.

wardly, in the form of mere truth, as a form of doctrine or sensible precept, but, inwardly, in the heart's emotion and the will's determination, as the good of that truth-thus in filling his disciples from an inmost ground with the vastly increased powers and felicities of that good, which, as it is in a higher degree than the truth that proceeds from it, just as an essence is in a higher degree than its form, is therefore said to be greater than the truth. Thus it is that the father, as a principle of good, was greater than Jesus Christ, as a principle of truth.

And the disciples, if they had really loved the Lord, instead of loving themselves-if they had loved the truth for its own sake, instead of loving it on account of its administering in some way to self-interest or self-gratification-thus, if they had loved the truth for the sake of the good to which it leads in the regeneration of their own souls and the souls of all men, they would have rejoiced, because the Lord said he was going unto the father; for they would have seen that the father was greater than he—they would have perceived that the principle of goodness was in a higher degree and therefore more important and more essential to their salvation than a principle of mere truth. And the thought of his more intimate union with the father, and his consequent more powerful operation on their spirits with the spirit of his truth, would have been in the highest degree delightful to them; because this thought and conviction. would have refreshed and strengthened their spiritual love of the Lord's essential qualities; whereas they were in the natural love of his person, and promising themselves that worldly eminence and that earthly comfort which the presence and the influence of his person here on earth would give; and hence were feeling sorrowful and desolate in the thought of his departure.

Thus this passage does not imply a personal inferiority of the Lord Jesus to the father. It only implies that inferiority which exists between truth and good, or between a form and its essence, or a body and its soul. And it implies this only when the body is considered distinctively from the soul, or the form from the essence, or truth from good. Hence it was only said by the

Lord, that the father was greater than he, while he was yet not fully glorified-while, as divine truth apparently separate, he was not yet fully, that is, infinitely, united with the divine good, from which he originally proceeded. In the degree that this union took place, in the same degree he and the father were one; so that all things which the father had were his, and they that saw him saw the father. Hence it was a ground of rejoicing that, when he left the disciples as to the flesh, he would, by a more intimate union with the father or essential divine principle, be in a capacity to impart infinitely greater blessings to their spirits.

The consideration which we have given to our subject enables us, then, to see, that the inferiority of himself to the father, of which the Lord Jesus speaks, is not the inferiority, of one person to another in the godhead, but the subordination of an external to an internal principle, which is indispensable to a perfect unity of all the divine principles in the one divine person, Jesus Christ. Such is the clear evidence of his sole divinity, which the spirit of truth, when its true nature is known, gives, in its testification of Jesus.

What, then, is the sum of the subjects discussed in this and the last discourse? It is, in few words, this: that the spirit which testifies to us truly of Jesus Christ, is the life of his truth, proceeding from good in him and leading to corresponding good in us. It is the life of truth, flowing from the love of truth for its own sake. This life cannot be lived at first; for all men are first natural, and therefore at first actuated by the love of self; but, if we mortify and deny self-love, in obedience to the divine commands, we shall at length become so spiritual, that the Lord can send this life unto us. And when this spirit or life comes to us, it relieves us from the turmoils and deep temptations consequent on the conflicts between our external and our internal man-thus gives us internal peace and external tranquillity, and so is our comforter, guiding us into all the truth that is correspondent to the love in which we are principled, and making us know, in the lively experience of its effects,

the good to which that truth leads, so as to testify to us of that good.

If, then, we would know the truth, and the good of it, without any possibility of deception, let us put away, by self examination, contrition and repentance, every love which is contrary to the divine love: then will the divine love flow into us, and by its own light guide us in true wisdom's ways, which are pleasantness, and keep us unerringly in her paths, which are peace.

SERMON IV.

JOHN, XX. 22.

"And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the holy ghost."

In the first of the two discourses immediately preceding, we showed the true nature of the spirit which testifies of Jesus, and in the last, we proceeded to throw the light of that discussion upon certain passages of the Word in which the holy spirit is mentioned, so as to show the nature and necessity of the Lord's second advent, as well as to explain the sense in which Jesus Christ asserts his inferiority to the father. The design of all was, to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is one with the father and the holy spirit-that in him, as one divine person, dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily; and, therefore, that he is God alone, and the sole object of christian worship.

We shall, in this discourse, pursue this subject, so as still further to show the identity of Jesus Christ in person, with both the holy spirit and the father. For it is only in the degree that we can remove from the common mind the prevalent erroneous notion of these being three separate and distinct persons in the godhead, that we can have any hope of introducing the true idea of their being nothing more than three distinct principles in the one person Jesus Christ. On the present occasion, therefore, we shall still further show from the Word, as the true and palpable meaning of our present text, that the holy spirit is not a person separate from Jesus, but a divine sphere proceeding from him.

Little need now be said in further disproof of the personality

of the holy spirit. For we have shown that the father, the son and the holy spirit are no otherwise distinct than fire, flame and a sphere of heat and light are in the sun. We may here just say, that they are no otherwise distinct than are soul, body and conduct in man. We suppose, therefore, that the holy ghost is the operation of the Lord Jesus from the father within him. For it is our doctrine, that the father, or essential divine principle, is the soul of the Lord Jesus; that Jesus Christ, or the human principle which the essential divinity assumed and glorified in time, is the body of the father; and thus that the holy spirit is the conduct, or operation of this body from this soul. It is, then, in the sense of the holy spirit's being a divine sphere proceeding from the son, that we suppose the Lord Jesus and the holy spirit to be one: and a very few passages from the Word will prove this.

But, before we bring forward this proof from the Word, we must remark upon the term person, and notice the argument in favour of the personality of the holy spirit from the use of the masculine pronoun.

an

Among those who hold to a tri-personal God, there seems to be, as already intimated, some diversity of opinion as to what is to be understood by the term person. It is generally defined " individual substance of a rational intelligent nature." This is the common theological definition. And, though some object to the use of the term person in this sense, in reference to the trinity, yet it is generally maintained, that "no single term, at least, can be found more suitable, and that it can hardly be condemned as unscriptural or improper." Let us see.

In the english translation of the New Testament, the word person is used in the singular about eight times, and in the plural, persons, about six times. This word is used more frequently in the Old Testament, but never, it is believed, in express application to the Divine Being. And of the fourteen times that it is used in the New Testament, it is applied to the Divine Being, as the father or the son, only twice, and as the holy spirit not once. The instance in which it is applied to the father is Heb. i. 3; where, speaking of the son, it is said,