going to be withdrawn from them, he acquaints them that, when that event took place, they were no more to apply to him for any thing, but to the Father (the Father of him and of them all) in his

name.

Att. Gen. What is the inference which you yourself draw from these words of the Saviour?

Witness. That, in their plain and obvious meaning, they lead to the very opposite conclusion to that drawn by the Defendant. Christ distinctly said, "If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it.""I go unto my Father; and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." But as a still stronger confirmation of my assertion that Christ is the proper object of worship, I will cite the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, which incontrovertibly proves it: "They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.""3 Here was present to the martyr's sight, as he "looked up stedfastly into heaven,” both the glory of God, and "Jesus standing on the right hand of God;" that is, the holy Shechinah, which the Jews knew to be the symbol of

1 John, xiv. 14.
3 Acts, vii. 59, 60.

2 John, xiv. 13.

Jehovah's presence, and also Jesus: and we find that, in the tortures of a cruel death, St. Stephen does not call upon, does not invoke God, but the Lord Jesus, into whose hands he commended his departing spirit. He could not thus have invoked him, had Jesus been a creature even in this highest state of exaltation. That same Christ had said to Satan, "It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”1——-"Worship God," said the angel to St. John2; but our Saviour did not say so to Stephen, nor did he refer him to that God whose glory was before his eyes; and therefore I am justified in concluding that it was God, and God only, whom Stephen worshipped in the person of Jesus Christ.3

Att. Gen. What does the Defendant affirm respecting the Holy Ghost, the Comforter?

Witness. He says, "The promise of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles has been much mistaken; and the mistake concerning it has, unhappily, contributed to bring into the Christian Church a new object of worship, a third Divine Person, unknown to the Jews entirely, and to Christians for the three first centuries; but our Lord speaks of the Spirit as a person only, in the same manner as wisdom (Prov. viii.) and charity (1 Cor. xiii.) have

1 Luke, iv. 8.

3 See Script. Confut. p. 82.

2 Rev. xxii. 9.

personal acts attributed to them: " and he adds: "In the New Testament, where we have an account of the fulfilment of this promise of Christ, and of the particular mission of the Holy Spirit, we do not find any intelligent agent or person introduced."

Att. Gen. How do you answer this?

Witness. Our Saviour, when about to leave the world, gave his disciples the promise that they should not be left either comfortless, or left alone. He promises them the Paraclete, the Comforter, that is, the Holy Ghost. "I will pray the Father," he says, " and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." Then he shows that this Comforter will be himself:-"I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Then he proceeds to show that the Comforter is both himself and God: "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make OUR abode with him." Here the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, are (or is) the Comforter; the witness to the Truth, which shall come and abide, or make abode, with

Sequel to Apology, p. 180. 3 John, xiv. 17, 18.

2

2 Matt. xviii, 20.

m who loveth the Son, and keepeth his word. he identity of the Godhead, of the Holy Spirit ith that of the Father and of the Son, is here xpressly declared. And I would caution all men o beware how they reject or blaspheme the Comorter, by denying his personality with the Father and the Son in the Godhead; remembering, that

1

all sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." 1 Moreover, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name," is a title which evidently cannot, with any degree of propriety, apply to a human or corporeal teacher; but it is also as evident, on the face of the assertion, and according to its literal tenour, that not only a spiritual effect or influence, but an intelligent and personal agent, is intended, by whom those graces were to be dispensed which should entitle him to the name of Comforter. And there are many passages of Scripture in which the person thus designated is adorned with the most striking and tremendous attributes of the Deity. He is spoken of as omnipresent:-"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ?" — as all-knowing, "The

Mark, iii. 29.

2 John, xiv. 26. See Script. Confut. p. 209.

Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God:" to lie to him is to lie to God: "Thou

hast not lied unto men, but unto God;"

to blaspheme him is a crime the most awful in its guilt and consequences of which human nature is capable; and the inspiration of the prophets, which is, in some passages of Scripture, imputed to the Holy Ghost, is, in others, ascribed to the Almighty. "The Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice;"-and, "All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God.” 1

Att. Gen. How does the Defendant, in his writings, evade the manifest and multifarious proofs of the divinity of Christ with which the Gospel of John abounds?

Witness. He says, that "this Evangelist does not describe Christ in any other capacity but as a man extraordinarily commissioned and empowered by God, nor does he intimate any prior existence belonging to him before his birth of Mary."2 Now, our Saviour says of the Father, "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world;" 3 and to the Jews, "Ye are from beneath: I am from above.” 4 "What if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before," 5 to

1 Bishop Heber's Personality and Office of the Comforter,

p. 36.

2 Sequel to Apology, p. 196.

4 John viii. 23.

3 John xvi. 24.

5 John vi. 62.