The Godhead and Personality of the Holy Spirit
The Nature and Necessity of Experimental Religion
“Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” — Matt. xxviii. 19.
It is essential to a proper and just exhibition of the work of the Holy Spirit, that, in the outset of the discussion, the basis of that work be deeply and broadly laid. He is not “a wise master builder,” who, in rearing the great structure of Divine truth, commences not with a clear and scriptural exposition of the foundation. While every portion of God’s word, whether it be a doctrine, a precept, or a promise, must be regarded as bearing upon the salvation, sanctification, and consolation of the believer, there are yet doctrines, which have ever been holden and maintained, as forming the ground-work, essential to the very existence, security, and harmony of the entire system of revealed truth. For example, the self-existent being of God, forms the foundation doctrine of revelation — the basis of all revealed truth. This re- 2 ( 13 )
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nounced, not a step can be advanced in demonstrating to an unbeliever the attributes of God, his moral government, and the holiness and equity of his claims to the supreme obedience of the creature. If there be no true God, there can be no true religion. The same observation will apply with equal propriety and force to the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus. The basis of Christ’s work is his proper and essential deity. If he be not Jehovah in the highest sense, we lose all confidence in the vicarious character of his death, and are compelled to resign our long and fondly cherished hope of salvation through his cross; — the perfection of his atoning work falling with the dignity of his person.
Yet another confirmation of the truth of this thought, will be found in a consideration of the work of the Holy Spirit. The basis of that work is, his Divine Personality. All the dignity, efficacy, and glory of his office, work, and various operations, spring from this truth. We must relinquish all dependence upon his influences, if we cannot scripturally maintain the doctrines of his Deity and Personality. And here let it be remarked, that a believer’s views of the necessity and the nature of the gracious operations of the Spirit, will be materially affected by the strength of his faith in the doctrine of the personal glory of the Spirit. Low views of the dignity of his person, will engender low views of the necessity and nature of his work. The one must be essentially modified by the other. The Lord, in his wisdom, has so ordered it. “Them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” Let this gracious promise and solemn threatening be applied to our conduct in relation to the Holy Spirit* and how true will they appear! Where he is honoured, and adoring thoughts of his person, and tender, and loving views of his work are cherished, then are experienced, in an enlarged degree, his quickening, enlightening, sanctifying, and comforting influences. On the contrary, where he is robbed of his glory, dishonoured, and denied, all is darkness and desolation — presenting the dreariness and barrenness of winter, the very coldness and torpor of death! Come, eternal and blessed Spirit! impart to our minds life, light, and unction, while investigating thy all-important and glorious work. Give to him that writeth, and to those who read the words of this book, the “anointing that teacheth all things” — the blessing shall be ours, thine the honour and the praise!
In entering upon the consideration of this, as upon each kindred subject, it will materially aid the reader in his clear perception of the truth, if a simple order of arrangement be observed. In the present chapter, therefore, the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit will be first proved, — this will necessarily lead to a vindication of his deity; — a brief glance at the relation which these two doctrines bear to the entire revelation of God, and to the reality and growth of a believer’s experience of Divine truth, will close the chapter.
We commence with the distinct Personality of the Holy Spirit. In adducing scriptural testimony to the truth of this doctrine, we need scarcely pause upon the threshold of Our subject to state, at length, the precise nature of those views of the Spirit, of which, the sentiments about to be advanced in this discussion, must be considered as opposite and antagonist. And yet, for the information, possibly, of a few into whose hands this treatise may fall, and for the more full and irresistible
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conviction on the minds of all, of the bearing and force of the numerous passages we shall adduce in proof, it may be proper briefly to state what those views of the Holy Spirit are, the fallacy and the fatal tendency of which, it is our humble desire to refute and expose.
It is asserted by those who impugn the doctrine in question, that the Holy Spirit is but another name for the Father, — that all the operations and influences which we ascribe to his personal and Divine agency, are but so many emanations of Deity, or the exercise of one or more of the Divine attributes — either the wisdom, or power, or mercy of God. And to evade the force of the many passages in the Scriptures of truth which substantiate the doctrine of his distinct personal existence, it is argued, that every passage thus adduced, is to be interpreted, not in a literal, but in a figurative sense. And thus, the Holy Spirit, the third person in the glorious Trinity, the Author of Divine life, and the great Testifier of Jesus, is reduced to a mere figure of speech, an oriental metaphor! And what stamps the hypothesis with such glaring absurdity is, that an attribute, a principle, an emanation, is allowed to possess the organs and faculties, both physical and mental, of a distinct person, and a sentient being! An error more fatal to an experimental and practical reception of Divine truth, we cannot imagine to exist. 0 that the Holy Spirit may now enable us to vindicate his glory, and from his own word and work prove him to be, what he truly is — a distinct Person in the Godhead.
If it be inquired, what we mean by the term person, as applied to the Spirit, we briefly reply, — such a distinction in the Trinity, as demonstrates a separate mode of existence, to which belong personal attributes: and yet this distinct intelligent Agent, coalescing in, and constituting in union with the Father and the Son, the one God. Because of his union with the Godhead, we ascribe to Him divinity; and because of his personal properties and acts, we ascribe to Him personality. We now proceed to the proof.
In opposition to the idea just adverted to, that the Holy Spirit is a mere quality or influence, let us adduce two or three passages in which the Spirit is spoken of as a person, and distinguished from an attribute. Thus, — Acts x. 38: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” Rom. xv. 13: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. ,, 1 Cor. ii. 4: “And my speech and my preaching was not enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” We now ask, is it not plain and intelligible to the most common understanding, that the Spirit is a distinct and intelligent Agent, and is never to be confounded with the Divine attributes? In these passages, the distinction is clearly drawn between the Spirit, and the Divine attribute of power. And to interpret both as meaning one and the same thing, would be to throw contempt upon the word of God.
The personality of the Spirit rejected, in what light shall we interpret the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? Matt. xii. 31, 32: “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy 2 *
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Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Reserving our views of the precise nature of the sin here spoken of, we at the present confine our remarks to the evidence the passages afford to the doctrine of the personality of the Spirit. Here is an action spoken of as against, and terminating in, a person. It certainly cannot be interpreted, with any correct knowledge of the word of God, as a sin agpinst a distinct attribute, for the reason assigned, that “All manner of sin and blasphemy against God shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” The inference, plain and logical, is, that the Holy Ghost is not an attribute, or an emanation, but a distinct person. “It is therefore incredible, and certainly inexplicable,” are the words of a distinguished writer, “that all manner of blasphemy against the whole character of God, particularly against his moral character, should be forgiven; and yet that blasphemy against a single natural attribute should never be forgiven.” And what shall be thought of a doctrine that teaches that blasphemy committed against the Divine attribute of power, is more heinous and unpardonable, than blasphemy committed against God himself? And yet, to this awful conclusion, does the denial of the personality of the Holy Spirit lead us.
The Spirit is spoken of as a Servant. John xv. 26, 27: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” xvi. 7: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” What language can more clearly and forcibly convey to the mind the idea of personality than this? Surely Christ did not speak allegorically here. His language cannot, on any just principles, be figuratively interpreted. If He spake figuratively when alluding to the Holy Spirit, we are compelled for the same reasons, and in the same way, to interpret his words when referring to himself. But who will believe that, when speaking of himself, He spake of a figurative being? No one, surely. But he spake of the Comforter as a person, — “when He” — let the reader mark the frequent and peculiar use of the masculine personal pronoun: “When £fe, the Spirit of truth, is come ’ “The Comforter, the Holy
Ghost, which the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things:” — “He shall testify of* ne.” Who does not see, unless he willingly closes his mind to the truth, that, to suppose the Lord Jesus speaking thus gravely of a mere figurative personage, is awful trifling with the word of God? If a distinct personage is not spoken of in these, passages, language has lost its power to describe what a person really is, or to convey to us an intelligent idea of his existence. But, our Lord was. speaking of an exchange of persons. It was a Divine and intelligent person that was to depart, and it was a Divine and intelligent person that was to supersede Him in the church, abiding with it for ever.
And what shall be said of the ordinance of baptism being administered in his name, in union with the Father and the Son? Matt, xxviii. 19: “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Is an attribute or a distinct intelligent person spoken of here, as associated in this Divine ordinance, with the Father and the
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Son? Mark the emphatic expression — “In the name of the Holy Ghost.” In the name of an attribute? of a principle? of a quality f What vain tautology, then, would this be, — the first example of unmeaning and unnecessary repetition found in the word of God. We have already shown, that when God the Father is spoken of, all the Divine attributes are included — for what are the attributes of God, but God himself? To baptize then first in the name of the Father, and then in the name of one of his attributes, is an interpretation which the weakest judgment must reject.
For a further illustration of our argument, let us refer to the description given of Satan in contradistinction to the Holy Spirit, by our Lord, Matt. xii. 26 — 28: “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” Satan is here spoken of as a person, by whose influence, they blasphemously affirmed, Christ performed his miracles. In contradistinction to this, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as a person, by whose power Christ actually did cast out devils. We have no authority to interpret his meaning, when speaking of Satan, as literal, and when speaking of the Spirit, as figurative. We think it as clear as it is possible for language to make it, that the personality of the Spirit is equally affirmed with the personality qf Satan.
We pass now to a consideration of a few of the attributes, personal acts, and properties ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
Is speaking a personal action? Then it is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Mark xiii. 11: “Whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost” Again, Acts xiii. 2: “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Paul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Acts xxi. 11: And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” 1 Tim. iv. 1: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.” Rev. ii. 7: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” We will not multiply proof. Had we quoted but one, from among the several thus adduced, it had been sufficient to explode the hypothesis that an attribute, an energy, or an influence, could assume to itself and exercise the faculty of speech, one of the personal properties and acts of a distinct, intelligent agent. We will content ourselves with presenting a summary view of the kindred personal properties and actions which are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
The power of revealing is ascribed to him. Luke ii. 26: “And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Now the Apostle speaks of our blessed Lord as a revealer. In this passage, the same faculty is ascribed to the Holy Spirit: what is the inference? That, if it were a personal act in the one, it must also be so in the other. Interpreting this passage upon the anti-trinitarian hypothesis, how unintelligible would it read: “And it was revealed unto him by a revelation,
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that he should not see death, * &c. God may reveal an attribute, hut an attribute cannot reveal itself.
The Holy Spirit is spoken of as a witness. Acts v. 32: “We are his witnesses of these things: and so is also the Holy Q-host.” Are we to understand that the witness which the apostles bore to the messiahship and the miracles of Christ was but figurative? Surely not. And yet, the same personal action accorded to them, is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. If the witness of the apostles was literal and not figurative: so was also the witness which the Holy Ghost bore to the same facts, a literal and not a figurative one. Again, Rom. viii. 16: “The Spirit itself heareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Who is it that testifies to the believer’s calling, pardon, adoption, and acceptance? Who applies the atoning, peace-speaking blood to the conscience? An attribute? an energy? an emanation? Ask the child of God, if this were sufficient to remove his guilt, — calm his fears, — and assure him of his acceptance in Christ. 0 no! None but the Spirit of God himself can accomplish this. “The Spirit itself” — not an attribute, nor an influence, but “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Let no professor of the Gospel rest short of this evidence. Without it, all other is false. Holy and blessed is he that hath it!
Knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of Q-od.” We ask, in the words of another, “whether any man can conceive, that knowledge, one essential attribute of God, can, with any meaning, be said to be an attribute of power, which is another? Or whether power can, in any words that have meaning, be said to know anything?”
The Spirit was the immediate agent of all the miracles performed by the apostles. Rom. xv. 19: “Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God: 9
Spiritual life is ascribed to him. John vi. 63: “It is the Spirit that quickened.” 1 Pet. iii. 18: “Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” Are these the evidences of an attribute, or are they the actions of a person? Can a mere influence work miracles? Can a mere emanation impart life?
The Holy Spirit is represented as sending forth. Acts xiii. 4: The apostles “being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia.”
To DESIGNATE to an office. Acts xx. 28: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.
As EXERCISING HIS OWN PLEASURE. Acts XV. 28: “j It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.” 1 Cor. xii. 11: “But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
As being vexed. Isa. lxiii. 10: “They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit.”
As being grieved. Eph. iv. 80: “And grieve not
the Holy Spirit.”
As being resisted. Acts vii. 61: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”
Here we rest the evidence in favour of the distinct personality of the Spirit. Sufficient has been advanced,
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we believe, with his blessing, to allay every suspicion, to remove every doubt, and to confirm and settle the mind, in the full belief of this important truth. And yet, aside from his own Divine illumination, what avails the multiplicity of scriptural proof to the truth of his character, or the reality of his work? The Spirit is the great illuminator of the soul. We may spread the most momentous and spiritual truths before the mind, — the evidence that confirms them may be collected from every source, and poured, as with focal power, upon the intellect, yet, until the Spirit of life and light move upon the moral chaos, all is darkness, and disorder, and confusion. We pass now to a. consideration of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Not less full and satisfactory is the evidence afforded by the Scriptures of truth, to the absolute and. essential Deity of the Spirit. It will not be expected that the argument sustaining this doctrine be a laboured and a lengthened One; seeing that, if we have shown the fallacy of a mere attribute having grafted upon it all the other Divine attributes; or, a mere influence or quality clothed with the properties and exercising the actions of a person, — if, in a word, we have been enabled to establish upon a scriptural, and therefore a satisfactory and an immovable basis, the doctrine of the distinct personality of the Spirit, the Godhead of the Spirit may be legitimately and logically inferred. The very actions that prove him a person, demonstrate that person Divine. Proceed we now to the proof.
And, in the first place, let us inquire, is it no evidence of the supreme deity of the Spirit that the very names of Deity are given to Him? For so we read, 2 Cor. viii. 17: “Now the Lord (Jehovah) is that Spirit.” 2 Cor. iii. 18: “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
He is also called God, in that remarkable passage recorded in Acts y. 3, 4: “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” So self-evident is the conclusiveness of the argument drawn from this passage, that comment is deemed needless. “Thou hast not lied unto men” — the Holy Spirit, though a person, not a creature — “but unto the Holy Ghost — unto God.” To the experienced believer, how delightful is this evidence to the divinity of Him whom he loveth, honoureth, and adoreth, as the Author of his renewed nature!
There are parallel passages in which the name of God is ascribed to the Spirit. Thus, 1 Cor. iii. 17: “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” Compare 1 Cor. vi. 19: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” What is the true inference, but that the Holy Ghost is God — God dwelling in the renewed, recovered soul?
1 Cor. ii. 11: “The things of God knoweth no man.” Compare 1 Cor. v. 14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” The only distinction here made between God and the Spirit of God, is one that establishes the personality, while it affirms the divinity of the Spirit.
Luke xi. 20: “If I with the finger of God cast out devils.” Compare Matt. xii. 28: “If I with the Spirit of God cast out devils.” The “finger of God” is meta- 3
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phorical of the immediate agency of God. When, therefore, it is said that devils were cast out by the “finger of God,” the obvious sense of the expression is, they were cast out by God himself. But from the text of the evangelist Matthew, this special and supernatural act was ascribed to the Spirit: the inference is in favour of the deity of the Holy Ghost.
Not only the names, but the attributes and works of God are ascribed to the Spirit.
Eternity. Heb. ix. 14: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,” &c.
Omniscience. 1 Cor. ii. 10: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Of whom speaks the apostle this language, but of a distinct, intelligent, and Divine person? Both the personality and the divinity of the Spirit, are clearly and conjointly stated. The properties of his person are, his understanding and knowledge united with his power of communicating that knowledge to others. The argument for his divinity is, his faculty of foretelling things to come, by an intuitive power and underived knowledge, which faculty can belong to Deity alone. Let the spiritual reader pause, and reflect for a moment, upon this Divine attribute of the eternal Spirit. He is here represented as searching. Searching what? Searching where a finite mind, though it were an angel’s, would be lost in maze and doubt. What else is the meaning of the verse immediately preceding? — “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” And then it is added, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. But what things are those which a finite mind, whether human or angelic, cannot penetrate or reveal? The eternal love of God towards his covenant people; — what finite intellect can fully comprehend or adequately reveal this? — that ocean whence flows “the river that makes glad the city of God” — that Divine source of all blessedness to the believer; in which originated the wondrous plan of his salvation. 0, what hut a Divine mind could fathom this sea of love, and lead down its sweet streams into the believer’s soul? “The deep things of God,” —
his nature, perfections, government, the eternal covenant of grace, the incarnation of Jesus, the nature and operations of Divine grace upon the soul of man, the mysteries of providence, the glories of the world to come, — who can understand, and who can search these “deep things of God,” but God himself? “Who hath known the mind of God, or who hath been his counsellor?” who, save the eternal and blessed Spirit, the third person in the adorable Trinity? “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
Omnipresence. Psalm cxxxix. 7: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?”
Omnipotence. Rom. xv. 18, 19: “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” And so also in Zech. iv. 6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Sovereignty. 1 Cor. xii. 11: “But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every
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man severally as he will.” To whom can this properly apply, but to God? No creature has a right to do as he wills, but God himself. It is a Divine prerogative, incommunicable to a creature. The highest happiness of angels, and the “spirits of just men made perfect” in glory, is to do the will of God. Even our dear Lord, when speaking of himself in his mediatorial character, in which alone He was subordinate to the Father, says, “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” When, therefore, it is declared of the Spirit that He worketh “as he will,” we have the strongest positive evidence of his absolute divinity. Of none could this be predicated, but God himself.
We have by no means exhausted the Scripture testimony to the doctrine of the Divine Personality of the Holy Spirit, although it is necessary, having other topics to discuss in connection with this truth, that the evidence should close here. As we advance more fully into the consideration of his work, collateral evidences in favour of his personal dignity will press themselves upon the mind of the reflective reader, which, perhaps, may afford him confirmation to the truth of the doctrine equally as strong and satisfactory as a direct and positive argument. With earnest prayer for that “anointing which teacheth of all things,” his mind shall be led into the blessed truth, and the happy result will be, — a crowning of the Spirit, equally with the Father and the Son.
We proceed now, in accordance with our design, to point out the essential relation which the doctrine of the Divine personality of the Holy Spirit holds to the entire revelation of God, and the reality and growth of Christian experience. We argue that a denial of the personal dignity of the Spirit, renders the word of God incomplete. For instance: —
Without a full and unequivocal recognition of the doctrine in question, there is a want of harmony and coherence in those numberless passages which teach the doctrine of the Trinity in the Godhead. Take Isa. xlviii. 16: “And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me. ,, Who is the speaker here? The Lord Jesus, who, in verse 12, says, “Hearken unto me, 0 Jacob, and Israel my called: I am the first, I also am the last.” Eph. ii. 18: “For through him (Christ) we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Yet further; Matt. iii. 16, 17: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matt, xxviii. 19: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Now, can the doctrine of three distinct persons in the Godhead, be more clearly and unequivocally taught, than it is in these passages? And yet, if the Divine personality of the Spirit be denied, these, and kindred texts, must be rendered totally obscure and nugatory. The Christian reader will require no extended argumentation to convince his understanding, that a regard to the perfection and analogy of truth, demands a full belief in the doctrine which in this chapter we have sought to establish. We must either deny the doctrine of the Trinity to be a part of Divine revelation, and consequently, render perfectly unintelligible the numerous passages which declare and confirm it, or, 3 *
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we must admit the Holy Spirit to be a distinct person in the Godhead, to whom belong equal honour and dignity with the Father and the Son.
Again, — Viewed as a Spirit of revelation, his claims to Divine dignity must be conceded; for if his Deity be denied, the entire revelation of God falls to the ground* For we read that “prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ * We must then either deny the Divine inspiration of the word of God, or admit that the Holy Spirit is God. All that we know of God, truly and perfectly, we know by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He is the great Revealer of the glory, perfections, love and grace of Jehovah; and until the mind of man has been brought under his gracious influence, it is ignorant of God and of itself. All is dark, yea, darkness itself, until the Divine light of the Spirit breaks through the gloom, and chases that darkness away.
In venturing upon this remark, let it not be supposed that we undervalue the contributions brought to the confirmation of the truth of revealed religion, by what is termed natural theology. We are never reluctant to acknowledge our indebtedness to this source of evidence. We cannot forget that the God of revelation is the God of nature, — that, in exploring this vast territory, we trespass upon the domain of no foreign potentate, we invade no hostile kingdom, we tread no forbidden ground. The spiritual mind, fond of soaring through nature in quest of new proofs of God’s existence, and fresh emblems of his wisdom, power and goodness, exults in the thought that it is his Father’s domain he treads. Ho feels that God, his God, is there. And the sweet consciousness of his all-pervading presence, and the impress of his great perfections which everywhere meets his eye, overwhelm his renewed soul with wonder, love, and praise. 0 the delight of looking abroad upon nature, under a sense of pardoning, filial love in the soul, when enabled to exclaim, “this God is my God!” Let it not therefore be supposed that nature and revelation are at war with each other. A spiritual mind may discover a close and beautiful relation and harmony between the two. The study of God in his external operations, is by no means discouraged in his word. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.” Referring to the rejection of this source of evidence by the heathen, the apostle argues, “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
But, if natural theology has its advantages, it also has its limitations. It must never be regarded as taking the place of God’s word. It may just impart light enough to the mind to leave its atheism “without excuse,” but it cannot impart light enough to convince the soul of its sinfulness — its guilt — its exposure to the wrath of a holy God, and its need of such a Saviour as Jesus is. All this is the work of the eternal and blessed Spirit; and if my reader is resting his hope of heaven upon what he has learned of God and of himself, in the light of nature only, — a stranger to the teaching and operations of the Holy Ghost upon his mind, he is awfully deceiving himself. Natural religion can never renew, sanctify, and save the soul. A man may be deeply schooled in it as a science; he may investigate it tho-THE GODHEAD AND
roughly — defend it ably and successfully, and even, from the feeble light it emits, grope his dark way to the great edifice of revelation — but, beyond this, it cannot conduct him: it cannot open the door, and admit him to the fulness of the gospel therein contained. It may go far to convince him that the word of God is true, but it cannot “open the book and loose the seals thereof,” and disclose to the mind its rich and exhaustless treasures. 0 no! Another and a diviner light must shine upon his soul; another and a more powerful hand must break the seals. That light, that hand, is God the Holy Ghost. He only can make the soul acquainted with this solemn truth — “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” He only can explore this dark chamber of imagery, and bring to light the hidden evil that is there. He only can lay the soul low in the dust before God at the discovery, and draw out the heart in the humiliating confession — “Behold, I am vile!” He only can take of the precious blood of a precious Saviour, and the glorious righteousness of the God-Man Mediator, and, working faith to receive it, through this infinitely glorious medium, seal pardon, and acceptance, and peace upon the conscience. 0 thou blessed and loving Spirit! this is thy work, and thine alone. Thine to empty, thine to fill. Thine to lay low, thine to exalt. Thine to wound, thine to heal. Thine to convince of sin, and thine to lead the soul, all sinful, guilty, and wretched as it is, to the precious blood of Jesus — “the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.” Thou shalt have the praise, and wear the crown!
It remains for us to glance at the relation of the personal character of the Spirit, to the existence, reality, and advance of the believer’s experience.
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A believer’s experience of the truth of God, is not a mere fancy. However severely experimental godliness may have been stigmatised by an unrenewed world, as the offspring of a morbid imagination, the product of an enthusiastic mind, “he that believes in the Son of God hath the witness in himself’ that he has yielded the consent of his judgment and his affections to no “cunningly-devised fable.” A sense of sin — brokenness and contrition before God — faith in the atoning blood of Christ - — a sweet consciousness of pardon, acceptance, adoption, and joy in the Holy Ghost, are no mere hallucinations of a disordered mind. To read one’s pardon, fully, fairly written out — to look up to God as one accepted, adopted — to feel the spirit going out to him in filial love and confidence, breathing its tender and endearing epithet, “Abba, Father” — to refer every trial, cross, and dispensation of his providence, to his tender and unchangeable love — to have one’s will, naturally so rebellious and perverse, completely absorbed in his — to be as a weaned child, simply and unreservedly yielded up to his disposal, and to live in the patient waiting for the glory that is to be revealed, — oh, this is reality, sweet, blessed, solemn reality! Holy and happy is that man, whose heart is not a stranger to these truths. But, rob the Spirit of his personal glory, — divest him of his great offices in the covenant of grace, — reduce him to a mere influence, attribute, or principle, and the believer’s experience of the truth dwindles down to an airy nothing. All, is fancy, enthusiasm, and delusion, if the Holy Spirit be not a distinct person in the Godhead. But so long as this doctrine is brought home with convincing power to the soul that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person from, yet co-essential, co-equal, and co-eternal with the Father
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and the Son, then we have the comforting assurance, that the experience of the truth in the heart, of which He is the Author, and we the subjects, is a supernatural work, — the work of God the Holy Ghost. And this assurance gives stability to the soul.
The doctrine of the Spirit’s personal dignity also affords a pledge that the work thus commenced, shall be carried forward to a final and glorious completion. Because He is God, He will finish what he has begun. And, let it not be forgotten that the growth of the believer in the experience of the truth, is as much the work of the eternal Spirit as was the first production of Divine life in the soul. The dependence of the believer on the Spirit by no means ceases in conversion. There are after stages along which it is his office to conduct the believing soul. Deeper views of sin’s exceeding sinfulness, — a more thorough knowledge of self, more enlarged discoveries of Christ, — a more simple and habitual resting upon his finished work, — increasing conformity to the Divine image, — the daily victory over indwelling sin, and a constant meetening for the inheritance of the saints in light, all these worketh the one and the selfsame Spirit, who first breathed into his soul the breath of spiritual life. Not a step can the believer advance without the Spirit. — Not a victory can he achieve without the Spirit. — Not a moment can he exist without the Spirit. As he needed Him at the first, so he needs Him all his journey through. And so he will have him, until the soul passes over Jordan. To the last ebbing of life, the blessed Spirit will be his Teacher, his Comforter, and his Guide. To the last, he will testify of Jesus; to the last, he will apply the atoning blood; and to the very entrance of the happy saint into glory, the eternal Spirit of God — faithful, loving to the last — will be present to whisper words of pardon, assurance, and peace. Holy Spirit! build us up in the infinite dignity of thy person, and in the surpassing greatness and glory of thy work!
I cannot allow myself to close this chapter, without addressing a few solemn and earnest considerations to the denier of the personal dignity of the Spirit. Dear reader, you and I will soon stand at the bar of God. In view of that day, how solemn, how awful is your present position! If you have read the preceding pages with any degree of thought and candour, you must have closed the argument with the conviction that truly the Spirit is a distinct person in the Godhead, — so full, so clear, and so conclusive is the testimony of the Divine Scriptures, to the truth of this doctrine. In rejecting the doctrine and in resisting the conviction of evidence, you assume responsibilities, and incur guilt of a fearful kind. In denying the Spirit’s personal dignity, you deny God himself, and in refusing the evidence, you turn your back upon his revelation. Can imagination conceive of a position more truly solemn? You may think lightly of experimental truth, — you may deride the religion of a man who hopes that he is “born of the Spirit,” and has found pardon and acceptance through Christ, as the very wildness of enthusiasm — and you may press to your heart more closely and fondly than ever, your religion of nature, your form of godliness, your cold, lifeless, soulless creed; but, 0 remember, you have to do with a God who searches the heart and tries the reins of men, — a God of spotless holiness and inflexible justice, — with whom the form, without the power of godliness, is a mockery, — and to whom prayer, without the Spirit, is a sin! Be not deceived in a matter so momentous,
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and involving interests so precious and eternal. Think not to offer to God an acceptable oblation, while you refuse Divine honour, homage, and love to the third person in the glorious Trinity. Wonder not that the details of Christian experience of a child of God, are all a mystery, an enigma to you; — that, when he speaks of a broken heart — of a contrite spirit — of a mourning over sin — of regeneration — of pardon — of acceptance — of the joys of God’s salvation — of the comfort of the Holy Ghost — and of a good hope through grace of eternal glory, that he speaks to you of a kingdom whose splendours you have never seen, — of a territory whose wealth you have never ransacked — of a world whose glories have never beamed upon you, whose odours have never been wafted to you, whose breezes have never fanned you, whose music has never fallen on your ears, and whose Spirit has never breathed into your heart. You deny the Holy Grhost: this is your sin, and your sin is your punishment. You deny the Author of Divine life, light, and revelation; — marvel not that all which appertains to experimental godliness is to you, mystery, darkness, and death. Without this blessed Spirit, you can never know yourself, nor Christ, nor God, nor heaven. Trifle no longer with this subject, — refuse Him no longer Divine honour, — lay aside the prejudices of education and of creeds, and fall down and supplicate the teaching of this Spirit, whose personal dignity you have so long denied, whose word you have so long rejected, whose voice you have so long disregarded, and all whose influences you would, were it possible, this moment quench. Yet, He is faithful, kind, and forgiving. You have denied Him, but “He cannot deny himself ’ — though ypu believe not, yet “He abideth faithful.” He can dissolve your heart, give you true contrition, and lead you to the atoning blood of Jesus for the pardon of your sm. But, if resolved to adhere to your present views, remember the awfully solemn words of our Lord and may they sink down into your ears, — “Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”