Son, and Holy Ghost, these three persons must be the ONE GOD.

Therefore,

6. The Holy Spirit is not merely a person, but a Divine Person, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. Hence, he is spoken of in the Old Testament as Lord and Jehovah. In Acts xxviii. 25, 26, St.

Paul, referring to the Old Testament Scriptures, says: "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear," &c. Compare this with Isaiah vi. 8: "Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." In Hebrews iii. 7, 9, the Holy Ghost is identified with the God of Israel: "As the Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years; wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest."

Attributes which belong exclusively to the Most High are ascribed to the Holy Ghost; such as Omnipotence. Hence, we read of mighty signs and wonders being performed "by the power of the Holy Ghost." Rom. xv. 13. Omnipresence: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Psalm cxxxix. 7. Omniscience: "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 10; and finally, the Holy Ghost is worshipped as God. In Isaiah vi. 3, we read that the seraphim which stood above the throne of the Most

High, cried one to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." And this Lord of hosts, it appears from Acts xxviii. 25, was the Holy Ghost. The voice of the Lord of hosts said to the prophet Isaiah, "Go, and tell this people, Hear ye, indeed, but understand not," &c. (v. 9.) And the Apostle, referring to this passage, says: "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand," &c. It would be superfluous to multiply quotations and arguments on this subject, especially as further evidence in confirmation of the personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit will be adduced in discussing the doctrine of the "Trinity in Unity," to which subject we shall in the next place turn our attention.

XI. TRINITY IN UNITY.

THE doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is a mystery which the human mind cannot fully comprehend. Observations on German Neology; its dangerous tendency to infidelity. The folly of rejecting a doctrine on the ground of its incomprehensibility. The physical universe is incomprehensible, yet we know it exists. The word Trinity is not a biblical expression, but the doctrine is implied in several passages of Scripture. There is a plurality of persons in the Godhead. The opinions of Dr. A. Clarke and Simion Ben Joachi on the word Elohim. The pronouns us and our, as used by God, clearly express plurality. Various passages of Scripture considered. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Son proceeds equally from the Father and the Holy Ghost. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, have essentially the same properties and attributes ascribed to them. The Father and the Son are contained in the Holy Spirit. The unity of three persons in the Godhead, proved by a collation of the foregoing facts and arguments.

HAVING proved the existence of three distinct persons in the Godhead-namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-and that these three persons are truly and properly divine; we shall now endeavour to shew that these three persons are one Being, or God. This we admit is an important undertaking; but to explain it, so as to satisfy the curiosity of every sceptical and inquisitive mind, is impossible. The subject, in its mode, is incomprehensible to the human mind. It is, so far, not capable of palpable demonstration, so as to come plainly within the reach of common apprehension. It is an article of faith, not in opposition to reason, but infinitely above or beyond the grasp of reason. On this

account a class of modern divines say it ought to be rejected. Many of the theologians in Germany take this stand, and some few in England, who have studied the late productions of German authors, have embraced the same opinion. Neology, which simply signifies new words, or new doctrine, when rightly understood as used by the German rationalists, is sheer infidelity, or unbelief of those portions of God's Word which imply or set forth miracles—a refined philosophical system of explaining away the evident import of those Scriptural narratives, which relate to such phenomena as set forth the miraculous manifestations of divine power. Hence, whatever cannot be explained and comprehended, on what the Neologists call rational principles, they reject or disbelieve. And, as they profess to believe the Bible, their way and method of explaining many passages is most absurd and ridiculous; so incompatible with the dictates of solid sense and enlightened reason, that they appear more like freaks of sportive irony than the sober and rational interpretations of learned men. The Rev. W. Cooke, in his excellent treatise on the "Province of Reason," &c., furnishes us with several examples of their wretched mode of explaining what are considered miraculous phenomena, selected from the works of Semler, Eichorn, Ammon, Thiess, Heinrichs, &c. These specimens of German rationalism and neological criticism, strongly remind us of the deistical and impious productions of Thomas Paine; and the sceptical sarcasms of the notorious Voltaire, whose object was to turn the Bible into burlesque and ridicule. It is affirmed by the Neologists that the passage which relates to the sublime and miraculous account of our Saviour walking on the waves of the

sea, simply signifies "that he walked through the shoals, and then swam to the ship;" and that his glorious and supernatural appearance on the mount of transfiguration was nothing but a flash of sheet lightning; and that St. Peter dreamed that he heard a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son," &c. This mode of explanation, in my opinion, is nothing better than gross and barefaced infidelity the effusion of a mind (in spiritual matters,) as dark as hell and as impious as Lucifer, evincing wilful perversions of the obvious meaning and import of the inspired Word of God-perversions which have never been outdone even by avowed Atheists, either in ancient or modern times. This German theory, therefore, though called Neology, or new doctrine, is substantially nothing more than ancient sceptical infidelity revived and devoloped in a somewhat new form, under the plausible pretext of new light and new doctrine, so as to beguile the learned and bewilder and confound the illiterate. Neology may suit the taste and meet the views of a certain class of Unitarian and Deistical disputants, who reject the mysteries of revelation, and boast of maintaining those doctrines only which fall within the range of human comprehension; but to such as believe in the incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature, and the miraculous operations of omnipotent power, as set forth in many places of God's word, mere rationalism, whether ancient or modern, affords no charm or satisfaction. It is a cold, sceptical, God-insulting, God-dishonouring theory. And the principle on which it is based, viewed philosophically, or in its application to natural objects, is unsound, and would lead to the rejection of numerous well-attested facts in natural philosophy, as well as to doctrines contained