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for us by Jefus Chrift, he proceeds in the following words; of which falvation the prophets have enquired, and fearched diligently, who prophefied of the grace that should come unto you; fearching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Chrift which was in them did fignify, when it teftified beforehand the fufferings of Chrift, and the glory that should follow: unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minifter the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gofpel unto you, with the Holy Ghoft fent down from heaven; which things the angels defire to look into.* The expreffions here are, I think, in themselves almoft fufficiently decifive upon the great point before us. For it is hard to conceive that the Prophets, in whom, it seems, the Spirit of Chrift refided; and much harder that the angels fhould not have a clear idea of the work of human redemption; fhould not be able to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, (as St. Paul expreffes himself, with an eye, I imagine,

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to this difpenfation,) fuppofing that work to have been accomplished by any perfon lefs than very God; but admit the Divinity of Jefus Chrift, and the inquifitiveness and the incapacity of men and angels will by no means be unaccountable. All this, I trust, will afford a moft ftrong argument, that the faith which the Apostles preached after the afcenfion of our Saviour; the faith which was firft delivered to the christian Saints; the faith which we are required to hold faft without wavering, and to build up ourselves upon,† is a faith in the incarnation of the eternal Son of God; or, in other words, in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as it has all along been held in the Chriftian Church. In confequence of the removal of a popular objection against all this, I hope in the ensuing disquifitions to fet in a ftill clearer point of view the great doctrine before us.

* Heb. x. 23.

+ Jude 20.

DIS

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DISCOURSE III.

THE

ACTS I. 3.

By many infallible proofs.

HESE words immediately refer to the great event of our Lord's refurrection, but in confequence of it to the divinity of his perfon. Of this therefore I shall proceed to lay more proofs before you, taking first this opportunity to obviate the following popular objection; that, notwithstanding all that has been, or can be advanced, the doctrine before us is not fo abfolutely clear and indisputable as we would have it thought, and as a fundamental article of faith ought to be; in as much as no text can be produced which precifely, and totidem verbis, speaks

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fpeaks the language of the first article of our Church; viz. "in the unity of the Godhead "there be three Perfons of one fubftance, "power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, "and the Holy Ghoft; or of the fecond; "two whole and perfect natures, that is to "fay, the Godhead and Manhood are joined "together in one Perfon, never to be di"vided, whereof is one Christ, very God "' and very man; or of the fifth; the Holy "Ghost, proceeding from the Father, and "the Son, is of one fubftance, majefty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very

" and eternal God.":

To all this, I apprehend, we may readily reply, that if there be any real force in such objections, it will operate much farther by neceffary confequence than the objectors themselves can be fuppofed to defire it fhould. For it will fupply the perverse, or idle caviller with pretences and exceptions against all the divine properties and attributes, as far as they are afferted in the first article. There is no one paffage in the Scrip

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