§ 13. Lastly. If Jesus Christ is the true and living God, then the friends of Zion may take courage in God their Savior. Whoever meets with disappointment, the cause of Christ must increase, extend, and triumph. Glorious things are spoken of Zion, the city of our God. The conversion of the Gentiles which are afar off, and of our dear people scattered every where, is foretold by the mouth of all the holy prophets. These promises are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus; the signs of the times, too, are most pleasing and encouraging; never was there such a variety of religious and benevolent institutions of different names and denominations, and yet all united under the banner of King Jesus, all aiming at the extension of his kingdom, which is an everlasting kingdom. True, Satan seems to be more active, his emissaries more numerous, bold and persevering than formerly; yet even this is a good sign. When the people of God were inactive in the cause of Christ, and quietly left the Gentiles and the Jews in the power of Satan, (the "god of this world, who blinds the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor. 4: 4,) his goods were at peace, he was comparatively inactive; but, now they are disturbed, and in danger of being taken from him, he is enraged, sounds the alarm, fills up his ranks with new recruits from all classes of men, and defies the armies of the living God, saying, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." Exod. 15:9. "But who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace, unto it." Zech. 47. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set them, selves, and the rulers take counsel together against Jeho

vah, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, Jehovah shall have them in derision: then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." Psa. 2: 1-6. "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Psa. 110: 1. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," Psa. 45, 6." It is the throne of God. He who sitteth on it is the Omnipotent; universal being is in his hand. Revolution, force, fear, as applied to his kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in rebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of infernal power; begin with the ruin of whatever is fair and good in the little globe; pass from hence to blot the sun from out of his place, and roll the volume of desolation through the starry world,-what hast thou done unto him? It is the puny menace of a worm against him whose frown is perdition." Dr. J. Mason's Messiah's Throne.

§ 14. Antichrist may fall, superstitious observances may cease, religious institutions may be tumbled into ruins, empires and kingdoms may be overturned, princes and governors may be deposed, the wise men of the world may take part with the enemies of truth, error and delusion may run like wild-fire among the thickest ranks of the people, unbelievers may rage, and minute philosophers imagine a vain thing-but the Bible shall rise out of its present obscurity, and being stripped of all human appendages, shall be universally had in honor. The method of redeeming a lost race, therein revealed, shall be generally seen and embraced; the enemies of evangelical religion shall be confounded world without end. Jesus shall reign triumphant over all opposition, in his glorious human body, at the right hand. of the majesty on high, till all the ends of the earth have

seen his great salvation, and every opposing power is brought into complete subjection. "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things; and blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen." Psa. 72: 18, 19. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude, 24, 25.

Letter IV.

DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Dear Benjamin,

Having proved, I hope to your satisfaction, the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will now also briefly show the divinity of the Holy Ghost. But let it be observed, that although we have not so great a variety of proofs of the divinity of the Holy Spirit as we have of the blessed Jesus, yet those which we have are as satisfactory as those of the Father and of the Son. This will evidently appear if we consider,

First, that all the divine criteria are ascribed to the Holy Spirit as well as to the Father and to the Son, and therefore he must be truly God.

I. The names peculiar to Deity.

§ 1. The Holy Spirit is called God in the strict sense of

the word. The Psalmist informs us that our fathers "provoked the Most High in the wilderness, and tempted God in their heart." Psa. 78: 17, 18. The Prophet Isaiah applies this to the Holy Spirit, chap. 63: 10, and so did the apostle, saying, "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost says, To day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years." Heb. 3: 7-9. Hence it is evident that the Holy Spirit is God the Most High.

§ 2. Further the Holy Spirit is called by the incommunicable name of Jehovah, and therefore must be truly God. Moses informs us that it was Jehovah alone that did lead the children of Israel, "and there was no strange god with him;" Deut. 33: 12; which work the Prophet Isaiah applies to the Holy Ghost. Isa. 63: 11, 12. He therefore is Jehovah, the true and eternal God. Jehovah, whom Isaiah saw sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and whose train filled the temple, and whom the seraphim adored, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory," is Jehovah the Spirit, according to the testimony of St. Paul, who, preaching at Rome to the mixed multitude of Jews, some of whom believed and some believed not, says, "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive," &c. Seeing then that these are the very words which Jehovah spake by Isaiah, and yet these words spake the Holy Ghost, says St. Paul, the Holy Ghost therefore must be Jehovah.

It is no solid objection to say that the Evangelist John calls this a vision of the glory of Christ; so it was; but this only proves that the glory of Jesus, and the glory of the Holy Ghost as Jehovah, are one and the same. Hence the works of creation, the resurrection of Christ, &c. &c.

which are the works of Jehovah, and not the works of any particular person in the blessed Trinity as belonging to the economy of redemption, are ascribed alike to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Hence it has been observed by the judicious Mr. Nelson, that "the glory which appeared to Isaiah, is the glory of the Father, Rev. 4:8; and of the Son, John, 12:41; and of the Holy Ghost, Acts, 28: 26. Now since three persons are manifested in one glory, and the manifestations are designed to bring us into the knowledge of the things manifested; it is a great probability that the one glory teaches us the unity, or identity of nature, of the persons manifested in it." Script. Doct. on the Trinity, page 115.

II. The incommunicable attributes of God are attributed to the Holy Spirit, and therefore he is truly God.

3. Eternity and unchangeableness.

Jesus Christ is said "to have offered himself unto God, through the Eternal Spirit." Heb. 9: 14. The Holy Spirit created the world, as will be shown hereafter, and therefore must have existed before any thing was made. I have already shown that the Holy Spirit is called by the incommunicable name Jehovah; and as that word signifies self-existent, eternal, and unchangeable, therefore the Holy Spirit must be the same as the Father and the Son, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; he that was, and is, and is to come, the Lord God Almighty. "The Holy Spirit," says one of the fathers, "always was, is, and always will be: he had no beginning, nor shall have any end, but is always joined with the Father and the Son." Gregor. Naci. Orat. 44. fo. 1, p. 711.

4. Omnipresence, which is an essential attribute of God, is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take the wings of