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will, and all concur, after an ineffable manner, in the fame divine Acts: fo that what the Scripture is falfely fuppofed to have afcribed to God in one Perfon, will appear to be afcribed by the fame authority to God in three perfons. That therefore, these three perfons are but one God; they are three diftinct agents, yet there is but one and the fame divine agency: or, as the Church has more fully and better expreffed it, that “that "which we believe of the glory of the Father, "the fame we are to believe of the Son, and of "the Holy Ghoft, without any difference or inequality."

I.

The Trinity in Unity is the one Lord, the Creator of the world.

Pfal. 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 whole Trinity therefore created the world: yet this Trinity is but one Lord: for it is written,

Ifa. XLIV. 24. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that ftretcheth forth the heavens ALONE, that Spreadeth abroad the earth BY MYSELF. It follows therefore, either that the word and spirit

a Proper Preface upon the feaft of Trinity.

did not make the heavens; or, that the Father, with his word and spirit, are the ALONE Lord and Creator of all things.

II.

The Trinity in Unity is the one Supreme Being or Nature, diftinguished from all other Beings by the Name Jehovah. For the Scripture gives us the following pofition,

Deut. VI. 4. The Lord our God is ONE JEHOVAH and again, Pfal. 83. Thou whofe name ALONE is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Yet Chrift is Jehovah.

Jer. XXIII. 6. This is the name whereby he fhall be called, JEHOVAH our righteousness. So is the Spirit also.

Ezech. VIII. 1. 3. The Lord JEHOVAH put forth the form of an band and took me, — and the SPIRIT lift me &c. fee alfo CHAP. 2. Art. 4.

and 24.

Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the ONE Jehovah: they are three perfons, yet 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 fuch equivocal interpretations as that of God; it has

no

no plural; is incommunicable to any derived or created being; and is peculiar to the divine nature, because it is descriptive of it. The Author of an Effay on Spirit has endeavoured to avoid the force of this proof, by pretending that there are two Jehovahs, one a diftinct 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 alfo 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 perfons derive their Being (that is the expreffion he was not afraid to make use of) from the Father. But he has not produced one such paffage; no fuch thing being declared in the whole bible; and the contrary to it is plainly revealed under this арplication of the name Jehovah.

III.

The Trinity in Unity is the Lord absolutely fo called; in Hebrew, Adonai, in Greek o Kupios.

Rom.

Rom. X. 12.

rich unto all that

Luke II. II. LORD.

The fame LORD over all, is call upon him.

A Saviour which is Chrift the

we

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 Ifa.40.13. who hath directed the SPIRIT of the Lord, or being his counfellor bath taught bim? That the perfon of the Spirit is the Lord, is also plain from 2 Cor. 3. 18. now the Lord is that Spirit 19 δε κύριος το Πνευμα επιν. we are changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord, καθαπερ απο κυριε Πνεύματος, as by the Lord the Spirit: which is all along to be understood of the perfonal Spirit, because the apostle begins exprefsly 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 v. 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.”

The Reader is defired to obferve, that as I cannot in all cafes fix upon a text that does precisely distinguish the person of the Father, I fhall therefore be frequently obliged, as in this instance, to fet a paffage down in the first of the three ranks, that does confeffedly denote the true God. P

IV. The

IV.

The Trinity in Unity is the God of Ifrael. Matth. XV.31. The multitude glorified the God of Ifrael.

Luke I. 16, 17. The children of Ifrael shall be turn to the Lord THEIR GOD: and he shall go before HIM * - that is, before Chrift.

2 Sam. XXIII. 2, 3. The SPIRIT of the Lord fpake by me. the GOD of ISRAEL faid &c. So that unless he who fpake was one being, and he that faid was another, the Spirit is the God of Ifrael.

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

V.

The divine Law, and confequently the authority whereupon it is founded, is that of a Trinity in Unity.

Rom. VII. 25. 1 myself ferve the LAW of GOD.

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