ness, and justice of God, and do affuredly tend to the de- SERM. claration of those glorious attributes; yea, that confe- XXXIII. quently the worst accidents here, if we are faithful to God and to ourselves, will finally conduce to our advantage and benefit, according to that of the Apostle, We know Rom. viii. that all things work together for good to them that love God. 28. II. In fine, there is no confideration able to promise fo much efficacy toward the roufing our paffions, or duly ordering and fettling them upon religious practice. It especially is apt to fet on work those two grand engines and mighty springs of activity, hope and fear; and with them to raise their respective companions, joy and grief: for how, if we have been very culpable in the tranfgreffion or neglect of our duty, can we reflect on this point without being feized with an hideous dread of coming to fo ftrict a trial, of falling under fo heavy a sentence? how can we think of it without a bitter remorfe? Hard as rocks furely we must be, if fuch thoughts do not pierce us; utterly dead and fenfelefs muft our hearts be, if they do not feel the fting of fuch confiderations; more stupid and ftony we then are, than the diffolute Felix, who could Acts xxiv. not without affrightment hear plain difcourfe concerning 25 the judgment to come; yea, more inconfiderate and in- O. fenfible we appear, than those obftinate fons of darkness, the devils themfelves, who believe and tremble thereat. Jam. ii. 29. If, on the other hand, we are confcious to ourselves of having seriously and carefully endeavoured to please God, and obey his commandments, how can we think of it without a comfortable hope of finding mercy and favour in that day? If in our hearts we can fay with St. Paul, I have combated the good combat, I have finished (or I have 2 Tim. iv. continued) the race, I have kept the faith; then may we we 7, 8. i. 18. hopefully say after him, as he said confidently before us, From henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which in that day the Lord, the righteous Judge, fhall render unto me. If by virtue of the faving grace of God, which hath appeared to all men, and according to its holy inftructions, we have denied ungodliness and worldly lufts, Tit. ii. 12, SERM. living foberly, righteously, and piously, in this present world; XXXIII. then may we joyfully expect the blessed hope, and the ap Tit. ii. 9. pearance of the great God and our Saviour Jefus Chrift; then may we indeed heartily with, cheerfully hope, and earneftly pray for that day; doing which is the character, 1 Cor. i. 7. and hath been the practice of the best men; The Lord, Phil. iii. 20. faith St. Paul, will render the crown of righteousness to all 2 Tim. iv.8. them who love his appearance; and, Looking for and haftRev. xxii. ening the prefence of the day of God, faith St. Peter, intimating the practice of the primitive Christians; and, Yea, come, O Lord Jefus, is St. John's petition in the close of the Revelation, and may be the prayer of those who have the like confcience and affections with him. 2 Pet. iii. 12. 20. 1 Thef. v. 23. I conclude, wifhing and exhorting that the meditation of this most important affair may be continually prefent to our minds; that we may feem, with that devout man, always to hear the last trump founding in our ears, and through our hearts; that so with a pious awe and with a well-grounded hope we may expect the coming of our Lord, and may love his appearance; that from hence, being effectually restrained from all impious and vicious converfation, being induced to a circumfpect and watchful pursuit of all piety and virtue, guiding our lives inoffenfively in all good confcience toward God and man, we may in the end be able to render a good account, and with comfort unexpreffible may at that day, from the mouth of our Judge, hear thofe happy words, Well done, good and faithful fervants, enter into your Mafter's joy; Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Unto the posfeffion whereof, Almighty God in his infinite mercy, by the grace of his Holy Spirit, vouchsafe to bring us, through the merits of our bleffed Saviour Jefus Chrift; to whom for ever be all glory and praife. Amen. The very God of peace fanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole fpirit and foul and body may be preferved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift. Amen. I believe in the Holy Gholt. SERMON XXXIV. THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. I COR. iii. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the My purpose is at this time, for our edification in Chrif- SERM. tian knowledge concerning that grand object of our faith XXXIV. and author of our falvation, the Holy Ghost; and for arming us against erroneous opinions about him, fuch as have been vented in former ages, and have been revived in this; to explain briefly the name, nature, and original of the Holy Ghoft, (according to what appears difcovered of him in the facred writings;) to confider also the peculiar characters, offices, and operations, which (according to the myfterious economy revealed in the Gofpel) are affigned and attributed to him; fo that incidentally by teftimonies of Scripture, and arguments deduced thence, I fhall affert the principal doctrines received in the Church, in oppofition to the most famously heterodox dogmatifts that have appeared. For the doing which this text of St. Paul doth minifter good occafion: for the full explication thereof doth require a clearing of the particulars mentioned, and SERM. itself affordeth good arguments against the principal errors XXXIV.about this matter. His being called the Spirit of God, may engage us to confider his nature and original; his being faid to dwell in us, doth imply his perfonality; his divinity appears in that Chriftians are called the temple of God, because the Holy Ghoft dwelleth in them; his fanctifying virtue may be inferred from his conftituting us temples by his presence in us. I fhall then in order profecute the points mentioned; and lastly shall adjoin somewhat of practical application. 1. First, then, for the name of the Holy Spirit; whereby also his nature and origin are intimated. Of those things which do not immediately incur our fight, but do by confpicuous effects discover their exiftence, there is scarce any thing in substance more pure and fubtile, in motion more quick and nimble, in efficacy more strong and powerful, than wind, (or fpirit.) Hence in common ufe of most languages the name of wind or Spirit doth serve to express those things, which from the subtilty or tenuity of their nature being indifcernible to us, are yet conceived to be moved with great pernicity, and to be endued with great force; fo naturalifts, we fee, are wont to name that which in any body is moft abftrufe, most agile, and most operative in spirit. Hence it comes that this word is transferred to denote thofe fubftances which are free of matter, and removed from fenfe, but are endued (as with understanding, fo) with a very powerful activity and virtue. Even among the Pagans these fort of beings were called Spirits: the fouls of men are by them fo termed; (anima hath its derivation from aveu&, wind.) Our life, faith Cicero, is contained by (or comprised in) body and fpirita: and, We, faith he again, are at the fame time received into the light, and endued with this heavenly Spirit, that is, with our foul. Particularly the Stoicks ufed to apply this name to our foul; I allege the Stoicks, faith Tertullian, who call the foul a fpirit, almost therein a Vita corpore et fpiritu continetur. Cic. Or. pro Mar. b Eodem tempore suscipimur in lucem, et hoc cœlefti fpiritu augemur. De Arufp. refp. agreeing with us Chriftians. They likewise frequently SERM. did attribute this appellation to God; Cœlum et terram campofque liquentes, XXXIV. En. vi. faid the prince of their poets: by the word Spirit underftanding (as Lactantius and Macrobius do interpret him) La&t. i. 5. God himself, that pierceth and acteth all things; yea he fo otherwhere expoundeth his own mind, when he to the fame purpose fings, Deum ire per omnes Terrafque tractufque maris, cœlumque profundum. : And the Orator, in his Dialogues, maketh Balbus to speak thus; These things truly could not, all the parts of the world fo confpiring together, be fo performed, if they were not contained (or kept together) by one divine and continued Spirit and Seneca clearly; God, faith he, is nigh to thee, he is with thee, he is in thee: I tell thee, O Lucilius, a holy Spirit refideth within us, an obferver and guardian of our good and our bad things, (or doings,) who, as he hath been dealt with by us, fo he dealeth with us: there is no good man (or no man is good) without Gode: and Zeno defined God thus; God is a Spirit, passing through the whole world: Pofidonius alfo more largely; God is an intellectual and fiery Spirit, not having shape; but changing into what things he will, and affimilated to all things. Stoicos allego, qui fpiritum dicunt animam, pene nobifcum. Tert, de Anim. 5. 4 Hæc ita fieri omnibus inter fe continentibus mundi partibus profecto non poffent, nifi ea uno, et divino continuato fpiritu continerentur. De Nat. Deor. ii. p. 60. * Prope eft a te Deus, tecum eft, intus eft; ita dico, Lucili, facer intra nos fpiritus fedet, malorumque bonorumque noftrorum obfervator, et hic prout a nobis tractatus eft, ita nos ipse tractat; bonus vir fine Deo non eft. Sen. Ep. 41. f Θεός ἐσι πνεῦμα, διῆκον δ ̓ ὅλα τῷ κόσμε. Ζεπο. 5 Θεός ἐσι πνεῦμα νοιρὸν, καὶ πυρώδες, ἐκ ἔχον μορφὴν, μεταβάλλον δὲ εἰς ἃ βέλεται, ¿ ifquorúperov xãow. Pofid, apud Stob. Georg. iv. |