phets, since the world began.

70.

Luke I. 68,

But then, it is written- -well SPAKE the HOLY GHOST by Esaias the prophet, &c. Therefore the Holy Ghost is the LORD GOD of Israel.

XX.

Psal. CXXXIX. 7. Whither shall I go from THY SPIRIT? or whither shall I go from thy Presence? If I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there.

The Psalmist, to acknowledge the omnipresence of the Holy Ghost says---Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? And by what is immediately subjoined, he shews this to be the omnipresence of God himself-If I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there. So that the terms Thou, and thy Spirit, are equivalent; i. e. equally conclusive for the immediate presence of the divine nature itself.

XXI.

It was said by the Angel-Luke I. 32.He shall be great, and shall be called the SON

a Acts XXVIII. 25.

of

of the HIGHEST. But the reason given upon this occasion WHY Christ was called the SON OF GOD, is this, and this only, viz. because he was begotten by the Holy Ghost"The Holy Ghost shall come

upon thee, and the Power of the HIGHEST "shall overshadow thee: THEREFORE also "that holy thing which shall be born of thee "shall be called the Son of GOD." v. 35.

When Jesus is called the Son of God, we understand the supreme and true God, besides whom there is no other. The Devils themselves allowed it, and said- "Jesus, thou "Son of God MOST HIGH!" But the Person in God, whose Son Jesus is said to be in this place, is the Holy Ghost, by whose Power (called the Power of the Highest) he was begotten of the blessed virgin, and thence called the Son of God.

Therefore the Holy Ghost is God, and the Highest.,

XXII

The Prophet Isaiah, in his VIth Chapter,

tells us he saw the LORD of HOSTS.

And

at ver. 8, that he heard the voice of the

LORD, SAYING

Go and tell this people,

hear ye indeed but understand not, &c.

Yet these very words, which the prophet declares to have been spoken by the Lord, even the Lord of Hosts, were spoken by the Holy Ghost -Well SPAKE THE HOLY GHOST, by Esaias the prophet, unto our Fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand", &c.

Therefore, the HOLY GHOST is the LORD OF HOSTS,

The article of the Holy Ghost's supreme and absolute Divinity being now established in the plainest terms; I shall proceed to answer, from the Scripture, the objections. usually made against it from thence,

XXIII.

† Matth. XIX. 17. There is none GOOD but ONE, that is GOD.

If this be a good objection to the Divinity of Christ, it must be equally strong against that of the Holy Ghost; for it is argued from

a Acts XXVIII. 26, 27.

this passage, that the attribute of goodness is confined to the single person of God the Father; who therefore is a Being superior to, and different from Christ and the Holy Ghost. The Error of this argument has been fully shewn above: for it is not one person, but one God, whom the Scripture has asserted to be good; and I now have an opportunity of confirming it, and of proving withal, that in the unity of this one God, besides whom no other is good, the person of the Holy Ghost is, and must be included. For it is writtenThy SPIRIT is GOOD-so that if the same inspired Scripture which declares the person of the Spirit to be good, does also as plainly declare that none is good, but God only: then the Spirit is God, even the only true and supreme God; and we are as well assured of it, as if it had been said, "there is none Good, but one, that is the Spirit, who is one with God." The Hebrew in this place is yet stronger than the English. It is not

good, but Goodness itself, that is, divine essential uncommunicated goodness, besides which there neither is nor can be any other of the like kind. There is one sort of

a Psalm CXLIII. 10.

goodness

goodness communicated to men upon earth; as we read, Psal. CXII. 5. the good man sheweth favour, &c. and Acts XI. 24. that Barnabas was a good man, and full of faith, &c. There is another sort of goodness to be found only in heaven, and that is the goodness of God, which is essential; but this goodness is also an attribute of the Spirit; who therefore is proved to be very God; and by that argument too, for the sake of which, some have denied him to be God.

XXIV.

† Matth. III. 16. The Spirit of God.

The Spirit, say they, is not God, because he is only the Spirit of God. But so likewise the human Spirit, whence the Apostle has taught us to borrow an Idea of the Divine, is the Spirit OF a man; yet, was it ever pretended, that the Spirit, for this reason, is one Being, and the man another? No, certainly: and the same must be true of God, and the Spirit of God; as far as the Being of the same man, who is one person, can be an image of the same God, who is three persons. But there is the plainest testimony of Scripture,