ather the interpretation of tongues; and all these worketh that one aud the felf-fame fpirit. Take heed to yourselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overfeers. Acts xx. 28. And, as they miniftered to the Lord, and fafted, the Holy Ghost faid, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. So they, being fent forth by the Holy Ghoft, departed. Acts xiii. 2. 4. And they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Afia. And they affayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit fuffered them not. Now, upon the whole, if fpeaking, teaching, leading; qualifying of men with grace, gifts, and abilities for the ministerial work; furnishing them with wisdom and knowledge, and giving them divers kinds of tongues; appointing them to the office of overfeers, and telling them what to fay; giving readiness of mind, aptitude and utterance in fpeaking; telling them where to go, and forbidding them to go here and there, where he had no work for them to do, at least not at that season-if these are not perfonal works and actions, what are? There are fome, I believe, in the world, who deny the very being of a God-The fool bath faid in his heart, There is no God. These mult be left to be convinced by the torments of the damned. But I believe there are very few, who profefs to believe the Bible, but will allow that there is one divine perfon in the Godhead, which is in general allowed to be God the Father; though many will not allow the Saviour to be a perfon, although he is his only-begotten Son, the the Son of the Father in truth and love: and still lefs will they allow divine perfonality to the Holy Ghoft; though the fcriptures afcribe the fame perfonal characters, properties, works, and actions, to the Son, and to the Spirit, as they do to God the Father. Therefore, if the Father be a perfon, the Son and Spirit muft. The work of creation is afcribed to the Holy Ghoft, as well as to the Son and to the Father:-The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.-He operated upon the confufed chaos, and brought it into beautiful order. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand bath formed the crooked ferpent. Job xxvi. 18. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hoẞs of them by the breath of his mouth. Pfalm xxxiii. 6. Here the creation of the heavens are ascribed to the effential Word, and to the holy Spirit. Thou ferdeft forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth. Psalm xxxiv. 30. Here is the work of creation ascribed to the Spirit, and it is he that renews the face of the earth every fpring. The creation of man is afcribed to the holy Spirit also. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty bath given me life. Job xxxiii, 4. Nor was the holy Spirit a fpectator when Chrift appeared for our falvation. It was the Holy Ghoft that came upon the Virgin Mary at her conception, and that formed the human nature which Chrift affumed, and preferved it from every stain or spot of ́original fin, and then refted upon him with all his fulness fulness of gifts and grace. He applied the word which the Saviour fpoke, and difplayed his power in the miracles that he wrought; and thofe that blafphemed either his words or his power, blafphemed against the Holy Ghoft. It was through the eternal Spirit that he offered himself in facrifice to God, and it was the fame Spirit that quickened our Lord's body in the tomb. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And under. his great power the apoftles gave witnefs of the refurrection of the Lord Jefus; and hence it is faid that he is declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the [teftimony of] the Spirit of holiness, by the refurrection from the dead. Rom. i. 4. Making the faints meet for heaven lies much upon the Holy Ghoft. It is he that applies the word, and makes it effectual: the word comes in power, and in the Holy Ghoft; he convinces of fin; and it is the Spirit that quickens the dead finner; and, as a Spirit of illumination and understanding, he enlightens him, teftifies of Chrift to him, works faith in him to believe, regenerates and renews him; takes the Lord's righteoufnefs and peace, and fhews them to the finner; works the life and power of reigning grace in him, and fets up the kingdom of God in the heart, which ftands in power, in righteoufnefs, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft. The law of faith by the Saviour, which the ifles were to wait for, is applied and made effectual by the Holy Ghost, who is our laft law-giver. The law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus bath made me free from the law of fin and death. He bears witness to our adoption, and empowers us to claim it; produces the firftfruits of glory in our hearts, which are called the first-fruits of the Spirit; and is the pledge and earnest of the future inheritance. He feals us up to the day of redemption; renews us, or reftores the loft image of God to us, and sanctifies us, and carries on his fanctifying, renewing, and transforming work in us, and makes us meet for the inheritance with the faints in light:-that the offering up of the Gentiles may be accepted, being fanctified by the Holy Ghost. Sins against the Holy Spirit, in his work and operations, are taken notice of in a very particular manner, and are highly refented, even in the faints, and punished with peculiar feverity in the daring and prefumptuous. The Ifraelites in the wilderness vexed his Holy Spirit, till he turned to be their enemy, and fought against them. Some of the young Gentile converts grieved him, and many were fickly and weak among them, and many fept, for their unbecoming behaviour at the Lord's table. Holy Spirit (fays Chrift) fhall glorify me. And the Spirit is grieved when the Lord is dishonoured. Ananias and Sapphira, agreeing together in fin, tempted the Spirit of the Lord, and Satan filled their hearts to lie to the Holy Ghoft. Thou haft not lied unto men, but unto God, fays Peter, Acts v. Therefore the Holy Ghoft is God. And they were The both both ftruck dead upon the spot for it. Great and innumerable fins against God in his law, as in Manaffeh and others, have been forgiven; and many awful things done and fpoken against the Son of man have been pardoned, as may be feen in Paul. But thofe that do defpite to the Spirit of Grace; who willingly and wilfully counteract his operations and defigns in the fouls of God's people; and who fee his power, and yet oppofe, hate, and fight against it; and who ridicule and blaspheme both the author and his operations; never have been, nor ever will be forgiven;-for the fin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Matt. xii. 31. And can any man in his fenfes believe, or attempt to affirm, that the all-wife God, the Judge of all the earth, who is rich in mercy and abundant in goodness and in truth, 'would exclude men from all poffibility of pardon, and doom them to eternal damnation, for finning against a name, an accident, or only a quality, attribute, perfection, or a power in God, which may be tranfiently put forth, and displayed as an operation on man? Surely finning against God the Father himself, which is finning against all the revealed perfections and attributes of his nature, muft be a more heinous crime than finning against a fingle quality in him.' And yet all manner of fins and blafphemies, committed against him in the law, have been forgiven unto men (Matt. xii. 31); but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghost never was, nor ever will be. And why this fin unto death fhould be emphatically called the |