LXX have rendered it :, 2. Because our blessed Saviour, in discoursing upon the manna, John vi. 31-33, quotes this part of the Psalm, and calls that the bread of God from heaven, which in the Psalm itself is called the bread of the mighty. Therefore Abirim is put for Elohim, and is taken in the plural because God is plural.

IX.

Dan. iv. 26. And whereas THEY commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, &c.

At the 13th verse of this chapter we read only of one watcher or holy one coming down from heaven, of whom it is said that HE cried-leave the stump of his roots in the earth. Yet the number is here very remarkably changed from he said to they commanded. And though the words of the curse upon Nebuchadnezzar were pronounced by a watcher and an holy one, in the singular; nevertheless, at the close of the speech, this matter is declared to be by the decree of the WATCHERS and the demand by the word of the HOLY ONES. Now it is very certain that

a Ver. 17. Compare this with Prov. ix. 10. cited in No. VIII. of this chapter.

cre

the judgments of God are not founded upon the decree and word of angels, or of any ated beings; therefore this watcher could be no created angel, but a person in the Lord Jehovah, who condescends to watch overa his people, and is called the keeper of Israel, that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. The change of these verbs and nouns from the singular to the plural, can be accounted for upon no other principle: it is a case to which there is no parallel in any language, and such as can be reconcileable only to the being of God, who is one and many. We are to collect from it, that in this, as in every act of the godhead, there was a consent and concurrence of the persons in the trinity; and though there was one only who spake, it was the word and decree of all. There is an instance of this sort in the New Testament. The disciples of Christ were commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And, without doubt, the baptism they administered was in all cases agreeable to the prescribed form. Nevertheless, we are told of some, who were commanded to be baptized in the name of the Lordb and particularly in the name of the Lord Jesus; so that there was a strange defect either in the baptism itself, or in the ac

a Jer. xxxi. 28. b Acts x. 48. c Ibid. viii. 16,

count we have of it; or the mention of one person in the trinity must imply the presence, name, and authority of them all; as the passage is understood by Irenæus-in Christi nomine subruditur qui unxit & qui unctus est, & ipsa unctio in qua unctus est. Lib. III. cap. 20.

X.

Dan. v. 18. The most high GOD gave to Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor.

V. 20. And THEY took his glory from him.

Here again, the word they is a plain relative to the most high God. Nor can it otherwise be agreeable to the sense of the history, or the reason of the thing itself, considered as a matter of fact. For who was it that took away the glory of the king? It was not the work of men, but a supernatural act of the most high God; to whom Nebuchadnezzar himself hath ascribed it-those that walk in pride HE is able to abase.

I might here subjoin in proof of a plurality, those numerous passages of the Old Testament, wherein God is spoken of or speaks of himself, as of more persons than one. I will pro

duce a few of them, to shew that such are not wanting. Gen. xix. 24. The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstonë and fire from the Lord out of heaven. Psal. cx. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, &c. Dan. ix. 17. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant for the Lord's sake. Prov. xxx. 4. Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and

what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell? Isa. x. 12. When the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Jerusalem I will punish &c. Ibid. xiii. 13. I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. Ibid. xxii. 19. And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down. Ibid. Ixiv. 4. Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Hosea i. 7. I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God. Zech. ii. 10, 11. I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord; and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee and and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. Ibid. x. 12. And I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk` up and down in his name, saith the Lord.

The passages hitherto produced in this chapter are designed only to prove an indefinite plurality in God. In the remaining part of it, shall bring forward another class of texts, ch shews this plurality to be a trinity.

XI.

Psal. xxxiii. 6. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath (Heb. SPIRIT) of his mouth.

The

The breath or the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, does undoubtedly mean the third person of the trinity; who is called, Job xxxiii. 4. Spirit of God, and the breath of the Almighty. And it should here be remembered, that when Christ communicated the Holy Ghost to his disciples, he did it by breathing upon them :* a demonstration that Christ our Saviour, who, as a person, is the word of the Lord, is in nature the Lord himself; because the Spirit or breath of the Almighty is also the breath of Christ. And this fact is also decisive tor the word FILIOQUE, so much controverted in the Nicene Creed.