II.

The trinity in unity is the one supreme being or nature, distinguished from all other beings by the name Jehovah. For the scripture gives us the following position.

Deut. vi. 4. The Lord our God is ONE JEHOVAH: and again, Psalm lxxxiii. Thou whose name ALONE is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. Yet Christ is Jehovah.

Jer. xxiii. 6. This is the name whereby he shall be called, JEHOVAH our righteous

ness.

So is the Spirit also.

Ezek. viii. 1. 3. The Lord JEHOVAH put forth the form of an hand and took me—and the SPIRIT lift me, &c. see also CHAP. II. Art. IV. and XXIV.

Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the ONE Jehovah: they are three persons yet they have but one name and one nature. And it is the great advantage of this argument, that the name Jehovah is not capable of any such equivocal interpretations as that of God; it has no plural; is communicable to any derived or created being; and is peculiar to the divine nature, because it is descriptive of it. The author of an Essay on Spirit has endeavored to avoid the force of this proof, by pretending that there are two

*

Jehovahs, one a distinct being from the other. But in this he has exposed the cause he meant to defend, and left the argument in a worse state than he found it: for if there be two, then it is false that there is a most high over all the earth, whose name ALONE is Jehovah; and let him try if he can reconcile it. Dr. Clarke also pretends, in the titles to two of his sections, wherein the collection of texts is very numerous, to have set down the passages wherein it is declared that the second and third persons derive their being (that is the expression he was not afraid to make use of) from the Father. But he has not produced one such passage; no such thing being declared in the whole bible; and the contrary to it is plainly revealed under this application of the name Jehovah.

III.

The trinity in unity is the Lord absolutely so called; in Hebrew, Adonai; in Greek, Κυριά

Rom. x. 12. The same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

The reader is desired to observe, that as I cannot in all cases fix upon a text that does precisely distinguish the person of the Father, I shall therefore be frequently obliged, as in this instance, to set a passage down in the first of the three ranks, that does confessedly denote the The God.

Luke ii. 11. A Saviour which is Christ the LORD.

Rom xi. 34. For who hath known the mind of the LORD, or who hath been his counsellor? Which Lord as we learn from the prophet whence this is quoted, is the Spirit; for it is written, Isai. xl. 13. Who hath directed the SPIRIT of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? That the person of the Spirit is the Lord, is also plain from 2 Cor. iii. 18. Now the Lord is that Spirit-o de κυρι 1C TO Пvevμœ esiv—we are changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord; καθαπερ απο κυρια Пvevμar, as by the Lord the Spirit; which is all along to be understood of the personal Spirit, because the apostle begins expressly with that at the 3d verse of this chapter. And it was from the 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 creed"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, vet 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.*

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 LAW. GIVER who is able to save and to destroy: therefore, these THREE are ONE. And here we have the true reason why the scriptur has represented the whole trinity as tempted and resisted by the disobedience of

a No. 534.

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 writ

ten,

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

1 Cor. v. 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.