Pains of Death; because it was not poffible that he Should be bolden of it; (Acts ii. 24.) Now if it was not poffible that Christ should be holden of it, viz. Death, he did no doubt raise himself, notwithstanding the different Expreffions relative to this Event, and confequently is God.-Farther; St. Paul, in the Beginning of his Epistles, falutes his Converts most folemnly and affectionately in the Name of God the Father, and of our Lord Jefus Chrift; but, excepting in the Benediction already referred to, he recommends them, in the Conclusion of most of them, only to the Lord Jesus Christ, or to the Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift; and therefore either these summary Benedictions are entirely equivalent to, and comprehenfive of his first Salutations, and that more full and formal Blessing, and by confequence Chrift is God; or else he recommends them to a Power inferior to that in whofe Name he had firft faluted them; which how it can be confiftent with common Propriety, or with the Piety and Affection of this Apostle, let those who are concerned inform us.-And, by the way, we might draw an Argument of the very fame Nature from the Conclufion of the second Epiftle of St. Peter; which I will only produce, and leave to the Application of every candid and impartial Reader: Grow in Grace, and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift: To him be Glory both now, and for ever. Amen.

Nay,

-Nay, fometimes the Conclufions of St. Paul's Epistles are still more compendious, as of that to Titus, Grace be with you all. Amen. And of the first to Timothy, Grace be with thee. Amen. And of thofe to the Coloffians, and to the Hebrews, &c. which I need not recite.-The Acceptation of the Term Grace in the Holy Scriptures is, we know, very various as it refpects the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost; in the Conclufions abovementioned it is no doubt inclufive of every thing that may be implied in it as a Benediction; though it is reasonable enough to suppose it in these Places to be more particularly a Recommendation to the Guidance and Direction of the Spirit of Grace, whofe peculiar Office it is to fanctify the Heart, &c. &c. In the Conclufion however of the second Epiftle to Timothy it seems to have more immediate Reference to God the Holy Ghoft. The Lord Jefus Chrift be with thy Spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. The latter Clause of this Bleffing is distinct from the former; and feems to relate to the ordinary Gifts and Graces of the Spirit, the Third Person, because we find not one express Recommendation to the Grace of God the Father in the Conclufions in question. And yet St. Paul, in the Beginning of - almost every Epiftle very exprefly recommends his Converts, in almoft the fame Form, to Grace and Peace from God the Father, aud from our Lord Jefus Chrift. It will follow then for the above Reasons

Reafons, that the Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, or Grace be with you, in the Conclufions of these Epiftles, are Expreffions of the fame Import, and equal Efficacy with Grace from God the Father, in the Beginning, and confequently that both the Son' and the Holy Ghost are verily and truly God. -Laftly; St. Paul tells us, that without Controverfy great is the Mystery of Godliness: God was manifeft in the Flesh, &c. (1 Tim. iii. 16.) Herein indeed the great Mystery confifted. For had any created or inferior Being affumed the human Nature, &c. at his own proper Motion, or by Command from God, there had been nothing in it eminently myfterious or inconceivable. We could not indeed have expected such a Dispensation, and the Divine Goodness had been abundantly displayed in it; but when revealed it would have been lefs mysterious than many dependent and inferior Doctrines of Religion. For Example-That an Angel fhould, by the Appointment of God, take upon him our Nature, and fuffer for our Sins, be reftored to Life, and crowned with Glory, in Reward of his Obedience to the Will of God, and his Good-will to Men, are Articles which we could more readily comprehend, than that our Souls shall be re-united to our Bodies at the laft Day.-At least such a Difpenfation could not have been stiled a Mystery in fo exalted a Senfe as the Place before us appears to require; of which the natural and literal Con

ftruction

struction is so obvious, that excepting the Mysterioufnefs of the great Doctrine contained in it, fcarce any thing seems to be more inconceivable than the Perverseness of that Interpretation, which should tell us, that by God manifest in the Text, we are to understand an Angel, or any created Being. In a word, if any Doctrine is fairly deducible from Scripture, that of the Trinity is; and even if the Paffages produced in Proof of it were less numerous, or strong than they really are, they ought rather to incline us to the Side of Faith, than to that of Infidelity: Because it would be by no means credible, that Writers setting forth the great Truths of a Religion, of which God is confeffedly the Author, fhould make use of Expreffions, which they could not but foresee would very probably mifguide their Succeffors in the fame Faith into many Notions fundamentally erroneous.

But it may, after all, be ftill probably alledged, that this Matter is not fo abfolutely clear and express as we would have it thought, and as a fundamental Article of Faith ought to be; that as the Term Trinity never occurs in the Scriptures, fo no Text can be produced which precifely, and totidem verbis, fpeaks the Language of the firft Article of our Church, that" in the Unity of "the Godhead there be Three Perfons of one "Substance, Power, and Eternity, the Father,

"the

"the Son, and the Holy Ghoft ;”- or of the fecond-" that two whole and perfect Natures, "that is to fay, the Godhead and Manhood are joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Chrift, very God, and very Man ;"-or of the fifth, " that the Holy "Ghoft, proceeding from the Father and the Son, " is of one Substance, Majesty, and Glory with "the Father, and the Son, very, and eternal God.”

Now it is certain, in the first place, that those who could argue, or, to fpeak more properly, cavil in this manner, would not be less flow of Heart to believe the Holy Scriptures, though they spoke in the very identical Terms of the above Articles themselves; because the original Difficulty, which lies in the mysterious Nature of the Doctrine, would still withold their Affent from it; and fecondly,

If there be any real Force in fuch reasoning, it will extend much farther by neceffary Confequence, than fuch Objectors can be fupposed to design it should; for it will supply the Atheist with Pretences and Exceptions, if not against the Being of God, at least against his Providence and Attributes, as far as they are afferted to be demonftrable from Scripture: There is no one Paffage in Holy Writ which literally tells us as the whole firft Article does," that there is but one living and true God,