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 teachand the wisdom that is from above and the

eth;

fruit of the Spirit, are exactly synonymous. The first is "pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be en

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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

noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: (or the sound of their speech was as the sound of an host:) when they stood, they let down their wings,) hearkening and waiting for the word of command." And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood and had let down their wings. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne (of which these angels were the supporters: these were doubtless the same cherubims with which St. John was honoured by a visionary view, when the heavenly door was opened unto him; and which he beheld in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne of God; but of these we have already treated,) as the appearance of a sapphire stone and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it (man being the only intelligent that is known to us, was representative of the great Intelligent above upon it; as the Shekinah, or representation of the divine glory in the temple appeared above the cherubim higher than the angels.) And I heard a voice of one that spake, and he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, (put thyself in a posture of attention,) and I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing,* saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place-(from heaven,

*The manifestation of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was ushered in by a sudden sound from heaven, as of a rushing

to which the vision was returning, by us his ministering spirits, who are now in the place where his glory dwelleth.) I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing. So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away by a lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God unto Jerusalem." (Ezek. i. ii. iii.)

In this sublime and wonderful revelation, from which we have selected the foregoing passages, we find nearly as frequent mention of the manifest operations of the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, as we even do in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in which many particulars on this subject may be reasonably expected; as it commences by recording the fulfilment of the predictions that were to take place subsequent to the ascension of the glorious Son of God, when He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men, (Eph. iv. 8;) when he sent down the promise of the Father upon the apostles (Luke xxiv. 49) whom He had chosen "to whom also He showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high; but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of

mighty wind and our Lord himself compares the regenerating operations of the Holy Ghost to the operations of the wind.