Father we have a clear Scripture-proof of the unity of the Three Divine Persons. For as the Son is one with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit both of the Father and the Son, all Three must be one, necessarily, in nature and in power.

Of their distinct Personality, the fourth Gospel contains some peculiar and interesting proofs. For in this Gospel alone is recorded Christ's promise of the Comforter, and in this Gospel alone occurs the threefold testimony of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to the Divinity of Christ; and the threefold evidences of Christ's death on the Cross : "When the Comforter is come, whom I "will send unto you from the Father, even "the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth "from the Father, he shall testify of me (John xv. 26). "It is written in your law, "that the testimony of two men is true. "I am one that bear witness of myself, and "the Father that sent me, beareth witness of "me" (John viii. 17, 18). To this threefold testimony of the heavenly witnesses, St John refers in his First General Epistle, v. 7:

"There are three that bear record in heaven, "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; " and these three are one."

The three evidences of Christ's death on the Cross, are, his expiration,* and the blood and water which issued from his side. "And "he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost' (John xix. 30); that is, "yielded up spirit, according to our Saviour's own words: "Father, into thy hands I commend my "spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46.) "And one of the

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his

soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and "forthwith came thereout blood and water. "And he that saw it bare record, and his re"cord is true; and he knoweth that he saith “true, that ye might believe” (John xix. 34, 35). The evidences of Christ's death, and therefore of his human nature, St. John has so emphatically confirmed by the assurance of his own personal knowledge of what he saw, as to leave no doubt that he had in view the heresy that denied that the Son of God was come in the flesh; the heresy which he

* Παρέδωκε το πνευμα (John xix. 30); άφηκε το πνεύμα (Matt. xxvii. 50); sέeπvevo, expired (Mark xv. 37, Luke xxiii. 46); Πατες, εις χειράς σου παραθήσομαι το πνεύμα μου (Luke xxiii. 46).

has twice reprobated in his Epistles as the work of deceivers and antichrists" (1 Ep.

iv. 2, and 2 Ep. ver. 7). The Gospel and the Epistle, by their numerous correspondences in doctrine and diction, mutually prove that they were written by the same person. And of the many coincidences and references which contain the evidence of such identity, none are more decisive than the coincidence of the diction and doctrine of the threefold testimony in both verses with the Gospel of St. John. Of the external and internal evidences of the disputed Verse of St. John (as far as they can be brought within the view of an unlearned reader), more will be said in a subsequent part of these pages.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

III. In the preceding books of the New Testament we have seen proofs of the distinct existence and personality of the Holy Spirit in the narratives of the Birth and Baptism of Christ; and of his infinite attributes of omnipresence, inspiration, and omniscience, as promised by Christ to his disciples. Throughout the remaining books of the New Testa ment, our humble Inquirer will have to peruse the record of the Holy Spirit's abiding presence in the immediate and (if I may so express myself) the personal direction and government of the Church after our Saviour's ascension to heaven. Of this our Christian Theocracy, the first instance is given by St. Luke, in stating that "Christ was taken up, "after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had

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given commandments to the Apostles, whom " he had chosen " (Acts i. 2).

The next event of the Divine government of the Church, which occurs in the Acts of the Apostles, is the effusion of the Holy Spirit on that great day, for ever to be remembered

D

by the Church, which gave to a few fishermen and "peasants of Judæa," the means of

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changing the religion of the world," by communicating the glad tidings of salvation to "every nation under heaven" (Acts ii. 5) in their own language: "When the day of "Pentecost was fully come, they [the Apos

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tles] were all with one accord in one place "and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it "filled the house where they were sitting. And "there appeared unto them cloven tongues "like as of fire, and it sat upon each o "them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with othe

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tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance: -other than their native tongue of Galilea foreign, but not unknown tongues ;—for they were known to the multitude of " devout men' who were dwelling at Jerusalem at that seaso from " every nation under heaven," who wer "confounded, because that every man hear them speak in his own language. And they all amazed, and marvelled, saying on "to another, Behold, are not all these which