C also said to be given by God, and received by believers;d and even so as to "dwell in their hearts,"e in exact conformity with what we read of the Holy Spirit. 3dly, In those very places where the Holy Spirit is spoken of as a gift, he is sometimes described as a person, and distinguished from his effects. Of this we have an instance in Rom. v. 5.-" The love of God is "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given unto us." The meaning of which expression is as follows. The Holy Ghost is given unto us, that he may be no less our's than the Father or the Son is our's, and that thus we may be rendered happy by the communion of the whole undivided Trinity. By the Holy Ghost, that is, by his influence and operation, we have "in our hearts," or we feel and actually experience," the love of God," particularly his amazing love towards us, "shed abroad," or most abundantly imparted. For it is the chief part of the consolation from which the Holy Spirit receives the title of the Comforter, that he causes us to taste and feel the love of God. In like manner in Gal. iv. 6, it is said of the person of the Holy Spirit, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son ;" as, in verse fourth it is said of the person of the Son, "God sent forth his Son." Besides, the Spirit whom God sends to dwell and to operate in our hearts, crieth; that is, so causeth us to cry, that our crying is his voice. He is here so evidently described as a person, that Crellius is obliged to betake himself to a personification; a parallel instance of which he alleges we have in Chap. iii. 8. "The Scripture foreseeing, &c." But that passage bears 66 66 e Is. ix. 6. John iii. 16. • Ephes. iii. 17. d John i. 12. Col. ii. 6. no resemblance to this. The Scripture is said to foresee, because the Spirit, who dictates the Scripture, foresees. The figure there is a metonymy, not a personification. XIV. It exceeds all absurdity, that they would have the Holy Spirit to mean the Doctrine of the Gospel, to which, by a prosopopoeia, personal operations are attributed. They thus explain the following words of Paul: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit ; "for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."f To the same sense they pervert also that other expression; "No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." As if the meaning of the Apostle were, that no man can rightly acknowledge Jesus as Lord, unless that truth be revealed to him by the Gospel; as likewise they who receive the Gospel, are said to be "in the Spirit." But if we are disposed to speak the truth, what is it wantonly to wrest the Scriptures, if this is not an instance of such conduct? Let us examine each of the passages alleged. Were we to grant that in the former, the Spirit, by a metonymy, denotes the doctrine of the Gospel; what is improperly ascribed there to the Gospel as an exemplary cause, is properly to be attributed to the person of the Holy Spirit, as the principal efficient cause. Thus also that which is elsewhere ascribed to the letter of the law, is, by the same analogy, to be attributed to the person of the Lawgiver. But it does not seem necessary for us to make such a concession. The Apostle does not call the law "the letter;" or the Gospel" the Spirit :" but teaches that the letter is in the law, and the Spirit in the Gospel, so that they who minister to the law, minister to the letter; they who minister to the Gospel, to the Spirit. He calls that the letter, which is unable, at first, and by itself, to convert a man; or to give a sinner the hope of life, much less to quicken him. By the Spirit, he understands both the person of the Spirit, and his quickening grace; which is clearly disclosed, and rendered efficacious, by means of the Gospel. In a preceding verse, the Apostle undoubtedly distinguishes the Spirit from the doctrine, when he calls the Corinthians "the epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but with "the Spirit of the living God."i As to the interpretation which they obtrude upon the third verse of 1 Cor. xii., it is a daring perversion. To speak by the Spirit, is to speak as the Spirit instructs and moves. In the whole of this Chapter, too, the Spirit denotes, not the doctrine of the Gospel, but Him by whom the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge is given, and who is the Author of faith. And we are said to "live in the Spirit," when, by the efficacious operation of the person of the Holy Spirit, we live a new and spiritual life. The form of expression is similar to that which is used with regard to the common blessing of nature, when we are said to live in God, because he giveth unto all life, and breath, and all things." xv. Having thus proved the PERSONALITY of the Holy Spirit, let us now proceed to show that he is a DIVINE Person, the true Jehovah, and the Most High God. And why should we not employ the same series of arguments by which divine truth has hitherto been nobly and successfully defended? It is the will of God himself, that we should acknowledge as the true God, one to whom Divine Names, Attributes, Works, and Divine Honour and Worship, are ascribed in the sacred volume. The Almighty is not so prodigal of his glory, as to share all the characters of divinity now mentioned with one that is not God. Nor indeed is it possible for him so to share them: For the attributes of God are not, in reality, distinct from his essence; his works are a kind of emanations, and living proofs of those attributes; and what is honour and worship but a devout recognition of that divine excellence which is displayed in such stupendous works? The name of God, in fine, and in particular the name Jehovah, comprises all these in its extensive import. Now there is none of these characteristics of Divinity, that doth not belong to the Holy Ghost. XVI. To begin with NAMES: It is nowhere, we confess, said expressly and in so many words, "The Holy Spirit is the Most High God." From a diligent comparing of the Scriptures, however, we conclude incontestably, that he who is in one passage called the Holy Ghost, is in the same, or in a parallel place, denominated Jehovah and God; and that those things which are indisputably affirmed of Jehovah, and cannot be affirmed of any that is not Jehovah, are asserted concerning the Spirit. Nor is it necessary Nor is it necessary that every doctrine, or even all the most important mysteries of theology, be declared in express terms; since we ought to obtain our knowledge by "comparing spiritual 66 things with spiritual.”。 1 Cor. ii. 13. XVII. Let us, in the first place, examine the mysteries of the Ninety-fifth Psalm. None, I apprehend, will deny that he is the Supreme God, who says, verses 9th, 10th, and 11th, that he was tempted and proved in the wilderness by the fathers of the Jews, after they had seen his work ;-who was grieved with that generation, and who sware that they should not enter into his rest. Yet he is the same person who says, verses 7th and 8th," To-day if ye will hear his voice," that is, the voice of the Son of God, who is our God, a great King above all gods, and the Chief Shepherd of souls," harden not your hearts." For what we read from the last member of the seventh verse to the end of the Psalm, is related as the continued discourse of the same person. I now add, that the Holy Spirit is the author of the whole of this discourse; as is evident from the Apostle's expression in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Wherefore, as the HOLY GHOST saith, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice," &c.P And indeed it is the office of the Spirit to testify of Christ as King, and to glorify him. Hence it is inferred by inevitable consequence, that the Holy Ghost is that JEHOVAH Whom the Israelites tempted in the desert, and who showed himself to be the God of Israel, by his magnificent works, and by the just punishments which he inflicted upon the rebellious. As to the objection of adversaries, that these words are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, not as if they were pronounced by his person, but by the person of David under the impulse of the Spirit; it is refuted by the whole scope and connexion of the discourse. The things spoken are not P Chap. iii. 7. ¶ John xv. 26. |