and make divine. In this glorified and divine humanity, our Lord has ascended on high, and become not only the acknowledged Lord and king of the angelic hosts above, but also of his true

church upon earth.

Jehovah God of heaven and earth, is one also in essence. We readily admit that this doctrine is not, in all cases, consonant to the literal expressions of scripture. But sound reason teaches that the Lord our God cannot possess contrary qualities and essences; it will, therefore, affix on him that essence most worthy and becoming his divine character.

That the one essence of Jehovah God is love, pure, disinterested, impartial, unchangeable, will surely be assented unto by every reflecting pious mind. "God," says the apostle John, "is love." We are also taught by David, "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalm cxlv. 9).

It may here be objected, are we not instructed, that God the Father was angry with all mankind by reason of Adam's transgression, and that he sent his son into the world to appease that anger? So the doctrine may be taught by daubers in untempered mortar, but let us seriously inquire, whether it is founded on the divine truth of the sacred volume? It is read therein, that instead of anger, of vindictive fury, being the cause of the advent of Jehovah God, in the person of Jesus Christ, it was divine love unutterable. The Evangelist John records, as part of our Lord's conversation to Nicodemus (iii. 18), "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Here love, immense, infinite, eternal, consequently indescribable, is stated as the cause of the assumption of humanity. We are also taught by Paul, in his second epistle to the Corinthians (v. 19), "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us, the word of reconciliation. Now, then, as ambassadors, we beseech you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God." Herein we are decidedly taught, that instead of the Lord in the world having to reconcile the Father to offending men, the direct contrary is the case. The God of heaven in essence is love. It was man that needed the reconciliation. All of the passion of anger and wrath was with and in man, which as he puts away from himself, as infernal, he becomes re

ceptive of the good of love to God, and of charity to man, and thereby reconciled to God, because he is now of one spirit with him.

In sundry parts of the holy Word, according to the literal expression, the Lord is spoken of as being wrathful, furious, and vindictive. This is so expressed in the literal sense, because the principal use of the divine Word, in that sense, is for the instruction of the natural man, who requires to be roused to a sense of his condition, and to be induced to part with his evils, among which the evil of wrathful anger may be considered as holding a central place in all and nothing will rouse the natural man to a sense of the dangerous precipice upon which he stands, except the fear and dread of the punishment annexed to his evils. To the evil man, therefore, the loving kindness and mercy of the Lord appears, and is felt, as judgment and justice.

:

The reason bereof is, because it is an invariable law of divine order, that all and every evil shall contain its own penalty in itself. The man who sincerely repents of his evils, endures the pangs thereof in this life; while by the impenitent sinner, they are endured for ever, in the life to come.

But, because it is requisite for the natural man to have awful views of his maker, we are not to say, that he has a sight of the genuine face of the Lord. Can it for a moment be conceived, that the spirits of the just made angels, see an angry God? Surely not. Which, then, shall we say, is the correct delineation of the face of the divine majesty of heaven,-goodness, love, and mercy; or anger, fury, and vengeance? When we speak of the origin of the good of love, we say, it is of God. And when we would trace the origin of the evil of anger, we hesitate not to impute it to the devil. Thus common consent ascribes love, and not anger, to be the real essence of the God of heaven; and thus, the one, the central essence that enters into all his divine attributes and perfections.

Again, the Lord is one in operation. They who divide the godhead into three distinct persons, teach that the work of creation is attributable to God the Father; the work of redemption, to God the Son; and the work of sanctification, to God the Holy Ghost. But we say, "To the Word, and to the testimony, if they speak not according thereto, it is because there is no light in them."

If we apply ourselves hereto, we shall find, that instead of the work of creation being wholly attributable to the Father, it is equally ascribed to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. It is as

cribed to the Son by John (i. 2): "In the beginning was the Word; all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." It is attributed to the Holy Spirit by David in Psalm civ. 30: "Thou sendest forth thy spirit they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.” Also in Job (xxvi. 30): "By his spirit he has garnished the heavens." In Psalm xxxiv. 6, the work of creation is attributed both to the Son, as the Word, and to the Spirit: "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath (the spirit) of his mouth."

The apparent adverse declarations concerning creation, are at once reconciled with each other, when viewing it as the operation of one God, in whom is contained the divine trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as soul, body, and power of operation in one man. In thus considering the work of creation, we may discern the divine love, as the Father, to be the moving cause; the divine wisdom, as the Son, to plan the means; and the divine operation, as the Spirit, to be the effective hand, whereby the grand universal fabric was reared.

Let us now investigate the work of Redemption. We are taught in a before-cited scripture, that Jehovah, besides whom there is no God, is the only Saviour and Redeemer. Let us compare these divine assertions with our Lord's teaching while he was in the world, and, in his assumed humanity, stood the Son of God. Speaking of his works of redemption, he says, "The works that I do, I do not of myself, the Father who dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Hence we decidedly learn, that the work of redemption was operated as well by the Father as by the Son.

In the works both of creation and redemption, divine love is the moving cause: divine wisdom devises in what manner they may be accomplished; and the divine hand, which is the divine proceeding, and which our Lord himself was while in the world, effected the divine works.

While our Lord was in the world, he was the Holy Spirit himself, as well as the Son, agreeably to the words of prophecy by Isaiah (lxiii. 1), which, in his public ministry, he applied to himself: "the Spirit of Jehovah God is upon me; therefore he hath anointed me."

That God is one also in the work of the regeneration of his people, is demonstrated sufficiently from our Lord's soothing words to his disconsolate disciples, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you." "And when the spirit of truth is

come, he will lead you into all truth." Also, " And when the Comforter is come, he shall take of mine and shew it unto you." Hereto he is pleased to add, "All things that the Father hath are mine." That since the union of divinity with humanity, the Holy Spirit proceeds from him, may be manifest from the declaration, that "the Holy Ghost was not, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

Thus becomes clearly evinced, in the light of the divine Word, which is the light of the Lord himself, that the God of heaven is one, in person, in essence, and in operation.

That this one God is our Lord Jesus Christ, is decidedly manifest, from the divine trinity centering in his divine human person, together with all divine attributes and perfections.

That there is a divine trinity, may be learned from several parts of the sacred scriptures. As in the angelic annunciation to the Virgin Mary: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee; wherefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Here mention is made of the Holy Spirit, the highest, and the Son of God. A trinity is also expressly mentioned by our Lord, in the commission he gave to his disciples, after his resurrection : "Go, preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father; and of the Son; and of the Holy Spirit."

This statement of a divine trinity is perfectly reconcileable with the divine unity, by viewing the whole of the divine trinity as pertaining to our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a human trinity with every man, corresponding to the divine trinity with the Lord. The unseen soul of man answers to the Father; his visible body to the Son; and his power of action to the Holy Spirit. What is our Lord's own doctrine on this subject? "I and the Father are "I am in the Father, and the Father in me." "Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus says, Philip, have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me? He that seeth me, seeth the Father also; be that seeth me, seeth him that sent me."

This is incontrovertibly proved, upon the divine authority of the sacred scripture, that the Father and the Son are both included in the one adorable person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

That the Holy Spirit is the divine proceeding from our Lord, in whom the Father and the Son are united, becomes evinced from the circumstance, that after his resurrection, when he was pleased

to visit his disciples, "he breathed on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Surely this one fact is sufficient to convince any rational mind, that the Holy Spirit cannot be a separate person in the divine trinity. For, how was it possible our Lord could breathe on his disciples a separate person from himself. His breathing was a manifestation that the divine proceeding, the efflux from the one God, called the Spirit, from that period and henceforth, flows from him, in whom divinity and humanity are inseparably united, even our only Lord and Saviour. As a demonstration, therefore, that this union was accomplished in his person, he exhibited to his disciples the ultimate corresponding sign.

Well, then, may Paul boldly assert, that in Jesus Christ dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily. This fulness of the godhead will include the divine trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, together with every other divine and human perfection and attribute.

The property of the eternal, no one doubts to be a divine perfection. This our Lord attributes to himself in his discourse to the Jews, as recorded by John (viii. 56, 58): “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and was glad; verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." I am, implies being from eternity, through time, and into eternity; all periods being included in the present time.

Omnipotence is a divine attribute. This our Lord claims to himself. He taught his disciples, while he was with them (John xv. 6), “Without me ye can do nothing." And after his resurrection, when the fulness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily (Matt. xxviii. 11), "All power is given unto me in heaven and upon earth." Who then can doubt, but that he who possesses all power, who is the Almighty, bears away the palm of divinity?

That omnipresence belongs to him, we are taught from his closing declaration to his disciples when he gave them their ministerial commission, as in Matthew (xxviii. 20): "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world ;" as also, in his words of consolation to the pious worshipers of him, in Matthew (xviii. 20): "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." It is also deducible from his divine declarations concerning himself in John (iii. 12): "No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven."