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the co-effentiality of the Holy Ghoft. If you take it otherwise, there can be no paralel between the two cafes. For how strange would it be to fay-the human Spirit knows the things of a man, because it is in him; EVEN SO, the Divine Spirit knows the things of God, because it is out of him. This text brings the matter to a fhort iffue. The Church affirms the Spirit to be in God, as a person of the fame divine nature: the Arians deny it, and will understand him to be out of God; not a person of the divine nature, but one inferior to, and distinct from it. To fee on which fide the truth lies, a man needs no other qualification but that of faith, to receive the Scripture as the infallible word of God; which the Arians, in most of their writings, have very freely confeffed it to be. If once they come openly to deny this, they are no longer Arians, but infidels of another denomination, with whom a different course is to be taken.

XIV.

I Cor. II. II. The THINGS OF GOD knoweth no man.

a The Scripture ufes the fame prepofition to denote the co-efCentiality of Chrift - John XIV. 11. I am (EN TO Пares) In the Father. And 13.32. God shall glorify him (EN sauta) In Himself.

I

Ibid.

Ibid. v. 14. But the natural man recei→ veth not the THINGS OF THE SPIRIT

OF GOD.

Here again, the Scripture makes no distinction, farther than that of personality, between God and the Spirit of God; but renders unto God the things that are God's, by rendering them to the Spirit, who is God.

XV.

Deut. VI. 16. and Matt. IV. 7. Thou fhalt not TEMPT the LORD thy GOD. Acts V. 9. How is it that ye have agreed to TEMPT the SPIRIT of the

LORD.

The Spirit is here substituted as the object of that particular act of difobedience, of which, according to the Law and the Gospel, the only object is the Lord our God: therefore the Spirit is the Lord our God.

Dr. Clarke denies that in "any place of Scripture "there is any mention made of any SIN against the "Holy Ghoft but only of a BLASPHEMY." He that can distinguish BLASPHEMY from SIN,

a S. D. p. 212,

a

muft

must be an acute reasoner; when it is of all fins the greatest. But is it no SIN against the Holy Ghost, to lye to him, to grieve him,* or to tempt him? why then did the Lord fwear in his wrath against those that grieved him, if it were no SIN? and why was that commandment given in the Law, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God? And if the Spirit be tempted, is not the Spirit the object offended by that temptation? this is the very thing that learned man was afraid of. He would have proved blafphemy to be no Sin, left the Spirit should appear to be the object of Sin; for that would have proved him to be God, the author and giver of the Law: and that, again, would have spoilt his Scripture Doctrine : fo the short way was, to deny it.

XVI.

Gen. VI. 3. And the LORD faid, MY SPIRIT shall not always ftrive with man.

The Spirit of the Lord ftrove with the Inhabitants of the old world, endeavouring to reclaim them by grace, and waiting long for their repentance. But this is called, 1 Pet. III. 20. The long fuffering of GOD that waited in the days of Noah.

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XVII.

Luke XI. 20. If I with the FINGER of GOD caft out Devils.

The paralel place in St. Matthew's Gospel has it thus ;

Matth. XII. 28. If I with the SPIRIT of GOD caft out Devils.

The finger of God is a metaphorical expreffion for the immediate power and agency of God: and to say, that Devils were caft out by the finger of God, is the fame as to say, that they were caft out by God himself. But it appears from the text of St. Matthew, that this particular act of the finger of God, that is, of God himself, was the act of the SPIRIT; therefore, the Spirit is God himself.

XVIII.

and

Exech. VIII. 1—3. The hand of the
LORD GOD fell there upon me
HE (the Lord God) put forth the form
of an hand and took me by a lock of

mine head, and the SPIRIT lift me up, &c.

In this text, the name of the Lord God, and the name of the Spirit, do both belong to the fame perfon. For though it be said that the Spirit lifted up the prophet, yet was it no other than the Lord God who put forth the form of an band and took him: therefore the SPIRIT is the LORD GOD.

AƐts IV. 24, 25.

XIX.

They lift up their voice to God with one accord, and faid, LORD, thou art GOD, which haft

made heaven and earth,

and all that therein is.

mouth of thy fervant

and the sea,

WHO by the DAVID haft

Said, &c.

The terms LORD and GOD are here used to exprefs the Divinity of him, who fpake by the mouth of his fervant David. But it was the perJon of the HOLY GHOST, who spake by the mouth of his fervant David - for, faith St. Peter

This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled,

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