are the deep things of God; things relating to his nature, subsistencies, perfections, councils, and operations, both internal and external: These depths of God are infinite, and can be fathomed and comprehended by none but him, whose understanding is infinite, and is as intimate with the deepest things of God, as a man is with his own thoughts, which he is most privy to, and often recollects and reviews. The Spirit of God is inwardly conscious of the things of God, as the spirit of a man is of the things of a man. What we know of God is said to be revealed to us by the Spirit; but there is not the least intimation that they were revealed to the Spirit by another: But he is said, of himself, to search all things, even the depths of God.

The adversaries of the Holy Spirit lay hold on the word 'searches,' as containing an argument against his Omniscience and Deity. "None," says Crelius, "is said to search those things of which he has the clearest and most perfect knowledge in himself a :" But did not God search David b, though he knew his thoughts afar off, and had all his members written in his book, before ever David existed? and therefore he knew him primarily in himself. The word 'searching,' is used to signify the perfection of knowledge, not the ignorance of him who is said to search; or to denote that he gains his knowledge by study or inquiry. Hence the Spirit is said to know the things of God by self-consciousness, as a man knows the thoughts and workings of his own mind. "The heretic," said Chrysostom, "when he hears the word search,' says, If the Spirit knew what things are in God, he would not search them; for this search is a sign of ignorance:" To which he replies, "It is plain that God searches the heart: Shall we then condemn God as ignorant? Hear Paul's saying concerning the Spirit; He searches all things, the deep things of God: And, speaking of God, he says, He that searches the heart, knows the mind of the Spirit: If, therefore, God, being ignorant, searches, then the

a Apud Bisterfield, p. 481.

b Psal. cxxxix. 1, &c.

Spirit, being ignorant, searches. But, that you may see that to search is not the part of one that is ignorant, but of one who thoroughly understands, he adds, Even so the things of God none know but the Spirit of God; and so he ascribes knowledge to the Spirit a.'

But it is said, no man, or none, knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God; do not the Father and the Son know their own things? I answer, the exclusive terms must be rightly applied to the persons or things intended, and not ab solutely; it is said, None knows the Father but the Son: Does not the Father know himself? And again, • None knows the Son but the Father b' Does not the Son then know himself? What is spoke of one of the persons in the Godhead, is not to be taken as excluding any other person in the Trinity, except what relates to the Personality; but as excluding all who, by nature, are not gods: We are therefore, as Ambrose e well observes, no more to exclude the Father and the Son, when it is said, ο None knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God;' than we are to exclude the Spirit, when it is said, 'None knows the Father but the Son, and none knows the Son but the Father: And, as he added, « The Spirit knows the deep things of God, not by study, but by nature ;” it is premised, that he reveals them ;” and then it is added, He searches all things, the deep things of God. But no inferior can search the inward things of one that is

α Ὁ ἀιρετικὸς μὲν τὸ ἐρευνᾶ, ἀκέει την ὃς ἔννοιαν κακῶς ἐκλάμβάνει, ἐι γὰρ ᾔδει, φησὶ, τὸ πνεῦμα τὰ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ἐκ ἂν ἐρεύνα, μαρτυρεῖ γὰρ ἀυς τῇ αγνόια ἡ ἔρευνα· ἔι τοινυν τὸ ἐρευνᾶν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τὰ βάθη τ8 Θεδ, ἄγνοίας και τεγορίαν αυτῷ ἐπάγει, ὅταν ἔιδης τον Θεὸν ἐρευνῶν]α τὰς καρδίας τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀγνόιας αυτῇ καταψεφίζῃ; ἀκες γᾶν τὸ Πάυλε, λέγοντΘ ὡς περὶ τὸ πνεῦ ματΘ είπε, τὸ πνεῦμα πάντα ἐρευνᾶ καὶ τὰ βάθη τῷ Θεῖ. ὕτω κ περὶ τῷ Θεῷ φιλοσοφῶν ὁ ΠαῦλΘ, φησὶν, ὁ δὲ ἐρευνῶν τὰς καρδίας οἶδε τὶ τὸ φρόνημα τῶ πνεύματ@· ἐι ἦν Θεὸς ἐρευνᾷ ἀγνοῶν, εἰ τὸ πνεῦμα ἀγνοῶν ἐρευνᾶ· ἀλλ ̓ ἵνα μάθης ὅτι τὸ ἐρευνᾶν ἐκ αγνοῦντός εστι, ἐπήγαγεν· ὅτω καὶ τὰ τὸ θεῖ καὶ ἐδὲις ἔγνω ἐι μὴ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ Θεῶ, καὶ γνῶσιν επιγράφει τῷ πνεύματί.-Chrysostom. Vol. vi. p. 199, 202.

b Mat. xi. 27.

c De Spir. 1. 2. p. 249.

above him." From all which, I hope, it is very clear, that the Spirit of God is infinite in knowledge.

The sum of the argument this day insisted on is this; he who is omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, unchangeable, infinitely and sovereignly gracious, and omniscient, is, and must be true and real God: But the Spirit of God is omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, unchangeable, infinitely and sovereignly gracious and omniscient; therefore he is no creature, but is true and real God, of the same nature and perfections with the Father and the Son.

APPLICATION.

What comfort and encouragement may this doctrine afford to true believers? In how full a sense may they say, Behold God is become our salvation? as he is God who purchased the church with his own blood; so he is God, who applies the salvation by his own power. The Christian therefore may well trust, and not be afraid, seeing that Jehovah is his strength and his song: He may well conclude, that he that has begun the good work in him, will perform it to the day of Christ; for he is God, and will do all his pleasure: He is mighty in power, and his understanding is infinite; he brings the blind by a way which he did not know; he makes the lame to leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing for joy. What courage and comfort may the believer receive when the Spirit says to him, Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee by the right hand of my righteousness." The work is in a good hand, in the hand of him who is Lord God Almighty, who is able to do infinitely more than we can ask or think. Had the application and perfecting our salvation been left in the hands of the most. excellent creature, how dangerous, if not desperate, had our case been? Adam, who was made upright, the angels, that excelled in strength, could not preserve themselves: How then should the most excellent creature recover and secure

us from perishing? but seeing he is God, that renews the redeemed, and conducts them through this world, they cannot perish; for greater is he that is in the saints than he that is in the world.

6

To the sons and daughters of Zion, therefore, it may be said, Fear not, and let not your hands be slack; for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, whose temple you are; he is mighty, he will save you.' The best of Christians are weak and offending creatures; but the Holy Spirit will not destroy them; for he is God and not man, unchangeable and infinite in his power, patience, faithfulness and grace.

THE HOLY SPIRIT'S DIVINITY PROVED FROM HIS WORKS.

SERMON IV.

PREACHED DECEMBER 2d, 1729.

1 COR. iii. 16.-Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

In some former discourses upon these words, I have endeavoured to prove the Deity of the Holy Spirit; or to shew, that he who dwells in the saints, as in his temple, is true and proper God. Several evidences of this truth were drawn from his scripture names and titles, and from such attributes as belong to the true God, and to him only; as immensity, or omnipresence, omnipotency, eternity, immutability, infinite and sovereign grace, omniscience, or knowing all things.

It is God's appropriate and peculiar character, to know the thoughts afar off, and to declare the end from the beginning a This he himself declared, when he said, 'I am God,

a Psal. cxxxix.

and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done a.' But this the Spirit of God does; he it was that enabled the prophet to declare, That a child should be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, who should burn the bones of the priests of the high places, upon the altar of Bethel b: And this he foretold t'ree hundred, or three hundred and fifty years beforehand; and when there were ten or eleven kings in David's line to precede him, and from whom Josiah was lineally to descend; which seemed to be very contingent and uncertain, and to depend on the wills of free agents, and the sovereign and secret disposal of the great God: This is a knowledge too great for any creature, and peculiar to the only true God.

But there is yet a higher instance of knowledge ascribed to the Holy Spirit: He is said to 'search all things, yea, the deep things of God: for what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God c.' The word searches, does not imply ignorance, or imperfection, in the Holy Spirit, but the depth and perfection of his knowledge: He knows the depths of God, as intimately as a man knows his own thoughts and designs: He knows them, not by revelation, but by self-consciousness, or intuition; being the Spirit which is of God, or proceeds from him, of the same nature with the Father; the same, even infinite in knowledge, and therefore true and proper God.

The sum of this argument is, that he to whom the incommunicable attributes and perfections of God belong, is true and real God; but the incommunicable attributes and perfections of God do belong to the Holy Spirit; therefore he is true and real God.

I now proceed to a farther evidence of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, which may be collected from his works.

PROP. III. The Holy Spirit is truly God, because he is

a Isa. xlvi. 10. b1 Kings xiii. 2.

c 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.