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. D 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. dove, the wind,-water, and fire. Not that these objects can in any manner shew us what is his own proper nature; for who can find out God to perfection? But they are illustrative of his operations and his mode of acting upon the human mind and, from the nature and manner of acting of these natural objects, we may obtain some faint ideas of the workings of the eternal Spirit of Truth and Holiness. For as the voice of the Lord,—the hand of the Almighty God, -a consuming fire, are all figurative modes of expression, applied in Scripture to God the Father, so also is it figurative, when the Holy Ghost is represented as a dove, or wind, or water, or fire. 3. Several passages of the Holy Scriptures represent the Holy Ghost under the similitude of a Dove: For when Jesus was baptized; "Lo the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon Him ....And straightway, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a Dove descending upon him.... And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him ....and John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a Dove, and it abode upon him." The ancient Jews also considered the Dove as an emblem of the Holy Spirit: For the Chaldee Paraphrast explains, (Cant. ii. 12.) “ The voice of the Turtle is heard," that is, the voice of the Holy Spirit.2 4. As the Dove is innocent and harmless, so the influences of the Holy Ghost lead men to gentleness of temper, and innocency of life, and infuse into 1 Mat. iii. 16; Mark i. 10; Luke iii. 22; John i. 32. says, them a meek and quiet disposition. When our Lord commissioned the twelve to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves," (Mat. x. 16.) Nor was this Dove-like temper and state of mind to be peculiar to the Apostles: it was to form an essential part of the Christian character, in every age of the Church of Christ; for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, and meekness and gentleness.1 They who are led by the Spirit are harmless and separate from sinners; and are induced to suffer injuries with meekness and forbearance, and not to cause or inflict them. They are longsuffering, kind, and gentle; for they are led by his Spirit who was meek and lowly in heart. 5. Another characteristic of the Dove, is its very affectionate disposition: and they who are born of the Holy Spirit are tender-hearted, merciful and kind. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v. 22, 23.) As the carnal mind is enmity against God; so the renewing of the Holy Ghost produces a new heart, and fills the mind with. love both to God and man; and they who are renewed, approve themselves as the sons of God, "by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned.' (2 Cor. vi. 6.) As love is the fulfilling of the law, this heavenly temper is wrought in the hearts of them that truly believe, by the power of the ever-blessed Spirit; and by this temper are they especially dis 1 Eph. v. 9; Gal. v. 22, 23. |