descending, and remaining upon him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God 1." Here we have three persons perfectly distinct, engaged at one and the same moment in the same transaction. The Father, testifying of the Son. The Holy Spirit, descending and remaining upon the Son. The Son, receiving the testimony of the Father, and the gift of the Holy Spirit 2. A second instance occurs in one of the discourses delivered by the Baptist to his disciples. "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is

1 1 John i. 32-34.

2 Comp. Matt. iii. 16, 17.

above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him '." In this remarkable passage, the three persons are spoken of in the most unequivocal terms. There is one, who is called the Christ, who is represented as transcendently superior to the prophet on account of his pre-existence and his heavenly origin. But this person can be no other than Jehovah. For the prophet says, "Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him." Now, turn

1

John iii. 28–36. Comp. Matt. iii. 11—14.
2 John iii. 28.

to the conversation to which the Baptist alludes, and you will see, that what he did. say was, that he was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Esaias " Certainly the person whose coming is proclaimed by the voice of one crying in the wilderness is Jehovah himself. And, in the prophecy of Zacharias, the father of John, it is plainly stated that it was the Lord himself, before whom the Baptist was to go3. So that the same person is called by the Baptist, the Messiah, and, Jehovah. But this person is also distinguished from a second person, who is called God in this passage. "He whom God hath sent ;" "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." The person who is sent, is not the same person as he who hath sent him. The person who gives, is not the same as the person to whom he gives. So that, although the Messiah is called Jehovah, yet he is plainly a different

3 Luke i. 76. Comp. Mal. iii. 1. Mark i. 2.

person from another person, who is, beyond all controversy, the supreme God; namely, that person by whom he is sent, and from whom he has received the Spirit. Nor is this distinction official only it is personal also. It is the distinction between a Father and a Son. Here then are two persons clearly distinguished from each other, and each plainly spoken of as the Almighty God. But there is a third person also; "the Spirit ;" who is not the same person as the Son, because he is given to the Son; neither is he the same person as the Father, because he is given to the Son by the Father. In the preaching of John the Baptist, therefore, we have the same personal plurality in the Divine Unity which we have observed in the Old Testament. And the whole structure of his language implies that this doctrine was known and received by the persons whom he addressed, and that the terms he made use of were those ordinarily used at the time in the theological language of the Jewish Church. He does not in the least degree speak as if he was communicating

a doctrine especially revealed to himself; he does not use a single word which could, by possibility, imply, that he was introducing a new Article into the Jewish Creed.

Another proof of this is drawn from the fact, that, all through the history of our Saviour it is manifest, that the expression, "Son of God," as the distinctive title of the Messiah, was understood to imply deity itself. That the terms, "the Christ," and,

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the Son of God," were used to denote one and the same person, is on the face of the Evangelical History. "These two," as Bishop Pearson observes, "were ever inseparable, and even by the Jews themselves accounted equivalent. Thus Nathanael, that true Israelite, maketh his confession of the Messias: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel'. Thus Martha makes expression of her faith; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world'. Thus the High Priest maketh this inquisition: I adjure thee, by