400 THE DOCTRINE OF THE
object of divine and religious worship ; that is, " Over all, God blessed
for ever," as the ensuing testimonies evince : —
Gen. i. 2, " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters " Ps. xxxiii. 6, " By the Avord of the Lord were the heavens made ;
and all the host of them by the Spiiit of his mouth."
Job xxvi. 13, "By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens." Job xxxiii. 4, " The Spirit of God hath made me." Ps. civ. 30, " Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created." Matt, xxviii. 19, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Acts i. 1 6, " That scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which
the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake."
Acts V. 8, " Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost?" verse 4, "Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God."
Acts xxviii. 25, 26, " Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the
projoliet unto our fathers, saying. Go unto this people, and say," etc. 1 Cor. iii. 16, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
1 Cor. xii. 11, "All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." Verse 6, " And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."
2 Cor. xiii. 14, "The gi'ace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."
Acts XX. 28, " Take heed to the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers."
Matt. xii. 31, " All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men."
Ps. cxxxix. 7, " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?"
John xiv. 26, " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things."
Luke xii. 12, " The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say."
Acts xiii. 2, " As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whercunto I have called them."
Verse 4, " So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia," etc.
2 Pet. i. 21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
It is evident, upon the first consideration, that there is not any
TRINITY VINDICATED. 401
thing which we believe concerning the Holy Ghost, but that it is plainly revealed and declared in these testimonies. He is directly affirmed to be, and is called, " God," Acts v. 3, 4 ; which the Socinians will not say is by virtue of an exaltation unto an office or authority, as they say of the Son. He is an intelligent, voluntary, divine agent; ho knoweth, he worketh as he will : which things, if, in their frequent repetition, they are not sufficient to evince an intelligent agent, a personal subsistence, that hath being, life, and will, we must confess that the Scripture was written on purpose to lead us into mistakes and misapprehensions of what we are, under penalty of eternal ruin, rightly to apprehend and believe. It declareth, also, that he is the author and worker of all sorts of divine operations, requiring immen- sity, omnipotency, omnisciency, and all other divine excellencies, unto their working and effecting. Moreover, it is revealed that he is peculiarly to be believed in, and may peculiarly be sinned against, [as] the great author of all grace in believers and order in the church. This is the sum of what we believe, of what is revealed in the Scrip- ture concerning the Holy Ghost.
As, in the consideration of the preceding head, we vindicated one testimony in particular from the exceptions of the adversaries of the truth, so on this we may briefly sum up the evidence that is given us in tlie testimonies before produced, that the reader may the more easily understand their intendment, and what, in parLici lar, they bear witness unto.
The smn is, that the Holy Ghost is a divine, distinct jJerson, and neither merely the power or virtue of God, nor any created spuit whatever. This plainly appears, from what is revealed concerning him. For he who is placed in the same series or order with other divine persons, without the least note of difference or distinction from them, as to an interest in personality; who hath the names proper to a divme person only, and is frequently and dkectly called by them ; Avho also hath personal properties, and is the voluntary author of personal, divine operations, and the proper object of divine worship, — he is a distinct divine person. And if these things be not a sufficient evidence and demonstration of a divine, intelligent substance, I shall, as was said before, despair to understand any thing that is expressed and declared by words. But now thus it is with the Holy Ghost, according to the revelation made concerning him in the Scripture For,—