Working Miracles; which, as you know, is either a suspension, or counteraction, of the laws of nature, or of the Divine agency operating conformably to those laws; and is, therefore, with pecul iar evidence, an act of God himself. This, as I have already remarked concerning the power exerted in it, is throughout the New Testament ascribed to the Holy Ghost.

Inspiration.-Holy men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter i. 21.

Giving life.—It is the Spirit that quickeneth. John vi. 63. Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. 1 Pet. iii. 18. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you.

Sanctification. This also is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, appropriately, throughout the New Testament.

Instances of the same general nature might be easily increased in numbers, and the proofs might be easily multiplied to a great extent; but, as discourses, so extensively made up of detached passages of Scripture, are apt to be less interesting than could be wished, I shall desist.

4thly. The Holy Ghost is a Divine Person because he is united with the Father and the Son in the Baptismal service and in the blessing, pronounced upon Christians by ST. PAUL.

I have mentioned these subjects together, because they have some things in common. Yet there are, also, some things in which they differ. Go, and teach all nations, said our Saviour to his Apostles, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, says St. Paul to the Corinthian Church, and through them to all Christians, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

In the commission, here given by Christ to his Apostles, it is impossible, that an attribute should, with propriety or meaning, be joined with persons; or a creature with one or more Divine persons. No absurdity can strike the mind with more force, than that Christ should direct the Apostles to baptize in the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Divine Power. Nothing but impiety can, so far as I see, be contained in a direction to baptize in the name of God, and of a creature. What creature would dare to associate himself with God in such an act of authority, and thus presume to ascend the throne of his Maker? The same things are equally true concerning the form of blessing, above recited. Can St. Paul be supposed to have united either a creature, or an attribute, with the Eternal God in this solemn service? What blessings could either of these bestow? Both the creature and the attribute, considered by themselves, are in this view, nothing.

But this form of blessing is a prayer; and is addressed equally to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Can St. Paul have addressed a prayer either to an attribute, or to a creature?

380:

hereafter.

[SER. LXX.

Farther; the blessing prayed for from the Holy Ghost is comtherefore, the declaration, that the Holy Ghost will, if the prayer munion, or fellowship. The request for this blessing involves, supplicated, and present with that influence, which is the source of be granted, be present with all those, for whom this communion is spiritual and immortal life. In other words, the Holy Ghost is here his pleasure communicating, life here, as the commencement of life exhibited as Omnipresent; and as every where possessing, and at of the Spirit of truth furnishes Christians with the most solid founI shall conclude this discourse with observing, that the Divinity dation for gratitude, and joy. It will be seen, in the progress of troduced into this world by the Mediation of Christ. He sanctifies these discourses, that He is the sum of all the moral blessings, inthe soul; brings it out of darkness into marvellous light; improves this life; furnishes it with every gift and grace; prompts it to all virit in holiness; conducts it through the temptations and dangers of this great work he is abundantly qualified by the possession of intue and excellence; and fills it with all spiritual enjoyment. finite perfection; of all that is great, and all that is good. world, He commences, and carries it on. In the future world, He advances it to absolute perfection. Through the ages of eternity He will supply, enrich, and adorn, the soul with endless virtue, as

the means of endless happiness and glory.

For

In this

SERMON LXXI.

TESTIMONIES TO THE doctrine OF THE TRINITY, FROM THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND HEATHENS.

ISAIAH xlviii. 16.-Come ye near unto me; hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time, that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me.

IN the last discourse I considered the Personality and Divinity of the Spirit of God. In a series of discourses, formerly delivered, I considered the Divinity of Christ. If the arguments, alleged in those discourses, are as conclusive, as they appear to me; they prove the existence of a TRINITY, or three Persons in one God.

The proof of this doctrine must unquestionably be derived from the Scriptures alone. But, when a doctrine of this extraordinary nature is presented to the mind, we naturally feel a strong curiosity to know the manner, in which the same doctrine has been regarded by others; particularly by such, as have lived before us; and peculiarly by the Ancient Members of the Jewish and Christian Churches. Nor is this a matter of mere curiosity. If the doctrine of the Trinity were, now, first discovered by mankind to be contained in the Scriptures, the words being supposed to have remained always the same; we should undoubtedly be surprised to find, that those passages, which, in our view, clearly contain this doctrine, had never been understood by others in the same manner, as by ourselves. Particularly, we should be inclined to doubt the soundness of our own interpretations, if we found the Jews construing such passages in the Old Testament, and the early Christians in the New, in a manner, totally different from ours. Were such the fact, we should, I think, very naturally suspect our own mode of construction: for we could not easily believe, that the Jewish Church was always ignorant of this doctrine, if it was really taught by the Prophets; nor the early Christian Church, if it was decisively communicated by the Apostles. It will be easily seen, that the time, in which those lived, to whom an appeal of this nature is made, must be important, as well as the character of the witnesses. The more ancient the witnesses are, other things being equal, the more valuable must be their testimony; and such testimony, if really ancient, and at the same time explicit and decisive, cannot fail of yielding material satisfaction to every rational inquirer.

Nor is the testimony even of Heathens concerning this subject, to be disregarded. If we find that the ancient Heathen nations, generally, or in most or all instances, independently of any ac

quaintance with the Scriptures, have holden the doctrine of a Triad constituting a Monad, that is, a Supreme God, who was One in one sense, and Three in another; we cannot easily avoid the conclusion, that they derived this doctrine from a single source, and, that that source was Revelation. The doctrine plainly lies wholly out of the course, I think I may say, out of the reach, of human thought. There is, therefore, no reason, why we should believe it to have been invented by man. Much less is there any reason, to suppose it invented by men, in so many different nations, and in such circumstances of barbarism, as almost preclude the invention of any philosophical doctrine. The source of the doctrine must, therefore, have been one: and that a Revelation, existing before these nations were separated from each other.

In the text, a Person declares concerning himself: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, in the original the Lord JEHOVAH, and his Spirit hath sent me. The Person, speaking in this verse, is in the second verse called Jehovah of hosts; or Jehovah God of hosts. And in the twelfth verse he says, I am he; I am the first: I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, my right hand haih spanned the heavens.

When I call unto them, they stand up together. The person, speaking in the text, is, then, JEHOVAH OF HOSTS; the first and the last; the Creator of the earth and the heavens. And this Per

son says, And now the Lord JEHOVAH and his Spirit hath sent me: or, more probably, The Lord JEHOVAH hath sent me and his Spirit. Origen, as quoted by Bishop Lowth, comments on this passage in this manner: "Who is it that saith, in Isaiah, "And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit ?" in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit, who have sent Jesus? or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit? The latter is the true interpretation." This opinion of Origen appears to be just; because we no where read in the Scriptures, that Christ was sent by the Spirit; but, every where, that both Christ, and the Spirit, were sent by the Father, called in the text the LORD GOD. To the present purpose, however, this difference of interpretation is wholly immaterial. Whether the Spirit send or be sent, he is equally determined to be a living agent; since in the physical sense it is impossible, that any other being should either send, or be sent. In the text, then, the doctrine of a TRINITY is directly declared by a Person, styled JEHOVAH OF HOSTS. Let us now see what countenance this doctrine receives from the sources which I have specified above.

It will not be imagined, that in the compass of such a discourse, any thing more can be done than merely to make a moderate selection of the testimonies referred to. For those, which I shall mention, I am chiefly indebted to Bishop Bull, Doctor Jamieson, Mr. Maurice, and the Asiatic Researches: and it is believed, that

they will be sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently explicit, to satisfy a mind willing to receive the truth.

1. To the Pre-existence of Christ the following testimonies must, I think, be regarded as complete.

1st. Justin Martyr, who flourished in the year 140, and was born about the close of the first century, declares Christ to have been the person who appeared to Abraham, under the Oak of Mamre; and asserts that the person, here called LORD OF JEHOVAH, to whom Abraham prays for Sodom, and who, in the next chapter, is said to rain fire and brimstone on the Cities of the plain, was no other than Christ. He also asserts, that Christ appeared to Moses in the bush.

2dly. Irenæus, who flourished in the year 178, declares, that Christ, as God, was adored by the Prophets; was the God of the living; and the living God; that he spoke to Moses in the bush; and that afterwards, the same Person refuted the doctrine of the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection of the dead. He further says, that Abraham learned divine truth from the Logos, or Word of God.

3dly. Theophilus of Antioch, who flourished in the year 181, declares, that Christ, assuming O TROOWTOV FOU TaTgos, the character of the Father, that is, the Divine character, came to Paradise in the appearance of God, and conversed with Adam.

4thly. Clemens Alexandrinus, who flourished in the year 194, exhibits Christ as the Author of the former precepts, and of the latter; that is, of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and of the New; deriving both from one fountain.

5thly. Tertullian declares, that it was the Son of God who spoke to Moses, and who appeared, that is, as God, at all times; that he overthrew the Tower of Babel; confounded the languages of men; and rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. He calls him Dominus a Domino; and says, that he only, and alway, conversed with men, from Adam down to the Patriarchs and Prophets, in visions and dreams; and that no other God conversed with men, beside the Word, who was afterward to be made flesh.

II. That Christ was the Creator of the world, in the view of the ancient Church, the following testimonies satisfactorily prove.

1st. Barnabas, who, as you well know, was a companion of the Apostles, and could not but know their views of this subject, says, in an epistle of his, yet remaining, "The Sun in the heavens was the work of the Son of God."

2dly. Hermas, also a companion of the Apostles, says, that "the Son of God was more ancient than any creature; seeing he was present with the Father at the Creation of the World.”

3dly. Athenagoras, who flourished in the year 178, says, that "by Christ, and through Christ, all things were created; since the Father and the Son are "v; one thing; one substance."