" And St. Paul
says the same thing: [106] "For in him all the fulness of the godhead
dwelt bodily." Now we can have no idea of a spirit without measure, or
containing the fullness of the godhead, but the spirit of God.
[Footnote 104: John 3.6.]
[Footnote 105: John 3.34.]
[Footnote 106: Coloss. 2.9]
Let us now look at Christ in another point of view, or as St. Paul seems
to have viewed him. He defines Christ [107] "to be the wisdom of God,
and the power of God." But what are the wisdom of God, and the power of
God, but the great characteristics and the great constituent parts of
his spirit?
[Footnote 107: 1 Cor. 1. 24.]
But if these views of Christ should not be deemed satisfactory, we will
contemplate him as St. John the Evangelist has held him forth to our
notice. Moses says, that the spirit of God created the world. But St.
John says that the word created it. The spirit therefore and the word
must be the same. But this word he tells us afterwards, and this
positively, was Jesus Christ.
It appears therefore from these observations, that it makes no material
difference, whether we use the words "Spirit of God" or "Christ," in the
proposition that has been before us, or that there will be no difference
in the meaning of the proposition, either in the one or the other case;
and also if the Quakers only allow, when the spirit took flesh, that the
body was given as a sacrifice for sin, or that part of the redemption of
man, as far as his sins are forgiven, is effected by this sacrifice,
there will be little or no difference between the religion of the
Quakers and that of the objectors, as far as it relates to Christ[108].
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