to the Jews. Whilst Christ told them that, whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him." We shall, however, adduce ample proof of this, in dwelling on the agency of each of the persons. 2. The persons in our text are distinct agents. In the fourth chapter of this epistle, John says, We have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." The sender cannot be the sent, nor the sent the sender. These two are one in nature, but in personality and agency they are distinct. The Son's office is that implied in his name of Jesus; and here the Father sends him to execute the duties of that office, namely, to be the Savi our of the world. There was an understanding between them, and each had pledged himself to perform his own part of the existing contract, called in the scriptures the everlasting covenant, and the covenant of peace. Therefore Christ remarks, in the 5th of John, "My Father worketh hitherto, -and I work". The work of Christ was especially that of the ratification of the covenant, and the confirmation of the testament, by the shedding of his blood. And hence his blood is called the blood of the covenant and of the testament, for the remission of the sins of his people. * * Isaiah liv. 9, 10. lv. 3' Zechar. ix. 9-12. Matt. xxvi. 28. Hebrews, xiii. 20. Now the distinct agency of the Holy Ghost is alike manifest. For as we have shown that the Father sent the Son to execute the duties devolving on him as the Saviour of his people from their sins, so we can show that the Holy Ghost was also to be sent in his turn for the performance of sundry acts and operations. "Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you," was Christ's parting pledge to his disciples. And what had the Father promised to the Son? Let the event determine. "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," said Peter, "he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear."* And in proof of the Spirit's personal agency in the church, it will be enough to direct you to the Acts of the apostles, which ought rather to be called the book of the Acts of the Holy Ghost. Let the following passage suffice as a specimen. "As they ministered to the Lord, the Holy Ghost said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed."+ This surely determines him to be the Lord of the harvest, to whom Christ urged his disciples to pray, that he would send forth more labourers. This is also clear, from the remark of Paul to those of Ephesus. "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy *Luke xxiv. 49. Acts i. 8. and ii. 4, 33. Ghost hath made you overseers." And that he directed the movements of the first preachers, is plain from the following examples. When Paul and Timothy had gone throughout Phrygia, it is said they were "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia ;" and when they assayed to go into Bithynia, again "the Spirit suffered them not. The event proved it was his pleasure they should go and preach the gospel in Macedonia. And thus, to add no more, in the case of the Eunuch,-" Then the Spirit said to Philip, go join thyself to this chariot". And when he had performed his errand," the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip; and Philip was found at Azotus." are 3. Next observe, that these three personal agents are severally uncreated and divine.. That is to say, the scriptures declare them to be by nature-God. Nor are the acts, which are attributed to them, any other than what demonstrate their proper Deity. And therefore the text asserts, that these three " one". Not three and one in the same sense; but whilst they are no less than three, as it relates to their personal subsistence and agency, they are in respect of nature, substance, or essence, no more than one. I am not now stating a system as projected or upheld by any particular sect or party; nor do I wish to be considered as opposing any existing system; but my endeavour is, simply to point out to you the sundry truths involved in our text, and to show you that these are all substantiated by other parts of the inspired volume. Except these three were divine they could not be one in nature; but since they are one in nature, they must be individually divine. How this is so, we want not to know; any more than we want to comprehend the manner in which God is present every-where, is operating every-where, and sustaining and regulating all things in every place at every moment, and yet is visible no where. Bishop Horsley has truly remarked, 66 that that unity, which must be the foundation of all being, is itself of all things the most mysterious and incomprehensible". So that when we are led to acknowledge the fact of the absolute oneness of the divine substance, as being the root out of which the universe of worlds has sprung, and by which it is sustained and supported, it is idle to object to the reception of the revealed doctrine of a trinity of persons socially subsisting in that divine substance which the scriptures call "the Godhead", as though it involved, not a mystery merely, but a palpable impossibility. But I am now to show you from the Bible, that each of those persons is God. That the Father is so, is admitted on all sides. That the Son or Word is so also, will be very easily proved. John in the first chapter of his gospel says, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God". Then follows his agency, as a splendid illustration of his real divinity. For all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. The world was made by him". That by the word, John means the Son of God, is clear from the subsequent verse, in which he adds, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth". Paul in the 11th of the Hebrews declares the same thing; 66 66 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God". And in the 3d chapter of Peter's 2d Epistle, he utters a similar sentiment. By the word of God the Heavens were of old, and the Earth. But the Heavens and the Earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire". In the 1st chapter of the 1st Epistle of John, he is called the word of life, and that eternal life which was with the Father. Whilst here in our text he is associated with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, as being with them of one and the same divine substance. Now to all this mass of proof, let us add the record of the Father from the 1st chapter of the Hebrews. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him". True say some, they were to do him homage. No 66 But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God! |