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SERM. living foberly, righteously, and piously, in this present world; XXXIII. then may we joyfully expect the bleed hope, and the ap

Tit. ii. 9.

pearance of the great God and our Saviour Jefus Chrift;

then may we indeed heartily with, cheerfully hope, and earnestly pray for that day; doing which is the character, 1 Cor. i. 7. and hath been the practice of the best men; The Lord, Phil. iii. 20. faith St. Paul, will render the crown of righteousness to all 2 Tim. iv.8. them who love his appearance; and, Looking for and haftRev. xxii. ening the prefence of the day of God, faith St. Peter, intimating the practice of the primitive Christians; and, Yea, come, O Lord Jefus, is St. John's petition in the close of the Revelation, and may be the prayer of those who have the like confcience and affections with him.

2 Pet. iii. 12.

20.

1 Thef. v.

23.

I conclude, wifhing and exhorting that the meditation of this most important affair may be continually present to our minds; that we may seem, with that devout man, always to hear the last trump founding in our ears, and through our hearts; that fo with a pious awe and with a well-grounded hope we may expect the coming of our Lord, and may love his appearance; that from hence, being effectually restrained from all impious and vicious converfation, being induced to a circumfpect and watchful pursuit of all piety and virtue, guiding our lives inoffenfively in all good confcience toward God and man, we may in the end be able to render a good account, and with comfort unexpreffible may at that day, from the mouth of our Judge, hear those happy words, Well done, good and faithful fervants, enter into your Mafter's joy ; Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Unto the poffeffion whereof, Almighty God in his infinite mercy, by the grace of his Holy Spirit, vouchfafe to bring us, through the merits of our bleffed Saviour Jefus Chrift; to whom for ever be all glory and praife. Amen.

The very God of peace fanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and foul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift. Amen.

I believe in the Holy Ghoft.

SERMON XXXIV.

THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.

I COR. iii. 16.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?

My purpofe is at this time, for our edification in Chrif- SERM.

tian knowledge concerning that grand object of our faith XXXIV. and author of our falvation, the Holy Ghoft; and for arming us against erroneous opinions about him, fuch as have been vented in former ages, and have been revived in this; to explain briefly the name, nature, and original of the Holy Ghoft, (according to what appears discovered of him in the facred writings;) to confider also the peculiar characters, offices, and operations, which (according to the mysterious economy revealed in the Gospel) are affigned and attributed to him; fo that incidentally by teftimonies of Scripture, and arguments deduced thence, I fhall affert the principal doctrines received in the Church, in oppofition to the most famously heterodox dogmatifts that have appeared. For the doing which this text of St. Paul doth minister good occafion: for the full explication thereof doth require a clearing of the particulars mentioned, and

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SERM. itself affordeth good arguments against the principal errors XXXIV. about this matter. His being called the Spirit of God, may engage us to confider his nature and original; his being faid to dwell in us, doth imply his personality; his divinity appears in that Chriftians are called the temple of God, because the Holy Ghost dwelleth in them; his fanctifying virtue may be inferred from his conftituting us temples by his presence in us. I shall then in order profecute the points mentioned; and lastly shall adjoin somewhat of practical application.

1. First, then, for the name of the Holy Spirit; whereby also his nature and origin are intimated.

Of those things which do not immediately incur our fight, but do by confpicuous effects difcover their existence, there is scarce any thing in substance more pure and fubtile, in motion more quick and nimble, in efficacy more ftrong and powerful, than wind, (or fpirit.) Hence in common use of most languages the name of wind or Spirit doth ferve to express thofe things, which from the fubtilty or tenuity of their nature being indiscernible to us, are yet conceived to be moved with great pernicity, and to be endued with great force; fo naturalifts, we fee, are wont to name that which in any body is most abstruse, most agile, and most operative in Spirit. Hence it comes that this word is transferred to denote thofe fubftances which are free of matter, and removed from sense, but are endued (as with understanding, fo) with a very powerful activity and virtue. Even among the Pagans these fort of beings were called Spirits: the fouls of men are by them fo termed; (anima hath its derivation from veu, wind.) Our life, faith Cicero, is contained by (or comprised in) body and spirita: and, We, faith he again, are at the fame time received into the light, and endued with this heavenly Spirit, that is, with our foul. Particularly the Stoicks used to apply this name to our foul; I allege the Stoicks, faith Tertullian, who call the foul a spirit, almost therein

a Vita corpore et fpiritu continetur. Cic. Or. pro Mar.

b Eodem tempore fufcipimur in lucem, et hoc cœlefti fpiritu augemur. De Arufp. refp.

agreeing with us Chriftians. They likewise frequently SERM. did attribute this appellation to God;

Cœlum et terram campofque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum terræ, Titaniaque aftra
Spiritus intus agit-

XXXIV.

Æn. vi.

said the prince of their poets: by the word Spirit understanding (as Lactantius and Macrobius do interpret him) La&t. i. 5. God himself, that pierceth and acteth all things; yea he fo otherwhere expoundeth his own mind, when he to the fame purpose fings,

Deum ire per omnes

Terrafque tractufque maris, cœlumque profundum. And the Orator, in his Dialogues, maketh Balbus to speak thus; These things truly could not, all the parts of the world fo confpiring together, be fo performed, if they were not contained (or kept together) by one divine and continued Spirit: and Seneca clearly; God, faith he, is nigh to thee, he is with thee, he is in thee: I tell thee, O Lucilius, a holy Spirit refideth within us, an obferver and guardian of our good and our bad things, (or doings,) who, as he hath been dealt with by us, fo he dealeth with us: there is no good man (or no man is good) without Gode: and Zeno defined God thus; God is a Spirit, paffing through the whole worldf: Pofidonius alfo more largely; God is an intellectual and fiery Spirit, not having shape; but changing into what things he will, and affimilated to all things.

c Stoicos allego, qui fpiritum dicunt animam, pene nobifcum. Tert. de Anim. 5.

d Hæc ita fieri omnibus inter fe continentibus mundi partibus profecto non poffent, nifi ea uno, et divino continuato spiritu continerentur. De Nat. Deor. ii. p. 60.

* Prope eft a te Deus, tecum eft, intus eft; ita dico, Lucili, facer intra nos fpiritus fedet, malorumque bonorumque noftrorum obfervator, et hic prout a nobis tractatus eft, ita nos ipfe tractat; bonus vir fine Deo non eft. Sen. Ep. 41.

f Θεός ἐςι πνεῦμα, διῆκον δι ὅλο τὸ κόσμε. Zeno.

* Θεός ἐσι πνεῦμα νερὸν, καὶ πυρῶδες, ἐκ ἔχον μορφήν, μεταβάλλον δὲ εἰς ἃ βέλεται, ižoμossμrvov #ãow. Pofid. apud Stob.

Georg. iv.

SERM.

In like manner hence the holy Scriptures, with regard XXXIV. to our capacity and manner of conceiving, do with the fame appellation adumbrate all thofe kind of fubstances void of corporeal bulk and concretion; human fouls, all the angelical natures, and the incomprehenfible Deity itself. And to God indeed this name is attributed to fignify his moft fimple nature and his moft powerful energy; but to other fubftances of this kind it seemeth also affigned to imply the manner of their origin, because God did by a kind of fpiration produce them: for which cause likewise (at least in part) we may suppose that the holy Scripture doth more fignally and in a peculiar manner affign that name to one Being, that most excellent Being, which is the subject of our present discourse: the which is called the Spirit of God; (that is, of God the Father, who by reason of his priority of nature is often called God, in a personal fignification;) the good Spirit of God; the Spirit of Chrift; the Holy Spirit; and often absolutely, in way of excellence, the Spirit.

The fame is also called the power or virtue of God: about the reason of which appellation we may briefly observe, that whereas in every intellectual being there are conceived to be three principal faculties, will, understanding, efficacy; and correfpondent to these three perfections, goodness, wisdom, power; a certain one of these (according to that mystical economy or husbandry of notions, whereby the manner and order of fubfifting and operation proper to each perfon in the bleffed Trinity is infinuated) is in a certain manner appropriated to each perfon; (fo I now by anticipation speak, being to warrant these terms hereafter;) namely, to the Father it is ascribed, that he freely decreeth what things fhould be done; to the Son, that he disposeth them in a most wise method and order toward their effecting; to the Holy Ghost, that he with a powerful force doth execute and effect them: whence as God is faid, according to his pleasure, to decree and determine things, [and to Séλnua, the will, is a name by fome writers affigned to him; particularly Ignatius doth in his epiftles frequently fo ftyle him; and fo St.

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