not the least knowledge or idea. We know enough of God to obtain, by the practical use of what we know, the enjoyment of an imperishable happiness. But we know of God only so much as is necessary for this purpose, and as can be revealed to us according to the capacity of our nature. Between us and the Deity there must ever remain a distance too great to be measured. We are a species of creatures, not in our present state possessing any great abundance of the perfections of intellectual nature. We dwell in a little corner of the world, and are acquainted with only a very small number of the works of God. Yet we attribute to God, as has been before proved, only the perfections which we either find in ourselves, or obtain some knowledge of from the operations of his power in nature. But are these, taken together, all possible realities or perfections? How many thousand species of creatures may there yet be, gradually exceeding each other in their perfections, until the mighty scale that reaches from earth to heaven is filled up? How vast the distance! How many millions of spirits, between a human soul and the loftiest of created natures? Now, since to all these beings, so vastly differing from each other, God has given their respective conditions of existence, there must necessarily be in him infinite perfections corresponding to those which are finite in them. As then we are absolutely and entirely destitute of any idea of the properties which belong to other rational created beings in the universe, excepting angels, of whom we know a little from revelation; it follows that there are in God some perfections which are entirely concealed from our capacity of knowledge. It argues no little weakness of mind, for a man to imagine that with his diminutive soul he has comprehended God, and has thoroughly studied the Divine Attributes; because he has learned what is said on these subjects in the booksystems of philosophers and divines. Probably not the thousandth part of what is in God is known to man. We contemplate him only from that point of view which our nature and faculties are capable of occupying. Does not an angel know more of God than we? Does not such a higher being in the scale of creation behold the infinite perfections in a brighter light than we are capable of enjoying? And further, How many kinds and species of spirits may there be, in the immeasurable system of the universe? They all form their conceptions of God, according to what they find in themselves: they contemplate him only from their own position: they learn to know him from such of his operations as they discover in themselves and the other parts of his creation with which they are acquainted: and the nearer they approach to the most exalted image of the Deity, None of all the superior the more of his perfections they behold. beings exhausts the unfathomable ocean. ever infinite depths of Deity, hidden from all finite intelligences: depths, full of perfections, of which man, in his present state, can form not the smallest idea. soever. "From the truth thus established, it follows that the realities, or actual perfections, which are in the Deity, may with propriety be distinguished into two classes. The one consists of those to which we find something very similar in the human mind. God has knowledge, will, and freedom: he is wise, benign, and merciful. The other class must comprehend those to which there is nothing in the human mind that bears any conformity or resemblance whatIf now a person were to reason thus; Such a property, such a reality, such a mode of subsisting, is not perceived in the mind of man, therefore it cannot exist in God:-would he not betray his ignorance? But this is exactly the situation into which the opposers of the doctrine of the Trinity put themselves. The mode of existence, say they, which is not found in the mind of man, cannot be in God. How short-sighted is this reasoning! Human minds are so constituted, that each one has its own peculiar set of faculties. In the little circle which lies within our field of view, we know of no substance in which a plurality of subjects are in such a manner combined, and operate so together with one set of faculties, that they compose only one substance. Is it then rational to say; Since we find not this mode of existence in ourselves, therefore it cannot have place in the Infinite Being? Surely I might with equal propriety conclude, that, since no man can create out of nothing a single particle of matter, therefore God cannot: that, since no human being can at the same time be in heaven and act immediately upon earth, God is incapable of doing so. Is not the rational and necessary conclusion in the opposite direction? Since God is a being of a nature and mode of existence altogether different from those of man, and infinitely superior, therefore there must be in him much that has no counterpart in man. "If now God himself has testified that his own Nature is such as we maintain, is any further proof needed? All that remains is to ascertain, whether we understand in their true, proper, and genuine sense, those passages of Scripture upon the force of which we believe the doctrine of the DEITY OF CHRIST." APPENDIX III. ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THE discussion of this subject forms no part of the inquiry which has been prosecuted in the preceding pages. But the obvious, though not necessary connexion, and the desire of some to whose judgment I pay much deference, induce me to add this Sketch of the Positive Evidence for the Deity and Personality of the HOLY SPIRIT. We frequently read in the Old Testament, and still more frequently and definitely in the New, of an Agent superior to human or any created rank of powers or intelligences, and to which the qualities peculiar to a personal existence appear to be attributed. This Agent is denominated the Spirit, the One Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Lord the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of glory and of God, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, the Spirit of promise, and the (Paracletus) Instructor, Comforter, or Advocate. It is agreed on all sides that the word spirit, originally signifying air in motion and breath, was applied in some more remote significations, and particularly to mind and its affections, to intelligent creatures superior to man, and to any species of powerful influence, the cause of which was imperfectly or not at all known; but more especially to the immediate energy of the Deity; and, in a still more restricted sense, to the DEITY himself. It is further admitted that, in many places, the phrase spirit of God and its synonyms are used to denote any especial influence or energy of God, whether exercised in a miraculous manner or according to the ordinary laws of nature. But an accurate examination will, I conceive, satisfactorily show that there are many passages which cannot, on principles of just interpretation, be understood except as denoting a real, intelligent, personal, Divine Agent, distinct from the Father and the Son; and that, when the terms referred to bear the signification of a divine influence or energy, it is by a metonymy designed to express specifically the agency of that Sacred Person. This metonymy is the more natural, at the same time that the discrimination of the cases is rendered more difficult, from the generic character of the term. Of the passages in the Old Testament in which any of these terms occur, the greater number reasonably admit of the interpretation of divine influence. E. g. Ex. xxxi. 3. Num. xi, 17, 25. 1 Sam. Isa. xxxii. 15. But there are other pas x. 10. Job xxiii. 13. sages, in which I conceive that the attribution of personal intelligence and action is decisively more congruous with the connexion, E. g. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ;" Gen. i. 1. Some explain this as denoting only the action of a mighty wind, as the greatness of objects is, in the Hebrew style, sometimes denoted by subjoining a name of the Deity: but the nature of the subject, the brevity of the style, and the simplicity of the narrative, appear to require the more usual interpretation. "Jehovah said, "My Spirit shall not for ever strive with man, since he transgresses, "being flesh [apostate and corrupt]; but his days [of respite from "judgment] shall be a hundred and twenty years;" Gen. vi. 3. "The Spirit of Jehovah speaketh by me, and his word upon my tongue: the God of Israel hath said; to me speaketh the Rock of "Israel;" 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. "Thou gavest thy Spirit of graciousness to instruct them :-thou testifiedst against them by thy Spirit, through thy prophets;" Nehem. ix. 20, 30. "The words which "Jehovah of hosts sent by his Spirit, through the former prophets." Zech. vii. 12. "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me! "Spirit of graciousness sustain me!" Ps. li. 11, 12. "Spirit of goodness lead me into the land of uprightness!" cxliii. 10. "The Lord Jehovah hath sent me and his Spirit ;" Isa. xlviii. 16. "When the enemy shall come as a flood, the Spirit of Jehovah "will lift up the standard against him ;" lix. 19. "The Spirit of "the Lord Jehovah is upon me;" lxi. 1. "They rebelled, and in"sulted his Holy Spirit :-Where is he that put in the midst of him 66 66 66 66 Let the "May thy [the Israelitish nation] his Holy Spirit ?-As one of the cattle goeth "down into a valley, [to repose in a safe and rich pasture,] the Spirit of Jehovah led him to rest; so didst thou lead thy people, "to make to thyself a glorious name!" lxiii. 10, 11, 14. 66 66 "The Spirit came upon me and made me stand upon my feet, and spoke "to me and said: In my speaking to thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah :" 66 Ezek. iii. 24, 27. “—And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought 66 66 66 me unto the front gate of the house of Jehovah :-----and spoke unto me; therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man :- -and the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and spoke unto 46 me, Speak, thus speaketh Jehovah ;-” xi. 1, 4, 5. "O thou "who art called the house of Jacob, is the "short? Are these his doings?" Mic. ii. 7. "in the midst of you;" Haggai ii. 5. Spirit of the Lord cut “My Spirit standeth The principal passages of the New Testament may be put in the following arrangement. I. The PROPERTIES of a personal existence are attributed to the Holy Spirit. 66 Infinite intellECT, that which is peculiar to the Divine Nature. "God hath revealed [them] to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit “searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. For who of men knoweth the things of man, except the spirit of man which is "in him? So also of the things of God no one knoweth, except the "Spirit of God;" 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. The scriptural style employs the verb to search, not only in its proper sense of acquiring knowledge by a successive process, but to signify the intuitive, profound, and accurate knowledge which belongs to the Deity only. See Ps. cxxxix. 23. Jer. xvii. 10. If it be objected that the apostle here represents the Spirit as nothing more than a quality of the Divine Nature, as consciousness is of the human mind: we reply that the illustration, like every other comparison from finite things to divine, must be imperfect, and to be understood as only expressing the perfection of the Holy Spirit's knowledge; for, besides the force of other scripture testimonies, the first clause of this very passage clearly declares a personal distinction: for it could not be said, that a man makes any thing known to others by his consciousness. PRESCIENCE. John xvi. 13, cited in a following paragraph. Sovereign WILL and DETERMINATION. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of (èvɛpyýμara) operations, but the same God (ò vepy@v) who worketh them all in all [persons] All these" (among which are vepynμara dvváμewv, operations of miracles,) "that one and the same Spirit (evepyε) "operateth, distributing severally to each, according as he willeth." 1 Cor. xii. 4, 6, 11. ་ Love. "I beseech you by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the "love of the Spirit." Rom. xv. 30. · POWER. 1 Cor. xii. 11, cited above. "That ye may abound in |