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where all is holy? Be not deceived; for however amiable you may appear in the eyes of the world, one thing is wanting: your hearts must be changed by a divine influence, or you are undone forever.

It is a clear case with me, that should God leave the sinner to himself, and not inflict on him any positive punishment at all, the depravity of his own heart would make him entirely miserable, because the very nature of sin separates the soul from God. It follows then, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) In the fifth verse of the same chapter, this change is represented as being born of the Spirit; because he effects it. Sometimes it is called a translation, a passing from death to life: but in 2 Cor. v. 17. we have this

striking passage; "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things pass away; behold, all things become new." His views, his joys, his company, his conduct are all new. His heart is broken for sin, as committed against God; he loaths himself, and repents in dust and ashes. The divine character appears glorious to him; Christ is precious; sins of heart his constant burden; holiness the thing he longs for. He feelingly adopts the lauguage of David, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee." The greatest pleasure he has, is in communion with God. His conduct is changed also: for having believed in God, he is careful to maintain good works. His religion begins in his heart, and extends its influence over all his behaviour; so that his acquaintance take knowledge of him, that he hath been with Jesus.

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Thus the Holy Ghost accompanies the dispensation of the gospel with the exceeding greatness of his power, and enlarges the Redeemer's kingdom. And thus will he continue to do, until all the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: then sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

7. The preceding observations relative to the deity and incarnation of Christ, the doctrine of the atonement, and the influence of the Spirit of God in the regeneration of the sinner, naturally lead me to remark, that the doctrine of the Trinity appears to me to be so interwoven with Christianity in general, and the plan of apostolic preaching in particular, as to make an essential part of it. The Father is represented as choosing, the Son as redeeming, and the Holy Ghost as calling and sanctifying. " According as he (the Father) hath chosen us in him." Of the Son it is said, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity." And the apostle assures us that we are "saved by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Thus different parts of the work of salvation are attributed to different persons in the Godhead.

Before Jesus Christ left the world, he gave the following commission to his apostles, and to their successors in the ministry: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy. Ghost." Here we observe in an act of religious worship, equal honour paid to each person in the Godhead.

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According to this commission the apostles and primitive preachers acted. They could not do otherwise without being disobedient to the command of Christ; consequently, wherever they preached the gospel and baptized the converts to Christianity, they maintained the doctrine of the Trinity nor does it appear that they had any apprehensions that it would prevent the success of their mission. They knew it to be their duty to pay a prompt and implicit obedience to their master's orders, and to leave all consequences as to themselves and his cause with him, being fully persuaded that he would never command them to believe or propagate any sentiment that was not perfectly reasonable, although they could not fully comprehend it: nor do we find that they ever made a single attempt to explain how it is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three persons yet one God; nor how the divine and human natures were united in Jesus Christ. They mantained this threefold distinction in the Godhead, and assure us that "God was manifest in the flesh;" but confessed the mystery, and submitted their reason to divine revelation; in which God's "design is to make known realities and facts, not the manner of them.

"Almost every thing in the system of nature, notwithstanding the great improvements in modern philosophy, is attended with difficulties. If you look up to the heavens, you stand astonished at their greatness, and feel yourself incapable of comprehending that immensity which lies beyond those vast spaces which surround us. If you cast your eyes on the earth, you meet with as many mysteries as there are animals,

plants, and creatures inanimate. You meet with innumerable difficulties in explaining, the sensation of the one, the vegetation of another, and the motion of a third. If you consider material nature in its wide extremes, of immense greatness, and invisible minuteness, you are struck with amazement, and imagination is nonplussed. If, to the consideration of bodies, you take in that of their duration, time will shew you incomprehensible wonders; both in the succession of ages past, and in that which is future. If you turn your thoughts to spiritual essences, every thing surpasses your comprehension. You cannot comprehend, either their manner of existing, or their manner of acting. Even the human soul is so great a paradox to itself, that it long since despaired, not only of comprehending, but of knowing itself.

"And if so, is there any reason to assert, as our adversaries do, that there are no mysteries in religion? Or have they sufficient ground to refuse their assent to our Lord's eternal Divinity, so clearly revealed in the Bible, because it is attended with such difficulties as are insuperable to the powers of reason? Is it any wonder if the difficulties with which we meet in the Christian religion, and especially those that regard the Deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, should be found greater, much greater, than those which attend a philosophical inquiry into the system of nature? It would, indeed be a wonder if it were not so; because the constitution and capacities of our minds bear some proportion to natural objects, which are created and 'finite; and are much better qualified to inquire

into their causes and properties, their connexions and uses, than into those of religion, which are of a spiritual kind, and particularly what relates to the infinite Godhead."*

This threefold distinction in the Godhead is mentioned by Paul, 2 Cor. xiii. 14. «The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, Amen." This is evidently a prayer of the apostle addressed to the sacred Three, that all spiritual blessings might be granted to his Christian friends at Corinth: he could bless them in no other sense than by praying for them.

To what has been said, I shall only add, 1 John v. 7. "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one."t

"I freely grant," says an excellent writer, "that had I consulted my own reason only, I could not have discovered some mysteries of the gospel. Nevertheless, when I think on the grandeur of God; when I cast my eyes on that vašt ocean; when I consider that immense ALL, nothing astonishes me, nothing stumbles me, nothing seems to be inadmissible, however incomprehensible it may be. When the subject is divine, Iam ready to believe all, to admit all, to receive all; provided I be convinced that it is God himself who speaks to me, or any one on his part. After this, I am no more astonished that there are three distinct persons in one divine essence; one God, and yet

* Dr. Abbadie on the Deity of Christ.

+ Those persons who wish to see the authenticity of this text excellently vindicated, are advised to read Travis's Letters to Dr. Gibbon

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