l.Q [ So ] the Teftimony of an Apoftle, fpoken by the Hon,' GHOST. Alts xxviii. 26, 27. The HOLY GHOST is, therefore, the LORD of HOSTS; and, confequently, not a mere Emanation or Virtue, but a Perfn in the GOD- HEAD, fell.- exiftent and fupreme. So, again, GOD, who at fundry Timesfpake unto our Fathers by the Pro- phets, bath in thefe laß Days fpoken unto us by his SON. Heb. i. r, 2. But St. Peter Pays, that in old time holy Men of GOD fpake as they were moved by the HOLY GHOST : The HOLY GHOST, therefore, is GOD. And Chriß is called the SON OF Gon, becaufe he was begot- ten of the HOLY GHOST. * He is indeed frequently defcrihed as an Agent, as a Perlon, as a Teacher, as GOD, from one End of the Bible to the other. Chriß calls Him the Comforter, whom He would fend to his People ; and neither fpeaks poetically nor metapho- rically, when He mentions this gracious Conduftor as a Perfn, not as a Thing; as HIM not as IT. He is not confidered as a mere Inßrument, which is contrary to the very Nature of Spirit; but as an Almighty Ope- rator, who both teaches the Way of Salvation freely, and effeftually fecures it. The Heathens themfelves, who knew any thing of the Tradition of the Trinity, corrupt as that Tradition was with them, did not farther corrupt or debafe the Truth into Sabellianifm. They had, in that refpeft, more Senfe and more Modefty than fome later Refiners; who, in their Rage for Improvement, have ftuck at nothing, but have prefumed to fafhion the Almighty Creator after their own little Notions, and, with a pe- culiar kind of Confidence, given almoft the Lye direft to his own moft pofitive Affertions. They have but one Step farther ; and that is, to deny his Exiftence at once. Zeno, the Stoic, among other Names for the Maker of the World, calls him the Mind of dove. By the * See the Rev. Mr, 7ones's Anfwer to the Play on spirit. p: 171. ad. Edit, Mind
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=