WITH THE MESSIAH.

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that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;-to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified :" lxi, 1-3; comp. xlii, 1; Dan. ix, 24; Luke iv, 18; Acts x, 38. "He whom God

hath sent," said the Baptist of his divine Successor, "speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him:" John iii, 34.

From the passages now cited, we learn that Jesus Christ was, in the most eminent manner, anointed by the Holy Spirit for his work and ministry on earth : and by the same Spirit he was anointed also for that priestly and regal office in which he presides for ever over his church universal. "The kings of the earth set themselves," says the Psalmist, "and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his ANOINTED.... I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee!" ii, 2-7. Again, in another psalm we read: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows:" xlv, 6, 7; comp. Heb. i, 5. 8. v, 5.

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Now, I conceive, that the immeasurable communications made to Jesus of a spiritual influence, are to be regarded, not merely as divine gifts bestowed on his human nature, but also, as the necessary and practical result of that perfect union of design, of operation, and of essence, which subsists between the

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OPERATIONS OF THE SPIRIT

Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Finally, then, it remains for us to observe, that as by these immeasurable communications, the Holy Spirit cooperated with the Messiah in the execution of his offices, as a Prophet, a Priest, and a King, so were they effectual also in promoting the accomplishment of that stupendous act in which the whole dispensation centred. It was 66 THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT," as we are assured by an apostle, that the INCARNATE SON " OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT TO GOD:" Heb. ix, 14.

II. The Holy Spirit who thus essentially contributed to the redemption of mankind, by effecting the incarnation, and assisting the sacrifice of the Messiah, as well as by anointing him for his various mediatorial offices, is also of the Father's unmerited bounty, freely bestowed on the Messiah's "seed"-that is to say, on the true, living, universal, church of Christ. "As for me this is my covenant with them, (saith Jehovah to his Christ); my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed from henceforth and for ever:" Isa. lix, 21. The promise was not only to the Messiah himself, but to his disciples—and not only to him and his immediate disciples, but (as we have already noticed) to their children, and their children's children-to all that are afar off-to as many as the Lord our God shall call : Acts ii, 39. What then are declared in Scripture to be the operations of the Spirit of Truth in the church of Jesus Christ?

7 Heb. ix, 14—dia ПIveúμaros aiwvíou. That the Holy Spirit is here expressed by the Greek IIvɛbua, can scarcely admit of a reasonable doubt. The use of the preposition accounts for the omission of the article: see Bishop Middleton Doct. Gr. Art. in loc.

IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

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Reason demonstrates that God exists; and his wisdom, his power, and his love, are manifested at once in the works of his creation, and in the order of his providence. But that which alone makes known his attributes to us in the fulness of their beauty and harmony, and which, at the same time, satisfactorily develops our relations towards him, and his dealings towards us, is unquestionably revelation. Now whatsoever external light and knowledge respecting God and his truth is derived to us through the medium of revelation, is plainly to be attributed to the influence and operation of the Holy Spirit, who not only dwelt immeasurably in Jesus Christ, but filled and animated the patriarchs, the prophets, the evangelists, and the apostles, qualifying them for their service, dictating their predictions, and inspiring all their doctrine. We are assured by the apostle Peter, that it was the Spirit of Christ in the ancient Israelitish prophets, which "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow :" I Pet. i, 11. “ My speech and my preaching," said Paul to the Corinthians, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:" I Cor. ii, 4. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God: which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth :" 12, 13, &c.

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As the ministry of the apostles and their followers was inspired by the Holy Ghost, so were they qualified by the Spirit to be instruments in the working of those miracles, by which the divine origin of their doctrine was publicly demonstrated to the world.

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HE IS THE AUTHOR OF REVELATION,

Whatsoever gifts indeed have been at any time bestowed on the Lord's servants, for the establishment and maintenance of the church on earth, they are all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will:" I Cor. xii, 7-11.

If then, the true church of Jesus Christ on earth (composed as it is of all real Christians under whatsoever name) is in a certain limited sense," the pillar and ground of the truth;" (I Tim. iii, 15;) if the universal society of the disciples of Jesus is "the light of the world—a city set on a hill," which "cannot be hid ;" (Matt. v, 14;) if divine truth is, through this appointed means, outwardly maintained and promulgated in the world—such a result is to be primarily attributed to the operation of the Holy Spirit. And to the same divine Agent is to be primarily attributed also, the existence of that sacred volume of the Bible -that free and invaluable gift of God to man-which contains (as I have already endeavoured to demonstrate) a divinely-authorized record, of all the doctrines which we are required to believe, and of all the duties which we are bound to practice: see Essay V.

It is not, however, the possession of information respecting the truths of religion, nor the conviction

OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE,

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of the natural understanding of their reality, that will be sufficient, in themselves, to save the soul from death, or to prepare it for the unsullied happiness of the heavenly mansions. Saving knowledge is not a mere intellectual acquirement; it is a spiritual apprehension of divine things. Whatever may be our measure of mental cultivation on the subject of religion, we are destitute of this saving knowledge until we form something like a just estimate of the Supreme Being, as an object, at once, of reverential fear, and of filial love and confidence-until we behold things temporal, and things eternal, in their true relative proportions-until we entertain an adequate view of the deformity of vice, and of the beauty and excellence of virtue-until, above all, we have been impressed with a lively sense of the boundless mercies of God in Christ Jesus, and, with the eye of faith, have beheld the unspeakable grace and beauty of the Beloved of Souls.

Now, in order to the attainment of this just viewthis essential, practical, knowledge-of divine things, it is indispensably necessary that the perverted moral optics of fallen man, should be changed and rectified; and this work can be effected only by the Holy Spirit, who not only causes the truths of Christianity to be outwardly revealed to us, but bestows upon us that sound and experimental sense of them, which is alone effectual for our regeneration and salvation. It was the prayer of the apostle Paul for his Ephesian brethren, that God would give unto them "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation," in the knowledge of Christ; "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 inherit