thee; arise, therefore, and get thee down, "and go with them, doubting nothing; for I "have sent them (Acts x. 19, 20).

Soon afterwards, the Holy Spirit was graciously pleased to interpose for the furtherance of the Gospel, by the special appointment of Barnabas and Saul to the work of the Ministry: "As they ministered unto the "Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Se

parate me Barnabas and Saul for the work "whereunto I have called them" (Acts xiii. 2.)

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Again: "When they had gone throughout

Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, and "and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia; after they were come to Mysia, they essayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them "not" (Acts xvi. 6, 7).

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St. Paul, in his farewell address to the Elders of Ephesus, reminds them of the charge which they had received from the Holy Ghost: "Take heed, therefore, unto

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yourselves and to the flock, over the which "the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,

"to feed the Church of God, which he hath "purchased with his own blood" (Acts xx. 28). But though the Church was under the immediate government of the Holy Spirit, yet was that government united with the everpresent grace and protection of the Son of God; as was experienced by St. Paul from the time of his conversion, to that of his trial before Cæsar, when "the Lord stood with him, "and strengthened him, and delivered him "out of the mouth of the lion " (2 Tim. iv. 17).

The supreme Deity of the Holy Spirit (an essential part of the doctrine of the Trinity) is manifested by the distribution of his spiritual gifts," severally as he will," even if he were not expressly called GOD, as he is (Acts v. 3, 4).

E

THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL.

IV. In the Epistles of St. Paul, our Inquirer will find evidence of the supreme Deity of the Son of God, and of the Holy Spirit, and of their equality with the Father, and, consequently, of their unity with Him in the same Divine nature. In the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he writes thus : "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to

be an Apostle, separated to the Gospel of "God (which he had promised afore by the prophets of the Holy Scriptures), concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which

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was made of the seed of David, according "to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of "God with power, according to the spirit of

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holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. i. 1-4). In this passage, our Inquirer will observe the contrast between Christ's being "made of the seed of David according to the "flesh," and his being "declared to be the "Son of God, by his resurrection from the "dead." He was proved to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead, being

"loosened from the pains of death, because

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[through his Divine nature] it was NOT POS

SIBLE that he should be holden of it" (Acts ii. 24). The Divine and human natures of Christ are contrasted here, as in St. John's Gospel: He who " was God, was made flesh" (John i. 14), and became man by his birth of the Virgin Mary. The same contrast between the two natures, our Inquirer will find expressed by St. Paul in 1 Tim. iii. 16: "GOD "was manifested in the flesh;" and in Romans ix. 8: "Whose are the fathers, and of whom, "as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is*

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over all, God blessed for ever." And so in Philippians ii. 6, 7: "Who, being in the "form of GOD,"--was " made in the likeness of man." In his Epistle to the Colossians (i. 15, 16, 17), the Apostle has fully expressed the Divine nature of Christ in his pre-existent state, by the attributes of creation, omnipresence, and providence : "Who is the image

ων, "who is," according to the Common Version. But I am inclined to think, that the expression relates to the pre-existence of Christ before his incarnation, and should be translated, who was. See before, p. 44, Note, and compare John viii. 58, and Col. i. 17.

"of the invisible God, the first-born of every "creature [born before all creation]; for by

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Him were all things created that are in

heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be thrones, or do"minions, or principalities, or powers, all

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things were created BY him and FOR him:

"And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.' In the second chapter of the same Epistle (ver. 9), the Apostle has expressed the union of both natures in Christ: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the "Godhead bodily." To the declaration of the Divine attributes of Christ, may be added the celebrated one in the Epistle to Titus (ii. 13): "Looking for that blessed hope, and "the glorious appearing of the great God and "our Saviour Jesus Christ;" that is, our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ: for so it ought to be translated, for certain grammatical reasons, of which our humble Inquirer can be no judge, and on the authority of the most learned of the ancient Fathers of the Church, which he may reasonably respect and trust.