lishes the Mosaic law or dispensation, although instituted by God;' Acts xv. 28. Was ever an authority like this committed to a creature? Or, is it possible for a creature to be present every where, in order to the discharge of such an office as this? To believe he may, is to confound the finite with the infinite, or to deify a creature, by giving him the essential attributes of God.

As the Holy Ghost is the governor, so he is also the instructor, of the church, I will,' saith God, by Isaiah, xliv. 3, 'pour out my Spirit upon thy seed;' and, by Joel, ii. 28, 'I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,' &c. St. Paul, Ephes. i. 17, 18, prays, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto his disciples the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' It was the Holy Spirit that dictated both the Testaments, insomuch that the 'inspiration,' by which the sacred penmen both spoke and wrote, hath its very name from his. When the prophets preface what they are going to say, with,Thus saith the Lord,' or, Thus saith God,' do they not quote him who spoke to them, or inspired them? And is not our faith, in regard to this inspiration, rightly called a divine faith? But surely, if it were founded only on the dictates of a creature, it could not be called originally divine. If the Holy Ghost, who gave the Scriptures, is a creature; to make our faith divine, that is, to make it a faith in God, the Holy Ghost himself must have been inspired by God. But what part of revelation authorizes such absurdity and blasphemy as this? Behold to what an issue the tenets of our adversaries must lead them!

By what hath been said, you see how evidently the Holy Ghost appears to be God, from his extraordinary works and offices. You will see the same no less clearly in his ordinary offices of regeneration and sanctification. That it is his immediate office to regenerate, is fully proved by the words of our Saviour, John iii. 3. 5, 6, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again of water,

and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. vi. 10, 11, that such sinners,' as he had enumerated, should not inherit the kingdom of God;' that some of those to whom he was writing, had been such; but that they were 'then sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' I need not multiply passages of Scripture in support of a point so obvious to every reader. It will be more to our purpose to consider a little what the new birth or regeneration is, that we may the better judge, whether it requires the immediate interposition of God, or may be effected by a creature.

The new birth then consists in repentance, faith, and charity. I need not quote the Scriptures to satisfy you, that whosoever wants these graces, is what is there called an 'old' or 'unregenerate man;' and that whosoever hath them, is, what is styled in the sacred language, a ' new man,' or, a new creature.' If it is then the Holy Spirit that regenerates us, it is he that gives us these graces. We may surely say of ourselves, as St. Paul did of himself, and his colleagues, 2 Cor. iii. 5, ' that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God;' and should be as ready to acknowledge it the gift of God's Holy Spirit, if we are become new creatures. We see it was he who changed the disciples, mentioned 1 Cor. vi. 11, from the vilest to the best of men. We see, Titus iii. 3. 5, that we, who were sometimes foolish, deceived, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another, are now, according to his mercy, saved by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' We see, 1 Cor. xii. 3, 'No man can say, Jesus is the Lord,' that is, can believe, but by the Holy Ghost,' who is called 'the Giver of faith,' ver. 9, and the Spirit of faith,' 2 Cor. iv. 13. We see, that the fruit of this Spirit is love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, towards men,' Gal. v. 22, 23; and, that by the same Spirit, the love of God' also 'is shed abroad in our hearts,' Rom. v. 5. And, as the resurrection of our Saviour is elsewhere ascribed to the Spirit, we may see, 1 Pet i. 21, 22, that we are beholden to him for all these

three graces, which concur in the new birth; God raised him [Christ] from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls, in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren; see that ye love one an other with a pure heart fervently.'

Can this now be the work of any but God? Can a creature make a creature? Or, is the new creature a work less demonstrative of God's goodness and power, than the old? Must not he who performs this office search and know the heart? Must he not be able to make what impressions he pleases, both on our understandings and affections, howsoever hard and averse the one, or howsoever dark and prejudiced the other, may be? If he does this throughout the world at once, shall we not be forced to ascribe ubiquity to him? But why forced to do it by a necessary deduction, when the psalmist hath already done it in express terms? Psal. cxxxix. 7, 8. We know, that, through the faith and repentance given us by the Holy Ghost, the merits of our Redeemer are applied to us, and our sins washed away in his blood. We know also, that, being thus 'purified from sin, and sprinkled with the blood of Christ Jesus, we have grace and peace multiplied unto us, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience,' 1 Pet. i. 2. If then we are regenerated, if we are pardoned, if we are sanctified, if we are strengthened, and established in true holiness, we must be justified, we must be saved. And to whom are we indebted for all this? No doubt, to the mercy of the Father, to the merits of the Son, and no less to the grace and assistance of the Holy Spirit; without which it would be impossible for us to keep the covenant made by the Son, between the Father and us; without which therefore we should be in a far worse state, than if Christ had never died for us, or we had never been baptized into his death. Is it possible for any man, who is sanctified, and made holy, himself, to believe, that he derives his holiness from his own strength, or from that of any other creature? No; the truly holy see in the word of God, and feel in themselves, the glorious source of spiritual light and warmth, from whence this reviving beam of joy, this principle of life, proceeds. It is with them. a primary article of faith to believe, that, as God only is ab

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solutely and originally holy, so he only can bestow any gree of it on his creatures; and that therefore the Holy Spirit, who hath begun or perfected it in them, is really and truly God. Their reason is shocked at the thoughts of having greater obligations to a creature, than to God; and they cannot but be sensible, it had been far better for them never to have been, than not to have been reclaimed and regenerated; because, without their second creation, the first must have put them unavoidably in the way of everlasting misery; whereas, by the second, an entrance into eternal life and glory is laid open to them. Men or angels, they know, may be ministers and instruments in the work of their reformation; but they can never believe God would only have made them, and left it to a creature to save them, to a creature acting voluntarily, and consequently claiming to himself the sole merit of all he did; observe, I say voluntarily, and I mean it in the highest sense of the word; for it is in that the Scriptures represent the Holy Ghost as acting; and therefore, I hope, no one will presume to say he acted by compulsion, or under fear of punishment, in case he had done otherwise; yet we know it is by the first that all instruments, and under the last that all ministers or delegates, do act, or rather are acted. Blessed be that gracious and holy Spirit, who hath given us grace to believe, that, as the 'Father, of his own will, begat us with the word of truth,' James i. 18, and the Son laid down his life for us of himself,' John x. 18; so the Holy Ghost, freely, and from the abundance of his love, is 'grieved at our sins,' Eph. iv. 30; maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered,' Rom. viii. 26; and distributes his glorious gifts, and saving graces, among us, as he will,' 1 Cor. xii. 11. And let others, who believe him to be a creature, denying his grace, and trusting to their own strength, consider a little better than they have yet done, what their belief leads to. If he is a creature, he must be fallible; and then, how are we sure the Scriptures, which he hath dictated, are true? He must be accountable, and therefore may be judged, and, possibly, punished; than which, I will be bold to say, no one proposition, conceivable by the mind, or utterable by the tongue, of man, can be more repugnant to the faith of a Christian, or wound his ears with a deeper horror.

Let us now, in the last place, consider some of those Scriptures, wherein his divine style and title of the Holy Spirit' are more clearly expressed, although his office is at the same time intimated; or, wherein, the office being passed over in silence, his nature only, with the proper appellations of that nature, is plainly represented.

But, before I proceed to this, it will be proper to remark here, that the demi-Christians frequently call on us for a direct and express proposition, asserting the divinity of the third person. That they deal unfairly in this, we may be convinced by two substantial reasons; first, because the same men, in all other things, are ready to give as full an assent to necessary consequences and implications, when they are, in sense and effect, tantamount, as to direct and positive propositions; and, secondly, because, although the divinity of our Saviour is often asserted in such propositions, they will not be concluded by them, but fly to forced interpretations of those propositions; and, having, by this expedient, as they think, somewhat lessened their cogency, set up consequences of their own drawing, from other parts of Scripture, against them. Can they, however, assign us a single proposition, in which the divinity of the Holy Spirit is directly and positively denied? Are they not forced to support their side of this argument by consequences and implications only, and those miserably extorted from Scripture, although, considering the force of our proofs, they seem to stand in need, at least, of one decisive assertion? No conduct can be more disingenuous than this, nor more fully prove, that their cause is bad, and the ends they pursue in defending it worse; for it is evident, from what hath been remarked, that, even in this most sacred inquiry, they do not so much seek for truth, as for the credit of a triumph, acquired, not by the merits, but by the management, of the debate.

There are several passages of Scripture, in which the office of the Holy Ghost is intimated, and, at the same time, his divinity asserted. We are told, 1 Cor. xii. 4-6, that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; diversities of administrations, but the same Lord;' and that there are also diversities of operations, but that it is the same God which worketh all in all.' Here the word God is given both

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