The Foundling; or, The Child of ProvidenceChurch, J. (John)
General
The Foundling; or, The Child of Providence
Church, J. (John)
Church, J. (John), approximately 1780-approximately 1825; Clergy -- England -- Biography
But, whilst so many are endeavouring to dethrone the glorious persons in
the Trinity, or to degrade them, other fools have set up _many_; one in
particular, whom I once wrote against, in “Zion’s Controversy:” this poor
creature insists upon it that every separate perfection in Jehovah is a
god. There was also a sect of people in the beginning of the sixteenth
century, called Familists, who held the notion that every believer was an
_Emanuel_—was really God; that Christians, were _Christed_ into _Christ_,
and _Godded_ into _God_. Such stupid ideas have neither scripture reason
nor common sense in them; but I suppose by the bye, this doctrine was
advanced to degrade the essential and eternal Godhead of Christ, as
modern Sabellians do, though very high Calvinists in some other
points—yet maintain the idea that the Father communicates his Godhead to
Christ; and why not to his people? Why not, indeed? Both are
Christ-degrading errors. May the Lord deliver his people from them;
while conceited, empty-talking, _all-knowing_ professors fall into those
ditches, out of which nothing short of superabounding mercy, in a
miraculous way, can deliver them. “Fear, and the pit, and the snare are
upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth; and it shalt come to pass, that he
who flieth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and whoso
cometh up out of the pit shall fall into the snare; for the windows from
on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth do shake.”—_Isaiah_
xxiii.
Being delivered from this awful snare, satan harrassed my mind,
concerning the personality and Godhead of the ever-blessed Holy Spirit.
Here I was much troubled, but the Lord has promised to be the profitable
teacher of his people.—“I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to
profit, and leadeth thee in the way thou shouldest go.” I bless his name
for all his teachings, although it has been under some very painful
experiences; above all, that he has led me to the acknowledgement (_not
comprehension_) of the mystery of God—the Holy Ghost—and of the Father,
and of Christ.—_Colossians_ ii.
That the Holy Spirit is God, one of the Divine _Three_ in the unity of
the Godhead, is evident, by comparing Scripture with Scripture. I am
very sensible that his work upon the heart is infinitely of greater
importance than a thousand bare notions of the subject, however clear;
but it is a mercy to have our loins girt with truth, the armour of
righteousness on the right hand, and on the left; and while the enemies
of God are attempting to degrade his Sacred Majesty, his Adorable Person,
and some weak Christians stagger at the subject, it is our duty (being
delivered from such God-dishonouring conduct), to contend earnestly for
the faith, once delivered to the saints.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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