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other, yet no one can act without the other, and they all concur to every act of each; for in understanding and remembering, there is a concurrent act of the will to consent to such understanding or remembering, so that no one can act without the other: in which sense none is before or after the other, nor can any of them be or exist without the other.

"But what we call faculties in the soul, we call persons in the Godhead, because there are personal actions attributed to each of them: as that of sending and being sent; to take flesh, and be born, &c.

"And we have no other word whereby to express it; we speak it after the manner of men; nor could we understand, if we heard any of those unspeakable words which express the divine nature in his proper essence; therefore we must make allowances, and great ones, when we apply words of our nature to the infinite and eternal Being. We must not argue strictly and philosophically from them, more than from God's being said to 'repent,' to be 'angry,' &c. They are words ad captum, in condescension to our weak capacities, and without which we could not understand."

The Saviour came to preserve and to "save men's lives, not to destroy them," saying, " Lo! I come to do thy will, O God," concurring in this gracious purpose as He did at creation,—" all things being created by Jesus Christ," the Holy "Spirit also moving upon the face of the waters." In like manner, after the departure of Christ from earth, the Holy Spirit "brings all things to remembrance whatsoever" the Son had impressed on the minds of his disciples as the will of the Father, by a similar concurrence. And when Jesus declared that he would be baptized by

John, the ordinance was accompanied by a voice from the Father and a similitude of the Holy Spirit. In short, the above quotation will be found in all other instances agreeable to the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity. So that by comparing the divine essence as represented in Scripture with the triune faculties which we so distinctly discover in our own nature, we derive all the satisfaction which can be required confirmatory of this doctrine. In conclusion, then, it behoves every rational being carefully to examine the evidences of the Christian religion, which

Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness,
The soul can comfort, elevate and fill;
Which only, and which amply this performs;
Lifts us above life's pains, her joys above!
Their terrors those, and these their lustre lose;
Eternity depending covers all.*

INJUNCTIONS TO BELIEVERS.

1 John iv. 1-6. the spirits whether they are of God. the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: b he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of

Beloved, a believe not every spirit, but try
Hereby know ye

error.

1 Thessalonians v. 21. Prove all things.

Romans XII. 1, 2. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accepta 2 Peter 11. 1. b Luke x. 22; John x. 27.

* Young.

able unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Philippians 1. 9, 10. I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all ♬ judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

The causes, danger, and consequences of infidelity, and the duty of avoiding the society of infidels, are set forth in the following passages, of which we would recommend a serious and attentive perusal. 2 Cor. iv. 4; Eph. 11. 2; Matt. xxiv. 11, 12; Mark xvi. 16; John VIII.24; 2 Tim. II. 12; Rev. XXI. 8; 1 Tim. vi. 3-5; 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, 17, 18; 2 John 7-11; 1 John 11. 18–29.

d

B Or, "sense." Y Or, "try things that differ." 8 εiλeкpivεiç, from sin, "the splendour of the sun," and кpvw, "I judge, disείλη, cern," properly pure and unsullied" to such a degree as to bear examination in the full splendour of the solar rays.—Bagster.

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CHAPTER V.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MYSTIC BABYLON; HER PUNISHMENT

AND DESTRUCTION.

Amid the splendour and variety of the political heavens, no power has ever shone with a character so remarkable, so conspicuous and so durable, as the empire and ecclesiastical dominion of apostate Rome, the prophetic Babylon of the Scriptures. And as no earthly authority has ever opposed the divine will with such unabated ardour and presumption, so the severity and extent of the punishments which await her will be greater than any that have ever preceded them. The first intimation which we find in Scripture of this wonderful power, is in one of the prophecies of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 24; "Ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever:" which may be considered in conjunction with that explicit prediction respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, in

Deuteronomy xXVIII. 49-53, &c. The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be ? Heb. "

e Heb. "hear."

strong of face."

wine or

destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land, and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

How precisely does the expression, "strong of face,' agree with the stern, warlike, and unbending policy of the Romans, as of that of their later associate in empire, the church of Rome, who has thundered forth her bulls, anathemas, and interdicts! To whom, either old or young, have the Romans shewed favour in contravention of their designs? To the Jews, the Carthaginians, to nations either civilized or barbarous, during their oppressive career? And what compromise of power has "the man of sin" made against a reinstatement in his former authority during the later period of his dark domain? The Romans were a people from whom the Jews had been comparatively estranged previous to their conquest, whether on account of distance, or their "language," with which the latter were unacquainted. The requisitions of the Romans were enormous over conquered states: but we find in Deuteronomy the most solemn and pathetic warnings against the self-created woes of the Jews, during their predicted siege by that power, whose standard "the eagle" is there alluded to.

It is very generally known" that the four beasts which Daniel saw" (chapter VII.)" mean four successive forms of tyrannical dominion, viz., the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires." The fourth is thus described:

Daniel VII. 7, 8. I saw in the night visions, and behold a

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