, are particularly specified, while the Father is said to elect, the Spirit to sanctify, and the holy Jesus to shed his blood. The beloved Apostle St. John, in his Salutation to the Churches, Grace, and Peace from him, which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his Throne, and from Jesus Christ has given us a distinct enumeration of the three Persons in the Deity, if we will but admit, (as most interpreters have done) that by the Seven Spirits, which was a sacred number among the Jews, that one Person (viz. the Holy Ghost) is to be understood, from whom all that variety of gifts and operations, which were then conspicuous in the Christian Church, did proceed. But however this be, 'tis certain, that the passage in his Epistle of the Three which bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, are as full and plain a Testimony and declaration of this Mystery, as

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