Judg. XV. 14. that the Spirit OF Jehovah CAME upon Sampfon. Yet at Chap. XVI. 20. it is faid, that Jehovah himself DEPARTED from him. Till it can be fhewn, then, that the person who came upon him was one, and the person who departed from him was another; it is undeniable, that the Spirit, though faid to be OF Jehovah, is ftrictly and properly Jehovah bimfelf.

XXV.

+Heb. II. 4. GOD also bearing them witness with gifts of the Holy Ghoft according to his own WILL.

Hence it is objected, that the Holy Ghoft is fubfervient and fubordinate to the WILL of another; therefore he cannot be the supreme and true God. But if this own will of God fhould prove to be no other than the will of the Spirit, this imaginary objection of the Arians, which if it be an error must also be a blafphemy, will turn to a demonstration against them. And that the will of God really is the will of the Spirit, is manifeft from I Cor. XII. 11. All these worketh that one and the felf fame SPIRIT, dividing to every man feverally as HE (even he himself) WILLETH.

Ι

XXVI.

† Rom. VIII. 26. The Spirit itself maketh interceffion for us.

The Spirit is not God, because he maketh interceffion with God; and God, as it is imagined, cannot intercede with himself. But it is a matter of fact, that he has actually done this; therefore it is wicked and false to say that he cannot. For God reconciled the world TO HIMSELF, and it was done by Interceffion.

The other Objections I meet with, are all of this ftamp: as that the Spirit is faid to be given, to proceed, to be poured out, to be fent; and they argue that it is impoffible for God to give, to proceed from, or to fend, himself. But here the queftion is begged, that God is but one person, in which cafe it might be a contradiction: but the Scriptures demonftrate, as it will be seen in the following Chapter, that God is three perfons; and then there is no contradiction in any of thefe things. It is alfo to be obferved, that the giving, proceeding, fending, and miniftration of the Eternal Spirit to Chrift in Glory, are terms that concern not the divine nature, but relate merely to the acts and offices, which the feveral perfons of

the

the bleffed Trinity have mercifully condescended to take upon them, for conducting the prefent OEconomy of mans redemption and sanctification.

By this time, I take it for granted, every pious reader must have observed, how copious and conclufive the Scriptures of the old Testament are upon the subject of the Trinity; and that without having recourse to them upon every occafion, it is impoffible for me or for any man to deal fairly and honeftly by the Apoftolical Doctrine of the Church of England. Our Lord himself has told us, that every Scribe, or teacher, inftructed into the kingdom of heaven, fhould bring forth out of his treafure, things NEW and OLD." It was his own practice. He appealed, at every turn, to the Law the Prophets and the Pfalms, for the testimony of his own doctrine; and the Church has followed his example, from the days of the Apostles almost down to the present times. And fo far is the old Teftament from being no part of the Scripture, that is the book, and the only book, the Gofpel calls by the name of the Scripture. It was this book, which the noble and faithful Beraans fearched every day of

a Matth. XIII. 52.

their lives, to see whether the Gofpel of the new Teftament was agreable to it; with the intention, either to receive or reject it, as it should appear to be recommended by this Authority. It was this Book, for his skill in which, Apollos is praifed as one mighty in the Scriptures; the same Scriptures, of which St. Paul was bold to affirm for the benefit of a brother-Chriftian, that they were able to make him wife unto falvation, through Faith that is in Chrift Jefus. As long as this Faith flourished in the Church, these Scriptures were much read and profitably understood: but now it is dwindled into a dry lifeless Syftem of Morality, they are become in a manner useless; and fome (it grieves me to fay it) even of those who have undertaken to teach others, want themselves to be taught again this first Element of Christianity, that the new Teftament can never be understood and explained, but by comparing it with the Old.

Of this Error and its confequences, we have a fad example in the celebrated Dr. Clarke; a man, whose talents might have adorned the Doctrine of Chrift, had not his Faith been eaten up by an Heathen Spirit of Imagination and Philofophy. He published a Book entitledThe Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity; a work of great pains and premeditation, In a fhort pre

face

face, he allows the Subject to be of the greatest importance in Religion—not to be treated of carelefly-but examined by a serious study of the WHOLE SCRIPTURE. And to convince the world, that this and no other was his own practice, he affirms in his Introduction, p. 17. and prints it in capitals, that he has collected ALL the Texts relating to that matter. Yet his whole Collection is finished and shut up without a fingle Text from the old Teftament! I cannot find that he has even mentioned fuch a Book. "The "Christian Revelation," fays he, p. 1. "is the "Doctrine of Chrift and his Apostles." This he calls, p. 4."The Books of Scripture ;" and again, p. 5. -"The Books of Scripture - not only the Rule, but the Whole and the Only Rule of Truth the only Foundation we have to "go upon." And he proves it thus - "because "no man has fince pretended to have any new "Revelation." An argument that will prejudice few people in favour of his fincerity. For though there has been no new Revelation SINCE the Books of the new Testament, as we all confefs; does it follow that there was no old Revelation BEFORE them? and did this author never read, that the fame GOD, who fpake in thefe laft days by his Son, fpake in time paft unto the fathers