claffed the opinions of mankind, will refer me; let him only remember that I do not now embrace such errours ; for that philofophy, by which I fhould have faid that he who is God, is therefore not man, is fuperfeded; and I yield my faith obedient to his word, whofe word alone is true; and, by confequence, I believe that Jefus Chrift is come 66 a man as concerning the flesh," and that he is also "over all, God bleffed for ever," Rom. ix. 5.

The truth as fet forth in the scriptures, I have all along acknowledged my reafon incapable to comprehend; but Mr. Lindsey thinks it ought to be comprehenfible, and will not allow that God had a right to retain a power greater than he has given us abilities to fearch into; or wifdom, the exercife of which he has not endowed us with a capacity to understand; and therefore he thinks we had better reject all that furpaffes our faculties: for, by fo doing, he is of opinion that we should have a perfect union in the church. Let us for a moment grant that we should obtain this union; what is it? An union in errour; and is fuch an union to be defired? is this the object of his wishes? does he look upon a concurrence in falfehood as a compenfation for rejected truth? But the ruin of truth, he fays, and quotes Dr. Clayton for it, is not likely to refult; for the gates of hell fhall never prevail against the Chriftian religion. That they never will is my fincere belief, and therefore it is my fincere belief, that Mr. Lindfey's proposed union in errour will never take place; for, is the rejection of a point, on which nothing less than the effence of Chriftianity depends; is the denial of his divinity, whom we worship, no fubverfion of his religion? I think that the object of my worship, and of my reli gion is one; and if my worship be deprived of its object, I know not where to find that of my religion; and fhould, on seeing "the King of kings" degraded from

the throne of his glory, the "God who purchased us with his own blood," torn from the fupplication of his adorers, then fay that the gates of hell had prevailed against his church; an event which I trust that, of his infinite mercy, and according to his immutable promife, he will avert. But I fhall now refume the conceffion I made for a while, and oppofe Mr. Lindsey's affertion, that union would be the confequence of a legal establishment, or admiffion of his tenets; for we of the church, as now established, might, in that cafe, think fit to be diffenters from his doctrines, as he diffents now from ours. I know that, for my part, I fhould oppose them to the utmost of my power. But the true meaning of his words is eafily comprised in this fhort but profound propofition, That if all mankind will agree with Mr. Lindfey, Mr. Lindfey will not difagree with all mankind: yet even this I must take the liberty to doubt,

It is a very weak affertion, that faith in the divinity of Jefus Chrift leads to the admiffion of many objects of worship, and that the church of Rome has thence taken occafion to adore the Virgin Mary, the apoftles, and martyrs, and fuch other perfons as her own favour has been pleased to rank among her faints: for as the ground of faith in Jefus Chrift, as God, is by no means pretended to be the ground for the adoration of any befides him, it is not true that the faints are worfhipped, because he is revealed to be God. Jefus Chrift is revealed to be God; the faints are not revealed to be God does it therefore follow that the faints are to be worshipped? Certainly not. But very particular care has been taken to guard against the adoration of the Virgin Mary, and the apostles, and to prevent their being confidered as proper objects of worship, though fhe was declared bleffed among women, and they were highly favoured above men, having been entrusted with

the

the teftimony of Jefus Chrift, who also wrought many miracles by their hands in support of their witness. It feems to have been with a view of preventing mankind from looking upon fuch circumftances as a ground of worship, that our Saviour has, in more paffages than one, spoken with feeming difrefpect (if I may dare to ufe the expreffion of him who was without fin) to his mother: "woman, what have I to do with thee?" John ii. 4. "Who is my mother?" Mark iii. 33, &c. Peter, when Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him, "took him up, faying, Stand up, I myself alfo am a man," Acts x. 25, 26. And Paul and Barnabas, when they heard that the priest of Jupiter, with the people at Lyftra, would have done facrifice unto them," rent their cloaths, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like paffions with you; and yet with these fayings fcarce restrained they the people, that they had not done facrifice unto them," Acts xiv. 14, 15, 18. And even the angel, than whom man is made a little lower, declined the worship of St. John, faying, "I am thy fellow fervant, and of thy brethren that have the teftimony of Jefus, worship God," Rev. xix. 10. From the exercise of miraculous power, from fupernatural endowments, we find mankind eafily perfuaded to conclude divinity, or at least an adorable fuperiority in those who are so endowed. To guard against this propenfity to fuperftition, and to fhew that from an absolute revelation only we are to believe the divinity of any, the feveral texts which I have cited, feem to have been written. It is true a revelation that Jefus Chrift is God, one with the Father, conveys an idea different from that of Mr. Lindfey, that the Father only is God, and fo may afford an analogy, by which, faith, in a multitude of perfons in the Godhead, might be facili

tated,

tated, if revealed, but by no means a proof that there are more persons than are revealed: let us ftill remember the limits of reafon, and not perpetually fly beyond her confines: fhe will conduct us very fafely, if we do not obtrude premises upon her which are not within her district with refpect to fcripture truths, the peremptory word of the God of truth, is the ultimate boundary of her province. Our terms of falvation are prescribed, and God does not require our ingenuity in finding more points of faith than he has offered for our affent in order to fecure it; and if he has not revealed, he does not need our belief, however like we may conclude our own fuggeftions to be to that which he has made known. Analogy may indeed facilitate conception, and make us more readily enter into a pofition laid down; yet it is but a bad ground to argue upon, for no certain conclufion can ever follow from it. I fhall myfelf ufe it now to illuftrate; and as I have denied that it can, from the divinity of Jefus Chrift, fhew the divinity of any other not revealed to be divine, I only afk its affistance in procuring a more easy affent to the divinity of that which is revealed to be divine; and this will, I presume, not be withheld by those who have carried its ufe fo much higher than I dare to do. If then the Holy Ghost be revealed to be one with the Father, and the Son, God, it may be fome ease to the mind in giving its affent to the existence of a third person in the Godhead, to reflect that it has already acquiefced in the admiffion of a second. It is not my intention to examine into the evidence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit fo extensively as I have already done into that which is afforded to the Godhead of our bleffed Redeemer; it is not fo ftrenuously oppofed; befides my attentive reader has, in all probability, inferred it for himself, from several contexts which I have laid down already, though I have not directly pointed it

out

out as a conclufion. I fhall therefore now content myself with a very few paffages proving the Holy Ghost to be God alfo, reminding my reader of what I have already offered concerning the fufficiency of any one affertion, for the truth of which God himself is refponfible.

I.

"He shall be great, and fhall be called the Son of the Highest." "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore alfo that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, fhall be called the Son of God," Luke i. 31, 35. "That which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghoft," Matth. i. 20. That which is conceived of the Holy Ghoft, is therefore called the Son of God; the Holy Ghost therefore, of whom the Son of God is conceived, is one with the Father and the Son," the Higheft."

II.

"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." "I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you." "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him," John xiv. 16, 17, 18, 23. Here the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, are, or is, the Comforter, the witness to the truth, which fhall come and abide, or make abode with him who loveth the Son, and keepeth his words. The identity of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit with that of the Father, and of the Son, is here expressly declared.

III.

For John xvi. 12, 13, 14, 15, see above, p. 46. These verses afford a very strong proof of the perfonality of the Holy Ghost. The perfonal pronoun he is

referred