156 THE CHRISTIAN OOCTÁIN8 oy THE TRINITY. when they stand in such a light as I have set them in, and run parallel to; and are connectedwith so great a timber of other scriptures, that certainly ascribe godhead to the on and Spirit; I think, the most, if not all, of these may serve to brighten the evideuee, and enforce the conviction. Poor. X.Thence it necessarilyfollows that these three, viz. t'te Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have such an intimate and real Communion in that one Godhead, as is sufficient to justify the Ascription of those peculiar and distinguishing divine Characters tö them. It was the great design of God to discover his nature and his will, and to make himself known to the children of men, by all his revelations to mankind : And when he employed holy men to write his word, it was to preserve these divine discoveriesof himself uncorrupted, and to deliver them down to all ages, that he might be known and worshipped according to those revela- tions of himself, which he haul made. It is only by these divine and distinguishing characters which he has assumed, and peen- liariz.ed to himself in his word, that we know what and who God is : Now we can never imagine, that a God who is sojea- Ious of his own honour, and so, kind and faithful to hiscreatures, shouldever suffer such peculiar and distinguishing characters of godhead; to be ascribed in such a multitude of places of his own Word to any thing that is not God, lest he thereby give away all that honour and glory, which it is the very design ofhis word to appropriate and reserve to himself, and lest he should lead his own people into a dangerouserror. Though I have mentioned this 'once or twice before, yet my reader will forgive the that I repeat it again, because! would have him always keep it in his eye, and have it deeply impressed upon his mind, as an argument, in my esteem, of resistless evidence, and uncontrola- ble force. The Son and the Spirit, who have these peculiar divine cha-. ratters ascribed to them, must therefore have some real and proper communion in the divine nature, some participation or share in the true and eternal godhead : Otherwise the word of God, which was written for our instruction, would be more ready to deceive us than to lead us into truth, and would thereby im- peach both the goodnessand faithfulness of God. Let me make in this place two remarks. Remark I. If any of my readers should think they can refute above twenty of the arguments that I have used to prove the godhead of Christ, and the Holy Spirit, by giving those scriptures another turn of sense ; yet let them remember that they cannot go fairly into a denial of their godhead, till they have
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