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* ' . thai although it must be admitted that the pronouns contained in it are of the masculine gender , yet it does not follow that those pronouns refer to the Spirit , and are a proof of its personality . It is a well-known rule , that all
pronouns and verbs must have an antecedent noun , either implied or expressed , agreeing with them , and that antecedent noun may be the immediately preceding , or a more remote one . Masculine pronouns cannot agree with neuter nouns , nor neuter pronouns with masculine nouns , So uniform is the observance of this rule
in the New Testament , that a learned writer , * finding in our present Greek Testaments , in Ephes . i . 14 , the masculine pronoun ogy who , following the neuter noun Spirit , in the end of the
iSth verse , says , ( 1 cite from memory , not having access to the work , ) that if the pronoun refers to the Spirit , the original reading must have been 0 >
which , and not 0 £ , who , but he says , if o $ be the true reading , then the antecedent must be X ^ ry , Chris t , in the l $ th verse . That pronouns have not only remote antecedents , but that they are sometimes implied only , an < J
not expressed , will appear from the following instance , 1 John iii . 5 : " And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins , and in him is no
sin ; " as also the pronouns he and him , in verse the second . To these pronouns there is no antecedent in the connexion with which they can agree , except the noun Father , who we know cannot be intended in those words .
The antecedent to those pronouns , therefore , which is implied , although not expressed in the context , must be Christ . But in the case under consideration we are not under the necessity of appealing to an implied antecedent to the pronouns / and me ; we have the
antecedent noun agreeing with the pronouns , ( wfcich the noun Spirit does not , ) in the word Lord : u And as they ministered to the Lord , and fasted , th $ Holy Spirit said , separate to me , y that is to me the Lord . The Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Lord , his inspiration , his influence , by which * Foli ^ WWW-
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he , the Lord , to whom they ministered , made known his will respecting Barnabas and Saul to one of them , who declared it to the rest . Respecting the expression , ' * whereunto 1 have called them , " it may fee observed , that the calling of persons to any office , or to the enjoyment of the blessings of the gospel , is always , in the New Testament , ascribed to
God or to Jesus Christ , but never in any instance is it ascribed to the Holy Spirit . " It pleased God ; ' says Paul , " who called me by his grace . " * And writing to the Romans , he addresses them as the called of Jesus Christ ,
and he exhorts the Thessalonians to walk worthy of God , " who , ' saith he , " hath called you to his kingdom and glory / ' "The ^ God of all grace , ' says Peter , " hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus , " f These observations , I apprehend , are
sufficient to shew , that the r several personal pronouns , in these verses , cannot refer to the Spirit , who is not represented here as a personal agent , but as the spirit of a person , trie spirit of the Lord by which he spake , and to whom those pronouns ( which are in
agreement with the noun Lord , hut not with the noun Spirit ) must be applied . And this interpretation is confirmed by an observation of Mr . Wardlaw , on the next passage , wjiich he cites to prove the personality of the Spirit .
Acts xv . £ 8 : " For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit , and to us , to lay upon you no other burden than these necessary things . ' " To speak , " says
he , " of any thing seeming good to that influence itself , is a great deal morfe than unnatural : it is nonsense . The influence was only the indication of the good pleasu re of him whose influence it was . His gifts were the intimations of Ms will ** Mr- Wardlaw ,
assuming the Hol y Spirit to be a person , is in the habit of using the terms , the influences of the Spirit , his operations , his works , &c ., but no such language is to be found in the Scriptures . The Holy Spirit is itself th $ Spirit ? thle influence of the Divine Being , by which his servants were inspired to know what wqus his . g ^ oa ¦¦¦ n i -- - L i ¦ -- ! ¦ i - i Am i - _ l ., i . i . Ill ' I I I "'?""* ' ' ' ' - v ! " *¦ ~ ' " - " r . 7- - < . * - ¦< » - ' ^ ' ' - ^ 9 »^? tt *»;* 5 . t t Peter y . 10 .
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%$ & Mr . Marsom py , the Deity qfthe Holy Spirit . —Letter III .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1818, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2474/page/36/
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