and yet our falvation is sometimes ascribe abfolutely to the mercy, or grace of Jefus Christ. Thus St. Peter declares his and his brethren's belief, that both Jews and Gentiles fhall be faved through the grace of the Lord Jefus Chrift; and St. Jude exhorts Chriftians to keep themselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jefus Chrift unto eternal life. To all this we may add, that the title of Lord, (which is one unqueftionable character of fupremacy,) is common to the three Perfons in the Holy Trinity; tɑ the fecond it is applied as well as to the first in places almost numberless; and to the third beyond all doubt in the following: the Lord direct your bearts into the love of God, and inta the patient waiting for Chrift; § now God himfelf, and our Father, (where, by the way, the word-HIMSELF does not appear to be more emphatical than in the text fometime fince cited,) and our Lord Jefus Chrift direct our way unto you; and the Lord make you to increase, and abound in love one towards another, &c; to the end he may ftablish your * A&ts xv. 11. † Jude 21. bearts bearts unblameable in holiness before God, at the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift.* For that by the Lord in thefe texts we are to understand the Holy Ghoft, is, I apprehend, demonstrable from these two confiderations; firft, because it is his peculiar office to direct the heart, to make us to increase in love, and to ftablish our hearts unblameable in holiness; and secondly, because, according to any other conftruction, we shall at best make but very indifferent sense of either of these paffages. From this inverfion then and reciprocation, of which we have produced fuch a number of instances, the Divinity of each Perfon in the Trinity may reasonably be inferred; efpecially as the sense of many at least of the texts I have produced is obvious, and altogether uncontrovertible. Again; this great point is evincible from the neceffary sense, or natural import of certain paffages. Let us turn to a few of the most remarkable. The fin against the Holy Ghoft is pronounced by our bleffed Lord himself to be of all fins the most damnable. I fay unto you, all manner of fin and blafphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft fhall not be forgiven unto men. And whofoever Speaketh a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghoft, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.* Now without ftaying to inquire here into the precife nature of this fin, or how far it may be abfolutely incapable of remiffion, or in what fenfe our Saviour's audience understood him, or he meant to be underftood, it will be fufficient for our purpose to remark, that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in general, and particularly of the perfonal existence, and coequal divinity of the Holy Ghoft with that of the Father, and of the Son, is plainly and truly though covertly "comprehended in the above texts, and in their parallels in the other Evangelifts. For otherwise we shall be unavoidably driven into * Matt. xii. 31. the the following abfurd and execrable conclufions, viz. that the highest degree of impiety and profaneness against God the Father is a mere venial fin; and that a blafphemy, or a fin, a fin, humanly fpeaking at least, without hope, or poffibility of pardon, may be committed against a Being less than the fupreme God; and even against a kind of fpiritual chimera, a motion, a virtue, a quality, or an operation. Again. As touching brotherly love, fays St. Paul, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.* Now that by him who in this place is abfolutely styled God, we are to understand Jefus Chrift, I have little or no difficulty to pronounce, for the two following reasons ; first, because, though we may very properly be said to be taught of God, when we are inftructed by the mouth, or by the preaching of his prophets, or apostles, or others commiffion'd by him, yet the doctrine of univerfal love and charity was more immediately * Theff. iv. 9. and and peculiarly the doctrine of our bleffed Saviour: A new commandment, says he, I give unto you, that ye love one another ; by this all all men know that ye are MY difciples, if ye have love one to another*; this is MY commandment, that ye love one another: and fecondly, beeause the Apostle feems to regard this great duty as a principle recently taught, and particularly enforced by the precept and example of our Divine Mafter. Again. He that hath feen me bath feen the Father, fays our Lord, and he that feeth me, feeth him that fent me. Now in what fenfe are thefe declarations true? Not in the literal; for the Father could not be vifible in the human perfon of the Son; becaufe God is a Spirit, and no man bath feen God at any time; whom na man hath feen, or can fee§: and by neceffary confequence our Saviour hereby in effect afferts, that, notwithstanding his appearance in the flesh, he himself really and truly partook of the Divine nature; that, according * John xiii. 34. § 1 Tim. vi. 16. + John xiv. 9. John i. 18. to |