THE HOLY SPIRIT PROVED AND VINDICATED. 37 pledge ofour entrance into cpvenant with God, and of our giving up ourselves unto him in the solemn bond of religion. Herein, to conceive that any one who is not God as the Father is, who is not a person as he is also, and the Son likewise, is joined with them for the ends . and in the manner mentioned, without the least note of difference as to deityor persónality, is a strange fond- ness, destructive of all religion, and leading the minds of men towards Polytheism. And as we engage into all religious obedience unto the Father and Son herein, to believe in them, trust, fear, honour, and serve them, so we do the same with respect unto the Holy Ghost; which, how we can do, if he be not as they are, no man can understand. Sect. 15.We do not then, in this case, front hence, merely plead our being baptized into the Holy Ghost, es sotne pretend. Nor indeed are we said so to be. Men may figuratively be said to be baptized into a doc- trine, when their baptism is a pledge and token of their profession of it. So the disciples whom the apostle Paul met withal at Ephesus, Acts xix. 3. are said to be baptized sit vi Iaar.a aa.rv,op,a, into the baptism of John; that is, the doctrine of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, whereof his baptismwas a pledge. So also the Israelites are said to be baptized to Mee,,,, into Moses, 1 Cor. x. 2. because he led and conducted them through the sea, when they were sprinkled with the waves of it, as a token of their initiation into the rites and ceremo- nies which he was to deliver unto them. But we are said to be baptized into his name, which is the same with that of the Father and Son. And certainly this proposal of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be the object of all our faith and worship, and our en- gagement hereunto required as the foundation of all our present religion and future hopes, being macle unto us, and that under one and the same name; if the doctrine of a trinity of persons, subsisting in the same undivided essence, be not taught and declared in these words, we may justly despair of ever having any divine mystery manifested unto us. Sect. 15.-2. His appearance in, and under a visi- ble sign, argues his personal existence. This is related Match. iii. 16. Luke iii. 22. John i. 52. Luke speaks first, in general, that he descended, fr 1,Br, c.rax:,aar in a bodily shape, or appearance. And they all agree that ú. was a shape ofa dove under which he appeared. The NN words in Matthew are, 086 Ili rr,oepa -ra ,s gotraAgosy rear ,iettoie, eat iexoacror He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting, (or rather coming,) upon him. He, that is, John the Baptist, not Christ himself. The relative zirros, refers, in this place, to the more remote antecedent: for although he, that is Christ himself, also saw the descending of the Holy Spirit, yet I suppose this relates unto that token which was to be given of him unto John, whereby he should know him, John i. 32, 33. The following words are ambi- guous. For that expression, like a dove, may refer to the manner of his descending, (in a bodily shape) as a dove descends. Or they may respect the manner of his appearance; he appeared like a dove descending. And this sense is determined in the other evangelists, to the bodily shape wherein he descended. He took the form or shapeof a dove, to make avisible representa- tion of himself by. For a visible pledge was to be giv- en of the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Messiah, according to the promise; and thereby did God direct his great forerunner to the knowledge of him. Now, this was no real dove: that would not have been a thing so miraculous as this appearance of the Holy Ghost is represented to be. And the text will not bear any such apprehension, though it was entertained by some of the ancients:. For it is evident that this shape of a dove came out of heaven. He saw the heavens o- pened, and the dove descending, that is, out of heaven, which was opened to make way, as it were, for him. Moreover, the expression of the opening of the heavens is not used, but with respect unto some appearance, or manifestation of. God himself. And so, or (which is the same,) the bowing of the heavens, is often used; Psal. cxliv. 5. lsa. lxiv. 1. .Boa thy heavens, O Lord, and come down. 2 Sam. xxii. 10. Ezek. i. 1. The hea- vens were opened andI sane the visions of God. So Acts vii. 56. God used not this sign, but in some manifes- tation of himself. And had not this been an appear- ance of God, there had been no need of bowing or o- pening the heavens for it. And it is plainly said, thatit was not a dove, but the shape or representation ofa dove. It was hots ewpravts,,,, a bodily shape, and that aeetogas, of a dove. Sect. 16. As din, at the beginning of the old crea- tion, the Spirit of Grid, rnrnn incubabat, came and fell on the waters, cherishing the whole, and COMM*
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