II. A personal summons and appearance of all men before that tribunal.

III. An investigation and manifestation of all their deeds. IV. A definite sentence pronounced according to those deeds.

With respect to those who are the objects of this action, viz. "the quick and the dead,"

First, Prove negatively, that they are

I. Not "the souls and the bodies" of men respectively, as some have imagined to be the sense of the Creed. II. Not "the spiritually alive, and the dead in trespasses and sins," as others have thought, though that phraseology is strictly Scriptural.

Secondly, Prove positively that the persons meant are those that shall be found alive physically, and those that shall have died, at the time of Christ's second Advent, respectively. And with respect to the former,

I. State the possible doubt arising from the testimony of many places of Scripture, that all men must once die. And then,

II. Establish the case of the quick here intended as real exceptions (equally with Enoch and Elijah) to that general law of nature, inasmuch as the Apostle has expressly declared the exception in this case.

Thirdly, Show the necessity of this belief of Christ's Advent to judgment,

I. For removing doubts respecting the providence of God. II. For inducing repentance for our sins.

III. For establishing our hope, and comfort, and assurance, of everlasting life.

Sum up, therefore, in few words this great Article of religion.

ARTICLE VIII.

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."

In the next Article, which begins the third division of the Creed, considering the great object of belief simply, without reference to the peculiar form in which this part, like the first and second, is introduced; and from which the Divinity of the Spirit, as of the Father and of the Son, has been inferred:

First, With respect to the nature of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy Spirit (the names being identical in the Saxon and Latin nouns respectively),

I. Prove that the existence of the Holy Spirit is incapable of being denied (and was accordingly never denied) by any who acknowledged the authority of Divine revelation: viz.

1. Not by the most heretical of those who admitted the Law.

2. Much less by any under the Gospel, who are baptized into this third name, equally with those

of the Father and of the Son.

II. Proceeding therefore to the only thing requiring investigation or discussion, viz. who or what is the Holy Ghost thus pointed out to us in the Divine word: Prove,

1. That the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, as are confessedly the Father and the Son.

A. Because, conceiving the Holy Ghost as

the principle to which all those acts and energies are referred by which the

Church and every living member of it is governed and sanctified,-the supposition of this Agent being no substance but a quality, is contrary to

reason.

B. Because the Scriptures, indited, as all Christians confess, by the Holy Spirit, represent that Spirit as no mere energy or quality, but as a Person, in several ways: viz.

(1.) In formally distinguishing the Holy Spirit of God from evil spirits, who are evidently persons and intellectual substances whence the natural and necessary inference lies, that the Divine Spirit is also such.

(2.) In ascribing to the Holy Ghost such dispositions and operations, as can belong to none a person, respecting

but

which

a. Show the personal nature in the several properties ascribed; viz.

a. Intercession for the saints with God in

their prayers.

B. Mission from the
Father through the

Son to man.

7. Hearing the words of Christ, and speaking them to the Church, thus guiding it into all truth.

8. Dispensing several operations and gifts to the Church "at His will."

b. Refute the explication of this by the figure prosopopaia, as taught by the Socinians and Neologists, and the new Sabellian schools, by showing

a. That these several in-
stances cannot de-
scribe any personal
operation of
of the
Father or the Son.
B. That neither can they
describe any personal
operation of man, in
whom this gift of God
is asserted, as the
contradictors allege;

of satisfactory explanation by being referred to the gifts of which the Holy

Ghost is (per

sonally) the dis

penser.

1. That the Holy Spirit is not a created Person, but a Divine and Uncreated one, in opposition to the ancient heretics, the Arians and the Macedonians;—

A. Because the identity of His nature with
the Divine, which is expressed by the
name, is moreover explicitly declared
in Scripture to be as complete as that
of man's spirit with human nature.
B. Because the dignity ascribed to the Per-
son of the Holy Spirit in Scripture is
such as cannot without blasphemy be
attributed to a creature. Remove the
possible objection to this argument,
asserting that it would prove too
much; viz. that it would prove the
Spirit greater than the Son.

C. Because the Holy Spirit is not subjected
to the Incarnate Son of God, as all
creatures are, and therefore must be
Uncreate and Divine.

D. Because the conception of the Virginborn by the Holy Ghost, is the sole reason assigned by the Angel why that holy offspring should be called the Son of God: and that can be no other than a Divine power which effected this character of the humanity of the Son. 2. That the Holy Spirit is truly and properly God. A. Because this follows inevitably from the two preceding assertions: being proved, (1.) From the arguments that established the first assertion, viz.