"Jehovah (the Father) bless thee, and keep thee." "The love of God be with you."

"Jehovah (the Son) make his face to shine upon thee, and

be gracious unto thee,"

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” "Jehovah (the Spirit) lift up

upon thee, and give thee peace.'

66

the light of his countenance

The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you."

The coincidence and parallel exhibited in this comparison are too manifest to be overlooked by the serious reader, and clearly show, that he who prescribed these forms for the religious use of his servants, intended thereby to impress them in their most. serious devotions with suitable ideas of his own nature.

While the Apostle Paul concludes his Epistle to the Corinthians with this threefold benediction, St. John is taught to open his solemn revelations to the seven churches with this same form of blessing: "Grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” Here the Son is set before us in his ordinary name, as the Saviour of men, and the Father is presented under a periphrasis equivalent to Jehovah, namely, "He who is, who was, and who is to come ;" and the Holy Ghost is set forth by the figurative designation of the "Seven Spirits.' Unitarian writers have endeavoured to resolve the "Seven Spirits" into seven angels or ministering spirits, but a very brief investigation will show that this notion is totally inadmissible. Angels are creatures, and, as creatures, ascribe their existence to God, and worship him. But the "Seven Spirits" are never described as creatures, are never found assuming either the attitude or the language of worship, and thus they are plainly distinguished from all creatures, however highly exalted. In another passage, the seven Spirits are set forth as the horns and eyes of the Lamb, but this representation is too exalted for angels, and can only apply to the Holy Ghost. The horn is an emblem of the power, and the eye an emblem of the wisdom of Christ, and it is not through the agency of angels, but through the agency of the Holy Spirit, that the power and wisdom of Christ are displayed in the gospel, as on the Day of the three articles of this benediction be attentively considered, their contents will be found to agree respectively to the three persons taken in the usual order of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Father is the author of blessing and preservation. Grace and illumination are from the Son, by whom 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." Dr. Pye Smith has also observed, "The first member of the formula expresses the benevolent love of God, the Father of mercies, and fountain of all good; the second, well comports with the redeeming grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the last is appropriate to the purity, consolation, and joy which are received from the communion of the Holy Spirit."

Pentecost, and in every instance when Christ is glorified in the salvation of souls. In another instance, the seven spirits are set forth as "Seven lamps of Fire burning before the throne." Fire is an emblem under which the Holy Ghost is frequently represented, and is expressive of his enlightening and purifying influences; when given on the Day of Pentecost, fire was his emblem. The number seven is used in allusion to the golden candelabrum of the sanctuary, with its seven branches, constantly supplied with holy oil, and yielding its pure and steady light. The number seven, too, in the Hebrew language (the idiom of which is here preserved, although the apostle wrote in Greek), signifies fulness, plenitude, completion, and hence the Seven Spirits signify the Holy Ghost in the plenitude and perfection of his heavenly influences. Thus, the passage before us applies to the Holy Ghost, who is here invested with divine prerogatives, and united with the Father and the Son as the object of worship, and the fountain of grace and peace. From the triune God then the Apostles sought by prayer the spiritual blessings of grace and peace for the churches to which they wrote.

Divine worship is also ascribed to the Holy Ghost, by the angels in heaven. We have before proved that in the vision of Isaiah, (c. vi.) the representation of Jehovah's glory applies to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and those arguments need not be repeated. But in the same representation we have the seraphim employed in worship, and their ascriptions of praise are threefold, corresponding with the persons in the Godhead. They veil their faces with their wings and cry one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." As Origen observes, 66 They are not content 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 inter-communion of a threefold holiness; the holiness of the Father, the holiness of the only begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Since the testimony of the scripture itself shows that the representation of Jehovah applies to the glorious Three, there is no room for conjecture as to the reason for the threefold ascription of praise uttered by the seraphim. Their praise as certainly applies to each person as the scriptures themselves prove the presence and glory of each person. It should be remembered, too, that this praise is rendered in the heavenly temple. The threefold benediction of the high priest was pronounced in the earthly temple made with hands, which was a figure of the true, but here a threefold ascription of praise and glory is rendered in the temple not made with hands. The one tribute of praise was pronounced by men, the latter by the seraphim---the highest order of angelic beings.

In the fourth chapter of Revelation we have a more minute description of heaven, and the worship which the various orders of happy beings render to the triune God. The favoured apostle beholds heaven opened, and there the Glorious Three are emble

matically represented to his eye. Around these emblems of the glorious Trinity there are various orders and countless numbers of happy worshippers, the living ones, or seraphim and cherubim, the elders arrayed in spotless robes, and the multitude of angels. The living ones here, like the seraphim in Isaiah, utter the same threefold ascription of praise. They rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. The elders and the angels round about the throne praise him with a loud voice, and eternally glorify God and the Lamb.

We have now completed our chain of argument for the Deity of the Holy Spirit, and the reader will see that we have established this important doctrine by the same process of reasoning as that by which we had previously established the Deity of Christ; and the argument, adduced for the Godhead of both the Saviour and the Spirit, are those by which alone the Deity of the Father himself can be established. To deny the validity of these arguments for the Deity of the Son and Spirit, is to deny the Deity of the Father also, for there are no other arguments by which his Deity can be proved. If the names, the attributes, the works, and the prerogatives of God do not establish his claim to supreme Divinity, there is no alternative but to deny his existence, and plunge at once into atheism, This reasoning supplies an infallible test of the truth of the Holy Trinity, and of the absurdity and impiety of the Unitarian hypothesis.

The only sophism by which the Unitarian seeks to evade this conclusion is to allege that certain passages in scripture ascribe to man powers and prerogatives which, if understood literally, would Deify him. Hence, Dr. Channing refers to instances where men are said to be partakers of the Divine nature, to know and possess all things, and to be filled with all God's fulness. That believers are made partakers of God's moral nature, being renewed in righteousness and true holiness is true-that they are instructed by the Holy Spirit to know their duty is true-that they possess all spiritual blessings in Christ is true, and that it is their privilege to be filled with God is also true; but in what sense do these privileges invest them with the prerogatives of God, or express any semblance to an equality with Deity? In no sense in which we are able to conceive. If the reasoning of Channing have any weight, it must be shewn that the representations of scripture in reference to man, are parallel to the representations of scripture in reference to the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit. If there is no parallel, the argument has no weight, it is good for nothing, it is a mere sophism. To explode the sophism and show its utter absurdity, we have only to demand, exhibit the parallel. Show us where man is called JehovahJehovah God, Jehovah God of Hosts, Jehovah God of Israel. Show us where man is said to have the attributes of eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and immutability. Show us where man is said to have created all worlds, and is to

The next Tract will treat on the subject of "GENERAL DEPRAVITY," &c.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

No. 3.-THE FIRST PART OF THE HOLY TRINITY.-"We have read it with the highest satisfaction, and earnestly commend it to the attention of our friends."-Methodist New Connexion Magazine

"We have no hesitation in saying that if the remainder of the series equal those already published, the work when completed will constitute a most valuable exposition of Christian Doctrine. The very low price at which these tracts are published, brings them within the means of the many, and their excellence renders them deserving of the most extended circulation. They are not mere common-place productions, but contain the results of extensive reading and much thinking, well arranged and suitably expressed."-Wesleyan Association Magazine.

"Fuller and clearer arguments on the doctrines under consideration are furnished in these tracts, than in any publication known to us of equal size and price. Believing that they will be highly useful to persons who will carefully and studiously read them, we wish them to have extensive circulation."-Primitive Methodist Magazine.

No. 4.-THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.-"This Tract fully sustains the character we have given of its predecessors. It is exceed. ingly valuable both for criticism and argument. It will furnish those whose leisure for reading is limited, with ample materials for thought, and enable them to give a substantial and Scriptural reason for the hope that is in them."-Methodist New Connexion Magazine.

No. 5.-THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, Part 2.-"This number of Mr Cooke's Tracts concludes the arguments in support of our Lord's Divinity. We feel unable adequately to express our high admiration of the very able manner in which this important doctrine is here discussed. The truth of it is established by reasonings the most satis factory and unanswerable. The absurdity and falsehood of the Socinian hypotheses are vividly exposed, and the whole, though presented in a very condensed form, is so luminous in statement, and so truly Christian in temper, that it cannot fail to carry conviction to the mind of every earnest and honest enquirer after truth. The most unlearned reader may understand this tract, and the most learned may profit by it.”—Methodist New Connexion Magazine.

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