134 authority of these words-The Lord is the Spirit-added to those of ver. 6.-the Spirit giveth life-that the council of Nice borrowed the following clause of its oreed" I believe in the Holy Ghost, the LORD and GIVER OF LIFE."

IV.

The trinity in unity is the God of Israel.

Matth. xv. 31. The multitude glorified the God of Israel.

Luke i. 16, 17. The children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord THEIR GOD: and he shall go before HIM* -that is, before Christ.

2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3. The SPIRIT of the Lord spake by me-the GOD of Israel said, &c. So that unless he who spake was one being and he that said was another, the Spirit is the God of Israel.

* Dr. Clarke allows that the word him means Christ, yet denies that he is intended by the Lord their God, which is the antecedent to it: and calls this a manner of speaking.a

V.

The divine law, and consequently the authority whereupon it is founded, is that of a trinity in unity. Rom. vii. 25. I myself serve the LAW of GOD. Gal. vi. 2. Fulfil the LAW of CHRIST.* Rom. viii. 2. The LAW of the SPIRIT of life.*

a No.: 534.

The divine law then, is the law of God, Christ, and the Spirit of life. But it is written, Jam. iv. 12. There is ONE LAWGIVER who is able to save and to destroy therefore, these THREE are ONE. And here we have the true reason why the scripture has represented the whole trinity as tempted and resisted by the disobedience of man. For sin being the transgression of the Law, and the law being derived from the undivided authority of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, every breach of it is an offence against the trinity therefore it is written,

Deut. vi. 16. Thou shalt not TEMPT the LORD thy God.

1 Cor. x. 9.-Neither let us TEMPT CHRIST. Acts v. 9. How is it that ye have agreed together to TEMPT the SPIRIT of the Lord? For Dr. Clarke's opinion of this matter, see Ch. II. Art. XV.

**Dr. Clarke has left both these texts out of his collection; though he pretends to have set down all the highest expressions relating to Christ and the Spirit.

VI.

The mind and will of God is the mind and will of a trinity in unity.

The mind of God.

1 Cor. ii. 16. Who hath known the MIND of the LORD?

Ibid.-We have the MIND of CHRIST.

Rom. viii. 27. He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the MIND of the SPIRIT.

The will of God.

1 Thess. iv. 3.

This is the WILL of GOD.

Acts xxii. 14.

The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know HIS WILL.*

2 Pet. i. 21. Prophecy came not in old time by the WILL of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the HOLY GHOST.

This passage is meant of Christ and of his will. The God of our fathers (said Ananias) hath CHOSEN thee, &c. but the person in God who appeared to Ananias and said of Saul he is a CHOSEN vessel unto ME, was the Lord, even Jesus. Acts ix. 15, 17. For want of comparing the scripture with itself, Dr. Clarke has set down the text of Acts xxii. 14. as a character of the Father only. No. 366.

VII.

The power of God is the power of a trinity in unity. Eph. iii. 7.-The grace of GOD given unto me, by the effectual working of HIS POWER.

2 Cor. xii. 9--That the POWER of CHRIST may rest upon me.

Rom. xv. 19-Signs and wonders by the POWER of the SPIRIT of God.

The scripture therefore has ascribed divine power, and that in the same exercise of it, (the ministry and miracles of St. Paul) to Christ and the Spirit in common with God the father. So that when all glory and power is ascribed to the only wise God, what God can that be but the trinity? Upon this principle the

scripture is easily reconciled: upon any other it is unintelligible, as the reader may soon find by consulting Dr. Clarke and some other of the Arian writers; who to avoid this plain doctrine, have tried to amuse us with a religion made of scholastic niceties and unnatural distinctions, which no man can understand, and which themselves are not agreed in, nor ever will be to the world's end. Yet they often dispute against us from the acknowledged simplicity of the scripture !

VIII.

The trinity in unity is eternal.

Rom. xvi. 25, 26. The ministry-made manifest according to the commandment (alaris) of the EVERLASTING GOD.

Rev. xxii. 13. I (Jesus) am the FIRST and the LAST.*

Heb. ix. 14.—Who through (als) the EVERLASTING SPIRIT.

*Dr. Clarke allows these words, in this place, to mean Christ, yet where the same words occur in Rev. i. 8. with the addition of the epithet Almighty, he denies it;a though they are demonstrated to be spoken of the same person by the context and tenor of the whole chapter:† and he tells us, the character in one place differs from the other. So that upon his principle, the scripture has revealed to us two different beings, both of whom are the first and the last, yet not

a See No. 686, 414.

+ See the note at chap. III. at. XIX.

coeternal. Which is sufficient of itself to justify all

that was said above concerning his distinctions, &c. See Ch. I. Art. III.

IX.

Is TRUE.

John. vii. 28. He that sent me is TRUE.

Rev. iii. 7. These things saith he

he that hath the key of David, &c.

that is TRUE,

1 John v. 6. It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the SPIRIT is TRUTH

truth.

X.

Is Holy.

Rev. xv. 4. Who shall not fear thee, O LORD, and glorify thy name? for THOU ONLY art HOLY. Acts iii. 14. But ye denied THE HOLY ONE, and desired a murderer to be released unto you, &c. See also Dan, ix. 24. and Rev. iii. 7.

1. John ii. 20. Ye have an unction from THE HOLY ONE; that is an anointing from the Holy Ghost, who is called,

John xiv. 26.

Holy one.

Το πνεύμα το αγιον, The Spirit the

XI.

Is omnipresent.

Jer. xxiii. 24. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith

the LORD?