serve and uphold us. Greater is he that is in the saints than he that is in the world a; to him therefore we are to look, on him we are to depend, to strengthen us with all might, to revive, carry on, and perfect his own work; for he who created and upholds all things, can do every thing, overcome all enemies and opposition, and lead us with joy into the land of uprightness.

Let us remember that the Creator and Comforter meet in one; I, even I am he that comforts you; who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man, that shall be made as grass? and forgettest the Lord thy Maker? who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth b?' Is there not more in God the Creator and Sanctifier to encourage us, than there can be in the greatest and worst of creatures to deject and dishearten us? Does not the Lord the Spirit do all according to his own sovereign and gracious will? wherefore let us lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees? let the believer then say, The Lord, the Almighty Spirit is my helper; I will not fear what enemies can do against me: My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth; he will not suffer my foot to be moved.

4. What praise and glory are due to the Holy Spirit, the maker and ruler of all things? As such, he must have an interest in that noble ascription of glory and praise recorded by the Psalmist; Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts. Praise you him, sun and moon; praise him, all you stars of light. Praise him, you heavens of heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for he commanded, and they were created c.' And let all saints, when they behold the sun, moon, and stars, say, What is man? who are we, that thou shouldst be mindful of us, and take our poor bodies for thy temple, who hast the whole heavens for thy throne, and all the earth for thy footstool? Thou who chargest the angels with folly, and the heavens are not pure in a 1 John iv. 4. b Isa. li. 12, 13. c Psal. cxlviii. 2-6.

thy sight; thou the infinitely great God, before whom all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing; for thou madest them out of nothing; How is it that thou wilt dwell in us, be our God, and make us thy people? Thou art the Spirit of glory, and the heavens declare thy glory; and we, thy workmanship, and thy temples, have the greatest reason to praise and honour thee, for the works of creation and providence, and especially for that gracious ministration of thine which is rather glorious.

OF THE WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

SERMON II.

PREACHED NOVEMBER 3d, 1730.

2 COR. iii. 8.-How shall not the ministry of the Spirit be rather glorious?

THE main question in settling the sense of these words is, whether the ministration of the Spirit is to be taken in an active or passive sense, whether the Spirit be the thing ministered, or the administrator of those things which render this dispensation so very glorious. The reasons inclining me to understand the words in the latter sense, or that the Spirit is here spoke of, as the agent, or administrator of the glorious things intended, are these that follow:

1. Because the Spirit is, in the context, spoke of in an active sense; The Spirit gives life:' He is, indeed, given by Christ, but yet so as that he himself is the giver of life; he is the Spirit of life, and the immediate author of all spiritual life in the souls of men: The gospel would have been as much a dead letter as the law, if the all-quickening Spirit had not wrought with it, and by it: Hence the apostle a dis

a 1 Thess. i. 5, 6, 9.

tinguished between receiving the gospel in word only, and the receiving it in power, and in the Holy Ghost; which latter was the cause of the Thessalonians' following the Lord, and serving the living God. So then the Spirit is not only administered, but is also the administrator and giver of that life and salvation revealed in the gospel.

2. Because there seems to me to be a comparison between person and person, in the apostle's discourse; one being expressly mentioned, the other necessarily understood. In the verse before my text it is said, That the children of Israel could not behold the face of Moses by reason of the glory of his countenance; and then it follows in my text, How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?' even the Spirit in his dispensation, as the Spirit that gives life, must be more glorious than Moses, the administrator of the law, which by reason of sin brings death, or than him who gave the ministration of death.

3. Because the Spirit here spoke of is called the Spirit of the living God, and the Spirit of the Lord, in the context; which are phrases proper to the person of the Holy Spirit.

4. Because the Spirit here spoke of is said to be Lord; Now the Lord is that Spirit; or, That Spirit is Lord a;' and by the Spirit of the Lord, or (according to the grammatical construction) by the Lord the Spirit, ἀπὸ κυρία πνέυματος.

In a former epistle to the Corinthians, Paul had set forth the Lordship of the Holy Spirit; when after a large enumeration of extraordinary powers and gifts, he says, All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every one severally as he will b;' which shews him to be Lord; and that the gospel-dispensation, as conducted by him, is full of glory. But if by ministration of the Spirit a communication only of the gifts of the Spirit had been meant, the glory had been less, than to see the Spirit himself supplying Christ's absence, and shining forth in his works with so bright a glory.

a 1 Thess. i. 17, 18.

b1 Cor. xii. 11.

5. The Spirit spoke of in the context, is that Spirit who rends the veil of the heart, and changes men into the divine image from glory to glory; and that is the person of the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit as a person.

I conclude therefore, that the gospel ministered by the apostles, and other ministers since, is a ministration of the Spirit; because he, as Lord, conducts and manages the whole dispensation, with such infinite authority, power, wisdom, grace, and glory. The whole œconomy and work of the Spirit is comprised under the word ministry, as is plain by its opposition to the legal dispensation, which is called a ministration of death.

In a former discourse on these words, I considered the Work of the Holy Spirit, with relation to Creation and Providence.

III. I now proceed to consider the Work of the Spirit, in the gifts of eminent wisdom, skill, courage, and strength in things natural, civil, or moral.

Under this head I shall only give some brief hints, which are left us upon record in the holy scriptures; all parts of which are profitable, as the apostle a tells us.

The wisdom and knowledge of Bezaleel and Aholiab, in devising and performing all curious works, was from the Holy Spirit: Hence they are said to be filled with the Spirit of God, for these ends b. The children of Israel being newly come out of slavery, in which they had not been bred up to arts and sciences, it could not be supposed that they had persons among them capable, in a natural way, to do all the curious works relating to the tabernacle: The Holy Spirit therefore instantaneously filled the persons mentioned with skill, not only to do them, but to teach others to do them, in the manner which God had appointed; which was a wonderful instance of his powerful influence upon the minds of men, enlarging their capacities, enriching their inventions, and filling them with ingenuity and art b Exod. xxxv. 31.

a 2 Tim. iii. 16.

And it

for all manner of works which lay before them. may be an affecting and pleasing thought to consider, that the same Spirit who instructed and fitted men to prepare the tabernacle, which was a type of Christ, did also eminently exercise his wisdom and power in forming and fitting Christ's human nature, the antitype, for all the great and glorious services that were to be done in it and by it, as may more hereafter.

fully appear

In like manner the Holy Spirit gave to David a a pattern of the temple, with all its utensils, services, and servants, which he left with Solomon his son, who was to do all according to this pattern given by the Spirit.

It was the Holy Spirit who qualified the seventy elders of Israel to bear, part of the political or civil government of the people. It was the Holy Ghost who endowed the seventy elders of Israel with that wisdom, prudence, equity, courage, and vigilance, necessary for that work, as he had, by such gifts, qualified Moses before them. The Lord took of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the seventy elders, and the Spirit rested on them b.' The gifts of Moses were not taken away, or diminished, but some of the same kind were by the Spirit, bestowed on these men, to qualify them for government. The Jewish Rabbies illustrate it by a great lamp set up in the midst of a room at which many others are lighted, without the least diminution of its own light. The Spirit resting upon these elders, it is said, they prophesied,' either by setting forth the praises of God, in such a strain as none else could imitate c, or in giving such admirable instructions to the people, as manifested they were raised above themselves, and that they were extraordinarily assisted and acted by the Holy Ghost d.

6

The Spirit of the Lord is likewise said to come upon Gideon and Sampson, endowing them with extraordinary courage and strength, enabling them to perform heroic exploits,

a See 1 Chron. xxviii. 11, 12. c Patrick in loc.

b Num. xi. 25.

d Dr. Owen in loc. on the Spirit, p. 116.