ticularly unto another person. And in these things is the person of the Father in the divine being proposed unto us to be known and adored. Secondly, The Son condescendeth, consenteth, and engageth to do and accomplish in his own person the whole work which, in the authority, counsel, and wisdom of the Father, was appointed for him, Phil. ii. 5-8. And in these divine operations is the person of the Son revealed unto us to be "honoured even as we honour the Father." Thirdly, The Holy Ghost doth immediately work and effect whatever was to be done in reference unto the person of the Son or the sons of men, for the perfecting and accomplishment of the Father's counsel and the Son's work, in an especial application of both unto their especial effects and ends. Hereby is he made known unto us, and hereby our faith concerning him and in him is directed.

And thus, in this great work of the new creation by Jesus Christ, doth God cause all his glory to pass before us, that we may both know him and worship him in a due manner. And what is the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost herein we shall now declare.

CHAPTER III.

WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH RESPECT UNTO THE HEAD OF THE NEW CREATION-THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST.

The especial works of the Holy Spirit in the new creation-His work on the human nature of Christ-How this work could be, considering the union of the human nature unto and in the person of the Son of God-Assumption of the human nature into union, the only act of the person of the Son towards it-Personal union the only necessary consequent of this assumption-All other actings of the person of the Son in and on the human nature voluntary -The Holy Spirit the immediate efficient cause of all divine operations-He is the Spirit of the Son or of the Father-How all the works of the Trinity are undivided-The body of Christ formed in the womb by the Holy Ghost, but of the substance of the blessed Virgin; why this was necessary-Christ not hence the Son of the Holy Ghost according to the human nature--Difference between the assumption of the human nature by the Son and the creation of it by the Holy Ghost-The conception of Christ, how ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and how to the blessed Virgin-Reasons of the espousal of the blessed Virgin to Joseph before the conception of Christ-The actual purity and holiness of the soul and body of Christ from his miraculous conception.

THE dispensation and work of the Holy Ghost in this new creation respect, first, The Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his human nature, as it was to be, and was, united unto the person of the Son of God. Secondly, It concerns the members of that mystical body in all that belongs unto them as such. And under these two heads we shall consider them.

First, therefore, we are to inquire what are the operations of the Holy Ghost in reference unto Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. And these were of two sorts:-I. Such as whereof the person of Christ in his human nature was the immediate object. II. Such as he performs towards others on his behalf; that is, with direct respect unto his person and office.

I. But yet, before we enter upon the first sort of his works which we shall begin withal, an objection of seeming weight and difficulty must be removed out of our way; which I shall the rather do because our answer unto it will make the whole matter treated of the more plain and familiar unto us. It may, therefore, be, and it is objected, "That whereas the human nature of Christ is assigned as the immediate object of these operations of the Holy Ghost, and that nature was immediately, inseparably, and undividedly united unto the person of the Son of God, there doth not seem to be any need, nor indeed room, for any such operations of the Spirit; for could not the Son of God himself, in his own person, perform all things requisite both for the forming, supporting, sanctifying, and preserving of his own nature, without the especial assistance of the Holy Ghost? nor is it easy to be understood how an immediate work of the Holy Ghost should be interposed, in the same person, between the one nature and the other." And this seeming difficulty is vehemently pressed by the Socinians, who think to entangle our whole doctrine of the blessed Trinity and incarnation of the Son of God thereby. But express testimonies of Scripture, with the clear and evident analogy of faith, will carry us easily and safely through this seeming difficulty. To which end we may observe, that,—

1. The only singular immediate act of the person of the Son on the human nature was the assumption of it into subsistence with himself. Herein the Father and the Spirit had no interest nor concurrence, εἰ μὴ κατ ̓ εὐδοκίαν καὶ βούλησιν, but by approbation and consent," as Damascen speaks: for the Father did not assume the human nature, he was not incarnate; neither did the Holy Spirit do so; but this was the peculiar act and work of the Son. See John i. 14; Rom. i. 3; Gal. iv. 4; Phil. ii. 6, 7; Heb. ii. 14, 16; which places, with many others to the same purpose, I have elsewhere expounded, and vindicated from the exceptions of the Socinians.

2. That the only necessary consequent of this assumption of the human nature, or the incarnation of the Son of God, is the personal union of Christ, or the inseparable subsistence of the assumed nature in the person of the Son. This was necessary and indissoluble, so that it was not impeached nor shaken in the least by the temporary dissolution of that nature by the separation of the soul and body: for the union of the soul and body in Christ did not consti

tute him a person, that the dissolution of them should destroy his personality; but he was a person by the uniting of both unto the Son of God.

3. That all other actings of God in the person of the Son towards the human nature were voluntary, and did not necessarily ensue on the union mentioned; for there was no transfusion of the properties of one nature into the other, nor real physical communication of divine essential excellencies unto the humanity. Those who seem to contend for any such thing resolve all at last into a true assignation by way of predication, as necessary on the union mentioned, but contend not for a real transfusion of the properties of one nature into the other. But these communications were voluntary. Hence were those temporary dispensations, when, under his great trial, the human nature complained of its desertion and dereliction by the divine, Matt. xxvii. 46; for this forsaking was not as to personal union, or necessary subsistence and supportment, but as to voluntary communications of light and consolation. Hence himself declares that the human nature was not the residential subject of omnisciency; for so he speaks, Mark xiii. 32, "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." For the exposition given by some of the ancients, that the Lord Christ speaks not this absolutely, but only “that he knew it not to declare it unto them," is unworthy of him; for no more did the Father so know it, seeing he hath not declared it. But this was the opinion only of some of them; the more advised were otherwise minded. He speaks of himself with respect unto his human nature only, and thereunto all communications were voluntary. So after his ascension, God gave him that revelation that he made to the apostle, Rev. i. 1. The human nature, therefore, however inconceivably advanced, is not the subject of infinite, essentially divine properties; and the actings of the Son of God towards it, consequential unto its assumption, and that indissoluble subsistence in its union which ensued thereon, are voluntary.

4. The Holy Ghost, as we have proved before, is the immediate, peculiar, efficient cause of all external divine operations: for God worketh by his Spirit, or in him immediately applies the power and

1 Δῆλέν ἐστιν ὅτι καὶ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς τέλους ὥραν, ὡς μὲν λόγες γινώσκει, ὡς δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἀγνοεῖ. ̓Ανθρώπου γὰρ ἴδιον τὸ ἀγνοεῖν, καὶ μάλιστα ταῦτα. ̓Αλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο τῆς φιλαν εγωπίας ἴδιον τοῦ σωτῆρος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, οὐκ ἐπῃσχύνετο διὰ τὴν σάρκα τὴν ἀγνοοῦσαν εἰπεῖν, οὐκ οἶδα. Ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι εἰδὼς ὡς θεὸς, ἀγνοεῖ σαρκικῶς.Athanas. Orat. iv.

ad Arian.

̓Αγνοεῖ τοίνυν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, ὁ γινώσκων τὰ πάντα κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν TS DOTATOS.-Chrysost. tom. vii. serm. 117.

Πλὴν ἰστέον, ὅτι οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν πατέρων, σχεδὸν δὲ πάντες, φαίνονται λέγοντες αὐτὸν ἀγνοεῖν. Εἰ γὰρ κατὰ πάντα λέγεται ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος, ἀγνοοῦμεν δὲ καὶ ἡμεῖς, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς ἠγνόει. -Leontius Byzantinus, de Sectis.

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efficacy of the divine excellencies unto their operation; whence the same work is equally the work of each person.

5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, no less than the Spirit of the Father. He proceedeth from the Son, as from the Father. He is the "Spirit of the Son," Gal. iv. 6. And hence is he the immediate operator of all divine acts of the Son himself, even on his own human nature. Whatever the Son of God wrought in, by, or upon the human nature, he did it by the Holy Ghost, who is his Spirit, as he is the Spirit of the Father.

6. To clear the whole matter, it must be yet farther observed that the immediate actings of the Holy Ghost are not spoken of him absolutely, nor ascribed unto him exclusively, as unto the other persons and their concurrence in them. It is a saying generally admitted, that Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. There is no such division in the external operations of God that any one of them should be the act of one person, without the concurrence of the others; and the reason of it is, because the nature of God, which is the principle of all divine operations, is one and the same, undivided in them all. Whereas, therefore, they are the effects of divine power, and that power is essentially the same in each person, the works themselves belong equally unto them: as, if it were possible that three men might see by the same eye, the act of seeing would be but one, and it would be equally the act of all three. But the things we insist on are ascribed eminently unto the Holy Ghost, on the account of the order of his subsistence in the holy Trinity, as he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son; whence, in every divine act, the authority of the Father, the love and wisdom of the Son, with the immediate efficacy and power of the Holy Ghost, are to be considered. Yea, and there is such a distinction in their operations, that one divine act may produce a peculiar respect and relation unto one person, and not unto another; as the assumption of the human nature did to the Son, for he only was incarnate.

And such are the especial actings of the Holy Ghost towards the head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ, in this work of the new creation, as we shall demonstrate in sundry instances:

First, The framing, forming, and miraculous conception of the body of Christ in the womb of the blessed Virgin was the peculiar and especial work of the Holy Ghost.' This work, I acknowledge, in

1 "Maximum in totâ creaturâ testimonium de divinitate Spiritus Sancti corpus Domini est; quod ex Spiritu Sancto esse creditur secundum evangelistam, Matt. i., sicut angelus ad Josephum dicit, Quod in ea natum est de Spiritu Sancto est."-Athanas. de Fid. Un. et Trin.

"Creatrix virtus altissimi, superveniente Spiritu Sancto in virginem Mariam, Christi corpus fabricavit; quo ille usus templo sine viri natus est semine."-Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. ii.

respect. of designation, and the authoritative disposal of things, is ascribed unto the Father; for so the Lord Christ speaketh unto him: "A body hast thou prepared me," Heb. x. 5. But this preparation does not signify the actual forming and making ready of that body, but the eternal designation of it: it was prepared in the counsel and love of the Father. As to voluntary assumption, it is ascribed to the Son himself: chap. ii. 14, "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;" he took upon him a body and soul, entire human nature, as the children, or all believers, have the same, synecdochically expressed by "flesh and blood." Verse 16, " He took on him the seed of Abraham." But the immediate divine efficiency in this matter was the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost: Matt. i. 18, "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Verse 20, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Luke i. 35, "The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 1. The person working is the Holy Ghost. He is the wonderful operator in this glorious work. And therein the power of the Most High was exerted; for "The power of the Highest" is neither explicatory of the former expression, "The Holy Ghost," as though he were only the power of the Most High, nor is it the adjoining of a distinct agent or cause unto him, as though the Holy Ghost and the power of the Most High were different agents in this matter. Only the manner of his effecting this wonderful matter, concerning which the blessed Virgin had made that inquiry, verse 34, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" is expressed. "The Holy Ghost," saith the angel, "acting the power of the Most High," or in the infinite power of God, "shall accomplish it." 2. For his access unto his work, it is expressed by his "coming upon her." The importance of this expression, and what is signified thereby, hath been declared before. And it is often used to declare his actings with reference unto the production of miraculous works: Acts i. 8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you;"-"He will so come upon you as to put forth the power of the Most High in you and by you, in gifts and operations miraculous;" for he is said to come, with respect unto his beginning of any marvellous operation, where before he did not work to the like purpose. 3. The act of the Holy Ghost in this matter was a creating act; not, indeed, like the first creating act, which produced the matter and substance of all things out of nothing, causing that to be which was not before, neither in matter, nor form, nor passive disposition; but like those subsequent acts of