with power," according to the Spirit of Holiness." (Rom. i. 4.) He also says to the Ephesians, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption," (Eph. iv. 30.) Since, then, Holiness is an essential attribute of the Deity, since the Spirit is holy in the highest and most peculiar sense, we, therefore, conclude that he is God. 21. Sovereignty is also an essential attribute in God, by which he acts as he pleases, without being accountable to any one: for, "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou? He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," (Dan. iv. 35; Eph. i. 11.) Equal Sovereignty belongs to the Holy Spirit; and He dispenses divine favours and miraculous gifts according to his own pleasure. For, as the wind bloweth where it listeth....So is every one that is born of the Spirit," (John iii. 8.) And the gospel was spread, because God bore witness to it, "both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will," (Heb. ii. 4.) And should his " own will," in this passage, be referred to God, the Father, and not to the Holy Ghost, yet the argument of his Sovereignty will still remain valid; for St. Paul expressly ascribes the distribution and impartation of miraculous gifts, to the Sovereign will of the Holy Spirit; for "all these" viz-miraculous gifts and powers of every kind-" all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." Since then, God grants miraculous powers according to his own will, and since the Holy Ghost does the same, we are hence assured that He is the sovereign God. 22. Omnipresence is also an essential attribute of the Deity all created beings must, of necessity, be confined within certain limits; but God filleth all in all. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. xxiii. 23. 24.) We always connect the idea of Omnipresence with that of the Deity; for to suppose any place in which He is not, implies an absolute contradiction; viz. that that which is in its own nature infinite, is at the same time finite. But if that which is Omnipresent, be God, then the Holy Ghost is God: for says the Psalmist; " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there," (Psalm cxxxix. 7, 8.) And thus says St. Paul; "For through him we both "-whether Jews or Gentiles and wherever we live" we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. ii. 18.) 23. And, as the Deity is Omnipresent, so also is He omniscient: "Great is our Lord and of great power; His understanding is infinite. God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things," (Ps. cxlvii. 5; 1 John iii. 20.) And in like manner the Holy Spirit knoweth all things; for "who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him?" (Isaiah xl. 13.) "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God....the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.) It is clearly evident then. that the Holy Spirit, which thus revealeth hidden counsels to man, and searcheth the deep things of God, is omniscient and really God. He searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God; He is not only acquainted with and privy to the surface and outside of things, but searcheth things to the bottom. And he searcheth not only the deep things of man, as of kings and princes, whose hearts are a great deep, but the deep things of God: therefore the Spirit is God. For, as the Apostle argues, no man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of a man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God," (verse 11) or he that is with God, in God, yea God himself, as intimate with him as the soul is with the body. If the Spirit that is in man were not man, it could never know the deep things of man; and if the Spirit of God were not God, he could never search and know, the deepest things of God.1 24. Finally, if eternity be that which belongs to God alone, as all must confess, then is the Holy Ghost the eternal and ever blessed God: for Christ, "through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God." (Heb. ix. 14.) Since then the Holy Spirit is eternal, it follows that he is true and very God; because God only is properly eternal, and none of the creatures are called by that name. All creatures are and must be limited both as to time and place for there was a time in which they were not, and there is a place in which they are not. 'But the Holy Spirit is the eternal Spirit, who ever existed beyond all points of time, and does exist beyond all 1 Burkitt in loco. Ꭰ bounds of place; and therefore, he is the eternal God, who is from everlasting to everlasting with respect to duration, and whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain with regard to his dwelling.... No word could more positively assert the truth of the Deity, than this one word, Eternal; and accordingly, we find it ascribed to no being whatever, but to that high and lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity. All the multitude of the blessed, all the angels of God, are immortal, and in God shall participate a future eternity but not one of them can say that he existed from all past eternity: since in that case he must deny himself to be a creature, because all creation, with respect to the being which is created, is a beginning to be. None of these, therefore, are eternal: none of these possess eternity in their own nature, or from themselves; but are limited in the quantity and quality of their existence, and are dependent for the continuance of it. Now then, as the Holy Spirit is expressly styled the eternal Spirit, without any expression of his dependence, or derivation, but the contrary; it is a plain and precise declaration from the Word of Truth, that he is the eternal God.' 1 25. It is clearly manifest, therefore, from the Appellations which are given in the sacred Scriptures to the Holy Spirit, from his Works, and from the Attributes which are ascribed to him, that he is a divine person,-properly and truly God over all, blessed for ever, whom we are bound to worship, serve, and adore. 1 Horæ Sol. CHAPTER IV. TO WHAT THE SPIRIT IS COMPARED IN 1. As our senses are the channels through which we receive our first ideas; so, the sacred Scriptures employ natural objects, in order to convey spiritual instruction to our minds. By means of those objects in the works of creation, with which we are most acquainted and familiar, divine revelation unfolds to our understandings those truths which, in their own nature, are spiritual and heavenly. And hence our Lord frequently speaks of himself under similitudes, by which he displays the mutual relations between him and his people. He says, "I am the light of the world; I am the good Shepherd; I am the Way: "1 and Isaiah thus figuratively speaks of Christ; "Behold I lay in Zion for a Foundation, a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone, a sure Foundation." 2 Now all these expressions, a Light, a Shepherd, a Way, a Stone, and a Foundation, are evidently figurative; and by comparison, give us spiritual instruction and knowledge. 2. So also the Holy Spirit is represented to us under different natural objects or similitudes; as a 1 John viii. 12; x. 11; xiv. 6. 2 Isaiah xxviii. 16. |