But from this state of depression the coming of the Paraclete was to set them free; from this depth of bitterness he was to arouse their spirits to the lofty destinies of their appointed mission and ministry; their sorrow was to be turned into joy, and their joy neither persecution, nor affliction, nor poverty, was thenceforth to take away. Nay, more than this, the loss of Christ was to be their eventual gain: not only does the Messiah comfort them by the hope that they were to be no losers by his departure; the compensation which he promised was to be such as should overflow in their favour; and, on this account alone, and abstracted from that other consideration of the remission of sin by his blood, (of which our Lord himself, for reasons which may be hereafter shewn, but seldom spake, and spake in the obscurity of para bles,) it was expedient for them that Christ

Nor, though this would be amply sufficient to excite our ardent curiosity, does the importance of the inquiry terminate with the consolation which the Paraclete afforded to

those

those with whom Christ had sojourned in the world, and who regretted him as a visible Benefactor. An accurate comprehension of the expressions employed by our Lord is necessary to the comprehension of that entire system of salvation which it was his errand to accomplish and secure; necessary to our faith, inasmuch as from hence, in no small degree, the grounds of our faith are derived; necessary to our love and gratitude, inasmuch as from hence we learn the full weight of that mercy which we have obtained from our Maker and Redeemer. By ascertaining the fulfilment of the promise we may be encouraged to a holy confidence in our Christian warfare, and schooled to a submissive dependance on that power and those merits, through which alone such assistance is accorded. By fixing the extent and character of God's help we may be prevented, on the other hand, from an unauthorised reliance on his influence in points to which that influence was never intended to apply; we may obtain a sufficient canon to measure the opposite state

ments

;

ments of Irreligion and Enthusiasm; to detect the extravagant claims of the last, and the unreasonable cavils of the former and to decide, with somewhat more exactness than has hitherto been attempted, in what respects the promise applies to the universal Christian world, and in what, more especially, to the earliest teachers of Christianity.

It is my intention, therefore, in the following Lectures, to discuss, to the best of my power, the nature and office of the Comforter promised by our Lord, and the benefits which the Apostles in particular, or, in general, the great body of believers in Christ, were authorized by that promise to expect through his means. And I am

the rather induced to undertake this arduous inquiry, because, though the importance of the questions which it involves has been at all times acknowledged and by all; yet has the attention of theologians been, perhaps, less occupied by this, than by any other specific discussion.

Those mighty champions of English and Christian orthodoxy, who, in the demon

stration

stration of our Lord's Divinity and of the atonement of sin by his blood, have left behind them labours which no sophistry can shake, no following talents rival, have been contented, for the most part, to refer incidentally and slightly to the being and function of the third Person in the Trinity, as if He, by whom we are sanctified to life eternal, were of less moment to Christians than He, by whom we are created and redeemed; or, as if the existence of the Holy Ghost were not exposed to the same, or even ruder assailants than have denied the Godhead of the Son.

Nor, of the few whose inquiries are professedly directed to the assertion of the being and elucidation of the office of the Holy Ghost, is there any who has embraced so copious a view of the subject as to deny to succeeding labourers the hope of advantage in discussing its subordinate branches. With much of natural acuteness, and a style which, though unpolished, is seldom wearisome, Clagitt had too little learning to be ever profound, and too much rashness to be always orthodox.

Where

Where he exposes the inconsistency of the Puritan arguments, his work is not without a certain share of usefulness; but for the purposes of general edification we may search his pages in vain; nor would he have preserved so long the share of reputation which he holds, if it had not been for the circumstance that he was Owen's principal antagonist. Ridley, whose talents and acquirements have not been rewarded with the fame to which, far more than Clagitt, he is entitled, has erred, nevertheless, in the injudicious application of heathen traditions; and both Clagitt and Ridley have altogether neglected the consideration of the office of God's Spirit as the peculiar Comforter of Christians.

Among those who are not members of our English Church Doctor Owen's voluminous work on the Spirit is held in high estimation; and, in default of others, has been often recommended to the perusal not of Dissenters only, but of the younger Clergy themselves. But in Owen, though his learning and piety were, doubtless, great, and though few have excelled him in the enviable

talent