Christ, the Son of God, is to be owned and honoured as we honour the Father, 1 Cor. iii. 11; John v. 23. And herein all that are duly called Christians do agree, as the church of Israel did in one God after their return from the captivity of Babylon. But now the Lord Jesus Christ being ascended unto his Father, hath committed his whole affairs in the church and in the world unto the Holy Spirit, John xvi. 7-11. And it is on this design of God that the person of the Spirit may be singularly exalted in the church; unto whom they were so in the dark before, that some (none of the worst of them) professed they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost or no, Acts xix. 2, that is, at least, as unto the peculiar dispensation of him then introduced in the church. Wherefore, the duty of the church now immediately respects the Spirit of God, who acts towards it in the name of the Father and of the Son; and with respect unto him it is that the church in its present state is capable of an apostasy from God. And whatever is found of this nature amongst any, here it hath its beginning; for the sin of despising his person and rejecting his work now is of the same nature with idolatry of old, and the Jews' rejection of the person of the Son. And whereas there was a relief provided against these sins, because there was a new dispensation of the grace of God to ensue, in the evangelical work of the Holy Ghost, if men sin against him and his operations, containing the perfection and complement of God's revelation of himself unto them, their condition is deplorable.

It may be some will say and plead, that whatever is spoken of the Holy Ghost, his graces, gifts, and operations, did entirely belong unto the first times of the gospel, wherein they were manifested by visible and wonderful effects, to those times they were confined; and, consequently, that we have no other interest or concern in them but as in a recorded testimony given of old unto the truth of the gospel. This is so, indeed, as unto his extraordinary and miraculous operations, but to confine his whole work thereunto is plainly to deny the truth of the promises of Christ, and to overthrow his church; for we shall make it undeniably evident that none can believe in Jesus Christ, or yield obedience unto him, or worship God in him, but by the Holy Ghost. And, therefore, if the whole dispensation of him and his communications unto the souls of men do cease, so doth all faith in Christ and Christianity also.

On these and the like considerations it is that I have thought it necessary for myself, and unto the church of God, that the Scripture should be diligently searched in and concerning this great matter; for none can deny but that the glory of God, the honour of the gospel, the faith and obedience of the church, with the everlasting welfare of our own souls, are deeply concerned herein.

The apostle Peter, treating about the great things of the gospel, taught by himself and the rest of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, tells those to whom he wrote that in what was so preached unto them they had not "followed cunningly-devised fables," 2 Pet. i. 16; for so were the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" then reported to be in the world. What was preached concerning them was looked on as "cunningly-devised" and artificially-framed 'fables," to inveigle and allure the people. This the apostle gives his testimony against, and withal appeals unto the divine assurance which they had of the holy truths delivered unto them, verses 17-21. In like manner, our Lord Jesus Christ himself having preached the doctrine of regeneration unto Nicodemus, he calls it into question, as a thing incredible or unintelligible, John iii. 4; for whose instruction and the rebuke of his ignorance, he lets him know that he spake nothing but what he brought with him from heaven,—from the eternal Fountain of goodness and truth, verses 11-13. It is fallen out not much otherwise in this matter.

The doctrine concerning the Spirit of God, and his work on the souls of men, hath been preached in the world. What he doth in convincing men of sin; what in working godly sorrow and humiliation in them; what is the exceeding greatness of his power, which he puts forth in the regeneration and sanctification of the souls of men; what are the supplies of grace which he bestows on them that do believe; what assistance he gives unto them as the Spirit of grace and supplications,-hath been preached, taught, and pressed on the minds of them that attend unto the dispensation of the word of the gospel. Answerable hereunto, men have been urged to try, search, examine themselves, as to what of this work of the Holy Ghost they have found, observed, or had experience to have been effectually accomplished in or upon their own souls. And hereon they have been taught that the great concernments of their peace, comfort, and assurance, of their communion among themselves as the saints of God, with many other ends of their holy conversation, do depend. Nay, it is, and hath been constantly, taught them that if there be not an effectual work of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts, they "cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now, these things, and whatever is spoken in the explication of them, are by some called in question, if not utterly rejected; yea, some look on them as "cunningly-devised fables,”—things that some not long since invented, and others have propagated for their advantage. Others say that what is delivered concerning them is hardly, if at all, to be understood by rational men, being only empty speculations about things wherein Christian religion is little or not at all concerned. Whereas, therefore, many, very many, have received these things as sacred

truths, and are persuaded that they have found them realized in their own souls, so that into their experience of the work of the Holy Spirit of God in them and upon them, according as it is declared in the word, all their consolation and peace with God is for the most part resolved, as that which gives them the best evidence of their interest in him who is their peace; and whereas, for the present, they do believe that unless these things are so in and with them, they have no foundation to build a hope of eternal life upon,-it cannot but be of indispensable necessity unto them to examine and search the Scripture diligently whether these things be so or no. For if there be no such work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of men, and that indispensably necessary to their salvation; if there are no such assistances and supplies of grace needful unto every good duty as wherein they have been instructed, then in the whole course of their profession they have only been seduced by "cunningly-devised fables," their deceived hearts have fed upon ashes, and they are yet in their sins. It is, then, of no less consideration and importance than the eternal welfare of their souls immediately concerned therein can render it, that they diligently try, examine, and search into these things, by the safe and infallible touchstone and rule of the word, whereon they may, must, and ought, to venture their eternal condition. I know, indeed, that most believers are so far satisfied in the truth of these things and their own experience of them, that they will not be moved in the least by the oppositions which are made unto them and the scorn that is cast upon them; for "he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself," 1 John v. 10: but yet, as Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus "that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed," Luke i. 4,—that is, to confirm him in the truth, by an addition of new degrees of assurance unto him,-so it is our duty to be so far excited by the clamorous oppositions that are made unto the truths which we profess, and in whose being such, we are as much concerned as our souls are worth, to compare them diligently with the Scripture, that we may be the more fully confirmed and established in them. And, upon the examination of the whole matter, I shall leave them to their option, as Elijah did of old: "If Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal be God, follow him." If the things which the generality of professors do believe and acknowledge concerning the Spirit of God and his work on their hearts, his gifts and graces in the church, with the manner of their communication, be for the substance of them (wherein they all generally agree) according to the Scripture, taught and revealed therein, on the same terms as by them received, then may they abide in the holy profession of them, and rejoice in the consolations they have received by

them; but if these things, with those others which, in the application of them to the souls of men, are directly and necessarily deduced, and to be deduced from them, are all but vain and useless imaginations, it is high time the minds of men were disburdened of them.

CHAPTER II.

THE NAME AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Of the name of the Holy Spirit-Various uses of the words and μfor the wind or any thing invisible with a sensible agitation, Amos iv. 13— Mistakes of the ancients rectified by Hierom- metaphorically for vanity, metonymically for the part or quarter of any thing; for our vital breath, the rational soul, the affections, angels good and bad-Ambiguity from the use of the word, how to be removed-Rules concerning the Holy Spirit-The name" Spirit," how peculiar and appropriate unto him-Why he is called the "Holy Spirit"-Whence called the "Good Spirit," the "Spirit of God," the "Spirit of the Son"-Acts ii. 33, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11, explained-1 John iv. 3, vindicated.

BEFORE We engage into the consideration of the things themselves concerning which we are to treat, it will be necessary to speak something unto the name whereby the third person in the Trinity is commonly known and peculiarly called in the Scripture. This is the "Spirit," or the "Holy Spirit," or the "Holy Ghost," as we usually speak. And this I shall do that we be not deceived with the homonymy of the word, nor be at a loss in the intention of those places of Scripture where it is used unto other purposes: for it is so that the name of the second person, ¿ Aéyos, "the Word," and of the third, Tò Пva," the Spirit," are often applied to signify other things; I mean, those words are so. And some make their advantages of the ambiguous use of them. But the Scripture is able of itself to manifest its own intention and meaning unto humble and diligent inquirers into it.

It is, then, acknowledged that the use of the words and μ in the Old Testament and New is very various; yet are they the words whereby alone the Holy Spirit of God is denoted. Their peculiar signification, therefore, in particular places is to be collected and determined from the subject-matter treated of in them, and other especial circumstances of them. This was first attempted by the most learned Didymus of Alexandria, whose words, therefore, I have set down at large, and shall cast his observations into a more perspicuous method, with such additions as are needful for the farther clearing

So

of the whole matter. First, In general, and a signify a
wind or spirit,—that is, any thing which moves and is not seen.
the air in a violent agitation is called 77: Gen. viii. 1, Dibs mayu
And God made a wind," or "spirit," that is, a strong
and mighty wind, "to pass over the earth," for the driving and removal
of the waters. So πνεῦμα is used, John iii. 8, Τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ,
2.7.λ.,-"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth;"
which is a proper description of this first signification of the word.
It is an agitation of the air which is unseen. So Ps. i. 4. And in
this sense, sometimes it signifies a "great and strong wind,”—that is,
pini, 1 Kings xix. 11; and sometimes a cool and soft
wind, or a light easy agitation of the air, such as often ariseth in the
evenings of the spring or summer. So Gen. iii. 8, "God walked in
the garden" Din, "in the cool of the day;" that is, when the
evening air began to breathe gently, and moderate the heat of the
day. So in the poet,—

"Solis ad occasum, quum frigidus aëra vesper
Temperat."-Virg. Geor. iii. 336.

"At the going down of the sun, when the cold evening tempers the heat of the air." And some think this to be the sense of that place, Ps. civ. 4, "Who maketh his angels nin, spirits,"-swift, agile, powerful as mighty winds. But the reader may consult our Exposition on Heb. i. 7.

Quia vero Spiritus vocabulum multa significat, enumerandum est breviter quibus rebus nomen ejus aptetur. Vocatur spiritus et ventus, sicut in Ezechiele cap. v.: Tertiam partem disperges in spiritum; hoc est, in ventum. Quod si volueris secundum historiam illud sentire, quod scriptum est, In spiritu violento conteres naves Tharcis, non aliud ibi spiritus quam ventus accipitur. Nec non Salomon inter multa hoc quoque munus a Deo accepit ut sciret violentias spirituum; non aliud in hoc se accepisse demonstrans, quam scire rapidos ventorum flatus, et quibus causis eorum natura subsistat. Vocatur et anima spiritus, ut in Jacobi epistola, Quomodo corpus tuum sine spiritu mortuum est. Manifestissime enim spiritus hic nihil aliud nisi anima nuncupatur. Juxta quam intelligentiam Stephanus animam suam spiritum vocans: Domine, inquit, Jesu, suscipe spiritum meum, Act. vii. Illud quoque quod in Ecclesiaste dicitur, Quis seit an spiritus hominis ascendat sursum, et spiritus jumenti descendat deorsum? Eccl. iii. Considerandum utrumnam et pecudum animæ spiritus appellentur. Dicitur etiam excepta anima, et excepto spiritu nostro, spiritus alius quis esse in homine, de quo Paulus scribit : Quis enim scit hominum ea quæ sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis qui in eo est? 1 Cor. ii. 11. . Sed et in alio loco idem apostolus a nostro spiritu Spiritum Dei secernens ait, Ipse Spiritus testimonium perhibet spiritui nostro, Rom. viii.; hoc significans, quod Spiritus Dei, id est, Spiritus Sanctus, testimonium spiritui nostro præbeat, quem nunc diximus esse spiritum hominis. Ad Thessalonicenses quoque, Integer, inquit, spiritus vester et anima et corpus, 1 Thess. v.-Appellantur quoque supernæ rationabilesque virtutes, quas solet Scriptura angelos et fortitudines nominare, vocabulo spiritus ut ibi, Qui facis angelos tuos spiritus; et alibi, Nonne omnes sunt administratores spiritus? Heb. i.

Rationales quoque aliæ creaturæ, et de bono in malum sponte propria profluentes, spiritus pessimi et spiritus appellantur immundi; sicut ibi, Cum autem spiritus immundus exierit ab homine, Matt. xii., et in consequentibus, assumit septem alios spiritus nequiores se. Spiritus quoque dæmones in Evangeliis appellantur: sed et hoc notandum, nunquam simpliciter spiritum sed cum aliquo additamento spiritum significari contra