DISSERTATION V. 359 28. " I will pour out mySpirit on all flesh." Acts ii. 43. cc Christ having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he bath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." In these, and many other scriptures, it is evident that the Spirit of God is represented under the character or metaphor, of water, which is more plainly expressed ; John vii. 38, 39. 't0 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly flow rivers of living water : But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Now, if the Spirit of God, in these texts, be explained to signify his influ- ences his operations, his gifts and graces, which are distributed and dispersed abroad like streams of living water in the church, and poured down or conferred on men, perhaps this may come nearest to the sense and idea of the sacred writers : And, as I hinted before, if we compare those scriptures herewith wherein the Spirit of God is said to be given by the layingon of the hands of men, such as Acts viii. 18. it will further confirm the explication of the term Spirit by gifts and influences. V. The last text I shall mention, is that famous and con- tested place; 1 John v. 7, 8. " There are three that bear wit- ness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one : And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and 'these three agree in one." Now the three witnesses in heaven, in the seventh verse, may be well interpreted, God the Father with his two divine powers, the Word and the Spirit, which in this place, as well as in manyothers, are representedpersonally, for theyare called Teas µaplvçarles, that is, three witnesses, or three persons bearing witness: And perhaps there maybe some special congruity in representing them as three personsin this place, because they succeed eachother, andchiefly witnessed in different successive economies or administrations ; via. the Father eminently under the Old Testament bearing witness to the gospel, by prophecy. The Word eminently in his incarnate state by his own mi- nistrations; and the Spirit eminently after the ascension of Christ by his extraordinary and divine operations : And yet these three are one, IV ect, are one thing, one being, one deity, not considered in a personal manner, but as a nature or essence. In the eighth verse, " There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood." These are repre- sented also as three persons, for they are called "rtsc µap1v04rc. The best expositions that are given of them are these two : 1. They may be all considered as belonging to Christ him- self, and then the water sigdifies the pure and holy doctrine and
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