we have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Peace is the gift of the Spirit, whose name is the Comforter, and whose first and best fruit is the work of Peace.

Petrus Alphonsi, an eminent Jew converted in the beginning of the 12th Century, and presented to the font by Alphonsus a king of Spain, wrote a learned treatise against the Jews, wherein he presses them with this Scripture, as a plain argument that there are three persons to whom the great and incommunicable name of Jehovah is applied. And even the unconverted Jews, according to Bechai, one of their Rabbies, have a tradition, that when the High Priest pronounced this Blessing over the people— elevatione manuum sic digitos composuit, ut Triada exprimerent he lifted up his hands, and disposed his fingers into such a form as to express a Trinity. All the foundation there is for this in the Scripture, is Lev. ix. 22. As for the rest, be ita matter of fact or not, yet if we consider whence it comes, there is something very remarkable in it. See Observ. Jos. de vois. in Pug. Fid. p. 400. 556, 557.

Matth. xxviii. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the FATHER, and of the SON, and of the HOLY GHOST.

XVI.

2 Thes. iii. 5. The LORD (the Holy Ghost, see c. ii. art. iv. xviii.) direct your hearts into the love of GOD (the Father) and into the patient waiting for CHRIST.

2 Cor. xiii, 14.

XVII.

The grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the love of GOD, and the communion of the HOLY GHOST.

In this and the foregoing article, the order of the persons is different from that of Matth. xxviii. 19. the Holy Ghost having the first place in the former of them, and Christ in the latter: which is a sufficient warrant for that clause in the Creed of St. Athanasius- "In this Trinity, none is afore or after other.” And Dr. Clarke, I presume, apprehended something of this sort; because he has corrected the Apostle, and transposed the order of the persons in 2 Cor. xiii. 14. without the least apology, or giving his reader any warning of it. §. lv. p. 377.

XVIII.

1 John v. 7. There are THREE that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, the WORD, and the

HOLY GHOST

There has been much disputing about the authenticity of this Text. I firmly believe it to be genuine for the following reasons. 1. St. Jerom*, who had a better opportunity of examining the true merits of the cause than we can possibly have at this distance of time, tells us plainly, that he found out how it had been adulterated, mistranslated, and omitted on purpose to elude the truth. 2. The divines of Lovain having compared many Latin copies, found this text wanting but in five of them; and R. Stephens found it retained in nine of sixteen ancient manuscripts which he used. 3. It is certainly quoted

* Præf. ad Canon. Epist.

twice by St. Cyprian*, who wrote before the council of Nice: and also by Tertullian; as the reader is left to judge after he has read the Passage in the Margin t Dr. Clarke therefore is not to be believed when he tells us, it was "never cited by any of the Latins before "St. Jerom." 4. The Sense is not perfect without it; there being a contrast of three witnesses in heaven, to three upon earth; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, whose testimony is called the witness of God; and the Spirit, the Water, and the blood, which being administered by the Church upon earth, is called the witness of men. He that desires to see this text farther vindicated from the malice of Faustus Socinus, may consult Pool's Synopsis, and Dr. Hammond. And I wish that he would also read what has lately been published upon it by my good and learned friend Dr. Delany, in his volume of Sermons, p. 69, &c.

But even allowing it to be spurious, it contains nothing but what is abundantly asserted elsewhere; and that both with regard to the Trinity in general, and this their divine Testimony in particular. For that there are three divine persons who bear record to the Mission of Christ, is evident fron the following Scriptures. John viii. 17, 18. The testimony of two men is true. I am ONE that bear witness of MYSELF. The FATHER that sent me beareth witness of me.

1 John v. 6... It is the SPIRIT that beareth witness. And Christ has also mentioned, upon another occasion, a plurality of witnesses in heaven,--WE speak (says he) that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and

De Unit. Eccl. 109, Epist. Ixxiii.

+ Connexus patris in filio, et filii in paracleto, tres efficet cohærentes, alterum ex altero; qui tres unum sunt, &c. adv. Prax. See the text in his 2d Edition.

ye receive not OUR Witness! which can be no other than the witness of the Trinity; because it is added-no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven; therefore no man could join with Christ in revealing the things of heaven to us.

XIX.

Isai. vi. 3. And one cried unto another and said, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the LORD OF See also Rev. iv. 8.

HOSTS.

They are not content, (says Origen) to say it once "or twice; but take the perfect number of the Trinity, "thereby to declare the manifold holiness of God; "which is a repeated intercommunion of a threefold "holiness; the holiness of the Father, the holiness of "the only begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost †." And that the Seraphim did really celebrate all the three persons of the Godhead upon this occasion, is no conjecture; but a point capable of the clearest demonstration.

The Prophet tells us, v. 1, he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne; and at v. 5, that his eyes had seen the king the Lord of Hosts. Now if there be any phrase in the Bible to distinguish the true God, it is this of the Lord of Hosts. I never saw it disputed by any Arian writer. The author of an Essay on Spirit confesses it and Dr. Clarke supposes the name Lord of Sabaoth (Jam. v. 4.) proper to the Father only. So

* John iii. 11.

+ Non eis sufficit semel clamare sanctus, neque bis; sed perfectum numerum Trinitatis assumunt, ut multitudinem sanctitatis Dei manifestent; quæ est trinæ sanctitatis repetita communitas; sanctitas patris, sanctatis unigeniti filii, et spiritus sancti. Orig. Hom. in loc.

1 P. 65.

that in this Lord of Hosts, sitting upon his Throne, there was the presence of God the Father.

That there was also the presence of God the Son, appears from John xii. 41. These things said Esaias, when he saw his (Christ's) Glory, and spake of him*.

And that there was the presence of God the Holy Ghost, is determined by Acts xxviii. 25. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet unto our Fathers, saying, &c. then follow the words which the prophet affirms to have been spoken by the Lord of Hosts.

The text of John xii. 41. which being compared with this of Isaiah proves the second person of the Trinity to be the Lord of Hosts, is evaded by Dr. Clarke in the following manner. "The Glory which "Esaias saw, Isai. vi. 1. is plainly the glory of God "the Father; whence the followers of Sabellius con

cr

clude, because St. John here calls it the glory of Christ, that therefore the Father and the Son are one "and the same individual persont." It is concluded by the Orthodox of the Church of England, that the per

It is written at v. 3.—Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of HIS GLORY. This St. John has affirmed to be the glory of Christ: but it was the glory of the Lord of Hosts; therefore Christ is the Lord of Hosts. And if the parallel passage of Rev. iv. 8. be compared with this, it will appear (as it hath already Chap. 1. Art. xxiii.) that he is the God Almighty spoken of in that book. The Greek version of the LXX. has it thus.

ο παντοκράτωρ

ayı, ayıQ, ayıQ Kuşı@ oalland. In Rev. iv. 8. it is, ay, ay, ayı Kugi. Iso warтexparup, wherice it evidently appears, that κυρια ο θεα is equivalent in the language of heaven to Jehovah Sabaoth: therefore as Christ is the Lord of Hosts of the Old Testament, he is thereby proved ipso facto to be the God Almighty of the New. Which shews the we akness of those frequent remarks Dr. Clarke has bestowed upon the word arrоxpaTwp, as the great term of distinction between the person of Christ, and that of God the Father.

† P. 102.