believers, who are his workmanship, is with the Father, 1 John 1, 3. with the Son, 1 Cor. 1. 9. and with the Spirit, Phil. ii. 1. because they are one undivided essence. And as spirit is only another name for active energy (and in this sense our Lord calls his words Spirit and life) the third person in the trinity is peculiarly styled the Spirit, because the impulse of the Godhead is exerted by him. The dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii. 14.) or the dead sinners of Israel, (as all God's people are ) lived by the Spirit: And thus God is said to have created all things by the Spirit. Throughout the Scripture, the Spirit is declared to be the acting agent of natural and spiritual

life.

From hence we may perceive, with what suitableness to his office and our understandings, the third person in the Godhead is called THE SPIRIT: We will now enquire, wherefore he is called the HOLY SPIRIT, or SPIRIT OF HOLINESS, and upon that ground treat of his divinity.

Holiness, according to God's revelation, by which alone we know any thing of the matter, means a perfect separation from all sin and evil. Holiness in effect is this; and consequently holiness in its cause must certainly be so. It is, therefore, an essential attribute of the Most High. Nothing created can claim this as an attribute to itself; for be it ever so holy, it is not so ex se, from itself, but from its cause. That is not, cannot be, essential holiness, which is derived. Holiness in essence must be God himself, who exists from himself, and communicates the rays of his perfections to his creatures. All the holiness of all the creatures therefore is from God. He always laid claim to this attribute among his people; and, that they might remember it the more constantly, he commanded it to be worn upon the forehead of his high priest. Exod. xxviii. 36. For this end he is represented as sittting upon the throne of his holiness,, Ps. xlvii. 8. intimating, that there is no authority or power to effect holiness but in him. And so essential is this attribute in God, that he is revealed to have sworn by bis boliness, i. e. to have sworn by HIMSELF, because he can swear by no greater, and consequently by no other. His holiness and his nature are one and the same. God is his attributes; and his attributes. ARE himself. We cannot look on the divine blaze of glory at one view; and therefore the rays of it are selected and distinguished by the medium of revelation, which like a glass darkened, suits itself rather to the weakness of our sight than to the fulness of the object. God not only lives, but is life) not only knows, but is understanding; not only bath power, but is power; not only is boly, but is boliness itself.

The spring, then, of all holiness, or holiness in essence, iCod: And to him alone, therefore, can we address the words

of that pathetic hymn, composed by Athenogenes the martyr* (used in the primitive church, and retained in the communion service of the church of England) "Thou only art holy, thou only art the Lord." The universal chorus in heaven echoes the sound, and fills the realms of bliss with the adoring theme-Thou only art boly, Lord God Almighty; thou King of saints! Rev. xv. 3, 4.

If then true holiness be God, and God be holiness itself; what can the spirit of boliness be? Can that be less than bo liness, wich is the very essence and spirit of it? Can he therefore be less than God, who claims, who possesses, and who is distinguished by, his most essential attributes?

But the Spirit of God is called the HOLY SPIRIT, because he is God himself. He claims the epithet boly, both from his nature and his office. If he were not boly in his nature, or rather holiness itself, he could not perform that office in the covenant of grace, which begins, is carried on, and is completed, in the exercise and communion of holiness to the redeemed. He could not impart, what is not his own. Stream of holiness could proceed from him, were he not the fountain of it.

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He is not (as the Arians dream) an inferior or created God, or the creature of a creature, made by the Son, who himself was made of the Father; because he could not, in that case, be THE Spirit of God, but only A Spirit FROM God Nay, by their account, he could not be so much He could only be the spirit of a creature, who is (according to them) the Son. And so, in this strange notion, we have the representation of a creature, who is himself the creator of another creature, which other creature quickens or gives life to his own creator (for Christ was quickened by the Spirit, I Pet. iii. 8.) and becomes the power, by which this last creator performs his work of mediation. This is at once absur dity, polytheism, and idolatry. Deism itself doth not furnish so wretched, contradictory, and disgraceful an opinion of the Godhead.

Nor is the Holy Ghost an emanation only, or a ray from the Godhead, as the Socinians, and others have dared to affirm. Can an emanation be the giver of itself? Can this emanation divide various gifts, according to his own knowledge, and severally as He will? If the Spirit be only an emanation from the Son, and the Son another emanation from the Father (as the Arians speak); is not the Spirit, in that case, the emanation of an emanation, and will there not be emanations without end? Can an emanation will any thing, search any thing, explain any thing, abide and depart at his

S. BASIL de Sp. S. apud Cave Hist. Lit, in Nom.

(or rather its) own pleasure?" But it is an emanation, a virtue, from God." Still more absurd! Can an emanation from God act without God, who himself is a pure act? And, if not without him, is not God the effecting agent? And is not then the emanation or virtue (if it must be so called) God himself? Or, can God be divided from his own attributes? This word emanation, applied to God, is indeed a whimsical term, without any real meaning or idea; or, if it hath one, it divides God from himself, or represents, by what can only be used to signify a quality, a conscious independent effective agent. In this view, therefore, it quarrels with the attributes of God, the work of God, and the word of God, and is but a sorry name employed to obscure the personality and divinity of the Holy Ghost. Nor doth it impart an idea, which can square with Scripture or with common sense. For (to mention but one instance among many) if the Holy Ghost be only a quality, the condition of a being and not a being himself; it must be extremely absurd to baptize a person in the name of a thing, which has no existence but per accidens, no essentiality of its own. They, who can justify or make even reason of this (to say nothing of the Bible,) may be vefit apologists for the Romans, who dedicated temples to fear, bope, paleness, and twenty other qualities besides, and at the same time be much safer employed than in venting blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST.

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Against these unscriptural dogmas, we will oppose a few scriptural proofs of the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit.

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That the Holy Ghost is a person, and not an emanation, a virtue, or a something from God which is not God, will pear from the following, among many other, texts of Scripture. He creates and gives life, Job xxxiii. 4. is seen descending in a bodily shape, Luke iii. 22. commands apostles, Ads viii. 29. and xi. 12. lifts up an apostle through the air by his own power, v. 39. sends messengers, Acts x. 19. ap. points ministers in the church, Acts xx. 28. calls apostles, Acts xiii. 2. bestows gifts, Heb. ii. 4. speaketh to the churches, Rev. ii. 7. spake by the prophets, Acts xxviii. 15. 2 Pet. i. 21. speaketh expressly, 1 Tim. iv. 1. renews his people, Titus iii. 5. helpeth infirmities, Rom. viii. 26. maketh intercession, ibid. reveals mysteries, Eph. iii. 5. searcheth all things, 1 Cor. ii. 10. teacheth all things, John xiv. 26. guideth into all truth, John xvi. 13. beareth witness in earth and heaven, Rom. viii. 16. 1 John v. 6. pronounceth words of blessing, Rev. xiv. 13. testifies of Christ. John xv. 26. glorifies Christ, John xvi. 14. is ANOTHER Comforter, distinct from Christ, John xiv. 16. hath a mind of his own, Rom. viii. 27, hath a will of his own, 1 Cor. xii. 11. hath a power

of his own, Rom. xv. 13. hath worship performed in this name, together with the Father and Son, Matth. xxviii. 19. hath a temple for his worship, 1 Cor. vi. 15. abides with his people for ever, John xiv. 16. And, by no people is blasphemed, but upon the peril of damnation, Matth. xii. 31.

Each of these Scriptures, (and much more all together,) is sufficient to demolish that unscriptural and absurd opinion of the Socinians and others, which treats the Holy Spirit of God as an effusion separate from God, consequently as something created by God, and therefore something not of his nature or in it. It was the saying of a good man, that "the devil may pervert Seripture, but he cannot answer it." But the above texts, to which many more might be added, are so positive and direct in proof of the Spirit's personality, that, able as the devil is in sophistry, they seem to defy his wiles upon this point, and are as convincing to faith, as any mathematical demonstrations can possibly be to sense. Two and two making four, does not appear more clear and conclusive, than that the Holy Spirit is a living divine agent, working with consciousness, will and power. If people will not be persuaded by these testimonies from God, neither would they be persuaded, though one rose again from the dead.

That the Holy Ghost is not a creature, nor a little God, nor God inferior to the Father and the Son, but possesses true and perfect divinity equal to and united with the other divine persons, let the Scriptures, and scriptural arguments only, prove and determine."

His claim to the highest titles and ascriptions of the Deity hath been considered in some other of these Essays; and therefore, in this place, it will be sufficient to prove him to be God from the nature of his work and office, as the Holy Ghost.

Christ hath declared, that the work of the COMFORTER consisted of two parts; the one was to anoint, to testify of Christ, and to glorify him in his work of mediation; and the other, to teach, to lead, to dwell in, and to abide with his redeemed for ever.

The anointing of the man Jesus was both his commission. and capacity to perform redemption. As a mere man, had he been ever so pure and holy, he could have done nothing, he could have merited nothing, to salvation, but for himself. But as GoD-man, as a person composed of two natures, divine and buman; he could accomplish all that was necessary by the one, and suffer all that was due in the other. Being, therefore, in this exalted form; who could commission, who could delegate, who could anoint, the blessed Redeemer for the exercise of his function? Could the creatures? Could the highest angels in heaven? Could he, who was the great Crea

tor Jehovah in our nature receive any thing of design, instruction, authority or power, from his own works?-But Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost for his mediatorial office. The Holy Ghost, therefore, must be equal with God, and consequently God himself; or he added nothing to the Redeemer, and was therefore of no use; which to assert, is blasphemy against the wisdom of God. Christ was baptized with water and the Holy Spirit and declared or anointed by him, at the same time, by the voice of the Father to be the Son of God with power and authority, that he might be received and acknowledged for the great Redeemer.

The Holy Spirit was to testify of Christ. In so important a matter, for which Christ was to suffer, and concerning which his people were to be saved, it became necessary for him and them, that there should appear the highest evidence and testimony. And the highest hath been given to both. God hath borne witness and testified of his Son; 1 John v. 9. and hath also borne witness and testified of him to his people. Heb. ii. 4. But we shall find, that, it was the Holy Ghost, who testified of Jesus, John xv. 26. And that it is the same Holy Ghost, who is a witness to the redeemed. Heb. x. 15. A human testimony might deceive, and, if it did not deceive, must soon fail; but God hath appointed a witness for Jesus in the people, which continues from generation to generation and can never decay,

The Holy Spirit was to glorify Christ. But neither earth nor heaven could add glory to the Lord of life and glory. He could only be glorified with his own nature: And therefore he says to the Father, glorify me with thine own self. But the Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of glory, could glorify the Redeemer with the glory which he had before the world was, and with a glory among his people, which should remain. throughout all ages.

The Holy Ghost was also to teach the redeemed, and to guide them into all truth. And who teacheth like him? Men may apply words to the ear; but God alone can fix instruction upon the heart. He only, who is truth itself, can give the demonstration and power of it to the soul. The senses may have a certainty with respect to mathematical quantity and the proportion of matter; but who can afford the Spirit of man an elenchus concerning spiritual and invisible things, but He, who is the Father of spirits, and who can clothe all words and ideas with conviction and efficacy! It is Febovab Alebim, who teacbeth to profit, and leadeth his people by the way they should go. Is. xlviii. 17.

The Holy Ghost was also to dwell in and abide with his people for ever. Christ, when he departed to his Glory, sent the Comforter for this very purpose, as a proof of the