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divine power in creation, represents God as making all things by his word, or speaking them into being. God said, Let there be light, and there was light: and God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and it was so. And God said, Let the waters be gathered to one place';—and so on, as it appears in Genesis. Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, created or made, and all the host of them, by the breath of his mouth. He spoke them into being."

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"The Psalmist, also, ascribes the creation of all things to the same cause acting in the same way. By the Word (or efficacious will) of God were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth: he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast,' Ps. xxxiii. 6. Even the common effects produced by the established laws of nature (which are the voluntary power of God acting in a regular course), are ascribed to the Word of God. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction,' Ps. cvii. 20. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth; his word runneth very swiftly. He sent forth his word, and melted the ice and the snow,' Ps. cxlvii. 15. Joseph was laid in iron; until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him,' Ps. cv. 19."

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"In like manner, John, in his introduction to the history of our Lord, informs us, that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' The same word, or efficacious power, was in the beginning with God! All things were made by it, or by him, and without him, or it, none of the things which are, were made. And the Word (i. e. God who made all things,) was made flesh, and dwelt among us. By flesh we are to understand man: but, it is impossible that God, who is unchangeable, should be made man; and therefore the meaning is, as the Apostle expresses it, 'God was manifest in the flesh,' 1 Tim. iii. 16. He manifested his wisdom and power in the person and public ministry of the man Christ Jesus, the only mediator between God and men. Thus, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.""

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"As the Word was made flesh, or the will of God was made known, in the most extraordinary manner and measure to our Saviour, who was appointed of God to carry his designs into execution; so, for that reason, his name

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is called the Word of God; Rev. xix. 13. The word or will of God, is the same as the power or wisdom of God; for they are both inseparable. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made: he spake, and the earth was,' Ps. xxxiii. 6. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding he hath established the heavens,' Prov. iii. 19. This divine wisdom is beautifully described by Solomon in figurative language, as a person exceedingly zealous for the happiness of mankind. Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief places of concourse; in the openings of the gates, in the city she uttereth her words. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity; and ye scorners, delight in scorning; and ye fools hate knowledge: turn ye at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you,' Prov. i. 20. 'Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old: I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Now, therefore, hearken to me, O children; for blessed are they that keep my ways,' Prov. iii. 1.

"This wisdom is not to be considered as a person distinct from the Father, the only true God. It is something he possessed from the beginning, from everlasting; it is one of his eternal and infinite perfections. The Word, or word of God, in like manner, is not a person distinct from God, even the Father; it is something that he possessed from the beginning, exerted at the creation, and manifested by revelation; i. e. his power and wisdom. Every divine perfection is one and the same thing with God himself, who is one simple, uncompounded being: and as the human understanding cannot comprehend such an infinite object, we are obliged to contemplate his perfections in succession; while, in the mean time, we should beware of considering these as beings or persons distinct from God, or from each other, as the greater part of the Christian world have done, and still continue to do, when they consider the Word and Spirit as two distinct persons, and different from the Father, the only true God, and equal to him in all perfections and properties."

"As a word, in the literal sense, only signifies an articulate sound; so the Word, or Word of God, in this sense,

cannot be a person distinct from the Father, any more than the mouth of God, by which he is said to speak, can be a distinct person. Neither can the Spirit of God be a person, or intelligent being, distinct from the only God, i. e. the Father, whom our Saviour calls a Spirit. For the Spirit of God would be the Spirit of a Spirit. And as the Word is supposed to be a real person, and doubtless, a spirit also, then there would be three spirits in one spirit, which is absurd."

"As the word spirit originally signified breath; so, the Spirit of God may signify the breath of God; and sometimes the word is so translated. Thus, By the Word of God were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth,' Ps. xxxiii. 6. Here it is evident that the word of the Lord, and the breath of his mouth, mean or signify the same thing. They are both figurative expressions. A word spoken is only a man's breath, rendered articulate by his mouth, in order to signify his thought, intention, or will, to others; it is only an external sign. The thing signified, is some act or operation of the mind within. And, therefore, the word of the Lord, and the spirit of the Lord, are only figurative expressions, used to signify one and the same thing-bis will: the original source of all active power, and the first cause of all effects in the universe, whether ordinary or miraculous."

"The will is the source of all active power, and the productive cause of all effects, both in God and man. When we will that our bodies should move, they are immediately put in motion; our will is the cause, motion is the effect. But in what manner that action is produced, is impossible for us to explain. This is known to God alone, upon whose will all things necessarily depend. Whatever he wills to do, that instant is done; but how his will produces that effect, we cannot know. The only idea given in Scripture of the divine agency, is conveyed in figurative expressions, borrowed from the signs of human activity: he spake-he said he commanded-he breathed and it was done. Hence the frequent use of these terms in Scripture the word, or word of the Lord. The breath, or spirit of God, signifies his efficacious will, acting in a manner unknown to us; and therefore the word and the spirit of the Lord are to be understood in the same manner, as we understand the mouth, the eyes,

the ears, and the arm of the Lord; not as signifying different members or distinct persons, but distinct powers and operations. And it therefore may be justly said, that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit are one-one God-one intelligent being or person, who worketh all in all." (Cameron's Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, &c. p. 10-14, 16-19, 36-40.)

On the Importance of adhering to acknowledged Principles in the Interpretation of the Scriptures.-No. 1.

IT is a frequent subject of complaint, that the Scriptures, which purport to contain a revelation or disclosure of the Divine will and purposes toward mankind, should have been attended with so much uncertainty, or have been liable to such different interpretations, as to have proved the occasion of various and discordant opinions. Now, though it cannot be denied that there is so much of peculiarity even in the historical and practical parts of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as to render a pretty intimate acquaintance with their contents, necessary to the clear understanding of many particulars relative to the phraseology and allusions; yet it appears to me, that the main source of oppositions of sentiment, with respect to the great principles of theology, has arisen from a palpable departure from plain and acknowledged truths, and from the adoption of systems with which those truths are utterly irreconcileable. All who profess to receive those Scriptures as the guides of their faith and practice, maintain that there is One God-that "beside Him there is no other"-that he is the source and perfection of all power, all knowledge and intelligence, and all moral excellence; and that He "made man out of the dust"-that "he is dust," and that "unto dust he will return”—that this is a sentence which God denounced upon him, in consequence of sin; and that, though it was delivered on occasion of one particular act of transgression, committed by one man, yet it hath "passed upon all men.' They further maintain, that one act of righteousness or obedience on the part of one man, proved the occasion of a gracious proclamation, that all men will be delivered from this "dust of death," to which they will have been reduced; that after the pattern which was exemplified by that man of distinguished righteousness, all men will be raised from

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death; and that those whose conduct in this life shall have most resembled his, will, like him, be subjected to no more death, neither sorrow, nor sickness, nor pain, but will drink freely and for ever of the waters of the river of life and happiness.

Such, if I mistake not, is the general impression produced by the perusal of the Bible; and if mankind would be consistent in adhering to these principles which they agree in maintaining, they would never suffer a few obscure expressions, detached probably from all proper regard to their connection, to betray them into conclusions which militate with those principles. To instance in the great distinguishing doctrine which pervades the Scriptures, that "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah;" let it be uniformly adhered to in the sense which it must have conveyed to those to whom it was immediately addressed, to the plain Israelitish nation, uninitiated in the arts of scholastic casuistry, but who well understood the simple and unequivocal meaning, uttered to them in their native tongue, in the single and awful accents of one divine voice; let any man in imagination rank himself in their number, bearing in recollection that there then existed no Athanasian, no Nicene, or even Apostolic creed, or Litany, or thirty-nine articles, or catechism, destined to confound the first dawnings of intellect upon the simplest and most momentous of sacred principles; and what must have been his conclusion from the declaration "I am Jehovah, thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt; Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? Could he have formed the conception, that the God who thus addressed a whole nation, with one clear and mighty voice, in the first person singular, might, in reality, consist of several persons possessing a common essence? Could a representation which so completely converts the plainest language, suited to the plainest capacities, into a mere matter of "words and names," have entered into his or any other human mind so circumstanced, and trained as were that large body of persons, to whose common sense and understandings this voice of sacred thunder was addressed? If the sense of the words were as simple and unequivocal as it must have appeared to those to whom they were addressed, it inevitably follows, that they were most solemnly called upon to the worship and service of one Divine Person, one Lord or Jehovah; that as his

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