Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.6

141 THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. Spirit, dividíngto every severally as he will :" Which eápres. shut carries as it were a divine sovereignty in it. 2.." Omniscience" belongs also to the holy Spirit: 1 Cor. ii. 10. " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." It is " the Spirit of Christ that was in the prophets which testified a thousand years before-hand the sufferings of Christ." 1 Pet. i. 11. And this is one peculiar property of god- head ; Is. xli. 23. Where God challenges all other pretenders to godhead to vie with him. " Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Many minute circumstances of the birth, life and death of Christ, as well as his resurrection and the propogation of the gospel, how exactly were they foretold by ancient prophets, and all through the in- spiration of this Spirit of prophecy ! 2 Pet. i. 21. CQ Holy men of God shake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" 3. " Eternity" is another attribute of God : And sincesome properties of God are ascribed to the holy Spirit, eternity must in the same sense belong to him also. Perhaps it is he who is called the eternal Spirit; Neb. ix. 14. " 'l'he bloodof Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself," &c. Though some persons rather understand this of the eternal Godheadof our Lord Jesus Christ himself. But whether itbe the one or the other that is there designed, Set I wonid not build an argument upon the mere doubtful criti- cism of a Greek word, and pretend it to be fully convincing, since that learned writer Dr. Waterland himself when he is pleading for the eternity of Christ, fromMicah v. 2. " his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," confesses the argu- inept; " is but probable, since there is not ground sufficient for calling it certain and indisputable :" only this he adds by way of remark, " That whosoever should,undertake to prove the eter- nity Of God the Father from any express words, either of the Ohl or New Testament, would find his proof liable to the same difficulty, and uncertainty, from the ambiguity of the Hebrew, or Greek phrases used to denote eternity. IV. ".Divine works are attributed to the blessed Spirit, as creation of the world, the change of the heart or regeneration, and the raising the dead." 1. "` Thework of creation," which has been proved before to be a divine work, is attributed to him ; Job xxvi. 13. " By. his Spirit he bath garnished the heavens ;" Job xxxiii. 4. " The Spirit of God hallt made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life." Ps. xxxiii. 6. " By the word of the Lore, were the heavens made : and all the host of them by the breath, or Spirit, of his mouth ;" for it is the same word rim " roach," which is translated " Spirit" in the two foregoing texts; is rem,- dared bred' in this.

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