timately lead them? It is "a thing to make both the ears of them that hear it tingle;" to hear in these days, the silvery voice of girlhood pouring contempt and reproach even on Majesty ; and mocking alike at regal and sacerdotal power.

"These speak evil of those things which they know not:"-such is the reflection with which charity tempers her rebuke. But are they not willingly ignorant? Do they not know that God hath spoken, "touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm?" Do they not know that Christ hath said,

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He that despiseth you, despiseth me?" Do they not know that in bringing railing accusation against dignities, they are taking upon themselves an office which angels (lowlier in spirit as they are mightier in strength) forbear to exercise? One is ready to shrink from these fair revilers, with something of that horror, with which those who surrounded Miriam would shrink from the contagion of the polluting leprosy and with reason:-for have not these too, the plague-spot on them? "Whosoever

resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation." By their words, they are condemned. They witness, too, by the blight which has come upon their heart's best feelings, that they want that free circulation, that generous current of reverence and loyalty, which betokens health, in the bosoms of those who submit themselves "to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."

LYDIA.

SEPTEMBER, 1941.

R

NOTES OF A TRINITARIAN.

No. IX.

THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD.

In all the points we have hitherto considered, I have avoided commenting on the most obvious and bestknown proofs, which Scripture affords. My object has been to lay open the more secret wealth of testimony in which it abounds, and to bring out those indirect evidences which are more valuable than direct statements, only because they are less liable to suspicion, and have not been profaned by cavillers. Alas for man! that suspicion and cavil should ever be named in the same sentence with the word of God!

We will still pursue the same course, and leave the plain facts concerning the Deity of the Holy Spirit to be seen, at the first glance, by the readers of the Bible; or, if they are too idle to find them for themselves, I must again refer them to the admirable little book before mentioned, "The Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity proved," by Mr. Jones of Nayland, where these direct statements are collected, and compared with other Scriptures, in a way that would require more than all the false translations of the Socinian put together to overthrow.

One passage, however, which he has not mentioned,

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occurs in 2 Cor. iii. 17., where St. Paul says, "the Lord (Jehovah) is that Spirit.” i.e., the Spirit who giveth life," (ver. 6.) and whose "ministration," (ver. 8.) is the New "Testament,” (ver. 6.) and “the ministration of righteousness," (ver. 9.) We cannot have the slightest doubt that the Holy Spirit is here intended, from all these particulars; indeed the giving of life, (ver. 6.) is a definition of Him, for no other spirit can give life but He, and yet this spirit is plainly declared to be the same with "THE LORD," or Jehovah.

Some have founded Arian objections to this essential doctrine, on the fact that this Spirit is often called "the Spirit of Christ," as in Rom. viii. 9.-" If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His ; " and in 1 Peter i. 11.-"What manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify." But these objections are vain.-Some will reply that He is the Spirit, not of Christ human, but of Christ divine: but although this may be true, yet having insisted so much on the names of "Christ," as a title expressly belonging to Jesus' humanity, I would rather make answer, that the Holy Ghost is called “the Spirit of Christ" for these reasons:

I. Because Christ promised to send Him down, (John xv. 26; xvi. 7.)

II. Because He gave Him to the disciples, by breathing on them, (John xx. 22.) and here we may again refer to that singularly parallel passage, (Psalm xxxiii. 6.) where the Psalmist describes the creative Spirit as being "the breath of the mouth" of Jehovah.

III. Because our Lord says, also "the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name," (John xiv. 26.)

The body of truth which has passed under our review may be briefly summed up; and my readers will remember that we have had the warrant of scripture for every point, as we have proceeded.

We began by examining the hidden chain, the thread interwoven throughout the ground-work of the Bible, the pervading, indirect testimony to the Triplicity of God, and the Deity of the Messiah; we proved that Jesus Christ,—“ God over all, blessed for ever;" yet the "Son of man," is "the mystery of godliness"-" the mystery of God even the Father"-"the mystery kept secret from the beginning of the world,” and “the glory of God," whom to acknowledge, as such, is the gift of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the source of boundless blessings to the believer. We have also shewn that, in his divinity, he is the eternal "Word of God," the "Truth" of God, and the essential "Wisdom of God;" while, in his humanity, he is the "Son of man," and also the Anointed (Messiah or Christ.) We have also seen that, by virtue of this twofold nature, he is the connecting link between God and man, and therefore capable of being the “ propitiation" for the sins of men; and therefore also he is "the Mediator (and Intercessor, as coming between,) "of the new covenant," and also the merciful and fitting Judge of human nature, and the only proper Head of his redeemed human church. We have, moreover, shewn some of the incidental allusions to the eternity and deity of the Holy Spirit, and his unity of nature with "the Truth" of God, even the Eternal Word, who declared himself, by the mouth of Jesus Christ, to be one with the Father. John x. 30, Thus again we find that "these Three

are ONE;" a point so perpetually expressed, implied and assumed throughout the Bible, that the notable text of 1 John v. 7, (which expressly developes the fact, and has therefore been so furiously attacked by heretics in all ages,) is not the main pillar of the doctrine, nor even an essential prop to it. It has been proved genuine, by many a learned Christian divine; but were it not so, we need not despair; we have enough without it. The gifts of God are divine and superabundant; and even though the profane perversity of man subtract a part of the treasure, he cannot leave us destitute unless he take away the whole substance of scripture together.

X. Q.

CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION.

THIRTY-ONE thousand and ninety Englishwomen died in one year (1838) of the incurable malady (consumption!) Will not this impressive fact induce persons of rank and influence to set their countrywomen right in one particular article of their dress, and lead them to abandon a practice which disfigures the body, strangles the chest, produces nervous or other disorders, and has an unquestionable tendency to implant an incurable hectic malady in the frame? Girls have no more need of artificial bones and bandages than boys.—Dr. Granville's Midland and Southern Spas of England.