ted not more for the benefit of some, than for augmenting the wretchedness of others; a misconception most dishonorable to the character of Deity. It is of importance, then, that every individual of my audience should be impressed with the recollection that the great event on which we are meditating, as the result of our Lord's rising from the dead, and which is, in itself, a favor from heaven, may prove in the issue a curse; and that there is too painful an evidence that it will prove a curse to many, if impenitency in sin can make it so. O sinner! let the apprehension of a doom like this, cause thy flesh and thy heart to tremble. Why wilt thou not mortify thy members which are upon the earth? Dedicate them henceforward as instruments of righteousness unto God, that they may not become instruments of torture to thyself in the regions of hopeless desolation. As "the Lord is risen indeed," let us all aspire, "to know him, and the power of his resurrection."* We must be risen with Christ; with him we must "pass from death unto life;" if we would be enrolled with his faithful people. They who are dead in trespasses and sins; they in whom vicious habits rule; they whose good resolutions and purposes of obedience expire in the conflicts of temptation; must experience a resurrection to true religion and virtue, before they flatter themselves with the hope of attaining that glorious resurrection which is unto life eternal. "Follow after holiness," therefore, "without which no man shall see the Lord." "Put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism, into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." "For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." If you would give satisfactory evidence that the resurrection of the Lord has had its moral and spiritualizing efficacy upon you, you must be, in habit, "heavenly minded." "If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."*-AMEN. *Col. iii. 1.-3: 1 SERMON XXXII. THE CHARACTER AND OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. JOHN, xiv. 16. 17. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth." FROM these words it is designed to discourse to you on what we conceive to be the true scriptural doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. On this subject several important matters might be offered for our consideration; but we shall confine ourselves to three particulars. Is the Holy Spirit God himself, or is he a subordinate agent? What is the ground and meaning of his appropriate name and title, "Holy Spirit?" What are his works, generally, and what his special operations with regard to man? Of each of these matters in their order; and let it be remembered that we presume not to trespass beyond the limits of Revelation, on a subject in which Revelation alone can instruct us. If we do not confine ourselves, on all occasions to the very letter of scripture, it is only when necessary and unavoidable inference impels us farther. In the first place.-The Holy Spirit being revealed as an agent of the highest importance in the natural and moral worlds, is he a creature? or is he God himself? We might ask, is he a divine person? but, obviously, if he be a divine person, he must be God; the supreme, eternal, infinite God; the true religion forbidding us to acknowledge more Gods That the Holy Spirit, therefore, is a divine person, or God himself, we shall now prove; and, we trust, easi than one. ly prove. There are many convincing arguments which might be adduced; but we will merely select a few of them. FIRST.-By consulting the V. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, you will find St. Peter speaking of the Holy Ghost under the very name of God. The falsehood of which Ananias and Sapphira had been guilty, and for which the divine apostle inflicted on them a just and most exemplary punishment, he, in the third verse, calls a lie unto the Holy Ghost, and in the fourth verse, a lie unto God. Consequently, the Holy Ghost is God. SECONDLY.-The attentive reader of the divine word, cannot but perceive that it refers, in a multitude of instances, the attributes of the Divinity to the Holy Spirit. The universal presence of God is that perfection of his nature by which he frequently distinguishes himself from all the idols of the nations-all pretenders to deity. But is not this perfection ascribed by the inspired Psalmist to the being whom our Lord denominates the Comforter—the Spirit of Truth? Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"* And is he not represented by a great apostle as dwelling in the bodies of all the faithful, as in so many temples consecrated to him wherever the faithful are scattered? Universal knowledge; an intimate acquaintance with the most hidden purposes and the deepest recesses of the human heart; is unquestionably a property of Deity, and peculiar to Deity; for thou, even thou only," says Solomon, in his sublime dedication service, "thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men." But, observe, knowledge higher than this, as to its object, is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. For what says the first Epistle to the Corinthians? "The * Psalm, cxxxix. 7. †1 Kings, viii. 39. Spirit searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of God."* And the illustration of this truth, which immediately follows its assertion, in itself, and at once, establishes the divinity of the Spirit; for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" asks the apostle; and continues, "even so, the things of God knoweth no man; but the Spirit of God." Why is it that the spirit of man knoweth the things of a man? Certainly because the spirit of the man is the man himself. To justify the illustration, therefore, it must follow that the Spirit of God is God himself. The foresight and the foretelling of future events is peculiar to Deity; and yet they are undeniably asserted of the Holy Ghost. "The Spirit speaketh expressly that, in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith;" writes the apostle to Timothy. Other divine perfections are referred by scripture to the same glorious person. But I go on to remark, THIRDLY.-That the same high and undisputed authority makes him the operator of divine works-of works proper to Deity. * Surely, he who made all things, is God. "I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." But what then? Was any thing made without that mysterious Word who in the beginning was with God, and was God? On the contrary, by him was not every thing made that was made? Assuredly. And it is equally sure that the Holy Spirit concurred and co-operated in what was done. "Did not the Spirit of God move upon the face of the waters?"|| "By his Spirit did he not garnish the Heavens?" But the various operations of this mighty agent will be adverted to in the sequel. FOURTH.-The formula of baptism vindicates the Spirit's Deity. The ministers of the New Testament are instruct *1 Cor. ii. 10. † 1 Cor. ii. 11. | Gen. i. 2. + 1 Tim. iv. 1. § Isaiah, xliv. 24. |