glorious agent, sent forth conjointly by the glorious Father and the glorious Son. "Let not your hearts be troubled," said our blessed Lord, when just leaving of our world, " for I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you: but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things." But in a further passage, the Son assumes an equal power of sending forth the Holy Ghost, as that which he before ascribed to his hallowed Father: " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father. Now I go away to him that sent me, and sorrow hath filled your hearts; 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."

These passages concur with the baptismal rite to prove the inferiority of the Holy Ghost to the glorious Son of God, by showing us that He derived his attributes and powers from the Son of God, conjointly with the parent Source of good. All things that the Father hath are declared to be the Son's on that account He hath explained to us that the Holy Spirit takes of his, for the purpose of imparting unto us. And as we are expressly told, that the Holy Ghost was the Inspirer of both David and Esaias, we may with certainty conclude, that all the holy prophets were illumined by him; for with the great Illu

minator is no variableness of operation, neither shadow of turning. (James i. 17.) But conclusions are superfluous; for Scripture plainly says, (2 Pet. i. 21,) that the holy men of old all spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; and concerning spiritual gifts, St. Paul is most especially solicitous that we should not be ignorant. Wherefore he gives us to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost (that is, through the inspiration of this holy Agent.) Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all; the same eternal Source of good, who with his Son and Holy Ghost worketh all in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit withal; for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will; (1 Cor. xii. ;) and he unto whose will the Father and the Son consign such mighty operations, must needs be a full participator of their divinity; must therefore be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eter

nal. As the Holy Ghost is the glorious Agent announced unto us, as empowered and employed conjointly with the mighty Son of God in working our salvation, we are with certainty assured, that He has worked hitherto, that is, throughout eternity with the eternal Father and the eternal Son; (for, as before observed, with the Father of all Lights is no variableness of operation :) thus corresponding with the glorious rank assigned the Holy Spirit in the solemn form of baptism; also, with the assertion contained in the first epistle of St. John, (iv. 7,) namely, that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and that these three are one in nature, one in operation; and blasphemy against the least of these great three, can never be forgiven. Thou gavest also thy good spirit, testified against thee by thy spirit in the prophets. (Neh. ix. 20, 30.) "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" (Ps. cxxxix. 7.) "Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God: thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness." (cxliii. 10.) "There is no man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit;" (Eccl. viii. 8;) for the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in; for wisdom is a loving Spirit. (Wisdom xv.) St. Paul declares, he speaks not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; and the wisdom that is from above and the fruit of the Spirit, are exactly synonymous. The first is "pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be en

treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy ;" (James iv. 17;) the latter "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v. 22, 23.) This wisdom, and these graces, evidently proceed from the self-same Spirit of holiness, and are imparted unto us through sanctification of the Holy Ghost. (Rom. i. 4; xv. 16.) "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him; and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." (Isa. lix. 19—21.)

In these passages, the operation of the Redeemer and the Spirit are each noticed; and again (lxiii. 9,) "In all their affliction He was afflicted; in his love and in his pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old; but they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is He that put his Holy Spirit within him? that led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before

them, to make himself an everlasting name? that led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name." "Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoaichin's captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. And I looked, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man: (they were intelligent creatures, designed to represent the angels as executing God's purposes; they were called cherubims-chap. x. 1.) And their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. (They were in a flying posture, to denote their readiness to obey the divine commands.) And they went every one straight forward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went. And when they went I heard the noise of their wings, like the